Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/264

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL MAK. is, im

that Mr. Thorns did not like to tell him that he had the book in his pocket. Such a mis- take of Macaulay's would pass unknown by every one except Mr. Thorns, while a blunder about ' The Dunciad,' in days when it was more read than now, would soon have been discovered. R. PHIPPS,

Colonel late Royal Artillery.

" AETAHSHASHTE " (10 S. xi. 148). Artaxerxes is the spelling in the Vulgate version ; but I doubt its correctness. The best book on this subject is that by F. Spiegel, entitled ' Die altpersischen Keilin- schriften,' Leipzig, 1862. According to Spiegel's transliteration of the cuneiform characters, the spelling of Xerxes was Khsayarsa ; but that of Artaxerxes was Arta-khsatra. It follows that the -xerxes in Arta-xerxes is not the same word as Xerxes.

Spiegel gives the derivation of both these names. Xerxes, or Khsayarsa, is from the root khsi, to be mighty, to rule, cognate with the Skt. Tchshi, to possess, to rule, and the Gk. Kra.ofj.ai. As to the exact suffix he is in doubt. Artaxerxes, or Arta- khsatra, is from arta, high, lofty, and khsatra, rule, or kingdom, from the same root as before ; so that the name means " high dominion." Our word " satrap " is from the Old Persian khsatra-p'avd, " protector of a province," from pa, to protect. WALTER W. SKEAT.

" Artahshashte " is the Aramaic rendering

of the name, transmitted by the Jewish

Masorah. A. M. C.

Amsterdam.

It is refreshing to learn that so long ago as 1614 Barker endeavoured to render the name of King Artaxerxes phonetically in his Bible, for there can be no doubt that his transliteration is a near approximation to the pronunciation of the name, which is mangled out of all recognition in our ordinary English spelling and pronunciation.

Prof. G. Maspero, in ' The Passing of the Empires,' 1900, gives the form Khshayarsha for Xerxes, and. writes (p. 729) :

" Artaxerxes is the form commonly adoptee by the Greek historians, and by the moderns whc follow them ; but Ctesias and others after hiir prefer Artoxerxes. The original form of th Persian name was Artakhshathra."

Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge, in his ' Historj of Egypt,' vol. vii. 1902, uses the form Khshaiarsha and Artakhashassha for the two names. He prints the cuneiform anc hieroglyphic characters, and writes : " The

lieroglyphic form of the name Xerxes, ihshaiarsha, is a transcription of the Persian Khshyarsha " (pp. 76-7). The name about

which the querist writes he divides into its omponent characters : A-r-ta-kha-sh-tr-a

in the Persian, and A-r-ta-kha-sha-s-sha in he Egyptian.

Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie, in his ' History if Egypt,' iii. 1905, transliterates the names vhshyarsha and Artakhsheshes. It will )e seen that the forms given by these three

eminent Orientalists differ but slightly from hat of Barker three centuries ago.

FREDK. A. EDWARDS.

My copy of Barker's Bible of 1589 gives he same spelling that H. P. L. mentions, aut also in the first Alphabetical Concordance sxplains that " Artashashte " is the general itle of the kings of Persia, as Caesar was hat of the emperors of Rome. Is not this soncordance in H. P. L.'s edition ? Mine s a Breeches Bible, and contains Prayer Book, Metrical Psalter with music, and other matters. CAROLINE STEGGALL.

The Croft, Southover, Lewes.

[J. T. F. also thanked for reply.]

THE TYBURN (10 S. x. 341, 430, 494; xi. 31, 130). MR. W. L. RUTTON is usually so cautious and conservative in his reluctance to depart from established " shibboleths " that I am surprised he should have endan- gered the foundations of one that has hitherto been regarded as settled on the most solid basis. London topographers- have asserted over and over again that the Tyburn is, and has always been, the name of a stream that ran from Hampstead to the Thames. MR. RUTTON enlarges this idea in such a manner as to expose it to a serious risk. In his view the Tyburn is not only the stream in question, which formed the western boundary of the Abbey estate under the charter of c. 951, but it is also the stream which formed the boundary of the Abbey possessions under the decree of 1222, and which MR. RUTTON a few years ago strenuously maintained was called the Westbourne. More than this, MR. RUTTON suggests that the Tyburn was the general name for the many streams that issued from the Hampstead springs. In MR. RUTTON' s words, " it is difficult to entertain this proposition." It seems to me far easier to suppose that " andlang Teoburnam " and the other expressions in the charter meant that the boundary of one estate ran along the boundary of another large dis- trict known as Teoburna. If " Teoburna "