CONCLUSIONS OF ''THE PELASGI AND
THEIR MODERN ALBANIAN DESCENDANTS."
(bv the late sir p. colquhoun and his exc. the late
p. wassa pasha.)
{Begun with the January number 1891 and regularly continued to the
January number 1894.)
With a Note by the Editor and a parallel passage in the
Odyssey in Greek, Albanian and English — Pelasgic signifi-
cations OF Greek words — Pelasgic omens, piracy, language
— Homeric poems in Pelasgic — Phenician trade.
When the rough manuscript, of which we now give the last portion, was
placed in our hands for publication in the Asiatic Quarterly Review^ both
the learned authors of "The Pelasgi and their Modern Descendants"
seemed, to all human appearances, to have a fairly long life before them ;
and we hoped that the work would not only have the advantage of their
personal revision while being published in instalments by us, but also that
they would give it a formal conclusion and sum up with replies to such criti-
cisms as its publication might raise. Those expectations were destroyed,
within a year, by the death first of the erudite Sir Patrick Colquhoun
and then of the learned Albanian, Pascual Wassa Pasha. Since then
we have simply continued to edit the manuscript as it was left in our
hands. That it was the intention of the authors to add much more to it,
in order to complete their work, it is quite easy to perceive; but no
subsequent papers have reached us from the pen of either author, nor was
any indication left to us as a guide to their intended conclusion.
It is evident that, among other matter, it had been originally intended
to give, perhaps long, specimens of translations from Homer into modern
Albanian, side by side with the Greek texts, so as to emphasize the con-
tentions in various places of the work.* On Wassa Pasha would naturally
devolve the task of making such translations ; but we are unable to say
how much he may have actually executed ; for though we wrote to enquire,
we failed to elicit any precise statement. Sir Patrick had, however, left
us a small fragment of such a translation ; and with this we conclude his
manuscript, giving an English version opposite to the Albanian, with the
Greek text of the passage underneath.
The work, as it now stands, is in two unequal parts. The first — the larger
one — ogives a close and erudite study of Asia Minor, Greece and Albania,
in both ancient and modern times, whence the conclusion is drawn that
the lineal descendants of the ancient Pelasgians, wherever else they may
have been eliminated or absorbed, have held their own continuously in the
Ancient Epeiros — the modern Albania. From philological proofs, the
authors deduce that the modern Albanian is essentially the older Pelasgic
* See, ^.^., pages 92, 95, 113,^/ seq.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
The Pelasgi and their Modern Descendants. 177
language. The Pelasgic races, the area they occupied, the language they
used, the territories they invaded and conquered are dealt with; and
among other conclusions, it is maintained that at Troy, both the besiegers
and the besieged were Pelasgic Tribes. Interesting too is the contention^
that after the Pelasgi had occupied Asia Minor and the islands in the
^gean Sea, they conquered Greece, became gradually grecicized, and
then, from Greece, re-conquered their original settlements, which in the
meanwhile had themselves become grecicized.
In the second part, the Homeric poems are traced up to Pelasgic
effusions, originally sung by the bards attached to various chiefs : their
poems surviving as popular ballads were subsequently collected, collated
and translated into Greek.
How far the authors have succeeded in proving their conclusions, it is
not for us alone to judge. But whether specialists agree with them or
not, no one can fail to find in these pages a vast amount of erudite in-
formation on archaeology, ethnology, philology, history and the Homeric
literature, which will repay close study. Let us hope that this work may
induce other scholars to investigate and elucidate further the points which
the authors have touched, but which their lamented death did not allow
them to bring to a complete demonstration.
Besides its appearance in the pages of the Asiatic Quarterly Review^
'*The Pelasgi and their Modem Descendants" is also issued in book
form, by the Publishing Department of the Oriental University Institute,
Woking, as a posthumous " In memoriam " publication to record the
services rendered by Sir Patrick Colquhoun to the Statutory IXth
International Congress of Orientalists (London, 1891), which was organized
by Dr. G. W. Leitner, the Principal of the Institute, and of the Organizing
Committee of which Sir Patrick was President till his death. — Ed.
THE PELASGI AND THEIR MODERN
DESCENDANTS.
{Concluded from page 444 of Vol. VI. {Second Series),
July-October^ ^893.)
Eagle Omens in Pelasgic divinations.
The importance attached to the flight of the Eagle in
the divinations of the Pelasgi is often insisted on. Tele-
machus searching for Odysseus visits Menelaus, and rejoices
on seeing an eagle flying to the right, with a tame white
NEW series. vol. VII. Digitized^yGoOgk
1 78 The Pelasgi and their Modem Descendants.
goose in Its talons caught in his courtyard ; whence Helen
predicts the destruction of Penelope's suitors. Penelope
also dreams that an eagle kills twenty geese feeding in
her palace, which lie about here and there. Telemachus
sees, not an eagle which was sacred to Zeus, but an
analogous bird of prey, a hawk, sacred to Hermes, on his
right, tearing a dove ; and Amphinomos concludes that they
would not entrap Telemachus, (Od. 0, 172; T, 535;
O, 160; O, 182-524.) Halitherses seeing two eagles
tearing each other above the assembled suitors, pre-
dicts their slaughter by Odysseus. (Od. j3, 157.) The
disheartened besiegers of Troy, seeing an eagle carrying a
fawn by the feet and dropping it on the altar of Zeus
Panomphaips, take courage and defeat the Trojans.
(II. M, 200.) Hector attempting to burn the besiegers
fleet, sees an eagle bearing in its talons a live writhing
serpent, the struggles of which oblige him to drop it : this
Polydamas declares to foretell the failure of Hectors
purpose. Priam beseeches Zeus to send him an eagle
on the right, when about to set out to redeem Hectors
body. (II. Q, 293.) To constitute a good omen, the bird
must fly from right to left. Lastly, not to needlessly
multiply instances, Aristander predicts that Alexander, who
was of the Shkypetar race, would be victorious, because
he had seen an eagle fly from the Macedonian to the
enemy's camp. (Plut. in Alex,, Plin. 17, 25.) It has been
before remarked that the national name of the Pelasgi is
Shkypetar = sons of the Eagle. The national or generic
name it would appear was 'Axacoi.
Phoenician Trade and Piracy of the Pelasgi.
Passing to another subject, it does not appear that at
the period of the Trojan war any other than the Phoenicians
carried on trading operations ; and even in the age of
Solomon they certainly had the monopoly of the Mediter-
ranean commerce, according to the mode it was then
Digitized by VjOOQIC
The Pelasgi and their Modern Descendants. 1 79
carried on. Having taken a cargo on board, the vessel
sailed for the port where the best market was judged to be.
Having disposed of as much as he could, the captain filled
up with what profitable merchandise he found at that place,
and went to another port : and so on, as long as he
found a market. His vessel was a floating warehouse,
and his trade a commerce dichelle as practised in the
present day and recognised by treaty in the Levant. The
Pelasgi, on the other hand, were only sea-robbers and
pirates, landing and stealing whatever they could lay their
hands on, whether moveable property or slaves, or free
persons whom they afterwards sold as slaves.
A Phoenician vessel having touched in the way of
business at Syra there found a Phoenician woman who had
been stolen by Taphian pirates from Sidon, famous for its
brass. (Od. O, 424.) We know from the Bible that
Tyrian and Sidonian artificers were brought as brass
founders and workers for building and furnishing the temple
of Solomon, who had entered into a treaty with Hiram
for the supply of artificers of all sorts, — carpenters, stone
quarriers and masons, as well as metal workers.
The Taphians inhabited islands between Achaia and
Leukas, called the Teleboies now Kastos and Kalamos ;
and they had sold this Phoenician woman as a slave to
Ktesias son of Ormenus, Ruler of Syra and Delos, where she
acted as the nurse of his son whom she proposes to deliver
to these Phoenicians, as the price for taking her home.
Diana slays her and she is thrown overboard ; and the
child Eumaios is sold to Laertes by the Phoenicians, and
becomes his swineherd. Hence it appears that the Taphians,
by their position and occupation, were pirates, and the
Phoenicians, traders and slave dealers. The former by their
locality must have been a Pelasgic and the latter a Shemitic
race. At the age of the Trojan war, therefore, the trade
was generally in the hands of the Shemites, and piracy in
that of the Pelasgi, though the Phoenicians also kidnapped.
M 2
Digitized by VjOOQIC
i8o The Pelasgi and their Modern Descendants.
No Greek Traders i,cxx) b.c.
Traders of the Greek-speaking race are not referred to
in the Homeric poems, nor in contemporary histories; but
Phoenicians are mentioned as having had many trading
stations in the Mediterranean. They were finally ex-
tinguished by the Romans under Scipio Africanus 147 B.C.
Their territory extended from the river Eleutherus on the
north to Pelusium on the south, and Syria on the east —
Tyre and Sidon being their principal cities. (Od. A, 181,
419; O, 426. They were otherwise called Teleboies;
Plin. 4, 12. Virg. Aen. VII, 715. Apollod. II, 4. Plin. II.
47 ; V, 12. At Temesa in Calabria, there was probably a
Phoenician station.)
Pelasgic Derivation of Homeric Names.
An insuperable difficulty has generally been acknowledged
by scholars to exist in explaining by the Greek language
the proper and local names in the Homeric poems. Many
attempts have been made, but the result has been so
strained and improbable, as not to commend itself to any
important investigation. This difficulty at once disappears
if the Pelasgic language, in the form in which it has
descended to us, be invoked in aid. Until recently no
attention has been bestowed on the Pelasgic category of
speech. The first who seriously and systematically investi-
gated it was Dr. Von Hahn, some time Russian Consul
General at Janina, whose book contains most interesting
information more especially applicable to the Tosk division.
But since that time, some forty years ago, several learned
Albanians have taken up the study of their own tongue.
Indeed until lately ethnographers were at a loss to what
division the Albanian race was to be assigned : they have,
among other surmises, supposed them to be Finns. All
these speculations have now been dispelled ; and it has
been settled beyond doubt, that they are the descendants
of the second oldest known settlers in Europe — the Pelasgi
or Palesta. C^r\r\r^o
Digitized by VjOOQIC
The Pelasgi and their Modern Descendants, 1 8 1
The Homeric Poems formerly existed in an Older
Form and Language.
The proof of that assumption, curiously enough, comes
through a foreign, and, in some respects, a dead language —
that of the Homeric poems ; and although the allegation
that the poems exist in their original form can by no means
be supported, yet sufficient indication of their origin is
contained in the poems themselves, to prove conclusively
their previous existence in an older form and language, —
at least older in that locality whence the Greek race came.
It is impossible to ascertain, or to do more than conjecture ;
but two theories are possible. If there be a third, the
distinguished statesman who has made Homer his special
study will probably add it. Either the so-called Greek
race was anterior or posterior to the Pelasgic immigration.
Philologically speaking, the antiquity of the two languages
is probably about the same, taking into account that no
remnant of archaic Greece exists. Now if the Greek race
arrived first in the west, settled there, and was conquered
and subjugated by the Pelasgians — the more warlike race, —
and remained in a subordinate position, it must be supposed
that their culture, superior to that of their conquerors,
pierced through the barbarism of the dominant class. It
must be borne in mind, that this must have happened long
before the invention of writing.* This theory, therefore,
would not account for Greek becoming the written language
in preference to Pelasgian* The Greek historians, how-
ever, do not even hint at such a theory. On the contrary
they imply that wheresoever the Greeks came from, it was
subsequent to the arrival of the Pelasgic immigrants ; and
they never call in question the difference, both in race
and language, between themselves and the Pelasgi. The
information of Herodotus is, however, meagre, scanty and
confused. He evidently knew no language but his own ;
* Probably Pocock, had he been alive, would have taken this view.
His India in Greece is well worth consulting.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
1 82 The Pelasgi and their Modem Descendants.
nor was he able to appreciate the Pelasgian further than to
relate that it was ** a barbarous language," — although it is
sufficiently clear that Pelasgian must have been commonly
spoken at his time even in the Athenian streets.
Parallel of Gaelic, Erse and Kymraeg.
An analogy may be drawn from Gaelic, Erse and
Kymraeg ; for although the two former are spoken by a
large bilingual population, not only in the countries to
which they belong but also in both Edinburgh and
Glasgow, — nay even in London, — and Kymraeg in many
border towns in Wales, yet the general population only
know them as ** barbarous languages," with which they
have no acquaintance whatever. Even the great novelist.
Sir Walter Scott, who first invested highland Scottish
history with poetry, never attempts a Gaelic word or
sentence without some gross and ridiculous blunder, though
assistance was at hand. Albanian at present occupies the
same position in Athens : and though widely spoken among
Albanian residents, not a single non-Albanian will be found,
who knows a word of that tongue. English has swamped
Gaelic, Erse and Kymraeg, as Greek has swamped
Shkypetar.
The Pelasgi not Suppressed without a Convulsion.'
The second possible theory is that the Greek race and
their language arrived after the Pelasgi. If this be so, it
could not have been a warlike irruption, or what is termed
an "invasion in force.'' History furnishes no trace of it;
and a warlike and wide-spread people could not have been
suppressed without a considerable convulsion ; for they
have not been suppressed to the present day, and every
attempt to do so has caused a convulsion. The only pos-
sible theory would, therefore, be that the Greeks succeeded
the Phoenicians as traders, were few in number, arrived at
a comparatively late epoch, and disseminated through trade
their speech, which for its superiority in all respects was
Digitized by VjOOQIC
The Pelasgi and their Modern Descendants. 1 83
adopted as the literary language, and so became general.
But this view is by no means tenable. That the designa-
tions of the Homeric Heroes are significant in modem
Pelasgic affords an overwhelming argument in favour of
those poems having been first sung by Pelasgic bards in
their own tongue.
Pelasgic Signification of Greek Words.
I commence with the very word which furnished sub-
sequent historians the opportunity of personifying Homer :
I-mir in modern Pelasgic signifies " the good " ; it is
applied to anything of excellence, and first of all to the
Deity. Thus I-mir- (os) would, in its Greek form, signify
*' the Good Poem " ; and those ballads, worthy of that
designation, received it to distinguish them from others of
inferior quality.
'Ayafii^vw — Ai-ge-mendony he who thinks or gives atten-
tion.
'Aiac — I-gheachSy the bloodthirsty — the bloodspiller.
''EiCToip — Hek'der, he who strikes with the hand,
''Tassommeur."
TIpia/AOQ — Btr-z-ams, son of the earth, — autochthon.
'AxtAAcvc— I-Kheals- (eve) — the heavenly, the celestial,
one sprung from heaven.
'OSuwcvc — I'Oudhis- (eve) — the traveller, the man of the
way ; thus he tells the Kyklops his name
M^n)f> rfi% 'srariip jjd* aXXo/ Tavrt^ traTpot,
In Ionic Greek, this is converted into a pun, for when Odys-
seus reviles the Kyklop, he replies it had been predicted that
Outzs should destroy him. This in Pelasgic means that
a ** traveller," — in Greek, that ** nobody" — should be the
ruin of him. The attempt to explain it by Greek is
strained, ridiculous and inapplicable ; for ** wrathful " is
never applied to Odysseus ; on the contrary, his epithets
are prudent, cool to a fault, cunning, versed in wiles,
crafty, designing, all of which qualities he shows when
Digitized by VjOOQIC
1 84 The Pelasgi and their Modem Descendants.
insulted and assaulted by the suitors, reserving his courage
to a fitting opportunity.
'ISaicij, — I-thak — the rugged, arid ; and such is Ithaka I
still, and such, from its rocky nature, it must always have
been.
NcptToc — I-nerit' (oc) — moist, humid.
TIoXvicrcDp — Balhdr — the muddy.
TpwtXoc — Droi'li' (oc) — the coward who fears. 1
riarpoicAoc — Per-Droi-li- (oc) — he who feareth not. I
OepaiTVQ — Der-i'Zd- (i?c) — the black pig. In this, as in j
other cases, the adjectives joined with the denomination I
explain the character of the individual or place. |
riavSoKAcc — Pa-ndouk' (Xtc)^-one wearing his hair and j
beard ; one who has never been shaven, — a Samson — 2l I
Nazarene.
Malawi/ — Makon-yon — our friend.
''I^racTcToc — I-pds- (oc) — whoso possesses, who is rich.
KapoTToc — Ka-rop' (oc) — who holds slaves.
AuKawp — Li-kd-oun — who is born to me or of me.
'I^mwi/ — I-fisit'On — of our race.
MaXiovcc — Male-on — our mountain.
Mu/o/ucSoi^c — Mir-me-dhen- (cc) — rich in cattle.
Aa€/oT£c — I'lart^ — the high — resplendent.
Pt^cwop — Rheze-ndor — having rays in his hands.
IIoi'Toi'ooc — Poun-t'On- (oc) — our business or work :
/^^««/(7r= labourer, two "o" suffixed often signify a
vocative in Shkypetar bir-oo-oson mot-oo, a sister.
KvKXtjyfj—Ki'ka-lope — who has cows.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
The Pelasgi and their Modem Descendants. 185
A Homeric passage compared in English and Albanian and
THE ORIGINAL WITH GrEEK VERSION.
Albanian R^fidering,
Puk ziinli me shendrit e-bija drits
Te Gelhibit qi ki gishtat drandopelhiet
Gikalope nziti disht e-tupes tl
Ti dergoin me kulhot n'hvadhe t*pr&tita
D^et qi smurt ti mielin me zhizh '^
Prei g3mashtil shum, br&in ne vath te *tyne
T-Zoti* tyne, lodhun dhimash whta,
Ne te dalun, lemont^ shipinat d^troe ;
Poi, i-psl-mend qi kie, nuk u-kuitue
Qi nen krahnor t'mbuluem me l^h
Tshin lidhun e-mb^h^f gjith shokte-mt
Dashi qi m'bait^ mue duel ma t mrapmi
Pse ish randue prei l^hit v^t e-m^f61,
Qi u-kiutuesch me kaq te holt urti
E-ndati n*t*dalun Polifemi, i i-th^
O i-dashtuni dash pse po dd kagodn
Sot viga shpelh'e ime ? ti s'k6 pas zak6n
Me sidei kurh mrapa poi ke prigjeth m6n
Clle madn! tiu erhun» tufes dh^noe me,
Kur veishen me kulhot lulet e-buta
Qi bin e gjindhi ne livadhe s'prestita
Pa her no br^ te lumavet mft-ipari
Ke voitun mi i par edh^ n* mrame k^
Kthy^ n* v&th tande me Turner t'ind^rzun
£ tane u-bane m& i-kadalshmit gjithoe
U t'dhimet, ndoshta syni zotet yt
Qi mbasl ed^ii meven ndifiin skoksks vet
T verboi nji nieri, nji nier qi des ?
Odyss. /. 437-455-
So soon as the daughter of light began to
shine
Aurora who has fingers of rose color
The Cyclops drove the sheep of his flock
To send them to feed on the green pastures
The sheep which were unable to drag their
udders, swelled
By the abundance of the milk bleated in
their stall.
Their master— overcome by bitter pains
Caressed, as they went out the backs of the
rams
But fool that he was he did not perceive
How under their breasts covered with wool
Were bound and concealed all my fellowrs.
The ram which carried me went out last
For he was weig)ied down by his own wool
and me
Who thought with such subtle prudence.
Stopped him going out Polyphemus and
said
O dear beast wherefore dost thou go out so
late
To-day from the cavern ? such was not thy
wont
To remain always to the last : thou always
wentest out first
Walking with pride the first of my sheep
When they went out to feed on the tender
flowers
Which sprung up and covered the green
{pastures.
Always the first on the banks of the rivers
Art thou gone, and the evening the first
Art returned to thy stall with thy heart
inflamed ;
But now thou art become the slowest of all.
Dost thou feel the pain for thv master's eye
Whom after having been made drunk with
wine and aided by his fellows,
A man destroyed a man subject to death.
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