Oct. 8. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



345 



already, of its use at a still earlier period; but It 

 is unlikely that we shall ever know who first 

 brought it from Cornwall to Asia, and used it to 

 harden copper. It is, however, a matter of in- 

 terest to trace the mention of this metal in the 

 ancient inscriptions, Egyptian and Assyrian, which 

 have of late years been so successfully interpreted. 

 Mistakes have been made from time to time, which 

 subsequent researches have rectified. It was 

 thought for a long time that a substance, men- 

 tioned in the hieroglyphical inscriptions very fre- 

 quently, and in one instance said to have been 

 procured from Babylon, was tin. This has now 

 been ascertained to be a mistake. Mr. Birch has 

 proved that it was Lapis lazuli, and that what was 

 brought from Babylon Avas an artificial blue-stone 

 in imitation of the genuine one. I am not aware 

 whether the true hieroglyphic term for tin has 

 been discovered. Mention was again supposed to 

 have been made of tin in the annals of Sargon. A 

 tribute paid to him in his seventh year by Pirhu 

 (Pharaoh, as Col. Rawlinson rightly identifies the 

 name ; not Pihor, Boccharis, as I at one time sup- 

 posed), king of Egypt, Q'samtsi, queen of Arabia, 

 and Idhu, ruler of the Isabeans, was supposed to 

 have contained tin as well as gold, horses, and 

 camels. This, however, was in itself an impro- 

 bable supposition. It is much more likely that in- 

 cense or spices should have been yielded by the 

 countries named than tin. At any rate, I have 

 recently identified a totally different word with 

 the name of tin. It reads a?»i« ; and I supposed 

 it, till very lately, to mean " rings." I find, how- 

 ever, that it signifies a metal, and that a different 

 word has the signification " rings." When Assur- 

 yuchura-bal, the founder of the north-western 

 palace at Nimrud, conquered the people who 

 lived on the banks of the Orontes from the con- 

 fines of Hamath to the sea, he obtained from them 

 twenty talents of silver, half a talent of gold, one 

 hundred talents of anna (tin), one hundred talents 

 of iron, &c. His successor received from the same 

 people all these metals, and also copper. 



It is already highly probable, and farther dis- 

 coveries may soon convert this probability to cer- 

 tainty, that the people just referred to (whom I 

 incline strongly to identify with the Shirutana of 

 the Egyptian inscriptions) were the merchants of 

 the world before Tyre was called into existence ; 

 their port being what the Greeks called Seleucia, 

 when they attempted to revive its ancient great- 

 ness. It is probably to them that the discovery 

 of Britain is to be attributed ; and it was probably 

 from them that it received Its name. 



In G. W.'s communication, a derivation of the 

 name from harat-anac, " the land of tin," is sug- 

 gested. He does not say by whom, but he seems 

 to disclaim it as his own. I do not recollect to 

 have met with it before ; but it appears to me, 

 even as it stands, a fiir more plausible one than 



hruit-tan, " the land of tin : " the former term being 

 supposed to be Celtic for tin, and the latter a ter- 

 mination with the sense of land: or than hrit- 

 daoine, " the painted (or separated) people." 



I am, however, disposed to think that the name 

 is not of Phoenician origin, but was given by their 

 northern neighbours, whom I have mentioned as 

 their predecessors in commerce. These Avere evi- 

 dently of kindred origin, and spoke a language of 

 the same class ; and I think it all but certain, that 

 in the Assyrian name for tin (anna} we have the 

 name given to it by this people, from whom the 

 Assyrians obtained it. "The land of tin" would 

 be in their language barat (or probably ha7-it} 

 anna, from which the transition to Britannia pre- 

 sents no difficulty. I assume here that b-r-t, 

 without expressed vowels, is a Phoenician term for 

 " land of." I assume it on the authority of the 

 person, whoever he may be, that first gave the 

 derivation that G. W. quotes. I have no Phoeni- 

 cian authority within reach : but I can readily 

 believe the statement, knowing that banit would 

 be the Assyrian word used in such a compound, 

 and that n, r, and b are perpetually interchanged 

 in the Semitic languages, and notoriously so in 

 this very root. Ummi banitiya, "of the mother 

 who produced me," is pure Assyrian ; and so 

 would banit-anna, " the producer of tin," be ; all 

 names of lands being feminine in Assyrian. 



It would be curious if the true derivation of the 

 world-renowned name of Britain should be ascer- 

 tained for the first time through an Assyrian 

 medium. Edw. Hincks. 



Killyleagh, Down. 



As there are several Queries in the Note of 

 G. W. which the Celtic language is capable of 

 elucidating, I beg to offer a few derivations from 

 that language. 



Britain is derived from briot, painted, and 

 tan, a country — i. e. "the country of the painted 

 people." It is a matter of history, that the people 

 of Britain dyed their bodies with various colours. 



Tin is from the Celtic tin, to melt readily, to 

 dissolve. It is also called stan : Latin, stannum. 



Hercules is from the Phoenician or Celtic, Eai-r- 

 aclaide, pronounced Er-aclaie, i. e. the noble 

 leader or hero. 



Melkarthus is derived from Mal-catair, pro- 

 nounced Mal-cahir, i. e. the champion or king of 

 the city (of Tyre). 



Moloch cannot be identical with the Tyrlan 

 Hercules, as Moloch was the god of fire : pro- 

 bably a name for the sun, from the Celtic mole, 

 i. e. ifire. Feas. Ckosslet. 



