'Head of the creek valley.' In like manner they have turned Bryn uhella (highest hill) into Brown Willy and Cum ta goed (woodhouse valley) into Come to good." To this might be added the common etymologies of Helstone and Camelford. The former name has nothing to do with the Saxon helstone, a covering stone, or with the infernal regions, but meant "place on the river;" the latter, in spite of the camel in the arms of the town, meant the ford of the river Camel. A frequent mistake arises from the misapprehension of the Celtic dun, hill, which enters in the composition of many local names, and was changed by the Saxons into town or tun. Thus Melidunum is now Moulton, Seccan-dun is Seckington, and Beamdun is Bampton. This transformation of Celtic into Saxon or Norman terms is not confined, however, to the names of families, towns, and villages, and we shall see how the fables to which it has given rise have not only disfigured the records of some of the most ancient families in Cornwall, but have thrown a haze over the annals of the whole county. men Returning to the Jews in their Cornish exile, we find, no doubt, as tioned before, that even in the Ordnance maps the little town opposite St. Michael's Mount is called Marazion and Market Jew, Marazion sounds decidedly like Hebrew, and might signify Marah, "bitterness, grief," Zion, "of Zion." M. Esquiros, a bliever in Cornish Jews, thinks that Mara might be a corruption of the Latin Amara, bitter; but he forgets that this etymology would really defeat its very object, and destroy the Hebrew origin of the name. The next question therefore is, what is the real origin of the name Marazion, and of its alias, Market Jew? It cannot be too often repeated that inquiries into the origin of local names are, in the first place, historical, and only in the second place, philological. To attempt an explanation of any name, without having first traced it back to the earliest form in which we can find it, is to set at defiance the plainest rules of the science of language as well as of the science of history. Even if the interpretation of a local name * Isaac Taylor, Words and Places," p. 402. should be right, it would be of no scientific value without the preliminary inquiry into its history, which frequently consists in a succession of the most startling changes and corruptions. Those who are at all familiar with the history of Cornish names of places, will not be surprised to find the same name written in four or five, nay, in ten different ways. The fact is that those who pronounced the names were frequently ignorant of their real import, and those who had to write them down could hardly catch. their correct pronunciation. Thus we find that Camden calls Marazion Merkiu, Carew Marcaiew. Leland in his "Itinerary" (about 1538) uses the names Markesin, Markine (vol. iii. fol. 4) and in another place (vol. vii. fol. 119) he applies, it would seem, to the same town the name of Marasdeythyon. William of Worcester (about 1478) writes promiscuously Markysyoo (p. 103), Marchew and Margew (p. 133), Marchas, owe and Markysyow (p. 98). In a charter of Queen Elizabeth, dated 1595, the name is written Marghasiewe; in another of the year 1313, Markesion; in another of 1309, Markasyon; in another of Richard, Earl of Cornwall (Rex Romanorum; 1257), Marchadyon. Besides these, Dr. Oliver has found in different title-deeds the folling varieties of the same name:— :-Marghasion, Markesiow, Marghasiew, Maryazion, and Marazion. The only explanation of the name which we meet with in early writers, such as Leland, Camden, and Carew, is that it meant "Thursday Market." Leland explains Marasdeythyon by forum Jovis. Camden explains Merkiu in the same manner, and Carew takes Marcaiew as originally Marhas diew, i.e. "Thursdaies market, for then it useth this traffike." This interpretation of Marhasdiew as Thursday Market, appears at first very plausible, and it has at all events far better claims on our acceptance than the modern Hebrew etymology of "Bitterness of Zion." But, strange to say, although from a charter of Robert, Earl of Cornwall, it appears that the monks of the Mount had the privilege of holding a market on Thursday (die quinta feria), there is no evidence, and no probability that a town so close by as Marazion ever held a market on the same day. Thursday in Cornish was called deyow, not diew. The only additional evidence we get is this, that in the taxation of Bishop Walter Bronescombe, made Aug. 27, 1261, and quoted in Bishop Stapleton's register of 1313, the place is called Markesion de parvo mercato; and that in a charter of Richard, King of the Romans and Earl of Cornwall, permission was granted to the Prior of St. Michael's Mount that three markets, which formerly had been held in Marghasbigan, on ground not belonging to him, should in future be held on his own ground in Marchadyon. Markesion de parvo mercato; is evidently the same place as Marghasbigan, for Marghas-bigan means in Cornish the same as Mercatus parvus, viz. "Little Market." The charter of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, is more perplexing, and it would seem to yield no sense, unless we again take Marchadyon as a mere variety of Marghasbigan, and suppose that, the privilege granted to the prior of St. Michael's Mount consisted in transferring the fair from land in Marazion not belonging to him, to land in Marazion be-. longing to him. Anyhow it is clear that in Marazion we have some kind of name for market. The old Cornish word for market is marchas, a corruption of the Latin mercatus. Originally the Cornish word must have been marchad, and this form is preserved in Brittany, while in Cornish the ch gradually sank to h, and the final d to 8. This change of d into s is of frequent occurrence in modern as compared with ancient Cornish, and the history of our word will enable us, to a certain extent, to fix the time when that change took place. In the charter of Richard, Earl of Cornwall (about 1257), we find Marchadyon in a charter of 1309, Markasyon. The change of d into s had taken place during these fifty years. But what is the termination yon? Considering that Marazion is called the Little Market, I should like to see in yon the Cornish diminutive suffix, corresponding to the Welsh yn. But if this should be objected to, on the ground that no such diminutives occur in the literary monuments of the Cornish language, another explanation is open, which was first suggested to me by Mr. Bellows:-Marchadion may be taken as a perfectly regular plural in Cornish, and we should then have to suppose that, instead of being called the Market, or the Little Market, the place was called, from its three statute markets, "The Markets.” And this would help us to explain, not only the gradual growth of the name Marazion, but likewise, I think, the gradual formation of "Market Jew." Another termination of the plural in Cornish is ieu, which, added to Marchad, would give us Marchadiew.* Now, it is perfectly true that no real Cornishman would ever have taken Marchadiew for Market Jew, or Jews' Market. The name for Jew in Cornish is quite different. It is Edhow, Yedhow, Yudhow, corrupted likewise into Ezow; plural, Yedhewon, &c. But to a Saxon ear the Cornish name Marchadiew might well convey the idea of Market Jew, and thus, by a metamorphic process, a name meaning in Cornish the Markets would give rise, in a perfectly natural manner, not only to the two names, Marazion and Market Jew, but likewise to the historical legends of Jews settled in the county of Cornwall. But there still remain the Jews' houses, the name given, it is said, to the old deserted smelting-houses in Cornwall, and in Cornwall only. Though, in the absence of any historical evidence as to the employment of this term Jew house in former ages, it will be more difficult to arrive at its original form and meaning, yet an explanation offers itself which, by a procedure very similar to that which was applied to Marazion and Market Jew, may account for the origin of this name likewise. The Cornish name for house was originally ty. In modern Cornish, however, to quote from Lhuyd's Grammar, t has been changed to tsh, as ti, thou, tshei; ty, a house, tshey; which tsh is also sometimes changed to dzh, as "ol mein y dzhyi," all in the house. Out of this dzhyi we may easily understand how a Saxon mouth and a Saxon ear might have elicited a sound somewhat like the English Jew. But we do not get at Jew house by so easy a road, if indeed we get at it at all. *On the termination of the plural in Cornish, see Mr. Whitley Stokes' excellent remarks in his edition of The Passion," p. 79; and Norris, "Cornish Drama," vol. ii., p. 229. We are told that a smelting-house was called a White-house, in Cornish Chiwidden, widden standing for guydn, which is a corruption of the old Cornish gwyn; white. This name of Chiwidden is a famous name in Cornish hagiography. He was the companion of St. Perran, or St. Piran, the most popular saint among the mining population of Cornwall. Mr. Hunt, who in his interesting work, "The popular Romances of the West of England," has assigned a separate chapter to Cornish saints, tells us how St. Piran, while living in Ireland, fed ten Irish kings and their armies, for ten days together with three cows. Notwithstanding this and other miracles, some of these kings condemned him to be cast off a precipice into the sea, with a millstone round his neck. St. Piran, however, floated on safely to Cornwall, and he landed, on the 5th of March, on the sands which still bear his name, Perran-zabuloe, or Perran on the Sands. The lives of saints form one of the most curious subjects for the historian, and still more, for the student of language; and the day, no doubt, will come when it will be possible to take those wonderful conglomerates of fact and fiction to pieces, and, as in one of those huge masses of graywacke or rubble-stone, to assign each grain and fragment to the stratum from which it was taken, before they were all rolled together and cemented by the ebb and flow of popular tradition. With regard to the lives of Irish and Scotch and British saints, it ought to be stated for the credit of the pious authors of the "Acta Sanctorum," that even they admit their tertiary origin. "During the 12th century," they say, "when many of the ancient monasteries in Ireland were handed over to monks from England, and many new houses were built for them, these monks began to compile the acts of the saints with greater industry than judgment. They collected all they could find among the uncertain traditions of the natives and in obscure Irish writings, following the example of Jocelin, whose work on the acts of St. Patrick had been received everywhere with wonderful applause. But many of them have miserably failed, so that the foolish have laughed at them, and the wise been filled with indigna tion." (Bollandi Acta, 5th of March, p. 390, B.) In the same work (p. 392, A), it is pointed out that the Irish monks, whenever they heard of any saints in other parts of England, whose names and lives reminded them of Irish saints, at once concluded that they were of Irish origin; and that the people in some parts of England, as they possessed no written acts of their popular saints, were glad to identify their own with the famous saints of the Irish Church. This has evidently happened in the case of St. Piran. St. Piran, in one of his characters, is certainly a truly Cornish saint; but when the monks in Cornwall heard the wonderful legends of the Irish saint, St. Kiran, they seem to have grafted their own St. Piran on the Irish St. Kiran. The difference in the names must have seemed less to them than to us; for words which in Cornish are pronounced with p, are pronounced, as a rule, in Irish with k. Thus, head in Cornish is pen, in Irish ceann; son is map, in Irish mac. The town built at the eastern extremity of the wall of Severus, was called Penguaul, i. e. pen, caput, guaul, walls; the English called it Penel-tun; while in Scotch it was pronounced Cenail.* That St. Kiran had originally nothing to do with St. Piran can still be proved, for the earlier Lives of St. Kiran, though full of fabulous stories, represent him as dying in Ireland. His saint's day was the 5th of March, that of St. Piran the 2d of May. The later Lives, however, though they say nothing as yet of the millstone, represent St. Kiran, when a very old man, as suddenly leaving his country in order that he might die in Cornwall. We are told that suddenly, when already near his death, he called together his little flock, and said to them: "My dear brothers and sons, according to a divine disposition I must leave Ireland and go to Cornwall, and wait for the end of my life there. I cannot resist the will of God." He then sailed to Cornwall, and built himself a house, where he performed many miracles. He was buried in Cornwall on the sandy sea, fifteen miles from Petrokstowe, and twenty-five miles from Mousehole. In this manner the * H. B. C. Brandes, "Kelten und Germanen,” p. 52. + Capgrave, "Legenda Angliæ," fol. 209. Irish and the Cornish saints, who originally had nothing in common but their names, became amalgamated, and the saint's day of St. Piran was moved from the 2d of May to the 5th of March. Yet although thus welded into one, nothing could well be imagined more different than the characters of the Irish and of the Cornish saint. The Irish saint lived a truly ascetic life; he preached, wrought miracles, and died. The Cornish saint was a jolly miner, not always very steady on his legs. Let us hear what the Cornish have to tell of him. His name occurs in several names of places, such as PerranZabuloe, Perran Uthno, in Perran the Little, and Perran Arworthall. His name, pronounced Perran, or Piran, has been further corrupted into Picras and Picrous, unless this is again another saint. Anyhow both St. Perran and St. Pieras live in the memory of the Cornish miner as the discoverers of tin; and the tinners' great holiday, the Thursday before Christmas, is still called Picrou's day. The legend relates that St. Piran, when still in Cornwall, employed a heavy black stone as a part of his fire place. The fire was more intense than usual, and a stream of beautiful white metal flowed out of the fire. Great was the joy of the saint, and he communicated his discovery to St. Chiwidden. They examined this stone together, and Chiwidden, who was learned in the learning of the East, soon devised a process for producing this metal in large quantities. The two saints called the Cornishmen together. They told them of their treasures, and they taught them how to dig the ore from the earth, and how, by the agency of fire, to obtain the metal. "Within the land of Menke or Menegland is a paroch chirche of S. Keveryn, otherwise Piranus."-Leland. "Piran and Keveryn were different persons." See Gough's edition of "Cam 66 den," vol. i. p. 14. +Carew, Survey" (ed. 1602), p. 58. "From which civility, in the fruitful age of Canonization, they stepped a degree farder to holines, and help ed to stuffe the Church Kalender with divers saints, either made or borne Cornish. Sach was Keby, son to Solomon prince of Cor.; such Peran, who (if my author the Legend lye not) after that like another Johannes de temporibus) he had lived two hundred yeres with perfect health, took his last rest in a Cornish parish, which therethrough he endowed with his name.' Hunt's "Popular Romances," vol. ii. p. 19. Great was the joy in Cornwall, and many days of feasting followed the announcement. Mead and metheglin, with other drinks, flowed in abundance; and vile rumor says the saints and their people were rendered equally unstable thereby. "Drunk as a Perraner," has certainly passed into a proverb from that day. It is quite clear from these accounts that the legendary discoverer of tin in Cornwall was originally a totally different character from the Irish saint, St. Kiran. If one might indulge in a conjecture, I should say that there probably was in the Celtic language, a root kar, which in the Cymric branch would assume the form par. Now cair in Gaelic means to dig, to raise; and from it a substantive might be derived, meaning digger or miner. In Ireland, Kiran seems to have been simply a proper name, like Smith or Baker, for there is nothing in the legends of St. Kiran that points to mining or smelting. In Cornwall, on the contrary, St. Piran, before he was engrafted on St. Kiran, was probably nothing but a personification or apotheosis of the Miner, as much as Dorus was the personification of the Dorians, and Brutus the first king of Britain. The rule, "noscitur a sociis," may be applied to St. Piran. His friend and associate, St. Chiwidden, or St. Whitehouse, is evidently a personification of the white-house, i. e. the smelting-house, without which St. Piran, the miner, would have been a very useless saint. If Chy widden, i. e. the smelting-house, became the St. Chywidden, why should we look in the Cornish St. Piran for anything beyond Piran, i. e. the miner? However, what is of importance to us for our present object is not St. Piran, but St. Chywidden, the white-house or smelting-house. The question is, how can we, starting from Chywidden, arrive at Jew-house? I am afraid we cannot do so without a jump or two; all we can do is to show that they are jumps which language herself is fond of taking, and which therefor we must not shirk, if we wish to ride straight after her. Well, then, the first jump which language frequently takes is this, that instead of using a noun with a qualifying adjective, such as white-house, the noun by itself is used without any such qualifi cation. This can, of course, be done with very prominent words only, words which are used so often, and which express ideas so constantly present to the mind of the speaker, that no mistake is likely to arise. In English, "the House" is used for the House of Commons; in later Latin "domus" was used for the House of God. In Greek A1005 stone, in the feminine, is used for the magnet, originally Μαγνῆτις λιθος while the masculine Abos means a stone in general. In Cornwall, ore by itself means copper ore only, while tin ore is called black tin. In time, therefore, when the whole attention of Cornwall was absorbed by mining and smelting, and when smelting-houses were most likely the only large buildings that seemed to deserve the name of houses, there is nothing extraordinary in tshey or dzhyi, even without widden, white, having become the recognized name for smelting-houses. But now comes a second jump, and again one that can be proved to have been a very favorite one with many languages. When people speaking different languages live together in the same country, they frequently, in adopting a foreign term, add to it, by way of interpretation, the word that corresponds to it in their own language. Thus Portsmouth is a name half Latin and half English. Portus was the Roman name given to the harbor. This was adopted by the Saxons, but interpreted at the same time by a Saxon word, viz. mouth, which really means harbor. This interpretation was hardly intentional, but arose naturally. Port first became a kind of proper name, and then mouth was added, so that "the mouth of Port," i. e. of the place called Portus by the Romans, became at last Portsmouth. But this does not satisfy the early historians, and, as happens so frequently when there is anything corrupt in language, a legend springs up almost spontaneously to remove all doubts and difficulties. Thus we read in the venerable Saxon Chronicle under the year 501, "that Port came to Britian with his two sons, Bieda and Maegla, with two ships, and their place was called Portsmouth; and they slew a British man, a very noble man. Such is the growth of legends, ay, and in many cases, the growth of history. Formed on the same principle as Portsmouth we find such words as Hayle-river, the Cornish hal by itself meaning salt marsh, moor, or estuary; Treville, or Trou-ville, where the Celtic tre, town, is explained by the French ville; the Cotswold Hills, where the Celtic word cot, wood, is explained by the Saxon wold or weald, a wood. In Dun-bar-ton, the Celtic word dun, hill, is explained by the Saxon bar, for byrig, burg, ton being added to form the name of the town that rose up under the protection of the hillcastle. In Penhow the same process has been suspected; how, the German Höhe,* expressing nearly the same idea as pen, head. In Constantine, in Cornwall, one of the large stones with rock basins is called the Men-rock, † rock being simply the interpretation of the Cornish mén. If then we suppose that in exactly the same manner the people of Cornwall spoke of Tshey-houses or Dshyi-houses, is it so very extraordinary that this hybrid word should at last have been interpreted as Jew-houses? I do not say that the history of the word can be traced through all its phases with the same certainty as that of Marazion; all I maintain is that, in explaining its history, no step has been admitted that cannot be proved by sufficient evidence to be in strict keeping with the well known movements, or, if it is respectful to say so, the well known antics of language. Thus vanish the Jews from Cornwall; but there still remain the Saracens. One is surprised to meet with Saracens in the West of England, still more, to hear of their having worked in the tin-mines, like the Jews, though no explanation is given why this detested name should have been applied to the Jews in Cornwall, and no where else. This view is held, for instance, by Carew, who writes :Cornish maintain these works to have been very ancient, and first wrought by the Jews with pick-axes of holm, box, The |