THE

UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE.

JULY, 1878.

AN ARYAN ANCESTOR.

land by

We have many reasons for feeling The view we have expressed of 2 special interest in the Aryans. the primeval Aryans as the domi. . When we look for the traditional nant race of an early period will cradle of our race, a star overhangs allow of room for the questions the Orient. Our language finds its whether Egypt is not older still roots in a spreading centre which than Aryana, and whether the is ascribed to the regions lying differences between the so-called south of the great river Oxus, and Semitic languages of the Phænician between Euphrates on the west and and Hebrew peoples and those of Indus on the east. As members of the so-called Indo-Germanic group the Indo-Germanic family, we own are not differences due to variation sonship to the Friesic tribes, who rather than to absence of fellowship filled the wild fringes of Northern in origin. The hieroglyph and the Europe, and made our Anglo- oldest cuneiform have not yet been Saxondom by westward invasion, fully explored and compared with as no doubt they had made their other ancient alphabets. own domain of Friez and Teuton- A clue which will fairly exemplify

incursion from their the ramifications of the Aryan ancestral east.

brotherhood may be found in our This Aryan expansion it would word "wit,” or “wot.” This same be prudent to style the beginning word is to be traced with slight of a semi-historical period rather variation through the Gothic, the than the first colonisation of a Anglo-Saxon, the old Norman, the world. When the noble nomads German. In the Greek it is cida Fandering eastward reached India or oida, preceded by the obsolete (Arya in Sanscrit signifies noble) letter vau.

In Latin it is video. they found rude darker races to In Sanscrit it appears as vid and subjugate. Somewhat degenerated in the well-known Veda, making by from their ancient superiority, a variation also bodhi and budha, these conquerors themselves are both signifying deep knowledge. now ruled by another and stronger Perhaps it is the Assyrian idū, to shoot of the Aryan branch which know, or to oversee. In Zend it extended itself westward, and, not- is the A-vista (vid), the book of withstanding many a fusion, lives knowledge. still in England with distinction To return to Anglo-Saxon again, and unexhausted vitality.

the same word forms the name of

1

the deity Voden, Woden, or Odin (old Egyptian kam, a reed ; Sanscrit, German wuotan), the equivalent of kalm ; Hebrew, gome, reedgrass, the Hermes or god of wisdom. From rush; Greek, kalapos ; Arabic, , Woden it comes to us as Wednesday, qalam; German, halm, French, and it were to be hoped, if it were chaume, stubble ; English, halm, not too much to hope, that with haulm, are evidently one word. such an ancestry we could all have A more singular word-history at least one wise or witty day in a still may be found in the following. week.

Among the deities of the Veda, Another word which also signifies which gives the most ancient trace to know appears in our language of the Aryans in India, is Varuna, in the verbs ken, can, con, acquaint, the sky, and the god who resides in and know, and in the adjectives the sky. It is easy to perceive the canny and cunning. It is Gothic connection between Varunas, the kunnan ; Anglo-Saxon, can, cennan, nightly firmament, and the Greek and cnawan ; Swedish, kunnig and ουρανός, the heaven or the sky kceanna ; Dutch and German, (ouranos, which might, with the kennen; Danish, kan; Sanscrit, gná, obsolete Greek letter vau, have gânâmi; Zend, hunara, Pazand, been written vouranos). It is not khunar (science), also Zend vaen, until we come to Egypt, however, and Pazand vinastan and ginastan, that we reach the origin of the to perceive; Greek, yıváo kelv; Latin, word. There the great water of cognoscere ; old French, connoistre. the Nile was worshipped as a perFrom these roots -- knowledge sonification of the beneficence of conveying power--come the words nature. As to the Egyptian this signifying king, old English cyning, mighty stream seemed to make a German könig, and possibly the highway through the world, so was Tatar khan.

there imagined to be a splendid An Aryan ancestry of language spiritual highway through the is here pretty clear, but there is no firmament. Along this the dissign in the words given of Egyptian embodied spirit was supposed to or Hebrew brotherhood.

pass on its journey to the Unseen. Before turning more particularly This highway was the Urnas, or to our Aryan forefathers, it may

be celestial water, personified as interesting to give a few instances deity of the sky. The derivation in which the connection between of this word may perhaps be ura, the older languages is readily to be great, and na, water, the hierotraced.

glyphic symbols for which roots In Egyptian hieroglyphs may be both appear in the sign representing found más, anoint; masu, anoint, urnas. We seem to have had the dip. In Zend mashya is clarified word handed down to us English butter. In Hebrew and Syriac mes. folk not only in the Urania and siah, meshihha, in Arabic masih, other variations which we draw signify anointed. In Egyptian from Greek, but in the word urn khab, Assyrian caccabu, Hebrew or water vessel, and in another kóhhabi, alike signify a star. word signifying water, employed

We find in Egyptian makheru, now in a limited sense. justified, especially in reference to An element transferable from the dead after judgment; in generation to generation, and from Assyrian magaru, obedient, happy ; race to race, which would appear to in Greek mákap, blessed, happy, be as indestructible as etymological especially an epithet of the lately roots, is spiritual thought or philodead.

sophy; that is, the results of such

a