species of running hand derived from the others. The first was the style of all the monumental sculptures; the second, of the priestly writings; the third, of the ordinary transactions of the people. The examples here given illustrate these three styles. The first is a selection of the characters in the oval on the wall of the great temple of Karnak, which I have before alluded to. The second and third are from papyri. There was, therefore, before the student a work certainly unequaled in all the history of cryptography, no less than the deciphering and translating of an unknown language, in an unknown and variable character, without the aid of history or book, dictionary or grammar. It is not the object of this article to go into any minute detail of the steps which led to the discoveries of Champollion. It can not fail, however, to be interesting to the most ordinary readers, to know the general outline of the investigations which opened to the scholars of the nineteenth century after Christ the records of the twentieth and the twenty before his advent. name. It had already been well settled that the figure now universally known as the cartouche, being an oval line inclosing certain characters, was indicative of a royal An example is here given in the name of PTOLEMY, which will also serve as an example of a style of hieroglyphic character in outline not infrequently found on the monuments and papyri. It was, indeed, supposed, as early as 1797, that these ovals contained proper names; but this idea of Zoega, contained in his elaborate work on obelisks, was never followed to any beneficial result until late in the present century, when various Egyptioligists had identified the names of several historical personages with accuracy, and yet, strange to say, without falling on the idea that these names were alphabetically written. We now approach the history of the Rosetta stone, which is well known to the world as the key of the ancient Egyptian language. The French expedition into Egypt collected great numbers of valuable antiquities, which, by the terms of the surrender at Alexandria, were handed over to the English. Among these was a stone, a broken piece of black basalt, whose original size had been not far from three feet by two, containing an inscription in three different characters. The first or upper portion was in hieroglyphic, the second in Demotic or Enchorial, and the third in Greek. The upper and lower parts of the stone were broken and injured, while the Demotic was nearly perfect, and although it was a matter of the greatest ease to make a translation of the Greek portion, it is a matter of the utmost astonishment (and, indeed, all discoveries present similar views in retrospect) that this stone lay for years before the eyes of the world and no one was able to eluci date or attempted the elucidation of the Egyptian with the aid of the well-known Greek. One wishes that the peculiar powers of our poor friend Poe could have been directed to this stone in the early part of this century. No one who knew his ability in the reading of cryptography, could doubt that he would have solved the difficulty of the Egyptian alphabet long before it was opened to the eyes of the slow scholars of Europe. I am not aware that a translation of the Rosetta stone has ever been laid before the American public in other than scientific works. I give a few extracts from it here, using Mr. Gliddon's translation. "The year IX. (of the reign of the 'Son of the Sun, Ptolemy, ever living, beloved of Pthal') the tenth of the month of MECHIR, the pontiffs and the prophets, those who enter into the sanctuary to clothe the gods, the pterophores, the hierogrammates, and all the other priests, who from all the temples situated in the country, have come to Memphis, near the King, for the solemnity of the taking possession of that crown, which Ptolemy, ever living, the well beloved of Pthah, god Epiphanes most gracious prince, has inherited from his father, being assembled in the temple of Memphis, have pronounced, this same day, the following decree: "CONSIDERING, that the King Ptolemy, ever living, the well beloved of Pthah, god Epiphanes, most gracious, son of the King Ptolemy, and of the Queen Arsinoe, gods philopatores (fatherloving) has done all kinds of good, both to the temples, and to those who therein make their habitation; and, in general, to all those who are under his dominions; that being (himself) a god, born of a god and a goddess, like Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, the avenger of Osiris | Egypt, he is glorified and honored, as is just, his father, etc., etc. * the god Epiphanes, most gracious sovereign, the present decree shall be engraved on a stela of hard stone, in SACRED CHARACTERS (i. e. in hiero enchorial, or demotic), and in GREEK LETTERS: and this stela shall be placed in each of the temples of the first, second, and third class existing in all the kingdom." "It has therefore pleased the priests of all the temples of the land to DECREE, that all the hon-glyphics), in WRITING OF THE COUNTRY (i. e. in ors belonging to the King Ptolemy, ever living, the well beloved of Pthah, god Epiphanes, most gracious, as well as those which are due to his father and mother, the gods philopatores; and those which are due to his ancestors, should be It is not necessary that I should pause here to considerably augmented; that the statue of King explain the value of this stone. It was a cerPtolemy, ever living, be erected in each temple, tain inscription in four languages, for with the and placed in the most conspicuous spot, which Greek the French, of course, had French, and shall be called the Statue of Ptolemy, avenger the English had English. Collation and comof Egypt; near this statue shall be placed the parison made it a dictionary. It furnished some principal god of the temple, who will present hundred words in Coptic, and nearly all the him with the arms of victory; and every thing signs necessary to a complete hieroglyphic alshall be disposed in the manner most appropri-phabet. From comparison it was easy to locate That the priests shall perform, three times the name of Ptolemy and many of the accom'panying words, and thus to commence an alphabet which the rest of the inscription would fill up. ate. The name of Cleopatra had been already identified in several places on the sculptures, and certain other names as well. It was but necessary to commence a comparison of letters with letters, and the work was fairly commenced- not concluded-by no manner of means. For the investigator was constantly puzzled by finding that the letters which should be the same, were the alphabetical idea correct, were not the same. This was owing to the fact that many signs were used to express the same sound. It was but a brief affair for the swift intellect of Champollion to prepare a complete alphabet and grammar of the hieroglyphics. This, then, was the simple result attained. The language of ancient Egypt was written in a phonetic and hieroglyphic character combined. The alphabet consists of a very large number of signs indicating the various sounds of the language. The picture of any object, when used for a letter, represented the first sound uttered in naming the object, as, in English, an acorn might represent the letter a, and a beetle the let a day, religious service to these statues; that they shall adorn them with sacred ornaments; and that they shall have care to render them, in the great solemnities, all the honors which, according to usage, ought to be paid to the other deities; that there be consecrated to King Ptolemy a statue, and a chapel, gilded, in the most holy of the temples; that this chapel be placed in the sanctuary, with all the others; and that, in the great solemnities, wherein it is customary to bring out the chapels from the sanctuaries, there shall be brought out that of the god Epiphanes, most gracious; and that this chapel may be better distinguished from the others, now and in the lapse of time hereafter, there shall be placed above it the ten golden crowns of the king, which shall bear on their anterior part an asp, in imitation of those crowns of aspic form, which are in the other chapels; and in the middle of these crowns shall be placed the royal ornament termed PSHENT, that one which the king wore when he entered the Memphis, in the temple, in order to observe the legal ceremonies prescribed for the coronation; that there be attached to the tetragon (the cornice? or perhaps cover?) encircling the ten crowns affixed to the chapel above named, phylacteries of gold (sim-ter b, and so on through the alphabet. But beilar to the Hebrew 'taphilim'-amulets) with this inscription: "This is the chapel of the King; of that king who has rendered illustrious the upper and the lower region;' that there be celebrated a festival; and a great assembly (panegyric) be held in honor of the ever living, of the well beloved of Pthah, of the King Ptolemy, god Epiphanes most gracious, every year; this festival shall take place in all the provinces, as well in Upper as in Lower Egypt; and shall last for five days, to commence on the first day of the month of Thoth; during which, those who make the sacrifices, the libations, and all the other customary ceremonies, shall wear crowns; I insert on the top of the next page an illusthey shall be called the priests of the god Epi-tration taken from the pylon of a temple at phanes-Eucharistos (most gracious), and they Thebes, by way of showing the reader in what shall add this name to the others, that they bor- manner the hieroglyphic records are found on row from the deities to the service of whom they the monuments. The cartouches here, which are already consecrated. contain the name of Remeses III., the great "And in order that it may be known why, in Sesostris, are not less than five feet in length sides this, there were many signs which represented full ideas, and which determined the meaning of those that had been used phonetically. Thus, in the example given of hieroglyphic writing on a previous page, the last character represents rolling ground, and is determinative of the word country, thereby signifying that the previous words refer to a certain country. And again, the phonetic use of the characters was often totally disregarded, and they were used symbolically. This is frequently the case on the obelisks and other monuments. on the pylon tower, and the others in proportion. There is no temple wall, or column, or, I had almost said, stone, in Egypt that is not carved with these signs, and the reader will judge of the probabilities of these profuse records containing historical matter of great value. The discovery made, there was the usual dispute on its value, and then on its origin. Champollion did not live to see his well-established possession of the honor due to him, but the age gave it at even an earlier day than the age usually admits the claims of genius and ability. But the rapidity of the uses to which his discoveries were put did fully reward him before his death, and he saw the wonderful stores of knowledge contained in Egyptian writings and sculptures open to the eyes of scholars and translated for the benefit of mankind. I can not forbear relating here an anecdote of his visit to Egypt in connection with what I have before written, and with this branch of the subject. Fears had been entertained and expressed that there would not be sufficient confirmation of Scripture found in Egyptian sculpture, and those who but half believed their Bibles were afraid of the monuments-a strange fear that is found in the history of every progressive science. He whose faith in revelation is firm always springs with delight to the investigation of new fields, knowing (not hoping) that he will find full confirmation and new assistance to his faith and understanding. Champollion visited Egypt. There is on the south wall of the temple of Karnak a sculptured group, in which a god is represented as offering to a king a host of captured cities and countries. The king's name was known as Sheshonk, or Shishak, as our translation of the Old Testament has it; but although a hundred scholars had seen the rows of captives, no one of them had read here any thing by which to connect this with the Scripture history. Champollion landed at Karnak on his way to Upper Egypt, and remained an hour or two in the vast halls that are the won der of modern wanderers. But his keen eye was not idle, and as he passed this group, reading name by name in it silently, he started astonished at the blindness of his friends who were before him, and read aloud to them the name MELEK AIUDAH, or the King of Judah. The oval in which it was inclosed represents a fortified place, and the sign at the bottom, as I have before remarked, represents a country. It was like a voice out of the ancient ages, that sound among the ruins of Karnak, as the great scholar read the story of the son of Solomon on the wall of his conqueror's temple. It was the greatest, as it was almost the first of the new discoveries, and a tribute to the truth of God's revelation that at once consecrated and sealed the truth of the scholar's investigations and their results. That wall at Karnak is the most interesting spot among the fallen temples of the land of the Pharaohs. While other records have been effaced, that one seems to have been kept expressly that the world might discover it, and now it is crumbling. When I stood before it, a few months ago, I observed that the corner of the stone was badly broken, and the next name, which was perfect in Champollion's time, is now completely effaced. This will soon follow. But hundreds of travelers have seen it, and the copies of it are placed on record forever, so that future ages can not doubt that, in the nineteenth century after Christ, Champollion read on the walls of Karnak, among the captured countries of MELEK AIUDAH, KING OF JUDAH. Shishak, the name of the kingdom of Solo- | deck of the boat and listened to the rippling mon, and the name that was hallowed to all voice of Father Nile. eternity afterward when Pilate nailed it to the cross of the last and greatest KING OF THE JEWS. I have thus briefly and very superficially described the discovery of the Egyptian hieroglyphics and their interpretation. The question meets us instantly, "If you have made this discovery, what hinders your reading instantly, as well as in Greek or Hebrew, all the records of Egypt?" The answer is simply this. We do not know Coptic. It is a dead language most emphatically. Modern Coptic resembles it less than modern Italian resembles old Latin. Hence it is a slow process, and every new record read requires an addition to the Coptic dictionary. Therefore it is that the slow process of deciphering the hieroglyphics continues slow. We may be pardoned here the repetition of a hope that the minds of American scholars may be turned to this subject. For while thus far the entire credit of Egyptian discoveries is due to Europeans, it is undeniable that there remains undiscovered a vast amount of more important matters than have yet been opened, and which will remain unknown until a quicker and more active intellect is devoted to them than has yet been directed that way. Such is the American intellect, and when it shall be once turned to Egyptian research, we may be pardoned the confident expectation of great results. The European scholars have a great difficulty to contend with which we have not. I allude to the jealousies of each other, which lead them to seek constantly for confirmations of their own ancient ideas in place of new facts, which might possibly prove their old ideas false. Thus, at the present time, it is said that an eminent French investigator has in his possession important discoveries which he is unwilling to make public lest an equally eminent German should make use of them, and the German delays the publication of a long-promised volume lest the Frenchman should have wherewithal to refute his chronological theories. Of these absurd jealousies our American scholars fortunately know nothing, and when their attention shall be directed to Egypt, we may hope for a more rapid advance than has been yet made in the interpretation of the monuments. I paused to describe the discovery of Champollion, and now, by your leave, will return to the river and our downward course. The solemn and magnificent appearance of Abou Simbal, the glorious beauty of Phile, the lofty airy splendor of Koom Ombos, had each in turn impressed us with various sentiments of awe and admiration, but it was with an anxiety that I can not well describe, that we left the first cataract on our way to Thebes. It was a lonely but a happy life, that on the great river. Jacques and myself could scarcely admit our personal identity when we were strolling with our guns over the hills on the desert edge, or when we sat at night on the All the recollections of boyhood and youth came crowding on us. We recalled every hour of old years, and wondered at the thought that we were the same persons who used to sit on the rocks at Stonington, and look eastward over the rolling sea by Napatree and Watch Hill, and talk of Eastern lands, even these in which we were now wandering. Sometimes we talked of home, and disputed whether or no there was truth in the existence of those far lands and far scenes of which we dreamed, or whether, after all, it was not all dream, all dreamland. And so we reached Edfou early one morning, and the Reis being in a desperate hurry to get to land before another boat which was close behind us, plumped the Phantom on a sand-bar, where the pelicans and cranes laughed at us for three hours of a bright morning, and the Breeze, the other boat, following us blindly, fell on the same shoal, and stuck fast on the same bar. The men heaved, and pulled, and braced their backs under the boat, and strained their brawny limbs, and looked wistfully at their breakfast on deck, which the Reis wouldn't let them have until they got the boat off, and so the sun went up high, and the chances were that we should lie there till the next flood of the Nile. It was at this moment that Jacques, who had been sitting on deck, quietly smoking his chibouk, and had now finished it, called out to Hajji Hassan to make a rope fast to her stern, and take it off across the stream, where three of the men took hold, standing nearly up to their necks in water. A few easy pulls in that direction started the sand under her keel, and she swung gently off, while the poor wretches who had been working under the sides, swung themselves in with an exclamation, "Mishallah!" and took to their breakfast as if starving. Fifteen minutes more brought us to the land, at the same spot in which we lay on our way up the river, and we started on foot, while the ladies rode donkeys up to the village and the temples. The travelers from the other boat were a party of four from Albany, three ladies and a gentleman, and they soon arrived, so that there were five American ladies and three gentlemen in the temple at Edfou together. I have spoken of this grand building in the article written on my way up the river, and I shall not pause here to describe it. It is one of those wonders of Egypt best described by saying that a large part of the modern village, a part containing several hundred inhabitants, is situated on the roof of the rear portion, the adytum of the temple. The filth of centuries is accumulated within, and I record here the fact that I did not enter the adytum, as this was the only hole, large or small, in Egypt, which there was any object in entering, that I shrank from. It occurred on this wise. I was loitering around the entrance, looking at the vast towers of the gateway, while the ladies sat in a picturesque group in the grand court, under the shade of the west- | close attachment to the old governor, I had ern corridor. thereby an additional explanation of the red “Antika, antika kebeer, antika tieb keteer face and blear eyes of that functionary of whose minhenna!" said an Arab boy to me. diligent pursuit of my brandy I before wrote. I had heard it from so many that I thought Willing to see all that was to be seen, I asthere must be something worth the seeing, and sented, and the old fellow led me to the spot. shouting to May that I would return soon, I For the benefit of future travelers who may wish pushed on after the boy, who led me, with a a drink at Edfou, I will inform them that it is motley train behind me, up to the village, which in the street running from the front of the temwas on the roof of the adytum, and through two ple, third door on the left; knock once, and or three of its dirty alleys. The crowd of wo- say something low about bucksheesh, and an old men and children began to increase around me, woman-if she is not dead, as she seemed likeand at length my leader pushed open the boardly to be soon-a fac-simile of the old man, will entrance of a mud hut, and told me to follow open the door, lead you through a court into a him. I followed him, and they followed me. smaller court, and exhibit altogether the most They were of all grades, colors, and stages of na-primitive still that your eyes will ever rest on, kedness and filth, some fifty Arab or Egyptian wherein, by aid of dates and fire, there is manwomen and children, not a man among them,ufactured wherewith to poison the poor devils and I looked around me in the dim hut, thinking who lie lazily around the temple to pick up myself the centre of altogether the worst-look-travelers' coppers, and insure them a poor reing group of humanity that ever radiated around ception from the Prophet after they are dead. my humble self. Up to this time I entertained On the whole, however, it was good arrakee the idea that I was to find an antique for sale, that the old man made, although the stuff is and I had some doubts whether it would turn detestable. The taste is anise seed, the effect out to be a mummy or a vase-for every valu- that of the lowest grade of whisky. I tasted able curiosity is most diligently concealed from and departed. As I came out of the hut into the government officers. But the boy demand- the street, where were now at least a hundred ed now whether I had a candle, and on my re-natives crowded around our party, who were plying Yes, and producing my never-failing com- purchasing antiques, I saw the old man slide up panion and some matches, he seized the candle, to Mr. B, the Albany gentleman aforesaid, lit it while I looked on patiently, and then and whisper as he had to me, and a few mindropping flat on his face on the floor, vanished utes later Mr. B- came out of the hut with out of sight. a comical expression of countenance, and it was difficult to say whether it was owing to the oddity of the circumstance or the vileness of the tipple. There was a little girl in the crowd, innocent of drapery, who came up to me repeatedly with four coins at a time in her hand, which I repeatedly purchased before I observed that it was the same child each time. I then saw that there must be a treasury of them somewhere. Obviously she could not carry them about her person, that was too manifest, and I made her take It was magical. I was for an instant in astonished silence, till the group began shouting, "Antika tieb, tieb keteer!" and pointing downward, directed my attention to what I had not before observed, that the side wall of the hut was the upper part of the wall of the temple, and that the boy had crawled through a hole about a foot high, by two or two and a half wide, and was actually gone, by this "hole in the wall," into the holy of holies, which priests and princes of ancient days were accustomed to enter in lordly processions of solemn grandeur.me to her home, a mud hut a little way off. It I stooped and looked in. The boy was calling me. I lay down and worked my way, in snake fashion, far enough to see that I was in a sculptured room, half filled with dust, and straw, and filth, and then seven fleas attacked my feet, seventeen my waist, and seven score my neck, and I retreated to outer light, and the stifling presence of the women and children, who vociferously demanded if it was not a magnificent antique, and if my bucksheesh would not be proportionately grand. I scattered some coppers on the floor, whereupon there ensued the usual rough-and-tumble scene, a confused heap of heads, arms, legs, and bodies in the middle of the room, and I came out into the air. As I passed the front of the temple on my way back to the ladies, a hard-working old case of an Arab whispered in my ear that if I wanted to see some good arrakee, he was just the man who could gratify me. I thought he was, and having on my way up the river observed his was inhabited by an old woman, who denied entirely that she had any more; but persuasion and promises produced the result at length, and she brought me out some hundreds of coins, chiefly of the Eastern empire, but many more valuable. I selected and purchased all that I wished, but the stock will last her for years, and any one wishing for coins may find them there. Street and number I can't give. It was a delicious afternoon. The memory of it haunts me. I can not say why, except that earth, air, and sky were in more perfect unison of beauty that day than ever before. We dined early, and after dinner I took my gun and strolled down the river, leaving the boat to follow when it would. The evening shut in, and I found myself on the beach, where a long point of mud or sand, running two miles down the river, completely shut me off from communication with the boat if she should come along, but as yet I saw nothing of her. Re |