196 Rev. Epwarp Hrncxs on the Number, Names, and Powers 
though the latter is used as a noun, and the former generally as a verb. Here the 
o in the middle of the word, pronounced W, represents the /eg. The word for 
‘‘harp,” already noticed, written with the /eg in the papyrus, is in Coptic ovsuortt. 
Other instances will be adduced hereafter, in which the /eg is implicitly contained 
in words that appear, from their Greek transcriptions, not to have had it sounded 
otherwise than asa W. Such are the word for “son,” transcribed oe, and etymolo- 
gically connected with vi-os, and aai-s, the name of a town. That the leg is, 
however, in many instances, equivalent to our V, is indisputable,—see transcrip- 
tions, II. 3, and IV. 7; nor could it have had the value of B in conjunction with 
another letter, as in IT. 6, 7, and even alone, as in II. 1, and frequently in the 
later ages, unless it had sometimes, at least, more of the nature of a consonant 
than our W. 
I conclude, then, that these four characters must be classed together, as 
U, W, V, just as the dion and mouth are classed together as R, L. In tran- 
scribing Egyptian words, it will be proper to write for any such letter the first or 
leading value, if there be no mode of deciding which was its value in that parti- 
cular word which is transcribed, or if it can be determined that the first was its 
value ; but to substitute one of the latter values, if there be ground for coming to 
the conclusion that this was the value which it had in that word. Thus, I would 
transcribe the word, fig. 149, UWeN, not UUN; the name of the “lion,” con- 
tained in fig. 22, LeW or LeV, not RU. Probably, the consonantal sound of 
this letter was that of the German W, which is, as I understand, imtermediate 
between our V and W, produced by a contact of the lips alone, not of the lower 
lip and upper teeth. See Rapp. Phil. d. Spr. vol. i. p. 59, where he maintains 
that this was the sound of the Greek f in later times, as it is in the modern 
Greek. It was probably also that of the Latin V. 
27. A cerastes, or horned serpent, was in use from the earliest period as a 
letter, occurring in the royal name found in the great pyramid. It is here 
followed by the quail, apparently as its expletive, which it may have been origi- 
nally. But when the pair of oblique lines was introduced into the alphabet, it 
became the expletive of this letter. Its power has now to be investigated, and 
it requires to be so with great attention. In the transcriptions of Hebrew words 
it occurs once only, II. 8, where it replaces the Hebrew 5, probably answering to 
our , but possibly to our P. This is consistent with the letter having either of 
these values ; but it is also consistent with a third supposition, namely, that the 
