Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/318

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��Origin and Meaning of Pro'per JVames.

��which they wielded with great dexter- ity, as the sea-kings, their bold de- scendants, hurl a harpoon.

The Celts, who immediately pre- ceded the conquering Goths in the west of Europe, show a different taste in their civil and geographical nomen- clature. Klipstein observes, — " The Keltae, Keltici, or Celtic Celtici, A^/- r«f', /'«/«-rf/i, Galli, Galatje, the Kelts or Celts, Gauls, Gaels, and Galatians may all be considered one and the same people under different branches and relations. It may be as well to observe that the Greeks termed the Roman Gallia Galatia, from the Kel- tic name Galtachd, or Gaeltachd, Ihe land or country of the Gauls or Gaels^ and sometimes to distinguish it from the kingdom of Galatia, founded at a later day by the same people in Phryg- ia and called Keltike and Kelto-Gala- tia. The origin of all these terms is found in the word 'ceilt' or 'ceiltach,' signifying '•inhabitant of a forest,' and Galtachd or Gaeltachd itself would therefore denote a. forest country^ ' ceil,' 'gael,' 'gall,' meaning n forest."

How remot^ in time and culture were these wild woodsmen from their descendants, the polished Parisians ! The earliest inhabitants of Great Brit- ain were Celts. The Highland Scotch, the i)rimitive Irish, and the Welsh are supposed to be their descendants. The whole country bears traces of their occupancy in the existing names of places. The earliest known name of the island, Albion, is derived from the Celtic ''alb," white, and " in" or "iiinis," an island. Pliny says, — "Albion sic dicta ab albis rupibus quas mare allnit." Britain is sup-

��posed to be derived from the name of a Celtic king, " Prydaiu, the son of Aedd the Great." Others sive " Brit-daoine," painted people, or " Bruit-tan," tin-land. Caledonia, by Klipstein, is derived from the Celtic Cel-y-ddon, Kelts of the mountain, " tun " or " ddun " being a mountain ; and Irene of the Greeks, Hebernia of the Romans, and Ireland of the Eng- lish, is from ''Erin," the west, and •'in," an island, meaning the itsland of the west, which to the native is " sweet Erin."

The Celts and Romans, who succes- sively inhabited England, have left but few traces of their residence tiiere except monuments and names of places. England was named Angle- laud from the Angles, who probably were the most numerous of the six different colonies of Germans that settled in Britain between A. D. 449 and 547. The first German invaders, under Hengist and Horsa, who called themselves Jutes, settled and founded the kingdom of Kent. The second invasion, led by Aella, A. D. 477. was made by Saxons, who established the little kingdom of Sussex or South Saxons. 'I'he third invasion, under Cerdic, A. D. 495, was made by Sax- ons. They founded the kingdom of Wessex, or the West Saxons, on the coast of Hampshire. In the year 530 another horde of Saxons landed in Essex, the home of the East Saxons. The date of the fifth settlement is not known. The invaders were Angles, and occupied Norfolk and Suffolk, — that is. North folk and South folk, or people.

[To be continued.]

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