60 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [aPBIL 13, 



were conducted by Messrs. Tiffany & Co., who were also the 

 owners of the diamond. 



Dr. Charles E. Moldenke then read the following paper: 



THE language OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS AND ITS MONUMENTAL 



RECORDS. 



(Illustrated with lantern slides, papyri, etc.) 



The importance of the study of Oriental languages is being 

 gradually recognized in our country, and some of our promi- 

 nent universities have begun to give instruction in a few of 

 these languages. Of all Oriental languages, however, that of 

 Ancient Egypt claims our chief attention, for all of them, 

 whether Arabic, or Hebrew, or Assyrian, are merely secondary 

 sources from which we derive our knowledge of the most ancient 

 world. They must continually fall back on the Egyptian, from 

 which most of them have received even their alphabet. The 

 great interest manifested everywhere in the customs and man- 

 ners, as well as the language, of the ancient inhabitants of 

 Egypt, is therefore, a just tribute to and a worthy acknowledg- 

 ment of the preeminence of that strange people above all 

 other nations of former days. No one can peruse the story of 

 the legendary lore of Egypt, hear the majestic odes addressed 

 to the Deity, or scan the vast realm of research which opens to 

 his view, without expressing a wish to be able to read the 

 curious writing of that people himself in the original. That 

 this is not so impossible as it may aj^pear at first sight, is at- 

 tested by the imposing array of Egyptologists all over the 

 world. Still even with regard to this some popular fallacies 

 have remained up to the present day. It was customary for- 

 merly, and is customary even to some extent nowadays, to desig- 

 nate as Qnijsterious wdiatever bears the name of Ancient Egypt, 

 and, of course, to stigmatize the language itself a labyrinth of 

 mysteries. Such views, however, expressed at the present time, 

 would lead us back into long forgotten days when ignorance 

 was bliss. 



