The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1983 (10. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1983-09-01 / 9. szám
September, 1983 THE EIGHTH HUNGARIAN TRIBE Page 9 (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 homophony 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, w'e 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. 15. Bird-headed statuettes have been found in ancient Mesopotamia already from the time of the Flood (P 006 I p. 56). In Hungary too, bird-headed bone-sticks have been found on several sites (P 050 p. 258). 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 sumultaneously present; where easily workable soil was available for farming, as well as large grazing grounds for stockbreeding; 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
