The names of _Wales_ and the _Welsh_ are comparatively of recent origin. The Welsh have always called themselves Cymru or Cymry,--Romanized into Cambria or Cambrians. This has been the generic name of the race as far back as any trace can be found of their existence. The Romans changed Gal into Gaul; the Welsh sound _u_ as _e_: hence they pronounced the Romanized word Gaul as Gael. The Saxons, as was their wont, substituted _w_ for _g_: hence, as the people of Cambria were esteemed to be analogous to the Gauls, they called their country Waels or Wales, and its people Waelsh or Welsh; and these names have continued to the present time. But this people always have called themselves "Y Cymry," of which the strictly literal meaning is _aborigines_. They call their language "Y Cymraeg,"--the primitive tongue. Celt, meaning a covert or shelter, and Gaul, meaning an open plain or country, are terms applied to various subdivisions by which the Cymric race have been known. In this connection it may be appropriate to say that the word "Indian" is one that does not apply or belong to the red race of the American Continent, but was used by Columbus, who, anxious to discover the East Indies by a northwest route, imagined that he had reached that country, and called the inhabitants Indians. Subsequent events have proved his mistake. The primitive races of this continent are more properly designated by the word aborigines, as in the case of the Cymry. Through the rich and copious language and literature of Wales, the student of history is able to gather a vast store of knowledge respecting its inhabitants and their early ancestors. The substantial result arrived at as to their origin and migrations may be briefly stated as follows: First. That the inhabitants of Wales, known to Homer as the Cimmerii, migrated thither from the great fountain-head of nations,--the land of the Euphrates and Tigris. Second. That they went in successive bands, each in a more advanced state of civilization than the former. Third. That they carried with them a peculiar language, peculiar arts and superstitions, marking their settlement on the Island of Britain at a very early period. Fourth. That their journey through Europe is marked with the vestiges of tumuli, mounds, skulls, rude utensils, ornaments, and geographical names in their language. The Welsh language is of a pure radical construction, and remarkably free from admixture with other tongues. It is as copious, flexible, and refined as it was two thousand years ago, when it existed alongside the Greek and Latin, both of which it antedates and survives, for it is not, like them, a dead language, but is in living use at the present day in literature, commerce, home, and worship.