IN HIGHER PEOPLES 189 



Letters have been worn into their present peculiar 

 forms by the various peoples thru whose hands 

 they have come to us. The English got their 

 alphabet from the Romans, who obtained it from 

 the Greeks. The Greeks received it from the 

 Phenicians, and the Phenicians from the papyrus 

 writers of Egypt, who in turn received it from 

 those picture writers who carved their curious lit- 

 erature on the granite tombs of the Nile in the re- 

 motest dawn of human history. 



A, the first letter of the alphabet, is a figure 

 which has been eroded as the result of long wear 

 and tear, from the picture of an eagle ; B was orig- 

 inally the picture of a crane; C represents a 

 throne ; D a hand ; F an asp ; H a sieve ; K a bowl ; 

 L a lioness ; M an owl ; N a water-line ; R a mouth ; 

 S a garden ; T a lassoo ; X a chairback ; and Z a 

 duck. 



The earliest form of human marriage was mar- 

 riage by capture. The man stole the woman, gen- 

 erally from another tribe, and carried her away 

 by force. 



So deeply rooted is the connection between force 

 and marriage that the pretense of obtaining a 

 bride by force was observed as a form long after 

 all necessity for it had ceased. Gradually it came 

 to be a mere ceremony. 



In the ceremonies which surround the marriage 

 event among higher peoples there are many ves- 

 tigial survivals from the ancient form of mar- 

 riage. The wedding-ring is the old token of 



