1865.] Kett on Prehistoric Records. 241 



we may well deduce that art or manufacture was imported from the 

 people whose words have been adopted to convey the idea repre- 

 sented. Several instances of this may be noticed, both known histo- 

 rically to have actually taken place, and also plainly deducible without 

 such historical data.* 



As in the languages of which we know the history we can confirm 

 our knowledge by the testimony of words, so a comparison of the 

 language, mythology, and law of the nations of the Indo-European 

 or Aryan race has brought us conclusive evidence of which we may 

 be sure that the general outline is true, though we may not be able to 

 fill in the picture so thoroughly as we should wish. We find that at 

 a time when this ancient nation dwelt in its first abiding-place, it was 

 divided into divers tribes speaking various dialects ; that it was first 

 of all separated into two main streams — a northern and a southern ; 

 that as time went on, some overwhelming necessity, probably that which 

 ever had and still has such an influence on the migrations of men 

 — the desire of food — drove these tribes forward in various direc- 

 tions and at various times, now side by side, now chasing one another, 

 like waves on the ocean — at one time parted by some insuperable 

 obstacle, and anon reuniting with the clash of contending force, and 

 then together again sweeping forward with increased energy over all 

 barriers placed to oppose it. 



But we want to see these nations as they once dwelt in their cradle- 

 land.! Essentially pastoral, they differed at first but little from that 

 other great race the Semitic, whose greatest leader had already passed 

 westward over the river Euphrates. But, unlike him and his descend- 

 ants for many generations, they were not nomadic. They dwelt not 

 in the black tents of the Arab Sheik, Abraham the Hebrew, the 

 Passer-over ; but like him they possessed their flocks and herds, 

 their sheep and goats, their oxen and horses, { their dogs, pigs, geese, 

 and fowls. § Their cattle, their chief wealth and sole standard of 



* In this way the English names of many ecclesiastical services, garments, 

 titles, &c, are of such Latin origin (or in some cases, Latinized-Greek form), that 

 we cannot but remember that we owe our Christianity chiefly to St. Augustine 

 and his Eoman monks. Again, our military terms, as far as the words are 

 ancient (many of the modern introductions are Italian or French, the former 

 pointing to the bands of Italian mercenaries that overran Europe in the Middle 

 Ages, the latter to our wars with France) are mostly derived from the Norman 

 French. Our naval terms are of Scandinavian origin, whilst the terms of peaceful 

 and agricultural employments are mostly Anglo-Saxon. In Latin we see some- 

 thing similar in the fact that most agricultural terms are nearly allied to the 

 Greek, whilst the derivations of the military terms are harder to trace, pointing to 

 the fact, probably, that the ancestors of the Eomans were descended from two 

 tribes, the conquering and dominant one not being so closely allied to the 

 Hellenes, as the conquered and industrious class. 



f The results given in these sections are principally taken from L. F. A. 

 Maury's ' Histoire des Religions de la Grece Antique,' Mommsen's ' History of 

 Borne,' and A. Pictet's ' Les Aryas Primitifs.' 



% The Jews were forbidden to use horses, and seem to have had none until 

 Solomon's reign. The Arabs, too, are represented on the Nineveh scidptures as 

 riding only on camels. 



§ Geoffroi St. Hilaire says that there are forty species of domesticated animals, 

 of these thirty-five are to be found in Europe, of which again thirty-one have 



