Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/129

 3. The three tables of inscriptions of Xerxes, consisting of four lines over the king s head on the east portal of his palace. This is the same inscription as Niebuhr had copied from the north portal (his E, F,G).

4. Fragmentary inscriptions of Xerxes found in his palace.

5. The three inscriptions of Xerxes on the south stairs of the Palace of Darius —now first taken.

6. The central inscription of Artaxerxes Ochus on stairs to Palace of Ochus —now first taken.

7. His Seyid copied the three tablets of the inscription of Xerxes over the Colossal animals on the east walls of the Porch. Mr. Rich was unfortunately unable on account of giddiness to remain at a height; and on this account he deputed the task to his Seyid, who had some experience of the cuneiform letters found at Babylon. This inscription was now first taken, but the copy turned out to be practically useless; and the first adequate rendering was made by Westergaard.

Coming from Babylon, where all the inscriptions he had seen were unilingual, he was much struck by the repetition of each inscription at Persepolis in three dis- tinct modes of writing. 'Every inscription in Persepolis,' he says, 'even the bits on the robes of the king, are in the three kinds. When an inscription is round a door or window, the first species is on the top, the second on the left hand running up, the third on the right, running down. I speak as looking at the door.' 'If one under the other, the first (or Zend) is always in the upper tablet; if side by side over a figure, it is the