LESSON IX.
By referring to the instances where we allege are to be found variations of the names Cain and Naamah, it will be at once noticed that some of them are quite remarkable. Shall we be excused for a few remarks in explanation, by way of example, of other lingual changes? Queen Elizabeth lived but yesterday; and her history has not advanced through a very great variety of languages, yet we find, in commemoration of her, one place named Elizabeth, Elizabeth City, Elizabethtown, Elizabethville, Elizabethburg, and another, even Betsey’s Wash-tub, and because she was never married, one is called Virgin Queen, and another Virginia.
Now, we all know that at a very ancient period, the worship of the sun and of fire was introduced into the British Isles. Is there nothing left at this day in commemoration of that fact? The sun became an object of great and absorbing consideration. The ancient Celtic word grian meant the sun; from the application of this word and its variations, we have a proof, not only of how words are made to change, but also of the fact that the people of that country were once addicted to the worship of the sun or fire. Hence Apollo, who was the sun personified, was called Grynæus. At once we find a singular change in the name of the Druidical idol Crom-Cruach, often called Cean Groith, the head of the sun. This was the image or idol god to whom the ancient inhabitants of Ireland offered infants and young children a sacrifice. It was in fact the same as the Moloch of the ancient Hamitic occupants of Palestine, and was so firmly established in the superstitions of the world, that whatever race had the ascendency in Ireland, it continued to be thus worshipped, giving the name of the “Plains of slaughter” to the place of its location, until St. Patrick had the success to destroy the image and its worship; and hence also the names Knoc-greine and Tuam-greine, hills where the sun was worshipped, and other places in Ireland, even now keep in memory that worship: Cairn-Grainey, the sun’s heap, Granniss’ bed, corrupted from Grian-Beacht, the sun’s circle. A point of land near Wexford is called Grenor, the sun’s fire, and the town of Granaid, because the sun was worshipped there. And we may notice a still greater variation in Carig-Croith, the rock of the sun—and even our present word grange, from the almost obsolete idea, a place enclosed, separate and distinct, but open to the sun, now used as a synonyme of farm.
Let us take our word fire, and we shall perceive remarkable changes through all the languages from the Chaldaic down. Gen. xi. 28, “Ur” is translated from אוּרʾûr which means fire. Abraham was a native of Chaldea, and from a place where they worshipped fire, or the sun. It was used to mean the sun, Job xxxviii. 12; also, in the plural, Isa. xxiv. 15: “Wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires?” It is here ארֻיםʾruym urim. Because fire emitted light, it became used to mean light. The words urim and thummim meant lights or fires, and truth: among the fire-worshippers the same term meant fire and sun. The Copts called their kings suns. Hence from this term they took the word ouro, to mean the idea of royalty; their article pi, made piouro, the sun or the king, which being carried back to the Hebrews, they made it Pharaoh; but the sun was regarded as a god, and hence the Egyptian kings came to be called gods; but the Chaldaic and Hebrew אוּרʾûr, when applied to fire or the sun by the Copts, as an object of worship, was distinguished from the idea of royalty by the term ra and re, with the particle pira and pire, generally written phra and phre. Hence the Greek πυρ, pur, to mean fire, and hence pyrites, which means a fire-stone, a stone well burned, or a stone containing fire, &c.
And hence also the Hebrew word ראיrʾy rai, a mirror, vision, the god of vision, and by figure a conspicuous or illustrious person. But according to Butman, the Sanscrit root Raja is the original of the obsolete Greek word, Ῥα, Ῥαια, Ῥαων, and if so, possibly of the Chaldaic word under view. But however that may be, it is evident that the Greek radios is at least derived through the channel indicated; and we now use the term ray to mean an emanation from great power. Our word regent is also from the same source, through the Latin rex, and may be found, slightly modified, through all the European dialects. And it may be remarked that, cognate therewith, we have the Arabic word raiheh, or raygeh, to mean fragrancy; the poetic minds of the Arabians uniformly applying this image to legitimate rule and government.
And if we take a view of the filiations of languages, even as they are now found, such changes cannot be deemed unusual, especially if we take into consideration the inevitable variation words are found to undergo in their progress through different countries and ages of time; and more especially, if we notice the precise manner in which lingual variations are found to operate.
Changes of language sometimes take place upon a single word apparently by caprice, among different tribes of people,—sometimes by the transposition of the consonant or vowel sound; by the insertion of a letter or letters for the sake of euphony; by the contraction or abbreviation of letters for the sake of despatch; by the reduplication of a letter or syllable on the account of some real or fancied importance or emphasis attached to it; and by the deletion or addition of a letter or syllable at the commencement or end of a word, for a real or supposed more felicitous enunciation of certain sounds in succession; and hence alterations, slight at first, are liable to become quite remarkable.
Thus μορφη in Greek, becomes formæ in Latin; regnum becomes reign; cœlum, ciel; ultra jectum, Utrecht; and עבדʿbd ebed, eved, as variously pronounced, meaning a slave, becomes obediens, obedienter, obedio, obedientia, in Latin, and obey, obedient, &c., in English. The Celtic ros becomes horse, and the English grass becomes garse. Consonants of the same order are interchanged; p becomes b, and b v, d t, g k and sometimes n,—φ becomes ph or f, d or t becomes th, and g or c gh. It is therefore impossible that such changes should not have taken place, and therefore they give proof of the genuineness of the history they may develop.