CELT AND NORSE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—Mrs. Macdonell, in her interesting letter in your last issue, speaks of the two distinct types of men in the Lewis, the Celtic and the Scandinavian ; and adds, "The red-brown curly hair, the blue eyes, and the bright-coloured faces of the Norse race form a curious contrast to the olive skin and jet-black hair of the Colt." Without questioning the Norse extraction of many of the people of Lewis, may I be permitted to say a word of protest against the assumption that the Celtic race is distinguishable by the characteristics she mentions? They may, and doubtless do, apply to many pure-blooded Celts ; but apart from the " rutilm Caledoniani habitantium cot= " of Tacitus, let me point to the frequency of the epithets, "Bane," "Roy," &c., among the High- landers now, and to the description of Finn himself in the Dean of Lismore's book (I quote Professor Blackie's version) :— " Maible his skin, The rose his cheek. Blue was his eye, His hair like pa+,
If Mrs. Macdonell had had the good-luck to see the great chief of the Feinn, I fear he would have been set down as a Norseman.
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