of the Letters of the Hieroglyphic Alphabet. 163 
@, answering to the Memphitic 5. This is best accounted for by supposing 
that the original hard sound of this letter was in some words, though not in all, 
changed to a softer one ; and perhaps its original sound might be inferred, with 
sufficient certainty, from the two into which it is known to have degenerated, 
supposing that we had no other evidence for it. This, however, is beside our 
present purpose. What I now insist on is the fact, that the letters of the alpha- 
bet had, in some cases, different powers in the same place, at different times, as 
well as in different places at the same time; though the former difference was 
probably less sensible than the latter, until a considerable time after the Persian 
conquest. I propose, therefore, to select a particular time and place, and to inves- 
tigate, in the first instance, the powers which the phonoglyphs had then and 
there. It will be a matter for after consideration to find what difference there 
was in their powers at other places and times. This will be occasionally noticed 
by the way, but it is no part of what I now propose to accomplish. 
The place which I have thought it best to select is Thebes, and the time is 
the interval between the first Rameses and the fourth king of that name, accord- 
ing to Sir G. Wilkinson and others : the fifth, according to Rossellini. During 
this interval the most important sculptures at Thebes were executed ; almost all 
those at the Ramesseion and Medinet Abi, and the best of those at Karnac, 
Luxor, and Biban-el-Molik. During this same interval, also, the greater part 
of the papyri published by the British Museum were written at Thebes. We 
must except the beginning of the first Sallier papyrus (which is more ancient), 
the fourth Sallier (which seems to have been written at Memphis), and, perhaps, 
the last two Anastasi. The remainder, which occupy about 136 plates of the 
published fac similes, were written at Thebes, and in the interval above men- 
tioned, which I have called “ the age of the papyri.” 
As I shall have occasion to refer to monuments of different ages, though 
none of them can be admitted as evidence of primary authority im the present 
investigation, I deem it right to describe briefly the several ages as I class them. 
I do so for convenience, waiving the discussion of disputed chronological 
points. 
The first age, or “age of the Fourth Dynasty,” comprehends the royal 
names found in the great pyramid, the inscriptions on the tomb of Teta, and on 
the coffin of Mycerinus, in the British Museum, and those copied in Mr. Burton’s 
x2 
