in the triple Inscriptions of the Persians, &c. 295 
used, their powers as well as their shapes, as far as suited the alphabet he was 
constructing ; that is, if they represented consonants or vowels in the older writ- 
ing, he would necessarily have given them the very same values in his new 
system ; or, if they denoted whole syllables in the former kind of writing, he 
must have selected parts of those syllables as their powers in the latter kind. 
But the four characters above adduced are perfectly ascertained to be, in the first 
kind of cuneiform writing, equivalent to respectively k, r, 4, and s; while no 
corresponding powers, except for the last of the four, would answer in the second 
kind ; and, as far as I can find, the only ones claimed forthem on the supposition 
of their being therein employed with phonetic significations are, for the first and 
second respectively, pw and pa, by both Westergaard and Hincks, and for the 
third and fourth, in like manner, jo and s, by the former author, and yz and as, 
by the latter. The requisite condition, then, in order to the cuneatic writing 
called Median being really phonetic, is complied with in only one of the four 
cases,—a coincidence which, therefore, must be looked on as merely fortuitous. 
But, even allowing to this single instance as much weight as to any one of the 
rest, there is, still, a balance of evidence to the extent of three to one against the 
elements of this writing being phonetic, and, consequently, in favour of their 
being ideagraphic signs. 
14. With respect to the third, the Babylonian, and the Ninevite* kinds of 
cuneiform writing, which have all of them a close affinity to each other, the 
principal transcriber of specimens of the last mentioned kind, M. Botta, in the 
French memoir lately published by him, wherein he professes to determine the 
variants or homophones belonging to this writing, has, by his manner of treating 
the subject, even in his introductory example, shown that the objects of his 
research are, in reality, not letters of the same power, but ideagrams of the same 
meaning, whatever might be the words by which they were formerly read. 
The following line presents to us the example in question : 
— YY, 
a FE HE 
This series of six characters the author considers as expressing the name of some 
* Khorsabad, where the bas-reliefs and cuneiform inscriptions have been found, the beautiful 
engraved copies of which do so much credit to the skill of M. Botta as an artist, is supposed to 
be the site of the ancient city of Nineveh. 
