9. A witness has informed me that he lives in this neighbourhood.
10. Somebody comes this way through the gate: behold him: I'll ask him whether he knows the name.
To professed classics and to professed orientalists, the version of Bochart has, on the whole, appeared satisfactory. Divisions of opinion there have been, it is true, even amongst those who received it; but merely upon matters of detail. Some have held that the Punic is Syriac rather than Hebraic, whilst others have called in to its interpretation the Arabic,
the Maltese, or the Chaldee; all (be it observed) languages akin to the Hebrew. Those who look further than this for their affinities, Gesenius[[33]] dismisses in the following cavalier and cursory manner:—"Ne eorum somnia memorem, qui e Vasconum et Hiberniæ linguis huic causæ succurri posse opinati sunt; de quibus copiosius referre piget."
The remark of Gesenius concerning the pretended affinities between the Punic and Hibernian arose from the discovery attributed to General Vallancey; viz. that the speech in Plautus was Irish Gaelic, and consequently that the Irish was Carthaginian, and vice versâ. The word attributed is used because the true originator of the hypothesis was not Vallancey, but O'Neachtan.
The Gaelic Version.
1. N 'iath all o nimh uath lonnaithe socruidshe me comsith
2. Chimi lach chuinigh! muini is toil, miocht beiridh iar mo scith
3. Liomhtha can ati bi mitche ad éadan beannaithe
4. Bior nar ob siladh umhal: o nimh! ibhim a frotha!