INSCRIPTION ON STONES. 137 state of the country, and Major Playfair, the acting political agent at Aden, who took a very kind interest in his movements, wrote to him to say that the probability was that he would be murdered if he sought to fulfil his intention of going thither. The matter was left to his own decision by the Committee of the Bombay Bible Society. He did resolve, in the strength of God, to attempt to penetrate into the mountains of Arabia Felix; and though not without difficulty, he got safely to Sana, the capital of the province, and even to Mareb, the ancient Sheba of Scripture. In this country he sold 243 copies of the Scriptures. "In the ruins of the castle or palace of this ancient city he found some inscriptions on stone in the Himyaritic character," says the Secretary, "like those I had shown him in 'The Lands of the Bible' on his leaving Bombay; and he obtained six of them, which he carried with him on his leaving for the coast. They very much increased the danger of his return journey; and the wild Arabs of the hills, on more than one occasion, seemed about to take his life, partly on their account. He soon afterwards wisely parted with them, committing them to the care of Major Playfair." These stones, obtained at such hazard, are now to be seen in the British Museum, and from the Appendix to the "Fac-similes" above-named we extract the following particulars concerning them : "Plate xv. No. 30, obtained at MAREB by Mikal Joseph. It contains the name of Wahbil, king of Saba, and there is an invocation to the god Dhu Samawi,, the God of heaven." Plate XVI. No. 32, from MAREB, brought by Mikal Joseph. "The deities mentioned in this inscription seem to be Athtor, Almakah, and Shems." A third of these stones, also from MAREB, appears to give the names of kings of Saba (Dhuraydan and Alashrach); but on three or four out of the six brought by the colporteur, there is, singular to say, the name of Dhu Samawi, the God of heaven. This reading, it must be observed, is according to Fresnel's alphabet, or a blending of Fresnel's and Roediger's, whose derivation we shall presently show. Inscription, Plate xvII. No. 34, of the Museum list, copied on our opposite page, is seven inches high, and eleven inches long, with incised letters. It is a dedication to several divinities-Dhu Samawi, Athtor, Haubas, Almakah, Dat Khanim, and Dat Badhanim, names known from other inscriptions. This stone also was brought from Mareb by Mikal Joseph, and was purchased from the Bible Society. All the names, excepting the first and last, are to be found in an inscription from the Harem of Balkis, copied by Arnaud. The tablets presented by Colonel Coghlan seem chiefly dedicated to Almakah. "The Himyaritic language," says again the Appendix to the facsimiles, "is so called from having been used by the descendants of Himyar, a Joktanite king of Yemen. It is named Musnad by the Arabic writers, one or two of whom are said to have preserved alphabets of the character with the corresponding Arabic letters. These alphabets have formed the basis of the interpretation of the inscriptions as far as it has been attempted by learned Orientalists in Berlin and in London. The writing is in horizontal lines, which are read from right to left, and the words are supposed to be separated by a vertical stroke. "The Himyaritic is considered by Arabic authorities to be a form of Arabic that preceded, and was ultimately superseded by, the Ishmaelite Arabic, or language of the Hedjaz. The Himyaritic is closely allied to ETHIOPIC and HEBREW, and the AMHARIC has chiefly helped to interpret it. It is not improbable that it may contain remains of the language of the earlier races of Arabia, such as the Adites and Amalekites."-Introductory Remarks. THE SONS OF JOKTAN. "The Mohammedan writers agree in setting forth," says Dr. Wilson in his "LANDS OF THE BIBLE," vol. ii. p. 652, "that Kahtan, or Joktan, the son of Eber, of Genesis X., and his sons, whose names are still attached to different provinces in the south of Arabia, settled in that country. By them, as by Hud, Heber, or Eber, their grandfather, the Patriarchal faith was upheld in some degree of purity. Kahtan had a son named Yarab, the inventor of the Arabic language, from whom are descended all the Arabs of Yemen. Yarab left a son called Yashhab, who was succeeded by his son Abd Shems, 'an adorer of the sun.' This prince had several sons, as Kahtan, Amru, and Hmyar. From the latter of these were descended the whole race of princes who reigned in Yemen till the time of Islam." "The Himyaritic princes had each for several generations their own special provinces, till the supreme power was concentrated in El Hareth ul Rayesh, who assumed the name of Tobba, and reigned at Sheba. The Queen of Sheba, who visited Solomon, is called by the Arabs Balkis, and is said to have embraced Judaism." The "All Arabian geographers identify the present Mareb, or Saba, the capital of Sana, with Sheba." traditions of Arabia-" always to be respected where they cannot be disproved"-hand down the name of Saba, or Sheba (the son of Joktan, brother of Peleg, p. 112) as the builder of the far-famed Dyke of Mareb. M. ARNAUD'S DIFFICULTIES. 141 They speak of him as the seventh from Noah, and first king of the Sabeans. THE RESEARCHES OF ARNAUD AND FRESNEL. The researches of M. Arnaud called the attention of our Continental neighbours to this subject of the Himyaritic inscriptions as early as the year 1844. It was at that time still more difficult than at present for Europeans to penetrate to Mareb. M. Arnaud, from the Turkish army at Mocha, passed as French physician into the service of the Imaum of Saná, in Yemen. He obtained leave to visit the famous Dyke, which realized all that had been told of it in Arabian story. He found many Himyaritic inscriptions in the "pillar-text" character on ruined buildings, and some even on the foundation stones of the Dyke itself. It was with immense difficulty that he persuaded the Arabs to let him take any copies of these inscriptions. Even women and children were crying out, "Drive away this sorcerer, this infidel, who brings misfortune with him; all the evil on earth may come to us through him; he shall not copy the writings on our stones." Notwithstanding incessant persecution and threats from the Bedouins, who promised to put him to the torture in order to discover the secret by which he was going to find and carry off their treasures, M. Arnaud did succeed in copying fifty-six of these inscriptions at Sana, Keribah, and Mareb, and copies of them are to be found, with a very interesting account of his adventures, in the JOURNAL ASIATIQUE for 1845, fourth series, tom. v. pp. 211-245, 309-345, vol. vi. pp. 169 -191; and in the same journal, vol. vi. pp. 194-237, 386-398, are M. Fresnel's comments upon the subject. "We left the camp," says M. Arnaud, "on the |