DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5538#0275
HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 255
mal level of the river. These words have come to us by a
somewhat circuitous route, through the Arabic; the original
word khem having first been picked up by the Arab con-
querors of Egypt, and by them handed on to the Barbary
Moors, who carried it to Spain, whence it has spread through
Europe.
The word "earner' is ^* 1£s, -1nP 0 % ^^ ^
Egyptian. It is spelled ®» -^ N _T 1 V*
ii. 7 ™, ha ma a a I
thus: k-a-ma-a-a-al. The
a was evidently very broad, for it is repeated four times,
the whole ending with the generic determinative of a hide,
as in the word hetra, or " horse."
Although the cocoa-palm is not native to the soil, the name
of the cocoa-nut, strange to say, is of Egyptian descent. A
well-known text mentions a palm sixty cubits high, the fruit
of which contained nuts in which there was water; and these
nuts are called ku-ku. The little circle is
the ideograph of the A %, A "v\ ° nut, and the three
vertical strokes signi- i fy plurality. ..
The Egyptian for * w * "knife" is ^
kat; whence our "cut." And here is the name of
a precious wood which often figures as tribute brought by
Ethiopian vassals, and which is invariably painted black.
Here we have a phonetic syllable
pronounced Ha; the leg, I; the p[] ~~~ \\ A
zigzag line, n; the two slanting IIa b n t *
lines for the vowel i, pronounced
"e;" and finally the conventional determinative of a tree:
The whole spells habni, which is "ebony." So here again
is a word in which every stage of the hieroglyphic writ-
ing is present—the old picture-writing, preserved in the
determinative tree; the punning phonetic syllable, of which
the actual meaning is "house;" and the alphabetic spelling
in b, n, and i.
Another coveted Ethiopian product was /ca?ni, a substance
imported from the Somali coast and from the Soudan. This
word passed into the Greek as kommi; thence into the Latin
mal level of the river. These words have come to us by a
somewhat circuitous route, through the Arabic; the original
word khem having first been picked up by the Arab con-
querors of Egypt, and by them handed on to the Barbary
Moors, who carried it to Spain, whence it has spread through
Europe.
The word "earner' is ^* 1£s, -1nP 0 % ^^ ^
Egyptian. It is spelled ®» -^ N _T 1 V*
ii. 7 ™, ha ma a a I
thus: k-a-ma-a-a-al. The
a was evidently very broad, for it is repeated four times,
the whole ending with the generic determinative of a hide,
as in the word hetra, or " horse."
Although the cocoa-palm is not native to the soil, the name
of the cocoa-nut, strange to say, is of Egyptian descent. A
well-known text mentions a palm sixty cubits high, the fruit
of which contained nuts in which there was water; and these
nuts are called ku-ku. The little circle is
the ideograph of the A %, A "v\ ° nut, and the three
vertical strokes signi- i fy plurality. ..
The Egyptian for * w * "knife" is ^
kat; whence our "cut." And here is the name of
a precious wood which often figures as tribute brought by
Ethiopian vassals, and which is invariably painted black.
Here we have a phonetic syllable
pronounced Ha; the leg, I; the p[] ~~~ \\ A
zigzag line, n; the two slanting IIa b n t *
lines for the vowel i, pronounced
"e;" and finally the conventional determinative of a tree:
The whole spells habni, which is "ebony." So here again
is a word in which every stage of the hieroglyphic writ-
ing is present—the old picture-writing, preserved in the
determinative tree; the punning phonetic syllable, of which
the actual meaning is "house;" and the alphabetic spelling
in b, n, and i.
Another coveted Ethiopian product was /ca?ni, a substance
imported from the Somali coast and from the Soudan. This
word passed into the Greek as kommi; thence into the Latin