144 Transactions. — Miscellaneous . 



universe. Auer-ochs, a bison, is also male, as of a wild beast 

 whose sex is immaterial. Why is this ? And note aucr-iueit, 

 extended as a plain ; weit, wide, broad, extended, far off, 

 distant. We have already met the prefix as in auer-hahn, 

 when treating of the wild game, and so may take auer-ochs to 

 be "the ox inhabiting the moorland or open country" (the 

 bison). 



We have seen that great use was made of the names of 

 the domestic fowl in naming the sexes or quality of game 

 birds, and the use of hoc, a male goat, to indicate sex in certain 

 animals in the German — cow and calf being the opposite 

 terms — but we have in no case met with the use of bull as a 

 sexual denominative, though in English we find bull-moose t 

 bull-whale, a.nd probably bull-ival-rus, which latter word, 

 when analysed, gives bull-whale-horse — German ros, a horse. 

 In English buck is used as the mate of the doe among smaller 

 kinds of deer and the male of the goat. Can it be possible 

 that the great beast ur was the wild bull, which came and 

 served the domestic huh (cow) ? The bull, being of dangerous 

 habits and of a roaming disposition, could not be attached to 

 one place, or be safely held in captivity. He was bellua, the 

 bellower; bestia, the beast; fer-us, thier, the wild animal. He 

 was the ur, thur, tur, taur-us— German stier, a bull ; stier 

 possibly stood for sta-thier, the beast confined in a sta-ll or 

 sta-ble — Latin sta-bulum, a stable, from stare (for sta-are), to 

 sta-nd, the animal being kept sta-tion-ary or confined, or shut 

 up in a sty, as seen iu pig-sty. According to Skeat taur-us 

 is used for sta-ur-us. 



In Scotland stirk is a calf not yet a year old, and is pro- 

 bably derived from the animal being shut up in a pen or sty 

 away from the cow, or as a hostage for the return of the cow, 

 or that the owner might secure the first of the milk. The 

 word is possibly connected with Latin stirc-us, dung, owing 

 to being dirty from its enclosure. But in the Caucasian 

 Mountains tur is the ibex {Gaper caucasica), and, I understand, 

 is used also for Caper agogrus, the supposed original wild form 

 of the domestic goat. A similar sound is in thar, a native 

 name for Hemitragus jemlaica, a kind of wild sheep. Note 

 also chimerical, from Greek ximaira, a she goat ; also the 

 chimcera, a fabulous monster slain by Bellerophon. In the 

 Doric ximaira denoted a young she goat under a year old. 

 Compare English gimmer, a female or ewe lamb not a year 

 old. Possibly all these words may have meant " the wild 

 animal " originally. 



To return to the goat. At the present time it is a surprise 

 to find that our word tragedy is derived from the Greek word 

 trag-os, a he goat, through trag-odia, tragedy (literally, "goat- 

 song," from Greek ode, a song or ode) ; trag-ic, from Greek 



