Analogous terms are found alike in the languages of civilised and barbarous races, expressing the same inferiority of one hand in relation to the other which is indicated in the classical _sinistra_ as the subordinate of the _dextra manus_. The honourable significance of the right hand receives special prominence in the most sacred allusions of the Hebrew scriptures; and in mediæval art the right hand in benediction is a frequent symbol of the First Person of the Trinity. In the Anglo-Saxon version of the New Testament the equivalent terms appear as _swythre_ and _wynstre_, as in Matthew vi. 3: “Sothlice thonne thu thinne aelmessan do, nyte thin wynstre hwaet do thin swythre;” “When thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.” Again the distinction appears in a subsequent passage thus: “And he geset tha scep on hys swithran healfe, and tha tyccenu on hys wynstran healfe” (Matthew xxv. 34). Here the derivation of _swythre_ from _swyth_, strong, powerful, _swythra_, a strong one, a dexterous man, _swythre_, the stronger, the right hand, is obvious enough. It is also used as an adjective, as in Matthew v. 30: “And gif thin _swythre hand_ the aswice, aceorf hig of;” “And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off.” The derivation of _wynstre_ is less apparent, and can only be referred to its direct significance, _se wynstra_, the left. In the Greek we find the isolated ἀριστερός, ἀριστερά, left, ἡ ἀριστερά, the left hand. Whatever etymology we adopt for this word, the depreciatory comparison between the left and the more favoured δεξιά, or right hand, is obvious enough in the σκαιός, the left, the ill-omened, the unlucky; σκαιότης, left-handedness, awkwardness; like the French _gauche_, awkward, clumsy, uncouth. The Greek had also the term derived from the left arm as the shield-bearer; hence ἐπ’ ἀσπίδα, on the left or shield side.