234 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



was made on the curious fate whereby the proud 

 name of a noble race of warriors became perverted 

 into a common noun to describe the most abject 

 condition of humanity. It is very doubtful, how- 

 ever, whether the striking contrast really exists 

 to supply a fit subject for moralizing. It is far 

 more probable that the name Slav is connected 

 with slovo, " a word," and means the " distinctly- 

 speaking people " as contrasted with the Njemetch, 

 or u talkers of gibberish," by which polite epi- 

 thet the Slavic races have always distinguished 

 the Germans. This naive assumption, that it is 

 ourselves alone who talk intelligibly, while for- 

 eigners babble a meaningless jargon, has been a 

 very common one with uninstructed people, and 

 "Njemetch" is not the only national appellative 

 that bears witness to its prevalence. The epithet 

 " Welsh," which the Germans apply to the Ital- 

 ians, the Dutch to the Belgians, and the English 

 to the Kymry of western Britain, has precisely 

 the same meaning ; and so had the word " barba- 

 rian," by which the ancient inhabitant of Hellas 

 described indiscriminately all people who did not 

 speak Greek. 1 



It was about the middle of the fifth century 



1 The name " Wallach," by which the Germans designate the in. 

 habitants of Rumania, is the same word as " Welsh." 



