Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/383

354 perhaps Grotefend knew the values of ten cursive characters correctly and of ten others approximately.^ It will be seen from the transliteration that he reco<?nised some of the siiriis as svllaljic^ and some as alphabetical. He also knew there was a sinj^le sign for ' son,' which, he points out, occurred as a in Darius; and he had found tliree of the equivalent si<rns for ' king/ It is not improbal)le that if he had persevered in analysing a larger numl)er of proper names, he might eventually have reached other solid results. Unfortun- ately, these were not readily accessiljle. The I inscription, that yielded so much assistance to Burnouf and Lassen, had no Bal)y Ionian equivalent; and Westergaard had not yet copied the one at Xaksh-i-Kustam. FaiUng the onlv true method, he had recourse to another that once more carried liim far awav to another ' constellation of Moro.'

There was nuich speculation as to what could be the signification of a certain insci'iption found on cylinder seals and 'holy' vases, and reproduced with amplification on the bricks collected l)y ^Ir. Eich at Babylon. Ila^er had lont^ ai>o tlirown out the useful suggestion that the brick insc^riptions most probably recorded the name of the maker or the builder; but this opinion did not ultimately find favour. It was contended that the inscriptions on the seals and ' holy' vases must have a religious import, and were no doubt used as talismans, in accordance with Oriental custom; and nothing could be more natural than that the same mystical formulae should be impressed upon the bricks, in order to l)anish the evil demons from the precincts of the buildinn'. Grotefend a(!Cordhi2flv looked about for guidance, and at length found some- thing to suit his purpose in the Zend-Avesta. He

^ Tram. It. /. Acad. xxi. '2A'l.