the intimate relation between symbolism and word origins was correctly appreciated.

Although etymologists are agreed that language is fossil poetry and that the creation of every word was originally a poem embodying a bold metaphor or a bright conception, it is quite unrealised how close and intimate a relation exists between symbolism and philology. But, as Renouf points out, "It is not improbable that the cat, in Egyptian Mau, became the symbol of the Sun-God or Day, because the word Mau also means light."1 Renouf likewise notes that not only was RA the name of the Sun-God, but that it was also the usual Egyptian word for Sun. Similarly the Goose, one of the symbols of SEB, was called a Seb; the Crocodile, one of the symbols of SEBEK, was called a Sebek ; the Ibis, one of the symbols of TECHU, was called a Techu; and the Jackal, one of the symbols of ANPU (ANUBIS), was called an Anpu.

Parallels to this Egyptian custom are also traceable in Europe, where, among the Greeks, the word Psyche served not only to denote the Soul but also the Butterfly, a symbol of the Soul; and the word Mylitta served both as the name of a Goddess and of her symbol the Bee. Among the ancient Scandinavians the Bull, one of the symbols of THOR, was named a Thor, this being an example, according to Dr Alexander Wilder, "of the punning so common in those times, often making us uncertain whether the accident of similar name or sound led to adoption as a symbol or was merely a blunder." 2

I was unaware that there was any ancient warrant for what I supposed to be the novel supposition that in many

1 On the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Religion of Ancient Egypt, p. 237; Hibbert Lectures, p. 879.

2 Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology, R. Payne-Knight, p. 124.

instances the names of once-sacred animals contain within themselves the key to what was originally symbolised. The idea that identities of name were primarily due to punning, to blunder, or to accident, must be dispelled when we find that as in most of the examples noted by myself -the symbolic value of the animal is not expressed by a homonym or pun, but in monosyllables that apparently are the debris of some marvellously ancient, prehistoric, almost extinct parent tongue. Modern language is a mosaic in which lie embedded the chips and fossils of predecessors in comparison with whose vast antiquity Sanscrit is but a speech of yesterday. In its glacier-like progress, Language must have brought down along the ages the detritus of tongues that were spoken possibly millions of years before the art of recording by writing was discovered, but which, notwithstanding, were indelibly inscribed and faithfully preserved in the form of mountain, river, and country names. Empires may disappear and nations be sunk into oblivion under successive waves of invasion, but place names and proper names, preserved traditionally by word of mouth, remain to some extent inviolate; and it is, I am convinced, in this direction that one must look for the hypothetical mother-tongue of the hypothetical people, known nowadays as "Aryans."

The primal roots which seem to be traceable in directions. far wider than any yet reconnoitred are the Semitic EL, meaning God and Power; the Semitic UR, meaning Fire or Light; the Semitic JAH, YAH, or IAH, meaning "Thou art or the Ever-existent; the Sanscrit Dı, meaning Brilliant ; and the Hindoo Oм or AUм, meaning the Sun. It is also evident that PA and MA, meaning a Parent, were once widely extensive, and in addition to the foregoing I have, I believe, by the comparative method, recovered from antiquity the root ak, apparently once meaning great or mighty.

The syllable AK first came under my attention in connection with HACKPEN Hill at Avebury in Wiltshire. On a spur of this hill stood the ruined remains of the Head of the colossal Rock-temple that once stretched in the form of a serpent over three miles of country. As Pen notoriously meant Head, it occurred to me that HACKPEN might originally have been equivalent to "Great Head," a supposition that derived some support from the names CARNAC in Brittany and KARNAK in Egypt. At both these spots, as at AVEBURY, are the ruins of prodigious temples, and the usual rule that temple sites were primarily burial sites seemed easily and legitimately to resolve the two KARNACS into KArn ak, the great CARN or heap of stones covering a grave. One of the greatest stones at CARNAC in Brittany is known as MENAK, and one of the Longship Rocks lying off Land's End is named MENAK. As men was Celtic for stone, the name MENAK in both these instances seemingly meant Great Stone. There is also at CARNAC a gigantic tumulus named THUMIAC, seemingly a combination of tum, the Celtic for hillock, and ac, great. The irresistible children of ANAK are mentioned in Deuteronomy1as "great and tall," and they "were accounted giants." CASTOR and POLLUX, whose appellation in certain places was Great Gods, were in Greece denominated ANAKES. Anak was the Phoenician term for a Prince, and anax is the Greek for "prince." One of the Sanscrit words for King is ganaka, and we find ak occurring persistently and almost universally in divine and kingly titles, as, for example, in AKBAR, still meaning "the Great"; in CORMAC the Magnificent the "High King" of Ireland; in Balak, King of Moab; in SHISHAK, who deposed Rehoboam; in

1 xi. 10; ix. 2.

2

2 This name is supposed to mean "son of a chariot," which is very unconvincing. I have not thought it necessary everywhere to contrast current opinions with my own suggestions.

ZTAK, the Chaldean "great messenger "; in ODAKON, a form of the Babylonish DAGON; and in HAKON, the name of the present King of Norway. HAKON or HAAKON, cognate with the German name HACO, which is defined by dictionaries as meaning "High Kin," must be allied to the Greek word. archon, now meaning " supreme ruler," but primarily, I think, "great one." The arch of archon survives in our English monarch and archangel; it occurs in the royal names ARCHELAUS, ARCHIDAMUS, and ARCAS, and may probably be equated with the guttural ach of the fabulous "GWRNACH the Giant," who figures in Arthurian legend. The Greek words for a "chief" are archos and aktor, and these, like anak, a "prince," and archon, a "ruler," meant once, in all probability, "great one." In our major and mayor we have parallel instances of titles primarily traceable to "great," and in the centre of magnus there is recognisable the primordial AK blunted into AG.

The word maximus is phonetically "maksimus." The nobles or great men of PERU were known as Curacas. The ancient name for MEXICO was ANAHUAC, and in the time of CORTEZ there was a native tradition that ANAHUAC was originally "inhabited by giants." The Giant Serpent of South America is known as the anaconda, and the topmost peak of the Andes is named ACONCAGUA. In PERU, according to Prescott, the word capac meant "great or powerful," and the Supreme Being, the Creator of the Universe, was adored under the name PACHACHAMAC. The triple ac occurring in this word suggests that it was equivalent to Trismegistus or Thrice Great. One of the appellations of JUNO was ACREA, i.e. the Great RHEA, the Magna Mater of the Gods. The Assyrian JUPITER Was entitled MERODACH, and the radical ac is the earliest form of our English oak, sacred to JUPITER, and once worshipped as the greatest and the strongest of the trees. The East

enormous

Indian jak fruit is described in Dr Murray's New English Dictionary as " and "monstrous.' The giant ox, the largest animal of Tibet, is named a yak; the earliest form of BACCHUS, who was symbolised by an ox, was IAKCHOS, and we again meet with 4x in the hero-names HErakles and ACHILLES. At ACHILL Head in IRELAND a giant hill, upwards of two thousand feet high, presents to the sea a sheer precipice from its peak to its base; and the most impressive, if not actually the loftiest, of the cliffs around Land's End is still known locally as PORDEnack. In Zodiac, the Great Zone of Dı, the Brilliant Light, and in other instances noted hereafter, we again meet seemingly with the prehistoric AK used in the sense I have suggested.

These and kindred inferences may be due to fantasy or "coincidence," but the validity of some of my philological conclusions is strengthened, if not verified, by the fact that they were formulated almost against my common-sense and before I had any conception that there was ancient warrant for them. It is said that the Devil once tried to fathom the Basque language, and at the end of six months had successfully mastered one word: this was written NEBUCHADNEZZAR and pronounced something like SENNACHERIB. am, of course, fully aware how dangerous a ground I am treading and how open many of my positions are to attack; yet it has seemed to me better to run some risk of ridicule rather than by over-caution to ignore and suppress clues which, under more accomplished hands, may yield discoveries of high and wide interest, and even bring into fresh focus the science of Anthropology.

I

The singularity, the novelty, and the almost impregnable strength of my position lies in the fact that every idea which I venture to propound, even such kindergarten notions as the symbolism of rakes, snails, cucumbers, and sausages, is based material evidence that such were unquestionably

upon