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



" presence," and is used both alone and with the preposition ina or ana to 

 express " before, in the presence of ;" while mikhrat is " over against, facing." 

 The connexion between be-fore, for-mer, first, free, pri-or, pri-mus, &c., is well 

 known, and need not be enlarged on. 



No one, I suppose, would expect that the analogy between the ordinals and 

 collective nouns should be carried so far as that mukhru should signify " a 

 unit." The word which has this meaning is y]| "-"-y, « • o!n, pronounced, as I 

 believe, simply an ; the first character not adding to the phonetic value of the 

 second, but showing that it was to be read phonetically, and not ideographically, 

 as "a god."* The following two examples will illustrate the use of this word. 

 I may remark, that numerals are regularly followed by nouns in the singular 

 number, and that an is in construction, and therefore without a case-ending. 

 OntheKhorsabad bulls we have (Botta, 27, 41, &c.,) fff \. W^ |]; —J ^\ _^0, 

 " three hundreds fifty units of kings," the pretended predecessors of Sargon. 

 Perhaps it may be read ashla mi, khansha an malki; but there are great doubts 

 as to these cardinal numbers. The smaller numerals before an are generally, 

 perhaps always, to be read with the feminine ending ; it is doubtful whether 

 the same rule would apply to mi ; and it is also doubtful whether it would 

 apply to a large numeral like khansha. Further doubts may exist as to whether 

 ashla was the Assyrian word for " three." My reasons for thinking that it was 

 will be given presently. I have doubts also as to khansha, rather than khan- 

 shaya, being the proper reading of the word yy*' >->-y ^ |][, which Colonel Raw- 

 LiNSON has found on a Tablet as signifying " fifty." 



In the colophon to the inscription on Bellino's cylinder we have y p^-^y 

 yyy j^yyy y][ .-- y, " one suss, three units," that is, "sixty-three." The enumeration 

 is of the lines on the cylinder, which are said to have been " written in the 

 seventh month of the year presided over by Nabuliah, governor of Arbela." 



The character after yyy, " three," denotes the feminine gender ; and I believe 

 these two characters are equivalent to ^ .-^y ^yyy, ash . la . ta. The latter 

 word occurs in a precisely similar connexion in Kh. 111. 2. It necessarily 



• [I am now satisfied that in this combination, and similar ones, the first character had always 

 a phonetic value. This word should not be read an, but han, wan, or yan. These were not dis- 

 tinguished in Assyrian writing. The second reading is to be preferred from its resemblance to Fcv, 

 un-um, &c July 21, 1856.] 



