THE scientific world of England, which has taken the lead in so many other branches of palæographie study, has been content to leave the investigation of the Cuneiform Inscriptions almost entirely to Continental scholars; and, which is still more unusual in the history of Eastern archæology, the origin and progress of this investigation, and the results that have been obtained from it, appear to be but imperfectly known amongst us. Individuals doubtless of all countries, whether Englishmen or foreigners, engaged in the study of Oriental antiquities, have followed with a curious eye the successive discoveries that have been made; but general attention, or, at any rate, an attention commensurate with the value of the discoveries, has not been hitherto in England directed to the subject; and if I were to take up the inquiry, therefore, at the point where Professor Lassen has left it, interpretations which would satisfy the criticism of France or Germany might be received in London with extreme suspicion. This circumstance has suggested the propriety of adopting a more extended and elaborate form of introduction to a Memoir on the Cuneiform Inscriptions, than the present advanced stage of the inquiry can be considered rigidly to demand. In a study, indeed, of which the value depends entirely on the authenticity, and of which the authenticity can alone be verified by the constant and consentient results of a cautious and severe analysis, it is obviously better to err on the side of prolixity than of omission. A defective or imperfect link will destroy the integrity of the whole chain of evidence, while accumulative proofs, although they may encumber and perhaps disfigure the argument, will at the same time but contribute to its strength.

Before proceeding to the immediate subject-matter of the first division of the present Memoir, it appears indispensable to devote a few remarks to Cuneiform writing in general, in order to introduce the reader to an acquaintance with the study, viewed in its full extent, as a most important branch of Palseographic science, as well as to explain the nature and to point out the value of that particular section of the inquiry which is here submitted to examination. At the same time, however, in classifying the writing and in suggesting the appropriation of the different alphabets, I must necessarily express myself with some reserve; for neither have my researches at present been carried to that point which might entitle me to speak with confidence, nor, if they had attained their full developement, would it be convenient at the present time to anticipate the interest which may attend the elaboration of the Median and Babylonian inscriptions, in the succeeding portions of the Memoir.

The characters that have hitherto been discovered in the Persian Cuneiform writing amount to thirty-nine. The alphabet was doubtless formed with a special reference to the peculiarities of Persian pronunciation, and a general resemblance may thus be traced between its organization and that which distinguishes the Palaeographic systems of other branches of the Arian family; but at the same time the constructions are far from being identical. In the place of the very elaborate vocalic organization which characterizes the alphabets of the Zend and of the Sanskrit, and to a certain extent, even of the primitive Pali, the Persian writing exhibits a simplicity which more nearly connects it with a Semitic type. It employs three characters only to represent the “matres lectionis.”

Having been engaged in considering the question of aspiration, and having had the advantage at the same time of consulting Professor Lassen's acute but incomplete remarks upon the old Persian alphabet, I have been induced to adopt a somewhat different classification of the Cuneiform characters from that which is given in the preceding chapter. The peculiarity of Cuneiform writing, which I have long suspected, but only recently verified, and upon which depend the rectifications now proposed, consists in the constant occurrence of compound vowel articulations in the interior of words, of which, owing to the inherence of the a in the preceding consonant, the second element only is expressed. I have satisfied myself, indeed, that the groupes ai and au are as common in the language of the inscriptions as the diphthongs é and o in Sanskrit, (to which, be it observed, the said groupes phonetically and grammatically correspond,) and I have further remarked, that although in such Cuneiform groupes the vowel a is unexpressed, its existence may usually be detected by the form of the preceding consonant; an explanation being thus afforded of many of the supposed anomalies in the organization of the alphabet, and a very important step being gained in reducing it to simplicity and order.

The Inscriptions, from which the materials of the preceding chapter have been principally drawn, are found upon the sacred rock of Behistun, on the western frontiers of Media. This remarkable locality, situated on the high road conducting from Babylonia to the eastward, must in all ages have attracted the observation of travellers. Its imposing aspect also, rising abruptly from the plain to a perpendicular height of about 1700 feet, and. its aptitude for holy purposes, were not to be neglected by that race which made

Their altars the high places and the peak

Of earth-o'ergazing mountains.

It was sacred to Jupiter1; or as we may understand the Greeks, who would fain homologate all those systems of theology with which they were conversant, to Ormazd.

THE translations which I have given in the preceding chapter of the elaborate inscriptions of Behistun, will enable the reader to follow me with comparative ease through the present portion of the inquiry; for in the several detached legends which occur in other parts of the Persian empire, and of which I now proceed to give amended copies and translations, I shall neither have occasion to explain many new words, nor even to point out any essential varieties of grammar or construction. I cannot pretend, at the same time, that these brief and disconnected legends which have hitherto, as the only available materials of analysis, exclusively occupied the attention of the learned in Europe, will be found to possess nearly the same interest as the great inscription of Behistun. In the place of varied and historical recital, we must be content for the most part to peruse a certain formula of invocation to Ormazd, and a certain empty parade of royal titles, recurring with a most wearisome and disappointing uniformity. Geographical names, it is true, will occasionally be found to relieve the monotonous phraseology, and there are a few incidental expressions scattered among the records, which throw a faint light upon the faith and usages of the early Persians; but as a general principle, we may consider the value of these inscriptions to be confined to the aid which they afford in identifying the respective works of the early mbnarchs of the house of Achælmenes.