THIRTEENTH ORDINARY MEETING. 189 
Aberteifi, aber and tiefi, akin to Taff, Taw, Tow, a root which 
oceurs in Tay, Tagus, Thames. 
Aberavon, aber and abhuinn, river. 
The question now arises as to the best and most plausible manner 
of accounting for the presence of Ader in the Topography of Wales 
and of the Highlands of Scotland ; and for its almost entire absence 
from the Lowlands of Scotland where a Cymric kingdom once existed, 
as well as from Cornwall, which has many points of resemblance in 
language and race and tradition with Wales. In the face of the 
certainty that a large part of Scotland where no Abers are found in- 
tervenes between Cumberland, which in its very name perpetuates 
the fact that it was at one time inhabited by Cymry,—and between the 
Highlands where Aders and Jnvers are of constant occurrence, it will 
be vain to seek for any satisfactory explanation of the presence of so 
many Abders in Scotland in the predominance which the Cymry at one 
time possessed in the South of that.country. Is not the conjecture 
more reasonable that, as Wales and the Highlands of Scotland 
resemble each other very closely in their mountainous character, in 
the ruggedness of their soil, and in the number and strength and 
rapidity of their streams ; and as no other portion of Britain has such 
an uneven and rugged surface as Wales and the Highlands of Scot- 
land, a similar term should be employed to designate the frequent 
confluences of streams,—a term. which is not found elsewhere, and 
which, so far as Wales and Scotland are concerned, finds an easy ex- 
planation when the concession is made, that it was used by one and 
the same people in the far-off ages to describe these meetings of 
streams and rivers, which are common to both countries. The difi- 
culty vanishes when it is granted that Aber, which is a Gaelic word, 
was employed by the observant Gaels of a remote age to represent 
these confluences which they found in Wales, and which they found 
in the Highlands of Scotland after they had passed over the compara- 
tively level Lowlands. It is noteworthy that Latham is disposed to 
regard Aber as the Abor in the word Aborigines, “the locality to 
which it applied being either the confluence of the rivers Anio and 
Tiber, or the mouth of the Tiber.” 
Cer or Cader, which is the Gaelic Cathair, a city or fortified place, 
enters into many of the Topographical names of Wales, e. g. : Cader 
Idris, Cardigan, Cernarvon, Cermarthen, Cardiff, &e. Joyce, in his 
Irish Names of Places, (Vol. I., p. 284-5), states that ‘‘in modern 
