Chapter I: Preface

If this little book does not supply a want, it fills, however imperfectly, a gap; for the only work in the English language on the subject--Canon Isaac Taylor's "History of the Alphabet"--is necessarily charged with a mass of technical detail which is stiff reading even for the student of graphiology. Moreover, invaluable and indispensable as is that work, it furnishes only a meagre account of those primitive stages of the art of writing, knowledge of which is essential for tracing the development of that art, so that its place in the general evolution of human inventions is made clear. Prominence is therefore given to this branch of the subject in the following pages.

In the recent reprint of Canon Taylor's book no reference occurs to the important materials collected by Professor Flinders Petrie and Mr. Arthur J. Evans in Egypt and Crete, the result of which is to revolutionise the old theory of the source of the Alphabet whence our own and others are derived. This opens up a big question for experts to settle; and here it must suffice to present a statement of the new evidence, and to point out its significance, so that the reader be not taken into the troubled atmosphere of controversy. That he may, further, not be distracted by footnotes, references to the authorities cited are printed in the text.

E. C.

ROSEMONT, 19 CARLETON ROAD,
TUFNELL PARK, N.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE
I. INTRODUCTORY 9

II. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ALPHABET 23

III. MEMORY-AIDS AND PICTURE-WRITING 37
(_a_) Mnemonic 39
(_b_) Pictorial 51
(_c_) Ideographic 72
(_d_) Phonetic 79

IV. CHINESE, JAPANESE, AND COREAN SCRIPTS 82

V. CUNEIFORM WRITING 89

VI. EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS 113
(_a_) Hieroglyphic Writing 115
(_b_) Hieratic Writing 125
(_c_) Demotic Writing 127

VII. THE ROSETTA STONE 128

VIII. EGYPTIAN WRITING IN ITS RELATION
TO OTHER SCRIPTS 134

IX. CRETAN AND ALLIED SCRIPTS 157

X. GREEK PAPYRI 198
The Diffusion of the "Phœnician" Alphabet--
(_a_) Aramean 207
(_b_) Sabean 212
(_c_) Hellenic 213

XI. RUNES AND OGAMS 223

INDEX 229

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

_Indian Petition to the United States Congress_ Frontispiece

FIG. PAGE
1. _Magical Pictograph against Stings_ 18
2. _Magical Device against Skin Disease_ 20
3. _Aboriginal Rock Carvings (Australia)_ 27
3a. _Aboriginal Rock Paintings (Australia)_ 28
4. _Bushman Paintings_ 30
4a. _Bushman Paintings_ 31
4b. _Specimen of Bushmen Rock Sculptures_ 32
4c. _Engravings found on Rocks in Algeria_ 33
5. _Bushman Rain-Charm_ 34
6. _Semang Rain-Charm_ 35
6a. _Record of Expedition_ 35
6b. _Various Types of the Human Form_ 36
7. _Quipu, for Reckoning, &c._ 40
8. _Double Calumet Wampum_ 48
9. _Double Calumet Council Hearth_ 48
10. _Jesuit Missionary Wampum_ 49
11. _Four Nations' Alliance Wampum_ 49
11a. _Penn Wampum_ 50
12,13. _Indian Grave-posts_ 53
14. _Tomb-board of Indian Chief_ 54
15. _Hunter's Grave-post_ 55
16. _A Cadger's Map of a Begging District_ 57
17. _Ojibwa Love-letter_ 58
18. _Love-song_ 58
19. _Mnemonic Song of an Ojibwa Medicine-man_ 59
20. _Wâbeno destroying an Enemy_ 61
21. _Etching on Innuit Drill-bow_ 62
22. _Ojibwa Hunting Record_ 62
23. _Hidatsa Pictograph on a Buffalo Shoulder-blade_ 63
24. _Alaskan Hunting Record_ 64
25. _Record of Starving Hunter_ 64
26. _Alaskan Hunting Life_ 66
27. _Indian Expedition_ 67
28. _Biography of Indian Chief_ 67
29. _War-song_ 68
30. _Letter offering Treaty of Peace_ 70
31. _Census Roll of an Indian Band_ 71
32. _Record of Departure (Innuit)_ 72
33. _Statue from Palenque_ 76
34. _Itzcoatl_ 80
35. _Rebus of Itzcoatl_ 80
36. _Paternoster Rebus_ 81
37. _Chinese Picture-writing and Later Uncial_ 83
38. _Chinese and Tibetan Triglot_ 88
39. _Rock Inscription at Behistun_ 95
40. _Cylinder Seal of Sargon I._ 107
41. _Tell-el-Amarna Tablet_ 109
42. _First Creation Tablet_ 110
43,44. _Deluge Tablet_ (_Chaldean Epic_) 111
45. _Hieroglyphic, Hieratic, and Demotic Signs for Man_ 115
46. _Comparative Ideographs_ 122
47. _Ptolemy_ 131
48. _Cleopatra_ 131
49. _Kaisars_ (_Cæsar_)--_A. Takrtr_ (_Autokrator_) 131
50. _Facsimile of Hieratic Papyrus Prisse_ 140
51. _Inscription on the Eshmunazar Sarcophagus_ 141
52. _Inscription on Sacred Bowls_ (_Baal Lebanon_) 146
53. _The Moabite Stone_ 147
54. _Maneh Weight_ 150
55. _Vase with Incised Characters_ (_Crete_) 161
56. _Incised Characters on Cup_ (_Crete_) 161
57. _Characters on Vase_ (_Crete_) 162
58. _Signs on Bronze Axe (Delphi)_ 162
59. _Signs on Blocks of Mycenæan Buildings_ (_Knôsos_) 163
60. _Symbols on Three-sided Cornelian_ (_Crete_) 165
61. _Symbols on Four-sided Stone_ (_Crete_) 165
62. _Symbols on Four-sided Stones, with larger faces_
(_Central Crete_) 166
63. _Symbol on Single-faced Cornelian_ (_Eastern Crete_) 166
64. _Symbol on Stone of ordinary Mycenæan type_ (_Athens_) 166
65. _Egyptian Scarabs, XIIth Dynasty_
--_Early Cretan Seal-stones_ 178
66. _Signs on Potsherds at Tell-el-Hesy_
_compared with Ægean Forms_ 179
67. _Hittite Inscription at Hamah_ 181
68. _Signs on Vase-handle_ (_Mycenæ_) 183
69. _Signs on Amphora-handle_ (_Mycenæ_) 183

Acknowledgments are gratefully tendered to Messrs. Macmillan, Messrs. Longmans, Mr. John Murray, Messrs. Eyre & Spottiswoode, Mr. Edward Arnold, Messrs. Witherby, the Cambridge University Press, and the Anthropological Institute for permission to reproduce Illustrations from their several publications.

THE STORY OF THE ALPHABET