Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/319

290 commentator makes a useful correction. The erroneous readincr, * he would frequently address the state ' (par. 13), he altered to ' er mochte das Eeich mit Macht vernichten,' which approaches Spieijel, ' er mochte viele Leute todten,' or, as Eawlinson said in 1873, 'he slew many people.' So also the passage ' afterwards Dadarses remained away from me in the field ' (Col. II. par. 9), is improved to ' dann erwartete mich dem Befehl gemass Dadarses.' This EawHnson changed in 1873 to 'after- wards Dadarses waited for me there,' the accepted version being ' dort erwartete mich Dadarses so lange ' etc. It will be observed that the critic was himself liable to fall into superfluous additions not far removed from error. Sometimes, however, he avoided this trap, as when he substituted ' he lied ' (Col. IV. par. 1) for Eawlinson's ' impostor,' and ' if you so think ' (par. 5) for ' if it should be thus kept up.' But in a large proportion of cases lienfey follows his leader into error with perfect complacency. In one or two places Eawlinson is oblii:»ed to confess that the difliculties are so great that translation is almost impossible. One of these occurs in the description of the religious reform after the death of Gomates, the Magian (Col. I. par. 14). Eeferring to this passage, he says: '(3f several of the most important words the orthography is doubtful ; of others the etymology is almost impenetrable, and the construction, moreover, in some parts renders the division into sentences a matter of serious embarrass- ment.' ^ But the difficulties have been found almost as insuperable l)y his successors. They have not been able to derive assistance from the Susian and Babvlonian (columns, where the difficulties are even greater. The meaning of some words still remains a mystery, and even the general drift of the passage is open to

» J, R. A, S. X. 206.