170 THEO. G. PINCHES, ESQ., NOTES UPON SOME OP THE 



The words "To the man" are omitted in the Semitic 

 version of the large tablet, otherwise the text is the same, 

 except that the small one has J^ for TU. (the 4th character). 

 It is worthy of note that whilst the .Semitic expression for 

 "impious" is given as Id bel-ildni " a-not-lord-of-the-gods," 

 the Akkadian equivalent of the same is dingir-nu-tug " god- 

 not-having." This, as will be seen, explains the variants in 

 the two texts, the one having gotten rid of the post-position 

 -ra, "to," by making it the phonetic complement of the 

 of the verb urra or ura, in dingira-nu-urra, and having joined 

 dun, " man," " hero " on to this (dun-dingira-nu-urra), thus 

 forming of it a single expression, translated by the Semitic 

 Id-bel-Uani. " To the man the impious approach," would be, 

 in Akkadian, Dun-ra dingira-nu-tug gab-immanreis. There is 

 no doubt that the copyist of the larger tablet felt the 

 difficulty of this ra at the end of the line, and emended his 

 text accordingly. 



Line 12. Whilst the Akkadians always, or almost always, 

 said " gold and silver," the Semites of the Euphrates said, 

 " silver and gold." This would imply that the Akkadians 

 had always been acquainted with these two precious metals, 

 and used them as a medium of exchange from the earliest 

 times. The Semitic Babylonians, however, probably at first 

 used silver exclusively. (See also col. iii, 1. 8.) 



Pages 155, 157, and 160 (col. iii, 1. 8). The word Msu here 

 is worthy of note. It is the same as the Hebrew 0^3 (Syriac 

 .cp.^> , Arabic u*^), a purse for money, and for stones used 

 as weights (see Proverbs xvi. 11). The following extract 

 from W.A.I. II, pi. 37, 1. 48, will be of interest in connection 

 with this : — 



na su- nig-na do. ki - i - si [abne?] 



This shows that the Akkadian na su-nig-na, " stone of a 

 skin of stone " is equivalent to the Assyrian dban kisi abne.* 

 " stone (i.e., weight) of a bag of stones" (or "weights"), and 

 some of them are mentioned lower down in the above- 

 named list. 



Pages 155, 156, 158, and 161 (col. iv, 11. 3—18). Appar- 

 ently incantations were to be performed fasting. A similar 

 direction not to eat or drink during a ceremony of this kind 



* Such is, apparently, the way in which it is to be completed. 



