236 MAJOR C. R. CONDER, R.E., D.C.L., LL.D., M.R.A.S., 
with roofs. The great discovery of fire was already made, 
but not applied to the melting of metals. The family already 
existed, and a belief in a spirit (or many spirits), not subject 
to the death which caused man to speak of himself as 
“mortal.” It is a condition similar to that which scholars 
have independently concluded to have been the origin of the 
civilisation of each great stock, and similar to that of the 
prehistoric villages of Italy, as known by their remains. 
How long ago this primitive life was lived by the first ances- 
tors of Asiatic races, we may judge by the fact that already 
at least as early as 2500 B.c., there were distinct civilisations 
and languages clearly divided into various groups; but of 
such life we have no evidence save that of speech, since 
writing was as yet unknown. Nevertheless there is some 
evidence that pictorial representation was already attempted, 
from which in time the great hieroglyphic sy stems were to 
arise. The word for “drawing” is common to Egyptian, 
Mongol and Semitic speech, in the root SUR or SAR, from which 
come the Mongol Sor, “to draw or write,” the’ Egyptian Serr, 
and the Semitic Sura; “a drawing.” The Aryans had a 
somewhat similar root SKRI, whence come words for sculpture 
andinscription. Nor must it be forgotten that the commonest 
signs denoting action are the same in all the hieroglyphic 
systems, and it is possible that even before the separation of 
Egy ptians and Mongols some rude system existed for record- 
ing primitive ev ents, by pictures such as the Red Indian still 
uses. The Aryans, however, did not apparently possess this 
art, andthe Semitic peoples borrowed their written characters 
from the older Akkadians and Hittites, but even in 2500 B.c. 
(as shown by the statues of Tell Loh), there was already 
in Chaldea a system very fully organised, which has pre- 
served for us the events of the days when the Akkadians 
ruled from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, and cut 
down cedars in Lebanon. 
In conclusion of the present paper it 1s proposed to say a 
few words as to the connection which exists between the 
civilisation of the Egyptians and of the Semitic race, in order 
to show more clearly that these people must have been in 
contact in a time subsequent to that of the original dispersion 
of the supposed primitive stock. 
The grammatical connection between Egyptian and 
Semitic speech has been already mentioned, and the fact that 
some 220 words in the Egyptian dictionary are very closely 
similar to Semitie words of the same or similar meaning. 
