Brinton.] ^^^ [Nov. 4. 



impersonation. This fact brings out the antithesis in the line 

 between the two divinities named. Marmar was the god of the 

 early season and of the spring crops, Berber or Ver of the autumn 

 and the late crops, and this was the reason for bringing them 

 together in this adjuration for the fertility of the fields. 



The meaning of Ber in the ancient Libyan language I have partly 

 discussed elsewhere. It is from the biliteral root B R, the primi- 

 tive meaning of which was " to overflow," or something equivalent 

 to that idea. Applied to population, it was "to migrate," "to 

 journey forth," and, as only freemen could have that privilege, it 

 came to mean "to be free," and it was apparently in that proud 

 significance in which it was adopted a patronymic. In its earlier 

 sense it was and is applied to water which boils over, and in a 

 neuter form it signifies "to be in excess," " to be abundant," and 

 hence " to abound in," " to be fruitful in " {foissoner). Here we 

 see where the meaning of Ver comes in, as the god of the harvest, 

 of the fruitage and the vintage. 



In the ancient Numidian epigraphy we find this name repeatedly 

 inscribed on tombstones, usually with a similar suffix, Vermim, 

 Vermimo, Vermima,'^ in which we easily see the biliteral Berber 

 radical M M, from which are derived the terms for both mother 

 I/nma, and son Emvii. Whether the termination -umnus, so com- 

 mon in Etruscan names, and occasionally written lunmits (Jucumno, 

 /i/cunww), is not this same termination may be suggested, in which 

 case Vertummis would mean "Son of Ber." And, in this con- 

 nection, I must not omit to mention that precisely the reduplicated 

 form Marmar is found on Numidian inscriptions two or three cen- 

 turies before our era.f 



Passing to the fourth line of the Song, its first word seems a 

 stumbling block. Some think seniones is an abbreviation of semi- 

 homines, and means "demi-gods;" others would derive it from 

 sero, semen, and take it to refer to gods of sowing, and hence 

 agricultural; while Mommsen understands it as se-homines, "apart 

 from men," applied to divinities in general. Most authorities sup- 

 pose advocapit to be a mistake for advocabite ; and the translation 



* See 'H.&\6vy, Essaid'Epigraphie IJbyque, Inscriptions 7, 22, 23, 24, and others. The 

 termination mim occurs in other inscriptions, as No. 47, Uba-mim; No. 152, Ar-mima, etc. 



t As in Hal6vy's collection. No. 100, etc. The Libyan general conquered by Pharaoh 

 Merenptah was named Marmariu, "Son of Marmar." The radical M R, in the Berber 

 dialects, means '• to be great " and " to be old," the ideas of age and power being in 

 them, as in so many tongues, synonymous. 



