RECENT DISCOVERIES IN THE REALM OF ASSYRIOLOGY, ETC. 



181 



India and in Europe burial and burning existed, and still exist side 

 by side among the same peoples. It must be remembered that 

 burning was always expensive as compared with burial. Hence 

 only the rich could afford a splendid pyre. But at Tell Loh itself 

 we have a representation of the dead laid in rows head to foot 

 alternately, and covered with a mound to which labourers are 

 bringing baskets of earth. This may represent burial of enemies 

 slain in battle ; but there seems to be much to suggest that, while 

 the Semitic peoples buried, the Akkadians burned the dead, or at 

 least burned their chiefs, as did the Tartars in early ages of their 

 history. 



I venture to make two suggestions as to Akkadian words : lu 

 dingirra-mu-dim might perhaps be rendered " this godlike man, 

 or literally " man -+- God + this -j- like." On the other hand, 

 Akkadian syntax would hardly allow of En Zu, meaning " Lord 

 of Knowledge," the word should be En Zu-na or Zu-en " Lord -f 

 Knowledge + of " or " Knowledge 4- Lord." 



The freedom of women among Akkadians distinguishes them 

 somewhat from Semitic peoples, though, as Mr. Pinches notes, the 

 Babylonian ladies in later times engaged in trade and business on 

 their own account, and the freedom of women in the East is still, 

 among Arabs, much greater than we suppose at home. The 

 Etruscans also did not seclude their women, who sat at table with 

 the men, and engaged in dances with them. 



I may be excused for saying that Mr. Pinches takes rather a 

 gloomy view of the present as compared with the past. We 

 know how furious were the cruel passions of the Assyrians, and I 

 think Assyrian scribes no doubt fell foul of each other as to their 

 writings, much as a certain class of modern pedants have done, 

 not only now, but ever since Jerome's days. M. Mohl com- 

 plained of this spirit of unworthy bickering when he was 

 President of the Asiatic Society of France, in the days of Bolta's 

 first explorations. On the other hand, Mr. Pinches will admit 

 that there is no lack, either at home or abroad, of honest and 

 kindly scholars, who are willing to recognise the value of the work 

 of others, and to take interest in their progress. I at least, as a 

 student of Oriental antiquities, have always found such help, and 

 not least from Mr. Pinches himself. 



