Chapter I: Front Matter

WILLIS'S CURRENT NOTES FOR THE MONTH.

No. XVI.] [APRIL, 1852.
"I will make a prief of it in my Note-Book."--SHAKSPERE.

NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS

TO THE "PRICE CURRENT OF LITERATURE."

G. WILLIS gratefully acknowledges the various interesting documents and letters he has received. He is anxious that it should be perfectly understood that he is not the author of any statement, representation, or opinion, that may appear in his "Current Notes," which are merely selections from communications made to him in the course of his business, and which appear to him to merit attention. Every statement therefore is open to correction or discussion, and the writers of the several paragraphs should be considered as alone responsible for their assertions. Although many notes have hitherto appeared anonymously, or with initial letters, yet wherever a serious contradiction is involved, G. Willis trusts that his Correspondents will feel the necessity of allowing him to make use of their names when properly required.

THE ANCIENT HEBREW HARP.

SIR,--In Kitto's Biblical Cyclopædia, vol. 2. p. 373, we find the following coin, on which is engraved an ancient harp surrounded by the letters, Fllth Chtr Phl, which may be construed thus:--

'THE FELATAH CITHARA OF PUL.'

After referring the readers of "Current Notes" to the "London Encyclopædia," word _Falasha_, and Prichard's Physical History of Mankind, vol. 1, "On the Races of People in the Interior of Africa," let us have recourse to Etymology for a further elucidation of this singular coin, and the Semi-Jewish tribe whose name it bears.

Felatah.--Hebrew פלט _phalat_, which by comparison with its cognates signifies, _to separate from_, _retire into_, (another country); and with its affix פלטה _phalatah_, or _Felatah_, signifying _evasio_, _liberatio_, _residuum_, _&c._

Cithara.--Greek κιθαρα. Hebrew and Chaldee חטר _chatar_, _a stick_, (plectrum), _to beat with a stick_; therefore the instrument cannot be the עשׂוֹר _asor_, _decachordon_; but properly, I think, the harp or lyre that was beaten with the _plectrum_.

Pul.--Hebrew פול _phul_, or _Pul_, (Isaiah lxvi. 19.) "AFRICA, _ea pars quæ apud Fesam_."

Such is the value of rightly interpreting the ancient coins of various nations.

Yours truly,
T. R. BROWN.

Southwick, Oundle, March 27th, 1852.

ARCHÆOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS.

_In compliance with the wish very generally expressed by G. W.'s Subscribers and Correspondents, particularly by S. E. ("Current Notes" for March, p. 22,) G. W. has collected the titles of the chief Archæological publications in England, and in France and Germany. The former he believes to be nearly correct, but the latter is necessarily very imperfect, with the exception of the North of France. Very few foreign Antiquarian publications find their way to this country, as reference to the libraries of the British Museum and the Society of Antiquaries will prove._

PUBLICATIONS OF ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETIES, ETC. IN ENGLAND AND IN FRANCE.

"Archæologia" of the Society of Antiquaries of London.