[ *35 ] 
abdissar, (26) met with by M. l’Abbe Barthelemy 
on an antient coin, and abdasar, exhibited by the 
Maltefe hones, may by fome poffibly be confidered 
as nearly the fame name. Should this prove really 
the cafe, M. l’Abbe muft be allowed to have been 
extremely lucky in meeting with a proper name fo 
fimilar to, or rather fcarcediftinguifhablefrom, one pre- 
ferved in an infcription, he was juft going to explain. 
Be this as it will, the word abdasar appears, as a 
part of another Phoenician infcription, on a piece of 
marble, found amongft the ruins of Citium ; which 
was prefented by Charles Gray, Efquire, member of 
Parliament for Colchefter, and fellow of the Royal 
Society, a gentleman of great merit and erudition, 
to the Univerfity of Oxford. 
\ 
XV. 
To what has been here advanced it may not be 
improper to fubjoin an alphabetic table ot the Phoe- 
nician letters forming the IVIaltefe inlcnption, which 
M. P Abbe Barthelemy has lately attempted to explain ; 
[Vide Tab. XI.] , and on which, in this paper, I have 
been endeavouring to throw fome additional light. 
The form of the Thau in the table, not bearing the 
leaft refemblance to a crofs, approaches pretty near 
that of Tzade (27), as exhibited by feveral of my 
(26) Mem, de Litter. &c. Tom. XXVIII. p. 597. A Paris, 
1761. * , 
(27) Of all the letters in the Phoenician alphabet none perhaps 
has a greater variety of forms than ‘Tzade, One of thefe, that 
not feldom occurs upon the Tyrian and Sidonian coins, pretty 
much refembles the charafter which M. l’Abbe Barthelemy takes 
Tynan 
4 
