Rev. Edward Hincks on the Egyptian Stele, or Tablet. 59 



verb " to receive," and its derived noun ; and which also denoted the same verb 

 phonetically, according to the well-ascertained usage of the Egyptians, being 

 the letter K, the first letter of the old Egyptian verb ki " to receive ;" whence 

 we have in Coptic 2fl and (TT. After this character a small vertical line is 

 frequently placed, signifying that it represents a word, and not a mere letter. 

 Compound prepositions of this sort are of common occurrence in the Coptic 

 language ; and there are some well-known instances of them in Hebrew. 



9. Now, I observe that, though this compound preposition en-ki-en, was 

 substituted for the single preposition en, at a very remote period, it is not so 

 remote a one as that instances to the contrary do not occur. The earliest dated 

 tablet that I have seen, containing the compound preposition, is of the twenty- 

 ninth year of Amenemhe II. In all tablets sculptured in the early part of the 

 reign of this king, as well as in all those sculptured under his predecessor Osor- 

 tasen I., or any of the preceding raonarchs, the simple waved line, en, " to," is 

 invariably used ; if, indeed, the preposition be not omitted altogether. 



The part of the inscription, which follows this simple or compound preposi- 

 tion, contains the name of the deceased person, preceded by an enumeration of 

 the offices, sacerdotal, civil, or military, which he held, and followed in most 

 instances by the names and offices of his father and mother (or at least one of 

 them), and sometimes of his grandfather or other relatives. It is but seldom 

 that the exact nature of all the offices held by the deceased person can be satis- 

 factorily discovered. We can perceive, however, that the Egyptians in general, 

 and especially the priests, were great pluralists. Occasionally, but very rarely, 

 we meet in this part of the inscription with the name of a king, whom the 

 deceased person served, and even with a fact respecting him of historical interest. 

 Thus, in a tablet of the reign of Thothmos IV.,* belonging to Mr. Harris (Eg. 



that the verb here used for " receive" is not ki ; but is the equivalent verb chop, ^n> preserved in 

 the Coptic jy6n or UJUJIT, and corresponding to the Latin cap-ere. 



* I mean the king, who is called Thothmos V. by Rosellini. The Italian antiquarian has 

 imagined a king of this name, whom he calls Thothmos III., but who had no real existence. Having 

 taken it into his head that Queen Amouneth ente heou, who erected the Karnac obelisks, was the 

 mother of Thothmos Mephre, and finding that the name of the father of this king was Thothmos, 

 he assumed the existence of a husband of the queen, whom he called Thothmos III. ; and he styled 

 Mephre, Thothmos IV. The fact is, however (as I conjectured in a note to my paper on the years 

 and cycles of the ancient Egyptians, and as has since been completely established), that this queen 



if 2 



