EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



coasts in the Norse sense, as in Sandwich and 

 Berwick, favourite stations for pirates. But with 

 this characteristic divergence, the generally uni- 

 form significance of the word, in languages so 

 widely scattered, points clearly to the existence 

 of village communities among the prehistoric 

 Aryans. The various forms of the English word 

 town are equally instructive, though not quite 

 so numerous. The Old English form tun has 

 its counterpart in Old German zun, " an in- 

 closed or fortified place," with which the mod- 

 ern German zaun, " a hedge," is connected. 

 Now, in accordance with Grimm's law, we find 

 Armenian dun, " a house," Kymric din, " a for- 

 tress," Irish dun, a " fortress " or " camp " or 

 " walled town." This Keltic form appears in 

 many geographical names, such as Thun, in 

 Switzerland ; Lug-dun-um on the Rhone, now 

 Lyons ; Lug-dun-um in Holland, now Leyden ; 

 Dun-keld, the " fort of the Kelts ; " Dumbarton, 

 the " fort of the Britons ; " Dundee, London, 

 Clarendon, etc. In the remote Himalayas the 

 same word reoccurs in the names of hill for- 

 tresses, such as Kjarda Dhun, Dehra Dhun, etc. ; 

 and again it is a fair inference that where a word 

 turns up in so many parts of the Aryan domain 

 with the very same determinations of meaning, 

 it must have belonged to the primitive vocabu- 

 lary of the race. So that our forefathers would 

 appear to have been acquainted not only with 

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