Sanscrit Writing and Language. 99 



expression of foreign names, it was not productive to him of any serious incon- 

 venience. On the other hand, the case is very different with respect to the 

 Indian, and the wonder excited by his writing is, not that he adopted a new 

 method of using his letters, but that he did not extend that method throughout 

 the entire of his practice. Had he done so, no possible means would have been 

 left of now discovering the origin of his first alphabetic writing. As to the 

 second kind, which he mingles with the first, he could not have learned it from 

 observation of any Asiatic writing ; for in none of the Shemitic class of languages 

 is there afforded an example of syllables beginning with a vowel.* The supe- 

 rior part of his system must, therefore, be traced to an European source ; and as 

 he had more intercourse with the Greeks than the Romans, he probably derived 

 it from the writing of the former people. 



It has been already mentioned on the authority of Rufinus, — who lived near 

 the time of the event to which I allude, and had his information immediately 

 from the very companion of the person who was principally engaged in bringing 

 it about ; — that the Abyssinlans were not converted to Christianity, and did not 

 receive the Greek Scriptures till the year of our era 335.t And it has also been 

 proved that the vocalization of their syllabary originated in their acquaintance 

 with Greek writing. From both circumstances combined it follows that, in all 

 likelihood, this syllabary did not attain to the state in which it has been trans- 

 mitted to us till after the middle of the fourth century ; and, consequently, that 

 the formation of the Sanscrit syllabary was not commenced till a still later epoch. 

 If it be objected to the former part of my conclusion, that the Abyssinians may 



* Arabic and Persian syllables beginning with an Halifare now usually represented in Roman 

 letters as commencing with the vowel A ; but this oriental letter had originally an aspirate ingre- 

 dient in its power, as may be known from its prototype the Hebrew Haleph. In like manner the 

 Hebrew Waw, which, when used to express a conjunction, is generally read by the syllable We, is 

 in some particular cases pronounced simply as the vowel U. But in such cases the old pronunciation 

 of the conjunctive sign was Wm ; and it was only from the difficulty of making the consonantal part 

 of this syllable perceptible in rapid utterance, that in the course of time it came to be dropped. 



•f Their translation of the Bible shows to a certainty, that, when they made it, they were un- 

 acquainted with the original Hebrew text, which they could not have been if they then were of the 

 Jewish religion. They must, therefore, have been converted to Christianity from Paganism, and 

 consequently, on that occasion have received for the first time the Greek version of the Old as well 

 as of the New Testament. 



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