26 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



" them, and the stones, as I have already pointed out, were dressed 

 "narrow towards the inscribed points, their bases being left un- 

 " dressed for several feet. They are clearly intended to be inserted 

 " in masonry with the inscribed parts standing out so that the inscrip- 

 " tions might be publicly read, and these were doubtless in the lan- 

 " guage of the people of Hamah. The inscriptions begin at the top 

 " of the right side, and read along the line between the bars to the 

 " left. The next line is read from left to right, and thus the reader 

 " proceeds from right to left and left to right, boustrophedon style, or 

 " as an ox ploughs. The flow of the line is always in the opposite 

 " direction from that in which the speaking figures in the inscriptions 

 "look." 



These historic treasures have a tongue, and speak, though the 

 ears of the learned are perplexed as to what they say. Doubtless 

 the key to their understanding is to be found in the thorough mas- 

 tery of the ancient and mysterious scripts of Asia Minor. In the 

 Hittite Hamah inscriptions we have the central stem of which the 

 Cypriote and Asia Minor scripts are the branches. Speaking of the 

 Hamah treasures, and of others of similar nature, Dr. Taylor says : — 

 " These monuments are those of a people who have been identified 

 " with the Hittites of the Old Testament, the Kheta of the Egyptian 

 " monuments, the Rhatte of Assyrian records, and the Keteioi of 

 "Homer (Od. XL 521). They were one of the most powerful 

 " peoples of the primeval world, their empire extending from the 

 " frontier of Egypt to the shores of the ^Egean, and, like the Baby- 

 " lonians and the Egyptians, they possessed a culture, an art, and a 

 "script peculiar to themselves, and plainly of indigenous origin. 

 " * * * It is now admitted that the primitive art, the mythol- 

 " ogy, and the metrical standards of Asia Minor were, to a great 

 " extent, obtained from the Hittites, and the independent system of 

 'picture-writing which they possess, offers an obvious source from 

 "which the Asiatic Syllabary might have been obtained." 



;Prof. Sayce, who is at work on these Hamah inscriptions, has given 

 a clue to their meaning, and in a short time the historic world will 

 have the satisfaction of knowing what light they throw on the past of 

 a great people long in darkness and in the shadow of death. In the 

 meantime Egypt and Assyria have much to say of the Hittites, and 

 their testimony is confirmed by the witnesses of Jew and of Greek. 

 If the amount of evidence is not so great as we could wish, still 



