18G6.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 193 



meaning originally "to support or prop;" then, " to carry a child in 

 the arms," in which sense it occurs in Numbers xi. 12, where the 

 words are " caasher yissd lid-omen eth-lid-yonek," i. e. " as a foster- 

 father carries a child." Our authorized version renders the word 

 omen (the present participle) by " nursing-father," and Gresenius aptly 

 compares the use of the Greek word TrcuSaywyos. 



The cognate word in Arabic is c>ta to nourish, and we are thus led 

 to seek the original biliteral Semitic root in the syllable man, and to 

 regard the a initial as a later addition. 



Although, as Mr. Blochmann says, an accessary n may be traced 

 in some biliteral roots, yet a prosthetic aleph is far more common ; 

 and in treating of a point so far removed beyond the historic period 

 of language, we must not confound grammatical with radical pro- 

 cesses. Mr. Blochmann seems to be doing this ; he seems to be 

 thinking of verbal derivatives in on or something of that sort. 



The Arabic root mdna leads us to bdnah 'to build,' whence hen 

 1 a son,' and the original signification is thus closely connected on all 

 sides with the ideas of erecting, supporting and confirming. 



Thus although the Sanskrit compound oman and the Hebrew un- 

 compounded word amen, have at first sight some surface similarity, 

 yet it is evident on a little enquiry that in the Sanskrit word the 

 idea of confirming lies in the syllable ao or o the syllable man being 

 merely a grammatical addition ; — while in the Hebrew word the idea 

 of confirming lies in the syllable man or men, the syllable a being 

 merely prosthetic. To connect the two words then philologically, 

 we should have to establish a community of origin between ao and 

 man, which is a difficult, if not an impossible task. 



2nd. The word amen is found in its sense of "so must it be," as 

 early as Numbers v. 22, in the description of the ordeal by holy 

 water as applied to women suspected of infidelity. 



The priest repeated the curse, and the woman answered " amen, 

 amen ;" meaning, " If I be guilty, may the curse take effect on me." 



Again in Deuteronomy xxvii. 15, where, in the hearing of the whole 

 nation, curses were pronounced on those who should break the law, 

 at the end of each curse, " the people answered and said, ' amen," i. e., 

 "so mote it be." 



Now whatever antiquity we ascribe to the Pentateuch, we cannot 



