The Beth is very archaic, and appears to be closely related to the pictorial type, which I believe to have been an outline of a circular-roofed dwelling, similar to the Eastern domed house, this rather than a tent.
The circular form of building was adopted by early races in many countries, and was, I believe, the most ancient of all.
The Siloam type of Gimel, although ancient, gives no additional support to what Canon Taylor calls "the camel etymology." Many scholars have been puzzled by this name as applied to this letter, as the type very little resembles the thing said to be represented. At most, it is the head and neck of an animal that is shown, and it may be the head and neck of any other animal as well as of a camel. It has been suggested that the name gimel is derived from the Talmudic "gimla," a yoke, which Taylor alleges, after a German authority, to be "philologically impossible." This, I think, is quite a mistake, as yoke is given as one of the meanings of "gimla" in that well known and generally reliable authority Buxtorf's "Lexicon Rabbinico-Talmudicum." I have thought of an alternative etymology. The word גמול which is also spelt גמל signifies both in Hebrew and Chaldean, recompense, retribution, and occasionally, as in Isa. xxxv, 4, punishment. Hence the name as applied to this letter may mean an instrument of punishment, i.e., a whip, or scourge. The form of letter would appear to support this idea, although Dr. Taylor and others of that following would of course pronounce it to be philologically impossible. The hieratic type of this letter found in the Prisse papyrus is a widely different character.
Daleth, the name of the fourth letter, generally means "door," a movable cover of an aperture hanging and turning on hinges, and not the aperture itself, as Dr. Taylor explains. The word appears to mean, in its widest signification, anything that may be opened and shut. The Siloam letter suggests a curtain, covering the entrance of a tent.
Vaw means a tent peg or curtain hook, the name is fully explained by the form of the Siloam letter.
Zayin in the Siloam alphabet is very peculiar. Major Conder first pointed out to me the well defined hook at the end of each of the two parallel bars. The name is usually supposed to mean "weapons." Our epigraphic type suggests the idea of two battle-axes joined together with a ligature. The letter is very little different from a mere picture, and must represent the earliest form of the phonetic element Z. (See the accompanying table.)
Yod is the common Hebrew word for "hand." The Siloam letter gives the outline of a portion of the arm and hand with the thumb extended. (See the table.)
Nun means "fish." Great difficulty has been found in tracing the letter which bears this name back from its existing form to the earlier pictorial type. In the table I have endeavoured to show that the idea may have been that of a fish caught on a spear, or suspended from a hook to dry.
{To he continued.)
