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British, when their name is first mentioned.

This, however,

is what might be expected, if the arrival of the Gaelic branch

preceded, and eventually and gradually gave place to that later migration, the British Celts.

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CHAPTER III.

PHOENICIANS THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE BRITONS AND

CALEDONIANS.

Phoenicians in Britain the earliest and for many ages the only Traders from the East to Britain-Tarshish-Similarity of Phoenician and British objects of Worship-Baal and Ashtoreth-Bel or Bal in Phoenician and British Names-Funeral Wail of the Celts-Chariots of the Britons-Phoenicians prevent the knowledge of Britain and the route to it-The Celtic Maritime States of Gaul-The Fleet of the Veneti, and its superior mode of construction, probably the result of Phoenician influence-Temple of Saturn at Cadiz-Its Priests-Their Dress similar to that of the Druids-Phonician Monuments similar to the primitive Monuments of Britain-Superstitions in Sardinia, derived from the Phoenicians, similar to some in Britain-The Nuraghés of Sardinia, and Picts' Houses of Caledonia.

A

LTHOUGH the Celtic may not have been the first nor

the exclusive race in Britain, they are the earliest known to history. But there are reasons for believing that the Phonicians under which name are here included their colonists in Africa and Europe, including Carthaginians and their colonies-may, to a limited extent, be an element in the early population of Britain, and in a more considerable degree have influenced the manners and customs of its Celtic inhabitants; also, that this was the result, not only of commercial intercourse, but that the Phoenicians mixed with the pre-occupants of the soil, and are an ingredient in British ancestry. This

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