1892.] 321 [Brinton. 



with Lases, Marmar and Mars, it is a more or less Latinized form 

 of a pure Etruscan word, what could we make of it ? 



The first difficulty is that the Etruscan probably had no b, in which 

 they resembled many of the modern Berber dialects, where it is 

 also lacking. There was some intermediate labial in Etruscan 

 which the Romans rendered by either/", or v, ox b. Probably it 

 was close to the Greek digamma, p. Did the Etruscans have a god 

 ^er, or Ver ? Undoubtedly. That was the exact name of the 

 deity whom Varro calls Deiis Efrun'ce princeps, " chief of all the 

 gods of Etruria." The Latin writers give his full name as Ver- 

 tumnus; but that the last two syllables do not belong to the name, 

 but constitute an appellative suffix, the analogy of the Etruscan 

 words Vol-tumna, Lir/umna, and many others, has long since con- 

 vinced Etruscologists.* 



The functions of this god Fqx were most appropriate to the rites 

 of the Arval Brethren. The gardens of the spring, the harvests of 

 the summer, but especially the maturing grain and fruit of the 

 autumn, were his special care. Thus he came to be a chief god, 

 one who looked after home life and works. He was the culture- 

 hero of the Etruscans, analogous to such figures as Michabo and 

 Viracocha in native American mythology. 



But here a striking identity meets us. Among the Libyans of 

 Northern Africa this same divinity, with the same attributes and 

 the same name, appears to meet us. Their chief god was also Ber 

 {Fer, Ver) ; he was their protector and mythical ancestor ; from 

 him they claimed their name, Berbers, Brebres, etc. ; and to this 

 day the secluded tribes of the Sahara point to sacred spots where 

 their famed progenitor and teacher was buried. f 



It would be an easy error to suppose that Ver was the Latin word 

 for spring from the Greek, and that in the Pantheon Ver was the 

 personation of the season of spring ; but this was not the case. 

 The Vertiwinalia were in the fall of the year, in the month of 

 October, and were never supposed to have reference to any such 



* See Deecke, note to Miiller, Die Etrusker, Bd. ii, s. 51 et al. In some of the Latin 

 geographers the name Berenice, that of a Libyan city, is spelled Vereuice (Borsari, 

 Geografla delta TripolUana, p. 191). 



t " L'ancetre commun de tontes les tribes berb&res," Duveyrier, Les Touaregs du Nord. 

 He is the larbas of Greek legend, son of Jupiter Ammon and a Libyan nymph, and king 

 of the Getuli, to escape whose pressing solicitations Queen Dido plunged the sword into 

 her own bosom. His immediate descendants are still referred to by the Touaregs as the 

 labbaren. 



