90 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. V. 



tions, but the radical characteristics oT Celtic speech are manifest in them 

 •equally, and lapse of centuries has not so obscured grammatical and 

 lexical forms as to render them untranslatable into the Gaelic of to-day. 

 By its language and by its historical connections the tablet under con- 

 sideration proves the Celt to have occupied a position of great import- 

 ance in the early history of the world, when, as nationalities, the purely 

 Aryan peoples can hardly be said to have existed. As the Transactions 

 of the Celtic Society and the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical 

 Archaeology may not be generally available, I present Dr. Sayce's 

 excellent transliteration and Dr. MacNish's interpretation of the tablet. 

 Dr. Sayce's proposed Hittite reading I do not reproduce, as it is almost 

 all vaguely conjectural, fragmentary and self-contradictory, in all of 

 which respects it differs from Dr. MacNish's scientifically exact, com- 

 plete and consistent rendering. 



The introductory Semitic lines, leaving out the determinative prefixes, 

 are : — 



1. ana Nimuutriya sarru rabu sar mat Miitsri 



to Nimutriya great king, king of tJie land of Egypt. 



2. sa Tarkhuundarais sar mat Arzapiki dhema 



of TarkJmndara, king of tJie land of Arzapi, the letter. 



Hereafter follow the thirty -six lines of the cuneiform text, wath equiva- 

 lents in modern Gaelic (Erse and Scottish), and translation : — 



3. kakti mi kuru-in emesmi dammesmi, turmesmi 



h-ugad mi chuirinn ai mas mo damh mas mo tuir mas mo 

 unto thee I would place my good la?ids my good people my excellent 

 generals. 



4. nitakh-mes galgal ina pir-mes-mi kurra-mes-mi 



• nitheach mas galgadh in fir mas mo gearrain mas mo 



ivarriors good brave in my good men my good horses. 



5. biib-biidmi kurkur-mes-mi gananda 



bithim faoidhim cursuir mes mo go an ionnad anudd 

 / am sending my good messengers as far as to thee. 



6. khuumuan kuru-in 

 comain chuirinn 

 favour 1 ivonld plac^.. 



7. duukmas kakta khuumaan kuru-in gismestu 

 do chum h-uca comain chuirinn cais mas do 



in order unto thee favour I ivould place to thy beloved. 



