Names have all some meaning when first imposed; and when a place is named for the first time, by any people, they apply to it some term—in early times generally descriptive of its natural peculiarities, or something else, on account of which it is remarkable, from their own language. When we find therefore, that the old names of natural objects and localities in a country belong, for the most part, to a particular language, we may conclude with certainty that a people speaking that language formerly occupied the country. Of this the names they have so impressed are as sure a proof as if they had left a distinct record of their existence in words engraven on the rocks. Such old names of place…
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