198 KAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



destined to people Europe and Spain, might have set 

 forth on their wanderings before this epoch.* It 

 might thus have brought with it the language which 

 was coeval with the earliest ages of the world; and 

 if this were the case popular traditions may be a 

 mere expression of the truth. 



At all events, say these ultra-patriotic Basques, 

 the Euskara language is infinitely superior to all 

 known tongues for its priority, universality, inex- 

 haustibility, naturalism, inflexions, niceties, termi- 

 nations, allusions, and verbal mechanism. This 

 language in itself contains radicals enough to suffice 

 for the formation of the seventy-two languages which 

 originated at the foot of the Tower of Babel. f No 

 language therefore approximates more closely to that 

 which was revealed to Adam by the Almighty. :f 

 Inspired by God, the Euskara language is as natural 

 to the human species as cooing to the dove, barking 

 to the dog, or bellowing to the bull. Every one, as 

 he begins to stammer forth the first sounds, speaks 

 Basque. Papa, titi, Mama, caca, those infantile 

 sounds which are met with amongst almost all people, 

 and whose signification is sufficiently obvious, are, 



* The Abbe d'Hiarce. 



f According to Don Publo de Astorloa, the Basque language 

 possesses more than four hundred thousand words of one, two, or 

 three syllables, exclusive of those which result from the combination 

 of different radicals. (Apologia de la Lengua bascongada, Madrid 

 1803.) We ought to add that some Basque words consist of 

 sixteen syllables. 



J Such is the conclusion of the grammatical theorems which 

 the Abbe d'Hiarce believes that he has demonstrated. Don Pablo 

 de Astorloa had advanced the same pretensions in the work which 

 we have already quoted. 



