HIKWHJLYPHICS 



UK;(.I.\S 



709 



sepulchral tablets of the family of Pasherenptah, 

 and the long series of sepulchral tablets of the 

 bull Apis found in the Serapeion, recording the 

 birth, installation, and death of the bulls from the 

 18th dynasty to the Persians. 



In connection with the hieroglyphics are two 

 forms of wiiting them in common use, first the 

 hieratic writing, or a cursive form of hieroglyphic. 

 The mmilHT <>i tin-so written characters is fewer 



than that of the hieroglyphs, the generic determina- 

 te .--i tain}' more employed, and the vocalic comple- 

 ment* of t In- consonants being constantly written in 

 onlcr to distinguish similar forms. This writing was 

 more extensively used than the hieroglyphic, being 

 employed for state papers, legal documents, memor- 

 anda, accounts, religious books, rituals, and all the 

 purposes of private and public life. Books were gen- 

 erally written in hieratic. It commences as early as 

 the 4th or 5th dynasty, and terminates only about 

 the 3d or 4th century of our era. At the earliest 

 period it is occasionally written perpendicularly, 

 but it was afterwards only written Horizontally, 

 and has generally portions in red ink, correspond- 

 ing to our initial illuminated letters or rubrics. 

 Many scholars hold it proved that the hieratic 

 alphabet gave rise to the Phoenician, and have 

 traced the Phoenician alphabet from hieratic sources 

 (as in our article ALPHABET, Vol. I., where on page 

 187 the hieroglyphs, the hieratic characters, and 

 the Phoenician alphabet will be seen side by side ). 

 Others still affirm that the precise source of 

 Phoenician writing remains involved in obscurity. 

 The second kind of hieroglyphic handwriting was the 

 demotic. It is, like all cursive hands, more difficult 

 to decipher than the hieratic. It was used as far 

 back as the commencement of the 26th dynasty, or 

 the 6th century B.C., and continued in use till the 

 3d century A.D. This was the last native form of 

 writing in Egypt, the early Christians having intro- 

 duced the Greek alphabet, with a few characters 

 borrowed frorn the demotic. This script is rarely 

 used for public monuments, although it appears on 

 the Rosetta Stone ; but it was universally employed 

 for contracts, public documents, and occasionally 

 for religious formulae, owing to the decreasing 

 knowledge of hieroglyphics. At the time of 

 Clement it was the first learned by beginners. 

 With it the Greek language began to appear in 

 public use. 



Besides the Egyptian hieroglyphics there are 

 those of the Aztecs or Mexican, which were de- 

 veloped to a stage far above the rude picture- 

 writing of the hunting tribes of American Indians. 

 The system was mainly pictorial, but had made 

 important advances toward attaining phonetic 

 value, especially in the picture-names of persons 

 and places. The simplest kind is where a name 

 meaning ' bird-mountain ' is represented by a bird 

 and a mountain ; another stage is where a personal 

 name of five syllables is represented by five pictures, 

 each representing a thing whose name corresponds 

 to one syllable of the person's name. After 

 the Spanish conquest, the Franciscans used the 

 Mexican symbols for teaching Christianity. Thus 



in the Lord's Prayer in Latin, fij , a flag, pro- 



nounced Pantti, was used for the syllable Pa; 

 Q-t , a stone, fetl for it, the two expressing Pater ; 

 ^ , a cactus fruit, Nochtli, for Noch ; and a stone, 

 Go , as above for te : these four groups expressing 

 Pate(r) Nochte, or Noster ; and so forth. Some 

 of the missionaries complained of their difficulties 

 when overwhelmed by converted Mexicans giving 

 their confessions written in this puzzling manner. 

 Some have absurdly affirmed, indeed, that all the 

 Mexican manuscripts are monkish impostures. 

 The most important religious, administrative, his- 



toricalare on parchment or on maguey paper. 

 Tin- Toltecan Hymlx>ln of Central America were 



ililleient in tlieir method from flume of Mexico. 

 The term hieroglyphic was also used by the 

 writers of emlilemata or devices, HymUilihin^ 

 Gnomic sentences taken from the .i.-.-k and Latin 

 poets, and having no relation to Egyptian hien. 

 glyphs. In recent times, too, the astrological al- 

 manacs have had their symbolical H-|>M - niatinn- 

 and supposed prognostics of future events, which 

 they called hieroglyphs. 



Zoega, Dt Oriyine Obelitcorum (to. Borne, 1797); 

 Young, Archieoloyia (1817, vol. xviL p. 60); Enc;irl., t ,. 

 Britannica (8th ed. ) : Champollion, Prfcit du .S/ 

 HUrootepMyite (1824), Grammairc Egyptienne (1MI 

 61), Dictionnairc (1841); Lepeius, in the Ann. <//' 

 Institute Arch. (1828); Birch, Introduction to the .SY <// 

 of the Hieroglyphics (1857 ) ; Brugsch, drammaire !> an- 

 tique (Berlin, 1855), Worttrbuch (1867-68), Oramm-tik 

 ( 1872) ; De Roug6, Etude d'une Stile Eyyptienne ( IX"* | ; 

 Chabas, Papyrus Alagique d'Htirrit (1861); Zeittrhrttt 

 f. cigypt. Sprache (18G3 74) ; Bunsen, E<i>tpt's Place (voL v. 

 1867) ; Wallia Budge, First Steps in L't/i/ptinn (181)5). For 

 the principal works relating to hieroglyphic literature, see 

 Ibrahim Hilmy, BiUioyraphy of Eyiipt and UK Soudan 

 (2 vols. Lond. 1886-87). For American picture-writing 

 and Mexican hieroglyphics, see .Schoolcraft's works ; 

 Kingsborough, Mexican Antiquities (1831-48); E. B. 

 Tylor, Anahuac (1861); Im Thurn, Amony the Indians 

 of Guiana (1883). See also the articles ALPHABET, 

 CHINA, EGYPT, WRITING. 



II M'roii> mi Irs. one of the many hermit orders 

 established in the course of the 13th and 14th cen- 

 turies. The Hieroriymites grew out of the Tertiaries 

 or third order of Franciscans (q.v. ). Some of the 

 followers of Thomas of Sienna, one of the Fran- 

 ciscan rigorists, having established themselves in 

 various places among the wild districts which skirt 

 the Sierra Morena in Spain, by degrees formed into 

 a community, and obtained in 1374 the approval 

 of Pope Gregory XL, who confirmed their rule, 

 which was founded on that of St Augustine. The 

 institute extended into other provinces of Spain, 

 into Portugal, later into Italy, Tyrol, and Bavaria. 



Hieronymus. See JEROME. 

 II icro plian I . the priest who presided over the 

 mysteries at Eleusis. See MYSTERIES. 



Hierosolyma. See JERUSALEM. 



Higden, or HIGDON, RALPH, author of the 

 Polyctironicon, a general chronicle, in 7 books, 

 detailing events from the beginning of the world 

 to the death of Edward III. Higden's own share 

 in the work is believed to extend down to 1326 or 

 1327 only, the rest having been written by two 

 continuators. Higden himself was a monk of St 

 Werburgh's monastery in Chester ; he is said t 

 have lived there sixty-four years, and to have 

 died in 1364. An English translation of the Poly- 

 chronicon by John Trevisa was printed by Caxton 

 in 1482. Tins and another early translation, with 

 the text, have been edited for the Rolls series 

 (9 vols. 1865-86) by C. Babington (vols. i. ii.) and 

 Professor Lumby (vols. iii.-ix.). 



Biggins, MATTHEW JAMES, English essayist, 

 better Known by his principal tiom de plume of 

 'Jacob Omnium,' was born at Benown, County 

 Meath, Ireland, on 4th December 1810; was edu- 

 cated at Eton and New College, Oxford ; and died 

 at Kingston House, near Abingdon, on 14th 

 August 1868. His intellectual force, his humour 

 anu irony were enlisted in the warfare against the 

 abuses and backslidings and minor evils of social 

 and public life, such as the heaping up of legal 

 costs as sung by Thackeray. He wrote no great 

 book, but was a steady contributor to a series of 

 journals, such as the New Monthly Magazine, 

 Morning Chronicle, Times, Cornhill, Edinburgh 

 Review, Pall Mall Gazette, &c. He particu- 



