_From Professor Forth to the Rev. Mr. Casaubon_.
The delicacy of the domestic matters with which the following
correspondence deals cannot be exaggerated. It seems that Belinda (whose
Memoirs we owe to Miss Rhoda Broughton) was at Oxford while Mr. and Mrs.
Casaubon were also resident near that pleasant city, so famed for its
Bodleian Library. Professor Forth and Mr. Casaubon were friends, as may
be guessed; their congenial characters, their kindred studies,
Etruscology and Mythology, combined to ally them. Their wives were not
wholly absorbed in their learned pursuits, and if Mr. Ladislaw was
dangling after Mrs. Casaubon, we know that Mr. Rivers used to haunt with
Mrs. Forth the walks of Magdalen. The regret and disapproval which Mrs.
Casaubon expresses, and her desire to do good to Mrs. Forth, are, it is
believed, not alien to her devoted and exemplary character.
Bradmore-road, Oxford, May 29.
DEAR MR. CASAUBON,—In the course of an investigation which my researches
into the character of the Etruscan “Involuti” have necessitated, I
frequently encounter the root _Kâd_, _k2âd_, or _Qâd_. Schnitzler’s
recent and epoch-making discovery that _d_ in Etruscan = _b2_, has led me
to consider it a plausible hypothesis that we may convert _Kâd_ or _Qâd_
into _Kab2_, in which case it is by no means beyond the range of a
cautious conjecture that the Involuti are identical with the _Cab-iri_
(Cabiri). Though you will pardon me for confessing, what you already
know, that I am not in all points an adherent to your ideas concerning a
“Key to All Mythologies” (at least, as briefly set forth by you in Kuhn’s
_Zeitung_), yet I am deeply impressed with this apparent opportunity of
bridging the seemingly impassable gulf between Etrurian Religion and the
comparatively clear and comprehensible systems of the Pelasgo-Phoenician
peoples. That Kâd or Kâb can refer either (as in _Quatuor_) to a
four-footed animal (quadruped, “quad”) or to a four-wheeled vehicle
(_esseda_, Celtic _cab_) I cannot for a moment believe, though I
understand that this theory has the support of Schrader, Penka, and
Baunder. {125} Any information which your learning can procure, and your
kind courtesy can supply, will be warmly welcomed and duly
acknowledged.—Believe me, faithfully yours,