Note 1843 — THE ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN

The view, advocated by W. C. Borlase (Dolmens of Ireland, iii, 1042-3) and others, that the Caledonians were Germans is hardly worth discussing. There is absolutely no evidence for it, except the remark of Tacitus (Agricola, 11) that ‘the red hair and large limbs of the inhabitants of Caledonia indicate a German origin’; and everybody knows that the physical characters of the Germans and the Celts, as described by the ancient writers, were virtually identical (see my Caesar’s Conquest of Gaul, 1899, pp. 309-10, and Rev. mensuelle de l’École d’anthr., vii, 1897, pp. 74, 89). It is possible that some of the Caledonians may have been descended from immigrants who came from Germany; but this, I need hardly say, would be quite consistent with the view that they were a Celtic-speaking people.