Note 422 — Chapter V · THE MOST PROMINENT FIGURES IN HEBREW MYTHOLOGY. (continued 2)

Varro treats it as self-evident that ‘black’ is the most suitable epithet for Night, and is thereby tempted to a very curious etymology in his work De ratione vocabulorum. He explains the word fur ‘thief’ by saying that in the old Latin fur-vum was equivalent to ‘black,’ and thieves practise their dark deeds at night. ‘Sed in posteriore ejusdem libri parte docuit (scil. Varro) furem ex eo dictum quod veteres Romani furvum atrum appellaverint: at fures per noctem quae atra sit facilius furentur’ (Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, I. 18. 3–6).