represented by the Egyptian myth. We may therefore, at this stage of the inquiry, say thus much, that the facts we have established on an equally solid and substantial basis, respecting language and mythology, give us the same result. Both carry us historically back to Asia. The cradle of the mythology and language of the Egyptians is Asia. We shall show, in the fifth book, that the primeval seat of our race is Armenia and the Caucasus, but that the Egyptian race is more particularly connected with the primitive land of Aram and the primitive empire in Babel. In the hieroglyphical picture of universal history the sign of primitive Egypt is but the stereotyped image of what the human mind was, and produced, in earliest times in the land of Aram and Armenia. This is an historical fact, which we only assume here, but which we hope to prove by authentic evidence, to the satisfaction of our readers, in the fourth and fifth books.

If now we turn from the extra-Egyptian Origines of Egypt's language and religion to the opposite point, the historic times of Egypt, it is obvious from our investigation, that the empire of Menes was based upon a venerable and intellectual foundation, which had been laid for many centuries in the valley of the Nile itself. He must, then, have been the founder of the empire, inasmuch as he condensed within one focus the elements of civilisation which were dispersed among the different Egyptian provinces. By these very primordial germs of their history, therefore, the assertion made at the commencement of this volume is borne out, that Menes created in the Egyptians a sense of their national unity, distinct from all other nations, as Charlemagne did in the Germanic tribes.

How this was effected, and in what chronological order, it will be the object of the two following books to explain.

APPENDIX I.

THE EGYPTIAN VOCABULARY.

THE EGYPTIAN ROOTS COMPARED WITH THE

COPTIC.

THE EGYPTIAN VOCABULARY.

THE EGYPTIAN ROOTS COMPARED WITH THE

COPTIC.

In order to exemplify what has been said upon the nature and formation of the roots of the Egyptian language, I had collected in an Appendix all such words. as had been clearly deciphered from monuments anterior to the Ptolemaic and Roman epochs. By the kind assistance of Mr. Birch, I was enabled to distinguish by an asterisk all such as demonstrably belong to the first stage of Egyptian language and writing, inasmuch as they are found on the monuments of the Old Empire, from the fourth to the twelfth Dynasty. Professor Schwartze, who superintended the printing of that Appendix, was kind enough to revise and enlarge the Coptic part. We are now in a position to make a nearer approach to the completion of the object we had in view. We here offer to our readers a complete list of all the Egyptian roots hitherto deciphered, compared with the Coptic, and occasionally, where no doubt can be entertained as to their identity or near affinity, with the Semitic. Those which, as far as we know, occur only on monuments of the Ptolemaic or Roman period are marked with a dagger (†). This Egyptian dictionary, which, thanks to Mr. Birch's erudition, is the fullest in existence, has been arranged in the usual alphabetical order, and a reference given to the monument or text where each word occurs. The hieroglyphical scholar, therefore,

will now find in this work, not only the most complete Egyptian grammar extant, but also the most complete dictionary; as well as the only existing collection of all the hieroglyphic signs, arranged in their natural and historical order, and explained according to the monuments quoted or referred to.

THE COPTIC ALPHABET COMPARED WITH THE EGYPTIAN AND THE HEBREW.

I. THE COPTIC ALPHABET IN ITS USUAL ORDER.

*

Form.

Name and Use.

&alpha. Often interchangeable a
with o and ō.

1

2

3

BB beta, vida. - Interchangeable 'b=v
&
with f, before vowels with u.

gamma.-Regularly used only

in writing Greek words in
Coptic instead of x; used in
Sahidic, sometimes at the
end and after n.

Of course we use the vowels according to their common acceptation in Italian and German, as the learned generally do in transcribing old inscriptions. The seven letters marked with † are only used (as single sounds) in Greek words; the five with the asterisk are signs for peculiar Egyptian sounds, taken from the enchorial alphabet for the details see Schwartze, Aegyptische Grammatik.