The Egyptian phalanx was armed with the large shield, lance, and Sword; the latter was generally called Seft, [Hieroglyphs], or [Hieroglyphs], or [Hieroglyphs]; also inverted to Setf, [Hieroglyphs]: it becomes Sifet in Æthiopia, and in Berber Siwuit. The weapon in the hieroglyphs is of four different shapes. The first is the boomerang-Sword [Hieroglyphs], _m_ or _ma_, meaning ‘to destroy’: this M is the root of the Hebrew and Arabic _Maut_ and the Prakrit-Sanskrit, _Mar_. The second is the Knife-Sword [Hieroglyphs], _At_ or _Kat_, the determinative of cutting. These two are joined [Hieroglyphs] in the root _ma_ (cut, mow). The third is the Khopsh, Khepsh, or Khepshi, [Hieroglyphs], the sickle-Sword, still used in Abyssinia and throughout Africa: with a flattened curve it became the Hindu Kubja, the Greek ‘Kopis,’ and the Gurkha ‘Kukkri.’ The second two are combined in the root Smam, [Hieroglyphs], ‘to smite.’ Other names of the Sword are Ta or Nai, [Hieroglyphs], and Nai, Na’ui, or Nakhtui, [Hieroglyphs]. The falchion (_ensis falcatus_), called Shopsh, Khepsh, or Khopsh,[497] is represented as early as the Sixth Dynasty (after B.C. 3000). Hence, says Meyrick, the Κοπὶς of Argos—Argolis being a very mixed province, where the base was Pelasgian and the superstructure was Egyptian; the latter introduced by Danaus, and followed by the Phœnicians, who founded the town Phœnicia. Quintus Curtius (lib. iii.) says: ‘Copides vocant gladios leviter curvatos, falcibus similes, quibus appetebant belluarum manus.’ Apuleius (‘Met.’ lib. xi.) also speaks of ‘copides et venabula.’[498] Evidently the Egyptian Sf, Sefi, Seft, or ‘Sword’ generically,[499] gave rise to the Mesopotamian Sibir, Sibirru, and Sapara; to the Greek ξίφ-ος; to the Aramæan Saiph, Sipho, and to the Arabic صيف (Sayf-un), the second syllables being merely terminative; while the Latin _spatha_ and the German Schwerte, and our Swerde and Sword, are the latest echoes of Sef and Seft. The Germans say rightly, ‘Nichts wandert so leicht als Waffen und Waffennamen.’ [Illustration: FIG. 160.—DIFFERENT FORMS OF THE EGYPTIAN KHOPSH (KOPIS), WITH EDGES INSIDE AND OUTSIDE.] Another Egyptian name for the sickle-shaped blade is Khrobi,[500] which suggests the Hebrew Hereb (a weapon, a Sword). We are also sure that the words are primitive Egyptian: the proof is that the symbol of ‘Má’ (‘destroy’ &c.), the Khopsh or _ensis falcatus_, is the numeral nine; and the straight flesh-blade (_Kt_) is the pronoun thou, thee: the two together alluded to the oldest religious practice.[501]