Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/317

Rh writing—the story of its discovery has often been told. Some Jewish boys in attempting to pass through the tunnel accidentally found some writing on a recessed tablet of square form, measuring about 27 inches on each side, the lower portion of which was occupied by the inscription, which was in six lines, and curiously enough, “the top of the tablet was only about a yard above the bottom of the channel, which is here 2 feet wide and 11 feet high.” The inscription was reported to Herr v. Schick, and was subsequently visited and studied by Professor Sayce, Dr. Guthe (who removed the calcareous incrustation which had formed in the incised characters by a weak bath of hydrochloric acid, but without in any way injuring the surface of the hard rock on which the inscription was cut), and by Captain Conder and Lieutenant Mantell, who procured a squeeze and also a cast of the inscription. The result of these researches was the publication of a tolerably correct text and translation by Professor Sayce, and a lengthy study of the “Alphabet of Israel” by Canon Taylor, in his very valuable work, “The Alphabet,” vol. i. By the kindness of my learned and esteemed friend Major Conder, I have been enabled to study the squeeze which was taken by himself and Lieutenant Mantell, and from his tracing of this I give the