This book contain is a comprehensive guide to the origins of the alphabet, exploring its existence in ancient Greece, Egypt, and Samaria. Laurence Austine Waddell (1899 - 1938) was a British Explorer, professor of Tibetan, and Indian army surgeon. Other notable works by this author include: "Among the Himalayas", "The Birds of Sikkim" (1893), and "Some Ancient Indians Charms from the Tibetan" (1895). Contents include: "Ancestry of the Alphabets Re The Phoenicians", "Alphabet Letters in Pre-Dynastic and Early-Dynastic Egypt and Theories Thereon", "How the Sumerian Origin of the Alphabet was Discovered", "The So-Called 'Aphonic Owner's Mark", etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.