Page:Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race.djvu/87

Rh for æ, as herd for hærd, the Anglo-Saxon heard. The change of the word hard into hærd is parallel to that of the change of bac into bæc. The resemblances to be found between the language still spoken by the scattered remnants of the ancient Frisian nation and that of our Saxon forefathers are many, and leave no room for doubt of their very close connection. One remarkable word they hand in common, and which has not been found in any other old Germanic language, is sunnstede for the solstice. The Frisian and Old English also evolved earlier than German their common term for equinox, Anglo-Saxon evenniht, Frisian evenaht.

We can trace various tribes of ancient Frisians—viz., the Hunsings, the Brocmen, the Huntanga, and the Chaucians or Hocings, and others. These people appear all to have been designated at times as Frisians, and at other times by their own special or tribal names. The Chaucians, however, were a populous race, and may be regarded in some respects as a separate nation in close connection with, and never in opposition to, the Frisians. They were seated in the country between the Weser and the Elbe. The name Cuxhaven at the mouth of the Elbe is one which was probably derived from the Chaucians, and has come down to us as that of a place situated in their old country. The Hunsings were the same people as the Hunni mentioned by Bede as one of the tribes by which England was settled. The country they occupied was a district in the province of Gröningen, in the North of Holland, where the river Hunse flows from the south past Gröningen towards the sea. A part of this country is, or was within the last century, known by its old name as the ‘District of Hunsing.’ The ‘Hundings’ also are alluded to in the ‘Traveller’s Song,’ Hundingum