ribed from one language into another with a tolerably close
retention of their original sounds. For example, the Greek names
_Ptolemaios_ and _Kleopatra_ became a part of the Egyptian language and
appeared regularly in Egyptian inscriptions after Alexander's general
became king of Egypt. Similarly, the Greek names _Kyros_, _Dareios_ and
_Xerxes_ were as close an imitation as practicable of the native names
of these Persian monarchs. Assuming, then, that the proper names found
in the Persian portion of the Behistun inscription occurred also in the
Assyrian portion, retaining virtually the same sound in each, a clue to
the phonetic values of a large number of the Assyrian characters was
obviously at hand. Phonetic values known, Assyrian was found to be a
Semitic language cognate to Hebrew.

These clues were followed up by a considerable number of investigators,
with Sir Henry Rawlinson in the van. Thanks to their efforts, the new
science of Assyriology came into being, and before long the message of
the Assyrian books had ceased to be an enigma. Of course this work was
not accomplished in a day or in a year, but, considering the
difficulties to be overcome, it was carried forward with marvellous
expedition. In 1857 the new scholarship was put to a famous test, in
which the challenge thrown down by Sir George Cornewall Lewis and Ernest
Renan was met by Rawlinson, Hincks, Oppert and Fox Talbot in a
conclusive manner. The sceptics had declared that the new science of
Assyriology was itself a myth: that the investigators, self-deceived,
had in reality only invented a language and read into the Assyrian
inscriptions something utterly alien to the minds of the Assyrians
themselves. But when a committee of the Royal Asiatic Society, with
George Grote at its head, decided that the translations of an Assyrian
text made independently by the scholars just named were at once
perfectly intelligible and closely in accord with one another,
scepticism was silenced, and the new science was admitted to have made
good its claims.

Naturally the early investigators did not fathom all the niceties of the
language, and the work of grammatical investigation has gone on
continuously under the auspices of a constantly growing band of workers.
Doubtless much still remains to be done; but the essential thing, from
the present standpoint, is that a sufficient knowledge of the Assyrian
language has been acquired to ensure trustworthy translations of