The Mohamedan Mahdi must be born in the family of Husain, and be a descendant of Fatima the daughter of the prophet. A common belief in North India is also that as a child he will have milk in his veins. The new Messiah gets over the difficulty of not being of the lineage of Mohammed, but I should like to ask whether milk instead of blood circulates in his body? It is believed by the vulgar that the British vaccinate in order to discover the new Mahdi, so that like Herod of old they may slay the innocent. The extensive bibliography on the last page of the paper shows that the sect is attracting a good deal of attention, but, at the same time, that it was being adequately dealt with, and its fallacies, absurdities and feeble arguments exposed, especially from the Christian point of view this was being done with special ability in the Epiphany, the able publication of the Oxford Mission in Calcutta, which is now so much appreciated by thoughtful Europeans and natives in India.

Mr. J. O. CORRIE, B.A.-The successful insistence by Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian on the peaceful character of his Messiahship, as opposed to the popular Mohamedan doctrine of a bloody Mahdi, who will a wage a bloody jihad or war against unbelievers, is an evidence of the infiltration that goes on of Christian ideas into Indian religious notions:-other evidences are the Brahmo Somaj and the Arya Somaj (vide C.M.S. Intelligencer, Feb. 1905, pp. 93, 94; and May, 1905, p. 335).

The phenomena of false Messiahs, and spiritual leaders, such as Brigham Young, Dowie and others obtaining considerable numbers of followers point to a longing in humanity for a spiritual leader. (Perhaps the Papacy is another case in point.) It is forcibly argued that the yearning for immortality, so general in mankind, is an evidence that man is immortal; for, otherwise, God would not have given it. Does not a like consideration apply to this widespread desire for a spiritual leader? May it not be an indication, that One will come, who will satisfy that longing? namely, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Colonel HENDLEY then moved that the cordial thanks of the meeting be conveyed to the author of the paper for his valuable communication.

ORDINARY MEETING.*

MARTIN L. ROUSE, ESQ., B.L., IN THE CHAIR.

The Minutes of the previous meeting having been read and confirmed, the Secretary (in the absence of the author) read the following paper :

THE MINERALS AND METALS MENTIONED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. Their paramount influence on the Social and Religious History of the Nations of Antiquity. By Chev. W. P. JERVIS, F.G.S., Member of the Italian Geological Society, Rome; late Conservator of the Royal Italian Industrial Museum, Turin.

PRECIOUS STONES, ISRAELITISH TIMES.

B.C. circum 1520. The first allusion we know of to precious stones as already sought for in those ancient times is that of Job. "As for the earth out of it cometh bread, and under it is turned up as it were fire; the stones of it are the place of sapphires (lapis lazuli, see below, p. 262, etc.), and it hath dust of gold." (Job xxviii, 6.)

B.C. 1491. Although Moses simply records that the children of Israel on their departure from Egypt spoiled the people, or land, of jewels of gold and jewels of silver, the sequel proves that many of these must have formed the settings of precious stones, of very great value, since in the wilderness the free-will offerings of the host included the twelve precious stones for the breastplate of the ephod.

Though numerous specialists have devoted the most conscientious study to the precise signification of the Hebrew

Monday, May 22nd, 1905.

text of the Bible as to what stones were employed, no one has ever been able to identify unquestionably more than a few of them. The rest have been doubtfully attributed to several mineral species, mineralogy being so recent a science; and it is reasonable to assume that the word of the Hebrew scriptures for such stones was but that by which they were known to the Egyptians. Can they therefore be ever interpretated by us? One only solution seems to present itself as logical, which is to take the earlier understood and more recent Greek text descriptive of the heavenly Jerusalem; for, be it remembered, that all the Mosaic ceremonies were essentially typical. In the priestly breastplate the names of the 12 tribes of Israel were severally engraved, while the wall of the City had 12 foundations, and in them the names of the 12 Apostles of the Lamb. Now let us give the parallel texts in the Old and New Testament, and compare them together, holding that the stones were identical in either case. Should such an explanation be accepted a slight advance would be possible.

B.C. 1491. Thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment with cunning work; after the work of the ephod thou shalt make it, of gold, of blue, and of purple, and scarlet, and of fine twined linen shalt thou make it. Four square shall it be being doubled. And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones. The first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle ; and the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond; and the third row a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst; and the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper. And the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel, 12 according to their names, like the engravings of a signet, every one with his name shall they be, according to the 12 tribes... And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart" (Ex. xxviii, 15-29). It may here be observed that the order in which these stones are given in the Septuagint Greek translation differs greatly from the original Hebrew.

In the apostle John's vision of the new Jerusalem "the building of the wall of it was of jasper, and the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third a chalcedony, the fourth an emerald, the fifth a sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth a topaz, the tenth a chrysoprasus, the eleventh a jacinth, the twelfth an amethyst." (Rev. xxi, 18-20.)

Udem, translated sardius, σápdtov in S.; σápdios in R., is serd

in Persian; sardum in Syriac; sardinon in Coptic; samuk in Samaritan. It is given as sardius by B. K. L. R. S.*

Sardius, or noble carnelian pits exist in Guzerat near the river Nurbudda, thirteen miles from Baroda, and have been worked from the remotest antiquity. Other pits whence sardius is obtained in the same region are worked near Ratanpur and Kompurwanye. The Indian sardius, which is derived from igneous rocks, differs from carnelian only in its being coloured milk-white, greenish, or black. The natives heat it powerfully for a few hours in pots with goat or cow dung, when the dark orange varieties assume a splendid clear, uniform red colour, becoming somewhat translucent. It is a very precious stone, and was worked by the ancients in a most magnificent manner. Udem is supposed to have been a variety, from Odom, red. These pits are exclusively worked by the primitive indigenous races, who send all the produce to be cut by the celebrated lapidaries at Cambay. Noble red sardius is likewise found in Bokhara.

Shebo, translated agate, axárns in S., is achates in Coptic, whence achates in Latin; shebo in Persian; sebog in Arabic. Given as agate by B. K. L. O. It evidently corresponds to chalcedony, xaληdóν in R.; both are mineralogically identical, only the latter being uniformly whitish, and the former polychrome.

Shoham, translated onyx, ovúxiov in S., by others ovuş, σαρδόνικον and βερύλλιον; sardonyx in Latin, is given as onyx by B. L. S. J., and clearly corresponds to sardonyx, σapdóvu, in R. J.; it is stated by K. to signify beryl, but there does not seem to be sufficient ground for his interpretation, the more so as he also suggests sardonyx as probable. Sardonyx differs from carnelian simply from its yellow colour. It is found in India with the sardius, also in Egypt.

Yahalum, translated diamond; (?) the xpvoólidos of the S., given also as diamond by B. and L., is considered by K. to have been the ονυχιον of the S.; whence he translates it onyx. In fact the so-called greenish diamond from near Baroda is merely a variety of chalcedony, and if so would correspond to Xpuσóπpaσos in R., that being simply a greenish variety of

* Abbreviations.-Authorities. B. Braun, De Vestitu sacerdotum hebr. 1680; Bw. Bredow, Historische Untersuchungen; Keferstein, Mineralogia polyglotta, Halle, 1849; Luther, Die Bibel; O., Old Testament; Aaron Pick, The Bible Students' Concordance, to ascertain the literal meaning in the original, 1845; R. Revelations; S. Septuagint; J. Jervis.

chalcedony. Further K. shows that though the word chrysolite denotes the colour, there is no means of identifying which of several suitable hard stones in the breastplate was signified, and the matter is shrouded with obscurity.

Sappir, translated sapphire, and σáπþeɩpos in S., is sappir in Chaldea, sophor in Ethiopic, saphiros in Coptic, saphiron in Syriac, sapphiros in Latin. Given as sapphire by B. L. O. R. But K. authoritatively states that what was known to the Chaldeans, Greeks, and Romans under the name of sapphire was lapis lazuli. That mineral comes from Bokhara, and the district of Badakshan in Afghanistan, to the north of the Hindu Kush, not far from the upper course of the Oxus, whence it is taken by caravans to the lapidaries of Cambay.

Jashpeh, translated jasper, laoπis in S., is also called jashpeh in Persian and Syriac. Jasper occurs abundantly in many countries, including Syria, Egypt, etc., but is also extensively found and cut in Guzerat; it is recognised as such by B. L. O. R.; K. considers that plasma, or jasper, was intended here.

There are potent arguments in support of the conviction that all the foregoing stones in Aaron's Ephod were cut at Cambay, and thence taken to Egypt by regular trade, for it has been traced back to long before the Christian era.

Thence the commerce of the lapidaries of Cambay supplied all countries of the ancient world from China to Greece and Egypt even at the present day it is hinted that much of what is sold in Western Europe in resorts of modern tourists has a like origin, having been worked and cut at Cambay.

Akhlomoh, translated amethyst, åμévσros in S., is amothostos in Ethiopic (whence the Greek name) and in Syriac; amethystos in Coptic; amethystus in Latin. It is so given by B. K. L. O. R. S.; all are concordant. It is abundant : amongst other countries, in India and Ceylon.

As to the identification of the other stones the greatest perplexity exists, and nothing positive can be ascertained.

Boreketh, translated carbuncle, from the Sanscrit Barak, shining, is the oμapaydos in S., also μápaydes in Greek; maragd in Ethiopic; marakta in Sanscrit; berakta and ismaragda in Chaldea; barketh and zmerud in Persian; zumurud in Hindustani; zamaragd in Ethiopic, whence evidently the Greek; samurod in Arabic; smaragdus in Latin. Translated emerald by B. K. L. R. S. It is found in Egypt, whence the whole ancient world was supplied. Extensive traces of the ancient emerald mines on the Saburah, between Berenice and Koptos, were discovered in chlorite