1811.] Derivation of the Words Celta, Cumbri, or Cymbri, Xe. 19 
nearly all Europe. The word has been 
sdid to imply horsemen, warriors, men 
of the woods, men with long hair and 
with tails, but whether these tails were 
of long hair, or suchas Lord Monboddo 
describes belonging to his men in one 
of the Nicobar islands, I dare not de- 
cide. They have been derived also from 
Celtus, a son of Hercules and Polyphe- 
thia, and from many other inapplicable 
etymons. From these, and others which 
T shall quote, you will, Mr. Editer, 
scarcely know the Celts; but I will en- 
déavour to point out the import of their 
name satisfactorily to your readers. 
Tn doing this, you must not expect me 
to begin with Gomer, nor to trace them 
from Noah to Wales; you will allow me 
to survey a small part of the globe only, 
to view its features and its provinces. 
An antiquary or historian describes 
the remains of a people, a country, or 
place; but the import of the name by 
which this people, country, or place, is 
known, having restéd in Cimmerian 
darkness from the earliest times, is al- 
ways mistaken or omitted.’ I will there- 
fore attempt to lay down a few more 
~ rules to dissipate this darkness. If, in 
doing this, T can arrest a mania with 
which Fancy has infected wise, learned, 
and redily good men, of all ages, in 
_ tracing their descents, my labour will be 
fully compensated. 
‘Settlements, districts, provinces, and 
kingdoms, were in the earliest ages of 
the world, first named from their prin- 
cipal features. The Hill Border, the 
Head Border, or the Water Border, in 
description, often reach to a great extent 
_ ‘within or beyond this Hill, Head, or 
Water. The Dobuni of our own coun- 
¥ were the Stream-Borderers, from 
_ Dob, a Stream, and En, or An, varied to 
Un, a term for Border Land, These 
were also called the Huiccii, from Ic, 
Uic, or Wick, Border Land; and some of 
these people lived far from the Stream 
which gave them name. The Canti in- 
habited lands far from their Head which 
Fave them name. The Belgx, derived 
irom Bel Border, and Ge Land, had inha- 
uy. 
bitants far from their Border; and their 
name was translated Ham, or Border, by 
the Saxons, who never dreamt of their 
. .being any more the descendants of the 
Belge of the continent, than were the 
Canti, the Regni, or other nations of 
this island. Land on the coast, often 
Gave tiame to a great extent of land in 
he interior. Thus the Head of Lands in 
— Rpain-which rutis into the ocean, will be’ 
found to have given name to the whole 
of that kingdom. In like manner, the 
Headland of France gave denomination 
toa great part of that kingdom. Bat 
Headlands and Hills were very often de- 
scribed by the same words; and hence 
the hills on the borders of kingdoms, may 
also appropriately give names to their 
Border Lands. 
These principles being understood, 
T will now explain the name of a country 
referred to by all writers, ancient and mo. 
dern. They say, that from Gomer came 
the Galate. I will not deny this pro- 
bable conjecture; but from the principles 
here Jaid down, I am to shew that Ga- 
latia took its name from the: features of 
the country only. It is easy to conceive 
that the increase of mankind must have 
produced nations, and national names, as 
above described: Galutia is such an one, 
Monsieur Brigande says, “that it is 
the universal opinion of all authors who 
have written on the origin of nations, 
that the Celtes were the children of Go- 
mer, the eldest son of Japhet. ‘This 
nation, from which so many others have 
sprang, have presérved the name of their 
progenitor from the most early age after 
the deluge, down to the present days.” 
I will not follow this author, but refer to 
him: he acknowledges that it is easier to 
find an etymology for the name Celts, 
than to prove it to be a true one; but he 
renders it from the Hebrew word Ga- 
letha, thrust out at a distance, pushed 
forwards. The Greek and Latin lan. 
guages, he says, offer no resource for this 
etymology. Monsieur Perron, on the 
Celtes, mistaking the root of Cal or Cale, 
a head or hill, in finding the name 
Celtz, supposes it to mean an harbour 
or port, which signifies, he says, the same 
with the Celte. He here indeed ex- 
actly hits the spelling, but mistakes the 
root from whence it came, and conse. 
quently the true meaning. He elsewhere 
however contradicts himself in this, as 
well as in a variety of other cases, and 
suppsses “the word Celta, as well as 
Gaul, to imply powerful, valiant, or vas 
lorous.” The Greeks, he says, also 
gave the name Galate to the Gauls, 
But the Celtz, at least a part of them, 
this author states,were cailed Cimbrians, 
and Cimsnerians. ‘The word Cimbri, 
he inapplicably derives from the Latin 
Cimber, atid this from Kimber or Kim- 
per, which, in the Celtic, (he says) is a 
warrior. As for Cimmerian, it is whae 
the ancient Greciins (he says) softened 
out of Cimbri, of Cimbrian ; and here he 
, is 
