SEYFFARTH THE HIEROGLYPHIC TABLET OF POMPEIUM. 269 



pass that Brugsch could not translate this inscription at all, and 

 from which Goodwin only obtained downright nonsense. 



HEBREW ROOTS IN THE PREMISES. 



It is true, the principal blunder of Ch's theory was his con- 

 tinual negation that any hieroglyphic figure expressed a conso- 

 nantal syllable ; but the second one, that the language of the 

 ancient Egyptians was the modern Coptic, turned out to be not 

 less fatal. The language of the whole ancient Egyptian litera- 

 ture was, as Josephus testifies, lepa dcdhxzoQ^ that is to say, a 

 Hebrew dialect. It is absolutely impossible without the Hebrew, 

 which furnishes the words and grammatical forms wanting in the 

 Coptic, as well as the original orthography and pronunciation of 

 Coptic words, to translate any entire Egyptian text, and hence it 

 came to pass that G. concocted so many absurdities from the 

 Pompeian Tablet. 



