I bring in here the Padus or Po, which, by Metrodorus Scepsius, a Greek author quoted by Pliny, has been derived from the pine-trees, "called in the Gallic tongue _padi_," of which there were a number about its source. A derivation like this jars with common sense, for it is unreasonable to suppose that the Gauls, coming upon this fine river, gave it no name until they had tracked it up to its source, and there made the not very notable discovery that it was surrounded by pine-trees. Much more probable is it that they came first upon its mouth, and much more striking would be the appearance that would be presented to them. For, as Niebuhr observes, "the basin of the Po, and of the rivers emptying themselves into it was originally a vast bay of the sea," which by gradual embanking was confined within its present channels. As then the mouth of the Padus was a vast estuary, so in the Gael. _badh_, a bay or estuary, I find the explanation of the name. The root, I apprehend, is Sansc. _pat_, Lat. _pateo_, _pando_, &c., to spread, and hence, I take it, the name Bander, of several small bays on the S.W. coast of Asia, of Bantry Bay in Ireland, and of Boderia, the name given by Ptolemy to the Firth of Forth. 1. _Italy._ PADUS ant. The Po. _Germany._ BADA, 9th cent., now the BODE. 2. _With the ending en._ _Ireland._ The BANDON. Co. Cork. (Forms a considerable estuary). _Italy._ PANTANUS ant., now the Lake of Lesina, a salt lagoon on the Adriatic. 3. _With the ending er._ _Germany._ PATRA, 9th cent., now the PADER. 4. _With the ending es._ _Hungary._ PATHISSUS ant., now the TEMES.[55] In the Sansc. _parth_, to spread or extend, we may perhaps find the origin of the following. Can the name of the Parthians be hence derived, in reference to their well-known mode of fighting? 1. _Germany._ The PARDE. Joins the Elster. The BORD, in Moravia--here? 2. _With the ending en._ _Asia Minor._ PARTHENIUS ant.--here?[56]