582 Professor Tyndall [Jan. 22, 



conclude that a most extraordinary chance had brought into my 

 possession a document which was not very likely, in the first place, 

 ever to have existed, still less to have been preserved uninjured for 

 my information through a period of near two thousand years. But that 

 this very extraordinary translation should have been brought safely 

 to Europe, to England, and to me, at the very moment when it was 

 most of all desirable to me to possess it, as the illustration of an 

 original which I was then studying, but without any reasonable hope 

 of being able to fully comprehend it, — this combination would in 

 other times have been considered as affording evidence of my having 

 become an Egyptian sorcerer." 



Grey's manuscript related not to a sale of a house or field, but to 

 portions of the collections and offerings made from time to time for 

 the benefit of a certain number of mummies. The persons of whom 

 the mummies were the remains were described at length in bad Greek, 

 but though bad, a comparison between it and the Enchorial writing, 

 gave the most important information regarding the orthography of 

 ancient Egypt. Mr. Grey's collection contained three other similar 

 deeds, all written in the Enchorial character of the Eosetta stone, and 

 endorsed with the Greek registry. The dates of these documents 

 closely corresponded with that of the Cassati manuscript which was 

 146 years before Christ. They refer to the sale of land, the 

 boundaries of which were very clearly defined.* In those days, as wo 

 know, the Egyptians were the best land surveyors in the world. The 

 comparison of these documents formed, as might be expected, an epoch 

 in the history of Egyptian literature. 



We now approach a period of stormy discussion regarding the 

 claims of different discoverers. And as the tempest raged chiefly round 

 Young and Champollion, it is desirable to fix with precision, if that 

 be possible, the position of the learned Frenchman before he came 

 into contact with Young. This, a work published by Champollion 



* And the persons concerned equally well defined. In this respect the 

 Egyptians might vie with the writers of Continental passports. The following is 

 a translation of the famous papyrus of Anastasy, recording a deed of sale : — 

 " There was sold by Pamonthes, aged about forty-five, of middle size, dark com- 

 plexion, and handsome figure, bald, round faced, and straight nosed ; by 

 Snachomneus, aged about twenty, of middle size, sallow complexion, likewise 

 round faced and straight nosed ; and by Semmuthis Persinei", aged about twenty- 

 two, of middle size, sallow complexion, round faced, flat nosed, and of quiet 

 demeanour ; and by Tathlyt Persinei, aged about thirty, of middle size, sallow 

 complexion, round face, and straight nose, with their principal Pamonthes, a 

 party in the sale; the four being of the children of Petepsais of the leather 

 cutters of the Memnonia ; out of the piece of level ground which belongs to them 

 in the southern part of the Memnonia, eight thousand cubits of open field. ... It 

 was bought by Nechutes the less, the son of Asos, aged about forty, of middle 

 size, sallow complexion, cheerful countenance, long face, and straight nose, with 

 a scar upon the middle of his forehead, for 601 pieces of brass, the sellers standing 

 as brokers, and as securities for the validity of the sale. It was accepted by 

 Nechutes the purchaser." 



