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



with in'lach. Again, in the same verse, when looking for a term of tutelary- 

 import corresponding with the Latin rite, as used in the ^neid, in reference to 

 the prosperity oi a journey, and in reference io family prosperity in the Carmen 

 Seculare, we find in the latter reference in the 127th Psalm (Chaldee version) the 

 old Chaldee word cim, or chiun ; and in the dying song of Moses, in reference 

 to the happy termination of the journeying of the Israelites, the old and poetical 

 word lihub, or cuh. And when we find that of those two synonymes one is used 

 with the m'lach ythmu of the Punic, and the other with the ytlmm (:^ythmu) 

 locuti of the Libyan, we have evidence as satisfactory as the subject admits, that 

 cun and cuh are the right reading. 



In the third verse, the same principles of reading and Interpretation suggest 

 and confirm the Punic reading caneth benotliai, and the Libyan can't henn't, as 

 in harmony with the Latin in sense, and with each other in sense and sound. 

 Again, in the same verse, the expression of endearment towards his children, 

 which the subject of that line might be expected to elicit, and the actual expres- 

 sion of it by Hanno in a subsequent scene, in the words "cupitcB et expectatcs," 

 suggest to us the appropriate synonymy of (a*i*TiT) dodim, " beloved,'' (in the 

 Canticles), and the still more expressive ("iiytyyu?) sheshui, " my delights," (in 

 the Proverbs.) Accordingly, the circumstance of one of these synonymes being 

 found in the Punic, viz. dodim, and tlie other in the Libyan, clearly justifies the 

 philoprogenitive import we have attributed to those vocables.* 



The word hospes, in the fifth verse, coupled with the mention of the tessera 

 in the eighth, suggests the idea of hospitable fellowship : and the Hebrew word 

 for which Gesenius's Lexicon rightly gwe?, fellowship, as the proper equivalent, 

 is {pb'n) elech. Elech, &ccordimg\y, we find in the fifth Punic line, immediately 

 next to the proper name of Hanno's host, Antidamas ; and in the same sentence, 

 with the same proper name, in the Libyan, the same word spelled ileach. Can 

 this significant congruity allow us to doubt that elech, in the sense we interpret 

 it, is the true reading ? With respect to the further meaning included in 

 hospes, of common hospitable entertainment, we find, of the two synonymous 

 expressions for it, one, " I was granted a house, or home," in the Punic ; the 

 other, " I was guest and companion," in the Libyan. 



• There is no legible Libyan for the fourtb verse but the word alonxm. 



