17 

 1831.] ll [Lesley. 



Notes on Hebrew Etymologies from the Egyptian ANX. Enoch; Anoki ; 

 Enos. By J. P. Lesley. 



(Read before the American Philosophical Society, March 6, 1S01.) 



Forty years ago, in my Lowell lectures on the "Origin of Man." I gave 

 my views of the Arkite symbolism embodied in the crux ansata, or ANX 

 symbol of life. They were not accepted; but I still regard that line of 

 investigation as one entirely germane to modern scientific research, and 

 capable of bearing good fruit, although my application of it to the crux 

 ansata is much less probable than I then thought it ; for the latest archae- 

 ological results are rather in favor of regarding that symbol as a rude 

 drawing of the human figure. 



My present purpose is to direct attention to the influence which the 

 universal use of this symbol in all ages of ancient Egyptian history must 

 have exercised over the philology of surrounding races. Its name, ANX. 

 the living, the alive, life, etc., was certainly the most sacred word in the 

 Egyptian language ; in general and constant use in their religious litera- 

 ture ; on the lips of all their thinkers, and, in fact, of all classes of the 

 population of the valley of the Nile, in all generations ; and was em- 

 bodied as an element in the personal names of pharaohs, nobles, priests, 

 and common people ; the evidence of which pervades the monuments and 

 papyri. Every royal cartouche had the an% scrupulously written after 

 it, usually with the tat, to mean the ever •-living, the immortal. Pa an/ is 

 an instance of thy designation of a pharaoh (Pierret). The use of the any 

 inside the cartouche was later; for example, in the Ethiopian kingdom, 

 and by Psammeticus II and III. The granddaughter of Pianchi II was 

 named An/shap-n-ap ; the daughter of Takelot II, Anx-karama-t ; a 

 princess of the family of Psammeticus II, AnX-ra-nefer-het. Two places 

 or cities in Egypt are known called Xafra-anX and Aseska-anx, evidently 

 dedicated to the memory of the Kas, or spirits, of those monxrehs, one of 

 whom built the second great pyramid of Gizeh. A quarter of the oldest 

 capital of Egypt, Memphis, was known as An'X-taui, the life (or heart) of 

 the two lands, Upper and Lower Egypt. 



The word was popularly used, like our word "viands," for food of any 

 kind that supports life. AnX-am was the name of a tree, used as we use 

 the word "live-oak ;" and Lepsius quotes a curious sentence of great 

 interest to Hebrew scholars : " Ra, the sun, who makes the tree of life 

 (am n-anX) green, producing things which issue from it," suggesting the 

 "tree of life" (Q**nn W> more properly the tree of living things) of the 

 garden of Eden. 



The Egyptians seem to have used anXu, also, as the general plural 

 name for all flowers, the plainly living parts of plants. 



The Egyptians called a mirror «/?/, because it represented the living 

 object presented to it. They called the two eyes anyti, because the life 

 of an animal is best seen in his eyes. But they gave, curiously enough, 



PKOC. AMEK. PHILOS, SOC. XXIX. 135. C. PRINTED MAY 14, 1891. 



