Kötsher, i.e. 'wandering,' and despise and persecute their settled brethren.[1] The national appellation of the Zulus denotes the 'homeless,' 'roaming.'[2] According to the etymological explanation given by an old Hebraist, Clericus, the name of one of the peoples which are mentioned as aborigines of Canaan, the Zûzîm, is to be referred to this notion; it is so if we can cite for its explanation the late Hebrew zûz, 'to move from place to place.'[3] Another Canaanite national name, Perizzî, also according to many expositors points to nomadic life.[4] The name Pûṭ, by which the Egyptians called many nomadic tribes that came into their country, and which is also given in the list of nations in Gen. X. as the name of a son of Ham, likewise belongs to the same class. From their wandering life they were called by the Egyptians the 'Runners,' and the graphical power of the name is shown in the hieroglyphs by the picture of the quickfooted hare.[5] The name of the Hebrews also, ‘Ibhrîm, belongs to the same series; it denotes 'those who wander here and there,' the Nomads. For the word ‘âbhar, from which the national name ‘Ibhrîm or Hebrews is derived, denotes not merely transire, 'to pass through a land, or to cross a river,' but rather 'to wander about' in general; for which sense many Hebrew texts might be quoted. The Assyrian is instructive on the point; there the phonetically corresponding verb is used of the sun, which i-bar-ru-u kib-ra-a-ti 'marches, wanders through the lands.'[6] A similar wander ing through various lands is the foundation of the appella-
- ↑ Blau in the Zeitschrift d. D. M. G., 1858, II. 589.
- ↑ Waitz, ibid. II. 349.
- ↑ Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 410. a.
- ↑ Munk, Palästina, Germ, transl. by Levy, Leipzig 1871, p. 190.
- ↑ Ebers, Aegypten und die Bücher Moses, I. 70.
- ↑ See the passage in Schrader, Keilinschriften und das A. T., p. 64. 20.
pp. 42, 45, 52, 53 apud Renan, Hist. gén. d. langues sém., p. 39. It is interesting that the ancients explained the hard-bested name of the Pelasgians from this point of view, making Πελασγοί equivalent to πελαργοί = storks (Strabo, V. 313; Falconer, ed. Kramer, V. 2, §4). Compare Pott, Etymologische For schungen, 1836, II. 527.
