80 MAJOR C. R. CONDER, D.C.L., R.E., 
genuineness of the boss, first, because no one ever saw the original ; 
second, the Assyrian characters cut round it are of various periods, 
and some altogether incorrect. The middle inscription is, perhaps, 
genuine, but the Assyrian inscription is the work of a forger ill 
acquainted with the language and the syllabary of Assyria, and who 
took the inscription for an Egyptian one, and wrote what he thought 
would be the name of Tirhaka. The attention I have given to the 
chronology of Babylonia enables me to state now that the Akkadian 
or Turanian invasion of Western Asia took place about 7,000 B.c. 
This population spread all over Babylonia, Syria, and part of Asia 
Minor, but everywhere they never formed but a minority. This 
explains how they were so completely absorbed and disappeared. 
In Babylonia, in 3,800 B.c., the Semites had taken the power ; 
Akkadian was then but a learned language, and was studied only as 
Latin is among us. The “ Hittite” language and writing may have 
been preserved among a Semitic population in the same way as 
Latin was preserved till a few years ago as the official language of 
Hungary, and was spoken in Parliament. In spite of all that has 
been said, I still believe that the Shepherd kings were of a 
Semitic-speaking tribe. For we must not forget that Semitic and — 
Turanian, as well as Aryan, are philological terms, and not ethno- 
logical. Populations of two different ethnological groups may 
speak the same language. It may be also noticed that racial 
characteristics are the result of many influences, and that new races 
may be so formed. For instance, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, 
and the Jews, who are all called Semitic, are ethnologically quite 
distinct, and the offshoots of different mixtures. The study which 
Major Conder has taken up has opened up a new field for the his- 
torian, and the philologist; if, however, he has made a few 
mistakes, or in some cases has been over bold, we must nevertheless 
applaud his efforts as one of the first in this new path.” 
