t 28 i ] 
thelemy 11 takes the third letter of the third line 
for Vaiiy and affigns it the place of that element in 
” Journal des Sfavans, ubi fup. M. PAbbe Barthelemy * take* 
a very fimilar character for Vau , in the infcription of Carpentras; 
which probably induced him to affign this figure the power of 
that element, though the infcription of Carpentras does not ap- 
pear to me to have been firft difcovered in the ifland of Malta. 
The letters forming the Maltefe-Phcenician infcription, which 
the French Abbe has attempted to explain, are very different from 
thofe of the infcription I have been confidering, and the two cha- 
racters in particular imagined to reprefent Vau in thefe monuments 
bear fc rce any refemblance to each other. Hence it fhould feem 
to follow, according to M. 1’Abbe who b attributes the diverfity 
of charadter in the Phoenician or Punic infcriptions rather to diffe- 
rence of place than diftance of time, that the letter in qucfti- 
on ought by no means to be looked upon as Vau. I {hall not 
however pretend to avail myfelf of a notion, how hard foever it 
may bear upon him, that I confider at leaft as arbitrary and pre- 
carious, if net plainly falfe ; but {hall fufpend any farther obfer- 
▼ations I may have to make on this head, ’till tne publication of 
M. i’Abbe’s famous memoir on the Phoenician letters, upon the 
fuperior merit of which he has himfelf with fo much complacency 
c been pleafed to dilate, and which fome of his d admirers have placed 
in fo glorious a light. In the mean time I muff beg leave to re- 
mark, that the character before me does not only referable one 
of the Cnaldee forms of Pe, but likewife the e antient Samari- 
tan and Greek forms of the fame element ; and that the word 
formed of Refch and Pe, ^"1, is confonant enough to the tenor 
of the infcription. This, I conceive, fufficiently authorizes me 
at prefent to aferibe to the fuppofed Vau the power of Pe. If 
in this point I fhould happen to be wrong, M. l’Abbe will moft 
certainly r redtify my miftake. I fhall ever lye open to convic- 
tion, being determined in my refearches and inquiries to facri- 
fice all inferior confiderations to the love of truth. 
a M. de Guignes, De I'Orig. des Chin. p. 54. A Paris,' 1760. Recueil d' 
Antiquit. &c. de Comte de Caylus, Tom. I. p. 73, 74. pi. XXVI. A Pa- 
ris, 1752. 
b Journal des S fa-vans, ubi fup. 
« Journal des Sfavans, Aout 1 760. p.277. 
<* M. de Guign. ubi. l’up. p. 60. Journal des S fa-vans, Decembre 1760. 
P- 348. 
e Joan. Baptift. Biancon. De Antiqu. Litter. Hebraor. et Greecor. p. 31, 
32. Bononise, 1748. 
f Recueil des Medailles de Peuples et de Villes, £sY. Tom. III. p. 140. A 
Paris, 1763. 
V 0 l. L11I. P P his 
