The  French  Commissioners,  who  endeavored  to  approach  it,
came  home  and  reported  that  it  was  inaccessible.  But  Eng-
lishmen consider  nothing  impossible  but  failure.  Colonel  Raw-
linson,  residing  at  Bagdad  in  an  official  capacity,  determined
that  the  thing  should  be  done  ;  and  it  was  done,  by  what
means  he  has  not  fully  informed  us  in  the  very  interesting
memoirs  upon  this  subject,  which  occupy  almost  the  whole  of
several  numbers  of  the  Asiatic  Journal.  It  is  enough  to  say
that  he  has  copied,  interpreted,  and  translated  the  Persian  part
of  the  inscription,  which  proves  to  be  a  very  interesting  and
important  record  of  the  early  portion  of  the  reign  of  King
Darius.  The  figures  are  those  of  the  king  and  two  attendants,
Into  whose  presence  are  brought,  with  their  hands  tied  behind
them  and  cords  about  their  necks,  nine  captive  rebels.     The


52  THE  GREEK  LANGUAGE  AND  POETRY.
several  inscriptions  contain  an  account,  in  three  languages,  of
their  misdeeds  and  their  punishment.
Besides  this  monumental  alphabet,  these  nations  possessed
an  abbreviated  writing,  corresponding  to  the  Demotic  of  the
Egyptian.  Here  we  come  into  the  line  of  the  Zend  and  San-
scrit, which  seem  to  me,  both  from  the  number  of  their  letters
and  their  phonetic  values,  —  the  former  containing  thirty-nine
and  the  latter  forty-eight  signs,  —  to  be  closely  connected  with
the  arrow-heads.  At  least,  there  is  no  trace  of  their  having
originated  in  pictorial  representations.  They  are  very  com-
plete, especially  the  Sanscrit,  and  their  use  is  coeval  with  the
beginning  of  their  literatures,  dating  in  all  human  probability
two  thousand  years  before  our  era.
