NOTES; 431 



pîafîer. Others, it is true, derive the name of Montmaitre from 

 3Iofi< Marty, um. Thefe two etymologies may be very eafily re- 

 co)iciied. If there were, in ancient times, a great many martyrs 

 on this mountain, it was probably owing to it's being the refi- 

 dence of fome celebrated idol, to which they were there offered 

 in facrifice. 



(20) /> hciiî no other door except large bullochs-hides. Gates were 

 a matter of very difficult conftruâ:ion to favage tribes, who did 

 not underftand the ufe of the faw, w -rhout which it was almofc 

 impoffible to reduce a tree into planks. Accordingly, whea 

 they abandoned a Country, thofe who had gates carried them off 

 with them. A Norwegian hero, whofe name I do not at prefent 

 recoiled, he who difcovered Greenland, threw his into the Sea, 

 in order to difcover where the Defiinies intended to fix his refi- 

 dence ; and he made a fettiement good on that part of Green- 

 land to which they were wafted. Gates and their threfhold were, 

 and ftill are, facred in the Eafl. 



(21) At a height 'which ive cannot reach. The walnut and 

 cheftnut grow at a great height ; but thefe fruits fall to the 

 ground when they are ripe, and do not break in falling, like the 

 foft fruits, which, befides, grow on trees which are eafiiy fcaled. 



(22) In order to make bread of it. The Gauls lived, as did al) 

 other favage tribes, on pap, or frumenty. The Romans them- 

 felves were, for three hundred years, ignorant of the ufe of 

 bread, according to Pliny, boiled grain, or frumenty, conftituted 

 the greateft part of their aliment. 



(23) To rear a Temple to TJis. It is pretended that th's is the 

 ancient Church of Saint-Genevieve, reared to ^.j, prior to the 

 introduélion of Chriftianity among the Gauls. 



(24) They fed upon //6f anferlna potentilla. Tlvt nnferina po-. 

 untilla is found in ^reat abund:.nce on the banks of the Seine, 



