1847.] 



Notices. 



197 



The whole of the above he bequeathed to the Court of Directors, 

 with a request that his friends Sir W. Hooker, Mr. Lemanii, and Mr. 

 Bentham might be allowed to arrange them, 



Of his zoological acquisitions, the quadrupeds and birds par- 

 ticularly those obtained in Affghanistan, many of which are new 

 to science, have been lodged in the museum of the E. I. House. 

 A notice of some of his entomological spoils by the Rev. F. Hope, 

 has been given in the XYHI. Volume of the Linnsean Transactions 

 and an account of the fresh water fishes obtained by him in various 

 localities, drawn up by Dr. M'Clelland, will be fotind in the Calcutta 

 Journal of Natural History, vol. ii. p. 580, and vol. iii. p. 283. 



NOTICES. 



Professor Lee on the Cujic Signatures in the Copper Grant of 

 the Syrian Christians. 



We have been favored with the following Extract from a letter by 

 Dr. Lee, Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, on the above subject. 



The Madras Journal which you were so good as to send me, gives 

 a very exact copy of this Cufic impression (Vol. xiii. Plate viii.) ; 

 and, at page 143, a decipherment of this is given, on the whole, I 

 think, very correctly. In one or two instances, however, there seems 

 to me to be room for amendment. The notes here, which proceed 

 perhaps from the Editor, translate this decipherment thus : "The first 

 Avord," says this writer, " which is Avanting may be ^'^s> the reading 

 would then be Meimum son of IhraJdm arranged this for you." But 

 I cannot see, how ^'♦..;x> can mean, '"Meimum arrang- 



ed this for you." I can find no instance in Avhich is used as a 

 verb, or, as a noun, having the sense of arranging. I should rather 

 think that, if we are to take as the first word of this plate, 

 some such verb as J4>J should follow it, thus ^i'^'^j'') J^, '^^^i^ lSS 

 •^ij*^ ^'^^ meaning, *'ilf<22me^??2the son of /ira/^'yy* bestowed this mu- 

 nificently upon thee ;" &c. which should still require some additional 

 matter to have proceeded. Or if ^ <^ was the preceding word^ — which 

 appears to me not unlikely, — then the place would read thus <-jCl J^^ 

 I^Jw^J^J^ ^3 \^ he. ''Meimum the son oflbrahhn, the power 

 is thine, or for thee;" that is, over whatever had previously been 



