313 
it appears in the full vigour and power of youthful might, 
astonishing the minds even of our practised modern archi- 
tects and savans by the grandeur of its conceptions and 
the finished grace of its works. And yet, strange to say, 
the language must, at this early period, or that of the 
arrival of the people in Egypt, have existed in an incom- 
plete or confused or imperfect state. It would seem that the 
ground and framework of the language must have been brought 
down with them into Egypt from the common cradle of the 
human family in the East, and gradually perfected in connec- 
tion with the new objects which surrounded them in the place 
of their settlement. 
There is a tradition preserved by Plutarch, in his work Be 
Iside et Osiri, that when Thoth, the god of letters and intel- 
ligence, first appeared on the earth, the inhabitants of Egypt 
had no language, but only uttered the cries of animals. It is 
certain that the language of ancient Egypt did to a far greater 
extent than any other known language make the common ap- 
pellatives of living creatures close imitations of the cries they 
uttered. 
The following instances will, I trust, be found correct and 
sufficient : — 
mau — a cat 
eo — an ass 
ehe — a cow 
phin — a mouse 
rir — a pig 
eshau — a pig 
djadj— a sparrow 
hippep — an ibis. The cry of the black and white ibis consists 
of the syllables ep-ep. 
mrrt — the adjutant crane. This bird utters a cry resembling 
the word marrarat when it takes wing. The Arabs call 
the bird marabout. 
khepir — the scarabeeus. The name being an attempt to 
imitate by vocal articulations the loud whirring sound pro- 
duced by the elytra of this beetle striking together when 
it is on the wins:. 
hm — the pelican. This is as close an imitation as articulate 
sounds could produce of the loud plaintive cry of this 
waterfowl. 
Early Migration of the Egyptians. 
Brugsch Bey gives us the complete view of the amount of 
knowledge now possessed by Egyptologists. The opinion of 
