Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN
 
 THE OEIGINS 
 
 RELIGION AND LANGUAGE,
 
 THE OBIGINS 
 
 RELIGION AND LANGUAGE 
 
 CONSIDERED IN FIVE ESSAYS 
 
 BY F. C. COOK M.A. 
 
 CANON OF EXETER CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO THE QUEEN AND 
 EDITOR OF THE " SPEAKER'S COMMENTARY" 
 
 LONDON 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 
 
 1884
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 STAMFOUD STREET AND CHARING CUOSS.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE name given to this book on the title-page was suggested 
 by a, friend, and it was adopted by the publisher in its first 
 announcement, under the impression that I had proposed or 
 approved it. 
 
 I felt, however, and still feel, that such a title may seem to 
 promise too much ; but after full consideration I have retained 
 it, on the ground that it expresses, clearly and concisely, the 
 principles which have guided me throughout the work. 
 
 In the three Essays on the oldest forms of religion of 
 which we have contemporary or trustworthy records, my 
 object has been to prove that they were derived from a 
 common source, and that all that is true, ennobling, fnd 
 spiritual in them is due to that origin. 
 
 In the Essay on the Rig Veda, I have first called attention 
 to the certain fact that, at the period when the hymns were 
 produced, two systems co-existed; the one resting upon a 
 moral and spiritual basis ; the other wholly naturalistic, 
 personifying and adoring physical forces and agencies. In 
 the second place, I have insisted upon the no less certain, 
 though too often unnoticed fact that, of these two systems, 
 the former was by far the more ancient, and that it represents 
 the fundamental principles which were recognised by the 
 ancestors of the Aryan race.
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 In the second Essay I have discussed the religious systems 
 of the Eranians. "We have contemporary records which 
 exhibit the central principles of the national religion of 
 Persia in the seventh and two following centuries B.C. We 
 have other documents of very different ages, some of which 
 are admitted to give a faithful portraiture of the earliest 
 forms of that religion. In this case I have adduced proofs, 
 that the superstitions and pernicious tendencies by which 
 it was overlaid were comparatively modern innovations, at 
 once distinct from, and incompatible with, the principles 
 set forth most clearly in the most ancient documents. 
 
 In the third Essay I have adduced further evidence 
 bearing upon this 'same point, from the so-called Gathas, i.e. 
 sacred chants, attributed to Zoroaster, and admitted by all 
 critics to give a faithful representation of his teaching. 
 These chants are wholly free from the superstitious notions 
 and practices, which are so prominent and repulsive in all 
 later documents of so-called Zoroastrianism. They present 
 truths of the highest moral and spiritual significance,. in a 
 form which constantly reminds us of the teaching of the 
 Pentateuch and the Prophets. 
 
 So far, all ascertainable facts point clearly and unmistake- 
 ably in one direction. 
 
 They are absolutely irreconcileable with the theory which 
 regards all spiritual and soul-elevating religions as evolved 
 by a natural process from a primitive naturalistic poly- 
 theism : they support the view, which alone supplies a true, 
 rational, and adequate account of the movements of human 
 thought, according to which religious beliefs were first set in 
 motion by communications from God.
 
 PREFACE. vii 
 
 The fourth and fifth Essays deal with the forms under 
 which all languages have been transmitted or developed. 
 In this part of the inquiry I have proceeded, not on 
 theoretical, but on strictly historical grounds. 
 
 In the fourth Essay I have endeavoured to give a concise 
 account of all known languages, ancient and modern; 
 showing that they are reducible to three general divisions ; 
 thus preparing the way for the conclusion, to which I attach 
 supreme importance, that they must all have had a common 
 origin. 
 
 As a corroboration, or, as I venture to think, a proof of 
 this conclusion, I have given in the fifth and last Essay a 
 large, though far from exhaustive, collection of words taken 
 from ancient monuments and papyri of Egypt, which are 
 substantially identical, both in form and meaning, with words 
 of common occurrence in Semitic, Aryan, and Anaryan 
 languages. 
 
 For reasons alleged in the introduction to the fifth Essay, 
 I have omitted a section in which I had proposed to discuss 
 the paramount question of the origin of all true religion. 
 But the facts wKich I have adduced, if their significance be 
 fully recognised, appear to me sufficient for the practical 
 proof of two great truths : the original unity of the human 
 race, as evidenced by the records of language, and the 
 original unity of belief, founded upon a primeval revelation 
 to the common ancestors of the human race. 
 
 I trust this statement may be accepted as a reason for 
 retaining the title which stands at the head of this book, even 
 though it be too extensive. If a special apology be needed for 
 the publication of so incomplete a collection of Essays, I may
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 urge, first, that at my advanced age I could not hope to pro- 
 duce them in a more systematic form ; and secondly that, 
 inasmuch as the principal facts which I have collected and 
 discussed were for the most part new to myself, they may 
 be new to the generality of my readers, and as such may 
 be deemed worthy of their consideration. 
 
 A point, however, of far greater importance. seems to me to 
 demand serious notice. 
 
 I refer to the mutual relations at present existing between 
 those, on the one hand, who maintain the doctrine of evolu- 
 tion in its broadest sense, especially as applied to the history 
 of religion ; and those, on the other side, who hold fast to the 
 belief that all truths which affect the relations between man 
 and God were made known by divine revelation. 
 
 In one respect the two opposite parties are alike. Both 
 hold, as established beyond all reasonable doubt, the principles 
 on which their respective systems are severally based. 
 
 They are unlike in respect to the attitude which their 
 respective systems impose upon them in the character of 
 inquirers. The upholders of an evolutionism, which is 
 wholly independent of any supernatural interposition, are 
 avowedly and consistently intolerant. They will not and 
 cannot allow any weight to arguments which imply the 
 possibility of exceptions to their system. The position 
 thus assumed is the natural and inevitable result of their 
 fundamental axiom, that nothing which exists can or does 
 exist save as the result, or inevitable sequence, of a preceding 
 physical or material condition. 
 
 But those who hold the opposite principle are not bound 
 by any such exclusive assumption as to the mode in which
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 given results have been produced. Believing that all things 
 exist by the will, and are under the absolute governance 
 of God, they are perfectly free to consider statements which 
 involve apparent exceptions, or seem to lead to conclusions 
 irreconcileable with their principle. They are aware, as a 
 matter of daily experience, that so far as their personal 
 opinions, or the opinions of their co-religionists are concerned, 
 they are always liable to serious error ; they have learned by 
 repeated experiments, by the history of the past, and by facts 
 of daily occurrence, that theories and systems which at first 
 sight seemed to contravene their deepest convictions have, on 
 full and candid examination, been found not merely to be in 
 accordance with them, but to supply the strongest corrobo- 
 ration of them, clearing up distressing obscurities and 
 removing formidable obstacles. Hence we find that believers, 
 who are most staunch in their adherence to fundamental 
 principles, are most ready to consider dispassionately state- 
 ments and theories propounded by men of opposite schools 
 of thought. We find them, often to our surprise, willing to 
 admit, and even provisionally to accept, novel theories, novel 
 interpretations of the Scriptures, and to show and feel lively 
 interest in the investigations and speculations of those who 
 hold principles diametrically opposed to their own. 
 
 In fact this flexibility of secondary convictions, this 
 all but unlimited toleration of speculative opinions, is a 
 prominent, perhaps the most prominent, characteristic of 
 the Christian intelligence in our age. Nor, though some- 
 times carried too far, do I apprehend any permanent evil 
 as likely to result from it. The exegesis of Holy Scripture 
 may have to pass through many phases, may undergo
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 extensive modifications, before it is brought into perfect 
 accordance with all ascertainable truth ; the theories of 
 scientific men, to whatever extent they may be changed or 
 developed, may ultimately revolutionise the whole sphere 
 of speculative thought ; but the central truth must and will 
 stand fast. 
 
 But though the ultimate results may be contemplated 
 without misgiving, still it must be borne in mind that there 
 is no inconsiderable danger lest, in times of wild speculation, 
 the minds of young or untrained enquirers should be seriously 
 affected. They may be tempted, if not to give up funda- 
 mental convictions, yet to regard them as resting on doubtful 
 or insecure grounds, and as liable to be reversed. 
 
 This danger imposes a grave responsibility upon all who 
 take part in controversies touching the foundations of religion 
 and morality ; more especially upon those who have taken 
 upon themselves the duties of the Christian ministry. 
 
 As, on the one side, it is highly important that they should 
 not lay themselves open to the charge of blind or obstinate 
 prejudices, that they should attach due weight to the 
 arguments of their opponents, and candidly admit the 
 bearings of facts previously unknown or imperfectly under- 
 stood ; so, on the other side, it is not less important that 
 they should strenuously, earnestly, fearlessly hold fast all 
 fundamental principles, and deliberate most carefully before 
 they abandon any position by which those principles seem to 
 be supported, or by the surrender of which they might be 
 imperilled.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 FIRST ESSAY, 
 
 ON THE RIG VEDA, SPECIALLY ON ITS 
 RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 Part I. Section I. Works on the Eig Veda: text, 3; translations, 
 &c., 4. 
 
 Section II. Name explained, 9 ; contents, 11 ; probable date, 13 ; 
 preceding ages, 17 ; separation of Aryans, 20 ; Turanians, 21 ; 
 characteristics of Turanians, 22 ; connection with Aryans, 24 ; causes 
 of difference, 25 ; in language, 26 ; in religion, 29 ; superstitions 
 common to Aryan and Anaryan races, fire-worship, 30 ; intoxicating 
 drinks, 33. 
 
 Part II. The religious system of the Rig Veda, 38; two classes of 
 deities, naturalistic, 39; spiritual Dyaus, Aditi, the Adityas, and 
 Varuna, 41 ; hymns to Varuna by Vasishtha, 43 ; contest between 
 Indra and Varuna, and its issue, 50 ; the name Asura, 51 ; priority 
 of the systems considered, 53 ; Indra a new deity, 53 ; the god of 
 force, 56 ; unknown to other Aryans, 57 ; the old spiritual deities 
 common to all Aryans, 58 ; Dyatis, 59 ; Aditi, 60 ; Varuna identified 
 with Ahuramazda, 61 ; Mitra, 67 ; Aramati, 69 ; evolution a term 
 not applicable to Indian, 70, to Egyptian, 70, nor to Eranian 
 religious system, 71 ; general deterioration, 72 ; the Buddhist Nirvana, 
 73 ; the Upanishads, 75 ; on ttye study of Indian literature, especially 
 of the Rig Veda, 79. 
 
 Appendix. Translations from the Rig Veda, 82. 
 
 Section I. Hymns to Varuna, by Gritsamada, 83 ; by Atri, 85 ; 
 by Nashaka, 87; the 25th of the first Mandala, 88; hymns by 
 Vasishtha, characteristics of these hymns, 90. 
 
 Section II. Hymns to Indra: the birth of Indra, 94; his self- 
 laudation, 96 ; prowess, 99 ; rivalry with Varuna and its issue, 101.
 
 xii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 SECOND ESSAY, 
 
 ON THE PERSIAN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 
 AND THE ZEND AVESTA. 
 
 Special importance of the inscriptions, 106 ; and of the Avesta, 107 ; 
 discovery of the inscriptions, 108 ; works upon them, Niebuhr, 109 ; 
 Grotefend, Lassen, Burnouf, 111; Sir H. Rawlinson, 112; the 
 inscriptions of Behistun, 115 ; bearings upon history, 120 ; languages 
 of the inscriptions of the Avesta, 132 ; religious system of the 
 inscriptions and the Avesta, monotheism of the former, 141 ; 
 dualism of the latter, 143 ; superstitions of the Avesta, the Nacus, 
 147 ; comparison of the two systems, 149 ; age of the Avesta, 150 ; 
 indications in the Gathas and in Eranian traditions, the Arda Viraf, 
 152 ; connection with Vistaspa, 153 ; priestly caste and dark super- 
 stitions not probable under the Achaamenidas, or the Greeks, 156; 
 the Arsacidaa, Tiridates, Vologeses, 157 ; the Sassanidse, 159 ; 
 central despotism, 160; development of the Semitic element, 160; 
 the Pehlevi, 160 ; later forms of Mazdeism first known in Europe, 
 166; alleged connection of Ahriman with Satan, 167; no Persian 
 elements in the Biblical doctrine, 169 ; influence of Christian doctrines 
 on the Avesta, the temptation of Zoroaster, 172 ; the Amshaspands 
 not archangels, 176 ; fundamental difference, 177 ; mischief of com- 
 parison, 178 ; doctrine of the resurrection, 181 ; not Persian, the 
 Vendidad, Firdausi, 183 ; Biblical facts traceable in the Avesta, 185 ; 
 original condition of man, 186 ; the deluge, Noah, Japhet, Yima, 187 ; 
 the Vine and Soma, 189 ; original home of mankind under the deluge, 
 191 ; Eranians, Semites, 192 ; Eranians retain most important 
 reminiscences, 195 ; present state of the question, and special duty of 
 England, 198-200. 
 
 THIRD ESSAY, 
 ON THE GATHAS OF ZOROASTER. 
 
 Character, antiquity, and value of the Gathas, 203; works on the 
 Gathas, 205; Spiegel, Haug, 205; Kossowicz, Bartholomse, and 
 De Harlez, 206 ; names of the Gathas, 208 ; dialect, 209 ; metrical 
 system, 210 ; translation of the first Gatha, called Ahunavaiti, 212 ; 
 first chant with notes, 212; Vistaspa and Zoroaster, 218; second
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 chant, 224 ; appointment of Zoroaster, 227 ; third chant, 229 ; 
 fundamental doctrines, 230; fourth chant, 232; false and true 
 teachings, 233 ; fifth class, 237 ; Devas and idolaters, note on Yima, 
 240 ; sixth chant, 244 ; self-devotion of Zoroaster, seventh chant, 
 248 ; construction of the first Gatha, 254 ; the second Gatha, 256 ; 
 Haug's translation, 257 ; three other Gathas, 258 ; the two Zoro- 
 astrian prayers, 259. 
 
 FOURTH ESSAY, 
 ON LANGUAGES ANCIENT AND MODEKN. 
 
 Introductory remarks, 261 ; general divisions, 264. 
 
 Section I. The Semitic group, 265 ; Assyrian language, 268 ; Syrian, 
 
 269; Phoenician, 273; Hebrew, 276; Arabic, 277; Egyptian, 281; 
 
 African languages, 290. 
 Section II. Turanian or Scythian languages, 294 ; Finnish, Hungarian, 
 
 300 ; native languages of America, 304 ; the Chinese language, 305 ; 
 
 Malayan, Polynesian, 308. 
 Section III. Aryan languages, 310 ; Asiatic, 316 ; Old Persian, Zend, 317 ; 
 
 Pehlevi, 320; Sanskrit, 322; languages of Western Asia, 326; 
 
 Slavonic languages, 328 ; Teutonic, 330 ; Celtic, 333 ; Italian, 335 ; 
 
 Greek, 336 ; English, 339. 
 
 FIFTH ESSAY, 
 
 ON EGYPTIAN, COMPARED WITH SEMITIC, ARYAN, 
 AND TURANIAN WORDS. 
 
 Close resemblance of roots, 343 ; system adopted in this collection, 344 ; 
 
 antiquity of Egyptian documents, 352 ; Coptic, 353 ; Semitic and 
 
 Egyptian, 354 ; Aryan and Egyptian, 356 ; Turanian and Egyptian, 
 
 359 ; arrangement of sections, 361. 
 Section I. Man, general designations, 365 ;' soul, substance, 373 ; body 
 
 and parts of body, 376 ; primary relations, 393 ; social and political 
 
 relations, 393. 
 Section IL Verbs of existence, 405 ; sensation or feeling, 410 ; speech, 
 
 414 ; functions of life, 416 ; perception, 417. 
 Section III. Verbs of motion, 421 ; position, 429 ; action, 432 ; acts of 
 
 violence, 438.
 
 xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 Section IV. Common objects, 445 ; celestial and natural objects, 446 ; 
 
 animals, 461. 
 Section V. Early processes of civilisation and thought, 466 ; fire and its 
 
 uses, 466 ; food, 468 ; clothing, 469 ; washing, 471 ; dwelling, 472 ; 
 
 mental processes, 475 ; observations on this section, and on the whole 
 
 collection, 480, 481.
 
 ORIGINS OF RELIGION AND LANGUAGE. 
 
 ESSAY ON THE BIG VEDA. 
 
 SPECIALLY ON 
 
 ITS EELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 THE special object of this essay is stated in the title-page. 
 My only inducement, and I must add my only justification 
 for undertaking to deal with questions at once so intricate 
 and of such transcending importance, is the conviction that 
 the true history of primitive religions, so far as that history is 
 not given in Holy Scripture, must be sought for in the most 
 ancient documents of the human race. Among those docu- 
 ments by far the most ancient, and in many respects the most 
 important, are those which exist in the form of monumental 
 inscriptions or of writings on papyrus ascertained to belong 
 to the ancient empire of Egypt. Of these I shall have occa- 
 sion to speak in connection with another subject discussed 
 in this volume. Next to them in antiquity, and if not more 
 important, yet assuredly more interesting to ourselves, as 
 Jescendants from the ancient stock of which the Aryan or 
 Indo-Germanic races are the noblest representatives, the
 
 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 highest rank must be assigned to the Eig Veda, a collection 
 of hymns more than 1000 in number, admitted by all 
 scholars to be the only source from which we derive direct 
 contemporary and trustworthy knowledge of the language, 
 habits, and, above all, the religious views, principles, and 
 forms of worship of the first Aryan settlers in India. 
 
 Before I proceed to deal with these questions it may be 
 well to give a brief account of the works now accessible to 
 students in which the results of the latest investigations are 
 recorded. It will be seen that those which really put a 
 careful student in a position to pursue the inquiry with any 
 hope of practical success, have been produced within the last 
 few years. The way was opened by the labours of the great 
 scholars who first brought the treasures of Indian antiquity 
 to the knowledge of European students. Sir William Jones, 
 Colebrooke, and Wilson stand out as the real discoverers ; but 
 they were rather concerned with the later developments of 
 Indian thought, in what is commonly and properly desig- 
 nated as the classic age of Sanskrit literature, than with the 
 productions of the Vedic age. Colebrooke, indeed, conspi- 
 cuous in all departments of Indian learning for sound judg- 
 ment and intellectual power, did much to elucidate the 
 philosophic systems which were developed in the age imme- 
 diately fol] owing that with which we are at present concerned ; 
 but even he but partially apprehended the meaning and bear- 
 ings of the Eig Veda.* Muir was the first who attempted to 
 ascertain the contents of the Eig Veda, and, in a series of 
 articles in the ' Asiatic Journal and Eesearches,' afterwards 
 completed in five volumes, presented results which are 
 recognised by all scholars as, at that time, the most valu- 
 able contribution to this department of literature. 
 
 See Dr. Roth, ' Zur Litteratur und Geschichte dcs Weda,' p. 2.
 
 EDITIONS, TRANSLATIONS, ETC. 3 
 
 In the year 1846 a concise but very important series of 
 three tracts, entitled 'Zur Litteratur und Geschichte des 
 Weda,' was published by Dr. Eudolph Eoth, a scholar of the 
 highest eminence; short as the work was, it marked an 
 epoch in the history of the Rig Veda. The author drew out 
 with singular clearness and force the characteristic features of 
 the hymns, and aroused the attention of scholars to their 
 surpassing value. Some nine years later the first part of 
 the great Sanskrit Dictionary was published at St. Petersburg, 
 and all the articles in that colossal work directly concerned 
 with Vedic literature are attributed to Dr. Eoth, who, in the 
 judgment of all scholars even those who differ from him on 
 many points stands foremost among Sanskrit philologers. 
 Grassmann, who produced a dictionary to the Eig Veda in 
 the year 1873 a work most thoroughly serviceable to the 
 student speaks of that great dictionary in these terms: 
 " The foundation of my work was naturally the St. Peters- 
 burg Dictionary, with which a new epoch began in Sanskrit 
 philology, and specially in the knowledge of the Eig Veda." 
 
 The text of the Eig Veda has been since published in two 
 forms. 
 
 (1) First, in 1861, by Professor Aufrecht, in two volumes. 
 He gives a transliteration in Eoman characters of the Sanhita 
 text, i.e. of the text which adopts the system of Indian gram- 
 marians, combining words and joining letters in accordance 
 with fixed laws. The second edition, in 1873, contains 
 excellent tables of contents, lists of metres and authors, and 
 indices of great value. This edition still retains, and will 
 probably continue to retain, its place as that which is most 
 helpful to students. 
 
 (2) The Sanskrit text in two forms the Sanhita, previously 
 explained, and the Pada, which separates the words was first 
 published in the Indian characters called Devanagari, by 
 Professor Max Miiller, together with the Indian commentary of 
 
 B 2
 
 4 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 Sayana, a comparatively modern work of the 14th century. 
 The edition in two volumes, published by Trubner & Co., is 
 indispensable to the student. The addition of the Pada text, 
 which is held by Max Miiller to represent, though somewhat 
 imperfectly, the oldest form of the hymns,* is exceedingly 
 useful, removing, in fact, one main obstruction to a ready 
 and thorough knowledge of the language. 
 
 I pass on to the translations of the Eig Veda. Here it 
 must be observed that the translation into French by M. L. 
 Langlois,t the first which brought the whole book within 
 reach of the general reader, not only abounds in glaring 
 defects attributable to imperfect knowledge of the language, 
 but rests upon an unsound basis. To use the language of the 
 highest authority, that of the preface to the St. Petersburg 
 Dictionary Vorwort, p. iv it is wholly destitute of authority. 
 This is of importance, since the work has had a wide circu- 
 lation, and is quoted constantly by French scholars. 
 
 We have, however, at present two complete translations by 
 German scholars. That by Ludwig, which claimed to be the 
 only complete translation into German, was published in 
 1876, with commentary and introduction, in five volumes. 
 
 The first two contain the translation in cadenced prose ; it 
 is carefully executed, and adheres closely to the original. 
 
 But the translation, and in a still higher degree the 
 introduction in the third volume, and the commentary in 
 the fourth and fifth volumes, have one great disadvantage ; 
 the style is exceedingly, obscure. Not to speak of the modern 
 system of German orthography, which is adopted throughout 
 to the great discomfort of readers familiar with the master- 
 
 * Dr. Roth, however, I.e. p. 17, attributes the division of words in the 
 Pada text to a very ancient grammarian, Cakalya, who is said to have 
 been mainly instrumental in determining the form of the Rig Veda. 
 
 f This translation forms the first volume of a series, published by 
 Maisonneuve et Cie., under the title ' Bibliotheque orientale.'
 
 EDITIONS, TRANSLATIONS, ETC. 5 
 
 pieces of German literature, the learned author assumes in 
 his readers a knowledge of the language which he translates 
 such as none but accomplished Sanskrit scholars are likely to 
 possess. He leaves many words untranslated, without note or 
 explanation. In the introduction nearly every page abounds 
 in such obstructions, which a little care and regard for the 
 reader's convenience would have removed.* 
 
 Another point calls for special notice, viz. the order in 
 which Ludwig arranges the hymns. Instead of following the 
 system adopted in all editions of the text, which divides the 
 whole work into ten parts, called Mandalas, and in each 
 Mandala retains a certain order, Ludwig arranges all the 
 hymns according to their subjects, especially according to the 
 deities to which they are severally addressed. 
 
 This has one obvious and not inconsiderable advantage ; it 
 brings together all that is said of each deity, and saves the 
 reader much trouble, whether he may wish to compare 
 the teaching of different poets, or to collect general results. 
 Professor Max Muller adopted the same system in the first 
 volume of his translation of the Big Veda (the only one yet 
 published) containing eleven hymns to the Maruts, and he 
 defends the system with his usual ability. 
 
 But it has very serious disadvantages, which indeed far 
 outweigh the gain. 
 
 It entirely sacrifices the order in which the Indians 
 received and handed down their sacred books, and according 
 to which all quotations in critical works are numbered. In 
 
 * This is a grave and not uncommon fault with Germans of high at- 
 tainments. Thus, in Max Miiller's ' Sacred Books of the East,' names and 
 phrases are quoted which no ordinary reader can understand. See, for 
 instance, the first page of the translation, in the first volume of the series. 
 Of Ludwig's translation, Kaegi ( Der Kigveda,' p. 170) says that it is 
 "often unintelligible to common readers, but of great value to special 
 scholars (dem Fachgelehrten)."
 
 6 THE BIG VEDA. 
 
 fact the numbering thus necessitated differs absolutely from 
 any that has been adopted by other authors, and even from 
 that which is used by Ludwig himself in other parts of his 
 work. Nor is this disadvantage altogether overcome by the 
 index which Ludwig gives at the end of his second volume. 
 Few readers have the time or the patience to verify references 
 involving so troublesome a process. 
 
 A worse fault is that it obscures, in fact practically 
 obliterates, very important indications of chronology. Each 
 Mandala belongs to a different age ; between the oldest and 
 the latest there was an interval of indefinite but very 
 considerable duration, within which changes took place 
 which materially affect the style, the character, and the prin- 
 ciples of writers belonging to different schools of thought and 
 feeling. To put hymns of the sixth and seventh Mandala in 
 the same rank with those of the ninth and tenth is grievously 
 misleading, as will be seen more distinctly when we examine 
 the contents of the whole collection. It gives, moreover, a 
 factitious appearance of systematic order which is wholly 
 foreign to the compilation. 
 
 If, as may be expected, Professor Max Muller publishes 
 a complete translation of the Big Veda in the ' Sacred Books 
 of the East/ a collection which, properly speaking, ought to 
 have commenced with the oldest documents, and to have given 
 the precedence among Aryan or Eranian writings to the Eig 
 Veda and the Gathas of Zoroaster, it is to be hoped that 
 he will save his readers the waste of time and labour involved 
 in such an arrangement. 
 
 In the same year, 1876, another complete translation was 
 published by Hermann Grassmann, an excellent Sanskrit 
 scholar, to whom we are indebted for the ' Worterbuch zum 
 Eig Veda,' published in 1873. Grassmann's translation has 
 the great merit of preserving the ancient order in Mandalas, 
 thus facilitating reference, and keeping the productions of
 
 EDITIONS, TRANSLATIONS, ETC. 7 
 
 different schools and ages apart. He also translates the 
 poems in a metrical form, which faithfully represents one 
 Characteristic feature of the original, and that without sacri- 
 ficing the literal exactness which is an indispensable condition 
 of a true translation. To each Mandala and to each group 
 of songs he prefixes a very useful and concise summary of the 
 contents, and in this and other important points affords 
 reasonable help to the student. It is, however, to be regretted 
 that Grassmann retains the system of numbering the songs 
 which he had previously adopted in the ' Worterbuch,' differing 
 from that which is observed in all editions of the text, and 
 thus giving very unnecessary trouble to the reader. On the 
 whole I venture to express a decided opinion, that for most 
 students of the Kig Veda Grassmann's translation and 
 dictionary, with Aufrecht's text, will present the greatest 
 assistance and the least hindrance to a rapid and true insight 
 into the contents of this book. 
 
 I must, however, observe that the small, unostentatious 
 work, published in 1875, entitled ' Siebenzig Lieder des Eig 
 Veda,' translated by Karl Geldner and Adolph Kaegi, with 
 short but exceedingly valuable notes by the great master of 
 Vedic literature, Dr. E. Eoth, is a book which presents the 
 characteristic features of the Eig Veda in a most accessible 
 and interesting form. It is, in fact, the first book which 
 I would commend to the attention of a cultivated scholar 
 who would wish to comprehend the true character of the 
 whole book. To Kaegi also we owe an introduction to 
 the Eig Veda* conspicuous for clearness, conciseness, and 
 completeness, for a total absence of pedantry, and perfect 
 mastery, over all the resources of Sanskrit scholarship. 
 
 On the other hand, Professor Max Miiller has published one 
 
 * ' Der Eig Veda die alteste Literatur der Inder, von Adolph Kaegi.' 
 The second edition is dated 1881.
 
 8 THE RIG VEDA: EDITIONS, TRANSLATIONS, ETC. 
 
 volume of a proposed translation of the Kig Veda. He gives a 
 translation of eleven hymns only, little more than one-hun- 
 dredth part of the collection ; hymns, moreover, taken from the 
 first Mandala, of uncertain date and character, and addressed 
 to the Maruts, or gods of storm- winds, least interesting products 
 of Indo- Aryan superstition. That the translation, the notes 
 by which it is illustrated, and the preface in which the writer 
 gives his opinions on points of interest to advanced scholars, 
 are remarkable for profound learning, acuteness, and literary 
 ability, is no more than was to be expected. But it is evident 
 that the Professor must recast his work, write on a different 
 scale, and in a far less obscure style, if he intends to give 
 readers the help and guidance of which he is especially 
 qualified to appreciate the necessity, and which his unrivalled 
 command of modern and ancient languages and of all branches 
 of scientific philology will assuredly enable him to supply.
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 THE RIG VEDA: TITLE, AGE, AND CONTENTS. 
 
 THE term Rig Veda consists of two distinct words, Kig and 
 Veda. The former has the special sense, a song; as this is 
 generally composed in honour of some divinity the word 
 corresponds most nearly to "hymn." The latter, Veda 
 literally "knowledge" is used specially in reference to 
 " sacred lore/' The ancient Indians and their Pundits up to 
 the present time use this word in a far wider sense than the 
 generality of European scholars. With them it included all 
 the literature from which they derived knowledge of their 
 ancestral history, especially of the most ancient forms of 
 religious thought and worship ; * but as the word is used 
 by European scholars it is confined to the most ancient 
 documents, of which the latest is separated by an interval 
 of centuries from those which come next to them in age,f 
 and by a second interval of indefinite duration from 
 
 * The most distinct and authoritative account of the term Veda, as 
 understood by the Indians themselves, is to be found in the ' Laws of 
 Marm' (Manava Dharmacastra), ii. 6-15. It includes the entire tradi- 
 tional system, accepted as resting upon a divine revelation on which all 
 religious belief is founded. Native writers regard the productions of 
 comparatively modern periods as containing authoritative declarations 
 of the will of their deities. 
 
 f The Sutras, Brahmanas, Upanishads, which contain the earliest 
 speculations of Indian thinkers, first explained by Colebrooke, belong to 
 a much later age than that of the Big Veda. The whole character of 
 thought and feeling had undergone a thorough change, and the language 
 had become substantially identical with that of the so-called classic age. 
 This is pointed out in the Vorwort to the great St. Petersburg Dictionary, 
 and must be borne in mind in reading Max Muller's interesting work, 
 ' India, What can it teach us ? '
 
 10 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 the great works specially called classic, of which the most 
 important are the Eamayana, and Mahabharata, which 
 embody in a highly poetic form, but with inordinate diffuse- 
 ness, the legends, traditions, and systems of cosmogony and 
 psychology which were accepted by the leaders of Indian 
 thought some centuries before the Christian era. 
 
 Among those ancient documents, which are entitled 
 severally Eig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda in two portions, 
 and Atharva Veda, the Eig Veda is by far the oldest, and 
 in all essential points by far the most important. The Sama 
 Veda, i.e. the Veda of the Sama, or liturgical chants, is in fact 
 an adaptation of its songs to liturgical uses. The two Yajurs 
 are occupied with the forms of worship, while the Atharva 
 Veda, by far the latest production of that period, shows at 
 once the strong hold which the Eig Veda had acquired over 
 the national spirit and the modifying influences of a tran- 
 sitional period.* 
 
 In short,- whether we consider the forms of language, the 
 forms of religious belief and practice, or the indications of 
 national development in the earliest period of Indo- Aryan 
 life, we find in the Eig Veda, and in that alone, trustworthy 
 contemporary productions of that age. 
 
 * It is certain, on the one hand, that the Sama Veda is founded upon 
 the Rig Veda, and is, of course, much later in date, belonging to a time 
 when the forms of worship were developed ; but, on the other hand, it is 
 highly probable that in many passages it preserves a purer and more 
 ancient text. For full information on these and other points, see Benfey's 
 excellent edition of the Sama Veda, and the dissertations of Dr. Eoth, 
 ' Zur Litteratur und Geschichte des Rig Weda.' The special use to which 
 the Sama Veda was applied accounts for the high rank assigned to it in 
 the ' Bhagavad-Gita,' x. 22, where the supreme deity declares, that as 
 in all things he is the central and highest principle, so in the Vedas he 
 is the Sama Veda ; Vedanam samavedo 'srni, which Lassen renders ' Inter 
 volumina sacra sum bymnorum volumen.' See also Lassen's explanation 
 of the word, p. 285. Saman ' significat modulationem vocis,' specially 
 in reciting hymns.
 
 CONTENTS. 11 
 
 The Eig Veda consists of 1028 songs, arranged, as has been 
 said, in ten books, called Mandalas.* Each of these books 
 has a special character, differing from the others in extent, 
 and still more in style and bearings. It is admitted by all 
 critics that they are collections of hymns made at different 
 periods; but although the latest were produced at least a 
 century after the most ancient, and some additions were in- 
 troduced towards the close of the Vedic age, yet, one and all, 
 they are far more ancient than the earliest production of the 
 following age. 
 
 The first, the eighth, and the tenth Manflalas stand apart 
 from the other books. The first contains poems of different 
 ages, some probably of high antiquity, others of questionable 
 date and character ; but the eighth is in a very unsatisfactory 
 condition, confused in order, and much- later in date, yet 
 composed, with few exceptions, by members of one family; 
 and the tenth has few, if any, ancient hymns ; some, indeed, of 
 its songs are admitted to belong to the very latest -development 
 of old Indo- Aryan thought. As such, however, they have a 
 special interest as bearing upon the all-important question, to 
 be discussed presently, as to the comparative antiquity of 
 various forms of faith. 
 
 The ninth Mandala, again, occupies a special and very 
 peculiar place in the collection. It consists exclusively of 
 hymns, some of them very ancient, addressed to Soma, the 
 personification of the intoxicating liquid, to which the early 
 Aryans, not the Indians only, but their nearest congeners, 
 the Eranians, attributed a divine efficacy, ascribing to its use 
 
 * Properly Mandala, a word not found in the Kig Veda, invented by 
 the early grammarians, and denoting ornament, circle, disc, &c. I have 
 not noticed another ancient division into ' Ashtakas,' i.e. into eighth parts, 
 since, with its subdivisions, it was a merely formal arrangement for the 
 use of schools, and is neither recognised by the earliest native grammarians, 
 nor adopted by modern commentators.
 
 12 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 the achievements of their heroes, and what is specially 
 noteworthy, the development of their religious system. As I 
 shall have occasion to show presently, the exaltation of Indra" 
 for ages the supreme deity of the Indo-Aryans and of the 
 Maruts specially connected with Indra as gods of storm- 
 winds was attributed by the poets of the Eig Veda to 
 enormous draughts of Soma. 
 
 But the other books, from the second to the seventh 
 inclusive, stand on a different and far higher footing. 
 
 Each of them is a collection of hymns composed by the 
 greatest and most ancient poets of the race, Kishis as they 
 are always called by Indians. 
 
 Each of them contains the productions of one great family, 
 and nearly every hymn bears the name of one member of the 
 family. 
 
 The names of these Eishis, now little known, but probably 
 destined to be familiar to all students of ancient lore, are 
 noticeable. Gritsamada, i.e. " the wise and joyous," for the 
 second book ; Vicvamitra, " the friend of all," for the third ; 
 Vamadeva, " dear to the gods," for the fourth ; and Atri, " the 
 consumer, or recipient of gifts," for the fifth. 
 
 The Eishi to whom the sixth Mandala is attributed bore 
 the significant name Bharadvaja, i.e. "bearer or bringer of 
 comfort ; "* and the poems in this Mandala are held by com- 
 petent judges to rank among the noblest in style and 
 general characteristics. 
 
 But considering the singular interest which attaches to 
 many of the hymns, and to the position and historical 
 importance of the composer, I should assign the pre-eminence 
 to the seventh Mandala. The Eishi is named Vasishtha, i.e. 
 
 * So Grassmann, s. v. ; but in the St. Petersburg Sanskrit Dictionary 
 it is said to mean " field-lark : " a singularly beautiful designation for an 
 aspiring poet.
 
 CONTENTS. 13 
 
 "the noblest, best, most brilliant." The hymns addressed 
 by him to Indra are conspicuous for grandeur, vividness, and 
 splendour. It was believed by his grateful contemporaries 
 that Indra, adored as the god of warlike force, the giver of 
 wealth, dignity, and all material blessings, was constrained by 
 the power of his invocations * to come to the help of the 
 Indo-Aryans, and to give them the crowning victory in 
 their desperate warfare with the aboriginal tribes. 
 
 Other strains of a very different and far higher tone are 
 found in the same book, to which I shall have to call most 
 special attention in discussing the development of religious 
 thought and feeling in the Eig Veda. 
 
 This brief account of the Mandalas may suffice to show the 
 importance of retaining the order in which they have been 
 preserved to us by the Indians. At what time they were so 
 arranged cannot be determined. It is admitted that each 
 Mandala originally belonged to one family, and was kept 
 apart from the others ; but the most ancient commentators 
 and grammarians, as Dr. Eoth has shown, recognised the 
 arrangement, which was probably made soon after the close 
 of the so-called Vedic age. 
 
 PROBABLE DATE OF THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 Chronology in the proper sense does not apply to the Eig 
 Veda, nor, indeed, to any department of Indian prehistoric 
 antiquity. But the question as to the general position of 
 
 * Dr. Roth, the highest authority, uses the word " incantamenta " for 
 these hymns. For confirmation of my statement, see Grassmann, W.R.V., 
 p. 1234. The force of incantations by the Rishis is repeatedly spoken of 
 in the Rig Veda. Thus in Mand. i. 71-2, we read, "VIM cid driM 
 pitaro na ukthair adrim rujann angiraso ravena," i.e. " Our fathers broke 
 strong forts by utterances, the Angiras split the rock." The Angiras is 
 an appellation of certain families of Rishis.
 
 14 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 these poems, and their comparative antiquity, cannot be 
 passed over ; for, vague as the indications, scanty as the facts 
 may be, they suffice to prove that the Eig Veda existed at a 
 period which, on the one hand, establishes their claim to be by 
 centuries the oldest documents of Aryan races ; while, on the 
 other, they show the long series of events of vital import- 
 ance in the world's history which must have preceded their 
 composition. 
 
 We will take our start from the first date in Indian history 
 which rests on positive evidence, that of inscriptions which 
 have been completely deciphered within the last few years, 
 and present facts universally accepted by the soundest 
 critics, and recognised as of supreme importance. 
 
 I speak, of course, of the inscriptions of Ashoka Piyadasi. 
 The monarch so named reigned over the most extensive 
 empire of ancient India towards the close of the first half 
 of the third century before Christ. The identification of his 
 second predecessor Candragupta with the Sandracottus of 
 Greek historians, the contemporary and successful adversary 
 of Seleucus, is justly regarded as " the pivot of the ancient 
 chronology of India." Ashoka Piyadasi set up inscriptions 
 in the vernacular languages of Northern India, of which no 
 less than fourteen in five distinct groups have been deciphered, 
 translated, and illustrated within the last fifty-nine years by 
 a succession of eminent scholars, with results of the highest 
 importance, especially as proving the formal establishment of 
 Buddhism, and its adoption by the most powerful sovereign 
 of India, in the third century.* 
 
 * The student will find a full and thoroughly scientific examination of 
 these inscriptions in the two great works of Eugene Burnouf, ' Le Lotus 
 de bonne foi,' and the ' Introduction to Indian Buddhism.' The latest and 
 most complete account of the inscriptions, with the original text, tran- 
 scription, translation, and critical investigation, is given by M. Senart, 
 in three articles in the 'Journal asiatique,' 1880 (tomes xv. and xvi.
 
 ITS AGE. 15 
 
 We are for practical purposes on equally sure ground with 
 respect to the founder of Buddhism, Gautama, best known as 
 Sakya-Muni i.e. the ascetic of the Sakyas whose historical 
 existence has been questioned, but is recognised by the 
 soundest critics. But even admitting, for the sake of argu- 
 ment, the legendary or mythical character of the accounts 
 of this object of profoundest reverence to one-third of the 
 human race, it is a matter of absolute certainty that the first 
 promulgation of that religious system must have preceded the 
 establishment under Ashoka by some centuries, and we may 
 consider it as all but certain that it took place before the fifth 
 or sixth century. 
 
 But Buddhism was a reaction against Brahmanism, which, 
 as M. E. Burnouf has proved, was completely developed, with 
 its social, national, liturgical, and mythological systems, and in 
 full possession of Northern India, when the earliest writings 
 of the Buddhists were produced. Again, a very considerable 
 period must be allowed for the great classic age which 
 produced the Mahabharata and the Kamayana ; for although 
 some episodes in the former may possibly * have been added 
 at a later date, both poems in their general bearings evidently 
 stand at an equal distance from the age of Buddha, and from 
 that which witnessed the establishment of the system of Brah- 
 manism. The fullest view of the principles of that system is 
 
 vii e se"rie). The names of Prinsep, Tumour, and other English scholars 
 who first deciphered the inscriptions and discovered their true import, 
 receive a due measure of acknowledgment in these articles. 
 
 * I say possibly, for this view is maintained by great scholars. The 
 noblest episode in the Mahabharata is the " Bhagavad-Gita," which presents 
 some fundamental doctrines adopted by the Buddha, in a singularly com- 
 plete and beautiful form. On the other hand it condemns practices and 
 doctrines of the innovators in terms which have the appearance of con- 
 troversial antagonism. I regret to observe that Professor Max Miiller, in 
 his last work, 'India, What can it teach us?' speaks slightingly of this 
 grandest of all uninspired utterances of the human spirit, as also of the 
 other poems of the classic age.
 
 16 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 presented in the so-called laws of Manu, translated by Sir 
 William Jones. We are thus thrown back to the seventh 
 or eighth century, without as yet coming within measurable 
 distance of the Vedic age. 
 
 A long interval must again be assumed for the produc- 
 tion of the series of philosophical works, the earlier Upani- 
 shads and others, which represent a phase of Indian thought 
 wholly adverse to the system of the Rig Veda on the one 
 hand, and to developed Brahmanism on the other. One or 
 even two centuries is not too long a period. 
 
 Not to dwell upon this subject, I must add that between 
 the most ancient of these and other productions of the inter- 
 mediate period and the very latest portions of the Rig Veda, 
 an entire change had passed over the national spirit. The 
 language had become stiffened, so to speak, bound by strict 
 laws ; and in fact, to use the words of the highest authorities, 
 it differed from that of the Rig Veda more completely than 
 Attic Greek differs from the language of Homer.* 
 
 In short, while critics are far from agreeing upon the 
 precise age of the latest Rig Veda, all admit that it could not 
 have been later than the tenth and probably goes back to the 
 fourteenth or sixteenth century B.C. 
 
 Other calculations, based upon astronomical data, have 
 occupied the minds of scientific inquirers, and although 
 implicit reliance cannot be placed upon notices of this kind 
 which are drawn from the Rig Veda, it is admitted that the 
 results are not at variance with those which, as we have seen, 
 point to the fourteenth or even the sixteenth century B.C. 
 
 We have further to note the fact that, as all critics are 
 agreed, a period of indefinite but certainly considerable extent 
 intervened between the earliest and the latest portions of the 
 
 * See the Vorwort to the St. Petersburg Sanskrit dictionary, and 
 Dr. Roth's treatise previously cited, p. 2.
 
 ITS AGE. 17 
 
 Eig Veda itself. Then going still further back we have data 
 that prove a long interval between the most ancient Rig Veda 
 and the first entrance of the Aryan invaders into India. Five 
 generations of earlier princes are enumerated. The Rishis 
 speak often of their own distant ancestors, and, as Ludwig 
 has shown, there are clear indications of the lapse of centuries 
 probably four or five before these poems were composed 
 by Indo-Aryan Rishis. 
 
 Taking these facts into consideration, we regard the Rig 
 Veda as the product of the age which witnessed the esta- 
 blishment of the Indo-Aryan invaders after a long series of 
 desperate struggles, and preceded all the movements of 
 national life and thought, and of social, intellectual, and reli- 
 gious development, which issued in the vast and complicated 
 system of Indian nationality before the Scythian irruptions 
 in the third century of our Christian era. 
 
 THE AGES PRECEDING THE ARYAN INVASION OF INDIA.* 
 
 The age of the Rig Veda has thus been settled within certain 
 limits with reference to Indian history. But that great 
 collection, and the whole state of Indo-Aryan thought, feeling, 
 social and political development, must be regarded as the 
 outcome of previous events, which ought on that account to 
 be carefully considered ; which, moreover, affect the present 
 question as to the position of the Rig Veda in chronological 
 connection with ancient movements of the human family. 
 
 * This section may be regarded as a digression, and as such passed 
 over by readers exclusively concerned with the contents and bearings of 
 the Rig Veda. I have not, however, thought well to relegate it to an 
 appendix, since it is closely bound up with convictions to which I attach 
 the very highest importance, and because the facts with which it deals 
 may be readily separated from the speculations and theories which, 
 whether true or false, may be open to question. 
 
 G
 
 18 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 One point is of supreme importance and may be regarded 
 as definitively settled. 
 
 Before the Aryans who invaded India separated themselves 
 from the parent stock they had lived for ages as one people 
 with the Eranians, in one country, of which the eastern limit 
 was the great mountainous range of the Himalaya, and which 
 certainly extended westward as far as Armenia or Asia 
 Minor. During that period they spoke one language, in which 
 the special characteristics of the branches, afterwards known as 
 old Persian, Zend, and Sanskrit, were developed. That language 
 has, in fact, been discovered, so to speak ; its inflexions, con- 
 jugations, and to a great extent its -vocabulary, have been 
 ascertained, and in scientific works on comparative philology 
 it has received the name Ariack in German, in French Ariaque. 
 Certain forms of its metrical system, being common to both 
 languages, are recognised as the ancient property of the 
 united race. I shall have occasion to discuss the far more 
 important question as to the unity of the ancient Aryan faith, 
 but I may here state briefly my conviction, on the one hand, 
 that principles of paramount interest were the common pos- 
 session of the whole race ; and, on the other hand, that some 
 very mischievous depravations and superstitions had already 
 struck so deep root that they produced most deleterious 
 results in all branches of the race, specially in Persia and 
 India. 
 
 But the separation of the Indo- Aryan and Eranian families 
 had been preceded by a series of emigrations. Without 
 attempting to- define the exact order, far less the successive 
 epochs, the following had certainly taken place. Nearest 
 in time, nearest also in all characteristic features, the 
 ancestors of the Hellenic race passed on to the countries 
 where we find them as conquerors in early history. The 
 ancestors of the Latins and Celts, originally, as is believed, 
 one people, passed into Southern Europe, separated from each
 
 AGES PRECEDING IT. 19 
 
 other, at a remote period, but retaining severally characteristic 
 features attesting their Aryan descent. 
 
 Judging from indications of language it appears probable 
 that the Hellenes bore a near relation to the Eranians, who 
 occupied the districts adjoining Asia Minor, while the Latin or 
 Celto-Italic race has clear indications of a longer connection 
 with the Aryans who invaded India. The Slavonic emi- 
 gration passed northward, retaining equally distinct proofs of 
 Aryan origin, in their language, in their social and political 
 institutions, and in their religion; their supreme deity bears the 
 name Bhoga, identical with the Bhaga in Sanskrit, one of the 
 Adityas of whom I have to speak presently, and in old Persian 
 a general appellation of the deity, the supreme deity, Ahura 
 Mazda or Ormuzd, being entitled Bhaga- Bhaganam, god of 
 gods. The Teutonic races, destined to take the lead in 
 Northern Europe, apparently emigrated at the same time, or 
 under the same circumstances, as the Sclavs, but at a very 
 early period developed their high and independent character. 
 
 When we go still further back, and consider the highly 
 probable in my own opinion the certain derivation of the 
 Asiatic, and indeed of all Turanians, from a common centre, 
 after the separation of Japhetic from the Semitic and Hamitic 
 races, we feel overwhelmed by the weight and multiplicity 
 of events- incapable of exact determination, but which indicate 
 unmistakably the lapse of enormous periods of time. 
 
 I am disposed to believe, on these and other grounds, that 
 the Eig Veda occupies a midway position between the first 
 separation of the human race and the Christian era. 
 
 Other points connected with these emigrations call for 
 notice as specially affecting the position and bearings of the 
 Eig Veda. They are open to dispute, and cannot be repre- 
 sented as finally settled, or as likely to be finally settled, so 
 long as controversialists are influenced by differing and 
 conflicting theories touching fundamental principles. I will, 
 
 c 2
 
 20 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 however, venture here to state concisely the impression left 
 upon my own mind by investigations into the most ancient 
 and trustworthy records of the early history of our race. 
 
 In the first place I must assert, and that confidently, that 
 the moving cause of the separation of the Indo- Aryans from 
 their Eranian kinsmen was not, as was generally held a few 
 years since, a disruption in their religious system. The 
 former can be proved * to have carried with them into their 
 new homes, and to have retained for centuries though soon 
 blended and lowered by admixture of alien elements the 
 central principles of their ancient religion. The indications 
 of antagonism, which great scholars to whom the Eig Veda 
 was scarcely known, found in the Indian usage of such a 
 name as Asura,f are proved to have rested upon misconcep- 
 tion, natural and indeed inevitable, so long as the primeval 
 monuments of Indian antiquity were inaccessible. Taking 
 into consideration other facts more or less clearly indicated 
 by ancient traditions, I feel no doubt but that the advance of 
 the eastern Aryans into the Punjaub was caused by external 
 pressure. All records Eranian or Semitic indicate move- 
 ments which, about the period at which the separation of the 
 Aryan family took place, issued in a formidable inroad upon 
 the national faith. Such, for instance, was the intrusion of 
 Semitic or Hamitic influences, of which contemporary notices 
 are found in the Assyrian inscriptions, and of which the main 
 features are discernible in the wild legend of Zohak, the 
 serpent king, of Arabian origin, when a strange bloody ritual 
 was forcibly imposed upon the Eranians, and a long series of 
 desperate struggles at first unavailing commenced and was 
 continued for a long period.^ To the same or to similar 
 
 * See further on, p. 53 seq. 
 
 t See p. 61, and the notes on this word, with citations from the great 
 dictionary of St. Petersburg, and from Grassmann, W. R. V. 
 
 J See the accounts in the Shahnameh, and the explanations suggested 
 by the Comte de Gobineau in his ' Histoire des Perses.'
 
 AGES PRECEDING IT. . 21 
 
 causes I would attribute the previous emigration of the other 
 great races which retained the characteristic features of the 
 Aryan stock in language, in social and political institutions, 
 and in religion.* 
 
 That such external pressure acted in conjunction with 
 internal disturbances, whether political or social, is of course 
 highly probable ; bad seasons, scarcity of food, insufficient 
 provision for the wants of a rapidly increasing population, 
 have always determined movements similar in character, if 
 not equal in extent, to those which issued in the final 
 separation of the most closely united families of Eran and 
 India. 
 
 Here I must call attention to the fact that the Shahnaineh 
 (i.e. the Book of Kings), in which Firdausi,f the great national 
 poet of Persia in the eleventh century, is admitted to have 
 presented faithfully the oldest traditions of the Eranians, 
 represents Feridun, the hero to whom the expulsion of the 
 Semitic oppressor is attributed, and Minuchehr, his immediate 
 successor, as exercising an uncontested sovereignty over great 
 parts, if not the whole, of India proper. This may, of course, be 
 regarded, and with much probability, as the exaggeration of 
 national vanity ; but it is of importance as indicating, in fact 
 proving, the belief ever entertained by the Eranians in the 
 continuance of amicable relations between themselves and 
 their Indo- Aryan kinsmen. I would lay stress upon the very 
 curious and interesting legend of Sal,| the father of Eustem, 
 
 * The fullest proofs of these all-important facts, which are accepted by 
 all philologers of eminence, may be found in Pictet's exhaustive work, 
 ' Les Ariens primitifs.' 
 
 f Firdausi, so the name is correctly written in Vullers's Lexicon, means 
 Paradisaical. Firdausi bore also, as was usual, a Mahometan name, 
 Abu '1 Kasim. The Shahnameh, " The Book of Kings," has been edited 
 and translated by M. J. Mohl ; and the translation has been published 
 by his -widow separately (in seven voLs., 1878). 
 
 J Shahnameh, i. p. 188.
 
 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 in the reign of Minuchehr. We there read that while the 
 Indians of Cabulistan maintained a certain independence, in 
 fact an internal autocracy, they still recognised the Eranian 
 sovereign as their supreme head, and that they had already 
 adopted idolatrous forms and superstitions, which, though 
 they did not preclude contact, yet produced an increasing 
 and finally a complete alienation. This accords entirely with 
 the position which I undertake to define in this essay, nor 
 do I feel any doubt as to the substantial truth. 
 
 Another point may seem to lie outside of the scope of my 
 argument; but it is, in fact, too closely bound up with 
 questions of vital importance both as regards the unity of 
 the human race and the original unity of religion to be 
 passed over without notice, especially since the main facts, 
 which I have to allege are incontrovertible, and the inferences 
 from them appear to me strictly logical. 
 
 I refer to the Turanian, or however it may be designated, 
 Scythian, Accadian, Dravidian, the race or races which, 
 long before the emigration of Teutons, Sclavs, or other pure 
 Aryan families, had certainly overrun the western regions of 
 our continent and apparently most of the eastern also. 
 
 We have in the first place to admit unreservedly, that 
 certain positive characteristics distinctly separate all these 
 tribes from the Aryans. Their habits, domestic, social, and 
 national, are wild, fierce, little affected by influences having 
 a tendency towards any true civilization. Their languages, 
 differing widely from each other in details, but agreeing in 
 certain laws of structure, are one and all fundamentally 
 distinct from those spoken by races of pure Aryan descent. 
 Their religions or religious habits have invariably a weird, 
 uncouth, and most repulsive character; in fact, all marks 
 which are held by anthropologists to prove diversity of origin 
 stand out conspicuously in the representative families of this 
 great department of the human race.
 
 AGES PRECEDING IT. 23 
 
 But, on the other hand, those Turanian families which came 
 into closest, contact with the descendants of Japhet are dis- 
 tinctly recognised by them as their congeners, descendants 
 from a common stock, and that not only in the Biblical record 
 the oldest and most important document which touches the 
 affiliation of the several branches of the human family but in 
 the oldest and most certain traditions of the Eranians them- 
 selves. In their great national poem, the Shahnameh, we find 
 indeed Turanians and Eranians from first to last on terms of 
 deadly, irreconcilable enmity. The central principle of that 
 great work, the principle which gives it a true unity, and 
 justifies the appellation of epic, to which its claims have 
 been most unreasonably contested, is the recognition of a 
 fundamental antagonism between Turanians and Eranians, 
 especially between their respective religious systems, between 
 the monotheism * of the old Eranians and the idolatry of the 
 Turanians, between Ahuramazda or Ormuzd, the god of gods, 
 creator of the universe, lord of light and goodness, and 
 Ahriman, the personification of evil, the seducer, the destroyer. 
 Under the influences of these several religious systems, the 
 two great representative races with which that poem specially 
 deals developed antagonistic habits ; on the one side we 
 have the fierce, wild, plundering nomads of the northern 
 steppes ; on the other the industrious, cultivated, peace-loving, 
 light-loving subjects of the sovereigns who from the beginning, 
 specially from the time of Feridun to the fall of Yezdegerd, 
 represent the principles of order, progress, civilization, and 
 sound religion. In short, nothing can be more strongly 
 marked than the contrast between the two races and their 
 respective heroes. 
 
 But notwithstanding this unquestionable antagonism we 
 find throughout the history the mutual recognition of a 
 
 * This is constantly assumed by Firdausi.
 
 24 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 common origin. We read of frequent truces, of covenants 
 acknowledging certain international rights ; intermarriages 
 took place to such an extent that the most distinguished 
 princes and heroes of the Eranians traced their descent from 
 Turanian ancestors, and what is no less remarkable, we find 
 in the national poems of this people, so proud of and so 
 jealous of their peculiar claims, that the honourable appellation 
 of Pehlevan * is bestowed alike upon Eranians and Turanians, 
 who are distinguished by traits of heroism. It may be 
 regarded as an indisputable fact that, rightly or wrongly, the 
 two races looked upon each other as separated completely by 
 social habits, political institutions, and above all by religious 
 principles, but as descending from a common stock, 
 participators in one blood. 
 
 I must also note the curious fact that Feridun, the ideal of 
 Eranian princes, the restorer of national independence, and of 
 sound monotheistic religion, is represented as dividing the 
 sovereignty of the whole world between his three sons ; one 
 Selm, being made Lord of Western Asia and Europe ; another, 
 Tour, Lord of all Eastern Asia, i.e. of Turkestan and China ; 
 the third, Ms successor in the central and supreme realm of 
 Eran.f 
 
 This legend is of course purely poetical in its actual form, 
 but it points unmistakably to the deeply rooted conviction of 
 the Eranians, that so much of the world as was not occupied 
 by the totally distinct races of Hamitic or Semitic origin, was 
 overspread by the descendants of their own ancestor, the 
 Japhet of the Bible, the Yami or Yima of Indian and Persian 
 tradition. 
 
 * See Vullers's ' Lexicon Persicum,' i. p. 385. The word means ' noble,' 
 ' excellent.' 
 
 t Shahnameh, ed. Vullers, i. p. 77 f. ; ed. Mohl, i. p. 138. "One had 
 Mm and the West, the next Turkestan and China."
 
 AGES PRECEDING IT. 25 
 
 But how can the deeply marked differences be at all accounted 
 for ? Of course a wide field is open to conjecture, and an 
 answer which should command general consent in the face of 
 conflicting speculations can scarcely be expected ; but I cannot 
 but believe that a rational, probable, if not adequate and con- 
 clusive, account of the matter may be given. At any rate that 
 which I now propose rests on facts which deserve serious con- 
 sideration. In the first place it is admitted that the separation 
 of Turanians and Aryans, whether or not preceded by perfect 
 unity, was completed before the emigrations of those races 
 which retained the chief characteristics of the Aryan family. 
 Those emigrations we have seen reason to attribute to 
 external pressure. But, as it seems to me, they must have 
 been preceded by a far earlier separation owing to internal 
 causes, such as the laws of national advance and development 
 would inevitably bring into operation. 
 
 The family of primitive Aryans, remarkable, as the Biblical 
 record and the Eranian traditions alike represent them, for rapid 
 expansion, must at a very early period have felt the pressure 
 of insufficient means of subsistence ; and the first effect would 
 be the expulsion, or spontaneous separation of the least 
 important, the least useful and least influential portion of the 
 community, of that portion which had deteriorated most 
 completely from the original condition of the race, or had 
 shared least in its progress. 
 
 It is not difficult to realise the condition, mental, social, 
 and religious, of the portion thus ejected from the old Aryan 
 homes. Its leaders would naturally be young, hot-headed, 
 unruly spirits, such as in every age have headed factious or 
 revolutionary movements, jealous of their superiors, and 
 viewed by them with suspicion and dislike. With them 
 would go, voluntarily or under compulsion, the proletariats, 
 the illegitimate children, the classes previously reduced, if 
 not to absolute servitude, yet to dependence upon the will of
 
 26 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 hated masters. The language spoken by the bulk of such a 
 populace must needs have differed materially from that of 
 the nobler and purer heads of the race. All masters of 
 linguistic science hold that such a language as the old Ariak 
 must have been, graceful, correct, with complete and 
 systematic forms of inflexion, could never have been used 
 by the lower orders, by the dependants, or even by any women 
 but the most cultivated. We know that Sanskrit in the 
 classical age was not spoken by servants or by women. 
 First the Prakrit, or vulgar idiom, then the Pali, the verna- 
 cular of Ceylon, and the language of the Sonthern Buddhists, 
 and finally the dialects of Hindustan, were substituted as the 
 medium of common intercourse, degenerating, not by volun- 
 tary but by natural processes of phonetic decay and disinte- 
 gration. A band, or succession of bands, little more than 
 a mere rabble, would bear with them into the wild, desolate 
 steppes of Northern Asia, or the uninhabited regions of India, 
 a language, or dialects of a language, even in its vocabulary 
 full of barbarous novelties, and in its forms uncouth and 
 ungrammatical. 
 
 The further process of phonetic decay would necessarily be 
 rapid and thorough, tending to complete obliteration of 
 original characteristics ; while, as an inevitable result, some 
 such forms as those called agglutinative would spontaneously 
 spring up, and be generally adopted as indispensable to any 
 intelligible medium of communication. Some crucial instances 
 may be adduced in support of this assertion. In India 
 certain forms considered as peculiar to Turanian languages, 
 at an early period, are recognised by the best critics as spon- 
 taneous products of Aryan thought under circumstances 
 adverse to the retention of a beautiful but highly complicated 
 and difficult system. In Eran the old language of the Gathas 
 and the cuneiform inscriptions of the Achsemenidse first lost 
 the true meaning and use of the grammatical forms ; then in
 
 AGES PRECEDING IT. 27 
 
 the Pehlevi, which superseded it, cast away all inflexions, in 
 which it was followed by the Parsi; and finally modern 
 Persian, retaining the old vocabulary, even its compound 
 words with modifications which have been carefully traced 
 and illustrated,* at once adopted the most distinctive charac- 
 teristic of agglutinative languages, the affix ra, marking the 
 objective, and generally all the oblique cases. This was 
 certainly not a result of contact with Turanian races, with 
 which the Eranians were on terms of inveterate hostility ; 
 it was a natural expedient, spontaneously presenting itself, 
 and at once accepted as facilitating mutual intercourse, 
 if not indispensable to it. All students of the Persian 
 language know how singularly useful this one form is 
 in disentangling the complex and difficult sentences of its 
 great writers. 
 
 Again, it must be noticed, supposing the objection to be 
 made as to the amount of culture which the adoption of such 
 an expedient implies, that the races, Nigritian or Old Ame- 
 rican, which are lowest in point of social and intellectual 
 development, and most remote from the original centre of 
 humanity, are especially conspicuous for the ingenuity, com- 
 plexity, and multiplicity of agglutinative forms. 
 
 There is, indeed, so remarkable an agreement between the 
 oldest forms and the latest developments of this class of 
 languages the oldest in Accadian inscriptions, far more 
 ancient than the Assyrian as to go far towards proving that 
 the most common f and most necessary forms must have been 
 invented or come spontaneously into use, if not before, yet 
 certainly immediately after, their separation from the parent 
 stock. 
 
 * See especially Vullers, Radices Persicas,' and Darmesteter, ' Etudes 
 iraniennes.' 
 
 f See M. F. Lenormant's two works, ' La Langue primitive de Chalde"e,' 
 and ' Etudes accadiennes.'
 
 28 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 In fact, the mutual affinity of the Turkish, Finnish, and 
 Uralian languages has been long recognised, and has been 
 lately demonstrated by philologers, English, French, German, 
 and Eussian. Thus the various languages spoken by the 
 original natives of India, both before and after the Aryan 
 invasion, are proved not only to be mutually related, but to 
 bear a common affinity to Turanian or Scythian languages.* 
 So also the Accadian and the Medo-Scythian of Persian and 
 Assyrian inscriptions have been proved, beyond all possi- 
 bility of doubt, to belong to the same great family ; even the 
 vocabularies, though belonging to ages several thousands of 
 years apart from each other, contain a sufficient number 
 of common words to attest their relationship, which is 
 scientifically established by comparison of their structure 
 and grammatical forms. 
 
 Speaking broadly, all tribes originally nomad, belonging to 
 the Turanian or Scythic stock, bear even in their language 
 distinct traces of derivation from a common origin, together 
 with proofs of the processes and transitions through which 
 they severally passed in their separate development. 
 
 But in the remotest east there are' further indications of 
 a total loss of all but the merest elements of language. I 
 believe that in these elements Chinese scholars discover traces 
 of the original unity; but however this may be, it is not 
 difficult to understand how all other indications should have 
 disappeared. We have to bear in mind that, assuming their 
 departure from the common centre, the ancestors of the 
 Chinese must have traversed immense tracts of desolate land, 
 made their way through vast forests, across mountainous 
 regions, marshes, and immense rivers, under every variety of 
 climate, and, as must be conceded, considering the difficulty 
 of getting means of subsistence, generally in small detach- 
 
 * See Bishop Caldwell's 'Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian
 
 AGES PRECEDING IT, 29 
 
 ments. Under these circumstances, with little opportunity 
 and little desire for mutual intercourse, these scattered 
 outcasts, probably the first who left their original homes, 
 would naturally lapse into infantile, monosyllabic, inorganic 
 forms of language, relying chiefly upon gestures, intonations, 
 such as characterise the Chinese, to make themselves mutually 
 intelligible. This I conceive to be the most probable and 
 natural account of the formation of the oldest language of 
 the remotest east. 
 
 Then I must again call attention to the certain traditions 
 of a primitive, and a continued, unbroken unity between the 
 Chinese and the Turanians. I have referred to the legendary 
 division of the world under Feridun. That carries us back to 
 prehistoric antiquity ; but the later books of the Shahnameh, 
 the best authority for Eranian traditions, invariably represent 
 the Turanians and Chinese as near kinsmen and as close 
 allies.* The Emperor or Khakan of China is regarded as 
 supreme head. This may, of course, refer to a period when 
 the original Chinese were reduced to subjection by Turanian 
 invaders ; but I believe that the legends refer to a far earlier 
 period, and give a true representation of the original affinity 
 of the races. 
 
 But can we account for the fundamental differences between 
 the religions of the Aryans and Turanians ? 
 
 We inquire in what that difference substantially consists. 
 We find, wherever we turn, that among the Turanian races 
 the prominent characteristics are wild, fierce superstitions, 
 magic, witchcraft, devil-worship, Shamanism, and orgiastic 
 rites ; in short, all the strange, repulsive forms which strike us 
 alike in Accadian inscriptions, in the legends of Asiatic 
 steppes, and among the Anaryan occupants of India, 
 
 Is there anything in the certain facts recorded of Eranian 
 
 See the passage from the Shahnameh, quoted above, p. 24.
 
 30 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 and Indo- Aryan religion which suggests a probable or possible 
 origin of these wild, strange, odious forms of superstition ? 
 
 The answer is clear and conclusive. Two radically evil 
 superstitions were prevalent at the very earliest period in the 
 history of the Aryan races, which under the circumstances 
 would naturally issue in those monstrous aberrations of the 
 human spirit. 
 
 In the first place, fire-worship was a primeval, most 
 probably the very earliest form of false religion. In the 
 Shahnameh, Firdausi, the faithful preserver of old Aryan 
 traditions, assigns its origin to the time of Husheng, the 
 immediate successor of Cayomars, or, as the Eranians give 
 his name, Gayomeretan, the first king of the world.* Firdausi 
 asserts, I doubt not- with perfect truth, that up to the time 
 when fire-worship was instituted, the whole human race had 
 one religion, one form of worship. 
 
 Now the worship of fire, as a matter of notoriety, is the 
 special characteristic of later Eranian worship. Guebres, the 
 true representatives of the old family, are known as fire- 
 worshippers by Mahometans and by Europeans; as our 
 fellow-subjects in India, they retain unchanged the old 
 rites of that superstition. In the Avesta it is recognised 
 throughout as a fundamental characteristic of true religion. 
 In ancient India, in the Eig Veda, fire, under the name Agni, 
 is the object of special adoration. Hymns addressed to Agni 
 take precedence of all other hymns in nine out of the ten 
 Mandalas, i.e. divisions of the Eig Veda. In both races fire- 
 worship was associated with the wildest superstitions; and 
 although in the minds of the great leaders of Aryan thought, 
 as Zoroaster or the author of the Gathas, the Persian 
 sovereign^ and the first poets of India, the Eishis of the 
 
 * The legend of Cayomars is evidently founded on the Bihlical account 
 of Adam, or derived from the same source.
 
 AGES PRECEDING IT. 31 
 
 Eig Veda, the harsher and coarser features of the old super- 
 stition were disguised, mystified or modified, yet it is certain 
 that the. common people,* especially that portion which, as 
 we hold, constituted the bulk of the Turanian emigrants, had 
 in the notions and rites connected with that worship a starting 
 point and foundation for the wildest excesses. Fire-worship 
 to the further east, to the remotest west, among all branches 
 of the human family, Aryans, Turanians, Hamitic and Semitic, 
 was from the most ancient times a fundamental characteristic 
 of all false religions. The serpent springing up as ' a pyramid 
 of fire ; ' star- worship, recognising elemental fire as its main 
 principle ; sun-worship, the highest and most prevalent develop- 
 ment of the system in short, all forms of ancient idolatry 
 originated and were developed in association with fire : fire 
 worshipped in Eran as the son or manifestation of Ormuzd, 
 in India as the representative of the highest deities, and 
 specially as the angel mediator between God and man.f 
 Can it be doubted that. the. wandering hordes in Asia and 
 Europe brought with them this idolatry from their common 
 home, and with it belief and practices which were rapidly 
 developed into the dark and deadly superstitions which 
 characterise their religious systems ? 
 
 But Shamanism is the most prominent form of Turanian 
 superstitions. Their priests, wizards, or magicians uttered 
 prayers, incantations, predictions, or curses in a state of 
 mental disturbance, of wild frenzy excited by the fumes of 
 
 * Ludwig has pertinent remarks on the relation between the super- 
 stitions of the populace and the forms of religious worship adopted by the 
 higher classes. See Einleitung, p. 341 seq. 
 
 f The title Angira is given to Agni in the Rig Veda. It has precisely 
 the same meaning and use as the Greek "AyyeXor, with which the authors 
 of the St. Petersburg Sanskrit dictionary, Grassmann (W. E. V. p. 14), 
 and other eminent scholars hold, in opposition to Professor Max Miiller, 
 that it is etymologically connected.
 
 32 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 some powerful narcotic or intoxicating drug. Under well- 
 known forms, such as bhang, opium, and other poisonous 
 ingredients, the Shaman * absorbed the maddening draught ; 
 and since the substitutes for wine and other alcoholic liquids, 
 both in the icy steppes and burning plains of Asia, were far 
 more powerful, inducing wilder fits of hallucination, it fol- 
 lowed as a matter of course that the orgiastic rites of Tura- 
 nian, Malayan,! and, generally speaking, of Anaryan hordes, 
 would have a corresponding character of wildness. There 
 can, indeed, be no doubt that between the forms of worship 
 adopted by the noblest Aryan races in Persia and India and 
 the orgiastic rites of Tiiranian hordes there is a strong, definite, 
 unmistakable distinction. Noblest, purest, most rational in 
 those races most nearly approaching the primeval character 
 preserved by descendants of Abraham, and by them alone 
 the forms of religious worship degenerate more or less 
 completely according as peoples recede from the central 
 abode of primitive civilization. Witchcraft is regarded by 
 Hegel, in the work cited in the note above, as the earliest 
 form of all religion. It is undoubtedly, with all its mon- 
 strosities, most conspicuous in tribes which have been most 
 completely isolated from their fellow-men. To find its coarsest 
 
 * See Hegel, ' Philosophic der Religion,' 2ter Theil, s. 1, a. ' Die Zauberei,' 
 vol. i. p. 253, ff. After describing the wild rites of the Esquimaux, he 
 adds, "Ganz diesen Zauberern a'hnlich sind die Schamanen bei den 
 Mongolen, die sieh in phantastischer Kleidung, mit metallenen und 
 holzernen Figuren behangt, durch Getranke betauben," &c., p. 289. 
 
 f Malayans, according to Bopp, are proved by their language to be 
 degenerate Aryans. This position is contested, but the linguistic instinct, 
 so strong and so thoroughly disciplined, of that great master of compara- 
 tive philology, supported in this case by W. Humboldt, was not easily 
 betrayed into error. I think that his hypothesis is perfectly tenable, 
 with the slight modification, that the process of corruption and degrada- 
 tion had begun before the separation of Anaryan families from the parent 
 stock.
 
 AGES PRECEDING IT. 33 
 
 and most odious forms we must turn to those tribes which for 
 ages have remained in the lowest stage of human, nearest to 
 the stage of bestial, degeneracy. But the gradations are 
 distinctly traceable ; the modifications vary according to 
 national character. From cold, dead, meaningless fetishism 
 to the ingenious and elaborate systems of cultured nations 
 the anthropologist can produce specimens of every shape and 
 degree of irreligious religion. 
 
 Now the question is assuming a common origin, which on 
 every other ground appears to me far more probable than any 
 speculative theory whether the Turanian hordes, Scythian, 
 Mongolian, Finnish, Dravidian, or Accadian, had in their 
 primeval home a starting-point for these wild, mad, orgiastic 
 excesses. Did the Aryans, Persian and Indian, hold and 
 practise any superstitions connected with physical and mental 
 excitement and disturbance ? Did such excitement, produced 
 by intoxicating drinks, form a conspicuous and general feature 
 of their religions ? 
 
 The answer is obvious ; it is complete, and it rests upon 
 indisputable facts. 
 
 We find in both branches of the great Aryan family one of 
 the most singular, the most irrational, the most repulsive super- 
 stitions. In India, as we have already noticed, an intoxicating 
 liquid, the juice of a well-known herb (the Asdepias acida) 
 extracted and prepared with the utmost care, with a ritual of 
 which every detail was regulated by supreme authority, 
 was held to be by far the most acceptable offering to the 
 deity, was regarded as the mainspring of heroic achievement, 
 as the source of the highest and most effective inspiration ; to 
 it the warrior, the priest, the prophet attributed his prowess, 
 his sanctity, his prescience, or insight into divine mysteries. 
 In every part of the Rig Veda this liquid, called Soma, is held 
 up as an object of enthusiastic devotion, is personified and 
 worshipped as a deity. In fact, those gods, who during the
 
 34 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 greater part of the Vedic period were the principal objects oi 
 worship Indra and the Maruts especially were believed to 
 have been raised to their divine estate as a result of their 
 absorption of Soma. One Mandala the ninth, as I have 
 previously noticed is exclusively occupied by hymns 
 addressed to Soma.* 
 
 Not less remarkable is the Eranian form of the same 
 superstition. The name and characteristics of Haoma, or 
 Homa (the Zend form of the word) occupy a place in the 
 Avesta corresponding to that of Soma in the Eig Veda. In 
 one of the finest and most interesting chapters of the Vendi- 
 dad the nineteenth the origin and development of Homa- 
 worship are discussed, the revelation to Zoroaster is minutely 
 described, and previous revelations are recorded, the earliest 
 being that made to Vivanho, the father of Yima, the ancestor 
 of the Aryan race two personages to whom the principal 
 events recorded in the Bible of Noah and Japhet are 
 attributed in the legends of the Avesta. 
 
 Now it is true that at different periods the prevalence of 
 Homa-worship was unequal ; few, if any, sure traces are 
 found in the Gathas, or in the cuneiform inscriptions of the 
 Achsemenidfe, yet it is certain that it had previously existed 
 and had been developed long before the separation of the two 
 Aryan families. It is also certain that the worship and abuse 
 of Homa, extracted, as it would seem, from other herbs, has 
 precisely the same characteristics as that of Soma. It was 
 regarded as a proof of peculiar sanctity to absorb it in such 
 
 * Hymns on the drinking of Soma (Pavamana Soma) occupy one 
 hundred pages in the second volume of Ludwig's translation ; but even 
 this gives but an imperfect notion of the extent to which this odious 
 superstition pervaded every form of Indian worship, especially in reference 
 to Indra. I shall have occasion to recur to this fact in the second part of 
 this essay. Some most striking passages are collected by Ludwig, in his 
 Einleitung,' vol. iii. p. 376 f.
 
 AGES PRECEDING IT. 35 
 
 quantities as to affect the physical as well as mental condition 
 of ardent votaries. Thus in an old Pehlevi work edited and 
 translated by Professor Haug, a certain dervise is represented 
 as a great saint because his skin was yellow owing to con- 
 tinuous drinking of homa. . Under the Sassanides the prepara- 
 tion for the reception of divine communications was ecstatic 
 trance produced by powerful narcotics, bringing the chosen 
 saint into immediate contact with the supreme deity, Ahura 
 Mazda and the Amshaspands. Thus Arda Viraf,* the saintly 
 husband of his seven sisters, the inspired restorer of the 
 Zoroastrian or Magian religion, after the accession of the 
 Sassanide dynasty, was prepared for ascension in spirit into 
 the abode of Ormuzd. 
 
 For my part I am satisfied that the whole system originated 
 in legendary and corrupt traditions of the planting of the vine 
 and the accidental discovery of alcoholic liquor by Noah.f I 
 find no break in the records of the Japhetic or Aryan race. 
 However this may be, one thing is certain. All Aryan peoples 
 Indian, Persian, Greek, Latin, Celt, Sclav or Teuton from 
 the beginning to the latest period of their history, regarded 
 the use, nay the abuse, of intoxicating liquids as not merely 
 defensible, but highly conducive to. the development of the 
 noblest faculties to poetic and prophetic inspiration to 
 
 * See the very curious legend, edited and translated by Haug, ' Arda 
 Viraf:' "A powerful narcotic, prepared in India from the seed of the 
 dhattura, is given to the person, generally a mere youth, from whose 
 utterances in a state of trance the will of the deity is to be ascertained." 
 Haug, I.e., p. 148. On the marriage of Viraf with his seven sisters, see 
 Haug's note, p. 149. 
 
 t On the Aryan legends and their connection with the history of 
 Noah's vineyard, see M. F. Lenormant, ' Les Origines de 1'Histoire,' 
 torn. ii. pp. 248 and 271. In p. 249 he gives a full account of the 
 Asdepias acida, or Sarcostemma viminalis of botanists. It may be 
 remembered that the ancient Indians had no proper wine. I have to 
 deal with this subject more fully in another Essay. 
 
 D 2
 
 36 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 union with the nectar-quaffing, mead- or soma-drinking gods 
 of Olympus, Valhalla, and Swarga, the heaven of Indra. 
 
 We have surely in these facts a satisfactory answer to 
 objections founded on the fundamental differences between the 
 language, religions, or superstitions of Aryan and Anaryan 
 races. Nor can I but remark here that the fearful exagger- 
 ations and corruptions of the barbarian outcasts reacted 
 powerfully upon the nobler races in after ages. The Indo- 
 Aryans came soon into contact with the Dravidians, and 
 in. course of time adopted some of the most hateful 
 characteristics of their worship foul and cruel rites in 
 religion, social habits alien to their own ancestors, not to 
 speak of the effects upon their language, the introduction of 
 barbarous, cerebral sounds scarcely pronounceable by Euro- 
 peans. The Persians learned from Turanians the dark, 
 loathsome superstitions which disfigure the later portions of 
 the Avesta, and after long and desperate struggles finally 
 lost their national independence. A descendant of the in- 
 veterate foes of Eran now occupies the throne of Feridun. 
 Throughout Northern Asia and Europe the superstitions of 
 the first occupants blended with the worship of the Aryan 
 immigrants and gave it the hateful characteristics of licentious 
 and bloody rites. 
 
 I must again apologise for the length of this digression, 
 which would, however, be extended considerably were it 
 followed out in its important bearings upon questions of 
 living interest to anthropologists, of vital importance to all 
 who retain belief in the Christian revelation, and maintain, as 
 inseparably connected with that belief, the original unity of 
 the human race. 
 
 As to our present subject, the relative age of the Eig Veda, 
 these and other considerations lead to the conclusion that 
 between the first break recorded in Genesis and the earliest 
 age which can be assigned to that collection an interval
 
 AGES PRECEDING IT. 37 
 
 of many centuries must have elapsed, corresponding to, if not 
 exceeding, the period, whether of 1000 or 1500 years, which 
 intervened between that and the commencement of the 
 Christian era. 
 
 On the one hand the Eig Veda may be expected to bear, 
 and certainly does bear, distinct indications of serious changes 
 which had already passed over the spirit of man, and of the 
 Aryans in particular changes which modified the recognised 
 principles of their religion, and prepared the way for more 
 grievous innovations under circumstances calculated to 
 develop the darker features of the national character. On 
 the other hand we may expect to find, and I hope to prove 
 we shall find, that in its best, oldest, most interesting portions, 
 no less distinct traces remain of the great primitive truths 
 which in later ages were first obscured, then gradually 
 corrupted, and finally obliterated from the consciousness of 
 the race.
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 WE now approach the central, at once the most interesting 
 and infinitely the most important, object of all inquiry into the 
 characteristic features and bearings of the Big Veda. What 
 is the true import of its religious system? It is main- 
 tained by eminent scholars, especially by Professor Max 
 Miiller, to whom this department of Old Indian Literature is 
 deeply indebted, that we find in this book an independent 
 progressive development of fundamental religious principles. 
 Eepeated in various forms, this theory lies at the root of all 
 statements familiar to students of comparative philology, 
 of comparative mythology, and of what professes to be the 
 science of religion. 
 
 In this essay I do not propose to discuss speculative ques- 
 tions raised by the Professor and those who share his convic- 
 tions. I will deal simply with facts facts patent on the 
 most general survey of the contents of the book; facts 
 admitted, brought out indeed and illustrated by the ablest 
 Aryan scholars, including, of course, the Professor himself. 
 
 Is it a fact that in its main features the Eig Veda presents 
 a development of religious principles ? Do we find in it proofs 
 or indications of an ascent from the lower to the higher, from 
 naturalism, the worship of physical forces or natural pheno- 
 mena, to the recognition of pure, spiritual morality, and to 
 the establishment of a system in which we find clear indica- 
 tion of principles recognised as fundamental by all mono- 
 theists ?
 
 THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE RIG VEDA. 39 
 
 The importance of these questions cannot be doubted. If 
 the theory commended on high authority were established on 
 conclusive and convincing evidence, it would follow that in 
 this- religion, and, as is implied by inference, in all religions, 
 we have simply the products of human intelligence, a revela- 
 tion not to, but by the spirit of man, an application of the 
 principle of evolution to the highest class of problems 
 problems which concern us most deeply as living on an uni- 
 verse of which it is our first duty and most urgent need to 
 recognise the true laws. 
 
 We turn therefore to the Kig Veda itself: we begin by 
 inquiring what is its most general, its most prominent 
 feature. It is religious poetry, adoration addressed to deities 
 whose characteristics, as conceived by their worshippers, are 
 distinctly set forth. 
 
 But these deities differ exceedingly from each other. We 
 find at once that they may be separated into two classes. 
 
 One class represents distinctly, unmistakeably, the princi- 
 ples of power, material advancement, wealth, dignity, forces 
 of nature adverse or favourable to the progress of humanity, 
 and specially to the Aryan race in their conflict with external 
 hindrances; and even more distinctly the forces which 
 secured victory over the previous occupants of the North- 
 Western regions of India. 
 
 At the head of these forces stands out Indra, the god who 
 wields the thunderbolt,* to whose interposition the great 
 
 * Grassmann gives a good account of Indra-worship in his Introduc- 
 tion to the Second Group of the Second Mandala, art. 1, p. 19 ; and he 
 enumerates the chief epithets applied to this national God of the Indo- 
 Aryans in his Wbrterhuch zum Rig Veda,' p. 213. See also Ludwig and 
 Kaegi in their several Introductions. The etymology of the name Indra 
 is doubtful. Grassmann, I.e., takes indh, to kindle, as the root. In the 
 great St. Petersburg Dictionary it is suggested that in, inv is the root, 
 and that the probable meaning is Bewaltiger, der Vermogende. The 
 characteristics of splendour and arbitrary force are thus recognised.
 
 40 THE BIG VEDA. 
 
 decisive victories are attributed, by whom all natural agencies 
 are constrained to subserve the interests of the favoured race. 
 With Indra are associated a host of deities as allies or minis- 
 ters, such as the Maruts, Eudra, Vayu, &c., of whom the 
 most conspicuous features are force, violence, and splendour. 
 Among the characteristics of the deities of this class 
 moral and spiritual principles hold no recognised, certainly 
 no prominent position. If not absolutely absent, the 
 fundamental principles of right, of justice, of goodness, of 
 kindness, of moral purity, of equality between man and man, 
 nay between men of the same race, are so faintly traced that 
 they are scarcely discernible, or altogether overclouded by 
 wild, fierce passions, cruelty, injustice and drunkenness.* 
 The deity bestows his favours exclusively on those who offer 
 him copious libations of Soma,f or win his protection by 
 laudatory hymns which set forth his power, splendour, and 
 achievements. Of these facts abundant proofs will be sup- 
 plied in this Essay ; but I would here ask any reader who 
 may doubt the correctness of this assertion to look through 
 the hymns to Indra, 217 in number, beginning with those 
 which belong to the oldest and noblest portions, i.e. the 6th 
 and 7th Mandalas of the Kig Veda. Naturalism, not indeed 
 in its grossest and most repulsive form of sensuality,^ but 
 
 * See above, p. 34 note, and the Soliloquy of Indra, drunken with Soma, 
 in the Appendix, p. 96. 
 
 f Thus passim, e.g. vii. 19. 1 : 
 
 " The wealth of him who will not offer gifts 
 Thou dost bestow upon the Soma-presser." 
 See Appendix, p. 98. 
 
 J Vasishtha, in M. vii. 21, 5, expressly rejects all communion with 
 worshippers of deities with tails, as Grassmann renders the word cuna- 
 deva ; or as Ludwig more probably explains it, phallus-worshippers. The 
 abominable Lingam worship, the most conspicuous and odious form of 
 modern Hindoo superstition, was probably derived from intercourse with 
 the debased races, known as Dravidian, who as we have seen were the 
 previous occupants of India.
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 41 
 
 in a form altogether separate from moral and spiritual deve- 
 lopment, is the true characteristic of this, by far the most 
 extensive and prominent portion of the whole collection.* 
 
 But apart from these deities, occupying comparatively a 
 small space, and a subordinate position, we find in each of 
 the Mandalas a no less distinct recognition of an entirely 
 different class. Some of these, certainly not the least im- 
 portant in their original position, are not in the Eig Veda 
 from first to last represented or addressed as objects of direct 
 adoration. They are regarded as displaced, dethroned, obso- 
 lete powers or embodiments of old, well-nigh forgotten, or 
 even evil, principles in the universe. 
 
 This is the case with Light, or the Lord of Light, regarded 
 as the source and maintainer of all that is grand, noble and 
 beautiful in the material and spiritual universe, once known 
 and worshipped under the name Dyaus, that great name 
 which under various forms represented the highest object of 
 worship to the noblest Aryan families.! Though still recog- 
 nised, and with epithets which attest the ancient belief in 
 his pre-eminence, Dyaus becomes little more than a shadowy 
 name, superseded in fact and yielding the supremacy to 
 Indra his conqueror. 
 
 Not less significant are the notices of Aditi; the name 
 means the infinite, unconditioned, absolute, unknown Deity, 
 recognised as the source and origin of all existence. This 
 deity is mentioned frequently in the Eig Veda, in terms 
 which show how deep an impression had been made by the 
 
 * Notice the proportion of hymns, 217 to Indra, 9 to Varuna, of which 
 4 are by Vasishtha, and 5 to the Adityas. Agni alone, with 192 hymns, 
 rivals Indra in popularity ; but Agni is simply a personification of fire, 
 especially of sacrificial fire, and, as such, stands apart from the deities 
 belonging to either of the two classes described in my text. 
 
 t Kaegi, ' Der Rig Veda,' p. 151, refers to M. Breal, and quotes Benfey's 
 words, " Dieser der hochste Gott der Urzeit in Indien." For the testi- 
 mony of G. Curtius and Jacob Grimm, see further on, p. 59.
 
 42 THE KIG VEDA. 
 
 idea embodied or personified in this mysterious being, but 
 in one hymn only is she addressed as mother of deities and 
 as an object of direct adoration.* 
 
 But the Adityas,f the offspring, children or manifestations 
 of Aditi; the active, living, intelligible (I/OT/TOI) powers of 
 the spiritual universe, are frequently addressed in hymns 
 which prove the pre-eminent place which these deities had 
 held in the ancient traditions of the Aryans; but which 
 no less show the comparatively weak hold which they 
 retained upon the national mind towards the close of the 
 Vedic period. Of these Adityas, three are invariably named 
 as foremost in rank and estimation, Varuna, Mitra, and 
 Aryaman ; with them Bhaga, and less constantly Aramati | 
 and Ansha stand, if not on the same level, yet as sharing 
 their nature. Among all these one alone, Varuna, is sepa- 
 rately invoked in hymns which are by far the most inte- 
 resting in the Eig Veda. 
 
 In these Varuna is adored as the creator, the governor, the 
 lawgiver of the universe, as exercising, or bringing into 
 activity, all powers latent in the Infinite. He is represented 
 
 * See Max Miiller, ' Rig Veda Sanhita,' vol. i. p. 240, seq. His account 
 is somewhat confused, but establishes certain points of supreme importance. 
 Thus we are told that the original and true meaning of the name is ' the 
 infinite,' a point on which all scholars are agreed ; and again that although 
 in progress of time liable to be identified with a number of infinite deities, 
 yet " no passage occurs, in the Rig Veda at least, where the special mean- 
 ing of heaven and earth is expressed by Aditi." I venture to maintain that 
 in the very striking and well-known passage quoted by Max Miiller from 
 Mandala 3, 24. 1, 'the great Aditi' means 'the eternal,' or, in the largest 
 sense, the infinite deity. See also Ludwig, Einleitung, p. 315, and Kaegi, 
 p. '82, and the Dictionary of St. Petersburg, where due stress is laid upon the 
 fact that " sie (Aditi) wird besondere um ungestorte Freiheit und Sicherheit 
 angefleht." 
 
 t See Grassmann, vol. i. p. 34. 
 
 J I have occasion to explain and discuss the bearings of these names 
 further on ; see p. 67 seq. 
 
 All notices of Varuna, most distinct in the 7th Mandala, less fre-
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 43 
 
 as the lord of all order, all law, all right ; as the being who 
 notes all movements of the human will, who is ever present 
 at human counsels, who inflicts punishment upon those who 
 violate fundamental principles of justice, to whom alone the 
 prerogative of pardon* is ascribed pardon bestowed by him 
 exclusively upon those who forsake their evil ways and yield 
 to his righteous will. I know nothing in heathen poetry 
 which approaches the charm, the nobleness, the spirituality 
 of the best hymns addressed to Varuna, or to that deity in 
 conjunction with Mitra,f the ideal of loving concord; and 
 with other powers of the same spiritual sphere. 
 
 Before I proceed further in this inquiry, I think it well to 
 bring forward one singularly distinct evidence of the truth 
 of these assertions. 
 
 As I have pointed out, the seventh Mandala contains 
 hymns admitted to be of singular excellence. All these 
 hymns are ascribed to the Rishi Vasishtha, or to some mem- 
 ber of his family. The hymn which I have now to consider 
 was undoubtedly the production of the first and greatest who 
 bore the name, which, as GrassmannJ explains it, means the 
 best, the noblest, the brightest. 
 
 The character and position of this poet, who may be taken 
 
 quent but clear in other Mandalas, agree in assigning to him these 
 characteristics. This is most remarkable in hymns which represent him 
 in conflict with Indra ; M. iv. 42 (see p. 51), or even as overpowered and 
 displaced by that deity, as in x. 124. See Appendix, p. 102. 
 
 * Vasishtha, as will be- shown immediately, the Rishi who deals most 
 fully with these points in hymns addressed to Varuna, makes mention of 
 him once only in hymns to Indra; it is when he would be relieved from 
 guilt (M. vii. 28. 4). In that passage Varuna is called the sinless, and the 
 wise or wonderful. 
 
 f There are twenty-six hymns to Mitra- Varuna. Ludwig, i. 94-120. 
 
 J It is derived from the verb vas, which Grassmann renders aufleuchten, 
 hell werden, leuchten, a word applied specially to the rising sun. In 
 Zend, vahista means the best; in Persian, bahista, from beh, whence 
 our word "better."
 
 44 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 as a noble representative of the hymnodists of the Eig Veda, 
 are peculiarly interesting, throwing strong light upon the 
 conditions under which the Aryan invaders obtained posses- 
 sion of the Punjaub, and also developed their religious 
 system. 
 
 Some years after the beginning of the Vedic period, a 
 considerable body or tribe of that race, called Tritsus, are 
 represented as settled on the banks of one of the principal 
 rivers,* under a king named Sudas, who is frequently men- 
 tioned in the Eig Veda. The name (equivalent to ei/Sw/jo?), 
 probably given in reference to his well-known character, 
 means " the liberal giver." He was especially celebrated for 
 his large offerings, copious libations to Indra ; he possessed 
 immense herds of cattle, and he commanded a considerable 
 army consisting mainly of chariotry. 
 
 At a critical period this prince was attacked by a powerful 
 confederacy. Ten kings, or chieftains, combined their forces 
 against him, amounting, as Vasishtha and other poets who de- 
 scribe this transaction assert, to some 100,000 men. Some of 
 these troops were Aryans,f at feud with the Tritsus ; but the 
 great mass belonged to the aboriginal tribes, of Dravidian 
 origin, called Dasyus, who had been driven to the highlands, 
 and thence carried on a fierce guerilla warfare. In one hymn 
 
 * From R. V. vii. 18, 8, we learn the name of the river Parushni, one 
 of the tributaries to the Scinde. See Ludwig, Einleitung, p. 206. 
 
 t Ludwig shows that such alliances were not uncommon (see vol. iii. 
 p. 208), and adduces proofs of early feuds among the invading Aryans. 
 He holds, but as it seems to me on insufficient grounds, that the Tritsus, 
 who are called white, were late invaders. Max Miiller says that the 
 Aryan tribes defended their new homes against the assaults of the black- 
 skinned aborigines, as well as against the inroads of later Aryan colonists. 
 (See ' India, What can it teach us ? ' p. 98.) This statement appears to be 
 drawn from the facts recorded in the hymn of which an account is given 
 in my text, but if so it conveys a rather incorrect impression. If the 
 Tritsus were later colonists, which is very doubtful, they were certainly 
 supported by the national feeling of their Aryan brethren.
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 45 
 
 they are called " gavyantas," that is bands of highland robbers, 
 so to speak, attracted chiefly by the cattle. Their weapons 
 are described as bows, arrows, javelins, and broad-curved 
 scimitars. In appearance, habit, and character they remind 
 us of the Celtic highlanders in Scotland. 
 
 It would seem that the lowlands were at the time suffering 
 from drought ; the river where Sudas was encamped was all 
 but dried up, and his army was apparently in a state of 
 extreme exhaustion, and of fearful foreboding. 
 
 Then it was that Vasishtha rose to eminence. At the 
 request or command of his sovereign, the generous Sudas, 
 Vasishtha, surrounded by white-robed members of his family, 
 hereditary adherents or priests, as it would seem, attached 
 to the dynasty, came forward in solemn procession with 
 hymns or incantations addressed to Indra, of which we 
 have specimens in the Eig Veda.* Moved by those hymns, 
 potent and magical in operation, the god of thunder, Indra, 
 was believed to have put forth all his power over nature and 
 over armies. The mountains, overhanging the plains, re- 
 leased from icy fetters by a tremendous thunderstorm, sent 
 down abundance of water, at once refreshing the tony of 
 Sudas and, as it would seem, sweeping away the main body 
 of the confederates, who were suddenly and completely dis- 
 comfited and scattered. The immediate results, as recorded 
 in other hymns, were the slaughter of the principal leaders, 
 and the capture of their possessions, followed by the overthrow 
 of the fortresses held by the enemy in the adjoining district.! 
 
 * See especially the hymns to Indra by Vasishtha in the 7th Mandala, 
 18-32. The 18th hymn may be taken as a fair specimen of the invo- 
 cations which were believed to be all powerful with Indra. It abounds 
 in curious facts connected with these transactions. My statement as to 
 white-robed Aryans is drawn from vii. 83, as explained by Grassmann. 
 Ludwig, however, and, as it would seem, Max Miiller, understood the word 
 to refer to the colour of the Tritsus. 
 
 f It is questioned whether the passages on which this statement rests
 
 46 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 Vasishtlia was thus in every sense the poet laureate of the 
 Aryan invaders ; conspicuous for genius, and believed to be 
 in closest union with the conquering deity. 
 
 Nor was the special form of worship to which he devoted 
 himself without effects upon his character. Indra, as we 
 have seen, was believed to have been drawn to the Aryans 
 and to Sudas in particular, by copious libations of Soma, of 
 which the effects upon the deity himself are described 
 repeatedly and in the very coarsest terms. The draughts 
 are said to have filled his belly, to have thrown him into a 
 state of wild intoxication,* and to have endued him with 
 tenfold powers. Nay, the exaltation of Indra, and of his 
 attendants, the Maruts, to the rank of deity is distinctly 
 attributed to the power of Soma.f Of course a mystic inter- 
 pretation was soon given to Soma, which was held to be a 
 spiritual power administered by a special deity, Twastar 
 (i.e. 6 Sijfuovpyos), to those beings who were raised to the 
 
 refer to actual fortresses or to inaccessible heights regarded as the abode 
 of demons hostile to the Aryans. I have no doubt that the former account 
 is true. Roth first laid due stress upon the historical character of the 
 Eig Veda, a character conspicuous in the earliest hymns by Rishis con- 
 temporary with the transactions which they celebrate. Indra is above all 
 the god of battles, the ir^iopK^s (see vii. 26, 3) ; his aid is invoked by 
 his friends with the special object of capturing the forts and seizing the 
 possessions of their enemies. 
 
 * One of the most curious and amusing accounts of the effects of Soma 
 upon Indra is given in a late hymn, M. x. 119, which records a soliloquy 
 in which this god, maddened with soma, boasts and rants like a thorough 
 drunkard. See Appendix, p. 96. In an ancient Eig, ii. 11, we find this 
 invocation : 
 
 "0 trinke, trinke, Indra, Held, den Soma, 
 Berauschen mb'gen dich des Rausches Tranke, 
 Den Bauch dir fullend mogen sie dich starken ; 
 Der wohlgebraute Fuller labte Indra." 
 
 Grassmann's translation, vol. i. p. 17. Fuller means here the belly-filler, 
 as an epithet of Soma. 
 
 t See Grassmann, I.e. i. p. 20.
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 47 
 
 rank of gods ; but the plain fact is that intoxicating drinks, 
 represented by Soma in India, Homa or Haoma in Eran, were 
 believed to have a sovereign efficacy, and drunkenness a 
 special inspiration, imparting to human votaries divine or 
 heroic powers, and in the case of deities enhancing their 
 highest endowments. 
 
 Vasishtha, in fact, gives himself just such a character as 
 might be looked for under such influences. He confesses 
 that he has committed some great crime, as it would seem 
 robbery or fraud,* the common and oldest result of gambling, 
 which along with excessive drinking was a special charac- 
 teristic of old Aryan habits,f and he speaks of himself as 
 carried away by a sudden storm of passion, or of bewildering 
 intoxication, or betrayed into crime by a languor, such as 
 alternates with intense excitement. 
 
 Then, as Vasishtha tells us, he came suddenly to self- 
 reflection, and in a fit of penitence composed the hymn of 
 which I give here a translation ; J every verse in it throws 
 light upon the mental, moral, and spiritual movement of that 
 remarkable period in the history of the Aryan race. 
 
 * In M. v. 85, 7, 8, we have a curious list of crimes likely to have 
 been committed by such persons as Vasishtha, and certain to be punished 
 by Varuna. 
 
 f See the well-known episodes of the Mahabharata, Nalus and Damyanti, 
 and Bhagavad-Gita, the great philosophic and religious poem of the San- 
 skrit-speaking Indians. In the former a virtuous and noble prince, possessed 
 by a malign deity, loses wealth, house, and kingdom, and then forsakes 
 his beloved wife after a gambling bout. In the latter, x. 36, the Supreme 
 Deity, claiming to be the central source of all excellence, declares himself to 
 be " the winning dice of the cheating gambler," dyutam chalayatam asmi. 
 Our German ancestors brought with them this habit from their old home. 
 
 J I follow the translation of Grassmann, vol. i. p. 367, compared with 
 those of Ludwig and of Geldner, '70 Lieder des Rig Veda,' p. 6 with 
 notes by Dr. Roth. The metre in the original consists of 11 syllables 
 or feet ending with a trochaic cadence, ^ ^. This is imitated by 
 Grassmann and Geldner.
 
 48 THE BIG VEDA. 
 
 vii. 86. TO VARUNA. 
 
 1. 
 
 Truly the Being is All-wise, Almighty, 
 Who fixed this two-fold world so far extending, 
 Who raised on high the glorious vault of heaven, 
 The starry firmament, and earth outspreading. 
 
 2. 
 
 And to myself I said, how can I ever 
 With Varuna be reconciled? Unwrathful 
 Can he accept an offering from his servant ? 
 How can I win his grace with tranquil spirit? 
 
 3. 
 
 I ask, Varuna, my guilt perceiving ; 
 I go the wise, the well-informed, to question. 
 They all with one accord at once give answer, 
 " 'Tis Varuna who is incensed against thee." 
 
 4. 
 
 In what, Varuna, have I offended 
 That thou thy loving songster* thus hast smitten? 
 Tell me, king, whom no pretence deceiveth, 
 That thus adoring I may now appease thee. 
 
 5. 
 
 Absolve us from the wrongs done by our fathers, 
 Absolve us from the sins by us committed! 
 Like a young calff unbound set free Vasishtha, 
 A thief not dealt with as a cattle stealer.J 
 
 * See the 88th hymn in the 7th Mandala, translated in the Appendix. 
 
 f See note 6 on ii. 28 in the Appendix, p. 85. 
 
 I The meaning of the last line in v. 5 is not clearly brought out. 
 Varuna confesses that he has committed a crime, but trusts that he will 
 be loosed from its penalty and treated as innocent. In the 5th Mandala 
 we have a hymn, the 85th, addressed to Varuna as the deity who accepts 
 the penitent sinner, by Atri, a Kishi unconnected with Vasishtha. It 
 closes with a list of crimes, evidently common in those days, among which 
 treachery to friends and cheating in gambling stand foremost. See the 
 Appendix for a translation of this and other hymns addressed to Varuna. 
 The concluding lines (v. 8) are a refrain affixed to hymns composed by 
 Vasishtha.
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 49 
 
 6. 
 
 'T\vas not, Varuna, my will; 'twas folly, 
 Outburst of passion, drunkenness or madness, 
 An old man overcome by youthful passion, 
 Nay, sleep or sloth are ofttimes cause of sinning. 
 
 7. 
 
 But as a slave will I now serve the gracious, 
 And, freed from guilt, obey the jealous Godhead. 
 A fool who trusts in him learns from him wisdom ; 
 He, the All- wise, gives to the prudent riches. 
 
 O may this hymn of mine, thou mighty Ruler, 
 Touch thy kind heart, Varuna, dear master. 
 Ye gods, be with us working or reposing, 
 And shield us ever with all heavenly blessings. 
 
 Such is the state of the poet's mind. In health and pro- 
 sperity, in the pride of youth and genius, he devotes his 
 energies to the service of Indra, the god of force, the wielder 
 of the thunderbolt, the bestower of wealth and power, the 
 favourer of drunkards, himself the chief drunkard ;* but in 
 sorrow, in sickness,f in penitence, in consciousness of failing 
 powers and of deep guiltiness, Vasishtha turns at once to the 
 old loving deity, the only maintainer of righteousness, the 
 being who alone cares for the moral wellbeing of man, who 
 punishes guilt, who alone can and will pardon the penitent. 
 
 We must also observe the course followed by Vasishtha. 
 
 * See the soliloquy of the drunken deity in M. x. 119, quoted above, 
 and translated in the Appendix, p. 97. 
 
 f For notices of sickness, see also the 87th, 88th and 89th hymns in 
 the 7th Mandala. Dr. Roth observes that in the prostration of disease 
 (which he holds from the words used by the poet, in the 89th hymn, 
 to have, been dropsy), the poet recalls his familiar intercourse with 
 the god in early days. Throughout these hymns we are reminded 
 constantly of the penitential psalms ol David and of the words of Job. 
 I may here observe that Kaegi in his excellent, introduction to the Rig 
 Veda is careful to cite parallel passages from the Bible. Of these the 
 most numerous and important refer to Varuna and the Adityas. 
 
 E
 
 50 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 He begins by heart-searching ; then he bethinks himself of 
 other counsellors than those by whom, as a favoured wor- 
 shipper of Indra, he is habitually surrounded. He turns to 
 men who are seeking knowledge,* men who are evidently 
 dissatisfied with prevalent superstitions, anticipating the 
 thoughtful reasoners of the Upanishads, who in following 
 generations undermined the self-seeking system of the Vedic 
 Brahmans. To these counsellors he also gives the name 
 kavayas,f the wise, a word more significant than might 
 appear from the literal interpretation. It is a very ancient 
 term, common to the Eranians and the Indo-Aryans. With 
 the former it originally meant " wise," but was appropriated 
 to a race of kings, among whom are counted Cyrus and 
 Darius. In this hymn I take the word specially to mean 
 wise men of the old school, men whose sacred and highly 
 spiritual lore was fallen into disuse among the worshippers 
 of Indra. These old, faithful counsellors put Vasishtha at 
 once in the right way; they direct him to the moral and 
 spiritual lord of the universe. 
 
 It is a very remarkable poem, one that struck me more 
 forcibly than any hymn in the whole Eig Veda. It brings 
 into clearest light the distinction, on which I lay special 
 stress, between the two systems of faith and worship which 
 at the most ancient period of their history divided the Indo- 
 Aryan race. 
 
 I must add that the consciousness of this distinction is 
 clearly marked in hymns by other Eishis, not connected with 
 Vasishtha, and apparently his rivals and antagonists. There 
 
 * The word (cikitushas) is emphatic. It is the desiderative form of the 
 verb kit, scire, and is equivalent to the Greek <f)i\6o-o<f)os or the yvao-rtKos 
 of Clement of Alexandria. 
 
 f From the verb ku, .to contemplate ; schauen as Grassmann renders it. 
 The word kavi, of which' kavayas is the plural, conies nearest in meaning 
 and use to the Hebrew i"lN~in, the seer.
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 51 
 
 is one very curious hymn, of which the deep significance is 
 recognised by Both, Grassmann, and Ludwig, the forty-second 
 in the fourth Mandala, by Vamadeva. In it we find Varuna 
 and Indra asserting their several claims to pre-eminence. 
 
 Varuna claims it as the god of orcjer and law, the giver of 
 life to the gods, their lord and governor, the refuge of 
 afflicted humanity, the true head of all good, divine manifes- 
 tations in the universe. 
 
 Indra claims it on far different grounds : 
 
 " I am invoked by horsemen in the battle, 
 Bushing to conflict all the chiefs invoke me ! 
 I am the Lord of strife. I, who am Indra,. 
 Arouse the dust of war. I, full of power, 
 Kefreshed with drink, inspired by hymns adoring, 
 Shake the infinite expanse of all creation." 
 
 And the poet himself admits that claim. Eejecting the god 
 of order, mercy, and goodness, he recognises in Indra the 
 national god of the Indo-Aryans. 
 
 What, indeed, was the issue of this struggle ? It is for- 
 mally stated in the 124th hymn of the 10th Mandala. There 
 Agni, the personification of sacrificial worship, transfers his 
 allegiance from Varuna to Indra.* In fact, before the collec- 
 tion of the Eig Veda was completed before that age of 
 desperate struggles had passed away, the worship of Indra 
 had so completely absorbed the devotions of the Indo-Aryan 
 race, that Varuna and all the deities of the same sphere were 
 spoken of contemptuously, neglected, or relegated to the 
 limbo of forgotten superstitions. 
 
 Another not less striking and conclusive proof of this 
 strange perversion of feeling is found in the early and late 
 usage of the great name or appellation, Asura. This name, 
 in Sanskrit Asura, in Zend or old Persian Ahura f originally 
 
 See translation of this hymn in the Appendix, p. 101 seq. 
 The word Ahura in Persian is said to mean Lord, but I have not the 
 
 E 2
 
 52 THE BIG VEDA. 
 
 applied only to the highest absolute godhead within a 
 comparatively short period in Indian history became actually 
 a term of reproach, no longer applied to any recognised 
 divinity. In the classical age of Indian literature, the words 
 Asura and Asurian indicate low, base, malignant influences, 
 the gods of the sensual, the lawless, the superstitious.* 
 
 And now, taking the facts as they stand before us, clear, 
 undisputed, and indisputable, we have proof positive that the 
 two systems, naturalistic or material on the one hand, and 
 ethical or spiritual on the other, were entirely distinct from the 
 beginning, in every stage of their several development, and 
 in their issue. Neither of them could possibly be developed 
 from the other; they were based on totally different prin- 
 ciples. They had their origin in utterly different wants, 
 desires, fears, or aspirations of our common nature. Above 
 all and this fact is absolutely certain the worship of the 
 Adityas, and specially of Varuna, was, if not always in 
 antagonism to that of Indra, yet always in strongest contrast 
 to it. The moral spiritual system which upheld the funda- 
 
 least doubt as to the derivation from Asu, life, and ultimately from the 
 verb as (in Zend ah), to be ; or as to the meaning maintained in the St. 
 Petersburg Dictionary and by Grassmann, viz. Being, living, the living, 
 self-existent Deity equivalent, as Justi (' Handbuch der Zend-sprache ') 
 points out, to the Hebrew HirV, rPHS lE'K rvriN. 
 
 * The first indications of this perversion are found in the Kig Veda 
 itself, specially in hymns where the innovating spirit of Indra-worship 
 is distinctly marked. Thus, in R. V. vi. 22, 4, Indra is styled Asurahan, 
 i.e. Asura-slayer, an appellation applied also to Agni, vii. 13, 1, and to 
 Vibhrat or Vibhraj, i.e. the terrible or strong, an epithet of the Sun-god in 
 i. 170. In the age immediately following that of the Rig Veda, the 
 Asuras are already coupled with the Rakshas, or hostile spirits, as in the 
 Atharveda, x. 3, 2. In the first Upanishad, translated by Max Miiller 
 (' Sacred Books of the East,' vol. i. p. 4), they are represented as carrying 
 on a deadly war against the Devas, or Sun-deities. In later classic poetry 
 all traces of divine and beneficial nature entirely disappeared; they 
 are regarded as demoniacal, and a new, monstrous etymology, a-sura, 
 that is'A&oy, was generally accepted. See Lassen, Bh. Gita, p. 258.
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 53 
 
 mental principles of righteousness, of moral government, 
 awarding success and inflicting punishments simply and ex- 
 clusively in reference to those principles, was in no sens*e a 
 development or progressive advance from lower forms of 
 religious instincts, such as we are told of by representatives 
 of certain schools -of speculative philosophy, or so-called 
 scientific thought. 
 
 But now the question arises, have we direct proofs of the 
 priority of the one or of the other system ? The foregoing 
 inquiry points clearly in one direction ; but after all these 
 statements may be regarded as biassed, resting on subjec- 
 tive impressions, and some may feel doubtful whether the 
 facts may not be susceptible of a different interpretation. 
 
 Let us then inquire whether the Eig Veda itself gives 
 distinct intimations of such priority in its most trustworthy 
 hymns, in those which, in language, in metres, in all indi- 
 cations which determine the judgment of the ablest critics, 
 bear the strongest marks of extreme antiquity; and again, 
 whether those intimations are accepted by scholars of high 
 authority ; and also whether the conclusion thus arrived at is 
 borne out by facts ascertained by investigation into Eranian 
 or Indo-Germanic antiquity. 
 
 As to the first point, the evidence from the Eig Veda is 
 positive and unmistakeable ; and this ought to suffice for 
 the final settlement of the question. 
 
 We are told by the worshippers of Indra that he was 
 recognised as a new deity long after the settlement of the 
 Aryans in India.* He is said to have sprung into existence, 
 and to have attained suddenly to complete supremacy at a 
 period evidently within the recollection of his worshippers. 
 
 * Thus Dr. Roth says Varuna is the god of the Aryan, Indra of the 
 Indian, period. Thus Ludwig, Einleitung, p. 317, begins his notice of 
 Indra with the words, " That the worship of Indra belongs to later times 
 follows not merely," &c.
 
 54 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 The storms so frequent, at once so terrific in form and so 
 beneficial in operation, breaking up the glaciers in the high- 
 lands, filling the great rivers, and bringing brightness and 
 fertility to the burning plains storms such as in their 
 violence and their effects went far beyond the previous ex- 
 perience of the invading Aryans were felt by them to 
 indicate the existence and supreme power of a deity different 
 in his attributes and manifestations from those which old 
 traditions had taught them to associate with the god of their 
 fathers. 
 
 Thus in the second Mandala (ii. 12), Gritsamada, a very 
 ancient Kishi, tells us that Indra immediately after his birth 
 developed forces hitherto undreamed of. He comes at once into 
 contact with the old deities, who tremble at his presence (K. V. 
 v. 30, 5), and are compelled to recognise him as their master 
 (E. V. iv. 19). Thus in the 7th Mandala, 21, 7, "Even the 
 power of the old gods must yield to thy might and divinity." 
 Other passages speak of a fierce conflict between Indra and 
 the old deities, and of the total discomfiture of the latter 
 (E f V. iv. 30, 5). 
 
 " And as in fury all the gods 
 Then fought against thee, then alone 
 Thou, Indra, didst o'erthrow thy foes." 
 
 There is one decisive passage (R, V. i. 131) full of deep 
 meaning. 
 
 " Before Indra even Dyaus the Asura has bowed down, 
 Before Indra Prithivi (i.e. Mother Earth), the wide, the far-extending, 
 Before him, endued with sovereign majesty ! 
 All the gods with one accord yield to Indra the supremacy. 
 Indra henceforth receives all drink offerings from man." 
 
 Observe Dyaus, the god of living light, is the fontal 
 source of all divinity. He is emphatically styled the Asura, 
 the true self-existent being ; but his calm, stately majesty is 
 superseded when the wielder of the thunderbolt is recognised
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 55 
 
 by fanatic worshippers.* And Mother Earth, regarded in 
 old mythological systems as the bride of light, from whom, 
 Pindar declares, gods and men alike have their origin (etc 
 /ua? 8e irveofiev /mrepo? a^orepoi), acknowledges in Indra 
 her lord and master. Prithivi the far extending is but a 
 lower and far later form of Aditi, the infinite. 
 
 The recognition of a new king in Indra by all the other 
 gods is frequently asserted in other hymns, f Thus, i. 174, 
 " Thou, Indra ! art king over all the gods." The name 
 Asura, not yet degraded, is assigned to him: i.e. he is 
 invested with the essential attributes of divinity (M. vt 
 36, 1). 
 
 To state once more concisely the representations of Indra, 
 as we find them throughout the Eig Veda. He is the god of 
 victory, the god of thunder, and his divinity is recognised by 
 worshippers who offer him incessant libations of Soma, and 
 hymns to which a magical efficacy is attributed.- When 
 Indra has imbibed the Soma and received such adoration he 
 becomes a true deity, displaces the old objects of worship 
 (vii. 20-22), or, .tolerating their presence, is worshipped 
 together with them, but taking an uncontested precedence 
 (see especially M. x. 119). These characteristics are described 
 with remarkable force in the 30th hymn, by Bharadvaja, 
 the Eishi of the 6th Mandala, held by Ludwig to be the greatest 
 poet of the Eig Veda. In some hymns hateful, disgusting 
 traits are attributed to Indra. Thus Vamadeva, in the 4th 
 Mandala, represents him as forcing his way into being, de- 
 stroying his mother and slaughtering his father*; and reckless 
 ferocity is spoken of by Ludwig as specially noticeable in 
 M. ii. 12. I find no indication in the Eig Veda that, as 
 
 * No hymn in the Rig Veda is addressed to Dyaus ; one only to Aditi. 
 
 f Ludwig, ' Einleitung,' p. 319 : " Hierausz erkennen .wir dasz Indfa 
 eine ungleich jiingere Gb'tter Gestalt ist als Dyaus," &c. We find frequent 
 indications of reluctance to admit the claims to pre-eminence, or even
 
 56 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 some critics assert, India succeeds or is identified with any 
 ancient deity. He is altogether a new god, adored as at 
 once the youngest and mightiest of the Indian celestial 
 hierarchy. 
 
 On earth the claims of Indra to that pre-eminence are 
 founded, first, on his powers over natural phenomena. His 
 thunderstorms usher in seasons of rain, the efficient cause of 
 all fertility. The clouds are his chariot, or his fiery steeds. 
 They burst in lightning and thunder on the mountain- 
 heights, and the huge masses of snow are liquified. The 
 rivers are swollen at once by mountain torrents. When they 
 descend on the plains nature revives ; the demons of drought, 
 fiery heat, pestilence and famine, are driven away. The 
 earth owns her deliverer, her saviour, her king. 
 
 But, as in Greece, the god of thunder, the wielder of light- 
 nings, is recognised as the supreme arbiter in war. Indra 
 is -emphatically the god of battles. In that character he 're- 
 ceives enthusiastic worship. As we have seen, the deci- 
 sive victory over the old inhabitants was believed to have 
 been accomplished by his interposition, won by ardent 
 prayers, by sacrificial rites, by the chants of inspired 
 singers ; a victory achieved, it would seem, as in the case of 
 many historical battles, amidst the crashing of thunderbolts* 
 and convulsions of nature. In short, force developed in 
 natural agencies and in human affairs force unconnected 
 with moral or spiritual principle force elicited by magic 
 rites, nourished by intoxicating drinks, issuing in the 
 slaughter and 'ruin of helpless foes of the Aryans force in 
 every form and its fullest development is the one permanent, 
 fundamental characteristic of a deity unknown to the ances- 
 
 to recognise the existence of this new deity. See K. V. ii. 12, 5 ; vi. 
 18, 3 ; viii. 18, 3, and 89, 3, 4. 
 * B.V. vii. 18, 13-18, 19, 8.
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 57 
 
 tors, and first recognised by poets, priests, and warriors of 
 the Indo- Aryan race. 
 
 We may turn now to the old kinsmen of these Aryans, 
 and consult the legends, religious rites and traditions of the 
 Eranians, and of those races which at earlier periods sepa- 
 rated from them. 
 
 There is in none of them a trace of the name Indra. No 
 deity worshipped by any of those races bore a name resem- 
 bling this in form or meaning. The Maruts, Eudra, in short 
 all deities specially associated with Indra are equally un- 
 known.* 
 
 Indra, as the personification of force, and wielder of the 
 thunderbolt, has, of course, attributes in common with deities 
 of the warlike descendants of the old Aryans, such as Zeu<?, 
 Jupiter, and Thor, but among the Eranians, who retained 
 the primitive traditions most faithfully, the supreme deity, 
 Ahuramazda, has nothing to do with those attributes. Light- 
 ning, storms, all destructive forces, as such, are relegated to 
 the antagonistic sphere under the malignant influence of 
 Ahriman.t 
 
 I state confidently, and in this I have the authority of 
 Dr. Both, of Ludwig, and other critics of eminence, that the 
 whole conception of Indra, specially his name, acts, his 
 most characteristic features, belong to the Indo-Aryans, and 
 to them alone that is, to a sphere of thought and feeling 
 which is wholly novel, strange and alien to the deepest 
 and soundest convictions of the Aryan race. 
 
 * I can scarcely think that Professor Max Miiller spoke seriously when 
 he suggested a connection between the Maruts and the Mavors of the Old 
 Latin, two names which neither on philological nor mythological grounds 
 can possibly be referred to the same origin. Marut is derived, according 
 to Kuhn and Grassmann, from an obsolete root, mar, to glitter or sparkle, 
 corresponding to the Greek napfuiipv. For other Indo-Aryan deities 
 such as Vayu, Parjanya, &c., see Ludwig, iii. 323. 
 $ See Essay on Zoroastrianism, p. 145.
 
 58 THE BIG VEDA. 
 
 Far different is the result when we direct our attention to 
 the conceptions embodied in the objects of Aryan worship 
 appertaining to the opposite sphere, to the class of deities 
 which I have described as representing moral, spiritual prin- 
 ciples, as governing the world by just and beneficent laws, 
 rewarding the good and punishing the evil. 
 
 Consider the most prominent names, the general or special 
 appellations of deities of this class. First we have Dyaus, 
 the god of heaven* and heavenly light, and Aditi, the infinite, 
 the two original sources or common source of all existence, 
 divine, human, or natural. We have next Varuna, Mitra, 
 Aryaman, Bhaga and the other Adityas, Aramati, Daksha or 
 Ansha, representing collectively and severally the highest 
 spiritual principles. 
 
 Thirdly, we have the general appellation Asura, equivalent 
 in meaning and derivation to the greatest Hebrew name of 
 deity, an appellation which though, like the Hebrew Elo- 
 him, applied to other manifestations or embodiments of the 
 divine is, as we have shown above, specially given to Dyaus 
 and Varuna. 
 
 Now these names or the conceptions which they express 
 are one and all old Aryan. The united race had them in 
 their original abode as a common possession. They were re- 
 tained with little modification in form by the Eranians. The 
 races which had previously separated from them carried with 
 them into their remotest settlements traces more or less dis- 
 tinct of the original faith recognised or expressed by these 
 names. 
 
 There can be no question about the first of these names. 
 
 * Grassmann, who does not go so far as Ludwig in appreciating the 
 personality and ancient pre-eminence of Dyaus, still renders the word 
 Himmel Gott. The dissertation of Ludwig on this question is one of the 
 most interesting and important sections of his Einleitung, c. xii. 73.
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 59 
 
 I will simply quote the two highest authorities on points of 
 comparative philology and mythology. 
 
 G. Curtius, 'Grundzuge der griechischen Etymologic,' 
 269, gives these clear, unquestioned facts : 
 
 Greek, Aif, Zeik ; Sanskrit, Dyo, nom. Dyaus ; Himmel, 
 Himmels Gott ; Zend, div, leuchten, daeva, demon. Latin, 
 Diovis, Deus, Divus, &c. ; Old Norse, Tivar, gods ; Anglo- 
 Saxon, Tives-dag, Tuesday; Old High German, Zio; 
 Lithuanian, Devas, God ; Cymric, Dyw ; Old Irish, Dia, 
 God. 
 
 Jacob Grimm deals with this question twice; (1) in his 
 ' History of the German Language,' p. 402, quoted by Curtius, 
 p. 282, in the 2nd edition, 1853 ; in the section upon Laut- 
 verscliiebung, vii. DTZ ; Skt. dyaus, divas ; Gr. Zeu?, Ato?, 
 Lat. deus, divus ; Goth. Tius, Tivis ? A.-S. Tiv ; Old Norse, 
 Tyr, Tys ; Old High German, Zio, Ziowes. Grimm assumes 
 the derivation of all these names as certain and undisputed. 
 (2) A still more remarkable passage meets us in his work 
 on German Mythology, c. ix. Zio (p. 175, 3rd edition). He 
 observes that the divine name Zio " fiihrt in unermessliche 
 Weite," and that it most exactly agrees with the Sanskrit 
 Dyaus, together with the Greek and German names of the 
 supreme deity, Zev? and Tius. 
 
 Nom. Dyaus Zevs Tius 
 
 Gen. Divas AtFos, Aioy Tivis 
 
 Dat. Dive AiA, Ait Tiva 
 
 Ace. Divam Atfa, Ai'a Tiu 
 
 Foe. Dyaus Zev Tiw 
 
 He then observes that with the old digammated form of 
 the Greek oblique cases corresponds also the Latin Jovis, 
 Jovi, Jovem, for which a nominative Ju, Jus, must be as- 
 sumed, which is extant only in the compound form Jupiter = 
 Juspater, Zeus Trarrjp. The dissertation which follows is of 
 extreme importance.' I may also refer to the section on
 
 60 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 natural objects, s.v. ' heaven,' in the essay on Egyptian words 
 in this volume. 
 
 It is to be noticed that the fundamental ideas of light, 
 fatherhood, supremacy, are recognised in all these national 
 traditions, with one exception only. In Zend the name Deva, 
 derived like Dyaus from div, to shine, must originally have 
 had the same signification ; but at a comparatively late period, 
 long after the separation of the two races, the word Deva 
 was appropriated by the Indo-Aryans to the host of false 
 gods, which were objects of abhorrence to the Eranians; so 
 that in the Gathas, the most ancient portion of the Avesta, 
 Deva became, as Curtius states truly, a term of reproach 
 equivalent to demon. 
 
 But the name Aditi, which evidently retained its true 
 character as an appellative or adjective, rather than that of 
 a concrete divinity, appears to be peculiar to the Sanskrit. 
 The conception, however, which it expresses is common to 
 other families of the Aryan race. In Zend it corresponds 
 to the words zrvan akarana, i.e. unlimited, infinite time ; in 
 Greek and Latin the secondary notion of wide expanse, 
 specially of earth or the material universe, appears to have 
 prevailed, and to have obliterated the ancient tradition. 
 What it certainly does imply is that all existence has its 
 origin in the unknown, the unfathomable, the infinite, of 
 which the personality was recognised by the great teachers of 
 the only nation which lived in the light of a divine revela- 
 tion. 
 
 We have now to examine the usage and significance of the 
 name Varuna. Here we must in the first place remember 
 that the term ' Asura ' is especially applied to Varuna as the 
 chief of the Adityas, and that Asura bears a scarcely con- 
 tested affinity to Ahura, the Eranian name for the creator and 
 living lord of the universe. Both names, as I have observed 
 previously, are derived from the old verb (as, Sanskrit, ah,
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 61 
 
 Zend) signifying " to be," or " exist," and as such they represent 
 exactly in meaning, and not remotely in form, the greatest of 
 all names, Jehovah, " I am that I am." 
 
 Then I must again call attention to the fact that the word 
 Asura, in all the Sanskrit works through which the know- 
 ledge of that language was first conveyed to European 
 scholars, has invariably a bad meaning, equivalent in fact to 
 demoniacal.* It was natural that the identification with 
 Ahura, which was never used in that perverted sense, should 
 be stoutly denied. Indeed nothing can be less like Ahura- 
 mazda, the god of light, of truth, the all-wise, than the 
 Asuras of the Mahabharata, of all Indian literature after the 
 true Vedic age; but when we look at Asura in its true 
 original sense, as it is used from first to last in the Rig Veda,f 
 we find no mere resemblance, we find an absolute identity in 
 all essential characteristics. Varuna, in fact, the Asura, as 
 chief of the Adityas, and Ahuramazda, as he stands before 
 us in the old Persian inscriptions, in the Gathas attributed to 
 Zoroaster, indeed we may add throughout the Zendavesta, 
 have the same position, the same origin, the same relation to 
 kindred spirits, to the universe, and to man as a political, or 
 social, or spiritual being; they have the same moral and 
 spiritual characteristics, and govern the universe on the same 
 principles in righteousness and truth. It may indeed be 
 safely asserted that, if the name Varuna were substituted for 
 Ahuramazda in the inscriptions of Darius, and Ahuramazda- 
 
 * I would call attention to the striking contrast between the interpre- 
 tations of this word given by Bopp in his Glossary, by Lassen in the 
 Appendix to the Bhagavad-Gita, and by other eminent scholars of early 
 date, and the full, exact, exhaustive account of its origin, meaning, and 
 usage in the ' Dictionary of St. Petersburg.' 
 
 f I.e. with the exception of hymns in which Indra is contrasted with 
 the old deities, as in vi. 22, where he is actually called Asurahan, i.e. 
 Asura-slaying : a fact the more remarkable since this august appellation 
 is given to him in other hymns.
 
 62 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 for Varuna in the noblest hymns of the Eig Veda, the most 
 careful reader would discover no incongruity, no unfitness in 
 the epithets or works attributed to the deity. 
 
 But these conclusions may be held to savour of the ten- 
 dency which I frankly acknowledge, of principles which I 
 rejoice to have adopted as guiding lights in all investigations. 
 I will therefore quote the concise but striking exposition 
 of Grassmann, in his 'Worterbuch zum Eig Veda,' sup- 
 ported by reference to the principal hymns addressed to 
 Varuna : and I will ask the reader to compare each character- 
 istic with that assigned to Ahuramazda, in texts of the 
 Avesta accepted by all critics as of indisputable authority. 
 
 1. "Varuna in a special sense is the supreme God, God 
 among the Gods, God of the Gods." See M. ii. 1-4. So 
 Ormuzd is Bhaga Bhaganam, God of the Gods, in the in- 
 scriptions. 
 
 2. " Varuna governs the sun, the stars, the waters." Such 
 too is the work of Ormuzd, Y. xxxi. 7. 
 
 3. "Varuna is the supreme lawgiver." This is the com- 
 monest attribute of Ormuzd. 
 
 4. " He is the maintainer of all legal and righteous order ;" 
 " the all-knowing judge," so in Y. xxix. 4-6, Ormuzd is said to 
 " remember all words, whatever has been wrought at all by 
 Devas or by men." "He punishes sins," Y. xxx. 11, 
 xxxii. 7, &c. " He alone forgives sinners, and protects the 
 pious." Thus Y. xxix. 11, we read : " O Ahura, our guide 
 and shelter." Cp. xxx. 5. 
 
 Here is Grassmann's list of the epithets applied to 
 Varuna: (1) Aditya, son of the eternal and infinite; (2) 
 king in the highest sense ; (3) Dhrta-vrata, whose law stands 
 fast ; and Mayin, the wise, the wonderful, = $h%. (4) Su- 
 c&nsa, and urucansa, highly praised, adored far and wide, 
 ei)Xo777To<?, "Dwelling in the praises of Israel." (5) Uru- 
 cakshus, far-seeing, cf. Ps. 149 ; (6) Kshatacri, and sukshatra,
 
 ITS -RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 03 
 
 reigning well in blessedness ; (7) Bhuri, great, all-powerful 
 thus in M. ii. 28, 
 
 " I seek the love of Varuna the mighty (bhuri) 
 The God whom men adore of all most gladly." 
 
 (8) Dyu-ksha, dweller in light, OLKWV <&><? aTrpoa-irov. (9} 
 Ricadas, consuming the violent, the wicked ; N.B. rica=J7Jn 
 
 Here we stand on sure grounds. Varuna and Ormuzd 
 are thoroughly one. The Eranians, in spite of the encroach- 
 ment of dualism, kept their god supreme, god of light, of good- 
 ness, and of all blessedness. The Indo-Aryans took with them 
 the deity, for a long season offered him willing and happy 
 service, recognised the old, loving, gracious characteristics 
 which, when the Hebrews and Persians first came into con- 
 tact, made them feel that they worshipped the same god ; but 
 in India in the course of some generations they abandoned 
 that high position, first dividing their homage, and then trans- 
 ferring it altogether to the personification of force. 
 
 Here we may pause to consider the further results of this 
 perverse movement, which surely the professors of evolution 
 will not maintain to be a true development, an advance of 
 the human spirit. Indra retained his position as the highest 
 object of worship for a period. It soon brought about one 
 great change, the very reverse of an advance towards excel- 
 lence. The magic character,* the complicated ritual, with 
 minute observances embracing every detail of public worship, 
 
 * I have not dwelt upon this point, but it is of extreme importance. 
 Magic, witchcraft, and all such superstitions, at an early period were pre- 
 valent among the Aryans, but their worst, coarsest, and most odious forms 
 were developed in connection with the worship of Indra and his fellows. 
 In the Atharva Veda every trait, just discernible in Rigs addressed to 
 these deities as personifications of natural powers, is exaggerated, so that 
 whole sections of that production of the latest Vedic or early post-Vedic 
 age are devoted to incantations, magic formulas, &c. Ludwig gives a 
 translation of such passages in his Einleitung, p. 489 if.
 
 64 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 necessitated the special training of a priesthood. The name 
 Brahmans, common in the Eig Veda, has there a limited and 
 distinct meaning offerers of prayer, worshippers but once set 
 apart they soon formed a caste, an hereditary priesthood ; after 
 a long and desperate struggle, terminated, as would seem, by 
 a massacre of nobles,* they succeeded in abolishing all rival 
 forms of worship, instituted a system of teaching which made 
 demands of unprecedented and unsurpassed strain upon the 
 memory, and became the recognised leaders of the nation. 
 
 But Indra and the worship of Indra did not long retain 
 that position of pre-eminence. The Brahmans themselves soon 
 felt the need of a loftier, more worthy, more spiritual object 
 of adoration. Taking their own designation as a starting- 
 point they developed from it an ideal deity, Brahma, who, 
 with Vishnu, an ancient object of devotion frequently men- 
 tioned in the Eig Veda as the productive energy of nature, 
 and Shiva, a new conception, borrowing features of peculiarly 
 dark and loathsome character! from Dravidian superstitions, 
 constituted a new Trinity. The system thus inaugurated 
 took permanent possession of the national mind. It pointed 
 to a mysterious background, Brahma the absolute, uncon- 
 ditioned, abstract void; but its main attraction for its in- 
 ventors was that it served as a basis for the most pernicious, 
 most permanent innovation in the constitution of Indian 
 society. Originally all Aryans were regarded as alike and 
 equally objects of love and favour to their deities, but after 
 the establishment of Brahma-worship, the priestly caste took 
 or assumed a rank wholly apart from the rest of the nation. 
 They claimed, and succeeded in persuading the people to 
 admit their claim, to have a totally distinct origin, from the 
 
 * See Max Miiller, ' History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature,' p. 181. 
 
 f Especially the abominable Lingam worship. Durga, the wife of 
 Shiva, was the patron goddess of the Thugs. See also Gough, ' Philo- 
 sophy of the Upanishads,' p. 18.
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 65 
 
 mouth of Brahma himself. Then Indra sank to a lower 
 sphere. He had too strong a hold upon the passions and 
 affections of the great bulk of the nation, especially of the 
 Kshatryas, or warrior caste, to be utterly displaced, but 
 henceforth he was recognised only as foremost among gods of 
 the secondary order, as king of the heaven (Swarga), which in 
 the classical age of Indian poetry was regarded as an object of 
 desire to those spirits only who were incapable of union with 
 the deity, who had done good works, not from a pure sense 
 of duty, but in expectation of a reward.* 
 
 Such is the development of Indra-worship. At first wel- 
 comed as a deliverer, and as such superseding the old gods ; 
 then in his turn displaced by Brahma with his fellow gods, 
 and finally recognised as the object of adoration to the weak, 
 the passionate, and the superstitious. 
 
 But to return to Varuna. The identification with Ahura- 
 mazda so far as regards all characteristics, has been esta- 
 blished ; but the name, Varuna, presents a considerable 
 difficulty. It certainly does not correspond in form with that 
 of Ahuramazda, or any great deity of the Eranians. If how- 
 ever we look at the meaning of the name commended by 
 Grassmann and generally accepted by Sanskrit scholars, we 
 find that it is equivalent to protector. It is derived from the 
 root vri (Zend var) to cover, and specially to protect. Now 
 the epithets, the protecting, the all-embracing, all-covering 
 deity, are especially applied to the supreme intelligence in 
 the Zendavesta. Thus in the 1st Yasht (ed. Westergaard, 
 p. 405), the names of Ahuramazda to which the highest 
 
 * In the curious episode of the Mahabhdrata, which celebrates the 
 ascent of Arjuna into the heaven of Indra, this god is represented as the 
 seducer of true ascetics. Arjuna encounters and overcomes the tempta- 
 tions of the Swarga, and thus advances towards the supreme end of the 
 Yoga, absorption into the absolute deity.
 
 66 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 sanctity is attributed are, first the protector,* and then follow 
 all other names which recall the attributes of Varuna, such 
 as the creator, the wise, the holy, the saviour, the rewarder of 
 the good, the punisher of the wicked. 
 
 I must remark that the identification of Varuna with the 
 Greek Qvpavo?, commonly accepted and maintained by high 
 authorities, is open to serious, in my mind to fatal, objections. 
 Ludwig, vol. iil, Einleitung, iii. p. 312, has proved (1) that 
 it is contrary to the mythological system of the Aryans to 
 identify the heaven itself with the son of Dyaus, the god of 
 heaven. (2) Even if we admitted the notion, which I hold to 
 be fundamentally wrong, that these names represent natural- 
 istic conceptions of the deity, the assumed exposition would 
 reverse the order of evolution. Varuna is throughout the Eig 
 Veda the administrator, or supreme orderer of the course of 
 celestial and terrestrial phenomena, and as such is never 
 identified with them. (3) Again the etymological connection 
 of the two words Varuna and Uranus cannot stand. Qvpavos 
 would be represented in Sanskrit by Varana, and Varuna in 
 Greek by Ovpvvos. (4) I add that Greek words which 
 correspond with old Aryan are generally, if not invariably, 
 derived through the Eranian or Persian, not through the 
 Indo-Aryan. (5) A further objection, not less weighty 
 than the preceding, is pointed out by Ludwig in the ' Vor- 
 rede ' to his Einleitung, p. xxix., " It is also to be observed 
 that Uranos in the oldest mythology of the Greeks is not 
 regarded as a God." Nagelsbach, Horn. Theol. 72. 
 
 I believe that the name Varuna was adopted at a very 
 early period by the great Aryan family as the proper name of 
 the deity in whom they recognised their protector, their lord 
 and governor; I do not believe that any of their true teachers 
 
 * The word in Zend is payusca, from pa, to protect. The meaning is 
 precisely the same as Varuna, and the etymology is not wholly alien since 
 p and v are interchangeable.
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 67 
 
 ever identified the God with the heaven which he sustained 
 and governed. -\<\y?. 
 
 MITRA. 
 
 Mitra always comes next to Varuna, and in the very closest 
 connection throughout the Eig Veda. There is no ques- 
 tion as to the identification of the Aryan with the Eranian 
 deity, whether we regard the name or the characteristics. 
 We have simply to look at the account of Mitra by Grass- 
 mann (' Worterbuch zum Eig Veda '), and of Mithra by Justi 
 (' Handbuch der Zend-sprache,' p. 212) ; in both we find the 
 same loving god, the mediator between the absolute godhead 
 and man. Grassmann says truly the fundamental sense of the 
 word is ' friend,' as shown both by the etymology and usage. 
 "We turn to the Avesta, and in the Yasht* addressed to 
 Mithra we find all the traits conspicuous in the hymns of 
 the Eig Veda. The heaven is his abode; in conjunction 
 with Ahuramazda, as in the Eig Veda with Varuna, he regu- 
 lates its movements ; he looks out through the sun, the eye of 
 the two gods in the E. V., vii. 61 and 63 ; he observes all 
 things done in the universe, and, in union with the same 
 deity, he maintains the cause of right and punishes the evil- 
 doers. 
 
 In the Rig Veda the position assigned to Mitra shows how 
 strongly these characteristics and others of the same order 
 had been impressed upon the mind and heart of the Old 
 Aryans. But as time went on, as the Aryans pursued their 
 course of relentless oppression and desperate struggles, as 
 
 * This Yasht, or Act of Adoration, occupies a very high place in the 
 Zend Avesta. It is called the Mihir- Yasht, and has been carefully 
 expounded by Eranian scholars. In the Avesta by De Harlez, a work 
 of the highest character, it occupies a large portion of the so-called 
 Khorda-Avesta, from p. 445 to p. 469. The leading thought comes out 
 distinctly in the 1st paragraph, which refers to Mithra as co-equal with 
 hifi parent Ahuramazda. 
 
 F 2
 
 G8 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 they abandoned themselves to the worship of physical forces, 
 of the powers supposed to bestow victory and conquest, the 
 worship of Mitra fell, rapidly as it would seem, into the back- 
 ground. Conspicuous as the name of Mitra is from first to 
 last in the hymns of the Eig Veda, in later ages it is passed 
 over, obliterated totally from the popular consciousness; so 
 far as I can ascertain, it is rarely mentioned in the great 
 poems of the classical age in Sanskrit.* We have thus 
 another striking instance of the continuous deterioration of 
 religions feeling, which is assuredly the true lesson to be 
 learned by a fair unbiassed examination of Indian, if not of 
 all ancient, mythology. 
 
 ARYAMAN. 
 
 Here again the name and the conception are common to 
 Eranian and Indo-Aryan antiquity. The name is significant 
 and important as inseparable from that of the great race 
 whose annals we are considering.! In the Zenda vesta Ahura 
 calls in the assistance of this deity, on a very critical occa- 
 sion, in contending against the malignant spirit Anromainyus. 
 In all parts of the Avesta this deity, or genius, has a prominent 
 place, as coadjutor of Ormuzd. In the Eig Veda he is con- 
 stantly associated with Varuna and Mitra. 
 
 BHAGA. 
 
 This name also is common to both families. In the Eig 
 Veda the connection with the etymological meaning is dis- 
 
 * In the ' Dictionary of St. Petersburg ' I find one citation only from 
 the Mahabharata in which mention is made of Mitra. In later Sanskrit, 
 with the usual lapse into nature-worship, he is identified with the Sun. 
 With this agree other notices, as when Mitra is called ' father of Utsarga,' 
 i.e. outpouring. The name Mitra does not occur in the Index Nominum 
 propriorum at the end of Lassen's edition of the Bhagavad-Git&. 
 
 f Aryaman, from Arya, earnest, gracious, true, and pious ; see Grass- 
 mann, W. H. pp. 115, 116.
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 69 
 
 tinctly marked. Derived from the very ancient root bkaj* to 
 apportion (Grassm. zuthetten), we have Bhaga, son of Aditi, 
 distributor of wealth and bestower of blessings (E. V. vii. 
 40-2). In the Avesta, the name occurs frequently ; generally 
 in the sense deity, applied especially to Ahuramazda, also to 
 Mithra. It is certain that at a very early period, long before 
 the separation of the Indo-Aryans from their congeners, the 
 name Bhaga became an absolute designation of deity; the 
 ancient Slaves, as the Kussians at present, have retained the 
 name Bog to designate the supreme God. In the inscriptions of 
 the Achaemenidae, Ahuramazda is called Bhaga Bhaganam, 
 God of Gods, as his special designation, and in later Sanskrit 
 the word is common, but in the general sense of portion or 
 prosperity, rather than as the name of a deity another in- 
 stance of the extent to which ancient conceptions were 
 obliterated from the consciousness of the Indians. 
 
 ARAMATI. 
 
 This name, explained by Grassmann, " genius of devotion " 
 (Genie der Andacht), occurs less frequently (eleven times) in 
 the Eig Veda. In the Avesta, Armaiti, more correctly 
 Armaiti, is described as an Amshaspand of the highest order, 
 daughter and spouse of Ormuzd; the Minerva, so to speak, 
 of Eran, in a special sense protector of the earth.f The 
 meaning, as expounded by Justi, and certainly as understood 
 by Strabo, is " perfect wisdom." 
 
 As a general result of this comparison we assert confidently 
 that the entire order of deities of this class (in Eran contem- 
 plated as Amesha-spentas, the immortal holy ones, crea- 
 tions, children, or personified attributes of the supreme 
 being, in India called Adityas, offspring of the infinite) 
 
 * See below, " Egyptian Words." 
 
 f In the Sanskrit of Nerioseng, prithivipati; in Strabo,
 
 70 THE BIG VEDA. 
 
 was from a very early period common to the whole 
 Aryan race before their final separation. I am not less 
 confident that it was at first probably an unconscious 
 modification of the true primeval monotheism, as revealed 
 to, and apprehended by, the Hebrew seers. Before that 
 crisis religion must have undergone considerable changes, 
 tending towards polytheism, but with recognised principles ad- 
 verse to all forms of superstition ; far more vital and grievous 
 was the deterioration afterwards. In Eran it was disfigured 
 by two grievous corruptions, (1) by the personification and re- 
 cognition of an independent principle of evil in Anromainyus, 
 introducing the dualism which thenceforth became the most 
 prominent, and in its immediate and permanent consequences 
 the most pernicious, principle of Asiatic superstition ; and (2) 
 by the degrading and hideous observances consequent upon 
 the adoption of a system of ceremonial pollution the most 
 conspicuous and the most odious feature of a religion which 
 among the Parsees still retains no small portion of primeval 
 truth. In India, as we have seen as I hope to have proved 
 the old order with all its high, ennobling, purifying influ- 
 ences, was first modified, then superseded, and finally oblite- 
 rated from the national consciousness. 
 
 As for evolution, if we are to understand that word in 
 the sense of progress, advance, continuous movement in an 
 upward direction, it is assuredly no characteristic of Indo- 
 Aryan religious systems. 
 
 We arrive at similar results when we examine contempo- 
 rary monuments of other ancient peoples. 
 
 In Egypt we have complete proof of an early, continually 
 increasing, and finally a total degeneracy. 
 
 We can put our finger upon the very point at which the 
 coarsest, most odious form of nature-worship was introduced.* 
 
 * See M. le Vicomte de Rouge, ' Recherches sur les monuments qu'on 
 peut attribuer aux six premieres dynasties de Manethon,' p. 22.
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 71 
 
 We have in the next place successive editions, so to speak, 
 of the Todtenbuch, the great depository of Egyptian notions 
 touching the unseen, from the 12th dynasty, older than, or 
 contemporary with, Abraham, to the time of the Ptolemies. 
 
 In the oldest copy of one chapter, the 17th, edited and illus- 
 trated by Lepsius, in the 'Aelteste Texte des Todtenbuchs,' 
 belonging to the former period, more ancient than the oldest 
 parts of the Eig Veda, we find the fundamental principle 
 of Monotheism, the self-existence of the one deity, distinctly 
 asserted; and although accompanying notes show that that 
 greatest truth had previously been disfigured by superstitious 
 accretions under the influence of a corrupt priesthood, it 
 is yet clearly and completely separated from the fungous 
 growth of monstrous and childish superstitions, by which 
 in the course of ages, as we find it in Lepsius' s text of 
 the Todtenbuch, it was gradually and completely super- 
 seded.* 
 
 In Persia, as we have seen, the first and most pernicious 
 corruption of primitive truths, that which denied the eternal 
 self-existence of one wise, all-powerful Creator, known to 
 Eranians as Ahuramazda, did not so far affect the religious 
 spirit of his votaries as to obliterate or completely obscure 
 the fundamental principle of the union of majesty, goodness, 
 truth, beauty and holiness in one supreme being. But after 
 the separation of the two great Aryan families, that corrup- 
 tion worked its way, slowly at first, then rapidly and 
 thoroughly, until it issued in the recognition of an absolutely 
 co-eternal, independent principle and personality of evil, as 
 represented in the Bundehesh and other works regarded as 
 authoritative and inspired scriptures during the whole period 
 
 * A careful reader may satisfy himself as to the progress and final 
 triumph of evil superstitions by comparing the text of the first part of the 
 17th chapter of the ' Todtenbuch ' as edited by Lepsius, with the famous 
 Metternich Stele, edited by Golenischeff.
 
 72 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 occupied by the Sassanidse, a corruption which in later Parsee 
 writings, adopted by the fire-worshippers of India, went 
 further and deeper still, so that we find Ahriman, the per- 
 sonification of all that is hateful and loathsome, coming into 
 existence contemporaneously with Ormuzd, both being alike 
 the products of the only eternal principle, unconscious, in- 
 sentient Time, to which good and evil are objects of absolute 
 indifference.* 
 
 In India we have shown how the ancient truth, at first 
 recognised distinctly, and at certain critical periods vividly 
 present to the minds of the best and noblest of the Indo- 
 Aryan race, owing to sudden or very rapid changes of 
 thought and feeling brought about by external causes, lost all 
 hold upon the national mind, so that the objects of worship 
 which, however imperfectly, for ages had represented central 
 principles of moral and spiritual truth, disappeared alto- 
 gether, and at the highest culminating period of intellectual 
 development were either wholly forgotten, or rejected with 
 contempt as effete superstitions. 
 
 Was this an evolution in the best sense of the word in 
 that sense in which it is commended to our reverence or 
 acceptance ? When force was substituted for justice, when 
 the system of Castes broke up and destroyed all conscious- 
 ness of true and substantial equality in man ; or again when 
 philosophic speculation rejected, together with the supersti- 
 tious notions and intensely selfish institutions of an earlier 
 period, all belief in the personality of the godhead ; when 
 Atheism was recognised as the true solution of all problems 
 by one great school, and Pantheism, differing from Atheism 
 rather in name than in principle, commanded the noblest 
 intellects; when, inseparably connected with Pantheistic 
 
 * The original is quoted at length, and translated hy Spiegel, 'Die 
 traditionelle Literatur der Parsen,' p. 161 ; see especially p. 164.
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 73 
 
 theories, the doctrine of Nirvana, involving the absolute ces- 
 sation of personal consciousness, took possession of the most 
 generous and loftiest spirits ; when again the one principle 
 in that doctrine which rescued it from contempt, that which 
 held it to consist in absorption into the eternal being and, if 
 unconscious yet absolute, blessedness in that union, was, in its 
 turn rejected when it was superseded by the Nirvana of 
 Buddha which, to cite the expression of the greatest Aryan 
 scholar of this century, implies the complete annihilation, 
 not only of the material elements of existence, but also, 
 and above all, of the principle of thought. M. B. St. 
 Hilaire whose work on Buddhism contains in the simplest 
 and clearest form a complete account of the sect and of 
 its founder, for whose person he feels well-merited affec- 
 tion and reverence, while he exposes candidly and truly 
 the utter unfitness of his fundamental doctrine points out 
 distinctly the true character of the Nirvana, literally a ces- 
 sation of suffering, but a cessation effected solely by the 
 annihilation of consciousness, and cites in support of the 
 decisive testimony of E. Burnouf * that of all scholars who 
 have dealt seriously with this question. "MM. Clough, 
 Tumour, Schmidt, Foucaux, Spence Hardy, Bigandet, Was- 
 silieff, ne se sont jamais fait une autre idee du Nirvana. 
 Colebrooke, qui n'avait -pas pu, il est vrai, penetrer aussi 
 profondement dans ces recherches, alors trop nouvelles, 
 
 * In the ' Introduction a, 1'histoire du Bouddhisme indien,' p. 138, 
 E. Burnouf says of Sakya-muni, " Philosophe et moraliste il croyait a la 
 plupart des veritds admies par les Brahmannes ; mais il se separait d'eux 
 du moment qu'il s'agissait de tirer la consequence de ces veYites et deter- 
 miner les conditions du salut, but des efforts de 1'homme, puisqu'il sub- 
 stituait Vaneantissement et la vide au Brahma unique dans la substance 
 duquel ses adversaires faisaient rentrer le monde et 1'homme." Two points 
 frequently overlooked are stated in this passage: (1) Buddha's acceptance 
 of Brahmanism in other fundamental principles ; and (2) his substitution 
 of complete annihilation for absorption into the deity.
 
 74 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 declare cependant que le Nirvana, tel que les Bouddhistes 
 1'entendent, se confond avec le sommeil eternel." * 
 
 M. de Quatrefages, in his 'Rapport sur 1'Anthropologie,' 
 p. 415 seq., argues against this statement; but on grounds 
 which are not applicable to the system. The Buddha did 
 in fact accept the wildest fables, and superstitions which 
 had prevailed in India up to his time, so far as regards 
 the actual universe; but that universe he maintained to be 
 altogether phenomenal, perishable together with its gods; 
 and he held therefore that the only object of all wise thought 
 and effort must be to be wholly freed from it, a freedom effected, 
 not as the great leaders of Brahmanism taught, by absorption 
 into the deity, but by entrance into the absolute void, into 
 nothingness. The numerous statements in the Sutras and 
 other Buddhistic works, whether of Ceylon, Nepaul, Thibet, 
 or China, which are incompatible with this system, are fully 
 accounted for by the ineradicable convictions of humanity, 
 and its desperate efforts to recover the substance of rejected 
 truths. 
 
 I may not pursue this inquiry to its ultimate results ; yet 
 this I must observe : just as, on the one hand, the superstitions 
 adopted by the Indo-Aryans assumed a darker and more 
 hateful character as the result of internal degeneracy and 
 of contact with barbarous tribes, until the abominations of 
 reckless cruelty and utter licentiousness became the most 
 prominent features of popular religions, so, on the other 
 hand, the speculations of their thoughtful leaders issued 
 in utter Atheism, or in Pantheism, which by those philo- 
 sophers who follow in their steps and adopt or exaggerate 
 their fundamental principles is upheld as the last word of 
 science, but which inevitably entails the subversion of all 
 moral principle, all feeling of responsibility, all fear of retri- 
 
 * 'Le Bouddha et sa religion,' p. 134. Compare the statements of 
 A. E. Gough, Philosophy of the Upanishads,' pp. 262-268.
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 75 
 
 bution for ill-doing, all hope of compensation for unjust 
 suffering, and of reward for works done or attempted for 
 the love and in the fear of God. 
 
 "We are indeed told by one of the greatest Sanskrit scholars 
 that in the earliest and best productions of the Vedic and 
 post-Vedic ages, there are traces of an advance towards the 
 conception of the abstract godhead. But that is little more 
 than another word for Pantheism or Nihilism. Max Muller 
 again speaks of the doctrine of the Atma, the central doc- 
 trine of the Upanishads, as the culminating height attained by 
 man's spirit. There can be no doubt that it is substan- 
 tially identical with the Ich and nicht Ich of Fichte ; and 
 therefore by those who accept Pantheism or Nihilism it must 
 needs be regarded as a real advance ; but even by them it 
 cannot be reasonably regarded as an evolution. It is a re- 
 action against Brahmanism, and it is from first to last united 
 with a contemptuous rejection of the Vedas, especially of 
 those principles and theories which at the close of the early 
 Vedic period had superseded and obliterated the old moral 
 principle of the creation and government of the universe by 
 a just, all-seeing and almighty God. 
 
 Good accounts of the Upanishads * are given by A. E. Gough 
 and by M. Eegnaud, ' Materiaux pour servir a 1'histoire de la 
 Philosophic de 1'Inde,' 1876 ; with which the reader may 
 compare Professor Max Miiller's introduction to ' the 
 Sacred Books of the East,' vol. i. pp. Ixv. ff. The points 
 which are certainly established are of extreme importance. 
 The leaders in these discussions, in which the Brahmans 
 of the period took part, belonged to the Kshatrya, or warrior 
 
 * The literal meaning of the word Upanishad is session, specially a 
 session of pupils at the feet of a teacher, and as the object of such sessions 
 was to search into the truth or principles of existence the word became in 
 general acceptance equivalent to a metaphysical or ontological treatise. 
 Upa = viro, nishad = efopw, sedeo.
 
 76 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 caste. The Upanishads represent a strong reaction against 
 the whole system of the Vedas. In place of the gods who 
 are personifications of force, splendour, and physical agencies, 
 the universe is regarded by those thinkers as the manifesta- 
 tion of one eternal, indivisible, incomprehensible principle, 
 not, properly speaking, personal, not even, to use the Platonic 
 terms, ot}<no>8e<?, but vTrepovaiov. In this principle they 
 recognise the Atma of the universe. The final end of all 
 deep true thinking is the distinct recognition of this principle 
 in ourselves, for the atma of the individual is but a mode of 
 the eternal atma, the absolute Ich of Fichte. 
 
 In this thought originated the system, of which the main 
 features are developed in the Bhagavad-Gita, the principles 
 which are the foundation of all later speculation, especially of 
 that which Eammohun Eoy, regarded by Max Miiller as 
 India's great thinker, accepted, and which was at once adopted 
 with all its logical consequences by Schopenhauer, the chief of 
 all pessimists.* It was accompanied by a strong feeling of 
 repulsion against the Vedas, regarded as the source of false, 
 superficial, especially selfish, self-seeking notions, used by the 
 Brahmans to mislead the people. See especially the passage 
 in the Bhagavad-Gita, ii. 42-46, with the commentary of 
 Dr. Lassen, pp. 167-172. 
 
 The fundamental principle is brought out distinctly in 
 Colebrooke's great work on the ' Sankhya Karika.' The Vedas 
 throughout recognise one motive for all actions, the desire of 
 reward. Of this Sankhya says on the 2nd clause, p. 13, 
 
 * If there be a difference between the systems of Eammohun Roy and 
 Schopenhauer it is this : the universe in Eammohun's system is pheno- 
 menal, transitory, but a shadowing forth of an eternal principle into which 
 the spirits of individuals are absorbed ; in Schopenhauer's system the 
 universe is absolutely bad, worse and worse as its true tendencies are 
 developed, an evil from which the only escape is annihilation Buddhism, 
 in short, as understood by E. Burnouf and the profoundest scholars who 
 have devoted themselves to its study.
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 77 
 
 " the revealed mode," i.e. the mode presented by the Vedas, 
 " is ineffectual, for it is impure," a statement explained 
 in the old Sanskrit commentary, called the Bhashya ; " Re- 
 vealed, that is established by the Vedas, as it is said, 'we 
 drank the juice of the acid asclepias (i.e. Soma) ; we became 
 immortal ; we attained to effulgence, we know divine things.'"* 
 Again, " it is said in the Vedas that final recompense is 
 attained by animal sacrifice," alluding to the Asvamedha, 
 horse-sacrifice, familiar to the readers of Southey's ' Curse of 
 Kehama.' Again, " the object of the ritual of the Vedas is, 
 in fact, in all cases temporal good." All this is the reverse 
 of evolution ; the Vedic hymns, especially those addressed to 
 Indra or connected with Indra worship, have no bearing 
 whatever upon the doctrine which Professor Max Muller tells 
 us is a development of these principles ; that is, upon the 
 doctrine of emancipation achieved by knowledge of the atma, 
 by spiritual union with eternal light, or by absorption into 
 eternal night. 
 
 If the length to which this inquiry has extended needs 
 apology, it must be found in a deep sense of the import- 
 ance of the issue involved that, namely, of accepting or 
 rejecting the theory of evolution as applied to the history 
 of religion. It is, however, a grave question how far the 
 student, to whom truth is the one object of all intellectual 
 endeavours, is bound to pursue inquiries which will bring 
 him into contact with the most intricate developments of 
 human thought of thought, moreover, clothed in a lan- 
 guage remarkable for beauty, grace, and significance, but 
 which is not less remarkable for the enormous labour 
 which it demands, with a vocabulary copious and multiform 
 beyond comparison, with a grammatical system, or to 
 
 * This text of the Vedas refers to a discussion between Indra and the 
 Maruts how they became immortal. See above, p. 46.
 
 78 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 speak more exactly, systems, varying materially in different 
 ages, but in all at once subtle, ingenious, and com- 
 plicated ; above all with compositions in prose and- in 
 verse far exceeding in length, in every kind of difficulty, the ' 
 productions of classical antiquity, or indeed of any age or 
 nation. It is a great, a noble object proposed to students 
 possessing the mental qualifications, and the indispensable 
 conditions of indefatigable industry, of leisure, and access to 
 Oriental libraries. The question is whether the object is 
 attainable, and if attainable, by whom, under what condi- 
 tions, and with what motives for undertaking the work. 
 
 For the philosopher, for the Christian who cares to examine 
 thoroughly all branches of human knowledge which may 
 enable him to get at the root of perversions of the truth, and 
 to recognise the fundamental unity of all developments of that 
 truth, the study, honestly and earnestly pursued, will be 
 rich in the only reward which to him can be regarded as 
 desirable. Nor can it be doubted that Englishmen have 
 special motives, as well as special opportunities, for under- 
 taking it. Englishmen who have to administer the laws of 
 our Indian Empire, or to develop its resources ; above all, to 
 communicate to our fellow-subjects in that empire the privi- 
 leges and blessings which we value most highly, must needs 
 do what is indispensable to success at any cost of time and 
 labour. It may be the case I would not deny that it must 
 be the case that without a competent knowledge of the 
 language, if not in all its forms Prakrit, the language of the 
 vulgar ; Pali, that of the Buddhists of Ceylon ; and modern 
 Hindostani yet in its highest and purest form, from which 
 all other forms are derived, or of which they are corruptions, 
 the representatives of English thought and English principles 
 cannot hope to command the attention, or to influence the 
 spirits of thoughtful Indians; much less can we hope to 
 accomplish their conversion to the one true faith, without
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 79 
 
 an insight into the depths of their speculative theosophy. 
 Professor Max Muller has good reason for his eloquent and 
 earnest commendation of the study to all those who are 
 called upon to control and direct the movements of Indian 
 life, and England has produced a host of great scholars, as 
 guides to the student and as examples of the success to 
 be achieved by earnest exertion. 
 
 But I must repeat my conviction that success the only 
 success worth aiming at depends entirely upon the direction 
 of our studies, upon our recognition of the principles which 
 ought to regulate those studies, upon the realisation of the 
 one eternal truth. 
 
 Whatever may be said of that enormous course of study 
 which begins with the Brahmanas of the first post-Vedic age, 
 and terminates with the medieval Puranas, or with modern 
 developments of Indian thought, this must be said of the Eig 
 Veda: 
 
 This book stands alone among the products of the Indian 
 mind. It is the only source of knowledge as regards points 
 of paramount importance. 
 
 (a) It is the only book from which we can learn the lan- 
 guage spoken by the first Aryan occupants of India, incon- 
 testably the most ancient extant form of the languages 
 spoken by the ancestors of the Indo-Germanic race. 
 
 (&) It is the only book in which we can study the develop- 
 ments of Aryan thought at a period of singular mental 
 activity, and under circumstances which elicited its tendencies 
 in all directions, good or evil ; in which we can find materials 
 for comparing and appreciating aright the developments of 
 thought in other branches of the Japhetic family, whether 
 European or Asiatic, whether or not retaining the main 
 characteristics of Aryan culture. 
 
 (c) Above all, it is the only book from which we can learn 
 what forms of religious thought and of religious worship
 
 80 THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 those Indo-Aryans brought with them from the old home of 
 this race, or developed under novel circumstances in their 
 new abode. 
 
 As for myself, my object throughout this essay, the object 
 which lies nearest to my heart, is to commend to my readers a 
 careful consideration of the grounds upon which my own 
 convictions rest convictions which I hold to be of para- 
 mount importance, and specially -with reference to the actual 
 state of speculative thought namely that, as the language of 
 the Eig Veda is undoubtedly one with that of the old Eranians, 
 and bears in itself distinct witness to the perfect unity of the 
 greatest and noblest portion of the human race, and to a 
 demonstrable unity of all other portions ; so also its religious 
 forms, especially the forms of faith, bear witness at once to 
 the original acceptance of one primeval truth, and to the ten- 
 dencies by which that truth was first obscured, then corrupted, 
 and finally superseded. 
 
 It would be sheer pessimism were that the only conclusion ; 
 were we to rest contented with the fact that deterioration, 
 early commencing, ever increasing, and issuing in utter apo- 
 stasy and demoralisation, is the uniform and inevitable result 
 of human development, as attested by the history of a por- 
 tion of our race, remarkable for intellectual power, but un- 
 supported by communications of sacred light. But it is the 
 very reverse of pessimism to assert, and to prove by sure, 
 safe, convincing evidence, that truth was the original en- 
 dowment of mankind, that in their widest divergencies from 
 that truth, its necessity is evidenced by the efforts of the most 
 thoughtful men to discover it, and its transcending grandeur 
 by their failure, whenever and so far as they relinquished its 
 fundamental principles ; and at the same time to hold fast to 
 the conviction that the same God who gave the truth to man 
 in the beginning, wills that it shall be presented again and 
 again in a form accessible to all, surrounded with evidence
 
 ITS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 81 
 
 which meets the requisitions of the most cautious judgment, 
 and appeals with irresistible force to the conscience and the 
 heart ; and, further, that it is His will to give it a complete 
 and permanent victory. 
 
 As I write these lines at the close of a long life, passed for 
 the most part in diligent study of the movements of human 
 thought, and of the communications by which that thought 
 has been directed and enlightened, the future presents itself 
 to my mind with singular brightness of promise. 
 
 I am most thankful to feel assured that the great truths, 
 partially disclosed, and retained in the original objects of wor- 
 ship after the first separation of the human race, will reveal 
 themselves in all their beauty and grandeur to those who, in 
 all nature and in all history, in all the movements of thought 
 and spirit, discover and avow the presence and workings of 
 Him whom truly to know is eternal life. 
 
 JULY 31, 1883.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 TRANSLATIONS FROM THE RIG VEDA. 
 
 IN this Appendix I propose to give specimens of hymns in 
 which the principles and statements maintained in the pre- 
 ceding essay are supported or illustrated. I have followed 
 the text of Max Miiller, but have been guided by three 
 German translations that of Ludwig in cadenced prose, 
 that of Grassmann who imitates the metres of the Sanskrit, 
 and that of Gelduer and Kaegi, who have given us seventy 
 hymns selected from the Eig Veda, also in a metrical form, 
 with concise but valuable notes by Dr. Eoth, author of, the 
 Vedic articles in the great Sanskrit dictionary lately com- 
 pleted and published at St. Petersburg. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 VARUNA. 
 
 I begin with the hymns to Varuna. Of these there are 
 altogether nine. Six are taken from those Mandalas (ii.-vii.) 
 which are recognised by all critics as most important, be- 
 longing to the best age of Vedic poetry, and composed by 
 the most ancient and best Rishis. Of the remainder, two 
 are from the 1st Mandala ; one from the 8th I omit as 
 unimportant. 
 
 The first hymn is attributed to Gritsamada, a very ancient 
 Eishi, whose poems rank among the best in the Eig Veda. 
 It has a special interest. The poet belonged to a different
 
 HYMNS TO VARUNA. 83 
 
 school from Vasishtha, the author of the four hymns which 
 bring out most completely the characteristics of Varuna. 
 In this hymn the most striking features stand out distinctly, 
 as does also the personality of the author. 
 
 HAND ALA II. 28. -..,-. 
 
 The wise Aditya's work, the glorious Ruler, 
 Should far exceed all other works in grandeur ! 
 
 The God, the dearest object of all worship, 
 The mighty Varuna I fain would honour. 
 
 2. 
 May we for ever prosper in thy service, 
 
 Who praise thee, Varuna, with true devotion, 
 With each return of Dawn the Lord of cattle, 
 
 Bursts out the flame of our devotion daily. 
 
 3. 
 
 May we live safely under thy protection, 
 O Varuna, far-ruling, Lord of heroes ! 
 
 Ye sons of Aditi, whom none deceiveth, 
 Ye gods, in covenant of grace accept us ! 
 
 4. 
 The ruler of the world sets free the rivers, 
 
 They flow, Varuna, as thou ordainest ; 
 They never fail or faint, are never weary, 
 
 Pass swiftly over earth as birds o'er heaven. 
 
 5. 
 
 Free me from sin, that as a chain hath held me ! 
 
 Let me maintain the even course of justice ! 
 Tear not the thread of song which I am weaving, 
 
 break not the poor workman's staff untimely ! 
 
 6. 
 Varuna, deliver me from terror ! 
 
 In grace look on me, thou righteous ruler, 
 And set me free, as a young calf, from sorrow ; 
 Apart from thee I cannot breathe one moment ! 
 
 G 2
 
 84 HYMNS TO VARUNA. 
 
 7. 
 Save us, Varuna, from deadly weapons, 
 
 Which smite, at thy behest, all evil-doers ; 
 let me not from light of life be banished ; 
 
 Destroy my foes, but let me live in safety. 
 
 We faithfully for many years have served thee, 
 mighty Varuna, both now and ever ; 
 
 On thee, as on a rock immovable, 
 
 Thy own eternal law is firmly grounded. 
 
 Deliver me from my own past transgressions, 
 
 Nor let me suifer for the sins of others. 
 Grant, Varuna, that I may see, yet living, 
 
 The blessed light of many a coming morning. 
 
 10. 
 If e'er in dream my timid heart is startled 
 
 By friend or foeman speaking works of menace ; 
 If ever thief or wolf would harm thy servant, 
 
 Then take me, Varuna, in thy protection. 
 
 11. 
 And, Varuna, grant that a generous patron, 
 
 Noble and rich, to me be never wanting ; 
 May well-appointed wealth be mine for ever, 
 
 Our voice be heard in councils of the nobles. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 Ver. 1. Aditya, here the chief of the sons of Aditi, Varuna. By the 
 work Ludwig understands the poem composed in his honour, which the 
 poet holds ought to surpass all others in grandeur. Other translators 
 take it to mean the work of Varuna. 
 
 Ver. 2. The epithet " Lord of cattle " is applied to Ushas, the god of 
 dawn, as charged specially with this care. Light is the enemy of cattle- 
 stealers. 
 
 Burst out ; the Sanskrit word refers to the crackling of fire kindled at 
 the morning offerings. 
 
 Ver. -3. The two last lines of this verse are striking. The three trans- 
 lators agree as to its meaning. Undeceivable is an epithet peculiarly 
 appropriate to the Adityas, gods of light and knowledge.
 
 HYMNS TO VARUNA. 85 
 
 Ver. 4. Varuna, as Lord of all order, is specially guardian of the great 
 river system on which the prosperity of the whole land depends. 
 
 Ver. 5. For the first line see above, p. 49. " The course of justice," 
 lit. let me fill the fountains of justice. The acts of a just man supply the 
 streams of justice which flow, like the rivers, under the care of Varuna. 
 The prayer against sudden and untimely death befits a litany : cf. vii. 89. 
 
 Ver. 6. Terror, the terrors of a conscience sensitive to sin. 
 
 The " young calf " is a figure in Egyptian hieroglyphics, 
 lorn. 
 
 One moment, lit. the twinkling of an eye. 
 
 Ver. 10. Timidity of heart, owing to a sense of wrong, 'is, so far as I 
 remember, peculiar to the votaries of Varuna. "In dreams they are 
 haunted by memory of every wrong 1 done to near clansmen and ultimate 
 friends." 
 
 Ver. 11. This prayer for a rich and liberal patron reminds us of the 
 old Scalds ; it is a common petition in Anglo-Saxon poetry. On the Indo- 
 Aryan custom, see Ludwig, iii. 268. 
 
 " Well-appointed," or well-administered. 
 
 The last line is a common refrain in the 2nd Mandala. Here it seems 
 to me peculiarly suitable: the poet longs for the favour of a generous 
 prince, for adequate wealth, and for recognised place among the coun- 
 sellors of his people. Cf. Job xxix. 7-10. Like Pindar, the Kishi avows 
 unqualified admiration for wealth. (See Ludwig, iii. 284.) 
 
 A HYMN BY ATKI, CHIEF OF A RACE OF POETS. 
 V. 85. 
 
 1. Come sing a hymn to Varuna, the mighty, 
 
 A deep one, dear to the all-glorious ruler ! 
 Who, as a hide is stretched out by the tanner, 
 Spreads the broad earth, a carpet for the Sun-god. 
 
 2. 'Tis he who gives cool breezes to the forest, 
 
 Milk to the cows, and swiftness to the horses ; 
 Gives wisdom to the heart, to the clouds lightnings ; 
 Sun to the heavens, and soma to the mountains. 
 
 3. 'Tis he who turns the clouds like tons of water 
 
 And bids them moisten earth and air and heaven. 
 King of all life, the whole earth he bedeweth, 
 Even as showers of rain bedew a cornfield.
 
 86 HYMNS TO VARUNA. 
 
 4. When Varuna the milk * from clouds elicits, 
 
 He fills the earth, the air, the heaven with moisture ! 
 With heavy mists the mountains are enshrouded, 
 And travellers, though strong, sink down outwearied. 
 
 5. And this strange work of Varuna, the glorious, 
 
 The mighty God,f will I proclaim and wonder : 
 As with a measuring rod, in mid-air standing, 
 
 He takes the sun, and thus the whole earth measures. 
 
 6. And this, too, is his work, the wondrous magic J 
 
 Of the great Asura, whom none resisteth, 
 That all the rushing streams of all the rivers 
 Flow all into one sea, yet never fill it. 
 
 7. If we have ever wronged a trusting neighbour, 
 
 Varuna, a kinsman or a brother, 
 A member of our household or a stranger, 
 Varuna, all this ill-doing pardon. 
 
 8. If we with dice, as is the way of gamblers, 
 
 Or unawares or knowingly have cheated, 
 As from a loosened chain from this guilt free us : 
 To Varuna may we be dear as ever. 
 
 These two hymns are noticeable as the only ones addressed 
 to Varuna in the ancient Mandalas between the 1st and the 
 7th. The poets belong altogether to a different school from 
 that which is best represented by Vasishtha ; they seldom make 
 mention of Varuna directly or indirectly, yet in these they 
 give the strongest attestation to the general recognition of his 
 attributes. The hymns take tjie foremost place, both as works 
 of Eishis of recognised position and character, and as presenting 
 the characteristics of Varuna with singular beauty and com- 
 pleteness. Two hymns in the 8th Mandala, the 41st and 
 
 * A common figure in the Rig Veda for rain. The clouds are called 
 cows. 
 
 f Lit. Asura = the living God. 
 
 t Magic, maya, is used in a good sense for manifestations of divine 
 power not less commonly than in a bad sense for sorcery and witchcraft.
 
 HYMNS TO VARUNA. 3t 
 
 42nd, of uncertain date, and far inferior in tone, are yet 
 noticeable, as proving that some of the most striking features 
 of the deity had made too deep an impression to be oblite- 
 rated under the prevalence of naturalistic superstitions. 
 
 In the 41st, by Nashaka, the power, the wisdom, the 
 orderly government of Varuna are spoken of in terms which, 
 though somewhat obscure, agree with what has been 
 distinctly brought before us by Gritsamada and Vasishtha. 
 Varuna orders the night, the dawn ; his holy laws direct the 
 course of the seasons, he knows the secrets of all nature, all 
 wisdom is centred in him, he rules the gods, crushes all evil, 
 and, in the beginning, presided over creation. The 42nd is 
 by the same poet, it is short, but introductory to a set of 
 addresses. 
 
 1. 
 The God in wisdom hath established heaven, 
 
 And the expanse of the wide earth hath measured. 
 The universal Lord pervades all being ; 
 Through Varuna is all that is completed. 
 
 2. 
 
 So offer praise to Varuna the mighty, 
 
 Pray to the shepherd of the hosts of heaven ! 
 
 As with a threefold buckler may he guard us ! 
 Earth, Dyaus, keep us in your bosom ! 
 
 3. 
 Give force, God, to this prayer of the Eishi, 
 
 Let it prevail, Varuna, by wisdom, 
 So shall we be preserved from every evil, 
 
 On a bark sailing which will bear us safely.* 
 
 In the first Mandala, one hymn, the 24th, is a cento, with 
 fragments ill jointed, but the 25th, though of uncertain date, 
 is remarkable for completeness and power. I give a trans- 
 lation, based upon that of Grassmann, with some notes from 
 the commentary of Ludwig. 
 
 * See the well-known passage in the ' Phaedo,' p. 85, c D.
 
 88 HYMNS TO VAEUNA. 
 
 i. 25. 
 1. 
 
 Sorely as we, Varuna, 
 Break thy just laws, God, 
 From day to day as men are wont, 
 
 2 
 
 Give us not up to sudden death, 
 Not to the stroke of vengeful wrath, 
 Nor in thy hot displeasure smite ! 
 
 3. 
 
 As charioteers rein in their steeds, 
 
 So with our hymns, Varuna, 
 
 We fain would soothe thy wrathful mood. 
 
 4. 
 
 For all our wishes turn to thee, 
 In hope thy blessing to obtain, 
 As swift-winged birds fly to their nest. 
 
 5. 
 
 He knows the course of every bird 
 Which through the asther wings its flight 
 Each ship that passeth o'er the sea. 
 
 6. 
 
 Lord of all order, the twelve moons, 
 With all their offspring, well he knows ; 
 He knows the moon as yet unborn. 
 
 7. 
 
 He knows the way of all the winds, 
 The strong, far-sweeping, mighty winds ; 
 Knows them who sit on thrones above. 
 
 In his own palace Varuna, 
 Maintaining order, is enthroned ; 
 He, the All-wise, Almighty Lord. 
 
 There his all-seeing eyes behold 
 All secret things, all hidden deeds, 
 What has been done, what will be done.
 
 HYMNS TO VARUNA. 89 
 
 10. 
 
 May Aditi's all-knowing son 
 From day to day our footsteps bless, 
 And grant us length of happy life. 
 
 11. 
 
 Above, in golden robes arrayed, 
 Sits Varuna in royal state ; 
 Around him all his Watchers wait.* 
 
 12. 
 
 The God whom none resists or harms, 
 No liar ever can deceive, 
 No craft of man can overreach. 
 
 13. 
 
 He, who in perfect majesty, 
 Presides o'er human destinies, 
 And o'er our mortal bodies rules. 
 
 14. 
 
 To him who seeth far and wide 
 Fraught with desire our hymns ascend, 
 As herds that to their pastures haste. 
 
 15. 
 
 Together let us now converse, 
 For sweet libations I have brought, 
 Which thou acceptest as our priest. 
 
 16. 
 
 that I could but see him near ; 
 Here, on this earth, his chariot see ! 
 Would he accept these hymns of mine ? 
 
 17. 
 
 O hear this, day my earnest cry ; 
 Be gracious to me, Varuna ! 
 Seeking for help I long for thee ! 
 
 18. 
 
 Wise God, thou rulest over all, 
 Whether in heaven or on earth ; 
 hearken to my prayer, God ! 
 
 * See Dr. Roth's note on vii. 87, p. 91.
 
 90 HYMNS TO VARUNA. 
 
 19. 
 
 Free me from chains * in every form, 
 Whether they bind my head or feet ; 
 set me free that I may live. 
 
 HYMNS TO VAEUXA, BY VASISHTHA. 
 
 We now proceed to the hymns by Vasishtha. A translation 
 of the 86th has been given in the essay, p. 43, to which, as of 
 the highest importance, I would direct attention. 
 
 viz. 87. 
 
 1. 
 
 The sun goes forth as Varuna hath ordered, 
 He bids the rivers flow into the ocean, (1) 
 As steeds with loosened reins obey the rider ; (2) 
 Their long course to the days he hath appointed. 
 
 2. 
 His breath, the wind, goes through mid-heaven sounding, 
 
 As hungry cattle rush through the tall grasses. 
 All that wide earth, all that high heaven containeth, 
 
 All, "Varuna, is thy most dear creation. 
 
 3. 
 
 At the behest of Varuna his Watchers 
 
 In the vast universe note every movement. 
 Righteous alone are those who wisely offer 
 
 From a true heart acceptable devotion. (3) 
 
 4. 
 I heard from Varuna and comprehended, (4) 
 
 The Aghniyah has seven names thrice repeated. 
 Let not the wise who know the hidden meaning 
 
 Expound the mystery to future races. 
 
 5. 
 The threefold heaven this mighty one enfoldeth, (5) 
 
 And threefold earth, a realm of six dimensions. 
 King Varuna in wisdom hath created 
 
 The golden sphere which lighteth up the heaven. (6) 
 
 The sin and its penalties are thus constantly represented.
 
 HYMNS TO VARUNA. 91 
 
 Like a strong fowl into the sea it plungeth, 
 So Varuna comes down from his own father ; 
 
 The deep he governs, reigneth in the welkin, 
 As king he rules far as the world extendeth. (7) 
 
 7. 
 
 He is the god who pities even the sinner ! 
 
 Before thee, Varuna, may we be guiltless, 
 The righteous law of Aditi fulfilling : 
 
 Ye gods, protect us ever with your blessing. 
 
 NOTES BY DE. BOTH. 
 
 (1) Since Varuna hath shown them the way. (2) That is, by the 
 most direct way. The Sanskrit sargah srshtah a courser with loosened 
 reins, a chariot-horse running at full speed. (3) Varuna's spirits (genies) 
 watch over the acts of all men ; only those who pray aright are righteous 
 before him. (4) We cannot succeed in the attempt to unravel completely 
 the meaning of the mysterious revelation, which even the god himself 
 forbids the singer to profane. Aghniyah, which elsewhere means the cow, 
 according to the original signification of the word might betoken the 
 unchangeable, i.e. eternal power of nature, the fundamental principle of 
 the universe. Thrice seven = indefinite number. The word names 
 means forms, phenomena. The mystic words must therefore point to the 
 multiform manifestations of nature. (5) According to the cosmology of 
 the Veda, heaven and earth consist severally of three layers corresponding 
 each to each, thus intimating their magnitude. (6) His own father, i.e. 
 Dyaus, the god of heavenly light, of whom Varuna is the son and so 
 manifestation. (7) As the bright heaven and the sun, the great fowl, are 
 above by day, and at night sink into the deep, thus belonging to both 
 realms, so the dominion of Varuna extends over both alike. 
 
 VII. 88. 
 
 A grateful, lovely hymn of true affection, 
 Vasishtha, bring to Varuna the gracious ; 
 
 Who brings unto our world the steed of brightness, 
 The glorious sun, rich with a thousand blessings.
 
 92 HYMNS TO VARUNA. 
 
 2. 
 I look on Varuna : his glorious aspect, 
 
 Kadiant as light, my awestruck soul o'erpowers ! 
 Whate'er in heaven, or light or dark, is lovely 
 
 With thee may I behold, thou mighty ruler. 
 
 3. 
 
 Once Varuna and I embarked together, 
 Together steered out into the mid-ocean : 
 
 As we then glided o'er the heaving billows, 
 
 Our tossing bark flashed out in sudden splendour. 
 
 4. 
 The god into his bark received Vasishtha ; 
 
 Endowed him with his wondrous gifts as poet, 
 Appointed him, on that blest day, his songster, 
 
 !So long as day and moon their course continue. 
 
 5. 
 
 But where is now that intercourse so gracious, 
 When we so lovingly once dwelt together ? 
 
 To thy vast palace, Varuna, thou ruler,. 
 
 Thy hundred-gated house, I once had access. 
 
 6. 
 If, Varuna, thy friend, whom yet thou lovest, 
 
 Thy comrade once, in aught hath thee offended, 
 Punish us not after our guilt, avenger ; 
 
 Wise God, still grant protection to thy songster. 
 
 7. 
 All us who dwell in thy abode securely, 
 
 Thy help from heaven, thine abode, invoking, 
 Do thou set free from sin, its guilt and bondage. 
 
 Ye gods protect us with your heavenly blessings. 
 
 NOTES ON 88. 
 
 This hymn is singularly pregnant with deep meaning. The boldness 
 and strange fascination of the thoughts, the force and the obscurity of the 
 expressions, seem to point to the earlier part of Vasishtha's life, when he 
 was devoted to the service of Varuna, and absorbed in the contemplation 
 of the works of him in whom he recognised the orderer and spiritual lord 
 of the universe. There are many points in which the three translations 
 are at issue ; but all agree as to the general meaning. Dr. Roth observes :
 
 HYMNS TO VARUNA. 93 
 
 " The pith of the song is v. 3-6. The singer believes that he is forsaken 
 by Varuna his patron : he thinks in sadness of his familiar intercourse 
 with the god in earlier times. In a vision he sees himself as it were in 
 Varuna's realm going to sea with him, and receiving from him the call 
 to be a Rishi, i.e. a sacred songster, and sojourn with him in his palace." 
 
 VII. 89. 
 
 Xot yet into the house of clay 
 Would I depart, Varuna ! 
 Be merciful, good Lord,* forgive. 
 
 2. 
 
 I totter now with trembling limbs, 
 As a swoln bladder, Varuna. 
 Be merciful, good Lord, forgive. 
 
 In weakness and in ignorance 
 I went astray, thou holy one. 
 Be merciful, good Lord, forgive. 
 
 4. 
 
 In midst of water though I stand 
 Thy songster faints with parching thirst. 
 Be merciful, good Lord, forgive ! 
 
 5. 
 
 Although we oft, as man is wont, Varuna, 
 By evil deeds the gods in heaven offend ; 
 
 If we thy law have broken in ignorance, 
 Punish us not for this offence, God ! 
 
 This last verse, in a different metre, was probably added when 
 the collection was made up ; it is, however, of real importance, 
 showing that the attributes of Varuna, as the righteous judge, 
 were still recognised. 
 
 The meaning of the hymn, which was evidently composed 
 in the last stage of disease, is well brought out in the trans- 
 
 Skt. s^l-khsatrd.
 
 94 HYMNS TO INDRA. 
 
 lations of Grassmann and Geldner, with Dr. Koth's notes. 
 The emaciated limbs, swollen as a bladder, and the unquench- 
 able thirst (cf. Horace, Odes, ii. 2, 13), point unmistakeably to 
 dropsy, the natural result of excesses learned in the school of 
 Indra. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 INDRA. 
 
 From the 217 hymns addressed to Indra, I select a few, 
 not as the finest those by Bharadvaja in the 6th Mandala 
 belong to the best age of Vedic poetry but as presenting the 
 special characteristics of Indra in a strong light, as conceived 
 and applauded by his votaries. 
 
 Here we have (1) the birth of Indra ; (2) his self-laudation ; 
 (3) his prowess ; (4) his struggle with Varuna ; and (5) the 
 final issue of the rivalry between the two gods, or their 
 worshippers. 
 
 
 
 (1) THE BIRTH OF INDRA. 
 IV. 18. 
 
 This very curious poem by Vamadeva, an ancient Eishi, 
 undoubtedly refers to the birth of Indra. The first verse 
 contains words supposed to be spoken either by Vyansa, his 
 father (so Ludwig), or by a deity, and addressed to the god in 
 his mother's womb. Dr. Koth observes, " The wilfulness and 
 violence of Indra begin already in his mother's womb. Like 
 Typhon (Plutarch, ' Isis and Osiris,' 12) he will break through 
 the side of his mother." With this may be compared the 
 wild legend of Eustem's birth in the Shahnameh, i. p. 
 348 f. ed. MohL 
 
 Instead of a translation of the first two verses into English, 
 I give that by Geldner into German. The extreme coarseness 
 of the passage may excuse this innovation.
 
 HYMNS TO INDRA. 95 
 
 ElN GOTT. 
 
 1 . Das 1st der Weg der alte wohlbekannte, 
 
 Auf dem die Gotter selbst das Licht erblickten, 
 Auf ihm sollst reif auch du geboren werden, 
 Du darfst nicht anderswie der Mutter Tod seyn. 
 
 INDRA. 
 
 2. Das thu ich nicht, das ist ein iibles Schliipfen, 
 
 Querdurch will ich, will durch die Hiifte gehen, 
 IS'och manches nie gethane werde ich thun : 
 Mit diesen kampfen und mit jenen Freund sein. 
 
 THE POET SPEAKS. 
 
 3. He looked upon his mother, saw her dying 
 
 " That word I now recall, go as thou biddest I " 
 In Twastar's house drank Indra then of soma, 
 The precious golden liquid filled the beaker. 
 
 4. What first will he accomplish whom his mother 
 
 Bore for a thousand months and years unnumbered ! 
 With this great deity can none be evened, 
 None e'er was born like him, none ever will be. 
 
 5. And yet his mother deemed him small, concealed him, 
 
 Him, Indra, dowered e'en then with might heroic, 
 Then burst he forth, arrayed in his own vesture, 
 Just born, his stature filled both earth and heaven. 
 
 6. With cheerful. mutterings flow on these rivers, 
 
 Conversing cheerfully like holy women. 
 Ask them what they so merrily are saying 
 Is it that they burst through the rocky barrier ? 
 
 7. Is it with greetings that the streams salute him ? 
 
 Or words of scorn do they address to Indra ? 
 It was my son set free all these rivers, 
 
 When with a mighty blow he smote the Vritra. 
 
 8. At first thou fleddest from thy youthful mother, 
 
 Then swallowed thee the Kushava, wide-flowing. 
 But the young branch was favoured by the waters, 
 And Indra rose endued with boundless power. 
 
 9. And there thine enemy, Vyansa, smote thee 
 
 A fearful blow upon the jaw, thou mighty. 
 Unaided thou didst achieve the victory 
 
 And with thy mace didst crush the head of demons.
 
 96 HYMNS TO INDEA. 
 
 10. The young cow bore the strong, the swift, the mighty, 
 
 The conquering bull, unconquerable Indra. 
 She left her calf unlicked alone to wander, 
 But he at once his own way made unerring. 
 
 11. Then turned herself to her high son the mother, 
 
 " My son, the gods leave thee alone in peril." 
 And Indra spoke luirling the thong at Vritra, 
 Fiend Vishnu, stand aside ; thou art a hindrance. 
 
 NOTES ON IV. 18. 
 
 In the third verse I follow Grassmann's translation : it is open to 
 doubt, but, as it seems to me, follows the Sanskrit text very closely. 
 Roth looks on the verse as misplaced ; but the meaning is tolerably clear. 
 Immediately after his birth Indra imbibes the soma offered to him by 
 Twastar, and takes place among the great deities. 
 
 Ver. 4. The preternaturally long gestation refers to the length of time 
 that elapsed before Indra was recognised as a god. 
 
 Ver. 5. This refers to old legends : Mother Earth shrunk from the 
 storm, but the furious god burst forth, filling the world with his own 
 lightnings and terrific thunderings. 
 
 Ver. 6. By a sudden transition the poet turns to the rivers. Hitherto 
 their course, as we have seen, had been ordered by Varuna, but Indra now 
 claims to receive their allegiance. The burst of the thunderstorm broke 
 up the icy domain of Vritra, the demon who held them back, and Mother 
 Earth acknowledges the prowess of her new-born son. 
 
 Vers. 8 and 9 refer to legends which represent Indra as the object of 
 bitter enmity; the river god opposes him, but the waters themselves 
 favour the young deity, called, by a strange anticipation of scriptural 
 imagery, the. Branch. 
 
 (2) SELF-LAUDATION OF INDRA DRUNK WITH SOMA. 
 X. 119. 
 
 In the Sanskrit inscription this is called a soliloquy, and 
 is ascribed to a Eishi named Laba, son of Indra. I follow 
 generally the translation of A. Kaegi, ' 70 Lieder,' n. xxxiii. 
 with notes by Dr. Both.
 
 HYMNS TO INDRA. 97 
 
 1. As by a mighty rushing wind 
 I'm shaken by the potent drinks ; 
 Is it of soma that I drank ? 
 
 2. My soul is shaken by the drinks, 
 As a car dragged by rapid steeds. 
 Is it of soma that I drank ? 
 
 3. A suppliant's prayer hath reached my ear, 
 As a cow lowing to her calf. 
 
 Is it of soma that I drank ? 
 
 4. That prayer I turn it o'er and o'er, 
 Even as a driver turns his car. 
 
 Is it of soma that I drank ? 
 
 5. Hither and thither turns my will : 
 Shall I a bullock give or steed ? 
 
 Is it of soma that I drank ? 
 
 6. The five-fold race of mortal men * 
 Seem to me but as motes of dust. 
 Is it of soma that I drank ? 
 
 7. The two-fold world above, below, 
 Not half my stature seems to reach. 
 Is it of soma that I drank ? 
 
 8. Far higher than the lofty sky 
 
 And earth far-spreading I stand here. 
 Is it of soma that I drank ? 
 
 9. I move about and place the earth 
 Just as I will, or here or there. 
 Is it of soma that I drank ? 
 
 10. Both, in the twinkling of an eye, 
 Can I destroy, or here or there ! 
 Is it of soma that I drank ? 
 
 11. Half of my form the heaven fills, 
 The other half goes far beyond ! 
 Is it of soma that I drank ? 
 
 * I.e. according to Dr. Roth, the Aryans surrounded by four quarters 
 of the world. But, as Ludwig shows, the five nations, of which he gives 
 a list (Einl. p. 204), are repeatedly spoken of in the Nig Veda.
 
 98 HYMNS TO INDRA. 
 
 12. So vast my stature that the height 
 Of all the welkin I o'ertop. 
 
 Is it of soma that 1 drank ? 
 
 13. So go I homewards well endowed, 
 To share the offerings with the gods. 
 Is it that soma makes me drunk ? 
 
 This curious Eik surpasses in boldness the wildest flights of 
 Indo-Aryan fancy. The poet speaks as possessed by Indra, 
 and gives free expression to the exultation of the intoxicated 
 deity. The soma draught has the force of a hurricane ; under 
 its influence the god hears the prayers of his worshippers, 
 and, quite aware of their motives and wishes, considers how 
 he may best satisfy them. Then suddenly, like a true 
 drunkard, he turns to the contemplation of his own gran- 
 deur ; the race of men are as dust in his sight, heaven and 
 earth cannot contain him ; at his will they move about or 
 they perish. These wild thoughts do but embody the con- 
 ceptions of the later Kishis. As Varuna is the saviour, the 
 maintainer of order, so Indra is the personification of arbi- 
 trary force. The last verse is supposed by Grassmann to 
 have been taken from a hymn to Agni ; but the figure is at 
 once singularly bold and appropriate. Indra is, after all, a 
 social god, and having " filled his own belly," to use the lan- 
 guage of the Eig Veda (See Grassmann, W. E. V. s. w. 
 kuksi and jathara) is well content to take to his heaven 
 (Swarga) a share of the feasts for the gods who accept him 
 as their lord. 
 
 (3) THE PKOWESS OF INDRA. 
 
 From many hymns on this subject I select the following 
 composed by Vasishtha, the Eishi to whose incantations the 
 interposition of Indra was ascribed in the decisive victory 
 over the Dasvans.
 
 HYMNS TO INDRA. 
 VII. 19. 
 
 thou, who as a sharp-horned bull terrific, 
 Alone dost scatter all the hostile nations ! 
 
 The wealth of those who will not- bring thee presents, 
 Thou dost bestow upon the soma-giver ! 
 
 Thou, Indra, then didst greatly favour Kut$a, 
 Hearing his prayers, a present help in battle. 
 
 When thou, the Kuyava, the corn-despiser, 
 Didst give into the hand of Arjimeya. 
 
 Boldly thou, bold one, now hast holpen Sudas, 
 
 The genial offerer, with fullest favour, 
 The son of Puruhutsa Travadasyu, 
 
 Winning the field and slaughtering foes to Puru. 
 
 4. 
 Full many a foe by heroes thou, hero, 
 
 Didst slay carousing, Lord of golden horses ; 
 Sunken in sleep vile Cunumi and Dhimi 
 
 To Sabhiti an easy prey thou gavest. 
 
 5. 
 
 These are thy mighty deeds, thou lightning bearer ! 
 
 Some nine-and-ninety forts didst thou then capture, 
 All in one day, the hundredth too at even 
 
 And Vritra and Numutsah didst thou slaughter. 
 
 6. 
 These graces, Indra, thou of old hast granted, 
 
 Loving the gifts of Sudas thine adorer. 
 To thee 1 yoke these mighty steeds, O mighty ! 
 
 Great is thy strength, let prayers add to thy forces 
 
 7. 
 In this sore need, Lord of the golden horses, 
 
 Give us not over to the evil-doer : 
 Shield us with thy protection, foe-averting ; 
 
 Let us ho dear to thee as noble givers. 
 
 li 2
 
 100 HYMNS TO INDRA. 
 
 Beloved, and by thee, mighty Lord, protected, 
 Let us be counted as thy friends, rejoicing. 
 
 Down to the ground bring Turvasha the Yadu, 
 Conferring honour on the Atithigiva. 
 
 9. 
 
 So to thee, mighty, this day in thy presence 
 
 The skilful songsters also uttered praises ; 
 Invoking thee we drive away the greedy, 
 
 So to thy fellowship do thou elect us. 
 
 10. 
 
 These hymns of heroes, thou mightiest hero, 
 Addressed to thee bring unto us rich treasures 
 
 Be thou our saviour in the deadly conflict, 
 A friend, a hero, helper of thy heroes. 
 
 11. 
 
 Now Indra, hero, object of these praises, 
 
 Moved by our prayer to aid, be strong in body. 
 
 Treasure and household grant in fullest measure. 
 Ye gods, protect us ever with your blessing. 
 
 NOTES ON VII. 19. 
 
 This poem abounds in obscure allusions, but sets forth the characteristics 
 of Indra, as conceived by Vasishtha, with remarkable vigour. 
 
 Ver. 2. The proper names in this and in the 8th verse allude to historical 
 facts, of which we have frequent notices in poems of this epoch. Atithigiva 
 is probably an appellation ; it means one who comes as a guest. The Kuyava 
 is held to be the name of a demon, but, as usual, it designates a hostile 
 chieftain, called a despiser of cornfields, probably after a foraging incursion. 
 
 In ver. 3 Trasadasyu lit. one who is a terror to the Dasyus, i.e. the 
 native tribes is the father of Suda. 
 
 In ver. 4 the two names, as Ludwig has shown, certainly refer to native 
 chiefs. 
 
 Ver. 7. The mighty steeds are the hymns themselves, which are 
 supposed to bring Indra to the field of battle. 
 
 Ver. 10. The greedy. The Sanskrit is pani, which appears to be a 
 designation of barbarians, or of Aryans who withhold offerings. 
 
 Ver. 12. The last line is the usual refrain in hymns by Vasishtha.
 
 HYMNS TO INDRA. 101 
 
 (4) CONTEST BETWEEN INDRA AND VARUNA. 
 
 The struggle for pre-eminence between Varuna and Indra, 
 recorded in the 4th Mandala by Vamadeva, the author of the 
 2nd hymn to Varuna, has been cited and explained in the 
 preceding essay, p. 18, &c. 
 
 (5) ISSUE OF THIS RIVALRY. 
 
 x. 124. 
 
 This strange poem, notwithstanding its obscurity, is of the 
 highest importance, as representing the state of religious 
 feeling towards the close of the Vedic period. Grassmann 
 gives the following preface to his translation, vol. ii p. 401. 
 
 " The dominion of Varuna is transferred to Indra. 
 
 " The contest between Varuna and Indra, set before us in 
 the E. V. iv. 42 (see above, p. 18), is here, in accordance with 
 later Indian views (Anschauung), decided altogether in favour 
 of Indra; and Varuna, originally the father of the whole 
 world, the living, highest god, the Asura (ver. 3), is here 
 degraded to the state of a subordinate, nay almost demoniacal 
 deity, and seems almost set on a level with Vritra. Agni, 
 who in ver. 1 is called forth by the singers from darkness, 
 declares (ver. 24) that he has forsaken Varuna, and given 
 himself altogether to the service of Indra. Indra himself 
 declares (ver. 5) to Varuna his own supremacy, and calls 
 upon Soma (ver. 6) to join him in smiting Vritra, who appears 
 thus to be closely united with Varuna. In v. 7, 8, the poet 
 describes the result of the struggle." 
 
 1. 
 
 THE OFFICIATIHQ PRIEST INVOKES AGKI. 
 O Agni, come to this our offering ! 
 
 With fivefold, threefold, sevenfold forms of worship,* 
 Conduct our ritual, be thou our leader 1 
 
 Far, far too long hast thou remained in darkness. 
 
 * Allusions to ritual observances of which the meaning is not known. 
 
 [Agni,
 
 102 HYMNS TO INDRA. 
 
 2. 
 
 AGNI. ANSWERS THE INVOCATION. 
 
 In godless darkness I, a God, long hidden 
 Now come to you, the life immortal seeing. 
 
 The gracious God I now forsake ungracious, 
 For my own friend an alien God adopting. 
 
 3. 
 
 Now looking at the guest of other Aryans 
 I have passed over many .a place of worship : 
 
 I bid farewell to the Asurian Father, 
 
 A worshipped God for an unworshipped choosing. 
 
 4. 
 Long years have I devoted to his service, 
 
 Now choosing Indra I forsake the Father ; 
 With Soma I from Varuna am parted, 
 
 The kingdom is transferred ; that see I clearly. 
 
 So speaking, with a clear perception of the noble and 
 gracious attributes of the old object of Aryan worship, 
 conscious of his own ingratitude, Agni, the faithless fire-god, 
 gives up one who is no longer entertained by devout wor- 
 shippers as a divine guest, and turns to Indra in company 
 with Soma. Such was the downward, degrading movement 
 of Indo- Aryan superstition. 
 
 Then comes forward Indra himself, and exclaims : 
 
 5. 
 These Asuras are now bereft of ppwer ! 
 
 And thou, Varuna, must seek my favour ! 
 king, discerning clearly right and unright, 
 
 Come to my realm, in me thy sovereign owning ! 
 
 6. 
 Here is the heaven ! Here alone all beauty ! 
 
 Here the bright light ! Here is the boundless welkin ! 
 Come, Soma, here will we o'erpower Vritra, 
 
 And honour thee, our drink, with full libations. 
 
 Agni, sacrificial fire, is born as a God, so to speak, when sparks are 
 elicited by friction according to formal rites ; until then he is latent, in 
 the womb of darkness.
 
 HYMNS TO INDKA. 103 
 
 So ends the triumphant chant of the Thunderer; he is 
 content to welcome Varuna as a dethroned monarch, hence- 
 forth his vassal. His triumph is warmly applauded by the 
 poet, who, speaking in his own person, now adds : 
 
 7. 
 The wise hath by his wisdom won the heaven, 
 
 And helpless Varuna sets free the waters.* 
 And now the streams, like women bright and lovely, 
 
 Bear Indra's colours, peace and joy bestowing. 
 
 8. 
 They follow now the misjht supreme of Indra ; 
 
 He dwells in them ; they dance in joyous measure. 
 As subjects choosing him their king and master, 
 
 They have abandoned Varuna, the Vritra. 
 
 Another verse follows in the Sanskrit, which Grassmann 
 rejects as spurious ; without adopting that judgment I omit 
 it, as extremely obscure, and as weakening the effect of the 
 poet's declaration. 
 
 * This identifies Varuna with the Vritra of the preceding verse. The 
 special function of the demons hostile to the Aryans was shutting up the 
 sources of the great rivers of the Punjaub. In the last verse of this Rig 
 the identification is proclaimed. It must be remembered that the govern- 
 ment of rivers had always been recognised as peculiarly resting with 
 Varuna, the Lord of order. See above, ii. 28, 4 ; p. 94.
 
 THE PERSIAN CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 
 
 AND 
 
 THE ZEND AVESTA. 
 
 IN the preceding Essay I attempted to show the real bearings 
 of the Kig Veda, by far the most ancient documents of the 
 Indo-Aryans, upon questions of transcendent importance 
 connected with the development of the human spirit, more 
 especially with the fundamental doctrines of religious truth. 
 I have now a task of no less difficulty and importance, which 
 has for many years occupied my attention, and for which 
 exceedingly valuable help has been lately supplied by the 
 labours of eminent scholars. I have to examine the earliest 
 and the most trustworthy documents, from which we may 
 learn the true state of social and political development, and 
 of religious principles, in that branch of the great Aryan 
 family which, after the separation of the Indo-Aryans, 
 remained in possession of their old abodes. The Eranians 
 and the Indo-Aryans, more closely connected by language 
 and habits than any other families of the race, together with 
 abundant indications of original unity have severally their 
 special characteristics. While the latter have evinced a 
 peculiar activity of mind and feeling, modifying the primi- 
 tive truths which for a time they undoubtedly retained 
 by a series of processes, which demand the closest attention 
 and combined efforts of scholars to comprehend and eluci-
 
 106 THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 date, the former, the Eranians, appear to me to have retained 
 these truths for ages in a far purer and more complete state, 
 and to have left records which enable careful inquirers to 
 distinguish between the original principles and the super- 
 stitious accretions by which in process of time they were 
 gradually obscured and finally superseded. 
 
 In this inquiry we have to deal with two sets of docu- 
 ments, each of which has peculiar claims upon consideration ; 
 each of which has been brought within the last few years 
 within the reach of European scholars. 
 
 Of these two the Persian cuneiform inscriptions have one 
 very special advantage. Of all early documents of the Aryan 
 race they are the first, the only ones properly speaking, which 
 are absolutely contemporaneous with the events which they 
 describe. They are the only ones of which the date is 
 fixed, not open to question, not admitting doubt. Whatever 
 judgment we may ultimately form of the value and the 
 bearings of their contents, the Inscriptions of the Achse- 
 menidse, of which the most considerable are those of Behistun, 
 unquestionably present in a simple, perfectly intelligible 
 form, the very words used by the great sovereign who 
 stands next to Cyrus in the estimation of all competent 
 judges. In studying these inscriptions therefore we are 
 on sure ground. No question of real importance remains 
 undecided, whether we look at the decipherment or tran- 
 scription of the characters, or the meaning of the statements, 
 or the language in which those statements are conveyed. 
 
 In each of these points the Persian inscriptions hold a 
 very foremost place among the records of the past; in 
 extent they are unequalled by. any series of Greek inscrip- 
 tions, in clearness they are far superior to any Egyptian 
 inscriptions ; and, above all, in their presentation of religious 
 truths they are singularly free from vague, mystical, and 
 -superstitious notions.
 
 THE AVESTA. 107 
 
 The second set of documents to which I have called 
 attention in the heading of this Essay, stands on very 
 different grounds. Like the inscriptions, the Zend A vesta, 
 of which I now speak, has been but very lately discovered 
 and interpreted; but, unlike the inscriptions, no portion, 
 in its actual form, is contemporary with its contents ; the 
 characters in which it is written are undoubtedly some 
 centuries later than the work itself. Nor, again, is it either 
 complete or uniform ; it is admitted to be fragmentary, and 
 its different portions belong to different ages, were produced 
 under different circumstances, and present developments or 
 corruptions of primitive truths avowedly or demonstrably 
 unlike. Between the most ancient and the latest portions 
 there is a wide chasm, and even when we examine those 
 which are undoubtedly the most ancient, we find traces of 
 internal incoherence : we have in fact before us, even in that 
 part of the work, a composite, heterogeneous product of reli- 
 gious thought. 
 
 But, on the other hand, all sound critics recognise the 
 substantial value, the immense importance of the whole 
 collection. From the most ancient portions we learn truths, 
 corroborated by the unquestionable attestation of the inscrip- 
 tions, which throw a powerful light upon the earliest con- 
 victions of our own race. From the other portions we derive 
 information, open indeed to grave question, and demanding 
 the utmost care, but of the deepest interest, concerning the 
 various influences, external or internal, by which funda^- 
 mental doctrines, always recognised, were modified or dis- 
 figured. My chief object in this Essay is to bring out these 
 points distinctly, and, notwithstanding the numerous and 
 obvious hindrances in the way of all cautious inquirers, I 
 feel little doubt as to the results, for, whatever may be the 
 defects, shortcomings, or errors in point of detail, I feel quite 
 certain both as to the facts of primary importance and to the
 
 108 THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 conclusions to which they point. The facts, indeed, on which 
 I rely most confidently, stand out with great distinctness in 
 the writings both of those who agree with me, and of those 
 who differ from me in fundamental principles. 
 
 I may here observe that, much as has been done for the 
 interpretation and criticism of the Zend Avesta, far more 
 must be done, and thoroughly done, before a translation and 
 interpretation can be produced which will satisfy the de- 
 mands of critical inquirers. Vast fields of research are still 
 open to inquirers. The results may materially affect the 
 grammar, language, and other external features of the Zend 
 Avesta; but if I am not greatly mistaken, they will but 
 confirm and elucidate the principles which throughout this 
 Essay I have maintained as of paramount importance, and 
 as resting upon sure foundations. 
 
 I will now proceed to examine the chief bearings of the 
 inscriptions upon questions touching the language, social 
 and political institutions, above all upon the religious prin- 
 ciples of the old Eranians. But, inasmuch as the facts 
 touching the discovery itself, and the processes by which it 
 was brought to bear upon these questions, are not generally 
 known, and have been either ignored or misrepresented by 
 influential writers, I will first endeavour to give a brief 
 account of the labours of those to whom we are chiefly 
 indebted for the results. 
 
 The Persian inscriptions first made known to Europeans 
 were those found on the ruins, especially on the palaces, of 
 Persepolis. In the year 1618 a brief description of the ruins, 
 with a copy of some of the principal inscriptions, was published 
 by a Spaniard, Don Garcia de Sylva Figuera. In the year 
 1623 a learned Italian, Pietro della Valle, made the first 
 advance towards the decipherment. He held, and was right 
 in that opinion, that the inscriptions were written from left 
 to right: this was a step of real importance, inasmuch as it
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE INSCRIPTIONS. 109 
 
 pointed to an origin of the characters independent of Phoeni- 
 cian or Semitic influences. It is well known that all 
 branches of the Semitic or Semito-Hamitic race adopted from 
 the beginning the reverse process, reading from right to left, 
 whereas all Aryan languages agree with the inscriptions, and 
 read from left to right. When I say all Aryan languages, I 
 refer of course to those which were not committed to writing 
 under Semitic influence. The Zend of the Avesta and its 
 descendants, the Pehlevi, the Parsi, and modern Persian, 
 stand out as the solitary exceptions to the general rule ; an 
 exception of considerable importance, as showing the com- 
 plete independence of the two forms of writing with whick 
 we are at present concerned. 
 
 Niebuhr, the illustrious father of the great Eoman historian, 
 in the year 1725, first brought full and accurate copies of the 
 principal inscriptions from Persepolis.* He also ascertained 
 several points of considerable importance. He proved (1) 
 that Delia Valle was right as to the direction of the charac- 
 ters; (2) that the inscriptions formed three distinct groups 
 with different combinations of one character, representing 
 either an arrow-head, or a wedge from which the word cunei- 
 form has its origin ; (3) that in the first group an inclined 
 wedge (^ ) occurs at frequent but irregular intervals ; (4) a 
 point of singular interest he proved that in the first group, 
 the Persian, the combinations of arrow-heads or wedges form 
 
 * Niebuhr's account of Persepolis occupies between thirty and forty 
 pages of the second volume of his 'Travels in Arabia.' The French 
 translation was published in 1780. It has several plates, with a ground- 
 plan of the palace, a general view of the ruins, figures from the walls and 
 monuments, and copies of inscriptions in two tables, xxiv. and xxxi. In 
 Table xxiii. Niebuhr gives a complete list of characters in the groups 
 which have since been ascertained to be written in the old Persian lan- 
 guage. I must add that his transcription is so accurate that the merest 
 tyro in this department of study reads them without encountering ob- 
 structions such as often impede him in later v/orks.
 
 110 DISCOVERY AND 
 
 forty-two distinct characters, which he represents in the 
 twenty-third table of his work ; and (5) in the second 
 group, afterwards ascertained to contain the Median or Medo- 
 Scythian inscriptions, he made out about one hundred, and in 
 the third group, the Assyrian, far more numerous combina- 
 tions of the primitive wedge. 
 
 That great traveller- thus supplied positive data for subse- 
 quent inquiries ; each of his observations has been confirmed 
 by later investigations. Nor was their importance or practi- 
 cal value impaired by the supposition, soon found to be 
 erroneous, that one language was represented by different 
 characters in the three groups. 
 
 At present we look at his work with wonder ; nor for my 
 own part do I doiibt, that had Niebuhr had opportunity to 
 apply the results of these discoveries to the inscriptions at 
 Behistun, he would have anticipated later critics, and found 
 the clue to their decipherment in the name Darius, which 
 occurs in every clause, and in a position which indicates 
 the supreme dignity of the sovereign who speaks. 
 
 De Sacy and Tychsen then pursued the inquiry, the former 
 with small results ; he made out a list of twelve combinations, 
 representing, as he held, letters of the alphabet, of which, 
 
 however, two only (YYT = a and tj = b) turned out to be 
 correct. Tychsen, however, ascertained one point of real 
 importance. He held, and that rightly, that the oblique 
 arrow-head (A ) marked the separation of words. 
 
 This separation in fact constitutes a distinctive and valu- 
 able characteristic of these inscriptions. It is found with 
 but one exception, so far as I am aware, that of the famous 
 Moabite stone only in these old Persian inscriptions and in 
 the Zend Avesta. It is of immense value, and if, as seems 
 probable, it was a Persian invention, it is an additional proof 
 of the linguistic capacity of the Eranians.
 
 INTERPRETATION OP THE INSCRIPTIONS. Ill 
 
 In the beginning of the present century the first practical 
 application of these discoveries was made. 
 
 In the year 1802, Grotefend, a Professor at Gqttingen, first 
 deciphered the groups containing the royal title, Khshaya- 
 thiya, and the names Darius and Xerxes. 
 
 Had Grotefend then known the old Aryan languages, the 
 Sanskrit and the Zend, he might have followed up this dis- 
 covery, and applied the characters thus discovered to the 
 decipherment and interpretation of other words. But Sir 
 William Jones and the great scholars who acted with him 
 had not at that time discovered the old Indo-Aryan language, 
 absolutely unknown as yet to Europeans. Grotefend was 
 fully conscious of the .limits then imposed upon his investi- 
 gations. He did not profess to deal with the interpretation, 
 content with the clue thus ascertained to the decipherment of 
 the characters. This fact is distinctly stated by Heeren, who 
 observes in the first volume of his well-known work (' Ideen/ 
 &c., p. 362) that the merit of Grotefend's discovery was fully 
 recognised in England.* 
 
 The practical value of this discovery is somewhat overrated 
 by Spiegel. It did not, and could not in fact, lead to sub- 
 stantial results until the laws of the language in which the 
 inscriptions were written were ascertained. 
 
 In the year 1836, however, two great Aryan scholars, 
 F. Lassen, at Bonn in Germany, and Eugene Burnouf in 
 France, simultaneously made out a complete alphabet. To 
 this they were led by the researches of Westergaard, a scholar 
 profoundly versed in old Aryan literature,! who published 
 
 * Grotefend's own account of his proceedings is given in the same 
 volume, pp. 325-361. The alphabet which Grotefend proposed is pub- 
 lished by Spiegel, in the second edition of his ' Die Pereischen Keilin- 
 schriften,' p. 131 ; but of thirty letters which he suggested five or six only 
 are correct. 
 
 t Well known as the editor of the Avesta, as author of the ' Radices 
 Sanscritsp,' and of other works of standard value.
 
 112 DISCOVERY AND INTERPRETATION. 
 
 accurate copies of the inscriptions on the tomb of Darius at 
 Nakhshi Rustem, in the neighbourhood of Persepolis.* 
 
 But in the meantime, and in complete independence of 
 these investigations, an immense advance, far beyond all 
 anticipations of Europeans, had been made by our own 
 countryman, Sir Henry, then Major, Rawlinson. 
 
 Already familiar with Sanskrit, which first gave the clue to 
 problems which for ages had baffled the efforts of scholars, 
 especially those who were concerned with questions of philo- 
 logy directed to the structure, characteristic features, and 
 mutual relations of languages used by classic and Aryan 
 antiquity, as also by Teutonic, Slavonic, and Celtic races 
 guided also by the certainty that in every language used by 
 an Aryan people the same roots would be found, the same 
 general laws recognised familiar moreover, as few Europeans 
 then were, with the modern Persian, which still retains roots, 
 words, and idiomatic forms used by their ancestors f Major 
 Eawlinson applied his powerful and discriminating mind to 
 the unravelment of what we may fairly call the mystery of 
 Central Asia. 
 
 Eawlinson had at that time the advantage of high official 
 position. His duties, as England's political agent at Bagdad, 
 brought him, in the year 1835, to Kermanshah, an old forti- 
 fied city of historical fame, in the immediate neighbourhood 
 
 * The alphabet so ascertained is given by Spiegel, 'Die Persischen 
 Keilinschriften,' 2nd ed. p. 142. 
 
 f Much has been since done for the elucidation of problems connected 
 with the Persian language. Excellent editions of Firdausi's Shahnameh 
 have been published, one in seven folio volumes by J. Mohl, and one, not 
 yet completed, by Professor Vullers of Bonn, who, in his ' Lexicon Persi- 
 cum Etymologicum,' and its supplement, the ' Radices Persicae,' has exa- 
 mined the derivation of Persian from old Aryan languages. Darmesteter 
 has lately published a work of great value, ' Etudes irane'ennes.' K. Geldner 
 and other scholars have articles in Kuhn's ' Zeitschrift ' in which sound 
 principles of criticism are advocated and deficiencies still noticeable are 
 pointed out.
 
 INSCRIPTIONS INTERPRETATION. 1 13 
 
 of which stands the rock of Behistun. On the side of that 
 rock, cut away with great care and skill so as to present a 
 level perpendicular surface of marble, and at a height of 
 300 feet, at once commanding the attention, and preventing 
 too near approach of passers-by, is found the long series of 
 inscriptions, like those of Persepolis in three distinct groups, 
 which up to that time had utterly baffled all attempts 
 of European scholars either to interpret or decipher them. 
 
 The general purport of the inscriptions is at once distinctly 
 indicated by the sculptures in deep relief which surmount 
 them. There a king, long since recognised as the great 
 Darius, stands, in the act of pronouncing sentence upon nine 
 persons, one prostrate at his feet, the others bound as captives 
 doomed to execution. Above the king floats in mid-air a 
 symbolic figure, supposed formerly to represent the Fravashi, 
 the spirit or tutelar genius of the king, but, as the inscriptions 
 prove, representing the sovereign and creator of the world, the 
 supreme and sole object of religious worship as the creator 
 and governor of the world, Ahuramazda. 
 
 When Eawlinson began his work, three words only in 
 these inscriptions had been deciphered,* Darius, Khsayathiya, 
 and Vistaspa. He copied at once the whole series, a work of 
 immense difficulty and labour. Had he done no more, had he 
 then transmitted the copies of the inscriptions to Europe, we 
 may fairly admit the probability that scholars so energetic 
 and clear-sighted as Lassen and E. Burnouf, having already a 
 complete alphabet, with all the advantages of combined efforts 
 in the learned world of Europe, men to whom Sanskrit, Zend, 
 and all other great representatives of Aryan languages were 
 familiar as their own vernacular tongues, would soon have 
 found the true interpretation of the first group, written as we 
 
 * Rask however had deciphered the name Achsemenes, but that had 
 not reached Rawlinson, nor would it have helped him in his interpretation 
 of the inscriptions. 
 
 I
 
 114 INSCRIPTIONS INTERPRETATION. 
 
 have seen in the old Persian language ; but I find no ground 
 for the assertion, common in the mouths of German and 
 French scholars, that these eminent philologers have a 
 common or equal right to the distinction of discoverers. 
 Eawlinson anticipated all discoveries. He made out at once 
 four names, Arshama, Ariamenes, Teispes, and Achsemenes, 
 thus adding new and important characters to the alphabet. At 
 Teheran, in the year 1846, he first learned what European 
 scholars had already achieved; and with the help thus 
 supplied, which can scarcely be appreciated too highly, he 
 pursued his investigations into the meaning of the in- 
 scriptions. 
 
 The principal help was derived from the great work of 
 Eugene Burnouf, entitled Yacna.* It was indeed a marvellous 
 work ; incomplete as it was, it brought out distinctly the true 
 character, the structure, grammar, and etymology of the 
 Avesta, bringing in fact the whole of that extraordinary work 
 within the scope of scientific research. Of other bearings of 
 his labours I shall have to speak presently ; here I must 
 pause to repeat, that while the fame of a great discoverer, un- 
 rivalled for insight, learning, and sound judgment, belongs 
 in a peculiar sense to Eugene Burnouf inasmuch as but for 
 his labours the contents of the Avesta would probably have 
 remained, as they had for ages remained, matter of doubtful 
 and controversial speculation yet the assertion that the 
 application of the principles thus ascertained to the interpre- 
 tation of the inscriptions was made by Burnouf and Lassen, 
 though often made or suggested as a well-known fact, rests 
 on no foundation that I can discover; the merit of that 
 
 * 'Yacna,' i.e. book of ritual, or religious forms, is the title of one 
 division of the Avesta, the first in Westergaard's edition, the third in that 
 of Spiegel. E. Burnouf s work was never finished. It extends only to 
 the first .chapter of the Yacna, and does not include the most difficult and 
 important portion of the division, that which contains the Gathas.
 
 INSCRIPTIONS INTERPRETATION. 115 
 
 application in the case of the vast body of inscriptions 
 belongs to Eawlinson, and to him alone. 
 
 This, however, I am most willing to admit. In the work 
 of E. Burnouf, Rawlinson found a full and most satisfactory 
 exemplification of the method which alone can lead to 
 permanent results in this field of labour. He learned from 
 Burnouf to analyse the inscriptions letter by letter, word by 
 word, sentence by sentence ; at once to use the resources of 
 Aryan languages and to guard against the abuse; in other 
 words, to accept or apply the roots and the combinations 
 which can be positively ascertained, but in every case to . 
 determine the precise meaning and bearing of the words 
 and sentences in the inscriptions by reference to Eranian 
 authorities, to local or national usage, with due regard to 
 traditional interpretation extant in later Pehlevi or Parsi 
 translations, or in that of Neriosing in Sanskrit. 
 
 Here I may observe, that the observance or neglect of these 
 sound principles constitutes a distinct line of demarcation 
 between philologers of two great schools. On the one hand 
 scholars, among whom Spiegel and Justi hold a foremost 
 rank, are accused, somewhat unfairly, of attaching too great 
 value to tradition. On the other hand, scholars conspicuous 
 for learning and ingenuity are apt to disregard it altogether 
 and to rest entirely on conclusions drawn from ancient 
 Sanskrit, especially from Vedic literature. Whatever may be 
 said of either school, one thing is clear. Eugene Burnouf 
 held firmly the true medium, and is still the safest guide in 
 applying all resources to the elucidation of the manifold and 
 intricate problems presented in the oldest Eranian documents. 
 In the year 1846 the results of Rawlinson's labours were 
 published in the tenth volume of the Journal of the Eoyal 
 Asiatic Society. 
 
 There we have (1) an engraving of that part of the rock of 
 Behistun which contains the inscriptions, and a sketch which 
 shows distinctly the position of each inscription. 
 
 I 2
 
 116 INSCRIPTIONS INTERPRETATION. 
 
 The style and execution of these drawings leave much to 
 be desired. The figures are evidently taken from a somewhat 
 inartistic sketch by Major Eawlinson. Kossowicz gives a 
 better, if not a more correct view of the mountain and of the 
 inscriptions in his very useful book, published in 1872.* 
 A correct photograph, or a drawing executed by a careful 
 artist, would be the best frontispiece to such an edition 
 of cuneiform inscriptions as ought to be produced in 
 England. 
 
 We have (2) a transcription of all the cuneiform in- 
 scriptions in six sheets, f 
 
 I must, however, observe that the form in which the 
 inscriptions are thus printed is extremely inconvenient. The 
 sheets must be unfolded one by one, a process which is some- 
 what irksome, and when unfolded they are an impediment to 
 the student who would compare them with the translitera- 
 tion in Eoman characters and the notes which occupy the rest 
 of the volume. Kossowicz presents them in a convenient 
 form, on some 70 pages, carefully arranged and of course pro- 
 perly numbered. The reader of the ' Asiatic Journal ' would 
 do well to make a copy of the inscriptions for his own use, a 
 
 * ' Inscriptiones Palajo-Persic* AchEemenidarum,' by Dr. Cajetanus 
 Kossowicz. See pp. 8, 9, 10 for the representations of the Rock of 
 Behistun. The sketch of the figures on p. 46 is taken from Rawlinson. 
 
 t I must here call special attention to the accuracy and completeness 
 of this most important part of Rawlinson's work. On comparing it with 
 the beautiful copy printed in Kossowicz's edition, I do not hesitate to 
 assert that it is superior in the rare but indispensable quality of exact- 
 ness. In Kossowicz there are frequent errors, of little importance to a 
 scholar and easily corrected from the transliteration in Roman characters, 
 but perplexing to a beginner ; and considering that every scholar, however 
 learned he may be in the languages needed for such a study, has to make 
 out the inscriptions for himself, minute accuracy cannot be regarded as a 
 matter of secondary importance. Even in the very small number of 
 cuneiform characters in Spiegel's second edition of the ' Keilinschriften,' 
 errors occur which ought not to have escaped the notice of the learned 
 editor. Rawlinson's copies appear to me to be singularly free from such 
 faults.
 
 INSCRIPTIONS INTERPRETATION. 117 
 
 good and useful exercise for a young scholar ; but it may be 
 fairly expected that a new edition will preclude the waste of 
 time and trial of patience involved by such an expedient. 
 In such an edition the cuneiform characters ought to be 
 printed line by line as they stand on the rock, and if the con- 
 venience of the reader be consulted---with a transcription in 
 Eoman characters, on an opposite page, and a literal trans- 
 lation below. Spiegel indeed eludes the difficulty by omitting 
 the cuneiform characters altogether. The reader has his 
 transliteration with the translation opposite. This of course 
 saves time and trouble, not to speak of the great saving of 
 expense. But it involves a serious disadvantage. The 
 reader loses the opportunity of becoming familiar with the 
 original characters, a point of some importance in studying 
 any foreign, especially any oriental language, but of especial 
 importance in the case of these inscriptions. By no other 
 process can he learn duly to appreciate the singular ingenuity 
 and beauty of the original. These inscriptions prove that 
 the Persians, at a very early period, invented a system wholly 
 free from the encumbrances and ambiguities of the Assyrian 
 inscriptions, clear of polyphones, homophones, ideographs, and 
 far superior in the essential conditions of simplicity and 
 distinctness to the Medo-Scythian, or Accadian inscriptions 
 a system which under their skilful management presents a 
 moderate number of characters, not much in excess of the 
 Semitic, derived by a similar process from the Egyptian, and 
 introduces the singularly useful separation of words by a 
 mark which precludes the confusion and ambiguity which 
 perplex the reader of ancient Greek and Phoenician in- 
 scriptions. There is a still more serious objection to the process 
 of transliteration. As a substitute for exact transcription, it 
 involves the assumption of points open to discussion, not 
 definitely settled, and resting upon the authority, often 
 unsupported, of the editor. This indeed is not the case with
 
 118 INSCRIPTIONS INTERPRETATION. 
 
 languages in which, as is the case in Sanskrit and Zend, 
 vowels as well as consonants, and all modifications of sound, 
 are fully represented ; but when, as in Old Persian, characters 
 are partly syllabic, partly alphabetic, or as Spiegel represents 
 them, sometimes one, sometimes the other; when moreover 
 sounds are assumed to have been used which are not re- 
 presented at all ; however probable the assumption may be, 
 it is evident that such transliteration imposes the editor's 
 views upon the reader, and settles doubtful questions in 
 accordance with them. I hold therefore that transliteration 
 in Koman characters should be adopted simply as a help to 
 the reader, but not substituted for the original characters.* 
 
 Eawlinson then gives us a transcript in Roman characters, 
 and a literal translation, thus presenting the general results 
 of his labour in a form easily accessible and remarkably 
 complete. He also gives a second translation, adhering care- 
 fully to the meaning, but avoiding the harshness and ob- 
 scurity inevitable in renderings which disregard the idiomatic 
 peculiarities of the languages from which and in which the 
 translation is made. 
 
 We have, finally, a careful and complete examination of 
 every clause in every inscription. There are points on which 
 Spiegel and Kossowicz differ from Rawlinson and from 
 each other, and on which critics of different schools will pro- 
 bably continue to differ; but here it may suffice to observe 
 that all substantial results, nearly every point of importance, 
 must be regarded as fixed and settled in this first effort of 
 scholarship brought to bear upon questions of singular 
 intricacy and obscurity. I must add that these results 
 
 * I have elsewhere noticed the confusion which arises from modern 
 systems of transliteration in cases where there is no question as to the true 
 form of characters, as in Zend and Sanskrit. The student has to refer to 
 tables or to discussions such as are prefixed in some editions, under 
 penalty of error or waste of labour.
 
 INSCRIPTIONS INTERPRETATION. 119 
 
 are given by Eawlinson in a more accessible and convenient 
 form than by the two other editors. Spiegel has a com- 
 mentary detached from the text involving frequent inter- 
 ruptions ; Kossowicz gives foot-notes of varying length, 
 generally too meagre, under his transliteration; but while 
 Rawlinson gives a translation accompanying the translitera- 
 tion, thus anticipating the process adopted by Spiegel, 
 he supplies all that is needed for a thorough investigation 
 of disputed points. In the following year, in the eleventh 
 volume of the 'Asiatic Journal,' he published a complete 
 glossary. In this he is followed by both editors. He has 
 one great advantage over Kossowicz, inasmuch as he has 
 full references ; but as he does not, like Spiegel, give us a 
 separate treatise on the grammar, he uses the glossary as an 
 opportunity of discussing many considerable points. It is, 
 however, evident that if Sir Henry Eawlinson, or any great 
 scholar under his superintendence, produces a new edition, 
 worthy of his reputation and of England, a separate and 
 prominent place should be assigned to this most important 
 department of the whole subject. 
 
 Looking generally at these results we feel it due to this 
 sagacious, energetic, and indefatigable critic to press upon the 
 attention of his countrymen and of all scholars interested in 
 these studies, the peculiar claims which he has upon their 
 gratitude. I have noted with surprise, not to say indignation, 
 the scanty, as it would seem reluctant, acknowledgment of 
 his work by scholars whose attainments and achievements 
 might have sufficed to save them from unworthy feelings of 
 jealousy. The discovery of the full purport of these inscrip- 
 tions belongs to him, if not absolutely alone, yet in a very 
 special and peculiar sense to him principally, and as regards 
 the completeness of the results, to him alone. It is in fact a 
 discovery which, regarding its bearings upon history, lan- 
 guage, and as we shall see, upon religious development, stands
 
 120 INSCRIPTIONS HISTORY. 
 
 among the foremost in an age remarkable for its achieve- 
 ments. It stands, if not on the same level, yet next in rank 
 and value to the discovery of Sanskrit, of the Pali and Zend 
 by Eugene Burnouf, and the unravelment of Egyptian hiero- 
 glyphics by Champollion and his followers, among whom 
 Lepsius and Brugsch in Germany, Chabas and De Kouge in 
 France, and in England Birch, Wycliffe Goodwin, and Le 
 Page Eenouf hold the foremost place. 
 
 Let us now inquire what science* in its widest sense has 
 gained, in what position literature now stands, in reference to 
 the bearings of the inscriptions upon three distinct points, 
 history, language, and religion. Of these points the third is 
 naturally to me the most interesting, but the other two are 
 in themselves highly important, and the results materially 
 affect questions connected with it. 
 
 HISTOEY. 
 
 The full discussion of this subject would occupy more time 
 and space than are now at my disposal. The main points, 
 however, stand out distinctly, and demand consideration. 
 
 We have in the first place an account of the circumstances 
 under which the immediate successor of Cambyses was put to 
 death, and the throne occupied by Darius. It must be borne 
 in mind that this is the official, formal, and contemporaneous 
 statement of the great king himself. The account corrobo- 
 rates that of Herodotus so far as regards the main facts j but 
 the details, which in Herodotus are evidently of a legendary 
 character, find no place in these inscriptions, and to some 
 
 * In French and German the words science and Wissenschaft are 
 properly used in speaking on any subject which deals with facts positively 
 ascertained, and results arranged in accordance with laws recognised as 
 ganeral or universal. The practical restriction of the term in England 
 to physics and mathematics is a serious eviL
 
 INSCRIPTIONS HISTORY. 121 
 
 extent they are scarcely compatible with the broad, clear, 
 statements of Darius. 
 
 Bardiya, as he is styled in these inscriptions, the Smerdis of 
 Herodotus, known to all as the brother of Cambyses, but, if we 
 may trust the Persian and Greek accounts, Gomata a Magian, 
 as Darius invariably calls him, assuming the style and title 
 of Bardiya, occupied the throne at once after the death of 
 Cambyses.* The account in the inscriptions occupies a con- 
 siderable space, from line 24 to 71. Darius first tells us that 
 Cambyses put his brother Bardiya to 'death, a thing not in 
 itself improbable ; but he adds a circumstance which is 
 certainly suspicious, that the death of the prince was not 
 known to the Persian army or people.f During the life of 
 Cambyses, the person claiming to be his brother headed an 
 open and successful revolt. Darius says that the whole 
 realm, Persia, Media, and the other provinces, went over to 
 him ; he at once occupied the throne and exercised an abso- 
 lute and uncontested dominion. Cambyses then committed 
 suicide, and the Pretender reigned, as Darius tells us, without 
 opposition, evidently without exciting any suspicion as to his 
 identity with Bardiya. He was supported, as it would seem, 
 by a powerful party, the Magi, not, however, Mazdean priests, 
 but a caste or noble race of Medians. Darius asserts that he 
 
 * The name Gomata is pure Aryan. In Sanskrit it means properly 
 keeper or possessor of cattle. 
 
 t The reading is doubtful and the word used by Darius, partly supplied 
 by conjecture, is far from sure. The words given below in italics are 
 all-important, and are not extant in the original text, which stands thus : 
 Kambrigiya Bardiyam avaja, karahy(a naiy 2)d& abava. The supple- 
 mental letters are well defended by Spiegel, but their authority is 
 materially affected by their absence from the original; and the word 
 (azda), which Sir H. Rawlinson suggested, is by no means certain as to 
 form or meaning. The Dictionaries of St. Petersburg, of Grassmann and 
 Burnouf render the Sanskrit word, with which it is assumed to be identical 
 in meaning (sc. addha), by " ftirwahr," " veritablement."
 
 122 INSCRIPTIONS HISTORY. 
 
 roused a spirit of antagonism, both by his systematic oppres- 
 sion of the Persian aristocracy, and by innovations in religion, 
 but that he was not openly " withstood either by Persians, or 
 Medians, or members of the family of AchsemenidaB, or by 
 the mass of the people." This account, with all its glaring 
 improbability, has been generally accepted by Occidental 
 writers. 
 
 We must, however, observe that no traces of this story are 
 found in the national traditions of the Eranians. According 
 to Firdausi (Shahnameh, vol. iv. in Mohl's edition) Cyrus 
 was succeeded by Lohrasp, and Lohrasp by Gustasp, a legen- 
 dary and untrustworthy account, which however proves that 
 the insurrection of an impostor and his death found no cre- 
 dence with the people, certainly formed no part of the 
 national traditions, nor is it mentioned by the early historians 
 of Arabia, as, for instance, Masudi,* who has confused and 
 legendary but not uninteresting notices of this period. 
 
 Darius then tells us that, by the grace of Ahuramazda, 
 with a few conspirators, he assailed the usurper and put him 
 and his principal supporters to death at Nisaya, a city of 
 Media. He declares that by that act he, Darius, restored to 
 his own family the sovereignty which properly belonged to 
 them. He says nothing which implies or, indeed, is recon- 
 cilable with the accounts in Herodotus of a contest among 
 the conspirators, much less of an artifice by which his own 
 election was secured. He claimed the throne as a matter of 
 right, and refers to no authority but that of Ahuramazda, 
 recognised by all as the supreme deity of the Eranians. He 
 speaks, moreover, of a restoration of the ancient religion, of 
 suppression of certain innovations introduced or favoured by 
 the impostor, and of the restitution of old forms of worship ; 
 statements which do not support the somewhat fanciful 
 
 * Macoudi, 'Des Prairies, d'Or,' torn. ii. c. xxi. ed. Meynard.
 
 INSCRIPTIONS HISTORY. 123 
 
 notions advocated by the Comte de Gobineau as to a sweep- 
 ing revolution effected by Darius, who attributes all his 
 measures to conservative principles, to a hearty recognition 
 of old truths obscured or superseded by the superstitions or 
 fanaticism of the Magians. 
 
 All these statements are of course open to objection, but 
 whatever weight may be attached to them they are at least 
 formal official declarations, and suggest the need and duty 
 of extreme caution in considering accounts given by a 
 foreigner, who, though incapable of inventing or falsifying 
 historical transactions, undoubtedly derived his information 
 from persons ill affected to the national dynasty, and 
 naturally disposed to give currency to such legends as we 
 find in Herodotus. 
 
 So far, however, we have no considerable addition to our 
 stock of probable or uncontested facts. Darius, claiming to 
 be nearest to the throne by royal descent, recognised as the 
 head of the Eranian aristocracy, to whatever cause his elec- 
 tion is to be attributed whether, as Herodotus tells us, to 
 superstition and fraud, or, as seems infinitely more probable, 
 to dynastic influences, or a well-founded belief in his personal 
 superiority stands out, at the epoch when these inscriptions 
 were set up, as the sole absolute sovereign of a realm ex- 
 tending from India to the Mediterranean, the western por- 
 tion comprising all the later conquests of Cyrus, from Egypt 
 to the North-East, extending over the whole of Central Asia, 
 with Chorasan as their centre, Media and Persia being the 
 chief abodes of national sovereignty.* 
 
 But what we did not know, what indeed could not be 
 inferred from sources previously within our reach, whether 
 Hellenic or Asiatic, is this : the accession of Darius was 
 immediately followed by a succession of outbreaks in all the 
 
 * See the enumeration of 23 countries, Beh. i. vi.
 
 124 INSCRIPTIONS HISTORY. 
 
 principal districts of the empire. The whole series of these 
 inscriptions is occupied by accounts of these insurrections, 
 and of the measures by which, after tremendous exertions 
 and bloody conflicts, they were finally suppressed. 
 
 The accession of Cyrus had been followed by disturbances 
 revolts they could scarcely be called which, yielding to 
 his force of character and transcendent abilities both as a 
 general and a statesman, issued in the permanent establish- 
 ment of his dominion. As the Khosru, or Hucrava,* of 
 Eranian tradition, the Kei Khosru of Firdausi, the Khoresh 
 of Isaiah, the Kvpos of the Greeks, conqueror of Assyria and 
 Lydia, hereditary prince of Persia and Media, maintaining 
 the oldest and noblest form of Eranian religion, a pure 
 monotheism uncontaminated by Scythian or fanatical super- 
 stitions, Cyrus ruled over powerful kingdoms ready and able 
 to resist aggressive innovations, but yielding willing obedience 
 to a hero universally recognised as one of the noblest per- 
 sonalities in the world's history. 
 
 But at the accession of Darius the elements of discord and 
 disturbance burst out in a succession of terrific storms. As 
 it would seem, each nationality in the complicated system 
 of the empire had some special injury to avenge, some 
 special rights to assert. 
 
 Susiana took the lead : the very district in which Susa, or 
 Shushan, the residence of Persian kings, was situate. A 
 native, Atrines son of Upadarma known only from these 
 inscriptions doubtless an Eranian noble of high rank, came 
 forward simply claiming the kingdom ; he was at once accepted 
 by the people, but was captured, as it would seem without a 
 struggle, and put to death. 
 
 This event must have warned Darius of serious disaffection 
 
 * In the Avesta Cyrus is always called Hucrava, exactly equivalent to 
 fi>K\(T)s, the illustrious; this is undoubtedly the original form of the 
 name.
 
 INSCRIPTIONS HISTORY. 125 
 
 among his nearest neighbours ; the suppression was probably 
 effected by Persian nobles who had taken part in the 
 slaughter of the Pseudo-Bardiya, and it may for the time have 
 consolidated his empire. 
 
 A longer and severer struggle followed. Babylonia, the last 
 of the conquests of Cyrus, revolted. Darius is unusually ex- 
 plicit in his account of this revolt and of the measures by 
 which it was suppressed. The leader, Naditabira, took the 
 name of Nebuchadnezzar ; he opposed Darius with a fleet on 
 the Tigris, who however forced the passage, advanced towards 
 Babylon, and after a severe conflict defeated Naditabira, 
 who took refuge in Babylon ; that city was afterwards cap- 
 tured by Darius, who put the rebel chief to death.* 
 
 But while the new king was thus occupied in the south- 
 west of the empire, other serious revolts burst out either 
 simultaneously or in rapid succession in the principal dis- 
 tricts. Darius (Beh. ii. 2) enumerates them in this order: 
 Persia, Susiana, Media, Assyria, Armenia (?), Parthia, Mar- 
 giana, Thatagush,f and Scythia. If, for Armenia, the reading 
 of the Medo-Scythian inscription be adopted, Egypt would 
 be included in the list : but Armenia is more probably cor- 
 rect. Egypt does not appear to have taken any part in the 
 movement. Susiana again took the lead, but the rebel chief 
 was at once captured by the natives and put to death; a 
 
 * Herodotus gives particulars, evidently legendary, of this expedition. 
 It is, however, clear that it occupied much time, and was completed after 
 a succession of desperate struggles. The account of Darius occupies 
 seventeen lines in the inscriptions. It is noticeable that the chiefs in 
 these revolts are simply said to have been slain. Atrines, unlike other 
 rebels, is not accused of lying pretensions. The Babylonian chief was 
 treated as a conquered enemy, not as a rebel. In both cases Darius uses 
 the word avajanam, I slew. 
 
 t Thatagush, perhaps the Sathagyda; of Herodotus, is probably iden- 
 tified with Cabulistan. The revolts are thus shown to have extended from 
 the remotest east to Armenia, and from the north to the extreme south.
 
 126 INSCRIPTIONS HISTORY. 
 
 revolt important chiefly as indicating the continuance of 
 disaffection in the centre of the empire. 
 
 Ear more important was the revolt of Media. It was 
 headed by Phraortes (Fravartish in the inscriptions), who 
 styled himself Khsathrita, a descendant of Cyaxares, the 
 Kai Kaus of Firdausi, regarded as the founder of the Median 
 empire. This was, strictly speaking, a Median dynastic 
 revolt. Darius says that it was supported by the native 
 population Scythian as would seem in origin implying 
 that the nobles, of Aryan or Eranian descent, sided with 
 himself. An army was sent by Darius under the command 
 of Vidarna, a noble Persian, one of the slayers of Gaumata, 
 who defeated the army of Phraortes and drove him from 
 the district, but was unable to put down the insurrection. 
 
 In the meantime Armenia revolted ; no leader is named. 
 This revolt was apparently national, but not dynastic, the 
 feeble effort of a semi- Aryan people to throw off the yoke of 
 Eran. A native chieftain, Dadarshish, fought three battles 
 against the insurgents, who however were not overpowered 
 until Darius sent a Persian general who defeated their army 
 and subdued the country. 
 
 Darius, now returning from Babylonia, undertakes in per- 
 son an expedition against Phraortes, who was defeated in a 
 pitched battle, but fled with a few attendants to Eagse, now 
 Eai, the ancient capital of Media. There he was at last 
 captured, and put to death as a traitor. His nose, ears, and 
 tongue were cut off, his eyes torn out, he was then exhibited 
 to the people at the gates of the palace, and afterwards 
 crucified or impaled at Ecbatana, where his chief supporters 
 were captured. 
 
 These proceedings show the importance which the king 
 attached to the insurrection of Media, and the difficulty with 
 which it was suppressed. 
 
 The revolts, however, still went on. Another chieftain,
 
 INSCRIPTIONS HISTORY. 127 
 
 declaring himself to be a descendant of Cyaxares, headed one 
 insurrection in Sagartia,* a central district of Eran. Darius 
 sent Persian and Median forces against him, captured him at 
 Arbira, arid inflicted upon him, as a traitor, the same igno- 
 minious and cruel death which had at once punished his 
 revolt and attested his importance. 
 
 There followed an insurrection of peculiar significance. The 
 Parthians and Hyrcanians, on the south-west of the Caspian 
 Sea, espoused the cause of Phraortes. They deserted 
 Vistaspa, the father of Darius, f who appears at that time to 
 have represented the imperial authority throughout the 
 north-eastern districts of Eran. Vistaspa is said to have in- 
 flicted a heavy blow upon the insurgents. The Assyrian 
 version of the inscriptions speaks of 6570 slain, and 4191 
 prisoners. The result, as stated by Darius, was the subjuga- 
 tion of Parthia. 
 
 Proceeding eastward we read of an insurrection in Mar- 
 giana, a rich district, of which Merv was the capital, one 
 of the earliest settlements of the Eranians (see Vendidad, 
 Fargard 1). Darius sent the Satrap of Bactria against the 
 insurgents, who were speedily defeated. 
 
 But Persia still retained its old feeling of animosity. 
 Another insurgent chieftain proclaimed himself as the true 
 Bardiya, brother of Cyrus, to the report of whose death no 
 
 * The name is supplied by the Medo-Scythian inscription. The 
 exact position of the district is disputed, hut Herodotus attests the 
 important fact that the natives spoke the Persian language, thus repre- 
 senting Eranian feelings. 
 
 f This name is of the highest importance. In all Eranian and Persian 
 legends, in the Avesta and in the Shahnameh, we find the name Gustasp, 
 identical with Vistaspa, but it is by them attributed to Darius himself, 
 who is declared to be the second in succession from Cyrus. As we shall 
 see, this Vistaspa, represented as an independent sovereign, is always 
 spoken of as the chief supporter of Zoroaster. The question is fully 
 discussed in the Essay on the Gfvthas.
 
 J28 INSCRIPTIONS HISTORY. 
 
 credence was evidently attached by the mass of the people ; 
 they at once forsook Darius and acknowledged this chieftain 
 as their king. A fierce struggle, or rather a series of struggles, 
 ensued. Darius had to bring the combined forces of Persia 
 and Media into action ; he then defeated the insurgent and 
 crucified him together with his principal followers. 
 
 This insurrection conclusively proves that the people of 
 the districts over which Darius had the strongest influence, 
 who were best qualified to judge as to the probability of the 
 statements made by the Persian aristocrats who acted with 
 Darius, utterly disbelieved the accounts of the death of 
 Bardiya, the Greek Smerdis, by the command of his brother. 
 A second revolt of the Babylonians followed, headed by an 
 Armenian, who assumed the name of Nebuchadnezzar; he 
 was recognised as king by the whole province, but a Median 
 noble, named Vindafra, the Greek 'Ivra^epv^, was sent by 
 Darius, who captured Babylon a second time and subdued 
 that important kingdom. 
 
 In another series of inscriptions (Beh. iv.) Darius states 
 summarily the result of these long and desperate struggles. 
 No less than nineteen battles were fought, nine insurgent 
 chieftains captured and slain. It is to be noted that Darius 
 calls each of them a king, implying that their several claims 
 were recognised by the people in each province. The rest of 
 this series is interesting, as it sets forth in the fullest and 
 clearest light the principles by which the king professed to 
 be guided sound faith in Ahuramazda, the creator and sole 
 ruler of the world, adherence to the ancient laws and consti- 
 tution of the empire, and the maintenance of truth. He 
 attributes all the evils which had fallen upon his disaffected 
 subjects to the audacity of the chieftains in promulgating 
 lies, and to the credulity of the people in admitting their 
 pretensions. 
 
 But on looking carefully at the whole set of inscriptions,
 
 INSCRIPTIONS HISTORY. 129. 
 
 I must again call attention to two points, each of them of 
 practical importance, each of them quite new to history. 
 
 1. The immense difficulty which Darius met in establishing 
 his authority over the whole empire. He encountered the 
 most stubborn resistance in those provinces which were most 
 thoroughly Eranian. The energy and ability of the king, and 
 his power over his immediate followers, chiefly belonging to 
 the Persian and Median aristocracy, entitle him to the high 
 place which he has held in the estimation of European his- 
 torians ; and to which the old Eranian traditions, both in the 
 Avesta and in the Shahnameh, bear distinct attestation. The 
 representatives of supreme majesty in both are Kai Kaus, 
 i.e. Cyaxares, the founder of the Median empire, Hucrava as 
 he is called in the Avesta, better known as Khosru or Cyrus, 
 and Gustasp, the only name by which Darius is designated 
 in these traditions. This point will call for special atten- 
 tion presently; here I notice it as showing how completely 
 the fame of the father was merged in that of the son, how 
 thoroughly in fact they were identified in the national mind. 
 
 I must also observe that two considerable portions of the 
 empire appear at once to have accepted the new sovereign. 
 Asia Minor, one of the latest acquisitions of Cyrus, seems to 
 have remained wholly passive. Unlike the Eranian pro- 
 vinces, it had evidently no national representative, no one 
 claimed allegiance as successor of Crcesus. It was apparently 
 a matter of indifference to them which party among their 
 conquerors prevailed in the struggle. Bactria, again, and the 
 other provinces at the opposite, north-eastern, extremity of 
 the empire, seem to have taken no part in the insurrections. 
 This fact is important as confirming an old national tradi- 
 tion which represents them as under the sovereignty of 
 Vistaspa or Gustasp; a tradition which may either point 
 to the confusion between the father and the son, of which 
 I have already spoken, or may be accounted for by the very 
 
 K
 
 130 INSCRIPTIONS HISTORY. 
 
 probable supposition that Darius willingly admitted the 
 virtual independence of a father of whom he speaks in 
 terms of affection and thorough confidence, upon whose 
 legitimate descent from the great ancestor of his race he 
 rested his own claim to the throne. 
 
 2. The other point to which I would bespeak attention is 
 this. The empire of Cyrus and his immediate successor con- 
 sisted of a conglomeration of states, each having its own laws, 
 its own internal constitution, and probably its own special form 
 of the national religion. The peculiar title King of "Kings, 
 which stands at the head of every inscription after the name of 
 the reigning emperor, was not merely a name of high dignity. 
 It designated indeed the pre-eminence of the supreme head 
 of the empire, but at the same time it recognised the regal 
 position of the princes of the federal states. Some of these 
 claimed a descent not less illustrious than that of the head of 
 the Achsemenidse, and exercised, within their own dominions, 
 an authority scarcely less absolute. This fact stands out very 
 distinctly in the books of the Shahnameh, which refer to the 
 reign of Khosru and his successors. It is not presented by 
 any modern historian so clearly as by Comte de Gobineau, 
 whose ' Histoire des Perses,' open to just objection as deficient 
 in critical accuracy, is entitled to high praise as entering 
 most thoroughly into great political questions, especially those 
 which bear upon the relations between the central power of 
 the empire and the subordinate states. Looking at the general 
 history of ancient Persia, we observe that at certain periods 
 the central authority was comparatively absolute, probably in 
 the mythic period represented by the Deioces of Herodotus, 
 the Dahyauka* of critics, the Zohak or Dohak of Persian 
 
 * This identification is curious. It supplies a satisfactory etymology 
 for the Greek name, signifying Lord 'of Provinces, equivalent to the title 
 King of Provinces, Khshayathiya Dahyunam, given to Darius and his 
 successors in these inscriptions.
 
 INSCRIPTIONS HISTORY. 131 
 
 and Arabian legends; and again most certainly under the 
 Sassanidae, the last native dynasty of Eran. On the other 
 hand, the independence of the several princes, more numerous 
 than at any former period, owing to measures taken by 
 Alexander, was most conspicuous, and most important in its 
 various bearings under the Arsacidse, from the failure of the 
 Macedonian dynasty, 250 or 256 B.C., to the accession of 
 Ardeshir, 300 A.D. The reigns of Darius and his successors 
 may represent the medium between these extremes ; a period 
 when the central power was full of life, vigour, and unifying 
 influence, while the several states retained just that amount 
 of independence* which enabled them to develop their 
 internal resources, and to occupy an honourable position in 
 great national enterprises. Admitting this we find a probable 
 clue to the extraordinary divergence of Greek and Persian 
 accounts. Both are full of wild dreamy legends ; the former, 
 however, dwell exclusively upon the central power with 
 which they came into immediate contact. The latter, during 
 the period from the death of Khosru f to the accession of 
 the Sassanides, pass over the names of the greatest sovereigns, 
 Cambyses, Darius, and his successors, and are occupied by a 
 series of legends, referring, as it would seem, for the most 
 part to the achievements of provincial chieftains. 
 
 It is further remarkable that in these inscriptions no 
 notice is taken of intervention in the struggle by the most 
 formidable enemies of the Eranian empire. The Sacae indeed 
 
 * Darius seems to have adopted measures which, without altogether 
 destroying, materially modified the old constitution. He is said to have 
 divided the empire into twenty satrapies. We find in fact twenty-three 
 countries specified in these inscriptions. 
 
 t The Greek accounts of the death of Cyrus are spiteful and legendary ; 
 the old Eranian traditions are mythical but, as treated by Firdausi, 
 remarkably beautiful. In fact the chapters of the Shahnameh which 
 record that tradition rise to the very highest level of epic poetry. See 
 Mohl's edition and translation, vol. iv. 
 
 K 2
 
 132 INSCRIPTIONS LANGUAGE. 
 
 are mentioned in the first inscription among the opponents of 
 Darius, but in the detailed accounts the name is altogether 
 absent. This is the more remarkable since the Scythian 
 element was active in the revolt of Media, constituting, as all 
 admit, the bulk of the old population. Had it been supported 
 by the Turanians of Northern Asia, the results might have 
 been disastrous to the new empire. How is this to be 
 accounted for ? Doubtless it is to be attributed mainly to the 
 terror caused by the wars of Cyrus, for I reject as wholly 
 fabulous, contrary to the whole tenour of oriental history, 
 the legend of the death of that great Asiatic hero which is 
 found in Herodotus ; but as it seems to me it was probably 
 owing to the vigorous administration of the north-eastern 
 provinces, from Hyrcania to Sogdiana, under Vistaspa. 
 
 These and other questions of exceeding interest are not 
 likely to be answered conclusively. The students of classic 
 antiquity are not likely to come to agreement with those who 
 attach importance to Eranian traditions, but it may be hoped 
 that they will be discussed fully and dispassionately in a new 
 edition of the Cuneiform Inscriptions, whether by Sir Henry 
 Eawlinson himself, or by scholars imbued with his principles 
 or working under his superintendence. 
 
 LANGUAGE. 
 
 We now pass to a point of exceeding interest, not only to 
 the philologer, but to every student of religious and mental 
 development. What are the true relations between the 
 language of Persia as we find it in these, the only contem- 
 porary documents, and in the Zend Avesta ? Which is the 
 more ancient more ancient not merely in actual form but 
 in its fundamental principles, its grammar and etymology ? 
 
 The question as to antiquity of form is soon answered. 
 The inscriptions present a language consistently grammatical
 
 LANGUAGE INSCRIPTIONS AND AVESTA. 133 
 
 in structure, clear in construction, perfectly intelligible. It 
 has two distinctive characteristics : alone among Persian 
 writings it is read from left to right, thus exemplifying the 
 system adopted from the beginning by the Sanskrit, and used 
 without any exception by every other branch of the great 
 Indo-Germanic family from the Ganges to the Atlantic. But 
 strange to say, all other Persian works follow the opposite 
 course ; Zend, Pehlevi, Parsi and modern Persian adopt the 
 old Semitic practice and read from right to left. 
 
 Here can be no doubt as to which was the innovation. 
 The inscriptions certainly follow the old course. The Zend, 
 of which the Pehlevi and Parsi are modifications, was based 
 upon the Syrian estrangelic system, or more probably upon 
 corrupt forms of Syriac, the Nabatean or Menda3an. With 
 the Syriac character came the direction of the writing from 
 right to left. Attention may here be called to the proofs that 
 the old Persians evinced a singular talent for language. Out 
 of the most cumbrous, perplexing, and problematical of all 
 systems, the Assyrian, or more probably the Scythic Acca- 
 dian in Chaldaea, Median in Central Asia the former with 
 upwards of 400 characters, syllabic, ideographic, and poly- 
 phonic ; the latter with 200, all syllabic, the Persians worked 
 out for themselves a complete alphabet wholly divested of 
 the two most formidable obstructions to clearness, ideography 
 and polyphony consisting of some 40 letters, more distinct, 
 more legible, less open to misapprehension than is found in 
 any other set of inscriptions. As I had previously occasion 
 to observe, they adopted the transverse sign (\ ) which marked 
 the end of every word ; an innovation which completed the 
 usefulness of their system, without which indeed the whole 
 series of discoveries which has revealed so vast a realm of 
 thought, action, political, moral, and religious development, 
 would probably have remained to the end of time an unsolved 
 mystery.
 
 134 LANGUAGE INSCRIPTIONS AND AVESTA. 
 
 It was supposed by able critics (e.g. Spiegel in his ' Huz- 
 varesh Grammar'), that the old Persian inscriptions must 
 have originated in the Assyrian cuneiforms ; but it must be 
 noted, that no single character of the Persian is identical either 
 with the Median or Assyrian. The Persians adopted the 
 principle of representing every sound by a combination of 
 arrowheads, but they freed their characters from all associa- 
 tion with Scythic or Semitic forms. Theirs is, strictly 
 speaking, a new alphabet. Even compared with the admirable 
 ingenuity which constructed the so-called Phoenician alphabet 
 from the multitudinous forms of hieroglyphic or hieratic 
 Egyptian, the old Persian stands on a position of equality, 
 and if not equally serviceable for writing, it is certainly more 
 useful for inscriptions.* 
 
 We must observe on the other hand that the characters in 
 which the Zend Avesta is written have the same or even greater 
 advantages so far as regards completeness and perspicuity. 
 Without the subtle refinements of the Sanskrit, which re- 
 presents every shade of pronunciation, preserving the old 
 traditional forms in their minutest modifications, the Zend 
 gives us an alphabet which, unlike the Hebrew or Semitic, can 
 be transliterated without difficulty, so that the transliteration 
 and the original characters present no divergent forms to the 
 
 * It is a question which unhappily cannot be answered, but of exceed- 
 ing interest, whether the records kept by Persian sovereigns in their 
 archives, to which distinct allusions are found in the contemporary 
 writings of the Hebrews, were modifications of this form ; if so, the same 
 genius which extricated from the confusion of Assyrian and Scythic 
 characters the few clear Persian letters may easily have transformed 
 these sharp wedges into a shape more convenient for writing. If there be 
 any truth in the statement that Alexander at Persepolis destroyed an 
 immense number of ancient national records, we must add this to the 
 formidable array of charges against the Macedonian, who burnt in a wild 
 fit of drunkenness the palace of Persepolis, and ended his splendid career 
 in a drunken fit at Babylon. As to the habit of drinking to excess, 
 regarded by the Aryans generally as laudable, see above, p. 35.
 
 LANGUAGE INSCRIPTIONS AND AVESTA. 135 
 
 scholar. This is the more remarkable inasmuch as the 
 Pehlevi, which was derived from the same source, the Syriac, 
 and was exclusively in use under the Sassanian dynasty, pre- 
 sents every imaginable deformity, making every transliteration 
 doubtful, each character representing many different sounds, 
 with ligatures, i.e. combinations of characters, equally per- 
 plexing .and confusing. The Zend scriveners adopted the 
 separation of words from their Persian predecessors prede- 
 cessors we say confidently, since there can be no question 
 that the earliest form of the Syriac characters came into use 
 some centuries later than the cuneiform inscriptions. 
 
 From the characters we pass on to the grammar. The 
 results drawn from this section are clear, and to a certain 
 extent they are conclusive. 
 
 First we examine the forms of the nouns. 
 
 In the inscriptions, the following cases are found ; they are 
 used systematically, and with the closest attention to their 
 significance. 
 
 The nominative, always as the subject. 
 
 The vocative, differing from it in form only by lengthening 
 the last syllable when practicable. 
 
 The accusative, in masculine and feminine nouns, in- 
 variably used in accordance with the laws of language. One 
 form, however, is used for the dative and the ablative, two 
 cases which are distinct in Sanskrit, and as we shall see in 
 ancient Zend. The genitive is distinctly marked and em- 
 ployed regularly in accordance with the laws of syntax. 
 There is also the locative, a very useful case, of which we 
 have clear, but rare instances in Greek and Latin, Le. domi, 
 militiai, OIKOI. 
 
 The language is evidently in its living state, used in the 
 inscriptions as it was spoken by the educated classes in the 
 sixth century B.C., in the time of the Prophets of the exile. 
 
 We have next to consider the verb. The classification, the
 
 136 LANGUAGE OF THE AVESTA. 
 
 general principles of formation, and the use of tenses, agree 
 with the broad principles ascertained by Bopp in reference to 
 the chief Indo-Germanic idioms, and most fully exemplified 
 in Sanskrit. Here I must call attention to one distinct and 
 highly important point. In the inscriptions the augment, 
 the same as in Sanskrit and Greek (a = e), is invariably used 
 in the imperfect and aorist tenses. 
 
 We have now to inquire how far these remarks apply to 
 the language of the Zend Avesta. We must however premise 
 that all writers have long since agreed that different portions 
 of that book belong to ages certainly separated from each 
 other by a very considerable period. The oldest portion has 
 a peculiar dialect, and has certain marks of comparatively 
 high antiquity both in the subject matter, in the grammar, 
 and in the metrical form. 
 
 That portion contains the Gathas,* or sacred hymns. They 
 have excited special attention. Spiegel, who first attempted 
 to translate them, recognised their extreme difficulty, and the 
 unsatisfactory results of his own attempt. Since then Pro- 
 fessor Haugf translated and expounded them in a work of 
 standard excellence. Very lately De Harlez in Belgium, 
 Geldner and Bartholoma | in Germany, have given us 
 valuable help ; but it is held by all these critics that 
 even in that portion of the Avesta older and later parts are 
 clearly distinguishable, that unlike parts are mixed up, and 
 
 * We shall frequently have to refer to the Gathas. The word is 
 derived from gae, to sing, in Sanskrit and Old Persian used exclusively 
 in reference to sacred hymns. From this word comes the Skt. gita, with 
 the same signification. It corresponds exactly to our word hymn. 
 
 t ' Die Gathas des Zarathrustra,' 1858. See the following Essay. 
 
 J The most intelligible, and on the whole the best, translation is given 
 by M. C. de Harlez, in the book cited at the head of this article : Avesta, 
 pp. 315-369. We would recommend this work to the student as incom- 
 parably the most complete and most useful guide to a book abounding in 
 difficulties.
 
 LANGUAGE OF THE AVESTA. 137 
 
 that a very small number only can be regarded as the 
 original composition of Zoroaster, or whoever was the first 
 promulgator of the form of religion which bears his name. 
 The fact of the great comparative antiquity of the Gathas 
 stands out strongly in the use made of certain portions, not 
 only at later periods, but in the other books of the Avesta. 
 
 The first part of the Avesta is called the Vendidad,* a word 
 which properly signifies a form given for the expulsion of, or 
 defence from, the Divs, the malign spirits, a representation 
 specially characteristic of the developed or corrupt form of 
 Zoroastrism. 
 
 The second part is called the Vispered, a collection of 
 liturgical chants of various dates. The third, the Yacna, of 
 which a part was first investigated by Eugene Burnouf; 
 The fourth, called the Khorda (i.e. the short) Avesta, contains 
 what are called Yashts, i.e. addresses to the chief deities of 
 the Zoroastrian pantheon.f 
 
 This brief statement may enable the reader to appreciate 
 the bearing of the following remarks on the language of the 
 Avesta. 
 
 In the first place, we find two remarkable points in 
 reference to the declension of nouns. In the whole Avesta, 
 as it stands before us, every case of the nouns, every main 
 form, is familiarly and constantly used. A complete grammar, 
 so far as forms of nouns are concerned, has been long since 
 constructed, first by Spiegel in his ' Alt-Baktrische Gram- 
 matik,' and lately in the manuals of De Harlez and Geiger. 
 
 It is quite certain that these forms belong to the most 
 ancient stage of the language, when it approached so closely 
 to Vedic Sanskrit as to be nearly identical with it. 
 
 * Ven = against, Di = div, dad = given. 
 
 f A translation has been lately (1883) published in the twenty-third 
 volume of Max Miiller's ' Sacred Books of the East.' It is by Darmesteter, 
 an excellent Eranian scholar.
 
 138 LANGUAGE OF THE AVESTA. f 
 
 But we find, to our astonishment, that the forms thus 
 retained in their integrity are used in the Avesta with an 
 utter disregard or unconsciousness of their full and proper 
 significance. 
 
 Every case is in numerous instances employed in the place 
 of another, completely distinct from it ; a reference to any 
 common noun in Justi's 'Handbuch' * will give instances of the 
 genitive being used for the dative, instrumental, locative, or 
 ablative, and vice versa ; but of all glaring cases of misuse the 
 most remarkable is the substitution of the accusative (distinctly 
 marked as in Sanskrit, and the great classical languages) for 
 the vocative and the nominative. 
 
 Some instances in which the accusative is used instead of 
 the vocative are of singular interest. One occurs in the finest 
 chapter of the Vendidad, the nineteenth, which describes the 
 temptation of Zoroaster by a Div or false spirit, under the 
 personal direction of Ahriman.f The very late date of the 
 account in the Avesta, which is admittedly an interpolation J 
 in a chapter, itself among comparatively modern portions, is 
 obvious upon close inspection ; it is decisively proved I use 
 the word proved advisedly by the undisputed misuse of the 
 accusative. It is as impossible that any educated man (and 
 the writer of this account was a man of remarkable culture 
 and ability) should have put an accusative in the same 
 clause with three proper vocatives, as that a Eoman or a 
 Greek should have said, magne, beate purum vir ! & 
 
 It is not to be supposed that this is an exceptional in- 
 stance. Spiegel gives many instances in which the accusa- 
 tive is used not only as a predicate (' Alt-Baktrische Gram- 
 
 * Justi, ' Handbuch der Zendsprache,' an admirable work, most unjustly 
 depreciated by some of his countrymen. 
 f On this subject, see further on, p. 172. 
 J See Spiegel's introduction to the chapter.
 
 LANGUAGE OF THE A VESTA. 139 
 
 matik,' 257), but as the subject of a clause. T give two 
 instances, both noticeable for the tone of doctrine, cited by 
 Spiegel "Then, when the sun rises, the earth '(accusative) 
 created by Ormuzd becomes clean (accusative) ;" again, " The 
 man (accusative) becomes clean from the Nacus." 
 
 Five other instances equally clear are cited by Spiegel in 
 238, 1, of which one is taken from the nineteenth Fargard 
 of the Vendidad, in which I have previously pointed out an 
 equally strange abuse. 
 
 Spiegel admitted, when he published his Old Bactrian 
 Grammar, in 1867, that these anomalies denote a certain 
 indistinctness in the sense of language (eine gewisse Unklar- 
 heit des Sprachgefiihls) ; but they indicate more than this; 
 they prove that when the book, in which they occur so fre- 
 quently, was written, the language must have undergone a 
 thorough change ; a long period must have elapsed since the 
 time when the cases were used in their original and natural 
 significance, as was the case when Darius and his successors 
 set up the cuneiform inscriptions. In fact, judging by other 
 indications, I cannot doubt that the works must have been 
 written when the nation had passed under a foreign yoke ; 
 when the old language, held to be sacred, as a depository of 
 the revelation to Zoroaster, was studied and used by members 
 of the priestly caste who were familiar with its forms, but 
 incapable of using them correctly. We shall see that other 
 indications point to the period of the Arsacidae. 
 
 One other fact, equally distinct and unmistakeable, will at 
 once strike students of language as conclusive. In the 
 inscriptions the past tenses, imperfect, and aorist are in- 
 variably used with the augment. In the Avesta the augment 
 is all but invariably absent. 
 
 This is a very strong point. No characteristic is more 
 distinct. It may be held as certain that inscriptions with 
 the augment, and writings of supreme importance without
 
 140 LANGUAGE OF THE AVESTA. 
 
 the augment, could not have been the product of the same 
 district and the same age. Inquirers will generally admit that 
 the omission indicates an interval of considerable extent, an 
 interval in all probability marked by some great national 
 convulsion. 
 
 It may, however, be argued that both indications are 
 somewhat delusive. There is of course no doubt that the 
 copies of the Avesta now in our possession were written long 
 after the age of the Achsemenidse, probably under the Arsa- 
 cidae, the earliest period at which the Syriac estrangelic 
 character, Paleosyrian, or Nabatean, was likely to be known 
 in Persia. The conjecture, therefore, is obvious that tran- 
 scribers might ignore the older forms, and thus obliterate 
 sure proofs of hoar antiquity. 
 
 But in the case of the augment certainly, and in the case 
 of some changes in the declension of nouns, this conjecture is 
 met by the simple fact that the metrical laws, which have 
 been thoroughly investigated and applied, prove that the 
 debased, abbreviated forms belong to the original document. 
 Geldner, in his work on the metrical system of the later 
 Avesta, shows that in some of the few instances where the 
 augment is now found, it must have been interpolated, a fact 
 proved by the scanning. 
 
 It may therefore be safely inferred that by far the greater 
 part of the Avesta I must add all parts in which doctrines 
 manifestly connected, or identical, with Hebrew and even 
 Christian doctrines, are more or less distinctly stated or 
 indicated belong to a period subsequent to the age of the 
 Achsemenidse, and must be regarded as proofs that when 
 those books were written, Semitic or Christian influences 
 had penetrated the regions of Central Asia in which they 
 were produced.
 
 RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. 141 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM (1) OF THE CUNEIFOKM INSCRIPTIONS 
 AND (2) OF THE AVESTA. 
 
 In dealing with this all-important branch of our subject, 
 I shall ask the reader to examine and weigh the evidence 
 for the facts I shall adduce, as well as the fairness and con- 
 clusiveness of the inferences which I deduce from those facts. 
 We have to consider, 
 
 1. The position, the attributes, the works assigned to the 
 Creator, Auramazda in the inscriptions, Ahura-mazda in the 
 Avesta. 
 
 Here it is to be observed that the great word Ahura-mazda, 
 meaning probably the omniscient spirit* underwent changes, 
 chiefly of phonetic decay, first in the Pehlevi, where, however, 
 the reading is disputed,! then in the Sanskrit of Nerioseng, who 
 translated the Yacna in the 10th century, then in the Parsee 
 and Persian. Ormuzd, the familiar European form, represents 
 the later Oriental form, but the forms of the Cuneiform and of 
 the Zend Avesta are substantially the same. 
 
 In the cuneiform inscriptions Auramazda stands out alone, 
 completely distinct from all lower manifestations of the 
 divinity ; he is the sole creator, the sole ruler, the sole judge, 
 legislator, and controller of the universe. To him Darius and 
 his successors attribute every success, every triumph, all the 
 greatness and majesty of the empire, all the felicity and 
 advance of man.J From the beginning to the end of the 
 inscriptions we find no trace of any being sharing his power 
 
 * Ahura, as I have shown in the Essay on the Kig Veda, corresponds 
 in origin and meaning to the Vedic Asura, i.e. living, spiritual Being ; 
 Mazda, from maz, great, and da, knowledge, is equivalent to omniscient. 
 
 f The ambiguous characters are transcribed Anhuma by Justi, in his 
 edition of the Bundehesht, Auharmazda by Haug in the Arda Viraf, and 
 by De Harlez in his ' Manuel du Pehlevi.' This is a good instance of the 
 extraordinary ambiguity of Pehlevi characters. 
 
 J On the word Siyuti, of much importance in its critical aspects, De 
 Harlez may be consulted.
 
 142 RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OP THE INSCRIPTIONS 
 
 or approaching his majesty. When other deities are alluded 
 to, they appear as his satellites, as occupied with limited 
 interests, as subordinates to whom that god stands in the 
 same relation as the King of Persia to his satraps or subject 
 princes. 
 
 This peculiar position assigned to Ahuramazda cannot be 
 insisted upon too strongly. In it we find the clue to the mu- 
 tual recognition of agreement in the central doctrine by the 
 Persians and the Hebrews when they first came into contact. 
 Cyrus and Darius had no need to alter a single word, the 
 Hebrews were conscious of no imperfection, no shortcoming, 
 no superstitious accretion, in the Persian decrees commanding 
 the restoration of the temple. 
 
 Again we observe, somewhat to our surprise, that in these 
 inscriptions there is no notice, no trace of a malignant power, 
 acting in opposition to the supreme Deity. It is not merely 
 that no mention is made of Ahriman or of his arts, devices, 
 or of his innumerable train of followers, Divs or Drujes, as 
 they are called in the Avesta, but there is no allusion made 
 to his influence in the case of the fiercest and most dangerous 
 opponents of the sovereign. 
 
 This must be regarded as a fact universally accepted, as far 
 as regards Ahriman. But scholars such as Rawlinson, Win- 
 dischmann, and Spiegel, who came to the study of the 
 inscriptions full of the doctrinal system presented in the later 
 Zoroastrian works, could not but hunt out the traces, which 
 they reasonably supposed must exist, on the assumption that 
 the system in the inscriptions of Darius was identical with 
 that of the Avesta. 
 
 It may, however, be asserted as a fact, true not only of 
 Ahriman but all Ahrimanean influences, that they are abso- 
 lutely ignored in the inscriptions.* 
 
 * The opposite view to this is maintained by Spiegel in his ' Glossary 
 to the Cuneiform Inscriptions,' s.v. Haena. The word simply means an
 
 OF THE AVESTA. . 143 
 
 It has, indeed, been argued that Darius had no occasion 
 to notice Ahriman or his agency in recording his own 
 triumphs. 
 
 To this De Harlez has given a simple and conclusive 
 answer. Darius in all records of insurrections attributes 
 their origin to one cause, the falsehood, the lying, the deceit 
 of their fautors. The one permanent danger to the empire he 
 holds to be want of loyalty or truthfulness. It is inconceiv- 
 able that had he regarded all or any of his opponents as 
 moved, supported, or influenced by the foe of his great 
 Deity, by Ahriman, the Divs, or the Drujes who occupy so 
 large a space in the Avesta, he should have passed over in 
 silence a fact which would have enhanced the splendour of 
 his own achievements and the glory of his god. We hold, 
 not indeed that the existence of that malignant host was 
 unknown to Darius, but that he either disregarded it as 
 a wild superstition, or held it unworthy to be placed on 
 record in public and permanent inscriptions. 
 
 But how stands the question in the Avesta ? We are at 
 once struck with this fact: the accounts of the nature, 
 power, and work of the two personified and personal repre- 
 sentatives of good and evil differ exceedingly in different 
 portions of the Avesta. The position assigned to each in the 
 Gathas differs widely from that which is directly assumed or 
 indirectly implied in the oldest and best portions of the rest 
 of the Avesta; and the latter view differs again from the 
 system known or accepted as Zoroastrian in later ages, 
 beginning with the later portions of the Zend Avesta itself, 
 
 army, identical with the very common Sanskrit word sena, used of every 
 kind of army. The interpretation which brings in the notion of malignant 
 spirits is derived from the Pehlevi and Parsi renderings, which may be 
 guides in reference to the Avesta or its traditional teaching, but have no 
 bearing upon the language of the old inscriptions. It is observable that 
 in the Gathas no name of demons is found.
 
 144 RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE AVESTA. 
 
 continued in the principal works of the Pehlevi, the early 
 Parsi, and still continuing in the Indian districts of Guzerat. 
 
 In the Gathas Ahuramazda stands out quite distinct 
 from, and infinitely superior to, all other forms of divine 
 manifestation. Prayer is addressed to him exclusively. The 
 forms of devotion which have ever since been regarded as of 
 supreme importance, as inspired in the fullest sense of the 
 word, which were actually personified and addressed as objects 
 of worship in very early times, and by Parsees in India up to 
 the present, recognise Ahura-mazda, and him alone, as the 
 Lord of the universe, creator of all good, source of all light, 
 moral, spiritual, and physical. But even in the Gathas we 
 have the germ or principle afterwards developed into an 
 absolute dualism. In two passages Ahriman stands out as 
 the equal, so far as regards eternal existence, of Ormuzd. In 
 Yacna, c. xxx. 3 we give the translation of Haug the all- 
 important statement is found, " From the beginning exists a 
 twin-pair, two spirits, each self-acting in thought, word, and 
 deed, these two, good and evil" 
 
 This passage presents some peculiarities which affect the 
 translation,* and the inferences as to date; but the general 
 meaning is unmistakeable. The two principles are twin, both 
 self-existent from all eternity. In his note (' Die Gathas,' 
 
 * The meaning of the word yemd, Y. xxx. 3, is doubtful. It does not 
 occur elsewhere. Both Haug and Justi, H. B. s.v., render it zwilling, 
 twins, sc. Ormuzd and Ahriman ; but I am inclined to adopt the Persian 
 
 usage. In that language Jam ( ^ j is the rendering of the Sanskrit 
 
 Yama, the Zend Yima, and with different adjectives it means either a 
 good or an evil spirit. ' Twins ' seems a strange term for spirits without 
 parentage, self-existing. In late Parsi tradition Ormuzd and Ahriman 
 are represented as coeval, offspring of eternal Time ; but no trace of this 
 view is found in the Avesta. The passage cited by Spiegel in his ' Ein- 
 leitung in die traditionelle Schriften der Parsen,' has been given in my 
 Essay on the Kig Veda.
 
 KELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE AVESTA. 145 
 
 p. 99), Haug takes them as the words of Zoroaster himself, 
 who, as he says, speaks of the original or eternal condition of 
 the two spirits, before they began their creations, which were 
 opposed to each other. We have, therefore, in one at least 
 of the earliest Gathas, two creators, each acting with inherent 
 power. 
 
 Between this view and that impressed upon us in the 
 inscriptions there is a vast chasm. Darius and his successors 
 were surely unconscious that again to use the words of 
 Haug " The two coeval, co-eternal (uranfanglichen) spirits 
 are therefore described as twins (Geschwister) though twins 
 of different character."* The second passage, however, which 
 is referred to by De Harlez does not convey to my mind the 
 impression that two equal co-eternal principles are indicated. 
 It seems to me that Ormuzd there stands out as the trium- 
 phant averter of all evil. So far, therefore, we find a substan- 
 tial difference, but not an absolute antagonism, between the 
 religion of Darius and the Achsemenidae as represented in 
 the inscriptions and Zoroastrism as indicated in the Gathas. 
 
 The case is very different with the other parts of the Avesta. 
 The first chapter of the Vendidad, which is admitted in this 
 respect to be in harmony with the other portions, and is of 
 singular interest on other grounds, tells us that Ahura-mazda 
 created first the Paradise, the Airyana Vaeja, the original 
 habitat of the chosen race, and then in succession every other 
 home adapted for their reception, Sogdia, Balkh, Merv, Herat, 
 Ragse, &c. But he is followed everywhere by another creator 
 of absolutely independent and inherent power, who in each 
 case brings into existence some fatal evil, physical, moral, 
 spiritual, or ritual ; the intense cold and prolonged duration 
 of winter, venomous reptiles, from the serpent to the destruc- 
 
 * " Die Verwandtschaft liegt in der gemeinsamen Uranfanglichkeit und 
 der geistigen Macht welche sie gleichmassig iiben." On the whole quest iou 
 see the following essay in this volume. -"
 
 146 RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE AVESTA. 
 
 tive insect, scepticism and unbelief, harlotry, and strange 
 rites, specially cremation and interment. 
 
 In each case Ahuramazda is utterly powerless to prevent 
 the introduction, or to procure the expulsion, of the evil. The 
 beautiful and the good, the beneficent and the righteous, the 
 personal Truth and Wisdom, stands a helpless and baffled spec- 
 tator of evil in every odious, despicable, destructive form, claim- 
 ing indeed and receiving the obedience, love, and adoration of 
 all true and noble spirits, but sharing them with other deities, 
 some apparently on the same level, others whose help he 
 needs and claims.* And opposed to him we find,. thwarting 
 and arresting his work, a host of despicable, hateful, veno- 
 mous, agents, the Divs, the evil descendants or representatives 
 of beings known, as it would seem worshipped, before the 
 separation of the Eranians and Indian Aryans certainly after 
 that event by the latter and the Drujes, i.e. lying, loathsome 
 forms of moral and physical corruption under the command 
 of Ahriman (see the 19th Fargard of the Vendidad), carrying 
 on a desperate and interminable war. The book of the Zend 
 Avesta, called the Vendidad (i.e. given for expelling Divs), 
 supplies the explanation of a multitude of rites equally remark- 
 able for their superstition, extravagance, and loathsomeness, 
 giving in fact the true character of the religion in its most 
 enduring and most corrupt form, and differing widely, as is 
 ever the case with superstitious innovations, from ancient 
 and sound religious principles, such as are recognised in the 
 AchaBmenidean inscriptions. 
 
 We shall have occasion presently to discuss more fully the 
 question as to the mutual relations between these dark 
 superstitions and the representations of Satan in the Old 
 
 * Thus Ormuzd calls on Airayaman to aid him in the conflict with 
 Ahriman (Vendidad, F. xxii. 23-29). In the Rig Veda, as I have 
 noticed above, p. 58, Aryaman is a Vedic deity, one of the Adityas, or 
 children of Aditi, the eternal.
 
 RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE AVESTA. 147 
 
 Testament; but one tiling is certain whatever the relation 
 may be, however one may have been derived from or mate- 
 rially affected by the other, all later forms of Zoroastrism 
 took their peculiar colouring from Semitic, or strictly speak- 
 ing, Hebrew doctrines, which from the time of Cyrus at the 
 latest, must have been familiar to the Persian mind, and 
 were more fully developed in that mind during the following 
 period. Had we found traces of those views in the records 
 of Darius, we should have been justified in attributing them to 
 that source ; as it is, we maintain as an incontestable fact that 
 in the form presented by the Avesta and later Zoroastrism, 
 we have a combination of an earlier form of Dualism with 
 doctrines introduced long after the date of the early cunei- 
 form inscriptions. 
 
 But the enumeration of special superstitions brings us into 
 contact with the most distinctive, the most permanent, and, 
 taking it with all its applications and results, the most odious 
 and repulsive form of Zoroastrian superstition. The terror 
 which beset the mind of the people of the Avestas most 
 permanently, most widely, and most perniciously, was the fear 
 of pollution from any contact with the dead. The .corpse of 
 every man, however pure, noble, exalted he might have been, 
 involved absolutely ruinous pollution to everybody and every- 
 thing which approached it. It polluted the earth, so that 
 burial was absolutely prohibited; it polluted fire, so that 
 cremation was equally unlawful ; it polluted water, so that a 
 corpse could not be cast into the rivers or the sea. The dis- 
 posal of the corpse involved a long series of repulsive and 
 disgusting details, which from a time of uncertain date up to 
 the present, in Guzerat, are the subject of ritual injunctions, 
 which present the most striking characteristic of Zoroastrian 
 observances. The corpse itself was indeed personified; the 
 Nacus (the Greek veicvs) was an evil spirit, a leader of the 
 host of Ahriman, haunting the mind of the devout Zoroastrian 
 
 L 2
 
 148 RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE AVESTA. 
 
 with ghastly horrors, one of the main sources of odious 
 superstitions which to the disgrace of Christendom have more 
 or less infected the minds of the weak or ignorant. We 
 find no traces of this in the Gathas, but throughout the 
 other portion of the Avesta it is one of the most prominent, 
 the most revolting characteristics. The terrible consequences 
 which followed by logical sequence from the belief that, 
 conscious or unconscious, voluntary or involuntary, contact 
 with any part of a dead body involved utter pollution, gave 
 occasion to a series of curious and highly ingenious regula- 
 tions. In the 5th Fargard of the Vendidad, exceptions are 
 distinctly specified in the case of portions of a corpse being 
 carried off by birds or beasts ; these do not involve ceremonial 
 pollution, otherwise, as the writer is careful to point out, and 
 as a fact follows inevitably from the odious superstition, 
 earth, air, fire, and water, and of course the whole human 
 race would have been, ages ago, utterly polluted and subject 
 to the demon Nacus. 
 
 But what position do the cuneiform inscriptions occupy 
 in reference to this superstition ? 
 
 It is admitted that no allusion whatever to any such super- 
 stition is found in them, but it must be observed, and it 
 cannot be pressed too strongly. The superstition must have 
 been completely unknown or utterly contemned. The tombs 
 of Cyrus, of Darius and his successors are among the most 
 conspicuous and most interesting monuments of the period. 
 From them we get some of the most important inscriptions. 
 From them we derive special information as to the spirit and 
 the forms of national religion. The king stands in presence 
 of the sacred fire, the emblem of the deity, or more probably 
 the symbol of all devotion addressed to Him; above him 
 floats the divine being Ahuramazda, with his well-known 
 attributes, and there is the chamber in which the body rests, 
 utterly subverting all notions that it could be a source or 
 subject of defilement.
 
 INSCRIPTIONS AND THE AVESTA. 149 
 
 Can there be any doubt that at that time the monarch and 
 the nation, as a nation, were ignorant of, or were wholly un- 
 affected by, that dark superstition? Could the king have 
 consciously offended the prejudices, insulted the belief, 
 violated the feelings of his subjects, or of any considerable 
 portion of his subjects, by sanctioning in his own person a 
 process which is set down in the Avesta as one of the most 
 flagrant crimes, marking those who practised it as the children 
 or followers of Ahriman ? 
 
 The question whether Darius or any of the Achaemenidse 
 observed, or tolerated, or indeed knew, the prescriptions of the 
 Avesta is thus settled completely by the monuments. 
 
 Other points might be here adduced which confirm the 
 conclusion. Some of these we shall have to notice in refer- 
 ence to questions touching the probable age of the Avesta ; here 
 it is sufficient to press the two points which appear incon- 
 testable and absolutely decisive. The Avesta, certainly in 
 all other parts, possibly as some hold in the Gathas, recognised 
 two creators, self-existent, co-eternal, and if not equal in power, 
 yet so far equal that neither can overthrow, or completely 
 check the encroachments of the other. The cuneiform in- 
 scriptions recognise one creator, without rival or opponent, 
 to whom all things visible and invisible owe their origin ; to 
 whom alone the king trusts, to whom he refers all success, all 
 happiness, the permanence and prosperity of his kingdom. 
 
 The Avesta abounds in superstitious rites, loathsome, 
 puerile in character, and foremost among those superstitions 
 is the ghastly horror of demoniacal pollution, making crema- 
 tion or interment or sepulchral observances the greatest of 
 crimes. The inscriptions mark entombment as the most 
 proper disposal of the corpse of a prince dying in full posses- 
 sion of his people's hearts.* 
 
 * Compare the account of the sepulture of Caus, the predecessor of 
 Cyrus, in the Shahuameh, torn. iv. p. 171, ed. Nuhl.
 
 150 AGE OF THE AVESTA. 
 
 AGE OF THE AVESTA. 
 
 But we are now in face of the further question : if the 
 Avesta was not more ancient than the Achsemenidse, to what 
 age are we to assign the whole work or the earlier and prin- 
 cipal portions of the work ? 
 
 To answer this peremptorily would be presumptuous. 
 Critics of the highest eminence, who are substantially in 
 agreement on other points, hold that the determination of the 
 precise age, or a near or demonstrable approximation to that 
 conclusion, is not scientifically attainable. Yet we are greatly 
 mistaken if some points sufficient for our special purpose 
 cannot be established. 
 
 In the first place I admit the possibility, we would not 
 deny the probability, that the Gathas, if not altogether in 
 their present form yet in their substantial characteristics, 
 may be referred to a period, either contemporary with, or 
 even earlier than, that at which the inscriptions were set up. 
 
 In addition to points already discussed, we observe that the 
 notices of Zoroaster himself in the Gathas differ widely 
 from those found in other parts of the Avesta. In the Gathas 
 he is represented as a man, receiving divine communica- 
 tions, which he attributes to Ahuramazda and his assessors, 
 but who is himself weak,* struggling with varied success 
 against formidable opponents, making his way slowly 
 and with difficulty, trusting in the support of the supreme 
 goodness. But in the other books of the Avesta Zoroaster 
 stands out as a demigod if not a deity yet the very image 
 and presentment of the deity. We accept the views of able 
 critics, who find in the Gathas sure signs of a powerful 
 individuality, earnestness, straightforwardness, a zeal burning, 
 but with a keen bright flame, untainted by bigotry, and 
 
 * See the passages quoted by De Harlez, in the 'Journal asiatique,' 
 1880, ii. p. iii. f. ; and the following essay, pp. 228, 257.
 
 AGE OF THE AVESTA. 151 
 
 devoid of the lower, meaner developments of superstition 
 which pervade the later books signs which certainly point 
 to an earlier, probably a very remote period. The form again 
 of the Gathas is peculiar; they are written in a distinct 
 dialect ; * the metrical system so nearly approaches that 
 of the Vedas, and it may be added the classical poetry of 
 Sanskrit-speaking India, as to prove a remembrance of 
 the primeval form in which the undivided Aryan races 
 addressed their religious aspirations to their deities, with 
 differences however, which prove at the same time that a 
 long period must have intervened.! We must further observe 
 that even in this most ancient collection critics unanimously 
 recognise signs of confusion, proofs that verses of varying 
 import have been thrown together with little regard to the 
 order of thought and feeling. Admitting therefore all that 
 is claimed by critics as to the early date and independent 
 character of the Gathas, we may regard it, if not as certain, 
 yet as highly probable, that they belong to a period and to a 
 region when a powerful sovereign favoured and protected 
 their author ; when the devout observances which they 
 inculcate were introduced and encouraged ; above all, when 
 wild and fierce superstitions were either unknown or con- 
 demned. I cannot indeed adopt the view, which seems to me 
 merely conjectural, of those critics who find in these poems 
 indications of a great reform, a reaction against fearful and 
 disgusting practices which long afterwards were again adopted 
 by followers of a corrupt tradition, and incorporated into 
 
 * Spiegel has a distinct portion on the Gatha dialect in his 'Alt- 
 baktrische Grammatik.' Bartholomse gives a succinct account of its chief 
 characteristics in his work on the Gathas, pp. 168-171. 
 
 f Each verse contains a certain number of syllables, but there are no 
 proofs that any attention was paid to the length of each or any syllable ; 
 after repeated attempts the keenest students of prosody have avowed their 
 inability to discover such a system as gives a distinct rhythmical character 
 to the closing feet of every line in Sanskrit.
 
 152 AGE OF THE AVESTA. 
 
 the collections of so-called Zoroastrian writings ; but I have 
 no doubt as to the fact thus recognised, that there is a funda- 
 mental difference between the ancient and the later forms of 
 the religion. 
 
 But have we any data in the poems themselves or in early 
 traditions, which enable us proximately to determine the time 
 and place and circumstances of the original Gathas ? 
 
 Some very plain, and, if they may be depended upon, very 
 important indications present themselves. We notice, in the 
 first place, the statement found in the opening chapter of one 
 of the most interesting and important works of the period 
 subsequent to the completion of the Zend Avesta.* That 
 work, entitled Arda Viraf, contains an account of the restora- 
 tion of the old national religion under Ardeshir, the true 
 representative of the Sassanide dynasty, so far as regards 
 their religious principles. It is held still in the highest 
 veneration, as an inspired work, by the Parsees of Guzerat, 
 and presents on the whole the most favourable and lofty view 
 of their religion. I quote the passage to which I allude from 
 the translation of Professor Haug : " The pious Zaratuscht 
 ( . . . Zoroaster) made the religion which he had received 
 current in the world, and till the completion of 300 years the 
 religion was in purity ! " The termination of that period of 
 300 years is further said to have taken place under Alexander 
 the Great. 
 
 We must observe that this statement is free from the 
 exaggeration, the fabulous systems of chronology, such as we 
 find in later Eranian works, in the Shahnameh, and in 
 Indian legends. It has nothing of a mythic or legendary 
 character. It gives a very moderate and very specific period, 
 and in connection with historical events of the highest 
 
 * The book of Arda Viraf, the Pehlevi text with translation by M. Haug, 
 Ph.D., assisted by E. W. West, Ph.D., 1872.
 
 AGE OF THE AVESTA. 153 
 
 importance. The period to which it points is that of the 
 early Achsemenidae. Of course 300 years may not refer to a 
 precise epoch, such as that of the burning of Persepolis on the 
 one hand when Alexander is said wilfully to have destroyed 
 old Persian documents, and is believed even by wary writers 
 to have given sufficient grounds for that impression or on 
 the other hand, to the precise year of Zoroaster's first 
 appearance ; but within a few years we have no doubt that it 
 is correct. Alexander died B.C. 323. Three hundred years 
 previously the Median empire was consolidated by Cyaxares, 
 and in the same century Cyrus raised it to its culminating 
 height, as the Persian empire. We believe that the state- 
 ment in the Arda Viraf is to be accepted as declaring the old 
 and probably true tradition, that the so-called revelation of 
 Zoroaster was promulgated in the sixth or seventh century B.C. 
 But there are independent and mutually supporting notices 
 of the prince or sovereign in whose kingdom or province, and 
 under whose special sanction, Zoroaster is said to have 
 preached, if not a new doctrine, yet a substantially new and 
 pure form of the loftiest and noblest religious belief of Eran. 
 In the Avesta itself the prince is called Vistaspa,* a name 
 admitted to be identical with that of the Greek Hystaspes. 
 Of course it is possible that name might have been borne 
 by some early sovereign, but it is highly improbable that 
 all traces of his existence should have disappeared. The 
 records of the previous period are incomplete, but the names 
 of the greatest personages were certainly preserved, how- 
 ever they may have been disguised ; and we may safely 
 assume that there is no place for any sovereign, so 
 distinguished, so peculiarly interesting as the supporter of 
 
 * The passages in the Avesta which name this prince are numerous ; 
 the earliest occurs in the first Gatha, Y. xxviii. v. 8, " Do thou, Armaiti, 
 grant to Vistaspa his desire, and to me give strength, that we may pro- 
 claim the word of thy law." See the following essay.
 
 154 AGE OF THE A VESTA. 
 
 Zoroaster must have been, in the ages before Cyrus. We 
 further remark that the national legends, preserved with 
 singular fulness in the great Eranian poem, the Shahnameh, 
 uniformly represent Gustasph, ie. Vistaspa,* as the successor 
 of Lohrasp, who follows Khosru (Hucrava) or Cyrus ; and as 
 uniformly they name Gustasp as the king in whose court and 
 under whose protection the Zoroastrian religion was first 
 promulgated. 
 
 Xow we have seen that when Darius was engaged in 
 tremendous efforts to establish his supremacy, his father 
 Hystaspes, in the cuneiform inscriptions Vistaspa, was the 
 ruler, virtually an independent chief, of the district in which 
 Zoroastrianisni is said to have first made its appearance, and 
 that that province remained, almost alone, loyal to the new 
 sovereign, a fact which finds a natural and satisfactory 
 explanation, if, as we hold, the father of Darius was at 
 that time the actual ruler, if not by inheritance, being a 
 Persian noble, yet by imperial appointment. If these points 
 are duly weighed, we find a time and occasion, a combination 
 of circumstances which account for all known and ascertained 
 facts. We must further observe that the striking recognition 
 of the supreme deity under the name and with the attributes 
 assigned to Ahuramazda, in the cuneiform inscriptions, and 
 we may add in the proclamation of Cyrus, may be attributed 
 partly to a religious movement among the Eranians, when 
 they first came into contact with the monotheism of Israel, 
 partly to the open and complete expression of that movement 
 which we find in the Gat has. 
 
 On the whole I think it more than probable that Zoroaster 
 
 * Gu in Persian always represents the Zend Yi ; see Viiller, ' Radices 
 Persicae.' In the xixth. Yasht (De Harlez, p. 553) Hucrava (Khosru, 
 Cyrus) has for his next successor in the splendour of majesty the Kavi 
 Yistaspa, who proclaims the law of which Zarathursta was the prophet. 
 See xii., xiii., xiv., and p. 556.
 
 AGE OF THE AVESTA. 155 
 
 did first preach the doctrine in Bactria or Eastern Eran, 
 when that portion of the empire was governed by the father 
 of Darius, probably from the time of Cambyses, after the 
 murder of Smerdis.* 
 
 But we now turn to the other, by far the largest portion 
 of the Zend Avesta. Are there indications, are there facts, 
 internal records or internal notices, which give a clue to the 
 problem ? 
 
 First as to internal indications. 
 
 It may be taken as certain that when the numerous, 
 minute, burdensome series of ritual observances, with heavy 
 penalties, was formally promulgated, the whole country must 
 have been under princes either closely connected with the 
 
 * If, however, the so-called Pseudo-Smerdis was in fact the true son of 
 Cyrus, a point for which plausible reasons may be adduced, notwith- 
 standing the assertions of contemporary but ill-informed Greeks, and of the 
 Persian sovereign by whom he was killed, a very curious and interesting 
 combination is suggested. Smerdis is said to have been governor of Bactria 
 when, according to the cuneiform inscriptions and Greek contemporary 
 historians, he was murdered by Cambyses. 
 
 Now the person called Gometes who assumed his name and succeeded 
 at first without opposition to the throne, was sustained by the Magi, a 
 dominant caste or order in Media a religious caste, to which Zoroaster 
 himself unquestionably belonged. In that case the support given him by 
 the Magi, and as it may be assumed by Zoroaster himself, throws a strong 
 light on the proceedings and feelings of Darius. He never mentions the 
 usurper without calling him the Magus ; he connects with that name 
 innovations in religious forms, overthrow of old fire temples, and a restless 
 indomitable spirit of antagonism to himself, the leader and representative 
 of Persian aristocracy. So that a series of facts are suggested which may 
 account at once for the special form of Persian monotheism, for the first 
 adoption and spread of Zoroastrism, for the antagonism the struggles and 
 persecutions which as we have seen are recorded in the Gathas, and for the 
 vehement efforts on the part of the provinces attached to the Smerdis to 
 throw off the yoke of Darius. Between these alternatives, as it seems to 
 us, the choice is to be made. Whichever may be adopted, we find a time 
 and a combination of circumstances, which suit all that is certainly known 
 or probably^conjectured touching the first origin and earliest development 
 of the Zoroastrian system.
 
 156 AGE OF THE AVESTA. 
 
 Zoroastrian priesthood or in a position which inclined them 
 to support it. 
 
 It must moreover have been a period when special causes 
 for fierce bigotry and intolerance of the most pronounced 
 character existed. We know no passages in other religious 
 works which exceed, few which approach, the denunciations 
 which pervade the Vendidad.* 
 
 To this we must add, a period must be found when the 
 national spirit was recovering from a state of prostration 
 under foreign domination, during which the old language had 
 retained its hold on the affections of the subject races, but 
 had undergone serious changes, such as necessarily occur 
 when national independence is lost. 
 
 Take these points in succession. First we may safely 
 infer that no such prominence of the priestly caste, no 
 such imposition of barbarous, loathsome, and superstitious 
 observances, is credible or possible under the dominion of 
 the Achsemenidse. We may adopt without hesitation the 
 remarks of M. E. Eenan, in the ' Eapport annuel ' of the 
 'Journal asiatique,' juillet 1880, p. 29: "J'admets difficile- 
 ment pour ma part que 1'Avesta, tel que nous 1'avons, ait ete 
 le code d'un grand empire. C'est le code d'une secte reli- 
 gieuse tres bornee ; c'est un Talmud, un livre du casuistique 
 et d'etroite observance. J'ai peine a croire que ce grand 
 Empire Perse, qui du moins en religion professe une certaine 
 largeur d'idees, ait eu une loi aussi stricte." M. Eenan goes 
 on to observe that had such a book existed, Greek historians 
 must have known and have spoken of it. But it is a well- 
 known fact that Herodotus is wholly unconscious of its 
 existence, nay, that the very name of Zoroaster finds no 
 place in his copious records of Persian history and Persian 
 religious systems. 
 
 * See especially the last part of the 12th Fargard, quoted at p. 158.
 
 AGE OF THE AVESTA. 157 
 
 Passing onwards from the Achaemenidse, we come to the 
 Greeks, Alexander and his successors. Of course any notion 
 that they could in any way have sanctioned or tolerated the 
 fierce bigotry and loathsome superstitions of the Avesta is 
 utterly out of the question. 
 
 But what is the case with the Arsacida3 ? A very 
 remarkable series of facts in their case points in one direction. 
 In the first place, whatever may have been their descent, 
 whether Aryan, or Scythian, or mixed questions which 
 involve no small difficulty, no small difference of opinion one 
 thing is certain : from the beginning they declared themselves 
 to be the restorers of the old national religion. Moreover, as 
 Scythians to some extent, for that at least is admitted, they 
 would be instinctively inclined to favour those portions of the 
 system which bear the strongest traces of Scythian or 
 Turanian superstition, such as the horrors of the Nacus and 
 the revolting shapes of Shamanism. In the next place, they 
 were so nearly connected with the Magian caste that in the 
 time of Nero, Tiridates, the brother of Vologeses, was not 
 only a zealous Zoroastrian, but was himself a priest, and by 
 adoption and profession a Magian. To this curious fact we 
 have the attestation of Tacitus (' Annals,' xv. 24). Tiridates 
 was so thoroughly impregnated with the spirit of the Avesta, 
 that he would not cross the sea in order to receive the crown 
 of Armenia at the hand of Nero, because, as Pliny says of the 
 Magians (lib. 61) : " Navigare noluerunt, quoniam inspuere 
 in maria, aliisque mortalium necessitatibus violare naturam 
 earn, fas non putant." This repugnance was shared by his 
 brother Vologeses. Furthermore the bigotry of the Arsacidae 
 as well as their subservience to the Magian priesthood, was 
 especially shown in their persecution of the Christians, whom 
 they might otherwise have been inclined to favour as disaf- 
 fected subjects of the hostile empire. The contact with 
 Christianity, the severity of the measures taken to prevent
 
 158 AGE OF THE AVESTA. 
 
 its spread in the East, are points equally interesting in this 
 question. We find here a clue to the language of the 
 Avesta in Vendidad, F. xi. : " The man of another faith (vara 
 = aipecns) is a two-legged snake, deadly, destructive, making 
 all things unclean, murderous, and only to be suppressed 
 by death." See especially the twelfth Fargard, s. 63-67: 
 " If a stranger dies who does not profess the true faith or the 
 true law, what does he defile by dying ? Nothing is defiled 
 by his death." 
 
 Here we have historical facts and distinct statements, 
 both of which find full explanation if we assume that 
 Zoroastrism in its Avesta form became a national and 
 dominant sect under the Arsacidee, and at the time when 
 Christianity was rapidly permeating the whole sphere of 
 religious thought. We may also add that under the early 
 Arsacidse another religious movement was advancing with rapid 
 strides from the East. Buddhism then achieved some of its 
 most remarkable conquests.* It may be doubtful whether 
 its agents, remarkable for zeal, energy, and subtlety, were not 
 specially designated in the passages above quoted in refe- 
 rence to Christians. However, this may be, the state of the 
 Persian empire, so far as regards its religious aspects, agrees 
 with the indications in the larger portion of the Avesta. 
 
 We have therefore some positive facts of supreme impor- 
 tance and interest. 
 
 1. The Gathas were promulgated at a time when Hebrew 
 monotheism was known in the East, and they present a 
 form of Eranian religion free from the most offensive super- 
 stitions afterwards introduced. 
 
 2. An interval during which these principles are gradually 
 leavening the Eranian mind, while on the other hand the old 
 
 * In the 3rd century B.C. it became, so to speak, the established religion 
 of India, under Ashoka Piyadasi, of whose inscriptions I have given au 
 account in the Essay on the Rig Veda, p. 14.
 
 AGE OF THE AVESTA. 159 
 
 national superstitions in various forms and in various degrees 
 were acquiring or reasserting influence. 
 
 3. A period during which the old language underwent an 
 equally remarkable process, perhaps of development, but 
 certainly of phonetic decay and re-formation. 
 
 4. The establishment of a dynasty under which the 
 various provinces of the empire maintained a condition 
 approaching to independence, but which gave more than full 
 effect to the most deeply-rooted prejudices of the people, 
 when bigotry, intolerance, fierce antagonism to all alien 
 forms of religion, found in vigorous and powerful sovereigns 
 willing and .uncompromising agents. 
 
 5. A combination of internal evidence and external 
 authorities pointing to the completion of the Avesta in its 
 present form during that period. 
 
 Here we might end our inquiry, but the state of the 
 Zoroastrian religion under the Sassanida?, until the subversion 
 of that, the last national dynasty in Persia, is in itself of 
 exceeding interest, and it is closely connected with my 
 principal object in these essays. 
 
 The overthrow of the Arsacida3 effected an entire change 
 in the constitution of the empire. It was far more than a 
 mere dynastic revolution. Under the Arsacidae* each district 
 of the empire had , retained a certain independence ;f the 
 
 * This fact, which is scarcely open to question, is proved most satis- 
 factorily by the Comte de Gobineau in the second volume of his ' Histoire 
 des Perses.' The brilliant description of the Parthian dynasty in art and 
 science and all forms of mental development is singularly interesting. 
 Lib. iii. ' Les Arsacides,' c. iii. ; see p. 527 f. 
 
 f I cannot here enter into the vexed question of Parthian origin. I 
 believe, on the one hand, that the Parthiahs belonged to the Scythian, in 
 distinction from the pure Aryan, race ; but, on the other, that they were 
 closely connected by alliance and descent with the old Persians. The 
 Comte de Gobineau goes much too far, but he takes the true general 
 direction in asserting the interfusion of the old nationalities ; a fact whicli
 
 160 THE CHANGES UNDER THE SASSANID^. 
 
 supreme king, when he was a man of powerful character, 
 united their forces and on many occasions achieved some of 
 the greatest successes which illustrate the ancient annals of 
 the Persian empire. It was throughout a period of intense 
 nationality ; free to a great extent from external, especially 
 from Semitic, influences, or if assailed by them, rejecting 
 them stedfastly. The language of the Avesta, which we take 
 to be that of the nation during this period, bears few, if any, 
 traces of Semitic influences. 
 
 The Sassanidse, on the contrary, established at once a 
 .central despotism. Individualities were suppressed. The old 
 nobility were crushed unsparingly ; the populace of the great 
 cities, democratic and revolutionary in tendency, hunted 
 down the great families and exterminated them in many 
 districts. The sovereigns excited, directed, and gave full 
 effect to this movement ; the old and ever new story of 
 staunch alliances between despotism and democracy was ex- 
 hibited in a form, if not unparalleled, certainly not exceeded 
 in later ages. The Sassanian king found his supporters and 
 agents, sympathising with them in their worst feelings, 
 political and religious, in the inhabitants of the great 
 cities, especially in those of the districts on the west of 
 the Tigris.* 
 
 One chief result of the change was an immense develop- 
 ment of the Semitic element. The language underwent a 
 far greater change than that to which we have called 
 attention in the Avesta. The Pehlevi became the official 
 language, probably the language of the court, certainly the 
 language of the priesthood and of the religious books. That 
 language presents very singular characteristics. As regards 
 its outer form, characters found unmistakeably on Sassanian 
 
 forces itself constantly on our attention as we read the great Persian epic, 
 the Shahnameh. 
 
 * See Gobineau, ' Histoire des Perses,' vol. ii. p. 622 f.
 
 CHANGES OF LANGUAGE PEHLEVI. 161 
 
 coins* and inscriptions derived from the Syriac probably 
 from its corrupt dialects came into immediate use. One of 
 the strangest but most certain facts is that whereas the letters 
 both of the Zend Avesta and of the Pehlevi were derived 
 from Syriac, the former, the elder and the most highly valued, 
 having in the minds of the people and the priesthood somewhat 
 of a sacred character, differed from the latter precisely on those 
 points in which the latter might have been expected to have 
 exhibited superiority. Every sound is correctly and clearly 
 expressed in the Zend. The characters are distinct and un- 
 mistakeable they are never ambiguous. The transliteration, 
 but for the pedantry and perversity of modern critics,! would 
 present no difficulty nor ambiguity. In fact a manuscript of 
 the Zend, in good condition, and written by a careful scribe, 
 is more legible and less open to misapprehension than the 
 generality of classical or medieval documents. The excellent 
 method of dividing the words, introduced, as seems most 
 probable, by the old Persians, was retained in the Zend but 
 lost or discarded in the Pehlevi. The characters of the letters 
 are polyphonous to an extent scarcely credible ; one character 
 represents from four to eight distinct sounds, while ligatures, 
 some ninety-six in number,} combine every imaginable evil 
 
 * A good account of the Sassanian and early Mahometan coins in Persia 
 is given by Mr. Thomas in the ' Journal of the Asiatic Society,' vol. xv. 
 
 f We enter here a protest against unnecessary and pedantic innova- 
 tions in transcriptions. In consulting the works of modern scholars we 
 are constantly impeded by vexatious changes of system. Transliteration 
 so carried on, far from being a help to the student, is a serious hindrance. 
 The Zend characters are easily learned, and give all that we want ; the 
 transliteration by French, German, and English scholars of different schools 
 is worse than perplexing ; it always wastes time and is often misleading. 
 Thus, for instance, if we turn from Haug to Spiegel, to De Harlez, to 
 Hiibschmann, and to Bartholomse for the text of the G&th&s, we have to 
 recommence our studies, and at every step to bear in mind a new 
 principle. 
 
 J Here are two instances : one letter 1 represents u, o, n, v, r, 1 ; one 
 
 M
 
 162 CHANGES OF LANGUAGE PEHLEVI. 
 
 of confusion and uncertainty. Hence the extraordinary 
 diversity in transliteration by different scholars. We have 
 four distinct systems, that of Spiegel in the second volume of 
 his work on the Huzvaresh language and literature,* who uses 
 Hebrew characters ; that of Justi, who uses Arabic, in his 
 valuable edition of the Bundehesh ; that of Haug, and finally 
 that of De Harlez ; both use Latin characters, but arrange the 
 words in their glossaries according to Pehlevi usage. Hence 
 the absolute necessity of an index to the glossaries of Haug 
 and De Harlez. It is simply impossible to find a word, to 
 conjecture its probable pronunciation, without such a guide. 
 As though this were not a sufficient cause of embarrassment 
 Haug and other scholars, German chiefly, systematically ig- 
 nore the labours of their predecessors. The student will do 
 well to take one manual f for his guidance, but if he has to 
 use other books on the subject, he will have to recommence 
 his studies with every separate work. 
 
 It is difficult to suppose that such an alphabet could ever 
 have been in general use. It would almost seem as though 
 the Mobeds,J te. the Magian priesthood, in combination with 
 the court, purposely adopted it because of its obscurity. 
 The Pehlevi translations of the Avesta, which great changes 
 in the language made a necessity, thus became the exclusive 
 property of the priesthood and of the court. 
 
 common form of ligature p is read en, in, in, iv, iva, &c., d6, du, dn, dan, 
 den, dav, dar, gan, go, gu, jan, jo, ju, &c., re, yfi, &c., i.e. altogether some 
 thirty or forty combinations of simple sounds. 
 
 * We cannot but notice the trial of eyesight. Spiegel's Huzvaresh 
 Grammar, the first attempt to bring this strange language into an intel- 
 ligible form, cannot be read save in a strong light and by eyes of singular 
 power. 
 
 t We have no hesitation in recommending that of De Harlez. 
 
 J The word Mobed, used constantly in Persian, means chief of the 
 Magi, from mo, for mog, and lad, from the Sanskrit pati, chief. See 
 Vullers, Lex. Pers. s.v.
 
 CHANGES OF LANGUAGE PEHLEVI. 163 
 
 Other changes are not less remarkable. In the first place 
 all traces of old declensions and flexions died out. In the 
 Pehlevi we have an historical and demonstrable instance * of 
 the transition from a highly systematic form of grammatical 
 language to that of which the Persian in the East, and 
 English in the West, are among the most striking examples. 
 Such a change could not have been made suddenly. There 
 must have been an interval between the two systems : and 
 we may certainly infer that when it was thus introduced into 
 public and sacred documents, it did but give formal expression 
 to what had previously been a general and popular usage. 
 The Zend of the Avesta, after the Gatha period, retaining the 
 old flexions and grammatical forms, though, as we have seen, 
 without understanding their true significance and use, bore wit- 
 ness to the higher and nobler origin of their sacred language ; 
 the Pehlevi, in accordance with the whole tenor of the new 
 political movement, gave complete expression to the popular 
 movement ; and the pronunciation thus introduced was perma- 
 nent. At no later time did the language recover the old forms. 
 The Parsi and the modern Persian, in many respects infinitely 
 more graceful and expressive, are completely devoid of flexion. 
 We do not notice this change as strange or reprehensible. 
 Forms no longer understood, utterly disused in common life, 
 could not be retained for writing without serious incon- 
 venience ; but one thing is clear, the dismissal of the form 
 involved a complete severance from the old, reverent, and 
 aristocratic system. Democracy, priesthood, and despotism 
 in combination put a seal upon the final and decisive triumph, 
 when the first Huzvaresh translation and the first Huzvaresh 
 composition were given to Zoroastrians in place of their ancient 
 sacred books. 
 
 * Not however the most ancient, for the Prakrit and Pali went far in 
 the same direction, but neither of those dialects proceeded so thoroughly 
 and systematically. 
 
 M 2
 
 164 CHANGES OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 
 
 Another change, not less remarkable, marked this transi- 
 tion. The Pehlevi adopted Semitic words to an extent which 
 made it practically a new- language. These words are 
 transfigured so strangely, deformed in fact so completely, that 
 though the reader recognises them at first as conspicuously 
 un-Persian, it is only by degrees that he discovers their true 
 origin.* A glance at the glossary of Haug or De Harlez 
 will show the meaning and truth of this assertion ; we call 
 attention to it, however, for a very important object. 
 
 The adoption of the words accompanied and attested the 
 adoption of no inconsiderable proportion of the Semitic 
 religious systems, especially of those which prevailed from 
 the third to the ninth century in the districts bordering on 
 the Euphrates and the Tigris. To a very considerable 
 extent all those systems were pervaded, penetrated, and 
 remoulded by Hebrew or by Christian influences. The 
 recognition of any doctrine in that period of Persian litera- 
 ture directs our minds at once to the writings of Christian 
 churchmen or Christian sectaries. This is specially the case 
 with the Minochired, the Bundehesh, the Arda Viraf, and 
 others of the same character, both in their views of the 
 celestial hierarchy, and the antagonistic powers, and in their 
 eschatology. To this we have to revert presently ; here we 
 note the fact of the enormous, the preponderating influence 
 of the Semitic religious element under the Sassanidse. 
 
 We have further to observe that the two forms in which 
 that influence prevailed, issued in very different results. 
 The innovation in language due to it utterly disappeared 
 when the dynasty was overthrown. Not a trace of the ugly 
 forms which disfigure the Pehlevi is found in Parsi. The 
 fire-worshippers, who faithfully retained all that could con- 
 
 * Look at these words : hinhitiinatano, from the Hiphil of JirW ; yehe- 
 vunt homano, from Kin, to become. .
 
 CHANGES OF RELIGIONS SYSTEMS. 165 
 
 nect them with their old home and dearest associations, 
 spoke and wrote a language which in other respects bore 
 witness to the process of transformation, but discarded, or 
 more probably simply ignored, what must be regarded as 
 an unnational innovation.* That, however, was not the case 
 with the religious innovations. They entered deeply into the 
 national mind ; they accorded to some extent with profound 
 convictions ; they came from Israelites, or from Christians, as 
 strangers certainly, but as strangers who retained primeval 
 truths, who had true developments of those truths, and 
 though personally those strangers were objects of bitter 
 hatred, and were persecuted to the death, their views were 
 unconsciously accepted and incorporated into the system 
 which was developed and retained up to the present by 
 the professed followers of Zoroaster, f 
 
 This, however, brings us into contact with the great pro- 
 blem which, to speak frankly, has been to me by far the most 
 important and interesting object throughout this essay. 
 
 We find certain doctrines which at various times and in 
 
 * The disappearance of the Semitic element in this language has exercised 
 the ingenuity of critics. Nb'ldeke, a very learned and able critic, actually 
 believed that those Semitic words were never spoken by Persians, that 
 even when they found them in their manuscripts, they substituted Persian 
 synonyms for them a theory rejected by most sound critics. Darmesteter 
 however adopts this view, and defends it with remarkable ingenuity, but 
 as it appears to me not convincingly ; his argument, however, is interesting 
 as marking strongly his sense of the incongruity of the two elements, and 
 accounting for the feelings which rapidly led to its obliteration. Our 
 conclusion is simply this. The Semitic words were never in general use 
 throughout Persia ; they were the product of a highly artificial amalga- 
 mation, and when the dynasty which introduced them were expelled, they 
 passed out of the language. 
 
 f We may not here dwell on the influence of Buddhism, which cer- 
 tainly penetrated deeply into Eastern Persia under the Arsacidae. The 
 bitter denunciations in the Vendidad, Fargard xii., were probably directed 
 against Buddhist as well as Christian proselytisers. See also Vendidad, 
 F. xviii. 66.
 
 166 ZOBOASTRIANISM AND THE BIBLE. 
 
 various forms were common to the Hebrew and the Christian 
 revelation on the one hand, and to Zoroastrian systems on the 
 other. 
 
 What is their mutual relation ? How far are they identi- 
 cal or substantially one in principle ? To which system, 
 arguing on strictly scientific grounds, does the priority 
 belong? Was either derived from the other? If so, to 
 what extent, with what modifications ? 
 
 We must note this fact. When the Zoroastrian religion 
 was first made known to modern Europe it was known 
 only in its latest form, in its full development, or, to speak 
 more accurately, in its composite representation. 
 
 This is true not only of the system described and investi- 
 gated with singular learning and acuteness by Hyde in his 
 f Eeligion of the Early Persians ' (a treatise of intrinsic value, 
 not superseded by later works), resting partly on the accounts 
 of the classical writers, partly on works of the later Parsees 
 and early Persians , but it is true also of the system as it 
 was set before the European mind by D'Anquetil. That 
 energetic Frenchman, to whom we owe our first knowledge 
 of the Zend Avesta itself, learned all that he knew from 
 Parsees ; but to these Parsees the original language and 
 the Pehlevi were utterly unknown. They do not even seem 
 to have known, certainly not to have used, the translation 
 of their Sacred Books into Sanskrit, not from the Zend, but 
 from the Pehlevi by Neriosengh,* in the beginning of the 
 tenth century; they knew the Avesta only by translations 
 in the Parsi and Persian. That was the system which first 
 claimed the attention of European scholars ; a system which 
 by slow degrees was resolved into its true original consti- 
 tuents, by the labours first of Eugene Burnouf, then by a 
 
 * The translation of Neriosengh is confined to the Yacna. It is used 
 constantly by E. Burnouf, and has been lately edited by Spiegel.
 
 AHRIMAN AND SATAN. 167 
 
 succession of scholars, among whom Spiegel, notwithstanding 
 the unjust and perverse criticism of Dr. Haug, himself an ori- 
 ginal and learned investigator, stands conspicuously foremost. 
 
 What was the result ? Doubtless much difference of 
 opinion, many long and tedious controversies, but still, on the 
 whole, a strong tendency among scholars conspicuous for 
 learning and ability, but not less conspicuous for self- 
 assertion and rashness, to believe and maintain that doctrines 
 of the highest significance were first learned by Hebrews in 
 contact with Zoroastrians under the Achajmenidse. From 
 them so we find the leaders asserting, and the common ruck 
 of followers repeating the Hebrews learned the power of 
 Satan, the spirituality of monotheism, the doctrine of the 
 resurrection of the body, the order and character of the 
 celestial hierarchy. 
 
 We will take these points in succession. We will first 
 inquire (1) whether there is any true connection between the 
 Persian and Hebrew or Christian views, and (2) in the next 
 place to which class of Zoroastrian writings those doctrines 
 properly belong, and lastly which of them was derived from 
 the other. 
 
 1. The alleged connection between the Persian Ahriman 
 and the Hebrew and Christian representation of Satan. We 
 have alluded to this previously, but we must here deal with 
 it, if not as the most important, yet as the point which seems 
 to have taken strongest hold of the sceptical or critical mind. 
 As an example of the extent to which the assumption, not 
 indeed that Satan is to be identified with Ahriman, but that 
 the Biblical or rather Christian view of the evil principle and 
 person was substantially derived from the Persians, I need 
 but quote the words of Justi, a writer of moderate views and 
 on other matters of sound judgment. In his preface to his 
 ' Handbuch der Zend-Sprache ' he makes this peremptory 
 statement : " As well as monotheism, so also the assumption
 
 168 AHRIMAN AND SATAN. 
 
 of an evil principle is a result of speculation, which seeks to 
 explain the existence of evil in the perfect creation of God, 
 and in this case Parseeism certainly does not stand on the 
 relation of dependence, since the Satan of the Bible was first 
 moulded under Persian influences into the shape in which he 
 has passed from the Jewish to the Christian religion." In 
 this statement Justi does but express what a few years since 
 was the prevalent, the exclusive theory of German speculators. 
 To Van Kohlen are due persistent and the most mischievous 
 attempts to explain the most striking doctrines both as 
 regards evil and good spirits in the Bible as results of the 
 intercourse with Persia in the sixth century before Christ. 
 
 We will not here deal with speculations ever shifting their 
 ground, ever assuming new forms, and never presenting firm, 
 definite positions ; but we take our stand on simple, ascertain- 
 able, demonstrable facts. 
 
 We observe first that the whole conception of Ahriman 
 differs in essential principles from that of Satan in the Bible. 
 Ahriman is invariably represented as absolutely independent 
 of Ormuzd ; he acts, as we have seen, not merely as an 
 independent, but as a self-determined power. Like Ormuzd, 
 he 'is represented sometimes as co-eternal, existing from all 
 eternity, without beginning and without end, sometimes as 
 deriving his origin from uncreated time,* the only absolute 
 
 * In the Eivayet (quoted by Spiegel, ' Einl. in die Trad. Schr. der Parsen,' 
 ii. p. 26), eternal time, in that system the only eternity, produces Ormuzd, 
 who, looking down into the abyss of darkness, sees there his hideous, 
 terrible antagonist. Time is represented as morally indifferent, aiding 
 both in their acts of creative energy. Spiegel gives the original Persian 
 and a translation. The word Rivayet is equivalent to oral tradition. The 
 conception of Time by the later Eranians is connected with that of Aditi, 
 the old Sanskrit word for the personified infinity ; but between the two 
 there is one vital difference. The Uncreated Time is regarded as indif- 
 ferent, without moral or spiritual tendency, producing good and evil and 
 favouring impartially the development of both; but Aditi in the Rig
 
 AHKIMAN AND SATAN. 169 
 
 eternity, and as coetaneous with Ormuzd. These two 
 views are worked out, and presented in their developed form, 
 in later Pehlevi and Parsi works, as for instance in the first 
 chapter of the Bundehesh, and in the Kivayets, but in the one 
 or the other shape they belong to the fundamental principles 
 of the Zoroastrian religion. 
 
 Contrast with this the Satan of the New Testament. Satan, 
 the fallen creature of God, acts under the absolute control of 
 the Supreme Being j he is a creature of God, a rebel powerless 
 save for works in which unwittingly he carries out the 
 designs of God. Such was the state of Jewish opinion when 
 it first came into contact with Persia. 
 
 We ask then, what elements could have passed out of the 
 Persian into the Biblical representation of Satan ? 
 
 Certainly not malignity. Malignity is indeed the special 
 characteristic of Satan, malignus as he is styled in the Old 
 Latin Version; but that characteristic is certainly not 
 derived from Persian sources: it was recognised as fully 
 developed in records written ages before the Hebrews came 
 into contact with the Persians. The Satan of the Old Testa- 
 ment is, from first to last, exactly what he is described in the 
 New : the seducer, the rebel, the hater of God and good men, 
 the calumniator. Moreover between that representation and 
 the Zoroastrian there is a striking difference. The Satan of 
 Job and of the prophets calumniates man before God, seeks 
 to move the divine justice against man, his one permanent 
 object being to alienate the creature from the Creator. Thus 
 in his very attempts to effect the ruin of man, he recognises, 
 so to speak, unconsciously the absolute supremacy of the 
 Creator. 
 
 Veda is source, author, or mother of the Adityas, the pure, holy, beneficent 
 lords of the universe. The Time of later Zoroastrianism is Pantheism in 
 its worst and most odious form. Aditi is a true, though dim form of the 
 eternal truth : hence sinners are said to break the law of Aditi.
 
 170 AHRIMAN AND SATAN. 
 
 Certainly not power. Ahriman's power is enormous and 
 wholly independent of the God of goodness. Satan's power in 
 the Old as in the New Testament is strictly limited ; he is cast 
 out of the sphere of spiritual life ; in the physical world 
 he is represented not as the cause, but as the agent of terrible 
 punishment ordained by divine justice, inflicted by the 
 heavenly ministers of that justice. 
 
 Still the fact remains that when the reader puts side by 
 side the representations of Ahriman and Satan, an indefinite 
 but strong impression is made of oneness in fundamental 
 principle, if not of mutual interdependence, between the two 
 systems. How is this to be accounted for ? 
 
 I answer, in two ways. First, the separate existence of 
 evil, the connection between physical and moral evil, a fact 
 recognised in some form by all men, is recognised in no 
 system of heathenism more distinctly than in the Zoroastrian 
 religion. It forms indeed one clear mark of difference between 
 the old Eranian and Indo- Aryan systems. In the Vedas 
 a strong sense of antagonism in the distinct regions of 
 physical well-being and evil-being, of light and darkness, of 
 life and death, is to a strange extent combined with what 
 amounts to a state of moral indifference * in the region of 
 spiritual life. But the Eranians, at the earliest age of which 
 we have sure or probable knowledge, feel and express an 
 intense sense of the mutual relations and interdependence 
 between physical and moral good, between physical and 
 moral evil. Since the Jew and the Persian both held that 
 that principle was vividly represented, or substantially 
 realised, in a personality, it is impossible that either should 
 have failed to recognise in the other a maintainer of one great 
 doctrine regarded by both as fundamental 
 
 Secondly as, on the one hand, I hold for certain that 
 
 * See a fuller inquiry into this point in the Essay on the Rig Veda.
 
 AHRIMAN AND SATAN. 171 
 
 the Hebrew seers preserved faithfully, without admixture of 
 error, a truth known from the beginning, inseparable from 
 the first event in the history of humanity so, on the other 
 hand, do I hold it as only less certain, as probable in the 
 highest degree, that that truth was dimly discerned, or 
 retained as a matter of primeval tradition, by all great 
 families of the human race. We find in this fact a key to 
 the wild, dark superstitions among the Turanian races, exhi- 
 bited in the oldest and most striking forms by the Accadian 
 inscriptions of Chaldea, contemporary with, if not older than, 
 the earliest Jewish records superstitions of which there are 
 abundant traces in every branch of the Aryan or Indo- 
 Germanic family ; in the Vritra of the Indians, the Pluto of 
 classical antiquity, and in the monstrous and hideous super- 
 stitions of early Teutons, Sclavs, and Celts, collected in 
 I. Grimm's ' Deutsche Mythologie ; ' nor do we doubt that, as 
 the Eranians retained certain dim reminiscences of Paradise 
 and of the tree of life, so, in their conception of Ahriman, 
 they found a place for traditional notions of the serpent 
 tempter, the hater of God, the destroyer of man. The name 
 of the evil being, which certainly is not identical in form 
 with the Hebrew or the Greek, marks distinctly these cha- 
 racteristics Anro-Mainyo, the destructive spirit, identical in 
 sense with Abaddon, Satan, or Devil. 
 
 But if we admit that the Hebrew conception was neither 
 derived from, nor substantially identical with, nor in any 
 sense modified by, the Persian representation of Ahriman, are 
 we also to admit that the Persian theory was equally 
 independent of the Hebrew speaking of its development, 
 not of its origin. 
 
 To this we have more than one distinct answer. In those 
 portions of the Avesta which unquestionably belong to its 
 later development, Ahriman comes very near to the Satan of 
 the Bible. The most striking instance is the temptation of
 
 172 AHRIMAN AND SATAN. 
 
 Zoroaster * in the nineteenth Fargard of the Vendidad. If 
 that chapter was written, as we hold to be pretty certain, by 
 a Magian in the time of the Arsacidse,t we see how natural, 
 how probable, a supposition it is, that conversant as the 
 Persians were with the movements of religious thought and 
 feeling in the earliest age of Christianity when their prince, 
 who, as we have seen, was most closely connected with the 
 religious system of their own people, lived at Rome they 
 should have been struck with the great scene of the 
 Temptation of Christ, have recognised in the Tempter their 
 Ahriman, and have been moved to transfer to their own 
 Zoroaster the glory attached to a defeat of the arch-enemy. 
 That the passage in the Avesta to which I refer is wholly 
 unconnected with the book in which it occurs that it differs 
 from it in tone, especially in elevation of moral spirit, is 
 unquestioned : it is a grand passage. Eushing from the 
 realm of darkness, Ahriman calls upon the most malignant of 
 the Devas, to assault Zoroaster, to offer him the kingdom of 
 the world J on the condition of his abjuring the true religion, 
 
 * The temptation of the Buddha by Mara may occur to some as the 
 older, and therefore as the original legend ; but it differs fundamentally from 
 the Zoroastrian and still more completely from the Christian accounts. It is 
 not merely that the Buddhistic legends are utterly monstrous in form ; 
 but the principles of attack are force and seduction, addressed to the 
 meanest and most sensual feeling of debased humanity. See a full account 
 of this temptation by Koeppen, 'Die Keligion des Buddha,' p. 88, by 
 Eugene Burnouf s ' Int. Buddhisme,' p. 607 f., and by M. B. Saint-Hilaire, 
 ' Le Bouddha,' p. 60. 
 
 f I say Arsacidae, but in fact there is an old and probable tradition that 
 the books of the Avesta were brought into their present state under the 
 first Sassanian monarchs. A Mobed of eminence is said to have been 
 actively engaged in this work in the time of Shapor II. 
 
 % We may observe that Ahriman's agent here refers distinctly to the 
 legend which represents Zohak, the Arabian tyrant of Eran, as the creature 
 of Ahriman. The legend is given in its completest form in the first volume 
 of the Shahnameh, ed. J. Mohl.
 
 AHRIMAN AND SATAN: 173 
 
 of forsaking Ormuzd ; and he is baffled by Zoroaster, whose 
 one effectual weapon is the divine word.* 
 
 Can there be any doubt as to the connection between 
 the two accounts? Can the plain fact be denied that 
 the author of the Eranian legend had opportunities for 
 knowing the Christian record, or that he had sufficient 
 motive for its application ? Henceforth, in fact, we find 
 throughout the traditional works of the Zoroastrians distinct 
 marks of such application. Mani, in the beginning of the 
 third century, at the court of the Sassanidae, constructed a 
 system, not, as is generally supposed, so much a corruption of 
 Christianity, as a modification of the Zoroastrian system. 
 The full and ancient account of his system, lately published 
 by Fliigel,t leaves no doubt as to this fact. Mani is not to be 
 regarded as a Christian heretic, a term, however, which 
 attaches fully to his followers in Western Asia and Europe, 
 but as a Persian schismatic. He first intentionally and 
 consistently identified Ahriman with Satan, and though his 
 system was formally repudiated by Zoroastrians, yet its 
 influence was permanently felt; in all later Pehlevi and 
 Parsi writings we find proofs how deeply this special form 
 of doctrine had penetrated the Eastern mind. This is espe- 
 cially conspicuous in the collection of old national legends 
 produced after the Mahometan conquest by the great author 
 of the Shahnameh, Firdausi, a professed Mahometan, but in 
 spirit an old Eranian. With him Ahriman and Eblis, the 
 designation of Satan in the Koran, are convertible terms ; 
 
 * Here again we notice at once the resemblance and the essential dif- 
 ference between the Zoroastrian legend and the Christian record. Zoroaster 
 uses the inspired word as a talisman, a magic charm, the utterance of 
 which repels the fiend. Our Lord uses the written word as the expression 
 of an eternal truth, exactly meeting the temptation. The use of the 
 Gathas as magical formulas is very ancient. De Harlez, p. 316, note 1, 
 finds it in the 5th verse of the 1st G&tha (Yacna, 28, 5). 
 
 f Mani, von Gustav Flugel,' 1862.
 
 174 AHRIMAN AND SATAN. 
 
 and although Ahriman retains other characteristic traits, 
 such as persistent and often successful antagonism to the 
 good principle, no longer called Ormuzd, but the Creator, yet 
 his special mode of action is that of Satan, the suggester of 
 evil thoughts, the deviser of evil actions, the seducer and 
 tempter. Of this one curiously interesting instance is found 
 in the first part of his work, in the wild, fanciful legend of 
 Zohak, to whose diabolical and thoroughly successful empire 
 the Demon refers in the account of the temptation above cited 
 from the 19th Fargard of the Vendidad. Zohak is represented 
 as a noble, highly gifted, and innocent youth, seduced by a suc- 
 cession of artful devices till he became a very incarnation of 
 cruelty and impiety, conquered and bound by Feridnn, the 
 servant of the true God, yet destined to renew a terrible 
 conflict before the final consummation. With this fully 
 agree the notices of Ahriman' s work in later Pehlevi writings ; 
 and we may here notice the curious fact that in the Sadder 
 Bund, of which a good and full account is given by our Hyde, 
 fuller and better than in Spiegel's Einleitung (vol. ii. p. ii), 
 we find, for the first time, distinct supplications addressed to 
 the supreme good for deliverance from the wicked one, the 
 living personal spirit of evil.* 
 
 I must, however, enter a formal protest against ,the 
 adoption of these traditions, however modified in form, by 
 writers professing to give true and impartial views of Chris- 
 tian and Eranian systems. Those who have gone farthest in 
 assigning to Satan all but an unlimited power for evil, and an 
 influence over men's souls approaching to mastery, who on 
 that and other grounds, adopt the interpretation of the last 
 
 * Hyde, 'De Rel. Pers.' p. 465. "Through Satan ._* as in 
 
 the Koran) I have fallen into a hundred doubts, give my heart deliverance 
 from Satan." This prayer is repeated in various forms, identifying Satan 
 with the druj and the div of the Avesta. I do not find the name of 
 Ahriman in this connection.
 
 ZOROASTRIANISM AND THE BIBLE. 175 
 
 clause iii the Lord's prayer, which was first, as I believe, 
 professed by Origen, a great and noble spirit, but certainly 
 infected to no small extent by Oriental influences* yet one and 
 all utterly ignore or distinctly repudiate the ascription of such 
 independent and inherent self-determining power to Satan, 
 as would justify his identification with the eternal Ahriman. 
 
 Upon this I have dwelt at greater length than would 
 otherwise be excusable, because of its special bearing upon 
 the general all-important question. It is wholly inexcusable 
 when modern writers use terms peculiar to Holy Scripture in 
 reference to Persian doctrines. For instance the term 
 hell is applied to the sphere in which Ahriman reigns, of 
 which he is the embodiment. Now the fact that in this 
 matter some main features are common to the Christian and 
 to the Persian system is unquestionable; utter absence 
 of light, utter loathsomeness, horror of hopeless misery and 
 desperate malignity belong to both ; but the Persian black- 
 ness is eternal, uncreated, absolutely independent of the 
 supreme good ; nor is there any indication of penal fire, 
 whether spiritual or physical, in that original home of the 
 evil principle.! But the hell of the Bible is the creation of 
 God, " prepared for the devil and his angels," existing solely 
 by reason of His will, and not regarded as essentially eternal, 
 certainly not as regards its origin, whatever may be its 
 duration.! The two notions, notwithstanding their mutual 
 
 * Note the connection of Origen with the mother of Alexander. 
 
 f See the fragments of the Avesta found in the Aogemadaeca, trans- 
 lated by M. de Harlez, 'Avesta,' p. 613. The abode of evil is there 
 called "Le gouffre terrible, funeste, qu'Anromainyus a fait diabolique, 
 d'aspect affreux, dans le fond du monde te"ne"breux, du formidable enfer." 
 I have quoted De Harlez as generally accessible, but there is an excellent 
 edition of this ancient work by Geiger. The formidable word aogemadaeca" 
 simply means " We come," from the Old Bactrian verb, aog : it is the first 
 word in the treatise, and on that account taken as the title. 
 
 J Dante's word of the ' Inferno,' " Ed io eterno duro," expresses with
 
 176 THE AMSHASPANDS AND ARCHANGELS 
 
 affinities, are utterly distinct, and it is a grave error, grave in 
 itself and mischievous in its consequences, which confounds 
 them. 
 
 Thus in the note on the first verse of the 19th Fargard, 
 Darmesteter tells us that the realm of darkness, a word which 
 simply means the region wholly without the light of stars, 
 primeval and utter blackness, whence Ahriman comes 
 rushing, is Hell. Thus, too, in the translation of the Arda 
 Viraf, a Fehlevi writing, which is admitted to be full of 
 notions drawn directly or indirectly from Christian writers, 
 Haug habitually uses words which leave the impression of 
 identity between the Persian and Christian systems. 
 
 THE AMSHASPANDS, OK AMESHA-SPENTAS. 
 
 This, too, is a point on which great stress has been laid by 
 the maintainers of Persian influences on Christian doctrine. 
 Now so far as regards the Old and the New Testament, the 
 assumed analogy breaks down completely on both sides. 
 
 It is said there are seven Amshaspands and seven arch- 
 angels, both created by the Supreme Being, both nearest to 
 Him in place and rank ; both ministers of His will. 
 
 But the Bible never speaks of seven archangels. The 
 number belongs to later Jewish tradition. There is no trace 
 of it in the Old Testament; in the New Testament the 
 number seven refers not to angels or archangels, but to the 
 varied and perfect manifestations of the one Holy Spirit. 
 
 On the other hand, the Amesha-spentas are not seven in 
 number ; there are six,* when number is noticed at all, and it 
 
 terrible briefness that true Catholic doctrine. He is equally careful to 
 assign the creation of the abode of evil spirits to the Somma Sapienza e '1 
 primo amor. 
 
 * See De Harlez, J. A. 1880, ii. p. 168 : " Si les Amesha-cpentas sont 
 comptes sculs ils ne sont que six."
 
 ANGELS AND AMESHA-SPENTAS. 177 
 
 is not noticed or indicated in the Gathas. In order to make 
 up the number seven required by the hypothesis of identity 
 with Hebrew and early Christian representations, Ahura- 
 mazda is reckoned as one of the group. 
 
 There are few points of the Zoroastrian system which 
 underwent more frequent and more thorough processes of 
 development, or rather of transformation, than that which 
 begins with the Amshaspands, Amesha-spentas, and extends 
 first to the Izeds* or secondary deities, then to the innumerable 
 hosts of subordinate beings to whom worship is addressed 
 in the Avesta. The so-called Yeshts, or Yashts, elaborate 
 liturgical forms addressed first to Ormuzd, then to the 
 Amesha-spentas, and then to the three Anaiti and other 
 personifications or modes of divinity, occupy a large portion 
 of the third volume of Spiegel's translation of the Avesta.f 
 No one who reads them carefully, with reference to their 
 doctrinal bearings, can fail to discover the immeasurable gulf 
 between the Hebrew system and the Persian, in the latter 
 of which they are presented as objects of worship, if not 
 independent of the Supreme Deity, yet, within their own 
 sphere, self-acting, self-determined, claiming and receiving 
 such adoration as Hebrews and Christians alike hold to be 
 due to God only. 
 
 One point is decisive. In the Bible the angels, from the 
 lowest in earth to the very highest, are invariably represented 
 as servants, absolute slaves, agents and instruments of God ; 
 they are to use the definition of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
 ministering or liturgical spirits, in their relation to God, 
 
 * The old form of the word is Yazatas, i.e. the adorable. 
 
 f In De Harlez's excellent translation of the Avesta the twenty-one 
 Yashts occupy a distinct portion of the book. In Spiegel they are printed 
 as part of the Khorda Avesta, to the great inconvenience of the student. 
 Darmesteter has lately given a new translation of the Yashts in Max 
 M tiller's Sacred Books of the East,' vol. xxiii. 
 
 N
 
 178 ANGELS AND AMESHA-SPENTAS. 
 
 and sent forth by Him to minister (acting as helpers, not 
 servants) to the heirs of salvation. Their highest distinction 
 is that they stand in the presence of God awaiting His behests. 
 In Greek and in Hebrew every name, general or special, denotes 
 this position of absolute dependence, their offices, of ministra- 
 tion. The slightest involuntary approach to an act of worship 
 is at once repudiated and sternly condemned by apostles and 
 angels. " I am thy fellow servant," saith the great angel of 
 the Apocalypse ; " worship God." The danger of superstitious 
 observances specially connected with angel-worship is noticed 
 and condemned by St. Paul. 
 
 Even when we turn to Jewish writings, of a date and 
 under circumstances, perfectly compatible with the theory of 
 their subjection to Persian influences, which from the time of 
 Cyrus must have been dominant in Babylon and the adjoin- 
 ing districts, we see indeed an expanded angelology, mixed up 
 with superstitious notions, but we recognise at the same time 
 a jealous maintenance of the infinite distance between the 
 highest angels and their Creator. In far later times, when the 
 Hebrews and the Zoroastrians had been long in close contact, 
 when the former found their safest and most permanent 
 home in the districts adjoining the Eoman Empire, we 
 recognise an increasing approximation to mutual harmony. 
 That tendency is, however, on the whole most conspicuous, 
 most decided, on the part of the later Zoroastrians. As we 
 have seen, the language in which all their works were 
 written under the Sassanian dynasty was penetrated through 
 and through by Semitic elements, so also their religious system 
 was to no small extent pervaded and transformed by contact 
 with Jews and with Christians. The later representations 
 of Ormuzd himself rose to a loftier sphere * approaching 
 monotheism : subordinate deities took a comparatively lower 
 
 * I refer to the Avesta, not however including the Gathas, which are 
 monotheistic; ; see further on p. 217.
 
 ANGELS AND AMESHA-SPENTAS. 179 
 
 place ; * the moral and spiritual teaching was elevated and 
 purified; still one thing is certain. The fundamental diffe- 
 rence remained fixed and immovable. The Creator in the 
 Hebrew system stood apart from all His creatures ; to Him 
 alone is attributed the origin of all existences, visible or 
 invisible, whether remaining in their original estate, objects 
 of love and of favour, or fallen by reason of their inherent 
 liberty the highest proof of inconceivable wisdom in their 
 Maker objects of divine displeasure, examples of merited 
 judgment. From this position the Hebrews never receded ; 
 in their wildest speculations, in their most extravagant 
 myths, we still find the deity absolutely alone, the only source 
 of power, by whose permission only, for purposes distinctly 
 recognised, evil has a temporary and limited sphere of action. 
 But in the Zoroastrian system Ormuzd is surrounded 
 by beings which, whether they are represented as deriving 
 their existence from him, or, as it would seem, conceived as 
 emanations or manifestations of divine attributes, come so 
 near to him, are endued with powers so specially their own, 
 themselves styled Qadata f (i. e. self-created or self-existent), 
 that he calls upon them for help, and needs their support, 
 especially in conflict with Ahriman; their subordination in 
 rank does not involve such subjection, such merely ministerial 
 and dependent power, as would be involved in the dis- 
 charge of the functions attributed to the highest archangel 
 not only in the Christian revelation, but in Rabbinical 
 speculations. The Amshaspands, in fact, may at first sight 
 recall the imagery of the Apocalypse, dwelling in the Garo- 
 nmane or abode of Ormuzd, surrounding Ms throne, even 
 directing the adoration of his worshippers ; but the slightest 
 
 * Thus in the Arda Viraf, Sherosh, the highest Amshaspand, receives 
 instructions from Ormuzd. 
 
 f The word Qadata is held by Bopp and other scholars to be the original 
 form of the Persian Khoda, and of our great word God. 
 
 N 2
 
 180 ANGELS AND AMESHA-SPENTAS. 
 
 examination draws out the infinite and essential distinction 
 between them and the heavenly beings who by wilful or 
 incautious speculators are identified with them. 
 
 I have before noticed the abuse of terms transferring 
 Christian associations to Zoroastrian inscriptions. Here I 
 must specially notice the course adopted by Haug in his 
 translation of the Arda Viraf. The word which he trans- 
 literates yedato, given by De Harlez as yuzadan, which un- 
 questionably means a spirit to be worshipped and honoured 
 by sacrifices, and belongs to the well-known class of subor- 
 dinate deities called Iseds, Haug systematically renders by 
 the word " angels," thus introducing a Hebrew or Christian 
 notion into the Zoroastrian hierarchy.* Still more, repre- 
 hensible is his studied substitution of Archangel for Amshas- 
 pands. In c. xi. we read in his translation, " Then arose 
 Vehuman the Archangel from the throne made of gold, he 
 brought me into the midst of Auharmazd, and the archangels 
 and other holy ones." Now Haug properly transcribes the 
 Pehlevi, Voliuman Amchospend ; which should either be 
 rendered by the word Amshaspand, as a well-known Zoro- 
 astrian name, not open to confusion, or, if translated, by the 
 words " immortal benefactor," as in his own Glossary, p. 35. 
 There is nothing in the form or use of the original word 
 which corresponds to either element in the word arch-angel. 
 The Amshaspands do not exercise authority over other orders 
 of spirits, nor are they represented as delegates or messengers 
 of Ormuzd. 
 
 Here, however, we must in fairness admit that Haug is 
 neither the first nor the most confident among the critics 
 
 * Arda Viraf, cc. xvi. Here we should notice that the two deities 
 Serosh the pious, and Atar6 the angel, as Haug calls him in his translation, 
 or Izad, Yazato as he ought to have styled him, though executing an 
 order of Ormuzd, do but exercise their own proper functions. Serosh is 
 personified obedience to eternal law, Ataro is the Izad or deity of fire, atar.
 
 THE RESURKECTION. 181 
 
 who identify the Amshaspands with archangels. It was one 
 of the first results of the study of Parsi and early Persian, 
 as well as of classical representations of the Zoroastrian 
 religion. Hyde ('de Eeligione Vet. Persarum,' c. xii. p. 178) 
 uses the word " angel " as equivalent to Ised, Ized, or Yazato, 
 and again in the 22nd chapter he confounds Amespands with 
 archangels. Gabriel, in c. xx., represents Behman (i. e. 
 Vohumano), the first of the Amesha-spentas, as the greatest 
 of the angels created by Ormuzd. Thus again, Justi, in his 
 translation of the Bundehesh, and in the Glossary, calls the 
 Ameshaspands the seven archangels. Now one thing is 
 certain, as admitted by all scholars : all the names assigned to 
 each of the Amesha-spentas in Zoroastrian writings are purely 
 Eranian in form and meaning, whereas the two names 
 Gabriel and Michael in the Bible, and five others in 
 Eabbinical writings, are as purely Hebrew. Neither in name, 
 nor extent of power, nor in functions attributed to these 
 beings, is there any approach to identity. The two systems 
 spring from different sources, follow different lines of develop- 
 ment, and, although they might be confounded when im- 
 perfectly known, they ought to be kept apart, and most care- 
 fully distinguished by all who profess to give sound and 
 correct representations of Eranian documents. We hope that 
 we have heard the last of angels and archangels in reference 
 to Zoroastrian doctrines. 
 
 THE RESURKECTION. 
 
 We have now to consider another fundamental doctrine said 
 to be common to Zoroastrianism and the Bible ; specially, to 
 use a now familiar Germanism, the eschatology of the two 
 systems. 
 
 The resurrection of the body, one of the most striking 
 and characteristic doctrines of Christianity that which
 
 182 . THE EESURKECTION. 
 
 encountered the strongest antagonism, exciting the ridicule 
 or indignation of all Gentiles, from the philosopher of Athens 
 to the idle caviller of the agora or market-place, that which 
 the apostles from first to last take as the central point in 
 their religious system, the foundation of their hopes, and the 
 attestation to the truth of their teaching, is said confidently, 
 authoritatively, as a fact scarcely open to reasonable doubt, 
 to have been derived from the Zoroastrian religion, as a 
 doctrine inculcated in distinct and positive texts of the 
 Avesta. 
 
 We will not dwell upon points which, though sufficient to 
 settle the question, might imply an absence of bias in our 
 opponents beyond what might be reasonably expected, 
 certainly far beyond what is actually exhibited by them. "We 
 simply invite attention to the facts, (a) that distinct state- 
 ments are found, for instance, in Isaiah and the book of Job, 
 which declare or assume belief in the doctrine; (b) that in 
 other passages, as in Ezekiel, visions are recorded which 
 must be regarded, if not as proving, yet as preparing the way 
 for the reception of, the doctrine ; (c) that it was held as a 
 distinctive and vital doctrine by the party among the Jews 
 who were least open to external influences, most thoroughly 
 national in their prejudices and in their adherence to ancient 
 doctrines; or (d) again, that while other great doctrines, 
 specially that of the atoning death of the Messiah, excited 
 feelings of intense repugnance, the doctrine of the resurrection 
 found a ready acceptance, and probably won over a large pro- 
 portion of the first Jewish converts ; that in fact (e) the oppo- 
 sition to the doctrine characterised the cold, hard, dry, sceptical 
 sect headed by a selfish and arrogant aristocracy, with the 
 high priests and their families at their head, and that the 
 reception of the doctrine as distinctly marked the adherents to 
 the oldest and deepest convictions of the Israelitish race, the 
 descendants of faithful Abraham. All these points it is but
 
 THE RESURRECTION. 183 
 
 fair to note, though I do not f$el the need, or find here a 
 fitting opportunity for fully discussing them. 
 
 But we must needs consider the statement that the doctrine 
 is distinctly and formally taught in the Zend Avesta, not to 
 speak of later Zoroastrian works. 
 
 And I explicitly deny it. The question has been treated 
 in great detail, and with consummate skill, by M. de Harlez. 
 in his articles entitled ' Les Origines de Zoroastrisme,' in the 
 'Journal asiatique,' which have since been published in a 
 separate volume. I quote from the former, as a journal of 
 wide circulation, well known to all scholars, and accessible to, 
 readers.* 
 
 First, the Gathas neither recognise the name nor the 
 doctrine of the resurrection. (J. A. p. 144.) 
 
 This of itself goes far towards establishing the fact of the 
 non-existence of the doctrine in the age of the early 
 Achsemenidse. 
 
 The eschatology of the Gathas is clear and complete.f The 
 triumph of truth over falsehood, the retribution, dealt with as 
 a mere fable by evil spirits and infidel men, will be accom- 
 panied by a complete renovation of the material universe, 
 and the pure universal worship of Ormuzd.f 
 
 But the word fraskkereti occurs frequently in the Avesta, 
 and is regarded by many Eranian scholars as equivalent to 
 ' resurrection.' This rendering, as De Harlez proves, is inad- 
 missible. The word is formed from kereti, the act of making, 
 and frasha, " ' en avant ; ' il peut signifier ' prolongement,' ou 
 meme a la rigueur ' immortalisation,' mais pas ' resurrection 
 des corps morts.' La frashkereti est 1'acte qui produit 1'im- 
 
 * The argument is stated concisely and forcibly in the Introduction to 
 the Avesta by M. de Harlez, p. cxlvii. 
 
 f See some important remarks by Geldner in Kuhn's ' Zeitschrift,' 
 vol. xxiv. p. 187. 
 
 t See Yacna, xlvii. 1, 2. ;*j
 
 184 THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 mortality dont parle le Gatha cite." The same usage is found 
 throughout, the Avesta. One passage only, and that occurring 
 in a very late portion, in the 19th Yasht, speaks distinctly 
 of a resurrection ; but in that passage the word frashokereti is 
 not used, nor is there any reference to the body. The man 
 will rise again to a new and immortal life, but in his spiritual 
 or immaterial nature, clothed, it may be, with a new body, but 
 not re-endued with the old.* 
 
 To this we must add that in the 19th Vendidad we find a 
 full and exceedingly interesting account of the future state of 
 true believers: an account quite unconnected, in fact in- 
 compatible, with the belief in a bodily resurrection. After 
 death the soul remains by the corpse three days ; it is then 
 led by Sherdsh, the guardian Ized of good man, to the bridge 
 Cinvat, where the final and absolute separation between good 
 and evil spirits is effected, and then each class passes on to 
 its final state. The good are admitted into abodes, nearer to 
 the Garonmane in proportion to the amount of good thoughts, 
 good words, good works registered in this life by attendant 
 deities, and there attain to their perfect consummation. This 
 consummation, derived most probably from Hebrew or 
 Christian sources, does not contravene, but puts a final 
 seal upon, the doctrine inculcated throughout the Avesta. 
 
 We assert, therefore, as an incontrovertible fact that 
 whatever period may be assigned to the contact between 
 Hebrews and Zoroastrians, the Hebrews brought with them 
 a definite, clear doctrine, developed in Christianity, and 
 then first surrounded by the strongest conceivable evidence, 
 that of our Lord's Eesurrection ; the Zoroastrians came with 
 a maturely developed doctrine, which might receive fresh 
 colouring and fresh significance from the contact, but which, 
 
 * See a note by M. de Harlez on Vendidad, F. xviii. p. 155, in the last 
 edition of his work on the Avesta.
 
 BIBLICAL FACTS IN THE AVESTA. 185 
 
 both in substance and in form, remained absolutely distinct 
 from that of the Hebrew Scriptures. Nor should we here 
 omit to notice that Firdausi, who faithfully represents the 
 general bearing of the Eranian traditions,* speaks in numerous 
 passages of the hopes of good men in death, of prayers for 
 their blessedness after death, but never suggests that their 
 bodies would be raised again and be partakers of their 
 consummate happiness. This is the more remarkable be- 
 cause the doctrine of the resurrection holds a prominent 
 place in the Mahometan religion, which Firdausi professed. 
 It is evident that a recognition of the doctrine as belonging 
 to the old Eranian faith would have been especially welcome 
 to his Mahometan readers, and have secured him from the 
 attacks which affected his position from an early period in 
 his career, and finally overshadowed his fortunes at the court 
 of Ghazna. 
 
 BIBLICAL FACTS TEACEABLE IN THE AVESTA. 
 
 From the consideration of doctrines, evidently connected, 
 though essentially different in form, principle, and develop- 
 ment, I now pass on to the long series of facts recognised in 
 the Avesta, and so nearly resembling statements in the book 
 of Genesis, as scarcely to leave any choice save between the 
 following alternatives. The statements in Genesis and the 
 Avesta were either derived from common sources, or the 
 
 * It should be borne in mind that Firdausi, in the beginning of the 
 llth century, though he lived at a Mahometan court (that of the 
 Ghaznavides), was in heart and soul an Eranian on that account 
 suspected by the Mahometans, and that he collects and presents in a 
 singularly complete form the oldest and most important traditions of his 
 countrymen. Hence the Shahnameh is not only an epic poem of great 
 beauty and singular interest, but it has a distinct and high value, if not 
 as a history, yet as a faithful record of national reminiscences. See the 
 Introduction in J. Mohl's edition of ' Le livre des Rois.'
 
 186 BIBLICAL FACTS IN THE AVESTA. 
 
 legends in the Avesta were taken from the book of Genesis." 
 We need not consider the third alternative, viz. that Genesis 
 was taken from the Avesta. No critic now seriously main- 
 tains that position,* though the notions which implicitly in- 
 volve or insinuate the view, seem still to act widely, though 
 it may be unconsciously, on the minds of speculative writers. 
 
 A simple statement of the records in question will go far to 
 decide which of these two alternatives is the more probable. 
 
 We will consider them under two heads : (1) those which 
 refer to the original condition of man, and (2) those which 
 refer to the distribution of the races of mankind after the 
 deluge. 
 
 OEIGINAL CONDITION OF MAN. 
 
 1. All legends of the Eranians represent one man as the 
 first occupant or sovereign of the earth. In the Shahnameh 
 he is called Caiomarth,f that is the living mortal; a view 
 further expanded in the Bundehesh into a separate legend, 
 which recognises an original pair, Mashia and Mashiana 
 (i.e. male and female), as the parents of the whole race.} 
 
 The original accounts do not come near enough to the 
 statements in Genesis to justify the inference that they were 
 drawn from that book; but it seems scarcely possible to 
 
 * As De Harlez points out, the antiquity of the Pentateuch, on the 
 lowest ground taken by modern rationalism, is ages older than the earliest 
 time of Hebrew contact with Persia. 
 
 f In the Bundehesh Ahuramazda is said to have created man as the 
 sixth act of creation (c. i.) ; the man is designated Gaya maretan (i.e. the 
 living mortal) (c. iii.). So, too, in the Avesta ; see the numerous passages 
 cited in the Index des Matieres, p. 661, Avesta, by De Harlez. See also 
 Geiger's ' Aogemadaeca,' p. 79. 
 
 J Bundehesh, c. xv. "Ahuramazda said to Mashia and Mashiana, Be 
 men ; be the forefathers of the world : you are created by me in the 
 fullest sense as the best beings : do good lawful works in a perfect sense, 
 think good thoughts, speak good words, do good works, do not worship 
 the Devas." See Justi's translation, p. 19. .: , .. .
 
 BIBLICAL FACTS IN THE AVESTA. 187 
 
 doubt that they were derived from a common source ; the 
 one being a simple, clear account, the other blending with 
 that account legendary, superstitious, and, to some extent, 
 offensive details.* 
 
 The first abode of the chosen race is frequently referred 
 to in old Aryan writings. In the Veda there are traces of 
 Paradise which able scholars f have shown to be clear and de- 
 cisive ; in the Avesta there is a not unnatural but certainly a 
 mythical confusion between the original Paradise and the 
 first home of the Eranians, called Airya Vaeja. It is spoken 
 of, in terms applicable only to a real Eden, as an abode of 
 immortal happiness, in which man lived, subject to no 
 disease, no decay, holding a pure religion, and living in 
 constant intercourse with the Supreme Creator. 
 
 From this home man was driven out by Ahriman. He 
 created the serpent. He altered the climate, creating intense 
 cold, ten of winter for two months of summer. The account 
 of the serpent is specially noticeable. In one respect it 
 bears the closest resemblance to the Biblical serpent ; but 
 differs in two all-important points. The serpent in the Bible 
 was one of God's creatures ; in the Avesta he is created by 
 Ahriman, who attempted to ruin man, not by seduction but 
 by the introduction of physical evil. 
 
 Can we doubt that in this case we have a distinct remi- 
 niscence, but as distinct a corruption, of the original belief 
 of man ? 
 
 The same strange mixture of resemblance and fundamental 
 discrepancy comes before us in reference to the deluge.} 
 
 * This refers to passages in the Bundehesh so offensive that the Parsee 
 Destur, who held the book to be sacred, was ashamed to translate them. 
 
 t See, e.g., Schoebel, I.e. 
 
 J Darmesteter (Vendidad, p. 16) denies any reference to the deluge, 
 but he gives proofs that the early Pehlevi commentary on this book and 
 the Minochired, one of the most important documents of later Zoroas-
 
 188 BIBLICAL FACTS IN THE A VEST A. 
 
 A man of exceeding piety, in obedience to a divine intima- 
 tion, prepares a thoroughly protected abode, of definite extent, 
 in which he, his family, and all pure animals are saved from 
 a terrible catastrophe.* 
 
 After a certain period a man is also called upon by 
 Ahuramazda to establish pure religion on the earth; that 
 mission he declines, on the ground of personal unfitness. He 
 is then bidden to enlarge^ the realm of Ormuzd, and is 
 endued with special gifts enabling him to subdue the earth and 
 make it habitable ; he accordingly passes from place to place, 
 founding settlements by which the whole earth was overspread. 
 
 But the same name Yima is given to the preserver and 
 the enlarger in two certainly independent legends of the 
 Avesta. In another passage the Avesta recognises the father 
 of Yima, whom it calls Vivanhao,J to whom a special place 
 and work is assigned. 
 
 trianism, assume the identification. I do not identify them, but I see in 
 them two accounts, the one legendary and mythical, the other Biblical and 
 authentic, referring to one event. Vendidad, ii. c. 42 to end of the 
 chapter. 
 
 * Vendidad, ii. up to v. 42. The two legends are confused and pre- 
 sented in a reverse order. The Yima who enlarges the sphere of humanity 
 represents Japhet. The Yima who is directed to make the inclosure 
 
 f The word " enlarge " occurs repeatedly in this section ; see vv. 13, 15, 
 35 ter. Consider this verse : " Alors Yima etendit cette terre (et la 
 rendit) plus grande d'un tiers qu'elle n'e"tait auparavant." De Harlez, 
 ' L' A vesta,' " Once more he extended it two-thirds, and last three-thirds 
 larger than before." Extension, enlargement, is thus the fundamental 
 characteristic of Yima's work. Darmesteter uses the words " grow larger " 
 and " stretch thyself afar." Whether we take the old rendering of Genesis 
 ix. 27, " God shall enlarge Japhet," or adopt Tuch's rendering, " Weit 
 mache es Gott dem Japhet," the correspondence of the two accounts is 
 undeniable. 
 
 % Or Vivanhant : on this word see Justi, H. B. s.v. He was held to be 
 the father of three sons, of whom Yima was the second. The derivation 
 of the word is certainly from the verb vanh ; that verb has three meanings. 
 The first, wohnen, bleiben (Justi), gives a sense identical with Noah, rest.
 
 BIBLICAL FACTS IN THE AVESTA. 189 
 
 The special work of Noah could scarcely be intimated more 
 distinctly than in the former legend. In the second we have 
 an equally clear reminiscence of the work of Japhet.* . 
 
 To this must be added a strange wild legend in another 
 book of the Avesta, evidently unconnected with the preceding, 
 so far as the writer was concerned, but as evidently derived 
 from the same . source.f One of the most distinctive, cer- 
 tainly one of the most curious, tenets of the Eranians, held by 
 the Indo-Aryans in a form nearly identical in fact the same 
 word is used by both, differing only in one letter, according 
 to a general law, Soma in Sanskrit and Homa in Eranian 
 is the worship of an intoxicating liquid. The fermented 
 juice of a certain plant, not be it noted the same in India 
 as in Eran, producing all the symptoms of intoxication, and, as 
 we are told distinctly in later Pehlevi writings, deleterious to 
 the health, marking the drunkard by a yellow-jaundiced hue, 
 is represented as a divine gift, personified as a deity, giver of 
 strength, health, and all prosperity.! Now, the first person 
 
 * I must here call attention to a remarkable passage in the 1st Gath&, 
 ch. 4. Yima is there condemned for teaching men to eat the flesh of 
 animals. See Yacna, xxii. 8, with the note of M. de Harlez. This most 
 ancient Eranian tradition evidently refers to the permission given after the 
 deluge through Noah. See the following essay, p. 240 f. 
 
 f I have noticed this custom in my Essay on the Rig Veda. Here it is 
 necessary to deal with it in reference to the special object of this part of 
 my work. 
 
 % See Yacna, ix. This is the principal text ; it gives the legend of the 
 discovery by Vivanhant. Spiegel's note on the first verse refers to the 
 various critical expositions of the fable. The confusion between the first 
 man and his first home, between the builder of the Ark and the enlarger 
 of mankind, pervades all Eranian legends, and affects the expositions. 
 Firdausi seems to identify Yima with Jemshid, as the first and greatest 
 sovereign of the whole Aryan race. Jem or Jim, in fact, is but a 
 later form of Yima, see p. 144. It is to be remarked that although the per- 
 sonification of Soma is found in both, the development of Soma-worship 
 is more advanced in the naturalistic systems of the Indo-Aryans than in 
 the Avesta. In the Rig Veda, as I have noticed previously, one entire
 
 190 BIBLICAL FACTS IN THE AVESTA. 
 
 to whom Ahuramazda himself is said to have brought the 
 liquid, or to have shown the proper method of its extraction 
 and preparation, is Vivanhant, the father of Yima. 
 
 What the Bible tells us is that Noah, the father of Japhet, 
 unwittingly experienced the effect of the first intoxicating 
 liquid, and that the vine was first planted and cultivated by 
 him. 
 
 But as to the effect of the discovery, we find the vast 
 interval between good and evil, between truth and falsehood. 
 In the Hebrew Scriptures the juice of the vine retained its 
 place among good creatures, with definite uses, with definite 
 benefits, but conditional upon moderation. For every word 
 of commendation words of caution are given. The drunkard 
 is held up to scorn and derision. No heroic act is ascribed 
 to the influence of wine. With unerring wisdom the use 
 and the abuse of the gift are distinctly marked, and no 
 shadow of superstitious reverence is to be found. The 
 drunkenness, which in its first occurrence cast the only 
 shade on the character of the great patriarch, was the imme- 
 diate cause of the disruption of his family, and a foreboding 
 token of the degradation of one great branch of that family ; 
 from first to last, drunkards are classed with those who have 
 no part in the kingdom of God. But in Eran and indeed 
 through most families of the Aryan race, the opposite view 
 of the origin of intoxicating liquids led to diametrically 
 opposite results. Drunkenness is, in fact, one great charac- 
 teristic of the Eranians. In ancient Persia a man's strength 
 of character, the honesty of his principles, his loyalty, and 
 innermost tendencies were elicited by drinking to an excess 
 commended and enjoined by an unwritten law. The Greeks, 
 who to a considerable extent were influenced by the same 
 
 Mandala is occupied by hymns to Soma, whose attributes and powers are 
 celebrated in connection with every act of worship, especially in connec- 
 tion with Indra, the national god of the Indo- Aryans.
 
 BIBLICAL FACTS IN THE A VESTA. 191 
 
 feelings, and the contemporary Hebrews, attest the practice 
 among the Persians, and it is noticeable that Firdausi, though 
 professedly a Mahometan, takes care to tell us that his best, 
 noblest, and most virtuous heroes, on all festive occasions, 
 especially those which celebrate victory over any form of 
 evil, drink to an excess, troubling their brain and utterly 
 confusing their spirits. 
 
 Here surely there can be no question as to the connection 
 between the two accounts, the one remarkable for its sim- 
 plicity, the other not less remarkable for its mythic or 
 legendary character. We do not think it probable not- 
 withstanding the authority of De Harlez, we scarcely think 
 it possible that the early Zoroastrians took the notion 
 from the Bible. We set it down as one among many in- 
 stances, in which an old truth underwent unconscious modifi- 
 cation, and was associated gradually with wild and fatal 
 superstitions.* 
 
 When we compare the Biblical accounts with the legends 
 of different families of the great human races, we find, we 
 may say everywhere, points which indicate a common origin, 
 but ranging from a close similarity to the widest imaginable 
 divergence in principle and in detail. 
 
 We further find that the points of resemblance are most 
 numerous, most striking, and least questionable in the case of 
 those families which remained nearest to the original home 
 of mankind, that is, to the home assigned to the children of 
 Noah in the Bible, or ascribed to the great Aryan or 
 Caucasian family by all modern authorities on anthropology 
 and ethnology. 
 
 Two points mark the limits within which Biblical records 
 and ethnologists fix that home ; the Caucasus on the one 
 
 * In the Essay on the Big Veda, I have shown the bearing of these 
 facts upon the question of the common origin of man.
 
 192 BIBLICAL FACTS IN THE AVESTA. 
 
 side, the western heights of the Hindou Gush, or more 
 definitely the highlands of the Pamir, on the other. 
 
 Within those limits lie all the districts inhabited by the 
 Eranian races. The first Eargard of the Vendidad begins the 
 enumeration of the Eranian stations with Sogdiana and con- 
 cludes with Eaga, i.e. Eai, in Media, south of the Mazen- 
 deran. The fertile valleys watered by the Daitya, or Araxes, 
 the Oxus, the Jaxartes, the Helmond, and the Murgab, with 
 the great historic cities of Samarcand, Balkh, Herat, Merv 
 once a rich nourishing state, but utterly ruined in the eigh- 
 teenth century by Nadirshah to the neighbourhood of 
 Ispahan, Teheran, were the original seat of the Avesta people. 
 There the old legends would be naturally retained, and, as we 
 doubt not, at a later period, were incorporated into the 
 collection of writings attributed to Zoroaster. 
 
 Again, if we turn southward from Armenia, we come to the 
 homes of the two races, at first undivided, though separated 
 in religious and moral character, the Hamites and Shemites. 
 There, too, the old traditions were retained, but in two 
 forms* the Shemite, in the family of Arphaxad, of 
 Abraham and his descendants, singularly free from legendary 
 details, entirely clear of polytheistic superstitions; and the 
 Cushite or Hamite, remarkable for wild superstitions and 
 idolatrous accretions, but still preserving clear traces of an 
 original tradition. In Egypt and in Assyria those corrupt 
 forms were perpetuated and developed, and the heterogeneous 
 elements in both have afforded and will afford employment 
 to scholars, and will demand the most sedulous and cautious 
 investigation of Assyriologists and Egyptologists for many 
 years. Whether, indeed, the old truths will ever be so 
 
 * The use or abuse of the word Semitic, applied to languages spoken by 
 two races utterly distinct and mutually antagonistic, has taken too deep 
 root to be given up ; but it has done serious mischief. I have here used 
 the words Shemite and Hamite as free from such associations.
 
 BIBLICAL FACTS IN THE AVESTA. 193 
 
 completely extricated from the huge mass of conflicting and 
 irreconcilable materials as to supply a secure basis for 
 scientific religious systems, is very doubtful: the more so 
 inasmuch as one source at least is deeply impregnated 
 with Accadian influences, and is characterised by the wild 
 and savage features common to the old Scythian race. 
 
 Following the line of human expansion eastwards, we 
 come first to the old Indo-Aryans, speaking a language of 
 singular beauty and purity, the Sanskrit. Here we have to 
 notice the ascertained fact that, before these Aryans separated 
 from the Eranians, their common language was fully 
 developed ; * and we must also observe that in every case 
 where we have positive information, the highly inflected, the 
 so-called developed form, precedes the ruder or simpler form. 
 Thus, for instance, the highly developed Sanskrit is older 
 than the rude Prakrit, and every change down to the present 
 forms of Hindustani, Hindu, or Urdu, is marked by 
 phonetic decay and disintegration. Thus, in the Teutonic 
 languages, the oldest, the Mcesian Gothic, differs from every 
 one of its descendants in the fulness and beauty of its 
 inflexions ; thus, again, in the Eranian languages the Old 
 Persian first corrupted its grammatical forms in the Zend of 
 the Avesta, then lost its flexions in the Pehlevi, and under- 
 went a succession of changes singularly analogous to the 
 processes by which our own language was moulded until it 
 assumed its actual form in the modern Persian. Keeping this 
 in mind, we observe without surprise that just in proportion 
 as the people are affected by new influences, by contact with 
 Anaryan races, by subjection to the vicissitudes of physical 
 phenomena astonishing alike for their beauty and terrific 
 
 * As I have elsewhere noticed, Aryan scholars have agreed to give the 
 name Ariac, in French Ariaque, to the old language which is assumed, 
 on sound philological grounds, to have been that of which the Sanskrit 
 and Old Persian or Eranian were modifications. 
 
 O
 
 194 BIBLICAL FACTS IN THE AVESTA. 
 
 grandeur, the eld language is modified, and the old tra- 
 ditions are transformed a process which goes on until lan- 
 guage and religion degenerate into utter confusion. Traces 
 of the unity of the race, of the unity of the original religion, 
 of man's original condition, remain; but they are open to 
 misconception, and are systematically ignored by the advo- 
 cates of evolutionism in ethnology. 
 
 In India we ought to insist upon the recognition of such 
 traces as remain, and be careful to note the changes effected 
 by Dravidian influences on the one hand, and by the sway of 
 wild unregulated speculations on the other. 
 
 We turn however in another direction. We are astonished 
 by the rapid and wide dispersion of the human family, apart 
 from Aryan civilisation or Semitic religion. As Scythians or 
 Turanians, Tartars, or however they might be designated, the 
 descendants of Japhet,* branching off from the original stock, 
 came at once into contact with influences precisely the 
 reverse of those which determined the development of 
 Indian and Eranian Aryanism. They were at once plunged 
 in wild, dreary desert regions, exposed to the vicissitudes of 
 intense heat and winters of all but perpetual duration and 
 frightful severity. There they rapidly lost the fairest 
 characteristics of their old family ; the language soon lost its 
 beauty, became monosyllabic, or supplied the graceful forms 
 of flexion and declension by a system known as agglutinative; 
 and at the same time they underwent a far more portentous 
 
 * I use Japhet here as a word which, independently of the question as 
 to its origin, best expresses the theory which derives Turanians and 
 Aryans from a common stock. The original identity of these races is, of 
 course, open to question. Here we may briefly remark that in the earliest 
 notices of both races that identity is assumed or recognised. Scythians, 
 or Turanians, and'Eranians are not only in close contact, but they 
 acknowledge in each other descendants from one stock. Feridoun, in the 
 ShahnSmeh, distributes the empire of the world to his three sons, giving 
 the west to Tour and the east to Selm. See Essay on the Rig Veda, p. 24.
 
 BIBLICAL FACTS IN THE AVESTA. 195 
 
 change in their spiritual nature. The darkest and worst 
 superstitions which deface Hindooism are traceable to the 
 Dravidians, proved by analogy of language and physiological 
 indications to be a Scythian or Turanian race ; the most repul- 
 sive features of Assyrian superstition, empoisoning the spirit 
 of Hamites and Semites, are traceable to the Accadians, 
 who certainly belong to the same family; and as in Eastern 
 Asia the language sinks into the most helpless, formless con- 
 dition, so, too, does the religious instinct find new expression 
 in dreary superstitions. Here, it may be objected, I assume 
 the unity of the whole race ; I assume it, however, not so 
 much because on other grounds I hold it to be an absolute 
 truth, but because the facts, linguistic, ethnological, and 
 religious, are intelligible only when viewed in connection 
 with what is known of the distribution of the human family. 
 
 We return, however, from the digression, simply to press 
 this fact. As the Eranians who occupy the lands assigned 
 by the Bible to Japhet and his descendants, spoke the old 
 language in its purest form, so also they retained the clearest 
 reminiscence of the events of which undoubtedly the simplest 
 and most rational accounts are given in the book of Genesis ; 
 nor does it matter in reference to this statement whether we 
 hold with the generality of Christian theologians that 
 those accounts were given by a distinct revelation to Moses, 
 or whether the writer recorded faithfully and loyally the old 
 traditions of the human race.* 
 
 We venture further to affirm that the later Eranian notions 
 must have either been reminiscences of old traditions, dis- 
 figured by superstition, or have been derived from Hebrews 
 who first came into contact with Persia some years before 
 the probable date of the earliest Zoroastrians, and who 
 remained in singularly close contact with them down to 
 
 * M. F. Lenormant, Les Origines de THistoire,' maintains this latter 
 view with ability and candour. 
 
 o 2
 
 196 BIBLICAL FACTS IN THE AVESTA. 
 
 the latest period which can be assigned to the compilation 
 of the Zend A vesta. 
 
 Taking into consideration the general facts and results 
 elicited in this discussion, we must be peculiarly impressed 
 by the points to which in conclusion I would invite serious 
 attention. 
 
 The first is the necessity of extreme caution in using 
 documents of various ages, produced under different cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 No point has been more generally, more systematically 
 neglected by speculative critics. 
 
 This confusion was natural, perhaps inevitable, in dealing 
 with the records of the Zoroastrian systems. European 
 scholars first became acquainted with the original documents 
 by the medium of traditions, translations of translations, and 
 statements derived from the priestly caste, the Destours of 
 the fire-worshippers of Guzerat. 
 
 The system thus presented had a certain appearance of 
 unity; its several parts served to support and explain each 
 other. It harmonised, to a great extent, with the system 
 which Hyde and other great Orientalists had found in the 
 classical and Oriental documents then open to their researches. 
 The striking indications of harmony with leading principles 
 of Biblical theology and Christian observances attracted their 
 attention, and strongly confirmed the impression made upon 
 the minds of scholars of the older school. 
 
 When, again, it was observed by scholars of a far different 
 school, that the system thus presented was not only capable 
 of, but suggested, an explanation absolutely opposed to the 
 old orthodox view ; when it was accepted by them as an 
 axiom that doctrines hitherto held to be peculiar to the 
 Bible, or presented in its records in the oldest and true form, 
 had been actually anticipated ages previously, as was at first 
 thought, by Zoroaster, to whom a fabulous antiquity was
 
 BIBLICAL FACTS IN THE AVESTA. 197 
 
 ascribed ;* when creation by one supreme being, surrounded 
 by a hierarchy of celestial powers and intelligences, corre- 
 sponding to notices of archangels and principalities, when 
 the fall of man, his expulsion from paradise, achieved by 
 the power of the arch-enemy, when such doctrines as those 
 of future retribution, the resurrection of the body, the 
 eternity and absoluteness of retribution both for good and 
 evil deeds, were unhesitatingly set forth as fundamental 
 and integral portions of Zoroastrianism, it is not surprising 
 that such writers should bring these points to bear upon the 
 entire system of revealed religion; nor on the other hand 
 can we wonder that a host of speculative and rationalistic 
 scholars, consciously or unconsciously, should have accepted 
 and developed those views, so that within some twenty or thirty 
 years after the recovery of the Zoroastrian books the eternal 
 truth seemed to be overshadowed, and old convictions replaced 
 by modern developments of primeval records.f 
 
 But a real knowledge of the contents of the Zend Avesta, 
 first opened by the grand work of Eugene Burnouf, and then 
 followed up, expanded, and completed by the labours of 
 Spiegel, Justi, Windischmann, De Harlez, and other Eranian 
 scholars we must add also by Haug and others of a different 
 school gradually, and we should have thought, finally, 
 dispelled that delusion, so far as it affected the chief, the 
 most essential principles. 
 
 * Even De Harlez maintains the notion that Zoroaster lived some 
 eighteen centuries before the Christian epoch. Monstrous as it seems to 
 me, and unauthorized as it is, some such theory is necessary on the supposi- 
 tion that the Gathas must have been composed soon after the separation of 
 the Aryans of India and Persia, who previously had a common language 
 and common mythology. 
 
 f As one instance of the effect produced on the minds of scholars, 
 generally remarkable for impartiality and candour, we would point to 
 the chapter in Francke's work on the Cabbala, in which he compares the 
 later Jewish with the Zoroastrian system.
 
 198 BIBLICAL FACTS IN THE AVESTA. 
 
 It was soon ascertained and proved beyond all possibility 
 of question that the only writings which had any real claim 
 to antiquity of which, however, parts only could be 
 attributed to Zoroaster himself,* or to the 7th century before 
 Christ presented a far different view of the doctrinal system 
 from that which is found in other portions of the Zend 
 Avesta. It was further ascertained that each part of the 
 Avesta contained heterogeneous elements, by far the greater 
 part belonging to a singularly corrupt and superstitious age, 
 part bearing unquestionable traces of contact with the 
 religious writings of Hebrews and of Christians.! 
 
 Still I am bound to state that most of the works through 
 which general scholars acquire information as to the origin, 
 the characteristics, and the doctrines of Zoroastrians, are open 
 to one general charge. Spiegel, indeed, who is singularly fair 
 and impartial in his treatment of this part of the subject, and 
 Justi, his fellow worker, admit and prove the interspersion of 
 Semitic elements, even of peculiarly Christian doctrines and 
 observances, not only in the later productions of the Zoroas- 
 trian school, but in the books of the Avesta ; but even they, 
 and yet more so writers of opposite schools, are still prone to 
 adopt and set forth views of a collective system of Zoroas- 
 trianism in which old and new, even heterogeneous and 
 conflicting, elements are blended and welded into a compact 
 mass. 
 
 Take for instance one of the latest works, that published in 
 England for Professor Max Muller's series of the oldest reli- 
 
 * Haug and Geldner agree with De Harlez on this point, but see the 
 following Essay. 
 
 t Spiegel, for instance, is careful to point out the proofs of Semitic, 
 specially of Jewish and Christian, influences upon the Zoroastrian system. 
 See, e.g. the second volume of his ' Eranische Alterthumskunde,' in which 
 he mentions the position first taken in his earlier works, in his translation 
 of the Avesta and his 'Einleitung in die traditionellen Schriften der 
 Parsen.'
 
 BIBLICAL FACTS IN THE AVESTA. 199 
 
 gious books, but written by a Frenchman, J. Darmesteter ; 
 while he is careful to eliminate certain points which do not 
 harmonise with his own principle that of an essential har- 
 mony and mutual interdependence of the mythology of the 
 Vedas and that of the old Eranians yet he does give as a 
 whole, with a semblance of unity, a system in which Magian 
 superstitions and ,oroastrian doctrines are inextricably 
 blended and confused. 
 
 The works of De Harlez form a striking exception to this 
 general tendency. First in a series of articles in the ' Journal 
 asiatique,' from 1878 to 1880, that professor, well known as 
 an E&nian scholar, deals specially with the theory, adopted 
 as we have said, by Darmesteter, which assigns a common 
 origin to the Vedic mythology and the Zoroastrian system. 
 We have not dwelt upon this aspect of the general sub- 
 ject, it would have required separate discussion and does not 
 necessarily bear upon the points to which I attach special 
 importance. But in dealing with that theory, and in my 
 opinion utterly demolishing it, De Harlez settles other great 
 points, and has proved, as had not been proved before so 
 completely, that the Ahriman of the Avesta and the Satan of 
 the Bible belong to systems originally distinct, and that the 
 other great doctrines which are held to be set forth in the 
 Avesta either rest upon false interpretations of its language, 
 or are incompatible with its fundamental principles. 
 
 I must, however, express my deep regret that, while various 
 aspects of these inquiries have been worked out with 
 consummate ability by Orientalists in France and Germany 
 while on the one side the most pernicious theories have been 
 developed, on the other side truths of infinite importance 
 have been elicited England has not yet done its duty. Our 
 scholars of late have held aloof. They have done little for 
 the interpretation of the Zend Avesta, for the investigation of 
 its religious system, or of the singularly interesting languages
 
 200 BIBLICAL FACTS IN THE AVESTA. 
 
 in which the system and its developments or modifications 
 are preserved. Not that they have been indifferent to 
 certain portions of the subject; for instance, the Pehlevi 
 owes more to West, fellow worker with Haug, than to any 
 foreign Orientalists ; but surely if the responsibility for 
 neglecting this work lies heavily upon any nation, it lies most 
 heavily upon England. England is the actual possessor of 
 the whole district in which adherents to the Zoroastrian 
 system still exist, a powerful and singularly interesting com- 
 munity.* The documents from which the whole system has 
 been learned were obtained by D'Anquetil whose self- 
 sacrificing energy puts us to shame from the Parsles of 
 Guzerat, favoured and loyal subjects of England. The 
 languages in which those documents were written, or by 
 which the key to their interpretation was supplied, are 
 intimately connected with the work of our high officials 
 in India. The Persian language, the genuine descendant 
 and only living representative of the old Eranian, is, as a 
 matter of necessity, acquired and constantly used by them in 
 intercourse with native princes ; and Sanskrit was first made 
 known to the European world by our great countrymen Sir 
 William Jones, Colebrooke, and Wilson. 
 
 Whether we consider our national position as rulers of 
 India, our religious position as Christians, or our character 
 as scholars, with special aptitude as well as special opportunity 
 for unravelling the problems of linguistic science, we are 
 peculiarly bound to bring all our energies to bear upon the 
 subjects discussed in this article. 
 
 We ought, in the first place, to produce an edition of the 
 Persian cuneiform inscriptions, more complete than that 
 
 * Some few descendants of the old Eranians, 2000 or 3000 as we learn 
 from late travellers, at Yezd, south-east of Ispahan, still retain their old 
 religion and are, like their Indian congeners, industrious and wealthy, but 
 subject to fierce persecutions by the fanatic Mahometans.
 
 BIBLICAL FACTS IN THE AVESTA. 201 
 
 of Spiegel, who omits the inscriptions themselves, or that of 
 Kossowicz, who omits the grammar of the language ; a work 
 which no man has stronger motives to undertake or greater 
 power to accomplish, than Sir Henry Rawlinson, himself 
 the discoverer and first interpreter of the most important 
 inscriptions. 
 
 We ought also to produce works, both on the Avesta itself 
 and on all the later literature, Pehlevi and Parsi, which con- 
 tains its developments or modifications. The study of lan- 
 guage still more does the study of the development of human 
 thought in its highest and most characteristic principle, that 
 which touches the relations of man to the universe and its 
 Creator, lay England under an imperative obligation to 
 correct and complete the work of European scholars.* The 
 first thing to be undertaken will be a careful discrimination of 
 all the elements' ; the elimination of extraneous or heteroge- 
 neous elements ; the apportionment of all constituent elements 
 to their several ages, regions, and circumstances ; and finally 
 the vindication of all great truths, recognising all that is 
 sound, noble, and even elevating in the Eranian system, and 
 as distinctly rejecting unfounded and highly mischievous 
 claims to identification witii, or priority to, the revelation of 
 God in His written word. 
 
 * The latest and by far the most important work on the Avesta, that 
 by M. C. de Harlez, published in 1881, had not reached me when I wrote 
 this Essay. I have, however, referred to it frequently in revising what 
 I had written. I must add that while I recognise the admirable ability 
 and sound judgment of that great Eranian scholar, I still feel the propriety 
 of this appeal to Englishmen, especially as regards the elimination of 
 spurious accretions to the Zoroastrian system. In fact, the enormous mass 
 of new and carefully arranged materials in the work of M. de Harlez at 
 once supplies the means, and necessitates the pursuance of studies which, 
 I doubt not, will sooner or later issue in the full establishment of 
 fundamental truths, assailed if not endangered by modern speculations.
 
 THE GATHAS OF ZOROASTER. 
 
 INTKODUCTOKY REMAEKS. 
 
 IN the Essay ' on the Persian Cuneiform Inscriptions and 
 the Zend Avesta,' I have frequently alluded to these Gathas, 
 i.e. sacred chants, attributed to Zoroaster by the consentient 
 traditions of Eran,* and recognised by modern critics as pre- 
 senting by far the oldest and most trustworthy records of 
 the religious system introduced or maintained by that great 
 teacher. 
 
 I had previously transcribed! and translated the greater 
 part of the Gathas, but felt far too dissatisfied with the 
 results to publish them as an appendix to that essay. But 
 the delay in printing other portions of this work, occasioned 
 chiefly by the variety and scarceness of hieroglyphic and other 
 Oriental characters used in the collection of Egyptian words, 
 has given me leisure to examine these chants more 
 thoroughly. Some points have thus been impressed upon 
 my mind, either as new or as not sufficiently appreciated, or, 
 at any rate, of exceeding interest and paramount importance. 
 To these I may now briefly refer, but they will come out 
 more distinctly in the course of this treatise. 
 
 The first point is that the Gathas are not only far more 
 
 * I have, throughout this book, used the words Eran and Eranian. 
 Iran and Iranian more exactly represent the Persian form ; but the letter 
 E, pronounced as in English, gives the correct sound. 
 
 t From the text of Westergaard. His edition is exceedingly scarce, 
 and I could not procure a copy from booksellers. I have to thank 
 Dr. Rost, the learned and most obliging librarian of the India Office, for 
 the loan of this and other works equally valuable and important.
 
 204 WORKS ON THE GATHAS. 
 
 ancient than any other part of the Avesta, but present the 
 religious system of the founder, or first preacher of the 
 religion, in an entirely different light. Characteristics which 
 repel the reader of the Zend Avesta by their meanness, 
 loathsomeness, and superstition, are absolutely absent from 
 those chants, and, I must add, alien to the spirit which 
 pervades them. 
 
 This is the more remarkable, inasmuch as it is certain that, 
 whether the chants were originally committed to writing, 
 or preserved simply by oral tradition, the form in which we 
 have them now is beyond all question comparatively modern. 
 The characters are derived from a Syrian alphabet, and must 
 have been first employed for this purpose long after the 
 establishment of Mazdeism, and its full development as 
 represented in the Avesta. 
 
 It is indeed far from certain that no traces of later forms 
 of belief are to be found in the Gathas. It is probable that 
 the scribes, who belonged to a period when the old language, 
 if not dead, was imperfectly understood and hopelessly 
 corrupted, may have introduced some expressions which 
 present insuperable difficulties to the student. But the 
 religion, as well as the language in which it finds expression, 
 are both so completely unlike those under which the mind 
 and the style of those scribes themselves were formed, that 
 we feel ourselves in presence of a far more ancient, if not 
 primeval system, and are compelled to admit that reverence, 
 amounting in fact to superstition, preserved it from substan- 
 tial change or modification.* 
 
 * One instance may prove or illustrate this statement. The prayer 
 which is constantly used by all Mazdeans, called the Ahura vairyo, of 
 which I shall give a translation further on (p. 259), exists in two forms ; 
 one which is at present used by the Parsees, the other preserved, with an 
 explanatory commentary, in the 19th chapter of the Yacna. They agree 
 verbatim, so far as concerns the main points and the substantial doctrine ; 
 "but they differ inasmuch as the Parsee form omits two out of five clauses.
 
 WORKS ON THE GATHiS. 205 
 
 In studying the Gathas lately I have had the great advan- 
 tage of works, with some of which I had previously no 
 acquaintance, or a very slight one. It may be useful to 
 students to have a brief account of the most important. 
 
 Spiegel's Translation and Notes, in his work on the Avesta, 
 vol. il pp. 113, seq. 
 
 This translation is clear, unpretending, and follows closely 
 the later Eranian traditions : but as the learned author 
 admits, it presents a very unsatisfactory view of the several 
 parts of the Gathas, especially of their mutual connection 
 and interdependence. 
 
 This was the first attempt at a complete translation ; but 
 it was not published till the year 1859. 
 
 An English translation of the work has been published by 
 Dr. Bleek. 
 
 In the year 1858, Dr. Martin Haug, then Professor at 
 Bonn, and since we'll known in England, gave a full and very 
 valuable edition of the original text, transcribed in Roman 
 characters,* with a literal translation in Latin, and a German 
 paraphrase or free translation, copious notes, and a general 
 summary. 
 
 The industry and ingenuity of this author are recognised 
 by all scholars ; but his work has two serious defects. (1) 
 It is too pretentious, abounding in novel and untenable 
 interpretations, and in questionable deductions from doubtful 
 premisses ; and (2) it rests entirely upon the author's own 
 investigations into the usage of language, with a constant 
 reference to Vedic authorities ; with which, contrary to all 
 ancient tradition, and to internal evidence, he holds the 
 
 M. De Harlez observes (Avesta, p. 301) of the prayer in this form, that 
 it " rappelle les points principaux de la doctrine mazddenne : mais elle a 
 surtout pour but d'inculquer le respect pour Pautorite des chefs spirituels 
 du Zoroastrisme." 
 
 * The reader will find a full account of this work in Haug's ' Essays 
 on the Parsis,' edited by Dr. West, and in a review by M. Darmesteter, in 
 the second volume of his ' Etudes iraniennes,' pp. 38 seq.
 
 206 WORKS ON THE GATHiS. 
 
 author of the chants to have been acquainted, and probably 
 contemporary. The contempt of tradition is a strong feature 
 in this able work ; the more remarkable, inasmuch as, at a 
 later period in his literary career, Dr. Haug stood foremost 
 among the upholders of the later Parsee traditions. 
 
 Next in order of time come the edition of the Gathas, in 
 three parts, the first in 1868, the last in 1871, by Dr. G. 
 Kossowicz, Professor of Sanskrit in the University of St. 
 Petersburg, well known as editor of the Persian Cuneiform 
 Inscriptions. 
 
 Kossowicz, in the first place, gives us a good text in the 
 original characters. This is important, since Westergaard's 
 edition of the whole Avesta is exceedingly scarce, and a sepa- 
 rate edition of the Gathas is especially desirable. 
 
 He also gives a verbal translation in Latin, but encumbers 
 it with an interposed paraphrase, with involved sentences 
 which embarrass the reader. A few very useful notes are 
 appended, and the renderings are rational and grammatical. 
 
 In 1879 the Gathas were edited by Ch. Bartholomse. The 
 principal object of this edition was to apply a novel system 
 of transcription, commended by Professor Hubschmann, in 
 Kiihn's ' Zeitschrift,' vol. xxiv. 
 
 This transcription is founded on scientific principles, but as 
 it certainly will not be adopted save by a few critics of a 
 certain school, it is worse than useless. In general, transcrip- 
 tions are objectionable. It is far more troublesome to become 
 familiar with them than with the Oriental characters, which 
 in this case are clear, and which must be learned by every 
 student who cares for positive results.* 
 
 * There are specimens of three transcriptions of Yacna xxix. 1 : 
 
 (1) By Justi : Khshamaihya geus urva gerezhda : kahmai ma thwarozhdum, 
 
 ke ma tashat. 
 
 (2) By Haug : He agrees with Justi, except that for y he has j, for e e, 
 
 for a a, z for zh. 
 So far the changes are of secondary importance. (3) By
 
 WORKS ON THE GATHAS. 207 
 
 Still the work of BartholomaB has real value. He gives a 
 concise account of the metrical system of the Gathas ; points 
 out innovations which obscure it ; and has useful remarks on 
 the Lautlehre, a compendious grammar, with special reference 
 to the Gathas, and a complete index.* 
 
 The last, and on the whole the most important work 
 on the Avesta, is that of M. C. De Harlez, published in 
 1881 ; with a copious introduction, a free but careful trans- 
 lation, and also a thing to be especially noted full tables 
 of contents, indices, and references. 
 
 The Gathas, as might be expected, are treated with extreme 
 care, and the translation, though far from literal, and some- 
 times too paraphrastical, enables the reader to master their 
 contents and appreciate the true character of their teaching.! 
 
 I have used it, but not exclusively. In many points 
 some of real importance I have seen reason to prefer 
 the renderings of Haug and of Kossowicz. Here I may 
 call attention to some points, which occur in various shapes 
 throughout this work and this essay. M. de Harlez utterly 
 rejects the system which regards all ancient religions as 
 mythological representations of natural phsenomena, and 
 their gods as personifications of heaven, earth, light, heat, 
 storms, &c. For this he has adduced full and satisfactory 
 reasons, both in the articles in the 'Journal asiatique,' to 
 which I have frequently alluded in the preceding essay, 
 
 (3) By Bartholomse : 
 
 Xsma'bja ggus "ruva grzda 
 
 kahmai ma 0/3arzdvem ke ma tasa#. 
 
 K. Geldner has observations which strikingly corroborate my remarks 
 upon transcription in general, and upon the system of Hubschmann and 
 Bartholomaa in particular. See ' Studien zum Avesta,' the first page of 
 the Vorwort. This work was published in 1882. 
 
 * Bartholomae has lately published a manual on old Eranian dialects, 
 which I have not yet been able to consult. 
 
 f Dr. Haug (' Essays,' p. 57), speaks generally in high terms of the 
 work of De Harlez, but notes with some severity the looseness -of the 
 translation.
 
 208 NAMES OF THE GATHAS. 
 
 and in his Introduction to the Avesta. The second point, 
 on which I entirely differ from him, is that he regards all 
 ancient religions, apart from the Bible to which he does not 
 allude, as evolutions from a previous naturalism. For this 
 view he does not, and in my opinion cannot, adduce any valid 
 authority. Eight or wrong as the theory may be held to be 
 right in the judgment of many thoughtful men, especially on 
 the Continent ; wrong as I hold it to be, contrary to funda- 
 mental principles it is beyond all question a mere hypothesis, 
 a speculative theory, an a priori assumption, and is upheld in 
 direct contradiction to all primitive records of man's belief, 
 Semitic or Aryan. It is absolutely opposed to the system 
 presented to us in these Gathas, which recognise moral, 
 spiritual, religious truth as inseparably connected with mani- 
 festations of Deity. I notice this point of difference at once, 
 because I would- call attention to the numerous assumptions 
 which the hypothesis of M. de Harlez involves. 
 
 CHAEACTERISTICS OF THE GATHAS. 
 
 I proceed to the consideration of the Gathas themselves. 
 The word Gatha is derived from the verb ga, Zend and 
 Sanskrit, and very common in the Eig Veda. It corresponds 
 to Gita in classical Sanskrit, and to chant, chanson, canto, or 
 rather canzone, in European languages. In Zend it is exclu- 
 sively used of the Zoroastrian hymns, to which a special, and 
 at a very early period a superstitious reverence was attached. 
 
 These Gathas come before us, somewhat abruptly, as part 
 of the Yacna, the great liturgical book of the Avesta ; and 
 occupy chapters xxviii-xxxii. and xlii.-lii. They are seven- 
 teen in number, divided into five groups ; the first containing 
 seven Chants ; the second and third, four each ; and the fourth 
 and fifth, one each. 
 
 Each Gatha forms a distinct whole, and bears a special 
 name. The first, and most important, is constantly quoted in 
 Zoroastrian writings as the Ahunavaiti the feminine form
 
 NAMES AND DIALECT OF THE GATHAS. 209 
 
 of the adjective Ahunavant, i.e. appertaining to Ahuna ; 
 Ahuna is the Parsee form of the great name Ahura, corre- 
 sponding to the Vedic Asura.* So that this name means 
 Asurian, and intimates that the whole group is specially con- 
 cerned with the nature, attributes, and work of the supreme 
 deity Ahura Mazda.f Ahura Mazda is a compound expres- 
 sion, not used in the Gathas as a single name, but setting 
 before us the Ahura, or Living Lord, as the most Wise. 
 
 This should be borne in mind throughout the first group ; 
 The name is, in fact, the true key to its meaning, and 
 suggests the best indication of its internal unity. 
 
 The names of the other Gathas are taken from the first 
 word in each, but aptly designate the general character of 
 their contents. 
 
 All these Gathas are written in one dialect, and evidently 
 belong to the same age, if not to the same author. That 
 Zoroaster himself was the author of some portions is univer- 
 sally admitted. That early followers composed others is 
 generally assumed ; the extent, however, to which portions or 
 whole hymns are to be referred to the one or to the other, is 
 a point about which extreme diversity of opinions exists, and 
 is likely to exist. For my own part, I was formerly disposed 
 
 * M. Darmesteter explains the substitution of the letter n in Parsee for 
 the old Eranian r by an ingenious and convincing theory. He shows first 
 that all Parsee religious writings were, in the first place, transcriptions 
 from Pehlevi, and holds also that the Parsee scribes misunderstood the 
 polyphone character which generally represents n, but in this and mnny 
 other words should be read r. This is a fair instance of the extraordinary 
 ambiguity of the Pehlevi, which is the only medium through which the 
 old Zend was transmitted to later generations. 
 
 f I have shown the identity of Varuna, the Asura par excellence of the 
 Rig Veda, with the Ahura of the Avesta. (See above, p. 61 sq.) This 
 identification is admitted by Darmesteter and other eminent critics. Thus 
 Dr. Haug, in his notice of the Essay on Ormuzd and Ahriman, observes 
 " Ahuramazda can be traced back to Asura, the supreme god of Indo- Iranian 
 times, and is the representative of Varuna." (' Essays,' p. 53.) 
 
 P
 
 210 METRICAL SYSTEM OF THE GATHAS. 
 
 to acquiesce in the decision of M. de Harlez, and to admit 
 the existence of interpolations in every group to an extent 
 materially affecting the inferences, doctrinal or historical, 
 which might be deduced from them. At present, a repeated 
 and careful examination of the first Gatha (the only one 
 which I can here undertake to deal with), that which of all 
 is the most important and interesting, has convinced me 
 that it belongs altogether to the Zoroastrian age; and that, 
 possibly with some modifications by later diasceuasts, it is 
 the production of Zoroaster himself. 
 
 The question as to the age of Zoroaster, the circumstances 
 under which he achieved his great work, the true character of 
 his doctrinal system, will come under consideration in the 
 notes on the following translations, and the results will be 
 most conveniently presented at the end of the first Chant. 
 
 Each Gatha has a distinct metrical system. The first 
 consists of stanzas, each of three or six lines ; of three, if we 
 take them as containing sixteen syllables each, with a caesura 
 after the seventh ; of six, if, as seems reasonable, we divide 
 them into separate lines with seven and nine syllables alter- 
 nately. 
 
 The scansion according to syllables may be regarded as 
 certain, though it involves some modifications of the only 
 text accessible at present. 
 
 It is questioned whether any regard is paid to quantity, as 
 well as to the number of syllables. Judging by analogy from 
 the Rig Veda, we should expect the syllables at the close of 
 each line to have a rhythmical cadence ; and the majority (in 
 the proportion of about three to two) of the shorter, or half 
 lines, satisfy this expectation. Still the exceptions are so 
 numerous that attempts to reduce any Gatha to a quantitative 
 form are generally abandoned.* 
 
 * This constitutes a substantial difference from all Sanskrit poetry, in 
 which quantity is distinctly marked. Were the Gathas and other
 
 METRICAL SYSTEM OF THE GATHAS. 211 
 
 It is, however, impossible to read the original text without 
 feeling a general swing or movement, which approaches very 
 near to the metrical system of the Eig Veda ; so near, indeed, 
 as to leave the impression, either that the text has undergone 
 serious modifications in its transmission, or that the ancient 
 system common to both branches of the Aryan family before 
 their separation, had been so far obscured in the course of ages 
 as to be barely discernible. Of these two alternatives the latter 
 appears to me the more probable. It must be remembered, 
 on the one hand, that some centuries elapsed between that 
 separation and the composition of the most ancient hymns in 
 the Eig Veda ; and, on the other hand, that an interval of 
 indefinite, but certainly considerable, duration separates the 
 age of Zoroaster from the Aryak period. 
 
 I have endeavoured in the following translation to repre- 
 sent the impression made upon my mind by the original text, 
 adhering closely to the number of syllables, and indicating 
 the general cadence: not, indeed, without some misgiving, 
 considering that Spiegel, Haug, and De Harlez, are satisfied 
 with a simple translation into prose. Had I felt that the 
 attempt involved a departure from the literal meaning, I 
 should have abandoned it altogether. 
 
 I must further state, that although the grammatical struc- 
 ture of the Gathas is such as might be expected in works 
 produced by a master spirit while the old language was 
 living, it presents formidable difficulties and is the cause of 
 serious variations in the renderings. I have been content in 
 such cases to give the meaning, as accepted by scholars of 
 sound judgment ; and I have not thought it necessary to 
 
 metrical portions of the Avesta so constructed, we might admit the 
 correspondence or near approach of the metre of the first Gatha to the 
 Indian sloca, and of the second Gatha to the tristubh: but as facts stand, 
 we can only recognise an amount of similarity which indicates their 
 derivation from a common source. 
 
 p 2
 
 212 FIRST CHANT OF THE AHUNAVAITI. 
 
 burden the notes appended to my translations with discus- 
 sions, interesting and important to specialists, but useless to 
 the general reader. 
 
 GATHA I., CHANT 1. 
 
 THE FIRST CHANT;* YACNA, CH. XXVIII. 
 1. 
 
 With hands in prayer uplifted 
 
 To Mazda, the quickening spirit, 
 I fain would give due honour 
 
 To all who, by good works, win favour 
 From him the Good, the Holy,f 
 
 And from the soul of Earth our mother.^ 
 
 * The Gatha Ahunavaiti contains seven chants ; each occupies a 
 chapter of the Yacna, which is called a Ha, a word which, according to 
 Haug and Justi, is equivalent to a portion or part. I use the expression 
 Chant for each as indicating its true character, reserving the name Gatha 
 for the group. I may here apologise for the transcription Yacna, in place 
 of Yasna adopted by Dr. Haug and others. I follow E. Burnouf, whose 
 great work on the Yacna, as he calls it, first opened the way to the inter- 
 pretation of the A vesta. 
 
 t In the fifth line two names occur, Asha and Vohumano, of which the 
 literal meaning is Purity and Good Spirit, but which throughout the 
 Gathas are used as proper names : personifications of attributes of Ahura 
 Mazda. The derivation of Asha is by no means certain. Darmesteter 
 (' Etudes iraniennes,' p. 50) and Haug hold it to be identical with rta, a 
 Vedic word, which among other cognate meanings, such as right, holy, 
 pious, signifies eternal divine truth. See Grassmann, ' W. R. V.' p. 282. 
 The rta of the Vedas is specially connected with Varuna, as Asha with 
 Ahuramazda. 
 
 It is often difficult to determine whether the word is to be understood 
 in the abstract or the personal sense. In reference to Ahuramazda there 
 can be no doubt as to the Zoroastrian view. Asha is inseparable from the. 
 Deity, at once an attribute and a personal assessor, sometimes represented 
 as his daughter, sometimes as his wife. Thus, too, Vohumano has the 
 certain meaning of a sound mind, absolute goodness, either personified as 
 a living principle co-existent with the Supreme Being, or, more generally, 
 as a quality or attribute, both of Ahuramazda, and of men in whom his 
 character is reflected. 
 
 Nothing can be further from polytheism on the one hand, or from hard 
 dry unitarianism on the other. 
 
 % In the last line I have rendered the words geus urva, the soul of
 
 FIRST CHANT OF THE AHUNAVAITI, 213 
 
 2. 
 I, who am thine, Ormuzd, 
 
 Address thee now with pure intention.* 
 Grant me, grant the blessings 
 
 Of this world and the world of spirits, 
 Which are the gifts of Asha 
 
 Bestowed on those who love her truly. 
 
 Mother Earth : but the word ga, of which geus is the old genitive, has 
 two meanings, cow or earth. The first meaning is borne out by a great 
 number of passages ; the second is contested, but passages are quoted by 
 Haug, which leave no doubt as to the propriety of the rendering when it 
 is in clear accordance with the context. If, with the generality of com- 
 mentators, we adopt the first rendering, the soul of the cow, we must 
 understand it to refer to an ancient, if not a primeval, Aryan tradition that 
 Ormuzd first created a cow as representing or symbolising the productive 
 powers implanted in the world ; a tradition common enough in the later 
 Eranian writings, but of which no clear traces are found in the Gathas. 
 The soul of the cow is understood by those who adopt this interpretation, 
 by De Harlez and Kossowicz, to be a genius or spirit specially presiding 
 over pasturage. The soul of the earth, on the other hand, is a personifi- 
 cation of instinct pervading all nature, intimately connected or dependent 
 upon Armaiti, the Divine power which presides over the earth, and gives 
 devout expression to the yearnings of creation. This view is distinct 
 from pantheism, which comes nearest to it in some forms: for the 
 Earth, or Cow, is a creature absolutely dependent on the will of Ormuzd, 
 and ruled by his personified attributes. The general and true sense 
 of this passage, and of the very important one in the first line of the 
 second chant is well expressed by Kossowicz : " Quum in his locis 
 Gao evidenter non bovis sed in universum animantis significationem 
 tueatur, etiam geus urv& hie nescio an melius animantium anima statue- 
 retur." He observes also that this soul of creation represents not only 
 nature, but its laws and form or principles. 
 
 In the collection of Egyptian words, see p. 457, 1 have shown that the 
 same ambiguity occurs in Old Egyptian ; and I may add that the old 
 myths of Egypt represented the nature or instincts of creation under the 
 same figure, which for that reason I am disposed to regard as belonging 
 to ancient traditions of our race. 
 
 * ' Pure intention ; ' the word is Vohumano, important as representing 
 the identity of principle in Ormuzd and his true votaries. Thus, further 
 on, Asha is the distributor of blessings to those who are guided by her. 
 Asha in the original is masculine, but as a personification it scrin- 
 ncccssary in English t<> lake the word as feminine.
 
 2H FIEST CHANT OF THE AHUNAVAITI. 
 
 3. 
 I, who am thine, Asha, 
 
 Would praise both thee and Vohumano, 
 The wise, the mighty Ormuzd, 
 
 With whom is power immutable, 
 And Wisdom, bounteous giver. 
 
 come, grant my prayers, ye gracious ! 
 
 4. 
 I who. my soul to heaven 
 
 Have raised by grace of Vohumano, 
 I who well know the blessings 
 
 Of acts pleasing to mighty Ormuzd, 
 Will teach as Asha willeth 
 
 So long as life and power endureth. 
 
 I long to see thee, Asha, 
 
 And Vohumano with perfect knowledge, 
 And the right way, obeying 
 
 The will of great Ahuramazda ! 
 So that, by words of power, f 
 
 I may o'ercome all evil-doers. 
 
 6. 
 come with Vohumano, 
 
 Bestow thy lasting boons, Asha ! 
 With righteous words, Ormuzd ! 
 
 With fulness of joy to Zoroaster. 
 Also on us, Ormuzd, 
 
 That we may overcome all haters. J 
 
 * Ormuzd is addressed, but specially as revealed in his personified 
 attributes, Asha and Vohumano. A clause is added which sets before us 
 Armaiti, i.e., as I have rendered the name, Wisdom, devout wisdom, through 
 which alone the suppliant can hope to obtain good gifts. See Essay on 
 the Rig Veda, p. 69. 
 
 f The result of a thorough, living intuition, enabling the seer to 
 realise eternal verities, will be that words (mathra) of spiritual efficacy 
 will flow freely from the seer's lips. Such words were held by votaries of 
 Mazdeism to have a magical power, expelling demons and subduing all 
 antagonism. 
 
 J This verse is regarded by able commentators as a conclusive proof 
 that the chant could not have been composed by Zoroaster himself, for
 
 FIRST CHANT OF THE AHUNAVAITI. 215 
 
 7. 
 Asha, grant the blessings, 
 
 The unfailing gifts of Vohumano ! 
 Grant thou, great Armaiti, 
 
 To Vistaspa and me our desire ! 
 Give us thy strength, O Mazda, 
 
 That we may proclaim thy holy law.* 
 
 8. 
 Thee I implore devoutly, 
 
 One minded with the perfect Asha ! 
 grant thy special favours 
 
 To Frashaostra ; f and for my sake . 
 To all whom thou enduest 
 
 With eternal gifts of Vohumano. 
 
 9. 
 
 So blest may we ne'er grieve thee, 
 
 Ahuramazda, nor Asha, 
 Nor gracious Vohumano : 
 
 We who adore thee with hymns and praises ! 
 You who are all benignant, 
 
 Grant the desire of good, and the fruition. 
 
 whom and for whose followers a special supplication is offered. That a 
 prayer should be proffered by the author on his own behalf seems to me far 
 from improbable, but the last line certainly proves either that the Gatha was 
 composed by his followers, or intended for their use. I have no doubt as 
 to its being contemporary with Zoroaster, and I believe that the latter 
 alternative sufficiently accounts for the mode of address. These words 
 distinctly intimate that at the time when they were recited the revelation 
 was fiercely opposed. 
 
 * This verse is of palmary interest and importance. One point stands 
 out distinctly with reference to the connection between Vistaspa and 
 Zoroaster. The prayer must have been offered when both were living and 
 acting. It does not state the exact nature of the relations between the 
 two, but it harmonises thoroughly with the view, presented by all 
 Eranian tradition and accepted by all commentators, that Vistaspa was 
 at once the convert and the chief protector of the seer. Other points will 
 be discussed at the end of this chant. 
 
 f The position of Frashaostra is thus distinctly marked. Closely con- 
 nected with Vistaspa as his chief agent or minister, he stands foremost 
 among the protectors of Zoroaster. The last line in the verse is understood, 
 by De Harlez, to apply to all who are destined to blessedness in the eternal 
 home where Ormuzd reigns surrounded by his personified attributes.
 
 216 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 
 
 10. 
 
 The just, whom thou approvest, 
 True children of great Vohumano. 
 
 Righteous and pure in spirit, 
 
 For them fulfil all their hearts' desire. 
 
 I know that all who hear thee, 
 
 Will receive gifts, brilliant, unfailing ! 
 
 11. 
 
 And me, who hold to Asha, 
 
 Who ever maintain a good spirit, 
 
 Do thou, O mighty Ormuzd, 
 
 With thine own mouth instruct from heaven ! 
 
 Teach me the words of power, 
 
 By which creation first was fashioned ! 
 
 This chant most fitly stands at the head of the whole 
 series. Its teaching is clear, deeply impressive, and complete. 
 
 In . the first place it expresses all the aspirations of 
 the seer, and the religious principles by which he was 
 actuated and guided. It is especially to be remarked that 
 there is not in it, from first to last, a trace of so-called 
 naturalism. No phsenomena of nature are personified, in- 
 voked, or noticed. The universe is conceived as the creation, 
 not as the manifestation, of one Supreme Being, who is, how- 
 ever, not isolated, but surrounded by spiritual principles, 
 which embody, so to speak, or vividly represent his highest 
 attributes, perfect purity as Asha, perfect goodness as 
 Vohumano. 
 
 Man approaches this deity, and is favoured by him so far 
 as he reflects those attributes. No offering but that of a pure 
 good spirit is suggested ; prayer owes all its efficacy to their 
 presence. The seer has one desire to know the Supreme 
 Being as He is, and knowing Him to communicate to others 
 the blessings of that gift. 
 
 At no later period could this chant have been composed 
 or accepted. Dualism and naturalism, with their several
 
 FIRST CHANT OF THE AHUNAVAITI. 217 
 
 tendencies to superstitious error, early invaded the sphere of 
 Mazdeism. The presence and independent action of an 
 antagonistic spirit occupy a foremost place in all other 
 portions of the Avesta. Here the dominion of Ormuzd 
 stands out in unapproached, unassailable majesty. 
 
 The remarks of M. de Harlez* on the general character of 
 the Gathas as distinct from other parts of the Avesta, are 
 specially applicable to this chant. 
 
 (1) The traces of naturalism, as he says, have almost 
 entirely disappeared. He should rather have said they are 
 absolutely absent. Natural phsenomena are never addressed, 
 worshipped or recognised, as having any power or influence 
 over man. This constitutes a marked difference from the 
 chants of the Eig Veda, in which the traces of spiritual 
 religion have almost entirely disappeared, preserved only in 
 the hymns to the Adityas. 
 
 .(2) The position of the evil spirit is different from that 
 assigned to him in later Zoroastrianism. He is not merely 
 less important, or less active, but so far from being regarded 
 as paitiyara, a rival or antagonist of Oriauzd, he is absolutely 
 ignored. 
 
 (3) The worship and the use of Soma, which occupies so 
 conspicuous a place in the Eig Veda, and in all other Eranian 
 documents, is utterly ignored in this, as in all the other 
 chants of the Gathas. 
 
 (4) We have again to use the words of M. de Harlez 
 what resembles the meditations of a monotheist. Nay, to 
 speak clearly, we have in this chant a full expression of the 
 true principles of monotheism as they are presented to us in 
 the Book of Life. 
 
 I pass to another topic. The historical fact which is dis- 
 tinctly stated in the 8th and 9th stanzas. 
 
 * See ' Introduction,' p. clxxxvii.
 
 218 VISTASPA, DARIUS, AND ZOROASTER. 
 
 Zoroaster and Vistaspa were contemporaries. Who was 
 this Vistaspa ? 
 
 The most ancient and the only contemporaneous mention of 
 a Vistaspa is in the cuneiform inscriptions, where he appears 
 as the father of Darius, commander of an imperial army, and 
 governor, as it would seem, of a great province. 
 
 Now the Vistaspa of the Gathas is never spoken of as 
 king or emperor. His high rank and power are clearly indi- 
 cated, but no word is used which necessarily or naturally 
 implies independent sovereignty. In the 5th Gatha, called 
 Vahistoisti, he seems to take place among the guests or 
 personal friends of the poet, as such present at the nuptials 
 of Zoroaster's daughter. 
 
 Considering that Darius, the son of Vistaspa, in the 
 Inscriptions makes the most solemn professions of faith in 
 Ahuramazda, that he attributes all his successes, his security, 
 and prosperity, wholly to the favour of that deity ; that lie 
 agrees with this Gatha in ignoring all antagonistic powers of 
 the universe, we certainly have a prima facie presumption in 
 favour of the hypothesis that the Vistaspa of the inscriptions 
 is one with the Vistaspa of the Gathas. 
 
 To determine the correctness or the error of this hypo- 
 thesis, we necessarily turn in the first place to the notices of 
 Vistaspa in Eranian documents. We find the name in more 
 than twenty passages of the .Avesta. In all of them the 
 position of the Prince is distinctly marked as one of great 
 eminence. He is a mighty warrior, a firm supporter of 
 Zarathrustra, and opposed like him by powerful enemies. 
 Whether he is represented as an independent sovereign is 
 questionable. In the earlier portions of the Avesta we find 
 the same kind of notices as in the Gathas ; but in the third 
 part, called the Khord Avesta which is held by all critics to 
 be much later in date a far higher rank appears to be 
 assigned to him. In one' passage he stands out, conspicuous
 
 VISTASPA, DARIUS, AND ZOROASTER. 219 
 
 among those in whom the supreme majesty and glory 
 approaching to divinity is manifested, Hucrava, i.e. Khosru 
 or Cyrus, and Ardeshir the head of the Sassanian dynasty, 
 who was regarded by all later tradition as inheriting the full 
 majesty of the Eranian empire. 
 
 At the same time, especially in the passages which recog- 
 nise the first and noblest convert, the great supporter and 
 propagator of Zoroastrianism, as occupying the place of 
 supreme dignity, his historical position is no less distinctly 
 marked. He stands invariably in the line of succession after 
 Cyrus, not his immediate successor, but the first who in- 
 herited the whole dignity, the absolute pre-eminence of his 
 position. 
 
 As I have already stated in the preceding essay (p. 153) 
 there can be no doubt that in the Avesta, if not generally 
 yet certainly in the passages to which I here refer, which 
 present to us the deepest and most permanent convictions of 
 the Eranians themselves, Vistaspa and his more distinguished 
 son Darius are consciously or unconsciously identified. In 
 fact the name of Darius, that by which the king was known 
 to the Greeks, which he invariably owns in the Cuneiform 
 Inscriptions, does not occur in the Avesta, or in the most 
 ancient Pehlevi documents. The first passage in which, so 
 far as I am aware, it is found, is one in the so-called Dinkart, 
 in which Darius is said to have collected the whole body of 
 Zoroastrian writings, and to have deposited them in the 
 public library of Persepolis. This is doubtless a legen- 
 dary account, and as such it is rejected, somewhat contemp- 
 tuously by M. De Harlez,* but it points distinctly to the 
 
 * See in the ' Journal asiatique,' 1883, p. 558, a review of Dr. West's 
 Pehlevi translations, which form the fifth volume of Professor Max Miiller's 
 ' Sacred Books of the East.' I refer to this notice as one which, though 
 very short, contains valuable information on the whole subject of Pehlevi 
 literature, and is remarkable for its just and candid appreciation of the work
 
 220 VISTASPA, DARIUS, AND ZOROASTER. 
 
 fact that all native traditions recognise in Darius, the son of 
 Vistaspa, the head and chief maintainer or propagator of 
 Zoroastrianism. 
 
 One fact stands out distinctly. No native, no truly ancient 
 and genuine tradition speaks of any period, any combination 
 of circumstances, any region or personage connected with 
 Zoroaster in the doctrines which he inculcated, apart from 
 Darius or his father Vistaspa. 
 
 We pass to the most ancient native traditions posterior to 
 the Mahometan invasion. As I have repeatedly pointed out, 
 all critics admit that the fullest, by far the most trustworthy 
 records are found in the Shahnameh of Firdausi.* 
 
 Firdausi attached the very highest importance to the doc- 
 trinal system of his ancestors ; but it is not until he comes to 
 the reign of Gustasp that he makes any mention of Zoroaster 
 or the Zoroastrian system. Now that Gustasp is identical 
 with Vistaspa is unquestionable. The letters vi are in- 
 variably represented in Persian by gu. From the context in 
 the Shahnameh it is clear that the father and the son, Vistaspa 
 and Darius, are identified; the great name of Vistaspa is 
 swallowed up, absorbed, in the greater glory of the son. 
 Firdausi enters upon this part of his subject with peculiar 
 anxiety, and deals with it most cautiously. He was well 
 aware that any account of the Zoroastrian religion which he 
 was imperatively called upon to give at this epoch, would 
 expose him to the greatest danger, and he therefore professes 
 to present a record communicated to him by an older native 
 poet, a faithful witness to the Eranian traditions. The ac- 
 
 of English scholars. It is, in fact, the only continental document, so far as 
 I am aware, in which the peculiar services rendered to Eranian archseology 
 by Sir A. Kawlinson are fully appreciated. 
 
 * I observe that the form of this name, Firdausi, which I adopted, 
 relying upon the authority of Vullers in his ' Lexicon Persicum Etymo- 
 logirum,' is used throughout his Essays by Dr. Hang.
 
 VISTASPA, DARIUS, AND ZOROASTER. 221 
 
 count is clear and complete. Gustasp is the true patron and 
 the earnest propagator of the religion which Zoroaster was 
 commissioned to proclaim.* 
 
 I must also notice that in the later writings of the Era- 
 mans as in the Bundehesh, p. 24, ed. Justi we find notices of 
 Vistaspa, which assume throughout his chronological position 
 as a successor in the second degree from Cyrus. Thus we 
 read that the Kavi Vistaspa a title not given save to the 
 successors of Kai Kaus, or Cyaxares fought a pitched battle 
 with the Turanian chief Arjasp, the grandson of Afrasiab the 
 contemporary of Cyrus. 
 
 No trace of any native Eranian tradition distinct from or 
 opposed to this exists ; none is suggested even by modern 
 speculators. So far as those records go, we have the choice 
 between two alternatives, and between those alone. The 
 Vistaspa of the Gathas was either the father of Darius or 
 Darius himself.t For my own part, I do not hesitate to 
 maintain that the former alternative is by far the more 
 probable. The circumstances under .which Vistaspa is 
 related in the Cuneiform Inscriptions to have maintained 
 the cause of his son, harmonise thoroughly with those which 
 are suggested or presented in the Gathas. They account for 
 the difficulties encountered by Zoroaster, for his successes and 
 for his disappointments. The prince by whom he was 
 supported was a brave warrior, faithful to his convictions, 
 but surrounded by powerful enemies. Both in the Inscrip- 
 tions and in the Gathas we find indications of alternate 
 triumphs and at least partial defeats. In the 2nd Gatha, 
 
 * See the fourth, volume of the translation of Firdausi by J. Mohl, 
 pp. 290 seq. 
 
 f Agathias, A.D. 510, says (ii. 24): "The Persians, at present, simply 
 say that he lived at the time of Hystaspes." He adds that it is doubtful 
 whether the father of Darius or some other person is meant ; but that 
 doubt simply refers to the Greek historian ; no Persian ever heard or 
 dreamed of a more ancient sovereign bearing the name.
 
 222 VISTASPA, DARIUS, AND ZOROASTER. 
 
 Ch. iv., Zoroaster speaks despondingly, in the language of 
 Elijah, as persecuted, driven to desperation, with no hope save 
 in the final triumph assured to the faithful preacher of the 
 law of Ahuramazda. 
 
 The Gathas, then, I hold to have been composed during 
 the period immediately preceding the conquests of Darius ; 
 and in the province governed by his father with an all but 
 independent authority. 
 
 But Eranian scholars have generally adopted a widely 
 different theory. They hold that at some indefinite, but 
 far earlier period, a native king, named Vistaspa, reigned 
 in Bactria, that he there received Zoroaster, and actively 
 supported him in the promulgation of a new religion. 
 
 We have, however, simply to deal with facts. It is cer- 
 tainly a fact that no native tradition alludes to Bactria as 
 the province in which the religion was first preached, to an 
 ancient Vistaspa as its sovereign, or to the existence of 
 Zoroaster at an earlier period. 
 
 I am not concerned with the grounds on which various 
 theories, conflicting as they are in material points, may be 
 founded ; but I cannot but remark that one of the most 
 judicious of modern critics starts with the hypothesis that 
 the high morality and pure theism of Zoroastrians was 
 evolved from a primitive naturalistic polytheism ; and, since, 
 that theism certainly prevailed at a "very early period, the 
 system which sets it forth distinctly must needs have existed 
 long before the age of Darius. 
 
 Haug, on the other hand, relying as I venture to main- 
 tain, on a doubtful or wrongful interpretation of certain texts, 
 holds that one main object of Zoroaster was to commend 
 agriculture, the tillage of the land, as a novel system, con- 
 nected with other points, such as settled habitations, indus- 
 trious habits, distinguishing his followers from the nomads, 
 whether native or Turanian, by whom they were surrounded.
 
 VISTASPA, DARIUS, AND ZOROASTER. 223 
 
 This hypothesis I believe to be utterly unfounded. On 
 the one hand, the nomad habits of which the Gathas speak, 
 were certainly not characteristic of Aryans, either Eranians or 
 Indo- Aryans ; and on the other hand the cultivation of the soil 
 belonged to the most ancient, the primeval age of mankind. 
 
 Dr. Haug also holds, in contradiction, as it seems to me, to 
 all internal evidence, that the language, the style, the natural 
 system, and the mythology of the Gathas belong to the same 
 period as the Eig Veda ; and therefore to an age many cen- 
 turies before the Achsemenidae. 
 
 This theory scarcely needs confutation. It is repudiated 
 by all other critics, and, as far as I can ascertain, was 
 abandoned by the Professor himself, in later life. 
 
 It is, on the other hand, probable I hold it to be certain 
 that the language of the Gathas, differing, so far as it is a 
 provincial dialect, from that of the Inscriptions, belongs to the 
 same period, or the same stage of development; that the 
 metrical system derived from the same original source, differs 
 materially from that of the Rig Veda; and above all that 
 the religious system is utterly unlike, absolutely ignoring 
 superstitious or naturalistic tendencies, and agreeing with 
 that position which, as I have maintained throughout these 
 Essays, belonged to primeval truth. 
 
 The length of this digression may be excused, if it strengthen 
 the proof that the age of the Gathas is that which I have 
 maintained in the preceding essay. 
 
 I trust that when the reader meets with the statement that 
 Vistaspa was an ancient king of Bactria, the patron and sup- 
 porter of Zoroaster, he will enquire on what authority it rests ; 
 and unless ancient and native authority be adduced he will 
 regard it as a mere hypothesis, to be treated with respect 
 inasmuch as it is adopted by able scholars, but on no account 
 to be accepted as based upon solid historical grounds.
 
 224 SECOND CHANT OF THE FIRST GATHA. 
 
 THE SECOND CHANT; 2, YACNA XXIX. 
 
 This chant is full of difficulties, chiefly owing to the 
 obscurity of many words or phrases ; but it is singularly 
 expressive, and rightly placed in the collection. 
 
 In the first chant we had a perfect example of intercessory 
 prayer. Ahuramazda is there addressed as the Supreme Deity, 
 Zoroaster stands before us as his prophet, the appointed 
 interpreter of his will. The Prince, under whose protec- 
 tion the new doctrine is preached, is named and prayed for, 
 together with his prime minister ; Asha, Vohumano, and 
 Armaiti, personified attributes of Ormuzd, inseparable from 
 him, are duly recognised ; but as the hymn begins, so it ends, 
 with the prayer and praise addressed to the Creator and 
 Lord of the universe. 
 
 The second chant presents, in a highly poetical form, 
 the condition of the world which called for a special mani- 
 festation of Divine power. A being, named in the first 
 hymn as in absolute accord with Ormuzd, acting under him, 
 (either as De Harlez and others hold, specially as the genius 
 who presides over cattle, or, as Haug gives reason for main- 
 taining, the soul of the earth, that is, the living principle 
 which is to the earth what the soul, anima, psyche, is to 
 man,) opens the chant with this address to Ormuzd and his 
 
 assisters. 
 
 1. 
 
 To you the soul of earth complaineth, 
 
 For whom did ye form me ? who made me ? 
 
 On me all ills are working, 
 Drought and murder, and force and rapine. 
 
 You alone are my helpers ; 
 
 Teach me what is good for my pastures. 
 
 Earth suffers from unseasonable drought ; still more from 
 the ravages of fierce, powerful tyrants ; a state of things such
 
 SECOND CHANT OF THE FIRST GATHA. 225 
 
 as certainly prevailed throughout the empire after the death 
 of Cambyses. The word vactrya which closes the address is 
 important. Haug, throughout his work, assumes that tillage 
 was introduced and specially enforced by Zoroaster ; but this 
 word applies rather to pasture than to arable land. 
 
 A paraphrastic statement may make this address clearer. 
 The spirit of the earth, suffering from accumulated evils, the 
 ferocity of nomad invaders, the exhaustion of prolonged 
 drought, and the tyranny of rulers contending for mastery, 
 brings her complaint before the tribunal of heaven. Was 
 this, she cries, the object for which I was called into exist- 
 ence ? Who could have been my maker ? I call upon you 
 to help me, to repel the hostile forces, to teach me all that 
 is needed for the pasturage of my herds and for the culture 
 
 of my fields. 
 
 2. 
 Then the Maker asked of Asha ! 
 
 What is thy way of dealing with oxen ? 
 How may the Lord, ye mighty, 
 
 Grant her skill in tillage and pasture ? 
 Whom wilt thou choose as chieftain, 
 Who may bring evil on evil-doers ? 
 
 This verse presents at once a difficulty. The tashas, the 
 immediate maker, 877/^401*^709, to whom the soul of earth 
 owes its form, seems to be distinct from the Supreme Creator. 
 We have before us "either a personification of one attribute of 
 Ormuzd or a subordinate power not however an Amshaspand, 
 a later creation of Mazdeism but still a holy, loving servant. 
 This being feels himself specially called upon to answer the 
 suppliant and applies to Asha, i.e. to Truth and Wisdom 
 inherent in the Supreme Deity, for instructions on both 
 points, the best system of agriculture and pasturage, and the 
 appointment of a human leader, whose special work will be 
 the destruction of evildoers.
 
 226 SECOND CHANT OF THE FIRST GATHA. 
 
 To him Asha made answer ! 
 
 No chief but is hostile to cattle ! 
 Among them is none who knoweth 
 
 How men may be guided to justice ! 
 Of beings who is mightiest, 
 
 To whom labourers may appeal in distress. 
 
 So far the general sense may be perceptible, but every 
 line presents considerable difficulties. I have given that 
 which seems to me most probable, though Justi, Haug, and 
 De Harlez go in divergent directions. It seems to me 
 clear that when Asha is first called upon, she first looks down 
 upon the actual state of the earth, sees there chieftains con- 
 tending for mastery, indifferent to right, or incapable of 
 apprehending and applying its principles. Such a state of 
 things may well have existed during the confusions which 
 followed the death of Cambyses, especially in districts ad- 
 joining the steppes and accessible to nomad hordes. 
 
 4. 
 Mazda alone remembers, 
 
 And judges what hath been, what will be 
 Effected by men or Devas ! 
 
 Whate'er may by them be attempted, 
 Ahura alone discerneth ! 
 
 Be it unto us as He willeth. 
 
 Wisdom points out the only remedy, an appeal to the only 
 all-wise all-powerful Euler, with entire submission to his 
 will The soul of earth accepts this answer, and cries out : 
 
 5. 
 With hands towards you uplifted, 
 
 Full of devout love to Ahura, 
 My soul, the soul of nature, 
 
 Addresses now this prayer to Mazda ; 
 Let not ruin befall the righteous ! 
 
 May no landsman join the ill-doers.
 
 SECOND CHANT OP THE FIEST GATHA. 227 
 
 Earth has two special causes for alarm, the danger to the 
 just, the fear lest prosperous owners should join the doers of 
 mischief. 
 
 Then comes the answer of Ormuzd. 
 
 6. 
 Then to Earth Ahura answered, 
 
 Mazda who knoweth the end by wisdom. 
 Not one is worthy as chieftain ! 
 
 No leader forthcoming from Asha ! 
 As for thee, to care for cattle 
 
 And pasture, the Maker hath formed thee. 
 
 7. 
 The word of growth Ahura, 
 
 In accord with Asha, created, 
 Mazda for earth : he, the holy, 
 
 Ordained plenty for lawful owners. 
 
 THE SUPPLIANT. 
 Who is there, with a good spirit, 
 
 Who can impart these words to mortals ? 
 
 Then Ormuzd speaks : 
 
 8. 
 
 Here is the man before me, 
 
 Who alone hath heard our commandments ! 
 Zoroaster the holy ! 
 
 He willeth for Mazda and Asha 
 That men may obey us ! 
 
 To him grant I the gift of fair speaking. 
 
 This verse, if it is accepted as genuine, is the very central 
 point in the Gathas. It represents the Supreme Deity as 
 singling out Zoroaster as the only man on earth competent 
 or willing to do the work, as the man, holy and upright, who 
 cares that men may yield obedience to the Godhead ; and as 
 a reward, or rather as an endowment enabling him to execute 
 his mission, he bestows ; on him the gift of persuasive elo- 
 quence. 
 
 But is the verse genuine ? De Harlez says no ; he cannot 
 
 Q2
 
 228 SECOND CHANT OF THE FIRST 
 
 admit that Zoroaster should call himself spitamo, which 
 though of doubtful meaning certainly points to rare and 
 high qualifications. But Zoroaster does not assume it. He 
 simply repeats what he believes, whether communicated in 
 vision or by oral revelation, to be the very words of Ormuzd. 
 
 A second Moses, so to speak, is before us. Zoroaster does 
 not indeed complain of the want of power, but he dwells on 
 the gift, just as in the Rig Veda, see above, p. 92, Vasishtha 
 attributes his powers to Varuna. 
 
 Still if that were all, we might think that a follower 
 of Zoroaster, rather than the prophet himself, is speaking ; 
 but a verse follows which would never have been composed 
 by a follower of Zoroaster. 
 
 9. 
 But the soul of Earth lamented ! * 
 
 A bootless boon have I received, 
 The voice of a man unwarlike ; 
 
 I who longed for one great and mighty ! 
 When will one come who is able 
 
 To endue him with power for helping ? 
 
 Here, surely, we have Zoroaster's own account of the 
 matter. Far from accepting the prophet, sincere and righteous 
 as he may be, the Earth-soul cries out, with bitter lament, 
 What I needed was a hero, a prince ; what thou grantest 
 is a poor weak speaker. A Vistaspa; a Darius, a great 
 prince, a successful warrior alone can satisfy that desire, and 
 in the next verse we find an earnest prayer for its fulfilment. 
 
 10. 
 But, to men f do thou, Ormuzd, 
 
 With Asha grant full strength and power ; 
 That with a good true spirit 
 
 They may dwell in wealth and gladness. 
 I know that thou, Ormuzd, 
 
 Art, from aye, the possessor and giver. 
 
 * Ejulavit, from rud. f To Zoroaster and his patron.
 
 THE THIRD CHANT. 229 
 
 All will be well if Zoroaster and his supporters are 
 favoured and protected throughout their work by the Su- 
 preme Being, acting with a clear conscience, receiving from 
 Him the gifts of righteousness. 
 
 11. 
 
 0, where is right and' goodness, 
 
 And power ! do thou, Asha, 
 And thou, omniscient spirit, 
 
 Grant him power for the mighty work ! 
 Ahura, our guardian helper, 
 
 Thine is the helpful gift, thine only ! 
 
 Note well the singular combination and coherence of 
 thought throughout this chant. On earth a scene of 
 turbulence, conflict and misery ; in heaven a righteous and 
 all-powerful Ruler, working by his own personified attri- 
 butes ; who selects, appoints, and endues with all necessary 
 gifts, a man, weak in himself, and conscious of utter unfit- 
 ness, but assured of final and complete success. 
 
 THE THIKD CHANT ; YACNA XXX. 
 
 In the second chant, we had an account of the calling of 
 Zoroaster, his appointment as the delegate of Ahuramazda, 
 preacher of truth, and restorer of righteousness. In this we 
 have the fundamental doctrine of the religion announced in 
 the simplest and plainest form the principle afterwards 
 developed or distorted, issuing in fearful superstitions, but, 
 as presented in this chant, if open to misconception or 
 misrepresentation, yet, rightly understood, grave, spiritual 
 and ennobling. 
 
 The connection between this and both the preceding 
 chants seems to me clear and unquestionable ; all three 
 belong to the same period, refer to the same persons, and 
 are in accordance with the circumstances under which I 
 assume them to have been produced.
 
 230 THE THIRD CHANT. 
 
 ZOROASTER SPEAKS. 
 
 1. 
 Now I will teach all hearers * 
 
 What great Mazda hath wrought, for the wise f 
 To Ahura hymns and praises 
 
 Are due, and the worship of a good spirit, 
 Good thoughts approved by Asha, 
 Glories revealed by the splendours. 
 
 2. 
 Hear with your ears what is noble ! 
 
 Behold with your spirit what is pure. 
 Choosing what alone is worthy, 
 
 Every man for his own person, 
 Before the great decision ! J 
 
 Lo, the Teachers appointed for guidance. 
 
 3. 
 Behold ! two primeval spirits, 
 
 Each made known upon earth his own will, 
 In thought, in word, in action, 
 
 What is good and what is evil ! 
 'Twixt those the wise discern rightly 
 
 What is best ; but not so the unwise. 
 
 * The Seer addresses all those who are willing to hear the truth. The 
 word which I have rendered " hearers," means properly those who earn- 
 estly desire to receive the announcement. 
 
 f " For the wise," i.e. those by whom the announcement will be rightly 
 understood. 
 
 J The great decision, i.e. the judgment which will be finally pronounced 
 by Ahuramazda, whether upon the individual or upon all mankind. 
 
 The last line in this verse calls attention to the fact that Zoroaster, 
 with his helpers, is appointed as teacher of the truth. 
 
 This verse is of the highest importance. Upon its interpretation 
 depends the aspect under which the religion taught by Zoroaster is to be 
 regarded. We have, in the first place, the undoubted fact that two spirits, 
 or spiritual principles, one inculcating goodness, the other teaching 
 wickedness, are represented as from the beginning and throughout all 
 ages claiming man as their own. 
 
 One word, however, is held to go much further. It is ' Yima,' rendered 
 by Haug twins. This interpretation I have referred to in the preceding 
 Es&ay (pp. 144 and 145), but as my note (on p. 144) shows, was unable to
 
 THE THIRD CHANT. 231 
 
 4. 
 Meeting in the beginning 
 
 These two spirits at once effected 
 Both life and life's destruction, 
 
 And determined the course of creation ; 
 All ill for evil-doers, 
 
 For the righteous all that is excellent. 
 
 5. 
 Of those two spirits the evil 
 
 Chooseth for himself all wickedness. 
 The good spirit chooseth Asha, 
 
 Dwelling in unchangeable heavens, 
 All who are pleasing to Ormuzd 
 
 By their works acknowledging Mazda. 
 
 6. 
 But worshippers of Devas 
 
 Know not the truth. We deceived them.* 
 To those who sought and chose him 
 
 Came at once the spirit of evil. 
 All fiends combine with Abaddon 
 
 That men may defile all creation. 
 
 adopt. On repeated and careful enquiry I now reject it altogether. It implies 
 that the two spirits, by whom Haug and Justi understand Ormuzd and 
 Ahriman, are coeval, deriving their origin from one source ; a notion of 
 which no trace is found in the Avesta, which is, indeed, directly opposed 
 to all Zoroastrian teaching, and which certainly cannot be supported by 
 the meaning assigned to the word Yema, which occurs in no other passage 
 and, whatever may be its real force, does not necessarily or naturally 
 suggest the notion of twinship. Kossowicz follows Spiegel who, in his 
 ' Old Bactrian Grammar ' (p. 346), holds that Yema is but a dialectic 
 variety of Zema = earth. This gives a natural and suitable meaning. It 
 would imply that the struggle between good and evil began at the creation 
 and goes on through the whole of time. It must be observed that good is 
 not, in this case, Ormuzd himself, who is its source, but goodness as a 
 principle ; and, on the other hand, that evil is not equivalent to Ahriman, 
 of whose existence no notice is found in the Gathas. 
 
 * The infatuation of the wicked is thus, as in Holy Scripture, regarded 
 as a just and necessary requital, and as such permitted or inflicted by the 
 Deity. 
 
 In the fifth line of this verse I have used the word Abaddon as the nearest 
 equivalent to the word Aeshema, which designates the demon of malignity, 
 held by most commentators to be the Asmodeus of the Book Tobit.
 
 THE FOURTH OHANT. 
 
 7. 
 But to the righteous, with power 
 
 Come the good spirit and Asha! 
 His body with health and vigour 
 
 The gracious Armaiti endueth ! 
 Such on the day of creation 
 
 Was thy glorious work, thou first one. 
 
 8. 
 When for their crimes the wicked 
 
 Eeceive the terrible judgment, 
 Then will thy kingdom, Ormuzd, 
 
 Be stablished for ever in goodness ! 
 Ahura reigns in the spirit 
 
 Which by truth overcomes the liar ! 
 
 9. 
 May our lot be with blest ones 
 
 By whom the new earth will be peopled ! 
 Who, living in truth and wisdom, 
 
 Fill all things with joy unceasing ! 
 May our soul dwell for ever 
 
 Where Wisdom hath fixed her abode. 
 
 10. 
 Then will fall on the liar 
 
 The terrible blow of destruction. 
 But they who preach true doctrines . 
 
 Will share for aye the blessings 
 Of the good spirit and of Ormuzd, 
 
 And Asha for ever and ever. 
 
 11. 
 
 Learn well these two conditions, 
 
 Which Mazda hath set before mortals! 
 The law of right, of good living, 
 
 Lasting woe to the sinner, 
 Lasting life to the righteous ; 
 
 By these truths cometh salvation. 
 
 THE FOUKTH CHANT; YACNA XXXI. 
 
 This chant follows up the course of teaching distinctly 
 set forth in the preceding one. There the principles were 
 enunciated; here the practical application is made. Men 
 are divided into two classes, according to their choice be-
 
 THE FOURTH CHANT. 233 
 
 tween good and evil, with the alternatives of misery or 
 of blessedness. 
 
 I cannot understand the objection of De Harlez, that this 
 chant scarcely suits the character and position of a reformer. 
 It seems to me, from first to last, in exact accordance with 
 both. It is evident that the announcement was followed by 
 sharp contentions between those who received and those who 
 rejected it. There is, indeed, a certain diffuseness, there are 
 frequent repetitions, appeals to man's conscience and to the 
 heavenly powers, but these are the natural characteristics of 
 popular preaching, such as we find more specially in this 
 chant. 
 
 I hold that it is rightly placed ; a genuine work of Zoro- 
 aster, composed at the same period of his life, i.e. soon after 
 the first promulgation of his doctrines. The teaching is 
 indeed so clear, that I have not felt it necessary to give 
 many explanatory notes. 
 
 1. 
 
 These holy truths remembering 
 We speak out words as yet never heard, 
 
 To those .who by false teaching 
 
 Bring ruin to homes of the righteous ! 
 
 But excellent words to those 
 
 Whose heart is devoted to Mazda. 
 
 2. 
 But, if by them this great truth 
 
 Be not grasped distinctly and firmly, 
 Then will I turn to you all, 
 
 As a chief appointed by Ormuzd, 
 The all-wise, the good-bestowing, 
 
 By which we all may live for Asha. 
 
 3. 
 grant, by fire from heaven, 
 
 And by Asha, to us thy warriors, 
 The law thou givest thy teachers ; 
 
 Declare, that we may know it, 
 By a word from thine own moutb, 
 
 By which I may succour all living.
 
 234 THE FOURTH CHANT. 
 
 4. 
 When thus I call on Asha, 
 
 And all the powers of Ahura, 
 In the spirit of pure devotion ; 
 
 Grant, as a boon to the faithful ones, 
 A power great and effectual 
 
 By which I may o'erthrow the Drujes.* 
 
 5. 
 Teach me to know distinctly 
 
 The excellent gift of holiness ; 
 So that with good conscience 
 
 I may hold fast to all uprightness ! 
 Teach me, all-wise Ormuzd, 
 
 All that hath not been, all that will be. 
 
 6. 
 May the best lot attend him 
 
 Who shall speak out plainly and truly 
 The great word of perfection ; f 
 
 Of Asha and of Ameretat. 
 Such is the realm of Ormuzd, 
 
 Co-extensive with Vohumano. 
 
 7. 
 He created the splendour 
 
 Which clothes the stars with brightness ! 
 He created by wisdom 
 
 Asha the sustainer of goodness ! 
 Thine are they, Mazda, 
 
 Thou, Ahura, art Lord for ever. 
 
 8. 
 Thee I confess, Mazda, 
 
 Creator and source of all being, 
 Father of the good spirit ! 
 
 By sure intuition I know Thee, 
 Creator of Holy Asha, 
 
 Lord of the world and of all its workings. 
 
 * The Drujes, literally the liars, a general denomination of evil influ- 
 ences ; in later Zoroastrian writings personified as evil spirits hi the train 
 of Ahriman. 
 
 f Of 'perfection,' or Haurvatat, a proper name signifying all that is 
 complete and perfect. Haurvatat and Ameretat (lit. immortality) repre- 
 sent all that is good, perfect, and eternal.
 
 THE FOUETH CHANT. 235 
 
 9. 
 
 Thine is the good Armaiti * 
 
 Thine the Wisdom maker of nature 
 O spirit, mighty Mazda, 
 
 Thou bestowest a just precedence 
 On him who careth for pasture,! 
 
 And rejectest those who disregard it. 
 
 10. 
 
 For that good spirit favours 
 
 The landsman who increaseth her wealth, 
 To him, righteous Mazda, 
 
 Thou grantest gifts of Vohumano : 
 But idolatrous nomads 
 
 Have no portion in these good tidings. 
 
 11. 
 
 When, Mazda, in Uie beginning 
 
 Thou didst ordain life and religion ; 
 When in thy power and wisdom, 
 
 Thou didst clothe the soul with its own body : 
 Then works and laws thou gavest, 
 
 That each should choose in freedom of will. 
 
 12. 
 
 Then each one speaks out freely, 
 
 Both the false and the righteous speak, 
 The wise and so the unwise, 
 
 Each one as he feels and is minded. 
 The steadfast child of Armaiti 
 
 Asks where are the heavenly dwellings ? 
 
 13. 
 Whatever prayers, Mazda, 
 
 Are offered openly or in secret ; 
 Whoever through transgression 
 
 Incurs a severe retribution, 
 Thine eyes behold all clearly, 
 
 In holiness and in uprightness. 
 
 * Armaiti is designated by Greek writers as 8t]^iovpyos a-o<j)ia : see Essay 
 on the Rig Veda, p. 69. 
 
 f Pasture ; or generally speaking husbandry, including tillage, but 
 evidently with special regard to the care of cattle, a feeling that pervades 
 all Zoroastrianism.
 
 236 THE FOURTH CHANT. 
 
 14. 
 This, Ahura, I ask thee ; 
 
 In this state, and in the future, 
 What just retribution 
 
 Will be given to the pure and righteous ; 
 And what to the evil doer, 
 
 When the final sentence is uttered ? 
 
 15. 
 
 I ask what wrath awaiteth 
 
 Him who supports the reign of the wicked, 
 The man given up to evil, 
 
 Bringing ruin upon labourers ; 
 Supporting the oppressor 
 
 Of cattle and of the innocent. 
 
 16. 
 This too I ask : the wise man 
 
 Who strives, in accordance with Asha, 
 To raise the power of houses, 
 
 Of a township, or a province ; 
 Will he be thine, Ormuzd, 
 
 Like thee in works and in nature ? 
 
 17. 
 
 Is it the just or the wicked, 
 
 Who chooses that which is safest ? 
 
 Let the wise Ormuzd tell the wise man 
 Let not the unwise deceive mortals : 
 
 Be thou to us, Mazda, 
 
 The true teacher of a good spirit. 
 
 18. 
 May none of you ever listen 
 
 To counsels or words of the wicked ! 
 He brings a certain ruin 
 
 On a house, clan, burgh or province ! 
 Sure death and sure destruction ! 
 
 Cut him off, expel him with scourges.* 
 
 * Or ' cut him off by a sword.' Whether the penalty is scourging or death, 
 it must be borne in mind that it is not threatened save to the propagator 
 of evil words and evil actions. The word pnaithis, from pnath, to smite 
 or slay, seems to imply capital punishment.
 
 THE FIFTH CHANT. 237 
 
 19. 
 Listen to him who teacheth 
 
 What is right ; thy own truth, Ormuzd ! 
 Thou reignest by words of justice, 
 
 Thy piercing fire discerneth 
 Between the just and unjust, 
 
 In accord with perfect goodness. 
 
 20. 
 He who deceives the righteous, 
 
 Will dwell for evermore in darkness ; 
 For food will have but poison, 
 
 With weeping and voices of wailing. 
 To that world, ye evil doers, 
 
 Works done by your law mil conduct you ! . 
 
 21. 
 
 But Ormuzd, the wise, the mighty, 
 
 Bestoweth perfection eternal, 
 Of power, of sovereign goodness, 
 
 By the might of his own dominion, 
 With all gifts of his own spirit 
 
 To those who are proved and beloved. 
 
 22. 
 These things are clear to the prudent, 
 
 Whose mind is informed with true wisdom ! 
 He walks in ways of Asha, 
 
 In his thoughts, his words, and his actions ! 
 That man in thee, Ormuzd 
 
 Is the best, most noble possession. 
 
 THE FIFTH CHANT; YACNA XXXII. 
 
 The fourth chant set before us the conditions of the two 
 classes adhering or opposed to the Zoroastrian religion. In 
 this we have a further development of the fundamental prin- 
 ciples. It is directed against the opponents of the revealed 
 truth and its perverters. 
 
 The first verse is exceedingly obscure. I do not see how 
 the interpretation of De Harlez can be reconciled with the
 
 238 THE FIFTH CHANT. 
 
 text, and that of Hang appears wholly unsuitable. I give a 
 loose paraphrase, expressing what I believe to be the general 
 sense ; but, as it seems to me, the text is hopelessly corrupt. 
 
 1. 
 
 To him his own come longing, 
 
 Who are working with honest purpose. 
 To him Devas come professing 
 
 True devotion to Ahuramazda ! 
 ' let us bear thy message, 
 
 Drive far away those who hate thee.' 
 
 If the meaning be as this translation suggests, we have the 
 representation of a great scene. Men and spirits, men and 
 deities hitherto recognised as true objects of worship, come 
 into the presence of Ormuzd, and severally entreat him to 
 employ them as bearers of his message to all creation. We 
 are reminded of the introductory chapter to the book of Job, 
 and of the vision of Micaiah in the last chapter of the first 
 book of Kings. It is the first passage in the Gathas where 
 the Devas are introduced ; if it is rightly represented in 
 this rendering, it would seem to mark a crisis in Zoroas- 
 trianism. The polytheistic forms, into which primitive 
 monotheism had been transformed, are stripped of all dis- 
 guise, and distinctly attributed to the workings of an evil 
 spirit, if not Aiiromainyus, who is not mentioned in the 
 Gathas, and belongs to another stage in the system, yet of 
 the evil principle, which in the Bible developes itself in 
 connection with the earliest history of man. 
 
 To them the all-wise Ormuzd, 
 Keigning ever with Vohumano, 
 
 In his own might, thus answered, 
 With Asha, his dearly beloved : 
 
 ' We choose the good, the holy 
 Armaiti, may she be ours for ever.'
 
 THE FIFTH CHANT. 239 
 
 The meaning is clear, when we bear in mind, on the one 
 hand, that Ormuzd and his attributes Asha and Vohumano, 
 Purity and Goodness are one ; that the utterances proceed 
 from his own undivided power ; and that Armaiti, the being 
 whom he adopts as his own, personifies the devotion of his 
 true followers. Stated simply, Ormuzd speaking in the 
 fullness of power, his essential attribute, accepts those forms 
 of worship only which are offered in singleness of heart. 
 
 3. 
 
 But you, all you, ye Devas, 
 
 Are the seed of the spirit of evil. 
 And all those who adore you, 
 
 Children of fraud and perversity, 
 In every act deceitful, 
 
 Which ye have taught throughout creation. 
 
 The word, which I have rendered creation, literally means 
 sevenfold, in accordance with the Eranian view of a seven- 
 fold division of the world. 
 
 4. 
 
 Yours is the hateful error 
 
 Of men who say, committing great crimes, 
 These acts will please the Devas ! 
 
 Apostates from great Vohumano, 
 They perish, lost to Ormuzd, 
 
 And bitterly alien to Asha ! 
 
 5. 
 
 Thus have ye cheated mortals 
 
 Of true joy and of life immortal ! 
 You whom the evil spirit 
 
 By thoughts, by acts, by words unlawful, 
 Fills with his own bad power, 
 
 Ever favouring evil-doers. 
 
 6. 
 You alone are cause of evil, 
 
 Inflicted on sinners in vengeance !
 
 240 THE FIFTH CHANT. 
 
 let me speak out boldly,* 
 
 Ormuzd, for thine is perfect wisdom ! 
 On thee, thy truth and power 
 
 I trust, for thou knowest all things. 
 
 7. 
 
 He knoweth nought of torments 
 
 Which await in sure course the assassin, 
 
 Who teaches deadly maxims 
 
 Leading men to certain destruction : 
 
 But thou, Ahuramazda, 
 
 Knowest well the dread retribution. 
 
 The genuine purport of this verse seems to be that false 
 teachers, under the guidance and inspiration of the Devas, 
 lead men into crime without a consciousness of the retribu- 
 tion which ought to be distinctly present to the mind of 
 every rational creature ; but each verse has expressions 
 admitted by all interpreters to be hopelessly obscure. The 
 versions of Haug, De Harlez, and Kossowicz differ through- 
 out. I have little doubt that some early corruption has 
 crept into the text, and that allusions are made to occur- 
 rences well known at the time, but which are now matters 
 of mere speculation. 
 
 Still the contrast between blind and malignant teachers of 
 wretched evil-doers, and the unerring wisdom of the Omni- 
 scient Lord who instructs his own messengers, stands out in 
 broad, strong lines, well befitting the character and position 
 
 of the seer. 
 
 8.f 
 
 Such was the torture awarded 
 To Yima, the son of Vivanho 1 
 
 * The address of Ormuzd is interrupted by a singularly bold and 
 striking exclamation. The seer unable to repress his emotions, gives 
 expression in his own words to the convictions which he doubts not are 
 in absolute accord with the will of Ahuramazda. 
 
 f The importance of this verse cannot be urged too strongly. The 
 following points are clear. Yima, the son of Vivanho, who is clearly
 
 THE FIFTH CHANT. 241 
 
 For teaching men to slaughter, 
 
 And to feed on the flesh of oxen ! 
 To thee, mighty Ormuzd, 
 
 I appeal for a just decision. 
 
 identified with Japhet, the son of Noah, is said to have incurred guilt of 
 the same character which brought destruction upon the criminal idolaters. 
 The guilt consisted in his teaching, earnestly teaching, men to eat the 
 flesh of oxen. The expressions, as understood by all critics with the 
 exception of Haug, are unmistakeable eating (qaremno from the very 
 common verb qar) portions (baga, pieces or parts) of the cow, (gam, 
 general term for the animal). I do not see how the reference to the 
 custom introduced after the Deluge, at the very commencement of 
 human history, by the express permission of the Lord, through Noah, 
 can be reasonably evaded. I have previously noted (see p. 188) the fact 
 that the acts attributed to Noah and to Japhet in the Bible are assigned 
 by old Eranian tradition indifferently to Yima and to his father. Unless 
 the interpretation be rejected we have no accidental coincidence, but a 
 proof that the oldest traditions of the race were preserved, not, as might 
 be expected, without modification, in that portion of it which remained in 
 the district nearest to the original abode of postdiluvian man. 
 
 Haug, however, renders the words qaremno bagd gaus ' illumining quarters 
 of the world.' Now >that qaremno can possibly be referred to gar in the 
 sense, burn, shine, may be admitted, but it is another thing to explain it 
 as giving light, making illustrious ; for that I find no authority whatever. 
 Again, baga, which means divided portions, is not equivalent to keshvar, 
 nor is there any instance of its application to quarters of the earth. Lastly 
 gaus, as genitive of ga in the sense earth, though not indefensible, is 
 improbable. In the first and second chants, where I have admitted, though 
 not without misgiving, the sense of earth, a different form of the genitive 
 is used, not gaus, but geus ; a difference of form which seems to indicate 
 a difference of sense. 
 
 We are, however, surprised to find Yima thus ranked with false and 
 malignant teachers. But we must remember that old Eranian tradition 
 speaks of the final ruin, the cruel punishment of Jemshid, who is unques- 
 tionably the Yima of the Avesta, and that in the Shahnameh it is 
 attributed to overweening pride and apostasy. If, as seems to me more 
 than probable, Zoroaster was acquainted with the Semitic records, directly 
 or indirectly, he might find in the permission accorded by the Lord a 
 clear instance of what he deemed erroneous teaching by a Being whom 
 he would regard as a Deva, and in the punishment of Yima sawn asunder 
 
 R
 
 242 THE FIFTH CHANT. 
 
 9. 
 
 False teachers ruin doctrine 
 
 By dogmas perverting man's spirit,* 
 
 Kepelling the high doctrine, 
 
 The course approved hy Vohumano. 
 
 These words of mine own spirit 
 I address to Mazda with Asha. 
 
 10. 
 That man subverts my doctrine, 
 
 Who teaches that the earth, the sun 
 Seduce the sense of mortals 
 
 Who lavishes gifts on evil-doers, 
 Who lays waste fertile pastures, 
 
 Waylays and murders the righteous. 
 
 11. 
 The life which I preach they ruin, 
 
 Who account evil doers as noble ; 
 Defrauding heads of households 
 
 Of the knowledge and blessings of goodness. 
 Bereaving thus the upright 
 
 Of the love and flavour of Ormuzd. 
 
 12. 
 
 Such the result of doctrines 
 
 Which turn aside men from good actions ! 
 
 by the order of his conqueror, a fitting and just punishment for his intro- 
 duction of a custom regarded by Zoroaster, as by modern Hindoos, as a 
 crime of the darkest character, fully equal to homicide. 
 
 The reference to Japhet has not escaped the notice of critics. It was 
 remarked by Windischmann, and though passed over in silence by Spiegel 
 (who however notices the fact that there are here traces of the Eranian 
 tradition), it is adopted by Kossowicz. 
 
 I see no reason whatever for rejecting it, no motive but that of a deter- 
 mination to ignore all reference to biblical statements, however distinct 
 they may be, whatever light they may throw upon obscure, and other- 
 wise unintelligible notices in the most ancient Gentile records. 
 
 * Man's spirit literally, the intelligence of life ; i. e. the right 
 understanding of principles upon which life depends.
 
 THE FIFTH CHANT. 243 
 
 They are accursed of Onnuzd, 
 
 Whose blandishments ruin man's life,* 
 Preferring gain to goodness, 
 
 And strengthening deaf lovers of falsehood. 
 
 It is questioned to what special class of false teachers 
 Zoroaster refers in this and the two preceding verses. The 
 reference to Indo- Aryans proposed by Haug is utterly un- 
 tenable. Some points may seem to apply to Semitic, if not 
 to Hebrew, teachers. Such passages as those in Job xxxi. 
 26-28, and in prophets contemporary with, or more ancient 
 than, Zoroaster, which expressly condemn the worship of the 
 heavenly bodies, and all naturalistic or materialistic forms of 
 superstition, might be easily misunderstood ; but other traits 
 direct our minds rather to chieftains influenced or guided by 
 sectarians, who may have taken an active part in opposing 
 true doctrine, and in putting down the native landowners, 
 cultivators of the soil and owners of cattle, among whom 
 Zoroaster and the prince his protector probably counted 
 their most trustworthy adherents. 
 
 13. 
 
 By that power the arch corrupter 
 
 Brings man to the abodes of evil, 
 And this world to destruction, 
 
 Who delight to torture the teacher 
 Of the law, the true, the holy, 
 
 By which Mazda leads his followers. 
 
 This verse is, like so many others, at once clear in general 
 meaning and hopelessly obscure. in its expression. I have 
 followed De Harlez in this and the following verse. 
 
 * Literally the life of Ga, i. e. the life of the natural world, in which 
 man breathes freely. 
 
 In the last line the word rendered ' deaf is karapan, which certainly has 
 that signification, but is supposed to be a personal designation of certain 
 false teachers. This view, in itself not improbable, needs, but is not 
 supported by, any ancient authority. The words karapan and kava, in the 
 fourteenth verse, may designate moral or spiritual obtuseness. 
 
 R 2
 
 244 THE SIXTH CHANT. 
 
 14. 
 
 False teachers following Kavis,* 
 
 Have given themselves up to corruption, 
 
 Producing two great errors ; 
 
 Promising success to the wicked, 
 
 Teaching to slaughter oxen ; 
 And assuring full immunity. 
 
 15. 
 
 But, lo ! swift vengeance cometh 
 
 On disciples of blind and deaf teachers, 
 And of the fearful despots,! 
 
 In whom no power of life abideth. 
 The just will be uplifted 
 
 By good spirits to the home of goodness, J 
 
 16. 
 
 All those who teach completely 
 
 What is good to pure intelligence ; 
 Thou, O mighty Ormuzd, 
 
 Eeignest o'er those my persecutors ! 
 Do thou inflict the vengeance 
 
 Justly due to all doers of evil. 
 
 The first two lines in this verse are continued from the 
 preceding. 
 
 THE SIXTH CHANT; YACNA xxxm. 
 
 The sixth chant is regarded by critics with some suspicion. 
 That it marks a stage in onward progress may be safely 
 admitted. We have indications of thoughts developed more 
 fully in later portions of the Avesta ; but, on the other hand, 
 it contains nothing, suggests nothing, that can be fairly con- 
 
 * Kavis, or the blind ; see note on v. 12. 
 
 f By despots we may understand false and malignant objects of worship, 
 who may be powerful for evil, but are utterly unable to give life to their 
 votaries. 
 
 J In the last line two spirits are spoken of; according to tradition 
 Haveratat and Ameratat, personifications of perfection and immortality, are 
 designated.
 
 THE SIXTH CHANT. 245 
 
 nected with the superstitions of Mazdeism. It moves in the 
 same sphere of serene contemplation, and above all it occu- 
 pies just the place which befits it in reference to the preceding 
 chants. It was to be expected that a denunciation of false 
 teaching should be followed by a full recognition of spiritual 
 truths; and in no preceding chant have the true being of 
 Ormuzd and the harmonious manifestations of his highest 
 attributes been set forth so fully. Most noteworthy is the 
 close of this chant in which the highest act of pure worship, 
 absolute devotion of self, of the inmost being, of every 
 thought, word, and act, is presented in a form and with a 
 fulness for which I know of no parallel save in Holy Scrip- 
 ture. 
 
 1. 
 
 Thus now is all accomplished, 
 
 As by law of the primeval world 
 By righteous operations, 
 
 Both for the bad * and for the just ; 
 For him who worketh evil, 
 
 For him who liveth in righteousness. 
 
 2. 
 
 But whoso bringeth evil 
 
 By thought, word, or act, on the wicked ; 
 Whoso confirms the world in goodness, 
 
 To that man, in accord with his choice, 
 A just reward is given 
 
 By the gracious will of Ormuzd. 
 
 3. 
 
 The man who to the righteous 
 
 As master, slave, or client, is duteous, 
 Or careful tending cattle, 
 
 That man, glorious Ormuzd, 
 
 * The punishment of the wicked and the rewards of the righteous are 
 based upon the eternal law of justice, established and declared from the 
 beginning of the world : 
 
 ov yap TI vvv ye Ka^dfs, aXX' dfi TTOTC 
 vdctr oi8tv e' orov '(fiavr]. 
 
 (Sophocles, ' Antigone.')
 
 246 THE SIXTH CHANT. 
 
 Will dwell for aye with Asha, 
 In the pastures of Vohumano.* 
 
 4. 
 I who strive, Ormuzd, 
 
 By my prayers to avert rebellion 
 The spirit of pride in masters, 
 
 Deceitful habits in the servant : 
 Contentions among the dependants, 
 
 And neglect in treatment of cattle. 
 
 5. 
 I who invoke Sraosha 
 
 Mightiest of spirits for succour, 
 
 grant me length of being 
 
 Under the guidance of a good spirit, 
 In wings of holy living 
 In the realm where, Ormuzd, thou dwellest. 
 
 This prayer directs our thoughts to the final state, the 
 long unending life in Garonmame, the heaven in which 
 Ormuzd is manifested. The mention of Sraosha, the Serosh 
 of the Shahnameh, belongs specially to this train of thought. 
 The great function of Serosh was to conduct the spirits of 
 just men across the intermediate region, and over the bridge 
 Cinvat into the presence of Ormuzd. This is, I believe, the 
 most ancient allusion to a belief, which doubtless belongs 
 to early and pure traditions preserved by different branches 
 of the family of Noah. 
 
 6. 
 
 1 who now thus invoke thee, 
 
 Long for the blessedness of heaven, 
 I with a true and upright spirit, 
 
 A spirit that teaches care for cattle, 
 Inspiring deep and fervent longing 
 
 To see and converse with thee, Ormuzd. 
 
 * The reward of perfectly conscientious discharge of duty in all 
 the relations of life, corresponds most exactly to a man's deserts : he 
 will dwell for ever in the "land of the leal," where righteousness and 
 goodness, the attributes of Ormuzd, will be fully manifested.
 
 THE SIXTH CHANT. 247 
 
 7. 
 
 Come to me, mighty Onnuzd, 
 
 Show me these perfect gifts, thine own gifts, 
 With Asha and Vohumano, 
 
 By which I am known to the highest ! 
 May thus be known among us 
 
 All the gifts that befit devotion. 
 
 8. 
 Teach me to know the two laws,* 
 
 By which I may walk in good conscience, 
 And worship thee, Ormuzd, 
 
 With hymns of pious adoration, 
 The gifts of life immortal, 
 
 The offerings of thorough perfection. 
 
 9. 
 Thus unto thee, O Mazda, 
 
 With all that is good in this life. 
 That will be good in heaven 
 
 May I be led by Vohumano, 
 And thus attain perfection, 
 
 The aim and end of every spirit. 
 
 10. 
 All goods which ever have been 
 
 Which are, which will be, do thou, Ormuzd, 
 According to thy pleasure, 
 
 Distribute among thine own creatures ; 
 By thy great Might, by Asha, 
 
 By Vohumano grant increasing power. 
 
 11. 
 
 Do thou, life-giving Ormuzd ! 
 
 Do thou, wise, devout Armaiti ! 
 Thou who bestowest blessings, 
 
 Asha, with Vohumano, and Ksathra ;f 
 hear my supplication, 
 
 Grant me the precious boon I long for. 
 
 * Two laws, i.e. moral and spiritual, the law which regulates human 
 relations, and that which directs true devotion. 
 t Ksathra, the personification of power.
 
 218 THE SEVENTH CHANT. 
 
 12. 
 
 A rise, O loving Ormuzd ! 
 
 Increase my fervour in devotion ! 
 O holy spirit Mazda, 
 
 Aid me in this sacrificial prayer, 
 Asha, give it power ! 
 
 Make it effectual, Vohumano. 
 
 13. 
 Grant me large intuition, 
 
 With joy to contemplate the goodness 
 Which dwelleth in thee fully ; 
 
 With Khsathra and with Vohumano. 
 O holy pure Armaiti, 
 
 Teach me the true law of purity. 
 
 14. 
 
 This offering Zoroaster, 
 
 The vital principle of his whole being, 
 Presents in pure devotion ; 
 
 With every action done in holiness ; 
 This above all professing 
 
 Obedience to thy word with all his power. 
 
 But the Gatha which is specially devoted to the glory 
 of Ahuramazda, called for that reason Ahunavaiti, would not 
 properly be closed even by the self-sacrificing act of. Zoroaster. 
 That devotion, so well expressed, draws him out of himself, 
 directs all his thoughts to his Lord. 
 
 THE SEVENTH CHANT ; YACNA XXXIV. 
 1. 
 
 By the acts, and by the words, 
 
 By the worship, through which, Ormuzd, 
 Thou in thy grace bestowest 
 
 Immortal life and truth and power. 
 By all these, great Ormuzd, 
 
 We offer firstfruits of devotion !
 
 THE SEVENTH CHANT. 249 
 
 All these to thee are offered, 
 
 As gifts of a good mind and spirit, 
 
 Acts of one true and righteous, 
 Whose soul is devoted to Asha ! 
 
 I come adoring, Ormuzd, 
 
 With pious chants of thy worshippers ! 
 
 3. 
 
 These gifts with prayer we offer,* 
 
 Addressed to thee, Ormuzd, as to Asha, 
 
 That thou mayest reign in power 
 
 In homes founded by thy good spirit ; 
 
 That thou mayest grant the righteous 
 Full share of thine own pure blessedness. 
 
 4. 
 So we delight, Ormuzd ! 
 
 In thy fire, strong, rapid and mighty, f 
 Earth-gladdening, bright and helpful, 
 
 Pervading all thine own creation ! 
 So Ormuzd, fierce in anger, 
 
 Thou hurlest thy shafts at offenders.}: 
 
 5. 
 What power, what joy, Ormuzd, 
 
 Do good works bring, that I may tell it ! 
 So with truth and good conscience 
 
 I may help the poor, thine own creatures ! 
 Loudly we would proclaim it 
 
 In the hearing of bad men and Devas. 
 
 6. 
 As thou in truth, Asha, 
 
 In Mazda art one with Vohumano, 
 
 grant a sign that preaching 
 Throughout the world, in every quarter, 
 
 1 may proclaim thy praises, 
 
 And worshippers may win thy favour. 
 
 * The hymn is liturgical ; like the first, it is dictated in the name 
 and on the behalf of Zoroaster, and of those who use it. 
 
 f This is the first mention of fire as an object of devotion. 
 
 ^ This verse has very obscure or doubtful expressions, but the meaning 
 stands out distinctly.
 
 250 THE SEVENTH CHANT. 
 
 7. 
 Where are they, Mazda, 
 
 Who teach the true blessings of goodness ! 
 Who bring sure consolation 
 
 To the afflicted and broken-hearted ! 
 I know but thee, Asha ; 
 
 Be thou our mighty deliverer.* 
 
 8. 
 So may we by these actions 
 
 Repel the assaults of destroyers ! 
 May good men be our kinsmen ! 
 
 But breakers of law let them perish ! 
 The man who knows not justice, 
 
 Hath no place in the home of the righteous, t 
 
 9. 
 
 As for the man who, knowing, 
 Rejects the words of holy wisdom, 
 
 Committing deeds of evil, 
 
 Utterly alien from Vohumano, 
 
 From him, great Asha fleeth, 
 
 As from a keeper of savage beasts. 
 
 10. 
 But a true and wise man teacheth 
 
 The deeds that lead with Vohumano 
 To the wisdom of the Creator ! 
 
 He knoweth the law on which right is based ! 
 By these things, mighty Ormuzd, 
 
 The just are raised unto thy kingdom. 
 
 11. 
 
 There dwell with thee in glory 
 
 Perfection and immortality, 
 The power of Vohumano, 
 
 And Asha with Armaiti for ever, 
 In joy and power reigning ; 
 
 There, Mazda, thyself art blessedness. 
 
 * This verse also presents great difficulties, but I feel assured that the 
 general sense, as understood by De Harlez and Haug, is thus fairly 
 represented. 
 
 t This verse is not less difficult than the preceding, and conflicting 
 interpretations are given. But I have little doubt as to the substantial 
 correctness of that which I have adopted.
 
 CONSTBUCTION OF THE FIRST GATHA. 251 
 
 12. 
 
 What is thy will, Ormuzd, 
 What hymns, what worship choosest thou ? 
 
 TeU me, that I may know it, 
 
 How to gain the blessings of thy law ! 
 
 Teach us the ways, Asha, 
 Which are pleasing to Vohumano. 
 
 13. 
 The way of Vohumano, 
 
 By which thou guidest us, Ormuzd ! 
 The way of pious teachers, 
 
 Leading up by good works to Asha ! 
 The reward thou hast prepared 
 For the just is thine own self, Ormuzd.* 
 
 * 
 14. 
 
 For this, thou hast appointed 
 
 The true defence of the embodied spirit ! 
 
 The works of Vohumano ! 
 To those who cultivate mother earth, 
 
 Grant thy true wisdom, Ormuzd ! 
 And works accomplished with Asha ! 
 
 15. 
 
 Ormuzd, do thou teach me 
 
 All that is best in words or actions ! 
 In truth and a good conscience 
 
 All that befits the pious psalmist ! 
 Thy will, mighty Ormuzd, 
 
 Destines for this world to perfect restoration. 
 
 CONSTRUCTION OF THE FIRST GATHA. 
 
 Having thus before us the whole group which bears the 
 significant name Ahunavaiti, i.e. Ahurian, devoted to the 
 worship of the Supreme Deity, the omniscient and living, 
 we are in a position to inquire whether it justifies the 
 claim to so lofty a designation, whether it presents a series 
 
 * A most remarkable coincidence with the great word recorded in 
 Genesis xv. 1.
 
 252 CONSTRUCTION OF THE FIRST GATHA. 
 
 of connected thoughts, moving onwards in accordance with 
 an inward law, expressing the convictions of a noble and 
 pious spirit ; or whether, as some hold, it is a mere collection 
 of disjointed fragments, full indeed of lofty and pious aspira- 
 tions, but with no distinct object. 
 
 We observe this at once: the whole series begins and 
 ends with addresses to Ahuramazda, which recognise him 
 as the being to whom prayer is to be addressed, in whom 
 perfect trust may be reposed, by whom the world is 
 governed, by whom it will be finally restored to original 
 perfection. 
 
 Looking again at each Gatha in succession, we find an 
 orderly sequence. 
 
 In the first, Ahuramazda comes before us, surrounded by 
 spiritual beings, principles and intelligences, so intimately 
 adherent to, or inherent in Him, as to make us feel that they 
 are simply His personified attributes. Two, in particular, 
 stand out with vivid distinctness ; he is never named without 
 mention of them, they are the effulgence of his own bright- 
 ness. Their names declare their nature, and indicate their 
 existence as living and yet abstract principles. Asha, a 
 word which, whatever may be its origin (see above), un- 
 doubtedly signifies absolute purity, justice and truth ; in the 
 first place as the attendant, consort or child of Ormuzd, in 
 the next place, as guiding, protecting and dwelling in the 
 hearts of good men. Again Vohumano a word literally 
 meaning good spirit or good mind (for mano corresponds to 
 the Latin mens in its widest sense) Vohumano is personified 
 goodness, like Asha inseparable from Ahuramazda, and like 
 Asha also, informing the souls and guiding the will of his 
 worshippers. 
 
 But as the object of the Seer is to give us at once a 
 general view of his religious system, we have notices of 
 another attribute, Power, or, if we take it as a proper name,
 
 CONSTRUCTION OP THE FIRST GATHA. 253 
 
 Ksathra. To this attribute or manifestation frequent allusion 
 is made throughout the Gathas, but there is less approach to 
 personification. 
 
 On the other hand, we find a similar personification of 
 the visible creation. The soul of earth, or of the primeval 
 cow, both expressions being substantially identical, is re- 
 garded as receiver and depositary, so to speak, of the divine 
 will, and wholly dependent upon her master. 
 
 Intermediate between Ormuzd and earth we have Armaiti, 
 the Aramati of the Big Veda, as such unquestionably be- 
 longing to the religion of the primitive Aryans ; * a personifi- 
 cation of true devotion, a spirit as such entrusted with the 
 guidance and government of Creation. 
 
 Here we must observe two distinct and most important 
 points. 
 
 There is no indication of connection with a prevailing 
 system recognising natural phenomena as objects of worship, 
 as representatives or emanations of Deity. The Supreme 
 Being and his attributes are wholly and exclusively spiritual ; 
 holiness, justice, mercy and truth, with power resting on 
 those principles as its only foundation, occupy the whole 
 sphere of religious thought. 
 
 Again there is no approach to polytheism ; Zoroaster recog- 
 nises no independent, no antagonistic or rival deities, such as 
 we find in the Eig Veda. But there is too near an approach 
 to a recognition of plurality of existences to be without 
 danger. In the Gathas the danger is scarcely felt ; if felt, it 
 is averted by the complete and absolute predominance of the 
 central supreme Deity. At a later period, as it would seem 
 immediately after the Zoroastrian epoch, this plurality was 
 developed, first into the Amesha-spentas or Amshashands, 
 of whom there is no mention, to whom indeed there is no 
 
 * See above, p. 69.
 
 254 CONSTRUCTION OP THE FIRST GATHA. 
 
 allusion in the Gathas, but whose names and existence were 
 associated in the minds of Mazdeans so closely with the 
 Zoroastrian system that the traditional interpretation was 
 completely affected by them, and acute and cautious scholars 
 accepted these early and very serious innovations as belonging 
 to the original revelation. 
 
 The first Chant has other points of extreme interest ; we 
 find in it distinct mention of the Prince, the early convert 
 and chief supporter of Zoroaster, and the Seer himself is 
 mentioned in a supplicatory prayer. 
 
 The second Chant goes on to set before us in a highly 
 imaginative and most impressive form the circumstances 
 under which Zoroaster was appointed the promulgator of the 
 truth, the reformer of abuses. 
 
 Nothing can be more natural than this sequence. We 
 have the same names, the same principles as in the first 
 Chant. To Ahuramazda is assigned not merely the highest 
 rank, but the absolute sovereignty. 
 
 The mention of Zoroaster himself is striking ; he is called 
 spitama, a word of doubtful meaning, specially appropriated to 
 the seer, not in this passage applied by the seer himself, but 
 recorded as the word of Ormuzd. . > j . 
 
 A most striking point then comes before us. Far from 
 accepting Zoroaster's appointment as an adequate response to 
 prayer, the spirit of earth speaks of him contemptuously, in 
 terms which the Seer might and must needs record as spoken 
 of himself, but which assuredly no Zoroastrian could possibly 
 have invented or recorded. 
 
 In this Chant we have then a considerable advance upon 
 the teaching of the first Chant. 
 
 Not less distinct is the sequence of thought in the third 
 Chant. Zoroaster at once declares the fundamental prin- 
 ciples of the religion which he was commissioned to pro- 
 mulgate.
 
 CONSTEUCTION OF THE FIRST GATHA. 255 
 
 The eternal, radical, essential distinction between good and 
 evil, represented as principles, certainly not mere abstractions, 
 but living energies striving for the mastery over man's spirit, 
 is set before us in terms open, and it may be giving occasion, 
 to misconception, but which do not identify either principle 
 with a Person. Ormuzd is good, absolutely good, but the 
 good offered to man is in accordance with his will ; as to 
 Ahriman, there is no mention in the Gathas, no allusion 
 to such a being. 
 
 The one object of this Chant is to put before men the two 
 alternatives. Evil, with its sure consequences, ruin and 
 destruction ; good, with prosperity as its temporal, and, 
 absolute concord as its spiritual reward. 
 
 This Chant closes most suitably with an invocation to 
 Ormuzd, the only guide, the only helper. 
 
 The fourth Chant proceeds with somewhat of diffuseness 
 and possibly with some additions, all however of a very early 
 date, to describe the two conditions of man, of those who 
 accept and of those who reject the truth. A most impressive 
 warning is given; universal ruin, beginning with the in- 
 dividual, extending to his clan, his city, his whole country, 
 must be the result of teaching founded on evil principles and 
 inculcating criminal habits. Such teaching must not only be 
 rejected, it must be sternly repelled by the magistrate who 
 beareth not the sword in vain. 
 
 The fifth Chant marks at once a continuance and a vast 
 expansion of previous doctrinal teaching. Man and the 
 beings whom in ignorance or infatuation he worships, are 
 summoned before the tribunal of Ahuramazda. The corrupt 
 and criminal doctrines which are connected with idolatry and 
 all superstition are exposed, with denunciation of the 
 vengeful wrath of the Judge. 
 
 The connection of the sixth Chant with the preceding has 
 been shown above. It is in fact a sacrificial hymn ; at its
 
 256 THE REMAINING GATHAS. 
 
 close Zoroaster presents himself, his soul and body, all his 
 faculties, intellectual, moral and spiritual, as an oblation to 
 the Supreme Being. This Chant approaches more nearly than 
 any Gentile teaching to the Christian ideal of worship set 
 before us distinctly throughout the New Testament, that 
 which is impressed upon our minds in the solemn prayer 
 which follows participation in Holy Communion. 
 
 The seventh Chant is a fit and most noble close to the 
 whole Gatha ; justifying and exemplifying the principles 
 which entitle it to the appellation, Ahunavaiti, Ahurian, i. e. 
 divine and spiritual. 
 
 I have dwelt upon the connection of thought with a length 
 that may be tedious, involving frequent repetitions,' because I 
 could not otherwise bring distinctly before my own mind, or 
 the mind of students the principles which pervade the whole 
 Gatha, and meet the cavils or objections of critics. I am con- 
 vinced that a careful and unprejudiced perusal will remove 
 any doubt as to the originality, the power, the spirituality of 
 Zoroaster's own teaching ; on the one hand, as to its absolute 
 freedom from all taint of naturalistic superstition, of which 
 it is often represented to be an evolution, and on the other 
 hand as to its substantial and very remarkable harmony with 
 the fundamental truths, which, as I doubt not, were made 
 fully known to the ancestors of the human race, and pre- 
 served in their entirety by one family, under the guidance of 
 Him by whom it was communicated to man. 
 
 This brings my work to its proper conclusion. I undertook 
 to give a translation of the first Gatha, that which is most 
 comprehensive and most authoritative. But I may supple- 
 ment it by a brief account of the other four Gathas, each of 
 which has some characteristic features ; but which, one and all, 
 are thoroughly in harmony with the teaching of the first. 
 
 The second Gatha bears the name Ustavaiti. Usta, the
 
 THE REMAINING GATHAS. 257 
 
 first word, means blessedness ; each chant presents the 
 blessedness of true votaries of Ormuzd in some special aspect. 
 Dr. Haug has given a new translation of this and the three 
 following Gathas, to which I may refer the reader.* It is 
 important especially as presenting the latest results of long 
 and laborious investigations by 'a scholar of the highest 
 eminence, but apt to be carried away by novel speculations 
 and influenced by strong prepossessions. 
 
 Dr. Haug gives the following concise summary of the con- 
 tents of this Gatha : " In the first section the mission of 
 Zoroaster is named ; in the second, he receives " or rather 
 applies to Ahuramazda for "instruction about the highest 
 matters of human speculation ; in the third, he appears as 
 prophet before a large assembly of his countrymen, to pro- 
 pound to them his new _, doctrines ; and in the fourth or last 
 section we find verses, referring to the fate of the prophet, 
 the congregation which he established, and his most eminent 
 friends and supporters" (p. 154). 
 
 Dr. Haug's translation follows. It leaves my conviction 
 unaltered. I see no difference, certainly no advance on the 
 teaching, though some points are stated with remarkable 
 clearness. The principal point in the whole Gatha is that 
 which comes before us in the fourth Chant. From it we 
 learn that at a certain period Zoroaster was reduced to a 
 condition of extreme distress, driven almost to despair, 
 encountering opposition, of which we had indications in the 
 first Gatha, of a most deadly character. 
 
 This is the rendering of Dr. Haug : 
 
 " To what land shall I turn ? Whither shall I go in turn- 
 ing ? Owing to the desertion of the master and his com- 
 
 * See Essays on the sacred language, writings and religion of the Parsis 
 by Dr. Martin. Haug, second edition, edited by Dr. West. Trvibner & Co., 
 1878. The reader may consult an able review by M. Darmesteter, 
 4 Etudes iraniennes,' tome ii. p. 38, seq.
 
 258 THE REMAINING GATHAS. 
 
 panion none of the servants pay reverence to me, nor do 
 the wicked rulers of the country. How shall I worship thee 
 further, O Ahuramazda ? " 
 
 The Seer continues in this strain ; but in v. 14 he speaks 
 with full confidence in the sincerity and power of the Kava 
 Vistaspa and his two ministers Frashaostra and Jamaspa, 
 and winds up with an appeal to Ormuzd, the Lord of all, 
 the one true friend of the prophet. 
 
 The other Gathas are much shorter and less important. 
 Dr. Haug regards them as later productions, either of 
 Zoroaster's principal supporters, or of their pupils. I do not 
 accept this view, which appears to me founded upon very 
 doubtful indications. 
 
 The third Gatha, called Spentamainyu, i. e. holy mind or 
 spirit, has one remarkable passage ; in it the author speaks in 
 terms of the strongest condemnation of the worship of Soma, 
 one of the worst features of old Indo- Aryan superstitions, 
 one also that holds a conspicuous place in other portions of 
 the Avesta. 
 
 The passage, as rendered by Dr. Haug, runs thus : 
 
 " When will appear, O Mazda ! the men of vigour and 
 courage to pollute that intoxicating Aguro (the Soma) ? This 
 diabolical art makes the idol-priests so overbearing, and the 
 evil spirit reigning in the countries increases this pride." 
 Yasna xlviii. 10. 
 
 It must, however, be observed that the mention of Soma is 
 a gloss of the translator, a probable gloss, but not to be relied 
 upon. Neither Justi nor Kossowicz notice it, and M. de 
 Harlez admits it as possible, but wholly uncertain. (Avesta, 
 p. 357, note 12.) 
 
 The fourth Gatha, Vohukhshathra, confirms notices in the 
 preceding, but does not give additional facts. 
 
 The last Gatha, Vahistoisti, is interesting, as connected with 
 family life. It is a felicitation of the daughter of Zoroaster,
 
 THE REMAINING GATHAs. 259 
 
 married to one of his chief supporters ; but it was evidently 
 composed by a follower of the Seer. 
 
 I may close this essay with a translation of two prayers 
 to which a magic efficacy has been attributed by Zoroastrians 
 from a very early age ; they are both explained in the 19th - 
 and 20th chapters of the Ya?na. 
 
 The first is called Ashem Vohu, 
 
 Pure holiness is the highest good. 
 
 Hail to him, hail to him, 
 To the man most perfect in purity. 
 
 This interpretation certainly gives the general sense, but 
 the words and phrases are exceedingly doubtful. 
 
 The second prayer has a peculiar interest. It is still 
 repeated daily by all Parsees, and as I have noticed above, 
 see p. 2 14, holds the first place among invocations of sovereign 
 power. Zoroaster himself is said, in the 19th Fargard of the 
 Vendidad, to have hurled it against the tempter. 
 
 Kossowicz gives three renderings of this prayer, which he 
 calls most difficult though daily used by the Parsees. De 
 Harlez (Avesta, p. 301) gives another translation, with notes 
 indicating doubt as to the construction. With much hesitation 
 I propose the following, not as literal, but as expressing 
 the real meaning* 
 
 Ahura is to be chosen ; 
 
 He is the true lawgiver, 
 Maintainer of sanctity, 
 
 Giver of Vohumano, 
 Of all good works in the world of Mazda ; 
 
 Supreme power pertaineth to Ahura. 
 He hath appointed his prophet 
 
 To guide and tend the feeble. 
 
 ' S 2
 
 ESSAY ON THE 
 
 CHAKACTEBISTICS OF LANGUAGES 
 
 SPOKEN BY DIFFERENT FAMILIES OF THE HUMAN RACE, 
 FROM THE EARLIEST TIME TO THE PRESENT. 
 
 THE following Essay was- originally written in the form of a 
 lecture, intended for the citizens of Exeter, and delivered in 
 the Athenaeum of that city in the year 1873. 
 
 I have now rewritten it without substantial alteration, but 
 with some additions referring to the results of later investi- 
 gations, as well as with notes, chiefly intended to point out 
 the sources from which the facts were taken, and from which 
 students of language may derive information upon points 
 which could not be fully discussed within the limits of this 
 Essay. 
 
 Had my age and circumstances permitted it, I might have 
 attempted to recast the work, and to present the results in 
 a more complete and systematic form. But as it seems to 
 me, the Essay, as it now stands, may suffice for my immediate 
 object, which is to put readers of general culture and intel- 
 ligence in possession of the main conclusions to which I 
 attach supreme importance, and of the grounds on which they 
 rest. As intended for such readers, it ought to be free from 
 technicalities and dissertations which, whatever may be their 
 value, lie beyond the reach of all save those who have devoted
 
 262 LANGUAGES GENERAL-DIVISIONS. 
 
 themselves to the study of comparative philology. I trust 
 also that, inasmuch as the facts which I shall adduce are 
 accepted by scholars of the highest authority in this depart- 
 ment of research, and since the inferences drawn from them 
 are such as follow logically from the facts demanding only 
 such attention and intelligence as are indispensable con- 
 ditions of success in any field of inquiry they may serve to 
 strengthen in others the convictions which have induced me 
 to publish this volume of Essays, especially that which recog- 
 nises under all diversities of form and circumstances certain 
 traces of the original unity of all families of the human race. 
 
 I may here repeat the statement with which I introduced 
 my original lecture, viz., that I undertook it with serious 
 misgiving as to the possibility of presenting the results in 
 a form at once compact and sufficiently comprehensive to 
 satisfy thoughtful inquirers. The subject is obviously one of 
 indefinite extent. The languages at present spoken are 
 multitudinous. The study of any single group, if it were 
 pursued thoroughly, would demand the most sustained and 
 earnest exertions of the ablest scholar, if he would become 
 acquainted with its ramifications, ascertain the laws of its 
 development, and determine its relation to other families. A 
 scholar who should do such a work effectually, and present 
 the results in a complete and scientific form, would be 
 entitled to a place among those eminent philologers in whom 
 all competent inquirers recognise their masters and guides. 
 The names of Sir William Jones, Colebrooke, Bopp, Eugene 
 Burnouf, G. Curtius, Sir H. Eawlinson, Champollion, and 
 their fellow-workers, serve at once to show the enormous 
 labour imposed upon students and the rarity of the gifts by 
 which such results are achieved. 
 
 I may however observe that, in common with all branches 
 of science and literature, the study of the languages by 
 which the human mind has been moulded, and in which it
 
 LANGUAGES GENERAL DIVISIONS. 263 
 
 has found apt expression for its thoughts, feelings, and ex- 
 periences, has made remarkable progress in two directions 
 since the beginning of the present century. In the first 
 place, languages long lost of which no documents were 
 known to exist, or if they existed, were intelligible to 
 scholars have been discovered, analysed, and interpreted, and 
 these languages represent some of the highest achievements, 
 or the most ancient developments of the greatest represen- 
 tative races ; and in the next place, living languages in every 
 quarter of the world have been subjected to a thoroughly 
 scientific scrutiny, which has elicited results of sterling value, 
 even in the case of races the very lowest in mental culture 
 and general civilisation. Those results have been published 
 in works accessible to every student, and in forms * which 
 are studiously cleared of scientific technicalities. But as is 
 the case with natural history, and indeed with all great 
 branches of scientific research, every student, whatever his 
 powers may be, if he desires to make any real progress, must 
 concentrate his energies on some special department of this 
 subject, and trust his fellow-labourers for a thorough investi- 
 gation of those portions which it is impossible for him to 
 master himself. Industry and faith, industry undeterred by 
 obstacles, unwearied by difficulties, and faith, as distinct from 
 credulity, resting upon sure foundations, tested by cautious 
 inquiries, are the true and indispensable conditions of 
 advancement in knowledge. 
 
 * I allude specially to such works as those by M. J. J. Ampere, ' La 
 Science et les Lettres en Orient,' the general ' Kapports ' on Science and 
 Letters published by the late Imperial Government in France, and the 
 admirable summaries of discoveries in all branches of Oriental literature 
 by M. J. Mohl and M. E. Benan in the ' Journal asiatique,' from 1822 up 
 to the present time. France stands foremost in this important department, 
 especially vindicating its claims to distinction for perspicuity and order. 
 The Rapports of M. J. Mohl have been lately published, by his widow, in 
 two volumes, entitled Vingt-cinq ans d'histoire des Etudes orientales.'
 
 264 LANGUAGES GENERAL DIVISIONS. 
 
 But as a counterpoise to the perplexity inseparable from 
 multitudinous objects of inquiry, we have one great advantage, 
 so far as we avail ourselves of the experience of our ablest 
 investigators. A habit of mind has been gradually formed, 
 and within the last few years has been developed most 
 thoroughly, which enables a judicious student to disentangle 
 leading principles from the multiplicity of details, and to 
 discern the action of certain laws by which each several 
 group is regulated, and brought into systematic and intel- 
 ligible form; so that a general student, whose mind has 
 been properly trained, can ascertain the mutual bearings 
 and relations of the languages which belong to each group, 
 and learn gradually to recognise in it an organic and integral 
 portion of one great whole. 
 
 The unity of languages, differing exceedingly in all outward 
 forms, in various stages of development and decay, in each of 
 the three great families, which constitute, as all admit, the 
 immense majority of the human race, is now a demonstrated, 
 universally accepted fact. And although it is a point which 
 cannot be discussed incidentally, I may be allowed to state 
 my deep unchangeable conviction that the original unity of 
 all languages is also a fact, not less certain, though it may not 
 be established without stubborn opposition, and lengthened 
 controversies, one which will ultimately be recognised by all 
 unprejudiced minds.* 
 
 GENERAL DIVISIONS. 
 
 Let us now consider the general divisions of languages. 
 We have first the group, commonly designated as the Semitic, 
 but which includes all languages spoken by the descendants 
 
 * As a slight contribution to this department of inquiry, I may refer to 
 the last part of this volume, which contains a collection of Egyptian 
 words existing, substantially the same in form and significance, in each 
 and all the great families of languages in the ancient and modern world.
 
 THE SEMITIC GROUP OF LANGUAGES. 265 
 
 of Shem and Ham.* In the next place we have two great 
 divisions of the languages which, if we accept the accounts 
 in the Bible, trace their origin to a common ancestor, Japhet, 
 who is recognised by old national traditions.! These divisions 
 are first the Aryan, secondly the Scythian, or however it 
 may be designated the group which includes all the so- 
 called agglutinative languages. 
 
 As a glance at the map of the world will show, these three 
 groups, Semitic, Aryan, Scythian, occupy the whole of the 
 ancient continent of Europe and Asia, with the doubtful J 
 exception of the Chinese empire. 
 
 The further question how far the other groups, African, 
 American, Polynesian, are connected with either of those 
 three, will occupy us in the process of this essay ; here I may 
 simply say that grounds, which I trust may be deemed 
 satisfactory, will be alleged for my own conviction that, 
 severally and collectively, they are included in those general 
 divisions of the whole human race. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 THE SEMITIC GROUP OF LANGUAGES. 
 
 We begin with this group naturally, I may say, necessarily. 
 In the first place we turn to the Hebrews, because we derive 
 from their books our only direct knowledge of the early his- 
 tory of mankind. Speaking to Christians, I need not adduce 
 arguments in support of this assertion ; but were I addressing 
 sceptics or unbelievers, I should point out that as a mere act 
 
 * I use these terms both as resting on the highest of all authorities, 
 and as recognised virtually or explicitly by ethnologists who disregard 
 that authority, but find no other apt expression for the conclusions at 
 which they have arrived. 
 
 t I may refer to my remarks on this point in the essay ' on the Rig 
 Veda,' and ' on the Persian cuneiform inscriptions and the Zend Avesta.' 
 
 J This point I shall have occasion to discuss further on.
 
 266 THE SEMITIC GROUP OF LANGUAGES. 
 
 of archaeology the Hebrew documents to which I refer are 
 incomparably the most ancient, and at the same time the 
 most intelligible, records preserved by any family or nation in 
 the world.* But if we turn to other members of this group, 
 we find that they supply us with the most ancient contem- 
 porary documents by which that history is illustrated. The 
 Semites and Hamites were the first for ages they were the 
 only race who wrote alphabetically. If moreover we include, 
 as we have a right to do, the Egyptians in this group, they 
 were the only race in which inscriptions, now extant and per- 
 fectly deciphered, supply information contemporary with the 
 events of primeval history. Whether we ascribe the inven- 
 tion to Phoenicians or Hebrews, one thing is certain, the 
 formation of the alphabet which has been adopted as the 
 medium of communication of primary records of the past, 
 as well as of expressing all the thoughts and feelings of the 
 most cultivated and intellectual nations, is due to that in- 
 vention and to that alone. Its authors disentangled the 
 phonetic elements from the ingenious but complicated system 
 of Egyptian hieroglyphics, discarding the ideographic forms 
 altogether; and they brought the master art of writing so 
 near to perfection that little remained to be done by Greeks 
 who received that most precious gift. Nations who have since 
 outstripped them in the progress of culture should never 
 forget that debt.f 
 
 * It must be borne in mind that the most ancient documents of the 
 Aryan or Japhetic race are the Big Veda and the Gathas of Zoroaster, 
 both of which have been discussed in this volume. Allowing the highest 
 claims to antiquity maintained by scholars, one point is certain ; both of 
 them belong to periods long posterior, not only to the first separation of 
 the human family recorded in Genesis, but to the emigration of Celts, 
 Slaves, Teutons, Greeks, and the final separation of the Indo- Aryans and 
 Eranians. 
 
 t I have not forgotten that Chinese writing is contemporary with the 
 primeval condition of that people. Before they emerged from the barbarous 
 condition in which they first existed, or rather into which they lapsed
 
 THE SEMITIC GROUP OF LANGUAGES. 267 
 
 The languages spoken by this group are so closely con- 
 nected, both in grammar and vocabulary, that they may, 
 one and all, be properly regarded as dialects of one mother 
 tongue. 
 
 Here however I must pause to consider the very striking 
 and startling fact that languages so nearly alike, all but iden- 
 tical, should have been spoken by races so distinct in origin, so 
 fundamentally unlike in moral, mental, and religious develop- 
 ment, as the descendants of Shem and Ham. The fact is 
 certain, and strange as it appears, it is accounted for partly 
 by scriptural records, partly .by comparative philology. We 
 know that the two races lived together for a considerable- 
 time, as the book of Genesis intimates; for a period long 
 enough, as we learn from scientific investigation, to complete 
 the structure and development of their common tongue. 
 We know from the Bible that Abraham and Lot, the fore- 
 fathers of Hebrews, Moabites, Ammonites, and the chief 
 Arabian tribes, dwelt originally in Ur of the Chaldees ; and 
 in the latest work on the cuneiform Assyrian inscriptions 
 considered in their bearings upon the Old Testament,* 
 evidence is adduced that Ur was situate on the lower course 
 of the Euphrates, adjoining the district occupied of old by 
 
 after their separation from the original stock, they invented two hundred 
 characters, the basis of the complicated and marvellously ingenious 
 system which now suffices for their voluminous literature. But that 
 writing was, and has continued to be, exclusively ideographic. The 
 signs indicate things or facts, physical or mental, but do not represent 
 articulate sounds. They have no connection with an alphabetic system. 
 Just as our numerals are wholly independent of language, presenting pre- 
 cisely the same notions to persons speaking different tongues, so the 
 Chinese forms stand as monuments of marvellous ingenuity, but neither 
 making nor preparing the way for a phonetic alphabet. M. J. J. Ampere, 
 in his singularly bright and clear account of the labours of M. Abel 
 Re'musat, has brought out these points completely, in ' La Science et les 
 Lettres en Orient,' p. 6, seq. 
 
 * See Schrader, ' Die Keilinschriften und das alte Testament,' p. 383 f.
 
 268 THE ASSYRIAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 the Cushites. There is reason to believe that the Canaanites 
 and Pho3nicians, whether as sojourners or original occupants,' 
 emigrated from the same country. It is again certain that 
 during Abram's sojourn in Haran he was living among 
 Syrians. We are thus directed to the first habitat of the 
 two races in the neighbourhood of Shinar, or Babylon.* 
 
 THE ASSYRIAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 Let us now take a rapid survey of the past and present 
 range of this group of languages. "We may first turn to the 
 Assyrians and Chaldees, who at the dawn of history, or in 
 prehistoric times, occupied the southern district of Mesopo- 
 tamia, on the lower course of the Euphrates. It has been 
 lately ascertained that in this district they came into close 
 contact, whether as invaders or as associated under a common 
 government, with an alien race previously occupants of the 
 country, from whom they derived, together with evil super- 
 stitions, some important elements of civilisation, the most 
 important and permanent in its results being the master art 
 of intelligible writing.t But their own language, of which 
 we have abundant remains in the inscriptions, was pure 
 Semitic, differing only in secondary points from that of their 
 Hebrew congeners. The monuments of this language cover 
 a very considerable space of time. The earliest inscriptions 
 
 * It has been ascertained that in the native cuneiform inscriptions, 
 Babylon is called the City of Languages ; a name which evidently 
 indicates some knowledge, traditional it may be and probably indistinct, 
 of the great central event recorded in Genesis. 
 
 t The Accadian inscriptions, which have been lately deciphered, prove 
 in my opinion conclusively, though not as yet to the entire satisfaction of 
 some eminent scholars, that the people here spoken of as preceding the 
 Chaldees or Assyrians, belonged to the Scythian or Turanian stock. I 
 shall have, therefore, to recur to this point further on. The Accadian 
 characters are syllabic, not, properly speaking, alphabetic.
 
 THE SYRIAN LANGUAGE. 269 
 
 are held to belong to the 16th century B.C., the latest to the 
 second century after our era.* 
 
 These old cuneiform inscriptions have been deciphered to a 
 great extent, and are still in process of decipherment, by a 
 succession of scholars, among whom the foremost place must 
 be assigned to Sir Henry Eawlinson, Norris, George Smith, 
 Sayce, Oppert, Menard, and others scarcely less distinguished. 
 The results are collected in works well known and generally 
 accessible to scholars. 
 
 They give us the contemporary annals, written in their 
 own language their own formal and official accounts of the 
 kings of Assyria most familiar to the readers of the historical 
 Scriptures : among them I notice, as specially interesting, 
 Sennacherib's own account of his disastrous campaign. All 
 England was intensely interested by the Assyrian account of 
 the Deluge,' first made known by George Smith, and lately 
 examined, edited, and translated by a German scholar. That 
 account shows how much of the old truth, presented in a 
 clear, simple, and perfectly intelligible form in the book of 
 Genesis, was retained in Assyrian traditions ; how much was 
 lost, distorted, disfigured by polytheistic superstitions under 
 the influence of Babylonian idolatry. 
 
 THE SYRIAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 Now turn northwards ; you find the Syrians, occupying 
 a district extending from Abram's first settlement in the 
 East to Phosnicia in the West. Syrian has certainly con- 
 tributed its full share towards the instruction and edification 
 of mankind. Before our Saviour's time it had so largely 
 
 * See the ' Revue archeologique,' Feb. 1873, and an article by Oppert 
 on the latest cuneiform inscription in the ' Melanges d'Archeologie egyp- 
 tienne et assyrienne.'
 
 270 THE SYRIAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 modified the Hebrew that it was become, so to speak, the 
 vernacular language of Palestine, the language which was 
 certainly spoken by our Saviour Himself, and if not ex- 
 clusively, yet chiefly, by the Apostles and His disciples. 
 It is the language in which, if we may trust the most ancient 
 authorities, the first Gospel was written. The first trans- 
 lation of the whole Bible was Syrian; a translation which 
 can never lose its place as the most valuable attestation to 
 the oldest and truest readings of the Gospel. In that language 
 the earliest Christian hymns were chanted. With Syria and 
 its tongues the most ancient, most sacred reminiscences of 
 Christians are inseparably intertwined. 
 
 Christian literature is indeed deeply indebted to the 
 Syrians. For some centuries divines of that family held a 
 high place among the critics and interpreters of Holy 
 Scripture. As original writers and thinkers, Ephrem Syrus and 
 Theodoras of Mopsuestia, in very different directions, did much 
 to form the mind of early Christendom. I have elsewhere had 
 occasion to discuss the grave question whether the received 
 text of the New Testament was the result of a Syrian 
 revision ; and although I have contended against that 
 position, I no less confidently maintain the claims of Lucian 
 of Antioch, and other great Syrians of the 2nd and 3rd 
 centuries, to a foremost rank among the conservators and 
 amenders of the sacred text. A list of Syrian writers and 
 translators would suffice to show the services rendered to the 
 faith by that division of Christendom. 
 
 Owing to a combination of circumstances previously un- 
 known, and scarcely suspected by Oriental scholars, Syria in 
 later times, from the 9th to the 12th century, produced a 
 series of translations which had a remarkable and enduring 
 effect upon the development of European thought. The old 
 heathens of Charran who retained the misbelief and the
 
 THE SYRIAN LANGUAGE. 271 
 
 superstitious practices of their ancestors unchanged, scarcely 
 modified by Christian or by Mahometan influences, preserved 
 at the same time the memory and some chief results of 
 ancient Greek civilisation. The philosophers of Greece, 
 especially Plato and Aristotle, the mathematicians, the 
 writers on physical and medical science, were studied and 
 thoroughly appreciated by their leading spirits, among whom 
 one great family adhered to the old traditions, both for good 
 and for evil, and maintained them with equal ability and 
 learning. But that heathen community was in imminent 
 danger of perishing altogether, swept away by the flood of 
 Mahometan intolerance an intolerance in this case, if not 
 justified, yet excusable, considering the odious, cruel, and 
 fanatical character of the religion against which it was 
 directed. The danger was averted by a singular expedient. 
 In the Koran, Christians and Sabseans the latter, a numerous 
 sect, well known to Christian antiquity were specially ex- 
 empted from the decree of extermination of unbelievers pro- 
 nounced by Mahomet and executed by his followers. But 
 when Al Mamoun, the son of Haroun Al Easchid, was about 
 to order the destruction of the idolaters of Charran in pur- 
 suance of that decree, his purpose was arrested by an 
 expedient remarkable for its ingenuity and its success. The 
 leaders of the heathen community, worshippers specially of 
 the stars, which represented to them the governing powers of 
 the universe, adopted the name by which they were hence- 
 forth designated by Mahometan writers, that of Sabseans; 
 a skilful equivoque, for spelt in one way the word meant 
 baptizers, the recognised designation of the sectaries who were 
 supposed to derive their origin from St. John Baptist ; spelt in 
 another way, but undistinguishable in pronunciation, it was 
 derivable from the well-known word Saba, pi. Sabaoth, La- 
 the hosts of heaven. Sultan Al Mamoun, though a fierce per- 
 secutor not only of idolaters, but of heretics, especially of the
 
 272 THE SYRIAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 Manichseans, whom he regarded as dangerous to the empire,* 
 was glad of a specious, and to him perfectly satisfactory pretext 
 for sparing men whose learning he was fully able to appre- 
 ciate. He at once admitted the so-called Sabaeans not merely 
 to the partial toleration accorded to those who professed to 
 receive the Book, but to friendly intercourse. The great glory 
 of his reign was his patronage of men of letters ; in this he 
 followed or went beyond the example of his father, and he 
 encouraged and took a lively interest in the translations into 
 Syriac of those Greek authors whose writings had most attrac- 
 tion for the Arabian mind ; and from Syriac they were trans- 
 ferred to the original language of the Arabians. The heathens 
 of Charran one great family especially conspicuous for 
 learning, ability, and zeal in their own polytheism, which they 
 skilfully maintained to have been the most ancient, the most 
 noble form of religion, associated with the greatest achieve- 
 ments of ancient civilisation, and for which they claimed a 
 decided superiority to Christianity became thus the instru- 
 ments or medium through which the philosophy of Aristotle, 
 regarded as the supreme authority, and of Plato (in whom, 
 together with his so-called followers, the Neoplatonists, they 
 recognised the best expounder of the principles which 
 underlay their superstitions), was transmitted first to the 
 Arabians, then to the subjects of the Mahometan conquerors 
 of Spain, through whom it reached the universities of 
 Southern Europe, and within a short period thoroughly 
 permeated the schools of the Western world. I cannot here 
 pause to tell to what extent the movement was shared by 
 Jews who, for similar reasons, were favoured by the Caliphs. 
 Here I would simply call attention to the debt which learned 
 Europe, especially scientific Europe, owes to ancient Syria, 
 
 * See the curious narrative in Maoudi, c. cxiv. torn. vii. p. 15, ed 
 Meynard.
 
 THE PH(ENICIAN LANGUAGE. 273 
 
 a debt only less than that which Christendom owes to the 
 Christians of Syria as conservators of no small portion of the 
 Christian literature of the early Church.* 
 
 Syriac is, however, at present nearly extinct as a living 
 language ; it lingers as a corrupt dialect in the wild districts 
 of the Lebanon, where ancient idolatry still maintains some 
 hold upon the Druses; and it is said to be understood, if 
 not commonly spoken, by adherents to the old Nestorian 
 doctrines in Mesopotamia, to whom attention has been lately 
 directed by our ecclesiastical leaders ; but throughout the vast 
 regions which it formerly occupied it has been for centuries 
 completely superseded by the Arabic the language not only 
 of the Mahometan conquerors, but that in which bibles and 
 prayer-books are now sent to Syria by the S. P. C. K. 
 
 The revival of that language is not to be anticipated, 
 scarcely to be desired, but a knowledge of its purest and best 
 form is indispensable to the student of Christian antiquity, 
 specially of the text and exegesis of Holy Writ. 
 
 THE PHOENICIAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 We turn now to the Phoenicians, a people to whom the Old 
 World owes no small portion of its general civilisation, to 
 whom all Europe, and a great part of Asia is indebted for 
 the alphabet, the most effectual instrument of all intellectual 
 development. During the vast period from the dawn of 
 history to the Mahometan conquest, Phoenicia, the great 
 representative of the race of Ham, retained a commanding 
 
 * For further information on this subject I would refer students to 
 Chwolsohn's great work ' Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus ; ' to E. Kenan's 
 ' Histoire des langues se"mitiques,' and to Biekel's ' Conspectus ret 
 Syrorum literarias.' The derivation of Sabaeans from Ssaba, which was 
 first proposed by Pocock, ' Specimen Hist. Arabum,' p. 117, is rejected by 
 Chwolsohn, but, as he admits, is generally accepted by Oriental scholars. 
 
 T
 
 274 THE PHCENICIAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 position in Western Asia. Along the eastern coast of the 
 Mediterranean from Asia Minor to the frontier of Egypt, and 
 eastward to the Tigris, dialects or sister-branches of one 
 language were spoken the language of the old Phrenician 
 inscriptions, of the far-famed Moabite stone, the language 
 of the ancestors of the Hebrew race from the time of 
 Abraham's settlement in Palestine, the language of the 
 Hebrew Bible. 
 
 Of all ancient languages it might have been assumed that 
 the Phoenician would have had the fairest chances of per- 
 petuity. It was the language of the Carthaginians, whose 
 enormous empire threatened for ages to overwhelm the civili- 
 sation of Greece, and to be coextensive with the commerce 
 and general civilisation of the ancient world. It was spoken 
 along the coasts of Spain ; it was the language of a powerful 
 commercial settlement, at Marseilles, which supplies us with 
 inscriptions of peculiar interest ; * for ages it was spoken in 
 Cornwall, where it has been held by some philologers to have 
 left permanent traces in the vernacular Celtic. Its alphabet, 
 the greatest and most lasting monument of the Phoenician 
 intellect, was adopted by the Greeks at once, and so com- 
 pletely that the oldest inscriptions in. that language are 
 scarcely distinguishable in form from the Phoenician ; and, as 
 we shall have occasion to observe, every form in alphabetic 
 writing, with the single exception of the Persian cuneiforms 
 if exception it may be called found in every portion of the 
 ancient or modern world, is directly or indirectly derived 
 from this singularly ingenious, and, so to speak, scientific de- 
 
 * The most complete collection of Phoenician inscriptions is given by 
 Schroder, 'Die Phonizische Sprache,' 1869. The inscriptions at Sidon 
 and Marseilles represent the most ancient form of the language, substan- 
 tially identical with Hebrew. See also a notice in the ' Journal asiatique,' 
 Janvier 1880, and an account of the first part of the ' Corpus Inscriptionum 
 semiticarum,' in the Rapport of M. E. Renan, juillet 1881, p. 37, seq.
 
 THE PHOENICIAN LANGUAGE. 275 
 
 velopment of one characteristic element of old Egyptian hiero- 
 glyphics, in which phonetic signs were mixed up with poly- 
 phonous and ideographic forms.* And yet this language, in 
 every form, as spoken by Phoenicians, Canaanites, ancient 
 Hebrews, and their congeners, has all but died out. Malta f 
 is the only spot in the world on which a few natives still 
 speak imperfectly a tongue once coextensive with the com- 
 merce of the greatest predecessors of England in the ancient 
 world. 
 
 But the language has not merely become extinct ; it is a 
 singular fact that the inventors of the alphabet have left no 
 literature to mark their position in the world of thought. 
 This may to some extent be accounted for, if we accept the 
 views maintained by M. E. Eenan, ' Histoire des Langues 
 semit^ques,' lib. ii. c. 2, and by M. F. Lenormant, ' Histoire 
 de 1'Alphabet phenicien,' who regards the old Phoenicians as 
 positivists, to use the French term, caring only for waiting as a 
 convenient medium in commercial transactions. To that 
 characteristic M. Lenormant attributes the invention of the 
 alphabet, or to speak more accurately the modification of the 
 ingenious but complicated system of the old Egyptians. 
 However this may be, whether after all the Hebrew settlers 
 in Egypt were as I think very probable the true inventors 
 of an alphabet which enabled them to give a permanent form 
 to their sacred traditions, one thing is certain, which suffices 
 to establish the claim of the Phcenicians to a place among 
 
 * See further on p. 285. 
 
 f The Maltese dialect is often quoted by Gesenius in his ' Thesaurus of 
 the Hebrew language.' Some years ago, the New Testament and the 
 Prayer Book in Maltese were published by the S.P.C.K. To my great 
 regret I was informed, when I applied to the Committee for Foreign 
 Translations, of which I am a member, for the issue of a new edition, that 
 the demand for these works had ceased. If the language has not already 
 become extinct in this little island, I fear that it will, ere long, be entirely 
 superseded by the Italian and the English. 
 
 T 2
 
 276 THE HEBREW LANGUAGE. 
 
 the principal agents of civilisation that alphabet was trans- 
 mitted by them to the Greeks, to their Syrian neighbours, and 
 through them to Aryan and Mongolian races, subserving 
 indifferently the cause of true religion and of superstition, 
 but always promoting the development of human thought. 
 
 THE HEBREW LANGUAGE. 
 
 This is not a subject to be discussed incidentally. It is 
 bound up with the gravest and most important questions 
 which can occupy the mind of any man who cares to 
 know his true relation to the universe and its Creator. 
 But I must call attention to one great fact. While the 
 Hebrew Bible stands unchanged and unchangeable, the soli- 
 tary record of the primeval condition of man, the sole depo- 
 sitory of primeval truth communicated by God to man, the 
 Hebrew nation, as such, forfeited, if but for a season, its 
 right to its most glorious inheritance first, by the practical 
 adoption of a corrupt tradition in preference to the written 
 word ; and secondly, as a consequence of that fatal error, by 
 their rejection of their own Messiah and speaks no more, as 
 a living vernacular language, that in which their great fore- 
 fathers received and transmitted to all succeeding ages the 
 revelation of God's will. 
 
 But we may still admit, nay, may confidently maintain, 
 that the right of the Hebrews is but in abeyance. We have 
 indeed clear, positive declarations of our Saviour and his 
 chief Apostles for this assertion. Nor can it be denied that 
 the Hebrews who have held aloof from Christianity have 
 nevertheless done much, not indeed sufficient to justify their 
 own claim to pre-eminence, but enough to prove their natural 
 inherent capacity for apprehending and appreciating spiritual 
 truths. Their whole literature, Talmudic or Eabbinical, has 
 been from the beginning, and is at present, all but exclusively
 
 THE AEABIC LANGUAGE. 277 
 
 Biblical.* Their contributions to the true interpretation of 
 the Book have ever been valued highly, and are constantly 
 rising in the estimation of scholars ; f nor can I condemn, far 
 as I am from sharing, the anticipations of those who look for 
 a revival of the old language together with that of ancient 
 figurative rites, when the kingdom will be restored, as they 
 believe, to the descendants of Israel. 
 
 THE ARABIC LANGUAGE. 
 
 This too is a subject which, especially by reason of its 
 enormous extent, can only be treated in general statements. 
 
 The old Arabic, spoken by the descendants of Ishmael and 
 of the younger children of Abraham, may be assumed to have 
 been homogeneous, and nearly if not quite identical with 
 primitive Hebrew. But at a very early period they lived in 
 nearer contact with Cushite or Hamitic families, to whom 
 
 * Not however exclusively. Hebrew thinkers hold a high place 
 among philosophers ; Hebrew scholars took a leading position among the 
 translators of ancient Greek literature ; and Hebrew historians have 
 produced works of sterling value. In art, in science, and in literature 
 Hebrews have attained, if not to pre-eminence, yet to a rank among the 
 most eminent, from the time of Maimonides up to the present century. 
 Still it holds true that, as was the case with that great thinker, Hebrews 
 have ever devoted their best powers to the criticism and elucidation of 
 the Book of Life. Professor Munk, supported by a phalanx of Hebrew 
 scholars in France, has done, perhaps, most to vindicate the reputation of 
 his countrymen, especially in two works of the highest value, ' Melanges 
 de Philosophic juive et arabe,' and his edition of the Arabic text, with 
 translation and exposition, of the ' Leader of Doubters,' by Maimonides. 
 
 f The latest, and in many respects the most important, contributions to 
 the knowledge of ancient, medieval, and modern Hebrew literature, are 
 Hamburger's ' Real-Cyclopadie,' lately completed, and the articles in 
 Herzog's ' Real-Cyclopadie.' At Cambridge, Rabbinical students owe 
 much to the Master of St. John's College, to the accomplished Librarian 
 of the University, Dr. Schiller Szinessy ; and at Oxford to Dr. Neubauer, 
 the Custodian of Oriental MSS. in the Bodleian Library, and to Professor 
 Driver.
 
 278 THE ARABIC LANGUAGE. 
 
 indeed native traditions point as joint ancestors of the Ara- 
 bian race. Among all Semitic languages that spoken by 
 the Abyssinians, the old Ethiopians, in two main divisions 
 (the Gheez and the later Amharic), comes nearest to the 
 Arabian.* The Arabic language has existed in a living 
 and thoroughly developed form, certainly from the century 
 before Mahomet, and probably from a far earlier age, up to 
 the present time. The Bedouin of the desert still speaks 
 the language of the old poets,f and the Koran, which in the 
 7th century at once fixed its character and assured its pre- 
 dominance in Western Asia. Wherever the Koran went it 
 carried with it, together with the fierce passions, the fanatic 
 intolerance, the debased morality, polygamy, slavery, and 
 crushing despotism inculcated by Mahomet, the Arabian 
 language. 
 
 Arabic had indeed other, and far nobler, claims to the pre- 
 eminence which it speedily attained. It is a singularly 
 copious language ; its vocabulary rivals, if it does not exceed} 
 
 * The best authority for the Ethiopian is Dillmann ; his grammar of 
 the language is based on sound principles and thoroughly well executed. 
 His Lexicon and his editions of Ethiopian writings, the ' Book of Enoch,' 
 and the ' Octoteuch,' are too well known to need commendation. But 
 Ludolf has special claims to our gratitude as the first who brought the 
 European mind into contact with the Ethiopian. 
 
 f The student will find clear and full accounts of these facts in Kenan's 
 ' Histoire des langues semitiques,' in Pocock's excellent work ' Specimen 
 Historiae Veterum Arabum,' and in an admirable but scarce book by 
 M. Caussin de Perceval, ' Essai sur 1'histoire des Arabes avant 1'Is- 
 lamisme. The French deserve special credit for their cheap and most 
 useful editions of Arabic geographers, historians, and poets, maintaining 
 fully the high position attained by their scholars under the guidance of 
 M. dc Sacy. 
 
 J The reader may compare Lane's ' Arabic Lexicon,' not yet complete, 
 with the St. Petersburg ' Sanskrit Lexicon,' Grimm's ' German Dictionary,' 
 and other great monuments of linguistic science. I cannot speak positively, 
 but, if I am not mistaken, the number of Arabic roots, or primitive words, 
 exceeds those of any language.
 
 THE ARABIC LANGUAGE. 279 
 
 that of any language in extent. It is exceedingly graceful, 
 at once vigorous and flexible, expressing with ready and 
 effective utterances the wildest passions and the tenderest 
 affections ; it was cultivated sedulously by the students and 
 warriors of the race. Its grammatical structure, its flexions 
 and forms are more fully developed than those of any 
 Semitic tongue ; its metrical system is remarkably complete. 
 It is the language which every scholar must learn who wishes 
 to penetrate the secrets of Eastern thought, and to enter into 
 the true spirit of the Semitic race. 
 
 But it is really sad to see how much it has destroyed, or 
 superseded. Within a short period it absorbed by assimilation, 
 or abolished by substitution, all the cognate languages, with 
 the single exception of the Abyssinian or Ethiopian, which has 
 been^ preserved partly by its early and continued isolation, 
 but chiefly by its early adoption and steady maintenance of 
 the Christian faith. Arabic penetrated far into Central Asia. 
 Among the first and greatest conquests of the Arabians 
 Persia stands conspicuous. In the western district of that 
 ancient empire the old Eranian language had previously 
 undergone considerable depravation by the admixture of 
 Semitic elements. The Pehlevi, or Huzvaresh, the language 
 of the court and priesthood under the Sassanidse, was thus 
 prepared for absorption, and together with the false religion 
 made way for the language of the Islamites. In the other 
 districts of the old empire Persian retained its place, and was 
 spoken and written in comparative purity for some centuries 
 after the Mahometan conquest ; * but at a later period, under 
 the Tartar dynasty, now occupying the throne, Arabic took 
 possession of Persia and became so intimately blended 
 
 * On this point see further on the notices of Firdausi. The reader 
 will do well to consult the admirable preface of J. Mohl to his edition 
 and translation of that greatest of Persian poets, pp. xiii-xv, ed. 1876, 
 published in seven small volumes by his widow.
 
 280 THE ARABIC LANGUAGE. 
 
 with the old language, that it is impossible to read a 
 page of modern Persian without some knowledge of Arabic. 
 It has thus penetrated Hindostan, and become a requisite for 
 English residents at native courts under the descendants of 
 Mahometan conquerors. Turkey in all its provinces, as a 
 necessary result of its adoption of the Koran, has been through 
 and through permeated by Arabic. Its vocabulary has a pre- 
 ponderating quantity of Arabic words. In the Turkish of the 
 present day, as it is spoken by the upper classes, and as it is 
 written, we find an actual predominance of Arabic words, 
 exclusive of the quotations from the Koran. The Turkish 
 Bible and Prayer Book published by the S.P.C.K, together 
 with the Arabic characters, present a mixture of two languages 
 utterly alien in form and structure, the Arabic and the old 
 Turkish, Turanian or Tartar. Passing into Egypt, we find 
 Arabic so completely in possession that all classes, Christians 
 and Mahometans alike, use this and no other language in 
 speaking or in writing. The Coptic indeed, the true successor 
 of the Old Egyptian, still lingers, but, as we shall have 
 occasion to observe, is practically superseded, and unless 
 vigorous and wise measures are speedily adopted, will ere 
 long completely disappear. Along the Mediterranean to the 
 Pillars of Hercules, Arabic is the master language the 
 Berber, of which I have to speak presently, retaining but 
 a secondary place. Arabic had for ages possession of the 
 central and principal districts of the Spanish Peninsula, whose 
 two languages have been permanently influenced by it, to 
 such an extent that a knowledge of Arabic is indispensable 
 to Spanish and Portuguese philologers.* Nay, in the 8th 
 century Arabic invaders threatened the reduction of all 
 Europe under the disastrous yoke of Islam, and the general 
 
 * Dozy has done good service ; see the ' Glossaire des mots espagnols et 
 portugais de'rives de 1'arabe,' by Dozy and Engelmann.
 
 THE EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE. 281 
 
 predominance of Arabic letters and language, when the 
 victory of Charles Martel on the plains of Tours secured the 
 Christian civilisation of the West. 
 
 May the Arabian language for ever flourish within its own 
 proper limits ; freed from the master evil may it become, as 
 in the age before Mahomet * it bade fair to become, an 
 effective medium for the dissemination of Christian truth 
 through all existing portions of the great Semitic race. 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 I pass on now to Egypt. Here I must ask you to accept 
 my statement of two important facts ; both rest upon grounds 
 admitted by scholars to be decisive, though it would take 
 more time than is at my disposal to discuss them fully. 
 
 The first fact is this. The Egyptians, descendants of Ham, 
 and as such giving the name of Hamf to their country, 
 belonged originally to the group called Semitic, but com- 
 prehending the descendants of Ham as well as Shem. From 
 that group they undoubtedly separated themselves, at what 
 time and under what circumstances is matter of conjecture, 
 but most certainly long before the other families, Hamites 
 
 * It is not sufficiently known to what extent Christianity had influenced 
 Arabian tribes of the greatest importance. The reader will do well to 
 consult Pocock's ' Specimen Historic Arabum,' p. 140 seq., and a useful, 
 though incomplete, work by a good scholar, Wright's 'Christianity in 
 Arabia.' 
 
 f The native and most common name of Egypt, in inscriptions and 
 early papyri, is Chem, or Cham, corresponding exactly to the Hebrew DH, 
 ham, both in form and in original meaning ; the Hebrew and the Egyptian 
 word being certainly derived from a root signifying extreme heat. 
 "Whether the appropriation of the word to a proper name, either of a 
 person or country, was in both cases independent, is of course open to 
 dispute. But the fact stands fast, however it may be accounted for : the 
 land of Ham is the true and proper designation of the country of the 
 Egyptians, who beyond doubt are descendants of Ham.
 
 282 THE EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 or Semites ; so long indeed that some characteristics of the 
 language, common to the other members of the group, had 
 not yet been developed, including one very conspicuous and 
 remarkable feature, that indeed which first strikes every 
 scholar: I speak of course of the triliteral roots, which 
 dominate in Hebrew and its cognate languages, and are 
 universal in Arabic.* The Egyptian therefore must be re- 
 garded as an independent language, not as a mere dialect. 
 
 Another fact, not less certain, and certainly of equal im- 
 portance, is that this language belongs to the Semitic or 
 Hamitic group, and represents an earlier form of it than any 
 other tongue. The language could not have had its actual 
 form, had not the Egyptians remained in close contact with 
 the other members of the two races. This is proved by the 
 grammar. The identity of the pronouns first presents itself to 
 the student, and is accepted by scholars as an absolute proof 
 of the fact. The number of the words common to all these 
 languages, differing only to an extent accounted for by their 
 grammatical structure, is so great as to constitute an entirely 
 independent and conclusive proof of a common origin. I 
 must refer to another essay in this volume for a fact which 
 I hold to be certain, that the great majority of the roots or 
 elementary words belong to a still earlier age, during which 
 the Hamitic and Semitic families remained in contact, that 
 age when all the descendants of Noah spoke one language. 
 Still there remain a number of words peculiar in form and 
 meaning, sufficient to prove that Egyptian comes nearest to 
 the language spoken after the separation from the Aryan or 
 Japhetic groups by the descendants of Shem and Ham. 
 
 * The extent to which this remarkable arrangement prevails in the 
 oldest forms of the Semitic languages will be noticed further on ; and its 
 effects in obliterating or disguising the traces of original unity is discussed 
 in the Preface to the collection of Egyptian words.
 
 THE EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE. 283 
 
 One point of peculiar interest now calls for consideration. 
 I speak of the accounts which the Egyptians themselves have 
 given us of their origin. The document to which I will refer 
 is of the highest importance in its bearings upon primeval 
 history, but is scarcely known save to the few who follow the 
 course of Egyptian discoveries. I will here give it in the 
 words of M. F. Chabas, one of the most learned and least 
 prejudiced Egyptologers.* 
 
 "The Egyptian traditions agree in a remarkable manner 
 with the statements of Genesis. They attribute the dispersion 
 of the nations to an episode in the revolts of the wicked. The 
 good principle, represented by the Egyptians under the form 
 of the Sun, triumphed over his adversaries. Of those who 
 escaped some went towards the South; they became the 
 Cushites in this enumeration the Cushites include all 
 Negroes others went to the North, and to various quarters 
 of the world, where, under different names, they became the 
 progenitors of the rest of mankind." 
 
 Here I must call your attention to another remarkable 
 fact, to which I shall have occasion to refer presently. The 
 Egyptians, of all ancient peoples the proudest and most 
 exclusive, regarded the Negroes of Africa as specially under 
 the protection of their own chief god, and recognised them, if 
 as inferior, yet still true members of the same family or race. 
 
 The Egyptian language occupies a very peculiar place. 
 It exists in contemporary documents of considerable extent. 
 (1) In monumental inscriptions of which the most ancient 
 
 * The work, published in 1872, is entitled 'Etudes sur 1'antiquite" 
 historique d'apres les sources e'gyptionnes et les monuments reputes pre^ 
 historiques, par F. Chabas.' The whole work is of extreme value in its 
 bearings upon the unity and antiquity of the human race, and upon some 
 theories of anthropologists. The passage which I have quoted begins 
 p. 97. In p. 99 authorities will be found for the statement in the following 
 paragraphs, viz., that the Negroes were under the special protection of the 
 great Egyptian deity, Ra or Ammon.
 
 284 THE EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 now extant belong to the age of the Pyramids, from the 
 fourth to the sixth dynasty of the ancient empire.* These 
 inscriptions are in the hieroglyphic characters, remarkable 
 for beauty of form and for skill in the manipulation of the 
 granite then generally used for buildings of importance : and 
 (2) on papyri, written in bold clear characters, called hier- 
 atic, but which simply represent hieroglyphic characters in 
 a cursive form. Of these some, especially valuable for the 
 light thrown by them upon the social and religious institu- 
 tions of primeval Egypt, belong to the age of the Pyramids.. 
 We have thus authentic proofs that the language, in a form 
 not differing substantially from that which comes before us 
 in documents of the latest period of old Egyptian history, 
 was spoken at a period which comes within a measurable 
 distance from the first separation of the human race. 
 
 The old language, in fact, has remained substantially un- 
 changed until the present time, from the very earliest period 
 thus approximately ascertained. Points are indeed notice- 
 able in which certain modifications were introduced. Progres- 
 sive modifications are observable in the transition from the 
 ancient to the middle empire, not however, so far as can be 
 ascertained, in connection with the problematical invasion or 
 supremacy of the Hyksos, but under the 18th and 19th 
 dynasties, when inscriptions and papyri were multiplied, 
 and a certain advance in flexibility and copiousness is recog- 
 nised by Egyptologers ; when also a considerable infusion of 
 Semitic words, indicating close contact with some branches of 
 that great family, is found, especially in papyri, which are 
 held by the generality of scholars to be contemporary with 
 
 * Without attempting to determine the dates, I must note the fact that 
 the first contact of the Semitic family, in the person of Abraham, took 
 place at the earliest under the 12th dynasty, some 2000 years B.C., and that 
 a period of indefinite duration, certainly extending over centuries, intervened 
 between that and the last of the pyramids, under the 6th dynasty.
 
 THE EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE. 285 
 
 the sojourn of the Israelites in Northern Egypt. A far more 
 distinct and important change in the language, certainly in 
 its written form, and probably in its vernacular use, took 
 place under the Ptolemies, when new and alien elements were 
 blended with the old superstitions, and huge temples were 
 covered with inscriptions recording the achievements of the 
 Greek conquerors. The last and greatest change was how- 
 ever effected when Christian writers substituted characters, 
 taken from the Greek alphabet, for the old hieroglyphics and 
 hieratic forms, rejected doubtless as deeply imbued with 
 idolatrous and offensive influences ; a change which, on the 
 one hand, cast a dark impenetrable shadow over the antiquity 
 of the language, but on the other completed the production 
 of a purely alphabetic style, and prepared the way for certain 
 advances in grammatical forms.* The Coptic may fairly be 
 regarded as a language agreeing with the old Egyptian so 
 closely that it preserves nearly all its vocabulary, and in gram- 
 matical structure differs only to an extent accounted for by 
 the exigencies of new thoughts and new principles, but 
 differing from it, especially in those forms and in phonetic 
 modifications, so that it must be regarded as a daughter 
 rather than a mere dialect. Its value is very great. It sup- 
 plied to the discoverer of the old language the key to the 
 meaning of the immense majority of words. Champollion 
 worked out the point first suggested by Dr. Young, and cleared 
 away all real obstacles to the decipherment of the hieroglyphic 
 and hieratic documents ; he was also the first who systema- 
 tically employed the Coptic in their interpretation. Nor 
 
 * I do not here touch on the Demotic character, which is simply a 
 debased form of the old cursive, called hieratic ; but it is of real importance 
 as constituting a link between the old and modern languages of Egypt. 
 M. Revillout has done most for the elucidation of tho Demotic, M. Maspero 
 for the appreciation of its influence on the transition from Old Egyptian to 
 Coptic.
 
 286 THE EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 must we forget that Christianity found adequate expression 
 for its doctrines and precepts in that language, in which one 
 of the very oldest and most valuable translations of the New 
 Testament is preserved, and together with portions of the Old 
 Testament is still read in the churches of Egypt. It is not 
 certain whether this old language still survives, or, if it sur- 
 vives, to what extent it is used by, or is intelligible to, native 
 Christians.* If on fuller examination it is found to be still 
 existing and in a condition capable of improvement or restora- 
 tion, no pains should be spared to enable the Copts once more 
 to read the Scriptures in their own vernacular tongue, and to 
 put their ancient Churches in full possession of their inheri- 
 tance as true children of saintly maintainers of the faith. 
 
 Within this present year, 1883, an association has been 
 formed in England for the promotion of Christianity in 
 Egypt, and specially for the benefit of the Coptic church. 
 After the full enquiry into its present condition which the 
 association proposes to undertake at the outset, I trust that 
 they will at once provide all native Christians with the New 
 Testament, the Psalter, and other portions of the Bible now 
 extant in their own language. Up to the present it has been 
 found necessary to print every copy of the Scriptures in- 
 tended for native Copts with an Arabic translation. What- 
 ever may be the case with individuals, or families in isolated 
 
 * It is said that Coptic is still spoken in Egypt, at, Cairo by Christian 
 Jacobites, and in the Coptic town, Kasr-el Shamah, near Old Cairo. 
 See a notice by M. F. Lenormant in the 'Kevue archeologique,' 1870, 
 fevrier, p. 108. In the same paper M. Lenormant adduces arguments 
 which go to prove that hieroglyphics were finally suppressed by Diocletian, 
 after the overthrow of the rebel Achilles, whose cartouche Mr Lenormant 
 believes that he has found at Esneh. A notice of Copts speaking their 
 old language in Guber on the Quorra, and near the Gulf of Cabes, is given 
 by Berghaus in his ' Ethnographical Atlas,' pp. 42 and 50. M. G. Maspero, 
 Conservator of the Museum at Boulaq, informs me, in a letter lately 
 received, that few Copts appear to know anything of their old language. 
 Further inquiry, however, may lead to important results.
 
 THE EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE. 287 
 
 spots, it is a deplorable fact that the Fellaheen, the native 
 peasantry, true descendants of a people once holding a high 
 rank among the leaders of humanity, now speak the language 
 of their oppressors, and that Christian priests addressing 
 Christian congregations read without understanding the 
 Coptic scriptures, but expound them in the language of 
 the Koran. 
 
 But after all, it may be asked, has Egypt, the home of wild 
 superstitions, the land of priestly domination and despotic 
 tyranny, any real claims to our admiration, or to our grati- 
 tude, such as may justify the enormous labour imposed upon 
 students of its language, and the interest felt in it not merely 
 by specialists, but by all scholars concerned in the investiga- 
 tion of the history of human development ? 
 
 What ha^ it done for art? The Greeks recognised in 
 Egyptians their true teachers, or unconsciously learned from 
 them the great master arts. Architecture, demanding and 
 employing resources of enormous extent and value at the 
 very earliest period of Egyptian history, attained a grandeur 
 and majesty, a combination of simplicity and power which 
 has never been surpassed or excelled. Sculpture involving 
 the use of instruments of singular excellence, and proving 
 the close accurate observation of natural forms, produced at 
 the same period figures which still command the admiration 
 of the most competent judges. Painting was employed, and 
 with excellent effect, in the decoration of their edifices, in the 
 representation of men and deities. In these, as in all other 
 branches of art, the Greeks, no doubt, far surpassed their 
 teachers, more especially by the introduction of grace, har- 
 mony and beauty ; but in the qualities of grandeur, simplicity 
 and power, Egypt retains an uncontested pre-eminence. 
 
 But did Egypt do much for science ? The Greeks tell us, 
 and we have abundant evidence of the fact, that the prin- 
 ciples of the science upon which all other sciences ultimately
 
 288 THE EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 depend, to which they owe every sure step in their onward 
 progress, were first discovered and practically applied by 
 Egyptians : geometry and numerical calculations, including 
 fractions, Greece owes to Egypt. The greatest representatives 
 of that noble race acknowledged in Egyptian philosophers 
 their true masters. Whatever allowance may be made for 
 careless or exaggerated statements on the part of Greeks, we 
 may safely accept their authority especially as it involves 
 abnegation of self-assertion so far as to recognise in ancient 
 Egypt a centre or source of the arts and sciences which in 
 Greece rose to their culminating height, leaving to the moderns 
 the comparatively simple work of expansion and development. 
 Noi must I omit once more to fix attention upon the debt 
 due to Egyptians as the true discoverers of alphabetical 
 writing. It is well known that the phonetic characters in all 
 monumental inscriptions bear a small proportion to what are 
 called ideographs. But it is not so well known that the 
 latter are added to those characters, or are substituted for 
 them, in words about which no mistake is probable or pos- 
 sible. Thus, for instance, the representation of a man or 
 any natural object generally accompanies, and sometimes 
 stands in place of, the word itself. But that word is written 
 phonetically ; it is represented by characters distinct and un- 
 mistakeable. Nor can I find any real ground for the common 
 assertion that the phonetic characters were developed from 
 these ideographs. Ideographic writing is absolutely distinct 
 and apart from the phonetic characters. In no ancient lan- 
 guage do we find a transition from one to the other. Chinese 
 has developed its oldest system with some 214 ideographic 
 forms, and made it a sufficient medium for the expression of 
 all thoughts and feelings, but it has never advanced one step 
 towards the transition assumed to be so natural. Egypt, on 
 the other hand, retained both elements, but always kept them 
 distinct. The ideograph added to the written word served as
 
 THE EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE. 289 
 
 an exposition to the unlearned reader ; but it is far from 
 being the original form : in the very oldest extant inscrip- 
 tions, reaching far beyond the earliest period in which we 
 have other extant documents, the phonetic forms are clear, 
 complete, and commonly used. The first word which strikes 
 the traveller who visits the greatest pyramid is the name of 
 Chufu, the Greek Cheops, written phonetically ; the numerous 
 inscriptions in the monuments of Sakkara belonging to the 
 same age are full of words written with no less distinctness. 
 Whether Phoenicians or Hebrews first took from these 
 inscriptions, or as appears certain from the most ancient 
 papyri,* the forms at once necessary and sufficient for the 
 purpose of transmitting their thoughts, it should never be 
 forgotten that all they had to do was to omit the expressive 
 but complicated forms which accompanied those characters. 
 They had in fact but to do what the Christian inventors of 
 the Coptic alphabet did many ages afterwards, to preserve 
 those simple elements and to discard the forms with which 
 they were originally accompanied. Nor can I but add that, 
 great as the ultimate gain may have been, enormous as the 
 progress in the development and expression of thought has 
 certainly been in connection with purely alphabetical writing, 
 those discarded signs have supplied and still supply the key 
 to inscriptions which but for them would have remained 
 obscure or absolutely unintelligible ; and again, that neither 
 Phoenician nor Greek, nor any other ancient inscriptions are 
 more completely rescued from ambiguity and uncertainty. 
 
 * The derivation of the Phoenician alphabet from the hieratic characters 
 in the oldest papyri has been contested, but, as it seems to me, it has 
 been completely demonstrated. See especially the ' Essai sur la Pro- 
 pagation de 1' Alphabet phe'nicien dans 1'ancien monde,' par Francois 
 Lenormant, tome i. p. 151 and Planche I. The late Vicomte de Roug 
 first observed and as I do not hesitate to maintain proved this most 
 curious and interesting fact in the history of human progress. 
 
 U
 
 290 THE AFRICAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 THE AFRICAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 You may have noted with surprise the admission of so 
 proud a people as the old Egyptians an admission recorded 
 at the period of their highest advancement that they were 
 closely connected with the Negroes, descended from the same 
 stock. The statement of M. Chabas is scarcely open to 
 doubt, that the Cushites, who thus, in accordance with the 
 scriptural narrative, are named as congeners of the Miz- 
 raimites, i.e. old Egyptians, were the true forefathers of the 
 greater part, if not of the whole, of the Nigritian peoples. 
 The subject cannot be regarded as one which has been 
 thoroughly investigated ; but one of the most judicious and 
 clear-sighted Egyptologers, the late Vicomte de Eouge, long 
 since pointed out the fact that the old Egyptian language 
 has a large proportion of words evidently Nigritian in 
 character. Accepting that statement I may observe that it 
 may be accounted for in two ways. Setting aside the magic 
 or superstitious formulae which we find in the latter part of 
 the ' Todtenbuch,' which were certainly introduced at a late 
 period, and adopted as unintelligible incantations, efficacious 
 by reason of their mystery, the large element noticed by 
 De Eouge may have been the result either of early con- 
 tact with an alien race, or on the other hand it may belong 
 to the language originally common to both families. Between 
 these alternatives I have no hesitation in preferring the latter 
 as infinitely the more probable. So far as I am aware, the 
 Nigritian element is quite as distinctly marked in the most 
 ancient documents of Egypt as in inscriptions and papyri 
 belonging to a time when princes of negro descent occupied 
 the throne of Egypt ; when it might be expected under their 
 influence that element would be introduced and developed. 
 On the other hand, ample examination of the chief Nigritian 
 languages has elicited the fact that they contain an enormous
 
 THE AFRICAN LANGUAGES. 291 
 
 quantity of roots common to them and old Egyptian.* Much 
 however remains to be done before the results on both sides 
 are completely brought out. On the one side, the Egyptian 
 language is a late acquisition, although enormous progress 
 has been made within the last few years. To Wycliffe 
 Goodwin second to none in the highest qualities of scho- 
 larship, rapid insight and minute accuracy we are mainly 
 indebted for the decipherment and interpretation of the hie- 
 ratic papyri ; the great hieroglyphic dictionary of Brugsch, in 
 seven quarto volumes, begun in 1863, has been lately com- 
 pleted (in 1882), and the laws and structure of the language 
 have been subjected to close and scientific investigation by a 
 succession of eminent scholars in England, France and Ger- 
 many. Still, those scholars who know the language best are 
 fully aware how much remains to be done before its consti- 
 tuent elements, its origin, and relation to other families of 
 languages can be thoroughly determined. On the other side, 
 the Nigritian dialects are multitudinous, and, as is the case 
 with all languages spoken by savage or barbarian tribes, 
 they are subject to rapid processes of decay, disintegration 
 and re-formation which perplex the keenest inquirers. 
 
 But as a general statement we may affirm that little, if any, 
 doubt remains that the Egyptian of the old monuments holds 
 a midway place between the original language of the Semitic 
 and Hamitic families and the languages of Africa. 
 
 The following languages are held to bear traces of Semitic 
 derivation, and are in my opinion most nearly akin to the old 
 Egyptian. The Berbers undoubtedly retain some marked 
 characteristics of Egyptian descent. They occupy, conjointly 
 with, though distinct from Arabians, the districts of Northern 
 Africa from Egypt to the Senegal. Separate from the Berber, 
 but nearest to that dialect in vocabulary and structure, we 
 
 See Reinisch, ' Der einheitliche Ursprung,' &c. 
 
 u 2
 
 292 THE AFRICAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 find the language of Haussa on the Quorra, and of the Gallas 
 on the east of Central Africa. Still more directly connected 
 with the old Egyptian are the languages of the Nubians, of the 
 Tibbous, descendants of the Libyans the Rebu, or Lebu of 
 Egyptian inscriptions, and of the Bisharya between Nubia 
 and the Red Sea. There is good authority for the state- 
 ment that ancient Coptic is still spoken by isolated tribes in 
 a mountainous district near the Gulf of Cabes, and in the 
 Sudan by the people of Guber, a division of the kingdom of 
 Haussa.* 
 
 The languages of Southern Africa belong to one family, 
 of which the affiliation is matter of doubt; but a large 
 number of words, including numerals, have been ascertained 
 by my friend, the Rev. R. Ellis, to be near akin to Aryan or 
 Turanian. They are probably indications of descent from 
 primeval emigrants, the first who separated from the Japhetic 
 family after the division between that and the Semitic race. 
 In short, scholars who have devoted special attention to this 
 obscure and intricate subject seem pretty nearly unanimous 
 in the conclusion that the Negro languages of Central 
 Africa bear marks of a common origin with those of the 
 South; and if less decisive yet, to say the least, probable 
 indications of descent from one ancient stock. 
 
 We have thus the premisses being admitted a fairly 
 satisfactory account of this great division of the human race. 
 
 This, however, must be borne in mind. There is no reason 
 to accept, there is ample reason to reject, the notion that the 
 Negro tribes, which are lowest in all physical and mental, 
 moral and social characteristics, represent the original type of 
 their race. In Africa the tribes who live in the highlands 
 have neither the physical characteristics, black skin, woolly 
 
 * For references and authorities supporting these statements see 
 Berghaus, ' Ethnographisches A'tlas,' p. 42 f.
 
 THE AFRICAN LANGUAGES. 293 
 
 hair, shape of cranium or bodily structure, nor the mental 
 feebleness, indolence, and recklessness, which mark their 
 kinsmen dwelling in alluvial districts, where a soft luxurious 
 climate, and abundant supply of food demanding no exertion, 
 prudence or foresight, combine with other evil influences to 
 enervate and degrade the race. 
 
 In very early ages some African peoples must have been 
 skilful and enterprising navigators. An African race is held 
 by ethnologists of high character to have founded a powerful 
 empire in Ceylon, which before the 10th century B.C. offered 
 a formidable resistance to the Aryans, whose triumph is 
 recorded in the second great epic poem of Sanskrit, the 
 Eamayana.* The negro population of the Andaman islands 
 in all probability belong to the same stock. In the Eastern 
 Archipelago tribes, bearing in their physical structure and 
 development undoubted traces of Mgritian descent, con- 
 stitute the principal element of the population of the largest 
 islands, Borneo, New Guinea, and Australia, disputing or 
 sharing the possession of those immense districts with the 
 Malayans, a race which I have elsewhere noted as either of 
 Aryan or sub-Aryan, or more probably of primeval Scythian 
 origin. Negroes, undoubtedly of African origin, occupy the 
 Melanesian group, so designated because of the physical 
 peculiarities of its occupants ; and mingled with Polynesians, 
 Malayans by descent, they are found as far west as the 
 Gambier islands. This great subdivision of the human 
 
 * See Eichhoff, 'Grammaire ge"ne"rale mdo-europe*enne,' p. 318 f. 
 Eiclihoff maintains that this fierce, piratical, and, at the same time, rich 
 and luxurious race were probably connected with the aboriginal Austra- 
 lians. Baron Eichtal (to whose learning, singular ingenuity, and thorough 
 honesty full justice has been lately rendered by M. E. Kenan in a 
 Rapport published in the ' Journal asiatique,' juillet 1880, p. 2), is the 
 main authority for these statements, which for my own part I regard 
 as highly probable, though of course open to objection so far as they are 
 not supported by historical documents, or confirmed by scientific research.
 
 294 TURANIAN OB SCYTHIAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 family has within the last few years specially engaged the 
 attention of Europeans, and it is generally admitted that 
 together with dark and hateful traits, now rapidly disappear- 
 ing, these Nigritians evince energies, mental and physical, 
 together with moral, not to say spiritual, characteristics, which 
 justify the hope that permanent results will follow the 
 labours, and compensate for the loss of our Bishop Pattison, 
 who may traly be called the Apostle of the Melanesians, 
 devoting his life to their conversion and dying a martyr in 
 their cause.* 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 TURANIAN OR SCYTHIAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 I can but deal very briefly with this part of my subject. 
 The descendants of Magog in Biblical ethnology, the nomad 
 tribes or peoples recognised by critical writers as belonging to 
 one general family, certainly Anaryan, and probably con- 
 nected with each other at a period of the remotest antiquity, 
 occupy an area of enormous extent ; on the old continent from 
 the western coast of the Pacific, including adjacent islands, 
 such for instance as Japan to the north of China. These 
 races, mingled however to some extent with Aryan or semi- 
 Aryan families, rove over the immense regions of Northern 
 Asia and Europe up to the coast of the Baltic. 
 
 Before we turn to the consideration of the principal 
 divisions of the group, I must call attention to two points. 
 
 * As a member of the Chapter of Exeter, I cannot but note the fact 
 that in our restored cathedral the most noteworthy object is the pulpit in 
 the nave dedicated to the noble army of martyrs, on which, in combination 
 with Boniface the apostle of Germany, St. Alban the protomartyr of 
 Britain, and their great scriptural prototypes St. Paul and St. Stephen, 
 Bishop Pattison is commemorated, with a faithful representation of his 
 death.
 
 TURANIAN OR SCYTHIAN LANGUAGES. 295 
 
 The first concerns the general characteristics of their 
 languages. The languages comprised under one general 
 denomination differ from one another so widely as to obscure 
 their mutual relationship. They have indeed but a limited 
 number of roots in common. Their vocabularies, taken alone, 
 would scarcely justify the belief in their original unity. But 
 a scientific examination of their structure has long since con- 
 vinced scholars of their substantial identity of origin. In 
 various degrees of development they have all certain funda- 
 mental principles in common. In all, the roots are distinctly 
 marked ; they are subject to no changes, either internal such 
 as characterise the Semitic tongues, or flexional, as is the case 
 with Aryan languages. In all of them the relations of words 
 to each other are marked by affixes, particles fastened or, so 
 to speak, gfued on to the root, a system well known by the 
 term agglutinative. In all of them certain phonetic laws are 
 observed, modifying the vowel-sounds.* I cannot enter more 
 fully on this subject ; it may suffice to state that close exami- 
 nation of languages most unlike to each other, so far as their 
 external form and general use are concerned, has elicited 
 these results, and established the substantial unity of such 
 tongues on grounds accepted as conclusive by the highest 
 authorities in questions of comparative philology. 
 
 The second point to which I would call attention regards 
 the general name by which these languages ought to be 
 designated. No one name proposed or accepted by ethno- 
 logists is entirely satisfactory. They are, of course, one and 
 all Anaryan, but that is merely a negative designation, serving 
 to distinguish them from one group, but too vague to indicate 
 or suggest their characteristic features. The choice of scholars 
 
 * These characteristics are fully and clearly drawn out by an eminent 
 Finnish scholar, Castren, whose works rank among the best on compa- 
 rative philology. For a brief and comprehensive account see Berghaus, 
 ' Ethnographisches Atlas,' p. 9, and Professor Max Muller's well-known 
 lectures.
 
 296 TURANIAN OR SCYTHIAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 seems to hesitate between two general terms, Scythian and 
 Turanian. The latter name is preferred by Professor Max 
 Miiller, and in deference partly to his high authority, is on 
 the whole most commonly used in writings on this subject. 
 It is however open to one serious objection ; it is not a 
 native word, nor is it used by any ancient authority, Greek or 
 Roman. It is, in fact, a term invented by the Aryans, 
 derived from a word common in Sanskrit, Tura, which means 
 swift, specially a swift horseman ; and it was applied as a 
 graphic designation to the alien hordes by the Indo- Aryans, 
 whom at first they displaced, but who from the earliest ages 
 made frequent incursions into their territories, ravaging their 
 possessions and carrying on an internecine warfare. The 
 name may nevertheless probably retain its place as a general 
 designation, though in my opinion it might be well to confine 
 it to the nomads of Central and Northern Asia, or specially 
 to the Turkomans, the true descendants and actual represen- 
 tatives of the race to which it was originally applied. 
 
 Scythian, however, appears on the whole preferable. It is 
 the name by which the Greeks always designated the 
 formidable hordes, Mongolian, Finnish, Hunnish, and Tartar, 
 who desolated the northern regions of Europe and Asia, and 
 repeatedly threatened destruction to the civilisation of the 
 ancient world. With a slight modification of form (Cud, or 
 Chud) it is adopted by Eussians, who are specially entitled to 
 a voice in a matter which concerns them so nearly. The 
 name Tatar has strong support, as a genuine native term ; 
 but it originally belonged to the Mongolians alone. They, 
 however, occupy so prominent a rank, and represent so truly 
 the main characteristics of the group, that Tatar may retain 
 its place by the side of Scythian 'and Turanian, unless indeed 
 we accept the suggestion of an eminent linguist,* and adopt 
 
 * M. J. J. Ampere; see 'La Science et les Lettres en Orient,' pp. 4 
 and 84.
 
 TUBANIAN OR SCYTHIAN LANGUAGES. 297 
 
 Tartar as a more general designation, and as such preferable 
 to both. 
 
 We will now consider the chief divisions of the group, 
 beginning with Eastern Asia. First we find the race called 
 Tungusian, occupying Eastern Siberia and Manchuria. 
 
 In many respects they represent the wildest, most savage 
 features of the whole group. Originally conspicuous for their 
 ferocity, and for the habits developed in their earlier abode, 
 the rugged highlands of Thibet, they acquired some elements 
 of higher civilisation under the influence of the religion of the 
 Buddha, which they received from India, and of the literature, 
 which came with it.* They gradually became an organised 
 community, retaining the warlike character and the insatiable 
 lust of conquest which specially marks the race, so that 
 towards the close of the 16th century their descendants, the 
 Manchurians, became masters of China, at once determining 
 the predominance of the Buddhist religion, and impressing 
 upon the multitudinous population of that enormous empire 
 characteristics which strike European observers most forcibly. 
 
 The language now used in the district of Manchuria, 
 together with the Thibetan, of which it is a branch, is per- 
 haps the poorest, both as regards its vocabulary and its form, 
 of all systems belonging to the group. In Corea and in 
 Japan, the bulk of the people speak a language which, 
 though with a strong dash of Nigritian or Negro, is sub- 
 
 * It would take too much time and space to bring out the very curious 
 facts connected with the conversion of the Thibetans, in whose language 
 some of the oldest and most important documents of Buddhism are pre- 
 served ; and who adopted a modification of the Syrian alphabet, which thus 
 became a medium through which the pantheistic or atheistic doctrines of 
 that system moulded the character of an immense portion of the human 
 race. But I would commend to the reader two works, remarkable for con- 
 ciseness and completeness, ' Le Bouddha,' by M. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire, 
 and "L'Histoire du Bouddisme" in M. J. J. Ampere's book 'La Science 
 et les Lettres en Orient.'
 
 298 TURANIAN OR SCYTHIAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 stantially identical with the Thibetan form of the Tartar or 
 Scythian.* 
 
 It must however be remarked, as a fact of extreme 
 importance, that the Japanese are a mixed race. The upper 
 classes are partly Aryan, partly Malayan, and therefore if 
 we accept the account of Bopp, supported by W. Humboldt 
 to a certain extent homogeneous ; while the lower classes, 
 Turanian or Scythian, are proved by linguistic and physio- 
 logical indications to have a strong infusion of Negro or 
 Papuan blood. This singular and, so far as I am aware, un- 
 paralleled combination of elements most heterogeneous and 
 antagonistic, is peculiarly interesting in its bearing upon the 
 great practical question, which must sooner or later occupy 
 the minds of our brethren in North America, where Negroes, 
 rapidly increasing in numbers, and Aryans of the noblest 
 Indo-Germanic stock, are fellow-citizens with equal political 
 rights the question, namely, whether such a mixture is con- 
 ducive or detrimental to the highest and most permanent 
 interests of humanity. It is at least certain that the Japanese 
 occupy a position far in advance of their Oriental kinsmen or 
 neighbours. They adopted the Chinese characters, but (by a 
 process not unlike those by which Phoenicians and Persians 
 drew an alphabet from the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and elicited 
 phonetic forms from Assyrian or Medo-Scythic inscriptions) 
 they used them as phonetic signs ; they have a copious 
 literature interesting in many ways to European scholars ; 
 they have evinced a peculiar aptitude for appropriating the 
 material results of European science, and they have lately 
 adopted efficient measures for a further and far more impor- 
 tant advance, by the establishment of a college under the 
 
 * The affinity between the vernacular Japanese and the old Scythian 
 was first pointed out by the late Mr. Norris, the worthy associate of Sir 
 Henry Rawlinson in unravelling the Assyrian and Accadian inscriptions.
 
 TURANIAN OR SCYTHIAN LANGUAGES. 299 
 
 superintendence of distinguished members of our own univer- 
 sities. 
 
 We come next to the Mongols, in three main divisions, 
 those of Mongolia proper, Buriats about Lake Baikal, and the 
 Kalmucks under the Eussian empire. Of all races in the 
 world this has been the most fearful ; conquerors unparalleled 
 in the extent of their desolating invasions, founders of the 
 vastest realms of modern history, but realms fatal to the 
 highest interests of humanity. With the names of Attila in 
 the 5th century, Gengis Khan in the 13th, Tamerlane in the 
 14th, Nadirshah in the 18th, are associated scenes of direst 
 misery, deluges of blood, and utter desolation from the 
 farthest districts of China to the very centre of Europe, where 
 their first advance was arrested by the defeat of Attila on the 
 plains of Chalons-sur-Marne, A.D. 451 ; and their last terrible 
 invasion by the victory of Sigismund in the 13th century. 
 Descendants of these scourges of the human race still sit 
 on the thrones of China, Persia and Constantinople, not to 
 speak of Delhi, now happily under the supremacy of Chris- 
 tian England. 
 
 At present, however, the Turks are the chief representatives 
 of the race. They are probably true Huns, descendants of 
 the Hioung Hon, ancestors of the Finns, Laplanders, and 
 Magyars.* The hordes with which they are connected 
 by the indelible ties of language and blood still range over 
 the plains of Turkestan (which I believe to have been the 
 original home of the sons of Magog), in wild independence, 
 or merely nominal dependence upon Eussia, or they retain 
 possession of districts once inhabited by a far nobler race, and 
 reign, though no longer in secure possession, at Balkh, Khiva, 
 
 * For a discussion of this question, the reader may consult M. J. J. 
 Ampere in the work frequently cited in this Essay, ' La Science et les 
 Lettres en Orient.'
 
 300 THE FINNISH AND HUNGARIAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 Bokhara, and Merv; but the Turks have now for full four 
 centuries held in their iron grasp what was once the fairest 
 and noblest portion of the world, the original home of all true 
 religion, and of the highest human culture. Upon this topic 
 however I must not dwell ; their language, with which alone 
 I am now directly concerned, is not spoken in its purity by 
 any large proportion of the population. It is still the lan- 
 guage of the original Osmanlis, amounting to some eleven 
 millions in Asia Minor: it is the official language of the 
 empire ; but as written, or spoken by the higher classes, it is 
 so completely interpenetrated by Arabic, Persian and other 
 alien idioms, that it is scarcely intelligible to the Turkish 
 peasant. In its grammar however and structure, the language, 
 Mongol in vocabulary and idioms, retains the remarkable 
 characteristics of Scythian and Turanian tongues.* 
 
 THE FINNISH AND HUNGARIAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 We may now glance at the so-called Finnish group. It is 
 an important branch of the race. Finnish contingents held a 
 prominent position in the conquering armies of the descen- 
 dants of Gengis Khan. Their language is substantially that 
 spoken by the Magyars of Hungary, who with the doubtful 
 exception of the Basks, f an Iberian race, giving name to the 
 Bay of Biscay are at present the only representatives of the 
 race in Southern Europe.^ Hungary has a literature of its 
 
 * On the present state of the language see the Kapport of M. E. Eenan, 
 ' Journal asiatique,' juillet 1882, p. 63, seq. 
 
 f Had time permitted I should have attempted to give some account 
 of this people, whose language, in five distinct dialects, has a peculiar 
 interest for philologers. I hold it to belong, speaking broadly, to the 
 oldest form of Turanian ; it is certainly a solitary specimen of the language 
 spoken by the first occupants of Europe who were displaced by the Celts. 
 
 J The Huns conquered Hungary in the latter part of the 9th century ; 
 the descendants of Arpad, their first leader, reigned over that country as 
 an independent kingdom until 1401 A.D.
 
 THE FINNISH AND HUNGARIAN LANGUAGES. 301 
 
 own, remarkable as we are told for a certain wildness and 
 native grace, melancholy and somewhat fanciful, character- 
 istics which are certainly conspicuous in the old poetic 
 literature of their Finnish kinsmen, the race in which what- 
 ever there may be of genius or natural talent seems to 
 have found fullest expression. We are told by Professor 
 Max Miiller that the Kalewala, the national epic poem of the 
 Finns, may claim a place alongside of the Homeric poems, 
 the Mahabharata and the Ramayana of the Indo- Aryans, 
 and (no small concession on the part of a German) of the 
 Nibelungen Lied. It is true that the Professor adds the con- 
 dition, " if we can forget all that in our youth we learned to 
 call beautiful," a condition which, natural as it may seem, is 
 perhaps somewhat unfair, considering that to some extent it 
 applies to other national epics, especially to that which 
 Germans, and they alone, would place on a level with the 
 Homeric poems. Certainly the translation of the Kalewala, 
 with which alone I can claim any acquaintance, has strong 
 attractions for readers who can make due allowance for the 
 influence of national superstitions, and sympathise with the 
 feelings of an imaginative and sensitive race.* I must not 
 omit to state that Finnish writers have given valuable help to 
 the study of that group of languages, and by other productions 
 have vindicated their claim to a position among the leading 
 spirits of our time. 
 
 But I must revert to Central and Southern Asia. We find 
 there peoples speaking languages belonging to the Scythian 
 family. The Caucasian tribes, with the exception of the 
 Aryan Ossetes, perhaps also of the Georgians, are admitted to 
 be Turanian or Scythian by descent. So too the people of 
 Thibet, where the most primitive form of pure Scythian, 
 
 * See the translation in ' La Finlande, par M. Le~ouzon le Due.'
 
 302 THE FINNISH AND HUNGARIAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 nearest to the Mongolian, appears to be retained,* owing how- 
 ever much of their cultivation, and all their literature, to the 
 religion of Buddha, received by that people after its ejection 
 from India. Scythians, called Turanians by their opponents, 
 made incessant war, at times with considerable success, upon 
 ancient Persia, which they finally conquered in the 14th 
 century. At a period preceding the dawn of history, 
 Scythian or Turanian races were undoubtedly in possession of 
 India. One of the most important contributions to the study 
 of philology is the ' Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian 
 Languages,' by Dr. Caldwell, now Assistant Bishop of Tinne- 
 velly. Dr. Caldwell holds and his view is now generally, I 
 may say universally accepted f that the native tribes, Tamil, 
 Telugu, Canarese, nine in all, to which he gives the name 
 Dravidian, belong to one family, identical in origin with 
 the Scythian. In the Essay on the Eig Veda I have called 
 attention to the circumstances of their displacement in the 
 North- West by the Aryan invaders, whose conquests in the 
 course of ages extended through the central to the eastern 
 districts of Hindostan; but the descendants of those old 
 Dravidians still form the bulk of the population in the Presi- 
 dency of Madras, in the Karnatic, the Deccan, and in the 
 mountain districts of the North-East. J 
 
 * See the ' Rapport sur les langues et litterature tibetaines et mongoles,' 
 Paris, 1867. 
 
 f I need but refer to Dr. Muir and to Berghaus ; see the " Vorbemer- 
 kungen " to his ' Anthropographisches Atlas,' p. 28. The tribes, speaking 
 dialects of Dravidian, are calculated to amount to thirty or thirty-two 
 millions. See Caldwell, l.c. The Bishop held the Dravidian families to 
 be distinct from the non- Aryan tribes in the North- East. 
 
 J Full accounts of these dwellers in these last-named districts are given 
 by Buchanan and Mr. Hodgson, to whom we owe the collection of native 
 documents on which M. Eugene Burnouf founded his admirable ' Introduc- 
 tion to the History of Indian Buddhism.' The Turanian origin of these 
 tribes, Bhils, Gonds, &c., and specially their near connection with the
 
 THE FINNISH AND HUNGAEIAN LANGUAGES. 303 
 
 The language of the more cultivated Dravidian families, 
 especially the Tamil and Telugu, is mixed with Sanskrit, to 
 an extent somewhat resembling the proportion of Norman 
 French to the Old English, as used by Chaucer and his con- 
 temporaries; but like other Scythian tongues, it retains 
 its special characteristics, so far as regards its grammatical 
 structure and its use in common life. 
 
 The influence of these Dravidian populations upon the 
 Hindoos with whom they have been in contact whether as 
 antagonists, or rivals, or subordinates, from the time of the 
 first invasion of the Aryans, the progenitors of the Hindoos 
 has been noted above (in the Essay on the Eig Veda) as 
 highly deleterious. Their native religion, like that of all 
 Scythian or nomad races, is full of wild and fearful super- 
 stitions ; especially the worship of evil spirits.* It has im- 
 parted some of its most odious features to forms of worship 
 most conspicuous in modern Hindooism, especially to those 
 connected with Shiva and his hideous spouse Durga, patrons 
 of bloody and licentious rites. 
 
 On the other hand, those old native tribes have two 
 peculiarly interesting and hopeful characteristics. They have 
 a genuine love of literature. The Tamils have native lyric 
 poetry, certainly not learned from their old enemies the 
 Sanskrit-speaking Hindoos ; poetry which is spoken of by 
 competent judges as conspicuous for sweetness and grace, 
 
 Thibetans, is now recognised. The physiological distinction between Aryans 
 and Dravidians is demonstrated. It is a curious fact that these tribes 
 live, without liability to disease, in regions where malaria is fatal to Aryans. 
 * See a most interesting Essay, by Bishop Caldwell, in his ' Dravidian 
 Grammar,' p. 521 seq. Dr. Muir, a high authority on these questions, 
 has shown that at a very early period Dravidian superstitions affected the 
 religious system represented in the Veda ; so far as my own observations 
 go, the taint is perceptible in the later Mandalas of the Kig Veda, but is 
 far more fully developed in the Athar-Veda, the latest product of the 
 so-called Vedic Age, and in the Brahmanas of the early post-Vedic age.
 
 304 NATIVE LANGUAGES OF AMERICA. 
 
 tender and somewhat melancholy in tone, reminding one of 
 the finer portions of the Kalewala and other productions of 
 their Finnish congeners. They have also good translations of 
 the two great epic poems of the Sanskrit, the Mahabharata 
 and the Ramayana, if not of the still more voluminous 
 Puranas, in which the old characteristics of Brahman specula- 
 tion and superstition are fully developed ; and they have a 
 periodical press exhibiting a singular aptitude for receiving and 
 reproducing the speculations of European writers. Through 
 that press it may be hoped that higher and nobler influences 
 may be brought to bear upon their minds, a hope justified 
 by the other fact to which I allude, a fact of infinitely higher 
 import, a presage of happiest augury. The Dravidian 
 races, from the Tamils of the South to the wildest tribes of 
 North-Eastern India, have evinced a disposition peculiarly 
 favourable to the reception of the Gospel. Our best, most 
 judicious, and zealous missionaries testify to the effects of 
 Christianity upon tribes previously regarded not only as 
 in the lowest state of degradation, but as utterly insus- 
 ceptible of nobler impulses. The Tamil district of Tinnevelly, 
 in the south of the Madras Presidency, has been long known 
 as the most promising of all Christian conquests in the East ; 
 it is associated with the greatest and most venerated names in 
 our missionary annals ; and at present, under the presidency 
 of Bishop Caldwell, equally conspicuous for learning and 
 enlightened zeal, this Church has attained a development, 
 a power of expansion and growth, and at the same time of 
 internal organisation, which entitles it to a foremost place 
 among the Christian communities of the East. 
 
 NATIVE LANGUAGES OF AMERICA. 
 
 These languages are regarded by ethnologists of the highest 
 distinction as unquestionably belonging to the group de- 
 signated Scythian or Turanian. So far Prichard, Berghaus
 
 THE CHINESE LANGUAGE. 305 
 
 Primer Bey, M. de Quatrefages, representing English, 
 German, and French anthropology, are unanimous. This 
 opinion rests on scientific grounds, physiological (for which I 
 may refer to the ' Report on Anthropology,' by M. de Quatre- 
 fages, remarkable for completeness and sound judgment, 
 published in 1867 by the Imperial Government of France) 
 and philological, of which a summary account is given in the 
 great work of Berghaus, p. 52 seq. The multitudinous 
 languages of the native American tribes, reduced after long 
 and laborious research to eleven families, are what is called 
 polysynthetical, that is, so to" speak, agglutinative run to seed. 
 In this respect they bear a remarkable likeness to the Bask, 
 as has been shown by Pott and Berghaus (in the introduc- 
 tion to the 'Ethnographical Atlas,' p. 22). Duponceau 
 first gave " the name ' polysynthetical ' to the American 
 tongues. The unity of the American languages, and their 
 affinity to the Finno-Tartaric are maintained by Prichard, 
 Bunsen, and Berghaus, l.c. p. 64. To this classification there 
 is but one doubtful exception, that of the Peruvian language, 
 for which an Aryan origin has been claimed by Lopez, a 
 Peruvian physician.* His work seems to me to establish a 
 connection with the Ariac, but at the same time to prove 
 that if the Peruvian was derived from that language, it 
 must have undergone a process of disintegration which 
 practically separates it from the Aryan group. 
 
 THE CHINESE LANGUAGE. 
 
 This language presents features of singular interest, but no 
 less singular obscurity. I can but touch upon it at present ; 
 but it must not be passed over. As written, it is remarkable 
 as the only purely ideographic language, a character impressed 
 upon it in the very earliest stage of its existence, when the 
 
 Les races aryennes du Perou, par Vicente Fidel Lopez,' 1871. 
 
 X
 
 306 THE CHINESE LANGUAGE. 
 
 214 characters which are the basis of every combination 
 in the present complicated, but singularly complete system, 
 were invented, and from which sure indications of the 
 primeval condition of their people are drawn.* I may here 
 remark that this is one proof, among many, that ideographic 
 forms have no natural or inherent tendency to become alpha- 
 betic or syllabic. Whichever form is found in the earliest 
 documents of any known language, is preserved, substantially 
 the same, identical in principle, differing only in progressive 
 adaptation to the wants of the race, throughout its history _ 
 When alphabetic characters have been evolved from ideo- 
 graphic representations, it has been invariably, so far as I 
 can ascertain, the work of a different people; thus, the 
 Persians formed their alphabet from the Assyrian or Accadian 
 system, the Phoenicians or Hebrews from the phonetic 
 characters in Egyptian hieroglyphics, while in every case the 
 original forms were retained without change or modification 
 save that of progressive development. The system of Chinese 
 ideography is one of peculiar interest. It was first brought 
 within the sphere of European speculation by M. Abel 
 Eemusat, and considerable advance has since been made by 
 scholars, among whom M. Stanislas Julien is entitled to the 
 highest rank. In connection with this system, it must be 
 remarked that the Chinese invented the great art of printing, 
 some five centuries before it was used in Europe. 
 
 The result of that invention in China has been the multi- 
 plication of printed books, and the production of a native 
 literature, rivalling, if not exceeding in bulk, the most volu- 
 minous libraries of ancient or modem times. In estimating 
 
 * M. Abel Remusat first subjected the 200 or 214 elementary ideographs 
 of the Chinese to a scientific examination, and drew from them a series 
 of curious facts bearing upon the primeval condition of the people, of 
 which facts a clear and concise account is given by M. J. J. Ampere in 
 the first Essay of his work ' La Science et les Lettres en Orie'nt.'
 
 THE CHINESE LANGUAGE. 307 
 
 the claims of China to a place among the agents or instru- 
 ments of civilisation, it will not be forgotten that, while they 
 are proved to have invented gunpowder and the compass 
 inventions which, as is usually the case, belong to the East in 
 origin, but are perfected and applied to important uses by 
 Western races the art of printing was not only invented 
 by them, but adapted to the exigencies of common life, above 
 all to the full expression of the thoughts and experiences of 
 the most ancient and not' the least distinguished portion of 
 the human race. 
 
 Turning from the written to the spoken languages of the 
 Chinese, we note a marked contrast in their several develop- 
 ment ; while the written language is one of the most copious, 
 most fertile in expedients of any in existence, the spoken 
 language is one of the very poorest a result, strange as it 
 may seem, of the early adoption of ideographs, which im- 
 posed upon it rigid inflexible forms.* It is, in fact, the only 
 absolutely monosyllabic language in the world. I have else- 
 where (in the essay on the Eig Veda, p. 28), adduced grounds 
 for my belief that it represents the results of the most ancient 
 emigration of a portion of the Japhetic race from their 
 original home, losing in fact whatever progress had previously 
 been made in the development of language as an inevitable 
 result of long wearisome marches, under circumstances of the 
 utmost difficulty, through desolate regions ; but although its 
 copious and curious literature has been thoroughly explored, 
 and its actual use and structure ascertained, the true nature 
 of its original elements must still be regarded as problema- 
 tical. The most probable theory is that which maintains a 
 close connection with Thibet, an inference from internal 
 characteristics and from notices in the most ancient Chinese 
 
 * On this singular result of the invention, see the remarks of M. J, J. 
 Ampere, ' La Science,' &c., p. 25. 
 
 x 2
 
 308 MALAYAN AND POLYNESIAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 writings. Berghaus considers it most probable that the 
 original Chinese were colonists from Thibet a view perfectly 
 reconcilable with that which I have advanced above and 
 that they retained the substance of that language, gradually 
 and it may be unintentionally, modifying its external forms. 
 I have good authority for saying that in the opinion of philo- 
 logists who have devoted special attention to this subject, the 
 native languages of China, especially those which have been 
 systematically suppressed by the Mandarins, the true masters 
 of the empire so far as regards its mental development, bear 
 traces of original connection with those which are recognised 
 as true representatives of the Scythian group.* 
 
 MALAYAN AND POLYNESIAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 In very few words I may state what is proyeable or pro- 
 bable touching this family of languages. From the eastern 
 coast of China to the west of Africa, throughout the islands 
 of the Pacific, with the exception of Nigritian, all native lan- 
 guages have a common origin. The Polynesian languages 
 differ from one another only as dialects of one tongue ; to use 
 the words of M. de Quatrefages, " La Polynesie presente a peine 
 les dialectes distinctes d'une meme langue."f All are Malayan. 
 The population of Madagascar is mixed, but the only language 
 
 * In confirmation of this view, it must be added that the most ancient 
 documents of the Chinese ideography prove the belief in, and point to the 
 worship of, an evil and malignant spirit, a special characteristic of 
 Scythian superstition. On the present state of Chinese literature I would 
 refer to the 'Journal asiatique,' 1881, fdvrier-mars, pp. 256-270. 
 
 t ' Les Polynesiens.' See especially p. 15, " Toutes les langues parleys 
 de Madagascar, a Pile de Paques et de la Nouvelle Ze"lande aux Sandwich 
 par les inbulaires autres que les Negres, forment une seule famille linguis- 
 tique, celle des langues malayo-polyne'siennes." This family of languages 
 is divided into two native groups, one spoken from Madagascar to the 
 Philippine Islands, the other in all the islands of the South. The Timorian 
 idioms are held to form an intermediate link.
 
 MALAYAN AND POLYNESIAN LANGUAGES. 309 
 
 in use is that of the Malays. So far, if I am not mistaken, all 
 masters in the science of comparative philology are unanimous. 
 Wh ether however that language is derived from an Aryan or 
 Scythian stock is questioned. I have elsewhere called atten- 
 tion to the statements of the late Professor Bopp^ the highest 
 authority on such a subject, though his views are of course 
 liable to be impugned, nor can I but trust to his natural and 
 carefully disciplined instinct, especially when, as in this case, 
 he is in accordance with W. Humboldt. Both philologers hold, 
 and in my humble opinion succeed, if not in proving yet in 
 showing it to be most probable, that the Malay and all Poly- 
 nesian dialects are debased forms, illegitimate daughters, so to 
 speak, of later Aryan. It must be noted that in Java, where 
 the upper classes speak a corrupt or mixed language, they 
 have also wliat is called the Kavi-speech, i.e. the poet's tongue, 
 which, as might be inferred from the name, approaches very 
 near to pure Sanskrit. 
 
 This view is corroborated by a perfectly independent series 
 of investigations. M. de Quatrefages, in the monograph to 
 which I have already referred, ' Les Polynesiens,' holds, and I 
 venture to assert has proved, that every Polynesian group was 
 first peopled within the last two thousand years (see p. 167), 
 and that some of the most important settlements, including 
 that in New Zealand, belong altogether to modern history, 
 having received their first occupants some four, or at the 
 most five, centuries ago (see p. 170). The peculiarities of 
 different tribes are attributed by this great anthropologist 
 wholly to special circumstances, while in their fundamental 
 characteristics he finds abundant evidence of their original 
 connection with other great families of mankind, especially 
 with the Aryan race. 
 
 This is not a fitting occasion to discuss speculations as to 
 their future destinies, but as to their languages I may venture 
 to express a hope that, having yielded up all their secrets to
 
 310 THE AKYAN OR INDO-GERMANIO LANGUAGES. 
 
 the questionings of science, they will give way to higher 
 representatives of the group to which they originally be- 
 longed. England even now. supplies one-fifth of their voca- 
 bulary. May English hearts and Christian truth complete 
 the work already inaugurated, and accomplish the regenera- 
 tion of the whole race. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 THE AEYAN OR INDO-GERMANIC LANGUAGES. 
 
 "We turn with a feeling of relief from uncouth names and 
 dark annals to the records of the great Aryan race, of that 
 race in which man has attained to his highest development, 
 in which all his faculties, spiritual and intellectual, have ever 
 been in course of expansion ; in which philosophy, science, 
 art in all its branches, have either originated, or been raised 
 to their culminating height ; a race with a glorious ancestry, 
 distinguished for progress in ages preceding the dawn of 
 history, with a future of indefinite advancement ; represented 
 in Asia by India and Persia, with the literature of Sanskrit 
 and the religion of Zoroaster; in southern Europe by the 
 Greeks and Latins, and the languages derived from the latter, 
 in northern Europe by the Celts, the Slaves, and the Teutons 
 the race to which our language stands in a peculiar relation, 
 Teutonic in its structure, but with a vocabulary enriched by 
 the graceful and copious resources of southern tongues. To 
 these points we will now direct attention in their several 
 bearings. 
 
 But we must first consider which designation of these 
 languages has the better claim to general adoption. 
 
 Two terms are commonly used to designate both the race 
 and the languages spoken by its members Aryan and Indo- 
 Germanic. The latter name was introduced soon after the 
 discovery of Sanskrit. The great philologers to whom we
 
 THE ARYAN OR INDO- GERMANIC LANGUAGES. 311 
 
 owe that discovery at once ascertained, to their infinite sur- 
 prise, that the primitive language of the Hindoos and that of 
 all the Germans, belonged to a common stock, and were 
 derived from a common source. The name Indo-Germanic 
 expressed this fact distinctly, and it had the great advantage 
 of indicating the immense extent of the area over which 
 this family of languages was spread, from the Ganges to the 
 Atlantic. But it was found, on further examination, to be 
 inadequate. It takes no notice of some of the most exten- 
 sive and the noblest families, the Slavonic, the Celtic, the Latin 
 and the Greek. It conveys also an impression, natural at 
 first but since known to be erroneous, that Sanskrit is not 
 only a chief representative, but the mother tongue of the race 
 Aryan has more solid claims. It is the name which the 
 old Persians and the Hindoos, in their earliest extant docu- 
 ments, applied to themselves. Thus in the inscription on the 
 tomb of Darius at Nakhshi Kustam, near Persepolis, the king 
 calls himself Ariya Ariya cithra ; i.e. an Aryan of Aryan 
 race. In Sanskrit, both in the Eig Veda and in the classic 
 age, it is a very common word, used specially in the sense 
 noble, just, civilised.* It is the epithet which designates 
 good and great men, and it is applied to the members of the 
 
 * Professor Max Miiller holds that the word is derived from or, to 
 plough : but to this there are insuperable objections. The word ar does 
 not occur in this special sense either in the Indian or Eranian language 
 (see Pictet, ' Les Aliens primitifs,' tome ii. p. 88) ; and in those languages 
 where it does so occur, the name Aryan is not found as the designation of a 
 race. The true etymology seems to me distinctly indicated by the primi- 
 tive Egyptian word ar, to do, to act with energy, to make or create ; and 
 the word itself is most probably connected with the very ancient Indian 
 .on', which means a comrade, or an enemy, or commonly the head of a 
 household. This view, suggested by Schoebel, ' Recherches sur la Religion 
 primitive,' p. 11, is corroborated by the Old Egyptian, in which the very 
 common word ari has the two meanings comrade and guardian. See 
 my Collection of Egyptian Words, pp. 397, 432. On the Irish word Erin 
 I would again refer to Pictet, ' Les Ariens primitifs,' tome i. pp. 31-33.
 
 312 THE ARYAN OB INDO-GERMANIC LANGUAGES. 
 
 family in contradistinction to the alien Scythians, Dravidians 
 or as the Aryans called them, Turanians, with whom they 
 came into contact and waged an internecine war. The name 
 Aryan, however, is not adopted as a national designation by 
 the great European families, Teutonic, Hellenic, or Latin ; but 
 traces of its wide usage are found. Thus Aria is used by 
 Greek writers as a geographical term in reference to nations 
 undoubtedly Aryan by race, to Persia and Media, and accor- 
 ding to Stephanus Byzantius (s. v. pa/o?) to Thrace. The 
 word aristos, which is connected with it, may well denote the 
 aristocrats of the world. In Celtic the name is retained, as 
 M. Pictet has shown (see the last note), in Erin, lerne, 
 Ireland. It is a striking and interesting fact that the oldest 
 and best of all names should thus crop up at the two extre- 
 mities of the vast stratum of the Aryan race. 
 
 Let us now examine the ancient and modern habitat of 
 each great division of the Aryans. 
 
 One point of great importance meets us at the outset. It 
 is a fact scientifically demonstrated, that the ancestors of all 
 the families enumerated as belonging to this race must have 
 dwelt together as one community after their separation from 
 the Semitic and Hamitic branches, and after the later emi- 
 gration of those nomadic hordes, to whom the terms Scythian, 
 Tartar or Turanian, are indifferently applied. On this subject 
 I have spoken elsewhere ; here it is necessary to recur to the 
 fact as more directly connected with our present inquiry. 
 Whatever opinion may be maintained as to the original unity 
 of the three distinct races, Semitic, Turanian and Aryan, all 
 families belonging to the last, the Aryan race, must have 
 dwelt together for a period of which the extent cannot be 
 defined, but long enough to complete the structure of a lan- 
 guage which, however it may be designated, was undoubt- 
 edly our true mother tongue. 
 
 I say ' complete,' and that word I use advisedly ; for, as all
 
 TI}E AEYAN OR INDO-GEEMANIC LANGUAGES. 313 
 
 philologers agree, that old language not only possessed and 
 used the grammatical forms, declensions and inflexions, but 
 possessed them in a state of perfect development; it com- 
 bined, as all great critics admit, characteristics which we ad- 
 mire in the European and Asiatic languages most remarkable 
 for grace and power. At present the term generally used by 
 scholars to designate this old mother tongue, is Ariac. We 
 might call it after the name of the great ancestor of the 
 whole race, the Japhet of Holy Scripture, known to the old 
 Hindoos as Yama, to the Eranians as Yima, were it not that 
 the Scythians, descendants of Magog, did not share this first 
 great development of the master race, owing, as I believe, to 
 circumstances which have been already discussed elsewhere 
 (see p. 25). 
 
 But it will be asked, what was the original home of this 
 race, or rather what country did they occupy when this lan- 
 guage was so developed ? We may answer first, that it must 
 have been to the west of India ; for when the Aryans first 
 penetrated into that country as invaders or colonists on the 
 north-west, they found it occupied by tribes Dasyus as they 
 called them, Dravidians Bishop Caldwell has named them 
 certainly belonging to the Scythian or Turanian race. 
 Secondly, we may assume, if not as equally certain, yet as 
 highly probable, that the common home of the whole race lay 
 beyond the western frontier of Eran, in the vast district of 
 central Asia extending from the west of the Himalayan chain 
 to the south-eastern coast of the Caspian. Among other 
 weighty reasons for this conclusion it is certain that the sepa- 
 ration of the families which finally occupied Europe and 
 Western Asia must have taken place before the old language 
 of the Persians, the so-called Zend was fully developed with 
 its special characteristics. It may certainly be inferred that 
 the Asiatic and European branches of the race, the Eranians 
 with the Indo-Aryans on the one side, the Greeks, Latins,
 
 314 THE AKYAN OR INDO-GERMANIC LANGUAGES. 
 
 Celts, Slaves, and Teutons, on the other, started and moved 
 in opposite directions from a common home beyond those 
 limits ; and, to state briefly and confidently my own opinion, 
 an opinion held by many great ethnologists, that first common 
 home of the Japhetic race after the dispersion of the human 
 family at Shinar, must have been somewhere to the south- 
 west of the Caspian, not far from the mountains of Ararat, 
 in a district fertile and habitable, where they would find the 
 main conditions of primitive civilisation. In fact, notwith- 
 standing the conflicting views of ethnologists on other points, 
 between monogenists on the one hand and so-called polyge- 
 nists on the other, the one maintaining, the other steadily 
 denying, the true unity of the human race, you will not find 
 any wide, at least any fundamental difference of opinion on 
 this point. None would place the original home of the Aryans 
 further to the west ; though some would fix upon the north- 
 east of the central district, Bactriana, the point from which 
 the Eranians, according to the Zend Avesta, advanced at an 
 early period, but not as I feel assured, until after their separa- 
 tion from the Indo- Aryans. 
 
 One great fact stands out distinctly. Whether that home 
 originally extended to the east of the Caspian, or was limited 
 to the west of that inland sea, it was certainly a portion of 
 Central Asia, in a midway position between the regions per- 
 manently occupied by Tartaric, Semitic, or Hamitic nations, 
 and those which were afterwards peopled by the descendants 
 of the Aryans, either as first occupants, or as displacing 
 wandering hordes. 
 
 But the question naturally presents itself, to what after all 
 did that old common civilisation of which I have spoken so 
 confidently, really and substantially amount ? The student 
 of comparative philology feels no hesitation in answering this 
 question. The language, not only noble in its structure, but 
 rich in its vocabulary which, as Eugene Burnouf has shown
 
 THE ARYAN OR INDOGERMANIC LANGUAGES. 315 
 
 (see Yacna, p. xxix), must have had the words common to all 
 cognate languages, and also words found only in two or three 
 belonging to the same stock supplies facts of supreme 
 importance. Beginning with domestic life, it had definite 
 terms for all family relationships : for husband and wife, each 
 bearing a name indicating their true position, rights and duties, 
 as master and mistress of the household ; * for son, daughter, 
 brother, and sister ; and not only for members of the house- 
 hold, but for remoter degrees of consanguinity and affinity. 
 They have words which prove that they dwelt in settled 
 homes, that they cultivated the soil, and yoked oxen to their 
 ploughs.f They not only kept sheep, cattle, and dogs, but had 
 made considerable progress in arts which imply the needs 
 and the advance of culture ; they wrought gold, copper, tin, 
 and, though' this is somewhat doubtful, even the most in- 
 tractable and the most useful of all metals, iron.J They had, 
 in fact, the mam elements and conditions of primitive civili- 
 sation. 
 
 Far more important is the fact, which stands as fast as any 
 fact deducible from sure premisses can stand, that they 
 recognised fundamental principles of true religion. They 
 believed in a future state ; they retained the oldest forms of 
 patriarchal worship, daily sacrifice, daily prayer; and that 
 worship was addressed not to false gods, personifications of 
 
 * On each of these terms I would ask readers to look at my first section 
 on Egyptian words. 
 
 f This has been questioned, but see Pictet, l.c. ii. pp. 76, 88. The 
 proof that they yoked oxen for ploughing is complete, as Pictet shows, Lc. 
 pp. 94, 121. 
 
 J It must be borne hi mind that iron was certainly fused, welded, 
 moulded into tools or warlike implements by Scythian tribes at a very 
 early period ; and, considering their degraded condition, it may be fairly 
 inferred that they had learned this art in their old home, as one in which 
 they would naturally be employed by their masters, and which was espe- 
 cially serviceable to them in their struggles with wild and rugged nature.
 
 316 ASIATIC LANGUAGES OF THE AKYANS. 
 
 man's passions or natural forces, to deities whose names both 
 in Asia and Europe are of far later origin, but to the Lord of 
 heaven and earth, the self-existing, all-knowing, almighty 
 Spirit, designated, if by any name, by a name which truly 
 and exclusively expresses His Being and Nature.* 
 
 A most attractive, and in the main feature, a true 
 portraiture of these old Aryans is suggested in the great works 
 on comparative philology. Some traits are questionable or 
 exaggerated, as presented by the Comte de Gobineau in his 
 ' Histoire des Perses/ but reliance may be safely felt in those 
 which I have set before you, traced, as they are, with a sure 
 steady hand, guided by clear insight and guarded by sound 
 judgment, in the work of M. Pictet, entitled ' Les Ariens 
 primitifs/ 
 
 We are now in a position to consider the languages 
 formerly or now used by different families of this race. I will 
 take them in two great divisions, Asiatic and European. 
 
 ASIATIC LANGUAGES OF THE ARYANS. 
 
 The Asiatic languages again fall under two heads : Eranian 
 and Indian ; but for a considerable period, long after the 
 emigration of other families, the people speaking them dwelt 
 together either as one community, or in close contact, in the 
 district limited, as we have observed, by the Himalaya in the 
 East, and Ararat or the ranges to the south of the Caspian in 
 the West. We may certainly assume that when the Eranian 
 
 * See the notices on Asura and Ahura in the Essays on the Eig Veda 
 and the Avesta. I cannot repeat too frequently, or urge too strongly, these 
 facts. The two great names of the Deity used in all European languages 
 came from that one mother tongue : Dyaus, Zevs, Deus, Tiva, all derived 
 from a root signifying pure, uncreated, heavenly light ; and Quadata, in 
 Persian Khoda, in our own tongue God, i.e. the self-existing and self- 
 determined, the name which, like the old Aryan Asura, corresponds most 
 nearly in meaning to Jehovah.
 
 THE OLD PERSIAN OR ZEND LANGUAGE. 317 
 
 portion of the race first settled in their district, they found 
 it unoccupied. The earliest and the best traditions of the 
 Persians, those preserved in the Avesta and the Shahnameh, 
 concur in that position ; and their authority, whatever may 
 be its weight, is supported by the fact that no alien elements, 
 no Turanian forms, are traceable in the Zend, as we find it 
 in the Avesta, or in the old Persian, as it stands before us 
 in the cuneiform inscriptions of the Achsemenidse. The fact 
 of the race remaining so united long after the emigration of 
 the other families is important in its bearings upon philolo- 
 gical questions, accounting for the fact which proves it, viz., 
 the close resemblance between the Sanskrit of the Eig Veda 
 and the Gathas of Zoroaster, unquestionably the most ancient 
 documents of the two languages; and apparently also for a 
 considerable advance in civilisation compared with other 
 families. But far more important is the fact that their sepa- 
 ration took place before certain distinctive features of their 
 several religious systems were developed. On the one hand, 
 the dualism of the Avesta was unknown to the Indo-Aryans ; 
 on the other, the naturalistic idolatry of the latter was un- 
 known to the old Eranians, or known only to be repudiated 
 as evil in origin and in character. Those corruptions, both of 
 vital import, at once distinguish them from each other, and 
 attest their several apostasy from the high, pure truth which 
 was their original heritage. 
 
 THE OLD PERSIAN OR ZEND LANGUAGE WITH ITS DESCENDANTS. ' 
 
 We may first note briefly the nations which, in ancient or 
 modern tune, have spoken this language or dialects derived 
 from it. Persia, of course, takes the foremost place. The 
 ancient empire comprised all regions occupied by this family? 
 and for a season threatened the world witli the establishment 
 of one universal despotism. The Medians,' who preceded the
 
 318 THE OLD PEKSIAN OK ZEND LANGUAGE. 
 
 Persians as wielders of supreme power, are held by scholars 
 of eminence to have spoken a different language, and to have 
 belonged to the Scythian family. So far, indeed, as regards 
 the agriculturists or labouring classes, this view appears to 
 rest on strong grounds ; the second set of cuneiform in- 
 scriptions at Behistun is undoubtedly Scythian in character. 
 But no less certainly the Medians who governed the district, 
 and who gave it their name, belonged to the Aryan or Eranian 
 family; they were recognised as such by the Greeks; and 
 Spiegel, a high authority, has proved that their language, if it 
 differed from the Persian at all, differed only as the dialect of 
 a common tongue. In denying the Scythian origin of the 
 dominant race, he is supported by the Book of Genesis, which 
 tells us that Madai, the eponym of the Medians, was the 
 third son of Japhet. In Asia the peoples who now speak 
 languages derived from or connected with the Eranian are : 
 (1) on the west, the Ossetes, or people of Iron, an outlying 
 family in the Caucasian district,* the Armenians,! and some 
 tribes of Curdistan ; (2) on the east of Persia, the Affghans, 
 Pushtus, as they call themselves, and the Beluchees are 
 regarded as a link between the Eranians and Hindoos,} 
 two wild, fierce tribes, but not without characteristics which 
 indicate a noble ancestry, a passionate indomitable love 
 
 * The origin of other Caucasian languages is disputed. Many hold 
 them to be Turanian, others (e.g. Bopp and Kosen) refer them to the 
 Aryan family. The Ossetes are supposed by Spiegel to have been placed 
 there by a Persian king, probably by Darius himself, in order to command 
 the only pass through the Caucasus to Scythia. 
 
 f Armenia might claim a separate notice. We owe to it the preser- 
 vation of many Christian records, and historical works of considerable 
 value. The original language has left no monuments, but that of their 
 extant literature, early in date compared with European writings, is held 
 by the best scholars to be essentially Aryan. For a full account of this 
 matter see the Rapport on Oriental Literature published by the Imperial 
 Government of France in 1866. 
 
 % Dr. C. Lassen, of Bonn, has proved the Aryan descent of the Beluchees.
 
 THE OLD PEKSIAN OB ZEND LANGUAGE. 319 
 
 of freedom and national independence, military talents, and 
 under favourable circumstances a capacity for higher culture. 
 The Affghans have probably retained their present home from 
 the prehistoric age when the Eranians migrated from the 
 East, or when the Sanskrit-speaking Aryans first entered 
 Hindostan. 
 
 Let us, however, briefly consider the several stages through 
 which the languages of Persia proper have passed, since 
 the time when the first existing documents were produced. 
 Many points on this subject have been discussed in the 
 essay on the Avesta, but it will be necessary here to 
 give a concise account of the whole matter, referring the 
 reader to that essay for a full discussion of controverted 
 questions. 
 
 The earliest monuments of the language are, in every 
 respect, by far the most important. The Persian cuneiform 
 inscriptions give us a perfectly trustworthy view of the 
 language spoken by the higher classes, and understood, if not 
 spoken generally, by the mass of the population. The Gathas 
 of Zoroaster, of uncertain date, but as I have shown, most 
 probably composed about the same time, present the living 
 language in the same stage, differing, if at all, simply as one 
 dialect differs from others of the same age and country. From 
 these we learn the state of culture, of political, social, moral, 
 and religious development, under the first princes of the 
 Achsemenidae. 
 
 The next stage is that represented by the other portions of 
 the Avesta. A considerable change had passed over the 
 national mind and spirit in the interval, whatever may have 
 been its length, between these and the earlier documents. The 
 religious principles, dogmas, and forms had degenerated ; 
 dualism had made formidable progress ; superstitious practices, 
 some of a peculiarly odious character, had been introduced. 
 Still the Avesta preserves intimations of supreme importance ;
 
 320 THE OLD PEKSIAN OE ZEND LANGUAGE. 
 
 and as retaining fundamental principles, well deserves the 
 high character assigned to it by the most judicious critics. 
 
 The language remains nearly the same in form, with the 
 old grammatical inflexions and external structure, and is free 
 from the admixture of alien elements ; but its authors, Magian 
 priests, had lost the meaning of the grammatical forms which 
 they retained, and the old language, if not dead, was then in 
 a state of rapid decay. 
 
 The labours of the great scholars to whom we are chiefly 
 indebted for the knowledge of this work, unsurpassed in 
 importance in the history of uninspired religions, have been 
 recognised elsewhere ; but here it may be well to record the 
 names of Eugene Burnouf, the first and most distinguished 
 interpreter of the Avesta, of Rawlinson, Spiegel, Justi, and 
 De Harlez, who have done most to enable students to com- 
 prehend and appreciate its bearings. 
 
 The next stage in the language is marked by a far more 
 distinct and remarkable change.* Under the Sassanidee, from 
 the middle of the 3rd century of our era up to the overthrow 
 of that last national dynasty, a new form called Pehlevi, or 
 Huzvaresh, was introduced, which superseded the Zend of the 
 Avesta. The word Pehlevi means 'noble,' and thus desig- 
 nates the language of the higher priesthood (Mobeds, as they 
 are called, that is, chief of the Magi) and of the court. The 
 latter term, which probably means ' well formed ' or well 
 developed, refers specially to the most striking characteristics 
 of the new language, the preponderance of Semitic influence. 
 The language in that stage lost altogether its inflections and 
 
 * These dates should be kept in mind. The dynasty of the Arsacidse, 
 or Parthians, ruled Persia from B.C. 255 to A.D. 226, the Sassanidse from 
 that date to 652, the Khalifate and other Mahometan princes to 1258, 
 when the country was wrenched from the Khalif by Houlougou Khan. 
 The present dynasty, the Kadjars, also Mongolian by descent, have 
 reigned over Persia since the year 1794.
 
 THE OLD PERSIAN OR ZEND LANGUAGE. 321 
 
 old grammatical forms, and was written in a character which, 
 though derived from Syriac, remarkable for its simplicity, is 
 absolutely unparalleled for complication, ambiguity, and con- 
 fusion.* 
 
 It is however more than probable a scholar of the highest 
 authority, the late J. Mohl, has shown that it is all but cer- 
 tain that the use of this debased and Semitised form of 
 language was confined to the western portion of the empire, 
 and that throughout the eastern and central districts the old 
 language was alone spoken.f The result of this remarkable 
 state of things permanently affected the national history and 
 the development of the national character. When the Ara- 
 bians conquered Persia, the western portion of the empire, 
 which had previously been penetrated by Semitic influences, 
 offered scarcely any resistance to the religion of the Koran, 
 and with the new religion accepted its language, so that the 
 Arabic speedily and completely superseded the Eranian 
 tongue. 
 
 On the other hand, the far more extensive and more 
 thoroughly national portions of the empire, from the Tigris to 
 the frontiers of India, retained together with their old lan- 
 guage a spirit of national independence, and, even while they 
 publicly professed adherence to the religion of Islam, 
 cherished their oldest traditions, and preserved certain con- 
 victions which always distinguished them from their invaders. 
 The new states which soon grew up, though nominally depen- 
 dent upon the Khalifate, established at Bagdad as its proper 
 
 * In addition to the remarks in my Essay on the Cuneiform Inscrip- 
 tions and the Zend Avesta, I would refer to the striking statement of 
 M. Darmesteter, ' Etudes iraniennes,' tome ii. p. 58 seq. After noticing 
 the general antiquities he observes : " II y a un mot dans 1'Arda Viraf qui 
 est susceptible the"oriquement de 648 lectures." See also the same work, 
 tome i. pp. 18-25. 
 
 t See above, p. 160. 
 
 Y
 
 322 THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE. 
 
 centre, were virtually independent, and sovereigns, conspicuous 
 for energy and ability, were careful to foster feelings which, so 
 long as they prevailed, kept their subjects in a state of aliena- 
 tion from their nominal suzerains. The result was that the 
 old Persian continued to be spoken ; and in the third century 
 after the Mahometan conquest, a national epic, representing 
 that language in its purest and noblest form, and preserving 
 old traditions and reminiscences as a perpetual monument, 
 was produced at a Mahometan court, originating at the com- 
 mand and supported until its completion by Sultan Mah- 
 moud, the ablest of the Ghaznavide dynasty. The Shah- 
 nameh of Firdausi, a name and a work worthy of the 
 honour rendered to the Homeric poems by the whole world, 
 ranking certainly on an equality with the two great epics 
 of India and the national epic of the old Teutons, was 
 then and there completed. It fixed the form of classic 
 Persian, comparatively pure from Arabian influences, and 
 has contributed more, it may be, than any other cause to 
 the development of the Persian spirit. Later poets, Nizami, 
 Hafiz, Saadi, well known to all students of the language, 
 never attempted to emulate the work or fame of Firdausi, 
 nor has the genius of the nation since found so noble an 
 exponent. 
 
 Persia then, ancient and modern, has thus been shown to 
 have special claims to our esteem ; ranking high among the 
 representatives of religious and intellectual development. 
 
 THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE. 
 
 From Persia we turn to India. Here again I may refer to 
 a previous essay, but must state briefly the main points in 
 the history of the language. 
 
 We have first the Vedic age. The Rig Veda, as we 
 have seen, is by far the most ancient and the only true repre- '
 
 THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE. 323 
 
 sentative of the language, as it was spoken by the Aryan 
 conquerors of India. We find it there complete in its 
 grammatical structure, remarkable for grace, flexibility, and 
 apt expression of national and religious thoughts and feelings. 
 
 In the following age, still of high antiquity, certainly not 
 later than the tenth century before our era, we find the lan- 
 guage in a more rigid, and in some respects a more developed 
 form ; substantially identical with the Sanskrit of the so-called 
 classic age. This is the time of the Sutras, Brahmanas, 
 and Upanishads, obscure, liturgical, theosophical, imaginative, 
 and intellectual ; chiefly remarkable however for subtlety, 
 verbosity, and inexhaustible copiousness. It is a period to 
 which the labours of able Sanskrit scholars have been 
 specially devoted, and of which the results occupy a promi- 
 nent position in the so-called ' Sacred Books of the East/ 
 edited by Professor Max Miiller. 
 
 During this period the system of Brahmanism prevailed, 
 with a pantheistic basis, multitudinous forms, wild and fan- 
 ciful superstitions, remarkable for the establishment of castes 
 with Brahmans at their head, supreme in rank and authority, 
 and claiming to be absolutely distinct in origin a system 
 best represented in the Dharmacastra, the so-called Laws of 
 Manu, a work familiar to our Indian officials.* 
 
 We come next to the age of Indian Epic poetry. The 
 most ancient epic is the Eamayana, by Valmiki, a name 
 deservedly famous. This poem is equal in extent to the 
 Iliad and Odyssey together, and is conspicuous for qualities 
 which characterise the Hindoos in their full development. 
 The first complete translation has been lately published by 
 Signor Gorresio, of Piedmont, who has also given a good 
 
 * Translated by Sir W. Jones ; edited and translated into French by 
 M. Loiseleur Deslongchamps. It is a work indispensable to all concerned 
 in the administration of Indian law. 
 
 T 2
 
 324 THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE. 
 
 edition of the text; that text exists in two recensions, not 
 substantially different, and interesting as proofs of early and 
 general acceptance. Gorresio has followed one recension, 
 Schlegel and Lassen have given an eclectic text. This poem 
 may be commended as that from which a student will learn 
 most easily and most completely the true character of the 
 Indian mind. 
 
 Far more voluminous, fuller also of facts and theories, in- 
 teresting to the student of philosophy, is the Mahabharata, of 
 all poems most widely known and most popular in India, 
 with episodes remarkable for beauty and power, some of 
 which have been edited and translated by the ablest 
 scholars the Bhagavad Gita by Schlegel and Lassen, the 
 Nalus and Damyanti, the Deluge, and Arjuna's ascent to 
 the heaven of his father Indra, by the late Professor Bopp. 
 
 So far we have, not it may be without interpolations, but 
 still on the whole faithful representations of Indian thought 
 and Indian religious and moral development, under the influ- 
 ence first of the old Eishis, then of the maintainers or 
 opponents of Brahmanism. 
 
 During the latter part of this period, if not much earlier, 
 the language existed and was used in two forms, Sanskrit and 
 Prakrit, the former the language of philosophy and of the 
 higher classes, the latter differing wholly in grammatical 
 structure, that of common life. 
 
 Then came in, probably about the seventh or eighth century, 
 the religion of Buddha, bringing with it new modes of 
 thought, new principles of religion, new forms of expression, 
 and if not throughout India, yet in large portions and in the 
 adjacent island of Ceylon, a new language, the Pali, first 
 discovered and interpreted by Eugene Burnouf. 
 
 The Indian literature of Buddhism, however, stands apart 
 from that of the Brahmans, which was for a time materially 
 affected by it, but afterwards threw it off completely, perse-
 
 THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE. 325 
 
 cuted or exterminated its adherents, and pursued its own 
 course, issuing at a far later period towards that of our middle 
 ages in the so-called Puranas, poems of enormous, monstrous 
 extent, comprising extravagances in speculation, mythology, 
 and imagery, which excite the astonishment and offend 
 the taste of European scholars. Two of these Puranas, the 
 Vishnu Purana and the Bhagavata Purana, are well known 
 in France and England, the former translated by Wilson, the 
 latter edited and translated by Eugene Burnouf. No Indian 
 student can afford to neglect them ; whatever time they may 
 cost, whatever exhaustion of spirit they may entail, they are 
 indispensable to all who would comprehend, or hope to 
 influence, the minds of the people of Hindostan, to whom these 
 wild, monstrous poems are especially dear, as representing to 
 their spirits the latest and highest development of religious 
 and intellectual culture. 
 
 At present the old languages of the Hindoos are represented 
 by the Hindustani, used in very various degrees of refinement 
 or corruption throughout those portions of the peninsula 
 which are not peopled by Dravidians. The vernacular lan- 
 guage of Cashmeer is said to approach most nearly to the 
 type of classical Sanskrit; but the common language of 
 India, at least as it exists in a written form, retains the 
 roots and idiomatic forms of its original source. I must 
 add that the literature of Hindostan is copious, comprising 
 works in the most opposite departments of thought, of 
 which a full account is given by M. Garcin de Tassy in a 
 work which ought to be in the hands of all Anglo-Indians. 
 
 I cannot dismiss this subject without referring to the 
 remarks with which I concluded my first essay in this volume. 
 Without an extensive and accurate knowledge of Indian 
 literature, the efforts of Christian missionaries, official or un- 
 official, can scarcely be expected to reach the minds of native 
 Indians ; without a stedfast adherence to our own fundamental
 
 326 LANGUAGES OF WESTERN ASIA. 
 
 principles, learning, talent, industry, will be thrown away. 
 Our duty is plain, our course clearly marked for us ; may it 
 be pursued with unflagging energy and crowned by full 
 
 success ! 
 
 LANGUAGES OF WESTERN ASIA. 
 
 We must now turn westward. I cannot dwell upon the 
 scanty and obscure traces of Aryan influences in prehistoric 
 times, but two points call for notice. It is certain that our old 
 friends the Trojans, Hector the patriot hero, Andromache the 
 tender wife, all the personages of the grandest of all poems, 
 Greeks, Trojans, and their allies, were genuine Aryans 
 differing indeed in language, in social and political institu- 
 tions, in habits of thought and feeling, as is natural in families 
 of one and the same race under circumstances which elicit 
 and develope their several special tendencies, or bring 
 new influences to bear upon their character ; but in funda- 
 mental principles and all substantial characteristics attesting 
 their origin from a common stock. We may surely trust 
 Homer, of all observers most remarkable for clear perception 
 and truthfulness, who represents Trojans and Greeks in con- 
 stant intercourse, mutually intelligible, needing no interpreter 
 as a medium of communication ; above all as worshippers of 
 the same gods. Zeus, the Dyaus of their common ancestors, 
 the Deus of the Latins, recognised as the embodiment or 
 personal representative of the supreme Deity, is adored by 
 both and favours both, if we may not say indifferently, 
 certainly with no partial bearing towards the countrymen of 
 the poet. Neptune, or as we should rather say, Poseidon, the 
 peculiar object of worship to the Greeks as skilful and enter- 
 prising navigators, takes the Trojan side throughout the Iliad. 
 Minerva and Juno, special patronesses of the Greeks, are en- 
 throned in the central temple of Dion. While Apollo, noblest 
 and highest among the creations of gentile religious thought,
 
 THE ARYAN LANGUAGES OF EUROPE. 327 
 
 retaining in fact characteristics which appertain to the highest 
 spiritual sphere in Eran and India, is at once the constant 
 patron of the Trojans, and at the same time the deity re- 
 garded as the most special object of worship by the Dorians, 
 the very central and noblest family of the Hellenic race. I 
 must also notice the fact that the ablest ethnologists agree 
 that the Lycians, Carians, and other so-called Barbarians, 
 whom St. Paul converted so speedily and so completely to 
 the Christian faith in Western Asia, one and all belonged to 
 the same Aryan race.* 
 
 These names, however, make but a vague impression. The 
 facts are enveloped in mystery, and in many points are open 
 to dispute ; the work of tribes which have been absorbed by 
 more powerful nations lies deep under the foundations of the 
 higher civilisation, of which they may have been the pre- 
 cursors and the pioneers. Let us turn at once to the great 
 families of Europe. 
 
 THE ARYAN LANGUAGES OF EUROPE. 
 
 Here we have to recognise a great division, and must follow 
 two distinct lines. We have to go northwards with Slaves 
 and Teutons ; southwards with Celts, Italians, and Greeks, 
 races destined to pass through separate and independent 
 courses of development. 
 
 We will begin with the north. 
 
 The separation of the Slaves and Teutons from the parent 
 stock took place at a very early period, probably before the 
 migrations of the Celto-Italic and Hellenic families ; cer- 
 tainly long before the separation of the two Asiatic represen- 
 tatives of the Aryan race. It may, moreover, be regarded as 
 a fact, scientifically proved by comparison of their vocabu- 
 laries and grammatical forms, that these two families, Slaves 
 
 On this jwint see Botticher, ' Arica,' and Berghaus.
 
 328 THE SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 
 
 and Teutons, lived in close contact with each other for a 
 period of considerable, though indefinite, duration, and pro- 
 bably formed one community ; but after their separation they 
 soon became aliens, and remained on terms of frequent, if 
 not permanent hostility. Even at present they evince a 
 general disinclination to mutual or amicable intercourse. 
 
 THE SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 
 
 Slavonic dialects, in forms more or less corrupt, are spoken 
 by small isolated tribes in different parts of the German 
 Empire, as by Wends in the neighbourhood of Dresden ; but the 
 principal representatives of the family are the Russian, Polish, 
 Bohemian languages ; each with a literature and institutions 
 too well known to need, or too expansive to admit, description 
 in a general essay. To these must be added the Lettish, and 
 specially the Lithuanian ; this last has a literature of its 
 own, of which specimens are given in some popular works, 
 but the language itself has attracted peculiar interest ; both 
 in its grammar and in its vocabulary it comes nearer to the 
 Old Aryan than any European tongue. On this account it 
 holds a prominent place in recent works on comparative 
 philology.* 
 
 To these languages we may add the Albanian, in Greece 
 and Turkey, a language formerly regarded as wholly alien, but 
 lately proved to be true Aryan, belonging most probably to 
 the Slavonic branch. We must also call attention to the Old 
 Prussian, a dialect quite distinct from the German with which 
 it is in contact, and to the Old Bulgarian, spoken for some 
 centuries by a Slavonic family in Esthonia, on the Baltic, a 
 family not to be confounded with the Bulgarians on the 
 
 * It may suffice to refer to Schleicher and to Bopp : both give the 
 Lithuanian a foremost place throughout their comparison of Aryan forms.
 
 THE SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 329 
 
 Danube, who are descended from them, but are said to have 
 long forgotten their own mother-tongue. To these latter, 
 however, we ow"e the earliest extant monuments of the 
 Slavonic language. The Bible was translated into this 
 language, by Cyril and Methodius, in the latter part of the 
 ninth century.* That version was accepted by Russia in the 
 twelfth century, and may be regarded as the Authorised 
 Version of the Western Orthodox Church. 
 
 The Modern Slavonic, as spoken and written in Eussia, is 
 said, by competent judges, to be remarkable for grace, power, 
 and flexibility. The subtlety of its phonetic laws, the copi- 
 ousness and niceties of its articulation, present peculiar 
 difficulties to foreign students, but certainly, develope in 
 cultivated natives a remarkable facility in mastering other 
 languages ; it has a literature of great promise, works of 
 fiction, poetry, history, and linguistic science, well known and 
 highly appreciated in other lands. It is surely destined to 
 take a leading part in the onward progress of civilisation. 
 
 For my own part, I cannot but feel entire confidence in the 
 progress of a nation which received Christianity with ready 
 sympathy and under most trying circumstances, and which 
 has retained it in a form which, though not free from super- 
 stitious adjuncts, is yet substantially that of the earty Church. 
 One fact, indeed, is certain, and its supreme importance will 
 not be questioned. By no Church in Christendom is the 
 Word of God recognised more fully as the final and absolute 
 authority in all questions doctrinal or ecclesiastical as the 
 true and only source of saving truth. 
 
 * See Tischendorf, N. T. co. 7, p. ccliii ; Scrivener's ' Introduction to 
 the Criticism of the N. Testament,' p. 411, ed. 3, and Fleury, 'Histoire, 
 ib. lii. c. 54. A specimen is given by Schleicher in his ' Chrestomathie,' 
 pp. 261-294.
 
 330 THE TEUTONIC LANGUAGES. 
 
 THE TEUTONIC LANGUAGES. 
 
 From the Slaves we pass to the Teutons ; originally, as I 
 said, one family with the Slaves, they separated from them 
 long before the Christian era; the Slaves were known as 
 Sarmatians, the Teutons as Germans, to the Greeks and 
 Eomans. In the north of Europe the Scandinavians spoke 
 the Old Norse, a language represented at present by Swedish, 
 Norwegian, Danish, and most perfectly by Icelandic. It was 
 a strong, somewhat rugged, but expressive language to use 
 Eask's words, "diamond-hard, pure as crystal, and golden 
 tinted " and it gives us the truest insight into the forms of 
 thought and feeling which the northern Teutons brought with 
 them from their Eastern homes. From the Eddas and the 
 Sagas of the Scalds we learn the true character of the old 
 heathenism of this race: their mythology, as well as their 
 popular stories, comes from Aryan sources, so far as regards 
 its main principles ; the predominance of darker and fiercer 
 elements is what might be expected from a people struggling 
 against nature in its wildest and fiercest moods, warriors and 
 pirates from the first. Their language has left deep traces 
 in other lands ; as in England and France, where it was 
 carried by Norwegians and Danes. In France it supplies 
 no small proportion of words in common use, in England it 
 enters into combination, with the language of our Saxon 
 forefathers, who belonged in fact to the same race, and 
 occupied an adjoining district in their continental home. 
 
 We cannot but look with deep interest upon this noble 
 family, true representatives of the sterner characteristics of 
 the Aryans, but withal faithful and true of heart, with warm 
 and stedfast affections, and from the time of their somewhat 
 late conversion, religious without superstition, among the first 
 to free themselves from the usurped authority of Borne. 
 Fain might we hope that a Scandinavian empire may even
 
 THE TEUTONIC LANGUAGES. 331 
 
 yet serve as a counterpoise in the political system of northern 
 Europe ; warmly has England welcomed the daughter of the 
 Vikings as our future Queen. 
 
 The great bulk of the Teutons, however, occupied the plains 
 of central Europe as original occupants, so far as can be ascer- 
 tained, from the Baltic to the Alps, from the Ehine to the 
 Carpathians ; as conquerors encroaching upon the Eoman 
 empire, and founding states in Italy, Spain and Africa. 
 
 A special interest attaches to the establishment of the 
 Goths on the Lower Danube, for to that we owe. the earliest 
 written monument of the Teutonic language. Ulfila, bishop 
 of the Mossian Goths, in the middle of the fifth century, made 
 a complete translation of the Holy Scriptures ; of that ver- 
 sion we have more than one-half of the New Testament and 
 some fragments of the Old. It is of great value for critical 
 purposes, representing an early and pure text, earlier indeed 
 than any extant manuscript of the original, and rendering 
 every word and phrase with equal felicity and skill. In its 
 grammatical structure this old Gothic is superior to any 
 Teutonic dialect, approaching nearer to Greek and Sanskrit in 
 the grace and beauty of its inflections ; its vocabulary is 
 copious,* finding apt expression for every shade of meaning : 
 it supplies the true etymology of many words in our own lan- 
 guage, enabling us to trace them to their common source, and 
 to ascertain their original and true meaning. In the time of 
 Ulfila the same language appears to have been spoken, pro- 
 bably with slight variations, through the greater part of 
 Germany ; although the Old High German and the Old Low 
 German, from the latter of which our Old English was 
 
 * The Old German has a large number of roots common to Zend and 
 Vedic Sanskrit, but not to the Greco-Italic family ; see Burnouf, ' Yacna,' 
 p. xxviii. Diefenbach's dictionary of Gothic is one of the most important 
 works on comparative philology. See further on p. 360.
 
 332 LANGUAGES OF SOUTHERN EUROPE. 
 
 derived, acquired a distinct character at a very early period. 
 In fact, the Anglo-Saxon or true English, as we have learned 
 to call the tongue of our ancestors, supplies the most ancient 
 monuments of the Teutonic languages after the Gothic. 
 Speaking to Englishmen, it is scarcely necessary to dwell 
 upon its claims to eminence, its copious literature, its histo- 
 rical and philosophical work, associated with the greatest 
 names in medieval history ; Alfred, the model of Christian 
 patriots, legislators, and sovereigns, and Boethius, the martyr 
 of Christian philosophy ; or upon its poetry, collected and 
 illustrated by able scholars in England and Germany, or 
 its singular richness in phonetic and grammatical forms, cha- 
 racteristics which are fully recognised by such scholars as 
 Leo, Ettmiiller, Grein, and Jacob Grimm, who refers to the 
 great poem, Beowulf, the most original and striking product 
 of early Teutonic genius, and to the collection of Anglo- 
 Saxon poems in the Codex Exoniensis more frequently than 
 to any other authority, both in his Grammar and his History 
 of the German language. I cannot even touch upon the 
 literature of modern Germany, the latest and not the least 
 noble product of Aryan genius ; but you may be reminded 
 that the Nibelungen Lied, the best specimen of Old Low 
 German, proves the natural aptitude of the race for epic 
 poetry ; that the High German, destined in the present cen- 
 tury to attain a complete ascendancy, was carried by the 
 Franks into Gaul ; and that, although in that country it has 
 long ceased to exist as a separate language, it has contributed 
 a far larger share than is generally supposed to the voca- 
 bulary of the French. 
 
 LANGUAGES OF SOUTHEKN EUROPE. 
 
 We come to the last division of the subject, which deals 
 with the southern branches of the Aryans in Europe. I
 
 THE CELTIC LANGUAGES. 333 
 
 must be content with a general survey, too general perhaps 
 to be interesting, were it not that some of the facts which 
 I have to state may be new to many readers, as they were 
 new to myself, and indeed new to all scholars until within 
 the last few years ; they were partly discovered, partly inves- 
 tigated and put into their true light, by the leaders in the 
 science of comparative philology. 
 
 THE CELTIC LANGUAGES. 
 
 The connection between the Celtic languages and the old 
 Aryan stock was formerly unknown, it was scarcely sus- 
 pected. Celts and Teutons, Celts and Latins, Celts and 
 Greeks, looked on each other as aliens, natural enemies, with 
 characters cast in other moulds, incapable of mutual sym- 
 pathy, destined to perpetual struggles, to internecine warfare. 
 But it may now be regarded as a certain fact that when the 
 great stream of emigration from Arya through Asia Minor to 
 the South-west of Europe first set in, the Celts, Italians, 
 and Greeks formed one people, the grammatical structure 
 and constituent elements of whose language, afterwards so 
 widely developed, not only prove a common origin, but 
 satisfy the ablest scholars that those people must have lived 
 together for a considerable period.* From this common race 
 the Celtic families first separated; as it may be fairly 
 assumed, because they were the most impulsive, enterprising 
 and restless. They kept, however, some old habits of the 
 Aryans, together with the name (see above, p. 311) ; such as 
 
 * The highest authority on Celtic is Zeuss, author of one of the best 
 works ever written on grammar. See also an interesting notice on Old 
 Irish in the ' Revue archeologique,' Janvier 1870, pp. 64-66. The Irish 
 language is specially remarkable for its observance of the laws of harmony 
 characteristic of the Celtic.
 
 334 THE CELTIC LANGUAGES. 
 
 the institution of Clans,* with its tendencies for good and ill ; 
 the patriarchal instinct, strong family affections, and the pas- 
 sion, not indeed for the true liberty assured by just laws, 
 but for the independence of each little group. They certainly 
 advanced first and went farthest Northern Italy, part of 
 the Iberian Peninsula and of Germany, the whole of France, 
 still Celtic in some of its most striking characteristics, and, 
 at the dawn of the historical period, the British Isles, were 
 in possession of the Celts. Did they find previous occupants ? 
 Modern anthropologists will tell you of wild hordes, sparse 
 populations of savages spread over Europe. In the Spanish 
 Peninsula the Basks certainly belong to a different race, the 
 old Iberian, or as I believe Scythian, but at what time or under 
 what circumstances they came thither is wholly uncertain, f 
 As for the rest of Europe south of the Baltic, the science of 
 language gives no indications of a race anterior to the immi- 
 gration of the Celts, which may have occurred some sixteen 
 centuries before our era. M. Chabas, in a work of exceeding 
 interest published in 1872,t has shown, in my opinion con- 
 clusively, that all traces of human occupation in central 
 France fall within this period, and that the manufacturers 
 of stone implements were contemporary with the Roman 
 conquerors. 
 
 The Celts came first, but theirs is a wild strange story. 
 
 * Skr. kiila, familia, gens ; Irish guol. Clan comes from the same root. 
 On the word see Pictet, ' Les Origines indo-europeennes,' ii. 302. 
 
 f The Esthonians on the Baltic and the Laplanders are held by physio- 
 logists to be nearly akin to the Basque, and to belong to the Mongolian 
 race. See M. Pruner Bey and M. de Quatrefages, ' Rapport,' p. 260. 
 
 J ' Etudes sur 1'Antiquite historique,' see pp. 492 seq. On the skull of 
 the Neanderthal, see M. de Quatrefages, 'Rapport sur le progres de 
 PAnthropologie,' p. 251. It is the skull of a Celt. 
 
 See the fine remarks by M. Nigra, "Glossae Hiberniae veteris Cod. 
 Taurin." in the ' Revue arche"ologique,' 1870, i. p. 65. " La nation celtique, 
 fameuse par sa haute antiquite", son immense diffusion, son nombre, sa 
 valour," &c.
 
 ITALIAN LANGUAGES. 335 
 
 No race occupied fairer portions of the earth, none penetrated 
 new districts more rapidly or occupied them more completely ; 
 with the elements of power and greatness, warlike and enter- 
 prising; with quick intellects, vivid imagination, and a 
 temperament susceptible to all generous and kindly in- 
 fluences ; famous of old as warriors, famous in the 6th and 
 7th centuries in Scotland and in Ireland for Christian cul- 
 ture ; the pioneers of Christianity on the Upper Ehine, in 
 Bavaria, Swabia, and Switzerland, where the earliest written 
 documents of Old Irish have been preserved in the monastery 
 of S. Gall. Few names shine with purer lustre than those 
 of Columba, Aidan, Columban and Gall. Scholl says, " the 
 great characteristic of the Keltic Church is that, longer 
 than any, it preserved simplicity, moral earnestness, the 
 love of God's word, the missionary spirit of the Apostolic 
 Church." (Herzog, R E. s.v. Culdees.) Where are they now ? 
 Nowhere as an independent nation speaking their own lan- 
 guage ; where they do speak it still, as in Wales, Ireland, the 
 Scottish Highlands and Brittany, they form but part of 
 nations which, unhappily for themselves, they generally re- 
 gard as aliens ; where, as in France, they are the true nation, 
 they have all but lost the consciousness of their origin * and 
 have altogether ceased to speak their own mother tongue. 
 
 ITALIAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 Next to the Celts came the Italians ; they, too, outstripped 
 the Greeks, but satisfied as they might well be with the 
 fairest of all lands, the land endowed with " the fatal gift of 
 beauty," they remained for ages in Central Italy. Late 
 inquiries have shown that, under various names, Osks, 
 
 * I say "all but," remembering that Michelet glories in the Celtic 
 origin, to which he attributes the genius and force of his nation.
 
 336 THE GREEK LANGUAGE. 
 
 Umbrians, Samnites, &c., all Italians with the exception of 
 the Etruscans* spoke one language, which retained abundant 
 traces of their common ancestry. Latin in its classic form 
 was the product of a later civilisation, when towards our era 
 the educated classes came under the influence of their un- 
 known kinsmen, the Greeks. That language was destined to 
 a marvellous expansion : modified 'by a variety of influences, 
 internally by natural processes of decay and new growth, 
 coming on the one hand nearer to the original tongue which 
 never quite died out in Italy ; on the other, mingled with and 
 completely remoulding the languages with which it came int9 
 contact, the language of the old Eomans is now spoken as 
 Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. Certainly that very 
 language is entitled to a foremost place in the development 
 of civilisation, in science and letters, in social and political 
 life.t 
 
 THE GREEK LANGUAGE. 
 
 We pass to the Greeks. At the dawn of history, that race 
 was in possession of the fair lands from Eastern Italy to the 
 western shores of the Mediterranean. Some two centuries 
 before Homer, Achseans, Danai, and other Greek families are 
 named on Egyptian monuments of the Middle Empire. J 
 
 * I have not dealt with the question as to the origin of this peculiar 
 people, known to the Greeks as enterprising navigators. Corssen, an 
 excellent critic, has attempted to show that they belonged to the Italian 
 family, but, as ethnologists generally agree, without success. His work 
 has substantial value, with the fullest collection of Etruscan documents, 
 but this theory cannot stand. The vocabulary of the language, especially 
 in its numerals, points to a Turanian origin, or possibly to a connection 
 with the Lydians of Asia Minor. 
 
 f Students of these languages will do we'll to use the works of F. Diez, 
 in German, of Littre and Fauriel in French : they are to be reckoned 
 among the most valuable contributions to the science of comparative 
 philology. 
 
 J See the ' Historische Inschriften ' by Diimichen, and the well-known 
 treatises of the late Vicomte de Rouge, M. Chabas, and other Egyptologists.
 
 THE GREEK LANGUAGE. 337 
 
 The language makes its first appearance in a perfect form, 
 richer indeed and more beautiful than any later form, in the 
 Homeric poems. Between the sixth and the third centuries B.C. 
 this wonderful race attained its place, a place never yet con- 
 tested, never likely to be contested, as at once the foremost and 
 the highest agent in the intellectual development of mankind. 
 In every field of literature Greek supplies the noblest models, 
 the recognised masterpieces of eloquence, history, poetry in 
 every form, epic, lyric, dramatic, or didactic. Art in every 
 department attained a marvellous development : architecture 
 reached a point never surpassed in the direction given by 
 heathenism, surpassed only by the Christian edifices which 
 embody spiritual conceptions ; sculpture has never achieved 
 more than imperfect imitations of Greek originals. The solid 
 foundations of science were laid by Greek geometricians, and 
 by Greek naturalists, while philosophy, the science of thought, 
 in every stage of its varied development, recognises its true 
 founders or exponents in Socrates and his followers, Plato and 
 Aristotle. It may be proved that even medieval thought in 
 Europe was moulded under the influences of Greece, reaching 
 us (strangely enough) through the medium of Arabians, Syrians, 
 and Hebrews,* while the revival of letters in the fifteenth 
 century, which ushered in the reformation, was mainly due 
 to Greeks driven to Europe by the destruction of Constan- 
 tinople. During some twenty-five centuries Greece has been 
 the intellectual Queen of the World. Nor can we think of 
 Greeks without remembering that Christianity accepted their 
 language at once, and took it as the depositary of its doctrines. 
 It was indeed the language adapted, as no other was ever 
 
 The inscriptions which prove the presence of Greeks in Egypt belong to 
 the early part of the reign of Menepthah, the successor of Rameses II. 
 
 * See specially Munk, 'Melanges de Philosophic juive et arabe,' and 
 Chwolsohn, 'Die Ssabier.' The point has been noticed above, in the 
 section on the Syriac language.
 
 338 THE GREEK LANGUAGE. 
 
 adapted so perfectly, to bring those doctrines into contact 
 with the intelligence, and with the moral and spiritual nature 
 of man. 
 
 It may seem strange that the language which, on the 
 whole, is superior to any Aryan tongue, rivalling the Sanskrit 
 in its inflections, and far superior to it in its logical structure 
 of sentences, should have ceased to be spoken, save in a 
 degenerate form in Modern Greece. But it was in fact too 
 perfect, too fine and subtle an exponent of thought, to be for 
 any considerable time the language of common life such as 
 it was, under very exceptional circumstances, in the small 
 and marvellously gifted community of Athens. But we may 
 be assured that, even as the highest human culture among 
 us owes its origin to Greece, so the maintenance and develop- 
 ment of that culture is inseparably connected with the study 
 of Hellenic letters a truth indicated, it may be unconsciously, 
 by the somewhat singular fact that our men of science in 
 every department take their vocabulary from Greek. If the 
 coming race be destined to retain the place won by our fore- 
 fathers ; if " the gracious gleam of letters," the golden light of 
 high thought and generous feeling, be not doomed to wane 
 and fade away under encroaching mists of materialism; if 
 the literce humaniores are to fulfil their work of moulding 
 humanity into accordance with its highest destinies, the pre- 
 eminence of classic lore must be maintained; and I would 
 warn my fellow-citizens that if they care that their own 
 children shall have the whole field of human culture open to 
 them, and be trained to compete successfully with their ablest 
 competitors in the liberal professions, or in political life, 
 they will do well to insist that the provision for classical 
 instruction supplied by their ancestors be retained and 
 diligently used.
 
 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 339 
 
 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 
 
 One word, in conclusion, on our own English tongue. Its 
 basis, as we all know, its fundamental character, is Teutonic. 
 Anglo-Saxon, or to use the true old name, the only name 
 known to our forefathers English, is by far its most im- 
 portant element ; in proportion as that element prevails, the 
 style of our writers is pithy, full of sap, clear and strong. In 
 the Lord's Prayer three words only are alien, and they might 
 be replaced without loss by Old English.* That element 
 keeps us in harmony with all families of the Teuton race, and 
 makes us feel at home in Scandinavia and Germany. But the 
 languages of southern Europe supply an important element ; 
 in our vocabulary it has a vast preponderance. To that 
 element we owe the extraordinary copiousness, the varied and 
 harmonious intonations of a language, which in our great 
 writers combines the opposite excellences of simplicity and 
 comprehensiveness, which to a degree surpassing all modern 
 tongues, and scarcely surpassed by Greek itself, finds fit 
 utterances for every feeling and for every thought. To that 
 element we owe our ready sympathy with the culture of 
 southern Europe, and the facility with which young students 
 acquire a mastery over Eoman letters and are prepared for 
 contact with Greek. Ours is a language which at once 
 demands and facilitates intercourse with the master minds of 
 the ancient and modern world, which most readily absorbs 
 and assimilates new elements, and which, in spite of the 
 difficulties which it presents to foreigners, is apparently 
 destined to be the master language of the world, f Look at 
 
 * In the Anglo-Saxon version of the Gospels the Lord's Prayer has for 
 trespasses gyltas, for temptation costnunge, for deliver alys. 
 
 f These assertions may appear somewhat over-confident, breathing of 
 national prejudice, but they are fully borne out, they are more than supported, 
 by the testimony of Jacob Grimm, the very highest authority on all points 
 
 z 2
 
 340 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 
 
 the map and note its actual extent. It has all but exclu- 
 sive possession of the mighty continent of North America. 
 
 touching the characteristics, and comparative value, of Teutonic and other 
 master languages. I will quote the entire passage, as it stands in his 
 remarkable ' Essay on the Origin of Language,' published in 1852, as it 
 cannot be translated literally without the introduction of technical terms 
 which would be scarcely intelligible to English readers, but I may first 
 call special attention to the following statements, which are at once clear 
 and conclusive. " As a result of its disregard of the old laws of phonetic 
 change, and its all but total loss of grammatical flexions, the English has 
 attained a force and power unsurpassed by any language it has acquired 
 a power of expression such as, it would seem, has never yet been at the 
 command of any other human tongue. Its singularly intellectual cha- 
 racter, and marvellously felicitous development are the results of an 
 astonishing combination of the two noblest languages of modern Europe, 
 the German and the Eoman, and it is well known in what relation both 
 stand to each other, the former supplying the physical substratum, the 
 latter bringing the mental conception. Yea, this English language, which 
 by no mere accident produced and supported the greatest, the most 
 eminent poet of modern as contrasted with old classical poetry I can of 
 course mean none but Shakespeare has the fullest claim to be a world- 
 language. It seems, like the English people, to be destined in future 
 with increasing power to extend its influence to all the ends of the earth. 
 In fact, for richness, for strong sense, for condensed fitness of expression, 
 not any one among all living languages, not even German, can be compared 
 with it." The German stands thus : " Keine unter alien neueren Sprachen 
 hat gerade durch das Aufgeben und Zerriitten alter Lautgesetze, durch 
 den Wegfall beinahe samtlicher Flexionen eine grossere Kraft und Starke 
 empfangen als die Englische, und von ihrer nicht einmal lehrbaren, nur 
 lernbaren Fiille freier Mitteltone ist eine wesentliche Gewalt des Ausdrucks 
 abhangig geworden, wie sie vielleicht noch nie einer andern menschlichen 
 Zunge zu Gebot stand. Ihre ganze iiberaus geistige, wunderbar gegliickte 
 Anlage und Durchbildung war hervor gegangen aus einer uberraschenden 
 Vermahlung der beiden edelsten Sprachen des spateren Europas, der Ger- 
 manischen und Romanischen, und bekannt ist wie im Englischen sich beide 
 zu einander verhalten, indem jene bei weitem die sinnliche Grundlage 
 hergab, diese die geistigen Begriffe zufuhrte. Ja, die Englische Sprache, 
 von der nicht umsonst auch der grosste und iiberlegenste Dichter der 
 neuen Zeit im Gegensatz zur ckssischen alten Poesie, ich kann natiirlich 
 nur Shakespeare meinen, gezeugt und getragen geworden ist, sie darf mit 
 vollem Eecht eine Weltsprache heissen und scheint gleich dem Englischen 
 Yolk ausergehen kiinftig Jioch in hoherem Masse an alien Enden der Erde
 
 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 341 
 
 It is heard throughout the Pacific. New Zealand and 
 Australia will maintain its preponderance in the southern 
 hemisphere ; it has a firm hold on Southern Africa, and by 
 a succession of links, whether we turn eastward or westward, 
 it reaches India, where Englishmen first learned the secrets of 
 its origin, and found the oldest representatives of the Aryan 
 race. We cannot wish our language to supersede those of- 
 other noble races. A higher future may possibly be reserved 
 for Turanians than is suggested by their present state, or by 
 their blood-stained annals. Semitic families may find expres- 
 sion for higher, more humane and noble thoughts than as yet 
 have breathed in Arabian letters; would that we could 
 hope that it is reserved for those families to revive the oldest 
 and most glorious of all languages, the Hebrew of Moses and 
 the Prophets, nay, of our Blessed Saviour. To Teutons we 
 may trust for the sure onward movement of civilisation in 
 northern and central Europe, to Slavonians for that of the 
 north and west of the old continent, to languages derived 
 from Eome for southern Europe ; but we chiefly look with con- 
 fident hope to the general predominance of the English race, 
 and to the indefinite extension of its language a hope only 
 justified on the condition that it brings the blessings of 
 civilisation, temporal and spiritual, to bear upon the darker 
 regions of the earth, blessings which can only be communi- 
 cated and secured by the knowledge of God in Christ. 
 
 zu walten. Derm an Keichthum, Vernunft und gedrangter Fuge lasst sich 
 keine aller noch lebenden Sprachen ihr an die Seite setzen, auch unsere 
 Deutsche nicht." (Grimm, ' Ueber den Ursprung der Sprache,' p. 50.) 
 
 With this the reader may compare the striking statement of Berghaus, 
 * Physikalischer Hand- Atlas,' viii. Abtheilung, p. 11.
 
 ESSAY ON EGYPTIAN 
 
 COMPAEED WITH 
 
 SEMITIC, ARYAN, AND TURANIAN WORDS. 
 
 THIS collection was undertaken by me some eighteen years 
 ago, and has occupied my attention at intervals up to 
 the present tune. Years of unremitting labour would be 
 required to bring it into a satisfactory state of complete- 
 ness, and to deal properly with the intricate and difficult 
 problems which it suggests. The results, however, seem 
 to me of sufficient importance to justify publication, con- 
 vinced as I am that further and deeper investigations will 
 confirm the main conclusions to which I have been irre- 
 sistibly led. 
 
 The point, indeed, which struck me most forcibly, when I 
 first became acquainted with the old Egyptian language, and 
 its comparatively modern representative, the Coptic, was the 
 immense number of words which bear a close resemblance 
 both in form and meaning to those which constitute the sub- 
 stratum, so to speak, or foundation, not only of the 
 Semitic, but of the Indo-Germanic or Aryan, and, so far 
 as my inquiries extended, of the principal and oldest Anaryan 
 languages. The works of scholars with which I had been 
 previously familiar, and those which I have since had access
 
 344 SYSTEM OF THE COLLECTION 
 
 to, supplied me with materials carefully sifted and scienti- 
 fically arranged, leaving indeed no place for reasonable doubt 
 so far as the central principles and fundamental facts are 
 concerned, whatever may be said of the inferences which, 
 as it seems to me, are fairly and inevitably deduced from 
 them. 
 
 I have however arranged this collection on a system 
 differing somewhat from that which has been in the main 
 adopted generally by those scholars which, indeed, I should 
 have pursued myself, had my main object been scientific 
 philology. I felt that it would be expedient to collect the 
 facts as they present themselves on monuments and in other 
 documents of unquestioned authenticity, and to postpone the 
 consideration of the laws which regulate the transmission 
 or the development of words until that collection should be 
 completed. 
 
 Certain principles however must lie at the root of all such 
 investigations, whatever form they may assume, in whatever 
 direction they may be pursued. 
 
 On the one hand it is recognised alike by the maintainers 
 and opponents of the fundamental principles of all religion, 
 that the fact of the unity of the human race, involving of 
 course their derivation from a common centre, is of vital 
 importance. It lies at the root of all religious life. Whatever 
 may have been the tendencies or divergences of ancient 
 speculations, one thing is certain. Men who discard this 
 principle, as antiquated, unscientific, and founded on mere 
 prejudice, as a rule discard with it all belief in the funda- 
 mental principles of Theism, in the creation and government 
 of the world by one Supreme Being. Not less clear is it 
 that it lies at the root, is in fact the basis on which all 
 true philanthropy is founded. This, too, may be regarded 
 as a truth established by history, and recognised by all fair
 
 AND COMPARISON OF EGYPTIAN WORDS. 345 
 
 inquirers.* Now it cannot be doubted that inquiry into the 
 origin and connection of languages spoken by different 
 branches of the great human family, may be pursued without 
 reference to this truth, and issue in results of sterling value ; 
 but if it is systematically repudiated, it is not merely pro- 
 bable on a priori grounds, but certain as a matter of experi- 
 ence, that facts demonstrably adverse to that position will be 
 ignored, misinterpreted, or contemptuously rejected. While, 
 therefore, I gladly recognise the industry, ingenuity, and 
 patience of linguistic evolutionists, I attach little or no 
 value to the conclusions which inevitably follow from such 
 premisses. 
 
 I am, of course, free to admit that the converse of this 
 position is true; that monotheists, believers in the Creator 
 and Father of the universe, are open to the same charge of 
 invincible prepossession. All therefore that I claim is dis- 
 passionate consideration of the facts on which my own 
 conclusions rest; especially of those facts which are re- 
 cognised alike by those who acquiesce in, and by those 
 who reject, the principles which I do not hesitate to maintain 
 as fundamental and absolutely true. 
 
 This, too, I must urge. If the position which I take 
 throughout be tenable, if the human family was originally 
 one, and formed one community for any considerable time, 
 whatever its duration may have been, they must needs have 
 lived together on terms which involved common occupations 
 and mutual intercourse ; and therefore have used a common 
 
 * In Aryan history we point to the fact that deadly enmity between 
 the Indo- Aryans and native barbarians was inseparably connected with 
 belief in diversity of origin ; that with the institution of castes, specially 
 under the influence of Brahmanism, posterior to the Big Veda, the national 
 unity perished ; that internecine warfare between Hellenes and barbarians 
 was maintained on the ground of absolute alienation ; and that the revival 
 of the old doctrine of human brotherhood was the special work of Christian 
 teaching.
 
 346 SYSTEM OF THE COLLECTION 
 
 language which gave intelligible expression to their wants, 
 feelings, and mutual relations. 
 
 If we go further, and accept the Biblical records in their 
 substantial meaning, quite apart from the interpretation of 
 obscure and contested statements, apart also from the question 
 whether those records are to be understood literally, or 
 accepted as embodying great facts of primeval history, in a 
 form, if figurative, yet generally intelligible,* we must needs 
 recognise two points of the highest importance. 
 
 These records tell us, first, that from the beginning one great 
 family lived together for a period which, whatever system of 
 calculation be adopted, must have extended over many cen- 
 turies; and, secondly, that after a catastrophe which the 
 traditions of nations, wholly unconnected with the Hebrews 
 and with each other, recognise as general or universal, one 
 family alone survived; that family being, as all traditions 
 agree, the noblest and the purest of the human race. 
 
 This being assumed and even those who do not accept it 
 as a certain fact, much less as a revealed truth, cannot 
 deny that it is a possible or probable hypothesis ; or that as 
 such it has been adopted by the great representatives of en- 
 lightened thought, in those nations which are undoubtedly 
 the master races of the world we have in the next place to 
 consider what would naturally be the condition of that 
 family during the first period after the deluge. 
 
 We must, in the first place, bear this in mind. The family 
 which survived the catastrophe could not have been savages 
 or barbarians. They inherited all the acquirements of the 
 most cultured portion of our race during that long period 
 which intervened between the creation and the deluge, a 
 period during which we are told that considerable progress 
 
 * This is the position maintained by M. F. Lenormant in his ablp 
 and learned work ( Les Origines de 1'Histoire.'
 
 AND COMPARISON OF EGYPTIAN WORDS. 347 
 
 had been made in arts essential to civilisation ; during 
 which we must also admit that language, whatever may 
 have been its origin, must have been so far developed as 
 to have become a medium for familiar intercourse, giving 
 apt expression to thoughts inseparable from any develop- 
 ment of intellectual faculties and religious principles. 
 
 It must also be remembered that all ancient traditions, 
 Biblical and Gentile, concur in the statement that this family 
 separated at an early period after the catastrophe, after which 
 separation ethnologists admit that the most striking cha- 
 racteristics of three great races became more or less distinctly 
 marked in the earliest extant documents. In fact, to what- 
 ever causes, whether internal or external, whether natural 
 or supernatural, such a separation may be attributed, it can 
 scarcely be doused that it was accompanied with, or speedily 
 followed by, fundamental changes in the original language. 
 I cannot, indeed, accept the very general opinion that the 
 separation took place before the primitive language had 
 reached the flexional or grammatical stage. Languages so 
 developed were spoken only by the higher and more cul- 
 tivated classes in each community. Whether we turn to 
 the most ancient records of the Aryans, or watch the pro- 
 cesses constantly at work in all branches of the great Indo- 
 Germanic family, we find that such forms of language were 
 confined at first to a few, then rapidly degenerated, and, 
 within periods of no great extent, were superseded by ruder 
 and simpler modes of oral communication. That races en- 
 tirely alien in character and habits, utterly without the 
 means or desire of mutual communication, widely differing in 
 mental development and religious feeling, should have retained 
 the old graceful, ingenious, but complicated and difficult 
 system of language, is more than improbable; it would be 
 contrary to all experience, and has not a vestige of support 
 in any trustworthy records. All that we have a right to
 
 348 SYSTEM OF THE COLLECTION 
 
 expect when we compare words used by different branches 
 of the great human family is an identity of elements, or at 
 the most forms originally based on recognised principles, 
 and retaining the meaning to some extent, but utterly 
 ignoring the processes in which they originated. 
 
 If it can be proved, and I hold that it can be proved abso- 
 lutely, that a number of words far exceeding the utmost 
 amount recognised by philologers as sufficient to prove iden- 
 tity of origin, are really common to the great majority of 
 languages spoken by the various races of man, I see no 
 alternative but to admit this as a conclusive evidence of 
 the fact of the original unity of the whole race. This is 
 not arguing in a vicious circle. I simply assert, first, that 
 if we start from the position that men were originally one 
 family, they must once have had a common language, and 
 if so must in all probability have retained distinct traces 
 of that language under all diversities of circumstances ; and 
 again, that if, when any given number of words be com- 
 pared, their identity in fundamental form and meaning be 
 demonstrated, the inference as to their derivation from a 
 common origin is inevitable, unless indeed some more probable 
 alternative can be suggested, which accepting the facts 
 may assign a cause sufficient to account not merely for 
 certain obvious phenomena, but for all important results. 
 
 It would not indeed be fatal to this position, if upon exami- 
 nation it were proved, or shown to be probable, that all distinct 
 traces of common origin were obliterated if the differences 
 of form, admitted to be enormous in Egyptian, Semitic, Aryan, 
 and Anaryan languages, extended to all words expressing the 
 wants, thoughts, feelings, and experiences of man. It would 
 not be fatal, since the confusion of tongues, which in Genesis 
 is said to have made men mutually unintelligible, might be 
 understood as extending to the foundations, affecting not 
 merely the forms of grammatical development, but the ele-
 
 AND COMPARISON OF EGYPTIAN WORDS. 349 
 
 mentary principles, the roots, as they are called, of all 
 languages. 
 
 But though not fatal, such a result would be seriously 
 embarrassing. It would give a vantage ground to those who 
 assert the original diversity of families whose actual, charac- 
 teristics have been developed under totally different circum- 
 stances, in countries remote from each other, and at periods 
 of time separated by vast intervals. Nor can it be doubted 
 that an impression, if vague and confused, yet deep and 
 effectual, would be left upon the minds of unbiassed inquirers, 
 scarcely compatible with acceptance of the Biblical narrative. 
 
 If on the other hand it can be proved that a very consider- 
 able number of words, especially of words which must have 
 been used by any body of men living, working, acting, and 
 worshipping together, are actually extant and substantially 
 identical in all languages, especially in ancient languages ; 
 and that the diversities of form, so far as they exist, do not 
 go beyond, or in fact extend .so far as, the modifications in 
 languages acknowledged to be one in origin, which are 
 regulated by laws recognised by all scientific philologers, 
 then indeed we have a sure standing place, and occupy a 
 position, if not unassailable, if indeed certain to be assailed . 
 by unscrupulous antagonists, yet perfectly secure not merely 
 defensible, but absolutely impregnable, in which we should 
 feel ourselves able to examine and discuss dispassionately all 
 arguments adduced by our opponents, and to do justice to all 
 points deserving consideration, without the least danger of 
 impairing our own convictions, without hazard to the cause 
 of truth. 
 
 It is clear that one course only can elicit results of sub- 
 stantial value, such as may produce or confirm the convic- 
 tions, which, as I maintain without hesitation, are inseparable 
 from belief in the fundamental principles of all religion, in 
 the creation and government of the world by an All-wise
 
 350 SYSTEM OF THE COLLECTION 
 
 Being, and in the early history of man as it stands before us 
 in the Scriptural record. 
 
 That course is the comparison of words found, with slight 
 modification of form but substantially identical both in 
 form and meaning, in languages used by races which differ 
 widely from each other, and in which all the processes of 
 mental, moral, and religious development have been incon- 
 testably independent of each other, from their first existence 
 in separate communities. If any considerable number of 
 words can be proved to be common to any two such 
 languages, the fact of their common origin will be scarcely 
 questioned by fair inquirers in fact, nations using them 
 would naturally and inevitably be recognised as descendants 
 from the same family, however their characteristic differences, 
 physical or mental, may be accounted for. Such indeed 
 has been the guiding principle of all sound ethnologists and 
 philologers, when they have endeavoured to ascertain the 
 true position of any people or race in relation to other 
 branches of the human family. The results already estab- 
 lished are of extreme interest. Nations formerly regarded as 
 absolutely alien to each other, whose history is a record of 
 internecine warfare, mutual hatred, and antipathy, Greeks 
 and Persians. Celts and Italians, Teutons and Eomans, are 
 now known to belong to one family, while Hamitic idolaters 
 and Semitic monotheists, Arabian brigands and Assyrian 
 conquerors, are brought into the closest connection, leaving 
 no place for doubt as to their original brotherhood. 
 
 But although so much has been done, vast fields remain 
 partially explored, or explored with questionable success. 
 Much more may be done if such investigation be pursued, 
 free from the trammels, even independent of the help afforded 
 by the recognition, of certain laws. 
 
 A student whose main object is to ascertain or to apply 
 the laws which unconsciously but necessarily regulate the
 
 AND COMPARISON OF EGYPTIAN WORDS. 351 
 
 transmission of words from one race to another, from one 
 original family to its several branches, will of course direct 
 special attention, and may be apt to confine his inquiry al- 
 together, to the modifications which those words undergo ; he 
 may be tempted to reject all facts which cannot be satis- 
 factorily accounted for, regarding them as merely fortuitous 
 coincidences, anomalies without value or importance, more 
 likely to mislead incautious inquirers than to guide them to 
 a right conclusion. And in the case of languages derived 
 from one original stock, that course is evidently of scientific 
 importance, the only mode by which permanent and satis- 
 factory results can be attained. 
 
 But when the object is simply to ascertain what words 
 actually used by races which have developed their languages 
 from a very early period, from their first existence as separate 
 and independent families, are identical, or so closely connected 
 as to leave no doubt as to their common origin, the student, 
 as it seems to me, will do well to set aside for a season the 
 consideration of these general laws, save so far as they may 
 account for phenomena which will present themselves as 
 serious impediments in his way ; with a certainty that if his 
 observations are accurate and his inferences logically correct, 
 they will ultimately find their place in scientific arrange- 
 ments, and be found in accordance with laws, whether already 
 recognised or hereafter to be ascertained. He will be careful 
 not to distort the facts which come before him, not to be 
 hasty in drawing inferences from isolated facts, or from a 
 small number of facts which may possibly be fortuitous, or 
 results of natural processes ; above all, he will admit no words 
 into his collection which are not derived from sources of 
 unquestionable authenticity ; and in the first place he will do 
 well to confine himself to the examination of words which 
 are absolutely indispensable for the purposes of common life.
 
 352 THE EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 Now the Egyptian language presents very peculiar advan- 
 tages as the starting-point in such an inquiry. In the first place 
 it supplies by far the most ancient documents hitherto known 
 to scholars; so ancient, indeed, as to make it utterly improbable 
 that any contemporary monuments recording the acts and 
 thoughts of other races, will ever be discovered comparable 
 with these in authenticity and antiquity. I do not believe 
 that any scholar expects to find such monuments even in 
 Assyrian ruins, which supply the only inscriptions at all 
 approaching the Egyptian in this all-important condition. A 
 very large proportion of the words in the following collection 
 belong to the age of the pyramids, many centuries older 
 than any other existing monuments. A large number must 
 unquestionably be referred to a period before the invasion 
 of the Hyksos, to the interval between the sixth and thirteenth 
 Egyptian dynasties, certainly also far older than the most 
 ancient documents of the Aryan race, than the Eig Veda 
 itself. And to go further, the great bulk of papyri and 
 monumental inscriptions from which the following collection 
 is derived, belongs to the period of time occupied by the 
 eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, of which the latest 
 belong to a period of hoar antiquity to the tenth or eleventh 
 century before the Christian era. 
 
 In the next place, the meaning of the Egyptian words, 
 so far as they are used in this collection, is distinctly 
 ascertained. The ancient language abounds in difficult, not 
 to say unsolved and insoluble problems, but the common 
 words, with which we are alone concerned, have been fully 
 investigated, and the interpretation of them is now uni- 
 versally accepted. Dr. Birch has the great merit of having 
 produced the first vocabulary of the language, in the fourth 
 volume of Bunsen's ' Egypt.' The dictionary of Brugsch Bey,
 
 THE EGYPTIAN. LANGUAGE. 353 
 
 of which the first volume was published in 1867, and the 
 seventh, completing the work, in 1882, contains all words 
 hitherto known to Egyptologists, with copious references and 
 citations enabling students to ascertain their relative antiquity 
 and the old Egyptian usage. The Egyptian ' Zeitschrift ' con- 
 ducted by Lepsius and Brugsch, with the assistance of 
 German, French, and English philologers, from the year 1863, 
 is a repertory of facts thoroughly investigated and scienti- 
 fically determined, to which frequent references will be made 
 in this Essay. I must also record my obligation to M. Pierret, 
 custodian of the Egyptian MSS. in the Louvre, who has 
 published a vocabulary containing not only all the words 
 fully discussed in the dictionary of Brugsch, but geographical 
 and mythological terms found in other publications by 
 distinguished Egyptologers. 
 
 Next in importance to the old Egyptian, hieroglyphic and 
 hieratic, stands the Coptic, in its two principal dialects, the 
 Memphitic* and the Theban or Sahidic, i.e. the dialects 
 spoken in Lower and Upper Egypt. The Coptic, first written 
 in its actual form by Egyptian Christians, has a very con- 
 siderable number of the old Egyptian words ; and as it uses 
 them chiefly in translations from the Old and New Testament f 
 there is no question as to their meaning. In fact this 
 language, still spoken, as I am informed, by a few families, 
 
 * I cannot but regret the course adopted by L. Stern in his valuable 
 ' Coptic Grammar.' He discards the letters hitherto in use, M. for the 
 Memphitic, T. for the Theban or Sahidic, B. for the Basmuric dialect, 
 and substitutes for the first B., i.e. Boheirisch, &c. The inconvenience is 
 obvious ; the advantage, even admitting the propriety of the innovation, 
 exceedingly small. No student can dispense with the admirable works 
 of Peyron, not to speak of Tattam, in fact of all previous Egyptologers, 
 who invariably and consistently use the letters as I have used them 
 throughout this collection. 
 
 f Complete lists of Coptic works are given by A. Peyron in the Preface to 
 his ' Coptic Lexicon ' and by L. Stern at the end of his ' Coptic Grammar.' 
 
 2 A
 
 354 THE SEMITIC LANGUAGES. 
 
 supplied the first clue to the interpretation of words, of which 
 the characters were deciphered by Champollion and his 
 followers, and it still supplies the key to the explana- 
 tion of many doubtful words and phrases. The Coptic has 
 another advantage, scarcely inferior to this in importance. In 
 each of its dialects it illustrates laws or principles, or usage, 
 by which the old language was modified or transformed in 
 the course of ages. The two dialects mutually support and 
 illustrate each other; both of them cast strong and clear 
 light upon the obscurities of their common ancestor. 
 
 It is a fact unparalleled in the history of languages that in 
 the Egyptian we have contemporary documents of which the 
 most ancient are some 3000 or 4000 years older, and the 
 latest some five or six centuries later, than the Christian era. 
 In fact additions to the vocabulary are still made by native 
 and European scholars in the Egyptian ' Zeitschrift ' and other 
 periodical works. 
 
 In the following collection the reader will find at the head 
 of each article, the old Egyptian and the Coptic, with a 
 transcription in Roman characters and an interpretation 
 chiefly taken from Brugsch, Peyron, and other great 
 authorities. 
 
 I have now to give a short account of the sources from 
 which I have taken words in other languages, which I regard 
 either as identical or as closely connected with the preceding. 
 
 SEMITIC LANGUAGES. 
 
 First in order of time, and first also in nearness of form 
 and origin, comes the great family of Semitic languages, of 
 which the most ancient documents are Hebrew writings and 
 Pho3nician inscriptions ; the most extensive are Arabian 
 poems, later in date by some twenty centuries, but preserving 
 enormous quantities of words not extant in these documents, 
 but admitted to be ancient.
 
 THE SEMITIC LANGUAGES. 355 
 
 This would naturally have formed the largest part of my 
 work had I dealt with it completely. But I have dealt 
 only with a few of the most noteworthy facts for the 
 following reasons. 
 
 1. The connection between the old Egyptian and the 
 Hamitic, or so-called Semitic languages, is not doubted ; it 
 may be assumed, as a point on which most scholars are agreed 
 that the Egyptian and other Hamites lived together, probably 
 with the first Semites also, for a considerable period. So far, 
 therefore, as my main object is concerned, it would have' been 
 superfluous to adduce proofs of the original connection be- 
 tween the Egyptian and Hamitic and Semitic languages. 
 But the illustration which a full comparison of the roots 
 would supply is so important that, had I found time and 
 possessed the requisite knowledge, I would have attempted to 
 give a far more complete account of this matter. 
 
 2. But I should have encountered, and could not hope to 
 succeed in mastering, an enormous difficulty, had I been 
 rash enough to make the attempt. It is this : the real and 
 fundamental unity of a vast number of Egyptian and Semitic 
 roots, which has been long recognised by scholars, is so com- 
 pletely disguised by the triliteral form, into which Semitic 
 words have been recast, so to speak, at a very early period, 
 but certainly after the separation of the two families, that it 
 would have required a long series of careful and elaborate 
 discussions to satisfy the general reader of the certainty of 
 these results. I have noted several roots of this character, 
 sufficient I may hope to remove some objections and to 
 clear the way for further inquiry. I may add, however, that 
 in late attempts to compare the Semitic with Aryan words, 
 due attention has not been given to the proof afforded by 
 comparison with the Egyptian.* 
 
 * I refer to F. Delitzsch, and to an article by Von Raumer in Kuhn's 
 Zeitschrift,' voL xxiv. 
 
 2 A 2
 
 356 THE ARYAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 3. I must also observe that the enormous extent of some 
 Semitic vocabularies, especially the Arabic, would make 
 anything approaching to an exhaustive comparison with 
 Egyptian and other languages impracticable, save in some 
 work dealing exclusively with the subject. Gesenius, indeed, 
 both in his ' Thesaurus ' and his ' "Worterbuch/ is careful to 
 note the correspondence or identity of Hebrew with Aryan, 
 and, so far as was practicable in his time, with Egyptian 
 words ; but the great lexicographical works of Freytag, Lane, 
 Dean Payne Smith, and Dillmann do not deal with this sub- 
 ject. In this, indeed, as in other branches of scientific research 
 the student is overwhelmed by the multiplicity of details, 
 and is compelled to trust to specialists, or to rest satisfied 
 with general conclusions. I trust, however, that I have 
 given a number of such words, adduced by Brugsch and 
 other Egyptologists, sufficient to confirm or illustrate the 
 main points in my general argument. 
 
 ARYAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 In this branch of our inquiry we have a safe and sure 
 starting-point, an afoppij, which in fact settles points of 
 primary importance. 
 
 The Sanskrit, as it was known some twenty years ago, 
 yielded an inexhaustible supply of roots in which Bopp, and 
 other great philologers, found the key to problems which had 
 previously baffled the attempts of all scholars concerned with 
 etymology. 
 
 The results are gathered up in Bopp's comparative glossary 
 of the Sanskrit language, to which I have referred constantly 
 in this collection. His comparative grammar is the great 
 standard work accepted by all scholars as the masterpiece of 
 this department of science. Jacob Grimm's principal 
 achievements were in the clearing-up the difficulties which
 
 THE ARYAN LANGUAGES. 357 
 
 beset the student of early Teutonic literature, but incidentally 
 he has thrown great light upon Sanskrit and other ancient 
 Aryan languages. The works to which I have referred most 
 frequently are his admirable 'Deutsche Grammatik' (in 
 four volumes), his ' Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache,' and 
 his ' Deutsche Mythologie.' 
 
 But within the last ten years, the oldest, and, for this and 
 many other questions, by far the most important monument 
 of the Sanskrit language, has been for the first time brought 
 fairly within the reach of students. The Eig Veda, as I 
 have pointed out in the first Essay of this volume, is the only 
 source from which we derive accurate, trustworthy, and con- 
 temporary information touching the most ancient form in 
 which the language spoken by the earliest representatives of 
 the Aryan race has been preserved. 
 
 The works on which I rely and to which I refer constantly 
 are the great ' Dictionary of St. Petersburg,' by Bohtlingk and 
 Eoth (often cited as D. B. E.) : and Grassmann's ' Worterbuch 
 zum Eig Veda ' (G. W. E.). Every word in the Eig Veda is 
 fully explained in this dictionary, and every passage is cited 
 in which each word occurs. For further information see the 
 introduction to my first Essay in this volume. I must, 
 however, dwell on the fact that Bopp and all great scholars 
 up to a comparatively late period took their illustrations and 
 authorities, if not exclusively, yet chiefly from works far later 
 in date than the latest portions of Vedic literature. Even 
 Westergaard, in his ' Eadices Sanscritae,' a work of the very 
 highest authority, quotes only the text of the Veda as edited 
 and translated by Eosen ; but that text has only the first 
 book or Mandala, a portion which, as all scholars now admit, 
 stands far lower in point of age and trustworthiness than the 
 six following Mandalas.* 
 
 * See above, p. 11.
 
 358 THE ARYAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 Next to Sanskrit in value, entitled, indeed, on some 
 grounds to precedence, as freer from intermixture with alien 
 or exotic elements, stands the Eranian, in its most ancient 
 forms, the Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Avesta. The 
 Gathas of Zoroaster, of which I have given an account in 
 my third Essay, may be regarded as presenting the language 
 spoken by the Aryan family in Asia, during the period 
 immediately preceding their separation. Justi's 'Handbuch 
 der Zend-Sprache ' is one of the most valuable contributions 
 to this department of philology. It gives not only a full 
 account of every word in the Avesta, of the passages in which 
 the word is found, and the traditional or probable interpreta- 
 tion, but supplies information, not, so far as I am aware, to 
 be found elsewhere so completely, as to the usage of later 
 forms of Eranian, sc. the Pehlevi, or Huzvaresh, the Parsi, 
 modern Persian, and other dialects or languages connected 
 more or less closely with the old Aryan family. 
 
 The vast range of the other Indo-Germanic languages 
 precludes anything like an exhaustive treatment, but the 
 results of thoroughly scholarlike and scientific investigations 
 are presented in the following works, to which I have 
 referred constantly. ' Die Grundziige der Griechischen Etymo- 
 logic,' by Dr. G. Curtius^* is a work equally remarkable for 
 learning, ability, and sound judgment. He admits no roots, 
 accepts no suggestions, which are not in accordance with the 
 laws which Grimm and Bopp especially have ascertained as 
 regulating the transmission of words from the parent stock 
 to the cognate branches of the Aryan family. Dr. G. Curtius, 
 however, confines himself to this department, and takes no 
 note of questions touching the connection of Aryan roots 
 with Semitic or other Anaryan roots. The work, within the 
 
 The references in my collection are to t"he fourth edition, 1873.
 
 TURANIAN WORDS. 359 
 
 limits thus definitely marked, holds, and if I am not mistaken 
 deserves to hold, the very highest rank. 
 
 Other works of the same order are Fick's ' Vergleichendes 
 Worterbuch,' to which I have also referred frequently, as it 
 stood in the second edition. A third edition has been pub- 
 lished, but I have not had opportunity to consult it. Kuhn's 
 ' Zeitschrift,' for the comparative philology of the Aryan 
 languages, is a treasury of curious and important facts, 
 bearing however rather upon the laws and actual phenomena 
 than upon the original affinities of language. 
 
 I must be content with the bare mention of Graff (in six 
 quarto volumes) for old German, Leo and Ettmuller for 
 Anglo-Saxon, Diez for the Romanian, and as a specialist, 
 Littre for the French ; their works have, however, been con- 
 stantly before me, and have suggested points to which I attach 
 much value. One point I must notice, as of practical import- 
 ance. In tracing the connection of Egyptian words, I have 
 kept within the limits observed by Curtius, Bopp, and other 
 philologers, and have accepted those modifications of letters 
 only which they recognise as of universal application. This, 
 however, has been rather a result of general caution, than of 
 a formal adoption of their system. I have little doubt that 
 wider, less stringent, and more flexible laws regulate the 
 relations between sister, than those which apply to affiliated 
 languages. 
 
 TUEANIAN WORDS. 
 
 This part of my collection is of necessity incomplete. In 
 the first place, I do not claim to be familiar with any great 
 representative language of this great family. In the next 
 place the languages, whatever name be given to them 
 generally, or to considerable branches, are far too multitudi- 
 nous in form and character to be fairly within the reach of 
 any single scholar. It has been also very long since observed
 
 360 TURANIAN WORDS. 
 
 that while general laws regulate the use of the charac- 
 teristic prefixes and affixes, agglutinations, so to speak, which 
 supply a technical denomination to the whole range, yet that 
 new roots spring up, pullulate, so to speak, to an extent 
 which is utterly bewildering. We have, however, one great 
 advantage, in the existence of a language of which documents 
 are extant contemporary with the very earliest and most 
 important productions of the Aryan or Semitic races. The 
 Accadian, or Sumerian, though still enveloped in partial 
 darkness, supplies no inconsiderable number of words, of 
 which the meaning is tolerably clear, which can therefore 
 be properly compared with those previously known as old 
 Semitic, Aryan, or Egyptian. I have referred frequently 
 to M. F. Lenormant's works, 'La langue primitive de 
 Chaldee,' and ' Etudes accadiennes,' as at present the two 
 most accessible authorities on the subject, nor have I 
 neglected the works of the English scholars, Professor Sayce 
 and others, or the articles in the ' Journal of Biblical 
 Archaeology.' Generally speaking, however, I have been 
 content with the large collections of exotic, specially 
 Scythian, Finnish, Lappish, Tartar, or Turanian words in 
 Diefenbach's comparative dictionary of the Gothic tongue 
 (' Vergleichendes "Worterbuch der Gothischen Sprache,' 1851), 
 but I must not leave unnoticed the 'Comparative Grammar 
 of the Dravidian Languages' by Bishop Caldwell, or the 
 works on African, Polynesian, and native American dia- 
 lects by Eeinisch, by my friend Eev. R Ellis, and other 
 philologers. 
 
 That inquiries reaching to such extent, in directions so 
 widely divergent, are likely to issue in confusion, is an objection 
 which will naturally present itself to the mind of the least 
 sceptical reader. I would admit, indeed I would press as a 
 certain inviolable principle, that no word should be admitted 
 into any article for which the clearest attestation of existence,
 
 ARRANGEMENT IN SECTIONS. 361 
 
 form, and usage cannot be adduced. The reader will be able 
 to ascertain the force and applicability of this principle in 
 each of the great divisions by reference to the works which I 
 have cited as incontestably the highest and most trustworthy 
 authorities. If upon examination he finds that any number 
 of words, which cautious philologers recognise as sufficient 
 to prove a common origin, do exist in two branches, so far 
 he is safe in accepting the conclusion as to their unity. If 
 again such a number of words are found, either perfectly 
 identical in form and meaning, or differing only to the 
 extent to which modifications are common or universal in 
 languages of the same family, in Egyptian, Semitic, Aryan, 
 Turanian, I do not see how he can resist the conclusion that 
 those peoples had all a common ancestry. After a thorough 
 sifting, setting aside all words accounted for as onomatopcea, 
 making full allowance for fortuitous coincidences, I am 
 utterly mistaken if this condition is not fulfilled ; if in this 
 collection, made by an individual, working alone, without 
 guide or helper, at an advanced period of life, proof is not 
 adduced sufficient to establish on purely scientific grounds 
 the conclusion to which other and far higher authorities have 
 long since led thoughtful and candid inquirers, the absolute 
 unity of the whole human race, their descent from a common 
 ancestry, their original abode in a common home. 
 
 I will now state briefly the reasons for the arrangement of 
 words in the following sections. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 First, I have brought together all words which name man 
 generally, which put him before us as an individual, in his 
 relations to members of his family, or to a community. 
 
 I venture to say that these words, resting on unques- 
 tioned authority, are substantially identical in form and in 
 meaning with Semitic, Aryan and Anaryan roots.
 
 362 AREANGEMENT IN SECTIONS. 
 
 But if this be proved, it certainly follows not only that the 
 family in which those common words must have been used, 
 had the elements of language expressing primary thoughts 
 and words, but that they must have recognised principles 
 which involve the existence of an organised community, with 
 rulers, masters, domestics, and teachers. 
 
 In the next place, under the same section I have adduced 
 words which prove that the personality of man, with a 
 conscious soul and responsible existence, were apprehended. 
 The proofs may be regarded as more or less conclusive, so 
 far as regards the higher principles, but it will surely be 
 admitted that they establish facts irreconcilable with the 
 hypothesis of a savage or barbarous condition Before the first 
 separation. 
 
 Thirdly, I have taken all the words which name the body 
 and its parts from the head and heart, each limb, each 
 functional organ as designated in Egyptian by words every 
 one of which has||distinct representatives in two or more 
 independent families of language. 
 
 This section contains in all more than eighty words. I 
 would ask each reader what number of words he would 
 have admitted, either as a personal opinion, or as one held 
 by competent judges, to be sufficient to prove community 
 of origin. I do not hesitate to assert that whatever that 
 number may be, it is far exceeded by the results of this part 
 of the collection. 
 
 But this section does not stand alone ; it has nothing of an 
 exceptional character. I go on to examine words which 
 must have been used of man even to make himself intelligible 
 to his fellow-man. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 First verbs, or words expressing existence, and its pri- 
 mary conditions; then verbs which express sensations, a
 
 ARRANGEMENT IN SECTIONS. 363 
 
 singularly complete list, each sense being included; then 
 those which express the functions of life, feeling, and thought. 
 
 Again verbs referring to speech. 
 
 This section contains 35 words, and the list might have 
 been considerably enlarged, had more time been bestowed 
 upon it. Still I ask whether this section, standing alone, 
 would not have gone far towards proving my general 
 position. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 The third section includes (1) verbs of motion, (2) common 
 actions, (3) acts of violence, &c. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 This section is to be regarded as tentative. It contains 
 a large, but far . from exhaustive, list of words designating 
 common objects, which must of necessity have come under 
 the observation of primeval man; such as natural pheno- 
 mena, celestial and terrestrial, the names of plants, 
 animals, &c. 
 
 A separate section deals with words designating objects, 
 or expressing processes which indicate a certain advance in 
 civilisation. This section ought to have been elaborated 
 with greater care ; but the results, especially taken in com- 
 bination with facts adduced in the first section, appear to 
 me of substantial value, and certainly call for candid and 
 earnest consideration. 
 
 I had collected materials for two other sections, but have 
 not felt it advisable to include them in this collection. 
 
 In one section I had intended to give some account of 
 words connected with the organic structure of languages, 
 such as pronouns, adjectives, prepositions, and adverbial 
 particles.
 
 364 ARRANGEMENT IN SECTIONS. 
 
 But this subject would have involved far more extensive 
 investigations than I could hope to complete; it would, 
 indeed, have demanded a separate treatise, such as may be 
 forthcoming at some future period, when the progress of 
 scientific inquiry justifies some great scholar in attempting 
 and enables him to accomplish the task. 
 
 A far more important subject would have occupied a 
 concluding section. Words connected with primitive forms 
 of religious faith and worship, especially the names which 
 present to devout minds true conceptions of the nature, 
 work and attributes of the Deity, have long engaged my 
 attention, and have to some extent been discussed in other 
 portions of this book. But, after full consideration, I have 
 felt it necessary to omit the section. I could not hope to 
 present the facts in a complete or satisfactory form. Every 
 fact to which I attach vital importance would have given 
 occasion to interminable controversy ; nor would it have been 
 reasonable to state the mere facts without discussing the 
 grounds on which they rest and the inferences to which they 
 point. 
 
 I may trust, also, that evidence has been adduced inciden- 
 tally, both in this Collection and in the preceding Essays, 
 sufficient to illustrate the fundamental principles on which 
 all religion and all morality rest, belief in the unity of 
 faith grounded upon a Divine revelation, and the unity of 
 the race, of which the universal and true characteristic is the 
 capacity of apprehending and adoring the Creator.
 
 ( 365 ) 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 MAN. 
 
 IN this section I propose to consider (A) the general names 
 for man ; (B) words denoting soul, substance, and body ; (c) 
 parts of body ; (D) primary relations ; and (E) conditions or 
 
 (A.) GENERAL NAMES. 
 
 1. MAN. 
 
 ^ men or man, quidam, juune T. homines. The 
 
 Egyptian word corresponds in meaning to the German 
 'man,' quidam. For instances see Goodwin's article in the 
 Egyptian ' Zeitschrift,' 1874, p. 64, whose explanation is 
 accepted by Brugsch in the 6th volume of his Dictionary, 
 p. 597. The Coptic jULIIte seems to have modified its 
 meaning, genus, species, in accordance with the Hebrew ]^D 
 species. The old Egyptian word was probably connected 
 
 with ^^ ^l , ' men,' jULHIt, manere, persistere, or with its 
 
 derivative mennu (D. H. p. 651), //.i^/tetoi/, and therefore 
 with the Hebrew H3D, manah, assignavit, and the Sanskrit, 
 man, think, manas, mens. 
 
 This word gives the root of the names of men regarded by 
 different families of the human race as their first ancestors, 
 principal legislators and kings. Thus Mena, first king of 
 Egypt, twentieth in ascent from Cheops ; Manu, the Indian 
 legislator ; Mannus, legendary ancestor of the Germans ; 
 Phrygian Mdvijs ; Greek M /<?, M*Wa9. J. Grimm (' Ueber
 
 366 MAN GENERAL NAMES. 
 
 den Ursprung der Sprache/ p. 29) takes man (Skt.), think, to 
 be the true root : but the meaning think may be secondary ; 
 the first notion would seem to be men, fiev-a, maneo, one who 
 dwells, or remains. Men = to be in Accadian. 
 
 Sanskrit, manu, the old Vedic form, in the singular 
 means man, individually or collectively ; other early forms 
 are manava, manishya, to which mensch is referred by Bopp. 
 On the other East Aryan derivates see Diefenbach, 2, p. 33. 
 
 Gothic, man (in compounds), manna = avOpwTros, with its 
 numerous derivatives, Diefenbach, 2, pp. 30, 34. 
 
 Celtic, Cymric, moon, homines, servi ; manys, praying. 
 
 Irish and Gaelic, maon, hero. 
 
 Lappish, mana ; Finnish, manna, boy. Samoeid, men- 
 neei, man. American, Muysca man. Diefenbach, who gives 
 these last forms, suggests that U/18 enosh, may be an apoco- 
 pated form. This is not probable, but it would be strange 
 were no trace of a word common to so many languages 
 found in Semitic. It may, however, be retained in Chald. 
 
 JQ ; JEth. manu, quis ; and Arab, ^sc qui- Also -<Ethiop. 
 manuhi, quisquam, aliquis. (Note also the Arabic 
 
 manna, benignus fuit. On the other hand 
 manaa, prohibuit, arcuit, has probably the radical meaning 
 validus ; see also .6 emisit semen.) 
 
 2. MAN, vir, 
 
 , nerau, man; vir. Also, prince, leader, 
 
 ItOTXK T. (a doubtful word cited by Br. D. H. 
 pp. 785 and 786). In the sense manliness, virtus, awe 
 and terror, it is very ancient: also 'to overpower,' as 
 a verb.
 
 MAN GENERAL NAMES. 367 
 
 Heb. 11/3, naar, juvenis ; a primitive word : which Ges. 
 Th. s.v. connects with the following : 
 
 Sanskrit nar, naras, a man ; naryas, manly. Zend, nar, 
 
 nara, man. Persian .u> .3, nar, nar, id. Gk. avrip. Cur- 
 
 tius, 422, refers av0p-(07ros to the same root. Umbrian 
 ner, prince. Sabine neron, fortis, nerio, fortitude. 
 
 Old Irish nert, vis, valor. See Curt. I.e. 
 
 Modern Persian has niru, force, and honar for hu-nar 
 (ev-avqp), virtue. 
 
 Accadian nir, nir-ik, a prince or governor. 
 
 3. A PEKSON. 
 v& i, sa, an individual, any one. In Coptic it occurs in 
 
 the sense pars, or individual, e*lf C., seorsim. 
 Skt. sa, he or this, dieser. 
 
 Curtius, 603. 
 Old Latin su-m, sa-m, sa-s. 
 
 Gothic sa, he. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon sum, some one. 
 
 Assyr. su, he ; si, she ; sa, rel. pronouns Heb. and Semitic, 
 
 in ; &c. 
 
 Accadian sa, a man. 
 
 4. MEN, HOMINES. 
 
 temmu, men. The root is said to be tern, 
 
 to shut, exclude, select (Stern renders this word ' the chosen 
 ones,' Eg. Zt. 1873, p. 75), or complete. 
 
 The analogies are doubtful, but worth attention. 
 
 From Sa//, = Egyptian tarn, we have Skt. damanas, domitor. 
 Gk. B/Ma<f, a slave. Lat. dominus.
 
 368 MAN GENERAL NAMES. 
 
 Old Persian tauma, gens, stirps. A.-S. team, soboles. 
 Others connect 8^/105 with this root. 
 
 The old Anaryan forms are striking : Asia supplies zami 
 (Tibetan), man, thema and tomo, man and woman: Africa 
 and Melanesia give tuama, man, and tama, father. Twelve 
 old American languages have words closely resembling the 
 Egyptian in form and meaning. 
 
 There may be no real connection with DTK, Adam, but 
 the resemblance in form and the identity of meaning are 
 striking. The N is a common prefix in Hebrew words having 
 a common origin with Egyptian. The name of the old 
 Egyptian deity of creation is written indifferently Atem and 
 Tern or Turn. The Old Persian pronoun Adam, Ego, is 
 also noticeable. KB. I have a note in a scrapbook that 
 the connection between the words D*TK and tarn was recog- 
 nised by Wycliffe Goodwin. At present I would adopt it as 
 highly probable. 
 
 5. PEOPLE. 
 
 |, ret, ret, letu or ledu, people, men 
 and women, derived very probably, according to Brugsch 
 (D. H. p. 882), from < f*^ r-d, to grow = Skt. ruh and 
 Gothic lud. This word is used only in the plural form, even 
 when one person is spoken of. See B. D. H. p. 742. 
 
 Xoo9, Xa-t-ro9, Curtius, p. 364. 
 
 Gothic lauths, jugga-lauths, veavl<rico<s. Old High German 
 liut, populus, plebs. O. Norse lydhr. German leute, people. 
 Anglo-Saxon leode, people. The Swiss on Monte Eosa are 
 called lite. Lettish laudis, people, common in Old Slavonian, 
 lyud, &c. Cymric llwyth, a tribe, lliwed, people. 
 
 Benfey, Bopp and others agree in the derivation of the 
 verbs lud, liudan, from the Skt. ruh = grow ; thus we have 
 an identity of origin, form, and meaning. '
 
 MAN GENERAL NAMES. 369 
 
 IT", yalad, inf. riT7, ledeth, TJJ, yeled, a lad; Ar. 
 &c. The Hebrew and English correspond to the Goth, 
 lauth : the 1 is formative. M. de Kouge takes retu or rudu 
 = ludu to be the D'HI 1 ?, ludim, of Gen. x. 12, but the word 
 is applied to the Chetans by Eameses II. " Three retu (men) 
 in each chariot." 
 
 Words nearly resembling this, both in form and sense, 
 occur in Malay and in old Asiatic languages. 
 
 6. A CHILD. 
 ), ch-r-d, or ch-l-d, child. ^pOTI 3CpO*f~, M. 
 
 chrot, filius, natus. 
 
 Danish, kuld ; Anglo-Saxon, cild ; our child. 
 
 Diefenbach suggests as the root of kuld the word kyle, to 
 cast; and takes colt to be derived from this word. This 
 seems to me improbable, but a similar origin might be found 
 
 for chrot, sc. P^ cher, to fall. 
 
 The Gothic kilthei, womb, is supposed by Diefenbach, 2, 
 p. 451, to be related to this ; kind comes nearer. 
 
 The word seems to have the meaning strong, see Brugsch ; 
 
 if so, it may be connected with < _\) /s jaluda, robustus fuit, 
 
 alacer : or with "T7H, duration of life, 
 
 The word khili, son or daughter, is common in old 
 Anaryan languages of India. 
 
 See also further on, Nos. 63 and 64. 
 
 7. A YOUNG BOY OR GIRL. 
 
 < " 
 
 sher, also shera, sherau and shera, boy 
 or girl. <>eX-ojHpI> juvenis. 
 
 2 B
 
 370 MAN GENERAL NAMES. 
 
 This word appears to be connected with the preceding 
 the sh and kh are interchangeable, the sh being generally, 
 not always, the later form. 
 
 Soror is not connected, soror = sosor, sister. 
 
 un hc nu }> a ky : i* 1 ne inscription Uun means 
 a boy twelve years old. 
 
 Cf. Skt. yuvan, in weak cases, yun ; Zend, yavan ; Persian, 
 yavun ; juvenis, junior. 
 
 Slav, junu, juvenis. 
 
 A.-S. geong, iung, young. Goth, jugg-s. 
 
 Welsh, ieuanc. 
 
 This comparison assumes that h, which corresponds to the 
 Sanskrit g, may be softened into y, a weak spirant. The 
 transition of g into y is common in Aryan, especially in 
 Teutonic. 
 
 9. A YOUTH, YOUNG MAN. 
 |n 
 
 menh, a youth, between sher and sa. 
 
 t f\ 
 
 Mensch, see man. Old Saxon, mannisc ; A.-S. mennisc, 
 manly. 
 
 10. A YOUTH, OR LAD. 
 
 dtad: a lad, rather full-grown young man, < 
 
 at. 
 We may compare n# DJ/ 3#> )# strong the 
 
 common to all. See also T# strength.
 
 MAN GENERAL NAMES. 371 
 
 11. OLD MAN AND OLD WOMAN. 
 
 >, chello, an old man; j^eXXtO, chello, an old 
 woman. 
 
 I do not find an exact hieroglyphic, but the root is most 
 
 probably xer, which is common in the sense of falling, 
 
 prostrate, &c. In the Eg. Zt. 1873, p. 16, we find ^^% 
 keru, old man. 
 
 Skt. jaran, old man ; jaranas, worn out, hinfallig ; jaras, old 
 age. Zend, zaurva, for zarva, old. 
 
 yepwv, yijpas, <ypav<>. 
 
 Old High German, gra, grawer, grey. According to Cur- 
 tius, p. 176, 130, the radical meaning is to break down, gar. 
 Skt. garami. Dravidian, kim. 
 
 12. WIDOW. 
 
 "1& X r > Coptic 3Kp<L, M. widow. The Egyp- 
 tian word is found in the very early inscriptions of the 12th 
 dynasty. 
 
 It appears to be nearly connected with No. 11. 
 XHP a > widow ; ^%>05, ^Ipeixa, also x^pfai separate. 
 Curtius connects this and similar words with Skt. ha, 
 
 <?-5\ 
 which exactly represents Egyptian I ^jvs. to leave, relinquo, 
 
 dimitto. I doubt the etymology, but the affinity with 
 Egyptian is remarkable. 
 
 13. MEN GOOD. 
 
 >, rechi; a common word for men, con- 
 sidering specially as intelligent beings, from rech, to know. 
 See Chabas, ' Melanges eg.' 3, vol. ii. p. 131, rechlu rechiu, 
 
 2 B 2
 
 372 MAN GENERAL NAMES. 
 
 ' les Eekhis savants.' " Les Rekhis sont la partie eclairee de 
 la population." 
 
 Skt. rshi, rishi, wise, saint, inspired singer. 
 
 From this word Bopp derives the Irish arsan, old in wisdom. 
 
 This may be a chance coincidence, but there appears to be 
 a real connection with the following : 
 
 Skt. rj (rij) rju, rectus, Zend, erezu, raz, to be right, 
 just : then O.H.G. gerch, gerech, prompt, ready. A.-S. recen, 
 gereka, reken, riht. The whole series of words rech, richtig, 
 right, &c. 
 
 The combination of knowledge with goodness, possibly 
 also with straight forward, is Egyptian. Thus, "IJ^, yashar. 
 
 I would not assume a connection with Skt. raj, shine, 
 reign, whence rex, and reichs (Goth.), rich, &c. ; but the re- 
 semblance is noticeable. 
 
 14. MEN WICKED. 
 
 rekau > and A 4 1 M% rekl> wicked meii > 
 
 ", X^-X, lak, lag, impudenter petere. The resemblance 
 in form, and contrast in sense, to the preceding should be 
 noticed. 
 
 Heb. ytan rasha, wicked. Cp. pd K a = ]nl c f. Heb. pp"). 
 
 Compare the old French reche, Prov. reque, on which Diez 
 (Etym. Worterbuch der Romanischen Sprache, ii. p. 431) has 
 this note, " Reche fur resche, resque stammt aus dem dtschen 
 resche, rosche, harsch, rauh, sprode." 
 
 Our word rascal is probably derived from racaille, see 
 Muller, ' Etymologisches Worterbuch der Englischen Sprache/ 
 ii. pp. 233 and 236.
 
 SOUL, ETC. 373 
 
 (B.) SOUL, SUBSTANCE, &c. 
 
 15. PEKSONALITY. 
 
 LJ, LJl, ~~, Tea. The person, the individuality, the 
 substance of man, in which his distinct personality consists. In 
 the funeral ritual the Ka is regarded as separable from the Ba, 
 the "ty-vxfi, the Ohu, Trvevpa and vovs, and from the body, Chat ; 
 and as retaining its identity through all transitional states of 
 existence. It has the secondary meaning name ; conversely 
 in Hebrew the name Dt^ is equivalent to personality. 
 
 Sahidic, &&., ka, or ga, form. 
 
 The Old Bactrian, or Zend, has the same word kd mean- 
 ing "substance," "existence." Haug ('Die Gathas des 
 Zarathustra,' p. 198) has demonstrated this meaning of kd, 
 and of its negative oka, non-existence. It is a root of great 
 importance in the history of languages. (1) It is the basis 
 of the interrogative pronoun, Zend ka, in Sanskrit (kas = 
 quis), in Old Persian, and either in composition or with 
 modifications in Pehlevj, Parsi, Persian, Afghan, Curd, &c. 
 Greek T/? and Latin quis. (2) In the hardened form Qa, 
 the pronominal adjective suus, own, Sanskrit sva, it runs 
 through all the East- Aryan languages, and is the first com- 
 ponent of the great word Qadhata, the Deity, ' self-existent,' . 
 according to Bopp (C. G. 35, note 2), or ' having his own 
 law,' as Justi renders it. This word, as a designation of God, 
 is preserved in East- Aryan languages in the forms khotai 
 Pehlevi, khuda Persian, Curd khudi, and, as Bopp, Grimm, and 
 others hold, it is represented by the Teutonic Guth, God. 
 (For the forms, see Diefenbach, 2, p. 415.) It is also common 
 to many Anaryan languages ; the Turanian dialects have 
 the forms chudai, chodai, kutai, &c. Diefenbach doubts the 
 connection with Qadhata ; but see Justi, ' Zendsprache,'
 
 374 SOUL, ETC. 
 
 p. 87, and Grimm, ' Deutsche Mythologie,' p. 13. It comes 
 exceedingly near in sense to Jehovah, and it may also be 
 identical in derivation, for ka is equivalent to the Sanskrit 
 qa or hva, suus or ipse = RlP!, which, like the Egyptian 
 pu, is equivalent to PHP! or PPPI, esse. 
 
 N.B. After a careful reading of Le Page Kenouf s learned 
 and able notice in the 6th volume of the 'Biblical 
 Archaeology,' I come to the conclusion that the ka, the ideal 
 or formal principle of individuality, is represented by the 
 statue, which was intended to present it in a concrete 
 form, but that it is regarded as having an independent 
 existence. In the heading to the first chapter of the Papyrus 
 Nebked, the Jca is represented as dwelling in the case which 
 holds the heart and entrails of the departed, separate from 
 his mummy. I retain my view of this word. In fact the Jca 
 is identified with the heart, E. Z. 1870, p. 76. See also 
 Bergmann, ' Durchwandelung,' 27. There are many passages 
 in which ka cannot mean image. Thus in Eg. Zt. 1875, p. 136, 
 speaking of men stamped in the king's name, they belong 
 to thy person (ka-k) for war. 
 
 16. THE SOUL, tyvxf}- 
 
 <^^. with variants, Ba, the soul, the spirit in contrast 
 with the material body. Horapollo, Hier. 1, 6, eo-rt TO 
 /Ltey /3ai -^vyr). The Ba = t>S3 immaterial, but not, how- 
 ever, necessarily immortal ; see Wycliffe Goodwin, ' Biblical 
 Archaeology,' voL ii p. 262. 
 
 There may be a connection with the Old Bactrian ba, 
 shine ; Skt. bha, splendere, also apparere, </>ao>, </>aiW, 0ot/3o?. 
 
 The corresponding word in Zend is urm, soul ; see Haug, 
 Gathas, p. 71. 
 
 17. LIFE SEE VERBS OF EXISTENCE, AN^.
 
 SOUL, ETC. 375 
 
 18. VITAL BREATH. 
 
 nef, wind, breath, life, neq T. and nicjl T. 
 flare, mqi e^cnftt M. breathe into, inspirare. rtjqi M. 
 
 halitus. The Semitic has this root in two main forms, with 
 the prefix a, SpN anaf whence D^DK appayim, nostrils; 
 
 and with a sibilant or aspirate affix, ri23, breath, #j 
 
 nafak, nafakha, $M, to breathe, and life, soul, -^vyr). The 
 Greek may be connected with HID, pu%, to breathe or blow ; 
 another form of H23 naphah. 
 
 19. THE INTELLECTUAL PRINCIPLE. 
 
 The Egyptians distinguished the ^u = 1/01)9, the ba= 
 and the nifu, irvevpa. The ba was the medium between the 
 vovs and the ^a-t or corpus. See Deveria, Eg. Zt. 1870, 
 p. 63. 
 
 The Chu or fl_y _ym means the bright, glorious, the 
 TOS, kabod, of the Hebrews. 
 
 Zend asha, pure. Asha personified purity; the Amsha- 
 spand who presided over fire. E. Burnouf, 'Yacna/ p. 16, 
 connects it with the Skt. aci'a, translucent, and with 00-405, 
 perhaps aytos. But on this word see Third Essay, p. 212. 
 
 Accadian ku means lofty. 
 
 There is little doubt as to the connection of this root with 
 the Sanskrit nabhas, nubes, which Bopp makes a compound 
 word, na, not, and bhas, shine; following a system which 
 Curtius has ably contested in his introduction to the ' Greek 
 Etymology,' see p. 34 seqq. and specially p. 37. 
 
 The series of cognate forms and meanings runs thus, 
 Copt. rUCJ, nif, T. M. nebula, Skt. nabhas, do., i/e</>o5, 
 nubes.
 
 376 THE BODY. 
 
 Again, 
 
 Itiqi, nimbus, i//>erp9, vtyas, snow : for other forms, see 
 Curtius, 440. 
 
 (C.) THE BODY, LIMBS, &c. 
 
 20. THE BODY. 
 
 The Egyptians have ^| it, tat or ia, the living body, and 
 
 ^^ 
 
 /!Q Ichat, D. H. p. 1041, the material body, or corpse, very 
 
 m. 
 
 common in the Funeral Eitual. See Deveria, Eg. 'Zeit- 
 schrift,' 1870, p. 63. 
 
 The resemblance between ta or te and deha, body, Skt., 
 may be merely accidental, if, as is generally held, deha is 
 derived from dih, ungere. 
 
 Thus, too, Jchat or khad and cadaver present a likeness 
 which is noticeable, and Page Eenouf has shown that khat is 
 probably connected with the root cad, cad-o, caducus, cadaver, 
 
 and csedo; hence khat with cmn, a stone, as determinative, 
 means lapidicina, or a stone quarry. 
 
 The t in khat is radical, though in late papyri we find 
 
 ^ 
 
 Q J1 X a > corpse. 
 
 With this we may compare PP1J, geviyya, corpse, hardened 
 
 into *pj, guph. The form khat may = Arabic 
 juttth. 
 
 21. THE HEART (a). 
 
 >,HT, Mt, T. M. B. c 
 
 of the intelligence and will, like the Hebrew i, leb. We find 
 
 ^=^ ^' hati. &HT, A&, T. M. B. cor, heart, as the seat
 
 PARTS OF BODY. 377 
 
 also the form ^.^^ x art ( see E & ' Zeitschrift/ 1866, 
 p. 91), the heart as seat of sensation ; the text is " give me a 
 good refreshing breeze for my heart," i.e. that I may breathe 
 freely in the other world. 
 
 Skt. hrd, heart (hrd for hard, see Bopp). Zend, zered. 
 
 Greek KapSta, Keap, Krjp. 
 
 Lat. cor, cordis. 
 
 Goth, hairto ; herz, heart. 
 
 Lithuanian szirdis ; 0. Slav, srudice. 
 
 0. Irish cride, heart. 
 
 I find no probable Aryan etymology for hrd. Curtius 
 suggests xpaS, which does not account for the Sanskrit form. 
 
 22. THE HEART (J). 
 
 t O" ater or ader, heart ; according to Brugsch, D. H. 
 
 p. 153, the double heart. T. /T"Op> htor, animus, will. I 
 see no reason to assume Brugsch's etymology, but I regard 
 ater as primitive, firop, heart. I find no etym. for this 
 word in Aryan. 
 
 ^\ 
 
 Also <& ter, Copt. ,O*ifp ; but the reading is probably 
 
 erroneous. 
 
 The African teda has dere, belly ; see Eeinisch, p. 56. 
 
 23. THE HEART (c). 
 
 "^ . This has the phonetic value ab when it stands alone. 
 Chabas is probably right in connecting this word with 
 T \ gA db, desire. If so, it represents a large family of words. 
 Lat. aveo, avidus, avarus ; audax.
 
 378 PABTS OF BODY. 
 
 Note also Sanskrit av, avami, observe, favour, &c. Curt. 
 586. 
 
 Accadian db, heart, also happy, abu, 6e\a> or jSouXo/jbai, see 
 F. Lenormant, ' Etudes accadiennes,' i. 3. Compare, too, the 
 
 Semitic < _ A !"PN, HI^H, H3K, abab, avah, taavah, and 
 U'flP, abya. I connect with this 37, leb, taking 7 as a pre- 
 formative letter. 
 
 24. BONE. 
 
 A 1 3 kas, K&.C, kas, bone ; a very ancient word. 
 
 In most Aryan forms the word loses the guttural; thus, 
 Skt. asthi, Gr. oa-reov, Lat. os, ossis : but the Slavonic has 
 kosti, which Curtius holds to be anomalous. Compare, how- 
 ever, the Latin costa, with its numerous derivatives. I have 
 no doubt that the k belonged to the primitive form. 
 
 25. BLOOD. 
 
 0$D sanaf or maf, citoq T. M. B, cit<&.q B, C ItO& 
 T, blood. 
 
 Skt. snu, snave, to flow drop by drop ; snava, act of dripping. 
 Irish snuadhaim, I flow ; snuadh, blood. 
 The Sanskrit word for blood is from a different root : asan, 
 asrj, asra ; asan, according to Burnouf, is for asanj, which he 
 connects with sanguis. The Accadian has us, blood. 
 
 26. THE HEAD (a). 
 
 dp or ^ ^ tep. Coptic M. .<$>e> o,phe, caput, 
 vertex. The 1 phonetic value, with the meaning 'head,' 
 is disputed. Kenouf (Eg. ' Zeitschr.' 1872, p. 75), maintains
 
 PARTS OF BODY. 379 
 
 that which is supported by the Coptic, sc. ap, but tep in the 
 sense chief, beginning, &c., is common. The form 
 
 is given by Eeinisch (vol. i. p. 170), who transcribes it yepe. 
 
 Either form, tep or ap, is represented in Aryan languages. 
 The form tep may stand for an ancient kap, dentals and 
 gutturals being frequently interchanged, in which case the 
 guttural is generally held to be the more ancient. Thus, e.g., 
 kas, quis, passes into the Greek rtV N.B. This may be con- 
 tested. Dentals are substituted by children for gutturals. 
 The original sound may have been t or d (thus the African 
 Teda has dafo, head), hardened into k, which again, by the 
 law of phonetic decay, may have reverted to the old infantile 
 dental. 
 
 On the other hand, if the true form was dp, with the letter 
 
 fl, it is certain that later its equivalent in Hebrew #, and 
 even M = K, are near akin to guttural consonants : thus, 
 the ^Ethiopian substitutes ft = K for k or caf, e.g. (ftfU) 
 aber = ^J^ t cabir, or the Hebrew "13J, geber: see Dill- 
 
 mann, ' Gr. Mth.' p. 76. The guttural is frequently lost in 
 the transition from one language to another ; thus, amo = 
 kama, and ape = the Sanskrit and Egyptian kaf. 
 
 We have thus place for the following analogies : Sanskrit 
 kaphala, Gr. K(f>a\ij, Lat. caput, and (with a substitute of an 
 aspirate for a guttural) the Gothic haubith, Old Norse hofudh, 
 A.-S. heafod, German haupt, and English head. 
 
 Again, the form tep is apparently connected with tap, a 
 horn, more probably with our tip and top, in Norse toppr, 
 top of mountain, Old H. G. zoph, German zopf, summit, 
 hair on top of head.
 
 380 PARTS OF BODY. 
 
 27. THE HEAD (&). 
 
 Another common form in Egyptian for the ideograph 
 
 is I J^ , Coptic XCO, id, go. 
 
 Here again we meet with a confusion between dentals and 
 gutturals, since the has the sound ka; cf. Lepsius in the 
 Eg. ' Zeitschrift,' 1877, p. 128. 
 
 Eeinisch, p. 88, gives two African forms ta, head, and 
 dasa. The Georgian, an Aryan dialect with a strong infu- 
 sion of Turanian words, has thavi, head. 
 
 The Berber ( L _o^\ ikhf, seems to represent the old Egyp- 
 
 tian ,/^ , Jchft, frons, which may possibly be connected 
 with kap, kep, cap, &c. 
 
 28. HAIR. 
 
 A ^ shen, connected with eyrie, shne, a net; probably 
 plaited or curled hair, from shen = bend or twist. 
 
 The Greek KLKLVVO^, Lat. cincinnus, perhaps the Sanskrit 
 kuntala, point to an ancient root, similar in form and 
 meaning. 
 
 The Nepalese (Scythian or Tartar) has son, song, hair ; the 
 African dialects supply shin, eschinga and kunde, with the 
 same meaning. The last reminds us of old Dravidian roots 
 in Sanskrit, kune, kut, kunt, &c., all with similar meanings, 
 twisted, bent. 
 
 The Old Egyptian has, however, a great variety of words 
 for hair. 
 
 nabt, &c., but with the exception of the Coptic qoj, capillus, 
 also &U5, which resembles the Persian moi, hair, I do not
 
 PAETS OF BODY. 381 
 
 find analogies. See, however, Birch, ' Zeitschr.' 1870, p. 19, 
 who supplies 
 
 29. 
 
 A J? "^.tCl'Ul ^ awa > a lock of hair, identical in form and 
 meaning with Ko/jurj, coma ; but the reading is doubtful. 
 
 30. EYE (a). 
 
 ^ The eye. The phonetic value at a comparatively 
 late age was certainly mer, Br. p. 675 ; later still, ler, 
 J*^ (Edfu). Coptic &^X T. M. oculus, &eX&. The 
 original sound was most probably ar or al, Coptic <LXXo*C 
 (which Peyron makes = ^.XoT puella), see Brugsch, D. H. 
 p. 97. Thus De Eouge (' Chrestomathie,' torn. iii. p. 103) 
 gives ari as the phonetic value. The pronunciation is clear 
 
 in the word Osiris, or As-ar, and in the verb ar to 
 
 make, which is probably connected with this word in 
 meaning also, the eye being regarded as overseer, orderer 
 and doer. 
 
 Taking either ar or bar, for mar, as the value, we may 
 compare it with the Assyrian amaru, to see = "nfc$ or; and 
 with the Greek opdco : root Fop, hence, ovpo?, eTriovpos, irv\aa)- 
 po?, &c. ; &pa, care ; the same radical meaning which I would 
 assign to ar in Osiris, Osar, or Asar. 
 
 Gothic vars, watchful ; Old High German war, our own 
 wary, aware, &c. Curtius also refers vereor to the same root. 
 
 The order appears to be ; 1 ar, 2 mar, 3 bar : " the second 
 may be very ancient. The Turanian languages, Japanese, 
 Dravidian and Nepalese, have me, men and mi: and the 
 Australian ; i.e. Nigritian, still nearer mer, mir, mel and ma." 
 (Ellis.) Compare also miror. P. Eenouf has shown that the 
 old phonetic value is maal, or maar.
 
 PARTS OF BODY. 
 31. EYE (Z>). 
 
 an, the eye, or vultus, elite T. vultus 
 or species, imago. Like the Semitic ain, it has also the 
 secondary meaning ' fountain ' or ' spring,' but in late 
 documents. 
 
 jy, f^.f> ain, eye, or spring. 
 
 The Indo-Germanic words seem to be derived from a 
 different radical, dk, a gipsy word. Skt. aksha, whence OK, OTT, 
 oculus, ofifjM. Goth, augo, auge ; A.-S. eage, eye. Schwartze 
 assumes a connection with the Semitic (see Diefenbach, 1, 
 
 p. 55), which I doubt. I would, however, compare 771/1, 
 
 z 
 rjv, and Latin en, look ( = )!! Plan ^\ ecce). 
 
 An also has the meaning beautiful, Ka\6$. There may be 
 a connection with ansts, Gothic, grace ; 
 
 32. EYE GLANCE. 
 
 See under verbs ~ <2> ' ^eka, see. 
 
 T\TT , dakakt, anblick ; whence XOTCIJT" gusht, and 
 GttJOjT kosht, T. ; attente inspicere. The radical form is tek, 
 
 Hence changing t into 1, a very common, indeed normal 
 substitution, we have the following words : 
 
 Skt. 16k, lokami, I see. 
 
 Xeuo-o-G), which as Curtius shows, is derived from \evx-. 
 
 Latin, lumen, for luc-men. The e is omitted before m, and 
 the vowel lengthened. 
 
 Here too we may probably look for the origin of all the 
 Indo-Germanic words noticed in the preceding article: the 
 series would run thus, dak-ak, aksh, aug-o, eagu, eye, OK, 
 whence oculus ; and by labialism op ; OTTTO/MU, &c.,
 
 PARTS OP BODY. 383 
 
 The d is recovered in the forms drc, BepKw ; and is displaced 
 by 1 in 16k, \evic-, look. 
 
 33. THE NOSE. 
 ^ fenti, nose ; or nostrils. 
 
 It may be connected with FpK D^Stf, but see naf in the 
 next section. 
 
 The following words would seem to point to an early and 
 wide diffusion ; " Armenian, ping ; Ossete, fiinz, findse, funds ; 
 Albanian, hounde ; Abkhasian, pintsa." (Ellis.) 
 
 I should refer the word to a root signifying to breathe, 
 equivalent to nef; compare ventus, and the French and 
 Shakespearian vent, in the sense of scent, to have wind of 
 anything. The nasal sound predominates, as in all the Indo- 
 Germanic words for nose, see Diefenbach, 2, p. 103. 
 
 34. THE MOUTH. 
 
 <=> I ro, or ru : po, T. and Xtw, X<5-fL 
 
 The comparison with os, oris, is obvious, but inadmissible. 
 
 The Latin r between vowels is in place of s ; Skt. as, asai. 
 
 Persian, ru, face. 
 
 African languages have aru, eru, mouth. 
 
 The resemblance with pew, speak, and Xa\eo>, is noticeable. 
 
 35. THE TONGUE. 
 
 AAA/SAA 
 
 L \ ? nas, X .C> T. M. lingua ; as a verb, nas = lick. 
 lashon, /.w*J ,UJ lisan ; Assyrian, lisaru. 
 
 Skt. lih, and rih, lick. 
 
 Latin, lingo, lingua, which Curtius refers to an older 
 ' dingua.'
 
 384 PARTS OP BODY. 
 
 Goth, bilaigon ; O. G. 
 Old Irish ligim, lick. 
 
 The verbal form is common to East and West Aryan 
 languages. 
 
 It is noticeable that the Coptic changes the old n into I. 
 
 36. EAR. 
 aten, or aden, ear. The form aden is primeval. 
 
 |TK ozen, ^4], fc?l, K3TIK, with d for z, ear. 
 Africa gives adan, uton, etoii, etun. 
 
 OS?, &)T-09- 
 
 Auris, for ausis, aud-io ; Curtius, 586, connects these two 
 words, d for r ; hence Ohr, ear, &c. 
 
 ax-ova) may be connected ; the dental or sibilant passes 
 commonly into the guttural. 
 
 37. 
 
 j. r> g- 
 
 I find no analogy for the common word |j| ' t$ mester, 
 ear, jUL^.cyx mashg, M., unless it be connected with Aryan 
 words for meditating, hearing with the inner ear; thus 
 Old Irish irmadadar, intellexit, judgment. Greek fie&ofjMi, 
 to consider, meditate; p^o-riap, a counsellor. Messen, to 
 measure, &c. 
 
 38. THE THROAT. 
 
 if 
 
 _T, &.&, X a X> chock, neck or throat, the larynx. 
 
 
 The Coptic has K^-Ipe, kaire. 
 
 The Semitic and Aryan languages either introduce or 
 retain a liquid hi this word : thus
 
 PARTS OF BODY. 385 
 
 Heb. *^n for "?J3n. Ar. ^i*^ chank. 
 
 Skt. krka, larynx, throat. The semivowel r is easily 
 omitted or inserted : in this case, it has the support of the 
 Semitic n. 
 
 Finnish, kakla, kagla, and kakhlu. 
 
 Lithuanian, kaklas, and Lettish kakkl. 
 
 Guttur, gullet, and gaumen, appear to be connected (g for 
 kh), or they may have an independent origin as guttural 
 sounds. 
 
 39. THE BOSOM. 
 
 U Yf^' vwwvO' kenau, ken, Kelt M. KOTIt T. sinus, 
 bosom. 
 
 Skt. jan, beget ; Zend zan, do., ghena, woman. 
 
 Greek yev, 761/09, yvvrj. 
 
 Gigno, genus, gnascor, &c., cunnus. 
 
 Goth, kuni, race, quens, 6rj\vs. Old German chind, hence 
 Kind. 
 
 Old Prussian ganna ; Old Slav, zena, woman. 
 
 Old Irish ro-genair, natus est ; qeine, genus. 
 
 Peruvian kin, bosom. 
 
 Closely connected with this word in meaning, and identical 
 in origin is the following : 
 
 40. LOINS. 
 kenau, loins. 
 Skt. jagana. 
 
 41. ARM (a). 
 i"""""! /-jQ ermen : derived possibly from ( -<s> \ er and 
 
 men, to make stable, support. 
 
 2 c
 
 386 PARTS OF BODY. 
 
 This bears a close resemblance to the following Indo- 
 Germanic words. 
 
 Skt. irma, Zend arema, Lat. armus, Old Slavonic ramo, 
 Goth, armis, arm. 
 
 If the Egyptian is a primitive word, the termination 11 
 presents no difficulty. 
 
 42. AEM (&). 
 
 Jcdhu: the arm, specially between elbow 
 and shoulder. K^& M. cubitus, so Brugsch, p. 1439. Peyron 
 gives angudus. 
 
 The Coptic has XCJO&, goh, T. and B. and (Tog,, Tfxih M., 
 from the verb kahu, to touch. I have no doubt as to the 
 identity with the following : 
 
 Skt. bahu. 
 
 Trfj'xys ; Norse bogr. 
 
 The change of k into p is certain in large classes of words, 
 thus : catvar, quatuor, iriavpe^ : UTTO/MII = sac, Skt. sequor. 
 
 Curtius takes the Indo-Germanic root to be bhaghu : the 
 bh comes nearer to the guttural than the medium b. 
 
 African dialects have kuagu, kok, and eleven other words 
 corresponding to the Egyptian ; and, on the other hand, one 
 dialect has m ; one v ; and seven have b, coming nearer to 
 the Aryan form. 
 
 43. ARM (c). 
 
 S J c=> ~^ kabd, the arms (see 'Zeitschr.' 1870, p. 2, 1. 1), 
 
 J n 
 
 or y '-o, Pierret, p. 615.
 
 PARTS OF BODY. 387 
 
 44. HAND (a). 
 
 I \V1 
 
 kap, hand; also g shap ; ojoil, shop, T. M. 
 
 palm, and g ^ leapt, the palm of the hand. 
 
 Assyrian ^| = katu. Schrader, p. 18, on the etymology 
 
 see Menant, p. 194. 
 
 ?\3 caph, palm of hand, or foot ; the Assyr. sepd, feet. 
 
 The root icair = griff, seizing; hence Komt]. Capulum, 
 capio, capax. Goth, hafja. The Sanskrit has kapati, two 
 handfuls. 
 
 All these forms are connected with shap, the secondary 
 form of kap. 
 
 Fick refers haban, have, to the same root. 
 
 See also P ^ap, whence ajon, S ^P> hand, and take. 
 
 "k 
 Closely connected with this is the old word ^v -^Cn 
 
 *\^-S^_ JP\^ 
 
 X e f a J fist and seize. The Old High German has chempho, 
 pugil. A.-S. cempa, a soldier, and Norse kappi ; see Grimm, 
 ' Myth.' p. 817. 
 
 The Chinese at Canton have the words shau, hand, and 
 shap, to gather with the hand. 
 
 The right hand, unami, Copt, uinam, corresponds to pD\ 
 F^h, yaman, JEth. 
 
 On the Aryan hasta, yasta, zasta, ^etp, see E. Burnouf, 
 ' Yacna,' p. Ixxxi. Boot har, hr. 
 
 45. HAND (&). 
 a , ? ^-, hand. TOT M. TOOT T. T^4LT B. 
 
 Skt. dha, ponere ; Greek 
 
 2 c 2
 
 388 PARTS OF BODY. 
 
 Zend dha, make, do, create. 
 
 Gothic, Old German have it in various forms reducible to 
 our own do. 
 
 The Semitic has the 1 or tf. Heb. Chald. Syr. Arab, yad ; 
 JEthiopic and Sam. ad. Assyr. ida, hands. 
 
 The African forms point to a primitive tu, dawa, toko, &c. 
 See Eeinisch, p. 109. 
 
 46. FINGER. 
 
 ~j^ fl"| iebd, zeba. re&, TTH&, OH& M., digitus. 
 
 THH&e T., id. Also a seal, TO&, TOO&e- 
 
 S x ^1. 
 
 K2VK, esfba, finger, ^V ^$, id. The identity is 
 
 not questioned; nor the connection with JO, J/3D, to 
 dip. 
 
 Gothic diups, deep; daupjan, to dip, immerse, baptize; 
 taufen. 
 
 Our deep, dip, dive ; also tip of finger. 
 
 Diefenbach, 2, p. 628, refers 8ua>, SVVQJ and SVTTTW to the 
 same origin. 
 
 Lappish, doptet, taufen ; Hindostani, dubna, to dive. 
 
 47. LEG. 
 
 3 udr, to flee, run. &o\, bol; with b for n, and 
 / for r. 
 
 ^ ^^ ^ ? uar ~ t> leg ' OT e P H 1" ' P es> 
 Skt. uru, thigh. 
 
 There may be no connection, nor do I know the etym. of 
 uru. 
 
 Compare, however, the following words :
 
 PARTS OF BODY. 389 
 
 Skt. par, bring over ; pr, trajicere. 
 
 . 7TOpVOfJiCU, 7TO/309. 
 
 Old Slavonic pera, fahren, depart. 
 
 Goth, faran, Old H. German far, and Old Middle German 
 var. 
 
 On our word thoroughfare, see H. Leo, 'Anglo-Saxon 
 Glossary,' p. 25. 
 
 We may compare n*"Q, barah, he fled ; the wor4 stands 
 alone in Semitic ; or more probably "D.J/, c,, abar, passed 
 
 over. Gesenius would connect this .with "rrepdto, also Skt. 
 upari, Persian \\, abar, wrep, super, over. The correspon- 
 
 dence of the Semitic is very near, for uar we find aur and 
 u = H, as above in Coptic ; so that aur = ") 3$. Goodwin 
 looked on uar or aar as corresponding to "H^U/, Ibri, Hebrew. 
 
 48. LEG. 
 
 The Coptic supplies KeXl M. probably knee-joint, for 
 which I do not find a satisfactory hieroglyphic. There is a 
 
 doubtful verb of movement O J\ kera or Ma, D. H. 
 
 p. 1467. See also 6^-Xox M., foot or knee. 
 
 The Coptic ^A.XoX is peculiar. The last letters Xox 
 represent the word below, No. 50, rod ; it comes very near 
 our word leg, since x represents k, g, and t. Compare also 
 o-/eeXo9, or Xa, Xa/eTt^u: for the former Curtius, 534, 
 assumes an old form /e\a, calx, whence Old Norse hcell, our 
 heel. 
 
 I have omitted the word ^ppesh, common in old Egyptian 
 and Coptic, the thigh with the hip ; although it seems to be 
 connected with KOKKVJ;, the os coccygis, the Latin coxa, and 
 the Teutonic hiifte, hip, which thus changes p into h, and 
 again in English recovers the old form.
 
 390 PARTS OF BODY, 
 
 49. FOOT (a). 
 
 _^ 1 ^ , pat, pad. 4>.T M. n.T T., phot, or >a, pes. 
 Skt. pad. A.-S. fe$a, footman. 
 TroO?, 7roSo9, pes, pedis, fuss, foot. 
 
 The verb pad, to go, is common in Egyptian and Sanskrit. 
 and a long list of derivatives,* peto, 
 &c. 
 
 50. FOOT (6). 
 
 rad, or lad, p^/r T. M., XeT B., foot. 
 7J*1, W.> regel, foot. 7 for e^a is normal; the J 
 
 may be formative. Our leg suggests both forms ; see on 
 No. 48. Old Norse leggr. 
 
 51. THE BELLY (a). 
 
 ^ ( , khat, ijrr M. venter, &KT T. id. 
 
 Skt. catu, (for katu) belly. The word is used especially in 
 connection with prostration; thus in the Piankhi inscrip- 
 tions khat occurs repeatedly, in the sense prostrate on the 
 beUy. 
 
 The Skt. t indicates a Dravidian, i. e. a Turanian or 
 Scythian origin. Another form of the same character is 
 jatara, belly, whence the Greek yaa-Tijp. 
 
 Goth! qvithus ; Old Norse, qvidhr, alvus ; Swedish, qved. 
 
 Diefenbach, 2, p. 479, suggests that our cud (chew the cud) 
 may be connected with this. 
 
 * Brugsch considers that the radical idea is expansion. I take it to be 
 rapid movement, a meaning which underlies all the Aryan and Anaryan 
 forms.
 
 PARTS OF BODY. 391 
 
 Gut is certainly the same word; so also KVTOS, whence 
 venter. Wendish of Lausitz, kutvo, intestinum. Finnish, 
 kot, belly. 
 
 52. THE BELLY (&). 
 
 buck, meaning doubtful (see Birch, not in 
 
 Brugsch ; L. T. 145, 6). The text is, conquering the world by 
 thy bukht, but the reading cannot be depended upon. Cf. 
 Eg. Zt. 1864, p. 64. 
 
 Baiwh. Diefenbach, 1, p. 301, takes this to be a derivative, 
 from biugan,' but it may be primitive. See paunch. 
 
 53, ENTRAILS. 
 
 JP^y* teJc.' bowels. 
 
 Viscera, a word of doubtful origin, according to Bopp, from 
 Sanskrit, vie, enter. Curtius does not notice it. 
 Vesica. 
 
 D c "" a ^' D >& 
 
 ~ c-*^a ^ past ; the back bone, or back. 
 
 The Coptic does not keep the word in this sense, but has 
 HLCT"> spargere, from nt past, shine. 
 
 Skt. prsta, back, or upper surface. The semivowel pre- 
 sents no difficulty, and the word corresponds exactly in mean- 
 ing and usage with the Egyptian. Bopp considers it to 
 be a derivative from para and sta ; but Curtius is right in 
 objecting to such compounds, and the word is probably 
 primitive. 
 
 In Afghan and Persian the old form is preserved, pust ; see 
 Botticher, ' Arica,' p. 71. u for r is the regular Pali use. 
 
 The Old Norse has baust, culmen ; see Diefenbach (1, p. 332).
 
 392 PARTS OF BODY. 
 
 54 THE BACK. 
 
 the dorsal spine, 
 or simply back, xici T. and xice M. dorsum. The word 
 signifies rising, elevation. 
 
 Skt. tas, lift up ; connected with the radical sense, bear up. 
 
 Curtius makes dorsum correspond to Setptf, but the Egyp- 
 tian means that which lifts up and bears, and supplies a better 
 etymology. 
 
 55. Tlvyij, CLUNIS. 
 
 -^ , Q 8 , peh, the hinder part. n.>OT T. pars posterior. 
 
 The Greek irvyr) is referred generally to Skt. bhug, to bend, 
 
 but improperly, see Curtius, p. 513-514. The Egyptian ft 
 
 ( D If is the phonetic of _^ j corresponds to the Greek 7 
 and Sanskrit h. 
 
 56. SOLE AND HEEL. 
 
 <=* 
 
 ^ , ten-t. TtOpI, torn, heel. 
 
 The radical meaning is extremity, end, limit ; hence ter- 
 minus, frontier. 
 
 Skt. tala, sole of foot, or palm of hand. 
 
 Latin, talus, heel. 
 
 (Words meaning sole and heel are certainly interchange- 
 able; frrepva, Goth, fairzna, heel, are connected with Skt. 
 parshnis (Curtius, p. 489), Slavonic plesn'a (which however is 
 equivalent to prs, back), planta pedis. (Cf. Diefenbach, 1, 
 p. 360.)
 
 PRIMARY RELATIONS. 393 
 
 (D.) PKIMAKY RELATIONS. 
 
 57. FATHER (a). 
 
 a ci n 
 
 , , and M, atef, teji, and at. 
 
 The second form is represented in Coptic by x4>O gfo, M. 
 gignere, xno gpo ; the third by IUJT *, T. M. B. eiurr 
 0io, T. pater. Another form i <--^ 5! | tefen, appears to be derived 
 
 from <--^| but it is used, as I believe, only in late inscriptions. 
 The question as to which is the original form is not to be 
 decided lightly ; the first is found in the oldest inscriptions, 
 and the second and third may have lost respectively the 
 anlaut and auslaut; all however are very ancient, the 
 third, at, is found in an inscription of Tothmosis III. The 
 assumption that the shortest form is invariably the oldest, 
 generally made by modern etymologers, rests on no sure 
 foundation. 
 
 The Sanskrit has the feminine form only, atta. 
 
 drra, father.. 
 
 Lat. atta. Gothic, atta, father; aithei, mother. Irish, 
 atair. . Old Slavonic, oti-ci, father. On these forms see 
 Grimm, Gesch. D. S. p. 189, 2nd edition, and Curtius, 267. 
 
 Add to these the following primitive Aryan forms. 
 
 Lithuanian tewas ; Lettish, tews ; Old Prussian, taevs ; 
 Albanian, ate, or yati ; yidrt. 
 
 The Sanskrit has also tata; Gr. rerra, Old Norse edda, 
 grandmother. 
 
 The Anaryan languages, ancient and modern, have the 
 word in its oldest form. 
 
 For the Accadian at, ad, see the glossary in F. Lenormant's 
 ' Etudes accadiennes,' and ' La Langue prim, de Chaldee,' 
 p. 121. Atta, Medo-Scythian inscription, atta. Bask, aita,
 
 394 PRIMARY RELATIONS. 
 
 Tatar atai, otai, and Kirghese atam (which Diefenbach, 1, p. 80, 
 compares with Adam), Turkish ata. atah, Ostiak ata, Esthonian 
 at, at, Finnish aiti, mother. See the Gothic form above. 
 
 The Semitic ab, abba may be cognate ; the dental however 
 would be probably earlier than the labial. 
 
 58. FATHER (&). 
 
 2. nfy pa, ancestor. The radical meaning, according 
 
 to Brugsch, D. H. p. 462, is "beginning," origin. I doubt 
 the connection with ^.ne, T. and &.$e, M. head, which he 
 suggests. 
 
 Skt. pitar, father. The termination r is not radical. Zend 
 and Old Persian pita. Bopp takes the root to be pa in the 
 sense " nourish," but pa = father would seem to be primitive. 
 
 The original meaning of pa is gigno, hence pa-t, the race 
 of man, CIH M. /3\ao-To<f, germen. 
 
 Trarrjp, Latin and Umbrian pater, Gothic or other Teu- 
 tonic, fa-dar, father. 
 
 Compare also the Dravidian appan, father,' Finnish appi. 
 and Magyar ipa, father-in-law, also the Accadian pa, make. 
 
 Observe Skt. pati, husband. 
 
 There is good reason for the meaning here assumed. 
 Nearly all the Aryan words for a boy imply begotten, 
 and are derived from pu ; thus puer, pusus, pupus, pupilla ; 
 putus a boy, Latin and Old Italian forms; putra, Skt. 
 The Latin puer represents an old pover, and the radical syl- 
 lable po corresponds to iraf 49 Trafc in old inscriptions paus. 
 Curtius, 387, suggests a connection with Troieca. I would 
 
 propose this series, Eg. D j\ pu, pa, gignere, produce ; Skt. 
 
 pa preserve, feed, iroUto, do, Eg. pu, this, pa-t, Eg., mankind, 
 putra, Skt., son, irafis = irais : pati, husband, or pita, both
 
 PRIMARY RELATIONS. 395 
 
 diverging but springing from the same radical idea. On the 
 Accadian verb pa, to make, see Lenormant, 'Etudes acca- 
 diennes,' i. 2, p. 21, No. 141. 
 
 59. MOTHER. 
 
 mdt > J^ ^ fl' ma *' ^ o' ld - 
 
 (The reading wer in Brugsch is doubtful.) 
 DN, am; A Arabic; ft***, ^Ethiopic ; PJQK ammah, are 
 
 most probably connected. 
 
 Skt. mata. 
 
 ^rrjp, /jidrtjp, mater : still nearer to the Semitic, mamma 
 and /jid/jLfA'rj. (Professor Max Muller's derivation from ma 
 to fashion, is not probable : but the Egyptians seem to have 
 
 connected the word with ma to give : see the common form 
 
 a o 
 
 ^ .) For a long list of derivative or cognate forms see 
 
 Grimm, G. D. S. p. 185, 2nd ed., 266 1st ed. 
 
 In addition to the Aryan forms Grimm gives Finnish 
 muori, aiti (see Father), ema. Esthonian, emma. 
 
 The Irish mathair is connected with athair, father. 
 
 The Old Dravidian has amma ; see Caldwell, D. Gr. p. 472. 
 
 60. WOMAN AND WIFE. 
 
 ',. him- him-t, ^IJJLC T. mulierj woman, wife. 
 
 The radical meaning would seem to be protect, guard, 
 QGJJLl M. servare, $ia<])v\d<rcr(,v, D N. 956-7. The h is 
 hard, corresponding to g in Aryan. 
 
 Skt. jam (representing an ancient gam), wife. The word 
 is ancient and common, jampati : wife and husband, thus 
 combining our two words, i.e. this and No. 58.
 
 396 PRIMARY RELATIONS. 
 
 Hence yd/Mos, which Curtius, p. 536, admits to be connected 
 with the preceding, jam. No other etymology is probable. 
 
 I should be inclined to connect the root with the Teutonic 
 ham, Gothic, hamon, to clothe ; the root being ham, circum- 
 dare, tegere : see Diefenbach, 2, p. 525. It is connected with 
 hemmen, to hem in, perhaps also with haims, home, a word 
 common to Teutonic languages. 
 
 Also 
 
 61. J ^ , kenau, uterus. 
 
 Skt. jam, hence, quens, 710/17, &c. see Diefenbach, 2, 475, and 
 above, No. 39. 
 
 62. SON AND DAUGHTER. 
 
 *? ^ 
 
 tg^. sat, son, daughter, eye M. filius, and 
 
 in compounds ci Horsiesi, Horus, son of Isis. 
 
 Skt. su, su (savami) gigno ; sutas, sunus, son. Zend, hunu. 
 Goth, sunus; Sohn, son. 0. Slav, synu; Lith. sunies, id. 
 Old Irish, suth, filius. Greek vlos : see Curtius, 605. 
 
 63. CHILD. 
 , mas, jULiC, infans, pullus: properly genitus. 
 
 Berber ^^0, mis, a son. 
 
 Latin, mas. 
 
 Gothic magus, TTCU? (genitus, Grimm, ap. Diefenbach, 2, 
 p. 3). A.-S. magu and niecg, son. 
 
 Old Norse, mcer. 
 
 Celtic, mac, son. 
 
 The wordVafc, identical in meaning, may possibly be con- 
 nected with this root ; the interchange of p and m is normal.* 
 
 * On considering the note of Curtius I would refer TTOIS to the root pa ; 
 sec above, No. 58.
 
 PRIMARY RELATIONS. 397 
 
 64 A BABY. 
 
 rer, or led, a baby, from rer, to dandle a baby. 
 
 T., puer, XeXotr puella, XeXe&oX nutare, 
 vacillare. 
 
 Compare lullaby, &c. 
 
 Xa\eo> may be connected with this or with the more 
 general sense, reru, 
 
 65. BROTHER, SISTER. 
 
 | son, con> T. M. cA.lt, B. Plural citA.T> brother, 
 
 n A/VWVA 
 
 and tf sont, sister. 
 
 * & 
 
 The connection with sen, two, and the Semitic, H3$ 
 shanah, iteravit, and D'Oty shenayim, two, is certain. 
 
 There may be an original connection with aw ; Skt. sam, 
 or with sana, continuous ? 
 
 Berber, sin, a pair. 
 
 (E.) MAN IN SOCIAL OR POLITICAL RELATIONS. 
 66. COMRADE. 
 
 r i ^\ M ar ' an( ari: a comra(e ' an 
 keeper, house-keeper, master of the house. 
 
 Skt. Ari ; in Sanskrit the word often denotes an enemy, and 
 in that sense it occurs frequently in the Rig Veda, but the 
 ancient meaning was master of the house. See the passages 
 quoted by Schoebel, 'Religion premiere des Indo-iraniens,' 
 p. 8, ff. 
 
 The true meaning of the Egyptian word is one who sits 
 opposite to another, as fellow, watcher, guard, &c. : hence the
 
 398 SOCIAL AND POLITICAL 
 
 two opposite meanings of the Sanskrit, keeper of the house, 
 or enemy. (1 <cr> (I (1 ^V ari, also occurs in this latter sense. 
 
 1 11 -/2*o 
 
 Schoebel, as I believe, is right in regarding this as the true 
 origin of the Aryan arya or arya, one who governs his house, 
 worthy of respect, dignified and free an epithet applied to 
 people, to princes, and to gods. 
 
 See however the verb ar, to do, in section II. 
 
 67. ENEMY. 
 
 I^llj!*' kkerul ' a foe> 
 
 Old Slavonic has heru (in compounds), cruel : Frisian hare, 
 torquere. 
 
 Old H. G. harewen, whence herb, harsh. 
 
 Goth, hairus, a sword ; thus I take the Eg. kheruiu, to be 
 
 derived from | Jchar, a sword. 
 
 The Cherusci = Hairuskos, swordsmen ; see Grimm, G. D. S. 
 and Diefenbach, 2, p. 504. 
 
 68. A GEEAT MAN, OR PRINCE. 
 
 ^* {tar, prince, excellent ; oTpO, uro, rex, OTptO, uro, 
 
 regina. 
 
 Skt. vara, eximius, excellent : and vlras, vir ; Hindoo, bir, 
 man ; r?pa>s. Curtius, p. 576. Zend, vairya, strong. 
 
 Lat. vir. Lithuanian, vyras. Goth, vair, Anglo-Saxon, 
 wer, vir, werod, an army. Irish, fear ; good, or .husband. 
 Welsh, gwr, do. Cf. Diefenbach 1, p. 188. 
 
 It is connected with apeicov for Fapeuov. Thus Skt. varishtha 
 
 Scythian, Herod. 4, 110, atop oiop. See Grimm, G. D. S. 
 p. 164, and Eawlinson, on Herodotus, l.c. Turanian, weres 
 (sirjan) Magyar, ferj ; Finnish, uros.
 
 RELATIONS. 399 
 
 69. NOBLE, PRINCE. 
 
 sar, coup, sor, T. M. to distribute, order, increase. 
 
 ")j^, sar, prince. Assyrian, sarra, prince ; sar-gina, or sargon. 
 According to Sayce (see Bibl. Arch. v. i. p. 29, Accad. sa, to 
 judge, su-ra, a judge or king) it is Accadian ; but it is cer- 
 tainly a primitive Egyptian word* and occurs frequently in 
 names of Khetan princes at the time of Rameses II. 
 
 Zend, har, protect ; haretar, protector, hara, lord. Teutonic 
 herr, &c. Sir. Old Norse, hari, king ; harri, dominus. 
 
 70. GOVERNOR. 
 
 Xg* ia, or za, the governor of a district : see Maspero on 
 the Papyrus Abbot, p. 9. The meaning is one who leads and 
 rules. See B. D. H. vii. 
 
 Goth, tiuhan = ziehen, dyetv, to lead : hence tug and tow 
 a ship ; Old Norse, toga, heretoga, the leader of an army. 
 Herzog, dux, duke. 
 
 Celtic, Cymric, dwg, carrying. Also Cymric, dug ; Breton 
 dug ; Gaelic, diuc, diuchd, dua. 
 
 71. A MALE. 
 
 The same word : thus zeugen, erzeugen, procreare, are con- 
 nected with ziehen. 
 
 72. KING (a). 
 
 \A hak (the li is hard), jf -flf* king, ruler. 
 
 hokek; governor, leader, ruler. There may be
 
 400 SOCIAL AND POLITICAL 
 
 connection in origin as well as meaning with D3H ; in Arabic 
 
 <*^ hakam, to judge and rule. Possibly also with Hi koh, 
 strength; and |H^ kohen, a priest. 
 
 Skt. cak (for kak), to be able, powerful. Bopp, GL, 
 compares this with the Old Norse hagr right-hand, hagna 
 prodesse, and hoegja moderare. 
 
 Accadian sak, head, beginning, chief: see Lenormant, 
 ' Etudes accadiennes,' i. part 3, p. 21, and 136. Turanian 
 or Dravidian ko or ku ; also Khagan, or khahan, a king. See 
 Caldwell's ' Dravidian Grammar,' p. 489. The Medo-Scythian 
 inscription at Behistun has ku. Observe also the oldest 
 name of Asiatics, viz. Sakti. The origin of the word Scy- 
 thian is uncertain, see Grimm, G. D. v. S. 153 f. It 
 may possibly be connected with Sakti, and also with hak, 
 chiefs, &c. In the Persian inscriptions, Beh. 2, saca= Scythian. 
 
 73. KING (b). 
 atl. This word is not found in the Coptic, but is 
 
 found, with variants, in the oldest inscriptions. 
 
 Semitic forms bear a doubtful resemblance in meaning. 
 The Sanskrit is noticeable, adhi, adhipa, adhi-pati, supreme 
 ruler, though I would not assume a connection. 
 
 75. KING (c). 
 jjj suten, ccXJOTTGIt, dirigere. The meaning of 
 
 TA^WVAI:! 
 
 the Egyptian is undoubtedly strong ruler. 
 
 The resemblance to Sultan, Heb. CDvfc', is probably 
 accidental, unless indeed the literal CO/t^ is an extension of 
 Ot2f whence JDIttf, a scourge. There is, however, an obvious 
 connection with the root "nty=TT$ 1. valide egit. 2. domi-
 
 RELATIONS. 401 
 
 natus est. o L*> med. var., "?t> dominus, cX- ; sayid. 
 
 shado, ^j-.^ = Scufjiovia. Again CDIttf, properly firm = 
 2D>. Hence COIZ^ and tD3^ imperial staff, the scourge 
 in the hands of gods, &c. See Kodiger, s.v. 
 
 The Indo-Germanic affinities are vague, but noticeable. 
 Schalten, to rule. Words derived from or connected with 
 skud, as skiutan, short, &c., are collected by Diefenbach, ii. 
 p. 262. 
 
 76. LEADER AND CHIEF. 
 
 H w|. x er P> princeps, chief; the idea is precedence. 
 T. M. B. primus : principium. 
 
 cJ^-ti, nobilis, first, excellent, L-iOj-^ sharif, a noble. 
 These words correspond, both in meaning and forms, to the 
 Teutonic gerefa, graf, grieve, grave, &c. 
 
 77. TEACHER, DOCTOR. 
 
 sab, 'TrS sa >b / doctor. c&o T. discere. 
 sapiens. 
 
 The word is very ancient : it is a common title in monu- 
 ments of the ancient empire, see De Eouge, ' Eecherches,' pp. 
 86, 87, 118. The titles of a functionary named Arkhua, i.e. 
 the most illustrious, are interesting : royal scribe of the palace, 
 doctor (sab), who illustrates (met en lumiere, sehat) the 
 writings of the interior palace. The word has two other 
 meanings, gate, and jackal ; I take the primary sense to be 
 teach, open, or discern. Compare also the ancient name 
 of the tutelary goddess of letters, Saf, wife of Thoth ; she is 
 
 2 D
 
 402 SOCIAL AND POLITICAL 
 
 named ( Q J in the earliest inscriptions of the ancient Egyp- 
 tians. See De Kouge, ' Kecherches,' p. 43. 
 
 Gk. cro<f)6 <?, cra^rfc. Curtius suggests what seems to me a 
 very forced derivation, avfos, whence da-vfafiw;, ignorant. 
 Latin sapiens. Gothic, siponeis, fjiadrjr^, siponjam, paOri- 
 reveiv: no probable Aryan etymology is found, and Diefen- 
 bach (2, p. 219) suggests that the word may be derived from 
 some ancient religion; he refers to the Coptic c&(JO and cAJie. 
 
 The ^Ethiopian iVflft sabe, homo, stands alone in Semitic. 
 I have little doubt as to the connection ; thus re^iu in 
 Egyptian means wise men and simply men; see No. 13. 
 The old Assyrian has sapmu, a seer ; cf. G. Smith, ' Assur- 
 banipal,' p. 128. 
 
 The very old Sanskrit word sap means to follow, serve, 
 and honour; in composition with dbhi it = besorgen, to take 
 pains with. The connection in form and in meaning is 
 noticeable, and Bopp holds this to be probably the origin of 
 the curious Gothic word. 
 
 78. MASTER. 
 
 AAAAAA n 
 
 ^^SL? neb, itHfb herus, connected with J neb, 
 
 rti&en, M. num., T. B. omnis. 
 
 The connection with the following roots is- probable, 
 with the normal exchange ot n for &. 
 
 ve/jio), to order, rule, feed as shepherd, vatfidw, z/o/to?. 
 
 Lat. Numa, Numitor. 
 
 Goth, nima, capio. 
 
 Skt. labh, ybtinere, adipisci ; \apfidva), Xa/3, from \apfi, 
 see Curt. p. 520. 
 
 Perhaps with the common exchange of r for n, 3") rab. 
 
 ^ dominus. The question whether the notion of great-
 
 RELATIONS. 403 
 
 ness or multitude is primary seems to be very doubtful, 
 I prefer the former. 4flfl, rababa, amplum fecit. We thus get, 
 
 , dominus : 
 
 The use of 2") = Eg. neb, lord, is 
 omnis. 
 
 Aramaic. 
 
 79. SERVANT. 
 
 . servus, famulus, &COKI and 
 
 &OKI, serva, ancilla. 
 
 Skt. bhaj, colere, venerari ; bhakta, colens, deditus. The 
 Egyptian combines the ideas of service, work, and devotion, 
 as in proper names Bok-en-ranf, &c. It is an odd coincidence 
 that Benfey combines famulus with bhaj ; the c in Latin is 
 dropped before m, thus lumen for lucmen, see Schleicher, v. 9. 
 I would however derive the Latin fac-io from bhaj, i.e. ori- 
 ginally bhak. The substitution of Latin f for Skt. bh is 
 normal. 
 
 Goth, andbahts, Norse, ambatt ; A.-S. ambiht, and ambiht, 
 servant. 
 
 African languages supply bake, and mbika, a slave. 
 
 80. MAN OF LEARNING. 
 
 mdhar. Chabas, Voy. p. 80, would 
 connect this with "HID, swift. The meaning is clear, a dis-- 
 ciple or student. 
 
 The word is evidently identical with the following : 
 ^Eth. tfHJ4> mahara, docuit, erudivit ; ^U^, mahur, doctus, 
 eruditus. The meaning is connected with the Hebrew and 
 Aramaic; diligence is the principle: the Syriac retains, a 
 
 trace of the ^Ethiopian and Egyptian sense in 
 
 2 D 2
 
 404 SOCIAL AND POLITICAL KELATIONS. 
 
 mahirutho, -exercitation, doctrina ; the Arab, still nearer 
 
 mahara, acutus, inquietus fuit 
 
 Observe also the compound Maherbaal in Phoenician in- 
 scriptions. The usual interpretation, gift of Baal (see Euting, 
 ' Punische Steine,' p. 11), is not satisfactory. It seems rather 
 to mean, follower or agent of Baal. 
 
 There is some resemblance to the root pep, fjuip, and 
 assuming a Semitic derivation for the Egyptian mahar, a 
 possible connection with it. Note the meanings given by 
 Curtius, 466. 
 
 Skt. smar, memini ; Zend, mar, remember, know, and 
 mareti, doctrina. Greek pepifjiva, pdprvp. Lat. memor. 
 
 Goth, merjan, icvjpvo-a-eiv : old Germ, mari, fame. 
 
 81. A PEEK. 
 
 T|ji sam, a companion. The root is simply sam, in the 
 sense unite, join, &c. . The variants and derivatives are 
 numerous, all closely adhering to the original sense, in com- 
 bination with Heb. Djtf with, and D# people, Skt. sam, Zend 
 and old Persian ham, whence hamitriya, a conspirator, the 
 Latin, cum, comes, and the Greek 0/^09, 6 /MOV, 0/40409. The 
 Egyptian word occurs in some of the most ancient inscrip- 
 tions.
 
 ( 405 ) 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 VERBS OF EXISTENCE. 
 To be, to 'become, (fee., grow, die, live. 
 
 1. TO BE. 
 , pit, ne, T. M. B. esse (a). 
 
 Thus, nok pu nok, I am I, I am that I am, compared with 
 A-ItOK ne TtfC, I am the .Lord. Brugsch. On this for- 
 mula, which occurs five times in the Todtenbuch, see the 
 Eg. ' Zeitschrift,' 1879, p. 671. Like the Hebrew word Kill, 
 pu or pe is a pronominal or demonstrative particle, always 
 however with the meaning of existence or condition. Thus 
 j"PJ"J stands for mi"!, ha-mA. 
 
 Skt. bhii, to be, to become; Send bu; Old Persian, bu; 
 retained in New Persian and all the cognate languages. 
 
 Greek, <f)vc0, &c. 
 
 Lat. fu-i, futurus. 
 
 Old Saxon, bium ; Anglo-Saxon, beon ; English, be. See 
 Leo, 'Ang.-Sax. Gl.' p. 461. 
 
 Bopp and Gurtius compare Gothic bauan, to dwell: 
 Diefenbach traces this word in all its modifications, 1, pp. 
 272-278. 
 
 Old Slavonic, byti ; Lith. bu-ti, to be. 
 
 Old Irish, biu ; infin. buith, esse. 
 
 2. TO BE (6). 
 
 ^K un, oTIt, T. M. oTOIt, T. M. est; also aliquid. 
 
 /WW\A 
 
 The analogies are doubtful, but not unimportant.
 
 406 VEKBS OF EXISTENCE. 
 
 Teutonic, wonen, wonan ; Anglo-Saxon, vunian, manen, or 
 existere, Leo. 
 
 Turanian, Magyar, van, to be; Esthonian, on, est. See 
 Diefenbach, 1, p. 37. 
 
 The substitution of a labial for a dental is not uncommon ; 
 thus in vulgar Greek @ is substituted for 8, /3e\<j>k and 
 fiehfoi, ^Eolic j3\r)p for SeXeap. BeoSwi/ for Aw&aw/, and 
 <rd/ji@a\,ov for crdv^aXov. In early Italian dh into bh, and <j> 
 for 0, <f>i]p, fera for 0^p, fumus for Ovpos. See Curtius, 
 p. 476. The Semitic ab may represent at, though not derived 
 from it. 
 
 3. TO EXIST, BECOME. 
 
 D <J3 @ 
 
 <^p>, %aper, with variants ^ , also . 
 
 UjOTl, T. M. ; cycun, M. ; cyA.nn, B. esse, existere, fieri. 
 The radical meaning is rapid reproduction, quicken. 
 
 mn, %av-vah, life, ^av is radical and= . 
 
 Skt. jlv, live. Old Persian >X^ *jf ^T^, jiv. Zend, id. 
 
 Greek, %dco. See Curtius, p. 483. Latin, viv, for qviv, live. 
 Lithuanian, gyo-enti, live. Old Slavonic, ziva. N 
 
 Goth, qvius, fynv, hence quek, quick. See the large collec- 
 tion by Diefenbach, 2, p. 481, and compare the Anglo-Saxon 
 cveovan. Some forms come very near ; Anglo-Saxon cwever, 
 vividus, quiver. 
 
 Celtic, cwyf, motion. 
 
 For the connexion of "Xfiper with chafer, see list of 
 animals, No. 40. 
 
 Accadian, ki, life.
 
 LIFE AND ITS FUNCTIONS. 407 
 
 Life, and its Functions. 
 
 4. TO LIVE. 
 an%, con^), M. om^, T. vivere, .n& and 
 
 T. B. 
 
 , he worked, wearied with working.) n3N, anah, 
 
 (**->' anak, spiritum duxit. 
 
 Tlie root may be an, to breathe. Thus the Sanskrit has an, 
 to breathe, to live ; anus, breath ; anlka, countenance ; Z. anaika. 
 
 The Zend anhu is rendered lord, substance,' or world, by 
 Spiegel and Justi, but Haug (Gathas, p. 8) has life ; anhus 
 acistd dregvatam, vita nequissima mendacium : thus Ormuzd 
 is styled damim anheus, creator of life, Yacna, xxxi. 8. The 
 root is ah = Skt. as, to be. 
 
 avefjios, wind. 
 
 animus, anima. 
 
 Goth, an, uzana, expire ; Old Norse, an. 
 
 Old Slav, achati, smell. 
 
 Welsh, enyz, anima. 
 
 The Accadian, an, God. The Permians name the supreme 
 God, en. Grimm, ' Myth.' p. xxviii. 
 
 The radical meaning of the Accadian, according to Le- 
 normant, is lofty, exalted. 
 
 5. TO DIE. 
 
 , mer, die ; or ^V So Brugsch and Pierret, but the 
 transcription is doubtful. 
 
 T. M. B. mori, JULCDOYT M. jULOOTfTG T. die.
 
 408 LIFE AND ITS FUNCTIONS. 
 
 HID, mut oc mata. D^P men, mortales. 
 
 Skt. mr or mar, die; maras, death; marti, martiny, or 
 mortal man. Zend, mar, die, mareta mortal, maretan, man. 
 
 /Spore?, mortal man (for /uopTtfc, Curt. 468), pap-awm, 
 a'/i/3poro9, cf. Skt. amrtas. 
 
 Morior, mors, mortis, morbus. . (Skt. maris.) 
 
 Goth, maurthr ; A.-S. mordhor. 
 
 Old Slav, mreti, die ; morn, mors, pestis. 
 
 Litli. mirti, die ; maras, pest. 
 
 Old Irish, marb, dead ; marbaim, slay. Cymric, maru 
 death. 
 
 The identity of these roots is generally admitted ; according 
 to Brugsch, D. H. p. 676 and 730, the original word was mar, 
 mart, hence losing the r, mat, or as in the Semitic HID, re- 
 placing it by v, maveth. 
 
 The omission or insertion of r is common and of much 
 importance. Cf. nofer, nof, rtOTCJJ, neufi. 
 
 The Turanian affinities are equally clear. Finnish, murhe ; 
 Lappish, marhayer. See the large collection of exotic words 
 by Diefenbach, 2, p. 42, seq. 
 
 6. TO GROW. 
 
 , CJ , &c. rud, grow ; pU3T> T. M. nasci, ger- 
 
 minare. The connection with the Indo-Germanic is noticed 
 by Brugsch, s. v. 
 
 Skt. ruh, prodire, nascere, crescere : the primitive form was 
 rudh ; cognate forms of wide range in derivation are rah, 
 ardh, crescere, and vrdh. 
 
 Zend, rud, id. 
 
 Goth, lud,' liudan, crescere ; . lauths, homo. See section 
 I., s. v. retu. 
 
 Old Slav, rod-iti, parere, generare.
 
 LIFE AND ITS FUNCTIONS. 409 
 
 Irish, rud, a wood or forest. 
 
 Bopp, who gives these forms, suggests a connection with 
 rus. Our own word root comes nearest. 
 
 /OX 
 
 Cf. 1^, inf. rn*7, oJj, QAjr, ?^ The transcription 
 is exact with the usual prefix i ." 
 
 7. GIGNO, BEGET. 
 
 (1 , Jcena, gignere, generare. The word is doubtful, but 
 see p. 385. 
 
 Skt. jan, nasci, janayami, gignere, procreare. Z. zan, a 
 common word in all East Aryan dialects. See Justi, H. Z. S. 
 p. 121. ryevvdo), ye'vot, &e. Gigno. 
 
 Goth, kin, kuni, race. 
 
 For uses and derivatives, see above, sect. I., No. 58. 
 
 N.B. The Skt. j answers regularly to k, hence kena, kan, 
 jvv, korn, kin, keinain, &c. 
 
 8. TO BE HEALTHY. 
 
 ui, uia. Coptic, OTTOX, uog, bene 
 
 z) u -nrf-t *za _i_x.\i: u 
 
 valere. 
 
 Skt. 6j, validum esse, splendere ; ojas, vis, robur, splendor. 
 
 This is an old Vedic word ; the root is uj = vaj, see Grass- 
 mann, W. E. V. and Curtius, 159. Zend, vaz, strengthen, 
 in connection with healing. 
 
 Gr. vytrfs, vyieia, vyirjpo?. 
 
 Lith. ugis, growth. 
 
 Old Irish, ag, young, fresh ; oig, a champion ; oige, sound- 
 ness, virginity. 
 
 Curtius holds, that ug is the Aryan root.
 
 410 VERBS OF SENSATION OR FEELING. 
 
 Verbs of Sensation or Feeling. 
 9. TO LOVE. 
 
 <==> Q> ^^^ , _ . ( tne oWest form of the word), mer ; 
 JULGpe T., amare, jmeitpe.M., amor, jmeXlT B., dilectus. 
 
 The word is singularly connected with others signifying, 
 (1) fullness, (2) reservoir of water, and (3) death. Hence 
 (1) with the Hebrew K^D; (2) the Latin mare, sea; and 
 (3) the Indo-Germanic mar, popos, mors, &c. : see above. 
 The idea of overflowing, sufficiency, seems to-be the origin. 
 
 The Indo-European analogies are numerous, but not easily 
 reducible to an organic system. Take first Skt. mard, which 
 according to Curtius, 464, represents an older marl, a near 
 equivalent to our word mild ; to be gracious, amiable, 
 friendly. The Vedic form is mrd. 
 
 Greek, /WXat, love-gifts; /ie/A^o? (^Eolic, /ne'XA^o?), 
 mild, amiable ; /^eiXeii/, apea/cco, Hesych. 
 
 Goth, milds, (friXoa-ropyos, common in Teutonic, see Diefen- 
 bach, 2, p. 69. 
 
 Old Slavonic, milu, compassionate ; Lith. myliu, love ; Eng. 
 mild. 
 
 I believe that the root /xeXt is connected with this; cf. 
 
 The Greek fytepo?, i/j,eipa>, and the Latin amo, amor, are 
 identical in meaning, but have apparently severally different 
 roots. I doubt the derivation of the Greek suggested by 
 Aufrecht and approved by Curtius. 
 
 10. LOVELY (2). 
 
 f) am : lovely : the word means a tree, specially a 
 date-tree, B. D. H. vi p. 356, but it seems questionable 
 whether the radical notion is not delicious, &c. Uar-am-t,
 
 VERBS OF SENSATION OB FEELING. 411 
 
 chief favourite, or greatly beloved or delightful, is one of the 
 oldest titles of a beloved wife in Egypt. It is applied to the 
 first queen named in the monuments, Mertitefs, the wife first 
 of Snefru, then of Cheops. See de Eouge, * Eecherches,' 
 pp. 36, 37. 
 
 Coptic, jute/JUtei, JUL^.1, JUteei, generally regarded as 
 a mutilated form of No. 9, may perhaps be referred to this 
 root. 
 
 Sanskrit, kama, and Latin, amo. See however the pre- 
 ceding word. 
 
 , \\\\ <(\\^ mestetu (ancient 
 
 11. TO HATE. 
 
 mesdd 
 
 form, Beni-Hassan). Birch gives tt . jr^ mas, or mes: 
 this may be the radical form. jULecT~e> JULOCTG T. 
 jmecTCD T. M. JULLCT T. odio habere, odisse. 
 
 Skt. mish, semulari, certare. Brugsch, s. v. compares pur&o, 
 /ucro?. 
 
 The origin of the Greek is disputed. Curtius, p. 582, 
 rejects the derivation from dvish, and holds fjucreo) to be con- 
 nected with miser, and msestus. 
 
 Cf. German, bos (of which the origin is somewhat obscure ; 
 see Diefenbach 1, p. 281), and the Slavonic (Old Eussian 
 and Bohemian) bjes, devil. 
 
 The Semitic affinity is clear. 
 
 ' maas, despise, abhor. ,**jtso, disesteem ; 
 
 reject; (_^bo, maasa, succensuit illi. 
 Assyrian, masu, to abandon.
 
 412 VERBS OF SENSATION OB FEELING. 
 
 12. FEAR. 
 
 keri > fear ' awa &eXi, M. &H XK, T. 
 
 Set,\ia, terror. -J-^eXl, M. terrorem incutere : see also 
 Peyron, s. v. rt,OTp- Brugsch compares VlH (or ^P!) twist, 
 suffer pain, but the meanings do not coincide : H^H hala, to 
 be sick and troubled, and ^7H holi, anguish, trouble, come 
 nearer. 
 
 Skt. hri, pudere, erubescere. 
 
 Bopp compares Old German hru, ru, poenitere ; A.-S. 
 hreova, rue. 
 
 Lat. horreo, horror; and Gr. <ptW&>, have a different 
 origin. 
 
 13. JOY. 
 &,rasli,mslm. ^oe T. ^ci M. 
 
 Xecyi B. gaudere, Ia3tari. 
 
 ni"1 r avail, dilatus, recreatus fuit. Heb. and Chald. The 
 main idea is enlargement, refreshment, rest, breathing time : 
 easy breathing. 
 
 Skt. las (lasami) jouer,, plaisanter, embrasser : and ras, to 
 taste, to love ; the meaning is sensuous pleasure : hence, 
 Gr. \ao-roupo9, XtXaio/tat, desire : e/oa/iat, e/>a>9. Lat. lascivus. 
 Bohemian, laska, love. Goth, lustu, ernQvpia. G. lust, 
 pleasure. Lust, lusty, &c. Our word lush corresponds to the 
 Skt. rasa, sap, moisture, &c. ; with which compare DDH, 
 moisture. See also Skt. lash, to long for. Lettish, luste, joy ; 
 lustigs, joyous. Anglo-Saxon, lystan, to lust, to list. 
 
 The Hebrew which corresponds most nearly in sense is 
 tiHD a-Kipraa), lascivire. Whether r or 1 can represent, or be 
 represented by, *] is questionable : but compare Talmudic Nljn 
 potuit, ,niln potestas, facultas, &c.
 
 VEEBS OF SENSATION OE FEELING. 413 
 
 The Heb. Z#17"), raash, rauschen, corresponds to another 
 meaning of the Sanskrit ras, resound : the true root may 
 possibly be ra ^/T ra ( thus ^I/l) noise : see Ges. s. v. Hence 
 #&H, turbulent. The Hebrews contemned the vehement, 
 lustful passions, which Gentiles either encouraged or tole- 
 rated. ttfjn, ragash, tumultuatus est, is connected with this 
 word. 
 
 Note also Chald. Til, revaz, laetatus est, exultavit. Syr. 
 ]j' o > id., exultatio. 
 
 14. ANGER. 
 
 _o hand, or kant. xcoitT" M. irasci. 
 , burning wrath. 
 
 Skt. kunth, vexare. A more common form is krudh, to be 
 wrathful, ziirnen. Cf. canda, furious, an old Dravidian word. 
 It does not occur in the Eig Veda, but is common at an 
 early period ; the Dravidian characteristics are clear. 
 
 Kevrew wound, icevrpov sting. Goth, gund = ydjypaiva. 
 Anglo-Saxon, gudh, war; Old Norse, gud, gudhr and gunnr, 
 war. Old High German, gund, warj the root of gundheric, 
 gunther, gontfanon, war banner ; gonfalonier, banner-bearer. 
 
 Observe also the affinity to candeo, excandesco, candela, 
 candle. 
 
 A X 
 See also ken-ken, strike down. 
 
 15. TO SEEK, WISH. 
 
 ukkakh, seek. 
 Skt. vaca, Zend vac, wish. See Bopp, Gl. 257. 
 Cf.
 
 414 VERBS RELATING TO SPEECH. 
 
 Verbs relating to Speech. 
 
 16. TO SPEAK (a). 
 
 =^ ' J ra ]!' ^' * Sa ^' ^ ' Copt. Xe an< 
 
 dicere, loqui, x. B. It recovers the t in XOTOT, gotti. 
 
 The ^^ , Coptic x> is represented in Semitic and Aryan 
 by ts, th, or by a guttural k or g. 
 
 (a) Old Persian, thah, speak ; thatiy, he speaks. This 
 corresponds to Skt. cas, and Zend sanh, jubere. See Kosso- 
 wicz, Gloss, s. v. 
 
 (6) Old Persian gad. Skt. gad, dicere, loqui, also kath. 
 Zend jad, to ask, entreat. Gr. /eomXo?, garrulus : see No. 3. 
 Latin (according to Bopp, Gl. p. 69), vates for quates. 
 
 Goth, quithan, quath, speak. For the numerous Teutonic 
 forms, see Diefenbach, 2, p. 477. 
 
 Quedan, A.-S. cwedhan, quoth, bequeath. The Old 
 Frisian reverts to the dental, chatter, &c. 
 
 Lithuanian is very near, zad : zadu, promise ; zadas, oratio. 
 
 Irish gadh, voice. 
 
 t 
 
 17. TO SPEAK (). 
 
 ^n^y^Q ku, speak : this corresponds in meaning to the 
 preceding word, but is generally used as an expletive : Copt. 
 K6> 6H> (Te> ovv, eri, igitur. It is apparently a word of 
 extremest antiquity ; represented in Turanian, ie. Sumerian, 
 or Accadian, by ka,. speak ; see 'Journal asiatique,' 1873, 
 p. 110, and Lenormant, L. P. C. under ka in the Glossary. 
 
 Skt. khya, say ; see also gu = /3orj. Curt. 642, p. 470. 
 @ answers to Skt. g, then German k. Lat. inquam. 
 Go. kvitham. 
 
 As a particle it is represented by
 
 VERBS RELATING TO SPEECH. 415 
 
 Skt. ca, for ka, and Gr. /cat, and also by re ; Lat. que ; thus 
 giving at once the root and the meaning of the conjunction. 
 
 18. DISCOURSE, CRY (c). 
 
 cr ' X cru > X aru ' vox > clamor, 
 
 discourse, word. 
 
 ^pO3OT M., 2>pooT T., vox, sonus, clamor. 
 
 The word belongs to the earliest age (Grave of Tei), and is 
 common at all epochs. 
 
 JOp, clamavit; Syr. |}O, id. The Ethiopian has hit 
 nagara, dixit, locutus est. Castell, s.'v., assumes identity 
 with "TJX ie. TOPI, but I take gar to be the root. Arabic, 
 
 S S O S 
 
 ^ ^j jarjara, scream. 
 
 Skt. gar (grnami), cry ; gir, cry ; gira, discourse. Zend 
 gar, sing, praise. Gr.' 7r}pi>9, speech, yrjpva). Lat. garrio, 
 garrulus. Old Irish gair, cry, voice. Perhaps gallus. Cf. 
 nachtigal, nightingale. Old Norse kalla, our call 
 
 Possibly V)p, and Ar. J\j, kol, kala. 
 Bopp connects vaur-as, word, with gir. 
 
 19. TO SING AND PRAISE. 
 
 \ Aos, sing. Copt. ^OJC, canere, laudare. 
 
 The Gothic words hazjan, to praise, and hazeins, song of 
 praise, present a remarkable similarity ; and they seem to 
 stand alone in Teutonic dialects. (See Diefenbach, 2, p. 491.) 
 
 Skt. cansa, a hymn (Vedic), and cans, to relate, &c. 
 
 Hence, carmen for casmen ; see Schleicher, V. G. 157.
 
 416 FUNCTIONS OF LIFE. 
 
 Functions of Life. 
 
 20. TO SLEEP. 
 fl f\ -<s>- nam, to slumber. So too (I - nenimd with a 
 
 j| WVS Jl --- fl 
 
 couch for determinative, to lie down, to repose, to slumber. 
 
 Heb. D13, num, to slumber; with which Gesenius Th. 
 connects vevw, vvo-rd^co, nuto, &c. 
 
 The Skt. nam, incline, comes nearer. 
 
 Closely connected with this is what seems to be the 
 
 modified form ( \ Y^am, to slumber, fall asleep, 
 
 A/WWV Jl -r^L_ w "i 
 
 a B. > 
 and ^\ \ flSft ynmm. Anast. iv. 13, 1, where an 
 
 AAAAAA jfH\^ _O*^ ^U 
 
 old idiom for to awake is found, per m chenmm, exeo a 
 somno. 
 
 21. TO SUCK. 
 
 TT or yU SU 9> to suckle; ceitK> sm&, lactare. 
 
 Skt. cus or cuk. Bopp, Gl. p. 140. 
 Sugere, succus. 
 
 22. TO THIKST. 
 
 Qh ab. i&i, eifie, sitire. 
 Aveo, avidus. 
 Tamil, ava ; see Caldwell, ' Dravidian Grammar,' p. 37. 
 
 23. TO EAT. 
 
 ^^,^\ ^=g\ amam, eat, swallow. 
 The New Zealanders have amu, to eat, which Bopp (Mai. 
 p. 46) connects with Sanskrit jam, edere.
 
 FUNCTIONS OF LIFE. 417 
 
 Old German gauma, kauma, food or feast. 
 
 Sanskrit cam. This is very ancient, it occurs in the Brah- 
 manah catapatha and has derivatives in the Veda. Grass- 
 mann, s.v. 
 
 . KB. The i a = y, a guttural, often exchanged with 
 other gutturals. 
 
 24. TO DEVOUR. 
 
 c i ^ 
 
 I dapu (the d = t) tongue, or devour. Of. Sallier, 
 ii. 6, 1, "illness or weakness devours him, preys on him." 
 Maspero, ' Germ. Epist.' p. 53. 
 
 Tapas, Skt. or tapa. 
 
 SdirTCi), SaTrdvr), SeiTrvov. 
 
 Dapes, dapinare. For other forms see Curtius, 261. 
 
 25. TO DRINK. 
 x 
 gA sau, drink. 
 
 Cf. N2D, sa6a, drink greedily. 
 
 Old Norse supa, A.-S. sftpan, O.H.G. sufan, Germ, saufen, 
 hence schliirfen. 
 
 It is connected with Skt. sn, press out juice, saua and soma. 
 
 Verbs of Perception. 
 
 26. TO SEE (a). 
 
 Vr " ^\ -<s>- daka, see, see clearly ; an ancient word. 
 Also ^^, dekakt (Thotmes III). Cf. section I. No. 32. 
 
 XOYcyT M. videre, look, and tftbcyT a ^ en t e inspicere. 
 1 take this to be the Coptic equivalent ; important as showing 
 
 2 E
 
 418 VERBS OF PEECEPTION. . 
 
 the ready transition from t to k, the latter being the less 
 ancient form. 
 
 Sk. drc, from the older dark : Btp/copai, Spd/ccav (of vSep/ces 
 yap TO %<pov). Old Slavonic, torht, bright. Old High 
 German, zoraht, bright. 
 
 In all Aryan forms the r is preserved, except in the Irish 
 deiks seeing. 
 
 Substituting 1 for d, a common process, we have these 
 near and curious forms. 
 
 Sanskrit, 16k and lokh, see look, lokhana, eye. \evacrw 
 from \v/c-. See Curtius, 87. Lithuan. laukin, wait ; Lett, 
 luko-t ; see above, section I. No. 32, ' eye.' Our word look is 
 Old Aryan. Latin, lux. Gothic, dags. Skt. dagh, shine. 
 
 27. TO SEE (&). 
 ', an, see ; cf. Sect. 1, No. 31. 
 
 28. TO SEE (c). 
 nennu, see ; n^T T. M. tie Y & videre. 
 
 The question whether voeco is identical with yvw, 
 nosco, &c. is not settled ; see Curtius, 153. 
 The original sense of voea> is discern, recognise. 
 
 29. TO SEE (d). 
 
 h,, to look at and see. B. D. p. 1456 ; 
 
 see, behold. 
 
 Skt. cam for kam ; look at.
 
 VEKBS OF PERCEPTION. 419 
 
 Gothic, gaumjan ; A.-S. gyman. See Diefenbach, 2, p. 387. 
 Compare also the Hebrew D3H, hakam, common in 
 Semitic. 
 
 30. TO SEE (e). 
 
 Ml&L ' occurs as to burn, and eldest sow, with different 
 I JS^I 
 
 determinatives, but I believe that bright, clear, insignis, was 
 the original meaning. Coptic COJULC M. aspicere ; or expect. 
 It is probably connected with t^Q^ shemesh, in the two- 
 fold sense of a minister (Syr. and Chald.) and of sun. There 
 is a resemblance with the Latin spec ; specto, species, &c. : 
 or the Greek O-KCTT- and the old Sanskrit spac, from pac : a 
 very common word. 
 
 31. TO HEAR (a). 
 
 \\*/) Vv sem, hear; this is the old form, later setem, 
 which, however, Le Page Eenouf holds to be the old form. 
 CO3TJUL T. B. CU5TGJUI M. audire. 
 
 ]3foV}, p-*-*^ samaa; hear. 
 
 This is an undoubted case of transition to a triliteral 
 effected by the addition of V. 
 
 o * 
 
 I would, therefore, connect the word with Dt\ +**}], shem, 
 
 \s 
 
 ism, a name, perhaps also with <n)//.a and ayfialvw, for which 
 Curtius suggests no etymology. 
 
 82. TO HEAR (I). 
 , adu, listen. 
 
 Audio. 
 
 2 E 2
 
 420 VERBS OF PERCEPTION. 
 
 Perhaps also with k for d or t (see above), a/eouw, d/cori, &c. 
 See ' ear,' in Section 1, No. 36. 
 
 33. TO TASTE. 
 dap, taste; Ton, TU3HG T. to question. 
 
 Teme and TTHI T. and M. gustus, sapor. Also .-,). 
 
 SeiTTVOV. 
 
 Dapes, dapinare. 
 
 These words are referred to the root dap by Curtius, in the 
 sense distribute ; as -also A.-S. tiber, victim, zibar, &c. 
 
 I think the Egyptian derivation probable ; it has the double 
 sense, to taste and to consume. Cf. SaTrra) ; and Old Norse, 
 tapa, common. 
 
 Thus in Sallier, ii. p. 6, 1. 1, mer dapu arf, sickness feeds on 
 him : cf. ipse suum cor edens ; " and let concealment, like a 
 worm in the bud, prey on her damask cheek." 
 
 yeva>, which is derived generally from Skt. but by an im- 
 probable process : see Curtius, p. 176. The Egyptian . cor- 
 responds both in form, h = 7, and in meaning. 
 
 34 TO SMELL. 
 
 sen > sme11 - Z^^^^y 3 sensen,&c. 
 
 Lat. sentio, sensus. The etymology is very doubtful ; that 
 proposed by Diefenbach, 2, p. 211, is improbable. Cf. sinnen, 
 sinn, &c. Scent. 
 
 Bask, senditcea, sentir. 
 
 Cymric synn, feeling, perception, Diefenbach, l.c. p. 212. 
 
 , chmm, cyeXeJUL and oju)Xe*JL smell.
 
 VERBS OF MOTION. 421 
 
 Our 'smell,' of which I do not know the etym., has the 
 same elements. Thus too oa-fypaivw, a <j> p = s m 1. 
 KB. smellr in Norse = crepo, crepitus. 
 
 35. TO PERCEIVE. 
 
 sa; to know by the senses. co*V COOT 
 cognoscere, scire. Also cooTIt T. B. coTum T. M. B. 
 
 The Teutonic and Celtic have words exactly corresponding 
 in sense, and very near in form, but of doubtful origin. 
 German, sinn ; Old German, sinnan ; Old Norse, sinna. 
 Cymric, synn, feeling, perception. Diefenbach, 2, p. 212. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 VERBS OF (1) MOTION, (2) POSITION, (3) ACTION, 
 (4) VIOLENCE. 
 
 The Old Egyptian abounds in words denoting motion. 
 Nearly all these have their Counterpart in Coptic, a fact of 
 importance in determining the laws of phonetic change : some 
 have exact representatives, many very near correspondents, 
 nearly all some ascertainable analogies in Semitic, Aryan, 
 and Anaryan languages. 
 
 To begin with the most common and least questionable 
 forms. 
 
 1. TO COME (a). 
 ^<]l}y^,l, ai,or ee. Coptic ei- The Coptic \ = ep^opai. 
 
 See Stern, 'Coptische Grammatik,' p. 173. 
 
 (a) Aryan. Sanskrit, i, present (with guna), emi ; Zend 
 and Old Persian i. Greek dpi. Latin e-o, imus. Gothic
 
 422 VERBS OF MOTION. 
 
 i-ddja, I went ; Anglo-Saxon eo-de, he went ; Old English 
 yode, yod (Northumbrian). Lithuanian eimi ; Old Slavonic 
 i-da, infinitive iti. Celtic : . British i, Welsh and Cornish 
 it = iti. 
 
 Turanian. Magyar jo, to come, jav, to go; Esthonian 
 jaudma. 
 
 See Curtius, p. 403, 615 ; Diefenbach, 1, p. 94. 
 
 Thibetan yu ^| 
 
 J \ supplied by Eev. K. EUis. 
 
 African ya and yij 
 
 2. 
 
 Closely connected, if not identical with this, are 
 
 and 
 
 4. (c) ^H ^^53, ua, to go quickly, with impetus. 
 
 Coptic OTOI, cursus, impetus. Also 1 j\^, bu. 
 Skt. ya, ire, proficisci ; cf. Magyar and Tibetan, &c. 
 This gives a link of connection with the Semitic. N13, 
 
 *U (KB. -g" j ua = **^- or 2). Not less interesting is 
 the bearing upon whole classes of Aryan roots. 
 
 $a ftalvw, fid-a-t,?, /3d-0pov, j3a-Bl(a, /3e-/3a->9. 
 
 Curtius ( 634, p. 465) shows that the /3 here corresponds 
 
 to Sanskrit g, and Zend y. (Thus K"D = *\^, ja, he went.) 
 
 Skt. ga, go ; Zend ga, gam, and yam. 
 
 Hence kviman (Gothic), come. 
 
 The Sanskrit va, to blow, has the meaning also " go," but 
 probably, as the Celtic gith, applied only to the motion of 
 wind.
 
 VERBS OF MOTION. 423 
 
 5. TO GO (a). 
 
 ^", sJiem, eye M., ire, venire, or abire, oi^o^ai 
 Stern, l.c. ; see No. 1. The sibilant often represents or may 
 be exchanged for, a more ancient guttural. 
 
 Hence *\^ . J a Arabic, nearest equivalent in Semitic, and 
 the Aryan words ga, go, kam, come. 
 
 Compare also Skt. cyu, 0. Pers. siyu, Zend shu, and the 
 words collected by Justi, s.v. shu. 
 
 Celtic cam, whence cammino and chemin. 
 
 African yami, kami, and chaimi. 
 
 6. TO ENTER. 
 
 D -A, ok, to go in, enter, reduplicated akak, enter, 
 
 invade, or "^ga* * ; Coptic tWJULK (omk), T. M., invade. 
 
 Skt. AC (acnave) for ak, penetrate, attain, enter into posses- 
 sion. E. Burnouf. See Curtius, p. 457, who shows its close 
 connection with aJc, in the sense piercing, &c. 
 
 dv-oiry-a), I open. I find no etym. in Curtius. 
 
 i/ca) and iicdvw (with digamma) from vie, i.e. vik. 
 
 Skt. acu for aku, swift; hence acva, horse, t/cfo9, equus, 
 Zend acpa, whence tTTTro? ; WKVS, quick. 
 
 Compare also 
 
 Skt. aj, ajami, go, drive, force, aj-i-s, a race ; Zend az, az, 
 lead, drive, az-ra, hunt. See Curtius, 117. 07, ayw. co/ca) 
 in Suotcci), for &id/c<o. Also Skt. anc (Grammarians ac, old 
 ak), go. 
 
 Accadian aga, to lead.
 
 424 VERBS OF MOTION. 
 
 7. TO GO OUT. 
 
 , uta (a very common word), go, travel. 
 TOOTG T., ire. 
 
 KV ( J always = If or T), lie went out. MtK ftft, id., 
 vatza, an exact transcription. The root appears to be 
 J ^p with many variants. 
 
 Coptic x> g, beyond, xtOTG> gote, transire, &c. See 
 Brugsch, D. H. p. 1690. The Coptic x corresponds exactly 
 
 to j which is represented by z or ts in Semitic, and probably 
 by fin Greek, which again answers to y Sanskrit. It cor- 
 responds in Arabic to j, thus ja, went. 
 
 We may therefore consider this series : la, ya-tsa, ja, \ 
 
 (Arabic), ya (Sanskrit) and go, as probable and in accordance 
 with phonetic law. Notice, also, uc, uccami, quit, traverse. 
 This word is found only in the grammarians, and in com- 
 pounds, but it belongs to the old language, and is connected 
 with ukh, to go, move, And ujj, ujjami, to quit, leave. Com- 
 pare also the Zend uc, an inseparable preposition, in sense 
 equivalent to the Sanskrit ud, English out. 
 
 8. TO GO UPWARDS. 
 
 , dr, al; A.Xe T., A.XKI M., ale, alei, ascen- 
 
 * 
 
 dere. 
 
 (a) Semitic Pl/y, alah, ascend. l ^,, ala, altus fuit. 
 
 Skt. r for ar (pr. iyarmi), I go, generally an upward 
 motion, pervenire. Latin or-ior. 
 
 Also Berber ali, go up. Tamil eru, go up.
 
 VERBS OF MOTION. 425 
 
 Consider also these analogies : op, opvv/ju, opwpa, which 
 Curtius derives from Skt. r, ar, aorist ar-am, 3rd person 
 singular m. ar-ta = wpro ; Zend ir, to rise (sc. sun or star, &c.). 
 I would connect opvis, Goth, ara, genitive arins, an eagle, and 
 perhaps 0/3-09, a mountain. 
 
 Again, Curtius, p. 540, 661, refers ld\\co to the root ar, 
 the t, being a reduplication ; also e/o^o/Ltat, rjX-v-Oov. 
 
 In addition to these, I would suggest the following for 
 consideration : 
 
 9. H _ J\ , nd. rt^., na, T. M., ire ; HHT > neu, venire. 
 ; see Curtius, 432. 
 
 10. ^^J\, per, come forth, appear. $ipi, $epl, 
 M. ; Tro/ao?, 7rop-evofj,ai, porta, portus, faran, farjan ; see Cur- 
 tius, 356. 
 
 11. 
 
 12. TT jSy' J> iekas, ascend, stigh, o--Te^-o>, steigen, &c. 
 Curtius, 177. 
 
 13. V A , kat, go about. Skt. kat, go, an Old Dravidian 
 word. 
 
 ' sen > cen M., praeterire, cme T., transire. 
 Go. snivan ; A.-S. sneovan, go. 
 
 Of the foregoing I take 1, 2, 5, and 6 to be all but certain ; 
 3, 4, 7, and 11 -probable ; the remainder doubtful, but worth 
 considering:
 
 426 VERBS OF MOTION. 
 
 15. TO WALK. 
 
 , mdska, JULOUJI M., jULOOOj! T., iter 
 facere, march. 
 
 XX XX 
 
 *.xf. mashai, incessit, ambulavit. \^^, mada, prseteriit, 
 abivit. 
 
 Aram. KCDQ, HJ^A meto, come, attain ; hence, tfD, matsa, 
 he found. 
 
 Sanskrit mask, mashk, mak, makh, and mank, all meaning 
 to go or move in haste. The Zend has the same word 
 makhsh and makhsti, swiftness. It belongs, therefore, to the 
 . oldest substratum of language. 
 
 Allowing the common substitution of p for m,* we have 
 the following Aryan words : Skt. patha-s, a path ; Zend 
 pathan. -n-aro?, a way, Trareco. 
 
 Old Slavonic pati. 
 
 The French marcher is of very doubtful origin, but appears, 
 like our march, to be of no great age. See Diez, W. p. 682. 
 
 16. _ a $./\> udr - 
 
 0< ^Ethiopic, wafara, exivit, prodiit. It may be con- 
 nected with ^^ , per, see No. 10. 
 
 17. 
 proficisoi, discedere. 
 
 !"!, halak, abiit, JTHK, arah, ivit. Gesenius compares 
 
 * Thus the ^Ethiopia has b and m, maz6a and bazeha, 
 invenit.
 
 VERBS OF MOTION. 427 
 
 18. -/-}, ' 'j^'' s P er > approach, and Qh, sper, 
 
 supplicate : prayer, petition. Here I deal with the first and 
 oriinal meanin: it is connected with the ancient word 
 
 >, spar, a rib ; ciup T. ; and implies near approach 
 and contact. .V 
 
 Various Indo-European words correspond in form, but with 
 a distinct meaning, i.e. convulsive movement: Skt. sphar, 
 vibrare, Z. cpar, go, tread. Curtius thinks that sperno may 
 belong to the same root as the Teutonic spor, spur, our spurn. 
 
 The Sanskrit has two words corresponding severally to 
 the two meanings of the Egyptian sper. 
 
 (1) spare, cause to touch, upa-sparc, touch. As a secon- 
 dary sense, Latin spargo. 
 
 (2) sparh, sprh, desiderare, appetere, sperare. 
 
 19. TO PURSUE. 
 
 ' P a h> $O?> M., per venire, to pursue, catch, out- 
 strip. 
 
 <f)6dva), obsolete form (frOdy-w, Curt. p. 612, and tya, id. 
 p. 694. 
 
 The Egyptian root is connected with Trvytj; see Sect. I. 
 No. 55. 
 
 The Latin pug, pugno, pugnus is derived from the .Greek 
 TTi/f, fist, both with a near resemblance to this word both in 
 form and meaning: in Greek the fist, as in Egyptian the 
 lion's paw, catches and holds. 
 
 For other analogies, among them the Gothic fahan = 
 fangen ; see Curtius, 343.
 
 428 VERBS OF MOTION. 
 
 20. TO FLEE. 
 
 , P<*d or pat, flee; and J\, pat, to spread 
 
 wing or stretch a bow. TicoT", pot, nHTT, pet, T., 
 phot, M., fugere, abire. 
 
 Brugsch derives this and other words of the same form 
 
 (e.g. ^y\, pet-pet, to cause to flee, or to fall at the feet) 
 from the radical J\ , pat, expand, extend the legs or arms. 
 
 The Hebrew roots 7% (HID. stretch out, pQ, 11, 
 
 w / 
 
 j^), and nnD, patliah, to expand, with which T^, Japheth, 
 and nfiD, pathaii, open, are undoubtedly connected. Ptah 
 O j(cjj Ptah, probably o Ity/uov/pyo?, comes from the same 
 root : he who expands, develops and forms the world ; thus, 
 too, JinS signifies engraved. 
 
 Skt. pat, flee, fall down, fall on ; hence pattrin, bird (as 
 in Egyptian chennu, to fall, and a bird), patao, a fall or a 
 wing. 
 
 Zend pat, cadere;\fec. N. Persian aften. 
 
 Trerofjiai, u}KV7reTf]<;, also TTITVW, TTITTTCI), 7TT<w//.a, and Tror/io?. 
 
 Peto, imjt?eus, penna, for pesna, preeper. 
 
 0. H. G. fedara, fedah, feather. 
 
 Curtius ( 214) connects with this root the Gothic fintha 
 = yLyvwa-KQ), and the Teutonic words for find, sc. to fall upon, 
 to hit upon.* 
 
 If Brugsch is right as to the radical meaning, we have in 
 addition 
 
 'jrerdvwfjui, TreTacrpa, irkrakov, a leaf; Skt. patra. 
 
 Pateo, patulus, patina. 
 
 Old Sax. fathm, the outstretched arm, and fathom. 
 
 * This seems far-fetched. The Old Norse has firm, invenio, farm, 
 without the d. The forms fundum or fundhum are secondary. See 
 Grimm, Gr. i. 915, 12.
 
 VERBS OF MOTION. 429 
 
 21. 
 
 fl -A 5, s ^ ies > follow, as an attendant: a very ancient 
 
 word, found in the tomb of Tei and at Benihassan. Coptic 
 
 The near resemblance to the Coptic can scarcely be acci- 
 dental. The word t^Dt^ she mash, to serve, attend, in Chaldee 
 and Syriac is very common in the sense usually correspond- 
 ing with the Egyptian ; see Levy, Ch. Wb. 
 
 Sanskrit, sac, sequor, obsequor, colo ; sakis, a friend, sakivas, 
 a comrade; also sapami, sequor. Zend, hac; a very com- 
 mon word. eTTOfjuat, aorist earir6^r]v. eirer^, follower. 
 Sequor, assecla, pedissequus, socius. See Curt. 621. Lith. 
 seku, follow. Old Irish, do-seich, sequitur. 
 
 The correspondence in meaning is exact ; the question is 
 whether the final s corresponds to the Old Aryan k, which at 
 an early period was exchanged with k, c, or sh. 
 
 The following root may be taken into consideration. 
 
 A*> fl, sak, of which variants are given by Brugsch, 
 p. 1319 ; I take the real meaning to be that of the Hebrew 
 "fC^D masak, to draw, to lead away captive, or to draw, go 
 in a certain direction, cu)K 6&oX, exire, C U3K 
 intrare, COK HCL sequi. 
 
 Thus I v o s-k-r, take or draw captive. 
 
 (2.) Verbs of Position. 
 
 22. TO SIT. 
 
 ft CM i Aft hems, O I with the figure of a man, woman, 
 prince, &c. sitting. Sit. Coptic ^JULOOC, sedere, habitare. 
 The resemblance with ^ai for fio-pai is tempting, but the
 
 430 VERBS OF POSITION. 
 
 aspirate is not radical: see Sanskrit as, to sit, abide in a 
 place; Zend ah, id. See Curtius, 568. 
 
 The Sanskrit sad, Zend had, sit, is the root of the Aryan 
 words, sedeo, e&pai, e8o<? ; Goth, sita, satjan, &c. 
 
 23. TO REST. 
 
 n ~~* /& 
 
 Birch gives (J Aft as, rest, repose; but the passage to 
 
 which he refers is not clear. 
 
 ' he sits down on his two hams.' 
 
 If the word as really means ' sit,' we have the primitive 
 form of the Skt. as, sit, in the preceding No. 22. 
 
 I should be disposed to take fj as the true root : it is dis- 
 puted whether se or as is the phonetic value, but I have little 
 doubt as to the latter, see Isis and Osiris : the as is weakened 
 in two directions, the a is i in Isis and o in Osiris : but I 
 take the old pronunciation to have been As and Asar. 
 
 Coincidences are often striking, when the resemblances 
 
 are evidently accidental. Thus the Egyptian (I as, a 
 
 chamber, corresponds exactly with acaya, Skt. a bed-chamber. 
 
 24. TO STAND, 
 JjLfl aha, (see Le Page Eenouf, ' Trans. B. Arch.' 11, p. 2, 
 
 p. 334) generally read ha : stand, causative form My A 
 
 sahd, -or ' OY n saha, TA.,O raise. The Coptic 
 
 O,I ohi, as Renouf observes in a note, confirms his reading. 
 
 I think that the word is connected with the Sanskrit stha, 
 
 stand, and therefore with all the Aryan and Indo-European
 
 VERBS OF POSITION. 431 
 
 forms, LffTrjfii, sto, stehen, stand, &c. ; but this is a mere 
 conjecture. 
 
 Nearer in form, and near in meaning is the following No. 
 
 25. TO RISE. 
 J\ (with variants) tes, or tas, to rise up, stand up, &c. 
 
 It is used in antithesis to J S y^ jfth bku, sink down ex- 
 hausted. 
 
 Compare tisthami = 'IO-TTJ^I, but the transposition of letters 
 
 needs support: the causative form > jl stes, raise up, is 
 secondary, but suggestive. The word tas has an exact -repre- 
 sentative in Sanskrit, tas, or das, lift, soulever ; English, toss. 
 
 26. TO ABIDE, &C. 
 
 ', man; jULHIt, men, M. B. manere, persistere. 
 
 | 
 
 This is the radical meaning preserved in Zend, upaman, 
 manere ; and in Sanskrit, man, stand still. 
 
 Gr. iikvw. L. maneo, remain. 
 
 More important is the secondary* meaning common to 
 Egyptian and Aryan. 
 
 mannu, monumentum, memorial; Coptic 
 ooo 
 
 , signum et monumentum. 
 Skt. man, think; manas, mind. 
 fjuevos thought, fjivd /Lte/zi^/iat, and /juaO, /j,av0dvci). 
 Memini, moneo, monstro, and (according to Curtius 429) 
 medicus and meditari. 
 
 * Grassmann, however, takes this to be the primary meaning; see 
 ' Worterbuch zum Rig Veda,' p. 932. It is certainly the more common in 
 Sanskrit.
 
 432 VERBS OF ACTION. 
 
 Goth, gamunan, think, muns vor^ia. Old High German, 
 minnia, minna, love; meina, meinung, mean, meaning. 
 Lithuanian miniu, think ; Old Slavonic, mincti, and Old 
 Irish, mennan, mind, &c. 
 
 See Section 1, No. 1. 
 
 27. TO LIE DOWN. 
 
 n, 
 
 ^, ster, to lie down, prostrate. Cop. cu(JO, pro- 
 cumbere, facio. 
 
 Skt. strndmi, root star, sternere, lay down, &c. 
 
 Gk. aropelv, crTOpvvpt,. 
 
 Lat. sterno, stratum, &c. 
 
 Goth, strauja. 
 
 Cymr. strat, plain. 
 
 Curtius holds that the Aryan s is not radical. This is 
 probably the case with the Egyptian s: a curious instance 
 of analogy, pointing, it may be, to a primeval development 
 represented in Semitic languages by the impulsive forms of 
 Hiphil, &c. 
 
 (3.) Verbs of Action Simple Action. 
 
 28. TO DO (a). 
 
 &c. ar, arl. ep T. M. p T. eipe T. B. jpj M. 
 (and eX B. esse and fieri). To do, in all the meanings of 
 
 Skt. ar (r) has the radical sense of action, specially energetic 
 action : thus Grassmann, W. R. V. p. 98 seq. and p. 49, and 
 Curtius, 311, ar (r-nomi) ich erhebe mich, strebe auf, errege. 
 From this several sets of words are derived, which the Greek 
 distinguishes by ap, ep, op : sc. ap apiV/cco, I fit ; apqpa, I
 
 VERBS OF ACTION. 433 
 
 fitted, &c. apoco, apo-rrjp, aporpov, epi, epkcrco), &c. 
 apeiwv. The Sanskrit ar, even in the Eig Veda, has a secondary 
 sense, strike and slay, whence probably "A/w;?. 
 
 Arya comes from this root, as I believe, in its original 
 sense ' act strongly ; ' an able, vigorous doer : hence it is an 
 epithet of gods, of heroes, of noble energetic races. 
 
 Gr. apoco. Ara, arare, aratrum. Gt. ar-jan, plough. See 
 Diefenbach, 1, p. 24. Lithuan. arimo-s, acre. Irish, ar. 
 
 Also apt and epu in the sense very. 
 
 KB. The words epyov and pefto (for Fpey-yo) form a dis- 
 tinct class ; vrag, Zend, varez ; Goth, vaurkjan, work, but the 
 foundation is ra or ar. Thus too 0/37*7, in the original sense 
 ' impulse ' from urj (Skt.) vigour, from the old root varg. 
 
 From the same ar come arj (r-n-je, stretch myself, opey-co) 
 Lat. rego. Cf. urgeo, urge. 
 
 Note the Egyptian phrase ar-chet, ' doing things,' maker, 
 creator. 
 
 The Egyptians symbolized creative power by 
 see Goodwin, Eg. ' Zeitschrift,' 1871, p. 145. 
 
 29. TO DO (&). 
 - o, a, <L T. <.i M. facere, also &.\ B. esse. 
 
 ra (is a secondary root, ar-a <=> and fl ), to do 
 
 to appoint. 
 
 Skt. ra (Vedic) give, nearly in the sense of ; give (o, 
 
 cause to be for us), food, a hymn, &c. 
 
 The words rai, prepare, and rodh, prepare food, are referred 
 to the same root. 
 
 The Sun-God Ra, in Sanskrit Ravi, has probably the sense, 
 the doer or giver. Ravi, according to the Indian gramma- 
 
 2 F
 
 434 VEKBS OF ACTION. 
 
 rians, is derived from ru in the sense sounding ; but more 
 probably from the other meaning ru, to go. 
 
 The roots ra and da in Sanskrit are supposed by Bopp to 
 differ only in form ; r or 1 and d are interchangeable. 
 
 30. TO GIVE. 
 
 fV A A n 
 
 V' /\> > du. tu. give. 
 
 JL L\ A a' 
 
 The ancient form A__D (according to Brugsch) is ideo- 
 graphic, and should be read tot, the hand = give. Thus 
 equal to , er-tot. 
 
 A n u n 
 
 Coptic -J-, T. M. B. T,L,L, TGI T. B. T^HI M. dare, donum. 
 
 The radical meaning is give, also appoint, coinciding in use 
 
 with the Hebrew jrO, which comes from the same root, and 
 
 in the infinitive flfi is of the same form. Ar. 
 dtay, id. 
 
 In the Indo-European tongues it corresponds to the two 
 roots, da and dha. 
 
 1. Skt. da, give; Zend, id. Bo SiSafu (Skt. dadami), 
 Sorr/p, &c. Bwpov. Dare, dator, dos, donum. Old Slav, dami ; 
 Lith. dumi, give. Old Irish, dan, gift. 
 
 2. St. dha, set, place, do. TiOijfju,, &c. Goth, gadeds, = 0ecrt9, 
 or facinus, a deed. 
 
 It is remarkable that this branch of the meaning, sc. to 
 give, is not extant in the Teutonic languages. 
 
 Teutonic, tat, dat, dasd, deed, tun, tuon, tuan ; A.-S. don, do. 
 The meaning, do, cause to be done, appoint, &c. runs through 
 the words collected by Diefenbach, 2, p. 622. 
 
 31. TO PUT, PLACE, LAY UPON. 
 
 a ^ 1 ' P ut ' P^ ace> present, offer,
 
 VEKBS OF ACTION. 435 
 
 , &c., udh, uah, ponere, adjacere. Also in compounds 
 
 The u or ua before a vowel is represented in Indo-European 
 by v. Hence Sanskrit vah, to carry, one of the commonest 
 words in the Eig Veda. In Zend vaz. See Justi on other 
 Asiatic-Aryan forms. Gr. (root F%), 0^09. Bopp, Gl. 
 p. 355, o^eopu, &c., Curt. 169. Lat. veho. Gothic gavag, 
 move, vigs, a way. Germ, weg, way, and German wag, wagan, 
 car, wage wars. Anglo- Sax. wig, war ; English way, wagon. 
 
 The various meanings are curious: carry, move, set in 
 motion, wave (G. woge) wage, war. 
 
 The v is preserved in all, except in. the Greek, which has 
 lost the digamma : the hard h, in the forms h, ^, g, is gene- 
 rally retained, but is softened into y in the English word way, 
 and lost in the Latin via. 
 
 The Lithuanian has vezu, Ksl. (Old Church Slavonic) veza. 
 
 Old Irish fen, plaustrum : for fegn, our wain. 
 
 Curtius derives e^to, have, from another root, sah, sustineo, 
 see below, No. 33. 
 
 32. TO CARRY, BEAR. 
 
 .!> fai> bai, T - M -> qiT, fit, and 
 
 bit, T. B. M., ferre, portare. 
 
 The word corresponds in meaning with the large family of 
 Indo-European terms for bearing ; but these have an r as 
 final letter. 
 
 Skt. bhar, bhr ; Zend bar. Gk. <f>epa), with its numerous 
 derivatives ; see Curtius, 411. Lat. fer, far, farina. Goth, 
 baira, bear. 
 
 33. TO HOLD (a). 
 
 , sah, | ' $ f K 1- The radical meaning of this root seems 
 
 2 F 2
 
 436 VEEBS OP ACTION. 
 
 to be collect, gather, and carry, sustain: the former being 
 more in accordance with the texts: Coptic ceirg,, seuk. 
 For variants, see Br. ' D. H.' p. 1277. 
 
 Sanskrit sah, sustineo, perfero ; sahas, vis, robur. 
 
 Gr. e^o), ecr^oi/, o-%^/*a, 0-^0X77 (not leisure, but holding 
 on), oxypos, &c. 
 
 For the meaning " collect," compare Skt. saha, together. 
 
 I believe Iwld to be the original meaning : keep together, 
 &c. 
 
 34. TO TAKE (6). 
 js^""^ r* \v _^ 
 2S, D , <^b*, shap-, cytjoiu T. B. M., oj^n B. 
 
 capio, accipio. There are traces of the older pronunciation 
 %ap. D ^, X op,hand. 
 
 See Section I. No. 40. 
 
 y\'2, KCOTTIJ, capio, &c. 
 
 With different determinatives the meaning ' take ' becomes 
 
 seize violently, thus 
 
 35. TO TAKE, SEIZE (c). 
 
 ^ , Jcar or gar, seize, take hold of, possess. 
 
 (TeX, tfcbX, gol, gel, gol, M. T., rapere, furari. 
 
 Heb. "IJ, ger, a settler. The Egyptian has this as a 
 secondary meaning. The Egyptian may be allied to 7HD, kabal, 
 Syr., Arab., Ch., to bind fast, in Hebrew ^D, leebd, fetter. 
 
 Skt. hr, harami (h = g), seize ; Zend zar. 
 
 Old Persian garb ; Zend garew ; see Justi, s.v. 
 
 Old Latin hir, manus ; whence herus, heres, 189. 
 
 Curtius, 189, derives from this root the following words : 
 s, subject
 
 VERBS OF ACTION. 437 
 
 36. TO TAKE, TAKE AWAY <(). 
 
 T., rie&JUL B. nohem, nahm, take away, then 
 deliver, liberare, salvare. 
 
 The primary meaning thus corresponds with the Teutonic 
 nehnien, take ; Gothic niman, nime, nimmen, nim, with 
 many other forms referable to the old root, preserved in 
 Egyptian. Finnish nami, strife, and Lappish, namok, sharp, 
 with other exotic forms, are cited by Diefenbach, 2, p. 114. 
 
 Gothic niman = \ap,fBdvw, Se^pfuii, ; Old German neman 
 and nemen. Anglo-Sax, niman, slang nim, with numerous 
 derivatives. Lettish nemt ; Old Prussian nemmu. 
 
 The Sanskrit analogies are forced and improbable. 
 
 37. TO TAKE AWAY (&). 
 g i 
 
 S 5l 3 , - 1 * , ti. xi T. B., tfi M., ducere, capere, com- 
 monly take away, lead away. 
 
 Vedic and Zend tayu ; Old Persian thi, steal. Gr. r^rdw. 
 
 Old Slavonic taiti, to conceal. 
 
 Diefenbach connects this with Skt. sten, steal, a-repeaj, 
 stal, stila, &c. 
 
 The Sumerian (or Accadian) has ti, take; see 'Journal 
 asiatique,' 1873, p. 117. 
 
 The following word belongs to the same root. 
 
 38. TO TAKE AWAY, STEAL (c). 
 
 
 
 , ia, tsa. XIOTG T., tfTcnri M., furari, 
 
 rapere, and fur, latro. Also J Igv , ia = tsa. 
 
 With different figures this word means : 1. take, 2. draw, 
 3. lead and govern, 4. male : see instances Sect. I. No. 70.
 
 438 VERBS OF ACTION. 
 
 Gothic tiuhan: the word in various Teutonic languages 
 has all the above meanings. See Diefenbach, 2, p. 670. 
 
 Tiuhan, ziehen, zug; Old Frisian toga, hence heretoga, 
 herzog, and zeugen, erzeugen. 
 
 Duco, dux, Celtic diuc. Sanskrit duh, extrahere, to milk, 
 hence daughter, which I should rather connect with sucking 
 than milking. 
 
 39. TO EMBEACE, &C. 
 
 I) -ess- X /) <2> -A 7 
 
 S /w /| VV t__n' U A/V ^ VV \/, ank or ang, to squeeze, embrace, 
 
 press together. 
 
 Heb. p}J/, anak, to strangle, to put on a necklace ; Arab, 
 the neck, and xjpVfi,, anak. 
 
 Skt. aahu-s, angustus, anha-s, crime (Bopp) or angst 
 (Curtius). Gr. a^w, asy%6vr). (Also ava^Kt]^ Lat. ango, 
 angor, angina, anxius. Goth, agqaja, ga-agqv-ja, to press 
 tight. The Slavonic and Celtic dialects have the word in 
 common forms. 
 
 We keep the word in anxious, anxiety, &c. 
 
 (4.) Violent Action. 
 
 The Egyptian abounds with words denoting violence, fierce 
 action, &c. From these I select the following as samples. 
 
 40. TO WOUND. 
 
 '^^., tek, to slaughter, or ^ ' , ta^s, to cut, wound, 
 mutilate. 
 
 Skt. The Old Vedic tij, with its derivative tigma, sharp, 
 cutting, &c. comes nearest in form and in usage. Taksh,
 
 VERBS OF VIOLENT ACTION. 439 
 
 dissecare. See Bopp or Grassmann, W. R V. s. v. taks, 
 takshan, a carpenter: takshani and tanka, Zend tasha. 
 Armenian tagur ; Irish, tuagh; Slav, testa and tusak, a 
 cutter. 
 
 The derivatives seem to soften the meaning, if Bopp is 
 right in connecting the word with reu%co, reicTfov, &c. 
 
 The word however has a very wide range. Scythian, tok, 
 tuka, tukka. See Pictet, ' Les Ariens primitifs,' ii. 208. 
 
 In all Turanian, Anaryan languages, as in New Zealand, 
 
 N. America, and also in Semitic "]DD, C^o takka, cut, 
 j/pjl, strike. 
 
 41. TO WAGE WAR. 
 
 fl\ jj^LK-X^ %aru; Coptic, l)ep, perdere. 
 
 Skt. hdra, war, hr, seize violently. 
 
 The radical idea of the Egyptian and Aryan roots is to 
 seize ; hence the connection with ^eip ; see No. 36. 
 
 Gr. %apiMT] ; Albanian, %epe, war ; Irish, grime. 
 
 Gothic harjio, an army; A.-S. here; Norse, her and 
 herian. Hence heretoga, herzog. 
 
 The Semitic DIH hereb, a sword; ^n- haribon, a 
 warrior. 
 
 Perhaps f/ Hpo)9, for which I find no sure origin; the 
 derivation from ' surya ' seems to me very doubtful. 
 
 42. TO FIGHT. 
 maka, JULGCU fight, JUL^Lcui an axe, battle- 
 
 axe. 
 
 Skt. makha, a fighter conqueror in the Eig Veda. See 
 also makhasy, makhasya.
 
 440 VERBS OF VIOLENT ACTION. 
 
 (J*%r), 
 
 Latin, macellum, butchers' market. See Grassmann, W. 
 K. V. s.v. makha. 
 
 Gothic, meki ; A.-S. mece, a sword. 
 
 0. Norse, meeker ; see Diefenbach, 2, p. 58, who supplies 
 many Finnish and other Scythian words. 
 
 43. TO CUT. 
 or >5 ^ dam, to cut ; a sword. Also 
 
 j&f damak, to behead. 
 
 Copt. TCOJUL acuere, THJUL T. acutus. 
 
 Heb. nzn. 
 
 Gr. rtfivo), root, rap e-ra^-ov, ro/tiey?, a knife. 
 
 44. TO HEW. 
 
 D r\n x 
 
 D^ , M;i^--* jnma^and ^^J^para- 
 shu; Cop. ncuey and c>cucy> frangere, concidere. This word 
 is rare, and if it occurred only in late papyri might be sus- 
 pected, as though derived from the Greek ; but it is ancient, 
 occurring in Anast. iii. 5 ; and simpler forms are common ; 
 as peresh, parach: the Hebrew J?D, split, *HD> J/")S. 
 
 Sanskrit, paracu, an axe, for which no probable Aryan 
 etymology is found. It is however of great antiquity, and 
 certainly connected with the Greek. See Grassmann, W. 
 E. V. s.v. 
 
 TTeXeycu?, an axe ; TreXe/ca?, an instrument for wood-cutting. 
 
 Irish and Erse have cognate forms.
 
 VEKBS OF VIOLENT ACTION. 441 
 
 45. TO WOUND OR SLATk 
 
 i 
 
 natf, force : probably from the root 
 
 /WWVA ._ ^ A/VWVA r\ ^\ o 
 
 nak, to wound, (1 v^ nkau, to strike and 
 
 injure ; see also naki, a poignard ; and naken, to wound. 
 
 Heb. n^3, nacah, strike, wound. 
 
 Sanskrit nac, to perish, and caus. to slay ; hence nacus, a 
 corpse. Gr. z/e'/cu?. Bopp also derives vifcaw from the Skt. 
 nacyami. Lat. necare, nocere, pernicies. 
 
 46. TO DESTROY. 
 
 ( QA fad, expresses disgust ; in a lengthened form 
 
 ^^lk^ /^-^> destroy. 
 
 TD pliid, destruction, ruin. 
 
 Skt. pid, Dravidian, to press or afflict. 
 
 Gr. TTte^co. 
 
 Goth, fija, hate, fijanda, fiend ; A. G. fah, foe, &c. 
 
 The Cymric ffliaidd, abominable, is said to be derived from 
 an old interjection, but the resemblance seems too close to 
 be fortuitous. 
 
 47. TO CHEAT, INJURE. 
 
 cheat, steal, damage : see also > , ad, or adi, to 
 
 <J "> 
 
 wound, a sword; and \\ c^ii\^S5r adu, a brigand. 
 _cc^ _2I 
 
 Hebrew tlltf, adah, to attack (see Ges. Th. Fiirst takes 
 
 this as a separate, obsolete root). 
 * - s 
 
 TJ7 booty ; Arab. tX- aduvvon ; a foe. 
 Gr. dry, avara. Curtius, p. 586.
 
 442 VEKBS OF VIOLENT ACTION. 
 
 48. TO LIE, OR DAMAGE. 
 
 r-r K^ "^ nka or nga, to lie, defraud, &c. 
 nug, mendax. 
 
 Gothic, liugan, lugan, common to all Teutonic dialects, cf. 
 Diefenbach, 2, p. 145. N.B. n and 1 interchangeable. 
 
 Slavonic, lygar, lyae. 
 
 Gaelic, loeg, idle trick. 
 
 Pictet connects these words with Skt. lakh, to refuse. 
 
 49. TO CUT. 
 X 
 
 , shad. Copt. OJGT or CLJ.T"> to cut, 
 
 jugulare, mactare : the radical sense is certainly cut, ampu- 
 tate, &c. Compare the very clear word ^. , shad, 
 Sail. ii. 874, cut asunder : also ^ ^ ' yet, incidere. 
 
 O t fl A< ' 
 
 engrave. 
 
 Sanskrit cid, cut. The c represents an ancient kh. The 
 word is identical in meaning with the Old Dravidian cut, 
 findere, and several other words of similar origin : cf. kutt, 
 cut, khud, khud. See Bopp, Gloss., and Curt. 232. 
 
 Zend shenda, fractura. Gr. a^iB: sc. <r%t'&>, tr/aSz^/u, 
 a-Ke^avvv^L. Lat. scindo, &c. Goth, skaida, I separate, 
 scheiden. Ir. scaithain, I cut off. Our scathe. 
 
 Heb. HVp. J/p, n^p, and P]Vp ; cf. ^^H, HCOH, all have 
 the same general sense, cut, to cut off. Arab, qatzy. 
 
 50. TO STRIKE, PIEKCE, DESTROY. 
 
 , dar, pierce, &c. 
 Skt. dar, tear, split. See Grassmann, W. R, V. and Cur-
 
 VERBS OF VIOLENT ACTION. 443 
 
 tins, 267. Gk. Bepw. Goth, ga-tar ; tear. Old G. zar, hence 
 zehren, to consume. Heb. JH, strike. Arab, r ^>. 
 
 The Accadian has tar. See ' Journal asiatique,' 1873, 
 pp. 27, 289 ; hence the Assyrian nam-tar, pestis. 
 
 51. TO SUBDUE WITH VIOLENCE. 
 
 o, dam, with variants. 
 
 Skt. dam, domare. The original meaning was probably 
 to bind ; it is connected with the very common word yam. 
 Sapda), Sayu,a&>. Domare, dominus. See Curt. 260. Goth, 
 tainja. 
 
 DDT, and Arabic zamma, to bind. 
 
 52. TO STEIKE VIOLENTLY, SLAY. 
 X 7 i, A X 
 
 , Jean, beat, conquer, &c. 
 
 scourging ; hence /wwvx 5r7k , with a lion as determinative, hand. 
 
 x(jurrr> gont, furious. 
 
 Skt. can or kshan, ferire, occidere: cand, irasci, canda, 
 furious : 
 or, a stronger form 
 
 ban = ghan, slay. Zend gan ; Old Persian Jan. 
 
 Gr. Kaivo), Kreivca. See also K&rriw, xevrpov. 
 
 'N.B. Bopp connects hasse, hate, with cand, Gl. p. 129 b. 
 
 53. TO SLAY (6). 
 
 , sak, drag, rather destroy (see Pierret and Brugsch) 
 and compare ''Hr l tj u^ , sake, carnage, and IT
 
 444 ACTS OF VIOLENCE. 
 
 destruction, and with the D .JS), "death." The Coptic has 
 the impulsive form *j-c<LK> t-sak, molestare. The oldest and 
 
 most interesting form of this word H^\ is found in the 
 
 famous inscription recording the overthrow of the Mentu in 
 the Peninsula of Sinai by Sahuia of the 6th dynasty. See De 
 Rouge, ' Eecherches,' p. 81. In the same passage the word da, 
 
 R is used for crushing. 
 
 ii^ 
 
 Skt. sagh, ferire, occidere, a Vedic word, but in the sense 
 to hold fast = Egyptian Sahidic, compare cac and kac ; also 
 cagh, same meaning. Vedic kaca, a scourge. <r^aiu. Seco. 
 To sack 
 
 54. TO KILL (c). 
 
 y chatab > slay. >urre& and T. 
 A very old word, see (TJ Jl, sli-t-l, Pierret. 
 See above, ' shad.' 
 
 The resemblance with the Semitic 3Dp is obvious, but the 
 word does not appear to be a transcription. 
 
 55. TO TRAMPLE, &C. (d). 
 
 ^^s o,patpat, trample, slaughter. 
 
 Skt. vadh, to slaughter, vadha, murderous ; so, too, badh, 
 badh. It is noticeable that the Vedic pat, to fly, is used of 
 rapid, fierce movement, of storm, lightning, &c. : and that the 
 same word occurs in the sense of mastering, lording over, 
 but probably from the verbal pati, master, lord. 
 
 The Indo-Germanic forms are common.
 
 ( 445 ) 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 COMMON OBJECTS. 
 
 THIS section deals with words which are used in ancient 
 languages to name or designate the objects which at the 
 earliest period must have arrested attention, and for which 
 the members of a family or community must needs have 
 found intelligible expressions. 
 
 One difficulty presents itself, common to other sections, 
 but in none more striking than in that now under conside- 
 ration. The commonest objects in different vernacular 
 languages spoken by native tribes nearest to each other by 
 reason of a common origin, are for the most part designated 
 by words which are utterly unlike to each other, yet 
 when referred to their true radical meaning, attest the fact 
 of their origin and of a permanent identity of thought and 
 feeling. 
 
 Take, for instance, the word for heaven. What can be 
 more unlike than Eg. pet, Semitic shama-y\m., Aryan dya. 
 Greek ovpavos, Latin ccelum, Teutonic himmel, &c. ? Or 
 again, earth, prthvi, 777, tellus, erde, land, &c. ? It is clear 
 that peoples using these words would be mutually unintel- 
 ligible, and would naturally at first repudiate all idea of 
 common origin and near connection. But when we examine 
 the meaning of each word we recognise an identity of thought. 
 
 We will take the words in order, and I will classify them 
 under three heads. (1.) The great phenomena of nature 
 heaven, earth, sun, dawn, midday, sunset, &c.
 
 446 OBJECTS; CELESTIAL. 
 
 1. HEAVEN (a). 
 
 p-t. Coptic ne and $6? P e > ph#- The final t in 
 the Old Egyptian is regarded as the feminine termination, 
 a view which may be founded on the Demotic and Coptic 
 usage, in which the t is discarded. 
 
 If this be accepted we observe that the meaning is pro- 
 bably that suggested by the Coptic pe-t, i. e. summitas, locus 
 superior, or roof, B. D. H. vi. p. 465. So that it would be 
 equivalent in meaning to the Hebrew shammayim, and other 
 Semitic words for heaven, which are referred by Kcediger, 
 Gesen. Thes. s.v., to the root shamakh, or sama, Ar. altus 
 fuit. This corresponds in meaning to the Old and Modern 
 English heafon, heaven, from hebhan, to lift up the exalted. 
 
 The ^Eolic form of oi>pavo$ is opavos, which Pott refers to 
 the root op, to lift up. This of course is open to doubt, but 
 appears probable, and is certainly in accordance with the laws 
 of language. I may observe also that if the Greek were, as 
 Curtius holds, derived from the root var, to cover, it would 
 agree with the meaning suggested by the Coptic. 
 
 But if the original word was pet, with t as a radical, which 
 appears to me highly probable, considering that it invariably 
 occurs in old Egyptian, it would be directly connected with 
 
 the verb Q ^i^j\ pet, to expand, spread out, &c. ; that 
 
 word exactly corresponding with the root, well known and 
 common to all Aryan languages, Trerd-vvvfju, (Curt. 215, 
 see above 6), with Sanskrit analogies, prthus, and probably 
 the Zend pathana, wide, broad. The root is common in 
 Semitic in the extended forms pathack, &c. 
 
 The sense would correspond with that of the Hebrew for 
 firmament, J^pl raqia, from raqa, to spread out.
 
 OBJECTS; CELESTIAL. 447 
 
 2. HEAVEN (6). 
 
 (1) .n , or (2) >k 1\ (S>~, duau-t* Morning, or more 
 
 o v /C -J_r\^ ^ 
 
 exactly the heaven lighted by the rising sun, the region of 
 light and the abode of heavenly spirits, or " the hour of light 
 and of morning prayer." Thus "the dawn is for me daily 
 that I may adore him." The verb is dua or dva, adore. N.B. 
 
 The ua ({?]) is a half- vowel = v or w. Stern, ' Coptische 
 Grammatik,' 36 ; see also Brugsch, D. H. vol. vii. p. 1375. 
 
 Semitic affinities are clear. Arabic *L^, daa, micuit, 
 
 5 ~> / S ~ / 
 
 luxit, ***&, dau-on, lux, lumen, splendor. Again .^Lo> 
 daii'v, pars diei post solis ortum. The Hebrew fjn, 
 tsaha, equally common, apricus, and, closely connected, 
 ")!!, tsohar, light. 
 
 Skt. divo and dyo, heaven ; Dya'us, heaven, or the God of 
 light and heaven, from div, to shine. Divashad, coelicola. 
 Deva, Deus. AZo? = divyas, divine. Zeu? is referred to 
 Dyaus in form and meaning, see Essay on the Eig Veda, 
 p. 59, so too Ju-piter Jovis. 
 
 Also the Latin dies and divum, sub divo. 
 
 The Teutonic has the word as the name of a deity. 
 
 A.-S. Tiv, gen. Tives. Old H. G. Ziu, gen. Zives. Old 
 Norse Ty-r. J. Grimm, in his great work ' Deutsche Mytho- 
 logie,' c. ix. p. 175 f., gives an exhaustive account of this most 
 important series of words. To it he refers the Greek, Latin, 
 Teutonic forms, all modifications of the original Dyaus, which, 
 as Ludwig has proved, is the true designation pf the Personal 
 God of heaven in the Eig Veda. The suggestion that Tuisco 
 
 * According to Le Page Renouf the two words differ in meaning. I 
 have followed Brugsch and Pierret.
 
 448 OBJECTS; CELESTIAL. 
 
 is a modification of Tivisco, Tiusco, first made by Zeuss in 
 his Celtic Grammar and approved by Grimm, connects this 
 word with the most general and permanent appellation of 
 the Teutonic race. 
 
 3. THE SUN. 
 
 (1.) , ra with many variants, all expressing the same 
 
 name Ea, Coptic pH, re. The sun in full power. 
 
 The meaning is not contested. The verb ra, identified 
 
 with the still more common verb (~ <5:? '), ar, signifies to be, 
 
 to cause to be, to make. See Brugsch, D. H. pp. 844, 848. 
 
 So that Ha, as B. points out, means properly maker, 
 creator (der Schaffer, Schopfer). 
 
 This word therefore agrees exactly in meaning with the 
 Hebrew ^tf, el. 
 
 The Sanskrit in its oldest form presents these analogies : 
 
 a. ra, to give, bestow, &c. ; closely connected in meaning 
 and probably in origin with da, to give, also to appoint. 
 
 6. raj, to shine or to rule. This is applied especially to 
 the rule of the Deity, thus Eig Veda, i. 144 : " Thou, O Agni, 
 rulest all that is heavenly and earthly." 
 
 c. The name Eavi is given to the Sun in later classical 
 Sanskrit, but though identical in meaning, has not a common 
 origin with Ea ; like ravas, in the E. V. it is derived probably 
 from ru, to resound, noise, or to move quickly. 
 
 4. THE RISING SUN. 
 
 (2.) HOR. The Sun God, as the renewer, the rising sun, 
 who restores light to the universe. The name is always 
 represented by the hawk or falcon, but the phonetic value is 
 accepted by all philologers. 
 
 As that of a heathen deity, the name is not preserved
 
 OBJECTS; CELESTIAL. 449 
 
 in the Coptic ; in Greek it is found either as Horus, or as 
 Har-po-crates, i.e. Horus the child. 
 
 Sanskrit, Sura, the sun, the only meaning attached to this 
 word in the Eig Veda. Also Surya and Suri. The verb from 
 which it is derived, or with which it is connected, is suar, or 
 svar, in the contracted form siir : as a noun, light, brightness, 
 heaven, sun. 
 
 The Prakrit has sula, sulo, sulya. 
 
 The Zend keeps the name unchanged, i.e. with the normal 
 substitution of h for s, hvare. In modern Persian and in 
 cognate dialects, it has a .wide use in the fom^.Jchor, khur, &c. 
 
 The Greek 77X409 was formerly referred to this root, but the 
 derivation is rejected by Curtius, 612. 
 
 The connection with the Latin sol, the Gothic sauil, the 
 Old Norse sol, the Anglo-Saxon sagil, with many variations, 
 is more generally admitted. The Prakrit form (see above) 
 comes very near, and may serve to show the progress of pho- 
 netic transformation. 
 
 In cases where the meaning is identical, and the form 
 accounted for by recognised laws of phonetic change, it seems 
 somewhat perverse to deny a common origin. Hor, sura, 
 hoare, sula, sanil, sol, as it appears to me, satisfy all reasonable 
 conditions, and approach more or less nearly to the Greek. 
 
 For a very large collection of cognate words see Diefen- 
 bach, 2, p. 193 f. 
 
 I may observe that the Semitic languages have the word, 
 identical in form, and apparently in meaning, but used with- 
 out special reference to the sun. Hence Hebrew, "PH hor, 
 candidus, splendidus fuit. D^nH, horim, nobiles; Arab. 
 
 \^ har; so also "HI"! harar, assit, ^ horr; Aeth. 
 ^arara, sestuavit. 
 
 2 G
 
 450 OBJECTS; CELESTIAL. 
 
 5. THE BLAZING SUN. 
 
 shu; with g, the Sun God, as source of burning 
 heat and intense light; thus, K* shu, light, and B^m 1 
 burning, blazing. 
 
 The word is very common in the Eig Veda in the forms, 
 cue, shine, blaze ; cuki, shining, naming, specially applied to 
 Agni and the sun ; and again as dish, cushria, the demon of 
 drought, cushma, flame ; and cushuni, blazing, &c. 
 
 In Bask su means fire. 
 
 6. MORNING AND EVENING. 
 
 ^d, as a verb, means rise, shine ; as a noun, crown or 
 diadem. The old form evidently represents the rising sun, 
 O. See Lepsius, ' Aelteste Texte,' p. xvi. 2. 
 
 But 
 
 <<! 
 
 \^ *=^=*, with variants, u%a, means nightfall, the dark- 
 ness immediately after sunset. 
 
 Closely connected with this, if not identical, is the com- 
 mon form y^*~ rc~ lF lT"') or yXT0TVT 5^*"^"* usha, the hour of 
 sunset or night, i.e. the darkness after sunset. Coptic oYUje 
 or OYUJH, ushe, or ushe, night. 
 
 The Hebrew *]t0, nashaf corresponds in meaning, as 
 Gesenius renders it, crepuscidum, turn vespertinum, turn 
 matutinum; for the former he adduces passages which are 
 conclusive as to the use : for the former a passage which dis- 
 tinctly speaks of late evening, or of darkness, Prov. vii. 9, 
 
 LXX. 07COT05. 
 
 Taking away the preformative letter n, the Hebrew presents 
 shaf, the f being interchangeable with p, m, b, or v. The 
 forms are therefore far from unlike ; but far more important
 
 OBJECTS; CELESTIAL. 451 
 
 is the correspondence in sense. It must be borne in mind 
 that the Hebrews connect darkness with early morning, twi- 
 light lasting a very short time, and the contrast between the 
 light of the rising and setting sun and the sudden darkness 
 being the fact which struck their minds most powerfully. 
 Bearing these points in mind we pass on to the Aryan usage. 
 
 Skt. usha-s, the dawn, a common word in the Rig Veda, 
 personified as the Goddess of Morning. In the dual number it 
 occurs with the distinct meaning, double twilight, the twilight 
 of dawn and sunset. But as in Egyptian and Semitic the 
 prominent sense is connected with nightfall, so in all Aryan 
 languages, it is connected with daybreak. 
 
 Zend usha, and ushanh ( = ushas St.) early dawn. 
 
 N.B. The word ' midnight ' is rendered in the old Pehlevi 
 version by houru. 
 
 Hence, as all agree, come 77(05, ^Eolic avax;, aurora for 
 aus-osa, Old H. G. os-tan, Old Norse aus-tr, east. (See 
 Curtius, 613, who shows a probable connection with the 
 Homeric rje/jto?.) The A.-S. Eastre, and the most ancient 
 Old High German word Ostara, are regarded by Grimm * as 
 connected with a heathen superstition. It must however be 
 remarked that there is no trace of the personification of the 
 dawn in Zend; so that the old Eranians remained true to 
 old principles, while on the contrary Indo-Aryans, Greeks, 
 Celto-italic, and Teutons gave the worship of ' dawn ' a con- 
 spicuous place in their systems. The Egyptians do not 
 connect their word with forms of worship. Other words 
 might be cited which indicate an association with gloom, or 
 twilight or night. Thus J. Grimm, G. D. S. p. 310, takes 
 vis, evening, to be the prefix in Visigoth, i.e. Western Goth ; 
 thus, too, the Cymric has ucher, evening; and the classic 
 languages Vesper, <nrepa. 
 
 Deutsche Mythologie,' p. 267, &c. 
 
 2 G 2
 
 452 OBJECTS; CELESTIAL. 
 
 7. MORNING, OR DAYBREAK. 
 
 _J I O ( w * tn man y variants), bek, beka, morning or to- 
 morrow. Maspero takes the word to be Semitic, but it is 
 common in Old Egyptian, and is connected with words 
 which indicate the original meaning, e. g. beka-u, shine, or 
 rather beha-u, split, &c. Copt. qtWKe, foke, to shine or 
 flash forth. 
 
 boker, and Jb correspond exactly in meaning 
 and probably in etymology. 
 
 In Old Teutonic, Goth, maurgino, Old High German 
 morkan, and then morgen, and our morning are supposed 
 by Grimm, D. M. p. 709, to be connected with a root 
 signifying to split or break ; the form gamaurgjan to which 
 he alludes is well illustrated by Diefenbach, 2, p. 38. 
 
 It is however remarkable that the Slavonic and Celtic 
 languages indicate a connection with words expressing 
 evening, the gloaming, and even total darkness. Thus, too, 
 the Old Norse has myrkr, tenebrae, whence our own word 
 murky. See Diefenbach, 2, p. 36 f. 
 
 8. FULL MORNING, AFTER SUNRISE. 
 , het-ta, lit. earth-lighting, full light of early 
 
 day. Copt, groove, htotue, morning. 
 
 Sanskrit heti, splendor solis, and hat, splendere ; the lin- 
 gual t marks this as a Dravidian or old Turanian word. 
 
 In ^Ethiopic hatain, flame ; in Assyrian hatur, twilight; 
 especially of the dawn. See Schrader, Keilinschriften, p. 11.
 
 OBJECTS; CELESTIAL. 453 
 
 9. RADIANCY. 
 
 and with 8, p-s-d. As a verb, to radiate, 
 
 irradiate; as a verbal noun, brilliancy, especially of sun- 
 beams. 
 
 Brugsch, D. H. p. 511, identifies this with the Hebrew 
 COti^S, pdskat, expandit. I look on it rather as connected with 
 
 II, pes, to roast, burn, &c. See also the verb Jj I, bos, 
 heat, flame. 
 
 The Sanskrit bhas or bha ; Vedic, light, brightness ; Zend 
 bama, id. 
 
 Greek <&>?. 
 
 For wide-spreading uses of the old word, see Curtius, 407. 
 
 The Persian form bam comes near to our beam. 
 
 10. LIGHT (a). 
 
 JM or ^*m, shep, light, cyencytwit, shepshop, illuminare 
 Skt. cipi, a ray of light ; cipirishta, radiant. 
 
 11. LIGHT (6). 
 
 ory> a s lorified s P irit - 
 
 original sense. See Section I. No. 19. 
 
 Skt. cue, shine (Vedic); hence cuci, pure, cushma, sol, 
 ignis ; also light and strength. 
 
 12. SHINE. 
 
 Yjjjy &, to shine. Copt. oToem S. oftuim M. 
 lumen, lux, splendere. N.B. The word is specially used of the 
 rising sun.
 
 454 OBJECTS; NATURAL. 
 
 Skt. cubh, shine ; connected with words denoting beauty : 
 
 cubha, beautiful, and faustus. Persian, L-~j^, khub, id. 
 0. G. subar, pure, sauber, &c. 
 
 13. EVENING. 
 
 .-T" 1 , nth, evening. Copt. poT&e, nine. The word 
 is ancient, and evidently a simple primitive form. The 
 determinative marks the time as after sunset. 
 
 Heb. mi, run. The ruh hay-y6m certainly marks the 
 late eventide. The connection with cool breeze, generally 
 adopted, is probable, but by no means certain. The Arabic 
 raha ( \ \ means to do anything at eventide. \ . ]&,> 
 
 matutinus fuit et vespertinus in aliqua re; morhd, nightly 
 resting-place. 
 
 Sanskrit rajas (Vedic), the first meaning given by Grass- 
 mann is dunkler Raum. Hence rajani, night. 
 
 Gothic riqvis, darkness. The meaning and the connection 
 with the Sanskrit are accepted by Pick and Diefenbach, 2, 
 p. 172 f. 
 
 Hence the Old Norse, rokr, rok, to become dark or dusky. 
 
 The German Ruhe, rest, for which no etymology is given, 
 corresponds exactly, both in form and meaning; and as 
 Grimm observes, "Abend und westen fuhren den begrif 
 der stille und RUHE mit sich." 'Geschichte der Deutschen 
 Sprache/ p. 310. 
 
 In the ' Deutsche Mythologie,' J. Grimm gives a derivation 
 for the Old German nahts, i.e. night, which connects it with 
 rest, Die friedige, ruhige, p. 698. See also some curious 
 analogies, p. 701. " Die Sonne war wegerud, begierig nach 
 ruhe," &c. 
 
 The Sanskrit has also the Old Vedic word ratri, night,
 
 OBJECTS; NATURAL. 455 
 
 which Grassmann connects with ram, to rest, ruhe. In 
 Sanskrit the final tri is dropped, and the word becomes rai, 
 which Bopp notices as connected with the Tahiti my. See 
 Bopp, ' Malay,' p.. 4. 
 
 14. DARKNESS. 
 
 , kaJc and kakiu, darkness, night. Copt. 
 
 kake, id. 
 
 On the Sanskrit and other Aryan forms I quote the follow- 
 ing passage from Curtius, p. 41 : " The root ski has off- 
 shoots in all ancient Indogermanic languages, clearest of 
 all in (TKi-d, in place of which a stronger form, o-KOi-d, may 
 be inferred from the Sanskrit khaya (JJJTO, caya), i.e. skaya, 
 and from the word a-tccud, a-Koreivd in Hesychius. From this 
 oTcoto? may be drawn a awt/cos, as from ap^alo?, dp^aLKo^" 
 The representative of this oveouco? I take to be, after dropping 
 the anlaut, the Latin csecus, and, according to the normal 
 change of sounds, the Gothic haiho. The Gothic substitutes 
 h for the old k. 
 
 Taking the facts as they stand, we have 
 
 Sanskrit caya, for khaya. Greek axid, &c. Latin csecus, 
 Cacus. (?) Ktucfa. 
 
 The Accadian has gig and kug, darkness. Finnish gi, nigj^t. 
 
 Notice, however, the Vedic guh, cover, hide, in the singular 
 expression : tamas asit tamasa gudham, darkness was covered 
 with darkness. The word in various forms expresses secresy, 
 mystery, concealment. It is coupled with the preceding 
 word caya in this expression : he covered the sky with dark- 
 ness, divam cayaya. 
 
 All the forms seem to be accounted for by the Old Egyptian.
 
 456 OBJECTS; NATURAL. 
 
 15. NATURAL PHENOMENA. 
 
 , ia, violent wind. 
 
 Skt. dhu, dhu, shake violently. 
 
 0va), 6v\\a ; on the etymology see Curtius, 320. 
 
 Movement of wind lies at the root of other meanings, e.g. 
 offering incense. 
 
 Lat. fumus belongs to this root, according to Bopp and 
 Curtius. 
 
 The Persian dud is also referred to it by Vullers (' Lex. P. 
 Et.'). 
 
 16. LIGHTNING. 
 
 I do not find a hieroglyphic for the Coptic word .&pHX> 
 Irej, and Hpntfe T., fulgur. It is probably taken from the 
 Heb. p"O, barak, thundered, lightened. 
 
 Skt. bhraj, shine, glitter. Also bhrac and bhrej. 
 
 Gr. <f)\eya), <Xo. 
 
 Lat. fulgeo, fulgor, flagrare, flam-ma, &c. 
 
 Goth, baish-tr. O.H.G. blicher, splendeo. 
 
 Lith. blizqu. 
 
 English bright, &c. 
 
 See Curtius, 161. 
 
 17. THE EARTH. 
 
 7*^. The phonetic value of this common ideograph is 
 0*, ta or rather da. See Eg. Zt. 1871, p. 51. 
 
 1 .ffVk. 
 
 Also 
 
 ^^ with variants, kah, the earth or ground. Copt, 
 and *.,!, kah and kahi. The simpler form 
 , ka = ga, does not rest on good authority.
 
 OBJECTS; NATURAL. 457 
 
 The analogies with Aryan words are curious and inter- 
 esting, but somewhat obscure. In the first place we remark 
 that both forms, da and ka or ga, are well known in Greek. 
 Aa, earth, in ^Eschylus, and ATJ/XT/T^P, Mother Earth, i.e. 
 Ceres, prove the early primeval existence of the former word, 
 though the etymology is contested, see Curtius, 125 ; while 
 777, the commonest of all words, exactly corresponds in form 
 and meaning with the latter. 
 
 But in Sanskrit the old Vedic word go presents a difficulty. 
 It is assumed by high authorities to have one original 
 meaning, bull or ox, or cow, but it certainly means earth in 
 seven passages at least cited by Grassmann (W. R. V. s. v.\ 
 often with the adjective mahi, great. The statement that it 
 means the Cow, the nourisher or mother, seems to me to be 
 purely conjectural. Curtius, 132, observes that the mean- 
 ing ' earth ' rests on ancient and good authority. The same 
 difficulty occurs in the Zend Avesta, where however two forms 
 are used, gaum, terram, and gaum, bovem, vaccam. See 
 above, p. 213. 
 
 In the 2nd Gatha, Yacna, xxix. 14, the meaning of the 
 expression geus urva, the soul or spirit, whether of the cow, 
 or of the earth, is contested. The latter meaning is well 
 defended by Haug, and appears to me that which best suits 
 the context. It is remarkable that in Egyptian the names 
 for bull and earth are apparently identical in transliteration, 
 but in hieroglyphics different letters are invariably used, A 
 for earth, S or *z=zx for bull See below, on Animals, 
 No. 27, p. 461. 
 
 I find no representations of this meaning, earth, in other 
 Aryan languages. 
 
 Other words connected in meaning with earth are noticeable, 
 but I am not prepared to maintain any real connection.
 
 458 OBJECTS; NATURAL. 
 
 Thus 
 
 18. A PLACE. 
 
 bit, a place. 
 
 Skt. bhu, terra, and bhumi, terra, locus. 
 Again 
 
 19. THE GROUND. 
 
 <*> /Mien, ground. See Chabas, Mel. arch. 
 
 MA 
 
 iii. pp. 178 and 185. It corresponds both in form and 
 meaning with the Teutonic boden, A.-S. botun, bottom, 
 connected with the Old Sanskrit budhna, i. e. Boden, Grund, 
 " das Unterste eines Gegenstandes." Grassmann, W. E. V. 
 
 20. A FEONTIER. 
 
 c- *=-^ <O 
 
 , desk, or , tesh, a frontier, a nome or district. 
 
 I U I I \\ 1 
 
 Coptic oocu, Oosh, a frontier or boundary. 
 
 Skt. deca, regio, locus ; Old Persian dahyaus. 
 
 The Sanskrit is derived from the Old Vedic die, to show. 
 The Coptic points to a similar derivation for the Egyptian, 
 euxy, thosh, statuere, terminare, or as a noun, regula, 
 terminus. 
 
 21. THE SEA (a). 
 
 mer . Cop. XJLGIDe? meire, a. 
 lake or inundation, or inland sea. The word has various 
 meanings with different determinatives; in this case, the 
 triple flowing line settles the signification. Peyron gives the 
 form JULHpe, the water of inundation.
 
 OBJECTS; NATURAL. 459 
 
 The Latin mare, the Gothic marei, sea, our meer, mere, &c., 
 point to a very ancient origin. So too the Cornish mor, sea, 
 and mor, an ancient Turanian name of the Caspian Sea. 
 
 22. THE SEA (6). 
 "Hk xfet, udt-oer, the great water, the Mediterranean 
 
 V \ /WWNA 
 
 especially. The word uat is used to denote greenness, ver- 
 dure, freshness, and in this case evidently water. 
 
 Skt. uda, water; Gr. vS-top; Gothic vato; A.-S. yS; see 
 Leo, Gloss. A.-S., p. 483 ; our water and wet. Bopp com- 
 pares the New Zealand wai ; Mat. p. 6. 
 
 23. RIVER. 
 
 r, ff) /vwwv 
 
 M^-^A/WW^ aur, the Nile; Copt. i.po, iaro, eiOOp, eioor, 
 river, esp. Nile, and canal. 
 
 In Hebrew "I iP yor, a canal, or the Nile ; it is certainly an 
 adopted word not found in any other Semitic language. 
 
 I give it a place here because of the remarkable coinci- 
 dence with many Turanian languages. The following are noted 
 by Bp. Caldwell in his ' Dravidian Grammar,' p. 480. Lesgian 
 avar, avor, uor ; Yakutan, oryas ; Lappish, wiro ; Ostrak, 
 jeara. 
 
 The Armenian has am. 
 
 Since none of these languages can have taken the word 
 from Egyptian, we must admit that, unless the resemblance is 
 merely fortuitous, they point to a primitive word of which no 
 trace is found in Aryan languages. 
 
 24. WATER. 
 
 , generally "***, mu, water. Copt. JULGUOY 
 and T. JU.OOY, niou, mou, id.
 
 460 OBJECTS; NATURAL. 
 
 Hebrew D^D, ma-yim, Old Assyrian, mie, and ma-nu. 
 Sanskrit, mutra, urine ; so Copt. JULH, and Skt. mih, pour 
 out, uriner, and mih, rain ; both Vedic. Lydian pav. 
 
 25. MOUNTAIN. 
 CD 
 ^ @, tu ; Cop. TUJOT and TOOT, toft and tou, mountain. 
 
 Sanskrit tu, grow. Bopp connects with this root tumeo 
 and tumulus; also the Old Prussian tauta, earth. The 
 radical meaning of tu, as in the Rig Veda, is to be strong, 
 to flourish, &c. ; hence tavas, mighty, with many other de- 
 rivatives. Hence also tunga, height, summit. Dunum and 
 duna are ancient Celtic names for hill; names of cities, 
 Dunmow, Dunkirk, &c. Compare also with tunga, dungo, 
 a hill-fort, whence donjon. 
 
 The African dialects have tu, a rock ; see Rheinisch, p. 14. 
 
 26. TREE. 
 (I, idra, and li , tar, a tree, Birch, v. Brugsch, 
 
 D. H. p. 1520. |l A, tart, a willow ; Cop. otOp> OU5pI> 
 thor, thori, salix. The word however was evidently used 
 in a general sense, thus ^CTZ3, dar, an inclosure or 
 
 park. 
 
 Sanskrit taru, a tree, from the Vedic tar, to spring up, 
 grow, increase, &c. ; also daru, wood or tree, drama, the 
 derivatives from dru (Vedic) show the old meaning to be 
 tree; hence drushad, sitting on a tree. Grassmann, s. v., 
 Greek &pv<;, Goth, true, Old Slavonic drevo, tree. Curtius, 
 275, proves that the word means tree in general, not oak. 
 
 The African languages have tir, tera, &c., trees. The 
 Accadian has tir.
 
 ANIMALS QUADRUPEDS. 461 
 
 27. ox. 
 
 25 _fj^ 7J5)> fat, r g&> bull or ox, (the 25 corresponds most 
 nearly to the Hebrew J, g, and is used always in transcrip- 
 tions from Semitic), and with *=> final, the cow : written also 
 
 fl(| ^ 
 
 The identity with the Sanskrit and Zend go is complete : 
 ' bull ' and also feminine ' cow ' : Danish, koe ; Swedish, ko ; 
 German, kuh ; E. cow. 
 
 Observe that in Latin and Greek g is replaced by &, /3o>9, 
 bos. In the Celtic (Irish, Welsh, Cornish, and Breton) the 
 same change occurs ; see Pictet, i. p. 332. 
 
 28. CALF (a). 
 
 Copt< &*-& CI > bahsi > calf< The Vedic 
 form of ukshan, ox, is vakshas, hence vacca. The common 
 Sanskrit word for calf is vatsa. Closely connected with this 
 is the Gothic faihu, vieh. 
 
 Q J vT 
 
 29. CALF (6). 
 
 anc ^ ent name f r catf- The word has 
 a wide application in the names of animals. In the Sanskrit 
 it .occurs only (so far as I am aware) in the name iba, elephant 
 or buffalo ; but compare eXa</>o?. 
 
 30. HORSE. 
 
 -m-s. Heb. DID, sus. 
 
 The African languages have so, samar, horse ; and so-sa ,
 
 462 ANIMALS QUADRUPEDS. 
 
 so-si, so-rnusa, mare. The Bask has zamaria, jumentum ; 
 Armenian, zambik, mare ; cp. Finnish, tamma, horse. 
 
 (] 1 1 y% , as, swift. Skt. acva, a horse. 
 
 The Sanskrit word for horse, acva, is supposed to have been 
 unknown when the Slavonic-Teutons and Celts separated. 
 It occurs in the form aspo in Zend ; Gr. ITTTTO? ; Lat. equus. 
 We find, however, Lith. aszva, mare, and Old Prussian, aswma, 
 mare's milk. 
 
 There is, however, apparently no connection between the 
 Aryan and Egyptian words, save that in both languages they 
 are probably appellatives. 
 
 (n h-t-v, a steed. 
 A<rr>n v 
 
 Compare Sanskrit haya, hayi (mare) ; hari, a Vedic word, 
 a fiery courser. 
 
 AN ASS. 
 
 The common Egyptian word aa, has no affinities, but Birch 
 gives the term TVfoT ^,0 ^fayf, ass-driver ; which recalls the 
 very old Dravidian word khara, an ass. The derivation 
 from kham, hot, &c., shows that the characteristics were 
 violence, heat, &c. 
 
 The following words scarcely require explanation : 
 
 31. (l(| @ l^J, sau, a sheep. 
 
 32. ^fca and /wv^ &2, ran, represent a wild bull, 
 
 AVN*AA TTn /VWAA /T/J 
 
 or an antelope. Cf. renne-thier, reindeer. 
 
 33. Atrf, cur. Coptic eiOf X> eioul, a gazelle or deer. 
 Heb. Sltf, ayil, id. ' 
 
 34. LION (a). 
 
 /wwv\ r j 
 
 W, sJiena, a lion.
 
 ANIMALS QUADRUPEDS. 463 
 
 35. LION (b). 
 
 "^ w^. Jr" v' maw > ^ s> cat> or ^ on> ^ so 
 
 amem, i.e. the devourer. 
 
 This may be mere onomatopoea, but Birch, cf. 127, connects 
 it more probably with ma, maui, shine, the bright beast. 
 
 Copt. JULOTI> lion 5 JULfe and eJULOT> felis. The word in 
 Old Egyptian is used of fierce, wild felines, and is not likely 
 to refer to the miaulements of a cat. Otherwise we should 
 be reminded of such words as mew, miauler, &c. 
 
 36. LION (c). 
 
 ] i nt^x r~i 
 
 _S^ls\^ I v\ i^ t Idbu, lion. Xi.fi.OI, laboi, a bear. 
 
 Heb. fcOj?, Ar. AA lion, lioness. 
 
 AeW, leo, Lcnve. 
 
 Curtius points out that Xt? was probably drawn from Xf t<?. 
 
 0. H. G. lewon. Cymr. llew. 
 
 The root of the word is 1-b or 1-u. 
 
 The Latin lupus (cf. Copt. Xi.fioi ursus) may be con- 
 nected with this. 
 
 The Egyptian is certainly connected with, and probably 
 derived from the Semitic. 
 
 37. BIRDS IN GENERAL. 
 
 J "~"F^, dp. (1 >*=> apet, water-bird, duck. 
 Heb. *p#. Skt. vi, a bird ; and vayar, &c. 
 Latin avis. 
 
 Compare , of, a fly; i.cj, i.i.q, i.fi, musca, apis, 
 
 and beetle. 
 
 Compare' also Skt. pat and apat, advolare. Gr. iVra/xa/,, 
 peto, penna, &c.
 
 464 ANIMALS BIRDS, INSECTS. 
 
 38. EAGLE. 
 
 ^ Js, <L^tX3AJL, achom, eagle. The radical seems to be 
 L, ach (D. H. 213), to fly, sp. upwards, hence , ahuh, 
 
 griffon, &c. 
 
 Aquila, ashu, eo 
 
 39. GOOSE.. 
 
 , chennen, fly, alight. Also ^*, ye** g ose - 
 
 WWV\ _AJ ' 
 
 Eg. ' Zeitschr.' 1872, p. 96, where it is connected with yf\v. 
 
 The goose appears often as the determinative of chen, 
 chennen, &c. 
 
 Sanskrit hansa ; Gr. xrfv, gans, anser, gus. 
 
 Welsh, gwyz, gandra, gander. 
 
 40. BEETLE. 
 
 n < S > ' X e P er ' ^ e scarabaeus. As a verb the word means 
 to generate, pullulate, &c. The idea is rapid reproduction, 
 quick life. Chafer, G. kafer, corresponds in form and mean- 
 ing. The origin of this word is obscure, but Diefenbach, 2, 
 p. 484, connects it, as I think rightly, with kvius, or qius, 
 quick, %av. Some forms come very near, e.g. A.-S. cweferlice, 
 anxiously, from cwever, vividus. The Slavonian (North Lau- 
 sitz) gives koever, copious, abundant. Our word quiver, 
 tremulous rapid movement, belongs to the same root. Diefen- 
 bach gives cap, A. G. S. alacris, acer, and A. N. kofr used in 
 compounds vehemens, swift. 
 
 Other striking forms are supplied by the Celtic. Cymric, 
 cwybr, and cwifio = quiver. Cwyf, motion, stir. Cornish, 
 chuyvyan, escape (cf. esquiver).
 
 ANIMALS REPTILES. 465 
 
 The Aryan root would seem to be jiv, live, to which kvius 
 and Lith. gywas come nearest. 
 
 The <=> in cheper, is an affix and may be discarded ; chep 
 
 occurs, though not in early texts. I have no doubt as to the 
 connection with Hin khav-vah, life. 
 
 Beetle, see Grimm, Myth. p. 655. Ahd. chevor, cheviro ; 
 mhd. kever, ags. ceafor. Oddly enough ceafortun, atrium. 
 Grimm finds traces of chafer worship in Germany and con- 
 nects it with Egypt. The chafer, herald of spring, was 
 brought in state ; and it represented, or was a herald of, the 
 Goddess of Love, p. 658. Hence Marienkafer, lady-bird. 
 Mary is substituted for Freyja in the old song. 
 
 41. A WORM, REPTILE. 
 
 _, refref, a worm, reptile. 
 Sanskrit, srp or sarp, serpo, repo. Sarpa, a serpent. 
 
 "Ep7ra>, epTTcrov, reptile. 
 
 The meaning, as Curtius ( 338) remarks, is not merely 
 creeping, but in three Aryan languages, moving with a gliding 
 and equable motion on the earth. This is well represented 
 by the reduplicated form in Egyptian. 
 
 Bopp compares ' slip,' &c. 
 
 See Justi for Asiatic forms of the verb, s.v. rap, Zend. 
 
 42. SERPENT, 
 ' and | V""WL a f' serpent. O q> &qu>. 
 
 , afdh, ( J*\, afai. 
 "O<t5. The Aryan derivation proposed by Curtius, 627, 
 seems improbable. 
 
 Note also apep or apopi, great serpent. 
 
 2 H
 
 466 FIRE AND ITS USES. 
 
 43. 
 
 The Slavonic languages have, as a general name of fish, 
 ryba; whence an old North German word rob, and rubbi. 
 Dief. 1, p. 381. This interchange of m and b is common. I 
 find no other trace. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 WORDS CONNECTED WITH EARLY PROCESSES OF CIVILISATION 
 OR MENTAL PROGRESS. 
 
 Fire and its Uses. 
 
 1. TO BURN (a). 
 
 rakhu. pcuK&j rokJi, urere, incendium, 
 lignum combustibile. 
 
 Skt. rue, lucere, splendere, rocana fulgor; Zend, rue, id. 
 Old Persian, ruca, day. Cappadocian, 'Povawv, with analogies 
 in Parsi and Armenian. See Justi, ' Zendsprache,' s.v. rue. 
 
 \v%yo<;, Xev/co?. Luceo (for rocayami), lu-men, for luc-men. 
 Goth, liuhath ; Slav, luca, and luna, as in Latin. Irish, loiche, 
 flame or candle. German, leucht ; A.-S. leoht, light. 
 
 2. TO BURN (b). 
 
 |(|, Jcerer; M. tfepe, qere, accendere, but T. 
 gere. For ^=zx Pierret (p. 629) has Zl in <=> nj, a holocaust, 
 and with I \> an oven. The guttural represents q or gh.
 
 FIRE AND ITS USES. 467 
 
 Hebrew, Tin, kharar, so too all Semitic languages. 
 Skt. gliar (jigharmi), shine ; gharmas, heat. Zend qar. 
 0ep-fj,6<;, see Curtius, p. 485. Goth, varmja, to warm. Euss. 
 gorju, uro. 
 
 3. TO BURN (c). 
 
 TT jwsIJL aka or ago,, consume by heat, and jjl, dch or 
 ah, a holocaust. 
 
 Hebrew H& ah, Jer. xxxii. the hearth, or stove. Arabic, 
 ekhkhu, according to Gesenius, or ajj. 
 
 Skt. agni ; Lat. ignis. 
 
 The Zend atar, or atharvan, comes from a different root. 
 
 4. TO BURN (d). 
 
 consume - 
 
 Heb. ttf & esh. Syr. eshto ; ^Ethiop. esat. 
 Skt. ush, to burn ; ushna, hot ; ushra, flash. Zend, ush, 
 burn. 
 
 Greek, avw'. Cf. Curtius, 600, ei/o>, evw. 
 Latin uro, for uso ; hence ustus, 
 Curtius shows that the old root was ws. 
 
 5. TO GIVE LIGHT. 
 
 , tak, or teka. eclairer, etincelle. etJOK, T. 
 accendere. 
 
 Skt. tejas, splendour, from tig = tik. Also thwicra, shining, 
 Zend. 
 
 Compare also dah, or daksyami, burn. 
 
 2 H 2
 
 468 FIRE AND ITS USES. 
 
 6. TO SHINE. 
 
 -Jpo, ^^=3, to, to shine brightly. Eg.J(l(|, las. 
 Skt. bha, shine brightly. 
 (f>ao<;, fyaiva), tyr^ii, <f>oi/3o<?. 
 Lat. fari. Cf. dico from die. 
 
 N.B. In Sanskrit many words combine the meanings shine 
 and speak ; thus, caksh with kas. See Curtius, p. 297. 
 
 7. TO COOK. 
 
 I JL pes, pas, to cook, or bake ; m, pes, a cake (for 
 offerings). With variants as pesef a cook, &c. nice T. 
 4><LC, $ec and 4>ici M. 
 
 The Coptic has also tfuu&Tgog, a cook. Skt. pac, or originally 
 pak, or (see Curtius, 630) kak (kvak). Zend, pac. The 
 Greek, Treo-crw, then TreTrro?, o/crd?, and o-fyov. Latin, coctus, 
 coquo. Old German, cocho ; hence kuche, cook. For other 
 forms see Bopp, p. 224, and Pictet, 266.' Curd, pesium, 
 coquo ; Ossetian, ficin ; Old Phrygian /3eo<?. 
 
 Persian, ^V C^' bakhtan and pakhtan. Cf. also 
 Arab. Syr. and Heb. tabbach, coquo. 
 
 This word, so widely diffused, gives examples of some of 
 the oldest phonetic changes. 
 
 8. FOOD. 
 
 , yer, food. Cop. I)pe M. pe T. 
 The word is of extreme antiquity ; Pe^eru, offerings to the 
 dead, gave origin to curious words, 4>.^pi, <f)dpfj,atcov, medi- 
 cine or poison. 
 
 Skt. cri or era, for kra ; hence, cir (kir) in acir, cuisson.
 
 PERSONAL HABITS CLOTHING. 469 
 
 From this root come many common words, traced by 
 Pictet, 267, tcpiftavos, K\lfBavo<;, /cepa//,o<?. 
 Irish, cearn, perhaps heordh, hearth. 
 Latin, cremare ; from the causative, crapay. 
 
 Personal Habits. 
 9. TO CLOTHE. 
 
 i hebes. M. g^tUC, hbos, vestis: the original 
 meaning is cover, as in the Sah. ,&, obtegere. 
 
 The Semitic affinities are clear, ttfnn, habash, ligare; 
 hot, however, in the sense of clothing, except as a tiara, 
 Exod. xxix. 9 ; bind for the sake of confining is the general 
 sense in Syriac ; as in the Arabic habs, career. 
 
 On the other hand, Wlh, labash, corresponds exactly in 
 use, Syr. Ar. and .<Eth. 
 
 If we take the syllable common to both, bash or bas, we 
 have the Sanskrit vas, induit vestem, the root of the most 
 common words for clothing in all Indo-Germanic languages. 
 Thus, 
 
 Skt. vasnas, vasana, vasas, &c., clothes in general. Zend, 
 vactra and vaiih. Gr. ecr&fc, evvvfja or Fe<r-vv^L. Lat. vestis. 
 Goth, vasti, gaveisans. Cymr. gwiog. 
 
 But we might expect to find a simpler form than j[ JM' or 
 ; and such a form occurs in Coptic, but in the contrary 
 sense, &A.OJ, bash, naked, strip, for which the nearest equivalent 
 
 seems to be ^^ ,fe%, deshabiller, strip. There is, how- 
 ever, a word ~ ,fex, ceinture, in the Todtenbuch, ch. cxxv. 8, 
 which Birch renders bandages, i.e. oOovia, wrappings. 
 
 The meaning ligare seems to me most ancient, as undoubt- 
 edly the oldest form of clothing.
 
 470 PEBSONAL HABITS CLOTHING. 
 
 10. TO COVER. 
 
 msrnFw P ^ 1 ' means to cover with outspread wings. 
 Brugsch connects it with the Hebrew CDt^D, pash-a,t, out- 
 
 spread. To this I add HDD pasdh; see note on Exod. xii. 11. 
 
 It may be connected with the word 
 flax, fine linen. Hebrew H^l^ip, id. 
 
 Skt. pic, a Yedic word, induere, ornare ; also pac, ligare ; 
 paca, a cord ; hence pac, to bind. Zend, id. 
 
 Greek, 7707 Trtfyvvju, ^9770?, firm, &c. Curt. 343. 
 
 Lat. pango, pac-iscor. 
 
 Goth, fahon, to take hold of, fangen; Old German, ga-fag-on, 
 satisfy. 
 
 Pott and Curtius hold that the old root was paJc ; many 
 curious analogies are pointed out, but it seems clear that the 
 original word meant to gird, or bind ; pointing to a time when 
 the only garment was the kilt. The connection with the 
 Semitic seems to be the act of stretching out a cord for 
 girding. 
 
 11. TO TIE WITH A COKD. 
 */WWAQ n 
 
 n (a x ^' nnu ^> a COI> d, used for measuring. HOP,, noh, 
 
 funis. 
 
 Skt. nah, ligare, nectere. Gr. veto, vr)6w, weave. (Bopp.) 
 Lat. necto. Goth, nehva, near. Old German, nah, near ; nahan, 
 to mend. Irish, nasgaim, a charm ; nas, a band or tie. Pictet. 
 Hence too Gothic, nethla ; O. G. nadala, needle. Breton, neud ; 
 French, nceud. 
 
 All meanings flow from the original cord.
 
 PERSONAL HABITS WASHING. 471 
 
 12. TO WASH. 
 
 a^, wash, pu5^> r <>X> M. p<L^, ?*#;, wasn - 
 
 Sanskrit, ranj, tingere, but fajaka, lavator. I take rakh to 
 be the original word in the sense cleanse or whiten, hence 
 rajata, silver; Gr. apyos, white, apyvpos with the common 
 prefix a. 
 
 The Persian has varashtan, for wliich Yullers (' Supplem.' 
 p. 119) suggests an improbable origin. I have little doubt 
 as to its connection with this group of words. 
 
 Hence the old Greek root pey: see Curtius, 154, pcvyeix;, 
 prrfevs, a dyer ; peypu^^a^a. 
 
 The old Teutonic, according to Grimm (Gram. ii. p. 504), 
 had the word laugs, lavacrum, occurring as the last syllable 
 in many female names, probably in the sense, cleanly ; sc. 
 adal-louc, suanal-louc, swan-like. Old Norse has aslaug, 
 giaflaug. Thus, too, Saturday is called laugar-dagr, bath- 
 day. 
 
 Probably \ova>, lavo, pol-luo, diluvium. The digamma is 
 clear in the old Latin lav-ere, and in the old Greek form 
 Xoet for Xofe. See Curtius, 547. The Cyprians seem to 
 have kept the ^ in the usual form s, but to have looked on 
 the process as an unpleasant one, a,7ro\ovo-e/j>evat, icoXofBooo-eiv. 
 Hesych. quoted by Curtius, I.e. 
 
 The Semitic languages have the root ; as usual, the JEthiopic 
 comes near to the Egyptian, CrhG, rahada : drenched in sweat. 
 Thus, rhft, rahasa, madidus fuit; Ar. ,j>^-\ rahada, lavit 
 
 corpus, or vestes. The Hebrews confine VH"), rdhats, to 
 washing the body, having another word (ODD) for washing 
 clothes.
 
 472 DWELLINGS. 
 
 13, TO SPRINKLE. 
 
 *VWVt/\i*kWS 
 
 *w*,ntsi, liquid, Copt. ltO*CX^ } nugh, to sprinkle. 
 
 Heb. and Arab. n3, tf-"^, natsah, natsaha. Sk. nij, 
 wash. Gr. vifa, vimrm. Old Irish, ni-ges, lavator ; nigther, 
 washed. See Curt. 439. 
 
 Compare also Goth, natjan; Old G. naz; G. nass,'netzen, 
 our nasty. 
 
 The Turanians have the word ; Magyar nedu ; Finnish, neste, 
 liquor. See Diefenbach, 2, p. 105. 
 
 Habitation of Man. 
 14. THE HOUSE (a). 
 ^=2, ^^(jflp, par, parlt, a house or a palace. 
 
 The origin of the word is undoubtedly ^55=? , in the sense 
 of go forth, in various senses, (1) 'go forth into light from 
 
 darkness.' common in the Todtenbuch, =3 ^\ ' ^ \\ O 
 
 < > Jws<r^> n 
 
 par em hru', (2) a plant, or young bud, as ^^ft^Jj 
 par, a herb, and ^j=2. 3^ ,par, corn. Thus the Hebrew has 
 a large number of words beginning with "ID, phar or par, 
 with the radical sense ' burst forth.' Nearest to the Egyptian 
 are KID, para, or with H parah, which Gesenius, Thes. 
 s.v. renders ferre, sp. fructum, and ^"1D, perl, fruit or corn. 
 The Aryan analogies are numerous and striking, for which 
 see Curtius, 412. 
 
 The commonest of all words derived from this root is that 
 which I have given above, a house with lofty portals, repre- 
 sented in Hebrew by the title Pharaoh, lit. the great house, 
 a palace or temple, from which a god, or king goes forth.
 
 DWELLINGS. 473 
 
 The Latin porta, with its derivatives, comes very near in form 
 and meaning. Compare also fores, ' foribus vomit superbis.' 
 
 The African dialects have pere, perei, a house ; perei, a 
 village, and pere-da, a doorway. 
 
 With the word in this sense we may compare the Sanskrit 
 pura, and puri, a town, or simply a habitation. Hence 7r6\t<s, 
 perhaps also 
 
 15. THE HOUSE (6). 
 
 o ^ CZ"Z3, or ^i 1, at or aat, house, magazine, &c. 
 
 The Accadian or Sumerian has ea, house, ' Journ. asiatique,' 
 1873, p. 115. . 
 Or 
 
 T , naa-f, a habitation. 
 Heb. ^^3, naa. 
 Gr. vaico, 
 
 16. A CLOSE, FORT, OR SANCTUARY. 
 
 * Vf^ 
 
 v m\, tern, a temple or chapel. The root seems to be 
 tern, to shut out, exclude. Akin to this are the words 
 
 tern, to cut, or a sword ; and fi n _^ tma, and 
 
 teme, a village, or fortified place, TJULG and T~JUU- 
 
 There are several variants of these words, but the general 
 
 meaning of the first root is evidently to enclose and shut out ; 
 
 of the second, to cut off, and fortify. 
 
 The Coptic TCUJUL an d OU3 JUL preserves the first meaning 
 or (jjpdaa-o) ; also another common meaning, 
 
 \x 
 
 to bind or fasten.
 
 474 DWELLINGS. 
 
 Hebrew has DCD& atam, close, shut ; DKT\ taam, con- 
 junctus fuit. 
 
 Aryan affinities are numerous and clear. 
 
 Skt. dama, and dam, a house ; Zend demana, or in the 
 Gathas, nmana. 
 
 Greek, SO/AO?, Sw/^a, &c. ; Lat. domus ; A.-S. team, a family. 
 Slavonic, dom, &c. ; Irish, damh, house, family. 
 
 The root of the Aryan words is probably dam, domare, or 
 , from e&>, to bind. 
 
 17. A TOWN OR VILLAGE. 
 
 J JT^TTTTT-' bak, Copt. &<LJa> baki, town or habitable 
 place. 
 
 Here it must be borne in mind that b, v, and p, are inter- 
 changeable in cognate languages, or dialects of the same 
 
 language ; as e.g. ^ , feJc, wages ; Copt. &eKG. 
 
 We have thus a large family of words more or less directly 
 connected. 
 
 Skt. veca (for veka) entrance, or house ; vecaka, vicman, 
 &c. derived from vie' (for vik) to enter ; compare per, a palace, 
 from the verb par to go out. Zend, vie, a house or village. 
 Gr. ot'/eo9, for FOIKO? ; Latin, vicus, vicinus ; Gothic, veiks ; 
 A.-S. wic ; Slavonic, vesi, wies, wioska ; Irish, fich. 
 
 18. A WALL. 
 
 I 11 || , sebti, a wall, from I Jl =D3D, to surround and 
 protect Copt. co&T"> mums circumvallationis. 
 Lat. sep-io, sepes, septum.
 
 DWELLINGS. 475 
 
 19. A CHAMBER. 
 
 II > as; probably also H =05, as in fj-^s;*- Asar, Osiris. 
 
 Skt. vas, inhabit, vasta, a house, vastis, dwelling. Grk. a<rrv 
 and ecrrta. Lat. vesta. 0. H. G. wes-t, a mansion ; Gothic, 
 visan, manere. Cf. Curtius, 206 ; Bopp, Gl. s. v. vas. 
 
 20. A DOOR. 
 
 > fa-* a door > see E - z - 1873 > P- 10 - Ifc 
 
 _l 
 
 is, however, a Semitic word, and does not occur before the 
 19th dynasty. See Maspero, ' Du Genre epistolaire,' p. 9. 
 Heb. JH fl, Syr. id. Skt. dvar. Greek, 6vpa. 
 
 21. A LOCK. 
 
 , k-r, a bolt, evidently a bar. Copt. 
 
 Brugsch gives the variants, and compares K/2, ^^, /c\e/o>, 
 <f, clavis. 
 
 Verbs indicating Mental Action. 
 22. TO CONSIDER, UNDERSTAND. 
 
 ^ (Birch gives this with a reference, but it is 
 
 
 not cited by Brugsch or Pierrot), understand. Copt. 
 
 Also (B. D. H.) ^^_^ > kad-nu, think with craft or subtlety ; 
 
 see also B. D. H. vol. vii. p. 1234. 
 
 kaht > kaat-hat, sapiens.
 
 476 MENTAL PROCESSES. 
 
 This important addition is taken from the 'Mel. eg.' by 
 Chabas and Goodwin. 
 
 Skt. cit, to know, animadvertere, a Vedic word, common in 
 the lengthened form cint. The old . form kit is also Vedic in 
 the desiderative form, see Essay on the Eig Veda, p. 50. 
 
 Gr. KeSvos, KijSopcu. Latin, catus. Lithuanian, ketta, con- 
 silium capere. 
 
 23. TRUTH, JUSTICE. 
 
 ^ Ro, md-t, truth, justice. The ideograph is z=J, or 
 older still ^^^ , a measuring rule, or a finger, the oldest 
 
 mode of measuring. Copt. jme> we, T. jtJLKI> m ^i> truth. 
 
 Few words have a wider range. 
 
 Skt. ma, measure ; matr, mother, the apportioner ; matra, 
 materials. 
 
 Lat. metior, mod-us, immensus, immanis, materies from 
 matra, Skt. 
 
 Goth, mat, mitan. 
 
 Our mete. 
 
 N.B. The varied and important uses of this word in Egyp- 
 tian have been developed by Abel, ' Untersuchungen,' and by 
 Ludwig Stern (author of the best Coptic grammar), in the 
 Eg. ' Zeitschrift.' 
 
 24. TO KNOW. 
 
 , reck. See Section I. No. 13. 
 Skt. re, to go to ; rj, acquire. 
 \<>709, Xej, 70). 
 
 Goth, ragin, counsel, and rahnjan. 
 A.-S. recnan. 
 G. rechnen ; E. reckon.
 
 MENTAL PROCESSES. 477 
 
 25. TO CONSIDER. 
 
 "-"-i, mak, watch, consider, &c. 
 
 Skt. (with r), marc (for mark), touch, consider. 
 
 Merken. 
 
 Mark. 
 
 26. TO ABIDE, REMAIN, REMEMBER. 
 
 , man. Cop. jtJLHrtj men, to be steady, abide, &c. 
 Hence, 
 
 , man, or mannu, a monument or memorial. 
 
 Cop. JUL-IIt> signum, 
 In Egyptian and in Indo- Germanic languages the two 
 leading notions of remaining and remembering are combined. 
 Skt. man, puto, manas, mens ; mna. 
 Zend, upa-man, manere. Persian gumanldan, putare. 
 Greek, /<iez/a>, fjuvdo/jLai, //.ez/o?. 
 Lat. maneo, memini, monere, monumentum, mens. 
 Goth, ga-munan, mun-s (vorj/ut) meina. 
 Teut. meinen, mean, mind. 
 For the connection with ' man,' see Section I. No. 1. 
 
 27. TO TEACH. 
 
 See Section I. No. 77. 
 
 , a teacher; e&o, discere, and c<L&e> sapiens. 
 2. Also mahar. 
 
 28. TO ADORE. 
 
 ^ or ^ dua> duaa; adore> a 
 
 ancient and very common word.
 
 478 MENTAL PKOCESSES. 
 
 Skt. dhyae (dyayami) meditate, contemplate ; 
 Still nearer comes the derivative Qa? , whence Oapai, O 
 look at with admiration and wonder, hence 0ea, davpa, &c. 
 Curtius, p. 253. 
 
 See also section on Objects, p. 445. 
 
 29. TO BEAR WITNESS. 
 
 <=> I I , meter, Copt. jtt.eope> methres, witness. 
 
 This strange word has two strange analogies; one with 
 ftdprvp, which Curtius derives from Skt. smar, memini, of 
 doubtful origin ; but the phonetic correspondence is striking ; 
 the other with the Latin testis, testari (of shameless exposure). 
 Nothing more common in Egyptian than words derived from 
 met = Latin testis. The Hebrew "|3f zakar has the same 
 double entente. 
 
 The following words may possibly belong to the same 
 root. Skt. medh, convenire, intelligere. Grk. fuiO, pavOdvw 
 (e/uidov), fi^Bofjuai. Lat. meditor. 
 
 To reward, JEth. QftP, asa, 
 
 30. TO REQUEST, PETITION, &C. 
 
 X "* X ' <~> 1?' s P er ' W ^' re( l uest - Hence the very 
 ancient office, master of requests or petitions ; see De Eouge, 
 * Eecherches/ p. 86. 
 
 Skt. sprh, sparh, to desire. 
 
 Lat. spero. 
 
 0. Norse, spir, ask ; and Scotch, speer.
 
 MENTAL PROCESSES. 479 
 
 31. TO EXAMINE, VERIFY. 
 
 \^x j) i-L] , uia, examine, discern, or 
 
 y^^^ 1 ud-t, place in order. 
 
 The Hebrew J/T* yada, corresponds nearly in form and 
 exactly in meaning. 
 
 The connection with Skt. vid, and its numerous derivatives, 
 eiB(o, videre, wissen, wit, &c., is scarcely open to question. 
 
 32. TO MEASURE, WEIGH. 
 
 Q, mach, measure, weigh, reflect. Copt. 
 
 See No. 25. 
 Skt. mah, to measure ; see Curtius, 473. 
 
 German messen, mass, &c. 
 
 33. CARPENTERS' WORK. 
 
 n _ , n-tz-r, to hammer, plane, or shape. 
 
 , nashar, saw, or plane; Talmudic, *1D3, nasar. 
 
 Both in Egyptian and Semitic the n is evidently a prefix. 
 We may, therefore, compare repea, reperpov, ropevca. See 
 Curtius, 239, and Bopp, Gloss, s.v. tr. 
 
 Lat. tero, terebra. 
 
 A.-S. thravan, torquere ; 0. H. G. drajan, tomare. 
 
 Slavonic, trek ; Celtic (Old Irish) tarathar, terbera. 
 
 34. T> CLOSE, &c. 
 , teb, to shut up, close. Copt. Te&> a seal. 
 
 coffer, ark, coffin.
 
 480 MENTAL PKOCESSES, 
 
 Heb. N2n, derived probably from the Egyptian. 
 Gr. 0d7rroj, ra^o9. Taufan. Lith. dubus, deep. Our dip 
 and deep. 
 
 This last section might be considerably enlarged. On the 
 one hand I have not admitted words of which the forms 
 or meaning could be fairly contested, or which would require 
 discussion of the phonetic laws which affect the transition 
 from one language to another. A large collection of such 
 words might be made, and defended on scientific grounds in 
 a work specially devoted to the subject. On the other hand 
 many words, which I have adduced in the preceding sections, 
 might have found a place in this, as indicating, if not proving 
 a considerable advance in civilisation, and especially in the 
 development of thought, within the period which preceded 
 the earliest separation of the human race. I would call 
 special attention to the following ; in Section I., to numbers 
 13, 15, 16, 19, 66 to 80: in Section II. to the verbs of 
 sensation, p. 410, f. ; and of speech, p. 414, and in Section III. 
 to p. 428 f., where the singularly complete list of words 
 designating acts of violence shows that the first advances in 
 civilisation were accompanied by a development of fierce 
 passions and a progress in the art of war, especially in the 
 use of .destructive weapons. 
 
 With reference to the whole of this collection I would ask 
 the reader to notice the number of words, not less than 250, 
 which I have adduced as substantially identical, both as to 
 form and meaning, in Egyptian, Semitic, Aryan, and Anaryan 
 languages. It is true that some deductions may be allowed, 
 partly for repetition, partly for doubtful or contested forms or 
 significations, but such deductions affect but a small propor- 
 tion of the words, and leave intact a number sufficient to 
 establish the great point for which I have contended that of 
 the primeval unity of the human family.
 
 MENTAL PROCESSES. 481 
 
 I must also observe that this number, large as it may 
 seem, is very far from exhaustive. I had myself collected a 
 much larger number than those to which exception might be 
 taken, for the two sections which, for reasons stated in the 
 Introduction, I have omitted. 
 
 In fact had I proceeded upon an entirely different system ; 
 had I taken all the Egyptian words as they stand in the 
 vocabularies of Birch, Brugsch, and Pierret, I feel confident, 
 as the result of repeated experiments, that a very small 
 proportion would have proved incapable of reduction to a 
 general system of identification with Semitic, Aryan, or 
 Anaryan roots. Such a process conducted by competent 
 scholars, when the principles of phonetic decay, renovation, 
 and transformation, now generally recognised, are fairly and 
 consistently applied, will, as I doubt not, ere long remove 
 any remaining doubts as to the original unity of all languages 
 spoken by families of the human race. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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