176 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



io is the form of the third person singular, present indicative, of 

 verbs conjugated without auxiliaries, as in dagokio, it concerns, 

 darauskio, he speaks, dio, he says, dario, it flows. Few words are 

 commoner in the inscriptions than kanio. 



31. LADHEI sa ra tu ka ni o zarratu ganio the writing concerns 

 LEIFE sa ne u gi ne Sanaegine Sanaegine 

 SEN no gi ka Nogika Nogika's 



(Fabretti) I A u ra aurra child 



The first word, zaratu, is the Basque zarratu, zarrapo, karrapo, 

 meaning scratching, and was probably their term for engraving ixx 

 times of higher civilization. The Japanese shirushi, write, and the 

 Iroquois kerenas, incise, are forms of the same word. The last term 

 aur, or with the final article, aurra, is the common Basque word 

 for child. It is in the genitive of position. The next inscription is 

 also known to be that of a female. 



280. OANA • AVLNEI • CANJNASA 



ma ra ka ra ar pi sa ka ni o ze ru ka ich ka ra na re 

 marakara Arbisa ganio Zeruko-itchekira anre 

 monument Arbisa regards Zeruko-itchekira's wife 

 The monument concerns Arbisa, the wife of Sky-holder 



Here the only words demanding explanation are the proper names, 

 for the others have already occurred. I provisionally suppose Arbisa 

 to be the same as Arribizi, echo or literally "living stone." ''^ The 

 other name brings me to the subject of the bilinguals. The original 

 of the following is in the Florentine Museum. 



4. LADO • CANTNA • FAPHALISLA^s 

 {Latin — C. Caesius. C. F. Varia nat.) 



Translit. — zaratu ma " zerukaitchekara agertu karasa unosara 

 Basque — zarratu mai Zeruko-itchekira Agertu sortze onetsa ra 

 yransZa^.- -engraved tablet Sky-holder Agertu born of well esteem to 

 Freely — An engraved tablet to honour Sky-holder, the son of Agertu 



The word zarratu is here an adjective qualifying mai, tablet. In 

 this and several other inscriptions the latter word appears in an 

 abbreviated form, but in many others, as in the Pictish, it has the 

 full form 01, Tnai or tnahi. The last woitIs are onetsa, compounded 



*' The identity of Arbiza and Arribizi is doubtful, as arri, harri, stone, is elsewhere lA hari 

 and biza is no bizi. 



*8 Fabretti reads ADO instead of LADO. If his be the true reading, it is an exceedingly rare 

 one. Artu often occurs alone and vvitlx NO goinu and NY gogo, but in this connection 1 have 

 not met with it. I have no explanation to offer. 



