_Wanderlust_ and have sought for new homes as it pleased them. But
wherever they go they amalgamate with their surroundings.

The Franks settled in Gaul, but, excepting its German name, the language
retains but few indications of the German ancestry of a large part of
the French people.

The Goths settled in Spain. Physical traits, blue eyes and blonde
complexion, persist in some districts, but their descendants speak
Spanish.

The Longobards crossed the Alps and settled in Italy where their
children speak Italian, although Lombardy is just across the mountains,
not far from the early home of their immigrant ancestors.

A notable exception to this tendency of the Germans to amalgamate with
other nations was when the Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain. The island had
been deserted by the Romans, and the Germans refused for centuries to
ally themselves with the British inhabitants. They retained their own
language and customs with but a slight admixture of alien elements.* To
this day after twelve centuries they prefer to call themselves
Anglo-Saxons rather than British. (_Nomen a potiori fit._)
*"Philologically, English, considered with reference to its
original form, Anglo-Saxon, and to the grammatical features which it
retains of Anglo-Saxon origin, is the most conspicuous member of the
Low German group of the Teutonic family, the other Low German languages
being Old Saxon, Old Friesic, Old Low German, and other extinct forms,
and the modern Dutch, Flemish, Friesic, and Low German (Platt Deutsch).
These, with High German, constitute the 'West Germanic' branch, as
Gothic and the Scandinavian tongues constitute the 'East Germanic'