“In the oldest passage, however, where _bedil_ occurs, that is in Numbers, chap. xxxi. ver. 22, the Seventy translate it by μόλιβος, lead, and the Vulgate by _plumbum_, and _vice versâ_, the Seventy for _oferet_ put κασσίτερος, and the Vulgate _stannum_. This, as the oldest explanation which the Latin translator found already in the Septuagint, is particularly worthy of notice. According to it, one might take בדיל, μόλιβος, _stannum_, for the _stannum_ of Pliny, lead with silver; the gradation of the metals still remains; the κασσίτερος of the Seventy may be tin or real lead. It may have denoted tin and lead together, and perhaps the Seventy placed here κασσίτερος, in order that they might have one metal more for the Hebrew _oferet_. But from this explanation it would follow that Moses was not acquainted with tin. “The East has still another name for lead and tin, אנך, _anac_, which occurs only in Amos, chap. vii. ver. 7 and 8, but is abundant in the Syriac, Chaldaic, and Armenian, and comprehends _plumbum_, _nigrum_, and _candidum_. “In the Persian tin is named _kalai_, _resâs_, _arziz_, which are all of Arabic, or, like _kalai_, of Turkish extraction. None of these have any affinity to κασσίτερος and _bedil_. “As tin is brought from India, it occurred to me whether the oldest name, like _tombak_, might not be Malayan. But in the Malayan, _tima_ is the name for tin and lead. Relandi Dissertat. Miscell. iii. p. 65. It would indeed be in vain to look for Asiatic etymologies in regard to κασσίτερος, since, according to the express assertion of Herodotus, the Greeks did not procure tin from Asia, but from the Cassiterides islands. The name may be Phœnician; and though Bochart has not ventured to give any etymology of it, one, in case of necessity, might have been found equally probable as that which he has given of Britannia. But it appears to me more probable that the word is of Celtic extraction, because similar names are found in Britain, such as _Cassi_, an old British family; _Cassivelaunus_, a British leader opposed to Cæsar; _Cassibelanus_, in all probability, the same name in the time of Claudius. _Cassi-ter_, with the Greek termination ος, seems to be a Celtic compound, the meaning of which might perhaps be found in Pelletier, Bullet, &c.” [506] Plin. lib. xxxiv. cap. 16, § 47, p. 669. [507] The last meaning is found in Pliny, xxxiii. 6, § 31, and xxxiv. 18, § 53:--“Est et molybdæna, quam alio loco galenam vocavimus, vena argenti plumbique communis. Adhærescit et auri et argenti fornacibus; et hanc metallicam vocant.” Here then there are both the significations, first _bleyglanz_, secondly _ofenbruch_. The name _galena_ seems to have been borrowed from foreign metallurgic works, perhaps from the Spanish, as was conjectured by Agricola in Bermannus, p. 434. This, at any rate, is more probable than the derivation of Vossius from γέλειν, _splendere_, especially as the Greeks have not the word _galena_.