Brompton,
17^th Dec^r 1863

Dear Sir,

I should have replied to your note^<1> before this, but have been very busy at my office, which has not allowed me on hour’s leisure. you do not cite the paper where you find “in minhiya ushatir” further than “the R[?]ses of Sargina’s slabs,” and just now I do not remember what or where they are. I should like to quote the passage in my dictionary;^<2> I have very few of Sargina’s words yet; in fact I began to prepare for publishing too soon before I had carefully studied all the inscriptions, being weary of continuing to accumulate without something like a result; but I still continue adding. My idea is to stick to the alphabetical mode excepting in verbs, and even in them I should put all the forms in cases where the root was not obvious. I propose putting in cuneiform, roman, and verbal translation. I have got nuhhi in the Blackstone, but am inclined to derive it from [Hebrew] to permit, or [Hebrew] to guide, “by the permission or guidance of thy divinity.”

I have finished my letter [cuneiform] of the Dictionary and sent it to D^r Hincks,^<3> I think I told you that he had proposed to join his materials to mine. But unless he adds a good deal, you must not expect to find anything like completeness; I propose to call the bit we are preparing, “materials for a dictionary.” I have this moment a scrawl from D^r Hincks, saying that he has received my packet, but not yet opened it. He has written a Chronological paper, and informs me that he has just got a proof.

I do not agree at all with ménant^<4> theory of the Proto-Chaldæon symbols: indeed he doesn’t appear to have much confidence in it himself.

I will ask Rawlinson ^<5> to let me send you a copy of some inscription worth printing such as the new Michaux in Hieratic; we have three now. Although I am working in the Museum ^<6> independently, I feel still inclined to consider what I do in his room, and with his help, as being in a manner his property.

I am Dear Sir Yours very truly
Edwin Norris

H Fox Talbot Esq
&c &c

[envelope:]
H. Fox Talbot, Esq
8 Rutland Square,
Edinburgh.

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Notes:

1. Letter not located.

2. Norris, Assyrian Dictionary (London: Williams and Norgate, 1872).

3. Rev Edward Hincks (1792–1866), Irish Egyptologist & Orientalist.

4. Joachim Menant (1820–1899), French Assyriologist & magistrate.

5. Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 1^st Baronet (1810–1895), orientalist.

6. The British Museum.