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



from his mother to his wife or her father. There are other scarabaei of a similar 

 nature ; but the great majority of them are funereal, containing the name of a 

 deceased person (or sometimes a blank for a name, the scarab^cus having never 

 been appropriated), followed by a speech from the Ritual respecting the heart of 

 the speaker. The tablets, on the contrary, though essentially funereal, and con- 

 taining much that is of a general nature, have, for the most part, a great deal 

 which is peculiar to the deceased person. In this, they resemble our tombstones ; 

 and it is curious that they are of the same shape as those which we set up at the 

 head of graves, and that they were set up in similar positions. Some tablets 

 mention the King of Egypt whom the deceased person served, and the capacity 

 in which he served him ; some record the more important events in his life ; 

 some are dated either in the body of the inscription or at the top of the tablet, 

 with the year of the king's reign, and often with the month and day of the 

 month; and in some rare instances (would that they were more frequent!) the 

 dates of the birth and death of the deceased person and the length of his life are 

 all stated. I am aware of but two such tablets ; but among the many which are 

 in existence, that have not yet been examined, it is likely that there are others ; 

 and the immense importance of such tablets, which are probably the only means* 



* Another means of equal value would exist, if we had records of the years of kings' reigns, in 

 which the cyclical panegyries were held. These panegyries occurred at intervals of three years; ten 

 of them forming a series, the TpiaxoyTasTupi; of the Ilosetta stone. A tablet has been found at Silsilis, 

 stating that a certain person presided over the first or grand panegyry in the thirty-first year of 

 Rameses the Great, the second in his thirty-fourth year, the third in his thirty-seventh year, and 

 the fourth in his fortieth year. Another tablet records that another individual presided over the 

 sixth panegyry, in the forty-sixth year of the same king. Any of these records would prove that 

 the first year of Rameses the Great was the first year of a Tfiaxo>-asT>ipK ; and, of course, if the prin- 

 ciples which Ihave endeavoured to establish elsewhere be correct, in a year B. C. of the form 1767 — 

 30 k. If now a record should be found of any given panegyry of the series occuring in any given 

 year of any other king, the exact interval between the commencement of the two reigns could be 

 determined from an approximate interval. Suppose, for example, that a record should be found of a 

 grand panegyry occurring in the twenty-sixth year of Amenothph III. Knowing that the commence- 

 ment of his reign was above 100 years before that of Rameses the Great, we should infer, that the 

 interval between his twenty-sixth year and the first of Rameses, was ninety years ; and, of course, 

 that the interval between the beginnings of the two reigns was 115 years. Unfortunately, with the 

 exception of the two tablets at Silsilis, I believe no record of this kind has been discovered. 



