THE NUMERALS IN THE ETRUSCAN LANGUAGE. 465 



Tliey must have descended into Italy from Central Europe througli 

 the passes of the Alps, and this is expressly stated by the historian, 

 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who had his information from the best 

 Roman sources. Hence, one theory maintains that they were of 

 German or Gothic origin ; but it would be hard to prove that Ger- 

 manic trilies were in these parts at so early a time. It is well known, 

 however, that Kelts were in Europe, and in Northern Italy too, at the 

 dawn of European history ; if they were not its earliest occupants, 

 at least th' y came next after the Iberians. To-day, therefore, I 

 ^\^sh to show, by an examination of their numerals, that the 

 Etruscans, so far as their language is concerned, may have belonged 

 to the Keltic nation, and to the Insular* branch of it. 



Philology is one of the helps to Ethnology. It is true that, by 

 itself, it does not disclose the origin of the nations, but it tends to 

 develope research in a right dii'ection ; it serves as a finger-post to 

 point out the way which leads to a safe issue. It is in this sense 

 that I now proceed to examine the Numerals of the Etruscans, as 

 these are found in the mortuary inscriptions on the Etruscan 

 tombs ; and, in an inquiry of so great difficulty as is the origin of 

 this interesting people, even a small contribution may be con- 

 sidered worth accepting. 



I. Now, the numerals of a people do not change in principle ; 

 the forms of the woi'ds, as happens in the case of the pronouns, do 

 change, but their inner mechanism remains always the same. Let 

 us then look at the Etruscan numerals. In the most of the inscrip- 

 tions these are expressed by Roman letters, as, e.g., A v i L s 

 L X X L u P u, but in several of them the numbers are, fortu- 

 nately, written in words in full. For example : — 



PAGE. 

 LUPUAVILSESALS ... ... . ~ 



AVILS HUTHS MUVALCHLS LUPU 



AVILS HUTHS CELCHLS ... 



AVILS HUTHS LUPU 



AVILS MACHS MEALCHLS 



AVILS .MACHS SESPHALCHLS LUPU . 



AVILSTHUNS 



AVILS TIIUNS SI xMUVALCHLS LUPU. 



AVILSXXTIUKSSAS 



LUPU AVILS MACHS ZATHRMS... 



AVILS CIS MUVALCHLS 



AVILSCISCEALCHLS 



A V I L S S I 



AVILS SAS A MCE UPLES... 



ZILCHNCEAVILSI 



* I make three divisions of the Keltic lancniajjes : — (1) Insular Keltic ^abbreviated 

 into I. -K.), to include the laniniau'e of Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the lli^'hlands and 

 Islands of Scotland ; (2) Cymric ( = 0.), the lanffuaj,'e of Wales, Cornwall, and lirittany ; 

 and (3) Gallo-Keltic :=G.-K.), such remains as we haveof the langiias^-e of the Contineutal 

 Kelts. Keltic, when used in a ;;eneral sense, will be represented by the letter K, 

 El 



