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Bloomfield, Maurice, 1855-1928

"Cerberus, The Dog of Hades The History of an Idea"

"[17] Certainly the god Agni, "Fire," is once in the
_Rig-Veda_ (i. 31. 13) called "four-eyed," which can only mean
"sharp-sighted."

THE DUAL CABAL[=A]U.
The two dogs of Yama derive their proper names from their color
epithets. The passages above make it clear that Cy[=a]ma (rarely
Cy[=a]va), "the black," is the moon dog, and that Cabala, "the spotted,
or brindled," is the sun dog. In one early passage (_Rig-Veda_, x. 14.
10) both dogs are named in the dual as Cabal[=a]u. But for a certain
Vedic usage one might think that "the two spotted ones" was their
earliest designation. The usage referred to is the eliptic dual: a close
or natural pair, each member of which suggests the other, may be
expressed through the dual of one of them, as when either
_m[=a]tar[=a]u_ or _pitar[=a]u_, literally, "the two mothers," and "the
two fathers," each mean "the two parents."[18] From this we may conclude
that Cabal[=a]u means really Cabala and Cy[=a]ma, and not the two
Cabalas, that is, "the two spotted ones."

IS CABALAS = [Greek: Kerberos]?
More than a hundred years ago the Anglo-Indian Wilford, in the _Asiatick
Researches_, iii.


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