84 TRANSACTION'S OF THE [dEC. 7, 



only in the Book of the Dead. For business and secuhir pur- 

 poses, however, they drew these pictures on paper or leather 

 either in outline or very much abbreviated. It was in this form, 

 known as the Hieratic, that other than African nations saw the 

 Egy])tian writing, although they knew from report that the 

 Egyptians wrote in pictures, and that those Hieratic signs had 

 originally been pictures. That other nations must have gained 

 their letters from Egypt seems to be proved by an inscription of 

 Ramses II., recording the treaty between him and the Ilittites, 

 and the fact that tlie Hittites (mentioned so frequently in the 

 Bible) were to engrave the same inscription in their language on 

 a tablet of silver. Many monuments in ^Ethiojiia (Nubia) have 

 been discovered with Egyptian letters, but not Egyptian words, 

 ])roving that these nations wrote words of their language in 

 Egyptian characters, as the Jews nowadays frequently write 

 their English or German in Hebrew letters. The commerce of 

 Egypt naturally brought it in close connection with the Shemi- 

 tic tribes, and the Shemites thus had opportunity to see Egyptian 

 writing. Now the Egyptians were accustomed to spell foreign 

 Shemitic names in pure letters, which they could alone have 

 taught the Phoenicians, as the Hieroglyphs were too sacred to 

 be divulged, and of these letters the Phoenicians adopted twenty- 

 two. This may have taken place about 1600 B.C., at any rate, 

 before the time of Moses. But the Pha3nicians advanced to a 

 position superior to the Egyptians, for, while the latter had 

 signs for letters and syllables, the Phoenicians had only letters. 

 Their letters had consequently also the same sound as the 

 Egyptian letters. As far as we know, the Egyptians had no 

 names for their letters, but only the sound. The Phoenicians, 

 knowing that what they now had were really pictures, and wish- 

 ing to lay stress on this fact, that is, to express in the name of the 

 letter its sound and its picture at the same time, gave names of 

 objects to their letters. The Egyptian form of their letter could 

 not give them a clue as to how the picture looked originally, 

 and had they known it, they could not have called their letter 

 after it. For instance, the "eagle" (or A) is called *^27^ 

 {nesJier) or D^^^ (peres) in Hebrew; but how could they have 

 called their letter A by a word beginning with an N or a P; or 

 the ''snake" (or F) is I^*n3 {nacJxisli) in Hebrew, thus begin- 

 ning with an N, while the letter is F. But they did not know 

 the original pictures, and consequently gave names to each let- 

 ter according to their fancy. The A they called aleph, ''ox;" 

 the B, beth, "house;" the G, f/imel, "camel;" the D, ddleth, 

 "door," etc. These names they handed down to the Greeks 

 and the Copts, while the Romans and all succeeding nationali- 

 ties rectified this blunder by only calling each letter by its 



