[ 704 ] 
the Syriac form; and confequently not to have been 
improperly ufed by the Palmyrenes. The fame 
may be faid of the word *rnn&, apparently dedu- 
cible from (a) Nia, FRATEIl; as the letters 
n and H are of the fame organ, have frequently a 
pronunciation extremely fimilar, and were therefore 
undoubtedly often .taken and ufed for one another. 
Unlefs we fuppofe, that the word was originally upon 
the done ’ffiTlN. which will bring it to the pure Sy- 
riac form ; and this for various reafons, efpecially 
as that very term is exhibited by the third infcrip- 
tion, the mod antient of all, in the very fame fenle, 
I am inclined to believe. 
10. That the proper names ZABDIBOL, MIL- 
COM, SALMON, NASA, and HIZA or CHITZA, 
in the fecond and thirteenth infcriptions, which have 
no Greek ones to anfwer them, are either of Syriac, 
Chaldee, or Plebrew extraction, from fome of the 
(b) bed oriental lexicographers mod clearly appears. 
As for HIZA, or CHITZA, this mud be allowed 
to be a pure Syriac word ; though I remember not 
to have met with it as a proper name in any antient 
author. The fecond infcription bears date in the 
month TiJ'ri , and the 533d year of the sera of Se- 
leucus, or A. D. 222, foon after Alexander Seve- 
rus had afcended the imperial throne. The thir- 
teenth is 76 years older, having been drawn A. D. 
136, in the reign of the emperor Hadrian, and 
about two years before the death of that prince. 
The altar on which the drd appears infcribed was 
(a) Val. Schind. Lex. Pent. p. 54. Vcrf. Syr. in Gen. iv. 8, 21. 
(b) Val. Schind. Lex. Pent aglet, pafs. Edm. Caftel. Lex. Hep- 
tag lot. pafs. 
creCted 
