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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 353 



mate, of the man. It was from this Etruscan example that early 

 Rome drew the principle of monogamy and of the substantial in- 

 dependence of woman ; and, whatever we have of that noble 

 element in modern life, it is a legacy through Rome from ancient 

 Etruria. 



This was decidedly neither a Hellenic nor an Eastern principle, 

 but we do find it from the earliest times among the Berbers. Even 

 in spite of the polygamous doctrines of Mohammedanism, the woman 

 still retains her position in Kabyle life as the companion and help- 

 meet of man. Their Kanoim, or ancient code of laws, often in 

 conflict with the Koran, and always respected in preference to it, 

 protects her autonomy. in a variety of ways, and the independence 

 of her position has been a frequent theme of comment with trav- 

 ellers. 



Another marked and peculiar element in Etruscan life was the 

 recognition of the principle of confederation in politics. Their 

 league of twelve independent cities was the first of its kind in 

 the ancient world. Canon Rawlinson forcibly points out how far 

 it was superior to the temporary and unstable alliances of the 

 Greeks. In this lay the secret of the rapid success of Etruria. 



Here, again, is a singular identity with North Libyan govern- 

 mental features. The very word " Kabyle " (the Arabic q'bail) 

 means " confederation," and refers to their ancient system of a 

 political union of thoroughly independent communities. Nor is 

 this a recent growth. The name by which the Kabyles were 

 known to the Latin writers was Quitiguegenies ("the five na- 

 tions "), referring to the coalition which then, as now, existed 

 among them. 



The Etruscans were bold navigators. For more than a century 

 (600-500 B.C.) they were the virtual masters of the Mediterranean. 

 It may be objected that in this they were unlike the Libyans ; but 

 it must be remembered that the Libyans undoubtedly did at that 

 time venture out into the Atlantic as far as the Canary Islands, and 

 peopled them, — a greater distance from land than the passage of 

 the Mediterranean requires. 



I cannot pursue this parallel in other directions, for lack of 

 material. We know something about the Etruscan religion ; but 

 Christianity and Mohammedanism have effaced every vestige of 

 the ancient cult of the Berbers. The architecture of the Etrus- 

 cans was wonderful ; but, beyond the fact that the ancient Liby- 

 ans were builders of megalithic monuments and of dwellings of 

 cut stone, little has come down to us regarding their knowledge of 

 this art. 



One of the ablest of ancient historians, Dionysius of Halicarnas- 

 sus, asserted that the Etruscan language was szii generis, without 

 affinity with any other. Such seems to have been also the most 

 recent verdict of modern linguistic research. Dr. C. Pauli, one of 

 the best authorities on it now living, pronounces all attempts to 

 trace its relationship to be failures ; and Dennis, the learned Eng- 

 lish Etruscologist, states his opinion that it is as isolated as the 

 Basque. Dr. Pauli, indeed, decries all attempts to trace, in the pres- 

 ent state of our knowledge, its affinities, and himself sets the exam- 

 ple of studying it from its own monuments alone. 



These monuments are not insignificant. We have preserved to 

 us, more or less complete, over six thousand inscriptions in the 

 Etruscan alphabet and language, a few of them bilingual, usually 

 with the Latin. We know the value of the Etruscan letters, and, 

 up to a certain point, the phonetics of the tongue. Some words 

 have been preserved to us in Greek and Latin writers with their 

 meanings, and the sense of others can be approximately made out 

 from their recurrence in a great many inscriptions of a certain 

 class. We also have the numerals, and a muhitude of proper 

 names, personal and geographic. 



If, with this apparatus at command, I venture to disregard 

 Pauli's warning, and to institute a comparison between the Etrus- 

 can and Libyan languages, it is because I think the material is 

 sufficient at least to be worth the attention of students. So far as 

 I know, no one has attempted any such comparison before ; nor do 

 I, find that this possible origin of the Etruscans has as yet been 

 advanced, obvious as it seems to be. 



One reason of this has doubtless been the extremely little availa- 

 ble knowledge of the Libyan tongues, ancient or modern. What 

 we do definitely know may be briefly rehearsed. 



The modern Libyan, or Berber, is spoken by hordes scattered 

 from Timbuctoo to the Mediterranean, and from the shores of the 

 Atlantic to the borders of Egypt. It is divided into a number of 

 dialects, which are phonetically grouped into two classes, — the 

 " strong " and the " weak," — characterized by the regular transfor- 

 mation of certain consonantal sounds, principally k lo I, t and o to 

 d ox r, s to ch, etc. When the action of these phonetic laws is un- 

 derstood and allowed for, the fundamental unity of all the dialects 

 becomes apparent, both in their vocabulary and grammar. 



The themes are both nominal and verbal ; but the latter are 

 much the more numerous, and form the grammatical characteristic 

 of the group. They are nearly all consonantal, and may be of one, 

 two, three, or four letters, subject to internal vowel change, and 

 modification of the idea by prefixes and suffixes. 



The modern Kabyle, which has adopted many Arabic words, 

 is written with the Arabic alphabet ; which, however, does not ren- 

 der correctly some of its sounds. The Touareg, the dialect of the 

 desert, has preserved an alphabet of its own, no doubt a form of 

 the ancient Numidian, which in turn was derived from the Semific 

 Carthaginian. The Tamachek, as this venerable A B C is called, 

 does not express the vowel-sounds nor separate the words. It is 

 said to have been retained principally through the efforts of the 

 women, who are the literatcB of the tribe. 



The ancient Libyan or Numidian was the parent stem of these 

 dialects. Some hundreds of inscriptions in it have been preserved, 

 a few of them bilingual : so there is a possibility that we may re- 

 cover the grammar of this now lost tongue. Professor Newman, 

 indeed, has made an effort to restore it from modern Berber dia- 

 lects ; but I am surprised that he has made no use of this epigraphy. 

 These various Libyan dialects form the western branch of a large 

 family of tongues, of which the eastern branches include the mod- 

 ern and ancient Coptic, the Abyssinian, and others. The whole 

 family has been called " Hamitic,'' or " Cushite," or " Proto- 

 Semitic," of which terms the first is the best, simply because it 

 conveys no preconceived hypothesis. The grammar of all the 

 Hamitic languages shows similar traits. The nouns have a mas- 

 culine and feminine form ; the radical may be of one or more sylla- 

 bles, and, unlike the Semitic tongues, it remains unaltered in the 

 process of word-building ; there are plural but not dual forms ; re- 

 lation is expressed by both prefixes and suffixes ; and the verb 

 origmally had but one form, instead of the two or more found in 

 the Semitic languages. 



The general grammatic aspect of these languages, however, 

 leaves no doubt but that at some remote epoch they were derived 

 from the same original form of speech from which the Semitic lan- 

 guages trace their descent : hence they are classified as the 

 " Hamito-Semitic " stock. 



Where was the original seat of the tribe who spoke this parent 

 tongue, has not been ascertained. The uniform opinion of scholars 

 has been that it was somewhere in western Asia ; and, though the 

 question does not immediately concern the present discussion, I 

 cannot forbear adding that I hold this to be a mistake, and that 

 the original seat of the Semites was on or near the Atlantic coast. 

 In conclusion, I would submit the following as the results of 

 this inquiry : i. The uniform testimony of the ancient writers and 

 of their own traditions asserts that the Etruscans came across the 

 sea from the south, and established their first settlement on Italian 

 soil near Tarquinii : this historic testimony is corroborated by the 

 preponderance of archseologic evidence as yet brought forward. 

 2. Physically the Etruscans were a people of lofty stature, of the 

 blonde type, with dolichocephalic heads. In these traits they cor- 

 responded precisely with the blonde type of the ancient Libyans, 

 represented by the modern Berbers and the Guanches, the only 

 blonde people to the south. 3. In the position assigned to woman 

 and in the system of federal government, the Etruscans were to- 

 tally difTerent from the Greeks, Orientals, and Turanians, but were 

 in entire accord with the Libyans. 4. The phonetics, grammatical 

 plan, vocabulary, numerals, and proper names of the Etruscan 

 tongue present many and close analogies with the Libyan dialects, 

 ancient and modern. 5. Linguistic science, therefore, concurs with 

 tradition, archaeology, sociologic traits, and anthropologic evidence, 

 in assigning a genetic relationship of the Etruscans to the Libyan 

 family. 



