The One Primeval Language traced experimentally through Ancient Inscriptions in Alphabetic Characters, of Lost Powers, from the four Continents. By the Rev. Charles Forster, B. D. London: 1851. Part I. The Voice of Israel from the Rocks of Sinai, or the Sinaitic Inscriptions Contemporary Records of the Miracles and Wanderings of the Exode. 8vo, pp. 182. Sinai Photographed, or Contemporary Records of Israel in the Wilderness. By the Rev. Charles Forster, B. D. London: 1862. 4to, pp. 552. [pp. 533-565]

iSTO.] ~ir~aitic Liscr4~tions. 51~
new names ti~en adopted. Bt~t this does not app~y in the
preseilt instance, for ill tile class of inscnptions now in qnestion, there is not a single name which jnstifies d~e assninption
of a Ci~ristian origin.
Then besides this negative argnl~ent, there is a positive one
still n~ore convincing. ~Iany of tlie names here fonnd are
idolatrous, compounded wiH~, or consisting of, the names of
heathen deities. The persons either bore the names of the
gods they worshipped, or else were denominated tl~c 5crvants, worshippers, etc., of this or that deity. Thus sneh
names occur as Ab~i-a1-t~u4~, "servant of Baal," of the
same formation as A~c1a~~k, "servant of Allah," in Mob ammedan times, and A~dic1 or Ob~~cNq/~, "servant of God" or "ot
Jehovah" among the Jews. In like manner, G~rm-a1-~~aThi,
"fear of ~aal," or as others render it "strength of ~aal;~`
A~~4t-ci~liac~~i, "gift of Baal," whi4~ may be compared to the
Jewish names Xa~Itqmie1 or Ji~t~ta~~i~~k, or the Greek Ti7~eoJo~~~
and L~dore; ~/~ct~J~a1-Ba~~i, "worship of Baal;" also Ga~~n-ci7~Jtq/ri, " fear of the moon," and Bo)Ji~~, an epiil~et of the new
moon, meaning r~1ea~cJ, i. e., from conjunction with the sun.
And when found in such connections, names, which by il~emselves might be susceptible of a different interpretation, are
determined to have an idolatrous meaning, such as A(~d~a17a/~~,
"servant of God," Uarrn-aI~a/~i, "fear of God," Au#-ai~a/~~,
" gift of God," S/~~tqd-ai~aIti, "worship of God;" where not the
trne God, but some heathen divinity must be referred to, which
can thus stand as a parallel to Baal or the moon. Again, names
occur, which can be proved from other sources to have been
applied to idols worshipped in Arabia during what the Mobainniedan writers style, " the days of ignorance "-j. e., tJ-ie period
before Mohammed.
In addition to the argument thus drawn from the proper
names, another is derived from the fact that some of the persons recorded in the inscriptions are denominated " priests."
Thus we find appended to certain names the designation
priest of Ta," or "priest of the god Ta," or " priest of the
Ta-god;" where Tuch supposes that" Ta" is the iiame of some
divinity vouched for by these inscriptions as worsl~ipped by
the Arabs of that day, and having his proper retinue of priests,
VOL. XMI.-NO. IV.