IJO CIRIGIN OV CERTAIN SOUTH AFRICAN PLACK JNAMKS. 



a local office, bears the name Phoebus, and that the mountain 

 was so called because it is the first point in that locality to catch 

 the light of the rising sun, and that Thebus is a corruption of 

 Phnebus. But when one finds on Lichtenstein's man ^hat this 

 and the neighbouring mountains are marked as the " Taay Bosch 

 Mountains" (Taaibos, RJnis oborota) , c[uite another derivation 

 is at once suggested, and a derivation that one cannot help think- 

 ing is a more likely one than those iireviously mentioned. 



Without venturing to assume that the derivations suggested 

 above are in every case indisputable, it may be pointed out that 

 there are other South African Place-Names, the origins of which 

 might possibly be elucidated by a little careful research, which 

 are at present somewhat of a mystery, e.g., Ceres. I have 

 neither found nor heard anything that could be regarded as 

 definite or conclusive as to its origin. Three dififerent deriva- 

 tions have been suggested : ( i ) Ihat it was the name of a vessel 

 which was wrecked in Table Tay. and that the name was trans- 

 ferred to the place by some person who was in some way inter- 

 ested in both the vessel and the place. (2) That the name was 

 given by some patriotic Scot from the neighbourhood of Ceres, in 

 Fifeshire. (3) That it is one of the few classical names to be found 

 in our South African nomenclature, that the place was named 

 after Ceres, the goddess of agriculture and fruits. One could 

 wish that the last suggestion were the origin of the name as 

 here applied, the appropriateness of which, for so fruitful a 

 locality, would be at once apparent. 



Is it too much to hope that this brief enquiry into some of 

 the puzzles of our South African Place-Names may evoke some- 

 what of the interest in this interesting and instructive subject 

 which it deserves? 



