together, as well as the hinges and the nails. Each of the twelve pages was charged with a gnostic symbolical figure, and underneath each of the first four are inscriptions, in Greek and Etruscan characters, unintelligible to him, but which might probably now be deciphered. The characters inscribed on every leaf are copied in Montfaucon's work. He also gives from Father Bonanni's Museum Kircherianum, the representation and description of another leaden book, which had been taken from an ancient tomb, containing seven leaves inscribed with Greek, Hebrew, Etruscan, and Latin characters; all of which are declared (perhaps too summarily) to have been unintelligible. Both these books are probably not older than the early

ages of the Christian era; but they adequately represent a custom of more ancient date.

Brass, as a more durable metal, was used for inscriptions designed to last very long; such as laws, treaties, and alliances. These were, however, usually written on large tablets of the metal. The ornamental brasses in our own churches, some of which are in good preservation, though many centuries old, illustrate this still more ancient use of tablets of brass. The stylus or pen for writing on metal tablets was sometimes tipped with a diamond; a circumstance to which there is an allusion in Jer. xvii. 1.

It was certainly a grand idea for man to think of committing to the living rock, and of thus giving a magnificent perma

nency to, the record of his history and his thoughts. There are rocks presenting cliffs so smooth, with stone of texture so soft, as absolutely to tempt the idle saunterer to write or to scrawl unmeaning figures on them. In time this would suggest the desirableness of inscribing harder rocks with memorials designed to last; and where a smooth surface was not naturally presented, the face of the rock would be levelled for the purpose.

Many such monuments of the most ancient date have been found in various countries, but none more extensive or remarkable than those in the Written Mountains of Sinai, which also derive especial interest from the locality in which they are found, so memorable in Jewish history, and not so remote from the place of Job's abode-some, indeed, making it much nearer than we do-but that he might have known of them had they then been thus sculptured. It is not, however, likely that they were, though this passage shows that his view was directed to such monuments.

These inscriptions are found in the neighbourhood of Mount Sinai; or, to speak more accurately, in the hills and valleys which, branching out from its roots, run towards the north-west to the vicinity of the eastern shore of the Gulf of Suez; insomuch that travellers now-a-days, from the monastery of Mount Sinai to the town of Suez, whatever route they take (for there are many), will see these inscriptions upon the rocks of most of the valleys through which they pass, to within half a day's journey, or a little more, of the coast. Besides these localities, similar inscriptions are met with, and these in great numbers, on Mount Serbal, lying to the south of the above-mentioned routes; as also, but more rarely, in some valleys to the south of Mount Serbal itself. But the valley which, beyond all the rest, claims especial notice, is that which stretches from the neighbourhood of the eastern shore of the Gulf of Suez for the space of three hours' journey in a southern direction. Here, to the left of the road, the traveller finds a chain of steep sandstone rocks, perpendicular as walls, which afford shelter at midday, and in the afternoon, from the burning rays of the sun.

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These, beyond all besides, contain a vast multitude of tolerably well-preserved inscriptions; whence this valley has obtained the name of Wady Mokatteb, or the Written Valley. Adjoining to it is a hill, where stones in like manner are covered with writing, and which bears the name of Djebel Mokatteb, or the Written Mountain. Intermingled with the inscriptions, images and figures of men and animals are of frequent occurrence, all executed in so rude a style, as may be well supposed to have belonged to the time when men first began to inscribe upon

the rocks their abiding memorials, and evidently with the same. instruments and by the same hands as those which formed the inscriptions. Indeed, they who have taken the pains to copy portions of these, declare that it was often difficult to distinguish the figures from the letters. This suggests that the writers sometimes employed images as parts of letters, and vice versa, images for groups of letters. The letters are in an alphabetical character, not otherwise known to palæographists; and many

attempts have been made to decipher them, but not until lately with any degree of success. The inscriptions were first noticed by the traveller Cosmas in A.D. 535, and the character was even then unknown. He supposed they were the work of the ancient Hebrews; and says, that certain Jews who had read them, explained them to him as the journey of such a one, of such a tribe, in such a year and month. This explanation might be understood to intimate that the inscriptions were made by members of the successive generations of ancient Israelites in visits which they paid to a place so memorable in their history, and does not coincide with the more prevalent and lately revived notion, that this work employed the leisure hours of the Israelites during their sojourn in this quarter.

Passing by abortive speculations, we may mention the result of the investigations of Professor Beer of Leipsic, who made these inscriptions the object of special study. It is his opinion that they afford the only remains of the language and character once peculiar to the Nabathæans of Arabia Petræa; and he supposed that if, at any future time, stones with the writing of the country should be found among the ruins of Petra, the characters would prove to be the same with those of the inscriptions of Sinai. He did not know that the fact of this resemblance had been substantiated. But we can point out that in the (then unpublished, though printed) Travels of Irby and Mangles, mention is made of a tomb in Petra, with an oblong tablet, containing an inscription in five long lines, and immediately underneath a single figure on a large scale, probably the date. The characters were such as none of the party had seen before, excepting Mr. Banks, who stated them to be precisely similar to those he had seen scratched on the rocks in the Wady Mokatteb and about the foot of Sinai.' This testimony, from so accurate an antiquarian observer as Mr. Banks, is of more conclusive value than even that of the two gallant travellers themselves could have been; as the inexperienced eye fancies resemblance, where the experienced one finds large difference.

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According to this view, the inscriptions will probably be found to have been made by the native inhabitants of these

mountains. They are, as Mr. Banks well defines, rather 'scratched' than engraven, and certainly present a very rude appearance. The contents of the inscriptions, as made out by Professor Beer, and so far as he has proceeded, consist only of proper names, preceded by a word signifying 'peace ;' but sometimes memoriatus sit, and sometimes 'blessed.' Before the names the word bar or ben, that is, 'son,' occasionally occurs; and they are sometimes followed by one or two words at the end—thus the word 'priest' appears twice as a title. In one or two instances the name is followed by a phrase or sentence, which has not yet been deciphered. Among the names some Jewish or Christian ones have been found; and the words which are not proper names seem to belong to the Aramæan dialect. A language of this kind the Professor conceives to have been spoken by the Nabathæans before the Arabic language prevailed in those parts, and of that language and writing he regards these as the only monuments now known to exist.

This somewhat disappointing theory seemed at one time likely to receive general acceptance; but it has now been given up, even in Germany, where the very learned Professor Tuch has argued for a date some centuries earlier than Beer's explanation will allow; and the Rev. Charles Forster has just set forth a claim to the discovery of a new key to the reading and interpretation, by which he finds that they were the work of the Israelites during their sojourn in this wilderness.1 According to him, the nation, during its various wanderings after the passage of the Red Sea, and before the publication of the Pentateuch, not in accordance with any public decree, but in its private capacity as represented by individuals, recorded upon the rocks among which it temporarily sojourned, the various miracles it witnessed, the suffering and adventures it underwent. This is in itself not improbable. The Hebrews

1 The One Primeval Language traced fundamentally through Ancient Inscriptions: including the Voice of Israel from the Rocks of Sinai. By the Rev. Charles Forster, B.D. London, 1851.

This is inferred from the absence of any quotations therefrom, which would have been certain to appear in any inscriptions of posterior date.