THE GAELIC LANGUAGE. 241 



ruk, light. Arguna, Sanscrit ; argentuni, Latin ; argyros, Greek, and 

 airgiod, Gaelic, the various names for silver, are cognate forms, the 

 arg in each case expressing the idea of shining, so that in these 

 languages silver must have been regarded as the shining metal. 



Another Indo-European root signifying to shine is dhv or div ; 

 Sanscrit, deva, a god. This root has also been well preserved in 

 Gaelic. Dia, god is evidently from this root and j)erhaps deamhan, 

 devil. Old Gaelic for day was dia, the same as god ; modern Gaelic 

 for to-day is diugh, and for yesterday, de ; Welsh has dyw, for both 

 day and god. These Keltic words are as near the Aryan forms as 

 Zeus, Deus, Theos. These words may point to a time when the sun, 

 and perhaps light, were objects of worship. 



Words Relating to Water. 



The Gaelic uisge, again, seems to be more nearly related to Sans- 

 crit udan, and to the original root-form ud, lis (to well, to gush) than 

 any of the European forms, liydor, unda, (wave), wasser. 



It is possible that uth, a cow's udder, (pronounced like oo in goose) 

 is connected with uisge and with ud. 



In the word sruth (prcnounced sru) a stream or river, Gaelic has 

 preserved almost intact the original root-form sr^l, which had pre- 

 cisely the same meaning. 



In this connection may be mentioned the Aryan verb snigh, to 

 wet, to snow, and the form sneah, moisture, represented in Gaelic by 

 snidhe or- snighe, meaning a tear, or rain coming through the roof. 

 For example : Tha snidh air mo shuil, — the tear is on my eye. 

 The English snow is in Gaelic, sneachd. 



A most interesting form is that of the Gaelic word snamh (pro- 

 nounced s'uav) meaning to swim, float, bathe. Kindred forms ai-e 

 Sanscrit nau, Greek naus, Latin navis, a ship, all, according to Skeat, 

 from an Aryan root ka or 7ia which again, is from an older stem, sna, 

 to float, to swim, to bathe. It will be here remarked that the initial 

 s, which has disappeared in the other Aryan tongues, is in Gaelic 

 retained. Thus, to-day, in the popular speech of the remotest corner 

 of the Hebrides, this veneiable form preserves the sound and the 

 meaning which it had, thousands of years ago on the plains of Asia. 



