184 



IlEPORT 1872. 



sented by the Egyptian hieratic. Moreover the resemblances, -when traced, are 

 rather with later "forms of Phoenician letters than with those on the Moabite 

 stone. 



Mr. E. B. Tylor also considers that the theory m.aintained by Gescnius of llic 

 Phoenician letters being pictorial can bo shown to l;e unsafe. He thinljs tlio 

 resemblances between the letters and the objects to be ])ut small, and the bond 

 which attaches the name to the letter to be but slight ; that the coincidences are 

 not primary and essential, but secondary and superficial. He suggests that Hebrew 

 words may haye been chosen as names for letters derived from some extraneous 



