used by different Nations, 317 



In Bengali the S is expressed by the figure of a crescent, and 

 2, 5, 6, 8, and 9 are quite different from the Devanagari 

 figures *. The numerical figures of Guzerath are only dis- 

 torted Indian Devanagari figures f. 



*?jf shall make no observation on the influence of the earliest 

 numerical figures on the form of the alphabetical letters, nor 

 of the distortion of the letters purposely introduced in order 

 to distingush them from the numerical signs, nor even on thift^ 

 difference of the place which a figure used in both respects 

 occupies sometimes (as in the aboudjet of the Semitic tribes 

 in Asia and Arica) J. Such observations do not belong to the^ 

 subject of this essay, and have been the origin of many 

 groundless hypotheses in comparing the alphabetical letters 

 with the numerical hieroglyphics. I myself was once of the 

 opinion that the Indian figures, notwithstanding the form of 

 two and three, were the letters of an obsolete alphabet, of 

 which yet some traces are found among the Phoenician, Sama- ^ 

 ritan, Palmyrian, and Egyptian characters, (the last on the 

 mummies). Even the old Persian monuments of Nahshi 

 Rustan seem to exhibit them §. How many characters in 

 these inscriptions resemble in a striking manner the nume- 

 rical figures known under the name of Indian ! Many other 

 scholars have likewise asserted, that the numerical figures 

 called the Indian, are derived from the Phoenician alphabet ||, 

 and the sagacious Eckhel has already observed that the simi- 

 larity between the letters of the Phoenicians and the numerical 

 figures was so great, that the word Abdera is expressed by 

 19990, and by 15550^. But the origin of the numerical 

 figures, as well as that of the alphabetical letters, is enveloped 

 in an obscurity, to dissipate which, by a philological investi- 

 gation, founded on historical facts, is rendered impossible by ^ 



* Graves Chamney Houghton, Rud.of Bengali Grammar, 1821, p. 133. 



f Robert Drummond, Illustrations of the Grammatical Parts of the Guzerath 

 and Mahratt Language, 1818, p. 25. 



X Silvestre de Sacy, t. i., p. 10, 



§ Silvestre de Sacy, Antiquites de la Perse, PI. I., n, 1. Compare the nume- 

 rical inscriptions on Mount Sinai, in Description de I'Egypte, vol. v. PI. LVII. 



II Guyot de la Mame in Mem. de Trevoux, 1736, pi 160 ; 1740. Mars, p. 269. 

 John, BibL Archeol. b. i., p. 479. Biittner, vergl. Tafeln, 1769, St. i., p. 13. 

 Eichhom, Einleitung in der alte Testam. b. i., p. 197. Wahl, Geschichte.der Mor- 

 genl. Litteratur, p. 601, 630. Fundgruben des Orients, b. iii., p. 87. 



^ Doctrina Numerorum veterum, 1794, t. iii, p. 396 — 404, 421, 494. 



APRIL — JUNE, 1830. Y 



