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Fig. 11.

head taller than either. In this picture also they are painted of a light colour, with blue eyes and red beard: they wear the same kind of long dress as in the example we have given (Fig. 10), and bear the same name. The differences are, that those of Belzoni's tomb are tattooed on the arms and legs, and that they wear two ostrich-feathers in their heads (Fig. 11): these feathers also occur in the repetition at Karnak. The question now naturally presents itself, as to who may be these people possessing such distinguishing characteristics? Our own conjecture is, that they are a tribe of the gigantic races that occupied Canaan on the north-eastern frontier of Egypt at the time of the Exodus, and to whom the men sent by Moses to spy out the land, compared themselves as grasshoppers, Numbers, xiii. 33, "And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants; and we were in our sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." (Deut. ii. 10, 11; ix. 2.)

In support of our hypothesis, we will briefly recapitulate the more salient points of the foregoing description.

First. That the gigantic stature of this people is maintained in all the representations of them on the walls of different temples, and that their characteristics are so uniformly sustained as to leave no doubt that the Egyptian artist intended to convey the idea of the same, and that, a larger race of people.

Next. That this race was from the north-eastern frontier of Egypt, their complexion and the hieroglyphic accompanying the painting on the walls of Medina Tabou, fully confirm.

Thirdly. That this people printed or tattooed marks upon their arms and legs, we learn from the representation of them in Belzoni's tomb, and that they rounded the corners

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of their heads, or made bald certain parts of their heads, suffering other parts of their hair to grow long, and apparently marred the corners of their beard, we ascertain from every one of the various representations we have cited.

That the people to the north-east of Egypt pursued these practices, we gather from the passage we have quoted from Leviticus; and although the Scripture does not expressly say that the giant sons of Anak "made cuttings," or "printed marks," in their flesh, yet there is every probability that they did so in common with the other inhabitants of Canaan,-that the custom, in fact, was prevalent throughout the land, or why were the Israelites so strictly admonished against it?

In conclusion, it only remains to offer such further evidence as language affords, by examining the few hieroglyphics contained within the two perpendiculars at Fig. 10, and we trust that our explanation will not be the less interesting from showing the strong affinity which exists between the grammatical structure of the Hebrew and of the ancient language of Egypt.

For the purpose of elucidating the inscription, we have at Fig. 10 placed a line of capital letters opposite to the equivalent hieroglyphic characters, and by the side of these the letters which express the same two words in Hebrew. The vowels are supplied; for in the ancient writing of Egypt, as in the ancient Hebrew the vowels are most frequently not expressed.

The first word, then, of this inscription is RaNTEN. The corresponding word in the Hebrew, SeMKeN, is written with the same number of letters, including in the one word, like the Egyptian, the pronoun "your," showing that the grammatical structure of both the Hebrew and the Egyptian languages admits of the pronoun being attached at

the end of a word. The three bars which follow in the hieroglyphics merely form a sign that the preceding word (the possessive pronoun "your") is in the plural number. The next word in the hieroglyphics is eNTaNMaHU, equivalent to the Hebrew eMTaLMaI- that is, of or from among the Talmai. The remaining signs in the hieroglyphic legend-namely, the figure of a man and three bars are nothing more than the determinative of the word Tanmahu; that is to say, it determines the word to be a proper name, and in the plural number-men, or family of men, so that the entire sentence reads, "your name is Tanmahu."

And now, if we turn to the 22d verse of xiiith chapter of Numbers, we shall find that among the tribes of the children of Anak, one was named the Talmai, the letters of which word have a great affinity to the letters which compose the Egyptian word TaNMAHU-the consonants in both are the same, if we except the change of the L for the N-liquids which are so constantly interchanging that we may reasonably infer that the word TaNMaHU was but the Egyptian rendering of the Hebrew word Talmai. If we add to this similarity of letters the remarkable characteristics of the people in the paintings,-viz. the curious printings or tattooings on the arms and legs-the scanty beards and rounded corners of the head, as expressed in the Sacred Text, with the circumstance of the injunction which was given to the Israelites just before their entrance into Palestine, on the borders of which these people were located, we have a large amount of circumstantial evidence that we possess in these pictures a fair representation, in the Egyptian style, of that tribe of the Anakim; and what is of more importance, a corroboration of the statement in the Book of Numbers, derived from documents coeval with the facts they

announce.

J. B.

THE OLDEST CHRISTIAN HYMNS.

THE most ancient memorials of Christianity are, happily for us, recorded by the pen of inspiration, and extend over the first century,-from the advent of our Lord to the close of Revelation in the ninety-sixth year of the Christian era. Their value is not a little enhanced by the scantiness and uncertainty of the documents of the second century. In contemplating the worship of the early Church, it is seen that the first part of the grand service of Christianity on earth was Praise. It was introduced by the Virgin's Magnificat, taken up by the Benedictus of Zacharias, carried on by the Angelic Chorus, and completed by the Nunc Dimittis of the venerable Simeon. After an interval of thirty-three years, occurred the next memorable instance at the first Communion, "when our Lord and His disciples sung a hymn;" and whether it was the usual Passover hymn, consisting of the Psalms 113th to the 118th, or was some unknown solemn strain, still that holy Requiem of a dying Saviour is not only an affecting incident, but an attractive precedent. The apostolic band, too sad in their bereavement for praise, gave their first lonely days to prayer; but the Pentecostal converts, in the new joy of piety, broke forth in their old accustomed manner, and " continued with one accord in the temple praising God." When "the Apostles lifted up their voice to God with one accord" (Acts, iv. 24-30), whether they sang the words they uttered is not stated, yet the spirit of the passage is quite in the elevated style of a hymn. There can, however, be no doubt of the use of music in the prison at Philippi, when "at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God, and the prisoners heard them." To apostolic practice is

added precept. The churches at Ephesus and Colosse are exhorted "to teach and admonish one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord;" and, adds the Apostle James, "Is any merry? let him sing psalms." Last of all, the book of Revelation, written about A.D. 96, is full of singing, and "a new song" is often foretold of gladsome future times, indicating a practice which had already begun and would never end.

Passing from inspired records, we soon come to unaided human testimony; and the first witness is not a Christian, but the Roman governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor, the philosophic Pliny, who corresponded, in A.D. 103, with the Emperor Trajan, on the treatment of the Christians in his province; and in stating the information he had gathered about them, he wrote, "They affirmed that this was the utmost of their fault or error, that they were accustomed to meet on an appointed day before it was light, and to sing among themselves a hymn to Christ as God."

Our space does not allow us to adduce the interesting quotations on this subject which may be gleaned from the early Fathers, but the substance of them is thus briefly given by the great Church historian, Neander: "Church psalmody passed over from the Synagogue into the Christian Church. For this purpose were used the Psalms of the Old Testament, and also hymns composed expressly for this object, especially hymns of praise and of thanks to God and to Christ."

But here the inquiry naturally occurs, What remains to us of that early germinating time of piety? As the Christians of the primitive churches felt the psalms were unequal to the expression of all their Christian faith and feeling, by what spiritual songs did they supplement this conscious want? How many of those hymns, used in public service,

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