The chief reason why the authors of the letter which I am controverting, have a difficulty in admitting that the word _Assassins_, or _Assissins_, is actually derived from _Haschischin_, is, that they cannot believe that western writers could have substituted the articulation of the Arabic _Sin_, that is, of an _s_, for that of _Schin_ (_Shin_), which answers to our _ch_ (_sh._ Eng.); but they have perhaps forgotten, that, at the epoch of the Crusades, the Latin language was the common idiom of writers throughout Europe; and that, in that language, the sound of the Arabic _Shin_, cannot be expressed. We must also add, the Arabic _Shin_ is not in general pronounced so strongly as our _ch_, (_sh_, Eng.); and that the Arabians themselves have often used it for the Greek sigma, and the Latin _S_, of Latin names; such as Pontus, Orosius, Philippus, Busiris, &c., and lastly, that the Moors in Spain, in writing the Castilian in Arabic characters, made use of the _Shin_ to express _s_; for example, in the words _los cielos y las tierras_. (See Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits, tome IV. page 631 & 642.) Perhaps, we have an example of the substitution of our _s_, for the Arabic _shin_, in the word _Sarrasins_ (_Saracens_). Here, again, I am at variance with the authors of the letter, who reject the etymologies which have been hitherto proposed, of the name of the _Sarrasins_ (_Saracens_), in order to derive it from _Sarrag_ or _Sarradj_, a word, meaning, according to them, a _saddle-man_, and, consequently, a _horse-man_. These gentlemen will not take it ill, if I deny the consequence, and if I remark, that _sarradj_, or, as it is otherwise pronounced, _sarrag_, never did, and never could, according to the analogy of the Arabic language, signify any thing but _a man who makes or sells saddles for horses, or a stable-boy who takes care of these animals’ harness_. As I do not wish to be believed on my word alone, I shall quote Golius, who has not omitted the word _Sarrag_, as is asserted in the postscript to the letter, and who translates it thus: _Qui confecit ephippia et ea quæ ad equi et currus apparatum spectans_ (one who makes saddles, and every thing belonging to the harness of horses and carriages). Menins, who translates it into Latin, by _Ephippiarius_, _qui Ephippia et quæ ad ea spectant conficit—qui curam equorum et apparatus eorum ephippii et phalerarum habet_; in Italian, by _sellaro_, _palfreniere_; and in French, by _sellier_, _palfrenier_. Germanus de Silesia, who makes it correspond with the Italian sellaro: lastly, Father F. Cannes, who, in his Spanish and Arabic Dictionary, makes use of the Spanish word _Sillero_, to translate it. The objections which Messrs. M. R. make against one of the etymologies of the word _Sarrasins_ (Saracens), which several learned men have derived from the word _Sarikin_, robbers, are destitute of weight. It is not true, that we cannot admit this