In a former paper I dealt with the rulers of Lāhijān and Fūman in Gīlān, and now give an account of the remaining local dynasties and petty rulers of that province. The sources from which I have gathered my information have already been mentioned.

In the Journal of Egyptian Archœology for January, 1916, a conjoint article was published by Dr. Gardiner, Dr. Cowley, and myself on the origin of the Semitic alphabet, starting from Dr. Gardiner's decipherment of the name of the Semitic goddess, Ba‘alath, in certain non-Egyptian inscriptions or “ scribings ” discovered by Professor Petrie in Sinai. The characters are Egyptian, but are not used with Egyptian values; they are usually written in vertical columns, and like the Meroitic hieroglyphs are read from the back and not from the front. Unfortunately the inscriptions are not numerous; they are badly written and in many cases effaced. However, we succeeded in determining the phonetic values of the majority of the letters—for letters they are—and in adding one or two more words (םענ לע, בר, תנת) to Dr. Gardiner's תלעב. One of the inscriptions which is on the base of a sphinx is “ bilingual ”, that is to say, there is an Egyptian text as well as what I will call a Semitic text.

The dialect of the Arabic language which is spoken at the present day in Syria and Palestine has preserved many forms which bear a close relationship with the ancient languages which were formerly current in those countries. The origin of these peculiarities, which deviate from the canons of classical Arabic and which for the most part do not occur in Egyptian Arabic, is chiefly to be sought in Syriac, though many forms show the influence of Hebrew and Samaritan. Many of these resemblances, of course, are of an intangible kind, depending merely on the pronunciation of the vowels; in several cases, however, there is a definite change in the consonants, in which a return to some earlier dialect is seen.

Sir john marshall's interpretation of ayasa in the Taxila silver scroll inscription of the year 136 as “ of Azes ” has been the subject of adverse criticism by some of the most eminent antiquarians since the publication of the record in 1914. The latest is by Professor Sten Konow in the Epigraphia Indica, xiv, p. 286. Professor Konow revives two of the objections to Sir John's explanation : (1) “ the word (ayasa) could hardly be the name of a king, because no royal title is used ” (2) “ if ayasa were really the name of a king, it would place the inscription in the reign of this king, who would then most likely have to be identified with the Khushana mentioned in 1. 3. ” I hope to show in this note that these objections are not as insuperable as they are supposed to be.

The Babylonians divided the night into three watches, to which they gave the names maṣṣartu bararîtu, evening watch, maṣṣartu ḳablîtu, midnight watch, maṣṣarti šat urri, morning watch. Bararîtu and kablîtu are adjectives in this construction. The full forms occur rarely as in Ebeling, Religiöse Keilschrifttexte aus Assur, No. 58, Rev. 7 ; No. 91, Rev. 21–2. Ordinarily maṣṣartu is omiṭted in the Semitic texts and bararîtu, ḳablîtu are treated as nouns. So in the syllabars, where the Sumerian equivalents contain the word ennun = maṣṣartu, the noun for “ watch ” is invariably omitted.

There are several ways of writing history. A conscientious historian does not invent details in the hope that their inaccuracy will remain undiscovered ; but there have been authors who seek to present to their readers a false appearance of accuracy by mentioning as facts minute details which have no existence except in their own brains. Merutunga, the author of the Prabandha Chintāmaṇi, an historical work of the early fourteenth century a.d., so far at least as regards the dates which he gives for the accession, etc., of the kings of Anhilvāḍa during a period of about 400 years, appears to belong to the latter class. We in Europe are quite content to know that one of our sovereigns 400 years or so ago began to reign in a certain year. We want nothing more. But Merutunga, to give an instance, tells us that in the Vikrama year 862 Yogarāja was crowned on “ Āshāḍha śukla 5, Thursday, the moon being in Aśvinī, when [the zodiacal sign] Siṁha was in the ascendant ”, the last detail giving us within two hours the exact time of day.

The illustration shows a small amulet which is remarkable as being the first known example of a bilingual in Greek and Samaritan. On the obverse it bears, in Samaritan characters, ןורשי לאכ ןיא ēn ka'ēl Yeurûn, “ None like the God of Jeshurun” (Deut. xxxiii, 26). On the reverse, Εἷς θες: Βοθ[ε]ι Μαρκιανν “ One God. Help thou Marciane ! ” The female name, Marciane, recalls Marah הקרמ (a variant of the Latin Marcus), the first great Samaritan theologian. He has left a large literature, and is usually considered to have flourished about the fourth century of the Christian Era. His original name was Moses ben Amram ben Sered ; but from humility, or other consideration, he altered השמ Moeh. Instead of the ש, which has the numerical value of 300, he substituted ר = 200 and ק = 100 : thus preserving the original total, but replacing the revered name of Moses by the obscure Marah.