706 



HIEROGLYPHICS 



Inscriptions on Egyptian monuments are some- 

 times inlaid with colours, an attempt being made 

 to imitate the natural colours of the animals and 

 objects, representations of which are employed to 

 form the inscription. The painted inscriptions 

 which are found upon the inner coffins in the tombs 

 of the 18th and 19th dynasty usually follow a con- 

 ventional design ; the number of colours used upon 

 them being comparatively few, six at the most. 

 But on the Ani papyrus in the British Museum as 

 many as thirteen colours are used. On papyri they 

 are usually drawn in outline in black. The rubrics 

 and initial words are usually written in red. 

 Hieroglyphics are written in horizontal lines or 



Eerpendicular columns, which are separated by 

 nes drawn in black ink. Usually they are to be 

 read in the direction in which they face, and are so 

 arranged as to cover completely all the parts of the 



Eapyrus which were to be written on. Egyptian 

 ieroglyphics are read in the order in Avhich they 

 are written ; this order is sometimes broken for the 

 sake of symmetrical arrangement. 



Hieroglyphics are either phonetic or ideographic ; 

 the former class comprises signs which represent 

 sounds, and the latter those which represent ideas. 

 Phonetic signs are either alphabetic or syllabic. 

 The hieroglyphic alphabet is as follows : 



a 

 a 

 a 

 i 

 u 

 b 



P 

 f 



m 

 n 



1 or r 

 r or 1 



ra 



& 



X 



a 

 sh 



q 



k 



k 



t 



t 



th 



t 



The earliest Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions 

 known to us are filled with the alphabetic signs 

 here given ; this fact shows that so far back as 

 3800 B. c. the use of phonetic signs was well known 

 and used. The other phonetic signs have syllabic 

 values. A large number of the hieroglyphics are 

 employed as ideographs, or representations of ideas. 

 Every word in Egyptian has one determinative or 

 more at the end of it. Thus, after the word for tree 



we have the picture of a tree, $& ; and after the word 



for dag we have the picture of a dog, JK-TV An ab- 



stract idea, such as joy or gladness, was expressed 

 by the figure of a woman beating a tambourine, or 

 a man dancing, or by the figure of some object pos- 



sessing it, as ^fj^, a jackal, to express the idea 



of cunning or craft ; ^ffi, a seated man, signifying 



man, was applied to all relationships, functions, 

 and offices of men, as atf, ' father ; ' sen, ' brother ; ' 

 mer, 'governor;' hen, 'priest;' bak, ' labourer :' the 

 special meaning which it conveyed being shown by 

 the phonetic groups which preceded it. In the 

 same way all beasts, or objects made of leather, were 



expressed by a skin, 



all 



precious stones or 



objects made of the same, by o ; all actions of mov- 

 ing, standing, or stretching, by two legs, J\ ; and all 

 actions in which the idea of strength was to be con- 

 veyed, by an arm and a stick, J\- The number 

 of these signs may be computed at about 150, and they 

 resemble in their use those of the Assyrian cunei- 

 form, in which, although to a more limited extent, 

 the leading classes of thought were determined by 

 a character prefixed or affixed to the phonetic group 

 giving the particular idea. Thus, in the Assyrian, 

 all names of men are preceded by a single upright 



wedge, y ; all countries by ""X*" ; names of horned 

 cattle by |?J ; and after the names of certain 

 places, Babylon, for example, ^p| is affixed. In 



the Egyptian system, however, the determinatives 

 are always placed after the phonetic groups, and 

 are more numerous. The Chinese system of writing; 

 approaches still more closely to the Egyptian, 

 242 radicals, as they are called, but really deter- 

 minatives, being placed after other groups and 

 symbols, which indicate the special idea intended. 

 In this last language the radicals are generally 

 placed to the left, except in those instances in 

 which they enclose the phonetic or special groups. 

 In the Egyptian hieroglyphs every word not 

 expressing an abstract idea, such as the verb 'to 

 be,' or the grammatical forms and pronouns, is 

 accompanied by its determinative, and is incomplete 

 without it. The following examples will illustrate 

 the use of determinatives in Egyptian : 



sesh, 



a bird's nest. 



uaa, a boat, 



hebs, clothes, 



aneb, wall, 



ket, little. 



tebhu, to pray. 



A/WWV 



ra 



nehes, 



to run away, 

 to awake. 



SPECIMENS OF ALPHABETIC AND SYLLABIC HIERO- 

 GLYPHIC CHARACTERS. * 



f A 

 leg of astool.Aha. 



0~i a house, H. 

 a sieve, x- 



a garment, Ua. 



a lion, R or L. 

 > a mouth, L or R. 

 I a pen, M. 

 V a weight, Ma. 



a hole, M. 



an owl, M. 



* The first fount of hieroglyphic type was cut in England 

 from drawings by the late Mr Bonomi. For the hieroglyphics 

 used in this article we are indebted to Messrs Harrison, printers, 

 London. 



an eagle, A. 

 an arm, A. 



r\ . 



M a reed, A. 

 g\ a calf, Ua. 

 FvN; a heron, Ba. 



a leg, B. 



a cerastes, F. 



a wild fowl, Ta. 



a vase, Ta. 

 | a viper, T. 



