326 Is the Pushto a Semitic Language ? [No. 1, 



Europas, Bonn, 1850, p. 130) ; De Vere (Comparative Philology, 

 New York, 1853, p. 299) ; Bapp (Grundriss der Gramrnatik, Stutt- 

 gart, 1855), and others. 



One might have thought the truth pretty well estahlished hy this 

 time, were it not for the feline vitality of error, which in this in- 

 stance was aided hy the fact that the pure linguistic question had 

 been mixed up with an obscure ethnological problem, which some 

 people moreover are inclined to make somewhat of a religious ques- 

 tion. The allusion is to the alleged claim of the Afghans to be con- 

 sidered children of Israel. It is not intended here to enter upon 

 this matter. The question now is simply whether the Pushto. is an 

 Indo-European, or a Semitic language. But when Ewald, and Dorn, 

 and Pott, and Miiller have pronounced, is there any one yet who can 

 doubt ? It is mortifying to be obliged to say that there is. 



When the founder of the Asiatic Society pronounced his opinion, 

 perhaps hastily, and certainly on an imperfect inspection of scanty 

 and perhaps faulty materials, one willingly forgets it. 



Indignor, quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus ! 



But people must necessarily dig up old bones, Sir George Hose 

 published a somewhat wild pamphlet on " The Kings of the East," 

 in which he revives the opinion of Sir William Jones, maintains that 

 the Pushto language does contain Hebraic elements, and blames Dr. 

 Wolff for not finding more than one word which countenances that 

 view. 



Sir George Rose claimed neither a position as a philologist, nor an 

 acquaintance with Pushto ; hence his assertions, however strenuously 

 made, might be allowed to rest on their own merits. But now a 

 professed philologer enters the lists, namely, the Rev. Charles Fors- 

 ter, one of the six preachers of the Cathedral of Canterbury, Rector 

 of Stisted, Honorary Member of the Literary Society, author of 

 " Mahomedanism Unveiled," and of " The Historical Geography of 

 Arabia." These facts are taken from the title page of a work desig- 

 nated briefly as follows : " The one primeval language traced experi- 

 mentally through ancient inscriptions in alphabetic characters of 

 lost powers from the four continents. Including the voice of Israel 

 from the rocks of Sinai : and the vestiges of Patriarchal tradition 

 from the monuments of Egypt, Etruria, and Southern Arabia." In 



