of the Letters of the Hieroglyphic Alphabet. 157 
MuTeRI, “the land of the two Egypts.”* Another remarkable completion is 
that of the word signifying ‘‘ incense,” Sahidic corte, the final p being dropped, 
as in most cases where it occurred in the old language. The word is very 
variously written, and its different forms have been taken for two or three diffe- 
rent words ; but in all cases the letters SoONTeR are expressed, or 7mplied by 
syllabic signs. In the papyri it is written as in fig. 79. There are here three 
syllabic signs, the pa/m-sprout, following the syllable Ter, as already explained ; 
the axe, Netér, and the character following it, which, alone or followed by the 
waved line, represents Son. The axe which, when it stands by itself, signifies 
“God,” is here used as a syllabic sign, and must be considered as implying 
whatever letters of the word NeTeR are not otherwise expressed. In fig. 79 
all are so expressed, the N being implied by the second character ; but this is not 
always the case. In figs. 80 and 81 will be found some of the various ways in 
which it is written. In the former neither T nor R is found, except as implied 
in the ave, and in the latter neither N nor R. The three grains, or the grain 
with three vertical bars, which are equivalent, are the determinative sign. It is 
possible that the ave in this word, besides having a phonetic value, as just 
explained, may be suggestive of the use of incense in the service of the gods ; 
but though such a suggestive use of phonoglyphs certainly prevailed in the 
Grecian age, I am by no means clear that it did in the early period to which this 
use of this character can be traced. 
I conceive, further, that the characters thus used as letters for the completion 
of syllabic phonoglyphs were themselves occasionally used as syllables, and that 
they were, as such, completed in the fourth way. This was necessary, in order to 
express the names of these letters. The letters in all languages have names, and 
it is a matter of necessity that they should have them; for otherwise it would be 
impossible to describe orally the spelling of words, to give instruction to writers, 
or to correct errors into which they may fall. Now, as the sound expressed by 
as part of a word. When elevated at the angle, it is exclusively used in the word MeR, “to 
love,” and its derivatives. This distinction is observed in all correct texts, and ought not to be 
overlooked. 
* Few persons will doubt that we have here the Dz of the Hebrews, masoretically .Wits- 
rdyim. On this authority we might supply 7 as the first vowel; but I would rather depend on 
the transcription in the first kind of Cuneatic writing, which is Mudrdya at Bisitiin, and Mudraya 
in the plural—they had no dual—at Persepolis. 
