112 MR. BOSCAWEN ON THE HISTORICAL 



and may find its eqaivsHentin the paJcidu ilau i, locikidii killdn, 

 " Fear of the gods/'' " Fear of the world/^ literally 

 " reverenced one,^^ which occur in hymns. 



The names occurring in these tablets contain the names of 

 many gods, but of the Semitic names more than tliirty per 

 cent, are compounds of the name of the Moon-god Sin. Such 

 names, to quote only a few, as Sin-isme, the Moon-god hears ; 

 Sin Magir, the Moon-god is reverenced ; Abil Sin, son of the 

 Moon-god ; Ilu-ha-Sin, thy god is the Moon-god ; Avil Sin, 

 man or servant of the Moon-god ; Sin Mubanit, the Moon- 

 god is the Creator, and others. The discovery of these names 

 is of the highest importance, because to my mind it removes 

 for ever the theory of the mythological character of Abram and 

 his family, and substitutes a perfectly rational meaning in 

 accordance with Oriental thought, in place of the mythological 

 theory. The argument of Goldziher is that because Abramu 

 means '^ High Father,^^ therefore he is the High Father, the 

 Night Sky, akin to the Chaldean anu, who has also the title 

 of Ahu rarmi. In the same manner Sarai or Sarah is the 

 Moon as the wife of the Night Sky, the high father, or Milcah 

 the daughter of the Moon, Laban, because their names mean 

 " the Princess " or " Queen," titles often applied to the 

 Moon-goddess. These tablets show how the Moon, Sun, and 

 other powers of Nature were worshipped, and how nature was 

 used as a magazine of symbols, but there is no need to say 

 because the people bore names derived from Nature that they 

 were but mythic nature — gods, and heroes. The prevalence 

 of names which might readil}^ be turned into mythic characters 

 seems to me to be accounted for by this revelation of the 

 tablets from Larsa and Ur. Here the Moon and Sun were 

 the great gods, and such names as Aburamu, Laban, Sarratu, 

 and Malkatu would be familiar as epithets of the gods, and 

 become among the people proper names. 



In a list of synonyms of titles (W.A.I., v. pi. 41, Ob. 11) 



we find ^y s:][<J >-^J^ ^1b ma-al-ka-tuv, Milcah, a synonym 



of E^Idf ^^I >^Ii SAR-RA-Tuv, Sarah. 



The prominence given to the Moon- god in the popular 

 names of the people again throws light upon the migration 

 from the city of Ur to Haran. 



Ur was called by the Akkadians *-t]] rv m '^ ^<3« ] ^IbI> 

 UR-UNU-Ki, literally " Moon dwelling place," and by the 

 Semitics U^-u, the exact equivalent of the Hebrew l^i^ 

 (Gen. xi. 28). The great temple which formed the Acropolis 

 uf Ur, and which was partly restored by Jjy >->-y Qt ur-bahu. 



