tu e-H ♦ E-kuwe-ku8-kus e-F-[kusl *-[ku

to carve, the orderer suprême, the powerM, the great, the valiant,

8 e-F- (D. A.) (D. P.) E-kuwe-we-kus

the very powerful.

COMMENTARY

Line 1 . For the reading evoe, see my last article {Recueil, t. XIII, p. 50). The second tarkus " a king " (expressed by the picture of the royal cap) forms part of the name, and gives the pronunciation of the goat's head (tarkus), It is not a title hère (that o£ " king "), as I used to suppose.

That Er or EIri is the phonetic value of the character represented by the buli's head has been shown in my last article {Recueil^ t. XIII, p. 50). The country of Er or Eri iâ probably that of O^p* mentioned in the North Syrian list of Thothmes III (No. 134), the Arâ of the Assyriau inscriptions. I leam from Prof. Sachau that Panammu,king of Samahla, calls himself in the inscriptions now at Berlin >"\5t> TpD '' king of Yeri ".

The deity mentioned in this line is shown by the monuments to hâve been the chief divinity of Carchemish. It is doubtful whether the name is that of a god or of a goddess. If a god is intended, it is perhaps Sutekh, but, as an eagle forms the idéographie or symbolic part of the name, it is possible that the name is that of a goddess. The winged figure of the deity now in the British Muséum, to whichthe name apparently belongs, is too much broken to allow us to détermine the sex.

Line 2. The boot (kuwe or kue) means '' that which is below ", " the earth ", " under ". The ideograph of '' supremacy ", which foUows, seems to indicate the signification of the two characterîî to which it is prefixed. The second of thèse, however, may represent a tree, and the meaning of the phrase may be " under the shadow " or " protection ". Or, again, the boot hère may dénote " a servant ", '' a minister ", the phrase meaning " the minister of the ... of the god ".

The phonetic value of the ideograph which expresses the name of the god Sarus is obtained in this way. In J. i, 5, in a proper name, it takes the place of a sleeved glove, which is found instead of it in line 3 of the same inscription; in the same liniQ. the character which foUqws the sleeved glove interchanges with u-es, while, in line 2, both the sleeved glove and the chî^racter uea or u^ .are replaced by the closed hand. In one of M. Scï^umbçrger's seals (No. 6), the closed hand represents the medial élément in what seems to be the name of Saudursar-'We. Consequently the closed hand will hâve the phonetic value of sarwe or (in the nominative) sarus.

Line 3. The open hand can hardly hâve any other signification thaa that ot *' giving ". This conclusion is verified by J. i, 2, where we read " thegod . . . and .^ tarkus the high-priest hâve given ( — the open liand with the affix of plurality — ) images to A and B ". The côntext thus fixes the meaning of ne at the end of the préviens line, whiore it must signify *' to whom ".

Line 5. The ass's head must signify " and " in the phrase '' above and below"

îound in J. rv, fig. 4, line 4. Ueisihe usual word for ** and ": periiaps, therefore, the ass's head had the pronunciation of toe or wa.

The compound character which follows occurs in J. iv, fig. 3, line 2. Line 6. The group of characters I hâve translated doubtfully ** Hittite ftien " consists of two determinatives of '' personality ", the triangle which forms part of the name of the goddess Iskhara, and the numéral III, or " Hittite ". On one of M. Schlumberger's seals (No. 18), a title is expressed by the triangle and the numéral III, with the vowel e inserted between them, but without the determinatives of personality. On the other hand in J. i, 3, the two determinatives are prefixed to what resembles the seated figure of a god in the Egyptian hieroglyphs so closely, that I liave no hésitation in regarding it as the symbol of ** a divine image ". In the same inscription, J. i, line 5, we hâve the word *' high-priest " followed by the two determinatives of " personality ", the syllable ne, the gentille suffix, and the character which dénotes " a god ". The whole group must signify either '' descended from the gods ", or " belonging to the gods ". In any case, the two determinatives indicate " a class of persons ". Hence, since the numéral III represents the name of the " Hittite '\ it seems probable that the group of characters we are considering has some such gênerai signification as '' Hittite men "• Instead of etu-ne with the accusative sufiix we find in J. i, 4, etu-er with the suffix of the dative. The word always follows a substantive, the suffix of which it takes. I can think of no signification which willsuit its position, except that of the démonstrative pronoim. It may be noted that etîê seems to hâve the same sensé in Mitannian.

For kue or kuwe " imago " see my last article. The cross, which is prefixed to the phonetic complément kuwe, appears in J. i, 4, as a synonym of the cliaracter I hâve interpreted " divine image ".

In H. IV, 2 and v, 4, the place of the phonetically written word *' he orders " is taken by the ideograph of *' commanding " (an arm with a staff in the hand). In H. iv, 3, the staff appears without the arm at the end of the phonetically written word * ' to carye ", as is also the case with the proper name in H. v, 1, where the ideograph of '* speaking" (a face with a word issuing from the mouth) is further added to it.

Line 7. The signification of the character which represents a knife is fixed by the inscription of Malatiyeh (line 1), where we read kue. . , " knife " -Aru, " the image I carved ". The phonetic complément ne is frequently attached to the character, " knife " -ku, from which we may infer that the word expressed by it terminated in that syllable. For examples of it» occurreûce, see H. iv, 2, 3, y, 4, and flie pi^oper name which is found io the first line of the Hamath texts. Moreover , the name of the state over which the kmg of the Haomth texts ruled ia cotnposed of the knife, followed by the vowel e ^probably tiie sign of the genitive ca$e) ; then corne the two ideogcaphs of '' image " and ** seat ^. That thèse two ideographs do jîoI form part of tiie phonetic reading of the name is elear Irom H, v, 2, where the name is writtan without them. The ideographs împly that the city or state was a sacred one, reminding us of Kadesh on the Orontes.

The Word I bave rendered '' vaMaat '' is a conumon Utle ^see, e. g.^ H. i, !♦ aod

Merash i, 3). It is represented by an arm with the déterminât! ve of "personality " below it, and it is generally, tho' not al ways, preceded by the same determinative. The ideograph shows that some such idea must be implied as that which we find in the Egyptian nekht ^^ tfl.

J. I. 1. (D. P.) e-we us-u- ideograph of supremacy -e-es *-*-we-tar-ku- Says the prince ... we-tarkus

tarkus-es (D. P.) III -es (D. P.) -kus tas (?) kuwe-Z-ku-we-es e-er

the Hittite, the god-born : this image has been erected