80 INTRODUCTION. 



Asiatic root, always denoting a young Equine ani- 

 mal, and the old Persian name jtf^l^ * ^ beam of 

 the sun, a horse, a foal consecrated to the sun, + and 

 the later asp^ ^r^tn^-) both e^Dithets and names of a 

 whole series of kings and princes. % Surely these 

 inferences are more admissible than to take phar or 

 jphra from the forced root fugit. With regard to 

 the oldest Sanscrit names of the horse, it is true we 

 find none directly sounding like pra ox perd; they 

 are asica and turanga^ with several other epithets: 



* An object to cross ; a bridge. 



=t The Centaurs, children of Centaurlis, son of Apollo, among 

 whom Pholus appears to be again />/'«/, or ful, fidleyi^ foal. 



X The original idea seems always to refer to conveyance, — 

 being carried, riding, drawn, sailing, ever associated with ele- 

 vation, grandem*, velocity : hence, in Hebrew, equally appli- 

 cable to a horse and an ass. Northern words, in the Arabic 

 alone, amount to several hundred, derived most likely from an 

 unkno^vn parent stock through Zend or Pelhevi, and closely 

 allied to Gothic and Sanscrit. The known Indo-Sacse and 

 Germanii had first proceeded south before they moved west- 

 ward at a later period, and cannot have had such strong influ- 

 ence upon the Semitic tongues : we must look for an earlier 

 and more permanent cause to account for the fact ; perhaps to 

 the giant invasion of Canaan, or of the shepherds in Egypt. 

 That there were inroads of cavalry nations from the north-east 

 at a later period, is sufficiently implied by the predictions in 

 Deuteronomy, where the expressions " from afar off, even from 

 the ends of the earth, as swift as an eagle flieth," are perfectly 

 to the purpose ; and at an earlier j)criod these terrible invaders 

 would no doubt have been denominated giants. With regard to 

 the word Asp, it affords another indication of the original habitat 

 of the horse in the names of most ancient nations of Central 

 Asia noticed by Greek authors, such as the Aspii, Ari/naspii, 

 horsemen and mountain-horsemen, probably Mongoles of Tibet, 



