408 THE COPTIC ELEMENT IN 



Besides that Ludim as a whole are derived from Amalek, the name 

 of the king Sadyattes points to an old SADID or SHED AD, 

 while Alyattes and Alcimus, as compared with Attes and Aciamus, 

 reveal plainly the presence of the Arabic article AL/^ Can the 

 initial I of lahrus and Labradeus be of the same character as that of 

 Alyattes 1 The Sanskrit and Persian languages will answer this 

 question. In the former the word for such an axe, that, namely, with 

 which the later Rama swept the Kshetriyas from the earth, is parasu, 

 and in the latter it is beret, these being the equivalents of Al-brus 

 and Al-brad. The whole word with the article in a purer form is 

 found in the Irish alhard, the Spanish alabarda, the German Helle- 

 hard, and the English halberd, which the Romaic, in profound ignor- 

 ance of the original, has naturalised as alamparda. A word not 

 unlike Labradeus is Labyrinth, the origin of which seems to be com- 

 pletely hidden. Yet ancient Persian history informs us that 

 Menoutchehr dedicated to the moon a temple in Balkh called 

 AL-BAHAR-NAU.^^ It is long since I first connected Menoutchehr 

 of the old Persian story with Mencheres of Egypt, who should rather 



61 Vide Rawlinsoii's Herodotus, Appendix, Book i.. Essay i., On Chronology and Early 

 History of Lydia. 



62 "In libro Sadder cap. 43 memoratur Pyreum dictum Adurctura, i.e., ignis Uluminationis 

 rationis, q. d. mentis et rationis illumtnatione aliquem rnspirans. Estque juxta Kirman iUud 

 Pyreum, illeque Ignis iliuc traductus ex Cliorasan, seu Bactria, ut vult Shahristani, Haec 

 hodie (ut alibi fusius dicetur) est Metropolitica Ecolesia Magorum omnium ad quam semel in 

 vita sua tenentur veteres Persae omnes peregrinationem suscipere, sacrae visitationis ergo, ut 

 olim faciebant ad antiquam Ecclesiam Catliedralem Azur-Gushtasp in Balch, seu Bactris et 

 prout antea fecerant ad multo antiquiorem ibidem Cathedralem Nmi-Bahar. Fuit enim in urbe 

 Balcb (ut niox dicetur) aliud antiquissimum Pyreum dictum Nau-Bahar, seu Novum Ver, propter 

 vernantem ejusdem ornatum et picturas floridas." Historia Religionis Veterum Persarum, &c.. 

 Alitor Thomas Hyde, Oxon, 1760. p. 102. 



A short distance further on the author quotes Shahristani who, speaking of sacred edifices 

 dedicated to the heavenly bodies, says : " Ex his etiamfuit Al-Nau-Bahar quam extruxit Res 

 Manushahr in Balch dedicata Lunae." I cannot agree with the interpretation of Nau-Bahar 

 given by the learned author as Novum Ver, nor believe that the words are the same as those 

 which now designate the new year, or the month answering to our April. "The word Behar," 

 says Sadik Isfahani, " in the Hindi language signifies a school or college." Tlie Geographical 

 Worlcs of Sadik Isfahani translated. Oriental Translation Fund. London, 1832. Tahkik al 

 Irab, Bihar. The common word for college in Hindustani is madrasa, but this word Behar 

 doubtless represents an older name for a building in which religion and education may have gone 

 hand in hand. I cannot but view the form given by Shahristani in which Nau precedes Behar 

 as an attempt to explain a term inexplicable save by the knowledge of an earlier stage of 

 language and history. The final nau or the inth of labyrinth may easily have been the name 

 of the goddess Neith which is the same as Month the first part of the name of Mentcheres, 

 without the initial M. 



A recent writer in the Edinburgh Review, speaking of the Buddhist temple which took the place 

 of the Pyreum at Balkh, says, "It is especially worthy of remark that through all subsequent history 

 the building retained the same Sanskrit name of Nava Vihara (corrupted into Now-Behar, and 

 signifying ' tU new monastery.')— E^d^. Review, No. cclxxv., Ait. 1., "The Book of Ser Marco 

 Polo, the Venetian." 



