(αὐτός, self, and χθόν, earth), an appellation assumed by some nations, importing that they sprung, or were produced, from the same soil which they inhabited. In this sense Autochthones is nearly synonymous with Aborigines. The Athenians valued themselves on their being Autochthones, self-born or γηγενής, earth-born; it being the prevailing opinion among the ancients, that, in the beginning, the earth, by some prolific power, produced men, as it still does plants. The proper Autochthones were those primitive men who had no other parent than the earth; but the name was also assumed by the descendants of these men, provided they never changed their ancient abode, nor suffered other nations to mix with them. In this sense it was that the Greeks, and especially the Athenians, pretended to be Autochthones, and, as a badge of this distinction, wore in their hair a golden grasshopper, an insect supposed to have the same origin.