world are a standing witness to the religious zeal of a mind that was
haunted by stone. Before proceeding to exemplify this thesis the
subsequent trend of Celtic civilisation may be briefly sketched.

Through the pacific intercourse of commerce, bronze weapons and
implements began to find their way, about 2000 B.C. or earlier, from
Central and Southern Europe into Gaul, and thence into Britain. In
Britain the Bronze Age begins at about 1500 or 1400 B.C., and it is
thought by some archaeologists that bronze was worked at this period by
the aid of native tin in Britain itself. There are indications, however,
that the introduction of bronze into Britain was not by way of commerce
alone. About the beginning of the Bronze period are found evidences in
this island of a race of different type from that of neolithic man, being
characterised by a round skull and a powerful build, and by general
indications of a martial bearing. The remains of this race are usually
found in round barrows.

This race, which certainly used bronze weapons, is generally believed to
have been the first wave that reached Britain of Aryan conquerors of
Celtic speech from the nearest part of the continent, where it must have
arrived some time previously, probably along the Rhine valley. As the
type of Celtic speech that has penetrated farthest to the west is that
known as the Goidelic or Irish, it has not unreasonably been thought that
this must have been the type that arrived in Britain first. There are
indications, too, that it was this type that penetrated furthest into the
west of Gaul. Its most marked characteristic is its preservation of the
pronunciation of U as 'oo' and of QU, while the 'Brythonic' or Welsh
variety changed U to a sound pronounced like the French 'u' or the German
'u' and also QU to P. There is a similar line of cleavage in the Italic
languages, where Latin corresponds to Goidelic, and Oscan and Umbrian to