Astronomical and Nautical Collections. 409 
bable: for these stars are really nothing else than hieroglyphical 
elements of so many proper names. ) 
“‘ There is no doubt that every hieroglyphical inscription begins 
on that side to which the faces of the living objects represented 
in it are turned. The star in the short groups at Dendera is 
therefore the last hieroglyphic character of each of them, and 
must be considered, not as the representation of a star, but as a 
simple element of the hieroglyphical writing; that is to say, as 
a sort of letter, and not as the imitation of an object. It now 
remains to be explained why these thirty-eight groups are all 
terminated by a star. 
“‘ The study of the three systems of writing of the ancient 
Egyptians, founded on the infallible basis of the comparison of 
the three parts of the inscription of Rosetta, has convinced us that 
the great part of the proper names of individuals belonging to 
the same species, are always preceded or followed by the hiero- 
glyphical character denoting that species. It is thus that all the 
names of the gods and goddesses end with the character which 
expresses the idea of god, (for example, in the zodiac itself, the 
names of Isis, Osiris, the Moon, Horus, [‘* Hyperion”], and 
Thoth ;) and that the proper names of the months are Sram 
by the sign of the idea month. 
‘* It appears therefore evidently, that in the thirty-eight short 
inscriptions which are attached to thirty-eight of the figures of 
the zodiac of Dendera, the star is merely the hieroglyphical sign 
of the species comprehending the individuals which are indicated 
by these inscriptions. 
“It may consequently be inferred, that these personages must 
be the representations of stars, of constellations, or of parts of 
constellations ; and it was natural that their hieroglyphical 
names should contain the hieroglyphical sign of the species, that 
is to say, a star, in the same manner as the proper name of 
every Egyptian divinity contains the particular sign god; and in 
the same manner also as, in the language as spoken, the syl- 
lable sou, contracted from s1ov, which signifies star, entered into 
the composition of the proper names of the stars or of the con- 
stellations, such as sounnOR, the star of Horus, or Orion 
