202 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



\vrre sensible of the image of the primitive krt and 

 its affixes, which were likewise derived from the 

 primitive images, and with these they included the 

 cognate images of the several derivatives from 

 the root. In these days the word coulter and the 

 Sanscrit knrt'tri are simply signs or phonetic nota- 

 tions, insignificant in themselves, and everything else 

 has disappeared. But in primitive times an image 

 animated the word, which by the necessary faculty 

 of perception so often described was transformed into 

 a kind of subject which effected the action indicated 

 by the root. As this personality gradually faded 

 away, the actual representation of the image was 

 lost, and even its remote echo finally vanished, while 

 the phonetic notation remained, devoid of life and 

 memory, and without the recurrence of cognate images 

 which strengthened the original idea by association. 

 All words undergo the like evolution, and this may 

 be called the mythical evolution of speech. 



Thus the Sanscrit word for daughter is duhitar ; 

 in Persian it is dochtar, in Greek Ovyarrip, in Gothic 

 ddtdittir, in German Tochtcr. The word is derived 

 from the root duh, to milk, since this was the girl's 

 business in a pastoral family. The sign stih 1 remains, 

 but it has lost its meaning, since the image and the 

 drama have vanished. This analysis applies to all 

 languages, and it may also be traced in the words 

 for numbers. The number Jive, for example, among 

 the Aryans and in many other tongues, signifies 



