The importance of this latter alternative, will soon be seen. s. 26. _The Menapians._--Locality, from the country of the Morini on the French side of the Straits of Dover, to the Scheldt. It is generally considered that these were not Germans but Celts. The fact, however, is by no means ascertained. If Germans, the Menapians were the tribes nearest to Britain. Again, supposing that the present Flemings of Belgium are the oldest inhabitants of the country, their origin is either wholly, or in part, Menapian. Mentioned by Caesar. s. 27. _The Batavians._--Mentioned by Caesar; locality, from the Maas to the Zuyder Zee. Conterminous with the Menapians on the south, and with the Frisians on the north. If the present Dutch of Holland be the inhabitants of the country from the time of Caesar downwards, their origin is Batavian. s. 28. _The Frisians._--First known to the Romans during the campaign of Drusus--"tributum _Frisiis_ transrhenano populo--Drusus jusserat modicum;"[3] Tacitus, Ann. iv. 72. Extended, according to Ptolemy, as far north as the Ems--[Greek: ten de parokeanitin katechousin ... hoi Phrissioi, mechri tou Amisiou potamou]. Now, as the dialect of the modern province of Friesland differs in many important points from the Dutch of Holland and Flanders; and as there is every reason to believe that the same, or greater difference, existed between the old Frisians and the old Batavians, assuming each to have been the mother-tongues of the present Frisian and Dutch respectively, we may consider that in reaching the parts to the north of the Zuyder-Zee, we have come to a second sub-division of the Germanic dialects; nevertheless, it is not the division to which either the Angles or the Saxons belong, as may be ascertained by the difference of dialect, or rather language. s. 29. _The Chauci._--Connected with the Frisii.--Falling into two divisions--the lesser (?) Chauci, from the Ems to the Weser; the greater (?) Chauci from the Weser to the Elbe--[Greek: meta de toutous] (the Frisians), {16} [Greek: Kauchoi hoi mikroi mechri tou Ouisourgios potamou, eita Kauchoi hoi meizous, mechri tou Albios potamou.] Tacitus describes the Chauci thus:--"Tam immensum terrarum spatium non tenent tantum Chauci, sed et implent; populus inter Germanos nobilissimus." The Frisians, as has been stated, represent a separate subdivision of the German dialects, as opposed to the ancient Batavian, and the modern Dutch and Flemish. Did the Chauci represent a third, or were they part of the Frisian division? The latter is the more likely, and that for the following reasons--Vestiges of Frisian dialects are to be found on the Continent, in Oldenburgh, and also in the island of Heligoland. More important still is the North-Frisian dialect. _North of the Elbe_, in the Dutchy of Sleswick, and from the Eyder to Tondern, we find a tract of land called, by Saxo Grammaticus, _Frisia Minor_, and by other writers, _Frisia Eydorensis_.