TOPOGRAPHY^ KACES^ EELIGIONS, LANGUAGES AND CUSTOMS. 83 



The Chairman (the Rev. Canon Girdlestone, M.A., here took 

 the chair for Professor E. Hull, LL.D., F.R.S.). — I am sure I may 

 thank Mr. Rassam, in all your names, for his most interesting 

 paper. 



The Hon. Secretary (Captain Francis Petrie, F.G.S.). — Letters 

 have been received from the Archbishop of Canterbury, who finds 

 " it will not be possible for him to be present " ; from the Chief 

 Rabbi, "regretting that having to distribute some prizes places it 

 out of his power to be at this meeting," and I am sorry to say that 

 Professor Legge is detained at Oxford through illness ; his presence 

 and co-operation at our meetings is always so ]3leasant and valued. 



The Chairman. — There is one little point I should have liked 

 Mr. Rassam to explain, namely, huw it is that Chaldean is always 

 spelt with the letter I while it is spelt in the Hebrew with the 

 s where the I comes. There must be some reason why it is called 

 Chasdim instead of Chaldim. I have read various theories, but 

 not any that were satisfactory. An to the map, I am surprised 

 to see that Mr. Rassam puts down Orfa as if it were Ur of the 

 Chaldees ; whereas many scholars now take it hundreds of miles 

 south-east : of course, the matter is not certain. 



The Author.— As to the difference between Chasdim. and 

 Chaldim, I will leave the rejDly to my friend Mr. Pinches, who 

 is a greater authority upon the subject than I am. But, with 

 regard to Orfa we know of the Chaldean JJr from the Bible, and 

 we must go to the Bible for it. Theorists may say that 

 Abraham came from Babylonia in Southern Mesopotamia ; but 

 I am a believer in St. Stephen, the Martyr, and he said that 

 Abraham came from Aram-Nahraim in Northern Mesopotamia 

 and not from Babylonia. Theories I do not care about. You 

 must remember that in the cuneiform writing there is no 

 alphabet, bxit merely phonetic sounds. I could give you ten 

 names in Asiatic Turkey that are almost the same as in Europe 

 and America, e.g., there is no reason because there is Alessandria 

 in Italy that it should be the Alexandria of Egypt, even if the 

 letters were written the same. Supposing it was really Ur that 

 has been found in the cuneiform writing, how do we know that 

 Abraham was there ? There might be twenty Urs. If we 

 trust to theories we might as well give up the Bible. I am 

 very sorry that in some newly issued Bibles they have put 

 " Ur of the Chaldees" in Southern Mesopotamia. Other learned 



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