186 Rev. Epwarp Hincks on the Number, Names, and Powers 
its expletive. Its value is determined by the Coptic equivalents of the words of 
which it forms a part; as 22e, Ma, truth; 2eo~e, MaUI, brightness. 
8. A half arch, as Dr. Young called it, or the frame of a boat, as Chevalier 
Bunsen considers it to be (M. 3; m. 3), was habitually interchanged with the 
owl in hieroglyphic texts of the age of the papyri, and has there the same exple- 
tive, the arm. It was used as a letter unquestionably in the beginning of the 
fourth age (tomb at Kurna, L. 11). Under the twelfth dynasty I have only met 
with it once (E. I. 19. 2), between the /eaf and the ovw/ ; and it is only in a like 
position that it occurs in the papyri, unless when marked as ideographic by the 
vertical line following it. It is a question, therefore, whether it was not origi- 
nally a syllabic sign for aM. It is, however, common in hieroglyphics to place 
together two homophones, rather than two like characters, to express a doubled 
letter at the end of a word. See No. 13, infra. 
9. A waved line (N. 1; n. 1), with the eagle for its expletive (sometimes 
replaced by three vertical lines, implying that the waved line should be thrice 
repeated, by which the ideograph of water, Va, was formed), represents N, as 
the transcriptions IIT. 1, 3; IV. 2, 3, shew. It was used in the first age, on the 
tomb of Teta. 
10. A vase of water (N. 2; n. 2) was homophonous with the preceding, 
but was properly used in a different set of words. This propriety of spelling 
is, however, sometimes violated, and thus the characters are abusively inter- 
changed; e. g. the pronoun “I,” Coptic amok, was properly written with N. 2; 
but Champollion quotes it written with N.1, in a Theban inscription of the 
standard age (Gr. p. 251). It was thus confounded with the preposition and 
affix *‘to thee.” In like manner the vague possessive article after plural nouns 
was properly written with N. 2, followed by a vertical line, denoting its being to 
be pronounced as if it was an ideograph, 7. e. as Va, “water ;” but in one of the 
papyri (Pl. 16, 1.5) the waved line and eagle are twice substituted for this, 
which would be properly the definite article before a plural noun. ‘That it could 
not have been intended for that here is evident from one of the nouns which 
follows it being a feminine singular. The expletive of this character is the 
quail, and in lieu of adding this the character was sometimes trebled. This cha- 
racter is found on the coffin of Menkare in the first age, and there is no reason 
for doubting that it was there used as a letter. 
