The oldest mention of this metal, as generally believed, is to be found in the sacred scriptures. In the book of Numbers, chap. xxxi. ver. 22, Moses seems to name all the metals then known; and, besides gold, silver, brass (properly copper), iron, and lead, he mentions also _bedil_, which all commentators and dictionaries make to be tin. When Ezekiel, chap. xxvii. ver. 12, gives an account of the commerce of Tyre, he names, among the commodities, silver, iron, copper, and _bedil_. In Zechariah, chap. iv. ver. 10, the plummet of the builder or architect is said to be made of the _bedil_ stone. In Isaiah, chap. i. ver. 25, the word occurs in the plural number, and appears there to denote either scoriæ, or all those inferior metallic substances which must be separated from the noble metals. In the old Greek versions of these Hebrew books, _bedil_ is always translated by _cassiteros_, except in the passage of Isaiah, where no metal is mentioned. In Zechariah, the translator calls the _bedil_ stone τὸν λίθον κασσιτέρινον. There can hardly be a doubt, that for the purpose here mentioned, people would employ, not the lighter metal tin, but lead, and that the plummet was called the lead-stone, because at first a stone was used. It seems, however, probable that in the first-quoted passage _bedil_ is our tin; but must it not appear astonishing that the Midianites, in the time of Moses, should have possessed this metal? Is it not possible that the Hebrew word denoted a metallic mixture or artificial metal, which formerly was an article of commerce, as our brass is at present[505]? The Greek translators considered _bedil_ to be what they called _cassiteros_; and as the moderns translated this by _stannum_, these words have thus found their way into the Latin, German, and other versions of the Hebrew scriptures, which therefore can contribute very little towards the history of this metal. The examination of the word _cassiteros_ would be of more importance; but before I proceed to it, I shall make some observations on what the ancients called _stannum_.