The Rev. Edward Hincks on a Tablet in the British Museum. 37 



denotes a numeral, and it has more in common with the ordinal shalshu than 

 with any other. I will, however, treat of the cardinal numbers in a subsequent 

 part of the paper ; and will, therefore, say nothing more on the subject at present. 

 The word an is used in other senses, one of which I shall soon have occa- 

 sion to explain. 



3. The fourth character in the first line is sha ; and it here denotes " of ;" 

 elsewhere it is a relative pronoun or particle. It corresponds exactly to the 

 Syriac j, the Chaldee T or ^7- 



4. The next word is a monogram, which I have found equated to y][ 0^T 

 .^>-«jppf, ya . ra . a'kh. It is certain that the first character in this word admitted 

 not only the value a, ^, as in y^ ^^y ]Q[, a.na. ku, "I" (cf "'52^), but ha, as in 

 ll Ity? ha.lik, "going" (cf. "I/H), ica, as in fy ^-, wa . shib, " dwelling or sitting" 

 (cf tTTTt: <y- 'V^>-, ^^ti"l^{, u . ski . hi, " I had sat," which proves that the root is 

 nti*!), and ya, for it is often interchanged with ^y|[. It should, if we can 

 depend upon Hebrew analogy, have this last value in the present word, as well 

 as in yi s:.*^ •--''y-') y<^ ■ c-'^^ ■ ''> " of t^e sea." The Assyrians used the feminine 

 forms JID"' and Jn^li^, where the Hebrews used D"' and ^1J^. 



This word is not only used before the names of months, as in the present 

 instance, but without them. Thus, Nebuchadnezzar says he commenced his 

 palace ina yarakh shalmu, &c., "in a complete (and therefore fortunate) month, 

 on a happy day." It is elsewhere used for the new moon, or first day of the 

 month, which was that on which the crescent was first visible. It is possible 

 that in such a case as the present it was a mere determinative; but I am 

 strongly of opinion that it was pronounced as a distinct word. This would be 

 in conformity with Hebrew usage. 



5. The last character in the first line is a monogram for the first month. 

 I have no clue to its pronunciation from any Assyrian source. I, therefore, 

 read it provisionally by the word which has the like meaning in Hebrew and 

 Syriac. 



6. The next word, which begins the second line, is tu . mu, " the day," which 

 has been already explained. 



7. Then follows u, " and." 



8. The word at the end of the second line occurs in the forty-seventh line 

 of Bellino's cylinder, where we have " (in the course of) a night." Here the 



