as their armorial distinctions; to the infidelity of consorts during
their absence, and to the finger of scorn pointed at them on their
return; crested indeed, but abused."--_Todd's Johnson's Dictionary_.

R.T.H.G.


_Why Moses represented with Horns._--You may inform your querist "L.C."
(No. 24 p. 383.), that the strange practice of making Moses appear
horned, which is not confined to statues, arose from the mistranslation
of Exod. xxxiv. 30. & 35. in the Vulgate, which is to the Romanist his
authenticated scripture. For there he reads "faciem Moysi cornutum,"
instead of "the skin of Moses' face shone." The Hebrew verb put into our
type is _coran_, very possibly the root of the Latin _cornu_: and its
primary signification is to put forth horns; its secondary, to shoot
forth rays, to shine. The participle is used in its primary sense in
Psalms, xix. 31.; but the Greek Septuagint, and all translators _from
the Hebrew_ into modern European languages, have assigned to the verb
its secondary meaning in Exod. xxxiv. In that chapter the nominative to
_coran_ is, in both verses, undeniably _skin_, not _head_ nor _face_.
Now it would obviously be absurd to write "his skin was horned," so that
common sense, and the authority of the Septuagint, supported by the
language of St. Paul in his paraphrase and comment on this passage in 2
Cor. iii. 7-13., ought to have been sufficient to guide any Christian
translator as to the sense to be attached to _coran_ in the mention of
Moses.

H.W.
Oxford, April 16, 1850.