872 



EGYPT. 



covered courts, and 3,000 rooms, of vvliicli half were under ground. The latter he was not 

 suffered to enter, as they contained the bodies of the sacred crocodiles, and of the twelve 

 kings, who had constructed the labyrinth. But the infinite number of winding passages in the 

 upper part of the building, the rich sculptures, which adorned the marble walls and ceilings, 

 and the dazzling whiteness of the polished columns, filled him with astonishment. 



26. History. Egypt is one of the most renowned countries in the world. The sovereignty 

 of the country has passed successively through the hands of its native princes, the Greeks, 

 Romans, Saracens, and Turks. It was invaded by the French under Bonaparte in 1793 ; but 

 in 1801, the country submitted to the British, and at the peace of Amiens, it was restored to 

 the Ottoman Porte. The present Pacha, Mehemet Ali, has recently declared himself inde- 

 pendent of the Grand Seignior, and Egypt may now be considered a sovereign state. 



things, but also, that they wore fre- 

 quently used as letters ; and that, 

 when employed for the last of these 

 purposes, the names of the several 

 objects in the language of the coun- 

 try supplied the alphabetical sounds 

 which composed any particular word. 



" The first steps which led to this 

 important discovery were made by 

 Dr. Young, who ascertained that 

 certain figures in the group, corre- 

 sponding to the word Ptolemy, were 

 used alphabetically and represented 

 sounds. Hence the distinction of 

 phonetic hieroglyphics, as opposed 

 to those which are understood to 

 denote objects only. A key was 

 thereby found for unlocking the 

 storehouses of Egyptian learning, 

 which had remained inaccessible to 

 many generations ; and, whether 

 the treasure shall prove equal in 

 value to the expectations which 

 have been entertained of it, there is 

 now the greatest probability that the 

 famed wisdom of one of the most 

 ancient nations of the world shall 

 be rendered familiar to the modern 

 reader. Already, indeed, history 

 and chronology have received essen- 

 tial aid from the investigations of 

 recent travelers, guided by the light 

 which has just been revealed. The 

 names of some of the most distin- 

 guished Egyptian princes, even of 

 the Pharaonic dynasties, have been 

 deciphered from monuments erect- 

 ed during (heir respective reigns. 

 The canon of Manetho, which it had 

 been so common to treat with con- 

 tempt, has been verified in many 

 points ; and in this way the titles 

 of several monarchs which had been 

 abandoned as fabulous, including 



Misphragmuthosis, Ramesses, and Sesostris, are once more 

 restored to the page of authentic history, and to their place 

 in the succession of Egyptian sovereigns. 



" Leaving it to the historian of this remarkable discov- 

 ery to detail the incidents which accompanied the inves- 

 tigations of Dr. Young, Silvestre de Sacy, Akerblad, Salt, 

 and Champollion, we confine ourselves to the statement 

 of the important fact, that, from a copious induction of 

 instances, extending in some cases to several hundreds 

 for a single character, the last of these authors has com- 

 pletely ascertained, that every phonetic hieroglyph is the 

 image of some physical object, whose name, in the spoken 



m 



m 



mmm 



V7 



mmmmmm 



Egyptian HieroglyyhLcs. 



language of Egypt, begins witli the sound or letter which 

 the sculptured figure was destined to represent. Thus 

 the image of an eagle, which in the Coptic is J}h6in, be- 

 came the sign of the vowel A ; that of a small vase, called 

 Bcrbe in Egyptian, stood for the consonant B ; that of a 

 hand. Tut, represented the letter T ; that of a hatchet, 

 Kelebin, was the sign of the consonant K ; that of a lion or 

 lioness, Labo, the sign of the consonant L ; that of a nyc- 

 ticorax, Mouladj, the sign of M ; that of a flute, Scbi- 

 andjo, the sign of the consonant S ; that of a mouth, R6, 

 the sign of the consonant R ; and the abridged image of a 

 garden, Sheni, the sign of the compound articulation Sh 



