Note 25 — PART I.

M. Eugène Burnouf, to whose most valuable judgment I had the pleasure to submit the question, prefers the derivation from bhásh, because this word in Zend would be wâsh, as the Zend w represents exactly the Sanscrit bh, which aspiration did not exist in the ancient idiom of Bactrian Asia. This sagacious philologer hinted at a comparison with the Persian usta, or awesta, upon which in a subsequent note.