and on the Babylonian Lapidary Character, 247 
ter clearly represents ya, and, when preceded by a syllable terminating in a, the 
compound, aya, seems to have expressed 7. 
7, 8. Both these are used, I believe, exclusively for the conjunction ‘“ and.” 
The corresponding Median letter is aw or 6, but I think it better to give these 
characters the value U, which, if not accurate, is a safe approximation. 
12. [Used by abbreviation for the words 12, 66, er.sa, and 12, 75, 15, 
er.sar.ra, being transcriptions of the Median 23, 73; 23, 73, 23, 13 ; which 
as read by me, are identical in sound. They signify “ great,” “ very great.’’] 
18. Signifies “the earth,” “land ;” and it may be doubted whether it was 
not, in some cases, a non-phonetic initial. I believe that this word was simply 
Lu. 
21. In the word 21, 48, elsewhere written 1, 22, 48, a.na.ku, “I,’’ it is 
clearly phonetic. I presume the word ana signified “ one.”’ 
23. Prefixed non-phonetically to the name Ormazd, and also used by abbre- 
viation for the word 23, 22, 39, m’.na.bu, “God.” The word signifying 
“heaven” is written 23, 41; I am uncertain whether it should be read na. bu 
or nabu.bus, “the dwelling of God,” considering both characters to be used as 
abbreviations for words. This is, I think, the more probable; and the same may 
be said of the Median word signifying “ heaven.” 
24. Sometimes used to represent the word ‘“ man,” which I believe to have 
been buna. See below. 
29, 30. The former of these is sometimes, and the latter, I believe, always, 
used to represent the word mi, signifying “ king.” 
35. Signifies “a province,” pronounced ba ; prefixed to the names of coun- 
tries, generally as a non-phonetic initial ; but in the name of Babylon it was 
sounded. 
36. Used to express the word “ man,’ which I believe to have been dana. 
It is written in the Persepolitan inscriptions which I have consulted in four ways, 
36 alone ; 36, 24; 34, 24; and 24 alone. 
41, Used in the Babylonian inscription to express ‘‘a house,” or ‘ dwelling,” 
almost synonymous with 54. I read it bws, as it seems to be the same word that 
occurs, written 39, 60, in the inscription L. In the Persepolitan inscription, C, 
it seems to signify ‘the world.” 
