Page:Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland (Curtin).djvu/37

 "I am a man," says, "Is fear me ;" where, if he followed the usage of other Aryan languages, he would say, "Fear isme." The Sanscrit speaker in the earliest literary period had to say "Nri asmi." There was a time when in Sanscrit it was proper to put the predicate between the two parts of the verb, as it is yet in Gaelic, and say "As nri mi," instead of "Nri asmi ;" assuming, of course, that these were the correct forms of that early period.

It cannot well be less than three, and in all likelihood it is nearer four than three, thousand years since Sanscrit and all other Aryan languages, except those of the Keltic migration, lost this ancient freedom of verbal arrangement.

Gaelic mythology, removed from the home of the race before this very important linguistic change, shows survivals of that ancient time which will throw light on many myths, and aid in connecting non-Aryan with Aryan mythology; thus rendering a service which we should look for in vain elsewhere.

The reason is of ancient date why myths have come, in vulgar estimation, to be synonymous with lies ; though true myths—and there are many such—are the most comprehensive and splendid statements of truth known to man.