TALBOT9610

41 Crowndale Road NW
January 19^th 1870

My Dear Sir

Many thanks for your kind recommendation which D^r Birch sent in to the trustees I do not know when the matter will be settled I am very busy or I would have answered your notes earlier you are quite correct that occurs in the Accad or Proto Babylonian for death but I do not think the pronunciation was durga Oppert is right as to occuring in the account of the death of Tirhak[ah?] the passage is I should think from a numer [sic] of cases in which no occurs that it probably means region or place and would mean “region of darkness” – I have a similar passage unpublished where Assurbanipal speaks of the death of Esarhaddon and I can point you to a published one in Layards Inscrip. P. 95 line 152 [ill. del.] “he went to his region of death” (i.e tomb) [ill. del.] here region of death replaces region of night or darkness and the position of the words is reversed might mean fate but I do not think it does – in Akkad means a kingdom and means the region of a king or his kingdom and is so translated in the bilinguals, and even among the Assyrians [ill.del.] governors of districts were called an example is quoted in Norris’s dictionary p 85 but M^r Norris does not appear to appreciate the value of In my article to the North British Review January 1870 I have quoted the value of the sign and I think I have given the same example as you have in your glossary but I have no copy of my paper and so cannot be sure, this character meaning ‘so and so’ occurs on many tablets I am interested in your glossary and I would certainly have begged a copy earlier if I had known it to be published the suggestions as to some of the proper names are very good I hope you will allow me [ill. del.] to send you one or two observations on some points when I have time

Yours respectfully
George Smith

Hon. Fox Talbot