+--------------+------------------+-----------------------+ | HIEROGLYPHS | PHONETIC VALUE | TRANSLATION | +--------------+------------------+-----------------------+ | | | | | [Hieroglyph] | Ba. | Earth, Metal, Soul, | | | | Circle, Seed, Corn. | | | | | | [Hieroglyph] | Ba. | Iron. | | | | | | [Hieroglyph] | Ba’a. | Iron, Earth. | | | | | | [Hieroglyph] | Ba’aenpe (Benipe | Iron. | | | or Penipe). | | | | | | | [Hieroglyph] | Bet. | Iron. | | | | | +--------------+------------------+-----------------------+ Mr. Day (who has drawn it up) observes that ‘BA’ [Hieroglyph] is a constant in the phonetic values assigned to the uncertain hieroglyphs for iron, and feels disposed to believe it synonymous with χαλκός, base metal in general. He would translate the Saidic ‘ΒΕΝΙΠΕ’ and the Coptic ‘ΠΕΝΙΠΕ’ by ‘stone (ΒΕ) of (ΝΙ) sky or heaven (ΠΕ)’; in fact, ‘sky-stone,’ alluding to meteoric iron, probably the first utilised. Dr. Birch holds ‘BA’ to be a general term for metal made particular, as in Greece, by prefixed adjectives (white, black, yellow) denoting the quality of the ore. And hence the determinative of ‘BA’ (metal, stone, or hard wood) is the cube or parallelogrammic block which denotes building and building materials. Native iron may be distributed into two great divisions, extra-terrestrial and terrestrial. The former is known as meteoric or nickeliferous. Mr. Day (pp. 22–23) gives analyses of this form, and takes, from Chladni[329] and others, a list of masses that fell in Siberia, Thuringia, and Dauphiné; in West African Liberia, and in American Sta. Fé de Bogotá, and Canaan, Connecticut. Though many trials have been made in working extra-terrestrial metal, all have hitherto failed; the phosphorus, nickel and its _alter ego_, cobalt, render the forgings, in our present state of technology, too brittle for use. Terrestrial or telluric iron is again divided into two classes—the nearly pure ore and the native steel. According to the schedule of Rosset: Iron is a metal not cast and malleable. Steel „ cast and malleable. Pig-iron „ cast and not malleable.