Sanscrit Writing and Language. 79 



we may be certain that it denotes the Royal Psahnist, and, consequently, that it 

 must have been read by some combination of sounds nearly approaching to 

 DaWiD, the ancient pronunciation of his name in Hebrew and, after the 

 Hebrew, in the Septuagint. This group, therefore, fully verifies the powers 

 assigned to the first and second of its elements, and that of the third by approxi- 

 mation. The second group, examined in like manner, will serve to establish the 

 correctness of the powers attributed to every one of its ingredient characters 

 without exception. In the third group, although it may be proved in the same 

 way that the powers of the characters are syllabic, yet it is questionable whether 

 the vocal part of the first power be e ov y ; and as it is here long, (from the posi- 

 tion of the syllable in the word expressed), the difference is perceptible ; while 

 the example seems to accord better with Dr. Castell's than the Bishop's repre- 

 sentation of the powers of the sixth column, unless it be allowed that e, followed 

 by the consonant 3/, has a sound approaching to that of i. The first three names 

 are pronounced very nearly the same in the Septuagint as in the Hebrew, and, 

 consequently the groups we have been examining do not enable us to determine 

 from which text the Ethiopic version was made ; but the fourth group clearly 

 marks the derivation of this version immediately from the Septuagint. Tlie 

 Greek translator was unable exactly to express the first syllable of Yerushalem, and 

 substituted for it Hie. The Ethiopic writer has also given two syllables in place 

 of the original one, but not from any inability to express that one ; and there- 

 fore he must evidently have done so from his having translated from the Greek. 

 It deserves moreover to be here noticed, that in his imitation of Hie, he has 

 expressed e by the syllable ya ; which clearly points out that the series of letters 

 termed iJaZp/i and Hayin did not denote mere vowels at the time when he made his 

 translation ; for if they had, it surely is by one of the characters of either series 

 that he would have represented the second part of Hie. It may be also remarked, 

 that the first name is represented exactly by the same number of letters in the 

 Hebrew as in the Ethiopic writing ; and as those in the derivative writing have 

 undoubtedly syllabic powers, there is even hence some probability of the corres- 

 ponding elements of the group belonging to the parent system having been at 

 first employed with like powers. If the letters in the Ethiopic designation of this 

 name were divested of the marks which serve to confine the terminations of the 

 syllables they denote to particular sounds, the whole group would then be pre- 



