of the Letters of the Hieroglyphic Alphabet. 189 
the agent. In this last case, if not in the others also, the vowel I is to be 
sounded after it ; and, though not expressed in the first age, it began to be so in 
the latter part of the second, either by the addition of the éwo oblique lines 
(I. 2), or by the duplication of the semicircle. The latter mode is, however, 
ambiguous. On the tomb of Teta the doubled semicircle occurs ; but the second 
one is here a sign or formative of the feminine gender, not an equivalent for 
the vowel I. In the titles of Amenemhe I. (B. E. H. 10, 3), three semicircles 
are used to express the vowel U (fig. 137), as in a subsequent part of this in- 
cription two semicircles appear to be used for I. The word here represented is 
elsewhere written as in fig. 138. This inscription is from the Cosseir Raad, 
and was probably the work of some ignorant person. A semicircle, followed 
by three small lines, equivalent to three semicircles, is elsewhere used for TU, 
as the two semicircles are for TI: but the addition of another semicircle seems 
unjustifiable. The expletive of this character was the quail ; and it is used, 
both as an ideoglyph and a phonoglyph, on the tomb of Teta. 
18. A twisted rope (H. 1; h. 1), represents H, as appears from the Coptic 
equivalents to the words in which it occurs, and from the circumstance of its 
being passed over in Greek transcriptions, as in ”A-poows, ’A-mpins, Nexrav- 
eBns, all which names are written hieroglyphically with this character in the 
middle. Had it been a stronger aspirate than the H, it would have been 
expressed by the Greek x ; and had it been a hamza, or smooth breathing, it 
would have been omitted in the Coptic ; whereas it appears in 009, the moon, 
aaH ; €9,€, a cow, eH; coovg,e, an egg, SUH; Tag,T, lead, teHT1; 9,Ruvc, 
clothing, HbS, &. The expletive of this character is the gual, and it is used 
in the first age, on the tomb that has been so often mentioned. 
19. A plan of a house (H. 2; h. 2) also represents H. This appears from 
its use in the transcriptions IV. 1, 2, and at a later age, fig. 20; also from com- 
paring HebNI, ebony, which begins with this letter, with the Hebrew jan; and 
RUHa, fig. 36, with the Coptic powg,e, evening. This character is rarely 
interchanged with the preceding, being appropriated by usage to distinct words, 
as we have seen that N. 1 and N. 2 were ; sometimes, however, it is interchanged 
with it, as in figs. 36 and 37, and it must have had the same power. Its exple- 
tive was the eagle, and it was used in the first age, on the tomb of Teta. 
20. A basin (K. 1; k. 1), used on the coffin of Menkare, in the first age, 
