[42]. For a possible explanation of the origin of the practice, see H. N. Moseley in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vi. 4, p. 396. Bastian gives another in his description of the practice among the Polynesians (Anthropologie der Naturvölker, vi. pp. 40, 41).
[43]. A brilliant suggestion of Professor Hommel, however, may prove to be the true explanation of the mysterious name. In the Minæan inscriptions of Southern Arabia a long â is constantly denoted in writing by h; and Abraham, therefore, may be merely the Minæan mode of writing Abram. If so, this would show that the Hebrew scribes were once under the influence of the Minæan script, and that portions of the Pentateuch itself may have been written in the letters of the Minæan alphabet (Hommel, The Ancient Hebrew Tradition, pp. 275-277). Dr. Neubauer has suggested to me that this also may be the explanation of the name of Aaron (Aharôn), which, like Ab-raham, has no etymology. Aaron would be the graphic form of Âron, an Arabic name which appears as Aran in the genealogy of the Horites (Gen. xxxvi. 28).
[44]. See Berger, L’Arabie avant Mahomet d’après les Inscriptions (1885), pp. 27, 28.
[45]. D. H. Müller, Epigraphische Denkmäler aus Arabien (1889), p. 13.
[46]. Thus we have anuki ‘I,’ Heb. anochi; badiu ‘in his hand,’ Heb. b’yado; akharunu ‘after him,’ Heb. akharono; rusu ‘head,’ Heb. rosh; kilubi ‘cage,’ Heb. chelûb; har ‘mountain,’ Heb. har.
See my Patriarchal Palestine, p. 247.
[47]. On the question of the site of Mizpah of Gilead, see G. A. Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land, pp. 586, 587.
[48]. Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli in Mittheilungen aus den orientalischen Sammlungen, xi. (1893).
[49]. Records of the Past, new ser., v. pp. vi, vii.
[50]. Dussaud (Revue Archéologique, iii. xxx. p. 346) states that according to the Ansarîyeh of the Gulf of Antioch the ‘Yudi’ or Hebrews formerly occupied their country, and constructed the ancient monuments found in it, one of which is called after the name of Solomon. For Neubauer’s suggestion that the Dinhabah of Gen. xxxvi. 32 is identical in name with the Dunip or Tunip of Northern Syria, see further on.