ETRURIA CAPTA. 159 



its phonetic vahie is a matter of inference, so far as I remember. 

 The majority of values being given, it is of course not difficult to 

 infer the value of the unknown. ^^'^ 



Passing from the liquid to the dental combinations, the Etruscan 

 presents us with three forms for ta, to, tu, da, do, du, resembling the 

 Roman D and P, and the Italic b. In the sepulchral inscriptions 

 these seem to be interchangeable, but, in the Eugubine tables, I 

 imagine that I have detected differences, the D generally standing 

 for tu, and the b for da. This variable sign was, I think, originally 

 an animal head, in Aztec tochtli, the rabbit, but in Hittite a gazelle. 

 It is thus the first character in the Hittite legend of Tarkutimme. 

 The weak powers of T and D I have already indicated. The labials 

 are two, or, at most, three in number. B, P, Y, with a, o, and u, 

 are represented by a perpendicular line, from the top of which falls, 

 at an angle of 30° or more, a line, generally of half the length, but 

 sometimes continued farther. It may be represented by the figure 1 

 with a down stroke. This is the Aztec pil, chose suspendue, according 

 to Brasseur. It is read as p by Etruscan students. The same con- 

 sonants, with e and i, are represented by a form identical with the 

 Roman Y. This, by a strange inversion, is a vase or cup, the Aztec 

 2Kdli, which Brasseur holds to mean couleur noire.^^ As I have 

 shown in my article on the Aztec and its Relations, palli, like the 

 Japanese hiru, also means " that which holds or contains." The 

 Cypriote pa, like that of the Siberian inscriptions, is represented by 

 two -y's, one above the other. The Corean p is a square v. There is, 

 perhaps, an F in Etruscan, having the same form as the Roman, but 

 it is hard to separate it from the form for gi, which, with other 

 gutturals, demands attention. 



The sounds ag, eg, ig, ge, gi, are expressed by a character 

 resembling the Hebrew beth, or a Roman E, without the tongue 

 or central short horizontal line. As the basal line of this character 



3la I have since found the original of this character in Hittite and in Cypriote. See jjlate. 



32 Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des Nations Civilisees du Moxique, &c., Tome 1, Intro- 

 duction, p. LIV. My friendly critic complains of obscurity in the text. The inversio7i is that 

 which gives in Aztec the sound pa to the equivalent of V and the sound pi to the equivalent of 

 /I. As I read these Etruscan characters, V is be, hi, pe, pi and /t ba, ho, bu, pa, po, pu. While 

 the preponderance of evidence furnished by Hittite, Lat Indian, Siberian and Etrurian 

 inscriptions is, I think, in favour of the renderings I have given, there is much that tells in the 

 direction of the Aztec equivalents. I leave it therefore an open question whether V should be 

 ha, &c., and /I, he, 6sc. But this must not be decided hastily, for we cannot tell what changes 

 vowel sounds have undergone in a group of languages yet iinclassifled, and for which no lavvs 

 have been formulated, save the few set forth by me in the Khitan essays. 



