380 CLASS MA MM ALT A. 



words Bu, /Sosy, Bos, are all derived from an imitation of 

 the bovine voice ; a primitive mode of designation which is 

 still retained in words of first necessity, among those lan- 

 guages in particular, whose roots can be traced to the 

 earliest periods*. On referring to the Persian names, it 

 will appear that they and the Arabs derived theirs from 

 the word ^ Gau, an ox or cow ; thus the Persian ^blf 

 Gayan, \J<tA6 Gawban, and in particular, ^y^Gamus, all 

 names for the Buffalo, and not dissimilar from the Arabic, 

 (jggj^U- Jarmis, which is probably taken from the Persian, 

 for the other synonyma in that language are all figurative 

 epithets, such as the Mother of Wealth, &?c. The whole of 

 these bear no evidence of being original, like the Indostane 

 Bhain, but seem to be compounds, made when the animal 

 became known to the followers of the Prophet. But those 

 of Upper Asia cannot be charged with the same suspicion, 

 and therefore establish the presumption that the nations 

 who invaded the Roman and Byzantine empires, brought 

 with them the very animal, whose name had reached Eu- 

 rope, perhaps by means of the Greek followers of Seleucian 

 dynasty ; and that the word Bubalis is the true name of 

 the Buffalo, as clearly as Urus and Bison are derived from 

 the Teutonic Uroks and Wizend. 



Aristotle and others, evidently knew the Buffalo /Soss- 

 ayqioi ev A^ayjurovs, Bos Indicus, or Arachosian Ox : it is de- 

 scribed, as differing from the Ox, as the Wild Boar from 

 the Hog, to be black, powerful, with the nose turned up, 

 and the horns bent outwards. In that period the species 

 was not found further west than North-eastern Persia. 



* Examples of the kind are numerous in the Greek and Latin ; 

 still more common in the Celtic and Teutonic, and also in Indee. 

 Among the names of animals which are derived from an imitation 

 of their voice, we will only point out the universal Baa, Ber, Ba- 

 hara, for sheep ; the Indee Cowal, a crow ; Pheal, a jackall ; 

 Chi-eel, a kite , Holoo, an owl, &c. 



