194 Origin of Mythology', 



The real oris-hi of the name is the Celtic dra!^'\, fire, and 

 from the descriptions of these beings, it is evident that 

 dragons were fiery meteors, or shooting stars, which, dart- 

 ing and flaming along the sky, ^vere imagined to be fiery 

 serpents, which frightened the rude nations of antiquity. 

 The name was afterwards applied perhaps to real ser- 

 pents."* 



Parkhurst arranges the Hebrew word OTi dragons, 

 under the root^nj, to shriek or wail. What sort of drag- 

 ons or serpents are those which sliriek or wail? And 

 what resemblance is there between wailing, and hissini^ ? 

 The Hebrew word is undoubtedly a plural- of the Celtic 

 tan, fire ; the root of the Ghuldaic word tanln, smoke, and 

 this etymology coincides ^^vith that of dragon. There 

 are many Hebrew words remaining, whose roots are not 

 found in the Hebrew language, but which are still a part 

 of the northern and western languages of Europe. f 



Lares, household gods, is merely the Celtic name lar, 

 a floor, originally the ground or level earth, as this consti- 

 tuted the floor of all rude nations : Irish lar, Welch Ihaur, 

 whence we have fioor ; Cantabrian lurra, ground, the 

 earth — This word answers nearly to the Teraphim of the 

 Scriptures, the root of which is the Celtic ^er*^ a house. 

 Penates, in like manner, is formed on penus, an inner 

 room, a w^ord mentioned by Festus.| 



Pan, Lord Bacon supposed to be the Greek woikI 

 5ri*v, omne, intended as a personification of the universe ; 

 and with him agrees Cluver. Faber suggests, that Pan 

 is an abbreviation of Phanes, from ph-am-es, the solar 

 fountain of fire, or Noah worshipped in the form of the 

 Rtin. Bryant maintains that Pan,- like the other Roman 

 deities, represented the sun. Gebelin, from Macrobius, 



* Gebelin, vol. i. r03--Fabtr, i. 208 — Focaloir--Lhuyd. under z^'- 

 nia — Vtillancty's Essay on the Celtic Language, Gram. p. 5. 



Shakspeare evidently alludes to fiery meteors, when he says, 

 " Swift, 3wift, ye drag-ons of the nig-bt." 



The Celtic drag, fire, is probably a compound of the root oi ignis, 

 in Hindoo, ug, in Gipsey, icg ; and the root oi craho, dranv, draag.^ a 

 fiery train- — a precise desciiption of a fiery meteor. 



f Orient. Coll. i, 306.—-Padi. Lex. 



t Ainsworlh's Vocab. of obsokte woids. 



