sented thus, ; the Chaldaic b was
; the Syriac sign for b was
; the Illyrian b was
.
The Maya e is ; this became in time
; then
(we see this form on the Maya monuments); the dots in time were indicated by strokes, and we reach the hieratic Egyptian form,
: we even find in some of the ancient Phœnician inscriptions the original Maya circles preserved in making the letter e, thus,
; then we find the old Greek form,
; the old Hebrew,
; and the later Phœnician,
: when the direction of the writing was changed this became
. Dr. Schliemann found a form like this on inscriptions deep in the ruins of Troy,
. This is exactly the form found on the American monuments.
The Maya i is ; this became in time
; this developed into a still simpler form,
; and this passed into the Phœnician form,
. The Samaritan i was formed thus,
; the Egyptian letter i is
: gradually in all these the left-hand line was dropped, and we come to the figure used on the stone of Moab,
and
; this in time became the old Hebrew
or
; and this developed into the Greek
.
We have seen the complicated symbol for m reduced by the Mayas themselves into this figure, : if we attempt to write this rapidly, we find it very difficult to always keep the base lines horizontal; naturally we form something like this,
: the distinctive figure within the sign for m in the Maya is
or
. We see this repeated in the Egyptian hieroglyphics for m,
, and
, and
; in the Chaldaic m,
; and in the Ethiopic
. We find one form of the Phœnician where the m is made thus,
; and in the Punic it appears thus,
; and this is not unlike the m on the stone of Moab,
, or the ancient Phœnician forms,
,
, and the old Greek
, or the ancient Hebrew
,
.