168 THEORY OF THE EARTH. 



Hermes, which were carried by the Egyptian 

 priests in their solemn processions. Clement of 

 Alexandria * names them all to the number of 

 forty-two, and there is not even found among 

 them, as is the case with the Brahmins, one epic 

 poem, or one book, which has the pretension to 

 be a narrative, or to fix in any way a single great 

 action or a single event. 



The interesting researches of M. Champollion 

 the younger, and his astonishing discoveries re- 

 garding the language of the hieroglyphics f , far 

 from overturning these conjectures, on the con- 

 trary, confirm them. This ingenious antiquary 

 has read, in a series of hieroglyphic paintings in 

 the temple of Abydos J, the prenomens of a cer- 

 tain number of kings placed in regular succession 

 one after another ; and a part of these prenomens 

 (the last ten) recurring on various other monu- 

 ments, accompanied with proper names, he has 

 concluded that they are those of kings who bore 

 those proper names, and this has afforded him 



* Stromat. lib- vi. p. 633. 



t See the " Precis clu Systeme Hieroglyphique des 

 Anciens Egyptiens/' by M. Champollion the younger, 

 p. 245; and his Letter to the Duke de Blacas, p. ]5 et seq. 



J This important bas-relief is engraved in the second 

 volume of M. Caillaud's Voyage a Meroe, Plate xxxii. 

 1 



