170 The Marquis Di Spineto on the Zimb of Bruce, 



south end of the base beyond what might be introduced by a 

 faulty measurement of the latter, or such an error as might 

 be committed in measuring 100 feet by a tape of a corrected 

 lenp-th. About two years ago the height of the church tower 

 was found by observations with a 4-inch theodolite to be 

 115'6 feet above the water under Thornton bridge. The 

 base line was 318 feet in length, and the vertical angles taken 

 at both ends of it gave the same height within one inch. 

 Supposing the stream, noted as extremely low, to have been 

 one foot below its level in November last, (or two feet below 

 the spring of the arch,) then will the two measurements agree 

 exactly. 



Since the possible errors, though all tending one way, do 

 not amount to more than two feet, we may certainly claim for 

 the measurement a degree of accuracy equal to one foot. 



Leeds, Dec. 16, 1833. John Nixon. 



XXXI. On the Zimb of Bruce, as connected with theHierogly- 

 phics of Egypt. By the Marquis Di Spineto*. 



A T the top of the cartouche which incloses the mystic titles 

 •£*- of the Pharaohs, we invariably find two hieroglyphics, — 

 a crooked line and the figure of an insect, — which M. Cham- 

 pollion has interpreted to signify, king of the obedient people ; 

 for he takes the first, a sort of crooked line, as a phonetic cha- 

 racter expressing the letter s, and an abbreviation of the 

 word COTiT (soten), which means Icing; and considers the 

 figure of the second, an insect, to be that of a bee, and upon 

 the authority of Horapollo, the symbol of an obedient people. 

 " Si nous tenons compte du temoignage forme d'Horapollon, 

 l'abeille exprimait en ecriture hieroglyphique, Xuov irpos /3a- 

 (riXea 7T£i9»)viov, * peuple obeissant a son roi'.... L'abeille, cha- 

 ractere purement symbolique, — Vabeille, insecte industrieux, au 

 quel une vie laborieuse, et dirigee par un instinct admirable, 

 donne une apparence de civilisation qui dut en effet le faire 

 considerer comme l'embleme le plus frappant d'un peuple 

 soumis a un ordre social fixe, et a un pouvoir regulier." [Precis 

 du Syst. Hiero. p. 184-5.) 



In my Lectures on Hieroglyphics, published by Rivington, 

 although I could not see why the Pharaohs should boast of 

 commanding over an obedient people, and thus pass an eulogy 

 upon the nation rather than upon themselves, admitting the 

 supposition that the figure of the insect was that of a bee, I 

 adopted the same idea ; but in pursuing my researches on 



* Communicated by the Author. 



