410 THE COPTIC ELEMENT IN 



rejecting the initial vo"wel, claims kindred -with, the Coptic me. The 

 Welsh hoffi may represent the Hebrew ABAH. 



In conclusion, returning again to the Coptic article, let me present 

 two more extensive illustrations than any hitherto given of the great 

 importance of its recognition in questions of comparative philology. 

 Bopp in his Comparative Grammar sets forth the following three 

 pairs of words, signifying wolf in six different languages.*® 



Sanskrit. Zend. Greek. Lithuanian. Latin. Gothic. 



yrikas, vehrko, lukos, wilkus, lupus, vulfs. 



The Lithuanian is the Greek with the prefix of the Coptic article, 

 and the same relation subsists between the Gothic and the Latin. 

 The Danish form %ilv is a softer form than the Gothic and nearer to 

 the Semitic root, but the Latin vulpes, though denoting a fox, is the 

 same as the Gothic vulfs. The Persian form for wolf, as we might 

 expect, is not velah but kelub, the Cushite article replacing the Coptic. 

 But this word in Persian as in Arabic means heart, which in Persian, 

 Arabic and Hebrew is also LEB. The root LEB or LEY, which 

 the Danish almost appropriates to the wolf in ulv, by the simplest 

 kind of conversion in meaning from heart becomes the Sanskrit luhh, 

 the German lieben and our English love. This introduces another 

 wild animal, the lion, which in Coptic is laboi, in Hebrew LEBI, 

 and in German Lowe. But the words LEBI, lion, and LABAIST, 

 white, are connected in Hebrew, while in Latin lupus and albus take 

 their place, and in Greek lukos and leukos. That the connection of 

 the Greek with the Hebrew is a sound one will appear from the fact 

 that even LIBNEH, the white poplar, answers to the Greek leuke. 

 Lebana, Albunea, Leucothoe are one and the same goddess answering 

 to the Celtic Blanchefleur. A trace of the Greek form for the wolf 

 remains in the Scandinavian mythology, in which Zoki is the father 

 of the wolf Eenrir. Guigniaut points out the relation of the wolf 

 to the ideas of light and whiteness.*^ But how are we to connect 

 our first pair with the two others, vrikas with lukos 7 We may say 

 that in Coptic I and r are interchangeable, and, having an agreement 

 in k, the second consonant of the root, we may be satisfied. This is 

 not enough however. The Lithuanian furnishes us with an impor- 

 tant link. In that language lokis, which is simply the Greek lukos, 

 and its own wilkus without the article, means not a wolf nor a lion 

 but a hear. Now the bear and wolf connect in many parts of the 



B6 Bopp's Comparative Grammar, vol. i., 163. 



M Guigniaut, Religions de I'AnticLuit^, Tom., ii., 109. 



