INANIMATE OBJECTS.
80. The essential parts of the name of EGYPT seem to be the square and the wheel, signifying " splendid land." In addition to these, or their rudi ments, the enchorial word has at the beginning a character which generally answers to an arm holding a feather, or to the flame of a lamp, an emblem which seems also to relate to Egypt in one of the lines of the inscription of Rosetta. A flame and a heart are mentioned by Horapollo and by Plutarch, as employ ed in the name of Egypt; but a word occurring so frequently is very likely to have been expressed m a variety of ways. The exact combination of charac ters generally used on the stone, has not been observ ed in any other inscription.
81. The name of MEMPHIS cannot be determined without some uncertainty; the line of hieroglyphics, in which it is contained, being.in several respects ob scure.
82. The character, supposed to denote the Nile, as a deity, must also sometimes be understood as merely meaning a RIVER; and there is reason to think that the Nile itself was generally called by the Egyptians " the river" only. The enchorial charac ter, used to denote both the Nile and a river, or ca nal, sufficiently resembles the hieroglyphic to favour this interpretation; and it is in some degree con firmed by the occurrence of the character alone on a water jar of Peiresc, delineated in Kircher's Oedipus; and, together with other characters, on the five vases found by Paul Lucas at Abousir. By ac cident, Kircher appears, in this single instance, to have been right in one of his conjectures ; for he calls this character a Nilometer, and considers it as emblematic of the Nile.
88. The word GREEK, in Coptic HININ or OULI• MN, in Thebaic OUEEIENIN, supposed to have been derived from Ionian, seems to exhibit in its form something like an imitation of the sound. The curl on a stem is sometimes exchanged for the term & vine, and appears to mean "glory," in Coptic con or which is nearly the sound attributed by Aker blad to the enchorial character, a little like the He brew u ; the feather, as in Ptolemy and Berenice, may be read i or EI, having the three dashes to ex press them, as usual, in the enchorial text; the ser pent is ENEH, "ever ;" and the hat, which looks a little like a plough, is equivalent to the waved line (N. 77), and must be read w ; so that we have very
accurately 0UIENEHN, which seems to be near enough to OUEININ, to justify us in considering these cha racters as phonetic.
84. The ladder is well marked as meaning COLIN* TRY ; it may perhaps be intended to represent a field with its divisions ; but it is uncertain whether or not it is the same symbol that enters into one of the names of Arueris (N. 18), the sculptures of the Ro setta stone being by no means highly finished.
85. It is remarkable, that the wheel; signifying LAND, had been noticed by the Jesuits, as resem bling the old Chinese character for the word field; but this is the only one, of a multitude of similar conjectures, that has been justified by more plete evidence. (Phil. Trans. 1769. Pl. 28.) 86. The star is shown to relate to a real STAR, by inscriptions accompanying the zodiacs. It has also elsewhere, a figurative sense, meaning an attendant or ministering spirit.
87. The open square is found in both the combi nations of characters, which are most commonly used for expressing a TEMPLE; the feather signifies orna ment or consecration ; the oblong figure, either the sacred inclosure or a sacred seat, the character for a god being sometimes placed within it. The feather is occasionally converted into an inclined oval, the square being at the same time a little altered ; a dif ference which may be observed in other inscriptions, as well as in the Rosetta stone.
88. The character representing, a SHRINE so much resembles the object which it denotes, that it was the most readily identified of all that are found on the stone of Rosetta. The character signifying a priest was the second ; and the combination of both afforded a full confirmation of the truth of the ex planation. The enchorial character for a shrine is derived from the sitting statue which always accom panies it.