144 
liis tributaries in the fourteenth chapter of Genesis, of which 
I have treated on a former occasion.* 
Contemporary with these rulers we may cite Semitic names 
of considerable interest. Mr. Boscawen writes to me : 
Some time ago I made a special study of a number of 
early Chaldasan tablets of a commercial nature found at 
Warka [ancient Erech] and Mugheir [Ur of the Chaldees]. 
These are dated in the reigns of Eri-aku or Erioch (Gen. 
xiv.), and of Hammuragas, and others of that period, and 
among them I found such names as Abu-Khibu, father of 
concealment,^^ Bel-ni, ^‘'my lord,'’^ Abbu, green [cf. nx, 
but may not the meaning be fruit ? ” see Gesenius] ; 
Bauu PJ3 j Lazibu (Dvb), Kainu ( 313 ) [pp 1], Bam-ena-ya the 
lifter up of my eyes,^^ Mukhaidu (mnr)), the joyful one^^ 
[? HTHTD, Ezra ii. 52., Neh. vii. 54, ‘‘^perhaps a joining 
together, Ges.] Abil (b 3 n) \_AheJ. It. is very interesting to 
find this name, “a son,^^ used absolutely. It was Dr. 
Oppert who first pointed out the true meaning of Ahel from 
the Assyrian] ; Abil-irziii, son of the soil ” ; Miss Braddon^s 
“^only a clod [does it not rather mean son of the 
land?^^] Akhu Sunu (their brother) Akhu-kalli brother 
of all,^^ Pirkhu (n"i3). There are more than a hundred 
names of this class, Mr. Boscawen adds. I trust he will 
make public his study of this very important collection of 
Semitic names of so early a date. Meanwhile we have here 
the names Cain and Abel, for Mr. Boscawen identifies the 
former name in a paper contributed to the Palestine Ex- 
ploration Fund’s statement. t Mr. Pinches has remarked: 
almost every proper name in Assyrian, as in Hebrew, tells 
of some event or circumstance connected either with the 
birth or the life of the person bearing it.^^J 
This is very well brought out, with fine feeling and rever- 
ence, by Mr. Wilkinson in his work before mentioned on the 
Personal Names of the Bible. A large number of such names 
are actual sentences that will stand on their own feet, alike in 
Babylonian, Ass}"rian, and Hebrew names. § But we must not 
enlarge on these. 
The names which emerge in the captivities on the Tigris 
and Euphrates are interesting ; such, for instance, as those 
given to the noble Jewish captives in Babylonia. I suppose 
Belteshazzar is Bilat-sarra-utsur, “ Beltis defend 
44 
t 
§ 
Trans. Viet. Inst., xii. 37 ; also see Studies on the Times of A braham. 
P.E.F., 1881, 224. 1 Bee., xi. 22. 
See also Lenorraant, Les Origines, d'e, xi. 153. 
13 
