The short dark people are still the
main part, not only of the Welsh, but of the British people. It is
true that their language has disappeared, except a few place-names.
But languages are far more fleeting than races. The loss of its
language does not show that a race is dead; it only shows that it is
very anxious to change and learn. Some languages easily give place
to others, and we say that the people who speak these languages are
good linguists, like Danes and Slavs. Other languages persist, those
who speak them are unwilling to speak any new language, and this is
the reason why Spanish and English are so widespread.
After the short dark race came a tall fair-haired people. They came
in families as well as in tribes. They had iron weapons and tools,
and the short dark people could not keep them at bay with their bone-
tipped spears and flint-headed arrows. We know nothing about the
struggle between them. But it may be that the fairy stories we were
told when children come from those far-off times. If a fairy maiden
came from lake or mound to live among men, she vanished at once if
touched with iron. Is this, learned men have asked, a dim memory of
the victory of iron over stone?
The name given to the short dark man is usually Iberian; the name
given to the tall fair man who followed him is Celt.
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