A.—Page 32.
The signs here referred to were guessed by Buckingham (about 1816) to be possibly some distinctive tokens of Arab tribes; but he seemed rather inclined to connect them with marks that are found in Indian caverns, or those on the rocks about Mount Sinai.
He was thus nearer to the truth than the latest of travellers, De Saulcy, who, with all his knowledge of Semitic alphabets, says of some of these graffiti, or scratchings, at ’Ammân, which he copied: “Tout cela, je regrette fort, est lettre close pour moi. Quelle est cette écriture? Je l’ignore.” (Voyage en Terre Sainte. Tom. i. p.256. Paris, 1865.)
They are characters adopted by Arabs to distinguish one tribe from another, and commonly used for branding the camels on the shoulders and haunches, by which means the animals may be recovered, if straying and found by Arabs not hostile to the owners.
I have, however, seen them scratched upon walls in many places frequented by Bedaween, as, for instance, in
the ruined convents, churches, etc., on the plain of the Jordan, and occasionally, as at ’Ammân, several such cyphers are united into one complex character.
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