EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



by Bopp, in his " Comparative Grammar," pub- 

 lished from 1833 to 1852, in which the Zend, 

 Armenian, Slavonic, and Lithuanian languages 

 also were added to the group. The Keltic lan- 

 guages were included about the same time, and 

 the name Indo-Germanic was extended to Indo- 

 European. Within the last fifteen years 

 mainly through the influence of Max Miiller's 

 writings the name Aryan has come into gen- 

 eral use as the most convenient designation of 

 the whole family. The use of the word in this 

 extensive sense has indeed been objected to by 

 Professor Whitney and others, who urge that 

 it is properly applicable only to the Indo-Per- 

 sian branch of the family ; and in strictness 

 their argument seems to be sound enough. 

 There is no evidence that any of the European 

 peoples have ever called themselves Aryans, and 

 the traces of the name which Muller has sought 

 to point out in Europe are very scanty and ob- 

 scure. According to Stephanus of Byzantium, 

 Aria was an old name for Thrace, and among 

 the ancient Germans we find a tribe of Arii and 

 such proper names as Ariovistus ; but it is by 

 no means 'certain that these names are in any 

 way connected with the original Arya. Nor did 

 Pictet meet with any better success in his at- 

 tempt to find Arya in the name of Erin or Ire- 

 land, the home of the Eri, or Irish. This mod- 

 ern name is a contracted form. Its root in old 

 80 



