Nordalbingians. They fell into three divisions:

1. The _Thiedmarsi_, _Thiatmarsgi_, or _Ditmarshers_, whose capital was
Meldorp--_primi ad Oceanum Thiatmarsgi_, et eorum _ecclesia
Mildindorp_--

2. The _Holsati_, _Holtzati_, or _Holtsaetan_, from whom the present
Duchy of Holstein takes its name--_dicti a sylvis, quas incolunt_.[20]
The river Sturia separated the Holsatians from--

3. The _Stormarii_, or people of _Stormar_; of whom Hamburg was the
capital--_Adam Bremens_: _Hist. Eccles._ c. 61.

These are the Nordalbingians of the eighth century. Before we consider
their relations to the Westphalian and Hanoverian Saxons the details of
the present ethnology of the Cimbric Peninsula are necessary. At the
present moment Holstein, Stormar, and Ditmarsh are Low German, or
Platt-Deutsch, districts; the High German being taught in the schools
much as English is taught in the Scotch Highlands. Eydersted also is Low
German, and so are the southern and eastern parts of Sleswick. Not so,
however, the western. Facing the Atlantic, we find an interesting
population, isolated in locality, and definitely stamped with old and
original characteristics. They are as different from the Low Germans on
the one side as the Dutch are from the English; and they are as little
like the Danes on the other. They are somewhat bigger and stronger than
either; at least both Danes and Germans may be found who own to their
being _bigger if not better_. They shew, too, a greater proportion of
blue eyes and flaxen locks; though these are common enough on all sides.
That breadth of frame out of which has arisen the epithet _Dutch-built_,
is here seen in its full development; with a sevenfold shield of thick
woollen petticoats to set it of. So that there are characteristics, both
of dress and figure, which sufficiently distinguish the _North-Frisian_
of Sleswick from the Dane on one side and the German on the other.

It is only, however, in the more inaccessible parts of their country
that the _differentiae_ of dress rise to the dignity of a separate and
independent _costume_. They do so, however, in some of those small
islands which lie off the coast of Sleswick; three of which are supposed
to have been the _three islands of the Saxons_, in the second and third
centuries. A party, which the writer fell in with, from _Foehr_, were all
dressed alike, all in black, all in woollen, with capes over the heads
instead of bonnets. "Those," says the driver,