394 Transaction*. — Miscellaneous. 



invoking Theia, the mythical mother of the sun-god, exclaims : 

 • Through thee it is that mortals esteem mighty gold above all 

 things else!'"* 



Mr. Robert Brown, F.S.A., hi his learned and interesting 

 treatise, "The Myth of Kirke,"f remarks: "The links between 

 gold and solar divinities are endless, and the circumstances sup- 

 plied a natural basis for the commercial value of the metal." Else- 

 where the same writer observes :J " The bright solar diviuities 

 are, of course, rich in gold, a metal originally owing its importance 

 to its yellow (sun) colour, which made it at once semi-sacred and 

 symbolic long ere it received an artificial commercial value." j 



None of the radicals in classic languages show the etymo- 

 logical relation between sun and gold, but the Maori lira, "to 

 glow," discloses the ra of Ra, "the sun," with the ur, "shining, 

 glowing," word. I do not by this mean to imply that the 

 Polynesians were acquainted with gold (though no one can 

 disprove even this), but I think that there is a high probability 

 that the word, in its Polynesian form, was applied to that metal 

 when discovered and used by men in Central Asia. 



In referring to the " Cosmogony of Sanconiathon," said to 

 be a history from the sacred books of the Phoenicians, after 

 mentioning how Phos, Pur, and Phlox (Light, Fire, and Flame) 

 made the discovery of fire by rubbing wood, Mr. Blackett says :|| 

 " And Usous having taken a tree and broken off the boughs, 

 made a boat, and first ventured on the sea. And he consecrated 

 two pillars to ' fire' and ' the wind,' and worshipped them, and 

 poured out upon them the blood of wild beasts which he took in 

 hunting ; and when these men were dead consecrated rods to 

 them and worshipped the pillars." This is a singular coin- 

 cidence of ancient ceremonial with that of the Maoris ; they in 

 their worship setting up rods (mauri or toko-mauri) in their 

 small temples or shrines (tuaahu). If the pillars were set up to 

 " Fire " and " Wind," a similar word to the Maori hau, " wind," 

 was probably used (Juiu was a very common word in old Maori 

 incantations, as whangai-hau, etc.), some cognate word being 

 used ages ago in Asia : "I there drew attention to the As- 

 syrian name for ' wind,' air (hair), au {hau), root V ' to blow.' "1 

 And the pillar to Fire, if not called pur (see Blackett, I.e.), 

 wvp, or pu-ra, would also probably be called ra, as even to-day 



* Pind. Isthm., iv., 1. 

 t Page 159 (Note). 



t "Eridanus," p. 49 (Note 4). 



§ "(told -worship," Dr. F. A. Paley, "Contemp. Review, " Aug., L884, 

 p. 271. 



|| " Lost Histories of America," p. 104. 



* "The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament," Eberhard 

 Schrader, p. 25. 



