49^ ON MOUNT CAUCASUS. 



The word Parka fignifies the leaf of a tree, a feather, 

 and a wing. Its derivative Par'nafa^ fignifies any thing 

 made of leaves; fuch as bafkets, hats, penns, coops, 

 huts, &CZ. it fignihes alfo any thing that is radiant ; 

 hence the learned affirm, that the word Parha was for- 

 merly fynonymous \s\\\\Clra'> a, or ray, though now ne- 

 ver found in that fenfe. In the north-weft parts of 

 India, in the Pqftco language, it is pronounced Panna 

 and Pannai in the plural : hence I conceive the word 

 Parna or Pannuy to be the root of the Greek and Latin 

 words Pinna ; and of the ^axon and Englifi words pen, 

 fin, pin, penn, and alfo of the name of that plant, with 

 pinnated leaves, called fern in Englijh, and in Greek 

 ■Pteris, the pinnated or winged : Parnica is another re- 

 gular derivative, fome times ufed in compofition, as 

 well asParf/aca; and, as in the firft ages, mankind ei- 

 ther lived in Gopas, caves, or in huts built of branches 

 and leaves, which laft were their fummer habitations, 

 thefe huts were Parkdfas, or Parhicas, and Parnacasy 

 Pomaces and Fornices, The Greek words Popfjov, Po;v£ja, 

 and P&^j/T), feem to be derived from Parneyam^ a regu- 

 lar Sanfcrit derivative, though never ufed. Proftitutes 

 were thus called in Greek for the fame reafon that for- 

 nication is derived from fornix. 



Mount Parnafflis in Greece was probably thus deno- 

 minated, from a Par'ndfa, which conflituted the ancient 

 temple, according to Pausanias: it was made of 

 branches and leaves ; but as the word Parhdfa figni- 

 fies alfo any thing made of feathers or wings, others 

 infifted, that formerly it confifted of the wings of cer- 

 tain bees cemented together with wax. 



In themoft fecret recefs of the temple of Vesta at 

 Romcy there was a Parhafa or Parhdfa fenced with leaves 

 and branches, and it was called Penus according to 

 Fr.STus : as it was uncovered, it was really, .what we 

 call in Engliflj, a penn or fence : and, indeed, the word 

 Parka/a, properly pronounced, founds very much like 

 Penus. 



