180 
GRAHAM’S EXPLORATIONS IN THE [March 8, 1858. 
form is so unlike the form of any other alphabet that I have yet seen, that I 
can say nothing on the subject. There are some letters which you might 
fancy were Greek, and some Aramaic, and some Chaldean. 1 got one whole 
inscription which at first I thought was Hebrew; but, on the other hand, 
some of them are so unlike anything Semitic, that I was forced at first to 
believe that we had two sets of language. On careful examination, however, 
I found 85 distinct symbols or marks. I do not say that they all represent 
different sounds, or rather that they have all different radical values ; I think 
many of them are combined letters — that is, that they represent a combination 
of letters. I am very much interested in what Dr. Barth has stated with 
reference to the Berber alphabet. I have not yet had the opportunity of seeing 
it, but I hope he will do me the favour to show me the inscriptions to which 
he refers ; and I have no doubt, if there are several letters similar in both, 
that we may be able to trace out something. At present there is no clue 
whatever to the inscriptions. 
Mr. Crawfurd, f.r.g-.s. — May I ask Mr. Graham whether this character 
seems to be written from right to left or from left to right ? I have no doubt 
myself it is an original character. There is nothing very remarkable in sup- 
posing that such a character should be found, or that there should be several in 
the same country. I think in India there are eight or ten distinct alphabets, 
apparently separate inventions. In those parts of India with which I am 
best acquainted I counted eight or nine different alphabets. The one in 
question is extremely rude. But to have made an alphabet at all is a matter 
of great merit, and none but an ingenious race of men could have done it. 
No negro race has ever invented an alphabet, and no American race has ever 
done so. The Semitic race is evidently the most ingenious and energetic race 
of former ages. They bear a near resemblance in that respect to Europeans. 
I cannot help thinking that, if placed under more favourable auspices, they 
would have been a great and conquering people, which they never were, the 
Arabs excepted. With respect to the climate, my own belief is, that no change 
whatever has really taken place. The upheaving of the land, if there has been 
any, would produce no effect as far as the water is concerned. The rising of the 
land must have arisen from meteorological causes. I would ask Mr. Graham 
if he has found any remains of tanks or reservoirs for water, extending four or 
five miles in length, for the purpose of irrigating a vast extent of country ? 
What he has stated with respect to the small reservoirs found in towns would 
answer only for drinking purposes; they would never be sufficient for the 
fertilisation of country to furnish food for a dense population such as El 
Hauran evidently must have contained. How was this population supported ? 
We find in Scripture that sheep and oxen abounded. We know very well that 
sheep will exist without water for eighteen months at a time, but oxen must 
have water over and over again in the course of the day, even in a wet climate 
like our own. My notion is that there must have been extensive reservoirs. 
There were no rivers, no other means of supplying food for a dense population, 
except by extensive reservoirs, such as exist in several parts of India, espe- 
cially in the Carnatic. Before I sit down I should like to ask also whether 
Mr. Graham saw any representations of the celebrated bulls of Bashan, so 
often spoken of? 
Mr. Graham. — There are tanks, and what I should call very large tanks 
indeed, about the size of the one in the Green Park, Piccadilly ; but there 
are none of the size Mr. Crawfurd speaks of, four or five miles in length. I 
never saw any of that size. But with regard to the water, I may mention 
a curious thing, that what I said with respect to these cities south and 
east of Hauran is applicable to Hauran in the present day. There are thirty - 
two or thirty- three towns inhabited by Druses ; there is no water except what 
falls from the clouds, and there are only ten or twelve days’ rain in the year. 
