EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING.

In this plate is shown a specimen of hieroglyphic writing which marks the highest development of the art among the ancient Egyptians. As this style of writing was intended principally for the decoration of the public monments, it was elaborated with great care, nothing being omitted that would add to the splendor and elegance of the general effect; the outlines were clear and true, the groupings carefully studied, and in the majority of cases each sign was painted, the color being put on in flat tints in strict accordance with fixed rules, the intention being to suggest the natural hue of the object represented. Three states of this writing are found on the ancient structures; sculptured, sculptured and painted, or outlined in black and painted. The writing shown here is an example of the sculptured and painted state, and is part of a bas-relief fully fifty feet square, cut in the walls of the vestibule of the rock temple of Ispambul in Nubia, the subject being the reception by King Sesostris or Rameses III. of the Ambassadors of conquered nations, the story being set forth in the columns of writing. The detached cartouches give the religious prenomen and the proper name of the King. The group of signs surmounted by the bee reads: "the King of an obedient people, the guardian Sun of truth and justice, approved by the Sun." The other, giving the proper name is: "The Son of the Sun, beloved of Ammon, Rameses." The two signs on the left signify "Live Forever." The work dates from about B, C. 1560.

of the olden time. We may quote in this connection from the biographical epitaph of the nomarch Ameny, who was governor of a province in Middle Egypt for twenty-five years during the long reign of Usertesen I. (about 2700 B. C.). This inscription not only recounts the achievements of Ameny and the royal favor which was shown him, but also tells us in detail of the capacity, goodness, charm, discretion, and insight by which he attached to himself the love and respect of the whole court, and of the people over whom he ruled and for whose well-being he cared. Ameny says:

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"I was a possessor of favor, abounding in love, a ruler who loved his city. Moreover I passed years as ruler in the Oryx nome. All the works of the house of the King came into my hand. Behold, the superintendent of the gangs of the domains of the herdsmen of the Oryx nome gave me 3,000 bulls of their draught stock. I was praised for it in the house of the King each year of stock-taking. I rendered all their works to the King's house: there were no arrears to me in any of his offices.

"The entire Oryx nome served me in numerous attendances.2 There was not the daughter of a poor man that I wronged, nor a widow that I oppressed. There was not a farmer that I chastised, not a herdsman whom I drove away, not a foreman of five whose men I took away for the works. There was not a pauper around me, there was not a hungry man of my time. When there came years of famine, I arose and ploughed all the fields of the Oryx nome to its boundary south and north, giving life to its inhabitants, making its provisions. There was not a hungry man in it. I gave to the widow as to her that possessed a husband, and I favored not the elder above the younger in all that I gave. Thereafter great rises of the Nile took place, producing wheat and barley, and producing all things abundantly, but I did not exact the arrears of farming."

Elsewhere in his tomb there are long lists of the virtues of Amenemhat, and from these the following may be selected both on account of picturesqueness of expression and the appreciation of fine character which they display.

"Superintendent of all things which heaven gives and earth produces, overseer of horns, hoofs, feathers, and shells. Master of the art of causing writing to speak. Caressing of heart to all people, making to prosper the timid man, hospitable to all, escorting [travelers] up and down the river. . . . Knowing how to aid, arriving at time of need; free of planning evil, without greediness in his body, speaking words of truth.

1 The fellâhîn herdsmen of the time seem to have clubbed together into gangs, each of which was represented by a ganger, and the whole body by a superintendent of the gangs.

2 Corvée work for the government.

3 I. e., he did not impress men (wrongfully ?) for the government works, such as irrigation or road-making.

Unique as a mighty hunter, the abode of the heart of the King. Speaking the right when he judges between suitors, clear of speaking fraud, knowing how to proceed in the council of the elders, finding the knot in the Great of favors in the house of the King, contenting the heart on the day of making division, careful of his goings to his equals, gaining reverence on the day of weighing words, beloved of the officials of the palace.»

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The cursive forms of writing-hieratic from the earliest times, demotic in the latest- were those in which records were committed to papyrus. This material has preserved to us documents of every kind, from letters and ledgers to works of religion and philosophy. To these, again, "literature" is a term rarely to be applied; yet the tales and poetry occasionally met with on papyri are perhaps the most pleasing of all the productions of the Egyptian scribe.

It must be confessed that the knowledge of writing in Egypt led to a kind of primitive pedantry, and a taste for unnatural and to us childish formality: the free play and naïveté of the story-teller is too often choked, and the art of literary finish was little understood. Simplicity and truth to nature alone gave lasting charm, for though adornment was often attempted, their rude arts of literary embellishment were seldom otherwise than clumsily employed.

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A word should be said about the strange condition in which most of the literary texts have come down to us. It is rarely that monumental inscriptions contain serious blunders of orthography; the peculiarities of late archaistic inscriptions which sometimes produce a kind of “dog Egyptian" can hardly be considered as blunders, for the scribe knew what meaning he intended to convey. But it is otherwise with copies of literary works on papyrus. Sometimes these were the productions of schoolboys copying from dictation as exercise in the writing-school, and the blank edges of these papyri are often decorated with essays at executing the more difficult signs. The master of the school would seem not to have cared what nonsense was produced by the misunderstanding of his dictation, so long as the signs were well formed. The composition of new works on the model of the old, and the accurate understanding of the ancient works, were taught in a very different school, and few indeed attained to skill in them. The boys turned out of the writing-school would read and write a little; the clever ones would keep accounts, write letters, make out reports as clerks in the government service, and might ultimately acquire considerable proficiency in this kind of work. Apparently men of the official class sometimes amused themselves with puzzling over an ill-written copy of some ancient tale, and with trying to copy portions of it. The work however was beyond them: they were attracted by it, they revered the compilations