Abus,

the river Humber.

“For by the river that whylome was hight

The ancien Abus … [was from]

Their chieftain, Humber, named aright.”

And Drayton, in his Polyolbion, 28, says:—

“For my princely name,

From Humber, king of Huns, as anciently it came.”

See Geoffrey’s Chronicles, Bk. ii. 2.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.