550 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



Alexaudertlic Great. Upou liis death they took to their sliips, audfiiuilly 

 effected a landing- at the mouth of the river Elbe, where, ou account of 

 their long knives — by the Thuringians, whom they subjugated,' called 

 "Sahs" — the name Saxe or Saxon was adopted. The term "sax" for a 

 single-edged sword occurs in the Northern sagas,^ in which also a KSax- 

 land is mentioned, a country situated east of the peninsnla of Jutland. 



At the beginning of the Christian era they are reported to have occu- 

 pied the land north of the river P^lbe;^ in A. I). 140 they are still found 

 in the same location,^ and near neighbors to the Angli; in the middle 

 of the third centui-y they are supposed to be coterminous with the 

 Chauci;^ in the middle of the fourth century with the Franks;'^ and 

 about that time (303) they attempted settlement m Brittany.'' 



They are said to have possessed the art of sailing by the wind (tack- 

 ing) and their small, apparently frail vessels, built of willow ui)on a 

 keel of knotty oak and covered with skins,'^ the whole so light that, 

 entering far into rivers, even with unfavorable m ind, they would ter- 

 rify the inhabitants of the Roman coast.^ Notwithstanding their lim- 

 ited knowledge of the stars, without compass, without charts they 

 found their way to the Orkneys.'" 



In the times of Diocletian and Maximiaii the Saxons harassed the 

 coasts of Gallia and Brittany to such an extent that Maximian, in 280, 

 was obliged to convert Gesoriacuin, or Bononia (Boulogne), into a port 

 for the Roman tieet." 



During the revolt of Carausius against the Roman Government, the 

 confederate Saxons, etc., built ships after the Roman model, learned 



iCuriosa Sax., 1768, pp 210,233, 342. Witechiiidus Corh, c. 3. Horndorf, Promt. 

 exempl., p. 277. 



^Grettir Saga. " When Gretth" saw that the young man was within reach, lie lifted 

 his sax high in the air aud struck Aruor's liead with its hack, so that his head was 

 brokeu and he died. Thereupon he killed the father with his sax." 



^Vellejus Patercuhts, 2, c. 107. 



*Ftolem\j — Geog. lib., ii, c. 2. "E7ri rhv av\h>a ryg Ki.fjfipiKyg Xep(hvt/6ov lu.^oi''e(" 



■'Plhijl Hist. Nat. xvi, c. 76. Dr. Gnsiav Klemm, Haudbuch der Geruiauischen 

 Alterthuuiskuude, 1836. »S'. Jiartli, Teutschlaud's Urgeschichte. 



''Enlru}). Breviar. Hist, ix, c. 21. Anrel. Vict, in Caes. c. 32. Euraenius i. c. 12. 

 Ammlanus Marcel. Rer. Gestar. Jib. xxvi, sec. 4; lib. xxvji, c. 8, sec. .5. 



''Claudius iv; Consul Honor i. 31, 32. 



SaS'. />«>•</(, Teutschlaud's Urgeschichte II, 288. Zialae, .anglo saxon Ceol. Isidor- 

 origines lxix, v. i, Celones. Icelaudic Kiolur, Low German, Yell. Dr. G. Khmm, 

 Handb. d. Germ. Alterthk. 1836, p. 148. SldoiiUis Appolinaris Cams vii, v. 370. 



•'Quiu et aremoricus pyratam Saxona tractus 

 Sperabat, cui pelle salum snlcare Britauuum 

 I^udus, et assuto glaucum mare lindere lembo." 



•'In Claudian, Do laudibus Stilich ii, v. 2.54, Britannia says: "Illius effectum 

 curis, ne litore tuto, Prospicerem dubiis venturum Saxona ventis." 



"'Claudian, De Cons. Hon. iv, 31: "Madueruut Saxone fuse Orcades; iucabuit 

 Pictorum s.anguine Thule; Scotorum cumulus tlevit glacialis lerue." 



^^ Eutropins, Breviar. Hi.stor. ix, c. 21. Anrel. Vict, in Caes. c. 32. 



