CRY'OPHORUS, from the Greek words кpúos (cold) and the root of pépw (to bear), is an instrument which was invented by Dr. Wollaston for the purpose of exhibiting the congelation of water in consequence of evaporation. It consists of a glass tube about nine inches long, bent near the two extremities, and terminating with hollow balls of the same material. One of these balls is about half full of distilled water, which being made to boil, the air is expelled, the tube together with the other ball becoming filled with aqueous vapour: in this state the tube is hermetically sealed. The expansive force of the vapour, by producing a pressure on the surface of the water, prevents any further evaporation from thence; but, on plunging the ball containing no water into a mixture of snow and salt, the vapour in the balls and tube is suddenly condensed and a vacuum is produced, when an evaporation immediately takes place from the water, and the latter, in two or three minutes, is converted into ice. CRYPT, a vaulted chamber, chiefly or entirely under ground. The term crypt is now almost exclusively applied to the vaults under churches and cathedrals; but as originally used, in reference to Roman buildings, it had a much more extended application, being employed for any low, narrow, underground vault. Thus, what would now be termed a tunnel, the carceres of a circus [CIRCUS], and even cloaca [CLOACUS], were called Crypte (from крUтew, to conceal). From forbidden rites or forms of worship being frequently performed in these underground chambers, they came to be commonly designated cryptic in reproach. The rites of Priapus were so spoken of; so also was the worship of the early Christians, who were accustomed to meet together in the catacombs of Rome [CATACOMBS] during the age of persecution. An arcade or portico enclosed at the side by a wall for protection from the sun and rain was called a Crypto-Porticus. The crypts constructed under the older churches and cathedrals were intended to serve as chapels, and for the performance of certain rites and services,-no doubt in commemoration of the fact of the practice of the early Christian Church in its time of suffering. They have also in many instances been used as places of sepulture, or receptacles of the monuments of the dead, as at the abbey of St. Denis. In the crypts of several English churches human bones are found piled up with great regularity, and without any more than a vague and often manifestly unfounded tradition of the date at which they were placed there. Instances of this kind occur at Hereford Cathedral, Ripon Minster, Hythe Church, Kent, Christchurch, Hampshire, &c. The vaulting in Norman, or Romanesque, and Gothic crypts is commonly supported on low massive columns and the basement walls of the church. Usually the crypt occupies but a part of the area of the church, usually the choir or chancel, but sometimes, as at Christchurch, one or both of the transepts. One of the largest and finest crypts in England is that under Canterbury Cathedral. [CHURCH.] In most of our cathedrals, and more important collegiate and parish churches, which have been rebuilt or enlarged at different times, the crypt is the oldest part of the structure. During the Norman period great attention was paid to the formation and enrichment of the crypt for the purposes of worship; but gradually it came to be regarded as of less and less importance, and no new ones appear to have been constructed after about the middle of the 13th century. One of the latest of these subterranean churches in England, the finest of its time, is that under Rochester Cathedral, which, with the choir, was rebuilt at the beginning of the 13th century. Several of the French and German Gothic churches have very fine crypts. CRYPTIDINE (CHN). An organic base found in coal tar. CRYSTALLISATION. When a liquid is about to assume the solid state, and by the gentle application of heat or by its slow withdrawal the particles are drawn very gradually under the influence of cohesion [ATTRACTION], they do not form a confused amorphous mass, but in many cases arrange themselves into geometrical solids of great beauty and symmetry. Thus, if a mass of sulphur or of bismuth be melted, and allowed to cool slowly, so as to form a crust over the surface, if this crust be pierced and the liquid portion poured out, the cavity will be studded, in the case of bismuth, with beautiful cubic forms, and in the case of sulphur, with six-sided prisms and needles. These forms are called crystals, and the process is termed crystallisation. For the forms of crystals, see CRYSTALLOGRAPHY, in NAT. HIST. Div. CUBE (xúẞos), a solid figure contained by six equal squares; a box of equal length, breadth, and depth. Owing to its being the most simple of solids, the cube is the measuring unit of solid content, as the square is that of superficial content, or area. Whatever the unit of length may be, the unit of solidity is the cube which is a unit every way: thus we have the cubic inch, the cubic foot, &c. Cubes of different sides are to one another as the algebraical third powers of the number of units in their sides: thus cubes which are as 7 to 10 in their sides are as 7 x 7 x 7 to 10 x 10 x 10 in their contents. Hence the algebraical third powers are called cubes; thus ax axa is called the cube of a. If the side of a cube contain a units, the content is a×a× a cubical units of the same kind. The cube has no remarkable properties, for our eyes are so used to the figure, that its properties seem self-evident. Its internal diagonals are found by multiplying the number of units in the side by √3, or (very nearly) by adding one half and one half of one half, and subtracting one per cent. of the result, and if still further accuracy be required, 5 for every 10,000 units : 2)10000 subtract 5 presently. 2) 5000 2500 17500 175 17325 5 17320 feet in the diagonal which is about six inches too small. For the celebrated historical problem connected with this article, see DUPLICATION OF THE CUBE. CUBEBENE (CH). An oily body isomeric with oil of cubebs, from which it is obtained by distillation with concentrated sulphuric acid. 34 16 CUBEBIN (C,.H8O10?). A non-azotised principle found in cubebs. It crystallises in groups of small needles, which are colourless and tasteless. It is only slightly soluble in cold water, alcohol, or ether, but is much more soluble in boiling alcohol. Concentrated sulphuric acid strikes a red colour with cubebin. CUBIT, a measure of length in use among the ancients, and more especially among the Jews. The Hebrews called it (amma), as the mother of other measures; the Greeks Пñxvs (péchus); the Romans Cubitus, a word apparently formed from the verb "cubo," to bend for the purpose of lying down. The cubit was originally the distance from the joint or bending of the elbow to the extremity of the middle finger. The best authorities assert that there were two cubits in use among the Hebrews; one sacred, the other common. In Deuteronomy, chap. iii. v. 11, the bed of Og is said to be nine cubits long and four broad, after the cubit of a man. The common cubit was eighteen inches; the sacred or great cubit (Ezek. xli. 8; and xliii. 5) of twenty-one inches, is stated to be a cubit and a hand-breadth. Calmet, however, is persuaded, that from the Exodus to the Babylonish captivity, there was but one cubit in use among the Hebrews, and then it was the Egyptian cubit. He says it is only after the captivity that Scripture notices two sorts of measures, to distinguish the old Hebrew cubit from that of Babylon, which the captives used during their abode in that city. On this, he adds, is grounded the precaution of Ezekiel, in observing that the cubit he is speaking of is the true old cubit, larger by a hand's breadth than the common cubit. There is no means of positively ascertaining the precise length of the cubit; the common cubit is stated to be 1 foot 9.888 inches, and a hand-breadth 3684, in the table of Scripture measures inserted in some editions of the authorised versions of the Bible. This of course is Ezekiel's cubit. Among the Greeks the cubit (péchus) was twenty-four fingers (dákтvλoi), measured as already explained. See Herodotus, ii. 175. (Arbutl.no, Tables of Coins, Weights,' &c.; and Calmet's Dict. of the Holy Bible,' in voce.) CUCKING STOOL, a machine formerly used for the punishment of scolding women, consisting of a stool or chair attached to the end of a long pole, mounted in such a manner that the chair, with the offender placed in it, might be swung over a pond, and immersed as often as might be necessary. Several notices of the use of this apparatus, which was also called a trebuchet, a tumbrel, or a duckin,-stool, are given in Brand's Popular Antiquities.' It appears to have been used as early as the era of the Saxon government in England, and to have been a common punishment, in some places at least, as late as the time of Gay, who mentions it in his 'Pastorals.' CUCUMBER, a trailing annual, whose unripe fruit is used for salads and pickles. [CUCUMIS.] Every gardener knows so much of the cultivation of this plant as to render any general description of the process unnecessary. We only notice a few points. The finest cucumbers are always obtained from shaded plants growing in a warm damp atmosphere, and therefore growing rapidly; this is exclusively owing to the ordinary action of solar light being prevented. Under bright light, evaporation goes on with great force from the surface of the cucumber plant, the quickness of growth is thus diminished, and the fruit is formed in a more solid manner than it otherwise would be, and thus its delicacy is impaired. The effect of direct light moreover is to cause the production of whatever secretions may be natural to a plant; the natural secretions of the cucumber are bitter; hence, the less cucumbers are exposed to direct light while growing, the less bitter, and consequently the more delicate they will be. This sufficiently explains the superiority of cucumbers forced quickly at the dull season of the year, to those produced naturally in the open ground in autumn. When it is an object to procure very fine and long fruit, the plant should not be allowed to bear early; all the female blossoms should be destroyed until the plant has become vigorous, and well rooted in the bed; a fruit set after that time, will grow much faster than one fertilised at an earlier time. The best sorts of cucumbers are, for gherkins, the Russian; for stewing, the large white Bonneuil; for large size, the Longford; and for ordinary forcing purposes, any of the long prickly sorts, whether black spined or white spined. The Smyrna, which is spineless, and a great bearer, is not in favour with gardeners, for what reason no one can tell. A small sort called the Sandy cucumber is grown in the fields in some parts of Bedfordshire, but it is altogether inferior to the Russian. A fine table cucumber should have no ribs, be perfectly straight, and the end next the stalk should be as thick as the other end. proved, on the other side, that they were the prototypes of the Protestant Presbyterians, and that their church polity was derived from the fountain-head of Christian truth, and communicated to modern times through the Lollards, before the Culdees were entirely extinguished. They have in this respect been compared with the Waldenses. The Culdees undoubtedly formed a part, if not the whole, of that early Scottish Church, which had established a different epoch for the celebration of Easter from the Western Church,-a subject subsequently productive of much dispute between the Scottish and English ecclesiastics. The ground on which the former maintained their own peculiar usages was, that they had been derived directly from the apostles, by whom, and not by the ecclesiastical representatives of St. Peter, the Church in Ireland had been planted. The practice of the Culdees seems to have so far coincided with the later monastic institutions, that they lived in retirement, practised abstinence, and made devotion and the administration of religious and charitable functions their chief pursuits. So far were they, however, from adopting a rule of celibacy, that marriage was practised and reckoned honourable among them. It is difficult to discover their precise polity. It has been found that they ordained bishops; but it farther appears that the persons bearing that name, instead of having any absolute authority over another class as Presbyters, were themselves under the authority of the president, or head of the establishment, as representof Scotland, many of them in the form of colleges, where they kept small libraries of manuscripts, and gave instruction to youth. Their principal establishments, besides that of Iona, were at Ŏronsay, Abernethy in Perthshire, the island of St. Serf in Lochleven, Dunkeld, St. Andrew's, and Monymusk in Aberdeenshire. Efforts have been made, though apparently without success, to identify these establishments with the episcopal dioceses, and to prove that each college or monastery, with its head and ordinary members, was virtually the dean and chapter of the diocese; but it is better supported that the first bishops were Culdees, and that they were elected from among the pastors by the votes of this body. The archiepiscopal see of St Andrew's appears to have owed its early predominance to the Culdees, who seem to have had considerable possessions in the neighbourhood. The great abbey of Arbroath is believed to have had a similar origin, and so is that of Melrose. Besides the dispute as to the holding of Easter, and the difference of opinion on the marriage of ecclesiastical persons, the Culdees had many subjects of dispute with the Romish hierarchy, from whose customs they seem to have diverged on the subject of auricular confession, and various others. They were at last obliged to give way before the waxing influence of the Church of Rome. St. Bernard describes the people as beasts and barbarians, who "neither pay tithes nor first fruits. They do not enter into lawful marriage; they do not go to confession; no one can be found who applies for the prescription of penance, nor any one who will prescribe it." The erection of the several bishoprics, under the patronage and countenance of the kings of Scotland, raised up powerful enemies to the Culdees who were within the respective territories allotted to them as dioceses, and the order was thus gradually incorporated with the Romish Church. CUDBEAR is a violet red powder used in dyeing wool and silk, to which it communicates various shades of brown and purple. It is pre-ing the community. The Culdees had establishments in various parts pared from the same lichens as archil [ARCHIL] and litmus [LITMUS]; for a list of them see LICHENS, Colouring matters of. They are first reduced to a pulp with water, and then treated with ammoniacal liquor from gas-works, or with stale urine to which lime has been added to set free ammonia, constant agitation being kept up in order that the whole may be well exposed to the air. The expressed liquor is either sent into commerce under the name of archil, sometimes called liquid cudbear; or thickening materials, such as chalk, plaster of Paris, &c., are added to it, and it is then dried, powdered, and sold as cudbear, or less frequently as persio. The colouring matters of cudbear consist of some very beautiful crystalline compounds. [LICHENS, Colouring matters of.] Cudbear derives its name from Dr. Cuthbert Gordon, who first made it an article of trade in this country, at the commencement of the present century. CUIRASS or CUIRASSE, a piece of defensive armour, made of plate well hammered, serving to cover the body from the neck to the girdle, both before and behind; the front called the breast-, the hiuder part the back-plate; these were fastened to each other by straps, buckles, hooks, or some other contrivance. The name is supposed to be derived from Curatia or Curassa, a Latin word of the middle age, which occurs in charters at least as early as the 14th century (Meyrick's Glossary of Military Terms'), originally derived from the French cuir or the Latin corium, "a hide," the earliest cuirasses being made of leather, though afterwards chiefly of metal, both brass and iron. This species of armour was known to the Greeks and Romans. A breast- and back-plate of Roman workmanship are preserved among the Hamiltonian antiquities in the British Museum, which, when worn, appear to have been held together by strings or wires, fastened to nipples in front. In later ages the cuirass was disused, and was not revived in Europe till about the beginning of the 14th century. In England it was disused after the reign of Charles II., except in one instance; but has of late years been revived for our cavalry. The cuirass was stated, in Col. Lygon's evidence before a committee of the House of Commons on army and navy appointments, in 1833, to have been introduced as a part of the accoutrements of the Life-Guards within the preceding twelve years. To a question, "Can you state what was the purchasecost per man of the cuirass?" he answered, "I apprehend they cost nothing; they have been lying in the Tower for years, and were worn at the battle of Dettingen." In the Romish calendar, under October 14, we find the name of St. Dominic, who is called loricatus or the cuirassed, a title given to a saint of the 11th century, who constantly wore an iron cuirass next to his skin. CUIRASSIERS, heavy cavalry armed with cuirasses. Most of the German powers, especially the emperor of Austria and the king of Prussia, have regiments of cuirassiers. They also form a portion of the French cavalry. In England we have no regiments which go by this denomination, although what are called the life-guards now wear the cuirass. [CUIRASS.] CULDEES, the name of a religious order in Scotland, Ireland, and the north of England, whose origin may be dated from the middle of the 6th century. The information regarding their origin is chiefly derived from the memoirs of their founder Columba. Their gradual absorption, by the spread of the Roman hierarchy in Scotland, is shown very clearly in the chartularies and other muniments of the episcopal sees and abbacies in Scotland. There have been so many etymologies of the word Culdee, and they are all so purely hypothetical, that it would be a useless effort to attempt a comparative judgment on them. Unfortunately, the history and institutions of the Culdees have been the subject of dispute between the supporters of the Episcopal and those of the Presbyterian form of church polity: the one maintaining that this primitive body were a mere collection of monastic institutions connected with the Catholic hierarchy; while it is endeavoured to be ARTS AND SCI. DIV. VOL. III. (Jamieson, Historical Account of the Ancient Culdees of Iona, and of their Settlements in Scotland, England, and Ireland, 4to, Edinb. 1811; Maccallum, History of the Culdees, 12mo, Edinb. 1855; Keith, Catalogue of Scottish Bishops.) CULMINATION (culmen, the summit of a thing). A star culminates, or comes to its highest point, at the moment when it is on the meridian. [TRANSIT; MERIDIAN.] CULVERIN. [ARTILLERY.] CUMENE. [CUMINIC ACID.] CUM-EUGENYL. [CARYOPHILLIC ACID.] CUMINIC ACID (C20H120,). Cuminic acid and its derivatives form a group of bodies which are entirely homologous with the benzoic acid group. Cuminic Aldehyde, Hydride of Cumyl, Cuminol (C2H1202 C20H1102H). This body, which is the starting point for the preparation of most of the cuminic derivatives, exists in a free state in the etherial oil of cumin (Cuminum cyminum), along with a hydrocarbon cymole. When this oil is treated with an alkaline bisulphite, a crystalline compound of the aldehyde with the bisulphite is formed, and this compound, freed from foreign substances by pressure between bibulous paper, yields on subsequent treatment with potash, hydride of cumyle. When pure, hydrate of cumyl is a colourless or slightly yellow liquid, with a strong odour of cumin, and a bitter acrid taste. It boils at 428° F. Exposed to the air, or still more rapidly when treated by oxidising agents, it assimilates oxygen, and becomes converted into cuminic acid. Treated by potassium, hydrogen is liberated, and cumylide of potassium (C2H,,KO,) is formed. 12 Cuminic Acid (C2H12OHO,C,H,,O). When hydride of cumyle or oil of cumine is dropped on fused hydrate of potash, hydrogen is liberated, and cuminate of potash is formed : When the fused mass is dissolved in water and decomposed by hydrochloric acid, the cuminic acid is precipitated, and after crystallisation from alcohol is obtained in the form of beautiful colourless plates. It is a monobasic acid; its salts have the general formula CH, MO. They are of little importance. When cuminic acid is treated with nitric acid there is formed, according as the action is modified, nitrocuminic acid (C2H,,(NO)0), or binitrocuminic acid (CH(NO,),0,). By the action of pentachloride of phosphorus, the chloride of cumyl (С20H110,,¤l) is formed :CH1102, Cl + HCl + PO2 Clg Chloride of Cumyl. C20H120 PC, Cuminic ނނ = Pentachloride Oxychloride of phosphorus. acid. of phosphorus. This is a colourless liquid, which fumes in moist air, and boils at 493° F. By water it is decomposed into hydrochloric acid and cuminic acid, and by ammonia into cuminamide (C2HO2=N H CH Cuminamide is also formed when cuminate of ammonia is distilled. It resembles benzamide. 13 H Anhydrous cuminic acid (CH,,O,), is formed by the action of chloride of cumyl on cuminate of soda. It closely resembles the corresponding benzoic compound. Cumole (CH), Hydride of Cumenyl, Cumene, is formed when cuminic acid is distilled with excess of caustic baryta : C20H1202 + 2BaO = 2BaO CO2 + C18H12 Cuminic acid. Baryta. Carbonate of Cumole. It also exists in coal-tar naphtha, from which it is separated by fractional H This alcohol is a colourless liquid, with a feeble aromatic odour, and an acrid taste. It is insoluble in water; it boils at 470° F. Like its homologue, benzoic alcohol, with which it has great similarity, it has all the properties of an alcohol. It decomposes under the influence of re-agents into products analogous to those furnished by ordinary alcohol, the difference being that from the greater complexity of the molecule it is more difficult to produce these changes. CUMINOL. [CUMINIC ACID.] CUMOLE. [CUMINIC ACID.] CUMONITRILE (CHN). This body, which is the cyanide of cumenyl (C,,H,,Cy), is obtained by heating cuminate of ammonia. It is a colourless oily body, of an agreeable odour. CUMYL (CHO). The hypothetical radical of cuminic acid. [CUMINIC ACID.] Y CUMYL-SALICYLAMIDE (C,,H,,NO). A crystalline amide obtained by the action of chloride of cumyl upon salicylamide. [AMIDES.] CUNEIFORM or CUNEATIC. These words, as well as arrow-headed, nail-headed, and wedge-formed, describe the oldest written characters used in the country about the Tigris and Euphrates, and subsequently in Persia. All refer to the strokes or elements of the characters which were thought by travellers who saw the tablets on which they were inscribed, to represent wedges or the heads of nails or arrows: they vary from a neatly formed stroke like this to a clumsy triangular wedge. There are two distinct alphabets made up of these wedges or arrow-heads; the older one, called the Assyrian or Babylonian, consists of more than two hundred characters, in which the wedges are placed horizontally, perpendicularly, and obliquely, often crossing each other in all directions; the oblique wedge frequently becomes an angular hook, from the lengthening of one side of the head: thus, becomes and at length The Babylonian differs from the Assyrian little more than the handwriting of one man from that of another. The more recent alphabet was used in Persia; it consisted of thirty-six letters only, the strokes were all horizontal or perpendicular, and with one exception they were never made to cross each other. This second alphabet is very distinctly formed in all the cases that have come down to us, no one letter is at all doubtful, and the words are separated from each other by an oblique stroke. Of the above alphabets the older one appears on monuments dating at least twenty centuries before the Christian era, and documents are found written with it which come down to the time when Alexander's successors were ruling in Western Asia. In that long interval it underwent many modifications, which greatly disguise its identity; but a careful investigation will show that the characters do not differ more than the Roman, Italic, and old English types now in use; not so much as the variously contorted letters we see occasionally, intended by their contrivers to be ornamental. This alphabet was used in writing at least four different languages, only one of which has been studied to any great extent; it is a most cumbrous alphabet, almost equalling the Egyptian in clumsiness and imperfection. The other alphabet was used in the Persian empire only, where it appears to have been introduced by the elder Cyrus, and it is found in documents of the time of Artaxerxes Ochus; it lasted, therefore, a couple of centuries, from 540 B.c. to 340 B.C. This was a true alphabet of thirty-six letters; it is easily read, the words are separated, there is very little variety of form in the letters, and it was used solely for the It may be said that there is a third alphabet, the one used in the so-called Scythic inscriptions of Persia, but this is really a modification of the first mentioned Assyrian alphabet; it is somewhat simplified, and it rejects the more complex forms. So far as we know, it was employed solely for the Scythic versions of the inscriptions of the Achemænian dynasty; and its duration was also from the reign of Cyrus to that of Artaxerxes Ochus. principal language of the Persian empire. These three kinds of writing almost without exception are found together, in the inscriptions of the Achemanian period, in the Persian the three languages and alphabets. The writing upon the highest or empire; all such monuments contain the same notice or statement in be inclined to call it the Median writing, as being in the language of most prominent tablet is called universally the first kind; we should the most numerous and civilised of the inhabitants of the Persian empire, if the Median name had not hopelessly yielded to that of the Persians, the energetic race of the province of Persis, who imposed their rule upon Media, in the same way as the energetic German Franks place on the monuments is that modification of Assyrian used for a imposed their own national denomination over all Gaul. The next in and Scythic; the language may have been that of the province of Persis, Turanian language; it is called "the second kind," as well as Median and placed so high on the inscriptions as being the tongue of the native province of Cyrus. The third in place is the Babylonian; the language of the most literary portion of the Persian empire, which was necessary for the dissemination of a knowledge of the inscriptions over its western provinces. The employment of this version has proved the stepping-stone to the decipherment of the Assyrian language and character, almost identical with Babylonian, without which we are confident that the relics of Assyrian literature, found in such abundance within these few years, could never have been by any possibility understood. All the early accounts of cuneiform inscriptions refer to the monuments of Persia; they were all visible, and in lofty places, while those of Assyria were buried among the ruins of cities, luckily far out of reach, to be found at the very moment when only could there be any hope of ascertaining their value, when a few learned scholars had succeeded, after thirty years' labour, in reading the easier monuments which were to give a clue to the intelligence of the more mysterious relics now coming into view. All attempts at decipherment had been confined, with hardly an exception, to the first kind of writing, until the labours of Layard and Botta, in and about the mounds of the long-lost, almost fabulous Nineveh, brought to the knowledge of Europe the vast treasures of Assyrian civilisation, and, in the majority of instances, not only the knowledge of their existence, but the monuments themselves; not only the great advertisements posted up on the walls of the empire, as in Persia, but thousands of the books intended to be consulted in the study. These books are closely written slabs of dried clay, from a pocket edition of two inches by one and a-half, or even less, to a quarto slab of eight inches by six. We frequently find also, barrel-shaped masses of terra-cotta, from four to seven inches long, and six to ten inches in circumference; and when the document was larger it was written on a prism of six, eight, or ten sides. from twelve to twenty inches long; one has been found in fragments, which may through their length, as though intended to be mounted like a roller, have been more than thirty inches long. These prisms had a hole and turned round to present its sides in succession to the reader. The writing on all these terra-cotta books is small, from six to ten lines in which sixteen at least might be included in an inch. The long-during an inch, but some words are occasionally much smaller, like notes, of burial of these oldest specimens of literary labour, while it has for so many centuries kept from the world such abundant sources of our knowledge of ancient history, has done us the great service of preserving these fragile relics in as perfect a condition as they were in when first buried under the ruins of Assyria; many of them are as fresh as when they came from the hands of the moulder, with the burred edge made by the writing-tool upon the soft clay still perfectly visible. Some of the most fragile and ill-baked records that may hardly be touched without damage, have nevertheless reached us quite perfect; while others much harder have been so rubbed as to be half unintelligible. The barrels and prisms have, in many instances, been found in excellent condition, and even when broken are complete and easily mended; but most unfortunately the slabs, with the exception of the very smallest, are all broken in pieces with obvious design, so that not one is entire, and although the fragments have been carefully looked over, and all those cemented which were found to fit, yet scarcely a single specimen has been completed. Further research will probably bring to light many missing fragments, but the work cannot be trusted to those who have not made some study of the language, and these are more congenially employed in reading what is before them, than in the tedious labour of searching through heaps of dusty fragments, often finding nothing after hours of toil. The first notices of cuneiform inscriptions, so far as the writer is cognisant, were brought to Europe by Pietro della Valle about 250 years ago; and towards the close of the 17th century, Tavernier and Kæmpfer published some imperfect specimens, which were followed by those of Chardin a few years afterwards. The first publication of a connected inscription was made by Le Brun or Bruyn, at Amsterdam in 1714; in the compartment numbered 131 of a large plate in his second volume at page 272, he gives in the three languages the inscription of Xerxes, marked C by Lassen, and 17 by Rawlinson, who has translated it at page 337 of his Memoir.' In 132 he has Rawlinson's No. 2, a very short inscription of Darius; but the commencing letters of each line are omitted: in 133 he gave some unconnected lines from more than one inscription, some in each of the three languages, but all imperfect; and in 134, the window inscription of Darius which had also been printed by Kæmpfer and Chardin. Most of these engravings of Le Brun may now be readily understood, although they contained many errors which would have sadly misled a decipherer. The first really good copies of the Achemænian monuments were published by Niebuhr a century ago, and these constituted the basis of all the investigations made with a view to decipherments up to the time when Colonel Rawlinson copied the great Behistun inscription, now twenty-five years ago, giving an impulse to the study of these monuments, which has resulted in such brilliant success. Niebuhr's copies were before the world half a century before any reasonable attempt was made to ascertain their tenor; and it is somewhat amusing now to run over the guesses made by really learned men: the most moderate believed they were mere ornaments carved at the caprice of the architect; one savant decided that they were charms or talismans; another read in them passages from the Koran; a third found great mysteries connected with magic and astrology. The first step made in the right direction was by Professor Grotefend, of Hanover, who collated a series of names, which there was good reason to believe to be those of the Achæmenian kings of Persia. Grotefend thus identified the names of Darius, Xerxes, and Hystaspes, and the substantives, "king" and "son;" and if he had possessed a competent knowledge of Sanscrit, he would in all probability have carried his decipherments, in a very short time, to the point which was not reached by the united efforts of Burnouf and Lassen till 1836. As an instance of sagacity defeated by want of knowledge, we may mention that the word "son," in Sanscrit putra, was read bun, because he was told told that the term buns was current with this meaning in India. Buns was the Bengalee mode of pronouncing the Sanscrit vansa, a family;" the wrong application of n was for a long time a source of error, and it was not till 1838 and 1839, that Rawlinson and Lassen discovered the true reading of putra. Some twenty years after Grotefend's first step, Mons. St. Martin made an advance in reading the name of Hystaspes Vishtaspa, which Grotefend had made Goshtaspa. A more important step was made by Rask three years after, in a pamphlet printed at Copenhagen in 1826; he made known the nasals m and n, showed the accusative case ending in 2, and the genitive plural in anām; and it would seem, might have enabled a good Sanscrit scholar to read everything which the Achemanians had left behind them; but so slow was the progress made, perhaps from the little confidence felt by scholars in what had been already discovered, that nothing of value was made known for ten years after this, when Burnouf and Lassen independently published their readings of one of Niebuhr's inscriptions, pl. xxxi., containing the enumeration of the Satrapies of the Persian empire; a list of twenty-three names, which are among those given by Herodotus; this list had already in 1832 been imperfectly rendered by Grotefend. In 1838, two years subsequent to those important publications, Col. Rawlinson sent from Teheran to the Royal Asiatic Society his first communication on the inscrip tion of Behistun, a great part of which he had copied with much difficulty and some danger. This communication, which was dated January 1, 1838, contained a transcript in Roman characters, with a translation, of the commencing paragraphs of that inscription, and every letter was read as now admitted by the common consent of all who have studied the subject. This was a promising essay, which was followed by details on the alphabet, and a précis of the contents of the inscription of Behistun. But the Affghan war compelled Col. Rawlinson to leave the scene of his peaceful labours, and nothing from him appeared in print until eight years afterwards, except very brief notices in the Athenæum' and 'Literary Gazette,' and in the annual * At length, in 'Reports of the Royal Asiatic Society's Proceedings.' the year 1846, the Royal Asiatic Society issued a volume containing the whole of the Behistun inscription, in fac-simile, together with a very complete analysis and literal translation, accompanied by copies and versions of all the Persian inscriptions which were then known to exist; to which very few additions have been made since. This volume contains also a general history of the discovery and decipherment, and a detailed memoir on the alphabet. While the work was yet printing, a letter was read from Col. Rawlinson, dated at Bagdad, August 26th, containing an additional chapter, in which the colonel communicated his discovery of inherent vowels in the letters of the alphabet, the effect of which was to bring the grammatical forms of the ancient Persian into the closest analogy with those of Zend and Sanscrit, and to remove the many anomalies attending the mode of transcription hitherto adopted. This was an important discovery for the philologist, though it added little, if anything, to the intelligence of the inscriptions; and it is a curious fact, that the same discovery was made simultaneously by the Rev. Dr. Hincks, of Killyleagh, in Ireland; a gentleman who has distinguished himself by very great acumen in all the varieties of cuneiform writing. This volume exhausted the subject of the Persian writing, and satisfied the learned that the decipherment rested on a secure foundation. The inscriptions were republished in the following year at Leipzig, by Professor Benfey, with Col. Rawlinson's versions translated into German, accompanied by a vocabulary; together with an introduction, in which the learned professor expresses himself with warm commendation of the sagacity and learning displayed by Col. Rawlinson in this valuable work. There remained now the second or Scythian kind, and the far more important Babylonian, which was to lead us to an understanding of the very ancient and not then discovered literature of Assyria. It may be of some interest to show what is the historical result of these discoveries in the easiest and first found, but chronologically the latest cuneiform alphabet. We proceed to do it very briefly. The oldest inscription is one of Cyrus, repeated four times on the ruined pillars of Pasargada; it says simply, "I am Cyrus, the Achemænian." Darius has one still shorter, without the epithet, and seven of various lengths from half a dozen to sixty lines, besides the important monument of Behistun. All those of any length contain invocations to Ormuzd, and two have lists of the provinces of Persia, the latest of which in date, engraved on the tomb of Darius, included a number of names omitted in the former; probably recent annexations. Of Xerxes, the son of Darius, there are eight inscriptions, the longest having thirty lines, all of similar purport to the smaller monuments of Darius. One of Artaxerxes Mnemon was discovered at Susa after the publication of Col. Rawlinson's memoir. It contained five long lines, but it was imperfect. In this monument the king records the placing of the statues of Anaitis and Mithra in the temple of Ormuzd, and he invokes the protection of the three deities. A much longer inscription of thirty-five lines was erected by Artaxerxes Ochus, who, after the usual invocation to Ormuzd, details his pedigree up to Arshama the father of Hystaspes. It is curious that this inscription, as well as that of Mnemon, is full of gross errors of grammar, showing that the language had greatly deteriorated in the course of a century and a half, or what some may think more probable, that the language of the inscriptions was already a learned language in the earlier times of the monarchy, and that the study of it had not been kept up. The writer is inclined to believe that the old Median language had been affected by the Persian conquest; the verbal forms are not much damaged, but cases and declensions are in hopeless confusion. The difference between the styles of Darius and Artaxerxes, is as great as that found between the Anglo-Saxon of the 11th century, and the language of the century following the Norman conquest. A smaller inscription of Artaxerxes was also found at Susa, and another is in the Treasury of St. Mark, at Venice, on a vase, where it is repeated in Seythic and Babylonian, and also in regular Egyptian hieroglyphics. The great inscription of Behistun deserves a separate notice. Its position is 300 feet from the foot of the rock, where it could not have been engraved without scaffolding; the face of the stone was carefully smoothed, and in unsound or defective places other pieces were artistically laid in, and fastened with molten lead; so nicely is this done, that according to Col. Rawlinson, "very careful scrutiny is required at present to detect the artifice." The engraving is executed in letters above an inch long, with an elegance and uniformity almost unequalled, and the whole surface was afterwards covered with a siliceous glaze of extraordinary hardness, very much of which remains on the rock, while portions that have become detached are still found in masses on the ledge at the foot. Darius begins his inscription by tracing up his genealogy to the eponym of his family, and then enumerates the 23 provinces of his empire. He recapitulates the murder of Smerdis by his brother Cambyses, the death of Cambyses, the insurrection of Gumata (the Cometes of Justin), his death, and his own accession to the throne. We have in this the narrative of Herodotus, without the romantic stories detailed by the credulous or imaginative Greek. The first care of Darius was to restore the national worship which Gumata had neglected. While thus occupied, a revolt broke out in Susiana, and almost simultaneously another in Babylon under the conduct of a man whom Darius calls a pretender, assuming the renowned name of Nebuchadnezzar. The first revolt was easily quelled by the generals of Darius; that of Babylonia yielded only to the presence of the monarch, who after two successful battles followed the pretender to Babylon, and slew him there. While still in Babylon nine provinces took the opportunity of rising, from Assyria in the north to Egypt in the south, and even his own native Persis was one of the rebellious districts. The latter was easily quelled; but six battles were fought with very partial success against the insurgent Medes and Assyrians, who were not subdued until Darius himself took the field: he fought a battle with the Median chief, who was named Phraortes, at a place called Gundrus, and put him to flight. Phraortes escaped to Rhages, where he was captured, and brought to Darius, who cruelly tortured him, and subsequently put him to death at Ecbatana. The next insurrection was in Sagartia, but the leader of the revolt, who assumed, like Phraortes, to be of the royal race of Media, was soon defeated, and put to death, after torture, at Arbela. Another revolt followed in Parthia, which was subdued by Hystaspes, the father and lieutenant of Darius, after two engagements, in the second of which he was aided by troops which his son supplied. A province of Bactria then raised the standard of rebellion, but this was quelled in one battle by Dadarses the satrap of Bactria. And now another false Smerdis arose in Persis, who gave Darius much more trouble; he made a diversion by despatching troops to Arachosia, who excited that province to revolt also. Five battles were fought, two in Persis, and three in Arachosia, in none of which Darius was present, although he appears to have been in that part of the empire. Finally the rebellion was quelled, and the chiefs were captured and put to death. In the mean time Babylon revolted again under an Armenian, who, like the former insurgent, took the name of Nebuchadnezzar, but he was defeated by the general of Darius, and crucified in Babylon.* Here the historical part of the inscription ends, and the monument was probably erected during the period of tranquillity which ensued; but it appears froin a short column subsequently added, which is very much damaged, that another revolt broke out in Susiana, which was quelled by Gobryas, the general of Darius; and again another among the Scythians on the Tigris. The closing column of the inscription is filled with the names of the defeated rebels, whom Darius here calls kings, with asseverations of the truth of the record, a considerable amount of self-glorification, and blessings and curses invoked on the preservers and destroyers of the monument respectively; the whole concludes with the names of the six men who assisted in the death of the Magian, the false Smerdis, and a recommendation of their descendants to the monarch's Buccessor. We have much less to say of the second branch of the subject; historically, nothing; as the contents of the inscriptions are merely translations of those above described. The first treatise upon these inscriptions specially, by Westergaard, was published in the Transactions of the Northern Antiquaries of Copenhagen,' in 1845. This was a very careful analysis of all that had been then published, and considering the limited materials at his disposal, it is a monument of the learned Dane's sagacity. The memoir of Norris, published in the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal, in 1853, had the advantage of a greatly increased quantity of material, Sir Henry Rawlinson having placed at the writer's disposal the paper casts of the great inscription of Behistun, which enabled him to show the value of many characters not ascertained previously: out of 105 characters he found the approximate sound of 84, and in most of these he agrees with Westergaard. In regard to the language, Norris's opinion was, that it belongs to the Turanian division; and he was inclined to look upon it as more like the Ugrian branch than any other, although agreeing here and there in its vocables rather with Mongol or Turk. The Turanian division of languages includes a very large number of tongues, with far greater differences than those found in the Indo-Germanic or Semitic families in their largest extent, and any features in which all agree are rather negative than positive. Norris suggests, in p. 52, that the cuneiform system was invented by a Scythic nation, which seems to be confirmed by the discovery of the præ-Semitic inscriptions of Nineveh, and by the investigations of Oppert. He also gives some reasons, in p. 205, for a supposition that the natives of the province of Persis were Scyths; possibly they spoke the language of the inscriptions of the second kind, which may have been adopted by Cyrus in preference to the dialects of the other barbarous tribes of the empire, because it was that of his native province. Norris suggested that the dialect was that of Susiana, but nearly all the inscriptions found in Susa are in a different though probably allied language. The value of this part of the investigation is merely philological; unless it may by-and-bye afford a clue to the other languages which we It is curious that, after mentioning a battle, the Babylonian version always records the numbers of the killed and taken; a particular neglected by the less mathematical Medes and Persians. The love of calculation was certainly active in the Babylonians, and was more beneficially directed in their astronomical labours. find written in cuneiform characters, and it may even aid in deciphering the præ-Semitic Turanian tablets, which reach to 2000 B.C. We now come to the Assyrian or Babylonian inscriptions, a branch of the inquiry quite unnoticed when the subject was first studied, but which now, from the great number of relics found, and their far more ancient date, extending to a period when all profane history is silent, has arrived at dimensions that have thrown all the rest into the shade. The brilliant results of the researches in and about Nineveh have been already mentioned, and we have spoken of the very large numbers of earthen blocks and slabs brought home, the principal vehicle for the literary labours of the Assyrians, nothing having been found in any way resembling parchment or paper. There is no doubt, however, that something of the sort existed; perhaps leather skins; we find in several bas-reliefs now in the British Museum, which represent the enumeration of things required to be numbered, such as the cattle passing through the gate of a city, or the more favourite occupation of counting a heap of heads cut off from the king's enemies,-two men pictured with writing materials in their hands, one of them having a little slab with a pointed tool digging into its surface, and the other usually provided with a flexible roll, the end hanging loosely down, upon which he is obviously writing with ink-no doubt checking his companion. The contemporary records of the Bible show the same usage. Isaiah, viii. 1, mentions a roll for writing; and in xxxiv. 4, the rolling of a book is alluded to. Of the etymology of these words, from a verb signifying to roll, there is no doubt; about the ink of Jeremiah (xxxvi. 18), and the inkhorn of Ezekiel (ix. 2), there is less certainty, although the usual acceptation of the words is probably the right one. The decipherment of the third class of cuneiform inscriptions is due mainly to the sagacity of Sir Henry Rawlinson, though much has been done by Dr. Hincks and Mons. Oppert. Sir Henry was favourably placed at Bagdad for making himself acquainted with the inscriptions found by Layard, which passed through his hands on their way to England; he had a critical knowledge of the Arabic language, and he was not unacquainted with the other Semitic tongues. As soon as he saw the value of the new discoveries which Layard and Botta were copiously bringing to light, he quitted the study of the first branches of the investigation, now almost exhausted, and plunged eagerly into the new mine. In spite of all the difficulties attending the clumsy and enigmatical Assyrian mode of writing, which can hardly be called an alphabet, he made rapid way, aided by the unfortunately muchdamaged version of the Behistun inscription in the Babylonian language and character, which were sufficiently like the Assyrian to enable a philologer to make his first steps with confidence. Into the details of the decipherment this is not the place to enter. Colonel Rawlinson's memoir, containing his analysis of a considerable portion of the great Babylonian inscription, was printed in 1851 by the Royal Asiatic Society. This still awaits completion; but enough is given there to enable a man with a good knowledge of Semitic languages, Hebrew especially, to read many passages in any historical monument. It has already in this country enabled Mr. Fox Talbot to translate nearly the whole of the annals of Tiglath Pileser I., and some portions of the hieratic slab of Nebuchadnezzar which was presented to the East India Company in the beginning of this century. The frequent admixture of the forms and words of the ancient race who preceded the Assyrians in the lands watered by the Tigris and Euphrates, the probable inventors of this mode of writing, concur with the clumsy adaptation of the alphabet to puzzle the most learned and energetic investigator in many places. The number of vocabularies found in the ruins of palaces, upon which the ancient Turanian words are explained in ordinary Assyrian, shows that the difficulty was felt twenty-six or twenty-seven centuries ago, when the language was vernacular: we may expect to find it greater now. The difficulties are gradually diminishing, but much remains to be done; and the very fragmentary condition of the vocabularies found will perhaps render a complete knowledge of Assyrian impossible. But we do not despair; the first part of the Corpus Inscriptionum,' compiled by Sir Henry Rawlinson, and printed at the cost of government, is already completed, comprising 70 large sheets of monuments, chiefly historical, beginning with the stamped bricks of the ancient Turanian monarchs of twenty centuries before the Christian era, and proceeding downwards to the annals of the successors of Nebuchadnezzar. A second part is in preparation, which will contain vocabularies, mathematical tables, astronomical observations and calendars, mythological tablets, lists of dynasties, descriptions of countries, rivers, and mountains, classified lists of animals, and a great variety of miscellaneous matter. the united efforts of some dozen patient and energetic learned men shall be brought to bear upon this mass of material, we may hope that every thing will be discovered which is not really impossible. When A good many Assyrian inscriptions have been found in the hieratic character, which diverges from the ordinary form much in the same way that the various monkish forms called Gothic, Old English, &c., differ from the Roman type. These would have formed a more serious difficulty but for the discovery of a fragment, now in the British Museum, which was very accurately engraved and published by Ker Porter. This proved to be, so far as it went, a copy in cursive character of the great inscription of Nebuchadnezzar, engraved in the complex hieratic character. Three of the inscriptions in the volume |