40 The Eev. Edward Hin cks on a Tablet in the British Museum. 



Baladan commenced the trench which he caused to be made for the defence 

 of his city ashlata an, " three units," as I suppose, from the city. Here an, 

 which properly signifies a unit, is used for a measure of length ; and, as the suss is 

 sixty cubits, the correlative an must be one cubit. The depth of this trench 

 is stated to be y jJt- ^ " one-gar," with an unknown character interposed. On 

 the Tablet K. 98 this character is used to designate a day of the month, which 

 appears from the eleventh line to be after the 29th.* Of course, it denotes 30, 

 being equivalent to <«. I rather think that it properly denotes " one-half;" 

 but, on the same principle that units were used for sixties, as I explained in 

 my paper on "Assyrian Mythology," § 9, " one-half" might be used for " thirty." 

 Confusion between the two, in such a case as this, was impossible. The above 

 characters then signify " one measure of thirty gars, or eighteen cubits," 31 of 

 our feet. It would appear that this was the only measure that the Assyrians 

 used between the suss and the cubit ; for, in Botta, 47, 79, the dimensions of 

 the mound at Khorsabad are given ; and they conclude with " one suss, one 

 measure of thirty gars, and two cubits," that is eighty cubits ; to which must 

 be added a larger number, to the value of which I have no clue, but which 

 must be a multiple of 120 cubits, and is probably one of 3G0. 



10. The tenth word in the inscription is the cardinal number for " six." I 

 have ventured to transcribe it by shish ; but I consider this a very doubtful 

 reading. It is very possible that the feminine form might be the correct one 

 to be used ; and if the masculine be shish, that would probably be shishat. I 

 question much, however, whether the change oiboth radicals from what they are 

 in the ordinal tsid would be likely. I consider the form skid almost as proba- 

 ble a one as shish. It is certain that the cardinal and ordinal numbers of the 

 Assyrians had different themes, which, according to the ordinary laws of deri- 

 vation, could not spring from the same root ; and for this reason the forms of 

 these numbers are peculiarly interesting. They contain indications of processes, 

 anterior to those that were in use among the Assyrians, and carrying back the 

 thoughts to a yet more ancient language. I will put down here what I have 

 observed as to the different numbers, and what occur to me as their probable 

 values, when I cannot give them with certainty: — 



• [This is a mistake. The character occurs in other lines on this Tablet, and in some of them can 

 only signify "a half." This, however, does not affect the subsequent reasoning July 21, 1856.] 



