The few Arabic words in Italian-such as alcova, a chamber, ammiraglio, an admiral, arsenale, an arsenal, and the vessels called carracca and feluca-were probably introduced through. the Spanish.

The medieval and modern names of Sicilian villages supply us with curious information as to the countries out of which was gathered the motley host that fought under the standard of the Prophet. In Sicily alone we find traces of tribes from Scinde, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria, and Spain. Thus, a fountain near Palermo, now called DENNISINNI, was anciently Ain es-Sindi, the fountain of Scinde. But the conquest of Sicily seems to have been effected, for the most part, by troops levied from the neighbouring continent of Africa. There are more than a dozen indisputable names of Berber tribes to be found in Sicily, chiefly in the neighbourhood of the Val di Mazara. Altogether there are in Sicily 328 local names of Arabic origin, and the distribution of these is remarkable, as showing the relative amount of Arab influence in different portions of the island. In the Val di Mazara there are 209 Arabic names, in the Val di Noto 100, and the Val Demone only 19.

In the islands of Sardinia and Corsica the Arab rule was brief, and we find no Arabic names, except AJACCIO, and, perhaps, ALGHERO and ORISTAN. But Malta is full of Arabic names. The word mirsah, a port, which is found in the name of Marsala, in Sicily, appears in Malta in the names of numerous bays and inlets, such as MARSA SCIROCCO, MARSA SCALA, MARSA MUSCETTO, and MARSA FORNO. The ravines commonly go by the name of vyed, or wied, a corruption of the Arabic word wadt. The hills have the prefix gebel, the fountains aayn, the wells bir, the castles cala, the houses deyr, the caves ghar, the villages rahal, the capes ras. From the map of the island it would be easy to collect scores of such names as AAYN IL KEBIRA, the great fountain; AAYN TAIBA, the good fountain; GEBEL OOMAR, the mountain of Omar; RAS EL TAFAL, Chalk Cape. In the neighbouring isle of Gozo we find the Arabic village-names of NADUR, ZEBBEY, GARBO, SANNAT, and XEUCHIA. Among the peasants of Malta and Gozo a corrupt Arabic patois still holds its ground against the Lingua Franca, the

Italian, and the English, which threaten to supplant it. Of the island of Pantellaria the Duke of Buckingham says, "The language spoken is a bad Italian, mixed up with a bastard Arabic. All the names of places, headlands, and points, are pure Arabic, and every hill is called ghibel something."

In no part of Europe do we find such abundant vestiges of the Arab conquest as in Spain and Portugal. The long duration of the Arab rule-nearly eight centuries-is attested by the immense number of Arabic local names, as compared with the dozen or half-dozen that we find in Italy, France, or Sardinia, which were speedily reconquered.

The very names of the first invaders are conserved in local memorials. In September, A.D. 710, Tarif-Abú-Zar'ah, a Berber freed-man, effected a landing at a place which has ever since been called after him-TARIFA. He was quickly followed by Tarik-Ibn-Zeyad, a liberated Persian slave, who, at the head of a body of light horsemen, advanced, in a few weeks, some seven hundred miles across the peninsula, as far as the Bay of Biscay. This bold chieftain landed in the Bay of Algeziras,1 and he has left his name on the neighbouring rock of GIBRALTAR, which is a corruption of the Arabic name Gebel-al-Tarik, the "Mountain of Tarik."

The accompanying sketch-map, in which each dot represents an Arabic name, will serve to give a rough notion of how they are distributed throughout the peninsula. Though unfortunately, owing to the smallness of the scale, it has been impossible to indicate the position of more than a proportion of the names, yet it is easy to distinguish at a glance those districts where the Arab population was most dense. The Arabic names are seen to cluster thickly round Lisbon and Valencia; and in the neighbourhood of Seville, Malaga, and Granada, the last strongholds of the Moslem kingdom, they are also very numerous; but as we approach the Pyrenees, and the mountains of Galicia and the Asturias, these vestiges of Moslem rule entirely disappear, and are replaced by names derived from the Basque,

1 ALGEZIRAS means "the island." By the Arabic chroniclers it is called Jezirah al-Khadhra, “the green island.” ALGIERS is a corruption of the same appellation, Al Jezirah, a name which has also been given to Mesopotamia -the peninsula between the Tigris and the Euphrates.

Celtic, and Spanish languages. Contrary to what might have. been supposed, we find that the Arabic names in the immediate vicinity of Granada and Cordova are relatively less numerous than in some other places, as the neighbourhoods of

Valencia and Seville. This is probably due to the forced eviction of the inhabitants of Granada under Ferdinand and Isabella, and the wholesale substitution of a large Christian population; whereas in the case of earlier conquests the Arab population, being allowed to remain till gradually absorbed, succeeded in transmitting the greater number of the local names.

An obvious feature which characterises the local nomenclature of Spain and Portugal is the prevalence of the Arabic definite article al, which is prefixed to a very large proportion of names, such as ALICANT, ALBUERA, ALMANZA, ALCALA, ALMAREZ, ALMEIDA, ALHAMBRA, and ALGOA. On the maps of the Peninsula published by the Useful Knowledge Society, there appear about two hundred and fifty names containing this prefix. Of these, 64 per cent. are found to the south of the Tagus, and only 36 per cent. to the north of that river.

The Spanish river-names beginning with guad are very numerous. In Palestine and Arabia this word appears in the form wadi, a "ravine,” and hence a "river." The name of the GUADALQUIVIR is a corruption of Wadi-l-Kebîr, the great river-a name which is found also in Arabia. We have also the river-names GUADALCAZAR, which is Wadi-lKasr, the river of the palace; GUADALHORRA, from Wadi1-ghar, the river of the cave; GUADARRANKE, from Wadil-ramak, the mare's river; GUADALQUITON, from Wadi-lkitt, the cat river; GUADALAXARA, from Wadi-l-hajarah, the river of the stones; GUAROMAN, from Wadi-r-roman, the river of the pomegranate-trees; GUADALAVIAR, from Wadil-abyadh, the white river; GUADALUPE, the river of the bay; GUALBACAR, the ox river; GUADALIMAR, the red river; GUADARAMA, the sandy river; GUADALADIAR, the river of houses; and the more doubtful names of GUADAIRA, the river of mills; GUADALERTIN, the muddy river; and Guadalbanar, the river of the battle-field. We have also the GUADIANA and the GUADALETE, which embody the more ancient names of the Anas and the Lethe.1

The name of MEDINA, which means "city," is found not only in Arabia and Senegambia, but also in the names of MEDINACELI, MEDINA SIDONIA, and three other Spanish cities. The word kal'ah, a castle, which we have traced in Sicily

1 We find also the rivers Guadafion, Guadehenar, Guadajor, Guadalbarro, Guadalbullon, Guadalcana, Guadalerce, Guadaleste, Guadalmallete, Guadalmedina, Guadalmelera, Guaderriza, Guedaxira, Guadazamon, Guadazelete, Guadacenas, Guadetefra, Guadarmena, Guadelfeo, Guadalmez, and Guadalcalon.

and Malta, is found in CALATAYUD, Job's castle, in Aragon; CALAHORRA, the fort of stones, in Old Castile; and CALATRAVA, the Castle of Rabah, in New Castile. There are also half-a-dozen places called ALCALA, which is the same word with the definite article prefixed.

Such names as BENAVITES, BENIAJAR, BENARRABA, BENICALAF, BENIAUX, BENTARIQUE, and BENADADID, embody curious information as to the names of the original Arab settlers, for the first syllable of such names is the patronymic Beni, "sons," and the remainder is a personal or tribal appellation.

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But the great mass of Hispano-Arabic names are descriptive terms, relating to the artificial or natural features of the country. Such are the names TRAFALGAR (Taraf al-ghar), the promontory of the cave; ALBORGE, the turret ; ALBUFEIRA (Al-bueyrah), the lake; ALMEIDA, the table; ALCACOVA, the fortress (a common name); ALMANZA, the plain; ALPUXARRAS, the grassy" mountains; ALMADEN, the mine; ALHAMBRA, the red; ALGARBE, the west; ARRECIFE, the causeway; ALMAZARA, the mill; ALCAZAR, the palace; ALDEA, the village; ALCANTARA, the bridge; and ALQUERIA, or ALCARRIA, the farm. ALMENA, the battlemented tower; ALMAZEN, the storehouse; and ALCANA, the exchange, are of interest as embodying the Arabic roots from which we derive respectively the familiar words minaret, magazine, and dogana or douane.

A competent and exhaustive investigation of the HispanoArabic names has never been attempted; and it would, undoubtedly, supply materials of value to the historian of the conquest.

Flushed by the ease and rapidity of their Spanish conquest, the Arabs crossed the Pyrenees, and spread their locust swarms over the southern and central regions of France, as far as Tours. In the neighbourhood of this city, in the year 732, Charles Martel gained one of the great decisive battles which have changed the current of the world's history, and the almost total destruction of the Moslem host rescued Western Christianity from the ruin which seemed to be impending. After this event the fugitives seem to have retired into Provence, where they maintained a precarious sovereignty for some thirty years.