an alphabet
pure and simple was capable of fulfilling all the conditions of a
written language.

Thus in practice there are found in the hieroglyphics the strangest
combinations of ideographs, syllabic signs, and alphabetical signs or
true letters used together indiscriminately.

It was, for example, not at all unusual, after spelling a word
syllabically or alphabetically, to introduce a figure giving the idea
of the thing intended, and then even to supplement this with a so-called
determinative sign or figure:

[Illustration: 301.jpg DETERMINATIVE SIGNS]

Here Queften, monkey, is spelled out in full, but the picture of a
monkey is added as a determinative; second, Qenu, cavalry, after being
spelled, is made unequivocal by the introduction of a picture of a
horse; third, Temati, wings, though spelled elaborately, has pictures
of wings added; and fourth, Tatu, quadrupeds, after being spelled, has
a picture of a quadruped, and then the picture of a hide, which is the
usual determinative of a quadruped, followed by three dashes to indicate
the plural number.*

* Another illustration of the plural number is seen in the
sign Pau, on page 298, where the plural is indicated in the
same manner.

These determinatives are in themselves so interesting, as illustrations
of the association of ideas, that it is worth while to add a few more
examples. The word Pet, which signifies heaven, and which has also the
meaning up or even, is represented primarily by what may be supposed
to be a conventionalised picture of the covering to the earth. But
this picture, used as a determinative, is curiously modified in the
expression of other ideas, as it symbolises evening when a closed flower
is added, and night when a star hangs in the sky, and rain or tempest
when a series of zigzag lines, which by themselves represent water, are
appended.

[Illustration: 302a.jpg HIEROGLYPHICS]

As aids to memory such pictures are obviously of advantage, but this
advantage in the modern view is outweighed by the cumbrousness of the
system of writing as a whole.

Why was such a complex system retained? Chiefly, no doubt, because the
Egyptians, like all other highly developed peoples, were conservatives.
They held to their old method after a better one had been invented. But
this inherent conservatism was enormously aided, no doubt, by the fact
that the Egyptian language, like the Chinese, has many words that have
a varied signific