Page:Essays ethnological and linguistic.djvu/22

10 Gaelteach, whence the Greek and Roman writers could only make out a sound of Galtic or Celtic, and so apply that term to the people as if it were their national appellation. The general derivation of the term, however, is from the Cymric celt, ceilt, for covert or shelter, whence celtiad, or a dweller in coverts, or inhabitant of the woods; and this might also have given rise to the name applied to themselves, or both, as from both it would obtain a larger comprehension. But nothing is more confused in ancient history than the application by different writers of the names Gauls or Celts, evidently showing they had no distinct knowledge of the people, and that they used the names only as generic appellations. In a special inquiry as to the Celtic nations generally, it would be an interesting subject to enter into those various notices of the people who are sometimes spoken of as Celts and sometimes as Gauls; but that would lead us far beyond our present object, which is only to distinguish between the several nations of Gaul referred to by Cæsar.

Before proceeding to inquire into the differences between the Aquitani and the Gauls of mid-France, it may be necessary to revert to the difficulty already mentioned in making the discrimination as between the Cymry and the Gael, on account of the great similarity in the names of common objects in their respective languages. Thus then, where this similarity exists, it becomes impossible to refer to the one idiom or the other for the origin of the names of places and rivers, by which in ordinary cases, in the absence of any vocabulary, we might hope to trace their character. A great number of the names of rivers have thus a sound and meaning in common of Cymric and Gaelic origin, and the names of places also, whence it becomes very difficult sometimes to discriminate between them. Yet even here we are not entirely without some means of discrimination, as there are some variations sufficiently marked to guide us in our inquiry. The rivers of modern France, unlike those of Belgic Gaul, now bear names very different from their ancient names, which fact is a proof that the present inhabitants are a different people from those who dwelt there under the Romans. Thus the Marne and the Seine, called formerly Matrona and Sequana, seem to have in them compounds of the word pronounced Aon, both in Cymric and Gaelic, for a river, and the same with several others. On the other hand, several seem to have a reference only to the Cymric. The principal river of France, the Liger, now the Loire, appears to have its name derived from the language. Llig, 'what