RIGHTHANDEDNESS. 219 



people; and this is even more strongly suggested by other evidence. 

 Nevertheless the peculiarities appear to be satisfactorily accounted for 

 on other grounds. The normal way of writing the hieroglyphics 

 appears to have accorded with that of the Hebrew and other Semitic 

 languages, though examples do occur of true hieroglyphic papyri 

 written from left to right. But the more direct test is dependent on 

 the pictorial character of such writings. It is easier for a right-handed 

 draftsman to draw a profile with the face looking towards the left, and 

 the same influence might be anticipated to affect the direction of the 

 characters incised on the walls of temples and palaces; so that this 

 seems to offer an available test of Egyptian right or left-handedness. 

 ■ But the evidence derived from Egyptian monuments is liable to mis- 

 lead. A writer in Nature (J. S., April 14th, 1870,) states as the 

 result of a careful survey of the examples in the British Museum, that 

 the hieroglyphic profiles there generally look to the right, and so sug- 

 gest the work of a left-handed people. Other and more suggestive 

 evidence from the monuments of Egypt points to the same conclusion, 

 but it is deceptive. If, for example, the inquirer examine two columns 

 of hieroglyphics running down the front, or cover, of the great sarco- 

 phagus of " Sarcoph of Sebaksi, priest of Phtha,'' in the British 

 Museum, he will find that the profiles in each column look towards 

 the centre line. This is a key to the direction of Egyptian profiles, 

 both in sculpture and hieroglyphics. It appears to have been mainly 

 determined by the relation of each to the architectural details of the 

 fagades which they so largely contributed to enrich, and hence any 

 inference based on the direction of detached examples is apt to mis- 

 lead. 



In discussing the character of the Palenque hieroglyphics of Central 

 America, at an earlier date, the bearing of this class of evidence on the 

 question under consideration was thus set forth : "It is noticeable that 

 in the frequent occurrence of human and animal heads among the 

 sculptured characters, they invariably look towards the left : an indica- 

 cation, as it appears to me, that they are the graven inscriptions of a 

 lettered people, who were accustomed to write the same characters from 

 left to right on paper or skins. Indeed, the pictorial groups on the 

 Copan statues seem to be the true hieroglyphic characters; while the 

 Palenque inscriptions show the abbreviated hieratic writing. To the 

 sculptor the direction of the characters was a matter of no moment ; 

 but if the scribe held his pen or style in his right hand, like the modern 



