182 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 
civilisation that the Dynastic Egyptians owed their system of writing. 
I was led to this conclusion by the following facts. Although many 
pre-dynastic cemeteries had been thoroughly explored in Upper Egypt 
no grave had yielded a single fragment of hieroglyphic writing. ‘The 
only inference that can be drawn from this is that hieroglyphic writing 
was unknown, or at all events unpractised, by the inhabitants of 
Upper Egypt before dynastic times. On the other thand, the dis- 
coveries at Naqada, Hierakonpolis, and Abydos had shown us that all 
the essential features of the Egyptian system of writing were fully 
developed at the beginning of the First Dynasty. Hieroglyphic signs 
were already in full use as simple phonograms, and their employment 
as phonetic complements was well established. Determinative signs 
are found beginning to appear in these early writings, but, as Erman 
and Griffith have noticed, even as late as the Fifth Dynasty their use 
was very restricted in the monumental inscriptions, although they were 
common in the cursive and freely written texts of the Pyramids. At 
the very beginning of the First Dynasty the numerical system was com- 
plete up to millions, and the Egyptians had already worked out a solar 
year of 865 days. ‘This was indeed a remarkable achievement. 
These facts are of great significance, for it is clear that the hiero- 
elyphic system of writing, as we find it at the beginning of the First 
Dynasty, must have been the growth of many antecedent ages, and 
yet no.trace of the early stages of its evolution have been found on 
Upper Egyptian soil. There is no clear evidence, however, that the 
system was borrowed from any country outside Egypt; the fauna and 
flora of its characters give it every appearance of being indigenous. It 
is apparent, therefore, that we must seek the cradle of the Egyptian 
system of hieroglyphic writing elsewhere than in Upper Egypt, and 
as the fauna and flora of its characters are distinctly Egyptian the 
presumption is that it must be located to the Delta. An important indi- 
cation as to the original home of Egyptian writing is given by the 
signs which, in historic times, were used to designate the points of the 
compass. The sign for ‘ east’ was a drop-shaped ingot of metal upon 
a sacred perch, and this was the cult-object of a clan living in pre- 
dynastic times in the Eastern Delta. The sign for ‘ west’ was an 
ostrich feather placed in a semicircular stand, and this was the cult- 
object of the people of the Western Delta. The sign for ‘ south’ was 
a scirpus-reed; this was the cult-object of a clan which dwelt on the 
east bank of the Nile a little above the modern village of Sharona in 
Middle Egypt. The country south of the apex of the Delta was known 
as Ta Shema, ‘Reed Land.’ It must, therefore, have been at some 
point north of the apex of the Delta that the scirpus-reed was first used 
to designate the south. It must also have been somewhere in the 
Central Delta that the cult-objects of the peoples of the Eastern and 
Western Delta were first used to designate ‘east’ and ‘ west.’ 
For the Delta being the early home of writing another fact has to 
be taken into consideration. Thoth, the Ibis-god, was to the Egyp- 
tians the god of writing, and it was to him that they attributed. its 
invention. The principal seat of his worship in historic times was 
Hermopolis, in Middle Egypt. But Thoth’s original habitat was 
