258 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Di. Marshall seems to have understood the 
passage. What King Alfred says and means is 
this: —‘“*On the north are the Apdrede (Obo- 
trite), and on the north east of them are the 
Wylte, who are called Hefeldi.” 
The anonymous Saxon poet, who wrote the life 
of Charlemagne, gives the same situation as Alfred 
to the Wilti: — 
“ Gens est Slavorum Wilti cognomine dicta, 
Proxima litoribus qu possidet arva supremis 
Jungit ubi oceano proprios Germania fines.” * 
Helmold says that they inhabited the part of 
the coast opposite to the island of Rugen; and 
hereabouts Adam of Bremen places the Heveldi, 
and many other Slavonic tribes.f I am not 
aware that any other author than Alfred says, that 
the Wilti and Heveldi were the same people ; but 
the fact is probable. The Heveldi are of rare 
occurrence, but not so the Wilti.{ Ptolemy calls 
them Beara: — Veltz or Welte — and places them 
in Prussian Pomerania, between the Vistula and 
Niemen. LEginhard says that “they are Sla- 
vonians who, in our manner, are called Wilsi, but 
in their own language, Welatibi.”§ Their country 
was called Wilcia||, and, as a branch of them were 
settled in Batavia about 560, it does not seem very 
improbable that from them were derived the 
Wilseton of the Anglo-Saxon chronicles, mean- 
ing the Wilts seated, or settlers in Wilts-shire. 
The name, as Eginhard has noticed, is Slavic, and 
is an adoption of welot or weolot, a giant, to denote 
the strength and fierceness which rendered them 
formidable neighbours. Heveldi seems to be the 
same word made emphatic with a foreign addition. 
Two other names have given much trouble to 
the translators, as well as to Mr. Forster. These 
are, Megtha Land and Horiti or Horithi, for both 
occur, and the latter is not written with the letter 
thorn, but with a distinct ¢ and A. Alfred has, 
unquestionably, met with the Slavic gorod, which 
so frequently occurs as the termination of the 
names of cities in the region where he indicates 
the seat of his Horiti to be. It signifies a city, 
and is an etymological equivalent of Goth. gards, 
a house, Lat. cors, cortis; O. N. gardr, a district, 
A.-Sax. geard, whence our yard. The Polish form 
is grodz, and the Sorabic, hrodz. He places the 
Horiti to the east of the Slavi Dalamanti, who 
occupied the district north east of Moravia, with 
the Surpe, that is, Serbi, Servi, on their north, 
* Vita Karoli Magni, ann. 789. 
+ ‘Sunt et alii Slavorum populi qui inter Albiam 
et Oderam degunt, sicut Heveldi, qui juxta Haliolam 
fluvium, et Doxani, Liubuzzi, Wilini, et Stoderani, 
cum multis aliis.” — Hist. Heel. p. 47, 48. 
¢ Annales Sangall. Brev., ann, 789. — Ann. Laures- 
ham, &e. 
§ Vit. Kar. Magn. and Annal. Francor., ann. 822. 
|| Annal. Petav., ann. 789. 
anid the Sisle, Siusli, artother Slavonic people, on 
the west. This appears to be the site possessed 
by the Hunnic founders of Kiow. In Helmold, 
Chunigord, the city or station of the Huns, is the 
name of the part of Russia containing Kiow.* 
To the north of the Horiti, says Alfred, is 
Megtha Land.— A Finnie tribe, called Magyar, 
were settled in the 9th century in Mazovia, 
whence a part of them descended into Hungary. 
According to Mr. Forster, Mazovia has been 
called Magan Land; but I can find no trace of 
that name. I can easily conceive, however, that 
Magyar and Land might become, in Saxon copy- 
ing, Meegtha Land, for the country of the Magyar. 
Elsewhere, Alfred uses Meegtha Land, the land of 
the Medes, for Persia. 
Is there any other printed copy of the Saxon - 
Orosius than Barrington’s? for that forbids con- 
fidence by a number of needless and unauthorised 
alterations in most of the pages. 
R. T. Hampson. 
FOLK LORE. 
Omens from Catile. — I forward to you a Note, 
which, many years ago, I inserted in my inter- 
leaved Brand’s Observations on Popular Antiquities, 
vol. il. p.519. 4to., in the hope that, as the subject 
interested me ¢hen, it may not prove uninteresting 
to some now : — 
“ A bad omen seems to be drawn from an ox or cow 
breaking into a garden. Though I laugh at the super- 
stition, the omen was painfully fulfilled in my case. 
« About the middle of March, 1843, some cattle 
were driven close to my house; and, the back door 
being open, three got into our little bit of garden, and 
trampled it. When our school-drudge came in the 
afternoon, and asked the eause of the confusion, she 
expressed great sorrow and apprehension on being 
told — said it was a bad sign—and that we should 
hear of three deaths within the next six months, Alas! 
in April, we heard of dear J ’s murder; a fort- 
night after, A died; and to-morrow, August 10th, 
I am to attend the funeral of my excellent son-in-law. 
“T have just heard of the same omen from another 
quarter.” 
This was added the next day : — 
« But what is still more remarkable is, that when I 
went down to Mr. ’s burial, and was mentioning 
the superstition, they told me that, while he was lying 
ill, a cow got into the front garden, and was driven 
out with great difficulty.” 
L. 8. 
The Horse's Head —- Rush-bearings. — The ac- 
count of the Welch custom of the ‘“ Grey Mare” 
in a late Number reminded me of something very 
similar in Cheshire. In the parish of Lynn it is 
customary, for a week or ten days before the 5th 
* Chron. Slavorum, 1. i. ¢. 2. 
[No. 17. 
