Brompton
4 May 1867
My dear Sir,
Hincks <1> said about 10 years ago that [cuneiform] made an abstract noun, so that [cuneiform] would be “son-ship.” In one of the unpublished inscriptions of Assurbanipal I find [cuneiform] meaning “death,” is not this “night state”? I think so. we see thus the meaning of aplutu and marutu as different from maru and aplu. This however I say with hesitation as yet, not having thought over the matter, and I am a slow thinker. – My scrawling has made you read busa; it was meant for basa to be. See Hincks’s Grammar<2> §18, from this root we have ibsi, ibsú, basi, base ibassu, ibassi usabsi &c. I can give you reference to all these.
Hapikta is surely the [Hebrew] Hebrew, see Gen xix.29. where our version has “overthrow” Takhta & takhtie is synonymous with [cuneiform] I ought rather to say equivalent. I think you will find iskinu tahtasu in Sargon (Pl 36) l.17, “He made his defeat.” We have [Hebrew] under, in Hebrew but in Ethiopic the verb at full length [Ethiopic?], takhata “to be down” see [Ludolf?] (I am not quite sure of my Ethiopic, not having the book at home)
Bowler <3> is hard at work copying and printing for the 3d volume. You will be glad to hear the Great Decagon of Assurbanipal is receiving many additions and will be nearly complete at last. It appears that there were several copies, as we may call them, of this document, but all broken into fragments. The cementing together of such as obviously join is going on, and I hope that when all is done there will remain only a few lacunæ
yours faithfully
Edwin Norris
&c &c
Notes:
1. Rev Edward Hincks (1792–1866), Irish Egyptologist & Orientalist.
2. Hincks, Specimen chapters of an Assyrian grammar (London: Trübner & Co, 1866).
3. Robert Ewan Bowler (1794-1874), engraver, lithographer & artist, London.