eS 
403 
In my former address I touched upon the discovery of the 
bilingual tablet, nearly eight feet high, at San, the ancient Tanis, 
by Professor Lepsius. It resembles the Rosetta stone, and is of 
the date of the 9th year of Ptolomy Euergetes I., or B.C. 238, i.e. 
about fifty years older than the Rosetta stone. “In one point it 
is of the highest interest to the chronology of Egypt. It mentions 
that the priests aware of the disturbance of the due celebration of 
the festivals by which those which ought to have been held in the 
summer fell in the winter, decreed the institution of a leap year 
by the addition of a day to be added every fourth year to the five 
« Epagomence” or intercallary days. This day was to be dedicated 
‘to the festival of the Monarch, and the year thus created 
anticipated the so-called Julian year of the reformed calendar of 
Sosigenes, B.c. 45, by nearly two centuries.” (See Archeol. 
Journal, Vol. XXIV., p. 4.) ‘When this tablet was discovered 
Egyptology or the Science of Egyptian interpretation was said 
to be put upon its trial, as the Greek inscription on it would 
either confirm or contradict the results of recent researches, and 
Egyptology comes out triumphant from that trial. Not only 
have the proper names of Cleopatra and Berenice been found, 
but the body of the text, words, grammatical forms and inflections 
agree with what had been predetermined by Egyptologists, and 
only some trivial modifications of the sense of a few words will 
result from the discovery of this tablet.” The same success 
which has crowned the labours of Egyptologists and which the 
discovery of their bilingual tablets confirms beyond a doubt, has 
also accompanied the labours bestowed upon cuneiform writing. 
Sir H. Rawlinson first succeeded in interpreting correctly the 
monument of Darius I. at Behistoun. 
The power of interpretation depends very much upon. the 
supply of monuments and texts accessible to the interpreter. 
Happily these are now very abundant in the cuneiform characters. 
In addition to those brought home by Mr. Layard and Mons. 
Botta, Mr. Smith obtained as many as 3,000 inscriptions and 
