SEYFFARTH THE HIEROGLYPHIC TABLET OF POMPEIUM. 295 



the Egyptians ; for his 46 primitive letters were not discovered, 

 but arbitrarily congested. The genuine alphabet of 25 letters 

 is the basis of the Egyptian literature, which was totally strange 

 to Lepsius. 



9. It is untrue that Lepsius's hieroglyphic types are an immor- 

 tal merit ; for a great many of them, cut according to the author's 

 fancy, differ from the originals, and therefore they are useless. 

 The same, moreover, do not run, as Herodotus says, from the 

 right to the left hand, but vice versa. Accordingly it would be 

 necessary to establish hieratic and demotic types equally wrong. 



10. It is a deception that Lepsius discovered the Tanis-stone ; 

 for this honor belongs to an association of four persons— Lepsius, 

 Weidenbach, Reinisch, and Roesler — while the first was absent. 



11. It is a shameful fraud that "Champollion's system has van- 

 quished its antagonists and now reigns." For all the Champol- 

 lionists have secretly forsaken " the orthodox theory." They 

 disregard the rule that every hieroglyphic inscription consisted 

 " half of phonetic, half of ideologic figures"; they abandon the 

 theorem that no hieglyph " signifies a syllable"; they give up the 

 chimera that no hieroglyph " expressed different sounds"; they 

 relinquish the prejudice that the language of the ancient Egyp- 

 tians was the modern Coptic, not related with the Hebrew. All 

 these facts had been previously discovered by the writer, but 

 w^ere clandestinely appropriated by the Champollionists. Hence 

 the system which rules at present is that of the writer, and not 

 Champollion's. 



The only truth contained in these remarkable lampoons and 

 pasquinades is that S.'s (the writer's) " merits are very narrow 

 ones." Yet I disclaim any merit at all in this afiair, because I 

 have never longed for merits or laurels. I confess, moreover- 

 that I was never able to compose Egyptian romances. 



However, the question, What is the true hieroglyphic system? 

 being important in the revival of ancient Egypt, I challenge 

 the Champollionist Ebers to publish within the next six months 

 a grammatical translation and interpretation of the Pompeian 

 Tablet according to Champollion's true system. Should he 

 refuse to accept this challenge, then I shall call him a shameless 

 calumniator. 



