lossal figures, one of the chairs of which bore the foregoing emblems, were not more than a league distant, from Car. nac, if the traveller could have gone strait forward; but he found the country so intersected and cut up with canals, and covered with Turkish corn, that he was forced to make many turnings, and three hours were occupied before he arrived at the Colossal figures to make his drawings. The Statues stand facing the Nile, between the Cities of Luxxor and Carnac, on the East side of the river; the first seems to jepresent a man, and the other a woman, but they are both of the same immense magnitude, and they measured 50 Danish feet in height, from the bases of their pedestals, to the tops of their heads. They are sitting on cubical stones of nearly 15 feet square, at the two front corners of which are as many Isiacal figures placed for ornament, but the back is higher than the front by a foot and an half. The pedestals on which there is a single mutilated line of hieroglyphics, are each of them 5 feet high, 36 feet and an half in length, and 19 feet and an half in depth: the distance, between the statues is 21 paces (524 feet). They are entirely formed of various blocks of grey sandy stone, which appear to have been drawn from some of the grottos, that are found in great numbers in the adjacent mountains. Their breasts and legs are covered with many Greek and Latin inscriptions, which were engraved in the time of the Romans, commemorating the names of those who heard the musical sounds emitted by the statue of the greater Memnon at the rising of the Sun. These inscriptions were similar to the following. "Clavdivs Maximvs of the xxii. Legion heard the sounds of the Memnon at the First Hour.""In the v. year of Hadrian, Emperor of Thaterus, the Præfect Meros, heard the sounds of Memnon, the xiii March, at the first hour." The backs and sides of the chairs upon which these colossal figures are seated, are covered with Hieroglyphical designs and characters; which, although they greatly resemble the generality of such things, yet they also possess a peculiar form of their own; and beside these there isoneach side a table or terminus. The chairs are made of a single piece of stone, of the same sort as the rest, but they appear to be more brown and somewhat more hard. The two Isiacal figures, which as it has been already stated, ornament the corners of these chairs, are of a whiter and a finer-grained stone, and seem to have been added to the statues after they had been erected, as they have not that Egyptian character which is so evident in the rest. It remains only to be observed that the two figures whose heads appear in the lower part of the above engraving, are in bas-relief of the size of life. According to the accounts of many of the before mentioned ancient writers, the Egyptian Monarch not only invented a series of characters, but also divided them into vowels and consonants, mutes and liquids; and brought the then uncultivated language under fixed rules, giving it harmony by his laws. In consequence of the utility of this invention, the Egyptian Prince was considered as God of Eloquence and Wisdom; and on that account received the name of Anubis, which signifies an eloquent man, an orator, or a prophet. It has been thought by some writers on this subject, that this Sovereign, the inventor of the learning of Egypt, was no other than Mesraim, the grandson of Noah, who is mentioned in Genesis, Chap. x. v. 6. "and the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan." Mizraim became the founder and father of the Egyptians, and originally gave his name to their country, with respect to which it has three different acceptations. Firstly it signifies Egypt, both Upper and Lower; as in the second book of Kings, Chap. xix. v. 25 in the Chaldaic version, reads, "Hast thou not heard of old what I did to Pharghoh the King of Mizraim, nor that my power was exercised in them." Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, à Briani Waltoni, et Lexicon Heptaglotton Edm. Castelli. Lond. 1657-59. Fol. Vol. II. p. 600. In the preceding verse of the same chapter it is said, "I have digged and drank of strange waters," which the Rabbi-Kimchi, and other learned Interpreters explain to mean the waters of Mezor or Egypt, during the Captivity. Secondly, the word Mizraim signifies the original inhabitants or their descendants. The natives of that country, however, call it Chemi, which signifies the land of Ham or Cham; as in Psalm cv. v. 23, "Israel also came into Egypt, and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham." Again, in Psalm cvi. v. 21-22. "They forgot God their Saviour, which had done great things in Egypt. Wondrous things in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red Sea." The name of the founder of Egypt, is not however now forgotten in the East; since the Arabs call Al Cahira, or Cairo, by the title of Mezer; and Memphis formerly bore a similar appellation. The following ancient alphabet was drawn by the Abbé Barthelemi from an inscription given by Carpentras, which is undoubtedly Egyptian, as the monument on which it occurs was found in Egypt and had never previously been decyphered. The letters are read like the English from left to right, and the names of the Coptic characters, where they agree, are placed beneath them, according to the usual custom of pronouncing a dead language by the assistance of its descendant living one; in the same manner as the names of the modern Chaldean characters are used for the old Samaritan and the Hebrew. The ensuing series of characters varies from the foregoing, and from every other of In Mystagoga, &c. Amst. 1676, Folio: Horupollinis HieroglyFolio: Obelisci Egyptiaci, &c. Rom. 1655, Folio: Sphynx philius, Rom. 1650, Folio: Edipus Egyptiacus, Rom. 1652-4, also been consulted. Kircheri Athanasii, Obeliscus Pumauthorities on the subject of Egyptian Antiquities, have addition to the books already cited, the following phica, Edit. by J. C. de Pauw, Traj. 1727. Quarto: Pantheon Egyptiorem, by P. E. Jablonski, Frankf. 1780. Octavo: Essui sur les Hieroglyphi, Weimar, 1804, Quarto: Ancient Alphabets and Hieroglyphics explained, &c, translated from the Arabic by Joseph Hammer, Lond. 1806, Quarto: Appendix to Belzoni's Travels, Lond. 1820, Quarto: Memoranda illustrative of the Tombs and Sepulchral Decorations of the Egyptians, &c. Lond. 1822, Octavo: the article Egypt, in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica; Papers and Plates in the Archælogia. ETHIOPIAN OR ABYSSINIAN. SOME authors, who have written on the origin of languages, have considered that the Ethiopian letters may lay claim to as ancient a derivation as the Egyptian. In the earlier part of the Bible, the Ethiopians are called the Chusites, because they sprung from Chus or Chut, the brother of Mesraim, the son of Ham, and the grandson of Noah. Bruce, in his Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Edinburgh, 1790, Quarto, Vol. I. p. 401, has a long dissertation to prove that the ancient Ethiopian letters were the invention of a Chusite shepherd; since they are denomi. nated Geez, or the Language of the Shepherds. The Ethiopian tongue is, at the present time, almost superseded by the Amharic or Abyssinian; whose name is derived from the Province of Amhar, which is the principal in the Kingdom of Abyssinia. The ancient language was formerly denominated Lesan-ghaaz, or the Tongue of Study, and sometimes Lesan Matzhaph, or the Tongue of Books. That which is now used is called Lesan Neghus, the Royal Tongue, because it is spoken principally and most purely at the Court, different dialects prevailing in different parts of Ethiopia. About the middle of the 13th century, when the Abyssinians changed the language of the country, and the Zagué family was restored from their long retreat at Shoa, seven characters were added to the Alphabet. The ancient language is now used only for the religious and literary writings of the Abyssinians, the Royal Grants, and the historical records of the country. The Ethiopic or Abyssinian version of the Scriptures, which was made from the Alexandrian Greek, is still extant; and a very ancient example of it on vellum, is in the possession of the Church Missionary Society. The manuscript is written in a bold hand, and in double columns upon 282 folios; and the size of the pages is that of a large Quarto, but somewhat narrower. This valuable manuscript is now printing from an exact transcript, and with letters cast from the matrices formerly belonging to the eminent Ethiopian Scholar John Ludolph, which are preserved at Frankfort. It is sometimes said of this admirable scholar, that he spent thirty years in acquiring the Ethiopian language; but it is more certainly known, that he was well versed in five and twenty other tongues. The Abyssinian language is read from the left hand to the right; and the Alphabet consists of twenty-six radical letters, but by varying the position of their points, they amount to 227, including the 29 numerals, 20 syllable abbreviations, and the changes of the additional seven letters. The plan which is followed to produce so many changes, although intricate at the first glance, is conducted on a simple principle. The letter is first considered in its own uuonamented form, and then by adding a horn and points affixed to the left hand or the right, the top or bottom of the letter, it is carried through the vowels a and e long and short, i, o, and a long, thus producing seven inflections to each letter. The following Table of the Abyssinian Alphabet will, however, more easily explain the system upon which it is constructed.- Name. Hoi........ A short U long. I long. A long.E long, (E short ✪ long. Lawi... ሉ ሊ ሊ Haut. ሐ ሑ ሒ ሓ ሔ |