of the Letters of the Hieroglyphic Alphabet. 199 
quently interchanged with the &, the power of which is admitted to be V. The 
three words above quoted are all found written in Coptic with this letter, as well 
as with ¢7; and we may, therefore, infer that the latter had the power of V, and 
not P, for we never find it interchanged with m. It may be said that the ¢ must 
have had some different value from &, or it would not have been introduced into 
the Coptic alphabet ; and Dr. Schwartze supposes this value to have been that 
of F. We have seen, however, that the cerastes could not have had this value, 
but must have been equivalent either to the V or P class of phonoglyphs. It is 
much the most probable way of accounting for the introduction of into the alpha- 
bet, to suppose that it was intended to represent our V, or rather the German 
W:; while & was to have been confined to express the sound of B in words of 
Greek origin, and words like &apt, a boat, which commenced with the sound of 
our English B. If so, however, the intention was not carried out, and the & is 
used ambiguously, sometimes representing this its proper sound, but more fre- 
quently the German W, as in Sac, a saw, where the quail was used in the hiero- 
glyphic writing ; in RG, a hawk, where the /eg, and in 8a, a palm-branch, where 
the cerastes replaced it. 
Again, it appears from the Hebrew, that the cerastes represented V and not 
P. The affix of the third person singular masculine was expressed by this cha- 
racter in the old Egyptian language ; but this was ) in Hebrew. 
Lastly, whatever evidence is furnished by Indo-germanic affinities is to the 
same effect. The V class of phonoglyphs corresponded to V in Latin ; as in VI, 
a way (fig. 141), vah, a cow (fig. 143), connected with via, vacca; while the P 
class corresponded to P in Latin, as in Pet, a foot, PeSt, a back (whence post), 
Pet, the sceptre indicating authority (connected with pote, woos, &c.), and 
PeXXa, i.e. PeX (fig. 147), a lioness (Germ. fiihe, a female beast of prey, the 
Latin word corresponding to which should begin with P). This last is equiva- 
lent to the word which Champollion, guided by the mistaken analogy of Baor 
in BovBaoris, read Pasht, and which has since been read Paxt, or Pext. The 
semicircle is, however, a non-phonetic sign of the feminine gender ; at least it is 
clearly written as such,—Pap. PI. 145, 1. 3; 156, 1.5; 157, 1. 3; and 160, l. 2,—being 
followed by the egg (fig. 148); and the few instances in which the semcircle is 
accompanied by its expletive, or repeated before the egg, are probably errors. This 
was not the true name of this goddess, which was probably Menhi, but an appella- 
