]_that many make it come from the
verb [Hebrew: MSHSH], mashash, to feel: but Dr. Hyde derives it from the
Arabic, Khamush, which signifies gnats, (though in the particular dialect
of the tribe Hodail) supposing it to have been an astronomical talisman in
the figure of a gnat:--and Le Clerc, who takes this idol for the Sun, from
Comosha, a root, in the same tongue, signifying to be swift._ There is the
same variety of sentiment about Silenus, the companion of Bacchus.
[476]Bochart derives his name from Silan, [Hebrew: SHYLN], and supposes him
to have been the same as Shiloh, the Messias. Sandford makes him to be
Balaam, the false prophet. [477]Huetius maintains that he was assuredly
Moses. It is not uncommon to find even in the same writer great
uncertainty: we have sometimes two, sometimes three, etymologies presented
together of the same word: two out of the three must be groundless, and the
third not a whit better: otherwise, the author would have given it the
preference, and set the other two aside. An example to this purpose we have
in the etymology of Ramesses, as it is explained in the [478]Hebrew
Onomasticum. Ramesses, tonitruum vel exprobratio tineae; aut malum delens
sive dissolvens; vel contractionem dissolvens, aut confractus a
tinea--civitas in extremis finibus AEgypti. A similar interpretation is
given of Berodach, a king of Babylon. Berodach: creans contritionem, vel
electio interitus, aut filius interitus, vel vaporis tui; sive frumentum;
vel puritas nubis, vel vaporis tui. Rex Babyloniae.

It must be acknowledged of Bochart, that the system upon which he has
proceeded is the most plausible of any; and he has shewn infinite ingenuity
and learning. He every where tries to support his etymologies by some
history of the place concerning which he treats. But the misfortune is,
that the names of places which seem to be original, and of high antiquity,
are too often deduced by him from circumstances of later date; from events
in after ages. The histories to which he appeals were probably not known
when the country, or island, received its name. He likewise allows himself
a great latitude in forming his derivations: for, to make his terms accord,
he has recourse, not only to the Phenician language, which he supposes to
have been a dialect of the Hebrew; but to the Arabian, Chaldaic, and
Syriac, according as his occasions require. It happens to him often to make
use of a verb for a radix, which has many variations