Such, then, in barest outline, was the distribution of the Aryan races which formed the major part of that vague and loose-knit organization, the later Roman Empire. But it must not be imagined that this picture of Rome’s European subjects is anything like complete. Evoking history from words is like looking back at our own past through memory; we see it, as it were, from within. Something has stimulated the memory—a smell, a taste, or a fragment of melody—and an inner light is kindled, but we cannot tell how far that light will throw its beams. Language, like the memory, is not an automatic diary; and it selects incidents for preservation, not so much according to their intrinsic significance as according to the impression they happen to have made upon the national consciousness. Thus, English words have little to tell us about the great migrations and massacres in Europe during the first ten centuries of the Christian era, for terms of abuse like _vandal_ and _hun_ draw their emotional force from the imaginations of historians rather than from actual contact with the tribes in question.[10] From a mathematically impartial point of view, therefore, the small amount of space that can be assigned here to events which absorbed such an enormous share of time and energy and swallowed millions of human lives is indeed misleading. There is, however, an interesting little group of words still bearing the imprint of the mighty upheaval which took place around the Mediterranean during the seventh and eighth centuries A.D., when Mohammedan Arabs overran Persia, Syria, Egypt, North Africa, Spain, and the south of France. As might be expected, these words come to us mostly from Arabic, via Spanish and French, for it was in Spain that Islam took her firmest hold on Europe. They include _cotton_, _gazelle_, _giraffe_, _lacquey_, _masquerade_, _syrup_, _tabby_ (originally a kind of silk), _tabor_, _talc_, _tambourine_, and some very interesting technical terms to which we shall presently return. Naturally the receding tide of invasion has left Arabic place-names dotted about in all the countries mentioned, while Spain herself is literally crammed with them; but to give examples would be beyond the scope of this little volume, which now finds itself drawn by the laws of its subject-matter to hover more closely about the shores of these islands. CHAPTER III ENGLAND BEFORE THE REFORMATION _Durbeck._ _Chester._ _Candle._ _Cross._ _Law._ _Person._ _Chair._ _Obligation._ _Size._