The record-union., 1894-04-14

streets bending under their heavy sacks
of materials for conversation, or unpack-
ing their loads for a talk. This was found
somewhat troublesome. "But for short
conversations man may carry ample
ments in his pockets and under his arm
enough TO supply him, and in his house
he cannot be at loss. Therefore the
room where the company meet who prac-
tice this art is full OF all things ready at
hand requisite to furnish matter for this
kind of artificial discourse" This plan,
however, seems not to have come into
general use, lowing to the ignorant oppo-
sition of the women and the common
people, who threatened to raise rebel
lion ii they were not allowed to speak
with their tongues after the manner of
their forefatherS.n A fine bit of satire on
truth. But, as Mr.. Tylor remarks, this
system of talking by objects is neverthe-
less very important part Of gesture lam
guage, and gesture language itself is
very important means OF communication
even to-day. ut consists In drawing
in the air the shape OF objects to
be suggested to the mind, in initiating
the movement of the body in an action to
be described, or the use of thing, its
origin, or any of it's notable peculiar1tles.
This serves as a means of fixing ideas OF
different kinds in his mind and recalling
them to his memory"
This gesture language which has been
brought to high state of perfection by
the Indian, is common TO mankind, be-
ing practically the same all the world
over.
From the gesture to the written Ian
guage is simple step. From being
formed in the air. the pictures come to be
inscribed on the rocks and the barks OF
trees. Many such inscriptions exist.
And just as the gesture language is the
oil nrla al IQ
rude picture writing. We have abundant
illustration of this in the Egyptian, Baby
lonian. Chinese and Aztec remains.
Many epigraphists, in my own humble
opinion, with far too little reason have
attempted to trace the Ph9nician charac-
ters to the Hieratic Egyptian. After an
unprejudiced comparison, | fail to see
of characters. The reasoning OF the
writer of the article, Alphabet" i'll the
Britannica" is very unconvincing.
yet 1t seems quite certain that there is
no connection between the names which
the letters bore in Phenicia and the orig
inal object of which the Egyptian charac-
ter is the debaSed representation. Thus,
the first letter of the Ph9nician alphabet
was named from its 1ancied resemblance
to an ox's head, the second to house,
and so on. But the symbol which
strangely seemed to the Ph9nicians like
an OK (aleph), is only the form rapidly
drawn of an eagle; and the beth, in like
manner, is the quickly-drawn figure OF
crane. 1t would seem, then, that the
Phmnicians borrowed sound and symbol
but no name." (Vol. l, p. 607). This, it
seems to me, is very large assumption
to make. That the Semites not only ap-
propriated the idea OF written alphabet,
but also remodeled and renamed their
acquisitions making out of the Egyp-
tian eagle the head and horns of an OK;
out of the throne, the head and neck of
camel; and out of group of lotus plants
a tooth, and so on. 1t is to me far easier
to surmise that the Semites were the orig
inal inventors, and that 1t was from them
the Egyptians borrowed-though even
this is not necessary.
1t is tolerably certain now that Baby
lonian civilization is older than the
Egyptian, the Babylonians themselves
had hieroglyphs, composed OF straight
lines originally, because they were in
tended to be engraved on the rock with
a chisel, hence not easily recognizable
now. It was from these stralght-lined
pictures that the ordinary wedge-sh shaped
characters were evolved by the usual
simplitication.
l do not claim, however, that the
Ph0nicians got their letters from Baby
ionia, but the fact that the names aleph,
beth, ETC., are Semitic words, not merely
the names of the letters but words in the
language, having meanings assigned to
them, affords strong presumption that
the letters are Of Semitic origin. We are
not able, it is true, to trace them out of
the particular hieroglyphs out of which
they were developed, bat this is not nee
essary in the light of my theory.
And here we ask very pertinent
question, the bearing of which upon our