NAMES OF ANIMALS, FROGS, AND FISH 253 



over a collection of fossil bones, said that she 

 could understand how these bones had been pre- 

 served, and millions of years later had been dis- 

 covered, but it was a mystery to her how anyone 

 could know the names of these ancient animals 

 after such a lapse of time ! 



Some of the names of the commonest animals 

 are lost in the dimness of antiquity, such as fox, 

 weasel, sheep, dog, and baboon. Of the origin 

 of these we have forever lost the clew. With 

 camel we can go no farther back than the Latin 

 word camelus, and elephant balks us with the old 

 Hindoo word elepli, which means an ox. The old 

 root of the word wolf meant one who tears or 

 rends, and the application to this animal is obvi- 

 ous. In several English and German names of 

 persons, we have handed down to us a relic of the 

 old fashion of applying wolf as a compliment to a 

 warrior or soldier. For example, Adolph means 

 noble-wolf, and Rudolph glory-wolf. 



Lynx is from the same Latin word as the word 

 lux (light) and probably was given to these wild- 

 cats on account of the brightness of their eyes. 

 Lion is, of course, from the Latin leo, which word, 

 in turn, is lost far back in the Egyptian tongue, 

 where the word for the king of beasts was Idbu. 

 The compound word leopard is first found in the 

 Persian language, where pars stands for panther. 

 Seal, very appropriately, was once a word mean- 

 ing "of the sea"; close to the Latin sal, the sea. 



