THE PRESIDENT^ ADDRESS. 
59 
obtains amongst the Yezeedees of the Persia border, the Moham- 
medans in Turkey, and throughout Northern Asia generally. In 
Japan it is still a constant usage among the devotees of the most 
ancient form of religion in that country — the Shintooists ... in 
Britain it was originally, what in the farthest Orient it is still, a 
part and parcel of the most primitive and widely extended worship 
of the sun." 1 
In all this we see the evidence and influence of varied faiths and 
forms of worship, indicative also in their degree of the succession 
and mingling of different races. 
There is much to be gleaned from our river names, whether 
Keltic or Teutonic. The names of all our larger streams are not 
only Keltic, but Keltic of varying character. The Tamar, Tavy, 
Teign, Taw, and Torridge form a remarkable group, related to each 
other, and to such names as those of the Thames, Tees, Tay, and 
Tweed. There is little doubt that the common root is " a generic 
word for water, probably to be found in the eldest branch of the 
Keltic tongue, and which we may take as ta or tau." 2 The final 
syllables are simply distinctive suffixes in a later dialect, that used 
by the Cornish. Probably the Kelts of the second immigrant 
Keltic wave understood the meaning of the root word, because they 
did not attempt further definition ; or the scanty population may 
have made distinction unnecessary. The Kornu Britons treated 
it, however, as a proper name, or needed further definition ; and so 
we have Ta maur, 'the big Ta' or water; Ta veor, 'the little Ta,' 
Ta rhycl, 'the ford Ta;' Ta eign, possibly 'the icy or cold Ta.' 3 
Then we find the Gaelic uisg = water in Exe, Axe, Ockment, and 
probably Ugbrook. A/on, which we see in Avon, is Kymric or 
Welch ; and the dwr of the Dart = Dwr-g went, ' white water,' is as 
distinctively Cornish. There is thus clear evidence from this one 
source alone of the presence in Devon of members of various 
branches of the Keltic race continuously onward from the earliest 
1 "Age of the Saints." — Joum. R. I. Corn. xx. p. 60. 
2 "Hist. Con. Devon. Place-names." — Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. x. 278. 
3 If it is thought that Ta was still current in its root meaning when the 
suffixes were given, still we must admit a special need for distinction, which 
could hardly have existed when the names originated. If the Ta is treated as 
Iberic the argument of changed conditions and loss of original meaning 
remains unaffected. 
