mother-tongue, the Indo-European; but it must prepare itself for a still wider generalization. There is abundant proof—proof with which pages might be rilled—that there was a still older mother-tongue, from which Aryan, Semitic, and Hamitic were all derived—the language of Noah, the language of Atlantis, the language of the great "aggressive empire" of Plato, the language of the empire of the Titans.
The Arabic word bin, within, becomes, when it means interval, space, binnon; this is the German and Dutch binnen and Saxon binnon, signifying within. The Ethiopian word aorf, to fall asleep, is the root of the word Morpheus, the god of sleep. The Hebrew word chanah, to dwell, is the parent of the Anglo-Saxon inne and Icelandic inni, a house, and of our word inn, a hotel. The Hebrew word naval or nafal signifies to fall; from it is derived our word fall and fool (one who falls); the Chaldee word is nabal, to make foul, and the Arabic word nabala means to die, that is, to fall. From the last syllable of the Chaldee nasar, to saw, we can derive the Latin serra, the High German sagen, the Danish sauga, and our word to saw. The Arabic nafida, to fade, is the same as the Italian fado, the Latin fatuus (foolish, tasteless), the Dutch vadden, and our to fade. The Ethiopic word gaber, to make, to do, and the Arabic word jabara, to make strong, becomes the Welsh word goberu, to work, to operate, the Latin operor, and the English operate. The Arabic word abara signifies to prick, to sting; we see this root in the Welsh bar, a summit, and pâr, a spear, and per, a spit; whence our word spear. In the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic zug means to join, to couple; from this the Greeks obtained ζυγος, the Romans jugum, and we the word yoke; while the Germans obtained jok or jog, the Dutch juk, the Swedes ok. The Sanscrit is juga. The Arabic sanna, to be old, reappears in the Latin senex, the Welsh hen, and our senile. The Hebrew banah, to build, is the Irish bun, foundation, and the Latin fundo, fundare, to found. The Arabic baraka, to bend the knee, to fall on the breast, is probably the
19
