THE ETRUSCAN QUESTION. 99 



sortze was karlze, when he lias no document with which to compare 

 it older than four hundred years ago 1 He refers to Van Eys's 

 " Tableau des ))ermutations des consonnes dans les mots Basques des 

 difFerents dialectes." We fail to see what this reference has to do 

 with the question. Va^^ Eye is alluding to the large number of the 

 Basque dialects, and he tabulates these dialects as they at present 

 exist, but this has nothing to do with the historical changes which 

 have taken place in the language, or with its analogies with other 

 languages any more than a comparison of the dialect of Yorkshire 

 with that of Lancashire, or with the London cockney has to do with 

 the old Celtic of the earlier Britons. But Prof Campbell regards 

 the words karasa and sortze as so important that he illustrates their 

 relation to one another by their supposed common affinity to the 

 Japanese. He says the Japanese equivalent of the Basque sortze is 

 hurama. This is very learned, and we feel our inability to follow 

 Prof. Campbell ; fortunately, it is not necessary. We suppose he 

 will not require to be told that the nearest neighbours of the Basques 

 on the north are the ProvenQal, a people speaking a Romance dialect. 

 But if Prof Campbell will turn to a Romance Dictionary he will 

 find this word sortze not even changed, as the writer in the Encyclo- 

 paedia says, " to suit the Basque ear "; or, better still, if he will turn 

 to Diez's Dictionary of the Romance languages, he will find there 

 sortze with all its Romance affinities ; it is a derivative fi'om the Latin 

 surgere. This word is not Basque ; it is a Romance word so lately 

 introduced into the Basque, that it is as ypt unchanged, and the very- 

 learned disquisition about its being kartze a thousand years ago, and 

 about its affinity with the Japanese harama is all thrown away upon 

 us, and we still doubt the Etruscan being syllabic or that it has any 

 connection with the Basque. 



But further, on page 27 of " Etruria Capta " occur these words 

 Rakora translated " offering," and in each of the next three inscrip- 

 tions occurs the word Rako ; so that on the same page Rakora occurs 

 once, and Rako three times, and on all these occasions it is a noun 

 and means an offering. These words occur veiy frequently in 

 *' Etruria Capta." So also do Ra and Rano, and at page 69 occurs 

 Rapi, a verb, "to receive," and at page 98 we read "Rako atso 

 jffa^o /le, " ti'anslated "towards age acknowledging," — and regai-dino- 

 Rakone. Prof Campbell says : " The final ne seems to change the past- 

 position rako into a verb," — rather a unique grammatical change, we 



