196 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



bio should, mean in Etruscan the same as dio in Basque, he to him, 

 and it may mean that here. The difficulty, for such difficulties I 

 desire to court rather than avoid, is that fetchora Cupido is preceded 

 by no, which must be a first personal sign, although it is difierent in 

 form from that which occurs in No. 334. There it is E, ne, ni, ene. 

 Still I cannot see that it is other than the possessive " my " in an 

 oblique or dative case.'^^ 



433. SINVNIA • LO • CICVS • /A/ANIAM • 



noukapikaura asma chiuchipino barabarakaurano . ma 

 nau gabeko aur asma Chiuchipi no barrebarrek aur no ema 

 he me has deprived child indication Chiuchipi of laughing child of give 

 My departed child ! to give an indication of the laughing child of Chiu 

 the little 



This touching inscription exemplifies the Basque pronominal sys- 

 tem in nau, he me has, but here employed interjectively, " child lost 

 to me." The word gabeko is a compound of the postposition gabe, 

 without, as a verb gabetu, deprive, be deprived. The words ending 

 in no are in the genitive, rendered necessary, in the case of aur 

 at least, by the fact of asma, which governs it, preceding. In 

 barrebarrek we have an instance of the way in which some Basque 

 superlatives are formed, as in Hebrew, by doubling the positive. It 

 therefore means " most merry," although laughing is the literal 

 translation. 



I shall now give a number of simple inscriptions. 



281. OA • CAIx\EI • CANTNASA 



mara Chirau kanio Chirakaichkara anre 

 mara Zerua ganio Zerukoitchekira andre 

 memorial Zerua concerns Skyholder's wife 



309. FVSINEl Agpinou kanio Agpinou it concerns 



CAPCVSA Zerutu chipi andre Zerutu's little wife 



(or) Zerutu-chipi's wife''® 



'7 My amiable critic suggests too much'elasticity in connection with pio. Biu is in modern 

 Basque the 3rd sing, imperative = let him have. In Etruscan, V, he, plainly marks the third 

 sing. pres. indie, of a verb to have, to do. Van Eys states that 6 is the characteristic of the 

 third person (sub. 6ere, Hz). This is not borne out by the Etruscan, which gives banais for 

 naiz, banu and banuen for nuen, thus indicating that ba, or in Etruscan be, was recognized as 

 an integral part of the auxiliary. Just as the English verb substantive is a compound of three 

 original verbs, so must we regard that of the Basques. Like the Japanese, the Basque must 

 originally have had several auxiliaries, the remains of which are to be looked for in the forms of 

 naiz and dut and in the terminations of the regular verbs. 



'8 According to Fabretti, the final A of 309 is absent. In Lanzi, 70 and 71, the name occurs 

 as FVISI Gipiunou, the wife of one Zuntzegin and the mother of another. If Fabretti be right, 

 the chipi must mean " a little one " or child, but it leaves the final no unaccounted for. 



