422 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



" be with the names of the children of Ifrael, twelve, 

 " according to their names, like the engravings of ^.fignet; every 

 " one with his name, fliall they be according to the twelve 

 " tribes *." Which is plainly, You fhall not write in the way 

 ufed till this day, for it leads the people into idolatry ; you 

 fhall not type Judah by a lion, Zebulun by a.Jbij>, lffachar by 

 an afs couching between two burdens ; but, inftead of wri- 

 ting by pictures, you fhall take the other known hand, the 

 merchants writing, which fignifies founds, not things; write 

 the names Judah, Zebulun, lffachar, in the letters, fuch as the 

 merchants ufe upon their fignets. And, on Aaron's breaft- 

 plate of pure gold, was to be written, in the fame alphabet, 

 like the engravings of a fignet, holiness to the lord'\. 



These fignets, of the remoteft antiquity in the Eaft, are worn 

 ftill upon every man's hand to this day, having the name of 

 the pcrfon that wears them, or fome fentence upon it always 

 religious. The Greeks, after the Egyptians, continued the 

 other method, and defcribed figures upon their fignet ; the 

 ufe of both has been always common in Britain. 



We find afterwards, that, in place of flone or gold, for 

 greater convenience Mofes wrote in a book, " And it came 

 " to pafs, when Mofes had made an end of writing the 

 " words of this law in a book, until they were fim£hed;.$" — 



Although, then, Mofes certainly did not invent either, 

 or any character, it is probable that he made two, perhaps 

 more, alterations in the Ethiopic alphabet as it then flood, 



4 with 



* Eso4. chap, xsviii. vcr. 21. f Exod. chap, xxviii. ver. 36. J Dent, chap, xxxi. ver. 24- 



