S. A GODDESS is denoted by the hatchet or sit ting figure, with the addition of the female charac teristic, generally as 4 termination ; but sometimes the simple character is applied to gods and goddesses indifferently. The semicircle and oblique oval, dis tinguishing the feminine gender, are observable in almost all well marked names of females found in different tablets, and the crooked line, which corre sponds to them, in the enahorial character of the stone of Rosetta, may be distinguished at the end of each of the five names of females that occur in the inscription, n, 58, 60, 69, 70, 71. Occasionally the characteristic is prefixed, and this position agrees better with the Coptic TI, which distinguishes a fe male: nor must we omit to observe, that a semicircle seems to answer to the Tin some other cases, and is always expressed in the running hand by the oharac ter which Mr Akerblad calls r or El, and which is also exactly the Sysiac v. The-asp-or basilisc stand ing erect is a symbol of divinity, which occurs on the green sarcophagus, called the tomb of Alexander, and elsewhere, instead of the mote ordinary charac ter. In a few instances, the semicircle is found with out the oblique oval, (n. 57.) 4. The plural, Gong, is formed by repeating the character three times, or by placing three dashes af ter, or sometimes before it. In the enchorial in scription, the dashes are united into a crooked line, and are placed in this instance both before and after the principal character; but, in general, the second line is straighter than the first. The dual is express. ed by a double character only, (n. 57.) 5. A winged globe, senetimes flattened, as if in tended for an egg, but often coloured red, is very commonly represented -as hovering over a hero, and 'generally occupies the lintel of some of the doors of a temple. A globe nearly similar is also sometimes connected with the head and tail of a serpent, bear symbol of life, la the common charge teristic of a deity. There can, therefore, be no ob ' jection to representations as be longing to the Agat on, or Chnuphis of the Greek authors ; and the same symbol is sometimes found in the text of an inscription, in the neigh bourhood of the pictural representation ; so that its sense may be considered as tolerably well ascertain ed; but the evidence being somewhat indirect, the name is inserted in smaller characters, the same dis tinction being also observed in other instances. Mr
Bruce informs us, in his letter to Wood, that in some parts of the Tunisian dominions, serpents are still regarded as a kind of good angels. The Chnubls, or Chnumis, of the amulets, is generally re presented as a serpent with a human head, or with that of a lion; and the former combination is not un common in the tablets of the manuscripts; but the hieroglyphic denoting it is a long undulated line, to tally distinct from this character.
6. The symbol, often called the Hieralpha, or sa cred A, corresponds, in the inscription of Rosetta, to PHTHAH, or Vulcan, one of the principal deities of the Egyptians; a multitude of other sculptures suffi ciently prove, that the object intended to be deline ated was a plough or hoe; and we are informed by Eusebius, from Plato, that the Egyptian Vulcan was considered as the inventor of instruments of war and of husbandry. In many other inscriptions, the pe destal or pulley is used indifferently for the plough. Horapollo tells us, that Vulcan was denoted by a beetle; and the Monticcelion obelisc of Kircher has the plough on three sides, and the beetle on the fourth : Horapollo, however, is seldom perfectly cor rect; and the names of different divinities are fre quently exchanged on the banners of the same obe lisc; nor is there any clear instance of such an ex change of the plough for the beetle as occurs perpe tually in the case of the pedestal. The beetle is fre quently used for the name of a deity whose head ei ther bears a beetle, or is itself in the form of a beetle; and in other instances the beetle has clearly a refer. ence to generation or reproduction, which is a sense attributed to this symbol by all antiquity; so that it may possibly sometimes been used as a synonym for Phthah, as the father of the gods. The plough is very rarely found as the name of a personage actual ly represented, and it is difficult to say under what form the Egyptian Vulcan was chiefly worshipped; but on the tablet of a Horus of bad workmanship, belonging to the Borgian Museum, he is exhibited with a hawk's head, holding a spear; while in the great ritual of the Description de 'Egypte, Ant. II. PL 72. Col. 104, he seems to be represented by a fi gure with a human head; an exchange, however, which is very common in some other cases, with re spect to these two personifications, though it does not extend to the substitution of the heads of different animals for each other.