96 The Rev. Dr. Wall on the Nature, Age, and Origin of the 



powers including i and u are next to each other in both series, yet they ai'e not in 

 the same order ; and that the syllables exhibiting the two states of a, are sepa- 

 rated from each other in the former series. In consequence of these differences 

 a perfect identity of the two systems cannot be maintained ; but still there is left 

 between them a degree of resemblance that is highly remarkable ; and when it is 

 considered how very singular is the arrangement of the terms in the former series, 

 and that the resemblance in question holds not only between it and the latter 

 one, but also, as far as the vocalization is concerned, between all the series of the 

 two systems, it will be found quite beyond the range of probability that the 

 second system could have been formed without a knowledge of the first. 



But the extraordinary similarity of the Ethiopic and Sanscrit syllabaries, — a 

 similarity, indeed, that would be utterly inexplicable and nearly miraculous, if 

 one of them was not derived from observation of the other — holds not only in the 

 nature of the two systems as now unfolded, but also in their application, and that 

 too even in cases where it was very difficult to contrive a way of preserving it. 

 In the Ethiopic mode of writing, a syllable is always expressed by one or two 

 characters, according as it ends with a vowel or consonantal power ; and in the 

 Sanscrit method likewise, a syllable is always denoted by one or two characters, 

 according as the Pandits look upon its termination as a vowel or a curtailed 

 syllabic power. In the former system, in which every syllable of the language 

 connected with it begins with a simple articulation, this mode of expression Is 

 quite natural ; but in the latter system, in the employment of which syllables are 

 often to be written which commence with a combination of two, or of three con- 

 sonantal powers, it is obviously a very forced one. Yet even in such cases the 

 Hindoo writer adheres to the model placed before him by the Ethiopic practice ; 

 and with that view — for it is inconceivable that the mutilation could have origi- 



several letters ; but in the Tarnish system there are only twelve columns, the six which were intro- 

 duced by the Brahmans through gross ignorance of the subject, being in this syllabary rejected. 

 The Grantha syllabary is the only one of those given by Captain Harkness, in which the series of 

 syllables denoted by each letter is precisely the same as in the Sanscrit system ; they are, however, 

 all the rest as well as the Grantha one, ascertained to be derived from this system ; and yet in all of 

 them, it deserves to be remarked, the letters are entirely different in shape from the Deva-Nagari 

 characters. This circumstance verifies an assertion I have already made upon the subject ; and the 

 publication shows by special examples the justness of the remark, that, in tracing the origin of 

 any alphabetic system, we should attend far more to the powers with which the letters are used, than 

 to their shapes. 



