''JEWS IN CORNWALL"; AND "MARAZION." 339 



mm-lcet, mart, fair, mercJumdize, &c., Avhich occurs nowhere else in 

 the Bible; and this fact may lead us to suj)pose that, though ad- 

 mitted into the Hebrew language, it belonged rather to the cognate 

 Phoenician. In each case it occurs in construction, with a pro- 

 nominal suffix ; but, divested of this and of the vowel points, it 

 may be represented as tlHri/j azboii ; or, giving to j/ the same 

 sound it has in 6^omorrah, &c., ghazhon. Now in the 12th verse 

 we read : " Tarshish (Spain) was thy merchant by reason of the 

 multitude of all kind of riches ; w^ith silver, iron, tin (Vdeel), and 

 lead, they traded in thy fairs" (ghisbonayic). Hence I conclude 

 that gliizhon, or ghazhon, was a common Phoenician name for a 

 mart where tin, &c., was sold. Marghasbian, one of the inodes of 

 spelling Marazion, has exactly the same consonants in its latter 

 part. Marghas, Marchad is Cornish for market. What more 

 probable then, if the Mount was the "tin-mart," ghashon, than 

 that there should be on the mainland, (where the natives would 

 have to wait till, by the twice-a-day recession of the tide, the 

 causeway was laid bare for them to pass over), a market for the 

 sale of provisions, if for nothing else, — that this, by a reduplica- 

 tion, such as Professor Max Miiller shews there is in Hayle-river, 

 Treville or Trouville, Cotswold hills, Dumbarton, Penliow, Men- 

 Rock, and Portsmouth, should come to be called MargJiad or 

 Marghas-ghasbon, — that this should be shortened into Marghadbon, 

 and afterwards be metamorphosed into Marghasbian, Marghasian, 

 Marazion — each meaning " Little Market 1 " 



Some confirmation of this conjecture may, perhaps, be found 

 in the name of a port where, strange to say, the Jews were united 

 in the same commercial interests with the Phoenicians, thus carry- 

 ing back their possible connection with this country to the days 

 of Solomon, King of Israel, and Hiram the Tyrian. This name is 

 " Ezion Geber." In the Septuagint it is Taa-Luv Ta^s^, they giving 

 to ^ ain, in jT'^^j/ the sound which G has in Gomorrah, and so 

 shewing a striking agreement with Marghasionr' This Ezion-, or 

 rather Ghazion-, Gaber is mentioned several times in the Bible. It 

 was the name of a port and mart on the Eed Sea, whence ships 



* The Corporation Seal bears the legend : sigill : maioeis ville et 



EOKOV : DE MAKGHASION. 



