446 Continuation of Remarks on [Sept. 



to as wearing the winged cap of the Sassanian monarchs,) the fire-altar, 

 and the symbol, all more or less varied. The inscription now possesses 

 but three characters, p, n, and O, the latter having swallowed up all 

 the angular a's and P's ; and the N assuming all the functions of m 

 and K. Bearing this in mind, the lower line may be read without any 

 fanciful straining, O PAONANO P . O KOPA... 



Fig. 10 is equally capable of the same interpretation, for beginning 

 on the left hand, at the bottom, what appears to be 



POO HO POO BO UUVO VOPOriO 

 is evidently letter for letter a corruption of 



PAONANOPAO OOHO KOPANO 



The letter of the whole series of these curious relics of a dynasty 

 entirely unknown from other sources having been so far developed, as 

 regards the obverse of the medals, it remains, before we proceed to 

 consider the variable motto on the reverse, to offer a few observations 

 on the meaning these enigmatical words rao nano rao and korano may 

 be intended to convey. 



First then, as regards the termination in the short Greek O ;— we 

 learn from M. Eugene Burnouf's very learned commentary on the 

 Yacna, in the introductory essay on the Zend alphabet, that the latter 

 contains a short o unknown to the Sanscrit alphabet and used as the 

 equivalent of the short Nagari inherent a, while on the other hand it has 

 precisely the value of the Greek omicron*. To express therefore any 

 native word, so terminating, in the Greek character, the omicron would 

 necessarily be employed. We know from the circumstance of the Zend or 

 rather Pehlevi characters on the obverse of the Bactrian coins, that this 

 dialect must have been the prevailing language of the country. Moreover 

 from the learned, authority above quoted we learn, that the termina- 

 tion in do is of very frequent use in the Zend, the final o being the regular 

 permutation of s, the sign of the Sanscrit nominative in words common 

 to the two languages : thus in ahura-mazddo (ormuzd), the latter word 

 is precisely the Sanscrit mahd-dds ' qui magna dat,' an attribute of the 



* It is unnecessary to state that in the Zend as in the European alphabets, the 

 vowels are all expressed by distinguishing symbols. M. Burnouf in speaking of 

 a change of vowel orthography between the Sanscrit and Zend says ; " Ce change - 

 ment devra peu £tonner sans doute, si l'on pense que dans l'lnde m£me Va bref 

 De>anagari vaut osuivant la prononciation Beng&lie, et e bref comme nous l'avons 

 d£ja remarque" plus haut. Dans ce cas I'd Zend n'est pas en r^alite" I'd DeVanagari 

 c'est plutdt Vomicron grec, en tant qu'il repond a, Va Sanscrit et a l'e Latin dans 

 les mots que ces trois lacgues poss^dent en commun." — Commeniaire surle Yapna 

 par Eugene Burnouf, vol. I. p. 59. 



