twenty * verbs descriptive of the most common sensations and
bodily acts, such as-eating, drinking-, sleeping,meiAg, hearing!
As no nation was ever found destitute of^sinailar expressions,
or was likely to exchange its own supellex'for corresponding
words in foreign languages,’ the connexion between the Indo^
Europeanddtonkss must be r.egarded; aS truly primitive and
original It -may beitargned thlit ^he-dinleets whieh corres-
pond'in theses parts s of their vocabulary wereforiginally iohe
speech, the idiom of one people, and that the diversities
which exist, ^teonging as they do to'the: less N-essefttoabel<e*
ments of language, are of later date, and had them origin at a
time subsequent to the separation o f the race into different
tribes. We may carry somewhat forthe r, the assertion« iof
affinity between,; a t least, some languages of th e ln d o -
European family. Ternis relating to pastoral habi ts and even
to agricnlttipe are common to most of these languages^ yjfiis
includes the names of domestic ; animals, especially such as
constitute the herds and the eompanfdns of the pastoral class*
But here the resemblance ends. I t would ;appear that the
common primitive ancestry of the Ind o-diuropean nations
were unacquainted with the use o f iron and other metalsysinco
the terms by which these are denoted arc different indifferent
languages, and must have been ? acquired subsequently, to the
era of separation. Nothing^ at leasty^can-be more unlike
than gold, %pv&oç and aurum ; than silver and argentum ?
than alBifpog and ferrum.* Names given to thé\impiements>of
warfare likewise differ in the several vocabularies of these
languages, a fact which Niebuhr has observed with respect*
to the Greek and Latin, but which with perfect truth may be
stated more generally, and shown to e x te n d tom a n y of ther
* Some exceptions occur tet this remark, and,jperhaps, more instances of resemblance
in the names of particular metals might he found on a careful investigation,
since it is probable that one nation of the same race may often have made ktiiown
die names as well as - the uses of particular "metals to others. Tin, in Greek
iea<raiT£f>0Çj w m Sanskrit hast ira ; and Ritter has henee conjeetured that tin was
fiçst brqught to the Greék^ ft°m J^adja.: From this word nù|$. bft..de jta ^ jthp
Ambic ga'séëf, .now: jnsed for pewterp, a mixed metal imitating till. Our Èngtislj
word, tfri, and 1he.Géràui&?.raiiE£ mayh.ë Sbm ^ e Phceniciari'ïamTA:. Aÿas in‘Sanskrit,
brass, in Latin aes, affords'another'exampleof similar namés givèrrto the same
inetal in two of the principal Indo-European languages.
Iranian idioms. I f from* these ■ considerations we might be
alio wed to? estimate the extent of the vocabulary belonging to
the- original stock of tlie'dndo-European nations previously to
their separation into different tribes, we should suppose them to
have been nearly.on a-level in most respects with the great
nomadic raceh, who have in Later,! ag£&J n f the wo rid issued
from the central “«regions-> of Asia, and have invaded the
countries inhabited by civilized nations. Perhaps, in general*
their state; of'manners may : have resembled the description
given-by Tacitus ofth e "Germans. It is plain that the use of
letters was entirely unknown- jto (them-, at leasts to those tribes
of the^rftce .who<passed!i.olp Europe, and that it was introduced
among them in «long after agÇbjhyfhe Phoenicians?" who claim
this-mM important Invention. Buf^ though, rude |-in respect
to. naan y ofi'the'artS' oflife? the> Indo-Eprope^n nations appear
to* havp^rOught with them a much higher $ d eg ree of mental
culture than thé ,Allophylian races possessed,, .before the
Iranian tribes< were spread jUmong-; them, Even the most
simple of them had national poetry, and a culturp of language
am€i though1f#together surprising? when compared
with their -external .manners aud'eondition, as far as they can
pp kwiawmnr properly, estimated. They had barçls^ or.scalds,
vates, Gioi()oi> wb©>: under a divine impulse,?were supposed to
^etebrate-the history- of? apeiept times, a n d connect'them with
revelations*of the future, and .with a refined and metaphysical
system q€'•dogmas, of which, it is-difficult to imagine the
original source, . Among these, in the west as well as in the
east, the metempsychosis held a çonspiçuQu^ 1 place, implying
faith in an afterlife of rewards-, and punishments, and a
moral government .of the world- With this was .connected,
among most1» if not allj the Iranian nations, .fhynotion that the
material universe hadnndergon'el and was destined to undergo,
a repetition, of catastropbi#by- fire -«tod water, and to ;b% renewed
in fresh beauty, when a.Tgp}d|U,‘age was to commence,
destined, in its turn to inevitably corruption au,d: decay. The
emanation-, of a l^ bpip'gs from the spul of the universe, and
their refusion in tp it, a doctrinp which appears to hsa«v& formed
an essential part of-this.system• wherexepft was preserved W
a- tolerably entire, state, borders closely on a species of Pan