KNIGHT : ETYMOLOGY OF AZECA AND ASSIMINEA OF LEACH. 275 



Cadmusia (Pholadidca) : from Cadmus, the Phoenician hero, who 

 was credited with the introduction of the alphabet into Greece. 



Gobrasus (Psammobia) : perhaps coined from Gobryas, one of the 

 seven Persian nobles who conspired against Pseudo-Smerdis in Hero- 

 dotus' famous story. 



Arianta {Helix) : from Ariantas, a king of Scythia, who, as Hero- 

 dotus tells us, employed arrows in taking a census of his people. 



Tachea {Helix) : possibly suggested by, and coined from, Tachus 

 King of Egypt in the reign of Artaxerxes Ochus. 



Many others of Leach's names might be mentioned, with their 

 probable etymologies, showing how his tastes in generic nomencla- 

 ture ran in the direction of biblical and oriental types. 



Azeca. — Under these circumstances is it impossible, or at all 

 improbable, that Azeca is also derived from Scripture? Azeca is 

 simply another way of writing Azekah, the name of a town of the 

 tribe of Judah, mentioned in Josh. x. 10 ; i Sam. xvii. i ; Jerem. 

 xxxiv. 7, etc. In the Septuagint translation, the word is 'A^Ka, from 

 which the term Azeka or Azeca has been derived, the final 'h' being 

 of course, according to rule, dropped. I am not prepared to say 

 where in common parlance it is customary to place the accent. I 

 have frequently heard the word pronounced Azeca ; but the Greek 

 original certainly gives us the correct method, namely Azeca. If it be 

 objected that Azekah is too obscure a town to have caught the atten- 

 tion of Dr. Leach, I would simply reply that it is mentioned seven 

 times . in scripture, while Lasaea is mentioned only once. And, more- 

 over the mere fact that it is among the lesser known names of scrip- 

 ture falls in with the rule which Leach set before himself that he 

 should select names which were destitute of any descriptive signifi- 

 cance. 



Assiminea. — Jeffreys (B.C., vol. 5, p. 97) says of this title:— 

 "Assiminea, a ridiculous name " ; and again (p. 98) : — " This genus 

 bears Gray's MS. name of Nerita syncera, and has been called Assim- 

 inia and Assaminia. With respect to the present name the author 

 ought to have borne in mind one of Linne's laws of scientific nomen- 

 clature : ' Idiotce. imposuere nomina absurda.' " I venture to think 

 that Jeffreys has been too hard here on Leach. Readers of the 

 " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire " will recollect how fre- 

 quently Gibbon acknowledges his indebtedness to the vast erudition 

 of the great oriental scholar, Joseph Simon Assemani. He was born 

 in 1687, and died in 1768. He was commissioned by the then Pope 

 to visit the numerous convents in Syria and Egypt, and he returned 

 ' laden with the spoils of the east,' in the form of many valuable manu- 

 scripts, etc., which to-day greatly enrich the Vatican library. His great 



