of the Letters of the Hieroglyphic Alphabet. 159 
formed by the addition of expletive characters to the letters themselves; and 
that expletives should, consequently, be assumed for these letters which had them 
not in the first instance. 
This brings us, then, to consider the last question—why the use of ex- 
pletives prevailed among the Egyptian scribes. It cannot be alleged with any 
reason that they used them merely to increase the quantity of their work, for 
which they were probably paid by the line. This may have influenced them to 
use them toa greater extent than they would otherwise have done, as it probably 
influenced them also to use determinative signs to a greater extent than necessity 
required, or, perhaps I may say, than strict propriety warranted ; but it could 
not have been the principal reason for the practice being adopted and retained. 
The opinion I have formed on this subject is, that expletive letters were first 
used in hierographic writing, and that the cause of using them was the great 
resemblance which certain hierographs bear to each other. Those, for instance, 
which correspond to the mowth, R, and to the semicircle, T, are absolutely 
undistinguishable. Not only the T of one manuscript is formed as the R of ano- 
ther, but the T and R of the same manuscript are often formed precisely in the 
same manner.* How, then, are they to be distinguished? In known words, the 
* As connected with this, it may be worthy of remark that the same syllabic sign is some- 
times used to express syllables terminating with T and with R. Thus, the hierographic equiva- 
lent of a character which may, perhaps, represent a dead ovvi (see fig. 86), is used in the papyri 
to represent MeL, “a keeper,”’ or ‘* owner,” MuT, ‘‘a mother,” and MeT, “death,” or ‘ to die.” 
These three words are only to be distinguished by determinative signs; the first occurs, among 
other places, Pl. 84, 1. 8, 9, and has no determinative (fig. 86). The second differs from this in 
that it is followed by the seated female figure, Pl. 149, 1. 9; and the third by the Orya’s horn, 
Pl. 92,1. 7, or the sparrow, Pl. 90, 1.11, the usual determinatives of words expressing what is 
bad. In the same papyrus these words are all written exactly alike; and the two characters in 
question are also used as a syllable in many other words. A similar instance has been already 
noticed with respect to the character which begins the name of Egypt in fig. 78; and I have 
observed others. It appears to me the most probable way of accounting for this, to suppose that 
the sounds of R and D (which was the power of the semicircle on the sea-coast of Egypt) were 
confounded ; as we know they were in the languages of all neighbouring countries, in which they 
are interchanged in many words, and in which the letters, when distinguished, were only made to 
differ very slightly. The distinction between them was, I conceive, not made till after the intro- 
duction of the hierographic characters; and when it was made, it was only attended to in the 
hieroglyphics, the mouth being appropriated to the sound R, while the semicircle, which was 
