THE BAY OF BISCAY. 199 



according to the Abbe d'Hiarce, pure Euskarian 

 words. This language having its roots in the very 

 nature of things, its study suffices to reveal to us 

 the origin of all the arts and sciences. Its names of 

 numbers include in thirteen words all the funda- 

 mental principles of natural philosophy, and the 

 numerical mysteries of Plato, or of Pythagoras, 

 could never have been established excepting on the 

 principles of Basque numeration. The Euskarian 

 alphabet is in itself a revelation. Its name is Yesus. 

 The five vowels taken together in the usual order, 

 present a complete idea of the primordial world and 

 of the creation.* Three amongst them, namely, 

 i, a, o, when united into a single word, include 

 within themselves the adamic verb, expressing at 

 the same time both life, incarnation and spirit, 

 the beginning, end, and middle, lao is the true 

 name of God, a sublime name revealed in the early 

 ages to the patriarchs of the south, which although 

 corrupted by the Hebrew Levites and the Celto- 

 Roman pontiffs, has been preserved through all 

 time, and is still venerated by the Euskarians.f 



Setting aside the exaggeration and absurdity of 

 the linguistic pretensions of the Basques, it is 

 impossible to deny that their language is truly 

 remarkable, and that it presents many special 

 characters. Wilhelm von Humboldt J thinks that 



* The Abbe d'Hiarce, Histoire des Cantabres. Don Juan Bau- 

 tista de Erro y Aspiros, Alfabeto primitivo de la lengua primitiva de 

 Espana, Madrid, 1806, and El mundo primitivo, Madrid, 1815. 



f Philosophic des religions compares, by Augustin Chaho. 



J [A sketch of the life and labours of Wilhelm von Humboldt 

 and his brother Alexander is given in the Appendix, Note III.] 

 04 



