Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/348

Rh escaped the efforts of De Saulcy.^ The last paragraph was, however, found one of unusual difficulty, and Norris suggested two alternative versions:

1 . ' Ormuzd, protect me, with all the gods, and also

this fortress. Moreover, do not doul)t that those confined in this place are wicked men; '

or

2, Ormuzd, protec^t me, with all the gods, and also this

fortress and what is enclosed therein. This do not doubt that the wicked men will be punished.'

Tn 1870, Oppert reads the same passage:

' Que me })rotcge Ormazd avec tons les Dieux, et cette forteresse, et aussi ce qui est dans cette forteresse. Que jamais je ne voie ce que riiomme mcchant sou- liaite [que je voie]! '

The latest attempt was made by Weisbach, in 1890, and runs thus:

' Mich moge Ahuramazda mit alien Gottern schlitzen, und diese Festung, und wiederum zu diesem Platze . . .! Das moge er nicht sehen (?), das, was der fehidliche Mann ersinnt I '^*

The work of Norris excited some controversv, and Holtzmann was especially concerned to refute the Fhmic-Tartar hypothesis. M. Hang revived the theory of its closer relationship to Turkish, i)ropsed by De Saulcy, and he suggested that the IVrsians themselves were ori^rinally Tartars.*^

- Cf. ./. II. A. S. XV. 149; X<.v Mrdrs, p. 197; Weisbadi, p. 77. ^ Mohl, ojt. cif. vol. ii. Iteport, June 1865; AVeisbacli, p. 7.
 * (/. WVstrrgaard, Bonn edition, p. IL'5; J>>in'nal A.<iatif/t/r, xv. 42.