274 Names of Animals [FOURTH WEEK 



beaver has indeed had a rough time of it in its travels 

 through various languages. It is hardly recognisable as 

 bebrus, babbru, and bbru. The latter is the ultimate root 

 of our word brown. The original application was, doubt- 

 less, on account of the colour of the creature's fur. Otter 

 takes us back to Sanskrit, where we find it udra. The 

 significance of this word is in its close kinship to udan, 

 meaning water. 



The little mouse hands his name down through the 

 years from the old, old Sanskrit, the root meaning to steal. 

 Many people who never heard of Sanskrit have called him 

 and his descendants by terms of homologous significance! 

 The word muscle is from the same root, and was applied 

 from a fancied resemblance of the movement of the muscle 

 beneath the skin to a mouse in motion not a particularly 

 quieting thought to certain members of the fair sex! The 

 origin of the word rat is less certain, but it may have been 

 derived from the root of the Latin word radere, to scratch, 

 or rodere, to gnaw. Rodent is derived from the latter 

 term. Cat is also in doubt, but is first recognised in catalus, 

 a diminutive of cams, a dog. It was applied to the young 

 of almost any animal, as we use the words pup, kitten, 

 cub, and so forth. Bear is the result of tongue-twisting 

 from the Latin /era, a wild beast. 



Ape is from the Sanskrit kapi; kap in the same language 

 means tremble; but the connection is not clear. Lemur, 

 the name given to that low family of monkeys, is from the 

 plural Latin word lemur 'es, meaning ghost or spectre. This 

 has reference to the nocturnal habits, stealthy gait, and 

 weird expression of these large-eyed creatures. Antelope 



