OTHER CUNEIFORM RECORDS 185 reckoned among the memorable accomplishments of the nineteenth century. Let us hope that those blessings may always come true which Darius invokes in the inscription itself upon those who preserve the inscription and make it known to the people, for Auramazda shall be their friend. CHAPTER XIV THE GREAT BEHISTAN ROCK AND AN ASCENT TO READ THE CUNEIFORM RECORDS OF DARIUS1 'I wol yow all thys shap devyse - CHAUCER, House of Fame, 3. 23-28. EASTER MONDAY, April 13, 1903, will remain for me a memorable date in the calendar, for on that morning, after four days on horseback from Hamadan, I caught my first glimpse of the mountain of Behistan and the great inscription of Darius. For miles before one reaches it the huge mass of rock is constantly in sight, lifting its giant head seventeen hundred feet above the plain; and several times in the distance my eager eyes were mistaken in fancying I could see from afar the smoothed surface where the Great King's edict is inscribed. This was an error, for in approaching by the Hamadan road one must round the northeast corner of the mountain before the inscription can be seen. It was shortly before noon, or, to be more accurate, 11.25 A.M., when my caravan halted at the base of Bisitun, as the Persians call it, and far above I could see the inscription and the sculptured figures which the natives term the Nine Dervishes.' 1 Reprinted with some additions and minor corrections from my report in JAOS. 24. 77-95. The additions are: 1. 51, patiyāvahyaiy; 2. 61, Oauravā 6 harahya; the notice of the Gotarzes sculpture; and the account of the monolith at the close of the chapter. |