One of these is the fragment known as S. 1190 in the British Museum, where the contents of the tablet of which it formed a part are referred to as “Two Šumerian incantations used” (seemingly) “for the stilling of a weeping child.” Another tablet refers to the languages, and states that the tongue of Šumer was like (the tongue of) Akkad, or assumed a likeness to it at some time or other. This document also refers to another form of speech that was the tongue of the prince, chief, or leader. Yet another fragment refers to Akkad as below (? to the south) and Šumer above (? to the north),(13) but it is doubtful whether this refers to the position of the country. A fourth large fragment written partly in the “dialect” is referred to as a “Šumerian” text. Both from the ethnographical and the linguistic side, therefore, ample testimony to the existence of a non-Semitic race (or non-Semitic races) in the plain of Shinar in ancient times is at hand. As to the language intended in the expression “Two Šumerian incantations” (spoken of above) there can be no doubt, the original idiom in question being the non-Semitic tongue already referred to—that tongue which was like the tongue of Akkad, of which it was apparently a more decayed form. The title given cannot refer to the translation into Assyro-Babylonian which accompanies it, as this is undoubtedly of later date than the composition itself. There is then no doubt that the Akkadians and the Šumerians were two tribes of the same race, probably intermixed to a certain extent with foreign elements (people with oblique eyes being depicted on at least two of the sculptures of the early period from Tel-Loh), and speaking a language differing entirely from that of their Semitic fellow-countrymen,—a language which was of an agglutinative nature, introducing into its verbal forms whole rows of analytical particles, which sometimes gave to the phrase a precision of meaning to which the Semitic Babylonian has but little pretension, though Šumero-Akkadian is generally difficult enough in other respects, in consequence of the excessive number of the homophones that it contains. Indeed, it is sometimes difficult to see how the speakers of the latter language could have understood each other without resorting to some such distinctive aids similar to the tones used in modern—as probably also in ancient—Chinese, of which Šumero-Akkadian is regarded by the Rev. C. J. Ball as an exceedingly ancient form.