313 



lated to the embrj^o," i. e., procreated, offspring, man, cfr. the Latin 

 gen-s from gigno, and Ski\ praja -s, people from the same root Jan, to 

 procreate, engender. 



Probably the o of dono was short, as the long 6 wonld be in Irish 

 rather ua; but this shortening of the root dkd is not more astonishing 

 than the similar occurrence in Greek in Oeai^, Oe-ro^, d6ai<f. 



If don means the embryo, the meaning of the taurio is in a manner 

 fixed. For, as the spell runs against either female or male want of 

 sexual power, the spirit exorcised must be inimical to conception, the 

 destroyer in fact of the embryo. Taurio is clearly a derivation from a root 

 taur ; and as our family of languages has no roots with diphthongs, this 

 is a gunated form of Uir. It does not appear that any Celtic language 

 has such a root, but Sanskrit and Zend have preserved it. The Skr. 

 root tur {tur, turv) means generally to be strong, to be swift : turana^ 

 swift ; turamjati, he hastens ; turanyu, hastening ; turyd, superior 

 strength ; turiya, <j-7rep/u,a ; tur (f.), haste ; turnip hastening ; turati, he 

 hastens = ap-tura, busy, hastening the work; {ap =^ ap as = Jut. 



opus) ; apturya, zeal ; tura, prompt. In some cases the word takes the 

 meaning of, "to be stronger than, to overpower, conquer." Thus, 

 rajas-tur, conquering the world ; vigvatur, conquering all ; vrtratur, con- 

 quering the demon Vrtra. Compare Eg. YIII, 88, 6 — Vrtram yad Indra 

 turvasi, that thou, o Indra, overcomest Y. More rarely, lastly the word 

 seems to acquire also the meaning of " to wound, to hurt." This significa- 

 tion is assigned to the verb turyate, in the Dhatupatha. Sayana also ex- 

 plains tura in Eigveda,Y.28, by gatrundm himsahan, i. e., the destroyer of 

 enemies. In the sense of hurt, wounded, the word occurs in Eig.YIII., 

 68, 2, ah]iyurn6ti yannagnam hJtishaJcti vigvam yatturam, ''covers that 

 which is naked,- heals all which is sore." Hence the common word dtura, 

 hurt, sore, sick, is probably from the same root. The signification to 

 hurt, to destroy, which is rare in Sanskrit, is the common one of this 

 root in Zend, where we have tur, tur, blesser, tuer, as thaesho taourvdo, 

 celui qui aneantit la haine (^vid. Burnouf, ya9na, p. 83), nominative 

 from a base tadurvat, which seems a participle [present or perfect?] 

 from root tur or turv, 1 ps. sing, imperat. taourvayeni, " 1 will destroy" 

 (Journal Asiatique, 1845, Juin, pp. 428, 429). With preposition auvi 

 we have aiwithura, potens, invictus, a name of the god Mithra, and also 

 of the Pervers, literally, conquering, destroying." 



Of the Zend forms of this root the second, tadurv, is easily explained : 

 the a6 is the regular representation of an ancient diphthongal 6, the gu- 

 nation of u, and u immediately preceding r is the u-infection caused by 

 the following v. Eoth forms, therefore, point back to a root tur, or 

 gunated, tdr, which latter form in ancient Celtic would appear as taur. 

 "We may therefore safely assume that taurio s is a derivative from this 

 root, meaning, destructive, destroyer, Dontaurio, accordingly, will be 

 the destroyer of the embryo. That there should be a special demon 

 threatening the child in the womb of its mother, is consistent with the 

 general notions of the Indo-Gernians, as ma}^ be seen on comparing a 

 hymn from the '' Atharvaveda" (VIII., 6). in which, in spite of the great 



