240 THE AMERICAN MOOSE 



word for elk is aXKt] {dike), the transposition of the 

 accent being the only difference. The first Greek 

 writer, so far as known, who mentioned the elk, 

 was Pausanias, the geographer. In the course of 

 an argument to show that the tusks of the elephant 

 are horns, and not teeth, Pausanias cites "the 

 elks, those wild animals in Celtic land," and 

 adds, ''the male elks have horns on their eye- 

 brows, but the females have none at all.''^ Now 

 Pausanias lived about two centuries later than 

 Caesar.^ It is to be presumed that the Greek 

 writer adapted his name for the animals which 

 ''have horns on their eyebrows" from the Latin of 

 Caesar, for the "Celtic land" was Roman territory, 

 and the Greeks doubtless received their informa- 

 tion about it from Roman sources. 



Andrews, the Latin lexicographer, says that 

 alces is derived from the old German elg. He 

 does not credit either word with Greek origin. 

 Elg, then, is the parent word, from which are 

 derived alces^ al^Kri, the modern German Elch and 

 the English word elk. It is unfortunate that a 

 name based upon this root has not been adopted 

 in all languages to designate animals of the Alces 

 genus. 



s Description of Greece^ translated by J. G. Frazer, book v., chap. xii. 

 * See infra, p. 274. ^ The c had the sound of k. 



