Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/315

286 are found in the Yendidad Sade and in the ancient hymns.' ^

The appeaiance of Eavvhnson's work was received with feelings of enthusiasm in Germany. The reproach that England had hitherto neglected the cuneiform records was at length effaced, and in such a manner as to entitle her to claim the first place in the roll of dis- covery. Benfey declared that few, if any, of the con- tributions made in recent times in the lield of Oriental research could compare with it in importance.- Major Eawlinson, he says, displays an extraordinary aptitude for decipherment, and an accuracy and depth of philo- logical learning that render it peculiarly fortunate that such an important document should have fallen into his hands. In mere length, the inscription exceeds by more than a hundred lines all those published by Lassen put together. It consists of five columns of about four hundred and ten lines, and, although there is considerable repetition, it nevertheless offers a great variety of words and phrases which added innnensely to the knowledge previously acquired.^ One great difficulty with which he had to grapple was the very imperfect state of the text. A glance over the plates will show the numerous blanks left in the writinu' hi consequence of injury to the rock. Rawlinson's copy was so carefully executed that he committed only one serious error, the omission of a line in the fourth column. The other imperfections are due entirely to the ravages of time. In the first colunm there is a large fissure on the right hand, extending from the top to the twenty-fifth line, and again from the sixty-third

» J.E.A.S. xi. 51.

' Die PersUchen Keilinschrifteriy Leipzig, 1847.

' 111 the Persepolitan texts there are not more than four hundred words; the Behistun comprises ten times as many as all the rest put together. Darmesteter, quoted by Perrot, History of Art in Persia, p. 33, yiote.