PECULIARITIES OF THE GAELIC LANGUAGE. 45 



tuiy. The Arab ships used the needle m India in A.D. 1117 ; 

 European chronology gives its introduction about A.D. 1200; Odin's 

 supposed migration to Scandinavia, B.C. 50 ; conquest of Samarcand 

 by the Arabians, A.D. 712 ; discovery and settlement of Iceland, 

 A.D. 861 ; Arabs trading with caravans between Pekin, Samarcand, 

 Kazan, Novgorod and Varangia, about A.D. 860. After their first 

 settlement the Governor of the Icelanders was sent each year to form 

 new or improve the old laws, A.D. 861. It is probable that the 

 Arabs brorght the compass from China to Novgorod, where it was 

 transferred to the Varangians, who passed it on to Iceland and the 

 Faro Isles. 



Mr. David Spence read a paper on " Peculiarities and 

 External Relations of the Gaelic Language." 



The writer of the paper noted the curious fact that until lately 

 there has been scarcely an instance of a Saxon whose curiosity had 

 been excited to know something about tlie language of the Gael, 

 which was one of the most important branches of the old Aryan 

 speech and neai-er the old forms than any other European language. 

 Having referred to a few peculiarities of the Gaelic language, traceable 

 to a peculiarity in the mode of thought, Mr. Spence cited examples of 

 beliefs and customs indicative of the bent of mind of the Keltic 

 people ; and gave a large number of Aryan forms of words which 

 have been accurately preserved by the Gaelic-speaking people. The 

 iniportttnce of Gaelic for philological purposes could not, he said, be 

 over-estimated. The various branches of the old Aryan race, both in 

 Asia and on the Continent of Europe, had been so disturbed and 

 mixed that the languages must necessarily have been greatly changed 

 and broken up, while the people in the Highlands and in Ireland had 

 been so isolated that their branch of the old language had been, as it 

 were, bottled up, sealed and preserved for the use of the philologist. 

 Words changed but little when spoken by the same race, but when 

 pronounced by alien lips they might change so as not to be recog- 

 ized. The names Dumbarton and Sterling, in Scotland, concealed 

 their meaning when pronounced by Englishmen, but when pi-ononnced 

 by the Gaul they were still " Dunbreaton," the Briton's Fort, and 

 " Struithlia," the rock stream. The Gaelic system of orthogra])hy 



