319 
dog r Professor Skeat says, 44 Root uncertain.” The Sk. svan is 
connected with a root svi, 44 to swell,” and similarly the Proto- 
Aryan kwan or kvan is probably connected with the primary 
Aryan root kva* meaning 44 to swell ” and 64 to burn,” heat and 
expansion being connected ; and hence to be hollow, be strong, 
promote, hollowness and strength being connected with increase 
of size and strength with heat ; whilst that which is strong of 
course promotes. A dog may thus have been regarded as the 
hot,t warm-tempered, strong creature who promotes man’s 
wishes, or according to some similar line of thought. Canon 
Farrar sees in svan , a direct onomatopoeia , but this I am 
unable to discern : he derives it from the Sk. root kvan , 44 to 
sound,” a view which, though tempting, is, I think, decidedly 
incorrect ; for kvan , 44 to sound ” (Cf, Lat. can-o , Groth. han-a , 
44 cock,” i.e. 44 sing-er,” Ang.-Sax. keen , i.e ., female cock, the 
alteration of gender being shown by vowel-change), is from 
the Proto-Aryan kan , 44 to sound,” a form contemporaneous but 
unconnected with the form kwan , kvan , or kuan , 44 dog.” But 
let it be granted that the form kwan is older than any variant 
form of dog , and also that it is the first word ever used by 
Aryan man to express the animal, how do we know that it 
is older than the form which we find in Assyrian as kalbu , 
Heb. keleb , 44 barker,” another very natural name to apply to 
the animal, or than the Kamic (Egyptian) tesem , or the Akka- 
dian^? This latter name Canon Farrar would probably 
connect with 44 the universal root Ik , an imitation of licking 
the lips” (Cf. Sk. root lak , 44 to taste ”). In this case lik would 
signify 44 the greedy,” 44 the swallower,” and the cuneiform ideo- 
graph of the word is, in the opinion of the Rev. Wm. 
Houghton, J 44 a rough picture of some animal couchant,” and 
the name is used somewhat generally, being also applied to a 
lion, perhaps regarded as a big dog, as it has elsewhere been 
styled 44 the great and mischievous cat.” A wolf, too, the most 
rapacious of brutes (Cf. 44 Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf”), is 
called lik-bi-ku , 44 dog-other-eating,” i.e. greedy-dog. Thus, 
without entering into the vastly difficult question whether in- 
flectional languages have passed through previous stages of 
* Vide List of Primary Roots of Proto-Aryan ( B.M.A . , Appendix B.). 
+ As to the connexion in idea between fire and an animal, vide the remark 
of Herodotos that “ The Egyptians believe fire to be a live animal, which 
eats whatever it can seize, and then, glutted with the food, dies with the 
matter which it feeds upon ” ( Herod iii. 16, Rawlinson’s translation). 
Plutarch similarly observes, “ There is nothing that so resembles a live animal 
as fire, which moves and nourishes itself” ( Sympos ., vii.). 
+ The Picture Origin of the Characters of the Assyrian Syllabary , 30. 
