Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab

HISTORY OF PERSIA. 103
a genuine member of the great family to which the
term Indo-European has been happily applied. Th<
most casual glance at any comparative list of words
(especially of those in most common use) taken from
these languages, will convince any reader of intelligence
of the substantial relationship existing between them.
Thus, we find
Old Persian. Sanscrit. Latin. German. English.
Bratar bhratar frater bruder brothe'
Man (to think) man mens meiuen mean.
Duvara dvara fores thiire door
Cta (to stand) stha sto stehen stand
Mam mam me mich me
Matar matar mater mutter mother
Tuvam twam tu du thou
Pad pada ped-em fuss foot
and so on. The chief characteristic of the Indo-
of a number of
European tongues is the possession
roots, a peculiar mode of inflections, together with a
constant resemblance between these inflections, and a
general similarity of syntax and construction. One of
these peculiarities, the form of the masculine termina-
tions of the nominatives, applying to Persian names,
was noticed by Herodotus (i. 139).
As a form of writing, the Persian Cuneiform is the
most recent of the three types, and a simplification of
the earlier ones, each group of arrow heads in this class
representing a single letter: like the Sanscrit and the
Greek, it was written from left to right; no writing
distinctively Median has been as yet detected. The
stories of the letter sent from Harpagus to Cyrus,
and of a certain Median king, Artaeus, evi-
dence the belief that orders to and from monarchs
were conveyed in writing. Again, from Scripture,