OCR Text |
Show AN OLD INSCRIPTION.-The existence of a Phoenician inscription at Jerusalem has been revealed during the past summer in the following singular manner. Some boys were bathing at the outlet of the subterranean channel leading from the Fountain of the Virgin to the Pool of Siloam. By their sport, one of them was driven into the tunnel some little distance, where he stumbled over cobbles in the water; and, as he rose, thus made to look around, noticed several little strokes or marks upon the rocky wall beside him. Being uncertain whether these were letters or not and happening to be a pupil of Herr Schick, he told his master about them which brought the teacher at once to the spot. The latter speaks of the inscription in the last number of the Zatschrift des Deutschen Palestina Verens (Periodical of the German Palestine Union) an occurring about twenty-five feet within the canal, from the Pool of Siloam on the eastern side, upon a section of rock wrought smooth-polished, indeed, in ancient time-while the surface around remains rough half an inch higher. This section forms a sort of tablet, about two feet wide and no less high, while its lower portion unsubmerged consists of from eight to ten lines, of small fine characters similar to those of the Moabite Stone. Unfortunately, they are not deeply engraved, and have become still more faint by reason of a deposit of silicate of lime, which has accumulated in the course of time. Above the tablet the rock rises seven feet; and on the opposite or western wall a niche hewn in the rock, where the author of the record placed his lamp, is a proof that the inscription, as well as the surface, was here wrought in place. Only very poor paper impressions of the inscription, as it now stands, can be taken-none of sufficient completeness to afford a reading; yet Professors Kautsch and ?? decipher the letters yodh, ??, samekh, ??, in apparently very ancient type. In order to get at the full text, the water will have to be ?? by means of a ditch excavated up to the spot and beyond. Then, too, ?? silicate deposit must be removed by chemical process, before a perfect impression can be obtained. When these things are ?? estimated to coat not more than one hundred and twenty-five dollars, a story may be read which possibly may throw considerable light on the topography of Jerusalem. It is still unknown where the water comes from which supplies the Fountain of the Virgin, and merely a lowering of the water in this subeterranean channel might contribute to solve this mystery. Plainly, the filling up in the channel has taken place since the tablet and inscription were inscribed on one of its walls. OLD SCOTTISH COINS.-The Edinburgh Scotsman reports a somewhat remarkable discovery made in the pretty little burgh of Portrose, in Scotland. In raising the clay floor in the kitchen of an old house on the margin of the Cathedral Green, occupied by Mr. Donald Junor, for the purpose of replacing it with a floor of cement, the soil below was penetrated for some little depth and the spout of what appeared to be a tea kettle was exposed. On removing the earth from around it, a vessel, apparently of tarnished copper, was uncovered. It was some ten or eleven inches in height, of the familiar shape of the water ewer of flagon in use in Scottish families in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the water being poured from it over the hands of guests and others previous to meals. The top was closed with a lad, formed of a piece of lead three quarters of an inch in thickness, and apparently soldered to the flagon. The vessel was remarkably heavy, and on removing the lead it was found to be filled with old silver coins. There was a quantity of dark looking liquid in the vessel, and on this being poured out, the coins were left, with one or two exceptions, quite white and clean. They were over a thousand in number, and were all of the time of King Robert III, of Scotland, who reigned from 1390 to 1406. They are very thin, as is the general character of the silver coins of that time, and larger than a shilling on the surface. |