Page:The Aryan Origin of the Alphabet.djvu/32

20 themselves, Tyrren-oi, Turran-oi or Tyrsēn-oi, a name corrupted by the Romans into "Etrusci," and their land is the modern Tuscany. They were separated by the Tiber from the sister colony of Trojans in Latium, the traditional birthplace of Brutus-the-Trojan, the first king of the Britons and the great grandson of Æneas, who settled there after the Fall of Troy. The "Etruscans" were allies of the Phœnicians of Carthage and wrote in the Cadmean letters. One of their seaports was named "Punicum," and Lake Benacus the modern Garda on the western border of the province of Venice (a name also a variant of Phœnice) was the site of an "Etruscan" colony. And one of their early inscribed vases of c. 718 B.C. is of Phœnician porcelain.

Col. 15. Iberian or Early Spanish Cadmean. This writing is found at Gades (Cadiz) and other ancient Phœnician seaports and mining sites in Spain or Iberia. In N. Spain the writing is usually in the ordinary Aryan, left to right direction with letters non-reversed, whilst in S. Spain the writing and letters are usually in the reversed direction. It is especially noticeable that the critical letter for I preserves generally its complex archaic Sumerian form in the older inscriptions in both areas, and thus presumes a very ancient date, probably about the twelfth or eleventh century B.C. This Cadmean writing continued there down to the Roman period when the letter I is given its modern form, and such late inscriptions are often bilingual with Latin.

Col. 16. Brito-Phœnician cursive script of King Partolan-the-Scot, from the Newton Stone of about 400 B.C.

Col. 17. Brito-Phœnician Cadmean from the inscriptions of King Brutus, the Trojan, the first king of the Britons, c. 1103-1080 B.C. and his descendants from the prehistoric