TWENTY-THIRD ORDINARY MEETING. 



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the same sound, must have made the study of this interesting language 

 a laborious business to the common people. And in this fact, among 

 others, we can see how very naturally the Egyptian scholars were the 

 Egyptian priestly class, and the men of leisure. 



The Ethiopians were known to the Hebrews as Cushites, the same 

 name by which the Egyptians designated them on the monuments. 

 But the most ancient historic document we have classifies the 

 Cushites, Canaanites and Egyptians as originally tribes from the 

 same Hamitic stock. This fact is supported by independent and 

 valid evidence. From the earliest historic times a most intimate 

 connection existed between Egypt and Ethiopia on the south. The 

 Ethiopian armies served with the native Egyptian, and the Egyptian 

 kings found an asylum and support there when their own land was 

 invaded and subdued by foreign enemies. The kings of Egypt even 

 married Ethiopian princesses, when no state reasons required them 

 to form such a bond of union with their southern neighbours. In 

 all this varied intercourse no interpreters were employed. No 

 record, at least, is given of such a fact, and we may reasonably infer, 

 therefore, that the Egyptians understood the language of the Cushites, 

 and therefore that the Egyptian and Cushite language were similar, 

 if not identical. From these facts it might be inferred a priori that 

 there would be an essential resemblance between the Egyptian 

 Hieroglyphic and Ethiopic, and this is true as a matter of fact. 

 From this brief survey of the ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic, I think 

 we may deduce the following conclusions : 



1. That it is closely allied with the Accadian and the modern 

 Assyriq^, as found on the tablets and monuments discovered in the 

 ruins in Mesopotamia. 



2. That the Egyptian Hieroglyphic is in some of its fundamental 

 parts Semitic, and points to a common origin with Hebrew, Syriac 

 and Arabic. 



3. That it was the same in its oi-igin and essence as the language 

 of the Cushites on the south, which is substantiated by the fact that 

 there is a somewhat close affinity between the Egyptian Hieroglyphic, 

 or its descendant the Coptic, and the Ethiopic. 



4. That an affinity exists between the Egyptian and some of the 

 Ajyan languages, as Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and German. 



.5. And as a final conclusion of the survey of this archaic language 

 once spoken by the race that has left behind it the most lasting 



