Chinese and Sumerian

INTRODUCTION XXI

they became a proverb of moral corruption. However that may have been, as regards their vocal powers it is well known that adult eunuchs may retain their childish soprano and, in fact, the choir of the Sistine Chapel was recruited from such persons, until Leo XIII abolished an evil tradition. It seems possible that the Assyrian /allaru, ‘howler’, ‘wailer’, and /allartu, lallardti, ‘wailing’ (also ‘joyful shouting’), may have sprung from LAR-LAR=NAR-NAR. At any rate, as music may be mournful as well as joyous, we can understand how the character came to be used for LUB or LIB (=LUG, LIG?), ‘a lament’ or ‘cry of woe’ (4éru) ; while its use for LIG, LIB, ‘strong’ (Br. 7276), was merely phonetic, as Jensen long ago perceived (ZA. i. 396). And as, further, clearness of sound and érighiness of light are commonly expressed in language by the same or kindred roots (cf Heb. bon I and Le bay I and II), we also seem to see a real connexion between LUG, ‘to scream’, ‘to sing’ (?), and LUG in the groups z=]! FEN] S347 KUSH-LUG (cf (Ey ary KUSH-LUG, ‘flaring up’ ?), ‘to shine’, ‘be bright’, and ,E] ,EJ— SUS-LUG, in the same sense (zamdru). But why was the same simple sign selected to denote the fox or jackal (probably both) ? and which of the sounds associated with the sign bore this meaning? The word might well have been LUG, dial. LUB or LIB; cf LIG, LI, which are known sounds of the Dog-symbol, and the Chinese &, 4-4, a name for the fox and certain other small animals, as well as the Assyrian sé/abu, slibu, séllibu = Arab. ¢ha'laé, ‘fox’ (which last may have sprung from VL-B+the Factitive SHA), and even the Greek ddémné, the Lithuanian /ée, and the Latin wu/pes. Foxes and jackals may have been called LUG (LUB, LIB), because of their ‘bright’ (z.¢. red, or reddish-gold) colour; cf Moh ch'th fet hu, ‘ Nothing red is seen but foxes’ (Legge, Siz, I. iti; XVI. 3). The vagueness of colour-terms in ancient speech is illustrated by the Chinese ch’zh, chk, ‘red’, which is said of gold, copper, fire, foxes, and brown sugar! Thus the word may be etymologically akin to LAG, LUG, ‘bright’, ‘shining’ (in KUSH-LUG, SUS-LUG, ZA-LAG, naméru), and perhaps, further, to DU (=DUG, DUB=LUG, LUB?) in URU-DU, ‘copper’, which is the ‘red’ metal par excellence: cf. also the Semitic I7¥, ‘gleam’, ‘shine’ (Heb., of bronze), ‘yellow’ or ‘golden’ (Heb., of hair); ‘red’ (Arab.) ;—a root formed from ZIB= DUB by internal Triliteralization. (The jackal might, of course, have been called LUG, LUB, because of its howlng; but this would not apply to the fox whose only cry is a short, sharp bark.)

Among other characters which the extant remains of Sumerian antiquity enable us to refer to their concrete originals with a considerable degree of assurance are rT GIR, TAB, ‘a lance’, ‘lightning’ (¢f the Chinese word sham, shap, ¢‘tem, ‘to flash’, of lightning, G. 9707), ‘to flash’; the linear form of which (D. 3, 4) is the head of a lance or spear such as we see in the Assyrian sculptures (cf. also the flat oval blade figured in Heuzey, Une Villa royale, fig. 19): SES SHUM, ‘to kill’, ‘to

slaughter’, a man or a sheep, the linear form of which seems to exhibit a blade like