THE PELASGI AND THEIR MODERN (BY THE LATE SIR P. COLQUHOUN AND HIS EXC. THE LATE P. WASSA PASHA.) (Continued from Vol. VI., page 194.) COINCIDENCE OF MANNERS BETWEEN THE HOMERIC The THIS is patent from the employments mentioned. herdsmen in the Odyssey related their noble origin; and, on the other hand, the noble persons themselves exercise handicrafts. Odysseus builds himself a raft, as he had built his own bedchamber;-Achilles cooks the dinner of his guests; and Laertes works in his orchard :-nor is it much different at the present day in the same locality. The whole story of both Iliad and Odyssey hinges on women. Odysseus slays the suitors of his wife, because they had put on him an insult which among that people was the gravest; and he hangs the female slaves who had illicit intercourse with the suitors. Achilles sulks because Agamemnon took away his slave girl; and the rape of Helen was at least alleged as the excuse for the piratical raid. Then follow, outside Homer, the murder by Clytemnestra and the mania of Orestes, and the story of Achilles and Penthesileia. All this coincides with the customs obtaining at the present day in the same localities. It appears as little needful to suppose that the Homeric poems were originally composed in Greek, as to believe that the Aeneid was written in Pelasgic, which was doubtless the speech of the Trojans. In imitating, paraphrasing and adapting the Homeric poems, Virgil used his own language, and took the subject of a great war, than which none has left so deep an impress on history, real and mythical.* But it is not more necessary to suppose that Aeneas spoke Latin than that Satan spoke English. Troy was undoubtedly a Pelasgic city, and so was the country round it, even to Syria. Karia, however, had lost its Pelasgic speech, or this had become so corrupted as to be unrecognizable. Νάστης ἂν Καρῶν ἡγήσατο βαρβαροφώνων. There is no mention of any one speaking a strange tongue. The heroes converse freely and in the plainest and often most uncomplimentary language, and there is no suggestion of an [interpreter. On the other hand, when a language is strange, this is noted; and it is termed "barbarous," which then meant unintelligible; for the word "barbarous" would certainly not have been used in that age to designate foreigners or a strange speaking people, nor does it seem to have been used in this sense. till the age of the Persian conquests. The words ὄπισθεν κομόωντες, κάρη κομόωντες, ευκνήμιδες are all indicative of the present occupants of the old Achaian area, extending over the whole of Epeiros-the modern Albania. All these wear their hair long behind and retain their national dress, wearing gaiters or kvŋuides (touslook), of thick woollen cloth. The Greeks, on the other hand, are depicted with cropped hair. The only difference between the war dress of the Homeric heroes and the present Epeirots consists in the material, defensive armour having fallen into desuetude as useless. The form is, nevertheless, retained. The Homeric heroes are described as engaging their adversaries in single combat, as in the cases of Menelaus and Paris, Ajax and Hector, Patroclos and Hector, Hector and Achilles; or, where the combat was not so * The mythical invasion of Italy by Aeneas is probably identical with the two emigrations of Pelasgi to Italy-the one mythical and the other historical. + Il. 6, 867. This is the first occurrence of the word. Vide Liddell and Scott, Lexicon, ad vocem Bápßapos. Is Berber, a race in North Africa, anyway connected with this? decidedly a duel, the respective chiefs sought each other out, the rank and file not interfering ;-a mode of warfare common to all semi-barbarous nations. The battle of Clontarf is thus described in Bright's "History of Ireland": -"The conduct of the battle, after the two hostile armies met, was similar to that of all engagements between races of that particular period in the annals of civilization. The details consisted in a succession of single combats between captains and chieftains, who singled each other out, while the common soldiers were engaged in indiscriminate slaughter; and these combats were alone celebrated by the minstrel, and transferred from his song to the page of the Chronicle." The Homeric poems represent such Chronicles, with the only difference that they were not reduced to writing in Greek, till long after the event: for this is the meaning of "we hear only the report, nor know anything certain." Philosophical students of Homer, carried away by their admiration of the poem and its virile language, have sought, like Dr. Pangloss, to extract from it far more than was ever intended to be conveyed by it, and to elaborate esoteric and mystic significances from facts plainly stated with semibarbarous simplicity. THE PELASGI. It now remains to note the resemblance between the descendants of the Pelasgi and the people composing the army before Troy; and as the Homeric Poems describe their dwellings, their dress, their feasts and their customs, a parallel can easily be drawn. In the first place, the host was composed of various Chieftains bringing contingents from the districts over which they held sway. The denominations of these Chieftains are ἄναξβασιλεὺς and σκηπτούχος βασιλεὺς—κόιρανος : Ουκ ἀγαθὸν πολυκοιρανίη, τις κοιρανος ἔστω. (ΙΙ. β, 204.) "Avač avdov is only used for Agamemnon in the sense of * That the Homeric poems were part of the so-called great solar myth, a mere allegory, is a wild and unsustainable theory, contradicted by history. Commander-in-Chief, while ẞaoideùç is used to signify Lord, σκηπτούχος βασιλεὺς—a reigning Lord or Prince, and κοίρανος, a Head. This, too, is consistent with the practice of the Epeirots when they league themselves for combined action, as it was among subsequent nations in a similar state of semi-civilization: as Cassivelaunus in Britain, Galgacus in Caledonia, Vercingetorix in Gaul. The other βασιλεὶς before Troy acted as Brigadiers under the supreme command of Agamemnon, as was done latterly in the Albanian League. For the description of their dwellings, recourse must be had to the Odyssey. The large hall where the feasts were held is denominated uéyapov,-often used for a palace as distinguished from oikos. This answers to the men's apartments in Albania, where all meet, on any festive, official or other occasion. Such was the hall in which Odysseus destroyed the suitors, and that in which Alkinous entertained him on his way home. It corresponds with the Italian word palazzo,-a casa palazzata being a house of more than one story. In the upper part of the μiyapov were the apartments for females : Παρθένος ἀ δόιη ὑπερώϊον εἰσαναβᾶσα *Αρηι κρατερῷ· ὃ δὲ οἱ παραλέξατο λάθρῃ. (Ιl. β, 514.) where also was the Gáλauos or bedchamber of the lady of the house, as at present in Albania. The outside was surrounded, then as now, by a wall with a gate, called in India a "compound," a μéya rexiov avλns, sometimes termed pкεа or тоixos (Od. II, 165 and 343; 2, 101). The dress of the chiefs is formally described in divers places. Agamemnon, unable to sleep, rises and girds on his tunic, xr, puts on his sandals, wɛdida, and throws a lion's skin, déqua λéovros, over his shoulder, and grasps a spear (II. K, 22). Menelaus does the same, putting on his brazen helmet orεpúvηv kepadýpi xaλkény (I1. K, 30). Nestor, instead of a skin, puts over his tunic an ample double shaggy scarlet cloak fixed by a clasp : χλαῖναν φοινικόεσσαν διπλῆν ἔκταδίην ὄυλη δ ̓ ἐπενήνοθε λάχνη (11. Κ, 134). Such cloaks are worn now by Albanians, except as to colour; and are made in imitation of sheep-skin, and used also as blankets to sleep under. The cloak was fastened by a clasp or brooch, described by Odysseus to Penelope for identification : αὐτάς οἱ περόνη χρυσοΐα τέτυκτο ̓Αυλοῖσιν διδύμοισιν.-(Od. T, 226.) a brooch made with twin clasps formed like pipes: the Albanian clasps are silver, and round, like two small shields. The Tidida are what were formerly used by the highland Scots, a piece of untanned deer-skin laced over the feet with whangs of the same (the hair being worn inwards), termed curachan; these are still used by the Albanians. For the yxos or dópv (Il. N, 583) a gun is now substituted. The dois oùv Tedaμwn (Il. II, 803), the shield with its sling, is naturally now disused; equally so the Súpn, breast-plate covering the chest and attached by straps and clasps, and sometimes double, that is before and behind. The ξίφος (Оd. П, 80; Il. 4, 118), hung from the shoulder by a swordbelt or baldrick, was of brass, sometimes double edged ἄμφηκες, otherwise termed φάσγανον and μάχαιρα. The μάχαιρα is used by Albanians stuck in the girdle, ζώνη, which, except in Homer, is applied to women, wornp being applied to men. Lastly came the greaves, Kvnμis, of bronze, reaching from the knee to the ancle, in two halves fastened with silver clasps out of war they were of leather. : The bow and arrows, now superseded by firearms, were also used, τόξον and οιστοί or iol; the bow seems to have consisted of two pieces of horn joined in the middle by a Thxus or centre-piece and strung with an ox hide whang νευρά βόεια. The arrows were carried in a quiver, φαρέτρη, which had a cover, Tuа. Thus except what have been superseded by the introduction of firearms, the Albanian chiefs use the same arms as the Homeric heroes. Their dress likewise remains the same; the sandals and gaiters are identical; the tunic or under garment is the shirt-the |