8 52 HI E 
reign of Ptolomy Soter, three hundred years before the 
Chriftian aera. I confider that imm'enfe quantity of hie- 
roglyphics, with which the walls of the temples, and 
faces of the obelilks, are covered, as containing fo many 
aftronomical obfervations.—See the article Egypt, 
vol. vi. p. 348, and the correfpondent Engraving. 
“ 1 look upon thefe as the ephemerides of fome thou- 
fand years, and that fufficiently accounts for their num¬ 
ber. Their date and accuracy were indifputable j they 
were exhibited in the mod public places, to be con- 
fulted as occafion required ; and, by the deepnefs of the 
engraving, and hardnefsof the materials, and the thick- 
nefs and folidity of the block itfelf upon which they 
were carved, they bade defiance at once to violence 
and time. I know that moll of the learned writers are 
of fentiments very different from mine in thefe refpe&s. 
They look for myfteries and hidden meanings, moral and 
philofophical treatifes, as the fubjeCts of thefe hierogly¬ 
phics. A fceptre, they fay, is the hieroglyphic of a 
king. But where do we meet a fceptre upon an'antique 
Egyptian monument >. or who told us this was an em¬ 
blem of royalty among the Egyptians at the time of the 
firft invention of this figurative writing > Again, the 
ferpent with the tail in its mouth denotes the eternity of 
God, that he is without beginning and without end. 
This is a Chriffian truth, and a Chriftian belief; but no 
where to be found in the polytheifm of the inventors of 
hieroglyphics. Was Cronos or Ouranus without begin¬ 
ning and without end ? Was this the cafe with Ofiris 
and Tot, whofe fathers and mothers, births and mar¬ 
riages, are known ? If this was a truth, independent of 
revelation, and imprinted from the beginning in the 
minds of men; if it was deftined to be an eternal truth, 
which muff have appeared by every man finding it in 
his own bread from the beginning; how unneceffary 
muff the trouble have been to write a common known 
truth like this, at the expence of fix weeks labour, upon 
a table of porphyry or granite ? 
“It is not with philofophy as with aftronomy ; the 
®lder the obfervations, the more ufe they are to pofte- 
rity. A leCture of an Egyptian prieft upon divinity, 
morality, or natural hiftory, would not pay the trouble, 
at this day, of engraving it upon ftone ; and one of the 
reafons that I think no fuch fubjeCts were ever treated 
jin hieroglyphics is, that in all thofe 1 ever had an op- 
lortunity of feeing, and very few people have feen more, 
have conftantly found the fame figures repeated, which 
©bvioufly, and without difpute, allude to. the hiftory of 
the Nile, and its different periods of increafe, the mode 
of meafuring it, the Etefian winds; in Ihort fuch obfer¬ 
vations as we every day fee in an almanac, in which we 
cannot fuppofe, that forfaking the obvious import, where 
the good they did was evident, they Ihould afcribe dif¬ 
ferent meanings to the hieroglyphics, to which no key 
has been left, and therefore their future inutility muft 
have been forefeen. 
“ I fhall content myfelf in this wide field, to fix Upon 
one famous hieroglyphical perfonage, which is Tot, the 
fecretary of Ofiris, whofe funCtion I fhall endeavour to 
explain ; if I fail, I am in good company ; I give it only 
as-my opinion, and fubmit it cheerfully to the correc¬ 
tion of others. The word Tot is Ethiopic, and there 
can be little doubt it means the dog-ftar. It was the 
name given the firft month of the Egyptian year. The 
meaning of the name, in the language of the province of 
SirC, is, an idol compofed of different heterogeneous 
pieces; it is found having this fignification in many of 
their books. Thus, a naked man is not a Tot ; but the 
body of a naked man, with a dog’s head, an afs’s head, 
or a ferpent inftead of a head, is a Tot. According to 
the import of that word, it is, I fuppofe, an almanac, or 
feCtion of the phenomena in the heavens which are to 
happen in the limited time it is made to comprehend, 
when expofed for the information of the public ; and 
the more extend ve its ufe is intended to be, the greater 
number of emblems, or figns of obfervation, it is charged 
H I E 
with,—See the article Egypt, vol. vi. p. 35S-358, and 
the correfpondent Engravings. 
“ Befides many other emblems or figures, the common 
Tot, I think; ‘has in his hand a crofs with a handle, as 
it is called crux anfata, which has occafioned great fpe- 
culation among the decipherers. This crofs, fixed to 
a circle, is fuppofed to denote the four elements, and to be 
the fymbol of the influence the fun lias over them. 
Jatnblichus records, that this crofs, in the hand of 
Tot, is the name of the divine Being that travels through 
the world. Sozomen thinks it means the life to come, 
the fame with the ineffable image of eternity. Others 
■ {ftrange difference!) fay it is the phallus, or human 
genitals; while a later writer maintains it to be the 
mariner’s compafs. My opinion on the contrary is, . 
that, as this figure was expofed to the public for the 
reafon I have mentioned, the crux anfata in his hand 
was nothing elfe but a monogram of his own names, TO. 
andTT fignifying TOT, or as we write “Almanac” 
upon a collection publifhed for the fame purpofe. 
“The changing of thefe emblems, and the multitude 
of them, produced the neceflity of contracting their fize, 
and this again a confequential alteration in the original 
forms; and a ftile, orfmall portable inftrument, became 
all that was neceffary for finifhing thefe (mall Tots, in¬ 
ftead of a large graver or. carving tool, employed in 
making the large ones. But men, at laft, were.fo,much 
ufed to the alteration, as to know it better than under 
its primitive form; and the engraving became what we 
may call the firft elements, or root, in preference to the 
original.” 
On this remark, the Editors of the Monthly Review- 
have given the following criticifm : “ There is fome- 
thing very ingenious in Mr. Bruce’s account of the crux 
anfata in the tots, or portable almanacs, which he conli- 
ders as obelifks in miniature ; yet before he had haftily 
adopted that explanation, he fbould have confidered 
whether the Egyptian letters, fourteen centuries before 
Chrift, correfponded fo exaCtly with thofe of our Eng- 
lilh alphabet.” 
HIEROGLYPHIC, or Hieroc lyfh'ical, adj. \kie- 
glypkique, Fr. from the fubjl.'] Charged with hieroglyphi¬ 
cal feuipture.—In this place Hands a (lately hieroglyphical 
obelifk of Theban marble. Sandys. —Emblematical; ex- 
preflive of fome meaning beyond what immediately ap¬ 
pears : 
Th’ Egyptian ferpent figures time. 
And, ftripp’d returns into his prime : 
If my affeCtion, thou would’ft win, 
Firft caft thy hieroglyphic (kin. Cleave land. 
HIEROGLYPHIC ALLY, adv. Emblematically.— 
Others have fpoken emblematically and hieroglyphically , 
as the Egyptians; and the phoenix was the hieroglyphic 
of the fun. Brown. 
HIEROGRAMMATE'I, /. [from , Efo; , Gr. fa- 
cred, and y^etppa, a letter.] The prielts among the 
Egyptians wno were to explain the myfteries of religion. 
HIEROGRAM'MATIST, /. One of the order of 
the hierogammatei. 
HI'EROGRAMS,/. Sacred writings. 
HIEROG'RAPHER, f A writer of divinity. 
HIEROGRAPH'IC, or Hierog raphi'cal, adj. Be¬ 
longing to hierography. 
HIEROG'RAPHY, /. [je^o?, and y^uQu.'] Holy writ¬ 
ing. 
HIEROM'ANCY, f. in antiquity, that part of divi¬ 
nation which predicted future events from obferving the 
various things offered in facrifice. 
HI'EROME, or Hieron'ymus. See Jerome. 
HIEROME'NIA, /. in ancient chronology, one of 
the Athenian months, the Boedromion. 
HIEROMNE'MON,/ Among the ancient Greeks, a 
delegate cholen by lot, and fent to the great council of 
the AmphiCtyons, where he was to take care of what 
concerned religion. The hieromnemonies were reckon¬ 
ed 
