of the Letters of the Eneroglyphic Alphabet. 185 
ponding word was, in the old language, ¢wz or #z (figs. 60, 58), and the latter, 
for which two semicircles were sometimes used, was employed to express the 
syllable ¢i in the third period, chiefly in those words where the semicircle t was 
alone used in the earlier ages. In the fourth period this character was used to 
express I in the other syllables. I have first observed it so used in the name of 
Queen aliMeS-NefeR-aRI, at the beginning of the eighteenth dynasty. It is 
rarely used except in short syllables, where in earlier ages the vowel was omitted, 
and as an expletive. 
3. A quail or chicken (U. 1), has the pair of oblique lines for its expletive ; 
it was used in the first age, being found in the royal name in the great pyramid. 
It is proved to have the power of U or W, from the Coptic equivalents of the 
words which it commences, such as owguop, UHeR, a dog; owswaj&, Usxeb, to 
answer; ovsoemt, UbeN, to shine. It is also the formative of the plural num- 
ber; and this, in Coptic, generally terminates in 0%, ows, H%, or the like, the 
last being a contraction for How. Its proper hierographic equivalent is u. 1, 
formed from it as m.1 from M.1; and this takes the corresponding expletive. 
With this is habitually interchanged u. 2, which cannot be well referred to any 
other hieroglyphic character, and which never takes the expletive after it, and 
may, therefore, include it. I suppose it to be formed, as in fig. 133, from a 
quail, with its legs turned up, as those of the eagle and ow/ sometimes are. 
Whether this letter had ever the power of V will be considered hereafter. 
4. A ball of thread, or lituus, as some have called it (U. 2), is habitually 
interchanged with the gwaz/ in hieroglyphic texts of the age of the papyri, and 
had the same expletive, It had no distinct hierographic character. Chevalier 
Bunsen says that it was not used at all in the old kingdom; but it occurs on a 
stele of Osortasen I. in the British Museum, E. I. 80, 5, in two different words 
in the line. 
5. A square mat (P. 1; p. 1), used in the first age (tomb of Teta), and 
having the quail for its expletive, is shewn to have had the power of P, by the 
transcriptions III. 6; IV. 1 and 12: see also figs. 20 and 62. 
6. An owl (M. 1; m. 1), also used on the tomb of Teta, takes the arm for 
its expletive, and is proved to have had the power of M by transcriptions II. 3, 4, 
5; IV. 4. 
7. A sickle (M. 2; m. 2) is used on the same tomb, and takes the eagle for 
VOL. XXI. 2 A 
