aG 
ETRURIA CAPTA. 159 
its phonetic value is a matter of inference, so far as I remember. 
The majority of values being given, it is of course not difficult to 
infer the value of the unknown.*™ 
Passing from the liquid to the dental combinations, the Etruscan 
presents us with three forms for ta, to, tu, da, do, du, resembling the 
Reman D and P, and the Italic b. In the sepulchral inscriptions 
these seem to be interchangeable, but, in the Eugubine tables, I 
imagine that I have detected differences, the D generally standing 
for tw, and the b for da. ‘This variable sign was, I think, originally 
an animal head, in Aztec tochtli, the rabbit, but in Hittite a gazelle. 
It is thus the first character in the Hittite legend of Tarkutimme. 
The weak powers of T and D I have already indicated. The labials 
are two, or, at most, three in number. B, P, V, with a, 0, and u, 
are represented by a perpendicular line, from the top of which falls, 
at an angle of 30° or more, a line, generally of half the length, but 
sometimes continued farther. It may be represented by the figure 1 
with a down stroke. This is the Aztec pil, chose suspendue, according 
to Brasseur. It is read as p by Etruscan students. The same con- 
sonants, with e and i, are represented by a form identical with the 
Roman V. This, by a strange inversion, is a vase or cup, the Aztec 
palli, which Brasseur holds to mean coulewr noire.” As I have 
shown in my article on the Aztec and its Relations, palli, like the 
‘Japanese Jiru, also means “that which holds or contains.” The 
Cypriote pa, like that of the Siberian inscriptions, is represented by 
two v’s, one above the other. The Corean p is a square v. There is, 
perhaps, an F in Etruscan, having the same form as the Roman, but 
it is hard to separate it from the form for gz, which, with other 
gutturals, demands attention. 
The sounds ag, eg, ig, ge, gi, are expressed by a character 
resembling the Hebrew beth, or a Roman KH, without the tongue 
or central short horizontal line. As the basal line of this character 
31a I have since found the original of this character in Hittite and in Cypriote. See plate. 
32 Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des Nations Civilisées du Mexique, &c., Tome 1, Intro- 
duction, p. LIV. My friendly critic complains of obscurity in the text. The inversion is that 
which gives in Aztec the sound pa to the equivalent of V and the sound pi to the equivalent of 
A. As 1 read these Etruscan characters, V is be, bi, pe, pi and A ba, bo, bu, pa, po, pu. While 
the preponderance of evidence furnished by Hittite, Lat Indian, Siberian and KEtrurian 
iuscriptions is, I think, in favour of the renderings I have given, there is much that tells in the 
direction of the Aztec equivalents. I leave it therefore an open question whether V should be 
ha, &e., and A, be, &e. But this must not be decided hastily, for we cannot tell what changes 
vowel sonnds have undergone in a group of languages yet unclassified, and for which no laws 
have been formulated, save the few set forth by me in the Khitan essays. 
