The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1881-06-16
"rhe MOabito Stone.1

Capt. RenczYnski has written an inter
estmg book on 1.-THE last of tho Anakim in
the Land OF Moab" in which he gives
some particulars as to his studies Of the III
scriptlOn on the famous M0nbitc stone. In
August, 1868, the Rev. T.. Klein, of the
Church Missionary society, while in the
Land of Moab, near Dibon, was informed
by al Arab that near by there was black
Basalt stone inscribed with ancient clarat.-
tcrs. Upon going to the locality indicated
he found lying among tho ruins n stone
about thee feet ten inches high, two feet
broad and l4a inches thick, rounded at top
and bottom, ami containing thirty four
lines Of inscription running across the stone.
MIR. Klein AT this time did not appreciate
the importance OF the discovery, and he
merely copied few words from the stone.
lie, however, took measures to secure the
stone for the Berlin museum, but made
little progress with his negotiations. a
few weeks afterward Capt. Warren, the
agent of the Palestine Exploration fund.
| was Informed Of the existence OF the stone,
but he took no action in the matter, know
ing that the Prussian consul was cndeavor-
ing to secure it.. In the beginning OF the
following year Capt. Warren was astonlshcd
to learn, as was also III. Clermont Ganneau,
of the French consulate at Jerusalem, that
no copy or 'squeZe" of the inscription had
been taken. Towards the close of the year
1859 the latter not only sent men TO obtain
squcZcs, who quarrelcd IN the presence of
the Arabs, but offered 1915 for the stone,
whereas ESQ had already been promised
by the Prussian government, and accepted
by those who claimed the ownership of the
stone. at this stage the government of
Nablus demanded the prize for itself,
and the Moabitcs, exasperat ed at his rapa.
city, "sooncr than give it up put a fire
under it and threw cold water on 1t, and
so broke 1t, and then distributed the bits
| among the different families, to be placed
in the granarics and act as blessings upon
the corn; for they said that without the
stone blight would fall upon their crops. "
After immense trouble nj. Clcrmont- Tan
neau recovered some twenty of these frag-
mcnts, containg 6l3 letters, while several
small pieces were acquired by the Palestine
exploration fund.- These fragments, when
united, were found to contain $50 words,
out Of total Of | 100 which the complete
| stone must have contained. The greater
part Of the missing letters were recovered
from the sQucZcs taken before the stone
was broken BY the ruthless Moabites, $50
that only tmrty-t1ve words, fifteen half
words and eighteen lcttcrs-lcss than one
seventh of the whOlc-rcmain to be sup
piled from conjecture" With reference TO
the characters engraved on the stone. the
general opinion is that they are Ph9nician,
also called Samaritan, snch as were used
by the Jews before the captivity. DIR.
Gidsburg, who has executed translation
of the inscriptions, says that these charac-
ters were common b. G. 700 to all the
races of western ASA, and were used IL
Ninevch, Ph9nicla, Jerusalem, Samaria,
Moab, Cilcia and Cyprus. With reference
to the inscription on the stone itself, it may
be stated that it records some remarkable
events i'll the reign of Mesha, King of Moab,
who is mentioned in the second book of
Kings (lil., 4. 81, and who had rcbcllcd
against Israel after the death of Ahab. The
first part Of the inscription narrates the cir
cunistanccs which led to the stone being
erected, while the second part relates to
the public works undertaken by Mcsha
after he had overcome his Jewish foes. and
the third part celebrates his victory over
the Edomitcs. The rendering of Capt.
Rcnczynslli represents the result of "ninc
years toll and labor"