Tbegeak. — Ancient Alphabets in Polynesia. 355 



not call letters by these names, they had similar names for the 

 things by which these letters were known. In the ancient 

 world there was far greater activity and intercommunication of 

 peoples than is generally believed. The wide distribution of 

 jade (greenstone) as ornaments, and of the tin necessary for the 

 production of bronze, (both tin and jade being found in few 

 places,) give proofs of widely extended travel and perhaps of 

 commerce. The three letters in question are k, f, and t. 



The Letter " K." 



The hieroglyphic system of writing is of immense antiquity, 

 of a time so remote as to be almost beyond our realization. As 

 a script it was beginning to fall into disuse before Moses led the 

 Israelites out of Egypt — that is, before the national birth of the 

 Hebrew people. All the events which, occurring in Palestine, 

 have so affected the history of the world, took place since the 

 hieroglyphic system of "verbal phonograms" passed away; it 

 can scarcely be doubted that this early form of writing originated 

 in Egypt, not later than 8,000 years ago. The Hieroglyphic 

 passed into the Hieratic, and it was this form which was adopted 

 by the Hebrews. 



The A- found in the hieroglyphs is called kaph, and is written 

 as a cup or bowl (see Plate XX., fig. 1). In the Hieratic script, 

 kaph is written as a hand, with bent or looped fingers (fig. 2) ; 

 this form merged into the Jewish kaph. Kaph is usually held 

 to mean " palm of the hand," or, more probably, as Bottcher 

 suggests, " the bent hand." " The form of the Hieratic character 

 in the Papyrus Prisse seems to be decidedly in favour of this 

 explanation, as will be seen by placing the two figures side by 

 side."* The Hebrew form (fig. 3) evidently represents the hand 

 and fingers. The Semitic k — i.e., kaph, "the hand," became the 

 Greek k or kappa, early Moabite kaph (fig. 4), Nineveh kaph 

 (fig. 5), Baal Lebanon kaph (fig. 6). The Baal Lebanon inscrip- 

 tion was written on bronze fragments, which when discovered 

 were broken up smaller by a peasant, in order that he might 

 ascertain if they were made of gold. The inscription states 

 that : " This vessel of good bronze was offered by a citizen of 

 Carthage to Baal Lebanon, his Lord." The Pelasgic = k, but 

 the Etruscan and Oscan as in fig. 7 ; the Messapian = fig. 8. 

 These last show resemblance to the kappa of the Thera inscrip- 

 tions. The island of Thera (Santorin) is said to have been the 

 place where Cadmus invented the Greek letters. The island is 

 a long-extinct volcano, but under its ashes inscriptions have 

 been found upon the rocks, and these are supposed to be the 

 oldest Greek inscriptions in the world. One of these (see fig. 9) 

 reads icpiropvXov ; not only is the kappa turned, but the writing 



* " The Alphabet," Taylor, vol. i„ p. 172. 



