106 NOMENCLATURE. 



given, and some which are connected with our own country. Ken- 

 rick and others hold that the Phosnician Hercules was the same as 

 Melcarth, whose name has been found in inscriptions. Little is 

 known of him, in consequence of the records of Tyre and Sidon 

 having long been lost. But it is probable that the deeds of this 

 semi-mythical person were transferred to, and heaped together 

 upon, the Greek Hercules j and, if we attempt to extract the 

 simple truth from the mythical stories related of him, we may see 

 reason to accept the theory so ably worked out by Dr. Smith in 

 his " Cassiterides," that this Melcarth was the original discoverer 

 of Britain, and the first exporter of tin from our country ; and 

 that he was deified by his grateful countrymen for the benefits he 

 conferred on them. His name analyzed gives us Jnip "jJD 

 (King of the City), the former part agreeuig with the first part of 

 Melchizedek; and the latter part, not only with Carthage in 

 Africa, and Carteia in Spain, but also with the several Kirjaths of 

 Hebrew Geography, and possibly with the many names in Corn- 

 wall having Caer, Car, in their composition. 



Cornish names have a particular interest, not only to those 

 connected with the county, but also to all interested in philological 

 studies ; because that in them is preserved, not indeed li^dng, but 

 in a fossilized state, much of what remains of the old Cornish 

 Language, one of the three dialects that are classed under the 

 Cymric branch of the Celtic tongue. 



The Celts are generally regarded as the great nomenclators of 

 Europe. They have left names, imposed by them, indelibly stamped 

 on places where they have been located ; and the tracks of their 

 various tribes, in their migrations from the East to the remotest 

 corners of the West, have been traced on the map, by names, 

 dropped as it were by the way. The Celts were followed, at a 

 considerable interval, by the Teutons ; they retreated before, or 

 succumbed to, and were absorbed by, these more energetic tribes ; 

 and Teutonic took the place of Celtic languages. But while words 

 used in intercourse or conversation were thus changed, the words 

 used in naming the great distinguishing features of the country 

 remained, not as significant words however, but as distinguishing 

 designations ; and they are now monuments of a people and a 

 language that have passed away. River names especially, and 

 names of mountains, everywhere, with few excejDtions, may be re- 



