of the Gothic
tradition which carries a migration of Ostrogoths,[4] Visigoths, and
Gepidae, also in three vessels, to the mouth of the Vistula."--Kemble,
"Saxons in England."

b. The murder of the British chieftains by Hengist is told _totidem
verbis_, by Widukind[5] and others, of the Old Saxons in Thuringia.

c. Geoffry of Monmouth[6] relates also, how "Hengist obtained from the
Britons as much land as could be enclosed by an ox-hide; then, cutting the
hide into thongs, enclosed a much larger space than the granters intended,
on which he erected Thong Castle--a tale too familiar to need illustration,
and which runs throughout the mythus of many nations. Among the Old Saxons,
the tradition is in reality the same, though recorded with a slight variety
of detail. In their story, a lapfull of earth is purchased at a dear rate
from a Thuringian; the companions of the Saxon jeer him for his imprudent
bargain; but he sows the purchased earth upon a large space of ground,
which he claims, and, by the aid of his comrades, ultimately wrests it from
the Thuringians."--Kemble, "Saxons in England."

3. _There is direct evidence in favour of their having been German tribes
in England anterior to_ A.D. 447.--a. At the close of the Marcomannic
war,[7] Marcus Antoninus transplanted a number of Germans into Britain.

b. Alemannic auxiliaries served along with Roman legions under
Valentinian.[8]

c. _The Notitia utriusque Imperii_,[9] of which the latest date is half a
century earlier than the epoch of Hengist, mentions, as an officer of
state, the _Comes littoris Saxonici per Britannias_; his government
extending along the coast from Portsmouth to the Wash.

s. 5. _Inference._--As it is nearly certain, that 449 A.D. is _not_ the
date of the first introduction of German tribes into Britain, we must
consider that the displacement of the original British began at an
_earlier_ period than the one usually admitted, and, consequently, that it
was more _gradual_ than is usually supposed.

Perhaps, if we substitute the middle of the _fourth_, instead of the middle
of the _fifth_ century, as the epoch of the Germanic immigrations into
Britain, we shall not be far from the truth.

* * * * *

CHAPTER II.

GERMANIC ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.--THE GERMANIC AREA OF THE
PARTICULAR GERMANS WHO INTRODUCED IT.--EXTRACT FROM BEDA.

s. 6. Out of the numerous tribes and nations of Germany, _three_ have bee