impenetrable Gloom. Like a Shadow she first
came to me, in the loneliness of the night. Like
a Shadow she passes away, in the loneliness of
the dead.

* * * * *

Forward now! Forward on the way that
winds through other scenes, and leads to brighter
times.

THE END OF THE SECOND PART.

LOCAL ETYMOLOGY.

WE have often been struck by a great want
in all Gazetteers and books of geography: the
absence of any explanation of the meanings of
names of places. Books of local topography
are generally more particular; but the want is
thus only very insufficiently supplied. The
names of all countries, towns, provinces, districts,
seas, rivers, &c., have a special signification,
which frequently involves curious matters
of history. Sometimes it may be difficult,
or even impossible, to arrive at the meaning,
owing to the extreme remoteness of the
time at which the place in question received its
title. But, in most cases, a conjecture can be
formed; in many, the facts can be arrived at
with certainty, by the aid of scholarship. It
must be confessed, however, that a great deal
of all etymology, whether of names of places or
of more ordinary words, rests upon nothing
better than guess-work; but the guesses are
interesting in themselves. The inquiry into the
meanings of names of places is a study deserving
greater attention than has yet been bestowed on
it. Such researches form the tributary streams
of history: they add to our knowledge of language;
indicate the migrations of races and the
progress of colonisation; preserve many wild
legends of the past; remind us of extinct
customs and superstitions; point out the improvements
of science, by showing, in many
instances, how natural defects of soil, situation,
and climate, have been overcome or modified;
and augment our interest in our own and
foreign countries by revealing the deep impress
of our common humanity, even on what at
first appears like a set of purposeless sounds.
We have been reading a book on this subject,
published somewhat recently, and have jotted
down a few points of general interest, which we
propose to lay before the reader. The book in
question is by Mr. Richard Stephen Charnock,
F.S.A., and is entitled Local Etymology: a Derivative
Dictionary of Geographical Names. It
will require considerable enlargement in later
editions; but, even as it stands, it suggests
some curious and interesting topics to the philologist.

Who would suppose that any tie existed between
the name of the Isle of Wight and that
of the kingdom or province of Oude? The two
places have half the world between them; the
two words have not a letter in common; yet
they are linked together in a very singular way.
The derivation unfolds a remarkable instance of
the wanderings of races, and shows the distant
affinity existing between us and those dark
people of the Indian peninsula, whom we have
subjected by our Northern energy and strength.
The word Oude appears to be derived from the
Sanscrit a-yodhyá, "not to be warred against"
(a, not; yudh, fight). The word Goth, by
which we designate one of the most important
members of the great Teutonic family, probably
comes from the Saxon guíh (pronounced yuth),
signifying " war, battle, fight;" and this seems
to have had its origin in the Sanscrit yudh, expressing,
as we have just shown, the same idea.
A kindred race to the Goths were the Jutes,
otherwise called the Gytas, Ytas, Wights,
Guuihts, &c.— words which seem to imply
"ravenous warriors." The Jutes settled in the
delicate little island which now forms part of
the county of Hants, and from them it derived
its name. It was at first called Ytaland, or
Gytaland; afterwards Wiht-land; and subsequently
Wight, or the Isle of Wight. Jute is
analogous with the syllable Joud, occurring in
the name Joudpore, in India, and with the word
Oude. Goth appears also to be from the same
root as the Sacred Name, God; and Mr. Charnock
pertinently remarks that " it is not improbable
that the priminitive idea of God among the
Goths was that of a warrior." The asserted
affinity between the words Goth and Oude is
supported by the fact that the Teutonic race
originally migrated from the northern parts of
India.

A similar relationship between an English and
an Indian word has been asserted in connexion
with the name Himalaya, applied to the great
range of mountains in the north of Hindostan.
Mr. Charnock simply describes the name as
signifying " the abode of snow;" but we have
seen it identified with our own native word
"heaven." Thus: Sanscrit (the ancient language
of India, and, according to some authorities,
the noblest and most perfect tongue in the
world), himala; Mæso-Gothic, himins; Alemannic,
himil; German, Swedish, and Danish,
himmel; Old Norse, himin; Dutch, hemel; Anglo-Saxon,
heofon; English, heaven. Whether
this be a genuine or only a fanciful etymology
we cannot pretend to say; but, at any rate, it is
worth considering.

From the Himalayas let us pass, by a very
wide leap, to the North Seas, the region of the
Ultima Thule of the ancients. The meaning of
"ultima" is clear to all, being simply Latin for
"furthest." But what is " Thule?" and where
was that mysterious and awful island, beyond
which, according to the Greeks and Romans, the
earth ceased, and nothing more existed than a
dark, wild, limitless ocean? According to Pliny,
Solinus, and Mela, this tremendous country was
that which we now call Iceland; but other authorities
will have it to have been Tilemark in
Norway, Jutland, Newfoundland, Ireland, and
Shetland. The last named, according to Ainsworth,
was by seamen anciently called Thylensel,
"the Isle of Thyle." One of the Shetland
isles, called Foula, has likewise been suggested;