164 GROWTH AND DECLINE OF CULTURE. 



priests, wliicli represented the moon devouring the sun." ^ 

 Yet the Mexicans preserved the memory of an earlier state of 

 astronomical knowledge, by calling eclipses of the sun and 

 moon tonatiiih qualo, metztli qualo, that is, '^the sun's being 

 eaten," "the moon's being eaten," just as the Finns say, kuu 

 sydddd, " the moon is eaten," and the Tahitians that she is na- 

 tua, that is, "bitten" or "pinched."^ In the Mexican celebra- 

 tion of the Netonatmh-quaJo, or eclipse of the sun, two of the 

 captives sacrificed appeared as likenesses of the sun and moon.^ 



When a thing or an art is named in one country by a word 

 belonging to the language of another, as maize, hammock, 

 algehra, and the like, it is often good evidence that the thing 

 or art itself came from thence, bringing its name with it. This 

 kind of evidence, bearing upon the progress of civilization, has 

 been much and successfully worked, but it has to be used with 

 great caution when the foreign language is an important me- 

 dium of instruction, or spoken by a race dominant or powerful 

 in the country. As instances of words good or bad as histo- 

 rical evidence, may be taken the Arabic words in Spanish. 

 While alquimia (alchemy), alhurnoz (bornoos), acequia (irriga- 

 ting channel), albaricoque (apricot), and many more, may really 

 carry with them historical information of more or less value, it 

 must be borne in mind, that the influence of the Arabic lan- 

 guage in Spain was so great, that it has often given words for 

 what was there long before Moorish times, alacran (scorpion), 

 alhoroto (uproar), alcor (hill), and so on; not satisfied with 

 their own word for head, to express a head of cattle, the 

 Spaniards must needs call it res, Arabic ras, head. So the N"ew 

 Zealanders' use of huka-hiilia for book is good evidence as to 

 who taught them to read; but the name that the Tahitian 

 nobles are now commonly adopting, instead of the native term 

 aril, is bad evidence as to the origin of caste among them ; they 

 like the title of ta,vana, which is a native attempt at governor. 



Even the etymology of a word may sometimes throw light 

 upon the transmission of art and knowledge from one country 

 to another, as where we may see how the Roman made sub- 



' Castren, ' Finnische Mythologie ; ' pp. 63-5. Ellis, Polyn. Ees., vol. ii. p. 415. 

 "2 Nieremberg, Hist. Nat.; Antwerp, 1635, p. 143. Humboldt, Vues, pi. 23. 



