which did not occur in Greek, and for these, characters were borrowed from the ancient enchorial writing. They were the following:

These, with the ordinary Greek letters, make up what is called the Coptic alphabet; and it has been the custom to use these in translations from the hieroglyphics. Chevalier Bunsen, however, in his late work, discards them, with the remark that "the Latin alphabet, with the addition of two Greek forms, is amply sufficient for the purpose of a correct transcript. The plan hitherto adopted of transcribing, or rather rendering ancient Egyptian words into Coptic, is quite unphilological and unscientific. There is no harmony between the Coptic alphabet with its great variety of letters, and the fifteen simple sounds of the Egyptian." We shall, as being more intelligible to the general reader, use t e Roman letters.

It should be remarked also that the Egyptian resembles the Hebrew, Arabic, and other oriental languages, in the great uncertainty of its vowels. The same word is frequently written with a different vowel. Thus the Coptic word signi

fying "to wrap up" or "to fold," is written kal, kel, kol, kol, without any change in the sense. Sometimes no vowel is used, as in tb, "a brick:" it is read (obi.

The question may perhaps be asked, whether there be any rule for the selection of homophones? There seems to be none which is always discoverable; sometimes the selection seems to have been made for the sake of mere symmetry of arrangement; though in some instances it appears to have been made on the principle of employing a figure which, while it expressed the desired letter, conveyed also to the mind the idea of some quality belonging to the object of which it was the picture, and applied it to the person or thing whose name was phonetically delineated. An example will illustrate this; and a good one is furnished in the Lectures of the Marquis Spoleto. Suppose the word to be expressed in phonetics to be London:

L.—We might here take the figure of a lion, lamb, leaf, lancet, or any other object that would supply us with the initial L.

O.—We might take the picture of an oak, ox, owl, &c.

N.—A net, negro, north-star, nave of a temple, would all furnish us with the desired initial.

D.—Here we might select from the figure of a dromedary, dagger, deck of a ship, or even the whole ship to signify the deck.

What shall guide us in the choice? London is the capital of a powerful, maritime people, and a lion is the emblem on the national standard. Our selection shall be made then with reference to these facts.

L.—We take the lion; it denotes strength, and is the national emblem also.

O.—We take the oak; its value in ship building is well

known, and we are writing of a maritime people. N.—We take a fishing net or the north-star, because these

also are appropriate to a seafaring people. D.—A ship or the deck of a ship, is obviously the proper

selection.

Hence the word London would be hieroglyphically delineated by a /-ion, o-ak, w-et, rf-eck, (o not repeated, on the principle of omitted vowels,) w-orth-star.

Another ingenious illustration of this mode of selecting homophones is furnished by Mr. Gliddon in his Lectures. He takes the word America, and thus proceeds:

A.—We might select one out of many more or less appropriate symbols; as an asp, apple, altar, amaranth, anchor, archer, arrow, antelope, axe. I choose the

asp, m symbolic of sovereignty.

M.—We have a mace, mast, mastiff, moon, mouse, mummy, musket, maize. I select the mace, «IC indicative of "military dominion." 'j

E.—An ear, egg, eagle, elk, eye. The eagle %^ is undoubtedly the most appropriate, being the national arms of the Union, and it means "courage."

R.—A rabbit, ram, racoon, ring, rock, rope. I take the

ram, <&fr by synechdoche placing a part for the

whole, emblematic of frontal power—intellect—and sacred to Amun. ^

I.—An insect, Indian, infant, ivy. An infant J*B| will

typify the juvenile age and still undeveloped strength of this great country.

C.—A cake, caldron, cat, clam, carman, constellation, &c. I choose the cake, £- <a the consecrated bread—typical of a civilized region.

A.—An anchor, or any of the words beginning with A, would answer, but there is no such hieroglyphic as an anchor. I take the sacred Tau, the symbol

of "eternal life," MM which in the alphabet is A.

To designate that a country is meant, I add the sign in Coptic "Kah," meaning a country. We thus obtain phonetically,

The characters expressed are "sovereignty, military dominion,

•

courage, intelligence, youth, civilization, and perpetuity."

This may serve as an illustration of the principle; but as the vowels are generally omitted in hieroglyphic writing, the word would be written with the three consonants, "M. R. C.," and the sign for "country."

Another marked characteristic of this species of writing consisted in the use of what are called determinatives. They are used on the monuments very extensively and ingeniously. The use of a determinative consists simply in appending to the word, after it is written in phonetic hieroglyphics, a picture of the genus to which the object expressed by the word belongs. This is one of Champollion's discoveries. Thus, for instance,