of the Letters of the Hieroglyphic Alphabet. 14] 
tree with three small bars under it, we have the semicircle with the branch of a 
tree under it (fig. 13); while the feminine possessive pronoun of the second 
person singular masculine is prefixed. The branch of a tree is a generic deter- 
minative sign, used after the names of objects that were usually made of wood. 
The semicircle is a determinative sign of the feminine gender, as the three small 
bars are of the plural number. The word, as it appears in Pl. 97, means 
“chariots,” but as it appears in Pl. 60, “thy(m) chariot.” It is important to 
attend to this, because it is thus evident that the U preceding the T is not, as I 
at first took it to be, the representative of the } in the feminine plural. It occurs 
equally in the feminine singular, where neither the Hebrew nor any other 
Semitic language introduces ay. The Hebrew transcription is ma557, pro- 
nounced, according to the Masorites, in the singular, Mirkéveth, and in the 
plural, Markauvoth ; the hieroglyphics, according to the received mode of read- 
ing, are in both numbers Ma-ru-ka-bu-ta, in five syllables. Whether the Maso- 
retic punctuation gives the correct pronunciation or no, we may be very sure, 
from all that we know of the Semitic languages, that if all the letters in the 
Egyptian transcript be sounded as above, they cannot give the true pronunciation 
of the word. 
The next word (fig. 14) occurs PI. 55, |. 1; its determinative signs imply 
that it signifies a collection of water. With all the letters sounded it would be 
I-u-ma, in three syllables. The corresponding Hebrew word p>, Yam, has 
but one; and the Coptic toz%, Yom, has no more. They both signify “ sea,” 
as the Egyptian word certainly does ;—“a city in the sea ; Ta-rw (Tyre) of the 
island is its name.” 
The next word (fig. 15) which occurs, Pl. 75, 1. 7, with the same determi- 
natives as the last, is the Egyptian name of the river which the Greeks called 
"Evdparns, and the Hebrews p45. According to the received mode of reading 
the Egyptian characters, it would be Pu-ha-ru-ta, in four syllables, instead of 
Phrat in one. Can any one suppose that this was the way in which the Egyptians 
pronounced it ? 
The next word (fig. 16) occurs Pl. 27, 1. 6. It has the determinative signs 
which denote a foreign country, and is the name of one of the people who joined 
the Khuta (supposed by Champollion to be the Scythians) in their expedition 
against Egypt. It is obviously the same name as the Hebrew wra545, pointed 
