ETRURIA CAPTA. 223 



provisionally to Karasu's mother is Egi-Aterbe, which means 

 " making shelter." Van Eys defines atherbe, atharhe as "lieu pour 

 §tre a I'abri de la pluie ; par extension, maison, toit." It is derived 

 from athari, the Basque equivalent for the Latinized Etruscan 

 atrium. The Greek pastas, a kind of porch, may be the translation 

 out of which the scribe evolved Bassa. A difficulty in the way of 

 the reading given is that R is rendered in one case tu, and in the 

 other at, which is an inconsistency very unlikely to take place. 

 Could we find the Etruscan word given by the Romans as atrium, 

 it would decide the value of one of the t syllables. This and similar 

 arrivals at the exactitude desired will require time and cooperation, 

 just as they were required in the case of Egyptian, Assyrian, and 

 other decipherments. 



LARGER TEXTS. 

 In Fabretti, Table XXXYIII. No. 1914, appears the Cippus of 

 Perusia. The front and left side of this monument are covered with 

 Etruscan characters. As those on the left side furnish the key to 

 the narrative, and are uninjured, I present them first. As the lines 

 are very short I give them in groups of four. 



Left Side of Cippus. 

 1-4. FELOINAM • AYENAtVCIENESCI • I/AM/IELANE "i 

 aginsa maukarano rakunekara ichpichiu nekanenochiu ubara- 

 nobanesarakane 



aginza mai ekarri no aragune kara ichpichio nekian nochiu obi rano 

 banaiz eragin 



offering tablet bringing of accordant states contribution I did request 

 grave towards I am causing to make 



1" Cippus of Perusia, Left side : 



Lines 1-4. aginza. Van Eys agintza, offering : in genitive of position to mai. mai, table, 

 here used, like the Japanese mei, to denote tablet, inscription, ekarri, to bring, in Etruscan 

 probably kara ; the participial form governed in the genitive by the postpo.sition no. 



no or na, the Etruscan postposition of. Tu modern Basque no or na is reduced to n or en 

 The Japanese genitive particles na and ga answer to the Etruscan no and go, the Basque en and 

 go, and tiie Iroquois ne and ke, which are also locative. The Choctaw genitive in belongs to 

 the same series. 



ara gune kara. For kara see kakara, Front of Cippus, lines 1 and 5. The meaning of 

 kakara, of which kara is an abbreviation, is plainly a state. It is not modern Basque, but 

 may answer to the Japanese fcori, a division of a country, or province. It is possible that the 

 Basque herri, erri, a country, is a descendant of kara. The preceding gune is literally a place 

 but forms compounds like on-gune, bon accord. Here it is preceded by ara, more fully arau 

 right. In modern Basque arau makes ar-alde, ar-aldetu. So here, ar-gii,ne, accordant or 

 conformable, indicating the states which conformed to the terras of the Tuscan confederacy. 



ichpichio : the commoner word is ichpi, which iu Basque means " petit morceau d'un corps 

 dur," and is a synonym of pikor. The Basque irhpicho, derived from ichpi, means "pari 



