شصر

cumstance caught and fixed my attention on the word, a monogram of three letters. I at once read it. And, on consulting the lexicon, found in Golius, Pullus dorcadis ; in Richardson," shasar, A young deer;" and, in Freytag,, Pullus dorcadis mensemnatus, that is, "A fawn of a month old." This last definition left no room for doubt or question; for there was the month-old fawn, immediately facing the monogram, borne in the arms of the next figure, apparently a sacrificing priest or minister.

I now reflected that, in this result, we had, so far as one word could indicate, an index to the language of Babylonia or Assyria; which so far proved itself identical with the Hamyaritic, or old Arabic. The fact was obviously one of the highest philological importance; because, if materials were extant in these characters sufficient for an induction, we should be in possession of the language or dialect of the arrow-headed characters themselves, and should know where to seek the definitions of the words, whenever the powers of the letters could be ascertained. For my own conviction was entire, that the arrowheads, and javelin-heads, of this whole family, were merely the favourite weapons of war disposed as letters, or parts of letters; the powers of

which were to be judged of, not by this peculiarity, but, like letters generally, by their forms. In connection with this singular mark of the passion of the Assyrians for war, it struck me that allusion might be intended to their arrow-headed characters in those words of the Psalmist :

"My soul is among lions:

And I lie even among the children of men, who are set on fire;
Whose teeth are spears and arrows,

And their tongue a sharp sword."

In this view of the design and origin of the arrow-headed writing, I had soon after the pleasure of finding my idea confirmed by the tactful acumen of Mr. (now Dr.) Layard, who has come independently to the same conclusion, in the following passage from his "Nineveh and its Re

"Admitting that the Assyrian is the most ancient known form of arrow-headed writing, it would be interesting to ascertain its origin. The epithets of cuneiform, cuneatic, wedge-shaped, and arrow-headed, tête-à-clou (nail-headed) in French, and keilförmig in German, have been variously assigned to it, because its component parts resemble either a wedge, the barb of an arrow, or a nail, according to the fancy of the describer. It is not improbable, however, that the original or primitive elements of the letters were merely simple lines, the wedge or arrowhead being a subsequent improvement or embel

lishment." Dr. Layard corroborates his opinion by matter-of-fact evidence. "On a slab at Nimroud, forming a part of a wall in the south-west palace, but brought from the most ancient edifice, I found one line of writing in which the characters were thus formed. It occurred beneath the usual inscription, and was but slightly cut.

= < 7 7 7 TkT FIHPFTЕІТПЕТЕП

"It is evident that, by substituting the wedge or arrow-head for the lines in the above inscription, the characters would resemble such as are found on the earliest Assyrian monuments."*

Another variety of the Assyrian characters, noticed in the same context, afforded opportunity for a further experimentum crucis towards ascertaining the family of that language, with which we will now proceed. This variety is thus described and depicted by the same authority. "Nor is the element of the most ancient form of Assyrian monumental writing always the arrowhead or the wedge; it sometimes assumes the shape of a hammer, on painted bricks, from the earliest palace at Nimroud.Ӡ

* Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 179.

† Ibid. p. 180.

To my eye this inscription was so clearly in Hamyaritic characters of known forms and powers, as to induce me at once to attempt its translation. Accordingly I subdivided it conjecturally into words, reading from left to right, the more usual direction of this whole family of writing. The inscription, as read by me, contained three words. The reader may judge of my surprise, when I found these words actually translated in the introductory description by Dr.

T

Layard. The central word that first decyphered, I read, agreeably to the forms of the characters,, twb; and, on consulting the lexicon, was startled by the unlooked-for coincidence of the definition, viz.,,, Later coctus, “A baked brick.” The last word

read, and with a result equally appropriate, viz., b, Pinxit, "To paint." The first word

ETTE read rasă. Its definition was in

رصع

perfect keeping with its fellows, namely,, i. q. Conjunxit, compegit, conglutinavit, ferruminavit, "Joining, cramping together, cementing, soldering;" the legend being simply a description

of the material on which it was impressed, which renders literally, in Layard's words, "Cemented together painted bricks." The word, Later coctus, is here specially in place: the Assyrian bricks, usually, were only of sun-dried clay, but, to preserve inscriptions, the painted bricks must have been glazed by the action of fire.

In this example, again, we have three-fold proof, that the language of Assyria was the old Arabic. This point once ascertained, we are enabled legitimately to recur to the Arabic as the true key for the decypherment of all AssyroBabylonian inscriptions, whether in simple, or in arrow-headed characters.*

The characters in the second of the foregoing inscriptions are a curious specimen of the tran

* "Two characters appear at one time to have been in use among the Assyrians. One, the cuneiform or arrow-headed, as in Egypt, was, probably, the hieroglyphic, and principally employed for monumental records: the other, the cursive or hieratic, may have been used in documents of a private nature, or for records of public events of minor importance. The nature of the arrow-headed will be hereafter described.

The cur

sive resembles the writing of the Phoenicians, Palmyrenes, Babylonians, and Jews; in fact, the character, which, under a few unessential modifications, was common to the nations speaking cognate dialects of one language, variously termed the Semitic, Aramæan, or, more appropriately, SYROARABIAN."- Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 164.

This passage contains, both a just representation of the alphabetic phenomena which it describes, and a correct statement of the only legitimate inference which can be drawn from them; namely, that, in the cursive writing of all these primitive nations, a common character implies a common language, dialectically varying, but essentially the same, and best defined as the Syro-Arabian. In other words, the reader has here before him the fundamental principle of the present work.