H Fox Talbot Esq^re

23^d February 1877

My Dear Sir,

Many thanks for your note ^<1> about katem ‘gold’ the meaning has been asserted by M. Chabas and Brugsch – Bey. ^<2> There are so many Semitic words in the Egyptian of the 19^th dynasty that they materially influenced the language.

I do not think Grivels ^<3> manuscripts would add much to our knowledge of Assyrian the probability is that M. Grivel ^<4> junior sets some value upon them and if so I should like to know it as also to see the papers without which it is impossible to form an opinion. Believe me

Yours very tr^y
S. Birch

H. Fox Talbot Esq^r

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Notes:

1. See Doc. No: 01582.

2. François Joseph Chabas (1817–1882), French Egyptologist, and Heinrich Ferdinand Karl Brugsch (1827–1894), German Egyptologist. Bey was the title given to a chieftain by the Khedive. Brugsch directed the School of Egyptology in Cairo founded by the Khedive.

3. Joseph Grivel (1810–1876), Swiss Assyriologist.

4. L Grivel, son of Joseph Grivel, the Assyriologist.