14 CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT 



chosen ; but formed by system they bear such intimate relation to the hieroglyphic characters as 

 to seem the work of one hand. — This continued to be the spoken language of Egypt in the time 

 of Joseph and the Jewish Exodus (Gen. xli. 43 and 45, xlii. 23, and Psalm cxiv. 1) : in the days of 

 Manetho there were two languages in Egypt (Jos. c. A.), the Coptic written with hieroglyphic 

 characters as a sacred language (Rosetta Stone), while the spoken language may have been the 

 Chaldaic or ancient Arabic : Greek characters were substituted for hieroglyphic by the early Chris- 

 tians, and the Egyptian language has thus been preserved in manuscripts, transmitted writings and 

 translations, and in the services of the Coptic church. 



Thot is the earliest Egyptian whose name has been preserved. Of his personal history we know 

 nothing : except that a hieroglyphic character signifying both laughter and scribe (Horap. i. 37), it 

 may be inferred that his invention was received with ridicule. — Plato was deterred from making dis- 

 closures on the subject by the fear of like consequences. 



Where each character represents a word, some plan of association would of course be necessary : 

 and besides the hint of Plato and the so-called " natural language," I have thought to distinguish 

 human biography; each chapter corresponding to an articulate sound; the order — having been 

 measurably preserved in the derived alphabets, Phoenician, Greek, and Roman. 



a guttural, the exclamations ah ! aha ! 

 \-f "ah£" a cow, "ah<5" to have need, "ahe " life (conception) ; "ahe" or "ahe" or "aha'' 



Fv' J verily; "ahe" to walk orderly, expect; — in Chaldaic "ahy" to grant life. The hie- 

 1 ' roglyphic character occurs as early at least as the Third dynasty, also in the Book of 

 the Dead, and continues in use under the . . dynasty (Buns, and Birch, and Leps. cl. ii. pi. 7). 

 Serious consequences have followed this selection: indicated in the "molten calf" of the Israelites 

 (Ex. xxxii. 4 to 24) ; veneration of the cow among the Egyptians, mentioned by Herodotus. Among 

 the Hindus, of all nations most resembling the Ancient Egyptians, killing a cow has often proved a 

 more serious affair than killing a man. Farther East, the cow is or has been at the foundation of 

 the institutions of CJiina, and Japan. Among the Phoenicians, the word "alwph" or "alph" (the 

 Greek "alpha") by a remarkable exception is of both genders, and signifies "cow and bull." 

 Among the earliest Romans, killing a cow was punished with hardly less than death (Pliny). And 

 among the Greeks, "arhe" signifying beginning or foundation, is in pronunciation near enough 

 to the Egyptian "ahi? " to have originally meant cow. The inventor of writing very certainly had no 

 intention of influencing the religious belief of thousands of millions of human beings : but it would 

 seem, had he adopted a different mode of writing conception, cow-worship would not have become 

 universal. 



The progress of words geographically, is illustrated by another Egyptian name of the cow, 

 "vahse" or "vahsi" or "vfihsi" ; — in Hebrew "bkr," continued to the present clay in the "bakar" 

 of Syria, Arabia, and Egypt ; in ancient Italy " vacca " ; in France " vache " ; but beyond, the word 

 did not cross the Channel into England, as though the animal there was already provided with a 

 name: this excluding name was doubtless "cow," occurring besides in the Scandinavian languages, 

 and in German, Persian, Sanscrit, and even Chinese (see also the Egyptian word " kooh "). Now as 

 the male everywhere accompanied the female, precise correspondence in the progress of names might 

 be looked for : and we find in Hebrew "thwr," continued to the present day in the "thour" of Syria, 

 Arabia, and Egypt : in ancient Greece, " taurus " ; in ancient Italy, " taurus " ; in France " taureau " ; 

 another word that did not cross the Channel: the excluding name being evidently "bull"; in Sans- 

 crit "bali " (Mason). 



-NaT he tea' therefore was already the companion of man when writing was invented: — a historic 

 reference under the Second dynasty to cattle, Bos taurus, has been preserved (Maneth.) : under the 

 Third and Fourth dynasties, cattle are figured in herds, a peculiar long-horned breed, which con- 

 tinues under the Twelfth, but afterwards disappears from the monuments, and doubtless became ex- 

 tinct. At Iknihassan under the Twelfth dynasty, cattle in the state of secondary wildness are fig- 

 ured ; some individuals particoloured, but hunted with other game, probably in a foreign country and 

 North of Egypt. Cattle are mentioned in the history of Abram (Gen. iv. 20 and xi". 16) ; also by 

 Homer, and Greek writers generally. In Switzerland during the Stone Age were kept by the inhabi- 

 tants, as appears from debris of the earliest villages (Heer, in Troyon). From Europe, were carried 

 to America, the Hawaiian, Taheitian, Samoan and Feejeean islands, New Zealand, and Australia; 

 and in Austral America and on Hawaii, have relapsed into secondary wildness. (See hornless, and 

 Indian cattle.) 



" apas " ancient ; "ape" or "ape" or " aphe " head; "aa"to do, to make; — in Hebrew 



"ab" father. The character occurs from the Third dynasty to the end of hieroglyphic 



writing ( Leps. d. ii. pi. 5, and k. pi. 24 to 27). 

 t " al " stone ; " al " mute, deaf; (the number " a-l-g " signifying " aphonian " silence, Horap. 



28) ; " alo " to let alone ; " at " or " ath " the negative prefix or particle ; — in Hebrew " al " noth- 



