36 Transactions of the Canadian Institite. [Vol. VII. 



authorities to be proficient in Basque studies, has sought in vain for 

 the native name of the couvade. At length it comes to meet him from 

 far Fuerteventura. M. Michel cites Boulanger, in seeking the origin 

 of this strange custom. He says: "II semble que Ton doit regarder 

 cette conduite du mari comme une sorte de penitence, fondee sur la 

 honte et le repentir d'avoir donne le jour a un etre de son espece." 

 There is no doubt that the first part of sorrocloco is the Basque sor, 

 birth or the creature born. If Boulanger is right, the second will be 

 ahalge, shame ; the whole meaning " the shame of the birth." But the 

 second may be acholtsu, in which case the word signifies " the care of 

 the newly born." As the botanist rejoices over a new plant, and the 

 numismatist over a new coin, so will etymologists be delighted with the 

 recovery of the long lost sorrocloco. 



The "couvade" was an Iberic, and thus a Turanian custom, and 

 there is no evidence that Celts ever practised it. A further examin- 

 ation of the vocabularies, both of common and proper nouns, reveals 

 very few more Basque terms, however. It is possible that adarno, 

 a tree, may be the Basque 7idarondo, a pear-tree ; ara, a goat, the 

 B. ari, a ram ; while cJiede, a boundary, is pure Basque. Also estafia, 

 to beat, may come from the B. asii ; and gojio, porridge of maize, is 

 certainly the B. sopa, sopa, meaning the same thing. A mace or club, 

 magado, seems to connect with the B. makatii, to strike with a stick ; 

 and ntoca, a javelin, with the B. inoko, a point. Burnt ears of wheat, 

 rapayo, may be derived from the B, erre-bihi ; and the B. dtipha is as 

 near to the Canary tahaj'o, a milk-pail, as the Gaelic tubog. A flint 

 knife, tafique, appears of kin to the B. epaki, to cut ; and tamaro, 

 taniarco, denoting a skin cloak and dress, recall the B. zamarra, a 

 blouse ; while actchei, beans, is the B. ekosari, chilate, a graminaceous 

 herb, the B. chilista, lentils, and inorangatia, strawberry, the B. 

 mariguri. But these are only fifteen words out of more than 450. 

 for which corresponding Celtic terms have been found. The Basque 

 terms were evidentl}' in the position of loan words. That well-known 

 word Jainco, God, does not appear in the lists, but is replaced by 

 Acoran, the Celtic Crom ; and the same is true of all distinctively 

 Basque terms, which could not be absent if the Guanches had been an 

 Iberic people, and the engravers of the inscriptions. 



The writer does not profess to be a Celtic scholar in the best sense 

 of that term, but among the six hundred languages and dialects to 

 which he has given more or less attention in a fairly busy life, he has 

 not neglected the Celtic and their remains. He is fortunate also in 

 possessing the friendship and collaboration of that eminent master of 



