had written in Phoenician characters man, I had explained as the Temple of Diana, i. e. the Artemesian. That the Upsilon, i. e. the obscurer sound of the sixth Ethiopian vowel, was pronounced similarly by the Carthaginians, and written by the Greeks and Romans in Punic characters, where it was either the changeable schwa or segol, is evident from numerous examples.

were the images of the goddess; in some, of which more presently. Again Turns places rude, representing merely a trunk, Gros) and Tuvis (ds) Tunis, (the Tunis of without head or feet; or in other places it our days,) a town near Carthage, which I was turretted, armed, many breasted, carried about with great ceremony on certain days, worshipped in Pyratheioi by the Persian priests, and virgins who prostituted themselves for gain: in some places sacred cows were kept in honour of her. That this same Diana was worshipped by the Phoenician Athenians our inscription shows. Her Carthaginian worship will be discussed at greater length hereafter. But Secondly, Tingis, in Mauritania, which there are also other, and not obscure, traces word is written on the coins generally asextant of her worship and even name, an, signed to the Spanish Sexti, I think I have in the proper names of Phoenician and my self discovered. Among these names are Punic men and places. If indeed, accord- two which have the n double; and this might ing to a custom sufficiently received among persuade us that the writing was Tévens, the ancients, and even among the Phoeni- or Tiyys: But this does not seem to have cians and Carthaginians, proper names been the genuine and native pronunciation were usually bestowed on men by which of the name, although so pronounced occathey confessed themselves to be worship- sionally. pers of this or that Deity, then, by an ellipsis of the word (a bd), the very names of the Gods were assigned, as Alonymus readers to draw their own conclusions: we Abdalonymus. Towns also, by a similar cannot, however, refrain from directing their ellipses, then were accustomed to adopt attention to the immense mass of erudition the name of the Diety they worshipped. displayed in it, and we have given only But of the former kind these examples are few of the authorities. With respect to the cited: first, the Shield of Tanaitis; of this etymology, Akerblad has suggested that it power, which it was usual to represent armed, and therefore assimilates to Bello- may very probably be the Neith of the sufficiently appropriate to the worship- Egyptians, with their feminine article To per of the same. I cannot omit the remark prefixed, and signifying, according to Münthat in Pocock's transcription of this title ter, Mercy, Compassion.

na,

From this extract we shall leave our

Abd. Shemesh, son of Tagginez, of Citium."

"Ben Khodsho, son of Abd-Milcart, son of

the middle letter seems rather to be than The second inscription is of a similar na>; but experience has proved to us what ture to the former, and its import is, that it little value can be assigned to these tran- is the monument of scripts. Second, Tennes, King of Sidon, as it appears, instead of the more ample form any. Third, Mutten is the same name as Myttonus of a Sidonian king, The four names are in the Greek part of probably muttanith, a man of Artemis; the inscription translated respectively, Nuas mutto-baal, a man of Baal; mutto-ash-menius, Heraclius, Heliodorus, and Stephataroth, a man of Astarte; perhaps, in the nus. fourth place, Masintha and Massinissa from masinith, opus (ta) Neithæ, omitting * Thus in the Old Testament, Ashtaroth, a city of Peræa. (Deut. i. 4; Josh. xiii. 12), so called from the worship of Astarte, more correctly

Beth-Ashtaroth.

Nebo, the name of a city and mountain, from the worship of the god Nebo, or Mercury. Amongst the Egyptians Amûn, i. e. Thebes,

Mendes, Bubastis, so called from deities. Among the Greeks, Athenai, from the Worship of Athena.

With us, Radegast, Jüterbog, towns of Saxony, from idols of the same name, worshipped there by the Slavi.

attention to the second name, which is a We need scarcely point our readers' common Carthaginian one. The third inscription will not detain us, as it is little characters, of the Greek words 'Epúvn Bušavṛía. more than the representation, in Phoenician

The island of Malta is the next spot that arrests our attention. It was early colonized by the Phoenicians, and afterwards, in the time of the first Punic war, by the Carthaginians; consequently, as we may easily imagine, several inscriptions have been found, but most of them in very imperfect The letters of the Egyptian name Neith, condition. One monument, however, which are found also in the proper name (DN) Asenath; is bilingual, consists of the bases of two canSeptuag. Aseneth; Alex. MSS., Asseneth; borne dalabra, one of which is preserved in the by Joseph's wife, the daughter of Potipehar, Gen. Museum of the Public Library at Malta, xii. 45, 46, 20. Whether written, as by Jablonski, CME-NEIT, i. e. adorning Neith, Opus. ii. 209, and the other at Paris, whither it came as Parth. Æg. 1, 56, or, as I prefer it, AC-NEIT, de- a present from the Grand Master Rohan to voted to Neith, Thes. ling, Heb. T. 1, p. 130. Louis XVI. Of this inscription several Other Egyptian proper names comprising the interpretations have been given, and it is same name are, Nitetes, Herod. 31, i. e. given hard to say, with the exception of two, which by Neith; Psammenitus, taught by Neith; Paaneith, devoted to Neith. Proclus in Tim. 31. is the most absurd. One interpreter, plea

santly called, by Gesenius, "tribus Anticy- (among others, Palermo, Syracuse, and Herris insanabile caput," renders it as follows: aclea may be mentioned. The inscriptions "Urinatori (magno) urinatorum magistro that are found there are, for the most part, (deo) duci et (deo) absorbenti in die (quo) in very bad condition; whereas, on the consublevarunt (anchoram) et natarunt et exier- trary, their coins and medals are extremely unt (ad verbum) navigarunt e Tyro, portum well preserved and well made. reliquerunt eum, coeperunt invenire coralium: exierunt iterum e Tyro, ecce vastare Lydam.

We give it in the interpreter's own Latin, professing our utter inability to comprehend, and the same we may say of the next.

We shall now turn our attention towards Africa, and there Carthage occupies a preeminent station. It was not, however, in Carthage alone that the Phoenician language prevailed; on the contrary, it was more or less in usage along the whole coast, from "Fluebat libertas, fluebat sors, inimicus Tripoli and Leptis, as far as Tingis, (Tanimperabat? hostis absorptus est; tunc in- gier,) and the Pillars of Hercules. It must sculptum, perverse eum effecisse, Cossuram not be understood, however, that the Pho. rubum (desertam) remex eius deus eius prac-nician language and alphabet were the cipitavit eum equus (vel equitatus) cius ema-only ones adopted in that vast and extensive ciavit eum; pasti sunt Cossurenses, cum deficeret corpus et aspectus eius (inimici.)" The interpretation given by Gesenius is as follows:

"Domino nostro Melcarto, domino Tyri. Vir vovens (est)

servus tuus (i. e. sum ego) Abd-Osir cum fratre meo Ösirschamar,

ambo filii Osirschamari, filii Abdosiri. Ubi audiverit.

vocem eorum, benedicat iis."

The first name, Melcartus, is, as our readers are probably aware, the Phoenician Hercules. We may also notice, that this inscription affords us evidence, were other wanting, to prove that, if not adored as the Egyptian name of Tanith, before alluded to, Osiris was at least familiar at Tyre. The Greek part of the inscription contains the same sentiment, but more shortly expressed;

region. Another, the Lybian, flourished at the same time with it, as is amply attested by a bilingual inscription found at Tacca, and likewise by the sixteen verses in the first scene of the second act of Plautus's Panulus. The first ten of these are Carthaginian, and the latter six Lybico-Phœnician. We shall conclude our present article by calling our readers' attention to this celebrated fragment of a great language, the only one indeed in which is found a continued discourse. With the exception of Vallancey, O'Connor, and Sir W. Betham, who have laboured hard to prove the Irish Celtic and the Carthaginian Phoenician to be one and the same language, it has been pretty generally admitted by philologists that the only key to this fragment in Plautus must be sought for in the Hebrew; it being assumed, as we have before stated, and we think fairly enough, that the Phoenician and the Hebrew were identical. But it may be said, how comes it that the speech is in three different languages? It may readily be answered, that the intention of the dramaHere we may observe, that Abd-Osir is tist was, that the actor representing the part represented by Dionysius; and that Osiris, of Hanno should repeat the speech in only and Dionysius or Bacchus, were considered one of the languages; and should select the same, we have proof from Herodotus, that in which he was most skilled, whether Diodorus, and Plutarch. There are very that might happen to be the Punic, the Ly. few coins found in Malta, and those doubt-bian, or the native idiom. Another point ful, and most probably belonging to the neighbouring island of Gaulos, or the present Gozo.

it is as follows:

“ ΔΙΟΝΥΣΙΟΣ ΚΑΤΑΣΡΑΠΙΩΝ ΟΙ ΣΑΡΑΠΙΩΝΟΣ ΤΥΡΙΟΙ HPAKAEI APXHIETEI."

Sicily, we may easily conceive, was an early object of Carthaginian colonization. -There they built many opulent cities;

that may be assumed is, that the three parts have the same or nearly the same import; that, in fact, they are translations, more or less literal, of each other. According to Bochart's collection, the Phoenician is to be read in the Roman character, as follows:

"1. N'yth alonim valonuth sicorath jismacon sith
2. Chy-mlachai jythmu mitslia mittebariim ischi
3. Liphorcaneth yth beni ith jad adi ubinuthai
4. Birua rob syllohom alonim ubymisyrtohom
5. Bythlym moth ynoth othi helech Antidamarchon
6. Y's sideli: brim tyfel yth chili schontem liphul
7. Uth bin imys dibur thim nocuth nu' Agorastocles
8. Ythem aneti hy chyr saely choc, sith naso.

Rogo deos et deas, qui hanc urbem tuentur,

ut consilia mea compleantur: prosperum sit ex ductu eorum negotium meum.

Ad liberationem filii mei a manu praedonis et filiarum mearum.

Dii (inquam id praestant) per spiritum multum qui est in ipsis et per providentiam suam. Ante obitum diversari apud me solebat Antidamarchus,

Vir mihi familiaris: sedis eorum coetibus iunctus est, quorum habitatio est in caligine, (i. e. mortuus est.)

Filium eius constans fama est ibi fixisse sèdem, Agorastoclem (nomine.)

Sigillum hospitii mei est tabula sculpta, cuius sculptura est deus meus: id fero.

Indicavit mini testis eum habitare in his finibus.

Venit aliquis per portam hanc: ecce eum: rogabo numquid noverit nomen (Agoras. toclis.)"

It will be seen that there is very consid-ing, which Gesenius has successfully laerable correspondence in the import of Bo-boured to remove. He reads the passage chart's interpretation and that of Plautus, as follows:still there are several objections to his read

"1. Yth alonim valonuth

2. Chym lacchu yth tummy

3. Liphocaneth yth byn achi
4. Birua rob syllohom

5. Bythlym moth ynn

6. Ys sid dobrim thyfel

7. Yth binu ys

8. Yth emanethi hy chyr saely

9. Id chi llu hily gubulim

10. Body aly thera ynnynnu ysl ym

His version of which is

"1. Superos Superasque celebro huius loci,

2. ut, ubi abstulerunt prosperitatem meam, impleatur iussu eorum desiderium meum 3. servandi filium fratris inei e manu praedonum et filias meas

4. virtute magna, quae diis (est) et imperio eorum.

5. Ante mortem ecce amicitia (erat) mihi tecum, o Antidama:

6. (qui erat) vir contemnens loquentes fatua, strenuus robore, integer in agendo:

7. Filium cius est fama hic (esse) cognatum nostrum Agorastoclem:

8. Poedus meum, (i. e. tesseram foederis,) imaginem numinis mei, pro more fero, indicavit 9. Testis, quod hae regiones ei (sunt) ad habitandum ibi.

10. Servi ad ianuam: ecce hunc interrogabo, num cognitum ei sit nomen."

As a means of comparison, we refer to, lust. The author of this Phoenician treatise the original of Plautus, which is manifestly was Don Francisco Perez Bayer, tutor to a free and metrical translation of the former the Infante, Gabriel de Borbon, and a man portion. This interpretation is, in our mind, decisive of the consanguinity and mere dialectic varieties of the Hebrew and the Phonician. It must remain for future inquiries to examine from what great stock they themselves have branched.

The limits which we have prescribed to ourselves will not permit us to trace the language on to the continent of Europe; we shall conduct our readers to the second work heading our article.

The Paläographische Studien consists of two parts: the first, a translation of a trea. tise on the alphabet and language of the Phoenicians and their colonies (Del alfa. beto y lengua de los Fenices y de sus Colonias.) which was published at Madrid in 1772, as an appendix to a translation of Sal.

of astonishing learning and research. He was also, it is now beyond a question, the real author of the edition of Sallust, attri buted to the Prince. The errors which this learned writer fell into necessarily from the general ignorance of the time on such subjects, have been corrected by Gesenius in this translation.

The monuments discovered during the recent investigations on the Carthaginian soil have thrown, as might be expected, great light on this hitherto sealed question. To add to our information on the subject of the Punic Rustic Writing, or Numidian writing, is the object of this work

The Journ. of the Asiatic Society preserves (alas!) the vulgar tale.

Numerous monuments with Phoenician, or identity of language, writing, and religion, rather Punic inscriptions, have been found between the Numidians and Carthaginians, within the last fifteen years in the kingdom of by the evidence of proper names, &c.; thus Tunis, and in the region of North Africa, connecting all with the Phoenicians, and which belonged to Carthage and Numidia. proving the extension of this people along a They are written in a character which in large part of the north coast of Africa lying some measure differs from that of the other westward of Carthage. inscriptions.

These African monuments are divisible into two classes. The first consists o monu ments in which the writing is like original Phoenician. These have all been found either among the ruins of Carthage itself, or at least in the neighbourhood of Carthage. Hence An alphabet, reputed to have been formed Gesenius calls this kind of Punic writing from pictures, originally existed, but all trace Scriptura Urbana. He refers as examples, of it is perhaps hopeless now. The Heto an inscription now at Leyden, represented brews, however, have preserved two simby Hamaker in his Miscellanea Phanicia, plified forms; the coin-inscriptive, and the Plate I. No. I.; to another discovered by Falbe, the Danish Consul, and described in The former is discovered on the coins of his Emplacement de Carthage; and to four the Maccabees, and may fairly be deemed published by Hamaker, Diatribe Monumen- the earliest known Jewish alphabet, modified torum Punicorum nuper in Africâ repertorum interpretationem exhibens. Leyden, 1822.

rity; and resh approaching to render the as- | ing of that time is the square character; the sertion farther questionable. smaller alphabetic forms not existing then: so far as we can judge, therefore, it could not have been borrowed from them. On the contrary, this smaller kind might well have been borrowed from that, which it so strongly resembles; and an additional pre

The difficulties that have arisen from the want of proper arrangement and examination of the alphabetic systems of various nations, arising partly doubless from their number, but still more from an unfortunate and idle prepossession of opinion that each na-sumption in favour of the Oriental origin is tion was best able to afford the soundest authorities for the relics of its antiquity, may be now altogether or almost entirely dissi pated, by what might long since have been attempted; viz. a comparison of the several systems with due reference to their chronological connection, as far as practicable.

We must be understood distinctly to af firm, that ample evidence exists of the progressive changes of alphabetic form amongst nations the widest separated, as deduced from one common source; and that this pro. gression is distinctly traceable as a connect. ed series with very few interruptions. We admit there are exceptions at present: it is possible there may be really such; but we feel satisfied in declaring further our fullest and most deliberate conviction, that these exceptions are not such in fact, but simply proofs of the general rule. The variation of letters, and application of one shape to another sound are all, or nearly all, to be account. ed for by what is now a series of ascertainable facts; and that those which we cannot absolutely explain are fairly presumable as coming under the same principle, and that any doubt left can exist only so long as our ignorance of the state and changes of pro-. nunciation amongst certain nations exists, and no longer.

The Greek Boustrophedon has served to obscure, it may now be brought to assist the philologist; for by this we find that, whether written dextrally or sinistrally, characters were read with equal fluency. And hence words that exhibit precisely converse arrangements of letters, whether in Asia or Europe, may be fairly presumed identical. The Rünic inscription was read only by adopting a portion of the Boustrophedon principle.

To pass all the rest, as being unquestionably preserved and authentic, we need only refer to one of the most in doubt, the Zend. However suspicious its history, the value of the written characters are recognized and established by comparison with other systems of sound, as with the Japanese digamma, the Quichua, the ancient and modern Celtic; to say nothing of the systematic process of the Cuneiform. That it can be subsequent to the Greek of Alexander's invasion, and borrowed thence, is impossible, since it contains sounds not used by the Greeks, and the Greek writ.

derivable from the fact that many of the Zend letters seem but cursive varieties of the Cuneiform. This we have undoubted evidence now was of the age of Darius AT LATEST. If indeed, as we have already remarked, we compare the two, we shall find that the Greek small character is merely an improvement of the Zend, and turned the other way.

We cannot attempt, in the few lines that are left us, to dwell upon the analogies that offer themselves spontaneously to our mind; but we conceive every difficulty will approach as nearly as possible to an elucidation if we doubt the generally received opinions regarding the earliest introduction of letters and their inventors. The question now left

us is most important—

WHO WERE THE PHOENICIANS?

A new Translation of the Tales of a Thousand and One Nights; known in England as The Arabian Nights Entertainments; with copious Notes. By Edward William Lane. London. 1838.

THE Vulgar scorn that delighted to exhibit its own ignorance in an outcry against the most delightfully varied, wild, and fascinating display of human fancy in the world, has passed with the ignorance that engendered it. It is not in fancy alone that the Arabian Nights exceed every thing previously known The truth of the delineations of situation and to Europe in the shape of imaginative flights. feeling, of catastrophes wrought by love and tyranny, the tremendous influences of servility and despotism, are brought in these, the most glorious of fictions, to our bosoms, and insensibly impress the best of moral lessons on the infant mind by displaying the effects of the worst institutions.

In the midst of unparalleled gorgeousness or overwhelming might, the wealth of natural and the spells of preternatural powers, a tone of truth and simplicity pervades every page, and amidst all the remote or the impossible, awakes in us the glow of sympathy not less than of admiration. It was to these tales ed frequently, to relieve the heavier labors that the brilliant intellect of Canning turnof the state, and he qutted them, according to his own account, always with renewed admiration and regret.

Tales of enchantment! though the world may fling