3. The same sign is often the representation of a word and a
syllable.

4. Often (and this is the hardest condition) the same sign is used
to represent different syllables. Thus the same sign is sometimes
read "ilou," and sometimes "an." This writing was difficult even
for those who executed it. "A good half of the cuneiform monuments
which we possess comprises guides (grammars, dictionaries,
pictures), which enable us to decipher the other half, and which
we consult just as Assyrian scholars did 2,500 years ago."[19]

Cuneiform inscriptions have been solved in the same manner as the
Egyptian hieroglyphics--there was an inscription in three
languages--Assyrian, Mede, and Persian. The last gave the key to the
other two.

=The Assyrian People.=--The Assyrians were a race of hunters and
soldiers. Their bas-reliefs ordinarily represent them armed with bow
and lance, often on horseback. They were good knights--alert, brave,
clever in skirmish and battle; also bombastic, deceitful, and
sanguinary. For six centuries they harassed Asia, issuing from their
mountains to hurl themselves on their neighbors, and returning with
entire peoples reduced to slavery. They apparently made war for the
mere pleasure of slaying, ravaging, and pillaging. No people ever
exhibited greater ferocity.

=The King.=--Following Asiatic usage they regarded their king as the
representative of God on earth and gave him blind obedience. He was
absolute master of all his subjects, he led them in battle, and at