NOTICE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 



XXI 



these objects are known in Ceylon to the present day ; and, to 

 strengthen my argument on this point, he adds that, " these 

 terms were so entirely foreign and alien from the common 

 Hebrew language as to have driven the Ptolemaist authors of 

 the Septuagint version into a blunder, by which the ivory, apes, 

 and peacocks come out as ' Iteimi and carven stones.'' " The 

 circumstance adverted to had not escaped my notice ; but 

 I forebore to avail myself of it; for, although the fact is 

 accurately stated by the reviewer, so far as regards the Vatican 

 MS., in which the translators have slurred over the passage 

 and converted " ibha, kapi, and tukeyim^^ into " XiOcov to- 

 psvTwv KoX TrsXsKTjTMv " (literally, " stones hammered and carved 

 in relief"); still, in the other great MS. of the Septuagint, 

 the Codex Alexandrinus, which is of equal antiquity, the 

 passage is correctly rendered by " oSovtmv sks^avTLvcov kol 

 irL07]Kcov KOL TUMVcov." Tlic cditor of the Aldiue edition' com- 

 promised the matter by inserting " the ivory and apes," and 

 excluding the " peacocks," in order to introduce the Vatican 

 reading of "stones."^ I have not compared the Complutensian 

 and other later versions. 



The Eev. Mr. Cureton, of the British Museum, who, at my 

 request, collated the passage in the Clialdee and Syriac versions, 

 assures me that in both, the terms in question bear the closest 

 resemblance to the Tamil words found in the Hebrew ; and that 

 in each and all of them these are of foreign importation. 



J. EMERSON TENNENT. 



London : 

 November 28th, 1859. 



» Venice, 1518. 



' Kai oSuvTwv tXapavrivcov Kai Trt9ij- 

 Kiov Kai XiBmv. BA2IA. TPITH. X. 

 22. It is to be observed, tliat 

 Joseplius appears to have been equally 

 embarrassed by the imfamiliar teriii 

 tnkcyim for peacocks. He alludes to 

 the voyages of Solomon's merchant- 

 men to Tarshish, and says that tliey 

 brought back fi-om thence gold and 

 siher, much ivory, apes, and JEthio- 

 pians — thus substituting '' slaves " 



I for pea-fowl - 



c\t0lO17(C T( Kai 



ai TToXiV iXk'i.nr, 

 iTTfc Tf Kai 7r(fl7?/v-o(." Joscphus also 



renders the word Tarshish by "Ji' rj) 

 TapdihyXcyonh'y Sa/Xfirr??," an expres- 

 sion which shows that he thought 

 not of the Indian but the western 

 Tarshish, situated in what Avienus 

 calls the Fretiwi Tartessium, whence 

 African slaves might liave been ex- 

 pected to come. — Antiquit. Jiid(iic(i>, 

 1. viii. c. vii. sec. 2. 



a 3 



