bly considered to be the
Trave. But the Suebus is not the Oder; though the two are often
identified: inasmuch as the geographer continues to state that after the
Pharodini come "the Sidini to the river Iadua" (the Oder?), "and, after
them, the Rutikleii as far as the Vistula."

Zeuss has allowed himself to simplify some of the details by identifying
certain of the Ptolemaean names with those of Tacitus. Thus he thinks
that, by supposing the original word to have been {Sphar/od-inoi}, the
{Phar/odin-oi} and _Suardon_-es may be made the same. _Kobandi_, too, he
thinks may be reduced to _Chaviones_, or _Aviones_. Thirdly, by the
prefix {Ph}, and the insertion of N, _Eudos_-es may be converted into
{Phoundo^us-ioi}.

Those who know the degree to which the modern German philologists act
upon the doctrine that _Truth is stranger than Fiction_, and, by
unparallelled manipulations reconcile a so-called iron-bound system of
scientific letter-changes with results as extraordinary as those of the
Keltic and Hebraic dreamers of the last century, will see in such
comparisons as these nothing extraordinary. On the contrary, they will
give them credit for being moderate. And so they are: for it is
extremely likely that whilst Tacitus got his names from German, Ptolemy
got _his_ from Keltic, or Slavonic, sources; and if such be the case, a
very considerable latitude is allowable.

Yet, even if we make the Cobandi, Aviones; the Phundusii, Eudoses; and
the Pharodini, Suardones (probably, also, the _Sweordwere_, of the
Traveller's Song), the geographical difficulties are still considerable.
Saxons on the neck of the Chersonese (say in Stormar) with Sigulones
(say in Holstein) to the west of them are fully sufficient to stretch
from sea to sea; but _beyond_ (and this we must suppose to be in a
_westerly_ direction) are the Sabalingii, and then the Kobandi; above
(north of) these the Chali (whom we should expect to be connected with
the river Chalusus), and west of these the Phundusii. Similar
complications can easily be added.

The meaning of the word _Sabalingii_ is explained, if we may assume a
slight change in the reading. How far it is legitimate, emendatory
critics may determine; but by transposing the B and L, the word becomes
_Sa-lab_-ingii. The Slavonic is the tongue that explains this.

1. The Slavonic name of the _Elbe_ is _Laba_; and--

2. The Slavonic for _Transalbian_, as a term for the population _beyond
the Elbe_, wou