64 Rev. Edward Hincks on the Egyptian Stele, or Tablet. 



I now come to the most important part, as I think I may safely call it, of the 

 inscription on a tablet, namely, the speech put into the mouth of the deceased 

 person. It may be known by the group of hieroglyphics which precedes it, as 

 in the skeleton inscription given above. These characters are in^, " he says," 

 that is, " who says ;" for the Egyptians had no relative pronouns. If the person 

 commemorated be a female, the broken line D, " she," is used for the horned 

 serpent, "i, " he." It must not be supposed that these speeches are always of im- 

 portance, or even that they always convey information respecting the deceased 

 person. Sometimes, the speech is a prayer addressed to Osiris, or some other 

 deity ; sometimes it is a statement of the happiness enjoyed by the deceased in 

 Amenta ; sometimes it is an Invitation to mankind in general, or to the priests, or 

 to those who may approach the burial place, to pray for blessings to the deceased ; 

 but it is, in many instances, a brief narrative of the most important events in the 

 life of the deceased person ; and it is here, if any where in the body of the 

 inscription, that we may expect to find the time when he lived, or his age, 

 stated. 



It would be impossible, in such a paper as this, to describe at any length the 

 varied contents of this portion of the inscription. Nor is it necessary for my 

 purpose, which is merely to direct attention to this class of Egyptian antiquities, 

 and to guide the purchaser or student to those which are of most value, either 

 from their age or from their contents. It is a rule, which admits few excep- 

 tions, that very little information is to be derived from any tablet which does not 

 contain a speech ; but the converse of this is by no means true ; many speeches 

 contain no information whatever. 



I have mentioned, as I went along, several criteria of the antiquity of tablets. 

 It remains for me to notice one, the most striking of all, which lies not in the 



bH or b ; and, no doubt, it signifies most commonly " to." It, however, has other meanings, just 

 as the corresponding h has. It is used before the name of a king, when the year of his reign is to 

 be expressed. So is the Hebrew b. And why may it not be also used for "of" in such expres- 

 sions as " the blessed of Osiris," « the favoured of his master ?" In that very ancient Hebrew 

 passage. Genesis, xiv. 19, a document, which is probably of the same age with the tablets which 

 contain this formula, the proposition b is used for "of" in the similar expression, "Blessed be 

 Abram of the most High God," ]^>b^S bwb. The Hebrew and the ancient Egyptian languages 

 throw great light on each other ; and it is not unreasonable to expect that the study of the Egyptian 

 monuments will elucidate many passages of the sacred text that are now obscure. 



