Willis's Current Notes, No. 16, April 1852

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To the Price Current of Literature.
G. Willis gratefully acknowledges the various interesting documents and letters he has received. He is anxious that it should be perfectly understood that he is not the author of any statement, representation, or opinion, that may appear in his Current Notes, which are merely selections from communications made to him in the course of his business, and which appear to him to merit attention. Every statement therefore is open to correction or discussion, and the writers of the several paragraphs should be considered as alone responsible for their assertions. Although many notes have hitherto appeared anonymously, or with initial letters, yet wherever a serious contradiction is involved, G. Willis trusts that his Correspondents will feel the necessity of allowing him to make use of their names when properly required.
Sir,—In Kitto's Biblical Cyclopædia, vol. 2. p. 373, we find the following coin, on which is engraved an ancient harp surrounded by the letters, Fllth Chtr Phl, which may be construed thus:—
'The Felatah Cithara of Pul.'
After referring the readers of Current Notes to the London Encyclopædia, word Falasha , and Prichard's Physical History of Mankind, vol. 1, On the Races of People in the Interior of Africa, let us have recourse to Etymology for a further elucidation of this singular coin, and the Semi-Jewish tribe whose name it bears.
Felatah.—Hebrew פלט phalat , which by comparison with its cognates signifies, to separate from , retire into , (another country); and with its affix פלטה phalatah , or Felatah , signifying evasio , liberatio , residuum , &c.
Cithara.—Greek κιθαρα. Hebrew and Chaldee חטר chatar , a stick , (plectrum), to beat with a stick ; therefore the instrument cannot be the עשׂוֹר asor , decachordon ; but properly, I think, the harp or lyre that was beaten with the plectrum .