15(1 



KTll.VOLaOT OF THE INDO-IMCn'lC iSLAXDi. 



boUune &c* The root Is ?eli, Uili/bilc, vdu, bo!a S:c. If willi 

 these terms for "white" ihose for ^'dilvei'" he otmiiJareJ, uo Joubt 

 will remain that the quultlive root "was the original. Dniv. vili^ bi'i, 

 S&inllic ftlatj iWaii &c., bir, hcrur. In mmy of the Africnn lati^- 

 uages, as in Kol, it ts appii<j(] to "iron/' and &6 the root appears 

 with the samn mi^aning in the TTelin^w harze/, well in the 

 Georgian nnd Lai in termfs, in Kamschatka vrTLvatsh (the base 

 apparently of the Hebrew bar-r-e?), Koriak \^a\(tndf this appears 

 to have been a Yery archaic op plication. But it must have bren 

 a secondary one. The etymology is conclusive as to thi*i. Silver 

 is- found naliimlly in the raetn 1 lie stnte, and must have Htfracted 

 the attention of man long bfifore the art of conveJTtng ores into 

 malleable iron was discovered. When other metals eamc into 

 uae, the woril, in accordance vriih the most archaic [tlan of natning, 

 would probably he applied to them with some diitinclivc epithet, 

 and it would in some laiiguiiges come in time to have a generic 

 meaning equivalent to "metal." When, for example, "gold" be- 

 came "yellow-metal," and iron "blacli*mctal," silver would become 

 white-metal/' TIte basis vocable might come to be applied to 

 gold, silver or any othrr metal exclusively, in the ordinary course 

 of glossarial conversion and dfspln cement. In Malagasy the same 

 root wo have hcon examining is found with the generic meaning. 

 Gold is " vula-??itfnfl'*, " metal-mr', and "aiWer " m " \ a\a-fttts^" 

 *^ raetal-wAii^" or simply " vula", thus showing that the earlier ap- 

 plication of the term was to " silver," The Malagasy word for 

 " moon" fula-fta, vu'a, involves the saaie root, and carries us hack 

 to its primitive meaning " white". The current term for '* white," 

 futsy, is the Agau fuchi. In African languages the root oecurB in 

 ternnsfor "gold," as well as for "silver" and "iron," war/ta, wirAa 

 Agan, Woratta &c., warA Tigre, baru-bera Shankala, wura 

 Yoruba (the Malagasy- Asonesian form). In other langnages also 

 the raoon has derived its name, or one of its names, fi-om its being 

 "white," "bright" kc. The anc, Tamil name is pi r^i", one of 

 the Telugu names is za-billi and the Male is hilp^, all jfollowing the 

 Karnataka form of the root (bite " white " Karn,). The Male 

 nami; for " snn", her, and the Xol immes for " star" epii, ipil have 

 the same root, while the Uraon hinA«, Male b'mdehe, Tnmil redu^ 

 plicated vin-min, van-min, Toda ponc-niiu Malavalam niing«rtffflr, 



