PÁÏ KÚLÍ INSCRIPTIONS IN CHALDEO-PEHLVI.

Sir H. Rawlinson's eye appears to have been less trained to the peculiarities of the Chaldæo-Pehlvi than to an appreciation of the outlines of the more simple letters of the fellow or Sassanian alphabet, so that while his transcripts in the latter character are, as it were, written, the former are elaborately but mechanically copied, and in some instances (Nos. 24, 27, 30, and 32), so great was the desire of accuracy, that the letters are traced in double lines, as is usual in exact engraving. The writing itself, as I have already pointed out (p. 11 ante) presents great sameness in the different alphabetical signs, and in many cases a very slight inflection constitutes the essential discriminative mark of the given letter. There are no obvious finals, and the words do not seem to have been separated, as is effected to a great extent in portions of the Hájíábád Inscription. Under these circumstances my conjectural restorations must necessarily partake, perchance even in a larger degree, of the imperfection of the materials at command: which of themselves appeared to promise and may, perchance, eventually afford a better text and a greater amount of information than their more voluminous counterparts in the Sassanian character.

In the ordinary course of the arrangement of the present article, under the conception of retaining in full prominence a systematic discrimination between the contrasted forms of the associate alphabets, I have reserved the closely-identical modern Hebrew type for the representation of the since-severed and now obsolete outlines of the Chaldæo-Pehlvi originals, while devoting the current Persian of our days to the embodiment of the Sassanian Pehlvi, from whose archaic elements it claims so much of direct descent. But on this occasion, where, in default of positive facsimiles, I have been obliged to elevate the Hebrew into a leading text, I resort to the less classic Naskhí type for my commentary, not only for the purpose of giving a second and possibly more suggestive identification of the true Persian original, in its now conven

tional alphabet, but also as affording a readier means of comparison with the gloss upon the more ample materials available in the less ephemeral Sassanian characters, which almost intuitively fell into the literal signs of that since amplified alphabet.

No. 23. The first of Sir H. Rawlinson's Chaldæo-Pehlvi Inscriptions, though carefully copied, is so imperfect in what remains of the original writing, that it would be useless to speculate upon any matter simply dependent on contexts. The word, so frequent in the Sassanian series, occurs twice either in its full integrity or as a portion of other words, under the confessedly optional re-arrangement of the letters now presented, amid which it may be again remarked that no discriminative finals are to be detected.

No. 24 exhibits a more extended range of subjects for legitimate speculation. In the second line; seems to be fairly assured in transliteration and simple in interpretation; the aspirated,, the Sanskrit, from fa, "to rule," corresponds with the concurrent Sassanian ~; while the 'n Patiṣa in line three recalls the ancient Cuneiform orthography. The preceding words, may, under very slight modifications, chance to carry new significance, as Ionians (Greeks, etc.), and enemiesŵge, with the Chaldean plural termination and the long u, which is rejected in the modern orthography. The same remark may

in line four; and ایک من لكما و هايتي be applied to with much that is already intelli يازتن و هي كشاكني اسبتم

يتي

gible awaits but little extraneous aid for satisfactory interpretation. In line six the oft-recurring is succeeded by " Yáztan Shamei, "God of Heaven," which brings the whole tenor of the inscription back to Semitic regions; or, if a more distinctly Pehlvi rendering be sought in the "in the name of Almighty,"

, پون شمي دادار the Pehlvi) شمي

همک. شمت ing word may be improved into

.

the Giver of the Zoroastrian prayer), the context of the succeed

אן השתר חסישתהותוי ו פרמיתן ומן הרב פת א .. וחלי ו הגת ו יהות הסנו .ל כמאל חיאת לגלי היתת

שהיפוהר מלכא כאשתר וכ מנו פתגלאי תנ גאשת ....

No. 27.

ראמו וישתאוהה

מיי אריאן השתר

מזלנפתי יאזתן כאשת ותר. יתאימוזן ו אתר זכ . זפרת ו אנכלין פואמר הן זמני - רב כוזת

. כתר ו כרתכני פתרהוינגי הות ו זפיבאתרשׁ

No. 25 exhibits in the second line the full constituent elements of the word "Sakandar," but the name seems out of place, and the isolation of the letters is altogether arbitrary. The - in line five is of importance, as the designation, which can only apply to the Jews, will be met with hereafter in the Hájíábád Inscription; and, otherwise, there are many suggestive points in this text if we could but divide and determine the letters with anything like authority. The tablet concludes with the unmistakable name of Shápúr, conjoined with the adjunct of "king" in their proper Semitic forms of

. شهیپوهر ملكا 17 دد

No. 26. After a detached or incomplete word of no present importance, the first line terminates with the letters ;, which are dubiously suggestive of Avesta. The of line two is followed by the Arabic J (Pehlvi J,), and the name of

اكي

Line . نفسي is succeeded by the oft-recurring ( نمر perhaps) نمي Inscrip. No. VI. lines) هخایم و راب هشتردري three seems to read و فرمیتن و من هرب بت seven and twelve); line four proceeds

the latter combination is curious if we may rely upon the. transliteration. J is followed in line four by the

, which there will be further occasion to notice in the

گاشت .Hajiabad Inscriptions -concludes this sec يتكلاي تن

tion, though I must confess that I have but little confidence in the existing data or the result now obtained from them. The transcription of the first line of No. 27 may be optionally varied from the Hebrew text to,

are very imperfectly preserved.

as the letters is clear in line

suggested as a tentative reading of line three; and, under

may be یازتن کاشت followed by میلن پتي or مزلن .two

.for the fourth line زترت و انکلین پوامر even more reserve may be received for the moment as a pos راویت هویزا ايبهن

sible reproduction of line five.

The 28th tablet commences with, K., "King of Irán.” In the second line may be doubtfully traced a variation of the

name followed by some damaged letters forming the Line three is likewise defective in the

و اتر.

رنيپي or دنيپي word

هن زمني رب كوزتـــــ

outlines of the letters, which, however, may be tentatively rendered, Sj.jl, or j.. Line four runs —ÿÿjivoj v. Line five, under a mere servile reproduction of the original copy, may be transcribed

but the second word is freely convertible هوت و زیبا ترش

. زدو كازو رتري the letters

into or other possible variants. The sixth line contains

29. The legible portions of this section comprise letters Line four,

پنر پلیک ملکا

. هشتر و همک هشتر ایشا answering severally to ,in fire پست و پوشت [ پرشتو] و شمي مي

. و با تیز و دکتشن هوتوي و Line six . مكون ملكا

No. 30 commences. Line two continues from a preceding tablet. Line three, to judge from the copy, must be much damaged, at the beginning and at the end are all that can be relied upon. The letters decipherable in line four contribute the following pos

يتي

in line سریه کرتیر The کيوي دوهن پرشکرت : sible combination

five, if correct, is exceptional, as the ever-recurring verbs of the Sassanian system has not hitherto been met with in this Chaldæo-Pehlvi transcript. The J in line six may equally well be converted into J, J, or other new combinations; for among the originally fully-contrasted forms of the ancient letters I can extend no certain faith to Sir H. Rawlinson's copies of the and the , as discriminated from one another: and worse still, the D, which, at the time his copies were made, was unknown, or rather unproven,—may so easily be taken for either of the approximated outlines of the first-named more common letters, that the natural difficulties of a right interpretation of the damaged writings of Páï Kúlí are almost hopelessly enhanced! The apparently isolated words which stand at the foot of this tablet seems to afford a second example of a deri

كرئي in the form of کردن vation of the verb