burn a paper, over which you have fallen asleep, it does not lose SURNAMES. ways, and was never certain which was the right one. We believe that the late Miss you. Even in its ashes lives its wonted Of Certain English Surnames and their Occa O'Neill was equally uncertain, and spelt her dullness. On the subject of magnetizing water, Madame la Comtesse remarks : sional Odd Phases when seen in Groups. By C. L. Lordan. (Romsey, Lordan; London, Houlston.) "Water is magnetized by directing the tips of MR. LORDAN is known for his at once excepthe fingers towards the surface of the liquid, by tional and honourable place in literature. holding in the hand the vessel containing it, by Some years ago he appeared as the author, warm insufflation over it, and lastly by discharges of fluid from the hand. This water acts somni- printer, and publisher of a very clever book, ferously on those who drink it, only on condition not a word of which was ever written. His that they be under the influence of magnetism.Colloquies on Poetry and Poets' was really Its action is very beneficial in the treatment of first composed in the types which he set up, diseases, as will be seen in another chapter. Pre- to give expression to his thoughts. We are ference should be given to water that has previously glad to find that the "Colloquies" is in its been boiled." It must be a comfort to know that if you drink the whole of the water without your becoming somniferous, there is something wrong in the experimenter; he has not been sufficiently magnetized. Well, he thereby avoids a peril. Paralysis resulting from magnetization takes place subsequently to the operation, but it can be cured. Cataleptic people may also find a remedy under the magnet; and, "for several hours after they have been disengaged, you will find them in a fit condition to undergo the effects of fascination." Fascination! We have all undergone it in our time at the will of all-powerful Beauty. But if you would behold how Beauty herself is subjected to it, why, as the Palais Royal showman used to cry, "Montez, voir l'Exposition du Cosmorama!". "It results from the fact of fascination completely depriving the subject of his free will, of his autonomy, that the latter is solely at the mercy of the operator; and this applies likewise to the condition brought about by syncope and anesthesia through the use of chloroform. That resulting from hysteria is, if possible, of a more serious nature still. The precautions prescribed by morality are similar in every case; and it is evident that a female deprived of her autonomy should not be left at the discretion of a man who cannot be relied on." The Countess "believes," she is not quite sure, that fascination is powerless "in originating affectionate feelings capable of outliving the duration of the trance." Even so, this divine perfection of a woman exclaims, "But, once more, these are games that must not be indulged in." There is more as to this part of the subject, under the head of 'Dangers of Somnambulism,' but it may be left to those who have curiosity in the matter. In reference to the "imposition of hands," the Countess thinks the patriarchs may have imparted magnetic felicity with it. It occurs to us that Pope Stephen the Sixth, when he dragged the body of Pope Formosus from the grave, ordered, among other savage indignities, that the fingers used in benediction should be cut off, and that he did so that he might unmagnetize the blessings those fingers had imposed. This matter, however, we leave to the Countess C*** de St. Dominique, with or without her autonomy. After putting ourselves into as perfect a state of magnetization as we are likely to attain to, we have succeeded in mastering the meaning of the triple It is two to one that the whole book stars. will not make a convert. third edition. In the present work on English Surnames Mr. Lordan, after a pleasant Introduction showing that surnames are taken from every place, quality, circumstance, with a long et cætera of life, the earth, the heavens above and the waters under the earth, proceeds to arrange the surnames in groups. These commence with the compounds of "man," and end with a group of names from Interrogations and Ejaculations, the last of which is the appropriate name, "Farewell." This method, in a less laborious way, used to be adopted by minor rhymers on the opening of every new parliament, to exhibit the strange names of members that could be gathered together in groups. Here is a sample from some verses on the House of Commons in 1837, which "went the round of the papers" at that time :There's a Walker, a Pryme one, whom no one need scoff; There's a Smith, Miller, Cooper, and Baker; There's a Muskett, a French one, that will not go off, minor versifiers played at grouping names,In another way, one of the chief of the Horace Smith, whose assumed object was to prove that Surnames Always go by the rule of contraries,and one verse will show how the author proved it :— Mr. Barker's as mute as a fish in the sea, Mr. Makepiece was bred an attorney, Mr. Foote all his journeys on horseback. Mr. Lordan's book will prove as useful to small poets wishing to ring the changes on names as a dictionary of rhymes to half-deaf would-be Apollos. Of the classification of names into groups of colours, callings, &c., there is nothing more to be said than that this book is chiefly made up of such classification. In the notes dropped as the names are gathered there is something to glean. We find that a name so painful as Gumboil is a corruption of the fine-sounding Danish name, Gundbald; Alfhard. Worthy of note is it that the last as Inchboard is of Ingobert, and Halfyard of Abbess of Romsey Nunnery was Elizabeth Ryperose, a name for sonneteers to go mad upon in framing amorous conceits. Mr. Lordan thinks that the surnames Summer and Winter come from Summoner and Vintner, in which we hold him to be wrong. Dr. Crowne spelt his own name six different name in as many ways as Dr. Crowne spelt his. Mr. Lordan quotes Mr. Ferguson with regard to the names, Betty, Moll, Pegg, Sall, and sundry other names in common parlance applied to the softer sex,-"I suppose them not to be women's names at all, but ancient men's names." Mr. Ferguson is also the authority for saying that Paramour, Harlot, Hussey, Bravo, Scamp, and some others, were originally "names of great respectability." Then, why were they originally given or taken? Some of them are still borne by very respectable persons, and Paramour is a common name in Kent. Mr. Lordan states that "lately in Hampshire persons of the name of Gallows, Hemp, and Stretch were members of one small household." This reminds us of a surname, Hackblock, a name borne by undoubtedly "respectable persons." We conclude with reminding Mr. Lordan that he has overlooked in his group of names from times and seasons the surname of Pentecost, which, according to Notes and Queries, is not an uncommon surname at the present day. Not a few quaint names may be collected from the daily papers. It is not long since Easterly Rains was in trouble, and Grand Riches, in the person of a coachman, appeared as a witness in a case of assault ! NOVELS OF THE WEEK. Charlie Lufton. By G. Cameron. (Printed for the Author.) Lord of Himself. By F. H. Underwood. (Boston, U.S., Lee & Shepard; London, Trübner & Co.) MR. CAMERON met with two London publishers who spoke well of his book, but would not publish it. Accordingly, he was obliged (being a watchmaker in a country town) to bring it out by subscription, and its twelve sixNo doubt the penny parts are now before us. London publishers knew their business, and the author is probably wrong in using hard words of publishers in general: it is no business of theirs to play the part of Mæcenas, nor to buy goods that they cannot sell, merely because they happen to be better made than goods which they can sell; but we are sorry for the taste which it shows on the part of the publishers' customers. If Capt. Marryat, let us say, were still alive, and were to write a second Midshipman Easy,' we wonder whether he could get it published without his name on the cover. It seems as if the psychological analysis school and the mysterious criminal school were soon going to have it all their own way. The domestic descriptive is fast dropping into fatuity, and the good old story, with no analysis of motives, no subtle diagnosis of moral disease, no elaborate and carefully evolved plot, is gone, we fear, almost irretrievably at least, so we should infer from Charlie Lufton' belongs distinctly to the Mr. Cameron's failure with the publishers. last class. Of course it is far behind Marryat, but it is of the same school as such books as Jacob Faithful,' and many others which people who read novels twenty years ago remember-a mere chronicle of events and adventures in the life of the hero, beginning from his earliest boyhood, and leaving him, at will the end of the story, married to the girl of his heart, and dignified with the title of Sir Charles. To the last, indeed, we think he had no right, for it is not usual for a nephew to succeed his uncle as second baronet; but we will not object to this, any more than to one or two little errors which Mr. Cameron has made in the use of foreign and ancient languages, for they do not touch its particular merits. On the whole, however, his book is excellent from the material point of view of grammar and language, and shows a remarkable power of self-cultivation in the author. Certain episodes-such, namely, as the hero's runaway voyage to London, in the coasting collier-are well told, and the picture of the society of the tradesman class is certainly good and true. It would astonish some people to find how little, both in language, manners, and subjects of thought, the "lower middle" class of such a town as the Thorclyffe of the story differ from their social superiors. Another point of resemAnother point of resemblance to the older form of novel-some speculators might say, proving its descent from the Scandinavian saga-is the heartless way in which personages are let to drop "out of the story," in some of whom, the hero's cousins, for instance, we have come to take an interest. We hope Sir Charles Lufton was not too great a man to care to keep up his acquaintance with the family of a tailor, especially after his professions of Chartist and Socialist principles during one part of his life. One or two errors of taste we may notice, such as the invention of "canting" surnames, as heralds might say-Mr. Zionall, the Methodist, Mr. Dipem, the Baptist, and so on; and in his Prospectus, Mr. Cameron misquotes Shakspeare; but, as a whole, we can give the book a cordial recommendation to those who do not fear to be old fashioned. Mr. Underwood's story of life in Kentucky thirty years ago will be found interesting by most English readers. Of course, no description of southern life can be complete without including, in painful prominence, the subject of slavery. Yet the author has contrived, although not in the least degree condoning the horrors, which, as he shows, were the most regular and legitimate result, in certain cases, of the system, to avoid anything like sensational or exaggerated statement, or any attempt at libelling a class which possessed high qualities, through a feeling of indignation at the false position in which they had involved themselves in regard to the negro. Indeed, the studied moderation and liberality of the book bring its lesson home the more effectually; when we see that Legrees and other ogres were by no means necessary or common instruments for the oppression of the slave; but that the normal action of the law in soidisant respectable hands, the embarrassments of a family, the sharp practice of an attorney, often worked all the misery which hearts of common feeling could endure, that the corruption engendered by the possession of despotic privilege as often ruined the finer as developed the more brutal natures amongst the masters; finally, when we see how stout a race of our kinsfolk was thus deteriorated, we rise with a stronger assurance of thankfulness for a wrong against humanity redressed than that with which volumes of sensational writing could have inspired us. As for the story, it is a homely tale of love in rather primitive regions, THE PALATINATE OF DURHAM. and of the merging of all secular privileges into the crown after an enjoyment of them by the occupants of the see for more than a thousand years, are the principal points put forward by the learned editor with so graphic a pen and in language so terse, that one would almost fancy that Sir Thomas Hardy has caught, from long acquaintance with the monastic historians, some of their own peculiarities of diction, some of their fire and simplicity of style combined with an ease and fluency of words, which charm the reader no less than they do honour to the writer. Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense: the Regis- But Dîs aliter visum, and the best has been done under the circumstances. The Preface to the first volume is a valuable piece of historical writing, fully up to the usual standard of Sir Thomas Hardy's work; and we may perhaps be the more inclined to linger over it, as it is by far the most interesting part of the contents of the two volumes. The chronological account of the erection of the see of Durham, of the gradual acquisition of palatine jurisdiction by the bishops, their lengthy tenure of the extra-episcopal functions, Paulinus, consecrated Archbishop of York, a.d. 625. Aidan, (Arch-) Bishop of (York and Bishop at) Ceaddi, Archbishop of York, A.D. 664. way. On the death of Eata the two sees are carried on by a separate and independent series of prelates. An exception is indeed caused by Wilfrid's movements which create some confusion, but the Fasti of that pontiff are rightly indicated by Mr. Stubbs thus:-Archbishop of York, A.D. 669-678; restored, 686-692; Bishop of Leicester, 692-705; Bishop of Hexham, 705-709 (date of his death). From the very first, it would appear that the see of Durham was fortunate in obtaining the favour of kings. The extensive grants of land which were lavishly heaped upon the bishops by those who perhaps had little else to give, although much of it may be of trifling comparative value at the time of the gift, gradually and steadily increased in value until the revenues of the archbishopric assumed vast and almost regal proportions. King Oswald's munificent endowment excited the emulation of succeeding kings; and the sanctity of Bishop Cuthbert, which was miraculously indicated, both during his life and after his death, undoubtedly, in a large proportion of instances, was the direct cause of the conversion of the people, which fully repaid the secular government, by the ameliorated manners and softened characters of the inhabitants of that wild and fierce country. At page xx, the editor cites a charter which is certainly a medieval forgery, and indeed is acknowledged by him to be so, although, as he says, there can be no doubt that the donation mentioned in the charter was duly made. The document in all probability owes its origin to Bishop Anthony Bek's desire to carry back the Palatinate to the earliest times when he was producing his evidence relating to Palatinate rights before the Parliament in the time of Edward the First. But Sir Thomas Hardy has apparently failed to perceive that another charter, which he gives at page xxxiii, owes its origin to some equally suspicious cause. It is to be regretted that he does not give the reference to the original source whence the charter, alleged to be the grant of King Henry the First to Bishop Rannulf, is derived; and the numerous errors in its text must be attributed to the want of careful revision of the press. We notice qua for quas, sua for suam, per cursum for percursum, 'suetudines for consuetudines, mea' for mea, Lundon, Ag'la for Aquila, Lincoln for Lincolia. The original charter is preserved among the muniments of the Cathedral, and we wish the editor had examined it with his own eyes, for, had he done so, he could hardly have failed to feel great doubts of its authenticity. There are three distinctly different points which cause suspicion. Firstly, the handwriting is unlike that of the age, and the document has a bizarre and unwonted appearance when placed beside the many others which are yet preserved in the Cathedral Library; secondly, the mere fact of a date being expressed by years of the Incarnation in a genuine charter of this period is so exceedingly unusual (if, indeed, it ever occurs) that the date A.D. 1109 therein contained alone suffices to shake our confidence in the instrument in a remarkable degree. Curiously enough, another charter, bearing date of the same year, 1109, is preserved among the Harleian Collection in the British Museum, and in this also there are strong external or palæographic, and internal or historical, evidences which condemn it as a fabrication of a later date than the events it professes to record. Lastly, we arrive at the third and, as we think, most evident and conclusive proof, one applying with equal force to the Durham and to the Harley charter, which is to be obtained from a study of the series of seals employed by Henry the First. We must, however, premise that although the actual charters are forgeries, or, to speak more cautiously, later mediæval deeds sealed in some surreptitious way with the king's great seal, the main facts mentioned in their respective texts are by no means to be discredited, or their tenor disallowed; and, of course, if the Durham charter as printed here is found on any contemporary roll or record, there is an end at once to the possibility of its improper fabrication. Still we find both the Durham and the Harley charter sealed with the third type of Henry's seal, which strong evidence shows was probably not used after A.D. 1106, and certainly not after May A.D. 1108. For in 1106 an important change in the royal style or title took place consequent upon the capture of Robert Duke of Normandy at Tenchebray, Henry immediately assuming his brother's title, and placing it for the first time upon the reverse of his seal of the fourth type. This fourth type seals a charter extant to this day in the Durham Episcopal Archives, directed by the King to Gerard, Archbishop of York, who died on the 21st of May, A.D. 1108, a year before the pretended date of the two charters which we have discussed. The history of these seals is contained in the Journal of the British Archæological Association, 1873. The account of the gradual acquisition of Palatine rights by the Bishops of Durham occupies a large portion of the Editor's work, and he has left little evidence unweighed and few points affecting this interesting question unexamined. From what is brought together from various sources for our consideration, it appears that these extra-episcopal rights, termed jura regalia, were not SO much due to one monarch's munificence as to a long series of grateful donors and equally grateful recipients, who were by no means always careful to refrain from usurpations and encroachments. Although it is quite possible that King Ceolwulf may have conferred upon the see, when resigning possession of his earthly crown at the altar of Lindisfarne for the prospective inheritance of a more stable and heavenly prerogative, royal rights, which originated the jura regalia of the Palatinate, yet exact history and the opinions of the ablest lawyers of many ages rather point to a grant made to the Bishop by the Danish monarch of Northumbria, Guthred, of the entire tract. lying between the Tyne and the Wear "cum jure regali," and to King Alfred's confirmation of the grant cum regalitate," as the first beginnings of this extraordinary power. Bishop Bek, a man with a statesmanlike interest far in advance of his era, did more towards the consolidation of the jurisdiction of the Palatinate than any who came before or after him. From the unbroken chain of evidence, which Sir Thomas Hardy weighs with the impartiality becoming so able an editor, it would have been refreshing to have turned at times to the elucidation of small points affecting other interests: as, for example, to adjust the exact relationship of Hugh de Pudsey to King Stephen, who, in a charter, calls him nepos, although neither Sandford, nor Anderson, nor Bouillet gives any scheme of descent connecting these two personages. Again, the tragic death of Bishop Walker, which reads in Malmesbury's 'Gesta' like a chapter out of Livy, is left unrecorded by the editor, although this prelate was, perhaps, the first who was "DUX pariter provinciae et episcopus." Selden's quotation, too, given at p. lviii, respecting the name of Cuthberti Terra, applied by monks and others to Durham, receives confirmation from the anonymous treatise on, or rather list of, monasteries compiled in the thirteenth century, and generally attributed to Gervaise of Canterbury, in which Durham and Northumberland monasteries are grouped under the heading of Terra Sancti Cuthberti. The volumes before us are fully up to the standard of the series of which they form a part, and they will find, without doubt, a welcome at the hands of the vast array of searchers after biographical, topographical, and ethical facts connected with our forefathers; and while we feel grateful to Sir Thomas Hardy for this his latest production, we owe no small thanks to the indefatigable Mr. C. T. Martin, of the Record Office, whose hand must frequently have felt weary with the tedious task of transcribing the text. OUR LIBRARY TABLE. MR. FRANCIS, in By Lake and River (Field Office), has compiled from his personal experience, a very readable guide to the salmon and trout condensed enough to be a real angler's guide, but fisheries of Scotland. It is not comprehensive nor the qualities which would probably have rendered it more generally useful are just those which would have greatly deducted from its literary merit, and from its value as a pleasant reminder The accuracy of a book which treats of so many to many a sportsman of scenes of past enjoyment. and inaccessible to the generality of the craft, can different waters, many of them private property, only be verified by the partial experience of individual readers; as far as our own knowledge extends, we should say the author's remarks were thoroughly trustworthy. He is very full upon all points connected with the sport in each locality, wider questions of the interests of the fish and is as earnest as might have been expected on their consumers, graphic in description, modest as to his own exploits, and by a judicious and moderate intermixture of jest and anecdote, has produced a readable book, as well as a treatise of authority on the branch of sport with which it deals. WE have received a handbook, published by worth, on the Licensing Acts, of which it gives all Routledge & Sons, and compiled by Mr. Holdsworth, on the Licensing Acts, of which it gives all the unrepealed portions. MISS COLLET has brought out, through Messrs. Hill & Sons, of Bedford, a reprint of the collection of Services and Prayers, published at Calcutta by the Brahmo Somaj. We have on our table Manufacturing Arts in Ancient Times, by J. Napier (Hamilton & Adams), -On the Rate of Mortality at Early Periods of Life, the Age at Marriage, the Number of Children to a Marriage, the Length of a Generation, &c., in the Upper and Professional Classes, by C. Ansell, jun. (Layton),-Notes on Surgical Nursing, by J. H. Barnes (Churchill),-Tables showing the Screws that can be Cut on Slide Lathes, by H. L. (Spon),Practical Notes on Marine Surveying and Nauti cal Astronomy, by Capt. R. C. Mayne, R.N. (Pctter),-Collection of Italian and English Dialogues, by A. Lanari (Trübner),-The Life and Correspondence of the Rev. John Clowes, M.A., and a Great Love, by F. Wilford (Masters),-Tim edited by T. Compton (Longmans),-Little Lives Pippin, by R. Quiz (Henderson),-Fairydom, by S. Holland (Henderson), The Millennium: a Poem, by E. F. Hughes (Portland, Hughes),—A riences, No. 2 (Manchester, Heywood),-La Reine, a Coronation Budget for 1874, edited by J. E. O. Hammond, The Word and the Work, by the Rev. H. Housman (Masters),-Milton's Il Penseroso (Oxford, Clarendon Press),-The Angel of Love, and other Poems, by Zero (Birmingham, Corns & Rylett), Corns & Rylett), and Zur Orthographischen Frage, by H. Erdmann (Hamburg, Meissner). LIST OF NEW BOOKS. Theology. Arnold's (T.) Sermons, new edit. 2 vols. cr. 8vo. 7/ cl. 2nd edit. cr. 8vo. 7/6 cl. Kingsley's (C.) David, Five Sermons, 2nd edit. 12mo. 2/6 cl. Spurgeon's (C. H.) The Interpreter, 4to. 25/ cl. Sunday Magazine, Vol. 1874, royal 8vo. 7/6 cl. Fine Art. D'Anvers's (N.) Elementary History of Art, cr. 8vo. 12/6 cl. Music. History. Westrop's (T.) Fourteen Favourite Pieces for the Pianoforte, 1/ Burnet's (Rt. Rev. G.) History of his Own Times, n. ed. 3/6 cl. Clowes's (Rev. J.) Life and Correspondence, edited by T. Original Lists of Persons of Quality, 1600-1700, edited by J. C. Compton, cr. 8vo. 6/ cl. Hotten, cr. 4to. 38/ cl. Geography. Collins's Selected Atlas of Political and Physical Geography, 3/6 Hughes's (W.) Geography of British Empire, new edit. 5/ cl. Merridew's Guide to Boulogne-sur-Mer, 4th edit. 1/3 swd. Murray's Handbook for Travellers in Yorkshire, 2nd ed. 12/ cl. Philology. Allen's (J. B.) Elementary Latin Grammar, 12mo. 2/6 cl. Demosthenes, Select Private Orations, with English Notes by Hachette's French Reader, Modern Authors, Vol. 4, 2/ cl. Morris's (Rev. R.) Elementary Lessons in Historical English Paley and Sandys, Part 1, cr. 8vo. 6/ cl. Grammar, 18mo. 2/6 cl. New French-English Dictionary, on the Basis of Nugent's, 1/cl. Child's First Book of Natural History, 12mo. 1/ cl. Thompson's (J. A.) Free Phosphorus in Medicine, 8vo. 7/6 cl. General Literature. Popular Commentary on the New Testament, by Aunt Louisa's London Toy-Books, Picture Puzzle Alphabets, 1/ Coleridge's (S. T.) Specimens of Table-Talk, cr. 8vo. 1/6 cl. lp. Hope's (A. R.) Annual, the Day after the Holidays, 3,6 cl. Gulliver's Travels, 12mo. 2/6 cl. Kingston's (W. H. G.) Tales of the Sea, 12mo. 2/6 cl. Russell's (W. C.) Book of Table-Talk, cr. 8vo. 3/6 cl. CRIMINALITY OF ANIMALS. THE Condemnation of a bull to the gallows for the crime of murder is by no means a singular example of the eccentricities of ancient legislation, at least in France. For instance, on the 4th of June, 1094, a pig was hanged from a gibbet near Laon for devouring the babe of one Jéhan Lenfant, a cow-herd. Again, on the 10th of January, 1457, a sow and her six sucklings were charged with murder and homicide on the person of one Jéhan Martin, of Savigny, when the former was found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged by the hind feet from the branch of a tree. As for the piglings, in default of any positive proof that they had assisted in mangling the deceased, although covered with blood, they were restored to their owner on condition that he should give bail for their appearance should further evidence be forthcoming to prove their complicity in their mother's crime. That individual, however, declined to become in any way answerable for the conduct of such ill-bred animals, which were thereupon declared forfeited, not to the parents of the murdered child, but to the noble damsel, Katerine de Bernault, Lady of Savigny. Yet again, on the 2nd of March, 1552, the Chapter of Chartres, after due investigation of the circumstances, sentenced a pig, that had killed a girl, to be hanged from a gallows erected on the very spot polluted by the bloody deed. Even so late as the year 1612 a pig was convicted of having worried to death and partially devoured a child, fourteen to fifteen months old, the son of a mason residing at Molinchart, also within the jurisdiction of Laon. "Pourquoy, et en horreur et détestation dudit cas, avons ordonné que ledict porcq sera mené et conduit par l'exécuteur de la haute justice au lieu des fourches patibulaires dudict Molinchart, pour illec être assommé, bruslé, et réduit en cendres, par nostre sentence, jugement, et par droit." Nor was this all. Animals were liable to spiritual censures as well as to penal sentences. In 1120 we find the Bishop of Laon excommunicating a swarm of caterpillars in the same terms which the Council of Rheims had employed, in the preceding year, in denouncing priests who indulged in the sin of matrimony. Still later, in 1516, the Courts of Troyes, complying with the prayers of the inhabitants of Villenoxe, admonished the caterpillars by which that district was then infected to take themselves off within six days, on pain of being declared "accursed and excommunicated." J. H. NEW SHAKSPERE SOCIETY. IF the "Subscriber" who writes about this Society in your issue of Saturday last will publish his name, we undertake that a full answer shall be given to his allegations. The very proper rule of ignoring anonymous communications may, perhaps, sometimes be disregarded; but "A Subscriber" makes such serious charges, and worse insinuations, in his letter, that no honourable man could wish it to be noticed so long as the writer screens himself behind the anonymous. FREDK. J. FURNIVALL, Director PALAIO-ARAMAIC INSCRIPTIONS. IN classifying the inscriptions on the Syrian Pottery under four heads, an exception has to be made in favour of numbers 330 and 331 of the first, or Berlin Catalogue, in which occur types not to be found either in the remainder of the inscriptions here described on the coins, or on the Diban stone. The first of these bears six lines of Aramaic characters; the first and fourth of which are in relief, and appear to have been formed with stamps; while the remainder are indented. Three lines, of which I have not received copies, but which are said to be Nabathean, follow. In the second urn, the neck, on which these Nabathean types are found in the first vase, is wanting. The character of these inscriptions is so anomalous, the permanent types being so distinct, and the variable types so abnormal, that I defer any comment until further advice. It must not be forgotten that, while each object requires the most patient investigation and testing, as if it were the only one of its class, and as if its authenticity were, in the first instance, an entirely open question, the value of the comparative results of a group of inscriptions is much increased by each fresh specimen. Those types, therefore, which at first appear anomalous, may hereafter be fully explained by the light of new discoveries. With this reserve, it may now be convenient to place before the readers of the Athenæum a conspectus of the various alphabets. I have drawn in parallel columns the twenty-two letters of the Chaldaic, or square Hebrew alphabet; the corresponding letters, collected from the entire range of the Jewish coinage, as at present either figured, or existing in the British Museum; the published characters of the Dibàn stone, or Mesa stele; and the chief types of the inscriptions now before me. It is unnecessary to add that this conspectus now appears for the first time, and that, although it may be capable of subsequent enlargement, it is, at present, tolerably exhaustive. A 4 A 4 A FE + न् Y 3 m 7 z H 日日月 크 Y JLLL ८ VJJLLL 444 445 744 99898 Σ It will be found on studying the preceding table that a wider range of form occurs on the coins than in either of the other alphabets. Letters which are almost invariable in the latter, assume modified forms in some of the former. Thus the dal has generally a short tail, although at times it is not easy to see whether this is intentional, or only a result of rude work. The he has a cross bar, sometimes above, and sometimes below, which makes it resemble its equivalent, the Roman E. The vaw assumes altogether different forms. The zain more closely resembles the Roman or the Italian Z. The cheth loses its horns; and on the coins of Alexander the First has sometimes a depressed and elongated form. The mim varies much. The fourth example, which more nearly resembles the peculiar mim of the Dibàn stone than any other example of this letter has been found to do, occurs on a coin of Antigonus, from which I have also taken the last (and inverted) nun, and the elongated cheth. The spiral arrangement of the legends on the coins of this prince is, however, so fantastic that it is difficult to tell which side of a letter is to be taken as uppermost. The yod, which stands third in the column, is also from the coins of the same prince. We thus obtain positive, and very precious, information as to the date of this particular modification of the Aramaic alphabet, which is determined at about B.C. 30. A letter, which looks like a zain set on the top of a staff, and the first form of the caph, are from the coins of Hyrcanus the First, on which also occurs the omega-shaped shin. This modification of type therefore prevailed about B.C. 130. The fourth form of aleph, in the second column, the unique tsadi, the tall cheth, and the horizontally elongated ain, are taken from the coins of Eleasar, some of which possess the additional peculiarity of being written from left to right. The influence of the Greek spirit, through Egypt, on the taste of Palestine, under the rule of this splendid Pontiff, is curiously illustrated by these numismatic types. We thus obtain a third determination of date, viz., about B.C. 270. It is by patient comparison of this kind that we may hope, in due time, to be able so clearly to trace the historic variation of the original Aramaic types of letters, at least as far as the local influence of Jerusalem extended, as to throw a hitherto unknown light on the distinctive dates, both of the anonymous coins and of other monumental inscriptions. I have not had time to attempt a systematic decipherment of the 118 inscriptions before me. One remark, however, I may venture. Those which appear, at the first glance, to be the most diabolical scrawls (it is impossible to avoid the expression) are those which yield with the greatest readiness to the picklock of patience. There are, indeed, many of the cursive or ligatured inscriptions which, coupling two letters together in one place, and four or five in another, and interspersing them with single letters, require as much study, to divide into words, as do the inscriptions in single letters. But in other cases each complex hieroglyphic represents a word. These are often wellknown Aramaic words, the relation of which to their Hebrew equivalents is also known. Thus we find x, haurire, on a drinking vesssel; П, pistrinum, on a vase; 8, the name of the goddess Athor, upon a crescent; and so many other well-known Chaldaic words that, instead of saying that the inscriptions are illegible, I am disposed to wonder, when remembering the character of the attack made on the authenticity of the pot tery, that it has not been said that the references of the words to the objects on which they occur were too obvious, and that the latter were, for that reason, palpable forgeries. I have reproduced one of the shortest and most complete of these linked or cursive inscriptions. It occurs on an object in the form of a swordblade, the probable purpose of which was for suspension in a temple as a votive offering, or in a tent or house as a charm. At first sight it certainly is not easily legible. |