r Delitzsch, the number of kings composing the
dynasty is stated on the tablet to be twenty-one, and not thirty-one as
was formerly read, and the number of lost lines exactly corresponds with
this figure. The first of the kings reigned thirty-six years, and he
had a predecessor belonging to the previous dynasty whose name has been
lost. There would consequently have been two Elamite usurpers instead of
one.

I would further draw attention to an interesting text, published by
Mr. Strong in the _Babylonian and Oriental Record_, which I believe to
contain the name of a king who belonged to the legendary dynasties of
Chaldaea. This is Samas-natsir, who is coupled with Sargon of Accad and
other early monarchs in one of the lists. The legend, if I interpret it
rightly, states that "Elam shall be altogether given to Samas-natsir;"
and the same prince is further described as building Nippur and Dur-ilu,
as King of Babylon and as conqueror both of a certain Baldakha and of
Khumba-sitir, "the king of the cedar-forest." It will be remembered that
in the Epic of Gil-games, Khumbaba also is stated to have been the lord
of the "cedar-forest."

But of new discoveries and facts there is a constant supply, and it
is impossible for the historian to keep pace with them. Even while the
sheets of his work are passing through the press, the excavator, the
explorer, and the decipherer are adding to our previous stores of
knowledge. In Egypt, Mr. de Morgan's unwearied energy has raised as it
were out of the ground, at Kom Ombo, a vast and splendidly preserved
temple, of whose existence we had hardly dreamed; has discovered
twelfth-dynasty jewellery at Dahshur of the most exquisite workmanship,
and at Meir and Assiut has found in tombs of the sixth dynasty painted
models of the trades and professions of the day, as well as fighting
battalions of soldiers, which, for freshness and lifelike reality,
contrast favourably with the models which come from India to-day. In
Babylonia, the American Expedition, under Mr. Haines, has at Niffer
unearthed monuments of older date than those of Sargon of Accad. Nor
must I forget to mention the lotiform column found by Mr. de Morgan in
a tomb of the Old Empire at Abusir, or the interesting discovery made by
Mr. Arthur Evans of seals and other objects from the prehistoric sites
of Krete and other parts of the AEgean, inscribed with hieroglyphic
characters which reveal a new system of writing that must at one ti