Tibor E. BARATH

THE EARLY
HUNGARIANS

IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT
HISTORICAL RESEARCH

MONTREAL 1983

Published by the Author
P. O. Box 697, Station "B"
Montreal H3B 3K3
Canada

CONTENTS

* The numbers given in parentheses in the text refer to the publications (P 000, P 001, etc.) in which the reader may find further information on the subject in question.

List of figures

Fig. 1. Physical map of the Middle Danube basin.

Fig. 2. Old Hungary's geographic location in relation to the Ancient Orient.

Fig. 3. The great river-valleys of the Ancient Near-East.

Fig. 4. Turullu, the lion-headed Sumerian bird which symbolized the divine ancestors of Hungarians. Uruk, c. 3200 B.C.

Fig. 5. Pictorial representation of the two Hungarian ancestors. Carved by a shepherd in Somogy county, XlXth century.

Fig. 6. Some of the most frequently used Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Fig. 7. 'Magyar country' written in Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Fig. 8. 'Ruler of the Magyars' written in hieroglyphs.

Fig. 9. In Egypt, the flat-horned ram was the favourite Kush-symbol.

Fig. 10. The Kush-symbol survives in Hungarian folklore. Example: the ceremonial walking-stick, 'Fokos'.

Fig. 11. The Kush-name written in Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Fig. 12. Anubis, the dog-like creature, was also considered as a Kush ancestor.

Fig. 13. The Egyptian kings' royal titles were Hungarian titles.

Fig. 14. The Old Hungarian sound-signs in their final stage of development.

Fig. 15. Old Hungarian inscription of Dalnok, Hungary. It reads from left to right.

Fig. 16. Old Hungarian inscription of Constantinople, Turkey. It reads from right to left.

Fig. 17. Old Hungarian inscription of Enlaka, Hungary, accompanied by a pictorial complement.

Fig. 18. Sun-door of Csik-Szent-Kiraly, with a geometric decoration.

Fig. 19. Elaborate Sun-gate of Harasztosi, Hungary, flanked by two idols.

Fig. 20. Wooden columns on burial sites in present-day Hungary.

Fig. 21. 'The Lion of Esztergom'. Wall-painting in the royal palace. Hungary, XIIth century.

Fig. 22. Ramses II, King of Egypt (1304 - 1232 B.C.), holding the God-symbol.

Fig. 23. Human-shaped divinity with the God-symbol. Hungary, Neolithic Age.

Fig. 24. A typical Troy-II vessel, c. 2300 B.C.

Fig. 25. Gold badge of a high priest. Mojgrád, Hungary, Bronze Age.

Fig. 26. Hungarian hammer-axe with disc for a butt. It was in great demand in the Bronze Age.

Fig. 27. Map showing the density of Hungary's population by the end of the Bronze Age.

Fig. 28. The world-famous Tatárlaki (Tartaria) clay tablets, found near the river Maros. They were used for the purpose of solar observations.

Fig. 29. The sound-signs of the Tatárki tablets, separated into words.

Fig. 30. The most beautiful Scythian gold-stag ever found in Hungary. Tápió-Szent-Márton, Vth century B.C.

Fig. 31. Scythian gold-stag from Zöld-Halom-Puszta, in an unusual posture. Hungary, Vth century B.C.

Fig. 32. Several vessels belonging to the Hun treasure of Nagy-Szent-Miklós bear this inscription: 'The adornment of this article was made by a skilled Hun'.

Fig. 33. Hungarian language message engraved upon a Hunnic gold tray.

Fig. 34. The great seal of King Oktár the Hun with legend in Hungarian.

Fig. 35. Dedication incised upon the pendent of a Hun necklace in Hungarian. Wolfheim, Germany.

Fig. 36. Decorated silver satchel-cover of a Hungarian army commander. Hungary, IXth century.

Fig. 1. The Middle Danube basin is a unitary land with natural boundaries. It was the geographic base of the Kingdom of Hungary for over a thousand years. (Mountains over 1,000 m in black)

Fig. 2. Old Hungary's geographic location in relation to the Ancient Orient.

PROLOGUE

The rough road of Hungarian Ancient History

Hungarian Ancient History deals with that period of the national past which begins around 3000 B.C. and ends in 895 A.D. when the last Magyar ethnic wave arrived and settled in the Carpathian basin. This delimitation is mainly based upon a longstanding tradition, but is justified by methodological considerations as well. Indeed, in the elaboration of ancient history, the so-called subsidiary studies of History play a considerably greater role than in more recent periods, on account of the scarcity of written documents, which are the usual sources of historical knowledge. The most helpful of such subsidiary studies are, first, linguistics and archaelogy, then mythology and paleography, to which most recently, the science of place-names or toponymy was added. This many-sided approach renders the task of the historians more difficult. The importance of their researches is however great, since the results have a strong bearing upon the national consciousness. Because of this, Ancient History is usually exposed to strong political interferences.

1. When modern historiography was born, in the middle of the XlXth century, Hungarian scholars found themselves before a difficult alternative: they had to adopt either the Finno-Ugrian conception of their past or the Orientalist conception. The foundation of the Finno-Ugrian or "Uralian" conception was laid down by Swedish, German and Russian scholars, and in particular, by August Ludwig Schloezer, professor at Goettingen University, Germany. Its basic thesis was the linguistic and ethnic kinship of Hungarians with Finns and Esthonians living in the Baltic area, and with the Uralian peoples in the Volga-Ural region. The holder of this theory placed the original homeland of the Finno-Ugrians in the vast Siberian plain. This theory was welcomed and strongly supported for political reasons by the Habsburg dynasty, which was anxious, after the tragic events of 1849, to curb Hungarian influence in the Double Monarchy just then, by injecting the leaders of that nation with an inferiority complex. They first sent Miklosits, the professor of slavistics at Vienna University, to Budapest, to supervise the program of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Miklosits had understood the point of his mission and prepared a long list of words which were all "borrowed" from the Slavonic languages, according to him. After Miklosits, a German scholar was sent to Budapest, J. Budenz (1836-1892), who became, with his companion Pál Hunfalvy (Hunsdorfer, 1810-1891), the main architect of the Finno-Ugrian conception of Hungary's ancient history.

The two pioneers proclaimed that the Hungarian people and the Hungarian language were of Finno-Ugrian origin, consequently, their original common homeland could not have been situated anywhere else than in the Uralo-Siberian region. They also found that the early Hungarians stood, in respect to civilization, on the lowest step of evolution: they were forest-dwelling nomads, living on the mere product of Nature, eating mushrooms, berries, digging up roots, fishing and hunting. As such, they were ignorant of the fundamental achievements of Higher Civilization: stockbreeding and foodproduction by farming. In short, the early Hungarians were depicted as a backward populace, in a state of semi-savagery, whose later civilization developed entirely from constant borrowings, first from the Turkish peoples, thereafter from Slavs, Germans and Latins, who were their teachers and instructors.

The second conception of Hungarian ancient history linked the Hungarian language to the oldest one of mankind, viz. the Sumerian, and placed the original home of the Nation in the Ancient Near East, between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers (Sumer and Babylon). This conception was also first outlined by Western scholars, namely by A.H. Sayce, J. Oppert, F. Lenormant and C. Rawlinson.

From a Hungarian point of view, the most important finding of the West-European sumerologists was the discovery that the Sumerian language was neither Semitic nor Indo-European in structure, but agglutinative, like the Hungarian. The far-reaching significance of this statement was obvious, because speakers of this early agglutinative language were the authors of the first Higher Civilization of mankind. A. H. Sayce summed up this thesis as follows: "The earliest civilized inhabitants of Babylonia did not speak a Semitic language and therefore they were not Semites... Eastward of Sumer, the type of language was thus agglutinative, as it was in Sumer itself. And in the days when civilization first grew up there, there is no sign or trace of the language we call inflectional... Babylonian culture owed its origin to a race whose type of language was that of the Finns, of the Magyars or the Japanese" (P 112 pp. 70-72). The same opinion was upheld by all later sumerologists, including Prof. Woolley, who writes in the most recent UNESCO manual: "Sumerian was unique amongst the languages of the Ancient Near East in being agglutinative; it belonged in this respect, to the same group as... Finnish and Hungarian (P 064 p. 635). Western scholars also stated that there was a steady outflow of Sumerian population towards Europe beginning the New Stone Age, and that they had introduced the Higher Civilization to almost all regions of Europe, including distant Britain. In short, this conception places Early Hungarians into a considerably higher historical status.

After the above mentioned discoveries, it became increasingly exciting for Hungarian scientists to find out the true ethnic and linguistic identity of the ancient Near-Easterners: Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and Anatolians. It was indeed hoped that the solution of this enigma, with the help of the Hungarian clue, might lead us to a global re-evaluation of the origin and affiliation of all European peoples and, in particular, to a re-evaluation of the place of Hungarians amongst them. A formidable challenge was thus awaiting Hungarian scholarship.

2. It seems incredible, but the fact is that Hungarians were not encouraged to take part in these researches; on the contrary, they had been removed from the field of sumerology and egyptology, and redirected towards the Uralo-Siberian wildernesses. The new Orientalist researches had already produced decisive results which were going to alter the traditional Semitic image of the region in question. In fact, they discovered that the myth of the Creation, the story of the Flood, and the many hymns and parables recorded in the Old Testament, were not the literary invention of Semitic Genius, as it was believed until then, but that of the previous agglutinative-speaking peoples, from whom they were simply taken over. Therefore, to avoid further erosion of the Semitic Miracle, it seemed appropriate to divert all the potentially dangerous elements from the field of researches. The chief instigator of this militant policy was Joseph Halévy (1827-1917), a Jewish-born Rumanian, who managed to become professor at the Sorbonne in Paris. Actually, he had waged a lifelong battle to maintain the antiquated belief, namely, emphasizing the exclusively Semitic character of the Ancient Near East, where no other race was ever present, according to him. At the Orientalist Congress in Paris (1901), Halévy encountered Hungary's delegate, Ignac Goldziher (1850-1921), who had a seat in the governing body of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and was, at the same time, general-manager of the Jewish Religious Community of Budapest for many years. So he was quick to understand Halévy's concern and, back in Budapest, emphatically declared that Hungarian scholars were wasting their time searching for their ancestors in the Ancient Near-East, it being a purely Semitic area. And Bernát Munkácsy (Munk), another Hungarian educated orientalist, also member of the Academy of Sciences and school-inspector at the Jewish Religious Community of Budapest, submitted his "expert's report" to the Academy, wherein declared "in good faith" that: "It is out of question... that we may envisage any closer relation between the Sumerian and the Hungarian languages. Therefore Hungarian scientists cannot rightly claim any part of the brilliant Sumerian heritage, nor can they take any credit from the Sumerians' merits, under the pretext that they were their ancestors. If anyone would, nevertheless, do so, he would make himself ridiculous" (P 051 p. 55).

After that, the Academy systematically sabotaged Sumerian studies in Hungary. It had refused to receive Zsófia Torma, the lady who wished to report on her epoch-making finding, that in Neolithic times there were close contacts between Hungary and ancient Mesopotamia. Professor Zsigmond Varga, another outstanding orientalist, who established several linguistic parallels between Hungarian and Sumerian in his imposing volume "At a distance of 5,000 years" (Debrecen 1942), was judged by his critics as an "impostor, charlatan, confused and unscientific." A third scholar, Vilmos Hevesy (alias F.A. Uxbond), who discovered the ancient links between Hungarians and Indians (P 130), was also rejected, because his findings disagreed with the official Uralo-Siberian doctrine. Many other similar cases are known, but let us recall only one, that of Flórián Mátyás. This scholar, in his inaugural address at the Academy (1859), talked, to no avail, about the deciphering of hieroglyphs; he was unable to capture the attention of Pál Hunfalvy, who simply laughed it off. It was not until a great, independent, international authority, Prof. G. Childe, stated in his fundamental work on the Danubian Neolithic and Bronze Ages (P 031), that scholars all over the world agreed that the Early Hungarians had a respectable share in the heritage of the Ancient Near East. Thus ended the stormy, first period of the modern researches on the origin of Hungarians, wherein the imposed Uralian conception seemed to prevail, to the detriment of the free researches.

3. After 1945 this situation totally changed, when swarms of intellectuals left Hungary, following the communist take-over. These exiles, free of any political pressure, once they were settled in the free world, have undertaken the renewal of the ancient Hungarian history in an Oriental light. Ida Bobula (USA, 1900-1981) was the first to perceive their new mission. She took up research where Prof. Varga left off in 1942 and was indefatigable in arousing interest for the arduous task. In his time, Prof. Varga was mainly dealing with grammatical parallels between Sumerian and Hungarian. As regards the vocabulary, however, he was unable to find more than about 80 common words. Consequently, Ida Bobula, focussed her efforts upon the enlargement of the vocabulary concordances and was instrumental in completing the existing list with over a thousand additional common words, amongst them the important one for 'God', Isten in both languages. With her work, she firmly established the Sumero-Hungarian kinship as a scientifically proven fact and summed up her results in an English language study, Sumerian affiliations (P 014).

Other exiled Hungarian scholars followed the trend as set forth by Ida Bobula, elucidating a surprisingly high number of common characteristics of the Sumerian and Hungarian languages. Amongst them, we have first to mention Ferenc Badiny Jos (Argentina), professor of sumerology at the University of Buenos Aires, who tried to fill the considerable time-gap between the end of Sumer in the Near East and the birth of Hungary proper in Europe, by means of a Hungarian language book, "From Chaldea to Ister-Gam" (P 006). The late Victor Padányi (Australia) concentrated his attention upon the migrating Hungarians in the Don region (P 101) and C. G. Gostony (France) produced an etymological dictionary of Sumerian (P 056), while Sándor Csöke (Austria) compiled a "Sumero-Hungarian grammar" (P 015). Finally, the comprehensive work of Sándor Nagy which was written in English, deserves special mention, The forgotten cradle of the Hungarian culture (P 098). All these works concerned Surner (Southern Mesopotamia) only and maintained that Hungarian is the direct continuation of the ancient Mesopotamian language, as it was spoken in the Illrd millenium B.C., or, as Sándor Csöke expressed it: "With a few phonetical and grammatical differences, the Sumerian folklanguage, i.e. the spoken language was, on the whole, the same as present-day Hungarian."

The next most important step in the elaboration of the orientalist conception was the extension of the field of investigation beyond Mesopotamia, to cover the whole Near-East. It was indeed discovered that innumerable Magyar words were used, not only in Mesopotamia, but elsewhere too, in the B.C. times, especially in the Nile valley, as well as in Syria and in Anatolia. In these areas certain texts written with hieroglyphs or with Phoenician-type characters, can be read in Hungarian. These surprising results definitely proved that the original home of the Hungarian speaking population was the entire Near-East and also that Magyar was a primary language, from which many others originated. The enlargement of the field of investigations and the above mentioned decipherings are due to Prof. Tibor Barath, author of this book, whose three volumes - Ancient History of the Hungarian speaking Peoples" (P 007) - are fundamental in this regard.

That ancient Egypt had been the most brilliant Magyar homeland, was first stated by F. Thomas in his Latin study: Conjecturae de origine, prima sede et lingua Hungarorum (Buda 1806). It must also be added that the eminent Finnish linguist, Helmi Poukka (Helsinki), has made an important contribution to the subject with her "Hungarian-Finn-Egyptian word-parallels" (P 105). In her publication, she lists 1,045 identical Egypto-Hungarian words. This work was recently expanded into an important manuscript of 307 pages, which its author has generously forwarded to the writer of these lines.

All these studies made almost exclusively by exiled Hungarian scholars resulted in the elaboration of a new Hungarian ancient history, whose starting point is in Ancient Near East, in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages.

4. In the light of these researches, the basic theses of the Finno-Ugrian historical conception became more and more untenable; above all the belief that Hungarian was a language of Finno-Ugrian origin. This must be a misnomer, declared the orientalists, in view of the fact that the Hungarian vocabulary includes a mere 7.3% of common Finno-Ugrian words, against 92.7% non-Finno-Ugrian. Moreover, if Old Hungarian antedates the Indo-European languages, how it could have borrowed words from them, when they were not yet in existence? Considering that the Hungarian and Indo-European common words are embedded in the oldest layer of the latters' vocabulary, the presumption is strong that these common words were borrowed by the Indo-Europeans from the Old Hungarian. And again, since the emergence of the Hungarians took place in the Ancient Near-East, it seems impossible that the people would have originated in Uralo-Siberia. The tiny Vogul (Manysi) and Ostiak (Hanti) peoples - 9,000 and 21,000 souls respectively - who are now living in Siberia, cannot vouch for the Northern origin of Hungarians, because anthropologically they are the farthest removed from them. These fragments of an original Uralian population were, in all probability, overrun by a break-away branch of Hungarians (cf. P 059 pp. 173-179), who taught them a few hundred words before being assimilated. This view is supported by the Vogul name, which is probably an old form of the present Hungarian Fogoly, meaning 'Captive'. In any case, the Finno-Ugrian theory of history never succeeded in proving its point to the general satisfaction. Large segments of the academic world - linguists, historians archaeologists in particular - remained skeptical and discussed it with great reservations. For all these reasons, those of the opposite conception openly rejected it as an obsolete theory.

The pressure against the Uralian conception increased so heavily in the last ten to fifteen years, that the holders of this antiquated belief felt themselves cornered, and began a desperate fight for survival. But, instead of discussing and refuting the pretensions of the orientalists, they simply declared that the theses of their adversaries are unacceptable, 'because' they are contrary to the official doctrine. They soon lost their tempers and started a vilipending campaign. They everywhere proclaimed that the exiled historians "have been infected with a Western virus", and that they suffer from "spiritual inebriety", for whom the "Oriental mirage" (sumerology and egyptology) is but a "therapeutic gymnastic". They also labeled the orientalists "fanatics, lunatics, chauvinists, and fascists" (P 008). The Finno-Ugrists also used administrative measures to silence their opponents, especially the so-called press-closure, which means that the scientific promotion of the orientalist conception is banned from the media in Hungary. Since then in that country, the periodicals, newspapers, publishing houses, television and radio stations were exclusively reserved for scholars with Finno-Ugrian mentality. Along with the press-closure, writers in line with the official dogma were encouraged to prepare fresh publications in the obsolete spirit, saying nothing about the existence of the other way of thinking.

It would nevertheless be a mistake to think that the front of Finno-Ugrists is a solidly united one. As a matter of fact, there are, in Hungary itself, many scholars who already have assimilated several important elements of the Hungarian researches abroad. Antal Bartha, for example, has discarded the wrong belief that the early Hungarians had been forest dweller nomads. Instead, he teaches today that they were living in river valleys, engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, and stood, in every respect, upon the level of contemporary Higher Civilization. He also maintains that the early Hungarians had come to the Kama-Volga "meeting place" (no longer "cradle land"), in successive waves, from a southerly direction, at the beginning of the first millenium B.C., starting from the area "where the food-production first had taken place," i.e. from the Near-East (.Magyar Hirlap, December 15, 1972). Furthermore, anthropologist Tibor Tóth has conceded that the skeletons do not support the existence of any early Hungarian settlement in the Ural-Siberian region. On the contrary, they clearly prove that it actually was in the Aral Sea region (Kisalföld, June 16, 1972).

This will suffice to mark out the place of the orientalist conception in the general Hungarian historical researches during the last hundred and fifty years or so. After a difficult start, it seems now to be closer to victory. In the following chapters, the author lets the reader become acquainted, in detail, with the orientalist conception only, avoiding all controversies.

PART ONE

WHO ARE THE HUNGARIANS?

THE PEOPLE

1. The anthropological build-up of the Nation

Reliable data concerning the anthropological structure of European peoples, can be found in the standard work of the Swiss anthropologist Eugène Pittard (P 103) and in the historical race-geography of the Soviet scientist V. P. Aleksejev (P 002). Information concerning specifically the Hungarians is available in the brief accounts of Mr. Kosonczi (Sorsunk, Australia, 1959-1960), and in the two more recent articles by Pál Lipták (P 090) and Tibor Tóth (P 128), leading anthropologists in Hungary today.

According to the authorities mentioned, the various peoples of Europe intermingled so much during the last two or three millenia that today they hardly differ from one another genetically. By and large, they are made up almost everywhere with the same racial elements, viz. the white skinned Caucasoids or Aryans;(1) the brownish complexioned Mediterraneans or Touranians, also called Kush; and a third element, especially detectable in Scandinavia and in Spain. The latter are probably the descendants of a pre-Neolithic population called Cro-Magnon-men. Within the said relatively uniform social structure, the individuality of each people is only characterized by the differing proportion of the common composing elements. In the case of Hungarians, the specific ratio is said to be c. 80 - 85% Caucasoids or Aryans and c. 15-20% Touranids or Kush. The representation of the Nordic (Cro-Magnon) type in Hungary is so minute that it is practically negligible.(2)

The great majority of Hungarians (the Caucasoids) is characterized by a height of 167 cm, a clear complexion, variable eye colour (40% fair and 40% dark) and medium brown hair. Their face and eyes are of a vivid tone, their nose is straight, but sometimes high and bridged. Their general demeanour is a friendly one. According to cranial measurements, their average cephalic index (CI) is 84.3, i.e. they belong to the short-headed racial group.(3)

E. Pittard was surprised to find, in a strongly mixed Europe, a relatively homogeneous population, especially in Central Europe, which was overrun so many times by foreign invaders since Neolithic times. But he himself gives us the necessary explanation, emphasizing the fact that before the arrival of the last huge Hungarian ethnic wave in A.D. 895, the numerically most important ethnic body in the country - the Avars - was racially akin to the Magyars: they resembled each other like "two overflows of a single and same ethnic lake", to quote the words of E. Pittard.(4) His evaluation holds good even for the periods prior to the Avars, including Neolithic times. In fact, the nearly 1,000 extant crania from this age prove that even the earliest settlers of the Land, almost exclusively consisted of short-headed Caucasoids (P 103 p. 36). This means that the same human race has perpetuated itself in Hungary from the earliest historical times in an uninterrupted continuity.

According to anthropologists, the greatest concentration of the short-headed population is to be found in the Caucasus region.(5) The farther one moves away from the area, the thinner is the density of the brachycephalic element. On this basis it was assumed, that the oldest detectable home of this race was in the Caucasus region, whence they got their scientific denomination: Caucasoid race. From their supposed original homeland, the Caucasoids or Aryans are said to have slowly moved southwards, extending their control over the whole northern part of Ancient Near-East already in prehistoric times. They were har-bringers of the so-called Higher Civilization, in which most people were farmers living in small villages.

The second racial element of the Hungarian ethnic body is the Kushitic one. Their distinctive anthropological characteristics were the darkish skin colour and the Caucasian (not African) face.(6)

In contrast to the Aryan agriculturists, the Kush were mainly a stock-breeding population and as such moved around extensively. For a long time, they lived in tribal communities, without any higher socio-political organisation. They disintegrated easily and many of them became absorbed into the ethnic bodies of other nations, most often in subject status, so that they soon lost their own ethnic identity through assimilation.

Amongst the written references to the existence of white and dark men in Hungary, the most explicit one is that of Adamar of Angouleme, author of Historia Francorum (XIth century). He described a monk's journey through Hungary and claimed that two distinct races existed there: a white one in Ungaria Alba and a dark one in Ungaria Nigra, so called after the skin colour of their inhabitants.(7) Hungaro-Kush relations were, however, almost always somewhat strained because of the lower cultural niveau of the dark men.(8) And when the Kush refused to become Christians, King Saint Stephen (1000-1038) dispersed them all over the country, where they lost their individual identity. Author Adamar of Angouleme writes in that connection the following commentary: "King St. Stephen of Hungary attacked black Hungary with the army and converted the whole country to the true faith, partly by sheer force, partly by intimidation and affection."(9)

The anthropological build-up of Hungarians links them to most of the European peoples, e. g. to the French, so far as they are of Gallic descent, and to the English as well, so far as they are Britons, Scots and Picts. On the other hand, Hungarians have genetic connections with the old Oriental nations (Sumerians, ancient Egyptians, Indians), and also with the youngest offsprings of the said great family: Scythians, Huns, Avars in particular. The kinship of Hungarians is large both in Europe and in South West Asia, and this circumstance explains why Hungarian ancient history is, in many respects, one of the most important keys to the general history of Eurasia.

2. The Hungarian language and its great antiquity

A language is characterized by its grammatical structure, vocabulary and phonetics. When these characteristics are compared with those of other languages, it can be established which languages are cognate, i.e. have a common origin. The cognate languages form language-families and have such names as Indo-European, Finno-Ugrian, Uralaltaic and so forth.

1. The principal characteristic of the Hungarian grammatical structure is that the root of the verb remains the same throughout the different variations (conjugations) and to this unchanging root the various particles are added, called suffixes, to express tense relations, modes and personal cases. The pattern is always the same: stem + circumstantial suffixes + case ending. In the following two words: To give and To write, the basic roots are AD and IR. The root, in itself, expresses the indicative present, therefore the personal case ending comes next here, thus: AD-ok, IR-ok: I give, I write. Secondly, the root, when enlarged with the conditional suffix N becomes AD-N-ek, IR-N-ek: I would give, I would write. Thirdly, when inserting the subjunctive suffix J, the following forms emerge: AD-J-ak, IR-J-ak: That I give, That I write. Fourthly, the sign of the past being T, the two verbs in question take the following forms: AD-T-am, IR-T-am, I gave, I wrote. The declension of the noun follows the pattern of the conjugation. There too, the various endings are affixed to the unvariable root, the nominative case excepted, which is the root itself, without a suffix. So the noun HÁZ 'House' becomes, with the plural suffix K, HÁZ-ak; with a second suffix BAN meaning 'In', we say HÁZ-ak-ban, In houses. All the elements of the word thus formed are written without a hyphen, and merged into a single block: Adtam, írtam, Házakban, etc. Due to its compact character, Hungarian is called a synthetic language, or, owing to the numerous suffixes it uses, a suffix-using (suffixed) or agglutinative language.

Two other features of the Hungarian grammar are, first of all, that it has no gender. So IR may mean 'She or He writes', depending on the context. Secondly, it has a fully developed unvaried definite article, used in two forms: 'A' or 'AZ'. 'A' stands before nouns beginning with a consonant, while 'AZ' is employed before nouns beginning with a vowels. So we say: A HÁZ 'The house', but AZ EG 'The sky'.

2. Hungarian has a comparatively large vocabulary, thanks to its great antiquity, and also to the ease with which new words can be made. Forty words which will frequently appear in the forthcoming chapters are listed below. They belong to the oldest layer of the vocabulary and, as such, they are mostly monosyllabic. Words denoting parts of the human body: 1. KÉZ 'Hand'; 2. KAR 'Arm'; 3. SZEM 'Eye'. Words for house and its equipment: 4. HÁZ 'House'; 5. HON 'Dwelling' or 'Land'; 6. TÁNYÉR 'Plate, Disk'; 7. FAZÉK '(cooking) Pot'; 8. SZÉK 'Chair'; 9. ÁGY 'Bed'. The environment: 10. EG 'Sky'; 11. FÖLD 'Earth, Ground'; 12. NAP 'Sun' and 'Day'; 13. VIZ 'Water'; 14. ÜT 'Road'; 15. MEZÖ 'Field'; 16. KERT 'Garden'; 17. FÜ 'Grass'. Food: 18. MÉZ 'Honey'; 19. ITAL 'Drink'; 20. SÖR 'Beer-'. Animals: 21. HAL 'Fish'; 22. MADÁR 'Bird'; 23. EGÉR 'Mouse'; 24. KOS 'Ram'; 25. CSIRKE 'Chicken'; 26. BÉKA 'Frog'. Implements: 27. KÉS 'Knife'; 28. HAJÖ 'Boat'; 29. SZEKÉR 'Cart'; 30. KERÉK 'Wheel'. Religion: 31. UR 'Lord'; 32. ISTEN 'God'; 33. KÉP 'Image'; 34. MÁS(A) 'Copy of, Deputy'; 35. PAP 'Priest'; 36. TUDÓ 'Magician, Scientist'. Numbers: 37. KETTÖ 'Two'; 38. ÖT 'Five'; 39. HÉT 'Seven'; 40. SZÁZ 'Hundred'.

How are compound words formed? The simplest way consists of putting the respective stems together, the determining word being placed before its dependent as a rule. Examples: Fut -I- Ar = Futár 'Messenger' (lit. Running man); Hord + Ar = Hordár 'Porter' (lit. Carrying man); Nagy + Ur = Nádor 'Governor, Deputy King' (lit. Great man). In compound words only the last part takes up suffixes and case-endings, the compound being considered as a single word. In addition to the above mentioned process called nominal composition, Hungarian has another method to build new words with new shades of meaning. It consists of adding derivative suffixes to the root in the case of nouns, and placing prefixes before verbs. The derivative suffixes are very numerous, e. g. - ság (ség) which implies the idea of 'multitude'. Its first form (-ság) fits to roots ending with a back vowel, while the latter fits to those ending with a front vowel, as in KATONA-ság and PÉK-ség: 'Army' (lit. Soldier + multitude) and 'Bakery' (lit. Baker + multitude), respectively. In the case of verbs, the most important prefixed particles are the directional ones, like In, Out, Up, Down, Forward, Backward, Under, Away, Retour, etc., which are in Hungarian: Be-, Ki-, Fel-, Le-, Előre-, Hátra-, Alá-, El-, Mellé-, Vissza-.

3. The phonetical structure of Hungarian is largely influenced by stress, which always falls on the first syllable of the word which is uttered with greater emphasis than the others. Now, when the tongue has taken up the necessary position to form a certain accentuated syllable, it is easier to remain in the same position when uttering the subsequent ones. The consequence of this laziness of the tongue is a sound-preference, called vowel harmony. It means that whenever the first syllable includes a back vowel (A, O, U), the following vowels must usually be of the same category. The same applies to the front vowels (E, I), mutatis mutandis.

The sound-preference goes so far as to influence even the simplest suffixes, which have two forms: the one fitting to roots with deep tonality (A, 0, U), the other to those with high tonality (E, I). The two forms of the suffix 'In' are BAN and BEN, and we say FAL-ban 'In wall' and KERT-ben 'In garden'. The law of vowel harmony also governs the formation of compounds and mercilessly brings all the vowels into the general tone of the first, stressed syllable. The result is a completely new word, in which the composing elements are sometimes hardly detectable. For example, a great city on the Hungarian Plain got its name from the fusion of two words, Kecske (goat) and Mat (pasture), and is today called Kecskemét. In the archaic period, the majority of nouns ended with a vowel. However, with the consolidation of the word-stress on the first syllable, the sound of the final vowel became weaker, and was eventually silenced. With the loss of the final vowel, the preceding one was usually lengthened as in the following examples: Old Hungarian Uru became Úr; Sassu became Száz, and Bharata > Barát.

In Old Hungarian there was a marked preference for deeper vowels as opposed present usage. Instead of the present 'A', 'O' was used; and instead of '0', 'U'. So the present word for 'Dust', Por appears in older texts as Pur; the word for 'Fatherland, Country' Hon appears as Hun; 'Ram' which is today Kos, was then Kus (pron. Kush); and Magyar, the native name for Hungarian, formerly was Mogur; while the word for 'Beer' Sör, was Sura.

In the process of softening the system of consonants, the 'P', 'T' and 'K' sounds often changed into voiced sounds: 'B', 'D' and 'G' respectively. The phenomenon of mutation of sounds is known in linguistics as sound-shift. Under its impact, almost all Old Hungarian words beginning with a 'P' sound, changed to 'F'. Examples: Old Hungarian Pal meaning 'Wall' became Fal; Palu 'Village' became Falu; Patek > Fazék '(cooking) Pot'; Pekete > Fekete 'Dark'; Penu > Fenyő 'Pine'; and Pono > Fonó 'Spinner'. In spite of the quasi regularity of the frontal P > F change, certain ossified words continue to be used in their archaic forms, such as Pallér 'Contactor', a compound of Fal + Ur, lit. 'Wall Man'; and Puszta 'Steppe' (in Eastern Europe) which is the compound Füs + Ta, lit. 'Herbaceous land'.

The softening of the Hungarian sound-system had a second phase around Christ's birth, which enriched the language with seven new voiced sounds, written today with double-lettered signs. These are 1. CS, which sounds like ch in 'Cherry'; 2. GY as d in French 'Dieu'; 3. LY as I in 'Volume'; 4. NY as n in 'New'; 5. SZ as s in 'Science'; 6. TY as t in 'Tuesday'; and 7. ZS like s in 'Pleasure'. For all these new sounds (exactly as for B, D and G sounds) there never was any special graphic sign in the Old Hungarian writing, because its origin antedates the soundshift.

The above listed 40 words may appear in the following phonetical forms in old Hungarian written documents: 1. Kete; 2. Kar; 3. Seme, Zum; 4. (H)asa; 5. (H)on, (H)un; 6. Taner; 7. Patek; 8. Seke; 9. At; 10. Ege; 11. Pod, Pot; 12. Nabu; 13. Pis; 14. Utu; 15. Mese; 16. Kerta; 17. Pu; 18. Medu; 19. Ital; 20. Sura; 21. Khala; 22. Matar; 23. Egur; 24. Kush; 25. Surke; 26. Beka; 27. Kesh; 28. (H)aiu; 29. Sekeri; 30. Kerek; 31. Uru, Ar; 32. Isten; 33. Khepe; 34. Massa; 35. Pap; 36. Tutu, Dudu; 37. Khetta; 38. Ut; 39. Hetu, Heth; 40. Sassu.

Now, if we imagine the Hungarian language in its archaic from, i.e. without voiced consonants, without diacritical signs, and with deeper tonality, and a vowel at the end of nouns, we will be surprised to see how closely such a script resembles the alphabetic transcript of certain Near Eastern languages of the Illrd and Ilnd milleniums B.C. Actually, with the Old Hungarian phonetic key, it would be possible to understand certain hieroglyphic texts and inscriptions written with the Phoenician type of letters. The following specimen shows what Hungarian looked like around 1200 A.D., two hundred years after the conversion to Chzistianity and the adoption of the Latin alphabet. The following two sentences are taken from the Funeral Pryer, which starts thus: LATIATUC FELEIM ZUMTUCHEL MIC VOGMUC. YSA PUR ES CHOMUV VOGMUC. Using the present orthography, this text would be: Látjátok feleim szemetekkel mik vagyunk. Izzó por és hamu vagyunk. Translated into English in the original sequence of the words and suffixes, it would be: 'See-you/brethren-my/eyes-your-with/what/are-we/. Glowing/dust/and/ash/are-we/. In this short sample, all the essential elements of the language are already in their final places and even the suffixes are solidly "glued" to their respective root-words. It should also be mentioned that this old text is comprehensible to every Hungarian of today at first hearing, so little has the language changed in the lapse of eight hundred years, while the changes, witnessed by other European languages during the same period of time are, however, very considerable. So we have to keep in mind that the tempo of the Hungarian linguistic change is and has always been very slow.

We have a significant assessment of the general build-up and inner structure of Hungarian by an eminent English scholar, Sir John Browning (1792-1872) who had a good command of that language and had translated numerous poems. He expressed his admiration for its unity, originality and exceptionally strong cohesion. He likened it to an Egyptian stone monument hewn out from a single block of granite and upon which not the thinnest fissure is detectable. Its origin dates back to the times when none of the presently spoken languages of Europe were yet in existence. "This language is the oldest and most glorious monument of national sovereignty and mental independence."

4. Now, the important question is to know to which family of languages Hungarian belongs and what position it occupies within its group, according to the newest researches. If Hungarian cannot be classified as a Finno-Ugrian language, nor as a Turkish one, we have to examine the third alternative, its connections with the family of Indo-European languages, that is, we have to look whether Hungarian has connections with the

Greek, Latin, German, English and Slavonic languages in Europe (the "Kentum" group of the Indo-European) on the one hand, and with the Hindu, Sanscrit, Sumerian and ancient Egyptian in Asia and Africa (the "Satem" group of Indo-European) on the other.

Actually, Hungarian has been compared with all these languages. The most detailed comparison with Greek was carried out by József Aczél (1927). According to him, Greek and Hungarian have over two thousand words in common, in addition to the great number of Greek place-names, having a definite Hungarian meaning. A closer analysis has disclosed, however, that the common Hungarian-Greek words are to be found mostly in Old Greek, i.e. in the pre-Greek languages: Pelasgian, Cretan and Aegean. - The comparison with Latin disclosed that its grammatical structure is, in many respects, similar to that of Hungarian. Latin is also an agglutinative tongue, using a great number of affixes, both in declensions and conjugations. Moreover, its vocabulary has many words that are in common with Hungarian (11.5%), - according to Gy. Hary's word-statistics. The most extensive research in this regard has been done by Prof. László Szabédy (1974). The fact that several inscriptions, written in the pre-Latin Etruscan language, were read in Hungarian by this author, suggests that the Hungarian words in question must have found their way into Latin through the intermediary of Etruscan, an Oriental language from Asia Minor, and that these words are now embedded in the lowest and oldest stage of Latin, which is similar to the Hungarian words in old Greek.

The number of common Germano-Hungarian words accounts for 6.1% of the Hungarian vocabulary. We know little about the common English words, as no research has been made yet in this particular field. Their number might be, however, quite significant, proof of which are several hundred Old British place-names (cf. P 108) that, in essence, are Hungarian. The British scholar L. A. Waddell has found enough evidence (see P 132) to prove that the early Brit-Honi population originated from the Ancient Near-East, together with the very name of Brit, Prit which sounded originally like Barat, and had the meaning of 'Companion, Fellow-Traveller, Associate', exactly as in the Hungarian language of today. A particular British fellow-traveller ethnic group of the Bronze Age, was the Picti, whose name is unexplainable in English, but clear in Hungarian. Picti would be pronounced today, after the P > F change, as Fekete, meaning 'dark coloured'. We really know from authentic historical sources that the Picti were a dark skinned people. - The greatest number of French-Hungarian common words are to be found in Gallic place- and ethnic names, preserved in Caesar's famous report, De bello Gallico (P 030). But amongst the present French place-names there are also a great number of Hungarian words, proof of which is the Directory of the French communes (P 039 bis).

The Slavonic languages also have a considerable number of common words resembling Hungarian. Their proportion amounts to 13.5% of the Hungarian vocabulary, according to the above-mentioned word-statistics. It is important to mention that the great majority of these words occurs only in those Slavonic countries which border on Hungary, so that they do not seem to be of Slavic origin, but were most probably borrowed from the Hungarian. If the percentages of all common Hungaro-Indo-European words are added together, we get the impressive high figure of 31.1%. This fully justifies the conclusion that Hungarians must have had long-lasting contacts with the Indo-European-speaking population in the millenia before Christ. But vocabulary concordances alone, without stronger grammatical support, are not sufficiently strong to prove close genetic connections between them.

The relations of the Hungarian language are closer with the Satem-branch of the Indo-European and with Oriental languages in general. The internationally reputed specialist in Sanscrit, Alexander Csorna de Körös, summed up his findings on that score with the following sentence: "The Sanscrit language shows no stronger relationship to any other language than it does to Hungarian" (quoted in P 098 p. 217). And with regard to the highly developed Sumerian language of Mesopotamia, Prof. C.G. Gostony (Paris) discovered and mentioned in his book (P 056), that out of its 53 linguistic features, 51 can be found in present-day Hungarian. The same author lists over 2,000 Sumerian words which correspond to as many Hungarian ones. Finally, he mentions the well-known fact that the native term for the Sumerian language was E-Megir; the same as Magyar in the old phonetical form. All this is decisive data so that we must conclude that Sumerian (as we call it) was merely an early Hungarian language. - As for the ancient Egypto-Hungarian linguistic relations, they too are very strong, direct and genetic. Proof of this is the native name of this language: Makari, which is another old form of the word Magyari. Besides, Egypt's national name remained Misir to the present day, a derivation of the same root, like Masar, Magar, Makar. This author has also deciphered over a hundred short Egyptian texts in his three volumes: "Ancient History of Hungarian-speaking peoples" (P 007). Thus, ancient Egyptian must also be considered an old Hungarian language, in the light of the most recent findings.

From all the above-mentioned researches, which have been carried out with untiring patience and energy, it is clear that almost every language of Eurasia is related to the Hungarian with at least several hundred identical words, while the Sanscrit, Sumerian and ancient Egyptian languages were cognate with the Hungarian. The first explanation of this unexpected conclusion was given by the talented linguist István Horváth, who declared, already a hundred years ago, that Hungarian, in B. C. times, was a widely spread language in the Ancient Orient and also the most polished one, so that many younger languages could draw a great deal from its rich vocabulary. But no one has taken this bold statement seriously in Horvát's lifetime. However, it seems now that he has been vindicated. Today it is indeed clear that Hungarian is a very ancient language and it occupies the central place in an extensive network of old languages.(10)

5. The final important question to be discussed is this: what would be the most appropriate linguistic term for the collective appellation of all the languages having genetic connection with Hungarian? The most fitting would be, of course, the one which was historically used for such a purpose: the term Uri 'Aryan', meaning 'Illustrious, divine (language)', i.e. a civilized one. This term reappears almost regularly in the native names of every interrelated Hungarian, beginning with the "mother tongue" whose Sumerian name was E-Meg-Ir, the Egyptian one being Mak-Ari, and the Hungarian Mag-Ari.(11) The best known other Aryan languages were Uri, Sub-Ari, Na-Iri and Hurri in Northern Mesopotamia; Lig-Uri, Hetr-Uri in Europa; Mund-Ari, Kol-Ari and Ma-Uri in India; Ma-Ori in New Zealand, as well as many others.(12)

Our foregoing conclusions have been recently confirmed point by point by a team of Russian linguists, namely W. Illitch-Switytch, Prof. Dia-kanov, A.B. Dolgopolski and others. They were successful in proving that there was a "Primordial Tongue" (Ursprache) on the Eurasian continent, to which all the other languages were affiliated with c. 650 root-words at least. They also have determined the geographic area correctly, where the first original language was spoken, namely the tract of land from India to Anatolia and from the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf. Furthermore, the estimated age of the Primordial Language also corresponds to the Hungarian: it began at the end of the last glacial period, about 12,000 years ago. In addition, the Russian team had purposely included Hungarian in the group of descendants of the primeval language, because its antiquity has been "proven."(13) Thus, Hungarian and Russian linguists agree on this point with one another.

In our judgement, there is only one point the Russians have missed: they failed to discover the real identity of the primordial language. Instead of calling it by its own historical name "Aryan", they introduced the confusing "Nostratish" name first, then, discarding it, rebaptized the primeval language "Boreish". For us, the essential fact is, that Hungarian is recognized as a language in its own right, being, as the mother of many others, perhaps the oldest cultural language of all Eurasia. Consequently, when looking for the origin of the Hungarian people, we have to focus our attention first of all upon the Ancient Near-East.

3. Their two most frequently used ethnic names: Magyar and Hungarian

Hungarians are identified with two ethnic names: Magyar and Hungarian. The first one is used in the country's native language, the second in foreign languages. The different use of the names was already noticed by chronicler Anonymus, the unnamed notary of King Béla, at the end of the Xllth century. He said clearly that the Magyars per ydioma alienigenarum Hungarii, et in sua lingua propria Mogerii vocantur. Unfortunately, he did not disclose the reason for this twofold use; in his time, any difference between the two names no longer existed.

Scientists were always eager to find out the original meaning of the names in question. The Etymological Dictionary (P 084 bis) informs us that "Magyar' is "an obscure compound", with Magy + Ar, variously spelt Magar, Mogeri, Meger, Mogur and Miser and meaning, simply, 'Man'. Géza Nagy, a keen linguist, brings us nearer to the answer by teaching that Magari is a compound with two vocables: Mat 'Earth' and Ar 'Man, People' (P 117 p. 98). But he does not elaborate upon what the exact meaning of the resulting new word might be. Concerning the etymology of the second name, viz. Hungar, our linguists generally believe, that it is not a Hungarian, but an old Turkish word, the On-Ogur, meaning 'Ten Tribes', as the tribal federation was called, to which the Magari people belonged at one time in the first part of the Vth century A.D. Finally, with regard to the Ar element occurring in both names, our linguists are reluctant to be more definite. On this subject we read in a French publication that the term Aryan is not yet sufficiently clarified.(14) Thus, we come to the conclusion that we are not on firm soil when looking for the etymology of the Hungarians' ethnic names on the basis of the available literature.

In our judgement, both Magari and Hungari are truly compound words, as it was always supposed. Both of them consist of two vocables: Magy + Ar (<Mat-Ar), and Hung + Ar (<Hont-Ar) respectively, to which the adjectival suffix -i is appended. To our surprise, the lexical structure of Mag-Ar-i and Hung-Ar-i is identical with that of several ancient ethnic names, like Lig-Ur-i, Ill-Yr-i, Bav-Ar-i, Can-Ar-i in Europe; Col-Ar-i, Mund-Ar-i, Ma-Or-i in India and New Zealand; and Mak-Ar-i and Onk-Ar-i in ancient Egypt. Today Magari is no longer spelt with the -i suffix, but simply is Magyar, this new graphic form having come into practice towards the end of the XVIIIth century. The comparison of the lexical structure of Ma-gari/Hungari with that of the other old ethnic names suggests that their origin may reach far into remote historical times.

What is the meaning of the composing elements of the names in question? First, the suffix -i appearing at the end of both names, gives them the meaning of 'Coming from, Native of, Follower of and the like. The second common element Ar (< Ur) has manifold meanings, but it always implies an important personage, who has power of command, such as God, a king, a high official or any free man. And the first element in Mag-Ari: Mag (<Mat) means 'field, Land'. Thus the whole compound as a new word signifies 1. 'Subject of the Ruler of the Land', 2. 'Fellow citizen' or 3. simply 'peasant'. The first element of Hung-Ari: Hunt, is nothing else but the ancient phonetic form of the present Hon, Hont 'Country'. So the full compound name Hungari means 'Countryman, Native'. According to its etymology, it is a perfect Hungarian word, as is Magari itself, and seems to have nothing to do with the Old Turkish 'Ono-gur'. Finally, if we are looking for the difference which may have, in olden times, justified the separate use of the two ethnic names, we may suggest that Magari actually stood for peasant, tiller of the soil, whereas Hungari for keepers of animals. But whatever may have been the difference between the meaning of the two names in question at the beginning, it soon disappeared.

An allusion was already made to the antiquity of the Magyars' two ethnic names, which reach back into pre-historic times. Now, we can confirm it by recalling that the Mat vocable is in general use among Finno-Ugrian languages and always means the same thing, namely, 'Field, Land, Dwelling Place' (P 110 pp. 85, 88, 89). Considering further that Finns and Estonians have separated from the Hungarian speaking body at around 2000 B.C., the common Finn-Magyar word in question must have been in existence before the said d te, there having been no later contact between the two groups. Consequently, the Magari name may be as old as 4000 years. Let us add to the foregoing that Matu was also known in the Sumero-Babylonian language as a word for 'Country' (P 056 p. 64) and that "Mat Misir" was the current term for Egypt in the Old Persian, and "Mat Asyr" that for Assyria (P 041 pp. 129,146,148). The same can be said about the word Hon or Hont; it is also a basic word in the whole Finno-Ugrian language group, meaning in Finnish and Estonian Huona 'Dwelling place, House'. Furthermore, the same word is also included in the Sumerian vocabulary, in the form of (H)an, (H)anu, signifying 'Realm of God', as well as in Ancient Egyptian, where (H)an or (H)on was the name of the city where the Sungod lived, 'Sun-City', the Greek Heliopolis in the Delta. Finally, with regard to the second part of the word, Ar (< Ur): it is generally used both in Sumerian and Egyptian and several other ancient languages, meaning 'God, King, Ruler or Man', so that it does not require a detailed explanation. Thus, our inquiry has shown that the Magyar and Hungar names, together with their compound elements, can be historically traced back almost five thousand years. There is hardly another nation in Europe, or perhaps in the whole world, whose name could be tracked down for such a long time.

It is also interesting to have a look at the various phonetical forms the the Magari and Hungari compounds have taken during their existence as such. The names were first affected by the general softening tendency of the language. It brought about a soundshift after which the T sound, both in Mat and Hont, successively changed into D, G and H sounds, with the resulting phonetical forms of MaDar, MaGar or MagOr, as well as MaHar. Now, these phonetical forms happened to sound similar to the words for 'Bird' (Madár), 'Grain God' (Mag-ur), 'Big Nose' (Mag-orr) and 'Bee-king' (Méh-ar, Méh-ur), although the original name had absolutely nothing to do with them. Still, this evolution is of the greatest interest to us, because the homopbony between the national name Magyar and the quoted objects gave birth to the idea that shaping or drawing a bird, a bee, a face with a big nose, or grains (beads) arranged in a circle (necklace) showed so many appropriate ways to "write" Magyar, i.e. to display one's ethnic identity.

Archaeological discoveries, representing a human figure with a big nose, occur frequently, especially in ancient Mesopotamia and on the Aegean islands. In Egypt the picture of a bee constituted a regular part of the royal titulary, identifying the king as Mehar or Magyar. The figure of a bird, applied on a brooch, or a bird statuette in clay, or even real birds kept in the house, were, as many, identification badges of the owners.(15) There is no mistake in linking these graphic or artistic figures with the presence of a Hungarian-speaking population, because the homophony between the ethnic name and the mentioned objects exists only in that language, as far as we know. Besides, all this symbolism would have been senseless without the ethno-linguistic implications. Of course, it is not easy to discover such similarities without having a good command of Hungarian and a profound knowledge of its past and present phonetical system. At any rate, we can say that our ancestors had found a method to establish their first written documents about themselves, right at the beginning of the literate period of history. It was certainly a primitive way of writing, but an ingenious one, the so-called pictorial method, the first form of writing. Should we then conclude that the early Hungarians also were, perhaps, amongst the active forerunners in the invention of writing?

In summing up the results of our inquiry regarding the two most frequently used Hungarian ethnic names, we may safely say that both of them were products of the Hungarian language; that they originated in the earliest historical times, probably in the Ancient Near-East, and that they identify the Magyars in their religious and politico-social context.

4. The whereabouts of the Old Fatherland

The previous three chapters have already produced enough indication that the Old Magyar Fatherland was probably situated in the ancient Orient, dominated by three mighty rivers - Nile, Euphrates and Indus - and which we call Near-East. It appeared, indeed, that this particular area was the one where the representative of the two races, out of whose fusion the Hungarian nation has come into being, were simultaneously present; where easily workable soil was available for farming, as well as large grazing grounds for stock-breeding; and where the agriculturist Magyars and stock-breeding Kush population intermingled (Fig. 3). The following pages should prove that the Ancient Near-East was actually the Old Magyar Fatherland, the land where the Hungarian type of nations have come into being.

1. The presence of an agriculturist Magyar speaking population in the Ancient Near-East can be traced back in all the three river basins by the place-, ethnic and personal names, the former inhabitants of the area had used, and which include basic Magyar words, like Ur and Magyar.(16)

In the Euphrates valley, to begin with it, the most typical such place-name was that of the City of Ur, whose ruins are called even today Mugheir (= Magyar), and which had a Maguerre ( = Magyar) ruler. Not far from that city was located Eridu, the oldest settlement of the whole Land. Its Hungarian etymology (<H.: Ur-i To) discloses, that it was built on the shore of a lake, the Present Persian Gulf. Today, the city is far from the Gulf, but in the IIIrd millenium B.C. it still stood on the shore, the filling-up of the Euphrates delta with alluvial deposits having not yet been in an advanced stage. A third important Mesopotamian city with clear Hungarian name was Nippur (= H.: Nap-Ur), the 'City of the Sungod'. We know from other sources, that Nippur was the most important religious centre for the Sun-cult in Mesopotamia for over a thousand years; a fact which warrants the accuracy of our etymology. Other Mesopotamian place-names, with a striking Hungarian meaning were Sam-Ar-Ra (< H.: Szem-Ur) 'Residence of the Eye-God', a variant of Sungod; Mat-Ar-Ra 'The City placed under the protection of the Farmers' God', and Assour (<H.: A Só Ura) 'City of the Ruler of the Sand'. Apart of the above place-names, the geographic term Burattu deserves special mention. Its rootword is Bor, which is ancient Hungarian for 'Water, River', by which the Euphrates was meant. And the form Burattu is the rootword Bor enlarged with two suffixes, thus: Bor-át-i, to mean 'Land (or People) Beyond the River'. This name has taken up manifold phonetical forms later on, like Berut, Beyrout, Barat, Brit, etc., and it surfaced at numerous places which the Mesopotamians colonized in subsequent times (see map showing the diffusion of the Burattu-name in P 132 after p. 420). In Syria, Canaan and Anatolia, which were under Mesopotamian cultural and political influence for a long time, the most important Magyar city-names were: Árpád, on the great bend of the River, about which more will be said later, and Karkemish and Damask. The correct transliteration of the Egyptian hieroglyphs giving the names of Karkemish and Damask is : Karika-Masa and Dama-Szeke, meaning -according to the Hungarian key- 'Deputy of the Circular Divinity' (Sungod), and 'Residence of the Divine Lady' respectively.

Fig. 3. The great river-valleys of the Ancient Near East

In the second great Oriental river valley, that of the Nile, the two Magyar testwords Ur and Magyar again occur frequently. Ur is included in the name of about a hundred divinities, as anybody may notice it when opening the book of Wallice Budge, The gods of the Egyptians (P 026II Index). The same word reappears in other combinations as well, like in Horus (<H.: Ur-Os) 'Divine Ancestor', which was the regular title of the reigning Egyptian king. Another of his titles was Makar, the Egyptian form of Magyar. Contemporary records speak of a Makari Queen, of the XXth Dynasty (c. 1080-940 B. C.), who tragically died in childbirth at an early age. It is also recorded that during the reign of King Zoser (<H.: As Os Ur) 'The Divine Ancestor', a certain Madir ( = Magyar) was the governor of the Elephant City. The very name of Egypt was at that time, as it continues to be even today, 'The Land of Misir' ( = Magyar). Finally, near the Red Sea, in Eritrea, at the site called Matara, a Magyar language inscription has been found, and deciphered by the author.

In the third great Oriental river valley, that of the Indus, the two Magyar testwords come up also frequently. The whole tract of land from the Caspian Sea to the River Indus, for example, was called Aria 'The Land of the Aryans', as indicated in the Dictionary of Mechitar. In that same zone lies Iran, whose etymological meaning is not Persian, but Hungarian: Ur-Hon 'Abode of the Aryans'. Plinius, writing in the first century A.D., when listing the various peoples of India says this: Indum accolunt Megari... Uri and other peoples (P 092 p. 98). Toppeltinus writes in the same sense, stating that the inhabitants of India are called Magori even in his time, and that they are a powerful people, possessing a famous land, thanks to their victorius army.(17) The seven great ancestors of the Hindus were the Mahar-Ishi (<H.: Magyar Ös) 'Magyar Ancestors', and the most celebrated Hindu dynasty was also called 'Magyar': Maury. It was founded around 315 B.C., and at its hight, ruled over an immense kingdom, extending from Afghanistan to Ceylon. Finally, the first comprehensive name for India was Barat Varsha (<H.: Barát Városa) 'Land of the Barats'.(18)

Apart from the numerous place- and and ethnic names built with the word Ur and Magyar, the presence of the Magyar population in all three focal points of the Ancient Near-East can be evidenced by pictorially written documents as well. This writing, as already explained, communicates abstract ideas with the pictures of concrete objects, whose names sound identically. In this way, the Magyars of a given place, could be identified with the picture of a bird, for which the Hungarian word is Madar, sounding like Magyar. A second animal, which was used to identify a Magyar ruler, was the lion Oroszlan (<H.: Ur-Os-Leny) 'Primeval Divine Ancestor'. We have two good examples to illustrate the above. First, a lion-headed bird, Madar, found in the ruins of the City of Ur. It is represented with outstretched wings, hovering over two deer, Szarvas (<H.: Az Ur-Os) 'The Divine Ancestor (Fig. 4). The meaning of this combined symbol (bird and two deer) is Magyar Ur-Osdk 'Hungarian Divine Ancestors'. On the other hand, an early example of the use of the lion-symbol for identification purposes is the well-known image of Gilgamesh, the legendary ruler of the city of Uruk, who is depicted as holding a lion cub in his arm. The meaning is 'Primeval Divine Ancestor', a title similar to the pompous "king-of-kings". In Egypt, we have found the Magyar name spelt with hieroglyphs very clearly as M-A-Kh-aR (land) (Fig. 7) and in another instance as A Ma-Ti-aR-Ku-Ra 'The Ruler of the Magyars' (Fig. 8). Thus, it seems clear that the Uri ( =Ari) Magyar ethnic element was strikingly present in the whole Ancient Orient, in the B.C. times. This is a major historical discovery whose far-reaching significance hardly escapes the attention of the reader.

Fig. 4. Turullu, the lion-headed Sumerian bird symbolized the divine ancestors of Hungarians. Uruk, Mesopotamia, c. 3200 B.C.

Fig. 5. Pictorial representation of the two Hungarian ancestors, carved by a shepherd in Somogy county. XlXth century.

Fig. 6. Some of the most frequently used Egyptian hieroglyphs (above).
Fig. 7. "Magyar Country" written in Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Fig. 8. "Ruler of the Magyars" written in hieroglyphs.

2. The next question is whether the same can be said about the darkish complexioned ethnic element, which made up 15-20% of the Hungarian ethnic body. The comprehensive name of this people was Kush, and in the jargon of the anthropologists: Mediterraneans or Touranians. It appears in various graphic forms, such as Kush, Cush, Kushan, Cassi, whereas its Hungarian form is Kus (pron. Kush), and meaning 'Ram (people)'. Their Ram-name indicates, that they were, first of all, a stock-breeding population, keepers of sheep and swine. In the Nile valley, i.e. in Egypt, they were pictorially identified with a flat horned ram, whose most elaborate exemplar was found in the Nubian colony of Sulb (Fig. 9). At one time, a row of ram-statues flanked the far side of the road leading to the temple of God Amen, while the near side of the road was lined with lion-statues, the symbol of Magyars. They were also raising pigs, so their country was called Sertés-Hon 'The Pig Country', and its ruler was the 'Ruler of the Pig Country' (See in P 007 II ill. 20), also in plain Hungarian. In addition to the ram and pig, the Egyptian Kush were ethnically identified with the picture of their erect-eared, gracile hunting dog of a dark colour. This animal played the same role for the Kush as the lion did for the Magyars. It was considered as the ancestor of the dark people, and its name has been transliterated as Anubis, with an unknown meaning. If we consider, however, the hieroglyphs of the name (Fig. 12), it discloses that the right transliterataion is A nép őse (A Né-P U-Se), which is again in Hungarian and means 'The Ancestor of the Folk'. In later times, the spotted leopard and the wolf were also in certain places, substitutes for "Anubis".

The Egyptian Kush of the First Cataract had held a dark skinned lady in great esteem whom they considered their local forebear. Her name was written with four signs: with an arrow carrying the sound-group SAT or SET, then with two half-loaf shaped T and with a sitting woman figure NU. We also notice that the arrow transfixes an animal skin PAR (= H.: Bör). Thus this written source identifies the lady in question in full Hungarian as SAT-T-eT bőrű NU Setét bőrű nő, literally 'Dark skinned Woman', exactly as tradition had preserved her memory. From this example we altogether learn that the Kush were also called by the name of'Dark' Setét. King Ramses I (more accurately: Ra-Mása, 'Deputy Sungod') had been governor of the Nubian colony prior to his ascension to the throne of Egypt, and continued to keep his earlier title when king. That is what his double cartouche (Fig. 13) discloses, when read with the Hungarian key: Ra mása, Szudán ura; Ra méne, Feketék ura 'Deputy Sungod, Ruler of Sudan; Stallion of the Sungod, Ruler of the Blacks'. So, incidentally we also learn that the Kush were even called simply Blacks, Feketék.

In the Euphrates valley, i.e. in Mesopotamia, the regular Kush identifying symbol was also a ram, but one of local species with horns twisted in the form of a V. Its most beautiful exemplar has been found in the City of Ur, and dated from the Illrd millenium B.C. The animal is represented peering from the branches of a Tree of Life, indicating that it is the ancestor. In Mesopotamian cuneiform writing, the Kush are referred to as "The dark headed ones" and as NAM LULU. Considering that the sounds L and R have the same writing sign, and that duplication of a sign means plural case, the correct transliteration of the quoted expression should be Nem ur.ak, 'Non Aryans', which is what the Kush really were. - In the third great river valley of the Orient, the Indus valley, the number of Kush was exceedingly high, and the so-called "Indus valley seals" offer abundant information about them. Nevertheless, they have less significance in Hungarian ancient history, because the Danubian Hungarian ethnic body derived very little from them. Therefore, we are restricted to only one Hungarian written message they had left to us. It expresses, so to speak, the philosophy of every Kush ruler worth of this name. The seven worded sentence in question runs thus: Uralkodo kedves, ha ftivesiti a ronakat orszagaban 'A ruler is liked if he does grow grass on the open lands of his realm' (see details in P 007 II ill. 36). - As the reader may judge for himself, there is plenty of evidence to show that the darkish coloured Kush population had actually occupied large areas in and around the agriculturist Magyar domains in the entire Ancient Near-East, during pre-Christian times.

3. Mention must yet be made as to how the relations between Magyars and Kush developed, and how they finally led to the formation of "Hungarian nations" in the Old Fatherland. The connections between the two races in the Near-East lasted for over two thousand years. At the beginning of this long period, their contacts were characterized rather by mutual distrust and open hostilities. As a result, the Kush were defeated almost everywhere and subjected to political and culturel assimilation. They lost a great deal of their people but, in exchange, received the badly needed higher education, which contributed to their later development. The second phase of their contacts was characterized by large scale intermarriages and the coming into existence of combined 'Ario-Kush' or 'Cush-Ari' nations, as this process is well known in Mesopotamia, India, Egypt and Touran alike.

In the second millenium B.C., the Kush in Mesopotamia were already so strongly civilized that they were capable of taking over the government of the land for a while, and freely intermingled with the Aryans. In India the situation was similar, the Kush were on equal footing with the Magyars there, and the Indus-valley civilization, around 2500 B.C., was their common creation. In c. 1650/1500 B.C., however, a great catastrophe had befallen India when newly formed Aryan societies (Aryans II) violently penetrated into the Land, coming from the West, and while they were busy occupying the Ganges valley, they disrupted the previous population and split it into several blocks in bloody battles, which are echoed in the famous poem of Maha Bharata or 'The Great Barat'. During that general upheaval, the commixing of the two races advanced farther. Those groups which left India and went westwards peopled Makran, Iran, Afghanistan and Touran. Others fled through the passes and gorges of the Hindu-Kush and descended into the Oxus valley. Following these large ethnic displacements, several places were given a second name, or changed the existing one to reflect the new realities. The former Hyrcanian ( = Aryan) Sea, for example, was being called Caspian Sea, i.e. Kush Water, and the former Northern Sea changed into Sea of the Blacks or Black Sea. Double-named rivers and nations were born, like Araxes (Ario-Kush) river, and Casari (Kush-Arian) nation. Amongst the latter, people were found with so dark a complexion that "one would readily believe that they were descendants of the Hindus", - as observed by Ibn Haukal (P 092 p. 57). With the passing of time, the fusion of the two races advanced so far that almost everyone had both Aryan and Kush blood in his veins, and everyone considered himself, with full right, of Kushitic and Aryan descent at the same time. In other words, the terms Kush and Aryan became interchangeable. At that stage, Mechitar was right in saying in his Dictionary, that Aria is also called the 'Land of the Kush'.

In the Nile valley, the Kush first appeared in the region of Khartum around 6000 B.C. In the subsequent millenia, they inundated the whole length of the valley so that when the Magyars arrived under their leader Menes, in c. 3200 B.C., they had to fight against dark men to secure a homeland for themselves there. At the end of the first round of struggling, it seemed that a kind of political condominium would be established between the two peoples, as the simultaneous appearance of the Aryan bird-symbol and the Kush dog-symbol on the national armories of Egypt suggests. But shortly thereafter, a formal sharing of the Nile valley took place whereby the dark men agreed to evacuate that section of the river valley which lies above the First Cataract. This division had, however, not calmed the aggressiveness of the Blacks, who launched frequent incursions into the domain of the Magyars. As a result, their country was gradually conquered and transformed into a colony around 1500 B.C. The Kush were then pacified for a long period and did not regain their independence until 945 B.C. But, by that time, they were already a completely civilized, modern nation.

While these events unfolded south of Egypt, the Delta itself had been under Kush rule for about two hundred years, the so-called "period of Hyksos rule". The Hyksos were, however, driven out from Egypt in 1576 B.C. together with their native Egyptian helpers. The bulk of the exiles settled in Syria and Canaan, mostly in the city-states of Carchemish, Arpad and Damask. The Egyptian kings of the XlXth Dynasty relentlessly kept on pursuing them, always pushing them farther and farther, until they left Africa for good and settled in Europe, including Hungary. The fusion in Egypt of the remaining dark elements with the white ones was as thourough as it was in Mesopotamia and in Touran, and the Egyptians themselves finally believed that they too originated from two ancestors, Magyar and Kush.(19)

To sum up, our inquiry has shown that 1. the birth of the Magyar speaking 'Hungarian type' of nations has taken place in the Ancient Near-East through the fusion of two rival races: the Aryan with the Kush; therefore that area must be considered as the original Magyar Fatherland. It is also clear that 2. the population of Danubian Hungary originated from the Old Fatherland: in the first round directly from Mesopotamia and Egypt, and in the second from the Caspi-Oxus-Aral area (Touran); in wave after wave arriving according to the pulse of historical events (the Semitic and Turkish expansions in the same region) which forced them to leave their native lands.