SD6 'Origin of Mythology. 



xvise^ wisdom, or a ruise man, a sage, or philosopher. 1-a 

 -this fact all the gentlemen who have written on the his- 

 tory and antiquities of India, coincide. The word is 

 found in the Malayan and Cingalese languages, as well 

 as in Sanscrit.*" 



This explanation of the nanle ma)^ help to lelucidate 

 the history of Budha and Woden. In the Welsh language, 

 guybod, is to know or understand. In the Anglo-Saxou, 

 the word is written gebodian, or bodian, to predict, to 

 bode; and every person acquainted with the latter lan- 

 guage, knows that a multitude of words were written 

 with or without this prefix ge. In the Irish language, 

 from the Celtic stock, the same word appears in fodh, 

 knowledge, skill; in yo^«cA, wise ; in y?iic//z, a prophet, 

 from which the Latins formed their vates. This ortho- 

 graph}^ fodh, comes nearest to the Chinese Fo or Fohi^ 

 whose chai'acter resembles that of Budha. We know 

 that nothing is more common than this convertibihty of 

 -the letters B, F, V and IF; for the Latin flo and the 

 JEnglish blow, are the same Vv^ord, in different dialects — 

 wicus is xvick — b/o^^, is vivo, and the Irish fodh, know- 

 ledge, and the English %voi, are radically one word. 

 Hence TFoden, in the Teutonic dialects, like wot, would 

 be the natural orthography of fodh, faidh, vates. We 

 then conclude, with a degree of probability, that JFoden 

 :and Budha sprung from the same parent, and represent- 

 •ed some man of distinguished wisdom, who was first 

 admired and afterwards deified, t 



Dr. Buchanan, who has written a treatise on the religion 

 and literature of the Burman empire, inserted in the Asiat- 

 ic Researches vol. vi. makes no question that Budha, is 

 the Bod of the Arabians, the Pout of the Siamese, the 

 3outta of Clemens Alexiindrinus, and the same as tlie 

 iGodama of the Burmans. 



The Arabians formerly had an idol named TFudd, and 

 not improbably the Persian lawgiver Mahabad, may have 



* Asiat. Res. ii. 9 — vol. iii. 40 — vol. iv. 221 — vol. vi. 257, 260— 

 -^ol. vii. 33, 34, 397. 



t Tn Welsh, byd ; in Irish, budh, hcAth ; in Cornisli, byt ; in Armo- 

 ric, bet is the world : but tho some nations liave called the universe 

 •or heaven, the deity, this does not seem to be the origin of Budha? 



■■which signifies a sage. 



