500 REMARKS ON THE ORIGIN 
tery, in which latter case, however, I have 
observed some characters evidently produced after 
the manner of A or B, namely, when the cha- 
racter is considerably off at one side, either to 
the right or left hand; and such occur-in com- 
bination with those of the more regular form, so as 
to lead me to suppose that they might have been 
so produced intentionally different to the other, 
so as to stand for some conventional character simi- 
lar to our system of punctuation in orthography. 
It will be also worthy of remark, in reference to 
the manner in which the three-sided or triangular 
style of the Babylonian brickmakers was used, 
that by means of the same simple instrument not 
only could an infinite variety of letters be pro- 
duced, but also any variety in the size of the 
characters, simply by the greater or less amount 
of depression of the style into, or under, the 
surface of the moist clay, the proportions of the 
characters being in all cases the same, whatever 
might be the size, which is also one of the many 
beautiful properties of this admirable system of 
inscription ; besides which the inclined position 
of the hand and style, with regard to the surface 
of the clay, which position is absolutely requisite 
in the production of these characters, renders the 
hand clear from any accidental contact with the 
