All these forms seem to be representations of a serpent; we turn to the
valley of the Nile, and we find that the Egyptian hieroglyphic for n was
the serpent, ### ; the Pelasgian n was ### ; the Arcadian, ### ; the
Etruscan, ### .
Can anything be more significant than to find the serpent the sign for n
in Central America, and in all these Old World languages?
Now turn to the letter k. The Maya sign for k is ### . This does not
look much like our letter K; but let us examine it. Following the
precedent established for us by the Mayas in the case of the letter m,
let us see what is the distinguishing feature here; it is clearly the
figure of a serpent standing erect, with its tail doubled around its
middle, forming a circle. It has already been remarked by Savolini that
this erect serpent is very much like the Egyptian Uraeus, an erect
serpent with an enlarged body--a sacred emblem found in the hair of
their deities. We turn again to the valley of the Nile, and we find that
the Egyptian hieroglyphic for k was a serpent with a convolution or
protuberance in the middle, precisely as in the Maya, thus, ### ; this
was transformed into the Egyptian letter ### ; the serpent and the
protuberance reappear in one of the Phoenician forms of k, to wit, ### ;
while in the Punic we have these forms, ### and ### .
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