34 



it is pure English, if you wish to say you mean to deal pugilistically with a 

 man, to assert that you " cuff" him. 



The Rev. H. G. TOMKINS. I think it is probable. You know that Icaph 

 is the hand to smite with. 



Mr. TRELAWNEY SAUNDERS. One of the previous speakers has alluded to 

 the probable influence of Phosnician commerce in the distribution of these 

 Oriental terms. I agree with him ; and with reference to the word 

 " Bosheth," the meaning of which is " folly," is it not synonymous with the 

 word we now so frequently use to express " folly," the word " bosh " ? 



The Rev. H. G. TOMKINS. I think that is quite right. 



Mr. TRELAWNEY SAUNDERS. Then we have the word " Babel," which 

 means "confusion." I quite agree with what Mr. Eassam said on that 

 subject, in which I follow the leading of Holy Writ, though I also remember 

 that " Babel " means not only confusion, but that " babbler," which is 

 Johnsonian English, is still in use among us. Of course, I do not mean you 

 to conclude from all this that we are part of the ten tribes, or anything of 

 the sort. Well, then, there is an allusion to the " land of Naharina." This 

 has always been regarded as Mesopotamia, between the Euphrates and the 

 Tigris ; but I believe it very seldom, if ever, occurs in that sense in the 

 Bible. Whenever Mesopotamia is mentioned in the Bible, it is referred 

 to the rivers of Damascus ; but that is a very questionable point. 



Then, again, we have a curious word in "Takhtim-Khodshi." " Takht" 

 is a common word at the present day. On the borders of the Indus you 

 have, looking down from the height of 12,000 feet, the Takht-i-Suleiman, 

 the Throne of Solomon, which I take to mean the land of the high place. 



Upon subsequent reference I find that the Hebrew has no connexion either 

 with " thrones " or with " Kadesh." The latter is spelt with Icaph, but 

 " Khodshi"has cheth as its initial. The words appear to mean a " Reclaimed 

 Lowland," and they are applicable to either of the plains on the borders of 

 the Sea of Galilee. There is some reason to believe that neither of those 

 plains existed at the destruction of Sodom, and their comparatively recent 

 reclamation may have caused the descriptive name of Tahtim Kodshi to be 

 attached to them in the time of Joab. 



Then, again, there is an allusion made to the name "Cain." There 

 is a Cain, a city of Judah, which I think is now pretty fairly iden- 

 tified. Upon reference, it appears that the Hebrew initial of Cain is 

 koph and not caf. The city in Judah is spelt the same as the name of the 

 fratricide. So also is that of the Kenite tribes. In that case the points 

 vary in most passages, but not in all. The city of Kinah only differs in 

 Hebrew in the final h, and the points. 



With regard to the word " Totem," I take it to be something which we 

 might compare to-day with patron- saints. It had very much the same 

 sort of meaning and use, namely, the adoption of an animal as the 

 emblem of the particular god to which the family should look. 



At the end of the paper an allusion is made to what has been written 

 by Professor Robertson Smith, to whom we should offer our best thanks 



