248 On Mail's Influence in effecting 



name of the animal, which, through the great migration of 

 nations from the east to the west, about A. D. 400, spread as 

 far westward as the animal itself. This doubt about the name 

 of the animal, in a country where it was formerly called Urus, 

 (for I now venture to speak of the Bison and Urus as identi- 

 cal), is most clearly shewn in the work of a monk of St. Gal- 

 len,* who describes a hunting party of Carolus Magnus, which 

 was held in honour of the Persian ambassadors, not far from 

 Aachen, (Aix la Chapelle), probably in the Ardennes, in or- 

 der to kill Uri or bisons. Now although the author makes 

 use of the particle vel, {Bisontes vel Uri), which may be con- 

 strued in favor of either view, yet I trust no one will suppose 

 that the Ardennes were inhabited by both the Paeonian Bison 

 and the Gallic Urus. Besides, as only one individual was 

 killed, the monk would no doubt have stated to which of the 

 two species it belonged, had he thought of more than one. 



From about that time, the names of Wisen, Wisant, Vi- 

 sent,f as derived from Bison ; and Ur, Our, Auer, Urochs, 

 Auerochs, &c. as derived from Urus, appear to have been in- 

 differently applied, in Germany, to the wild indigenous ox of 

 middle Europe, until the latter set of names superseded the 

 former ; and in proportion as the animal was driven farther 

 east, they followed it through eastern Germany and Prussia, 

 to its present abode, as the Sclavonian name of zimbr or zubr 

 has done from a different quarter. + There are other Latin 



*Monachus Sangallensis, ' De Gestis Car. Mag.' lib. ii. c. 11. His work 

 is printed in Basnage Thes. Mon. Eccl. Mag. ; Bouquet Script. Rer. Gal.; 

 Duchesne Script. Hist. Franc. ; Hahnii Monum. Sec. It is dedicated to 

 Carolus Crassus, and consequently written within memory of many of the 

 hunting party which the monk of St. Gallen describes in such a detailed 

 and matter-of-fact way, that there is no doubt he obtained the particulars 

 from an eye-witness. We shall have occasion to return to this subject when 

 speaking of the horns of the Bison and Urus. 



fCuvier thinks that the name of Wisen <kc. is derived from the German 

 Bisam, (musk), and that Bison is of German origin ; (' Ossein. Foss. t. 

 iv. p. 114). 1 should rather think that Bisam was derived from the name 

 of the animal, in which the smell of musk forms so striking a feature. — 

 However this may be, the word Bison may have originated among the bar- 

 barous nations, as Oppian knew no better derivation than from the Bisto- 

 nian Thracians. Cyneg. ii. 155. 



X I have been somewhat puzzled by a verse which occurs in our ancient 

 epic, the ' Nibelungenlied,' the origin of which may be traced to the 9th 

 century. The verse in question relates to the achievements of Siegfried or 

 Sifrit, the hero of the poem, who, in a hunting party held in Burgundy, is 

 said to have killed one wisent and four ours. 



o 



" Darnach sluch er schiere einen Wisent und einen Elch, 



o 

 " Starcher Ure viere und einen grimmen Schelch." 

 But if we consider how many other tautologies occur in that fantastic po- 



