AXUM. ^ 415 
alphabet, and from the circumstance of the words in the early 
part of the inscription being separated by two round dots (°°), 
placed horizontally indeed, though it is now the practice to mark 
them perpendicularly (°) ; this slight variation, however, in their 
position, cannot make any difference in the sense to which they 
were intended to be applied. 
If it could be ascertained that these characters were cut at the 
same time with the Greek inscription on the opposite side of the 
stone, which appears to me extremely probable, it would lead to 
a very important result, as it would decide the fact, that they 
were the native characters in use during the reign of Aeizana, a 
circumstance that must tend strongly to disprove the idea hitherto 
entertained of the Geez alphabet, as well as that of the Coptic, 
being borrowed from the Greek ; (vide Mr. Murray's remark in 
Bruce, Vol. II. p. 402), a point that I have always considered as 
extremely improbable.* I should myself feel much more inclined 
to think, that it may have derived its origin from some ancient 
Ethiopic or Egyptian set of letters ; for where can we expect to 
find the alphabet of either nation with so much probability as in 
Abyssinia, among a people not only calling itself Ethiopic, 
f^^P^^UP , but exhibiting the fairest claim to that descent, 
and which afterwards, as is clearly pointed out in history, became 
mixed with settlers from Egypt. 
That the language spoken in the country at a very early 
period was partly the same with that now in use I have been 
* M. Ludolf seems to entertain a more just opinion, that the character is very 
ancient, and gives as a reason, the sound of some of them being lost, or confounded with 
others. Vide Hist. Ethiop. Vol. IV. c. 1 
