termere, Crummock, Lowes-water, Ennerdale, and Wast-water, renowned for their romantic scenery, and often visited by travellers. The principal rivers are the Derwent, Eden, and Esk. The soil of the valleys and river bottoms is generally rich; the lowlands have been much improved by draining and are very productive; the mountainous districts are fit for little but sheep pastures. Agriculture has improved of late years, and a great deal of grain and other produce is exported. The chief minerals are coal, iron, silver, plumbago, copper, lead, and limestone. The first 3 are abundant, and the iron ore is said to yield more than double the average proportion of metal. The lead mines near Alston belong almost exclusively to Greenwich hospital. A considerable extent of the great Roman wall erected by Hadrian is in this county, and many Roman remains of various kinds have been found here. The county suffered much from the Picts, Scots, and Danes, and was the arena of almost constant warfare during the border troubles. At the time of the conquest it was in such a state of desolation that William remitted its taxes, and it was not included in the Domesday book. The chief towns are Carlisle, Whitehaven, Cockermouth, Penrith, Keswick, and Egremont. It is traversed by the Lancaster, Kendal, and Carlisle, the Newcastle and Carlisle, the Carlisle and Maryport, and the Workington and Cockermouth branch railways. A ship canal extends from Carlisle to the Solway frith. The county returns 4 members to the house of commons.

CUMBERLAND, RICHARD. I. An English divine, born in London, July 13, 1632, died Oct. 9, 1718. He was a good linguist and zealous student, and when upward of 80 took up the study of Coptic, in which he attained considerable proficiency. He was appointed bishop of Peterborough by William III. without solicitation, the monarch having been informed on trustworthy authority that Dr. Cumberland was the fittest person for the vacant see. He learned the fact of his nomination by reading it in the newspaper of the day. His principal works are a translation of Sanchoniathon's "Phonician History," with notes and dissertations; Originis Gentium Antiquissima ("Attempts for discovering the Times of the first Planting of Nations"); and an "Enquiry into the Laws of Nature" (written originally in Latin, and translated by the Rev. J. Tower). II. An English dramatist, born in Cambridge, Feb. 19, 1732, died May 7, 1811. He was great-grandson of Bishop Cumberland, and grandson of Richard Bentley. His connections procured him an early introduction into political life; and after having filled the office of secretary to Lord Halifax, with other minor appointments, he was in 1775 made secretary of the board of trade, an office which was abolished in 1782, when he received a compensation allowance. He published the "Observer," a series of essays, in which he displayed considerable classical learning, with much wit and elegant composition. He wrote a

large number of dramatic pieces, the most successful of which were the "West Indian" and the "Wheel of Fortune," still stock pieces on the stage. He was a copious writer on a great variety of subjects, and among his works are several novels and a collection of anecdotes of Spanish painters. He published his memoirs in 1806.

CUMBERLAND, WILLIAM AUGustus, duke of, 3d son of George II. of England, born April 26, 1721, died at Winsdor, Oct. 31, 1765. He was present at the battle of Dettingen, where he was wounded. In 1745 he received the command of the allied army, and fought the celebrated battle of Fontenoy against Marshal Saxe, in which the French were victorious. He was next sent against the pretender in Scotland, and overthrew the army of malcontents at the battle of Culloden; but the glory of this victory, such as it was, was stained by the cruelties and excesses of the victors. He was appointed by the king commander-in-chief of the British army, and was next sent to the Netherlands; was defeated at Lafeldt by Marshal Saxe in 1747, and gained no advantages in this war, which was terminated by the peace of Aix la Chapelle. At the commencement of the 7 years' war the king of England's Hanoverian dominions had to be defended at any cost to the English nation; accordingly the duke of Cumberland was despatched to Germany, when the victory of Marshal d'Estrées at Hastenbeck forced him to the disgraceful convention of Closter Seven (1757), by which the English army, 40,000 strong, was disarmed and disbanded, and Hanover was placed at the mercy of the French, who ravaged it at their will. On his return to England the king was so dissatisfied that theduke of Cumberland threw up his appointments, and was never again invited to take office.-For the duke of Cumberland, afterward king of Hanover, see ERNST AUGUST.

CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS, that portion of the Appalachian group which ranges along the S. W. border of Virginia and the S. E. of Kentucky, and thence passes across the state of Tennessee into the N. E. part of Alabama. It spreads over a width of about 50 m., parallel ridges alternating with longitudinal valleys. The ridges rarely exceed 2,000 feet in height. They are rocky and little cultivated, but the valleys are fertile. These mountains lie west of the range of the granite and metamorphic rocks, which compose the mountains on the W. borders of North Carolina and the N. part of Georgia. They are upon the range of the great coal formation of the middle states, and essentially composed of the same groups of stratified rocks as those of the Alleghany mountains, Chestnut ridge, and Laurel hill in Pennsylvania. The Tennessee river and its branches drain its E. slopes, until this river crosses their range and unites with the Cumberland, the sources of which are on its W. side.

CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS, a denomination of Christians which took its rise during the religious revival in Kentucky and

Tennessee in 1801-'3. So great was the excite ment, and so vast the multitudes who came from all parts of the country to the camp meetings, that it was found impossible to supply the demand for ministers, and laymen were appointed to preach by the presbytery of Transylvania. Their reception, however, was strenuously opposed by some of the clergy, and they were refused ordination. A new presbytery, which was formed in 1803 in the southern part of the state, denominated the Cumberland presbytery, subsequently received them and granted them ordination, at the same time taking on trial as licentiates others of similar qualifications. The action of the presbytery in this matter was reviewed by the synod of Kentucky, which denied its validity, and appointed a commission to examine the newly ordained ministers both in regard to their attainments and the doctrines which they held. The result was, that the course pursued by the Cumberland presbytery was condemned, and the sentence of the synod confirmed by the general assembly of the Presbyterian church. The presbytery, demurring to this decision, withdrew from the jurisdiction of the general assembly, and in 1810 organized a distinct and separate body, which has since that time been known as the Cumberland Presbyterian church. Their progress as an independent church was marked with great success, so that in 1813 they formed a synod and adopted articles of religion and a form of church government. In doctrine they occupy a sort of middle ground between Calvinism and Arminianism. They reject the doctrine of eternal, unconditional election and reprobation, and believe in the universality of the atonement and the final conservation of the saints. Their government is presbyterian in form, embracing the session, presbytery, synod, and general assembly, all of which are constituted in the same manner as those of the Presbyterian church. Though they have local pastors, they have adopted the itinerant system of the Methodists. By this system of circuits and stations their ministers have spread themselves over the West and South, and even to California. Their general assembly has under its supervision 17 synods, 48 presbyteries, 1,000 churches, 300 ministers, 480 licentiates and candidates, and a membership of 100,000. Several religious journals are published under their auspices, and they have flourishing colleges in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, beside 10 seminaries. CUMING, HUGH, a living English naturalist, born about 1800, and residing in London. His collection of shells, over 60,000 in number, has for several years been famous as one of the finest in Europe. In 1848 it represented more than 19,000 species and varieties, and has since been much increased from the principal cabinets on the continent, which Mr. Cuming visits annually, carrying the duplicates of his rarities and exchanging them. His specimens are wonderfully perfect in form, texture, and color, and have been amassed not only by diligently frequenting the shops of commercial naturalists in seaports, but

also by passing 30 years of his life in travel and personal researches, collecting every variety of mollusks from their native seas and rivers, in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, and in the islands of the Malay archipelago. He has thus been able to describe the native habitats and habits of most of his shells. His stores are freely opened to scientific men, and have furnished subjects for many important papers in scientific publications.

CUMMIN SEED, the fruit or seed of the cuminum cyminum, an umbelliferous plant, cultivated in the East from the remotest times for its seeds, which have a bitter and aromatic taste, and a peculiar odor. The Latin poets allude to their power of producing languor. They are obtained in Egypt, Greece, Malta, and Sicily.

CUMMING, JOHN, D.D., a popular preacher of London, born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Nov. 10, 1810, was educated at King's college, university of Aberdeen, and prepared for the Scottish church, but on completing his theological studies, engaged as tutor in a school near London. Here he continued until 1832, when, having been previously licensed by the Scotch presbytery of London, he became the minister of the Scotch church in Crown court, Covent Garden, a relation which he still holds. He is distinguished for eloquence, both in the pulpit and on the platform, for controversial acuteness, and for his devotion to the interests of the Scottish church. Of this latter cause he has been the principal representative in London, opposing himself steadily to the non-intrusion movement of which Chalmers was the leader. As an author, Dr. Cumming is well and favorably known both at home and in this country, and most of his numerous works have been republished in America. His " Apocalyptic Sketches," " ""Lectures on the Parables," and "Voices of the Night," have had a wide circulation.

CUMMING, ROUALEYN GEORGE GORDON, a Scottish sportsman and author, born March 15, 1820. He is the second son of Sir William Gordon Gordon Cumming, and from an early age had abundant experiences in hunting as a deer-stalker in the highlands of Badenoch. He spent some years in the military service in India and the Cape of Good Hope, but left the army about 1843. Between October of that year and March, 1849, he made 5 hunting expeditions into various parts of South Africa, which he has recorded in his "Hunter's Life in South Africa," published in London in 1850, and republished in the United States. His adventures, as related by himself, partake so largely of the marvellous that their accuracy has more than once been called in question. A more serious charge against him is his indiscriminate and useless slaughter of a variety of harmless animals, which he destroyed apparently for no other purpose than to increase the list of his victims. He derived a considerable profit from the skins, tusks, and other trophies of the chase, of which he opened a remarkable exhibition on his return to England. He claims to have killed

more than 100 elephants. Of late years he has found sport chiefly in the Scottish highlands. CUMMINGS, JOSEPH, D.D., president of the Wesleyan university at Middletown, Conn., born in Falmouth, Me., in 1817, was graduated at that institution in 1840, and was chosen professor of natural science in the Amenia seminary, N. Y. In 1841 he was licensed to preach, and in 1843 became principal of the seminary. In 1846 he joined the New England conference, and occupied several important stations, after which he was appointed professor of theology in the Methodist general Biblical institute, at Concord, N. H. Subsequently he was president of Geneva college, N. Y., for 4 years, when he was elected to his present position.

CUNDINAMARCA, a central department of New Granada, comprising the table-land of Bogota, a small part of the llanos near the sources of the Meta and Guaviare, and the valleys of the lower Cauca and the upper and middle Magdalena; pop. in 1853, 564,955. It is well timbered, contains gold, silver, copper, lead, coal, and rock salt, and produces almost every kind of crop common to New Granada. The cataract of Tequendama and the natural bridges of Iconozo and Pandi are in this department. Capital, Bogota, CUNEGO, DOMENICO, an Italian engraver, born at Verona in 1727, died in Rome in 1794. His principal works are 22 plates in Gavin Hamilton's Schola Italiana, and his outline of the "Last Judgment," from Michel Angelo's frescoes in the Sistine chapel.

CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS, or SPHENOGRAMS (Gr. σony, Lat. cuneus, a wedge), called also CLAVIFORM, CLUDIFORM (Lat. clavus, mediæval cludus, a nail), and ARROW-HEADED IN SCRIPTIONS, are monumental records of the inhabitants of the ancient Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian empires. They consist of letters, some syllables, and a few monograms or compends, which contain two principal elements, namely, a figure resembling a wedge, nail, or arrow-head, and a less frequent figure like a broken bow or a swallow-tail (Fr. chevron). Some other shapes, such as a hammer, a dagger, angles of parallel insertion, mere lines, &c., all without a curve, are less frequent. They are either cut or stamped upon the substance bearing them, according to the nature of the material. They occur on tablets cut in rocks, on stone slabs, on bass-reliefs, on winged bulls, on vases, gems, seals (some being so minute as to require a microscope), on sun-baked or kilnburnt bricks or small cylinders; and mostly in horizontal lines. They are read from left to right. Most of them are found within the boundaries of the ancient great Persian empire, a few only having been discovered elsewhere. Democritus called them Assyrian letters, and is reported to have written a treatise on them, and to have translated an epigraph on a pillar. The companions of Alexander the Great saw a tablet so inscribed near Anchiale in Cilicia. Pietro della Valle sent the first Babylonian brick to Athanasius Kircher in 1622. Figueroa

saw sphenograms at Persepolis about the same time. Mandelslo (1637), Chardin (1673), Kämpfer, and Herbert, found traces of gold in some on the Chehel-minar (40 pillars, formerly called Hezer-situn, 1,000 columns, of which only 15 were standing at the time of Ker Porter's visit in 1815). Chardin, Cornelius Le Bruyn, and Gemelli-Carreri, at the close of the 17th century, copied some on the site of Persepolis and elsewhere. Tavernier and others also published some account of them in 1663. Kermanshah (Carine), W. of Behistun, was visited in 1787 by Otter, and in 1743 by Em. de St. Albert, whom D'Anville quotes as the first writer on sphenograms; by Kodja Abd ul Kurrim of Cashmere in 1741, &c. In 1765 Carsten Niebuhr copied some at Persepolis and elsewhere, more accurately than had been done before, also giving measurements of various edifices. In 1786 Bishop Beauchamp found bricks at Hillah, and his nephew, the abbé Beauchamp, visited other places beside the site of Babylon, and in 1790 wrote on the manner of searching for these monuments. André Michaux had sent a sphenogrammatic flint to Paris in 1782, and made researches on the rocks of Alvand (or Ervend, ancient Orontes), near Hamadan (eastern Ecbatana), in 1785. These places were also examined by Olivier in 1796, McKinneir in 1810, K. Porter and Bellino, by Keppell in 1824, Malcolm, Morier, Steuart, and Vidal, who copied two tablets. F. E. Schulz, who was killed by the Koords in 1829, copied, during two journeys, many inscriptions on the rocks, on church walls, grottos, &c., in and near the city of Van. One of these sphenograms contains 98 lines with 1,500 characters, and 42 others contain about 900 lines. Col. Monteith found two near Ardzish, and another on the road to Erzeroom, the furthest one to the N. W., in the valley of the Little Euphrates. The indefatigable Rawlinson copied some peculiar ones on the TashTepe, on religious subjects, and saw another on the Keli-Shin, a mountain pass, which was covered with ice. A sphenogram of the same nature was found by Moltke on the Euphrates, on a very high rock above Kumurhan, on the route from Ephesus to Babylon, within the chain of the Taurus, between the Armenian and Mesopotamian regions. It was copied by Mühlbach, in 1840. Lepsius published a sphenographic bass-relief from a rock on the Nahr el Kelb (Lycos) near Beyroot, in 1838, commemorating the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses, having near to it a pillar of Rhamses II. (Sesostris). Gen. Dagua copied one with the head of Darius under hawk's wings in token of his apotheosis, near Abu Kesheid, on the canal from the Nile to the Red sea. Witsen described a sphenogram at Tarku (Albana), N. of Derbend, on the Caspian sea, in the beginning of the 18th century. Schulz had intended to go in search of sphenograms to the country of the Sha-to, on Lop lake, where fire-worshippers are said to dwell. Copies of ancient MSS. belonging to the Christians of St. Thomas, in Malabar, now in the

library of Cambridge, England, contain some very ancient Persepolitan letters, with 4 others in ancient Hebrew, and one in an unknown character. J. Tod affirms that he saw many sphenograms on rocks, pillars, &c., at Mundore, in the state of Jhodpoor. Sir Harford Jones sent a great Assyrian epigraph on stone to the East India company in London, in 1803. W. Ouseley furnished materials for sphenographic literature in 1811. The widow of Claudius J. Rich republished (London, 1839) his journey to Babylon and Persepolis, made in 1811, with some valuable notices, especially on Babylonian antiquities. The greatest of all sphenograms, that of Behistun, discovered by Ker Porter, telescopically examined by Coste and Flandin, and explained by Rawlinson, is spoken of below. The rudest cunei, as to design and execution, are those found at Shuster (in Khuzistan or Susiana). Layard describes a species, containing many peculiar groups, found near Mal-Amil, between Shuster and Hamadan. A new period of sphenographic discoveries, joined with those in ancient Asiatic architecture and other great mementoes of bygone civilization, was inaugurated by P. E. Botta, the French consul at Mosul, who, encouraged by J. Mohl, disinterred a great palace at Khorsabad, in March, 1843 (Monuments de Ninivé, with designs by E. Flandin, 5 vols., Paris, 1849-'50). His rival, the Englishman Austen Henry Layard, exhumed 3 palaces in the mound of Nimroud in 1845, and one in that of Kuyunjik in 1848, during two visits, beside making discoveries in other places. Two of the former are the most ancient of all. The German Oppert is now (1859) engaged in examining the site of Babylon, on behalf of the French government. The number of sphenograms thus brought to light is surprising. A summary of the discoveries at Nineveh, Babylon, and Persepolis, was published in London, by Vaux, in 1851.-The origin of sphenography is enveloped in utter darkness. Ker Porter thinks it antediluvian, and connected with the tower of Babel. Brandis and others derive it from iconography, in the manner of the Egyptian demotic and the Chinese system of writing. Though no cuneiform manuscript has yet been found, Quatremère supposes a cursive style, for the purposes of common transactions, to have been the prototype of the monumental style, as well as of the square character of the Hebrews, after their return from the Babylonian captivity. Pauthier endeavored to prove the origin of cunei from a cursive style, analogous to the Zendic, Sassanidic, or Palmyrenic letters. Schöttgen attributes the introduction of sphenography into Persia to Darius. Barrois very expeditiously explains all styles of sphenography by dactylology, or the use of the fingers, in indicating the sounds of language. Gell discovered in 1812 a bronze table relating to the Olympian games, probably of the 50th Olympiad, or 577 B. C., in sphenoid letters. Some, probably accidental, resemblance to cuneiforms is also perceived in the runes of Helsingoland. W. Price

saw in 1825, at Shiraz, an old manuscript in two kinds of letters, one of which seemed to him to resemble the Persian style of cunei. Niebuhr distinguished 3 styles in the Persepolitan epigraphs, and classified the most remarkable groups. In 1798 O. G. Tychsen supposed that royal titles were written over the portraits of kings, and gave some hints as to the means of reading them. With Münter, he recognized the key in a frequently recurring word, which he suspected to signify king. Münter, with Herder, in 1800, supposed that there were 3 modes of writing, viz.: alphabetic, syllabic, and monogrammatic; he thought that religious matters were written in Zend, and political affairs in Pehlevic. Joseph J. Hager, in 1801, believed the Babylonian to be alphabetic, sacred, and not composed of mere magic signs, as some had thought; having inverted the cylinders, he tried to read it in the Chinese direction downward and leftward. A. A. Lichtenstein (1798-1803) asserted the Assyrio-Persian, as he named it, to be in Cufic letters, containing sentences from the Koran, and the deeds of Tamerlane in Neo-Persian. The abbé Beauchamp believed the epigraphs to have been directions for the masons, as the inscribed side of the Babylonian bricks is found turned inward in the walls. Witte even alleged that the characters had been produced by worms. G. F. Grotefend, following the method of Sylvestre de Sacy in deciphering the Pehlevic inscriptions of the Sassanides at Naksh-i-Rustam (1803), although he had not a profound knowledge of oriental languages, attempted, on the suggestion and with the aid of Fiorillo, by logical induction, to unravel 2 inscriptions copied by Le Bruyn and Niebuhr, on which Tychsen had made trials. He guessed the 2 other writings accompanying each inscription to be of the same contents with the inscription. After a careful scrutiny of the forms of groups, Grotefend examined the Greek historians, Münter's essay, and Heeren's historical researches, to ascertain the age of the Persian kings. Then he tried to find in the epigraphs the names of Cyrus and Cambyses; but the groups had not the same initials. Cyrus and Artaxerxes were too unequal in length. Darius and Xerxes, not offering either of the difficulties, were at last discovered. The groups that might denote the father and the son were also found in proper relation with each other, on both specimens; so that the import of 4 words could be relied on. Now the value of each group, as a letter, was to be ascertained. Anquetil-Duperron's Zend Avesta was resorted to. But as Darius is there called Eanteraffesh, Grotefend examined Weorokeshe, which is the name of Araxes, and so arrived at the sound of the letter a in Xerxes, fixing its sound to be ksh. By repeated examinations, and aided by materials furnished to him by Bellino and others, he determined the values of d, á, r, u, 8, kh, p, t, Eng. j and f, and came near to b, dh, hm, respectively, by calling them v, th, h. He thus gave a series of 29 letters and one compound

sign for king, and read: Darheush, Ksharsha, Goshtaspahe, Akheotshoskoh; which Rawlinson reads: Dáryavush, Khshárkhsha, Vishtāspahyā, Hakhamanishiya. These efforts were made from 1802 to 1816, and were published in Heeren's works in 1815, and in English in 1833. In 1826 Rask rectified Grotefend's Ŏ by changing it to m and tsh to n, whereby the word answering to Achæmenius became clear. St. Martin, following Klaproth, spoiled the m by changing it to a, and the n to m; but he agreed with both his predecessors as to a, u, t, d, p, 8, and determined correctly v, sh, y, among his 25 letters. Eugène Burnouf (Commentaire du Yaçna, Paris, 1833) made out the key to the grammar of the language of the Persian text. This language is derived from the Zend, has decaying grammatic forms, foreshadowing the Neo-Persian, and approaches the Semitic type by the disappearance of vowel signs. He assigns to 15 letters different values from those given by his successors, and makes 32 letters in all, admitting, which is rather r or ru. Burnouf and Christian Lassen had worked independently at first, but joined their efforts afterward. Lassen's exertions date from 1836, 1839, and 1844, when on receiving exact copies of various Persepolitan epigraphs, made by N. L. Westergaard on the spot, he changed some of his previous views, and admitted 32 Persian letters and 2 compounds (thr, rp), arranging them analogously to the Devanagari, after a rectification of the values of all his predecessors. H. C. Rawlinson, who had commenced the deciphering of the same style in 1835, having obtained an impression on paper, made by skilful Koordish climbers, of the high trilingual rock-hewn epigraphs of Behistun, published his views in 1847 ("Journal of the Asiatic Society," vol. xii.), almost totally agreeing with Lassen, and admitting 35 letters and 2 monograms (dah, people, and buhmi, earth). E. F. F. Beer reviewed Grotefend, Burnouf, and Lassen in 1837, and gave some useful hints. Jacquet also discussed the subject in 1838; he supposes the Behistun epigraphs to belong to Semiramis, and commits other inaccuracies.-The 2d Achæmenian style of trilingual sphenograms, hypothetically named Median by Westergaard, was to a great extent deciphered by him in 1844 (Mémoires de la société royale des antiquaires du nord, Copenhagen). He gives 16 groups of consonants, beside t and th, 6 vowels, and 72 pure syllables, with 2 ending in 8 (as, ahs); out of 82 perfect and 10 mutilated and spurious groups. He also derives compounds for phaph, rph, thr, dah, and bumi, counting some groups both as letters and as syllables. The reading of the whole is, however, yet hypothetical to a great extent, owing to the uncertainty of scholars as to the language in which this version of the Persian text is written. Edward Norris calls this version Tartaric, and goes so far as even to construct a Scythian grammar, by means of the Ostiak and Cheremisse dialects ("Journal of the Asiatic Society," xv.). Haug also wrote on

this version in 1855.-The 3d Achæmenian style, called Babylonian by Rawlinson, very much resembles the Assyrio-Babylonian, and is yet a problem both as regards its phonetism and its language. This is almost generally admitted to be a Semitic dialect. Ernest Renan, one of the greatest modern Semitists, asserts the 2d style to be Semitic, although he denies the employment of such uncouth letters for a language whose alphabet he asserts to be more ancient and better than the oldest sphenograms. Oppert thinks the language of the 2d style nearer to Ehkili and Mahri, which are classed under the name of Cushitic, as a branch of the Semitic family. Pehlevi or Huzvaresh, an Aryo-Semitic idiom, seems to be the real language of the 2d or Median text. This disagreement of authorities, amounting even to a confusion of the two versions of the Persian text with each other, shows how little is yet known about either. M. A. Stern, encouraged by Benfey of Bonn, asserts that he has found the key to the 3d style, which is to him nearly Hebrew and Chaldaic, and which he professes to read almost without any difficulty. He rejects the whole theory of Rawlinson and of Hincks, who admit a great many ideograms, and a confused polyphony in the values of the characters. He reads each syllable otherwise than De Sacy, adopts literal groups, and classifies 257 of them in 26 categories, headed by 18 Hebrew letters (omitting and ain), adding 32 groups for combined sounds. He accepts Botta's homophons, and sneers at Rawlinson for denying triliteral roots, and eliciting the sense of only 200 words from the Behistun text, whereas he himself has found 4 times as many, in proportion, in 15 short epigraphs. Botta does not venture on the slippery path of exegesis, but arranges the Ninevite sphenograms on the basis of 15 dominant figures, and gives a general catalogue of 642 groups, with their variants, in 15 classes, which are named from the number of elements composing them, and contain respectively as follows: 1st class, 4; 2d, 16; 3d, 29; 4th, 54; 5th, 91; 6th, 84; 7th, 77; 8th, 85; 9th, 72; 10th, 51; 11th, 29; 12th, 22; 13th, 12; 14th, 10; 15th (15, 16 or 17 elements), 6. He also gives tables of substitutions and parallels of the sphenograms of Van, Babylon, and the 3d Achæmenian. Edward Hincks, considered by some as the decipherer of the cunei of Van, having written on the Khorsabad style of Botta, afterward abandoned many of his rash assertions, and published his Assyrio-Babylonian phonetic characters, in 1852 ("Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy," 1855). He abandons the method of proper names, but relies, especially in triliteral roots, on radical analysis; asserts that all groups represent syllables, and that the characters of single syllables, exclusive of the 4 vowels (a, e or o, i, u), have 7 different forms (for instance, pa, pe, pi, pu, ap, ip, up); also that the syllabic values of many signs are fixed with all but mathematical certainty. J. Brandis attempts to exhibit what has been gained for history from the deciphering of the Assyrian