which made him lose in one night 185,000 men, smitten by the "Angel of the Lord" (2 Kings xix. 35). Seated upon his throne before Lachish he is represented by a bas-relief as a truly noble and kingly figure. [FN#8] I presume that the author hereby means a "fool," Pers. nádán. But in Assyrian story Nadan was=Nathan, King of the people of Pukudu, the Pekod of Jeremiah (i. 21) and other prophets. [FN#9] In text always "Atúr," the scriptural "Asshur"=Assyria, biblically derived from Asshur, son of Shem (Gen. x. 22), who was worshipped as the proto-deity. The capital was Niniveh. Weber has "Nineveh and Thor," showing the spelling of his MS. According to the Arabs, "Ashur" had four sons; Iran (father of the Furs=Persians, the Kurd, or Ghozzi, the Daylams, and the Khazar), Nabít, Jarmúk, and Basíl. Ibn Khaldun (iii. 413), in his "Universal History," opposes this opinion of Ibn Sa'id. [FN#10] i.e. "Fish-town" or "town of Nin" =Ninus, the founder. In mod. days "Naynawah" was the name of a port on the east bank of the Tigris; and moderns have unearthed the old city at Koyunjik, Nabi Yunas, and the Tall (mound of) Nimrud. [FN#11] The surroundings suggest Jehovah, the tribal deity of the Jews. The old version says, "Hicar was a native of the country of Haram (Harrán), and had brought from thence the knowledge of the true God; impelled, however, by an irresistible decree," etc. [FN#12] i.e. a woollen cloth dyed red. Hence Pyrard (i. 244) has "red scarlet," and (vol. ii.) "violet scarlet"; Froissart (xvth centy.) has "white scarlet," and Marot (xvith) has "green scarlet." The word seems to be French of xiith century, but is uncertain: Littré proposes Galaticus, but admits the want of an intermediate form. Piers Plowman and Chaucer use "cillatún, which suggests Pers. "Sakalat, or "Saklatún", whence Mr. Skeat would derive "scarlet." This note is from the voyage of F. Pyrard, etc. London. Hakluyts, M.dccc.lxxxvii.; and the editor quotes Colonel Yule's M. Polo (ii. chapt. 58) and his "Discursive Glossary s. v. Suclát." [FN#13] i.e."Al-Kirm," Arab. and Pers. =a worm, as in Kirmán (see Supplem. vol. i. 40); the coccus ilicis, vulg. called cochineal. [FN#14] Arab. "Arz", from the Heb. Arz or Razah (raz=to vibrate), the root {Greek} (cedrus conifera), the Assyrian "Erimu of Lebanon," of which mention is so often made. The old controversy as to whether "Razah"=cedar or fir, might easily have been settled if the disputants had known that the modern Syrians still preserve the word for the clump called "The Cedars" on the seaward slope of the Libanus. [FN#15] We should say "reading and writing," but the greater difficulty of deciphering the skeleton eastern characters places reading in the more honourable place. They say of a very learned man, "He readeth it off (readily) as one drinketh water."