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 6 
 

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 THE 
 
 ETRUSC.iN QUESTION. 
 
 PROF. G. D. FERGUSON, 
 
 Queen'g Univernty, Kingston. 
 
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 (Pram the I'ritfi'tiUiiiiii «/ tli» Canadian IimtUtit*, IDth December, IHSti 
 
 THE ErRUSCAN QUESTION. 
 
 BY PKOF. G. D. FERGUSON. 
 
 In January last, Professor Caiiipljell, cif tlie Presbyterian College, 
 Montreal, read a paper befoi-e this Institute, in which he seeks to 
 prove the affinity of the Etruscan with the Basque, and nlaims to 
 have found the clue by which he is enabled to read the Etruscan 
 inscriptions. It is an accepted principle that our only hope of 
 deciphering and translating the inscriptions on the monuments of a 
 natiou that has passed away is by means of a bilingual inscription. 
 It was in this way that the hieroglyphics of Egypt, and the cunei- 
 form inscriptions have been read. Any other way than this must be 
 hy[)othetical, and therefore imreliable, for, however ingeniously the 
 researches may be conducted, we cannot accept the results with any 
 confidence. Proceeding on this hypothetical principle it is quite 
 possible, by a mere resemblance in the words, to show with great 
 plausibility the affinity of a language, and consequently of a nation, 
 with any other language or nation. We have not hitherto attached 
 importaJice to Professor Campbell's researches. Any attention we 
 may have given to comparative philology has been because of its 
 historical importance, and, if Professor Campbell derived any satis- 
 faction from his Hittite or Aztec I'eseai'ches, we were not disposed to 
 detract from that pleasure, for neither the Hittiteij nor the Aztecs 
 have contributed nmch to the general development of civilization, 
 and historically considered are unimportant nations. Tho Hittites 
 had relations with Egypt during the Hyksos period, and during the 
 reign of Rameses IT., biit they did not affect to any extent the pro- 
 gress of civilization. But Professor Campbell was treading very 
 different ground when he entered the field of Etruscan research. 
 The Etruscans wei'o a very important people. They at one time 
 occupied the greater part of the Italian peninsula, and largely 
 influenced Roman civilization. They had extensive commercial 
 relations with the inland countries of Europe, and with the Baltic. 
 
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 They have been regarded as foreigners on Italian soil, and there has 
 been a very strong desire to read their numerous inscriptions, and to 
 trace their affinity with other nations. It is more than half a century 
 since Niebuhr said that he would willingly give half of what he 
 possessed, if he could possibly obtain a clue to the deciphering of the 
 Etruscan language, but he had come to look on this as utterly hope- 
 less. Undoubtedly since Niebuhr's diy some advance has been made 
 in our knowledge of the Etruscan language- In 1828 appeared the 
 first edition of Ottfried Miiller's " Die Etrusker," and in the second 
 volume of this very learned work the author established the value 
 and power of both the Etruscan and the Umbrian letters. Five 
 years after, in 1833, appeared Lepsius' work, " De Tabulis Eugu- 
 binis," in which he substantiated the results arrived at by Miiller. 
 The subsequent researches of Aufrecht and Kirch hoflf, jf Grotefend 
 and Lassen, of Mommsen and Deecke, of Corsseii and Pauli, of Curtius 
 and Bugge, with those of English, French, Italian, and Swedish 
 scholars, have all tended to support the results arrived at by Miiller 
 and Lepsius, till in the last edition of Miiller's work, edited by 
 Deecke, we have a very valuable supplement, in which there is very 
 clearly and satisfactorily repre.sented, not only the value of the Etrus- 
 can letters, but the changes of which they are susceptible, their 
 possible combinations, the laws of syncope, of inlaut and auslaut, of 
 anlaut and ablaut, in fact a thorough treatise on the subject. 
 
 Prof. Campbell ignores the results arrived at Yy these scholars, 
 whose names are a sufficient guarantee of the conscientiousness of 
 their labours, of their industry and judgment, their extensive learn- 
 ing, and their sincere love of the truth. Lepsius w^a perhaps better 
 versed than any other in Egyptian writing, and his researches are 
 marked by striking calmness and judgment. Grotefend and Lassen 
 d'jvoted themselves with equal success to the study of the cuneiform 
 inscriptions. Kirchoff and Aufrecht have thrown a flood of light on 
 the old Italian dialects. Mommsen is our greatest authority on 
 Roman history and Roman epigraphy. Why has Prof. Campbell 
 ignored the works of all these eminent scholars 1 He once quotes 
 from Deecke, but it is from that rather meagre article which Deecke 
 contributed to the Encyclopedia Brittannica — an article scarcely in 
 keeping with Deecke's ekudition. These eaiuiest students were 
 obliged to confess their inability to translate the Etruscan inscrip- 
 tions, or to establish the affinity of the Etruscan language. But 
 
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 where these men, who spent their lives in such studies, failed, Prof. 
 Oarapbell claims a complete victory. He entere the field, and waves 
 his magic wand, and all is done ; the old Etruscan starts again into 
 life, and gives up its long impenotrable secrets. " Etruria capta 
 est," and he declares : *• I have the honour to report to this Institute, 
 as one of the most important results of my studies in Hittite Palaio- 
 graphy, the solution of the Etruscan problem." Perhaps we are un- 
 fitted for criticising this last wonderful achievement, as we had 
 attached no importance to the results which Prof. Campbell imagined 
 he had reached in regard to other languages, but we were long at a 
 loss to understand, even from his own point of view, what possible 
 connection there could be between Hittite Palaeography and this 
 Etruscan problem. But this present contribution is only a part of a 
 great "Etruria Capta." He promises a fuller work in which he will 
 offer a translation of the Eugubine Tables. "We quote his words : 
 *' Of these Tables, seven only and a part of the eighth are in the 
 Etruscan character, the rest are written in the Roman alphabet, and 
 are' in Umbrian. These Umbrian Tables are being translated and 
 will be shortly pi-esented to the world as the oldest Celtic documents." 
 Umbrian Celtic 1 As well tell us that English is Japanese or Choctaw. 
 But in this promised translation of the Eugubine Tables, will Prof. 
 Campbell kindly begin with the eighth. We have to inform him 
 that there are not more than seven of these Eugubine Tables, and 
 they are all in Umbrian, though five are in the Etruscan characters, 
 and two in the Latin. The Etruscan Tables are much older than 
 the Jjatin, and they prove the early extended influence of the Etrus- 
 cans, and the prevalence of their alphabet. But when in 307 B.C. the 
 Umbrians became subject to the Bomans, they adopted the Roman 
 customs and the Roman alphabet, and so the acts and the ritual of 
 the College of Priests, which had been pi-eviously in the Etruscan 
 alphabet, were transliterated into Latin. 
 
 Prof Campbell has imagined that Etruscan may be Basque, and 
 he resolves to prove it Basque. He is not the first who has imagined 
 this. Some fifty years ago. Sir Wm. Bethran wrote some articles in 
 " Les Annales de Philosophic Chrdtienne," hi&ving for their object to 
 prove the identity of the Basque and Etruscan. Scholars did not 
 even condescend to I'eview his absurd hypothesis. The only notice 
 we believe the work ever received was in this form, " Cette assert on 
 
I 
 
 T" 
 
 6 
 
 gratuite ne m^rite pas tie refutation." Mr. Ellis, in one of h\n 
 posthumous works, proposes the same hypothesis. 
 
 Prof. Campbell, however, approaches the subject from a different 
 point of view — from the supposed syllabic character of the Etruscan. 
 But ho never attempts to prove this syllabic character, he merely 
 supi)08es it to be syllabic, and proceeds to prove its affinity with the 
 Basque. Now there is a very great number of Etruscan inscriptions 
 found, from Capua in the South up in to the Alps in the North. 
 They are for the most part monumental inscriptions, and are there- 
 fore short. Many of them are bilingual — Latin and Etruscan, and 
 it is reasonable to suppose, judging from other bilinguals, that the 
 one will be a literal translation or reproduction of the other. Un- 
 fortunately these monumental inscriptions consist largely of proper 
 names, and can aid us little iu gaining a knowledge of the language ; 
 but there is this advantage which proper names present, and tha is, 
 that they will enable us to determine the charac'^Qr und value of the 
 letters, and some of the grummatical forms ; and it is just this advan- 
 tage which has enabled Lepsius and Deecke to determine so exactly 
 tlie value and power of the letters, and to study the l;ws, which 
 apparently govern their relations, without however gainiag any fuller 
 kno^*ledge of the language. But besides these bilin.^ual inscriptions 
 there are in the writings of Gi-eek and Roman authors some foi'tv or 
 fifty Etruscan words, transliterated into Latin characters. So far as 
 these words go, they are important, and yet they do not throw much 
 light on the construction of the language, and they form a very meagre 
 vocabulary ; but this one thing they do, they confirm the bilingual 
 inscriptions in establishing the chai'acter of the letters. As this is 
 the point which Prof. Campbell pooh-poohs, it will be necessary to 
 consider it for a little, and we shall take one or two examples of 
 bilin^j'Tial inscriptions ; 
 
 V • LECNE V • PAPIRINAL 
 VEL • LICINIUS VEL ■ PAPIRI NATUS. 
 
 Now are we Ayrong in supposing that V of the first line corresponds 
 with V of the second line, and the L of the first with the L of the 
 second, and the whole of the word Papiri of the first with the word 
 Papiri of the second 1 But before n in Etruscan the preceding 
 vowel is always syncopated — the Latin Capcna is the Etruscan Capna, 
 the Latin Marcanius the Etruscan Marcna, and so Menelaus = Menle, 
 
 
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 HeriikIeH = Herkle, and here the Latin Licinius is the Etruscan 
 Lf^cne ; tlie / and e being often interchanged. Tlie Hiiflix AL is a 
 xuitsculine genitive termination, and is of constant oceiUTence in the 
 monnniental inscriptions, lus Arnthal of Arnth, Lartlial of Larth, or 
 wm of Larth ; just as in Latin we say Marcus Tullii, Marcus the son 
 of Tullius, and the Papirinal of the above inscription is rende ed in 
 Lutin Papiri natus, and the wliole inscription reads, Velleius Licinius, 
 th«i son of Velleius Papirus. While al is the masculine suffix, the 
 c»rr«'sponding feminine suffix is -alisa, and we liave this inscription, 
 whf-re both the father's and mother's names are given : 
 
 LARLS FRAUCXE VELUSA f.ATlNIALISA. 
 
 LARIS FEAUCNE the son of VELUSE and LATINIA. 
 
 Similar inscriptions are very common, and a number may be found 
 in Prof. Cani))beirs Etrniia Capta. But the Eugubine Tables, being 
 principally in the form of rituals, present .several formulae which 
 ocicur in tho Tables of the Etruscan, and also of the Latin or 
 Uhibrian charactei". Compare the following formulae as they occur 
 iji the Etruscan cliai'acters of tho first Table, and in the Latin char- 
 acters of the sixth Table : 
 
 Etr. — Vukukum : iuviu : pune : uvef : furfatlx : tref : vitluf : turuf : uiarte : 
 
 hurce : 
 La I". — Vocucuni • ioviu • ponno ovi ■ furfant • vitlu • torn • trif • fetii • marte . 
 horse ■ 
 fetu : puphiper : tutas : iiuvinas : tutaper : ikuvina : vatuva : ferine : 
 
 fetu : 
 fetu • popluper • totar ■ iiovinar ' totaper • iiovina ■ vatua • ferine ' fetu ■ 
 puni : fetu : arvia : 
 puni • fetu • arvia • 
 
 And again a little below in the s ime Tables ; 
 
 Krr:. — Vukukum : kuretiea : tref : vitlup : turup : hunte : feitu : pupluper : 
 
 tutas : 
 Lat. — Vocucom • coredier • vitUi • toru * trif • fetu • honde ' fetu ■ popluper • 
 totar • 
 Iiuvinas : tutaper : iiuviua : vatuva : ferine : fetu : arvia : 
 iiovinar • totaper ■ iiovinar ' vatve " ferine * fetu • arvio " 
 
 It would seem impossible to doubt that in these instances we have 
 a simple transliteration, and that the formulse written in the Eti ascaa 
 characters are literally reproduced in the Latin characters ; and if 
 HO, then they establish the value of the Etruscan letters. This would 
 
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 seem almost self-evident, and no one has for one moment doubted it, 
 till Prof Campbell |)ropound8 his hypotheses. Believing that he 
 has solved all other linguistic problems, of the Horites and Hittites, 
 of the Japanese and Aztecs, of the Cyprians and Choctaws, he 
 believes it his duty also to untie the Etruscan knot. He ridictiles 
 all these bilingual similarities, and marks out a certainly original 
 mode of dealing with the subject. He has resolved that Etruscan i« 
 Basque, and Basque he intends to prove it, and all difficulties must 
 give way before this hypothesis. But in choosing the Basque with 
 which he is to prove the affinity of the Etruscan, we think Prqf. 
 Campbell has been very unfoi'tunate. The Basques are a small body 
 of people living on the Spanish and French slopes of the Pyrenees. 
 They number about 700,000, and are the descendants of the old 
 Vascons, They have never played an important part in history, and 
 have contributed nothing to the general development of civilization. 
 They show some affinity with some of the native tribes of North 
 Africa, but perhaps more with the inhabitants of the American con- 
 tinent. We know that at one time Africa was joined to Europe' at 
 the Stmits of Gibraltar, and tV.ore is every probability that in the 
 Miocene i>eriou Europe was connected with America, and the people 
 of America may have crossed over by a great Atlantic bridge, having 
 left however a small remnant in Spain. But, whatever the affinity 
 of the Basques, they have, from a very early period, been largely 
 affected by foreign influences. No part of Europe has .so changed 
 masters as Spain. Phoenicians, Celts, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, 
 Visigoths, Alans, Mooi-s, and the Romance nations have at one time 
 or other held Spain, and have influenced the Basques, and these lU 
 the present day present physiological characteristics so diversified as 
 to baffle all attem])ts at ethnological classification ; and the Basque 
 language is perhaps the most corrupt of all languages. The writei' 
 of the article on the Basques, in the Encyclopcedia Brittannica, a 
 work Prof. Campbell is fond of consulting, says : " Foreign words 
 are easily assimilated, but with modifications to suit the Basque ear." 
 If Prof. Campbell was resolved on proving the affinity of the Etrus- 
 cans with the Basques, he ought to have positively assured himself, 
 that in using individual words, it was really in each case a Basque 
 word of which he had got hold ; for to prove the affinity of the 
 Basque and Etruscan by means of Greek or Latin, Gothic or Romance 
 words, however perfectly incorporated into the Basque, would be aii 
 
 4 * 
 
absurdity ; and we shall preflently show that this is one of the 
 absurdities in which Prof. Campbell has rather fi-eely indulged. 
 
 But thcui is another difficulty. The Etruscan inscriptions are 
 perhaps none of them later than the second century B.C., but the 
 earliest examples of Basque literature are of the ^fteenth century, 
 except a short charter granted to the commune of Daviles in 
 1150.* Now under any circumstances there must be great diffi- 
 culty in proving the affinity of languages whoso literatures are 
 separated by not less than seventeen centuries, but the difficulty 
 becomes insuperable when it is remembered that one of the lan- 
 guages has been subjected to very great foreign influences. We 
 quote from M. Blab^, the greatest authority on the Basque : — 
 " L'idiome Basque s'est tellement modid^ depuis le XV i^me sifecle- 
 qu'il est toujours trfes dificile, quand il n'est pas ab«olument impossi- 
 ble, d'expliquer les premieres textes ccnnu3 qui remontent k cette 
 ^poque." If the changes have been so great within three centuries, 
 during which time the language has acquired, we should suppose, 
 some degree of fixity through a printed literature, and when it has 
 been comparatively free from foreign influence, what changes must 
 have taken place in the sevent en centuries when the country whs 
 constantly changing masters, and there was no literature to fix the 
 language. M. Blab^ ])oints out that it is impossible, just on account 
 of the mixed character of the language and of the people, to deter- 
 mine the affinity of the Basques or of their language. After a 
 lengthened review of all the sources of information, he says ; — " La 
 toponyuiie ancienne de I'Espagne, la numismatique dite ib^rienne, le 
 droit coi^tumier, et les prdtendus chants h^roiques, ne jettent d< nc, 
 jusqu' au present, aucune lumifere snr I'origine des Basques. Les 
 moyens d'information sont limit^s k I'histoire positive, k I'anthropo- 
 logie, et a la philogogie compar^e. Ces trois sciences constatent 
 unanimement que les Basques sont un peuple fort mdlang^." M. 
 Blab^ plainly points out the great difficulty in determining the 
 
 * \V« are aware that there are two short poems, the Chant des Cantabres, and th<> Chant 
 d'Annibal, which claim to have been written at a very early period. The Chant des Cantabrex 
 (iloims to have been written in the te\gn of Augfustus, and to commemorate his canipaiRn in 
 the country of the CantabrL It is rejected for the following reasons : -(1). No oriffinal manu- 
 script has been found, but only what purports to be a copy of the original manuscript pub- 
 lished in 1817. (2). It is full of anachronisms, it uses Latin terms only found in the Latin of 
 the Later Empire or the Middle Ages. (3). It colls the Cantabri Bizcayans, bnt this term was 
 not used earlier than the fifteenth cantury. Much the sante criticism may be applied to the 
 Chant d' Annibal 
 
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 affinity of the Basques themselves. The undecided reUitions of the 
 Basques and of their linguage has hitherto deterred Etrusco!'^^^^^' 
 and would naturally deter any ordinary scholar ; but Prof. Campbell's 
 ingenuity can adapt itself to the moat advei-se circumstances, r ])er- 
 haps we should be moi-e correct in saying that he is quite unconscious 
 of these difficulties. But he has not only determined that Etruscan 
 is Basque, but also that it is syllabic, and therefore he has found it 
 necessary to reject all the bilinguals. *' The bilingual inscriptions," 
 he says, " present many difficulties. In some cases I doubt their 
 l)eing bilinguals at all, as the Etruscans used characters hardly differ- 
 ing from the Latin." Prof. Campbell is evidently ignorant of the 
 relation between the Etruscan and Latin alphabets. We s'aall pre- 
 sently tell hiiu something about this relation, but in the meantime 
 does he not see that the existence of even only one bilingual inscrip- 
 tion is sufficient to give us the charactei-s of the letters ] How many 
 Rosetta stones, or how many Behistun insciiptions, would Prof. 
 Campbell wish 1 The very scant inscription on the boss of Tarkon- 
 demos, consisting of only seven words, in the bilingual of Hittite 
 and Persian cuneiform, has affiarded Prof. Sayce a key by which he 
 has been able not only to determine the value of the letters, but even 
 to read some of the Hittite inscriptions. Prof. Campbell, if con- 
 sistent, must reject all the bilingual inscriptions. But these Etruscan 
 bilinguals present many difficultie.s to Prof. Campbell, simply because 
 they will not fall in with his hypothesis. He believes that Basque 
 is Turanian, and as he has determined that Etruscan is Basque, it 
 must therefore be Turanian also. But he imagines that the Tu- 
 ranian languages are syllabic, and he ct jludes that as Etruscan 
 is Turanian, it must also be syllabic, and now we begin to catch some 
 idea of his meaning when he says : — " I have the honour to report 
 to this Institute, as oae of the most impoi'tant results of my studies 
 in Hittite Palaeography, the solution of the Etruscan problem." The 
 Hittite is Turanian and syllabic ; the Etruscan he has determined is 
 also Turanian, and therefore syllabic. There can then be no doubt 
 as to the light which his studies in Hittite Palaeography throw on 
 the Etruscan problem. Let us satisfy ourselves of Prof. Campbell's 
 reasoning: Etruscan is Basque, Basque is Turanian, Tuianian lan- 
 guages are syllabic, therefore Etruscan is syllabic also. We are not 
 esponsible for Prof. Campbell's logic, we have only tried to reduce 
 t to the simplest terms; but to himself nothing can be clearer, and 
 all that ia necessary is to illustrate it by examples, and applying this 
 
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 1 
 
 11 
 
 key, lie iiuagines that he can unlock all the treasiiros of the Etruscan 
 language. All those bilingual inscriptions are of no value, nay they 
 are deceptive, no doubt intentionallv so, possibly to perplex such men 
 as Miiller and Lejwius, Moinmsen and Deecke. If we are not to 
 accept these bilingual inscriptions as virtually duplicates, then we 
 cannot divine their meaning. In eveiy other case bilingual inscrip- 
 tions have been of the utmost value, have been indispensable, and we 
 cannot underst-and why they should be worthless here. Prof. Camp- 
 bell has however decided that they are worthless, and (hat the door 
 will only open to his key. Now the whole value of Prof. Campbell's 
 researches rests on the syllabic character of the Etruscan language; 
 but we beg to differ fi-om him, and we maintain that Etruscan is not 
 syllabic. But admitting with Prof. Campbell that these bilinguals 
 are worthless, yet apart from these, apart also from the fact that we 
 know the history of the Etruscan alphabet better perhaps than we 
 know the history of any other alphabet, we maintain that every cir- 
 cumstance is against the possibility of the Etruscan being syllabic. 
 Prof. Campbell seems ignorant of the I'.fe and growth of languages, 
 or at least of linguistic symbols. Languages pass through separate 
 and distinct stages in regard to the character and value of the signs 
 or symbols of thought. The first of these stages is the Ideographic, 
 or, asit is generally called, the Hieroglyphic. A man in his barbar- 
 ous state wishes to express his idea of a horse, and he draws the 
 picture of a horse ; of a man and he draws the picture of a man, 
 Thi^ is the earliest form in which man has expressed his ideas, 
 wh -ther for the purpose of communicating those ideai^ to others, or 
 of preserving them, and assisting his own memory. lis figurative 
 wi'iting is presented in the inscriptions of Egypt and of Mexico. 
 But this is an exceedingly cumbersome mode of nxpressing ideas. 
 An almost unlimited number of separate signs would be I'equired. 
 This would be most burdensome to the memory, and be unable to 
 express grammatical relations. With the growth of ideas one sign 
 came to express several ideas by means of determinates, or small dis- 
 tinguishing marks added to the sign itself, somewliat similar to the 
 vowel signs in Hebrew ; but there was a tendency in these original 
 types of figurative writing to become conventional, as in the case of 
 Chipese and the language of the cuneiform inscriptions. Here the 
 signs do not at once suggest what they are intended to represent. 
 They have undoubtedly grown out of iconograj)hic prototypes, but 
 they have lost their resemblance. They ai'e called semeiographs, or 
 
 
 iP 
 
wr 
 
 12 
 
 ^■1^ 
 
 better ideograms. Now these ideograms mark a progress from purely 
 figurative writing to phonetics. Thought and feeling natui'ally 
 express themselves in voice, and a phonetic value came to be attached 
 to the ideogram, and the sign suggested at once an object and a 
 phonetic value. But the representative value of these signs became 
 less and less prominent, and in time they we''e used only to express 
 a sound or combinations of sounds. The name of the object repre- 
 sented a certain sound, at first no doubt the whole name, and then 
 only a part of the name. And in this way arose syllabic writing, 
 which was generally acrological, that is, the initial letter or letters 
 came to express the sound which was itself expressive of an idea. 
 In the case of the Chinese the ideogmm has continued to express 
 only one sound, and not a combination of sounds, and so the language 
 has remained monosyllabic. The sacred books of the Chinese were 
 however accepted by the Japanese, who adopted the characters in 
 which the sacred books were written, but they ascribed to these 
 characters a different phonetic value, while they combined them 
 according to the exigencies of their own national idiom, and to per- 
 mit of certain flexions. But this change, as exemplified in the 
 Japanese or similar instances, marks a change from the ideogram- 
 matic to the syllabic form. But the combination of signs permitted 
 by the syllable allowed a great diminution in the number of the 
 signs. In place of the innumerable signs of the Chinese, the Japanese 
 expressed their vocalization by forty-seven characters wholly borrowed 
 from the Chinese, but having different determinate values. This 
 change of the value of the Chinese characters to the Japanese took 
 place j)robably in the third century, but some five hundred yeara 
 after, the connection of Japan with India led to the formation of a 
 new syllabary, based on the other, but presenting a more cursive 
 form, and reducing the number of syllabic signs. This syllabic state 
 of a language marks a distinct stage in the growth of language, or 
 rather of linguistic symbols. But there is still another stage in 
 which individual signs are used to represent individual sounds, as 
 they are uttered by the organs of speech ; and now there is possible 
 a claasification of sounds, and consequently of letters into vowels 
 and consonants, or into dentals, labials, gutturals, and nasals, and an 
 alphabet is formed. Now this throughout is a gradual development. 
 The figurative writing of the Egyptians was developed into the 
 alphabet of the Phoenicians. The conventional figurative writing of 
 the Chinese was developed into the syllabic of the Japanese, and 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
13 
 
 1: 
 if' 
 
 from that into the alphabet of the Coreans. The writing of the 
 Accadians was developed into the cuneiform character of the 
 Assyrians and the Babylonians, and fiom this passed, on the one 
 hand into the syllabic cuneiform of the Persians, and of the Cyprians 
 on the other. What we wish especially to point out is, that these 
 changes niirk distinct stages in linguistic development, and conse- 
 quently in the development of civilization, for the two are inseparably 
 connected. But Prof. Campbell imagines that the syllabic form is 
 j)eculiar to the Turanian languages. That we may not misrepresent 
 him we shall quote i»is own words. He says : — " The problem there- 
 foi'e is to find the powers of the Turanian alphabet or syllabary, 
 Besides the Cypriote, the Corean of far Eastern Asia has furnished 
 nie with phonetic values of forms belonging to the Etruscan and 
 other old Turanian syllabaries." Again : — " As the syllabic values 
 of the Aztec characters are well known, I gained in them the actual 
 key to the old Turanian syllabaries" With only a passing allusion 
 to the ab.surdity of connecting the Aztec characters with the Cypriote, 
 we wish to lay especial stress on Prof. Campbell's association of 
 syllabism with the Turanian languages. On the other hand we 
 would express our entire divergence from him, and we maintain that 
 syllab'sm is a stage of linguistic development common to the Semitic 
 and the Aryan with the Turanian languages. Take Persian as a 
 type of the Aryan ; Egyptian, or Assyrian, or Babylonian of the 
 Semitic, as well as Japanese of the Turanian. It is quite true that 
 very many of the Turanian languages at the present day are syllabic. 
 The Japanese have only now reached that stage of development in 
 which they tiiid the syllabary inadequate to their growing require- 
 ments, and are adopting the alphabet of the European nations. But 
 we repeat that syllabism is not peculiar to any one class of languages ; 
 it marks a stage in linguistic development. However, Prof Camp- 
 bell has determined that Etruscan is Turanian, and therefore syllabic. 
 This is the result of his researches in Hittite Palaeography, and can- 
 not be doubted, «• e sets about forming an Etruscan syllabary. 
 But here a new - ^ulty meets him in the small number of the 
 Etruscan signs. Simple letters may enter into an almost unlimited 
 number of combinations, but syllables are not so flexible, will not so 
 easily combine, and we require a very much larger number of 
 syllabic signs. Thus the Amharic has thirty-three consonantal signs, 
 each of which may combine with seven vowel signs, and a separate 
 sign is used to denote each of these combinations, so that in the full 
 
 iiii 
 
 \ ■ ■ 
 
 II 
 
 ifc 
 
 H 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
14 
 
 Ambaric syUabarium there are two limidred ancl thirty-one difFei-ent 
 signs. The Persian, though approaching very closely the alphaltetic 
 form, has thirty -six distinct characters. But Etruscan has only 
 twenty signs. Here too Prof. Campbell's ingenuity does not fail 
 him, and he makes his syllabic signs mean anything, thus : — 
 
 I = ha he hi ho hu an ou eu oi o u hau. 
 II = ta te ti da de di at et it ad ed id. 
 K = OS ots oz otz us uts tu uz utz hatz hitz hez hots huts. 
 
 L = so sa su za zo zu as oz, sometimes es ez, also it may denote 
 cho chu cha, and ja jo ju. 
 
 In other words, the Etiuiscan syllabic signs represent in each case 
 nearly all the vowel sounds in combination with a large number of 
 consonants, so that we uiay make anything we please of these syllabic 
 signs. Prof. Campbell acknowledges this, for he says:- "The 
 poverty of the Etruscan syllabary multiplies the equivocal to such 
 an extent that the context, or even a knowledge of the nature of the 
 document in which the words occur, must decide their value." 
 
 The signs of this syllabary may mean anything we may choose to 
 make them mean, only we must know beforehand what we expect 
 them to say before we can make them say it. This is certainly very 
 accommodating, but has it not struck Prof. Campbell that it is an 
 insuperable ditficulty in the way of receiving his hypothesis? But 
 his syllabary of such a low order is inconsistent, not only with the 
 evident laws of linguistic growth, but with the known facts of 
 Etruscan civilization. The Etruscans had reached a high degv(e of 
 civilization. At an early period, long before the date of the earliest 
 of these inscriptions, the Etruscans were in close relations, commer- 
 cial and otherwise, with two of th« most civilized nations of the 
 ancient world, the Greeks and the Carthaginians, and among whom 
 the Alphabet had reached the fullest development. It is inconceiv- 
 able, — it is wholly inconsistent with what we know of linguistic de- 
 velopment, that the Etruscans should, alone of these nations, havr 
 remained in the syllabic stage, that while in every other respect they 
 should have been noted for their civilization, — a civilization to which 
 every museum in Europe bears evidence, that yet in their language 
 they should have belonged to a past epoch. In a work of William 
 Humboldt, " Uber die Verschiedenheit des Menschlichen Sprachbaues, 
 und ihren EinHuss auf die geistige Entwickelung des Menschenge- 
 schlechtes," there are such expressions as this: "Tliere is a mutual 
 
15 
 
 1 
 
 action of lauguiige on the mind and intelligence of a people, and of 
 the mind and intelligence on the language. This is a capital fact. 
 The mind of a nation, and the chai'acter of its language are so inti- 
 mately bound up together, that, if the one is given, the other may be 
 exactly deduced from it." We hold it impossible that a nation which 
 was in u degree of equality with the Greeks,^ — a nation from which 
 the Romans borrowed some of the most prominent features of their 
 civilization, sliould have made no advance in their language beyond 
 the syllalnc state. But suppose we admit Prof. Campbell's assertion, 
 let us see what he makes of it. We have already stated that there 
 are some forty or fifty words occui-ring in Greek and Latin authors, 
 and written in Greek and Latin characters. These words, however, 
 he treats as literal or alphabetic ; but it happens that some of these 
 words oocur in the inscriptions, and here he treats them as syllabic. 
 But so ehuilic in his mode of procedvve that both alike are made to 
 serve his purpose. He says : " Of the Etruscan words furnished by 
 classical authors, many at once reveal their Basque origin. Lar or 
 Lars, as Lars Poi'sena is the Basque larri — Great." This titular 
 prenouien appears to have been one of the most common among the 
 Etruscans, as : Lars Poj"sena, Lai-s Tolumnius, Lars Hi'rminius. 
 Now when it is found in Greek or Latin writers it is allowed to retain 
 its literal form, but when it occurs in the incriptions it is syllabic, 
 and is read Saratuka,and means "engraved." It occurs in an abbrevi- 
 ated form at page 3-t of '' Etruria Capta," and again at page 29, in 
 the feminine. But is difficult to imagine how the same word can be 
 at one time alphabetic and at another .syllabic. This Lars as it occurs 
 as a titular prenomen moans great, no doubt in the sense of famous ; 
 just as we say Charles the Great, or Peter the Great, or Frederick 
 the Great. Unfortunately we can find no such meaning given to larri 
 in our Ba-sque Dictionary. Here it is defined as " un peu gros,"- — 
 somewhat grobs, or rather perhaps fat. Not as if it were Charles the 
 Great but Charles the Fat, Charles le Gros, — whom the Germans 
 called " Karl der Dicke." It is great in the Falstaffian sense. We 
 doubt whether Prof. Campbell will be willing to accept this render- 
 ing. But in our Dictionary larri stands in a very suspicious connec- 
 tion, and has a very Romance look. It occurs as follows : — Largo, 
 ^largii' ; Laninzo, largesse ; Largo, large ; Lar«'i, un peu gros. It is 
 evidently a Romance word accepted by the Basque, and therefoi'e 
 cannot be useil in tracing the affinity of the Etruscan with the Basque. 
 Let us take another example of Prof. Campbell's translations : 
 
'''-^': 
 
 ll 
 
 16 
 
 Etr.— F. LEONE, F. OA/IIPNAL. 
 
 Lat. — C. Licinii. C. F. Nigii. 
 
 Translit. — Age Sanesikane age inorabaiitukarasa. 
 
 Basque, — Age Zunt-gikin age Maira Baitu sortze. 
 
 We shall not occupy time with minor criticisms, but " age " does 
 not mean " to behold " ; the proper word for behold is " ictist." But 
 Prof. Campbell says, " The Latin Licinii is a derivative from licium, 
 a leash, a tug, a thread. It corresponds exactly with the Basque 
 zunft, a needleful. The final kane represents egin, to do ; Zuntzegin 
 may be an old name for tailor or weaver. The other proper name 
 translated Nigri is Maira, a Moor or person of dark complexion. The 
 Etruscan adds Baitu, the spotted, fi*om bai, a spot, as the mother of 
 Maira. In Latin her name would probably be read as Varia." This 
 is a very partial instance of the playfulness of Prof. Campbell's fancy. 
 What possible connection can there be between Licium and Licinii ] 
 Licinius was one of the most common of the Roman Gentile cogno- 
 mens. It especially occurs in the Gens of the Fabii, who had other 
 connections with Etruria than the disaster at Veil. But the Licinian 
 Gens, though of plebeian origin, was very influential. It is generally 
 regarded as having come from Etruria, and when C. Licinius Calvus 
 was consul in 364 B.C., mindful of his Etruscan origin, he secured the 
 admission of Etruscan youths to the Roman games. The name 
 occui'S very often in Etruria, but also in Latium ; at Tusculum we 
 have the Porcii Licinii, and at Lanuvium the Murenae Licinii. The 
 form Lecno, and also the feminine I^ecneaa, are very often met with 
 on the Etruscan monuments. Licinius is simply the latinizing ot 
 Lecne, and has nothing whatever to do with licium, and still less 
 with the Basque Zunft. But in this inscription occurs the word, or 
 rather terminal, nal. No form occurs so frequently in these inscrip- 
 tions as this. In the bilingualas it is invariably rendered V)y the 
 Latin natua or filiua. Now, the unifoimity of this rendering evi- 
 dently occasioned some difficulty to Prof. Campbell, and his object is 
 to work in some word which will preserve this signification ; accord- 
 ing to his syllabarium, " nal " reads " karasa," and he says this repre- 
 sents the Basque " sortze ". Now, as Prof. Campbell evidently 
 attributes much importance to these words, and seems to regard 
 *' karasa " and " sortze " as test words, going far to show the connec- 
 tion between Etruscan and Basque, and as his reasoning here presents 
 
 i 
 
17 
 
 m HI 
 
 
 a very good example of his reasoning in general, at the risk of being 
 u little tedious, we shall examine it, and shall give his own words. 
 He says, " The Rev. Isaac Taylor and other Etruscologists, while 
 failing to translate these inscriptions, have made some good guesses. 
 Such are their suppositions that the chai'ivcters they have read isa 
 denote a wife, those read aec a daughter, those read al a child. The 
 first is read nare or anre, a wife ; the second, nechi or nesca ; and 
 the third, karasa ; in modern Basque, sortze, natus." Surely Prof. 
 Campbell must be aware that modern Basque can have no beaiing on 
 the present question ; he might as well try to prove the affinity of 
 the Japanese with the old Gauls by means of the present French. 
 However, he proceeds at some length to justify the relation of these 
 two words karasa and sortze. He says, " It has been objected that 
 karasa and sortze are difficult to reconcile ; that nal, ka/rasa means 
 natus, several bilinguals attest." Prof. Campbell's consistency is 
 very wonderful. "The Basque 'natus' is sortze. The only diffi- 
 culty in the words is the replacement of ka by so, after an interval of 
 over one thousand years in the history of the language." We must 
 plead inability to understand Prof. Campbell, but so far as we can 
 make out, he means that one thousand years ago the so of sortze was 
 ka ; and that within the last thousand years it has undergone a 
 change, and kartze has become sortze. What proof can Prof. Camp- 
 bell adduce of this 1 How does he know that a thousand years ago 
 sortze was kartze, when he has no document with which to compai'e 
 it older than four hundred years ago ? He refers to Van Eys's 
 " Tableau des permutations des consonnes dans les mots Basques des 
 diff^rents dialectes." We fail to see what this reference has to do 
 with the question. Van Eye is alluding to the large number of the 
 Basque dialects, and he tabulates these dialects as they at present 
 exist, but this has nothing to do with the historical changes which 
 have taken place in the language, or with its analogies with other 
 languages any more than a comparison of the dialect of Yorkshire 
 with that of Lancashire, or with the London cockney has to do with 
 the old Celtic of the earlier Britons. But Prof. Campbell regards 
 the words karasa and sortze as sd important that he illustrates their 
 relation to one another by their supposed common affinity to the 
 Japanese. He Siiys the Japanese equivalent of the Basque sortze is 
 harama. This Ls very learned, and we feel our inability to follow 
 2 
 
 li' 
 
18 
 
 Prof. Campbell ; fortunately, it is not necessary. We suppose he 
 will not requiro to l»e told that the nearest neighbours of the Basques 
 on the north are the Provencal, a people speaking a Romance dialect. 
 But if Prof Campbell will turn to a Romance Dictionary he will 
 find this word sortze not even changed, as the writer in the Encyclo- 
 piedia says, "to suit the Basque ear"; or, better still, if he will turn 
 to Diez's Dictionary of the Romance languages, he will find there 
 aorlze with all its Romance affinities; it is a derivative from the Latin 
 aurgere. This word is not Basque ; it is a Romance word so lately 
 introduced into the Basque, that it is as yet unchanged, and the very 
 learned disquisition about its being kartze a thousand years ago, and 
 about its affinity with the Japanese harama is all thrown away upon 
 us, and we still doubt the Etruscan being syllabic or that it has any 
 connection with the Basque. 
 
 But further, on page 27 of " Etruria Capta " occur these words 
 Rakora translated " offering," and in each of the next three inscrip- 
 tions occurs the word liako ; so that on the same page Rakora occurs 
 once, and hako three times, and on all these occasions it is a noun 
 and means an offering. These words occur very frequently in 
 " Etruria Capta." So also do Ra and Rano, and at page 69 occurs 
 Rapi, a verb, " to receive," and at page 98 we read " Rako atso 
 Rakone," translated " towards age acknowledging," — and regarding 
 Rakone Prof Campbell says : " The final ne seems to change the post- 
 position rako into a verb," — rather a unique grammatical change, we 
 think unparalleled in the history of language, and surely he forgets 
 that ho has all along translated Rako as a noun and not as a post- 
 position. He continues : *' Here Rakone seems to signify "acknow- 
 ledging," " paying respect to." We very much wonder, that with Prof. 
 Campbell's profound knowledge of Basque, he has not discovered that 
 in Basque no word begins with R. When we began to read Basque 
 " Etruria Capta " we were i-ather surprised at frequently meeting with 
 words beginning with R, and to find even allusions to them in the notes 
 without any apparent consciousness of their irregularity ; we turned 
 over page after page of Basque to find a word beginning with R, but 
 without success. We again consulted our Dictionary, and under the 
 heading R we found the following : " Cette lettre R n'est en usage, 
 au commencement des mots Basques, que pour les noma propres tels 
 que Rome, Rambouillet, et encore dans' le langage familier, les Basques 
 diront Erroma, et non Roma. II est k croire que le suppression de la 
 
 ^ ♦ 
 
1 
 
 
 / \ 
 
 19 
 
 consonne K comme initialo des mots a pour cause cortaiiies diificultes 
 que son articulation semble offrir d' abord." Humboldt says : " No 
 word in Basque commences with R. The Bas(]ues always place an e 
 before foreign words of this category, and then double th(! R. And in 
 certain cases, as in the words edastea and erastea, th«iro is a dialectic 
 change of rf and r. But they always say erregue — roi.'' M. Blab^, 
 the moat competent autliority, says : " Je conviens quo le Basque n' 
 a point en propre de mots commen^ants par r et que loraqu' il donne 
 I'hospitalitd dans son glossaire a dos mots ou r est en t6te, il a soin 
 de les faire prdc^der d'une voyelle. Sur le versant Nord des Pyrenees 
 occidentales cette voyelle est iin a — arraya la race, arriahina resine. 
 De 1' autre c6t^ des Pyrdndes les Basques disent aussi arrocher — rocher. 
 Cependant ils pr^fixent j)lus volontiers 1' e — errisina, resine, enabia, 
 rage. PeutStre en bien cherchant trouvera-t-on quelques mots oiu 
 ces prefixes a et e seraient remplac^s par i. Aussi selon les pays, 
 viz. : se dit arrosa ou irrisa." We do not see how we can reconcile 
 Prof. Campbell's constant use of the /i with the plain testimony of 
 these eminent Basque scholars. 
 
 From the first page to the last of " Etruria Capta." any affinity 
 between languages is based on mere similarity of sound. Prof. Camp- 
 bell never once points to any similarity in grammatical forms ; yet 
 it is on this alone that any such affinity can be proved. Nay, he 
 even makes a virtue of his rejection of grammatical forms, and he 
 says : " I have set forth the fact that, various as are the grammatical 
 forms of Basque, Caucasian, Yeniseian, Japanese, Corean, Iroquois, 
 Chocktaw, and Aztec, they are one in vocabulary, and constitute with 
 many other membeis a linguistic family of no small importance. The 
 parent speech belongs to Syria. West of Syria, iti Asia Minor, Italy, 
 Spain, and Britain, the inscriptions yield Basque." We think we 
 have shown how far Prof. Caujpbell is competent to speak of this. 
 He continues : " East of Syria, in India, Siberia and on this conti- 
 nent, the Japanese at first, and afterwards the Aztec, are the languages 
 set forth." And again : "The threefold Tyi-seni, Tuscer, Naharcer, 
 Japuscer, carry us back to Mesopotamia, the land of Nairi or Nahir- 
 ina, and to the region of Khupuscai, as well as forward to Navafrre 
 and Guipuscoa. The former even takes us to this continent, where 
 the Aztecs or Citin also called themselves Nahuatl or Navetl. Who 
 the Tuscer were it is harder to say, for the final er is a termination ; 
 otherwise the great Basque name Enskara wouhl at ouc(^ «"ggt-'^t itself 
 
 $ 
 
20 
 
 in such a form as the Dioscurias of Colchis, now Iskurieh, near which 
 Chapsoukes or modern Khupuscians and eastern Guipuscoans dwelt." 
 It is hard to characterize this. It is simply philology nin mad. 
 Euskara and Diosciirias connected ! Prof. Campbell knows Greek, 
 and should know that the cities which bore the nanie of Dioscurias, 
 and of which there were several, received that name because they 
 honoured as their tutelar Deities, the twin sons of Leda, Castor and 
 Pollux, the Dioskouroi. 
 
 Perhaps the leading error into which Prof. Campbell falls is the 
 constant application of the laws which tjovern the Aryan languages 
 to the Turanian also. Grimm's law8, of thu variations of consonants 
 in the Aryan languages, do not hold good in the Turanian. But 
 even in Aryan languages, it is always dangerous to conclude that 
 words which assimilate in sound, or that have the same class of con- 
 sonants, are connected, and much less may such assimilation be trusted 
 in the Turanian languages. Rask, Schott, Castrdn, R^musat, and 
 Boetlingk, — in fact all wiio have written on the Turanian languages, 
 are very particular in guarding \is against depending on the similarity 
 in sound. But they also tell us that it is absurd to expect the exist- 
 ence of the same words running through the Turanian languages as 
 they do in the Aryan. The Turanian languages have not been 
 thoroughly classified, and the difficulty lies not only in the variation 
 of grammatical forms, but quite as much in the vocabulai-y. Speak- 
 ing generally, the Turanian nations have had no literature to fix 
 words, and the consequence is that they differ from one another to a 
 degree of which the Aryan scholar has no idea, and which makes it 
 impossible to compare them in the very loose way Prof. Campbell has 
 attempted. The basis of the classification of the Turanian languages 
 has hitherto been according to the employment of pronominal affixes, 
 but this is an unsatisfactory and very meagre mode of arriving at a 
 classification. Max Mtiller says : "To maintain a word and not to 
 allow it to be replaced by a new expression was possible in the Aryan, 
 that is in a social state of the language, not among nomad tribes, who, 
 living only for the present, were little concerned about the past or 
 futAre, without history, without ambition ; and thus we find that the 
 number of common words is very small." Schott says : " We ought 
 not to despair about the affinity of these languages, the Turanian, 
 although the words for the most necessary ideas in them are so essen- 
 tially different." To Prof. Campbell, however, the Turanian languages 
 
21 
 
 pruRoni no difficulty whatever, and he proves their affinity with one 
 another by long lists of words, which he says are identical in Basque 
 and Etruscan, in Japanese and Circassian, in Hittite and Chooktaw, 
 in Iroquois and Aztec. We trust Prof. Campbell will pardon us if 
 we prefer the judgment of Miiller and Schott, and of a score of other 
 Turanian scholars to his judgment, and if we express a very strong 
 doubt as (o the value of his researches and his very retnarkaVile con- 
 clusions. 
 
 And now a few words regarding the Etruscan alphabet, its origin, 
 some of its peculiarities, and the extent of country over which it pre- 
 vailed, and a short statement of what is generally received concerning 
 the origin of the Etruscans. The town of Chalcis in Eubcea was one 
 of the oldest of the Phoenician colonies, and received from Phoenicia 
 the alphabet, which it adopted with very little change. When Chalcis 
 became an Ionic possession it still retained its alphabet, which is 
 more closely connected with the old Phoenician than any other of the 
 Greek alphabets. Shortly after Chalcis became Ionic it entered into 
 rivalry with Miletus for commercial and colonial supremacy. Miletus 
 acquired a supremacy in Elasteru Europe, in the y^"«an, and the 
 Euxine ; while Chalcis turned to Italy and the Web Cumae was 
 founded by a colony from Chalcis, and became a centre from which 
 Greek learning, Greek culture, and the Greek Chalcidian alphnbet 
 were communicated to the rest of Italy. Etruria early received its 
 alphabet from this source and an examination of the Etruscan letters 
 will at once show their similarity with that earliest Greek alphabet. 
 The Etruscan, the Umbi an iid the Oscan of the Italian dialects 
 approach most nearly in their alphabets to the Chalcidian, and the 
 Latin is the farthest removed. The Etruscan rejects the soft mutes 
 B, G, D, and retains the aspirates th, ph, ch. The Latin on the other 
 hand retains the soft mutes and rejects the aspirates. The Etruscan 
 and the Umbrian alike retain the Sam and the Sigma, the Zain. and 
 Samekh of the Phoenicians. At that early period we perhaps cannot 
 expect exact fixity in the alphabet, and while all the Etruscan inscrip- 
 tions are of the same type, there are yet some minor difierenoes, as 
 we may see by comparing the pure Etruscan alphabet with the Etrua. 
 can alphabet of Campania. This last lying close to the Oscan, seems 
 to have been afiected by it. The influence of the Etruscans was very 
 great in the South, but especially so in the north of Italy, and even 
 in the districts still further north. They ciirried on commerce with 
 
 ■ i 
 
 I 
 
22 
 
 central Eiiropo, and apparently with the countriea around the Baltic.' 
 Northern wares are frequently found in the tombs, and were also 
 exported from Tarqiiinii, a seaport which rivalled Massilia in the 
 amount of its exports. The result was that the Etruscan alphabet 
 extended iiir into Europe, and from the Jiomana Provincia on the 
 WK-st to the Tyrol and Carinthia on the east. Throughout this ex> 
 tended district the Etruscan alphabet prevailed. But in the north, 
 eastern corner of Italy another element was introduced and another 
 Greek alphabet. That movement which drove the Dorians out of 
 Thessaly to the south seems to have compelled the migration of an- 
 other tribe into north Italy, and this tribe settled about the mouths 
 of the Po and the Adige. Whether these were Veneti or the Euganei, 
 we are not prepared to say. The inscriptions in this alphabet are 
 found principally at Este. With which of the Greek alphabets we 
 are to connect it is still uncertain. Berndorf believes it to be Ionic; 
 Kirchhoff regards it as Locrian ; while the Br'^nze of Tegea would 
 seem to connect it with the Arcadian or the Elean. 
 
 And now, before we close, a few words regarding the oiigin of the 
 Etruscans. Herodotus tells us that the Lydian natio!i having, from 
 internal difficulties, become divided, one portion emigrated from 
 Lydia under Tyrrhenus, or as he is some times called Tarchon, and 
 that after a time these emigrants settled in Umbria, and by Umbria 
 Herodotus means North Italy. Whatever importance we may 
 attach to this story it must be admitted that there are some 
 facts which seem to lend it plausibility. The sea which washes 
 the west coast of Etruria has, from an early period, been called the 
 Tyrrhenian Sea, and the city of Tarquinii is regarded as having 
 derived its name from Tarchon. That a band of pimtes called 
 Tyrrhenians did long infest the .^gean Sea is well attested, and it 
 seems equally certain that a portion of them settled in Italy. 
 Thucydides speaks of Tyrrhenian-Pelasgians who had originally dwelt 
 in the peninsula of Athos, but were driven from there to Athens or 
 Attica, and finally took refuge in Lemnos. Herodotus adds that 
 these Tyrrhenians drove out the Minyae and held the island for 
 some time but were overpowered by Otanes, a general of Darius 
 Hystaspes. After the close of the Persian wars the Athenians took 
 possession of the island. Both ancient and modem writers identify 
 these Tyrrhenians with the Tyrrhenian invaders of Italy. Niebuhr 
 was the first to point out that the Etruscan was a mixed language, and 
 
23 
 
 
 LepHiiiH believes that with a strong Pehmgic element there \h com- 
 bined an Umbrian and poHsibly a Ch'eek. Without entering into 
 any discussion of these opinions we notice that the identification of 
 the Tyrrhenians of Lemnos with the Tyrrhenians or Etruscans of 
 Italy has been confirmed by the recent discovery on tlie island of 
 Lemnos of two inscriptions in unmistakable Etruscan. These in- 
 scriptions, which seem of different dates, ai'e engraved on two sides 
 of a large block of stone, which evidently formed part of an altar. 
 As read, the altar is called the Altar of the Hephaestii, and is dedi- 
 cated to Zerona, worshipped in Myrina. Hephsestias and Myrina 
 were the two principal towns on the Island. This deity, Zerona of 
 the Tyrrhenians of Lemnos, suggests a connection with the Zirne of 
 the Etruscans, and the Macedonian Zeirei.e, and, perhaps, with the 
 Thracian Zarunthos, -thos being a masculine termination. These 
 similarities would seem to identify the Tyrrhenian-Pelasgians of 
 Etruria with the Pelasgians of Greece. But there is satisfactory 
 evidence connecting this t>tone with the place where it was found. It 
 bears the names of the two towns of the island, and is dedicated to 
 the tutelar Deity of one of these towns, and it must be remembered 
 that the dedication is in the Etruscan language. This new discovery 
 certainly corroborates the information given by Herodotus, by Thucy- 
 dides, Hellanicus, Plutarch and Strabe. But pei'haps this new dis- 
 covery does not determine very much, for the questior. will be asked : 
 Who were these Tyrrhenian-Pelasgians '( But thijj discovery will 
 have the effect of pointing out more definitely in what direction 
 researches ought to be pushed, while it rendei's more probable the 
 finding of some bilingual which may furnish the key to unlock the 
 Etruscan mystery. It does not as yet permit any new solution of 
 the Etruscan problem, it only gives hope of some further light on the 
 subject. 
 
 ill 
 
 THB COPP, CLARK COMPANT, LIHITID, OKNERaL PRINTRRS, COLBORNR STRBKT, TORONTO.