193 
_ The Turanian interpretation of the dice marked with words 
gives the following arrangement : — 
1 
2 
3 
6 
• i 
5 
The correspondence is so close as to clench the argument. 
I am, I think, justified in asserting that the Etruscan numerals 
can be explained' by means of the Turanian languages. That 
neither the Aryan nor the Semitic languages will explain them 
stands confessed. The task has often been attempted. Pott, the 
greatest authority on numerals, has reviewed these attempts, and 
has discussed the dice numerals at considerable length, and he pro- 
nounces the verdict that they cannot be Aryan and cannot be Semitic. 
The latest advocates of an Aryan solution of the Etruscan problem 
seem to have accepted this decision as final, and they have con- 
sequently been obliged, either to contend, with Dr. Corssen, that 
the words on the dice are not numerals at all, or else, with 
Mr. Ellis, that the Etruscan was an Aryan language which pos- 
sessed Turanian numerals. Which of these suppositions is the 
more impossible I will not undertake to say. 
The difficulty of giving an Aryan or a Semitic interpretation to 
the decades is even greater than the difficulty with the digits. 
With one exception, Lord Crawford passes over the decades in 
silence. He translates avils machs mealchls, “aged 18 — a 
leper.” The decade mealchl is, he thinks, related to the Latin 
.macula, “a spot.” What diseases are denoted by such words as 
muvalciils, cealchls, and SEMPHALCHLS, he does not inform us. 
Dr. Corssen, the latest and most distinguished advocate of the 
Aryan theory, is quite unable to explain these words mealchls, 
muvalchls, cealchls, zathrums, and the rest, ns Italic decades. 
In a sort of heroic despair lie has broached the astounding theory 
that they are the names of peculiarly carved coffin ornaments whose 
particular nature he cannot explain. The word avils, which he 
admits means “aged,” lie takes to signify the name of the man 
