EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



tions of classification have become irretrievably 

 implicated with questions of genealogical kin- 

 ship. Whether we are considering consonants 

 and vowels, or the case-endings of nouns, or 

 the syntax of moods and tenses, it is impossible 

 to describe accurately the relations of the several 

 Aryan languages to one another without involv- 

 ing a perpetual reference to the common origi- 

 nal from which these languages sprang. The 

 first noteworthy attempts at reconstructing the 

 mother tongue were made by the great philo- 

 logist August Schleicher, who by way of giving 

 a popular illustration of his abstruse results 

 once wrote a little fable in Old Aryan. This 

 jeu tf esprit of Schleicher's has been so often 

 alluded to that I am tempted to quote it here, 

 with an English translation. To any classical 

 scholar, who has also a slight acquaintance with 

 Sanskrit and Gothic, the sense must shine so 

 clearly through the Old Aryan words that the 

 translation will hardly be needed. 



Avis akvasas ka. 



Avis, yasmin varna na a ast, dadarka akvams, 

 tarn, vagham garum vaghantam, tarn, bharam 

 magham, tarn, manum aku bharantam. Avis 

 akvabhyams a vavakat : kard aghnutai mai vi- 

 danti manum akvams agantam. 



Akvasas a vavakant : krudhi avai, kard 

 aghnutai vividvant-svas : manus patis varnam 

 no 



