180 PROCEEDINGS OF THK CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



rendered che orde are che, meme, and orde, lieu, place. Tn modern 

 Basque che is generally, if not always, final, as in emen-che, ici-meme- 

 The next inscription I present is one of immense importance, for 

 it is the key to the Etruscan numeral system, which exhibits such 

 differences from the Basque that, without such a key, it would be 

 exceedingly difficult to find the values of Etruscan numbers. From 

 a careful study of numerals in six hundred languages and more, I 

 am ])repared to call in question Jacob Grimm's statement that 

 numerals occupy the first place among evidences of linguistic affinity. 

 No words are more readily lost in the contact of peoples. The key 

 lies in the repetition of the written numbers by the Basque equiva- 

 lents of the Roman figures LXX. 



28. CE ■ • • • NA • SE08EM ■ LAFOINAL ■ PIL • TXX 

 Translit. — chine • • • • kara none molaneno saragichi uka rasa du usa LXX 

 Basque- -Ghine • ■ • • kara none molaneno saragichi ogoi urte du atso LXX 

 Translat. — Chine • • • • kara who tenth thrice twenty years has age LXX 

 Freely — Sin ■ • • • garri, aged seventy years. 



But see note 51. 



Before proceeding to consider the numerals, the word for year 

 demands attention. It is now urte, urthe. In Etruscan times it 

 seems to have been ai^sa or artsa, corresponding with the Lesghian 

 reshin and Circassian tlayseeF^ Basque numeration for the higher 

 numbers is vigintesimal, and the Rev. Isaac Taylor has shewn that 

 the Etruscan was probably the same. He cites the Basque ogei or 

 hogoi, 20, !and the accordant Georgian ozei. This is the word read 

 uka or oga. A pair of dice inscribed with numbers written in full, 

 now in Paris in the Cabinet des M^dailles, have been largely dis- 

 cussed by the Rev. Isaac Taylor and other writers, but unhappily on 

 the old principle of reading Etruscan. The names of the numbers 

 on the sides of the dice are 8V0, alpmio, OV mopi, LAF saragi, 



51 Fabretti has a reading of this inscription differing in essential points from that of Lanzi. 

 I leave the text untouched, as those who liave access to the origuial must judge between the 

 copyists. If Fabretti's reading is the correct one, the key to the numerals is no longer such, 

 but a deception and a snare. Fabretti reads : 



UEFL • NA ■ SEPTEM ■ LAFCINAL . PIL . TXX 

 sinegisa kari uonekutuneno saragichi oga arsa tuusa LXX 



Sinegisa ekari-i non saragichi ogei uite du atso LXX 



Sinegisa it bears who thrice twenty years has age 



1 have already in a note referred to the double use of non in Etruscan for where and who. 

 5- See The Khitan Languages : the Aztec and Its Relations, in Proceedings of Institute, Vol 

 II., Fasc. 2, p. 164, for tlie equivalence of r and tl. 



