320 Dr Prichard on the Relations of Ethnology 



of the world, — a monument of the intelligence of modern Eu- 

 rope more exalted than the royal pomp of the Pyramids, 

 whose real builders now, for the first time, come forth to our 

 view after having been concealed in the rubbish of 4000 

 years. Scarcely less remarkable is the achievement of our 

 illustrious countryman Mr Prinsep, in the East, who has 

 read and interpreted the inscriptions spread over India and 

 Afghanistan. It is a curious fact, that these most ancient 

 records of the furthest East preserve not the victories of 

 warriors, but the decrees of Buddhistical sovereigns, com- 

 manding throughout the provinces of their great empire the 

 establishment of hospitals for the cure of men and brute ani- 

 mals. Many curious facts in history have been preserved by 

 these inscriptions, and among others the extension of a 

 Macedonian empire over a great part of India, and the con- 

 quest of the Island of Ceylon by a sovereign of Hindustan 

 three centuries before the Christian era. Not less remark- 

 able are the inscriptions cut in letters composed of wedge- 

 shaped strokes which are spread through the empire of the 

 great Cyrus, and have been lately read. These were en- 

 graved by the subjects of the Persian kings. Another set 

 of these cuneiform inscriptions belonged to the older Assy- 

 rians and Eabylonians. The clue to all these discoveries was 

 obtained by Dr Grotefend, Lassen, and Burnouf; and by 

 its aid our countryman. Major Rawlinson, has succeeded in 

 reading the history of the Achaemenidae engraven on their 

 own monuments in a language which was doubtless spoken 

 at the courts of Susa and Persepolis, but has not been heard 

 since the overthrow of the last Darius. Even the old Assyrian 

 inscriptions are now partially understood, and the name of 

 Nebuchadnezzar has been found on the walls of his palaces. 



Many ethnological facts may be collected from these in- 

 scriptions. I sball instance the supposed existence of the 

 Affghans among the nations subject to Darius, and who^ 

 doubtless, contributed to form tlie armies that fought at Mara- 

 thon and Thermopylae. It would be curious to find the an- 

 cestors of Akhbar Khan among the invaders of Europe 2000 

 years ago. 



The inscriptions spread through Arabia and Ethiopia will 



