OLD ARYAN WORDS 



Teutonic languages, however, have generally 

 adopted another name. In Skr. sava means 

 simply " water," but the more specific sense 

 appears in Goth, saivs, O. H. G. seo, Old Eng. 

 s<fw, Eng. sea. It is noticeable that while modern 

 English applies this name to great bodies of wa- 

 ter, and keeps meer only in the sense of lake, in 

 modern German the case is just the reverse, 

 in German meer is the sea, but see is a lake. The 

 only other conspicuous deviation from the gen- 

 eral Aryan usage is a very characteristic one. 

 The Greeks, who were the most maritime of 

 all peoples that have existed, save the English, 

 had three names for the sea, of which the later 

 6d\a.cr<T(L and TreXayos referred to the boister- 

 ous, white-crested waves, but the earlier -JTOJTOS 

 meant a "pathway for travel." What large 

 bodies of water the primitive Aryans could have 

 known is not fully ascertained, but they were 

 perhaps the Caspian and the Sea of Aral. On 

 these inland seas, or along the great rivers 

 which flowed through their country, the Aryans 

 would seem to have plied in boats rowed with 

 oars ; but whether they had advanced farther 

 than this is uncertain. At all events, there is a 

 singular lack of agreement among all the com- 

 mon words indicative of a higher acquaintance 

 with the art of navigation. 



With these illustrations we must bring our 



o 



exposition too abruptly to a close. By the course 

 129 



