The Rev. Edward Hincks on a Tablet in the British Museum. 43 



a . shal, it has no relation with it at all. It would seem as if the Assyrians had 

 three themes, one for the cardinals, one for the ordinals and collectives, and 

 one for the decads; and that no general law existed as to the connexion of any 

 two of these. 



The cardinal number for " sixty" is unknown to me. Colonel Eawlinson 

 has given sussu, which is a collective noun. 



That for " seventy" is, I believe, V- V'.- tfyfi |{ shi .b'u.u.a. I do not 

 recollect where this word occurs ; but I feel pretty certain that I have met 

 with it. " Eighty" and " ninety" remain to be discovered. 



y«- mi is " a hundred ;" but whether it be properly a cardinal number, or 

 a collective noun, may be questioned. It is always preceded by a number. 

 <y^- " a thousand," is a compound ideograph, " a ten hundred." Like the pre- 

 ceding, it must have another number before it. Its phonetic equivalent is 

 unknown to me. 



11. The next word, kajbu, must, from the context, signify intervals, each 

 of them of the length of two of our hours. I think it clearly intimates that 

 these intervals were marked by the running out of sand or water from a vessel. 

 The root 3TD signifies " to fail or disappoint," and it is applied to the waters of 

 a fountain which ceases to flow — (Is. Iviii. 11). The inference from this use 

 of the word is that the Assyrians marked time by the running out of water 

 from a vessel which emptied itself in two of our hours. The entire day from 

 noon to noon contained twelve kajabs; and it seems certain that the day must 

 have commenced at noon, as this was the only fixed point that was capable of 

 being observed. Sunrise and sunset were variable, and midnight could not be 

 determined by observation. On the day noted in the inscription the sun would 

 set at the end of the third kajab, and would rise at the end of the ninth. Mid- 

 night was always at the end of the sixth kajab ; and this was probably the 

 reason why tsidi, " of the sixth," was used to express the north, where the 

 Assyrians must have well known that the sun was at midnight. .t^Jff 'r^ /J*^ 

 "the wind (or quarter) of the sixth {kajab)" was "the north." I announced 

 this in the " Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy," so long ago as March, 

 185.3; but I could not then offer any conjecture as to the origin of the word. 

 The opposite quarter, or south, was the quarter >-ti\'^ lEyy, on the meaning of 

 which I will not speculate. The east and west are represented in connexion 



f2 



