Those who know the degree to which the modern German philologists act upon the doctrine that _Truth is stranger than Fiction_, and, by unparallelled manipulations reconcile a so-called iron-bound system of scientific letter-changes with results as extraordinary as those of the Keltic and Hebraic dreamers of the last century, will see in such comparisons as these nothing extraordinary. On the contrary, they will give them credit for being moderate. And so they are: for it is extremely likely that whilst Tacitus got his names from German, Ptolemy got _his_ from Keltic, or Slavonic, sources; and if such be the case, a very considerable latitude is allowable. Yet, even if we make the Cobandi, Aviones; the Phundusii, Eudoses; and the Pharodini, Suardones (probably, also, the _Sweordwere_, of the Traveller's Song), the geographical difficulties are still considerable. Saxons on the neck of the Chersonese (say in Stormar) with Sigulones (say in Holstein) to the west of them are fully sufficient to stretch from sea to sea; but _beyond_ (and this we must suppose to be in a _westerly_ direction) are the Sabalingii, and then the Kobandi; above (north of) these the Chali (whom we should expect to be connected with the river Chalusus), and west of these the Phundusii. Similar complications can easily be added. The meaning of the word _Sabalingii_ is explained, if we may assume a slight change in the reading. How far it is legitimate, emendatory critics may determine; but by transposing the B and L, the word becomes _Sa-lab_-ingii. The Slavonic is the tongue that explains this. 1. The Slavonic name of the _Elbe_ is _Laba_; and-- 2. The Slavonic for _Transalbian_, as a term for the population _beyond the Elbe_, would be _Sa-lab-ingii_. This compound is common. The Finns of Karelia are called _Za-volok-ian_, because they live beyond the _volok_ or _watershed_. The Kossacks of the Dnieper are called _Za-porog-ian_, because they live beyond the _porog_ or _waterfall_. The population in question I imagine to have been called _Sa-lab-ingian_, because they lived beyond the Laba, or Elbe. Now a name closely akin to _Salabingian_ actually occurs at the beginning of the Historical period. The population of the Duchy of Lauenburg is (then) Slavonic. So is that of south-eastern Holstein; since the Saxon area begins with the district of Stormar. So is that of Luneburg. And the name of these Slavonians of the Elbe is _Po-lab-ingii_ (_on the Elbe_), just as _Po-mor-ania_ is the country _on the sea_. Of the _Po_-labingians, then, the _Sa_-labingii were the section belonging to that side of the Elbe to which the tribe that used the term did _not_ belong. Such are the reasons for believing the name to be Slavonic.