178 On St Michael’s Mount and the Phenicians. 
(as is supposed) by the Pheenicians, and the name continues 
unchanged in the Saxon, English, Dutch and Danish 
languages; but the Swedish name is now tenn, the German 
zinn, the French etfain, the Latin stannum, the Irish stan, 
the Cornish stean, the Armoric stean, and also staen ; the 
first letter of each of the last five names being a mere prefix, 
as in the modern word sneeze for neeze (Job xli. 18). With 
this exception, and except the termination of the Latin 
name, these eight different spellings are merely different 
ways in which different nations pronounce tin. Iktin, 
therefore, signifies ‘‘ tin port ;’ and the Mount was probably 
thus called by the foreign tin-traders who frequented it. 
The Cornish or ancient Britons would have called it Tinzk, 
although porth, another Cornish word synonymous with 
tk, rarely follows, but almost always precedes, the word to 
which it is joined. When other tin-ports began also to be fre- 
quented, the foreign traders may, by way of distinguishing it 
from the Falmouth or other tin-ports, have called it Bre- 
tin-tk, ‘“‘ the Mount-tin-port,” Bre being the Cornish for 
‘“ Mount ;” and euphony as well as the British mode of col- 
locating these three words, would have prevented them from 
calling it Bre-ik-tin. Assuming this to be the true deriva- 
tion, it is a beautiful illustration of the fact of ancient 
names being originally faithful descriptions of the places or 
things to which they were given. For Bre-tin-ik, “ the 
Mount-tin-port,”’ was not only a mount, and one of the 
strongest natural fortresses to protect the tin carried thither 
from the mainland, but also the safest port in the bay for 
ships to remain in until laden for a foreign voyage. And 
this name, although so appropriate, was at the same time 
as uncommunicative of its locality as could have been 
desired by the Phcenicians, who, as is well known, sought to 
conceal the place whence they procured their tin. 
As a name originally confined to a very small partof a 
province or country often becomes the name of the whole, 
so the Mount, which gives its modern name to the finest bay 
in England, may have given its ancient name to all Britain, 
not only because it was the most striking object, and the 
most important place in our island known to the Pheenicians, 
but also because this ancient name (Bre-tin-ck) told no more 
