32 The Rev. J. Hamilton on the Punic Passage in Plautus, 



mahider of the word, and the h not being sounded in the middle, a hiatus is left 

 in its place. 



For the business of the journey, or any other business, the Hebrew-Chaldee 

 equivalent, most common from the days of Abraham to those of his descendants 

 at the present day, and in use in their common letters of business, as mentioned 

 in Buxtorf. Lectio. Hebr. German, is— Dbr. in. Re mea nm ^^?, Chaldaice 

 n2^^^ Punice, mispronounced, ^c^ dibri.* 



For prosperiti/ or success, the Hebrew word most generally used is n"''7Sn, 

 as is well known even to the tyro in the language. It is the word, for example, 

 used in the first Hebrew Psalm in that clause, " Whatsoever he doeth shall 

 prosper."! I^ut n'''72n, though the most common, is not the only word for 

 prosperity/. Success, in the fullest sense, consisting in what is begun being con- 

 summated or completed ; success and consummation are in a degree synonimous. 

 And, accordingly, in the verse of the first Psalm already referred to, the D'^b'i'^ 

 is rendered in the cognate Arabic version by CDan% shall consummate. We 

 are not therefore surprised to find these two synonimes used in this passage in the 

 two consecutive clauses of the second verse ; the one being applied to the journey, 

 and the other to the business of it : nil n"" Q"'n'''7Sa lan^ 7'7nD O. 



There remain three Latin words in this clause of the section, yet to be 

 matched with Hebrew Punic equivalents ; the first is the adverb "/n'c," liere, 

 w^hich some various readings insert in the beginning of the third Latin line, 

 meas que hie ut gnatas, &c., a reading which the Punic justifies, as it confirms 

 our reading of tlie Punic. 2. The next is siritis, the verb wliich governs the 

 infinitive, repperire, and which sliould have a Punic equivalent 'to govern the 

 Hebrew Punic infinitive n3p, caneth. 3. The last is rite, which though appa- 

 rently, as it is virtually, the equivalent for mtztiahhm, rather implies than ade- 

 quately expresses the meaning of that word. 



* According to the same analogy of mispronunciation, by which in the next scene the word 

 sounded datas by the Roman slave, is by Hanno sounded dechtas. As in the Punic passage, fifth 

 verse, " nutthoti," I was granted, is by Hanno sounded noctothi : and as the Sicilians in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of Libya deflected Carthado to xas^r/wy, and transmitted the same pronunciation 

 to the Greeks, as observed by Salmasius in his Notes on Cornelius Nepos, Hamilcar. 



f The Punic metathesis to mstyal is agreeable to the change which the letter 2 has undergone in 

 similar words, and by which mitzraim and hotsra tsibi (antimony) are frequently found changed to 

 mestraim, hostra, and stihi. 



