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the four Etruscan vocables which occur most frequently in the 
inscriptions. They are — 
-al “child of/’ 
sec “daughter.” 
clan “son/' 
-ISA “ wife of.” 
We have now reached the first stage of our inquiry. I shall 
presently recall your attention to these four words, the meanings of 
which were correctly surmised some eighty years ago. 
During the next half-century numerous Etruscan inscriptions 
were discovered and classified. They were discussed in many learned 
books, but no real progress was made towards the elucidation of the 
Etruscan mystery. The key was not found. At last, in the year 
1847, a discovery was made not one whit less important in its way 
than the memorable discovery of the Rosetta stone. The Princess 
of Canino had the good fortune to find in a newly excavated tomb 
on her estate a pair of ivory dice. These dice, which are now in 
the Cabinet des Medailles at Paris, were inscribed with six Etruscan 
words, — one word on each of the six faces. These words are : — 
MACH, HUTH, Cl, SA, ZAL, THU. 
This discovery naturally excited the greatest interest, as it was at 
once perceived that these six words could only be the first six 
Etruscan digits. Bunsen repeatedly declared his conviction that 
these dice would prove to be the key to unlock the secret of the 
Etruscan language. Numerous attempts have been made to connect 
these six words with the numerals used by other races of ancient 
Italy. All these attempts, however, have failed so conspicuously 
that eminent scholars, such as Prof. Max Muller and Prof. Corssen, 
have doubted whether these words are numerals at all. Prof. 
Corssen goes further ; he thinks it quite out of the question that 
they can be numerals. He is of opinion that the words on the dice 
are closely akin to Latin. He thinks they are to be arranged and 
translated as follows : — 
Mach thu-zal huth ci-sa. 
Magus donarium hoc cisorio facit. 
Mr. Ellis pertinently observes that with this arrangement of the 
words the sentence is good Gaelic, and means : — 
“ Mac Dougal gave this.” 
It is equally good Armenian with the sense — 
“ Magus cuts the recompense of his vow.” 
Lastly, Lord Craw'ford takes the words as a mixture of Gothic and 
Greek, and translates them as a sort of gambler’s prayer : — 
“ May these sacred dice fall double sixes.” 
