12 DANIEL WILSON ON THE RIGHT 
évaporiav él palayyos, “He ordered to draw up his century in squads of twenty-five, 
and post them in line to the left.” And again, Anabasis, IV. iii. 29: Tots 62 rap éavr® 
mapnyyetev .. . avacrpépavras éxt Oopv, u.7.A., “He ordered his own division, turning 
to the right” The word a‘piorepos has also been interpreted as “the shield-bearing arm.” 
Among the Romans, we may trace some survival of the ancient practise of wor- 
shipping towards the east, as in Livy, i. 18, where the augurs are said to turn the right 
side to the south, and the left side to the north. But the original significance of turning 
to the east had then been lost sight of ; and the particular quarter of the heavens towards 
which the Roman augur was to look appears to have been latterly very much at the will 
of the augur himself. It was, at any rate, variable. Livy indicates the east ; but Varro 
assigns the south, and Frontinus the west. Probably part of the augur’s professional 
skill consisted in selecting the aspect of the heavens suited to the occasion. But this done, 
the flight of birds and other appearances on the right or on the left, determined the will 
of the gods. “ Why,” asks Cicero, himself an augur, “ Why should the raven on the right, 
and the crow on the left, make a confirmatory augury ?” “Cur a dextra corvus, a sinistra 
cornix faciat ratum ?” (De Divin.i.) The left was the side on which the thunder was 
declared to be heard which confirmed the inauguration of a magistrate, and in other 
respects the augur regarded it with special awe. But still the right side was, in all ordi- 
nary acceptance, the propitious one ; as in the address to Hercules (Ain. viii. 302) :— 
“ Salve, vera Jovis proles, pecus addite divis ; 
Et nos et tua dexter adi pede sacra secundo.” 
The traces of a term of common origin for right (south) in so many of the Indo-Euro- 
pean languages is interesting and suggestive ; though the ultimate word is still open to 
question. How the equivalent terms run through the whole system may be seen from 
the following illustrations: Sanskrit, dakshina (cf. deccan) ; Zend, dashina ; Gothic, taihs-vo ; 
O.H. German, zéso ; Lithuanian, desziné; Gaelic, dheas; Erse, dess (deas); Latin, dexter ; 
Greek, de&10s, ete. The immediate Sanskrit stem daksh means “to be right, or fitting ;” 
secondarily “to be dexterous, clever,” ete. This is evidently from a root, dek, as the western 
languages show. It was usual at an earlier period to trace the whole to the root, dik, to 
show, to point ; but this is now given up. Probably the Greek dex-o ai (déyouar) take, 
receive, preserves the original stem, with the idea primarily of “seizing, catching.” This 
leads naturally to a comparison of daxr-v-Aos, finger, and dig-i-tus, dox-d-vn, fork, etc. 
(see Curtius’ “Outlines of Greek Etymology. ”) 
Right-handed usages, and the ideas which they suggest, largely influence the ceremo- 
nial observances of many nations, affect their religious observances, bear a significant 
part in the marriage rites, and are interwoven with the most familiar social usages. 
Among the ancient Greeks the rites of the social board required the passing of the wine 
from right to left—or, at any rate, in one invariable direction,—as indicated by Homer in 
his description of the feast of the gods, (Iliad, i. 597, feots evdéE1a maou oivoyoer,) Where 
Hephæstus goes round and pours out the sweet nectar to the assembled gods. The direc- 
tion pursued by the cup-bearer would be determined by his bearing the flagon in his right 
hand, and so walking with his right side towards the guests. This is, indeed, a point of 
dispute among scholars. But it is not questioned that a uniform practice prevailed, 
