ON THE CANAANITES. 49 
words, its cypher value,—and we have the comparison of 
picture value with that of the same emblem in other systems. 
The texts read in lines alternately from right to left, and left 
to right, and the words read vertically in syllables in the line. 
These are for the most part accepted facts, and furnish a fair 
basis for decipherment. 
There is in existence a short bi-lingual of six syllables, as 
pointed out in 1880 by Professor Sayce. It has been called a 
forgery, but this is a very usual cry when anything hard to 
decipher is found. Forgers do not invent; they only copy ; 
and when this silver boss with bi-lingual was found the Hittite 
system was still unknown. The bi-lingual has on it the 
Assyrian legend, Tarku timme sar mat Erme, “ 'Tarkutimme 
king of the land Erme,” according to Mr. Pinches’ translation. 
The six hieroglyphics may be discussed as follows, according 
to my decipherment :— 
(1) A deer’s head. In Akkadian we have dara and daragq 
for the “deer,” Assyrian turakhu; but turakhw does not 
seem to be a Semitic word for any species of deer, and is 
probably (as is so often the case in Assyrian) a loan word 
from Akkadian, perhaps to be connected with twrgun, “swift,” 
in Buriat Mongol. It is hardly necessary to remark that this 
word Tarku is that which has already been explained in 
treating of the names of Tarkatasas and Tarkannas. 
(2) The second emblem, somewhat like a conch shell, 
should have the value timme or dim. I find that the shape 
is almost exactly the same as that of the original emblem in 
Akkadian cuneiform, which has the value dim. 
(3) A high cone or conical cap, such as is worn by the 
Cappadocian deities. Professor Sayce sees in this the emblem 
for ‘king,’ and has compared its shape with that of the 
Cypriote syllable ko. Ko then should mean king, and so it 
does in Medic, according to Norris and Lenormant, and in 
Akkadian, according to Lenormant, Bertin and Pinches. In 
Turkic speech ege means “a lord,” and in Manchu Tartar 
chu has the same meaning.* 
(4) A double cone. Professor Sayce saw in this the 
* In the Akkadian syllabaries the emblem commonly used with the sound 
cu is compared with the Assyrian b2lu, “a lord,” and rubu, “a prince” (see 
Sayce’s Assyrian Grammar, No. 462). In Akkadian the same emblem has 
also the sounds, Khun (the Turkic Kan or Khan, “ Prince”), and dur or tur 
(Turkic tore, “chief”). The word koza or kocha for “lord” or “ chief” 
(Akkadian kusa, ‘‘ chief”) used in several Turkic dialects is apparently from 
the same root. 
VOL. XXIV. E 
