requires the juxtaposition of certain consonants with certain vowels it exhibits something of a Scythic character.’[578] He was not disposed to admit the antiquity then beginning to be claimed for Zend. He thought that in comparison with Old Persian it was modern. He imagined that the latter became gradually extinct after the age of Alexander, and that it was succeeded by Zend and Pehlevi, the former as a hieratic and the other as a demotic language but both derived from it.[579] He was clear at least that Old Persian could never have descended from Zend, though he reluctantly admits the possibility of their contemporary existence. His unwillingness to allow the antiquity of Zend was due in great measure to the legendary character of the Zendavesta, a book which he considered could not have been written till after the cuneiform Persian had been entirely forgotten. Otherwise, he said, ‘the priesthood could neither have had the audacity nor the desire to darken authentic history by the distorted and incomplete allusions to Jemshid and the Kayanian monarchs which are found in the Vendidád Sadé and in the ancient hymns.’[580] The appearance of Rawlinson’s work was received with feelings of enthusiasm in Germany. The reproach that England had hitherto neglected the cuneiform records was at length effaced, and in such a manner as to entitle her to claim the first place in the roll of discovery. Benfey declared that few, if any, of the contributions made in recent times in the field of Oriental research could compare with it in importance.[581] Major Rawlinson, he says, displays an extraordinary aptitude for decipherment, and an accuracy and depth of philological learning that render it peculiarly fortunate that such an important document should have fallen into his hands. In mere length, the inscription exceeds by more than a hundred lines all those published by Lassen put together. It consists of five columns of about four hundred and ten lines, and, although there is considerable repetition, it nevertheless offers a great variety of words and phrases which added immensely to the knowledge previously acquired.[582] One great difficulty with which he had to grapple was the very imperfect state of the text. A glance over the plates will show the numerous blanks left in the writing in consequence of injury to the rock. Rawlinson’s copy was so carefully executed that he committed only one serious error, the omission of a line in the fourth column. The other imperfections are due entirely to the ravages of time. In the first column there is a large fissure on the right hand, extending from the top to the twenty-fifth line, and again from the sixty-third line to the end, besides numerous occasional gaps elsewhere. But the second column is in a much worse condition. ‘A fissure, varying in breadth, caused by the percolation of water, bisects it and destroys the continuity of the writing throughout its whole extent.’[583] The third