OF THE YOHUBA LANGUAGE. 



49 



and ya, to be, to he sprightly. From Yor., ya, to be; si, to he, and n, no, may readily be 

 derived, ya-si =jese, it is is, and n-si = nese, it not is. (Cfr. Ital., si.) Ya, in Yor., also 

 has the meanings, to hasten, to he easy of performance, to select an image to worship, which 

 seems to ally it to the Dakota ya, to proceed, to make, to regard as, to resemble. 



G3. Bale, from oba or baba, father, master, Icing, and ile, house. From ile, ground, earth, 

 is formed, in a similar manner, Bale, a governor. The Yoruba preposition si, of, which 

 has been dropped, appears to have been retained in the Gr. p a -<7i-Xe-(>q, " hc-who-is-master- 

 of-the-land." The preposition is often omitted in Yoruba, the relation being implied, as 

 in Chinese, by the collocation of the words. Thus oba ile = oba si ile, and ile oba, a 

 kingdom = ile si oba, the land of the master. I cannot believe that this curious coinci- 

 dence is merely accidental. The chances against it, assuming the chance of a sirjgle coinci- 

 dent syllable to be as great as r ^ are at least 100,000,000 to 1. 



64. Bata. — Ba, to bend, to fit, to meet, &c; bo, to cover ; abo, a hag, bundle, covert; ta 

 (Chin, to), to spread., to hick, &c. Bata has the several meanings of hide, leather, shoe, 

 sandal, hoof, small box, a kind of drum. Cfr. Sans., petica', a box ; Gr., fiuco, xtjSoats, zi/3«m;?; 

 Sp., bote, botila, a leather bra/for wine, a butt or cask; botclla, a bottle; It., botte, bottiglia; 

 Fr., botte, boute, bouteille, bouton; Eng., boot, butt, bottle, button, bud. 



G5. Marsh has the following note, under "Bottle," in Wedgewood's Dictionary, p. 115: 

 " Gazi, quoting Hesychius, says that the Greek nutty, the name of a flask or jar covered with 

 wicker-work or plaited thongs, was pronounced fiutty by the people of Tarentum in Magna 

 Greecia, and that this latter form was gradually corrupted into foxim, foovhv, and {SmttiM, whence 

 probably the Italian botte and its diminutive bottiglia. The glossary of Sophocles gives 

 several other closely allied forms, and this must be regarded as a more probable etymology 

 than that proposed by Wedgcwood, though it leaves the primary source of nvtty unex- 

 plained." The affinity of these words can hardly be questioned, but there may be some 

 doubt as to which is the earliest form. The old idea that Latin was derived from Greek, 

 is now generally exploded, and as many Latin words bear internal evidence of greater 

 antiquity than the corresponding Greek terms, it is not improbable that an old Umbrian 

 bata, should become successively jSott, $aut(o», and putty, before it was transferred to Greece, 

 and the £ be subsequently corrupted into a *. This hypothesis at least supplies Marsh's 

 desideratum, by giving an explanation of the primary source of nrntty, — an explanation 

 which may be made still more complete by adding to bata the Yoruba root na, to sketch, 

 to extend, making ba-ta-na = m> n-wj. From the connection between Moo, ^.^ bo, ba, 

 Mr. Wedgewood might perhaps derive some confirmation of his onomatopoetic views. 



There is a curious connection between Yor. laba, a leather bag, satchel (la,* to split, ba, 

 to bend, &c), and laba mole, robbers, kidnappers (mole, to conspire; whence laba mole, con- 



voj,. xnr.— 7 



* Chin, Ie8, M. 7073. 



