Crofton. — On a Slab icith a Cuneiform Inscription. 387 



might be " ni," has offered some difficulty ; but in one of the tablets 

 brought home from Nineveh in 1874, by the late Mr. George Smith, 

 and marked S 15 in the British Museum, now published in the " Trans- 

 actions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology," and edited by Mr. H. F. 

 Talbot, vol. iii., at p. 505, No. 51, it is rendered in the first column by 

 "ni i" and in the third, by " *." This latter we may parallel with 

 theHeb. "'X, "a habitable land," and render, it a "dwelling."* After 

 Karib a second time comes Annu. This I consider a derivative from 

 the pael form of the verb equivalent to the Hebrew H2W, "to be 

 oppressed," and to mean "afflicted" or "humble." To this succeeds 

 the ideogram for Ninip, the Assyrian Hercules. The latter of the 

 characters, Jf- forming this, has been omitted on the slab, but I have 

 supplied it from Layard's copy of the " standard inscription." Naram, 

 signifying " exalter," is a derivative from D"H, to "elevate" or 

 " exalt." Anu is the Assyrian name for the god Oannes. U signifies 

 "and," equivalent to the Hebrew "|. Dagan is the "fish god" 

 " Dag on," to whom there are some Biblical allusions, notably so in 

 1 Sam. c. v. Gusus I consider to come from J£f££0, to "touch," or 



•Ji s 



"seek," cognate with the Arabic verbs __ , to " examine by touch," 

 anc ^ m*W ' to "seek with diligence," and would translate it by 

 " seeker after." The slab inscription ends with the character su of 

 gusus, and this is partly broken, but I have added the part requisite to 

 make up the sense from Layard's copy. Then comes the monogram 

 for a god, followed by the sign of the plural, and this by the monogram 

 for rob, " great," also followed by the sign of the plural, to designate 

 " the great gods." 



The inscription I would therefore translate thus, placing the words 

 added to make up the sense, between parentheses : — 



" (This is) the palace of Assur-nazir-pal, the worshipper of Assur ; 

 (it is) the dwelling of the humble worshipper of Ninip, the exalter of 

 Anu and Dagan, the seeker after the great gods." Assur-nazir-pal, 

 king of Assyria, who flourished in the ninth century before Christ, 

 was the son of Tugulti-Ninip II., and reigned, according to the com- 

 putation of the late Mr. George Smith, for the twenty-five years from 

 885 to 860, b. c. 



|g * The former Syllabary from which I have quoted has, at No. 685, ni i in place 

 of the ni i of the first, and Iau in the place of the i of the third column here. 



SEE. II., VOL. I., TOL. LIT. AND ANTIQ. 3 E 



