The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-07-13

In the Babylonian record begins with the
reign of Ea-khunte. whose name bears
striking resemblance 70 the Nai-hwangtl,
who, according to the great historian,
sovereigns. Na-khunfe was. IS We know,
the king OF Susiana. who conquered Baby
lonia In 1895 B. c., and it was about this
period that the Chinese left their habitat IN
Babylonia and migrated to China. Hence
the prominence of the Chinese Na-khunte
in the annals of the Flowery Land.
According to the latest authorities, the
kingdom OF Bapyionia consisted originally
of federation of states, the chief OF one
of which was regarded as the supreme
ruler. This is in exact conformity with
the system OF government established IN
China before She-hwangti OF Ts'in welded
the several states together into an empire.
Further, and this has again bear
ing on the original nomadic hab-
its OF the people, the twelve
rulers who were subordinate to the
sovereign were known as the twelve pas
tors, such as those to whom the Emperor
Shun gave instructions. for the administra-
ton of the empire. These have tneir
counterpart in the system OF government
which prevailed at ali early period IN
Susiana. where the twelve princes OF the
second rank were entitled pastors, ana
where also the sovereign bore the title OF
the king of the Four Regions" remind
ing us of ''the Chief of the Four Noun
tains" mentioned in the first chapter OF
the Chinese Skuking In the same work
we are told that the Emperor Shun sacri-
feed specially, but with the ordinary forms.
to Shangti, and worshipped the six hon.
ored ones. Chinese scholars have been
quite unable to explain who these six
bonored ones" were, and the matter would
probably have remained a mystery bad 1t
not been found from the SUSAN tablets
that in the hierarchy of Susiana there were
six deities of the first rank next IN order to
the principal god.
One of the most striking features of the
culture possessed by the Babylonians was
their KNOWLEDGE of astronomy. Indeed,
their country has been commonly called
the birthplace of the sciences We know,
also, that their systematized and recorded
astrology went back to a prodigious an
tiquity; that they were able TO foreteu
eciipses; that they observed the stars in
their courses. and that they built astronom-
zeal observatories for that purpose. We
should naturally expect, therefore, that
like knowledge would be possessed by the
Chinese. and such We find to have been
the case. Nai-hwangti, We are told.
built an observatory from which to
observe the movements of the heav-
eniy hodies. and in the annals of
Yao and Shun we meet with references
which show that in those days also the Chi
nese were no mean astronomers. Like the
Babylonlaus. they recognized five planets
besides the sun and moon, all of which,
with the exception of Mercury. they called
by the same names as those current in
Babylonia. Jupiter. which was known by
the Chaldeans as "1he Planet" and by the
Ph9nicians as Cad. or GOOD Fortune, !"
was called by the Chinese The One" and
GOOD Fortune" liking" and 'Criminal'
were the names applied TO Mars in both
countries; and in like manner Saturn was
known as king and Righteousness"
Venus was christened Queen of the De-
lenses of Heaven" by the Babylonians, and
bore the title among the Chinese Of SOL
diers Waiting
By the aid of astronomy Nai-hwangti
learned, we are told, to rule the varied
year." In accordance with the Babylonian
precedent. he made the four seasons to con-
sist of $50 days, and added an intercalary
month to balance the surplus time. Hees-
tablished calendar of twelve months and
a cycle of twelve years, and ordained that
the new year should begin in the third
month after the winter soistice. According
to present usage the Chinese commonly
number their months and apply names
only to the first and last months of the
year; but the Oldest dictionaries tell us
that in the distant past the months had
different names, all of which, though
they have been happily preserved,
have become unintelligible to the
people. The Editor of the Uyhiya, the
most famous of the ancient dictionaries,
after recording them in order. adds. in q
note: 1.-THE meanings to be attached to
these different names of the months are
unintelligible and have been lost. But by
the light of the Accadian calendar it is pos
sible to explain some few of them. For
example. by the Accadlans the fifth
month was known as DIE dhegar,
sire making fire." and by the
Chinese as Hao, 'ibright;" the ninth
month was respectively Yanyanna, "thick
clouds" (reminding US of the Chinese Pun
yum. and Huea dark" the tenth month,
Abba suddu. 1.-The cave of the rising sum-
and Yang, bright" "the sun, 1.-THE day !"
the eleventh month. 1.-THE malediction of
rain," and Ku, "a crime" a '.failure;" and
the twelfth month, "the land of mists,' %
aud Tsu, "heavy dew or rain"
But besides the knowledge of astronomy
the Chinese brought with them into China
an acquaintance with the art of writing In
the oldest forms of many of their chafac-
tiers are to be seen reflections of the ancient
cuneiform symbols which were current
among the Turanian inhabitants of Baby
lonia. and which were adopted by the
Semitic conquerors, who afterward took
possession of the land. The characters
were originally written in horizontal lines,
but for some unexplained reason it subse-
quently became customary to write them in
columns, and with this change of form
there came also the habit OF turn
ing some of the wider HERO
glyphic characters up on end to make
them range more conveniently in the
columns. In modern Chinese we see the
result of this in such characters as those
for the eye (muh). which was originally the
drawing of an oblique full eye, for a minis
ter Chem, which represents the upper
parts of the face, for fish (yu), which
represents the creature, and a number of
others, all of which are turned on end,
But the resemblance between the Acca-
dian and the Chinese have been held to go
further than the written character. The
languages themselves, it has been observed.
bear family likeness TO each other, aud
various scholars have from time to time
given their reasons for supposing that the
two languages are related. Both, 1t has
been acknowledged, bear strong evidence
of belonging to the Ugro Finnish stock,
and ii is obvious not only that the original
structure of the two languages is identical,
but that il is even possible TO compare q
number of Accadlan with Chinese words.
This most interesting branch of
pursued by Mr.. c. ]. Bali, who has
been rewarded for his labors by being able
to announce one of the most remarkable
pathological discoveries of modern times.
His attention was first attracted to the SUBJ
ject by observing curious parallelism OF
sound between certain terms in the Baby
lonian syllabaries and synonymous terms
in Chinese. By chance he began with
words having an initial y in Chinese, and
remembering the well-known pathological
fact that an initial wears down in course
of time to y. he determined to try whether
by substituting for the initial in words
in the modern Mandarin dialect of China
he could get forms recogniZably related
~ Aacadtau farms