Page:Studies in Lowland Scots - Colville - 1909.djvu/285

Rh Zend, because the bird does not spread further east than Armenia, while the quail appears both in Sans. and Gr. as the returning one. The crane would be new to those who went west, familiar if they went east. Of plants the general term tree as timber is alone common to all. The naming of individual trees is uncertain. There is no definite common term. Bhurja (Eng. birch, Sc. birk) appears in Sans. as the name of a bark used as writing-material. The beech, used as a food, in confined to the North-west. The word is the name of the oak in Greek. The Lat. quercus, again, is the Teut. fora-ha, and our fir. But the whole argument from the plant and animal life forgets that there are a flora and fauna of altitude as well as latitude, and it was never implied that the proto-Aryans lived anywhere but on the uplands of western Asia where European trees and familiar animals thrive. So that it is not necessary to admit, as Professor Max Müller does, that the names for lion, tiger, cat, might have been forgotten by those western tribes that left the haunts of these creatures. This would be intelligible, for what ceases to be generally used ceases to be named. Thus in the prelatic days in Scotland the lectern was familiar. As Presbyterianism took hold of the people of the reading-desk, known for a while as the letterin, was applied to the precentor's desk, and in time was forgotten as Episcopacy became unpopular. The ape and tiger are strictly tropical. The lion is more widely diffused, and the word is said to be an Indo-European one, signifying the raving or roaring one. The camel presents a real difficulty, for Bactria, the home of a well-know variety, is admittedly near the centre of ancient Arya. Elephant is a loan-word with a curious history that shows Aryan origin. The animal was unknown in the West till brought to Southern Italy by Pyrrhus, though ivory had been spread by trade. The word elephant appears in the Gothic translation of the New Testament. Wulfila, at a loss to translate the camel-hair coat of the Baptist, uses ulubandus, his Gothic equivalent for elephant. It was the only name for a large eastern quadruped, known to him, that would suit. The word is apparently Semitic, eleph, an ox, but contains a Sans. stem, ibha, with the Heb. article prefixed. The Sans. ibha, strong, powerful is a common name applied to the animal, and its