254 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



409, finally, represents the palm-tree, ^ht, which, according 

 to Horapollo (i.3,4) signifies both the year and the month *.fioT, 

 to wit, because the Egyptians, as it is known, frequently called, 

 m their chronological reports, the month a year (see Ideler's 

 Chronology), owing to the root of evfior, i.e. nay (abat), mutavit. 

 See G. AL. 75, 342. Even the name of the year njC' (shanah) 

 involves the same idea mu^avi'i, because of the root nJK' (shanah), 

 mutavit, iteravit, revolivt. The Chs. were so foolish as to main- 

 tain that the palm-tree expressed " runapat," the year, and the 

 crescent " A-feoT," month. However, this absurdity proceeded 

 from some manuscripts (T. B. 31, 7 ; 34, i ; 43, 3, etc.) which 

 put r/zp before the palm-tree, whilst the latter simply expresses 

 the word " circulus" (anni). Moreover, the crescent never ex- 

 presses adof, but w;z, fr/jv, and Menes. In short, the palm-tree 

 expresses 6i and 6, e.g. in «\6ht, house (H. O. South ii. 23), d in 

 e^TOOTi, ysuid/.ia (T. S. iii.), njn (beneth), Virgo, TJvne, Thebag, 

 etc. ; accordingly here the word i^l^or, year. 



This is my grammatical and philological commentary to the 

 so long sealed Tablet of Pompeium, and I hope that none of its 

 409 words have been misunderstood. I know the difficulty of 

 correctly translating entire hieroglyphic texts since 1826; it is 

 the same which affects the Hebrew literature, from the fact that 

 the same consonantal combinations express very different no- 

 tions. E.g. la (br) admits at least nine different versions ; from 

 the letters ad, ada, adah, it is possible to bring out still more 

 significations. Suppose that a Hebrew copy of the Old Testa- 

 ment, written without the Masoretic vowels, came into our hands, 

 how difficult it would be to translate these old writings, no ver- 

 sion being known. The same is the case with the old Egyptian 

 literature. And yet the old Septuagint interpreters have demon- 

 strated the possibility of translating the Hebrew Testament under 

 the same circumstances. It is, therefore, possible to revive the 

 whole of the ancient Egyptian literature by means of sane prin- 

 ciples, which is, however, impracticable by the instrumentality 

 of Ch's theory, as the following specifications will make clearer. 



PARALLELS OF THE SINGLE GROUPS. 



Since the death of Prof. M. Uhleman in Gottingen, and Prof. 

 H. Wultke in Leipzig, I presume there are not two persons in 



