1835.] used on the Bactrian Coins. 331 



by their native underlings. We have in our own copper coinage, similar 

 and notorious examples of the Nagari character so badly executed, that 

 few even in the present day could certify the letters intended. In the 

 more recent coins, and in proportion as the Greek deteriorates, the 

 Pehlevi improves ; and our best examples are derived from the coins of 

 the unknown AZ05. Guided by these, rather than by the strict 

 analogy of the Chaldaic, I would venture to appropriate ^ to k ; 

 *1 and P to d ; *1 and w> to r. As far however as examples go, 1 or 1 

 seems to stand indifferently for the two former, and for t likewise ! 

 Thus in the two last syllables of Eucratidou, we find "P^l*^. . (. . tido ?J 

 In the same of Apollodotou, we have "p-il.. andT^tl. . (dato?) In 

 Antila-kidou "P*!^. . , the place of k is assumed by a letter, different 

 from any hitherto found as such, and more like that we have on 

 slender grounds set down as an s. "Vi may be the k affected by a vowel 

 mark, or with an r, as it occurs also in Eucratidou. 



It is only on convention, therefore, that I shall in future reserve 



8. "I, for k (and perhaps g). 



9. 1 or ? for d (sometimes misused for t ?). 



10. 1 or^ for r. 



The same confusion will be perceived in the uppermost of the 

 Nakshi-Rustam inscriptions in Ker Porter's Travels, the most faithful 

 representation of those antiquities which we possess. Many reasons 

 would induce me to suppose this alphabet to be the same as ours, 

 the k, I, d, and r are so nearly allied ; but the m forbids their union. 



11.1 and *i, /. Here again is a perplexing case : the latter occupies 

 the place of /, in Apollodotou, Lysiou, Azilisou, Antilakidou : but the 

 former occurs in the word for ' king' THTlu (malakao) passim. It 

 might be an h, and the latter word TH^llvj (mahardo) ,• but of this 

 we shall have to say more anon : at present I am constrained to 

 preserve both forms under the head of I. 



12. b,/. This letter occurs on no coins but those bearing on the 

 reverse the Greek f, as Kadphises, Pherros, &c. It resembles consi- 

 derably tlie common Pehlevi form of p, and is only seen on the latest 

 groups of coins ; but it is common on the inscriptions of the cylinders 

 found in the topes by Chev. Ventura and M. Court, and has there 

 frequently a foot stroke, straight or curved, as in the Y above noted. 



13. a, pi Whether this letter (ex), which appears only on the latter 

 coins of our series, in connections yet unread, be a mis-shapen variety 

 of the/, is hard to say. It is precisely the p of the known Pehlevi, 

 and if inverted, forms the m of the same alphabet. 



14. *T s. This letter rests on slight foundation ; namely, the penul- 

 timate of Azilisou TPT'+IAQ (azilisoj. It is however very similar to the 



Arabico-Persic-Pehlevi s on the Sassanian coins, given in the table of 



i t2 



