196 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 114., Mar. 6. '58. 



of individuals. Now, of thirteen individuals of 

 different ages, anywhere assembled, there is always 

 a probability that one, at least, will die during the 

 year. Of course the same is true of twelve, — only 

 the probability is diminished, and so on of every 

 number : but by avoiding thirteen at dinner, or 

 anywhere else, it is clear that we do not avoid the 

 claim of King Death, according to his known rules 

 and regulations. If we could permit ourselves 

 merely to jot down the names of thirteen of our 

 friends at random, the result would probably en- 

 sue. I say probably, — for that is all which the 

 reason involves. Whatever we may now think of 

 the mystic import of the numbers as contradistin- 

 guished from the stern facts which they are made 

 to unfold, and to impress upon us in all the rela- 

 tions of life, one fact is evident, — amongst the 

 moderns there is no doubt about the preference to 

 number One. 



Much information on the mystical import of the 

 numbers will be found in Cudworth's Intellectual 

 System, and in Thom. Taylor's Theoretic Arith- 

 metic ; but the subject is very far from being ex- 

 hausted even by the latter, although the greater 

 part of his book is devoted to this curious, but 

 perhaps unprofitable investigation. 



Very odd notions will be found in the etymolo- 

 gical dictionaries as to the derivation of the Greek 

 Se/ca, the German zehn, and the English ten. Al- 

 though 8eKa must have been the name of the 

 number long before men began to reason upon 

 numbers, we are gravely told that it was so called 

 because it contains all the other numbers — ws Scktik^ 

 iravTwv &,ptdnwv — in fact, from Se'xoyuai. The German 

 zehn, we are told by Adelung, was probably derived 

 from zehen, the toes, their number being ten. Our 

 English ten I have also heard derived from the 

 same incomprehensible source ten, quasi, foen ! 

 Other derivations will be found' quoted in Rich- 

 ardson's Dictionary, all equally absurd, excepting 

 that advanced by Tooke, which certainly is ra- 

 tional and philosophical. He says that as ten is 

 properly the collection of all the fingers, tyn, ten is 

 the past part, of the A.-S. verb, tyn-an, to enclose, 

 to tyne. " Se non e vero e ben trovato" — on account 

 of its ingenuity Tooke's etymology deserved to 

 be true ; but Ten has a much more remote ances- 

 try than the Dano-French dialect which is called 

 Anglo-Saxon. Like a multitude of words in all 

 the languages of Europe, it is Sanscritic ; and 

 considering the thousands of years during which, 

 like a boulder, the word has been rubbed through 

 the vocal organ of the Indo-European nations, its 

 integrity has been wonderfully preserved, and it 

 is still capable of speaking for itself and its remote 

 pedigree. 



The Sanscrit for ten is das an — written with the 

 palatal s — peculiar to the Sanscrit, which, in 

 Greek, Latin, and the other cognate idioms, in- 

 variably passes into a guttural sound, as will ap- 



pear in the following instances : pas'u, Lat. pecu-s. 

 Germ. Vie-h ; as'wa, Lat. equ-us ; as'u, Gr. ukvs ; 

 nas', Lat. nec-are ; vis', Lat. vic-us : s'wan, Lat. 

 can-is ; vas', Lat. vacc-a ; s'ur-a, Gr. Kvpi-os ; s'iras, 

 Gr. Ktpas ; s'ri, Lat. Cer-es. Thus das' an became 

 in Latin dtcem, in Greek 5f/ca. In the idiom of 

 our Indian race, the Gipsies, it is desch, des; in 

 Hindustani das, dah ; but in Bengalee, the nearest 

 idiom to the Sanscrit, it is dash, das-hak. In 

 Sclavonic it is desyaty, and in modern Russian 

 desyat. 



Amongst others of the same family of languages, 

 we find deszimt, deszimt's, deszimtis, des, dessim- 

 ton, decet, Irish deagh, deich, and the Gothic 

 taihun. We now see that the d has been turned 

 into t, the two letters only differing by the slightest 

 possible incurvation of the tongue against the 

 front of the mouth. In the German zehen or 

 zehn, we find not only a stronger representative 

 of the Sanscrit d, but also the guttural represent- 

 ative of the Sanscrit «' reproduced. In a similar 

 manner the Sanscrit dis', to show, Greek deiKWf^i, 

 Latin dicere, docere, becomes in German zeigen, 

 the Gothic being tiehan ; and das', to bite, becomes 

 Gothic tahjdn, Greek Sanvfiv, German zahnen, to 

 tooth. 



As what we call Gothic is merely that which 

 relates to the Jutes, Getes, Gutes, Geatun, com- 

 prehending all that should more properly be 

 called Scandinavian — referring to the Cimbric 

 Chersonesus or Jutland (Camden, Brit.) — we are 

 prepared to find the word in Swedish tio, Dutch 

 tien, Danish ti (pron. tee), Anglo-Sax. — our Scan- 

 dinavian — tyn, tien, ten. Some of the older forms 

 of the Germanic language had zehan, zin, cin, and 

 tain. To show how the z changed into t in the 

 Scandinavian branch of the great Indo-European 

 family, a few words will suflSce. German zahl, 

 Eng. tale, i. e. number. Of this word tale a dif- 

 ferent etymology is given in the Dictionaries, but 

 I submit that zahl is the same word, and the ori- 

 ginal representative in German : zahlen, to tell, 

 i. e. to number or count ; zahn, tooth ; zehe, toe ; 

 zapfen, to tap ; zahm, tame. The same change of 

 z to t occurs in the Danish, Dutch, &c. 



Thus to the Sanscrit must our future etymolo- 

 gists appeal for the history of the fundamental 

 words of the language, — a process infinitely more 

 valuable and interesting than elucidatory quota- 

 tions from the books of old authors, however 

 valuable these may be for showing the change of 

 meanings. The Philological Society promised a 

 new English Dictionary at its last sitting. Suc- 

 cess to the undertaking ! 



I may add that the same fact results with regard 

 to all the numbers ; and with regard to Ten, as 

 well as the others, excepting, perhaps, the first 

 three, there is nothing whatever to show that the 

 sounds were the result of any mental process con- 

 necting them with other significations. The names 



