But there was, also, a Saxony beyond Eastphalia, a Saxony beyond the Elbe; the country of the _Saxones Transalbiani_; other names for its occupants being _Nord-albingi_ (=_men to the north of the Elbe_), and Nord-leudi (=_North people_). The poet already quoted, writes-- Saxonum populus quidam, quos claudit ab Austro Albis sejunctim positos Aquilonis ad axem. Hos _Nordalbingos_ patrio sermone vocamus. In this case as before, _Saxon_ is a generic rather than a particular name. The facts that prove this give us also the geographical position of the Nordalbingians. They fell into three divisions: 1. The _Thiedmarsi_, _Thiatmarsgi_, or _Ditmarshers_, whose capital was Meldorp--_primi ad Oceanum Thiatmarsgi_, et eorum _ecclesia Mildindorp_-- 2. The _Holsati_, _Holtzati_, or _Holtsætan_, from whom the present Duchy of Holstein takes its name--_dicti a sylvis, quas incolunt_.[20] The river Sturia separated the Holsatians from-- 3. The _Stormarii_, or people of _Stormar_; of whom Hamburg was the capital--_Adam Bremens_: _Hist. Eccles._ c. 61. These are the Nordalbingians of the eighth century. Before we consider their relations to the Westphalian and Hanoverian Saxons the details of the present ethnology of the Cimbric Peninsula are necessary. At the present moment Holstein, Stormar, and Ditmarsh are Low German, or Platt-Deutsch, districts; the High German being taught in the schools much as English is taught in the Scotch Highlands. Eydersted also is Low German, and so are the southern and eastern parts of Sleswick. Not so, however, the western. Facing the Atlantic, we find an interesting population, isolated in locality, and definitely stamped with old and original characteristics. They are as different from the Low Germans on the one side as the Dutch are from the English; and they are as little like the Danes on the other. They are somewhat bigger and stronger than either; at least both Danes and Germans may be found who own to their being _bigger if not better_. They shew, too, a greater proportion of blue eyes and flaxen locks; though these are common enough on all sides. That breadth of frame out of which has arisen the epithet _Dutch-built_, is here seen in its full development; with a sevenfold shield of thick woollen petticoats to set it of. So that there are characteristics, both of dress and figure, which sufficiently distinguish the _North-Frisian_ of Sleswick from the Dane on one side and the German on the other.