698 REPORT— 1881. 



of beryl or crystallised corundum (coarse ruby), as quartz is incapable of doing tlie 

 work. The forms were straight saws and probably circular saws, and certainly 

 tube-driUs, like the modern diamond crown-drill. All these were about 15 hun- 

 dredths of an inch thick, and the drills from j^'^ths to 5 inches diameter. The 

 cutting was rapid, advancing 1 inch in diorite with 27 feet of motion. The 

 pressure and tractive force was very great (certainly many cwts.), the cutting 

 edges having in a single motion scored out grooves ^^o i^^h deep in the sides of a 

 cut in diorite. Thus altogether the method was more like that of a modern 

 planing tool than like the grinding cut of a lapidary's wheel. The sarcophagi 

 were usually sawn outside, and hollowed by rows of drill-holes. 



The examples exhibited comprised casts of saw-cuts and driU-holes made by erro- 

 neous work on granite sarcophagi, saw-cuts and drill-holes in diorite and basalt, 

 drill-holes in hmestone, and a cast of a fine case of a tube drill-hole in granite, 

 with part of the core still remaining, conclusively proving the form of the drill. 



6. On the Numeral and Philological Relations of the Hebrew, Phoenician, or 

 Ganaanitic Alphabet and the Language of the Khita Inscriptions, By 

 Hyde Clarke. 



Aleph (Alpha) being used for 1, Beth (Beta) for 2, &c., their employment was 

 regarded as casual. Mr. Clarke had nevertheless instituted an investigation into 

 these numeral values to ascertain whether it is a law of language that One and 

 Elephant or Ox, Two and House or Town, exist as the same root or word. This 

 he found to be the case in many of what may be called the prehistoric or 

 'Turanian' languages. The result was to show that the affinities and origin of 

 the alphabet are not Semitic, but Turanian. He then proceeded to consider what 

 Turanian family furnished the prototype, and on examination with Ganaanitic, he 

 found it there. Some years ago he had discovered the Canaanite 3, in Sama- 

 khonitis, and this enabled him to test the series and to restore the Ganaanitic 

 numerals, and ascertain their place in language and their comparative philology. 

 These observations conformed with those he had before made for Khita, and 

 showed that the Ganaanitic was a language adopted in these inscriptions and would 

 furnish materials for their transcription. In reference to the position of the 

 Khita itself in the history of the ancient world, Mr. Glarke pointed to the 

 similarity of the Naga, a remarkable group of languages in India. 



7. The Early Colonisation of Cyprus and Attica, and its relation to 

 Babylonia. By Hyde Clarke. 



Mr. Clarke reported the results of recent investigations of autonymous coins of 

 Cyprus and Attica, of inscribed gems, and of the Cypriote syllabary. These had 

 afforded conformable linguistic materials. Thus the Cypriote character like Aleph 

 answers to Ne, but Ne signifies an Elephant. The character like Beth is Mo, and 

 this signifies Town, a variant of House. Such relations are supported by the coins. 

 The emblems on those of Salamis in Cyprus and the island of Salamis and on the 

 coins of Attica read with the equivalent meanings in the corresponding illustrative 

 languages. A gem in the collection of Major di Cesnola bears the inscription 

 Ya-phou in Cypriote and Khita, and the objects include a spear, gazelle, and dog, 

 which read Ya-phou. On a gem from the excavations at Menidi in Attica is the 

 Cypriote character Ti, with a lion and stag, the word for both of which is Ti. 

 Thus the whole of the evidence is conformable, and it points to this result, that the 

 ancient Cypriote and Attic was related to the Akkad of Babylonia and constituted 

 a West Babylonian occupation. This accounts, more efficiently than any other 

 suggestion, for the accordance of the historic facts and archaeological evidence. 



