70 



been communicated, published comments upon it in various 

 languages, but were unable to make a clear thing of it. 



At length, the case having been delivered to the French 

 consul at Sayda, the ancient Sidon, it was conveyed to 

 Paris ; whereupon the Abbe resumed the translation, with 

 the inscription before him, and has given in his work a ver- 

 sion in Hebrew, Latin and French, and a facsimile of it in 

 Phoenician. These are followed by an analysis and com- 

 mentary of considerable length, which will afford much satis- 

 faction to all who take an interest in such matters. Mr. 

 Munsell, Corresponding Secretary of the Second Depart- 

 ment of the Institute, made from the French of the Abbe 

 Barges, an English translation of this famous inscription, 

 which so long puzzled the linguists of Europe and America, 

 which was read, as follows : 



THE INSCRIPTION. 

 In the month of Bui, in the fourteenth year of his reign, 

 spake Esmunazar, king of the Sidonians, son. of king Tab- 

 nith king of the Sidonians, [grand] son of king Esmunazar, 

 king of the Sidonians, saying : Snatched from the light pre- 

 maturely, and gliding away like the streams, I caused my 

 funeral home to be built, and I repose in this sarcophagus, 

 in this tomb, in this place which I have caused to be con- 

 structed. I forbid any royal person, and any person, to 

 open this sepulchral bed, to seafch around me for treasures 

 (for there are no treasures near me), to carry away the sar- 

 cophagus which serves for my sepulchral bed ; or to remove 

 me with this sepulchral bed upon the sepulchral bed of 

 another. Even if men should command thee to do it, 

 hearken not to their directions ; for any royal person, and 

 any man who shall open this sepulchral bed, or who shall 

 carry away the sarcophagus which serves me as a sepul- 

 chral bed, or who shall otherwise remove me with this sepul- 

 chral bed, may they have no sepulchral bed with the dead ; 

 may they not be buried in a grave, nor leave after them 

 sonsnor posterity ; may the holy gods and the powerful mon- 



