Feb. 25, 1856.] LOFTUS. 47 



guage more like Mongolian than anything else, and which has nothing 

 to do with the languages commonly called Semitic. 



The four cities of Genesis x. are the four recently described by Mr. 

 Loftus. NifFar, which was probably the earliest capital of the country, 

 was the ancient Calneh ; Babel, of course, is Babylon ; and Wurka 

 was the ancient Erech. Accad is used in the inscriptions for the name 

 of the people. 



NifFar, in the centre of Babylonia, seems to have been the primitive 

 capital of the whole country; it was dedicated to Belus, and was 

 called the city of Belus by the Hamites. The name NifFar was given 

 by Semites. When the Talmud was written, the old names were re- 

 tained ; its writers say that Calneh was Niffar, and they call the place 

 Nineveh, but the Nineveh of Assyria was certainly at Mosul. 



NifFar must be regarded as the most ancient city in the world. It was 

 built by the earliest king of whom we have any monuments, but whose 

 name cannot be read with certainty. In later times Babylon took the 

 place of NifFar. 



In the bricks of Wurka the name is not phonetically given : this, 

 however, as before stated, is most probably the Erech of the Bible. 



Mugeyer, described by Mr. Loftus, is a very interesting spot ; it is 

 most probably the Ur of the Chaldees of Gen. xi., from which Abram 

 came out. There was a palace here, on the bricks of which occurs the 

 name Chedorlaomer. Some of these bricks are now in the British 

 Museum. Mugeyer gives the meaning to the word Hebrew, as applied 

 to the Hebrew nation. One particular parish of this place was called 

 Ibra, and probably from this spot Abraham came. No derivation of the 

 word " Hebrew " is given in the Bible : it is said to come from a word 

 meaning " over," because Abraham passed over the Euphrates : this 

 cannot be true, as Mugeyer, i. e. Ur, was on the same side of the 

 Euphrates as Palestine. 



Sinkara is called Sarsa in inscriptions, and Hamman, visited by Mr. 

 Loftus, is probably the Gulaba of inscriptions. 



Mr. Loftus is almost the only European who has traversed that part 

 of the country in wluch Hamman is situated. At Sinkara Mr. Loftus 

 opened a temple of the Sun, from which he obtained some very inte- 

 resting bricks. 



A set of inscriptions from Mugeyer tells us who Belshazzar was. 

 He was the son of Nabonadius, and was in command of the city of 

 Babylon when his father Nabonadius was attacked by Cyrus. Nabo- 

 nadius was defeated, and took refuge at Birs Nimroud, and hence 

 when Cyrus attacked Babylon he met Belshazzar. 



Mr. Loftus apologised for the minute and uninteresting details of 

 his paper, but said that he felt, as every point is of value to the tra- 



