72 MAJOR C. B. CONDER, D.C.L., R.E., 
it is in the mountain regions of the Taurus and the Western 
Armenian Mountains that we are to find the cradle of the Hittite 
people. There is one other point in respect of which I cannot 
agree with Major Conder, and that is in comparing the pictorial form 
of these inscriptions with those in Egyptian, and with those in 
Assyrian. Wherever you can compare these forms, they are simply 
the result of the same force which gave rise to writing amongst all 
nations. Man’s desire to record objects and events around him I 
take to be simply a pictorial or graphic instinct which he so often 
exercises. We might just as well turn to the Mexican, Central 
American, and Chinese, and connect them on that ground. One 
other point before I conclude, and that is as to the great stress,— 
and far too high stress,—that has been placed on the Elamite 
civilisation. We all know, at the present time, that Hlamite civi isa- 
tion is comparatively late. There is no record of Elamite inscrip- 
tions older than the time of Sargon II., the conqueror of Samaria, and 
itis difficult to compare their language with such old forms as the 
inscription. Still, I think, although the paper has not solved the 
question, it has made very great progress towards doing so. As to 
the solution of the problem of the common origin of language, I am 
afraid it will be a long time before we shall ever come to that ground. 
We know that a few years ago, many German writers, and German 
writers of considerable note, endeavoured to show that there was a 
connexion between the Aryan and Semitic languages. Then, again, 
we have others who, like Professor Isaac Taylor, have at- 
tempted to connect the Turanian and Aryan languages, and to find 
a common parentage for them on the ground of similarity of sound 
or meaning; but we have to deal with the grammar and the 
expression of thought of the people, and it will be a very long time 
yet before we ever reach the solution of that question. We know 
only one way to reach it, and the result will astonish people, because 
we shall have to go back into antiquity (we are, year by year, going 
back further and further), but we shall have to go back into antiquity 
so far as to make that which we have already attained its mere 
childhood. 
Mr. Taeornitus Pincus (British Museum).—I have, of course, as 
Mr. Boscawen has done, to express my appreciation of Major Conder’s 
paper. It is a most excellent paper, and I have listened to it 
with the greatest pleasure. Of course, there are so many questions 
connected with these ancient people and their language, that 
it is difficult, sometimes, to come to a conclusion on any specific 
