OF THE YORUBA LANGUAGE. 



53 



to destroy, Ian, to break, le, lung, mo, mo-lc, mo-lung, to grind (mo, dust; Yor., mo, to ad- 

 here, to build or form of clay ; Dak., maka, ground, earth); Sans., mrd, to grind ; mala,, dirt, 

 sediment; rudj, to break. Gr., fidxos, fyy*-, ft6faj ; Lat., frang-, mola, mollis ; Goth., brikan, 

 malan; Dak., mdu (= mru or mlu, as the Dakotas have no 1 or r sound), fine, pulverized, 

 mdcca (= brec'a) broken; Crow, ara'tfic, agriculture; Pawnee, ara'nu, earth. 



79. Burg, elephant. E rig, that which is heavy. Cfr. Gr., {& '! 



80. Efufu, wind, breeze, air. Cfr. Chin., fung. 



81. Egbera, equality; iro, an equal; ogba, equality, a balance, an equal ; gbc, to take up, 

 to raise ; gbe . . . ha, ro, so, to hang up, to suspend. Cfr. Chin., kwa, to hang up, to suspend ; 

 Lat., cegualia ; (libra, Sans, li, equality, lab, to hang); Gr., /5onrj, ( v»?; Sans., sama, equal. If 

 any evidence is needed to prove the affinity of gba and kwa, we find the idea of fluctua- 

 tion (like a balance), represented in Yoruba by b, m, and w. E. g , bo, to shake hands ; 

 gba, to float about ; agbami, the open sea (Cfr. aqua, marc) ; mi, to shake, to sivallow (Cfr. 

 Chin., me ; Dak., mini, water) ; ma, to stroll about (in madc-koso, a strolling beggar who 

 tells news for a living = ma deke o so, stroller lie-inventing icho talks ; Cfr. mendax, men- 

 dico, mentior) ; wa, to tremble; wara, a shower, milk (Cfr. Goth., vato, water; Sans., va, 

 logo, to blow; va'ri, water ; tfal, to tremble; djala,, water) ; wariri, to trembb ■greatly ; wele, 

 wavingly ; we, to hoist (weben, weave, wave); we, to wash, to swim. That the word Mind, 

 itself, as that which cfe-cerns, weighs, de-liber* -atcs, and is mteZ-Iigent, has a kindred origin, 

 appears probable from Yor, mi, to breathe; mo, to know, to understand; mero, mete, to 

 reflect, to consider, to meditate ; ma, truly ; mamodza, to guess (= to endeavor to know truly. 

 Cfr. Lat., memoro = ma, truly, mo, to know, ro, to stir, excite, intend; Eg., ma, truth; 

 Gr., i>Av, idv, iivjv); woij, to measure, to weigh; Sans., ma, to measure ; manas, mind. For cor- 

 responding vowel changes Cfr. Sans., ma's, Gr. trfvfy A. S. mona, Ger. mond ; moon. 



82. En ii), the back, hinder part. Cfr., Chin., heang, the back part of the head or neck, that 

 which rests on the pillow, the strings which tie a cap behind ; Ger., bin, hinter. Wedgewood 

 institutes a comparison between behind and the Finnish hanta, the tail. This is evidently 

 a compound word, the first syllable compounding to the bin in hinter, and the second may 

 probably be; the old root ta, tan, tag, to extend, to stretch out, which is found in nearly all 

 languages. Cfr. Yor., sig, before, te, to push forward, to spread out. Dak., sigte, tail. The 

 dental s would be a natural sound for the expression of what is before, and h, which is 

 formed far back in the head, for what is behind, and in composition with ni or n, to be, these 

 consonants would make sig and hhj. 



83. Kkai). — Ka, ko, to gather, to collect; oka, eko, that which collects ; kag, oka-g, ako, ako, 

 one. See Og, § 131. 



* Liberty, is tbo form of balancing or vi-im-ting between two courses of action. 



