222 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 100. 



the cuneiform type is most clearly traceable. One 

 of the unknown characters, ^, seems almost iden- 

 tical with C'- allowance beinir made for the cursive 

 form which written characters assume after cen- 

 turies of use. 



The born is very conspicuous on the heads of 

 men in the Nineveh (Asshur) sculptures, still, as 

 a fashion, retained in Ethiopia (Cush, Abyssinia*), 

 the origin of the Chaldeans, through Nimrod the 

 Ciishite (Gen. x. 8.), who probably derived their 

 chief sustenance from the river Tigris (Pliddekel). 

 Subsistence from (1) fishing, (2) hunting (e.^. 

 Nimrod), (3) grazing, and (4) agriculture, seems 

 to have succeeded in the order named. The 

 repeated appearance ol' fiih on the same sculptures, 

 is in allusion, doubtless, to the name Nineveh 

 (= fish + habitation) ; and their worship of the 

 half-man, half-fish (the fabulous mermaid or 

 merman), to which many of the Cetacea bear a 

 close resemblance (the sea-horse for example), 

 common with them and the Phoenicians (in the 

 latter tongue named Dagon), is ])robably allusive, 

 in their symbolic style, to the abstract notion of 

 fecundity, so general an element of veneration in 

 all the known mythological religions of ancient and 

 modern times. See Nahum paxsim. 



From an attentive examination of these monu- 

 ments in the British Museum, it appears highly 

 probable that the writing is from left, to right, as 

 in the Ethiopic and Coptic, and in the Indo-Eu- 

 ropean family generally, and is the reverse of all 

 the other Shemitic tongues. This inference is 

 derived from the fact that each line (with few ex- 

 ceptions) ranges with those above and below, as in 

 a printed book, perpendicularly on the left, and 

 breaks off on the right hand, as at the termination 

 of a sentence, whilst some of the characters seem 

 to stretch beyond the usual line of limit to the 

 right, as if the sculptor had made the common 

 error of not having quite space enough for a word 

 not divisible. 



The daguerreotype might be advantageously used 

 in copying all the inscriptions yet discovered, of 

 each of which three or four copies should be taken, 

 to obviate mistalies and accidents. These being 

 brought to England and carefully examined by the 

 microscope, should be legibly engraved and ste- 

 reotyped, and sent to all the linguists of Europe 

 and elsewhere, and copies should also be deposited 

 in all [)ublic libraries. 



A comparison of the twelve cursive letters 

 in Mr. Layard's Nineveh, vol. ii. p. 166., with 

 Biittner's tables at the end of the first volume 

 of Eichhorn's Einleitung in das Alte Testament 



(Leipzic, 1803), has led to an unexpected result. 

 The particular table with which the comparison 

 was instituted, is No. II. Class i. Phoenician, col. 2., 

 headed "Palffistinje in nummis;" any person 

 therefore can verify it. Tiiis result is the follow- 

 ing reading in the proper Chaldee chai'acter : — 



RaBKaLBeNO — VeSheeSh — DiN. 



The meaning is "-Rabbi Kalbeno" — "And 

 six" — '■'■Judge." Periiaps Kalbeno should be 

 Albeno, the initial letter being obscure. The 

 last is put forth as a curious coincidence, not by 

 any means with the certainty which a much more 

 extended examination than a dozen letters can 

 afford. T. J. BucKTON. 



Lichfield. 



* Alexander the Great adopted the horns as Jupiter 

 Ammon. See Vincent's Periphis of the Erythrean Sea, 

 and frontispiece. The women of Lebanon have, it 

 appears, retained the fashion. See Pict. Bible on 

 Zech. i. IS. 



INEDITED BETTER OF ALFIERI. 



[The circumstances which led to Alfieri's hasty re- 

 treat from England in 1771, and to Lord Ligonier's 

 successful application for a divorce, are doubtless 

 famibar to all who have read the very amusing Auto- 

 biography of the Italian poet. At all events we must 

 presume so, as they are scarcely of a nature to be re- 

 produced in " Notes and Queries." Twenty years 

 after that event, when about to embark for the Conti- 

 nent with the Countess of Albany, Alfieri, as he was 

 stepping on board the packet, saw again for the first 

 time since 1771 Lady Ligonier, who was on the quay. 

 They recognised each other, but that was all. 



Alfieri, after describing tliis event in the 21st 

 chapter of his Autobiography, proceeds : — "Si arrivo 

 a Calais; di dove io molto colpito di quella vista cosi 

 inespettata le volli scrivere per isfogo del cuore, e 

 mandai la mia lettera al Banchiere de Douvres, che glie 

 la rimettesse in proprie mani, e me ne trasmettesse poi 

 la rlsposta a Bruxelles, dove sarei statofra pochi giorni. 

 La mia httera, di cui mi spiace di non aver serbato cupia 

 era certamente piena d' affetti, non gia d' amore, ma di 

 una vera e profonda commozlone di vederia ancora 

 menare una vita errante e si poco decorosa al suo stato 

 e nascita, e di dolore che io ne sentiva tanto piu pen- 

 sando di esserne io stato ancorche innocentement o li 

 cagione o li prctesto." 



The original letter of Alfieri (which we presume he 

 would have inserted in his Autobiography, had he kept 

 a copy of it, seeing that he has there printed Lady 

 Lis^onier's reply) is in the possession of a nobleman, a 

 relative of the unfortunate lady ; and we are enabled 

 by the kindness of a correspondent to lay before our 

 readers the following copy of it. 



How far it bears out the writer's description of it 

 we do not stop to ask; but certainly if the reader will 

 take the trouble to turn to the conclusion of the chap- 



