used in the texts: but it is quite as frequently applied also in passages where it has been ascertained to mean "to be born of, descended from;" because the word ya also means to be born, in the spoken language. The hatchet◄ named TEP is one of the commonest symbols of "God, or Divine Being," because that idea was denoted by the same sound TEP. The weaver's shuttle X is the symbol of the goddess Neith, the Egyptian Minerva, because the Coptic word for that instrument is mana.

The idea of a physician is frequently represented by a species of duck, the name of which was CHIN

:

the Egyptian word for physician was also CHIM. This singular mode of suggesting words by pictures is extensively used in the written system of the Chinese, and is allied to that whereby the phonetic characters have been formed.

PHONETIC CHARACTERS.

These, as we have already explained, are the pictures of physical objects, denoting not ideas but letters, that is, sounds or articulations. The principle upon which this alphabet has been constructed is simple and curious. The object depicted has been made the representative of the sound with which its Egyptian name commenced. example :

For

The difficulty and confusion that at first sight might seem to arise from the use of homophons, or many characters to denote the same sound, are thus obviated. The sound was at once suggested by the name of the object in the spoken . language. This multiplicity of characters arose out of the taste of the hierogrammatists for a certain symmetry of arrangement, which appears to have been their principal guide in the choice of them.

The hieroglyphics may be written both vertically and horizontally, and from left to right, as well as from right to left; so that some variety in the size and dimensions of the characters is needful in order to the production of an equally harmonious and pleasing effect in all these different positions.

These three modes of expressing ideas were combined together in the hieroglyphic system of ancient Egypt. We will now briefly explain its grammatical structure.

The most remarkable feature in it, and one constantly occurring, is that which has been called the determinative character, which may be thus explained. Groups of characters representing sounds are generally followed by a picture of the object which these sounds together denoted. Thus the three characters which denote the letters

This

€8€ are generally followed by the picture of a cow and the Coptic word for that animal is also ɛɛ€. principle has proved a most important one in elucidating the meaning of a great number of groups, which are thus defined with absolute certainty. Some specimens of beasts and birds are here subjoined :

a lion,orwry a wolf,
BH a hawk, лorpi a vulture,

an eagle.

This singular echo to the sense has also been the means of preserving to us the ancient Egyptian names of several birds and animals, which are not to be found in the existing Coptic texts; some of these still occur in the Arabic, as Arab., a fox; Arab., cameleopard, giraffe; others have perished from both the languages now known in Egypt. Of this description are a number of birds in the tomb of Nevopth, at Beni Hassan, exquisitely designed, and accurately coloured, and each accompanied by a group of characters expressing the sounds of its name.* The meanings of other groups also are verified in the same manner; thus JOB a tooth, спот lips, Teme wing, c☛ a scorpion, 002 a balance,

the moon, PH the sun, wc5 a sickle,

pe grain, seed.

Determinatives of kind as well as of species have been discovered; thus or, which represents the hinder part of the skin of an ox, denotes that the group which precedes IT pig. In the same

it is the name of a quadruped, as

See Rosellini Monumenti del Egitto.

M. C. Plates viii. to xiv.

way three grains denote the name of a metal or some other substance belonging to the mineral kingdom, as

T&T lead, nec nation.

gold,

Verbs, as well as nouns are determined in hieroglyphic writings by pictures representing the kind of action denoted by the verb. We subjoin a few instances:

HNX to sculpture, to build; the determinative, the

fourth character, is a mason's mallet; 3 to measure, the determinative is a bushel; p pul to weep, an eye shedding tears; oxa to labour, determined by a plough; www to distribute, equalize, the determinative is here the plumb-line used in masonry. In these cases, the determinative of the verb is the instrument or means of the action. The following are determinated by that upon which the action is exerted, wap to strike down, to wound violently; the determinative is a man having his head split with an axe: orwr

to open, determined by the two leaves of a folding door: my to blow, the determinative is a sail hoisted and

distended.

Some verbs, again, were determined by pictures of visible objects, supposed to have some peculiar quality similar to the action or manner of existence denoted by them;

www

XшNT to be angry, the determinative is an ape,

a very irascible animal: Tu to blush, to be red;

determined by a flamingo, or some scarlet wading bird:

H

eu to fish, a bird seizing a fish:

OB
T

be thirsty, a calf running, and the symbol of water: to be drunken; the sense of this verb is very significantly determined by the leg of a man being amputated by a

knife.

Some of these symbols would seem also to throw light upon the origin of the verbs themselves: the group which we have already remarked upon as the hieroglyphic transcription of the Hebrew and Arab word for the wolf or fox

t is also frequently used as a verb, with the sense to be cunning, crafty, and evidently representing the Coptic verb ceß, cw which has the same meaning. In the same way also the other group, the cameleopard, with its name in phonetic characters, Arab spells, and has very frequently the sense of another Coptic verb, cep, cop, to extend, stretch out. This circumstance illustrates the manner in which the sounds and the characters of this extraordinary language have acted upon each other, and also confirms the position with which we set out, that much design and contrivance, as well as much knowledge, are displayed in its structure. It could not be in ignorance of the qualities and habits of these animals that the name of each was chosen to denote the peculiarities for which each is remarkable.

There are also determinatives which are used after many different groups, expressing verbs, and denoting some quality which is common to all of them. Thus, the symbol of water, serves for the determinatives of verbs expressing the different states of liquids, as, to freeze, to boil, etc.; or actions performed in or by means of liquids, as, to swim, to wash, etc.