562 Rev. Mr Williams on one Source of the 



Idoneus, " proper, suitable," &c. originally applied to men of 

 property, hence " rich, wealthy." Hear Caius, 1 (for lawyers, as 

 I have before observed, are more retentive of the original meanings 

 of words,) " Si ab idoneo debitore ad inopem transtulerit obliga- 

 tionem," i. e. " ab eo debitore, qui est solvendo." 2 Here idoneus, 

 rich, and inops, poor, are put in opposition to each other. So, al- 

 so, in Ulpian, " Tutores et Fidejussores idonei," are twice opposed 

 to those " qui lapsi sunt facultatibus" (ruined men). Thus, also, 

 it changes places with Locuples, as Testis idoneus, Testis locuples, 

 Auctor locuples, Auctor idoneus. The root of this is the Cum. 

 eid-ion, vulg. eidon, an ox, the generic name of kine, for beef 

 is always called " cig eidon." In the Cum. Italy is always called 

 " Y'r eidal," close enough to identify it with Italia, derived from 

 italus, an ox. 



Divitiae seem as clearly referable to the Cum. Dav-ad, plur. De- 

 veid, or as the word is written in old documents, Deveit, " a sheep ; 

 and sheep." Indeed I doubt not that Davad and Devaid are com- 

 pound words, made up of Dav or D6v, " tame,'' and Eid, the root 

 of Eidon, still to be found in the literary language of Ireland as 

 the generic name for " cattle," (see Ed. and Eid. in H. Lloyd's 

 Irish Diet.) ; and that the animals, reclaimed from their wild state, 

 and domesticated by man, bore this name, which was subsequent- 

 ly transferred to express the wealth of man. He who therefore 

 is inclinedto deny that pecunia and pecuniosus come from pecus, 

 may also refuse his assent to the inference that Divitiae conies 

 from Deveit. I could as easily shew that Duonus, the original 

 form of bonus ; is also of Cum. origin, but I abstain, and reluc- 

 tantly close the present paper. 



To follow it up, three more at least are absolutely necessary — 



1 . An examination of the facts which made so many tribes in 

 Italy, Gaul, and Britain, claim a Trojan origin, and a sa- 



1 Lib. et tit. 4. Leg. 27- 2 Lib. xxvii. tit. 8. Leg. 1. 



