ETYMOLOGY OF NAMES OF MUSTELID^. 27 



undereigerra* of the iuliabitauts of Biscay, meauiug the same 

 as the Portuguese word just given; the late Greek vo,a^:ra, 

 vicpuT^a, a bride; the Bavarian Sclionthierlein^ *' pretty little 

 creature": the English fairy (Diez). The Sclavonic tongues 

 have an entirely peculiar series of names: laska^ lasilta, lastiza, 

 and the like. 



In Greek and Latin proper, we find for the Musteline ani- 

 mals only three names, which are all different from those 

 which are better known in living languages, and of the pres- 

 ent existence of which we only find isolated instances ; these 

 are £xrk, ya?Jrj^ and mustela. 



Pliny uses mustela in different places for native and exotic 

 MusteUdce, without furnishing the means of nicer discrimina- 

 tion of the species; he indicates their mousing capacity; and 

 Palladius Be Be Bust. 4, 9, 4, says that they were kept for this 

 l^urpose. The name appears to be derived from mus, and to 

 mean ''a mouser"; for I cannot agree with Sundevall in recog- 

 nizing in the second syllable the Greek >'/rjpa^ a hunt; since ^ 

 does not become t in Latin. According to Risso, the Weasel 

 is called moustelle to this very day in Xice, and in Lorraine, 

 according to Diez, moteile; this is a partial persistence of the 

 name which, among the Romans, not only indicated the 

 Weasel as the species best known to them, but also included 

 the other Musteline animals in general. So it was also with 

 the Greek ^a/i-// (Batrachomyomachia, 9) or yaXr^ (Arist. Hist. 

 An. 2, 1, and his not very well written book 9, chap. 6), the 

 best-known Greek species of the Marten family, yellowish, 

 w^hite beneath, and a mouser; whilst the fable that it was a 

 transformed maiden (Ovid, Metam. 9, 306-323; Galanthis, 

 with the express statement that the beast still lived about 

 houses) accords well with the complimentary names already 

 mentioned. Thus mustela is primarily our Weasel [Putorius 

 vulgaris], though occasionally other species receive the same 

 name, as, for example, an African one, in Herodotus, 4, 192. 

 More difficult to explain is the second Greek name, ^ txrl^, the 

 skin of which, according to Homer (Iliad, 10, 333), made a 

 night-cap for a Trojan hero, and which, according to Pseudo- 

 Aristotle, Hist. An. 9, 6, was of the size of a small Mrliese dog 

 {^^Malteser Hiindchens'^), like a Weasel, white underneath, and 

 fond of honey. This latter circumstance caused Getti to sep- 



*^ Precisely the same as the Latin muliercnla. — Tr. 



