[32] Cf. Hunfalvy Ethnography, p. 408.
[33] Cf. The History of the Cumanians, and also The Nationality and Language of the Jazygo-Cumanians, by Stephen Gyárfás. Budapest, 1882.
[34] Budapest, 1880. The original MS. is in the Bibliotheca Marciana in Venice. It was discovered by Cornides in 1770. Klaproth first made it known in his "Mémoirs relatifs à l'Asie," III. and Roesler published a specimen of its grammar in his "Romänische Studien," pp. 352-356.
[35] Count Géjza Kuun has, we are glad to say, not yet spoken his last word; for that indefatigable scholar is busily engaged on a large work on his favorite subject, which, judging by the extracts he read (June 1st, 1885) before the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, promises to rank with the best writings of modern philologists.
It may be of interest here to quote one of the Cumanian children's rhymes:
Heli, heli, jáde üzürmény
üzbe her!
Zeboralle, sarmamamile,
Alo bizon sasarma,
Düzüsztürmö dücsürmö
Hej ala hilala
Zeboralle dücsürmö.
(Wolan, wolan, ich löse das Gelübde,
Der Lenz ist da!
Mit Gebeten, Zauberzeichen
Mache ich den Zauber
Unschädlich. Ich preise dich!
Es ist nur ein Gott.
Mit Gebeten preise ich dich).
Vide Ungarische Revue, viii.-ix., Heft. 1885, p. 644.
[36] How dangerous a practice it is to build up history upon no other ground than the mere similarity in the sound of the names of nationalities is shewn in the history of the modern Jazyges. This name has led many a chronicler astray. Their Magyar proper name is "Jász," which, according to Hunfalvy (Ethnography of Hungary, p. 376) is derived from the word "ijász," i.e. "an archer," or "bowman," a name describing their original occupation. In some old deeds of the xivth and xvth centuries, they are called "Jassones" and "Pharetrarii," and things kept straight until Ranzanus the Papal Nuncio at the Court of Matthias Corvinus appeared on the scene, and, struck by the sound of the name "Jassones" and finding that they lived on the very territory which, according to Ptolemy, was occupied by the Jazyges: Metanastae in his time, at once jumped to the conclusion that they were lineal descendants of the wild horsemen mentioned by the classic author. We know how hard anything false dies, and so we find this statement copied by subsequent writers, and even disfiguring the pages of so excellent a work as Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, sub. art. "Jazyges." A still wilder mistake was made by a scribe of King Sigismund, who re-christened the Jász folk "Philistæi," which afterwards appears in many deeds. It would appear to be reasoned out thus; a "Jász," or "bowman," must naturally handle a bow and arrow; but an arrow is called "pfeil" in German, which comes from the old German "phil," hence Jász-Philistæi, Q. E. D! Cf. Hunfalvy's Ethnography loco citato.
[37] Vide infra, p. [412], &c.
[38] Ethnography of Hungary, p. 362.