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.	[ 39]
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	[ 54]
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	[ 63]
25.	Record of Starving Hunter	[ 63]
26.	Alaskan Hunting Life	[ 66]
27.	Indian Expedition	[ 66]
28.	Biography of Indian Chief	[ 66]
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	[ 94]
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	[151]
55.	Vase with Incised Characters (Crete)	[160]
56.	Incised Characters on Cup (Crete)	[160]
57.	Characters on Vase (Crete)	[160]
58.	Signs on Bronze Axe (Delphi)	[160]
59.	Signs on Blocks of Mycenæan Buildings (Knôsos)	[166]
60.	Symbols on Three-sided Cornelian (Crete)	[166]
61.	Symbols on Four-sided Stone (Crete)	[166]
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	[178]
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.