The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-07-15
TWAS EVER THUS.
How Princess Called Down Another
| Woman $500 Years Ago.

How Princess Called Down Another
Woman $500 Years Ago.
Twenty-Five hundred years ago princess
OF the royal family of Assyria wrote let
ter to lady of the imperial court, in
which the latter was haughtily rebuSed
for presuming to use the familiar title oi
SISTER" in addressing the royal lady.
Yesterday in Baltimore an English trans
lation of this letter was published by the
Johns Hopkins University DR.. Christie
pher Johnson has been working for some
time to puzzle out the dignifed terms in
which one woman of those ancient days
rebuked another.
The letter was not written with ink upon
sheet of tinted paper, as would be done
by fair dame of to-day, but was inscribed
in cuneiform characters upon tablet OF
baked clay. 1t is in thirteen lines, and
the royal lady did not waste words to ex-
press her contempt at the others imper-
thence.
The tablet was written only few years
before the destruction of Nineveh and the
overthrow of the hssyrian empire, which
Is generally placed by historians as having
occurred in 606 BIC 1t Is one of the few
remains OF that period which lave come
down to the scholars of the present day.
1t was discovered a score or more years
ago and many AssyrioIogists have tried
their hand at translation.
DR.. johnson in working upon it did not
have the original tablet, bnt picture of
1t. The royal lady who wrote the letter,
or who probably dictated il to her scribe,
was the Princess Sheruaeterat, a grand
daughter OF the famous Assyrian monarch
AsurbanapaI, called Sardanapalus by
Greek writer's, who in addition to being q
great conqueror was the founder of an ex-
tensive public library and patron of
literature and the arts. The letter is trans
lated by DR.. Johnson:
Message of the Kings daughter to Asshur-
Sharrat. Thou dost not properly address thy
lie ter sent to me, nor use the title to me be-
fitting thy station. People might say .'Is she
the sister of Sheruaeterat, the eldest daughter
OF NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. the great King the
mighty King King of hosts, King of Assyria ?''
But thou art only the daughter of the daugh-
ter-in.law OF the wife of Asurbanapal, eldest
son of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria.
DR.. Johnston suggests that this last sem
tence was probably crushing blow to the
recipient OF the letter, as the peculiar ex-
preston daughter of The daughter-in-
law of Asurbanapal's wife" was most
likely reference TO some delectable bit OF
court scandal in the famous Asiatic en-
pire. The doctor also said that the re-
Duke was perfectly proper one from what
is known to-day of Assyrian etiquette In
letter writing.
"If the lady, Asshur-SharraI, addressed
the Princess as sister without being so re-
lated, said he, "sbe certainly committed
gross breach of etiquette and was guilty
of an impertinence which richly merited 5
rebuke. Even If she were actually her sis.
ter it is doubtful whether she could have
so addressed the eldest daughter of the
sovereign family. We find Prince speak
ing of his father as the King, my Lord,
but never as my father And among pri
vate individuals, except in the case of neal
relatives, it was the invariable rule to ad
dress each person by his proper title witt
the addition of the words My Lord ~
Baltimore Sun.