1890.] 4o [Brinton. 



some are probably Italian or Greek. From among those apparently 

 really Etruscan, I select for comparison the following: 



Apulu, or Aplu, was the Etruscan god whose fane was upon Mt. 

 Soracte, and who, according to a tradition recorded by Virgil, was 

 the earliest divinity worshiped by the Tuscans.* From the simi- 

 larity of the name to the Greek Apollo, most writers have con- 

 sidered it a corruption of that word, and the later Etruscans no 

 doubt transferred the attributes of the famous Greek divinity to 

 their national god. But an examination of the ancient Numidian 

 inscriptions discovers a divinity so closely similar that the suspicion 

 is excited that the two are identical, and the resemblance to Apollo a 

 mere coincidence. This divinity bears the name in the Numidian 

 character Abru, and is almost certainly identical with the Guanche 

 Abbra,^ showing the wide extension of the cult in the ancient 

 Libyan peoples. Halevy thinks it reappears in a Latin inscription, 

 Ifru augusto sacrum, found near Constantine.J The phonetic 

 changes from Abru to Aplu are justified by numerous examples in 

 both Etruscan and Libyan, and that this widely worshipped god of 

 the Libyans should be referred to by the Etruscans as the first they 

 adored is very natural. 



Culzu ; a member of the Etruscan pantheon, represented with 

 torch and shears, a divinity apparently who decided the day of 

 death. § Allowing for the constant permutation of /and r in these 

 dialects, Corippus mentions a Libyan divinity of the same name, of 

 whom the Mauritanian chieftian Ierna was priest ; 



" Ierna ferox his duetor erat Gurzilque sacerdos." — Johannidos, ii, 109. 



The idol of the god represented a divinity of horrid mien, suitable 

 to a god of death. 



" Simulacra sui secum tulit horrida Gurzil."— Johannidos, vi, 1139. 



The derivation of the Libyan Gurzil is not very clear; but as the 

 god who decided on the day of death, and cut or shortened the 

 thread of life (for which purpose Culzu holds the shears m Etrus- 

 can portraiture), I am inclined to connect both names with the 

 modern Berber verbal guezzil, pi. guezlen, to be short, m'gazzil, 



* The poet has a Tuscan say : 



" Summe deum, sancti custos Soractis Apollo, 

 Quern primi colimus."— JEneid., xi, 785. 

 t Berthelot, Bulletin de la Socicle d' Ethnologic, Tome ii, p. 131. 

 J Esmi, p. 156. 

 \ Muller, Die Etrusker, Bd. ii, s. 110. 



