from the man or woman of fifty; nevertheless, it is only the same person at another age. And so, or almost so, is our English language as compared with the old English. Of the other Teutonic languages now existing, the German, Dutch, or Danish, we may say they are brothers or sisters, very much like each other, but each with special differ

ences.

There are a great many words which are almost exactly the same in English and German. Here are a few of the commonest Father, Mother, Brother, Sister, Neighbor, Friend, Man, House, Boat, Ship, Ox, Cow, Lamb, Mouse, Bread, Butter, Fish, Flesh, Arm, Hand, Shoulder, Finger, Good, Young, Fine.

The Low Dutch, or language spoken in Holland, is still more like English than even the German, or High Dutch, as they call it themselves.

With respect to their early religion, Tacitus says that, "from the grandeur and majesty of beings celestial, Religion. they judge it altogether unsuitable to hold the gods enclosed within walls, or to represent them under any human likeness." Still they seem to have had images, which they kept in groves and forests, but which they carried about with them when they travelled.

Their principal god was Odin, or Woden, from whom all their kings were supposed to be descended. He was the god of war, but they also believed that he had invented the letters of the alphabet.

There is an interest attached to the name of their god Tiu. The principal god of the Romans, as will be remembered, was Jupiter, the sky-father. The real word was Ju, to which piter, for pater, or father, was added. The same word came from the old Aryan stock to our forefathers also. In Sanskrit it was Dyu; In Greek, Zeus; in Latin, Ju; in Teutonic, Tiu. The French word for God, Dieu, again, is the same. All these have the same meaning of heaven, and God in heaven. Just as the Romans added the word "father to the name of their god, so the Teutons also looked on Tiu as their father. His son was Manus, or Man (the thinker). It is grand to find in these old religions how man loved to feel himself the son of God!

Our names for the days of the week, as is well known, were originally given in honor of the gods and goddesses of our forefathers. First, the sun and the moon; then Tiu;

then Woden or Odin; then Thor or Thunder, the god of storms; next Frea or Friga, the goddess of peace and plenty; and lastly, Soetere, of whom little if anything remains but his name. Their beautiful goddess of spring and dawn was Eostre, who still gives her name to the most joyful of the Christian festivals.

CHAPTER VI.

THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH.

Departure of the Romans. The Picts and Scots. The settlements of the English their treatment of the Britons. Cerdic. Arthur.

FROM the time of Tacitus onwards, the Teutonic tribes continued harassing the Roman empire, and by the beginning of the fifth century they were giving so much trouble, even in Italy itself, that the Romans wanted all their legions nearer home. They began to withdraw from their more distant provinces, as from Roumania, which was then 410. called Dacia, and from Britain. Before they went Departure of the away they repaired the wall of Hadrian from the Tyne to the Solway, as the northern barbarians were also growing more and more troublesome. The Romans fully meant to return, but they never did so. The Teutons spread everywhere. There were Goths in Italy and in Spain, Vandals in Africa, Franks in Gaul, and very soon Saxons and Angles in Britain.

Romans.

The Roman civilization forced on the Britons had done but little good, and much harm. They had been so long governed by others that they did not know how to govern themselves; they had been so used to be fought for that they had nearly forgotten how to fight for themselves. As soon as the strong hand, which had kept them under while protecting them, was lifted off, everything seemed to fall to pieces.

Scots.

The Britons began to quarrel among themselves. Some, perhaps the least civilized of them, made friends Picts and with the barbarians to the north, who were, of course, their kinsfolk. These barbarians, seeing the comforts and wealth of the civilized regions, where the Romanized Britons lived, soon managed to get over the Roman wall, and to make plundering expeditions into the very heart of the country.

The Romanized Britons hardly knew how to defend themselves; they had lost their savage courage, and had not learnt the Roman discipline. One of them, named Gildas, who is supposed to have lived in the sixth century, and who wrote a very curious history of the times after the departure of the Romans, gives an account of the northern enemies.

Gildas.

We have now done with our Roman authorities, with Julius Cæsar and Tacitus; this is the first British book we have had. Gildas, however, wrote in Latin, though not in the masterly style of either Cæsar or Tacitus. He evidently tried very hard to write in a fine manner; sometimes he appears to have attempted to imitate the old Hebrew prophets, and it is astonishing what a number of wicked kings and other people he found to denounce.

This is a translation of his description of the Picts and Scots, as those northern invaders were called. "The Picts and Scots, like worms which in the heat of mid-day come forth from their holes, hastily land again from their canoes; . . . differing from one another in manners, but inspired with the same avidity for blood, and all more eager to shroud their villainous faces in bushy hair than to cover with decent clothing those parts of their body which required it. Moreover, having heard of the departure of our friends" (that is, of the Romans), "and their resolution never to return, they seized with greater boldness than before on all the country as far as the wall. To oppose them there was placed on the heights a garrison equally slow to fight and ill-adapted to run away a useless and panic-struck company, who slumbered away days and nights on their unprofitable watch. Meanwhile the hooked weapons of their enemies were not idle, and our wretched countrymen were dragged from the wall and dashed against the ground. . . . But why should I say more? They left their cities, abandoned the protection of the wall, and dispersed themselves in flight more desperately than before. The enemy, on the other hand, pursued them with more unrelenting cruelty than before, and butchered our countrymen like sheep."

During all these troublous times we can see with reverence the influence of Christianity in the wonderful men who stood, as it were, in the breach, to help the conquered, to tame and soften the conquerors. Probably great injustice has been done to the memory of these saints. Because a great many fables have grown up about their histories, and because some

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of the saints in the calendar were noted for what we cannot call virtues at all, we are apt to confuse them altogether, and think the very word "saint means some useless unpractical bigot. For the most part, however, we have quite forgotten them, or only know their names as belonging to old churches and towns.

But when we read different histories of these times, we find there have been wonderful Christian heroes, leading glorious lives, dying glorious deaths; teaching, baptizing, mediating, feeding the starving, clothing the naked. One

such man was in Britain while the wars with the

St. Picts and Scots were at their height - Saint GerGermain. main or Germanus, a bishop from Gaul. He had come over to Britain to argue against some heretics. For, unhappily, Christians had already begun quarrelling about words and doctrines which are hard to understand. However, while in the country he was implored to aid the poor Britons against their enemies, and he is said to have presided over the most singular battle that, perhaps, ever took place on English ground. Fuller tells us the story.

"The pious bishop" (after baptizing multitudes of pagan converts), "turning politic engineer, chose a place 429. of advantage, being a hollow dale surrounded with hills. Here Germanus placed his men in ambush, with instructions that, at a signal given, they should all shout Hallelujah' three times with all their might, which was done accordingly. The pagans were surprised with the suddenness and loudness of such a sound, much multiplied by the advantage of the echo, whereby their fear brought in a false list of their enemies' number; and, rather trusting their ears than their eyes, they reckoned their foes by the increase of the noise rebounded unto them; and then, allowing two hands for every mouth, how vast was their army! But besides the concavity of the valley improving the sound, God sent a hollowness into the hearts of the without striking a stroke, they conpagans, so that fusedly ran away. Thus a bloodless victory was gotten without sword drawn, consisting of no fight, but a fright and a flight."

If this victory, however, "not by shooting, but by shouting," was ever really achieved, the Britons were very unsuccessful on the whole. They turned and prayed the Romans to come back and help them. This is part of the