Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/293

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264
CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS

aiiijaiia nija trrtija/ ' al) Anjaiia usque ad Tar- satia' {sic). It Avill eiial)le the reader to see how un- certain was the progress yet made when these same words were rendered by Lassen, in 184-4, ' adoratio consecrata continiiit/ and 1)V Kawhnson, in 184(), 'From the enemy fenreth not' — which closely ap- proached the true translation : 'filrchtet sicli . . . vor kehiem Anderen.' ^

Sometimes, however, Holtzmann showed a marked hnprovement upon Lassen. Thus the latter scholar translated the liftietli line of the Xaksh-i-Rustam inscription ' Auranuizdi adorationem attulere, quae rrejriones] ilhie i)alatium exstruxere/ Holtzmann substi- tutes ' Auromazdas enim opem tulit dum opus feci,' and liawlinson, in 1840, correctly renders the sentence ' Aurmazd bi'oujrht help to me so that I accomplished the work/ ^

When Eawlinson was writin<r his Memoir in 1846 lie remarked upon the singular fact that no En<jflisliraan except himself had yet taken part in the work of decipherment. Many had indeed occupied themselves in the more adventurous task of collectimr the materials — among whom wei'e Morier, Ousehy, Ker rorter,and Kich — but so far liawUnson was alone amonir his countrymen as a deciplierer. This special study arose first in northei'ii h^urope, and it is remarkable how large a share was Ijorne by Denmark. Niebuhr, upon whose foundation all later scholars l)uilt, was born at Ludwisi'sworth in North Hanover : but he served under the king of Denmark, and his Travels were first pub- lished at Copenhagen. Mlinter, though a German by

' Inscription IJ, line 11; Second Memoir, p. L*7 : Holtzmann, p. 65; Kawlin.son, .7. ll.A. S. x, 274 ; Spiegel, p. 49.

■^ Holtzmann, p. 117; .Second Memoir, p. 116; IlsLYrVm^onf J, R, A. S, X. 308.