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o o o o -- W + -- -
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It was designed with great regularity, and the characters were cut
deep into the rock. Although I knew so little of rock inscriptions at
that time I had no difficulty in recognizing the antiquity of this
one.
Morhange became more and more radiant as he regarded it.
I looked at him questioningly.
"Well, what have you to say now?" he asked.
"What do you want me to say? I tell you that I can barely read
Tifinar."
"Shall I help you?" he suggested.
This course in Berber writing, after the emotions through which we had
just passed, seemed to me a little inopportune. But Morhange was so
visibly delighted that I could not dash his joy.
"Very well then," began my companion, as much at his, ease as if he had
been before a blackboard, "what will strike you first about this
inscription is its repetition in the form of a cross. That is to say
that it contains the same word twice, top to bottom, and right to left.
The word which it composes has seven letters so the fourth letter, W, comes naturally
in the middle. This arrangement which is unique in Tifinar writing, is
already remarkable enough. But there is better still. Now we will read
it."
Getting it wrong three times out of seven I finally succeeded, with
Morhange's help, in spelling the word.
"Have you got it?" asked Morhange when I had finished my task.
"Less than ever," I answered, a little put out;
"a,n,t,i,n,h,a,--Antinha, I don't know that word, or anything like it,
in all the Saharan dialects I am familiar with."
Morhange rubbed his hands together. His satisfaction was without
bounds.
"You have said it. That is why the discovery is unique."
"Why?"
"There is really nothing, either in Berber or in Arabian, analogous to
this word."
"Then?"
"Then, my dear friend, we are in the presence of a foreign word,
translated into Tifinar."
"And this word belongs, according to your theory, to what language?"
"You must realize that the letter e does not exist in the Tifinar
alphabet. It has here been replaced by the phonetic sign which is
nearest to it,--h. Restore e to the place which belongs to it in the
word, and you have--"
"Antinea."
"'Antinea,' precisely. We find ourselves before a Greek vocable
reproduced in Tifinar. And I think that now you will agree with me
that my find has a certain interest."
That day we had no more conferences upon texts. A loud cry, anguished,
terrifying, rang out.
We rushed out to find a strange spectacle awaiting us.