of the Letters of the Hieroglyphic Alphabet. 231 
it (fig. 184), is transcribed by 0 and ». Ido not bring this fact forward as 
direct evidence to prove that the group had the same value twelve or thirteen 
centuries previously ; but I think it must be admitted that it goes a good way 
towards neutralizing any argument against its having had that value, founded on its 
intrinsic improbability. I next observe, that if this be not the value of the group, 
we must, unless we reject Champollion’s identification of the Egyptian word 
for ‘‘ great”’ with ma. (and I can see no grounds for rejecting it), read it Nay, 
or simply N, supposing the pike to be alphabetic, and the arm its expletive. 
Now, the group in question occurs in a great variety of words, where it seems 
clearly to express one element of sound. For example, it begins the name of the 
second of the four races of mankind mentioned in Belzoni’s tomb and elsewhere. 
The remainder of the name is Al (U 2), M4, with the plural sign implying 
the termination U. The four first characters are sometimes replaced by the bar- 
baric club, which in fig. 16, and elsewhere, is used as a determinative sign to the 
names of foreign countries and cities. According to my proposed value, it would 
represent as a phonoglyph OA, the name bemg OAMU. Unfortunately, neither 
this name nor NAMU, nor NayAMU, is capable of identification with any known 
name.* I think, however, that the value NAyA is too complicated for it to be 
likely to be expressed by a single character; and, on the other hand, if the two 
first characters were simply N, or any simple consonant, the expression of the A 
by the eagle, attended with its expletive, between it and another consonant, is 
scarcely consistent with usage. I at one time read the name of this people 
NayU AMU;; supposing the Mynn of Gen. xiv. 5, to be intended, and the epi- 
thet “ great,” or “gigantic,” to be prefixed. This reading, however, requires 
a transposition of the characters A and U; and now that I have discovered the 
relation of the latter of these letters to the former, as its expletive, and that I have 
* It has lately occurred to me that it is the plural form of the Semitic, OY, people. The 
first of the four races, that of the Egyptians, is called the LeTU, which means, “people” in the 
Egyptian, here allied to some of the Indo-Germanic tongues. It is the very name assumed by the 
Letti, whence Lithuania. The second race may, then, very naturally, have been called from the 
Semitic name for “ people.” Belzoni supposed these to be Jews; and in the tomb of Nevotp, at 
Benihassan, they have been supposed to be the family of Jacob. Ido not admit either of these 
identifications ; but the fact of their having been made by others, shews that the appearance of 
this people in the sculptures is not inconsistent with the supposition that they may have applied 
to themselves the name which we are considering, read as I have proposed, in the sense of ‘ people.” 
