Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/105

Rh was aided by the City of Arpad, and. . . . from the City of Semyra, but not by the men who dwelt in her fortress, and these are the chiefs who had lived in her fortress, Sabilu, Bilimtanu, Maya. . . . Arzaya. These are the four chiefs who dwelt in her fortress, and they had said to me, May we hide from destruction by the hands of the soldiers of the City of Sehlala, and help to take us away from the hands of the soldiers of the City of Sehlala,. . . . twenty-four whom they will slay. . . . Sehlala, and lo to the gate have come soldiers. . . . the possessions. . . . from the City of Semyra. . . . Now I did not repel. . . . they were hidden (being) rulers from your presence". . ..

The town would seem at this time to have been in the hands of the league hostile to Egypt. Arpad was a city near Tunip, which latter was ruled by Aziru the Amorite rebel. The letter would have been written after the fall of Semyra, and of the various towns to the south which were near Sehlala.

9th November, 1893.



very interesting new contributions of the indefatigable Baurath Schick furnish matter for inferences of no less interest, and set us several problems. Two or three of them I incline to remark upon thus, in case it may throw some light upon their meaning and use:

The above-named explorer twice appears to present to our notice circular edifices, in his last paper:—1st. In the so-called "Church of St. Martin" {Quarterly Statement, October, 1893, p. 283) by the great synagogue north of the Mosque el-Omar. 2nd. On the knoll containing Conder's tomb of Our Lord {Quarterly Statement, October, 1893, p. 298).

In the first, as I read, there is a square and a cupola or dome above it, though whether this is the whole of the ancient structure—and even its shape, probably—is not yet quite ascertained. If it be as just stated, there is presented the combination of square and circle which is highly mystical, and signified in the Great or Sacred Pyramid, and in the Freemasonry of which this is probably the original. Both figures occur, as has been observed in these Statements already, in the Hebrew mysteries, but the circle least; and I am inclined to think this may be the older form—and, therefore, anterior to Judaism—causing it to be little seen under it. It is to be much remarked under Paganism, which is the corruption of the original worship and, therefore, hands down the primitive form of mysteries; but the square and cube are prominent in religion