after the word cattle, written in phonetic hieroglyphics mn-mn, it was followed by the picture of a cow. After the name of

the divinity Amon, ft A, p^ M, /vwwvs N, followed

the representation of a sculptured idol. It has been made [, a question among the learned whether this suffix of a "determinative," was invented before or after the use of phonetics. Bunsen expresses the opinion, that "those generic signs, before the invention of phonetics, were in very many cases quite indispensable. Hence they came to be adopted in writing, and the practice was still retained, even after the phonetic character had rendered pictorial representations unnecessary, and in cases, such as those alluded to, absolutely superfluous."

There is frequently much ingenuity, and no small value (to the decipherer at least), in this use of determinatives of genus or class. Groups of characters and phonetic values are sometimes, with this aid, ascertained with absolute certainty; and they are applied to verbs as well as nouns. For example, the verb "to sculpture" or "to build," is written jjUjj^, the fourth character, a mason's trowel, is a determinative; * 7 to weep, rima, is written ^^ gf^ , the last character is a determinative, an eye shedding tears; "to distribute" or "to equalize," is written ^, and nothing can be more significant than the determinative here, which is the plumb-line used in masonry. Sometimes the determinative of the verb is the instrument or means of the action expressed: thus, shar, to strike down or wound severely, is hieroglyph ically expressed as follows: • «—^; the determinative is a man down, having an axe buried in his skull. Sometimes the verb was determined by pictures of visible objects, supposed to have some peculiar quality similar to that which the verb was meant to denote. Thus "to be angry," has for a determinative an ape, because he is a very irascible animal: "to blush" or "to be red," is determined by a flamingo, a scarlet bird. The principle was carried further still; it was applied sometimes to the pronouns. "The pronoun of the first person, whether used either as the subject or object of the verb, or in the possessive form with the substantive, is frequently determined" (says Osborn), "by a picture of the person speaking, which on obelisks and other monuments elaborately finished, is a portrait." This may have led to the erroneous opinion of some that all the faces of great personages on the monuments are portraits. But as our object is simply to furnish the reader with some general idea of the singular graphics of the ancient dwellers in Egypt, and not to elucidate the grammatical structure of their language, we will not longer dwell on the subject of determinatives.

It remains to speak of one other species of symbol used in hieroglyphical writing, which was discovered by the acute mind of Champollion. It arises from a peculiarity in the ancient Egyptian language, said to resemble one in the Chinese, viz., the employment of the same sound to express many different ideas. Thus, a hatchet, H named Ter, is one of the

commonest symbols of "God or Divine Being," because that idea was denoted by the same sound, Ter. The weaver's shuttle >=< x=x is the symbol of the goddess Neith, because in the ancient language, neth was the word that meant shuttle. The idea of a physician is often represented by a duck; the name of the duck was cein, the Egyptian word for physician was ceini. As to the mode of writing the hieroglyphics, it was sometimes vertical and sometimes horizontal; it might be from left to right, or from right to left; the latter was, perhaps, the more usual. The reading always commences from that end of the line to which the animals that may be delineated are represented as looking. It should also be remarked, that the hieroglyphics themselves may be pure or linear: thus

Pure.

Reed—phonetically A.

Jackal—symbolically a priest.

Goose—phonetically S, symbolically offspring.

The pure class was always used in sculpture and painting; the linear was more common in ordinary life and in the literature of the earlier periods.

The system of numeration, which was discovered by Dr. Young, yet remains to be explained. The hieroglyphical numerals are as follows:

1.000.000 1.000.000.000.000.000.000

The units are expressed by a stroke, but in groups, thus:

To this we have only to add that the names of kings are always written in hieroglyphics, in a ring, or as the French call it, in a cartouche; and now, with the hope that what has been said will suffice to give the reader a correct general idea of the hieroglyphic writing, we proceed to consider,

II. - HIERATIC WRITING.

This is a running form of hieroglyphics, and differs from that system chiefly in the more frequent substitution of what may be considered alphabetic characters for pictured objects. In many instances, however, the transition from the picture to the letter is plain. As an illustration of this, we subjoin part of the sixth line of the hieroglyphical inscription on the Rosetta stone, with the same text below, in hieratic characters, as drawn up by Lepsius.

Clement of Alexandria informs us that this character was peculiar to the priests, hence it was called hieratic. It is found in the papyri which have been discovered in the tombs of Egypt. Some of these papyri contain but repetitions, more or less abbreviated, of the great funeral "ritual" or Book of the Dead, to which we have already alluded. Of this book, Lepsius has published a copy, which plainly shows that its characters were frequently but linear copies of the sculptured hieroglyphics of the monuments. Some of the papyri that have been found contain genealogies of kings, revenues of temples, &c.? while another class gives details of the expeditions and foreign conquests of the ancient kings of Egypt. As, however, this mode of writing formed part of the instruction of the priestly order only, it never (says Bunsen) could have held more than the second place in the educational system of the Egyptians.

III. THE ENCHORIAL OR DEMOTIC WRITING.

This is what Clement called the epistolographical. Of this we have already given a specimen on a previous page ;* and we have now to add that, in the opinion of Bunsen, this also is derived directly from the hieroglyphic, though some have supposed it to proceed from the hieratic. He supposes this character to have been popularly used for the purposes of common life; and explains the fact of two different modes of writing, viz., the hieratic and demotic, having been derived, independent of each other, from the hieroglyphics as a common source, by the circumstance that the first sprang from the Theban dialect, and the latter from the Memphitic, be"tween which there were fundamental differences. It seems, however, to be certain, that whatever may have been its source, the enchorial or demotic writing is comparatively modern, and probably made its appearance on the decline of the arts in Egypt. It is believed that no document in this character has been yet found of a date anterior to that of the Ptolemies; and this in Egypt may be considered modern.