262 
NATURE 
[JAN UARY 1 4, 1897 
THE OLD TURKISH INSCRIPTIONS IN 
MONGOLIA 
A EOUS 170 years ago it became known in Europe that there 
are, on the Upper Yenisei, inscriptions on stone monu- 
ments which are written in some unknown language, and are 
relics of an unknown population. Various hypotheses were 
made as to the origin of these inscriptions ; but it was only in 
1893 that the Copenhagen Professor, Wilhelm Tomsen, suc- 
ceeded in deciphering them.” Although Prof. Tomsen attributes 
the discovery of these inscriptions to Heikel and Dr. Radloff, 
who visited the spot—the former in 1890-1891, and the latter in 
1891— they were discovered in reality by the late N. M. Yadrint- 
seff, who was sent out in 1889 by the Irkutsk Geographical 
Society for a journey to Mongolia.* Heikel’s collection was 
luxuriously edited by the Finnish-Ougrian Society,* and the col- 
lection of reproductions made by MM. Radloff and Yadrintseff 
was published by the Russian Academy of Sciences.® However, 
neither of these three explorers succeeded in reading the inscrip- 
tions, and it was only Prof. Tomsen who, taking advantage of 
the names of rulers, which were written in Chinese characters, 
and stood by the runic inscriptions, found the cue for reading the 
mysterious writings. It became thus known that the inscriptions 
belonged to a Turkish stem which formerly inhabited the upper 
parts of the Yenisei and the Orkhon. The cue having been 
discovered, Prof. Radloff set at once to decipher and to 
translate the inscriptions—a task which involved very great 
difficulties at the outset, as the vowels were not written in this 
alphabet ; but with all that, Dr. Radloff succeeded in finding out 
the meaning of the inscriptions and in translating them, and his 
researches are now embodied in a work issued by the Russian 
Academy of Sciences.® In this work Dr. Radloff analyses, first, 
the alphabet of the old Turkish monuments, and, next, the 
Chinese monuments on Lake Kosho-tsaidam ; he then gives an 
eighty-page long list of words; the translation of the Chinese 
Kosho-tsaidam inscriptions, by Prof. Vasilieff; and the transla- 
tions of the inscriptions found in different places of Mongolia 
and on the Yenisei, on both Chinese and Russian territory, 
followed by a study on the morphology of the old Turkish 
dialect. Thirty inscriptions in all have been deciphered ; they 
are written phonetically, in vertical columns following each 
other from the right to the left. The letters are angular ; they 
contain only four vowels and thirty-four consonants—different 
consonants being used in the words which contain guttural 
vowels, and in those words which have palatal vowels. 
The Chinese inscription at Kosho-tsaidam was written on a 
monument erected in 732, to honour the Turkish ruler Kyul- 
teghin, under the Chinese Emperor Kai-yuang, who reigned 
A.D. 713 to 742. A people named ‘‘ Turk” is mentioned in it, 
and the monument was erected on that people’s territory, to 
order the inhabitants to live in peace with the Tibet, Kirghiz 
(‘* Kyrkyz ”), Chinese (‘‘ Tapkach,” or ‘* renowned’), and Tatar 
peoples (‘‘ Tatar”). Another monument, unhappily broken in 
three pieces, stands to the south of the former ; it dates from 
733- A third monument of importance was found by Yadrintseff 
on the Onghin River, and it is concluded that it was erected in 
692, inhonour of Moghilian-khan, A monument on the Ikheaset 
seems to be of a later date than the twojust mentioned. Twenty 
more monuments were erected in honour of different relatives of 
the Turkish Khan, Kyul teghin, who resided at Kara-balgasun. 
They have been found in the Minusinsk region, by Stralenberg, 
in the early part of the last century, and have been described 
since by several explorers, including Castrén. The reading of 
these inscriptions offers many difficulties, and Prof. Tomsen and 
Dr. Radloff are not quite agreed together as to the proper way 
of reading ; so that more materials are wanted, and the Irkutsk 
Geographical Society is now busily at work to collect them. 
Dr. Radloff, who thoroughly knows the old and the new 
Turkish dialects, has edited the book in a thoroughly scientific 
spirit ; and if his readings are doubtful in certain places, this 
1 From a paper by the Kazan Professor, N. Katanoff, in the Zevestia of 
the East Siberian Branch of the Russian Geographical Society, vol, xxvi. 4 
and 5: Irkutsk, 1896 (Russian). 
“Dechifirement des Inscriptions de l’'Orkhon and de I’ Yenissei ’ (Copen- 
hag gen, 189,), in the Budletin of the Danish Academy of Sciences. 
Bons Memoirs of the Oriental Branch of the Russian Archzological Society,” 
vol. viii. p. 324. St. Petersburg, 1894 (Russian). 
4 “Inscriptions de l'Orkhon, recueillies par l’expédition Finnoise, 1899, et 
publiées par la Société Finno- Ougrienne” (Helsingfors, 1892). 
5 ** Atlas der Altherthtimer der Mongolei, i im Auftrage ‘der Kaiserlichen 
Akademie der Wissenschaften herausgegeben,” von Dr. Radloff. 
6 “Die alttiirkischen Inschriften der Mongolei,” von Dr. W. Radloff. 
460 pp. 4to. (St. Petersburg, 1895). ‘ 
NO. 1420, VOL. 55] 
chiefly depends upon the incomplete preservation of the i inscrip- 
tions themselves. From the dictionary and grammar given by 
Dr. Radloff, it appears that the language is a true Turkish 
dialect, quite harmonic, and nearly akin to the old Uigur dialect. 
In certain respects it even seems to be older than this latter, and 
the shades of sounds can be better rendered in the alphabet of 
the inscriptions than in the old Uigur alphabet. The old Turks 
had two alphabets in use; a variety of the Syrian, which goes 
under the name of Uigur alphabet, and the Arabian. A third 
alphabet must be added now to these two, and to the four 
which are in use amongst the moder Turks. It is worth noticing 
that, according to the Chinese historians, Indian writing was in 
use in East Turkestan; while in West Turkestan some other 
alphabet, ‘* khu-shu ”’—z.e. barbarian—was in use. It was written 
in vertical columns, and it may have been the alphabet of the 
Orkhon and Yenisei inscriptions. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
By the will of the late Mr. Henry L. Pierce, Harvard Uni- 
versity and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology each 
receive 50,000 dollars. 
THE following are among recent announcements :—Dr. F. B. 
Peck to be associate professor of geology and paleontology at 
Lafayette College; Mr. Richard Rathbun to be assistant in 
charge of the Smithsonian Institution, in succession to the late 
Mr. W. C. Winlock. 
A NUMBER of professors of the University of Berlin have 
addressed the Senate in order to obtain its approval for a move- 
ment in the nature of University extension, and it appears that 
the same course has been adopted in Jena and Leipzig. The 
Berlin correspondent of the Z2zes states that the movement has 
met with an unexpectedly strong and widespread opposition. 
Many members of the classes which have themselves enjoyed 
University education object to the proposed extension, on the 
ground that the persons who are likely to take advantage of it 
will only receive from their attendance at the proposed lectures 
a most superficial kind of instruction, both in point of quality 
and of quantity. 
A SKETCH of recent progress of technical education in England 
forms part of the ninth annual report of the National Association 
for the Promotion of Technical and Secondary Education. 
From this we learn that, in spite of the efforts made from time 
to time to secure for general county purposes certain portions of 
the funds belonging to education, the total sum annually set 
aside and utilised for educational purposes increases year by year. 
OF the forty-nine County Councils in England, forty are now 
giving all, and nine are’ giving part of their grants to educational 
purposes ; while of the sixty-one county boroughs, fifty-five are 
devoting all, and five are devoting part of the fund in a like 
manner. The county borough of Preston is the only instance of 
an authority devoting all its grant to the relief of the rates. In 
considering the total amount of money devoted one way and 
another, it appears that of the 742,000/, annually available in 
England alone, no less a sum than 662,000/. is being spent on 
education. This is an advance of 62,000/. upon last year’s 
figures, and is chiefly due to the rapid development of the work 
of the Technical Education Board of the London County 
Council. There thus remains a sum of 80,000/. still unappro~ 
priated to the purposes for which the fund was originally in- 
tended. Of this sum, however, London is responsible for 
51,000/., an amount which, there is ev ery reason to believe, will 
shortly be required for ‘the organisation of technical and 
secondary education in the metropolis. 
THE number of technical schools which have been transferred 
to local authorities for municipal management and control has 
increased by four during the year covered by the above report, 
thus bringing up the total to 44. The four schools referred to 
are at Bradford-on-Avon, Gloucester, Leicester, and Lichfield. 
In the county borough of Huddersfield this matter is under 
consideration. Attention may also be directed to the operations 
of those local authorities in England which, upon their own 
initiative, have built, or are building, or are about to build, in 
the aggregate 115 technical schools, 101 of which involve an 
expenditure of 1,317,000/. This sum is derived from (1) the 
accumulation of funds under the Local Taxation Act, (2) loans 
raised by local authorities, (3) local subscriptions ; the greater 
