NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION 



FOR 



LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



" "VSnien found, make a note of."-^ Captain Cutti,e. 



Vol. lY. — No. 112.] Saturday, December 20. 1851. 



f Price Threepence. 

 t Stamped Edition 4(i. 



CONTENTS, 

 Notes : — Page 



Wady Mokattel) identified with Kibroth Ha,ttavah, by 



the Hev. Moses M.irgoUouth - - - - 481 



O 1 a Passage in Goldsmith, by Henry H. Breen - 482 



Minor Notes :^ Biographical Dictionary — The Word 

 Premises — Play ol' George Barnwell — Traditions 

 from Remote Periods through few Links - . 48a 



QUEniES : — 



Deodands and their Application, by Jonathan Peel - 484 

 Minor Queries; — . Hell paved with the Skulls of Priests 



— Charib— Thumb Bible — Tripos — Louis Philippe 

 and his Bag of Nails — Brass Statues at Windsor — 

 Edmund Roliuri — Bisliop Trelawney - - - 434 



Minor Quehies Answekeo: — Companion Ladder — 

 Macaulay's Ballad of the Battle of Naseby - - 485 



Replies : — 



The Crucifix as used by tlie Early Christians, by J. 



Emerson Tennent . - . . . 485 



The Word " 'AS-^.^o,-," by T. R. Brown - - - 480 



The Koman Index Expurgatorius of 1(J()7 - .. 487 



Replies to Minor Queries: — Holihes's ** IjCviathan " — 

 Age of Trees — Treatise against Equivocation — 

 Lycian Inscriptions — Alterius Orbis Papa — Carmag- 

 noles — General Jatnes Wolfe — Joh.mnes Tritheinius 



— Sir William Herschel — Dr. Wm. Wall — Parish 

 Registers— Compositions during tlie Protectorate — 

 General Moyle—. Descendants of John of Gaunt — 

 Chorch of St. Bene't Fink — Coins of Vabal.athus — . 

 Engraved Portrait — "Cleanliness is next to godli. 

 ness'* — Cozens the Painter — Whig and Tory — Prince 

 Unpert*s Drops — Heep Well near Bansted Dawns — 

 Mrs. Miry Anne Clarke — Upton Court - - 487 



Miscellaneous : — 



Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. - - - 493 



Books and Odd Volumes wanted - - - - 404 



Notices to Correspondents - , • - 494 



Advertisements ...... 494 



fintciS. 



WADT MOKATTEB IDENTIFIED WITH KIBROTH 

 HATTAVAH. 



The difficulty of deciding the antiquity of the 

 famous inscriptions in the deserts of Arabia, would 

 be considerably diiuiiiislied if we could ascertain 

 the earliest mention of tlie valley now known as 

 AVady Mokatteb. AVhat I am about to submit to 

 the readers of the " Notks and Queries," is not a 

 presumptuous or rash suj,';^esti()n, but an idea 

 ditfidently entertained, and cautiously and ma- 

 turely considered. 



It is not at all improbable that that valley, with 

 its snrroundiii;^ rocky chronicles, was first men- 

 tioned by Moses, the (irst delineator of the ">^reat 

 wilderness." The mention L allude to is to be 



found in Numbers, xi. 26. The passage, as it 

 occurs in the English version, runs thus : 



" But there remained two of the men in the camp, 

 the name of the one was Eldad, an;l the name of the 

 other was Medad ; and the Spirit rested upon them, 

 and they were of them that were written." 

 The original words of the last clause are but the 

 two following : — 



D''3-in33 noni 



which literally signify, " and they were amongst 

 the inscriptions." 



A personal and literary examination of the lo- 

 cality of the Sinaitic inscriptions convinces me 

 that 'Eldad and Medad were theu in that famous 

 region. By a reference to the chapter alluded to, 

 it will be found that the children of Israel were 

 then at that awfully memorable place called Ki- 

 broth Hattavah (ver. 34.), and no one, who has but 

 a slight knowledge of scripture topography, will 

 be at a loss to observe that_ it is the very spot 

 where the mysterious inscriptions are found. 



Dr. Robinson, in his Biblical Researches, vol. i. 

 p. 138., thus notices the subject in question : 



" The Sinaite inscriptions are found on all the routes 

 which lend from the West towards Sinai, above the 

 convent El-Arbain, hut are found neither on Gebel 

 Miisa, nor on the present Horeb, nor on St. Catherine, 

 nor in the valley of the convent ; while on Serbal they 

 are seen on its very summit." 



Lord Lindsay, in his first letter from Edom and 

 the Hohj Land, introduces the same district in the 

 following words : 



" We now entered Wady MoVatteb, a spacious 

 valley, hounded on the east by a most picturesque 

 rano-e of black mountains, but chiefly famous for the 

 insc'riptions on the rocks that line it, and from which 

 it derives its name. There are thousands of them, in- 

 scriptions too, and here is the mystery, in a character 

 which no one has yet deciphered." 



Now, let the ancient and modern maps be com- 

 pared and it will be discovereil that the same 

 place which is called, in Num. xi.26., D'^ina, pro- 

 bably on account of its inscriptions, is also called 



by the Arabians 

 hatteb. 



ICi]! ^Ji^ Wady el Mo- 



