The Rev. Edward Hincks on a Tablet in the British Museum. 45 



18. These names are followed by ana, a preposition signifying "to, for," 

 &c.; equivalent to the Hebrew 7N! or /■ 



19. This preposition is followed by one of the monograms for "king," which 

 is in construction sar; but it is here to be read in the genitive, as governed by 

 the preposition. 



20. The next word appears at first sight to have a superfluous character. 

 The first >< is ha' or M ; i. e. V^, with a vowel between the consonants, which 

 the Assyrians seem to have pronounced as «, though analogy might require it 

 to be a. The next character is i, and the last is valued Hi in the Tablet K. 144, 

 as Dr. Oppert pointed out to me. It would appear, then, that the second cha- 

 racter was superfluous, and it is, in fact, omitted before an affix. Thus >-^ JS t^T^ 

 expresses bi . Hi . ya, " to my lord." I think, however, that the Assyrians would 

 pronounce this bili-ya, ibr they scarcely sounded the V, and often confounded 

 it with "'; while the second character in the word before us intimated that the 

 word without the aflSx should be pronounced with three distinct sjdlables 

 bi . Hi. The root is 7i!2 ; and in the Book of Daniel we have always ^2, which 

 was the Assyrian pronunciation of this word. 



21. The inscription concludes with the word liqriibu, which is the regular 

 optative of 2"lp, " to draw near." This is the verb used always in benedictions 

 of this sort; and it may be translated, in a metaphorical sense, " be gracious or 

 favourable." 



Having now explained every word in the inscription, I will say something 

 respecting the information which it affords. On the sixth day of a lunar month, 

 the first day being that on which the crescent was first visible (see my paper 

 on "Assyrian Mythology," § 9) and the day commencing at noon, the vernal 

 equinox took place. It is obvious that this could only happen in one year out 

 a cycle of nineteen ; and in many such cycles it would not occur at all. There 

 is, then, a great defect in the inscription. It only records the month and day, 

 and not the year of the observation. I must, in the first instance, endeavour to 

 explain this circumstance. 



I connect it with what has given rise to some strange conjectures, — the state 

 in which the Tablets have been found. They were found lying in confusion on 

 the floor of a chamber, most of them being broken as by a fall. I suppose 

 that this chamber contained a number of compartments divided by sheets of 



