32 The Rev. Edward Hincks on a Tablet in the British Museum. 



panied by an interlineary translation; remarking, that of the twenty-one words 

 which compose it, ten are written phonetically, and in these the phonetic value 

 of each character is given separately whenever the word consists of two or 

 more characters. The values, or supposed values, of the other eleven words 

 are given without division ; and for distinction's sake I have placed within 

 parentheses those of which the value is known with certainty, and within 

 brackets those of which it is uncertain or conjectural. 



{Tumi) [tsidi] sa {yarakh) \_Nitsani] (2)tumu u [liltu'] (3) mus . 

 On the sixth day of the month Nisan(?) the day and the night (were) 



qu.lu{i)[sM$h] kaj.hu tu . mu {5) [shish'\ kaj.bu [liltu] (Q) (Nabiu) 

 equal. Six intervals (were) the day ; six intervals (were) the night. Nebo 



(Marduk) (7) ana (Sarri) hi.i.ili (8) liq.ru.hu. 

 (and) Merodach, to the king the lord may they draw near. 



In order to afford all possible satisfaction, I will offer a second transcription 

 into Hebrew characters, distinguishing the ideographic words by parentheses 

 and brackets as before. 



ia|3 [tt'?i'] loin 1313 [t'ti'] : 'hfu/'Q v\^b;h\-^ low d;d''j] {ny)•^} pidi o^w) 



: imp'? 'hv'2 (mw)-:^ (iitio) (T^n^) : \.^Th'h^] 



I will now treat of the twenty-one words in their order. 



1. The first character, which is equivalent to one formed of four wedges, 

 in the shape of a rhombus, in the more finished styles of writing used in the 

 great inscription at the India House, and on Lord Aberdeen's stone, repre- 

 sented the sun's disc. It denoted ideographically " the day, the sun." In the 

 latter sense it was generally preceded by the determinative >->-y " a star," or 

 " a god." It thus corresponded to the themes turn, which denoted both " day" 

 and " sun ;" and samas, which denoted the latter only. As a phonograph 

 it denoted tu, the initial character of the former word ; to represent the diffe- 

 rent cases of which it was followed by the characters for um, mu, mi, and 

 perhaps others. It also denoted sam, the initial character of the latter word, 

 but only when preceded by the star. Thus, >"~1 ^1 <1>~ should be read sain si, 

 " of the sun;" but _^y without the star could not represent sam, though it might 



