CHAP. XIII. HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. IS 



purport of which is that the writers came and 

 " adored the very great God Hermes," (frequently 

 with the title) " Pautnouphis." 



Tlie name Pautnouphis probably refers to the 

 town of which he was the presiding Deity, since 

 the name in hieroglyphics, Taut-n-pnoubs, or Taut- 

 n-pa-noubs, is followed by the sign ot land and the 

 female sign ; which last may perhaps be read as part 

 of the name, making it Taut-n-pa-t-noubs. A tree 

 also seems to be a demonstrative sign accompanying 

 the name, as if it ended with " the land of the tree." 

 The word Nouphis, however, does not appear to 

 connect him with Neph, the great God of this part 

 of the country ; nor does his hieroglyphic legend, 

 Taut-n-pnoubs, apply to the town of Pnoups, which 

 was much farther to the south, probably at Samneh, 

 placed by Ptolemy in lat. 22°, and opposite Tasitia. 

 We might even suppose the word Paut-nouphis to 

 be a corruption of Taut-nouphis. But I cannot 

 agree with the ingenious ChampolUon *, in reading 

 it " Pahit-nouf" ('* celui dont le coeur est bon"), 

 especially as the Greek inscriptions write the name 

 Paut-nouphis, even in the oblique cases, proving that 

 s is the Egyptian, and not the Greek termination. 



The Ibis was sacred to him as to Thoth, of 

 whom, indeed, he may possibly be an emanation ; 

 to its perch is attached an ostrich feather, the em- 

 blem of Truth, which, like the head-dress he wears 

 of four plumes, belongs also to the God Ao. In his 

 hand he frequently bears a staff, surmounted by the 

 head of a hawk, the emblem of Re, with a snake 



* Champoll. lettre xi, p. 150. 



