Mr. Turner was not advocating the Israelitish ancestry of the Saxons, hence those who believe in that theory put the greater stress on his two most important statements: that the forefathers of this race dwelt in the region east of the Araxes, the exact spot to which Israel was carried captive, and that they began to spread out therefrom some six or seven hundred years before Christ, answering to the very period that the children of Jacob dwelt captives in that country. One author has assumed a very unique derivation for the word Saxon. He says: "We suppose it is derived from Isaac, by which, we find from Amos, this house of Israel had begun to denominate itself, just before the captivity. It was usual to contract the commencement of the name, especially when they combined it with any other word, or when it came to be familiarly applied. Saxon is, literally or fully expressed, the son of Isaac." Just as Dickson in modern English was abbreviated to Dixon.[A] Such abbreviations, we may remark in passing, in familiar talk are also common with our neighbors, the Shoshones, also a remnant of the seed of Jacob, One writer on this portion of the subject sees in this explanation of the word Saxon a fulfillment of the promise made to our father Abraham, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called," and goes as far as to advance the argument that Cossack is another expression of this same idea, or that a Don Cossack is literally and truly a son of Isaac, of the tribe of Dan. [Footnote A: It is claimed by some that the word Brahmin is an abbreviation of Abraham in fact that the god Brahma is the patriarch himself deified.] The ferocity of the northern races, who overthrew the Roman empire, is thought by some to argue against their Israelitish origin. But we must recollect that the pictures of the Goths and Vandals, which have been handed down to us, were painted by their enemies. Nor would the argument, however true, have any weight with us were the rest proven. If they were of Israel they had been wandering, fighting and colonizing for a thousand years since they left Palestine before they overwhelmed Rome. And as far as ferocity is concerned they cannot equal the seed of Joseph on this continent, who but three hundred years after the fullness of the gospel was proclaimed to their fathers by the crucified Redeemer, committed atrocities that no Goth or Vandal ever exceeded. A very pretty theory has been advocated in connection with this portion of their history, to the effect that as the Roman empire was used by the Lord to destroy the house of Judah and slay millions of that devoted race, so the Lord chose a portion of the house of Israel (unknown to both themselves and their enemies) to destroy the Gentile rulers of the world who had slain and scattered their brother's house.