688 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



C. H. Toy described some phonetic peculiarities of Cairo Arabic, 

 especially the Egyptian mute Gijm^ palatal q, and the pronunciation of 

 the dentals. In the Cairo pronunciation the old Arabic th and dk be- 

 come t and d; in some cases the Cairo fricatives i^ass into sibilants. 



George Washburn summarized the articles of the Mohammedan 

 creed. Islamism has for its base faith in the unity of God and in the 

 mission of his dearest servant Mohammed. The book of God which 

 descended last from Heaven is the sacred Koran. The first of the 

 prophets was Adam and the last Mohammed ; the greatest of all is 

 Mohammed, etc. 



Caroline R. Wright described the worship of the dervishes of Cairo. 

 The preliminary prayers over, the curtain of the entrance door is raised, 

 and giaours are admitted to the sanctuary. At this moment the chief 

 dervish and other dervishes were prostrate, with their heads on the 

 ground in the direction of meihrah, and for nearly half an hour they 

 continued kneeling, praying and bowing, rocking to and fro, reciting 

 the Koran in a twanging nasal tone. Then follows the howling of the 

 litany, with its unison refrain AUah-hou, Allah-hou. 



OLD TESTAMENT AND HEBREW. 



Benjamin Wisner Bacon presented in tabular form the results of the 

 principal schools of higher Biblical criticism, including fragments and 

 l)ortions assigned to editors, interpolators, compilers, and glossators. 

 His classiQcation is: Priestly Law Book, P^; Ephraimite Narrative, F; 

 Judeau Narrative, J; Law of Holiness, P'. 



E. C. Bissell published a work on Biblical Antiijuities, for popular 

 use. It embraces the main facts under the classitlcatiou of domestic, 

 civil, and sacred antiquities. 



W. G. Blakie has published .the first and second books of Samuel. 

 Tbey belong to the series called the Expositor's Library, based on the 

 plan of giving" the substance of scripture in a running commentary or 

 connected narrative, which furnishes all needful explanations. 



C. A. Briggs continued his studies on the forms of Hebrew poetry. 

 The tetrameters are measured by four beats of the accent, and are often 

 divided by a ciosura into two halves. Examples are Psalm xlvi, 13 ; 

 2 Samuel i, 19-27; Exodus xv; Psalm Ixxxix. Tetrameters are not so 

 numerous as the pentameters. The jientameter is measured by five beats 

 of the rythmical accent; the ciesura usually comes after the third 

 beat. Examples are Lamentations iii ; Psalm cxix; Jonah ii; Psalms 

 cxx, cxxxiv (the dirge of Babylon) ; Isaiah xlvii. The hexameter is a 

 double trimeter. Instances of hexameter are Proverbs xxxi, 12 ff; Psalm 

 cxxxvii; Isaiah Ix, and Jeremiah viii, 9. 



T. K. Cheyne offers an emandation to Job iii, 14, and translates " to 

 build up ruined iilaces." 



Howard Crosby asserts that the revised Old Testament is too much 

 a Jjew editiou of the old authorized version, aud illustrates this by a 



