ON THE

(3

ORIGIN AND RAMIFICATIONS

OF THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

AN INQUIRY

PRIMITIVE SEATS, EARLY MIGRATIONS, AND FINAL SETTLEMENTS OF THE PRINCIPAL EUROPEAN NATIONS.

BY

HENRY WELSFORD, ESQ.

That pale, that white-fac'd shore, Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides, And coops from other lands her islanders.

SHAKSPEARE'S King John.

LONDON:

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS,

PATERNOSTER-ROW.

1845.

H

LONDON :

Printed by A. SPOTTISWOODE, New- Street- Square.

I

PREFACE.

THEBE are two circumstances which have misled all modern philologists, as well English as German, and which, until they are put on a proper footing, will continue to mislead all future inquirers, which may be stated as follows : —

1. That the barbarous nations which overthrew

the Roman Empire in the fifth century, and which are denominated by the historians of the middle ages the Northern Hive, came from Scandinavia, and that Scandinavia was situated in the north of Europe, and limited to the modern kingdoms of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

2. That the people first mentioned by Herodotus,

and denominated by him Celtae and Cynetae, were a perfectly distinct race, and spoke a language radically different from the other great race, denominated by him Scythians or Thracians, who are still regarded as the

A 2

IV PKEFAOE.

sole progenitors of the Gothic or Teutonic race. It is almost certain that Celtae and Scythae were merely different names of the same people, or, at any rate, that they stand in the relation to each other of a part to the whole, and that they have been regarded as perfectly distinct merely from the circum- stance that Herodotus mentions the former as the inhabitants of the extreme west of Europe, and the latter of the extreme north, that is. of the countries to the north of the Danube, for his knowledge of Europe ex- tended very little further ; while D'Anville, following other ancient historians and geo- graphers, says expressly that the name of Celtica in the earliest antiquity was ex- tended to all the northern part of Europe.

The first error originated partly from the igno- rance of two leading authorities of the middle ages, Jornandes and Procopius, and partly from sub- sequent writers misunderstanding them, and sup- posing them to refer to the Baltic, when they clearly intended to refer to the Euxine ; and as if this were not enough, much of what they have written has been industriously perverted by Grotius their editor, in his anxiety to compliment and pay his

PREFACE. V

court to Christina of Sweden, by exaggerating the antiquity and importance of the northern king- doms. Grotius misled Montesquieu and Gibbon, and since their time the subject has excited very little attention.

The second error, if it did not originate with, has at any rate had currency given to it in England by, Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore, the translator of Mallet's Northern Antiquities, who has exerted all his efforts to prove that the Celtic and the Teu- tonic are radically different languages. No one doubts the difference between Irish, and Welsh, and German, or English ; but that proves nothing with respect to the Celtse and Scythians in the age of Herodotus, or even of Jornandes a thousand years later.

The most considerable advance in a right direc- tion that has been made for many years past ap- pears to me to have been, by a very distinguished living author, Dr. Prichard, in his learned and admirable little work, entitled " The Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations proved by a comparison of their Dialects with the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and Teutonic Languages," which in great measure gave birth to the following inquiry, which may be

A 3

VI PREFACE.

regarded to a considerable extent as a continuation of the subject. Scandinavia, so far from having been confined to the north of Europe, comprehended great part of the north of Asia, and was equivalent to Scythia, or Tartary, in their widest sense ; and until the languages of modern Europe are traced to Asia, and those of the East carefully examined with express reference to the origin, formation, and affinities of those of the West, all the assistance will not have been rendered to Philology that in the present advanced state of knowledge it is susceptible of receiving.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE GENEALOGICAL ORIGIN OF THE NAMES OF TRIBES AND

NATIONS.

Page

1. The Angli of Tacitus - - 1

2. Limited range of Political Philosophy - 2

3. The Languages of Europe cannot be fully illustrated

without a knowledge of those of Asia - ^3

4. Pinkerton's Remarks on the Genealogical System of the

Greeks — Asia — Libya — Europe — Shem, Ham, and Japhet — Sharma, Charma, and lapeti - - o

5. The descendants of Japhet — Chin, Turc, Tatar, and

Mongol-Oghuz, the prototype of the Greek Ogyges - 8

6. Origin of the Scythians — Targitaus — Scytha — Her-

cules— Perses — Perseus — Persia, Media, Armenia 9

7. Universality of the same Traditions — Menu — Meon —

Manes — Minos — Menes — Mannus - 1 1

8. The Leleges — The Carians — Lydus, Mysus, and Tyr-

rhenus — Kilix, Phrenix, and Thasos — Cadmus and Europa - - - - - - 12

9. Lycus, the son of Pandion — JEgyptus and Danaus —

Hellen and his three sons, JEolus, Dorus, and Xuthus — Thrax — Biston — Italus — Galatus — Francus — Brutus - - - - - - 14

10. In all these instances the children older than their

parents. — Real origin of the name of the Icarian Sea 1 6

A 4

viii CONTENTS.

CHAP. II.

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE REAL CAUSES WHICH GAVE ORIGIN TO THE NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS.

Page

11. All Proper Names originally significant - 18

12. The leading circumstances which gave origin to the

names of Nations, arranged under six heads - 19

1. Climate.

13. Hebrew names of the Euphrates and Tigris - - 19

14. Siberia — Mount Imaus — Mount Haemus — Himalaya

Mountains — Sarmatia and the Sarmatians - 21

15. Egypt — Ham and Cham — Hindustan — Ethiopia —

Mauritania — Libya' - 23

2. Locality.

1. Cimmeria — The Cimmerians, Cimbri, and Cymri - 24

2. Tartary — Tartarus - 25

3. Tar an — Touran - ib.

4. Arabia — Erebus — Erembi - 26

5. Bactriana - 27

6. Saracens - - ib.

3. Abode.

16. The Carians formerly Leleges, and the Lydians Mae-

onians - 27

17. Disagreement between Herodotus and Homer - 28

18. One Etymology of the name of Leleges - 29

1. Leleges, or possessing no house, i. e. dwelling in tents ib.

2. Hagarenes, and Hagarites „ - 30

3. Kedar, a name of the Arabians „ - ib.

4. Skenites, or Scenites „ - ib.

5. Nabatheans „ - 31

6. Helots, Elauts, or Ilotes „ - ib.

4. Food.

19. Passage from De Pauw supported by one from He-

rodotus - - - 32

1 . Cushite — Cush — Cuth — Scuth— Thrax, or Thraks

— Goth — Getse - - - - 33

CONTENTS. IX

Page

2. Massa-Getse — Mysians — Maeso-Goths - - 35

3. Galaktophagi — Hippomulgi — Galatas — Galatians

— Celtae, Gael, and Gaul, from Galatae - 36

5. Religion.

20. It does not appear to have occurred to any one that

many of the names of Nations may have been deriv- ed from those of the Deities they worshipped - 37

1. Scandinavia, from Scanda, the Hindu Mars - 39

2. Sacae, from Sacya, a name of Budha - - 40

3. Bryges, from Brighu, a name of Siva - - ib.

4. Cushites, from Kisa, the Sun, Sanskrit - - 41

5. Budii and Budini, from Budha - - - 42

6. Suevi, from Siva - - - - 43

7. Mahatijah — Scythian Shrine of Mars — Roman

Regia - ... 44

6. Habits.

1. Fars — Pharash — Pharas — The Persians - 45

2. Hamaxobii, a people living in waggons. There

could hardly be said to be any settled Geography

as long as Nations continued in a nomadic state - 47

CHAP. III.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE OPERATION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF POPU- LATION, THE PRIMARY AND STILL ACTIVE CAUSE OF THE DIS- PERSION OF MANKIND.

21. Theory of Bailly. In direct opposition to all the Me-

teorological facts we are acquainted with - - 48

22. The populous North. — Slow progress of Political

Economy - - - - - - 49

23. Earliest seats of the Human Race — Egypt — Hin-

dustan - - - - - - 50

24. Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population vindi-

cated in three propositions - - - 51

25. The fundamental Law of the Principle of Population

establishes a moral necessity that the world shall be fully peopled in a long succession of ages - - 53

X CONTENTS.

Page

26. Terra del Fuego — North American Indians — Tartary

— Arabia — Africa — Hindustan, Syria, and Persia

— China - - 54

27. Mode in which the amount of Population is limited by

the supply of Food - 55

28. The invariable operation of the Law of Population is,

either to oblige man to cover a larger space of ground,

or to force him upwards in the scale of civilization - 58

29. Reasons for believing that the North of Asia was

peopled from the South, and Europe from Asiatic Scandinavia - 59

30. Operation of the Principle of Population - 61

31. Mode in which the analogy between the growth of

Individuals and Nations differs — Most Nations ap- pear to be fated never to attain maturity - - 62

32. Comparatively small proportion of the Population of

England engaged in Agricultural Labour - - 65

33. Evils arising from any interference with the Wages of

Labour on the part of the Government - - 66

34. Circumstances which tend to deteriorate the condition

of the Labourer — Enormous Taxation — Tithes — The Irish Church Establishment — The Corn Laws 69

35. Application of the Principle of Population to the ear-

liest Emigrations of Mankind - 72

36. Date of the first peopling of Scythia, or Scandinavia —

Progress of the Arabic Race - 73

37. Progress of the Persic Race - - 75

38. Progress of the Hindu Race - - 76 Analysis of Scythian Words mentioned by Herodotus 77

CHAP. IV.

ON THE CELT^E, AND THE CELTIC LANGUAGE.

39. Attempt to trace the Progress of the Scythians in

Europe - - 81

40. General Arrangement of the European Languages - ib.

41. Estimate of the Population of Thrace by Thucydides,

Herodotus, and Pausanias — Inveterate and con- tinually repeated error on the subject of Population 83

CONTENTS. XI

Page

42. The Celtae first mentioned by Herodotus — Prodigious

extent of their country, according to Plutarch - 85

43. The Scythae in their western progress appear to have

been known to the Greek writers as Celtae - 87

44. The Cimmerii of Homer — The Argippaei of Herodotus

— The Cimmerian Chersonesus, and Bosphorus — Crim-Tartary - - - - - 88

45. Probable mistake of Strabo with respect to the Cim-

merian and Cimbric Chersonesus - - - 89

46. Account of the Celtae and their Country, by Diodorus.

He agrees in substance with Plutarch - - 91

47. The Gauls and Germans essentially the same people,

both being Celtae - - 93

48. Admission of Caesar — Account of Strabo - - 94

49. Probable Etymology of Germans - - - 95

50. Fundamental error of Pinkerton with regard to the

Celtse - 96

51. Short Account of the Celtic Language - - 100 List of Celtic Words, with their Analogies - - 101

CHAP. V.

ON THE SAUROMAT^, OR SARMATIANS, AND THE SLAVONIC LANGUAGE.

52. The Sauromatae of Herodotus — Their Locality - 107

53. Division of Asia by the Greek Geographers - - 108

54. The Ehoxolani — Ultima Thule - 109

55. The Bastarnae, and the North of Europe - - ib.

56. Little known about the Sarmatians independently of

the Scythians - - - 110

57. The Peucinians, the Venedians, and Fennians - ib.

58. The Sarmatians mercenaries — Thelazyges andRhoxo-

lanians - - - - - -111

59. Slavonic Language and Grammar - - - 112

60. Translations from the Scriptures - - 113

61. Liturgy and Chronicles - ib.

62. Bible — Its various Editions - 114

63. Alphabet - - 115

64. Declension of Substantives - - - - 116

Xll CONTENTS.

Page

65. Conjugation of Verbs - 116 Pronouns Personal and Possessive, Verb Substantive,

Cardinal Numbers, and Words denoting Affinity - 117 List of Slavonic Words and their Analogies - - 119

66. Speculations as to the Formation of the different Per-

sons of the Verb - - - - - 124

CHAP. VI.

ON THE MASSA-GET^E, GET^E, MYSIANS, M^ESO-GOTHS, OR GOTHS.

67. Account of Diodorus of the Origin of the Scythians —

The Palusians and Napesians — The Sacse, the Ari-

maspii, the Massa-Getse - - 127

68. The Massa-Getse of Herodotus - 128

69. The Mysians — The Getse of Thucydides - - 129

70. Identity of the Mysi and the Maesi - - ib.

71. Original seat of the Mseso- Goths - 130

72. Mseso-Gothic Translation of the Bible - 132

73. Discovery and Fate of the Manuscript - 133

CHAP. VH.

ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF GREECE THE PELASGI.

74. Point of view in which we are more favourably situated

than the Greeks and Romans for illustrating the Antiquities of Nations - 136

75. lapetus — Atlas — Prometheus — Obscurity of the

Fables connected with him — The Etymology of his name Sanskrit — Prometheus the Sun, the earliest God of Mankind, and has much in common with the benevolent Jupiter of the Greeks and Romans - 138

76. Prometheus, King of the Scythae — Deucalion a Scy-

thian — Analysis of Xuthus into Skuthus — The Greek account of their own Origin and Language mere Mythology - - 141

77. The Pelasgus of ^Eschylus — Pelasgia — Apia - ib.

CONTENTS. Xlll

Page

78. The Pelasgi of Homer — Their Larissa apparently a

fabulous city — Inconsistency of Homer with respect

to the Thracians - - - 143

79. Wide and indefinite meaning of the term Pelasgi - ib.

80. Herodotus's account of the Pelasgi, and their Language 144

81. Strabo's Account — The Pelargi at Athens - - 147

82. Marsh's Horse Pelasgicae - 149

83. The Antiquities of Greece can never be satisfactorily

explained from sources purely Greek. — We must have recourse to Asia for a clue to the mystery of the Pelasgi, or Pelargi, whom we trace in various languages under the name of Storks, or one of the species of Birds arranged under the genus Ardea - 150

84. Asiatic Scandinavia — Homonymy, or Phonetic Types

— Mode in which the Birds of the gemas Ardea represented a nomadic or migratory people - 151

1. Scanda, the son of Siva — Scandha, a Heron

(Sanskrit) - - - - - ib.

2. Kilan, a Heron — Gilan, the name of a Tribe be-

tween the Euxine and the Caspian (Persic) - 154

3. Laylak (Arabic), a Stork — The Leleges, i. e. Storks,

or a migratory, pastoral people - - 155

4. Pelargos (Greek), a Stork — The Pelargoi, or Pe-

lasgi, «. e. Storks, a migratory, pastoral people - 156

5. Garan, Celtic ; Geranos, Greek ; Cran, Saxon ;

(Scythic?) a Crane — Cranai an ancient name of the Athenians, attesting their Pelasgic or Pelargic origin ------ 158

6. Ciconia (Latin), a Stork — Cicones, or Ciconians,

i. e. Storks, a migratory, pastoral, Thracian people - - - - - ib.

7. Grus (Latin), a Crane — Gruchis, obsolete form of

the word from the former Graios, and the latter Graikos, a Greek - - - 159

8. Chasidah (Hebrew), a Stork, or Heron — Chasdim,

i. e. Storks — Scythians, a northern pastoral people ----- 160

9. Ardea (Latin), a Heron — Ardea, the Metropolis of

Turnus - - - - - 161

XIV CONTENTS.

Page

85. The Greek Language may receive illustrations from

the Sanskrit - 161

86. The Sanskrit words Labh and Lambhi — The Syriac

Ano — The Persic word Men — The Chinese word Men - 162

87. List of Sanskrit Words, with their Analogies in Greek 165

CHAP. VIII.

ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF ITALY AND SICILY.

88. The Ancient Names of Italy pure Mythology — Latium

— Ausonia — Sicania — Hesperia — CEnotria — Italia - 170

1. CEnotrus — (Enotria and the (Enotrians - - 172

2. Italus — Italia and the Italians - - ib.

3. Chiun — Chaonia and the Chaonians - 173

4. Lito and Latinus — Latium and the Latins - ib.

5. JEneas and the Trojans — Dardanus, the founder

ofDardania - - 174

89. The Lydians, or Tyrrhenians — Rus, the son of Japhet 175

90. Strabo's account of the Tyrrhenians, and their Leader 176

91. Tyrrhenus, the son of Hercules — Tyrrhenus, the son

of Telephus — Xanthus, the Lydian — Hellanicus, the Lesbian — Asserts that the Tyrrhenians were Pelasgi - - 177

92. Analysis of an important passage of Dionysius of

Halicarnassus - 179

1. Tyrrhenia.

93. The Tyrrhenians, a Thracian people, according to He-

rodotus, while Thucydides asserts that the Thracian Pelasgi were the descendants of those Tyrrhenians who formerly inhabited Lemnos and Athens — Cres- tona in Herodotus is Grestona in Thucydides - 180

94. Herodotus misquoted both by Dionysius and Spelman

— General Conclusion - - - - 183

CONTENTS. XV

2. Lydia.

Page

95. Europe peopled from Asia — The Ligyes of Herodotus

and Strabo — The Lygians of Tacitus — Origin of the Italian Lydians =- - - 184

3. Cimmeria.

96. The existence of a Cimmeria in Italy doubtful - 187

97. Tuisco, a name of Pluto, or Jupiter Stygius - - 189

98. Tuscans from Tuisco, and Tyrrhenians from Taranis 192

99. Asiatic names of various people — Chatae, Sasones,

Syebi, Tectosaces, and lotae - 193

4. Sicily.

100. Sicily from Seculum, a name of Chronus or Saturn - 194

101. Sicaniafrom Ciconia (Latin), a Stork, probably iden-

tical with the Sigynse of Herodotus - - ib.

102. The Sicani of Thucydides, an Iberian people; pro-

bably Iberia in Asia, and his Ligyes, the Ligyes of Herodotus - - - - 195

103. The Siceli of Dionysius of Halicarnassus - - 197

104. The Aborigines and Aberrigines - - 198

105. The Siceli formerly Oenotri, and the Oenotri them-

selves known by two earlier names - 199

106. Period of the emigration of the Siceli from Italy - 200

107. Summary — List of Sanskrit Words, with their Ana-

logies in Latin - - 201

CHAP. IX.

ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS OP GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

108. The origin of most nations lost in obscurity - 207

109. Great Britain has attracted the notice of Tacitus —

According to him, South Wales peopled from Spain - ib.

110. Ireland probably colonized by the Milesians, a people

also of the North of Spain - - 209

111. Mode in which Spain itself was successively peopled 210

CONTENTS.

Page

1 12. Strabo's account of the Gallicians, evidently erroneous

so far as regards their Religion

113. The Cassiterides — Their number, position, and ety-

mology -

114. Etymology of Cornwall, Wales, and Albion - 214

115. Diodorus's account of Britain - 215

116. Caesar's account of Britain -

117. Earliest names of the great divisions of England - 221

118. Ireland — its oldest names and inhabitants -

119. Language of the Ancient Irish - 225

120. Their Religion, Sabaism, or Sun-worship — Sanskrit

Words - 226

CHAP. X.

ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL.

121. No good Dictionary can be written if the Author has

adopted a Theory of Language altogether un- founded — Dr. Alexander Murray - 228

122. Mr. Webster's Dictionary of the English Language - 230

123. Impressions on the Organs of Sense the foundation

of all human knowledge — Analogy between the labours of the Chymist and the Etymologist — Broad line of distinction between Hieroglyphical and Alphabetical Writing - 232

124. Various Etymologies proposed by Mr. Webster - 236

125. Remarks on, Objections to, and Substitutes for them

— Illustrations of what he denominates the Root Lb 237

126. Formation of the Latin Diligo, and the Greek Bou-

lomai - 240

127. Etymology of the words Root and Obedient - 241

128. Mode in which the Primary Roots have been altered

and disguised — The bulk of what are called the Words of almost every existing Language really Sentences - 242

129. Reasons why the efforts of the Greeks and Romans

in Etymology were so unsuccessful - 243

CONTENTS. XV11

Page

130. Words which possess a character of Universality —

Jin (Chinese), and Jan (Sanskrit), a man - 244

131. Hiat (Arabic), life, a living creature — Jebusite —

Dryad and Druid — Nereid — Oread — Veritas - 245

132. Formation and Primary Signification of the Latin

word Hilaritas - ... 247

133. Re, Sahidic, and Er, Coptic - 248

134. Tiud (Slavonic), the origin of the Latin Tudo in

composition — Hilaritas, and Hilaritudo - - 249

135. Etymology may ultimately attain so much certainty

as to enable us to correct the anomalies of the Root itself - :•:& : - 250

136. Application of the preceding Illustrations - - 253

CHAP. XL

ON THE SOURCES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE — ENGLISH WORDS — ENGLISH PARTICLES.

137. Mr. Webster's view of the composition of the English

Language - - 255

138. Comprehensive as it is, it is still deficient. It con-

tains no mention of the Slavonic, and we must ascend to the formation of the Celtic - 256

*138. Advantage of reverting to the Asiatic Roots — In

many instances the extremes meet - - 258

139. List of English Words derived from the Sanskrit - 259

1 40. Other Sanskrit Etymologies — A and An, privative —

Un, privative - 264

141. The more proximate Sources of the English Language

— The Masso- Gothic — Its Grammar and Words - 266

142. English Particles — Their barbarous treatment - 272

143. Remarks of Mr. Locke - ib.

144. Enough - - - 273

145. Away - 277

146. Now - - 279

147. While 283

*a

XV111 CONTENTS.

CHAP. XII.

GENIUS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE — ITS CLOSE ANALOGY WITH THE PERSIC — STRUCTURE OP ENGLISH SENTENCES — M^ESO-GOTHIC SENTENCES — ANGLO-SAXON SENTENCES — THE ENGLISH THE ELDEST DAUGHTER OP THE M^ESO-GOTHIC.

Page

148. Tendency of Nature to repetition in her operations

and productions — The Great Year of the Greeks 286

149. Character of the Ancient Persians, by Herodotus - 287

150. of the Ancient Germans, by Tacitus - 288

151. Persic Grammar - - 289

152. Cases of Nouns - ib.

153. Singular and Plural Numbers - 290

154. Persian Adjectives - - 291

155. Verbs - ib.

156. Leading features of resemblance between the Persic

and the English Languages - 292

157. The Gender of Nouns — Some remarkable Anomalies 293

158. Mode in which it influences the collocation of Words

in a Sentence - - 295

159. Painting and Poetry — The range of the latter in-

comparably more wide and various • 296

1 60. The greater liberty of the Greeks and Romans in the

collocation of words fully counterbalanced by cor- respondent disadvantages - 297

161. General connection between the greater or less facility

of a Language, and the advancement of Knowledge 299

162. An undue attention to the minutiae of any Language

will probably prevent an intimate and comprehen- sive acquaintance with the Literature of that Lan- guage - - 301

163. Mseso-Gothic Sentences from the Gospels of Ulphilas 302

164. Anglo-Saxon Sentences from the Ode on the Victory

of Athelstan - 305

165. Progress of the English Language - - 306

CONTENTS. XIX

CHAP. XIII.

ON THE GENIUS OF THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA AS COMPARED WITH THOSE OF EUROPE.

Page

166. Asiatic Eloquence as contrasted with European —

Asiatic Poetry — Radical difference of Taste - 307

167. Sir William Jones — The services he performed for

Oriental Literature — Character of his Mind and Works * - 308

168. Judicious remarks of a Turkish Author - 309 ~

169. Oriental Poetry defended by a reference to Climate

and Modes of Life - - 310'

170. Passages from an Oriental Historian, from Smollett's

History of England, and Lord Bolingbroke's Re- marks on the History of England compared - 311

171. Extracts from the Life of Nadir Shah, a Persic work 313

1 72. Passage from the Arabic of Arabshah's Life of Tamer-

lane - 314

173. Descriptions of Nature may very properly enter into

Historical Compositions — Instanced in Tacitus's account of the Murder of Agrippina - - 315

174. And even many of the Ornaments of Poetry — Pro-

phetic Melancholy — Parallel Passages from Tacitus and Shakspeare - - - - 317

175. Passage from Hafiz compared with one from Pope - 319

176. Languages appear to become less harsh and figurative

with the progress of Civilization - - 321 x

177. Poverty of the Hebrew — An Orientalism in Pindar 322-

178. The mixture of People and Languages in the vast

regions of Scythia appears to have produced a race physically and intellectually superior to their pro- genitors - - «... 324 —

179. All the Languages, both of Ancient and Modern

Europe, derived from the Scythic - - 326

180. Origin and Affinities of the leading European Lan-

guages - - 329

181. Scythic Words from Herodotus - 330

182. Real Origin and Etymology of the Greek Dialects - 331

XX CONTENTS.

Page

183. Probable future fate of the World — Judging from

past experience and present appearances it is likely that all the inferior Races will be annihilated by, or absorbed in, the Caucasian - - 334 -

184. Exceptions to the superiority of the European or Scy-

thic Race over the unmixed Asiatic Races - 339

185. Probable fortune of the English Language — Likely

to be essentially different from that of the Sanskrit, the Greek, and the Latin — Will probably be spoken by one third of the Human Race — Unbounded career opened to the great men of England — Adam Smith — Malthus — Reynolds — Fox — Shakspeare - 340 ~

Note. — Dissertation on the different names of the Ionic

Race - - - - - - 344

ERRATA.

Page 22. line 17. for "dwelling-place," read "dwelling, place." 36. line 3. for « Ulphilus," read «« Ulphilas." 71. line 19. after "sole," dele comma. 117. line 17. for « On, Ille," read " On, Illius." 151. line 1. after " Asiatic," dele period and insert comma. 161. line 3. from bottom, after " Greece," dele comma and insert serai- colon. 166. col. 2. line 8. for " earth, body," read " earth-body."

180. line 5. from bottom, for "4. Tuscany," read "4. Sicily."

181. line 9. for " Thessaliatis," read " Thessaliotis." 238. line 1 1. from bottom, for " yood," read " ye."

249. line 5. from bottom, for " Naturales," read " Naturalis."

267. line 8. for "declination," read "declension."

279. line 7. for " plot away," read "plot, away."

282. line 11. for " Nune," read " Nunc."

292. line 20. for " inrm," read " inform."

338. line 9. from bottom, for " invasion," read "invasions."

348. line 13. for " ^Egialos," read " Aigialos."

ON

THE ORIGIN AND RAMIFICATIONS

OF THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE GENEALOGICAL ORIGIN OF THE NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS.

1. WHOEVER has stood at the fountain-head of a noble river, and contemplated its inconsiderable origin, must have felt disposed to wonder at its subsequent magnitude and celebrity, and to inquire what was the secret quality it possessed, which had made its fortune so different from that of the nu- merous springs in its vicinity, from which it did not differ in appearance ; and with some such emo- tions, could he have looked into futurity, would Tacitus probably have written the following sen- tence*: — " Contra Longobardos paucitas nobilitat :

* " The Longobards exhibit a contrast to the people last de- scribed. Their dignity is derived from the paucity of their numbers. Surrounded as they are by great and powerful nations, they live independent, owing their security, not to mean compliances, but to that warlike spirit with which they en-

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GENEALOGICAL ORIGIN OF THE

plurimis ac valentissimis nationibus cincti non per obsequium, sed praeliis et periclitando tuti sunt. Reudigini deinde, et Aviones et Angli, et Varini, et Eudoses, et Suardones, et Nuithones fluminibus aut sylvis muniuntur: nee quidquam notabile in singulis, nisi quod in commune Herthum, id est, Terram matrem colunt, eamque intervenire rebus hominum, invehi populis arbitrantur." — Taciti Germania, c. 40.

2. Could this most profound of the Roman prose writers, and perhaps greatest of all historians, have foreseen that these obscure Angli were destined in a distant age to revive literature and the arts, which even at the period when he wrote were declining, to compete with Cicero in eloquence, and Virgil in poetry, to vie with the Romans themselves in their enthusiastic attachment to liberty, and to establish on a firm basis, and transmit unimpaired from ge- neration to generation, a scheme of equal govern- ment, of which neither the Greeks nor Romans had been able to form even a conception, with what delight would his imagination have dwelt on these visions of glory ! for that we do live under such a

counter danger. To these succeed in regular order the Reu- diginians, the Aviones, Angles, and Varinians— the Eudocians, Nuithones, and Suardonians, all defended by rivers or em- bosomed in forests. In these several tribes there is nothing that invites attention, except that they all agree to worship the goddess Earth, or, as they call her, Herth, whom they consider as the common mother of all. This divinity, according to their notion, interposes in human affairs, and at times visits the several nations of the globe." — MURPHY'S Tacitus.

NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 6

government hardly any man in his sober and dis- passionate moments will be disposed to deny. To ascertain all the causes which must co-operate to carry civil society from a savage state to the last stage of luxury, knowledge, and refinement, — to in- vestigate the relative importance of each, and mark their mutual operation and influence, — to say why the aborigines of North America never advanced beyond the condition of hunters and fishers, — why the vast regions of ancient Scythia and modern Tartary have always been possessed by tribes in a nomadic or shepherd state, — why the civilization of Asia, when at the highest, was far inferior to that of ancient Greece or Italy, and of Germany, France, and England, are questions which political philo- sophy as yet has vainly attempted to answer, in spite of all the efforts of Plato and Aristotle, of Cicero and Tacitus, in ancient, and of the equally great names and incomparably more successful ex- ertions of Machiavel and Montesquieu, of Smith and Malthus, in more modern times. In the present work I can merely glance at such questions, and must be content to limit my labours to the more narrow but still sufficiently difficult inquiry as to the origin and formation of the English language, connected as the latter is in a greater or less degree with almost all those of modern Europe.

3. It has been observed more than once that per- haps as many investigations have failed from being too profound as from being too superficial, and that the labours of many philosophers have been ren-

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4 GENEALOGICAL ORIGIN OF THE

dered abortive from their persisting in diving to the bottom for that which floated on the surface, and was distinctly visible to all eyes but their own. This, however, has certainly not been the case with respect to inquiries into the origin and formation of the English language. Home Tooke, incomparably the most acute, if not the most learned of all those who have hitherto directed their attention to the subject, appears to be of opinion that it is in vain to look beyond the Anglo-Saxon, or at farthest the Masso- Gothic, for " the wells of English, pure and un de- filed ; " and that if we do not discover them within those limits, the search must be abandoned as alto- gether hopeless. My limited experience, however, has convinced me that so far from stopping short with the Anglo-Saxons and Mseso-Goths, or even with the Greeks and Romans, the philologist must make an effort, " ultra pergere," and with more than the ambition which the satirist ascribes to the very greatest of soldiers continue to exclaim, — " actum nihil est," as long as any ancient language remains uninvestigated, or any modern country unexplored. Home Tooke has censured the English etymologists who preceded him for not being as familiarly acquainted with the Anglo-Saxon, Ma3so- Gothic, and northern languages, as they were with the Greek and Latin. If he had remembered that both the Angles and Saxons, our immediate ances- tors, were German tribes, and called to mind the numerous analogies positively asserted to exist be- tween the languages of Germany and Persia, by

NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 5

Grotius and Leibnitz, two of the greatest names in modern literature, — if he had recollected that the Maeso-Goths might be traced to the East, and the high degree of probability, amounting almost to certainty, that Europe generally was peopled from Asia, he would have been convinced that all has not been done for the illustration of the languages of the former continent, so long as the oldest written tongues of the latter remain unexaminad. If he had reflected farther, that even Asia itself does not appear to have been the earliest seat of civilization, judging from the remains of art ; that there is a preponderance of evidence in favour of the banks of the Nile ; that Egypt sent out numer- ous colonies ; that one of the most close observers and accurate reporters of antiquity, Herodotus, heard the same language spoken in Colchis which he had previously heard in Egypt ; and that Colchis is very near the Euxine, from the banks of which we trace those countless myriads, beneath whose efforts the mighty fabric of the Roman empire at length sunk, he would have been convinced that to do full justice to the history of the formation of the English tongue, and to afford it all the illustration it is susceptible of receiving from a dictionary, to the languages of ancient Europe must be added an acquaintance with those of ancient Asia, and that that of Egypt could not be safely neglected, as it had probably exercised a direct influence on both, and that to no inconsiderable extent.

4. Pinkerton in his little work, entitled " A

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6 GENEALOGICAL ORIGIN OF THE

Dissertation on the Origin and Progress of the Scythians or Goths," which, in a very limited com- pass, exhibits merits of the highest class counter- balanced by defects almost as great, in which unbounded learning and unwearied research, more than would have sufficed for composing a folio volume, are rendered altogether of no avail, from his inveterate prejudices and angry passions, — and in, the course of which he is generally most dogma- tical when he is most erroneous, remarks very truly in connection with the subject of this chapter, - " It was the custom of the Greeks always, to derive names of nations from ancient kings and chiefs. This was easy etymology and cost nothing, yet cost as much as etymology of names is worth. Thus the Lydians were from Lydus, the Mysians from Mysus, the Scythians from Scythes, the Celts from Celtes, &c. &c., and the Aborigines of the south- west shore of Italy, (Enotrians, from (Enotrus, who led them from Arcadia, and those of the east, Peuketii, from Peuketius, his brother" (page 15 7.). Until my attention was drawn to the subject by the above passage I was hardly aware of the extent to which the system had been carried, as it has been attempted to account in this way, not only for the names of the three continents of the ancient world, but for all the subdivisions, and even for the principal cities contained in each. Asia was the daughter of Oceanus, the wife of lapetus, and the mother of Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, and Menoetius. Libya, the ancient name of Africa, was

NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 7

the daughter of Epaphus and Cassiopea, who be- came the mother of Agenor and Belus by Neptune. Europe derives its name from Europa, the daughter of Agenor, so that mythologically she is younger than her two sisters ; a fact not so certain as that the latter quarter of the world was peopled later than Asia. From the circumstance of there being only three continents, or great divisions of the earth, known to the ancients, perhaps proceeded the dis- position to arrange the progenitors of mankind into triads, unless my reader should be of opinion that the division of the universe between the three children of Saturn, as related in the mythology of the Greeks, has exerted a more powerful influence. Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, are familiar to every reader of Scripture, and we find them, with very little variation, in the sacred books of the Hindus. We are informed that the royal patriarch Satyavrata, for such is his character in the Purans, was particularly fond of Japati, to whom he gave all the regions to the north of the Himalaya, or Snowy Mountains, which extend from sea to sea, and of which Caucasus is part. To Sharma he allotted the country to the south of those mountains, while he cursed Charma. (Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. p. 312.) If we analyse Japati we shall find that Ja or Jah, in Sanskrit, is a name both of Siva and Vishnu, while Pati signifies Lord. The Hindu Japati appears to be the prototype of the Greek lapetus ; and it will be recollected that lapetus was the father of Prometheus, Prometheus

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8 GENEALOGICAL ORIGIN OF THE

of Deucalion, and Deucalion of Hellen, from whom all the Greek mythologists deduce the descent of their nation. Pindar says, —

In tales of ancient lore, 'tis said

O'er earth the whelming waters spread,

Urg'd all their congregated force.

But Jove's high will, his headlong course

Bade the usurping foe restrain,

And sink absorb'd the refluent main.

From them your sires, the warlike race

Of old lapetus, descend ;

Whose glorious deeds the brightest grace

To Saturn their forefather lend ;

And hence a race of native kings

In regular succession springs.

Wheelrights Pindar, 9th Olympic Ode.

If the etymology of Japati is Sanskrit we may fairly presume that Japati spoke Sanskrit, and he is said to have carried it to the north of the Himalaya Mountains into Scythia, Tartary, or Scandinavia.* We have discovered a language, and as one of the innumerable names of Siva is Calah, or Time, and one of the names of Saturn, Chronos, or Time, Siva, Saturn, Japati, and lapetus appear to be per- fectly identical, and one and the same person or deity.

5. The family of the Scripture Japhet appears to

* Sir William Jones, describing the Tibetians, says, " Their characters are apparently Indian, but their language has now the disadvantage of being written with more letters than are ever pronounced ; for although it was anciently Sanskrit, and polysyllabic, it seems at present, from the influence of Chi- nese manners, to consist of monosyllables." — Works, vol. iii. p. 175.

NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 9

have been a very large one ; indeed, it was enlarged indefinitely according to circumstances, for in the exact degree that there arose nations whose origin was to be accounted for, were his sons multiplied and named accordingly. The Chinese, Turks, Tar- tars, and Mongols must all have had a beginning, and therefore the Oriental writers supply Japhet with four sons, whom the European reader never heard of — Chin, Turc, Tatar or Tartar, and Mongol (Jones, vol. iii. page 79.). This is the account in the Koran, but that of the Turks differs from it considerably. According to them their ancestor, Turk, was the son of Japhet ; the fourth in descent from him was Alirigeh Khan, and he had two sons, Tatar and Mongol, from whom the tribes which they governed derived their names. The eighth descendant of Turk was Oghuz, whose name would hardly be worth mentioning but that he is the pro- totype of the Greek Ogyges. It is deserving of notice, however, that Oghuz had six sons, and there is certainly some connection between himself and progeny, and the division of time by the Hindus into weeks of seven days. Indeed the name of his eldest son was Giun, the Sun, and of his second Ai, the Moon, corresponding both with the Hindu and our own Sunday and Monday.

6. According to Herodotus, the Scythians re- ferred their origin to Targitaus, the son of Jupiter, by a daughter of the river Borysthenes. He had three sons, Lipoxais, Arpoxais, and Colaxais; but they appear to have been less successful than

10 GENEALOGICAL ORIGIN OF THE

most of their contemporaries in transmitting and immortalizing their names. The account of the Greeks themselves, however, represents the Scy- thians as the descendants of Scytha, the son of Hercules, by a most extraordinary female, who was half woman and half serpent. As Hercules, the son of Alcmena, was a Greek we ought to find the Scy- thians speaking Greek; but the etymology of the word Hercules is Sanskrit, from Heri, lord, and Gala, time, a name of the sun ; and in the course of this work we shall see reason for believing that the Sanskrit was spoken at any rate, perhaps that it predominated in these high northern latitudes. But according to Cicero there were six personages of the name of Hercules, the fifth of whom was born in India, and named Belus, and I should select him as the progenitor of the Scythians. According to Herodotus the Persians were the descendants of Perses, the son of Perseus. In Hebrew, and pro- bably in other Oriental languages, the word Pharash signifies a horseman ; and I am much mistaken if the word Persian was not primarily descriptive of a nation of Nomades, who consisted chiefly of cavalry, and made war on horseback. I even be- lieve that this etymology was known to Hesiod, who, in his u Shield of Hercules," says,

There was the horseman, fair-hair'd Danae's son, Perseus.

The ancient name of the Medes, according to Hero- dotus, was Arii, which they abandoned in honour of Medus, the son of Medea. In like manner Ar-

NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 11

menia received its name from Armemis, who was one of the Argonauts, and of Thessaliaii origin.

7. One of the most singular circumstances in connection with the earliest name of Lydia, of Phrygia, and perhaps of Asia Minor, is the wide extension of the same tradition under the same, or nearly similar names, opening a glimpse of one great people and one language throughout great part of the world, and apparently describing the universal figurative empire of the sun, the earliest God of the human race. First in India we have Menu, the celebrated legislator, whose code has been translated by Sir William Jones. Its date ascends far beyond the dawn of authentic history, and is lost in the darkness of mythology; but we are informed in Wilson's Sanskrit Dictionary that though some accounts represent Menu as the son of Brahma, others make him to be an incarnation or Avatar of Brahma himself. Diodorus has a few words to say of an ancient king, Meori, who formerly reigned over both Phrygia and Lydia. Herodotus men- tions in almost as few words, but more definite, a king, Manes, the son of Jupiter and Tellus, who reigned over and gave his name to Maeonia, a term which at an early period appears to have included both Lydia and Phrygia, and how much more it is difficult to say. Minos, the legislator of Crete, is still more palpably a mere echo of the Indian Menu ; and some mythologists, instead of describing Minos as the son of Jupiter, represent it as a name of Jupiter himself. Menes is described as the founder

12 GENEALOGICAL ORIGIN OF THE

of the Egyptian monarchy, and the first who reigned in that country after the Gods, and chronologists identify him with the Misraim of Scripture, the son of Ham, who is also identified by them with the Jupiter Hammon of the Greeks. In the Old Testa- ment we find a place mentioned under the name of Baal-Meon, and Beth Baal-Meon, or the House of Baal-Meon ; and Tacitus mentions a god Mannus, the son of Tuisto, or Tuisco. The probable ety- mology of Meon is Ma, place, and On, the sun, both Coptic, the east, and by metonymy the Sun himself. Shall we say that we have discovered a trace of the existence of a primitive and common language in places so widely separated from each other; or as there are fourteen Menus or incarnations of the Deity in the religious system of the Hindus, divided from each other by long intervals of time, shall we rather say that the perpetual recurrence of the name is a proof of the antiquity and universality of the tradition ?

8. Herodotus informs us that the Carians were formerly known by the name of Leleges, and, as a matter of course, we meet with a convenient King Lelex. The country itself was known by the name of Phoenicia, because a Phoenician colony was sup- posed to have settled there, but derived its name of Caria from King Car, who first invented the augu- ries of birds. Their principal city was Halicar- nassus, where Jupiter was the chief deity. As the Egyptian Phoenix was a type of the sun, and Khur in Persic signifies the sun, I suspect that we have

NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 13

discovered King Car and the Carians, whose origin was very like that of King Meon and the Maeonians, and that the Carian Jupiter was no other than Khur, the sun. In one passage Herodotus calls Car the brother of Lydus and Mysus, while in another he informs us that Lydus, Mysus, and Tyrrhenus were the sons of Atys. Unfortunately this historical narrative conveys little or no information as to language, as we can hardly be said to be in posses- sion of one undoubted Lydian, Mysian, or Tyrrhe- nian word ; but as Atys appears to be the Persic word Atosh, fire, and Car the Persic word Khur, the sun, in the absence of all other accounts we may fairly presume that Lydus, Mysus, and Tyrrhenus spoke the language of their brother and father, whatever other languages they may have discovered or invented. In one of the fragments of the Phryxus, a lost tragedy of Euripides, he names Kilix, Phoenix, and Thasos, as the sons of Agenor. The first of course gave his name to Cilicia, the second to Phoenicia, and the third to the island of Thasus ; but the same poet also informs us in an- other fragment that Cadmus was one of the sons of Agenor, and that, abandoning the city of Sidon, he came to the territory of Thebes ; therefore Cadmus and Phoenix are one, and merely different names of the same person, and that person is the sun — Kdm, Hebrew radical letters, the east, or the sun, with a Greek termination Cadmus ; and the Egyptian Phoenix was certainly the sun, and the miraculous account of its demise and resuscitation merely an

14 GENEALOGICAL ORIGIN OF THE

Oriental, or poetical description of sunset and sun- rising. His sister Europa is merely one of the names of the Syrian Astarte, Ashtaroth, or the Queen of Heaven, contracted from the Greek word Euruopa, wide-seeing, i. e. the moon ; and Agenor appears to be a name of Saturn, Chronos, or Eter- nity, contracted from A, privative, and Genitor, that is, he who had no father, or beginning. My- thology makes him the son of Neptune, and Neptune is frequently confounded with Oceanus, the father of all things. Some accounts make Thasos also the son of Neptune.

9. Every one knows that Lycia received its name from Lycus, the son of Pandion, King of Athens. If the Lycians were the descendants of Lycus, which is the conclusion to which all these genea- logical fables point, we are obliged to admit either that the Lycians must have spoken Greek, or that fifteen centuries before the Christian era the Greek language was not formed, and the same remark will apply to half the countries of Asia, as we have no account of any of them except from the Greeks, who have mixed up their own mythology with all. According to them Egypt received its name from Egyptus, and Greece, or at any rate the Greeks, from Danaus, the son of Belus, who himself is said to be the son of Osiris. The Greek word Belus appears to be formed from the Hebrew Baal, lord, almost everywhere in the Old Testament a name of the sun ; but we also find a Bali, a god, or demi- god, in the mythology of the Hindus; and, sup-

NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 15

posing the Greek fable to contain the smallest portion of truth, the analogy between the Coptic and Greek with the Sanskrit would much rather lead us to India for Belus than to any country where a Shemitic language was spoken. The Greeks, however, preferred tracing their own regu- lar descent to Hellen, the son of Deucalion, and his three sons (the favourite number which is con- tinually repeated), .^Eolus, Dorus, arid Xuthus, the latter of whom was the father of Ion ; and as from Hellen was derived the generic name of Hellenes, ^Eolus, Dorus, and Ion gave denominations to the Jilolic, Doric, and Ionic dialects, or divisions of the Greek language. Thrace derived its name from Thrax, a son of Mars ; and the Bistones, a Thra- cian people, from Biston, another son of Mars. As two languages, according to Herodotus (lib. i. c. 57.), continued to be spoken in Thrace even in his time, we may suspect that the fact was commemorated in the name of the Bistones, formed from bis (Latin), double, and stoma (Greek), mouth, or speech. Livy informs us that in the language of Thrace Diana was called Bendis, a word which appears to be compounded of the Hebrew Ben, child, and Dis, contracted from Dios, the genitive of Zeus, that is, child of Jupiter ; and that in Macedon Minerva was denominated Alcide, which we may confidently pronounce to be formed from the Arabic definite article al, the, and Sidah, lady, or princess, like Alcides, from al, Sid, and a Greek termination. The Cid, the hero of. Cor- neille's celebrated tragedy, is the same Arabic word

16 GENEALOGICAL ORIGIN OF THE

Sid, lord. Italy derived its name from Italus ; France its ancient Greek name of Galatia, accord- ing to Diodorus, from Galatus, the son of Hercules by a Celtic princess, and its modern one from Francus, a son of Hector ; while it is equally cer- tain that Brutus, a son of JEneas, gave his name to Britain.

10. It would be easy to fill a volume in this way, and, in fact, many volumes have been so filled, as when the Greeks could not account in any other mode for the origin of a nation, tribe, or city, the easiest method of cutting the Gordian knot was first to suppose that some god, demi-god, or hero of that name had existed, and secondly that that name had descended to his posterity. Every people must of course have had a beginning, and the easiest means of accounting for it was by assuming that all nations, like individuals, bore the name of their progenitors. Unfortunately, like almost all contrivances that are very easy, it was at the same time very worthless, as a moment's reflec- tion will convince us that such a mode of reasoning could never lead us one step in the direction of the truth, from the simple circumstance that the children are in every instance necessarily older than their parents. If there had not been such people as Carians, Lydians, Mysians, and Tyrrhenians, whose origin was to be accounted for, we should never have heard a syllable of the entertaining story of Herodotus ; and unless there had been countries bearing the names of Cilicia, Phoenicia, and Thasus, Euripides would never have told us a word about

NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 17

Kilix, Phoenix, and Thasos. The names of the countries are probably in every instance older by centuries than the fables which pretend to account for them. The Greeks were avowedly ignorant of all languages but their own; and, in all cases, whatever they wanted in knowledge, they made up for by invention. To take a single instance out of hundreds that might be adduced: the Asiatics called the Mediterranean the Great Sea, or the Western Sea, in the original Hebrew* (Deut. xi. 24.) Hayyam Haacharon, literally the sea behind, supposing a person to be standing with his face towards the east (kedem). The Greeks, who could make nothing of the etymology of this name, to explain it in their own way invented the story of Daedalus and his son Icarus, the waxen wings, the flight too near the sun, the consequent fall, and the permanent name of the Icarian Sea from Icarus. On the basis of the word kedem, the east (radical letters kdm), they raised a still more vast super- structure of fable. They added their own termi- nation, and formed Cadmus, the brother of Europa, and the founder of Thebes in Bceotia. Cadmus, as well as Phcenix and Hercules, was a name of the sun; and the terms Cadmeans, Phoenicians, and Heraclidae are used so loosely by Greek writers, that they convey no definite information, and are nearly equivalent to Asiatic, or Oriental, and communicate to us the fact that Europe was peopled from the East, and very little more.

* Vide Gibbs' Gesenins, in voeibus Achor and Yam. C

18 INVESTIGATION OF THE ORIGIN OF

CHAPTER II.

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE KEAL CAUSES WHICH GAVE ORIGIN TO THE NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS.

11. As the genealogical system of the Greeks, by the instrumentality of which they were so fond of accounting for the origin of tribes and nations, has evidently no solid foundation, perhaps no foundation at all, and as, so far from assisting, it rather con- fuses and misleads us in our attempt to ascertain the earliest languages of mankind, we are driven by necessity to an investigation of the principal causes which were operative in giving names to those pri- mitive races of mankind, of which mention is made in the Greek historians. I must begin by express- ing my entire and unalterable conviction, that that large class of words denominated by grammarians proper names, that is, the epithets of persons and places, were all originally significant and descriptive of the nature and quality of the objects on which they were imposed, and that this fact could never have been doubted for a moment, had not the Greeks and Romans despised all languages except their own, and succeeded in transmitting to modern times a prejudice, for such it most assuredly is, that their own languages were so immeasurably superior to those of the other nations of mankind, that it is in vain to seek in the latter for any thing which we

THE NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 19

cannot find in the former. This is so far from being true, that before I close this work, I shall demon- strate that the Greek and Latin are merely dialects of a much older and more widely spoken language, to which originally they were in no respect superior, and probably never would have been but for the single circumstance of having been more cultivated.

12. The leading circumstances, which appear to me to have given names to the great divisions of the human race, from the beginning of time to the present moment, may be conveniently arranged under six general heads, or divisions, and are as follows : —

1. Climate, or the degree of heat and cold.

2. Locality, chiefly with reference to the latitude,

or distance from the Pole.

3. Abode, whether in houses, tents, or waggons.

4. Food, with reference to that which constituted

the principal article of subsistence.

5. Religion, or the names of the divinities they

worshipped.

6. Habits, with reference to their mode of life,

and the degree of civilization they had attained, whether stationary or erratic, whether hunters, shepherds, or agricul- turists, whether fighting on foot, on horse- back, or in chariots.

1. Climate.

13. In this chapter I must take it for granted that the genial regions of Southern Asia were the earliest seat of the human race, without pretending

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20 INVESTIGATION OF THE ORIGIN OF

to define the precise spot, and that the vast countries to the north of Mount Taurus, Mount Caucasus, and the great mountain chain of the Himalaya, which divides India from Tartary, as far in the direction of the Pole as existence is supportable, were peopled by that southern race, impelled in a northerly direction by the pressure of population against the means of subsistence. To take as little for granted as possible, however, I shall proceed to prove that the Arabic language was in existence at the period when the Book of Genesis was written, whether that venerable work was the production of Moses, or of some author anterior to him. Euphrates and Hiddekel (the Tigris), the names of two of the four rivers of Paradise, are Arabic words. If we open the Hebrew Bible at the fourteenth verse of the second chapter of Genesis, that is, the oldest portion of perhaps the oldest written composition in the world, we find the river Euphrates denomin- ated according to the radical letters Phrt, and with the vowel points Pherat or Pherath. On turning to a Hebrew lexicon, we find the word in its regular place as a proper name^ but without any other in- formation whatever : on opening the Arabic, how- ever, at the radical letters Frat, pronounced by the Arabs Furat, we find the first meaning to be very fine sweet water, and the second, the river Eu- phrates. Frat, therefore, primarily was significant ; and it is hardly possible to entertain a doubt that the Arabic word was the original, and the Hebrew the derivative. Europe was peopled from Asia, and the primitive language of mankind gradually

THE NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 21

changed and partially lost. We have seen that the word Frat or Furat originally signified, not merely water, but very fine sweet water. By the time the word reached the earliest Greeks, the Pelasgians or JEolians, it had probably lost both its adjective meanings of fine, sweet, but retained its substantive one of water. When the Greeks there- fore prefixed their own adjective Eu (good) to Frat, Euphrat signified no more than Frat had done originally ; namely, good or fine water. With the lapse of time, Frat or Phrat, lost its substantive meaning of water in Greek, as it had previously lost its adjective meanings of fine, sweet; and the word Euphrates, with a Greek prefix and termination, became merely the proper name of a river, conveying no idea whatever of its etymology or signification. In Richardson I find Dachil as an Arabic word, with the meanings of a branch — the river Tigris. With the Hebrew definite article Hay (h) prefixed, and coalescing, this word supplies the etymology of Hiddekel. The Septuagint have translated it Tigris, but the authors of the English version have retained the Hebrew, or rather Arabic word.

14. Whenever that Arabic race was driven northward by the operation of that principle of population which was intended to people the world, and will ultimately completely effect this purpose, vast as the globe is, they would naturally carry their language with them. At the present day we find a vast tract of country in a high northern latitude, denominated Siberia, and I believe that

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22 INVESTIGATION OF THE ORIGIN OF

word to be as certainly of Arabic etymology, as it is expressive of the nature of the country on which it is bestowed. In Richardson's Arabic and Persic Dictionary, I find the word Sabarah, or Sa- barat, with the meaning of intense winter cold; hence Siberia, the name of the country ; and if to Sabarah we add the Sanskrit word Jan, a man, or person (the termination of all nouns ethnical in Ian), we shall have, by a slight contraction, Si- berian, that is, a man who inhabits an extremely cold country. We find in ancient Scythia, in a high northern latitude, Mount Imaus, in Thrace Mount Hsemus, and between Hindustan and Tar- tary the highest mountains in the world, the vast chain of the Himalaya. The etymology of the last word, or rather words, is Sanskrit — Hima, cold, frost, snow ; and Laya, house, dwelling-place. As the Sanskrit is universally allowed to be one of the oldest languages in existence, a strong pre- sumption immediately arises that the Himalaya mountains, Mount Imaus, and Mount HaBmus, were all named by a race of Indian derivation, either speaking Sanskrit, or at any rate a language in which Sanskrit words abounded. Another vast region in the north of Asia was denominated by the ancients Sarmatia, a word which is certainly of Persic etymology. In Richardson's Persic Dic- tionary I find the words Sarm, Sarma, and Sarmi, all denoting cold; hence we have — Sarm (Persic), cold: Hiat (Arabic), life : Ian (Sanskrit), man, or person :

THE NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 23

by contraction, Sarmatians, or a people inhabiting a high northern latitude, exposed to a severe cold. The word appears to have described a particular latitude, and not a particular people, speaking a peculiar language ; and accordingly, Herodotus in- forms us that the people whom he calls Sauromatae used the Scythian or general language; Scythia being the nomen generalissimum for Asiatic Tar- tary.

15. So much for countries denominated from the cold ; and those denominated from the heat are so numerous, that to particularize them all would be wearisome, and I must limit myself to a few in- stances. The name of Egypt is derived from two words, still to be found in La Croze's Coptic Dic- tionary— Ei (Coptic), house, and Koht ( Sahidic), fire, which the Greeks and Romans softened to Egypt. In the English version of the Old Testament we meet with the expression " Ham, which is Egypt ;" but in the original Hebrew the word is uniformly written Cham, and signifies heat. (Gibbs' Gesenius.) In Coptic, Chemi is the common name of Egypt, while Kame, in Sahidic, means black (from heat). It is probable, however, that these names had a reference to sun worship, as well as to the temper- ature of the climate. In Wilkins's Sanskrit Gram- mar I find the Dhato, or verbal root Indh, signi- fying light, inflame, burn, kindle. As a noun substantive, it would be a name either of the sun or of fire. Written with an initial aspirate

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24 INVESTIGATION OF THE ORIGIN OF

Hindh, the sun, or fire,

Istan, place,

we shall have Hindustan, the Oriental name of India, that is, the land of the sun, because the sun was -their principal god, or the land of fire, from the heat of the climate. The Greeks ap- plied with extreme looseness the name of Ethi- opia to all hot countries, from the word Aithopa, black ; they named Mauritania, in Africa, from the word Mauros, black, and called Africa itself Libya, from Lips, the south-west wind ; also the position of Africa, with relation to Greece, and necessarily hot, from being near the equator.

2. Locality.

I. CIMMERIANS, by contraction Cimbri, in Gaelic Cymri,

Chemi (Egyptian), black,

Chum (Hebrew), black,

Kahm (Arabic), black,

Ea (Persic), mark of the oblique case,

Ian (Sanskrit), a man or person; by doubling the M, Cimmerians, that is, a people whose original seat was in a high northern latitude, referred by their southern neighbours to the polar circle itself, and the six months' night which prevails within it. Homer was certainly acquainted with this fact, which induced him to place his hell there : —

There, in a lonely land and gloomy cells, The dusky nation of Cimmeria dwells ;

THE NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 25

The sun ne'er views the uncomfortable seats When radiant he advances, or retreats. Unhappy race ! whom endless night invades, Clouds the dull air, and wraps them round in shades.

POPE'S Odyssey, book xi.

2. TARTARY, Tartarus.

Tar (Persic), darkness.

Tartar, darkness of darkness.

Tartary, the country in the neighbourhood

of the polar circle. Tartarus (Greek), hell, or the region of

darkness.

In the eighth book of the Iliad, Jupiter, addressing Juno, says: —

Fly if thou wilt to earth's remotest bound, Where on her utmost verge the seas resound ; Where cursed lapetus and Saturn dwell, Fast by the brink within the streams of hell. No sun e'er gilds the gloomy horrors there, No cheerful gales refresh the lazy air. There arm once more the bold Titanian band, And arm in vain ; for what I will shall stand.

POPE'S Iliad.

In the original, the passage concludes, &s TS Taprapog apfyig, profundus autem Tartarus circum.

3. TARAN (Persic), dark.

Touran, the country to the north of the Oxus, in contradiction to Iran, or Persia Proper — by an extension of meaning Tartary, or Cimmeria. Sir William Jones says, " The best lexicographers assert that numberless words in ancient Persian

26 INVESTIGATION OF THE ORIGIN OF

are taken from the language of the Cim- merians, or the Tartars of Kipchak." — Works, vol. iii. p. 119. 4. ARABIA.

Arb, Hebrew radical letters. Ereb, with the vowel points, the west, evening, darkness, so named by a Persic or Indian race.

Erebus (Greek), hell, the region of dark- ness. Erembi (Greek), with M redundant, the

Arabs. (Homer.)

In the fourth book of the Odyssey, Ulysses says,—

For eight slow circling years, by tempests tost, From Cyprus to the far Phoenician coast (Sidon the capital,) I stretch'd my toil Through regions fatten'd with the flows of Nile ; Next, Ethiopia's utmost bound explore, And the parch'd borders of the Arabian shore.

In the original AiQio7ra$ &' /XO/XTJV, xai 5*8owou$ xai EpepSoug, a passage which has perplexed the commentators not a little. The word Cush, in the Old Testament, is applied to, at least, three per- fectly distinct countries, Persia or Mesopotamia, Arabia, and Abyssinia, which I think the Septuagint and English versions have always rendered by Ethiopia. The Ethiopia here meant is the north of Arabia, and the Ethiopians and the Erembi are precisely the same people. That Arabia is one of the Scripture Cushs it is impossible to doubt. Numbers xii. 1 . says of Moses, he had married an

THE NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 27

Ethiopian woman, in the Hebrew Cushi; but we know that he married the daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian in Arabia.

5. BACTRIANA.

Bakhtar (Persic), the east. Hence the Per- sians call the sun king of the east and west. Hence too is named the noble and extensive region of Khorassan (Khur, Persic, the sun), called by the ancients Bactriana ; and also the great river Bactrus (Amu or Gihon), on account of their eastern situations with regard to Persia. (Richardson.)

6. SARACENS.

Shark (Arabic), the rising sun, the east, the east country, Asia. The term Saracens was applied by the chroniclers of the middle ages to all the votaries of Mahomet, by whom the Crusaders were opposed. The word did not describe any particular people, so that it is in vain to look for a Saracen language, but was equivalent to Orientals or Asiatics.

3. Abode.

16. According to Herodotus, the Carians were anciently Leleges ; but in another passage he informs us that Car was the son of Atys, and that from him the Carians were descended: also that Car had three brothers, Lydus, Mysus, and Tyrrhenus, who bequeathed their names to the Lydians, Mysians,

28 INVESTIGATION OF THE ORIGIN OF

and Tyrrhenians respectively. But he informs us, at the same time, that the Lydians were formerly Maeonians, and the descendants of Manes. If the Carians were Leleges, they must, according to the genealogical system, have been the progeny of Lelex, and could not also have been the progeny of Car, no more than an individual can have two fathers ; and if the Lydians were primarily Maeon- ians and the descendants of Manes, they could not be also the descendants of Lydus ; so that while we account for the assumption of the names of Carians and Lydians, we incur an equal or greater diffi- culty to assign any plausible reason why the appel- lations of Leleges and Maeonians should have been relinquished, and discover the genealogical system to be so unstable, that it falls to pieces even in the hands of its inventor.

17. In giving the above accounts, however, the father of history had either not read, or forgotten, or despised the authority of the father of epic poetry, who makes the Leleges and Carians, the Maeonians and the Mysians (not the Lydians indeed, but their brethren, according to the above genealogy), all con- temporary, and brings them together in the same passage. In the night adventure of Diomed and Ulysses, having captured Dolon, the Trojan spy, Ulysses inquires the position of the auxiliaries, and receives the following reply : —

To whom the spy : Their powers they thus dispose ; The Paeons, dreadful with their bended bows, The Carians, Caucons, the Pelasgian host, And Leleges, encamp along the coast.

THE NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 29

Not distant far, lie higher on the land

The Lycian, Mysian, and Maeonian band,

And Phrygia's horse, by Thymbra's ancient wall ;

The Thracians utmost and apart from all :

These Troy but lately to her succour won,

Led on by Rhesus, great Eioneus' son.

POPE'S Homer, book x.

Strabo, commenting on this passage of Homer, after mentioning the names of several cities, re- marks, all these places, according to Homer, be- longed to the Leleges. Some confound the latter with the Carians ; but this poet distinguishes them, saying, " by the sea-shore encamp the Carians, the Paeones armed with bows, the Leleges, and the Caucons." These verses prove that the Leleges and the Carians were two different people. The former inhabited the states of JEneas, and the country of those whom Homer denominates Cili- cians. Ruined subsequently by Achilles, they passed into Caria, and occupied the territory in which Halicarnassus is at present situated. (Strabo, lib. xiii. c. 1. 55.)

18. One etymology of Leleges I believe to be (for I shall have to notice another) lo, Hebrew negative particle, and laya, Sanskrit, house, dwelling ; that is, that they were a nomadic people, dwelling in tents, and shifting their quarters with the change of the seasons for the convenience of the pasturage of their flocks and herds ; and as this is the second stage of civil society, the first being that of hunters and fishers, and as the whole human race which have attained civilization at some period of their

30 INVESTIGATION OF THE ORIGIN OF

history must have passed through it, we cannot wonder at meeting with a great many words by which this nomadic or shepherd state is described, of which I shall proceed to adduce several other instances.

2. HAGARENES, or Hagarites, one of the Scrip-

ture names of the Arabians.

Agar (Sanskrit), a house.

Aagar (Sanskrit), with a privative, no house, i. e. a tent.

Hagar, in Scripture, the mother of Ishmael.

HagareneSj in Scripture, a name of the Arabs, from living in tents. 1 Chron. chapter 5. verse 10. : " And in the days of Saul they made war with the Hagarites, who fell by their hand : and they dwelt in their tents throughout all the east land of Gilead."

3. KEDAR, a Scripture name of the Arabians.

Kedar, the son of Ishmael, Gen. xxv. 18.

Kadar (Hebrew), black; the black goats' hair of which the tents of the Arabians are formed, and, by metonymy, the tents themselves. Isa. xxi. 17. : " The children of Kedar;" that is, a pastoral people dwelling in tents. Sol. Song, i. 5. : "I am black, but comely, 0 ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon."

4. SKENITES, or Scenites, a name of the Arabians,

from living in tents.

THE NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 31

Skene (Greek), a tent, "I those who pass Hiat (Arabic), life, J their lives in tents.

The Greek writers apply this name to all nomadic

or pastoral people.

5. NABATHEANS, a name of the Arabs of the

Desert, from having no house. Genealogical :

Nebajoth, the eldest son of Ishmael. (Gen.

xxv. 13.) Etymological : — Na (Persic), negative particle. Baith (Hebrew), house. Jan (Sanskrit), man, or person. Diodorus, describing the Nabatheans, says of them, "they dwell in the open country, and not under any roof;" or in other words, inhabit tents, and not houses.

6. HELOTS, that is, people living in tents — no-

mades or shepherds.

Ahel, or Ohel (Hebrew), a tent.

Hiat (Arabic), life.

Sir John Malcolm, in his History of Persia, gives the following account of a people whom he denomi- nates Elauts, a name derived from the circum- stance of their dwelling in tents. " The inhabit- ants of Persia may be divided into four great classes. The first, and most powerful if united, are the native tribes of the nation, who continue to live in tents, and change their residence with the season. The great mass of this part of the popu- lation, whose habits are pastoral and military, are

32 INVESTIGATION OF THE ORIGIN OF

to be found along those ranges of hilly country, which, commencing near the entrance of the Per- sian Gulf, stretch parallel with its shores to Shus- ter, and from thence, taking a north-western direc- tion, extend up the left bank of the Tigris as high as the province of Armenia. The region that has been described includes Kirman, almost all Fars, a part of Irak, and the whole of Kurdistan. The inhabitants of these countries are divided into many tribes ; but there cannot be a stronger proof of their coming from one stock, than that the lan- guages which they speak are all rude dialects of the Pehlvi. There is a considerable difference in these dialects, but not so much as to prevent the inha- bitants of one province understanding that of another." — MALCOLM'S History of Persia, vol. ii. p. 119.

4. Food.

19. In the " Recherches Philosophiques sur les Egyptiens et les Chinois " of De Pauw, I met with the following remark, which I will quote in the author's own words : — " On sait qu'il a ete un temps dans 1'antiquite ou Ton distinguoit les peuples par des noms tires de leur maniere de se nourrir qu'on regardoit comme la partie la plus remarquable de leurs moeurs." Tomei. p. 169. Though this au- thor was celebrated both for the extent of his knowledge and the acuteness of his observation, he had, I believe, little idea of the importance of his remark, of its wide application, and of the interest-

THE NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 33

ing consequences that might be deduced from it. Its importance may be inferred from the following passage of Herodotus : — " It is a custom with the Scythians to deprive all their slaves of sight, on account of the milk, which is their customary drink. They have a particular kind of bone shaped like a flute : this they apply to a mare, and blow into from the mouth. It is one man's office to blow, an- other's to milk the mare. Their idea is that the veins of the animal being thus inflated, the dugs are proportionably filled. When the milk is thus obtained they place it in deep wooden vessels, and the slaves are directed to keep it in constant agita- tion. Of this, that which remains at the top is most esteemed ; what subsides is of inferior value. This it is which induces the Scythians to deprive all their captives of sight, for they do not cultivate the ground, but lead a pastoral life." — Lib. iv. c. 2. 1. Cms (Arabic), milk. Derivatives —

Caseus (Latin), cheese, a preparation of

milk.

Cheese (English). Application : —

Chis (Arabic), milk. Hiat (Arabic), life.

Cushite, a Scythian, a nomade, one of a nation living in a shepherd-state, and subsisting chiefly on the milk of their flocks and herds. This state implies three material consequences : first, that they were continually shifting their quarters for the D

84 INVESTIGATION OF THE ORIGIN OF

convenience of pasturage ; that they did not practise agriculture; and did not build houses, but lived either in tents or in waggons, from which latter cir- cumstance the Greek writers denominate such nations Scou'tcs. from fkcne (Greek), a tent, and hi at (Arabic), life ; or Hamaxobii) from ajna.ni, n wain, and />/<>*. life.

Cush, a shepherd living on milk.

Cuthj the Chaldee form of the above Arabic, or Hebrew word.

Scuth, or Skuth, the latter word with the Greek aspirate sigma prefixed.

Threw, or Thraks, a Thracian. Pwhapa the latter word Skuth, read from right to left, with the Greek Rho redundant following Theta.* We are quite sure that the double letter Xi formed no part of the primitive Greek alphabet. In the oldest existing Greek inscriptions we find ks, Kappa, and Sigma, and no Xi.

Goth, from Cuth, by changing C to G.

Getce, from the latter, by varying the termi- nation.

* Lanzi, in his " Saggio di Etrusca," says, instead of the double letter Xi, we find Ks in the Nanian and Amy clean In- scriptions ; deksai for dexai, and oksolou for oxolou ; and among the JEolians, who never used this double letter, we meet with ieraks for ierax. (Tom. i. p. 86., ed. 1789.)

THE NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 35

L\ MAS ( Arabie), milk. Applieation :

J/f/,v,xw-t«/«Y,/ . . -I Seythian people ; so oTeat,

that their name may almost ho regarded :is ovnerie, and equivalent to Sevthian. lle- rodotns remarks of them, that ///<;// >'<>//' ;/<>

jrafn, but subsist entirely on cattle, and on the lish which the river A raxes abun- dantly supplies; milk alw constitutes a part of their diet. They samluv horsi -.- to the sun, their only deity; thinking it right to offer the swiftest of mortal ani-

inals to tlu4 swil'trst of immortal brings.

(Lib. i. c. 21G.)

As Herodotus says in so many words that the Thussa-Getco supported themselves by hunting (lib. 4. c. 22.), we may fairly conclude that the ad- juncts thmm and mami were descriptive of a mode of life, and that the latter word applied to the milk dirt and pastoral habits of tlu> Massa-(u'ta\ Strain), apparently following lliM-oilolus, repeats that they

sacrificed horses to the sun, and did not practice

aiiTirultmv. (Lib. \i. <\ II. .*>.)

MysianS) Strabo says from mysas, a beech tree; but, 1 believe, beech-trees had as little to do in giving them a name as Mysus, the son of Atys. They were

elearly nomades, liym«; ehielly on milk, and i;ave their name to the .J/<r, V(»-(M»///N, whom Slrabo iully identilii^s with the Mysians of Asia-Minor (lib. vii.

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36 INVESTIGATION OF THE ORIGIN OF

c. 3. 2.) ; while in many passages of Lye's " Introduction to the Maeso-Gothic Gos- pels of Ulphilus," the words Scythian and Goth are used as synonymous. 3. GALA (Greek), milk.

Galaktophagi, living on milk of any sort;

from gala, milk ; phago, to eat. Hippomulgi, living on the milk of mares ; from ippos (Greek), horse ; amelgo (Greek), to milk ; or rather from the Latin and ^Eolic form of the word mulgeo, to milk. Both these words occur in the same passage of Homer, at the commencement of the 13th book of the Iliad ; but Pope was obliged to omit the Galaktophagi, from the difficulty of reconciling it with English metre.

" When now the Thunderer on the sea-beat coast Had fix'd great Hector and his conquering host, He left them to the fates in bloody fray To toil and struggle through the well-fought day, Then turn'd to Thracia from the field of fight Those eyes that shed insufferable light ; To where the Mysians prove their hardy force, And hardy Thracians tame the savage horse ; And where the far-famed Hippemolgian strays, Renown'd for justice and for length of days. Thrice happy race ! that innocent of blood, From milk innoxious, seek their simple food."

POPE'S Homer, book xiii.

Galatce and Galatians ; from

Gala (Greek), milk.

Hiat (Arabic), life.

Jan (Sanskrit), man, or person.

THE NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 37

Celtce, from Galatae, by changing G into C.

Gael and Gaul, "from Galatae, by contrac- tion.

Monsieur Gosselin, one of the intelligent transla- tors and commentators of the valuable French edition of Strabo, remarks of this great people that they called themselves Celtae ; that the Greeks called them Galataa, and the Romans Galli or Gauls ; and they had many other names, as we shall perceive in the chapter that will be devoted to them. Dio- dorus calls those Gauls who besieged and took Rome (the Senones) Celtaa ; and at an earlier period, that name would have comprised all the inhabitants of Germany and France certainly, and perhaps also those of Spain and Italy. It was nearly equivalent to, and co-extensive with, that of Scythian, and described a great nomadic people, speaking probably innumerable dialects formed from the languages of Asia, living chiefly on milk, and deriving their name from that circumstance.

5. Religion.

20. It is remarkable enough, that though in almost every country both of Europe and Asia we find the great divisions of the people denominated from the name either of the god they worship, or the prophet or teacher whose exposition they follow, it should not have occurred to any one that the names of nations themselves were derived from that of their principal divinity. The vast population of Hindustan is divided chiefly between Brahma and

D 3

38 INVESTIGATION OF THE ORIGIN OF

Budha, in unequal proportions indeed, as the former is now predominant, while the latter, under the name of Fo, is the great deity of the Chinese, the Tartars, the inhabitants of Siam, Pegu, and Ava, of Ceylon, and most of the eastern isles, and many other extensive Oriental nations. Those Asiatic people who do not acknowledge the sway of either Brahma or Budha have fallen chiefly to the lot of the prophet of Mecca, whose followers may also be comprised under two great divisions, that of the Sonnites, or Orthodox, and that of the Shiites, Heterodox, or followers of Ali, which is the pre- dominant sect in Persia. And in Europe, where all profess to worship the same God, and acknow- ledge the same Prophet, Jesus of Nazareth, we find the whole Christian world arranged under four or five names, derived either from the original Church, or the leaders who were chiefly instrumental in shaking oif the yoke of that Church, and bringing about the Reformation ; they are either Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, Arminians, Arians, or Socinians — names under which are comprised almost all the innumerable shades of religious opinion. The polytheism, and consequent uni- versal toleration of the Greeks and Romans, ren- dered them so indifferent both as to the numbers and names of their divinities, that the possibility of nations being denominated from the epithets of their gods does not appear to have occurred to them ; and yet nothing can be more certain than

THE NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 39

that this was very extensively the case, as I shall now proceed to show.

1. SCANDINAVIA. The true etymology of this word, or rather words, when discovered, will at the same time, in no inconsiderable degree, define the geographical position of the country, and by proving the former to be Sanskrit, as we are about to do, we extend the boundaries of the latter over great part of the North of Asia.

Scanda, Skanda, or Kartikeya the son of Siva, and military deity of the Hindus. ( Wil- son''s Sanskrit Dictionary r, p. 447.) Navya, new, praise, panegyric. ( Wilson,

p. 457.)

Scandinavia, i.e. the praise or glory of Scanda, the country in which Scanda, Mars, or the God of "War, was peculiarly and emphatically worshipped. Sir William Jones says, though Kartikeya, with his six faces and numerous eyes, bears some resemblance to Argus, whom Juno employed as her principal wardour, yet, as he is a deity of the second class, and the commander of celestial armies, he seems clearly to be the Orus of Egypt and the Mars of Italy : his name Skanda, by which he is celebrated in one of the Puranas, has a connection, I am per- suaded, with the old Secander of Persia, whom the poets ridiculously confound with the Macedonian. (Works, vol. iii. p. 364.) Skanda is identical with Budha, Budha with Woden, or Odin, and all with the sun. Scandinavia therefore is the country in

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40 INVESTIGATION OF THE ORIGIN OF

which the sun was worshipped under the name of Skanda, and at an early period described the north of Asia as at a long subsequent one it did the north of Europe.

2. SAKYA, or Sacya, a name of Budha, whence

SacaB, the name of the people, and Scythia, that of the country. ( Wilson, p. 836.)

Herodotus, describing the vast army of Xerxes, says, the Sacse, who are a Scythian nation, had helmets, terminating in a point, and wore breeches. They were also armed in their country manner with bows, daggers, and a hatchet, called Sagaris. This people, though really the Amyrgii of Scythia, were called Sacae, the name given by the Persians indiscriminately to all Scythians. (Liber vii. c. 64.) In the same book we find the Sacss mentioned in connection with the Indians. " It would indeed be preposterous," says Mar- donius, addressing Xerxes, " if after reducing to our power the SacaB, the Indians, the Ethiopians, and the Assyrians, with many other great and illustrious nations, not in revenge of injuries received, but solely from the honourable desire of dominion, we should not inflict vengeance on these Greeks, who, without provocation, have molested us." (Liber vii. c. 9.)

3. BRIGHU.

In the laws of Menu, translated by Sir William Jones, and published in his works,

THE NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 41

Brighu is called the son of Menu ; but we must not expect to find the mythology of India more consistent than that of Greece and Rome; and in Wilson's Sanskrit Dic- tionary we are informed that Menu is a name of Brahma, and Brighu of Siva. I believe them all to have been primarily names of the sun, and that the word Brighu is cognate with the Sanskrit Dhato, or verbal root Bhraj — shine. It would not be worth mentioning, however, if it did not supply a connecting link between Asia and Europe, and account for the origin of the names of the Bryges of Thrace, and the Phryges or Phrygians of Asia Minor. In Wilson's Sanskrit Dictionary I find Vriji, or Briji, a country probably that to the west of Delhi and Agra, or the modern Bruj ; and with respect to the Bryges, Strabo says that they were a Thracian people, and identical with the Phrygians, and that the Mygdonians, the Bebryces, the Moedo-Bithynians, the Bi- thynians, the Thynians, and the Mariandy- nians, were also from Thrace. (Strabo, lib. vii. c. 3. 2.) 4. GUSH, CUSHITES, and CUTHITES.

Kisa (the sun), Sanskrit. ~|

Kusha (to shine), Sanskrit. > Wilson.

Kusa (the son of Rama), Sanskrit. J

Cusha (children of the sun), Third Age

Jones, vol. iv. p. 31.

42 INVESTIGATION OF THE ORIGIN OF

Cusha Dwipa (India)— Maurice (doubtfdl). Cusha Dwipa (Persia) — Lieut Wilford.

In the Old Testament Gush appears some- times to signify Persia, sometimes Mesopo- tamia, sometimes Arabia, and sometimes Ethiopia in Africa. In the English version Gush is rendered by Ethiopia in every in- stance, though very different countries, separated from each other by an immense distance, are clearly intended to be spoken of. Cuth appears to be the Chaldee form of Gush, by changing sh to th; and by prefixing an aspirate sigma to the former word the Greeks may have formed Scuth, or Scythian. As we know that the Hindus, Persians, and Assyrians worshipped the sun, Cushite, or Cuthite, may primarily have been equivalent to sun worshipper. 5. BUDHA, BUDII, and BUDINI.

Buddhah, the ninth incarnation of Vishnu, and the apparent founder of the religion of the Bud'dhas. (Wilson, p. 605.) Budha, the son of the Moon, and regent of the planet Mercury, with whom he is iden- tified. (Wilson, p. 606.)

The names and order of the days of the week, if there were no other argument, would be quite enough to prove the Asiatic origin of a large pro- portion of the inhabitants of Europe. In Sanskrit we have Budhavara (Wednesday) ; in Latin, Dies. Mercurii ; in Italian, Mercoledi ; in French, Mer-

THE NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 43

credi ; in Anglo-Saxon, Wodens-day ; and in Ger- man, Wodanstag. The desideratum in this instance is, if possible, to supply intermediate links to con- nect the two distant extremities of the chain, and Herodotus furnishes us with a couple. He names the Budii among the Median people, and the Budini as a Scythian people to the north of the SauromataB, or Sarmatians. He remarks of the latter that they are a great and numerous people, that their bodies are painted of a blue and red colour, and that they have in their country a town called Gelonus, built entirely of wood. (Liber iv. c. 108.) Is it rash to conjecture that they derived their name of Budini from worshipping Budha, or Woden, who in fact is the chief god in Tartary at this moment, and how early he began to be so it would be difficult to say. We learn from Tacitus that some of the Germans painted their bodies of a blue colour ; and it is not altogether unworthy of notice that he mentions a people of the name of Boduni among the inhabitants of this island.

6. SIVA. — The Suevi, a great German people.

If the Scandinavians derived their name from worshipping Skanda, the Hindu Mars, the Saca3 from worshipping Budha under one of his Indian names, that of Sacya, and the Budii and Bu- dini from worshipping him under his ordinary name of Budha, we cannot but allow that it was quite as probable that Siva, one of the great gods of the Hindu triad, was also worshipped under his ordinary name, and that the Suevi were his vo-

44 INVESTIGATION OF THE ORIGIN OF

taries. Of these Suevi, Caesar remarks that it was accounted much to the honour of the nation to have the country for a great way round them waste and uninhabited, regarding it as an intimation that the united force of many states had been found in- sufficient to withstand their single valour; and that acting on this principle, the country on one side of them was a desolation extending six hundred miles. They may have derived this as a maxim of state policy from their ancestors ; at any rate, we find such a one seriously prescribed in the laws of Menu, which say, "Let him (the King) reside in a capital, having by way of fortress a desert rather more than twenty miles round it." ( JONES, vol. vii. p. 303.)

7. MAHATIJAH (i. e. Great Sword), a name of Skanda, or Kartikeya, the Hindu god of war. (Wilson, p. 649.) Maha (Sanskrit), great.

Tija (Sanskrit), sharpness of a weapon (by metonymy, the weapon itself).

This was one of the forms or personifications of Skanda, the Hindu Mars, and we meet with it in his own region of Scandinavia, or Scythia. On the summit of a high pile of wood, says Herodotus, each Scythian tribe places an ancient scymetar, which is considered as the shrine of Mars, and is annually honoured by the sacrifice of sheep and horses; indeed, to this deity more victims are offered than to all the other divinities. It is their

THE NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 45

custom also to sacrifice every hundredth captive, but in a different manner from their other victims. (Herodotus, lib. iv. c. 72.) We find something very like this in Italy, and sufficiently attesting the Asiatic origin of its earliest inhabitants. "The ceremony practised in the Regia," says Gibbon, " bears, in my opinion, all the marks of the highest antiquity. A people desirous of representing the god of war, but who were incapable or unwilling to imitate the human figure, and therefore adored him under the form of a spear, — a horse sacrificed in the field, whose bloody head was carried in pro- cession and fixed to the wall of the Regia, — every thing in these rites points to a Scythian origin, and indicates the manners of wandering barbarians." (Mis. Works, vol. v. p. 321.)

6. Habits.

1. FARS (Arabic), a horseman.

Pars (Arabic), Persia, Parthia.

Far si (Arabic), a Persian.

Pharash (Hebrew), a horseman.

Pharas (Hebrew), Persia, the Persians. Herodotus informs us, in his seventh book, that the ancient name of the Persians was Cephenes, and that they derived the name they were dis- tinguished by in his time from Perses, the son of Perseus and Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus, King of Ethiopia (Gush ?). If Perseus was a Greek, and if the Persic nation was descended from his son Perses, they ought by every rule of the

46 INVESTIGATION OF THE ORIGIN OF

genealogical system to have spoken Greek, unless we choose to say that Perses adopted in preference the language of his mother Andromeda. But in his sixth book Herodotus has the following per- plexing passage on the subject. " The Persians affirm that Perseus was an Assyrian by birth, be- coming afterwards a Greek, although none of his ancestors were of that nation. The ancestors of Acrisius claim no consanguinity with Perseus, being Egyptians, which account is confirmed by the Greeks. (Lib. vi. c. 54.) Now, without tak- ing upon me to decide whether the Persians were the descendants of Perseus or Perses, I have no hesitation in expressing my conviction that they derived their name from an Assyrian (Shemitic) word, that that name was significant, and that they were a nation of nomades, and called them- selves, and were called by their neighbours, horse- men. In different passages of his work Herodotus informs us that the Persians were totally unac- quainted with every species of luxury until after they had subdued the Medes, and that a Persian education was comprised in three things, — the art of the bow, that of horsemanship, and a strict regard to truth. By changing the termination of the Hebrew word Pharash (horseman), we have Pharath, its Chaldee form; and hence Parthian, with the same signification ; and we know that they were a nation of cavalry, and so formidable in the use of the bow that they destroyed the

THE NAMES OF TRIBES AND NATIONS. 47

army of Crassus, and endangered that of Mark

Antony.

2. There was a Scythian or Sarmatian people, known to the Greeks and Eomans by no other name than that of Hamaxobii, from the circumstance of not living in houses, but in waggons, in which they transported themselves and their effects from place to place, as their flocks and herds removed for the convenience of pasturage. While nations continued in this nomadic state there could hardly be said to be any geography; an inconsiderable tribe, at different seasons of the year, occupied an extent of country of several hundred miles. There were no cities, and it was consequently impossible to describe any situation except by its vicinity to a river or lake, or on which side it was of a great mountain chain, like those of Taurus, Caucasus, and Imaus.

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CHAPTEK III.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE OPERATION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION, THE PRIMARY AND STILL ACTIVE CAUSE OF THE DISPERSION OF MANKIND.

21. THE greatest political revolutions which have been recorded by the pen of authentic history, appear to have been produced by the irruptions or migrations of the nations inhabiting the vast countries which extend from the temperate regions of Europe and Asia in the direction of the North Polar Circle. Various theories have been invented to account for this striking fact, which I shall briefly notice. Among these, one of the most singular is that of the celebrated Monsieur Bailly, which was first propounded in his History of Ancient Astronomy, and subsequently illustrated and defended at considerable length, and with great ingenuity, in a distinct work. He supposes that the extreme north, at some remote period, long anterior to the dawn of history, was the seat of knowledge, arts, and refinement, whence they were diffused in a southerly direction. To support this paradoxical hypothesis, he is obliged to have re- course to several gratuitous assumptions, one of which is, that in the early ages of the world the temperature of the northern latitudes was higher, and the climate more congenial to the comfort and

THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 49

support of life than we now experience it to be. The objection to this opinion is, and it appears to be completely fatal to it, that it is not only unsup- ported by, but in direct opposition to, all the meteorological facts with which we are acquainted, which uniformly tend to prove that all climates have grown milder with the augmentation of popu- lation, and the progress of arts and government, which is no more than might have been previously expected. In proportion as the human race multi- plied, they felt themselves obliged to have recourse to agriculture as a means of support ; and in the course of the improvements incidental to the prac- tice of that art, forests were felled, and the soil laid open to the action of the sun and the air; bogs and marshes were drained, and unwholesome exhalations removed ; rivers confined within their banks, and the formation of stagnant pools and lakes prevented ; and all these steps have been found by experience not only to be favourable to the melioration of climate, but conducive to the enjoyment of health, and the duration of life in a still more eminent degree.

22. Others, again, observing the immense swarms which "the populous north" in every age has ap- peared to pour from " her frozen loins," have fancied that some circumstances peculiarly favour- able to the rapid increase of population were na- turally connected with a high northern latitude, — the soil, the diet, the habits of life, and even the climate itself. But of all the branches of human

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knowledge, our advances in political science would appear to be the most slow, gradual, and uncertain ; and in the department of political economy, the subject of population would seem to be beset by more inveterate prejudices, by more gratuitous assumptions, by more fallacious appearances, by a greater difficulty in ascertaining the actual state of facts, and of deducing legitimate conclusions from them, than almost any other that can be named. A strong and steady light, however, has been diffused over every branch of the subject of population since the publication of the great work of Malthus ; so much so, that on many points we are now able to reason confidently, respecting which Montesquieu, and even Smith, were con- strained to guess darkly. The Essay on Popu- lation may be said to have established several general truths beyond the power of contradiction or controversy ; and I shall now proceed to apply some of them to the illustration of the subject of the early migration of nations.

23. In whatever countries we find the most un- equivocal proofs of their having been in possession of the advantages of civilization from the most remote antiquity, we are obliged, by every rule of logical reasoning, to regard those countries as the primeval seats of the human race, and all my inquiries point to Egypt and Hindustan. The splendid and gigantic remains of art in the former read us a lesson which it is impossible to mistake. "We know that in every country the arts of necessity

THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 51

precede those of luxury ; those which are requisite to the support of life, those which tend merely to dignify and adorn it. The pyramids, obelisks, tombs, and temples of Egypt, infer profuse expen- diture and unbounded wealth, and we know that wealth is the result of labour, and that the neces- sary condition of productive industry is the exist- ence of just and equal laws, which shall secure to the labourer the enjoyment of the fruits of his earnings. The proofs of the early civilization of India are of another kind indeed, but not less con- clusive than those of Egypt. In the latter country we have the result of settled government and wise laws in the magnificent remains of art ; in the former we have the laws themselves in the Insti- tutes of Menu, the Yedas, and Puranas, the copious drama, and still more copious philosophy ; and of a nature not less conclusive is the mythology of Hindustan, which illustrates that of every country both of ancient and modern Europe, and the composition of the Sanskrit, the language in which it is conveyed, which throws a light on the kindred languages of Greece and Rome.

24. I shall often have occasion in the course of my work to mention the " Essay on the Principle of Population," and think it difficult to speak of Malthus too highly ; indeed the great merits of that work have long been generally felt and acknow- ledged — the liberal, comprehensive, and truly phi- losophical spirit with which the author engaged in his task, his indefatigable industry of research, his

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careful investigation of facts, his logical inductions from those facts, and the ardent feeling of patriot- ism and philanthropy, the zeal to promote the best interests of mankind which pervade every part of the work. But while all these claims to admira- tion are readily admitted, the book has been con- ceived, I think very unjustly, to question the wisdom of the appointments of Providence, to re- flect on the Divine character and attributes, and so far to have, if not a directly immoral, an unsatis- factory, a perplexing, and a melancholy tendency. I am of opinion that the wisdom and benevolence of the Deity, so far as they are connected with the subject of population, may be completely vin- dicated in the three following propositions, which, as they are in the spirit of Malthus, form at the same time a defence of the religious part of the Essay on Population.

1. That it was the intention of the Divine

Being, in the creation of man, that every part of the earth should be peopled.

2. That it was also part of his plan that the si-

tuation in which man was placed should be such as to develop all the capacities of his physical, intellectual, and moral nature.

3. That it is probable all the capacities and

energies of the human character will not be called forth until every habitable part of the globe is not only inhabited, but made to produce its maximum of food, or in other words, until the earth supports all the hu- man beings it is capable of supporting.

THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 53

Proposition 1.

25. It is obvious that the earth might have been peopled much more rapidly than it has been, if such had been the will of its Divine Creator. Instead of creating a single pair, and placing them, as we are informed, in a central situation in Asia, he might, if it had seemed good to him, have placed a male and female in every continent, in every considerable region, or in every large island of the habitable globe, and in a few centuries the world might have been peopled up to its maximum of produce, or the greatest quantity of food it can be made capable of raising by the utmost exertions of human industry, which must form the ultimate limit to the progress of population. The Divine Being adopted another and a simpler course. He created a single pair ; and by the establishment of what may be regarded as the fundamental law of the principle of popula- tion, established at the same time a moral necessity that the world should, in the course of a succession of ages, be fully peopled in every part. That fun- damental law may be stated to be, that population has a natural tendency to increase in a higher or more rapid ratio than the productions of the earth can be increased. Grant the existence of such a law, and the complete peopling of the world at some future indefinite period necessarily follows as a matter of course ; deny it, and it is by no means obvious how such an object was ever to be effected by merely natural means.

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26. At the present age of the world, in which our happy lot has been cast, the advanced state of knowledge, and the perfection of the art of naviga- tion, have made us familiarly acquainted with almost every part of the globe ; and from the eminence on which we are placed we can cast a bird's-eye view on our species, and take a deliberate survey of man in every stage of the long march of civilization. At the extremity of South America, in Terra del Fuego, his utmost exertions appear barely sufficient to support an existence, which, with our views, it is difficult to regard as a blessing. In the northern division of the great Western Continent, surrounded by a civilized people, during the last two or three centuries, and witnessing the innumerable com- forts they enjoy, the aboriginal race, so far from catching the smallest portion of the spirit of im- provement, and imitating their example, however imperfectly, have found annihilation easier than improvement, as if they were formed by nature to be a nation of hunters and fishers, — and if they cannot be that, must needs be nothing. In the vast steppes of Tartary, and the sandy deserts of Arabia, we behold a people dwelling in tents, continually shifting their abode for the convenience of pastur- age, without arts, without letters, almost without any government except the patriarchal, or any laws except the simple laws of nature — unchanged from the earliest records of the past, and apparently destined to continue so through the revolving ages of the future. Africa, which took the lead in the

THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 55

march of civilization, and by the instrumentality of ancient Egypt was the means of diffusing coloniza- tion, arts, and knowledge, appears to have been ex- hausted by the first effort ; for, with the exception of Carthage, no other great state has arisen in the continent, — and the rival of Rome, like Egypt be- fore her, " died and made no sign ;" and the bar- barism which they for a time dispelled, has for many centuries overspread the territories of both with tenfold darkness. Hindustan, Persia, Syria, and Asia Minor, occupy a lower place in the scale of civilization than they once filled; while China, the other great division of the Asiatic continent, by a singular fate appears to be equally incapable of retrogradation or advancement, and like the fabu- lous coffin of Mahomet, suspended between heaven and earth, has no tendency in the direction of either.

27. In North America we find man in the sim- plest state in which his condition has ever been observed. When that continent was first discovered its inhabitants were hunters and fishers, and such as remain, are so still. They were content to live on the spontaneous productions of the earth, with- out making any effort to increase them. The neces- sary consequence of this mode of life was, that on any given spot, whatever might be its dimensions, the resident population could never increase beyond the supply of game afforded by that spot. When it exceeded that supply there was no resource but emigration, or removing to such a distance from

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the original settlement as not to interfere with their supply of game, and to attempt to discover fresh supplies for themselves. In this way the whole continent of North America, vast as it is, would in no long period of time be fully peopled, with reference to its actual means of support, that is, the wild ani- mals which the chace presented to the arrows of the hunter ; and if the globe of the earth had been one vast continent undivided by seas and oceans, the whole of its surface might, in a few centuries, have been overspread with such a race, and the ultimate limit to population would have been the quantity of game which the earth produces spon- taneously ; for as no efforts of man could, by any possibility, add to that quantity, it is obvious that unless he could exist without food, his own species could never augment beyond the number that could 6e supported by that supply. A work distinguished by various and accurate knowledge, and large and enlightened views, Bishop Sumner's " Kecords of the Creation," has the foUowing passage : " Perhaps it may be safely asserted that the people who derive their subsistence from the chace alone throughout the globe, do not exceed, do not even equal the number of the inhabitants of Scotland." I must confess that I derived much pleasure from reading this, for I had often contemplated the fate of the North American Indian race with painful feelings. The native possessors of the soil, an innocent and unoffending people, appear to be doomed to gradual but certain eventual extinction, by a set of new

THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 57

comers, whose dominion is founded on usurpation, and who can urge no claim of right but that of force. This is a gloomy picture, and, at the first aspect, we find it difficult to reconcile it with those principles of the moral government of the Deity, which no one would ever wish to doubt ; but in every instance God seeth not as man seeth ; and in the present, though it is true that the aboriginal race will be annihilated, yet by how many tens of millions will their place be supplied ; and to a be- nevolent Being delighting in the contemplation of happiness, as we suppose the Deity to be, how dif- ferent must appear tj^e sum of good in the American Continent even now ! how different will it be a few centuries hence, when the progress of civilization has been carried across the Continent to its eastern extremity, and the United States will rival or ex- ceed China in population ! To take a stronger case ; if the whole earth had been entirely occupied by nations of hunters and fishers it could not, by any possibility, have supported more than a few mil- lions ; at present it is supposed to contain upwards of one thousand millions ; and the advance of know- ledge and civilization is continually adding to the number. To augment the number of sentient, in- telligent beings, is to augment the capacity of human enjoyment ; and to a being who delights in communicating and beholding happiness as we con- ceive of the Deity, we cannot but imagine that this world must be continually a more and more agree- able object of contemplation.

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Proposition 2.

28. The operation of the fundamental law of the principle of population, or the tendency of the human race to increase in a more rapid ratio than the supply of food, was no doubt the cause in the infancy of the world of the different quarters of the earth being peopled ; but this law of population has two modes of operation, both equally irresistible in their nature, though very different in their effects. The pressure of population does not necessarily lead to emigration ; but if it does not produce this result, it produces another equally good, namely, such an improvement in the mode of living as will provide for the augmented numbers. The lowest state of civil society is that of hunters and fishers, and be- yond this the American Indians have never ad- vanced: the one immediately above it, is that of shepherds, supported by the milk and flesh of their flocks and herds ; and this they might have attained but for the inferiority of their mental powers, or the unfavourable tendency of their indolence and other moral habits, or the uncongenial climate, or the un- propitious soil, or the joint operation of all these causes together. In the shepherd state the same extent of territory is capable of supporting a greatly augmented number of persons, and in a much more comfortable manner than as hunters and fishers. Here the supply of food is susceptible of being in- creased by human care, industry, and skill ; in the former and lower state man was entirely dependent

THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 59

on the bounty of nature. The only limit to the increase of the flocks and herds is the supply of pasture grounds ; and in the infancy of society little difficulty is experienced on this score, as when one spot is exhausted they remove to another ; but with the increase of population, pastoral nations experi- ence the same degree of inconvenience with refer- ence to their feeding grounds, as in the preceding state, with regard to their hunting grounds, and subjects of dispute become equally numerous, con- tentions as fierce, and wars as bloody.

29. As the evidence of tradition and history points to Hindustan and Persia as the earliest seats of Asiatic civilization, the evidence of language tends no less clearly to prove that the vast regions of Tartary to the north of the great chain of the Himalaya mountains were peopled by the over- flowings of that southern population, and that they are the people who, under the name of Scythians, Sarmatians, Goths, Yandals, and Huns, first over- threw the colossal fabric of the Roman empire, and next gave a new aspect to society in most of the countries of Europe. They are said to have come from Scandinavia, and I find Scanda in Sanskrit as a name of Kartikeya, the Hindu Mars. They are said to have been followers of Woden, and in the Indian calendar I find the same day sacred to Budha, as in our own language and in almost all those of modern Europe, to the former, while the letters B and V in Sanskrit are com- mutable. Odin is described in the Edda of Snorro

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as the chief of the Asars ; and I find in Sanskrit the word Asara, fire, and know that Budha is merely a name of the sun. Herodotus informs me that there was much in common between the Scythians and the Massa-Geta?, and that the sun was the great god of the latter. The same author describes the Arimaspians as dwelling in a high northern latitude, a very singular people with only one eye, which he supposes their name to indicate ; but when I find many compound words in Sanskrit and other ancient languages describing the sun as the eye of the world, I can entertain little doubt that they derived their name from their religion, that they were Sabians or Sun worshippers, and beheld their God every day with the same number of eyes as their neighbours, neither more nor less. The Ger- mans and the English have hitherto been accus- tomed to look to the north of Europe, the supposed Scandinavia, for the elucidation of their language and antiquities ; but when we reflect that the Edda, the oldest written composition of the northern people, is not more ancient than the twelfth or thirteenth century, an era of yesterday in com- parison with the origin of nations, it becomes quite obvious that either an attempt must be made to connect the early history of Europe with that of Asia, or that we must rest content to leave the whole subject involved in an obscurity which no eye can penetrate, and perplexed with contradic- tions which no ingenuity can reconcile.

THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 61

Proposition 3.

30. As the operation of the great law of the principle of population, or the tendency of the human race to increase more rapidly than food can be increased, appears to have peopled the continent of north America with tribes of hunters and fishers to an amount fully commensurate with its actual produce, so the operation of the same law appears to have peopled the vast regions in the north of Asia with tribes in the nomadic or shepherd state. The pressure of population against the means of subsistence first constrained them to cross the great mountain chain of the Himalaya, which sepa- rates Southern from Central and Northern Asia. Here at first " the world was all before them where to choose," and there can be little doubt that the progress of population was such as we now ex- perience it to be in some parts of the United States of America, doubling in periods of twenty, or less than twenty years. The country in the immediate vicinity of the great mountain chain was first oc- cupied, and they were impelled in a northerly direction by successive new comers. Their pro- gress northward, however, was checked by the severity of the climate. Not only was the extreme degree of cold incompatible with the existence of comfort and almost of life, but in proportion as the temperature diminished, vegetation declined ; and the latitude which formed the ultimate barrier to the advance of the shepherds was that where

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the pastures became insufficient for the support of their flocks and herds. To the eastward they ad- vanced in the direction of China, and of that nar- row sea which some centuries later they were fated to pass and people America. Of their progress westward we have occasional and scanty historical notices ; but the capture of Kome by the Gauls is a proof that the nomadic tribes had diffused them- selves over great part of the north of Europe.

31. Political writers have been fond of illus- trating the progress of nations by comparisons drawn from the life of individuals, and of describing to us the infancy, the youth, the manhood, and the old age of civil societies. The resemblance is suffi- ciently obvious, but in one respect, and that a very material one, the dissimilarity is still more remark- able. Every individual of the human race who is born into the world, if his life is spared, continues in a state of progression up to a certain point, arid through the stages of infancy, childhood, and puberty by the operation of a necessary and inva- riable law attains perfect manhood ; but this is by no means the case in the instance of political com- munities. The aboriginal inhabitants of North America have never advanced beyond the state of hunters and fishers, and may be said to have remained for ages in a condition of infancy : the tribes who possess the vast regions of Northern Asia have been nomades or shepherds from time immemorial, and not advanced beyond childhood; while the civilized states of Southern Asia, as com-

THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 63

pared with ancient Greece or Rome, or the most flou- rishing states of modern Europe, must be admitted never to have attained the perfect stature and fully developed powers of manhood. Again, in the life of the individual, the successive changes are as gradual and insensible as in the order of the seasons, while the four great divisions of political society are as strongly discriminated as the imaginary zones into which the Greek geographers divided the world, and appear to be separated by impassable gulfs. Some have supposed the North American and Tartar races to be essentially inferior to the % European in their intellectual and moral powers, while others are of opinion that their actual condition is the natural, not to say necessary result of the physical circumstances in which they have been placed. The whole of North America, when it was dis- covered, appears to have been one vast forest, adapted by nature to the residence of tribes of hunters and fishers, but not susceptible of being converted into pasture grounds without the employ- ment of a degree of labour, for which nothing short of the rich returns of agriculture could supply an adequate motive, and, as a matter of course, the woods were never cleared until after the arrival of a more civilized race. On the other hand, while the extended plains of Tartary supply abundant pastur- age for their flocks and herds, the cold is so intense, and the climate so ungeriial, as to render the returns of agriculture rarely abundant, and always uncertain, circumstances which have uni-

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formly operated to render the condition of the inhabitants stationary, and check every tendency to improvement. One of the most difficult steps in the whole progress of civilization would appear to be the transition from the nomadic to the agri- cultural state. The existence of agriculture among a people supposes their residence to be, at least, sometimes stationary ; its extensive practice requires that they should be continually so; arid its per- fection demands that there should be a property in the soil, and that the land should descend in perpe- tuity from generation to generation, that the agri- culturist may be stimulated to exertion by the hope of reward, and the reflection that though he himself may not be benefited by the improvements he undertakes, he is laying the foundation of a fortune for his grandchildren and great-grand- children. But supposing a perpetuity in land esta- blished, if man were stimulated to exertion solely by animal wants, every motive to industry would cease when those wants were fully satisfied. But as the capacity of the human mind is almost unbounded, so the range of its desires is next to unlimited. When corporeal wants are satisfied, a taste arises for comforts, conveniences, luxuries, for variety, magnificence, beauty, sublimity ; and any individual who can minister to the gratification of any one of these, has the same moral certainty of securing a comfortable subsistence, as if he tilled the soil which supports, wove the garment which covers, or built the house which protects him with

THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 65

his own hands. This principle, then, of the pressure of population against the means of subsistence, either drives man to explore new countries, or forces him upwards in the scale of civilization, from the con- dition of a hunter of wild animals, which may be regarded as a state of nature, through the stages of a shepherd and agriculturist, until we arrive at that in which the labour of a minor part, devoted to the cultivation of the soil, supports both itself and the majority engaged in the infinitely diver- sified pursuits of arts, manufactures, and commerce. In other words, with the progress of population, man is either obliged to cover a greater extent of ground, or to render the portion he inhabits more productive : the operation of the first principle causes the whole of the earth to be peopled, that of the second tends to push on society to the greatest degree of improvement and most exquisite refinement it is susceptible of receiving. In a word, the advance of society, and perhaps of indi- viduals, appears to me to be an exemplification of the following lines from one of the greatest of poets : —

Pater ipse colendi

Haud facilem esse viam voluit ; primusque per artem Movit agros, curis acuens mortalia corda ; Nee torpere gravi passus sua regna veterno.

VIRG. Georg. lib. i. 121.

32. At the present moment, in England, we are quite certain, from the population returns, that con- siderably less than one half the number of its

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inhabitants is engaged in agricultural labour, and that labour may be said to support the whole, as the proportion which the food imported bears to that which is raised is next to nothing. In every instance, to say that any country is advancing in agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and the arts of the most refined luxury, is equivalent to asserting that at every step it contains a greater number of sentient intelligent beings, capable of receiving and imparting happiness ; and at the first view this appears to be an unmixed good, and a subject of gratitude and exultation ; but it may be asked, Does national happiness necessarily keep pace with the increase of population, and may not the rate of that increase be so rapid, as to be pro- ductive of almost unmingled misery ?

33. The answer to this question is, that as the natural tendency of population in every country that has been long occupied and settled is to increase more rapidly than the means of subsistence can be multiplied, every direct encouragement to population is not merely unnecessary, but positively mischievous. By increasing the population, we are not sure that we increase at the same time the supply of pro- visions ; and if we do not, the situation of the whole community, with reference to the food necessary to support it, is becoming continually worse and worse ; but by augmenting the supply of food, and the fa- cility of subsistence, we are quite sure of augmenting the population, and that too precisely in the degree in which it is wanted. In politics and political

THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 67

economy, as well as all other subjects, there is an intimate connection between knowledge and happi- ness. False theories of the former, and false systems of the latter, tend to produce misery. The Poor Laws, as established in England in the reign of Elizabeth, have deteriorated the condition of the labouring classes more perhaps than any other single cause They began by misleading the la- bourer, have proceeded by disappointing, and ended by almost starving him. Supposing the Govern- ment had never interfered, the wages of labour would have been at every period an infallible cri- terion of the demand for labour, and their rise would have demonstrated that the supply of labourers with reference to the demand was insufficient, while their decline would have proved as conclusively that the supply was redundant. Whenever the rate of wages was such as to enable the labourer to marry with the fair prospect of providing comfortably for his family, marriages would have been early and nu- merous ; when, on the contrary, the rate was so low as to be barely adequate to the labourer's own sup- port, directly the reverse would have been the case. The legislature first asserted a proposition, which is utterly false, and which, if acted upon without check, would be subversive of all civil society, — that every man has a right to support independent of the exertions of his own labour ; and next proceeded to enact an impossibility, by directing overseers to set all the unemployed poor to work, their want of employment having arisen from the circumstance

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that by the direct encouragement held out to popu- lation the supply of workmen had far outgrown the demand for work. If every man has a natural right to demand support from the community inde- pendent of any service rendered to the community, the only limit to the increase of population is the possibility of levying a poor rate to be transferred from the productive to the unproductive class : if, on the contrary, he has no such right, the progress of population will be checked when the wages of labour decline below that rate which is adequate to the support of a family in the way in which the labourer himself has been accustomed to live. When the rate of wages is such that the existence of the labouring classes must be one continual struggle with the most severe privations, with insufficient food, insufficient clothing, insufficient domestic ac- commodation, and insufficient rest, his views of what renders life a blessing must be very peculiar, who, under such circumstances, can regard a rapid increase of population as a thing to be desired. No legislative enactment can alter the nature of things, nor can the wages of labour be raised while the supply and the demand continue in the same ratio to each other. We cannot materially increase the latter, but we may diminish the former. For more than two hundred years, the English Government, instead of educating the labourer in just views of his situation, his duty, and his interest, has been continually misleading him, by acting on a theory which is fundamentally erroneous, and raising ex-

THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 69

pectations which can never be realized. The situ- ation of the labouring classes cannot be permanently ameliorated until the redundant population is re- moved ; and every facility ought to be afforded them to transport themselves to some of the English colo- nies— to Canada, to the Cape of Good Hope, or to New Holland. Nor is it enough to remove the redundant population, unless we at the same time take steps to prevent such a redundancy from occurring again, by imparting to every class of the community the blessings of education, and by diffusing sounder views of the doctrines of political economy in all directions, from the newspaper and the periodical, from the pamphlet and the treatise, from the school and the university, from the pulpit and the senate. 34. In whatever country the most strenuous exertions of the labourer, continued unremittingly during fourteen or sixteen hours out of the four- and-twenty, are insufficient to procure the bare necessaries of life, it is a concl ,sive proof of one of two things, — either that in that country the benefi- cence of nature, and the wise arrangements of Pro- vidence, are counteracted by false, superficial, and selfish systems of politics and political economy, or that population has nearly attained its maximum. England at this moment is such a country ; for not only in the manufacturing districts, but in many of the agricultural counties, the condition of the labour- ing classes is such that it is impossible to regard any addition made to their numbers as an augment- ation of the sum of national happiness. For this

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many causes may be assigned ; first, the pressure of a taxation which cannot be materially diminished, as by much the larger proportion of it is mortgaged to pay the interest of an enormous national debt, accumulated in a long course of wars, which the authors of them were pleased to denominate " just and necessary," but which posterity will probably regard in a very different light ; secondly, the pro- digious and unconscionable sums levied on all classes of the community in a spirit of intolerance and monopoly to support a State religion, which is pro- bably professed by not more than half the popu- lation in England and Scotland, and by so incon- siderable a minority in Ireland, that it is obvious neither fraud nor force can support it much longer, and that its years, and almost its days, are num- bered ; and, lastly, the Corn Laws, perhaps one of the greatest anomalies, to use the gentlest language*,

* In the discussion on the Corn Bill in 1815 some noble peers expressed their opinion to the following effect : —

The Marquis of Buckingham (the father of the present Duke) protested against the bill, against its principle, the mode of carrying it into practice, and against the precipitation with which it had been hurried through the House, in defiance of the petitions of the people. His Lordship characterized the measure as a bribe given to the landed interest, to induce them to ac- quiesce in the maintenance of war establishments in a time of peace ; and considered it as most unjust to the other classes of the community, that their Lordships should thus have secured to them in a time of peace the high prices which they had obtained during a period of war.

Lord Redesdale defended the bill, contending that it was for the advantage of all classes of the community to encourage the growth of corn ; taking the import at one fortieth part of the

THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 71

in a commercial code which is full of anomalies ; but as the present minister retains the Income Tax, in opposition to what was universally regarded as a specific pledge that it should not continue in exist- ence more than three years, solely to enable him to carry into effect the large and comprehensive advances he contemplates towards a system of free trade, we may confidently anticipate that the Corn Laws, one of the greatest deformities in modern economical legislation, have received their doom. Unless the Corn Laws keep the average price of wheat in the home market permanently higher than it would be if there were no Corn Laws, the system cannot benefit the land-owner ; if they do keep it permanently higher, which it is hardly possible to doubt, the benefit of the landlord is the injury of every other class of the community. Either the government must be administered in a better spirit, and the sole, rational, and intelligible end of all government, the greatest good of the governed, be kept more steadily in view, or a great change must take place in the circumstances of

consumption, .thirty-nine parts must be provided within our- selves. The landholders besides, whose rents, instead of in- creasing, had really diminished, though there was a nominal rise, ought to be maintained in their relative scale in society.

Lord King considered the argument of the noble lord re- garding the landholders, to be speaking out upon the subject, and shewing the real nature of the bill. The measure was to operate by a monopoly, and must have the effect of raising the price of wheat. (Debate in the House of Lords, Monday, March 20. 1815, as reported in " Hansard's Parliamentary Debates," vol. xxx. pages 259 — 261.)

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England, and emigration must continually be more and more extensively resorted to. The pressure of population, as it was the original principle which operated to divide mankind into families, tribes, and nations, and to scatter them over the face of the earth, will continue to operate until the whole earth is fully peopled up to its utmost possible pro- duce ; as silent and unseen in its working, but as universal and irresistible as gravitation itself. The world is still in its infancy. There is America to be peopled, Africa to be civilized, Asia to be ameli- orated, and great part of Europe itself to be re- deemed from the yoke of civil and religious tyranny, and placed under the sway of wise, equal, and be- neficent laws.

35. It is time, however, to apply these principles, so far as they are susceptible of application, to ac- count for the mode in which ancient Scythia was peopled. The reader does not require to be in- formed that the materials for tracing emigrations which occurred long before the period of authentic history must necessarily be very scanty. The great thing is to make the most of them, which it appears to me we shall accomplish in the twa following modes : —

(1.) By tracing the progress of the nations of Southern Asia northward and westward, from the evidence of language.

(2.) By a careful analysis of the words men- tioned by Herodotus, as forming part of the language of the Scythians.

THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 73

36. (1.) We are much indebted to Herodotus for supplying us with some chronological data in this part of our subject, not very definite indeed, but still not without their, value. He informs us that the Scythians did not pretend to be a very ancient people; a circumstance so very uncommon, that I am disposed to place some confidence in the account they gave of themselves, which was, that their coun- try was, of all others, the last formed, and that when this region was in its original and desert state, the first inhabitant was named Targitaus, who was a son of Jupiter by a daughter of the river Borysthenes, and lived about one thousand years before the invasion of Scy thia by Darius Hystaspes, and no more. (Herodotus, lib. iv. c. 5 and 7.) The accession of Darius to the throne of Persia is placed by chronologers, B. c. 522 ; and one thousand years before, that is, a little more than fifteen hundred years before the Christian era, the vast regions of Scy thia did not contain one human being. This is very nearly the period assigned by the Greeks to the Deluge of Deucalion ; and I would just remark how fatal this Scythian tradition, preserved by Herodotus, is to the hypothesis of Bailly, which has been already alluded to, and which would make the extreme north the cradle of the human race. In the sixteenth century, then, before the Christian era, I suppose the whole of Southern Asia, from the Mediterranean to the Ganges, to have been pos- sessed by nations who had not advanced beyond the nomadic or shepherd state, dwelling in tents, and

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subsisting on the produce of their flocks and herds, and that all the pasture grounds were fully occu- pied. The pressure of population commenced, and the resource of agriculture was obvious, which would soon have removed it ; but all history and experience concur to prove that the transition from the pastoral to the agricultural state is the most difficult in the social progress of man. The Asiatic shepherds found it easier to emigrate than to ad- vance a step in civilization, and incur that total revolution of manners which is implied in a people which had been migratory, pastoral, dwelling in tents, and subsisting almost entirely on the produce of their flocks and herds, becoming stationary, agri- cultural, living in houses, and exchanging animal for a vegetable diet, of which corn forms the chief ingredient. We have seen the great Arabic, or Shemitic family, seated in the country which ex- tends from the Mediterranean to the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. They conferred on those rivers names descriptive of their nature, Frat and Hiddekel, which they still bear unchanged in the languages of the East. The pressure of population against the means of subsistence rendered emigration not a matter of choice, but of necessity. They advanced in a northerly direction towards the great mountain chain of Taurus, which, under various names, runs from west to east throughout considerable part of Asia. They named it from Tor, Arabic, a mountain ; they passed it, and we have indubitable evidence

THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 75

that a Sheinitic language was spoken at an early period in Cappadocia, in Pontus, and from the river Halys eastward to the Tigris, (ffeereri's Asiatic Nations, vol. i. p. 71.) They advanced still farther north, and named Cimmeria, from the Arabic word Kahm, black, and the Persic Ra, the mark of the oblique case, intending to describe the thick dark- ness and long night which brood over the world as we approach towards the Polar Circle — a circum- stance which induced the early Greeks to regard this region as the seat of hell. They also probably named the Palus Maeotis from the Hebrew word Maweth*, death. Nor did their wanderings end even here, for they penetrated as far as the incle- mency of the climate is compatible with human ex- istence, and denominated the inhospitable region Siberia, from Sabarah or Sabarat ; a word which, in Arabic, signifies intense winter cold. The same race appear to have named a mountain chain, known to the ancients as the Riphaean, from the Arabic word Rafia, high, exalted. In D'Anville's Map it appears in north latitude 60°, east longitude between 70° and 80°.

37. The Persic race, stimulated by the same pressure of population, pursued nearly a similar line of proceeding. They advanced towards the north to the great mountain range of Caucasus. They named it by doubling the Persic word Koh,

* " See where Mceotis sleeps, and hardly flows

The freezing Tanais through a waste of snows." — Pope.

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hill, which in this form signifies a very high hill, or hill of hills. They crossed Caucasus, and advanced into a country which Herodotus describes as the seat of the Sauromatas or Sarmataa. They named that country from the Persic word Sarma, cold; which, as it rather describes a particular latitude than a particular country, was used by the Greek geographers with extreme looseness. In meaning it corresponds as nearly as possible with their term Hyperboreans. The same race spread north and east, and named Tartary, by doubling the Persic word Tar, dark, black, which in this form, after the analogy of the Hebrew, signified very dark, or dark- ness of darkness, still with an allusion to the long night within, and as we approximate towards the Polar Circle like Cimmeria, as Sarmatia was nearly synonymous with Siberia, and as the Greek poets made Cimmeria the locality of hell, Tartarus, from the Persic Tartary, with them was hell itself. In a westerly direction the Persic race advanced to the river Borysthenes, named it from the Persic words Bur or Bor, a horse, and Istan, place ; and even- tually gave a name to Sarmatia, the ancient Poland. The influence of Persia on the language of Germany is strongly attested both by Grotius and Leibnitz, two of the most illustrious of her scholars.

38. The Indian race advanced north to the stupendous chain of the Himalaya, which they named from the Sanskrit words Hima (cold, frost, snow), and Laya (dwelling), passed it, and pene- trated into Tibet ; and we have the testimony of

THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 77

Sir William Jones that the language of that coun- try was anciently Sanskrit (vol. iii. p. 175.), to say nothing of its religion being that of the Indian Budha. The same race appear to have repeated the Hima, of Himalaya, in Mount Imaus, which was again repeated at a long subsequent period in Europe, in the Mount Hsemus of Thrace. They also denominated the vast regions of the north of Asia Scandinavia, from the Sanskrit words Scanda, one of the names of the Hindu Mars, and Navy a, praise, panegyric, or glory. This is the true and original Scandinavia ; this is the real offidna gen- tium ; this is the cradle of the religion of Woden, who is identical with Scanda and Budha ; this is the point from which those countless swarms of barbarians rushed, who in a subsequent age were destined to sweep away the mightiest political fabric, raised by the greatest people the sun ever surveyed in his course, and by something like the double office ascribed to the Indian Siva, first to destroy, and eventually to regenerate the world.

(2.) For the few Scythian words we possess, we are indebted to the indefatigable curiosity, and no less extraordinary accuracy of Herodotus. De- scribing the fabulous Arimaspians, he says, they derive their name from Arima, the Scythian word for one, and Spu, an eye. (Liber iv. c. 27.) On opening Kichardson's Persic and Arabic Dictionary, I find Arim as an Arabic word, signifying also one, but cannot discover any thing like Spu in either language, and am tempted to conjecture that it was

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formed from the Greek word Ops (an eye) by transposition. Again, in his account of the divini- ties of Scythia, Herodotus informs us that they called Jupiter Papaeus, and I find in Sanskrit the word Papis, signifying the sun. It appears to me hardly possible to doubt that the two words are identical when we recollect that the Massa-Getse were Scythians, and that the same historian de- scribes the sun as their great god. We learn from the same authority that the Scythian name of Vesta was Tabiti ; and when we know that she was the Bona Dea of the Romans, and when I find Agatha as a name of Vesta, or Cybele among the Etruscan Inscriptions in Lanzi, I can hardly entertain a doubt that Tabiti was formed by contraction from the words Tobah, good (Hebrew), and Thea, goddess (Greek). The Scythian name of the Celestial Venus was Artimpasa, which seems to be the Persic name which Herodotus ascribes to the same di- vinity, Mitra reversed, with the Sanskrit word Bhas, shine, written Pasa. From Mitra reversed, the Greeks formed Artemis, a name of Diana ; and the Syrian Astarte, or the Queen of Heaven, signified the moon more commonly than any thing else. (Liber iv. c. 59.) The above words were carried northward by the nations of Southern Asia, im- pelled in that direction by the operation of the law of the principle of population. I shall now men- tion two or three more, which, originating in Scythia, acquired a permanent place in the lan- guages of Greece and Rome. Herodotus might

THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION. 79

have mentioned the name of another Scythian god, that of Abaris. He does mention him in- deed, but with evident incredulity: the story of Abaris, says he, who was said to be an Hyper- borean, and to have made a circuit of the earth without food, and carried on an arrow, merits no attention. In this instance my faith is much stronger than that of the father of history, and I have no hesitation in expressing my entire con- viction that Abaris travelled round the earth with- out eating, but I will not undertake to answer for his not drinking, as I think he will be found to be of a very thirsty nature*, Abaris being no other than the Latin word Jubar (a sunbeam), written in the Oriental mode, Aibar, with a Greek termin- ation, like Iran, the ancient name of Persia, which in the native characters is Airan. Herodotus also informs us that the Scythian name of the goddess Tellus, the earth, was Apia ; and we meet with Apia as a name of Peloponnesus in the Iliad. Herodotus also mentions the same divinity as Histia, the Scythian queen ; and if that was also a Scythian word, there can be no doubt that it sup-

* Abaris, or the Sun personified, appears to have been a name of Apollo himself, of which Abdera was the corruption. Muller, in his "History and Antiquities of the Doric Race," men- tions an oracular temple of Apollo at Dercea, near Abdera, alluded to in the device on the coins of Abdera ; on one side of which Apollo is seen with the arrow in his hand ; and on the reverse is a griffin, a symbol of which appears to have been adopted by the Teians, in consequence of their having resided for some time in their colony of Abdera. — Vol. i. p. 253.

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plies the etymology of the Greek Estia, and with the ^Eolic digamma, of the Latin Vesta. As we have seen, the name of Siberia appears to be de- rived from an Arabic word, signifying intense win- ter cold; but there is no one Siberian language, but various languages, spoken in that vast tract of country. In the same way Herodotus informs us that the Sarmatians (Sauromataa) spoke the Scythian tongue ; but the probability is that there was no one Scythian tongue, because the Scythians were not a homogeneous people ; Scy- thia, or Scandinavia, was peopled by the over- flowings of the countries of the south, driven northward by the pressure of the principle of po- pulation.— China, India, Persia, Assyria, and Syria, who carried their own languages into that bleak region. Scythia was not the incunabula gentium, but it certainly was linguarum, so far as the Eu- ropean languages are concerned. From the San- skrit and the Arabic, the two predominant lan- guages of ancient Asia, together with their dialects mixed in various proportions, were compounded the Etruscan, Greek, and Latin, the Celtic, Slavonic, and Teutonic, or Gothic, as well as the various Tartaric languages which continue to be spoken in the North of Asia. As the languages of modern Europe were originally formed by synthesis from those of ancient Asia, it is the business of etymo- logy to reverse the process, and by analysis to resolve them, as far as it is practicable, into their primary constituent paints.

ON THE CELT.E, ETC. 81

CHAPTER IV.

ON THE CELT^, AND THE CELTIC LANGUAGE.

39. WE have seen in the preceding Chapter that there are strong grounds for believing that the countries of Southern Asia were the earliest seats of the human race, and that, from the operation of the principle of population, and the pressure of in- creasing numbers against the means of subsistence while they were in the nomadic or shepherd state, they were constrained to cross the great mountain- chain, which, under the names of Mount Imaus, the Himalaya Mountains, Mount Caucasus, and Mount Taurus, runs irregularly, and in various latitudes, through great part of Asia, from east to west. We have traced the languages of Southern Asia — the Sanskrit, the Persic, and the Arabic — into Scythia through the medium of the proper names of places ; and, on analysing the few Scythian words we have been able to collect from Herodotus, we have obtained a similar result, and found the same lan- guages actually existing there. That labour was sufficiently difficult, but a much more severe one remains to be encountered, which is to trace the progress of that great Scythian people from their native seat to their final settlement in the different countries of ancient and modern Europe.

40. If we cast our eyes on the map of Europe we

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shall perceive at a glance that with reference to language, in a broad and general way, it may be divided into four great classes or families ; which, while they have much in common and run into each other by insensible degrees, are still, on the whole, strongly marked, and distinctly discrimi- nated. They are as follows : —

1. The Celtic, which is still spoken in Ireland,

the Highlands of Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, and some parts of Brittany in France, where it was formerly denominated the Armorican, from the ancient name of the province. It also continued to be spoken in Cornwall until a late period. The name of heaven in Irish is nau, and of the earth talu, words which, variously modified, are co-ex- tensive with the Celtic language.

2. The Slavonic, or ancient Sarmatian, which is

spoken in Kussia, Poland, Bohemia, Servia, Transylvania, Croatia, and many other pro- vinces. In common Russian the name of heaven is nebo, and of the earth semla, and with some modifications these words are found wherever the Slavonic language is spoken.

3. The Gothic, which is spoken in Iceland,

Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, Ger- many, Holland, England, and the Lowlands of Scotland. The name of heaven in old German is himina, or himins, and of the earth airtha (in Tacitus hertha), and with

AND THE CELTIC LANGUAGE. 83

some changes these words are found where- ever the languages descended from the Gothic prevail.

4. The languages immediately descended from the Greek and Latin ; which are spoken in Greece Proper, and the Islands of the ^Egean, under the name of Romaic ; in Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, Portugal, and France. The Latin words coelum, heaven, and terra, earth, are found with slight changes in all those languages. This arrangement comprehends all the great divisions of Europe with the exception of Turkey and its dependencies, in which the religion of Mohammed pre- vails, and the basis of the language is Tar- taric, with a copious infusion of Persic and Arabic words. The present Chapter will be devoted to the Celtaa and their language. 41. Thucydides informs us that Thrace, under Seuthes, had the greatest revenue, and was in other respects the most flourishing of all the kingdoms of Europe between the Gulf of Ionia and the Euxine Sea, but that in military strength and numerous armies it was the second, though at a great dis- tance, from the Scythians, for that there was no one nation in Europe, nor even in Asia, that in these points was in any degree a match for them; or, when standing singly nation against nation, was able to make head against the Scythians united and in perfect harmony with each other ; while at the same time in every point of conduct, and the

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management of all the necessary affairs of life, they fell vastly short of other people. (Lib. ii.) Herodo- tus regards the Thracians as more numerous than any people except the Indians. " Next to India," says he, " Thrace is of all nations the most consi- derable ; and if the inhabitants were either under the government of an individual, or united among themselves, their strength would, in my opinion, render them invincible ; but this is a thing impos- sible, and they are of course but feeble." (Lib. v. c. 3.) Pausanias describes Thrace as only infe- rior in population to the country of the Celta?. " Thrace," says he, " swarms with such a prodigious number of men, that, with the exception of the country of the Celtae, there is no other in the world so populous. This is the reason why before the Romans no people was able to conquer it ; but now not only Thrace, but the country of the Celtae, acknowledges the Roman sway." (Lib. i. c. 9.) When Thucydides and Herodotus assert that if the tribes of Thrace acted in concert, all Europe united would be unable to resist them, we must understand those authors as speaking with great geographical latitude, and as using the word Thrace as nearly synonymous with Scythia. Indeed, we learn from Strabo that a large portion of Thrace was actually known by the name of Little Scythia. It is curious to remark in the authors just quoted the inveterate and often-repeated error of the great populousness of the northern nations. Any particular tract of country may be able to send enormous armies into

AND THE CELTIC LANGUAGE. 85

the field without being populous, as that circum- stance depends much more on the state of civiliza- tion than on the actual number of its inhabitants. A nation in the pastoral or nomadic state is capable of moving en masse with the flocks and herds which constitute all its riches, or of sending all its mem- bers capable of bearing arms on an expedition. The Cimbri, Gauls, Germans, and Goths, at differ- ent times, presented this spectacle to the Eoman world ; and accordingly, ancient authors are unable to express their wonder at the prodigious populous- ness of the countries whence these hosts emerged. But the army consisted of all the males of an age fit to bear arms ; and though the actual number was vast, it was as nothing compared with the extent of territory the nation occupied, or rather over-ran. A country of which the inhabitants are hunters and fishers must necessarily contain fewer inhabitants than the same space occupied by shepherds, and the latter than the same extent possessed by agri- culturists, manufacturers, and merchants ; because in every instance the number of inhabitants is necessarily limited by the means of subsistence.

42. The name of theCeltae does not occur in Homer, "and only twice in Herodotus, and that incidentally. Speaking of the Danube, or Ister, he says, " This river, commencing at the city of Pyrene among the Celtas, flows through the centre of Europe. These Celtae are found beyond the Columns of Hercules, and border on the Cynesians, the most remote of all the nations who inhabit the western

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parts of Europe." (Lib. ii. c. 33.). And again, in connexion with the Danube : — commencing with the Celtas, who, except the Cynetse, are the most remote inhabitants of the West of Europe, this river passes through the centre of Europe, and, by a certain inclination, enters Scythia. (Lib. iv. c. 49.) This testimony is quite conclusive that at the period at which Herodotus wrote, the Celtse were in possession of all the western countries of Europe ; but the next question to be decided is, how far they extended east, and the most definite information I can find on the subject is contained in Plutarch's Life of Marius, who obviously alludes to some ancient authority which he unfortunately, however, does not specify. " Some," says he, " assert that the country of the Celtae is of such vast extent that it stretches from the Western Ocean and most northern climes to the lake Maeotis eastward, and that part of Scythia which borders on Pontus ; that there the two nations mingle and thence issue, not all at once nor at all seasons, but in the spring of every year ; that by means of these annual supplies they had gradually opened themselves a way over the greatest part of the European continent ; and that though they are dis- tinguished by different names according to their tribes, yet their whole body is comprehended under the general name of Celto-Scythse." And Strabo says, "the earliest Greek historians called all the northern people by the general name of Scythians and Celto-Scythians ; but more ancient writers, making a distinction between these people, gave to those who dwell to the north of the Euxine, the

AND THE CELTIC LANGUAGE. 87

Danube, and the Adriatic Sea, the denomination of Hyperboreans, Sauromatae (Sarmatians), and Ari- maspians ; and when they spoke of those who dwell to the east of the Caspian, they designated a part of them by the name of Sacae, and a part by that of Massa-Getae, without being able, however, to narrate any thing with much exactness relative to either. (Strabo, lib. ii. c. 8. 1.)

43. Taking the passages of Herodotus and Plu- tarch in connexion, we may deduce from them two very important conclusions, first, that the term Celtae was nearly equivalent to Scythe, and that the Scythae, from the period of their entering Europe, were denominated Celtae ; and secondly, that it de- scribed the earliest inhabitants of nearly the whole of Europe, with the exception of that large northern portion which was occupied in an early age, and continues to be still possessed by the great Sarma- tian or Slavonic race, who have experienced fewer revolutions than their southern brethren ; from the Palus Maeotis, the modern Sea of Asoph in the east, to the Cimbric Chersonesus, the modern Jutland, to the north, to the Pillars of Hercules, the modern Straits of Gibraltar, to the south. As I have already remarked, many of the names of the Scythian nations were derived from the circum- stance of milk constituting the principal article of their subsistence, thereby describing the degree of civilization they had attained, and proving con- clusively that they were nomades or shepherds removing from place to place with their flocks and

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88 ON THE CELT^E,

herds, according to the seasons, for the convenience of pasturage. And I believe the word Celtaa con- veys precisely the same information, being a con- traction from the Greek word Galata3, which is formed from the Greek word gala, milk, and hiat (Arabic), life, that is, a pastoral or nomadic people, supported chiefly by the milk, the produce of their flocks. It is remarkable, however, that we cannot trace the progress of the Celtae in Europe under the name of Celtae, perhaps from the very circum- stance of its wide and general signification which rendered it indefinite, and must be content to do so under the denominations of Cimmerii, Cimbri, or Cymri, the latter term being still in existence, and borne by the Welsh, their descendants.

44. Homer mentions a people of the name of Cimmerii, in whose country he places his Hell ; and there can be no doubt that their name has a con- nexion with this circumstance. In Coptic we find the word Chemi, in Hebrew Chum, and in Arabic Kahm, all signifying black, which, with the Persic Ea, the mark of the oblique case, and the Sanskrit Jan, a man or person, the common termi- nation of nouns ethnical, forms Cimmerian, that is, a person living in a high northern latitude, in the vicinity of the six months' night which reigns within the Polar Circle. That this fact was known to Herodotus there can be no doubt whatever, as he mentions a race of men dwelling to the north of the Argippaei, who slept away six months of the year. The modern name of the country is Tartary, formed by doubling the Persic word Tar, darkness,

AND THE CELTIC LANGUAGE. 89

or blackness, with the signification of darkness of darkness, whence the Greek Tartarus, a name of hell itself. The name of Cimmeria, at an early period, was doubtless one of very wide application; but in Herodotus' s time it appears to have been restricted to the country known to us as Crim Tartary, or the Crimea. He says there are still to be found in Scythia walls and bridges, which are termed Cimmerian; and the same name is also given to a whole district, as well as to a narrow sea, that is, to the Cimmerian Chersonesus and the Cimmerian Bosphorus. (Lib. iv. c. 12.) Strabo says Homer has placed the Cimmerians in the neighbourhood of Hell, knowing that they inha- bited dark and northern regions near the Bos- phorus. Perhaps also he was induced to place them there by the hatred which all the lonians cherish against that nation, for it is pretended that the Cimmerians made an incursion into Ionia and JEolia in Homer's time, or shortly before the period of his birth. (Lib. iii. c. 2.)

45. As all tradition and all history tend to prove that Europe was peopled from Asia, we ought as a natural consequence in the early ages of the world to find the great stream of emigration running steadily from east to west ; but it is obvious that while the earth was thinly peopled, and its inhabit- ants for the most part in a nomadic or shepherd state, that this general fact is perfectly compatible with partial expeditions in an opposite direction. Strabo has adduced one instance, which I am in- duced to mention, as from the great weight justly

90 ON THE CELT^E,

attached to his authority, it is very likely to mis- lead, and has in fact misled many modern authors. First, he informs us that the Cimmerii at one period were very powerful, and complete masters of the Bosphorus, which is known by their name. They possessed a city there called Cimmerium, which, fortified with walls and ditches, and situated in the isthmus, commanded the communications of the Chersonesus with the continent (lib. ii. c. 2, 3.). In another passage he says, as to the Cimbri, what is related of them is partly false, and partly pro- bable enough. For instance, we cannot admit the reason assigned for their wandering life and their plundering, by saying that an enormously high tide forced them to abandon their peninsula (Jutland, or Denmark), since they still possess the country they originally occupied. They made a present to the Emperor Augustus of the sacred cauldron which they possessed, entreating him at the same time to grant them his protection, together with an amnesty for the past, and returned home after having obtained it. After mentioning some improbable traditions connected with them, he proceeds to say, the above are fables with which Posidonius justly reproaches the writers ; and it is not without reason he pre- sumes that the Cimbri, in consequence of their wandering and predatory life, pushed their incur- sions to the borders of the Palus Mseotis, and that the Cimmerian or Cimbric Bosphorus took its name from them, the Greeks having called the Cimbri, Cimmerii (lib. vii. c. 2. 6.). Precisely the reverse, I believe to have been the case. The Cimmerii

AND THE CELTIC LANGUAGE. 91

came from a high northern latitude in Asia, as their name declares, which is equivalent to that of Tartars, and the Crimea or Grim Tartary retains both names to this day. Strabo himself has told us that Homer placed the locality of his Hell there (Tartarus), and sent Ulysses there to consult the ghost of Tiresias. The Cimmerian Chersonesus was one of the first positions occupied by the Cimmerii after they had crossed the Tanais, in their advance westward. The name of Cimmerii is not formed by the expansion of that of Cimbri, but that of Cimbri or Cymri, by the contraction of Cimmerii ; and in their European progress the latter entirely disappears, while under that of Cimbri they over- ran Germany, gave a permanent name to the Cim- bric Chersonesus, and associated with the Teutones, another general name for the German tribes, in- vaded Italy in the time of Marius, destroyed the consular army of Manlius and Servilius Caspio, and were with difficulty subdued by the exertions of that great general.

46. We have seen Plutarch, in his life of Marius, asserting that the country of the Celtse was of such vast extent that it stretched from the Western Ocean and most northern climes to the Palus Maeotis eastward, and that part of Scythia which borders on Pontus, that is, the country between the Euxine and Caspian seas ; but as the authority of Plutarch as a geographer does not rank very high, and much weight cannot be ascribed to him as an his- torian of those early ages, let us endeavour to dis- cover some more ancient and superior evidence for

92 I THE CELINE,

so interesting and important a tact. And such we find in Diodorus, who informs us that there for- merly existed a king of Celtica (France ?), who had a daughter of such rare beauty and corresponding pride, that she despised all the suitors who pre- sented themselves as canditates for her hand, until Hercules visited the country on his return from his wars with Geryon, who became her husband, and had by her a son of the name of Galatus, in honour of whom his subjects changed their name to Galata?. it having previously been Celtae, derived from Celtus, another son of the same extremely convenient Her- cules, who appears to have been always at hand to beget either son or daughter, as circumstances may have required, for any country that wanted a name. Be that as it may, the Celtse, according to Dio- dorus, became Galatse, and consisted of an infinity of tribes or nations, some containing as many as two hundred thousand fighting men, and some not more than fifty thousand ; and his Galatia was far from being confined to the limits of modern France, for not only the Khone, but the Danube and the Rhine were its rivers ; and after Csesar had crossed the latter he was still among the Galata?. Diodorus describes his Gauls as possessing a lofty stature, red hair, and a fresh complexion, which is precisely the portrait that Ciesar and Tacitus have drawn of the Germans, and nothing can be clearer than that they were primarily the same people, derived from the great Scythian stock. •• The people," continues Diodorus, - who dwell to the north of Marseilles,

AND THE CELTIC LANGUAGE. 93

are denominated Celtse, but those who dwell to the north of France (Celtica), along the ocean and the Hercynian forest, as far as the confines of Scythia, are called Galatae ; nevertheless, the Romans give this name indifferently both to the true Gauls and the Celts. Those who dwell to the north, and in the vicinity of Scythia, are extremely savage, and said to be cannibals, as we.ll as the English and the Irish. Every where they have made themselves known by their courage and their ferocity, and it is asserted that the Cimmerii, who formerly ravaged all Asia, and whose name was corrupted, or con- tracted into Cirnbri, are identical with the Galatae, who have been described. They are the people who took Rome, pillaged the temple of Delphi, and rendered a great part of Europe and Asia (Minor) tributary to them." (Diodorus, lib. v. c. 18. 19, 20, 21.) If we recollect that the word Celtae is con- tracted from Galatae, we shall discover that the account of Diodorus is substantially the same with that of Plutarch ; and that the same people were at different periods denominated Celta3 or Galatae, from their milk diet and nomadic life ; and Cim- merii, Cimbri, or Cymri, from the high northern latitude their ancestors had primarily inhabited.

47. When Tacitus asserts that the Germans were natives of the soil, or what the Greeks expressed by the word Autochthones, and the Romans by Abo- rigines, it can be regarded as true, only with many exceptions and modifications. In fact, in the strict and literal sense of the words, it cannot be true in

94 ON THE CELT^E,

any instance, unless we suppose the Divine Being was pleased to exert a distinct act of creation, not only for the four great divisions of the globe, Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, but for every consider- able continent and island on the surface of it, — an hypothesis which only requires to be stated to insure its being rejected by all, as equally inconsistent with the doctrines of revelation and the deductions of reason. If we take the expression of Tacitus, " na- tives of the soil," to mean simply that the Germans had been settled in the country so long, that neither history nor tradition had preserved any account of the period or mode of their coming thither, in this sense even it is not true universally, for Tacitus himself says, " That the Gauls in ancient times were superior to the Germans we have the authority of Julius Caesar, that illustrious historian of his own affairs. From what is stated by that eminent writer, it is highly probable that colonies from Gaul passed over into Germany, for, in fact, how could a river check the migrations of either nation when it in- creased in strength and multiplied its numbers ? So weak an obstacle could not repel them from taking possession of a country not as yet marked out by power, and of course open to the first occu- pant. We find accordingly that the whole region between the Hercynian forest, the Maine, and the Ehine, was occupied by the Helvetians, and the tract beyond it by the Boians, both originally Gallic nations." (Germany, c. 28.)

48. As we find a large portion of Germany occu-

AND THE CELTIC LANGUAGE. 95

pied by people originally Gauls, so Csesar himself informs us that the Belgaa, one of the three great divisions of Gaul, were originally Germans, who, having crossed the Rhine, had been induced, by the superior fertility of the country, to settle in those parts after driving out the ancient inhabitants. (Ccesar, lib. ii. c. 4.) Is it not obvious, therefore, that the Gauls of Caesar, and the Germans of Tacitus, if not altogether one and the same people, were yet so much intermixed that it is extremely difficult to treat of them separately, and that in a variety, perhaps in a majority, of instances, what is related of the one will also be true of the other ? This is the opinion of the judicious Strabo, who expresses himself on the subject in the following terms: — " After the Gauls, as soon as we have passed the Rhine, we meet with the Germans, situated to the east of that river. They only differ from the Gauls in being taller, fairer, and more ferocious. In other respects their figure, manners, and way of life, are such as we have described in speaking of the Gauls. And I think the Romans have given them the name of Germans justly, as if intending to call them true, for that is the meaning of the word in the language of the Romans." (Strabo, lib. vii. c. 2.)

49. Strabo appears to have fancied that there was some analogy between Ger and Yer, the first syl- lable of Germans, and Yerus (Latin), true ; but I believe the etymology is Oriental. According to Megasthenes, there were two divisions of the Indian philosophers, one distinguished by the name of Brah-

96 ON THE CELT^E,

mans, and the other by that of Germanes. Of the latter he remarks that they are the most honourable who are called HyloUi, and live in the woods upon leaves and wild fruits, clothing themselves with the bark of trees, and abstaining from venery and wine. They hold communication by messengers with the kings, who inquire of them concerning the causes of things, and by their means the kings serve and worship the Deity. If Megasthenes really found the name Germanes prevalent among the Hindus, we cannot be much mistaken in supposing the first syllable Ger to be cognate with the Hebrew Yar (a wood) ; and when we recollect the vast extent of the Hercynian forest, there is nothing extra- ordinary in the Germans denominating themselves, or being distinguished by their neighbours, the Gauls, as Wood-men.

50. I shall close this Chapter with some account of the Celtic language and grammar, and endea- vour to illustrate and confirm the Asiatic origin I have ascribed to that people by etymologies deduced from Oriental sources ; but I must, before entering on this subject, premise a few words as to the value of the materials to be drawn from this quarter, and the weight we are justified in ascribing to any arguments founded on them. Pinkerton, to whose dissertation on the Goths or Scythians I am so much indebted, and of which I have made so much use, has destroyed the force of all his reasonings respecting the Celtae in a few sentences, though the facts he has stated retain all their value, by con-

AND THE CELTIC LANGUAGE. 97

vincing us that they all rest on a radically false assumption. Speaking of the Pelasgi, he says, " they were not Celts because they can be abso- lutely shown to be Scythians, a people who ori- ginated from the east, as the Celts did from the west; — because the earliest Greek writers describe the Celts as confined to the furthest west, whereas Greece was surrounded by Scythae ; — because the very form and structure of the Celtic tongue are as remote from the Greek as possible ; the Celts changing the beginning of nouns in many inflexions, while the Greeks uniformly change the end. What we now call the Celtic is half Gothic, owing to the Belgae, Danes, and Norwegians being mixed with all the Celtae in France, Britain, and Ireland, but especi- ally in the Highlands of Scotland, where the Celtic is the most corrupt ; because the Norwegians were possessors of the Hebrides and western coast, from the reign of Harold Harfagre about 880, till so late as 1263, and their descendants remain to this day. The words thought Greek by dabblers in the Celtic are all Gothic. But the real Celtic is as remote from the Greek as the Hottentot or the Laplandic." (page 67.) And again, he (Dr. Percy, the translator of Mallet's " Introduction to the History of Den- mark") observes, that all the arguments of Cluverius and Pelloutier, if they may be called arguments, fall under two heads — quotations from the ancient Greek and Roman authors, and etymologies of the names of persons and places. The latter he con- siders first, and well observes " that arguments

H

98 ON THE CELT^E,

derived from etymology are so very uncertain and precarious, that they can only amount to pre- sumption at best, and can never be opposed to solid positive proofs." At the end he gives specimens of Celtic etymology from that insane work, the " Memoires de la Langue Celtique, par M. Bullet, Besangon, 1 754, 3 vols. folio," from which it appears that a man must be a lunatic who founds any thing upon a language so loose as to take any impression. " Such are Northampton (North Hampton), from Nor, the mouth of a river, Tan, a river, Ton, habit- ation. Northill (North Hill), from Nor, river, and Tyne, habitation. Ringwood, from Ren, a division, Cw, a river, and Hed, a forest. Uxbridge (Ouse- bridge), from Uc, river, and Brig, division. — Risum teneatis ? Let me add that the Irish, and Welsh, and Armorican tongues, the only dialects of Celtic we have (for the Highland Gaelic is but corrupted Irish), are at this day, and from the earliest MSS. remaining, one half Gothic, and a great part Latin, owing to the .Romans living four centuries among the Welsh, and the use of Latin in Ireland, on the introduction of Christianity. The Gothic words are so numerous, that Ihre calls the Celtic, so reputed, a dialect of the Gothic — falsely, because the grammar and structure, the soul of the lan- guage, are totally different : but these Gothic words proceed from the Belga3, Saxons, and Danes, being intermingled with the Welsh and Irish. For that these words did not pass from Celtic into Gothic is clear, because all the roots, branches, and relations

AND THE CELTIC LANGUAGE. 99

of the words are found in the Gothic, but in Celtic only single detached words ; as we use the French eclaircissement, but not edairer, &c. The few words peculiarly Celtic, and of which a glossary by a person of complete skill in the Gothic would be highly valuable, have so many significations, that to found etymology on them is worse than madness. In the Irish one word has often ten, twenty, or thirty meanings ; gal implies a stranger, a native, milk, a warrior, white, a pledge, a conqueror, the belly of a trout, a wager, &c. This must be the case in all savage tongues, which must be poor and confused. But the Celtic, I will venture to say, is, of all savage languages, the most confused, as the Celts are, of all savages, the most deficient in under- standing. Wisdom and ingenuity may be traced among the Samoieds, Laplanders, Negroes, &c. ; but among the Celts none of native growth. All etymology of names is folly ; but Celtic etymology is sheer frenzy. Enough of Celtic etymology ! let us leave it to candidates for Bedlam, and go on." (Page 101.) With these opinions of Pinkerton respecting the Celtae, it would have been no very safe thing to tell him that he was a Celt himself, and yet I think there can hardly be a doubt, that at a very early period, perhaps ten or twelve hun- dred years before the Christian era, that term was nearly equivalent to Scythian, and comprehended all the inhabitants of Europe, with the exception of the great Sarmatian or Slavonic race.

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100 ON THE CELT^E,

51. For the slight knowledge I possess of the Celtic, I am indebted almost entirely to a little work of Dr. Prichard's, entitled " The Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations, proved by a compa- rison of their Dialects with the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and Teutonic Languages," 8vo. London, 1831 ; which appears to me to unite so much re- search with so much sound reasoning, that my readers will be indebted to me for making all the use of it I can.

There are six dialects of the language deno- minated Celtic, five of which still continue to be spoken, while the Cornish is preserved in books. These six dialects are the Welsh, the Cornish, the Armorican, the Irish or Erse, the Gaelic or High- land Scotch, and the Manks, of which the three former are relics of the idiom of the ancient Britons, and the three latter of that spoken by the inhabitants of Ireland. (Prichard, page 24.)

The circumstances which are most conclusive as to the common origin, or, at any rate, the close aifinity of languages, are perhaps the following four — the names of the cardinal numbers, the words expressing kindred or relationship, the per- sonal pronouns, and the verb substantive. I shall make a few observations on each of these, and con- clude with giving a list of Celtic words, and pointing out the analogies suggested by them with other languages.

AND THE CELTIC LANGUAGE.

101

Erse.	Welsh.	Sanskrit.	Persic.	Russian.	Latin.	M. Gothic.	Old High German.
A en	Un	Aika	Yek	Odin	Unus	Ains	Ein.
Dal DoJ	Dau Dvvy	Dwi "1 Dwau J	Du	Dva "1 Dvie J	Duo	T\vai	Tue.
p {	Tri I Tair j"	Tri	Seh	M {	Tres \ Tria j	Thrins	Thri.
Keathair	Pedwar \ Pedair J	Chatur	Chehaur	Chetyre	Quatuor	Fidwor	Fiuuar.
Kuig	Pump	Pancha	Penj	Pyat	Quinque	Fimf	Finfe.
Se	Chwech	Shash	Shesh	Shest	Sex	Saihs	Sehs.
Secht	Saith	Saptan	Heft	Sem	Septem	Sibun	Sibun.
Ocht	Wyth	Ashta	Hesht |	Osm ~\ Vosem J	Octo	Ahtan	Ohio.
Noi	Naw	Navan	Nuh	Devyat	Novem	Nibun	Niguni.
Deich	Deg	Dashan	Deh	Desyat	Decem	Taihun	Teh an.
Fichid	Ugain	Vingshati	Bist	Dvatzat	"Viginti	Twaimtigum	Tuentig.
Deich "| ar I Hichid J	Deg ar 1 Ugain J	Tringshat	Si	Tritzat	Triginta	Thrinstigum	Thrittig.
Kett	Cant	Shatum	Sad	Sto	Centum	Hund	Hunt.

Prichard, p. 38.

Some of the most remarkable words denoting the relations of persons, family, &c. are as follows : —

Erse.	Welsh.	Sanskrit.	Persic.	Russian.	Latin.	M. Gothic.	Old High German.
Gean Femen	">	Jani Vamani	- -	Jena ~\	Fcemina.
Fear	_	_	_	_	Vir
Mathair	_	Matri	Mader	Mater	Mater
Brathair	Brawd	_	Braudur	Brat	Frater.
Siur	«	.	_	Sestra	Soror.
Dear	_	Duhita	Dokhter
.	Nai	_	-	_	Nepos.
- -	Bach gen	"I	Pachahl Bach J	- -	Puer.

THE PERSONAL PRONOUNS IN ANALOGIES IN OTHER

ERSE ARE, LANGUAGES.

Me, J, or me ........................ Men, Persic.

Sinu, we.

Tu, thou ........................ ("To, Persic.

Sibh, ye, or you ............... 1 Tu, Latin.

Se Latin)> him> her-

Siad, they.

II 3

102 ON THE CELTJE,

IN WELSH. ANALOGIES IN OTHER

LANGUAGES. Mi, I.

Ni, we , Anoo, Hebrew.

Nos, Latin. Noi, Italian.

Ti, thou To, Persic.

Tu, Latin. Chwi, ye or you. Ev, Eve, Evo, Ve, Vo, E, O, he...O, he, Persic,

Hoo, he, Hebrew.

Hi, she Hi, she, Hebrew.

Hwy, they Oo, the termination of the third

person plural in Hebrew and Arabic verbs, which is this Celtic Pronoun annexed to the radical word.

Hwynt, they The termination of Sanskrit

verbs in Anti, and of Latin in Ant, Ent, and Unt.

Dr. Prichard informs us that regular verbs in Welsh, besides the infinitive and imperative moods, have five distinct tenses, or forms. These are two futures, one of which is indicative, and the other conditional, or subjunctive; a preterimper- fect, preterperfect, and preterpluperfect tense, all of which are extant in the verb Bod, to be, and are as follows : —

WELSH. RUSSIAN. PERSIC.

Future Indicative. Future. Potential Form, Buden.

Sing. 1. Bydhav Budu Budemi.

2. Bydhi Budet Budi.

3. Bydth Budut Budi.

Plur. 1. Bydhwn Budem Budimi.

2. Bydhwch Budete Budidi.

3. Bydhant Budut Budendi.

Future Potential.

Sing. 1. Bydhwyv.

2. Bydhych.

3. Bydho. Plur. 1. Bydhom.

2. Bydhoch.

3. Bydhout.

AND THE CELTIC LANGUAGE. 103

WELSH.

Preterimperfect. Preterperfect. Preterpluperfect..

Sing. 1. Bydhwn. 1. Bum. 1. Bhuaswn.

2. Bydhit. 2. Buost. 2. Bhuasit.

3. Bydhai. 3. Bu. 3. Bhuasai. Plur. 1. Bydhem. 1. Buom. 1. Bhuesym.

2. Bydhech. 2. Buoch. 2. Bhuesych.

3. Bydheut. 3. Buont & Buant. 3 . Bhuesynt.

I now proceed to give a list of the most remark- able words I have observed in going through Dr. Prichard's work. The figures refer to the page in which they occur.

33

46

47

61

CELTIC WORDS. ANALOGIES.

Pen, head Phinnah (Hebrew), the head, or

leader of a people.

Pheni (Hebrew), the face.

Gur, a man , Goor (Hebrew), a stranger.

Duw, God Div (Persic), a spirit.

Divus (Latin), a god.

Koda, a part, or share ...Quotas, Quota, Latin. Pask, Easter Pascha, Greek and Latin-.

Pasques, French.

Kia, who Qui, Latin.

Praidh, a prey Praeda, Latin.

,Sororem (Latin), a sister. Sosorem, Latin (obsolete form). Swasaram, Sanskrit.

I find in Larizi's " Saggio di Etrusca," torn. iii. p. 600., a Sanskrit S, which might be easily mis- taken for a Koman R, and which ultimately lost its original character of S and became R, a circum- stance which accounts for the frequent changes of the two letters noticed by the Grammarians, and supports very remarkably Dr. Prichard's conjecture as to Sosorem and Sororem in the above instance.

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104 ON THE CELTjE,

66

67 69 70

71

72 73

74

75

76

CELTIC WORDS. ANALOGIES.

Gean, a woman Jani, Sanskrit.

Jena, Russian.

Gune, Greek. Femen, a woman Fcemina, Latin.

Vamini, Sanskrit.

Woman, English.

Athair, father QuereThor (Scandinavian), Jupiter.

Bachgen, offspring Bach (Persic), a child.

Haul, the Sun Hailih, Sanskrit.

Eelios (Greek), Ele, solar heat. Nev, sky, heaven Nabhah, Sanskrit.

Nebo, Russian.

Di and Dia, a day Dyu, Sanskrit.

Nos, night Nisa, Sanskrit.

Notch, Russian.

Nox, Latin. Mor, the sea Mirah, Sanskrit.

Mare, Latin.

More, Russian,

Mer, French.

Marah (Hebrew), bitter.

Daiar, the earth Dhara, Sanskrit.

Athair, air Aither, Greek ; JEther, Latin.

Each, ahorse Equus, Latin.

Eshuus, Sanskrit. Capul, a horse Caballus, Latin.

Cheval, French.

Uch, ox Ukshan, Sanskrit.

Tarw, a bull Tor, Chaldee.

Tauros, Greek.

Taurus, Latin.

Toro, Italian.

Colommen, a pigeon Columba, Latin.

Ran, a frog Rana, Latin.

Lhyren, a lily Leirion, Greek.

Ceir, or Keir, wax Cera, Latin.

Keros, Greek.

Braich, an arm Brachium, Latin.

Ainm, a name Onoma, Greek.

Lhug, light Lux, Latin.

Mel, and Mil, honey Mel, Latin.

Dant, a tooth Dantah, Sanskrit.

Aur, gold Aurum, Latin.

Aur, hour Ora, Greek.

Hora, Latin.

Corn, horn Krn, Hebrew and Arabic (Ra- dical letters).

Cornu, Latin,

Keras, Greek.

AND THE CELTIC LANGUAGE. 105

CELTIC WORDS. ANALOGIES.

Coron, crown Corona, Latin.

Cybhigl, a bed-chamber... Cubile (Latin), a bed.

Cubiculum (Latin), a bed-cham- ber.

Scaff, a boat Scapha, Latin.

Wr, and Fear, a man Vir, Latin.

Win, and Fin, wine Vin, French

Vinum, Latin.

Bio, life Bios, Greek.

Salen, salt Sal, Latin.

Dor, door Dwar, Sanskrit.

Thur, German.

Pairt, part , Parte, Latin, abl. of Pars.

Deigryn, a tear Dakruon, Greek.

Cariad, love Caritas, Latin.

High, a king Raja, Sanskrit.

Rex, Latin.

Geni, to be born Jan, Sanskrit.

Maru, to die Mri, Sanskrit.

Byw and Beo, to live Bioo, Greek.

Vyw, to live Vivo, Latin.

Gwn, know ...Jna, Sanskrit.

Wydh, knowledge Vid, Sanskrit.

Todh, knowledge Budh, Sanskrit.

Dearc, seeing Derko, Greek.

Lighiin, to lick Lih, Sanskrit.

Sta, stand Shtha, Sanskrit.

Bod, to be Bhu, Sanskrit.

Bud (Persic), he was. Taen, spreading Teino, Greek.

Tan, Sanskrit.

Jau, a yoke Yuj, Sanskrit.

Cusau 1 , i . T^ ^i

Cusanujtoklss Kuso, Greek.

Galw, to call Kaleo, Greek.

Cleiniaw, to lie Klino, Greek.

Men, a place Meneo, Greek.

Cam, to love Cams, Latin.

Credu, to believe Credo, Latin.

Oil, vast Ail, Hebrew.

Ala, Sanskrit.

Uchach, higher Uchchah (Sanskrit), high.

Maur Mehr (German), more.

Trist, sad Tristis, Latin.

Dilys, evident Delos, Greek.

Agaws, near Eggus, Greek.-

106 ON THE CELTJS, ETC.

Such are the most remarkable words I have met with in Dr. Prichard's work ; and though the list is not very copious, it is amply sufficient to prove that the Celtic language is of the Indo-European family as it has been regarded by Adelung, and that it has not only much in common with the Sanskrit and Persic, the most ancient languages of Asia, but with the Greek, Latin, and Maeso-Gothic, the oldest written languages of Europe. I feel confident that the result of philological inquiries will be to diminish the number of supposed original and independent languages, and to develop new features of resemblance between those which are conceived to be the most dissimilar. Pinkerton, with his usual dogmatism, and more than his usual prejudice, remarks, " The Welsh and Irish tongues preserve that soul of language, the grammar, but are so mixed with Gothic or German and Latin, that Ihre, not knowing the vast difference of the grammar, pronounces what we call Celtic a dialect of the Gothic. In Gothic we have a monument of the fourth century — the gospels of Ulphila, a book in which the meaning of every word is sacred and marked. In Celtic we have no remains older than the eleventh century, and the interpretation is dubious. The Belga3 commanded both in Britain and Ireland, and being a far superior people im- parted innumerable words to the Celtic. They therefore who derive any English words from Celtic only show a risible ignorance, for the truth is that the Celtic are derived from the English." — Disser- tation, p. 195.

ON THE SAUKOMATJE, ETC. 107

CHAPTER Y.

ON THE SAUROMATJ3, OR SARMATIANS, AND THE SLAVONIC LANGUAGE.

52. HERODOTUS, after relating several fables about the Sauromatae, Amazons, and Scythians, concludes his account by supplying us with some geographical data, which possibly contain an approximation to the truth. He says that the Scythians, who emigrated from their native country with the Amazons, whom he places near the river Thermodon in Cappadocia, and lands after their escape from their Greek con- querors at Cremnes, having passed the Tanais, or modern Don, marched forward a three days' jour- ney towards the East, when they made another three days' march toward the North, leaving behind them the Palus Maeotis, or modern Sea of Azof, until they reached the spot where they took up their abode, and still continued to dwell in his time. He adds, that the Sauromatae, or descend- ants of these Scythians and Amazons, used the Scythian language, but that their dialect was im- pure, because the Amazons themselves had learned it but imperfectly ; a more adequate reason would appear to be, that it was mixed with the language of Cappadocia, as the Amazons must have been singularly bad linguists if they could not contrive to acquire the tongue of their husbands. It must always have been matter of extreme difficulty to

108 ON THE SAUROMATJE,

define the geographical boundaries of a people in the nomadic or shepherd state, except so far as they were fixed by some of the great and unalterable features of nature — a sea, a broad river, or a chain of mountains; for as the people were perpetually changing their abode amidst the vast spaces which they traversed without occupying, it was by no means easy to select any particular spot which could strictly be said to be their country. (Herod. lib.iv. c. 110—117.)

53. To the Greek geographers, the great moun- tain-chain which, commencing with Mount Taurus, runs irregularly through a considerable portion of Asia, was a prominent object, and they were in the habit of denominating countries according to their situation either on the one or the other side. At the Tanais and the Palus Maeotis, says Strabo, commences the part of Asia lying on this side Taurus, after which comes the division of the same continent lying on the other side Taurus, for Asia being cut in two by the continuation of the moun- tain-chain of Taurus, which extends from the capes of Pamphylia to the shores of the Eastern Sea, inha- bited by the Indians, and the Scythians who border on them, the Greeks have naturally distinguished every thing to the north of these mountains as countries within, and every thing to the south as countries without Taurus, and consequently all that part of Asia in the vicinity of the Palus Mseotis and the Tanais belongs to the division on this side Taurus. (Liber ii. c. 4. 9.)

AND THE SLAVONIC LANGUAGE. 109

54. Beyond the Borysthenes, the modern Dnie- per, Strabo places the Rhoxolani, whom historians are disposed to regard as the ancestors of the Rus- sians. Of all the Scythians we are acquainted with, continues he, they are placed farthest north, and still are more to the south than the people imme- diately beyond Britain. To the north of the Rhoxo- lani the climate begins to be uninhabitable on account of the extreme cold. The Sauroinatse situated beyond the Palus Mseotis, and the other Scythians, even the oriental Scythians, have a more southern position than the Rhoxolani. Pythias of Marseilles pretends that the last country to the north of Britain is Thule ; but modern narratives, continues Strabo, make mention of no country beyond Ireland (lerne), an island lying to the north, but still near Britain, and where the cold is so extreme, that it is only thinly inhabited by a people absolutely savage and miserable ; and here rather, in my opinion, we ought to fix the limits of the habitable world. (Strabo, lib. ii. c. 4. 3.)

55. It must be admitted that Strabo's acquaint- ance with the North of Europe was very imperfect ; indeed he himself says in so many words that it was by no means easy to describe the countries or their inhabitants to the north-east of Germany, and that he was doubtful whether the people ought to be called Bastarnse, as appeared to be the opinion of the majority of geographers, or whether the lazyges, the Rhoxolani, or some other nation living in waggons (Amaxoeci), that is, Scythian or Sar-

110 ON THE SAUROMAT^S,

matian people, intervened between the borders of Germany and the Bastarnae. Nor was it more easy to say whether or no these people extended to the Northern Ocean, or whether there were in that di- rection countries rendered uninhabitable, either by the cold or some other cause, or finally to declare whether men of another race were placed between the sea and Eastern Germany. (Lib. vii. c. 2. 7.)

56. Indeed the Greek historians and geographers furnish us with few materials for treating of the Sauromatae, or Sarmatians, independently of the Scythians, whose language they appear to have spoken, and with whom they are confounded. I am strongly disposed to believe that the name Sar- matians originally did not so much describe any particular people speaking a language peculiar to themselves, as the degree of latitude they inhabited, and that the term was as nearly as possible equiva- lent to the Greek Hyperborean, and quite as inde- finite. I find in Persic, as I have remarked in a preceding chapter, the words Sarm, Sarma, and Sarmi, all signifying cold. Either of these words united with the Arabic Hiat, life, and the Sanskrit Jan, a man or person (both of which are terminations of nouns ethnical of very common occurrence), will form by contraction Sarmatian, i. e. one who lives in the cold, or inhabits a high degree of northern latitude.

57. It is difficult to trace the progress of the Sarmatians westward from the time of Herodotus to that of Tacitus; but when the latter wrote his

AND THE SLAVONIC LANGUAGE. Ill

" Germany" they appear to have occupied Poland, as he describes them as the neighbours of the Germans. The historian doubts whether the Peucinians, the Venedians, and Fennians were to be accounted Germans, or classed with the people of Sarmatia. The Peucinians, who were also known by the name of Bastarnians, bore a strong resemblance to the Germans, used the same language, and exhibited the same manners, while from intercourse and in- termarriage with the Sarmatians they had acquired a likeness to them in many particulars. The Vene- dians were the counterpart of the Sarmatians, but rather more civilized. Tacitus is disposed to regard them as Germans, because they had settled habita- tions, knew the use of shields, and always travelled on foot, while the Sarmatians on the contrary lived altogether on horseback, or in waggons ; in a word, continued what Herodotus informs us the ancient Scythians were, and what the modern Tartars are still found to be. The Sarmatians had reduced the Gothinians and Osians among the German tribes to pay tribute. (Taciti Germ. c. 46.)

58. Tacitus represents the Sarmatians as mer- cenaries, who were at all times ready to engage in any war for the sake of pay and plunder. He men- tions two great divisions of the nation under the names of lazyges and Khoxolanians. In the reign of Vitellius it was debated whether or no they should hire the services of the former to co-operate with the Roman armies. They offered to bring a considerable body of cavalry into the field of which

112 ON THE SAUBOMATJE,

their force chiefly consisted, but it was feared that they could not be safely trusted, and the negociation was broken off. During the short reign of Otho a body of nine thousand Rhoxolanian horse made an irruption into Msesia more in the character of free- booters than soldiers, when they were surprised, and their retreat intercepted by the third legion and its auxiliaries. They were defeated with great slaughter, and Tacitus denies them altogether the possession of moral courage ; but they had to con- tend with so many disadvantages in the present instance that it may be doubted if any degree of valour or exertion could have given them the vic- tory. (Taciti Hist lib. i. c. 79.)

59. For all the knowledge I possess of the lan- guage of the Sarmatians, or Slavonians, I am in- debted to a work entitled " Josephi Dobrowsky Institutiones Linguae Slavicse Dialecti Veteris, Vindebonse 1822," which informs me that the Slavonic alphabet was invented by Cyril, otherwise denominated Constantine the Philosopher, the bro- ther of Methodius, Archbishop of Hungary and Moravia, who translated the Gospel and other sacred books, first for the Slavonians of Bulgaria, and afterwards for those of Moravia, before the year 863 of the Christian era. He adopted the letters of the Greek alphabet as the basis of his undertaking, borrowing characters from the Arme- nian, Coptic, and other languages to express those sounds for which the Greek alphabet has no ade- quate representative, dropping the Greek or Phoeni-

AND THE SLAVONIC LANGUAGE. 113

cian names of the letters, and calling Alpha Az, Beta Vjedi, with Buki however interposed, which answers to the Latin B. (Dobrowsky, Gram., p. 1.)

60. Some authors have imagined, but apparently without adequate grounds, that certain portions of Scripture were translated into Slavonic by Jerome long prior to the age of Cyril ; but it is certain that the use of the Slavonic language in the service of the Church was authorized by Pope Innocent IV. in the year 1248, and that from this period we must distinguish two alphabets, one denominated from Cyril and the other from Jerome. That the Slavonic Churches were indebted to Cyril and his brother Methodius, for the first translation of the sacred books can hardly be doubted; but the extent of their translations from the Greek into the Slavonic is a circumstance by no means so certain ; for while some assert with Diocleatis that they translated the whole both of the Old and New Testament, and adapted the service of mass to the Presbyteries, others, relying on the authority of Nestor, are dis- posed to limit their exertions to the translation of the Gospels, Acts, and Epistles of the New Testa- ment, omitting the Apocalypse, which is not used in the Greek Church ; while from the Old Testament they rendered the Psalms only, together with a few extracts or lessons from the different books. (Do- •browsky, Prcef., pp. 6, 7, 8.)

61. At the end of the tenth century the books composing the Slavonic liturgy, together with the rites of Christianity, were given to the Russians;

i

114 ON THE SAUROMAT^E,

and in the eleventh century the dukes of that nation were the liberal patrons of those scholars who were engaged in making translations from the Greek into their native tongue. To this period we must refer the commencement of the Slavonic Chronicles, and about the year 1030 Procopius, an abbot of Bohemia, and one of the earliest proficients in Slavonic literature, founded in that province a monastery of the order of St. Benedict, in which the Church service was celebrated in the native language ; but the fraternity was soon expelled on a charge of heresy, and kindly received by Wratis- laus, Duke of Bohemia, who however vainly solicited from Pope Gregory VII. that his people might be permitted to perform divine worship in Slavonic. (Dobrowsky, Prcef., p. 9.)

62. The oldest copy of the whole Slavonic Bible in the Russian libraries is believed to have been written in the year 1499, but of the New Testa- ment alone there are manuscripts of the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, all of which are preserved at Moscow, in the library of the Holy Synod. The Editio Princeps of the Sla- vonic Bible was printed at Prague in 1519, under the direction of a doctor of physic, Franciscus Sco- rina, of Polozk. The first volume contains the Pentateuch. Three editions are said to have been printed prior to the first German Bible of Luther. The following are the dates of the subsequent editions of the Slavonic Bible, printed in Russia: — at Ostrog in 1581, at Moscow in 1663, 1751, 1756,

AND THE SLAVONIC LANGUAGE. 115

1757, and 1766, aU in folio. In 1759 an edition was published in large octavo. The long-disputed, but now pretty generally abandoned text of the three heavenly witnesses (1 John v. 7.) is found neither in the ancient manuscripts, the first Russian or Ostrog edition, nor in those editions of the Acts and Epistles which are prior to 1653. That of 1663 has the passage in the margin, and that of 1751 and the later editions in the text. (Marsh's Michaelis, vol. ii. p. 153., &c.)

63. Of all the languages of modern Europe I have hitherto examined none bears more unques- tionable evidence of an Asiatic origin, and none presents more numerous points of resemblance to the Sanskrit, the undoubted mother of the lan- guages and dialects of India, than the Slavonic. The whole number of the letters, as given in Do- browsky's Grammar, consists of forty-three, that of the Sanskrit being fifty. Perhaps characters would be a more appropriate expression than letters, as all are not the signs of distinct or elementary sounds ; Zjelo and Zemlja appear to be merely dif- ferent modes of writing the same letter (z). — Ize, the Greek Eta, and the Latin I, has the same sound as the regular Slavonic I ; the letter Uk, which corresponds to the Latin U, is written in three ways ; and Y, in four, two of which appear to be peculiar to Poland and Bohemia ; while all the characters from Fert (the Greek Phi and the Latin F) to Theta, and amounting to no less than sixteen, may be regarded as double letters ; so that

j 2

116 ON THE SAUROMATJE,

with these deductions, the real letters or signs of elementary sounds would not amount to more than twenty, or, at any rate, would not exceed those of the English alphabet ; and, in the same way, Wilkins remarks that the fifty characters of the Sanskrit alphabet may be resolved into twenty-eight letters.

64. The declension of substantives in Slavonic affords an instance of coincidence with the Sanskrit, so close and at the same time so peculiar, that it could hardly have been the effect of accident, and must be regarded as a proof of a considerable simi- larity in the genius of the two languages, and a presumption of a common origin in the people by whom they were spoken. The Sanskrit has eight cases of nouns, being two more than Greek and Latin, and the Slavonic seven. Of the two peculiar to the former one is denominated by Wilkins the Implementive, and distinguished by the sign of by, or with, and the other the Locative, distinguished by in or on ; and of the two peculiar to the Slavonic, Dobrowsky denominates one the Local, marked by the sign in, and the other the Instrumental or Sociative, marked by the sign with. (Dobrowsky 's Grammar, p. 462.)

65. In the old Slavonic we find three genders of nouns, — a masculine, a feminine, and a neuter, to- gether with a dual number; two declensions of masculines, four of feminines, and three of neuters. We may observe three conjugations of verbs, with two forms, or paradigms, in each ; while the ar- rangement of the tenses has much in common with

AND THE SLAVONIC LANGUAGE. 117

the Hebrew and Arabic; the third person pre- terite of the indicative being regarded as the root or theme of the verb, and the present tense having frequently a future signification. The verb has also gerunds and a supine. The formation of the passive voice is extremely simple, being merely by adding the particle Sa to the active, and these passives in form frequently correspond with the verbs deponent of the Romans and the middle voice of the Greeks in signification. (Dobrowsky's Gram. p. 394, 395.)

The pronouns, personal and possessive, with the analogies suggested by them with other languages are as under: —

Az, Ego.

Ti, Tu To, Persic.

On, Ille On (French), Pronoun Indeter.

Mi, Nos Ma, Persic.

Ni, Nos (ace.) Nan (Sanskrit), ace. plur.

Vi, Vos Vah ditto ditto.

Oni, Illi On (French).— On dit, They say.

Svoi, Suus. Sphoi, Sphe, N. and A. Dual of Su (tu), and Ou (Ille), Greek.

The verb substantive in Slavonic, and its analo- gies, are as under: —

Slavonic. Sanskrit. Persic. Greek. Latin.

Pres. 1 Jesmi Asmi Am Eimi Sum.

2 Jese Asi Ai Eis Es.

3 Jesti Asti Ast Esti Est.

1 Jesmi (y) Smah Aim Esmen Sumus.

2 Jeste Stha Aid Este Estis.

3 Suti Santi And Eisi Sunt.

Fut. 1 Budu Pret.Budim.

2 Budesi Budi.

3 Budet Bud.

1 Budem... Budim.

2 Budete Budid.

3 Budut Budend.

i 3

118 ON THE SAUROMAT^E,

It is worthy of remark that there are three forms of the verb substantive to be, in Persic. The first from the infinitive Budan, to be, of which Am is the first person present ; the second from the infinitive Hastan, to be, first person Hastim, which seems to be little more than Est, or Hest, prefixed to the persons of Budan ; and the third from Shadan, to be, of which the first person is Shum, the Latin Sum, and the third person plural Shund, the Latin Sunt, and the Slavonic Suti, as well as the Sanskrit Santi.

THE CARDINAL NUMBERS ARE ANALOGIES.

1 Jeden Yek, Persic.

2 Dva or Dwa ,...Dwau, Sanskrit.

3Tre,orTri {Saya, Sanskrit.

4 Chetire Chatur, Sanskrit.

5 Pat) Pancha, Sansk. ; Penj, Persic. '

6 Sesti , Shash, Sanskrit; Shesh, Persic.

7 Sedmi Sibun, M. Gothic ; Septem,Latin.

8 Osmi Shemen, Coptic.

Shemonah, Hebrew.

9 Devati.

10 Desati Dasan, Sanskrit.

100 Sto Sat, Sanskrit; Sad, Persic.

1000 Tisusha. 10,000 Tma.

In the following words expressing the relations of family, or kindred, it is remarkable that the Slavonic appears to be the genuine root, or true nominative case, while the other languages exhibit that root compounded with the Slavonic Ri, or the Persic Ra, the mark of the oblique case.

1 Mate, mother Slavonic.

2 Matara Sanskrit.

3 Mader .. ...Persic.

AND THE SLAVONIC LANGUAGE. 119

4 Meter Greek.

5 Mater Latin.

6 Madre Italian.

7 Muder German.

8 Mother English.

1 Brat, brother Slavonic.

2 Bhratara Sanskrit.

3 Brader Persic.

4 Frater Latin.

5 Frate Italian (without the final R).

6 Frere French.

7 Bruder German.

8 Brothar Maeso-Gothic.

9 Brother English.

In the latter word the discrepancy of the Greek Adelphos with all the kindred languages is not a little remarkable.

It now only remains for me to make a list of the Slavonic words I have remarked in going through Dobrowsky's Grammar, as being analogous some- times more and sometimes less closely to words in other languages, and I am induced to be the more minute as the Slavonic family of languages appears to have excited very little attention in this country ; and Webster who, in his Dictionary, has paid more notice to the etymology of the English language than any preceding author, is almost the first lexi- cographer who has made any use of it.

Ogni (Slavic), fire Agni, Sanskrit; Ignis, Latin.

Ogani, Illyrian.

Ohen, Bohemian.

Ogien, Polish.

Ogoni, Russian.

Nos Nasus, Latin.

Nose, English.

Ness, a cape, or projection.

Jami, Edo, to eat Yam, meat, food, Persic.

Stjani, Umbra Quere, Stygian.

i 4

120 ON THE SAUROMAT-as,

Stjana, Murus Stane, stone, Scotch and English.

Shud, Gigas Shud (Hebrew), violence.

Shadi (Hebrew), Almighty.

Chil, Integer, Sanus Chail ( Hebrew), integrity, vir- tue.

Tzari, Rex , Sar (Hebrew andPersic), a chief,

a prince.

Gol, Nudus Galah (Hebrew), to uncover.

Gusi, Anser Goose, English,

Kolo, Rota ; Kolesa, Rotae Caleche, English.

Kokoli, Zizania, Tares Cockle-weed, English.

Neti, Filum Net (English), that which is

made of threads.

Vert, Hortus, a garden Vert, green, French.

Vdova, Vidua, a widow Vidaha, Sanskrit.

Vedova, Italian.

Brat, frater , Frate, Italian.

Plami Flamma, Latin.

Plug, Aratrum Pflug, German.

Plough, English. Plk, Polk, Castra, Agmen,

Pulk (Polonis), Legio. <

Pluk (Bohemis), Cohors.

Puk, Croatis and Carniolis Plebs, Turba.

Folk (English), people, a noun of multitude. Prav,Rectus, with De privative.. De, pravitas, Latin.

Pravda, Justitia Probitas, Latin.

Mnog, Multus Manag (Ma3so-Gothic), many.

Mlat, Malleus Mallet, English.

Mlzo, Molzo Mulgeo (Latin), to milk.

Mleko, Mliko Milch, German.

Milk, English.

Mrak, Caligo Murk (English), darkness.

Tma, Tenebrae Tammas ( Sanskrit), darkness.

Nosh Nox (Latin), night.

Dvere, or D were, Janua Thura, Greek.

Door, English. Drevo, or Drewo, Arbor Dru (Sanskrit), a tree.

Drus (Greek), ditto.

Dremate, Dormitare Dream, Dreamed, English.

Dska, Tabula, Asser Desk (English), a writing-table.

Tolk, Interpretatio, Explanatio Talk, English. Trn, Tern, Spina Dorn, German.

Thorn, English.

Jeltok and Joltok (Russis)l v n ,-, r , •n-Tn f\ • f J-olk. English.

Vitellus Ovi J

Sviste, Soror Mariti. Svastica, Soror Uxoris.

AND THE SLAVONIC LANGUAGE. 121

Slovo, Yerbum — a Slovo sunt Slovite, Slavite, et Slava, Gloria. Slava^Gloria, the name of the| slavonian and slayon;c.

Slip, Slipii, Csecus

Quere Sleep and Sleepy (Eng.), from the eyes being shut

Strana, Pars, Regio

If we reject the R, as redun-

dant, we have

during sleep.

Stenate, Stenju, Gemere Stenazo (Greek), to groan.

Stjni, Umbra, Quere Stygian.

Stina, Paries, Murus Stane and Stone, Scotch and

English.

Stol, Sella Stuhl, German.

Stool, English.

Stru, extendere Strew, English.

Quere, Stream (English), i. e.

Strm, Strem, praaceps -J swift water. — Praeceps Anio

(Horace).

Straniero, a stranger ~| j ,. Straniarsi, to go away J Stana (Sanskrit), a place. _ Istan (Persic), ditto. Sestra, Soror ; ope Ra, formatum a Sest. Ra in Persic is the mark of the oblique case. (See- Jones's Persic Grammar, Works, vol. v. p. 201.). — Sister, English.

Selk, Sericum Silk, English.

Skvara, or Skwara Scoria, Latin.

Sini Sons, English.

Celo, Frons Ciglio, brow, Italian.

Deni, Diem Den, day, English.

Good den. — Shakspeare (in three or four passages).

Cestota, Puritas Castitas, Latin.

Castitate, Italian.

Sini Gigantovi, sons of the Anakims. — Deut. i. 28. Glupii, stupidus.

Glumpak, Croatian Glumpy, English.

Grob, or Grov, Sepulchrum Grave, English.

Gorn, Olla.

Gorn, Chari, Figulus. The Chari is the Persic Kar, maker.

Grad, Urbs Belgrade, i. e. white city.

Gruda, Gleba Quere Ground, English.

Gredo, vado, venio Ingredior, Latin.

Grk, amarus Quere Kark ~| English ; care, anxiety.

Cark J That which is bitter.

Chvela, or Chwele, Mora Weile, German.

While, English. Chlib, Polish ; Chleb, Bohemian ; Hlaib, Maeso-Gothic ; Laib,

German ; Loaf, English. Chip, Pilus Quere Scalp, English.

122 ON THE SAUROMATJE,

Cholod, Frigidus ; by contraction, Cold, English. Kover, Kovra, Tapes ... Quere Cover, English. Kobila, Equa Caballus, Latin.

Cavallo, Italian.

Cheval, French.

Knazi, Princeps, Serb. Knez, Comes ; Quere Knight, English. Knega, Liber. The Chinese sacred books are called King. Klobok, Pileus ; Kolpak (Rus. and Pol.) ; Kalpak (Turkish), a cap.

Lesha, Faciem Lechi (Hebrew), the cheek-bone.

Klasen (Croatian), the month of June.

Klek, Clamor, Yociferatio Clack, English.

Krm, Korm, Cibus, Pabulum... Quere Corn, English.

Krujjelia, Circulus apud Ulyrios, Orion.

Chlib, Chliba, Panis i. e. that which is baked.

Clibanus (Latin), an oven. And perhaps the Phrygian word Bekos, mentioned by Herodotus, has an affinity with the English bake. The simple form of the word probably was Bek, the os being merely the usual termination added by the Greeks to the words they borrowed from the Orientals.

Kriok (Russ.), Uncus Crook, English.

Kizni, Kozni, Insidise.... Cozen, English.

Koseter, Stannum Kassiteros (Greek), tin.

Dom Domus (Latin), a house.

Dim, Fumus Dim, dark; English.

Dimmet, twilight ; Provincial.

Lin Linum, Latin; Linen, English.

San, Dignitas San (Persic), dignity, law, right ;

with Edra (Greek), Sanhe- drim, i. e. Seat of Law.

Son Somnus (Latin), sleep.

Sonno, Italian.

Sin, or Syn, Filius , Son, English.

Ad, Infernus Adhas (Sanskrit), the infernal

regions. Hades (Greek), hell.

Med, Mel Mead (English), honey, wine.

Ket, Cete Ketos (Greek), a whale.

God, Tempus ; Russis, Annus... Time without bounds. — Zend

Avesta.

The ancient of days. — Daniel. Eneh (Copt.), time. "| Anihas (Sanskrit). \ time. J

Cala (Sanskrit), time ; also Siva. Chronos (Greek), time ; also Saturn.

AND THE SLAVONIC LANGUAGE. 123

Bog, Fuga, Cursus Quere The river Bog; i.e. that which

runs. Lug ; perhaps the root of the Latin Lucus, a grove.

Voi, or Boe, Exercitus Boe (Greek), clamour, Pugna.

Boen agathos Diomedes. — Homer.

Meci, or Mechi, Ensis Mache, Pugna ~| p ,

Machaira, Ensis J ^

Mama Mater, Latin; Mamma, English.

Diva, Virgo Diva (Latin), a goddess.

Zema, Hyems, winter Zeman (Arabic), time.

Yoda, or Woda, water ; with the Persic Ra, the mark of the oblique case — Wodara, by contraction water, English.

Stroka, Linea Stroke, a line, English.

Bola, Vola, or Wola, Voluntas...Boule, Boulomai, Greek.

Volo, Latin. The will ; I will ; English.

Stan, Static Stan (Sanskrit), place.

Istan (Persic), ditto.

Knagina ; princeps femina. This looks like a feminine, formed from the German Konig (a king), by transposition ; after the analogy of the Latin Rex, Regina, or rather the Italian Rege, Regina. But the Latin Rex I believe to be formed from the Hebrew Rosh (head) ; and the Italian Rege from the Sanskrit Raja.

Rebro, Costa. By abstracting the second syllable, which is cognate with the Persic Ra, the mark of the oblique case, we have rib (English), the root, or simple form of the word. Jevot, Vita ...Jivati, Sanskrit.

Vivit (Latin), he lives.

Nagota, Nuditas Naked, nakedness ; English.

Sitosti, Satietas Satis (Latin), enough.

Vinopiisa, Potator Vini Vinum (Latin), wine.

Pio (Greek), to drink.

Ovsa Ovis (Latin), a sheep.

Visnii, excelsus, altissimus Quere, Vishnu, Sanskrit.

Piri, Favilla Pur (Greek), fire.

Jivu, for Jiju, Vivo Jivami, Sanskrit.

Vivo, Latin.

Budu, for Buju, Ero Budan (Persic), to be.

Mogu, Possum Mag, Possum, Masso-Gothic.

May, English. Snate, or Sniate, congregare ...Sinayat (Arabic), the whole.

Senatus (Latin), an assembly.

Pre-Plavati, Pernavigare Plivat ( Sanskrit), he who floats.

Pre-vishnii, ante secula Quere, Vishnu, Sanskrit.

124 ON THE SAUBOMATJE,

Predez-brannie, prae-electus ...Brina (Sanskrit), chosen. Pol, Ripa, a bank, a shore ...... Pul (Persic), a bridge, an inn.

Quere. — Will either of these words account for the Pol, of perpetual occurrence in Cornwall ?

Bramanyah, the planet Saturn.

Note. — It is remarkable that the earliest names of Deity in almost every language appear to have been at the same time names of the sun, or words signifying time or eternity.

Vena, or Vina, wine .......... .....Vinum, Latin.

Vino, Italian.

Vin, French. Oko tvoe, Oculus tuus ............ Occhio, an eye, Italian.

Sia, she ............ . ................. Essa, Italian.

Pinazi, pence ..................... Pennies, English.

Vik, JEtas, Seculum ............... Vixit (Latin), he lived.

Vsa, or Bsa, omnia ............... Pas, Pasa (Greek), all.

Svit, or Swit, Lux, light ...... Swita (Sanskrit), white.

Nesh, Egenus ..................... Enosh (Hebrew), a poor man.

Jeni, Mulieres, Plur ............. Gunai (Greek, Plur.), women.

66. I cannot close this brief and imperfect ac- count of the Sarmatians, or Slavonians, and their language, without making a few remarks on the light which some of these Slavonic words throw on the formation of the verb, its tenses, and its mode of signification. First, I find in Slavonic the noun substantive Jevot, life, and am impressed with its very close resemblance to the Sanskrit verb Jivati, he lives. On referring to that verb in Wil- kins's Sanskrit Kadicals, I discover that its Dhato or root is Jiva. These Dhatos or simple roots are said not to be significant, in a great majority of in- stances, a point respecting which I am extremely sceptical ; but there can be no doubt in the present

AND THE SLAVONIC LANGUAGE. 125

instance, as I find the Sanskrit word Jivah as a noun substantive, with the signification of life. Jiva, therefore, signifies life, and Jivati, he lives. How is the alteration produced ? I find in the Chinese spoken language (which abounds with Sanskrit and Persic words) that Ta signifies he or him, and can hardly doubt that the change from the character of a noun to that of a verb is effected by the addition of this pronominal par- ticle, which coalescing with the Sanskrit word Jiva, appears again in Slavonic as the noun substantive Jevot. Again, the termination of the third person plural of the Sanskrit verb is Jiv-anti, they live ; and finding in Celtic (a term of such wide exten- sion as to be almost commutable with Scythian) the pronoun Hwynt, they, I cannot doubt that this pronoun forms the termination not only of Sanskrit verbs in anti, but of Latin in ant, ent, and unt. By accounting for the Sanskrit Jivati, I account at the same time for the Latin Vivit, he lives. But in the past tense of that verb we find Vixit, which I conjecture to be formed from the Slavonic root Vik, aetas, seculum, with a pronominal termination, its meaning of he lived being fixed by prescription, in the same manner as that of the words Vita, life, Yivit, he lives, and the great body of the words in the Latin and every other language, their meaning- being perfectly arbitrary, and there being no reason in the nature of things why Mors should not have signified life, and Yita death, or Albus black, and Niger white. We know that precisely the reverse

126 ON THE SAUROMATJE, ETC.

is the case, but why it is so we neither know nor can pretend to understand, and the attempt to do so is essentially unphilosophical. It would be a most absurd waste of time and labour to inquire why the Chinese word Ta signifies he or him, or the Celtic word Hwynt they; but by no means so to in- vestigate the modification of meaning produced by the addition of these words as terminations to roots, respecting the signification of which there cannot be any reasonable doubt.

ON THE MASSA-GET^E, ETC. 127

CHAPTER VI.

ON THE MASSA-GET^E, GETJE, MYSIANS, M^ESO-GOTHS, OR GOTHS.

67. DIODORUS, in his sketch of the origin of the Scythians, describes them as occupying originally a very limited territory, and as acquiring eventu- ally by their valour a vast extent of country and a great name in war. Their earliest abode, according to him, was along the banks of the river Araxes, and they were despised for the paucity of their numbers, when one of their kings, remarkable for his military talents, made himself master of the mountains which are in the vicinity of Caucasus, and of the vast plain which extends from the ocean to the Palus Mseotis and the river Tanais. Their fables relate that there formerly resided among them a female, who was the daughter of the earth, the upper part of whose body had the form of a woman, while that below her girdle was in the shape of a serpent. Jupiter fell in love with her, and had by her a son named Scythes, who having afterwards acquired great celebrity bequeathed his name to the nation of the Scythians. Among his descendants were two brothers remarkable for their excellent qualities, whose names were Palus and Napes, and who, having divided the kingdom be- tween them, gave a denomination to the Scythian

128 ON THE MASSA-GETJE, GET^E,

people, who from them were called Palusians and Napesians. About Palus we hear no more, unless we choose to suppose that his name, with the addi- tion of the Greek word Ge, earth, has some con- nexion with Pelasgians, whom in the next chapter we shall confidently trace to Scythia; and Pliny mentions the Napesians only to inform us that they became extinct. At a subsequent period, however, warlike monarchs of the same race ex- tended their conquests beyond the Tanais, as far as Thrace, and in another direction even to Egypt and the river Nile. Having thus subdued vast provinces to the right and the left, the empire of the Scythians received a prodigious augmentation, and finally comprised the whole extent of country between the Eastern Ocean, the Caspian Sea, and the Palus Ma3otis. The increase of population fully kept pace with the augmentation of territory ; and the Sacse, the Massa-Geta3, the Arimaspians, and many other nations, were the descendants of the Scythians. (Diodorus, lib. ii. c. 26.)

68. Caucasus, says Herodotus, terminates that part of the Caspian Sea which extends to the west ; on the east it is bounded by a plain of prodigious extent, a considerable part of which forms the country of the Massa-Geta3. In their food and clothes this people resembles the Scythians. They fight on horseback and on foot, and excel in both modes of warfare. Their weapons are spears, ar- rows, and battle-axes ; and they make much use both of gold and brass. Of this latter metal they

MYSIANS, MJESOGOTHS, OR GOTHS. 129

fabricate their spears, the points of their arrows, and their battle-axes, while their helmets, their belts, and their breast-plates, are adorned with gold. They bind also a plate of brass on the chests of their horses, whose reins, bits, and other harness are plated with gold. They use neither iron nor silver, a circumstance the more easily accounted for, that neither metal is indigenous to their country. (Lib. i. c. 204. and 215.)

69. At a subsequent period we find the Massa- Getae spoken of by one of their names only — as Mysians or Getae, for there can be little or no doubt that they are the same people. Herodotus describes an incursion of the Mysians and Teucrians before the Trojan war, in which these nations, passing over the Bosphorus into Europe, subdued all the inhabitants of Thrace, advanced to the Ionian Sea, and thence as far south as the river Peneus; and Thucydides, describing the Getaa beyond Mount HaBmus, says, that they border on the Scythians, wear the same habiliments of war, and like them fight with the bow on horseback.

70. Strabo informs us that the Greeks regarded the Getas as a branch of the Thracians, and says further, that the people of that name, occupying both sides of the Danube as well as the Mysi, who in his time were denominated Maesi, were equally Thracians. From the latter sprung those Mysians who, at the period when Strabo wrote, occupied that portion of Asia Minor situated between the Lydians, the Phrygians, and the Trojans. The

K

130 ON THE MASSA-GETvE, GETJE,

Phrygians themselves, continues our geographer, are only Bryges, a Thracian people, as well as the Mygdonians, the Bebryces, the Masdobithyni, the Bithyni, the Thyni, and the Mariandyni, as I sup- pose. Out of all these people which passed into Asia, the Mysi are the only ones still subsisting in Europe ; no trace remains of the others. (Strabo, lib. 7.)

71. Michaelis commences his account of the Gothic Gospels, by remarking that the Goths, to whom the subject relates, were not only a race dis- tinct from the Goths of Sweden, but derived not even their origin from that country, that their an- cient habitation was to the east of the Borysthenes, but that, wandering gradually westward towards the provinces of the Koman empire, they at last settled in Wallachia. The two principal authorities for the account of the irruptions of the barbarous nations who overran and eventually destroyed the Eoman empire are Jornandes and Procopius. The former was a Goth, and bishop of Ravenna in Italy, but where he was born I cannot ascertain. The second was born at Caesarea, in Palestine, and secretary to the celebrated Belisarius. It must be recollected that east and west, north and south are relative terms.

" Ask where's the North ? at York 'tis on the Tweed — In Scotland at the Orcades, and there At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where." — Pope.

To Procopius certainly, and probably to Jornan- des also, the Northern Sea was the Euxine, but to

MYSIANS, M^ESO-GOTHS, OR GOTHS. 1 3 1

the chroniclers of Europe of the middle ages, the Northern Sea was the Baltic, and they appear to have applied to the latter what had been related by Jornandes and Procopius of the former. The best edition of Jornandes and Procopius, or, at any rate, that most generally read, was published by Grotius, together with the History of the Lombards, by Paul Warnefrid, better known by the name of Paulus Diaconius. This historical collection was dedicated by Grotius to Christina of Sweden, and prefaced by a long and declamatory rather than accurate and logical introduction, which, contrary to the usual practice of that excellent man and pro- found scholar, is written altogether much more in the spirit of flattery than of truth. Forgetting, in this instance, his usual care and caution, he has adopted, with little examination, the relations of the triumvirate of historians, and made them as it were a pedestal for exalting the antiquity, glory, and grandeur of the northern nations. The great name of Grotius has given such a currency to these accounts, that they have passed uncanvassed and unquestioned from that period, and his interpreta* tion of them has been universally acquiesced in ; they even raised little suspicion in the mind of Gibbon, notwithstanding his habitual spirit of scep- ticism and confirmed and determined practice of investigation. Wonder, indeed, was occasionally expressed, even by the most credulous, how those countless swarms, which overran the Roman em-

132 ON THE MASSA-GETJE, GET^E,

pire, could come out of the little kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark, which themselves hardly appear to have been peopled, reasoning by analogy from Tacitus' s account of Germany ; and grounds enough there certainly were both for wondering and doubting. I have already stated the reasons which induced me to believe that the term Scandinavia was co-extensive and synonymous with that of Scythia ; that it comprehended the whole of Asia north of Taurus, Caucasus, and Himalaya, the Euxine and the Caspian Seas ; that it derived its name from Scanda, one of the denominations of the Indian Mars; that the Odin, or Woden, the supreme God of the nations of nothern Europe, was never a man, but no other than the Hindu Budha, one of the thousand names of the Sun in the languages of Asia ; so that there is no further cause for astonish- ment whence the multitudes came who overran and changed the whole face of Europe, or why the lan- guages of Asia should be found to have exerted so powerful an influence on those of our continent.

72. In the fourth century that branch of the great Gothic stem, which will now engage our par- ticular attention, was settled in Wallachia. During their residence in that country, a translation of the whole of the Bible into their native tongue was undertaken and completed by their celebrated Bishop Ulphilas, whose name is variously written by the Greek and Roman authors, Yulphila, Ur- phila, Gilphula, and who is also said to have in- vented the Gothic alphabet, which, with the ex-

MYSIANS, MJESO-GOTHS, OR GOTHS. 133

ception of a few letters, does not differ materially from the Greek. Ulphilas is said to have been by birth a Cappadocian, to have lived in the time of the Emperors Yalens and Valentinian, and to have been employed by his countrymen in an embassy that took place in the year of the Christian era, 378. (Marsh's Michaelis, vol. ii. p. 130.)

73. The manuscript from which we derive almost all our knowledge of the Maeso-Gothic was dis- covered in the abbey of Werden in Westphalia, from which place it was brought to Prague, where it fell into the hands of the Swedes. After lying some time in the library of Queen Christina, it un- accountably disappeared, and was again brought to light in the Netherlands. It has been supposed by some that Isaac Yossius received it as a present from the queen ; by others, that he brought it away by stealth; but, however this may have been, it was repurchased for 600 dollars by Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie, who presented it to the University of Upsal, where it remains at present.

This celebrated manuscript, generally known by the name of the " Codex Argenteus," contains the four Gospels, though not without many considerable chasms. It is written on vellum, and has received the epithet of "Argenteus" from its silver letters, but the initials are golden. The deep impression of the strokes renders it probable that the letters were either imprinted with a warm iron, or cut with a graver, and subsequently coloured, and in

K 3

134 ON THE MASSA-GET^E,

many instances the indentation of the letters has made them legible where the colour has failed. When this book was first discovered it was bound very irregularly, but Junius arranged it in the order in which we find it at present. Some ad- mirers of this manuscript, in the ardour of their zeal, have maintained that it is the very copy which Ulphilas wrote with his own hand ; a circumstance highly improbable in itself, and which is clearly disproved by Ihre's having discovered several va- rious readings in the margin, which implies the existence of several earlier transcripts.

A third edition of this Gothic version was printed at Stockholm in Latin letters, in 1671, but with many inaccuracies, as well as the two which pre- ceded it. The Swedish Archbishop Benzelius, who was head-librarian at Upsal, devoted many years to the study of the " Codex Argenteus," but after having made a more correct copy of the text, toge- ther with a Latin translation, and prepared the whole for the press, he was prevented from giving it to the world by his death, which happened in 1743. The task which he had undertaken was completed by Lye, who prefixed a short but able introduction, and likewise a Gothic Grammar, under the following title : " Sacrorum Evangeliorum Yer- sio Gothica, ex Codice Argenteo emendata atque suppleta, cum interpretatione Latina, et annota- tionibus Erici Benzelii, non ita pridem Arche- piscopi Upsaliensis. Edidit, observations suas

MYSIANS, M^ESO-GOTHS, OR GOTHS. 135

adjecit, et Grammaticam Gothicam praemisit Ed- wardus Lye, A. M., Oxonii e Typographeo Claren- doniano, 1750." In this edition, which is printed with Gothic letters, numerous errors of the preced- ing are corrected, and many of the various readings with which the Gothic version furnishes the Greek Testament are marked in the notes.

te 4

136 EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF GREECE,

CHAPTER VIL

ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF GREECE — THE PELASGI.

74. PINKERTON, in his learned and able disserta- tion on the Origin and Progress of the Scythians, or Goths, remarks that many of the most important facts in ancient history were recovered after the time of Herodotus by writers who lived in the countries where they happened; and though I believe that by far the larger part of these pre- tended recoveries are palpable forgeries, still there is a point of view in which we are more favourably situated than the Greeks and Romans were for illustrating the early antiquities of nations, even those of their own, as we can demonstrate that much of what has hitherto been received as his- tory, or the real transactions of men, is indis- putable mythology, or the fabulous accounts of imaginary beings, who were erected into Gods by the invention of the poet, and have no other exist- ence. One of the principal reasons why we stand on higher ground than the ancient classical writers is, that the progress of philological knowledge has made us acquainted with many languages of which they were altogether ignorant, rendered many ety- mologies perfectly clear which they could not pos- sibly comprehend, and, by enabling us to ascend to

THE PELASGI. 137

the fountain-head of many of the obscure traditions which prevailed among them, to account for their origin and explain their nature. The nations of modern Europe, familiarly acquainted with the Old Testament history, deduce the origin of the human race from Adam, in the first instance, and from Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, in the second, who were preserved in an ark from the waters of an universal flood. lapetus, who has nothing in common with the Scripture Japhet but the name, was the Adam of the Greeks and Eomans, beyond whom they could not go, some accounts making him the son of Coelus and Terra, that is, of Heaven and Earth ; and others, of Tar- tarus and Terra, that is, of Hell, or the quality of darkness personified. This fable appears to me to be essentially Indian, and susceptible of illustration from the Sanskrit language. The etymology of lapetus I take to be Jah, one of the names of Siva, or Gala, the Indian Saturn, or Chronos, Pati, Lord, and a Greek or Latin termination, os or us, by contraction lapetus. As he is the Hindu Saturn we need not wonder that the Greek and Roman writers know little about him except his name. A passage occurs in Homer, however, in which he is mentioned in connection with Saturn, and in a bad sense.

" Fly if thou wilt to earth's remotest bound, Where on her utmost verge the seas resound ; Where curs'd lapetus and Saturn dwell, Fast by the brink, within the streams of hell ;

138 EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF GREECE,

No sun e'er gilds the gloomy horrors there, No cheerful gales refresh the lazy air. There arm once more the bold Titanian band, And arm in vain, for what I will shall stand."

POPE'S Homer's Iliad, book viii. 597.

75. Such was lapetus, and his eldest son was Atlas, which is merely a translation of Coelus, the name of his reputed father, into Arabic, for the word Atlas in that language signifies both Heaven and a Sphere, which accounts for the Greek mytho- logical account of his supporting the Heavens on his shoulders. A much more celebrated son, how- ever, was Prometheus, the subject of one of the darkest, most contradictory, and most unintelli- gible of the Greek fables, and the hero of three of the tragedies of .ZEschylus. In the " Prometheus Vinctus," the only one that has been spared by time, he is described not merely as stealing fire from heaven, but as creating man. In the opening speech Strength says, -

" At length then, to the wide earth's extreme bounds, To Scythia are we come, those pathless wilds Where human footsteps never mark'd the ground. Now Vulcan to thy task ; at Jove's command Fix to these high-projecting rocks this vain Artificer of man ; each massy link Draw close, and bind his adamantine chains. The radiant pride, the fiery flame, that lends Its aid to every art he stole, and bore The gift to mortals ; for which bold offence The gods assign him this just punishment."

And again, at line 89, Strength addressing Pro- metheus says, —

THE PELASGI. 139

" Now triumph in thy insolence ; now steal The glory of the gods, and bear the gift To mortal man : will they relieve thee now ? False is the boasted prudence of thy name, Or wanted now to free thee from thy fate."

To the Greeks, the etymology of the name of Pro- metheus was Up o/^07]£, " providus, circumspectus," but I regard the origin of the fable as Indian, and the name as Sanskrit, from Pura, before, corre- sponding with the Greek Pro, and the Latin Prse, Math, he who excites fire by friction, and os, and us, the common Greek and Latin terminations, which they added to almost all the oriental words they bor- rowed, by contraction Prometheus, or he who first produced fire by friction. According to one of the fragments of Menander, the crime of Prometheus consisted not in stealing fire, but in forming woman, and according to another still more extra- ordinary, printed among the fragments both of Euripides and Philemon, Prometheus is said to have been not only the creator of man, but of all the race of animals of every species. This circum- stance clearly removes him from being one of the human race ; and following up this idea, we dis- cover ample reasons for believing that his cha- racter as a God was recognized by many of the Greek people, and temples, altars, and statues erected to his honour. A well-written and ela- borate article by Monsieur le Beau in the " Choix des Memoires de 1' Academic Royale des Inscrip- tions et Belles Lettres," entitled " Memoire sur les Tragiques Grecs " says, we learn from Sophocles

140 EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF GREECE,

that the territory of Colona was consecrated to Prometheus ; and his scholiast remarks, after Apol- lodorus, that in the academy Prometheus was honoured with Minerva as well as Yulcan ; that he had a temple in the wood of the goddess, and that at the entrance there was an ancient pedestal, on which were erected the statues of Prometheus and of Yulcan. Prometheus was represented with a sceptre in his right hand, and as the elder of the two ; Yulcan appeared to be younger. This fact is supported by the testimony of Pausanias, who says that Prometheus had an altar in the academy itself, and that games were instituted in his honour, which consisted in running from the altar to the city with torches, which it was necessary to pre- serve lighted. The Athenians then had placed Prometheus in the number of the gods, and jEschy- lus composed three tragedies in his honour, which contained the three most interesting circumstances of his life, and which were probably acted at some of his feasts. (Tome iii. page 251.) As lapetus was a name of the Hindu Siva, Chronus, or Saturn, and Prometheus was his son, we cannot be much mistaken in regarding Prometheus as one of the innumerable Asiatic names of the sun, and as having more in common with the benevolent Jupiter of the Greek and Roman mythology, than with any other god in their Pantheon ; and we cannot but remember that he is uniformly described as the friend of man, and suffering for services rendered to man, punishment inflicted by some other deity

THE PELASGI. 141

more powerful than himself, but neither just nor beneficent.

76. After these preliminary remarks, I proceed to point out the connexion between the fable of Pro- metheus and the earliest inhabitants of Greece. Ac- cording to the Scholiast on the Argonautics, of Apollonius Rhodius, 1. 1252, Prometheus was king of the Scythse, (Pinkerton, Dissertation, page 74,) and according to Lucian, De Dea Syra, his son Deucalion was a Scythian. (Pinkerton, page 73.) Hellen, the son of Deucalion, had three sons by his wife, — Orseis, ^Eolus, Dorus, and Xuthus. But Xuthus in Greek characters is written with the double letter Xi, which, if we analyse into its ele- ments or component parts, will be found to consist of the two simple, or single letters Kappa, Sigma, or Ks, which transposed, as they must frequently have been in the Boustrophedon, or oldest mode of Greek writing form Skuthus, a Scythian ; so that according to the involuntary confession of the Greeks themselves, their account of the origin of their language, and its dialects, is pure mythology, unworthy of a moment's attention, as if Xuthus was a Scythian, his brothers ^Eolus and Dorus must have been equally Scythians, as well as Ion his son, the founder of the Ionic, or old Attic race. The whole fabric of early Greek philology is swept away at one blow, and we have to look about for a new foundation on which to erect another.

77. The principal Greek authors, in whatever other respects they may differ, agree that the

142 EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF GREECE,

Greeks of every dialect and race were derived from the Pelasgi, so that our only chance of getting at the truth is by collecting and concentrating the lights scattered throughout the Greek classics respecting this early people. ^Eschylus, in his " Supplicants," makes Pelasgus contemporary with Danaus, and Egyptus, and puts the following speech in his mouth, which is addressed to the Chorus : —

" Nay, answer me, and speak with confidence ; Pelasgus bids you sovereign of this land : My sire Palsecthon, of high ancestry, Original with this earth : from me their king The people take their name, and boast themselves Pelasgians. O'er a wide extent of land Through which the Algus flows, and Strymon west, From the Perrho3bians o'er the sacred heights Of Pindus to Pseonia, and beyond The mountains of Dodona, spacious realms, My empire stretches, bounded by the sea This way. In ancient time the Apian plains From Apis drew their honour'd name, the son Of Phrebus, in his father's healing arts Skill'd : from Naupactus came the heaven-taught sage And clear'd the land of that pestiferous brood, Which the moist earth, foul with corrupted gore Of old engender'd, fierce with dragon rage, A cruel neighbourhood ; their horrible pride The matchless Apis quell'd, and freed the land Of Argos. Hence in sacred reverence We hold his memory." — POTTER'S JEschylus, line 273.

From this we learn that Pelasgia was a name not only of all Greece, but apparently of Thrace also, the country through which the rivers Algus and Strymon now. Thrace was frequently confounded

THE PELASGI. 143

with Scythia ; and as Herodotus informs us that the name of the earth in the language of Scythia was Apia, we shall, perhaps, feel disposed to doubt if Apia, the ancient name of Peloponnesus, was not imposed by Pelasgians in honour of the earth as a goddess, and if those Pelasgians, like Prometheus, Deucalion, and Xuthus, were not Scy- thians. At whatever period the name of Apia was first given to Peloponnesus, it continued to be current until the Iliad was written, as it occurs in the first book of that poem.

78. In the catalogue of ships, Homer enumerates the Pelasgi among the allies of the Trojans. He brings them from Larissa, apparently a fabulous city, deriving its name from Larissa, the daughter of the mythological Pelasgus, for Larissa in Thes- saly formed part of the dominions of Achilles. Perhaps the father of Epic poetry, who appears to have looked forward to the catalogue with feelings of considerable apprehension, was so exhausted with his labours when he arrived so near the con- clusion of it that he nodded, for a few lines further on he mentions the Thracians under Acamus and Pyrous, while in the night adventure of Diomed and Ulysses he makes Dolon declare that the Thra- cians were just arrived under Rhesus, in the last year of the war.

79. One great cause of the doubt and obscurity which we encounter at every step of our enquiry into the origin and migrations of the Pelasgi, arises out of the comprehensive nature of the term, and

144 EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF GREECE,

the extreme looseness with which it is used. In the following passage from Plutarch's Life of Romu- lus, for instance, it is nearly equivalent to Scythian, which, at an early period of the history of the world, described all the inhabitants of the north of Asia, or Celt, which perhaps described all those of Europe. From whom, and from what cause, says Plutarch, the city of Rome obtained that name, whose glory has diffused itself over the world, historians are not agreed. Some say the Pelasgi, after they had overrun great part of the globe, and conquered many nations, settled there, and gave their city the name of Rome, on account of their strength in war. If we could regard this passage as strictly historical, we should feel no hesitation about referring the origin of the name of- Rome to the Hebrew word Room or Rum, mighty ; and as the same word signifies high, exalted, it may have equally described the position of the city on her seven hills ; but as this account is only one among a hundred, he must be a very sanguine person who could be content to rest an hypothesis on the basis of such an etymology.

80. The information we derive from Herodotus respecting the Pelasgi, though it must, on the whole, be regarded as possessing more weight and authenticity than any other, is, at the same time, so imperfect, not to say inconsistent, that it is quite clear he possessed no definite knowledge, and had no fixed opinion on the subject. The Lacedemonians of Doric, and the Athenians of

THE PELASGI. 145

Ionian origin, says he, always eminent, were for- merly known by the appellation of Pelasgians and Hellenians. The former had never changed their place of residence, the latter often. Under the reign of Deucalion, the Hellenians possessed the region of Phthiotis, but under Dorus, the son of Hellenus, they inhabited the country called Istaeotis, which borders on Ossa and Olympus. They were driven hence by the CadmaBans, and fixed them- selves in Macednum near Mount Pindus ; migrating from hence to Dryopis, and afterwards to the Pelo- ponnesus, they were known by the name of Dorians. What language the Pelasgians used (continues our historian) I cannot positively affirm, but some pro- bable conclusion may, perhaps, be formed, by attending to the dialect of the remnant of the Pelasgians, who now inhabit Crestona, beyond the Tyrrhenians (in Thrace), but who formerly dwelt in the country now called Thessaliotis, and were neighbours to those whom we at present name Dorians. Considering these with the above, who founded the cities of Placia and Scylace on the Hellespont, but once lived near the Athenians, together with the people of the other Pelasgian towns who have since changed their names, we are on the whole justified in our opinion that they for- merly spoke a barbarous language (that is, not Greek). The Athenians, therefore, who were also of Pelasgian origin, must, necessarily, when they came amongst the Hellenians, have learned their language. It is observable that the inhabitants of

146 EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF GREECE,

Crestona and Placia speak in the same tongue, but are neither of them understood by the people about them. These circumstances induce me to believe that their language has experienced no change. I am also of opinion (says Herodotus) that the Helle- nian tongue is not at all altered. When first they separated themselves from the Pelasgians they were neither numerous nor powerful. They have since progressively increased, having incorporated many nations, barbarians and others, with their own. The Pelasgians have always avoided this mode of increasing their importance, which may be one reason, probably, why they never have emerged from their original and barbarous condition. (Hero- dotus, lib. i. c. 56, 57, 58.)

From these and other passages of Herodotus,

which unfortunately, however, are neither very

clear in themselves, nor very consistent with each

other, we may deduce the following conclusions : —

1. That the whole of Greece was, at some remote

period, possessed by Pelasgi, and distin-

guished by the general name of Pelasgia —

(Lib. ii. c. 56.)

2. That as we do not know from what country

they came, except that they came last from Thrace, we cannot determine what lan- guage they spoke ; but Herodotus has ex- pressed his conviction that it was barba- rian, that is, at any rate, not Greek.

3. That therefore Greeks of every name and

THE PELASGI. 147

dialect were not indigense, or natives of the soil, but immigrants from some other country ; and as Xuthus, the father of Ion, maybe analysed into Skuthus, there is a preponderance of evidence that those immi- grants were Scythians, or Celtse, using the words as nearly synonymous. 81. Strabo says, as to the Pelasgi it is pretty generally agreed that they were an ancient people spread over the whole of Greece, and especially in the country of the .ZEolians bordering on Thessaly. But, according to Ephorus, they were originally Arcadians addicted to a warlike life, who having united themselves with all whom they could engage to join them, and to whom they communicated their name, became famous not only among the Greeks, but in all the countries wherever they went. In fact, we see the Pelasgi established in Crete, according to the testimony of Homer, since he makes Ulysses name them to Penelope. ( Odyss. lib. xix. 175.) Besides, that portion of Thessaly which is situated between the mouth of the Peneus and Thermopylae and extends to the mountains of Pindus, is called Pelasgic Argos, because the Pelasgi were formerly masters of it. Many ancient au- thors have also described the Epirotes as Pelasgic, because the dominion of the Pelasgi extended over Epirus. And as those ancients in the same way have described a great number of heroes as Pelasgi, the moderns have extended the name of Pelasgi to the people of whom these heroes had been the

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148 EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF GREECE,

chiefs. It is in this way that the Isle of Lesbos has been called Pelasgic, and that Homer has described as Pelasgi the people who formed the boundary of the Cilicians in the Troade. (Iliad, lib. ii. 840.) Ephorus, when he is of opinion that the Pelasgi were of Arcadian origin, follows Hesiod. He also pretends that Peloponnesus formerly bore the name' of Pelasgia, an idea which receives sup- port from the fragments of the "Archelaus" of Euripides. According to Anticlides, the Pelasgi first peopled the islands of Lemnos and Imbros, and some of them passed into Italy with Tyrrhenus, the son of Atys, and finally, if we can confide in the authors of the w Atthis," which treated of the Athenian antiquities, there were Pelasgi who re- sided at Athens ; and because these people wandering in every direction, visited various places in companies like certain birds, the indigence of Attica designated them by the name of Pelargi. (Strabo, lib. v. c. 4.) In another part of his work, in connexion with the same subject, Strabo says, " What an undertaking it would be if I pretended to investigate who have been the principal founders of the Athenian State, beginning with Cecrops ! The inquiry would be so much the longer, from the circumstance that the traditions are far from being in accordance. We perceive this from the different denominations of the country, which is sometimes called Actice, be- cause it is pretended that Actaeon reigned there ; sometimes Atthis, and Attice, in commemoration, say they, of Atthis, the daughter of that Cranaus

THE FELASGI. 149

after whom the inhabitants of the country were also denominated Cranai; sometimes Mopsopia, from Mopsopus ; sometimes Ionia, from Ion, the son of Xuthus; and finally Posidonia and Athenae, after the two divinities who bear those names ; and this independently of what I have remarked else- where, that there is every appearance that Pelasgi came to settle in Attica, and that the ancient inhabitants, in allusion to their wandering mode of life, denominated them Pelargi." (Strabo, lib. ix. c.l.)

82. So much for the ancient authorities respect- ing the Pelasgi ; and one of the very highest among the moderns, Bishop Marsh, the learned translator of Michaelis, expresses himself on this subject as follows, at the conclusion of the first chapter of his Horse Pelasgicae : — " After all, then, we must be contented with tracing the Pelasgi up to their European settlement in Thrace. Beyond that limit their history is all conjecture. We may infer, indeed, from the known progress of migration, that among the ancestors of the Thracian Pelasgi some must have been once established in Asia Minor ; and Menecrates Elaita, in his work Trspi KTKTEWV (Strabo, lib. 13.), asserted that they actually were so. We may further conclude that their ancestors were once established still more to the eastward. But Thrace will still remain the limit of the actual knowledge which we possess on the origin of the ' Pelasgi. And it is useful to know the limit ; for hence we know, when we are arguing about the

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150 EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF GREECE,

Pelasgi, whether we are building on a rock, or building on the sand." (Marstis Horce Pelasgicce, Cambridge, 1815., p. 19.)

83. We cannot be surprised at finding that this accomplished scholar is of opinion that no light can be thrown on Grecian antiquities, but what is de- rived from Grecian sources ; but if I am not very much mistaken, the time is almost arrived when some of the seed sown by Halhead, Jones, Cole- brooke, and Wilkins, the earliest cultivators of Sanskrit literature, is about to ripen, when the existence of new and unsuspected links between the west and the remotest east can be demonstrated beyond the power of doubt or dispute, when much of what is obscure in the mythology of Greece and Rome can be rendered clear, and much of what is perplexed respecting the origin of the nations and languages of ancient and modern Europe receive elucidation. In a word, I am of opinion that the origin of the Pelasgi may be traced to the banks of the Ganges, and their progress thence through Scythia, Tartary, or Scandinavia, into Thrace, and thence into Greece and Italy. The clue to the mystery is contained in a single word, which has occasioned so much difficulty and confusion from the circumstance of its being expressed in such a variety of languages ; and whoever will take the trouble to remark the species of birds arranged under the genus Ardea, a heron, will discover the leading names of the European Pelasgi, and of the

THE PELASGI. 151

Asiatic. I shall now proceed to give as short an account as is compatible with clearness.

84. SCANDA, or Kartikeya, the son of Siva, and military deity of the Hindus.

jKavya, praise, panegyric ; hence Scandinavia, or the country which was sacred to the God of War under his name of Scanda.

Scandha, a king or prince — war, battle — a heron.

These Sanskrit words, from Professor Wilson's dictionary of that language, illustrate a most im- portant principle, which I have ventured to dis- tinguish by the appellation of homonymy, or simi- larity of name. It will, I believe, account more suc- cessfully than any other for the origin of the sacred character of the various types, animate and inani- mate, which we meet with in the different religious systems of the ancient world, for the sacred animals of India and Egypt, and many of the sacred trees, plants, and flowers of Greece and Rome. The names of many of the deities of antiquity were ineffable, and not to be pronounced without sin, according to the ideas of their votaries ; such were the Jehovah of the Jews, the Durga of the Hindus, and the Ceres and Proserpine of the Greeks. Why, for instance, should the myrtle have been sacred to Yenus ? We know that it was so, both among the Greeks and Romans, but can assign no reason for it from any circumstance connected with the lan- guage or superstitions of either people ; but when I learn from Strabo that the name of Venus among

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152 EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF GREECE,

the Armenians, and probably the Persians also, was Anaitis, and when I find in the list of Pehlvi, or ancient Persic words, by Anquetil du Perron, the word Anita, myrtle, it appears to me impossible to doubt that the myrtle was primarily sacred to Venus, because that beautiful shrub was a phonetic type of her name ; and as Europe was peopled from Asia, we can easily conceive that this custom once established, and a hundred others of the same sort, would be perpetuated by the Greeks and Eomans, though the language of neither people contained any clue to their origin. In India, Scanda was the name, or rather one of the names of the God of War ; Scandha, in Sanskrit, signifies war, or battle itself, and also a heron. A heron, therefore, was re- garded as the bird of Mars, for the same reason as the myrtle was regarded as the plant of Venus, and, what is singular enough, it appears to have been considered as sacred to Minerva in her cha- racter of the Martial Maid in the heroic ages of Greece ; for in the night adventure of Diomed and Ulysses, as they are setting out, she is described as sending a heron (Erodios) on their right hand, as a good omen, to assure them of her favour and pro- tection. But I believe the Pelasgi obtained their name of Storks (Pelargoi) for a reason of much more wide and general application. As I have already remarked, it is highly probable that the regions of Southern Asia, China, India, Persia, and Assyria, were the primary seats of the human race, and the spots which witnessed the earliest progress

THE PELASGI. 153

of the arts of civilization. But we have seen that the first stage of the human race is that of hunters and fishers, and the second that of shepherds. In this second they appear to have continued for ages, and, indeed, the Arabs and Tartars have never advanced beyond it ; and here the pressure of popu- lation against the means of subsistence is severely felt, as the people cannot multiply beyond the means of subsistence afforded by their flocks and herds, nor the latter beyond the produce of the pastures by which they are fed. The operation of the principle of population, or the tendency of the human race to increase in a more rapid ratio than the supply of food increases, first impelled the people of Southern Asia to cross the great moun- tain chains of Imaus, the Himalaya, Caucasus, and Taurus, and when their progress in a northerly direction was checked by the intense cold, and the refusal of the soil to supply the means of supporting life, they turned in a westerly direction, and peopled Europe. As the stork is a bird of passage, and in the winter withdraws to a more temperate region, it was an apt type of all the people in a nomadic state, who in the summer advanced to a high northern latitude, and retreated at the approach of extreme cold. According to the highest authority on the subject, the inhabitants of Northern Asia are Pelasgi (storks) at this very time. u The pastoral tribes of Asia," says Malthus, " by living in tents and moveable, instead of fixed habitations, are still less connected with their territory than the

154 EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF GREECE,

shepherds of the North of Europe. The camp, and not the soil, is the native country of the genuine Tartar. When the forage of a certain district is consumed, the tribe makes a regular march to fresh pastures. In the summer it advances towards the north, in the winter returns again to the south ; and thus in a time of most profound peace acquires the practice and familiar knowledge of one of the most difficult operations of war. Such habits would strongly tend to diffuse among these wandering tribes the spirit of emigration and conquest." (Essay on Population, vol. i. p. 142.) The very term Pelasgi, and all its equivalents, must be re- garded less as describing a particular people, speak- ing a common language, than as synonymous with nomades, or migratory shepherds. 2. KILAN (Persic), a heron.

Gilan (Persic), according to Richardson, the name of a country and city between the Caspian and Euxine seas ; also of a tribe of brave men, and of a mountain. Here, perhaps, we find the Hindu Scandinavians under a Persic name; but it is useless to dwell on them, as we do not trace their name in Europe. But the connexion be- tween Europe and India is certain, though many of the intermediate links have dis- appeared. Strabo mentions the Bryges in Thrace, whom he supposes to have been the ancestors of the Phrygians, Herodotus the Brygi in Macedonia ; and in Wilson's

THE PELASGI. 155

Sanskrit Dictionary we kind Vriji, or Briji, a country, probably that to the west of Delhi and Agra, or the modern Bruj. 3. LILK (radical letters), Arabic, a stork.

Laylak, written by Eichardson as pro- nounced : by reading the final Kappa, as Gamma, and adding a Greek termination, we have Leleges, or storks, i. e. nomades, or a migratory

pastoral people.

Their name occurs but once in Homer, and then they are mentioned in the same line with the Pelasgi, Iliad x. 429. ; and there can be little doubt of their identity, Leleges being the Arabic, and Pelasgi (Pelargoi), the Greek name of storks. Herodotus knew nothing about the Leleges ; but by informing us that the Carians were formerly Leleges, he would lead us to suppose that he regarded the latter name as merged, or sunk in the former. Both names, however, occur in the passage of Homer above alluded to. Strabo says, as to the Leleges, accord- ing to some, they were the same people as the Carians; according to others, they had nothing farther in common with them than arose from the circumstance of having resided among them, and taken a part in their expeditions ; and, as a proof of it, may be alleged, that in the territory of Miletus there are places known by the name of dwellings of the Leleges, and that in many parts of Caria we meet with the tombs of the Leleges, and some abandoned fortresses, which still retain the epithet

156 EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF GREECE,

of Lelegian. The whole region, continues Strabo, which at present bears the name of Ionia, was formerly inhabited by Carians and Leleges, and they were driven out by the lonians, who took possession of their country. At a still more remote period, those who conquered Troy had driven the Leleges from the environs of Mount Ida, near the rivers Pedasus and Satniois. But what more par- ticularly deserves our belief, continues Strabo, is the testimony of Hesiod, who says, respecting the Leleges, Locrus led the Lelegian people, whom the infinite wisdom of Jupiter the son of Saturn col- lected formerly by drawing them from the bosom of the earth to make them subjects of Deucalion : by the expression collected I think he alludes to some ancient mixture of people, who disappeared altogether at a subsequent period. (Strabo, lib. vii. c. 8.) As the terms Pelasgi arid Leleges described an erratic and migratory mode of life, when these people became stationary and practised agriculture, they ceased to be appropriate, and were discon- tinued, or in other words, when they relinquished the habits of storks they lost the name.

4. PELARGOS (Greek), a stork.

Pelasgi (storks), i.e. nomades, or a migratory pastoral people.

Eespecting the Pelasgi, I have already said all that is necessary, and indeed all that I have to say. I will add a few words, however, as to the reading of Pelasgos for Pelargos, or the exchange of R for S. An instance of this occurs so early as the year

THE PELASGI. 157

of Rome 290, respecting which Livy very gravely remarks, " Consules inde A. Postumius Albus, Sp. Furius Fusus. Furios Fusios scripsere quidam. Id admoneo, ne quis immutationem virorum ipso- rum esse, quae nominum est putet" (Lib. iii. c. 4.), as if to write one of these letters, for the other had been a matter of perfect indifference. The cele- brated decree of the Spartans, with respect to Timotheus the Milesian, which is given at length in the "Memoires des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres," is a still more palpable instance of misreading one letter for another, and many cases occur in Lanzi's Saggio di Etrusca of his reading R, though he is quite confident that it must have been intended to write S, as they are the proper names of places. Every effect must have an adequate cause, and wherever two letters have been very constantly misread we may be quite sure that the alphabet of that people must have contained two letters very inconveniently alike. Among the Etruscan inscrip- tions I find a character which I have no hesitation in denominating a Sanskrit S, which I have no doubt had a place in the ancient alphabets both of Greece and Italy, respecting both of which we know marvellously little, which is so like a Roman capital R that it can hardly be distinguished from it, and which I have no doubt was dismissed for this very reason when the Roman alphabet was finally settled, after having produced the various readings of Fusius and Furius in the passage quoted

158 EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF GREECE,

from Livy, and the still more important and per- manent one of Pelasgos and Pelargos, a stork.

5. GARAN (Celtic), a crane. Geranos (Greek), a crane.

Cran (Saxon), one of the Scythic forms of

the same word.

Cranai, an ancient name of the Athenians, attesting their Pelasgic origin, as it only substitutes one species of bird of the genus Ardea for another.

Herodotus says, the Athenians were Pelasgi, and called Cranai, when that region now named Greece was possessed by the Pelasgi ; under Cecrops they took the name of Cecropidse. The title of Athenians was given them when Erectheus suc- ceeded to the throne, and their name of Ionian s was derived from Ion, who had been general of the Athenian forces. (Herodotus, lib. viii. c. 44.)

6. CICONIA (Latin), a stork.

CiconeSj storks, i.e. nomades, or a migratory

pastoral people.

Their name occurs in the second book of the Iliad, among the auxiliaries of the Trojans. The ninth book of the Odyssey places them in Thrace, and describes them as defeating Ulysses on his re- turn from Troy ; and in Thrace we still find them at a period so late as the expedition of Xerxes. Herodotus, describing that expedition, says, the nations of Thrace, through which he marched, are these — thePseti, Ciconians, Bistones, Sapa3i, Derssei, Edonians, and the Satee. (Lib. vii. c. 110.)

THE PELASGI.

159

7. Gnus (Latin) ; Gruo (Italian), a crane. Gruis (Latin), older form. Gruhis, and Gruchis, obsolete form ; Grugo, (Italian), obsolete. (Barretti.)

From Grus, Graios, Greek, and from the obso- lete Gruchis (Latin), the existence of which is next to proved by our finding Grugo, in the Italian; Graikos, Greek ; and Gra3cus, Latin ; Cranes, that is, nomades, or a pastoral migratory people. It is remarkable that a form of the word Graios occurs in Thucydides, not as describing a Greek, but a Thracian people. Eelating the preparations of Si- talces, king of Thrace, against Macedon, he says he had levies also from among the Agrianians, Leaeans, and the other nations of Paeonia subject to himself. These were the farthest people in his dominions, reaching up to the Graaeans and Leaeans of Paeonia and the river Strymon, which deriving its source from Mount Scomius, waters the Graaaans and Leaeans, which is the boundary of his empire from those Paeonians who are still free. ( Thucydides, lib. ii. c. 96.) It is also deserving of notice, that the city of Thrace, which Herodotus calls Crestona, Thucydides writes Grestona ; and when we observe how much the first syllable of the latter word is like the Latin Grus, a crane, we cannot but sus- pect that some connexion existed between the name of the city, and the metaphor deduced from the habits of migratory birds, of which we have seen so many instances in the early antiquities of Greece. The Bishop of Peterborough remarks

160 EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF GREECE,

that the very circumstance that the Pelasgi brought the term Graikoi into Italy (which is proved by the fact of the Latins using the term Grseci), shews that Pelasgoi and Graikoi were only dif- ferent names of the same people. Farther, it ap- pears from the Greek chronicle on the Arundel marbles, that the term Graikoi was not confined to the neighbourhood of Dodona, but that it was generally a name of the Greeks before they were called Ellenes. The author of this ancient chronicle having said that the Greeks were called Ellenes from Hellen the son of Deucalion, adds, TO Trporspov Tpaixoi xaXouju,si/o/. But according to Herodotus (lib. ii. cap. 56.), the general name of Greece be- fore it received the name of Ellas was Pelasgia, which confirms the inference that Pelasgi and Graikoi were only different names of the same people. (Marshy Horce Pelasgicce, p. 56.) There cannot, I think, be a shadow of doubt that the names were primarily metaphorical, and that the Pelasgoi differed from the Graikoi only as the Greek word Pelargos (a stork) differs from the Latin word Grus (a crane).

8. CHASIDAH (Hebrew), a stork, or heron.

Chasdim ; quere, storks, i. e. Scythians, a northern pastoral people.

The article Chasdim in Gibbs' Gesenius' Hebrew Lexicon, says, in their irruptions into Palestine they came from the North by Hemath and Riblah, the usual route from Babylon. In opposition to the hypothesis of Michaelis and Schlozer, that the

THE PELASGI. 161

Chaldeans were a northern people, of perhaps Sla- vonic origin, and different from the Shemitish Babylonians. (See Adelung's Mithridat, Th. i. p. 314.)

9. ARDEA, the capital of the kingdom of Turnus. Ardea (Latin), a heron.

This was probably a Pelasgic city, and Pliny expressly ascribes to it a Greek origin. " Ardea a Dana3, Persei matre condita." The learned Virgil derives its name from the Heron : —

" Locus Ardea quondam Dictus avis, et nunc magnum manet Ardea nomen."

JEneid, lib. vii. 411.

And we learn from Ovid that when the city was taken and burnt by the Trojans, it was metamor- phosed into the bird from which it derived its name.

" Cadit Ardea Turno

Sospite dicta potens. — Quam postquam barbarus ignis Abstulit et tepida latuerunt tecta favilla Congerie e media turn primum cognita Praepes Subvolat : et cineres plausis everberat alis. Et sonus, et macies, et pallor, et omnia, captam Quse deceant urbem, nomen quoque mansit in ilia Urbis : et ipsa suis deplangitur Ardea pennis."

Metamor. lib. xiv. 573.

85. So much for the Pelasgi, whom from the evidence of language we trace as occupying and giving a name to all Greece, existing in Thrace under their Latin name of Ciconians, as late as the expedition of Xerxes ; in Asia Minor under their

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162 EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF GREECE,

Arabic name of Leleges, during the siege of Troy; and finally, as worshippers of Scanda the Hindu Mars, emigrating to and naming Asiatic Scandi- navia, Scythia or Tartary, to the north of the Himalaya mountains. But if, as we have seen from some of the Grecian authorities themselves, Prometheus was a Scythian, Deucalion a Scythian, and if the name of Xuthus, the son of Hellen, analysed into its 'elementary letters forms Skuthus, a Scythian, all the traditional accounts of the Greeks as to their own origin resolve themselves into a mythological dream, and disappear like the baseless fabric of a vision without leaving a rack behind. We have indeed gained some additional information as to the Pelasgi, but have lost every trace of the origin and formation of the Greek language, and where are we to look for it ? I answer, that if Greece was peopled from Scythia, Scythia itself was peopled from the overflowing population of Southern Asia, and that among the great nations existing at that early age of the world, that which gave a name to Scandinavia is deserving of our first notice, and that country was Hindustan, and its language the Sanskrit ; and I shall proceed to point out that Sanskrit has much in common with, and exercised no inconsiderable influence on, the formation and character of Greek, and that illustrations of the latter may be deduced from the languages of Asia, after all other re- sources have failed.

86. A few years since, the University of Oxford

THE PELASGI. 163

intimated its intention of publishing a new edition of Constantino's Greek Lexicon, which from some cause or other it was subsequently induced to aban- don, which is to be regretted, as the book is both scarce and dear. In many respects it is still the best in existence for general purposes; but how much better it might be rendered by such an University as that of Oxford ! I will venture to give one or two instances as regards etymology and inflection. In Sanskrit, we find two distinct roots*, with nearly the same meaning: —

Labh, obtain, attain, get. (Wilkins* Sanskrit

Grammar, p. 321.) Derivative, Labe, Cape (Greek). Imp. of Lam-

bano, Capio. Lambhi, cause to obtain. (Wilkins1 Sanskrit

Grammar, p. 342.)

Derivative. — Lambano (Greek), Capio. These two Sanskrit roots may lead us to suspect that what are called the irregularities of the Greek verbs are really not so, and that the apparently anomalous tenses are formed from perfectly distinct themes, one of which is lost ; and with reference to them, quite regular. Again, as in Sanskrit we

* I am of course aware that a Sanskrit grammarian would not regard Lambhi as a Dhato or root, but as a derivative from Labh and its causative form, corresponding very nearly with the Hebrew verb in Hipliil. It is remarkable, however, that in passing from Sanskrit into Greek, the root and the derivative have changed places, as we find Lambhi in the Greek present tense Lambano, and the Sanskrit root Labh in the Greek deri- vative Labe.

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find the root without the Greek termination, we are naturally tempted to inquire what is that ter- mination, and to conjecture that it is Oriental as well as the root itself, and finally to resolve Lam- bano into —

Lambhi, Sanskrit root, 1 By contraction Aa/x- j Syriac pronoun, I, J £avo>, Capio. jf, Ion., pro sXa£opjv, a. 2. in., into

Labh, Sanskrit root.

Men, Persic pronoun, I.

Aa£o<jU*s>, ceperimus, 1 pi. a. 2. opt. act., into

Labh, Sanskrit root.

Men (Chinese), equivalent to we.

The plural of nouns, says Du Halde in his Ab- stract of Chinese Grammar, is formed by the addi- tion of Men, or Teng, after the words. The former suggests close analogies with the Greek, in the genitive and dative formations of the personal pro- nouns Ego and Su in the plural number, and still more so in the conjugation of verbs, as Men forms the termination of the first person plural in every tense of the indicative, optative, and subjunctive moods of the active voice, and in many of those of the passive. In all these instances the Men (/jtsv) is clearly equivalent to we, and points to the Chinese, and when it forms the termination of the first person singular, no less clearly to the Persic Men — I ('J-r^ in the former case being invariably written with Epsilon, and in the latter with Eta.

THE PELASGI. 165

Greek Etymology.

87. A strong and confident conviction that Greek, perhaps the most beautiful language the world has ever been acquainted with, and cer- tainly second to none, is susceptible of much valu- able elucidation from the Sanskrit, has tempted me to devote a larger space to this division of my subject than will perhaps be agreeable to my readers: I feel sure, however, that the period is rapidly advancing, when those who may honour my book with a perusal will be of opinion that I have done too little rather than too much.

SANSKRIT WORDS. ANALOGIES IN GREEK.

Adhas, the infernal regions ...Hades.

Apa, from Apo.

Ama, with Ama.

Alpa, little Alpha, single, short, or little A.

Ara, the planet Mars Ares, Mars.

Ira, the Earth (with I, short)... Era, the Earth (with Epsilon).

Udra, water Udor. «

Uda, water Udos.

Upa, inferiority Upo.

, excess, over, above Uper.

Ki, Aditi, the mother of the Gods, with Eta prefixed, Era and

Ere, Juno.

with Epsilon, Era, the Earth. the Egyptian art. Fern.

T prefixed, and coalescing,

Terra, Latin.

Okas, a house Oikos.

Kalama, a pen, or reed Kalamos.

Kastira, tin Kassiteros and Kattiteros.

Kara, agent, or maker Cheir, the hand.

Kritin, wise, or learned ... Quere Cretans, the supposed subjects

of Minos, or Menu. Kinakuna, the edge of asword...Akinakes, a dagger, from a,

privative, and the Sanskrit,

i. e. no edge.

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SANSKRIT WORDS. ANALOGIES IN GREEK.

Kriya, the sign Aries Krios, a Ram.

Go, or Gau, the earth, a 1 Ge, the Earth.

mother J Gemeter. for Demeter, Ceres.

Grini, the Sun Gryneeus, Apollo.

Gna, to know Gno, for Egno, cognovit.

Tanas, the body, preceded by Ta, the Earth

Titanos, gen. of Titan, earth, body.

Tihan, a bow ..................... Dihan, or Dian, the Goddess of

Hunting, or the bow personi- fied.

Trikona, a triangle ............... Trigonos.

Daha, to burn ..................... Daio.

Disha, night ............... Quere Dis, a name of Pluto.

" Gloomy Dis." — Milton. Dru, a tree ....................... Drus.

Nakta, night ..................... Nukta, ace. of Nux.

Nasika, the nymph Aswini ...Nausikaa, Homer's Princess of

the Pheacians. Noma, portion ..................... Nomos, region.

Nau, a boat ........................ Naus.

Patrin, a bird ..................... Peteinos.

Para, more, exceeding ............ Para.

Para, injuring ..................... Para, badly.

Pari, all round ...... . .............. Peri.

Pasu, a goat, a subordinate "I Pan, the God of Shepherds, re- deity ........................... J presented with goat's feet.

Pa, to drink ........................ Pio.

Para, the opposite bank of a 1 p river ........................... J

Pratana, old, ancient ..... Quere Prytanes, officers, perhaps el-

ders. Prasada, poetry ................. Prosody, the laws of poetry.

Prasiti, ligaments, fetters ......... Prosody, or the laws, restraints,

and conditions of metrical

composition. Prina, old, ancient ............... Prin, before.

Phana, to shine ..................... Phaino.

Phala, fruit ........................ Phulla, a leaf.

Marana, death .......... . .......... Maraino.

Mallah, a wrestler ...... Quere Milo, the Crotonian.

Mila, ink ........................... Melas, black.

Su, well, right ..................... Eu.

THE PELASGI. 167

SANSKRIT WORDS. ANALOGIES IN GREEK.

Sri-bhrati, a horse, reco- 1 A ,. *i. r« i ^

vered at the churning of I According to the Greek mytho-

the ocean .? J lo^> the Slft of NePtune«

Shtha, to stand Istemi.

San, with Sun.

Sangar, a confluence of rivers... A river of Phrygia. — Homer.

Sam, with, together Sun.

Samayoga, an assemblage Sunagoge, Synagogue.

Sityan, corn, grain, rice Sition, food.

Skalana, stumbling Skalenos, unequal.

Stoman, the head Stoma, the mouth.

Hyas, yesterday Chthes.

Satadwara, hundred-gated Hecatompylos.

Satira, an enemy Satyrs, mischievous inferior

gods. Satavahana, Salivahana See the legend of Cupid.

(From Wilkim's Sanskrit Radicals.)

Urnu, veil, cover.

Note. A Sanskrit long vowel is a short one written twice, precisely like the oldest Greek and Etruscan inscriptions. If we insert A after R, and add a final S, we shall have Ouranos (Greek), the firmament, or that which covers the earth. The Latin Coelus, heaven, is the Greek word Koilos, hollow, i. e. space.

Ri, go, move Reo, to flow.

Gala, ooze, run out Gala, milk.

Janma, birth Ginomai, to be born.

Tracha ^

Traucha }-go Trecho, to run.

Traga J

Tripa, please, satisfy Terpo, to delight (by transposi- tion).

Dama, be tame Damao, to subdue.

Drama, go. The Drama,

a Poem of Action, in con- tradistinction to the Epic,

- Quere Dromos, a course.

or that which is narrated

by the Poet.

Pindah, a lump, or heap ,. Quere Mount Pindus.

Mnaa, learn by heart Mnao, to recollect.

Loka, speak, or talk "I ^

Lagha, speak, or tell J e°

Labha, get, gain Labe, from Lambano.

M 4

168 EARLIEST INHABITANTS OE GREECE,

SANSKRIT WORDS. ANALOGIES IN GREEK.

(JFrom Wilkins's Sanskrit Radicals.}

Ank, honour, worship AD ax, a king.

Apa, under, beneath Upo.

At man, air, spirit 0 Atmos, breath.

Itara, other, either Eteros, Etera.

Uru, broad Eurus.

Khalu, certainly ... Kalos, recte, pulchre.

Ka, and « Kai.

Kirona, or Chirona, for

long time

Karuna, or Charuna, pity . . . Gahana, or Gehena, deep,

profound

Chi, or Ki, gather Jaya, a mother ,

Chiron, the Centaur : a form, or Avatar of Chronos, or Saturn.

With a, privative — Qtierc, Acheron, the river of Hell, in the sense of merciless, in- exorable.

Quere, Gehenna (Greek), hell, or rather, the grave.

Cha, or Ka (Sanskrit), and.

Kai, (Greek), and.

.Gaia, terra, patria.

Tras, fear Tarasso, to disturb.

Datun, to give. Compare with the Greek.

Dadami, I give...Dadasi, thou givest.Dadati, he gives (Sanskrit).

Didomai Didosai Didotai (Greek Pass. Voice).

Dru, run Dromos, a course.

Nadah, a river, by transposition.

Naiad, a river nymph, or a river personified.

Pi, drink Pio.

Pratah, early Protou, prius, ante.

Pa (Persic), the foot ; Pous, Greek ; Pes, Latin.

Padah (Sanskrit) do. ; Podos, do. ; Pedis, do.

Pede, Italian ; Pied, French.

Note. The above words are curious as throwing some light on the formation of the Greek and Latin Genitives, which appear to be Sanskrit, while the Nominative is Persic.

Pa, cherish, nourish Pao, to feed.

Papuh, a nourisher Pappas, a father.

Pragi, in the morning 1 ^ .

Prahin, ditto j ^

Psa, eat Psao, to break in pieces.

Parnasa, leafy Quere Parnassus (Mount).

Panphul, very productive Pamphylia.

Bru, speak Brucho, to groan.

Manth, stir, agitate Mantis, a prophet.

Mainomai, to become mad.

Yuni, a young woman ...Gune, a woman.

THE PELASGI. 169

SANSKRIT WORDS. ANALOGIES IN GREEK.

Stu, run, with Ego Stoicheo, incedo.

Hari, or Heri, God (generic), with Kala, or Gala, time, and a

Greek termination, Hercules, a name of the Sun, i. e. God of

Time.

Dam, a wife, with the Persic Ra, the mark of the oblique case,

Damar and Damaris.

Tripad, having three feet Tripod.

Am, go Eimi.

Tarpani, please, satisfy, gra- 1 Terpo, delecto.

tify J Terpnon, delectatio.

Ya, go Ba, imp. of Baino.

-p , fl f Petao, to expand.

Fata, go, fly. { Peteinos, a bird.

Phullan, a flower, or blossom... Phullon, a leaf.

170 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

CHAPTER VIII.

ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF ITALY AND SICILY.

88. THE history of the inhabitants of ancient Italy appears to divide itself into several stages, many of which we may confidently assert to be purely my- thological, and to have had no sort of foundation in fact, being the inventions of poets, agreeably to what they conceived might have been, and in no sense the relations of historians of what had actu- ally happened, resting on authentic documents.

Almost every thing connected with the most ancient names of Italy is mythology in the strictest sense of the term, the actors and events being equally unreal ; the former, gods, that is imaginary or allegorical beings, and the latter having nothing in common with humanity. And what is equally remarkable, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, in the instance of the Pelasgi, one key will open all the locks, one clue will guide us through all the labyrinths, and we shall perceive in a man- ner too clearly to admit of doubt, that " mutato nomine fabula narratur," the difficulty being merely verbal. A passage in the Edda of Snorro Sturlson informs us that Enea was a generic name of Europe, and it may very well have been so, as Europa was only one of the names of the Syrian Astarte, or the Moon, of Greek etymology (Euruopa, wide-see-

OF ITALY AND SICILY. 171

ing) ; and Enea appears to have been Egyptian. Polybius mentions a goddess ^Ene, who was wor- shipped at Ecbatana, the capital of Media, which may have been the feminine of the Coptic Eneh, Time, Eternity, or Saturn. The clue to the leading names of ancient Italy is the arrival of Saturn in that country after his expulsion from Olympus by Jupiter.

" Primus ab sethereo venit Saturnus Olympo Arma Jovis fugiens, et regnis exul ademptis. Is genus indocile ac dispersum montibus altis Composuit, legesque dedit, Latiumque vocari Maluit, his quoniam latuisset tutus in oris. Aurea quse perhibent illo sub rege fuerunt Saecula ; sic placida populos in pace regebat. Deterior donee paulatim ac decolor astas, Et belli rabies, et amor successit habendi : Turn manus Ausonias et gentes venere Sicana3; Ssepius et nomen posuit Saturnia tellus."

lib. viii. 319.

" Then Saturn came, who fled the pow'r of Jove, Robb'd of his realms, and banish 'd from above, The men dispers'd on hills to towns he brought, And laws ordain'd and civil customs taught, And Latium call'd the land, where safe he lay From his unduteous son, and his usurping sway. With his mild empire peace and plenty came, And hence the golden times deriv'd their name. A more degen'rate and discolour'd age Succeeded this, with avarice and rage : Th' Ausonians then and bold Sicanians came, And Saturn's empire often chang'd the name." — DRYDEN.

One more short passage from Virgil will put us in possession of almost all the ancient names of Italy : _

172 ON THE EAHLIEST INHABITANTS

"Est. locus, Hesperiam Graii cognomine dicunt ; Terra antiqua, potens armis atque ubere glebae : CEnotri coluere viri ; nunc fama, minores Italiam dixisse, duels de nomine, gentem."

lib. i. 530.

" A land there is, Hesperia nam'd of old, The soil is fruitful, and the men are bold. Th' CEnotrians held it once — by common fame Now call'd Italia, from the leader's name." — DRYDEN.

1. (ENOTRUS, (Enotri, and the CEnotrians __ The

etymology of these words points unequivo- cally to Egypt and not to Greece, and con- sequently to Egyptian colonization, as they are to be found in the scanty remains of the Coptic that have reached us — Eneh, Time (Saturn), Ter, all, with a Greek and Latin termination, (Enotrus. With the Sanskrit termination of nouns ethnical, Jan, a man or person — (Enotrians, which may mean either the people who worshipped Sa- turn under the name of Eneh Ter (all time), or the Aborigines, or Autochthones, who had possessed the country from all time, their occupation of it being anterior to all history or tradition. Sir Isaac New- ton, in his chronology, very justly deno- minates (Enotrius the Janus of the Latins, as the latter is also one of the names of Saturn.

2. ITALIA, from Italus. Aristotle, in his Politics,

says that Italus changed the name of (Enotria into Italy ; and in the same passage men-

OF ITALY AND SICILY. 173

tions the Chaonians as an (Enotrian tribe, which are so many confirmations of the etymologies which precede and follow —

Aith (Hebrew), Time.

Hit (Arabic), Time.

Ail (Hebrew), God.

Us, Latin termination. Italus, Saturn, Chronos, or the God Time, or the God of Time and Italians, those who worshipped Saturn under that name, or were conceived to have possessed the coun- try from time immemorial.

3. CHAONIA and the Chaonians, from Chiun (He-

brew), Kiwwan (Arabic), Saturn. North- wards, from the country first called Italy, says Aristotle, the Opici and Ausonians ex- tend themselves, on one hand, towards the Tuscan sea; but, on the other, the Cha- onians, an (Enotrian tribe, have stretched towards the Ionian sea and lapygia. ( Gil- lies' Aristotle's Politics, p. 270.)

4. LATIUM, from a name of Saturn. Virgil

says, —

"Latiumque vocari Maluit his quoniam latuisset tutus in oris."

But with all submission to that divine poet, a much more probable etymology of Latium is from the Slavonic word Lito, the year, and, by a slight metonymy, time in general, Saturn, from which also we have the father

174 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

of Lavinia, Latinus, which I believe to have been another name of the God, from —

Lito (Slavonic), Annus (Tempus).

Ina (Sanskrit), King.

Us, Roman termination. And the Latins were the people who had possessed the country from time immemorial, or adored Saturn under his Slavonic name of Lito, or with the addition of the epithet Ina (King), Latinus. 5. ^ENEAS and the Trojans.

This is most assuredly a modification of the fable of the arrival of Saturn in Italy ; and .^Eneas himself is merely a humanized Sa- turn, or, in the language of the Hindus, an Avatar, or incarnation of the god ; the ety- mology of his name being either Eneh (Coptic), time, with a Latin termination ; or Anihas (Sanskrit), time, with hardly any change at all. But should any one be dis- posed to receive as true the story of ^Eneas, on the authority of Virgil, I would oppose to it the same author's account of Dardanus, as given by Helenus, in the third book of the ^Eneid.

" Hinc Dardanus ortus lasiusque pater, genus a quo principe nostrum."

Here we see the Trojans are said to be de- scended from the Italians, instead of the Italians from the Trojans. Do not these rela- tions mutually destroy each other, and ought not both to be transferred from the province

OF ITALY AND SICILY. 175

of history, to which they bear no sem- blance, to that of mythology, of which they are entirely composed ?

89. The next fable is the arrival in Italy of the Lydians, or Tyrrhenians, under the command of Tyrrhenus, the son of Atys. Lydus, Mysus, and Tyrrhenus, are the palpable creations of fiction, formed on that genealogical model of which ancient history is full, and of whom we never should have heard a syllable, if Herodotus had not thought himself obliged to give some account of the origin of the names of the Lydians, Mysians, and Tyrrhe- nians. In this and all similar instances, not only are the children older than their parents, but the parents continue to beget children centuries, nay, thousands of years after they are dead. No Euro- pean ever heard of Chin and Turk, the sons of Japhet, until it was found necessary to account for the origin of the Chinese and the Turks ; so that these newly-discovered patriarchs may be said to be at once the progenitors and the progeny of the re- spective nations. The latest descendant of Japhet I have met with is Kus, who, I am assured in Richardson's Persic and Arabic Dictionary, was his eighth son, together with the interesting informa- tion that the laws of Rus vested all family succes- sion in the females, ordering a sword to be put into the hand of every boy as soon as he was of age to wear it, with the words, " Behold your inherit- ance." It can hardly be necessary to add, that this new patriarch was the progenitor of the Russians.

176 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

To return to the Lydians, however. According to Herodotus, Lydus, Mysus, and Car, were the sons of Atys, and we must suppose the founders of the Lydians, Mysians, and Carians respectively ; but he had also another son, whose name was Tyrrhenus ; and after the occurrence of a dreadful famine in Lydia, a numerous body of emigrants placed them- selves under his guidance, who, leaving their coun- try, went to Smyrna, where building themselves vessels for the purpose of transporting their per- sons and effects, they removed in search of another residence, and, after visiting different nations, ar- rived at length in Umbria. Here they constructed cities, says Herodotus, and have continued to the present period, changing their ancient appellation of Lydians for that of Tyrrhenians, after the name of the son of their former sovereign. (Lib. i. c. 94.) 90. Strabo repeats the account of Herodotus with some variations. The Romans, says he, gave the Tyrrhenians the name both of Etruscans and Tuscans. The Greeks called them Tyrrhenians, after Tyrrhenus, the son of Atys, who sent a colony into that country from Lydia. Atys, one of the descendants of Hercules aaid Omphale, and the father of two children, called Lydus and Tyrrhenus, during a period of sterility and famine determined by lot that Lydus should continue in his country, and that Tyrrhenus, followed by the greater part of his people, should quit it, and accordingly he came and established himself in that country of Italy, which received its name from him. He founded twelve cities, to which he gave for governor that

OF ITALY AND SICILY. 177

Tarchon, from whom the city of Tarcynia (Tarqui- nia ?) received its denomination, and who, on account of the intelligence which he displayed from his earliest years, passed in mythology for having been born with white hair. Acknowledging in the first instance the authority of an individual, these twelve cities formed a powerful state, but we are under the necessity of supposing that their association was subsequently dissolved, and that each city being once separated from the league, the Tyrrhenians experienced great difficulty in defending themselves against their neighbours, otherwise we should never have seen them, aban- doning the cultivation of a fertile country, addict themselves to piracy, some on the upper and some on the lower sea. (Strabo, lib. v. c. 4.) Pau- sanias rather hints at than repeats the fable, but he makes Tyrrhenus the son of Hercules and a Lydian woman, and gives him a son of the name of Hegelaus, while Apollodorus describes an Agelaus as the son of Hercules and Omphale.

91. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who on the whole must be regarded as the highest and most learned authority for the antiquities of Italy, repeats, and at the same time refutes, many of the preceding particulars in the following passage. Some have said that Tyrrhenus was the son of Hercules by Omphale the Lydian, and that coming into Italy he dispossessed the Pelasgi of their cities, though not of all, but of those only which lay on the north side of the Tyber. Others say that

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178 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

Tyrrhenus was the son of Telephus, and that after the taking of Troy he came into Italy. But Xanthus the Lidyan, who was as much acquainted with ancient history as any man, and whose testi- mony may be relied on in that of his own country, does not, in any part of his history, either name Tyr- rhenus as a prince of the Lydians, or know any thing of the arrival of a colony of Maeonians in Italy, neither does he make the least mention of Tyr- rhenia as a Lydian colony, though he takes notice of several things of less importance, but says that Lydus and Torebus were the sons of Atys; that they, having divided the kingdom they had inhe- rited from their father, both remained in Asia, from whom, he says, the nations over whom they reigned received their name. Hellanicus the Les- bian says, that the Tyrrhenians, who were before called Pelasgi, received the name they are now known by after they had settled in Italy. These are his words in his Phoronis. Phrastor was the son of Pelasgus their king by Menippe the daughter of Peneus, his son was Amyntor, Amyntors Teuta- mides, whose son was Nanas, in whose reign the Pelasgi were driven out of their country by the Greeks, and leaving their ships in the river Spines, in the Ionian gulph, took Grot on, an inland town, from whence advancing they peopled the country now called Tyrrhenia. But the account Myrsilus gives is the reverse of that given by Hellanicus. The Tyrrhenians, says he, after they had left their own country, were, from their wandering, called

OF ITALY AND SICILY. 179

Pelargoi, that is, Storks, as resembling in that respect the birds called by that name, that come over in flocks both into Greece and the country of the Barbarians; and he adds, that these people built the wall round the citadel of Athens, which is called the Pelargian wall. (Spelmarts Dionysius, book i. c. 28.)

92. I regard this as one of the most important passages in the whole history of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, full as that history is of interesting matter, no less on account of what it denies than of what it affirms, and am of opinion that it contains some portion of substantial fact, and throws some glimmering of light on the darkness with which it is surrounded, and that if it does not contain the exact truth, it will at least put us in the way of finding it. From it we may deduce three most material consequences.

1. That every thing connected with the colo- nization of Tuscany by the Lydians of Asia Minor is pure mythology without the small- est historical foundation, and that as some of the fables make Tyrrhenus, the son of of Telephus king of Mysia, the site of the fabulous Troy, we may infer that this story of the Lydians is merely a variation of Eneas and the Trojan Colony, as the latter is of the arrival of Saturn (Eneh, Coptic, Time, Anihas, Sanskrit Time) in Italy, after his expulsion from heaven by Jupiter. Every circumstance in the Greek poets and

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180 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

geographers connected with Troy, Lydia, Phrygia, and Mysia, is involved in inex- tricable and hopeless confusion.

2. That the arrival of the Tyrrhenians in Italy

is perfectly identical with the coming of the Pelasgi, and that though Dionysius of Hali- carnassus denies this in so many words, from an idea that the languages of the two people were different, yet that he is obliged to admit it in substance.

3. That there is no account of the mode in which

Tuscany was peopled more historical or more authentic than that of the origin of the population of Italy generally, and that, as in the similar instance of Greece, we trace that population first to Thrace, next to Scythia, and finally obtain glimpses of it in the remotest East.

Every thing bearing the semblance of his- tory connected with the early antiquities of Italy may be conveniently arranged under the four words or heads —

1. Tyrrhenia.

2. Lydia.

3. Cimmeria.

4. Tuscany.

1. Tyrrhenia.

93. I am not aware that we can trace this name in Asia, except in connexion with the fabulous Tyrrhenus, the son of Atys. It appears to have

OF ITALY AND SICILY. 181

been unknown to Homer, but mention of it as a country of Thrace occurs once in Herodotus inci- dentally. What language the Pelasgians used I cannot positively affirm, says he, but some probable conclusion may perhaps be formed by attending to the dialect of the remnant of the Pelasgians who now inhabited Crestona (in Thrace), beyond the Tyrrhenians, but who formerly dwelt in the country now called Thessaliatis, and were neighbours to those whom we at present name Dorians. Con- sidering these with the above who founded the cities of Placia and Scylace on the Hellespont, but once lived near the Athenians, together with the people of other Pelasgian towns who have since changed their names, we are on the whole justified in our opinion that they formerly spoke a barbarous language (that is, not Greek). The Athenians, therefore, who were also of Pelasgian origin, must necessarily, when they came among the Hellenians, have learned their language (that is, have acquired Greek). It is observable that the inhabitants of Crestona and Placia speak in the same tongue, but are neither of them understood by the people about them (the neighbouring Greeks). These circum- stances, concludes Herodotus, induce me to believe that their language has experienced no change. (Lib. i. c. 57.) Whatever may have been the lan- guage of the Pelasgi, it continued to be spoken in Lemnos and Imbros up to the time of Darius Hys- taspes, for Herodotus, describing the operations of his general Otanes, says, with the assistance of a

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182 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

fleet from Lesbos, he made himself master of Lem- nos and Imhros, both of which were then inhabited by Pelasgi. (Lib. v. c. 26.) Thucydides gives the following account of the operations of Brasidas the celebrated general of the Lacedemonians in Thrace. Being master of Amphipolis, says he, he gathered together the allies, and led them into the district called Acte. It is the tract which stretches out into the sea from the canal which was dug by Xerxes, and Athos, the highest mountain in Acte, is its utmost verge on the ^Egean sea. The cities in it are Sane, a colony of Andrians seated close to the canal, and on that part which faces the sea towards Eubasa, Thyssus farther, and Cleone and Acrothous and Olophyxus and Dium, which are promiscuously inhabited by various sets of bar- barians who speak both languages. There is also a small number of Chalci deans amongst them, but the bulk are Pelasgians, the issue of those Tyrrhe- nians who formerly inhabited Lemnos and Athens, and Bisaltians, and Crestonians, and Edonians ; they reside in small fortresses. (Thucydides, lib. iv. c. 109.) It is remarkable that Thucydides in ano- ther passage writes Grestona instead of Crestona (rpTjrrraway KOLI Bio-aXr/ai/, lib. ii. C. 99.), which would induce one to conjecture that the word may have been formed by contraction from the Latin GTUS, a Crane, and the Sanskrit Stan, a place, town, or city. The reader will recollect that Homer places the Cicones in Thrace, that Hero- dotus mentions the same people in three passages

OF ITALY AND SICILY. 183

of his work, and that Ciconia is the Latin, and Pelargos (Pelasgos) the Greek word for a Stork.

94. Dionysius of Halicarnassus quotes, or rather misquotes, Herodotus, for it is remarkable that both he and his learned translator Spelman con- found Crestona, or Grestona, in Thrace, with Crotona in Magna Grascia, the celebrated rival of Sybaris, and Tyrrhenia in Thrace with Etruria, or Tyr- rhenia, in Italy. " For neither do the Crotoniatee," says Herodotus, " nor the Placiani, who speak the same language, use the same with any of their neighbours, by which it appears that they preserve the same language they brought with them into those countries." Dionysius then proceeds to re- mark, however, it is surprising that notwithstand- ing the CrotoniataB (of Italy) spoke the same language with the Placiani, who lived near the Hellespont, since both were originally Pelasgi, the language of the former should be quite different from that of the Tyrrhenians (of Italy), their nearest neighbours, because, if consanguinity is to be looked upon as the cause why two nations speak the same language, the contrary must occasion their speaking a different one, for there is no reason to think that both these causes can produce the same effect. (Spelmaris Dionysius, book i. c. 29.) He notices the passage of Thucydides in the following manner. Thucydides speaks of them as living in that part of Thrace called Acte, and of the cities there as inhabited by men who spoke two languages : he then makes mention of the Pelasgian

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184 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

nation in the following manner. There are some Chalcidians, but the greater part are Pelasgi, the same nation with the Tyrrhenians, who once in- habited Lemnos and Athens. ( Spelmaris Dionysius, book i. c. 25.) Surely, after reading these passages, it is hardly possible to doubt that the Thracian Tyrrhenians were Pelasgi, and, when we recollect that Illyria was the only country that divided Thrace from Italy, that the Tyrrhenians of the two latter countries were identical. Dionysius himself says, by the Greeks, the Latini, Umbri, Ausones, and other people of Italy were called Tyrrhenians ; by the Romans they were called Tusci, Thyscoi, and Etrusci, and in their own language Rasenas. He also says expressly, I do not think the Tyrrhe- nians were a colony of Lydians (of Asia Minor) ; so that that hypothesis may be regarded as having fallen to the ground ; and under the next division I shall give a probable account of the mode in which it originated.

2. Lydia.

95. Authentic history, universal tradition, and the evidence of language, concur in proving that Asia was the earliest seat of civilization, and that Europe was peopled from that continent. The next step in the inquiry is, if possible, to ascertain the names of some of the Asiatic people who emi- grated, the spot they originally occupied, the period at which they quitted it, and the successive steps by which they attained their new settlements in

OF ITALY AND SICILY. 185

Europe. The following instance affords much matter for speculation. In Herodotus's enumera- tion of the army of Xerxes we find the Ligyes an Asiatic people who inhabited the country between Caucasus and the river Phasis. In Tacitus's ac- count of Germany we find a great people, described under the name of Lygians, who are said to have been subdivided into the communities of the Arians, the Helvecones, the Manimians, the Elysians, and the Naharvalians. (Germ. c. 43.) An intelligent writer in the " Memoires des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres " asserts, apparently on the authority of Pomponius Mela, that the Ligyes occupied the vast extent of country situated between Germany and the Borysthenes, distinguished in modern geography by the general name of Poland Lygiorum nomen in plures civitates diifusum. (Choice des Memoires, tome ii. p. 54.) Strabo describes the Alps as in- habited by different people, the whole of which were of Celtic origin, except the Ligyes, or Ligures ; and it may be doubted if this exception is well founded, as we have seen that there is every reason to believe that this people were of Asiatic origin, and we trace them to the vicinity of Mount Cau- casus. Strabo himself describes the Ligyes as re- sembling the Celtae in their manner of living, and as occupying that portion of the Alps which joins the Apennines, and a part of the Apennines them- selves, a country which was the Liguria of the ancients, and the modern territory of Genoa. (Strabo, lib. ii.) The whole line of coast, pursues

186 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

Strabo, from Monaco to Tyrrhenia, is such that we meet with nothing deserving the name of a port, and merely some inconsiderable havens and anchor- ing grounds. Above it rise lofty and steep moun- tains, which leave no more than a very narrow passage between themselves and the sea. The whole of this coast, but more especially its mountainous part, is inhabited by the Ligyes, whose subsistence is composed chiefly of animal food, milk, and a species of drink which they prepare from barley. In this part of the country the mountains supply in abundance timber adapted to the purpose of building ships, and so prodigious is the height and size of the trees that we meet with many which are eight feet in diameter. Many of these trees produce a veined wood as well suited to manufacturing beautiful tables as those which are made of cedar. (Strabo, lib. iv.) Now when we observe that the Ligyes bordered on the Tyrrhenians, remark how much Ligyia is like Lydia, and Ligyes, or Lygians, like Lydians, and reflect how much the ancients before the invention of printing and the consequent multiplication of books must necessarily have writ- ten from oral report ; is it not more than probable that the similarity in sound between Lygians and Lydians is the sole foundation of the Lydian colony brought to Italy by Tyrrhenus, the son of Atys and brother of Lydus, who most assuredly are all the mere creations of fiction.

OF ITALY AND SICILY. 187

3. Cimmeria. »

96. The very existence of a country of the name of Cimmeria in Italy would appear to depend al- together on the meaning of a passage in the llth Book of the Odyssey, from which some of the com- mentators have extracted an interpretation which clearly never entered the head of Homer, in their zeal to make him what no degree of zeal will ever accomplish, a consistent geographer and an au- thentic historian.

Strabo says, very truly, that Homer was ac- quainted with the Cimmerian Bosphorus, as he not only names the Cimmerians, but places the locality of his Hell in their country (lib. i.); and yet in another passage he almost appears to admit that Homer assigned that hell to Campania. The ancient Greeks, says he, mixing fable with his- tory, applied to the lake Avernus what Homer relates in his Evocation of the Manes (Odyssey r, book xi.) ; and we are assured that in this place there was formerly an oracle of the dead. Avernus is simply a deep basin, provided with a very narrow entrance, and consequently well-adapted, both from its nature and size, for a port, though it is not applied to that purpose on account of the shoals with which the Lucrine lake abounds, situated be- tween it and the sea ; but this same Avernus is surrounded with steep hills, which bound its cir- cumference, except at its mouth ; and these hills, which at the present day present so agreeable a

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spectacle, were formerly covered with deep and im- penetrable forests, which projected over the waters a shadow available for the purposes of superstition. The inhabitants of the country supported the my- thological stories by adding that birds were unable to cross Lake Avernus, and fell into it, arrested in their flight by the noxious vapours which exhaled from its surface. It was soon generally admitted that this gulf was a Plutonium, around which, say they, dwelt the Cimmerii, and into which navigators never entered without having previously offered propitiatory sacrifices to the infernal divinities, according to the rite prescribed by the priests to whom the possession of this place is secured; the spring of water which is found hard by on the sea- shore was reported to emanate from the river Styx, and every body refrained from using it ; and thus Ephorus, adapting his description of the locality to what we know respecting the Ciinmerii from other quarters, relates that they dwelt in subterranean habitations denominated Argillse, which had a com- munication with each other by passages formed under ground, and also that the prophetic temple to which strangers were admitted was built at a great depth under the surface of the earth. (Strabo, lib. v. c. 10.) One of the chief inducements to the commentators on Homer to place a Cimmeria in Italy, and to suppose that the spot of Ulysses's descent, seems to have been the difficulty of his reaching the Cimmerian Bosphorus from the resi- dence of Circe with a northerly wind. But as there

OF ITALY AND SICILY. 189

can be little doubt that the name of the Cimmerii was contracted into Cimbri, that the latter term is identical with Cymri, the term by which the Welch still designate themselves, and that all the Gaulish tribes were Gaels, or Celts, Ancient Italy is placed in the same category with the more westerly parts of Europe, to which Herodotus assigns as their earliest inhabitants the Celtae and CynetaB. But although we cannot find a Cirnmeria in Italy, the name of the Cimbri appears to have been per- petuated in Umbria, which seems to be essentially the same word without its initial aspirate.

97. Having proved that the Tuscans were not the Lydians of Asia Minor, but the Ligyes of Hero- dotus, Tacitus, and Strabo, and that the Tyrrhe- nians of Italy were probably identical with the Tyrrhenians of Thrace, both being Pelasgi, and entered the former country through Illyria, we place the earliest inhabitants of Italy nearly on the same footing with those of Greece, tracing them back to the great parent stock of CeltaB, Scythas, or Asiatic Scandinavians. Lempriere in his Dic- tionary, without assigning any specific authority, says that Tyrrhenia was a general name of Italy, and I think it very likely that that of Tuscany may have been co-extensive. The etymology of Cimmeria I believe to have been the Hebrew word Chum, black, and that of Tartary the Persic word Tar, dark, doubled. The primary idea in both appears to have been the six months' darkness that prevails within the polar circle. From Tartary, the

190 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

Greeks formed their Tartarus, or Hell, which, as we have seen, Homer places in the country of the Cimmerians. The same idea was familiar to the middle ages. Even Shakspeare, in his first part of King Henry the Sixth, puts the following address into the mouth of the Maid of Orleans : —

" Now help, ye charming spells and periapts ; And ye choice spirits that admonish me And give me signs of future accidents ; [thunder]

You speedy helpers that are substitutes Under the lordly monarch of the North, Appear, and aid me in this enterprize ! " —

while a note in Chalmers's Shakspeare informs us, that the north was always supposed to be the pecu- liar habitation of bad spirits, and that therefore Milton, in his Paradise Lost, assembles the rebel angels in the north. By connecting two sentences of Tacitus and Caesar, we gain a ray of light, which is feeble indeed, but not to be despised where all around is darkness. The former, speaking of the origin of the Germans, says, " Celebrant carmi- nibus antiquis (quod unum apud illos memoriaa et annalium genus est), Tuistonem (Tuisconem ?) Deum terra editum, et filium Mannum originem gentis conditoresque," ( Germ. c. 2. ) ; while the latter has the following very singular passage respecting the Gauls: — " Galli se omnes ab Dite Patre pro- gnatos predicant, idque ab Druidibus proditum dicunt." (De Bello Gallico, lib. vi. c. 18.) Now, that the Germans, and the Gauls, Gaels, Celtaa, or Scythae, stand in the relation to each other of a part

OF ITALY AND SICILY. 191

to the whole, is, I think, a matter susceptible of demonstration ; so that, if we allow any weight whatever to these early traditions, Tuisco and Pluto were identical. The names in both instances may contain a reference to the Tartarian, Cimmerian, or remote northern primitive seat of their common ancestor. Again, it is impossible to doubt that; many nations of antiquity were denominated from the names of the gods they worshipped, and it has been shown that ^Enotria, Chaonia, Italia, and Latium were probably derived from so many names of Saturn in different languages ; and the same system may have been carried very much farther. Herodotus mentions Targitaus as the ancestor of the Scythians, a word which is probably formed from the Persic Tariki, darkness, obscurity, and Targitaus, identical with the Pluto or Jupiter Stygius of the Greeks. Sir William Jones informs us that the country to the north of the Oxus was called by the ancient Persians Touran, in contra- distinction to Iran. The etymology of this word appears to be the Persic Taran, dark, agreeing in meaning with Cimmeria, Tartary, and Tartarus ; and Taranis, respecting whom the commentators know little or nothing, may be merely another name of Jupiter Stygius, or Pluto, as that of the Tauric Diana certainly was of Proserpine.

" Et quibus immitis placatur sanguine diro Teutates, horrensque feris altaribus Hesus, Et Taranis Scythicae non mitior ara Dianas."

LUCAN, lib. i. 444.

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" And you where Hesus' horrid altar stands, Where dire Teutates human blood demands, Where Taranis by wretches is obey'd, And vies in slaughter with the Scythian maid." — HOWE.

98. If we trace the ancestors both of the Italians and Greeks to Scythia, and if Touran, or Taran, as well as Scandinavia, was an oriental name of Scy- thia, Tyrrhenia might very naturally mean the country of those who came from Touran, and Tyrrhenians those who worshipped Jupiter Stygius under the name of Taranis. If so, I should be dis- posed to go one step farther, and suppose that the Tuscans may have been those who worshipped the same deity under the name of Tuisco. Both Greece and Italy were certainly peopled principally from Scythia, though both may have received colonies from Egypt, the former through Thrace and Mace- donia, and the latter through Illyria, Germany, and France, so that we need experience no surprise that we do not discover the German Tuisco in Italy, when we find his followers there under the name of Tuscans, or of Tyrrhenians, from Taranis. We must not expect perfect consistency in mythology. The name of Scandinavia is unquestionably from the Indian Scanda, who was a god of war, and that of Woden, or Odin, from the Indian Budha, who have both given their names to Wednesday in Europe and Hindustan respectively ; but Odin, although a god of war, was also a god of the lower regions, as I suppose Targitaus, Taranis, and Tuisco to have been; and Bartholinus says expressly,

OF ITALY AND SICILY. 193

" Odinus Manium fuit Dominus Mercuric compa- randus."

99. In connexion with the Asiatic origin of the nations of Europe, Pinkerton remarks, that in Scythia " intra et extra Imaum were Chatae (Catti), Sasones (Saxones), Syebi (Suevi), Tectosaces (Tec- tosages), lotse (lutes), and a town Menapia, all coinciding with German names, and which could only spring from identic language. (Essay, page 39., note.) It is also deserving of remark, that Tacitus mentions the Arians as one of the tribes of the Lygians, and that we are informed by Herodotus the Medes were anciently called Arii, and that Arians, mentioned in connexion with the Parthians, Chorasmians, and Sogdians, constituted part of the army of Xerxes. We also find the Boduni among the British tribes, and Budii and Budini in Hero- dotus. The Budii are mentioned among the ancient Medes in connexion with the Magi. The latter, we know, were worshippers of the sun ; and I am disposed to trace the former one step farther east, and believe that they may have received their name from the Indian Budha, the sun, synonymous with Odin or Woden. But if Scanda, the Hindu Mars, gave his name to Scandinavia, and Budha, under his European name of Woden, continued to be the great God of the northern nations for more than eight hundred years after the promulgation of Christianity, we can feel no difficulty in believing that the Suevi of Tacitus were denominated after

194 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

Siva, another of the great gods of the Hindu Pantheon.

4. Sicily.

100. Sicily will not detain us long, as very much that has been related of Italy will also apply to that island; traditions essentially the same being dis- guised by having been transmitted in different languages. As all the earliest names of Italy were so many names of Saturn in various tongues, so Sicily appears to have been derived from the Latin Seculum, an age or long period of time, and by a slight metonymy, time in general. The Latin word secula, a scythe, was its homonym, or phonetic type ; and accordingly we find Saturn armed with a scythe in all representations of him both ancient and modern. Pausanias, in his journey in Achaia, says, you next meet with a promontory which advances into the sea, which is the place, according to some, where Saturn threw away the scythe with which he had mutilated his father Coelus ; and from this circumstance the promontory received the name of Drepanum, the Greek word for scythe. There was a city of the name of Drepana, or Drepanum, in Sicily, the modern Trepani; and wherever that word occurs as the name of a place, we may rely on meeting with some tradition respecting Saturn and his scythe. (Pausanias, lib. vii. c. 23. Fac- ciolati, in voce " Drepanitanus.")

101. Sicania, which according to some is the oldest name of Sicily, I believe to be another version,

OF ITALY AND SICILY. 195

slightly disguised, of the perpetually recurring story of the Pelasgoi, Pelargoi, or Storks, the word being slightly altered from the Latin Ciconia, a Stork. The reader will no doubt recollect that we have met with Thracian Cicones in Homer, and found them mentioned by Herodotus in three pas- sages, and as existing in Thrace so late as the expe- dition of Xerxes. I think we meet with them under the name of Sigynas, in Scythia or at any rate far to the north of the Danube, in the work of the same indefatigable, accurate, and truth-loving historian. He describes this people as calling themselves a colony of the Medes, resembling the Medes in their dress, possessing the whole of the country to the north of the Ister, and extending almost to the Heneti, or Yeneti, on the Adriatic, so that he brings the Sigynae into immediate contact with, if not actually into, Italy. (Herodotus, lib. v. c. 9.)

102. The high reputation of Thucydides, how- ever, requires that some notice should be taken of his account of the Sicani. According to this dis- tinguished historian, the Cyclops and LaBstrygons were described as having been the most ancient inhabitants of some parts of Sicily; but he treats such traditions as poetical fables, not worth in- vestigating. After them the Sicani were repre- sented as the next in succession, but they regarded themselves as the original possessors. Thucydides, however, brings them from the river Sicanus, in Iberia, from which they derived their name, and whence they were driven by the Ligyes ; and on

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arriving in Sicily they gave it the name of Sicania, after themselves, it having been previously called Trinacria, and continued to possess the western parts of the island at the period when the historian wrote. (Thucydides, lib. vi. c. 2.) I am strongly disposed to believe that the translators and com- mentators of Thucydides have been misled in this passage by a similarity of name. There were two Iberias, one corresponding with modern Spain, and the other in Asia, situated between the Euxine and the Caspian seas. To this spot we trace the Ligyes of Herodotus, a people from whom I believe the fable or tradition arose of a Lydian colony from Asia Minor having peopled Tyrrhenia. But the Spanish Sicani are said to have been expelled by Ligyes (Ajyus^, Greek; Ligyes, Latin): and I strongly suspect that from similarity of name this scene has been transferred from Asiatic to Euro- pean Iberia. The Sigynas are said by Herodotus to have been a Median people (still in the same neighbourhood) ; and I entertain hardly a doubt in my own mind that the Sigynse of Herodotus are the earliest historical form of the Sicilian Sicani, and that the whole is merely an episode in the his- tory of the Pelasgi, and their Scythian or Scandi- navian extraction. This conjecture receives some degree of support from the company in which the Sicani are found. According to Thucydides, in the same passage, from the junction with some Trojans, who had escaped from the ruin of their city, the Sicani were subsequently induced to take

OF ITALY AND SICILY. 197

the name of Ely mi. To understand this, we are under the necessity of supposing that these Trojans were Elymi ; and we know of no historical Elymi except the inhabitants of the Persian province of Elymais, which, as well as the words Iberia, Ligyes, and Sigynse, lead us to the East and not to the West, and point much more clearly to an Asiatic than to an European origin of the Sicani.

103. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who has written at greater length and with more minute circum- stantiality on the antiquities of Italy than any other author, does not leave an impression on the minds of his readers in point of force and clearness, in any degree corresponding with the immense pains he has taken, the principal reason of which is, that he has at once done too much and too little : too much, by collecting indiscriminately all the mytho- logical and traditional accounts of the Greeks, which are so conflicting and inconsistent that they neutralize each other; and too little, by not fur- nishing us with some clue to assist us in threading our way through this more than Daedalean laby- rinth. The first mention that occurs of the Siceli in his work is in connexion with the building of Rome. The most ancient possessors of the place, says he, where the city now stands, are said to have been the barbarous Siceli, natives of the country (or, in other words, what the Greeks dis- tinguished by the epithet Antochthones). As to the condition of the place before their time, none can certainly say whether it was inhabited or de-

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198 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

sert. Afterwards the Aborigines made themselves masters of it, having dispossessed the inhabitants, that is, the Siceli, after a long war. These people (the Aborigines) lived before that on the mountains, in villages without walls, and dispersed. But after the Pelasgi, and some other Greeks mingling with them, assisted them in the war against their neighbours, they drove the Siceli out of this place (the site of Rome), walled in many towns, and con- trived to make themselves masters of all the country that lies between the Liris and the Tiber. This nation remained in the same place, being never from that time driven out by any other ; the same people, however, being called by different names at different periods. Till the time of the Trojan war they preserved their ancient name of Aborigines ; under Latinus their king, who reigned during that war, they began to be called Latins ; and Romulus having built a city after his own name sixteen generations after the taking of Troy, they changed their name to Romans. (Dionysius, lib. i. c. 9.) The great difficulty that pervades this ac- count is, that we appear to have a distinction with- out any conceivable difference. The Siceli were natives of Latium, that is, Autochthones, and had possessed the country from time immemorial ; and to describe them as driven out by another people, who are denominated Aborigines, seems to be equi- valent to asserting that the new comers were older than the oldest, and earlier than the first.

104. Dionysius soon begins to feel some diffi-

OF ITALY AND SICILY. 199

culty about these Aborigines himself, and proceeds to observe, there are some who affirm that the Aborigines from whom the Romans are descended were natives of Italy, a people sprung from no other, and these authors say that they were first called Aborigines from their having been the origin of their posterity, (most fathers are so,) or, as the Greeks express it, ysi/apxa^, or Trpcoroyoveig. Others pretend that certain vagabonds without house or home collected out of many places, assembled there by chance, seized on the fastnesses, and maintained themselves by robbery and feeding of cattle. For this reason the supporters of this hypothesis change their name to one more suitable to their condition, denominating them Aberrigines, to show they were wanderers, and according to these the Aborigines are in danger of being con- founded with those the ancients called Leleges, — (from Laylak, Arabic, a stork), — for this is the name they generally give to a vagabond and mixed peopl e who have no fixed abode they can call their country. (Dionysius, lib. i. c. 10.) We have seen in the preceding paragraph, that the Aborigines are said to have been associated with the Pelasgi (Pelargoi, Storks), when they drove the Siceli out of Latium, and from the mention in the present of the Leleges, it is quite clear to my mind that the exploits of these Aborigines, and the arrival of the Pelasgi in Italy, are one and the same fable. 105. But it appears that the Siceli, who were Autochthones, and who had possessed Latium from

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200 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

time immemorial, were not always Siceli, or at any rate were not always distinguished by that name, they themselves having been Oenotri. Antiochus of Syracuse, says Dionysius, a very old historian, in his account of the planting of Italy, enumerates the most ancient inhabitants in the order in which any of them possessed themselves of any part of it, and says that the first who are recorded in history to have inhabited that country were the Oenotri. His words are : Antiochus the son of Xenophanes has given this account of Italy, which is the most credible and certain, out of the ancient histories : that country which is now called Italy was formerly possessed by the Oenotri. Then he relates in what manner they were governed, and that in process of time Italus came to be their king, from whom, changing their name, they were called Italians ; that he was succeeded by Morges, from whom they were called Morgetes ; and that Sicelus being received as a guest by Morges, and setting up for himself, divided the nation. Even the Oenotri, according to Dionysius, who brings them into Italy from Arcadia, had been known by two preceding names. In the reign of ^zius they were called JEzii ; when Lycaon succeeded to the command, Lycaoriians ; and after (Enotrus led them into Italy, they were for a time called Oeno- trians. (Dionysius, lib. i. c. 12.)

106. Dionysius agrees with Thucydides in re- presenting Sicania as possessed by the Sicani, an Iberian people, at the period of the arrival of the

OF ITALY AND SICILY. 201

Siceli from Italy, who communicated their own name to it. But he supposes Trinacria to have been its oldest name, from its form. Thus, says he, the Sicelian nation left Italy, according to Hel- lanicus the Lesbian, the third generation before the Trojan war, and in the twenty-sixth year of the priesthood of Alcyone at Argos. He relates that two Italian colonies passed over into Sicily, the first consisting of the Elymi, who had been driven out of their country by the Oenotri; the second, five years after, of the Ausones, who fled from the lapyges. He makes Sicelus — (Seculum, Latin, Time, Saturn) — the king of these people, who, he says, gave his name both to them and to the island. Philistius the Syracusan, however, computes the time when this colony passed into Sicily to have been the eightieth before the Trojan war, but says that the people who went thither out of Italy were neither the Siceli, the Ausones, nor the Elymi, but the Ligures (the Ligyes of Herodotus), whose leader was Sicelus, who, he says, was the son of Italus, — (Hit, Arabic, Time, Saturn ; Ail, Hebrew, God), — that in his reign the people were called Siceli, and that those Ligures had been driven out of their country by the Umbri and Pelasgi. (Dionysius, lib. i. c. 22.)

107. After all our researches respecting the early inhabitants of Greece, Italy, and Sicily, little can be established as certain, except that those of the two former countries came principally from the north-east, and those of the latter from

202 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

Italy; that they were parts or detachments from the great primitive stock known in Europe as Celtse, and in Asia as Scythians or Scandinavians ; that from their migratory way of life, or because a Heron was sacred to Scanda, the Hindu Mars, from whom Scandinavia derived its name, they deno- minated themselves from one of the names of the genus of birds Ardea, expressed in various Asiatic and European languages, many of which have been pointed out ; that the impulse given in a south- westerly direction did not originate in ambition or the spirit of conquest, but in the pressure of the principle of population, or in the tendency of society in every stage of its existence, and more especially in the nomadic, — when the increase of people is limited by the supply of food afforded by their flocks and herds, and the increase of the latter as obviously and undeniably by the numbers the pasture grounds occupied by the tribe are capable of supporting, — to augment in a more rapid ratio than the supplies of food can be augmented. Car- rying on the operation of this principle, we find reason for supposing that fifteen or sixteen centuries before the Christian era, the principal nations of Southern Asia must themselves have been in the nomadic or shepherd state, and from the pressure of population compelled to cross the great moun- tain chain which runs east and west through a large portion of Asia. As the Sanskrit, the Persic, and the Arabic, and their dialects, the most ancient and widely diffused languages of Southern Asia,

OF ITALY AND SICILY. 203

were thus carried into Asiatic Scandinavia, or Scy- thia, and as Greece and Italy were chiefly peopled thence, — if our theory be true, there ought to be much in common between the oldest languages of Asia and those of Europe. We have seen that such is actually the case between the Sanskrit and the Greek, and I now proceed to apply the same test to the Latin.

SANSKRIT WORDS. ANALOGIES IN LATIN.

Adya, to-day ...Hodie, and reading the Sanskrit

Agha, Oggi, Italian.

Naman, a name Nomen.

Antra, an entrail Antra, a cave, the bowels of the

earth.

Aya, to go Eo.

Alka, a tree Alga, a weed.

Astu, be it so Esto.

Apa, to obtain Habeo.

I, to go I, Ito, Imperative of Eo.

Ita, to go Itans, going.

Itio, a going.

Iti, so, thus, even Ita.

Idam, this Idem.

Ira, to go Ire, Infinitive of Eo.

Ubhau, both, with Anuswarah 1 A , , , , after the U |Ambo' both-

Ulva, the womb Alveus, the belly.

Rii, the mother of the Gods ...Rhea.

Li, or Lri (short), the earth Lurre (Cantabrian), the earth.

Li, or Lri (long), a mother With the Egyptian Article Femi- nine prefixed and coalescing, Tellure, the Abl. of Tellus.

Kado, to kill, or hurt Csedo.

Karpasa, cotton Carbasus, fine linen.

Kalama, a pen, or reed Calamus.

Krita, made Creatus.

Janus, birth.

Note. This word accounts for one half of the character and attributes of the Roman Janus, and the Indian Ganesa. — Vide Ovid. Fast. lib. i. 103.

Janu, the knee Genu.

204 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

SANSKRIT WORDS. ANALOGIES IN LATIN.

Gnata, known Notus, Nota.

Tapa, to heat, or be hot Tepeo.

Divaspati, Indra Divespiter, Jupiter.

Nas, the nose Nasus.

Nida, a nest Nidus.

Nau, a boat Naus.

Palasa, green Pales, the Goddess of Pastures.

Pishta, ground, pounded Pistor, a baker.

Pra, before Pro, and Prae.

Pr ahna, the forenoon Prandium, a refreshment at noon.

Phullati, it bloAvs, or expands... Pullulat.

Bala, to live Yaleo, to be well.

Manas, the mind Mens.

Mala, sin Mala, Plural of Malum.

Mira, or Mare, the ocean Mare, the sea.

Musha, a rat, or mouse ....Mus.

Juvan, young Juvenis.

Rajni, a queen Regina.

Vachas, voice Yaks, Vox.

Vaha, a road, a way Veha, and Via.

Yaha, any vehicle Yeha, a cart.

Yata, air, wind Yates, a prophet speaking under

a divine afflatus.

Virah, a hero Yir, and Yirtus, courage.

Yitala, animating Yitalis.

Silla, a stone, or rock Scylla, in Mythology.

Suasura, a father-in-law Socer.

Suasru, a mother-in-law Socrus.

Shtha, to stand Sto.

Sa, he, Nom Se, him, Ace.

Sanhati, an assemblage Senatus.

Saptama, seventh Septima.

Sami, half Semi.

Sitya, corn, grain Sata.

Statri, he who stays Stator (Jupiter).

Stamin, strength, power Stamina.

Hansa, a goose, a gander, a "I A

swan J^

Haya, a horse Equa, a mare.

Hayanah, a year Annus.

Hi, to go Eo.

Hita, gone Ita.

Hvado, to go Yado.

Hitau, by reason or cause of ...Ita, therefore.

Nava, new Nova, Fern, of Novus.

Ratha, a car Rheda.

OF ITALY AND SICILY. 205

SANSKRIT WORDS. ANALOGIES IN LATIN.

(From Wilkin's Sanskrit Radicals.)

Aha, go, move ..................... Eo.

Apati, he acquires .................. Habet.

Eti, he goes ........................ It.

Ira, irritate ........................ Ira, anger.

Unda, make wet .................. Unda, any liquid.

Una, lessen, reduce.

Note. This appears to be the Un, privative, of the Latin and

its derivative languages in such words as unable, uncertain,

unjust, unstable, &c. Rich'ha, to congeal ............... Bigeo.

Fates> and

Data, collect ........................ Data, materials collected for

forming a judgment. Trapa, shame, modesty ......... Turpis, Turpe.

Dama, be tame, grow tame ...... Domo.

Damah, tameness, with the Sahidic Re, facere. Domare, *. e. to cause tameness.

Diva, shine, be splendid ...... *"

shine Deus, God (Quere, the Sun).

Ragha, shine Rex, a king.

Sata, a lion's mane Seta, a bristle.

Sutra, thread, string, twine Sutor, a sewer.

o 11 f Salio, to leap.

" \ Sally, from a besieged place.

Kakkha, laugh Cachinno.

Jivati, he lives Vivat, let him live

Nakkha, destroy 1 N h

T\.T 1 • ' r •*••••••••••••• -Ll UCt>V% tU 11 111 t*

Nusha, injure J

Lvi, go, move Leve, swift, active.

Loka, speak, or tell Locutio, speech.

Sata, happy, at ease Sat, enough.

Da, give Da, Imp. of Dare.

Dada, give ; Dadati, he giveth. Dedi, I gave ; Dedit, he gave, Latin.

Dana, give Dono, I give.

Tadra, tire, be drowsy Tardo, to hinder.

Phulla, blossom, flower.

Phullati Chalicha, the flower-bud expands.

Pullulat Calyx, Latin.

(From Wilkin's Sanskrit Grammar.)

Antra, bowels (Quere) Inter, within.

Aranya, a desert Arena, sand.

206 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

SANSKRIT WORDS. ANALOGIES IN LATIN.

Aurnavit, he covered ; 3d Pret. of Urnu. Oruavit, he decked, or adorned, Latin.

Erachah, goats Hircus, a goat.

Etu, let him go Ito.

*, or CM, What {{

Kukshi, a side Coxa.

Char, go, move Curro, to run.

Jan, or Jana, a man, or person.

Note. This word is deserving of particular attention as form- ing the termination of most Nouns Ethnical, as Egyptian, Indian, Persian, Assyrian, Phrygian, Lydian, Phoenician, Carthaginian, Grecian, Italian. Also in An, as Roman. Egypt — Ian, i. e. a man of

Egypt. Janata, the people collectively... Gentse (Latin), people.

Tapta, warmed Tepida.

Ni, in (Latin, or rather Etruscan), read from right to left, In. "Naktan, night Noctem, Ace. of Nox.

Dur, bad, hard, difficult {^^ _

Pur, become full Per, in composition.

Pita, drunk Potus, having drunk.

Puta, putrid Puteo, to stink.

Pitamahah, a father's father ...Avus.

Pra-pitamahah, a great grand 1 p , father J

Patrivya, a paternal uncle Patruus.

Patrah, or Patra, a vessel Patera.

Pa, preserve ; Pali, cause preserve.

Pali, a shepherd Pales, the Goddess of Shep- herds.

Parva, a section, division Parvus, little.

Bhava, a title of Siva...(Qwm?)Bivia, he being the God of

destruction and reproduction.

Mita, measured Meta, a boundary.

Mansa, flesh, meat Mensa, a meal.

Loka, the world Locus, place.

Sarpa, who moves, or glides ...Serp-ens, a serpent.

Svapi, cause to sleep Sopitus, laid asleep.

Div, heaven Divus, a God; Ouranos, Greek;

Coelus, Latin.

Dipad, who has two feet .Biped.

Dan, cut Dens, a tooth, i. e. that which

cuts.

Vid, be, exist Vita, life.

Ad, eat Edo.

OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 207

CHAPTER IX.

ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

108. THE origin of most nations is completely lost in the night of antiquity, and in such instances as have preserved the semblance of an account we clearly perceive that we are much more indebted to the inventions of the poet than to the researches of the historian, and that the creations of the fancy have invaded a province -where we would gladly meet with nothing but the sober deductions of the reason. Either the original inhabitants were the immediate progeny of some of the innumerable gods, or demi-gods, with which the idle dreams of Polytheism had peopled the universe, or they were Antochthones, or Aborigines, — terms which in the writers of Greece and Eome do little more than inform us that they are arrived at the end of all their knowledge of the subject, historical or tra- ditional, and have nothing further to communicate ; or the name of the people suggests that they must, as a matter of course, have had an ancestor of the same name, and we are lost in an endless succession of genealogies, which, as they are merely verbal, communicate no information, and establish no fact. 109. Such being the general state of the case, we cannot but consider ourselves fortunate that

208 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

the subject of the primitive inhabitants of Great Britain should have attracted the notice and stimu- lated the research of one of the most profound and original thinkers among all the authors of antiquity, the historian Tacitus ; and though the passage is short, it is of inestimable value in the absence of almost all information that can by the most liberal construction of the term be regarded as possessing an historical character. The weight of a passage in Tacitus is not to be estimated by its length, for according to the eloquent and emphatic eulogium of him by the president Montesquieu, a congenial spirit, he abridged every thing only because he perceived every thing. In his Life of Agricola he expresses himself on the subject as follows : — " Whether the first inhabitants of Britain were natives of the island, or adventitious settlers, is a question lost in the mists of antiquity. The Britons, like other barbarous nations, have no monuments of their history. They differ in the make and habit of their bodies, and hence various inferences con- cerning their origin. The ruddy hair and lusty limbs of the Caledonians indicate a German extrac- tion. That the Silures (the inhabitants of South Wales) were at first a colony of Iberians (Celtsa, or Celt-Iberians) is concluded, not without probability, from the olive tincture of the skin, the natural curl of the hair, and the situation of the country, so convenient to the coast of Spain. On the side opposite to Gaul the inhabitants resemble their neighbours on the continent; but whether that

OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 209

resemblance is the effect of one common origin, or of the climate in contiguous nations operating on the make and temperament of the human body, is a point not easily to be decided. All circumstances considered, it is rather probable that a colony from Gaul took possession of a country so inviting by its proximity. You will find in both nations the same religious rites, and the same superstition. The two languages differ but little. In provoking danger they discover the same ferocity; and in the encoun- ter, the same timidity. The Britons, however, not yet enfeebled by a long peace, are possessed of su- perior courage. The Gauls, we learn from history, were formerly a warlike people ; but sloth, the con- sequence of inactive times, has debased their genius, and virtue died with expiring liberty. Among such of the Britons as have been some time subdued the same degeneracy is observable. The free and un- conquered part of the nation retains at this hour the ferocity of the ancient Gauls." (Murphy's Tacitus — Life of Agricola, chap. xi. )

110. I ascribe the more importance to this passage of Tacitus from the circumstance that it receives an unexpected degree of support from another in Livy, in connection with the early popu- lation of Ireland. It is well known that the ancient Irish denominated themselves Milesians, but the reason why they did so I have never heard ex- plained. Livy, in his twenty -eighth book, describ- ing the operations of the Scipios against the Car- thaginians in the north of Spain, mentions a city

p

210 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

of the name of Orinx, which, he says, was situated on the borders of the Milesians, a Spanish nation. His words are, " Sita in Melessum iinibus est His- pana3 gentis, ager frugifer, argentum etiam incolse fodiunt." (Limus, cura Crevier, lib. xxviii. c. 3.) Now when we recollect the fact that South Wales, as suggested by Tacitus, is directly opposite to the coast of Spain, that this also applies to Ireland ; that the inhabitants of the North of Spain were Celtas ; and that the Celtic language not only was spoken from the remotest antiquity in Wales and Ireland, but continues to be so to this day ; we attain a high degree of probability that both countries received their primitive inhabitants from the province of Gallicia in Spain, and that the point from which they started was Cape Finisterre, the Artabrum, or Nerium, of the ancient geographers.

111. As the passages of Tacitus and Livy carry us to Spain, it becomes incumbent to say a few words as to the probable mode in which that coun- try was peopled, although no very definite informa- tion on the subject is to be found. Strabo remarks, that if the Iberians had been disposed to assist each other, we should not have seen the Carthaginians succeed in gaining possession of the best part of the country without striking a blow, nor the Tyrians before them, and the Celtae after them, who are known at the present day, says the geographer, by the name of Celt-Iberians and Berons. A passage of Varro, quoted by Pliny, without probably aiming at historical, and still less rigid chronological, accu-

OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 211

racy, mentions the inhabitants of Spain as follows : — " In universam Hispaniam M. Varro pervenisse, Iberos et Persas et Phoenicas, Celtasque et Poenos tradit." (Plin. Nat. Hist., cum Notis Vario- rum, lib. iii. c. 1.) It is remarkable that Yarro regards the Iberi not as natives, but as immigrants ; and, as we know but one Iberia besides ancient Spain, we are under the necessity of referring them to the country between the Euxine and the Caspian. All the other names refer us unequivocally to Asia, with the single exception of the Celtae, and I have already shown that that name was nearly co-exten- sive with Scythae ; that the Celtae were the oldest inhabitants of all the countries of Europe, not merely of the West, as asserted by Herodotus, but of Italy, and even Greece ; and that as Scythia was peopled by the overflowing population of Southern Asia, the Sanskrit, the Persic, the Arabic, and their dialects, must necessarily have entered into the composition of the Celtic, a point which has some better foundation than mere a priori reasoning, as we actually detect them in the analysis of that language.

112. Instead of a thousand cities in Spain, Strabo thinks we ought to read villages. His observations prove that he was perfectly aware that the first and indispensable condition for the existence of a large population is a large supply of food; and, obvious as this principle is, no one before Malthus appears to have been fully aware of it, or, at any rate, no one kept it steadily in view and traced all

p 2

212 ON THE EABLIEST INHABITANTS

its consequences. In Strabo's time, some were of opinion that the Gallicians, who^ according to my vieAV of the subject, were the immediate pro- genitors of the Irish, Welsh, and Cornish CeltaB, were entirely destitute of all religion, and that the Celt-Iberians, and their neighbours to the north, sacrificed to some anonymous divinity on the night of every full moon before their doors, and passed the whole night in dancing with their families. We must receive with extreme caution and ample allowance, the descriptions of the Greeks and Romans of the religious systems of other nations, as they some- times mislead us by finding their own gods every where, or, not finding them, lead us as much astray by coming to the rash conclusion that they had no religion at all. There can be little doubt that the Celt-Iberians worshipped the Moon herself — the Ashtaroth of the Old Testament, or, as it is written in Greek characters, Astarte. She is also the Isis of the Egyptians, and the lo and Diana of the Greeks, and, in the character of the Syrian goddess, frequently identified, or confounded, with Cybele, Ceres, Juno, and Venus.

113. " The Cassiterides Islands," says Strabo, " ten in number, are situated near each other, far advanced in the sea to the north of the port of the Artabri (Cape Finisterre). One of them is unin- habited ; and those who dwell in the others wear black cloaks made of wool, and tunics which de- scend to their heels ; they have a girdle round their waist, and walk with sticks ; so that they

OP GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 213

bear some resemblance to the Furies in a tragedy. The greater part of them live by means of their flocks and herds, in the manner of nomades. They exchange the tin and lead which they raise from their mines, and the hides supplied by their cattle, for the crockery- ware, salt, and copper utensils which they receive from foreign merchants. For- merly the Phoenicians from Gades (Cadiz) fur- nished them with those articles, taking especial care to conceal the course they steered from all the rest of the world. The Koinans attempted to follow the track of one of their barks, with a view of discovering their secret, but the Phoenician captain, determined to preserve it, deliberately ran his ship among sandbanks, thereby insuring the destruction of his pursuers. He contrived to save himself and his crew on portions of the wreck, and the value of the cargo was repaid to him out of the public treasury." The name of the Cassiterides, as it has come down to us, is no doubt Greek, from Kassiteros, Tin, but that word appears to be formed from the Persic Jastah, Tin. The letter J, by a change of the diacritical points, would become Ch, and the final H, by the addition of two diacritical points, would be converted into T, making Chastat. Ka in Persic is a mark of the oblique case; and Deh in Persic is ten. Chastat-ra-deh, the ten tin (islands), which, by dropping the S, approximates very closely to the Attic form of the word Kattite- rides. There are grounds for believing that these islands were known to the Carthaginian Himilco,

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214 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

and described by him under the name of ^Estrym- nides, a word which appears to be cognate with the Latin Staimum. He says, that the Phoenicians of Cadiz were in the habit of going there to fetch tin ; that the islands were near that of Albion, and two days' sail from Hibernia, or Ireland ; and that to reach them from Cadiz required a laborious navigation of four months (Strabo, lib. ii. iii. Geo- graphie de Strabon, par Coray, torn. i. pp. 512. 329.) 114. In the third Ode of his first Book, Horace exclaims, —

" Illi robur et ses triplix

Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci Commisit pelago ratem Primus ; — "

and I think it almost a matter of demonstration that that first navigator to, and colonizer of, Bri- tain was a Phoenician or a Celt-Iberian. I say so because the earliest names of the country point unequivocally to such an origin ; and if the country had had a name, the new comers could have had no inducement to bestow another on it ; the proba- bility therefore is, that those who discovered and named it also colonized it. The name of Cornwall appears to be formed beyond a doubt from the Arabic words Karn (Radicals Krn), a horn, and Uwal (Radicals Awwl), first, being the first cape that the Phoenician navigators made, as they steered a northerly course. We have positive evidence that the Carthaginians, the descendants of the Phoenicians, and speaking, probably, precisely the

OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 215

same language, denominated a Cape a Horn, as the expression occurs in the fragments of the Peri- plus of Hanno which have come down to us, Ea-Trspou Kspxg — Horn of the West, of which Mons. Gosselin remarks, in one of his valuable Notes to the French translation of Strabo, we have discovered that one of the most southern promontories of those visited by Hanno, and which he denominated the Horn of the West, corresponds with Cape Agulon on the coast of Africa. In French Cornwall, is Cornouaille ; and in Cotgrave's French Dictionary, printed in 1611, we find " Cha- valier de Cornouaille, a cuckold, a horned beast ; " and " Voyager en Cornouaille, to wear the horn." It is also worthy of notice, that in Dr. Pritchard's interesting little work, On the Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations, horn is rendered in Celtic by Corn. As Cornwall describes the first Cape, I think the other Arabic word which enters into its formation, Uwal, Aoual, or Awwal, first, describes the first land generally, or Wales, seen at a distance. Albion, the earliest name of England, I conceive to be formed from the Hebrew Eadical letters Lbn, white, with the definite article Hay (h) prefixed and coalescing, Hlbn, the white, and with the Hay con- verted into Aleph* (a), and the vowels inserted, Albion, so called from its white cliffs as they dis- played themselves to the approaching navigators. 115. The work of Diodorus Siculus contains the

* Hay is commutable with Aleph. — Gibbs* Gesenius' He- brew Lexicon.

216 ON THE EAKLIEST INHABITANTS

following notice of England. Beyond Gaul, and opposite the Hercynian mountains, which are said to be the highest in all Europe, are many islands, of which the largest is England, No foreign nation of ancient times ever took possession of this island, nor did Bacchus, Hercules, or any other of the demi-gods, or heroes, ever carry war there. Julius Caesar, whose illustrious actions have caused him to be enrolled among the gods, was the first of all conquerors who rendered it obedient to his arms. Having defeated the English, he made them tribu- tary to the Romans. We shall give an account of his expedition in due time, and content ourselves for the present with describing the figure of the island, and the tin it produces. England is trian- gular, like Sicily, but all its sides are unequal. That of its promontories, which approximates nearest to the continent, and which, indeed, is not more than one hundred stadia (twelve and a half) miles, dis- tant from it, is known by the name of Cantium (North Foreland), and forms the opening of the strait. The other promontory, denominated Bele- rion (Cape Cornwall, or the Land's End), is four days' sail from the Terra Firma. The last, which is called Orcas (Dungsbay Head), advances into the open sea. The shortest side of England is parallel with the Continent of Europe, and seven thousand five hundred stadia long (937^ miles). The second, from its base to its northern extre- mity, fifteen thousand stadia (1875 miles), and the last, twenty thousand (2500 miles) : so that

OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 217

the circumference of the whole island is about 42,500 stadia, or 1770 leagues. The English are related to be natives of the country, and to retain their primitive manners. In war they make use of chariots, like the Greek heroes who besieged Troy, and their houses are for the most part built with stubble and wood. It is their practice in reaping to cut off the heads of the stalks, and deposit them in underground caves, consuming those which are oldest first, by reducing them to flour. Their manners are simple, says Diodorus, and far removed from the perversity of ours. Sobriety prevails among them, and up to this time they are ignorant of that effeminate delicacy which follows in the train of riches. England is very populous, but the air there is extremely cold, the island lying under Ursa Major. It is governed by numerous kings, who are almost always at peace with each other. We shall describe their laws, and the other parti- culars of the country, when we relate the history of Cassar's expedition into England. The inhabitants of Belerion are fond of strangers, and the great number of traders who resort there from all parts renders them more civilised than the other nations of England. It is they who raise the tin from a mine, of which they are extremely careful, and when they have brought it to the surface they purify it by smelting. Having afterwards given it the shape of playing dice, they convey it by means of waggons to a neighbouring island of England, of the name of Ictis (Isle of Wight), selecting to

218 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

reach it the Deriod when the sea is low. It is a

£

peculiarity remarked in all the islands situated between England and the Continent of Europe, that at high tides they are almost completely sur- rounded with water, but that afterwards, when the ocean retires, the tongue of land which unites them with the Terra Firma is laid bare, and they become Peninsulas. Finally, the foreign merchants who have purchased the tin in the isle of Ictis, transport it to Gaul, where they load it on horses, and thirty days are occupied in conveying it from the coast opposite England to the mouth of the Rhone. (Diodorus, lib. 5. c. 16.)

116. That part of the work of Diodorus which describes the expedition of Csesar into Britain is lost : and when we observe the diligence and intel- ligence with which he has described the laws and manners of the Egyptians and many other ancient people, we cannot but regret that we have not an account of those of the Britons by the same hand. The deficiency is in some degree supplied by the work of Ca3sar himself; but his notice of Britain is too brief to remove all our regret at being deprived of the corresponding portion in the History of Diodorus. The great dictator has thrown a tran- sient and rapid, but keen and comprehensive glance on the character and manners of our ancestors, and his observations are recorded in language which for beautiful simplicity, exquisite purity, and almost unparalleled clearness, places his unpretending jour- nal, in point of execution, fairly on a level with

OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 219

the Anabasis of Xenophon, the most perfect mili- tary work of the Greeks, while the history con- tained in it is of incomparably more importance to a modern, as it describes the rudiments of many of our most interesting political and domestic insti- tutions. He commences his account by remarking that the inland parts of Britain are inhabited by those whom fame reports to be the natives of the soil. Recollecting that Csesar saw only a part of Kent ; perhaps, by inland, we ought to understand remote parts ; for as there appears to be good grounds for supposing that Ireland, Wales, and Cornwall were peopled from Spain, we ought to regard the Celtic possessors of those countries not merely as the oldest race, but the oldest inha- bitants, and rather as originally settled in those spots by the Iberian colonists, than as driven into them by the more recent comers of the Gothic or Teutonic race. The sea coast, that is, the eastern coast, Caesar describes as peopled by Belgians, attracted by the love of war and plunder, who, passing over from the continent, and settling in the country, still retained the names of the several states whence they derived their origin. He found the island well peopled, full of houses built after the manner of the Gauls, and abounding in cattle. The natives used brass money and iron rings of a certain weight. The former metal was altogether imported, and the second produced in small quan- tities by some of the provinces on the coast. The forest trees corresponded with those of Gaul, with

220 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

the exception of the fir and the beech trees, which were not to be found. The Britons thought it unlawful to feed on hares, pullets, or geese, but at the same time bred them up for their diversion and pleasure. And here we are reminded of oriental institutions and usages, of the sacred animals of Egypt, of the castes of Hindustan, of the clean and unclean beasts of Judea, and perhaps of the doctrine of the metempsychosis or transmigration of souls. The hare was prohibited by the law of Moses, but permitted by that of Menu. All web- footed birds are forbidden by the Indian legislator, and all birds of prey by the Hebrew. Caesar, as well as Diodorus, remarks that Britain is trian- gular, but his measurements approximate much more nearly to the truth than the extravagant ones of the latter, though they are still too large. The extremity towards Kent (Cantium), whence is the nearest passage to Gaul, says he, lies eastward ; the other stretches south-west. This side extends about five hundred miles ; another side looks towards Spain westward ; and over against this lies Ireland, an island not computed to be above half as large as Britain, and separated from it by a space equal to that between Britain and Gaul. In this interval lies the isle of Mona (Anglesea), besides several other smaller islands, of which some write, that in the time of the winter solstice, they have night for thirty days together. The length of the western side is computed at seven hundred miles, while the side facing the north-east is thought to extend in

OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 221

length about eight hundred miles, making the circuit of the whole island about two thousand miles. Csesar describes the inhabitants of Kent as the most civilized of all the Britons, and as differing but little in their manners from the Gauls ; and agriculture as little practised in the interior of the country, the inhabitants subsisting chiefly on flesh and milk, and being clad in skins. They were in the habit of painting themselves with woad, which gave a bluish colour to the skin, wore their hair long, and shaved all the rest of their body except the head and upper lip. Ten or twelve men were accustomed to live together, having their wives in common to all, but the progeny was invariably ascribed to him who first espoused the mother. (Gcesar de Bella Galileo, lib. 5. c. 12, 13, 14.)

117. We may observe that Caesar describes the Belga3 who came into England from the opposite coast as retaining the names of those states of the continent from which they derived their origin. I am not aware that any of those names have been preserved; but we trace them clearly at a subse- quent period. The author of the Northern Anti- quities says, " It is well known that the Britons, unable to defend themselves from the northern in- habitants of their isle, sought for assistance from the Danes and Saxons their allies. The ancient Saxon Chronicle, published by Gibson, informs us that those people who went over and settled in Britain were originally of three different countries. One party of them were the ancient Saxons, that

222 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

is to say, the people of Lower Saxony ; another were the Angles, or English, who inhabited that part of the Duchy of Sleswic in the neighbourhood of Flensbourg still called Angelen, and consequently Danes ; lastly, there passed over into Britain also a considerable number of Jutes, inhabitants of Jutland. The Saxons occupied the provinces named after them, Essex, Westsex, Sussex, and Middlesex. The Angles," continues the author of that Chro- nicle, " left their own country totally deserted, and so it still continues. This country is situated be- tween Saxony and Jutland. Their leaders were Hengist and Horsa, who derived their pedigree from Odin, as do all our kings. From the Angles descended all the inhabitants of the east and southern parts of England, as well as those of Mercia and Northumberland. The Jutes, or Jut- landers, possessed only Kent and the Isle of Wight." Thus, although this people were not yet known by the name of Danes, it is evident that at least two thirds of the conquerors of Great Britain came from Denmark ; so that when the Danes again infested England about three or four hundred years after, and finally conquered it towards the latter end of the tenth century, they waged war with the de- scendants of their own ancestors. (Malletfs North- ern Antiquities, vol. i. p. 259.) With respect to the date of the particular settlements, Pinkerton says the Jutes seized a corner of Kent in 449 ; they increased, and founded the kingdom of Kent about 460. In 477 the first Saxons arrived, and founded

OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 223

the kingdom of South Saxons. In 495 the West Saxons arrived; the East Saxons in 527. Hitherto there were no Angli in Britain. The first Angli who arrived came under Ida to Bernicia in 547. The East Angles do not appear till 575. Mercia, which Beda says was an Anglic kingdom, but seems to me a Frisian, was founded in 585. (Pinkertoris Dissertation on the Scythians, p. 194.)

118. Ireland will not detain us long, as I have already anticipated a portion of what I have to communicate respecting it. Diodorus Siculus is conceived to have mentioned Ireland once, inci- dentally, under the name of Iris, which in the accusative case would form something very like Erin, still its poetical name. Strabo mentions it under the name of lerne. This is so much like Yarna, the name by which Cyprus is known to the Arabs, that one is tempted to suppose there must have been a connexion of some sort ; and Sir Isaac Newton in his Chronology, after mentioning Crete, says the Phoenicians discovered Cyprus a short time before. Eratosthenes says that this island was formerly so completely covered with wood as to be incapable of all cultivation ; that it was felled in the first instance to smelt the copper and silver it produces ; and that subsequently the Phoenicians made use of this wood to construct ships, and even whole navies, when they began to sail on the Me- diterranean, that is to say, immediately after the Trojan war; and perceiving that even this con- sumption was inadequate to the extirpation of the

224 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

forests, they permitted any individual to appro- priate to himself whatever quantity of land he pleased, on condition of clearing it of trees. This was a picture of the larger portion of Europe, and the Hercynian forest covered great part of Ger- many, and to traverse it in one direction was a journey of nine, and in another of forty days. (Chronologic de Newton, p. 196. ; Strdbo, lib. xiv.) Now we are quite sure that in the instance of Cyprus the name of Yarna was descriptive and significant, as Yar in Hebrew signifies a wood ; and we have every reason to believe that both the Phoeni- cian and Punic were kindred tongues, all three being arranged by philologists under the division of lan- guages denominated Shemitic. Now, when we learn from Livy that there was a people named Milesians in the north of Spain, that is, among the Celt- Iberians, and from Tacitus, that South Wales was supposed to have been peopled from Iberia, is it not more than probable that the same Phoenician or Celt-Iberian race who had named Cyprus Yarna colonized Ireland, and named it lerne for the same reason, namely, its superfluity of wood; while another of its names, Milesia, was bestowed by the Milesians of Gallicia, sailing from the same quarter in the neighbourhood of Cape Finisterre, the Arta- brum and Nerium of the ancients. The name of Ireland is written Juberna or Juverna by Juvenal in his second Satire.

" Arma quidem ultra

Littora Jubernse promovimus, et modo captas Orcades, ac minima contentos nocte Britannos."

OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 225

" Though past Juverna's shores our arms extend, Which the late conquer'd Orkneys scarcely bound, Of Britain, for contracted nights renown'd."

BADHAM'S Juvenal.

119. With respect to the language of the ancient Irish, it is agreed on all hands that it was Celtic ; and to attempt to prove how largely the Oriental languages enter into the composition of that tongue, may be regarded as a superfluous task after the very able work of Dr. Prichard on the Eastern Origin of the Celtic Language. Two or three instances, how- ever, I will adduce. So long ago as Sir William Jones delivered his celebrated Discourses before the Asiatic Society, it was suspected that some analogy existed between the ancient Irish and the Sanskrit, a point respecting which there can no longer be the smallest doubt. Colonel Yallancey, says Sir Wil- liam, whose learned inquiries into the ancient litera- ture of Ireland are highly interesting, assures me that Crishna in Irish means the Sun ; and we find Apollo and Sol considered by the Eoman poets as the same deity. I am inclined, indeed, to believe that not only Crishna or Vishnu, but even Brahma and Siva, when united and expressed by the mystic word Om, were designed by the first idolaters to represent the solar fire ; but Phoebus, or the Orb of the Sun personified, is adored by the Indians as the God Surya, whence the sect who pay him parti- cular adoration are called Sauras. ( Works, vol. iii. p. 378.) In Wilson's Sanskrit Dictionary I find the word KrishanUj with the signification of fire, and

Q

226 ON THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

entertain no doubt that at an early period of Hindu history Krishna, or Crishna, was a literal name of the sun.

120. Sir William Betham, in his Etruria Celtica, a recent publication, informs us that in Irish the word Bidim signifies I am, while in Persic, Budim signifies I was; and that in Irish, Bud signifies was, while in Persic, Bud is the third person pre- terite of the defective verb Hastan, to be, and sig- nifies he was. Again, Sir William Betham informs us that in Irish, Anna means food; and in Sanskrit we find the same word, letter for letter, with the same signification. According to the same autho- rity, Grein in Irish signifies the sun ; in Sanskrit we have Grini, the sun, and in Greek, Apollo Gry- neus, also a name of the sun. The commentators inform us that Apollo acquired the epithet of Gry- neus, because he was worshipped at Gryneum, or Grynium, a city in Asia Minor ; but I believe that this is putting the effect for the cause, and that Apollo was called Gryneus, because Grini in San- skrit signifies the sun, and the Grecian Apollo is the sun personified ; and that the city of Gryneum derived its name from the circumstance of having been sacred or dedicated to Apollo, who was wor- shipped there under his Indian name of Grini, with a Greek termination. From these facts we may at least suspect that the ancient Irish, like all the early race of mankind, were Sabiaris, or sun wor- shippers, of which Fire was the type, and that the objects of their adoration were the sun, moon,

OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 227

planets, stars, in a more especial manner, and the elements, or powers of nature generally, the earth, the sea, the winds, &c. By accounting for the earliest inhabitants of Ireland, we also account for those of Scotland. The Highlanders of the latter country are clearly the same race with the ancient Irish ; and the Celtic, slightly varied, is the common language of both. There can be little doubt that the country was peopled from Ireland, so far as regards the Highland or Celtic portion of its inha- bitants.

Q 2

228 ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL.

CHAPTER X.

ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL.

121. IE I remember rightly, Fielding, in his " Tom Jones," has written a chapter to prove that a man will write the better for knowing something of the subject about which he writes ; and though this perhaps will hardly be disputed, it will probably not be so readily admitted that no dictionary can be executed in the best way unless the writer brings to his task a theory of language, which, if not altogether true (an achievement in the present state of our knowledge hardly to be expected), shall at least contain an approximation to the truth, and at any rate not be essentially and fundamentally erro- neous ; for language is an immense and almost un- bounded ocean, and if the voyager has not a tolerably clear idea of his destination, there is little chance of his ever reaching the harbour to which he is bound. The author of perhaps the best En- glish dictionary in existence, and certainly the best so far as regards the etymology of the language, has the following passage on the subject : — " When this work was in the press," says Mr. Webster, in his Introduction, page 43., " I first obtained a sight of a history of the European languages, by the late Dr. Alexander Murray, professor of Oriental Ian-

ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL. 229

guages in the university of Edinburgh, and from a hasty perusal of the first volume I find this learned professor studied the European languages with much attention and profit. He has gone farther into the origin and formation of languages than any author whose works I have read, and his writings unfold many valuable principles and facts. But he formed a theory which he attempted to support, in my opi- nion, with little success : at least, on his principles, all the usual rules of etymology are transgressed, and all distinction between words of different radical letters abandoned. According to his theory, nine words are the foundation of language, viz. ag, wag, hwag, bag or bwag (of which fag and pag are softer varieties), dwag, thwag or twag, gwag or cwag, lag and hlag, mag, nag and hnag, rag and hrag, swag. By the help of these nine words and their compounds all the European languages have been formed." I have no wish or intention to make any comments on this theory of Dr. Murray, regard- ing it merely as one of those innumerable halluci- nations by which scholars and speculative men have too often been led astray. Though these nine words may by possibility have been suggested by the nine Muses, I feel myself bound to say that, except in the single quality of number, these uncouth mono- syllables have little in common with the lovely sisters, and if all our labours as etymologists are to terminate only by bringing us to them, we shall stand like Bruce at the termination of the great object of his journey, the fountains of the Nile, with

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no emotion except that of regret at having under- taken it.

122. Mr. Webster's own theory of language ap- pears to me to be as untenable as that of Dr. Murray in substance, though less startling in form. He remarks, that as the verb is the principal radix of other words, and as the proper province of this part of speech is to express action, almost all the modi- fications of the primary sense of the verb may be comprehended in one word — to move ; and that the principal varieties of motion, or action, may be expressed by the following verbs : —

1. To drive, throw, thrust, send, urge, press.

2. To set, fix, lay. But these are usually from thrusting, or throwing down.

3. To strain, stretch, draw; whence holding, binding, strength, power, and often health.

4. To turn, wind, roll, wander.

5. To flow, to blow, to rush.

6. To open, part, split, separate, remove, scatter. — See No. 16.

7. To swell, distend, expand, spread.

8. To stir, shake, agitate, rouse, excite.

9. To shoot as a plant, to grow; allied to No. 1.

10. To break, to burst ; allied sometimes to No. 3.

11. To lift, raise, elevate; allied to No. 9.

12. To flee, withdraw, escape, to fly ; often allied to No. 1.

13. To rage, to burn ; allied to No. 7. and 8

14. To fall, to fail ; whence fading, dying, &c.

ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENEEAL. 231

15. To approach, come, arrive, extend, reach. This is usually the sense of gaming, No. 34.

16. To go, walk, pass, advance; allied to No. 6.

17. To seize, take, hold; sometimes allied to No. 31.

18. To strike, to break; allied to No. 1.

19. To swing, to vibrate. No. 29.

20. To lean, to incline; allied to the sense of wandering, or departing.

21. To rub, scratch, scrape ; often connected with driving, and with roughness.

22. To swim, to float.

23. To stop, cease, rest ; sometimes at least from straining, holding, fastening.

24. To creep, to crawl; sometimes connected with scraping.

25. To peel, to strip ; whence spoiling.

26. To leap, to spring; allied to No. 9. and 1.

27. To bring, bear, carry; in some instances connected with producing, throwing out.

28. To sweep.

29. To hang. No. 19.

30. To shrink, or contract ; that is, to draw. — See No. 3.

31. To run, to rush forward ; allied to No. 1.

32. To put on, or together, to unite; allied to No. 1. and 3.

33. To knit, to weave.

34. To gain, to win, to get. No. 15.

" These," continues Mr. Webster, " and a few more

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verbs, express the literal sense of all the primary roots, But it must be remarked that all the foregoing sig- nifications are not distinct ; so far from it, that the whole may be brought under the signification of a very few words. The English words to send, throw, thrust, strain, stretch, draw, drive, urge, press, em- brace the primary sense of a great part of all the verbs in every language which I have examined. Indeed it must be so, for the verb is certainly the root of most words ; and the verb expresses motion, which always implies the application of force." If this theory of Mr. "Webster's were true, if almost all the words in every language are derived from verbs, and all those verbs ultimately resolvable into the nine above specified (here we have the number of the Muses again), etymology would indeed be of all sciences the most delusory, and its labours the most useless ; for as in our backward journey we should only be travelling towards these nine highly- favoured and mystic verbs, at every step we moved, the meaning of words, instead of becoming more clear and definite, would become more and more loose and general until it nearly disappeared alto- gether ; and such etymology might well remind us of an invidious description of castellated Gothic architecture, that it consists of a series of inter- minable passages leading to uninhabitable apart- ments.

123. It has been frequently remarked by specu- lative writers that we may trace a resemblance between the intellectual and the material world ;

ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL, 233

and this is so true, that most of the faculties and operations of the former have been explained and illustrated by some analogy, real or fancied, with what was observed in the latter. Indeed, since the publication of Locke's Essay on Human Under- standing, many metaphysicians have been of opinion that the immense fabric of human acquirement is built up of the impressions made on the mind through the medium of the senses, and that in the whole process of the accumulation of knowledge, Sensation supplies the rude materials with which Reflection as an architect works, and that our most complex and abstract ideas are all susceptible of being analysed and retraced to impressions on the organs of sense from external objects. It appears to me that there is a close analogy in many respects between Chymistry and Language, and that the labours of the Etymologist bear no inconsiderable resemblance to the manipulations of the Operator. The history of language exhibits one instance of analytical power compared with which the triumphs of the crucible, the blow-pipe, and even the voltaic battery itself, as hitherto recorded, are absolutely as nothing, — I mean that analysis of all the sounds of the human voice, which must necessarily have preceded the formation of an alphabet, and of which it is an indispensable condition. In what- ever light we contemplate hieroglyphical and alpha- betical writing, we can discover little in common between them, little gradation or approximation, by which we can conceive the latter to have grown

234 ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL.

out the former. Hieroglyphics may be, and from the testimony of history appear to have been, im- proved and simplified indefinitely, without leading mankind in the direction of alphabetical writing ; and indeed the perfection of the hieroglyphical system, as in China, would seem to have operated as a virtual sentence of perpetual exclusion against the alphabetical, as it removed the strongest of all motives to invention, that of necessity. In what- ever form we find the hieroglyphic, in the com- bined picture of Mexico, in the insulated objects of Egypt, in the arbitrary characters of China, it is the sign of things, and, being to a certain extent a natural language, represents things di- rectly and immediately ; on the other hand, in whatever condition we find alphabetical characters, whether they are few or many, simple or complex, perfect or imperfect, they are always the signs of sounds, altogether arbitrary or conventional, and represent things only through the instrumentality of words. How fine was that intellectual chymistry which first remarked that the whole mass of human speech is made up of a few perpetually recurring sounds ; next resolved those sounds into their simple articulations, and finally conceived the happy idea of denoting or representing each elementary sound of the human voice by a distinct character or letter. Whoever accomplished this greatest triumph of human ingenuity and invention, whether it was the Egyptian Taut, the Grecian Orpheus, or some other founder of empire or civilizer of society,

ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENEEAL. 235

he may well be regarded as among the most splendid benefactors of the human race, —

" Inventas aut qui vitam excoluere per artes ; Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo."

VIRG. JEneid. lib. vi. 663.

The province of the Etymologist is more limited, and his aim less ambitious. Regarding language as formed, and diversities of language as established, words are the elements of which he is in pursuit, and he does not attempt to carry his analysis beyond them. To detect the gradual changes pro- duced in words by caprice or fashion, by careless pronunciation or imperfect orthography; to com- pare the various dialects of the same language, to ascend from them to the different languages of the same family, and gradually extend his researches throughout the various families of language; to mark the modifications produced in a primitive root by Prefixes, Infixes, and Affixes, or changes made in the beginning, middle, or end of a word, until he discovers that root in its simple or ele- mentary state, is the business of Etymology ; and when the research is completely successful, I believe that root will generally, perhaps always, be found to be a Noun Substantive, and to denote some material external object, from which it was gradu- ally extended to the intellectual and the internal, the moral and the religious, from analogies in some instances too subtle and recondite to be traced, while in others they are so clear and obvious, as to

236 ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL.

strike the most careless observer, and force convic- tion on the most sceptical mind.

124. With all possible respect for the attainments of Mr. Webster, and the work he has produced, I shall now proceed to make some remarks on dif- ferent etymologies proposed by him, not so much with a view of pointing out what I conceive to be his mistakes, as of illustrating and enforcing the principles I have adopted, that the business of Lexicography can never be performed in the best manner unless we bring to the task a true theory of language, as the latter circumstance will exert a degree of influence on the former more powerful and perpetual than could have been supposed by any one who has not made the subject an object of close attention and examination. " Another cause of obscurity in the affinity of languages," says Mr. Webster (Introduction, p. 11.), "and one that seems to be mostly overlooked, is the change of the primary sense of the radical verb. In most cases this change consists in a slight deflection, or difference of ap- plication, which has obtained among different families of the same stock. In some cases the literal sense is lost or obscured, and the figurative only is retained. The first object in such cases is to find the primary or literal sense, from which the various particular applications may be easily deduced. Thus we find, in Latin, libeo, libet, or lubeo, lubet, is rendered to please, to like ; lubens, willing, glad, cheerful, pleased; libenter, lubenter, willingly, gladly, readily. What is the

ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL. 237

primary sense, the visible or physical action from which the idea of willing is taken ? I find, either by knowing the radical sense of willing, ready, in other cases, or by the predominant sense of the ele- ments Lb, as, in Latin, Labor, to slide, Liber, free, &c., that the primary sense is to move, incline, or advance towards an object, and hence the sense of willing, ready, prompt. Now this Latin word is the English Love, German Lieben, Liebe, Lubet me ire, I love to go ; I am inclined to go ; I go with cheerfulness: but the affinity between love and lubeo has been obscured by a slight difference of application among the Romans and the Teutonic nations."

125. So far Mr. Webster; and on this passage I have three remarks to make.

1. That the difficulties will not be solved by an

inquiry into the changes of the sense of the radical verb, as the root of the whole is not a verb, but a noun substantive.

2. That the solution of the whole depends on our

ascertaining the exact meaning of the ele- ments Lb; and that if our explanation of this word is true, the passage will be en- lightened ; if false, obscured.

3. That the explanation cannot be found in the

Latin, the Teutonic, or any of the laguages of Europe, and that we must have recourse to those of Asia.

I shall exemplify the formations from the root Lb rather minutely, as an illustration of my ideas

238 ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL.

m

of what Etymology ought in every instance to at- tempt to do, and of what it can accomplish when completely successful.

Lb, Arabic, radical letters, the heart.

Lbb, by writing the teschdid over the second

letter, which doubles it. Lubb, written by Eichardson as pronounced, the

the heart, the soul. Lubh, Sanskrit, long for, covet. — Wilkins1

Grammar, page 220. Lub-Ego, by contraction, Lubeo, Latin. (Not

used. ) Lub-Ens, willing. The Asiatic root combined

with the Latin active participle. Love, English. By reading the u as o, the b as

v, and adding a final e. Lb, Hebrew, radical letters, the heart.

Pointed with tzairay (• •), and usually pro- nounced Laib ; but as this point appears to have been derived from the diacritical points of the Arabic letter yood (I), the most ancient Hebrew pronunciation probably was Lib, and hence Lib-Ego, by contraction Libeo, Latin. (Not

used.)

Lib-Ens, willing.

Liebe, love, German, from Laib, Hebrew, heart, as the word is usually pronounced with the points.

The English reader will now perceive that the English word Love, and the German Liebe, were

ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL. 239

derived from a common root, and differ only because the Shemitic languages primarily were probably all written without the vowel points, while the vowels themselves were entirely omitted ; a copious, perhaps the most copious, source of diversity in all European words derived from Asiatic roots. Again, at page 22. of his Introduction, Mr. Webster says, " Faith and belief seem to imply a resting on, or a leaving (these meanings appear to me to be diametrically opposite). It is certain that the English word belief is a com- pound of the prefix Be, and Leaf, leave, permission. To believe one, then, is to leave with him, to rest, or suffer to rest with him, and hence not to dispute, contend, or deny." The English word Belief is, indeed, compounded of the prefix Be and a Boot; but what is that Root ? Not, I apprehend, leaf, leave, or permission ; but the Hebrew word Laib, heart, mind, purpose, intention, understanding, know- ledge, insight. (Gibbs' Gesenius' Hebrew Lexicon.) Be Laib, in the heart, or mind, " The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God," i. e. hath believed : a man's belief is the thought of his heart ; his religious belief is that which is deepest in his heart; and perhaps of all subjects, since the time of Luther, that respecting which Protestants are least dis- posed to ask leave or permission in any shape. With respect to the change of the final letter in Belief, every Hebrew scholar knows that the second letter of that alphabet is either B or V, and few will be disposed to deny that both the power and form of the Roman F were derived from the Sama-

240 ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL.

ritan, or Phoenician Vau. Our word Believe ex- emplifies the Oriental, and Belief the Roman or- thography.

126. Few, I apprehend, will be inclined to doubt, after reading the above, that all the European words named are clearly traceable to Oriental roots, but if they should, there is another argument in reserve from analogy. In words the most widely dissimilar both to the eye and the ear we shall discover, on a close investigation, that the march or process of the human mind in their formation has been pre- cisely similar, and consequently that their etymolo- gies mutually illustrate, support, and confirm each other. As an instance, I think it may be proved conclusively that the Greek Boulomai, the Latin Lubeo, Diligo, and Volo, and the English Will, are essentially the same word as to meaning, though so different as regards etymology. Respecting Lubeo, I have no more to say, but the formation of Diligo and Volo I take to be as under.

Dl, Persic, radical letters, the heart, the mind, the soul.

Dil, written by Richardson as pronounced.

Dil-Ego, or Diligo, Latin, to love, to esteem highly. (Facciolati.)

Dilig-Ens, Latin, a verbal adjective.

Dilig-entia, Latin, a verbal substantive.

It is deserving of notice that the meanings of the Latin verb are derived from the heart, as the seat of feeling, those of the substantive from regarding

ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL. 241

it as the seat" of thought, and those of the adjective from both senses.

Bal (Arabic), the heart, mind, soul.

Bal (Persic), the heart, the mind, love. Now triliterals in both languages, but at a very remote period, probably written without the vowel, and hence

Boule (Greek), the will.

Boulomai (Greek), I will, contracted from Boule and Eimi.

Yolo (Latin), I will, contracted from the Oriental root, and Ego.

Will (English), immediately from the Latin Volo, but remotely from the Oriental Bal, by reading the a as {, and doubling the final /.

127. Again, Mr. Webster, at p. 23. of his Intro- duction, says, " The English root (Latin, radix) is only a particular application of rod, and ray, Ra- dius, that is, a shoot." Here, again, to find the true etymology of the English word Root, I believe we must go farther for it than Italy, and that it is the Eyptian Rat, the foot, applied secondarily to plants, from an analogy with the parts of the human body, the foot serving to support the man, as the root does the plant ; and I am somewhat confirmed in this notion, from believing a vulgar Devonshire word for Root, Maur, to be cognate with the Egyptian Mor, to tie, or fasten, being in another point of view that which attaches the plant to the ground. Mr. Webster, in the body of his work, derives the word Obedience through the

242 ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL.

French, from the Latin Obedientia, probably very correctly ; but, if I am not much mistaken, we shall have a clearer idea of the formation and meaning of the word, by tracing the Latin to an Oriental root. In Hebrew we find the Kadical letters Abd, with the vowel points pronounced Ebed, signifying a servant, which, pronounced Obed in Latin, and followed by the active participle Ens, forms Obediens, with the meaning of being a servant; so that the man who subscribes himself your obedient, really says the same thing as he who subscribes himself your obedient servant.

128. Etymology, then, is that branch or divi- sion of grammar which has for its object the reso- lution of words consisting of more than one syllable into their elements, or roots, and the tracing of these roots, or monosyllables, into their primitive language. There is strong ground for believing that one primitive language prevailed among man- kind, and that it was Monosyllabic, and probably of this language not a single root is lost, but still in existence in precisely its original sense in some part of the world or other ; and there are several reasons which induce me to believe that the spoken lan- guage of the Chinese is, perhaps, one of the oldest specimens extant of the primitive language of the human race. These roots have been altered, or disguised, chiefly in three ways : by Prefixes, or addi- tions to the beginning of a word, of which we have many examples in Greek ; by Infixes, or additions to the middle of a word, of which the Egyptian language

ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL. 243

exhibits some of the most remarkable instances; and by Affixes, or changes of termination, which are found in some shape or other in all the lan- guages of Europe, though in a much less degree than in those of Greece and Rome. But the chief cause of the alteration of form in language, and the real reason why various languages do not in reality differ so much from each other as they appear to do, has not been sufficiently attended to; for if the primary language of mankind was monosyllabic, as I believe it to have been, it necessarily fol- lows that all dissyllables, trisyallables, and tetrasyl- lables are not words but sentences, that is, com- binations of words. When etymology, by a dili- gent analysis of all existing languages, as well refined as rugged, written as unwritten, shall have discovered all the radical syllables with their exact original signification, we shall perhaps find that all the words in every language are made up of a small number of radicals perpetually recurring and va- riously combined, as all the articulate sounds of every language are represented by about from four- teen to twice or thrice as many letters.

129. Etymology, up to this time, has been so unsuccessful in establishing clear and definite prin- ciples, or so unfortunate in their application, that many persons regard it as bearing the same relation to Grammar as Astrology does to Astronomy, Alchemy to Chemistry, or Perpetual Motion to Mechanics ; and for its slow progress and degraded

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state, perhaps the Greeks and Romans are prin- cipally responsible. According to my view of the subject, the chief, if not the sole, business of ety- mology is to endeavour to trace the origin of the words of one language to another and a different language in which they retain their primitive meaning, and in which, I believe, they will gene- rally be found existing as Nouns- Substantive. But the Greeks and Romans, despising all the rest of mankind as barbarians, despised their languages also, and from this circumstance were stopped in limine in all their etymological inquiries for want of the necessary materials and qualifications ; and hence few attempts can be less felicitous than their labours in this way, which hardly deserve the name of etymology, and seldom proceed beyond a painful, and at the same time trifling, Orthoepy, or the division of a simple word into syllables, or of a compound one into its elements, and in a mode that is frequently ridiculous, and hardly ever leads to any convincing and satisfactory result.

130. The labours of the Etymologist are some- times rewarded by the discovery of words which possess a sort of character of universality as we trace them with slight modifications in most known languages, and perhaps by a close and comprehen- sive survey of language, with an especial view to etymology, this class of words might be so much enlarged as to throw a clearer light on the nature and progress of speech, and facilitate the acquire- ment of languages in a greater degree than can at

ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL. 245

present be easily conceived. For instance, among the names of the 214 Chinese keys, or elementary characters, we find,

Jin, a man, mankind,

Jan (Sanskrit), man individually, or collectively.

This is a very remarkable word, as forming the termination of most Nouns ethnical in the lan- guages both of ancient and modern Europe, as well as of those of the East.

An Egypt-ian, i. e. a man of Egypt.

A Pers-ian, - - - Persia.

An Ind-ian, - - India, or Ind.

An Ital-ian, - - Italy.

A Grec-ian, - - Greece.

In some of the European languages, however, this word is not naturalized, and we are obliged to say a Ger-man, a French-man, an English-man, i. e. to substitute the translation of the Sanskrit Jan for Jan itself.

131. Hiat (Arabic), life; and, by metonymy, a living creature, a man.

This word will account for the greater part of such Nouns ethnical as terminate in Ite instead of Ian ; as, for instance, Gen. xv. 19. : " The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites." 20. : " And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Kephaims." 21.: "And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Gergashites, and the Jebus- ites." It is deserving of notice that all these nations appear to have been a Shemitic people, and

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of course spoke a language approximating more or less closely to the Arabic. The ancient name of Jerusalem was Jebus. — Judges xix. 10, 11.

Jebus, which is Jerusalem ; Hiat (Arabic), life, a living creature ; by contraction, Jebusite, or man of Jebus.

But this Arabic word Hiat is so far from being limited to the termination of Nouns ethnical, like the Sanskrit Jan, or Ian, that we find it in innu- merable forms in the languages both of ancient and modern Europe, a few of which I shall par- ticularize. In the following instances it differs only by a shade from the meaning already affixed to it, and indeed -can hardly be said to differ at all except in the circumstance of being applied to describe imaginary instead of real beings.

Dru (Sanskrit), or Drus (Greek), a tree ;

Hiat (Arabic), life ;

by contraction, Dryad, a wood nymph ; and Druid, a priest living in the woods.

Nahar (Hebrew), a river, the sea;

Hiat (Arabic), life ; by contraction, Nereid, a sea nymph.

Oros (Greek, a mountain ;

Hiat (Arabic), life ;

Oread, a mountain nymph ; a creation of the ima- gination of the Greek poets.

At p. 24. of his Introduction Mr. Webster says, "Yeritas in Latin is Wahrheit in German, $he first syllable in each is the same word, the last

ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL. 247

different." I notice this to observe that I believe the second syllable of

Yer

It

As, as well as the second of Wahrheit, is the Arabic Hiat, life, state of life, state or condition in general, and consequently that they are precisely identical. I would also remark that the same Arabic word Hiat, contracted into It, enters into the composition of such Latin words as Falsitas, Frugalitas, Crudel- itas, Humanitas, Humilitas, Fraternitas ; of Ger- man words in Heit, and perhaps in Keit, unless the latter should be the Arabic Khiyat, way ; and of English words in Head and Hood, as Maidenhead, Widowhood, Manhood, Priesthood.

132. If we could meet with a Latin noun ter- minating in Itas, of which we could be quite con- fident as to the etymology of the first syllable, we should probably be able to throw some additional light on the formation of words (or rather of sen- tences, for such, words of this description are), and on the mode in which the primary meaning of a word is gradually extended ; and such is the case with the Latin word Hilaritas, to which Facciolati affixes the significations of cheerfulness, mirth, gaiety, joyfulness, jollity, alacrity, good-humour, merriment, hilarity. In Wilkin's Sanskrit Gram- mar, page 231., I find the Dhato, or verbal root Hil, with the signification of sport, wanton, dally ; but, believing that these verbal roots, and all

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verbs whatever, were primarily derived from nouns, I resort to Wilson's Sanskrit Dictionary, where I find Hila, or Hilah, as a noun substantive, with the explanations of the sun, dalliance, wanton sport. Hil, in the third person of the present tense, forms Hilati, he dallies ; which induces me to believe that the Ar, the second syllable of Hilaritas, is redundant, and I account for the form- ation of the word as under : —

Hila (Sanskrit), the Sun;

Ra (Persic), mark of the oblique case, or ^Eolic, and Doric R, redundant.

Hiat (Arabic), life, state, condition ;

As, Latin termination.

The primary meaning of Hilaritas I conceive to have been sunshine, or a state of sunshine, whence, by an obvious analogy, its meaning was extended to denote a mental habit or affection, cheerfulness being the sunshine of the mind ; and we meet with obvious traces of the former in the Latin word Hilaria (vide Facciolati), and of the latter in Hila- ritas, of which the meanings are given above from Facciolati.

133. Re (Sahidic), Er (Coptic), to be, to do.

The former appears to constitute the termi- nation of Latin verbs in the infinitive mood, Amare, Monere, Regnare, and Audire, though we cannot always trace the noun substantive roots.

Amor (Latin), love.

Re (Sahidic), to be, by contraction, Amare, to love, to be in a state of love.

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Oneiros (Greek), a dream, from Oni, like Coptic.

Re, to be or do,

Sahidic.

Os, Greek termi- nation.

that is, that process of thought which, during sleep, repeats the similitudes of our waking hours in a wild and disorderly manner. We do not find either Re, or Er, in Egyptian as Nouns, but in other lan- guages we have with a guttural —

Kara (Sanskrit), agent or maker.

Kar, and Gar (Persic), with the same signification.

Cheir (Greek), the hand, probably cognate

with all ;

And without the guttural or aspirate, we find the Coptic Er in an infinity of English words, as

Murder-Er, he who commits murder.

Adulter-Er, he who commits adultery.

Talk-Er, he who talks.

Walk-Er, he who walks.

Swimm-Er, he who swims.

Repeat-Er, he who repeats.

134. There is a Slavonic word, which throws much light on the formation of a large class of Latin words which have been adopted into most of the languages of modern Europe.

Tiud, Naturales Indoles. (Dobrowski's Grammar, p. 174.)

Whoever remembers the immense number of Latin nouns terminating in Tudo, will have a much

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clearer idea of their meaning, after seeing the above Slavonic word, than he ever had before. As Tiud is expressive of constitution or natural disposition, its derivative Tudo is equally appli- cable to all habitudes of the mind, the heart, or the body ; as

Turpi-tudo, a habit of wickedness.

Amari-tudo, a habit of bitterness.

Molli-tudo, a habit of softness.

Magni-tudo, a habit of greatness.

Pleni-tudo, a habit of fulness.

Pulchri-tudo, a habit of beauty.

Vicissi-tudo, a habit of change.

Hilari-tudo, a habit of cheerfulness.

The etymologies of Hilaritas and Hilaritudo mutually illustrate and support each other. To suppose that the large class of Latin words ending in Tudo were compounded without a perfect know- ledge of the meaning of Tiud, the Slavonic (per- haps Scythian) root, appears to me, if I may be allowed to compare little things with great, very much like that hypothesis which ascribes the formation of the universe to the fortuitous con- course of atoms, — that most insane of all insanities, which denies the existence of power, where the proofs of its exertion are the most stupendous ; of wisdom, where the adaptation of means to ends is infinitely various and absolutely perfect ; and of goodness, where the liberal provisions for the happi- ness of the creature, unequivocally attest the bene- volence of the Creator.

135. It appears to me that etymology, in some

ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL.

251

few instances, approximates so nearly to certainty, and leaves so little doubt on the mind with respect to the origin of certain words, as to be susceptible of exerting a reflex operation, and of enabling us to perceive and correct the anomalies and obscurities of the root itself. I will exemplify my meaning by the Arabic and Persic word Bal, the significa- tions of which, in Richardson's Dictionary, are as follows : —

Bal (Arabic), the heart, mind, soul ; state, con- dition, work; solicitous, anxious. Bal (Persic), an arm, a wing, the largest feather in the wing, a curling lock ; the heart, mind, the body, stature, winged, vehement, strong. Part of a fillet or wreath, hanging from the head-dress by way of ornament, love, a kind of pulse or pease, plaster for walls.

I believe few oriental roots have supplied more numerous, important, and diversified derivations to the European languages, both ancient and modern, than this Persic word Bal. I shall detail them with some degree of minuteness for the pur- pose above stated, and because they also serve to illustrate and support my theory, that all verbs, and every class of words, as they were primarily formed from, are ultimately resolvable into, nouns substantive.

First Root, Bal, the heart.

Bal (Persic), the heart, mind, soul ; the seat of understanding, feeling, and will.

252 ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL.

DERIVATIVES.

Boule (Greek), the will, counsel. Boulomai, I will.

Bouleuo and Bouleuomai, I deliberate. By reading the B as V, we have, Volo (Latin), I will. Yoluntas (Latin), the will. By reading the Y as W, we have, Wille, German.

Will (English), the will, and I will. Second Root, Bal (Persic), the arm.

DERIVATIVES.

Bal (Arabic), work, in which the arm is the prin- cipal instrument.

^a!!° 1 (Greek), I throw, ditto ditto. Ballomai J

Bolos (Greek), a throw.

Bolis (Greek), a dart, that which is thrown.

Balios (Greek), one of the horses of Achilles, i. e. swift, because that which is thrown moves quickly. (Scapula)

Bala (Sanskrit), strength, which is exerted prin- cipally by the arm.

Third Root, Bal (Persic), a wing. DERIVATIVES.

By reading the B as Y,

Yolo (Latin), to fly, to speed by hurling or throwing.

Yel-ox (Latin), swift.

Yel-ocitas (Latin), swiftness.

ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL. 253

Balios (Greek), swift, one of the horses of Achilles, so denominated, because his speed was more like flying than running. In English we have flying Childers, who, though not immortal, and only immortalized, ran faster, perhaps, than either Xanthus or Ba- lius.

Fourth Eoot, Bal (Persic), the body, stature, vehement, strong. DERIVATIVES.

Bala (Sanskrit), to live.

Bala (Sanskrit), strength.

By reading the B as V,

Valeo (Latin), to be well in health, enjoy health, to have a good condition of the body.

Yalidus (Latin), strong. Facciolati says from Yaleo, but I prefer the above root Bal, or Yal, strong, and the Arabic Hiat, life, living, exist- ence, contracted to Id, with the Latin termi- nation us. Yal-id-us, that is, being strong.

Yaletudo (Latin). Facciolati says habit or state of body, health either good or bad, the con- titution ; from Yaleo : but the word is clearly formed from the above Persic root, Bal, or Yal, the body, and the Slavonic Tiud, habit or constitution, slightly changed to Tudo.

By reading the Y as W, we have,

Well (English), I am well, that is, in good health, or in a good state of body.

136. All will admit the above etymologies to be probable ; could we regard them as certain, I should

254 ON ETYMOLOGY IN GENERAL.

entertain little doubt that the four distinct mean- ings of Bal in Persic were derived from four dis-

tinct roots, and be tempted to write them thus : —

_» Jy Boul, the heart ; hence, with final Eta,

BouAvj (Greek), the will.

jb with Teschdid over the final letter, which

doubles it, or JJb Ball, the arm, hence —

BaXX«) (Greek), I throw.

^ L J

Jj Bal, a wing, omitting the Alif ; hence (Greek), swift. Volo (Latin), to fly.

Jb Bal, the body, as we find. Bala(Sanskrit)? thewordinKichardson, \ strength. hence J

Bala( Sanskrit),

to live.

Valeo (Latin), to be well, or strong. And by a change of the diacritical points, which

will convert B into P, Jj Pil, love ; hence, as Derivatives,

(Greek), Amicus. (Greek), Arnica. (Greek), Amo, I love.

ON THE SOURCES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 255

CHAPTER XL

ON THE SOURCES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE — ENGLISH WORDS — ENGLISH PARTICLES.

137. ME. WEBSTER, the author of an English dic- tionary, in which more attention is devoted to the etymology of the language than in any preceding publication, expresses himself on the subject in the following manner : — " Since the Conquest the En- glish has not suffered any shock from the inter- mixture of any conquerors with the natives of England; but the language has undergone great alterations by the disuse of a large portion of Saxon words, and the introduction of words from the Latin and Greek languages, with some French, Italian, and Spanish words. These words have in some instances been borrowed by authors directly from the Latin and Greek ; but most of the Latin words have been received through the medium of the French and Italian. For terms in the sciences authors have generally resorted to the Greek, and from this source, as discoveries in science demand new terms, the vocabulary of the English language is receiving continual augmentation. We have also a few words from the German and Swedish, mostly terms in mineralogy ; and commerce has introduced commodities of foreign growth or manufacture, with their foreign names, which make a part of our

256 ON THE SOURCES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

language. Such are camphor, amber, arsenic, and many others.

The English language, then, is composed of,

1st. Saxon and Danish words, of Teutonic and Gothic origin.

2nd. British or Welch, Cornish and Armoric, which may be considered as of Celtic origin.

3rd. Norman, a mixture of French and Gothic.

4th. Latin, a language formed on the Celtic and Teutonic.

5th. French, chiefly Latin corrupted, but with a mixture of Celtic.

6th. Greek formed on the Celtic and Teutonic, with some Coptic.

7th. A few words directly from the Italian, Spanish, German, and other languages of the Con- tinent.

8th. A few foreign words introduced by com- merce, or by political or literary intercourse.

Of these the Saxon words constitute our mother tongue, being words which our ancestors brought with them from Asia. The Danish and Welch are also primitive words, and may be considered as a part of our vernacular language. They are of equal antiquity with the Chaldee a,nd Syriac." (Intro- duction to Dictionary of the English Language, p. 3.)

138. Comprehensive as this enumeration appears to be, it is still extremely imperfect. In the first place Mr. Webster makes no allusion whatever to one of the great families or divisions of the European languages, the Slavonic, or Ancient Sarmatian,

ENGLISH WORDS. 257

though I must do him the justice to say that in the body of his work he has derived many English words from it, and I have no doubt very correctly. In the next place, the earliest inhabitants of Wales and Ireland, if not of England, were the Celtae, and they probably came from Spain. What language, or languages, did they bring with them ? How was Spain peopled ? Pliny, quoting Yarro, says, he informs us that the whole of Spain was occu- pied by the arrival of the Iberians, the Persians, the Phoenicians, the Celtae, and the Carthaginians. (Lib. iii. c. 1.) Still we have not named all the sources of the English language, as no direct men- tion is made of Hindustan, and we meet with nu- merous words in our language which may be derived with much greater probability from the Sanskrit than from any other tongue. Hindustan, indeed, may be said to be virtually mentioned, by the Celtae being included among the nations which peopled Spain, for the Celtae were Asiatic Scandinavians, or Scythians, and Scythia was peopled by the over- flowing population of Southern Asia, speaking chiefly the Sanskrit, Persic, and Arabic languages, or some of their dialects, and impelled in the first instance in a northerly and eventually in a westerly direction, by the operation of the great law of popu- lation, or the pressure of increasing numbers against the means of subsistence, the ever-acting principle by whose influence, since the beginning of time, mankind have been compelled to spread themselves

258 SOURCES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

over the surface of the earth in every latitude and in every climate.

138. When I first paid some attention to the Sanskrit I was astonished, as I have no doubt some of my readers will be, at meeting with so many words agreeing almost letter for letter with our mother tongue — a circumstance always desirable in etymology, as many of the derivations of English words from the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon, which have been acquiesced in because no better could be found, satisfy neither the eye nor the ear; and we shall discover, in a variety of instances, that in the exact degree that we ascend to the roots of those supposed roots do we approximate to the English of our own day. Nor is it difficult to account for this circumstance. Language, in its progress from rudeness to refinement, has a ten- dency, first, to dismiss all gutturals, aspirates, and other harsh sounds, which both tax the tongue to pronounce them, and offend the ear when pro- nounced; -and, secondly, to drop all unnecessary letters which retard the hand to no purpose in the process of writing, and more especially clusters of consonants, which offend the eye by association, as much as their actual pronounciation does another organ. The Sanskrit language had passed through this process of purification, and attained perhaps a greater degree of polish and a nearer approximation to perfection than any other language ever spoken on the Asiatic continent. It was carried into Scan- dinavia, or Scythia, by emigration, mixed with the

ENGLISH WOKDS. 259

Persic, the Arabic, and their innumerable dialects, and after the lapse of centuries appeared as the language of the Celta3, the earliest inhabitants of Europe. No ancient people under the name of Celtae ever attained any considerable degree of civilization, and it was only at a late period that they became acquainted with the art of alphabetical writing, which neither the Franks, the Anglo- Saxons, nor the Gaels ever practised sufficiently, perhaps, to establish general rules of grammar, and attain a settled orthography. The process which the Sanskrit, the Persic, and the Arabic must have passed through at a remote antiquity, has been repeated and going on in Europe since the fourth century of the Christian era, which witnessed the translation of the Maeso-Gothic Gospels, which must be regarded, perhaps, as the oldest existing monu- ment of any languages actually spoken in Europe, if we except the Eomaic and Italian as the imme- diate representatives of the Greek and Latin. The Sanskrit may be regarded as the pure fountain- head; the streams which flowed from it remained long in a troubled state from the turbulence of the middle ages, till, having found a more spacious and secure channel, they have gradually deposited the dregs of the Prankish, the Anglo-Saxon, the Cim- bric, and the Celtic, and reappeared in the beautiful languages of Montesquieu and Kacine, of Goete and Schiller, of Byron and Scott.

139. I shall now proceed to give a list of such Sanskrit words as appear to have found a place in

s 2

260 SOURCES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

English, with occasional remarks on the etymologies proposed by Mr. Webster.

SANSKRIT WORDS. ENGLISH.

t Adanta Un-daunted.

Sama Same.

Ukshan, an ox or bull Oxen, plural.

Uttara, higher Utter, total.

Udara, the belly Udder.

Upala, a precious stone Opal.

Edha, to grow, or increase Add.

Mr. Webster says Addo (Latin), from ad, to, and do, give.

Katha, to speak, or tell Quoth, Old English.

Mr. Webster says Qythan (Saxon), Gwedyd (Welch), Ceadadi (Irish).

Kam, water The Cam, a river.

Kartra, to unloose, to remove... Quere, charter, that which re- moves civil disabilities.

Kila, white Quere, Chyle, from its colour.

Kutta, to cut, or divide Cut.

Kurala, a lock of hair Curl (by contraction.)

" For ever curst be this detested day, Which snatch'd my best, my favourite curl away."

Rape of the Lock.

Kindra Centre.

Kota, a shed, or hut Cot.

Kharavana, a vehicle Caravan.

Gata, obtained Gat and Got.

Gilat, swallowing, eating The gullet.

Chutta, to become small Cutty, little, Scotch.

Jangala Jungle.

Jalpa, to talk much, or idly Yelp, limited in English to the

noise made by a dog.

Jirvi, a cart Jarvy, a carriage. (Sla?ig.)

Jurni, speed A journey.

" As one who on his journey bates at noon, Though bent on speed. — Milton."

Tapat, heating, or warming Tepid.

Tasa To toss.

Di, wasting, destruction Die.

Dwar Door.

Dhona, a river The Doon, a river in Scotland.

Na, a particle of negation No.

Nakta Night.

KNCJMSII WORDS. 261

SANSKRIT WORDS. ENGLISH.

Nns Nose.

Nabhi Nave (of a wheel).

No, negative No.

I'ntapata, to go frequently Pitapat.

Mr. Webster, without giving any etymology, explains it by " a light, quick step," but it is applicable to any quick reiterated motion, as, for instance, of the heart.

Patha, a road Path.

Pi la, a heap Pile, pillow, the pool at quad- rille.

Prita, pleased Pretty (pleasing.)

Phala, to divide Fallow land, t. e. ploughed or

divided.

Bharu, a husband, a lord ; with Anuswarah, or final N,

Baron, a lord. — In Law, Baron and Femme, i.e. husband and wife.

Bhitta Bit.

Bhruda, to cover Brood (as a hen).

Bhlasa, to shine Blaze.

Mina, a fish Minnow.

Yoga, j unction, union Yoke.

Raga, passion Rage.

Riti, usage, custom, practice ...Rite.

Ripa, low, vile Rip. (Slang.)

Rima, water Rheum.

Lupa, to cut Lop.

Lisa, small, little Less, the comparative of little.

Lola, the tongue To loll the tongue.

Varna, to vomit Vamati ; he vomits.

Vaya, to go, or move Way.

Vasta, to hurt To waste.

Vahana, any vehicle Wain.

Vila, or Wila, time While.

Shwida, to perspire Sweat.

Sunu Son.

Supa, broth Soup.

Stri, to spread over Strew.

Stima, wetness, moisture Steam.

Swara, to blame Swear at.

Hi, to go Hie.

Hrisha, to go Rush.

Hladin, happy Glad, and gladden.

Hvi, to emulate Vie.

The above three words are remarkable as retaining the aspi- rate letter in Sanskrit, which they have lost in English. In the second, indeed, the H is converted into G. s 3

262 SOURCES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

SANSKRIT WORDS. ENGLISH.

Dasagramapati The head man of ten villages.

Note. — See the ancient division of England by Alfred into Tythings and Hundreds. In Persic, Deh (ten) signifies also a village, or ten houses. The Sanskrit is Dasa, ten ; Grama, village ; and Pati, lord. He clearly corresponded with the Hundreder of our Saxon ancestors.

Pula, to collect, to heap The pool at quadrille.

Madhu, honey Mead, honey wine.

Varanda, a portico Veranda.

Varna, a breast, a woman With Anuswarah, or final N,

Woman ; Faemina, Latin.

Vida Wet.

Uksha Ox.

Bina, move Run.

Gridha, be greedy Greedy.

Kshura, cut down Shear.

Kusa, embrace, unite Kiss.

Nala, fasten Nail.

Pundati, he breaks to pieces ...He poundeth.

Parda, break wind backwards...? and F, and L> and T, are

exchangeable in many lan- guages. (See Diversions of Purley, vol. ii. p. 67.)

Bana, beg, request Boon.

Yunati, he fastens He unites or joineth.

Rayah, speed, velocity... Quere, Ray of the sun, from its speed.

Loka, view, see, behold Look.

Lasha, desire ; Lashati He lusts.

Liha, taste (with the H hard)... Lick.

Hikkati He hiccups.

Kripa, go, move Creep.

Grasa, eat... Graze (like cattle).

Charvva, eat, chew ; i. e. to divide meat with the teeth.

Carve, English ; i. e. to divide meat with a knife.

Jan, to produce Yean (like a sheep).

Taka, fasten Tack, to fasten.

Bandha, bind Band.

Bundha Bound.

Bhila, separate Quere, Bile (English), from its office of

separating the nutritious part of food.

Riyati, he moves Rickety, unsteady,

Laka, taste, relish Like (applied to eating).

Suna, go, move Quere, The sun, from its apparent

motion.

Svalla, or Swalla, go fast The swallow, or swift ; a bird.

ENGLISH WORDS. 263

SANSKRIT WORDS. ENGLISH.

Shasta, sleep Siesta, Spanish.

Draha Throw.

Mati, he measures He metes.

Maksha, compound, temper Mix.

Arivat, did go Arrived.

Irm, water The Erme, an English river.

Kradi, cry, weep Greet, Scotch.

" It gars me greet." — Burns.

Granth, arrange Quere, Granite, from the regular ar- rangement of its component parts.

Grantha, a book Granta, a name of Cambridge.

(Gray's Installation Ode.)

Gucha, or Gocha, to be hidden. The Cuckoo, a bird oftener heard

than seen.

Ghurn, turn round Churn (butter).

Truh Tree.

Duh, milk a cow .....Dug, i. e. that which is milked.

Note. — The root Han in the reduplicated state, changes H to Gh. — Wilkin's San. Gram. p. 271.

Dra, sleep Drow-sy.

Drana, asleep Drone, a lazy fellow.

Nu New.

Naktam, by night Night-time.

Naktan Night.

Pad, go, step ; Root, Pada A foot.

"Pad the hoof;" i.e. move the foot. (Slang.)

Praudah, haughty Proud.

Badh, blame, reproach Bad, that which deserves re- proach.

Bhras, shine Brass, that which shines.

Mad, grow mad Mad.

^ftoxLte'd^0:8..^:..01: }M^oty> whimsical> stran^-

Radh, hurt, kill Raid (Scotch), a predatory bor- der incursion.

Ru, make a noise Row, a disturbance. ( Slang. )

Lag, be in contact Lay, to put. Lay it on the table ;

i. e. let it be in contact with the table.

Lat, be childish, speak like al Lad ft outh> child J '

Vid, know Wit, and Wot.

Vli, go File, and Flee.

s 4

264 SOURCES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

SANSKRIT WORDS. ENGLISH.

Va, blow as the wind ; Vana 1 Vane, that which is blown by

and Vata J the wind.

Vij or Wij, separate Wedge, that which separates.

Vil or Wil, divide Veil, and Wall.

Vata, an interjection of sor-~| ^, f

row or regret J"

Ava, from, off Away.

Shiv, tie, fasten A sheaf of corn ; that which is

tied, or fastened in a small

bundle.

Shtim, be moist, wet, reek Steam.

Shvid, or Shwid, perspire Sweat.

Svap Sleep.

Sphay, grow large, swell Splay.

Dudru, a ringworm Tetter (by reading d as t).

Dirgha, long Quere, Dirge, a long lament.

Dam, a wife Dame.

Trih, a boat ; Truh, Sanskrit ; Tree, English. The term for a boat in Sanskrit appears to describe the substance of which it is made.

Trish, by transposition Thirst.

Trishati, he thirsts Thirsty.

Vrit, circulate, be current Qu. Write.

Vara, a choice thing ... Quere, Vair, in English romance, to

which Ellis says he can affix

no distinct meaning.

Anyatara, other Another.

Adhyitun, to go over, read Adyiti, he audits (accounts).

140. Such appear to have been some of the oldest and most remote sources of the English language that are accessible to us in the present state of our knowledge, and as many of the words are of such common and general use, there can be little doubt that they are to be found in the Vedas and Insti- tutes of Menu ; works which unquestionably possess a great antiquity, though I feel no hesitation in re- jecting the Mythological Chronology of the Hindus as utterly absurd, and untenable for a moment, and consequently some of these roots of our language

ENGLISH WORDS. 265

are probably as old as the tenth or twelfth century before the Christian era, that is, formed a part of written compositions at that period ; for the proba- bility is, that the simple roots of every language are equally old, all being coeval with the human race. Language appears to be at once the most changeable and unchangeable of all human institu- tions. In Sanskrit we find the A privative of the Greek and Latin, and most modern languages ; and it is remarkbale that before a vowel it is changed into An (Wilkins1 Sanskrit Grammar, p. 543.), as in the following English words of Greek formation : Anodyne, from A, not, and Odune, pain, Anonymous, from A, without, and Onoma, a name. In Sanskrit also, as in English, in some instances, it is not merely privative, but reverses the meaning of words, and, put before verbs denoting giving, going, carry- ing, gives them the sense of taking or receiving, coming and bringing (Wilkins, p. 396.), as in English, Theist, a believer in God; Atheist, one who denies the existence of God. The European privative prefix Un is to be found in Sanskrit as a verb signifying to deduct, to lessen. In the third person of the present tense it forms Unayati, which may be the etymology of the Latin Unitas, oneness, as unity is produced by diminishing any aggregate number until we arrive at the individual ; the ter- mination, however, of Latin nouns in itas, as has been already remarked, is formed from the Arabic Hiat, life, state, condition. The simple roots of a very ancient language are of inestimable value, not

266 SOURCES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

merely to the etymologist, as supplying the deriva- tions of which he is in pursuit, but to the philolo- gist generally, as suggesting the formation of other words. For instance, the root Stu, run, in Sanskrit, is suggestive of the Greek Steicho and Stoicheo ; and as no letter, line, or point was primarily writ- ten in vain, I cannot but suspect, at least, that the terminations cho, and cheo, were originally ego ; Stu-ego, by transposition Stu-geo: and when I find in Sanskrit the root Va, go, and know that in that language, and many others, v is exchangeable with b, and discover in Greek the word Baino, I go, it is with more than probability that I analyse the latter word into

Ba (Sanskrit Dhato, or simple!

together, Baino,

r°0t)' «°> f I go.

Ano (Syriac personal pronoun), I,J

141. Having pointed out the remote sources of the English language, I now proceed to notice the more proximate, which may be confidently asserted to be the Maeso-Gothic, as found existing in the Gospels of Ulphilas ; so well edited by Lye, and published at the Clarendon Press, Oxford. I shall commence with making a few extracts from and remarks on Lye's Gothic Grammar, prefixed to his edition of Ulphilas, and giving a list of the most remarkable single words I have met with in reading the remains of the four Gospels. The sentences will be noticed in the next chapter.

We find in the Maeso-Gothic the article Sa, So, Thata, corresponding with the Greek o, 73, TO. —

ENGLISH WORDS.

267

Thata is clearly the oldest form of the English pro- noun That ; the genitive This, of the English This ; the plural Thai, of the English They ; and the dative and ablative Thaim, of the English Them.

The noun substantive has three genders, mascu- line, feminine, and neuter, and six cases, like the Latin, and is thus declined in one of the three forms of what Lye regards as the only declination : —

SINGULAR. PLURAL.

Nom. Sa Himins, heaven Himinos.

Gen. Himinis, of heaven Himine.

Dat. Himina, to heaven Himinam.

Ac. Himin, heaven Himinans.

Voc. Himin, O heaven Himinos.

Abl. Himina, in heaven Himinam.

The noun adjective has three terminations, and agrees with the substantive in gender and number. The pronouns personal are thus declined : —

SINGULAR. DUAL. PLURAL.

Nom. Ik, I. Nom Wit. Nom. Weis.

Gen. Meina. G. D. and Ab....Ugkis. Gen. Unsara.

Dat. Mis. Dat. Unsis.

Ac. Mik Ac Wit. Ac. Uns.

Ab. Mis. Ab. Unsis.

The Maeso- Gothic Thu and Theina give the ety- mology of the English Thou and Thine. The cardinal numbers are —

Ains One.

Twai Two.

Thrija Three.

Fiduor Four.

Fimf Five.

Saihs Six.

Sibun Seven.

Ahtau Eight.

Niun Nine.

Taihun Ten.

Twalif .. ...Twelve.

268 SOURCES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

The present of the verb substantive is Im, Is, and 1st, resembling both the Greek and Latin, but the imperfect is the English Was and Wast.

In this language we find many of the English auxiliary verbs.

Mag, Possum May, English.

Mahta, Potui Might, English.

Wilda, Volui Would, English.

Skal, Necesse est Shall, English.

And the etymology of a host of English words, of which some of the closest to the Maeso-Gothic are —

Andei, finis End.

Waurda, verba Word.

Sunus, filius Son.

Handus, manus Hand.

Manna, homo Man.

Baurgs, civitas Burgess, the inhabitant of an

English borough.

Laiseins, doctrina Lesson.

Daur, ostium Door.

Alls, omnis, totus All.

Anthar, alius, secundus Another.

Maurthreith Murdereth.

Aftra Again (after).

Fotubaurd Footstool (foot-board).

Missadedins Misdeeds.

Auhn Ofen, German ; Oven, English.

Saggcha, the West.

Sancha Dwipa, Africa (Sanskrit).

Daumb Stumme, German; Dumb, En- glish.

Lamba Sheep (lambs).

Bruth, a daughter-in-law.

Bru, French.

Dauthai Dead; Todten, German.

Sumai Some.

Nate Nets.

Kann, know Ken, Old English.

Afar After.

Frawaurtins, sins Froward, perverse, disobedient.

ENGLISH WORDS. 269

Qathar, Utrum Whether.

Siujith Seweth.

Juggata Young (Jungata).

Thairh Through.

Skuld, lawful Should.

Thaurfta, need Thrift, parsimony.

Moda, anger Mood, and moody.

Ga-sat-ida Sat, and set.

Uta, without Out.

Qo, who 0 — The power of this Maeso-

Qui, who (Latin), Gothic letter is not quite cer-

tain. Home Tooke says hw, but it appears to me to be sometimes wh.

Brothrins Brethren, and brothers.

Dugann Began.

Skip, Schiff, German Ship, and skiff.

Fuglos Fowls.

Tharei Where.

Goda Good; Gutes, German.

Undar Under.

Slepith Sleepeth.

Gras, herba Grass.

Gras (Arabic), a plant.

Kaurnis Corn.

Skadau Shadow.

Landa Country (Land).

Suns Soon, straightway.

Ga-motida Met.

Ufta Oft, often.

Ga-brak Brake, and broke.

Rann Ran.

Wods, mad Wode. (Spenser.)

Yera Years.

Maht, power Might, noun substantive.

auxiliary verb.

Timria, Architectus A carpenter, a worker in wood.

Timbrian, Domos aedificare.

Note. — The houses of the Anglo-Saxons were built almost entirely of timber, or wood.

Dauthaim The dead.

Af-maimait Maimed.

Si She.

Apaustalies Apostles.

Manag Many.

Faurthis First.

Hundos, dogs Hounds.

270 SOURCES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

Tuggon .............................. Tongue; Zunge, German.

Taikn, a sign ..................... Token.

Thahtedun ........................ They thought.

Faurbath ........................... He forbad.

Usstandan, resurgere ............ Stand again.

Taujeth ........................... Doeth.

Faur ................................. For.

Leitilane ........................ :.. Little ones.

Kairnus, stone ..................... Cairn, a heap of stones.

Than ................................. Than.

Saltada .............................. Shall be salted.

Hiri, come ........................ Here ! (calling a person).

Nu ................................. Now.

Driggka ........................... I drink.

Sat ................................. Sat; Sass, German.

Us hlaupands, up leaping ...... Loup, Scotch ; Leap, English.

Kam at .............................. Came to.

Gredags, Gredays ............... Greedy, hungry.

Habandan lauf

T f Habentem folia .................. JL

Laushandjan ..................... 1 Loose handed ; that is, empty-

Manibus vacuum ............... J handed, from the hands not

being closed. Manleika ........................... Image.

Frodaba, sapienter ............... Fraud, cunning,

Silba ................................. Self.

Ga-skop Goth, Creavit Deus . . . Shape, landscape. Lauhath ........................... Light.

Kukida .............................. Kissed.

Nakaths ........................... Naked.

Hana ................................. A cock (hen).

Hlauta .............................. Lots.

Ba .................................... Both ; Bis (Latin), twice.

Latededi, tardaret .................. To let, i. e. to hinder, to delay.

Hairdai .............................. Flock (herd).

Siggwan, to read .................. Sing.

Aumisto, top .................. i. e. Auh, high.

Misto, most. Sagk ................................. Sank, English.

Hwathar, or whathar ............ Whether ; Welches, German.

Baioths .............................. Both.

Yugg ...... ... ..................... Young.

Hatandans ........................ Hating.

Widowo ........................... Widow.

Vedova, Italian.

Vidua, Latin.

Gasok, he rebuked ...... Quere, Gadzooks ! an exclamation.

ENGLISH WORDS. 271

Wis, tranquillitas Whist, Whish, or Hush, be si- lent.

Mat, cibum Meat.

Thar, Ibi There.

Sundro, seorsim Asunder.

Skeinandei Shining.

Faurhtidedun They feared.

Ga-brikands Breaking.

Waurme Serpents.

"Worm, a serpent." (Shakspeare.) Nahtamat, supper *. e. Nahta, night.

Mat, meat.

Rahneith Reckoneth.

Taihuntehund, a hundred Literally, ten tens.

Niuntehund, ninety „ nine tens.

Figgragulth, annulum aureum... „ finger gold.

Stiur Calf (steer).

Ga wrikith, vindicabit Wreak, to revenge.

Qa, hwa, or wha Why.

Kaupeth Keep.

Veinayard Vineyard ; Weinberg, German.

Hawe Hay.

Rickis, tenebrae Reek, smoke.

Huggreith Shall hunger.

Managai, Manayai Many.

Taujis Doest.

Taujith Doeth.

Ga tairaidan Teared, and torn.

Ga faifaheina They might take.

Enfeoffed, possessed of, English.

Hliftus, a thief To lift, Scotch. ( Waverley

Novels.)

Shop-lifter, English.

Note. — . This word is remarkable as illustrating the tendency of languages in their progress from rudeness to refinement, to dismiss aspirates.

Phliuhith Fleeth, Fleihet, German.

Faeino, I am glad Fain.

Fund Pound; Pfund, German.

Weinatriu, vine Literally, wine-tree.

Aurtigards; Hortus, Latin But this word appears to com- bine the first syllables of Hort-us, and Gard-en.

Wipnam, Armis With weapons.

272 SOURCES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

English Particles.

142. In every grammatical treatise that has hitherto seen the light, the authors have been very much embarrassed how to dispose of a numerous class of words denominated collectively particles. It is difficult to conceive of more extreme injustice than has been inflicted on this large family of little people. Some have denied that they were words altogether ; others have insisted that they had no ideas annexed to them, which amounts to very nearly the same thing ; while some again, like the author of Hermes, have admitted that they had an obscure kind of signification. While their treat- ment has been more harsh than that of the Spartan Helots, we cannot sympathize with them as Farias, or outcasts, for many of them have been so unfor- tunate as never to have had a caste to lose, and no one has ever condescended to determine whether they were conjunctions, prepositions, or adverbs. Home Tooke, on the whole, is perhaps the best friend they ever met with ; but while he rescued a select few from their degraded state, he left the great mass very much as he found them, and aban- doned them to a condition which has ever since been regarded as hopeless.

143. Mr. Locke, in his Essay on Human Under- standing, while he obviously felt the necessity of doing something, does not appear to have seen very clearly in what direction his efforts might be ex- erted to the best advantage. In his short chapter

ENGLISH PARTICLES. 273'

on Particles, he says, " This part of grammar has been perhaps as much neglected as some others over diligently cultivated. 'Tis easy for men to write, one after another, of cases and genders, moods and tenses, gerunds and supines : in these and the like, there has been great diligence used ; and particles themselves have been in some lan- guages ranked in their several orders with great show of exactness. But though prepositions, con- junctions, &c. are names well known in grammar, and the particles contained under them carefully ranked into their distinct subdivisions ; yet he who would show the right use of particles, and what significancy and force they have, must take a little more pains, enter into his own thoughts, and ob- serve nicely the several postures of his mind in discoursing." Thus far Mr. Locke ; but I think we shall find that in every instance in which we can discover the true etymology of the English and all other particles, all the obscurity which at present attaches to them will disappear, and we shall be convinced that as the greater part of them were originally nouns substantive, so, in every situation, they retain their substantive character and signi- fication.

Enough.

144. Home Tooke says, in Dutch, Genoeg, from the verb Genoegan, to content, to satisfy. S. John- son cannot determine whether this word is a substantive, an adjective, or an adverb, but he

T

274 ENGLISH PARTICLES.

thinks it all three. "It is not easy," he says, "to determine whether this word be an adjective or adverb ; perhaps, when it is joined to a substantive, it is an adjective, of which Enow is the plural. In other situations it seems to be an adverb, except that after the verb to have, or to be, either ex- pressed or understood, it may be accounted a sub- stantive." According to him, it means —

1. In a sufficient measure, so as to satisfy, so as

may suffice.

2. Something sufficient in greatness, or excel-

lence.

3. Something to a man's power, or abilities.

4. In a sufficient degree.

5. It notes a slight augmentation in the positive

degree.

6. Sometimes it denotes diminution.

7. An exclamation noting fulness, or satiety. Tooke himself says, in the Anglo-Saxon it is

Genog, or Genoh, and appears to be the past parti- ciple Genoged, multiplication, manifold, of the verb Genogan, multiplicare.

Mr. Webster says, Enough, adj. Enuf. Sax. Genog, Genoh ; Goth. Ganah ; Ger. Genug, Gnug ; D. Genoeg; Swed. Nog; Dan. Nok; Sax. Genogan, to multiply ; Ger. Genugen, to satisfy ; D. Genoegan, to satisfy, please, content. The Swedes and Danes drop the prefix, as the Danes do in Nogger, to gnaw. The word may be the Heb., Ch., Syr., and Eth. PH3 to rest, to be quiet, or satisfy. (Class Ng. No. 14.) That satisfies desire, or gives con-

ENGLISH PARTICLES. 275

tent ; that may answer the purpose ; that is ade- quate to the wants.

" She said, We have straw and provender enough." (Gen. xxiv.)

" How many hired servants of my father have bread enough, and to spare ! " (Luke, xv.)

Note. — This word in vulgar language is some- times placed before its noun, like most other adjec- tives. But in elegant discourse, or composition, it always follows the noun to which it refers; as, bread enough, money enough.

Enough, noun, Enuf; a sufficiency; a quantity of a thing which satisfies desire, or is adequate to the wants. " We have enough of this sort of cloth." " And Esau said, I have enough, my brother." (Gen. xxxiii.)

" Israel said, It is enough ; Joseph is yet alive." (Gen. xlv.)

2. That which is equal to the powers or abilities. " He had enough to do to take care of him- self."

Enough, adv. enuf, sufficiently ; in a quantity or degree that satisfies, or is equal to the desires and wants. " The land, behold, it is large enough for them." (Gen. xxxiv.) " Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount." (Deut. i.)

2. Fully, quite; denoting a slight augmentation of the positive degree. " He is ready enough to embrace the offer." " It is pleasant enough to consider the different notions of different men respecting the same thing."

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276 ENGLISH PARTICLES.

3. Sometimes it denotes diminution, delicately expressing rather less than is desired, such a quantity as commands acquiescence rather than full satisfaction. " The song, or the performance, is well enough"

4.. An exclamation denoting sufficiency: "Enough^ enough ; I'll hear no more."

PROPOSED.

Henouii, abundantia, abundance; a noun mas- culine, Coptic. (La Croze.)

This word is remarkable on several accounts: first, as exemplifying the general tendency of all languages, in their progress from rudeness to refinement, to drop aspirates, as it is written in Egyptian with the letter Hori, or proper H ; and secondly, by affording us a most important lesson in Orthoepy ; for, as the final syllable is written with the letter Phei, to which La Croze assigns the power of F, we immediately discover the reason why the English derivative word, though written Enough, is pronounced Enuf, the orthography being vitiated, while we have retained the true Egyptian pronunciation. It has frequently been asked, why should Enough be pronounced Enuf, while we pro- nounce Plough, Plow ; and we can now, for the first time, return the satisfactory answer, — because it was so written and pronounced in the original lan- guage from which it is derived. With respect to the meaning of the word, I think my readers will agree with me in being of opinion that all the

ENGLISH PARTICLES. 277

senses attributed to it by Johnson, Tooke, and Webster, are at once clearly accounted for, and that all those senses are as clearly resolvable into one which never varies; and I believe I might venture to add, that such will always be the case, let us apply it to as many passages as we will. We will select a couple from Shakspeare at random as an experiment. In the single combat between Macduff and Macbeth, the latter exclaims, " Lay on, Macduff; and damn'd be he that first cries, Hold, enough ! " and in Romeo and Juliet, when Mercutio receives his mortal wound, in reply to Romeo's observation, " The hurt cannot be much," he replies, " No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but 'tis enough" Does not the Egyp- tian noun substantive, in both these instances, completely explain the meaning of enough, and might it not be substituted for them ? I believe so, both in these, and all other cases.

Away.

145. Of this word Home Tooke does not give any explanation ; but Mr. Webster says, —

Away, Adv. (Saxon), Aweg, a, and way ; also Oriweg, away, and awegan, to avert.

1. Absent, at a distance ; as, u The master is away

from home." u Have me away, for I am wounded." (2 Chron. xxxv.)

2. It is much used with words signifying moving

or going from ; as, go away, send away, run away, &c.; all signifying departure or sepa-

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278 ENGLISH PARTICLES.

ration to a distance. Sometimes without the verb; as, "Whither away so fast?" (Shaksp.) " Love hath wings, and will away." (Waller.)

3. As an exclamation, it is a command or invi-

tation to depart : " Away ! " that is, begone, or let us go. "Away with him," " Take him away."

4. With verbs, it serves to modify their sense,

and form peculiar phrases; as, to throw away, to cast from, to give up, dissipate, or fool- ishly destroy. To trifle away, to lose, or expend in trifles or in idleness. To drink away, to swander away, &c. ; to dissipate in drinking or extravagance. To make away, is to kill or destroy.

5. " Away with " has a peculiar signification in

the phrase, " I cannot away with it," (Isa. i.) The sense is, "I cannot bear, or endure it."

PROPOSED.

Ouei, distantia, longitudo. A noun masculine, Coptic. (La Croze.)

Item, longe fugere, abesse, distare. A verb, Coptic. (La Croze.)

I think this Egyptian word, or rather words, will clearly explain all the meanings of away exhi- bited by Mr. Webster in the above examples. In the passage he has quoted from Shakspeare, " Whi- ther away so fast ? " if my readers believe the pro- posed etymology, I trust they will not be of opinion that away is used ivitlwut the verb, as it is itself a perfectly regular and legitimate verb, not only in

ENGLISH PARTICLES. 279

Coptic, but in English. Let us apply our etymo- logy to a couple more passages taken promis- cuously from Shakspeare, and see how they will bear it. In the Merry Wives of Windsor, Fal- staff says,

"Rogues, hence! avaunt! vanish like hailstones, go! Trudge, plot away, o' the hoof, seek shelter, pack ! "

For away, we might substitute to a distance, as well as in the following line from the First Part of King Henry the Fourth: "We must away all night."

Away, as an exclamation, appears to have been borrowed by us directly from the Sanskrit Ava, from, off, down, from. As a verb in Sanskrit, one of its senses is, to move ; and it suggests analogies both with the Greek Ba, the imperative of Baino, and the French Ya, the imperative of Aller.

Now.

146. With respect to this word also, Home Tooke is silent, bat Mr. Webster gives a long account of it. He says,

Now, adv. Sax. Nu. ; D. Sw. Dan. and Goth. Nu. The G. has Nun, Gr. Nun, Lat. Nunc.

1. At the present time. " I have a patient now

living at an advanced age, who discharged blood from his lungs thirty years ago." (Arbuthnot.)

2. A little while ago, very lately.

" They that but now, for honour and for plate, Made the sea blush with blood, resign their hate."

Waller. T 4

280 ENGLISH PARTICLES.

3. At one time, at another time.

" Now high, now low, now master up, now iniss." — Pope.

4. Now sometimes expresses or implies a con-

nexion between the subsequent and pre- ceding proposition; often it introduces an inference or an explanation of what pre- cedes.

" Not this man, but Barabbas : now Barabbas was a robber." (John xviii.)

" Then said Micah, Now I know that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite for my priest." (Judges xvii.)

u The other great mischief which befals men is by their being misrepresented. Now, by calling evil good, a man is misrepresented to others in the way of slander." (South.)

5. After this ; things being so. " How shall any

man now distinguish betwixt a parasite and a man of honour ? " (E Estrange.)

6. In supplication, it appears to be somewhat

emphatical. " I beseech thee, 0 Lord, re- member now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart." (2 Kings, xx.)

7. Now sometimes refers to a particular time

past, specified or understood, and may be defined at that time. " He was now sensible of his mistake."

Now and then, at one time and another, inde- finitely, occasionally, not often, at intervals.

ENGLISH PAETICLES. 281

1. " They now and then appear in offices of re-

ligion." (Rogers.)

" If there were any such thing as spontaneous generation, a new species would now and then appear."

2. Applied to places which appear at intervals,

or in succession. " A mead here, there a heath, and now and then

a wood." (Drayton.) Now, now, repeated, is used to excite attention to

something immediately to happen. Now (a noun), the present time, or moment.

" Nothing is there to come, and nothing past; But an eternal now does ever last." — Cowley.

Now-a-days, adv. in this age.

" What men pf spirit, now-a-days, Come to give sober judgment of new plays?" — Gar rick.

This is a common colloquial phrase, but not ele- gant in writing, unless of the more familiar kinds.

Thus far Mr. Webster.

PROPOSED.

Nei (tempus assignatum et definitum), a noun,

Coptic. (La Croze.) Nau, hora (the present time), a noun, Coptic,

(La Croze.) Nau, quasi, in rebus quse numerantur, Coptic.

(La Croze.)

282 ENGLISH PAHTICLES.

Nu, or Nuh (Sanskrit), time in general. Nu (Maeso- Gothic and Anglo-Saxon), now. Now (English), an adverb of time.

Probably this word came to us immediately from the Maeso-Goths, and to them from one of the two older languages. The Greek Nun, now, is the Sanskrit Nu, with Anuswarah, or final N ; and if we could suppose that Anuswarah (a simple dot) had ever been used as a medial in Sanskrit, and written over the line, we might easily deduce from the Sanskrit form Nuh, the Latin Nune, by interposing Anuswarah between u and h, and reading the h hard, Nunch, by contraction Nunc.

In the fifth act of Shakspeare's King John we read, immediately after his death, " But now a king, now thus ;" and again, " When this was now a king, and now is clay." In these two lines the first now exhibits the meaning of the Sanskrit Nu, the second of the Egyptian Nau. Paraphrase : — At an indefi- nite time past he was a king, at the present hour, the actual moment, he is a corpse. In the first speech of Coriolanus addressed to the citizens, he says, —

" Hang ye ! Trust ye ? With every minute you do change a mind, And call him noble that was now your hate."

Here again the now has the Sanskrit, and not the Egyptian meaning, being used to express an in- definite time past, in contradistinction to the actual moment.

ENGLISH PARTICLES. 283

While.

147. Home Tooke says, in the Anglo-Saxon, Hwile, for Hwiol, is the same past participle (of the verb Willigan, to roll), and we say indifferently " Walk a while," or " Take a turn ;" which might have done very well if his object had been to ascer- tain the meaning of walk, and not the etymology of while, which I believe has little to do with taking a turn either in a right line or a circular one. Mr. Webster's account of the word is on the whole extremely good; and the only objection to it is, that, as he has not discovered the true root, he does not begin at the beginning. He says,

While, n. (Sax. hwile; Goth, hweila; Ger. weil; D. wyl ; time, while ; Dan. hvile ; Sw. hvila, repose; W. cwyl, a turn; Ir. foil). See the verb.

Time, space of time, or continued duration. " He was some while in the country." " One while we thought him innocent."

"Pausing a while, thus to herself she said." — Milton.

Worth while, worth the time which it requires ; worth the time and pains; hence, worth the ex- pense. " It is not always worth while for a man to prosecute for small debts" (certainly very seldom in England, whatever may be the case in America). While, adv., during the time that. " While I write, you sleep."

2. As long as. " Use your memory, and you will sensibly experience a gradual improve-

284 ENGLISH PARTICLES.

merit, while you take care not to overload

it." _ Watts.

3. At the same time that. — Pope. While, v. t. (W. cwylan, to turn, to run a course, to bustle; Ethi. CD DA waala, to pass the time, to spend the day, or life, to remain ; Amharic, Id. ; Dan. hviler; Sw. hvila, to rest, or repose ; Ir. foillim, to stay, to rest, to tarry ; Ger. weilen, verweilen, to abide, to stay; D. verwylen. Id. (Mr. Webster concludes with — Quere the identity of these words ? a doubt, perhaps, not altogether unnecessary.) To while away, as time, in English, is to loiter ; or, more generally, to cause time to pass away plea- santly, without irksomeness, as we while away time in amusements or diversions. " Let us while away this life." — Pope. While, v. i., to loiter. — Spectator.

PROPOSED/

Wila, time, a noun, Persic. (Richardson.) Wila, or Vila, time, Sanskrit. ( Wilson. ) Waal, diein transigit, Ethiopic. (Ludolph.) Weil, time, a noun, German. Wyl „ „ Dutch.

While „ „ English.

While „ a verb. While ,, an adverb.

In our own language, I believe ivhile always sig- nifies time, either literally, or with some slight mo- difications of meaning. We probably borrowed the word from the Maeso- Gothic Hweila ; but those who

ENGLISH PARTICLES. 285

recollect the strong assertions of Grotius and Leib- nitz, to which I have already alluded, as to the large number of words in the German language proceeding directly from the Persic, will entertain little doubt that the Weil of the former is the Wila of the latter.

In Twelfth Night, Olivia, speaking of her in- tended hasty marriage with Sebastian, says of the priest, —

" He shall conceal it, — Whiles you are willing it shall come to note."

That is, it shall be kept secret in the first instance, and at the time you are disposed to publish it, it shall be divulged. In the instance from Home Tooke, " Walk a while" is evidently " Walk a time;" and in the colloquial phrase, as Johnson would term it, if it is not worth my while, we clearly intend to say that the object in question is so trifling as not to be worth the sacrifice of time it would require.

286 GENIUS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

CHAPTER XII.

GENIUS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. ITS CLOSE ANA- LOGY WITH THE PERSIC STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH

SENTENCES. M^SO- GOTHIC SENTENCES. ANGLO- SAXON SENTENCES. THE ENGLISH THE ELDEST

DAUGHTER OF THE 1VLESO-GOTHIC.

148. THE Greek philosophers, in their speculations on Chronology, fancied that they had discovered the existence of a period of time of prodigiously long duration, to which they gave the name of the Great Year, which some conceived to be measured by the revolution of the fixed stars, and some by the precession of the Equinoxes, the returns of which brought back precisely the same settled and invariable order of the seasons; and amidst the endless variety of Nature we witness the same ten- dency to repetition in many of her operations. Whoever has observed the contents of a long gal- lery of family portraits may have remarked that, independently of the general resemblance which ob- tains among them, the very identical features of the founder of the race appear in some instances to be restored in the person of a remote descendant, at the distance of many generations, or, if the collection be a large one, perhaps centuries. Something of the same sort may be noticed of the nations and languages of Asia and Europe. As the latter con-

ENGLISH SENTENCES. 287

tinent was peopled from the former, we naturally expect to find many features in common : but we discover much more ; for the manners of the ancient Persians, as described by Herodotus, and those of the ancient Germans, as portrayed by Tacitus, are so much alike that the same individual would appear to have sitten for both pictures, and the language of the Persians, from the extreme sim- plicity of its structure, and its philosophical charac- ter, seems to stand in the same relation to the languages of ancient Asia as the English does to those of modern Europe.

149. Herodotus, describing the Persians, says, " Among all their festivals each individual pays particular regard to his birth-day, when they in- dulge themselves with better fare than usual. The more rich among them prepare on this day an ox, a horse, a camel, or an ass, which is roasted whole ; the poorer sort are satisfied with a lamb, or a sheep : they eat but sparingly of meat, but are fond of the after dishes, which are separately introduced. From hence the Persians take occasion to say that the Grecians do not leave their tables satisfied, having nothing good to induce them to continue there : if they had, they would eat more. Of wine they drink profusely ; but they may not vomit before any one : which customs they still observe. They are accustomed to deliberate on matters of the highest moment when warm with wine ; but whatever they in this situation may determine is again proposed to them on the morrow, in their

288 ENGLISH SENTENCES.

cooler moments, by the person in whose house they had before assembled. If at this time also it meet their approbation, it is executed; otherwise it is rejected. Whatever also they discuss when sober is always a second time examined after they have been drinking." (Beloe's Herodotus, book i. c. 133.)

150. Tacitus, in his Manners of the Germans, writes, — " Having finished their repast, they pro- ceed, completely armed, to the despatch of business, and frequently to a convivial meeting. To devote both night and day to deep drinking is a disgrace to no man. Disputes, as will be the case with people in liquor, frequently arise, and are seldom confined to opprobrious language. The quarrel generally ends in a scene of blood. Important subjects, such as the reconciliation of enemies, tta forming of family alliances, the election of chiefs, and even of peace and war, are generally canvassed in their carousing festivals. The convivial mo- ment, according to their notion, is the true season for business, when the mind opens itself in plain simplicity, or grows warm with bold and noble ideas. Strangers to artifice, and knowing no re- finement, they tell their sentiments without dis- guise. The pleasure of the table expands their hearts, and calls forth every secret. On the fol- lowing day the subject of debate is again taken into consideration, and thus two different periods of time have their distinct uses : when warm they debate ; when cool they decide." (Murphy's Tacitus , c. 22.)

ENGLISH SENTENCES. 289

151. In his Grammar of the Persian Language, forming the fifth volume of his Works, Sir William Jones observes, the reader will soon perceive with pleasure a great resemblance between the Persian and English languages in the facility and simplicity of their form and construction, the former as well as the latter having no difference of termination to mark the gender, either in substantives or adjectives, all inanimate things being neuter, and animals of different sexes either having different names, as Puser, a boy, Keneez, a girl, or being distinguished by the words Ner, male, and Made, female ; as, Sheeri Ner, a lion, Sheeri Made, a lioness. It must be remarked, however, that a word is sometimes made feminine, after the manner of the Arabians, by adding the letter Ha (h) to it, as Mashuk, a friend, amicus ; Mashukah, a mistress, arnica.

152. The Persic substantives, like ours, have but one variation of case, which is formed by adding the syllable Ra to the nominative in both numbers, and answers often to the dative, but generally to the accusative case in other languages ; as,

Nominative, Puser, a child.

Dative and Ace., Puserra, to a child, or the child.

To the inquirer into the origin and formation of the English language it will not be a matter of in- difference to learn that we discover some traces of this Persic syllable Ka both in Anglo-Saxon and Old English; and the classical scholar will be tempted to form conjectures how far it accounts for the Doric and ^Eolic R, redundant. Tyrwhitt, in

u

290 ENGLISH SENTENCES.

his Essay on the Language and Versification of Chaucer, says, " Other," alius, had a genitive case singular, and a plural number, Otheres ; and Aller (a corruption of Ealra) was still in use as the genitive plural of Alle.

When the accusative is used indefinitely, the syllable Ea is omitted ; as, Gul chiden, to gather a flower, i. e. any flower ; but when the noun is defined, or limited, that syllable is added to it ; as, Gulra chid, he gathered the flower, i. e. the par- ticular flower. There is no genitive case in Per- sian, but when two substantives of different mean- ings come together, a Kesra, or short E, is added, in reading, to the former of them, and the latter remains unaltered ; as, Mushk Khoten, the musk of Tartary, which must be read Mushke Khoten. The same rule must be observed before a pronoun possessive ; as, Pusere men, my child ; and before an adjective; as, Shemshire tubnak, a bright scymitar.

153. Our article a is supplied in Persian by adding the letter i to a noun, which restrains it to the singular number ; as, Guli, a single rose. The plural of nouns is formed by adding An or Ha to the singular; but these terminations are not, as in many languages, altogether arbitrary ; on the contrary, they are regulated with the utmost precision. The names of animals form their plural in An ; and here we find at least one striking and close analogy in our own language ; as, Ox, oxen. En, says Mr. Webster in his excellent Dictionary, was formerly a plural termination of nouns and

ENGLISH SENTENCES. 291

verbs, as in housen, escapen. It is retained in oxen and children. (In voce "En.") As the sin- gular of children is child, we may observe a trace of the Persic Ra, as well as the plural An or En. In Persic, words which signify things without life form their plurals by the addition of the syllable Ha ; as, Bal, a wing, Balha, wings, a word which, as I have remarked in another place, appears to be the root of the Greek word Balios, swift; and the Latin, Volo, Volare, to fly.

154. The Persian adjective admits of no variation, except as to the degrees of comparison. The posi- tive is made comparative by adding to it Ter, and superlative by adding Terin ; as, Khub, fair, Khub- ter, fairer, Khub term, fairest. We discover the Persic comparative Ter in the Greek comparative Ter-os, the final os being added by them to all the proper names, and many of the common words, which they borrowed from the Asiatics. Ter in Coptic signifies all, and as a simple augmentive perhaps accounts both for the Persic Ter, and the Greek Teros.

155. The Persians have active and neuter verbs like other nations, but many of their verbs have both an active and neuter sense, which can be determined only by the construction. Their verbs have properly but one conjugation, and but three changes of tense, the imperative, the aorist, and the preterite, all the other tenses being formed by the help of the particles Mi and Hemi, or of the auxi- liary verbs Hastan or Boudan, to be, and Khastan,

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292 ENGLISH SENTENCES.

to be willing. The passive voice is formed by add- ing the tenses of the verb-substantive Shadan to the participle preterite of the active Khandah Shad, it was read, &c.

156. If an intelligent Englishman were required to make a selection, in a broad and general way, of the most striking peculiarities of the English lan- guage for the information of a foreigner, as com- pared with the Greek or Latin, the Italian or Spanish, the French or German, he would perhaps commence by telling him that all the noun-sub- stantives in the language describing things without life possess no gender ; the immediate consequence of which is, that adjectives never vary their termi- nation to denote their agreement with a substantive masculine, feminine, or neuter ; and the remote, that in the construction of a sentence the adjective can never be separated from its substantive, as their relation to each other can be discovered only from their juxtaposition He would next, perhaps, in rm him that the noun never varies its termination to express the different cases of the Greek and Latin, the whole of which are denoted by particles. He would go on to tell him that as substantives have no declension, verbs can hardly be said to have a conjugation in the sense in which the words were used by the Greeks and Romans, the verb having but two distinct forms in the present and past tenses, all the others being formed from the differ- ent tenses of the verbs to be, and to have, and the auxiliary signs may, can, might, would, could, and

ENGLISH SENTENCES. 293

should. He would add, that there is no single word in English capable of expressing the passive voice as in Latin, Amor, from Amo, and that it can be attained only by the aid of the verb-substantive to be, I am loved. He would perhaps conclude with saying that, in a vast majority of instances, the singular of nouns differs from the plural simply by the addition of an S to the latter; and that the adjective is not affected at all by the change of number, as we say a good man, or good men, a swift horse, or swift horses, a magnificent house, or magnificent houses; and that neither nouns nor verbs exhibit any trace of a dual number having ever existed. If these are some of the leading characteristics of the English language, which, I think, will hardly be denied, the remarkable cir- cumstance is, that they are almost all equally appli- cable to the Persic, as the reader will perceive from the short sketch of Persian Grammar that has been given, and to no other language, ancient or modern, that I am acquainted with.

157. The Gender of Nouns is, perhaps, one of the greatest sources of embarrassment to an En- glishmen in writing an ancient, and still more so in speaking a modern language, and is no doubt one of the principal causes that, though the greatest travellers, Englishmen are probably the very worst linguists in Europe, acquiring other tongues with greater difficulty, and speaking them at last more imperfectly, than the natives of any other country. To us the gender of nouns cannot appear in any

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294 ENGLISH SENTENCES.

other light than a singular anomaly and deviation from the order of nature, which would seem to require that the distinction of gender should be co-extensive with that of sex, and that the former should cease to be observed where the latter is not obviously established. In this respect the Persic and English languages appear to me to have pro- ceeded on the most rational principles, in both of which all inanimate things are neuter, and also the greater part of animals of different sexes have different names, and are not discriminated by varying the masculine of a noun, which serves to denote both. Philosophically speaking, where there is no difference of sex, there ought to be no distinc- tion of gender ; but when the genius and esta- blished character of a language have conferred a gender on every word in that language, its exten- sion from things animate to inanimate seems in some cases to have proceeded on some fanciful and far-fetched analogy, in some to have had reference to the termination of words solely, and in some to have been purely arbitrary, or at any rate to have proceeded on principles which it is now impossible to trace, and been influenced by causes which we cannot hope to discover. For instance, in Greek and Latin, the Moon is feminine ; while in Hebrew and Sanskrit the masculine gender is assigned to that planet. In Hebrew the Earth is of the com- mon gender, while in Greek and Latin she is feminine. But the Romans had a god Lunus as well as a goddess Luna ; and the Greeks described

ENGLISH SENTENCES. 295

the full moon by the term Panselenos, which was masculine, though Selene, the Moon, is feminine, and the adjective Pan neuter. The Romans also described the Earth by the word Tellus, which was of the feminine gender, like Terra, though the ter- mination was masculine ; and Tellus ought to have been a god as well as Lunus.

158. If we could regard Language as an inven- tion purely human, and if we could suppose that languages were altogether formed, as they have undeniably in many instances been improved, by the exertions of universities, academies, and learned societies, we should perhaps be disposed to conjec- ture that the distinctions of gender, the termina- tions of case, and the indispensable agreement of the adjective with its substantive, were so many contrivances of the orator, and, in a still greater degree, of the poet, for augmenting the range and choice in the collocation of words, with an express view of diminishing the difficulty of disposing them in a metrical form. The following lines occur in the first book of the ./Eneid : —

" Ter circum Hiacos raptaverat Hectora muros Exanimumque auro corpus vendebat Achilles."

If we regard these words as simple roots, like most Persic and English words, which exhibit little change of termination, and dismiss all regard to number, gender, and case, we must translate them as follows : —

" Three times round Trojan had dragged Hector walls, Dead and for gold body was selling Achilles."

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296 ENGLISH SENTENCES.

And it is not until we apply the ordinary rules of grammar to them that we perceive the sense is very clearly represented in the following transla- tion of Dryden : —

" Thrice round the Trojan walls Achilles drew The corpse of Hector, whom in fight he slew. Here Priam sues ; and there for sums of gold The lifeless body of his son is sold."

159. Painting is capable of representing only a single moment of time in one picture ; while its rival, Poetry, not being circumscribed within such narrow limits, is adequate in the compass of a few lines to describe the march of events, to reveal the past, or anticipate the future. Yirgil describes a series of the leading events of the Trojan war, painted on the walls of the Carthaginian Temple. Among the subjects we clearly recognise three, as occupying large portions of three books of the Iliad, — the night adventure of Diomed and Ulysses, the procession of Trojan dames to the Temple of Minerva, to entreat her to avert the fatal effects of Diomed's fury, and the redemption of the body of Hector by Priam ; but it appears quite as clearly that the dragging the body of Hector round the walls of Troy did not constitute one of those pictures. The second line of the original defines both the time and subject of the painting. It was the very moment in which Achilles was in the act of disposing of the dead body of Hector to the aged Priam for a large ransom, corpus vendebat Achilles ; but with what admirable art does the poet contrive

ENGLISH SENTENCES. 297

to present to the mind of the reader another picture in the first line, by the use of the word raptaverat, had dragged, which greatly enhances the effect of the second, as it causes the memory to revert to and dwell upon all the circumstances connected with the death of the gallant defender of his coun- try, who so long averted her fate. Dr. Beattie, in his Essay on Language, has noticed the extraordi- nary felicity with which Virgil frequently uses the preter-imperfect and preter-pluperfect tenses. In the second book, describing the hopeless return of Eneas to the burning city to seek for the lost Creusa, he makes him say,

" Irruerant Danai, et tectum omne tenebant ;"

the Greeks had made an irruption, and were in complete possession of the house : which, however, is surpassed in beauty by the line which describes his desperate errand —

" Inde domum, si forte pedem, si forte tulisset, Me refero — "

Thence I return home, if by chance, if by the re- motest chance, she had gone there.

160. Of the increased facility imparted to poetical composition from the gender, cases, and variety of termination of Greek and Latin words, and the consequent greater liberty arising to the artist in their arrangement, there can be no doubt whatever ; but it is matter of discussion if this advantage is not more than counterbalanced by another incon-

298 ENGLISH SENTENCES.

venience, if what is gained in sound is not lost in sense, and if the gratification of the ear is not attained in some degree at the expense of the un- derstanding. The genius of the Greek and Latin languages, as regards the collocation of words and the construction of sentences, is so essentially dif- ferent from that of most of the tongues of Modern Europe, that unless we arrange the component parts somewhat in our own manner, or, in other words, go through the process which is technically denominated construing, — an operation never per- formed by careless readers, and seldom, I believe, by readers of any class, — we cannot ascertain the clear meaning or feel the full force of the expres- sion. This opinion is strongly corroborated by the following observations of Dugald Stewart : — " No- thing, I apprehend, can show more clearly the use we make of words in reasoning than this, that an observation, which, when expressed in our own language, seems trite or frivolous, often acquires the appearance of depth and originality by being translated into another. For my own part, at least, I am conscious of having been frequently led in this way to form an exaggerated idea of the merits of ancient and of foreign authors ; and it has happened to me more than once, that a sentence which seemed at first to contain something highly ingenious and profound, when translated into words familiar to me appeared obviously to be a trite or nugatory proposition. The deranged collocation of the words in Latin composition aids powerfully the imposition

ENGLISH SENTENCES. 299

we have now been considering, and renders that language an inconvenient medium of philosophical communication, as well as an inconvenient instru- ment of accurate thought. Indeed in all languages in which this latitude in the arrangement of words is admitted, the associations among words must be looser than when one invariable order is followed." {Philosophy of the Human Mind, vol. i. p. 200. 8vo. edition.)

161. We know that the Greeks rarely attempted the acquirement of any foreign language, and that the Romans limited their ambition to the acquiring a knowledge of that of Greece. How far this was a matter of taste, and how far of necessity, it is difficult at this distance of time to estimate. With- out a great effort of reflection we cannot realize to our own minds the immense difference produced between the ancient and the modern world by the invention of printing and the multiplication of books. Among the Greeks and Romans, from the scarcity and dearness of manuscripts, almost every species of knowledge was necessarily acquired by heart. As we have no reason to believe that the powers of the mind are inferior in modern to what they were in ancient Europe, the committing to memory all the declensions of Greek nouns, and all the conjugations of Greek verbs, regular and irre- gular, which completely engross so many years of an English education, must have been a formidable task even when Greek was a living and a spoken language. As in English, nouns have no cases,

300 ENGLISH SENTENCES.

and verbs few varieties of termination, when the pupil completely understands the meaning of the particles by which the relations of the first are ex- pressed, and the auxiliary verbs to be, and to have, by which the tenses of the second are formed, he has little more to learn so far as inflection is con- cerned. In a general way there must be some con- nection between the facility or the contrary of acquiring a language, and the progress to be made in knowledge by the people speaking that language. Language is the great instrument in the advance- ment of science. We think in language, we reason in language, we record the results of our reasoning in language. As the faculties of the human mind are limited, and the years of life numbered to all, it necessarily follows that the greater the number of years devoted to the acquirement of the instru- ment, language, the fewer remain for its appli- cation ; the longer the portion of time consumed in mastering the medium of thinking, the shorter will be that which remains for the exercise of thought. This will appear probable if we merely contrast the simplicity of the English with the complexity of the Greek grammar; become more obvious if we sub- stitute the Sanskrit for the Greek, the grammar of which contains as much matter as most Greek lexicons ; more obvious still if we substitute the Basque for the Sanskrit, which is so complex and crabbed, that many, who have paid some attention to it, regard it as altogether unattainable by a foreigner ; and we may terminate our climax with

ENGLISH SENTENCES. 301

the Chinese, which is never to be completely ac- quired even by the most learned native. According to Du Halde, it contains eighty thousand charac- ters, of which a knowledge of about ten thousand is requisite for transacting the ordinary business of life ; the attainment of fifteen or twenty thousand constitutes a scholar, among whom the number is very small of those who arrive at forty thousand, that is, according to Du Halde, who know half the language.

162. Our own language forming the strongest possible contrast with that of China, — the one being learnt by a native insensibly and almost without application, and the other being never completely acquired to the end of life, — we have voluntarily created a sort of Chinese language for ourselves, by restricting the meaning of the word learning to the mastery of the mysteries of Greek prosody. This is not merely the end and aim, but almost the sole end and aim, of the education of the upper classes in England at the present moment, to which six or seven years are devoted at Eton, and three or four more at one of the universities. Few thinking men will be disposed to deny that this branch of philology occupies a share of the years ordinarily devoted to education out of all proportion to its utility or intrinsic worth. The value of every language must be estimated by regarding it as a key to unlock the treasures contained in that language, and perhaps in none are contained treasures more rich and va- rious than in the Greek ; but the excellence of that

302 ENGLISH SENTENCES.

education may well be doubted, which appears to propose to itself rather a knowledge of the quantity of all the syllables in the Greek language than an acquaintance with all the words, and which as to the words themselves is much more anxious to ascertain the mode of their grammatical formation than of their meaning when formed. As to their etymology, that circumstance appears to excite no attention, as it supposes a knowledge of some of the Oriental languages from which the Greek was formed, as the Greeks themselves came to Greece from Asia through Thrace, as has been shown in the preceding chapters. If the term Greek scholar described a person who had a profound knowledge of Greek literature, its value would be very different from what it is at present ; but while every page of our reviews and periodicals proves how common a thing is a competent, or even a critical acquaintance with the Greek language, it unfortunately proves still more conclusively how rare is an intimate and comprehensive acquaintance with Greek authors. The disproportionate attention to the language, and, above all, to the prosody of the language, has left no time for the literature: — the acquirement of the instrument has superseded the application of it. 163. It now only remains to say a few words as to the earliest appearance, gradual formation, and complete perfection of the English language : and those who have not paid some attention to the sub- ject will be surprised at being informed that English sentences, that is, three or four English words in

M^ESO-GOTHIC SENTENCES. 303

juxtaposition, occur in several instances in the Maeso-Gothic gospels of Ulphilas, a translation which there is every reason to believe was com- pleted in the fourth century of the Christian era.

Matt. vi. 13. Ni briggais uns. Bring, or lead us not. Mark, i. 33. Jah so baurgs alia garunna, was at dour a. And

all the city was gathered together at the door. „ iv. 32. Wairthith allaize grasse maist. Becometh the

greatest of all herbs. (Maist, most, for

greatest.) „ vi. 5. Niba /awaim siukaim handuns ga-lagjands, ga-

hailida. Except that laying his hands on a

few sick he healed them.

Note. — If the Codex Argenteus had been one jot less au- thentic, or the names of those who have laboured on it — Benzelius, Hire, Junius, and Lye — less respectable, we should almost have been tempted to suspect that the above was a specimen of a Maccaroni, or fancy language. Faw- aim siukaim look like English roots, if I may use the ex- pression, with Hebrew plural terminations. Mark, vi. 11. Mulda tho undara fotum. The dust under

your feet, i. e. the mould or earth.

„ ix. 3. Swa wheitos swe snaiws. As white as snow. „ 22. Hilp unsara. Help us. (Hilf, German.)

„ x. 5. Hardu hairtein. Hardness of heart. Luke, ii. 42. Twalib wintrus. Twelve years (winters). „ v. 14. Faurbaud imma. Charged him (forbad him). „ vi. 42. Let ik uswairpa. Let me pull out ; literally,

Let I pull out. „ vii. 21. Blindaim managaim fragaf siun. Unto many

blind he gave sight (or seeing). „ „ 24. Raus fram winde wagid. A reed (rush) shaken

(wagged) by the wind. „ viii. 32. Hairda sweine. Herd of swine. (Heerda saue,

German.) „ „ 35. Sitandan thana mannan. That man sitting.

(Sizend den menschen, German.)

304 M^ESO-GOTHIC SENTENCES.

Luke viii. 43. Runa blothis. Running of blood. (Blutgang,

German.) „ x. 10. Faura daurja. Streets, i.e. the space before the

door.

„ xiv. 18. Land bauhta. I have bought land. The En- glish translation is, " a piece of ground." „ „ 19. Yuka auhsne us bauhta fimf. I have bought

five yoke of oxen. „ xviii. 35. Blinda sums sat. A certain blindman, i. e. some

blind man sat. John, vi. 60. Hardu ist thata waurd. This is a hard saying

(word). „ xiv. 37. Saivvala meina faur thuk lagja. I will lay down

my life (soul) for thy sake (for thee).

What impression these extracts will produce on the minds of others I cannot pretend to determine; but for myself, when I read them, it seems to me that I am standing at the very fountain head of the English language, and I am ready to exclaim with Lucretius, " Juvat integros accedere fontes." The most remarkable circumstance in the Mseso- Gothic is, that it contains in many instances both terminations and idioms which appear to be pe- culiar to itself and the English. A considerable portion of our language seems to have been de- rived, not from the fierce followers of Hengist and Horsa, nor from the predatory Danes, nor the con- quering Normans, but directly from the Maeso- Goths on the banks of the Danube ; and as they, according to Strabo, were identical with the My- sians of Asia Minor, and the Mysians with the Trojans, our descent from Brutus, the son of JLneas, has some sort of foundation in fact: and in this, and

ANGLO-SAXON SENTENCES. 305

probably in almost every other instance, as there is no historical truth uncorrupted by fable, so the wildest and most extravagant mythology has some portion founded on reality — some traits copied from nature.

164. Ellis, in his Specimens of Ancient English Poetry, has printed a Saxon ode on Athelstan's victory, from two MSS. in the Cottonian Library, British Museum, Tiberius, B. 4., and Tiberius, A. 6., dated A.D. 937 in Gibson's Chronicle, and in Hickes' Saxon Grammar A. D. 938, and supposed to be written by a contemporary bard, from which I shall extract a few lines, with a view of showing the very great affinity between our present language and its Saxon progenitor. I will only premise that as the Ma3so- Gothic translation of Ulphilas is supposed to have been made about the middle of the fourth cen- tury of the Christian era, these Saxon specimens are nearly six hundred years later : —

Vol. i. p. 14. And his brother eac. And his brother eke. „ 16. Swa him gaaethele wses. So to them it destined

was.

„ „ That hi aet campe oft. That they at camp oft. „ 18. Siththan sunne up. Sith that the sun up. „ „ On morgen tid. On morning tide.

„ „ Godes candel beorght. God's candle bright. „ „ Thaer laeg secg monig. There lay soldiers many. „ 20. Heardes hand to plegan. Hard hands to ply. „ „ Land gesohton. The land they sought.

Fsege to gefeohte. Foe to fight.

„ 24. Gefylled on folc-stede. Filled his folk-stead. „ „ And his sunu forlet. And his son was left. „ 28. Laetan him behindan. Left they behind. „ 30. Ofer brade brinin. Over the broad brine (sea). X

306 ANGLO-SAXON SENTENCES,

165. According to Tyrwhitt, in his Essay on the Language and Versification of Chaucer, the Anglo-Saxon ceased to be cultivated in England so early as the reign of Edward the Confessor. That monarch, though born in England, was educated in Normandy, at the court of his uncle, Duke Richard II., and, in the words of Ingulphus, had become almost a Frenchman. Upon his return from thence, and accession to the throne of England in 1043, he brought over with him a number of Normans, whom he promoted to the highest digni- ties ; and under the influence of the king and his Norman favourites the whole nation began to lay aside their English fashions, and imitate the man- ners of the French in many things. Ingulphus says expressly that all the nobility in their courts began to speak French as a great piece of gentility. The use of the Norman French was of course pro- digiously extended by the Conquest in 1066, and the consequent monopoly of all the great offices in Church and State by the natives of that province, though the Anglo-Saxon language was restored in the law courts in the 36th of Edward III., where it had been superseded by the Norman. The pro- ceedings in parliament, however, with very few exceptions, appear to have been all in French, and the statutes continued to be published in the same language for above one hundred and twenty years, until the 1st of Richard III. in the year 1483.

ON THE GENIUS OF THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA. 307

CHAPTER XIIL

ON THE GENIUS OP THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA AS COM- PARED WITH THOSE OF EUROPE.

166. THOUGH the Greeks and Romans despised the Asiatics, and indeed all the rest of mankind, as Barbarians, never studied their languages, never paid any attention to their literature, and hardly appeared to know that they possessed any, they were at any rate aware that there was a radical difference of character between Asiatic and Euro- ropean eloquence, and that the former was charac- terised by a more free use and bold application of figures, by a pomp of language always fluctuating on the verge of, and frequently falling into, bombast, by more of imagination and less of logic, and alto- gether by a nearer approximation to the essence of poetry, than the most fanciful and florid Euro- pean orator could ever venture on. If they had been more familarly acquainted with Asiatic poetry, they would have been still more impressed with the striking difference of its nature from their own, and the widely diversified feelings, and dissimilar laws of taste, by which such compositions were produced and regulated. In several instances, as I shall show, that which is the exception to the Europeans appears to form the rule to the Asiatics ; the ornaments of style among the former, con-

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308 ON THE GENIUS OF THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA

stitute style itself among the latter ; they appear to be never satisfied unless they can gild refined gold, paint the lily, and add fresh perfume to the violet ; so that while in reasoning on political or philosophical subjects, they appear to be little better than children of a larger growth; in every thing connected with taste they seem to fall below children, and their poetry, made up as it is of strings of metaphors, becomes monotonous from its uniformity, and feeble from its want of con- trast, and many Asiatic poems appear to bear no inconsiderable resemblance to a Chinese picture, which, though glowing with gaudy colours pos- sesses no shadow, no perspective, no repose, and no keeping.

167. There are few authors to whom Oriental literature is under more deep obligations than to Sir William Jones; few who, like him, have not merely pointed out original and important sources of knowledge, but contributed in no inconsiderable degree to render them accessible. He was equally remarkable for his ardour and industry in philo- logical pursuits from a very early period of life, until its premature and lamented close. Nothing short of a devoted fondness for such studies could have conducted him to such gigantic attainments ; yet it may be doubted if the enthusiasm which animated him in the pursuit, did not in many instances greatly exaggerate the value of the object, and induce him to form a very false esti- mate of its relative worth. I find so many exam-

AS COMPARED WITH THOSE OF EUROPE. 309

pies of this in his Works, as to oblige me not only to form the opinion that many of his particular decisions are unfounded, but to come to the general conclusion, that to the end of his life the deli- cacy and justness of his taste were far inferior to the profundity and universality of his know- ledge. In his Treatise on Oriental Poetry, after quoting some remarks of Demetrius Phalereus on the works of Sappho, he proceeds to say, those who admit the accuracy of these observations will not be surprised that the Oriental poets surpass, in beauty of diction and force of images, all the authors of Europe, with the exception of the Lyric Poets among the Greeks, Horace among the Latins, and Marino among the Italians. ( Works, vol. xii. p. 186.) This is deliberately and decidedly pre- ferring the Asiatic poets to Homer and Yirgil, Tasso and Milton, — a judgment which I believe will never be acquiesced in, in Europe, at any distance of time. The exception also in favour of Marino is not a little remarkable, an author not classed by the best Italian critics among their great poets, and who, it appears to me, would be too much honoured in being compared to Ovid.

168. The specimens of Persic poetry which Sir William Jones has exhibited in his Grammar of that language are, for the most part, so feeble and commonplace, so full of cold and petty conceits, so like a schoolboy's exercise who is under the necessity of being poetical invita Minerva, that it appears to me so far from inducing any one to learn

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310 ON THE GENIUS OF THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA

the language, they produce quite an opposite tendency. Their character is well described in the following passage of a Turkish author, Nabi Effendi, which I quote as a rare example of good taste, and a proof that the East has produced at least one Quintilian. " Do you wish, my son, that your verses, after being esteemed by your contem- poraries, should descend to posterity? Let the sound always be an echo of the sense ; under an ingenious emblem, under a subtle allegory, let them always conceal an useful truth; in a word, let them always tend to make men more virtuous. The garden of poetry is dry and barren if it is not watered by the streams of philosophy. The greater part of our middling poets talk of nothing but narcissuses, locks of hair, wine, and nightingales. If they wish to draw a picture of the imaginary beauty of whom they are enamoured, they com- pare her sometimes to the spring, and sometimes to an enamelled meadow ; her lips are like the rose, and her complexion like the jessamine; servile and cold imitators, their sluggish imagination fur- nishes them with no new images ; they dare not walk in any path that has not been previously trodden." (Jones's Works, vol. xii. p. 292.)

169. Sir William Jones attempts to account for and vindicate the nature and profusion of Oriental imagery, by considerations deduced from climate and modes of life. It is very usual, says he, in all countries to make frequent allusions to the bright- ness of the celestial luminaries which give light

AS COMPARED WITH THOSE OF EUROPE. 311

to all, but the metaphors taken from them have an additional beauty if we consider them as made by a nation (the Arabians), who pass most of their nights in the open air or in tents, and consequently see the moon and stars in their greatest splendour. This way of considering their poetical figures will give many of them a grace which they would not have in our languages; so, when they compare the foreheads of their mistresses to the morning, their locks to the night, their faces to the sun, to the moon, or the blossoms of jasmine, their cheeks to roses or ripe fruit, their teeth to pearls, hailstones, or snow- drops, their eyes to the flowers of the narcissus, their curled hair to black scorpions and to hyacinths, their lips to rubies or wine, the form of their breasts to pomegranates, and the colour of them to snow, their shape to that of a pine tree, and their stature to that of a cypress, a palm tree, or a javelin — these comparisons, many of which would seem forced in our idioms, have undoubtedly a great delicacy in theirs, and affect their minds in a peculiar manner. ( Works, vol. x. p. 334.)

170. Admitting the justness of this defence, an European, I imagine, will be still of opinion that such a profusion of ornament ought to be limited to poetry : but this is so far from being the case, that we find long passages in various historical works in precisely the same taste, in Turkish, Persic, and Arabic. Take the following example for instance : " When the whirlwind of fear had torn the sail of

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312 ON THE GENIUS OF THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA

their understanding, and the deluge of despair had submerged the ship of their hope, with a view of escaping from the gulf of danger, and reaching the port of safety, they turned the rudder of flight, and unfurled the sails of precipitate retreat." (Jones, vol. xii. p. 189.) Passages of this sort are so rare in any European work of a historical nature, that a great deal of research is necessary to discover them; one such however I have met with in Smollett's History of England, which is quoted by Blair as an exemplification of the manner in which history ought not to be written. Describing the Act of Par- liament for preventing irregular marriages, he says, " The Bill underwent a great number of alterations and amendments, which were not effected without violent contest ; at length, however, it was floated through both Houses on the tide of a great majo- rity, and steered into the safe harbour of royal approbation." Were it necessary to adduce an instance how much more impressive is a single well-selected metaphor than a long string of meta- phors, such a passage might be found in Lord Bolingbroke's Remarks on the History of England. It is near the conclusion of his work, where he is describing the behaviour of Charles the First to his last Parliament. " In a word," says he, " about a month after their meeting he dissolved them ; and as soon as he had dissolved them he repented, but he repented too late, of his rashness. Well might he repent, for the vessel was now full, and this last drop made the waters of bitterness overflow. Here,"

AS COMPARED WITH THOSE OF EUROPE. 313

he adds, " we draw the curtain, and put an end to our remarks."

171. The English reader can form no conception of the extent to which the most gaudy ornaments of poetry are introduced into historical works by Oriental writers, and I shall therefore adduce two or three more short illustrations. The two first are from the History of the Life of Nadir Shah, a work written in Persic, and translated into French by Sir William Jones, for the use of the King of Denmark. The following passage describes the commencement of the year of the Hegira 1139, and of the Christian era 1726. — " On the 26th of the month Regeb the Sultan of the Celestial Lumi- naries (the Sun) transported himself into the city of the Ram (the sign Aries). The half-blown buds of the roses, resembling beautiful youths, and clothed in the mantle of Spring, sported in the recesses of the gardens, and on the banks of the streams. The tulip, the bride of the smiling season, and the odoriferous shrubs, opened and vied with each other in the abode of the groves. The skilful hands of nature painted with the most splendid colours the cheeks of the wild roses and the jessa- mine. The nightingale, enamoured of the rose, sharpened the sword of his tongue to vanquish his rivals. The dove, amorous of the cypress, sighed tenderly on the branches of that beloved tree, whose leaves appeared to assume the sharpness of daggers, to serve as so many guards to her pleasures." (Jones, vol. xi. p. 97.) Here we have a poetical

314 ON THE GENIUS OF THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA

account of the opening of the following year : - " The Sun, that monarch crowned with gold, after having displayed his magnificence in the house of Pisces, passed into that of Aries on the 7th of the month Chaaban. The spring, followed by the floating clouds, and armed with the lances and javelins of the rays of the Star of Day, marched against the troops of Winter, and wrote on the plains the decree of the expulsion of Dei (January). The verdant plain again put forth her branches in the garden of roses, and the feast of the new year was celebrated with pomp and splendour." (Jones, vol. xi. p. 111.)

172. My readers, I entertain no doubt, are abun- dantly satisfied with the preceding extracts ; but as it may be urged that they are taken from the works of authors comparatively unknown, I give one more from Arabshah's Life of Tamerlane, a work which is mentioned with high approbation by Sir William Jones, in more than one passage, as one of the noblest productions of the Arabian historians. He says the Arabs have no poems that can be strictly denominated heroic. They have, indeed, elegant histories which are adorned with all the graces of poetry. In these histories we meet with images whose features are bold and prominent, striking expressions, beautiful descriptions, and sentiments terminated by words of a similar sound. The fol- lowing is an example selected from the History of Tamerlane, written by Arabshah, in which that author, in a florid description, compares the army

AS COMPARED WITH THOSE OF EUROPE. 315

of the Prince to the Spring : — " When Nature, like a skilful servant, decked the earth with the orna- ments of a bride, and the groves reassumed their splendid verdure, the victorious troops covered the country, and passed like dragons over the plains. Their warlike music resembled the thunder which is contained in the clouds of spring, and their coats of mail shone like the dazzling splendour of light- ning. Their massy shields covered them like the rainbow suspended over the mountains. Their lances and their javelins rustled like the branches of the young shrubs and trees. Their scymitars flashed like the meteors, and the shouts of the army resembled the report of the bursting of a thunder cloud. The banners, glittering in the air, were like anemonies, and the tents like trees loaded with golden buds. The army diffused itself like a tor- rent, and waved like the branches of a forest agi- tated by the tempest. Tamerlane, at the head of his troops, advanced through groves arrayed in verdure, and strewed with myrtle and odoriferous flowers. Joy was his companion, gladness his leader, contentment the friend of his heart, and success his inseparable attendant." (Jones, vol. xii. p. 195.)

173. If the above and the preceding passages are to be regarded as fair specimens of the mode in which history is written in the East, it requires not the spirit of prophecy to foretell that it can never, by any possibility, be much read in the West. Not that descriptions of nature may not with propriety

316 ON THE GENIUS OF THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA

form a part, of history, even when written in the most pure and elevated style ; and we find many such passages in an historian who is at once per- haps the most poetical and the most philosophical of that class of writers ; but they must not be intro- duced merely for the sake of ornament, and form as it were an excrescence in the work. In the follow- ing extract from Tacitus, containing the account of the murder of the Empress Agrippina, by her son Nero, there can be no doubt that the great histo- rian intended to contrast the calmness and beauty, the immutable laws and undeviating regularity of the physical world, with the wild passions, the tur- bulent desires, and the moral deformity of man. It is a piece of painting conceived in the same spirit with the short dialogue between Duncan and Banquo, as they are approaching the gates of Mac- beth's castle ; of which Sir Joshua Reynolds finely remarks, that it perfectly contrasts the scene of horror that immediately succeeds.* " Noctem si- deribus inlustrem et placido mare quietam quasi convincendum ad scelus Dii praebuere. Nee mul-

* " That this iniquitous scene should not be wrapped in dark- ness, the care of Providence seems to have interposed. The night was calm and serene ; the stars shot forth their brightest lustre, and the sea presented a smooth expanse. Agrippina went on board, attended by only two of her domestic train. One of them, Crepereius Gallus, took his place near the steer- age ; the other, a female attendant, by name Acerronia, stretched herself at the foot of the bed where her mistress lay, and in the fulness of her heart expressed her joy to see the son awakened to a sense of his duty, and the mother restored to his good graces." — Murphy's Tacitus.

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turn erat progressa navis, duobus e numero famili- arium Agrippinam comitantibus : ex queis Crepe- reius Gallus haud procul gubernaculis adstabat: Acerronia, super pedes cubitantis reclinis, ' poeniten- tiam filii, et reciperatam matris gratiam,' per gau- dium memorabat" (Taciti Annal., lib. xiv. c. 5).

174. Even many of the ornaments of poetry may advantageously find a place in history, provided they are short and introduced with skill. There is one example in Tacitus well worth remarking, on account of the consummate management with which he has availed himself of forebodings, or prophetic melancholy, as a source of the pathetic, in the con- clusion of the description of the triumph of Ger- manicus.* " Augebat intuentium visus eximia ipsius species, currusque quinque liberis onustus : sed suberat occulta formido reputantibus 'haud prosperum in Druso patre ejus favorem vulgi : avun- culum ejusdem Marcellum flagrantibus plebis studiis intra juventem ereptum : breves et infaustos populi Eomani amores.' " (Taciti Ann., lib. ii. c. 41.) To

* "Amidst the grandeur of this magnificent spectacle, nothing appeared so striking as the graceful person of Germanicus, with his five children mounted on the triumphal car. The joy of the multitude, however, was not without a tincture of melan- choly. Men remembered that Drusus, the father of Germanicus, was the darling of the people, and yet proved unfortunate : they called to mind young Marcellus, blessed with all his country's wishes, yet prematurely snatched away. It happened, they said, by some fatality, that whenever a favoured character was the delight of the Roman people, their affections ended always in a general mourning." — Murphy's Tacitus.

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the reader who is already acquainted with his pre- carious situation and future fate, it is perhaps more touching than the actual account of his death. It suggests to the mind the gloomy and inexorable character of Tiberius, restrained in the pursuit of his desires by no considerations, divine or human ; his hatred of his nephew, the short subsequent life of Germanicus, his premature death at Antioch, the suspicion of poison, the lamentations of the legions, and the mourning of the Roman people. There is a still finer exemplification of the use of this figure, if such it may be called, in perhaps the finest tra- gedy the genius of man has ever produced, the Othello of Shakspeare. I allude to the meeting between Othello and Desdemona at Cyprus, which is almost their last perfectly happy one, when the former says —

" If it were now to die, 'Twere now to be most happy ; for I fear My soul hath her content so absolute, That not another comfort like to this Succeeds in unknown fate."

To the reader, or the spectator, who is aware that lago is resolved on their destruction, that they are exposed to the machinations of a fiend in human shape, and stand on the giddy verge of a precipice without being at all aware of their danger ; that the virtues of the Moor, respecting which we feel the more assured as they are ascribed to him by his most bitter enemy, " his constant, loving, noble nature," are to be turned against him ; and that the youth, the playfulness, the beautiful freshness of

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life in Desdemona, " that yet has felt no age, nor known no sorrow;" the simplicity, the innocence, the celestial purity, that, so far from being able to do evil, can hardly even conceive of its existence ; that all these fascinating and noble qualities will, by the consummate art of the poet, be made to work her perdition more certainly and inevitably than the most hideous vices could do ; — the passage becomes almost as pathetic and heart-rending as the more stormy and impassioned scenes in the three last acts.

175. Oriental poetry, as compared with E uropean , appears to appeal almost exclusively to the senses, while the latter addresses itself jointly to the senses, the mind, and the heart. One might fancy that Dr. Darwin had formed his Theory of Poetry from a perusal of the authors of the East. According to him the chief excellence of poetry consisted in presenting a succession of vivid and well-coloured pictures to the eye, forgetting that this, however well effected, can never rise above description, and that in all ages and countries the merely descriptive has ranked immeasurably below the tragic and epic poet, as the landscape painter is justly regarded as inferior to the historical. Darwin was consistent, and to a considerable extent acted on his own theory, and with what success is attested by the complete oblivion into which his " Botanic Garden " and " Temple of Nature " have fallen. I will illus- trate my meaning by contrasting an ode from the Persic of Hafiz, translated as closely as possible by

320 ON THE GENIUS OF THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA

Sir William Jones, with a passage from Pope's Eloisa to Abelard. " 0 sweet gale, thou bearest the fragrant scent of my beloved ; thence it is that thou hast stolen this musky odour. Beware! do not steal : what hast thou to do with her tresses ? 0 rose, what art thou to be compared with her bright face ? She is fresh, and thou art rough with thorns. 0 narcissus, what art thou in comparison of her languishing eye ? Her eye is only sleepy, but thou art sick and faint. 0 pine, compared with her graceful stature, what honour hast thou in the garden ? 0 wisdom, what wouldst thou choose, if to choose were in thy power, in prefer- ence to her love ? 0 sweet basil, what art thou to be compared with her fresh cheeks ? They are per- fect musk, but thou art soon withered. Come, my beloved, and charm Hafiz with thy presence, if thou canst but stay with him for a single day." (Jones, vol. x. page 351.) The passage from Pope is chiefly descriptive, or it would be neither apposite nor fair ; but the reader can hardly fail to remark how much the general effect is enhanced by the personification of melancholy in the last eight lines, and, although a distinct image is presented to the mind in almost every one of them, how finely they combine to form a harmonious whole.

" The darksome pines that o'er yon rocks reclin'd Wave high, and murmur to the hollow wind, The wandering streams that shine between the hills, The grots that echo to the tinkling rills, The dying gales that pant upon the trees, The lakes that quiver to the curling breeze ;

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No more these scenes my meditations aid, Or lull to rest the visionary maid ; But o'er the twilight groves and dusky caves, Long-sounding aisles, and intermingled graves, Black Melancholy sits, and round her throws A death -like silence, and a dread repose ; Her gloomy presence saddens all the scene, Shades every flower, and darkens every green, Deepens the murmur of the falling floods, And breathes a browner horror on the woods."

176. The radical difference of genius and cha- racter between Oriental and European poetry, and indeed literary compositions in general, appears to depend less on diversity of race, of climate, of manners, and of religion, than on the nature of language itself, which becomes less harsh in sound, and less figurative in structure, with the progress of civilization. Probably all, certainly the great body of the words of every language in existence, were primarily the names of material, sensible objects, from which they were gradually extended to de- note intellectual operations and moral qualities, the thoughts of the head and the feelings of the heart. In some of the oriental languages we can trace the successive stages of this extension, through which the primary signification gradually becomes more and more faint until it finally disappears, and the word exhibits no trace whatever of its etymology, the last meaning having nothing in common with the first. The Persic word Sar, the head, appears to exhibit three distinct stages, or gradations of meaning.

1. The head, the chief member of the body.

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322 ON THE GENIUS OF THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA

2. By an easy metaphor, of which we are hardly

sensible, it signifies top, principle, origin, summit, extremity, end, point, a salient angle, any projecting part ; great, large, highest, greatest, chief.

3. The following significations retain hardly a

trace of the etymological meaning. The atmosphere, a gentle gale, desire, longing, wish, love, intention, will, cheerfulness, a veil, awning, canopy, covering, complete, perfect, entire, a collar ; also a log of wood fastened to a mastiff's neck, a Turcoman shoe, or sandal, and in the last the original signification reappears, the capital of a pillar. (Richardson.)

177. One of the poorest and most narrow of all written languages is the Hebrew, and in that tongue we find the same word employed in a variety of sig- nifications. In 1 Chron. xxvii. 25., for instance, the word Atzroth is translated both treasures and store- houses, being formed from the verb Atzar, to heap up, to lay up, though in the first instance it sig- nifies that which is laid up, and in the second, the place where it is laid up. Again, in Eccles. vii. 6. the crackling of thorns is described by the generic word Kol, voice, the language possessing no appro- priate term ; and in verse 9. of the same chapter, the expression patient in spirit, in the English ver- sion, is rendered by Erech Rooach, long in spirit, in the original. In Isaiah xxi. 10. corn is denominated Ben Garni, son of my threshing floor. By contrac-

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tion, Goren, omitting the Ben, son, and without any figure, came to signify corn itself, that which is threshed, for the place where it was threshed. By substituting C hard, or K, for the initial G, and reading the Hebrew letters without any point, Goren became our English word Corn, the Dutch Koorn, and the German, Danish, and Swedish Korn, while by the addition of the Persic Ka, the mark of the oblique case to Goren, we have the etymology of our English word Garner, the place where corn is deposited, or stored. The metaphors formed from the Hebrew word Bar, son, and the equivalent Arabic one, Ebn, would fill several pages. Some of the metaphors in Arabic, under the word Bint, daughter, are highly poetical : for instance, we have

The daughter of the sea (a syren, mermaid, or dolphin).

The daughter of the mountain (echo).

The daughter of the lip (speech).

The daughter of reflection (prudence).

The daughter of the grape (wine).

The daughter of death (a fever).

The daughters of the earth (rivulets).

The daughters of the eyes (tears).

The following orientalism occurs in Pindar : —

" As men o'er ocean's paths who sail, Implore from heaven a favouring gale, And others joy when at their call Showers, the clouds' humid daughters, fall"

WJieelrighfs Pindar, llth Olympic Ode.

In Arabic, however, rain is the son of the clouds.

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324 ON THE GENIUS OF THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA

178. If we revert to the mode in which Europe was originally peopled, we shall find abundant reasons for coming to the conclusion that the great mass of inhabitants came from Asiatic Scandinavia, Scythia, or Tartary, although small colonies may have found their way, at a very early period, into Greece, Italy, Sicily, and Spain, direct from Egypt, Phoenicia, Iberia, or Carthage. There can be as little doubt that Central and Northern, were peopled by the overflowing population of Southern Asiar impelled first in a northerly, and subsequently in a western direction, by the operation of the principle of population, which ordains that the consumers of food and the supply of food shall increase in dif- ferent ratios, and be regulated by different laws. Almost all the native languages of India may be regarded as varieties or dialects of the Sanskrit, and all those of Western Asia, the Chaldee, Syriac, Hebrew, and Samaritan, as well as two African languages, the Ethiopic and Amharic, as varieties or dialects of the Arabic. All these languages, as well as the Persic, must have been carried into the regions of the North, by the emigrants from Southern Asia. Asia, then, was the great original storehouse of languages, and to the written languages of that continent, more especially the Sanskrit and Arabic, which may each be regarded as the parent language of a numerous family, Etymology must look for the greatest enlargement, and the most essential improvement. Another important consequence re- sults from this state of things. The Asiatic Ian-

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guages stand in the relation to those of Europe of primary to secondary, of un derived to derived, of simple to compound. The necessary result is, if not a greater simplicity of structure, at any rate an incomparably less change in the commencements and terminations of those primitive roots from the endless combinations of which all the words in every language are made up. From this circumstance a diligent examination of the Oriental languages is likely not merely to reward the labours of the grammarian and the philologist, by throwing new light on the formation of words and their mode of signification, but to open new views as to the origin and nature of language itself; subjects of which the science of metaphysics has hitherto treated in a mode little calculated either to convey information, or produce conviction. Another effect appears to have resulted from this mixture of races and confusion of languages in the vast regions of Scythia, in the pro- duction of a new race physically superior to their progenitors, and of a new family of languages, which, by being less figurative, were in the course of ages to become better adapted to the use of, per- haps even better adapted to form, a more intellectual and a superior people, destined to carry literature and science to a greater elevation than they had ever experienced in Asia. In Homer and Hesiod, the oldest poets of Greece, we no longer meet with those strings of metaphors which we have found in the extracts from the Asiatic authors, at the com- mencement of this chapter ; and with the introduc-

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326 ON THE GENIUS OF THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA

tion of some shadow, the remaining lights became more brilliant ; with the eradication of the weeds, the flowers gained both in size and beauty ; and the lopping of excrescences by the discrimination of taste appears to have imparted additional vigour to the productive power of genius.

179. As the Pelasgi, the earliest inhabitants of Greece, Italy, and Sicily, appear to have proceeded direct from Scythia, through Thrace and Illyria, and as the term Celtae, the earliest inhabitants not merely of the West, according to Herodotus, but of the whole of Europe, is a name almost co-exten- sive with and commutable for that of ScythaB ; it necessarily follows that there is not the smallest reason for regarding the Greeks and Eomans as being in any respect a different race from the people they were pleased, with as little philosophy as philanthropy, to denominate barbarians.* These

* An Italian author, who has devoted a quarto volume to an investigation of the language of the primitive inhabitants of Italy, with more learning and research, indeed, than success, as it appears to me, remarks very truly and justly on this part of the subject: " Questi Pelasgi primi abitatori della Grecia come si e detto, e provato degli altri primi delle terre ferme, non an- darono cola per mare : ne siegue quasi innegabilmente che vi andarono adunque dalle regioni de' Celti piu Oriental^ o degli Sciti padri o fratelli de* Celti, da genti Celtiche, o Scitiche essendo state da principio abitate tutte le terre che sono all* destra del basso Istro e piu vicine alia Grecia, come si puo vedere anche dall' Istoria Universale che va dando alia Re- publica Letteraria una dotta Societa di valentissimi Inglesi, e dall' Istoria particolare de' Celti pubblicata dal' Sig. Pel- loutier ; due opere che si prima mi fossero giunte da molte fatiche mi avrebbero esentato. E si i primi Greci furono Celti

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barbarians were the descendants of the Celtae, and their own ancestors were no more than Celtse, which is the name by which the Scythians appear to have been known after crossing the river Tanais, or modern Don, which divides Asia from Europe, though that term was varied by those of Cimmerii, its contraction Cimbri or Cymri, Gaels or Gauls, and at a subsequent period Teutones, though the latter were equally Celtge. In the age of Cassar, and still more in that of Tacitus, there was no doubt a perceptible difference in the inhabitants of parts of Gaul, or modern France, and Germany, and perhaps also in the language or languages of the two countries ; but they were all primarily Celtae or Scythians. As to the idea that any language approximating to the modern German was spoken in that country in the age of Tacitus, nothing can be more chimerical. The Ma3so-Gothic Gospels of Ulphilas, which are incomparably the oldest spe- cimen in existence of any language approaching to the Teutonic or Anglo-Saxon, appear to me to be as much English as German; and I am not aware that there is any written composition in existence between that and the Frankish Version of the Gospels by Otfried, about the year 870. Long

o Sciti, come pare innegabile, si vede tosto che non poche volte sara Celtico per origine do che mirasi come Greco. Final- mente non e a dubitare, che piu vocaboli Greci e Latini non abbiano a risguardarsi come derivati dal G-allico, e dal Ger- manico antico."— Delia Lingua de* Primi Abitatori delV Italia, Opera Postuma del Padre Stanislao Bardetti della Com- pagnia de Gesii in Modena, 1772. (Page 233.)

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328 ON THE GENIUS OF THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA

treatises have been written to prove that the Latin was derived from the German, and in one sense it is true, and equally so of the Greek. If by the German we understand some language spoken in the country now denominated Germany, and sup- pose that that language was the Celtic or the Scythic, there can be doubt that the Greek, the Latin, and the Gothic were so many dialects or varieties of that language * ; but if by the German we understand the language actually spoken in Germany, it is notorious that it is of very modern date, and that it would not be more extravagant to attempt to derive the Latin from the English. As there was a period, and that probably not more than one thousand years before the Christian era, when all Europe was possessed by the Celtae, (for, according to Herodotus, Scythia, the country from which they undoubtedly proceeded, only began to be peopled about fifteen hundred years before the same period, that is, one thousand years before the

* One of the most distinguished among the authors of mo- dern Germany has the following passage on this subject : — " We are accustomed to talk of our own language as having above all others the advantage of being pure and original. This might be very true in its utmost extent of the old Saxon language, but nothing can be less so of our present German. Ours is a modern dialect, which arose in the Carolingian age, out of the confusion of many old German dialects, and no inconsiderable infusion of Latin vocables ; and ought in truth to be classed among those languages which arose out of the political inter- mixture of the Roman and Teutonic nations." — Lectures on the History of Literature Ancient and Modern^ by Frederick Schlegel, vol. i. p. 295.

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reign of Darius Hystaspes,) it follows, as a necessary consequence, that all the leading languages, both of ancient and modern Europe, were derived from the Celtic, with the exception of the Sarmatian or Slavonic, which is probably quite as ancient as the Celtic, the two forming the great branches or divisions of the original Scythic stock, original as compared with the European languages, but secondary as compared with the Asiatic, being itself principally composed of the Sanskrit, Persic, and Arabic, and their dialects, many of which it is hopeless to attempt to trace, as they have long since disappeared, having probably never had an exist- ence as written languages.

180. According to my view of the subject, the origin and affinities of the principal European languages may be stated in the following way, and supported by the following authorities : —

Sarmatian, or Slavonic.

Scythic. Ancient Celtic, which has disappeared for centuries as a spoken language.

Modern Celtic, which still continues to be spoken in some coun- tries of Europe, much mixed with Gothic.

Russian.

Polish.

Bohemian.

Transylvanian.

Croatian.

Etruscan.

Latin, or .^Eolic Greek.

Greek, or Doric, Ionic,

and Attic. Mseso-Gothic.

Irish.

Highland Scotch.

Welch.

Manks.

Cornish.

Brittanish, or Armorican.

330 ON THE GENIUS OF THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA

181. Among the few words which formed a part of the language of the ancient Scythians, which have been transmitted to us by the unbounded curiosity of Herodotus, and which his still more extraordinary accuracy has enabled us to identify, in other well-known languages, we may mention, first, the name of the fabulous Arimaspians, which he himself resolves into Arirna, one, and Spu, eye. The first may be called an Arabic word, as we find Arim in Richardson's Dictionary of that language, with the signification of one. Spu appears to be cognate with the German Spaw or Spa, a spring. In Persic, Arabic, and Hebrew, the same word signifies both eye and fountain, or Spu may by possi- bility be the Greek word Ops, eye, reversed, that is, written in the Asiatic manner from right to left. Another Scythic compound word is Oior-pata, which the historian informs us was equivalent to menslayers. In Herodotus this word is written without any mark of aspiration, but if we had found it in Homer it would probably have taken the Digamma, and become Foior. But it is not neces- sary to suppose the existence of any extraneous letter, as Wav or \^au, in Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and Samaritan (Phoenician ?) is both a vowel and a consonant, and, according to circumstances, either Oj oo, u, or v. The Syriac Vau (0) is clearly the origin of the Greek 0 micron, which in the above word Oior as clearly had the power of the Roman V or F, and the Greek Phi, which is merely Omi- cron divided by a perpendicular stroke, which was

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probably, in the. first instance, added to the vowel to denote that it assumed a consonant character, as O*of , 4>/op ; and with this reading, we have

Fear (Celtic), a man.

Vair (Mseso- Gothic), a man.

Vir (Latin), a man.

Virah (Sanskrit), a hero, a warrior. Abaris, the fabulous Scythian prophet, was pri- marily a name of Apollo, or the Sun, and nothing more, and when the etymology of the word was lost, Mythology invented the extravagant exploits ascribed to Abaris. It continued, however, to be a current word in Latin, slightly altered to Jubar, a sun-beam, which was written originally, in all probability, Aibar, like Iran, the ancient name of Persia, in Oriental characters Airan.

182. As, according to the accounts of the Greeks themselves, Prometheus and Deucalion were Scy- thians, the presumption is that Hellen, the son of the latter, was also of the same race, and we dis- cover abundant reason for coming to the conclusion that the Scythian blood had not disappeared in the next generation, for if we analyse the initial double letter in the name of Xuthus (Xi) into its com- ponent parts, or single letters, we shall have Ks, by transposition Sk, and Xuthus is transformed into Skuth, a palpable Scythian by name, and I have no doubt by language also ; and as ^Eolus, Dorus, and Xuthus were sons of Deucalion by the same mother, Orseis, what is proved of the latter will also be conclusive as to the two former. It is quite clear

332 ON THE GENIUS OF THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA

that the whole account is pure mythology, or at any rate that it carries us back to the Pelasgi, and that the Pelasgi, to use the very remarkable words of Herodotus, had not yet begun to be Greeks. When

t7 «7

Dionysius of Halicarnassus derives the Latin from the JEolic, that J^olic was ancient Celtic or Scythic ; and I am strongly disposed to believe that the etymology of the word was the Arabic Aoual, or Awwal, first, denoting eldest son, as forming the name of .ZEolus, and oldest Dialect, as applied to one of the four of ancient Greece. Dor us I regard as cognate with the Sanskrit Dm, and the Greek Drus. By adding the Arabic word Hiat, life, to Dru, we have Dryad, and Druid, or those who passed their life in the woods, and by adding the Sanskrit Ian, man or person, to Dru, we have by transposition, Dorian, or an inhabitant of the wood- lands, or rather of the country in its primitive state before it was cleared of wood, which overran all Europe as well as America, and the existence of which is attested by the description of the great Hercynian forest in Germany by Caesar, Tacitus, and Plutarch. This etymology of the word Dorians, as descriptive of a mode of life, is confirmed by that of lonians.* In his account of the expedition of Xerxes, Herodotus says, the lonians, armed like the Greeks, appeared with a fleet of one hundred ships. According to the Grecian account, this people, when they inhabited that part of the Peloponnesus called Achaia, before the arrival of Danaus and Xuthus,

* Vide Dissertation • on the different Names of the Ionic Race at the end of the work.

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were called the Pelasgian ^Egialians. They were afterwards named lonians from Ion, son of Xuthus. (Lib. vii. c. 94.) Before the arrival of Danaus and Xuthus, the lonians were called ^Egialians. Danaus, according to tradition, was an Egyptian, and Xuthus is equivalent to Scythian. The etymology of JrCgi- alians ought to be Greek, and it is so, from

Aigialos (A/y/aXoy), littus, the sea- shore.

Ian (Sanskrit), man or person. But so unfortunately, for the fable is that of Ionia, which has precisely the same meaning, from

Aion (Aio>i/, Dor. pro Hio«/), littus, the sea-shore.

Ian (Sanskrit), man or person. And accordingly we find that Asiatic Ionia formed the sea coast of the provinces of Lydia and Caria, and that the term lonians appropriately described the local situation of its inhabitants. According to Strabo, the Maeso -Goths of the banks of the Danube were identical with the Mysians of Asia Minor, whose origin carries us back to a remote antiquity, and to the fabulous Mysus of Herodotus, who was the brother of Tyrrhenus, the founder of the Italian Tyrrhenians, or Etruscans ; so that, though we have no specimen of the Maeso-Gothic older than the Gospels of Ulphilas, the language itself is almost certainly as old, perhaps older than either the Greek or Latin, which we have been accustomed to regard as pre-eminently old lan- guages, for no other reason than because they contain authors who wrote some centuries before the Christian era. We are accustomed to call the Italian, the Spanish, the Portuguese, and the

334 ON THE GENIUS OF THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA

French, the daughters of the Latin ; but they would probably have been very nearly or altogether what they are, though no such language as the Latin, and no such people as the Romans, had ever existed. All the principal languages of ancient and modern Europe are derived from the Sarmatian, or Slavonic, and the Celtic, and there can be little doubt that a large portion of the Italian is identical with the Lingua Rustica which was spoken in ancient Italy, though Latin is the only written language that has come down to us ; and I can state, from my own examination, that in very many instances the Italian form of several Italian words approaches much more closely to the Sanskrit, perhaps the oldest language of Asia, than that of the corre- sponding Roman ones from which they are generally supposed to have been derived.

183. I cannot close these speculations without saying a few words as to the probable future fate of the world in connexion with the subject of lan- guage generally, and the fortune of the English language in particular. A large class of philo- sophers, who have obtained the name of Optimists, suppose that all the past events recorded by history, if regarded in a broad and general way, have tended to raise, if not the immediate, the ultimate condition of the species, and that all those which are to happen in the unbounded ages of the future will tend equally to the amelioration of political and social institutions, and the elevation of the human character. A being so shortsighted as man

AS COMPARED WITH THOSE OF EUROPE. 335

can neither see clearly nor reason conclusively on such subjects ; but, judging from present appear- ances, and applying the knowledge we have acquired so slowly and laboriously of the working of the principle of population, one species of melioration is likely to be produced in a mode which, reasoning a priori, would have appeared the most incredible, namely, by the annihilation of all the inferior races of mankind, or their absorption in the Caucasian* race. I use the term inferior races of mankind without the smallest hesitation ; for he who is not convinced that the white, or Caucasian, race is immeasurably superior to the copper-coloured and black in intellectual and moral qualities, has, it appears to me, read history to very little purpose. But this circumstance, so far from exonerating the

* Under the term Caucasian race are comprised the fol- lowing people, whether ancient or modern : the Syrians and Assyrians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Jews, Egyptians, Geor- gians, Circassians, Mingrelians, Armenians, Turks, Arabs, Afghans, Hindoos of high cast, Gipsies, Tatars (Tartars), Moors and Berbers in Africa, Guanches in the Canary Islands, Greeks, Romans, and all the Europeans except the Laplanders. This enumeration includes all the human races in which the in- tellectual endowments of man have shone forth in the greatest native vigour, have received the highest cultivation, and have produced the richest and most abundant fruits, in philosophy, science, and art, in religion and morals, in poetry, eloquence, and the fine arts, in civilization and government ; in all that can dignify and ennoble the species. We cannot, therefore, wonder that they should in all cases have not merely van- quished, but held in permanent subjection, all the other races." — Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man, by W. Lawrence, F.R. S. : London, 1819.

33G ON THE GENIUS OF THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA

superior race from the obligations of morality, ought to render them more binding. The greatest of Roman poets has inculcated the duty " Parcere subjectis ; " the greatest of English poets has finely remarked, in the same spirit of humanity, that " it is excellent to have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant ; " and Religion herself has informed us, that "where much is given, much will be required." I am not speaking, however, of what ought to be, but of what is. Much progress has already been made in the work of destruction.* The native race has disappeared so long in all the Islands of the West Indies, that its existence is almost forgotten. The two cen- turies that have elapsed since Europeans settled in North America, have nearly sufficed for the annihi- lation of the aboriginal race ; and probably by the end of the present or the completion of the first half of the following century, not a vestige will remain of their having ever existed. In the south- ern continent of the same country, the aborigines will probably be absorbed by, and lost in, the European race by intermarriage. In every country of Europe population is increasing beyond the

* Dr. Robertson, describing the exertions of Las Casas in favour of the Indians, says, " With the moving eloquence na- tural to a man on whose mind the scenes which he had beheld had made a deep impression, he described the irreparable waste of the human species in the New World, the Indian race almost totally swept away in the islands in less than fifty years, and hastening to extinction on the continent with the same rapid decay." — History of America, book vi.

AS COMPARED WITH THOSE OF EUROPE. 337

means of subsistence ; and this is not a temporary and local circumstance, but an eternal and uni- versal one. It always has been the case, and always will continue to be so to the end of time. It was the operating principle in scattering man- kind originally over the surface of the earth, and it will continue to operate until that surface is not only fully covered, but peopled up to its maximum of possible produce. It is probably peopled very nearly up to its actual produce already, or, in other words, no more human beings could subsist as hunters, fishers, and shepherds, than do exist. We have seen the fate of the Aborigines of North America, and nothing but the unhealthiness of Western Africa has prevented the formation of European settlements, and the consequent extirpa- tion of the Negro race ; while in the south of that continent the extension of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope is the proscription of the Hottentot and Caffre ; the increase of the European, is the destruc- tion of the African population. When we took possession of the vast island, or rather continent, of New Holland, it was probably fully peopled up to the numbers it was capable of supporting in the actual mode of life of the natives, i. e. as hunters and fishers, as the country contains no large ani- mals, and little game of any sort, and the extension of the European race there, and every where else similarly circumstanced, must operate, in the first instance, as a prohibition to the increase of the na- tive race ; next, to their diminution ; and eventually,

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338 ON THE GENIUS OF THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA

to their destruction. In every instance there can be no doubt as to the final result, and it is merely a question of time. Resistance is altogether out of the question ; for not only is knowledge power, but accumulated knowledge is augmented power. The Negro or copper-coloured race stand no more chance when opposed to the Caucasian, than the wild beasts of the forest do when opposed to themselves, and even of that Caucasian race, the mixed breed which was produced in the vast regions of Scythia, Scandinavia, or Tartary, from the confluence of the inhabitants of Southern Asia, and which peopled Greece, Italy, Sicily, and Europe generally, has almost invariably proved itself much superior to its parent stock, the unmixed Asiatic races of Syria, Persia, Hindustan, and Arabia, on almost every occasion in which they have been brought into con- tact— at Marathon, Salamis, and Platsea ; in the not inferior victories of Cimon, the son of Miltiades, one of the greatest and best of a heroic race ; in the " Anabasis " of Xenophon, in the Expedition of Alexander, in the Crusades, and in the various invasion and settlements in India by the Portu- guese, the Dutch, the French, and the English, since the discovery of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope. The modern Europeans, though per- haps inferior to the Georgians and Circassians, who are also an extremely mixed race, in personal beauty, appear to be greatly superior to the Asiatics generally both in physical power and intellectual capacity.

AS COMPARED WITH THOSE OF EUROPE. 339

184. The exceptions which record the triumphs of the Asiatic over the European race are compara- tively few and unimportant. The most splendid instances are undoubtedly the victories of the Car- thaginians in the second Punic war, if we receive the traditional account of their being a Tyrian colony, and speaking a Shemitic language ; and the conquest of Spain by the Arabs in comparatively mo- dern terms. Each of these events for a time threat- ened to change the face of the world, and reverse the history of the species. If the gigantic military genius of Hannibal had been seconded by adequate supplies from Carthage, or even if he had succeeded in forming a junction with the army of his brother Asdrubal, nothing appears to have been impossible to that vast capacity, which , during the long space of fifteen years, and apparently with means the most inadequate, triumphed over all difficulties physical and moral. The Romans would have been unable to keep the field, their city would have been invested, and probably taken, the empire of the civilized world would have fallen to Carthage, and instead of reading the history of that war in the splendid page of Livy, we might at this moment have been studying the Periplus of Hanno in the original Punic, instead of perusing its fragments in a Greek translation. And in the eighth century, if the northern progress of the Saracens had not been arrested at Tours by the conquering sword of Charles Martel, the victorious Crescent might have supplanted the prostrate cross on the towers of

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340 ON THE GENIUS OF THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA

Eome, Paris, and London, as well as on those of Santa Sophia at Constantinople. At many periods since the conquest of the latter city by Mahomet II, in 1453, the fortunes of the Christian and Ma- hometan races appeared to tremble in the balance, and Europe was perplexed " with fear of change" when the progress of the Turkish arms was arrested at Lepanto in 1571 by Don John of Austria, and in 1683, when the siege of Vienna was raised by John Sobieski, King of Poland. As exemplifying the contest between the two races of Asia and Europe, however, the Turks are not altogether in point, as they have a strong infusion of Northern blood in their veins, and came from Scythia, Scan- dinavia, or Tartary, like almost all the nations both of ancient and modern Europe ; and whenever they have been tolerably well commanded, have proved themselves to be most formidable enemies.

185. Having said so much respecting the origin of the English language, it is impossible not to advert to what is likely to be its future progress and ultimate fate, though this is one of the numerous questions " caligine mersas." While we remark the numerous English words borrowed from the Sanskrit, we cannot but advert to the singular for- tune of the Sanskrit itself, the mother of the lan- guages and dialects of the vast continent of India ; the language of the state and of religion, of poetry and philosophy, gradually expiring in its native seats, without any foreign invasion or domestic re- volution that we can trace of sufficient magnitude

AS COMPARED WITH THOSE OF EUROPE. 341

to produce such a change ! But it may be said that the Sanskrit has only shared the fate of the languages of Greece and Rome, the equally polished vehicles of thought, of a more intellectual and powerful people. Are we then to judge of the future from the past, and are universal decay and unsparing destruction the lesson which that past teaches ? There is a broad distinction between the circumstances of the ancient and the modern world, which is likely to exert a mighty influence on the future fortunes of the human race. In the first place, the improvement in the art of war has fully kept pace with, perhaps more than kept pace with, the general progress of the human mind ; and the invention of gunpowder and fire-arms has ren- dered it morally impossible that the civilized world should ever again be overrun and subdued by the barbarians of the North, as was the Roman empire : or, granting the possibility of such an invasion by the hordes of Tartary, which, by the advance of our knowledge respecting the laws of population we can demonstrate to be any thing but countless, the invention of another noble art, that of printing, has so multiplied books as to secure the duration of the present stock of knowledge against the operation of any revolution, or series of revolutions, we can form any conception of, unless they at the same time destroyed the human race itself. The English language appears to be rapidly extending itself over every part of the vast continent of North America, as civilization pursues its march from the

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342 ON THE GENIUS OF THE LANGUAGES OF ASIA

Atlantic towards the Pacific Ocean ; in another century, hardly a vestige will remain of the Ab- original Indian race, to whom an encroachment on their hunting grounds is as much a virtual sentence of annihilation as if they were doomed to be shot through the head with rifles ; and in two centuries from the present time, supposing the population of America continues to increase at its present rate, the English language will probably be spoken by one third of the human race. We can picture to ourselves the western coast of that vast continent, with its cities rivalling the New Yorks, Bostons, Philadelphias, and New Orleans', of the eastern, and a new and unbounded career opened to the master minds of whom England is now so justly proud. The " Wealth of Nations" of Smith — a man born less for his particular country than for the world at large — may teach them that com- merce does not, like war, enrich by fraud or force, but by equal and legitimate exchange, and that in the utmost advance of other countries in popu- lation, industry, art, and refinement, we ought only to regard them as so many new customers, who will not merely demand the productions of our manu- factures and foreign commerce, but, what is of equal importance, have a valuable equivalent to give in exchange for what they desire ; as fellow labourers, who will add to, instead of jealous rivals, who seek to deprive us of our wealth ; the " Essay on the Principle of Population," by Malthus, incomparably the ablest of Smith's successors, may demonstrate

AS COMPARED WITH THOSE OF EUROPE. 343

to them the necessary and eternal connection be- tween individual morality and national happiness, and how little even the best government can do for any people compared with what the people must do for itself; the beautiful discourses of the amiable and elegant-minded Eeynolds may inspire them with a taste for those fine arts which soften man- ners and embellish life, to which he was devoted with so ardent an enthusiasm, and in which he be- came so distinguished a proficient ; the speeches of Fox, which contain so much that is vigorous in intellect, sound in feeling, and practical in wisdom, may teach generations yet unborn, and states yet unformed, to steer their course in troubled times, should such arise, by the steady beacon lights of liberty, justice, and humanity; and, finally — "the greatest is behind " — what shall be the fate of our darling Shakspeare, the poet of mankind, the in- structor of nations and ages ? I cannot answer better than by quoting a passage which indignantly and eloquently repels some of the charges of Vol- taire : " The Apalachian mountains, and the banks of the Ohio, and the plains of Sciota, shall resound with the accents of this barbarian: in his native tongue he shall roll the genuine passions of nature ; nor shall the griefs of Lear be alleviated, or the charms and wit of Kosalind be abated, by time." (An Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff, by Maurice Morgan. London, 1820. p. 69.)

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344

NOTE.

DISSERTATION ON THE DIFFERENT NAMES OF THE IONIC RACE.

In reading the accounts which ancient authors give of the origin of the tribes and nations, whose history they have under- taken to write, we cannot but remark, that in many instances we meet with two perfectly distinct, and totally irreconcileable relations ; the one being palpably mythological, while the other may, by possibility, be nearly, or altogether historical ; and the great desideratum is to discover some unequivocal test by the application of which we may be enabled to draw the definite line which separates fact from fiction. One main point is to discover the precise meaning of words, and here in many cases we meet with great and unexpected aids. My philological pursuits have induced me to come to the conclusion, that all proper names, both of persons and places, were primarily signi- ficant, and descriptive of the nature and qualities of the objects to which they were attached ; and, as it is the aim of every good writer to be clearly understood, we shall discover in a great variety of instances, that where any particular place is first named, the author has defined the signification of that name in other words; so that the meaning of the proper name being lost, he has placed his readers, with respect to it, in the same situa- tion as if it had continued to be significant.

1. Acte, Actice, and Attica.

Thucydides, describing the operations of Brasidas in Thrace, says, he gathered together the Allies and led them into the district called Acte. It is a tract which stretches out into the sea, from the canal which was dug by Xerxes, and Athos, the highest mountain in Acte, is its utmost verge on the ^Egean Sea. The bulk of the inhabitants are Pelasgians, the issue of those Tyrrhenians who formerly inhabited Lemnos and Athens. (Smith's Thucydides, Book iv, c. 109.) Though Acte was inha- bited by a mixed race, the name is unquestionably Greek, and its meaning is defined by Thucydides himself, in the words printed in Italics. It is equivalent to Attica, as I shall proceed to prove. Strabo, alluding to the various traditions which pre- vailed, as to the names of Athens, says, " We may perceive it

NOTE. 345

from the different denominations of the country, sometimes called Actice, because it is pretended that Actseon (Actasus) reigned there ; sometimes Atthis, and Attice, in memory, say they, of Atthis, the daughter of that Cranaus, after whom the inhabitants of the country were called Cranai ; sometimes Mop- sopia, after Mopsopus ; sometimes Ionia after Ion, the son of Xuthus ; sometimes Posidonia and Athenae, from the two divi- nities bearing these names." (Geographic de Strabon par Coray, tome iii. livre 9. p. 381.) Believing that Actice, from Actaeus, is mere mythology, not worth a moment's thought, and attach- ing great weight to the testimony of Strabo, he shall unsay what has just been said, and confirm the above account of Thucy- dides, which he does in an earlier passage of the same chapter to the following effect : " And if this latter country, whose actual name (Attica) is merely an alteration of its ancient one, was formerly called Acte and Actice, it is, say they, on account of its being situated for the most part at the bottom of a chain of mountains, but at the same time bounded and enclosed by the sea ; it extends at considerable length as far as Sunium." (Geographic de Strabon par Coray, tome iii. liv. 9. p. 362.) All the manuscripts of Strabo, hitherto discovered, are imper- fect at this part, but the hiatus has been filled up by Gemistus Pletho, and the passage, as amended by him, is exhibited by the French translator as follows : —

> Ata 3e TOVTO feat 'AKTTJV ^a<ri Xe^Qfivat TO TraXaibv /ecu 'Amta}?* rijv vvv'ATTiKriv Trapovofj-atrdelffav, on Tolg opeffiv vTTOTrtTTTW TOV p.£pOQ avTrJQ aXiTEVEQ Kal ffTivoV) pr]KeL ft a£io\oyw 7rpo7r£7TTii)Kog ^\PL T°v Sovvt'ov. Pliny, in his description of Greece, says, " in ea prima Attica antiquitus Acte vocata." Acte was clearly a generic name applicable to any extended cape, or peninsula.

2. JEgialos.

Herodotus, in his description of the lonians, in the expedition of Xerxes, says, " According to the Grecian account, this people, when they inhabited that part of the Peloponnesus, called Achaia, before the arrival of Danaus and Xuthus, were called the Pelasgian ^Egialians. They were afterwards named lonians, from Ion, the son of Xuthus." (Lib. 7. c. 94.) Strabo says, " It was not only beyond the Isthmus that the -^olians were so

346 NOTE.

powerful, those within were also JEolians ; but in the course of time they found themselves mixed in some degree with the lonians, who had quitted Attica to occupy the JEgialos (sea shore), and in part with the Dorians who, under the command of the Heraclidae, founded Megara, and also many cities of Pe- loponnesus." (Lib. 8. c. 1.) The account of Pausanias is more circumstantial, and is as follows: — " The country which is to the east towards the sea, between the Eleans and Sicyonians, is now denominated Achaia by its own inhabitants ; it was formerly named -32gialos, and its possessors called themselves -ZEgialians, after the name of -^gialos, an ancient king of Sicyon, as the Sicyo- nians say. Others believe that this country, which is for the most part maritime, derived its name from its situation, the word Aigialos (in Greek), signifying the sea-shore. However that may have been, after the death of Hellen, his son, Xuthus, driven out of Thessaly by his brothers, who accused him of having embezzled the treasures of their father, withdrew to Athens where he married a daughter of Erectheus, by whom he had two sons, Acha3us and Ion. Erectheus being dead, his children who disputed which should succeed him, agreed to take Xuthus as arbitrator of their difference. He decided in favour of Ce- crops, who was the eldest, and by so doing drew on himself the hatred of the others, so that being driven from Attica he came and established himself in JEgialos, and there ended his days." (Pausanias. lib. 7. c. 1.) Pliny says, " Achaiae nomen provincia3 ab Isthmo incipit : antea ^Egialos vocabatur propter Urbes in litore per ordinem dispositos.

3. Ionia.

Strabo gives the following account of the origin of the name of Ionia : " Achaia," says he, " was anciently possessed by the lonians, who were Athenians by origin. Before them it bore the name of ^3Sgialos, and its inhabitants of ^Egialians, but being occupied by the lonians, it was denominated Ionia, a name which was also borne by Attica after Ion, the son of Xuthus. It is related that Hellen, the son of Deucalion, and king of Phthi- otis, situated between the Peneus and the Asopus, transmitted the sceptre to the eldest of his sons ( JEolus), and sent the others to seek establishments elsewhere. Dorus, one of them, estab- lished in the neighbourhood, the colony of Dorians which de-

NOTE. 347

rived its name from him. Xuthus, his brother, having married the daughter of Erectheus, founded in Attica the Tetrapolis, or four cities of JEnoe, Marathon, Probalinthus, and Tricorythus. Of the sons of Xuthus, the one named Achseus, having com- mitted an involuntary murder, took refuge in Laconia, and gave to its inhabitants the name of Achasans ; the other, Ion, having conquered the Thracians, whom Eumolpus had led against the Athenians, the latter were so much pleased that they confided to him the government of their republic. He commenced by dividing the people into four tribes, and after- wards into four professions, of labourers, artisans, priests, and soldiers ; and, after many similar regulations, bequeathed his name to the country. At this period the population of Attica was so considerable that a colony of lonians was sent into Peloponnesus, where the quarter which they occupied received from them the name of Ionia, instead of that ofJEgialos, which it had borne before their arrival. The inhabitants divided into twelve cities relinquished the name of JEgialians, to assume that of lonians." (Strabo, lib. 8. c. 8.) Herodotus, describing the lonians of Asia Minor, says, " It appears to me that the lonians divided themselves into twelve states, and were unwilling to connect themselves with more, simply because in Peloponnesus they were originally so circumstanced, as are the Achasans at present, by whom the lonians were expelled. The first of these is Pellene, near Sicyon, then JEgira and ./Ege, through which the Crathis flows, with a never-failing stream, giving its name to a well known river in Italy. Next to these is Bura, then Helice, to which place the lonians fled, after being vanquished in battle by the Achaeans. Next follow JEgium, Rhypae, Patrae, Pharae, and Olenus, which is watered by the Pyrus, a consider- able river. The last are Dyme and Tritcea, the only inland city. (Herodotus, lib. 1. c. 145.) The reader will also recol- lect that of the twelve States of Asiatic Ionia, Priene, Mi- letus, Colophon, Clazomenae, Ephesus, Lebedos, Teos, Phocaea, Erythras, and Smyrna, were situated on, or near the sea, while Samos and Chios were islands ; and that the Greek province of Ionia constituted the sea coast of the provinces of Lydia and Caria.

It appears to me to be hardly possible not to perceive that Ion and Achseus, the two sons of Xuthus, are merely the crea-

348 NOTE.

tions of the Genealogical System, and not to suspect that we never should have heard a word of either if the Greek writers had not conceived it necessary to account for the origin of the names of the lonians and the Achoeans. The real fact, how- ever, is, that all the names of the former are not only significant, but have precisely the same meaning, as will be obvious at a glance : —

1. King Actaeus is no other than the Greek word AK.TCUOC —

litoralis, maritimus. (Scapula.)

2. Acte, Actice, or Attica, his territory, Aim; — littus.

3. King jEgialus, AiymXoe — littus, ora maritima.

4. The ^Egialians, his subjects. ^Egialos, the sea-shore.

Jan (Sanskrit), man, or person ; by contraction ^gialians, or inhabitants of the sea-shore.

5. King Ion, the son of Xuthus, 'A'tajy Dorice pro 'HYwy —

littus. (Scapula.)

6. The lonians, his descendants, or subjects. Aion, Doric form of Eion.

Jan (Sanskrit), man, or person ; by dropping the initial

letter, lonians, or inhabitants of the sea-shore. A passage occurs in the Twelfth Book of Strabo, in which he makes use of the word Eion, to define the meaning of Agialos, *O <T Al-ytaXog etrri pev rjiuv paKpa TrXeiovwv rj IKCLTOV '^X£L ^ Kat Kwpw bfjLwvvpov YIQ jut'yuvTfrcu 6 7roi//r^c orav <prj T AlyiaXov re ecu v\^r}\ovc 'JLpvdlvovg.

(Iliad 2. 855.)

The jEgialus (in Pont us) is a tract of coast more than one hundred stadia long, which also possesses a town of the same name, to which Homer alludes in the passage — " Where Erythinus' rising cliffs are seen, Thy groves of box Cytorus ever green, And where ^Egialus and Cromna lie, And lofty Sesamus invades the sky." POPE.

All the preceding names of the Ionic race, then, were signi- ficant, and described a leading circumstance in their mode of life ; in the Peloponnesus, in Attica, and in Asiatic Ionia, they were equally inhabitants of the sea-shore. Hence we feel tempted to form some conjectures, however imperfect, as to the origin of the names of the Dorians and ^olians. In Gillies'

NOTE. 349

History of Greece I find the following passage, which I am induced to transcribe to escape the imputation of indulging in an etymological dream: "The Dorians, who inhabited the neighbourhood of Mount Pindus, cheerfully deserted the gloomy solitude of their woods, in order to seek possessions in a more agreeable and better cultivated country." (Vol. i. page 96.) I believe the real etymology of Dorus to be the Greek word Drus, a tree, by inserting a vowel between the Delta and Rho, or the Sanskrit wordDru, a tree, by transposition, and adding a final us.

Dur, or Dor (Sanskrit), a tree.

Jan, or Ian, a man, or person — Dorian, an inhabitant of the woodlands.

The classical reader will no doubt recollect that the most beautiful specimens of the Doric dialect, we possess, are pastoral poems ; and the early Doric race were necessarily shepherds, because the practice of agriculture was impossible before the country was cleared of its forests. I suspect that the word Dorian, is cognate both with Druid and Dryad, from Dru, (Sanskrit), a tree, and Hiat (Arabic), life; the former word describing a priest dwelling in the woods, and the latter a wood- nymph. We hear more about Ion, than of his two brothers, because he had the good fortune to be the reputed progenitor of the most literary race of the Greeks, the Ionic being the original dialect of Attica ; little about Dorus, and the Doric library is soon exhausted ; and hardly any thing at all respect- ing jEolus, and our knowledge of the -ZEolic is limited to a few brief fragments which make us wish for more. We have seen that Strabo calls JEolus the eldest son of Hellen, and I believe this is the universally received account. It is quite certain that the word Awwal, Uwal, or Uoual, in Arabic, signifies both eldest and first, which, with the usual termination us, added by the Greeks to Oriental words, forms, I believe, the etymology of his name. But we must look for -ZEolus in Italy, the Latin being the true ^olic, and certainly a much older language than any written specimens we possess of the Greek ; and of that -^Eolic digamma which Bentley supposed to have disappeared from the poems of Homer, and was anxious to restore, we find, the most indubitable evidence in the existence of many Roman words which always formed a part of classical Latin.

The whole of these genealogies may very easily and naturally

350 NOTE.

have originated in a familiar Orientalism, of which I shall adduce one example from the Book of Judges, which will answer the purpose of illustrating many similar instances. The three following verses, of the sixth chapter, contain a most animated and picturesque description of an invasion by the Nomadic, or pastoral tribes of Arabia : " 3. And so it was when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up and the Amalek- ites, and the Children of the East, even they came up against them. 4. And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sus- tenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. 5. For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number ; and they entered into the land to destroy it." In the English version, as we perceive, they are denomi- nated Children of the East, in the Septuagint Yiot avaroXwv, and in the original Hebrew, Beni Kedem. This produces no mistake as long as we read it in an Oriental language, and remember the proneness of the East to figure and personifica- tion, but to the primitive Greeks the word Kedem, the East, transformed into Cadmus, became a real man, and his descend- ants Cadmeans, or Thebans. Cadmus, says our illustrious Newton, in his Chronology, signifies a man from the East, and Strabo mentions the Arabians who came with Cadmus, TO ce TraXcLLOV KCU ApaGeg ot Kactyiw crvvSta&avTez. (Lib. X.) I do not adduce either of these passages as historical, but simply as etymological authority to prove that the derivation of the word Cadmus is Oriental, being fully convinced that everything con- nected with the man Cadmus is pure mythology. The Hera- clida3, or fabulous descendants of Hercules, whose name occurs so often in early Greek History, are also merely a creation of the Genealogical System, and only prove the fact that Europe generally was peopled from Asia, the etymology being

Heri (Sanskrit) Lord,

Kala, or Cala — Time,

and hence Erakles, Greek, and Hercules, Latin, the Lord of Time, or the Sun (Vide Pausanias, lib. 8. c. 31.) — and the Heraclidse, his descendants, or the inhabitants of the East. A writer in any of the Shemitic languages, or dialects of the Arabic, would, as a matter of course, and as perfectly agreeable

NOTE.

351

to the genius of those languages, have denominated the lonians the Sons, or Children of Acte, .ZEgialos, or Aion, all words descriptive of their local situation as residing on the border of the sea, and Homer himself would have experienced no difficulty in describing the -ZEgialians, as Ylee AiymXov, or Sons of the Sea-coast.

THE END.

LONDON:

by A. SPOTTISWOODB, New- Street- Square.

BINDING SECT. AUG 3 1 1981

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UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY

Welsford, Henry

On the origin and ramific- ations of the English language