The word employed to denote _freight_, or rather the _price of freight_, at
this day in the principal ports of the Mediterranean, is _nolis_, _nolo_,
&c. In the Arabian and Indian ports, the word universally employed to
denote the same meaning is _nol_. Are these words identical, and can their
connexion be traced? When we consider the extensive commerce of the
Phoenicians, both in the Mediterranean and Indian seas, that they were the
great merchants and carriers of antiquity, and that, in the words of
Hieron, "their numerous fleets were scattered over the Indian and Atlantic
oceans; and the Tyrian pennant waved at the same time on the coasts of
Britain and on the shores of Ceylon"--it is natural to look to that country
as the birthplace of the word, whence it may have been imported, westward
to Europe, and eastward to India, by the same people. And we find that it
is a pure Arabic word, [Arabic: nwl] _nawil_ and [Arabic: nwln] _nawlun_,
or _nol_ and _nolan_, both signifying _freight_ (price of carriage), from
the root [Arabic: nwh] _noh, pretium dedit, donum_. I am not aware that the
word _freight_ (not used in the sense of cargo or merchandise, but as the
_price_ of carriage of the merchandise, _merces pro vectura_) is to be
found in the Old Testament, otherwise some light might be thrown on the
matter by a reference to the cognate Hebrew word.
But here an interesting question presents itself. The word _freight_ in
Greek is [Greek: naulos] or [Greek: naulon], and in Latin _naulum_. Have
these any connexion with the Arabic word, or are they to be traced to an
independent source, and the coincidence in sense and sound with the Arabic
merely accidental? If distinct, are the words now in use in the
Mediterranean ports derived from the Greek or the Arabic? If the words be
not identical, may not the Greek be derived from the Sanscrit, thus
[Sanskrit: nau], _nau_, or in the pure form [Sanskrit: nawah], _nawah_, or
resolved, _naus_, a ship or boat; [Sanskrit: nauyayin], _nauyayin_ quasi
_nouyayil_, or abbreviated _naul_, that which goes into a ship or boat,
_i.e._ freight, fare, or, by metonyme, the price of freight, or
passage-money. It is to be noted that _nolis_, though in general use in the
Mediterranean ports (Marseilles, for example) to denote the price of
freight, or of carriage, is not so in the northern parts of France. At
Havre the word is _fret_, the same as our _freight_, the German _fracht_,
viz. that which is _carried_ or _ferried_, and, by metonyme, as before, the
_price_ of carriage.