The Etruscan Language

remaining , the Egyptian and Assyrian having been long deciphered and translated . The phonetic powers of the letters of the Etruscan al phabet were all known , and it was not the transforation of the language which constituted the difficulty . Mr .

Taylor then proceeded to give an account of the origin of the Etruscan alphabet . AA ith the help of a diagram exhibiting that alphabet , with the Latin , Phoenician , and the corresponding Egyptian hieroglyphs , in four parallel columns , he showed the derivation of the Etruscan letters from

the Egyptian through the Phcenician . The few bilingual inscriptions in Etruscan and Latin were referred to , and a copy of the principal one , that of Volumnius , consisting of little more than about half a dozen words , nearly all of them proper

names , was exhibited and commented upon . It was with the aid of these inscriptions that the powers of the Etruscan characters had been ascertained as long as eighty years ago . But their paucity and brevit y barred further progress for more than half

a century . The discovery of a specimen of inscribed Etruscan dice , about thirt y years since , opened up a prospect of penetrating deeper into the mystery , it being fairly presumable that the words on the six faces of the die are so many numerals .

For it was admitted on all hands that the numerals of a language , especially its units , offer the very best means of ascertaining its affinities with kindred tongues , and so

of revealing its translation and sense Unfortunately , the die , soon after it was found , was lost again for many years , aud its very existence began to be called in question by sceptical persons . Recentl y it had been recovered , and was now at Paris .

Copies of an engraving of this important die were distributed amongst toe numeious audience , and an enlarged model of it was exhibited . The words on the six faces were read in the following order by Mr . Taylorwho attributes to them the numeral

, values enclosed in brackets : —Mach ( 1 ) Huth ( 6 ) , Oi ( 2 ) , Sa ( 4 ) , Zal ( 3 ) , Thu ( 5 ) . He admitted , however , that there were fifteen possible ways of arranging them . In answer to those eminent philologists—Professor Corssen in particular—whodenied

their being numerals at all , he cited their occurence as numerals in several Etruscan sepulchral inscri ptions , of which there were no fewer than 3 , 000 extant . At the same

time the lecturer frankly owned that other scholars interpreted the expressions on the tombstones , ivhich he regarded as statements of the age of the deceased , in a totally different manner . Professor Corssen read the inscription on the die as follows : — " Mach Thu-zal huth ci-sa . Deeming the Etruscan language an Aryan one , and akin to the various Italic branches of that

family , the Umbrian , Oscan , and Latin , he had proposed the translation : — " Mach cut with a chisel this gift . " Mr . Taylor , Avho perceives in the Avorcls on the die not only numerals , but numerals Avhich can be identified with those of the Finno Ugrian group of the Turanian family of tongues

ridiculed this rendering . He excited considerable laughter by remarking that , ou Professor Corssen ' s system , an equally felicitous explanation of the inscription might be arrived at through the Gaelic , He developed his own argument from the

die in a very ingenious way , produced numerous proofs in its favour , and commented on the comparative grammar of the Etruscan and the Altaic and other

Turanian languages . A full-length portrait of an Etruscan , copied from one of the very nuir erous tomb frescoes , was exhibited , and excited much interest . Feature by feature Mr . Taylor compared the figure Avith the distinctive types of Laplanders

and other Turanian tribes , remarking particularly on the obesity and high cheekbones of all alike . AVifch the same point iu view , he referred the audience to the famous Castellani Etruscan sarcophagus in the British Museum , with the large

recumbent figures of the Etruscan magnate and his wife . Copies of the beautiful Etruscan mirrors also , ivhich often give subjects from the Graek mythology , but with the names of the gods in Etruscan , were pressed into the service of the learned

gentleman ' s argument , e . g ., one representing the birth of Minerva from the Head of Jupiter . Here Vulcan , who with his axe splits open the god's head , is called Sethlans , which is well known to be the Etruscan name of the divine blacksmith .

This name Mr . Taylor explains from the Turanian tongues as meaning " god of fire . Mr . Taylor was inclined to think , with Count Conestabile , that the Etruscans were a mixed people , consisting of two elements , both Turanian . There was an earlier aboriginal stock , closely allied to the