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 * hewn 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 " D^n^ D'$>p and D'?3Fi " into " \tdwv TO- 

 psvrwv KOL TrsXsKrjrfov " (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 pas- 

 sage is correctly rendered by OAONTW A<I>ANTINU)N 

 KAI niGHKWN KAI TAWNWN. The editor of the 

 Aldine edition 1 compromised the matter by inserting "the 

 ivory and apes," and excluding the " peacocks," in order to 

 introduce the Vatican reading of "stones." 2 I have not com- 

 pared the Complutensian and other later versions. 



The Kev. Dr. CUBETON, of the British Museum, who, at my 

 request, collated the passage in the Chaldee 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. 



1 Venice, 1518. 



2 Kai oSovruJv iKftpavTivuiv ical irtOii- 

 KUV *ai \iOwv. BASIA. TPI'I H. X. 

 22. It is to be observed, that 

 Joseplius appears to have been equally 

 embarrassed by the unfamiliar term 

 D\'?ri for peacocks. He alludes to 

 the voyages of Solomon's merchant- 

 men to Tarshish, and says that they 

 brought back from thence gold and 

 silver, much ivory, apes, and ^Ethio- 

 pians thus substituting " slaves" 



VOL. i. *a 3 



for pea-fowl "icai iroXve i\'t<pac t 

 AiUoTTfe rt KOI iri9tjKoi." Josephus also 

 renders the word Tarshish b " iv r 



an exres- 



sion which shows that he was think- 

 ing not of the Indian but the western 

 Tarshish, situated in what Avienus 

 calls the Fretum Tartessium r whence 

 African slaves might have been ex- 

 pected to come. Antiquit. Judaica*, 

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



