122 



Hierogly pineal Fragments. 



Whatever may be done by the liberality of the French govern- 

 ment hereafter, in promoting the investigation of Egyptian 

 Antiquities, the spirit of private individuals among our coun- 

 trymen has, of late, been so active as to promise to exhaust all 

 the accessible materials before our rivals commence their ope- 

 rations. Mr. Burton's drawings of the Chamber of Kings, 

 at Thebes, have already been lithographized ; though his fellow 

 labourer, Mr. Wilkinson, has been less fortunate in sending 

 home his manuscript on the same subject, which has been lost 

 on its way. Mr. Wilkinson is, however, still employed, with 

 unremitting zeal, in increasing the bulk of his collections ; and 

 his drawings appear to be as accurately copied, as they are 

 beautifully executed ; and Major Felix has even lithographized, 

 at Cairo, some very interesting plates of names, arranged in 

 chronological order. 



Among some drawings lately received from Mr. Wilkinson by 

 his friends in England there are two of particular interest. The 

 one is a ceiling from the Memnonium at Thebes ; the other a 

 tablet from a tomb at Beni Hassan. 



The first of these contain twelve months in order ; they are 

 distinguished by three different characters^ accompanied by 

 numerals from one to four, nearly in the same way as the 

 months communicated by Mr. Champollion to Dr. Young for 

 his Hieroglyphics. This mode of expressing the months appears 

 to be sufficiently observable in the enchorial as well as in the 

 sacred characters : and Mr. Champollion is evidently acquainted 

 with their signification, though the characters cannot possibly 

 have any relation to the sounds of the Egyptian words by which 

 the months are denoted. 



There is, however, an extraordinary difficulty in the reading of 

 a passage in the Pillar of Rosetta, in which the name of the sixth 

 month Mechir occurs, though it is denoted by the character 

 which in this series answers to Paophi the second month. The 

 first tetrad, beginning at the middle of the ceiling, is marked by 

 the character of a garden or a corn field ; and this character is 

 also in the Thoth of the triple inscription, repeated, as denoting, 



