32 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 115. 



others to the tabernacle, and the remark of the 

 historian, " that they remained in the camp and 

 v;ent not out unto the tabernacle,^' would have been 

 without point or meaning, Mr, Margoliouxh, 

 therefore, was quite right to omit these words, as 

 they completely overturn his hypothesis. 



Why these two elders remained in the camp is 

 not expressly stated in the inspired narrative. 

 Kaschi says, — 



: nrn rh^)'^h *Kn3 i3x }\s n»x nnn3B> tnixo 



" They were oF those who were chosen, but they said, 

 we are not sufficient for tliis great thing." 



He goes on to tell us that Moses being per- 

 plexed how to choose seventy elders out of the 

 twelve tribes, without giving offence to some one 

 tribe by choosing a smaller number out of it, se- 

 lected six out of each tribe, which made seventy- 

 two, and determined by lot the two who were to 

 be omitted, llaschi does not say (as Lightfoot, 

 and after him, Bishop Patrick, seem to have 

 imagined) that the two rejected elders were Eldad 

 and Medad, for this would be inconsistent with the 

 "words just quoted, where he ascribes their re- 

 maining behind to their humility and sense of 

 insufficiency for so great a work ; and I need 

 scarcely say that the text of the Scripture gives 

 no authority for the story of the seventy-two 

 chosen, and the two rejected by lot. But even 

 this story sufficiently proves that the ancient Jewish 

 commentators understood the words D^2inD nOHl 

 as they are rendered by our English translators. 



Mr. Margoliouth's conjecture, therefore, is 

 totally without foundation ; it is not supported by 

 any authority, and is even inconsistent with the 

 plain words of the text. I should be sorry to see 

 " N. & Q." made the A^ehicle of such rash and 

 unsound criticisms, and therefore I send you this 

 refutation of it. 



With respect to Wady Mokatteb, it would be 

 very desirable to have the singular inscriptions 

 there extant carefully copied by competent 

 scholars. Hitherto we have been forced to con- 

 tent ourselves with the drawings sent home by 

 chance travellers ; would it not be possible to or- 

 ganize a caravan of competent persons, having 

 some knowledge of oriental tongues and alphabets, 

 to explore these interesr.ing valleys, and bring 

 home correct transcripts of their inscriptions ? 

 Many noblemen and gentlemen spend annually on 

 travelling and yachting much more money than 

 would be necessary to organize such an expedition 

 as I am suggesting ; and if a party put their funds 

 together, and took with them artists to make the 

 drawings, with a couple of well qualified scholars 

 to assist in deciphering them, I think they might 

 spend as pleasant, and certainly a much more pro- 

 fitable, summer, than in ascending Mont Blanc, 

 or drinking sack in the Rhine steam-boats. 

 Perhaps, also, the improvements in the dagiierreo- 



type and talbotype processes might be made 

 available for securing absolute accuracy in the 

 fac-similes of the inscriptions. James H. Todd. 

 Trhiity Coll. Dublin. 



In reference to these celebrated inscriptions, a 

 remarkable statement occurs in the Journal Asia- 

 tique for 1836, tom. ii. p. 182., of which I annex 

 a translation : — 



" M. Fr£ehn has discovered in an Arabian author, 

 Ibn-ahi-Yakoul)-el-Nedim, who wrote in 987, a pas- 

 sage stating that at that period the Russians already 

 possessed the art of writing. This author has eveu 

 preserved a specimen of Russian writing of the tenth 

 century, which, he says, he received from an ambas- 

 •sador sent to Russia by one of the Princes of the 

 Caucasus. These characters do not resemble the. 

 Greek alphabet, or the runes of the Scandinavian 

 races. It would appear, therefore, that the first germ 

 of civilisation in Russia preceded the establishment of 

 Rurik and the Varangi in this country, instead of 

 having been introduced by them. A circumstance of 

 peculiar interest is, that these ancient Russian letters, 

 so different from any other alphabet, have the greatest 

 analogy with those inscriptions, yet unexplained, sculp- 

 tured on the rocks of the desert between Suez and 

 Mount Sinai, and noticed there in the sixth century of 

 our jera. The analogy existing between these in- 

 scriptions placed on the confines of Africa and Asia, 

 and others found in Siberia, had already been demon- 

 strated by Tychsen. M. Fra;ha is about to publish 

 this interesting discovery." 



Query, what ground is there for the above 

 assertions, and what has been since published in 

 support of such a statement ? ju. 



BOILING TO DEATH AS A PUNISHMENT. 



(Vol. ii., p. 519.) 



L. H. K. gives an extract from Howe's Chro' 

 nicle, detailing the punishment of one Richard 

 Rose (as also of another person) in the above 

 manner for the crime of poisoning, and inquires 

 if this was a peculiar mode of punishing of cooks. 

 No reply to this having yet appeared, and the 

 subject being only incidentally mentioned at 

 Vol. iii., p. 153., I venture to submit to you the 

 following Notes I have made upon it. 



The crime of poisoning was always considered 

 as most detestable, " because it can, of all others, 

 be the least prevented either by manhood or fore- 

 thought." Nevertheless, prior to the statute of 

 22 Hen. VIII. c. 9. there was no peculiarity in the 

 mode of punishment. The occurrence to which 

 Howe refers, appears to have excited considerable 

 attention, probably on account of the supposition 

 that the life of the bishop was aimed at ; so much 

 so, that the extraordinary step was taken of pass- 

 ing an Act of Parliament, retrospective in its en- 

 actments as against the culprit (who is variously 



