_facies_ or general
racial appearance, as have Bretons, some Frenchmen, Cornishmen,
Welshmen, and Highlanders--that surely would argue an indwelling
racial strength such as not even the Roman or any other world-empire
might pretend to.

But this Celtic civilization was not one and undivided. In late
prehistoric times it evolved from one mother tongue two dialects which
afterward displayed all the differences of separate languages
springing from a common stock. These are the Goidelic, the tongue
spoken by the Celts of Scotland, Ireland, and the Isle of Man, and the
Brythonic, the language of the Welsh, the Cornish, and the people of
Brittany.

_The Breton Tongue_

The Brezonek, the Brythonic tongue of Brittany, is undoubtedly the
language of those Celtic immigrants who fled from Britain the Greater
to Britain the Less to escape the rule of the Saxon invaders, and who
gave the name of the country which they had left to that Armorica in
which they settled. In the earliest stages of development it is
difficult to distinguish Breton from Welsh. From the ninth to the
eleventh centuries the Breton language is described as 'Old Breton.'
'Middle Breton' flourished from the eleventh to the seventeenth
centuries, since when 'Modern Breton' has been in use. These stages
indicate changes in the language more or less profound, due chiefly to
admixture with French. Various distinct dialects are indicated by
writers on the subject, but the most marked difference in Breton
speech seems to be that between the dialect of Vannes and that of the
rest of Brittany. Such differences do not appear to be older than the
sixteenth century.[1]

_The Ancient Armoricans_

The written history of Brittany opens with the account of Julius
Caesar. At that period (57 B.C.) Armorica was inhabited by five
principal tribes: the Namnetes, the Veneti, the Osismii, the
Curiosolitae, and the Redones. These offered a desperate resistance to
Roman encroachment, but were subdued, and in some cases their people
were sold wholesale into slavery. In 56 B.C. the Veneti threw off the
yoke and retained two of Caesar's officers as hostages. Caesar advanced
upon Brittany in person, but found that he could make no headway while
he was opposed by the powerful fleet of flat-bottomed boats, like
floating castles, which the Veneti were so skilful in manoeuvring.
Ships were hastily constructed upon the waters of the Loire, and a
desperate naval engagement ensued, pro