he art of writing, and practised
it--at least from the time that they succeeded to the dominion of the
Assyrians--scarcely admits of a doubt. An illiterate nation, which
conquers one in possession of a literature, however it may despise
learning and look down upon the mere literary life, is almost sure to
adopt writing to some extent on account of its practical utility. It
is true the Medes have left us no written monuments; and we may fairly
conclude from that fact that they used writing sparingly; but besides
the antecedent probability, there is respectable evidence that letters
were known to them, and that, at any rate, their upper classes could
both read and write their native tongue. The story of the letter sent
by Harpagus the Mede to Cyrus in the belly of a hare, though probably
apocryphal, is important as showing the belief of Herodotus on the
subject. The still more doubtful story of a despatch written on
parchment by a Median king, Artseus, and sent to Nanarus, a provincial
governor, related by Nicolas of Damascus, has a value, as indicating
that writer's conviction that the Median monarchs habitually conveyed
their commands to their subordinates in a written form. With these
statements of profane writers agree certain notices which we find in
Scripture. Darius the Mode, shortly after the destruction of the Median
empire, "signs" a decree, which his chief nobles have presented to him
in writing. He also himself "writes" another decree addressed to his
subjects generally. In later times we find that there existed at the
Persian court a "book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and
Persia," in which was probably a work begun under the Median and
continued under the Persian sovereigns.

If then writing was practised by the Medes, it becomes interesting to
consider whence they obtained their knowledge of it, and what was the
system which they employed. Did they bring an alphabet with them from
the far East, or did they derive their first knowledge of letters
from the nations with whom they came into contact after their great
migration? In the latter case, did they adopt, with or without
modifications, a foreign system, or did they merely borrow the idea of
written symbols from their new neighbors, and set to work to invent for
themselves an alphabet suited to the genius of their own tongue? These
are some of the questions which present themselves to the mind as
deserving of attention, when this subject is brou