92 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



to this Institute, as o le of the most important results of my studies 

 in Hittite Palseogi'aphy, the solution of the Etruscan problem." The 

 Hittite is Turanian and syllabic ; the Etruscan he has determined is 

 also Turanian, and therefore syllabic. There can then be no doubt 

 as to the light which his studies in Hittite Palfeography throw on 

 the Etruscan problem. Let us satisfy ourselves of Prof. Campbell's 

 reasoning: Etruscan is Basque, Basque is Turanian, Tuianian lan- 

 guages are syllabic, therefore Etruscan is syllabic also. We are not 

 responsible for Prof. Campbell's logic, we hav-e only tried to reduce 

 it to the simplest terms ; but to himself nothing can be clearer, and 

 all that is necessary is to illustrate it Ijy exam])les, and apjjlying this 

 Icey, he imagines that he can unlock all the treasures of the Etruscan 

 language. All those bilingual inscriptions are o'' no value, nay they 

 are deceptive, no doubt intentionally so, po.ssibly to perplex such men 

 as Miiller and Lepsius, Mommsen and Deecke. If we are not to 

 accept these bilingual inscriptions as virtually duplicates, then we 

 cannot divine their meaning. In every other case bilingual inscrip- 

 tions have been of the utmost value, have been indispensable, and we 

 cannot understand why they should be worthless here. Prof. Camp- 

 bell has however decided that they are woi-thles.s, and .hat the door 

 will only open to his key. Now the whole value of Prof Campbell's 

 researches rests on the syllabic chai-acter of the Eti'uscan language ; 

 Vjut we beg to differ from him, and we maintain that Etruscan is not 

 syllabic. But admitting with Prof. Campbell that these bilinguals 

 are worthless, yet apart from these, apart also from the fact that we 

 know the history of the Etruscan alphabet better perha])s than we 

 know the history of any other alphabet, we maintain that every cir- 

 cumstance is against the possibility of the Etruscan being syllabic. 

 Prof. Campbell seems ignorant of the life and growth of languages, 

 or at least of linguistic symbols. Languages pass through separate 

 and distinct .stages in regard to the chai-acter and value of the signs 

 or symbols of thought. The tirst of these stages is the Ideographic, 

 or, as it is generally called, the Hieroglyphic. A man in his barbar- 

 ous state wishes to express his idea of a hoz'se, and he draws the 

 picture of a hor.se ; of a man, and he draws the picture of a man. 

 This is the earliest form in which man has expre.ssed his ideas, 

 wh ther for the pur|iose of communicating those ideas to other.s, or 

 of pj-eserving them, and assisting his own memoi'y. This figurative 

 writing is presented in the in^criptions of Egypt and of Mexico. 



