rally look to a Sabine source. I derive it from the French sortir,31 to come forth, to leap out; which, as it has no known origin in Italy or in Germany, must be presumed to be an old Gaulish word. Perhaps the Welsh Sorth, sudden, is of the same root. We greatly need some one to reconstruct out of the French a vocabulary of the Gaulish, which would be valuable, however fragmentary. Lepsius, in the end of his treatise on the Umbrian and Oscan inscriptions, gives a list of all the words which ancient authors have marked as Sabine. They are in number 61, but 27 of these are names of deities, which we can seldom understand even in pure Latin or Greek. Many of them are stated to have been almost the same in Sabine as in Latin, and probably therefore passed through many Italian nations, especially Saturnus, Ops, Jupiter, Diana, Vortumnus. Yet Salus, Fors, Fides, Flora, Sol, Luna, Lucina, Terminus, Novensides, we distinctly understand; and eight out of the nine we can pronounce to give the same sense in Celtic as in Latin. Salus has already been noticed as Welsh. There is also Ffyd, faith; Gael. Flur, a flower, and probably once Seul, the sun; (for there is Solus, light; Suil, the eye; and Welsh Heul, the sun ;) likewise G. Luan, moon; W. Llug, light; Novensides or Novensiles evidently xavósópot; where both elements are Celtic as well as Latin. As for Terminus, the Welsh is Terfyn; Erse, Tearmann; Gr. tépμav or tépuat. The Welsh have also Term, a term; τέρμων τέρματ. Termio, to fix a term; perhaps from the Anglo-Normans. Terfyn (pronounced as Ter-mhyn,) is referred by some to Tir, terra, and Maen, lapis; and as tep is not known as Greek, tépuwv and répuat bring no objection. But Benfey, Bopp, and Pott, refer tépua to the Sanscrit tri, to finish.—Of the remaining 34 Sabine words, six have been already noted as Celtic, if we overlook shades of pronunciation. Twenty-eight remain, of which I cannot explain more than six as Celtic: they are, Catus, sharp; Cumba, a litter; Herna, a rock; Irpus, a wolf; Nero, strong, active; Terenus, delicate. Catus, sharp, may be claimed as belonging to the Celtic Catau, to cut.-Cumba, a litter, is so like the Latin Cumbo, Cubo, as to make us surprised to hear it called Sabine; especially since Cubo is xúлTW. Yet the practical senses of Cumbo and xúлτw are not identical: what if Cubo itself was Celtic, although it was too old in the Latin tongue to be felt as foreign? The Gaelic has Cub, to crouch, stoop; Cuba, a bed; Cuba-chuil, a bed-nook, a bed-chamber.-Carn is a rock or a heap of stones; pl. Cairn. If this was sounded Chairn by the Italian Celts, the Latins might make Herna of it.-As for Irpus, there is in Gaelic Arpag, any ravenous creature [cf. Greek]; and in the Welsh Dict. Arfaid is given as a rare word for a wolf. But here the Anglo-Saxon aids us, which, when it is un-Teutonic, may be presumed to preserve old British words. It has Eorp, a wolf; which is Sabine very closely. But Erpr is also Icelandic. Nero rises out of Welsh Ner, a lord; W. and G. Neart, strength, power.- Terenus might have seemed to be Greek, but it is distinctly called Sabine, and the name Terentius referred to it. We find it precisely in the Welsh; viz. Ter, fine, refined; Teru, to purify; Tirion, gentle, comis or amoenus. Neglecting those deities who may be said to have proper names, I find that of 41 words, 18 have been here made out as Celtic. Vesperna, Trafere, Vefere, Alpus,—for Supper, Trahere, Vehere, Albus, one may suspect to be mere Sabine modifications of the Latin. There remain chiefly the following, to explain which from Celtic would be desirable. Tesqua, thorny wilds; (W. Dalivus, supinus, stultus, miser. Tebae, collis. (W. Dall, blind.) Fasena, arena.33 ( San.aranya.) Februum, purgamentum. 3 Have we here the origin of the Latin termination -culum ? Cùil, a nook, Σκοῖλον. 23 If the poetical use of Arēna is the Tesog, parched by the sun : original one, it➡ ägouga, and belongs to Aro, a verb found in very various and distant tongues. LAR is a Latin and Sabine deity identified with the hearth,the male Italian parallel of the female Greek "Estía or Vesta. In Gaelic there is Làr, the floor, the earth; Làrach, a site or abode; Laoran, too fond of the fire-side. No other root but Làr appears for the last will any one conjecture that Llaor [Welsh Llawr] once meant the hearth? "Flatness" is certainly the leading idea in Floor and in Hearth, and Schwenck, in his German Dictionary, compares the German Herd, a hearth, with the Swiss Herd, "the ground." Is the similarity of Earth and Hearth accidental? Teallach in Gaelic means the Hearth, and in Irish the Earth. On the whole, if it be considered how much of the old tongues must have perished, more than enough seems to have been written in proof that the Sabine was a Celtic tongue. But I anticipate one more objection, that the Sabine character is too opposite to that of the Celts of Gaul and Britain, to allow the belief of this. Having no faith whatever in the unchangeableness of races, I find nothing here to refute. Yet it may be fair to remark, that among those who talked Hellenic, and understood one another, we find differences of national character as extreme as any in Europe: Spartans, Tarentines, Acarnanians, Athenians, Arcadians, Milesians, Boeotians,are they not as unlike as Frenchmen and Spaniards, as Neapolitans and Englishmen ? Grant that the Sabines were the Dorians of Italy: would the Irish & not deserve to be counted their Helots? As regards the manners of the primitive Sabines, there is one Gaulish trait which has been arbitrarily rejected by Niebuhr as poetical fable,—their wearing heavy bracelets of gold on their left arms. See the passages concerning the Gauls in Prichard, vol. III. p. 180; add Virg. Æn. 660, lactea colla auro innectuntur. The poorer Germans sometimes wore a large iron ring; Tacit. Germ. Compare the Agathyrsi of Herodotus, who were χρυσοφόροι τὰ μάλιστα ; and it will appear to be a genuine mark of boastful barbarism.35 34 The ancient Gauls are often stigmatized for an unchasteness so gross and general as to be characteristic of them. I do not know whether M. Michelet is correct in announcing nearly the same fact of his own countrymen, and imputing it to their Celtic [Gaul ish] blood but the Irish Celts are as irreproachable in domestic purity as the best of the Sabines, and indeed may rebuke in this the self-complacency of the English. 35 Not many years back, voyagers reported that the Californians hung about This paper has already run to a great length; and I shall close it by some rather miscellaneous observations. If it is conceded that I have established my point, it will follow that the Celtic tongues afford most new hope for the Eugubine inscriptions. For every old Italian tongue, the matter of first moment seems to be,-to reconstruct the Italian and Gaulish Celtic, as far as possible; for which the low Latin, the Patois of France, and the modern languages of Northern Italy, must afford, I should think, considerable materials. With Latin, old Celtic and Iberian, we should seem to have the ingredients of every thing except Etruscan. If we could clear the Latin of Celtic and Greek, so as to exhibit what may be called a fragmentary Siculian, it would still be proper to use other northern languages in explaining special words, which came in (it might be presumed) before the Siculians entered Italy. I would venture thus to illustrate the classes of Servius Tullius. If Classis meant the whole èxxλŋcía, it would naturally be derived a calando, although its termination may seem more Greek than Latin. But as it is clearly in sense equivalent to τάξις or συμμορία, calare does not hit that which is distinctive of it. Now, the Icelandic has Klasi, a union or collection of things; which is just what we want. In fact, Tay seems to rise out of the northern root Tack or Tag, nectere; (cf. the Homeric Terayov and t) which makes Klasi and Tá identical. The Icelandic has been kept pure from Roman influence, and does not use Klasi as the English and Germans use Class.-Yet Klasi itself must have some higher root; qu. that of xoλláw? The French Colle glue implies that this was also Gaulish. The word Classis goes along with Censeo; and both may be presumed to be words of the Prisci Latini. The manifest meaning of Censeo is to reckon; and upon comparing it with neμmálo, I persuade myself that the old Latins said Kensh for Five,-between Sanskrit Pandj and Sabine Quing. If it be conceded that much of Celtic has entered Latin, the comparison of the Erse numerals will make it highly probable that the whole numeral system was remodelled by the Sabines. Indeed, if we believe that Numa re-arranged the Roman year, or even reflect how the calendar was managed by a Sabine priesthood, such a result seems almost inevitable. The old Latin numerals are likely thenceforward to have been called Oscan. As regards the Greek which has entered the Latin language, a very delicate problem is presented to us. So consistent and positive are the accounts of Greek colonies on the coast of Latium, before the historical age; so clearly Greek is the worship of Hercules 36 by the hereditary priesthood of Potitii and Pinarii at the Ara Maxima; so distinct is Pliny's testimony of a town called Antipolis on the Janiculum, when another called Saturnia was on the site of Rome;-so manifest is the powerful influence of Greece on Southern Etruria;-that I cannot doubt there was an Hellenic element in the oldest Roman population. From these may have come a positive importation of words into the Siculian. On the other hand, many words which the Greeks and Latins have in common, might properly be said to have been given by the Latins to the Greeks, viz., by such Siculian tribes as in their westward movement fell short of Italy. In fact, if the Pelasgians were Siculians, they must no doubt have imported to the Hellenic no inconsiderable dash of Latin words. At the same time these very words may have come to Greeks and Latins alike from a northern people, say Celtic. For instance, λsłoç, ñaλáμŋ; lēvis, palma, must be identified with the Welsh, Llae, an expanse, Llaw Gaelic Lamh, a hand; which shew us the common source. Bouxoλos is the Gaelic Buachaille, cowherd; Erse, Buachail; which O'Brien derives from Cal, to keep safe: and there seems no doubt that the word is not formed in the Greek. Túpavvos also, and 'Quɛavòs, are probably Celtic. In fact, as the law of movement was from north to south, and from east to west, it is reasonable ceteris paribus to look to the north as the origin, except where we find the same words in Asia also. = Learned Greeks flattered their own national pride in teaching the Romans that their language was derived from the Hellenic; and to this day they have propagated the unfounded notion, that whatever words are both Greek and Latin, must necessarily have come from Greece into Latium. Of this preju 36 Why Niebuhr and others are so incredulous about this, I cannot imagine. Haec sacra Romulus una ex omnibus peregrina suscepit, Liv. i. 7. There is no greediness here to refer every thing to the Greeks. |