t the language is Chaldee (_Nineveh and Babylon_, p.
510.), one of them only being Syriac (p. 521.). Chaldee and Syriac, indeed,
differ from each other as little as Chaucer's and Shakspeare's English,
although the written characters are wholly distinct.

Davis, in his _Celtic Researches_, has done all that was possible, taking a
very limited view, however, in fixing upon certain linguistic resemblances
in some ancient tongues to the Celtic; but a clear apprehension of the
proper place which the Celtic language and its congeners hold in
comparative philology, can only be learnt from such works as Adelung's
_Mithridates_, and Adrien Balbi's _Atlas Ethnographique du Globe_.

T. J. BUCKTON.

[Footnote 2: The accidental resemblances are curious. Thus, _Nebucadnetzar_
is in Russian _nebe kazenniy Tzar_, "A Lord or Prince appointed by heaven;"
or, _nebu godnoi_ _Tzar_, "A Prince fit for heaven." _Belshatzar_ is also
in Russian _bolszoi Tzar_, "A great Prince;" and _Belteshtzar_, Daniel's
Chaldean pagan name, is _byl tesh Tzar_, "he was also a Prince," _i. e._
"of the royal family."]

The interpretation of Hessius (_Geschichte der Patriarchen_, i. 83.) is
preferred by Rosenmueller:

"Ex hujus Doctissimi Viri sententia Lamechus _sese jactat_ propter
filios suos, qui artium adeo utilium essent inventores: Cainum
progenitorem suum propter caedem non esse punitum, multo minus se posse
puniri, si vel simile scelus commisisset. Verba enim non significant,
caedam ab eo revera esse paratam, sed sunt verba hominis admodum
insolentis et profani. Ceterum facile apparet, haec verba a Mose ex
quodam carmine antiquo inserta esse: tota enim oratio poeticam quandam
sublimitatem spirat."

The sense of these two verses (Gen. iv. 23, 24.) is, according to Dathe:

"_Si propter viri aut juvenis caedem vulnera et plagae mihi intendantur,
cum de Caino poena septuplex statuta fuerit, in Lamecho id fiet
septuagies septies._"

Herder, in his _Geist der ebraeischen Poesie_ (i. 344.) says:

"Carmen hoc Lamechi laudes canere gladii a filio inventi, cujus usum et
praestantiam contra hostiles aliorum insultus his verbis praedicet:
_Lamechi mulieres audite sermonem meum, percipite dicta mea: Occido jam
virum, qui me vulneravit, juvenem, qui plagam mihi infligit. Si Cainus
septies ulciscendus, in Lamecho id fiet septuagies septies._"

T. J. BUCKTON.

Birmingham.

The legend of the sh