Page:Essays ethnological and linguistic.djvu/23

Rh shoots or glides,' and aw, 'water.' The Arar, now the Saone, is described as "a very slow and smooth running river," and Ara, Araf in Cymric, signifies "slow, soft, mild, still." The Atar, now the Adour, and the Duranius or Dordogne, with the Durance and some others, show combinations of the Cymric word dwr, 'water,' which though inserted in the dictionaries as Gaelic also, is not however in general use. In like manner several others might be judged to be Cymric, though I do not feel sufficiently decided respecting their probable derivations to claim them as of this language only. The names of tribes afford less satisfactory means of judging, but a few instances may be found, as in the appelations Morini and Armorica, for the people or province on the sea-coast: the word for sea in Cymric is mor, in Gaelic muir, whence we may conclude they derived their names from the former language, in which they have a signification of maritime, rather than from the latter. The names of several individuals among the different nations of Gaul are also given, some beginning with Ver or Vir, which may be explained from one language or the other; but as we are not generally informed what the names signified, all etymologies attempted respecting them must partake of a character of surmises only. One name however is defined, that of Vergobretus, as applied to the "chief magistrate" among the Ædui. This people, residing in the southern part of Gaul, according to the theory above set forth, were probably Gaelic, and in accordance with that theory, the chief magistrate or judge, "man for judgment," is clearly traceable in that language, "fear-go-breith," but not in the Cymric. The only other word which Cæsar has repeated is Soldurii, the name given to the band of warriors specially devoted to their chieftain (lib. iii. § 22). This word may be considered common to both the Cymric and Gaelic languages, Sawdior in the former, Saighaider in the latter, and both pronounced so much like the English word soldier, as to lead me to the conclusion of the latter being taken from one or both of the former, as so many other words have been derived from those sources of which our lexicographers seem to have no knowledge. Thus in the case of this same word soldier, different derivations have been given, while this early application of it has been entirely overlooked.

We must not however pass over another word, Ambacti, mentioned by Cæsar, without a direct intimation of its being Celtic, but which Festus says was a Gallic word for a hired servant, on the authority of Ennius: .—Gloss. Ambactus. Cæsar, after speaking of the