292 THE COPTIC ELEMENT IN 



Coptic article in all the various forms tkrougli which, the p sound is 

 seen to pass in etymology, as p, ph, f, h, v. The Bible and Herodotus 

 present us with two examples of the use of this article. The town 

 called by the Greeks Bubastis, is sacred to the goddess Basht or 

 Pasht, and is rendered in Ezekiel xxx, 17, Pi-Beseth or Pi-Pasht. 

 Herodotus, in the 143rd chapter of his second book, states that the 

 Egyptian word Piromis means a man, noble and good, or a gentle- 

 man. Now, ROME is the Coptic for man, and Pi the definite article. 

 Similar examples are found in Pi-Thoum, Pa-Chons or Be-Shens, 

 Ph-Amenoph, Pi-Lakh, Ph-re. Papremis is P-Ibrim, and Fayoum 

 is Pi-yom. a learned writer is of the opinion that Piromis and 

 and Brahma, as denoting original and absolute man, are the same 

 word.'''' I have little doubt that Piromis, or else Pirama, the moun- 

 tain, hence pyramid, is the original of the Latin primus, which shows 

 its true root in the Scythian arima}^ The Coptic Phre, a solar god, 

 is transported, article and all, into the Scandinavian mythology, 

 where he becomes Prey, the symbol of the sun.^* Still another ex- 

 ample of the migration of the Coptic article is found in Bambyce, a 

 town in Syria of which Strabo speaks.''^ Pliny mentions the same 

 town not only as Bambyx, but also as Mabog.''® Now, the latter half 

 of this name is identical with the word bek or baki, the Coptic for 

 town, found in Atarbechis, in Egypt, and also in Baalbec, another 

 Syrian city. The h which is kept by the Greek geographer, and dis- 

 carded by the Latin, is undoubtedly the same element as that which 

 changes the Egyptian Iseum or Hebait into Bebait, and this is the 

 Coptic article. There are even Coptic roots that may be supposed to 

 show the very originals of language, which, with the addition of the 

 article, have passed into other tongues, and in these are regarded as 

 radicals themselves. Thus eit, a house, which is the same as the 

 Welsh ty, and Gaelic tigh, or better still the German Hiltte, and our 

 English hut, becomes the Assyrian bit, the Arabic BEIT, the Hebrew 

 BETH, the Erse both, and thus the well-known words booth and hothy. 

 Num, spirit, is the Greek pneuma; tau, life, appears in the Latin 

 vita, which is the Gaelic and Erse heatha, and the Welsh hywyd; and 

 men, a shepherd, after receiving an initial vowel, passes into the 

 Greek poimen. By means of this part of speech, presupposing of 



29 Guigniaiit, Religions de rantiquite ; Tom. i, 823. 



23 Herodot. iv., 27. 



3* Mallet's Northern Antiquities, Bohn, 110, 551. • 



» Strab., xvi, 1, 27. *• Plinii Nat. Hist, t, 19. 



