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Baal at places where he is known or supposed to have been worshipped Baal-bek (the city of Baal or the sun), Baal gad (Baal's crowd), Gur-Baal, Baal-hasor, Baal-hamon, Baal-peor, &c. Similarly we have Beth-El, afterwards called from the golden calves Beth-Aven (the house of the images), Beth-Dagon (the house of Dagon or the scaly fish), Beth-Shemesh (the house of Shemesh or the sun), Beth-Rehob, &c.-In the names of Greece and Rome, almost every hero and heroine, god and goddess was commemorated, from Alexandria Ultima on the table land of Asia, and Bucephalia* on the Indus, to Junonis in the modern Canaries, and the pillars of Hercules. Athens is said to have been named after an Egyptian goddess Neith; and following the analogy, Italy is currently derived from an imaginary chieftain Italus, and Rome from an imaginary king Romulus.-In India, the name of Vishnu or the preserver is shown in Vishnu-prayaga, and less distinctly in Bissen-praag and Bissun-poor. Ram and Krishna, however, who are associated with the incarnation of that deity, are commemorated in Ram-poor, Rama-ghiri, Ram-ghur, Krishna, Krishna-gur, Kistna-geri, &c.

In the British Islands, we recognise the names of gods which were worshipped by our Saxon forefathers, in Wednesbury (the town of Odin or Woden), Tor-Thor-wald (the castle of Thor in the wood), and Thurso (Thor's island?) But going back still further, we can point to places where the worship of Baal was practised at a period of remote antiquity. At Callander and Logerait in Perthshire, at various other points in the Highlands, at Loudoun in Ayrshire, in some parts of Lancashire, and in Munster and Connaught, the peasantry celebrate the Beltane (i. e. Beal-tinne or Baal fires) by leaping through the fire, casting lots, burning bones, eating cakes of a particular kind, or repeating forms of words,-little knowing the origin of the customs which they perpetuate.†

Named from Bucephalus, the horse of Alexander.

+ Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary; Penny Cyclopedia; Notes to the Annals of the Four Masters; &c.

The name Baltinglass in Wicklow is simply the "green hill of the Baal fires," and at Baal in the county Mayo, there is a Fons Beleni or fountain of Baal.* The river Mersey, or as some say the Ribble, was anciently called Belisama, from Belasamain (the queen of heaven) who was no doubt worshipped on its banks in the sacred territory of the Cornavii.

The traditionary legends respecting places, tell us of giants, wizards, dragons, fairies, and monsters. The Giants' Causeway, according to lore of this kind, is the path by which the mighty men of old went to visit their neighbours, when the Scots of Hibernia established a petty kingdom in Argyle, and long before they had imparted their name to the whole of North Britain. But in the happier days of a different era, even such vulgar accommodation was unnecessary; for the great Finn M'Coul seized a bush of rushes in passing, and tearing a sod from the earth, dropped it into the Channel for a stepping stone. The vacant space was soon filled with water, and is known as Lough Neagh; the sod, deprived of its rushes, is commonly known as the Isle of Man. We are not aware of the exact date at which his Satanic Majesty tried his teeth on a ridge of mountains in Ireland. Flying like a large bird of prey from his congenial region of Connaught, over the fertile fields of Limerick and Tipperary, he suddenly took a bite out of a hill top; but finding it too hard or too heavy, he was reluctantly compelled to drop it. The Devil's-bit mountain is a perpetual proof of the absence of the piece, and the Rock of Cashel of its presence. But other portions of the British Islands possess their full share of floating knowledge of this kind. Near a village beside Dundee in Scotland, a "venomous beast" was induced to devour nine sisters in succession, one fine morning, at a place which is still called Nine Maidens' Well; but it was attacked. and slain by the country people. The principal person in the pursuit, was a lover of one of the deceased young ladies, a

* Sir W. Betham's Gael and Cymri.

Mr. Martin, whose blows, it is said, fell heavy and frequent on the monster, as it trailed slowly through a moss; and a stone with a rude inscription marks the spot where he was "in at the death." Tradition has preserved the following last words of the dragon; which is supposed to have uttered them some time after its death, but that is a matter of little consequence.

"I was temptit at Pittempton,

Draiglit at Baldragon,

Stricken at Strike Martin,

And killed at Martin's Stane."*

It was probably an animal of the same species, that was killed by an Irish saint throwing his powerful crozier at it. When wounded, it fled to the Fionn Loch (white lake), which was so discoloured by the creature's blood that it has ever since been called Lough Dearg (the red lake).

It is true that some of these interesting sayings have been questioned by stupid matter-of-fact people, or by those who are too jealous to admit that any one can do greater things than themselves. They tell us that many of these stories were invented in medieval or modern times, to account for the names, and that the names were not given as descriptive of the alleged facts. Now it must be admitted that this has sometimes occurred; as in the case of a guide, more talented than trustworthy, at the Seven Churches in Wicklow, who used to boast that he could "invint as many lagends over night, as would sarve the quality during the day." But where is our incredulity to stop, when Spenser tells us in the Faerie Queene, that London takes its name from the good king Lud; and when Milton tells us that the Humber is named after an unfortunate gentleman, a Scythian king, whose coracle was upset on its rude waves, when all hands perished.

* Chambers's Popular Rhymes of Scotland

It often happens that when the language of a people is completely lost, or when no trace of it can be found in the speech or writing of any particular district, the geographical terms afford an independent and satisfactory evidence of certain historical facts. Thus, though the Sanskrit is a dead. language, many names in India and the neighbouring countries are expressed in it; the existence of the Jews may be seen in the Hebrew words and their modifications found in and near Palestine; and in like manner we see proofs of the former existence of Greeks in Egypt, Moors in Spain, and Latins in all the countries of the Roman empire. It is a fact scarcely questioned by philologists, that the Celts, who are now an inconsiderable people in the west of Europe, can be traced in their migrations from their original settlements in Asia, by the names of the places through which they passed.* But even in the British islands, the commercial relations with the Spaniard may be inferred from such names as Valencia in the south west of Ireland; the numerous French words in Kent, Sussex, and Hants, tell not only of proximity, but of a former frequent intercourse; the Danish names in the Isle of Man, Orkney, the Hebrides, and the north Highlands, refer us to the time when the kings of the isles, the maormars, and the Pictish reguli exercised a jurisdiction separate from that of the Scots; the ancient British names in England proper were current before the days of Hengist and Horsa; and the numerous Celtic words in the north of Ireland, among a people thoroughly Saxon, point to a date long anterior to the "plantation of Ulster."

Hence it appears that we have upon the surface of a wellconstructed map the elements of the history of the country; and that we only require a person sufficiently skilful, to read the lesson which it is calculated to teach. Some facts of

* The Gael and the Cymri.

+ Skene's Highlanders; Ritson's Annals of the Caledonians, Picts, and Scots; Pinkerton's History of Scotland.

H

great interest in the history of man have been elicited from a comparison of languages, written and spoken. An important point in such an investigation is the relationship observable in geographical terms, connecting tribes and peoples now widely apart or totally extinct.

Since the names of places in every language are applied upon the same great principles, one would not expect to find many terms entering into the composition of them; nor indeed are there many. In every language, the most prominent NATURAL OBJECTS (such as mountain, river, plain, wood, island, lake, spring,) and the most necessary ARTIFICIAL ONES, (church, fort, house, bridge, town, enclosure,) are interwoven with those of COMMON QUALITIES, (age, number, height, colour, size, position, direction,) and the whole effect is produced. Now the number of such words, multiplied by the number of existing languages would give a result quite startling or even if multiplied by the number of languages which it is desirable to know, the product would be a very large one. We are to bear in mind, however, that many languages are cognate, or of the same origin; as the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French, which are all directly derived from the Latin. Hence, the geographical terms in several languages are coincident or very nearly so; and accordingly, instead of being confounded with a multitude of details, we easily grasp a few simple general principles.

From the simplicity of the classification, a curious result follows. When we examine the words under any general head, as mountains or lakes, towns or churches, colours or numbers, we find that several sets of words exist, of identical or nearly identical meaning. These are occasionally only different names for the same place, translated from one language to another by the different classes of people who have visited it. In general, however, they are the names of places that have no local connexion; and are found in parts of the