in the old times attached to them may be
matter almost of conjecture.

The Chaldaean characters are of three kinds-letters proper, monograms,
and determinatives. With regard to the letters proper, there is nothing
particular to remark, except that they have almost always a syllabic
force. The monograms represent in a brief way, by a wedge or a group of
wedges, an entire word, often of two or three syllables, as Nebo, Babil,
Merodach, etc. The determinatives mark that the word which they
accompany is a word of a certain class, as a god, a man, a country, a
town, etc. These last, it is probable, were not sounded at all when the
word was read. They served, in some degree, the purpose of our capital
letters, in the middle of sentences, but gave more exact notice of the
nature of the coming word. Curiously enough, they are retained
sometimes, where the word which they accompany has merely its phonetic
power, as (generally) when the names of gods form a part of the names
of monarchs.

It has been noticed already that the chief material on which the ancient
Chaldaeans wrote was moist clay, in the two forms of tablets and bricks.
On bricks are found only royal inscriptions, having reference to the
building in which the bricks were used, commonly designating its purpose,
and giving the name and titles of the-monarch who erected it. The
inscription does not occupy the whole brick, but a square or rectangular
space towards its centre. It is in some cases stamped, in some impressed
with a tool. The writing--as in all cuneiform inscriptions, excepting
those upon seals--is from left to right, and the lines are carefully
separated from one another. Some specimens have been already given.

The tablets of the Chaldaeans are among the most remarkable of their
remains, and will probably one day throw great additional light on the
manners and customs, the religion, and even, perhaps, the science and
learning, of the people. They are small pieces of clay, somewhat rudely
shaped into a form resembling a pillow, and thickly inscribed with
cuneiform characters, which are sometimes accompanied by impressions of
the cylindrical seals so common in the museums of Europe. The seals are
rolled across the body of the document, as in the accompanying figure.
[PLATE VII., Fig. 2.] Except where these impressions occur, the clay is
commonly covered on both sides with minute writing. What is most
curious, however, is that the documents th