50 



ON THE COMPARATIVE ETYMOLOGY 



spirators to seize the leather bags of travellers). Can this laba mole, which appears to 

 have denoted one of the earliest kinds of seizure, have any affinity to the root of Xarfdvto, 



()(i. Bertj. — Ba, to come in contact vnth, to find; era, fear, awe, ierribUnem. Eru is 

 compounded of c = a, formative, and ru, to be agitated. 



67. Br. — Cfr. Sans, pi (Chin., fe, pe), to fecundate, to grow fat; vi', to conceive, to bear ; 

 Dak., be, to hatch. 



68. Dake, to he tiknt, to cease. Cfr., Eat., taceo, cessol Da is sometimes used alone 

 in the sense of to cease. The effect of the ke appears to be merely intensive. Tt may be 

 allied with ke (Eg., ki), to cut; ke-ke-kk, littleness; ke-ke, profound silence; ki, not. Cfr. 

 Ger., klein. 



69. De, Dr, Ti, to bind, tie, shaclde. v. § 59. 



70. Dr, to require, to be deficient, from. Cfr. Gr., Sim; Lat., de. 



71. Dile. — Di, to be deficient, from ; lc, to be strong, to lay upon; le, to lay one thing 

 lightly on another, lazy (ile, the ground = "that which is laid level or flat;" be-le, fe-Ie, 

 to he flat). Delay and dilatory are undoubtedly derived from the Eat. (libitum; and latus, 

 in its several meanings of brought, broad, side, must have been derived from roots of kindred 

 meaning with Yor. le, or lc, and te, which also signifies to lay, to spread out. The proba- 

 bility of a common origin as well as kindred meaning, is increased by the fact that Yor. 

 AFARA, slowness, dllatoriness, presents a, strong radical resemblance with Eat. fero. Eor 

 afara = a, the state of; fa, dragging; ra, struggling. The second root of the Latin verb, 

 as well as the first and third, may also be traced to the Yor. auxiliary ti, have, has, had. 

 and ile; for in Yoruba, in order "to avoid an inconvenient hiatus, it is customary in speak- 

 ing to drop either the final vowel of the verb, or the initial one of the noun which fol- 

 lows it. . . . In a few cases neither vowel is dropped, hut the two arc exchanged for u."* 

 Ti ile, " I have grounded, or laid," might, therefore, be euphonically contracted either into 

 tile or tule. 



The germinal significance of the three roots of fero, may therefore be, 1, fer, I drag with 

 difficulty ; 2, tul, I have laid down my load, after bringing it ; 3, lat, laid down, after being 

 brought. If there had been any historical consanguinity between the Romans and Yoru- 

 bas, this etymology would doubtless be received without hesitation. Is it not equally 

 credible, notwithstanding the want of historical evidence, in view of the immense proba- 

 bilities against the fortuitous occurrence of such a connected series of coincidences 1"f And 



* Bowen, pp. 6, 7. For another interesting instance, illustrative of both modes of contraction, sec the discus- 

 sion of Fere, infra, §91. 



f With the same moderate assumption as in § 63, the adverse chances would be at least (lOO)", or 1 ,000,000,000,- 

 000 to 1. The chances against the combined coincidences of fiaoi-ktbi, fer-, tul- lat-, would, therefore, be at 

 least (100) 10 , or 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 to 1. 



