Blair Collection > History of the Celtic language

86 HISTORY OF THE
universal and infinite, is remarkable in endowing
the different tribes of animals with different voices.
If it were otherwise we should have no small con-
fusion. For instance, the bird called the snipe
when soaring aloft, utters precisely the same voice
or note with the goat. Upon our principle, there-
fore, this bird's name ought to partake of that of the
goat, and vice versa. And so it is. The name of
this bird with us in Celtic is Gour-aur, i.e. the air-
goat, or sky-goat. In the note of the goat we have
the primary idea of Capraria, a mountainous island
on the coast of Italy, ya?«oM5_/or its goats. Plin. iii.
c. Q : by analogy a sign of the zodiac, in which
appear 28 stars in the form of a goat ; hence named
Capricorn. When the sun enters this sign it is the
winter solstice, the longest night in the year. Like
sundry other constellations it was made an object
of worship, together with its symbol, the goat.
Leon, a Hon. We may easily suppose a period
when, in speaking of this animal, this term was
pronounced with a strong voice, and down in the
throat like a person about to vomit : thus lllio, in
imitation of its voice. The idea of this noble
animal, by keeping its properties before the eyes of
the mind, has furnished language with many im-
portant roots. Our meaning is seldom misunder-
stood when we call a courageous noble-minded man
a lion, and hence the name Lconades, who, with
300 Spartans, withstood for three days an army of