June3] PROCEEDINGS. [189a
Accadian character for stone, za, si, na, dag, dig', bar,wereall
identicalin meaning ; they must havedenoteddifferentkinds of
stone.
As the character justcitedhas the values dagandbar,so J^
is read parin the sense of spread out (napaltti), and bara in that
of " to spread, outspread" (Suparruru, iuparrurtu)of a fishing-net,
and,withthe prefix giS, par (parru),"a fishing-net"; but dag also
in the like senseof strewing, layingout,e.g.,a bed (rap&du, ^9"^),
and laying oneselfdown; cp. «f- bar, a bed (tend). To this bar
(par) the Chinesep'u, old p'o (= pa, ba), "to spread out,"
"arrange,""layin order," e.g.,a table or a bed, and then "tired,"
"to sleep with,""bedding,"answersverywell;cp. also po, old pa,
Cantonesepo, Shanghai pu, " to strew, scatterabroad,"and pih,old
pik (= big) "a fishing-net," pet (dialectic/;,/^), "a fishing-creel."
Withp'o (ba), " not, " we may comparethe Accadian ba, " not,"
ba-ra(Id),andban," not " (ban = ba + na). It would be easy to
extendthese comparisons; but I think the table givenabovewill
be sufficient to convince unprejudicedminds(1) That the numerous
meaningsassignedto the sound barby the Assyrian scribesare not
arbitrary but really belongedto it in the old non-Semitic language
of the country; and (2) that the closest possiblerelationconnects
that primitive tonguewiththe language of China.
TheIdeogram ^f»J.
Thisgroupis explained as meaning, "to be bright, or pure,"
"to make bright," "clean," e.g., hands, and so "pure," "holy,"
"purity," "to wash, or cleanse" (dam&ku, bardru, nummuru,
damku, dumku, ubbubu). It is a compound of ^|>-, life,andJ,
the sun ; and thus exactly answers to the Chinese character JB-
sing, Chifushing, "a star," sing-sing, "the stars," "whitehair";
a character composed of Q , sun + £fei shang, old shing, Chifu
sang,Amoyseng," to bear, to live, life." Theconnectionbetween
the ideas of being bornand comingto light, being manifestedor
madevisible,is seen in the old verse of Ennius : " Tu produxisti
nos intra luminis oras," whence the Lucretian " Inde enascitur
atque orasin luminis exit." Hence,to open, to come out,to grow,
andto shine, are all expressed by the common ^fE^f{pM,asu,
rabu,fihu,namaru,aru,iupu,etc.).
TheAccadian^J-''!,therefore,pronouncedshig,withphonetic
complement shig-ga, or shing, shinga, "bright," is absolutely
399 2 F 2