"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 [Transcriber's Note: Rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise], 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?"