458 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



and the reindeer being entirely absent, and the domestic cat 

 not having been known in Europe until about the ninth cen- 

 tury." We know that in Africa not only is the pack-bullock 

 used for carrying burdens, but also for riding purposes, the 

 animal being guided by reins attached to the horns, which 

 are made artificially tender at root to feel the touch of the 

 rider. That the Polynesians were once acquainted with some 

 animals of the kind seems almost the only explanation possible 

 for some of their words, which run in changes on kau a,nd vaJca 

 (vacca). The English word "vehicle" is from Latin veho, 

 which meant primarily " to carry or convey 07i the shoulder." 

 " Hence vacca, properly a beast of burden.""*' Vehicle is from 

 an Aryan root WAGH, to carry ; whence also Sanscrit vah 

 (Skeat). But in no Aryan tongue can the root vah be found 

 more purely in use than in the Polynesian vaha, to carry. f 

 As a variant from vah to kau, we have the Fijian kaukau, 

 to carry. The Maori has only compounds, as pikan {'pi- 

 kau), to carry on the back, pick-a-back (Williams's Diet.).]: 

 Kauamo is a litter, a bed arranged between two poles ; 

 kaiihoa, to carry on a litter — perhaps reminiscences of some- 

 thing resembling a palanquin preceding the wheeled chariot. 

 The Sanscrit word vah, to carry, is acknowledged to be the 

 equivalent§ of the Greek o^os (ochos), meaning " anything 

 which bears, a carriage ; " || ox^w, to carry, to let another ride, 

 to mount ; o^os (for Foxos) is the form related to vah {vach, 

 vacca, &c.) ; but there was probably a primitive radical unity 

 between ox, vach, gau, &c. 



Whence came the Aryans? According to the accepted 

 theory *! and the evidence of the sacred writings (Yendidad), 



* Smith's "Lat. Diet.," 1877. 



t Sainoan, fafa, to carry a person on the back, to convey generally ; 

 Tahitian, raJia, to carry a royal personage on the shoulders of a man ; 

 Maori, walia, to carry on back, &c. 



\ "Pick-a-back" is a word, or idiom, for which some Europeans 

 make frantic struggles to find an etymology. Richardson's " Etym. 

 Diet." suggests " pitched on the back." " Pig-a-back " is also tried ; but 

 the etymology of "pig" is unknown, except that it may be related to 

 Scandinavian pige, a girl ! The Swedish dictionary gives ])ich-och-pack 

 as "bag and baggage;" but, as imck means "a mob" (as in English, 

 " pack of hounds"), it is a probable derivative of V PAK, originally to tie 

 up, tether, as a cattle-word (whence Latin pecus, pcczaiia, &c.), and then 

 to tie up as a load or pack for a pack-ox. Cf. the Maori paki, a girdle ; 

 pakikau, a garment. 



§ Bopp, " Comp. Grammar," i., 15. 



II But not necessarily the body of the carriage. rpoxa^oL o^ot aTrrjvq<i, 

 " the round bearers of the chariot "—i.e., the wheels. (Euri., Iph. in A., 

 146.) 



1 I am acquainted with the Lithuanian theory of which Professor 

 Sayce is so distinguished an advocate ; but that theory is yet on trial, 

 while so many eminent philologists and mythologists have located the 

 " Airanya Vaego " in Central Asia that 1 follow them humbly. So far 



