1894-95.] ABORIGINAL AMERICAN INSCRIPTIONS. 55 



Of all the inscriptions in Mound-Builder, or, if the term be preferred, 

 in Siberian characters, the simplest and most legible is that on the 

 Inscribed Rock of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. As it has been known for 

 nearly a century, and its genuineness, so far as I have heard, has never 

 been called in question, it makes a fitting starting point for the epi- 

 grapher. It consists of twelve characters, that which is to the left of the 

 V form, fourth from the end, consisting of two obtuse angles, which 

 ought to be close together. The inscription reads from left to right. 

 Its two V characters are bu ox fu syllables ; the second character is bi or 

 be. The third, like a C, is de ; the fourth and the last are forms of ka. 

 The fifth and the last but one are equally go or ku ; the sixth is ta, to ; 

 the seventh is ra, ro, ri, etc., any power of r. The eighth double 

 character is a variant of the third, namely, de ; the ninth, eleventh and 

 twelfth have been already given, and there remains only the tenth, which 

 is chi, sJii. The whole reads : — 



No. I. 



bo bi de ka ku ta ra de bu sJii go ka 



Turned into modern literary Japanese, this is : 



Wabi deka Kutarade busJii goki 



" Peacefully has gone out Kutarade warrior brave," or more freely, " The 

 brave warrior Kutarade has died in peace." Kutarade is not a Japanese 

 name, but, as " Katorats," it is Huron-Iroquois, and means " the hunter." 

 The Japanese equivalent is Karindo. It would be interesting to find 

 when Katorats lived and died, as indicating the late possession by the 

 Huron-Iroquois of a written character and a sacred language. 



The next I submit is an inscription on the Northman's Written Rock, 

 near West Newbury, in Massachusetts. The tracing was made in 1853, 

 and my copy of it came from the late Professor Horsford. In Siberian 

 inscriptions, two more or less parallel lines, not always perpendicular, 

 take the place frequently of the pair of obtuse angles which give de. 

 The single straight line, however placed, is an open vowel or aspirate 

 and the Z figure is na or no in universal Hittite script. The latter is 

 but a square variant of an S. and the sort of crosier that follows it is also 

 an imperfect S with phonetic value no. The following m can hardly be 

 anything else than nie or mi ; then comes a vowel or aspirate, and after 

 it a shi. The zv like character is a double bu, fu, followed by an open 

 ski ; if it faced the other way it would be a de. The character that looks 

 like a capital R is two characters in reality, that to the left being an s 

 syllable, and the compound one on the right being a combination of i" 



