194 
who carved them. The record avils lxxi he translates “ aged 
71,” but the parallel record avils maciis mealchlsc means, he 
says, A villus Magus meaculos [sculpsit\ . 
That these words are really decades will not be disputed by any 
one who is not blinded by a preconceived theory. I am therefore 
entitled to demand that any future advocate of an Aryan or 
Semitic theory, should any such arise, must fairly meet and 
answer my argument from the numerals. 
But if it be admitted, as it must be, that the Etruscan numerals 
are decisively Turanian, it follows, I think, without further evi- 
dence, that the Etruscan belongs to the Turanian family of 
languages. 
If, however, this should be disputed, there is an abundance of 
other evidence. We can try our key in other locks, and see if it 
will open them. 
One lock, hitherto unopened, lies ready to our hand. Next to 
the numerals, the household words denoting the commonest rela- 
tionships of life are the most persistent in their vitality. Other 
words change as languages grow old. These words, which are the 
first to be lisped by baby lips, outlive almost every other element of 
language. Such words, therefore, rank very high in philologic value. 
We have already seen that the bilingual inscriptions determine 
the meaning of the four most frequent vocables on the Etruscan 
monuments. All these are, fortunately, words of kinship, so pre- 
cious to the philologist. They are — 
SEC 
“ daughter 
CLAN 
“ son ” 
-AL 
“ child ” 
-ISA 
“ wife” 
None of these relationships are thus designated, so far as I am 
aware, in any Aryan language, nor have any passable Aryan ety- 
mologies been proposed for them* In the Turanian languages, 
however, we find them all, and with the same meanings which they 
bear in Etruscan. Thus we have — 
Etruscan clan son ■) 
Turcoman oglan son j 
Etruscan -isa wife h 
Mongol izi wife > 
Tungus asi wife J 
* As an example of the far-fetched etymologies propounded, I may men* 
tion that sec, “ daughter,” has been derived either from the Latin stquor, or 
seco, as well as from the Sclavonic posagu, “ marriage.” For clan we are 
referred to the Latin words genitus , gnatus , and grandis. Mr. Ellis allows 
that see must be a Finnic word, but does not see that his admission is fatal 
to his theory of the Aryan character of Etruscan. 
