TALBOT8487

<blind stamp>

Killyleagh

21^st Dec^r 1861

Dear Sir,

I found your letter here on my return home after a short absence. I have a paper in type in the forthcoming number of the Journal of Sacred Literature – entitled “Arioch & Belshazzar”. I try to prove that the earliest of the old Chalden kings (whose brick is in the British museum) was Arioch – the contemporary of Abraham which of course dispenses of Rawlinson’s assumption that Kudurmappuk was Chedorlaomer. I hope the printer has not spoiled the paper. In one place I give four translations of the passage in the Birs Nimroud inscription with a transcription of the original as I had it. Your’s Oppert’s & mine have much in common as respects the grammatical construction. Rawlinson’s telling differs & is evidently mere guess work. I am satisfied that the Assyrian language was written with attention to <illeg> values & that the forms & roots may be perfectly ascertained. In doing this I think I have made great progress. Birch I think has gone astray. Except in a very few instances (some of which I take occasion to acknowledge in this paper) my paper on the Assyrian verb in the J. S. L. was correct & Oppert’s grammar is <illeg> right when he deviates from what I there said the greater part of which he copies without acknowledgment. If I get separate copies of the forms, which I expect I shall, I will send you one I will direct to Edinburgh if I do not hear to the contrary.

I remain Yours vy truly

Edw Hincks

H. F Talbot Esq^re

Looking over this letter I find I have forgotten to thank you for the pages which accompanied your letter. This I now do. I will look over them as soon as I have leisure.