O'Reilly — Milesian Colonization relalite to Gold-mining. 69 



local corruption of " Jano-Rata " ? ; that is, the cueva or Tunnel '■^con- 

 secrated to Jamis,'" or " Jana," who essentially presided over doors, and 

 passages, and vaulted openings? This then vrould be a veritable 

 "■Mens Sacer" ; but this character is completed, by the fact already 

 stated in the Mining Engineer's report, that the heavy rains, accom- 

 panying the thxmderstorms so frequent and so violent in these districts, 

 sweep down into the river Sil below, gold dust and scales, which up 

 to this day the peasants collect in the manner already described. 'Eov 

 would this be the only " Mons Sacer " in the district, since among the 

 summits or " Picos de Em'opa," a remarkable group of mountains 

 lying between the Asturias and the province of Santander, there is a 

 " Pico Jano,^'' said in the country to be so called from the fact of its 

 having been dedicated to " Janus." Moreover, in it there was in 1860 

 (at least) an ancient copper mine representing a gallery which up to 

 that time had not been completely explored. Would not this dedi- 

 cation of mines and mining galleries to " Janus "or " Jana " point to 

 the presence in these countries of a race anterior to the Eomans, such 

 as the Etruscans, of whom this god was among the principal divinities, 

 and which was renowned for its engineering works of great magnitude, 

 and particularly for the execution of tunnels such as the '' Cloaca 

 Maxima." 



If this presumption be correct, the names of the rivers, places, and 

 towns of the district should offer some indications in that respect. 

 Attention has already been called to the names of the river Minho, or 

 Miiio, and the descriptions given of the alluvial deposits along the 

 river sides show that the root "mm," in the name, refers to the red 

 oxide of iron which so strongly and so markedly colours them, and 

 serves as a guide to the exploring miner in search of these deposits 

 in the district. In the " Dictionary of the Gaelic Language," vol. ii., 

 p. 677, 7neinn, miotailte, is given as the Celtic equivalent for "ore." 

 Assuming, therefore, the Celtic origin of the name Miiio, or Minho, 

 would be the river carrying or showing the ore, and would, even to 

 the present, be a very characteristic name. If this be true of the 

 Mino, its continuation inland, the " Sil," shoiild present a somewhat 

 similar meaning. As a matter of fact, the word " Sil" has a Celtic 

 meaning, the same dictionary giving for it the signification, "a drop " 

 (gutta), and the verb " Sil," " Silidh," has the meaning "rain," a& 

 well as to " drop," " distil " ; and thus the Sil might be understood as 

 the river which "dropped," or "rained," or "sowed" the gold dust 

 along its banks. In Spanish there is actually the word " sil," signi- 

 fying " the red ochre used hy painters.''^ The river names of the gold 



