Among Berber tribes, the name OMARE, Aamare, reappears in Ebn Khaledoon’s
lis t ; but whether indigenously, or exotically through some ante-historical Kanaanitish
or modern Arab affiliation (sons of Omar, or Aamer ?), others may better determine.
It is long since that Rosellini pointed out among the early Asiatic conquests of the
XVIIIth dynasty, the “ Land of O m a b but Birch first suspected this country to be
that of the Palestinic Amorite; a conclusion enforced »by Hincks, and developed by
Osburn. There is a question still pending between hierologists and cuneiform decy-
pherers in regard to the “ citadel of Aiesh ” in the land of Amaru, which leaves i t yet
uncertain whether the river Amoor, “ Jaxartes,” or the nation Amorite in Palestine, is
intended. Nor have the Palestinic travels of De Saulcy ascertained any ruins of a
city called AMR, whence the AMoRI of Xth Genesis might fee derived: although
nothing can be more precious to the ethnologist than the “ Figure of a Moabite discovered
by him on the “ hybrid monument, in which the Egyptian and the Assyrian
styles ar.e intermingled,” at Redjom-el-Aabed. Ignorance of Judaic topography here
compels us merely to read an AMoR-fizw; a man of, or belonging to, the city, country,
or tribe, of AMR.622
89. ¡jl|f|il — GRGSI — | G ir g a s it e . ’ , .
This, together with the two preceding and all the following affiliations of KNA&N,
has the termination I (iod) ; which in Semitic tongues commonly indicates the-belong-
ing-to a place; for instance, Muss’r means Cairo; Muss’r-i, a Cairine. In Xth Genesis,
this adjunct to a geographical proper name has precisely the same grammatical acceptation
; and if science cannot always find the place alluded to, the fault lies at the
door of travellers less qualified than a De Saulcy. GRGS-I signifies nothing more
than a man belonging-to a locality once called GRGS ; although its Palestinic situation
stiU lacks a discoverer. Other books of the Hebrews are silent on this name ; which
was all that remained of a Girgasite even in the time of Josephus, 1800 years ago;
unless “ the country of the Gergesenes,” mentioned by Matthew (viii. 28), contained
other persons than those “ possessed with devils.” 623
40. » in — KM J I— I H ivite.’
A man “ of, or belonging to,” a place called EAU; now pronounced, through the
modem Chaldee substitution of V for U, “ KftaV.” The KOTjies rank among the un-
expelled Kanaanites; because Joshua (xi. 19) suffered some of them to deceive him
into a peace; and Solomon (1 Kings ix. 20, 21).exacted “ bond-service ” from others.
We must never forget, in viewing this name and its fellow-nomina, that time, distance,/
oreign and obsolete languages now reputed to be “ sacred,” combined with the
singular mixture of scepticism and marvellousness instilled into our minds by juvenile
education, lend an enchantment to these Kanaanitish people that would vanish, did
we now possess the honor of their acquaintance. They all were petty tribes of a few
thousands, at most of fewer myriads of population; comprised within an area so very
insignificant, that St. Jerome, who travelled over Palestine (which had previously included
the whole of these nations, and other people besides), wisely deprecates statistics
;__ “ Pudet dicere latitudinem terrae repromissionis, ne ethniois occasionem blasphemandi
dedisse videamur,” That criticism which, precursor of .Niebuhr, the author
of “ Scienza Nuova,” applied so successfully to early Roman, might equally well be
adapted to early Jewish history-^“ What we may say about the poetic geography of the
Greeks suits the ancient geography of the Latins. Latium possessed, without doubt, at
the commencement, but a petty extent; inasmuch as, while employing two hundred
and fifty years to conquer twenty different peoples, Rome during that time did not
stretch out the frontier of her empire further than twenty miles round about.” Among
“ the cities of the KOT-im” {2 Sam. xxiv. 7) we cannot yet place a finger upon that
particular one whence hailed the citizen ” individualized in Xth Genesis.624
41. — AaRKI — ‘ A r k i t e . ’
A man of Arka, or Acra ; a city the ruins of which are still seen at Tel-Arka, mound
of Arka, between Tripoli and Antaradus; but Akra must have been already a, city
when Asar - adan - pal and Temenebar I. recorded its capture in the eighth — ninth
century b . c. ; else Rawlinson could not have discovered its cuneatic name.
[In former inquiries into the probable origin of some Berber names, that certainly
present some Kanaanitish coincidences, I indicated the ERKYE of Ebn Khaledoon as
homonymous. That some Kanaanites sought refuge in Barbary is undoubtedly historical
; that some Berbers did once occupy Kanaan has been already shown. There is
a strange blending of Gsetulian and Arabian elements in Palestine anterior to the
advent of the Abrahamidce, underlying every record, which the supposition of a creative
centre, distinct from that of Euphratic tradition, might possibly explain. —
G. R. G.] 625
42. *J’D — SINI— ‘ S i n i t e . ’
A man “ of, or belonging to the town of SIN,” not far from Acra, on the slopes of
Mount Lebanon. This name reappears among Ebn Khaledoon’s Berber tribes as the
ZIN-ata.626 .
43. H 1 1 S — A R T JD I — ‘ A r y a d it e . ’
A man of Rowlyda (as modern Syrians now designate the little island of Aradus),
which town, with its continental neighbor Antaradus, was a famed Phoenician emporium.
Every lexicon explains the familiar locality; but Osburn has the merit of indicating
the people and their name hieroglyphed amid the conquests of Sethei I., and
Ramses I I .; fourteenth—sixteenth centuries s. c. ; and Rawlinson that of reading the
cuneiform inscriptions in which, during the eighth—ninth centuries b. c., the existence
of Aradus is chronicled. 627
44. jNfc# — T sM R I — ‘ Z em a r it e . ’
A man of the Phoenician town of Simyra, not far from Antaradus, on the western
spur of Mount Lebanon; afterwards occupied by the Benjamites, who probably expelled
its inhabitants — the TsMR-lwi. A similar name occurs among Ebn Khale-
doon’s Berbers; but, beyond this phonetic and therefore uncertain analogy, we here
must emulate the laconic chorography, not merely of Xth Genesis, but of map-makers
in general, having nothing tp add to the investigations of Bochart.628
45. ' n a n — E A M T i l — ‘ H a m a t h i t e . ’
This is a man “ belonging to a city” situate on the Orontes at the eastern frontier
of Palestine, now called el-Hdmah by Syrians. Although later Greeks termed it Epi-
phaneia during their dominion, the natives have always preserved its antique nomen.
The LXX properly wrote E/ia0: as did Assyrians, six centuries before them, in cuneatic
inscriptions deciphered by Rawlinson; while, at least four hundred years previously,
Ramses III. had hieroglyphed the Eamathites among his Asiatic vanquished.
We would passingly notice that which, philologically speaking, is incontrovertible in
regard to the Hebrew transcription of this name. The letter I, iod, has been shown
above to be the demonstrative adjunct “ of, or belonging to ” a locality. j j | tau, in
all ancient Hamitic idioms is the feminine article, the; p r e f ix e d or suffixed even now
to abundant Berber nomina — ex. gr., T-Amazirgh or Amazirgh-T. These cut away,