Page:Roman Manchester (1900) by Charles Roeder.djvu/97

 forest belt, densely wooded with birch, ash, oak, fir, pine, and alder; large herds of deer, the wolf, the boar, &c., roamed in the woodlands along the course of the Ribble, evidenced by the subsequent discovery of a surprising number of skulls and antlers during the excavations of the Preston Ship Canal, and we may conclude that the Segantii followed the chase and the fishing of the estuaries and the sea, and were also more or less piratical and in close intercourse with North Wales, if not the Isle of Man. They lived in the forests, creeks, and crannies in the many large meres with which their district is studded.

We know that they belonged to the Brythonic branch of the Celts; at Ribchester we have their gods Maponus (Apollo) and Cocidius (Mars). We have the many rivers ending in "der" (=dwr, water), such as Docker, Conder, Coker, Calder, Hodder, the Wyre, and Don, Tand, Dardow, Darwen, Alt, Lune, Douglas. The Segantii probably obtained their name from their habitats; they were a riparian set of people. It is held that the root is derived from sæ, sæwe, seo (A.-S.), saiws (Gothic), segeven (Faroese) =pontus, mare, thus making them true "water-dwellers," and at Lea Hall, a little above Walton, we have the river Savok also, variously written Sausk and Saugk. Their centre of gravity seems to point towards Walton and Ribchester, which Agricola and his successors made into a terminal or intercepting stronghold, and which formed not unlikely