THE ETRUSCAN QUESTION. 87 



But in this promised translation of the Eugubine Tables, will Prof. 

 Campbell kindly begin with the eighth. We have to inform him 

 that there are not more than seven of these Eugubine Tables, and 

 they are all in Umbrian, though five are in the Etruscan characters, 

 and two in the Latin. The Etruscan Tables are much older than 

 the Latin, and they prove the early extended influence of the Etrus- 

 cans, and the prevalence of their alphabet. But when in 307 the 

 Umbrians became subject to the Romans, they adopted the Roman 

 customs and the Roman alphabet, and so the acts and the ritual of 

 the College of Priests, which had been previously in the Etruscan 

 alphabet, were transliterated into Latin. 



Prof. Campbell has imagined that Etruscan may be Basque, and 

 he resolves to prove it Basque. He is not the first who has imagined 

 this. Some fifty years ago, Sir Wm. Bethran wrote some articles in 

 " Les Annales de Philosophie Chretienne," having for their object to 

 prove the identity of the Basque and Etruscan. Scholars did not 

 even condescend to review his absurd hypothesis. The only notice 

 we believe the work ever received was in this form, " Cette assertion 

 gratuite ne merite pas de refutation." Mr. Ellis, in one of his 

 posthumous works, proposes the same. 



Prof. Campbell, however, approaches the subject from a different 

 point of view — from the supposed syllabic charactei- of the Etruscan. 

 But he never attempts to prove this syllabic character, he merely 

 supposes it to be syllabic, and proceeds to pro\-e its afi[inity with the 

 Basque. Now there is a very great number of Etruscan inscriptions 

 found, from Capua in the South up in to the Alps in the JS^orth. 

 They are for the most part monumental inscriptions, and are there- 

 fore short. Many of them are bilingual — Latin and Etruscan, and 

 it is reasonable to suppose, judging from other bilinguals, that the 

 one will be a literal translation or reproduction of the other. Un- 

 fortunately these moniimental inscriptions consist largely of proper 

 names, and can aid us little in gaining a knowledge of the language ; 

 but there is this advantage which proper names present, and that is, 

 that they will enable us to determine the character and value of the 

 letters, and some of the grammatical forms, and it is just this advan- 

 tage wliich has enabled Lepsius and Deecke to determine so exactly 

 the value and power of the letters and to study the laws, which 

 apparently govern their relations, without however gaining any fuller 

 knowledge of the language. But besides these bilingual inscriptions 



