THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH NAMES OF PLANTS. 617 



Now, when we find two words thus etymologically identical conveying 

 the same meaning in different languages, we may safely conclude that 

 the object which they signify was known to the ancestors of the nations 

 speaking those languages, before they separated from each other. As an 

 example let me cite our word " ox ". It exists in this form in English, 

 as " ukshan" in Sanscrit, in the feminine " vacca", a cow, in Latin, and 

 in various other forms in many other European and Asiatic languages. 

 As it is always applied to cattle, we may feel certain that before our fore- 

 fathers and those of our Hindoo fellow-subjects separated from each 

 other, cattle were known to them, and had received a distinctive apella- 

 tion. But we can go further, and assert that the cattle had been domesti- 

 cated, and were used for purposes of draught ; for the word comes from 

 a root signifying to draw, which is found in the Latin verb " veho", 

 whence our word " vehicle " ; and this title can only have been given to 

 an animal from its being used for the purpose named. The word " ox " 

 therefore suffices to assure us that the Indo-European, or as it is other- 

 wise called the Arian, race, before it scattered south and west from 

 its cradle in Central Asia, had attained such a degree of civilization as 

 is implied by the domestication of animals. Let us take another word, 

 " mead " meaning honey-wine. It originates in a root meaning prima- 

 rily to be demented or insane, whence our word " mad ", but it was also 

 applied to that temporary form of insanity produced by the excessive 

 use of alcoholic liquors ; and finally, apparently because the condition of 

 drunkenness was regarded as one of complete felicity, the verb came to 

 mean to be happy. " Mead" comes from the root in its second significa- 

 tion, anil means an intoxicating drink in several languages both of Europe 

 and Asia, showing us that the Arians were by no means total abstainers. 

 But the word has often also the alternative meaning of "honey ", and we 

 may further infer that the old Arians used a stimulant which, like the 

 " mead" that was such a favourite tipple with our Anglo-Saxon fore 

 fathers, was made from fermented honey. 



From words like these which are common to Europe and Asia, 

 and must therefore have existed, in some form or other, in the 

 original Arian language, much has been learned respecting these 

 remote prehistoric ancestors of ours, their mode of life, domestic 

 relations, arts, government, and religious belief. But there are many 

 more words that are found only in the different families of language 

 that are spoken in Europe ; and these are presumably of more recent 

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