GIFT OF 
 
Now ready, cloth, price 15$. 
 
 LIVES 
 
 OP 
 
 THE LORDS STRANGFORD, 
 
 WITH THEIR ANCESTORS AND CONTEMPORARIES 
 THROUGH TEN GENERATIONS. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARD HARRINGTON DE FONBLANQUE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " EPISODES IN THE LIFE OF THE RIGHT HON. JOHN BURGOYNE," 
 " THE LIFE AND LABOURS OF ALBANY FONBLANQUE," &C. &C. &C. 
 
 CASSELL, FETTER, & GALPIN: 
 
 LONDON, PARIS, AND NEW YORK. 
 
ORIGINAL 
 LETTERS AND PAPERS 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 VISCOUNT STRANGFORD. 
 
jfrltantgtu tyvtss. 
 
 BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 
ORIGINAL 
 
 LETTERS AND PAPERS 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 VISCOUNT STRANGFORD 
 
 UPON 
 
 PHILOLOGICAL AND KINDRED SUBJECTS. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 VISCOUNTESS STRANGFORD. 
 
 LONDON: 
 TRUBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL. 
 
 1878. 
 
 [All rig/Us reserved.] 
 
GARPENTIER 
 
PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 IN a notice upon the death of Lord Strangford that 
 appeared in one of the newspapers of the day, 1 the 
 remark was made, " We feel sure that no correspondent 
 of Lord Strangford ever burned a letter of his. His 
 letters ran over alike with wit and with information ; 
 there was some happy allusion, some apt sarcasm in 
 every line. Nor was this all. No one was ever more 
 ready and generous in communicating knowledge. A 
 question on any of his favourite subjects would be 
 rewarded by a letter which was in fact a philological or 
 political treatise composed in his own terse and amusing 
 style. No one had a keener sense of humour ; if there 
 was a grotesque side to a thing, Lord Strangford was 
 sure to find it out. And, like all really accurate men, 
 like all men who really live in their work, he had 
 the keenest appreciation of a blunder. It was curious 
 indeed to listen to the half-provoked, half-amused way 
 in which he would speak of the grotesque mistakes with 
 regard to his favourite studies which he was constantly 
 coming across. In short, a letter of Lord Strangford's, 
 written in one of his happiest veins, was a mixture 
 of wit and learning which it was really a privilege to 
 
 1 Saturday Review, January 16, 1869. 
 
 M211135 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 The conviction of this writer was unhappily far from 
 being justified by fact. In this age we live so fast that 
 few of us take time to appreciate our own possessions, 
 so that even treasures become encumbrances ; the few 
 long letters that are still written are as often as not 
 tossed aside and forgotten under the mass of daily dust 
 that crowds out all, good and bad alike. The publi- 
 cation of the letters in this volume has been, I am well 
 aware, too long delayed; I plead the excuse not only 
 of long illness after the publication of the two volumes 1 
 of Lord Strangford's writings which I edited immediately 
 after his death, but also the fact that I shared ti|e 
 conviction of the writer I have quoted, and for some 
 years searched near and far to find more of the many 
 letters my husband wrote with a lavish hand. For some 
 long ones almost essays that I remembered, I willingly 
 waited, and journeyed many miles to obtain them ; but 
 I searched and waited in vain ; no more than these have 
 been found for me. What I publish now may. not 
 appeal to a very general public, but they will, I feel 
 sure, be gladly welcomed by a few. I have ventured to 
 reprint also a very few of the essays and fugitive pieces 
 written by Lord Strangford on various kindred topics ; 
 of these I would gladly have reprinted more had space 
 allowed me, for many that were thrown off on the 
 spur of the moment trifles apparently a propos only 
 of a passing event or publication contain some golden 
 grain of erudite knowledge, some keen bit of criticism, or 
 some thought so suggestive and informing, that it seemed 
 a pity not to collect them into a form that might be 
 pleasing to the scholar or useful to the student. There 
 
 1 Selections from the Writings of Viscount Strangford, 2 vols., Bentley, 
 1869. 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 is food in this volume for those who study other sub- 
 jects than purely scientific philology and ethnology. The 
 same writer quoted above adds : 
 
 "The linguistic and philological attainments of Lord 
 Strangford were simply amazing. It was wonderful to 
 talk to a man to whom all the languages of Europe and 
 civilised Asia seemed equally familiar. It was wonder- 
 ful to hear a man who could discuss the peculiarities 
 of Basque, and Lithuanian, and the Eomance of Dacia, 
 and who could address a native of Sogdiana in the 
 peculiar forms of Turkish and Persian spoken in his 
 native province. But this was not all. The power of 
 speaking a vast number of languages and dialects has 
 often existed in company with very little real philological 
 knowledge, and with very little real intellectual capacity 
 of any kind. It was not so with Lord Strangford. He 
 was a scientific and historical philologer of a high order. 
 There are few men who more emphatically know whence 
 words come and whither they are going. He not only 
 knew a vast number of languages, but he knew all 
 about the languages which he knew. He knew their 
 history, their several stages of growth, their exact 
 relations to one another ; and he knew all this in the 
 most intelligent and philosophical way. He had too, 
 beyond most men, his knowledge, as the phrase is, at his 
 finger's ends. And he was one who thoroughly realised 
 the way in which cognate though not identical studies 
 must be brought to bear upon one another. This is, 
 we need hardly say, especially needful in the case of 
 comparative philology and of history strictly so called. 
 The comparative philologist will be sure to go astray 
 without a pretty considerable knowledge of the political 
 history of the nations with whose tongues he is dealing ; 
 
 b 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 and the political historian is equally sure to go astray 
 unless he clearly grasps the relations between the 
 languages of the different nations whose history he 
 writes. Now Lord Strangford could perhaps hardly be 
 called an historian in the strictest sense of the word, 
 one with whom political history was in itself an object 
 of primary study ; but on the one hand he had always 
 studied philology in its proper relations to history, and 
 on the other hand he had mastered, as few men have, 
 the political history and condition of those particular 
 nations with which the events of his own life brought 
 him into special contact. Lord Strangford was, in short, 
 an ethnologist in the highest sense of the word. And 
 he brought ethnological knowledge to bear on times *and 
 countries alike with the past and the present. He was 
 at the same moment an authority on the present state 
 of Eastern Europe, who might rank side by side with 
 Mr. Einlay, and an authority on the earliest state of 
 England, who might rank side by side with Dr. Guest. 
 He was equally ready to discuss the relations of the 
 Turk, the Greek, and the Bulgarian at the present 
 moment, and to discuss the exact relations of the Briton, 
 the Scot, and the Englishman in the days of Ceawlin. 
 It seemed wonderful to have to go to one man for the 
 details of the ecclesiastical movement now going on 
 between the Danube and Mount Hsemus, and also for 
 the details by which the Welsh tongue retreated before 
 the English, from the Axe to the Parret, and from the 
 Parret to the Tamar." 
 
 And though the criticism in these letters is sharp and 
 the humour keen, not the most tetchy of authors can detect 
 the faintest breath of ill-nature : he was indeed utterly 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 incapable of it. He used to call himself the " Literary 
 Detective," and the " Chronicler of Current Error ; " and 
 when he thought he detected wilful imposture, he was 
 certainly unsparing in his denunciations ; but not the 
 faintest shadow of a personally unkind feeling ever 
 darkened his mind. 
 
 As it happens, the long delay in publishing these letters 
 has brought them to an opportune moment, for scarcely 
 a page of the volume can be read without the feeling 
 that here was a mind which had mastered what is vulgarly 
 called the " Eastern Question : " one who knew both the 
 upper and the nether springs of all that caused and con- 
 cerned that question : one who had read deeply in the 
 history of all that led up to the complications of to-day : 
 one who had watched and touched the hidden intrigues 
 that traded on the various characteristics of the races 
 engaged in it : " one who knew the peoples as he knew 
 their languages : " one who, looking back, could also look 
 forward with the eye of a true prophet : one who had 
 thought for himself, and formed his own judgment upon 
 that thorough knowledge which comes of personal experi- 
 ence and understanding. And many a one may now deplore 
 his loss, besides those sorrowing friends who loved him. 
 
 I have ventured to add two letters which explain 
 themselves. Prince L. Lucien Bonaparte kindly permits 
 me to publish the affectionate dloge for the scholar and 
 the friend whose loss he still mourns ; the letter of Pro- 
 fessor Arminius Vambery is the honest outpouring of a 
 grateful and appreciative heart written on hearing of the 
 intended publication of this book. My warm thanks are 
 due to both for the permission kindly granted to me to 
 share these two letters with the world. 
 
x : PREFACE. 
 
 Permission to reprint articles already published has 
 been kindly accorded to me by the proprietor of the 
 "Pair Mall Gazette," by Admiral Spratt, and by Mr. 
 Matthew Arnold ; and I here most gratefully acknowledge 
 their kindness. 
 
 E. STRANGFORD. 
 August 3, 1877. 
 
FROM H.LH. PRINCE Z. LUC1EN BONAPARTE. 
 
 LONDRES, le 19 Jain 1877. 
 
 MADAME, 
 
 C'EST avec beaucoup de plaisir que j'ap- 
 prends par les journaux votre retour a Londres. J'es- 
 pere que vous me permettrez de rappeler a votre bon 
 souvenir les liens d'estime profonde et d'amitie sincere qui 
 m'attachaient a votre mari. Lord Strangford etait un de 
 ces liommes rares dont la perte ne saurait etre assez 
 regrettee par quiconque s'interesse a la vraie science 
 philologique. 
 
 Ce linguiste tres distingue unissait, en effet, a la con- 
 naissance la plus approfondie des langues orientales, 
 telles que le persan, 1'arabe, &c., celle non moins etendue 
 des langues slaves, des langues celtiques, et surtout du 
 grec moderne. Que de doutes ayant trait a la comparai- 
 son de cette derniere langue avec 1'ancienne helle'mque 
 n'a-t-il pas re*solus, sur ma demande, d'une maniere aussi 
 completement satisfaisante, que celle de plusieurs hellu- 
 nistes que j'avais consultes avant lui 1'etait peu ! Je me 
 souviendrai toujours des heures qu'il venait passer dans 
 ma bibliotheque et du plaisir qu'il prenait a examiner quel- 
 ques volumes de la plus grande rarete*, soit Valaques, soit 
 Albanais, soit Bulgares. J'etais heureux de posseder ces 
 tresors linguistiques, puisqu'ils servaient a rendre heureux 
 cet homme excellent, aussi modeste que savant, et dont 
 1'aristocratie anglaise doit etre fiere. 
 
xii LETTER. 
 
 On m'assure que vous comptez publier des notices 
 biographiques et litteraires sur Lord Strangford. C'est 
 assez vous dire, Madame, que j 'attends avec la plus vive 
 impatience Tapparition de cet ouvrage, qui, j'en suis cer- 
 tain, surtout venant de vous, sera rempli du plus grand 
 interet scientifique et Iitt6raire. 
 
 Veuillez agreer, Madame, les hommages respectueux de 
 votre tres-de'voue 
 
 L. L. BONAPARTE. 
 
TO THE 
 
 MEMORY OF LORD STRANGFORD. 
 
 THE writer of these lines passed many years searching 
 for and studying East-Turkish manuscripts in the lib- 
 raries of Constantinople ; he haunted the mosques and 
 Tekyehs to obtain information from Mid-Asian pil- 
 grims arriving on the shores of the Bosphorus ; and, 
 later on, in order to complete these studies, he took a 
 journey to the Oxus and Zarafshan, which was then a 
 difficult and dangerous undertaking. Enthusiastically 
 devoted to these studies, he may well be excused for the 
 boundless surprise and admiration which filled him, 
 when, on his return from the East, he met, in the British 
 metropolis, a man who was better acquainted with the 
 collected works of Newa'i than many a thick-turbaned 
 Hodja in the high schools of Bokhara, Samarkand, and 
 Herat ; and who was as familiar with the writings of 
 Fuzuli, Bidil, and Meshreb l as are only the best of their 
 Backshis? 1 
 
 This man was Viscount Strangford, a bright star in the 
 firmament of philological science ; l>ut one who studi- 
 ously hid his light from public view. And therefore I 
 congratulate myself as all the more fortunate that I was 
 one among the privileged few who were permitted to 
 
 1 The popular poets of Central Asia. 3 Oriental troubadours. 
 
xiv IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 draw near to that light which shone for as brief a moment 
 as a meteor, and to profit by its genial warmth. Alas ! 
 for those happy and never-to-be-forgotten hours that I 
 passed in the company of one who was as witty and 
 learned as he was unassuming and modest ! and why 
 should I conceal the truth that it is to these same hours 
 I trace the germ of my more recent as well as of my 
 future labours ? 
 
 It needed but the slightest allusion to the dialectic use 
 of this or that sound, to elicit Lord Strangford's views 
 upon Anatolian or Azerbaijanian dialects, whence he would 
 break into the most minute discussion of the Mohakemet 
 ul Lugatein (a philological dissertation of Newa'i's) ; for 
 his Lordship was not only a brilliant linguist, speaking 
 and writing Turkish, Persian, and Arabic with thorough 
 fluency, but he was yet much more a scholarly philologist, 
 carrying, not on his book-shelves, but in his head and 
 heart, the colossal materials of Comparative Philology; 
 he could not only trace every termination or affix in the 
 various linguistic groups on the Volga, the Oxus, and the 
 Jaxartes, but he could follow them across the Sajan moun- 
 tain ranges to the Jenissei and the Lena. 
 
 Never shall I forget the eager glance with which the 
 learned Lord seized upon some of the private correspond- 
 ence of several of my fellow-pilgrims from Kashgar, written 
 in pure Eastern-Turkish. At that time Jetishehr 1 was a 
 sealed book ; we still fed upon the meagre and unsatis- 
 factory literary fragments which Klaproth is said to have 
 received orally from <a native of Komul, 2 and the most dar- 
 ing optimist would not have ventured to hope that within 
 ten years' time we should be possessed of such a grammar 
 
 1 The collective name of the seven cities of Turkistan. 
 
 2 A native of Komul, one of these seven cities. Notes by the Editor. 
 
IN MEMORIAM. xv 
 
 of Eastern-Turkish as Shaw's meritorious work. The 
 scientific Turkologue of that day indulged in quaint 
 dreams about the dialects in the south-western depend- 
 encies of the Tien-Shan mountains ; while, misled by the 
 hypothesis of Quatremere and Kemusat, it was believed 
 that uncorrupted remains of the Uigurian language (which 
 even in the Middle Ages was richly endowed) might yet be 
 traced there. It was in such a conversation with Lord 
 Strangford that he first drew my attention to the decipher- 
 ing of the Kudatku Bilek in these words : " If you could 
 master and edit that manuscript in the Vienna Imperial 
 Library, you would do a greater service than even your 
 Dervish performance in Central Asia." I was aware that 
 many others had unsuccessfully attempted to unravel this 
 most difficult writing ; but a word from my noble patron 
 sufficed, so to say, to imprison me for four years with 
 this manuscript. And when, after incredible efforts, I 
 had succeeded in contributing to some extent to a com- 
 prehension of this, the earliest linguistic monument in 
 Turkish, I felt that the first rank in the merit of this 
 service should be assigned to Lord Strangford, now re- 
 moved from us by a premature death. My noble friend 
 lived to learn from me that the characters of the once 
 official languages of Jengis Khan had been cast in metal 
 types at Innspruch ; but the end was already drawing 
 near, and when my " Uigurische Sprach-monumente " 
 appeared, that true English heart, ever inspired with the 
 love of science and of liberty, had ceased to beat. 
 
 Lord Strangford was not only a thorough nay, the 
 most thoroughly grounded scholar in the Turkish language 
 and literature, but he was, besides that, intimately ac- 
 quainted with all the other dialects of the Moslem 
 populations of Asia. In addition to the perfect know- 
 
xvi IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 ledge of Turkish, Persian, and Arabic that I have already 
 named, he read, spoke, and wrote Afghan and Hindustani ; 
 and what is yet more remarkable, he combined with all 
 this immense knowledge of living and dead Oriental 
 languages a scholarly knowledge of the ancient and 
 modern languages of Europe. His own countrymen know 
 how deeply versed he was in Celtic lore, but what most 
 astonished the writer of these pages was his intimate and 
 thorough knowledge of the Slavonian tongues, nearly all 
 of which he had mastered in their most minute details. 
 He could repeat by heart innumerable poems from the 
 Gusle of Vuk Karacic ; he knew the entire collection of 
 national songs of the Kacic which live in the mouths of 
 Bosnians and Herzegovinians ; and if by chance the con- 
 versation turned upon the Bulgarian, his favourite child in 
 the family of Eastern Christians, his habitually downcast 
 eyes were raised and lightened up as in eloquent words 
 he discoursed upon the value of this nation of herdsmen 
 and agriculturists. 
 
 "Love for all, hatred for none," was the principle of 
 his life. He wished to see all the peoples of the Bal- 
 kan-countries enjoying prosperity, without detriment to 
 the just rights of the Turks. He had most thoroughly 
 studied the lights and shades of Moslem national life, in 
 the defence of which he was ever ready to break a lance, 
 though no man was more alive to the misrule and the 
 Byzantinism of the Stamboul Effendi class, which he 
 frequently lashed with due severity. 
 
 As in his individuality, so in his views Lord Strang- 
 ford differed widely from the statesmen of England, and 
 from their knowledge of Eastern affairs. In the present 
 time, members of Parliament or ex-ministers of State 
 take a trip to the East in order to study the land and 
 
IN MEMORIAM. xvii 
 
 the people while the steamer is coaling, and on their 
 return home loudly proclaim their superficial experiences, 
 making often an astounding display of distorted facts 
 and absurd views. Five-and-twenty years ago, English- 
 men had still the good sense to abstain from expressing 
 their opinions on the virtues or defects of a foreign 
 country and race, until the local experience of years and 
 a sound knowledge of the languages, habits, religion and 
 history, had given them the right to pronounce judgment 
 upon that country and people. What would the noble 
 Viscount have said and felt had he heard a well-known 
 member of the late Liberal Government last winter 
 inform his constituents that "the Turks possessed no 
 literature, and never had any poets," the Turks, 
 observe, to whom old Hammer-Purgstall assigns no less 
 than two thousand poets ! 
 
 It may be thought by some an exaggeration on my 
 part, but it is nevertheless an indisputable fact that 
 England's perplexity in the East, her disquietude when- 
 ever the " Eastern Question " comes practically to the 
 front, is mainly due to her want of true, sound know- 
 ledge of the Moslem Asiatic countries and peoples. It 
 is from this cause and not on account of a superior 
 number of troops, that she is overreached by the Colossus 
 of the North. What some few had done in Eastern 
 Asia, some English diplomatists succeeded also in ac- 
 complishing in Western Asia, where they made the name 
 of " Ingiliz " shine with a brilliancy which even the 
 blunders of their successors have been unable altogether 
 to obscure. 
 
 We need not hesitate to acknowledge that the soundest 
 of all the diplomatists of the period was the Lord Strang- 
 ford whom death struck down in the flower of his age, 
 
xviii IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 and whose great capacities were as little recognised by 
 contemporary statesmen as his rare learning and marvel- 
 lous intellectual powers were during his life appreciated 
 by the English nation. 
 
 To-day, when a man of his stamp might render the 
 most eminent services, we look in vain for his equal. 
 There is no one like him. Nothing meets the eye but a 
 dismal void, and the dark shadow of an extinct meteor. 
 
 A. VAMBERY. 
 
 BUDA-PESTH, June 10, 1877. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE BY LADY STRANGFORD ...... v 
 
 LETTER OF PRINCE L. LUCIEN BONAPARTE .... xi 
 
 IN MEMORIAM, BY A. VAMBE"RY ...... xiii 
 
 1. OBSERVATIONS ON THE TURKISH LANGUAGE. Now printed 
 
 as originally written ....... 3 
 
 2. TEN LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, Esq., 1861-1864 . n 
 
 3. Two LETTERS TO PROFESSOR MAX MULLER, 1862 . . 41 
 
 4. ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. From the " Jour- 
 
 nal of the Royal Asiatic Society," vol. xx., 1863 . 50 
 
 5. A Too PERSONAL PRONOUN. From the " Realm," June 
 
 1864 69 
 
 6. A NEGLECTED FACT. From the "Realm," 1864 . . 74 
 
 7. DOG-PERSIAN " IN EXCELSIB." From the " Saturday Re- 
 
 view," December 24, 1864 78 
 
 8. A FEW WORDS ON NORTHERN ALBANIA. From " The 
 
 Eastern Shores of the Adriatic." By Viscountess 
 Strangford 87 
 
 9. REVIEW OP " TRAVELS AND RESEARCHES IN CRETE." By 
 
 Captain Spratt, R.N., C.B. From the " Pall Mall 
 Gazette "of August 25, 1865 96 
 
xx CONTENTS. 
 
 10. ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. With a Vocabulary of 
 
 Cretan Greek. Originally contributed by Viscount 
 Straugford to Captain Spratt's "Travels and Ke- 
 searches in Crete," and reprinted here by permission. 
 To which are added Eemarks and Suggestions by 
 Antonios Jeannarakis ...... 106 
 
 11. TWELVE LETTERS to E. A. FREEMAN, Esq., 1865 . . 132 
 
 12. LETTER TO MR. MAX MULLER, January 11, 1866 . . 167 
 
 13. LORD STRANGFORD'S NOTES contributed to "The Study 
 
 of Celtic Literature." By Matthew Arnold. London, 
 
 1867 169 
 
 14. TWELVE LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, Esq. "Written in 
 
 1866, 1867, and 1868 175 
 
 15. FUGITIVE PIECES. Reprinted from the "Pall Mall 
 
 Gazette : " 
 
 1866. 
 
 
 Church or Kirk, January 10 211 
 
 Irish Archaeology, January . . . . . . 212 
 
 Popularised Ethnology, January 1 7 . . . .214 
 
 Irish Proper Names, March 2 219 
 
 | 
 
 Romans, Roumans, and Roumains, March i o . . 221 
 
 Mr. Arnold on Celtic Literature, March 19 . . . 223 
 
 Old and New Irish Nationality, March 27 . . . 230 
 
 Old and New Fenians, April 235 
 
 Slavonic Professorship, April . . . . .237 
 
 "Greek Slavs," May ii 239 
 
 Slavonic at Oxford, May 24 ... . . 242 
 
 Dam Altafhoo, May 30 244 
 
 Latin Pronunciation, September 4 . . 248 
 
 The Gift of Tongues, September 6 .... 249 
 
 Greek Pronunciation, September 14 . . . . 252 
 
CONTENTS. xx i 
 
 The Language Questions in the Tyrol and Istria, Sep- 
 tember 15 253 
 
 Celtic at Oxford, September 22 262 
 
 1867. 
 
 Zmudzo-Lethonians, January 28 .... 264 
 
 1868. 
 
 " Iranian " and " Aryan," three pieces, March 30 . 267 
 
 " Cui Bono " and " Vidi Tantum," April 20 . . 273 
 
 Change in English Pronunciation, July 23 . . 276 
 
 INDEX , 279 
 
LETTERS AND PAPERS 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 LORD STRANGFORD. 
 
LETTERS AND PAPERS 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 LORD STRANGFORD. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE TURKISH LANGUAGE! 
 
 IT has been thought useful to supply the traveller with a 
 brief sketch of the mechanism of the Turkish language, 
 such as may assist him in understanding what he hears, 
 and in applying any words which he may pick up ; 
 although in the limited space at our disposal it is impos- 
 sible adequately to explain the remarkable structure, both 
 grammatical and syntactical, of this beautiful language, 
 which is justly admired by philologists. 
 
 The Turkish is, like the English, a mixed language. 
 With a Turkish construction it works up Arabic and Per- 
 sian words. Common Turkish is almost pure Turkish, but 
 the old literary language introduces Persian copiously. 
 The leading literary school now reduce the foreign ele- 
 ments, and use more Turkish. It is expressive, soft, and 
 musical, not difficult to speak, but not easily written. The 
 Turkish characters are, with some slight difference, the 
 same as the Arabic and Persian. They are written from 
 the right to the left, in an oblique direction. The chief 
 
 1 Written for the " Handbook of Travellers in Turkey," and published by 
 the kind permission of John Murray, Esq., Albemarle Street. 
 
4 OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 books of the Turks are those on poetry, law, and theology. 
 Printing was introduced at Constantinople in the sixteenth 
 century ; but the copies of the Koran are still chiefly mul- 
 tiplied in manuscript. 
 
 The Turks have several styles of writing, each used for 
 different purposes; such are the nessik, which is the 
 foundation of all the others, and in which are transcribed 
 copies of the Koran and other sacred books ; the diwani, 
 for firmans and official documents ; the rik'a, for ordinary 
 correspondence ; and several others. 
 
 All consonants are to be pronounced as in English, g 
 always hard, and ch always soft, as in girl and church ; k 
 and g before the soft vowel, e, i t k } eu, are mouilUs, that is, 
 they have a slight sound of y after them ; thus, pretty is 
 gyuzal. 
 
 When p, t, k, and g occur at the end of syllables or 
 words, and, in the process of inflection or conjugation, any 
 addition is made, they become, for euphony's sake, I, d, y, 
 and gh respectively, as git, go ; gider, he goes ; kalpak, a 
 cap ; kalpaglii, his cap ; gelejek, one who is coming (ven- 
 turus) ; gdejeyim, I am coming. We have observed that 
 one of the chief causes of an Englishman's unintelligibility 
 in speaking a foreign language is his inattention to the 
 proper pronunciation of the letter r. This one character 
 in English represents two distinct sounds, one initial, as 
 in ring, when it is a consonant ; another, medial or final, as 
 in horn, cur, when it is a semi-vowel. This semi-vocalic 
 sound does not exist in foreign languages (except in Sans- 
 krit and Illyrian, where it is recognised as a distinct vowel), 
 and accordingly the consonantal sound should be carefully 
 pronounced : thus, firman, an order, should not be made 
 to rhyme with our word sermon, if meant to be understood 
 by a Turk, but with " there, man" as an Irishman would 
 pronounce it. Difficulties in foreign languages may often 
 be usefully illustrated and explained by our own provincial 
 peculiarities. An Irishman will observe this rule instinc- 
 tively. In addition to our vowels, there are the French u 
 
THE TURKISH LANGUAGE. 5 
 
 and eu, and a peculiar thick sound of i or u, found in the 
 Slavonic dialects, and existing in English, but not distin- 
 guished. 
 
 Turkish belongs to what has been called the Altaian or 
 Turanian family of languages, but more properly to the 
 Ibero-Turkish, which includes the Iberian (Basque), Majyar 
 or Hungarian, Fin, Lap, and numerous others. It has dis- 
 tant affinities with all, but nearer with Majyar. The 
 relatives of its own branch are the Turkish languages and 
 dialects of Andalusia, Turkestan, and Siberia. The Turkish 
 language is so widely distributed and understood, that a 
 traveller may make his way by its use from Algiers to the 
 great wall of China, and from Egypt and Arabia into 
 Siberia. Beyond its own proper area it is extensively 
 used as a foreign and cultivated language in Persia, Cir- 
 cassia, and the courts of Turkestan. It has left its traces 
 in India. 
 
 Ethnologically, the Turk is neither a Kaukasian an 
 absurd denomination nor a Mongol ; he belongs to a high 
 race, which, like the Indo-European or Semitic, has a 
 wide range, ranging from the high-bred Osmanli, equal to 
 any Indo-European or Arab, down to races having the 
 sloping eyes and rounded cheekbones of the Mongol. 
 There is a roundishness of skull, and, in the lower mem- 
 bers of the race, a tenderness of skin. As the Semitic 
 race has tendencies towards the negro, so has the Turkish 
 towards the Mongol. 
 
 Vulgarly, in philological works, Turkish is classed with 
 the agglutinative languages, a fanciful and unscientific 
 appellation. 
 
 There are no peculiarities to an Englishman in the 
 Turkish consonants, but in the Anatolian and Turkoman 
 dialects some of them become harsh gutturals. For cen- 
 turies the tendency of the Osmanlis has been towards 
 softening, dismissing the gutturals and -nasals. 
 
 There is, practically speaking, no definite article in 
 Turkish, though o is sometimes used, and inflection will 
 
6 OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 often supply its place. The indefinite a or an is expressed, 
 as in some other languages, by ~bir (one). 
 
 The various relations of nouns expressed in other lan- 
 guages by prepositions or by cases are, in Turkish, repre- 
 sented by a set of affixes, which differ from cases in the 
 fact that they are simply attached to without being incor- 
 porated with their noun, as in home, home?wmi These 
 affixes are as follows, with the old names of cases for con- 
 venience' sake : 
 
 Genitive (of), een, yn, un, oon after a vowel, neen, nyn t 
 nun, noon. 
 
 Dative (to, for), ah, eh, . yah, yeh. 
 
 Accusative, ee, y, u, eoo, . . . . yee,yu,yoo. 
 
 Ablative (from), dan, den. 
 
 Locative (at, in), da, de. 
 
 Associative or instrumental (with), la\ leh. 
 
 It will be observed that each affix is written with dif- 
 ferent vowels ; this arises from a peculiarity of the Turkish 
 system of sounds which is common to the Altaian lan- 
 guages, and which is recognised in Basque, Majyar, and Fin, 
 called the " harmony of vowels," which is as follows : The 
 vowels are divided into two classes, which may respectively 
 be called soft and hard, there being four of each, and every 
 soft vowel having its corresponding hard one. They are 
 ah, y, o, u, hard ; and ay, ee, eu, u, soft. Very few words 
 contain two vowels of opposite classes, and the use of all 
 affixes is regulated by the character of the vowels of the 
 root. This most important rule should always be borne 
 in mind, as applying to all increases of the root, whether 
 in nouns, pronouns, or verbs. Such a word as goldsmith is 
 impossible to the mouth of a Turk, who would pronounce 
 it goldsmooth. Thus adam makes adamyn, the a in the 
 root being hard; e being soft, sherbet makes slierbetin; 
 geuz, geuzun ; and top, topun. 
 
 The plural is formed by adding lar or ler to the root. 
 The affixes are joined to this for the plural cases ; thus, 
 adamlar, adamlaryn. 
 
THE TURKISH LANGUAGE. 7 
 
 Adjectives are indeclinable, as in English, and, as in 
 English, always precede the qualified substantive, as guzel 
 kary, a pretty woman, and guzel karynyn, of a pretty 
 woman. 
 
 The numerals, cardinal and ordinal, do not make the 
 noun plural, as yuz adam, not yuz adamlar. 
 
 The personal pronouns, len, sen, o, take special affixes to 
 make them possessive ; thus, benim, senim, onun. These, 
 again, when declension is necessary, take the affixes of 
 cases above given; thus, ev, a house; evim, my house; 
 evimden, from my house. After a vowel, the possessive 
 i or u of the third person becomes si, sy, su, or w, accord- 
 ing to the character of the preceding vowel ; thus, kapu, 
 a gate ; Jcapusu, his gate ; and kapusuna, to his gate ; na 
 and ni being used for a and i in the dative and accusative 
 of the second person possessive. 
 
 There is no relative pronoun in Turkish, its absence 
 being supplied by a most complicated construction, with 
 a verbal gerund taking the possessive affixes. 
 
 In Turkish, when the idea of possession has to be 
 expressed, the object possessed always takes 'the third 
 personal possessive affix, the possessor taking the genitive 
 termination; thus, paslianyn evi, the pasha's house, not 
 pashanyn ev ; karynyn geuzu, the woman's eye, not karynyn 
 geuz: literally translated these words mean the pasha 
 his house, the woman her eye ; reminding us of our own 
 " for Christ his sake," or the Latin " suo sibi gladio hunc 
 jugulo." 
 
 The observing of this rule forms one of the chief diffi- 
 culties in Turkish. The genitive affix is only added when 
 we in English would use the definite article, whose want 
 is thus supplied by inflection ; pasha evi and 'kary geuzu, 
 without the genitive, mean a pasha's house, as distinct 
 from any other kind of house ; a woman's eye, as distinct 
 from a man's ; where pasha, and Tcary may be considered 
 as adjectives, qualifying and describing the object rather 
 than as implying possession. 
 
8 OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 The verb has its infinitive in mek or mcik, declinable 
 like a noun. The Turkish verb, like the English, makes a 
 distinction between " come" and " am coming," " came" and 
 " was coming," and so throughout, including the passive. 
 What is called in English the participial form is in Turkish 
 represented by yor gelyorim, I am coming, gelyordim, I 
 was coming, &c. Its root, or simplest form, is the imperative. 
 The tenses are mostly formed by adding person-endings 
 to participles, which latter are capable of being used sepa- 
 rately. An example is given: gel, come thou; gelir (a 
 separable present indefinite participle), one who comes; 
 geleer-eem, geleer-sen, geleer, geleer-eez, geleer-seeniz, geleer-ler, 
 I, thou, he, we, you, they, come; geliyur (a separable 
 present definite participle), one actually coming; geliyur- 
 eem, geliyur-sen, &c., I am coming, &c.; gel-ejek (a separable 
 definite future participle), one about to come ; gel-ejeyim, 
 gel-ejeksen, gel-ejek, gel-ejeyiz, gel-ejeksiniz, gel-ejelcler, I, thou, 
 he, &c., will come. The past definite is gel, -deem, -deen, 
 -dee, deeJc, -deeniz, -deeler, I, thou, he, &c., came ; this is not 
 a separable participle. The past indefinite, gelmish, one 
 who has come, is a separable participle ; gelmish-eem, -sen, 
 gelmish, -eez, -seeniz, -ler, I, thou, he, &c., have come. The 
 optative, present and past, geleyeem and geley-ideem, I may 
 and I might come ; the person-endings are respectively as 
 in geliriin and geldeem. The conditional is gel-sem, -sen, -seh, 
 -sek, -seniz, seler, if I, thou, he, &c., come. The imperative 
 is gel, gel-seen, gel-elim, geleen, gel-seenler, come thou, let 
 him come, let us come, come ye, let them come. 
 
 For a verb whose root has a hard vowel, of course the 
 endings must also be used with hard vowels, as lak, look ; 
 lak-arym, I look ; door, stop ; doorooroom, I stop. 
 
 The negative verb, which has a separate conjugation, is 
 formed by the insertion of an m, under euphonic rules, 
 before its person-endings. We merely give one or two 
 examples, as being irregular and in most common use: 
 gelmez, he comes not ; gelmeh, do not come. Tor verbs with 
 hard vowels the syllable is naturally mah and not meh. 
 
THE TURKISH LANGUAGE. g 
 
 An e or an a, according to the vowels of the root, placed 
 before the me or ma, changes the negative verb to one ex- 
 pressing impossibility; thus gelmem, I come not ; gelemem, 
 I cannot come. This admirable mechanism of the verb is 
 followed throughout with the most perfect regularity ; and 
 there are reflective, causative, reciprocal, and the derived 
 conjugations, which are formed in a similar manner by 
 introducing different monosyllables. 
 
 An interrogative verb is made by the addition of mi, 
 my, mu, or mu, after the endings, as geldinmi, didst thou 
 come? It precedes, however, instead of following the 
 endings, as -eem, -sen, -eez, -seeniz ; as gelejek-mee-eez, are we 
 coming ? 
 
 This particle can be added to nouns, or all other parts 
 of speech, as well as to verbs, and serves to specify the 
 question as belonging emphatically to the word to which it 
 is joined. This is a great convenience, which is unknown, 
 to other languages, except the Eussian, Illyrian, and par- 
 tially the Latin. The working of the principle is beauti- 
 ful; thus, sen mi Istambolah gitdin-mi, did you go to 
 Stambul ? sen mi Istambolah gitdin, was it you who went 
 to Stambul ? sen IstambolaJi-mi gitdin, was it to Stambul 
 you went ? 
 
 A simple verb may, therefore, have six forms an affir- 
 mative, negative, impossible, and an interrogative of each. 
 But the difficulty is more apparent than real, as the per- 
 son-endings are simple and never vary, the tenses few, and 
 the root itself is never changed or disguised. 
 
 The working of this system has a great likeness to that 
 of the English verb, as it exists in fact, not as represented 
 commonly in grammars. 
 
 The Turkish idiom, in many cases, has extraordinary 
 resemblances to English, and particularly to the Cockney 
 dialect. 
 
 The construction of sentences follows the inverted order, 
 as in Latin, the verb always closing the phrase. 
 
 In speaking Anatolian, the guttural kh must be used, 
 
io THE TURKISH LANGUAGE. 
 
 and the language made rougher ; but in Stambul every- 
 thing is softened, as in English. 
 
 The traveller who wishes to obtain any further insight 
 into the language on the spot is especially recommended 
 to learn what he can as colloquially as possible, rather than 
 by taking lessons from a professional master, who will 
 prove completely wedded to a defective routine system of 
 teaching. Let him avoid encumbering and embarrassing 
 his brain by any attempt at formally studying the literary 
 Turkish, which will only create inextricable confusion, 
 and, even if learnt, would be quite useless for conver- 
 sational purposes, a great proportion of the words used in 
 the written language being quite unknown to the middle 
 and lower classes. There are several Turkish grammars. 
 Mr. Eedhouse is the author of the best grammar of the 
 language, but it is unfortunately in French ; and he is also 
 the author of a very remarkable English and Turkish 
 dictionary, besides other works. 1 A fine sketch of the 
 language will be found in Professor Max Miiller's " Lec- 
 tures on Language," though mixed up with the conven- 
 tional High Dutch nomenclature. 
 
 1 Since this was written, Mr. Red- Redhouse Las packed into a very 
 house has issued a useful pocket compact little volume, readily car- 
 volume,under the title of " The Turk- ried in the pocket or knapsack, a 
 ish Vade - Mecum ; " containing a guide to Ottoman colloquial Ian- 
 copious Ottoman Grammar; a care- guage, which seems to be of a very 
 fully selected Vocabulary, alphabeti- practical and useful kind. He dis- 
 cally arranged in two parts English penses with Arabic characters, which, 
 and Turkish, and Turkish and Eng- he thinks, only mystify and confuse 
 lish ; also a few familiar dialogues those who desire rapid and rudimen- 
 and naval and military terms the tary instruction, and gives the words 
 whole in English characters, the pro- in English letters ; together with a 
 nunciation being fully indicated, carefully prepared vocabulary, and a 
 How well the book answers to its short appendix of military and navaJ 
 title is thus noticed in the " Saturday terms." Publishers' Note. 
 Review" of i4th July 1877: "Mr. 
 
( 11 ) 
 
 TEN LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 19 MANSFIELD STREET, YV., April i, 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I must beg you to excuse me for not 
 having sooner sent you Lascarato's book, according to pro- 
 mise. I have only just succeeded in recovering it from a 
 friend to whom I had lent it. To my mind, the book is 
 so curious and interesting, both for its contents and its 
 language, that I am anxious you should not be without 
 some help towards understanding it, and I therefore 
 venture to give you a hint or two, which I hope may not 
 be unacceptable. I recommend you to begin at once with 
 the political or third section. The language there is, at 
 first, much easier and less idiomatic, and the matter just 
 at present has immediate interest. He is bitter and fierce 
 beyond anything, but is perfectly impartial, showing up 
 alike the " Come-sta " or toady party, the clamorous an- 
 nexationists who usurp the name of the people, and the 
 v A<yy\ov<i ttSta^opou?. The other sections, which are on 
 domestic economy and the priesthood, are to an English 
 reader mere truisms and platitudes couched in quaint 
 vigorous language, though to a Greek they are audacious 
 and shocking to the last degree. 
 
 I have been cudgelling my brains, but I fear without 
 much result, to find out for you a royal road or clue to 
 the labyrinth of modern Greek phonetics. Lascarato is as 
 defiant in form as in spirit, and he spells anyhow, with 
 most perfect wantonness, not because he knows no better, 
 but because he does not think the matter worth caring 
 
12 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 about, and uses any vowel that comes uppermost to his 
 pen. Of course you are prepared for all the letters repre- 
 senting the i sound being used indifferently ; 6 and ai are 
 used with equal indifference ; at is the exact equivalent of 
 e, and softens 7 and ^ in the same way into y and that 
 peculiar soft ^ which can only be expressed on paper by 
 hy [we have the sound only before u ; thus Hume, Hughes, 
 are exactly rendered by Xiov/j,, Xiov, in Greek translitera- 
 tion]. Lascarato would be quite capable of writing alrla 
 as eroia. When you are at a loss for the meaning of a 
 word of course barring such vulgarisms as are impossible 
 for you to know your best plan will be to repeat it to 
 yourself as it were with your eyes shut, and to try at the 
 meaning by applying every possible variant in place of such 
 letters as happen to have equivalents. Final v is hardly 
 ever pronounced except before vowels and TT, r, or K, 
 which coalesce with it and take their respective medial 
 sounds. In these cases it is constantly put on where not 
 wanted, especially by Albanians and Western Greeks; 
 thus Lascarato writes vav for va constantly ; but a Greek 
 has no conception of a medial consonant pure and un- 
 affected by a nasal : this is from Albanian influence. He 
 not only writes " madama " as ^avrd^a, but he also pro- 
 nounces it " mandama," and tells you it is all the same. I 
 
 have even heard old E , who has been thirty years in 
 
 England, say " to ndeserve it," instead of " to deserve." 
 Another way of avoiding v as a termination is to put on 
 an extra vowel, as avrove, eiceivove, r&v e^Opcove. Lascarato 
 is very fond of this. In the aorist plurals it comes as a 
 matter of course, being favoured by the wish to obtain 
 uniformity in accentuation thus you have e/cdjjLafj,e, 
 e/cdj^are, exd/iave, for e/cajj,av ; S9metimes even iKa^a, but 
 this is rare. Here is an instance in Lascarato. Avo ya'i- 
 Sovpia TTOV 'jjiaXtova (two donkeys who were quarrelling 
 for ejj,d\\a)vav). You must therefore be prepared for Bev 
 appearing before consonants as e, and not allow your eye 
 to mislead you into mistaking it for Be of the old Hellenic 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 13 
 
 firm of fiev and Se, now bankrupt, Athenians and their 
 Philhellenic dupes to the contrary notwithstanding. Be 
 prepared for the omission of otiose gammas, as Xeet, <f)v\dei,, 
 for \eyei, <f>v\dyei, (fyvkaTrei), as also for the insertion of 7, 
 when it has the sound of y, before the i-sounding letters, as 
 7*aT/>o9, 71^09. This is done to quicken the pronunciation, 
 making these words sound yatros, ybs, instead of i-atros, 
 ios. There are several new 'abnormal presents formed by 
 the phonetic influence of the aorists. Aorists in -ijo-a, 
 -icra, -vaa, are practically the same, though etymologically 
 different; and an aorist in -iva, for instance, though arising 
 from a present in -/Jiw, reacts upon the latter, and changes 
 it arbitrarily into one in -w, from -ew or -aw. So in the 
 third page we have fiewdei. It would not be easy to 
 recognise ^vvei. The first error is mere wantonness ; of 
 course -ae* arises out of efirjvvaa becoming treated as 
 though it were e^mjcra, like e/juiXfja-a or rjyaTrrja-a, and 
 thereby forming a present pyvda, -aa? r -dei, like dyairda) 
 or -a>, dycnrdew, dyaTrdei,. So eKo^fra from KOTTTO) has got a 
 new present icopa), or with an otiose gamma, /co/Byco ; so 
 /ca/3o> or /ca/ityft) for icafo, from e/ca^Jra = e/cavo-a. 
 
 At this rate I shall be writing a grammar instead of a 
 letter, so I will not now trouble you with more than a few 
 miscellaneous hints. Els may become ere and w?, the latter 
 not being the old Atticism retained, but a contraction of 
 
 &<? eiw? TO iJTrryn, being = et? TO cnrrjTL (when et? means 
 
 to, not in). IIov\tb (pulyo) is ir\eov, constantly pronounced 
 piu, pio, plio. Pulio is an lonism or Cephalonism; I 
 never heard it or noticed it. Anew for <j)6dva) (to suffice), 
 feeWco and derivatives for ^efyawrovto or Siao-tceSd^a) (to 
 divert or amuse), and the aorist passive employment of 
 etTTO), as elTroOrjfca (or 'iroOrjKa), va VO^T}, &C., e.g., '/u-Tropet va 
 *7ro6f), " it can be said," are Ionian peculiarities, at least I 
 never heard the last one. Feminines in -i? are, as you 
 probably know, colloquially equivalent to those in -77 or -a ; 
 thus, Taft9, 7TO/U9, are pronounced by all, 1 and written by 
 
 1 Except is excipiendis, the educated and conscious. 
 
14 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 Lascarato, as rdfy, TroXrj, and in the plural rag e? or 
 
 &c. Before concluding I will give you a short lift over 
 
 a passage neither easy nor hard page 2, beginning Mia 
 
 'Ilavrpeftei, for viravSpevet,. In the combinations vSp, 
 fji(3p, S and /3 retain 1 what was their old sound, i.e., our d and 
 I ; and to denote this the Greeks change the writing, and 
 spell as above, or as <ya/ji7rp6$, irpiKio (yrpoiiaov), portion. 
 TV}? Sivei gives her. Genitives ' were rapidly going when 
 the spoken language recovered its consciousness : they are 
 constantly used for the dative and objective case in pro- 
 nouns. Tid, ya, for Sid, regularly so pronounced. Aavrove 
 for eSavrov = avrbv, arising from e&w + avrov, i.e., "just 
 him." ^^apio-Trjerai for ev^apicrrelrai, regular collo- 
 quialism. For dyaTrw/JLcu, -aa-ai, -arat,, it is usual to say 
 dyajnovfiai,, -Ttitcrai, -Trierai,, -Tnov^aare, &c. (piume, piese, 
 &c., as two, not three syllables). Translate the last bit, 
 "As he turns back from his father-in-law's house, the 
 money which he carries with him is his market purchase, 
 and the wife is the makeweight." WWVL or tyovvt,, a pur- 
 chase of meat or provisions; rcrovra, ts'onda, the make- 
 weight, such as fat, bone, &c., such as you must take in 
 with the good part when you buy meat. IIov is the regu- 
 lar relative ; it is also used for on, and, through Oriental 
 influence, like Mrs. Gamp's which, as 6 avOpwiros TTOV TOV 
 elSa, the man which I saw him = whom I saw. 
 
 'A fez/a>, in next page, is for avgatvco : the combination 
 fx being clumsy to pronounce. If there are any diffi- 
 culties which you may find in the course of reading, pray 
 do not hesitate to consult me, as I am an idle man, and 
 shall be most happy to satisfy you as far as I can ; at the 
 same time, I must confess that here and there I am 
 puzzled from want of special Cephalonian experience. I 
 remain, my dear sir, very faithfully yours, 
 
 STKANGFOFJX 
 
 1 In practice,, not in theory. 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 15 
 
 19 MANSFIELD STREET, "W., March 12, 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I have a great deal to answer for, both 
 to you and to my own conscience, in having suffered a 
 correspondence so auspiciously begun, and to me so pro- 
 fitable, as ours to fall into neglect. Travel and matrimony 
 are my only grounds of excuse for this. As I am now 
 settled and at rest, I lose no time in resuming our corre- 
 spondence, being more especially moved thereunto by a pas- 
 sage in your last letter to W , read to me by him, from 
 
 which I gather that my opinion on your "AyyeXos article, 
 or on some of its details, would not be unacceptable. Be- 
 fore going into this, however, I should like to say a word 
 or two about Maltese. I think I am not wrong in attri- 
 buting to you an article on Sallack's " Malta," which ap- 
 peared some time last autumn, and expressed a wish to 
 know the real state of the case about Phoenician and 
 Arabic elements in Maltese. That pleasant jargon, for 
 which I have a weakness quite out of proportion to its 
 merits, is wholly and exclusively Arabic. Not only this, 
 but Barbary Arabic, and distinctively that of East Barbary, 
 or Tunis and Tripoli. It must have been fixed pretty 
 early, and affords valuable testimony in proof of the early 
 origin of modern Barbaresque colloquialisms, which do not 
 exist in Syria or Arabia. The use of ski = thing, in 
 negative sentences, like the French pas, as* an extra 
 negative, this is unknown in classical Arabic and in the 
 East, but begins in Egypt. It has also lost two hard gut- 
 turals, and makes no distinction between the emphatic and 
 the ordinary dentals. On this last point, I have observed 
 all Barbary men that I have talked with to be very shaky. 
 Of Phoenician there is absolutely and positively not a trace 
 in Maltese. The one word which exists in Maltese and 
 Phoenician (i.e., Hebrew), and does not exist in classical 
 or Eastern Arabic, is f'tit, a little, un peu. But I have 
 heard it also from the mouth of a genuine Tunisian Mus- 
 sulman ; and it must be a Punism, therefore, of Barbary 
 
16 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 and Malta, not of Malta distinctively. Ydser, very 
 much, is another Punism from Barbary, which, however, 
 is not found in Maltese. There is no such thing in exist- 
 ence as a vocabulary of Tunisian provincialisms, and such 
 a one would be of great value if well done, or decently 
 well. The Maltese vocabulary is overloaded with Italian ; 
 yet not more so than the town Greek of Corfu, Zante, 
 or Smyrna used to be in the pre-Kora'i days, or, for the 
 matter of that, even now among Levantine Franks. An 
 unusual proportion of decent Arabic verbs have become 
 deflected into indecent meanings in Maltese, causing end- 
 less amusement and mutual misunderstandings between 
 the two parties. Defd, Arabic to pay, let go, set free, in 
 Maltese means irepecr6ai : hasha, Arabic, to stuff or fill in ; 
 Maltese, coire : 'ush (sh doubled), Arabic, a bird's nest; Mal- 
 tese, pudendum muliebre. As to the Maltese blood, there 
 is no doubt that it is mainly Phoenician, and that this 
 latter language would have yielded easily, and as a matter 
 of course, within a generation or two to the Arabic, being 
 intimately allied, when the blood would have been little 
 affected. Moreover, Mohammedan conquest never seriously 
 affects the blood of the conquered, whereas the conquerors 
 are always affected by the latter. They are ever apt to 
 commit ethnological suicide, and obliterate their original 
 selves, indeed, by overmuch intercourse with the native 
 race; as the Turks, or so-called Moguls, have done in 
 India. 
 
 You will say that I have ridden my Maltese hobby to 
 death, and that it is time to mount the Byzantine " unrea- 
 sonable." I know nothing myself about the "^776X09, but 
 suspect it to be one of the numerous abortive efforts made 
 to attract public attention by one Pitsipios, who calls him- 
 self a prince, who left the Greek Church for Rome after 
 writing a very violent and amusing " Roving-Englishman "- 
 like attack on the abuses of orthodox prelacy, and who is 
 now in the pay of the Propaganda at Eome for the pur- 
 pose of writing up Latin and Greek union. He is a poor 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 17 
 
 weak creature, and his ideas vague, shadowy, and baseless ; 
 but it is easy for a Greek to produce the impression of 
 superior ability through the wonderful rhetorical power 
 and copiousness of the language which has come down to 
 him. 
 
 Your article is perfectly correct in matters of fact, with 
 two slight exceptions, which are over- or under- statements 
 rather than errors. I have, looked carefully at the Alba- 
 nian language, and believe, with the best Germans, that it 
 is not only Indo-European, but that it stands in special 
 and intimate connection with the very oldest Greek. I 
 cannot here go into the evidence of this in detail. Its 
 vocabulary is ruined and overwhelmed with Latin borrow- 
 ings of eighteen hundred years, from Augustan Latin 
 evidenced by the retention of the hard sound of c before e 
 and i to the modern Eomanic of their South Wallah 
 neighbours, to say nothing of Adriatic Italian. Its forms 
 and synthesis are much broken down ; but, such as they 
 are, are all Indo-European, and one has no more right to 
 separate them on this account from that class than to 
 separate modern Erench and call it allophylic, if it were 
 now to be first discovered, and if Latin had been completely 
 obliterated. Latham, who puts them in the same unclassed 
 category as the Basques, is utterly untrustworthy and no 
 scholar, though his destructive criticism is often of great 
 value, and unjustly ignored or run down by the Germans. 
 It is not this old connection which helps their assimila- 
 tion to the Greeks proper. It is the total uncultivation of 
 their language, and absence of writing and of all literary or 
 home-grown religious traditions among them, which does 
 this. An orthodox Albanian becomes a Greek at once 
 the moment he comes under the civilising influence of the 
 Greek language as an instrument of education and litera- 
 ture, and where they exist in small bodies they lose their 
 own language in a generation or two, In large bodies, as 
 in Hydra and Attica, they keep it up, but for all practical 
 purposes are Greek. Ethnologically, of course, they are a 
 
1 8 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 far more important factor than the Slavonians in the 
 modern Greek race. The Greeks have equally incorpo- 
 rated, and are incorporating, the Eomanic population of 
 Northern Greece, because these have, most unfortunately, 
 left their language uncultivated, have.no traditions sepa- 
 rate from the Greeks; for with them un Romanu is an 
 exact equivalent to evas Pw/^to?, and does not imply a 
 sense of Eoman descent, but of citizenship of the later 
 Uoinan or Byzantine Empire, and the language of their 
 religion and education is wholly Greek. But the Bul- 
 garian cannot be incorporated, because he has a culti- 
 vated language for his liturgy, and hitherto, when he 
 wrote at all, for his secular literature, and all his senti- 
 ments and traditions are bound up with that language, 
 which he is trying hard to use for the improvement of his 
 vernacular, and as a standard and source of literary cor- 
 rectness, as the Greek does with Hellenic. The Greeks do 
 not mete out to the Bulgarians the measure which they 
 claim for themselves, and have succeeded, among races 
 subject or quasi-subject to them who have any independent 
 feeling, in making themselves thoroughly hated by their 
 attempts to crush vernacular education. And when they 
 now tell the world that these people were all the same 
 two or three thousand years ago, it will be thought plea- 
 sant and clever at Athens and in Finsbury Square, but at 
 Sophia and Bucharest people will wonder whether the 
 Franks think them fools enough to be caught by such very 
 poor chaff as that, and deluded into lending themselves to 
 any scheme of Neo-Byzantine supremacy. You now see, 
 no doubt, why the word Rouman (lege, Roman or Romun 
 POMhH, with a special Slavonic vowel in South 
 Wallachian Romanu, as in Italian) is a$o%ov KOL ei'reXe? n. 
 It embodies the consciousness of the North Wallachian's 
 descent from the great people, and is the very source and 
 key of his rising self-respect and his future political rege- 
 neration. This will always be a stumbling-block to the 
 Greek's aim of supremacy ; and he would fain replace it 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 19 
 
 by some other more profitable tradition of the Walla- 
 chian's identity with himself. But the Greek's eager 
 vanity overlooks the fact that neither Boyar nor peasant 
 are likely to thank him for substituting a theory of con- 
 nection with the race of Mavroyeni for one of descent 
 from that of Trajan. As for Dr. Beron and his Thracians, 
 and all these shadowy and meaningless theories, the writers 
 no more believe them than the readers, if there are any; 
 and they are really not worth powder and shot, and nei- 
 ther deserve nor obtain serious consideration out of the 
 Hellenic Buncombe for which they are manufactured, just 
 as Dublin manufactures analogous stuff for the Celtic 
 Buncombe. 
 
 The word TpaiKo? is not only common, but fixed and 
 universal. It is the regular modem substitute for the 
 Pw/zato? (accent always so in speaking) of thirty years ago. 
 Of course, it arose from the necessity of finding a correct 
 and comprehensive term to include all Greeks which 
 did not suggest any political meaning, like the word 
 
 This last word is in practice purely political, and only 
 applied to the whole race as a figure of rhetoric and in the 
 high style ; as, for instance, when we call ourselves Anglo- 
 Saxons. He/Dere vpaiKi/ca is the regular current expres- 
 sion for " Do you know Greek ? " It is now as much a 
 point of honour to sink pcof^aufca as to sink a<pevrrj<; ; but 
 plain country folk and sailors will long continue to use 
 both at least I hope so ; for I honour and respect a Greek 
 who sticks by and is not ashamed of his honest Byzantine 
 tongue and traditions. 
 
 I don't quite agree with you about Queenstown, &c., but 
 there is no space for more, and I may have bored you 
 enough as it is. I must say, however, that your JVX/3ep- 
 TOTrouXo? would infallibly be taken by plain Vasilaki or 
 Dimitraki, who knows no tongue but his own, and who 
 reads his regular newspaper gossip, for Major Yelverton. 
 W - tells me you will be in town before long. I 
 
20 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 hope to have the pleasure of seeing you when you come. 
 I remain, very sincerely yours, 
 
 STRANGFORD. 
 
 CORFU, May 25, 1863. 
 
 MY DEAE FREEMAN, .... I suspect that the per- 
 son you met in Switzerland who said Ne parla Almane, 
 was no genuine Rhaetian, but more probably an Italian 
 speaking dog-French, his only available means of commu- 
 nication with a Western stranger. You hear very little 
 Romansch even at Coire, and it has gone down very low 
 in all the Rhenish valleys, though in the Engadine it has 
 much more vitality. 
 
 I am writing with much shortness of temper and bitter- 
 ness of spirit, having been much provoked by the hotel 
 waiter, who has called this island Ke'rkyra instead of its 
 real name. I blew him up strongly for so doing, but I 
 don't think he followed or appreciated my arguments. If 
 he had said Korkyra, I should have forgiven him ; but to 
 go and dig up a dead old bone of a word which never was 
 vernacular anywhere out of Attica at any time, and to be 
 ashamed of the good, picturesque, descriptive word of his 
 grandfathers before him, is a thing which rouses my wrath, 
 and impels me to lift up my voice and testify against this 
 race of pedants. Well, perhaps we may live to see a 
 younger generation of Anglo-Saxons ashamed of Derby 
 and Whitby, and reviving Northweorthig and Stuoneshalh. 
 
 There is no political talk, ferment, or agitation here, but 
 much silent anxiety as to the time and the manner of ac- 
 complishing the union. They seem to me to wish that they 
 had had a longer notice, and to have been universally 
 taken aback and unprepared at the sudden change of pro- 
 spect. As far as I can see, even the lowest and howl- 
 ingest town-rowdy is not wholly glad to be annexed ; nor, 
 on the other hand, are the great landowners wholly with- 
 out consolation. What they fear more than anything else 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 21 
 
 is an armed rising of the peasants when we withdraw. 
 With the peasants, as you probably know, eWo-t? means 
 ownership of the soil, as far as it has any real definite 
 meaning at all. I am very much afraid that we are 
 making the Greeks a present of seven islands, and that the 
 Greeks, who have always been extremely lukewarm about 
 these islands, are fully aware of the fact, and apprehensive 
 of its dangers ; having only encouraged the cry for annexa- 
 tion because it rested on the same principle as that which 
 would put them in possession of Thessaly and Crete, which 
 they do want. The people here are coolly and openly 
 arranging and discussing schemes of future Corfiote supre- 
 macy in Greece, and devising wonderful factious combina- 
 tions of votes and parties, which are to put and keep all 
 power in their hands. But I think now, and have always 
 thought, that the most hopeless thing about the Greeks 
 and what makes me almost despair of them, putting aside 
 the sailor and farmer classes is their universal cleverness. 
 Fancy a nation entirely composed of multiples of Disraeli 
 none cleverer, none duller, and all striving for the same 
 objects. 
 
 There is nothing for it but to sluice them well with 
 Albanian and Bulgarian blood, and produce a new ethno- 
 logical combination or race. 
 
 I am going on to Constantinople very shortly. Ever 
 yours truly, STEANGFOED. 
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE, June 24, 1863. 
 
 MY DEAE FREEMAN, I ' am glad you got our letters, 
 though they were of no avail. I quite agree with you in 
 thinking that you could have done what you had to do in 
 Switzerland perfectly well without them, though some- 
 thing of the kind would be quite indispensable at Vienna 
 or St. Petersburg. Here anything of the kind would be 
 quite useless as regards the Embassy people ; and the dim"* 
 
22 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 culty for a historical inquirer would be, first of all, to find 
 anybody unconnected with money or politics in their most 
 sordid form, and, secondly, to get speech of him. It is very 
 odd how people here run on in old grooves ; nobody cares 
 in the least about philological and ethnological questions 
 here, even when they bear upon politics I mean, English 
 people don't care and accept any fact as such put into 
 their hands with perfect acquiescence, especially when it 
 tends to support their policy, or chimes in with their pre- 
 judices. I can find out next to nothing about the Bulga- 
 rians, what they are feeling and doing. It is only by 
 means of a bookseller's shop- window that I have seen that 
 an Anglo-Bulgarian dictionary has last year been pub- 
 lished, and this is an American, and not an English doing. 
 The old stagers are quite content to go on looking on them 
 just as Turks do, as so many Greeks belonging to the 
 Rum milleti or Greek " nation," and the more advanced 
 ethnologists have discovered them to be Slavonians. Mean- 
 while, as far as I can see, their anti-Greek feeling is being 
 made use of by an active Eussian and Servian propaganda 
 (the former more literary, the latter more political) to turn 
 their sham Slavonism into a real one ; in other words, to 
 make them think of themselves as Slavonians and brothers, 
 &c., representing them meanwhile in Western Europe as 
 true identical Slavonians already. If this propaganda 
 were genuine and national, I should respect it, and cherish 
 its natural growth till it choked out and killed the Turks, 
 which is the best thing that could happen perhaps. But 
 in truth, and for all its mask of Christian sympathy and 
 cry of civilisation, it is mere Government machinery, 
 worked by the triple agency of despotism in its worst 
 form the Czarism, old and, so to speak, respectable of 
 St. Petersburg, the Czarism you know of at Paris, and 
 the OtJwnism of Belgrade. Prince Michel's master-spirit 
 on the spot is Garashanin, who has his own ambitious 
 views ; but the Prince is acting as a regular indigenous 
 double of Otho. He has raised the cursed spirit of Pali- 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 23 
 
 karism, and imposed military rule, martial law, and arbi- 
 trary taxation ; and has given them whatever may be the 
 Slavonic for j) f^jd\rj ISea, instead of the " benefits of civi- 
 lisation" with which the House of Commons give him 
 credit. He wants to rule Othonically and by Othonic 
 means over Bosnia, &c., and Bulgaria, which, as you know, 
 is not as yet to Servia what Thessaly is to Athens, how- 
 ever much it may pass as such in England. The Turks 
 are strong on their military legs just now, and there may 
 be no immediate row. If there is a row, and the Turks go 
 to the wall, Garashanin will be Minister and practical ruler 
 of a great kingdom. If the Turks win, down goes the Prince, 
 and Garashanin is believed to look to his place instead. 
 I don't much like rural policemen living at free quarters in 
 Bulgarian villages (though I cannot get into a divine wrath 
 about it, more especially when I see the mechanism of the 
 details with which it is exaggerated) ; but I dislike much 
 more, and find it come much more home to me, that we 
 should have people of station in England, M.P.'s, "Timeses," 
 &c., absolutely without power of criticism of any alleged 
 fact on one side or the other with regard to this country. 
 
 L 's cool offhand optimism with regard to the general 
 
 condition of the Turkey question in the home provinces 
 has nothing to make us fly in the face of our Government 
 when they endeavour to bring to his bearings, in the inte- 
 rest of his own subjects, a prince dependent on Turkey, who 
 is ambitious, unruly, and faithless towards that country. 
 
 But L is very riling, I admit. The best proof of the 
 
 merits, speaking generally and broadly, of our imperial 
 policy here, putting aside the recognition of it by men like 
 Eugene Forcade in the " Revue des Deux Mondes," lies in 
 the fact of its adoption by the Greeks and by the Monte- 
 negrins. The latter have" not, of course, lost their old 
 ancestral hatred of the Turks, nor is it right they should ; 
 but they are on good terms with them, and they are dis- 
 posed to keep faith with them in spite of all temptation, 
 having learnt the inutility, as I hope they learn the immo- 
 
24 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 rality, of breaking faith at the instigation of foreign despots, 
 who leave them in the lurch after all. The Greeks here, 
 at all events the industrious and mercantile Greeks, I am 
 assured, talk with much sobriety and patriotism. They 
 are hotter than ever at the prospect of a Byzantine Empire, 
 and at what they call the reversal of English policy, at the 
 same time that they seem, and in their present mind are 
 really, in earnest about working for it and not filibustering 
 for it. This is, in other words, a reversal of their own, or 
 their late king's own policy, and an adoption of ours. I 
 can say sincerely that I wish them success, and I honestly 
 admire their good management in Greece of late. But I 
 can hardly, from past experience of their want of ballast 
 and of the power and policy of the despotisms which are 
 working for chaos in these countries, believe in their ulti- 
 mate success. Our fault of policy in these parts seems to 
 me to have always lain in our acting from hand to mouth, 
 and taking for granted the perpetuity of Turkish domi- 
 nion. This last has no bottom to it. The exclusive con- 
 scription and other causes (principally connected with 
 taxation) must cut the ground from under the Turks at a 
 period which of itself would not come so soon as people 
 idly talk, but which for all that has to come. If this is 
 granted, a Government really representing English ideas 
 should take an active course, and not be content to drift. 
 It should be in more active communication with the lead- 
 ing men of one race to succeed the Turks, such as one 
 would fain and fondly see the Greeks, or of all races, with a 
 view to your federation ; to teach them what to eat, drink, 
 and avoid when growing up out of barbarism or political 
 childhood, and to prevent, above all, their being demoralised 
 by our own or other people's political partisanship our 
 own, which spoils a child; that of France and Eussia, which 
 makes a thief of him. Light and more light is what we 
 want; no jobbing little wretched consuls made out of bank- 
 rupts ; but no expense spared in covering the land with 
 men of the Leake type to lighten our darkness, which can 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 25 
 
 be felt, and to tell us at home who is a true man, and who 
 is the dupe or tool of the Frenchman, who wants a row 
 for a row's sake, or the Eussian, who wants a row to get 
 at his neighbour's property. Then we should not have the 
 discredit of Baillie Cochrane talking of there being six 
 millions of Greeks (!), or Mr. Maguire boasting that there 
 were only ten thousand Turks in Samos (!!) (a semi-detached 
 and perfectly quiet dependency, where there are none) ; 
 nor, what I regret to have seen, a Professor of History at 
 Oxford losing his head and temper because he read a letter 
 in his "Times" one morning from its correspondent at 
 Scutari in Albania, where that excellent man made the 
 Turks horribly massacre and mutilate the Albanian pri- 
 soners, who were on their own side (! ! !). Goldwin Smith, 
 I think, is not bound to know that the Miridite country is 
 a loyal Montenegro, the inhabitants of which are Catholic 
 Bashi-Bazuks, with a loose sort of independence, who have 
 always fought with the Turks, and neither could nor did 
 side with the Montenegrins ; but he might have his sus- 
 picions aroused, by seeing a trace of foreign idiom here and 
 there, that Civis Eomanus was no Eomanus after all. A 
 .... may be found a useful correspondent at the Palais 
 Eoyal, where much Tuileries dirty work is done, as 
 well as in Printing House Square, and that in the ratio 
 of his ascertained influence and private friendship at head- 
 quarters. This is allusion, but it is knowledge as well. 
 I suppose it not unreasonable to think, even a priori, that 
 means of influencing English opinion on the Eastern ques- 
 tion is not unacceptable to the Emperor. I do not think 
 
 that is directly paid by the French; but I should 
 
 not think he went unrewarded. As to his mistake, he of 
 course made it on purpose, aware of our ignorance, and 
 eager to excite our hatred against the Turks on the eve of 
 Garibaldi's supposed invasion of Albania, as planned for 
 him, from which it was part of the greatness of Garibaldi 
 to hold aloof. 
 
26 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 I must have bored you to death with this long story of 
 views on matters regarding which it is a public misfortune 
 that all have views and none have knowledge. However, 
 I cannot help a little animation .on the subject after hav- 
 ing just read the wonderful debate of the 2Qth May. I 
 ought to have written more about Khsetia, but that I must 
 adjourn indefinitely, as I shall leave this in a week. Very 
 probably I shall next be in Rhsetia itself during August, 
 where it will be a pleasure to fall in with you. My wife 
 has gone with one or two ladies and military people from 
 Corfu to Joannina, of which she writes in very high praise. 
 Your view of Londres and Albertville I devoutly hope 
 may prove true. I had rather turn Turk and live here 
 than that Londres should come first; and Londres will 
 come first if we go shutting our eyes and ears to all but 
 loyalty with a strong conventional element. Ever youra 
 truly, STRANGFORD. 
 
 58 GREAT CUMBERLAND STREET, W., 
 November 7, 1863. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, "When I was at Constantinople in 
 June, I had the satisfaction of reading and profiting by 
 your article on the Landesgemeinde of Uri which, by the 
 way, I observe the Swiss write shortly and colloquially 
 Lan^gemeinde. When at Lugano in September I saw the 
 same article turned into French in the "Journal de Geneve," 
 a paper which I like, and consider above the Continental 
 average. 
 
 I took notes of the numbers, and on my way through 
 Geneva the other day I got them to send to you, under 
 the impression that you may not have received them from 
 any of your Swiss friends, who, probably, would not recog- 
 nise you in print at first sight. 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 27 
 
 I cannot congratulate you on your appearance in French 
 clothes, which ought properly to have been mountain 
 German clothes; but, anyhow, you make a better show 
 than Kinglake in the feuilleton of the K\i(a of Trieste, 
 where it is melancholy to see all his vigour frittered away 
 under the treatment of high Athenian penny-a-lining and 
 Gradus Greek. 
 
 After leaving Constantinople I went round by the 
 Danube and joined my wife in Lombardy, bound from 
 Scutari, Montenegro, and the Dalmatian towns. She was 
 delighted with the Montenegrins, whose ways are much 
 more primitive and genuinely Homeric than I had any 
 idea of. To be sure, they were seen at the right moment, 
 in full summer and perfect peace. After which we dwelt 
 among ex-Eayahs for two months in Tessino and Vaud, 
 with a visit or two in Ehsetian Switzerland. My chief 
 philological inquiries had reference to the dialects of 
 Western or Burgundian Switzerland, and they have been 
 quite fruitless. I tried the chief booksellers of Lausanne, 
 Vevey, and Geneva, and could get nothing worth having 
 nothing but school-books for teaching French to the little 
 Vaudois boys ; and about the side valleys of the Valais, 
 such as the Yal d'Anniviers or Einfisch Thai, I could neither 
 get nor hear of anything. So I have nothing to go by but 
 local names, glosses, and guide-book statements, such as 
 " On parle tin patois mele de Eoman et de Fran^ais." 
 You will be glad to hear how Berlepsch, a Swabian citizen 
 of Zurich, the reigning guide-book man, talks of Us 
 armees frangaises having crossed the Lukmanier with 
 Charlemagne. This is in a French edition, made to sell 
 in France. I have not seen the German original. 
 
 I made at once for Miss Yonge's book on returning, and 
 am deep in it. It is, I must say, wonderfully well done ; 
 but there is something to be corrected in every page. The 
 best parts by far are when the materials are her own and 
 the criticism too; the worst, when she follows blind or 
 bad guides. It is dreadful to see pages wasted on those 
 
28 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 wretched Triads and sham "Welsh myths; yet I find it 
 easier to bear the burden of Triadism, Hu Gadarn, Helio 
 Arkites, and all, than the cool arrogance of the "sound 
 common sense " people, such as we have it in the " Edin- 
 burgh " article which is supposed to have smashed up and 
 extirpated the Druids. 
 
 Now just look at this. The common-sense man chatters 
 and grins like a monkey over the absurdity of Ogham in- 
 scriptions, and treating accidental or meaningless scratches 
 as actual alphabets. Well, Dr. Graves claims to interpret 
 these scratches by means of the old Irish language, existing 
 in remains fairly well known and investigated. Mean- 
 while an Ogham and Latin bilingual is found at St. 
 Dogmael's in Merionethshire. It can hardly, therefore, be 
 accidental. The Latin is Sacrani Fill Cunotami. But the 
 application of Grave's method gives the same with magi 
 foTfili. So you get at once the proof of Graves's system 
 and an older stage of a Celtic genitive, identical with the 
 Latin and that of the old Gaulish inscriptions. When will 
 people read Zeuss, and when will Whitley Stokes reprint 
 his Celtic articles in the " Saturday" ? , 
 
 I suppose I have something to say upon all your articles 
 except the purely historical ones. But I must confine 
 myself to the current "Saturday," in which I have two 
 points to treat of. Both you and Miss Yonge (and indeed 
 everybody else) write lona. But Whitley Stokes says 
 this is a mistake arising out of lona being spelt loua, i.e., 
 lova a Latinisation out of (I forget the exact literal 
 spelling of the Celtic original) I-columb-cille, " the island 
 of the dove's cell " (or of Columba of the cell), to which 
 one may add a conjecture that the mistake may have been 
 fostered by literary monks under some sense of the Hebrew 
 Jonah, " the dove." Some of the German people who don't 
 make enough allowance for direct derivation want to make 
 St. Columba an original dove, not a Latin one ; but I don't 
 believe this. Whitley Stokes compares the mistake with 
 " Hebrides," arising out of a misreading of " Hebredes." 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 29 
 
 Another matter is Liudprand and his Greek. I was 
 aware of his mission, and had some faint knowledge of his 
 history, but I had no idea of his glosses. I would give 
 anything to see them, or a selection of them. You are not 
 verbally accurate in saying that he represents exactly the 
 modern pronunciation. If he did so throughout, it would 
 be a phenomenon in a spoken language to last so long 
 unchanged. Un ti echmalosia autti deviates in two places 
 from modern pronunciation one small, the other interest- 
 ing. En ti would now be en di. All Greeks agree, and 
 never vary in this point, as eV 777, eV TroXe^w, eV Kprj-rrj, 
 pronouncing the initial tennis as a medial, and reacting on 
 the nasal so as to make it suit its class : -nd, -mb, -ng. I 
 suspect this is not very old, though, as I have observed, 
 it is the one point of Greek phonetics that a Western most 
 often fails to catch or to practise. Liudprand may have 
 failed to notice it. Autti for aftti, is very curious. It is 
 the shibboleth of the Trebizond Greek, where it survives in 
 company with TTOKW and the K of ov/c before a vowel, writ- 
 ten in plays, &c., where that dialect is represented aovrbs. 
 jdiXrjdcrerai, is pure Lascaratoism, except that Liudprand 
 does it on purpose. But I am very curious to know the 
 way o and are treated v, in fact, has retained its sound 
 in many words and many places, e.g., tumbanon for a drum, 
 which, of course, the spelling is modified to suit, Tov/j,7ravov. 
 
 I want to go to war together with France, in order that 
 France may get the Khine ! It would probably only be 
 held for a time, and I see nothing but a surgical operation 
 like that which would unite Germany and sweep away all 
 the little kings and frontiers. Besides, I want to be able 
 to look a Pole in the face, which is impossible now. Ever 
 yours truly, STRANGFORD. 
 
30 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 58 CUMBERLAND STREET, 
 November 25, 1863. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, Many thanks for Liudprand. Hig 
 Greek is very curious and interesting. The very first 
 thing that I lighted upon when I opened the book anyhow 
 was the explanation of the heathenish modern name of 
 Scararnangil, which has always puzzled me "^Kapa/ndjytov 
 hoc est paenula," with crfcapaftayyas for its tailor or confec- 
 tioner of course. But the manner of his Greek is queerer 
 than the matter, and puts me strongly in mind of the bits 
 of Latin for Latin's sake which Walter Scott so loves to put 
 into the mouths of his monks, dominies, and antiquaries, 
 without the least regard to its appropriateness or importance. 
 As for autu, I think it may very likely be as you say, and, 
 at most, inconclusive one way or the other. I believe with 
 firmness that the German and Italian sound of au repre- 
 sented the classical and Alexandrian, and probably the 
 Eoman and early Byzantine sound of av as such com- 
 binations of sound as -<T-, <cr-, and the like, are quite 
 contrary to ancient phonetics, and become changed into TTT, 
 or </>#, or i/r, when they occur. But it is exactly the other 
 way in modern phonetics. I am sorry to see by Liudprand 
 that a German of the tenth century could not pronounce 
 aKrjOeia, but called it alitia : only I am not sure whether a 
 Lombard of that time would not be entirely Italian in 
 fact, on reflection, I am pretty sure he would be so. 
 
 My charity to Miss Yonge is much less than it was, 
 now that I have read about Christian names among the 
 Tscherkessen, which is the last hair that breaks the earners 
 back. As for the people whom she calls by that pretty 
 name, I know my place a deal too well to think or talk or 
 write about them in the present state of English opinions. 
 They are a pack of savage, irreclaimable slave-dealers, only 
 fit to ride down and slaughter the Polen, just as Polen are 
 notoriously incapable of governing themselves, and are 
 only good for bayoneting Tscherkessen under the orders 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 31 
 
 of Kussen, who get on by setting honest men to exterminate 
 honest men, just as Angelsachsen set a thief to catch a 
 thief. They are like unto Savoy, which we know to be 
 only a few barren mountain slopes not worth making a 
 row about, having read as much in the " Times." Upon 
 my life, out of the two unready nations among whom I 
 have spent my days, I sometimes prefer Osman the Un- 
 ready to Athelstan the Unready, for he has no conscience, 
 which is better than too much of a one, and he doesn't 
 bother his own or other people's heads with excuses for 
 inaction or shirking duty, nor does he abuse or belittle or 
 abandon friends whom he does not care or fears to help 
 at least, not out loud. As for the Tscherkessen, they put 
 me in mind of my old friend George Olympiern, of whom 
 I had read in a copy of her book which Miss Bremer pre- 
 sented to my wife (I could not have sent to a library for 
 such stuff) before you denounced the absurdity in the 
 " Eeview." ' 
 
 I always leave out the principal point of what I want 
 to say or write. When at the Hotel Byron I came upon 
 a copy of Sir Charles Lyell's last book on stone periods 
 and the like. In one part he leaves geology to talk about 
 language and the "Aryan controversy," which is very 
 absurd and irritating, and as though one should say the 
 Copernican controversy because Mahometans hold that 
 the sun goes round the earth. However, that is not what 
 I was going to say. In treating of the corruption of 
 Pennsylvanian German by the admixture of English, which 
 he does from his own experience, he gives instances, and 
 more particularly mentions the Anglo-Saxon words fencen, 
 to fence, and flaur, flour. Is it not curious, the force of 
 penny-a-line slang on even a man of science ? How would 
 he translate " La plus fine fleur de la farine de la race 
 humaine " into Anglo-Saxon ? I had this in my head to 
 write to you, but forgot it. As for Schleswig, it drives me 
 wild. Dr. Latham and you are the only people who write 
 it as Englishmen should write it, and used to write it. 
 
32 LETTERS TO E, A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 But I have a deadly hatred of sch generally for a clumsy 
 and newfangled corruption it is either the older sc-, or 
 it is the High Dutch way of pronouncing s followed by a 
 consonant, whether written as in schlangen, or written as 
 in stein ; and it is a pity that the literary language has 
 kept the writing in so many words. The Nether Dutch of 
 Germany hasn't got it at all except as the representative 
 of sc-, and that of Holland has kept the old pronunciation 
 of sk, even though written sch, except as a termination, 
 when I believe it is pronounced s. 
 
 But what has become of all the old school geography 
 books of my youth which used to tell us about Sleswick ? 
 What makes me hate sch is chiefly the memory of Eeshid 
 Pasha, who used, of course, to be Eeschid in Germany, and 
 then became Redschid in the "Times." They always wrote 
 him so, and were deaf to their correspondents' complaints, 
 they being above the laws of spelling, and writing it as 
 they chose, just as they do diocess and escocheon. 
 
 On the whole, I am for having Denmark to the Eyder, 
 and am ready to accept the doctrine with all its conse- 
 quences. The lesser interest and lesser sentiment must 
 give way to the greater and stronger; and if the Germans, 
 or rather Nether Dutchmen, of Sleswick have to become 
 Danes in the long run, and to learn Danish at school, I 
 think the world will manage to get over it. What I know 
 about the matter of nationality and language I get from 
 Latham, who seems to me to be very good indeed, as he 
 always is when he is master of his elementary facts. ' Many 
 of his paradoxes are mere excrescences, and many arise 
 from simple ignorance; but some -seem to me to be un- 
 answerable, at all events unanswered. Of these, the last, 
 the chiefest, seems to me his theory that no German 
 became or appeared as a Goth till he occupied the ground 
 of Lithuanians. But the Lathamic style and manner is a 
 fearful thing. Very truly yours, STKANGFORD. 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 33 
 
 SATURDAY MORNING, . . . 1864. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, Good heavens! what have you 
 done ? You have been mutilating and slashing an especial 
 favourite of the old " Saturday " period, one who was de- 
 clared in '58 to have the "true trumpet-ring in his ballad 
 notes," more especially in the " noble ' Forging of the 
 Anchor/ " which, therefore, you will have seen cheek-by- 
 jowl with your own revilings. This was Whitley Stokes's 
 doing; and I very much fear that he was led into that dread- 
 ful sentence about the trumpet-ring by a mixture of college 
 friendship, clique influence, and a little bad taste, not to 
 say by the sight of the green flag of Erin. I have long 
 been filled with sorrow and sickness at seeing the flagrant 
 puffery of that " noble " ballad which has been going on, 
 and it does me good to read you on the subject. 
 
 One word, though, about Maer or MedlibJi. They have 
 just excavated a place traditionally known as her trea- 
 sury in Co. Eoscommon, and found her tomb with an 
 Ogham inscription containing her name, the only hitch of 
 which is, that she appears in the genitive with what has 
 been hitherto considered in Gaulish and Ogham-Irish as a 
 masculine termination only, as in Latin Medbi, as in 
 Sagramni, &c. This is not inexplicable or unparalleled, 
 however. But the two points which come out clearly from 
 Oghams are, first, the verification of the hypothetical system 
 of declension raised, in one case-ending at least, by Ebel, 
 out of the oldest MS. Irish ; and, second, the verification of 
 Dr. Graves's system of reading them, partly suggested by 
 hints in MS., and by means of bilingual inscriptions. 
 
 Mr. Ferguson has, furthermore, missed the Irish stories 
 which have a distinct element of fun or absurdity in them, 
 such as " Conn of the Hundred Fights," " Milesius, or the 
 Fenians." Welsh absurdity, on the contrary, is deadly 
 dull all through ; in proof whereof, I send you the most 
 absurd book, on the whole, ever written. Ever yours truly, 
 
 STKANGFOKD. 
 c 
 
 
34 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 . . . 1864. 
 
 MY DEAR FBEEMAN, There is no difference of opinion 
 between you and Whitley Stokes as regards the new 
 poems of Ferguson, for he has not spoken yet : it was the 
 
 '" Forging of the Anchor " only that the overpraised, 
 
 alluding to it in the course of a very amusing review of 
 the sham Irish ballads of the Lover and " Eory o' More " 
 school. The "Cow-Foray," and such like, are dull and 
 worthless. Ferguson, I now remember, is a New York 
 Irishman, and once wrote a book called " Hibernian Nights' 
 Entertainments." He will end, I suppose, as a Fenian 
 Tyrtaeus or Yankee Ossian. Is it not fair, by the way, to 
 compare the word "Fenian" with the word "Achaian," each 
 denoting its respective nation under its early heroic and 
 rhapsodic aspect, with Fin MacCumhal for Achilles, and 
 the Ossianic for the Homeric poems, and Argyleshire for 
 Asia Minor ? 
 
 I am glad you don't see any difficulty about dnthropos 
 with simultaneous tone and quantity; but I am sure other 
 people, dons and dilletante students of modern Greek, will. 
 Old Norris says he can quite understand a short syllable 
 being accented, but he cannot understand a long syllable 
 being unaccented, and sacrificed to the short one in a dis- 
 syllable. For reply to that I had to Lithuanise, and to 
 appeal to some of our own dissyllables, rare, and generally 
 compounds, such as headache (v-). He understood it at 
 last. Your difficulty in aofyta I quite understand, but I do 
 not allow it to become a difficulty to me. I have not, 
 without taking of much thought, and whipping up my 
 moral consciousness, as it were, sufficient firmness of ear 
 to distinguish fa from ia in hearing and speech without 
 hiatus, which won't do. I think, too, that it was in these 
 words that accent first began to kill quantity. Perhaps this 
 may be even shown historically; but I should be un- 
 willing to judge of the fineness of an old Greek's ear by 
 my own. Neither the don's nor the Klepht's theory make 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 35 
 
 head or tail out of the accentuation of Trpay/jbdri, for 
 instance. I can only realise it by taking thought; but 
 still I can realise it by so doing. 
 
 No; I don't think your theory about quantity being only 
 kept for verse and solemn occasions will quite do for pre- 
 Christian Greek. I have seen this view somewhere, but 
 not worked out. I hold by the entire, absolute, simulta- 
 neous use of the two, with a minimum of encroachment on 
 either side, as illustrated by dead Vedic Sanskrit and living 
 Lithuanian. I am content to accept accent as an ultimate 
 fact, without seeing how it arose, until Bopp, Miiller, 
 & Co. shall have fairly settled the matter. As it stands, 
 it is an accident of the language, not necessary to its gram- 
 mar, 1 and dependent on quantity. Quantity, on the other 
 hand, is absolutely essential to the grammar, and to the 
 accent, which it regulates and limits. The two cannot be 
 taught together in England ; and if one must go, it had 
 better be the accent. But I would like to draw a line 
 somewhere, and the best would be, I think, at the New 
 Testament. It would be very good, I think, to teach this 
 accentually, and with modern pronunciation, except for the 
 diphthongs, and so to pronounce all Christian Greek, and all 
 late Greek except such authors as Lucian, Longinus, the 
 later epigrammatists and poets, and the like avowed imita- 
 tors of classical models. I dare say Nonnus and Homer 
 would have been mutually unintelligible in common talk, 
 while Nonnus and I would probably get on very well ; but 
 I am pretty sure that up to his time and later they kept up 
 quantity, dead in the common speech, by scholastic pronun- 
 ciation recording it ; in fact, by doing as you say. Your view 
 to me is good for post-classical, but not for classical Greek. 
 To my mind Etacism is by no means an unpardonable 
 sin, though of course utterly wrong ; for it is a common 
 process in the transition of other Aryan languages. So is 
 the change of the medials b, g, d, to their respective smooth 
 
 1 Surely the compounds like deor&Kos are the only important point? 
 
3 6 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 and continuous sounds, especially when preceded or flanked 
 by long vowels. Brag and self-righteous a priorism apart, 
 the unpardonable sin to me is the way the Greeks stultify 
 the known phonetic and accentual systems of their ances- 
 tors, even under their own theory. What is the use of 
 grammarians telling you that no word can end in any con- 
 sonant except v, p, 5, and two in K, when they insist in the 
 same breath that Zev j3a<ri\ev must have been always, 
 and db initio, Z&v vasilev? The Romans wrote foreign 
 words phonetically. When they heard of a city called Trid, 
 why did they go and write it Troja, i.e., Troyya ? Those 
 sort of details can be multiplied to any extent. 
 
 I don't believe in dtre from essere. I don't know the 
 age of essere, to begin with ; and it may be Italian only, 
 and not Romanic. The Spanish ser seems to support the 
 latter, but Diez says that it is from sedere. This seems 
 over-refinement ; but really in old Spanish documents the 
 word seems to have been always sezer. Eire comes par- 
 ticularly well from the older form stare (stati), and is better 
 than stdre or est&r in Italian and Spanish. 1 I don't in the 
 least believe in immemorial distinctions of dialect, nor yet 
 in such a thing as a High Dutch unity of language at the 
 historical beginning. I'm afraid the Dutch are not much 
 better than modern Greeks as regards some points of their 
 language, and will talk foolishly and vainly about their w 
 and their eu, though one was actually written uu, and 
 the other yu y in many cases at least. And they are 
 bringing in the fashion of writing v for w in our own old 
 language, and giving us vringan and vyrean and treov, which 
 I can't stand. By the way, I had quite forgotten to beg 
 of you not to call Lithuanian Lettish. The last will long 
 outlive the first, but it is in a Eomanic, or at least a 
 Romaic stage, and only good for vocabulary here and 
 there. I don't know much about it, anyhow. The verbs 
 in -mi are more to my taste than ale and lull even. And 
 
 1 No ; I fear it will hardly do, as stare must have become stare very early. 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 37 
 
 what do you think of platus for broad? Your ancient 
 Greeks are in Switzerland ; my ancient Greeks are on the 
 Memen. Ever yours truly, STRANGFORD. 
 
 I break open my letter to say that I have just now 
 done what I should have done before writing my last 
 paragraph. I have looked out 6tre in Diez, and find that 
 he is distinctly for essere. I should not have been so 
 decidedly for stare if I had not forgotten my prosody, and 
 been under an impression that it was short like dare. 
 Perhaps it was so at first, but not in classical times, I 
 fear. Stare would make ester t Ster, not fare. Diez's analogy 
 is from texere or tessere becoming tistre and titre. Etant, 
 6te, of course, are from stare. Soyons, soyez, &c., seem to be 
 from sedere. There can be no doubt about sedere for the 
 Spanish : they actually wrote (1032) in Latinised Eomanic 
 " quod sedeamus perjurados." But it seems very hard at 
 first sight to say that the Italian sia is from sit and the 
 Spanish sea from sedeat. Seja in Portuguese is a strong 
 confirmation, however. 
 
 ST. JAMES'S CLUB, ST. JAMES'S STREET, 
 Wednesday, J. 25, 1864. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, E. A. Sophocles is as big and as 
 square as a paving-stone, and I fear I can hardly manage to 
 send him to you by book-post, as I should like to do. His 
 dissertation is very brief, but very good. The mass of the 
 book is the lexicon, a condensed sort of Ducange, but 
 much too concise. He says nothing about accent and 
 quantity, probably thinking it unnecessary to point out 
 the fact of their co-existence in the ancient language, and 
 impossible to indicate it upon paper to us who cannot 
 conceive such a fact. I myself have not the least diffi- 
 culty in conceiving it as regards theory ; and as regards 
 practice, it is not difficult to see how, in the course of time, 
 
38 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 either quantity must kill accent in a language, or accent 
 kill quantity. 
 
 Lithuanian is the only Aryan language where the two 
 fully co- exist without mutual interference, at least to any 
 extent. There you can see syllables short in quantity 
 bearing a tone-accent at the expense of syllables long in 
 quantity left untoned. Suntis, a son, of the u declension, 
 like gradtis, or as the same word in Gothic and Sanskrit, 
 has the accent on the final in the nominative singular : 
 thus, sunus. In the nominative plural the final is long in 
 quantity, like gradus (and for the same reason). But it is 
 accented sunus, on the first. It is hard to realise this, 
 equally for a modern Greek and a college don, but it is a 
 fact in a living language for all that. Again, bulus, a bull, 
 in the nominative singular is accented, as above, on the 
 last ; in the nominative plural it shifts its accent to the 
 radical vowel, lUlus, without its quantity being lengthened. 
 In this word the old pre-scientific German spelling indi- 
 cated the shortness of quantity by the same orthographical 
 means that we use for the same purpose, and doubled the 
 consonant thus lullus; just as we double the v in navvy to 
 express the short of a. The third word which I shall take 
 is the most instructive of all. A lus, ale (or rather small- 
 beer), is % , like Wlus. But when the accent is shifted 
 to the & in the nominative plural, that short a becomes 
 long in quantity from the very fact of the accent falling 
 on it ; and this is the case with the vowels a and e } but 
 not i and u; so geras, good, is ^ in the nominative sin- 
 gular, but gerai ( ") in the nominative plural. Does not 
 this illustrate the first step of the process by which accent 
 killed quantity in modern Greek, and usurped all its 
 authority ? Take a last case, which the curiosity of the 
 words themselves being so well preserved makes it a plea- 
 sure to quote esmt, est, tsti, for the verb substantive ; 
 eimt, eisl, eiti, "I go ; " and edm\ (second person lost), dstioi 
 est, "I eat." The final i, accented or unaccented, is exactly 
 the same in all these words in point of quantity. But in 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 39 
 
 our own language, and all others we are accustomed to, 
 esml would infallibly be pronounced esmee. 
 
 Servian is the only other living language which retains 
 longs and shorts together with betoned and unbetoned; 
 but it is not so good for illustration, as its sound-system is 
 comparatively modern. I have, moreover, Lithuanised 
 you to death. But Diefenbach was right in saying that 
 the discovery of Lithuanian was hardly of less importance 
 than that of Sanskrit itself a pardonable over-state- 
 ment 
 
 Your " middle " on comparative philology being taught 
 for practical purposes is uncommonly after my own heart, 
 being, in fact, entirely and of old my own view ; so that 
 on reading it I said to you, " Pereas tu, qui ante me meum 
 dixisti." I always thought of it with special reference to 
 Haileybury Persian as taught to grown boys, having to 
 learn as much as they could in a short time ; saving labour, 
 so to say, by telling them that the th of Eustam was the 
 m of optimus. I cannot trust myself to go into this in a 
 
 letter Ever yours truly, 
 
 STRANGFORD. 
 
 SATURDAY MORNING. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, No; I don't think chasse is from 
 hetzen. A Dutch h is always, so far as I know, retained 
 in Dutch words passing into Eomaic. Cacdare in Italian, 
 cazar in Spanish, are surely from a vulgar Latin captiare, 
 the ch being the regular letter change, as in cheval, when 
 the word became Gallo-Welsh, pronounced, I have not the 
 least doubt, with the English, Spanish, and queer- Welsh 
 sounds of ch. Captare, without the i, has become the 
 regular word for searching or finding in queer-Welsh, or 
 rather Inn- Welsh and East-Rum-Welsh; and these last 
 people have alone kept the Latin venari for hunting. 
 
 I should like to write my heart out on the subject of 
 
40 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 the word Aryan, a word I do not quite like in Max Miil- 
 ler's comprehensive sense, nor do the Germans themselves. 
 It is very short and handy, and so far good. But I hold 
 that its conventional meaning should be restricted, and 
 kept within the same limits as its intrinsic meaning, which 
 denotes the Indian plus the Iranian families. These, one 
 way with another, form about the best-defined group of the 
 whole set of languages, and it would be a pity to make the 
 word mean two things, or to merge the real meaning in the 
 arbitrary extension. The Germans are apt to call the 
 Eastern group Arisch, and the Pan- Aryan set Arisch- 
 europdisch, which is definite, but clumsy. Whitley Stokes's 
 Pataric for the whole set is absurd. Perhaps it is best to 
 keep Aryan as at present, and call the Easterns Aric. But 
 then the special marked character of the latter must be 
 brought forward as prominently as possible, and as often as 
 possible ; for people are very apt to forget the importance 
 of old Persian, and its peculiar affinity with Sanskrit. 
 
 The man who wrote about no Gothic plurals in s de- 
 serves to have his nose cut off. Except neuter plurals in 
 a, like Latin, there are no Gothic plurals, in nouns at least, 
 which do not end in s. But it is very curious how they 
 seem to have dropped the s from the very first in old High 
 Dutch forming its shibboleth, in fact but keeping the 
 length of the vowel, wulfos, wolfa. This process is pre- 
 cisely identical with that of the masculine plural of the 
 
 Sanskrit declension corresponding as appearing in old 
 
 Persian as -a. Ever yours truly, 
 
 STRANGFOED. 
 
LETTERS TO PROFESSOR MAX MULLER. 
 
 19 MANSFIELD STREET, August 9, 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR MULLER, I have not answered your letter 
 hitherto, as I have been away from town for some days. 
 The words you mention are all true Persian ward un- 
 questionably so; but whether the old Persian presumed 
 form ward be the origin or the issue of the Greek poSov, it 
 is difficult to say, and perhaps is more for the botanist to 
 settle than the philologist. Gul means flowers generally 
 in modern Persian, gul i surJch being a rose. San, another 
 word for rose, seems related to surkh, guJehra, thukra. 
 Satranj may possibly be from the Indian direct. In Shah 
 mat, the mat is the Arabic verb, i.e., " the king is dead." 
 This verb has naturalised itself in colloquial Persian as a 
 metaphor derived from chess in the common phrase mat 
 sJmdam or mat mandam, " I am at my wits' end," or " done 
 for." From this it has got into Pushtu, where mdtedal 
 means to be broken, matdwal to break, words one would 
 hardly like to call other than native without very sufficient 
 cause. Babush should be labuj in Arabic, and it comes 
 through a Turkish channel, the Turks pronouncing the 
 Persian word as pdpuch (or rather pdpuch, as they are 
 averse to real long vowels). I add one or two more which 
 come into my head. 
 
 Arabic zibalc, Persian lva, " quicJc-silvQi" This is well 
 known, I suppose; but it is interesting as showing the 
 Persian pronunciation of v to have been our v, as it is 
 now in Persia, and not w, as taught in our grammars after 
 the Indian tradition or school of Persian. 
 
 Arabic taj, Persian taj, a crown, or arched skull-cap. 
 
42 LETTERS TO MAX MULLER. 
 
 This is certainly the taJca of the Yaundb takabard, which 
 also, I think, gave rise to the Arabic tak, an arch or 
 vault; from this last is derived in the ordinary Semitic 
 way takiyya, a skull-cap, in Arabic and modern Turkish. 
 This last is the word which Klaproth recklessly compared 
 with the old Chinese gloss thu-kiu for a helmet, which 
 would have been well enough if Semitic terminations 
 could have been found in the Altai before Islam. 
 
 Arabic serdb, the mirage of the desert found in the 
 Koran. It is not likely to be connected with sharaba (the 
 root, " he drank ") in any way, and surely must be caput 
 aqiice. Ser means everything in Persian idiom, almost; and 
 here would be the appearance or burst on the sight of water. 
 
 Arabic zamkerir, the bitter cold of winter (in the Koran), 
 I think I mentioned to you. 
 
 Arabic 'aj (with 'ain), ivory. I suspect a connection 
 with an assumed old Persian word, lost in modern Persian, 
 but represented by gdz, a tooth, in the dialect of Ghilan, 
 glidsh, in Pushtu. 
 
 I have no Arabic dictionary at hand, but shall look 
 when I go to the Asiatic Society to see whether the Persian 
 lirinj, burinj, bronze, has passed into Arabic, as it has into 
 Turkish. I have a strong impression that it has done so, 
 and would therefore be a more natural origin for the Italian 
 and Spanish forms Ironzo, bronce, than Muratori and Diez's 
 Iruno, brunizzart, &c., or Pictet's brass with a nasal in it. 
 There is, I believe, a Zend original form, berezya, Arabic 
 jauJiar, Persian gauhar, jewel, originally the core or essence 
 of a thing. 
 
 Mdl, wealth, property; Persian ditto, but best in 
 Kurdish, where it means a house. Rawlinson says he 
 finds it in this last sense in his old pre-Assyrian Hamitic, 
 about which I know nothing. 
 
 Arabic ustuwanat, a pillar ; Persian stitun. 
 
 I have a suspicion of there even being roots or verbs in 
 Arabic of Persian origin. Shad, glad, is certainly a true 
 Persian word, with well-known and widespread Aryan 
 
LETTERS TO MAX MULLER. 43 
 
 affinities. Sa'ada, he was prosperous or happy, sa'id, pros- 
 perous (just as lakhlt in modern colloquial Arabic, from 
 the Persian laMit, through the Turkish), sa'dan, a monkey 
 (blessed or prosperous animal, like the Persian shddl or 
 shddu : compare Arabic may mun, blessed and monkey, 
 a curious euphemism), seem to me to be not so much 
 accidental coincidence as real borrowing. The word 
 does not exist with this meaning in the other Semitic 
 languages, but occurs with that of supporting or prop- 
 ping ; and with this is connected Arabic sa'id, the wrist 
 or forearm (as the fulcrum), musd'ada, the giving help 
 or support, and thence affording a man what he wants, 
 conceding. On the other hand, Sa'ad occurs very early as 
 a proper name, and 8a'ud is a Wahabi and Bedouin name 
 of the remote interior. What I have said is mere con- 
 jecture, but at all events I think " Arabic roots " require 
 looking into, and are not to be taken on trust. Take, 
 again, zayn, good; zayyana (secondary conjugation), he 
 ornamented; zlnat, ornament; zayy, dress, appearance; 
 with the Persian zi, costume, dress ; zlld, beautiful ; zivar, 
 ornament ; zib, ornamenting (as in Aurang-zify, the parti- 
 ciple used in composition of an obsolete strong verb, 
 ziftan, to be inferred from it. You will be able to settle 
 this last case at once with the help of Sanskrit, for want 
 of which I am brought up suddenly half-way in all philo- 
 logical speculations. 
 
 There are plenty of Arabic names of plants, drugs, 
 objects of art, or articles of civilisation, borrowed from 
 the Persian; but they have to be gone through syste- 
 matically with a big dictionary. What I have given 
 above are meant to be a few of the less obvious ones, 
 most of which, after all, must be known to you. But I 
 do not think that, any words representing abstract ideas 
 of religion, politics, or literature will be found, and have 
 no doubt that your informants overstated the evidence of 
 Persian words in Arabic, however correct they may have 
 been in maintaining the fact that Persian civilisation 
 
44 LETTERS TO MAX MULLER. 
 
 influenced that of the Arabians. I believe that the Per- 
 sian words in the Koran are to be accounted for by the 
 Sassanian occupation of, and political connection with, 
 Yemen and the neighbouring coasts of Africa, of which 
 the Persian geographical term Zang-ldr is a record, and by 
 the circulation of their romances among the Arabian edu- 
 cated classes, alluded to and announced in a passage of the 
 Koran, as Mecca was the literary centre of Arabia in the times 
 immediately preceding Islam, and not the country bordering 
 on Mesopotamia and the Aramean dominions of Persia. 
 
 If I remember rightly, there is a passage in your Lec- 
 tures in which you mention the Persian words in Turkish 
 as coming through an Arabic channel. It is the converse : 
 the Arabic words in Turkish come through a Persian 
 channel, and are used with a Persian construction and 
 idiom. The Persian words in Turkish are very numerous 
 indeed, and out of all proportion above those in Arabic. 
 They are also curious in one respect, which I have not seen 
 noted anywhere: I mean, that many of the religious and cere- 
 monial terms of Islam in Turkish are Persian, and not Arabic. 
 
 Oruj, a fast, Persian ruza. The Bairam, of Persian 
 origin, though the modern Persians use the Arabic word 
 'Id. Ndmdz, prayers, ikindi namazi, Turkish the after- 
 noon prayer, Persian sdldt i digar ikindi being a deri- 
 vative of iki, two, as digar is the old ordinal of du, pre- 
 served in the sense of second in Parsi and in Firdausi, but 
 meaning another only in modern and classical Persian. 
 Giaour, i.e., Gfawr, with the Turkish mouilU sound of the 
 soft k and g, is the Persian gabr, a fire-worshipping 
 infidel; which last is no corruption of Kafir, but the 
 Aramean gabra, a man, pronounced gaum by modern 
 Chaldeans and Nestorians, and probably preserved in the 
 name of the Kurdish serf or subject tribe of G-urdn. 
 Abdest, religious ablution. Din, faith, yaumu'd din, 
 the day of judgment, had already got into the older 
 Semitic languages, and, through them, into Arabic, under 
 which head I forgot to put it. I suppose it must be the 
 
LETTERS TO MAX MULLER. 45 
 
 Zend daena. Khuda, in Turkish, is bookwork rather 
 than true vernacular, but it seems to have become the 
 latter among- the Turks of Siberia, to judge by vocabularies. 
 Bihisht and duzaleh, in Turkish, are also more often written 
 than spoken. 
 
 I hope you will not think it too great a liberty if I ask 
 you to allow me to send you a note or two upon one or two 
 little points of detail in your Lectures about which I have 
 had opportunities of obtaining firsthand information. One 
 is the " langue boukhare" which is in a fair way of taking 
 its place unchallenged as a separate substantial Persian 
 dialect in modern works on philology, instead of being 
 actually and identically Persian, which it really is. But 
 I have taken up too much of your time already, and must 
 remain, very truly yours, STRANGFORD. 
 
 P.S. Have you ever looked, or do you know where to 
 tell me to look, for a monograph, if such exist, upon Per- 
 *sian words north of the Caspian in the Ugrian languages ? 
 Of course, I don't mean words that have come in since the 
 great centralising Tartar conquests, but those of the pre- 
 Islamic, or early post-Islamic period. Diefenbach, sub wee 
 Guth, in half countenancing the old God and Khoda theory, 
 alludes to the Hungarian Isten as being probably also Per- 
 sian, and I am curious to know where he got the idea 
 from, if not his own. The Persian Yezdan, no doubt, is his 
 word ; but many others occur to me, though I know next 
 to nothing of these languages. Ezer, a thousand, must 
 be hazdr ; khubavi, -va, -vo, in Bulgarian, " good," is un- 
 Slavonic, and must be khub (which has never got into Turk- 
 ish}, and a relic of the old times before the Bulgarians got 
 Slavonised. 
 
 19 MANSFIELD STREET, August 23, 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR MULLER, I only returned yesterday from a 
 ten days' tour among the Channel Islands, and found your 
 
45 LETTERS TO MAX MVLLER. ' 
 
 letter on my arrival here. Serab is the true Persian as 
 well as Arabic form of the word. I once thought it might 
 be a corruption of sahra-db, " the desert water," but it is 
 not at all likely. Anyhow, I am pretty sure it contains 
 the element ab, and it is as old as the Koran. I don't 
 think it has anything to do with shir ; a word, by the way, 
 which I can't help thinking the legitimate representative 
 of tigris (tigrd, arrow, and probably also tiger, the origin 
 of our Latin and Greek word). The names of felines 
 are quite loose and interchangeable in Turkish and Per- 
 sian. Such words as kaplan and palang really mean any 
 large feline animal rather than a positive tiger or leopard. 
 Shir is probably sher, i.e., with the so-called Majhul or e 
 sound, lost in modern Persian, but preserved in the Indian- 
 school Persian, which always represents either a diphthong 
 ai or a consonant (generally a dental, as pesh for patisli) in 
 the old language; to speak with more philological accu- 
 racy, an original ai, or one arising out of a lost consonant. 
 The Arabic words in Turkish have all decidedly come 
 through a Persian channel. I can hardly think of an ex- 
 ception, except in quite, late days, when Arabic words 
 have been used in Turkish in a different sense from that 
 borne by them in Persian ; and this, after all, is deviation 
 of idiom rather than separate borrowing. ' Nothing is more 
 obscure than the history of the early distinctive formation 
 of the Ottoman Turkish, and its separation from the Eastern 
 dialects. I believe myself that it took place under the 
 Seljukian emperors, whose dominions coincided pretty 
 accurately with Persia for a long time, and that it WP~. 
 then that Turkish received its first literary impress and 
 germs of cultivation from the already Arabised Persian. 
 The latter was the exclusive language of literature among 
 Turks for a long period ; and when these latter began to 
 write in their own language, they naturally used all the 
 abstract terms of religion, politics, science, &c., borrowed 
 by the Persians, the earliest cultivated nation of Moham- 
 metan converts from Arabia; and in adapting them to 
 
LETTERS TO MAX MULLER. 47 
 
 their own language, they cast them in the mould of Persian 
 idiom and construction, which they have continued to do 
 ever since they have studied Arabic books and literature 
 at first hand. I ought to have said Western rather than 
 Ottoman Turkish, as the latter conveys too modern and 
 limited an idea. The Turkish of North- Western Persia is 
 in reality far more Western than Eastern (though it does 
 not appear so from the Ottoman point of view), and I look 
 on it as the best and most archaic representative of the old 
 proto-Seljukian Turkish. The Anatolian Turkish I take 
 to be an offset from this formed under the Seljukian Em- 
 pire of Bum or Iconium, which subsequently became 
 polished up and developed into the current Osmanli. It 
 is difficult to treat of this subject without going into de- 
 tails for which the limits of a letter would be too narrow. 
 The chief literary difference between the true Eastern 
 Turkish and the Western dialects, in which I include Per- 
 sian-Turkish, as far as it is written at all, is the absence 
 of the future in -jak, -jek, from the former, and the much 
 greater Aryanisation of the way of expressing the relative. 
 Mir Ali Shir, for instance, uses kim as a regular relative 
 pronoun, after the analogy of Persian. Even the Otto- 
 mans use it as a conjunction like the Persian Jd. The 
 gerund or verbal noun in -dik, so conspicuous in Osmanli, 
 used to express the relative by pronominal suffixes (aldy- 
 ghym para, " the money which I took "), is not found 
 among the Eastern Turks, who properly use -ghan (the 
 Ottoman participle -an) in the same way as a relatival 
 gerund, but, in their books at least, are inclined to make 
 to themselves a true relative pronoun. 
 
 About the common root for " a hundred " in Aryan and 
 Turanian I am very doubtful indeed. Uncivilised tribes 
 are very apt to borrow high numerals from their civilised 
 neighbours; and I strongly suspect that the Ostiakian 
 sat and the Hungarian szdz are borrowed from the same 
 source whence the Goths of the Crimea got their sada and 
 nazer. Moreover, I don't think the word occurs in any 
 
48 LETTERS TO MAX MULLER. 
 
 Turanian language far removed from Persians Or Persian- 
 speaking Turks. As for Turkish yuz t Yakut sus, I am not 
 quite sure whether the archaism of Yakut has not been 
 overstated, and would like to be cautious in admitting its 
 forms to be always the oldest. Yakut itself, for instance, 
 I believe is a Tungusian plural, equal to the native plural 
 Sakhalar ; but is it not the same word in the original 
 native form as brought by the Yakutians into the north- 
 east, subsequently changed by them into Sakha? If it 
 were not so, then the Tungusians must have the change 
 of s into y, and it is necessary to prove this to be the case 
 in Tungusian previous to admitting the s to be older than 
 the y. Sdtd for seven in Yakut offers a tempting analogy 
 for this, but on comparing the Turkish forms al-ty and 
 ye-di the dental looks as if it belonged to a termination, 
 not to the root. Some dialects, it is true, pronounce the d 
 double, yeddi, jitti. I suspect that this Yakut* s, so far as 
 it answers to the Turkish y, has in reality arisen out of 
 the North Turkish or Siberian pronunciation of the latter 
 like our /, which is the shibboleth of the Siberian Eussian 
 and Kirghiz Turks, as distinguished from the true Jagha- 
 taians, or whatever they may be called, of Independent 
 and Chinese Turkistan. In the extreme east of the latter, 
 as known by a higher vocabulary from Turfan given by 
 Klaproth (valeat quantum), y in the middle of a word is 
 represented by d, as adakhi for aycik, foot. I would give 
 a good deal to have a good rummage in the libraries of 
 Yarkand and Kashgar. 
 
 I have not read Schott, as we have not got him, unfrr- 
 tunately, at the Society. Eoehtlingk accuses him of com- 
 paring the Turkish terminations -lik, -li, with our Teutonic 
 -ly and -lich in freundlich, friendly ; the Eussian polk with 
 the Turkish leuluk ; and the Persian murden (-den) with the 
 German morden (-en), and thereupon calls him many hard 
 names. Boehtlingk, though not amiable, is right enough 
 in this, which must go some way to make one cautious in 
 accepting Schott's views and facts unchallenged. 
 
LETTERS TO MAX MtJLLER. 49 
 
 Pray do not put yourself out of your way to answer 
 my letters. Time is valuable with you, while I am an 
 absolutely idle man, with nothing to do but to rove about 
 in body and mind. I am almost ashamed of the desultori- 
 ness I should show if I wrote to you upon any other 
 philological subject or hobby besides Iran and Turan, yet 
 I shall not be able to resist the impulse which I have of 
 disburthening myself of a few notes upon the Southern 
 dialect of Wallachia, in which I have been dabbling a 
 good deal of late, and which has been kept far too much 
 in the background by Diez : though he says a good deal 
 more about its verbs in the new edition of his second 
 volume this year than in his prior edition. The only 
 two books treating the subject at all fully are out of print, 
 and I am afraid of the language dying out before we have 
 a third, more especially as it is likely to fare but ill in 
 the forthcoming millennium of "liberated" nationalities 
 on the Danube arid Adriatic. Very truly yours, 
 
 STKANGFOKD. 
 
ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. 
 PART I. 1 
 
 IN 1839 the British Government committed itself to an 
 undertaking which practically amounted to the conquest, 
 military occupation, and civil administration of a remote 
 mountain land, inhabited by a savage and warlike race, 
 animated by the strongest feelings of nationality. Yet 
 it was all but wholly unprovided with the means of 
 acquiring or imparting a knowledge of the difficult and 
 peculiar language in which that nationality found its 
 strongest' expression and support. Such knowledge, in- 
 deed, was not absolutely indispensable for the purposes 
 of official or social intercourse and correspondence. The 
 requirements of current business were sufficiently met by 
 the employment of Persian, generally known among the 
 educated class of Afghans, and strictly vernacular with 
 that large population of Afghanistan which is Persian in 
 its origin and Shiah by religion. But the inner life and 
 distinctive character of the Afghans remained a sealed 
 book for want of a knowledge of Pushtu. A vocabulary 
 inserted at the end of Mountstuart Elphinstone's travels, a 
 translation of the New Testament into Pushtu, and a brief 
 grammatical sketch and vocabulary by Major Leacn, con- 
 stituted at that time the whole of the materials accessible 
 to the English or Anglo-Indian student desirous of making 
 himself acquainted with this language. These were scanty 
 in amount, of little use for practical purposes, and of not 
 much intrinsic value. The translation of the Testament 
 was executed with haste and carelessness, and though 
 every allowance must be made for the zeal of the 
 
 1 Published in Vol. xx. of the "Journal of the Eoyal Asiatic Society," 1863; 
 
LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. 51 
 
 translators, and the difficulties of a little known, and, to 
 them, uncultivated language, with the literature of which 
 they were evidently unacquainted, such an error as the 
 often quoted rendering of "Judge not, that ye be not 
 judged," by words meaning " Do not practise equity, lest 
 equity be practised towards you," was more than mere in- 
 accuracy in Pushtu, as it indicates fundamental ignorance 
 of the real meaning of insdf, a word universal, and of quite 
 common and vernacular use in every language spoken by 
 Mahometans. Leach's grammatical sketch goes a very 
 little way in facilitating the student's progress, being 
 slight, imperfect, and not always accurate or consistent in 
 rendering Afghan sounds into Eoman letters; but his 
 dialogues are original, animated, and apparently idiomatic. 
 An ode of Eahman, subjoined to his sketch, is so dis- 
 figured with bad misprints that it is of no use to any one 
 who is not proficient enough to restore the text by means 
 of the translation at the side ; in other words, it is useless 
 to a learner. As this work bears the official countersign 
 of Mr. Torrens, certifying it to be a "true copy," the 
 responsibility of these misprints must be borne at least 
 as much by the censor as by the author. The late Dr. 
 Leyden appears at one time to have turned his attention 
 to Pushtu, and to have succeeded in adding some know- 
 ledge of that language to his other great and varied 
 accomplishments. A memoir by him on the Eoshenian 
 section in the eleventh volume of the Asiatic Eesearches, 
 contains some extracts from the " Makhzan i Pushtu/' the 
 earliest extant work in the language, 1 and the main 
 authority for his subject. This, however, was not 
 philology, and he added nothing to our knowledge of the 
 language. A gallant and distinguished officer, Lieutenant 
 Loveday, whose barbarous murder, at the instigation of 
 
 1 Captain Raverty, however, in a two older works, of one of which, the 
 
 letter contained in "The News of "History of the Yusufzai Tribe," he 
 
 the Churches," of February ist, 1861, was able to obtain a copy, 
 mentions the existence of at least 
 
52 LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. 
 
 the dispossessed Khan of Khelat. caused a deep and pain- 
 ful sensation in England at the time, is understood to 
 have contemplated a systematic study of Pushtu, with a 
 view to publishing the result; a project which was 
 abruptly stopped by his untimely death. 
 
 It must not be supposed that the same neglect or disre- 
 gard of the Pushtu language, which so markedly charac- 
 terised the period at which our political relations with the 
 Afghan states acquired a sudden and prominent import- 
 ance, had always prevailed among the authorities in 
 India. Early in the century the East India Company, 
 always the ready and munificent patron of Oriental 
 studies, authorised a learned native gentleman, Mohabbet 
 Khan, son of the famous Eohilla chief, Hafiz Eahmat 
 Khan, to draw up a grammatical sketch of Pushtu, 
 together with a vocabulary, the whole being written and 
 explained in Persian. No current practical use appears 
 to have been made of this work in India ; but two copies 
 were found by Professor Dorn of St. Petersburg in the 
 East India Company's Library in London, and the learned 
 Professor was thereby supplied with the groundwork of 
 his subsequent valuable labours in the field of Pushtu 
 grammar, a study which he was the first to establish on 
 anything like an accurate and scientific basis. 
 
 From the commencement of the century, Continental 
 philologists had begun to include the Pushtu among the 
 objects of their research. Owing to the scantiness of the 
 material upon which they had to work, their labour^ were 
 mostly imperfect and untrustworthy, and are described by 
 subsequent investigators as abounding in errors. The 
 researches of this period are represented by the Afghan 
 portion of Klaproth's "Asia Polyglotta," and by the 
 treatises of Eversmann and Wilken. A marked improve- 
 ment on these was a brief notice by Ewald, in which the 
 great Semitic scholar pronounced decisively upon the un- 
 Semitic character of the language, which, indeed, no 
 philologist, with any genuine materials before him, could 
 
LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. 53 
 
 fail in perceiving at a glance. But Professor Dorn was 
 the first to publish in extenso a real grammar and 
 vocabulary of the language, and to determine its true 
 philological character and affinities with accuracy in detail. 
 Not having lived in the country, however, and having had 
 few or no opportunities of acquiring the language in a 
 living form by oral and vernacular intercourse with the 
 natives, his works are described by Captain Eaverty as 
 not* being wholly free from error, at least in their lexi- 
 cographical portion, where the meanings of several Afghan 
 words are stated to be merely "guessed at." Considering 
 the comparative want of resources at the Professor's com- 
 mand, it is more to be wondered at that so much precision 
 and accuracy should have been attained, and that Captain 
 Eaverty, a ready censurer of the errors and shortcomings 
 of his precursors, should have found so little cause of 
 complaint. 
 
 Our associate, Captain Eichard Burton, the celebrated 
 traveller, contributed an interesting article upon Professor 
 Dorn's work to the Proceedings of the Bombay Asiatic 
 Society for 1 849, in which, from his having acquired both 
 a literary and vernacular knowledge of Pushtu during his 
 service in Upper Sindh, he was able to supply many 
 valuable additions and corrections to the work in question. 
 
 The first Pushtu grammar written in English, and con- 
 taining more than a mere outline of the rules of the 
 language, is the useful and unpretending little work of 
 Colonel Vaughan, published at Calcutta in 1854, an( ^ 
 followed in 1855 by a second volume, containing an 
 English-Pushtu vocabulary. This work is entirely 
 practical, and does not meddle with philology or gram- 
 matical theory; its use, therefore, is less for the com- 
 parative philologist or the ambitious student of Afghan 
 literature than for the soldier or the man of business 
 desirous of obtaining a knowledge of the elementary rules 
 and common words of the language by a simple and easy 
 method. Its accuracy, though not unimpeachable, is 
 
54 LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. 
 
 quite sufficient for the ordinary purposes of business, or 
 the rough and ready wants of the officer ; and it only 
 requires more idiomatic phrases and dialogues, to be pro- 
 nounced by far the most practically useful, if not the 
 most theoretically perfect, of existing Afghan grammars. 
 Colonel Vaughan's grammar was immediately followed by 
 Captain Raverty's more complete work. It is to the latter 
 gentleman that the credit undoubtedly belongs of being 
 the first student to combine a mastery of vernacular 
 Pushtu acquired upon Afghan ground with a thorough 
 knowledge of its literature a literature far more extensive 
 in its records, and of greater intrinsic merit, than is gener- 
 ally supposed even among Orientalists. He has communi- 
 cated to the public the results of many years' labours in a 
 series of works apparently intended to comprise the whole 
 subject of the Pushtu language and literature in all its 
 branches. These works consist of a full grammar of the 
 language, which has reached a second edition ; of a 
 dictionary, Pushtu and English, having a transcription of 
 the Pushtu words in Roman letters ; of a chrestomathy, 
 or a series of selections from the prose and poetical 
 writings of the best authors ; and of a literal English 
 version of the poetical portion of the last-mentioned 
 work, preceded by a popular introduction to the subject. 
 Whatever may be the merits or demerits of the system 
 upon which Captain Raverty has deemed it advisable to 
 construct his grammar and explain its rules, it is probably 
 beyond doubt that his works contain a compile and 
 trustworthy record of all its actual facts ; and it is in this 
 point that the real value of these works lies. The 
 accumulation of materials by the linguist is a matter of 
 primary necessity to the philologist, without which the 
 latter is unable to pursue his science with any prospect of 
 success; and in the present case his gratitude is fairly due 
 to Captain Raverty for the ample store of such material 
 which he has placed at the disposal of the learned public 
 at home and abroad. 
 
LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. 55 
 
 "When the linguist who is no philologist, but has mastered 
 a, language by rule of thumb or routine study, contents 
 himself with a plain statement of the grammatical facts 
 of that language, respects the limits of his own and his 
 fellow-workman's art, and refrains from dogmatising on 
 those problems in philology and ethnology which lie be- 
 yond those limits, he acquires the good-will of his readers, 
 and the voice of censure or criticism passes over his occa- 
 sional slips or mistakes in silence. It is quite allowable in 
 a writer upon language at Peshawar who has lived most of 
 his life cut off from Europe, to treat M. Klaproth, who 
 died some thirty years ago, as a living author, or to be 
 manifestly ignorant of the processes and chief results of 
 the science of Comparative Philology. But if he lends the 
 weight of a name and authority fairly earned by the suc- 
 cessful cultivation of one branch of study to the reiteration 
 of baseless, untenable, and exploded theories in ethnology, 
 the utter futility of which a proper view of his own special 
 study should have led him to perceive, and to the support 
 and propagation of such theories by arguments of his 
 own, wholly unworthy of serious consideration, he incurs 
 a heavy responsibility, and he has no right to complain if 
 he becomes the object of severe comment. These remarks 
 are unavoidable in the presence of Captain Eaverty's 
 various prefaces to his works, especially that to his 
 grammar, and of a very able paper by Dr. Lowenthal, 
 a missionary at Peshawar, which appeared in the Journal 
 of the Bengal Asiatic Society for 1 860 (No. IV.), under the 
 title of "Is the Pushtu a Semitic Language?" animad- 
 verting in detail upon the arguments contained in the above 
 prefaces, where Captain E-averty makes himself the advo- 
 cate of that curious delusion, the Semitic character of the 
 Afghan language, and the Jewish origin of the Afghans. 
 Incidentally, the doctor has brought forward many new 
 and most valuable illustrations of the Pushtu phonetic 
 system and vocabulary, as also, in a less degree, of its 
 forms; and it is therefore all the more to be regretted 
 
56 LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. 
 
 that he should have been thus forced to treat this really 
 necessary and important branch of inquiry as an object 
 secondary to the refutation of an absurd theory, in which 
 no one capable of appreciating his arguments now believes, 
 and the believers in which seem to be proof against his or 
 any other man's demonstration. 
 
 "Error is immortal," says Dr. Lowenthal, with perfect 
 truth, and it would therefore be sheer waste of time to 
 try and kill the Semitic theory or to gainsay a writer like 
 the Eev. Mr. Forster, when he tells us that dsmdn is a 
 Pushtu word, derived from the Hebrew samim (sic), with 
 the article, hesamim (sic) ; that or is Pushtu for " light " 
 (which it is not) as in Hebrew ; that the Hebrew nahar, 
 " a rider," is contained, in that sense, in a Pushtu com- 
 pound (not a word of which is true), and that therefore the 
 Pushtu is a Semitic language. It is more to the purpose 
 to inquire how Sir William Jones came to countenance 
 this theory, as he unquestionably may be said to have 
 countenanced it, when he stated the Pushtu to be an 
 actual dialect of Chaldee. It is probable that his opinion, 
 in the first place, was uttered more or less at random, and 
 was hastily conceived, without more than a mere cursory 
 examination of the language. In the second place, one or 
 two remarkable, though superficial and accidental, coinci- 
 dences do really exist. The genitive is formed in Chaldee 
 by a prefixed, di or d\ in Pushtu by da. They are wholly 
 unconnected in origin, as the Chaldee word is simply the 
 Aramaic relative pronoun, while the Pushtu w.xd is pro- 
 bably part of the demonstrative pronoun daghal Dr. 
 Lowenthal compares it with the Latin de and the Polish 
 od; referring both the former, after Bopp, conjecturally 
 
 1 Dr. Trumpp compares it with the assumptions. Hagha is also found in 
 
 Punjabi postfix da, which he shows to Assyrian in exactly the same form, 
 
 be originally an ablative derived from but in the sense, of the near, not, as 
 
 the Prakrit cfo, itself a corruption of the in Pushtu, the remote demonstrative. 
 
 Sanskrit -tas. It is more convenient, Ha is, without doubt, the Zend fl/ia, 
 
 however, to assign Pushtu forms to a Sanskrit sa, old Persian ha - uva 
 
 native and Iranian origin, as long as (Sanskrit sa-sva), whence the Persian 
 
 it is possible to do so without violent o, in modern pronunciations. 
 
LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. 57 
 
 the latter, with certainty, to the Sanskrit adhas. The 
 demonstrative pronouns, moreover, are not unlike in the 
 two languages at first sight. The Chaldee deJc, den, lidden, 
 dak, da, masculine and feminine, "this," resemble the 
 Pushtu pronouns TiagJia, daglia, on the surface, but are of 
 quite different origin. 
 
 Eawlinson compares hagha with a presumed Zend 
 form, hakha, corresponding to the Sanskrit sasva ; but 
 as the Pushtu gJi rarely, if ever, answers elsewhere to 
 the Zend q or Jch, gha is more probably a mere phonetic 
 or inorganic increment, while the da- and lia- are no doubt 
 respectively cognate with the Zend demonstrative ha, 
 Sanskrit sa, and the Zend and old Persian base da, found 
 in the enclitic pronouns -dim, -dis, in the inscriptions 
 -dish. Whether these dental bases, which are found both 
 in the Semitic and the Aryan languages, be real instances 
 of primeval connection or mere accidental coincidences, is 
 a question to be determined only by Semitic and Aryan 
 philologists of the highest authority and experience 
 respectively, such as Ewald and Miiller. It is, at all 
 events, quite certain they are no evidence whatever of 
 special and distinctive affinity between the Semitic 
 languages and Pushtu. The word or, " fire," probably re- 
 minded Sir William of the well-known Semitic word for 
 light, and it is possible, though not probable, that he may 
 have remarked a curious resemblance to the ordinary 
 process of formation or derivation of words in Arabic in 
 such instances as the Pushtu tor, black, tiara, blackness; 
 a change not easily explained, from our not possessing the 
 Pushtu language in any other than a quite modern form, 
 and our having, therefore, but limited means of com- 
 parison. The above examples, it may be said, constitute 
 the amount of those " treacherous indications," to use the 
 words of Dr. Dorn, which misled the great linguist and 
 man of letters into the hasty utterance of an opinion 
 which has been employed to shelter idle theories that its 
 gifted author would have been the first to disavow and 
 
58 LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. 
 
 refute, had lie lived long enough to become acquainted with 
 the modern science of" Comparative Philology, of which 
 he himself unconsciously helped to lay the foundations. 
 
 It may be worth while here to call attention to the 
 undue stress which has been laid upon the so-called 
 native tradition of the Afghans, connecting them with 
 King Saul, son of Kish, and upon the name of Beni Israil, 
 which they are said to give themselves, at the same time 
 that they reject the title of Yahudi. This affiliation of 
 themselves upon a historical personage of the Old Testa- 
 ment is in their case looked upon as an exceptional and 
 unique phenomenon, instead of being, as it really is, the 
 rule in all analogous cases. Wherever a rude and un- 
 cultivated people have been brought within the pale of 
 Islam, they have never failed to connect themselves with 
 the traditionary quasi-Biblical ethnology of their con- 
 querors or spiritual instructors through some patriarch or 
 hero of Scripture, the knowledge of whom was derived 
 by the early Mussulmans from corrupt Jewish sources. 
 Thus the old Turkish traditions of Central Asia make an 
 eponymus for that race after the usual process, out of its 
 own national title, and connect them with Japhet under 
 the name of Yafet oghlan Turk, Turk, son of Japhet ; and 
 the Berbers or Amazigh of North Africa make eponymi 
 out of their native and their Arabic names, and affiliate 
 themselves upon Ber, son of Mazigh, nephew of Canaan, 
 grandson of Ham. The Persian civilisatio-n and native 
 religions and heroic traditions were far too strong and 
 deep-seated to yield to this process, and in Persia, accord- 
 ingly, there are no traces of it to be met with. As for 
 Beni Israil, it is obviously, and on the face of it, a mere 
 Hollas' Arabic phrase, derived from books, and therefore 
 those who represent it as a national title prior . to, and 
 independent of, Mahometan influence, do what is 
 equivalent to putting Latin words with a Latin con- 
 struction into the mouths of the Highland clans of 
 Scotland previous to the Christian era. 
 
LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. 59 
 
 The most complete analogy to this so-called Pushtu 
 tradition is furnished by that of the Gipsies, which 
 affords, perhaps, the most perfect and typical example of 
 a spurious and insitive tradition, as opposed to a genuine 
 home-grown one, having been instantly and universally 
 adopted by a race from its neighbours, and by it passed 
 off in turn upon the latter as being really its own. In 
 every country of Western Europe, where the Gipsies 
 made their first appearance during the course of the 
 fifteenth century, their invariable reply to all questions 
 as to their race and origin was the legend that they were 
 the descendants of Egyptians who had inhospitably driven 
 the Virgin Mary from their doors. On the faith of this, 
 their Egyptian origin was always recognised in Europe as 
 a matter of orthodox belief, until Grellman published his 
 researches based upon an investigation of their language; 
 and this delusive belief stands recorded in three extreme 
 points of Europe, by the English, Spanish, and modern 
 Greek names of this race, Gipsy, Gitano, Pi^ro?. The 
 legend is not found among any Asiatic Gipsies, and was 
 manifestly forced into the mouths of the European 
 wanderers by the leading questions of their Christian 
 interrogators. It vanished into air at once before the 
 first examination of the Gipsy language, from which we 
 are now enabled to know not only whence they came, but 
 from what particular part of India they came, and through 
 what countries of Western Asia and Eastern Europe they 
 passed on their way to the west. The strong elements of 
 Persian, Byzantine Greek, and Wallachian, which their 
 language contains, suffice to show their route as clearly as 
 a written itinerary. ^ The acquired and spurious tradition 
 of the Jewish origin of the Afghans appears to have its 
 exact parallel in the above fable of the Egyptian origin of 
 the Gipsies. It would be an interesting inquiry to ascer- 
 tain how far the former is really current among the 
 Afghans, and whether it is to be met with at all among 
 
60 LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. 
 
 the clansmen and primitive classes living comparatively 
 out of the reach of the influence of Mollas. 
 
 It is impossible to conclude this brief notice of the 
 Jewish or Semitic theory without expressing great regret 
 that Captain Eaverty should have thought it answered 
 any practical or scientific end to support his paradoxes 
 with regard to the language by arguments derived from 
 the fact that numerous Arabic words are contained in the 
 Afghan vocabulary, and from the use of the technical 
 terms of Arabic grammar in the treatment of their own 
 language by Afghan grammarians. If Pushtu be Semitic 
 for the former of these reasons, so is every language 
 spoken by populations professing Mahometanism ; if for 
 the latter reason, so is every language that has ever been 
 grammatically taught and cultivated by Mahometans, and 
 we therefore must fain look on Persian and Turkish, 
 Malay and Mandingo language, French and modern Greek, 
 as comprised one and all in the category of uniform 
 Semiticism on the strength of their being expounded by 
 Turkish, Arab, or native teachers, through the technical 
 apparatus of ism and fil, and mdzi and muzdri'. 
 
 The real fact is, that the language of the Afghans cor- 
 responds, with great and exceptional exactness, to the 
 position in which we should be inclined to place it upon 
 a priori grounds, from a mere consideration of the geo- 
 graphical conditions and political hik>ry of the country 
 in which it is spoken. "We should expect to meet with 
 .a language descended from either the ancient speech of 
 India or that of Persia. "We should be more inclined, 
 upon geographical grounds, to favour the Persian alterna- 
 tive, as the highlands of Afghanistan, even now called 
 Khorasan by the inhabitants of the plains of the Indus 
 below the passes, and thus, by them, identified with 
 Persia, belong physically to that country rather than to 
 India. At the same time, we should look for the evi- 
 dences of the language of the Afghans having been 
 
LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. 61 
 
 powerfully influenced in its formation by the neighbour- 
 ing dialects of India, as well as by the vernacular form of 
 its more ancient and cultivated language ; and we should 
 expect the vocabulary of a mountain tribe, that never 
 worked out its own civilisation, but has always adopted 
 that of its settled and powerful neighbours so far as it is 
 civilised at all, to be fully loaded with importations from 
 those languages in all their different stages. The result 
 which, upon inquiry, we do find, precisely corresponds 
 with all these expectations. There is no reason for 
 doubting that the forms Ila/crves and IlaKTvucr] x<*)pa, 
 met with in Herodotus, express the modern national 
 name of Pushtu in the pronunciation of the Eastern 
 Afghans, with whose geographical position they com- 
 pletely coincide. They are of sufficient importance for 
 the contingent supplied by them to the host of Xerxes 
 to be noticed by the Greek historian, at the same time 
 that they do not constitute a special satrapy, nor is any 
 such satrapy mentioned either by Herodotus or in the 
 Behistun or Naksh i Eustam inscriptions. It is probable that 
 they were at this. time a mountain tribe of limited extent 
 and importance, situated in the most easterly parts of their 
 present area, upon whom the Achsemenian yoke sat lightly, 
 but dependent upon some one or more of the great adjoining 
 satrapies of Gandara, Thatagush, Haraiva, Hara'uvatish, 
 or Hindush; settled countries with a population, then, as 
 now, with the exception of the last, almost entirely pure 
 Iranian, and speaking a form of Persian of which, if it 
 were not actual Zend, at all events Zend is the nearest 
 representative that has come down in documents to our 
 time. The distinction between the Pushtu as we now 
 have it and the Persian languages, properly so called, in 
 their various forms and stages, is so deeply and clearly 
 marked, that it is reasonable to conclude that, even at 
 this early period, a considerable difference already existed 
 between the Zend or old Aryan of the plains and the 
 contemporary form of Aryan then spoken by the ancestors 
 
62 LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. 
 
 of the Afghans, from which the present Pushtu is de- 
 scended. This separation must h^ve been widened and 
 rendered permanent by the absence of Persian, and great 
 preponderance of Indian influence, to which Eastern Af- 
 ghanistan was subject during the whole period between 
 the downfall of Achaemenian power and the rise of Islam. 
 The traces of Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Scythian dominion 
 and influence to be met with in the Pushtu language are 
 imperceptible, but the constant intercourse with India, 
 and the direct Indian rule, which prevailed during most 
 of this period, have left a strong and indelible stamp on 
 Pushtu, not only in its vocabulary, but even in its forms, 
 idiom, and general character. So strong and pervading 
 is this effect, that it is not easy to determine, without 
 minute investigation, whether the Pushtu is to be ranged 
 among the Indian or Iranian dialects. The nature of the 
 words which it has borrowed from the Indian dialects is 
 sufficiently remarkable, as indicating the source whence 
 the Afghans obtained many of the rudiments of civilisa- 
 tion and the means of expressing them. " To write/' for 
 instance, is called by the Indian root likh, not the Persian 
 pish. Even to the present day many insulated tribes in 
 the Hindu Kush, such as the Dir, Tirhai, Laghmani, 
 and Pashai, specimens of whose languages are given by 
 Major Leach, speak dialects of distinct Indian rather than 
 Iranian origin, and therefore ethnologically represent 
 either an actual population of Indian ancestral settlers, or 
 else of a thoroughly Indianised native race. Ear more 
 important than all these are the Siah-piish Kafirs of 
 Kafristan, whose language, as exhibited and illustrated 
 by Dr. Trumpp in a late, number of this journal, is a 
 genuine Indian dialect, and whose physical character, at 
 all events in the instance of the men seen by the doctor, 
 is no less Indian than their language. The safest general 
 conclusion about the Pushtu would seem to be that it is 
 the descendant of a language belonging to the western 
 rather than the eastern branch of the true Aryan people, 
 
LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. 63 
 
 and therefore allied more intimately with Zend than with 
 Sanskrit ; but that during the period of the disintegration 
 of the old Persian languages, and the gradual formation of 
 the modern Persian, it was from political causes far more 
 exposed to Indian than to Persian influences ; this period 
 "being that in which the spoken Sanskrit language was 
 ceasing to be vernacular in its purest form, and was 
 gradually becoming corrupted into the colloquial Prakrit 
 forms, which are now generally acknowledged to have 
 immediately preceded, and truly and directly given birth 
 to, the modern vernaculars of Northern India. The Neo- 
 Indian dialects, while thus undergoing the process of 
 formation, powerfully affected the Pushtu while itself in 
 the same presumed transitional state, and the Persian 
 does not seem to have recovered its lost influence until 
 it had substantially acquired its modern form under the 
 late Sassanians and in the post-Islamic period. Since 
 then it has modified the whole nature and character 
 of the Pushtu, which in its modern, and especially its 
 literary form, appears entirely recast in a Persian mould. 
 Yet it is quite possible to determine in a majority of 
 instances, not only whether Pushtu words, of which the 
 affinity with Persian is evident at first sight, have been 
 directly adopted from the latter language, or belong 
 strictly and originally to Pushtu ; but even, in the former 
 of these cases, to ascertain within some sort of limits at 
 what period and from what stage of the Persian they have 
 been adopted. 
 
 In order to assign to the Pushtu its proper position 
 among the Iranian languages, it is necessary to enumerate 
 briefly, yet with sufficient detail, the different dialects of 
 which that important group consists, according to the most 
 natural classification and arrangement of which they admit. 
 For this purpose it is convenient to assume the Persian 
 language proper as the central unit or standard of com- 
 parison, by which to test the nearness and remoteness of 
 the affinity of the rest. This arrangement is natural as 
 
64 LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. 
 
 well as conventional, for the Persian language covers more 
 time in its records and more space in its distribution 
 than any of the others, and occupies a position central 
 to, conterminous with, and directly influencing all, or 
 nearly all, of them. By the Persian language proper is 
 understood, firstly, the old language of the Achaemenian 
 inscriptions, the direct parent of modern Persian, to which 
 may be added the two dialects, whether they be con- 
 temporary dialects or successive stages of the Zend, 
 most intimately allied with old Persian ; the transitional 
 dialects spoken during the Sassanian period, comprising 
 the lapidary, numismatic, and literary Pehlevi, in so far 
 as it is Aryan and stripped of its Semitic, element, and 
 the language formerly called Pazend, but now generally 
 known as Parsi, differing very slightly, if at all, from 
 the former, and being the penultimate stage of modern 
 Persian; the classical modern Persian of literature. during 
 the Mahometan period, from Eirdausi and his immediate 
 predecessors and contemporaries downwards; and, finally, 
 that which has furnished philologists with fewer materials 
 than any, the true living language of modern Iran. It 
 must not be forgotten that Persian is spoken as a native 
 and vernacular language much beyond the limits of the 
 Persian empire, in the settled parts of Turkistan and 
 Afghanistan, far into the heart of the Chinese Empire, by a 
 population whose Persian origin and agricultural habits are 
 variously indicated in these countries respectively by the 
 names Tajik, Sart, Dihkan, and Parsivan. Besides these, 
 the pastoral and nomadic tribes of mountaineers dwelling 
 in the ranges which traverse and enclose the plains of 
 Eastern Persia and Western Afghanistan, of whom the 
 Eimak ! and Hazara are the principal, are known to speak 
 
 1 Generally so pronounced, but race. The word is lost in Osmanli, 
 
 written Uimak, sUA The word but survives among some Turkoman 
 
 L? ^"J tribes of the interior of Asia Minor, 
 
 is Turkish, meaning a clan or tribe ; by whom the main tribe is called 
 
 vlr.^ ,L>-, "the four tribes," ' a ^ira, and the next minor sub- 
 
 ^ ' ^ *v division oymak. I am indebted for 
 
 is the usual Persian name for this this information to Mr. Edmund Cal- 
 
LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. 65 
 
 Persian as their own language. Their native traditions, 
 whatever they may be worth, point to a Turanian rather 
 than an Iranian origin, and one of the four clans of the 
 Eimak is actually called Moghul, and speaks a corrupt 
 dialect of Mongol ; but the other Eimaks, the Hazara and 
 the settled Tajiks of the plains, all speak the Persian 
 language in an archaic form, which may be generally 
 described as being the Persian of Firdausi. But of the pro- 
 vincialisms, archaisms, and special differences of this Tajik 
 or extra-Iranian Persian, there does not exist any notice 
 whatever in detail; and it would be well worth the while of 
 linguists and scholars in Persia, or the neighbouring coun- 
 tries, to endeavour to form a collection of the kind. One 
 or two vocabularies of the Persian of Bokhara have been 
 compiled and published, but as they were drawn up, not 
 with the object of contrasting Tajik-Persian with Iranian- 
 Persian, but of showing that the language of Bokhara 
 was Persian rather than something else, they have done 
 more harm than good, as they have served to induce com- 
 parative philologists to accept and admit the "langue 
 boukhare" into their essays and vocabularies as an in- 
 dependent dialect, having its own ordinal value, and 
 standing towards Persian in the same relationship, more 
 or less, as Kurdish or Ossetish. The " Farsi " of Bokhara 
 in reality differs from that of Teheran in the same manner 
 and degree as the " Frangais " of Canada or the Mauritius 
 differs from that of Paris, or the English of Boston from 
 that of London. Each, in the rates of its consciousness, 
 accepts the metropolitan standard of literature and con- 
 versation; each considers itself, and really is, of the same 
 
 vert, for a long time resident among in all modern works on language and 
 
 the Turkomans of the neighbourhood ethnology. This is quite incorrect, 
 
 of Kaisariya. A vocabulary of the and there is nothing whatever in 
 
 dialect of the Moghul Eimaks, drawn Leach's words to warrant or give rise 
 
 up by Major Leach, has somehow to such, a supposition. Whatever 
 
 given rise to the impression that the their descent may be, their language, 
 
 whole body of the four Eimaks speak with the one exception of the Moghul 
 
 Mongol and are of Mongol descent ; Eimaks, is exclusively Tajik Persian, 
 and they accordingly figure as Mongols 
 
 E 
 
66 LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. 
 
 name, form, and virtual identity with the main branch 
 from which it sprung ; and though each may contain many 
 curious provincialisms and archaic expressions, that cir- 
 cumstance of itself does not elevate them to the rank of 
 separate substantial languages, or even dialects. 
 
 The dialects standing nearest to Persian, being its 
 genuine sisters, and not modern offsets or corruptions of 
 it, are the Mazanderani, Ghilek, and Talish, spoken in the 
 wooded and mountainous country south of the Caspian. 
 They are closely allied to each other, and form a natural 
 family which may be conveniently called the Caspian. 
 They are known through some brief specimens of popular 
 poetry published, with notes, by M. Chodzko ; the Talish, 
 moreover, through a grammar and vocabulary published 
 at St. Petersburg, the province in which it is spoken being 
 partly Eussian. More remote from Persian than the 
 Caspian group, and respectively about equidistant from 
 it, stand the languages of the north-west and south-east 
 frontiers, the Beluchi and the numerous Kurdish dialects. 
 The former, well illustrated in Germany from materials 
 supplied by Major Leach's vocabulary, is unfortunately 
 only known to us as spoken by the Eind Beluchis, the 
 conquerors of Sindh, and it bears many traces of Indian 
 influence accordingly. The dialect of the Nharui, or 
 western Beluchis, bordering on Kirman and Sistan, has 
 not yet, to the writer's knowledge, been noticed. Eegard- 
 ing the various Kurdish dialects, it would be more 
 convenient to call them by a less limited and more 
 comprehensive term, such as Kurdo-Lurish or Lekl, as 
 they are not only spoken in Kurdistan proper, including 
 the area of Kurdish migration and settlement in Asia 
 Minor and Northern Syria, and among the extensive 
 settlements of true Kurds in Northern Khorasan, but by 
 the Lurs and Bakhtyaris of Luristan, and by the whole 
 of those Ililyat, or wandering tribes of Persia, who are 
 not of Turkish race. These latter are called Lek in 
 Persia, and of their distinctive dialect absolutely no 
 
LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. 67 
 
 record exists. The same may be said of the Luri, for 
 though everybody who has been in the East, and inquired 
 into the subject, is aware that the Lurs speak Kurdish, 
 yet there is nothing to show in proof of the assertion save 
 a few words in the Kurdish vocabularies in Mr. Rich's 
 work on Kurdistan. 
 
 A very peculiar and insulated dialect must be classed in 
 this stage or degree of proximity to Persian. This is the 
 Baraki, spoken by a small hill tribe in a secluded district 
 of Afghanistan. Their . tradition, pointing to a recent 
 Arabian origin, and to a language invented for purposes 
 of secrecy by themselves, though accepted by its 
 chronicler, Major Leach, is worthless in presence of 
 the language itself, which is an interesting, and in many 
 points truly archaic, Iranian dialect. Ksliar, for instance, 
 Persian shahr, old Persian JchsJiatram, Jcsha, the number 
 six, Zend Jcsvas, Persian shasJi, shish, which could not, of 
 course, have been invented out of nothing, could not, any 
 more, have been adopted from the local Tajik Persian of 
 the plains, from which the old initial compound sound 
 must, have disappeared long prior to Islam. Leach only 
 gives a vocabulary and dialogue, without any outline of 
 the grammar, but the construction of sentences, as shown 
 in the dialogue, is far less Iranian and more Turanian 
 than would . be expected from the wholly Iranian forms 
 and words of this language. 
 
 Next come the two well-known Ossetian dialects, which 
 have now for some time attracted the attention of Euro- 
 pean scholars, owing to their outlying and insulated posi- 
 tion in the Caucasus, and to their unexpected philological 
 affinities. They have been fully illustrated by the labours 
 of Rosen and Sjogren. The numerous Indian character- 
 istics, and the strongly marked sound system of the Pushtu, 
 and the special and peculiar nature of much of its vocabu- 
 lary, serve to remove it further from Persian than any of 
 the dialects previously mentioned. Yet, it does not close 
 the list, and, upon the whole, after due consideration, the 
 
68 LANGUAGE OF THE AFGHANS. 
 
 extreme position among the Iranian dialects should pro- 
 bably be reserved for the Armenian, the affinities of which 
 to Persian, nevertheless, are numerous, clear, and undoubted. 
 The above enumeration, it is believed, will be found to 
 have comprised the whole circle of Iranian dialects that 
 have come down to us, and that are at present known to 
 exist. They are all of them closely connected with one 
 another, and each one of them is capable of supplying great 
 and effectual aid in throwing light upon the difficulties and 
 explaining the peculiarities of any or all of the others. 
 Pushtu, obviously, and as a matter of course, has to be 
 illustrated by Persian, but the dialects are also capable of 
 rendering it equally efficient services. Dr. Dorn has thus 
 drawn useful comparisons from the Caspian dialects in 
 two or three instances, and would have done so more fully 
 had it been his object in that place to explain, rather than 
 to state, the rules of Pushtu grammar. The principal end 
 with which the Persian dialects have been examined in 
 the preceding survey, has been to show how very scanty, 
 after all, are the materials which lie at the disposal of the 
 philologist for their due investigation, and to stimulate 
 the linguist who may read these pages, and who may have 
 opportunities for such researches, to- dig and quarry in a 
 valuable mine, which, so far from having been exhausted, 
 is as yet in many places unworked and undisturbed. 
 
(69) 
 
 A TOO PERSONAL PRONOUN! 
 
 To the Editor of " The Realm." 
 
 [THIS curious letter, the address of which a huge blot has partially 
 obliterated, must have reached us by mistake, the reviews referred to 
 having never appeared in our columns, and the critic being unknown 
 to us. It is dated on the evening of the Ascot Cup Day. We shall 
 be glad to hear further from the writer, whoever he is, when he is 
 quite sober. He shows traces of a talent for critical omniscience 
 even while he kicks over them.] 
 
 SIR, You are not fair upon me. You are my taskmaster 
 and the lord of my benefit; I am your servant and your 
 workman your hireling reviewer. In this capacity I have 
 no reason to doubt that I have given you entire satisfac- 
 tion, nor do I believe that you can point out any contem- 
 porary instance of omniscience and effrontery superior to 
 that which I love to bestow upon you among my brother 
 workmen in the employ of other masters. Omniscience, 
 indeed ! ' Why, before I have done with you, I shall just 
 take the liberty of pointing out to you what I have done, 
 and thus leaving you and your readers to judge for your- 
 selves. But of this more further on. For the present, I 
 have only to remind you that even the omniscience of a 
 weekly review writer has its limits ; that his endurance or 
 his impudence'are not proof against all wear ; and that his 
 conscience is occasionally seen to put forth the germs of a 
 feeble uneasy vitality. Why this noise and grumbling ? 
 say you. Because, say I, you have called on me at a 
 moment's notice and it would have been much the 
 
 1 These amusing letters appeared in a short-lived newspaper called the 
 " Realm," June 15 and 22, 1864, 
 
70 A TOO PERSONAL PRONOUN. 
 
 same thing if it had been a year's notice to pronounce 
 from the judgment-seat of your columns an authoritative 
 and skilled opinion on a book about law, archseology, and 
 philology, all these three strands being most cunningly 
 twined- together into one rope and tied into one knot, which 
 I have no power to untwine, no knowledge wherewith to 
 untie, and not enough impudence to cut. And, as if law 
 in itself were not bad enough, you vex my soul with the 
 law of Anglo-Saxons and Romans, and the like old-world 
 people. " A Neglected Fact in English History. By H. 
 C. Coote, E.S.A. London : Bell & Daldy." Such is the 
 smooth unpretending outside or husk of the very hard nut 
 which you have called on me to crack, in order that your 
 readers may delight in the kernel. Now, I vow and de- 
 clare that I know absolutely nothing about these occult 
 sciences of law, philology, archaeology, and Anglo-Saxon, 
 and I care as little as I know. No more, between you and 
 me, do our readers, in practice at least, whatever they may 
 do in theory. But it is not fair upon a reviewer to expect 
 him to make his bricks without the straw of knowledge, 
 nor is it quite fair to newspaper readers or skimmers to 
 expect them to lean with full confidence on the support of 
 columns constructed with plinths such as I make without 
 straw. Nor, while talking of straws, can you expect that 
 you will be allowed to place the last straw on the camel's 
 back, and thereby to break down your beast of burden, 
 without his treating you to a spice of the angry camel's 
 mettle ? He will creak and groan at you ; he will sway 
 his great neck round at your legs, and make grass of your 
 flesh with his herbivorous grinders ; he will chuckle and 
 bubble at you, with great pink globes of angry foam half 
 wrath, half rumination bursting from his injured queru- 
 lous mouth. No, sir ; I have long proved myself in your 
 service to be no angel, fearing to tread on unknown and 
 sacred ground ; but rather to be one of the other sort, who 
 will rush in at anything from trigonometry to the Vedas. 
 But I must draw the line somewhere, and I choose to draw 
 
A TOO PERSONAL PRONOUN. 71 
 
 it at Eoman and Anglo-Saxon law, at the Domas of ^Ethel- 
 red and Siculus Flaccus de Conditionibus Agrorum. 
 
 Bethink yourself, sir, for one moment, I pray you, of the 
 nature and amount of work done by an active literary 
 reviewer, going well in single harness, let us say, between 
 the shafts of a moderately light weekly newspaper. Give 
 yourself the trouble of reading the books which he pro- 
 fesses to review for you, just in order to see whether he 
 has read them at all, let alone the question of his possess- 
 ing, or having acquired or crammed, the collateral infor- 
 mation which will enable him to confirm or to refute. He 
 cannot do it, or, at all events, he hardly ever does do it. 
 The pace is too good ; the necessity of saying something is 
 too urgent ; the amount of new patients waiting, as it were, 
 in the dentist's anteroom is too great; the competition 
 with other, and perhaps rival, contemporaries is too strong. 
 So I and my brethren, who have nothing to do, please 
 remark, with the scientific labour of skilled and trained 
 critics, such as those whom you will find shining in such 
 constellations of wit and special knowledge in the earlier 
 numbers of the " Edinburgh " or the " Saturday Eeview " 
 I and my brethren, having neither time nor knowledge, 
 waste the former by simulating the latter ; for the bricks 
 must go to the kiln, straw or no straw. The results of such 
 manufacture are appalling to the individual reviewer to 
 behold, if his moral stomach be at all squeamish and his 
 conscience qualmish. But here is seen the great advantage 
 of anonymous writing, namely, the protection it affords to 
 the reviewer's conscience ; otherwise how could any human 
 conscience withstand the remorse, let us say, of having 
 assumed and arrogantly put forward knowledge about the 
 Binomial Theorem when the writer is ignorant of simple 
 equations. 
 
 But let us turn from general propositions to particular 
 instances. I will just pass briefly in review the work 
 which I have contributed to your columns since the be- 
 ginning of the year. First and foremost, of course, comes 
 
72 A TOO PERSONAL PRONOUN. 
 
 my famous review of the book of the season. Sir Emerson 
 Tennent's " Story of the Guns," in the very clever author 
 of which it is my delight to recognise an omniscience, a 
 pugnacity, and a two-thousand-competition-wallah power 
 of era of assimilation, on which I would fain model my 
 own, and up to which I gaze in admiration as at a star on 
 high. Of course I shot the steel-headed bolt of my criticism 
 through and through the iron plates ; but if you think I 
 had anything to do with the forging of the bolt, you are 
 very much in error. Then came Dr. Percy's "Metallurgy;" 
 then came Mr. Freeman and the Achaean League; then 
 came "A Handbook of Uterine Therapeutics;" then came a 
 " Handy-book to Modern Corruptions ; or, Clippings from 
 the Queen's English;" then Mr. Gorst's book on New Zea- 
 land, with my remarks on the whole land question as between 
 the settlers and the Ngatimaniapoto and the Ngaruawahia 
 tribes and I beg of you, sir, be mindful of the spelling of 
 these words, because Maori orthography is my strongest 
 point but seven. Then the bo'oks on that weary old 
 Ottoman Empire, dear and precious among empires as it 
 is to reviewers for its inexhaustible fertility in book-crops; 
 then that Asian mystery, the Eastern Question and I 
 hope, sir, that neither you nor your friends will ever be 
 called upon to answer the inquiry, ' What is the Eastern 
 Question?' Then came Shakespeare and the parasiti- 
 cal literature thereunto pertaining; then Dr. Schiefner's 
 " Tschetschenzische Studien," a nice light work for sum- 
 mer wear ; then the " Zeitschrift der Abendlandischen Por- 
 nologischen Gesellschaf t ; " then Dr. Sandwith's " Hekim 
 Bashi," in which I find three false concords in his Turkish, 
 and so bruise the Kars hero's heel, as he is about damaging 
 his own knuckles by knocking the Grand Turk's numskull 
 lying sick on his couch a chronic invalid, who won't 
 die, won't get well, and won't take his physic. The last 
 thing I did was the drawing-room edition of Halayudha's 
 " Abliidhanaratnamala" (having previously glanced at the 
 bell-tent edition for the use of subalterns), just published 
 
A TOO PERSONAL PRONOUN. 73 
 
 at Ahmednuggur for the festivities held there by so many 
 millions of our dusky fellow-subjects in honour of the ter- 
 millenary of that sweet swan of Nerbuddha. I daresay I 
 missed many of the best points, in humour and pathos, of 
 the mighty Sanskrit tragedian. Dr. Max Miiller would 
 soon settle my hash, and perhaps even the titular Sanskrit 
 Professor himself might have leau jeu with me ; but at 
 least I put my horse at the fence boldly, and without 
 swerving, craning, or, I think, falling ; and I think I was 
 graphic in describing the ceremonies the public fountains 
 playing ghee, or clarified butter, the gratuitous distribution 
 of sacred cow-dung to the poor, the nautches, and the 
 widow burnings. Do not, then, bother me about Eoman 
 law and the Trinoda Necessitas, about lurhlot, Iricgbot, and 
 fyrd, after that, for I am exhausted intellectually and 
 morally. If you want anybody to tell you whether Mr. 
 Coote is right or wrong in his use of these cabalistic words, 
 go elsewhere, and do not come to ME. 
 
(74) 
 
 A NEGLECTED FACT. 
 To the Editor of " The Realm." 
 
 SIR, The real fact is, that if you ask me what Mr. 
 Coote's book is, I can tell you with no more difficulty 
 than is inherent in making a summary of a work on a 
 subject which is quite unfamiliar ; and such difficulty is 
 much lessened in the present case by Mr. Coote's way of 
 breaking up his paragraphs, or rather of making his para- 
 graph and his sentence commensurate. This is apparently 
 imitated from M. Guizot, though, to a profane student of 
 novels rather than of history, it looks uncommonly like 
 the works of M. Alexandre Dumas, pere; but it is a great 
 help to the eye and memory. If, on the other hand, you 
 ask me what Mr. Coote's book is worth, I can no more tell 
 you than I can tell you what is the relative worth of the 
 Armstrong and the Whitworth gun. Nor do I believe you 
 will find six men in England who can; for though the 
 work is perfectly clear, and not in the least abstruse, the 
 subject is very abstruse, and hardly anybody is equal to 
 it in all its bearings. Perhaps it will be handled some 
 day in one of the Quarterlies or sober-sided periodicals. 
 But, to be done properly, it should be done by a com- 
 mission or board. Mr. Home should be at once called on 
 to summon the ghost of Mr. J. Mitchell Kemble, and to 
 him should be adjoined the German trio, Professors Leo, 
 Lappenberg, and Pauli; there should be Mr. Wright, and 
 there should be that priceless pearl of anonymous and 
 somewhat crotchety erudition, who goes on week after 
 week pouring out historical criticism from unexhausted 
 stores into the "Saturday Eeview" a nameless contributor, 
 
A NEGLECTED FACT. 75 
 
 yet with force and learning enough to make the fame of 
 ten men one who alone will keep his review sweet 
 through ten times the current amount of dripping stuff 
 about Early Eising (which comes regularly once a year), 
 Flirts, Lords and their Lackeys, and the like. Such a 
 body, or, for the matter of that, any one of the Germans 
 singly, would be able to establish or confute Mr. Coote's 
 propositions decisively and once for all. 
 
 It is easy to state what the propositions themselves 
 are. The mass of Englishmen are not descended from the 
 ancient English whose name they bear. They are not 
 sprung from a small dominant caste of Teutonic invaders, 
 but from a subject race of provincials, Eomanised Britons, 
 "Welshmen," or Lloegrians. The last were not exter- 
 minated by the English or Teutonic invaders, but they 
 remained under them as the great majority of the popula- 
 tion, and impressed on their rude conquerors, almost un- 
 changed, the laws and institutions which they had enjoyed 
 under the dominion of Imperial Rome. The population 
 in Anglo-Saxon times is divided into gesithas, subsequently 
 called thegnas, and ceorlas. These respectively represent 
 the Eoman possessores and the coloni. The borough with 
 its territory constitutes the shire, which exactly represents 
 the Roman civitas, or city with its territory. The hundred 
 represents the Eoman pagus, but bears a name applied 
 from the ancient Teutonic itinerant assessors, one hundred 
 in number, moving from township to township. The so- 
 called sixhyndman, intermediate in some measure between 
 the thegn and the ceorl, is an actual Eoman, at least in the 
 earlier times, and belongs to the old Eoman population of 
 the towns. The termination in -tun belongs to one-tenth 
 of the local names in England, and it denotes the old 
 Roman enclosures of land as found and retained by the 
 English invader, with his own name prefixed; such a 
 termination and such enclosures not being found, or 
 having been swamped, on the Continent. More than this, 
 the very hedgerows of England are genuine Eoman 
 
76 A NEGLECTED FACT. 
 
 demarcations, preserved in Britain alone. All these 
 points are supported by copious reference to Roman 
 jurists and Anglo-Saxon documents, through the vast 
 mass of which latter, contained in Kemble's "Codex 
 Diplomatics," it is evident that the author has worked 
 his way; and though I can tell you nothing about his 
 correctness, I can readily bear witness to his industry. 
 
 Philology is the author's weak point. Not content 
 with institutions, he maintains that our very language 
 came to us from the Eomanised Britons, whose language 
 was the classical written Anglo-Saxon, the earliest stage 
 of modern English. So that both in blood and speech we 
 English bear the name of English merely as the Italians 
 of North Italy bear that of Lombards, or the provincials 
 of Gaul that of French from their Frank conquerors. The 
 Jute, Saxon, and Angle invaders, speaking Scandinavian 
 or Teutonic dialects only remotely allied to our own; 
 forsake their own forms of speech and adopt that of the 
 Eomanised Britons, themselves no Celts, but an ante- 
 cedent Teutonic population descended from the Belgae. 
 This philological part of Mr. Coote's theory will not hold 
 water in the least ; and some of his statements are such 
 bouncing blunders that it is astonishing how they got to 
 Mr. Coote's pages. Certain abstract terms of religion, dis- 
 tinguished from ceremonial terms of alleged later origin, 
 are found in Anglo-Saxon, such as husel, a sacrifice. These 
 indicate a pure and primitive form of Christianity existing 
 in the island previous to the Teutonic or Saxon invasion, 
 and were borrowed by the Saxons from the Britons. Now, 
 here is how and where Mr. Coote breaks down. The 
 oldest Teutonic form of Jmsel is the Gothic hunsl, found in 
 Ulphilas, and it is absurd to suppose a bishop on the 
 Lower Danube to have borrowed it from the Britons. But 
 Mr. Coote knows nothing about Ulphilas and the older 
 Teutonic dialects of the Continent, otherwise he would 
 never have said anything so shocking as 
 
 u It (the Teutonic of Anglo-Saxon England) has two letters and 
 
A NEGLECTED FACT. 77 
 
 sounds unknown to the Continent of Germany, viz., the tlieta and 
 the w. It has an inflection which no German dialect has ever had, 
 viz., the formation of a plural of nouns in as and es." 
 
 Go to your Grimm, Mr. Coote, to your Massmann, your 
 Gabelentz, and your Diefenbach; learn their ways, and 
 the ways, of a-stems in the Ur-Deutsch; avoid paradox 
 when you do not know all your subject, and be thankful 
 you hear no more on this from ME. 
 
( 78) 
 
 DOG-PERSIAN "IN EXCELSIS." l 
 
 VIENT d'etre nomme Chevalier Grand Cordon de la Legion 
 d'Honneur 1 Am Your Faithful Obedient Servant Russell 
 Knight of Thegarter. Let us suppose this delectable piece 
 of nonsense to have appeared some fine evening in the 
 official portion of the Paris "Moniteur," great with the 
 dignity of leaded type and authoritative heading ; and let 
 us further conceive it to have been duly copied, circulated, 
 and commented upon in the unofficial ordinary newspapers 
 of Trance. What commentary should we suppose the 
 French papers likely to make upon the English system of 
 nomenclature ? What would they say about the godfathers 
 and godmothers who " assist " at the baptism of infant 
 " Anglo-Saxons " ? The first ejaculation would probably be 
 the same as that which was provoked by the representation 
 of " Othello " in English on a Parisian stage some fifteen 
 or more years ago. " lagOj lago ces noms Anglais tiens, 
 c'est comme le miaulement d'un chat ! " Think of the out- 
 burst of jokes both coarse and keen, of the inextinguish- 
 able laughter among the happy gods of the European 
 Paradise. Think how the ignorant majority, and the evil- 
 minded majority, and the clever majority, would all go 
 their ways exulting in one more proof of that perverse 
 insularity which begins even at the baptismal font. M. 
 Assolant and all the tribe of feuilletonistes would put forth 
 the most brilliant little leaves of writing, all of a glitter 
 with glass-dust not to be distinguished from real diamond- 
 dust. The voices of De Porquet, or Fleming and Tibbins, 
 or whoever may be the recognised interpreters of English 
 words and ways for the benefit of the French, would be 
 dull and silent amid the chaff and gay clamour. But a 
 
 1 From the " Saturday Review," December 24, 1864. 
 
DOG-PERSIAN " IN EXCELSIS." 79 
 
 small minority would assuredly be found, versed in the 
 method of our language, and ever irritated at signs of 
 international misconception, who would not spare their 
 denunciations of the utter carelessness and slovenliness in 
 a public office which lets an insane jumble of titles and 
 names and formulas go and do duty for an unprotected 
 foreigner's own decent Christian patronymic. 
 
 The scene and the names must now be changed, and the 
 story must be narrated of ourselves. In one of the " Lon- 
 don Gazettes " of last week, such as we are accustomed to 
 read in the top corners of our daily paper the morning 
 after publication, the following pretty piece of reading was 
 served up at our breakfast-tables : " The Queen has been 
 graciously pleased to nominate and appoint His Highness 
 Eurzund Dilbund Easekhul Itgad Dowlut - i - Englishia 
 Eajah Eajegan, Eajah Eundeer Singh Bahadoor of Kup- 
 poorthulla, to be a Knight of the most Exalted Order of 
 the Star of India." This must have created bewilderment, 
 disquietude, and annoyance among nine-tenths of news- 
 paper readers among all ladies, and professional people, 
 and douce parochial-minded people very much as though 
 a Hindoo crossing-sweeper had intruded himself in person 
 upon their morning privacy, or a fluttering white-robed 
 Lascar thrust his bundle of tracts between the ratepayer 
 and his teacup. Asia is very well in its way, but Asia 
 must consume its own smoke, and not come into the way 
 of its European neighbours, as it has got into the habit of 
 doing too frequently of late. Yet there are gleams of hope 
 through the darkness. Englishia which seems to differ 
 from English as Alicia from Alice might make a pretty 
 ladies' name, such as Andalusia, Yenetia, and other pro- 
 vinces have done before now : and it has a friendly look, 
 like a green oasis in the midst of this weary Asiatic de- 
 sert. Eajegan is evidently the family name of his High- 
 ness, according to the punctuation of the phrase, sentence, 
 word-drift, or whatever it is to be called ; and we sincerely 
 congratulate the Eajah on its pleasant sound, its adapta- 
 
80 DOG-PERSIAN " IN EXCELSIS." 
 
 bility to European organs, and its apparent resemblance to 
 the proper names of the exalted Irish a race fond of claim- 
 ing an Eastern origin, which may perhaps be admitted 
 when we find names in the East made so much after the 
 fashion of Hogan, Flanagan, and Mulligan. Those who, 
 like ourselves, are professionally bound over as critics to 
 be mistrustful of everything, may hazard a suspicion that 
 some of it may be no name at all, but a mass of title, or a 
 bit of a sentence in a native language that has been smuggled 
 into the " Gazette " by enthusiastic advocates of the Eoman 
 character, under guise of a name. Such cavil as this, 
 however, can be met by a ready answer. If Furzund 
 Dilbund, &c., be a title, why is " His Highness " written in 
 English, and not in Kuppoorthullese ? We must take it as 
 we find it given to us. It is given to us as a name, and it 
 has been taken as such, and made merry over as such, and 
 had good stories told over it as such especially the inevit- 
 able old one of the Spanish landlord and the hidalgo with 
 his string of names, a story as impossible to miss as it 
 seems to be to write three consecutive Spanish names 
 correctly and moralised over as such, and very likely had 
 thanks said over it as such that we are not like those 
 Asiatics ; and all the cheap Quintilians of Cockayne have 
 stared, and gasped, and told us " how much harder 'twas 
 than Gordon, Colkitto, or Macdonald, or Galasp." Of 
 course, a name like this is one more proof of Asiaticism, 
 Indianity, niggerhood, or by whatever name we may call 
 the aggregate of the perverse uncomfortable ways of our 
 fellow-subjects and cousins Indo-german. It seems to 
 afford a dim shadow of an explanation, or at least an ana- 
 logy, to their other objectional points of difference from 
 ourselves their dislike of beefsteaks and turn for meta- 
 physical brooding and clarified butter, their tendency to 
 be blue at the extremities in cold weather, their aggravat- 
 ing cerebral accent, their singular proclivity to the selling 
 of Christian tracts in London, combined with marked 
 repugnance towards the religious doctrines therein incul- 
 
DOG-PERSIAN " IN EXCELS IS? 8 r 
 
 cated, and all tlie other details which make up the 
 character of the wolf we have got by the ears and are not 
 flinching from the duty of taming. 
 
 Perhaps Miss Yonge, at least, will thank us if we take 
 this name let us say Sir Furzund Eajegan's name to 
 pieces, and see of what material it is made up ; in doing 
 which it will not be easy to avoid the discovery, at the 
 same time, of what materials Perso-Indian scholarship in 
 high places is made up. It would be more exact to say 
 Persian at once. The sentence is made up of Persian 
 words, meant to obey Persian laws. The words are either 
 true Persian drawn from the pure well of Aryan undefiled, 
 or Arabic words and an Arabic phrase incorporated in that 
 language, or Indian words treated and inflected as Persian. 
 The laws of its syntax are Persian, and it is a good or bad 
 sentence only when tested as Persian. Furzund, in its 
 elements and its meaning exactly corresponding to the 
 Latin prognatus, is a somewhat archaic and poetical word 
 for a son, little used vernacularly, but fully living in the 
 high literary style and official parlance. In the latter it is 
 employed or was some years ago by the Grand Vizier's 
 office at Tehran in addressing Persian ambassadors abroad, 
 and other dependent functionaries. All Continental Ori- 
 entalists, would write the word Farzand or Ferzend ; and 
 English Orientalists who have anything approaching to 
 book-learning, and who see the advantage of adopting one 
 system of transcription, generally follow that of Sir W. 
 Jones, who would write Farzand. But, though the vowel 
 is etymologically, and elsewhere really, an a, Furzund does 
 exactly express the Indian way of pronouncing it, with our 
 short u as in ~but, fun ; and it is no use quarrelling with 
 this part of Mr. Gilchrist's system, which is, practically, 
 so accurate on Indian ground. The only inconvenience 
 attending it is that a handful of educated people here, 
 familiar with Continental languages, and not realising the 
 nature of the transcription of sounds from one alphabet to 
 another, will say Sootledge, and Poonjab, and Sir Yoong 
 
 F 
 
82 DOG-PERSIAN " IN EXCELSIS." 
 
 Bahawder, as they used to show off their Spanish in M. Du 
 Chaillu's year by pronouncing Gorilla Gforillia, after the 
 analogy of Montilla and Manzanilla, just as if the great 
 anthropoid ape were a new kind of bitter sherry. But if 
 the carriage people go wrong, the omnibus people go right 
 in these Gilchristian short u's. 
 
 Dil-lund, or -land, or -lend, literally " heart-binding," is 
 by itself quite unobjectionable, beyond such objection as 
 lies against the whole, that it is written in Persian, and not 
 in the plain English official version thereof. The words, 
 when taken separately, though we need hardly now say they 
 are no more the Rajah's name than the Lord Chamberlain's 
 name, are good sense enough, as we have seen. Yet Fur- 
 zund Dilbund means just nothing at all, as it stands. The 
 word which logically connects the two, in order to convey 
 the desired meaning of " affectionate son," or as we should 
 say, " devoted dependant," is wanting or omitted. It is a 
 very little word, being simply the short letter i ; and, in 
 the Arabic alphabet used by all Mussulmans for writing 
 their respective languages, it is an invisible word, not 
 perceptible as a word at all. Yet it is none the less an. 
 integral, if not quite an organically living portion of Per- 
 sian speech. The Arabic alphabet has no means of ex- 
 pressing a short I as a substantive word by itself, nor can 
 it represent the sound as here uttered at all except as a 
 vowel point affixed to the consonant ending the foregoing 
 word, or by a y when that word ends in a vowel. In this 
 case it is called the Izdfa (junction or copula), more 
 properly, the sign of Izafa. But it is not writing, but 
 speech, which constitutes the vital principle of a lan- 
 guage; and if the Arabic alphabet only affords an im- 
 perfect Semitic instrument for the registration of Aryan 
 sounds, these latter, when emancipated and recorded in a 
 more suitable character, should be represented in full, and 
 all the more so when grammatically significant. The 
 Parsee does this when writing Persian with the Zend 
 alphabet, for that has a character for each vowel, whether 
 
DOG-PERSIAN " IN EXCELSIS? 83 
 
 long or short ; the Armenian does this ; and we Eomans 
 should do this, as, indeed, all scholars generally do. The 
 word is a good little word, come of good lineage, with 
 illustrious cousins. It is the legitimate descendant of the 
 Zend hya, the Achaemenian hya, which is both a relative 
 and demonstrative pronoun, as well as the termination of 
 the genitive case arising out of that pronoun, being neither 
 more nor less than the Homeric article. In Parsi, the 
 most archaic stage of current Persian as recorded in the 
 books of the Fire-worshippers, the word appears not only 
 in its modern employment, to form the connection between 
 substantives and adjectives, or to supply the loss of the 
 genitive case as in our of, but as an active relative pro- 
 noun ; as in, for instance, mart i raft, the man who went. 
 In the modern Kurdish declension of personal pronouns 
 it is well preserved in an older form Az, I ; genitive, ya 
 men, of me; where Kurdish has also retained the old 
 nominative now lost to Persian, but common to all the 
 other Iranian dialects, as well as identically existing in 
 Old Slavonic and Lithuanian, and, with more surface- 
 change, in each of the other members of the Pan- Aryan 
 group, from aJiam and ego down to /. The word corre- 
 sponds always in meaning to the English of or which; 
 and, if the alphabet admit of it, should no more be 
 omitted in writing Persian than those words should be 
 in English. 
 
 Here, we again miss it after Dilbund. Easekhul Itgad 
 is intended to represent an Arabic phrase, inserted bodily 
 into the sentence according to Persian syntactical rules, 
 but, within itself, being perfect self-contained Arabic. As 
 in Turkish, Persian, or Indian politics you constantly meet 
 with imperia in imperils, so in the languages of these 
 countries you meet with linguas in linguis. Gilchrist 
 would write it Rasikli ool Ttikad, or 1'tigad ; Sir William 
 Jones would write it Rdsiklm 'l-I'tikdd; and this last 
 would represent the Arabic spelling with mathematical 
 accuracy. The Arabic article may be left alone by itself 
 
84 DOG-PERSIAN " IN EXCELSIS." 
 
 in the Eoman character without any harm being done ; or 
 it may be prefixed to the Ftikdd, as it ought to be by 
 rights, but when affixed to the Edsikfi it is like coupling 
 shafts to a cart-horse before they have been built into 
 the cart. EasekJi is an allowable variation, but Itgad is 
 nothing at all. This word, like all Arabic words, must be 
 written on some one consistent system, and any random 
 or unsystematic writing is pure error. The word should 
 be Ptikdd or I'tiqdd, or it may be written with any other 
 conventional sign to convey the two sounds proper to 
 Arabic ; one, our inverted commas, for a sound impossible 
 to European adult learners, being a forcible contraction 
 and subsequent dilatation of the throat- valves, so to speak, 
 when uttered by Arabs, but in other languages into which 
 it has passed, a mere hiatus ; the other, a guttural k, or a 
 q, for which last g is a misprint, but not even a misprint 
 can confer sense or possibility upon this word as it stands. 
 The phrase altogether, and by rights, we may add, is as 
 though the Latin fidei servantissimus were embedded in an 
 English sentence. 
 
 Dowlut we have nothing to say against, for the Gil- 
 christian system has one or two redeeming points about it, 
 though we should never dream of using or advocating it. 
 At this point we find our little friend the short i had got 
 his syntactical rights officially acknowledged at last, per- 
 haps owing to his next neighbour's presence ; for where 
 you find English, you will probably also find i written long, 
 and even unduly held in honour, it is said. But why 
 Englishia ? It is utterly barbarous. In Persia at all times, 
 and in India during the Mogul period, the name of England 
 was written and spoken Ingilis or Ingiliz, which, with an 
 Arabic feminine termination added to the Gentile adjec- 
 tive, would be Ingiliziyya. Latterly, the word Ingrez, 
 taken from the Portuguese, is the one used in India for 
 the most part. But Englishia, if it be so written purposely 
 with the laudable intention of getting the word in its purest 
 form hot and hot from headquarters, is at best a case of 
 
DOG-PERSION " IN EX CELSIS? 85 
 
 clipping and tampering with the Shah's Persian, which 
 even the Euler of India has no right to commit. The 
 idiom of this language, moreover, imperatively requires the 
 presence of some honorific adjective in the present instance; 
 the phrase should be Dowlut, or, as we should write, Daulat 
 i 'Aliyya i Ingiliziyya, " the high English state." It is not 
 a mere question of politeness, nor of grammar, but of idio- 
 matic principle ; and the adjective is as indispensable as, 
 in French, the prefix of Monsieur in an address like M. It 
 Comte, M. votre frere, would be. Its omission is, in an Ori- 
 ental's eye, a want of due self-respect. We would gladly 
 enter into the whole question of the method of clothing 
 European forms and titles in an Oriental garb had we space 
 enough ; we can now only say that the Eussians have long 
 been manipulating Persian for this purpose with wonderful 
 tact, and their greatest success in Central Asia has been a 
 philological success. The Sovereign of India was long 
 called a mere MaliJca i Mu'azzama in Indian Persian, 
 which a Central Asiatic understands as an " exalted Chief- 
 tainess." The Emperor of Eussia is in all the mouths and 
 opinions of Central Asia the Imperdtur i A'zam, the 
 Greatest Emperor ; and this last is not mere official form, 
 but good Persian vernacular. Eaja Eajegan will do well 
 enough; it does not belong to the domain of linguistic 
 criticism to inquire why the worthy man is called Eajah 
 of Eajahs, so we willingly make our salaam to His High- 
 ness, and retire from his presence, after having expressed 
 our entire dissatisfaction with his fine new patchwork of 
 European clothing. 
 
 There is no great harm or depth of delinquency in this 
 affair, after all; nor is the carelessness or slovenliness 
 with which it is put together bad enough to hurt the 
 feelings of Orientalists seriously, who should be thick- 
 skinned and long-suffering in this respect, and have much 
 to bear withal. It is the intense strangeness, not to say 
 absurdity, of writing an English Government Gazette in 
 Persian, and not in English, which bewilders us and pro- 
 vokes our comments. When it is wanted to say "His 
 
86 DOG-PERSIAN " IN EXCELSIS." 
 
 Highness Eaja So-and-so, a devoted adherent and faithful 
 dependent of the English Government," it is best to say it 
 in English when addressing English readers, and to keep 
 the Persian for Indian Gazettes on Indian ground, if there 
 be such things. When we give the garter to King George 
 we shall not gazette him as " Anax Andron Tondapamei- 
 bomenos Georgios," much less write it " Hanacks Andron;" 
 but we shall call him King of Men, or whatever the proper 
 Athenian title may be, in decent everyday English. When 
 Prince de Carambolesco shall be elected by universal suf- 
 frage Emperor of regenerate Danubia, we shall not say to 
 him Maria Ta, but " Your Majesty," however pleasant it 
 may be to show off our Daco-Eoman. We are already 
 prone to dwell with more weight upon the points of differ- 
 ence which separate Asiatics from ourselves than upon the 
 points of similarity which unite us, and it is not well to 
 let a plain straightforward sentence in the classical lan- 
 guage of Sadi pass, for want of explanation or translation, 
 as a vile uncouth tag of names worthy only of a Eeejee or 
 Dahoman savage. The incidental questions arising out of 
 this the force and vitality of the Persian language in 
 India, its bearing and influence upon Hindustani, adopted 
 by the English as the universal language, but as yet unfixed 
 and adrift, as regards its future vocabulary at least the 
 curious discrepancies among Mahometan Orientals, in the 
 employment of terms denoting their styles and titles the 
 difference between the living language of Iran and the 
 benumbed quasi-classical Persian scholastically taught in 
 India these questions, full of interest, cannot now be 
 examined. For the present, we can only conclude with the 
 Arabic proverb, " An-ndsu a'ddun mdjahalu" of which the 
 French " C'est la mesintelligence gui fait la guerre " is a 
 feeble shadow, and which we shall freely translate, " When 
 men see a strange object which they know nothing of, 
 they go and hate it." Even in a mere trifle like the pre- 
 sent, it is surely no waste of time to substitute correct for 
 incorrect impressions, and sow the seed of sympathy rather 
 than antipathy. 
 
A FEW WORDS ON NORTHERN ALBANIA* 
 
 THE interior and mountainous districts of Northern 
 Albania are an unknown land to English tourists, and are 
 almost unvisited even by real travellers and explorers. 
 At all events, they have hitherto found no place in any 
 English record of genuine travel. The only account 
 known to me which contains any fulness of geographical 
 detail is a contribution of the Austrian Count Karaczay to 
 the Proceedings of the Eoyal Geographical Society. This, 
 however, is based, not on personal travel, but on informa- 
 tion supplied by the Eoman Catholic clergy of the country, 
 many of whom, Dalmatians or Italians, are Austrian sub- 
 jects. I believe I may even go the length of limiting the 
 number of tolerably recent English travellers among these 
 wild mountains to two persons Mr. Hughes and Mr. 
 Dunn Gardner. The former, now Oriental Secretary at 
 Constantinople, and son to the late well-known traveller 
 in Southern Albania, has travelled on the line of the 
 White Drin as far as Ipek, Jacova, and the curious old 
 Servian monastery of Dechan. The latter, I understand, 
 has been everywhere, even into the fastnesses of the 
 almost independent Mirdites. But no account of either 
 of these journeys has been published. On the other hand, 
 an account of travels which never took place, and which 
 there is no occasion further to specify, does exist. 
 
 The French have been beforehand with us in this field, 
 and have gone a long way to supply our wants. M. Hec- 
 quard, formerly French Consul at Skodra, published at the 
 
 1 From " The Eastern Shores of the Adriatic," by Viscountess Strangford. 
 Bentley, 1865. 
 
88 A FEW WORDS ON 
 
 end of 1858 a volume of great interest 'and importance, 
 replete with geographical, statistical, and miscellaneous 
 information on Upper Albania, the fruit of many years' 
 most active political employment in that country, and of 
 a thorough knowledge of its languages. I think that 
 much of this work, even though very dry, would well 
 repay translation by a competent person. It was, and 
 has as yet been, wholly unnoticed by the English press, 
 not having even been boiled down into stock for ordinary 
 magazine consumption. I wish that my limited scope and 
 space would allow me to make large extracts from his 
 valuable work for the benefit of English readers, and intro- 
 duce them to the Hotti and the dementi, to Shalla, and 
 Pouka, and the subjects of Prince Bib tribes of good 
 Catholics who are more unknown to us than the Waganda 
 and the Wagogo of Equatorial Africa. 
 
 For general information on Albania as a whole, and 
 particularly on its central and southern parts, I cannot do 
 better than refer my readers to the great work published 
 not many years ago by Von Hahn, for a long time Aus- 
 trian Consul at loannina. This is a vast storehouse of 
 facts of every conceivable description, with archaeology 
 and philology predominating, as is natural in the work of 
 a German, learned or otherwise. Everything is there 
 treated, from the earliest origin of the people in the old 
 pre-Homeric period down to their modern nursery stories, 
 and to the question whether there really are or are not 
 Albanians born with tails. It is an Augean stable of dis- 
 orderly erudition, which strongly needs the clear and 
 methodic mind of some French or English Hercules to 
 reduce it to order for the use of the general reader. 
 
 Writers on Albania usually adopt the tribal or genea- 
 logical method in defining and classifying the divisions of 
 that country, and are generally apt to tread in one an- 
 other's footsteps without much inquiry how far the extent 
 or value of such divisions may not have been overstated. 
 Thus, M. Cyprien Eobert writes of " Les qiiatre Allanies" 
 
NORTHERN ALBANIA. 89 
 
 meaning the districts of the Gheghs, Tosks, Ljaps, and 
 Tchams, the last two, though affiliated with the second, 
 being considered now to stand by themselves as separate 
 divisions. I do not think my readers will thank me or be 
 much the wiser if I fire off into their faces a mere repeti- 
 tion of these uncomfortable, snappish monosyllables, that 
 fail to convey any idea of practical value which is not 
 much better expressed in another way. Besides, such a 
 division leaves out a great deal : ten districts are enume- 
 rated by Colonel Leake in his earliest and now rare work 
 ("Besearches in Northern Greece and Albania") which 
 do not belong to any of these main branches. The true 
 and intelligible division is that of religious denomination. 
 This has the advantage of coinciding broadly with a 
 natural geographical demarcation, and it also serves to in- 
 dicate the past history as well as the present condition 
 and future prospects of Albanian civilisation in its three 
 forms Catholic, Greek, and Mussulman. The true and 
 typical region of the Mussulmans is in the centre ; that of 
 the Latins in the northern district, of which Skodra is the 
 chief town; and that of the Albanians in communion 
 with the Greek Church, corresponding with fair accuracy 
 to the limits of Epirus, is in the south, with loannina for 
 its capital. In the centre, the Christian population of the 
 towns, such as Berat, Elbassan, &c., is almost entirely of 
 the Eastern Church, and with the Greek language actually 
 or prospectively for its speech. In the north, on the other 
 hand, there are no Greeks, except those so called by the 
 ordinary misuse of the term that is to say, Sclavonians 
 of the Eastern Church, who are found in the border dis- 
 tricts next Montenegro. As a whole, the Christians of the 
 north are Eoman Catholics, devotedly attached to their 
 Church. The Mussulmans are everywhere, north, centre, 
 and south ; but it is only in the centre that they prepon- 
 derate so as almost exclusively to form the population. 
 
 The germs of civilisation were implanted and nurtured 
 in the north by Italian influence, by the Church of Borne 
 
90 A FEW WORDS ON 
 
 and the Republic of Venice ; in the south, by the Patri- 
 archate of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire, or 
 its offshoot, the Despotate of Epirus. The rising tide of 
 Ottoman conquest either overwhelmed or buried the whole 
 country. It destroyed the political power of the Greek 
 Empire in the south, and further deadened the low vitality 
 of the Patriarchate by turning it into a mere instrument 
 of control for its own purposes. In the north Skanderbeg 
 was crushed; and Venice, driven one by one from the 
 towns she held, was forced to capitulate honourably after 
 the great siege of Skodra. The mass of the Catholic 
 population were, however, able to maintain their religion 
 and a certain amount of independence unmolested, and 
 had no oppression to complain of. But the growth of 
 their civilisation was checked; they were cut off from 
 Europe, and buried from the sight of the world. This 
 lasted during the palmy days of Ottoman statesmanship 
 and military prowess ; but as weakness and want of con- 
 trolling power set in at the centre, persecution and oppres- 
 sion, and the long train of evils which always accompany 
 weakness in a Mahometan state, became rife at the ex- 
 tremities. A large portion of the Catholic population was 
 then fain to embrace Islam in order to avoid calamity, as 
 well as, doubtless, to obtain a career of advancement, or 
 to escape the imputation, and possibly the reality, of being 
 the allies and tools of hostile Christian states. Erom the 
 reports of Venetian ambassadors, we know that this con- 
 version must have been taking place during the last half 
 of the seventeenth century. 1 The descendants of these 
 
 1 From a work, which must be of the empire, as a means of overthrow- 
 great curiosity, published at Palermo ing the Turkish rule from within, to 
 in 1648, under the title of "Anato- be supported by a European league 
 mia dell* Impero Ottomano," and re- from without. This is a curious an- 
 f erred to by Colonel Leake ("Re- ticipation of what is supposed to be 
 searches," &c., p. 250), it appears the great discovery of anti-Turkish 
 that the Albanians were still mainly diplomacy since 1856, internal dislo- 
 Christians at that time. Their insur- cation substituted for external ag- 
 rectioa is reckoned upon, in common gression. 
 with that of the other Christians of 
 
NORTHERN ALBANIA. 91 
 
 Albanians have retained a great many vestiges of Christi- 
 anity, not to say of actual ceremonies. This, of course, 
 refers to the mountaineers and country people, not to the 
 townspeople. Thus, for instance, the Mussulmans of 
 Eetchi celebrate the feasts of Christmas, Easter, St. Nicho- 
 las, and St. George ; and in illness or distress they are sure 
 to send for a Catholic priest to pray for them. The tribe 
 of Skreli derives its name from St. Charles Shen Kerli 
 to whom it was anciently dedicated ; they pay tithes to 
 the Catholic priest, and join in the Church festivals, 
 although professing Islamism. Things have so changed, 
 that at this day the Christian mountaineer has infinitely 
 the advantage over the Mussulman, as he escapes the con- 
 scription by avowing his religion. 
 
 In 1846 an attempt was made to levy the conscrip- 
 tion on one of the true Catholic tribes under the pretext 
 of its being avowedly Mussulman, and was carried out 
 with great atrocity and cruelty towards the victims and 
 their families. Sir Stratford Canning was the first to 
 become acquainted with the circumstances ; he interfered 
 promptly and peremptorily ; the offending Pashas Salih 
 of Salonica being the worst were punished, and the poor 
 Albanians settled at Philadar, a mountain village near 
 Brusa. 
 
 At the present moment all the world is forced to hold 
 some opinion or another, whether fairly come by or not, on 
 the subject of nationality. It may, therefore, be instruc- 
 tive to examine that of Albania, and consider how far it is 
 capable of standing by itself, and what value it may assume 
 in any political combination. There is no doubt that the 
 Albanians have a distinctive physical and mental char- 
 acter strongly marked a character in a greater or less 
 degree common to all. They think of themselves and 
 magnify themselves in common as Albanians, in contrast 
 to their neighbours : they all speak one language, or rather 
 one group of unwritten dialects full of foreign importations, 
 and in its extreme forms, north and south, shading off into 
 
92 A FEW WORDS ON 
 
 all but mutual unintelligibility. Money, force, or dexterous 
 intrigue can unite any or all of them against any part of 
 themselves or any of their neighbours for the purpose of 
 mere depredation, war for war's sake, or pulling down a 
 government. But for want of a common language of cul- 
 tivation and literature, and not having any religious deno- 
 mination in common, they are without the two main 
 elements which help to construct and hold together the 
 fabric of a true nation. Having thus no consciousness of 
 political unity, they have in themselves no power of poli- 
 tical construction ; and therefore, to the eye of the states- 
 man, their nationality is but negative, however much the 
 ethnologist may be justified in treating it as positive and 
 strongly marked. The moment an Albanian enters a 
 church or mosque door, or takes an alphabet in hand and 
 begins his education, he enters upon the first process of his in- 
 corporation with the body politic of his neighbours or rulers. 
 The south affords the most striking example of this. Whe- 
 ther the land be held by a Turkish or by a Greek govern- 
 ment, the Christian Albanian of the south will ultimately 
 become a Greek to the same extent and through the same 
 causes that the Albanian sailor of Hydra or the Albanian 
 peasant of Attica are and have been slowly changing into 
 Greeks. Nor is it difficult to see how easily and quietly, 
 under these circumstances, with the conscription and the 
 land-tax gradually wearing away the Mussulman popula- 
 tion, the country must, in the long process of time, drop 
 off from Turkey and on to Greece, if this impatient gener- 
 ation would but allow time to do its own work. Whether 
 the people will be better off or Greece the better governed 
 is another question. They will at all events, under the 
 strong and special influence of the Greek educational sys- 
 tem, have learned to feel that foreign domination is the 
 worst of evils, and to the first generation of freemen free- 
 dom will be the one paramount blessing which will atone 
 for any misgovernment. 
 
 The Mussulman population of the central and northern 
 
NORTHERN ALBANIA. 93 
 
 districts seem destined in the same way to mingle and 
 embody themselves in the general mass of Turkish Maho- 
 metans in Europe. Under the rebellious or half-indepen- 
 dent rule of their countrymen, the old feudal beys or 
 pashas, they were able to preserve their Albanian indivi- 
 duality untouched. But the entire modern history of 
 Turkey, from the Egyptian settlement in 1841 to the 
 war in 1854, lies in the reconquest of its disaffected and 
 rebellious Mussulman provinces, and the enforced applica- 
 tion to them of the new central system of administration. 
 The Albanian, after two rebellions, was reconquered, and 
 reduced, like the Koord, the Bosnian, and the Laz of 
 north-eastern Asia Minor. His old antagonism to the Porte, 
 though still capable of being turned into an efficient in- 
 strument for the work of demolition, is, so far as it was 
 national, in a fair way of being mitigated under the influ- 
 ence of centralisation. Besides this, the Porte holds in its 
 hands as a trump card the power of uniting all the people 
 of Islam by an inflammatory appeal to fanaticism : and 
 though such statesmen as Fuad Pasha would be strongly 
 disinclined to play such a card, they may be forced to do 
 so by the constant menaces of filibusters, by the fanaticism 
 of Christians, or of Progressionists using Christian watch- 
 words, or by the persistent want of fair play from Europe 
 in standing by the spirit of treaties. And such a course 
 would at once convert him into a reckless and active ally. 
 At present, if the greedy and corrupt bureaucracy of Con- 
 stantinople forces him to become its deadly enemy, the 
 cause will be the same that will also alienate every pro- 
 vincial Turk in the land from rulers of his own race 
 namely, the heavy burdens of exclusive conscription and 
 mismanaged taxation. 
 
 It is unsafe to hazard a positive speculation as to the 
 ultimate future of Northern Catholic Albania. The for- 
 mative spirit and training power of its old mistress and 
 teacher, the great Eepublic of Venice,, has now ceased to 
 act. Italy has enough to do in holding her own against 
 
94 A FEW WORDS ON 
 
 open foe and uncertain friend for her to influence the 
 eastern coasts of the Adriatic as yet, though the influence 
 of Venice in the Levant is her natural inheritance, and 
 assuredly will be hers some day. It will be well indeed if 
 she refrains from premature propagandism for other than 
 Italian purposes, and from doing the dirty work of other 
 powers in Turkey under the impulse of blind hostility to 
 Austria anyhow and anywhere. The spiritual and moral 
 superintendence of the Latin Albanians has passed from 
 Venetian to Austrian hands ; and, in quiet times, is likely 
 to remain there, without being either used as an engine of 
 political annexation or developed into an organised system 
 of education and improvement. Austria is among the 
 Latin Albanians what France is among the ,Maronites ; 
 and, for the matter of that, what she would like to be 
 among the Latin Albanians too. But these powers use 
 their position differently, according to the difference of 
 their policy in Turkey. The Turkish government, the 
 rulers of the land, are content to let both well and ill alone 
 in these matters. The Albanians have no cultivated lan- 
 guage by which to educate themselves, and easy-going 
 Austria, though an Italian power, so to speak, in the 
 Adriatic, cannot put her heart in the work of Italianising 
 these people, which is the only way of training and edu- 
 cating them to become a European community. Nor, 
 from common interests, and a now active sense of having 
 to stand or fall with Turkey, to say nothing of good faith 
 and respect for treaties, has she any wish to annex in this 
 direction and assume direct rule herself. 
 
 It is the misfortune of these Northern Christians that, 
 unlike their Southern brethren, who are confronted by 
 Greek influence whichever way they turn, whether to 
 Greece proper, Thessaly, or the sea, they have no Italian 
 or Italo-Sclave frontagers of their own religion, and of a 
 master-language. Between them and their co-religionists 
 lies Montenegro, firmly knit together, aggressive and 
 ardently anti-Catholic. The idea of their annexation, 
 
NORTHERN ALBANIA. 95 
 
 together with all Central Albania into the bargain, to the 
 Montenegrins, a people as wild and savage as themselves, 
 and, collectively, less numerous, is the opprobrium of the 
 political ethnology of the Palais Eoyal, such as we find it 
 on the famous and useful " Nouvelle Carte de 1'Europe " 
 of 1860. When the Pope sent forth his edict enjoining all 
 Catholics of the East to make common cause with the Mon- 
 tenegrins against the infidel in 1 862, it was at these Latin 
 Albanians that he was made to speak, in order to detach 
 them from the Turks. For many generations they had not 
 heard such language from Eome, and, had it been perse- 
 vered in, it might have gone some way to make them Pro- 
 testants, or even Turks, rather than allies of their bitterest 
 enemy. We may be sure that it was not Austrian influ- 
 ence that sought to convert the Pope into the schismatic's 
 friend on Albanian ground. These tribes are. practically, 
 and all but nominally, independent of Turkey ; as regards 
 her, they are simply in the position of so many loyal, well- 
 affected Montenegros; and they will always remain her 
 faithful allies, so long as those privileges are respected 
 which they know well how to defend with arms in their 
 hands. The experiment of detaching these tribes from 
 Turkey, undermining their allegiance, and substituting the 
 restless influence of another and greater Catholic power for 
 the inoffensive, inert supremacy of Austria, in order to 
 make use of them in any prospective combination, has 
 been tried before this, and perhaps is still trying. It is a 
 difficult game, and has failed as yet for want of sufficient 
 leverage ; but who knows how soon the master-hand of the 
 very able consular artificer who is said to have invented 
 Montenegro as a diplomatic reality, may be recalled to 
 the work of setting up and pulling down in Northern 
 Albania ? I hope I may be able one day to believe that 
 some English department is able to understand and control 
 these matters of detail both centrally and locally. 
 
REVIEW OF TRAVELS AND RESEARCHES IN 
 CRETE." * 
 
 (From the "Pall Mall Gazette" of August 25, 1865.) 
 
 THERE is no branch of the public service which does, "or 
 has done, more good, in a quiet, unobtrusive way, than the 
 Hydrographic Office at the Admiralty, or one which has 
 greater claims upon our gratitude. Nor is there any part 
 of the world where its services are more conspicuous than 
 in Mediterranean, and especially in Levantine, waters. The 
 priceless advantages therefrom accruing to our own large 
 and increasing trade with the Black Sea, Greece, and the 
 Ottoman Empire, as well as to that of all Europe, com- 
 pelled to undergo some of the most difficult and dangerous 
 navigation in the world, where a mistake of a mile in the 
 position of any of the innumerable islands and rocks and 
 jutting headlands may be fatal to the navigator, are too 
 obvious to be overlooked, even at first sight. This, how- 
 ever, may be said with equal truth of the China trade and 
 the Malay Archipelago as of the Black Sea trade and the 
 Grecian Archipelago, so far as commerce alone is con- 
 cerned or at least might be said, if the Admiralty could 
 be induced to undertake a similar thorough and exhaustive 
 survey in that important quarter of the world, without 
 flinching from the necessary expenditure, and the possible 
 outcry against it by those who only care for immediate 
 tangible results in one block. It is the halo of classical 
 association thrown round every spot of land or sea, and 
 the constant appeal to our imagination and our memories 
 which lies in every^ local name, that invest the Grecian 
 
 1 Review of " Travels and Researches in Crete." By Captain Spratt, Royal 
 Navy, C.B. London : Vau Voorst. 1865. 
 
TRA VELS AND RESEARCHES IN CRETE. 97 
 
 Levant with its peculiar, and, in a secondary degree, its 
 sacred character, and that enhance the services of its 
 scientific explorers. Such travels as those now given to 
 the world by Captain Spratt are thus always sure of our 
 sympathising attention, even though they may be weighted 
 with a good deal of dry antiquarian disquisition, irrespec- 
 tively of their intrinsic practical or scientific value. Cap- 
 tain Spratt is one of the veterans of the Levantine survey. 
 He is not unknown to the public as an author, having 
 taken his share in a tripartite work of travel and research 
 in Lycia conjointly with Lieutenant Daniell, K.N., and 
 that eminent man of science, the late Professor E. Forbes. 
 In the course of a great many years of exclusive employ- 
 ment in the surveying department, he has probably ac- 
 quired a greater topographical knowledge of the coasts of 
 the Levant, and, we may add, of the Lower Danube and 
 its mouths, than any other man ; and, we may further add, 
 if any man's opinion upon the Suez Canal would be worth 
 having, it would be Captain Spratt's. Much of his time 
 was specially devoted to the island of Crete, minutely ex- 
 plored, traversed, and traced by him in all directions, both 
 by land and by sea. In his present book he has commu- 
 nicated to us some of the miscellaneous results of his 
 Cretan excursions and investigations ; putting on one side, 
 or subordinating, of course, the technical and professional 
 matter: those who care for this last may find it in his 
 " Sailing Directions," published by the Admiralty. The 
 book, however, is more antiquarian than anything else. 
 
 The hundred-citied island is fortunate in this point, that 
 it has never had an unworthy book written about it ; and 
 it stands thereby in the strongest contrast with the main- 
 land of Greece, which, indeed, with the exception of spe- 
 cially geographical, archaeological, or artistic works, has 
 never had a really worthy one, except perhaps Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Mure's. In old times, Pococke, Tournefort, the 
 quaint old Scotchman Lithgow, the ornithologist Belon, 
 and numerous Venetians during the rule of the Eepublic 
 
 G 
 
98 TRA VELS AND RESEARCHES IN CRETE. 
 
 in Crete, whose various reports have been translated and 
 edited in the " Classical Museum" by Mr. Falconer, are 
 the chief narrators of travel in the island. In modern and 
 very recent times two good French memoranda have been 
 published, previously appearing in the " Eevue des Deux 
 Mondes :" one by M. Eaulin, a geologist; the other by M. 
 , Perrot, author of a work on Asia Minor, which we prefer 
 to his Cretan Memoir. But the best and most classical of 
 the modern works is that by the late Mr. Pashley, a Fellow 
 of Trinity, Cambridge. This is a thoroughly erudite and 
 scholarly production, naturally chiefly archseological ; but, 
 unfortunately, a selection of particular items rather than a 
 continuous record of travel. Curiously enough, there is 
 no such thing as a record of touristic journeying in Crete. 
 Both in Pashley and in his successor Spratt, personal 
 narrative is at a minimum, everything being sacrificed to 
 archaeology or natural science. None of the crude people 
 who write " notions," or travel for bookmaking, nor at 
 least until the other day any adventurous ladies, have 
 ever been there, or are likely to go there. We should, 
 therefore, have liked a little more fulness of the personal 
 element in the present case, and know more of what the 
 traveller said and did, and eat and drank, and rode, and 
 what he saw and heard. These points are apt to bore us 
 considerably in ordinary tours, but then there never have 
 been such things as tours in Crete which are mere tourism 
 and nothing else ; and we want to be told a little more 
 about the ordinary everyday life of a traveller there. We 
 therefore hope that Mr. Lear, the artist, who has lately 
 rambled all over the island, will complete the set of his 
 delightful gossiping travels by a work on Crete. Captain 
 Spratt knows this island by heart, and is familiar with 
 every inch of the ground, in consequence of some score or 
 more of journeyings, rather than of one prolonged tour. 
 When, therefore, he gives us personal narrative, it is gene- 
 rally selected after the manner of his predecessor, Pashley, 
 and chosen with the object of supplying the deficient parts 
 
TRA VELS AND RESEARCHES IN CRETE. 99 
 
 of that gentleman's work, and describing the localities 
 unvisited by him. We are accordingly made to roam 
 about, in the present book, all over the island in a per- 
 fectly desultory and unsystematic way, after we have been 
 treated to a preliminary panoramic view of the whole 
 country from the peak of Mount Ida in the opening 
 chapter. The worthy Captain, we should state, has a very 
 strong archeeological partiality, in which he has taken every 
 opportunity of indulging. When an antiquary appears 
 on the quarter-deck, it is a matter of real thankfulness, 
 considering the constant chances of successful research 
 thrown in his way during his professional service, and we 
 are not, therefore, in the least disposed to repine because 
 Captain Spratt every now and then seems to ride his hobby 
 a little too hard. He has, finally, spared no pains to add 
 to the value of his book by a series of appendices, contri- 
 buted by various hands, on many subjects incidental to it 
 on Greek inscriptions found in the island ; on the modern 
 dialect; on the geology and ornithology; on deep-sea 
 sounding, Mediterranean currents, and more still. The 
 book, therefore, though certainly too desultory, and, we 
 think, too inartificially put together as a piece of literary 
 workmanship too unlicked, so to speak is one of standard 
 value, and distinctly fills a vacuum and supplies a want. 
 
 Captain Spratt would probably wish for competent 
 criticism upon his geological chapters rather than on other 
 portions of his work. Competent criticism on geology we 
 cannot undertake to furnish him with, but the importance 
 of his main discovery the ascertained fact of a difference 
 in level of no less than twenty-two feet in the western 
 coast of the island having taken place within the historical 
 period is such as to command any reader's immediate 
 attention. The fact by which this difference is demon- 
 strated is the discovery of the old port of the ancient city 
 of Phalasarna standing high and dry above and at a dis- 
 tance from the sea; and Captain Spratt maintains that 
 the agency which produced this was not subsidence of the 
 
ioo TRA VELS AND RESEARCHES IN CRETE. 
 
 sea, but upheaval of the land. We have an impression 
 that Sir Koderick Murchison has always supported rather 
 than opposed this theory of upheaval. Whatever may be 
 the ultimate verdict of geologists as to cause, it is certain 
 that the present case is one of great importance in illus- 
 trating the value to the antiquarian explorer of a real 
 working knowledge of physical science. Our naval cap- 
 tain's geology stands him in as good stead, and is as in- 
 dispensable to him, as the Fellow of Trinity's working 
 knowledge of the text of classical authors. The combina- 
 tion of the two acquirements occurred for once in Colonel 
 Leake, the greatest of modern antiquarian geographers, 
 and is hardly likely to occur again. Another good in- 
 stance of the great gain resulting from current contro- 
 versies falling into the hands of professional men now and 
 then, and becoming cleared up at once by the necessary 
 technical illustration or evidence, may be seen in Captain 
 Spratt's brief remarks on the much- vexed voyage of St. 
 Paul in Cretan waters. He himself was for some time in 
 the Fair Havens, and on one occasion, when under easy 
 steam, was caught by a real Euroclydon, against which he 
 had the greatest difficulty in making head, even under full 
 power, the gale having acquired a truly typhonic char- 
 acter by rushing down from the high land. It is to this 
 down-rush, rather than to the direction, that, with all due 
 deference to Captain Spratt, we would fain refer the words 
 KWT avrfjs, taking them to mean not " against the ship," 
 but " down upon the ship." The disputed term Eurocly- 
 don Captain Spratt unhesitatingly affirms to be the an- 
 cient name, either general or local, for the north winds, 
 which prevail during the whole summer all over the 
 region of the Archipelago, known at that time of the year 
 to Levantine sailors by the name of meltem, and blowing 
 in the same direction as true winter gales, being from 
 N.N.W., the general point in Crete, to N.N.E., the general 
 point in the central Archipelago up to the Bosphorus and 
 Black Sea. It seems difficult, certainly, to get over the 
 
TRA VELS AND RESEARCHES IN CRETE. 101 
 
 fact that the Eums was distinctly an easterly wind ; and, 
 as Eurus is represented as a rainy wind, it may even be 
 considered as one to the southward of east. Yet, after all, 
 a local name, once taken up and used as a general term, 
 may ultimately find itself under circumstances locally 
 inapplicable to its new situation. Thus, we may add, the 
 Italian gregale for a north-eastern winter gale, probably 
 arising in Sicilian waters, is quite unsuitable to the 
 northern and central coasts, where it is also used, Greece 
 being south-east, not north-east of Italy as a whole. This 
 very gregale, much dreaded at Malta, has there decided 
 easting in it, and may well have blown St. Paul from 
 Crete thither. As for Jacob Bryant's paradox, recently 
 revived by Dr. J. M. Neale, that St. Paul's Melita was the 
 Adriatic island, we do not think it worth a moment's 
 regard since the masterly monograph of Mr. Smith of 
 Jordan Hill. The one point on which stress may fairly 
 be laid by the advocates of this last theory, the expression 
 " up and down in Adria," loses all its force if it is borne 
 in mind that " Adria " may well have applied then, as it 
 distinctly does now in current sailor's language, to the 
 entrance of the Adriatic, the Ionian Sea, or the whole wide 
 expanse between Sicily and Greece; of which modern 
 usage any reader who happens to go by a Messageries boat 
 from Messina to Athens may be able to convince himself 
 at once. Captain Spratt has so thoroughly realised the 
 scene of St. Paul's gale off Crete that he has given us a 
 beautiful and useful drawing of the actual occurrence, 
 with the position and course of the ship as first caught by 
 the squall. It may be added that a small ruined chapel 
 still exists, as a place of pilgrimage and occasional wor- 
 ship, actually dedicated to St. Paul, on a hill-top near the 
 Pair Havens. 
 
 Limestone formations are generally supposed unfriendly 
 to anything like picturesque scenery, but if there be any 
 exception to this rule it must surely be in Crete. Captain 
 Spratt has been most generous to his readers in the mat- 
 
102 TRA VELS AND RESEARCHES IN CRETE. 
 
 ter of views, and we can see by means of these a certain 
 uniformity and special character predominant in Cretan 
 scenery. This seems to consist of a most lovely varied 
 succession of sweeping bays and bold chalk headlands, 
 broken occasionally by the deepest and most magnificent 
 of harbours, stretching far inland, and always backed by 
 one or the other group of snowy mountains in the west or 
 the centre, forming a whole which can hardly be rivalled 
 on the Italian or Grecian coasts, and alone surpassed on the 
 incomparable southern and south-western shores of Asia 
 Minor. The Sfakian or White Mountains, in the south- 
 west, called Madhares by the Cretans, rise abruptly from 
 the sea to a height of more than 8000 feet as abruptly 
 as the mountains around the lakes of Wallenstadt. 
 Uri, or Eiva ; and, one would think, if that race, mouton- 
 niere, the Alpine people, mostly university men with a 
 Greek vocabulary ready-made, with money to spend, 'and 
 three months to spend it in, cared twopence about climb- 
 ing for anything beyond mere climbing's sake, they would 
 at once rush off to these splendid untrodden giants which 
 guard the eastern portal of the ^Egean. It would seem, 
 however, that we cannot climb anything which does not 
 fulfil the conditions of being over 10,000 feet high, of 
 having a glacier on its sides, and a hotel with a tub in it 
 at its foot. We are not among the sneerers at climbing ; 
 the more climbing the better ; only let us now and then 
 climb for a purpose, and climb among the unvisited 
 accessible spots of the earth, which are loudly calling out 
 "Come climb us!" 
 
 One special Cretan feature is the upland plains or 
 basins, surrounded by high mountains, which have no 
 outlet for their streams, but are drained by means of 
 katavdthra, or subterraneous passages, common in the 
 limestone formation along the east of the Adriatic, geo- 
 logically continuous with Crete, and well known in the 
 Karst above Trieste that most weird and uncanny of all 
 spots on the earth. The basin of Omalo, on the western 
 
TRA VELS AND RESEARCHES IN CRETE. 103 
 
 range, at 4000 feet, and of Lasithi in the east, at 3000 
 feet, are described as being absolute valleys of paradise 
 Engadines with the chill off, so to speak with a climate 
 of months of the divinest sunshine and freshness. The 
 Cretan mountains, moreover, have one attraction which we 
 are astonished that our sportsmen, much more enterprising 
 and original as a race of pioneers than our climbers, have 
 not yet found out. Captain Spratt, on his one ascent of 
 Ida, solemnly avers that he fell in with no less than forty 
 ibexes, real genuine Homeric l^akoi afye?, bounding away 
 in all directions, and setting at defiance his companion, a 
 practised Highland deerstalker, from the inaccessible crags 
 where they stood, "with their ponderous sabre-shaped 
 horns curved against the western sky." King Victor 
 Emmanuel, who has so much ado in 'preserving his hand- 
 ful of ibexes on the Graian Alps, would give his ears for 
 a day's Cretan shooting, with the game as plentiful as 
 this ; and, indeed, it is ten thousand pities that, if King 
 Victor Emmanuel .cannot go to Crete, Crete, only 150 
 years ago an Italian island, cannot go to King Victor 
 Emmanuel. Where the island will go to is clear enough, 
 we are sorry to say, after reading Captain Spratt's book. 
 It will go to the bad. Any honest unprejudiced English- 
 man must feel sickened, sorry, and ashamed, not for his 
 country, but for other countries, and Europe collectively, 
 on reading Captain Spratt's unvarnished tale, told in a 
 subdued tone, of unprincipled efforts made from without, 
 for no conceivable purpose, to convert the quiet, peace- 
 able Cretan population into discontented political agents, 
 to be used as tools in any policy that may turn up. In 
 this way the dormant flame of nationality was artificially 
 kindled up into fierce opposition against an enlightened 
 Turkish governor, who had actually erected a public 
 school for the use of all religious denominations indiscri- 
 minately, and whom it was considered desirable by the 
 consuls of two lately belligerent powers to get rid of. 
 Captain Spratt's allusive hints, rather than direct narra- 
 
104 TRA VELS AND RESEARCHES IN CRETE. 
 
 tive, are most valuable, both with regard to the political 
 transactions of 1858, so discreditably set on foot by our 
 previous enemy and the new friend whom he had then 
 detached from our side, and to the general condition of 
 the people. One thing is certain, that in the event of 
 any new complication of the so-called " Eastern question," 
 we shall hear more than we like, and a great deal more 
 than we now know, about the race of savage mountain 
 marauders called Sfakians, who may be defined as a petty 
 or Brummagem Montenegro, only waiting for the breath 
 of diplomatic existence to be breathed into its veins by 
 the sick man's unfriendly doctors. If any prophecy is 
 safe, our readers may rely upon it this one is. 
 
 About Cretan Greeks, as well as all other Greeks, we are 
 not going to say one single word ; but mean to keep silence 
 on principle, in the hope, albeit we know it is a vain one, 
 of inducing other people to keep silence too. If nobody 
 were to talk about Greece, there would be no philhellenes, 
 and the Greeks would then be rid of their worst incubus 
 the people who persist in putting them in a false posi- 
 tion ; they would acquire self-reliance and exercise self- 
 control, and become a very different community to what 
 they now are an odious, sickly brat to one-half the 
 world, a blessed, sickly pet to the other half. We neither 
 love nor hate Greeks, but wishing them well, like other 
 people, we, in Greek interests, look with horror on the 
 prospective advent to increased power of Mr. Gladstone 
 and the Idealistic platform. The only true friend of the 
 Greek is the Eealist, who seeks to take him as he finds 
 him, to learn him from the foundation upwards, read him 
 by daylight, correct and improve him where he is bad, 
 and make a man of him, instead of simpering at him as a 
 woman, and bothering about the classical world. Heaven 
 help him if the sick man dies, or is smothered, before his 
 own frame has hardened into national manhood, or reached 
 national adolescence! If Heaven does not, Fr , some 
 other power, we mean, will, for he cannot help himself. 
 
TRAVELS AND RESEARCHES IN CRETE. 105 
 
 Captain Spratt's reduction of his own Admiralty chart, 
 constructed with so much labour and accuracy, cannot be 
 too much praised. We wish he had spelt his Greek names 
 uniformly, reduced to some system, Leake's Italianising 
 method being much the best to our taste. "^Xopem;? 
 and NiSa (from rrjv "ISa), the modern names of Mount 
 Ida and its highest basin, are both intelligible at sight, 
 and pronounceable if we write Psiloriti and Nidha ; but 
 to write Pseeloreetee and Neetha is treating Greek like a 
 South Sea jargon, or Hindostanee at best ; nor in Neetha 
 do you see which th is the right, whether as in think or 
 in those. The ultra-pedantic method of the Hellenizers, 
 Hypseloreition, we consider to be the one thing which the 
 Eealistic school in modern Greek should seek to extirpate 
 without quarter. 
 
106 
 
 ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 1 
 
 COLLOQUIAL modern Greek (its slight and loose-fitting 
 Turkish and Italian elements apart) is spoken with toler- 
 able uniformity in nearly all the districts where it is the 
 vernacular language. It is thereby strongly contrasted 
 with the countless dialectic variations, falling into four 
 main types, ultimately reducible to two, which character- 
 ised the ancient Greek of the early and the classical period. 
 This uniformity arose from the diffusion of Attic as the 
 basis of a common dialect after the Macedonian conquests. 
 It continued its progress during the Eoman dominion, and 
 was at length fully established under and by means of the 
 centralisation of the Byzantine Empire. 2 A quasi-clas- 
 sical dialect, retaining the ancient grammar and vocabulary 
 to the best of the speaker's ability and knowledge, was 
 spoken in formal life at Constantinople by the Court, the 
 Patriarchate, and the upper classes until the Turkish con- 
 quest; but the popular language of everyday life had 
 gradually assumed a form essentially identical with the 
 speech of the present day in grammar, and only differing 
 
 1 Keprinted from "Travels and of modern Greek among ourselves, is 
 Researches in Crete." By Captain but a fancy. It would be easy to show 
 Spratt, R.N., C.B. 2 vols., 8vo. two lonisms for one holism or Dor- 
 London, 1865. ism in it. Such seeming cases of either 
 
 2 The fancy of calling modern Greek peculiarity as occur here and there, 
 the " ^Eolo-Doric," which originated probably arise from the natural growth 
 \viththepoetChristopulo, and has since of phonetic change, rather than from 
 been taken up by dilettante students any retention of the ancient form. 
 
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 107 
 
 in vocabulary by the absence of Turkish, the comparative 
 absence of Italian, and the retention of some Latin words. 
 The forms and idiom of the modern language are at least 
 as old as the tenth century. Its pronunciation, certainly 
 not classical, is much older than that date ; and though its 
 various peculiarities are by no means all of the same uni- 
 form degree of antiquity, some of them probably belong to 
 the later classical epoch. 1 The long period during which 
 Byzantine centralisation exercised its influence was suffi- 
 cient to establish this popular speech, so formed, with a 
 minimum of variation in all parts of the empire ; so that 
 true provincial dialects, analogous in any degree to those 
 of Italy or England, are only found in remote and outlying 
 islands, or in districts early detached from the rest by 
 Mahometan or Frank conquest. Provincial dialects, in 
 fact, are only found in a form more or less marked in the 
 ratio of the greater or less historical independence of the 
 provinces during the Lower Empire. 
 
 Putting aside the interesting dialect of the Greek pea- 
 santry at the back of Trebizond, and the Tzakonic dialect, 
 still spoken in a few villages on the east coast of Laconia 
 
 1 We in England cannot teach tity : and the same is the case in II- 
 scholastically a foreign and a dead lyrian or Servian to say nothing of 
 language like the Hellenic with the the accentual system of Vedic San- 
 simultaneous retention of both accent skrit, strongly allied to that of the 
 and quantity, nor can we conceive Greek. Nor can the modern Greek, 
 without effort how any language can for his part, conceive how, for exam- 
 have heen so pronounced. Yet they pie, his ancestors' words elfj,t, Tr\aTvs, 
 did undoubtedly coexist in pronun- could be pronounced by accent, yet 
 ciation for a long period, without without the accent changing the time 
 either interfering with the other, of the vowel from short to long as in 
 when ancient Greek was a living Ian- his own pronunciation. Eecent Li- 
 guage. To comparative philologists thuanian grammars will teach him 
 such a coexistence is not only intelli- how this is done in the corresponding 
 gible, but seems a matter of course, words esmi, platus, of that remark - 
 Our classical scholars, being generally able language. Controversy on the 
 unacquainted with the existence or subject of Hellenic pronunciation is 
 nature of other Aryan languages akin simply worthless and a waste of time, 
 to Greek, do not bear in mind the fact unless based on the principles estab- 
 that to this day the Lithuanian of lished by the comparative study of 
 East Prussia fully retains the simul- the Aryan tongues, 
 taneous use of tone-accent and quan- 
 
loS ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 
 
 (which, indeed, is not a dialect of modern Greek at all, but 
 the representative of the ancient speech of the Kaukones, 1 
 being a sub-dialect of the ancient Doric come down to us 
 in a state of extreme corruption, yet not without traces of 
 even pre-Hellenic antiquity), the main body of modern 
 Greek speech may be considered as tending to diverge into 
 two types, which it is convenient to call the continental 
 and the insular. This, of course, has reference only to the 
 speech of the uneducated, the sole refuge of true dialects 
 in our time : the educated (and they are more numerous 
 in proportion to the population in Greek countries than 
 anywhere else in Europe, as regards the elements of edu- 
 cation and something more) speak the same language 
 everywhere. The most marked test of the two divisions, 
 among many others of idiom and vocabulary and some of 
 forms, is to be found in the third person plural of verbs, 
 ending on the continent and in the standard speech in -v, 
 but in the islands in -<TL Thus \eyovai, or Xecrt, etnao-i, 
 '/crvTrrjcrao-i, are said in the latter for \eyovv or XeVe, elirav 
 or eiTrave, '/crvTrrjo-ave. The speech of the islands shades 
 off into its extremest variation in the south-eastern group, 
 in Chios, in Ehodes, in Cyprus, and in Crete. In the last 
 two islands it may be said most nearly to amount to true 
 dialect ; but the deviation even there is very far short of 
 the absolute mutual unintelligibility which we see in, for 
 instance, the "Exmoor Scolding," when contrasted with 
 the Lancashire of " Tim Bobbin," or even in the difference 
 between two adjacent Italian dialects, such as Turinese 
 and Milanese, or Neapolitan and the polished Sicilian of 
 the Abbate Meli. Cretan has even a literature of its own, 
 formed in direct imitation of that of Italy during the Ve- 
 netian domination. The " Erotokritos," a long half-heroic 
 half-chivalrous poem by Vincenzo Cornaro, is the earliest 
 
 1 The common derivation of Tzako- break, work mischief, quarrel," &c., 
 
 nia from Laconia involves a letter- from KC/COS. It is scarcely the soften- 
 
 change which is quite untenable. The ing of the Jc, which has happened in 
 
 change of KOL into rfy has several ana- most languages, but which Greek has 
 
 logies, as Tfridfa, T^OLK^VW, &c., "I for the most part strangely escaped. 
 
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 109 
 
 of these. It was written in the sixteenth century (at the 
 end of the sixteenth or beginning of the seventeenth, ac- 
 cording to Leake; but shortly before 1737, according to 
 Mr. E. A. Sophocles) ; its Cretan character is well marked, 
 and parts of it are said even now to be remembered and 
 recited by the Cretan peasantry, much as parts of Tasso 
 by the Venetian gondoliers. The " Voskopula," or Shep- 
 herdess, a pastoral poem by one Mkola of Apokorona, and 
 the " Erophile," a tragedy, of which the story and title, as 
 well as the method and style, were taken from the Italian, 
 have also come down to us. The latter has many Cretan 
 peculiarities : it also contains perhaps the earliest instance 
 of Italian metre applied to Greek, such as has since be- 
 come a favourite form of versification in the Ionian Islands, 
 and is so delightful to read in the humorous political 
 flings of Lascarato. 
 
 The dialect now spoken is described by Pashley as dif- 
 fering from that of the above books to some extent, prin- 
 cipally by the admixture of Turkish words which have 
 crept in since the conquest of the island by the Porte ; but 
 these, after all, are but few, and it must be borne in mind 
 that the authors of these works, though they did not go 
 out of their way to avoid provincialism, yet certainly did 
 not seek to represent its peculiarities in full. A few songs 
 taken down by Pashley, a specimen or two in M. Khur- 
 imizi's work on Crete, a long vampire-story given by Mr. 
 Pashley in the words of his Sfakiot guide, and the talk of the 
 Cretan in a play by M. Khurmtizi, the author of the pre- 
 sent vocabulary, constitute all the written specimens of 
 modern Cretan known to me. This last production, called 
 " Babel" (r; Ba{3v\a)via, rf Kara TOTTOI;? &ia<[>0opa T?}? *E\- 
 \7jviKJjs 7X&><7 or?;?), is what we should term a " screaming 
 farce," and is exceedingly entertaining. It will remind 
 classical scholars, and those who look at everything of 
 modern Greek through ancient Greek magnifying-glasses, of 
 the plays of Aristophanes ; in reality it and similar modern 
 comedies, like so much else that is modern Greek, are 
 
i io ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 
 
 partly Italian, partly Turkish, in their origin and character. 
 A number of Greeks are celebrating the victory of Nava- 
 rino in a wine- shop ; an Albanian becomes quarrelsome in 
 his cups and fires his pistol at a Cretan, who has taxed the 
 Albanian with having come to Crete and eaten up all the 
 KovpaSca in the island. The Cretan uses the word as 
 meaning " sheep ; " but the Albanian takes it in the sense 
 it bears everywhere else, that of o-tcard, being in fact, 
 the ordinary gross oriental idiom with which readers of 
 Morier's novels are familiar under the veiled translation of 
 "eating dirt." A row ensues, and an Ionian Dogberry 
 comes in and marches everybody off to prison. The fun of 
 the play, which is exceedingly rich and well kept up, lies in 
 the attempts made by the Ionian to get at a coherent story 
 from the different witnesses when cross-examined : he talks 
 something which is as much Italian as Greek, and he has 
 to do with an Asiatic Greek whose idioms are mere 
 Turkish, with a schoolmaster who will talk ancient Greek, 
 with a rough Moreote merchant, and so on. The confu- 
 sion which arises is, of course, much exaggerated, and is 
 impossible in real life, but it is very amusing. The Cretan, 
 unfortunately, being wounded, has little share in the 
 dialogue, but enough is given to show the nature of the 
 dialect. 
 
 Differences of accent prevail among the Cretan pro- 
 vinces probably slight, and as imperceptible to foreigners 
 as those which exist between different provinces or coun- 
 ties in Ireland, and are to be detected by natives alone. 
 This is generally the case in Greece ; and it requires expe- 
 rience to enable a stranger to distinguish even an Ionian 
 islander's accent from that of a continental ; nothing at all 
 is met with corresponding to the difference between our west- 
 countrymen and north-countrymen. In Crete, the leading 
 distinction is between the mountaineers, or 'AtravayfjieplTcus, 
 and lowlanders, or KaTco^plrcus. Concurrently with this, 
 the provinces group themselves into districts the western, 
 the Sfakian, that of Ketimo and the neighbourhood of 
 
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK, in 
 
 Mount Ida, that of Megalokastron, the Eastern, and the 
 South Central (comprising the two provinces of Pyrghio- 
 tissa and Kenurion). The differences are to be denned as 
 germs of dialect rather than actual dialect ; a few special 
 words and a local accent seem to constitute the whole 
 amount : thus ^ra/Jbova (i.e., o-rdcrov //.oi/o?), Hold hard, be 
 quiet, is peculiar to Lashithi, and epwras, for the Cretan 
 dittany, to Mylopotamo. 
 
 The speech of the Sfakiots is distinguished from that of 
 the rest of the island by the persistent substitution of p for 
 X, by some difference in their vocabulary, and by general 
 retention of the extreme Cretan type. Owing to their 
 secluded position and little intercourse with the rest of the 
 island, they have been sheltered from the influence of the 
 modern Greek educational system, elsewhere so strong and 
 all-pervading. But this system, bearing for its first-fruits 
 an ardent surface-desire for national union and centralis- 
 ation, which, so long as foreign domination endures, and 
 until he attains his wishes, is sufficient to stifle the original 
 municipal instinct and naturally centrifugal tendency of 
 the true Greek in all ages, has taken firm root in the island. 
 This must end by obliterating all but the faintest traces of a 
 popular dialect, there as elsewhere displacing a real form 
 of speech which might have been made to bear the same 
 relation to classical Greek that Italian bears to Latin, and 
 substituting in its stead a strange language, now, per- 
 haps, unavoidable and past remedy, in which a revived 
 or fictitious ancient vocabulary is galvanised, rather than 
 animated, by the idiom of modern French newspaper- 
 writing. 
 
 It is in words rather than forms that Cretan is best distin- 
 guished from the dialect of other islands. Many of these 
 are classical words lost elsewhere, or are otherwise of interest 
 to the philologist. Of the first class are Kare^a (" I know ") 
 for the common rjgevpco, 7re//,7r&> (6a 7re^o>) for areXva), 6a 
 Qecrw for 6a (3d\w, ayofjiat, for Trijyaiva), and iropi^co for 
 pyatvco, derivatives of i/e/*&> and eya) in 
 
112 ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 
 
 i,, tyeyd&t, ; apibi (apt? 1 ), " a gimlet ;" dpoSa/xo? for 
 2 , "a twig;" ^aXe-Tra (from ^aXe??), "a difficult 
 hill;" <0ap/io? 7 , "the evil eye," (from o<0aX/-to?; the 
 ploughman's cries of avco, e<ro>, &c. ; cr/eXo>7ra for atca-ira 
 from o-Ktoty, "an owl;" eSteofe, "it has occurred to me," 
 very probably 3 for eSofe an excellent preservation, So/eoi 
 being utterly lost, with many others, The Italian words 
 differ from those in use elsewhere, as /Serena 4 , " a crop," It. 
 vendemmia ; po&vdpco, " I speak," It. ragionare ; fjuaprl, " a 
 fatted sheep " (i.e., fatted for the festival of San Martino) ; 
 ficro-dro, " thin," i.e., poor or vitiated ; irovpi, the It. pure, 
 used as a mere expletive or weight-giver to the phrase, 
 like 7tayLta (from the It. giammai) in the Southern Ionian 
 Islands, or paOes at Smyrna ; paTwdba, " a popular song," 
 and many others. There are a few points indicating some 
 special connection or intercourse with the Southern Morea. 
 Besides the local name of Tzakonas (distinctly indicating 
 a colony from the mainland), in Leake's vocabulary of the 
 Tzakonic dialect we find tce(f>a\' dpia, written in two words, 
 interpreted TO /ce<j)d\i pov Travel, " my head aches." But 
 it is manifestly the Cretan K(j>a\apta 6 , i.e., /ce^aXaXyla, for 
 the ordinary Trwo/ee^aXo 5 , a headache, with the Cretan 
 change of X into p : z/o//,et9 or vo^elai, again, for sJiepherds, 
 are only found elsewhere in the Cretan words given above. 
 Some local names, chiefly in the western promontory of 
 Crete, contain the patronymic termination usual among 
 the Mainotes, but nowhere else (-a/co?, as in Leotzakos, 
 Dimitrakos, Dimitrakarakos) Spaniakos, Priniakos, Mus- 
 takos, Trakiniakos, &c. To these may be added the name 
 Kalamatiana in proof of Moreote affinity. The natural 
 bridge is the island of Cerigo. But half a century's routine 
 occupation of this island, a most primitive and secluded 
 district, has now ended without a scrap of information on 
 its dialectic or indeed any other peculiarities having once 
 been contributed to the public knowledge by the apathetic 
 ruling race. It may here be said that the local name 
 Sklavokhori, occurring more than once in Crete, shows 
 
ON CRE TAN A ND MODERN GRE EK. 1 1 3 
 
 that the island was not without its share of Slavonian 
 settlements ; and the name Katziveliana (from KaT<Ti{3e\o<;, 
 fern. Karoi,(3e\a, like 71^7-09 or rcriyyeves, " a gypsy") must 
 indicate a gipsy colony. Of dialect, properly speaking, 
 contemporary with, or even prior to classical Greek, it is, 
 perhaps, just possible to detect a trace here and there, 
 a badger," seems- to be connected somehow with 
 , aprcos, whence the modern apKovfo. Apok6rona, 
 the modern name of the ancient Hippokoronion, may pos- 
 sibly preserve, as in Cyprus, a Cretan vernacular pronun- 
 ciation of the word ITTTTO? (t/cFo?, originally akvas), retain- 
 ing the original initial vowel as perfectly as we see it in 
 the East- Aryan or Indo-Persian and the Lithuanian cor- 
 responding words, well known to comparative philologists 
 (ava, aspa, aszwa), slightly modified in the Gothic and 
 Celtic words and the Latin equus, further modified in the 
 classical Greek, but wonderfully maintained to this day in 
 Cyprus : ajrTrapos or airirapov is there used for the Cretan 
 /CTTJ/JLO, and the ordinary a\oyov. It must be remembered, 
 with regard to this word, that in Cyprus a doubled con- 
 sonant is still really a doubled consonant, pronounced as 
 clearly as in Italian or Arabic : thus aXAo is not pronounced 
 as a modern Greek pronounces it, but like the Italian olio 
 an invaluable relic of Hellenic pronunciation, which is 
 alone enough to make the Cyprian dialect outweigh all the 
 others in philological importance. 
 
 I subjoin a Cyprian view of the Cretan dialect, taken 
 from the " Vavilonia" Ol Kprjnr^ol pCkovcnv ra \wa TO, 
 \6<yia rou?, Kal TTJV a^ekofiakovcra \earw rrj VVCJ)TJ, TO Xa//,- 
 irpov \eaiv TO (JXOTIO,, TOV airapo \eaw TO ^Trj/jia, /cal rat? 
 ArouSeXat? \eo~LV rat? Kovpd'oia. 
 
 In this it is the Cretan whose words, except the last 
 one, are the same as the ordinary Greek, and the Cyprian 
 that deviates. ^eXo/mXoOo-a, " eel-ringleted one," for the 
 common vixprj or vvjjityr), " bride," is worth noting in this 
 last dialect. "Arrapo is here spelt with only one TT; but 
 this must be mere carelessness : I have twice heard the 
 
 H 
 
H4 ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 
 
 word pronounced with a TT doubled, and by Cyprians in 
 each instance one a gardener, the other a professor. 
 Before proceeding to give M. Khurmuzi's vocabulary, I 
 cannot refrain from quoting from the body of his little 
 work the following form of disenchantment used for the 
 relief of eye-stricken or bewitched persons, not only as a 
 long specimen of Cretan dialect, but also for its curiosity 
 as a bit of " folk-lore." 
 
 HiCTTevovo'i ras vepat'Bas, ra (f)avrda-/jLara, ra crrot^eta, 
 Tr)v /3ao~Kavidv, ra<$ /juayelas, Tpefiovv ra? tfarapa?, K. T. X., 
 
 KOI t9 fjieV TOV T07TOV OTTOV V7r07TTV0a)CnV T) aKOVCTOVV OTi 
 
 KaToiKovv vepatBes i} orot^eta, Traz/reXaW Bev irK^cnaCpvv dv 
 Be Kara BvcrTV^lav irepdcrr) TIS air e/cel rj KoifjLfjdfj 7r\r)(riov, 
 Kal daOevtjo'r), 'rj eu^u? ^7 yu-era /ccupov, rore \i^ovv on e^ei 
 , TT)? OTrota? TO dvTi<j)dpfj,afcov elvai, TO &id{3acrfjLa. 
 Be j3a<TKavi,dv, rrjv oiroiav ovofid^ovv^ (j)6ap/Ji6v l , %op- 
 KiCpvv ourco ra <ypai$i,a' Bevel (TO rypat&iov) rpeis KOKKOVS 
 aXaro? et? rrjv aKpav ew? [jiav&rj\iov, KOI dfi ov TO ^eTprjar) 
 fjue TOV Trfj'xvv TOV, 7T\r)cri,d&i, et? TOV aadevrf, eyylfa TOV 
 KO/ATTOV (yLte TO aX,a?) et'<? TO fieTcorrov TOV, eVetTa et? Trjv yrjv 
 t? \ejov " et? TO ovo^a TOV IlaTpos K. T. X." 
 i^ei " IIov Tra? <j)0ap/jL6 2 , TTOV Tra? tcaice, TTOV ?ra? 
 e aTrb Ta? 72 <Xe/3a<? 3 TOU Tra&iov /JLOV 
 (Beiva) Kal d/JL6 CTTCL 6p7j O~TO, ffovvd, TTOV TreTeivb? Bev /cpd^ei 
 Kal O~KV\O<; Be ryavyi^ei, vavprjs T' aypio Oepib va Tufa air TO 
 alfjid TOV vd <a? air TO /cpeas TOV (xaa/JLipieTai 4 ^' eKovo-OrjK 1 5 
 77 Kiovpd Q yu-a? rjllavay la, KTev laOf] /ce 7 /cal O-TO 6poviTr)<; Kd0io~e s 
 Kal Trepdaao-LV old<yye\oi, ol dp%ayye\OL Kal (^dapplo-ao-l 9 TTJV 
 (%ao-jjLipi,eTai), Kal rrdyet, dffrevTrjs 6 %pio~To<; Kal Tr}? 10 \eyei' 
 /jbdvarjVTd '%et9 n fjLijTepa;' ' e\ovcr0rjKa 12 rraiBl fiov 
 1 * Kal CTTO 0povi lB [MOV KaOiaa Kal Trepdaaa ol dyye- 
 Kal <p0ap/jiio-ao-L lb /jue } (^acr/AfcpieTat)' ' Ka\e 
 , Ka\e fJLrjTepa, Bev evpidrjKe 'XpicrTiavbs dyiao~fjievos Kal 
 Trjv ay id IIe<f)Tr) \ovrov pyrj/jievos, vd Trap aXaTcrt drr' TIJV 
 d\iKr) lQ } TI Tpla (f)V\)C drr TTJV e'Xta, Kal vd 'irfj f^id (f)opd TO 
 IlaTep rj/Jitov, Bvo (fropals TO IlaTep TJ/JLWV (ew? Ta? evved)! " 
 Tov e^opKLQ-fibv TOVTOV TOV \eyet Tpls ^ao-fjLovpiov/Jievov crvy- 
 
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 115 
 
 7reiTa ava^erpa fjue TOV irr)yyv rov TO 
 ical TO /3ydei KOVT(t)Tpov 6 8aKTv\a CLTTO TO 
 
 JJ,TpOV. 
 
 " They believe in the Neraides, 1 in apparitions, ghosts, 
 the evil eye, and witchcraft ; they dread curses, &c. ; and 
 they never by any chance go near any place which they 
 suspect or hear to be haunted by the water-nymphs or 
 ghosts. If, by ill-luck, any one should pass by or sleep 
 in such a neighbourhood, and should then happen to fall ill, 
 either at once or after some time, they say of him that he 
 has the Vistiria, the proper antidote to which is reading 
 Scripture over him. As for the evil eye, by them called 
 Phtharmos, it is exorcised by old women in this way. 
 The old woman ties up three grains of salt in the end of a 
 handkerchief, measures it along her arm, and then touches 
 the sick man's forehead with the knot, and afterwards 
 touches the ground three times with it, saying, ' In 
 the name of the Father,' &c. After which she begins, 
 ' Whither goest, evil eye ? whither goest, wretch ? whither 
 goest, miserable one ? Fly out of the seventy-two veins 
 of my son So-and so, and be off to the mountains and 
 hills, where no cocks crow and no dogs bark, to find the 
 wild beast, that you may drink his blood and eat his flesh 
 (she yawns). Our Lady 2 the Virgin has bathed and 
 combed herself, and sat on her throne, and the angels 
 and archangels have passed by, and have bewitched her 
 (yawns); and the Lord Christ goes by and says to her, 
 
 1 These modern nymphs are called in a Boeotian inscription, and is a 
 by the name of the ancient Nereids, marked characteristic of the Tza- 
 but their attributes are those of the konic dialect. T, probably pro- 
 Naiads. As the ancient word i^/6s, nounced like the French u in the 
 whence their name was derived (as later classical, the Roman, and the 
 also the common modern word for early Byzantine periods, has retained 
 water), is not limited to salt water, it or rev erted to its earlier sound in a 
 is possible that this usage may be of large number of words bel 
 high antiquity in the vernacular. ing to the colloquial language> now 
 
 2 Ktovpd, for Kvpa, being like our written with ov. Similarly, words 
 conventional English pronunciation like 6ept6, ep6, vldepo must have 
 of v. This is found in ancient dia- arisen out of the earlier sound of ij 
 lects, as TO.V riotxav for TT\V T^V as a long e. 
 
n6 ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 
 
 " What is it, my mother, 1 what is the matter ? " "I Jiave 
 bathed, my son, and combed myself, and sat on my throne, 
 and the angels and archangels have passed by me and 
 bewitched me " (yawns). " Well, mother, no Christian 
 has been found [query, can no Christian be found ?] made 
 holy by the Eucharist and by church service on Holy 
 Thursday, to take salt from the salt-cellar, or three leaves 
 from the olive tree, and say, Our Father, &c., once, Our 
 Father, &c., twice (up to nine times)." ' The old woman 
 utters this exorcism three times, yawning at the same 
 time, and then measures the handkerchief over again along 
 her arm, bringing it out shorter than the first measure- 
 ment by six fingers." 
 
 In concluding these brief remarks, I cannot do better 
 than refer such of my readers as may be desirous of ob- 
 taining clear and correct views upon the very interesting 
 subject of the true origin and growth of modern Greek, a 
 subject hitherto always treated confusedly, with party 
 spirit, and with insufficient knowledge, to the admirable 
 summary which forms the preface of Mr. E. A. Sophocles's 
 (of Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.) " Dictionary of Later and 
 Byzantine Greek." 
 
 1 tyro, is generally used for rl in are saying?" for "what are you 
 
 Chios and the south-eastern islands, saying ? " the intermediate rijvra be- 
 
 Koraes explains it as a contraction ing found in the earliest modern 
 
 of rl elvai rd (for A) ; as rl elvat rot Greek poetry of the Turkish period. 
 X^yeis for rl A^yeis, " what is it you 
 
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 
 
 117 
 
 VOCABULARY OF CRETAN GREEK. 
 
 Cretan Greek. Modern Greek. 
 
 dyKovffa. 1 . . orei/oxw/Hci Oppression, uneasiness. 
 
 &yo]u.a.i . . . irirjya.ii' w I go. 
 
 ddij3o\-/j . . VTr66e<ris, d/uX/a Business, affair. 2 
 
 &dos .... ffTOLKTr) Ashes. 
 
 alyovyia . . a.\ol[j.ovov Alas ! 
 
 d/cdrexos . . dvLSeos, tiirpaKTos A man without experience. 
 
 dva.p6\efj.a . dvrj(popos An ascent, a hill (going or 
 
 looking upwards). 
 
 0/>ei'o/3Xa/3e?s, irdcrxovres . . Madmen, those afflicted in 
 
 mind. 
 
 . tivTiKpv Opposite. 
 
 dvaXa//,7nJ . . 0X670, 4 Flame. 5 
 
 dvaXibfAaTCt, . d/caracrTCKncu 7roXm/ca . . Political disturbances. 
 dvavrpavifa . jSX^Trw daKapda/AVKTi 6 ... To look fixedly. 7 
 
 dmoropoO/Acu evdv/JiovfJiai I remember. 
 
 &vu .... "\tyovv TOI)S j36as 8rav yewpyouv The word &vw is used to the 
 va K\ivovv irpbs r6 dye&p- oxen when they are tilling 
 
 y-rjTov . . the ground, to direct them 
 
 to the part unploughed. 
 
 dirapBivd . . dXyBivd True. 
 
 a7TOj8oX?7 . . dvrl TOV tx^ovs, 8i6rt ^rou^res This term is used when they 
 
 TI faoy KO.I evpovres rty /c6- come upon the trace of a 
 
 irpov TOV \tyovV ioO i] diro- lost animal ; and when they 
 
 /SoX^ TOV. find its manure they say, 
 
 literally, "droppings." 
 
 dirbyt . . . 710^*1 Hoar frost, dew. 
 
 . t>a.Tro\fi<f>dvTes, cDj>res . . Survivors. 
 
 /3/>oi>/3o/3XaoTo./3a Lichen, or seaweed. 
 
 irpLv Before. 
 
 dirvpi . . . 6eid<pL Brimstone. 
 
 dpayos . . . dcr/u fju,Kp6v, da-KoirovXo ... A small water-skin. 
 
 dpyaTiv^ 10 . . ecrirepa Evening. 
 
 dpidi . . . Tpvirdvi. Gimlet. 
 
 #<r/3os Badger. 
 
 . /SXacrrds v^os rwv AaicD^ . . A young olive-shoot. 
 <J/m/cas . . . dypiocreXivov, fj,ayKovra . . . Wild parsley. 
 
 o06/>ecri . . . viroij/ia Suspicion. 
 
 . (frpevrjprjs Mad, hot-headed. 
 
 . 0pepoj3Xa/3ta Madness. 
 
u8 
 
 ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 
 
 Cretan Greek. Modern Greek. 
 
 d<popovfj.ai . . viroTTTevofjiat ...... I suspect. 
 
 dratXeyos 1 . (nropytTys ....... Sparrow. 
 
 &X va . ffiuirri, rfrfjiovSid* .... Silence, quiet. 3 
 
 B. 
 
 . )8o77 ......... A shout or cry. 
 
 . Zyicvos ........ A woman in the family- way. 
 
 . <rxotJ/d/ci ....... A small rope. 
 
 . evcpopia eXai&is ..... Good olive-crop. 
 
 (3iffa\a . . /cepd/ua, ToC/3Xa ..... Tiles, bricks. 
 
 fiirffdro* . . \vyvbv ........ Lean. 
 
 /3Xd/3os 6 . . ?x et /3Xd/3os, 6 TOTTOS elvat Sickness, unhealthiness (said 
 
 voo-wd-r)*. 7 of places). 8 
 
 /SXeirctTW/xis . dpaydrys ....... A vine-dresser 9 
 
 P\tin)<ri . . TT/oocrox'/ 10 ....... Attention. 11 
 
 /SXeVo/iat . . Trpo<pv\aTTOiJ.cu, 7rpocr^%w /j.av- I take care of myself, I look 
 
 r6v. out. 
 
 poffK-fjd-rjKo. . exbpTaffa ...... I am satisfied, or have eaten 
 
 enough. 
 
 fiotipyia . . <ra.Kov\i ....... A 12 bag. 
 
 fiovpyidi . . o-a/cofXd/ct ....... A small 13 bag. 
 
 /3t(m/)ic . . affdeveia irpoep^o^vir} dirb Sickness which comes from. 
 oTotxeta, depiKO. malevolence of ghosts. 
 
 r. 
 
 ytpa . . . yrfparela ....... Old age. 
 
 yapyepos . . Xepwpevos ....... Dirty. 
 
 yyaXovofios . TroLfj-^v TWV Trpo^druv d\/j.eyo~ The shepherd in charge of 
 ('yydXo- for f^evuv. milch ewes. 
 
 770X0-). 
 
 yiaytpvu , . tirtffTptyu ...... I return. 
 
 ytopyd 1 * . . oyprjyopa, Kal iSiairtpus rb Quickly (properly said of the 
 
 raxv pfjua r&v ub)v. brisk pace of animals). 
 
 . diro-rr\rj^ia ...... Apoplexy. 
 
 . dvax^pC) ....... I start, quit, go. 
 
 . ra^t/Troi/s 16 ...... One who walks fast. 17 
 
 . Tpex u ........ I run. 
 
 . /co/idrt ........ A morsel. 
 
 yvoXidi . . KOfidri, Ace0aXori;/)t .... A piece of, the top of a 
 
 cheese. 
 
 A. 
 
 5ciKTuXi5w/Aa . dppa.l3u>va ....... Betrothal. 
 
 . &POTOIXOS ...... A bare wall, without mortar. 
 
 * Literally "vitiated." 
 
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 119 
 
 Cretan Greek. Modern Greek. 
 
 5oud/ct l . . c,\tyo A little. 
 
 Slow. 
 
 f 3 ei's elSos Tofyov . A small rock 4 in the shape of 
 a wall. 
 
 Sei/re/9070uX?7S /otfXtos July. 
 
 jSoifw ei's Tdiv, <rvyvplfa . . I arrange. 
 e?5os ffirov fj.e\avov diajdvovros A kind of brown wheat which 
 ovu fjt-rjvas et's TTJV yrjv. remains for two months in 
 
 the ground. 
 
 56/ioi . . . \uplov ei's TroXXas StTrXas pa.fji.t- A piece of leather thong which 
 
 vov, Kal Tidtyevov VTTO TO, biro- is closely folded and used 
 
 d^fiara (icodopvoi). by shepherds for the soles 
 
 of their shoes against the 
 
 slipperiness and wear of 
 
 their mountains. 
 
 Spovid . . . TtTTore Nothing. 
 
 dupov . . . T/7rore Nothing. But used by the 
 
 Cretan sometimes when 
 asking for a present or 
 gift (using the true Greek 
 word instead of the Orien- 
 tal [nra.'Xfflfft. commonly 
 used elsewhere). 
 
 E. 
 
 TCI d\fjiey6/j,eva 5 Milch ewes. 6 
 
 rwpa Now. 
 
 /j.ov ^X0e Karavovv, /te etydvi) I remembered it has come 
 va TO Kd(j.w otiTu. into my head, &c. 7 
 
 tird . . . e5u> Here. 
 
 py& . . . Kpv6vw I feel cold. 
 
 SI'KTCI/XOS The Cretan dittany, concern- 
 ing which there is much in 
 Tournefort and Pashley. 
 
 va K\ivovv ot jSo'es, frrav yewp- Is used in directing the oxen 
 yovv irpbs TO yeb)pyr]/j,frov. to approach the ploughed 
 part when they are tilling 
 the ground, as &vu, to send 
 them to the unploughed. 
 
 A domestic animal, as dog, 
 
 cat, fowl, &c. 9 
 
 Z. 
 
 A pace or step. 
 
 itjfj.16 . . . \otir6v Therefore, however, then. 
 
I2O 
 
 ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 
 
 Cretan Greek. Modern Greek. 
 
 oiryX6s . . b.va.irrjpos (caKarrjs) . . . Lame or disabled. 2 
 
 'vybv(i) . . Kvvr)y& 3 I sport, or hunt. 4 
 
 frvplda . . Kovvddi Polecat or stoat. 
 
 e. 
 
 6h (common 0Aeis Do you wish ? 
 
 everywhere 
 
 as well as 
 
 Crete). 
 
 Qecre . . . ir\dyia<re Lie down, or repose. 
 
 tferrw 5 . . . ir\ayidfa I lie down to sleep. 
 
 K. 
 
 K<pa\apid . Ke<f>a\67rovos A headache. 
 
 /ca/cctTroSo^os &6\io$ 6 A miserable man. 7 
 
 /cct/ca7ro5ct'w . SVSTVX& I am unfortunate. 
 
 Ka.Ka<t>6pe<Ti . vTro^ia Suspicion. 
 
 Ka/c6<ro/3Tos . /ca/c6ri/%os, TaXai?rw/)os . . An unfortunate man. 
 (common all 
 over the islands) - 
 
 KaKafftipaffTOS SforpoTros A perverse man. 
 
 Ka\ovpyi.d . TO irp&rov ye<hpyr}[j.a . . . The first cultivation or break- 
 up of land. 
 
 /ca/m'w 8 . . xa/i^XtJj'aj, /cXeiwroLjSX^apa I look downwards, shut the 
 
 eyelids. 9 
 
 KO. jj.tr avifa . frvyidfa I weigh. 
 
 Ka.fjura.v6s . . ffrar^pi Scales, steelyard. 
 
 Ka.va.Kia. . . x^ ta Caressing. 
 
 xaSe^cei/os One who is caressed. 
 
 I caress, soothe, flatter. 
 
 A looking-glass. 
 
 Kacra . . . X^pa Dirt. 
 
 . (pddpu To destroy. 
 
 . j8pov/c6Xa/cas A vampire (see an entire 
 
 chapter in Pashley). 
 
 A man with his wits about 
 
 him. 
 7]^evp(t} .... I know. 
 
 A feeble woman. 
 
 Back. 
 
 /telnet 10 . . (T0cixT77s Acute pain, twinge. 
 
 KejvQ . . . draTrrw I light. 
 
 K7ocrouXicis . KadoXov At all (ordinary modern 
 
 Greek, /c7oXas). 
 Sidppoia Diarrhoea. 
 
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 
 
 121 
 
 Cretan Greek. Modern Greek. 
 
 . Kovpfudfa (The hen) is sitting. 
 
 . 6pvid6ffin)TOV Hencoop. 
 
 KO/cocrdXi 1 . . %aXdt Hail. 
 
 Koi^irbvovp.a.1. . dTraTw/icu I am deceived. 
 
 KOTreXi . . . iratdiov A boy. 
 
 Koire\Ldpt)s . tyypos A young man. 
 
 Kopfudfa . . povdidfa To have a limb asleep, to jar 
 
 upon the nerves. 
 
 /cop/tos . . . veoavbs Treptorepas, Trurlvi . A young pigeon. 
 /coO/3os . . . 0/>a7/c6/coTa, 7aXXos ... A turkey. 
 
 Koioi<X6s(com-di'677Tos, /3Xa' A silly fellow. 
 
 mon elsewhere) 
 
 Kovvevos . . vdpoSoxetov inrjXivov . . . An earthen jug. 
 
 Kovpddi . . Ko-jrdSi A flock, or herd. 
 
 KotipTa\a . . "XjeLpoKrvTffj^aTa, 7raXa//,d/aa . The clapping of hands. 
 
 jSpvais aur6yU.aros 2 .... A fountain, or natural spring. 3 
 ndrudev TOV a'rjiJ.eLov, virb rbv Under the mark or object 
 
 GKoir6v indicated. (Opposed to 
 
 ffKeiraffrd. ) 
 
 KTTJfj,a . . . KTTJVOS A beast of burden or labour. 
 
 KTTj/iccTcrepos . 6';>os An ass. 
 
 A. 
 
 X<xX<3 . . . ^XcuJpto I drive. 
 
 Trpo[3aTOKOij8ovj>a .... Sheep-bells. 
 
 yalpapyos A greedy fellow. 
 
 ffrevoxupta Uneasiness. 
 
 Xi i y6t/'i;%o9 . . <rrej>6/ca/>5os Oppressed, fatigued. 
 
 I am fatigued, or bored. 
 TWV 6a"irpl<ji)v ... A granary. 6 
 \oydpi . . . 6r)(ravp6s A treasure. 
 
 M. 
 
 paddpa. , . 6pos Trer/ocDSes A stony mountain. 
 
 /iaXci/ca . . ^Ldpbrvpov The fjLV^TJdpa of Greece : fresh 
 
 cheese made from butter- 
 milk. 
 
 /idXa/ua , . 6 a\<t)vi<r/jLfros TT\T]V dX^i'icrTos Wheat thrashed, but not 
 OTTOS. winnowed. 
 
 fj,ay\iv6s . . Xetos Smooth. 
 
 fiaXid . . . \oyo/j.axia. Q A dispute. 7 
 
 /-idXra 9 . . Tfopro/cdXt An orange. 
 
 povdpt. 8 . . TreXeKvs An axe. 
 
 Hapybvw (com- /c/su6j'w 10 ....... I feel cold, shiver. 11 
 
 mon every- 
 where). 
 
122 
 
 ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 
 
 Cretan Greek. Modern Greek. 
 
 fjidpo-rrov . . apvl xpovidpiKov A yearling 1 lamb. 
 
 . T^ Kpdffl &<pov (ra.pa.vTTiO'Tjy Old wine. 
 
 TraXcuds otvos. 
 
 . &ird\i<i}ff rb Kpacri, Triverat . The wine is old, it is drink- 
 able. 
 
 fiaprl . . . &pvl ffiTevr6v A fatted sheep. 2 
 
 . eldos Kpidrjs o"ireipofj.evr)s TOV A kind of barley which is 
 v, Ko.1 r?7S oTToias 6 sown in the month of 
 Siyuvos. March, and the ear of 
 
 which is two-cornered. 
 
 Jaw. 
 
 . /j.afj.ri A midwife. 
 
 A song, ballad. Apparently 
 
 a " mattinata " from Ita- 
 lian, like a " serenata." 6 
 
 An ant. 
 
 A burden, cargo. 
 
 /UOTCITO . . neTpov pevffT&v 7 d^Ko. 6i<d5uv . A liquid measure of 8 ten okes. 
 fiiTdTo( proper- ftavdpl, ffTdvy (common in A sheepfold. 
 ly /tTjrdra 9 ). Byzantine writers for a 
 lodging or enclosure, from 
 the Latin metata, castra 
 metata). 
 
 ftoviTapov . . 5ia /uas At once. 
 
 fjiovfovpt . . Kot\6v A bushel. 
 
 fj.TTor6vLa . . TrepiSdpiov 10 A necklace. 
 
 Information. 12 
 
 N. 
 
 vaKOipa. . . Stiva-pu Strength. 
 
 VnypT/cris . . owroXiJ 13 Reserve, shame. 14 
 
 'vT-rjptOL'fj.at . (rvoTAXo/iai 15 I am ashamed. 16 
 
 vv%i . . . TOv<peKoireTpa A gun-flint, lit. a finger-nail. 
 
 s. 
 
 (r^yttaSeiJaj I aim at. 
 
 <ppovTis fj.ov* 18 It concerns me, or is my 
 
 affair. 19 
 d*rou 20 . . tfrpovTis <roi 21 It concerns you, or is your 
 
 affair. 22 
 
 * (ppovris pov, if Greek at all, is 
 written Greek, not idiomatic. Pro- 
 bably d/ioy, t-d<rov are equivalent to 
 the ordinary Greek Imua /AOU, frvoia 
 ffov t meaning, in practice, "never 
 
 mind," "don't trouble yourself," 
 also "take care," "I'll take care" 
 (lit. "it is my business," "your 
 business "), for which (ppovris JMOV 
 would be fine Greek. 23 
 
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 123 
 
 Cretan Greek. Modern Greek. 
 
 ?vrpo/j.os Kal j3iaia l . . Hurried flight. 2 
 <ruTijpia, dTra\\ayij Seivwv Escape or safety from dan- 
 gers. 4 
 aTraXXarTW, \v0ep6t>b) . . To deliver or set free. 
 
 %Trapa\ii) . . v\6v(i} To undo, cut the seam. 
 
 %pd . . . rot Ka\djj.ia T&V -jrod&v . . . The shin-bones. 
 
 e/>oj/(fyu . . x6proj> fypbv Dry fodder. 
 
 e<rvpe . . . Tra.pa.fj.tp'rjae Get out of the way. 
 
 er/3exu> . . a.Ko\ovdu,Tp^x w KaTbiriv rivo* 5 I follow, I run after some 
 
 one. 6 
 
 0. 
 
 8fjL7rav. . . diro\f/ To-night. 
 
 opytd (opyvtd, ffirdyKos Twine. 
 
 a yard mea- 
 sure). 
 
 oflyLa . . . b.\otfj.ovov Alas ! ! 
 
 n. 
 
 iralda. 7 . . . pdvavov Trouble. 8 
 
 7re5oi^KX6'oi;- e/xTrepSei/orrat ot 7r65es /*ou 9 . My feet are hampered. (It 
 /ACU is usual Greek.) 10 
 
 TrcuSo/tti; . . fidaavov Trouble, grief. 11 
 
 iravT^pfj,os . . irdvri 2prj/j,os Entirely barren. 12 
 
 irairbvpa . . 7TjXo0os 13 A ridge of earth. 14 
 
 STCLV yeupyovv ot /36es Kal Word used when the oxen 
 els TTjv &Kpai>, vd are- ploughing the ground, 
 and reach the end of the 
 furrow. 
 
 irapacrtipa . . ffdpw/j.a 15 Sweepings. 16 
 
 Trapaavpb) . . <rapuv(i) I sweep. 
 
 Trda-rrdXa . . /c6w Dust. 
 
 Trao-Traret/w . \jjd-xyu, ij/ii\a<pu I touch, search by feeling. 
 
 TreSoOXt . . no^an irer^iov A piece of leather. 
 
 irr)\d . . . \d<nnf) Mud. 
 
 TTTjXc-j^w 17 . . ffTijBdfa I pile up. 
 
 iroOes . . . irovdevd, els Kavev pepos . . Somewhere (anywhere, no- 
 
 where). 
 
 Tropifa . . . tpxofj.ai I come out. 
 
 7r6/)os . . . 8to5os Passage, transit. 
 
 Trora/tiSa . . drjMvL Nightingale. 
 
 iroOXo . . . <pd<TK\o The middle finger stretched 
 
 out in cunning an adver- 
 sary, as if imprecating 
 blindness. 
 
124 ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 
 
 Cretan Greek. Modern Greek. 
 
 Trpafia . . . rlirore ........ Nothing. 1 
 
 Trpdcrcrci) . . fj,avddv<t) z ....... I learn. 3 
 
 irplKO. (com- 7r//cpa, XI^TTT; ...... Sorrow or grief. 4 
 
 mou every- 
 
 where). 
 7rp65a>/ca . . TrapeSbdrjv els rbv exOpof . . I surrender or have been be- 
 
 trayed to the enemy. 
 TrpoffKdSa . . freSpa 5 ....... An ambuscade. 
 
 irpwToy6vaTO$ 6 irpurdroKOS ...... Firstborn. 
 
 Trp(i)Toyoti\T)S iotvios ........ June. 
 
 P. 
 
 pdcrcrb) 7 . . S/jdrrw ....... To reap, bind in sheaves. 
 
 pefjLireTai . . kTralperat 8 . . . . . . .Is taken, seized. 9 
 
 pofrvdpw . . 6yiuX<2 ........ I speak (It. ragionare). 
 
 potiicovvas . . 6.yKovq, ywvla. ..... A corner. 
 
 2. 
 
 . ct7ro/c67rrw roO yd\a.KTO$ . . To wean. 
 . Trpi6vt ........ A saw. 
 
 . 6'Xws, StoXou ...... Altogether, entirely. 
 
 vvvrpcxpos Kara rb r//xt(Tu . . A partner of halves, an equal 
 
 sharer. 
 <r/ce7raoT( . . &vuOVTova"r]fJi.dov } TOV CTKOTTOV Above the mark or object 
 
 pointed out. See Kpe- 
 
 <TKevpd>vit) . . K&nirTW, (TTpafibvb) .... To bend. 
 
 triads . . . K&V ......... EVen, if even. 11 
 
 ffK\6wa . . "yXau/ca ....... An owl. 
 
 ffKo\iv6s . . xotpos ........ A pig. 
 
 8ta/3aiVw ..... . . I go, pass through. 
 
 Plague. 
 
 A plain, on a level. 
 (rou/30 12 . . . ^eXXo's ....... Cork. 
 
 (It. sughero.) 
 
 <Tra/i6'a 13 . . (o-rdffov fj.bvos) V^X a<Te Be quiet, stay still. 
 . x^ vi ........ Snow. 14 
 
 . 6 7rot/iV idv ffreipuv TrpofidTuv The shepherd of the barren 
 
 ewes. 
 vfSdfa* . . cvfJiQuvG) ....... I make an agreement. 
 
 j j3a.cn* . . <rv[jL<pwvta. ....... An agreement. 
 
 A ravine, torrent. 
 
 * Common everywhere. 
 
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 
 
 125 
 
 Cretan Greek. 
 
 rayfj . 
 rde . 
 rap6s . 
 rdpraXa 
 
 T<mrpayd 4 
 Tovirl 5 . . 
 
 TOUTTtA . 
 
 Modern Greek. 
 
 T) aTTOKptu The carnival. 
 
 Ko\aKvriKd Flatteringly. 
 
 ij TriKpo5d<pvi) The bitter laurel. 
 
 rb irepKppa.yiJi.frov tuXeKTOv The well-fenced inner field 
 X(t}pd<pi. or enclosure. 
 
 T. 
 
 (3pw/j.7} Oats. 
 
 vTr66e(re Suppose. 
 
 &i>e/j.os Wind. 
 
 Xd0u/oa Spoil, plunder. 
 
 a&piov 3 To-morrow. 2 
 
 K\oT<na A kick. 
 
 xXorcrw I kick. 
 
 <rov@\l ty\wov A wooden spit. 
 
 Sldv/ma Twins. 
 
 /caT?j0o/3os A steep descent. 
 
 I slip, or slide. 8 
 
 Skins for cheeses. 
 
 <njvTpo<pos /card rb ^ ... A sharer of thirds. 
 
 T. 
 vo-repoTOKos The lastborn. 
 
 ^>. 
 
 (pafj.{yios . . UTT^TTJS A servant. 
 
 <pdap[j.ifa 9 . jSao-Kdj'w 10 To bewitch. 
 
 <p6apfj.6s l<} . . f3a<rKavla Sorcery, evil eye. 
 
 0ioO u . . . &TO.V ppwfj.(f. TI, v{3pi$ . . . Exclamation of disgust at a 
 
 bad smell. 
 vTrep-fjcpavos ...... A conceited man, coxcomb 
 
 (Turkish fodol). 
 
 yu,eXt<rcro5oxeia, KV\J/t\ia . . Beehives. 
 <pp6ov . . . /cpd;u/3?7 12 / . Cabbage. 13 
 
 X. 
 
 7rerpdXo0os A stony hill. 
 
 K d6i(re Sit down. 
 
 vofjilfa I suppose. 
 
 \t6os A stone. 
 
 e<pavT<i}Tr]s Pleasure-seeker. 
 
 Xa0Tou/ad . <7/3e/)/ctd 15 A blow. 
 
 I eat. 
 
 * Common everywhere. 
 
126 ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 
 
 Cretan Greek. Modern Greek. 
 
 . poiraXov ....... A club. 
 
 . Trifi\u>ov dyyeiov, ya.j3d.6a . . An earthen vessel. 
 
 . Karfcpopos ...... A hill (looking down, as 01/17- 
 
 00/90$ is a hill looking or 
 going up). 
 X\rrd KO.TT)<t>optKd ...... Downhill. 
 
 . . . (papfj.dKi ....... Poison. 
 
 \j/a.K6v<t) . . <t>apnaiKbvu ...... I poison. 
 
 \(/eyd5i . . Adrrw/xa ...... A defect or fault. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 i.e., " the strangler." 
 &yofj.at. In the original the words stand &yufjie, irqyeve, which seems im- 
 possible, as a present &yufjt.u cannot be conceived. Perhaps it should 
 be &ywfj,ev, &j ira/JLev, i.e., "let us go," "come along," " attons." The 
 root is extinct everywhere, just as the Latin ago in modern Romanic 
 tongues. 
 
 &6os. For &/0os. 2 
 
 dvddia. Probably a corruption of evdvTia.. 
 dTToyi. Lit. "earth-radiation." 
 
 I do not know the Greek explanatory word, and cannot find it 
 in any of the dictionaries. It must be remembered that these last 
 have hitherto made it a point of honour to suppress or ignore the so- 
 called " vulgar " Greek. (Spovfio- is doubtless from fiptiov. 
 
 Lege dTroraxetas: interesting as preserving the Hellenic use 
 of dirb with a genitive. 
 
 i.e., " the late," like TO ppdSv, or the Spanish tarde. 
 
 , flovpylSi. The Latin bulga, of Gaulish origin, as we are told ; 
 Bulgas Gatti sacculos scorteos vacant. The Irish affinities are well 
 known. It is our word bellows. 
 
 yi6r(ra. From the Italian ghiozzo, "drop." Compare the Turkish damla, 
 
 "drop," and "apoplexy." 
 56/xoi. Bands ; from 5ew, doubtless, though the accentuation 5o/xot might 
 
 be expected in that case. 
 
 eTrct. 'ESeTra, i.e.., 5ci 4 + &rd, is common in most of the islands instead of 
 e5u> (an inversion of tD5e rather than from Zvoov). 
 
 (pyu>. Perhaps 5 from piyu. 
 
 tew. A word which is retained nowhere else, being supplanted by fj.t<ra. 
 
 Apparently formed from ^%w, on the analogy of Krrjvos, a " posses- 
 sion," ''chattel," "cattle." 
 
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 127 
 
 frvptia. Zorrilla, properly "a little fox," is used in colonial Spanish for 
 a variety of skunk or polecat, Buffon's " zorille." 
 
 6t<re, BfTTdo. 1 Here given as neuter, but in the Greek play used as actives 
 " /j,a TO. TrdairaXa irov 6a 6<ru crTbv'AtSr)," " by the ashes I shall lay 
 in the grave." 
 
 Ka\ovpyid. The vernacular form of the now common word KaXXitpyeia, 
 which, however, is a revived word, brought in from books, or rather 
 constructed on ancient principles. The good Cretan family name of 
 Kalerges, in the sense of " a farmer," is more likely to be from this 
 indigenous source than from any vague meaning of "doer of good 
 deeds." 
 
 Found elsewhere in the sense of " scurf," " head-grease." 
 
 Perfectly common everywhere ; also in the Wallachian copil. 
 The derivation from KOTrro^at can hardly be admitted. KoweXos is 
 used in Byzantine writings for a bastard. On the whole the word is 
 more probably of Greek than of Romanic or barbaric origin. 
 
 From Kp6ra\ov. ~KovpTa\ifa is common everywhere, and as 
 old as the twelfth century. 
 
 X$f?7S. Probably Xei;s or Xeitos, from Xet^w. 
 
 "\iyo\j/vx&, &c. These words are used elsewhere, like the more usual 
 
 \iyodv(j.u>, XeiTToflu/u.w, in the sense of fainting rather than mere 
 
 oppression. 
 Xo/3ic. From Hellenic Xoj86s, "peascod." 
 
 fjiaXaKa. The word p.v-f)dpa is probably expressive of the straining or 
 squeezing process, calling to mind Virgil's "pressi copia lactis." Ma- 
 Xci/ca seems to be a form of the old word for milk, common to most of 
 the Indo-European languages, which has run together or formed an 
 etymological confluence with the word /mXa/cos, itself ultimately from 
 the same root, much as mulcere and mulgere in Latin. The Cretan 
 word reappears at the other end of Europe, among our own islands : 
 "mulcdn (gloss glassia, i.e. yaXa^tal a kind of milk frumity) is 
 O'Reilly's mulachdn, ' a kind of soft cheese.' " (Whitley Stokes, " Irish 
 Glosses," No. 243). 
 
 fj,acr\a. From the Italian rather than the Latin stage of maxilla. The 
 Latin stage is preserved in fjiv!-i\\dpi, " a pillow." Compare Chaucer's 
 Wanger and the Arabic mukhadda (whence Spanish almohada), both 
 meaning "cheek" or "jawpiece." 
 
 fj,anvdSa.- Pashley spells the word fji,aSivd8a. The oldest work in the 
 Brescian dialect (1554) consists in part of a "canzone villereccia," 
 entitled " Matinada, id est Stramboggio che fa il Gian alia Togna." 
 (Biondelli, "Saggio sui dialetti gallo-italici," 163.) 
 
 JUOTCITO. Perhaps from an assumed -rj^lffTarov in Hellenic. 3 Compare the 
 Latin dimidiana, whence our demi-john, dame-jaune, &c. 
 
 fj.ovoijpi is not from modius, nor even the It. misura, but rather from 
 the Byzantine (j,u>croijpij>, a confluence of the Latin mensura, mensa, 
 and missus. It is a dry measure containing 15 okes (the oke = 2^ 
 
128 ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 
 
 pounds) of wheat, or 12 of barley. Its half is a TTWO.KL, its quarter 
 a irpaTiKb, 1 and its sixteenth an aj-ayt. 
 
 Query ftai>dpi, It. mannaja. 
 
 A neuter plural. Properly pendants, or button- shaped orna- 
 ments. It. bottone. 
 
 Compare below Trpdcraw (jMvQdvu), i.e., " to work for informa- 
 tion," " strive to learn." The formation seems irregular, unless the 
 word is for efji-rrpaKTij. Updaau and TTOIW are generally extinct, the 
 latter, however, being retained in common use in the Trebizond 
 country. 
 
 But in the "Vavilonfa" it means "to set free soul from 
 body," " to kill," " smash," " ecraser." " T^ ee/j.v<rTevya 5e5i>, rbv 
 tirepira ffTbv'AStj" " I say that I have smashed that man, and sent 
 him down to Hell, Sir." 3 
 
 e7ra/>aAw. In this word -Aw is from Aifo : in jcaraXw ((pQelpw), given 
 above, it is probably from 6\\v/ju. The present AcD for Atfw is a 
 natural consequence or suggestion arising from the aorist ^Afcra. As 
 a general rule in vernacular Greek, all verbs whose aorist is -riva, 
 -lea, -v<ra, alike pronounced -isa, can form a present in -w upon the 
 model of the contract verbs, whatever it may have been in the an- 
 cient, or may also be in the "revived" written language. Thus, as 
 tyiXrjaa is from 0iAu>, and rjydTrycra from dyairui, so <r/3u<ra has sug- 
 gested a colloquial present cr/3w 4 by the side of <r/3tfw 5 or vfivvu : girrvaa 
 has 0rw 6 as well as irrtiw : e6crrt(ra, /cocrrw 7 (constare, costare) as well as 
 Kocrlfa. It may be seen by this how the grammatical modifications 
 of the ancient language which constitute modern Greek have arisen 
 naturally out of changes in pronunciation. 'Eytteis and c^taj, and 
 Nereis and teas, must have arisen from the impossibility of working 
 the language in daily life, as soon as ^teis and vpeis came to be 
 pronounced in exactly the same way; and so with many other 
 instances. 
 
 It. imboscata. 
 
 i.e., " the fore July," as SevTepoyotXys is " the latter July." 
 The other variant names for months in Greek are the Reaper, the 
 Thresher, the Vintager (0epi<rTr)s, dXuvdprjs, TpvyrjT-rjs), peculiar to the 
 Ionian Islands. These names remind us of the ancient English and 
 the Slavonian sets of names. Toij\r)$ for FtoiJX^s ('lotfAcos), if not a 
 misprint, exhibits the Rhodian and Cyprian peculiarity of hardening 
 a y sound after liquids before a, o, u, as Kct/i/ryd ffapavrapya for /ca/i- 
 )tuA (rapavrapid, une quarantaine, a lot of forty. 
 
 It is impossible to say whether this means "it is raised," or 
 " it is seized," owing to the author's use of high polite Greek instead 
 of real Greek. 'Eiralperai is good ancient Greek in the former sense. 
 Halpverai, its legitimate derivative, is good modern Greek in the 
 latter sense. No such word as e-rralpeTai exists in the modern Greek 
 
ON CRETAN AND MODERN CREEK. 129 
 
 language, properly speaking. But it has become, as I have said 
 before, a point of honour to revive ancient forms, letting them take 
 their chance as regards embodying modern idiom ; and the confusion 
 thus occasioned to philological work is great. So, below, %ct/oa/caj 
 (yidos) may be stone or may be marble ; we cannot tell which, because 
 the author uses an ambiguous and dead word instead of his own 
 living words, irerpa in the one case, fj.dpfj.apov in the other. So, above, 
 (jLTup^iy^, explaining ^eXtra/cas. Mtyyi^/a or fjt.rjyKi is good modern 
 Greek for " an ant," and fjnjpfj.7]^ is good ancient Greek for the same ; 
 but fj.ijpfj.iyj; is a jumble of a misspelling and a dead and withered 
 . case-ending. In the present case, moreover, it is most important to 
 know which is which. If the word be Traipverat ("it is seized"), 
 p^uTrercu must be one of two things either a very old vernacular cog- 
 nate of the Indo-European word which we possess in the form rob, or 
 else the Albanian " remb " (remben, " I seize ") which has passed over 
 into Crete. 1 
 
 povKovvas. Arabic ruTcna ; as this word is not used in ordinary Turkish, 
 the Cretan must be from Arabic direct a very rare occurrence. 
 
 Probably for ^/-uo-arwpaj, or from e/s-r-^/u<ru4--<{rw/)a9. This 
 last form, which is from the Latin -ator, is common in Byzantine and 
 modern Greek. 2 Compare /SXeTrdrwpas above. 
 Apparently from It. scorrere. 
 
 rayf). Properly "a ration" or "allowance" (from Td<r<ru), thence spe- 
 cially one of horse-provender, thence oats generally. In this sense it 
 is used by Byzantine writers. From it, further, comes the modern 
 verb raylfa, " I feed" (active). Compare the converse process in the 
 Latin cibus becoming limited in the Spanish cebada 'to the meaning 
 of barley. 
 
 ravrtpov. Can this contain the lost repos in any way ? 3 
 
 Perhaps from TI^TTOS, with the common retention of the old sound 
 of v : types, moulds. 
 
 Hence the family name of Sterovizi. 
 <p6apfj.6s is probably to be referred to 6(f>da\fj,6s, elsewhere lost. 4 
 
 The common word for " a spendthrift" or " free-liver." 
 
 [Mr. Antonios Jeannarakis, a native of Crete, editor of "Kretas Volks- 
 lieder" (The Popular Songs of Crete), Leipzig, 1876, and author of a 
 Grammar of Modern Greek for Germans, published at Hanover in 1877, 
 kindly undertook the revision of the Modern Greek in this volume. We 
 are also indebted to him for the following suggestions and emendations, 
 
 I 
 
130 
 
 ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 
 
 the numerals of which correspond to the numerals which appear on pages 
 112 to 129.] 
 
 PAGE 112. 
 
 11 rather p o5a/x6s 
 
 5 6eru 
 
 1 lege dpis 
 
 12 (?) 
 
 6 5UO-7UX77S 
 
 2 lege po5cw6y, from po- 
 
 13 (?) 
 
 7 wretched 
 
 Safnvos or pdSa/tvos 
 
 
 8 Ka.fjt.vv>, or rather /ccti'- 
 
 3 doubtless 
 
 PAGE 118. 
 
 wcD 
 
 4 lege /3ejT^aa 
 
 1 (?) O'TrovpyiT'rjs 
 
 9 I close my eyes 
 
 5 irovoKe<pa.\o^ 
 
 2 also 7pO 
 
 10 (?) o-0a777 and a^arj 
 
 6 /ce0aXaptd 
 
 3 syllable 
 
 11 ovaooiAtas 
 
 7 lege (pTap/j,6s 
 
 4 (?) 
 
 
 
 5 Sevr^fJi.d' 
 
 
 PAGE 114. 
 
 6 /3Xd7os 
 
 PAGE 121. 
 
 1 lege <j>Tap/j.6v 
 
 7 /3dX70s 
 
 1 KOVKKoadXi. 
 
 2 <t>TO.p[Ji 
 
 8 morass, marsh, mire 
 
 2 vSpopp6a 
 
 3 lege OTTOI) TO"* e{3So(j(.'rjv- 
 
 9 keeper 
 
 3 gutter 
 
 raSvb 0X^yes 
 
 10 eTTiffraffta 
 
 4 Xo^St, or rather Xon/Si 
 
 4 xaoy*ou/)irai 
 
 11 inspection 
 
 5 a pod, a capsule 
 
 5 IXoi5(TT77/c' 
 
 12 leathern 
 
 6 77 e7rnrX77ts 
 
 6 Kepd 
 
 13 leathern 
 
 7 a censure 
 
 7 exrevia'T'riKe 
 
 14 70/370" 
 
 8 fjiavdpi 
 
 8 lege OTO 6p6vov T<TTJ 
 
 15 7x01/70; 
 
 9 (?)1 
 
 Kd6i(re or &ca70"e 
 
 16 5p0/*etfs 
 
 10 waybvu 
 
 9 K' e<pTapfj.i(raffiv 7771/6 
 
 17 runner 
 
 11 I freeze 
 
 10 70-77 
 
 18 (?) /uoc. ouX^ or /Aia 
 
 
 11 lege T^rd '%eis fj.dva, 
 
 ovXid 
 
 PAGE 122. 
 
 tfvrd '%eis or rather 
 
 19 oX^ov Tt 
 
 1 female 
 
 IVrd 'x e i* [idva, tvrd 
 
 20 a little 
 
 2 lamb 
 
 'veis 
 
 si m 
 
 3 (?) fJiapraKi 
 
 12 ^X 01/0-777 /ca 
 
 
 4 /j.avTivdda 
 
 13 0-76 flpdi/o yuoy 
 
 PAGE 119. 
 
 5 biffTL^OV 
 
 14 %7evto"777/ca 
 
 M?) 
 
 6 a distich 
 
 15 ^Tap/JLiffaffi 
 
 2 o-i70i'77! 
 
 7 OK7U> &tf9 
 
 16 aXi/ad 
 
 3 piKpbv ui^w/ia 
 
 8 eight to ten 
 
 
 4 rising ground 
 
 9 (?) 
 
 PAGE 117. 
 
 5 dXfji.ey6fji.eva Trpofiara 
 
 10 irepLdepatov 
 
 1 rather d7/cotfo-ta 
 
 6 milch- ewes 
 
 11 irpdyfj^ara, aKevrj 
 
 2 conversation, mention 
 
 7 it struck my fancy, it 
 
 12 chattels 
 
 3 d7'di'Tia 
 
 struck me 
 
 13 o-e J Sao-/x6s 
 
 4 Xd/ii/'ts 
 
 8 ( ? ) 
 
 14 respect, regard 
 
 5 gleam, brightness 
 
 9 a cattle 
 
 15 <repofj.at 
 
 6 tyeipofjiai, dvafiXeTrb) 
 
 
 16 I am regardful 
 
 7 to rise, to look up 
 
 PAGE 120. 
 
 17 lege d/*ov, commoner 
 
 8 diro/JLevdpot 
 
 2 cripple 
 
 ^id /iou . 
 
 9 (?) 
 
 3 5iCt>KW 
 
 18 etovffia. /JLOV, StK^ fj.ov 
 
 10 0^705^77 
 
 4 I pursue 
 
 dovXecd 
 
ON CRETAN AND MODERN GREEK. 
 
 19 my authority, i.e., my 5 lege 6/<?5pa 2 (?) atdw; a'iOd\rj, soot, 
 
 business 6 (?) ashes; d06s = bloom 
 
 20 d crov, commoner td 7 (?) apd<T<r<i>, Modern 3 dpyadivrj 
 
 ffov Greek 6pp;cD, I storm 4 (?) ^8<3 
 
 21 eov<rlaaov,8Tr<i)56e\eis 8 iiravaTraijerai 5 doubtless 
 
 22 your authority, i.e., as 9 he relies 
 
 you like 10 lege (rf/i/ittrdropas, com- PAGPJ 127. 
 
 23 e^ovffla /JLOV, oi><ria /J.QV, moner 
 
 t;, <rid fiov, or ropas 
 
 11 at least 
 
 12 ffovpos 
 
 id fj,ov 
 
 3 from It. mestato 
 
 PAGE 123. 
 
 13 (?) 
 
 PAGE 128. 
 
 1 rpo/xos, rapaxri 
 
 14 snowflakes 
 
 1 oftener ^ /cdpra 
 
 2 alarm 
 
 15 lege <rijyK\vffi 
 
 2 lege navdpi 
 
 3 lege ^fJ,i(TT\f/t 
 
 
 3 ^e/iua-Tei/w or e/xt<TTei;w 
 
 4 deliverance 
 
 PAGE 125. 
 
 means dTraXdrro;, to 
 
 5 5a6/fw, iTTidiuKU 
 
 2 early, in the morning 
 
 deliver 
 
 6 I pursue 
 
 3 rb irpw't 
 
 4 (?) 
 
 7 (?) 7rcu8w/A?7 
 
 4 oftener <rvfjt,irpayd 
 
 M?) 
 
 8 torture, torment 
 
 5 (?) X^ T9 7 S 
 
 6 <t>TVU 
 
 9 e/iTrX^/co/icu 
 
 6 (?) raovpG) 
 
 M-0 
 
 T fintfl.ncfl mvself 
 
 7 KiiXLti) Ku\lnu.a.L 
 
 
 11 torture, torment 
 
 12 entirely abandoned 
 
 13 Kopv<p-f], aKp&peia. 
 
 14 a mountain-ridge 
 
 15 OVCOUTTCI, 
 
 16 a broom 
 
 PAGE 124. 
 1 anything 
 
 I roll PAGE 129. 
 
 1 pe/iTrerat means "he 
 relies, ' ' apparently 
 
 10 <j>rapfj,6s from pVTrw 
 
 11 lege 0uoO, or oftener 2 lege ffvpfjuaidTopas, 
 
 iprvov, from iTTTLHt) oftener trf/A/atcrta/cd- 
 
 ropas, from the com- 
 
 12 
 
 13 cauliflower 
 
 14 
 
 mon adj. 
 
 3 I frequent 
 
 4 bitterness 
 
 PAGE 126. 
 
 3 apparently from 
 
 repos 
 
 4 lege <rap,u6s, appa- 
 
 rently from 
 
( 132 ) 
 
 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 58 GREAT CUMBERLAND STREET, W., 
 January 17, 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, I^have been owing you a letter 
 this many a day, and have written it on the tablets of my 
 mind more or less every Saturday morning ; but as there 
 is no such thing as inter-mental telegraphy as yet, and as 
 I am lazy and irresolute like the Turks, I have never 
 yet managed to come to the writing point. I say every 
 Saturday, because I always find something of yours to set 
 me agoing. The Saturday before last you flurried me with 
 a vengeance. As for the Zamzummim, I give them up to 
 you, and you may dance on their grave as long as you 
 like, if you can find it. But the Kaukones my own 
 Kaukones, whom I value next in the world to the Lithu- 
 anians what makes you step out of the way merely to 
 murder them, or, at least, summarily clap an extinguisher 
 over them, when they are burning out of themselves, and 
 just at the last flicker ? Why didn't you instance Myrmi- 
 dons, or Dolops, or Pisidians ? But the whole point of 
 the Kaukones is that their name survives to this day, as 
 applied to the only dialect now extant which can be 
 called co-ordinate with the ancient Greek dialects which, 
 at all events, is no dialect of modern Greek. Finlay (who, 
 by the way, is not a philologist), in treating of the Tzako- 
 nians, incidentally compares their name with that of 
 Laconia ; so did Leake, who was the first Englishman who 
 drew attention to them ; so did, I think, the Venetians. 
 But the Germans have quite given this up, and Okonomas 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 133 
 
 (a very safe and good Greek, a Cyprian, professor at Corfu, 
 whom I met there, and who warmed my heart by pro- 
 nouncing his doubled consonants as an Italian or Arab 
 would) points out very clearly that the letter change of 
 I to tz is quite unwarrantable, while that of kd to tza (a 
 Greek's nearest approach to cha) is regular enough ; com- 
 pare Ka/ci^o), ica/covco becoming r^atcLfo, T^CLKOVCO. 
 
 As for the v, that also disappears in combinations like 
 avK in common speech, though of course retained in con- 
 scious speech and book work ; compare Ka/jLif^avKt,, the 
 priest's cap, commonly pronounced kamildfi, or else 
 Jcamildki. This arose, of course, from the nature of 
 things after -av -ev had lost their diphthongal sound, and 
 become av, ev. When evpopfyos came to be awkward and 
 uncomfortable to pronounce, as written and in theory, it 
 got the easier sound of o/iop</>o? in spoken language if, 
 indeed, that last has not been spoken all along. As for 
 the dialect itself, it is queer stuff, and dreadfully corrupted ; 
 but it has plenty of Doric traces : moreover, they have got 
 a perfect, all right : wpdica, I have seen. The pronouns are 
 unlike anything in the Eomanic above, or the Hellenic be- 
 neath, or the older Aryan, which is under the Hellenic. 
 Bopp himself would be puzzled to account for such forms 
 as 6/ftod, rt, vt t /clov, for <rv, crov, <70t, ere. But I've no 
 doubt it is merely a sub- dialect of Spartan Doric run wild, 
 and left by the schoolmasters to take care of itself. They 
 had a settlement in Crete, where there is a village Tzako- 
 nas. I have written a very brief essay on Cretan, to be 
 published in Captain Spratt's forthcoming book on that 
 island, which I should be very glad to show you. But I 
 cannot get the proofs sent me, though they are in the 
 printer's hands for more than a fortnight. I have given, 
 as concisely as possible, my view of the origin of modern 
 Greek, and accounted for the absence of true dialect in it. 
 On the whole subject, I can only say that if E. A. 
 Sophocles were a little fuller, he would be to it what 
 Diez is in Eomanics, and Zeuss in Celtics, and Grimm in 
 
134 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 Teutonics the father of true philological method and 
 criticism. 
 
 Talking of Greeks, I see by this day's " Times" that 
 Finlay's friends, the Logiotates, or Kalamarades, have 
 massed their artillery, and have written all at once, either 
 by concert or inspiration, to compel us through the " Times " 
 to say Hrpvrjla&eo) their way and not our way at school and 
 college. And of course we shall have the old Keuchlinian 
 and Erasmian war waged day after day, after the fashion 
 of what the Germans call " der silly season," without a 
 single new argument, or a single reference to Sophocles, 
 or any acknowledgment of the one fact that the whole 
 theory of the Hellenic sound-system becomes order and 
 harmony only when viewed by the light of comparative 
 philology unless, indeed, Max Miiller takes up the sub- 
 ject and writes peremptorily. I do firmly believe that a 
 common modern English or German strong verb throws 
 more light on certain points of Hellenic Lautlehre than 
 anything modern Greek can tell us. As seen by a modern 
 Greek, there is no vowel change at all in \LTT-, XetTreo, 
 XeXotTra; and the change in spelling is caprice or non- 
 sense, or it " growed so." What would he make of Ft8-, 
 FeiSa), FoiBa, or <f>vy-, favya), Trefavya (for Trefowya) ? Our 
 wot and the German biegen, bog, gebogen, retain traces of 
 each change, which is perfectly exhibited in Gothic wit 
 and lug being the root-forms, with the simple vowel weitan 
 (preserved in in-weitan and lingari) for the first steigerung 
 or diphthongation ; and wait and Idng with the second; 
 
 the series being I l ei dl , \ in Gothic, and / l 6fc Ofc 
 ( w iw au ) ( v ev ov 
 
 Greek, the Sanskrit being the same absolutely ; though I 
 don't venture to give that without a book of reference. 
 Our wot is by regular change from the older wdt, which 
 has the regular old-English superscription of iota, as in 
 stains, stdn, stone. 
 
 I find I have sacrificed the world and our common 
 friends to the Kaukones, and have no more room, so I 
 must remain, ever yours truly, STKANG-FORD. 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 135 
 
 58 GREAT CUMBERLAND STREET, 
 March 4, 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, It is only ten in the morning, and 
 I have but just taken up my Saturday. The article I 
 first see is naturally the one headed " Armenian Popular 
 Songs," and there the first words that meet my eye are 
 " The Armenians were, and for the most part still are, 
 members of the Greek communion." Well, it isn't much 
 in England, but to a TroX/r???, or Constantinopolitan like 
 myself, it reads like saying that the Ultramontanes are 
 still members of Mr. Spurgeon's congregation. You were 
 good enough to be nervous and appeal to my silence about 
 your Kaukones ; but what do you say to this ? I was not 
 astonished at all after that to find the reviewer compli- 
 menting the author on the " accuracy of his translation." 
 
 The first sign of decadence in a paper like the E 
 
 is the abandonment of special subjects to commonplace 
 general men. As for the editor, be it mine to burn his 
 father and break his windows. 
 
 I see by your friend the Emperor that the reason of the 
 disappearance of all knowledge about the Eoman kings 
 was because " their mission was fulfilled." I hope you are 
 now satisfied about Ancus Martius. Ever yours truly, 
 
 STRANGFORD. 
 
 58 GREAT CUMBERLAND STREET, 
 April 15, 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, You have held the stirrup and 
 mounted me in the saddle, but I don't think you will 
 succeed in getting me to ride my hobby to much purpose, 
 or on a straight road. Your main points I take to be 
 these two whom in the ancient world do the Albanians 
 represent ? and how near does Albanian stand to Greek ? 
 Now at the very outset, and before attempting to give a 
 precise answer to either question, I begin by saying that 
 
136 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 whatever may be the name of the people who spoke 
 ancient Albanian, modern Albanian, in my opinion, differs 
 from its former stage, or mother tongue, as much as the 
 speech of Ludovicus Caesar differs from that of Julius 
 Caesar his French I mean, not his Corsican and differs 
 much in the same way. Or, to take another illustration, 
 it represents it as modern Welsh represents the splendid 
 Latin-like speech of the pre-historic Celts, such as we just 
 manage to see in Celtic inscriptions, and can reconstruct 
 to some extent by legitimate induction. In Albanian we 
 have no literature, no archaism, no staple of language, and 
 consequently cannot reconstruct in detail ; but we have 
 enough means to enable us to conclude that the modern 
 language is phonetically degraded and grammatically 
 changed from the old tongue, in the same way as the 
 modern languages I have instanced are changed from 
 their respective mother tongues by great phonetic cor- 
 ruption, and by the progress of grammar from synthesis 
 to analysis. Old Albanian can thus be shown to have 
 been a true synthetic speech, like all other old Indo- 
 European languages. In this style it is a probable con- 
 jecture, which I do not think it safe to state as a certain 
 conclusion, that it stood nearest to archaic Greek among 
 the extra-Hellenic dialects of Europe, but not nearer than 
 some languages in Asia Minor, such as Phrygian. Fur- 
 thermore, that it so stood, not, as now, alone, but as one 
 of a group. Whether this group included Thracian, 
 Macedonian, and the like, whether it was subordi- 
 nate to any one of them, or whether it was co-or- 
 dinate with any of them, I hold as beyond the limits 
 of such conjectures as those to which I now wish 
 to restrict myself. All I can say is, that the true 
 Albanian part of the language, such as we are forced 
 to take it, after precipitation of the foreign elements, 
 is distinctly Indo-European, and is more closely connected 
 with Greek than with any other Indo-European language 
 existing or recorded. Of missing languages of that stock 
 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 137 
 
 I can take no count with safety. This position of special 
 affinity with Greek, moreover, would be assigned to it 
 under any geographical circumstances, and wholly irre- 
 spective of its. neighbourhood to Greece. But, whether 
 it be the modern of ancient Illyrian, of ancient Epirotic, 
 or ancient Thracian even ; whether it be transitional be- 
 tween Greek and any or all of these rather than their con- 
 tinuation, I cannot say, for I have no means of saying ; 
 nor has anybody else. All I can do is to try and guess 
 sense instead of guessing nonsense. My own conjecture 
 is that the language in its present diffusion is quite 
 modern, that is to say, of the Eoman Imperial times ; that, 
 at the time of the first-mention of the name, Ptolemy's 
 Albanopolis, it was' confined to a comparatively small 
 area in the Central Pindus, one probably of many other 
 dialects of something either Epirotic or Illyrian (which, 
 for aught I know, may be the same), and that the modern 
 Greg and Toshk and Ljap and the rest are sub-dialects of 
 this central nucleus spread forth by conquest, rather than 
 continuations of the elder dialects. This is tame work 
 after Hahn and the people who make Achilles and Deu- 
 calion speak modern Albanian, and who interpret Peleus 
 and Thetis and everything you choose by it in a way not 
 a bit better than Valiancy and the little pig book, nor 
 half so amusing. There is, to be sure, a coincidence about 
 the name of the swift-footed Achilles which I quoted from 
 Eallermayer in a note in my wife's book 1 'Ao-Trere in 
 Plutarch being his Epirotic epithet, and rairere being 
 Albanian for swift ; but I do not think this is more than a 
 coincidence. If more, it involves the assumption that the 
 language was always phonetically the same, which is out 
 of the question. No attempt to treat Albanian will suc- 
 ceed which treats it as the Welsh treat their language 
 one in the category of Basque or Hebrew instead of one in 
 the category of modern English or Erench. And even the 
 best of philologists are but men; they cannot resist temp- 
 
 i " The Eastern Shores of the Adriatic." 
 
138 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 tation, and will persist in over-knowing their subject. To 
 my mind Albanian is the one speech which is the best 
 example and type of languages dangerous to the philo- 
 logist. Foreign elements in its vocabulary, and even 
 foreign influence on its grammar, are at the maximum ; 
 and I would not trust Bopp and Pott themselves to deal 
 with it unless they had an anteroom full of Klephts, 
 Cadis, and demogerontes to be called in and consulted on 
 points of vernacular usage at a moment's notice. Gram- 
 mar and vocabulary are, of course, full of later Greek. 
 Then there is some distinctively earlier Greek, but not 
 much of it. For instance, istrembere, crooked, represents 
 the old meaning and old beta pronunciation of o-r/xz/So?, 
 now meaning blind, not crooked. Turkish also, of course, 
 is not one whit less abundant than late Greek. Then 
 there is some Slavonic. But the one language which has 
 absolutely saturated Albanian, and has more affected it 
 than any of the others, or perhaps all put together, is 
 Latin in various ages and forms. The German philo- 
 logists, over-estimating the originality and value of Al- 
 banian, are disposed to ignore and shirk this last point, 
 and have not worked it out in detail. They constantly 
 treat rank Latin words as genuine Albanian. Now there 
 is Latin of the classical period late republican or early 
 imperial, evinced by the retention of an older pronuncia- 
 tion, in such words as kid, heaven, kjepa, onion, fhin t 
 neighbour (a, a graphic sign for an obscure short a or e), 
 and many other such which keep the old k sound of c 
 before e, &c. There is Eomanic Latin from their neigh- 
 bours the Southern Wallachians a great deal of this, 
 which must have been going on for a long time, 1 though 
 I have never seen it observed ; and there is Eomanic 
 Latin from the Italians of the Middle Ages and the Vene- 
 tian period in a small quantity. These two last can be 
 distinguished in some words. The Latin integer in Italian 
 
 1 E.g., spndos, sound =. Modern Greek 7^/>os, in Wallachian spnitosw 
 (sanitosus), sound, strong, healthy. 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 139 
 
 is intiero and in "Wallachian 'ntregw. In Albanian one 
 form, itera, is supplied by Italian, in the sense of entire ; 
 another, ndre'Jc, by Wallachian, in the sense of straight, 
 downright, complete, -rapa^ as a modern Greek would 
 say with the Turkish word, half adjective, half inter- 
 jection. 
 
 There is a considerable amount of its grammatical 
 mechanism taken from Latin and Greek of different ages, 
 which, again, the Germans won't look in the face : such as 
 on for the derivative verbs, surely the late Greek -6vco : -ime 
 in nouns from verbs, from Wallachian, where it is very 
 common (crimen, discrimen, &c.) : afar (near), mafar 
 (nearer), merely ma from magis, as in South Wallachian 
 multu, ma multu : let for our let (let skruan, let him write) ; 
 which is a compound of le -f- te le Greek a? for a<f>es, 
 from the South Wallachian la, from lasare (framed pro- 
 bably on the model of a?), and te being equivalent to the 
 Greek va. In this last instance the identity of idiom 
 which pervades all these languages is exemplified. Bul- 
 garian, Wallach, Greek, and Albanian have all lost their 
 infinitive mood, and cannot say, like a Hellenic, ypa^erco, 
 or like an Italian, lascia scrivere ; so all say a<? ypd-^rj (for 
 0.9 va 7), la si scria, lete skruan, and whatever the Bulgarian 
 may be. This cast of one mould as it were, has given rise 
 to a prevalent German theory that Albanian, such as we see 
 it, is the survivor of one family say Thracran spread 
 over the whole Peninsula at one time, which was the mould 
 in which the other languages were successively cast upon 
 contact with it. This I don't believe at all ; holding that 
 this special character proceeds partly from each, and as 
 much from one as from the other of them ; and that one of 
 its most important features (not found in Greek, moreover), 
 the suffixed definite article, is certainly not Albanian 
 originally, but, in my opinion, Slavonic (Proto- Slavonic) : 
 in Max Muller's Eomanic, it being equally open to a 
 Roman to say dominus ille and ille dominus. This theory, 
 as expounded by Miklosich, I think, I shall notice in full 
 
140 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 some day. I know nothing of Albanian vernacularly, nor 
 do the German philologists ; they have the advantage over 
 me in being themselves, I being only myself; but I have 
 the advantage in a vernacular knowledge of Greek (which 
 matters less) and of Turkish, which matters a great deal, 
 and saves much trouble in determining the nature of words 
 at first sight. Now, what more can I say for certain ? I 
 cannot say anything about Epirotic or Thesprotian, or the 
 like, because I know nothing positive to say. In looking 
 at Albanian, I am in the position of one looking as it were 
 across the Channel at barbarian Frenchmen with no his- 
 torical or literary record of their language, calling water 6, 
 which, by my hypothesis, I have no resource for writing 
 down other than phonetic spelling. How am I to know 
 that that has anything to do with aqua ? An Albanian 
 calls water uye (ovyte). I declare I have no means of 
 deciding or guessing whether this be a phonetic corruption 
 from the root of the Achelous, let us say, or from an old 
 cognate of vbayp. 'AaTreTe, above mentioned, is positively 
 stated by Plutarch whatever the statement may be worth 
 to be Epirotic for TroSa? &KVS. I have said before that I 
 think the modern raTrere is only an accidental likeness to 
 it ; but if I might obtrude my own guess at what it really 
 is, I can do so without straining by comparing L4cr with 
 O>KV-, Sanskrit au and irere with TroS Sanskrit pad, so 
 as to be = ODKVTTOV^ agupada. I do not press this in the 
 least, and indeed don't believe it, for I don't want to stop 
 gaps with guesses. 
 
 To sum up, what I think we may venture to say is 
 briefly this : Pre-Hellenic Greek was specially connected 
 with one or more groups of dialects more or less standing 
 in an intermediate and transitional position, impossible 
 now from want of means to define in detail between it 
 and the Italo-Celtic group on the one side and the true 
 Aryan, or Iranian, on the other. The Albanian is the 
 modern representative of one of these dialects ; and its own 
 dialectic variations, as we now see them, are of modern 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 141 
 
 rather than ancient origin, because their difference is not 
 such as would have "been caused by the lapse of three 
 thousand years, and their mutual unintelligibility in their 
 extreme forms arises from the variety in foreign influences, 
 not from change in the native element. 
 
 The languages of Northern and Central Asia Minor, 
 which include the Thracian, were certainly transitional 
 between Greek and Aryan, and adopted with equal ease 
 Greek or Persian names, and, I suppose, language. I should 
 like to make one group of this. It is hard, perhaps, to 
 separate Macedonian and Illyrian by a special line from 
 Thracian, but I do not suppose ifr to be a strong separation, 
 and I make another group of that with Epirotic; more 
 particularly transitional to Italo-Celtic, as the first is to 
 Aryan proper. This makes my view of the whole Pan- 
 Aryan class to stand thus, omissis omittendis. 
 
 Indo-European. 
 
 I 
 
 Aryan proper. 
 
 I 
 
 Thraco-Achsean 
 (or any other name you choose). 
 
 Italo-Celtic. 
 
 Ill I 
 
 Indian. Persian. Greek. Epirotic. Thracian, Phrygian, &c. 
 
 Illyric, &c. 
 
 Proto- Albanian 
 
 here, rather than the other, on the whole. 
 
 Macedonia, I cannot help thinking, must in the very old 
 times have actually belonged to the Greek group after all, 
 rather than to any other, but this I put in an uncertain 
 way. They must all have been very like one another in 
 Homer's day, to judge by the likeness in such extremes of 
 time and space as Themistocles's verbs in /u, and Xerxes's 
 verbs in mi. What complicated the matter in the way of 
 obliteration of some dialects, change of type in others, ex- 
 tension of others, must have been the constant maritime 
 migrations and settlements going on between all the three 
 peninsulas side by side with the land work. This has 
 Grecised the Italic vocabularies, and made the languages 
 look more Greek than they are. Of the head of the Adriatic 
 
142 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 I don't like to talk ; as it is, I have conjectured more than 
 I intended to have allowed myself to do at starting. On 
 reading what I have written, the only point where, I think, 
 I have said too much is where I said that Albanian would 
 be assigned at sight to a nearer affinity with Greek than 
 with anything else. This I feel to be over-stated ; for, as 
 it stands, it is very unlike anything. It stands both to the 
 eye and in reality as near to Greek as the phonetic Irish 
 of a modern hodman, taken down without regard to tradi- 
 tional orthography, &c., stands to the language of Cicero, 
 its nearest extra-Celtic ally. This parallel is as nearly 
 exact as the case admits. Practically, modern Albanian 
 is almost as far from modern Greek as Turkish, and their 
 being influenced by the modern Greeks I do not think has 
 anything to do with language or affinity of race. The 
 Wallachs, whose language is unwritten, are equally influ- 
 enced, and to much better purpose. The Albanians have 
 given Greece as much as they received from her. The 
 curse of Palikarism, encouraged by Otho, did more harm 
 to the kingdom than words can describe ; and when this 
 lasted the town population was distinctly better off in 
 Turkey, and the island population no worse off. In an- 
 cient times I have no doubt it was as you say. Indeed, 
 had it not been for the Assyrian Empire and the Semites, 
 and the unfortunate geographical position, the speakers of 
 Cyrus's language might have been Hellenised or Euro- 
 peanised through kinship of speech and race. 
 
 What I can do in a small way more than this is to give 
 you a list of undoubted and manifest Albanian affinities 
 of the old period. But I have not got Hahn, and Leake's 
 grammar and vocabulary are hardly enough. However, 
 something can be done with that. Very truly yours, 
 
 STRANGFOKD. 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 143 
 
 58 GREAT CUMBERLAND STREET, 
 April 1 8, 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, The best summary of opinions on 
 the Albanian question is found in a treatise of Fallme- 
 rayer, published in 1857. I did not consult this when 
 writing to you, preferring to do so out of my own treat- 
 ment of the materials afforded me by Leake, all I had, 
 Von Hahn not being as yet in my library. Fallmerayer 
 says, and perhaps believes, that Hahn is very clever and 
 methodical. I considered his book a disorderly chaos 
 when I last saw it. But Fallmerayer's own statement 
 of Hahn's conclusions, and his defence of them against 
 some very silly and presumptuous criticism by a Greek, 
 may really be called lucid and satisfactory. These 
 take up most of the aforesaid treatise. Two parts, in 
 continuation, have since appeared, which I have not 
 got. The Greek critic, whose essay I happen also to have, 
 is one Mcocles of Kozani, in Macedonia, a man of some 
 little learning and much pretence, who studied in Ger- 
 many. His little book is written in perfectly good and 
 most creditable Hellenic, so far as I can judge, without 
 any /car epyv i&eav idioms in it. But it is full of inept 
 sneering at the good Dutchman, who, though clearly cock 
 of the Albanian walk, is by no means given to crowing ; 
 and it is all of a glitter with that barren tinsel wit locally 
 called "I 'esprit Grec" which all Greeks have, and none 
 have more or less than another such as takes in all 
 superficial observers or visitors, but makes old resident 
 observers sick, melancholy, hopeless, or Mussulman, 
 according to their dispositions. 
 
 His view is that Albanians were Tauro-Scythians (pray 
 don't ask me to explain), who came in from Tauro-Scythia 
 about the seventh century, and that the proof of this lies 
 in the word Skipetar, which is 2fcv6l/3r)pos, also in the 
 name of apSavSa, said by the author of an anonymous 
 Periplus to be the native name of the Tauric town Theo- 
 
144 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 dosia, the present Kaffa, which is obviously the name 
 Arnaut used hy the Turks. Fallmerayer seems to think 
 a man who writes like this should keep a civil tongue in 
 his head. The Ur-Albanese, in his own representation of 
 Hahn's conclusion, belonged to an " Urvolkertrinitat," of 
 which the t/r-Romans and t/r-Greeks were the other 
 members, or, as he calls them, consubstantial elements. 
 
 So far so good. But when it comes to limiting and 
 defining, I venture to differ from Hahn in some points. 
 Epirotic, Thracian, Macedonian, Illyrian, everything, 
 whether gloss or local name, to be found in any ancient 
 author touching these countries, is made Albanian at once. 
 All is Albanian, and Albanian is each and all of them, 
 not even excepting pre-Hellenic Greek, such names of 
 which as are not explicable in Greek are so in Albanian. 
 In general, and with certain explanations and reservations, 
 Hahn's result is good enough, and there is fair evidence 
 wherewith to obtain it. But his philological method is 
 unsafe, as well as unnecessary, to say the least. Fancy a 
 man, and a Dutchman, sitting down to tell us that Atlas 
 is from the Albanian Natle, "what is placed on the 
 rafters to support the tiles;" and Ceres from ntsjdres, 
 "bringer forth;" and Etruria from vjeterure-ia, "the old 
 place." This last is capital for us, because demonstrably 
 vjtter, " old," is simply the Latin veter, one of my early 
 set of words borrowed from Latin, like kiel. Had it been 
 later, it would have been vechin, veclw, as in the two 
 Wallachian dialects. Ure is merely the Latin -ura, so com- 
 mon in Eomanic Latin, especially Italian and Wallachian ; 
 compare K\eicrovpa as a termination. I don't see why 
 Von Hahn deserves more respect in his philology than 
 Sir William Bethain or the Duke of Roussillon. 
 
 This is the superfetation of my former letter, which may 
 be of use to you in reading it. Very truly yours, 
 
 STKANGFOKD. 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 145 
 
 58 GREAT CUMBERLAND STREET, 
 April 1 8, 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, Superfetation No. 2. But I think 
 I have made a real philological discovery, though I dare 
 say some German will turn out to have made it ten years 
 ago. As you know, Albanian suffixes the definite article; 
 and I think my first letter will have given you a fair idea 
 of the amount of speculation and theory on the same. I 
 think, however, that I have discovered the remains of a 
 prefixed article in an earlier (not the earliest} stage of the 
 language, very likely suggested by the Hellenic one, and 
 cognate with it when both were demonstrative pronouns. 
 
 Now mir is " good," whatever that may be related to. 
 Here are its inflections, masculine and feminine, in the 
 singular; first without, then with, the regular suffixed 
 article : 
 
 No. i. 
 Masculine. Feminine. 
 
 Norn, imira 
 Gen. miri 
 Ace. tamira 
 
 Nom. imiri 
 Gen. tmirit 
 Ace. tamirana 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 Nom. emira 
 Gen. samira 
 Ace. tamira 
 
 Nom. ernira 
 Gen. samirasa 
 Ace. tamirana 
 
 Now what can all these initial changes possibly be 
 other than the stiffened, dead remains of a prefixed article, 
 once a separate word ? Bopp, who has written on Alba- 
 nian, cannot have missed this, and it is clear that I must 
 get his essay at once. But is it not queer stuff? Very 
 truly yours, 
 
 STRANGFORD. 
 
146 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 58 GREAT CUMBERLAND STREET, 
 May 13, 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR FKEEMAN, I owe you a letter, and am incited 
 to pay the debt by much in your revilings of to-day. You 
 are quite right, working on a small scale, not to dis- 
 cuss Albanian matters. My Phrygian evidence I find in 
 glosses, in, so far as I remember, direct statements, and 
 in inscriptions the Doghani inscription, somewhere near 
 Angora, I think, ending in MIAAI FANAKTEI, being 
 the chief. It is not archaic Greek. I have been waiting 
 for Von Hahn and Bopp, but they have not been sent to 
 me yet. As regards the Celts and Latins, or rather Pan- 
 Italians, they must have been very near indeed. But the 
 more we go back among the European Aryans (a word I 
 only use for shortness' sake, and would fain keep for the 
 true Asiatic Aryans exclusively), the more difficult does 
 it seem to classify clearly and decisively. Thus much is 
 certain, that the Germans plus the Litu-Slaves form one 
 certain group. But some Germans are inclined to assign 
 the Celts here rather than to the Italo-Greek group. I 
 look on the Italian as transitional between Celtic and 
 Greek. Much of special lexical affinity between Latin 
 and Greek, I suspect to be simply early borrowing, which 
 one would expect from the known history of civilisation 
 e.g., one of a thousand, posna, and its derivative punio, are 
 surely not of native Italian evolution, but bodily trans- 
 ferred from Troivr). . 
 
 Coulthart of Coulthart is one of those things that make 
 one religiously thankful, as for daily bread. It is incom- 
 parable, especially the Leucophibia, or white lie, as I inter- 
 pret it. Bonar I remember to have been pointed out to 
 me by my father. There should be a saint in it, and a 
 great many Polish kings of the Piast period. This last is 
 a very good and original element, much beyond Sir Ber- 
 nard's own power of invention. 
 
 Now for Yretos. Your Bulgarian Yretos is Papado- 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 147 
 
 pulos Vretos, who sat for Santa Maura as a Ehizospast 
 deputy, turned his coat in my time, and wrote fulsome 
 articles in praise of Sir Henry Storks. By this time I 
 presume he has inked the lining sufficiently to look like 
 the original cloth again. 
 
 What am I to do about the transliteration of modern 
 Greek names ? You are ultra-classical, to which I have 
 no objection -as for you; but the acquisition of modern 
 Greek is, for the educated public at large, a process not 
 of learning, but of unlearning ; and I want my spelling to 
 help them in this. But the sailors and merchants cry out 
 at me as being too classical, and would fain treat Greek 
 like Oriental phonetics. 
 
 You would call Mount Ida, or the Cretan upland 
 valley, respectively Pseloreitis and Lasethe (or Lasethi 
 I don't know whether it is feminine or neuter). The 
 sailors want Lasethee and Psceloreetee, and protest against 
 my newfangled Italian spelling " Psiloriti " and " Lasithi." 
 Balancing all the pros and cons, I should always spell 
 as Leake, on the whole, as the best compromise between 
 the ultra-classical and the ultra-vulgar. I could willingly 
 yield to you on the point of e for 77, provided it be in 
 Hellenic words alone. 
 
 Now Karpenisi is the word which has led me into this 
 train of writing, and it may be news to you that it is not 
 a Hellenic word, and has nothing to do with fruit or 
 islands, though it has much to do with ash-trees. Its 
 rural dialect is Wallachian, even yet " carpinu ; " Italian, 
 " carpino," French, " charme," is the real origin. 
 
 "AvOpcoTTos TCOV rypa^fidrcov is surely as good as my 
 TrXolov TT}? <ypa{AtJ,r)S. 
 
 ^L\o\ojla } I must tell you, is (or was) not philology, 
 but, generally, literature. The want of a word for our 
 " philology" may have changed this since my time. 
 
 There is no such word as X^cr-n}? in true modern Greek, 
 truly speaking : that is, it is a modern Greek word, as 
 progenie is a modern Italian word, and the distinction 
 
148 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 between le'st and Jclepht is audacious trash. Not that I 
 blame the Greek for trying it on, any more than I blame 
 air for rushing into a vacuum. Here, at all events, is a 
 genuine voice from the Pindus, which says the direct 
 contrary to Yretos: I take from the "Lexikon Tetra- 
 glosson." 
 
 Ol K\e<f>Tai,$ <& ovp 'Xt 
 
 K\(j)TOVV <j)OVpa ' 
 
 TTJV VVKTO, VT VOCLTTTe 
 
 ol \rjarai (sic) yapa^i<i\i 
 
 evyaivovv edov 
 
 rrjv rjfjbepav vr&va 
 
 /cat Trarovve ai KOL\KCI 
 
 ra KapjBdvia Kep/3dve\e 
 
 I have never heard a common man, or any man talking 
 simply, say X^crr???, for all this. I suppose you can guess 
 at my second language. Dzua for dzi-oa, north of the 
 Danube zi-oa, i.e., die-ilia. KXe'^T?;? is as comprehensive as 
 " thief" in English, and it alone is used for all : fcXe^rovpid 
 being the vernacular for a thieves' rookery, whether in the 
 city or the mountain. 
 
 Brigandage within the limits of Greece is as you say. 
 On the frontier it has disappeared for two or three years 
 from the parts about Epirus or the Pashalik of Janina. 
 On the Thessalian frontier it is the same on one side as 
 on the other, but not very bad just now on either. On 
 the Greek side of Epirus it is bad, but there is nothing to 
 rob in particular, except sheep. The patriotic Klepht is a 
 pure fiction of modern Greek logiotati and poets ; and, as 
 Finlay says, has been, so far as he really existed, ante- 
 dated. I do not quite despair of the Greek kingdom, and 
 certainly not of the Greek race a very different thing ; 
 but if ever I heard a Greek thief say " To BaXdvriov rj rrjv 
 faijv" I should indeed despair. Fancy Cipriano la Gala say- 
 ing, " Aut crumenam aut vitam," and making it his point 
 of honour to suppress " Faccia in terra ! " What a Greek 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 149 
 
 Klepht does say is " Stondopo " crrbv TOTTOV " Stay where 
 you are." 
 
 I got a book the other day for which I have -been long 
 looking, and which I cannot resist sending you that you 
 may read the true vernacular of late Imperial Rome. It 
 is so obviously what Claudian must have talked when at 
 his ease. I think you will enjoy it. Very truly yours, 
 
 STRANGFORD. 
 
 58 GREAT CUMBERLAND STREET, 
 June 13, 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, I intended to have come down to 
 Oxford on Sunday to meet you and the Prussian caliph, 
 or whatever he may best be called. But my wife, who 
 has been ill for some weeks past, had a return of fever 
 that day, and I did not like to leave her. As you are 
 coming to town so soon, I am content to wait; but 
 please let me know when to expect you, and how long 
 you are likely to stay. W gave me a very good ac- 
 count of the humours of Oxford on Saturday and Sunday 
 last, which partly made up to me for not having been 
 there. 
 
 What I wrote to you, after a somewhat desultory man- 
 ner, about Greek transcription, was put into my mind by 
 the sight of Captain Spratt's book on Crete. I may say 
 here, that I contributed to this an appendix on modern 
 Cretan, which I understood would have been printed sepa- 
 rately in a few copies to be sent to friends ; but this has, 
 most unfortunately, through somebody's oversight, not 
 occurred. It is a nuisance to me. Spratt phoneticises his 
 Greek anyhow, and writes NISa, NeetJia, frankly and art- 
 lessly. ... As between Leake's and my Italianics and 
 your Hellenics, I think the preference must be determined 
 by the subject treated. If treating Greece continuously, 
 keep to the Hellenic method. If modern Greek matters 
 
ISO LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 alone, then I say transcribe after the Italian fashion. 
 There is inconvenience in either case when followed out 
 rigorously : on one hand, it is hard to have to write Milos 
 and Tinos (I would never leave out the s, because no Greek 
 ever does in talking Greek, nor in transcribing into Frank, 
 except in personal names), when it is so necessary to make 
 people unlearn that stupid talk about " Tenos," now 
 " Tino," or " Tenedos," now " Denetho " (!). On the other 
 hand your hand some line must be drawn so as to ex- 
 clude the mass of foreign names ; otherwise you transcribe 
 all sorts of un- Greek sounds according to a mere make- 
 shift orthography, which is what the Greek is : KarpenSsi 
 is unobjectionable ; but what would you do with M.Tra\rav- 
 rff}? and Kar?79, or even Bovvrovpr)? (Buduris the Greeks 
 seem to be giving up /I/TT for 6, except when they cannot 
 help themselves), or all the ten thousand Slavonic femi- 
 nine and neuter adjectives in -ova, -ovo ? I would 
 never write Socrati, or, if ever, in careless writing only, 
 and recognised names like Coletti. Sokratis with d ac- 
 cented I should insist on, in order to make the Dons, who 
 read me, unlearn Socrates. If writing of Greece compre- 
 hensively, I might spell the modern name with e for 77. 
 To tell you the truth, I want us to be taught two pronun- 
 ciations. I want us to keep to our own Dons' pronuncia- 
 tion for everything classical, or meant to be such ; and the 
 Ivlephts' pronunciation for everything Christian and later. 
 Of course, I put Lucian, Longinus, and the Anthology in 
 the first class ; and I do not hesitate to put the New Tes- 
 tament in the last. Meanwhile I should like to accustom 
 Dons' eyes to a transcription which forces them to keep in 
 sight accentuation, and to bear in mind the change of 
 vowel sounds. As for Frankifying their own names, the 
 Greeks do it worse than we do. I once had a card left on 
 me bearing the superscription " Socrate Homere." This, 
 you will see, is the Greek way of assuming "Norfolk 
 Howard." 
 
 I would draw a wavy and an elastic line, and make it 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 151 
 
 exclude names which, un-Greek originally, would, if tran- 
 scribed from Greek, present an unsightly appearance. But 
 when the modern Greek is Hellenic, I would stick to Hel- 
 lenic, which is what you do ; all I want you not to do is 
 Metzobon. As for the choice between i and e for 77, 1 have 
 no rooted preference for one over the other; and I feel 
 that I write it i against the grain in words that have come 
 down unchanged. Ever yours truly, 
 
 STRANGFOKD. 
 
 P.S. I must further say, as a part inducement to you 
 to soften the absolute rigidity of your e for 77, that the ter- 
 mination -779 has no more right to be 779 in most modern 
 proper names than to be *?, nor so much. I? for to<? is the 
 natural phonetic corruption which has befallen what the 
 comparative grammarians call the -la stems in the language 
 of oc (glazi for gladius), in Queer- Welsh (evangeli, misteri), 
 and pre-eminently in Lithuanian (perdis for perdias, geni- 
 tive perdjo I leave you to guess the meaning from Greek 
 and Grimm's Law in English compared with ugnis, geni- 
 tive ugnes, the true i declension). In modern Greek neuters 
 in -IQV it is universal. The colloquial declension is 
 
 creyperapeot, 
 
 pewv 
 
 peovs 
 
 (but final v goes for nothing, and is dropped or not at plea- 
 sure), the genitive plural being hardly ever used in talking, 
 except in phrases like Trove* %pov(0 etom, " How old are 
 you V by the mere untaught. 
 
J52 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 58 GREAT CUMBERLAND STREET, 
 July 26, 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, I am sorry to say that I am in the 
 hands of a doctor. ... I read in the " Pall Mall Gazette " 
 of last night these words, beginning a leading article : 
 
 " Eoumensch, we believe, is a curious jargon, composed 
 of Arabic words engrafted on a corrupt Eoman patois.". 
 
 What is a jargon, what is a patois, what is an uncorrupt 
 patois, and what is belief in etymological matters ? Ever 
 yours truly, STRANGFORD. 
 
 ...... 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, I owe you a letter, but have pre- 
 ferred to put off the payment thereof until my return from 
 Brighton, where I have been staying for a fortnight. As 
 for your letter, its items have been driven into remote 
 corners of my mind, if not bodily exterminated, by two 
 successive weekly waves of invasion from the same quar- 
 ter on kindred subjects, too. Firstly, Prendergast. I 
 had read the book with special interest as bearing on the 
 inquiry how far the old Irish race has been altered or obli- 
 terated in Ireland. I agree with every word you say about 
 it in the uttermost degree ; and as for your parallel be- 
 tween the Klephts of Greece and the Eapparees, I had not 
 only made it my own, but had done so independently 
 from the literary or philological side by means of the Irish 
 K\e(j)Ti,Ka rpayovSia, of which there exists an immense 
 mass unknown in England not that I can read a line of 
 them without a crib. One thing is certain, that the Eng- 
 lish nation of a hundred and fifty years ago did wilfully 
 and deliberately murder, in a national sense, the old Gaelic 
 nation. Perhaps it did so for self-preservation, but at all 
 events, it did so as a matter of fact ; and the modern Eng- 
 lish-speaking Irishman has not yet had time enough to 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 153 
 
 outlive the memory of the fact. All the reason in the 
 world will not account for modern Irish discontent and 
 sentiment, so long as we, in our English way, persist in 
 neglecting to consider the unreasoning and sentimental 
 element in our own dependencies. As for Prendergast's 
 fact, I do not "believe the obliteration to have been com- 
 plete, or, at all events, permanent. The proof of this is to 
 be found in one of the most curious books I have ever 
 read, which you would read with deep interest, in spite of 
 the intolerable Gaelic names of which it is made up. This 
 is O'Donovan's edition preface, notes, and translation 
 of a topographical Irish poem of the early part of the four- 
 teenth century, by one O'Duvegan;. the first line of which 
 was thus paraphrased by Lynch, the author of " Cam- 
 brensis Eversus : " "0 socii, pulchrse fines obeamus Ternes." 
 The arrangement is, of course, nothing more than the enu- 
 meration of clans and sub-clans, with rivers, mountains, 
 and the like ; and the notes give their identification. Now, 
 in extra-Connacian Ireland, you constantly meet with 
 the observation that representatives of the clans O'Jack, 
 and O'Tom, and O'Harry are to be found in situ, and its 
 nominibus, 1 and generally in abject poverty. These, there- 
 fore, must either have been overlooked by the Cromwel- 
 lians, or have wandered back again. These names are to 
 be found in every page. Ireland is made up, in fact, of 
 these details ; and in the face of this the " Times " talks of 
 there being no consciousness of a difference, or power of 
 detecting a difference, between " Saxon " or " Celtic " de- 
 scent in modern Irishmen ; and not only the " Times," but 
 all Englishmen, wonder why the Irish should be so frac- 
 tious and perverse under the nursing of our good and 
 reforming generation of English. The Gael has become an 
 Euglishman or Briton with a brogue, and the national 
 aspiration has become a republican aspiration, and America 
 has taken the place of France as the promised land ; but 
 whatever type the feeling may take,, its direction will for 
 
 1 Or their so-called English translations, such as Norton for O'Neachtan. 
 
154 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 the present be anti-English, and for some time to come, 
 even if no priests existed to foster such a feeling for poli- 
 tical purposes. Time alone can make the two bodies grow 
 together, not tenant-right, nor the abolition of the Irish 
 Church. 
 
 Now for a much more serious business, one which 
 irritates me like sandflies, and on account of which you 
 must prepare for bad language on my part. I allude to 
 the last new manifestation or dodge of Scotch provin- 
 cialism, which is to me one of the most aggravating 
 and pestilent nuisances of modern times. Cold-blooded 
 wretches, they never go wrong grandly and genially, like 
 the noble Welsh, or Gloucestrians, but vex you with a 
 perverse show of argument and a virtuous arrogance of 
 logical treatment when their premisses convict them of 
 the most utter ignorance and backwardness. You say 
 you don't see why Eobertson's book was written. / do. 
 It was written to MacBuncombe, or Clan Buncombe, 
 if I may allow myself to use, for convenience of illustra- 
 tion, words which would never have been heard east of 
 St. George's Channel in that form, had not certain Irish- 
 men brought them there. It must have come to be 
 written on this wise : Scotland is a geographical term, or 
 a political term, but not an ethnological term, except 
 under certain limitations, excluding all reference to ulti- 
 mate descent. It may become one in the future, as may 
 Switzerland ; and this analogy of yours is one which has 
 long struck me. Ethnically, Scotland is simply made up 
 of Northumbrian English and Scotian Gael ; to these must 
 be added, as elements historically known, certain people 
 called Picts, and certain true Cambrian Britons. But as 
 these people were all politically united for hundreds of 
 years, their descendants want to reduce them to unifor- 
 mity of race as far as they can do with safety, and with- 
 out sinning in the light of day. The Picts are taken up as 
 the stalking-horse of this theory, as alone furnishing the 
 necessary obscurity. The Irish connection is disliked in 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 155 
 
 Scotland, as the Lappish connection is disliked in Hun- 
 gary ; so that when Skene was the first to proclaim the 
 identity not only of the Picts with the old Caledonii, but 
 the direct representation of these by the modern High- 
 landers both in blood and in language, he was crowned a 
 prizeman, and met the wish of the national mind so 
 exactly, that he founded a school in the long-run. Of 
 this school Mr. Eobertson, on whom I have had my eye 
 for a year or so, is the noisiest member. Its doctrines are 
 now almost a fixed article of faith north of the Tweed, so 
 far as I can see. You do not contradict them, but I do 
 not believe a word of them. They stultify the whole 
 application of comparative philology to Celtic; and, what- 
 ever may have been the case at the time Skene wrote his 
 treatise, there is no excuse for them since Zeuss and 
 Whitley Stokes. 
 
 For every philological purpose, except the merest 
 modern delineation of dialects, Scotch and Irish Gaelic 
 must be considered absolutely as one language. But the 
 one is oral only, the other is literary ; it has records, by 
 means of which its history and its modifications can be 
 traced. Now the oral forms of the one island are mean- 
 ingless and inexplicable by themselves, but are quite clear 
 when confronted with the older records of the other island. 
 Thus, both the modern Highlander and the modern Irish- 
 man say robJi me, eram, " I was." By itself this may be 
 Basque, or Semitic, or anything. But in old Irish the 
 word is regularly robu, or rdbbu = Sanskrit prababhuva, 
 Greek irpo + e<o>, or Lithuanian prabuvo ; containing the 
 regular Aryan root bu, plus the preposition always used 
 for other Gaelic preterites, just as we used ge in gefuhton, 
 " they fought." [The Celtic loss of initial p is very curious 
 and all-pervading.] It is this history of their own lan- 
 guage of which the modern Scotch are so perversely igno- 
 rant when they treat it as though it had always existed as 
 it now stands. No attempt is made to show that the 
 Albanic Scotch vocabulary or grammar differs from the 
 
156 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 Hibernia ; but appeal is made to the local names of the 
 known Pictish district as betokening a so-called high- 
 Gaelic language, distinct from its cognate low-Gaelic of 
 Ireland. This appeal you will find in a paper of Skene's 
 in the " Archseologia Cambrensis," entirely prescientific 
 in character. Whatever these local names may really 
 indicate, the language of the people themselves is either 
 Irish of the Scotch settlement, or is so thoroughly Hiberni- 
 cised that its original difference has been made completely 
 to disappear. 
 
 Assuming Skene's view to be true, the Edinburgh anti- 
 quaries must accept the latter alternative willy-nilly, for, 
 things English apart, they must either have been Irishmen, 
 or been mastered and moulded by Irishmen. 
 
 I believe Picts were Britons with a difference of dialect, 
 primitive and un-Romanised, and this difference may have 
 made it nearer to Gaelic, as was certainly the case with 
 the Romanised non-Cambrian British of Cornwall and. 
 Armorica (see the article, for instance). I believe these 
 Picts were Scotised, or Gadelised, from Ireland alone, but 
 that in blood the modern Highlanders partly represent 
 them. And, finally, I believe that no Celt will ever do 
 anything with his language until he has seen that it is in 
 the category of modern French rather than in the category 
 of Basque. But is it not wonderful how those reiving 
 loons north of the Tweed have reft Ireland of the name 
 Scotia to begin with, and are in a fair way of monopo- 
 lising the word Gaelic as well ? I have not seen Eobert- 
 son's new book. Ever yours truly, 
 
 STRANGFORD. 
 
 58 GREAT CUMBERLAND STREET, 
 Wednesday, October 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, I was going to answer you on 
 Saturday, but I preferred to wait until I had taken in 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 157 
 
 and digested your revilings of Dasent, of Gladstone, and 
 of the military road man, who indeed seems but a well- 
 meaning poor creature, entirely insignificant. But he 
 should have left bookmaking alone. As for Gladstone, 
 all comparative philologists should combine to present 
 you with a gold medal for speaking out in the way you 
 have done about his crudeness and haziness. But as 
 for Dasent for I suppose it is Dasent no punishment 
 can be too severe for him and his absurd Scandinavian 
 slop. 
 
 The idea of Scandinavians at all in Herodotus's time 
 must be utterly wrong. I believe that the geographical 
 Scandinavia must then have held nothing but Lapps and 
 Fins, and that the ethnic Scandinavians were as yet un- 
 born as a separate Teutonic family. It is more than I can 
 stand to be told of a deity Thor, eo nomine, in the fifth 
 century B.C. ; it is quite as much as one can do to admit 
 him in the fifth century A.D. When did the .Scandi- 
 navians lose their initial w'a and throw out their medial 
 n's, so as to turn the real form, Wodan, into Odinn (the 
 second n here being the assimilated s of a nominative 
 case), and Thunor into Thor ? I believe that it was at 
 a late period rather than an early one, and I am confident 
 that the distinctive points which constitute Scandinavian- 
 ism as opposed to Teutonism as regards grammar, at 
 least arose from their conquests or settlements or other 
 relations being among my friends the Lithuanians mainly, 
 who gave them the idea of their passive voice and their 
 suffixed article. 
 
 This leads me to the important point of your letter, the 
 relative age of High-Dutch and Low-Dutch. I don't 
 think there is anything more difficult in all philology 
 than the exact classification of the Pan-Teutonic or All- 
 Dutch languages. It is easy enough to take an extreme 
 form and make that the type of a class, but I do believe 
 that the mass of the languages are more or less transi- 
 tional, or got more or less mixed up, and affected by one 
 
158 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 another, taking them as we find them. Take the spell 
 found by Grimm on the cover of a book for instance, 
 beginning 
 
 "Pul endi Wodan 
 Vuorum zi holza." 
 
 The z's here are clearly High-Dutch, but the general lan- 
 guage of the spell is Low-Dutch, and the v in vuorum seems 
 even extreme West Saxon, or mere Somersetshire. Even 
 the language of the Heliand seems to have High-Dutch, 
 or at least un-Saxon, in it here and there, as the omission 
 of k in the oblique cases of he, as vio for him, &c. The 
 extremes are clear enough, certainly ; and the early tran- 
 sitional or undefined dialects all tend to grow up in one 
 direction or the other; but as to relative archaism, I am 
 only disposed to go with you as regards the system of 
 sounds. This, I think, is clearly older in the Low than the 
 High. But in grammar it seems to be the other way, at 
 any rate nowadays. There are things in the High, if you 
 go back far enough, older than anything in Ulphilas, such 
 as the first person plural, hepamfe, older than habam. And 
 the Low seems, so far as I know, to have begun early to 
 lose its inflections in its articles and nouns. 
 
 I never could make head or tail out of dog, I once 
 heard that Latham, who in his wild way occasionally hits 
 the mark, compared it with dachs. A badger is not a dog, 
 certainly, but I have an impression that a brock is, in some 
 Celtic county or other ; not that Latham knew that. How- 
 ever, your Toggenburg, plus Doggenburg, seems to settle 
 the matter. But is the word originally Dutch, and how 
 comes it by its o ? "Was o long or short ? Long Dutch 
 0's are the successors of original Ur-Dutch a's, and short 
 Dutch os are modern things altogether. I suspect that 
 the word must have been once dog-Latin. 
 
 I never cared much for the Wends, having always given 
 my warm heart to the Wits, though Weonodlarid managed 
 to hold its own better than Witland. Is there anything 
 known in a full way about the ancient Wendish gods, for 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 159 
 
 there is next to nothing about the Slavonian gods gener- 
 ally ? Zernebock and Bielibog are not half enough. 
 
 Do you know one F. K ? He has been writing an 
 article about cuneiforms in the last number of " Eraser," 
 being instigated thereto by his chief, than which I never 
 read more intolerable and aggravating stuff. He finds a 
 Frenchman, who treats King Darius's Persian in a way 
 that my friend the little pig-man treats King Howel's 
 Welsh ; he then pits him against Eawlinson, and pre- 
 tends to adjudge between the two by a modified alpha- 
 bet, determined by the application of Greek; he having 
 no knowledge whatever either of Sanskrit or of Zend, 
 or of modern Persian, nor any idea that such knowledge 
 was necessary. The wretched man has no idea that if 
 Eawlinson had never been born, and the big Behistun 
 inscription never been carved, our knowledge of the lan- 
 guage would simply have been deficient by one letter, 
 occurring in two words only; for that was the whole 
 amount of Eawlinson's actually new contributions to the 
 alphabet, worked out co-operatively in Germany by the 
 help of comparative philology from the Persepolitan in- 
 scriptions. Sir Cornewall has a great deal to answer for 
 in regard to the backwardness of philological study in 
 England, and I fear I shall find myself some of these days 
 speaking disrespectfully of him. As for his theory of 
 Latin being broken up by German invasion, I read it 
 exactly the other way, and am disposed to think that it 
 was the loose and disintegrating spoken Latin which broke 
 up the well-knit Old Dutch. 
 
 I have been in Ireland for two months, among Fenians 
 and rumours of Fenians ; but I was just a year too late to 
 see a real old original Fenian bard the only one left in the 
 country who died at the reputed age of 1 20. This man 
 would recite Fenian poems for hours on end, with a 
 chant, I was told, which must have been like an Oriental's 
 recitation, and did really wander about like an ancient 
 aoto9; but nobody cared twopence about him and his 
 
160 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 Ossianic poems. Why do we not send " an illustrious 
 Ossianic scholar" to settle the Fenian and other Irish 
 difficulties ? The judgment of an ordinary common-sense 
 Irishman on such an appointment would give the exact 
 counterpart of the judgment of an ordinary common-sense 
 Ionian say Lascarato on the famous Homeric scholar 
 despatch. 
 
 With best regards to Mrs. Freeman, I remain, ever 
 yours truly, STRANGFORD. 
 
 Wednesday, December 20, 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, Firstly, of my Arabic mono- 
 gram. It is merely Strangford with a prosthetic i marked 
 alif, without which it cannot be pronouned in Semitic 
 countries. Now pray admire the way I am going to 
 connect this with the Picts. This very same character- 
 istic has been supposed to have always belonged to 
 Welsh, or rather to Cymmric, because it belongs to modern 
 Cymmric ; and I know not what has not been said about 
 the " Turanian character of Welsh phonology." Now it is 
 not found in Cornu-Armorican, nor in Old Cymmric. 
 Here I must ask you to grant me the full and free use 
 of the word " initiality," on the analogy of Lord John's 
 " finality." I want it in order to define the condition of 
 identical existence, as we see them now attributed to lan- 
 guages, which are thereby held to be virtually or abso- 
 lutely unchanged from all time. If we have no record of 
 an older stage of a language, we must take it as we find 
 it; if we have such a record, we must make use of it. 
 Now the fallacy of initiality is one into which all Scotch 
 Gaels without exception fall, through their provincialism ; 
 and Jones and even Guest, so far as I have seen of his 
 writings (which is very little), fall into it as regards 
 Cymmric. [Don't mind my two ra's; I'm coming to them.] 
 But no one who has properly mastered the principles of 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 161 
 
 Zeuss and the details of the large post-Zeussian literature 
 should fall into it. Thus Jones says the Eomans made 
 Venta out of Gwent. This is equivalent to saying that 
 the Greeks made Artaxerxes out of Ardeshir and Mithri- 
 dates out of Mihr-dad, or that the Eomans made Catti out 
 of people who called themselves Hessen. There was no 
 harm in saying so in days when nobody knew, or thought 
 it possible to know, any Persian or German older than 
 current Persian or current German. But it cannot be 
 said now without flying in the face of comparative philo- 
 logy in points absolutely and scientifically settled. The 
 Greeks and Eomans took the prototypes of modern Aryan 
 words in a pure old Aryan form, sometimes identical with 
 their own form, and always lending itself to it and falling 
 naturally into it. It became stereotyped in Latin and 
 Greek, but in the original language had to stand or fall 
 with the main body of living speech. Welsh is not an 
 initial language, any more than French, or German, or 
 Persian, or English; Basque is, or anyhow must be 
 treated as such. 
 
 Jones's local names are the best part of his book, but 
 they altogether fail to convince me that they belong to 
 Proto-Gael. I do not believe in the word Gael as a 
 general and primeval ethnic term at all. The Cymmry 
 took Gwyddyl from the Irish Goedel, which, with Gaidel, 
 Gaidil, is the oldest accessible form of the word, and pre- 
 vailed in the era of confusion, if one may say so ; the fifth 
 and sixth centuries. Wy in Welsh is the etymological 
 equivalent of e in its former stage; sometimes of o (as 
 Cly wd Clota), and if representing anything else, does so 
 orally and not etymologically. This shows it was bor- 
 rowed at a period when the word was the same as in the 
 fifth century. Had it been borrowed from the Proto-Gael, 
 assuming them to have used it at all, it would have been 
 stereotyped in a different form, for Irish words of the fifth 
 century are themselves in a late and corrupt stage. But I 
 arn convinced the Proto-Gael did not use the word in this 
 
 L 
 
1 62 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 comprehensive way. Such generalizations are very rare in 
 rude nations ; and as for the Gael, when they first appear, 
 they do so with two or three alternative names Scoti, 
 Trar, Iberionaces, quite as comprehensive as Gaedil. One 
 side of the question has been entirely overlooked by Jones. 
 This is the distinct record of long and lasting invasions in 
 the Irish annals. Twenty-five years' permanence would 
 account for a settlement by a band in any part of Wales ; 
 and such an invasion did once occur. Manx is much too 
 near Irish to be Proto-Gaelic, and is certainly the result 
 of such an invasion. If you have anything so positive as 
 a recorded series of invasions, concurrently with the a 
 priori weight of philological argument, I think it is neces- 
 sary to show cause why these words should not belong to 
 this period more positively than by conjecture, and pre- 
 sumption of what would have. been and might have been, 
 which is all that Jones does. But, after all, he states his 
 theory in a perfectly undogmatic way, and as one quite 
 open to the other view. Broadly, I myself would say 
 that no Gael, or trace of a Gael, exists on this side of the 
 Irish Sea which is not directly derived from Ireland since 
 the downfall of Eoman rule. 1 The worst of Jones's book 
 is his trying to make anything out of the wretched Triads, 
 which are simply not worth the paper they are written on. 
 The only thing certain about Cuneddaf is the Latin and 
 Ogham bilingual of " Sagrani fili Cunotami ; " and Ogham 
 is as post-Koinan as Latin is Eoman. The only firm 
 ground in Old Welsh is upon the " Liber Landavensis," the 
 " Laws of Howel," and the Oxford and Luxemburg Glosses, 
 with the lines in Juvencus ; to stand upon the Triads is 
 standing on a wet bog. 
 
 As to the Picts, I do believe they got that name from 
 the Koman colonists in Britain, as being wild, untamed, or 
 tattooed, distinct from the tame and clothed Britons. The 
 Spaniards in Mexico distinguishing their Indian neigh- 
 
 1 The word A Ibion may possibly be not be so for certain, for it may be 
 one exception to this, though it need Britannic. 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 163 
 
 bours on the north as Mansos, or tame, and Bravos, 
 or wild, illustrate this view. I suppose they were wild 
 Britons. There may have been Proto-Gael among them, 
 but this is one of those things which do not appear. How 
 Gael got to Ireland, and when, I cannot tell, and had 
 rather not guess. One would think it was from Britain, 
 with Wales for choice ; yet it is curious that the grammat- 
 ical and lexical affinities of Gaelic are much more distinct 
 with South-British (including Armorican) than with Cam- 
 brian. Then the persistence of the Spanish tradition plus 
 the resemblance of Iverio (the oldest form of Erin) and 
 Iberia may possibly be worth consideration, though full of 
 difficulty. Then Gaul, the Yeneti of Brittany, compared 
 with Venedotia, Gwynedd, and Fened, the probable Irish 
 source of Gwynedd, and oldest form of our Fenian friends 
 on record. But the Scotch Highlands I put quite out of 
 the question. Edward Lhuyd, an admirable philologist, 
 far beyond his age, made the Picts quite Cymmric, and 
 even called the lines in Juvencus, which he could not 
 translate, Pictish. The main authority for this view is 
 Chalmers, in his great work " Caledonia," which is most 
 excellent, though very long-winded. Till Skene appeared, 
 Pinkerton was the only serious holder of an opposite view. 
 I think Skene very poor compared with Chalmers, and 
 now, since Zeuss's school, worth little. His recent at- 
 tempt at analysing local names is mere sleight-of-hand, 
 doing pea-and-thimble work with Inver and Aber. Local 
 names are utterly fallacious unless, firstly, you have the 
 whole of them, and, secondly, you are master of the lan- 
 guage to which they belong ; he answers neither condi- 
 tion. I have read somewhere perhaps in him of there 
 being no Bens in Ireland, while every hill is a Ben in the 
 Highlands. This is true on a small map; but for all 
 that, I was at a place in Ireland the other day overhung 
 by three Bens, and from ten minutes'- walk of which you 
 could count twelve more. 
 
 I would rather use Britannic than your Cymric, for in- 
 
1 64 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 dicating the r whole group, or the type ; though, of course, 
 both mean the same thing ; keeping Cymric or Cambrian 
 for the sub-family, as opposed to the sub-family of the 
 Corn-Welsh, or West- Weal as plus the Armoricans. 
 Welsh should be what it really is, the equivalent of 
 Britannic, not of Cymric. This last word I would spell 
 with two m's, because it is so spelt in Old Welsh sys- 
 tematically, and because it points out its etymology from 
 cyn and Iro, i.e., Combroges as opposed to Allobroges; 
 showing clearly, at the same time, that it has nothing to 
 do with Cimmerians, or Cimbri, or Cambria either, in all 
 likelihood. Bret- Welsh is a very good word ; as I sup- 
 pose it is impossible to restore Welsh by itself to generic 
 honours in common talk after so long serving to mark 
 the species. Eum- Welsh and Gal- Welsh I fear are too 
 strong meat for .babes as yet. But are you going to leave 
 out the Wallachs in the cold the Wallachs, " who are 
 now learning," according to the " Guardian" of this week, 
 " to call themselves Eoumains " ! 
 
 I do not know whether you ever see the "Athengeum." 
 
 Some weeks ago Professor actually wrote therein a 
 
 long letter, worth its weight in gold, maintaining that the 
 Welsh are or were Belgae, because that word must have 
 been pronounced Weljae or Welshae by Caesar, one reason 
 for which last, among others, being that at Cardiff he actu- 
 ally saw a modern Greek word over a shop with /3 doing 
 duty for a F. Morologically speaking, the production is 
 no richer or sillier than your prize-fool from Gloucester- 
 shire, or my little pig Welshman, but it is really of 
 serious importance as coming from a real man of science, 
 who must know what science is, and who thus manifestly 
 shows that he has no idea of any philological science. The 
 thing would be impossible abroad ; a Berlin man would 
 not dream of dashing into etymology without consulting 
 Bopp, any more than he would dash into chemistry or 
 geology without consulting the chief respective heads of 
 science ; but here there is no school of philology, and I do 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 165 
 
 not quite hold M. Miiller guiltless for not having founded 
 one, instead of going off into comparative mythology. 
 
 To return, finally, to Jones. I should like to know 
 whether, when he wrote his book, he had not previously 
 assumed, tacitly and as a matter of course, that High- 
 landers and Manxmen were actual Proto-Gael, and not 
 Irish or Hibernicized Gael, or Hibernicized something 
 else. I am sure this must have been his impression. 
 But the philological evidence is conclusive. The two 
 forms of speech were absolutely identical in the twelfth 
 century, as proved by the entries in the " Book of Deir," 
 and the corruption or divergence thenceforward took place 
 chiefly in the province, not the mother state. The lan- 
 guage in its oldest form is far gone in disintegration. If 
 the Highlanders had been prse-Eoman-Proto-Qael, the di- 
 vergence of their speech from the Irish during the Koman 
 dominion, when they had no common literature, and no 
 intercourse with Ireland, would have been infinitely greater 
 great to mutual unintelligibility. Skene would fain 
 claim the Fenian songs as an old stock of poetry common 
 to both songs with Lochlan (originally Lochland in oldest 
 MS.) and modern Danish names like Oscar in them (Oscar 
 was Auskar at first). I cannot comprehend Skene's repu- 
 tation, at least on other than Scotch grounds. 
 
 The man whom I am disposed, in this question, to put 
 above all others in learning, criticism, and breadth and 
 calmness of view, is Reeves. Don't be astonished ; I mean 
 an Irish Eeeves, whose chief work is his edition of Adam- 
 nan's " Vita Columbse." Modern Irish writing on Scotian 
 matters is wonderfully metropolitan, and his is the best. 
 O'Donovan is very good, but contrasts with Eeeves just as a 
 very learned Arabian sheikh would contrast with De Sacy. 
 
 I devoutly trust Gold win Smith will hold on awhile. 
 The only way I can help you meanwhile is to break 
 
 's head for his astonishing fatuity and folly in getting 
 
 E. N. to write his cuneiform nonsense in " Eraser." Ever 
 yours truly, STKANGFOKD. 
 
i66 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 December 1865. Monday. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, What here follows is superfetation 
 over and above my Hibernian outbreak of Saturday. What 
 I want to say is that I have never seen Basil Jones's 
 " Vestiges/' though I am aware of his general theory, and 
 know the book, though chronologically and therefore un- 
 avoidably pre-Zeussian, to be a good and valuable one. I 
 do not know whether the Gaul whose vestiges he finds in 
 Wales are in his eyes Gael from Ireland and of the Christian 
 period, or Proto-Gael left behind after the others had gone 
 to Ireland. If he maintains the latter view, I should 
 indeed like to see anything like a proof of it. I cannot, 
 as yet, admit it in Wales ; for I doubt very much whether 
 the names of Gaedil and Gwyddel (observe that the Welsh 
 form, taken down by ear and not by eye, retains the old 
 pronunciation of the Gaelic medial lost in latter days) are 
 of true primeval antiquity. I have no positive proof of 
 this, but as the ascertained outswarming time of some 
 Gadhelianseo nominewzs Christian and Columbian in South 
 Britain, I think the onus probandi lies on those who are 
 bound to bring positive proof of the contrary, and to show 
 that the Gwyddel were not Irishmen of 500 or 600 A.D. in 
 the present case. Positively, I believe we know nothing, 
 absolutely nothing, of the original peopling of Ireland. 
 But those who maintain that it was peopled by a race of 
 whom the Scotch Highlanders left behind in Britain are the 
 descendants, seem to me to be the same or worse than 
 those who maintain that the Armoricans are descendants, 
 judged by language, of the ancient Gaels. 
 
 Do not reprove my word Proto-Gaelic. It is very con- 
 venient, and necessary if we do not use the German Ur, 
 and have lost our own Or. Ever yours truly, 
 
 STRANGFORD. 
 
167 
 
 LETTER TO MR. MAX MULLER. 
 
 January II, 1866. 
 
 MY DEAR MULLER, I don't know whether you ever see 
 the " Pall Mall Gazette." In that of last night I wrote a 
 little note about the Church controversy I did not write 
 with much sense of responsibility, as my chief object was 
 to make game of Dr. Gumming and his dogmatism, and to 
 warn readers against too ready adoption of Mr. Ferguson, 
 whose book about river names is very silly. Not being 
 sufficiently careful, I fear I overstated the unanimity of 
 German opinion in hesitating to receive Kvpia/cbv ; but I 
 referred Mr. Arnold to Diefenbach sub wee " Mlikn" After 
 writing the note I consulted Sophocles not the play- 
 wright, but the Greek who made a Yankee of himself as to 
 the use of Kvpiaicov, and found some seven or eight distinct 
 references to passages where it is employed for the build- 
 ing. Then I looked at Miklosich, whose etymologies are 
 generally quite sound, under the Slavonic form tszkv-, 
 which is certainly taken from the German, though its 
 initial letter- change and its v are curious deviations. 
 
 He adopts tcvpia/cov as the origin of the German. Wack- 
 ernagel, sub voce " chirihha," does the same. So I reluc- 
 tantly made up my mind on the whole in favour of the 
 Greek as the ultimate Origin. Your letter of this morn- 
 ing quite confirms me, as you have come to the same 
 conclusion by the same process, plus the argument from 
 Dominicum. I should hardly think however that Mlikn, 
 though doubtless an un-Dutch word, is Kvpuaicov. If any- 
 thing, it must be ccenaculum, a word which it actually 
 represents in one passage ; and it never translates any- 
 thing but tower, house, or upper chamber, without the 
 least idea of the Lord attaching to it. Possibly it may 
 be in the same category as andbahts = ambactus, i.e., neither 
 Latin nor Greek, but old Celtic ; for the word distinctly 
 
1 68 LETTER TO MAX MULLER. 
 
 occurs in an old Gaulish inscription ending (I quote from 
 memory) icuru sosin celicnon, on, I think, a circular plate or 
 rim. This surely is too like the Gothic word to be acci- 
 dent. I believe in confluent etymologies, and think it not 
 improbable that the similarity of sound in the Latin word 
 may have rendered the attribution of its meaning the easier 
 to the already existing Gothic word, taken from the Celtic 
 there being no generic repugnance in the two meanings. 
 
 Freeman will never give up the original Teutonism of 
 the word, I fancy, after having actually heard the Swiss 
 say chflche. 1 
 
 I observe you transcribe the Anglo-Saxon w or p as a 
 v, as do most modern Germans ; but you did not in your 
 books. I own that I feel something like a modern Greek 
 in this matter that we are right in the matter of pronun- 
 ciation, and the Germans unless they mean it for a con- 
 ventional sign are wrong; though I hope with more 
 reason than a modern Greek. 
 
 Can you tell me the exact title and publisher of the 
 book you quote as "Historical Proofs," &c., by a Mr. 
 Robertson ? I only know of it from a review by Free- 
 man which I cannot find. I believe the book maintains a 
 pestilent provincial Scotch heresy, that the Gael of Scot- 
 land are co-ordinate with, and not subordinate to, the 
 Gael of Ireland ; that their language, at any rate, descent 
 apart, is Proto-Gaelic, not transplanted Irish. I paid 
 much attention to this when in Ireland last year, and 
 am sure that there is not a single form in the whole 
 language which is not either actual Irish or decayed Irish. 
 Such a view simply stultifies the whole work of Zeuss 
 and his school. Scotch Gaelic is merely good as Yankee 
 English is good. But is it not astonishing how the dwellers 
 in Scotland have robbed the Irish of the word Scot in old 
 days, and have all but succeeded in depriving them of the 
 word Gaelic for their language ? Ever truly yours, 
 
 STRANGFORD. 
 
 1 Mr. Freeman states that he does not remember to have said this or heard 
 this ; but he has seen some such form as cilch somewhere. 
 
169 
 
 LORD STRANGFOR&S NOTES CONTRIBUTED TO 
 "THE STUDY OF CELTIC LITERATURE? BY 
 MATTHEW ARNOLD, LONDON, 1867. 
 
 MR. ARNOLD says : 
 
 " The poor Welshman still says in the genuine tongue 
 of his ancestors, gwyn, goch, craig, maes, llan, arglwydd" &c. 
 Lord Strangford remarks on this passage : 
 " Your Gomer and your Cimmerians are of course only 
 lay figures, to be accepted in the rhetorical and subjective 
 sense. As such I accept them, but I enter a protest 
 against the ' genuine tongue of his ancestors/ Modem 
 Celtic tongues are to the old Celtic heard by Julius Csesar, 
 broadly speaking, what the modern Eomanic tongues are 
 to Csesar's own Latin. Welsh, in fact, is a detritus; a 
 language in the category of modern French, or, to speak 
 less roughly and with a closer approximation, of old Pro- 
 venc,al, not in the category of Lithuanian, much less in 
 the category of Basque. By true inductive research, based 
 on an accurate comparison of such forms of Celtic speech, 
 oral and recorded, as we now possess, modern philology 
 has, in so far as was possible, succeeded in restoring certain 
 forms of the parent speech, and in so doing has achieved 
 not the least striking of its many triumphs ; for those very 
 forms thus restored have since been verified past all cavil 
 by their actual discovery in the old Gaulish inscriptions 
 recently come to light. The phonesis of Welsh as it stands 
 is modern, not primitive; its grammar, the verbs ex- 
 cepted, is constructed out of the fragments of its earlier 
 forms, and its vocabulary is strongly Eomanised, two out 
 of the six words here given being Latin of the Empire. 
 
i;o NOTES CONTRIBUTED TO THE 
 
 Eightly understood, this enhances the value of modern 
 Celtic instead of depreciating it, because it serves to rectify 
 it. To me it is a wonder that Welsh should have retained 
 so much of its integrity under the iron pressure of four 
 hundred years of Eoman dominion. Modern Welsh tena- 
 city and cohesive power under English pressure is nothing 
 compared with what that must have been" (pp. 5, 6). 
 
 Here again, says Mr. Arnold, let me have the pleasure 
 of quoting Lord Strangford : 
 
 " When the Celtic tongues were first taken in hand at 
 the dawn of comparative philological inquiry, the tendency 
 was, for all practical results, to separate them from the 
 Indo-European aggregate, rather than to unite them with 
 it. The great gulf once fixed between them was narrowed 
 on the surface, but it was greatly and indefinitely deepened. 
 Their vocabulary and some of their grammar was seen at 
 once to be perfectly Indo-European, but they had no case- 
 endings to their nouns, none at all in Welsh, none that 
 could be understood in Gaelic; their pJwnesis seemed 
 primeval and inexplicable, and nothing could be made out 
 of their pronouns which could not be equally made out of 
 many wholly un- Aryan languages. They were therefore 
 co-ordinated, not with each single Aryan tongue, but with 
 the general complex of Aryan tongues, and were conceived 
 to be anterior to them and apart from them, as it were the 
 strayed vanguard of European colonisation or conquest 
 from the East. The reason of this misconception was, 
 that their records lay wholly uninvestigated as far as all 
 historical study of the language was concerned, and that 
 nobody troubled himself about the relative age and the 
 development of forms, so that the philologists were fain 
 to take them as they were put into their hands by un- 
 critical or perverse native commentators and writers, 
 whose grammars and dictionaries teemed with blunders 
 and downright forgeries. One thing, and one thing alone, 
 led to the truth: the sheer drudgery of thirteen long 
 years spent by Zeuss in the patient investigation of the 
 
STUD\ OF CELTIC LITERATURE? 171 
 
 most ancient Celtic records, in their actual condition, line 
 by line and letter by letter. Then for the first time the 
 foundation of Celtic research was laid; but the great 
 philologist did not live to see the superstructure which 
 never could have been raised but for him. Prichard was 
 first to indicate the right path, and Bopp, in his mono- 
 graph of 1839, displayed his incomparable and masterly 
 sagacity as usual, but for want of any trustworthy record 
 of Celtic words and forms to work upon, the truth re- 
 mained concealed or obscured until the publication of the 
 ' Grammatica Celtica.' Dr. Arnold, a man of the past gen- 
 eration, who made more use of the then uncertain and 
 unfixed doctrines of comparative philology in his his- 
 torical writings than is done by the present generation 
 in the fullest noonday light of the ' Vergleichende Gram- 
 matik,' was thus justified in his view by the philology of 
 the period, to which he merely gave an enlarged historical 
 expression. The prime fallacy then as now, however, was 
 that of antedating the distinction between Gaelic and 
 Cymric Celts" (pp. 17, 18). 
 
 " Professor Bergmann's * etymologies are often false 
 lights, held by an uncertain hand. The Apian land 
 certainly meant the watery land, Meer-umschlungen, among 
 the pre-Hellenic Greeks, just as the same land is called 
 Morea by the modern post-Hellenic or Eomaic Greeks 
 from more, the name for the sea in the Slavonic vernacular 
 of its inhabitants during the heart of the Middle Ages. 
 But it is only connected by a remote and secondary 
 affinity, if connected at all, with the avia of Scandinavia, 
 assuming that to be the true German word for water, 
 which, if it had come down to us in Gothic, would have 
 been aw, genitive aujds, and not a mere Latinised termina- 
 tion. Scythian is surely a negative rather than a positive 
 term, much like our Indian, or the Turanian of modern 
 ethnologists, used to comprehend nomads and barbarians 
 
 1 Les Scythes les Ance'tres des Peuples Germaniques et Slaves, par F. G. 
 Bergmaun, professeur a la f aculte des Lettres de Strasbourg : Colmar, 1858. 
 
172 NOTES CONTRIBUTED TO THE 
 
 of all sorts and races north and east of the Black and 
 Caspian seas. It is unsafe to connect their name with 
 anything as yet ; it is quite as likely that it refers to the 
 bow and arrow as to the Shield, and is connected with our 
 word to shoot, sce6tan, skiutan, Lithuanian szau-ti. Some 
 of the Scythian peoples may have been Anarian, Allo- 
 phylic, Mongolian; some were demonstrably Aryan, and 
 not only that, but Iranian as well, as is best shown in a 
 memoir read before the Berlin Academy this last year; 
 the evidence having been first indicated in the rough by 
 Schaffarik the Slavonic antiquary. Coins, glosses, proper 
 names, and inscriptions prove it. Targitaos (not -tavus) 
 and the rest is guesswork or wrong. Herodotus's TajBirl 
 for the goddess Vesta is not connected with the root div 
 whence Devas, Deus, &c., but the root tap, in Latin tep 
 (of tepere, tepefacere), Slavonic tepl, topi (for tep or top\ 
 in modern Persian tab. Thymele refers to the hearth as 
 the place of smoke (0vc*>, thus,fumus), loutfamilia, denotes 
 household from famulus for fagmulus, the root fag being 
 equated with the Sansk. bhaj, servira. Lucan's Hesus or 
 Esus may fairly be compared with the Welsh Hu Gadarn 
 by legitimate process, but no letter-change can justify his 
 connection with G-aisos, the spear, not the sword, Virgil's 
 gcesum, A. S. gdr, our verb to gore, retained in its outer 
 form in ^ar-fish. For Theuthisks, lege Thiudisks, from 
 thiuda, populus ; in old high German Diutisk, Diotisk, 
 popularis, vulgaris, the country vernacular as distinguished 
 from the cultivated Latin ; hence the word Dutch, Deutsch. 
 With our ancestors thedd stood for nation generally, and 
 getheode for any speech. Our diet in the political sense 
 is the same word, but borrowed from our German cousins, 
 not inherited from our fathers. The modern Celtic form 
 is the Irish tuath ; in ancient Celtic it must have been 
 teuta, touta, of which we actually have the adjective 
 toutius in the Gaulish inscription of Nismes. In Oscan we 
 have it as turta, tuta, its adjective being handed down in 
 Livy's meddix tuticus, the mayor or chief magistrate of 
 
" STUDY OF CELTIC LITER A TURE." 173 
 
 the tuta. In the Umbrian inscriptions it is tota; in 
 Lithuanian tauta, the country opposed to the town, and 
 in old Prussian tauta, the country generally, en Prusiskan 
 tautan, im Land zu Preussen" (pp. 79, 80, 81). 
 
 "The original forms of Gael should be mentioned 
 Gaedil, Goidil : in modern Gaelic orthography Gaoidheal, 
 where the dh is not realised in pronunciation. There is 
 nothing impossible in the connection of the root of this 
 with that of Scot, if the s of the latter be merely pros- 
 thetic. But the whole thing is in nubibus, and given as 
 a guess only " (p. 82). 
 
 " The name of Erin is treated at length in a masterly 
 note by Whitley Stokes in the 1st series of Max Miiller's 
 lectures (4th ed.), p. 255, where its earliest tangible form 
 is shown to have been Iverio. Pictet's connection with 
 Arya is quite baseless " (p. 83). 
 
 " Our word gay" says Mr. Arnold, " it is said, is itself 
 Celtic." Lord Strangford remarks : " Whatever gai may 
 be, it is 'assuredly not Celtic. Is there any authority for 
 this word gair, to laugh, or rather ' laughter/ beyond 
 O'Keilly? O'Eeilly is no authority at all except in so 
 far as tested and passed by the new school. It is hard 
 to give up gavisus. But Diez, chief authority in Eomanic 
 matters, is content to accept Muratori's reference to an 
 old High-German gdhi, modern jdhe, sharp, quick, sudden, 
 brisk, and so to the sense of lively, animated, high in 
 spirits" (p. 101). 
 
 " Modern Germanism, in a general estimate of German- 
 ism, should not be taken, absolutely and necessarily, as 
 the constant, whereof we are the variant. The Low-Dutch 
 of Holland, anyhow, are indisputably as genuine Dutch 
 as the High-Dutch of Germany Proper. But do they 
 write sentences like this one, informe, ingens, cui lumen 
 ademptum ?' If not, the question must be asked, not how 
 we have come to deviate, but how the Germans have come 
 to deviate. Our modern English prose in plain matters 
 is often all just the same as the prose of ' King Alfred' and 
 
174 " STUDY OF CELTIC LITERATURE." 
 
 the ' Chronicle.' Ohthere's ' North Sea Voyage ' and Wulf- 
 stan's ' Baltic Voyage ' is the sort of thing which is sent 
 in every day, one may say, to the Geographical or 
 Ethnological Society, in the whole style and turn of 
 phrase and thought" (p. 117). 
 
 " The Irish monks whose bells and books were found 
 in Iceland could not have contributed anything to the 
 old Norse spirit, for they had perished before the first 
 Norseman had set foot on the island. The form of the 
 old Norse poetry known to us as Icelandic, from the acci- 
 dent of its preservation in that island alone, is surely Pan- 
 Teutonic from old times ; the art and method of its strictly 
 literary cultivation must have been much influenced by 
 the contemporary Old-English national poetry, with which 
 the Norsemen were in constant contact; and its larger, 
 freer, and wilder spirit must have been owing to their 
 freer and wilder life, to say nothing of their roused and 
 warring paganism. They could never have known any 
 Celts save when living in embryo with other Teutons" 
 (P- 143)- 
 
( 175 ) 
 
 TWELVE LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 Written in 1866, 1867, and 1868. 
 
 Tuesday, January 2, 1866. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, Firstly, I send you a reviling, which 
 
 I wrote off in a rage yesterday morning, about Mr. 
 
 I should have done it long ago, and stood by with a hot iron 
 to sear the place when you cut off his head at first : in that 
 way we might kill off a good deal of trash between us ; but 
 it is not very noble work. I wish I could write a book ; but 
 I can't, because I sympathise with a thousand subjects, 
 instead of knowing any one subject as a master. If I could 
 keep to Turk exclusively, let us say, or Greek exclusively, 
 I might do it, but I sympathise much too actively with 
 both to stick to either. When I go right, it is sym- 
 pathetic instinct that leads me right rather than real 
 critical faculty. If I were twenty years younger, I should 
 get to work, and boil down Grimm's "Deutsche Gram.," 
 so as to make a standard English work of it : this I take 
 to be one of the greatest wants of the age. I shall end, 
 I suppose, by doing something in Lithuanics, our un-Dutch 
 next of kin. 
 
 I have an indistinct impression, which is not so very in- 
 distinct, of having seen Earle at Constantinople, in a hotel 
 window, some twenty years ago, and of our having then 
 discoursed upon Turkish verbs. His letter is very com- 
 plimentary, and his approbation valuable, as coming from 
 a master. I had no idea it was he who reviewed Zeuss in 
 the Arch. Cam., and am sorry to hear it. This seems a 
 very ungracious thing to say ; but what I mean is, that 
 when I read the paper, as I did about eight months ago, 
 
i;6 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 I rejoiced overmuch in the thought of its being by a really 
 wise and strong Celt at last, one who not only would 
 walk straight himself, but would know the reason why if 
 his countrymen did not do likewise. And of course my 
 joy has become damped upon hearing that it is by a mere 
 Englishman after all. Norris, who did not know much 
 about the matter, told me he thought it was by Longue- 
 ville Jones the editor. But I think it is much above the 
 strength of any Celt going, except Whitley Stokes. 
 
 I think that I am doing right in giving you and him a 
 memorandum of Stokes's work so far as known to me. 
 (i) A book called "Irish Glosses," 1860; (2) Cormac's 
 "Glossary," 1861 or 2; (3) a Cornish play, recently pub- 
 lished ; (4) Essays, not many, which I have not seen, in 
 Kuhn and Ebel's " Zeitschrift ;" (5) and these are the chief 
 things Adamnan's "Vita Columbse," Sat. Rev., Sep- 
 tember 5, 1857; Latham's "Celtic Philology," August 7, 
 1858; "Taliesin and Ossian," May 22, 1858; "Gaulish 
 Inscriptions" March 5,1859; " The Indo-European Unity " 
 (not specially Celtic), November 19, 1859; "The Book of 
 Deir," December 8, 1 860. This last, and particularly its 
 closing words, I beg you will recommend to Jones. It is 
 a sin and a shame that these articles are not collected. 
 There is a translation of Ebel's German papers, with a 
 preface, by a Dr. Sullivan, called " Celtic Studies," which 
 is well worth reading, or rather necessary to read, though 
 as obscure and slovenly in style as nine-tenths of such 
 High Dutch papers are. Gllick's " Die Keltischen Namen 
 bei Csesar," reviewed, I forgot to say, by Stokes, December 
 26, 1857, is, however, as clear and strong and savage as 
 Goldwin Smith, having been stirred up by an abortive 
 little school of Celtomaniacs who sprang up in Germany 
 at the time, and went on about Hu Gadarn in the real old 
 Helio-Arkite style. I shall send you this. 
 
 It is possible that I may underrate Skene. And I cer- 
 tainly should not have dwelt so wholly upon what I con- 
 sidered the inefficient side of his workmanship without 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FfiEEMAN, ESQ. 177 
 
 giving him credit for anything else, had I thought that my 
 letter would have fallen into the hands of a friend of his. 
 Worse still, I may say the same of Jones, whom, though 
 I hope not reviling in words, I yet fear the tone of my 
 letter may have not been sufficiently crediting. What 
 made me kill Skene I cannot conceive, but I have the 
 impression that I saw his death a few. months ago in some 
 paper. But I stick to my point, that Skene is inefficient 
 and pre-scientific in his purely philological work. His 
 High Gaelic and Low Gaelic notion I hold to be one of 
 the utterest delusions that ever were started. I do not 
 se a trace of acquaintance in anything he has written 
 with Zeussian and post-Zeussian literature, and with the 
 principles therein laid down, whether universally acknow- 
 ledged or as yet under discussion among authorities. The 
 language held by him in his notes to the book of the 
 Dean of Lismore about O'Donovan is too bad, especially 
 when accompanying a poor statement of the differences 
 between Scotch and Irish Gaelic, in which he seeks to 
 show, or rather to convey the impression, that the absence 
 of nasalisation and eclipsis in the Scotch is a true initial 
 differentia, which has always existed. It is merely a pro- 
 cess of further simplification in the language. Of Scotch 
 Gaelic, Zeuss says, " In vetusta Hibernica fundamentum 
 habet." Let Skene read for himself the grounds on which 
 Zeuss says this, and let him disprove it if he can. It will 
 not do merely to manipulate the local names. In a word, 
 Scotch .Gaelic is as modern Armorican,- and not as the 
 Gaulish of Csesar's Veneti. 
 
 What puts my back up against Skene is this. To an 
 Englishman nothing is more curious than the shift of 
 national consciousness which has taken place among the 
 Scotch Highlanders. The Fenian poems which we, misled 
 by an impostor, call by the name of one author, Ossian, 
 are the genuine link and symbol of their former unity 
 with Ireland in the ethnic sense. It is very striking, and 
 it calls out all the sympathy in one's nature, to hear that 
 
 M 
 
178 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 the genuine oral tradition of Mayo and the genuine oral 
 tradition of Koss-shire are word for word the same for 
 hundreds of lines together, and that old women in Caith- 
 ness are to this day singing songs about the O'Driscolls 
 in Cork after a political separation of a thousand years. 
 Fancy people in Yorkshire and people in Sleswick, barely 
 conscious of each other's existence, singing and handing 
 down songs about Huaef and the Hocings and Scyld 
 and the Scaefings, and all our real old English traditions 
 and heroes, down to this day. Yet this, or little less than 
 this, is the Gaelic case. But, since the wretched Mac- 
 pherson's time, the Scotch think it the proper Scotch 
 thing to do to speak up for " Ossian," and to defend Mac- 
 pherson wherever they can. As against Ireland, their 
 attitude is one of provincial self-defence. The Irish, on 
 the other hand, warmly adopting the doctrines of the new 
 school in philology, hold a position, it seems to me, of 
 sound criticism and of hearty concession where concession 
 is due, not of carping vindication. ' Now Skene, though 
 not ultra-national, as Scotchmen go, is ultra-national, or at 
 least national when read from a non-Scotch point of view. 
 And when he had an excellent opportunity of putting the 
 whole Fenian case in a very striking light before English 
 readers in his edition of the Dean of Lismore, he did 
 nothing but poor and petty vindicatory criticism. He is 
 the victim of his old book, I fear, to which he seems incur- 
 ably wedded, and which has made him indocile. But, as 
 in the case of Cato and his Greek, it is not too late for 
 him to read Zeuss and Stokes. I must further, in justice 
 to myself, mention that in his translation of the " Duan 
 Albanaich" or poetic list of the kings of the Scots down 
 to Malcolm, contained in some old Irish collection, and 
 edited by one of the Dublin scholars Todd, I think he 
 has been shown up as a blunderer in almost every line ; 
 and having fallen into all, or nearly all, the blunders of 
 previous translators, Innes and Pinkerton, he manifestly 
 uses their translations for his crib. He is, in fact, no 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 179 
 
 Gaelic scholar, nor anything like a Gaelic scholar. Of 
 course I am not one, but I know what it takes to be one. 
 And when they are on common ground, it is not to his 
 advantage that one contrasts him with Keeves, whose eru- 
 dition and references are first-hand, and who is thoroughly 
 sound and large-minded in everything he writes. Then 
 fancy a man writing in these days such loose criticism as 
 this, "This poem is written in very old Gaelic with 
 obsolete expressions." I have not got the exact words, 
 but I have got the idea. 
 
 There is no such thing as an undefined antiquity in 
 Gaelic except to those who cannot lift their eyes off Scotch 
 soil. The whole point of modern teaching is the manner 
 and the necessity of defining such alleged antiquity 
 " very old English, with obsolete expressions," might mean 
 Layamon or Maundevile or Shakespeare ; and would not 
 go down unrebuked in an English critical essay. 
 
 The mischief done by Macpherson is quite incalculable. 
 He is thoroughly incorporated into Scotch national vanity, 
 and I suppose even the most liberal Scotchmen can hardly 
 be got to say anything stronger of him now than of Wallace 
 or Mary. Try Finlay. To be sure, Macaulay does but 
 then he has always been unfilial towards his "ancient 
 mither." Some of these days I shall throw up house and 
 home and go north, and preach to the Scotch how much 
 nobler truth is than Scotland; how, properly speaking, 
 there is no such thing as a Scotchman; and if I am 
 martyred and lapidated, as of course I shall be, I shall 
 say with my dying breath to the foremost of my per- 
 secutors (who will probably be called Blackie) : 
 
 " Majorum primus quisquis fuit ille tuorum, 
 Aut Anglus fuit, aut illud, quod dicere nolo" 
 
 which last is a very pretty expression for an Irishman. 
 Strathclyde Britons and Norsemen are too few to go for 
 anything. 
 
 The Scotticizing of the Picts is, of course, very curious. 
 
i8o LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 But, after all, the Scots had a long time to do it in ; and, 
 on the one hand, one cannot assign any limits to the 
 power of assimilation exercised by a freshly literate and 
 freshly Christian people upon a wild and not very numer- 
 ous race of white heathens while, on the other hand, 
 there were no ethnologists in those days to tell us how 
 long the old speech may have held on in holes and corners : 
 though Henry no doubt gives us a fair estimate for its 
 entire disappearance. Who would have thought that 
 people were talking pre- Ottoman or Tartar Turkish in 
 Hungary (Cumanian) in Maria Theresa's time ? And for 
 the assimilative power, the work of the Slavonians in 
 Eussia, Slavonizing and Christianizing Ugrians on end as 
 far as they could go, and thus forming the great bulk of 
 the modern Kussian people, seems to me an exact parallel. 
 By the way, fancy Dean Stanley reviving the old idea of 
 Ezekiel's Eosh being Eussia! It's like saying Meshech 
 was a Mexican, or Tubal a man of Tobolsk. He should 
 at least have known how to translate Pwaa-icrTi jjuev 
 ffapovfopos. Has he been talked over by Dr. Cumming ? 
 
 With every deference to Jones as a critical Welshman, 
 who would not prefer Wales to truth, I do not think that 
 I, that is to say, the consensus of the Continent, assume 
 " too decidedly " the non-initiality of modern Welsh. His 
 generality about the spelling of a language not being 
 absolutely good for anything beyond its written form, or 
 necessarily exhibiting its spoken form, is all very true 
 under certain conditions and limitations. But a special 
 argument is what is wanted for the present case, not a 
 general one. The sounds of the Latin alphabet are known 
 to us with quite sufficient accuracy for philological pur- 
 poses, though not with absolute and minute accuracy. The 
 first application of that alphabet to Welsh as to other 
 Aryan languages can but have been a very few centuries 
 older than the oldest existing Welsh records. And when 
 first applied it must have been applied to a vernacular 
 speech, for there was, broadly speaking, no other to which 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 181 
 
 to apply it. But sounds alone are but a small part of the 
 case. Venta may have been Gwenta as regards minute 
 pronunciation, in a British mouth: I do not take my 
 stand on the gw alone, though I believe it to be late : what 
 I maintain is that it was not Gwent with an a tacked on, 
 but that at one time, however v may have been sounded, 
 the word was distinctly Venta in the nominative, Ventas 
 in the genitive, Ventai in the dative, Ventau in the accu- 
 sative, and so on ; and this time I believe to be as late as 
 Csesar, for I cannot suppose that his " sermo haud multum 
 diversus " meant a difference in stage as well as a difference 
 of dialect from Gaulish; and the stage of Gaulish is an 
 ascertained fact. It was first restored by scientific process ; 
 and the forms so restored were subsequently verified by 
 their actual discovery in inscriptions. After that, it seems 
 to me that nothing remains to be said, unless people choose 
 to say that the dative plural in, for instance, matrelo nam- 
 ausikabo were brought in from Latin. Except the reco- 
 very of old Persian, I declare I know no greater triumph 
 of comparative philology than its work in Celtic. My 
 belief is that it was the 400 years of Boman rule which 
 broke up old British, and helped no doubt at the same 
 time to break up the Latin which must have been spoken 
 here, and which we extinguished: these things being gener- 
 ally give and take, more or less. Gw occurring in Armori- 
 can where it does in Cambrian is a strong reason in favour 
 of its being older than the English conquest ; but that is 
 a long way off Csesar. Of course there are hitches, or 
 places where the theory does not run smoothly. The 
 initial-letter changes in Gadhelic are the same in prin- 
 ciple as in Britannic, and to meet this objection we must 
 assume in moderation an inherent tendency of analogous 
 or parallel decay. This is mysticism ; but we can hardly 
 do without it here, as in the similar parallel of Italian and 
 Wallachian, the common post-classical or Romanic elements 
 of which are much too advanced in decay to represent the 
 real spoken Latin of Aurelian's date, the time of their final 
 
1 82 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 separation : here we must admit a principle of analogous 
 decay. In Celtic the character in question is merely 
 phonetic originally, and has been raised to grammatical 
 value by the art of writing, which fixed it. An Irish eclipse 
 is merely this: Suppose modern Greek unwritten, and 
 taken down for the first time as Irish was once taken 
 down, TOV TOTroVj TTJV iroXw, tondopo, timboli, or todopo, 
 tiboli, if you choose, for no Greek conceives the alterna- 
 tives to be other than the same thing. Literary fashion 
 may separate them when first written, as to ndopo, ti mboli; 
 and grammarians, improving on it and seeking to show 
 the original letter and the pronunciation at once, may 
 write to d-topo, and ti l-poli : thus people would ultimately 
 cease to recognise the d and I as part of the article. This 
 is a pure genuine Irish eclipse. So in Welsh, you may 
 cull pen a head, fy mhen my head, grammatical permuta- 
 tion ; but it is really merely phonetic in origin, min or mim 
 mhen for min pen (meina penna) : which min I believe is 
 actually found. 
 
 If I said the loss of p at the beginning of words was all- 
 pervading, I used too strong a word. But it is something 
 more than dialectic, for it seems to occur in Welsh and 
 Gaulish. Etn for a bird is probably connected with the 
 root pet, "the flyer," and there seems no other way of 
 accounting for the preposition ar, Gaulish are (Aremorica), 
 which would otherwise stand alone, but which the Germans 
 take to be frapal. Ebel has a special paper on the subject. 
 
 If I we.re you, I would not be disquieted about ou. The 
 diphthongation or guna of words like Ms, wif, both in 
 English and German, is certainly very curious : I believe 
 Grimm has written specially on it ; I do not know where. 
 The French or Gal- Welsh seem inherently to hate this as 
 much as the Dutch inherently love it and keep the two 
 sounds as separate as they can ; hear them say " Aic am 
 going aout :" if they can shirk the diphthong they do. I 
 take it that is at the bottom of Schaffhouse and Mulhouse : 
 for these I do not know whether there are any really old 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 183 
 
 forms, but I do not think it would have altered the case if 
 there were, as the Gal- Welsh would have made them ou 
 whether or no. When the u and i sounds are original, of 
 course the Swiss are right : but when the y and ou repre- 
 sent ei or du in Ulphilas, of course theirs is the late and 
 the wrong. Uff and uss (not ouff or ouss) are very good, 
 and book-Dutch wrong, as their Gothic has up and us. No 
 doubt on was then as it is now. But ou in the real old 
 High Dutch may really have been, as in modern English, 
 the graphic sign of aiuu. Houpit = liaubitli may have been 
 ou, as in modern Ober-deutsch ; but poum for lagms must 
 have been once pronounced pawn, otherwise there would 
 be no reason or nature for it. 
 
 / don't oppose your theory of waves one bit. Only I 
 look nearly at your waves, as waves in a gale of wind ; 
 there they are and must be, but each wave taken by itself 
 may be broken into a thousand crests and undistinguish- 
 able. I don't say Ireland was not peopled from Britain : 
 the choice of difficulties makes me believe it was, on the 
 whole; but I hold there is not a direct vestige of it. 
 Ever yours truly, STKANGFOKD. 
 
 58 GREAT CUMBERLAND STREET, 
 May 14, 1866. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, You have been on my conscience 
 for months past, and I have been finding it uphill work 
 to keep it quiet ; besides, I had plenty of things to write 
 to you about. Not articles, because you seem to have 
 been reviling very little of late. Eirstly, let me say that 
 though I cannot make you a history professor, you have 
 made me a judge in Wales. About two months ago I 
 received a letter from one Prydderch Williams, indited 
 upon notepaper inscribed "Yr Eisteddfod," wherein I 
 was invited to be one of three judges to decide upon the 
 merits of the prize essay on the amount of British blood 
 in the modern English. As the competing essays were 
 
184 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 allowed to "be written in Welsh, I declined to have any- 
 thing to do with them; but on hearing that that was 
 somewhat of the nature of a patriotic nourish, and that the 
 really competing essays would certainly be in English, I 
 accepted, although much against the grain. My colleague 
 should have been judge single-handed, or judge in concert 
 with you, for he is no less a man than Guest. It is 
 ridiculous to join me to him, for I know nothing whatever 
 of the details of the subject, and all I can do is to see 
 where the writers go wrong and where they keep steady 
 in the philological part of the inquiry. But it is most 
 unquestionably your exhibition of my Pictish letters to 
 Basil Jones, who was a judge last year when the prize was 
 withheld, which has brought this honour upon my head 
 an honour of which I am sensible in the highest degree. 
 I do not know Guest, nor do I know whether, in cases like 
 these, concert between the judges is allowable : in cases of 
 difference of opinion I suppose it must be. But at all 
 events I think I shall ask you to be kind enough to give 
 me a letter of introduction to him, which I can make use 
 of any day by just running down to Cambridge. As 
 things stand, I should be disposed to adjudge the prize to 
 the few lines in your " Fortnightly Essay " which imme- 
 diately bear on the subject. You are the first man who 
 has ever put Eowena to a useful purpose that of showing 
 that Hengist's Englishmen must have brought their wives 
 and families over here, which is all Eowena is good for. 
 As for the main question, it seems to me that the common 
 sense of it can be said in two words ; that what is true 
 of Kent and Norfolk is not true of Salop and Devon. 
 Between you and me, the prize, or rather the animus 
 which led to the foundation of the prize, looks horribly 
 like a bribe to prove that we are all half Welshmen ; but 
 for goodness' sake don't go and let out that I say so. Last 
 year they seem to have been a pack of fools who wrote, 
 one and all ; but as the prize is well worth trying for, I 
 am in a state of dread lest I should be called upon to 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 185 
 
 decide among half-a-dozen German Gelehrten, each no 
 better and no worse than the other, and all knowing and 
 saying the same things. 
 
 I ought to say that the Eisteddfod paper is headed thus 
 /I\. This delightful symbol, I am told, is said by Mr. 
 Williams ab Ithel to be the utterance God made when He 
 created the world, being the first three letters of the Welsh 
 alphabet, after which it became three sticks or divining 
 rods. I believe, morologically speaking, this is purer non- 
 sense than the little pig-book, but it is not so amusing. 
 
 I write pretty constantly for the " Pall Mall," a paper 
 which so far suits me that I can write at any length in it 
 I choose, and need not beat out a .single idea beyond ten 
 lines, if I have nothing more to say about it. I have done 
 two good things by writing in it. I have gone some way 
 to make people apologise for using the word Anglo-Saxon, 
 and I have quite succeeded in extirpating the word Schles- 
 wig from the "Pall Mall" printing office. In the note 
 whereby I achieved this I quoted you and Latham as the 
 only two men of the day who really cleave to our own 
 form, Sleswick. ... If I were more of a historian, my idea 
 would be to write a special parallel between the " Eoman 
 and the Teuton" and Bryce's "Holy Eoman Empire," for 
 the purpose of distinctly showing the nature of your 
 school, and that it is your school. But I should break 
 down in detail I fear. Have you read "Hereward the 
 Wake," and are you going to review it ? It is very good 
 fun to think how Kingsley has turned you upside down. 
 The popular delusion being that there were no English- 
 men before 1066, Kingsley goes and says there were 
 none after 1066, at least such seems to be the meaning 
 of " the last of the Englishmen." But what is Goldwin 
 doing, and why does he not speak up ? By the way, if 
 you do review " Hereward," pray don't let him off for bring- 
 ing in a Lett, and making him talk a harsh, or rugged, or 
 barbarous jargon I forget the exact words but my exact 
 words are " Confound his impudence." What angers me 
 
186 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 m 
 
 about Kingsley at Cambridge is from the Ottoman point 
 of view. Those poor Turks are abused up hill and down 
 dale for taking a tobacco-boy and making him a Lord 
 High Admiral, but nobody has a word to say touching the 
 joke of taking an ardent novelist and making a history 
 professor of him. It may be sport for him, but it is death 
 to the undergraduates. 
 
 The Klepht telegram was utterly absurd. I have just 
 seen a consul from Dodona, whose sayings, therefore, must 
 needs be right, who says that his part of the country has 
 been dead asleep for two years. Very truly yours, 
 
 STRANGFORD. 
 
 LONDON, August Jth, 1866. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, I return your proofs, which are 
 not in as good condition as they should be, because I read 
 them in an express train going to the country on Saturday. 
 I have no remark to make, only I am very sorry that you 
 are so brief. I quite agree with you about the Proto- 
 Saxons (why on earth cannot we revive or or introduce 
 it as ur from High Dutch ? I want Proto or something 
 answering to it at every step) of the fourth century, coming 
 as they did by driblets, becoming Eomanized at once; 
 and have come by this opinion independently. I think 
 you understate the Komanization of Britain somehow, 
 though I grant it may be called superficial compared with 
 other Eoman provinces. I fancy British nationalism was 
 but a poor sort of feeling in the late days of Eoman 
 dominion : and when it appeared again above the surface, 
 say in 300 years' time, as stiff and stubborn as Jewish 
 nationalism, it was the result of compression by English 
 conquest. Cambria was the Welsh Montenegro, in fact. 
 I wish you had found occasion, or rather made occasion, 
 to say that it was the 400 years of Eoman rule which 
 broke down old Celtic and made modern Welsh of it, 
 
< LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 187 
 
 putting it into the category of modern French, more or 
 less. 
 
 I must testify against your use of Cymry to denote the 
 Britannic genus as well as the Cambrian species. Keep 
 it for contrasting Cambrians with West Welsh or Armor- 
 icans, and use Britannic to include the whole genus con- 
 trasted with the Gaelic genus. There is always a risk of 
 confusion if one word has to do duty for genus and species 
 at once. But there is actual danger in the present case of 
 leading people to believe that there were such people as 
 Cymry before the English conquest. I hold their very 
 name to be a proof of their expulsion from divers parts of 
 Britain ; UsJcoJcs or fugitives, conterranei, people who come 
 to the same land and there form a new people. I think 
 the point so far of importance, because, if strictly observed, 
 it would be of great help towards unteaching the pestilent 
 heresy of Cimbri and Cimmerii, and suchlike. 
 
 What is Old-Eum- Welsh ? Is there any Eum- Welsh 
 older than Dante, broadly speaking ? or do you mean the 
 Old-Sard-Welsh of the eighth century ? But that is hardly 
 Eum- Welsh at all. Or do you mean Latin, neither more 
 nor less, or is it Old- Gal- Welsh ? Very truly yours, 
 
 STRANGFORD. 
 
 August lltJi, 1866. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, All I mean about Cymry is that 
 it is a late word, a post-Eoman word, applied to one 
 branch of the British people alone in consequence of 
 recent political circumstances, and that as it bears this 
 specific sense, it is inconvenient to use in a generic sense. 
 There is nothing exactly wrong in it, nor indeed is it 
 exactly wrong to call the ancient Spartans Moreotes. 
 But the word, over and above inconvenience, should be 
 unlearnt or disused forthwith, as regards anything pre- 
 
i88 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 English, on account of Gomer, the Cimbri, and the Cim- 
 merii. So I am very glad you follow Zeuss and use the 
 word Briton. 
 
 The Scotch bishop. Give me his name at once ; I am 
 ravening for him like a wolf, or rather like a young wild- 
 cat for my humour is much more feline than canine 
 towards the latest school of Scotch writers on Celtic 
 matters ; I am perfectly playful, bitterly cruel, and wholly 
 relentless towards them. A man Ossian, indeed ! And 
 lona too. I think I once wrote to you that, according to 
 "Whitley Stokes or rather to William Eeeves, it is simply 
 a misreading of the Latin lona insula, lona (or lova) being 
 the adjective of Hy or I, the true name of the saint's 
 island now and always : there being doubtless some con- 
 tact with the idea of a dove and the saint's name in the 
 minds of those who first used it. The parallel case is that 
 of Hebrides for Hebrides : a pure misreading. 
 
 Guest's letter I return, as you may need it. I am very 
 glad to learn the origin of London at last. I never believed 
 in the old story about the " place of ships," because long 
 for a ship must of course be navis longa, and therefore not 
 pre-Koman. Half the vocables in Welsh are merely Latin 
 in disguise, if Welshmen only would acknowledge it not 
 that it matters much if they don't. 
 
 By the way, I remember that in one of his philological 
 papers, Dr. Guest explains Anderida sylva, Andredes leah, 
 by the modern Welsh andred, from an and tred, the unin- 
 habited place. Now I would be much inclined to doubt 
 whether the euphonic change of modern Welsh initials, 
 like that of TOV TOTTOV into ton dopon, existed in the 
 Welsh or Britannic of Caesar's time seeing, moreover, that 
 the language of the Welshman who wrote his verses in 
 the "Cambridge Juvencus" in, say, the ninth century, had 
 not crumbled down so far as that. But, without discuss- 
 ing the matter ob priori or by analogy, I think it is pos- 
 sible to analyse the word Anderida as it stands. Ande 
 the German and and Greek avri, is ind in the old Irish 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 189 
 
 MSS. ; and 'occurs in old Celtic in andecamulum, Andecavi, 
 anderitum (the place on the ford), and several others given 
 by Zeuss and Gliick. Eida on account of the d I would 
 hesitate to connect offhand with the wheel-and-chariot 
 set of Celtic words, which must have a t in the elder 
 language no, by the way, there is rheda itself given as a 
 Gaulish word. It is fair to suggest the connection, how- 
 ever, with the root signifying course or locomotion (found 
 in modern Welsh rhedu}, because I find on reference to 
 Zeuss that he says non certo patet consona originaria, num 
 d an t. Sed hod. cambr. rhedu (currere) non rheddu monstrat 
 originariam t. Be all this as it may, I am really sure 
 about the ande. 
 
 Does Dr. Guest actually believe that the Eomans found 
 people over here who called a place Gwent (sic) without 
 any termination or anything, and that they Eomanised it 
 by putting a Latin termination to it ? Surely no more 
 than Herodotus Grecized the terminations of Darius and 
 Xerxes. Yet it might be fair to say that he did, if we had 
 nothing to help us but modern Persian. I declare that I 
 am somehow the only man left in England to preach the 
 doctrine of the Proto- Celtic : Whitley Stokes is gone, and 
 Norris is past work. Ever yours truly, 
 
 STEANGFORD. 
 
 What a wonderful talent you have for finding out men 
 who haven't read Guest ! There is something worse than 
 that, though : men who say they have read him and have 
 never seen a line ; and of such is my biggest prize essayist. 
 On the other hand, there is an humble-minded publican 
 essayist who makes a formal apology for not having had 
 time to fish up his scattered papers. I am sorry to say 
 that, if possible, his philology is worse than the Pharisee's. 
 
190 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 1866. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, I take it that Cookworthy and 
 its substantives Cookworth and Cookworthiness do not 
 so much denote worthiness of contributing to Cook, but of 
 coming under Cook's hands, or being treated by Cook. 
 But either sense will do, no doubt. In the negative, we 
 can distinguish Uncookworthy from Cookworthless, and so 
 keep a word for each sense. 
 
 is a poor provincial creature. I could have 
 
 written his letter verbatim et literatim to be put in the 
 mouth of any given Scotch scholar of the modern school. 
 It is half true and wholly MacBuncombe. 
 
 I suppose may be taken as an old English 
 
 euphemism for Lamb, which will account for his lack of 
 force. I think I have heard his family name before in 
 that quarter, and will go and look. Here it is, sure 
 enough : 
 
 " Witta weold Swsefum 
 Wada Heelsingum 
 Deodric weold Froncum 
 
 Billing Wenmm 
 Oswine weold Eowum." 
 
 And I sincerely hope Oswine did not spare them, if they 
 talked in a narrow-minded way about the Scotch. 
 
 To talk of the " labours " of Skene and 0' Curry in one 
 breath is to me much as talking in the same way of the 
 " labours " of Beale Poste and Dr. Guest would be to you. 
 Skene's history and archaeology I feel and know to be very 
 good, but his philology is quite worthless, and all the 
 'worse because he has read all the recent books without 
 taking them in. And his " labours " as regards the Dean 
 of Lismore's book simply consisted in his getting a High- 
 lander, a good Gaelic scholar, Maclachlan, to transcribe 
 and translate it for him, being a poor Gaelic scholar him- 
 self. Besides this, he wrote a preface to the book, and an 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 191 
 
 appendix, wherein, by taking the initial euphonic per- 
 mutations of the Celtic languages for their permanent 
 characteristics from the beginning, he stultifies all his own 
 references elsewhere to Zeuss and his school. 
 
 No one ever doubted the genuineness of Ossianic poetry 
 (if the word must be used) within the last two generations. 
 But the genuineness, &c., of the Ossianic poems, which 
 your friend says is settled past all controversy, is a very 
 different thing; and it is necessary to say clearly that 
 Macpherson's Ossian has nothing to do with the ques- 
 tion, before admitting that as it stands. It would there- 
 fore be much better to disuse the word Ossianic and sub- 
 stitute Fenian in its place, in order to keep Macpherson 
 out of the general reader's mind. 
 
 The idea of calling the vast mass of Ossianic remains 
 found in Irish MS. of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries 
 "copies of the originals," meaning Scotch originals, is 
 one of the most delectable pieces of provincial coolness I 
 ever read. The whole local scenery is Irish exclusively 
 as regards its headquarters there is much exclusively 
 Irish, but nothing undoubtedly Scotch exclusively, except 
 avowedly modern poems in the collection. And this very 
 book of the Dean of Lismore, cited so triumphantly by 
 your friend as though it were a new thing of which he 
 alone has heard, is actually filled with purely Irish poems 
 which Skene does not print because they do not refer to 
 Scotland ! " The purely Irish poems of the O'Huggins, the 
 O'Dalys, &c., are not given in this work, the only object of 
 which is to illustrate the language and literature of the 
 Scotch Highlands, at an early date." Now the fallacy in 
 this is to suppose that these had any appreciable separate 
 existence at that date apart from Irish. The language 
 and literature were the same in each, and Ireland was the 
 metropolis. No Scotchman has done anything for his 
 Gaelic, nor ever will do anything, if he looks at it from a 
 solely Scotch point of view : which is wholly inadequate to 
 explain any single one of its phenomena. If he wants to 
 
192 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 explain it he must go to the Zeussian or Stokesian Irish 
 of the eighth and ninth centuries, or else sit down content 
 with the old pre-scientific belief that it is now more or 
 less such as it always was ; in which last case he simply 
 remains out in the cold out of the philological running 
 altogether, like a mere Welshman of the old school .... 
 indeed, because he simulates reason and criticism. 
 
 The one thing which should have been done with regard 
 to the Lismore book is the one thing which has not been 
 done to note down the points where the language, phon- 
 etically written, and therefore pure vernacular of 1514, 
 differs from modern Gaelic of to-day, and to explain and 
 illustrate these archaisms. But the fact is that this 
 could not be done properly except by an Irish scholar. 
 It is an immense misfortune that Whitley Stokes left Eng- 
 land before the book was published. The idea of assign- 
 ing the Fenian legends and poetry to the Proto-Gael, 
 assumed to have existed from the beginning concurrently 
 in Scotland and Ireland, which is the theory of Skene's 
 introduction, would have been shown up in all its absurdity 
 if Whitley Stokes had reviewed the book. Gaelic never 
 was spoken at all in Scotland till it came from Ireland ; it 
 developed itself on Irish ground just as French developed 
 itself on Gaulish ground ; and if primevally spoken in the 
 larger island, as it probably was, it was spoken .when it 
 could only have differed slightly and dialectically, if at 
 all, from the contemporary Britannic or Proto- Welsh in 
 other words, was not distinctively Gaelic any more than 
 the language of Ennius is distinctively French. You will 
 know, at all events, that I have proof of some sort for these 
 assertions. 
 
 I believe, in short, and testify, like a Mohammedan in 
 his profession of faith, that when Himilco came here (if 
 he ever came), he heard the Latin of "the tombs of the 
 Scipios ;" that when Caesar came, he heard, say, Trajan's 
 vernacular ; that when Hengist came, he heard " Pro deo 
 amur et pro Christicin poblo," and thence forward the 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 193 
 
 analogy is not conjecture, but fact. Modern Bret-Welsh 
 is modern French, simply. Gaelic is better say modern 
 Queer Welsh. 
 
 What dreadful thing is this you write me back on the 
 authority of the bishop about lona being a mistake ? Why, 
 of course it is, and the one which I expounded myself to 
 you in my own letter telling you how it arose by a mis- 
 reading of the u in loua insula as an n ; loua being a 
 Latin adjective made out of I or Hy. You have been 
 taking my own thunder and making use of the episcopal 
 arm to launch it back at me. Ever yours truly, 
 
 STRANGFORD. 
 
 i HOLLAND ROAD, BEORHTHELMESTIEN, 
 October 20th, 1866. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, Don't talk to me of , for I 
 
 can't bear it. It is disgraceful in every respect. I have 
 the sense of what is right and what is wrong in your sub- 
 jects, or some of your subjects, just as you have in mine ; 
 and I therefore see what rouses your wrath against him. 
 But he is worse to me than he can be to you. It is extra- 
 ordinary and hardly creditable presumptuousness on his 
 part to volunteer the most outrageous philology with a 
 flourish in your face, and then coolly tell you that it is 
 what Max Miiller would say. His Celtic philology is more 
 deserving of punishment than the honest old wild out- 
 breaks of the mad Welsh and Irish, because he has no 
 excuse for not knowing better. His German is but modern 
 High Dutch, just as you say of the Westminster man, 
 whom I did not attempt to read beyond the first page. 
 The idea of treating the modern High Dutch sound of sch 
 as an original and constant fact in all Dutch everywhere 
 and at all times ! But the worst to me is the bit about 
 the Oxus and the Jaxartes so coolly put into Max Miiller's 
 
 N 
 
194 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 mouth : it is so bad morally, because it shows how utterly 
 
 reckless is, or how ignorant of the one rule which 
 
 is the sheet-anchor of etymology. Has the word under 
 treatment any history within its own limits, or can any 
 history be made for it by authorised scientific rule ? No ; 
 perhaps the worst is the batch of Greek and Welsh par- 
 allels. For twenty days I have been lying fallow in an 
 atmosphere of , as it were; absorbing Coctian ele- 
 ments wherewith to fertilise the crop of my vengeance, 
 which, if late, will be bitter. I will so manage that I will 
 
 burn and consume my on the 5th of November. 
 
 Where and how does Green answer him? We should 
 mass our artillery on him. No ; the worst of all is, I think, 
 
 the Maxolatry of , and utter misconception of M.'s 
 
 position ; taking him as the sole master and the type of 
 modern philology, when he is but a pupil, one in the 
 second generation, one among several who form its first 
 class. It is especially bad in Celtic matters, where M. 
 says next to nothing, and what he does say is but the 
 acceptance and endorsement of Whitley Stokes. 
 
 To leave out all mention of Guest in his account of the 
 English conquest, and to leave out all mention of Zeuss in 
 his account of the character and relations of the ancient 
 British language, that is what he has done. We shall 
 next have him tell us, as Professor Airy, the Astronomer 
 Eoyal, told the world last autumn, that the Belgse of 
 Caesar's day must have been Welshmen, because the word 
 was in all probability pronounced Welshse. 
 
 I have never supported the Turks in this business, though 
 I should, on the whole, be inclined to do so as long as I 
 see their hands tied behind their backs by the consuls. 
 Indeed, I have said that the Cretans in the field are fine 
 fellows, as they certainly are. What I have done is to 
 criticise the telegrams as they turn up. The joke of these 
 is that they are all brought by one and the same steamer 
 from Canea to Syra, whence they- branch off. I hope you 
 appreciated Heraclea when interpreted as Herculaneum, 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 195 
 
 and understood that Heraclea meant Megald-Kastron. I 
 wish I could reduce the question to the simple issue you 
 do. But the fact is that the present movement, with the 
 determining causes of which I am unacquainted as regards 
 immediate details, is not a spontaneous but a factitious 
 movement, the result of direct propaganda carried on from 
 a monastery on the south-west coast ever since 1858, under 
 the superintendence of the Eussian consul, and with the 
 connivance of the French consul. This monastery being 
 under foreign protection, could not be touched by the 
 Government. By propaganda I do not mean the fjL<yd\rj 
 l$ea only, but powder and rifles. I must go in more to 
 the French position, for that is the key to the whole thing. 
 From the Crimean peace onwards they co-operated steadily 
 with Eussia in the Levant, partly out of mistrust of our 
 supposed selfish objects, partly out of a wish to conciliate 
 a late adversary. In 1858 the result of this co-operation, 
 working with the Hellenic propaganda as its instrument, 
 was seen in an armed outbreak of the Sfakiots and moun- 
 tain Cretans, who cajoled or bullied the lowlanders to join 
 them. ISTo fighting took place, and the matter was calmed 
 down by the sacrifice of the English consul and the Turkish 
 governor, an active man, who was doing much good in the 
 island, and had succeeded in creating a real good feeling 
 between the two classes. This threw the island back half 
 a century, and has created a permanent ill-feeling, on which 
 anti- Turkish diplomacy has of course been working ever 
 since. But the French have at last had their eyes open tp 
 the fact that to parry English selfish aggressiveness in the 
 Levant is to parry the blows of a man of straw, and that 
 they have probably been merely acting as a tool or cat's- 
 paw of Eussia in pulling Turkey to pieces at once, and 
 actively. To precipitate matters would only serve to un- 
 mask their special game, which is Suda Bay, in plain 
 English. If the island is once annexed to Greece, a 
 Christian power, the French have lost their chance of 
 getting it, unless in a general smash. They want it to 
 
196 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 become Egyptian again by purchase, knowing that their 
 relations with Egypt are such that they can get it handed 
 over to them at any moment as a pledge, or a forcible 
 transfer, or somehow, so as to make sure of the most com- 
 manding naval position in the Levant. Hence the sight 
 of the French turning their back on themselves all of a 
 sudden, bidding Moustier rate King George, protesting 
 against the American occupation of what seems to be 
 Suda Bay, and generally taking up the supposed Palmer- 
 stonian policy in Greek Turkey with the utmost vigour, 
 after having spent ten years in picking Greek Turkey to 
 pieces. That Crete will end by becoming French I am very 
 sure ; and the Cretans may thank those vainest and silliest 
 of men, the modern Athenians, for it. Their own wish 
 was to grow off Turkey on to a large and ideal Greece ; 
 and if France and Eussia would but have let these coun- 
 tries alone, this they would have done ; attaining perfect 
 independence quietly through the stage of semi-detach- 
 ment. They never sought, any more than the Ionian 
 islanders sought, immediate annexation to the small real 
 kingdom ; nor do they do so now, unless it be in hot blood. 
 It is ludicrous to suppose that the Athenian Government, 
 unable to protect industry in Attica, woulfl protect it in 
 the Cretan lowlands. The Sfakiots and mountaineers, 
 who are the arms of the present movement, would simply 
 continue to be a dominant caste, as at present, only with 
 much more lawlessness. Do not compare them to Monte- 
 negrins. These don't rob and murder Christians, but the 
 Sfakiots do. As for the Athenian bureaucracy, no words 
 of mine can give you an idea of their worthlessness, nor 
 would you believe me ; but I live in hopes of your seeing 
 Finlay before he is out of print, as I fear he soon must be, 
 at his age. I see that his knowledge of Crete is general, 
 not special; but it is better than other people's special 
 knowledge. The one thing to get at is the '58 and '59 
 
 movement : the will never publish this, for it is not 
 
 creditable to us, and there is a personal scandal in it 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 197 
 
 about . . . .; nor does anybody know anything about 
 it really, that I know of, except one man, a civil engineer, 
 employed by Y. P. to make a road between Canea and 
 Eetimo [observe the vernacular retention of the old pro- 
 nunciation of 77 in Prflvpv&i\, which was stopped by the 
 consuls and the Sfakiots before the row began. 
 
 I hardly care to relieve you about lona, nor am I in a 
 writing mood just now. Brighton may have been a decent 
 place when Beorhthelm first saw it, but to me now it is a 
 mockery of nature, worse than London a great deal, because 
 there you have nothing to remind you that there is such 
 a thing as nature, except perhaps day and night. 
 . For the last two months I have thought of the I4th ; nor 
 was I free from a dreadful idea that your friend L. N. B., 
 a man who loves such combinations and coincidences, 
 might think fit to repeat the experiment. He has got 
 something to avenge on the 2ist, however. 
 
 But young people nowadays no more remember what 
 happened 011 the 2ist than they read Walter Scott. Ever 
 yours truly, STRANGFORD. 
 
 i HOLLAND ROAD, BRIGHTON, 
 November 17, 1866. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, I send you back Finlay's letters, 
 as I ought to have done long ago. They are as good as 
 sunlight in all that regards Greece; but all that about 
 M. Gobineau and the cuneiforms is such a muddle and a 
 tangle as could only proceed from the brain of a French 
 diplomatist who had begun official life by intriguing 
 among Persians and ended it by intriguing among Greeks. 
 I know all about the soul of the matter, and may as well 
 set it right for you to tell Finlay. The article whereof 
 
 Gobineau complains was written by F N , and 
 
 so far from being Rawlinsonian in spirit, it appeared to 
 me a most presumptuous and ridiculous attempt to un- 
 
193 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 settle the mtttfrs##y-admitted principle of interpreting 
 the old Persian texts by substituting pre-Hellenic Greek 
 for Sanskrit, Zend, and modern Persian as the chief 
 instrument of interpretation the writer ignoring these 
 languages altogether. Thus the word which everybody 
 recognises as abavam, I was, Sanskrit dbhavam, he reads 
 as ebum, unsettling the established value of the letters in 
 order to suit the Greek word e<j)w. In this article Gobi- 
 neau, whose work I have not seen, is represented as 
 making the whole thing purely cabalistic. If he merely 
 does this over and above the ordinary literal version of 
 the Behistun text, he has a right to complain of misrepre- 
 sentation; Jews do the same thing to the Bible; but if 
 he means to exclude all meaning save the cabalistic one, he 
 has been treated only too leniently. I was very angry at 
 
 the article. . . . by no means shared my indignation 
 
 at the utter violation of the first principles of comparative 
 philology, but actually spoke up for Gobineau's cabalism. 
 This he seemed so thoroughly convinced to be in itself a 
 probable thing in the occult writings of Eastern castes 
 and priesthood that he lost, comparatively, the sense of 
 the absurdity in detail of Gobineau's special application 
 of his principle. I do not think Finlay in his own re- 
 marks is sufficiently aware that it is now thirty years 
 within one since Lassen established the Persian cuneiform 
 alphabet with precisely the same values for each letter as 
 those assigned independently by Eawlinson working by 
 himself in the East, with two or three exceptions alone ; 
 and that, since the simultaneous discovery in 1847 by 
 Hincks in Ireland, Oppert in Paris, and Eawlinson at 
 Baghdad, of the diphthongation or guna of i and u by 
 means of an inherent a in certain consonants, there has 
 never been one single doubt raised, not one of any kind, 
 as to the validity of the restoration of the old Persian 
 alphabet and grammar. How, ci priori, could any one be 
 expected to fail in deciphering an ordinary alphabetic 
 cipher of thirty-six letters, with all the words separated, 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 199 
 
 containing a language in high grammatical preservation 
 almost identical with Sanskrit, and with a modern de- 
 scendant still existing, which hardly differs more from it 
 than modern English from old English of King Alfred ? 
 If Eawlinson had never been born, we should have still 
 been just where we are now in Persian cuneiform inter- 
 pretation, only with an infinitely scantier vocabulary, 
 because we should not have had the great Behistun 
 inscription. Eawlinson's discovery was thoroughly his 
 own all the same, and his glory greater than that of any 
 other single worker ; for he had no one to show him the 
 way till he had half done his own researches, and found 
 it out himself long before, indeed. 
 
 Bishop Julius of lona is not a Greek, nor a Syrian, nor 
 a Scotian, nor a Scotchman, nor a Culdee, nor yet a Chal- 
 dee. He is a Frenchman, and his name is F. "What 
 he wants is altogether beyond me. The only thing I 
 ever heard of him is that he once fell among Bedouins 
 somewhere in Padan Aram, and was stripped of his 
 clothes then and there, being fain to make his way to 
 Aleppo or Damascus in that plight. I suppose a man 
 who starts naked has the right of choice between vest- 
 ments ecclesiastical and vestments lay; but that by no 
 means explains his going to a Scotch island. Perhaps he 
 is a judgment sent to vex Bishop Ewing for his Ossianic 
 heresies and injustice to Ireland. 
 
 Whitley Stokes has just printed a grand Celtic book at 
 Calcutta, with the full text of the Book of Deir in it, 
 which ought to be a matter of shame to the Scotch philo- 
 logists not that there are any such. The point is that it 
 is genuine Aberdeenshire Gaelic vernacular of the twelfth 
 century, and that it differs from Irish Gaelic of the period 
 just about as much as written Massachusetts English from 
 written Middlesex English. You see now that disposes 
 of the Proto-Gaelic theory and the co-ordination of High- 
 land Gael with Irish Gael. I have got to be amused 
 rather than angry at seeing Scotch Highlanders struggle 
 
200 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 against the fact of their being merely Irish Yankees. I 
 have not done . . . but he is merely a thing for all time 
 rather than a topic of the day, and will keep. He must 
 
 be bracketed with Professor and the Belgae being 
 
 pronounced Welshae by Csesar. Very truly yours, 
 
 STRANGFORD. 
 
 LONDON, December 29, 1866. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, I have been owing you a letter 
 for some time past, but having been backwards and for- 
 wards between this and Brighton rather than settled in 
 either, I have not thought myself able to come up to the 
 scratch, either to write to you or to anybody or thing else. 
 Now, firstly, of your names. Where on earth did you find 
 them, to begin with ? That I should really like to know. 
 Wyrtesleof maybe "Wladislaw, but I should think was 
 most probably Wrastilaw. It seems to take as kindly to 
 its old English form as "Wrastilaw to its new English 
 pronunciation. Gotteschalk must be merely a translation, 
 if he be a Wend, as you say. How Wyrtgeorn can be a 
 Wend I cannot possibly tell, for it is quite beyond me. 
 Before a Wend of Weonodland within the historical period 
 could have got an English name he must have had a 
 Dutch one, from which the Engle must have taken it. 
 Now what can have been the Dutch form of Wyrtgeorn ? 
 Surely the chronicle must have written Weonod by mis- 
 take for Wealh. There cannot have been any Wyrtgeorn, 
 surely, but the man who called himself Vortigern in his 
 own Bret- Welsh modernised into Gwrtheyrn [observe that 
 this is spoken defiantly, and against those who will go on 
 believing that Welsh was at all times such as it is now]. 
 Whether such a word as Wratihran would be good Wendish 
 I must leave to special Wendish scholars to settle. 
 
 I was at one time Dutch rather than un-Dutch in the 
 matter of church, yet by no means with mind made up. 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 201 
 
 The more I think of it now the more I am convinced that 
 it is a case of confluent rather than of single derivation. 
 Whether the Goths ever had the word in any way or not we 
 cannot possibly say, nor do I think it matters essentially. I 
 believe the Germans borrowed the word circus from the 
 Komans at as early a period as they took the name of Ccesar ; 
 the early date being shown by the retention of the original 
 sound of c before i, and that this word afterwards coal- 
 esced or ran together, as it were, with the word Kvpiaicov 
 taken by some German race I strongly suspect the Engle 
 either directly or indirectly from Greek. So long as 
 the Gothic language only comes down to us in fragments, 
 and so -long as we are without anything to show for collo- 
 quial Latin in the period, say, A.D. 300-600, we are not in 
 a position to lay down negative statements about those 
 languages with absolute authority, or to say the Goths 
 never had the word from the Greek, if they had it at all, 
 or the speakers of Latin never had cyriacum. The "Wend 
 forms are undoubtedly from Dutch direct, and not urver- 
 wandt. That is proved by the initial ts a derivative and 
 secondary sound. As for Earle's cylch, and all the Gaelic 
 and Welsh, it seems to me to have got off the rails 
 somehow, and likely to get bogged in a swamp. Cylcli 
 is probably connected originally with circus; probably 
 derived from calyx; probably descended from the old Celtic 
 celicnon for a bowl or plate in the Gaulish inscription, 
 which again is, as regards form, the identical Gothic 
 kelikn, a tower. But it cannot be all three, and Grimm's 
 law makes a real difficulty in connecting anything German 
 with any one of them, except in the way of actual deri- 
 vation, which last most likely is the case with kelikn. 
 That, however, may be ccenaculum, which it translates in 
 two places, I think. I wish the word church could be 
 fairly made Dutch, as far as wishes go. Ever yours truly, 
 
 STRANGFOED. 
 
 P.S. ^Eolus at the Tuileries has been fiddling for years 
 
202 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 past with the fastenings of the windbag which holds the 
 south-easterly gales, and now he is in a state of mind be- 
 cause it has got loose at last. I do not see how Turkey 
 is to survive this year. The Greek difficulty is nothing 
 compared with the storm brewing in Servia, which is 
 loaded to the muzzle, and must explode. The whole of 
 the Austrian Militargrenzer regiments are determined to 
 join her, and can now force Austria's hand. Then will 
 come Eussia to Constantinople when she likes, and France 
 in Crete and Egypt. 
 
 WEDNESDAY, April 3, 1867. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, The fact of the matter is that you 
 must look on my letter as so much blow off of waste 
 steam or priming of boilers which have long lain idle and 
 foul, rather than as an objection or protest to your names. 
 What I was really driving at was the mixed or composite 
 nature of all Low Dutch eo nomine as we have it. Dutch 
 is not strictly accurate as a descriptive name for the Pan- 
 Teutonic class, nor is it quite convenient as a conventional 
 name, but there is none other which has not tenfold greater 
 objections against it, and thus I have no business nor wish 
 to debar you the use of it. The word which should be 
 used is the word which cannot be used, because no one 
 knows what it was the native name by which all speakers 
 of German called themselves in Caesar's time. What on 
 earth was it ? Until we know it, your Dutch is certainly 
 the best popular name for enforcing a correct idea, even 
 though especial philologists may take exception to it as a 
 descriptive name. 
 
 There were no people who eaten and drinken (allow me 
 a confusion of past and present in setting forth my illus- 
 tration) before Karl. In the oldest Germanic days repre- 
 sented by Ulphilas (whom, away in Mcesia apart from other 
 Germans, I take to be in the category of modern Icelandic, 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 203 
 
 i.e., older than any contemporary kin-speech) the people 
 Hand and drinkand. Later on these one became two, 
 Saxons and Dutch, or rather North Germans and South 
 Germans, the one set, ourselves in fact, etath and drinkath, 
 the other ezzent and trinchent. The children of the former 
 never got to eten and drinken until they were Teutonized 
 and Christianized by Charles, and were made to forsake 
 diabolum and allum for his wordum and wortum a thing 
 for which I find it hard to forgive Charles, but for whom 
 people would be speaking English in North Germany now. 
 But I quite agree with you in your position as expositor ; it 
 is only in the strict and minute philology that I criticised. 
 
 I shall certainly deal with the special point of the 
 " Anglo-Saxon " name - question before long, but I am 
 just now driven to distraction at the effrontery and 
 impudence of people in philology. You remember send- 
 ing me a letter of Einlay's about Gobineau, whence it 
 appeared that Gobineau had been grievance-mongering 
 about the inattention of people to his cuneiforms. Well, 
 the present number of "Macmillan" contains an article 
 half apologising for Gobineau and making fun out of 
 the " Eawlinsonian " (!) system, and treating it as if 
 it were a sort of matter for inexperts and all men to 
 discuss as they would discuss dual voting. ... I hope 
 you will never desert what King Darius calls "pathim 
 tyam rastam" it is hardly necessary to translate "the 
 right path," for it speaks for itself in philological matters. 
 
 I know of only dimly as an ancren. riwle, or a hali 
 
 meidenhad, or an ayenbite of inwit, or suchlike, with 
 an evil turn for cockney facetiousness. He is not much 
 of a man, so far as I know. Who was it who first created 
 the Semi-Saxons ? You will never unteach them I am 
 afraid. Edward Geoffrey .Smith-Stanley, Earl of Derby, 
 I take to be the most prominent Semi-Saxon going just 
 now. It is a wonderful expression. I suppose Tricoupi 
 is Semi-Hellenic and Lascarato Middle-Eomaic. 
 
 Eyre was the piano-wire, and poor old Mustapha Pasha's 
 
204 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 back smarts for it one of the kindest-hearted and most 
 blameless of human beings, who has done everything in 
 his power to prevent bloodshed, whereof, indeed, there has 
 been marvellously less in Crete than on like occasions 
 elsewhere. The Mussulman women and children took 
 refuge in the towns, and suffered disease rather than dis- 
 tress. The Christians had no towns to go to, and were 
 starving out on the open ; it was quite right to take them 
 off. Yours very truly, 
 
 STRANGFORD. 
 
 April 13, 1868. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, Beware of ; he is just like 
 
 , and will repine equally, whether you hit him hard 
 
 or hit him soft. In '65 he wrote a huge essay signed 
 " Multis Unus," for which I refer you to Basil Jones. In 
 '66 he sent in the very same essay, as I was told by Arthur 
 Johnes, whom I consulted about the question of with- 
 holding the prize. And he is now bringing it out as a 
 book. He actually wrote to me at the end of '66 to ask 
 me to become a subscriber: I tried to reason with him 
 about one or two points, but he is dogmatic, indocile, and 
 as obstinate and perverse as King Pharaoh or the deaf 
 adder. His philology is indescribable, but it seems to me 
 that everybody goes wrong in philology. 
 
 In Zeuss, vol. i. p. 226, the derivation of Cymry is 
 given at length. The oldest recorded form of the word 
 is in the MS. called by him Codex Legum Yenedotianus, 
 where it appears as Kemro sing, masc., Kemry plural, 
 masc. fern., Camraes, Camaraes : other and modern forms 
 being Cymro, plural Cymry, whence Cymraeg, Cynmraeg, 
 for the language, Cymru and Cymmru for the country. 
 The word is derived from can, in composition cyn = Latin 
 con-, and bro, previously brog = terra, and signifies conter- 
 raneus, eandem terrain habitans indiyena" vetustissima 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 205 
 
 forma f uisset (si e.gr., Eomanis audita ; sed ortum procul 
 dubio nomen post invasionem Saxomim), Combroges, cui 
 significatione oppositum est vetustum nomen gallicum 
 Allobroges, i.e., alienee terra incolse." After this he pro- 
 ceeds to support this by philological comparisons, and to 
 disprove Owen's suggestion that the cym is from cyn, pri- 
 mas prceeminens, cyn being originally cynt, as shown by 
 the superlative cyntaf. 
 
 No one in any way cognisant of Zeuss's work has 
 attempted to raise any objection to this, or to any other 
 part of Zeuss's teaching for that matter, though all the 
 Welsh and other insular students of these things over 
 here all, that is, with four or five exceptions choose to 
 ignore it, or are really ignorant of it. It is accepted by 
 the school of comparative philology as established doctrine, 
 and those who object to it must show cause for doing so. 
 There can be no doubt that all Britain was thoroughly 
 Eomanized, excepting, of course, the far North : and that 
 the Welsh are not the descendants of unsubdued Britons, 
 but of Britons who had undergone hundreds of years of 
 Eoman rule, and who were what it may be assumed that 
 the Kabyles of Mount Atlas will become if the French 
 hold on in Algeria three hundred years longer. I take the 
 word Combroges to indicate the rally of the Brits west of 
 the Severn against the conquering English as a general 
 camp of refuge from all quarters. Wright is excellent 
 in so far as he shows the thorough Eomanization of South 
 Britain, but his notion of Wales being re-Celticized from 
 Armorica is portentous. 
 
 Welsh y is modern all through; a secondary and a 
 derivative sound; when, therefore, found in a word, it 
 must not be associated with an original i any more than 
 a Greek v with a Greek i, &c. The Cimbri may have 
 been Celts, and probably were ; but then i has nothing to 
 do with the y of the modern Cymry. What the Cimmerii 
 were nobody can tell ; probably something that has van- 
 ished utterly, and is irrecoverable. I do not believe 
 
206 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 Llocgwr has anything to do with Liguria, though it is 
 tempting on account of the coincidence of the meaning 
 in Welsh with the geographical position of the Ligurians. 
 g in gwr is secondary ; the old Celtic word for man must 
 have begun with a v according to modern philology, 
 whereas the g in Liguria must be treated as primary until 
 shown to be otherwise. Then its r does not exist in the 
 Greek forms. Avyves may be Aiftves for aught I know, 
 but there is no safe ground in this sort of work. I do 
 believe, however, that there was a vast deal of Iberian 
 blood about all these parts, and, so far as I can afford an 
 impression on the subject, my impression is that the 
 Ligurians were Basques rather than anything else. 
 
 I congratulate you on your Macedonian madman in the 
 
 last . But he is too good for belief. I would not, 
 
 however, put him above the Duke of , and cer- 
 tainly not above . I have not seen Mr. 's 
 
 book, unfortunately. But the best of the joke is that 
 
 he has a school. There is m a Mr. who writes in 
 
 the " Fortnightly," and who reviewed Mr. there 
 
 with entire belief and animated support. Are the Cuthites 
 the same as the Cushites ? This kind of writing, I think, 
 ought to be taken up by the doctors as an obscure form 
 of mental disease; a determination of morbid etymolo- 
 gical thought to the brain : it should be called etymites, 
 or etymorrhcea, or some such name, and then medically 
 
 treated. Something has got to be done to . I am 
 
 beginning to know that sentence with Sigurd, the Nibe- 
 lungen, and the Shah Nameh in it by the mere look of 
 the page. It has got to be a public nuisance. Very 
 truly yours, STRANGFORD. 
 
 58 GREAT CUMBERLAND STREET, 
 May 5, 1868. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, . . . Did I say that the Romans 
 thoroughly Eomanized Britain ? If so, I meant, of course, 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 207 
 
 that they must have made it altogether their own property, 
 and have swept away every native political and social 
 institution that stood in the way of their dominion, rather 
 than that they completely obliterated everything, language 
 and all : which last, indeed, as the Welsh tongue would 
 have to be accounted for, necessarily makes me talk 
 Wrightism, and maintain Cambria to have been re-Celti- 
 cized from Armorica a monstrous view. I take the 
 simple view to be the true one ; that Gaul, being on the 
 Continent and close to Italy, had, say, one or two centuries' 
 start of Britain in the path of Eomanization, and that if 
 the Komans had held on that much longer here, and the 
 English stayed at home, the Bret-Welsh would have talked 
 Eomaic as much as the Gal- Welsh. The right linguistic 
 analogy for Bret- Welsh I take to be, as you say, Basque, 
 the vocabulary of which is one mass of Eomanic; or 
 better still, and much less known, Albanian ; in spite of 
 what is said by many of the new school who want to 
 bring back even its most evident Latinisms to the old 
 Aryan connection, calling them Pelasgic and what not. 
 
 It is very hard and unjust that we should take up the 
 parable against the little pig-man and the Macedon man 
 and Mr. Lysons, and spare the people who quote you that 
 pestilential stuff about Deffrobani being on the site where 
 Constantinople now stands as a real Cymric tradition. 
 
 is sure to have it in his book; I remember he 
 
 made much of it in his essay in connection with the 
 country of Pwll, which always seemed to me as a Welsh 
 echo of Poland: it is my hope that you will have 
 slaughtered him well outright. 
 
 I have had the most frightful row with , who has 
 
 been reproving me for speaking with scorn and contempt 
 of the exploits of Mr. Farrar, our great new philologist in 
 divers foreign tongues ! Very truly yours, 
 
 STEANGFORD. 
 
208 LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 
 
 58 GREAT CUMBERLAND STREET, 
 December 12, 1868. 
 
 MY DEAR FREEMAN, I can hardly bring myself to look 
 you in the face after such long silence, but it must be done. 
 The spirit has been urging me to do it, on at least five 
 special occasions. I suppose you heard that in the sum- 
 mer I was taken ill. ... With regard to the elections, 
 I am inclined to say that the select band perished by the 
 visitation of two things which I have been in the habit 
 of believing to work with the evil eye, one being the 
 personal visitation of , the other being the lau- 
 dations of the " Spectator." These two personalities are 
 known to me as uncanny, and their admiring glance is 
 bascantic. In Cretan the evil eye is called fyQapfjibs, 
 which may be, and probably is, o<j>0a\fj,b<;, but it has a 
 nasty touch of <p06lpco in it. I have no doubt you forgot 
 to spit over your left shoulder when you read the " Spec- 
 tator " on you, and that will account for anything. As for 
 , I take it to be a matter of course that he visited 
 your nomination may be visited the electors, and was not 
 understood by them. 
 
 Well, about , I saw his book and list when the said 
 
 book was first published. But afterwards, just before I 
 fell ill, I had lent to me a most villainous hysterical pam- 
 phlet by the said , who appears to have been put by 
 
 your review into a state as of a sheep gone giddy, com- 
 pounded with the state of the cat gone mad. Heaven 
 forgive me for the comparison, but it seemed to me 
 exactly what would have written under similar cir- 
 cumstances. is no better than an unmanly ass. I 
 
 did so want to be at him for this : nor have I forgotten it. 
 As for his list, I fancy it is a subject to which I am never 
 without the faculty of reverting at any time. A better 
 list, if I remember rightly, is to be found in Cootes' book 
 on English origines. The fact of our old English bor- 
 rowing from Latin is certain enough, but allowance must 
 
LETTERS TO E. A. FREEMAN, ESQ. 209 
 
 be made for such words, few enough no doubt, which 
 we took before leaving the Continent through such Ger- 
 mans as were neighbours of Eomans there. As for the 
 real old words of affinity as" demonstrable through Grimm's 
 
 law, words whereof is fool enough to cite several in 
 
 support of his proposition, he only establishes his own 
 incapacity to treat of philology at all. 
 
 But I must say that such ill-treatment of philology by 
 men who claim to treat it as masters, merely on the strength 
 of their accepting its general results in a second-hand way, 
 has actually become the curse of the country. I shall 
 
 never forget , any more than I shall forget Professor 
 
 proving that the Belgae were Welshmen because 
 
 Julius Caesar probably pronounced Belgae as Welshae : the 
 point of which last undoubtedly lies in its coming from 
 a really scientific man. . . . Very sincerely yours, 
 
 STKANGFOKD. 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 Reprinted from the Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 CHURCH OR KIRK. 
 
 January 10, 1866. 
 
 A FEW days ago the celebrated Dr. Gumming wrote a letter 
 to the " Times " about English and Scotch liturgies, and 
 wound up with a postscript upon the etymology of the 
 words church and kirk, this last being expressed with much 
 dogmatism, such as is natural to one who has the ear of 
 the public, and not unbecoming to one who " explored " 
 the Latin and Greek tongues with " intense energy " for 
 fifteen years. We thought something would come of it,' 
 and something has come of it. Mr. T. Arnold writes from 
 Oxford to controvert the great Doctor's authoritative state- 
 ment. Now the fact of anybody really knowing anything 
 about the matter thinking it worth while to treat Dr. 
 Gumming au strieux upon philological subjects is in itself 
 sufficiently remarkable to call for attention. Mr. Arnold 
 writes sensibly ; but somehow it is a very long etymolo- 
 gical lane which has no crooked turning in it. Mr. Arnold 
 has diverged at a tangent out of the straight path in pursuit 
 of the merest ignis fatuus held out to him by a Mr. Fer- 
 guson, the author of a book on local names in Westmore- 
 land and another on the river names of Europe. Mr. 
 Ferguson is typically a half-learned man,, without any fixed 
 principles in his work ; and such are more unsafe to follow 
 
212 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 than even the wholly unlearned, as those who have pro- 
 fited by the masterly archaeological and historical articles 
 of a weekly contemporary know well by this time. Ee- 
 ferring to a point of Teutonic philology without consulting 
 Grimm or Diefenbach, or any one in the enormous host of 
 German investigators, is as though an undergraduate were 
 to undertake to decide upon some point of Greek without 
 ever referring to see what Liddell and Scott had to say on 
 the matter. To assign the precise Teutonic position of the 
 word is not easy. But Mr. Arnold, whose general opinion 
 is that of all German scholars of weight, will find what he 
 wants in Diefenbach's " Gothic Lexicon," under the word 
 kelikn. The best thing in Dr. Cumming's letter is his 
 outcry against our Southron word church for its guttural 
 sounds. This he says, not having the least idea what a 
 guttural sound is, but because he thinks it the proper 
 Scotch thing to do to crow over us from a presumed 
 Scotch vantage-ground. It would, indeed, be hard if we 
 could not find some amusement in anything written by 
 the author of " Sebasteapol " like " teapot " and " Eem 
 guomodo rem" 
 
 IRISH ARCHEOLOGY. 
 
 January 1866. 
 
 DR. PETRIE, who stood at the head of the native Irish 
 archaeological school, or at least shared that position 
 with his eminent survivor, Dr. William Eeeves, is just 
 dead. The mention of a native Irish school of archaeology 
 probably conveys no idea to the English " general reader " 
 beyond that of a dreary muddle of unsorted details, fitfully 
 lighted up by flashes of declamation and comic outbreaks 
 of extravagant national claims. Yet the modern Hiber- 
 nologists, if we may be allowed such a word, stand not 
 only foremost, but stand unapproached as a co-operative 
 and working body of archaeologists among the antiquarian 
 
IRISH ARCHAEOLOGY. 213 
 
 societies of the Empire. It may be strange, but is no less 
 true, that they are equal to the best Germans in massive- 
 ness and depth of erudition, in width of view, and severity 
 of criticism. This is true of Protestant and Catholic alike 
 of Keeves and Todd as well as of O'Donovan and O'Curry; 
 and if there is one thing that gives more unmixed satisfac- 
 tion than the method and result of their work, it is the 
 spectacle of Protestant and Catholic here labouring har- 
 moniously together upon the common ground of their 
 country's past. There is nothing like them in any other 
 Celtic country, and there is nothing like them in England, 
 where there is no school, and where antiquarians work 
 piecemeal and separately. Dr. Petrie's domain of research 
 being obscure and special, with no practical issue, he, of 
 course, only came in for a pittance of biographical notice 
 at his death, and this is the sort of thing he got. He got 
 patronage, and he got contemptuous shoves out of the way ; 
 but he nowhere out of Ireland, that is to say got appre- 
 ciation. One paper owned that he really had antiquarian 
 merit. Another commented upon his great work on the 
 Eound Towers a work both exhaustive and final, such as 
 Jacob Grimm might have written in a pooh-poohing 
 tone, the coolness of which is something indescribable. 
 " All very well," it was said, but people of " real learning " 
 are by no means disposed to acquiesce implicitly in its 
 conclusions. This contrast, in disparagement of Dr. Petrie's 
 " real learning," is made at the expense of a man who had 
 a book dedicated to him in these terms by a man of genius 
 Mr. Whitley Stokes, the greatest of living Celtic philolo- 
 gists, whom the common voice of the Continent would 
 declare to be the greatest philologist native of these 
 isles : "To George Petrie, LL.D., arcliceologist, painter, 
 musician, man of letters ; as such, and for himself, revered 
 and loved" If anybody chooses to look on these words 
 as the language of a mere Dublin clique-friendship, they 
 are welcome to the thought, and we wish them joy of 
 it. In conclusion, we venture just to hint that Irish 
 
214 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 archaeology is a study which is by no means without prac- 
 tical bearings. Anybody who opens Dr. Petrie's published 
 collection of native Irish music and songs will understand, 
 for one thing, what an Irish Nationalist means when he 
 says that Moore is no more the national poet of Ireland 
 than of New Zealand; and he will begin to have some 
 insight into a main constituent element of an undying 
 national sentiment, which has nothing to do with reason, 
 and defies all remedial treatment by reason. It is as well, 
 one would think, to inquire, what does constitute Irish 
 nationalism as to go on bothering about the wrongs of 
 Herzegovinians, and the like, on grounds of national sen- 
 timent alone. 
 
 POPULARISED ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 January 17, 1 866. 
 
 ALL work and no play makes a learned society a very 
 dull body. Such societies as the Asiatic and the Philo- 
 logical are very dull bodies. The Royal Society is so great 
 and powerful, and real distinction is so rigorously exacted, 
 or is meant to be so rigorously exacted, as the condition 
 of its fellowship, that it becomes impertinence to think 
 whether it is dull or not. But all these societies are con- 
 tent to take their stand upon their work. On the other 
 hand, it is certain that all play and no work will wear to 
 rags the most scientific of garments worn by a learned 
 society. Foremost among those bodies which prefer play 
 to work, and which seem to care less for the record and 
 transmission of severe scientific observations through their 
 journal than for the engaging presence of ladies and 
 fashionable reporters at their evening meetings, is the Eth- 
 nological Society. Of the great Geographical Society we 
 say nothing ; the truly scientific part of its work is trans- 
 acted in its cabinet, and its practical work is in its very 
 essence popular, and requires and deserves all the popu- 
 
POPULARISED ETHNOLOGY. 215 
 
 larity it can get. But ethnology is not an exact science, 
 nor yet an outward and popular topic with practical bear- 
 ings ; it is an inexact and tentative science. It may be 
 defined as being formed of the complex of physiology, 
 philology, ethnology, or psychology, together with history 
 and genealogy; and its only claim to the title of science 
 at all is the strict observance of scientific method on its 
 part in exercising its own special function. It has to 
 establish certain principles by determining the exact corre- 
 lation of its several factors, with the view of ultimately 
 arriving by science alone at a solution of the problem of 
 problems the ^primary origin of man. It can only do this, 
 when in its present initial stage, by means of strict induc- 
 tive reasoning and the accumulation of authentic facts. 
 When it stands upon firm ground, it is perfectly right to 
 popularise its ascertained results and exhibit its method. 
 When this society contributes new 'facts, it is right to do 
 so in public. But when it talks beside the purpose for 
 talking's sake, or unduly stretches its purpose so as to 
 catch within its net everything comprehensible, it is no 
 more a scientific society than Discussion Forum or Codgers' 
 Hall. Public discussion of minute points of comparative 
 physiology or comparative philology before a jury of 
 ladies long-haired and empty-headed ones, as the Turks 
 say for referees, is simply turning scientific research into 
 a thing like Mr. Spurgeon's lectures on shrew-mice, or Mr. 
 Bellew's lectures on Milton. In this way they discussed 
 a point of Celtic philology a year or two ago at a meeting 
 of the British Association, by inviting two disputants to 
 speak Gaelic against each other. This was as if the great 
 geologist who then and there presided had invited two 
 rival theorists to settle the question of a geological forma- 
 tion by picking up the stones and appealing to the test of 
 a cockshy. It may have amused the ladies, but it cer- 
 tainly killed the science. Yet the only object of handling 
 the matter at all on such an occasion should have been 
 to show the outer public that philology was science, not 
 
216 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 guesswork. A rival body, the Anthropological Society, dis- 
 approve of this way of going on. Possibly they are envious 
 of it, as their casus lelli with the Ethnologists appears to 
 be the possession of their platform, or some of their plat- 
 form, at the British Association. At all events, they 
 reprove it openly, and craftily advertise physiological dis- 
 cussion without the ladies, much as the knowing White- 
 chapel baker advertised his bread with the gin in it. It is 
 for the Ethnologists to see that their smart and go-ahead 
 offset, which parted from them in anger like the United 
 States from England, does not ultimately increase and 
 multiply and drive them out of the market. 
 
 They had a field-day last week, and it is worth while to 
 examine what they did and how they did it. The first 
 paper read before them was an excellent instance of their 
 work at its best. This was a careful series of physical 
 measurements made upon the Laplanders, at the instance 
 of the venerable President of the society. Observations 
 made with similar precision among all the outlying races 
 of Europe are rare, and are of great importance ; but they 
 are uninteresting, except professionally; and under a 
 ladies' rfyirne are naturally postponed to vague specula- 
 tions or other more attractive matter. The next paper 
 was valuable, but not ethnologically valuable, or only so 
 indirectly. It was purely literary in its interest, being the 
 notice of a Burmese book. If everything were in its right 
 place, and every society obtained or kept to its own work, 
 this would have been contributed to the Asiatic Society. 
 The third paper was upon the "characteristics" of the 
 South. Slavonian races, and was contributed by Miss Irby. 
 This young lady is already, or ought to be, famous as 
 having travelled long and extensively in Servia and the 
 adjacent countries, and as being animated by a strong 
 enthusiasm in regard to their politics and their religion, 
 which is fed and sustained by a lond fide knowledge of 
 their language such as is not only remarkable, but unique, 
 among Englishwomen, or Englishmen either. The ethno- 
 
POPULARISED ETHNOLOGY. 217 
 
 logy of the Slavonians is unknown ground in England, 
 and a contribution on such a subject by one whose know- 
 ledge is derived at first hand, whose head is clear, and 
 whose literary abilities are of a high order as Miss Irby's 
 certainly are could not fail of being very interesting, if 
 not striking. Yet her paper, to our estimate of which we 
 are guided by the report of an evening contemporary, how- 
 ever meritorious in itself, or excellent as a magazine article, 
 seems to be of no value as a contribution to ethnological 
 science ; and what is of no value to this is of injury to 
 it, for it takes up time and perpetuates unsettlement in 
 method. Ethnologically, observations upon the bravery and 
 moral truthfulness and various excellences of the Servians, 
 if authentic, are good as the groundwork of ethnological 
 conclusions alone, and not of political or any other conclu- 
 sions. Whether the latter occurred in the paper or not we 
 cannot say. But with Mr. Denton, of all men in the world, 
 who was afterwards called upon to speak, discussion drifted 
 off wide as the poles away from ethnology. This gentle- 
 man held forth upon the " resources " of the country and 
 its aspirations after civilisation, and the like, in a fashion 
 which simply amounted to politics in disguise, or trembled 
 on the verge of politics. In common fairness the society 
 now cannot possibly refuse the use of its boards to Mr. 
 Layard, let us say, if ever it should occur to that gentle- 
 man to hold forth about the " resources " of Turkey, under 
 the veil of a Nineveh lecture, or to a city stockjobber 
 wanting to raise the wind for the next new Ottoman loan. 
 This, however, is a small matter. We have to animadvert 
 upon a more serious one nothing in itself, yet becoming a 
 breach both of justice and good taste when sanctioned, and 
 in some measure made its own, by the society in its adop- 
 tion of the present paper. Miss Irby may have travelled 
 in Greek countries, but we apprehend that she knows no- 
 thing of the Greek language, the Greek inner life, or the 
 Greek ideals. These things she probably knows well in 
 the case of the Servians. But with this inequality and 
 
218 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 inadequacy of knowledge, she has no right to institute an 
 ethnological comparison between these two races, to the 
 laudation of the noble Slavonian, and to the disparagement 
 of the vapouring and pretentious Greek. Perhaps these 
 hard sayings may be true, but they are impressions de 
 voyage, and should not have been treated as first-hand 
 scientific truth. Many people have said worse things of 
 the Greeks than this. But Greeks mind these things the 
 less when they see that they come from people who know 
 and understand them. Mr. Pinlay double-thongs them 
 with clean and straight r cuts down their backs, and 
 his tenderest mercies to them are cruel ; yet this they 
 do not resent for they know that he understands them 
 thoroughly. The highest praise, indeed, from the mouth 
 of a Greek is that which he applies to such men as Finlay 
 and Charles Alison, and very few besides. He does not 
 say, Ma? dyaTrdei,, " He loves us," but Ma9 Kara\afjL^dv6t, 
 " He understands us ; " for he knows that such thorough 
 understanding cannot fail of bringing some sympathy in 
 its train. He may relish or despise ignorant praise, but 
 he naturally resents ignorant depreciation. And the Greeks 
 may most justly do so when it comes to them incorpo- 
 rated in the transactions of a learned society, and invested 
 with all the dignity of scientific observation. 
 
 Our Ethnological friends will, we hope, take our remarks 
 in good part, for they cannot fail to see that we are actu- 
 ated by the desire of consolidating their science, and not 
 of impairing its efficiency. Nor should they fail to see 
 that if they go on popularising the merely unfixed and 
 speculative portions of their researches, instead of the fixed 
 and solid results, they are not planting the tree of science, 
 but merely sowing a crop of thorns and thistles, which 
 some day may be used for their incremation by their rivals 
 the Anthropologists. 
 
IRISH PROPER NAMES. 
 
 March 2, 1866. 
 
 SUPPOSING the Turks, not content with conquest and for- 
 cible seizure of the soil in Thessaly and Epirus, had even 
 waged war against patronymics with the view of crushing 
 out Greek nationality and Ottomanising the country, had 
 proscribed all names ending in ides and opulos, and had 
 issued firmans and hatti sherifs enjoining everybody, on 
 pain of the bastinado, to call themselves by Turkish names 
 or after Turkish towns, rivers, and the like, what would be 
 said by the historians and the great Elchees and the thirty- 
 five consuls of each of the sixteen Frank Powers who 
 make diplomatic capital out of Turkish misdeeds ? Let 
 us imagine it to have been only the other day that the 
 liberal Grand Vizier took occasion to repeal an offensive 
 old statute directed against the Klepht, 'the last and most 
 noxious of the three noxious beasts the Greek priest, the 
 wolf, and the To the Klepht, whom the old Turks thought 
 it a religious duty to extirpate where they could. But 
 stay. Are we not all the while repeating the history of a 
 country somewhat nearer to us than Turkey, and not so 
 very ancient a history either? "We recommend Lord 
 Lifford to study this history before he again argues, from 
 the modern Irish tendency to recast their English proper 
 names in as Celtic a form as they can, that this process 
 indicates any sort of antecedent English descent, and that 
 there is no difference of race between Englishmen and 
 Irishmen perceptible in detail. The Irishman began to 
 take his English name his Saxon name, as the cant 
 phrase goes at a time when Mac and O' might legally 
 cost him his land at least, if not his life ; and he con- 
 tinued to do so in even an accelerated ratio in later times, 
 when the obnoxious prefixes only degraded him socially 
 or kept him down in his worldly career. The old Gaelic 
 
220 ' FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 nationality of Ireland is dead, and the race is transmuting 
 its type ; but whatever the modern English-speaking Irish- 
 man may be, there is one thing which he is not, and will 
 not be for some time to come, and that is an Englishman 
 without a difference, or with the difference of religion 
 alone. But the new body is haunted by the old spirit, 
 and from time to time is torn and convulsed by it as with 
 a demoniac frenzy. We have before this alluded to the 
 extra-rational or sentimental element of nationalism, exist- 
 ing in spirit when the form and reality is gone, as being 
 perhaps the taproot and ultimate cause of the dull smoul- 
 dering Irish discontent so incomprehensible to the practical 
 understanding and strenuous sense of justice of our modern 
 and liberal English generation. Of course we are talking 
 of fuel, not of the application of fire by conspiracies from 
 abroad. The tendency to revert to the old Celtic names 
 is not " ludicrous " at all ; it is a sign at once of English 
 liberality and of the Anglo-Irish revivalism so conspicu- 
 ous in poetry and in the antiquarian turn of the modern 
 Irish ; it is part of the same sentiment which has hurried 
 a modern practical Irish grammar through a sale of three 
 editions in as many years too late, indeed, to do more than 
 barely galvanise the dying language, but showing beyond 
 a doubt the passionate ardour and longing regret with 
 which the modern reading generation has been striving to 
 imbue itself with the spirit of the old wild Ireland. The 
 whole statement of the case, as regards the names, will be 
 found in an essay by the late Dr. John O'Donovan, pre- 
 fixed to his edition of the " Topographical Poems of 
 O'Duvegan and O'Huidhrin," an old Irish metrical survey 
 of Ireland arranged according to the clans, written in the 
 fourteenth century. O'Donovan's essay is most masterly 
 and fascinating ; nobody over here, to our knowledge, has 
 made use of it except, to some extent, Miss Yonge, in her 
 history of Christian names ; but the English reader will 
 get more fresh information from it upon an important col- 
 lateral branch of historical inquiry than from any other 
 
ROMANS, ROUMANS, AND ROUMAINS. 221 
 
 work of the kind. More than anything it will broaden 
 his views and enlarge the scope of his survey while 
 brought by it to look at Irish history as a whole the 
 strange and sad history of a conquered country half 
 digested, which its conquerors would not abandon when 
 alive and struggling, and which their posterity cannot 
 assimilate now that it is dead and swallowed. The comic 
 aspect of the Irish revivalism is undoubtedly shown to 
 perfection in the splendid brag of the inimitable Pagan 
 O'Leary about the spelling of his own name a treasonous 
 felon who has our warm heart. No Irishman whose dis- 
 affection was of the old national or of the more modem 
 and priest-moulded type could possibly have flourished 
 and flaunted a sham paganism in our faces after this 
 defiant fashion; and it certainly shows the influence of 
 ideas from that great country which, among other portents 
 and monsters, has produced Walt Whitman. But Heaven 
 knows there is nothing else ludicrous, as Lord Lifford says 
 there is, in an Irishman reverting to his 0'. As for pre- 
 fixing it to " Saxon " names, we are not aware of his doing 
 anything of the kind. Boyle, alleged to be " Saxon," is a 
 pure old Donegal name, and if any Mr. Boyle likes to call 
 himself O'Boyle, we do not see why he should not. If he 
 reads O'Donovan's essay, he will at any rate see that the 
 0' does not in the least degree imply nobility, such being 
 a purely popular error ; and he might therefore have let it 
 alone. 
 
 ROMANS, ROUMANS, AND ROUMAINS. 
 
 March 10, 1866. 
 
 OUR worthy friends on the Lower Danube, who have just 
 risen into new prominence in Western Europe through 
 quarrelling with the stopgap of their own selection, whom 
 they found so useful in 1858, seem, to require a fixed 
 English name as well as a steady-going Hospodar. As 
 
222 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 yet we are likely to hear about these people through news- 
 papers alone. We should, therefore, like to see them 
 called therein by some uniformly recognised name, rather 
 than Eoumans one day and Eoumains the next, and Moldo- 
 Wallachians the third, and Daco-Eomans their own term 
 used for brag and self-laudation, corresponding to our 
 " Anglo-Saxon " the fourth. 
 
 As a general rule, we are anything but sticklers for 
 uniformity and system in these matters, so far as current 
 writing is concerned; holding that anybody in a news- 
 paper may spell Gortchakoff just as he likes, within certain 
 limits ; nor have we the least wish to reprimand a jour- 
 nalist who, for instance, takes his news about the ruler of 
 Japan from a French source and calls him Taikoun in one 
 column, and then takes more news about him from an 
 English source and calls him Tycoon in the next column. 
 So long as we see what is meant we are quite satisfied, 
 and, indeed, think that to cavil at it as an inconsistency 
 betokens a certain pedantry of nature which values husks 
 rather than kernels. And we are thankful for so effective 
 an instrument of criticism all the while. But the line 
 must be drawn somewhere, and for one thing we would 
 fain draw it so as to exclude so utterly barbarous and un- 
 English a word as " Eoumain." Its termination is purely 
 French, and has no business in English as it stands. 
 " Eouman," though somewhat un-English in appearance 
 as to its first syllable, is perhaps the best word to be had 
 for the people, and Eoumania for the country. Both seem 
 to be now settling down into established use. Wallack, a 
 good English word, is the best ethnical name for the whole 
 race, or for the individuals ethnically treated. This, of 
 course, includes not only the natives of the Principalities, 
 but their brethren in Transylvania and Bessarabia, the 
 nomad shepherds far away in Northern Greece, and the 
 strange unnoticed and unaccountable fragment now at the 
 point of breathing out its national life at the very gates 
 of Trieste. It cannot, therefore, be used restrictedly for 
 
MR. ARNOLD ON CELTIC LITERATURE. 223 
 
 the people of the Principalities alone. The word itself in 
 a Rouman mouth is not " Rouman " at all. The first syllable 
 is an o rather than a u, and the second is not an a at all, 
 or at most only so by etymological courtesy, being an 
 obscure sound fostered under Sclavonic influence, inde- 
 scribable in English. "Romoun" would best give the 
 idea of it. But the wild nomad of the Pindus, whose 
 dialect, being quite unsophisticated, is much the most 
 valuable to the philologist, calls himself honestly " un 
 Eemanu" with as broad a vowel as in a real focca Eomana 
 of old Rome the first syllable, however, being slightly 
 obscured. Mr. Boner seems to have been told in Transyl- 
 vania that this name is a recent revival, like " Hellene " 
 in Greece. In this he was told quite wrongly, for it is 
 nothing of the kind. It is also quite wrong to say, as 
 many papers otherwise treating the political part of the 
 subject with marked ability and correctness of apprecia- 
 tion are saying, that the Principalities are inhabited by 
 a heterogeneous population. These are of mixed origin 
 and mongrel to any extent, no doubt ; but as they stand 
 now, they are as entirely homogeneous as Norfolk and 
 Suffolk, Jews and gipsies apart ; and the very essence of 
 their position is, that of all the motley political divisions 
 of Eastern Europe, theirs stands alone in this perfect actual 
 unity of race. The case, in fact, is the Italian case over 
 again, with Transylvania for the Rouman Yenetia, and 
 Bessarabia for its Corsica more or less.- 
 
 MR. 'ARNOLD ON CELTIC LITERATURE. 
 
 March 19, 1866. 
 
 WE have been waiting for a week or two in hopes that 
 some adequate notice of Mr. Matthew Arnold's remarkable 
 paper on Celtic Literature might have been taken by an 
 authority competent to deal with the subject as a master. 
 There is doubtless no great novelty in the view that the 
 
224 . FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 English nation is destined to be affected beneficially by 
 some considerable infusion of the artistic and imaginative 
 faculty through a more complete incorporation of the 
 various Celtic fragments existing within its bosom, which 
 it has been absorbing and has yet to absorb. But this has 
 always been put in a merely rhetorical and suggestive way, 
 or in a bare dry ethnological way, and without the remotest 
 reference to the actual nature and extent of that faculty 
 as possessed and manifested in detail by the Celts. It has 
 been reserved for Mr. Arnold to deduce this conclusion 
 legitimately from a true knowledge of the Celtic ideals 
 obtained by a direct study of the highest and most stan- 
 dard works on Celtic literature. And there is the greatest 
 novelty in boldly challenging public attention and admira- 
 tion on behalf of these ideals from an independent point of 
 view. Mr. Arnold's style needs no laudation at our hands, 
 nor do his special opinions require any exposition. It is 
 not difficult to construct his argument out of his previous 
 writings, nor to imagine the contrast between the Celtic 
 children of light and the Saxon Philistines which may be 
 assumed to pervade the present essay, without even taking 
 the trouble of cutting the leaves. We presume everybody 
 has read it ; otherwise we might say that anybody might 
 thus write its main argument for himself. We may fur- 
 ther say that, even if he did that alone, he would be very 
 much the better for so doing ; so entirely do we concur in 
 the conclusions to which Mr. Arnold is led, in some meas- 
 ure no doubt by the spirit of antipathy, but in a far 
 greater measure by the keen instinct of a just and long- 
 withheld sympathy. But Mr. Arnold, so far from meeting 
 with the criticism of appreciation or depreciation, has 
 hardly met with any notice at all. His subject is new and 
 just now appropriate, and it is represented in a way both 
 original and striking. We consider that it requires some 
 notice, and that any notice is better than no notice. We 
 are but as proselytes of the gate ourselves in Celtic matters, 
 with no authoritative knowledge of Celtic details, yet we 
 
MR. ARNOLD ON CELTIC LITERATURE. 225 
 
 feel, moved to hazard a brief remark or two in the present 
 case, more with the intention of assisting Mr. Arnold than 
 of criticising him. Celtic literature, indeed, and the study 
 of the Celtic past we may as well say all Celtic ques- 
 tions, past, present, and to come bear much resemblance 
 to the face of nature in a Celtic landscape. There is fair 
 display of cultivated ground, in which it is the fertility of 
 the soil which strikes the eye rather than the art of the 
 cultivator or the bounty of the crop ; there is the wild 
 alternation of mountain and lake and sea, and there are 
 the dreariest stretches of bog and moor and swamp, im- 
 practicable and interminable. It is given to very few to 
 traverse with impunity, or even to set foot upon, the quak- 
 ing bogs of Celtic archseology. We own that we gazed 
 with no small trembling as we found Mr. Arnold, who 
 knows no literary fear any more than his French friends 
 know physical fear, venturing boldly upon this dangerous 
 surface ; and we cannot but admire the great skill with 
 which he has as yet managed to plant his foot upon firm 
 ground, or extricate himself from the quagmire before 
 sinking more than knee-deep at most. We would fain 
 lend him such assistance as lies in our power, by placard- 
 ing the unsafe portions of his course, and writing " danger- 
 ous" in very large letters over Gomer and the Cimmerians, 
 over the attribution of antiquity to any Celtic language as 
 we have it, and over everything connected with the Scotch 
 Highlanders, whom he has fortunately left alone for the 
 present. 
 
 If Mr. Arnold means seriously to insist upon his classi- 
 fication of writers upon Celtic literature and antiquities, 
 wherein he divides them into Celt-lovers and Celt-haters, 
 and to uphold it as an exact or exhaustive one, or as one 
 which is at all justifiable in the present day, we must beg 
 him to change his mind forthwith, and shall do our best 
 to convert him as fast as we can. It is not a just one now, 
 and it was not a just one in the days of Edward Lhuyd at the 
 beginning of the last century. It is only just when applied 
 
226 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 to the intervening period when chaotic nonsense reigned 
 supreme, when the Celtomaniacs had it all their own way 
 in Wales and Ireland, their absurdities being incorporated 
 into the national self-love, and when these extravagant 
 pretensions called into existence the reactionary extrava- 
 gances of Pinkerton and his school. This state of things 
 is all past and gone now, or, if it lingers at all, it abides 
 with the body of the people as a matter of vulgar pre- 
 judice, not with their leaders as a matter of enlightened 
 belief. It is only found among Welsh and Irish Philis- 
 tines on one hand, among Gothic Philistines on the other 
 hand, and we would fain warn Mr. Arnold of the danger 
 of falling among these. The dawn of the neutral and 
 scientific spirit, first manifested in Dr. Prichard's ex- 
 cellent little book, became as the meridian light of full 
 noon after the publication of Zeuss's immortal "Gram- 
 matica Celtica." The great German, dying, founded a 
 school of Celtic philology which is one of the most 
 conspicuous and flourishing branches of the new and irre- 
 versible science for which the world is indebted to Pro- 
 fessor Francis Bopp. This school works upon language 
 alone as its subject-matter ; but it has been able thus to 
 construct a firm basis of general scientific investigation 
 upon all other points. Celtic archeology is now only 
 trustworthy when in harmony with the teaching of the 
 Zeussian school. If their doctrines are not accepted in 
 England, it is not for want of any inculcation of them, for 
 they have been presented over and over again to the public, 
 notably so in certain articles which are to be found in the 
 earlier numbers of the "Saturday Keview." Upon the 
 anonymous authorship of these we care not to intrude, 
 further than to advert to the fact of our having recently 
 cited their writer under his own name, as being emphati- 
 cally a man of genius, and the ablest philologist of the 
 new school who is native to these isles. The real name 
 of " Mac dd Cherda" the gifted " Son of two Arts," is better 
 known in Germany than in England, and we take shame 
 
MR. ARNOLD ON CELTIC LITERATURE. 227 
 
 for this. These topics in England are left to grow wild 
 and to run adrift ; nor do we admit them into the canon 
 of science until they have undergone what is called public 
 discussion, or have been -sanctioned by those who have got 
 the right of affirming and denying things, and who act as 
 our bell-wethers. On the Continent it is the common 
 consent of an authoritative and competent body which 
 admits truth at sight in such points, and which then pro- 
 ceeds to work on further by means of the principles thus 
 obtained. Here, when such a theory is started for the 
 first time, all persons, docti indoctique, have a voice in 
 discussing it, without any ascertained principles of dis- 
 cussion ; it has to be read a second time, and the Ethno- 
 logical Society has to go into committee about it, and it 
 has to be read a third time, and then it is sent to our 
 recognised hereditary legislators in philology, such as Mr. 
 Crawfurd and Mr. Earrar, and the new cuneiform man 
 who made an exhibition of himself in the " Eraser " of last 
 November ; and then it has to be sent up to the Sir Corne- 
 wall Lewis of the period to receive his royal assent, before 
 it can pass among us as law. This is well in politics and 
 Eeform Bills, but it is anything but well for questions 
 such as that whether Welsh is in the category of Basque 
 or in the category of modern French to pass through the 
 hands of unqualified vestrymen and jurymen, with nothing 
 but common sense and the coarser Minerva to help them. 
 Yet thus it comes to pass that in England there are real 
 living men who doubt the mutual affinity of the Indo- 
 European languages, who know nothing of the details of 
 their comparative grammar, and who listen to Mr. Craw- 
 furd quite as seriously as to that Professor Bopp whom 
 the universal academic world of the Continent at this 
 moment is uniting to honour. But the Irish Academi- 
 cians have identified themselves actively with the new 
 learning; and the leading Welsh scholars, such men as 
 Mr. Basil Jones, or Mr. Longueville Jones, or Mr. Williams 
 of Ehydycroesau, fully adopt its principles, and would be 
 
228 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 ashamed to repeat any of the weary and ridiculous outbursts 
 of national self-love in which their forefathers gloried. Mr. 
 Nash, an Englishman, who has honestly studied the sub- 
 ject from the beginning, and who has received unqualified 
 praise from the Celtic Saturday Reviewer alluded to above, 
 has, we think, been most unfairly classified by Mr. Arnold 
 among Celt-haters. Mr. Nash undertook to expose, and 
 succeeded in exposing, the " dishonesty and blundering," 
 the "scandalous suppressions, mistranslations, and for- 
 geries," with which the old school of writings on "Welsh 
 literature teemed, which alienated Englishmen from the 
 study of that literature, and which misled even such men 
 as Sir E. Palgrave and Bunsen. This is not hatred of 
 Celts ; it is destroying the tares planted by Celts in the 
 field of science, and Mr. Arnold is hardly right or just in 
 attributing to Mr. Nash, a conscientious and valuable 
 workman of the new school, a preconceived anti-Celtic 
 animosity. The words in inverted commas are not ours, 
 they are the words of the Celt who is the first authority 
 on the subject. The classification should stand, not as 
 Celt-lovers and Celt-haters, but as science-lovers and 
 party-lovers those who are urged by the partisan's Phil- 
 istine spirit, and those whose path is lighted up by the 
 scientific spirit. We must do Mr. Arnold the justice to 
 say that he hesitates before committing himself. Mr. 
 Nash does not hate the Welsh ; he chastises them. His 
 position towards them is, in fact, precisely Mr. Einlay's 
 position towards the modern Greeks. 
 
 One word more. There is a touch here and there in 
 Mr. Arnold's delightful picture of the chattering French 
 maid, moving among her Celtic cousins, who speak her 
 own ancestral language about her unconscious ears, which 
 affects us with a pang of dreadful misgiving. How comes 
 the French maid to be a daughter of Gomer, and how 
 come the Welshmen or Cymry to be his sons ? What was 
 " the common dwelling-place in the heart of Asia " ? Who 
 were the Cimmerians of the Euxine who " came in on their 
 
MR. ARNOLD ON CELTIC LITERATURE. 229 
 
 Western kinsmen" ? and by what kinship are they kinsmen ? 
 When the Welshman calls white and red and rock and 
 field and church and lord, gwyn and gocli (lege cocJi) and 
 craig and maes and llan and arglwydd, in the genuine 
 tongue of his ancestors, how old does Mr. Arnold suppose 
 that tongue to be ? This last point had better be settled 
 at once. Till thirty years ago it was usual to attribute a 
 mysterious and unfathomable antiquity to the two Celtic 
 main languages. Their history was uninvestigated ; no- 
 body knew or thought of asking whether or not they had 
 any recorded stages of development ; on their surface they 
 were utterly unlike anything else in the world ; and this 
 halo of age and mystery pleased their speakers and com- 
 pensated them for the loss of political power. But the 
 result of recent inquiry, which has admitted them into the 
 fullest and most equal right of brotherhood in the great 
 Aryan confraternity of speech, has, in so doing, broken 
 down the charmed circle and dissipated the obscuring and 
 magnifying halo. These languages are no granitic or pro- 
 tozoic formation of the elder world; they are, broadly 
 speaking, the mere detritus of an older speech, just as 
 French or English is a detritus. It redounds to the credit 
 of the leading Welsh and Irish scholars that they can look 
 at this honestly in the face without blinking, accept it as a 
 definite principle, and embody it in their teaching. These 
 words, old as they may be for a modern language, as these 
 go, are not in their old form ; they are phonetically cor- 
 rupt ; they have lost their case-endings ; and two of them 
 are simply Latin of the later Empire. Llan is plana, an 
 enclosed level ground; cock is coccinus, red, in modern 
 Greek KO/CKWOS. Strangely enough, the later Latin words 
 for yellow and red, melinus and coccinus, survive nowhere 
 the Greek excepted but in Welsh, and in that queer 
 little tongue, the Eumonsch of the Grisons, where they 
 appear as mellen and cotschen. The first work of the 
 Zeussian school was to restore conjecturally, by means of 
 comparison of all existing or recorded forms found in the 
 
230 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 Celtic languages, the older speech from which they were 
 held to have been derived. Now it cannot be too often 
 repeated that these conjectural forms, restored with such 
 wonderful acuteness, have since been literally verified by 
 their actual discovery in inscriptions written in the old 
 Gaulish language which have recently come to light. 
 These are inadequate as regards the verb, but are simply 
 identical as regards the noun. Next to the resurrection 
 of the ancient language of Persia, this is surely the greatest 
 triumph of comparative philology yet achieved. The old 
 Proto- Celtic language may be defined, in a word, as having 
 "Welsh or Irish roots the primitive difference being but 
 small inflected with terminations after the Latin fashion, 
 all but identical with the Latin ones themselves. The 
 word Cymry has nothing whatever to do with Cimmerians, 
 nor with Cimbri. It is later than the Eomans ; it was once 
 written with two m's, and its oldest form was demonstrably 
 Combroges, meaning a united or confederate people, as 
 opposed to Allobroges, or alien people. All this, since 
 Zeuss's proof, has been accepted without a dissentient 
 word, except where dissent signifies nothing. As for 
 Gomer, he belongs to Dr. Cumming by vested right, and 
 Mr. Arnold had better leave him to the patentee. We 
 conclude by hoping that Mr. Arnold will not be long in 
 perceiving that the one man who has done more irretriev- 
 able harm to the proper appreciation of the imaginative 
 literature of the Gael than ten thousand Pinkertons is James 
 Macpherson, the fabricator of one of the greatest delusions 
 upon earth, and the incarnation of literary injustice to 
 Ireland. 
 
 OLD AND NEW IRISH NATIONALITY. 
 
 March 27, 1866. 
 
 ABOUT a hundred and thirty years ago there flourished in 
 Dublin a schoolmaster of some repute in his day, by name 
 Teige O'Nechtan, translated into English as Thaddeus 
 
OLD AND NEW IRISH NATIONALITY. 231 
 
 Norton, according to that queer fashion, the conventional 
 " translation " of Irish names into English, which was to 
 some extent compulsory in the early days of conquest and 
 oppression, and ended by becoming voluntary during the 
 subsequent period of degradation. Norton was a man of 
 learning in the old lore of his country, the study of which as 
 a living pursuit had not even then fully died out. We may 
 fairly contrast his Hibernology with that of the Hibernolo- 
 gists of the present generation, the Reeveses and Todds, in 
 the same way that we can contrast the Arabic or Sanskrit 
 lore of natives, the leading Cairene Sheikhs or Benares 
 Pundits, with that of the De Sacys and Lanes, the Wil- 
 sons and Mullers, of Europe. He it is who was mainly 
 responsible for raising the absurd Phoenician ghost which 
 has since haunted the purlieus of Irish archaeological in- 
 quiry. He was first in the field with the Irish version of 
 the immortal Punic passage in Plautus. He never pub- 
 lished this himself, however ; but his manuscripts which 
 contained it fell into the hands of General Vallancey, who 
 brought it before the public as his own discovery without 
 the slightest acknowledgment, apparently under the im- 
 pression that he was appropriating something of value. 
 Many Irish scholars made a grievance of this plagiarism 
 when detected, and perhaps they were right, looking to 
 the General's motive, and not to the worth of the stolen 
 article. But Norton is chiefly memorable for an extem- 
 pore Irish stanza which he was provoked to utter upon 
 the sight of an Englishman hanging from a tree. " Bath 
 do thorad hort, a chroinn" said he : " Increase to thy fruit, 
 tree, and may every tree in Ireland bear a goodly 
 crop of it ere long." Hardiman gives the words with a 
 slight difference, but we quote from O'Eeilly. Now we 
 are well accustomed to sentiments of this kind in the dis- 
 affected Anglo-Irish poetry of the present day. But in the 
 latter case they are traditional rhetoric, and nothing more, 
 for no man can say now what makes an original Irishman, 
 and what makes an Englishman in Ireland ; while in the 
 
232 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 mouth of Norton they represent a living and bitter sense 
 of national hatred, founded on the fact of a real national 
 difference, then as yet unextinguished, though on its way 
 to extinction. We refer to the schoolmaster's stanza as 
 a good example for the purpose of illustrating in detail 
 that traditional hostility to England assigned as a main 
 cause of Irish difficulties by Lord Dufferin in his masterly 
 speech of last week. That hostility is now but a tradi- 
 tion; yet only four generations ago three-fourths of the 
 country at least were divided from the other fourth by 
 a difference greater than that between Pole and Eussian, 
 and in some respects not less than that between Turk and 
 Greek. Few Englishmen realise to themselves how re- 
 cently the Irish nation kept some sort of distinctive cor- 
 porate existence alive. The assimilative operations of 
 English influence began early, but these were 'both gradual 
 and partial, and did not affect the country at large until a 
 late period, in spite of over-statements made by Elizabethan 
 writers, arguing for a set purpose, who contradict them- 
 selves in the next breath. 
 
 In the face of the surviving consciousness of a real 
 national existence within so few generations, it is both 
 idle and unfair to reproach the Irish with want of appre- 
 ciation of our brief thirty years of equitable and conscien- 
 tious policy. It is equally idle to talk of past " misgovern- 
 ment." What did Norton and his Catholic contemporaries 
 care about English misgovernment ? It was the presence 
 of the English which they loathed, not their misgovern- 
 ment. There is something almost shocking in the easy 
 and reckless levity in which our present generation drunk, 
 as it were, with the strong drink of conscientiousness and 
 virtuous intention is turning its back upon its ancestors 
 and reviling them for their misgovernment in Ireland. 
 They conquered the country, and could only hold it down 
 when alive and struggling by dint of such acts as consti- 
 tute misgovernment. When nationally dead, we can now 
 afford to govern it well ; had we been in the place of the 
 
OLD AND NEW IRISH NATIONALITY. 233 
 
 Elizabethan or the Cromwellian or the Williamite con- 
 querors, we should have done as they did and no better. 
 When did thirty years ever suffice to obliterate the abiding 
 sense of ancient wrong, more especially if there exists an 
 influential body whose professional business it is not to 
 let the memory of that wrong die out, but to foster it for 
 their own purposes ? The forces which are to determine 
 the future fate of Ireland stand arrayed on either side 
 ready for the muster. On our side we count Time the 
 healer, and the admirable system of national education, 
 which has done more than anything else to reclaim the 
 Irish middle classes, to give them a British soul, and in- 
 corporate them in the body of the empire. On the side of 
 the anti-English powers of darkness is the new disturb- 
 ing element of a paradise realised in life, a future state 
 beyond the Atlantic, which any man may reach by the 
 outlay of a five-pound note, where the landlord ceases 
 from troubling, and the weary tenant may rest yet no 
 passive paradise, but a belligerent and vengeful heaven, 
 that is ever coming clothed in terror to redeem the op- 
 pressed and chosen people in their old island home. Of 
 what avail is petty redress of absenteeism and Protestant- 
 ism and the like in presence of this mighty and absorbing 
 hope of a Yankee advent ? 
 
 While mentioning Protestantism, we take occasion to 
 close with one word about the Established Church in 
 Ireland. Doubtless it is a great inconsistency, and per- 
 haps it may be a great evil. The mass of the Catholic 
 people may not feel it as a grievance in practice, but we 
 know that there are certain parties who do feel it as a 
 grievance. To be sure, if we trace these people upwards, 
 from inferior to superior, it will probably be found that 
 the centre of operations whence their feelings are attuned 
 into accord and discord with England is at Rome rather 
 than at Dublin, and is therefore un-English in nature, and 
 may be anti-English, too, when it seems good. But that 
 may be let pass ; if justice must be done, we must of course 
 
234 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 take our chance of pulling heaven down in the process. 
 The theory of the Irish Church is not what it should be, 
 that is certain ; and if it is not a popular grievance, it 
 ought to be one. Lord Grey is aware that it is not one, 
 and conceives that the conclusion therefrom deduced, to 
 the effect that we should leave the Church alone for the 
 present, or hesitate before at once easing it off,, is a very 
 shallow observation. What we want to say is, that it is 
 an observation, and as such is more valuable than a specu- 
 lation. An ounce of the one is worth a pound of the 
 other. This charge of shallowness was no doubt brought 
 by the German philosopher against the Englishman who 
 went to Arabia to study his camel. Lord Dufferin has 
 lived all his life with his camel, and has studied it under 
 every possible light ; and thus we consider that his view 
 of Irish questions especially this one of the Church 
 must be held to supersede that of Lord Grey, who has only 
 elaborated one out of his moral consciousness. A residence 
 in Corfu, or an hour's interview in person or in print with 
 impartial lonians or uncorrupted lonians, would have made 
 Lord Grey hold his hand before committing himself to the 
 sweeping measure which ran its unavoidable course, and 
 which has ended in the retardation, if not the destruction, 
 of material prosperity and moral progress in the islands 
 for half a century at least. Anybody who ever talked 
 with Ionian peasants in their own language knows that 
 their wish for union with Greece belonged to the extra- 
 rational part of their nature, and had nothing to do with 
 Otho's kingdom. Their souls aspired for union with an 
 ideal Greece, not with the real Greece. In like manner 
 it is well for us to be on our guard against pushing doc- 
 trine to extremes in estimating the condition of Ireland, 
 by overvaluing the immediate present, and overdoing reme- 
 dial work, when things are either beyond remedy or not 
 ripe for remedy. In the Irish nature the ideal elements 
 go for much, but they must not be mistaken for the reason- 
 ing element, any more than they should be ignored. 
 
OLD AND NEW FENIANS. 235 
 
 We have the highest and warmest respect for Lord 
 Grey, but we think he is too much of a doctrinaire, and 
 too " thoughtful," if we may use without offence a word 
 rapidly passing into slang. Excess in doctrinarity and 
 excess in " earnestness " are threatening to set their mark 
 on the new political generation, and we are glad to have 
 an opportunity of entering our protest against these when 
 out of all moderation, unchecked by any misgivings, and 
 unsweetened by a drop of the sense of humour or of omni- 
 lateral sympathy. 
 
 OLD AND NEW FENIANS. 
 
 April 1866. 
 
 " A VAGRANT " has just written another of his long, ram- 
 bling, discursive letters to the " Times " about the ancient 
 Fenians. This, like the former one of last October, is full 
 of information which, if not very new, nor very recondite, 
 nor very practical, is very little known to the present 
 metropolitan reading generation, although bearing directly 
 upon a chapter of literary history which was at one time 
 thought of sufficient importance to send the great patri- 
 arch of literature himself from Fleet Street to the 
 Hebrides, when these were more difficult of access to 
 Londoners than Montenegro or the Atlas are to ourselves 
 at the present day. This letter is the best of the two ; not 
 that there is any method in either, nor does any object 
 seem to have been aimed at by the writer beyond that 
 of scattering his information in a desultory way, and of 
 pointing a plain moral or two by dint of running an occa- 
 sional parallel between the ancient Fenians of tradition 
 and the modern revivalist Fenians. The main point seems 
 to be that the ancient Fenians were volunteers and fine 
 fellows, and that their real legitimate descendants are not 
 rebels but loyal volunteers and fine fellows too, especially 
 the London Scottish, with Lord Elcho for their Finn 
 
236 FUGITIVE PIECES. . 
 
 M'Coul. These letters are open to criticism in many 
 places, albeit such treatment would hardly be fair, as they 
 were evidently not written with the prospect of encounter- 
 ing criticism. Yet we would fain take occasion to recom- 
 mend the writer to beware of over-estimating the scientific 
 value of nursery tales, popular legends, and the like, as a 
 branch of comparative mythology ; and to be on his guard 
 against his own tendencies and proclivities in this direc- 
 tion, such as the reader feels to be latent below the surface 
 of the present letters. Comparative mythology, if a science 
 at all, is as yet but an unfixed and embryonic science, with 
 no certain basis save that of comparative philology, and 
 only to be treated by those who are masters of this last. 
 It is clear that our author has yet to serve his apprentice- 
 ship in both the principles and details of comparative 
 philology, even from his brief remarks about the local 
 names on the Brighton Downs, which he conceives to 
 afford evidence that speakers of Gaelic as well as speakers 
 of Welsh once existed there. 
 
 Now we say, as we have once said and shall say again 
 whenever we have an opportunity, that nobody has any 
 right to speculate in print upon Celtic philology, much less 
 to lay down the law about it, unless he has previously sat 
 in all docility at the feet of Zeuss and Norris and Whitley 
 Stokes. We shall hammer this nail on the head till we 
 have driven it well home into the public mind ; and when 
 we are tired, Mr. Matthew Arnold will come and relieve 
 us. However, our own object in the present notice is not 
 so much to censure such points as the author's refusal of 
 the word " bourne " to the forefathers of the South Saxons 
 until they came and found it , in Britain a refusal which 
 would have mightily astonished Bishop Ulfilas as to 
 appeal to his letter, so full of citations from genuine and 
 beautiful Ossianic poetry, taken from Irish records of the 
 twelfth century, as an excellent means of illustrating and 
 enforcing what we said the other day when reviewing Mr. 
 Arnold. We said that the one man who did more irre- 
 
SLA VONIC PROFESSORSHIP. 237 
 
 parable mischief to the correct English appreciation of 
 genuine Gaelic poetry, and who committed more injustice 
 to Ireland, in a literary point of view, than any or all . 
 other men and circumstances, was James Macpherson, the 
 arch-fabricator and father of distortion. Nobody can read 
 the true Ossianic fragments, such as those cited in this 
 letter, without at once feeling how their discovery would 
 have entirely altered their position in our literature had it 
 taken place naturally, primarily, and on a large scale, in- 
 stead of their having been brought forward by piecemeal 
 as incidents of attack or defence in the controversy about 
 the false Ossian. 
 
 SLAVONIC PROFESSORSHIP. 
 
 April, 1866. 
 
 WE have an impression that about a year ago there was a 
 small paragraph in one or two papers which announced 
 that the late Lord Carlisle had left some money to one of 
 the Universities, probably Oxford, for the purpose of found- 
 ing a professorship of the Slavonic languages ; or at any 
 rate, for we are not sure of our details, and only speak 
 from uncertain recollection, of promoting the cultivation 
 of these languages by some process of academical encour- 
 agement. Whether good or not, this idea, if truly re- 
 ported, was at least an original one ; but it fell by the 
 wayside for aught we see to the contrary, and was trampled 
 under foot in the crush of our bustling public life, or was 
 cast on the stony soil of indifference, and withered up in 
 a day. 
 
 Such seeds as this never can come to maturity in this 
 country unless they are fostered by the warm sun of popu- 
 lar favour, or by the official patronage of a great man, such 
 as in this case would probably have been afforded if Lord 
 Carlisle, a wide-minded and scholar-like man, with genuine 
 and many-sided, even if occasionally feckless sympathies, 
 
238 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 had lived. This idea is now brought very forcibly to our 
 recollection by the sight of the Eussian " Galignani," if we 
 may so call it, appearing once a week or oftener at Brus- 
 sels. There is no savoury hash of gossip here, like that 
 so bountifully served up by our own purveyor for English 
 tastes ; there is nothing but leading articles and strong 
 political writing, into which we can only obtain a glimpse 
 through the very brief French summaries or dockets of 
 each separate article which precede the whole on the first 
 side of the paper. One is almost appalled at having it 
 brought before us in this striking way how far the whole 
 bulk of our educated and cultivated community is shut 
 out from the study, at first hand, of the real thoughts and 
 words of seventy millions of men, of one of the most 
 powerful nations in the world, rising to unwonted poli- 
 tical life, and exulting in their new and almost uncon- 
 trolled freedom of the press. The Eussian press abounds 
 with most important and valuable scientific and literary 
 periodicals, corresponding to our monthlies and quarterlies ; 
 and, as regards geography at least, the cream of these is 
 now generally made public under the auspices of Sir 
 Eoderick Murchison and the Messrs. Michell. Yet these 
 gentlemen, like the late Emperor Alexander, are but for- 
 tunate accidents. But it is dreadful and tantalising to 
 see political articles about Turkestan and Germany and 
 Moldo-Wallachia wrapped up in the impenetrable veil of 
 a language to which there is here neither royal nor any 
 other road, clothed in an alphabet which looks to the com- 
 mon English eye like the Greek Lexicon in a dream after 
 a supper of pork chops, as Mr. Sala says, with his usual 
 reckless, happy buffoonery. It is really a pressing need, 
 that of easy access to the free play of Eussian opinion on 
 those public matters which must be influenced by that 
 opinion sooner or later; and we consider that for this 
 reason alone the vernacular acquisition of Eussian by 
 system,- and not by haphazard, is deserving of great and 
 immediate encouragement. The method of its acquisition 
 
" GREEK SLA VS." 239 
 
 and the enormous importance of the Slavonic dialects in 
 the scheme of Aryan comparative philology, so strangely 
 ignored or slightly dwelt upon in the usual English expo- 
 sitions of that scheme, are questions separate from the 
 above, which we may have occasion to treat some day. 
 
 " GREEK SLA VS." 
 
 May II, 1866. 
 
 WE have been wondering for the last ten days what can 
 possibly have induced our respected contemporary the 
 " Spectator " to call the Wallachians or Eoumans " Greek 
 Slavs." What purpose is served, or what point is illus- 
 trated, by so doing? In calling them "Eoumans," as 
 other people do, there is perhaps a lack of surface clever- 
 ness, but there is certainly safety. What is a Greek Slav, 
 as such? What are the characteristics whereby he is 
 denoted? Has any human being, now or at any time, 
 ever beheld such a thing as a Greek Slav people ? In the 
 greater towns of European Turkey there are certain fami- 
 lies reputed to be of mixed Greek and Armenian descent, 
 and thence called in the Greek tongue by the queer-look- 
 ing name of Khaikhorumides, or Armeno-Greeks. These, 
 if the assertion be true regarding them, represent an ex- 
 treme case in the way of hybridity between incompatibles. 
 So do the natives of Scio, according to the jocose ethnology 
 of the non-Sciote Greeks, who are fond of imagining them 
 to be lineal descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes, as well as 
 of Homer's fellow-citizens of Chios ; founding their impu- 
 tation on a certain turn for shrewd and sharp practice now 
 well known over the whole commercial world. But a 
 community of Greek Slavs north of the Danube must be 
 a strange mixture, and is worth looking for. It is not 
 enough to say simply that the Wallachians are not Greeks 
 and are not Slavs, nor yet the product of the two together. 
 So far as they have any national antipathy at all, or have 
 
240 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 ever asserted themselves with anything remotely approach- 
 ing to a national feeling in their past history, it has been 
 notoriously anti-Greek on one side and anti-Slavonic on 
 the other. When they took up arms in 1821 under 
 Theodore Vladimiresco, their hands were against the 
 Turkish absentee landlord, but their hearts were against 
 the Fanariote middleman. When they joined Maghero's 
 abortive attempt at an organised resistance in 1 848, it was 
 against a Russian invasion of their territory, perpetrated 
 for invasion's sake on a sham diplomatic pretext, such as 
 is but too likely to recur at any time. What the exact 
 genealogical factors of the modern Wallachian may be it 
 is very hard to say, nor does it matter for any practical 
 purpose. It is enough for us that he chooses to think of 
 himself as a descendant of the Eomans, to lay stress on 
 his Eomanic elements, and to put himself into as close a 
 connection as he can, both socially and politically, with 
 the leading Eomanic Powers of the West. He has as 
 much right to do this as the Greek much purer in lan- 
 guage, but hardly less impure in blood, except locally 
 has to work the leverage of his ancestral connection, and 
 call himself a Hellene. The Eouman has some Slavonic 
 blood in his veins doubtless ; and so, for the matter of 
 that, have the Turk and the Greek, and everybody else in 
 these parts. But it has no more bearing on his character 
 or his present politics than the Slavonic blood alleged by 
 Schaffarik to exist in Wiltshire has upon the elections at 
 Calne and Devizes. The whole history of modern literary 
 movement and literary cultivation among the Eoumans is 
 simply the detail of their efforts to purify their language 
 by elimination of its intrusive Slavonic elements. They 
 have not done this satisfactorily nor according to any con- 
 sistent rule of analogy, for they are without the ground- 
 work of a solid Latin education, owing to their connection 
 with the Eastern Church. But the spirit of their modern 
 culture is anti-Slavonic in the most thoroughgoing sense. 
 A consideration of these Slavonic elements is well worth 
 
" GREEK SLA VS." 241 
 
 the while of philologists. They have, of course, received 
 due attention in Germany, and not one single syllable of 
 notice in England. The best account of them is contained 
 in a recent monograph by Francis Miklosich of Vienna, 
 who holds within the domain of Slavonic comparative 
 grammar the same master's position as that held by Zeuss 
 in the Celtic, Jacob Grimm in the Teutonic, Diez in the 
 Eomanic, and Bopp in the Pan- Aryan domains respec- 
 tively. They are larger than the Teutonic elements in 
 French, the most Teutonized of the Neo-Latin languages, 
 but far less than the Eomanic elements in English. They 
 are not only lexical, but have distinctly affected the phono- 
 logy, the idiom, and, in a small degree, the forms of Walla- 
 chian. The number of words of Slavonic origin found in 
 the latter as given by Miklosich many of them root- 
 words, fathers of families is little short of a thousand. 
 We have naturally no space here to enter into their most 
 interesting details. But, while referring to the Wallachian 
 language, we must find room for adverting to one fact. 
 This important language may, in some measure, be called 
 the keystone of the Eomanic arch. It has been com- 
 pletely separated and finally disconnected from the 
 Eomanic languages of the West, from the time of Aurelian 
 downwards. But it is in an almost identical stage of de- 
 velopment with Italian, and, its Slavonic accretions apart, 
 may be taken for a rude mismanaged Italian dialect. The 
 importance of the conclusions deducible from this would 
 not fail to strike our philologists, if we had any school of 
 philology we do not count people who, knowing no lan- 
 guages, speculate on the origin of Language, as philologists. 
 Yet the one book which we possess on the subject of the 
 Eomanic languages and their origin, that by Sir Cornewall 
 Xewis an inadequate, inexact, and most overrated work 
 absolutely makes no mention from beginning to end of 
 the one derivative of Latin which is the co-ordinate, not 
 of any single one among its Western congeners, but of the 
 entire group collectively, and illustrates them at every step. 
 
 Q 
 
SLA VONIC AT OXFORD. 
 
 May 24, 1866. 
 
 LORD ILCHESTER'S bequest of a thousand pounds for the 
 promotion of the study of " Polish and other Slavonic lan- 
 guages " has at length been accepted by the University of 
 Oxford without opposition, but in a thin house. The sub- 
 ject certainly is one not likely to create enthusiasm among 
 M. A/s of the ordinary type ; and as for opposition, surely 
 no one would have the heart to oppose the bequest on prin- 
 ciple, or the knowledge wherewith to oppose it in detail. 
 "We have some curiosity, not to say anxiety, to know how 
 its provisions will be put into practice, now that it has 
 been fairly adopted, and whether it is in contemplation to 
 adhere strictly and literally to the arrangement whereby 
 Lord Ilchester assigns priority to the Polish in preference 
 to any other Slavonic language. Now these languages, 
 like all other languages, are capable of being taught in two 
 ways and for two distinct objects. They may be taught 
 with the apparatus and for the purposes of the modern 
 science of comparative philology, with the view of illustrat- 
 ing each step of their own special history and each point 
 of their interdependence among themselves, as well as their 
 general position and bearings in that vast domain of Aryan 
 speech of which they form so important, well-defined, and 
 thoroughly surveyed a section. Or they may be taught 
 not as ends, but as means, for the purely practical purposes 
 of life, in the same way that we teach French or Hindu- 
 stani. The Polish language does not possess any such 
 inherent right of priority over the other Slavonic languages 
 as would entitle it to be selected as the medium of instruc- 
 tion upon either of the above grounds. It does not stand 
 towards them in the same position as Ulphilas's Gothic 
 towards the other Teutonic languages, or Sanskrit towards 
 the other Aryan languages. It is on precisely the same 
 
SLA VONIC A T OXFORD. 243 
 
 footing as its sister tongues, with no special advantage, 
 except in the archaic retention of certain final nasals an 
 advantage which can only be made of avail or appreci- 
 ated at all by treating the languages as a whole, and not 
 singly. If they are to be thus treated, and if decision be 
 given in favour of teaching them philologically, it is obvi- 
 ous that the basis of instruction should be the old Church 
 Slavonic, which does occupy a position like that of the 
 Gothic among German forms of speech, though in a far 
 less marked degree, and which can be made to act as a 
 solvent or key of the peculiarities and deviations of each 
 special dialect. Broadly speaking, and apart from the 
 merits of individuals, which have to be considered in de- 
 tail, instruction in this old tongue is not to be expected 
 from a Polish quarter, for it has never been studied as a 
 book language or a Church language by the Poles, a Catholic 
 people, who have always been careful to keep up their 
 Latin cultivation. 
 
 If, on the other hand, any Slavonic language is to be 
 taught simply for the purpose of linguistic acquisition, it 
 becomes still more reasonable and necessary to inquire 
 why Polish should be the one chosen. It is difficult of 
 acquisition, not only grammatically, but organically ; for it 
 is full of minute shades of pronunciation, of birdlike trills 
 and twitterings such as it is almost impossible for our adult 
 or adolescent organs to reproduce ; and it leads to nothing 
 except, at best, to the study of a few striking works of 
 poetical genius. All Poles with whom an Englishman is 
 likely to hold intercourse speak French, English, or Ger- 
 man. As for the Polish peasantry, the Polish Jews, or 
 others who speak Polish alone, he is no more likely to have 
 dealings with them, or to need their language much less 
 likely, in fact than with Bosnians or Bulgarians. And 
 we write it with pain, but it must be written, whatever 
 may be the sacrifice of sentimental regret there is only 
 too much reason to forbode a position of subordination and 
 inferiority for the Polish language henceforth. A moment's 
 
244 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 reflection will show that it must be so. On the other 
 hand, the position of Russia will be that of predominance, 
 and of an extension to which, in two directions at least, it 
 is difficult to assign limits. Our direct personal inter- 
 course with the Russians of all classes is increasing in the 
 same ratio that the development of public life, an unfettered 
 press, and a self-confident spontaneous nationalism, replac- 
 ing servile imitation of the West, are increasing among the 
 Russians themselves. It is full time that the language of 
 seventy growing millions of people should be rendered 
 accessible to us by systematic cultivation, instead of being 
 left to be picked up at haphazard and by rule of thumb. 
 Lord Ilchester's bequest gives us the opportunity of saying 
 this now, but we should have said it sooner or later, irre- 
 spectively of any bequest. And we shall have to repeat it 
 and harp upon it too, for it has been observed by people of 
 experience that one tap of a hammer has never yet been 
 enough to drive a nail into the "Anglo-Saxon" head. As 
 for the University, our recommendation would be for it to 
 resign itself implicitly into the hands of Mr. Watts, of the 
 British Museum, and procure a report from him as to the 
 most advisable plan of action, for he alone, to our know- 
 ledge, is master of the subject in all its bearings, and of 
 Slavonic bibliography into the bargain. 
 
 DAM ALTAFHOO. 
 
 May 30, 1866. 
 
 THE exalted Order of the Star of India has just been 
 divided into classes, into Knights Commanders and ordi- 
 nary Companions ; and it has all been duly registered and 
 decreed by Hatti-Sherif, or royal rescript. In this way 
 Dam Altafhoo, who was but plain Dam before, has now 
 come to be Sir Dam Altafhoo, for they have made him a 
 Knight Commander. Let us hope that he will rise in 
 good time to be Knight Grand Cross, and will some day 
 
DAM ALTAFHOO. 245 
 
 sit in the highest seats among the chosen ones of the age, 
 next to our old friend Sir Furzund Dilbund Eajegan. Of 
 course, it is open to himself or anybody to call him Sir 
 Shreemun Altafhoo, should it so seem good, for the choice 
 of names is as great and as picturesque as in the case of 
 Sir Furzund. His full style, in fact, is the Eajah Shree- 
 mun Maharajah Chuttroputte Shahabe Dam Altafhoo; 
 and a pretty style it looks too. There is one comfort, 
 that nobody can go wrong about the Eajah, not even in 
 the " London Gazette " office. It certainly seems odd that 
 the higher title of Maharajah should form part of the 
 name, being as though King Victor Emmanuel, or King 
 Pepple, or King Theodoras were to bear the name " Em- 
 peror" as part and parcel of those given them in their 
 baptism. But then we have never been to India, and 
 have, doubtless, no business to go about cavilling at what 
 we do not understand. Yet we own that we wished to 
 verify the Dam when we first saw it. It is not a proper 
 name for anybody belonging to a Christian order of knight- 
 hood. Thomas Hood would have resented it, and made 
 his printers treat it as he made them print Ainsterd m 
 and Eotterd m. Having begun by disliking it, we went 
 on to doubt it. We consulted dictionaries and grammars 
 of the Guzerati, the Marathi, the High Tamul, the Low 
 Tamul, the Canarese, the Malayalam, the Brij Bhakha, the 
 Pushtu, Puk'hto or Afghan, the Parthian, the Mede, the 
 Elamite, the Cretan, and the Arabian. We tried to con- 
 sult Colonel Sykes getting at him in the disguise of a 
 Taeping, with samples of rebel-grown silk. We knocked 
 up Sir Henry Eawlinson at an unearthly hour, rousing 
 him out of his beauty-sleep. We went the rounds of all 
 the club porters, and the great butlers, and the chaperones, 
 in order to try and find out who were the real London 
 "authorities" in Eastern matters the people who are 
 most sought after, and get most invitations to dinner as 
 Oriental lions, and are most thought of by the best men. 
 We got plenty of edifying information, but not about the 
 
246 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 Dam. Neither grammars, nor lexicons, nor Colonel Sykes, 
 nor the leading servants, nor the servant-minded ones, 
 could relieve our doubts, or unriddle us the Dam, except 
 to make us aware that no such a name existed anywhere. 
 There are places where it is said to mean a copper coin 
 quite below marketable value ; also places where it means a 
 trap wherein unwary creatures are caught. Either of these 
 will do for its meaning in the " London Gazette " office 
 the second for choice. Not but what the first well repre- 
 sents the current value of our modern official Orientalism 
 just what it is worth. 
 
 Some eighteen months ago a contemporary review if 
 we may use that form of words in speaking of articles 
 written before our own birth indulged both in facetious- 
 ness and indignation at the absurd and discreditable not 
 to say shameful way in which, at the time of Sir Fur- 
 zund of Kuppoorthulla's investiture, that potentate's names 
 and titles were insanely jumbled up with the headings 
 of his letters in Persian, and suchlike purely Oriental 
 honorific adjuncts. These, at first written in dog-Persian, 
 were transcribed into the Eoman character promiscuously, 
 just as the letters might happen to come uppermost into 
 the compositor's hand, and without a word to show our 
 English public that the ridiculous amalgam was no name 
 at all, and had no more to do with an Asiatic proper name 
 than " I am, sir, your obedient servant," has to do with an 
 English proper name. So it is in the present case, to be 
 serious with it at last. Dam Altafhoo, with its absurd 
 capitals, is no part of the honest man's name, but simply 
 the Arabic formula, ddma altafuliu, " may his favours 
 continue." It, or its like, is used in the direction and the 
 opening preamble of all letters among Mahometans ; 
 places where, in Oriental correspondence, honorific epithets 
 and vows for welfare are always accumulated, and compli- 
 mentary titles set forth at length. But what may here 
 call for special remark, over and above the original crown- 
 ing absurdity, is this, that both socially or morally and 
 
DAM ALTAFHOO. 247 
 
 grammatically, it is irredeemably wrong, alike bad gram- 
 mar and bad etiquette. Altdf, " favours/' the plural of 
 lutf, requires its verb to be in the feminine singular, by a 
 rule analogous to that whereby Greek neuters plural take 
 a singular verb. Semitic verbs, it should be said, as 
 Hebrew scholars know, distinguish the genders of their 
 persons. To be good Arabic, it should be Ddmat altdfuhu. 
 But that is nothing compared with the joke of making the 
 Empress of India appeal with gratuitous humility to a 
 little Mahratta princeling for the continuance of his favours 
 and kindness towards herself. The words used, just as 
 " favours " in English, distinctly imply and acknowledge 
 the superiority of the person whose favours are in ques- 
 tion. All Mahometans, from the Moors at Gibraltar to 
 the Tumongong of Johore, can understand each point, and 
 all will be in convulsions of laughter if ever they come to 
 hear of them. If Oriental words are worth using at all, 
 they are worth using rightly. But here, whatever may be 
 the process by which this sort of stuff contrives to filter 
 through layers of copying clerks and stratum after stratum 
 of officials into the " London Gazette," it is clear that the 
 persons who manage the titles at the Oriental Heralds' 
 College, be they " nigger " moonshees or albino aides-de- 
 camp, have no more idea of Eastern verbal etiquette than 
 of Arabic grammar. 
 
 After all this, it would be merely trifling to inquire why, 
 when you have got Oriental names by the gross, forming 
 a compact body, you spell them either quite chaotically, 
 or at best with a separate system for each name. This is 
 quite a different thing from the principle we advocate, of 
 spelling them in current newspaper writing just as we 
 find them, flagrant errors apart. There was a capital 
 opportunity, not to say a necessity, for system in the pre- 
 sent list, and it has been thrown away. 
 
248 
 
 LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 September 4, 1866. 
 
 AUTUMNAL newspaper controversies are like the Indian 
 banyan-tree. The main stem sends off its branches towards 
 all quarters of the heavens ; and these stretch down and 
 take root in the earth, and forthwith become themselves 
 as new trees. The great grammar controversy in the 
 " Times " not that it is a controversy as yet, for the 
 correspondence has all been on one side till yesterday 
 has just shot forth a promising young sapling indeed, 
 which may end by waxing much mightier than the parent 
 stem, if its growth be properly looked after. " J. E. A.," 
 who has taken part in the discussion with some sensible 
 and practical remarks upon the original question of me- 
 chanical versus ultra-philosophical teaching in the case 
 of very young boys, ends his letter by himself raising a 
 separate issue of the highest importance. This is no less 
 than the substitution of a reasonable for an utterly bar- 
 barous pronunciation of Latin in English teaching. Now 
 as regards theory, it is merely flogging a dead horse to 
 estify against the Eton pronunciation. No one defends 
 it in theory, or has anything better to say in its favour 
 than that it is the custom of the country. But no one 
 seems to conceive that it is within the limits of possibility 
 to give it up and replace it by the one pronunciation which 
 prevails over all the rest of the world, with a certain 
 minimum of local variation in each country. The ques- 
 tion is one of practicability and of goodwill, not one of 
 theoretical accuracy; and is literally nothing more than 
 whether or not it is within our power to teach the Latin 
 vowels with their Continental instead of their English 
 sounds. Now there is not the remotest difficulty in so 
 doing, because there is no organic obstacle in the way. 
 Such an organic obstacle we may exemplify by the instance 
 
THE GIFT OF TONGUES. 249 
 
 of a Greek 0, which no Frenchman or Italian could pro- 
 nounce unless he learnt it in childhood from an English- 
 man, an Icelander, or a modern Greek. The most he could 
 do would be to bear the theory in his mind, and do the 
 best he could in practice, with a sense of its being a 
 makeshift. But we have all the Latin vowel sounds as a 
 natural part of our own utterance, only we express them 
 by different letters or combinations. Is there any con- 
 ceivable reason why these should not be introduced into 
 English schools, if not from abroad, at least from Scot- 
 land? As for the consonants, they may take care of 
 themselves. The main point of difference would merely be 
 whether g and c should have their hard or their soft sound 
 before e and i, whether que and qid should be simple or 
 compound sounds, and maybe one or two more points, 
 which may be left to take their chance, and are quite 
 subordinate to the chief question. 
 
 THE GIFT OF TONGUES. 
 
 September 6, 1866. 
 
 THE Vienna correspondent of the " Times " has just drawn 
 up a list of the various languages which an Austrian 
 official may be called upon to learn in the course of his 
 duties an appalling list indeed. There are no less than 
 ten of them. It is almost impossible for an Englishman, 
 who knows absolutely nothing of language-questions, or 
 of race-questions determined by language for the Irish 
 language is virtually extinct to realise such a state of 
 things as one in which not only have ten languages got 
 to be learnt and mastered by the aggregate central govern- 
 ment, but they actually serve to denote ten separate poli- 
 tical questions, each of which is more or less menacing to 
 the very existence of the empire. These languages, indeed, 
 are not merely symbols of the political questions; they 
 
250 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 are of their very essence, the pivot on which they actually 
 turn. But it will perhaps be more to the purpose if, in- 
 stead of going into general reflections about these matters, 
 we were to make a correction here and there in the list 
 before us; for it requires correction, and is, otherwise, 
 sufficiently accurate to make it worth while to correct. 
 To begin with, there is a curious misprint ; Yaids instead 
 of Vinds or "Winds, as the writer no doubt had himself 
 written it meaning the Slovenians, or Carniolan Slavo- 
 nians. This word must be carefully distinguished in cur- 
 rent use from the Wends of the north-west, though the 
 two words are originally the same, being in fact our true 
 native name by which Teutons have in all times called 
 their Slavonic frontagers. Our own old English form 
 of it was Weonodas. Sclovenisch should not be translated 
 Sclave, which is rendering a specific term by a generic 
 one, and thus, by meaning everything means nothing. It 
 should be translated Windish or Slovenian. JRussinisch 
 (Eussian) seems safe enough at first sight, but there is 
 enough latent fire smouldering under the ashes here utterly 
 to burn up the unwary foot that may be set upon it. 
 "What turns on the rendering here is neither more nor less 
 than the ultimate fate of Galicia. We are not going to 
 handle the question ourselves here, warned off as we are 
 therefrom by the sound of much uproar and gnashing of 
 teeth. It is enough to say that, whatever the Euthenian 
 or Eussine language may be, it is most certainly not the 
 Great Eussian of St. Petersburg and Moscow, nor a dialect 
 of it, but as much a co-ordinate of it as Polish or Bohe- 
 mian. It is, in fact, Little Eussian, the language of the 
 Ukraine. The Austrians love to coquet with it and encour- 
 age it as against Polish. They try to make a literary 
 language of it, and have invested it with all the dignity 
 of the most ancient form of Cyrillic black-letter type, 
 which looks very imposing on a bank-note or official docu- 
 ment. It must be borne in mind, however, that five out 
 of these ten languages are closely akin to one another ; 
 
THE GIFT OF TONGUES. 251 
 
 varying from a dim, imperfect, mutual comprehension to 
 a difference which is barely even one of dialect. What is 
 the amount of difference between Croatian and Servian ? 
 Miklosich, in his Comparative Grammar of the Slavonic 
 Languages, treats the two as one, and they hardly seem to 
 vary more idiom and single words apart than in tone, 
 accent, and one or two phonetic peculiarities, such as the 
 retention of the final I in active participles in Croatian, 
 where the Servian vocalises it into o. The book-language 
 seems absolutely the same in Agram that it is in Belgrade 
 or Eagusa. As regards popular language, the details on 
 this point, in English at least, are certainly insufficient. 
 Miss Irby, who has the philological faculty, might do an 
 essential service in this direction if she could be kept 
 clear of politics. We think it is fair to say that any man 
 who is thoroughly master of one Slavonian language is 
 practically master of all, in so far as regards the power of 
 comprehension. Unless endowed with the special linguis- 
 tic gift, he may not be able to shift his speech from one 
 form to the other form so as to talk in each ; in doing so 
 he would always run the risk of missing his grammatical 
 tip, to borrow Mr. Sala's inimitably happy phrase ; but a 
 few days' practice would be all that was necessary to 
 enable him to understand the sense of his interlocutor's 
 words. Mr. Wratislaw, in his preface to his ancestor's 
 delightful journal of his Turkish captivity, says he tried 
 this at Prague in the extreme case of a Bulgarian. He 
 did not succeed in understanding him by means of Bohe- 
 mian, as was hardly to be expected, seeing that Bulgarian 
 has passed from synthesis to analysis, and has adopted 
 Turkish and Greek vocables to a large amount; but he 
 could have felt his way to comprehension with a fortnight's 
 intercourse before him, and it is probable that he might 
 have understood what he heard, had he seen it written 
 down on paper. 
 
GREEK PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 September 14, 1866; 
 
 SIR, Your correspondent the " Turk " is but a violent and 
 arbitrary Ottoman if lie really attributes to your previous 
 correspondent, " C. B. C. 3 " any tendency to advocate the 
 modern Greek system of pronouncing ancient Greek 
 merely because he objects to our pronunciation and re- 
 proves our total neglect of accents and our untruth to 
 ourselves in the matter of adhering to the rhythm which 
 we profess to respect. It by no means follows that, be- 
 cause a man says we are wrong, he necessarily implies 
 that the moderns are right, or vice versa. There is not a 
 word from beginning to end in " C. B. C.'s " letter which 
 commits him to any advocacy of the moderns, nor any 
 necessary indication of his holding such an opinion in 
 reserve. Our diphthongs are bad, he says, but it does not 
 follow that he may not think the modern ones are worse 
 being, in fact, no diphthongs at all. No doubt the 
 " Turk" may be right in availing himself of " C. B. C.'s" 
 letter as a favourable opportunity to lift up his voice and 
 testify against modern Greek heresies, but such testimony 
 is volunteered testimony, and does not in the least follow 
 from the terms of " C. B. C.'s " letter. I venture to think, 
 sir, that it is just as well for an outsider to set this 
 straight, because it is out of imputations volunteered and 
 suggested in this way that aimless, resultless interminable 
 newspaper controversies arise, whereof no man may see 
 the advantage or the end. In your columns at least there 
 is no elbow-room for them, and at best they would be like 
 a prize-fight in an ocean steamer's state-rooms. I cordi- 
 ally concur in your own opinion that the current topic of 
 discussion, the rectification of Latin pronunciation, should 
 not be allowed to drift into the utterly distinct question of 
 the theoretical accuracy of the various systems of Greek 
 
THE LANGUAGE QUESTIONS. 253 
 
 pronunciation; and that, when treated at all, it should 
 be restricted to those who are able to approach the ques- 
 tion from the three sides combined of comparative philo- 
 logy, recorded evidence, and vital knowledge of the true 
 modern theory and practice. The subject is far too exten- 
 sive for a newspaper topic, the simple reason of this being 
 that nobody except benighted Dons and bigoted Greeks any 
 longer continue to uphold any system as an aggregate, 
 wholly right or wholly wrong, but treats each phonological 
 detail by itself, to stand or fall by its own merits. As for 
 the accents, the question solvitur ambulando. Professor 
 Blackie, an enthusiastic and perfervid man, with a will of 
 his own, does actually teach tone-accent consistently with 
 unimpaired prosodial quantity, precisely as an old Greek 
 pronounced, and as a modern Lithuanian pronounces. 
 How he does it himself it is not difficult to conceive ; how 
 he enforces his teaching I own puzzles me ; how to ensure 
 a succession of Professor Blackies is an impossible pro- 
 blem. Still, he does it, and he has thus achieved a triumph 
 of principle which both Don and Greek will do well to 
 bear in mind. I am, &c., VEXATUS TOTIES. 
 
 THE LANGUAGE QUESTIONS IN THE TYROL 
 AND ISTRIA. 
 
 September 15, 1866. 
 
 WHATEVER may be said by physiologists in objection to 
 the employment of language as an absolute test of race in 
 questions of ethnological descent and we do not pretend 
 to deny that it has been overvalued, and can only be used 
 thus absolutely in default of other evidence it is certain 
 that, in all questions of practical ethnographic delimita- 
 tion in Europe, language does happen to be the one recog- 
 nised test for determining the race of any given people as 
 it now stands, and for asserting its political rights conse- 
 
254 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 quent upon the principle of nationalities. Apart from 
 force and the strong hand, the ultimate decision on such 
 a test must, no doubt, rest on the will of the people under 
 consideration, guided by the view which it may choose to 
 adopt as regards its own national affinity. The Bulgarians, 
 for instance, a uniform race, who constitute the great mass 
 of the Christian population of the Eastern Peninsula to 
 use Mr. Grant Duff's excellent new formula subject to 
 the direct rule of the Porte, are as yet in that fluid or half- 
 consolidated state which admits of their moulding them- 
 selves into the shape of more than one kindred race. Fifty 
 years ago, as a matter of fact, they were content to think 
 of themselves as Greeks like other Greeks ; that being a 
 period when religion, and not language, was the test of 
 race. It is open to them now to think of themselves as 
 Servians, or to think of themselves as Eussians, or as 
 something standing by itself, independent of both, and of 
 the same ordinal value as either ; and they do actually 
 think of themselves in each of these three directions. But 
 the final issue, as regards practical result, will clearly rest, 
 not on the actual ethnological fact, but on their own inter- 
 pretation of the fact, subject, of course, to the final and 
 superhuman authority of the lords of the world, the 
 Emperors of the East and the West, and of the Centre, if 
 there is to be one. As regards abstract ethnological truth, 
 however, the issue rests with the scientific inquirer alone, 
 and if he would attain it, he had need keep his science 
 clear from his own or other people's political conclusions. 
 In registering and criticising linguistic facts, therefore, as 
 we are about to do, in the case of any particular nationality 
 inclined to base practical conclusions on those facts, it is 
 necessary to premise, as we have done, that the political 
 part of the argument, however properly it may be con- 
 ducted, is secondary to its scientific part, and under un- 
 disturbed circumstances turns on the will and opinion of 
 the people in question. As a corollary to this it may be 
 added that, in current questions of this kind, temptations 
 
THE LANGUAGE QUESTIONS. 255 
 
 are great, and few scruples are shown in recklessly dis- 
 torting and misrepresenting facts in order to create such 
 an opinion on the spot itself and elsewhere. The ethno- 
 logical politician handles his facts his own way, according 
 to scheme or predilection. But the non-political ethnolo- 
 gist must keep aloof from political questions, and must 
 deal with his facts in as strictly abstract and scientific a 
 spirit as he can, so long as he remains on scientific ground. 
 In examining the state of the case, therefore, in the South- 
 ern Tyrol and Istria, we think it quite legitimate for us to 
 admit, as politicians, that neither may be wholly Italian, 
 and still to recognise their claim to become Italian, if they 
 are mainly and increasingly Italian, and have set their 
 heart on- becoming Italian. Our only quarrel would lie, 
 as ethnologists, with those who chose to distort the facts 
 for the sake of the politics, and averred that Istria was 
 already Italian if it were nothing of the kind. That is 
 the unpardonable sin to all concerned in the integrity of 
 scientific truth. 
 
 The case of the Southern Tyrol, indeed, is clear enough, 
 and has no difficulty about it. Trent is as thoroughly and 
 absolutely an Italian city as Rome itself. The frontier 
 line of the Italian language coincides with fair accuracy, 
 subject, however, to some marked exceptions, with the 
 main ridge of the Central Alps. On one point alone it 
 has crossed the Alps, and is established on Swiss territory 
 in the Yal Livigno, a wild primitive pastoral upland of the 
 Eastern Grisons, only now coming into notice among our 
 Alpine travellers. The case is reversed in the upper val- 
 leys of the Pennine Alps, and notably in the valley of the 
 Adige. The chain here trends northwards, and is crossed 
 by the lowest, or nearly the lowest, of all its passes. The 
 German invaders have thronged into Italy by this way for 
 a thousand years, and they have completely occupied or 
 Germanized all the upper valleys of the Adige. These are 
 certain always to remain as thoroughly German as they 
 are now. If Trent is as Italian as Rome, Meran is as 
 
256 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 German as Innspruck. Yet the tables are being slowly 
 turned on the Germans in the main valley, and the tide 
 of ethnic occupation is setting northwards. Italian is 
 gradually encroaching upon and displacing German within 
 the Cisalpine Tyrol if we may use a Eoman's term in the 
 Roman's sense. The two adjoining villages of Mezzo-Lom- 
 bardo and Mezzo-Tedesco, in German Deutsch and Welsch 
 Metz, once formed the frontier, but German has now re- 
 ceded far north of this. The town population is bilingual, 
 as all towns are on ethnological frontiers within the fron- 
 tiers of political States. Italian can hardly be called as 
 yet the predominant language of Botzen, the chief town 
 of the doubtful district, but it bids fair to become so in 
 fifty years' time, to whatever State the town . may be 
 assigned. Eural populations, as a rule, are everywhere 
 unilingual, except when a language is undergoing the 
 process of actual displacement, as in the remote districts 
 of Ireland ; and such process hardly lasts more than three 
 generations in one spot. Where the line of demarcation 
 is to be drawn in the valley of the Adige for the present 
 generation it is hard to say, for our own travellers do not 
 observe these phenomena, and we cannot lay our hands 
 on such German or other records of them as we have had 
 the luck to fall in with from time to time. But one thing 
 is certain, that the Germans of the main valley of the 
 Adige are what is called a retiring population ; in other 
 words, are either bodily retreating, or else changing their 
 language; wherever the temporary line of demarcation 
 may happen to be drawn. The encroaching Italian, it 
 need hardly be observed, is not book-Tuscan, but the 
 natural speech of the country, assigned by Biondelli to 
 the Venetian family, and thus clearly marked off from its 
 Lombard neighbours to the west, the frontier here coin- 
 ciding with a political frontier, or what once was such. 
 Where Italian has surrounded and insulated a fragmen- 
 tary German population it has killed it outright. That 
 strange relic of a Bavarian settlement of the twelfth cen- 
 
THE LANGUAGE QUESTIONS. 257 
 
 tury, the Sette Communi of the Vicentine territory, whose 
 uncouth old speech was only taken down in articulo mor- 
 tis, has only been extinguished thus within the present 
 generation, if indeed it be yet fully extinct. Probably 
 some Dolly Pentreath still survives, however, as a curi- 
 osity. 
 
 How far is the case in Istria the same with that of the 
 Tyrol ? The language used by the Italians in urging 
 their claims gives us no reason to believe that any differ- 
 ence exists between the two cases. Both are alike called 
 Italian, and both ought equally to belong to Italy both 
 being Italian to the same extent and in the same way, for 
 ought we are told to the contrary. Now the real fact is, 
 that Italian in Istria is in precisely the same category as 
 Italian in Corfu and Zante; if not in the Corfu of this 
 generation, assuredly so in that of fifty years ago. The 
 country, as a whole, may be called a bilingual country ; 
 but its rural population speak one language, and one 
 language alone, and that is not Italian, but Slavonian of 
 the Croatian type. The urban population, whose blood 
 may be mainly Italian, dwelling in the numerous and 
 very interesting little towns which fringe its long line of 
 coast, speak two languages the enchorial Slavonian, and, 
 side by side with it, the foreign Italian, implanted, or at 
 least fostered, there by Venetian intercourse and dominion. 
 It would perhaps be nearer the truth if we were to arrange 
 the languages horizontally rather than vertically, for the 
 Italian is uppermost. It is in reality the language of cul- 
 ture, of business, of trade, of the sea and all that concerns 
 it, here and throughout the Adriatic. Every man as he 
 rises in life must learn it, as a "Welshman, to rise, must 
 learn English. But it is not the one language of the 
 country. Throughout the Eastern Adriatic, and wherever 
 the direct rule of the Venetian Eepublic extended, the 
 linguistic phenomena are precisely the same. An encho- 
 rial language, easily coexisting in the towns with Italian 
 as the language of culture, has gone on from generation to 
 
 K 
 
258 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 generation without the slightest friction, or mutual dis- 
 placement or encroachment. This was the case in Dal- 
 matia, on the North Albanian coast, and in the Ionian 
 Islands, precisely as much as in Istria. The rural popula- 
 tion, uncivilised or half civilised, spoke, and continues to 
 speak, its own language, and that alone, in all these coun- 
 tries. The Austrians who have ceded Venice are only 
 too glad to inherit a language of culture common to all 
 South-Eastern Europe more or less, and have themselves 
 been a means of keeping up Italian on these coasts. Bi- 
 lingualism is here more marked, and rests more strongly 
 upon each of its limbs, than, perhaps, anywhere else in 
 Europe. Anybody who has overheard the crews of the 
 Austrian Lloyd's nay, even Corfiote ladies and gentlemen 
 of the old school keep up a sustained conversation, knows 
 that it is impossible to say, if a speaker begins to talk in 
 one language, whether or not he will end his sentence in 
 the same. Each comes equally well and natural to the 
 tongue, somehow ; though it is odd to the outside listener 
 to find the. light blown out, as it were, and himself sud- 
 denly plunged into the utter darkness of Slavonic or 
 Greek without a warning. The speakers, however, seem 
 as wholly unconscious of all incongruity as the polyglot 
 little Russian or Levantine children who skip about from 
 speech to speech as a matter of course, without a thought 
 or the power of thought on the subject. 
 
 The best test wherewith to measure the accuracy of a 
 parallel between these two cases would be the detailed 
 history of the displacements in each case, if we could but 
 get at it. Is there a third language, if not actually abori- 
 ginal, at all events quasi-aboriginal, and as old as we can 
 find, either in Istria or the Tyrol ; and if so, is it German 
 or Italian which has overpowered it in the Tyrol, Slavo- 
 nian or Italian which has overpowered it in Istria ? Now 
 it is a very curious circumstance that in each country 
 there does happen to be a language, one, indeed, no older 
 than Roman rule, which can be made to do duty as an 
 
THE LANGUAGE QUESTIONS. 259 
 
 aboriginal tongue, and by means of which we can bring 
 the issue fairly to the test. Each is a rude wild form of 
 Bomanic, broken off, or otherwise far removed, from its 
 immediate congeners themselves but rustic half-culti- 
 vated dialects at best and each at this moment actually 
 expiring under our eyes. The eastern branch of the 
 Upper Adige above Botzen is joined at points far apart 
 by two tributaries, respectively named in German the 
 Enneberger, or Gader Thai, and the Grodner Thai. Each 
 of these, communicating with one another by their heads, 
 is inhabited by a population quite distinct from its neigh- 
 bours, speaking an ill-kept dialect of the same language 
 which is spoken in the Grisons far to the west in the 
 valleys of the Upper Ehine and the Inn. They are, in 
 fact, true Quere-Welsh, and the curious evidence of the 
 very peculiar local names covering the whole of this 
 country, evidence into which we have no space to go 
 ourselves, distinctly proves the former continuity of this 
 one race over a very extensive area of Central Europe. 
 The Gader Thai is a wild rugged valley thinly occupied 
 by woodcutters. This population is being Germanized 
 under the congenial influence, as it would seem, of the 
 mountain Tyrolese of the north. The Val Gordeina, on 
 the other hand, as it is called in its native Quere-Welsh 
 (we are not going to use so unsightly a word as Kumonsch, 
 nor so clumsy a one as Khseto-Komanic, to please anybody), 
 comes under lowland influence, for it is a rich valley, well 
 cultivated and well peopled. It prays in Italian, it writes 
 in Italian, and it has learnt to talk in Italian. Of its 
 twelve priests, eight preach in Italian, three in Quere- 
 Welsh, and one in German. But still nearly every man 
 understands and speaks German. Here it is clear that the 
 strongest, the advancing, and the civilising influence is the 
 Italian. 
 
 When, some months ago, we were suggesting the pro- 
 priety of getting rid of the French word Eoumain as an 
 English name for the Wallachs, and otherwise discussing 
 
260 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 their various national names, we adverted to the existence 
 of an outlying fragment of that race, under the surface, at 
 the very gates of Trieste. With the exception of a brief 
 incorrect notice cited by Dr. Latham from Biondelli, who 
 at that time had no means of knowing anything about 
 them, no account has ever been given of this popula- 
 tion in English, nor, indeed, does anybody seem of late 
 years to have been anywhere more than barely aware of 
 their existence until the publication of Miklosich's very 
 valuable monograph on the Slavonic elements in Walla - 
 chian two or three years ago. In an appendix to this 
 work the Vienna professor gives a detailed account of 
 these interesting people, chiefly on the authority of local 
 parish priests and of some special contributions to a 
 Trieste newspaper of 1846. This handful of men, by 
 some stated as amounting to six thousand, by others as 
 three thousand only, now occupy a few villages in a dis- 
 trict stretching from the roots of the great Istrian moun- 
 tain, best known by its Italian name of Monte Maggiore, 
 down the Val d'Arsa. Their former occupancy, however, 
 was demonstrably far more extensive. They are genuine 
 and unmistakable Wallachians. But their native lan- 
 guage, the only available test for determining their race, 
 has so far died out, that it only survives as a family lan- 
 guage, disused out of doors, and kept up by the women 
 alone, a lingua di confidenza, to use the reporter's words. 
 As for their history, and how they came to be where they 
 are, it is wholly unknown. We are so accustomed to 
 associate the word Wallachian with the inhabitants of the 
 Danubian Principalities the only portion of that race 
 who, having obtained political standing, speak their own 
 language exclusively, and have made a written speech out 
 of it, such as it is that we are apt to lose sight of the 
 fact that the great mass of the special evidence points to 
 the countries south of the Danube to Thrace and Mace- 
 donia as the original seat of the development of the 
 Eouman language out of colloquial Latin, and growth of 
 
THE LANGUAGE QUESTIONS. 261 
 
 the new race out of a Eomanized native population, with 
 a maximum of other foreign elements. Now, the language 
 of the Istrian Eoumans is not of the North Danubian 
 or Daco-Eoman type. It is of the South Danubian or 
 Macedo-Eoman type ; the language of Metzovo and Ka- 
 larites, nay, of Thebes and Athens, rather than of 
 Bucharest and Jassy ; the mother tongue of Coletti, not 
 that of Couza. The test- words we use this term with 
 repugnance, so much abused by half-learned critics of local 
 nomenclature are sufficient to establish the fact clearly. 
 On the Danube the word for " beautiful " is "frumos" 
 from formosus. In Istria and the Pindus both the word 
 is " mashdiu" the final u being sounded in the latter, con- 
 trary to the North Eouman practice. Miklosich calls it 
 an obscure word, but it is probably neither more nor less 
 than from a low Latin formosatus. " Where " is " unde " 
 at Bucharest ; in Istria and Thessaly, " iu" These cases 
 might be multiplied, even out of Miklosich's necessarily 
 scanty speech-samples. But the gist of the matter is that 
 the outdoor language that is replacing the dying Walla- 
 chian is not Italian, which, from its strong special affinity 
 with Wallachian, would have nine points in its favour, 
 but the alien Croatian. Such a sentence as the proverb, 
 Shi vaca neagra db lapte are, " Even a black cow has white 
 milk," is pure Eouman everywhere, with the one exception 
 of db for alb. Any one who knows Latin can see the 
 meaning for himself. But no Latin will help in a sen- 
 tence like Odprostt nam a nostru peJcat, " Forgive us our 
 sin," except by taking a shot. The first words are pure 
 Slavonian as they stand, verb, pronoun, -construction, and 
 all. For all this, Italian has left some mark on the lan- 
 guage. MaltraU, divertit, donche (dunque ; in Wai. atunci) 
 are Eomanic, but not Eouman, and are of course Italian. 
 So is e for and, side by side with the original shi, old French 
 si, from sic. But, in the language of Dr. Miklosich's main 
 authority, these little -known people slavizzarono tutti. 
 They have merged their national life into a Croatian, not 
 
262 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 an Italian, existence; and not even Cassar's decree nor 
 Dantesque writ can avail to make their country a bonafide 
 and integral portion of Italy in the eyes of the ethno- 
 logist. We think that these two cases show sufficiently 
 that the Southern Tyrol is, and that Istria is not, an essen- 
 tially Italian country, to be ranged in the same category 
 with any part of Italy proper. 
 
 CELTIC AT OXFORD. 
 
 September 22, 1866. 
 
 MOST of our contemporaries who have been prevented by 
 want of space or inclination from giving an account of the 
 late Eisteddfod at Chester with any fulness of detail have 
 concurred in selecting Mr. Matthew Arnold's letter, recom- 
 mending the institution of a Celtic Professorship at Oxford, 
 as the most important or prominent feature of the pro- 
 ceedings. This concurrence of opinion, fixing upon the 
 one circumstance which served to connect the Welsh 
 festival in a practical way with a project of supposed 
 general interest beyond the limits of the Principality, is 
 certainly a noteworthy fact. The Eisteddfod council 
 appear to have adopted Mr. Arnold's recommendation 
 warmly and promptly, and embodied it at once in a formal 
 resolution. Under these circumstances it may not be 
 superfluous to inquire what .it is that Mr. Arnold really 
 wants, how far his object be definite or attainable, and 
 how far, supposing the University to decide upon the 
 establishment of such a professorship, it can find in any 
 part of the world a source of supply equal to a demand for 
 a single individual likely to meet Mr. Arnold's idea. Let 
 us firstly premise that the word " Celtic " itself is entirely 
 a bookman's word. No Celtic or other population now 
 calls itself, or its neighbours, or anybody else, Celtic. The 
 word is entirely a conventional word, transferred from the 
 
CELTIC A T OXFORD. 263 
 
 historical Celtse of Julius Caesar's time to a group of 
 modern fragmentary peoples who are their kindred no 
 doubt, but are so by presumption alone. The word in its 
 modern acceptation is bookwork, not vernacular record. 
 Its constant use as a convenient ethnological generalisation 
 is apt to lead modern writers into laying undue stress upon 
 the continuance of their common character of identity 
 unimpaired, and far into the historical period, without a 
 shadow of evidence being adduced in justification of such 
 a course. It is in the domain of philology, and of phi- 
 lology alone, that their modern divergent species can be 
 raised into the common term of a single ancient one. By 
 philological investigation we are able successfully to get 
 rid of all the old ideas of primaeval separation between the 
 two main branches of the Celtic race, of Gaelic waves and 
 Cymric waves and the like, ideas which seem still as rife 
 as ever outside the Zeussian school. But there is no other 
 way of reducing these two languages under a common 
 term than by philological treatment. The recorded litera- 
 ture of each branch developed itself altogether separately 
 from the other ; those who formerly cultivated and who 
 still cultivate the literature of each country, whether for 
 antiquarian purposes, as in Ireland, or for both vernacular 
 and antiquarian purposes, as in Wales, are wholly and 
 altogether out of mutual communion and intercourse with 
 their respective congeners. No Gael knows anything 
 whatever about Welsh literature. No Welshman knows 
 anything whatever about Irish literature. Such an excep- 
 tion as that of the venerable Mr. W. Skene only proves 
 the rule. Mr. Arnold sees in the translated literature of 
 each branch, in so far as it has come before him in an 
 appreciable form, the common property of a delicacy and 
 spirituality which he would contrast with certain qualities 
 alleged to denote both the English and the strictly Teu- 
 tonic literature. But who is to illustrate this view and 
 work it out in detail by means of a common exposition of, 
 say, the Black Book of Carmarthen and the Yellow Book of 
 
264 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 Lecan ? It is Mr. Arnold who generalises and combines, 
 not the Celtic scholar himself; and the impracticability 
 of finding a suitable professor would be at once perceived 
 the moment an attempt were made to look into details- 
 Even within the Britannic branch we are told by the high 
 authority of one of the ablest writers in the "Archaeologia 
 Cambrensis," a most excellent periodical, that not half-a- 
 dozen Welshmen have ever bestowed a thought upon the 
 Cornish remains, or know anything about them. Within 
 the Gaelic branch the Scotch Highlanders are doing all 
 they possibly can to set themselves up as co-ordinates of 
 their Irish progenitors, and in so doing are only cutting 
 themselves adrift from the safe moorings of modern phi- 
 lology, as well as from the best records of their own an- 
 tiquities. The convergent tendency of archaeological and 
 literary treatment is only now setting in among the Celts, 
 and until a generation be past, and a special class of men 
 be formed, who may be termed by the old Scotian phrase 
 of Fir dd leithe, " men of two halves " i.e., of Ireland and 
 its colony in North Britain men capable of doing equal 
 justice both to Welsh and Irish literature, we think that 
 the only alternative lies between appointing a professor 
 whose work would be solely philological, with Zeuss for 
 his text-book, or having two professors, one for each 
 language. If this last plan were adopted, we may foretell 
 that, according to the best diagnosis of the rules of patron- 
 age and promotion in England, the selection would probably 
 fall on the eldest, most influential, or most pushing Jones 
 on the books of Jesus or on John Brown the gillie. 
 
 ZMUDZO-LE THONIANS. 
 
 January 28, 1867. 
 
 CAN it be possible that there still exist any survivors of 
 the Old-Prussians, as appears to be indicated by the 
 Eussian statistics of the recruitment of 1866, giving the 
 
ZMUDZO-LE THONIANS. 265 
 
 proportion furnished by each different race of the empire ? 
 These state that there were 852 recruits contributed by the 
 " Zmudzo-Lethonians," who are described as being " Old- 
 Prussians, a nearly extinct race of Lithuanian descent, 
 formerly inhabiting the now German province of East 
 Eussia." East Eussia is obviously a misprint for East 
 Prussia in this passage. Who are these people ? The 
 description seems to point to a migration of the old race 
 at some period when they were in retention of thefr old 
 speech, or otherwise had means of keeping up a distinctive 
 character of race-descent. But there is no account of any 
 such migration in any ethnological work accessible to 
 English readers, nor is any mention made of them or their 
 dialect in any of the important German works recently 
 written on the Lithuanic languages. The true Old- 
 Prussians of Prussia are known to have lost their lan- 
 guage since the end of the seventeenth century a few 
 old people alone having spoken it in 1689 and they are 
 cow perfectly undistinguishable from any other German- 
 speaking Prussian, unless possibly by physical tests, of 
 which, however, we have no record. Zmudz is the Polish 
 form of the word, which we are more accustomed to see 
 in the Latin form of Samogitia. It is a strong corruption 
 of the full-mouthed native Lithuanian term Zemaitis, 
 plural Zemaitei (the z by rights bearing a mark to show 
 that it is sounded like a Erench /), meaning a Lowlander, 
 as opposed to the Upper Lithuanians of Prussia. The word 
 is the correspondent, in fact, both in sense and etymology, 
 of a Greek ^a^amo?, if one may venture to create such a 
 form for illustration's sake. But these Samogitians are 
 not Prussians, but true Lithuanians, and, in so far as the 
 authorities have hitherto informed us, certainly do not 
 speak the extinct Prussian, which differed from Lithuanian 
 as a substantive language, not as a dialect. They speak 
 true Lithuanian, only differing dialectically from that of 
 the Prussian kingdom. The difference is important 
 enough, for the one dialect, under Polish influence, accents 
 
266 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 its words uniformly, as in Polish, while the other has 
 actually retained in all but perfect integrity an indepen- 
 dent tonic accent coexistent with prosodial quantity. It 
 is thus the exact living counterpart of Hellenic Greek 
 during the Homeric and classical period; and a reference 
 to it, or a comprehension of its method, may be called 
 indispensable to an understanding of the ancient Greek 
 sound-system, to say nothing of its beautiful completeness 
 of afchaic diphthongation. This alone would make it of 
 sufficient importance to justify our seizing a passing oppor- 
 tunity of allusion to its existence. But the real fact is 
 that the Lithuanian language is, for reasons into which we 
 would gladly enter had we space, as much the most im- 
 portant of living European tongues in the eyes of the com- 
 parative philologist as French is the most important to 
 the practical linguist. In the Prussian kingdom it has 
 gone down by the run; it is dying out rapidly, and is 
 only to be heard in the peasant's hut ; yet Schleicher speaks 
 naturally when he compares his exultation at coming 
 across its " herrliche Formen " in living speech, after going 
 through hardship and trouble to obtain them, with that of 
 the botanist who has at last come on a rare plant, after 
 searching through brakes and swamps. Nor does Diefen- 
 bach unpardonably exaggerate when he says that what 
 may be called its discovery excited hardly less sensation 
 among the learned of Europe than even that of Sanskrit 
 itself. Surely an Eton master, and even an Eton boy, 
 might be moved at hearing that there are Europeans alive 
 who not only called their sons sunns, their beer alus, and 
 their bulls bullus, but who actually decline them like 
 gradus into the bargain, with the us short in the singular 
 and long in the plural. 
 
IRANI AN" AND "ARYAN." 
 
 March 30, 1868. 
 
 Sm, Pray allow me the liberty of making one or two 
 observations upon your recent able reviews of Professor 
 Max Miiller's " remarkable/' the Professor calls them 
 late reprint of his minor pieces. I should like, and it is 
 full time, to call attention to a very curious neologism, or 
 rather solecism, which you have therein employed in the 
 general terms used by you for the purpose of classifying 
 the various languages of the world. I need hardly say 
 that the first impulse after reading those articles is one of 
 thankfulness that somebody has at length come forward 
 who can criticise the brilliant Professor as well as repeat 
 him ; who, to take one point for instance, is not in the 
 least inclined to accept his purely negative group of Tura- 
 nian languages in the positive and all-comprising sense 
 which he would fain confer upon it. But there already 
 exists in these matters so much confusion of thought and 
 so much misconception, through cross purposes created by 
 the ambiguous or twofold use of general terms for classifi- 
 cation in ethnological and philological science the same 
 word being now used generically, now specifically, now in 
 a comprehensive, now in a restricted sense that I venture 
 to think that no time should be lost in making an appeal 
 to an able writer to forego the use in a generic sense of a 
 term as yet universally recognised and employed by all 
 other writers in a specific sense only, when such neological 
 use is altogether peculiar to the able writer himself, and 
 tends but to make confusion worse confounded. Here, at 
 the outset of your second article, you say, " Mr. Max 
 Mtiller is, as always, bounded by the myths of the Iranian 
 or Aryan world." Now a genuine student at first hand of 
 Bopp and Pott, not to speak of the aggregate of English 
 readers who get their Indo-European comparative philology 
 
268 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 through Dr. Miiller alone, being accustomed to meet the 
 terms of that science as used in their ordinary acceptation, 
 will at once wonder at this, and will be set speculating as 
 to which of the two worlds can be meant, the larger or the 
 smaller. He will be still more surprised farther on when 
 told of the Professor's " brilliant exposition of the compa- 
 rative mythology of the Iranians," for, as he has always un- 
 derstood that word, used as it is by his school semper, ubique, 
 et db omnibus in one sense, and one only, there can be in 
 his eyes no possibility of instituting any such comparison, 
 through sheer want of the necessary records and materials. 
 All his knowledge tells him that the ancient Persian my- 
 thology as related to us in the Avesta and by the classic 
 historians, or as dimly echoed down to modern times in 
 Firdausi's great romance, is absolutely the sole recorded 
 mythology of any Iranian people ; being indeed, as perhaps 
 it is not unnecessary to say parenthetically, in presence of 
 the great fuss which is now making by theologians and 
 amateurs about the Zend writings, little more than an off- 
 shoot or a distortion of the more archaic Indian mytho- 
 logy set forth in the Vedas. Persian mythology cannot 
 well be compared with itself, and there is none other within 
 the Iranian domain. There is no Armenian mythology, 
 nor is there any Kurdish or Lurish or Beluchi mythology, 
 nor any Afghan mythology, not the faintest trace so far as 
 the ground has been explored ; while of the Iron or Os- 
 setes of the Caucasus, the only remaining Iranian people 
 according to the established usage of the word, there is 
 nothing to show but a handful of nursery tales. But on 
 reading farther your true meaning becomes clear. It is 
 at length seen that the word Iranian with you really means 
 the same thing as the word Aryan with Professor Miiller, 
 the French, the Italians, and, under his influence, most of 
 ourselves. That word Aryan is not popular with the Ger- 
 mans generally, and it is in reality very inconvenient, 
 being so for the same reason, only less in degree, that the 
 word Iranian is inconvenient ; that is to say, it is wanted 
 
"IRANIAN" AND "ARYAN." 269 
 
 for a special conventional use, which of right intrinsically 
 belongs to it, as comprising the Eastern branch of the 
 whole family, the Indians together with the Iranians, spe- 
 cially connected for many ages after separation from the 
 Western branches who settled in Europe, and needing dis- 
 tinction therefrom by a proper term. The Germans prefer 
 to use the word arisck in this last sense, and not as denot- 
 ing the whole family, which they now mostly call arisck- 
 europdisch, too long a word for us, but very accurate, if not 
 very convenient. It is too late for us to stop the word 
 Aryan for the general family, but we should at least do 
 well to supplement it by the word Aric for the special 
 family of the Indians plus the Iranians ; of course retain- 
 ing the latter word in its usual sense, for which it is 
 wholly indispensable, and from which, I venture to sub- 
 mit, it should never henceforth be moved. To use such an 
 expression as " the Greek and other Iranian myths " is to 
 unsettle the fixed terminology of a definite branch of science 
 upon a point where all its teachers are fully agreed. 
 
 TATHAGATA. 
 
 March 30, 1868. 
 
 SIR, May I ask your leave to make a personal explana- 
 tion ? Mr. Max Miiller did me the honour to call me a 
 Shemite ; my courteous critic in your number of to-day 
 identifies me with the lamented Bunsen. He asks me 
 " to forego the use in a generic sense of a term [Iranian] 
 as yet universally recognised and employed by all other 
 writers in a specific sense only, when such neological use 
 is peculiar " to me, &c. My critic must be aware that in 
 the " Philosophy of Universal History " (vol. ii. pp. 6, 7) 
 one of the three great groups of language is called the 
 " Iranian," among the subdivisions of which is the 
 "Arian," divided again into the Arian proper, and the 
 Arian of India. 
 
 I frankly admit that the generic term Iranian is a bad 
 
270 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 one, and that it is a shade worse than the now usual 
 Aryan or Arian. But if the modern Iran be etymologi- 
 cally identical with the Airyana (Airyanem vaego) of the 
 first Fargard of the Vendidad, the difference between 
 Iranian and Aryan, when employed in modern science, 
 actually disappears. 
 
 My critic says, " It is too late to stop the word Aryan 
 for the general family." One who combines a scientific 
 hatred of vicious terminology with a Turanian hatred of 
 all that is Iranian can surely do something better than 
 accept Aryan for the group, and suggest Aric for the Indo- 
 Persian division. Would he not render a great service 
 to comparative philology, by opening a discussion on its 
 terminology at the next meeting of the British Asso- 
 ciation ? 
 
 THE BEVIEWER OF MR. MAX MULLER'S " CHIPS." 
 
 SIR, I am afraid that I was not the* least aware of 
 Baron Bunsen's use of the word Iranian in a sense identical 
 with that assigned to it by your reviewer of Professor Max 
 Miiller's " Chips." I wish your reviewer all the benefit of 
 a precedent carrying such weight in this country. But 
 meanwhile I beg to repeat my assertion, that no compara- 
 tive philologist of the school of Bopp or Pott, either now or 
 ever, will be found to use the word otherwise than in one 
 sense and one only. This seems contradictory ; but catch 
 me reconciling it out loud in England. Elsewhere explana- 
 tion is not needed. Bopp and Pott and their school may 
 be wrong not to acknowledge the Baron's authority as we 
 do, but as a matter of fact they do not. Nobody else but 
 your reviewer uses the word, and I may further take leave 
 to add, now that he no longer speaks with the editorial 
 voice, that it is by such solecism that his individuality 
 becomes known when he writes, as he always does with 
 perfect mastery of his own subject, in your and other 
 
"IRANIAN" AND "ARYAN." 271 
 
 columns. My letter, which I am glad he found courteous, 
 was an appeal to him, a high Semitic authority, to forego 
 the use of such solecism henceforward, and to refer him to 
 the strictly defined usage assigned to the word by the 
 universal consent of working comparative philologists. 
 Let your reviewer go to the original German workshop and 
 see the practice for himself. He is far too valuable to be 
 allowed to rest under any misconception as to who is and 
 who is not in authority there. 
 
 I do not see how I can " do better " with regard to the 
 next particular point than recommend, as I have done, the 
 term Aric for the German Arisch, which is quite in harmony 
 with the genius of our language, keeping that of Aryan for 
 the whole family ; not quite liking this last term, but per- 
 fectly ready to make the best of it, and subordinate myself 
 to the current usage as fixed by the great authority of 
 Professor Miiller. The only improvement I see would be 
 to use the word Pan-Aryan in the latter sense. What 
 your reviewer means, I think, is rather that I could do 
 more, raise further issues, and subject the whole of our 
 current terminology in these matters to criticism, so as to 
 remedy its vagueness and looseness. Well, I should like 
 to try and do so. But one voice does little, as the opera 
 says. I, in turn, would strongly recommend your reviewer 
 to do much better than to read Bunsen's book for Aryan 
 comparative philology, unless it be such parts as are 
 directly contributed by Aufrecht and Miiller. He surely 
 would not himself admit of an Aryan student's reference 
 to, say, Dean Stanley as a primary authority upon the 
 technical usage of general terms within the domain of. 
 Semitic ethnology and philology. The accepted generalis- 
 ations of Bopp and Pott are, I think, to be found in the 
 Vergleichende Grammatik and the Etymologische Forschun- 
 gen and their teeming progeny, rather than to be looked 
 for in Bunsen, in which books also will be found the cor- 
 rect method of transcribing the Zend language. I hope it 
 is your printer, and not your reviewer, who is responsible 
 
272 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 for the vaego and the Vendidad. I strongly suspect that 
 the vaego should really be laid at the door of Professor 
 Mu'ller and his unsatisfactory way of writing our j and ch 
 as italic "k and g, which is enough to perplex any printer. 
 It is usual, moreover, in transcribing Zend, to mark the 
 quantity of short e as in th-em of neuters and masculine 
 accusatives equal to the Sanskrit am that is to say, 
 Burnouf, Bopp, Spiegel, Haug, and everybody do so. 
 
 If Bunsen does not, 'tis pity for Bunsen. 
 
 May I say a personal word in conclusion? Being so 
 mighty sensitive under Professor Max Muller's epithet of 
 Shemite, your reviewer might surely have thought twice 
 before calling me a Turanian, in so far as he calls me one 
 by talking of my " Turanian hatred of all that is Iranian." 
 A man is a wise child who knows his ethnological father, 
 but I believe I am as safe in saying that I am not a Tur- 
 anian, as you in replying editorially on his behalf to Pro- 
 fessor Mu'ller that your writer was not a Shemite. That is 
 to say, each epithet is correct enough in an illusive or sub- 
 jective sense, and each intended it in that sense not but 
 what the Professor, who is a bad hand at literary detection, 
 meant it in a literal sense as well. What should make 
 your reviewer say I hate all things Iranian I do not know ; 
 between you and me they are the pet hobby-horse in my 
 little stable. I am, in fact, so put out by being called a 
 hater of things Iranian, th/it I am just on my way to 
 the new Iranian chargt d'affaires to get a certificate of 
 friendly feeling towards things Iranian. This I shall be 
 happy to submit to you in original, together with a transla- 
 tion for your benefit and that of But I will keep cour- 
 teous to the end of the chapter, and not pour cold water 
 upon hot broth, as the Turanians say in Turkey. 
 
 TATHAGATA. 
 
273 
 
 -GUI BONO* AND "VIDI TANTUM? 
 
 April 20, 1868. 
 
 A VERY pretty little question is suggested for the behoof 
 of philological casuists by our current and strictly British 
 use of the Latin words Cui lono, in the sense of the 
 Trench a quoi Ion, " what's the good of it ? " Innumer- 
 able schoolboys of this generation must know, and a 
 great many adults cannot have altogether forgotten, that 
 the Latin words mean nothing of the kind, at least in 
 Latin. They know that they are simply a quotation from 
 a forensic speech by Cicero, wherein that orator, usually 
 considered a very good authority upon the use of Latin 
 words, advises that when it is wanted to ascertain who is 
 a guilty party, inquiry should be made whose is the profit 
 by the guilty deed. Cui lono in Cicero is Latin for 
 " whose is the profit. " But, for all that, it has come to 
 be modern newspaper English for " what's the use." It is 
 not unknown in the House of Commons : perhaps it might 
 even mount up to the Lords but for the beneficent des- 
 potism wielded by a great scholar in that august chamber. 
 It has worked its way to this elevated position by dint of 
 sheer iteration, and by, we hope we may say without 
 offence, an abnormal development of our imitative 
 faculty, or hypertrophy of the pithecoid organs of our 
 brain. " The children of men," said the Emperor Akbar 
 in the immortal letter which he wrote to the King of the 
 Pranks for an authentic copy of the Christian Scriptures, 
 "are slaves of the rope of imitativeness" asvi I ribkah i 
 taklid and hard enough it is in our part of the world to 
 find a child of man who is not, let alone Akbar's world. 
 
 This absurd new idiom seems to be tickling our fancy 
 in the same way that a nice new ball of pretty coloured 
 worsted attracts the kitten's fancy ; at least we have no 
 other way of accounting for it, for we could never be so 
 
 s 
 
274 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 rude as to hint that it arose from those who adopt it not 
 knowing how to construe Cicero. Let us be thankful that 
 there are people left who neither do nor would adopt it. 
 You will not find it so used in the writings of Mr. Goldwin 
 Smith, who is said to be a master of the English language, 
 neither of Mr. Goldwin Smith above, nor of the working 
 classes beneath, who manage to express what they have 
 to say quite well in English composed of English words. 
 But the surface of our English mid-earth, between Mr. 
 Smith and the workmen, is overrun with this queer sprout 
 of damaged Latin as with a rank weed growth. It is now 
 English, not Latin ; as English it has to take its chance of 
 living or dying, and the scholars have no more power over 
 its life, to banish it from the English language, than 
 "Punch" had to kill crinoline. There is no more use in 
 crying out against it than in crying out against cottage, 
 ornde and the dansante for being such atrocious French. 
 But it is both a deed of justice and of necessity to wash 
 poor Cicero's hands of this unpleasant Britannic idiom in 
 public; and high time to do it, moreover. Just think 
 what Cicero would think of our cui lono with cui pro- 
 nounced kye, too. 
 
 What sets us writing about cui bono is the rapid growth 
 of a younger brother or companion in misery, who in these 
 latter days is visibly waxing strong under much the same 
 circumstances and conditions. This is poor little Vidi 
 tantum. These are quite good Latin words taken apart ; 
 taken together, and as used by the author quoted, they 
 mean, " I saw him and no more," " I was not able to do 
 more than just to see him/' The quotation is turned to 
 account with entire aptness and accuracy by Mr. Thac- 
 keray in a passage where one of his characters we do not 
 immediately remember who or where, but that is matter 
 of easy reference in describing some noteworthy person 
 of a previous generation, conveys a regret that he was too 
 young to have done more than just see him; that he 
 was unable to hear him or hold intercourse with him. 
 
" GUI BONO " AND VIDI TANTUM." 275 
 
 Thackeray here, as always, was perfectly felicitous in his 
 Latin application. But Thackeray is now fallen among 
 a generation of imitators, who openly seek to array them- 
 selves in his garments ; who freely help themselves to his 
 ornaments of Latin citation, without having the remotest 
 idea where and how they should be worn so as to make 
 the literary raiment look all right and as though it were 
 the wearer's own. It is from Thackeray, not from the 
 classics, that Vidi tantum is now quoted, and it is not 
 with its proper meaning, but with the meaning of " I saw 
 that much," " I saw what I am telling you I saw," that it 
 is being encountered ; we run against it here, there, and 
 everywhere, in a certain class of writing. It is a nuisance, 
 and it must be stopped before it gets, as it assuredly will 
 if not stopped, to those lady novelists who are the shadows 
 of Thackeray's and other substantial authors' shades. 
 Now we have a great relish for this desipient literature, 
 which is a sweet thing in its right place, as the Pagan 
 poet observes, nor is it always less wise than the writings 
 of the sapient ; but its votaries and chief professors, who 
 are mainly answerable for these small depravities, are apt 
 to spoil all our relish for their very pleasantest fooling by 
 little tricks of the kind. As for the chief master of the 
 school, he is incorrigible. It is no use reviling and 
 punishing him, and it is no use appealing to him to give 
 his versatility, his kindliness, and his genuine native 
 humour, something like fair play in a more decorous 
 literary garb, and a more staid and seemly behaviour, if 
 only for the sake of the generations to come. We must 
 take him as we find him. Still we cannot possibly harden 
 our hearts against him and his whimsies. But to his fol- 
 lowers, and to the comic school in general, we recom- 
 mend total abstinence from stock classical quotations, 
 coupled with a wholesome mistrust of one another as 
 authorities for the conveyance and interpretation thereof. 
 
CHANGE IN ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 July 23, 1868. 
 
 SiK, Pray let me say that I do not think Lord Win- 
 chilsea's criticisms are worth so much powder and shot as 
 he is getting on all sides. At all events, I am sure they 
 are not worth any second volley. But there is one prime 
 fallacy upon which his remarks upon the hypothetical 
 Milton's rhymes rest which is worth some notice, for it is 
 of constant recurrence in untrained English criticism of 
 the versification of past times. By this I mean the fal- 
 lacy of assuming that the English of Shakspeare or Milton 
 was, as a matter of course, pronounced in identically the 
 same manner as the English of Lord Winchilsea. In a 
 general way and loosely, perhaps, we are most of us aware 
 of this in principle ; but when we come to details, I suspect 
 that none of us fully realise it, save our handful of thorough 
 working phonologists of the type of Mr. Alexander Ellis ; 
 for the fallacy, which is that of the modern Greeks, is a 
 perfectly natural one after all. To base minute criticism 
 at all upon such an assumption is mistaken enough ; but 
 to base sweeping negative propositions upon it, and to 
 propound them, if not with downright arrogance of man- 
 ner and flippancy of tone, at least with that curious dog- 
 matism and absence of all misgiving which is the unmis- 
 takable mark of the tyro as distinguished from the master, 
 is rather too bad, and in the present case gives very natu- 
 ral offence to Lord Winchilsea's readers, as may be seen 
 anywhere in the press. For all purposes bearing on the 
 current controversy into w r hich Heaven keep me from 
 embarking while the whole host of sestheticians are hard 
 at it it is quite enough to say that, by the universal con- 
 sent and practice of all our chief poets, English rhyme 
 tolerates a certain occasional looseness, and does not re- 
 quire an absolute, but is now and then content with an 
 
CHANGE IN ENGLISH PRONUNCIA TION. 277 
 
 approximate, identity of sound. If, consequently, rhymes 
 of this sort be found in the true Milton, that is quite 
 enough justification of the hypothetical Milton, in so far 
 as rhyme goes. Into this aesthetic part of the controversy 
 I have neither the will nor the power to enter. But I 
 hope, notwithstanding, that you will allow me the use of 
 your columns to warn intending controversialists who may 
 seek to lay down the law about this matter of rhyme in past 
 stages of English of the risk they incur in so doing, without 
 some previous mental reservation as to the probability of 
 the rhyming words having been pronounced differently 
 from what they now are, and, therefore, of what to our 
 ear is a dissonance having really been a true rhyme to the 
 author's. Here, for instance,, are the long polysyllables of 
 Romanic origin in y, which are constantly made to rhyme 
 together, and to which objection is taken on that account. 
 Milton's rhymes of that kind are enough to justify the 
 epitaph, as far as that is concerned ; but, then, how did 
 Milton himself come by such rhymes, for the probability 
 is, on the whole, in favour of these words having been 
 accented in his day as they now are, rather than other- 
 wise ? The answer to that is, by poetical tradition, and 
 carried down in an unbroken catena of conscious obser- 
 vance from a period typically represented in Chaucer's 
 verse, when these words were vernacularly pronounced 
 with the accent on the last syllable, and when, therefore, 
 such a combination as " felicity " and " misery " would 
 have been genuine rhyme. But I venture to doubt 
 whether anybody, perhaps not even Mr. Ellis, is in a posi- 
 tion to say exactly when the accent in these words shifted 
 to its present place in common speech. Again, Milton, as 
 quoted in Mr. Cald well's letter in the " Times," rhymes 
 pair and are. Was this only meant for a mere approxi- 
 mation, as it now seems, or was it a real consonance to his 
 ear, and if so, which sound was it ? So also which was it. 
 in his rhyme of where and sphere ? Many may laugh at 
 such a question, but it is a question nevertheless ; cer- 
 
278 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 tainly it is one in the latter couple. Par for pair may be 
 dismissed as improbable, yet not without reservation 
 either. That, if anything, would be a Southern and 
 "Western vulgar Americanism, on the analogy of liar and 
 lar for hair and bear, on the age of which I do not like to 
 pronounce. But it is by no means so absolutely certain 
 that Milton may not have said air for are, like a genuine 
 down-Easter, though I do not think he did. The form 
 arm in the Ormulum certainly indicates our present pro- 
 nunciation of the vowel for the thirteenth century, and 
 though it may possibly have changed and re-changed since 
 then for such is the way of language I am pretty sure 
 that we are more likely in this case to have kept the right 
 tradition than the Yankees are to have retained an inter- 
 mediate one in their air. This last is likely to be modern, 
 and to. have got in through orthographic influence on 
 speech among a generally cultivated and widely lettered 
 people ; but, d priori, their tradition of spoken English is 
 quite as good as our British tradition, and indeed, from 
 the absence of dialects, is even less liable to disturbing 
 influences; that is to say, in its headquarters in rural 
 New England at least. But I hold that no man can settle 
 the point off-hand and peremptorily; for any amount of 
 rhymes such as with war or with far, for instance, are 
 altogether short of settling the point, however much 
 they may help to determine probability when in assured 
 majority. 
 
 PAH. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A ler and Inver, 163. 
 
 Accent and quantity, 34-39, 107. 
 
 Achaemenian inscriptions, 64. 
 
 Adjective, indeclinable in Turkish, 7. 
 
 Adria, what meant by, 101. 
 
 JEolo-Doric, a fanciful name for 
 modern Greek, 106. 
 
 Afghans, falsely accounted of Semitic 
 origin, 58 ; language of, 50-68. 
 
 "A77e\os, the article, 15, 16. 
 
 Agglutinative, an unscientific term, 5. 
 
 Airy, Professor, 194. 
 
 Akbar, Emperor, 273. 
 
 Albania, Northern, 87-95. 
 
 Albanian language, 17, 91, i35- I 45> 
 207. 
 
 Albanians, the, 17, 91, 92. 
 
 Albanopolis, 137. 
 
 Alphabet, Arabic, 82 ; Zend, 82. 
 
 Alpine people, 102. 
 
 Altafhoo, 244-247. 
 
 Altaian languages, 5, 6. 
 
 Amazigh or Berbers, 58. 
 
 Anatolian dialect, 5, 9, 47. 
 
 Anderida, derivation of, 188, 189. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon, the term, 203. 
 
 Anthropological Society, 216. 
 
 Aorist in modern Greek, 13. 
 
 Apian Land, 171. 
 
 Apokorona, 113. 
 
 Arabic, 15, 16, 41-47, 82-84; dog, 
 244-247 ; Arabic elements in Mal- 
 tese, 15, 16 ;' in Turkish, 3, 44. 
 
 Armenians, 135. 
 
 Armeno-Greeks, 239. 
 
 Armorican, 163, 164, 166, 177, 178, 
 187, 207. 
 
 Arnold, Mr. Matthew, 169-174, 223- 
 230, 262-264. 
 
 Arnold, Dr., 171. 
 
 Arnold, Mr. T., 211, 212. 
 
 Article in Turkish, 5 ; in Albanian, 
 145 ; in Homer, 83. 
 
 Aryan, use of the term, 40, 146, 267- 
 
 272. 
 
 Asia Minor, languages of, 141. 
 'A<T7T^re, Epirotic epithet of Achilles, 
 
 and Albanian rffTrtre, swift, 137, 
 
 140. 
 
 Athenaeum, a professor in, 164. 
 Athenian government, 196. 
 Attic dialect, 106. 
 Austria, and Albania, 94; and Ser- 
 
 via, 202. 
 
 BABEL, the, 109, no. 
 
 Baraki dialect, 67. 
 
 Bashi-Bazuks, 25. 
 
 Basque, 5, 161, 207. 
 
 Eelgce, pronounced Welshie, 164, 194, 
 
 209. 
 
 Beluchis, 66. 
 Beni-Israel, 58. 
 Bens in Ireland, 163. 
 Berbers or Amazigh, 58. 
 Bergmann, Professor F. G., 171. 
 Berlin, science in, 164. 
 Beron, Dr., 19. 
 Blackie, 179, 253. 
 Boehtlingk, 48. 
 Boner, Mr., 223. 
 
 Bopp, F., 145, 164, 171, 226, 227. 
 Boyara, 19. 
 
 Bret-Welsh, 164, 193, 207. 
 Brigandage, Greek, 148. 
 Brighton, 197. 
 
 Britain, the Romans in, 207. 
 Broad arrow, 185. 
 Bronze and Brass, 42. 
 Bryant, Jacob, 101. 
 Bulgaria, 23. 
 Bulgarian language, 251. 
 Bulgarians, 18, 22, 254. 
 Bunsen, Baron, 269-271. 
 Burton, Captain Richard, 53. 
 Byzantine centralisation, 24, 106, 107. 
 
280 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 CALEDONII, 155. 
 
 Calvert, Mr. E., 64, 65. 
 
 Cambria, 186. 
 
 Canning, Sir Stratford, 91. 
 
 Carlisle, Lord, 237. 
 
 Cases formed in Turkish by affixes, 6. 
 
 Catholics, Albanian, 89. 
 
 Catti and Hessen, 161. 
 
 Celtic, 136, 155, 169-174, 176-182, 
 
 223-230 ; at Oxford, 262-266. 
 Celts, 146. 
 Chaldee, unconnected with Pushtu, 
 
 5 6 - 
 
 Chalmers, 163. 
 Chasse, 39. 
 Church and kirk, 167, 168, 200, 201, 
 
 211, 212. 
 
 Church Slavonic, 243. 
 
 Cimmerians, 169, 205, 228. 
 
 Circus, 201. 
 
 Cochrane, Baillie, 25. 
 
 Cockney dialect, resemblance of 
 
 Turkish to the, 9. 
 Columba, St., 28. 
 " Come-sta " party, n. 
 Company, East India, 52. 
 Consonants, in Turkish, 4 ; doubled, 
 
 in modern Greek, 133. 
 Consuls, type of men required f or t 
 
 24. 
 
 Coote, H. C., 70, 73-77. 
 Corfu and Kerkyra, 20. 
 Cornaro, Vincenzo, 108. 
 Coulthart of Coulthart, 146. 
 Crawfurd, Mr., 227. 
 Cretan, 106-131 ; modern, 149. 
 Crete, 96-105, no, in, 195-197, 204 ; 
 
 Cyprian view of the dialect of, 113 ; 
 
 specimen of folk-lore in, 114, 115. 
 Croatian, 251, 261. 
 Cui bono, 273-278. 
 Gumming, Dr., 167, 180, 211, 212, 
 
 230. 
 
 Cuneiform inscriptions, 159, 198. 
 Cymric and Cymry, use of the terms, 
 
 160, 163, 187. 
 
 Cymry, derivation of, 164, 204, 205. 
 Czarism, 22. 
 
 Dam Altafhoo, 244-247. 
 
 Dasent, 157. 
 
 Dialect, immemorial distinctions of, 
 
 false, 36. 
 Dialects, mutually unintelligible, 
 
 108 ; of ancient Greek, 106 j of 
 
 Western Switzerland, 27. 
 Deir, the book of, 165, 199. 
 Denmark, 32. 
 
 Denton, Mr., 217. 4 
 
 Derby, Earl of, 203. 
 Diefenbach, 266. 
 Diet, 172. 
 
 Dil-lund, 82, 83. 
 
 Diphthongation, archaic, in Greek, 
 266. 
 
 Div, root, 172. 
 
 Diwani, tbe, 4. 
 
 Dog, derivation of, 158. 
 
 Dog- Arabic, 244-247 ; French, 274 ; 
 Latin, 273-275 ; Persian, 78-86. 
 
 Doric, 108, 133. 
 
 Dorn, Professor, 52, 53, 68. 
 
 Dowlut, 84. 
 
 Druids, the, 28. 
 
 Dufferin, Lord, 232, 234. 
 
 Dutch, derivation of, 172. 
 
 Dutch, as a name for the Pan-Teu- 
 tonic class, 202 ; high and low, 157, 
 158, 173. 
 
 EARLE, 175. 
 
 Eastern Question, 22-25, IO 3 J O4, 
 194-197, 201, 202, 239, 240, 250. 
 
 " Eating dirt," no. 
 
 Eimak or TJimak tribe, 64, 65. 
 
 Eisteddfod, the paper, 185 ; Council, 
 262. 
 
 Elcho, Lord, 235. 
 
 Ellis, Mr. A., 276, 277. 
 
 "EXXijv, 19- 
 
 English, 173, 175, 179, 182, 274. 
 
 Englishia, 84. 
 
 English, origin of the, 75, 76. 
 
 English pronunciation, 78, 276-278. 
 
 Erin, 163, 173. 
 
 Erophile, the, 109. 
 
 Erotokritos, the, 108, 109. 
 
 Etacism, 35, 150, 151. 
 
 Ethnology, Afghan, 59 ; Gaelic, 152- 
 156 ; Istrian and Tyrolese, 253- 
 262 ; popularised, 214-218 ; Turk- 
 ish, 5 ; Wallachian, 18, 19, 223. 
 
 Lire, derivation of, 36, 37. 
 
 Euroclydon, 100. 
 
 Evil eye, 115, 208. 
 
 Ewald, 52, 57. 
 
 Ewing, Bishop, 199. 
 
 Fag, root, 172. 
 
 Falconer, Mr., 98. 
 
 Fallmerayer, 143, 144. 
 
 Farrar, Mr., 207, 227. 
 
 Felines, names of, interchangeable, 
 
 in Turkish and Persian, 46. 
 Feminines in modern Greek, 13. 
 Fenian, origin of the name, 34, 163 ; 
 
 poems, 159, 165, 177, 191, 192. 
 Fenians, 159, 160, 235-237. 
 Ferguson, Mr., 33, 34, 167, 211. 
 Finlay, Mr., 132, 148, 197, 198, 218. 
 Firman, how pronounced, 4. 
 Folklore, Cretan, 114-116. 
 Forbes, Professor E., 97. 
 "Forging of the Anchor, the," 33, 34. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 281 
 
 Forster, Rev. Mr., 56. 
 France and the Eastern Question, 
 195, 196, 201, 202; and the Rhine, 
 
 " F?aser," F. N. in, 159, 165. 
 Freeman, E. A., 168 ; letters to, n- 
 
 40, 132-166, 175-209". 
 French, dog, 274. 
 Furzund, 81. 
 
 Gael, original forms of, 161, 166, 173' 
 Gaelic, 155, 156, 168, 177, 181, 182' 
 
 192, 263, 264; Scotch and Irish* 
 
 155, 177, 178. 
 
 Gaelic nation, the old, 152, 154. 
 Galicia, 250. 
 Garashanin, 22, 23. 
 Gardner, Mr. D., 87, 
 Garibaldi, 25. 
 Gaulish, 33, 182. 
 Gay, the word, 173. 
 Gazettes, the English, 79, 85. 
 Genitive in Chaldee and Pushtu, 
 
 56. 
 
 Geographical Society, 214. 
 German, 32, 157, 158, 173, 182, 203, 
 
 2 58, 259. 
 Gilchristian system of translitera- 
 
 tion, 81, 84. 
 
 Gipsies, 59; in Crete, 113. 
 Gladstone, Mr., 104, 157. 
 Gobineau, 198, 203. 
 Gothic, 40, 171, 183, 242. 
 Goths, 32. 
 s, 19. 
 
 Graves, Dr., 28, 33. 
 
 Greece, and Philhellenism, 104, 195, 
 196 ; the mainland, 97 ; educa- 
 tional system in, in. 
 
 Greek, ancient, 106, 107, 136, 140, 
 149-151, 252, 253, 266 ; modern, 
 11-14, 34-3 6 , 3 8 106-131, 133, 147- 
 151 ; Greek elements in Albanian, 
 1 3 8 > I 39J vocabulary of Cretan, 
 117-131 ; Prehelleuic, 140. 
 
 " Greek Slavs," 239-241. 
 
 Greeks, 18, 19, 21, 36, 104, 217, 218. 
 
 Grey, Lord, 232-235. 
 
 Grimm, J., 175. 
 
 Guest, 184, 188, 189. 
 
 Guna in English and German, 182. 
 
 Gwent and Venta, 161, 181, 189. 
 
 HAHN, Dr. von, 88, 137, 143, 144. 
 Hebrides, a misreading for Hebredes, 
 
 28, 188. 
 
 Hecquard, M., 87, 88. 
 Hedgerows, English, of Roman ori- 
 
 gin, 75- 
 
 Hellenic propagandism, 195, 196. 
 Hellenizers, 105, 149. 
 * Hereward the Wake," 185. 
 
 Herodotus, 6r. 
 
 Hesus and gaisos, 172. 
 
 "High Dutch" school of philology, 
 
 10, 36. 
 
 Highlander, Scotch, 199, 264. 
 
 Hindu Kush, 62. 
 
 Hu Gadarn, 172, 176. 
 
 Hughes, Mr., 87. 
 
 " Hundred," whether a common 
 
 Aryan and Turanian root for, 47. 
 Hydrographic Office, 96. 
 
 IBERO-TUEKISH family of languages, 
 
 Ida, Mount, 105, 147. 
 
 Ilchester, Lord, his bequest, 242, 244. 
 
 Illyrian, 107, 137, 141. 
 
 Impossibility, expression of, in Turk- 
 ish, 9. 
 
 Indian influences on Pushtu, 61- 
 63. 
 
 Infinitive in Turkish, 8. 
 
 Initiality, the fallacy of, 160. 
 
 Interrogative verb in Turkish, 9. 
 
 lona, derivation of, 28, 188, 193. 
 
 Ionian Islands, 20, 21, 234, 257, 258. 
 
 Iranian, the term, 267-272. 
 
 Irby, Miss, 216, 217, 251. 
 
 Ireland, 152-154, 232-235; whence 
 peopled, 166, 183. 
 
 Irish archaeology, 212-214 ; Church, 
 233, 234; Gaelic, 155, 161-166, 
 177-182 ; nationality, 214, 230- 
 235; proper names, 219-221; 
 stories, 33, 191. 
 
 Islam, converts to, 58. 
 
 Istria, language question in, 253-262. 
 
 Italian elements in Cretan, 112. 
 
 Italians, the, 20. 
 
 Italy, and Albania, 94; and Crete, 
 103 ; the Tyrol, and Istria, 255- 
 257. 
 
 JEANNARAKIS, Mr. A., 129. 
 Jones, Basil, 166, 180, 184, 227. 
 Jones, Owen, 161, 162, 165. 
 Jones, Sir William, 56. 
 "Journal de Geneve," 26. 
 Julius, Bishop, 199. 
 
 KAFRISTAN, 62. 
 
 Kalamatiana, 112. 
 
 Karaczay, Count, 87. 
 
 Katziveliana, 113. 
 
 Kaukones, 108, 132. 
 
 Kirkyra and Corfu, 20. 
 
 Khorasan, 60. 
 
 Khurmuzi, M., 109, 114. 
 
 Kinglake, 27. 
 
 Kingsley, Canon, 185, 186. 
 
 Kirghiz Turks, 48. 
 
 Kirk and church, 167, 168, 211, 212. 
 
282 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Klephts, 148, 150, 152, 219. 
 
 Koran, chiefly in manuscript, 4 ; 
 
 Persian words in, 44, 46. 
 T\vpi.a.Kbv, 167, 201. 
 Kurdish, 66, 83. 
 
 LANGUAGE, knowledge of, required 
 in Austrian official, 249 ; as test of 
 race, 253-262. 
 
 Lascarato, 11-14. 
 
 Lassen, 198. 
 
 Latham, Dr., 17, 31, 32, 158, 260. 
 
 Latin, 138, 146, 149, 159, 248, 249 ; 
 dog, 273-275 ; elements in Al- 
 banian, 17, 138, 139, 207 ; in 
 modern Greek, 107 ; in Welsh, 
 229. 
 
 Layard, Mr., 217. 
 
 Leach, Major, 50, 51, 65-67. ( 
 
 Leake, Lieut. -Colonel, 89, too, 132, 
 147, 149. 
 
 Lear, Mr., 98. 
 
 A??<rT?7s, 147. 
 
 Letter changes in modern Greek, 
 133. 
 
 Lettish, 36, 185. 
 
 Levant, the, 97. 
 
 Lewis, Sir Cornewall, 159, 241. 
 
 Leyden, Dr., 51. 
 
 Lhuyd, Edward, 163, 225. 
 
 Lifford, 219. 
 
 Liguria and Ltoepwr, 206. 
 
 Lismore, Book of the Dean of, 177, 
 190-192. 
 
 Lithuanian, 34, 36, 38, 39, 107, 151, 
 ^65, 266. 
 
 Lithuanians, 32, 265. 
 
 Little Russian, 250. 
 
 Liudprand, 29, 30. 
 
 London, derivation of, 188. 
 
 Loveday, Lieutenant, 51, 52. 
 
 Lowenthal, Dr., 55, 56. 
 
 Lurs, 66, 67. 
 
 Lyell, Sir Charles, 31. 
 
 Mac, 219. 
 
 Macau lay, 179. 
 
 Macedonia, 141, 260. 
 
 Macedonian conquests, uniformity of 
 
 modern Greek, owing to, 106. 
 Macpherson, J., 178, 179, 191, 230, 
 
 Maer or Medhbh, 33. 
 Maguire, Mr., 25. 
 Majyar, 5. 
 
 Majyars and Lapps, 155. 
 Malta, 10 1. 
 Maltese, 15, 16. 
 Manx dialect, 162. 
 Melita, 101. 
 Michel, Prince, 22. 
 
 Miklosich, Dr., 139, 167, 241, 251, 260, 
 
 261. 
 Milk, a word common to most Indo- 
 
 European languages, 127. 
 Mongol tendencies of the Turks, 5. 
 Montenegro, 23, 27, 95, 96. 
 Mohabbet Khan, 52. 
 Moore, 214. 
 
 Morea, derivation of, 171. 
 Miiller, Professor Max, 10, 35, 40, 
 
 57, 134, 139, 165, 173, 193, 194, 
 
 267-272 ; letters to, 41-49, 167, 
 
 168. 
 
 Mure, Colonel, 97. 
 Mussulmans, Albanian, 89. 
 Mustapha Pasha, 203. 
 Mythology, comparative, 165, 236, 
 
 267, 268. 
 
 NAMES, proper, 150; Irish, 219-221; 
 
 modern forms of ancient, 105, 147, 
 
 149-151 ; local, 163. 
 Napoleon III., 201. 
 Nash, Mr., 228. 
 Neale, Dr. T. M., tor. 
 Negative verb in Turkish, 8. 
 Nereids, 115. 
 Nessik, the, 4. 
 Nicocles, 143. 
 Norse, 174. 
 Norton, T., 230-232. 
 Numerals, Turkish, 7. 
 
 0', 219-221. 
 Odinn, 157. 
 O'Donovan, Dr. J., 153, 165, 213, 
 
 220, 221. 
 
 O'Dugevan, poem by, 153. 
 Ogham inscriptions, 28, 33, 162. 
 Okonomas, 132, 133. 
 Old-Prussian, 173, 264, 265. 
 Osmanlis, the, 5. 
 Osman, the unready, 31. 
 Ossetian dialects, 67 ; nursery tales, 
 
 268. 
 
 Ossian, 177, 178, 188, 191, 237. 
 " Othello," in Paris, 78. 
 Othonism, 22, 23, 142. 
 Ottoman Empire, 72. 
 Oxford, Celtic at, 262-264 > Slavonic 
 
 at, 237-239, 242-244. 
 
 Herodotus, 61. 
 Palikarism, 22, 142. 
 " Pall Mall Gazette," 152, 185. 
 Pan-Aryan, the term, 40, 141, 271. 
 Pan-Slavism, 22, 239-241. 
 Pan-Teutonic or All-Dutch class of 
 
 languages, 157, 158, 202. 
 Parsi, 83. 
 
 Pashley, Mr., 98, 109. 
 Paul, voyage of St., 100, 101. 
 
283 
 
 Pennsylvania!! German, 31. 
 
 Persian, 41-48, 63-66, 159, 181, 198; 
 dog, 78-86 ; elements in Arabic, 
 41-44 ; in the Ugrian languages, 
 45 ; in Turkish, 3, 44~46 J mytho- 
 logy, 268. 
 
 Petrie, Dr. G., 212-214. 
 
 Philology, indifference to, 22 ; com- 
 parative, should be practical, 39 ; 
 dangers of, typified in Albanian, 
 138 ; discovery in, 145 ; in Scot- 
 land, 199 ; everywhere, 204. 
 
 Phoenician, 15, 16. 
 
 Phonetics, Greek, 11-14, 29. 
 
 Phrygian, 136. 
 
 Picts, 154-156, 1 60, 162, 163. 
 
 Pindus, Central, 137. 
 
 Pitsipios, 16, 17. 
 
 Plural, in Gothic, 40 ; in Turkish, 6. 
 
 Poland, 29, 30, 243. 
 
 Polen, the, 30. 
 
 Polish, 242, 243. 
 
 Pope, the, and the Albanians, 95. 
 
 Porte, the, 93. 
 
 Premlergast, 152, 153. 
 
 Prichard, 171, 226. 
 
 Pronouns in Turkish, 7. 
 
 Pronunciation, Cyprian, 113; Eng- 
 lish, 276-278 ; Greek, 29, 107, 134, 
 150, 252, 253 ; Latin, 248, 249 ; 
 modern Greek, 107, 150; Turkish, 4. 
 
 Propaganda, a Russian and Servian, 
 22. 
 
 Proto-Gael, 161-165. 
 
 Pushtu, 41, 50-68. 
 
 QUANTITY and accent, 34-39, 107. 
 Quere Welsh, 39, 151, 193, 259. 
 
 R, proper pronunciation of, in Turk- 
 ish, 4 ; English and Irish pronun- 
 ciation of, 4. 
 
 Rajegam, the Rajah, 79, 81, 85. 
 
 Rapparees and Klephts, 152. 
 
 Raverty, Captain, 53-55, 60. 
 
 Rawlinson, Sir H.,~57, 159, 198, 199. 
 
 Redhouse's Ottoman Grammar, 10. 
 
 Reeves, Dr. W., 165, 179, 188, 212, 
 213. 
 
 Reviewer, a hireling, 69-71 ; "Edin- 
 burgh" and "Saturday Review," 
 
 7 1 - 
 
 Rhsetian, the, 20. 
 Ritfa, the, 4. 
 
 Robertson, Mr., 154, 155, 168. 
 Romanic, 17. 
 
 Romausch, 20, 152, 229, 259. 
 Rosli and Russia, 180. 
 Roumans, 164, 221-223, 2 39~ 2 4 I 2 59~ 
 
 261. 
 
 Rowena, 184. 
 Royal Society, 214. , 
 
 Rum-Welsh, 187. 
 
 Russia and the Eastern Question, 195. 
 
 Russian language, importance of, 
 
 244 ; its acquisition a duty, 238. 
 Russian press, 238. 
 Russians, the, 31. 
 Rutheuian, 250. 
 
 SAMOGITIA, 265. 
 
 Sanskrit, 35, 39. 
 
 " Saturday Review, "71, 74, 135, 226. 
 
 Scandinavia and Scandinavians, 157. 
 
 Scaramanga, 30. 
 
 Sch, the German, 32, 193. 
 
 Schleswig, 31, 32. 
 
 Schott, 48. 
 
 Scotland and Scotch provincialism, 
 
 154-156, 168, 179, 191. 
 Scots, 1 80. 
 Scott, Sir Walter, and his Latin, 30, 
 
 197. 
 
 Scottish ethnology, 154-156. 
 ,SY///7mm, the term, 171, 172. 
 Scythian peoples, 172. 
 Servia, 22, 216. 
 Servian, 39, 107, 217, 251. 
 Sfakian or White Mountains, 102. 
 Sfakians, 104, 195-197. 
 Sfakiot dialect, 109-111. 
 Shah mat, 41. 
 Skene, Mr., 155, 156, 163, 165, 176- 
 
 178, 188, 190, 192, 263. 
 Skipetar, 143. 
 Slavonic, 139, 237-239, 240-244, 250, 
 
 251 ; elements in Albanian, 138 ; 
 
 ethnology, 216, 217 ; professorship, 
 
 237, 238 ; at Oxford, 242-244. 
 Slesivick or Schleswiff, 31, 32, 185. 
 Sleswick-Holstein Question, 32. 
 Slovenian, 250. 
 Smith, Mr. Goldwin, 25, 165, 176, 
 
 185, 274. 
 
 Smith, Mr., of Jordan Hill, 101. 
 Societies, the Royal, and other, 214. 
 Sophocles, E. A., 37, 109, 116, 133. 
 Spratt, Captain, 96-105, 149. 
 Stanley, Dean, 180. 
 Stokes, Mr. Whitley, 28, 33, 34, 40, 
 
 !73, 176, 189, 192, 199, 213. 
 Sullivan, Dr., 176. 
 Switzerland, dialects of Western, 27. 
 
 "TAURO-SCYTHIANS," 143. 
 
 Tap, root, 172. 
 
 Tennant, Sir Emerson, 72. 
 
 Testament, the, in Afghan, 50, 51. 
 
 Teutonism, 157. 
 
 Thackeray, W. M., 274, 275. 
 
 Thor, 157. 
 
 Thracian, 141, 
 
 Tongues^ gift of, 249, 251. 
 
 Torrens, Mr., 51. 
 
284 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Transliteration, 12, 81, 82, 105, 147, 
 
 149, 150, 271. 
 Trebizond Greek, 29, 107. 
 Triads, the Welsh, 28, 162. 
 Trumpp, Dr., 56, 62. 
 Tscherkessen, the, 30, 31. 
 Turkish, 3-10, 44-48 ; elements in 
 
 Albanian, 138. 
 Turks, 5, 22, 31, 185. 
 Turkoman dialect, 5. ^ 
 Tyrol, language question in the, 253- 
 
 262. 
 
 Tzakonians, 132, 133. 
 Tzakonic dialect, 107, 115. 
 
 ULPHILAS, 158, 183, 202, 236. 
 
 VALLANCEY, General, 231. 
 Vaughan, Colonel, 53, 54. 
 Venta and Gwent, 161, 181, 189. 
 Verb in Turkish, 8, 9. 
 Victor Emmanuel, 103. 
 " Vidi tan turn," 273-278. 
 Vretos, 147, 148. 
 
 WALLACHIA, 18, 19, 
 
 Wallachian dialects, 1 8, 49, 138, 
 
 139. 
 Wallachians, 164, 221-223, 239-241, 
 
 259-261. 
 
 Watts, Mr., 244. 
 Welsh, 33, 136, 137, 160-166, 169, 
 
 170, 172, 180-183, 187-189, 200, 
 
 205, 207, 227, 229, 263. 
 Wends, 158, 200, 250. 
 White or Sfakian Mountains, 102. 
 Win chelsea, Lord, 276. 
 Wodan, 157. 
 Wright, 205. 
 Wyrtesleof and Wladislaw, 200. 
 
 YONGE, Miss, 27, 30, 'Si. 
 
 ZAMZUMMIM, 132. 
 
 Zend, 57, 61, 63, 64, 230, 268, 271 ; 
 
 alphabet, 82. 
 Zeuss, J. K., 161, 170, 177, 204, 205, 
 
 226. 
 Zmudzo-Lethonians, 265. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 PRINTED BY liALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 
PHILOLOGICAL WORKS 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 TEtTBNEB & CO. 
 
 Arnold. A SIMPLE TRANSLITERAL GRAMMAR OF THE TURKISH 
 LANGUAGE. Compiled from various sources. "With Dialogues and 
 Vocabulary. By EDWIN ARNOLD, M.A., C.S.I., F.R.G.S. Pott 8vo, 
 pp. 80, cloth. 2s. 6d. 
 
 Asher. ON THE STUDY OP MODERN LANGUAGES IN GENERAL, and 
 of the English Language in particular. An Essay. By DAVID ASHER, 
 Ph.D. 12mo, pp. viii. and 80, cloth. 2s. 
 
 Beames. A COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR OF THE MODERN ARYAN 
 LANGUAGES OF INDIA (to wit), Hindi, Panjabi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Marathi, 
 Uriya, and Bengali. By JOHN BEAMES, Bengal C.S., M.R.A.S., &c. 
 
 Vol. I. On Sounds. 8vo, pp. xvi. and 360, cloth. 16s. 
 
 Vol. II. The Noun and the Pronoun. Svo, pp. xii. and 348, cloth. 16s. 
 
 Bleek. A COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR OF SOUTH AFRICAN LAN- 
 GUAGES. By W. H. I. BLEEK, Ph.D. Vol. I. I. Phonology. II. The 
 Concord. Section 1. The Noun. Svo, pp. xxxvi. and 322, cloth. 1, 16s. 
 
 Caldwell. A COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR OF THE DRAVIDIAN OR 
 SOUTH INDIAN FAMILY OF LANGUAGES. By the Kev. R. CALDWELL, 
 LL.D. A Second, Corrected, and Enlarged Edition. Demy Svo, pp. 
 805, cloth. 28s. 
 
 Childers. A PALI-ENGLISH DICTIONARY, with. Sanskrit Equiva- 
 lents, and with numerous Quotations, Extracts, and References. Com- 
 piled by EGBERT CAESAR CHILDERS, late of the Ceylon Civil Service. 
 Imperial Svo. Double Columns. Complete in 1 Vol., pp. xxii. and 622, 
 cloth. 3, 3s. 
 
 The first Pali Dictionary ever published. 
 
 Cleasby. AN ICELANDIC-ENGLISH DICTIONARY. Based on the 
 MS. Collections of the late Richard Cleasby. Enlarged and completed 
 by G. VIGFUSSON. With an Introduction, and Life of Richard Cleasby, 
 by G. WEBBE DASENT, D.C.L. 4to. 3, 7s. 
 
 Contopoulos. A LEXICON OF MODERN GREEK-ENGLISH AND 
 ENGLISH-MODERN GREEK. By N. CONTOPOULOS. In 2 Vols. Svo, cloth. 
 Part I. Modern Greek-English, pp. 460. Part II. English-Modern 
 Greek, pp. 582. 1, 7s. 
 
Douse. GRIMM'S LAW ; A STUDY : or, Hints towards an Explana- 
 tion of the so-called "Lautverschiebung." To which are added some 
 Remarks on the Primitive Indo-European K, and several Appendices. 
 By T. LB MARCHANT DOUSE. 8vo, pp. xvi. and 230, cloth. 10s. Gd. 
 
 Haldeman. PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH : A Dialect of South Germany, 
 with an Infusion of English. By S. S. HALDEMAN, A.M., Professor of 
 Comparative Philology in the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. 
 8vo, pp. viii. and 70, cloth. 3s. 6d. 
 
 Hopkins. ELEMENTARY GRAMMAR OF THE TURKISH LANGUAGE. 
 "With a few Easy Exercises. By F. L. HOPKINS, M.A., Fellow and 
 Tutor of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. . Crown 8vo, pp. 48, cloth. 3s. 6d. 
 
 Hunter. A COMPARATIVE DICTIONARY OP THE LANGUAGES OP 
 INDIA AND HIGH ASIA, with a Dissertation, based on The Hodgson 
 Lists, Official Records, and Manuscripts. By "W. W. HUNTER, B.A., 
 M.R.A.S., Honorary Fellow, Ethnological Society, of Her Majesty's 
 Bengal Civil Service. Folio, pp. vi. and 224, cloth. 2, 2s. 
 
 Kellogg. A GRAMMAR OP THE HINDI LANGUAGE, in which are 
 
 treated the Standard Hindi, Braj, and the Eastern Hindi of the 
 Ramayau of Tulsi Das ; also the Colloquial Dialects of Marwar, 
 Kumaon, Avadh, Baghelkhand, Bhojpur, <kc., with Copious Philological 
 Notes. By the Rev. S. H. KELLOGG, M.A. Royal 8vo, pp. 400, cloth. 
 1, Is. 
 
 Newman. A DICTIONARY OP MODERN ARABIC. 1. Anglo-Arabic 
 
 Dictionary. 2. Anglo-Arabic Vocabulary. 3. Arabo-English Dictionary. 
 By F. W. NEWMAN, Emeritus Professor of UniversitytCollege, London. 
 In 2 Vols. crown 8vo, pp. xvi. and 376-464, cloth. 1, Is. 
 
 Newman. A HANDBOOK OP MODERN ARABIC, consisting of a 
 Practical Grammar, with Numerous Examples, Dialogues, and News- 
 paper Extracts, in a European Type. By F. \V. NEWMAN, Emeritus 
 Professor of University College, London ; formerly Fellow of Balliol 
 College, Oxford. Post 8vo, pp. xx. and 192, cloth. 6s. 
 
 Oriental Congress. REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND 
 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OP ORIENTALISTS, held in London, 1874. 
 Royal 8vo, pp. 76, paper, os. 
 
 Oriental Congress. TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECOND SESSION OP 
 THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF ORIENTALISTS, held in London, in 
 September 1874. Edited by ROBERT K. DOUGLAS, Honorary Secretary. 
 Demy 8vo, pp. viii. and 456, cloth. 1, Is. 
 
 Palmer. LEAVES FROM A WORD HUNTER'S NOTE-BOOK. Being 
 some Contributions to English Etymology. By the Rev. A. SMYTHE 
 PALMER, B.A., sometime Scholar in the University of Dublin. Crown 
 8vo, pp. xii. and 316, cloth. 7s. 6d. 
 
 Redhouse. THE TURKISH CAMPAIGNER'S VADE-MECUM OF OTTO- 
 MAN COLLOQUIAL LANGUAGE. Containing a Concise Ottoman Grammar ; 
 a carefully-selected Vocabulary, Alphabetically Arranged, in Two Parts, 
 English and Turkish, and Turkish and English ; also a few Familiar 
 Dialogues; the whole in English characters. By J. W. REDHOUSE, 
 F.R.A.S. Oblong 32mo, pp. iv. and 332, limp cloth. 5s. 
 
Rhys. LECTURES ON WKLSH PHILOLOGY. By JOHN RHYS. Crown 
 Svo, pp. xii. and 458, cloth. 12s. 
 
 S ayc e t _AN ASSYRIAN GRAMMAR FOR COMPARATIVE PURPOSES. 
 By A. H. SAYCE, M.A. 12mo, pp. xvi. and 188, cloth. 7s. 6d. 
 
 Sayce. THE PRINCIPLES OP COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY. By A. 
 H. SAYCE, Fellow and Tutor of Queen's College, Oxford. Second 
 Edition. Crown 8vo, pp. xxxii. and 416, cloth. 10s. 6d. 
 
 Schele de Vere. STUDIES IN ENGLISH ; or, Glimpses of the 
 Inner Life of our Language. By M. SCHELE BE VERE, LL.D., Professor 
 of Modern Languages in the University of Virginia. Svo, pp. vi. and 
 365, cloth. 10s. 6d. 
 
 Schele de Vere. AMERICANISMS : THE ENGLISH OF THE NEW 
 WORLD. By M. SCHELE DE VERE, LL.D., Professor of Modern Lan- 
 guages in the University of Virginia. 8vo, pp. 685, cloth. 12s. 
 
 Schleicher. COMPENDIUM OF THE COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR OF 
 
 THE INDO-EUROPEAN, SANSKRIT, GREEK, AND LATIN LANGUAGES. By 
 
 AUGUST SCHLEICHER. Translated from the Third German Edition by 
 HERBERT BENDALL, B.A., Chr. Coll. Camb. Part I. Svo, pp. 184, 
 cloth. 7s. 6d. 
 
 Part II. Morphology. Svo, pp. viii. and 104, cloth. 6s. 
 
 Sophocles. GREEK LEXICON OF THE ROMAN AND BYZANTINE 
 PERIODS (from B.C. 146 to A. D. 1100). By E. A. SOPHOCLES. Imp. Svo, 
 pp. xvi. and 1188, cloth. 2, 10s. 
 
 Sophocles. A GLOSSARY OF LATER AND BYZANTINE GREEK. By 
 E. A. SOPHOCLES. 4to, pp. iv. and 624, cloth. 2, 2s. 
 
 Stokes. BEUNANS MERIASEK. The Life of Saint Meriasek, Bishop 
 and Confessor. A Cornish Drama. Edited, with a Translation and 
 Notes, by WHITLEY STOKES. Medium Svo, pp. xvi., 280, and Facsimile, 
 cloth. 15s. 
 
 Stokes. GOIDELICA Old and Early-Middle Irish Glosses : Prose 
 and Verse. Edited by WHITLEY STOKES. Second Edition. Medium 
 Svo, pp. 192, cloth. 18s. 
 
 Stratmann. A DICTIONARY OF THE OLD ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 
 
 Compiled from the "Writings of the xinth, xivth, and xvth centuries. 
 By FRANCIS HENRY STRATMANN. Second Edition. 4to, pp. xii. and 
 594. In Wrapper, 1, 11s. 6d. ; cloth, 1, 14s. 
 
 Whitney. ORIENTAL AND LINGUISTIC STUDIES. First Series. 
 The Veda ; the Avesta ; the Science of Language. By WILLIAM DWIGHT 
 WHITNEY, Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in Yale 
 College. Crown Svo, pp. x. and 418, cloth. 12s. 
 
 CONTENTS : The Vedas.-The Vedic Doctrine of a Future Life. Miiller's History of 
 Vedic Literature. The Translation of the Veda. Miiller's Rig-Veda Translation. The 
 Avesta. Indo-European Philology and Ethnology. Miiller's Lectures on Language. 
 Present State of the Question as to the Origin of Language. Bleek and the Simious 
 Theory of Lanpua.ee. Schleicher and the Physical Theory of Language. Stemthal and 
 the Psychological Theory of Language. Language and Education. Index. 
 
Whitney. ORIENTAL AND LINGUISTIC STUDIES. By W. D. 
 WHITNEY, Professor of Sanskrit. Second Series. CONTENTS : The .East 
 and West Religion and Mythology Orthography and Phonology 
 Hindu Astronomy. Crown Svo, pp. 446, cloth. 12d. 
 
 Whitney. LANGUAGE AND THE STUDY OP LANGUAGE : Twelve 
 Lectures on the Principles of Linguistic Science. By W. D. WHITXEY. 
 Third Edition, augmented by an Analysis. Crown Svo, pp. xii. and 504, 
 cloth. 10s. 6d. 
 
 Whitney. LANGUAGE AND ITS STUDY, with especial reference to 
 the Indo-European Family of Languages. Seven Lectures by W. D. 
 WHITNEY, Professor of Sanskrit, and Instructor in Modern Languages 
 in Yale College. Edited with Introduction, Notes, Tables of Declension 
 and Conjugation, Grimm's Law with Illustration, and an Index, by the 
 Rev. R. MORRIS, M.A., LL.D. Crown Svo, pp. xxii. and 318, cloth. 5s. 
 
 Williams. A DICTIONARY, ENGLISH AND SANSKRIT. By MONIER 
 WILLIAMS, M.A. Published under the Patronage of the Honourable 
 East India Company. 4to, pp. xii. and 862, cloth. 3, 3s. 
 
 Williams. A SANSKRIT-ENGLISH DICTIONARY, Etymologically and 
 Philologically arranged, with special reference to Greek, Latin, German, 
 Anglo-Saxon, English, and other cognate Indo-European Languages. 
 By MONIER WILLIAMS, M.A., Boden Professor of Sanskrit. 4to, cloth. 
 4, 14s. 6d. 
 
 Wright. 'THE HOMES OF OTHER DAYS : A History of Domestic 
 Manners and Sentiments during the Middle Ages. By THOMAS WRIGHT, 
 Esq., M.A., F.S.A. With Illustrations from the Illuminations in Con- 
 temporary Manuscripts and other Sources, drawn and engraved by F. 
 W. FAIRHOLT, Esq., F.S.A. 1 Vol. medium Svo, pp. xv. and 512, hand- 
 somely bound in cloth. 350 Woodcuts. 1, Is. 
 
 Wright. THE CELT, THE EOMAN, AND THE SAXON : A History of 
 the Early Inhabitants of Britain down to the Conversion of the Anglo- 
 Saxons to Christianity. Illustrated by the Ancient Remains brought to 
 Light by Recent Research. By THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., 
 &c., &c. Third Corrected and Enlarged Edition. Numerous Illustra- 
 tions. Crown Svo, pp. xiv. aftd 562, cloth. 14s. 
 
 Wright. FEUDAL MANUALS OF ENGLISH HISTORY. A Series of 
 Popular Sketches of our National History, compiled at different periods, 
 from the Thirteenth Century to the Fifteenth, for the Use of the Feudal 
 Gentry and Nobility. Now first Edited from the Original Manuscripts. 
 By THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq., M.A. Small 4to, pp. xxiv. and 1S4, cloth. 
 15s. 
 
 LONDON: 
 TRUBNEB, & CO., LUDGATE HILL. 
 

 
 
 ___ 
 
YC 51634 
 
 C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES 
 
 JVJ211135 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY