akhi 'apli imri-a "amongst the brethren (or) sons of my family," su cizu-su... yuptatekhu akhai "he (and) his swordbearer cut open one another."

When a verb is followed by a substantive so that they form but one idea, vă may irregularly be placed after the latter; thus attitsi ina giri-ya-va aśukhra Azi'il "I turned aside in my course and outflanked Aziel."

The same happens even if the first clause has only a substantive verb understood, but not expressed; e.g. sa cimasāsu-va icciru "who was like him and had revolted."

In the Achæmenian period vă is ungrammatically found between two nouns; thus mati saniti-va lisanu sanituv "other lands and another tongue.' ""

-Va may sometimes take the place of yusannā" "he repeated," as in isaśi-va umma "he told thus," where some verb like ikbi "he said" is understood after the enclitic.

Lū is prefixed to verbs to denote past time (like kad in Arabic); e.g. lū allic "I went." If the first syllable of the verb is u or yu, the two vowels coalesce into one; e.g. lusardi. In Babylonian and Achæmenian it is joined with nouns; e.g. anacu lu sarru "I (am) the king."

""
whether "either".
or

Lū also signifies "—"or," and as such is found before nouns and clauses; e.g. lū nuturda lū itū lū aiumma . . . lũ ana ila yusasracu lū ana ziga yusetstsu‘u "whether nuturda or itu or any one either to a god shall give or to harm shall expose."

Lu (Aramaic, Arabic lau) is like limeti, li (Aramaic "at") from "to adhere," hence "immediately,"

"union," "if."

The indefinite umma (as in aiumma, `manumma, etc.)

(Arabic anna) in later inscriptions introduces a quotation with the meaning "thus," "that"; e.g. (Istar) ikbi-sunut umma "Istar told them that."

Im "if" is frequently followed by matima ("in any case") with the indefinite pronoun ("any one") sometimes understood before the verb. Occasionally we find im omitted, and only matima used. In the Law-tablet we have ana matima in imitation of the Accadian original; ana matima mut libbi-su ikhuśśu "in every case a man has full power over his child."

The conditional particle (ci or im) is not unfrequently understood, though the enclitic -ni is generally added; e.g. yutsu-ni ner-ya itsbut "(when) he came out, he took my yoke." Even the conditional augment (ni) may be omitted; e.g. sa lā agru‘u-su igranni "who (when) I did not make war with him made war with me."

In one passage ci seems to mean simply "then," "accordingly,"-Umma-khaldāsu emuci-su ci yupakhkhir, "Ummakhaldasu then gathered his forces."

Summa "thus" occasionally takes the place of im; e.g. summa assatu mut-su . . . iktabi "if a wife (to) her husband say" (literally "thus," with "if" omitted).

Yumu "day" may be used absolutely, without a preposition, with "when" (sa) following omitted; as yumu annitu emuru "the day he had seen that dream."

The preposition which denotes the instrument may also be omitted; as katā û sepā biritav barzilli iddi " (his) hands and feet (in) fetters of iron he laid."

PROSODY.

The order of the sentence is most commonly subject, object, and verb at the end (as in Aramaic). But the object very frequently follows the verb, especially when it has a suffix, and sometimes even the subject. Often a noun with a preposition comes after the verb, but its usual place is after the object or subject. The genitive circumlocution with sa is in some few instances placed at the beginning of the sentence with the subject following. Conditional and relative words always begin the sentence. Relative sentences are usually intercalated between the subject or object and the verb. The pronoun sunuti or sunut regularly ends the clause.

A dislocated word like isme-va in isme-va cisitti eri-su Cudur-Nakhundu nis Elamu imkut-śu khattuv "KudurNakhundu the Elamite heard of the capture of his cities, and fear overwhelmed him," is due to the blunder of the illiterate engraver, who inserted the word in the wrong place.

The Assyrians, like other nations, had their poetry; but little of this has been preserved to us, the religious hymns which we possess being literal translations of Accadian originals.* From the following purely Assyrian specimen of psalmody, however, it will be seen that Assyrian poetry corresponds to Hebrew; it was characterized by the same parallelism, and affected the same play upon words.

FIRST STANZA.

(1) Ilu Ussur bel ‘a-ba-ri | sa su-par-su dan-nu-śu

(2) ana Sarru-cinu sarra gasra | sar Assuri

(3) ner-ebid Babili | sar Sumiri u Accadi

(4) ba-nu-u cu-me-ca | si-bu-ut padh-si-s'u
(5) lis-ba-a bu-h-a-ri.

* Cf. Lenormant: “Essai de Commentaire des Fragments des Bérose," Frgt. xx.

O Ussur, lord of the wise, to whom (is) beauty (and) power [of
whom (is) his beauty (and) his power],

For Sargon mighty king, king of Assyria,

High-Priest (yoke-servant) of Babylon, king of Sumiri and Accad,
Build thy store-house, the dwelling of his treasure,

May he be sated with (its) beauties!

SECOND STANZA.

(1) ina ci-rib Bit Ris-Sallimi | u Bit S'er-ra
(2) cin pal-su | cin-ni irtsiti su-te-si-ra

(3) sul-li-ma tsi-in-di-su | su-ut-lim-su e-mu-kan la-sa-na-an
(4) dun-nu zic-ru-ti | galli-su su-udh-bi-va

(5) li-na-ar ga-ri-su.

In the midst of the Temple of the Head of Peace and Bit-S'erra
(i.e. in peace and good fortune)

Establish his course of life: the stability of the land direct;
Make perfect his harnessed horses; confer on him the powers of

the world,

Even greatness (and) renown; his servants make good, and

May he curse his foes!

Here the double parallelism is very exact. Notice, too, the lively change of subject, and the semi-rhyme at the end of each stanza. The play upon cin and cinni plainly refers to the name of Sarru-cinu.

Before concluding, it will be well to select one or two inscriptions for analytical translation. The first that I shall take is an Invocation to Beltis (W.A.I., II. pl. 66, No. 2) :—

I. (1) A-na(el) Beltis bel-lat matāti

a-si-bat 2 Bit-Mas-mas D.P. (el) Assur-bani-‘abla sar mat Assuri rubu pa-lukh-sa (2) ner-ebdu3 binu-ut katā-sa 5 sa ina ci-be-ti-sa rabitav ina kit-ru-ub7 takh-kha-zis

I. (1) Ad Beltim dominam terrarum, habitantem Bit-Merodach, Assurbani-pal rex terræ Assyria princeps adorans-eam (2) pontifex creatura manuum-ejus, qui secundum jussa-ejus magna in vicinitate prælii

*The figures in parentheses refer to the lines in the inscriptions; the superior figures refer to the analyses on pp. 175, 176, 177.

I next select a short private contract of the year (W.A.I., III. 47, 5):

II. (1) {bilat}' eri saki2 (2) sa

* The story of my conquest of them has become famous everywhere.