11 



"3t (T. W., p. 293), i", or yi, to change. Yi-ci.g, the third of 

 \?J the five classical books of the Chinese, treats of the doctrine 

 of changes, combinations, and transmutations. Chaos is supposed to 

 have been divided into two parts, answering to male and female. A 

 unit, or odd number, answers to the male energy, — a duad, or even 

 number, to the female. The simplest *' change," or combination of 

 the unit and duad, is the triad. 



7a^ (T. W., p. 275), ur, the ear. The word ur (differently 

 / written), also signifies two, and the word tfa (Canton dia- 

 lect, tfat), sometimes signifies "a kind of double collar; reiterated 

 words ; reiterated inquiry." The Sanscrit word for four is tfatur, 

 which is equivalent to the Chinese tfat-ur, " doubled-two." 



^ (T. W., p. 283), u^, or vu^, a crow; black. The root vu" 



^ (though differently written), also signifies five. Some of the 



other characters that resemble the Arabic figure 5, are the following : 



^ (T. W., p. 30), tfo, estab- *^ (T. W., p. 35), tfa% to 

 0- lished. Cy contain. 



»H (T. W., p. 205), fa% to hold fast, (fa^u, differently written, 

 S^ also means ^' hand.") The Sanscrit word for five is pantfan, 

 which may perhaps combine the two Chinese roots, pan, to grasp 

 with the hand, and tfan, to take or select with the hand. Is it too 

 great a tax upon the imagination to suppose that the resemblance of 

 the figure 5 to the outline of the thumb and forefinger of a closed 

 hand, may have been the origin of the Arabic character as well as of 

 the above hieroglyphs ? 



I ♦ I or I I / J fa^n, a hill. The first character is almost precisely 

 ■■^ T preserved, both in form and in phonetic value, in 



the Russian alphabet, in the letters fa^ and tfa, and in the Hebrew 

 ly. The same form, when turned to the right, makes the Roman E, 

 — and when turned to the left, the Hebrew coin-letter for n. The 

 Arabic and Samaritan characters and the Hebrew coin-letters, that 

 correspond to ly, present striking resemblances to the Greek I, B 

 (which is the nearest approach the Greeks could make to the f sound) 

 and e, as well as to the Arabic digit 3. 



The Chinese word for three is sa^n, which is represented by three 

 horizontal strokes (as if fa''il were turned at right angles, and the 

 connecting stroke removed), thus resembling la^n both in sound and 

 form. The Roman character (III) preserves the form of fa^n still 

 more perfectly, inasmuch as the lines are perpendicular.* It is not 



* The perpendicular lines are sometimes used by the Chinese. 



