ON THE

FOOT MARK IN THE HIKROGLYPHIC SCRII'T

I flntl in the Proceedings of the American Phi/osophiral Society (vol. XI, p. 312) the following statement :

« Mr. Lesley referred also to tlie fact that tlie ancient » egyptian B was graphically represented by the leg, A by » the arm, T by the hand ; and that what is callcd the comb » may bave been meant for the foot mark. »

I am not acquainted with any hieroglyphic character bearing in its graphical form a nearer resemblance to a comb than tlie the larger drawings of which show it manifestly to be a cliess or draught board with its men.

But the feet oceur in the hieroglyphic script, not witli a phonetic, but with a symbolic value. They are a mark of the actual presence of the delineator. When a pions Egyptian repaired to some place of worship, in a distant country, lie woukl sometimes, as a token of his zeal, incise a figure of his two feet on some stone in the neighbourhood.

1. Envoyé à 1 ’ American Philosophical Society , Philadelphia, pour être publié dans ses Transactions.