THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. ^i 



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CHAP. III. 



Origin of Characters or Letters — Etbiopic tbefrft Language— How and 

 ivhy the Hebrew Letter was formed. 



TH E reader will obferve what I have already faid con- 

 cerning the language of Habefh, or the Mingled Na- 

 tions, that they have not characters of their own ; but when 

 written, which is very feldom, it mull be by ufing the 

 Geez alphabet. Kircher, however, fays, there are two cha- 

 racters to be found in Abyffinia ; one he calls the Sacred 

 Old Syrian, the other the Vulgar, or Common Geez charac- 

 ter, of which we are now fpeaking. But this is certainly a 

 miftake ; there never was, that I know, but two original 

 characters which obtained in Egypt. The firft was the 

 Geez, the fecond the Saitic, and both thefc were the oldeft 

 characters in the world, and both derived from hieroirlv- 

 phics. 



Although it is impoffible to avoid faying fomething 

 here of the origin of languages, the reader muft not expedt 

 that I mould go very deep into the fafhionable opinions 

 concerning them, or believe that all the old deities of the 



3 F 2 Pagan 



