us supplied. Yet the greater part of them is old
material--Greek in origin, and, as such, referrible to Western rather
than Eastern Britain, and to the era of the Carthaginians rather than
the Romans. Solinus' account is of this character; his _Britain_ being
Western Britain and Ireland almost exclusively.

A poem of Festus Avienus, itself no earlier than the end of the fourth
century, concludes the list of those authors who represent the
predecessors of Caesar in the description of Britain. Recent as it is, it
is important; since some of the details are taken from the voyage of
Himilco, a Carthaginian. He supplies us with a commentary upon the word
_Demeter_, in the so-called Orphic poem--a commentary which will soon be
exhibited.

The points then of contact between the British Isles and the Continent
of Europe, were two in number. They were far apart, and the nations that
visited them were different. Both, indeed, were in the south; but one
was due east, the other due west. The first, or Kentish Britain, was
described late, described by Caesar, commercially and politically
connected with Gaul, and known to a great extent from Gallic accounts.
The second, or Cornish Britain, was in political and commercial relation
with the Ph[oe]nician portions of Spain and Africa, or with Ph[oe]nicia
itself; was known to the cotemporaries of Herodotus, and was associated
with Ireland in more than one notice. Both were British. But who shall
answer for the uniformity of manners throughout? It is better to be on
our guard against the influence of general terms, and to limit rather
than extend certain accounts of early writers. A practice may be called
British, and yet be foreign to nine-tenths of the British Islands. There
were war-chariots in Kent and in Aberdeenshire, and so far war-chariots
were part of the British armoury; but what authority allows us to
attribute to the old Cornishmen and Devonians? Better keep to
particulars where we can.

As the ancient name for the populations of Cornwall and Devonshire was
_Damnonii_, the _Damnonii_ will be dealt with separately. It will be
time enough to call them Britons when a more general term becomes
necessary. Two-thirds of the notice of them have been given already in
the extracts from Strabo and Diodorus, in which the long beards and
black dress must be noticed for the sake of contrast. No such
description would suit the Britons of the eastern coast.

The so-called _Orphic_ poem pl