of the Letters of the Hieroglyphic Alphabet. 215 
word seems to intimate not only that the ¢ was pronounced as j, but that the ev 
was sounded ev, as it is in modern Greek ; and this is confirmed by the Talmu- 
dic transcription of evyevys, which is 0)272N. It must be observed that this cha- 
racter, or one exceedingly like it, when doubled, is not equivalent to SS, but has 
a peculiar syllabic value. This is sometimes written differently, as in fig. 159, or 
fig. 161, but the distinction is not always attended to. 
36. A quiver, called by some a weight (S4; s4), is interchanged with the 
preceding in the word SXuS, which we have just been considering, lest any one 
should suppose that its value was the soft s, or 2, as distinguished from the hard s. 
I refer to transcriptions IV., 3, 6,12, in which it corresponds to w. _ Its first use 
as a phonoglyph was as a syllabic sign. It is found, Sharpe, 38, 8 (second period), 
and again, Lepsius, xii., horiz. line (fourth period), between S1 and A 1, which 
together represented its value SA; but in the age of the papyri it was used as al- 
phabetic, being the most frequent representative of s in foreign words. It takes 
for its expletive the small vertical bar, which of course replaces the eagle. In 
pure Egyptian words it is rarely found; originally it was an ideoglyph, and as 
such it was for the most part used in all ages, when not forming part of a proper 
name or foreign word. It signifies ‘the back, or rear,”’ perhaps, from the place 
of the quiver being at the back of the body; and was equivalent to three other 
characters, the hinder part of a lion (fig. 162), and two others (figs. 163 and 
164), which may perhaps have been intended for the back of the head, and the 
back bone and ribs of an animal. All of these were pronounced SA, Coptic ce. 
The two latter occur frequently in the phrase WoN eMSA, “to be at the back 
of,” i.e. to attend upon. 
37. A flying crane (P 2; p2) is the constant representative of the masculine 
article in the age of the papyri. In combination with the pronouns, it is indif- 
ferently used with and without the eagle after it; and when the square mat is 
substituted for it, it takes the quail instead of the eagle. There could not be a 
more satisfactory proof that the article was P alone, and that the eagle is an ex- 
pletive. This character was used at least as early as the third period, in the 
beginning of which it occurs in the name of Pehri, the tenant of one of the tombs 
at Ilithya. I have already spoken of the combination of the flying crane with 
the leg, VP, to represent the sound of b, which had no proper representative at 
Thebes in the age of the papyri. 
