21 



The Rev. A. LiJivy, an eminent Orientalist, well known for his noble 

 exertions on behalf of the outraged and oppressed Jews abroad, has kindly 

 given me the following notes : 



You take " ram" as the name of a deity : in that case you have to explain 

 the frequently recurring name " Joram" or "Jehoram." It seems to be a 

 much simpler method to regard ram as a eulogistic epithet, just as Joezer 

 (Jehovah is a help) or Jonadab (Jehovah is a liberal [bestower of bounties]), 

 &c. (p. 4). Tob and its opposite r'a do not strike me to be divine titles. 

 Tubid, Tobiah, are eulogies of the deity in the same way as Tobal. "Ahira* 

 ben Enan" bore a name of dispraise, and reminds one of the biblical phrase 

 "ra y ayin" (an evil eye), Prov. xxiii. 6, and xxviii. 22. 



There are many instances that men and families assumed, defiantly, a 

 name of reprobation to suggest that the individual gives the dementi to the 

 badness of the name. For example, in Italian Malocchio, Malvoglio, &c. 



I have been interested in your combination of Baal and Bosheth. The 

 latter denoting " pudor," appears as the female goddess by the side of Baal, 

 and is sometimes used as a synonym ; see Jerem. xi. 13, " According to the 

 number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to Bosheth: altars 

 to burn incense unto Baal " (the English authorised version has misrendered 

 the word bosheth, and given the clumsy translation "that shameful thing"). 



The change of Jerubaal into Jerubosheth (2 Sam. xi. 21) and Mephibosheth 

 into Mephibaal is another illustration of this synonymy, but there is in the 

 Bible a tendency to convert Baal (=Lord) into the less dignified form 

 Bosheth (= shame or disgrace). See in regard to the aversion to the name of 

 Baal inter alia Hos. ii. 19 (in the authorised version, ii. 17). 



[Bes is identified with Set ( = Baal) in the Eitual (see Pierret, Die. 

 tfArch. Eg., also id. Petit Man. de Myth, 131), and wears the " skin of a lion, 

 entirely concealing his face, and giving it a Gorgonian appearance " (Birch 

 in Wills. Eg. iii. 148), and Bast is the feminine Bes, and equally lion-faced. 

 Also, Set is a lion (solar animal) with eagle- head (solar bird). This is the 

 gryphon of Set or Ba'al. 



The festival of Bast at Bubastis (still called Tell Basta, the Pi-Beset of 

 the Egyptians and of Ezek. xxx. 17) seems, by the account of Herodotus 

 (ii. 60), to have been of a kind to entitle Bast to the stigma of the Hebrew 

 Bosheth. I am much interested to find the identification of Bosheth with 

 the feminine Ba'al (=Bast) confirmed by Mr. Lowy. The Amu were 

 assigned to Bast, as their tutelary deity, by the Egyptians. H. G. T.] 



The CHAIRMAN (the Master of the Charterhouse) said : I am sure you will 

 all desire that I should tender the thanks of the Institute to Mr. Tomkins for 

 the very interesting paper he has just read. It ranges over a multiplicity of 

 subjects every name affording an opportunity for a separate discussion ; and 

 I am certain that all of us have admired the manner in which the author has 



