Millburn Tower Edinburgh<1>
June 15 – 1863
Dear Sir
I am very much obliged to you for sending me your memoir published in the Atlantis, in which I find many interesting things. I agree with you in the main in your translations, but there are passages in which I differ from you, some of which I will pint out. I am much pleased with your version of the inscription of Tivumman, that he hid himself among the thorns, ikhlupu – The verb פלח appears to mean tegere in the phrases khallupti zabi khallupti kuzza, tegumenta militum, et equorum, and in takhlupti takabar, covered with copper. But I cannot admit in line 2 the reading mukh khutzu. I would read ilkhutzu “he was defeated.” from Heb. ץחל afflixit, oppressit, or if preferred ilakhutzu for euphony.
usually eli, is exchanged for il
in various passages ex. gr. Bellino’s Cylinder 56 (see his facsimile) the passage is, il sha as tami pani, more than in former days.
In plate 2 you give a passage from Sennacheribs war against the Tochari – line 1. the meaning I have given to shukti appears to me fully proved by a reference to line 69 immediately preceding – tsir shukti, the lofty summits, of the Nypur mountain or rather perhaps, upon the summits, of it. As to shakuti I have mislaid my other references to the word, but perhaps it is the Chald. adj. chaldean magnus celsus – Your explanation of the difficult lines 78-80 strikes me as very happy – But I would derive
isha’ha from one of the 3 verbs (all being cognate)
חוש subsidit
החש inclinavit se, se prostravit
חחש subsidit
the sense being “where my knees sunk down to rest” –
But I do not quite agree with you as to the next passage – The King is boasting that he shared all the hardships of the common soldier – He climbed on foot up high mountains – When tired he sat down upon some rock – And then he says “And to quench my thirst I drank
Mie or Mami}waters Ssuna or Zuna} cold adi [unto] Kassuti [freezing]
just as the Alpine traveller does in these days when thirsty and tired with climbing. Ssuna “cold” occurs elsewhere in the inscrns, and spelt as here with
for the first letter – It is the Chaldea Chaldean tsuna or zhuna frigidres, used of melting snow – The root of kassuti is Chald. Chaldean duzus fuit rigidus fuit – On the other hand I would observe that na’hadi means glorious (said of a prince) I doubt whether the epithet could be applied to water, but even if it could, the King is not here praising the mountain stream for its purity and abundance, but rather praising himself and telling us how gallantly he roughed it in the mountains.
I believe the Nypur range can be identified as one of the snowy chains, query some branch of the Caucasus or Hindoo Koosh? If the Toohari were near the Dah œ – and as you say the Dah œ were E or SE of the black sea, we might ascertain the position of Nypur –
Believe me Yours very Truly
H. F. Talbot
P.S. upon what evidence do you give the value min to the 2d sign of No 13? It occurs frequently with a general sense of greatness for example as an epithet of takhazi battle.
Notes:
1. Millburn Tower, Gogar, just west of Edinburgh; the Talbot family made it their northern home from June 1861 to November 1863. It is particularly important because WHFT conducted many of his photoglyphic engraving experiments there. The house had a rich history. Built for Sir Robert Liston (1742-1836), an 1805 design by Benjamin Latrobe for a round building was contemplated but in 1806 a small house was built to the design of William Atkinson (1773-1839), best known for Sir Walter Scott’s Abbotsford. The distinctive Gothic exterior was raised in 1815 and an additional extension built in 1821. Liston had been ambassador to the United States and maintained a warm Anglo-American relationship in the years 1796-1800. His wife, the botanist Henrietta Liston, née Marchant (1751-1828) designed a lavish American garden, sadly largely gone by the time the Talbots rented the house .