It is easy to see how the figure of any such animal would stand for the name of the animal. According to Dr. Birch, the original monosyllabic words usually began with a consonant, and the vowel sound between the two consonants of a syllable was an indifferent matter, because the name of an object was variously pronounced in different parts; thus a guitar, which is an ideograph meaning goodness, might be pronounced _nefer_ or _nofer_; a papyrus roll, which stood for oblation, was called _hetep_ or _hotep_. Most phonetics remained as syllabic signs, but many of them in course of time lost part of the sound embodied in the syllable, and stood for a letter sound only. Thus, the picture of a lion, which at first stood for the whole sound _labo_, the Egyptian name of lion, in course of time stood only for _l_, the initial sound of the word; an owl first stood for _mu_, then for _m_; a water-jug stood first for _nen_, then for _n_, its initial letter. Phonetics which represent letters only and not syllables may be called _alphabetic_ signs, in contradistinction to _syllabic_ signs. Plutarch asserts that the ancient Egyptians had an alphabet of twenty-five letters, and although in later epochs of Egyptian history there existed at least two hundred alphabetic signs, yet at a congress of Egyptologists held in London in 1874, it was agreed that the ancient recognized alphabet consisted of twenty-five letters. These were as follows:--An eagle stood for _a_; a reed, _ạ_; an arm, _ā_; leg, _l_; horned serpent, _f_; mæander, _h_; pair of parallel diagonals, _i_; knotted cord, ḥ; double reed, _ī_; bowl, _k_; throne or stand, _ḳ_; lion couchant, _l_; owl, _m_; zigzag or waterline, _n_; square or window shutter, _p_; angle or knee, _q_; mouth, _r_; chair or crochet, _s_; inundated garden or pool, _sh_; semicircle, _ṭ_; lasso or sugar-tongs-shaped noose, _th_; hand, _t_; snake, _t'_; chicken, _ui_; sieve, _kh_. 1 [Glyph] a Eagle 'Aa 2 [Glyph] ạ Reed Au 3 [Glyph] ā Arm Aa 4 [Glyph] b Leg Bu 5 [Glyph] f Cerastes Serpent Fi 6 [Glyph] h Mæander Ha 7 [Glyph] h Knotted Cord Hi 8 [Glyph] i Pair of parallel diagonals -- 9 [Glyph] ī Double Reed iu 10 [Glyph] k Bowl Kȃ 11 [Glyph] ḳ Throne (stand) Qa 12 [Glyph] l Lion couchant Lu or Ru 13 [Glyph] m Owl Mu 14 [Glyph] n Zigzag or Water Line Na 15 [Glyph] p { Square or Window-blind Pu { (shutter) 16 [Glyph] q Angle (Knee) Qa 17 [Glyph] r Mouth Ru, Lu 18 [Glyph] s Chair or Crochet Sen or Set