in the triple Inscriptions of the Persians, &c. 297. 
three], ils représentent des sons a peu prés semblables : dans ce cas, il serait pos- 
sible de ramener le nom en question au nom méme du rocher sur lequel est bati 
le chateau de Van, le Khorkhor.’’* 
But, surely, without resorting to either of those arbitrary assumptions, the 
natural inference from the circumstance observed by M. Botta is, that, if the 
series in question be a name at all, it is one of the old characteristic denomina- 
tions, which consisted in an enumeration of the qualities by which a person or 
place was supposed to be distinguished ;—an ideagraphic description which was 
not in the least altered by changing the order of the enumerated attributes. 
15. One of the most striking proofs of the non-phonetic nature of the hiero- 
glyphic writing in the general texts (outside the royal cartouches) of the 
Egyptians legends, is grounded on the impossibility of reading such of them as 
belong to the second century, in any of the dialects of the Coptic, as then spoken 
by the Egyptians, or, indeed, in any known language whatever. The dates of 
the legends referred to are fixed by the names of the Roman emperors phoneti- 
cally expressed in their cartouches ; and the dialects made use of about the same 
time in Egypt are preserved to some extent in the remains of the Coptic trans- 
lations of the Scriptures that were framed in the above-mentioned century. But 
if the latest specimens of the writing in question be not phonetic, then, a fortiori, 
none of the earlier ones could be of such a description. This point may be seen 
more fully discussed in the first chapter of the second part of my Work. Now, 
a similar proof can be brought to bear against the supposition of the legends in 
either the third or the Babylonian species of cuneatic character being alphabeti- 
cally written. A vast number of bricks, or fragments of bricks, with writing in 
the latter kind of character stamped on one of their sides, have been dug out of 
the ruins of Babylon ; as is, in the following passage, incidentally attested, from 
personal observation, by a traveller who paid particular attention to the subject : 
‘“‘T must here remark, that I have only given one specimen of the inscription 
on each style of brick; but there are endless varieties, as the millions of scattered 
fragments show, and which might be an interesting pursuit for any future tra- 
veller, who had leisure for the object, to examine and duly copy the result.”’t 
From the prevalence thus indicated of inscriptions in a certain species of 
* Journal Asiatique, Quatrieme Serie, tom. ix. pp. 379-80. 
+ Travels by Sir Robert Ker Porter, vol. 11. p. 395. 
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