ARCHAEOLOGICAL
EDITED BY

SURVEY

OF EGYPT

F. L L . G R I F F I T H , M.A., F.S.A.

SIXTH

MEMOIR

A COLLECTION OF

HIEROGLYPHS
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF EGYPTIAN WRITING
BY

F. LL. G R I F F I T H

WITH

NINE

COLOURED

PLATES

From facsimiles by
ROSALIND

F . E . PAGET,

AND H O W A R D

SPECIAL

PUBLICATION

ANNIE

PIRIE

CARTER

OF THE EGYPT

EXPLORATION

FUND

LONDON
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THE

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BOURINOT,

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PROF. GL MASPERO, D.C.L. (France).

CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER, Esq., L.H.D., LL.D.

PROF. A D . ERMAN, P h . D . (Germany).

(U.S.A.).
THE

E E V . W . C. WINSLOW,

D.D., D.C.L.

(U.S.A.).

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THE EEV. W . C. WINSLOW, D.D., D.C.L. (Boston, U.S.A.).
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Members ot Committee.
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THE MARQUIS OF NORTHAMPTON, j

Miss M. BRODRICK, Ph.D. (for Boston).

D. PARRISH, Esq. (U.S.A.).

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W.

WILSON,

CONTENTS.

L I S T OF ABBREVIATIONS

...

...

...

PRELIMINARY NOTE ON THE TRANSLITERATION OF EGYPTIAN

Table of the Egyptian Alphabet
Note on the Semitic consonants alif and 'ain

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY :

1. Previous work on the hieroglyphic signs : materials
their study ...
2. Powers of the signs : history of their employment

CHAPTER II.
HIEROGLYPHS COLLECTED BY THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY:

1.

Sources of the facsimiles...

2.

Discussion of the signs in natural groups

ADDENDA

ERRATA

(to Hieroglyphs and Beni Hasan

ORDER OF THE SIGNS

INDEX TO FACSIMILES

...

III.)

PKEFACE.

THE publication of detailed hieroglyphs, &e., in Beni Hasan III., seems to have met
a want, to judge by the welcome with which it has been received in the scientific press.
The criticisms of

{Rev. Grit., xliii., pp. 201 et seqq.) and

MASPERO

BORCHARDT

(A. Z.,

1897, pp. 103 et seqq.) have at once displayed how little is positively known with
regard to the origins of individual signs, and furnished new material and ideas for
the study of them.
suggestions, and M.

PIEHL
LORET,

[Sphinx, ii., pp. 33 et seqq.) has also contributed some

in a private letter, has communicated a number of interest-

ing observations on those representing natural objects.
appears a long and friendly notice by M.

FOUCART

At the last moment also

in the Rev, Arch. (Ser. iii., 1898,

vol. xxii., pp. 20 et seqq.).
The present work is in continuation of the task begun in Beni Hasan III. : that
of ascertaining and illustrating the history and origins of the hieroglyphic characters.
Much special study has meanwhile been devoted to the subject, and it is hoped that
the present Memoir, besides being more elaborate, will show a marked advance in the
explanation of the signs upon the somewhat hasty descriptions in the preceding
volume.
The greater number of the coloured facsimiles given herewith are from hieroglyphs
of the Xllth Dynasty, copied by Mr. H. Carter (a few by Mr. Blackden), in the tomb
of Tehutihetep at El Bersheh.
only—in El Bersheh I.

This tomb has been already published—in outline

There is also a considerable collection of XVIIIth Dynasty

signs from the temple of Deir 6l Bahri, beautifully copied by Miss R. F. E. Paget.
The relief-sculpture and colouring of the inscriptions at Deir el Bahri are well known
to be exceedingly fine. The signs selected are from parts of the temple already
published by M. Naville, and the originals are in very good preservation.

Lastly,

Miss A. Pirie has most kindly presented to the Archaeological Survey, for use in the
present volume, her facsimile drawings of a number of hieroglyphs from the tomb
of Paheri at El Kab.

The tomb of Paheri was published in the Xlth Memoir of

viii

PKEFACE.

the Egypt Exploration Fund by Mr. J. J. Tylor and myself, as well as separately
by Mr. Tylor in an edition de luxe.

It is of the same age as the temple of

Deir el Bahri.
In order to extend the enquiry over a wider field, and so obtain more solid
results, the text has not been confined to the new collection of hieroglyphs, but
includes most of those already published in Beni Hasan III. and in the coloured
plates of Beni Hasan I.
It will be observed that a special fount of alphabetic hieroglyphs has been made
for this volume.

This has been done in order to obviate some of the standing

difficulties in transliteration, a matter discussed below in the Preliminary Note.
Neat and clear though they be, the founts of general hieroglyphic type now in
use are very unsatisfactory.

They were modelled on late forms, and often without

understanding of the objects and actions which the signs were meant to represent.
A few of the most misleading have here been corrected, but materials are not yet
available for a thorough revision.
In parting from the pleasant task which has long occupied him, the author would
crave indulgence for the many imperfections

of his work.

application to it, time spent in definite research has

After much close

often appeared

almost

wasted when its results were compared with those afterwards obtained casually
in pursuing other branches of Egyptology.

Scarcely an hour now spent in

looking over inscriptions fails to reveal new and often decisive evidence touching
upon one or another of the innumerable points of discussion raised in the following
pages.
It is useless at present to hope to achieve anything like finality in the study.
The whole field needs investigation, and many thousands of good facsimiles are
required to put the subject of the origins of the hieroglyphs on a firm basis.

LIST OF ABBEEVIATIONS.1
TERMINOLOGY.
Ab.
Alph.
Det.
Dyn.
Id.
Id. trans.

Abbreviation (p. 7).
M.K.
Alphabetic phonogram (p. 3).
N.K.
Determinative (p. 5).
O.K.
Dynasty.
[pp. 3, 5). Phon.
Ideogram (representing idea, n o t s o u n d ; cf. P h o n . t r a n s .
Ideographic transference (p, 3).
Had. ext.

Middle Kingdom.
New Kingdom.
Old Kingdom.
Phonogram (p. 3).
Phonetic transference (p. 3).
Radical extension (p. 3).

REFERENCES.
Ab., i., ii.
A. Z.
A. T.
B. H, i., ii., iii.
Bk.ofD.
BON., Save.

MARIETTE, Abydos, 2 vols.
Zeitschrift fur Aegyptische Sprache, Berlin.
L E P S I U S , Aelteste Texte.
Beni Hasan, 3 vols. (E.E.F., A.S.)
Booh of Dead, ed. by Budge.
BONOMI, Sarcophagus of Oimenephthah (i.e.
Setyl.).
BREASTED de Hymnis . BREASTED, de Hymnis in Solem.
BRUGSCH, Dictionnaire GSographique (with
B R . , D. G.
supplement).
„
Thes.
„
Thesaurus.
„
Worterbuch a n d supplement, 7 vols.
„ Wtb. and Suppl.
Bui. Pap.
MARIETTE, Papyrus duMusie de Boulaq, 3 vols.
C H . , Mon.
CHAMPOLLION, Monuments de Vfigypte et de
la Nubie.
Dahchour.
J . DE MORGAN, Fouilles a Dahchour.
D. el B., i., ii.
Deir el Bahari, 2 vols. (E.E.F.).
Deshasheh.
(E.E.F.)
D U M . , H. I.
DUMICHEN, Historische Inschriften, 2 vols.
„
Peduamenap.
„
der Grabpalast des Peduamenap,
3 vols.
„
Pes.
„
Pesultate
der . . . Expedition,
Theil i.
El Bersheh, 2 vols. (E.E.F., A.S.).
El B., i., ii.
ERMAN, Aegyptische
Grammatik.
E R M . , Gr.
BLACKDEN and FRASER, Hieratic Graffiti from
Hetnub graffiti.
the Alabaster Quarry of Hetnub.
Horhotep.
I n Miss. Arch., Tome i., p p . 135-180.
P E T R I E , Illahun, Kahun and Gurob.
Illahun.
„
Kahun, Gurob and Hawara.
Kahun.
G R I F F I T H , Kahun Papyri.
Kali. Pap.
PETRTE, Koptos.
Koptos.
LANZONE, Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia.
L A N Z . , Diz. d. Mit.
L E P S I U S , Denkmdler
aus Aegypten und
~b.,D.
Lebensmilder.

ERMAN, Gesprach eines Lebensmuden mit seiner
Seele (from t h e Abhandlungen of t h e
Berlin Academy, 1896).
S. L E V I , Vocabolario
Geroglifico-CopticoL E V I , Voc.
Ebraico, 8 vols.
M A R . , Alb.
MARIETTE, Album du MusSe de Boulaq.
„
Catalogue des monuments
dAbydos.
„ Cat.
„ D. el B.
„
Deir el Bahari.
„
Mast.
„
Les Mastabas de VAncien Empire.
„
M.D.
„
Monuments Divers.
M A S P . , M. £g.
MASPERO, Etudes Egyptiennes, 2 vols.
„ Mom. roy.
„
Les momies royales de Deir el Bahari
(in Miss. Arch., i.)
„
(in Rev. de VHistoire des Religions,
„ Tabled? offrandes,
1897-8.)
„
Trois annexes de fouilles in Miss,
„ Trois anntes.
Arch., i.
EISENLOHR, Ein Mathematisches
Handbuch.
Math. Pap.
P E T R I E , Medum.
Medum.
STEINDORFF, Der Grab des Mentuhotep.
\
Mentuhotep.
* u,

Dyn. I I I . — I V . : tomb in L., D., ii., 2 et seqq.
Mission Archeologique Francaise au Caire,
mSmoires.
MORGAN, Recherches. J . DE MORGAN, Recherches sur les Origines de
Vltgypte, 2 vols.
P E T R I E , Naqada and Ballas.
Naqada.
E d . T Y L O R a n d G R I F F I T H , i n ,-Ahnas and
Paheri.
Paheri (E.E.F.).
Papyrus of Any (Brit. Mus.).
Pap. Any.
Papyrus Ebers, 2 vols.
„ Eb.
Facsimile of a Papyrus (Harris) of the Reign
j , Har.
of Rameses III. (Brit. Mus.).
P E T R I E , Egyptian Decorative Art.
P E T R I E , Dec. Art.
„
Tell el Amarna.
„
T. e. A.
Stela of Piankhy, in M A R . , M. D., PL i. et

Methen.
Miss. Arch.

PRISSE,

Art.

„
Mons.
P. S. B. A.
Ptahhetep.
Pyr.
„ M.
„ N.
» P-

„ W.
Rec. de Trav.

Rev. Arch.
Rev. Rel.
Ros., M. C.
„
„

M. d. C.
M. S.

SOHAOK,

Index.

SCHIAP., L. d. F.

Sebekaa.
Eg. Ins.

SH.,

SHELLEY,

Birds.

Sign pap.
Siut.
Todt.
Tomb. Sety I.
Trois annees.
Una.
Z. D. M. G.

P R I S S E , HArt Mgyptien, 2 vols, a n d t e x t .
„
Monuments.
Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology.
Tomb published i n QUIBELL, Ramesseum.
Pyramid t e x t s (MASPERO, Les Pyramides de
Saqqareh).
„
of Merenra.
„
of Neferkara P e p y I I .
„
of P e p y I .
„
of U n a s (Wnys).
Recueil de Travaux relatifs a la Philologie
et a V Archeologie Egyptiennes
et
Assyriennes.
Revue Archeologique.
Revue de VHistoire des Religions.
ROSELLINI, Monumenti della Egizia e della
Nubim: Monumenti
Civili.
„
„
„
del Culto.
„
„
„
St or id.
SCHACK-SCHACKENBURG, Index zu den Pyramiden texten.
SCHIAPARELLI, Libro del Funerali, 2 vols
text, 3 vols, plates.
Coffin in A. T.
SHARPE, Egyptian Inscriptions, 2 series.
SHELLEY, Birds of Egypt.
I n Two Papyri from Tanis (E.E.F.).
G R I F F I T H , The Inscriptions of Siut and Der
Rvfeh.
Todtenbuch,

ed. by L E P S I U S , by N A V I L L E , a

by B U D G E (Book of the Dead).
LEFEBURE, Tombeau de Sety I, in M
Arch., ii.
MASPERO, Trois annSes de fouilles, in M
Arch., i.
Inscription of U n a , in M A R . , Ab., ii., 44-4£
Zeitschrift
der Deutschen
Morgenldndisct
Gesellschaft.

ADDENDA,

b

PRELIMINARY

NOTE

ON

T H E TRANSLITERATION

OF EGYPTIAN.

IN previous volumes of the Archaeological Survey we have followed the highly conventional
transliteration of hieroglyphs into a system of consonants and vowels such as has become
customary in England. But since our present discussion involves especially the true powers of
the signs and the origin of their phonetic values (as far as we can ascertain them), that system,
unchecked, would here be misleading. The roots of Egyptian words, like those of Semitic,
consist of a certain number of consonants, and—as perhaps will become clearer on perusal of
this Memoir—the phonetic value of almost every sign in hieroglyphic writing corresponds
simply to these bare consonantal roots of one, two, or three consonants (or semi-vowels). Any
person acquainted with a Semitic language, say Hebrew or Arabic, will comprehend at once the
force of these statements as regards both the palaeography and the language. In Egyptian, as in
unpointed Hebrew, and Arabic written without vowels, occasionally a semi-vowel is used in good
writing to indicate a vowel, but it never becomes a mere vowel-sign. To transliterate ^=> as da
in the following pages, without warning, would be as misleading as to transliterate say Jy^t by
aaul in a discussion of the verbal roots and the values of the letters in Arabic. In the latter case,
if the vocalization were unknown, no safer transliteration could be given than 3 f wl: happily in
Arabic we are generally saved from such atrocities by the simplicity of its own alphabet, which
makes conversion into any other almost superfluous. It is not so with the highly complex
hieroglyphic syllabary: in this, for close scientific work, transliteration is constantly a necessity,
and occasionally a distressing group of conventional signs, such as c> or c\ seems almost
unavoidable.
There is, however, one way out of the difficulty. The hieroglyphic system included
twenty-five alphabetic letters, and in them the values of all the phonetic signs of the system
can be expressed. They thus provide a very natural means of transliteration. It is not difficult
to learn the values of twenty-five pictorial signs, and if words artificially expressed by this
alphabet are kept quite distinct from those in genuine hieroglyphic spelling, there seems no
objection to their use where European letters fail to satisfy. As Professor Petrie once suggested
in discussing this vexed question of transliteration, the distinction can be secured by the use of a
specially small type for the hieroglyphic alphabet, which shall at once sufficiently represent the
Egyptian signs, distinguish the transliterations from the true words, range with ordinary English
type, and be clear and not unpleasing to the eye. Each of the various systems hitherto advocated
employs European letters modified by diacritical points, and arouses the wrath of those who have
adopted any one of the other systems. In the present work we endeavour to conciliate all: by
the side of the inoffensive hieroglyphic transliteration, which represents in fact the basis of every
system, we constantly give European spellings, and so we trust that none of our old supporters
will be embarrassed by the additional equipment required for working on this branch of Egyptian
study.

PRELIMINARY NOTE ON THE TRANSLITERATION OF EGYPTIAN.

T H E

EGYPTIAN

XI

ALPHABET.

the alphabetic signs and their values see STEINDORFF, Das AUaegyptische Alphabet und seine
Umschreihung, Z. der Morgenl. Gesells., xlvi., 709 (cf. Baedeker Egypt, 1898, p. cxxiii.) ; ERMAN,
Die Umschreihung des Aegyptischen, A. Z., xxxiv., 51 (especially valuable for a clear exposition of
the consonantal character of 1^, I), \ , —J), cf. Grammar, pp. 6-8.
In many cases in the present volume two transliterations into European characters are given
side by side, one being consonantal, the other admitting vowels in conformity with the old system.
In the following table the third column shows where either of these systems differs from that
of Berlin : in the fourth column are given Arabic and Hebrew equivalents of values that cannot
be so well expressed in English letters.
FOR

BERLIN.

\\
•1

p
w
~~n

rJ
D

3

,

hhi
j
i, %
c

W,U

E.E.F.

J1

(^)
y (d)
y

SEMITIC.

k»
i

> )

i
C2

( * ) \£>y\
w (u) "\

b
p

x^_

f

k

m
n
r
«, n
h
3
e
h
4
h h(hh)
i
h h(ch)
V
s
s
to
s s (sh) to
k
P
q6
D
&
9

Ls
<>
=
ra
I
©

*Ho
—

>
i
•n

A
^3*

2
£5.

t

eu

1
2

^ D

t (th)

*±>

dS3

"• d

L

0

k

d, t
"" d, z

\\ is used at the end of a word for the vowel i as a distinctive
grammatical ending.
44 is a strengthened form of 4, used after the O.K. when 4 had lost
the full force of y.
\i 4* 00? ^ a r e w e a k consonants o r semi-vowels. <=> is also a weak
X
c o n s o n a n t ; a n d p (prefixed), k (prefixed), f), 44, $ , N an< i ^ (suffixed)
are formative letters at the beginning or end of words. All the above
may thus sometimes be neglected in deriving phonetic values from words.
^ often changes to 4? and each at times seems less than consonantal.
The distinction—very important in separating roots—between p and
-*- was lost after the O.K. In the following pages whenever there is
uncertainty in this matter we use the combination -p-.
In early texts »- varies with ^^ and in late writing it was confused
with ©. In Coptic »~ becomes hh9 while © often becomes sh. Thus the
sounds represented by »- and © seem to have crossed each other, travelling
in opposite directions. To distinguish them as Mb and d is a mere
convention.
» generally changed to t, so that in N.K. » often represents ^ ; but
in some words the distinct sound remained firm. ^ became d in many
words, and varies with « » even in old texts. In the following pages the
=
use of the combinations =», ^» indicates when the sounds are subject to
these changes. « » is rather t than a true d.
=

3
4
5

AUf, a breathing as support for a vowel; counts as a consonant in Semitic roots (see p. xii.).
'Ain, a peculiar guttural breathing: a strong consonant (nothing to do with a; see p. xii.).
Ji is a soft English fc,Aa peculiar guttural h.
M as in hard German ch; ch as in soft German ch.
q is a guttural h) h is an English h.

N.B.—For the practical purposes of teacher or learner, in order to make the unvocalized roots
pronounceable, an e may be added to any consonant wherever it facilitates the reading :
e.g. i ~ u h(e)t(e)p ; ^ ra & \ n(e)h(e)mw(e); 4 k y(v)m \ k \ ™(e)y(6) 5 ^ $ n(e)w(e);
\ r~> . ^ w{e)n*t; ~* \ c(e)\e) ; ^ \\ $ tiw(e).

PKELIMINAKY NOTE ON THE TEANSLITERATIOlSr

Xll

OF EGYPTIAN.

NOTE ON THE SEMITIC CONSONANTS ALIF

AND <AW.

The following rough statements may give some idea of the use of Alif and 'Ain, and of
the. semi-vowels w and y in Semitic and Egyptian.
Though regarded as a consonant, the Semitic alif (Hebrew qleph), like the Greek soft
breathing ' and the French h, has little or no sound in pronunciation. It is called a guttural,
and* is often marked by an interruption of sound. It may be defined to be a breathing as the
support for a vowel, and is of great importance both as a radical and as a formative sign.
I. As a radical it may support a syllable in the same way as any other consonant. Thus the
root sJl makes sa^ala (sa^a'la), just asfth makes fa'ta'ha. When not itself vocalized—i.e. followed
by a vowel—alif lengthens the preceding vowel in one way or another.
II. Formative alif To take a striking instance of this: when in inflexion a short vowel of
any kind—a9 e, i9 o, or u—is prefixed for euphonic reasons to a difficult combination of consonants,
its presence is indicated in writing by an alif written before the radical consonants. This is called
" prosthetic alif."
III. Alif has by nature a particular affinity to the vowel a—as y has to i9 and w to u, so
that a* = d, iy = b, uw = u. When not itself vocalized, it especially lengthens preceding a to a,
and hence is used in writing to indicate long a (a). (So also y and w are used in writing to
indicate i and u.)
\ seems to correspond to the Semitic alif especially as a radical. There are probably only
two cases, each rare and obscure, of its use as a formative; but occasionally it seems to have
been written quite superfluously, even in early texts, its feeble value leading to uncertainty or
confusion.
1 is properly y9 but the sounds of ^ and \ seem to some extent to have changed places in
1
course of time (cf. the case of •- and ©). Q is very often omitted in writing at the beginning of a
word, and in this situation may often have been reduced to the value of alif at a very early
period. It is commonly prefixed to a root, and it may be doubted whether it, does not, even
in early instances, then represent "prosthetic alif" (see SETHE, De Aleph Frosthetico in Lingua
Aegyptiaca).
It is natural that there should now reign some uncertainty about the use of these weak
consonants and the signs that expressed them in Ancient Egyptian: even in Semitic grammars
there is Considerable complexity about the treatment of the mutual relations of alif and y.
6

Ain (Arab., Heb. caiyin) is a peculiar guttural breathing unknown to European languages.
It counts as a strong consonant. In Egyptian cain is represented by -a. In the New
Kingdom it was weakened, probably owing to the fact that the sound was unpronounceable
to some of the mixed population. It was quite lost during the Graeco-Roman period, but
was brought into Egypt afresh by the Arabs, and is still constantly heard in Egypt. J h is
related to this guttural.

A

COLLECTION

OF

HIEROGLYPHS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
I.
PREVIOUS WORK ON EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHS: MATERIALS AVAILABLE FOR THEIR STUDY.

Professor Petrie published his Medum
and Professor Erman his Grammar, no important work on Egyptian hieroglyphic writing
had appeared in recent years. Champollion in
his Grammaire Hgyptienne, issued after the
author's death in 1836, gave descriptive names
to large numbers of the signs.
De Roug^,
in his Catalogue des signes Meroglyphiqaes de
Vimprimerie nationale, 1851, attached to each
of many hundreds of signs and varieties of
signs a short description, often very correct.
In 1848, to the first volume of Bunsen's Egypt's
Place in Universal History9i Birch contributed a
long list of hieroglyphs, with descriptions and
statements of their separate phonetic and ideographic values, and this list was revised and
enlarged for the second edition in 1867. I n
the latter year De Rouge again dealt with the
subject, and published a catalogue raisonnee of
the more usual signs in the first livraison of his
Ghrestomathie Egyptienne. Useful to the student
as these first lists were in the early stages of
decipherment, they are now of little value.
For, at the time they were made, the fine early
forms were mostly unstudied, and the signs

UNTIL

were taken without discrimination from texts
of all periods; moreover, the outlines of the
signs were inaccurately rendered, their colours
unnoted, and their phonetic and ideographic
powers very imperfectly determined.
Thus,
whenever doubt was possible as to the object
represented by a sign, little external help was
forthcoming for correct identification. To a
present-day student of the subject, the scholarly
understanding of De Rouge and the ingenuity
of Birch are apparent, but the aid which they
afford him is small.
In 1872, Brugsch, in his Grammaire hieroglyphique, published a useful list of signs with
their phonetic and ideographic values, accompanying them with references to his Dictionary,
and distinguishing some of the specially early
and late forms.
In 1878, Rossi, in his
Grammatica Geroglifica, from the materials
thus furnished by Brugsch and others, constructed for the use of students a catalogue
raisonnee of the most ordinary signs. The plan
on which it is carried out is a good one, but
the work has little independent value. We
may also note the careful list in Lemm's
B

2

INTRODUCTORY.

Aegyptische Lesestuclce, 1883. Several bare lists
of printers' founts of hieroglyphic signs have
been published, e.g. that of F . Theinhardt, at
Berlin, arranged by Lepsius, and that of the
rich and elaborate fount in the Imprimerie
Nationale at Paris, already mentioned, and
re-issued without De Rouge's commentary in
a second edition.
The only critical list of hieroglyphs with their
powers published recently is that of Erman,
printed in his Grammar. The system by which
he classifies the values—obscured in the English
edition by the substitution of the term '' ideograph " for Wortzeiehen, "word-sign''—displays
the author's keen insight into the nature of
hieroglyphic writing, and the list itself is highly
suggestive.
The only native list that has come down to
us, that of the Sign Papyrus of Tanis (see
I X t h Memoir of Egypt Exploration Fund), is
unfortunately of the Roman Period, when the
original meanings of the signs had been well
nigh forgotten. It has its own peculiar interest,
but seldom furnishes the smallest hint to the
seeker after origins. The famous " Hieroglyphics
of Horapollo" occasionally contains a reminiscence of true hieroglyphs, but may well be a
composition of the Middle Ages embodying the
tiny modicum of half-genuine tradition that had
survived till then.

home students in regard to examples of form
for the Old Kingdom, but for all periods
occasional detailed and trustworthy drawings
and photographs are found among the enormous
mass of published texts. To these may now be
added the 105 coloured signs in Bent Hasan I I I .
and still more numerous examples in the present volume. The writer has also had access
to the important collection of facsimiles at
University College, London, made for Professor
Petrie by Miss Paget. A large proportion of
these are copied from our own collections from
Beni Hasan and El Bersheh, others are from
coffins of late period, and have only palaeographical interest, and others again are from
earlier coffins in the British Museum. But the
flower of the collection consists in exquisite
drawings of sculptured hieroglyphs, sometimes
with traces of colour, from the tomb of Ptahhetep at Saqqareh, supplemented by a few from
other tombs in the same neighbourhood, and
from the pyramid of P^py I. These were all
copied on the spot in 1895-6.

I n investigating the powers or uses of the
signs, dictionaries give most important aid to
the student, and it seems ungrateful not to
mention them each by name. The keywords to
the meanings, viz., the names of the objects or
actions depicted, are often exceedingly rare in
the texts, and one requires every aid in the
Scattered up and down Egyptological litera- search for them. Brugsch's great Dictionary
ture there are, as may be imagined, many (1867-1882) frequently settles with close accuracy
attempts at explaining individual signs. But the meanings of the words considered in it,
any endeavour to treat Egyptian hieroglyphs supplying by quotations the proof of his com-;
critically, to ascertain their origins, the history elusions. Despite its uncritical method of comof their use, the original distinction or relation- pilation, Levy's bulky Vocabulary (1887-1894),
ship of signs that resemble each other, reveals with its two supplements and long tables of
how little is really known about them. For signs, is indispensable in this branch of research,
the study, good examples showing detail and since it gives a multitude of references to rare
colouring at different periods are needed, and words and forms of words that occur in notable
the evidence furnished by form and colour must publications of recent date, such as Maspero's
be checked by examination of their powers in edition of the Pyramid Texts. Special indices,
such as Stern's excellent Glossary of the Papyrus
writing.
Professor Petrie's Medum is the mainstay of Ebers, Piehl's Vocabulary of the Harris Papyrus,

POWERS OF THE SIGNS.

Erman's
and Dr.
Dynasty
Schack's

Glossary of the Westcar Papyrus,
Budge's Vocabulary of the X V I I l t h
" Book of the Dead," are often helpful.
great Index to the Pyramid Texts is

3

as yet unfortunately little more than begun, b u t
the synoptic index of parallel chapters prefixed
to the work is of the greatest value in the
search for variant spellings.

II.
POWERS OF THE SIGNS: HISTORY OF THEIR EMPLOYMENT.

We will now consider the connexion between a symbol for father; very likely for a similar
m
the forms and the powers of the Egyptian reason. The ostrich feather, on ^ . a §w t (shwt),
hieroglyphs, and their use in writing of the is emblem of Maat, goddess of Truth, and stands
for her name also. Sometimes one value of a
best periods.
Following in the main Professor Erman's sign (see J,, • , p—*, *L) is probably derived
classification, we can see that the development from the name of a locality or geographical
division of which it represented the badge or
of the use of the signs was somewhat t h u s :
At first, a picture-sign was made to stand symbol, for reasons of religion, mythology, local
either simply for the NAME of the object produce or manufacture.
From its Proper and other name-values the
pictured by it, or for that of some state or
action which it naturally indicates. Thus, -o>- further use of a word-sign developed in two
stands for ((<=»•<=> yrt (art), " e y e " ; a D for ways, viz., phonetically and ideographically.
I. PHONETICALLY. The word-sign might be
fr-v-3* hnkj "offer." Such may be said to be
employed to write other words of the same
the PROPER uses of the picture as a word-sign.
Often there may be several Proper values. essential sound as those expressing its Proper
Undoubtedly the values commonly originate in or Transferred senses. Thus, to begin with, it
the names of the objects which the signs re- would be used by RADICAL EXTENSION for other
present, but these names are not always trace- forms of the same root, with the formative signs
able. The ancient name may have become added in writing when necessary, but afterwards
obsolete at an early age, or even if it was by PHONETIC TRANSFERENCE for any homophoncurrent in historic times it may happen that it ous words, whatever their origin and meaning.
A t length it might become a purely phonetic sign,
never appears in the inscriptions.
The IDEOGRAPHIC power is often extended or to represent part only of a word-root, the rest
TRANSFERRED widely, and sometimes in a peculiar of which would have to be supplied by other
and rather unexpected w a y ; e.g. when ^
a phonetic signs. These PHONOGRAMS, which are
pond, or a vessel containing liquid, is taken as very limited in number, may indicate one
the symbol of womanhood; or a bone harpoon- consonant only, in which case they are termed
head is used for polished rods, or reed stems, Alphabetic; or more than one, in which case
and for burial, as well as for bone and ivory. they are termed Syllabic. There is no further
Mythology and religion naturally played their essential difference between alphabetic and
part in this extension. The griffon vulture, syllabic characters.
The origin of many of the alphabetic
named wr, was the emblem of Mut, the mothergoddess, and so stands for her name mwt or m't, values is still obscure, but it does not seem
" mother." Apparently *u*~, the cerastes, was likely that the Egyptians ever consciously
B 2

INTRODUCTORY.

resorted to the principle of acrophony, i.e. of
assigning to a symbol the value of the first
only of several sounds in the word which it
represents. In the Old Kingdom there * are
no homophones among the regular alphabetic
characters. Of these there are twenty-five,
including the vowel-sign \\; but this was not
used as such until the Middle Kingdom. The
" s y l l a b i c " phonograms in regular use at a
good period do not much exceed 40.
I t is interesting and essential to further
research to note the principles on which signs
were employed for the expression of sound.
It was convenient as well as natural to
employ a given word-sign for a]l forms of the
root to which the word itself belonged. In
the (sub-Semitic?) language spoken by the
Egyptians the root of each word lay in consonants, and the inflexions no doubt consisted
largely in vowel-changes, though these are not
traceable in hieroglyphic writing. For instance,
the root htp might perhaps take, amongst
others, such forms as hotep, hatp, hotpe, htepLikewise, from the root rwd (which we conventionally write rud) might be forms rowed,
rawd (reduced to rand, the vowel and semi-vowel
coalescing and forming a diphthong), rowde
(reduced to rude), reived. > And from wn (which
we conventionally write un) there might be
wdn9 wan, owne (reduced to une), and wen.
Possibly, under special circumstances depriving
the word of all accent ("construct" state),
some form of wn might be reduced to a mere
un; yet radically w and n would be recognized
as still underlying. Thus, =£=, " offering," " to
be propitiated," stands for I ^ a h-t-p ; ^ \ " firm,"
" knot," stands for <> \ ^ r-w-d ; JlL> " run like
=
a hare," stands for ^ ^ w-n.
Inflexion and derivation, however, also consisted in the addition of certain consonants,
viz., s prefixed (for the causative form), m prefixed, an added t, ID, or y. Thus, when the
word-sign was used for all forms of the word,
the vocalization and the flexional and formative

consonants had to be abolished from its value
and the radical consonants alone retained.
When we remember the readiness with which
the Arab recognizes the few radical consonants
upon which his highly organized verbal conjugations are built, we can better understand the
ease with which the Egyptians reduced their
word-signs to their radical values. The gradual
development of a phonetic system would enable
them in course of time to supply the flexional
consonants by the addition of separate phonograms. Let us take as an illustration the sign
^37. This represents a basket, and the root of
the Egyptian name is nb, " hold," with the
feminine termination t = nb't, " t h e holder."
The sign very naturally was required to spell
nb or nb'iv, "holder, master" (masculine), nb't,
"holder, mistress" (feminine), nb'w, "holders,
masters" (masc. plural). Hence ^37 by itself
may stand for a "basket," nb't', it may also
stand for "master," and, with the addition of
^ t, for nb't, "mistress," or with the addition
of ^ \ w, for nb'w, " masters." When this stage
had been reached, the sign ^37 was easily
applied to the spelling of a verb nb, "swim,"
and of another verb nb, " m e l t , " each with a
number of vowel inflexions that we cannot
now follow, owing to the incomplete record
of sounds in hieroglyphics. We thus see that
when a sign is employed for its phonetic value,
it is used to represent the skeleton only of the
word for which it stands, i.e. the unvocalized
and uninflected root (v. Addenda).
Even the root was generally reduced to its
simplest form, for through inherent weakness
of consonants or the coalescence of the last two
radicals in any root in which they happened to
be identical (cf. Semitic secundae geminatae)
there might be a shortened form of the root
itself. Thus the hoe ^ = , f ^ *»* Jinn (henen),
has the syllabic value hn; and several of the
alphabetic signs appear to owe their value to a
single geminated root letter: see description of
s=5, ^z^>, —H— below, pp. 45, 47, 38. On the other

POWEES OF THE

SIGNS.

5

means of the Pyramid Texts, but in the case of
many words not found in the Old Kingdom,
we cannot tell which s is correct. Such cases
are here indicated by -p*.
When the two allied consonants -/• and |
The WEAK CONSONANTS are \ , H, $ and <=>.
came together in a word, these being difficult
They seem to have been more or less fugitive
^
according to circumstances.
Terminal r in so to pronounce, the — was, in the Middle
many cases where it is found in the earliest Kingdom, often written (, and, generally, there
texts was lost, or changed to a vowel in course is some uncertainty about their use. Cf. Q£l,
of time. Thus ^ , I <=> hr, "face," became h[r],| , ^ ; also ^ 5 , v ^ / ? s ^ , J^, ^ . The last
6i
with the r changed perhaps to y9 to which it sign is in many words - J 1 -*, but in navy " it
had a tendency. And if in good writing, after is I —*.
With other consonants also there are early
the earliest times were passed, it was required
to write a word or syllable hr with a strong r, instances of change or loss, especially perhaps
the spelling had then to be ® . So also with in the case of /-*, but at present they have
i J P M > " h o u s e , " I=* m[r]9 "channel," &c. not been reduced to rule, and are altogether
But <s>- yr retains its r, because the name of obscure.
the eye was yr% and the presence of the
II. IDEOGRAPHICALLY a sign becomes a
feminine ending ~, preceded by a vowel, saved DETERMINATIVE, i.e. it is placed after a word
the weak final radical. The effects of final spelled in phonograms or in word-signs, in
r are best studied in phonograms of two order to indicate the meaning of that word,
consonants, because of the frequency with either in general or specifically.
v& is the
which they enter into combinations, but doubt- determinative of proper names of men, J)
less it prevailed also with word-signs of three of those of women, &c. ^g>$ is a specific
consonants.
determinative of words meaning ox, bull, &c,
Final \{aleph)J i) (yod), and \ (when radical) but W , a hide, is a general determinative for
could often likewise be neglected, as might be all beasts, and may follow the name of any.
judged from Semitic analogies, though in what The use of determinatives is found to decrease
degree still remains to be ascertained. In the the further one goes back into antiquity, and
Pyramid Texts (£, © ^ , is used alternatively for this, as Erman remarks in his Grammar, shows
lch, and IT] h seems to have been originally the compai'ative lateness of their use, and agrees
ra^, and ffl g, &\.
Initial q is often neglige- with their natural place in the evolution of the
able, but in such cases it is perhaps not radical. script. From picture-signs derive word-signs,
It has long been seen that ? must often be from word-signs phonograms, and then recourse
a euphonic prefix like the prosthetic alif in is again had to picture signs, or at least
Semitic, and in that position it is always weak ideograms, for determinatives to phonograms.
hand, the plant or rush r^ ,~A . ^ nn% used for
r»+ ^ nn, has to be doubled in writing, evidently
because its value would otherwise be reduced to
n (see below, p. 29).

and liable to change or disappear.
Changes take place also among the STRONG
CONSONANTS ; thus, in most roots in course of
time ^ changes to *=*, here indicated by ^ ,
and :=> to o, here indicated by =§>.
The distinction between p and -*- was altogether
lost after the Old Kingdom. For vast numbers
of words we can verify the ancient form by

The development of the hieroglyphic system
of writing did not take place according to rule,
and the employment of the signs cannot be
completely and neatly tabulated even for a
single period of the writing. We may in a
general way distinguish Classical from Archaic
usage, the spelling in the Old Kingdom being

INTEODUCTOKY.

hn; these, and others, may probably be considered as "false derivatives."
I t is often
difficult to say where word-sign ends and
phonogram begins.
3. There are two phonograms which are used
1. In classical writing strong flexional consonants are as a rule written separately from solely for marking inflexions. The eagle (p. 19),
^ \\ $ tiw, stands for the plural ending of
the word-sign.
Thus <2>_, ^ 7 ^ in the Old
adjectives in ti, and II as a phonogram is i9
Kingdom may often stand for f\ <=> • ^ yrt
(art),
chiefly as the termination of the dual, and of
" eye/' but later the spelling is ^ > T . Even in adjectives derived from substantives.
(||(1 in
late writing, however, if no ambiguity can good texts is used only for terminations, or at
result and conciseness is aimed at, the word-sign most as a substitute for final radical t\ or \ ;
alone is made to stand for a derived form with when it replaces the sound of the latter, <|\
a strong consonant. This is the case not only is generally written as well. In the special
with the < of the fern, ending, as ©, for ^ • ^ spelling for foreign names in the New Kingdom
*
n% " c i t y , " but also with prefixed ^ ; as when it is used for y in any position.)
n D, I ^ <3* hnk, stands for $^« } ^ < * m'hnJc in
=
Certain vowel-endings, being of particular
a certain title ( S E T H E , A. Z., 1893, p. 99), and importance, were rendered by special devices.
x x , — e=a cd (ad), stands for ^._-JOC=S m*cd Thus the dual and the adjectival formative i
a
(m'ad), in the name of the sun-boat. So also was in the Old Kingdom sometimes rendered
the scribe's palette, ™ -n — ncc (naa), constantly by (j, and the same dual ending and the ter*
stands for the causative p • ^ ^ _* S'n^ [s'naa), mination of adjectives by <R\ (in Pyr. and Una,
" grind fine," in the prescriptions of the Ebers 1. 3 0 ) ; later, 1 took the place of these. *K
1
Medical Papyrus. Again, the knot, properly sometimes represents the vowel u as masc. sing,
\ H <=> *yr (adr)9 stands for ^ I ^ <> dy*r (see
)
=
termination of nouns. In the New Kingdom
below, p. 44). Here difr is treated as a deri- the attempt was made to spell foreign names in
vative of *yr9 and is perhaps so in reality.
open syllables of a consonant and a vowel, the
It is a remarkable fact that the flexional or latter being represented by < | \ , % , or w (see
formative consonants m, t, w, y, even when ERMAN, Gram., § 70).
radical, are apt to drop out of writing, probably
4. When an ideogram or a phonetic sign has
by a kind of " false analogy." This may help several values, or when it closely resembles in
to explain the occasional omission of ^ at the writing that is not detailed another ideogram
beginning or in the middle of words, and of ^ or phonetic sign with a different value, a
at the end, and the constant omission of Q and phonetic complement was attached to it in the
$ in early writing, while ^ always stands firm classical period, as a constant indicator; e.g. stn
at the beginning of words.
is \ , i w \ \ W ^ ^ \ ^
2. Sometimes a word-sign, say of two radicals,
5. Occasionally a sign ideographic^of a group
not being a phonogram, was used in spelling
of ideas is used to indicate particular words
another word of three, which happened to have
belonging to that group, by the help of one or
the appearance of a derivative from the biliteral
more phonograms which point out the special
root, a formative consonant being prefixed or
meaning. In such cases the ideogram is not
suffixed.
Thus " f e a r " is sometimes written
merely a determinative, nor yet quite a word?J /wvw\ ^
as if tn<z ; "strong,
, as if wht " of sign. Thus the club (see B. JT., iii., fig. 77),
w o o d " ; "statue," V; ^ , as if derived from ideogram or determinative of foreign peoples,
very variable, while in the Middle Kingdom it
had become more or less fixed in principle and
so continued into the New. Some special
developments and usages are as follows :—

n-

\

r—r

AAAAAA

POWERS OF THE SXGNS—iSPECIAL USAGES.

7

tional way, either because of some magical
foreign people; but | f\ = -—a ' ^ \ t \ | , power attributed to them, or in order to
= - a
present the reader with a puzzle for his amusement, or for his bewilderment—as in secret
writing. Groups written with such hieroglyphs
occur in the Kahun Medical Papyrus, the Ebers
these words meaning respectively " Semite,"
Medical Papyrus, and the Rhind Mathematical
"Libyan," "negro," and "Libya." It is possible
Papyrus. Short inscriptions in the same style
that originally the form of the club may haveare found at Beni Hasan in the tomb of Chety,
varied to indicate the particular race, and that
and at El Bersheh in the tomb of Tehutihetep,
the phonetic complements were added when
and long mythological ones in the tombs of the
this distinction became too precarious in free
Kings of the X l X t h and X X t h Dynasties at
writing. The use of J\ (q.v.) in its phonetic
Thebes.
compounds for verbs of motion is on the same
10. In the Pyramid Texts signs representing
principle.
human beings are systematically deprived of
6. ABBREVIATIONS of various kinds are used
their bodies and legs, so that only heads and
in writing accounts, and also in other writing.
arms appear. The animals are generally treated
Sometimes a determinative stands for the whole
in the same way, and _&& and 5^A are
word, as—in accounts—r-~- for /^fV, « ^ " ^
often cut in two.
Apparently this was an
"dmz, " t o t a l " ; or the principal sign alone
attempt to deprive the signs of magic motion.
is written, as in the group r J I for
Similarly, in funerary texts of the Middle
— /^®, ^ "*! ^ , P ^ J (anhhy uza, senb), "Life,
o
Kingdom, birds and animals are sometimes
Prosperity, Health." Incomplete writing of one
deprived of their legs and serpents of their
sort or another is very common (cf. ERMAN,
tails. These mutilated signs are of course to
Defective Schreibungen, A. Z., 1891, p. 33).
be read as though they were complete, and
7. Sometimes, even in good writing, the may, for the purposes of this volume, be treated
word-sign or determinative of a word is trans- as identical with the complete signs to which
ferred as determinative (not word-sign) to a they correspond.
homophonous word to which its meaning is not
Various other tricks of the scribes may be
appropriate; e.g. r-~-, in
"hand,"
m detected. The transferred use of ideograms,
° ^ "flax." I t then seems determinative of
and the different employments of certain signs
a
I n hieratic of the New
as phonograms, vary with the period and even
sound, not of sense.
Kingdom such uses are very common.
with the individual scribe. At some periods
8. Sometimes we have a MONOGRAM or certain word-signs were employed as phonoGRAPHIC COMPOUND of two phonetic signs, each
grams which are not so found at other periods ;
to be read separately, as in J o - J o ht-hr, e.g. (£, commonly used as phonogram for © \
" Hathor " ; of an ideogram or syllabic with its iy (hha) in the Pyramid Texts, has elsewhere a
phonetic complement, as in 1 ^ hz, " w h i t e " ; or very restricted use until the end of the New
of an ideogram or phonogram with its deter- Kingdom.
minative, as in n
hz, "silver." These are
It may almost be presumed that the farther
written respectively 1^1, *MS , rS^.
we push back into antiquity the greater exacti9. There are also " SPORTIVE " hieroglyphs tude shall we find in the use of the signs. To
(ERMAN, Gram., § 71). These are often ex- the early scribes each sign had a distinct
ceptional signs, and always used in an excep- meaning connected with its origin, but with
cannot by itself stand for the name of any

8

H5TTR0DUCT0EY.

the development of cursive writing, and indeed
the spread of writing into common use, the
scribe gradually made himself independent of
the delicate differences which distinguished the
forms of allied signs. The tendency was to
express words either by one distinct sign or by
a group so arranged that the meaning would
be unmistakable, even when the individual signs
might be confounded. This led to a larger use
of determinatives and of phonetic complements,
and eventually to a handling of signs as conventional symbols even in hieroglyphic writing,
and to the forgetting of their origins. Even in
good writing of the Middle Kingdom improper
use of the signs had crept in, and in the
X V I I I t h Dynasty this is still more marked.
Thus, for example, in the early times the
sprout (?) j , having the two values <=> <=> tr
<> /-> D rnp9 was often compounded with an
=
alphabetic catch-sign, <=> or D, to show the
value, and the fern. <> ^ u • ^ rnp't was generally
=
compounded with ^ (see below, p. 26). In the
Middle Kingdom these began to be confounded;
in the New Kingdom the compound for tr was

used for rnp, and even that for rwp was used
for tr, although the latter had no p. The sound
and meaning of each word being obvious from
the more systematic spelling out by a group
of several signs, there was little practical
importance in the distinction between { and 1 .
As might be expected, the colouring and
details of the signs of which the origin was not
very obvious, were given with less and less
intelligence. In the following pages few references occur to the uses and forms of signs
after the XXth Dynasty. By that time corruption had set in strongly from various causes,
and there is seldom much trustworthy light to
be obtained from examples of this date on the
original significance of the signs. To trace the
origin and history of each sign minutely through
its
and different uses and forms, from the earliest
times to the latest, would be a stupendous work,
analagous to the construction of an elaborate
dictionary " on historical principles." But even
from brief excursions into this comparatively untrodden field of research, much new information
may be gained and many current errors corrected.

SOUEOES OF THE FACSIMILES.

9

CHAPTER I I .
HIEROGLYPHS COLLECTED BY THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY.
I.
SOURCES OF THE FACSIMILES.
PLATES I.-IV.—HIEROGLYPHS OE THE X V I I I T H
DYNASTY, FROM D E I R EL B A H R I .
BY MISS R.

F.

E.

COPIED

PAGET.

These hieroglyphs are of the age of Hatshepsut,
fourth monarch of the XVIIIth Dynasty (about
1520 B.C.), and were copied in her great temple
in the winter of 1895-6. The originals were
first sculptured in relief and then coloured.
All those here published are from portions of
the temple already described and published by
M. Naville in his memoir on Deir el Bahari,
Parts I. and II. The greater number are from
the chapel of Thothmes I., but some are from
scenes not included in the plates of the memoir.
I n this chapel, according to M. Naville (D. el B.,
L, p . 4), the transparent varnish with which the
paint was overlaid has turned to an opaque
yellow. The effects of this are seen on many
of the hieroglyphs here published, in which the
white ground is smudged with yellow or the
original colours obscured and altered, e.g.
PI. iv., figs. 23, 27-29, 40, &c., &c. Some of
our examples are from the North-West Hall of
Offerings, and others from the Birth Terrace,
from an inscription parts of which have escaped
mutilation. The positions of the originals are
as follows:—
Altar Court, fragmentary inscription, unpublished (cf. R el B., L, PL v., &c), fig. 30.
Chapel of Thothmes I. :
Position uncertain, fig. 35.
End wall (D. el £ . , i., PI. ix.), figs. 6-9,
15-21,26,31, 32,49.

East wall (D. el B., i., PI. x.), figs. 27-29, 50.
(D. el B.y i., PL xi.), figs. 1, 2, 13-14,
23, 25.
West wall, unpublished, figs. 10-12, 37-39,
46.
Niche, North wall (inscription beyond
D. el B., i., PL xv. ; cf. PL xvi.),
figs. 5, 34, 43, 45.
Niche, South wall (D. el B., i., PL xvi.),
figs. 3, 22, 40, 4 1 .
North-West Hall of Offerings:
West or East wall (D. el B., i., PL xix. or
xxii.), fig. 36.
West wall (D. el B., L, PL xxi.), fig. 24.
Middle Colonnade, northern half (D. el J5., ii.,
PL xlviii., right-hand end), figs. 4, 33,
42, 44, 47, 48.
PLATES V.-VI.—HIEROGLYPHS OE THE X V I I I T H
DYNASTY, EROM THE TOMB OE PAHERI
E L KAB.

COPIED BY MISS A.

AT

PIRIE.

From the table of his genealogy it is evident
that Paheri died in or about the reign of
Hatshepsut and Thothmes I I I . (Paheri, p. 9 ) .
As the decoration of the tomb was probably
not finished much before his death, it is therefore of almost precisely the same date as the
temple of Deir el Bahri. The small inscriptions
in the chamber are incised and coloured black,
but the large ones are well formed in relief and
coloured. There are no indications that the
tomb-chamber was ever closed or hidden, and
the destruction of the facade has exposed it to

10

SOUECES OF THE FACSIMILES.

the full effects of atmosphere, wind, and wind- the fifth king of the X l l t h Dynasty (El B., i.,
borne sand. Although as a whole the sculptures PL v., and p. 3). Our collection of signs from
are in excellent preservation, the colour and it was begun by Mr. Blackden, who in December,
relief have suffered considerably in detail. In 1892, copied six, which I believe he found on
the winter of 1896 Miss Pirie, who was staying fallen fragments of the painting. The remainder,
at El Kab, copied some of the signs and kindly 104 in number, were copied chiefly from the
gave the copies to the Archaeological Survey. walls of the tomb by Mr. Carter in May and
The exact situation and context of each of June, 1893. All are from the inner chamber,
these signs was carefully noted, and this pre- but their precise positions are generally difficult
caution adds considerably to the value of the to identify.
examples. No great accuracy was observed
Good examples of most of the facsimiled signs
by the draughtsman or sculptor in the use of may be found in El B., i., Pis. xv., xviii., x x .
the signs. The ^
of ^ | ( f , (PL iii., top (right side), xxii.; the originals of several of the
left), copied by Miss Pirie, though not here hieroglyphs were probably on small fragments,
published, is the brown " eagle," rather than which have not been included in the plates of
the Egyptian vulture, and on PI. x., east side, that memoir. In the following cases, however,
•jve have j instead of { as determinative of the exact positions of the originals may be
< >
noted :—
'<=>(] in the name (j °
T it'
The positions of the originals are as follows
in the plates of Paheri, all being from the
interior of the chamber :—

El Bersheh I . :
PI. xii., right, fig. 126.
PI. xv., row 1, fig. 161.
row 2 (or 3?), fig. 147.
Front wall, PL ii., fig. 51.
row 3, fig. 148.
West wall:
row 4, fig. 149.
PI. iii., cornice line, figs. 57, 59, 60, 62, 70,
71,77,83.
row 5, left, figs. 158, 191.
upper left, figs. 63, 66, 69.
PI. xviii., row 1, figs. 154-156.
PI. iv., cornice line, figs. 61, 64, 72, 75, 78.
row 3, figs. 119, 179, 180.
upper middle, figs. 53, 67, 76.
PI. xx., right, figs. 90, 97, 98, 136, (top)
lower right, fig. 52.
150.
East wall :
PL xxv., figs. 122, 186.
PI. vi., offerings, figs. 79, 81.
PI. xxxiv., top, fig. 118.
upper left, fig. 80.
Not in the publication^?), figs. 86, 165, 167,190.
PI. vii., cornice line, fig. 56.
upper left, figs. 68, 73, 74.
PI. viii., cornice line, figs. 55, 65, 82.
upper left, fig. 58.
FACSIMILES PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED.
middle, fig. 54.
Beni Hasan, i., Pis. xxvii., xxviii. These two
PLATES V I I . - I X . — H I E R O G L Y P H S OF THE X I I T H
coloured plates are taken from the tomb
DYNASTY, FROM THE TOMB OF TEHUTIHETEP
of Chnemhetep (temp. Usertesen I I . ) .
AT E L BERSHEH. . COPIED BY MR. HOWARD
They contain several interesting hieroCARTER AND MR. M. W. BLACKDEN.
glyphs.
The completion of the tomb of Tehutihetep Beni Hasan, iii., Pis. i.-vi. (See B. H., iii., p. 3).
must be dated in the reign of XJge^tes§|i IH*9
The dates of the tombs in which the

HUMANITY.

hieroglyphs were copied are as follows
(for the proofs, see B. H, i., pp. 7 et
seqq.) :—
Tomb 17, of Chety; end of X l t h Dynasty.
Tomb 14, of Chnemhetep; Amenemhat I.
(first king of X l l t h Dynasty).

11

Tomb 2, of Amenemhat ; Usertesen I.
(second king of X l l t h Dynasty).
Tomb 3, of Chnemhetep; Usertesen II.
(fourth king of X l l t h Dynasty): it is
thus very nearly contemporary with the
tomb of Tehutihetep at El Bersheh.

II.
DISCUSSION OF THE SIGNS IN NATURAL GEOUPS.
A.

HUMANITY.

w Fig. 1 8 4 , Man seated on the ground in
the usual attitude, i.e. kneeling on one knee,
both arms bent, with hands closed as if in effort
to rise (?).
In O.K. occasionally perhaps word-sign for
—— Sj "man," "person," and repeated M^V&V&
*
for <> | ^ s rmt, in the sense of " m e n " (Una,
=
1. 21). After O.K., id. of first pers. sing, masc,
standing for its suffix, J y (a). I t is det. of
male persons in general, and in particular is
used regularly after proper names, except in
the earliest period.
Fig. 1 5 2 ; B.H., iii., fig. 79. Woman
seated on the ground, closely wrapped, with
long wig hanging over back [and shoulders].
Probably occurs as word-sign for I %• ^ hm't,
" woman." Corresponds precisely to W in all
its uses as suQix and det.
v&J) Group of man and woman; with plural
sign after O.K. (figs. 184 and 152 were taken
from this group in M B., i., PL xv.).
"Word-sign for rm% « people" (e.g. Eah. Pap.,
p. 35). Det. of human beings in general/of
their classes, tribal names, &c.

Word-sign for *-<=>« hrd (chred), " c h i l d ' ' :
in the name of Heracleopolis Magna, Hwn(?) 'ivstn
(HunenSeten), it is regularly written, apparently
for jj HH % "youth," \ \ r^ hwn (BRUGSCH,
.,

/\

A/WW\

Jj

A. Z%, 1886, p. 76, from a variant hn in TodL,
cap. 125, 1. 9). In B. H., i., PI. xxxii., in a
group corresponding to B. H., i., PI. xxvi.,
1. 189, it stands by exception for ^ © ^ whn
(nelchen), "infancy," "innocence," "simplicity."
In late times it was used for ms, " child,"

§* F i g s . 2 5 , 1 8 2 . Front view of human
face, showing ears and artificial beard.
Properly {«=> hr, u face," lit. " the upper
( t h i n g ) " ; written •§• l, which is also the preposition hr, " upon."
The final r was soon weakened or lost; and
in employing it as a word-sign, almost if not
quite as a phon., it was usual, except at the
earliest period, to add <n> in writing if the r
remained strong. Thus § <>, not @, is the
regular spelling for hr. The use of § I for
h[r] is probably restricted to the two words
already mentioned.

£) Fig. 5 9 . Upper part of face, showing
nose and eye in profile.
Name o ^ ^ hnt (fchmt), with radical t9 lit.
Fig. 1 6 2 . A baby, as carried by its
nurse, sucking its finger [and with a lock of " the foremost (part of the face) " ; cf. especially
artificial hair hanging from one side of its Pyr. If., I. 306. In late texts it is word-sign
for hnU Gradually it was substituted for other
head].

12

DISCUSSION

OF THE

SIGNS.

signs ideographic of the nose, and so stood for
and for
As det. it is also substituted for
its name ^ ^ ^ fnz, " n o s e , " and for p ^ Sn9 &_D (q.v.).
" smell," p p * ss7i, " breathe." Thus it became
Fig. 1 7 2 ; B. H., iii., fig. 53. Human
det. of all actions of the nose — smelling,
breathing, kissing—sometimes also of pleasure, hand, open.
Name, ^
d% "hand," lit. probably " t h e
festivity, disgust, and of gentle behaviour (?)
giving," or "placing ( t h i n g ) " ; just as the
palm is called " t h e receiving (thing)" (v. 3St),
the shank " the running (thing) " $ -a <=> • *
Figs, 19, 1 8 8 . The human eye.
c
Name, l| «=>•** yr't (art), see SPIEGELBERG, w vt (uart), and the thigh " t h e firm ( t h i n g ) "
The name of the numeral 5 is
Bee. de Tr., xvii., 9 3 : written -o>-, <o>.^ |^/~* . ^ mwt.
>
(Pyr.), and ^ J .
Common phon. for /)<=> perhaps connected with it, but the pronunciayr (dr).
Det. of words of seeing, not un- tion of this is not certain; perhaps it may be
dwJ (duo); cf. i< below. In Pyr., <=^> as a
commonly.
verb, varies with y><=^3 wd (ud); cf. MASP.,
^> [B. H., iii., fig. 60.]
Side-view of EL Eg., ii., 123.
From the above name of c=^ is derived
mouth.
its value as alph. for d (or rather for £,
In FA B., i., PL xxvii., the title written with
this sign in B. if., i., PL xxx., is rendered with Ar. L).
5— (q.v.)9 which in that instance may very well
J Fig. 131 The human foot and leg from
represent the outline of the lips. In any case,
the word probably reads ©r^(<=»)•*> hn(r)*t or below the knee. In inscriptions of Dyn. I. the
form is <=^3 ( D E MORGAN, Recherches, ii.,
hn%t (lchen't).
fig. 786), but the length of the shank was
<=> Fig. 1 5 7 ; B. H., iii., fig. 57. Lips of quickly increased, and this part of the sign soon
became disproportionately long and slender.
human mouth, slightly open (interior white).
Since ^O, J is alph. for 6, we may
Name, <=> | r, " mouth," Copt. poj. Wordprobably assume this to be derived from an
sign for prep. r9 " to," and alph. for r:
ancient word for " foot," or something similar;
a Fig, TOO ; B.H, iii., fig. 59. Human the common word for foot is _f rd, in which the
arm to above the elbow, showing hand out- sign shows the leg above the knee, so that J
and j might correspond in the same way as
stretched.
c
a for " h a n d . " There is in fact a
Name, .. -n i (<x), " h a n d , " presumably in- c=f^a and
common word J "^ bw (bu), written J I in
cluding a portion above the wrist. There is,
however, little difference of meaning between N.K. but almost invariably J *\\ in early texts
— a and c=^a as word-signs, and in parallel texts (for Pyr. see SCHACK, Index) that seems to be
they are sometimes interchanged (cf. J ) .
a the origin of the alphabetic value. It means
c
is alph. for (a), Arab, e, Heb. V. In Pyr. it " place," " situation," ' • condition," especially
in expressions like biv nfr, "good state,"
appears to stand often for
. /•"* rmn, forearm," or " upper arm " (?)—later, ^r-&—and is " felicity," &c.; perhaps we may compare the
then usually distinguished by alphabetic com- English " f o o t i n g " for status. The compound
plements <c=> or A A A . Sometimes it takes the J "v\ ^ ^ v& JO i bw nb means " everybody,"
AAA
place of r^-Ji for the " cubit," $*J mh, and of which may be literally " every condition or
class," or perhaps better " e v e r y foot," like
/ — "give."
L U

ANTHR0P0M0BPH1C

$

& J j i, another compound expression for

" everybody/' lit. " every face."
I t may be noted that in Pyr. «-d3 is det. of a
word » J , ^> J ^ (27., 312, &c), which perhaps
means "footstep," " t r e a d , " or "foot," and of
^ j . ^ " sandal."

B,

ANTHROPOMORPHIC D E I T I E S ;

HUMAN

RANKS AND CLASSES.

Fig. 1 4 9 . Human figure seated on the
ground, closely wrapped, with ibis-head or mask
and heavy wig.
Word-sign for Thoth. In the tomb of Tehutihetep, who was priest of this great god at the
centre of his worship in Upper Egypt, the sign
is used as det. of r^t^<=> ntr, "god," as well as
of the name of Thoth.
The representation of Thoth as an ibis-headed
man occurs as early as the IVth Dyn., L., D.,
ii., 2, c. This raises the question whether the
early Egyptians did not conceive of the god as
existing in this form; but the type may very
well have arisen as a graphic compound of the
figure of the (anthropomorphic) god with that
of his sacred bird to distinguish him from other
gods. So also with Anubis, Ra, &c. The det.
of a god's name is commonly
Fig. 2 1 . A bearded figure, seated, i.e.
kneeling on one knee, arms extended and hands
raised, perhaps to symbolize counting by tens;
on his head the symbol of a year or season.
There is also the form £&3 (Siut, tomb i., 1. 227,
&c).
This god or symbolical figure is represented
in the vignettes of the Todt, cap. xvii., as a god
of moisture, and in Pap. Any, PI. viii., his name
is given 8 8 Heh. His function is well shown
in the birth scene at Luxor (L., D., iii., 74, c),
where two such figures uphold the symbol of
life. At Deir el Bahri (T). el B.9 ii., PI. 1L),
the two figures are so small that they might be
$

DEITIES.

13

taken for mere symbols, but at Luxor they are
of full figure size. Thus it may seem that the
sign represents a god of long life, of a multitude
of years. On the other hand, he seems to be
also the god of teeming productiveness.
Hh, Mr, means a " vast number," and is an
expression for higher numbers than 100,000
(MAR., D. el B., PI. viii.; L., £>., iii., 77, c); but
its sense, like that of Q., was rather vague, and
it is never used in real accounts.
^ Fig. 1 4 8 . The figure of a king with
uraeus on forehead, false beard, wig, and pigtail, seated on the ground and closely wrapped,
his hand alone appearing and holding the £\
(q.v.). Usually he holds the crook likewise.
In M B., i., PI. xv., row 3, this figure is det.
of the word H* 4 yty (dty), " k i n g . " I t is the
usual det. of royalty, and is the royal sign of
the pronominal suff. of first pers. sing.
Fig. 1 6 1 . A person of high rank walking
with tall staff in one hand and mace (?) in the
other. The sign usually has the addition of
ram's horns and two plumes on the head,
(Pap. Any, PI. i., 1. 8).
Usual det. of the word 4 ~ (j yty (dty), " king."
Fig. 1 4 7 . A beardless figure, completely
enveloped, except head and arms; seated on a
chair with animal legs and ornament like a
papyrus-head behind; over the low back a
cloth or skin.
In El B., i., PI. xv., this sign is det. of ^ 7
"master," and \<* " f a t h e r " ; possibly it indicates that they were deceased, or it may
signify that those persons were such as were
to be treated with respect.
[B. Hn iii., fig. 74.] Watchman. The
object on the staff here resembles Q, but the
form varies greatly (cf. Medum, Pis. xxii.,
xxviii., and the figure in the boat, PI. xxiv.).
Cf. also | , p. 62.

DISCUSSION

14

OF THE

SIGNS.

Word-sign for - • - & • $ sJ,w (sa'u), " w a t c h - titles disappeared very early, probably at the
man," with phon. trans.; and for I <> \\ yri (dri), end of the IVth Dynasty.
) =
u
concerned with." The fern., yrt, is often
written with a female form
C.

UR Fig. 1 5 9 .
Soldier holding bow and
quiver full of arrows; lightly clothed and
kneeling on one Jmee in an attitude of alertness ; generally wearing a feather, cf. Medum,
ix., &c.
Word-sign for f j f , ^ , " h o s t , " "infantry,"

HUMAN ACTION.

i

Fig. 1 6 3 . Man standing, raising his
hands on either side of his head.
Regular det., and occasionally word-sign for
£ o — hcc (had), "rejoice," and after O.K. for
— a
A
\ cf (2^)3 " high " ; for either of these it may
"soldiers," and for Jj& v i ^ an "expedition" stand as ab. (PETRIE, T. el A., xxii., 1 3 ; Kah.
with an army, either for peaceful objects— Pap., xiv., 1. 33).
quarrying and conveying stone—or for w a r ;
apparently it never stands for a single soldier,
Fig. 3 4 . Man building a rectangular
except as det. of the name ch*wli (dhauti), lit. enclosure with battlements.

"fighter."
BRUGSCH, A. Z.,

1880,

p. 8, and

PIEHL,

I.e.

p. 135, have shown that the title L&\, in the
X X X t h Dyn. varies with

i 0 , ^ ^ > ^ -p- mi=

ss (mer shes), and that U& is actually at that
time written for *, ss (shes), " r o p e " or "fine
linen,"

Word-sign for 4«?» qd, " build," not used in
O.K., at which time, however, the enclosure by
itself is det. of the word, and sometimes has the
form fj (Pyr. M., 1. 566, &c), but generally is
a rectangle of varying breadth (N. 1174; Methen,
L., D., ii., 7, 6).

Apparently, therefore, OD -p- ss is the

[2?. H., iii., fig. 54.] Arms held clownwards, with or without vase, corn-rubber, or
read ^ ° ° ^ msc (meshd), through equating the
other object which they are taking or holding.
O.K. title _k, ^ r~"f LM with the later j k i& i
Word-sign for -*- © ^ shn (seJchen), and n 2 ^
****_
as mr msc; but an examination of the former P9* (pe9a)j " embrace," " comprehend," &c, with
shows that the equation is wrong :—
phon. trans.; also det. of I • ^ hpt, I ^ A ynq
)
1
L D H 43 c d (dnq)9 which have a similar meaning.
reading of this sign.

I t is at present generally

A J^ ^ Jf ^ M ' > " " > > >

mr msc nfrw,

" director of the marching of

Cj> Fig. 1 6 5 ; B.E., iii., fig. 43. J (q.v.)
between the two arms held downwards. In
c
^ J $ F $ S L., D., ii., 97, a, mr ms ss, " director of
O.K. the arms are held more squarely.
the marching of trained soldiers," and although
Graphic compound denoting l ^ - ^ ^ hn k*
The
the writing of the latter title varies greatly (hen ha), " Z:a-servant," or " &a-priest."
(Medum, i x . ; L., D., ii., 21, 22) down to second element is the usual form of [ J ^ in
- ^ L_X1~J fc*f (Mon. div., PI. xx.), the three this compound group, probably because it
would have been considered irreverent to place
elements can always be distinguished, and
the sign for " s e r v a n t " above that for the led,
j i , ) J ^ (cf. Una, 1. 25, for the same spelling though m also is found. So also in the earliest
independently of the title) U& ^&&
is evi- inscriptions we have |_J, but when compounded
/
dently a separate word, viz. ss. Both of these with ^ ^ for " the spiritualized ha" it is turned
recruits," corresponds exactly to

15

HUMAN ACTION.

downwards ( D E MORGAN, Recherches, ii., p. 240,
figs. 802 and 806).
The sign [_J is phon. for ^ ^ kD (lea).
Much has been said on the ka of Egyptian
religious belief, but I am not aware that any
explanation of the sign by which its name is
written has been attempted. If, as seems
probable, the sign was intended to represent the
ka symbolically, and not merely phonetically,
one may perhaps believe that the latter was,
from one point of view, regarded as the source
of muscular movement and power, as opposed to
^ b ^ ba, the will or soul which set it in motion.
The human arms, hands, and fingers are the
members of the body which carry out the most
intelligent and intricate promptings of will and
desire, and produce the most surprising results.
They might therefore well be chosen to represent the muscular life, the energy and activity
of man. On the other hand, they might be
considered as held up, [_J7 "to receive life from the
sun, and offerings after death, and downwards,
0 , to receive the service of the hen-lea. But
this seems less probable. The word ^ % i ,
<c*lj^io 1^'t (ka't), "labours," "handiwork," is
not improbably from the same root; and may be
the origin of the value for the sign (see ^ 3 * ) .
QOL Fig. 1 7 7 . Human arms holding shield
and mace; the form of the shield varies in
different instances (Medurn, PI. xii., L., D., ii.,
97a, &c). The printed type shows a halberd
or war axe for the mace.
Word-symbol
= s> l \

(but not

det.) of

" fight," with rad. ext.

fighting,

f\ l \ yhJ) (MAE., M. D., XC. B . ) , which, from the
context, is certainly the verb yh\ " fight," and
not hw9 " strike."
V ? Fig. 6 8 . Two arms grasping a paddle,
as in paddling, issuing from an object shaped
like (S^, but in M.K. more like <r=> (hollow).
Word-sign for "paddling," ^ ^ .
No
A/WVNA

early variants of the sign are known, but a few
very late ones give © ^ hn (Ichen), and this is
probably accurate, since it never occurs in the
name of the m'hn't boat, and there is already
the semi-phon. ^g£ for »- ™ hn (chen). The
use of V^ is confined to a few words, and it is
hardly a phon. The (^ (?) h* (Icha) may be an
indication of its phonetic value.
W ^ [B. if., iii., fig. 50.] Arm, or two arms,
W , holding magic wand named ^ ^ p mk&9
or w f j . o nhb't; for which see Mentuhotep,
p. 18, no. 7, and Pyr.
Word-sign for ^ p < » zsr9 " sacred," &c. (Pyr.
=
P., 1. 121 = T., 1. 175), the sign indicating that
what is evil and profane is warded off. Used
with rad. ext.
V A Fig. 1 2 2 . Human arm, the hand holding
—
a short stick.
This sign is found (probably not till after
O.K.) as det. of strength and of actions demanding strength. In N.K. it occasionally is wordsign for r^o<* nht (nelcht), " strength " (BUDGE,
Bk. of D., p. 11, 1. 1), and so it agrees in use
almost precisely with ^f-

In Pyr. we

.0—fl Fig. 6 4 . A human arm ; in the open
hand a cake or other mass of material.
T.9 1. 170. In M.K. __n changed to (L as usual
From O.K. onwards this is the word-sign
before | (see p. 5), Morhotep, 1. 104 = 1. 529 for the verb .Q—fl, 1^&—^ also written t \ m,
(Todt., cap. 17). The proper name u $ <|\ which is found only in the imperative m, e.g.
Yh* (Aha) is apparently the alphabetic spelling Pyr,9 N., 1. 660, and as an optative with suffixes
of 0£x, e.g. El B.9 ii., tomb 8, p. 38, and m'k9 m'tn, having the force of the English
PI. xxi., though it does not actually vary with " B e h o l d " — t h o u (or ye) a certain thing in a
it. In X X V I t h Dyn, we have h 8 Q& (for certain state. One might be disposed to connect
have QOt, N., 1. 689 = ^ ,

M., 1. 179 =

j ^ ,

16

its meaning with the J ^ _ ,

DISCUSSION

OF THE

SIGNS.

of f\ | ^ _ n ,

(Pyr. N. 1002 = M. 604) ; — j sb, " conduct "
(used also as phon. in msb, "offer"); and
erectly |j z = ^ — o , 4 k, ym (dm),
more cor
R = f y(d), "come," &c.; or with their word)
"give," "place," and of ^ — n ^ J \ , J J my sign, e.g. % sms, "follow," ^ p t ssm, "conduct."
(mi), " Come ! " &c. We should then suppose it
to indicate "giving," "placing," like the graphic
I\ [B. if., iii., fig. 94.] Vase on a pair of
compound A^-D, « ( dy (dd), " p l a c e " (see A ,
)
human " f e e t " (v. J ) ; in O.K. the shanks are
below), with which it is often confused in print,
thick in proportion to their length. To give
especially as a D (which is really {^ ^ hnlc,
prominence to the O they are closer together
" present") sometimes stands for &_n.
than in ~7r", but are otherwise identical with A.
But in Paheri, PL iv., top middle, the sign
Word-sign for i) ^ yn (an), " carry," with
figures as det. of ^ ^ a D ^ CO + D ssp (shesep), rad. e x t . ; probably O enters into it as forming
"receive." The idea in {L-fl seems thus to be a good picture-compound with -A, the det. of
of " receiving " rather than " giving," " placing," motion, and as supplying approximately the
A—a, while a D can symbolize apparently either phonetic value by its own value n(w).
"receiving," m, or "offering to deities," hnk.
Hence expressions like ^-^ % V§ Q ^=^ % V&*,
%>• ^ I \ 4 H • ^* ^ 4 m'k wy y'lcioy,"Behold thou
me, I am arrived," i.e. " Behold, I am come ! "
D.
MAMMALS AND PARTS OF MAMMALS.
literally mean something like, " Receive me, I
cJB Figs. 9 1 , 9 3 .
Forepart of lion,
am come," " r e c e i v e " having here the sense
showing head, shoulder, and foreleg.
"perceive," " b e h o l d " (v. Addenda).
The name of this portion of an animal's
After O.K. &_D is often written f\ - a or
c
^ ^ , with det. -—A, or | \ alone ; and &,, body is ~=^, I - * • ^ h 't (hd't), "front part,"
whether formative or otherwise, at the begin- and thence it has, by phon. trans., the value of
J
ning of words, is very frequently written with h% occasionally changing to 5 ^ h (ha) (see
c
A—fl (2—0 in some texts) or its equivalent p. 5): e.g. in h *ti, " heart," in M.K. sometimes
hJ'tt9 v. O.
Cf. EKM., Gram., §§35, 102, 256.
The title - = ^ , in spite of its spelling, is an
A Fig, 1 5 6 . A pair of human "feet," J ab., and ought to be read J -a • ^ \\ hf'ti (ha'ti),
" h e who is at the front," "leader," " d u x " —
(q.v.), joined at the top and striding.
c
Word-sign for the common verb J\\> "travel," derived from the above ^=^ h 't. This is pretty
" step," " come," which varies with j £ ^ J\ in clearly proved by N.K. t e x t s ; and in early
hc*tL
the name of the goddess Iws-aa's (Pyr. P., times the fern, is written ~==^. f^.^^
c
1. 423 = JV., 1. 1210), and therefore reads \ \ corresponding to a masc. h 'ti.
yw {cm).
^ ^ , apparently ywwt, is a not
uncommon expression for " m o v e m e n t s " and
^Hu Fig. 2 . The desert hare (Lepics aegyp" visits." Also det. of all words of motion.
tiaca), common in E g y p t ; the length and size
A number of verbs of motion are written by of its ears are always absurdly exaggerated in
compounding this sign with their principal Egyptian drawing. In fig. 175 the ears are
consonant, e.g. cjfp = m | ^ §m (shern), " go " more preposterous even than usual.
(used also by rad. ext.) ; ^5p = f\z=>z~> ytt In the tombs of Beni Hasan the hare is called
(dtheth), " t a k e , " " s e i z e " (used also as phon. -p- »- _/J . ^ shf't (seqhd't). But in Ptahhetep,
for tt in bit, " colic ? "); - » - = - # - * , " pass (?) " PL xxxii., and elsewhere, - ^ > f \ , \ *-* wn

MAMMALS.

(un), " r u n , " " b o u n d along swiftly " Met., outstretched legs joined at thighs), suggests that it
was once called " the swift runner," or at any
rate that it symbolized such motion.
Common phon. for ^ ^ wn (un), especially
after O.K.
N^p Fig, 1 7 5 . The hare as a sacred badge
raised on the sacred perch ^-y - (q*V; p. 58),
with food as usual, planted in the symbol of a
nome, M E .
The nome-sign of the XVth nome of Upper
Egypt (Hermopolis Magna); compare that of
the XVIth nome, B. H., iii., frontispiece, and
p. 6. I t is difficult to ascertain the reading of
this class of symbols. The nome-signs appear
to be of the feminine gender, for the qualifying
adjectives hnt% "upper," and ph't9 "lower,"
which occur with several of them, are fern,
in inscriptions of good period (see Ptahhetep,
PL xxxv., for XXth-XXIst nomes, and Siut,
Tomb iii., 1. 21, for X H I t h nome of Upper
Egypt). The present symbol also is often
written J | p ^ , with fern, termination in the
early M.K. (El B., ii., xiii. 2 ; Hetnub Graffiti,
viii., 1. 1, ix., 1. 1, &c.; cf. Siut, Tomb iv., 1. 86,
L, 1. 151). The badge itself, J=s», may have its
usual value wn (see above), especially as the
nome capital was named - ^ O M , -Wnw
(TJuu) (see Hetniib Graffiti, i., 1. 7, viii., 1. 11) ;
and the whole nome-sign may thus read Wn't
(Uwt).
It is almost certain that 1 111 M * has no
separate value in this sign (v. 5^).
3£$ [B. H., iii., fig. 35.] Ram with horizontal horns. Similar animals are shown in
the earliest sculptures (Naqada, PL lxxvii., top
r i g h t ; D E MOKGAN, Rechrrches, ii., PL iii.), but
it is difficult to say whether they represent
sheep or goats. (The variety of sheep with
curved horns, 5n$ ? which superseded this kind,
was the animal of Amen, probably first consecrated to him in N".K.; as the sacred ram it
was called
rhni.)

17

Its name is -p- <> sry ecoor, " sheep," in the
=
tomb of Renni at El Kab, where it is distinguished from the goats ( C , Moris., ii., PL cxlii.,
3). It was sacred to Chnem, and is det. of his
name.
At Mendes it was sacred to Osiris
under the name of &5i5?? meaning " s o u l " ; or
perhaps, with reference to the employment
of rams in agriculture (L., /)., ii., 1066), really
"plougher," v. *fe^, but this does not seem
to be otherwise a name for the ram.
S ^ Fig. 4 8 ; B.H., iii., fig. 31. An indeterminate-looking animal newly dropped, in
fig. 48 having some of the features of an ass's
foal, but with sprouting horns. As Borchardt
remarks, it can hardly be a calf; possibly a kid
was intended as the type.
Phon. for (| ^ yw (du) in the O.K. and
onwards.
As the word H \ <=> yior (dur),
u
conceive," generally flj£^<=>, is sometimes
written ft ^ ^ in Pyr. (M. 466), it is clear that
this sign has an affinity to yw[r~\ with weak r ;
cf. also Kah. Pap., p. 11, for further evidence
of this. S^\ may thus be taken as u the conceived thing," " embryo (?)," properly written
yio[_r~], but used regularly for yw. Cf. V for a
very similar case. It is possible that it has also
a word-sign value q -a yc, the root of the word
for "heirship," "inheritance," &c.; cf. Pyr. M.,
1. 760, ft _ u S ^ S a ^
sional variant, j £ ^ v>

" heir."

But an occa-

o, indicates that the

reading in this case is really ywc (dud), the
" f o a l " having its ordinary value (yw) as phon.;
and this is the opinion of the best authorities.
A£3 [B. H., iii., fig. 55.] Shoulder and foreleg of an animal.
Word-sign for ® a m hps (Ichepsh), " shoulder "
(as a joint of meat), "strength of arm." In
N.K. the name of the scimetar, 2), from its
shape ; later, a word for the human arms, as in
Coptic ^IDB^J (Sign Pap., passim).
It seems
never to mean " the haunch," though in the
c

18

DISCUSSION

OF THE

printed sign the jointing corresponds to that of
the hind leg.

SIGNS.

perhaps for some similar reason, the signification
"reward."

&-=> Fig. 121. This sign, resembling a spiked O Figs. 4 6 , 1 6 6 . A conventional picture
club in outline, at Medum is coloured black and of the heart with arteries; the vessels at top
white, most of the "head" being white. PETRIE and sides trimmed short; in the first example,
(Medum, p. 30) pointed out that the projections the paler colouring of the upper part of the
are clearly mammae, and that the sign represents heart itself seems to indicate a covering of fat.
the teats and other sexual parts on the belly of Fig. 166 is a very common type : the markings
an animal.
upon it may indicate conventionally the interior
The word for "belly," "loins," " w o m b / ' is structure as displayed in section. Cf. Medum,
o I \'^ (ohet)> a n d this is evidently the origin PI. xiii., and the lute (?), T.
of the alphabetic value •*» h. &*=> constantly The heart,, O, must be distinguished from
varies with r m in O.K., while © does so only the heart-shaped vase, which, being a characvery rarely. The distinction between © and *- teristic form in granite, is word-sign and clet.
was pointed out • by Steindorff very recently, °f Ik^k^ m*i imatk)? "granite."
and it is found that the two signs are seldom
Word-sign for 1 J yb (db), " heart," " desire,"
)
confused until a very late period.
&c. (Pyr. W., 1. 451 = 2\, 1. 259). Det. of
j _a . ^ w5 in M.K. sometimes { ^ - ^ w, hHi, h^ti
^=N Fig. 1 5 5 . A rib bone, in the present (hdti, hati), another word for " h e a r t / '
example (Kl J9., i., PI. xviii., 1) very clearly
represented. Often identical in form with the
Fig. 4 7 . A difficult sign to explain,
lip, X-==N sp'L
but probably representing in a conventional
The name of the rib is p n <> spr. Used with manner some internal portion of mammalian
=
phon. trans, (usually accompanied by the alph. anatomy—such as a pair of glands and the duct
complement <=> r).
belonging to them—the kidneys or the liver (?).
Word-sign for -*- ^ \ 9 — ^ ^ sm\ sJm (sma,
!
gESi Fig. 1 9 2 . The haunch or shoulder, saw), generally with the meaning " unite." T^
trimmed and shrunk by boiling.
is the name of the kidneys (?), with perhaps the
This joint was of two kinds, called in the liver; and T 1 ^ ^ in Pap. Eb. is " colon" (?),
tables of offerings respectively
or " l i v e r " (?), and in'Pyr. the plural (W., 1. 518 ;
c
Q - o yi\f or y (dud or da), and 1 ^ \ ^ , p ^ ^ I7., 1. 328) stands for kidneys (so Maspero), with
—
sivt (sut), perhaps with radical t; one is probably perhaps the liver and other edible portions of
the shoulder, the other the fore-leg (cf. in N.K. the viscera: and ^T ^ 2 smJtti (dual) in Pap. Eb.
rj£2 ( S ) ^ - | " sut of the fore-leg (?)," Leyd. is " testiculi" (?). One or other of these two
words must be the origin of the1 phonetic
Man., iii., PI. xxiv.).
With the value of the former name it is value.
transferred to other meanings, and is then
written with the alph. complement - -n. In
[
§3 3 \ \ it is also word-sign for 4 p $ ys'w (dm),
"reward," "price." From Siut, Tomb i., 1. 276,
it seems possible that when an ox was given for
sacrifice, the awa-joint was customarily set apart
for the special benefit of the donor—hence, or

<*=^ [B. H., iii., fig. 46.] Hide of domestic
animal, stripped off and wrapped together. In
Deshasheh, PI. xxv., it is shown tightly twisted,
with a peg through one end, perhaps with
reference to the common meaning " pull,"
" strain," of the word-sign.

BIEDS.

19

to the use of a compound colour from which the
vegetable element has disappeared; it has been
remarked that the green may have been mixed
with pink madder (used in Roman times, cf.
RUSSELL in Medum, p. 47) in order to obtain a
grey. The flesh at the base of the bill is naked,
and the scanty feathering beyond often makes
the neck appear t h i n ; in O.K. drawing this
long sparse feathering appears as a kind of
Cf. Fig. 1 6 7 . Hide of wild animal.
Word-sign for \ J Jb (ab) from the earliest crest (see Medum, PI. xiv., and Methen, L., D.,
times ( D E MORGAN, Recherches, ii., fig. 786) ; it ii., 6). These characteristics, and the weak bill
may be connected with the much-prized hide combined with the short neck, determine the
of the leopard, the name of that animal being species absolutely.
The name of the bird and the origin of its
\ J • \ . M A X MULLER thinks it the origin of
alphabetic value J, i.e. alif (conventionally a),
the phon. T = \ Rec. de trav., ix., 159.
are unknown.
Det. of hide, names of animals, &c.

Word-sign for °o & $d9 " pull," •" strip off,"
and for sdmw, " water-skin/' which in Deshasheh,
PL xix., is very clearly shown by its det.; the
last xise suggests that sd, " dragged off/' is one
name for a hide. Also phon. for sd. Loret
has studied the sign and its uses, Rec. de Trav.y
xi., pp. 117-131 (v. Addenda).

ASv Fig, 7 6 . A bird of raptorial aspect,
J)
Fig. 1 6 7 . A hide—perhaps hung as a
but with two small tufts at the back of the
target—pierced by an arrow or dart.
head and a longer tuft on the neck. There is
In O.K. word-sign for M - ^ * ^ apparently
no original colour left on the example figured;
p ^ ^ stt (sethet), "shoot," " t h r o w , " and progood examples of this curious bird-hieroglyph
bably equivalent to stt (written with 5t=^5 Pyr.
are much needed. In early instances the headW., 1. 422 ; T., 1. 242), "engender" (cf. B. k ,
tufts are absent, but an additional tuft someii., PL iv., top row, left). Later it stands for
times hangs like a beard or wattle from the
allied words—it 9 " sprinkle " (which is perhaps
base of the beak, and often the form is almost
only a simplified form of 4tt, reduplicated »
that of the chick ^ \ , with one or more tufts.
being sometimes »<=>)—and others with value
Probably it will prove to be not raptorial.
-f- ~ st9 and is completely interchangeable with
Name, Tvv N ^ > ^ I n\i YTL Todt.f cliii. B,
(BUDGE, 397, 1. 12, cf. N A V . , i., PI. clxxviii.,
1. 13). Phon. for nh.
E.

BIRDS AND THEIR PARTS.

Figs. 1, 7 5 , A brown raptorial bird,
Figs. 4 , 7 3 , 1 2 0 ; B. II., iii., fig. 13. having fully feathered neck and strong beak.
It is very satisfactory to be able to illustrate In the fine example, fig. 1, it must be an eagle
this bird and the eagle by such decisive In fig. 75 the form is less distinctive.
In
examples as figs. 1 and 4. Their outlines are Medum, frontispiece, figs. 1, 3, the appearance
often very similar in inferior writing, and is very different, but may. still be an unsatiscopyists generally confound them, but in hieratic factory rendering of the eagle.
the two birds are always distinguished, and
The sign has the value ^ * \ tiw (tin) as a
generally in linear hieroglyphs. This bird is grammatical termination, this being the,plural
the Egyptian vulture {Neophron percnopt&rus). ending of adjectives in ^ \\ ti derived from fern,
In early examples the colouring of the wing is substantives in ^ t. The origin of this value is
grey or blue. Later it is green, probably owing at present obscure.

c 2

20

DISCUSSION

OF THE

v \ [cf. B. H., iii., fig. 5.] Sparrow-hawk;
a male bird, fairly well represented in form and
colour.
Det. of, but apparently never word-sign for,
its name J 4 ^ byh (bdk). Word-sign for {<=> • ^
I-Jrw (the god " H o r u s " ) , lit. " the soarer," " h e
who flies up " (See T , the hawk-perch).
1^x1 [B. IP, iii., 5.] Graphic compound of J
and the sparrow-hawk.
Word-sign for t--!<=> Ht-IIr
(Hathor).
Professor Maspero considers that the literal
meaning "House of Horus" is not to be insisted on, and that the compound is merely
an attempt to spell the name of the goddess
phonetically.
Figs. 7, 1 8 3 , 1 8 5 ; B. H., iii., fig. 7.
Owl; the type varies but is not long-eared
until very late times.
To account for the alphabetic value m it may
be suggested that the Coptic name UOTAAX is
possibly a compound, of which the first element,
m (?), represents the ancient name. Note the
owl-names in Ar. bum, in Latin bubo, from
which it would appear that m would be
onomatopoeic. A very curious use of the sign
occurs in Pyr., where it stands as det, for {p A
hsq, " chop off" the head or limbs, in JV., 1. 904 ;
while in M.9 1. 26, &c, -%£ is the symbol for
the same word. Perhaps this points to the owl
being a bird of ill-omen, which it was desirable
to behead when caught.
^
Figs. 3 , 9 9 ; B. H., iii., figs. 9, 14.
Swallow: to include under this term perhaps
martins and swifts (Cypselus).
The general
outline and broad, slightly forked, tail are
constant, but colour and markings vary considerably, (a) In the earliest examples (Medum^
frontispiece, fig. 4 ; B. H., iii., fig. 9, Ameny) it
is grey, with white belly and a black spot on
breast, though in Medum the latter is often
absent (cf. Chelidon arbica). (b) Later, green is

SIGNS.

substituted* for grey—as in the case of the
Egyptian vulture—and the breast marking disappears (see B. H., iii., fig. 14, Chnemhetep,
and below, fig. 99). (c) In the present instance
the green remains, but the under parts are
flushed with orange. The form (a) seems to
represent the sand martin (Cotyle riparia) ;
without the dark mark it may be the common
martin (0. urbica). The substitution of green
for grey in (b) is apparently of no specific
significance.
An orange or rufous tinge on
the under parts, as in (c), is found in some
swallows.
The true swallow (Hirundo rustica) and its
minim

congeners are named ' J ^ , ]L/-* • ^ mn't, and
are pictured in the vignette of Todt., cap. 86,
sometimes with true swallow tail, at others
(Pap. Bui., iii., PL 21) with that of the martin.
The latter form is well shown on a stele figured
in MASPERO, Premieres Melees, p. 536; LANZ.,
Biz. d. Mit., PL cxviii.
The sign is, however, phon. for $ ^ > wr—
=
which as a word means " great," " old,"—and it
is supposed that a bird ^ ^ j k wr (with det. of
deity) occurs in Pyr. N., 1. 157. LORET, A. Z.,
1892, p. 28, quotes this group in connexion
with Ife^ and identifies the bird—if bird it be,
and not merely a t h e great (deity) "—with the
Coptic OTAA, BAA, which in a compound word
seems to mean " domestic pigeon," i.e. the rockdove (Golumba livid, not C. oenas, as has been
stated, cf. SHELLEY, Birds, p. 211). His explanation seems possible, for in Ptahhetep,
PL xli., third row of offerings ( = DUM., Res.,
PL xiiL), the name of the pigeon,
, ^ ^ $,. ^
mnwt (menn't), is apparently determined by a
bird of Ife^ outline. %=t does not, however, in
the least resemble the pictures of pigeons in
Ptahhetep, Pis. xxxL, xxxvii., and B. II., i.,
PL x x x . ; and it is not improbable that the " f e
figure in Ptahhetep is a slight mistake of the
sculptor, due also in part to the close similarity
of the names mnwt,
"pigeon," and mnmt9
u
swallow" (v. Addenda).

21

BIRDS.

^
Figs. 5, 1 8 9 ; B. H., iii., fig. 15. Chick
of a gallinaceous bird.
The chick referred to in B. H., iii., p. 8, as
figured in Ptahhetep, apparently for the typical
quail of the farmyard, appears in PI. xxxL of
the new publication of that tomb. Probably
the eggs of quail (and occasionally partridge),
found abundantly in the harvest field, were
hatched artificially in the farmyard, and thus
the chicks were familiar objects. Quail flying
over a cornfield are very well rendered in the
tomb of Khaemha (PRISSE, Art, ii., 11 = Mons.,
PL xl.). The sign ^§> is perhaps not without
significance too in connexion with the peculiar
form of the adult bird. The alphabetic value
iv (u) for ^K is perhaps onomatopoeic.
Fig. 2 8 . An unfledged bird with open
mouth, eager to be fed ; as often represented in
nests in paintings of the N.K.
The name for a chick either in the shell or
just hatched is ^ ^ , » ^ t* (tha); cf. BREASTED
Be Hymnis, p. 44. The meaning of the name
is probably " taker " (from t=> \ " take "), owing
to the eagerness of the nestling to take its food.
See the fine outline in Medum, PL xxi., which
is very suggestive of this meaning. Phon.
for » 1 .
L
Fig. 7 4 ; B. H., iii., figs. 3, 10. A bird
of the type of the Grallatores, with tuft on
breast. In O.K. generally without the tuft
(Medum, PL xxL ; Ftahhetep, PL xli., fourth
row of offerings). This type may have been
suggested in a general way by plover, ibis,
crane, or snipe, but does not agree with any
particular species. It reminds one also of the
bustards.
Name unknown. Word-sign for J \ b* (ba)
meaning, amongst other things, " soul" (v. ^ ) ,
and " hoe," " break up earth," sometimes
written $r^. We may best connect its value
with the habit of the plover tribe (as well
as of the crane) of digging their bills into

the ground or ooze in search of food in the
newly-sown corn-fields ; 5 ^ , in fact, in Pyr. is
occasionally word-sign for J \
see SCHACK, Index.

<$^ is also phon. for b%

most commonly spelt J ^ ^ ' l ^ k /
typed group

bJ (ba), "soul,"
^n *he stereo-

< ^ ^ 3 ^ (once J M ^ ^ 1 ^ ? ^ H . ,

Eg. Ins., ii., 22, 1. 10, from Louvre, C , ii.),
"servant," "serve," " w o r k , " there is no need
to assign a special value, bk, to the sign; it is,
as usual, simply b\

As in so many cases, the

J

6 changed to b in the N.K., hence the rare

N.K. spelling J] ^

bk, Bee. de Trav., v., 74.

' ^ Cf. Fig. 1 6 8 . Sacred ibis (Ibis religiosa),
white, with black unfeathered skin on head and
neck, black legs (and tail). The bird of Thoth.
Name, ra J hb9 lit. " plougher," cf.
"plough," Pyr. P., 1. 763 = fD J ^ ,

["• J

^

M., 1. 764.

Fig. 1 6 8 . " S a c r e d " ibis on sacred
-T v
perch, ^ ~ (q.v., p. 58) ; the usual food held in
place by a peg (other food (?) beneath its feet),
cf. Medum, PL xxi.
Emblem of the XVth nome of Lower Egypt,
the name of which was apparently ^ f \ • ^
Zhwt (Zhwt).
Hence must be derived the
well - known name of the nome - god _ ^ ,
2=H V ~ w (Kahun, PL v. ; M 5 . ,
Zhwti, "Thoth," lit. " t h e Zehutian
pare Osiris' called -/» ^ ^ • ^ w Anz'ti,
Anzet," from the IXth nome of Lower

ii., &c)
" ; com" he of
Egypt.

Fig. 1 1 8 ; B. K, iii., fig. 4. Crested
ibis (Ibis comedo). This bird is glossy purple,
with naked red flesh on head. It is now found in
South Algeria and across Abyssinia into Arabia
(HEUGLIN, Omithologie, p. 1144). It has apparently never been recorded from Egypt, but
there is no other bird with which the type can
be identified.
The value as a word-sign, f\ \ ® yJh> (daldi)—
or perhaps Jh only—with phon. transf., is given

22

r>iscussioN oi? THE siGisrg.

by Pyr. W.9 1. 590, by variants quoted in B R . ,
Wtb.y and by the variation with /ft y'h in later
times. If this was the name of the bird, it
probably means " the glossy." The radical idea
of ydh may be that of red light, like the light of
the rising or setting sun (cf. ^ , \\® • <* y^h't
(dahh't), " t h e place of sunrise or s u n s e t " ) ; but
it refers especially to the glorified state of the
dead in heaven, as spirits illuminated by the
sun (cf. the quotation below, s.v. ]). In a few

dently Anser albifroiis in spring plumage, though
the colouring of the head is inaccurate.
In L., D., ii., 61&, the bird is figured, with
its name ffl J , as the first—thus suggesting that
it was the largest—of all the geese there; but
it is rarely shown as domesticated. I t is the

passages of the Todt., the s ^ , ® " glorified
spirit," appears as something parallel to the
^7 ' ^ s (ba)9 and the |_J (lea), as if it might be,
like them, a distinct part of the human organism.
But such instances are extremely rare. In the
Lebensmuder I read it that the man is not
conversing with his ^ b ^ , but with his 1 ^ (ba),
" soul" ; for V in hieratic see A. T., xvii., 1. 40.
In late Egyptian and in Coptic the word is
used for " ghost," " demon," with no suggestion
of blessedness, but the reverse.

name of the god ~ ^ J], Creek Krjfi, varies with
ffl J gb9 a J j ^ gbb" (gebba), &c, see BRUGSCH,
A. Z., 1886, p. 1 ; SPIEGELBERG, Bee. de Trav.f
xvii., 94. As a word-sign the goose is always
distinguished by the complement J . In form
it is probably often confused with the duck of

wild goose * ^ J

y ^?

Q J • ^ gb'w, of Pap.

Ear. (500 verso, p. xii., 11. 7, 9 ) ; it is perhaps
also the S ^

J &^

^

of Pap. Eb.

The

fig. 11.

[B. H., iii., fig. 12.] In spite of its
rather short neck, apparently a white-fronted
goose, in pale winter plumage, and domesticated.
Word-sign for J ^ ^ Mm, written 8 % ^ ,
generally meaning " supply," u fill," and
Fig. 9 7 . White plumeless egret (Ardea),
with fish, (represented with the present value in " destroy." " Supply," " completeness," is pervarious attitudes seizing or swallowing the fish; haps the idea here indicated by the fat goose
How far the species is
cf. Ptahhetep, PL xli., fourth row of offerings; ready for killing.
Paheri, PL iv.; L., IX, ii., 70, heron (?) with constant in the early hieroglyphs it is as yet
impossible to say. In M B.7 i., PL xxv., the
plumes).
J
Word-sign for J ^ ^ h m (ham), later Km, outline resembles that of the pin-tail duck,
u
catch fish." The pelican in Coptic is named which likewise was domesticated and fattened.
u
In B. H.,- iii., p. 8, the name of the material
the fisher," zvxn (masc), ei-mi (fern.).
4 ^ was read f -*- ^ lis*, but the spelling of
the name is constant, the only variant being
r
e
am n
JL ' ^ ' ^ '
^
fl ^ g° (Phoenicopterus
antiquorum), characteristically portrayed in | jj (DUM., Peduamenap, PL xx., no. 27), so
there can be no doubt that it reads htm.
Med/um9 frontispiece, fig. 6.
The name of the bird, ^ ^ o dsr (desher),
Fig. 11. A brightly coloured duck
is preserved in the late text of LEPS., Todt,
cap. xxxi., 1. 9, unfortunately not found in the with two long feathers in the tail: the latter
earlier papyri. It means " t h e ruddy," and by peculiarity is copied from the pin-tail duck
The colouring, however, is
rad. ext. the sign is used for all other words {Dajila acuta).
much exaggerated, evidently as a general
derived from the same root.
distinction of ducks from geese.
[Z?. ff., iii., fig. 6.] Wild goose; eviThis example (fig. 11) stands for the word

23

BIRDS—BEPTILES.

- s. In Pyr. we have the word for
son,
"son" written £>. , that for " daughter "
<^\ .
In Medum, PL xiii., by exception the colouring
of the bird is more sober, and thus more like
that of the pin-tail. The domesticated duck,
named ^ s't, which, like the small ser-duck,
• is never absent from scenes of the poultry-farm,
has the two long central tail-feathers of the
pin-tail, e.g. in Ptahhetep, PI. xxxvii. It is
thus clear that the Dafila acuta, which abounds
in Lower Egypt (SHELLEY, Birds, p 284), is the
Egyptian type of a large duck, and was regularly
domesticated.
To all appearance it is also
identical with the phon. for -*- % s* (sa), and if
so, its name -*-. o is no doubt from a root s\
perhaps s% " k e e p " (cf. i< sb, from root sb\
p. 30).
Goose and duck being closely similar in outline, are generally written with phonetic complements to distinguish them, t h u s : ^
s*;
1^~ J\ 9^' I w^ ^ m ' ^ e P r i n c i p a l exceptions
to this rule are ^ s ^ . ^ ^ "son," and
"daughter."
[B. H., iii., figs. 1, 8.]
Flying duck
(pin-tail, Dafila acuta).
Word-sign for a \ p" (pa), " fly," and phon.
for p\

Word-sign for p ^ ^ snz, " fear," " helpless
fear " ; probably due to the practice of plucking
geese, &c, alive, the feathers being then more
easily removed. Det. of \ ^ ^ win (ushen),
" prepare birds for table."
l Fig. 1 5 0 . The head and neck of duck
(as here) or goose is a frequent ab. for the
whole bird as det. at all periods. In the
present instance the sign probably accompanied
£? (destroyed) as part of det. of
"offerings." In Ptahhetep, PI. xxxix., table of
offerings, different sorts of geese are rejoresented*
by a phonetic indicator, followed by det. of a
goose's head, viz. <\ "r-goose," ^ "fcrp-goose."
P [B. H., iii., fig. 72.] Feather (of ostrich ?).
Word-sign for sw% " feather," with rad.
ext., having such meanings as " desert-waste,"
"shadow," "empty," the god Shu, i.e. " e m p t y
space " the first-born of the Sun, &c.
Word-sign for the name of the goddess of
Truth, i i — a • ^ 772, t (Maa't), " t h e t r u e " or
"just," with phon. trans. The connexion between the feather and truth or justice may partly
be suggested by the feathering of an arrow,
which allows it to fly "straight." The just
man is said to act ^
" not leaning
J>C.

!to one side." The lightness of a feather, which
would not materially affect the weight in a
rude and primitive balance, might also be held
,as. symbolic of justice, that will not introduce
personal bias into a question (v. also ft).

^ > [B. H.9 iii., fig. 1 1 ; B. H., i., PI. xxvii.].
Duck, fed to repletion. In both instances the
type is the same, but it is difficult to fix the
species; perhaps the widgeon (Mareca penelope)
is intended.
Word-sign for \ = ^ ws* (usha), " feed by
cramming" (B. H., i., PI. xxvii.; cf. L.5 I)., ii.,
F.
REPTILES, FISHES, INSECTS, SHELLS, &C.
62, fourth row, and 1026). The reading in the
a
Fig. 8 3 ; B. H., iii., figs. 102, 103.
group ' v ^ i? B. H., iii., p. 7, is uncertain;
Piece of crocodile-skin, from the tail, with
perhaps it is ^ 1 ^ - ^ , zf* (zefa), a word for rich
food (fatlings?), which in N.K. has this sign spines ; or in the third example, of fish-skin with
spines, from the back of the fish. This is
for det.
apparently the " crocodile's tail" of Horapollo,
£ > [Cf. B. H., iii., fig. 29.] Goose, or duck i., 70. According to Borchardt, a suggestion
plucked.
of Schafer's that the sign represents a heap of

24

DISCUSSION

OF THE

SIGNS.

charcoal from which flames issue, is confirmed less snake. In the Gnostic papyrus of Leyden
by the ancient examples.
This explanation (p. xvii., 1. 27) of about the second century A.D.,
would account for the meaning "black," 1cm, the "gall," shy (sehhy) of a *^.(l(jjfy (with
but it is not confirmed by our facsimiles.
det. ma or *v^_) is prescribed, and this cannot
Word-sign for ^ ^ km, probably not used as apply to a slug, which has no gall. I t is therephon. There is a word (1 ^—1t\ , var. j\ ^z^> t \ fore certain that at that time the < q fy9 no
—
yhm (dkem), meaning "shield," which occurs doubt our * ^ _ / , was considered to be a cerastes.
constantly on M.K. coffins, &c. Not improbably Borchardt states that on the coffin of Antef
the crocodile plates, or fish scales, ^—i, were (M.K.) at Berlin, the ^=_ is regularly figured
known by the same name, t\ *=» ^ y 1cm (dlcem),
with a forked tongue; so here again we have
"shield." This would account for the value the cerastes.
Jem. Cf. (] J | ^ = ybh (dbeh), " tooth o'lvms;;
It seems, therefore, that the *-«— after all
to * = the value J $ bh.
represents the cerastes, and that the Theban
artist (PRISSE, Mons., ii., PL 62), seeing a slug
ascending a stem, noted its resemblance to the
*L=_, and drew it in the manner prescribed for
that. Perhaps a confusion between the slug
and the cerastes led to Herodotus' account
(ii., 74) of a small, harmless, two-horned serpent,
which was sacred to Zeus (Amen) at Thebes.
A slug, Avion ater, is recorded from Egypt,
^
Figs. 16, 1 7 3 . A snake, often with
according to Mr. Edgar Smith of the British
green band below the throat.
Museum. In ancient times it may have been
Word-sign for z% " serpent," written ^ ,
more common in the gardens of great houses
* L , in Pyr. N., 11. 703, 955. &c , which
and in the marshy lands.
perhaps stands for the Echis or viper, in
From the earliest period we meet with ^_ ,
contradistinction to the uraeus.
By phon.
probably "rock or mount of the * L ^ 3 " as the
trans, used also as word-sign for the "body,"
name of the X l l t h nome of Upper Egypt. This
^ , ^ , "eternity," &c.
expression implies a serpent rather than a slug.
Alph. for 2.
Opposite the nome of ^ ^ , on the east of the
The group (H) (in which fig 16 occurs) is ab. Nile, lay the XHIth, that of $ , on the west
for ^ ^ U , ^ d» ^ c s , ^ %d mdw, " say words." of the river, and beyond this the XlVth, which
was of the same name. Late inscriptions in^
Figs. 3 5 , 151 • B. H., iii., tig. 69. dicate that the reading of Q is ^ ^ *~- Jtf
Cerastes (?). Slug (?). This animal, according (atef), or perhaps f\^^~ ytf (dtef) (see B R . ,
to PKISSE, Mons., ii., PL 62 (reproduced in B. H., D. G.j p. 6). But probably, on the analogy of
iii., p. 23), was capable of creeping up the stem J " " , we should divide this into ^ ^ ' ^ Jt'f
of a water-plant, and should therefore be a slug (at'f), and the ancient reading may have
—to which animal it bears considerable re- been Q ^ < - w "Perch (?) of the «^"
like
semblance—or perhaps a snail represented as
, which probably means " Perch (?)
without its shell. But it also resembles in
," i.e. the griffon vulture (Pyr. T.,
many points the cerastes, with the " h o r n s " of the
_ appears also in the late hieroglyphs
immensely exaggerated, and in the vignettes of 1. 76).
Todt9 cap. 150 (Nebseny), it varies with a horngo out," "enter."
^ K [/?. E.% iii., fig. 24.] Green lizard.
The name of the lizard is \ ^ * \ (-F- • ^ )
/M?^, or more fully, hnt^s'w.
Word-sign for ^ m | csJ (dsha), "numerous,"
presumably from the numbers in which it was
found anciently.

REPTILES-SHELLS.

26

Alph. for/. Especially common as represent- which one may guess to mean " to be flexible,"
ing the suffix of third pers. sing. masc. This " to be jointed," and I.e., lxxviii., 9, is a worm,
value may be derived from fy, the name of the D " @ msi, apparently living in human flesh.
cerastes, but as the name fy occurs only in the Possibly the centipede shared its name with
latest period, that name may be only a late any worm or grub. In Pyr. W., 1. 329, &c,
^ ^ sp* is the dead body, perhaps in connexion
derivative from t h e / v a l u e .
In the common groups ^ , (1 ^ , reading with the articulated skeleton, or perhaps with
m
Q <* yt (at), " father," and found from the earliestthe idea of the chrysalis. Cf. ^ ^ z t for the
J
times as variants of <*9 (| ^ (ERM., Gram., §31), body, ^ ^ h 't (cha't) for the corpse. The root
the *v^_ may be considered as the suffix/, used mast not be confused with that of ^ffi, p • • ^
redundantly for some cause or other, perhaps to sp't, "nome."
give the word a more distinctive appearance.
On the other hand, it may be regarded as a
& Fig. 7 2 ; B. 77., iii., fig. 33. A bivalve
true id. or det., possibly from some superstition shell of variable form; in O.K. generally a
connected with the cerastes or slug;. In N.K. Unio, a fine example being in MAR., M. I).,
the plural of the word is often (j fel " fathers." PL 94. In Pyr. N.9 1. 1136, it has scalloped
There is also a variant J& 1, H^-rsc*<=> yt ntr edges, and is presumably a sea-shell. Professor
(at neter), " divine father," as the name or Maspero has noticed the resemblance of the
sign to the fans used for fanning flame (Rev.
description of a kind of clothing (Pyr. M.,
Arch., xxxii., p. 2 7 ) ; but though the form in
1. 118 ; P., 1. 94), for j ^ *__ (N., 1. 57), which
B. H., iii. may suggest this identity, the colour
thus indicates that *L=^_ may sometimes actually
does not, nor do I know of any instance of the
be read fl^ yt (at). Perhaps *L=^_, the ufy(?)
sign in which it is furnished with a handle such
serpent," represented \\ ^ yt (at), " father," as is invariably found with the fan.
just as ' \ N 7 the ner-vulture (see above) repreThe name of the shell is not known. Pearl
shells engraved with the names of kings are
sented ' V \ fl, k* ^ m% " mother."
One may perhaps derive the phon. value / found dating from the X l l t h Dynasty, and
for ^=-- from the suffix of the third pers. sing, were evidently valued. Unios, &c, are commasc.,/, supposing the symbol for " f a t h e r " to mon among prehistoric remains. In the title
i \ j B C7, we may perhaps read " superinbe taken as representative of " he," " his." Cf.
tendent of horns, hoofs, feathers, and shells/9
1 = sw, p. 29, and I = s, p 45.
and in some names of metals one sees a similar
^
Fig, 9 8 . The bulti (Ghromis niloticus), sign. But here, as so often, we are in want of
the most delicate of the Nile fish.
facsimiles to settle the identity.
The example is taken from a group of three
The sign is regularly found at all periods in
fish of different kinds, used as word-symbol the word © ^ \» ^ hawt (khawt), "altar," and
for <> |^ \ rm'Wy "fish," in which it takes the perhaps only in this word; but it is a peculiarity
=
place of honour; but this position is not in- of the Pyramid Texts that (^ is in them
used very commonly, not only as a word-sign,
variable. The bulti is named ( I ^ Q ^ , I ^ . <=>
)
but also as phon. equivalent to T for ®\ hJ
yn't (an't), and is phon. for /) ^ yn (an).
(Jcha), and apparently for h alone in many
^ ^ Fig. 4 5 . A centipede (Myriapod).
words. It is not so found again till a very
Word-sign for — • ^ spJ (sepa) and sp. In late period. From its special use in spelling
Pap. Eb., xli., 11, is a verb
the word for "altar," it would seem that the
s 0 \ c'w.v-'.^< .
,

26

DISCUSSION OF THE

shell was called hJwt rather than } / ; on the
other hand, the name of the lotus leaf, T h% is
probably derived from the same root, on account
of its shell-like outline—or vice versa.

G.

TREES, HERBS, GRASSES, &C.

^ - F i g . 1 7 0 . Trunk or branch of tree
cut down and roughly trimmed.
Word-sign for ^Y% ° ° fa (M6^) (with radical ^),
"wood," "timber," " t r e e . " Used by phon. tr.
for many other words, including the pseudoderivative (?)
\fl nht, "strong," "strength."
Det. of wood and of objects made of wood.
Fig. 5 7 . Pod of carob bean (?).
In Sign Pap., p. xvii., no. 2, this is described
^ | 1 AAA II A | " pod of the nzm tree."
AAA
as
As ^ ' u j ^ nzm means "sweet," " p l e a s a n t " of
flavour, odour, &c, and is the word-sign value
of this pod, the latter must be the pod of the
carob bean, as has been shown by LORET,
Bee. de Trav., xv., 114. The sign is used also
in spelling the pseudo (?)-derivative 11 t \ M
s'nzm, " s i t on a chair."

SIGNS.

commonly a special form, § Q, is found, e.g.
B. H., i., PI. viii., and in many symbolical
representations, apparently indicating the succession of years by an artificial multiplication of
the buds upon the shoot. Whether (a) or (&)
were derived one from the other is difficult
to say. (c) It is also word-sign for <> <=> rr,
=
written £ in Pyr. (T., 1. 6 3 ; P., 1. 162), probably meaning " to renew " ; and (d) word-sign
or det. for < ^> tr, " season of year," " time of
=
>
day," written ° j © ; also phon. for the same
value, then written { (once perhaps jL N.9
I. 975). (e) After O.K. it began to be written
after any word ending in <> /). This value is
=
apparently derived from (o), the ancient «=>«=>,
which now sounded <=> (] j ry (rd) : ancient
^ < » was thenceforth written
=
° q j , to
correspond.
In N.K. there was great confusion in the use

^ [B. II., iii., fig. 19.] Herb. The form is
very variable in early times. Of the presentexample M. LORET remarks, " i l fait penser a
une fleur nee a mi-hauteur de la tige, comme
par exemple Vacorus"
In Medum, PI. xv., we
have a single stalk terminating in four short
shoots irregularly spreading from the top.

{ Fig. 6 9 . Graphic compound of j with
Name,
hn, a marsh-plant, referred
A A/WW\
the phon. <=>. The former seems to represent
the first sprout from a root or seed with a bud to as a type of greenness in Pyr. T., 1. 1 0 0 ; cf.
El B., ii., p. 23, Pap. M.j and T. el ¥., PL xxv.,
at the side.
The first element symbolizes (1) yearly growth, II. 16, 25. Phon. for f ^ hn. Another name
)
and so years and renewal; (2) seasons, since the for the same (?) marsh-plant is (1 | I ^ J , 1 -pgrowth of vegetables took place after the inun- ys (as) ( B R . , Wtb. Supply p. 1 4 ; Pap. Eb.;
dation,' and at other regular seasons by help of MASPERO, Et. Eg., i., p. 237) ; for this value ^ j
irrigation. Its values are, therefore, (a) word- is used with phon. trans., and stands alone by
sign, -=./-*D rnp, " g r o w freshly, vigorously," ab. for ys, "old " (Kah. Pap., PL xx., 24).
Det. of herbaceous plants, and of leaves and
generally written f in early texts. { j~j rnp't
twigs of trees.
probably means " y o u n g vegetables" as an
offering.
This value may be derived from
(6) word-sign <=> ^ • . <* rnp't, " y e a r , " Copt. y \B. PL., iii., fig. 83.] Flower (?).
The geographical name,
\J *\ B. H., i.,
poune, f^, in dates j ~ ^ , more rarely j o , |
(L., D., ii.', 116a; Pyr. '&, 1. 754). Not un- p. 85, has the variant
j? in B. H., i., PL vii

FLOWERS

(with

the god
(MASP., Momies

Chnem).
In XXIst Dyn.
Royales,- pp. 713-4) occurs

AND

SEEDS.

27

\Jj y (a) of the reed (Pap. Ebn xlix., 2 ;
LORET, Bee. de Tr., xiii., 199). Transferred as a
c
i \>
^ (with the god Amen). This sign is word-sign it is often written (1 1 y (d) in Pyr.,
I
V CZZZJ3
X$
and the plural fifth yw (an) is transferred to
therefore the frequent word-sign 0 for <=> ^ rd
spelling the auxiliary verb f\\ yw (du), " t o
" flourish." It is also word-sign for | ^ ^ <> mcr
=
b e " (SETHE, A. Z., 1897, p. 6). Alph. for y
(mar), "successful"; later, ^ ^ J < = > C ^ mcrd (with(a). Kah. Pap., xix., 11. 59, &c, suggest that
out ^ , 8H., Eg. Insc.j ii., PL 83,1.11). Probably
the root of the name of (1 is really y\ and for
also it is j / , the word-sign for J ^ <> bn[r~],
=
this value (] may sometimes be phon.; but the
"sweet."
indications are doubtful.
Cf. below, s.v. A
Fig. 1 0 8 . Three curiously-shaped bands, Initial f\ seems generally to have been reduced
J
apparently garlands, strings or chains of white to the sound of (alif), and though Ibv is never
flowers, tied together at the top. Such garlands substituted for it in good Avriting, in early texts
are frequently represented as offerings, &c, on (1 is constantly omitted altogether, even in cases
the monuments of the N.K., and remains of where y reappears in the Coptic. In such insuch have been found on the N.K. mummies of stances perhaps it had been preserved in some
popular dialects, while in the official language
Deir el Bahri, &c.
Word-sign and phon. for ^-*- ms, meaning it was reduced to alif.
After O.K. (m appears to have been used
" produce" children, " form" images, &c. Probably these elaborate garlands made of white for f\ y at the end of words, but in O.K. it
^ \ (1(1) to mark
flowers, or woven of separate petals, were occasionally appears (e.g. in
named ms, " t h e artificial" as opposed to the the dual, where (J u probably is dual (Q $ \\
simple flowers. At Medinet Habu, in the time ywi = \vi), and so stood for the dual ending wi.
of Rameses II. and Rameses III. (DUM., Opfer© Figs. 3 2 , 8 7 . Corn on the threshingfestliste, passim), they are named J|vi "TT" §
for which Pap. Ear., i., 73, 1. 5, has a variant floor. With fig. 32 compare Methen, L., I).,
j ^ ~ ^ J ^ X > ^ - * - J msb. This is evidently ii., 5, top. The simple form © is commoner.
connected with the word sb, "bring," "offer." It appears to represent a circular heap of corn,
Is it possible that msb is a late word, due to or a circular floor covered with grain and sura false etymology deforming an original name rounded by a wall of bricks or of sheaves.
It may be doubted whether the animals were
ms9 " artificial garland " ?
For construction of garlands see SCHWEIN- driven round the outside of the stack; the
FURTH, Ueber Pflanzenreste, Dents ch. Bot. Ges. scenes (e.g. Paheri, PL iii.) and the sign @
rather indicate that the animals trampled a
Beriehte, 1884, p. 353.
central space surrounded by heaps of corn in
Fig. 1 0 6 . Reed-head with flower (Calamus). the ear (v. Addenda).
The present example is a poor one ; detail is
Word-sign for -*- D • ^ sp't9 which often means
shown in Medum, PL xi., &c.; B. H., L, " w h a t is spared" from destruction, " w h a t
PL xxviii.; see also CH., Mon., ccxxi., 79, for remains " of an infusion after boiling down the
representation of reeds flowering. Cf. (]]]]] liquid. This sense can easily be connected with
for p©.^ Sht (selchet), "meadow," and f ^ sm, the grain that remains on the floor when straw
"herbage,''' where (1 probably stands for grass and chaff have been eliminated. But though
heads.
this is probably the radical sense of the word,
The reed-stem, or its head, is named the in scenes of farm-life it occurs rather with the

28

DISOUSSION

OF THE

SIGNS.

meaning of the corn that is to be threshed. In
tombs of the Vth and V l t h Dynasties we see
sheaves of corn with short stalks, brought from
the field on asses and thrown into heaps, with

a zigzag, c^. In the present instance it seems
to be a papyrus stem.
Word-sign for \ « ^ wdn (uden), u heavy."
Probably E==? (as opposed to ^=>} ^=^>, ^ J ^ ,
::
j j A j , dbn, phr (pelcher), wdb
the inscription y> J ' n ? or
, which must I D©<^ 3 ^
(udeb), qb> with the general sense of " curve,"
mean something like " preparing the threshing,"
&c), signifies crushed or bent down by its own
"heaping the corn," or "preparing the threshingweight. Also in the sense of " offering," wdn
floor." In El P., i.? PI. xxxi., where a troop of
seems to have the radical meaning of " pile up "
asses are treading out the corn on a raised heap,
offerings, "present in abundance" (cf. A, p. 32,
the inscription (on fragment 12, which fits to 2)
for the same idea). j (pestle and mortar),
distinctly a sign of crushing and weight,
Used by r^d. ext. and phon. trans, as sp.
frequently replaces e=> in all its meanings.
S
[P. ff., i., PL xxviii.] Pool with lotus
flowers. The pool may be either oval or rectangular; there may be buds alternating with
the flowers, and the flowers may almost rest on
the water, or may have long stems (Medum,
PL x i x . ) ; but in good instances the flowers
always have serrated edges, indicating the petals
of lotus. This raises the question whether the
Nelumbium, or Indian lotus, which rises out of
the water, is not sometimes represented; but
its absence from Egyptian water-scenes appears
to prohibit this explanation. In Pyr. P., 1. 440,
the flowers on the 2 5 a r e termed nhb'wt, with
det. a lotus-flower, W. The word-sign 2 5
found in Pyr. for f\ \® "verdant," probably
represents papyrus, not lotus, and is therefore
distinct from this.
Name, ** \ s° (§hcb), cf. Pyr. P., 1. 440, with
ilf., 1. 656, " lotus pools." As these were most
important items in gardens, the name became
almost synonymous with " garden," " vineyard,"
&c. Phon. for s\

Fig. 1 4 3 ; P . P., iii., fig. 16. Clump of
three papyrus stems.
Word-sign for I ^ h* (ha)—see P . IP, iii.,
p. 9, for a possible explanation—and phon. for
the same.
It is sometimes substituted for ¥ as wordsign for j ^ J mh, " n o r t h " ( P . PT., iii., I.e.), for
Ijcssj ydh (ddh), "papyrus marsh," and for Q^®
yJh (dalch). " be verdant." (The name of the
papyrus is
8^
mnh.)

Fig. 1 2 5 . Papyrus stem, highly conventionalized as usual, the umbel represented as
compact (see P . P . , iii., pp. 9 et seqq.; BORCHARDT,
Pflanzensaule, pp. 25 et seqq.); scales at the base.
Word-sign for $ ^ ^ w*z (ua%), " g r e e n , "
" flourishing." | W'z't, " t h e green," is the
name of the goddess of the North (Uazet,
Buto), of whom the T was probably the symbol.
As an amulet or symbol it is named wJz9 and it
is commonly placed in the hand of goddesses—
especially in Ptolemaic times—probably as
emblem of freshness. The N.K. combination
£ = Fig. 5 4 ; B. H., iii., fig. 58. A flower- T I often stands for ^ ^ " the two lands (South
stem, bent back on itself twice. The object and North)," or as adj. for rs'i, mh'ti, u south,"
depicted varies, but the general form, of the " north."
sign is always the same—a stem or band
bearing some kind of head, and invariably bent
Fig. 6 6 ; B. H„ iii., fig. 17.
Highly
;
in much the same way. In Pyr. sometimes it conventionalized rush. (?).
has the form of a lotus bud, with stem bent in
In Fyr. M., 1. 239 = JV., 1. 616, it is stated

BUSHES, Ac.

that a large sack or basket, with handle for
" transport/' .A \ <> q'r (qar), is made of
=
^ ^^ ^& fwn (tun^ " t h e springy" (cf. Lat.
salix "osier"!), and the "containing" neb-b&sket
*"1

^

AAAAAA

^37 (2-^0 °f 4*4* ^ ^ ^ ' ^ u ^ e ^ m P ' i-ealmost certainly the non-resilient rush, from
•~\

~\

AAAAAA

29

1. 12). If this reads swt sw'ti, it would perhaps mean "feather," i.e. "plume-head, of the
1 (?)": otherwise it would mean "king's plumes,"
as a plant-name. The plant I \Jj occurs in
Todt., xcix., Einl., see the M.K. texts, MASPERO,
Trots Annees, p. 163, &c. If any of these words
read swt, they may be the origin of the phon.
value ho of 1, in good writing always distinguished as 1 "\\.

4*4* $h " ^ e w e a r y ' motionless." From this
name comes the word-sign value nn; to avoid
its reduction to n, and to distinguish it from
The King of Upper Egypt is designated
the next value, nhb, it is in this case always
s use
written 1 1 . I* *
d to spell the pseudo(?)- 1 , 1
, generally abbreviated to \ stn or
causative p >-* r-* snn, " image," &c.
stni.
I is also transferred to the homophonous
The ancient name of El Kab is *-* © J Nhb
-fj-^^w stni, "butcher."
I ^ V stn, as the
(Nelcheb), usually spelt with this sign, 1 J ®«
Perhaps the rush (Juncus maritimus ?) was found name of the crown of Upper Egypt, has as yet
in the desert valleys behind El Kab, and so been found only in late texts, but might be the
symbolized the city. After O.K. the group was origin of the nisbe or adjectival form stni,
reinforced by the vase 0 , thus 1 J 5 , 1 O J © , unless the above I ^ is to be read stn, and is
possibly referring to some other product of the thus its early equivalent. If this be the case,
place (natron?). This group is always written w^e have to seek elsewhere for the origin of
with the J , and is only found in the name of l " ^ = £20. A conspicuous example of this
the city and the derived name of its presiding value is in the word sw, " h e , " absolute pronoun
goddess, the vulture Nekhebt (v. Pyr. M., 1. 762, of third pers. masc. sing. ; possibly the king
for the spelling), except that in very late times was taken as the " H e " par excellence. Cf.
the tall rose-lotus Nelumbium (?) was called a^w, perhaps symbol of " father," representing
4« J by confusion, on account of its name the suffix " h e , " " h i s . "
/* I J nhb.
"*
*L [B. H., iii., fig. 20.]
Sedge (Scirpus).
As the vulture-goddess Nekhebt was repreLoret remarks: "L'identification du *U approche
sentative of the South, the resemblance of 1
to I and *L is very remarkable; compare the peu a peu de la verite. C'est bien, en effet, une
quotation from Plutarch by Loret (in the next graminee a epillets roux. Au lieu de scirpus,
column), which may perhaps refer in particular j ' y verrais un juncus, parceque Plutarque nous
enseigne que, pour designer le sud et le Boi, les
to the present sign.
Egyptiens dessinent un jonc (9pvov). Pourtant
The
1 Fig. 1 0 9 . The plant-symbol of rule in il a pu confondre un jonc et un scirpus."
reference to Plutarch is to De Iside et Osiride,
Upper Egypt.
The symbol is named 1 ^ , Kah. Pap., PI. iii., cap. 36. Since the publication of B. H., iii.,
1.2: perhaps p \ <* swt; cf. also a similar word Borchardt has supplied some interesting rein I.e., PI. xxxiv., 1. 19, and ^ ^ - "serfs (?)," marks on the plant of Upper Egypt in his
Methen, L., D., ii., 3, 6, probably to be read excellent work Die Aegyptischen Pflanzensaule,
p. 20.
Word-sign for A %^ —n qmc (qemd), " south
P \ ^NX $ svrtiw (su'tiu),
and 1
fj ° \& ,
country," " south," with phon. transf., frequently
written -i-fl; and for <> -p- \\„ adj. "southern,"
=
in the corrupt writing of Anastasi TV. (viii.,
I

I

AAAAAA

a

30

DISCUSSrON OF THE SIGNS.

the " Ichd of earth," i.e. the place on earth in
which Ra (and the dead king likewise) purifies
himself, apparently before he rises into heaven,
in the morning (?). In the same way a temple
is called the
(1(13£? © -* (| hcy (hhdy) of a god,
H.
SKY, EARTH, AND W A T E R .
i.e. his resting-place on earth, to which he
O Fig. 1 0 . The sun's disk, coloured red descends and whence he also ascends. Q thus
and edged with yellow.
seems to represent pictorially the effulgence of
Word-sign (1) for <=>-* Bc (Ra)9 the name of the sun at the point where he rests on earth.
the Sun-god—in Pyr. usually written O alone— (Though the " Ichd of earth " as a place for the
and no doubt of the sun itself. '
=
sun-god's purification by ablution may suggest
c
r rib (rd neb) is a common phrase for " every it, nothing else bears out the idea that Q may
day," lit. "each sun." (2) For ra <> $ hrw (hru), be intended for a rainbow.) The other senses
=
" day," as opposed to night and also as a of this word are easily obtained from the notion
measure of time. (3) In dates, days of the of divine effulgence.
month are denoted by O , in the X l l t h Dynasty
Also phon. for ® — Ac (Ichd), but probably
*
often written Q s , with the geographical det. not before the X l X t h Dynasty.
r , as indicating limited time. In Coptic the
corresponding word is COT, a word often found
i< Fig. 3 1 . Star of five points, the present
in late Egyptian texts as l ^ o , ''<§.© ssw example having a disk at the centre; the rays
(sesu)j for the day of the month. This word here look broad and solid, and are marked with
existed at a fairly early period ( I I I ® 9 plu. transverse lines at intervals, like the fire-stick,
ip Paheri, PL ix., 1. 4, meaning " dates for
fig. 42.
festivals"), and Erman has suggested recently
(1) The name is [ 1 J * Sb9 " s t a r , " lit.
that it is the true reading for 0 a s " day of the
"instructor," "guiding star" (cf. Siut, Tomb i.,
month,"
1. 264, " I was (a man), the guiding star (i< I)
Det. of words concerning the sun and times of his equals, the director of th^se older than
and seasons, the sun being the principal regulator h e " ) . Hence, being from the root p j ^ sb*
of days, seasons, and years.
(sba), it was transferred to various words as sb\
(2) Another word-sign value is « ^ ^ dwJ (duo),
^ Figs. 3 7 , 1 3 7 . A semicircular figure "early morning" and " p r a i s e , " apparently beformfed of half a disk and four concentric bands cause to the Egyptians, who retired into their
of different colours—blue, green, and red. A houses soon after sunset and rose before dawn,
fifth and cresting band, sometimes marked with stars and starlight were much connected with
radiating lines, does not extend to the diameter. early morning, which was therefore written
Cf. the jewelled hieroglyph Q in Dahchour, ^ ~ K \ 0 ' . To dwJ the word for 5 is closely
Pis. xv., 1 ; xix., i.
similar, and the representation of the star with
The meanings of the word-sijm S , ©-/» hc five points is clearly connected with this cir(]chd)—not »- -a (cf. Xecfyprjv for f© a «~S\ cumstance. (3) The hours of the night being
and Coptic ^AI)—are "royal crown," " t o be regulated by the stars, "hour," \ ^\> ^ wnwt
crowned," " t o appear in g l o r y " (like the sun- (unwt), is written * .
god), used of king or god coming forth from
i< is also det. of stars and of hours.
palace or temple. Also we have S ^ ^ (PyT. T.,
1. 36 ; P., 1, 387), o -* | - 1 - ^ hc % i' ' (kha n ta),
Q^Q \B. IP, i., PI. xxviii.; cf. B. PL, in.,
frequently written jL, also JL i.e. with 1, which
may be the same plant before flowering.

3L

DESERT.

fig. 80.] Hilly desert, coloured to represent
sand and rocks or stones.
Word-sign for r J ^ Q , L., D., ii., 3, "desert,"
"foreign land," and perhaps "foreign t r i b e " ;
usually spelt ^ , but rarely —— v \ ^ sm't
*
(L., D., ii., 112d; A. Z., 1874, 35). According
to ERMAN (A. Z.y 1892, 10) sm*t is the true
reading. 1 \ in the neighbourhood of s or s
seems curiously negligeable; cf. smlct't spelt
with Y s/c. For the title mr sm'iot compare
L., D., ii., 1006 ; B. H., ii., PI. xxiv., with
.B. If., i., tomb iii., passim
V^

III/'

Another word for desert is | \ \
(IchasJchet), MAR., Mast.,
quite distinct from O (^ <|\

I

h^sh't

188, which may be
[W] hJs't (hhas't)

in Pyr. (with -*—). It is possible that one or
other of these words is an occasional reading
for v^s) 9 and we have as yet no certain reading
for the sign as word-sign for " foreign t r i b e "
(P.S.B.A.,
1897,297).
Det. of desert, foreign lands, &c. (as opposed
to the alluvial land of Egypt).
£=3 Fig. 3 8 . A desert mountain, showing
a valley between two crests (pinkish yellow
variegated with red for the stones; at the
base a line of green to indicate fertile land).
Cf. Medum, Pis. xiv., xxviii., and p. 30. As n
(fertile ground) means a "slope," " height/' so
C^3, a desert mountain, was chosen to represent
hill or rock, while r^\^3 a kind of plural form,
stands for "desert"; but in the earliest instances
(Medum, I.e.) c^a is more like two hills and less
like two n.
, ^ \ zw (zu)j is " mountain," " hill,"
" rock," lit. " t h e evil," " worthless" (see below,
ad fin.). Sometimes, however, it seems to read
^ r^ mn, " rock," lit. " the firm (?) " ; e.g. the
common title of Anubis, @
" upon his (?)

chour, p. 104). Traces of this value are seen
also in late writing.
r^o ^ \ " ^ > , c=a $ dw, " evil," is read by some
>
© $. hto (Jehu), apparently on the ground of its
varying in very late times with T ^ \ ^ " ^ > , a
word of similar significance. £=3, however, in
late texts is often confused with A o, so that
confusion with A—D is not surprising. The two
words occur separately in the Prisse Papyrus,
and cannot be identical. C±G ^ ^ ^ "worthless,"
" evil," is, in fact, of allied meaning to
"desert," '/mountain," which had always an
evil significance to the agricultural mind of the
Egyptians. In the Kahun calendar (Eah. Pap.,
PI. xxv.), and elsewhere, red ink was employed
in writing the word Cr3^N%^ "evil (day)."
Red, the colour of sand, as opposed to black, the
colour of alluvium, was considered ominous,
evidently on account of its connexion with the
sterile desert, c^i, r^-o, the haunt of demons.
Fig. 5 0 .
A narrow oval ridge or
expanse of sandy desert, coloured as c=£i. We
may probably consider this sign as representing
(1) a sandy island in the river; (2) an island
of sand appearing through the alluvium, such
as the Arabs still call gezireh; (3) any sandy
ridge or expanse.
As word-sign we have it in
"island,"
which varies in late times with

L

^ J 5 t\\^

y^t

(da't), and so perhaps reads yJ (da); this is a
common word in Egyptian geography for islands
both in sea and river, and so probably denotes
also sand-islands in the alluvium.

Det. or id. of ^
^
= IOJ, q &® • ~ y'fct
(dalch't), " h o r i z o n " ; the dual or adjectival
form ^ is commonly written £=^ by abbreviation, = " the two horizons," each horizon being
sandy desert according to Egyptian ideas. In
O.K. the sign is a common det. of names of
hill," or " upon the hill of the *v^_ (q.v.) " is districts and places, probably on account of
^ D %^<^i\\«~-,tpmnyf, their being in sandy districts or connected with
rendered by \
in the remarkable inscription of Auabra (Dah- a Deltaic gezireh, Early towns in the Delta

32

DISCUSSION

OF THE

were founded on such " islands." Later, it became det. of certain specific localities only, as
in the present case, where it is used with ^ \
Ta-zeser, the sandy domain of Anubis, god of
the dead.
In N.K.
,
is phon. at the beginning
of words, apparently for i\\ yJ (da).
<^^ Cf. Fig. 1 4 . Apparently compound id.
of the sand-island c > and the water-line MAAM,
It seems not to occur before N.K.
Word-sign for (1
Ymn (Amen), the name
of the god Amen in late times. Perhaps indicates m??, "firm," by combining m(?)*£, Coptic
tjon (fern.), " island," and n. In very late
times it is used for © Nhn.
=
[B. H., iii., fig. 95.] Flat alluvial land,
coloured black (L., 1)., ii., 20), later blue. Often
=^=, with three grains o (q.v. p . 34), indicating
the sand underlying the alluvium. These grains
are wrongly called u 3 pits (or caves)" in the
Sign Pap., p. xiv., 1. 4.
Word-sign for ~ \ t> (to), " earth," " black
soil" (e.g. under the nails), "alluvial land."
In late times phon. for f (to).
By id. trans., det. of ^ • ^ z% " eternity," as
being of unbounded horizon (B. PL., iii., p. 30).

SIGNS.

also as phon. for A \ (as ffi and CD similarly
served for a ^ and ra %, and for the same
reasons), and required no other biliteral with
^ , though combinations with \ are very
numerous. On the other hand, the alphabetic
characters K ^ _ , A/WW\? <C=> and <^=^ show no trace
of such a use, their derivation implying no % ;
the combination of these with % was so rare
that no phon. was needed for it.
^ (Cf. fig. 71.) Two heaps of provisions.
This group is treated here because in the Tomb
of Paheri, according to a copy by Miss Pirie,
the two urn
W\ are of the same form and
colour as fig. 71 taken from the same line
of inscription (Paheri, PL iii. ^ cornice-line). In
L., D,, ii., 103a, we see a heap of corn of
precisely the form of n.
In Pyr.

fi)

" eat," varies with

*=%=* d o ' ^ ^ ^ ( ^ )
used

wnm

^ > gfl ,

(unGm) 5 a n d HH/i i s

as phonetically equivalent to W* wnm

(unem\ another form of the loan-word (1
1

(?),
AAAAAA

yy, ymn (amen), " r i g h t hand," " West" (ERMAN,
A. £., 1893, pp. 82, 127; 1894, 67).

For the

later history of this word see J L p. 37.

Be-

sides the word-sign value, ^ is also in Pyr. det.
( j / I . /WWW ,
of ^ ° o j , wsb (usheb), ^ J sb, "provisions,"
and of J -a l bch (bah), " abundance." I t is
L Fig. 7 1 . Mound of earth (not desert), therefore id. of eatables, abundance of provisions;
natural or artificial; coloured black, like = , but to make its meaning clearer it is usually, in
in O.K. (L., JD., ii., 21), later green or grey. Pyr., accompanied by auxiliary dets., Q7\ or
Desert slopes are represented with similar outin a manner very unusual with other
line but different colour, as fig. 60.
signs. The doubling of the heap is not merely
In B. i7., iii., p. 5, this sign is derived from intensive. In Ptahhetep9 PL xli., table of offer-,
the word n ^fc\ ^ " high ground " ; but in Pyr. ings, 4th row, 3rd col. from right, we have
AT., 1. 202, there is a word n i ^ Ijj^ A ?"" (qaa), t—• 1 % n n gsivi sbw(?)9 " two halves, or side's,
of provisions," which may be explained by
determined by a sign like n? and in L., I)., iii.,
B. H., i., PL xvii., table of offerings, 2nd row,
24, d (W), it is given as zi'%^ Q(] / \ q*y (qwy\
9th col. from left, pJ't n%t wdn ivp in gs'wi, "food
meaning "lofty place," " p i l e , " "eminence." of heaped-offering divided into twq sides (or
The weak radical ^ is neglected in the alpha- halves)." A mass of offerings—:common breadbetic value q of ^, but A seems to have served stuff?—was thus perhaps made into two heaps

WATEE.

on either hand of the recipient, and provisions
were probably served in the same way at any
plentiful feast in the earlier times, when abundance of food was doubtless much considered.
In L., D., ii., 70, gs is determined by three heaps,
AAA (for the plural), the colour of which is
black, like that of the bread and of A = q
(I.e., ii., 69).

33

As det., AAA occurs apparently in the sense
AAA
of " level" in the word ;=T| " eternity," written
also Z ^ . Sometimes this latter may be read
n z't9 but in many cases (Pyr., e.g. W., 521, &c,
I

1

<=

l

Lc=^

&c, and in Ptahhetep, PI. xxxix.,
AAA ^ )
AAA
it can only be explained as det. of level surface,
such as water always presents, like = , ^ \ t*
(ta), "level l a n d " (see B. H., iii., p. 30). The
instances of this use are too numerous to be
accounted for as due to the confusion of AAA
AAA
and = in hieratic.
AAAAAA
AAAAAA .
i.e. t h r e e AAAAAA? is the plural word
^ ^ mw (mu), " water," later used as singular
(ERM., Pluralbildung, p. 14, Gram., § 45). In a
few (pseudo-compound) words the sign AAA
AAA
is phon. for mw. ^A"—which certainlv better

Cf. Fig. 1 7 5 and B. H., iii., Frontispiece.
Land-area marked with rectangular lines for
irrigation canals (?) at regular intervals, the
ends open or closed by lines, ^ ^ . In El B.,
i., PI. xxvii. 11, a plain rectangle i i, perhaps
an unfinished PMffO, seems to take the place of the
latter. In Siut, Tomb i., 1. 228, the downward
lines are oblique.
than AAA represents a rippled surface—is also
AAA
Word-sign for p • ^ « ^ sp^'t, "nome," " t e r r i the regular det. of water and of liquids.
tory of a city," and for ^ ^ ^ . ^ zH't (zat't)
(meaning ?). (See Kah. Pap., p. 31.) Det. of
fnnnn Fig. 9 0 . A rectangular tank or artinomes and of A J ^ - J " south country."
ficial pool (cf. Medum, passim); in N.K. often
represented as empty, E = 3 3 though in O.K. this
"A™ F i g s . 12, 1 7 6 . Waved line of the may have a distinct meaning. The ordinary
surface of water, coloured black or grey. Cf. printed form n n is taken from linear hieroMedum, passim.
glyphic writing, in which the distinction of the
The waved line is constantly seen in repre- tank sign from other rectangular signs has been
sentations of pools of water, &c, and seems reduced to two purely conventional strokes.
properly to belong to the rippled surface, but
A tank, pool, or lake is named S ^ > ^ s{sha\
it became the sign of water in general. Thus, whence this sign obtains its alphabetic value s.
while the curved stream of water pouring It is also det. of hnt, " p o o l , " " pleasure garden
downward from the hand or from a vessel is (surrounding a pond)."
often smooth in early times, or only slightly
C Fig. 5 8 ; B. H., iii., fig. 88. This may
waved—:to show spiral flow—yet even in the
be taken for a section of a water-channel with
tomb of Methen (L., D., ii., 4) there is an
example of its being waved like AAA as a running water, or a pond, or a transparent
AAA
vessel containing liquid, or a crucible containing
conventional representation of Avater.
The single AAA has not yet been found as a molten metal, or the matrix in the ground into
AAA
distinct word sign. I t is used almost exclusively which the molten metal was run to form ingots.
as alph. for n, and n is an important element in In good texts it is often xy, i.e. with surface not
rippled ; <? is a form of the base period.
the words for water. Thus
\ \ Nw (Nu) is
(1) i ^ i varies with rrz:, D I pfy (pefy)i which
" the primordial water,
nw is a means a marsh or pool left by the inundation.
o
"stream of water." In Pyr. N.9 1. 132,
But this use is not known before N.K.
seems actually to be det. of the latter.
(2) In a great number of words it is phon.
•*•

/WWV\

,,

AAAAAA

-P\

AAAAAA

J

DISCUSSION OF THE SIGNS.

34

for J l\\

by* (Ida).

A clue to the reason may

perhaps be found in the word J (j ^ ° , J I)'
by* (baa), "liquid abyss(?) of heaven/' "aethereal
space/' probably with the idea as it were of a
great lake or stream of aether in which the sun
and heavenly bodies travel. Or we may prefer
the following explanation:—There is a substance
called J P p , -M&» possibly, from the det., it
denotes transparent crystal, or perhaps metal.
The sun's throne in heaven is said to be
JI \ 1 ^ °

ty*

(baa), " of crystal (?),"

or ada-

mant, or J (1 ' v \ vjfrn " smoothly gliding " (like
a sledge).

Heaven itself, or space, is J

^

" the liquid stream " (Ptahhetep, PI. xxxix.), or
J| ^

verb

" the crystal(?) aether."

0

There is also the

J

ly

6da

J11k > Jfllk4a> ^ * ( )>

" vanish(?)," or "glide smoothly," like a sledge,
or perhaps " m e l t " like metal. Gliding and
transparency, one or both of which ideas are
included in the root by\ are both qualities of
liquid.
(3) By id. trans. K3 stands for the female
principle in T ^L, ^ | (== vulva); the reading
uncertain, perhaps h*'t or hrn't, or (1 ^ yt (at),
which occasionally occurs (cf. Kah. Pap., p. 6,
and for examples see LORET, Bee. de Trav.,
xviii., 198). I t occurs in the det. of the word
^ * i*1 Pyr; a n d in ^ J ) , I %^* <* hm% "woman."
Probably it is from the last word that K2 obtains
its very common value as phon. for I J^ km.
o Fig. 2 9 . Grain of sand, pebble, or little
pellet (here coloured white, and repeated until
the number indicates five). I n the compound
sign =*=?» for = , " e a r t h , " the grains, which
are three in number to denote the plural, seem
to indicate the sand that was known to underlie
the alluvium.
A t times o seems to be word-sign for S ^ ,
» & tj (tha), "pellet," from « V " t e k e > " a s w e
speak of a " p i n c h " of anything, ooo is det.
of sand, pebbles, &c., and of pellets. I t is often

used instead of 111 to denote the plural, and—
especially in Pyr.—o denotes the singular, in
place of l (q.v.).

I.

BUILDINGS AND THEIR PARTS.

© Fig. 1 4 2 ; B. H.9 iii., fig. 76.
Conventional figure apparently representing in a
summary manner the plan of a village with
cross streets within a circular enclosure.
Word-sign for town or city, ® . Det. of
names of villages, cities, and sometimes more
widely of inhabited regions.
The reading is /-%.^ n't (ERM., Pluralbildung,
p. 9), or perhaps better nn't. The name of the
goddess

(nn*t(?), v. o), especially as repre-

senting the lower hemisphere
written ©
r

v

b=d

of heaven, is

in N.K.; in Pyr. it is

(W., 1. 219), \ \ ^

(W., 11. 289, 557),

^

(M., 1. 455, cf. W., 1. 239).
0 Cf. Fig. 3 4 . Rectangular enclosure wall
with battlements, usually represented as very
narrow.
Word-sign for J) ^ J ynb (drib), "fortified
enclosure wall," " w a l l " ; cf. BR., Wtb., SuppL,
92, for variant with ynb, also Pyr/N., 1. 955,
for rad. ext.
Det. of " wall," and (in O.K.) of building.
j | } Fig. 3 0 ; B. PL., iii., fig. 62. Palatial
courtyard. There are two main types of this
hieroglyph, the first, modelled on the lines
of IT!, the second on those of J (qq.v.), each
highly elaborated, as befits the sign of a royal
residence.
(1) (Type, fig. 30, &c). This is represented
by the plan of a nearly square enclosure, the
wall of which is carried only half way along the
front and then turns in at a right angle, enclosing
an inner court, the outer court, of the same size,
being entirely open in front. The entrance of

BUILDINGS.

the inner court is at the inner end of the dividing
wall, and in the front corner farthest from that
entrance stands the tower-like palace, | (q.v.).
The enclosure wall and the tower are crested
with cheher ornament, (j (PETKIE, Dec. Art,
p. 101), or with overhanging battlements. The
tower is not essential to the figure, and is often
absent,
jo£?J, in which it occupies the
whole front of the inner court, is an exceptional
form, u o r ^ j for the name ivSh't, is commonly
placed in the entrance.
(2) Type ffj is seldom found in the tables of
offerings (as an exception see L., D., ii., 67,
6th col. from right), but is very common in
O.K. titles (L., £>., ii., 63, &c, &c), though later
it does not seem to occur. This shows a complete rectangle, battlemented and containing a
cheker-to])ipe& palace in one corner, as well as ^
to the left. In Pyr. N., 1. 764, this sign has a
battlemented building in the corner, containing
|, which is probably symbolic of the deity,
though seldom used in O.K. with that signification. On the analogy of the M, we may
consider that in this type the .palace-tower is
built over or near to the entrance (compare the
position of the tower at Medinet Habu); in Irgi
also there would probably be a private entrance
to the tower through the adjoining wall.

nected with the root ra ^ "enter

35
m

^ , with det.

of land-area, more fully written ["D ^

u u .—i

h^yt (hayt), is perhaps the, name of the outer
or entrance court indicated by the sign, and so
the origin of its phonetic values.
[]. [Of. B. H., iii., fig. 5.] Plan of rectangular enclosure, without battlements, but
with small building in the corner. I t seems to
be a less grandiose form of jmj (v. § | | j , type 2).
The inner building, which is square in the early
O.K., is best explained as a tower to defend the
entrance ; cf. Maspero's valuable note (P.S.B.A.,
xii., 247). In good periods the narrow type J
is invariable, except in the numerous cases when
names and words are written inside the sign;
it may then be enlarged horizontally into a
square or even an oblong, and the inner building placed in a top corner, or sometimes omitted
altogether, according as space is required for
the sign or signs to be inserted.
Word-sign for I • ^ h% " fenced city," N " (fortified) Residence " of king, governor, or god. "^
h't-ntr is a " t e m p l e , " in the widest sense, with
all its varied inhabitants. In some of the cases
in which the name of the Residence is written
within J, this sign is probably only det. of
the kind of place. Ml "governor of a J , "
seems to be the title of the principal sheikhs
or lesser governors having citadel, or official
fortified and garrisoned, Residences.

Word-sign for ^ p ® - ^ wsh't (uselch't), " t h e
broad," "roomy," a name used perhaps not only
for the courtyard but also for a wide hall.
In Pyr. f j | with its variants (type 1, but
without the palace sign, never the complete
n Fig. 1 9 3 ; B. S"., iii., fig. 56. Plan of
rectangle, type 2), is det. of p J © sbh (sebelch), the brick walls of a rectangular chamber, with
which apparently means "surround with pro- entrance in the middle of the long side;
tection."
Borchardt quotes with approval the opinion of
Steindorff, that n represents simply the wall
m Fig. 1 4 6 .
Plan of a nearly square of a (roofless) courtyard. Either explanation
enclosure resembling the §fj§ (q.v., type 1), but seems to fit the case. The elongated type cz~u
plain, without battlements, cheher ornament, or is a late invention to supply an alternative form
building shown within.
in grouping hieroglyphs.
Word-sign for • <> pr, "house," with weak
=
The word which was the origin of the biliteral
:>
final r.- When used by rad. ext., or phon.
phonetic value ni\h
(ha) and the alph. value h
(see n and ffi for similar usages), is probably con- trans, for pr, complementary <=> is added ; and
D 2

DISCUSSION

36

n

OF THE SIGKS.

/VVWV\

2)[r~]sn, the name of a kind of cake
or loaf, varies from the earliest times with
_ Q L D , although in the compound ^ ^ = ninS),
" Pharaoh/' the r was fully retained.
Det. of buildings of all sorts.
/—I

CSD
ZZ

AAAAAA

Figs. 8 9 , 119. Palace; apparently a
tower of two storeys; the diagonal line in the
upper half may mark the position of a staircase
to the roof. The tower is crowned with cheker
ornament, and the lower storey is gaily decorated
with bands of colour. Cf. | | j | . Borchardt's
view, that it is really a piece of fringed matwork, can hardly be sustained.
Word-sign for -n l ~* chc (aha), "king's
palace."
U Fig. 1 5 . Fa9ade of a shrine or building
made of or imitating wattle-and-daub work,
with torus edging, &c. (cf. PETEIE, Dec. Art,
pp. 97-100), and raised on a platform of earth(?)
sloping to either side, as in fig. 8. For a somewhat different form see Pyr. N,9 1. 989. In
Ptahhetep, PI. xxxiii., it appears to take the
place of X in the symbol of the god Shesemu.
7
This is the model for a regular type of tombstela (cf. Ptahhetep, PL xxxix.), and in early
examples of these stelae the dedications upon
/WW\A i y \ /
—

them are in the first place to Anubis, rjTk
jM ,
"chief of the divine hall," or " s h r i n e " (see
Ptahhetep, pp. 32, 33). Within the H were
supposed to take place the meals of the deceased,
and probably within it he rested as in his own
private apartments. The reading of the name
of the structure, Avhich is generally connected
with Anubis, is still unknown. In Pyr. it is
called ^ Q (W., 11. 15, 258); unfortunately
the reading of r~*\ is here uncertain; perhaps
it indicates basket-work, wattle-work, like the
later f\.
In L., I)., ii., 112d, there is a variant
w ich ma
1 H n l' k
y indicate ^ (j | ^~
ys-ntr
H

Fig. 1 0 3 . Open hut or shelter made
of a framework of reeds bound together, the
roof slightly arched and supported by a central
forked pole, T. In Medum, PL xiii., the pole is

J (q.v. fig. 116).
Word-sign for -*-{ sh, "summer house,"
"booth," "tent," "canopy," a name most frequently applied to a light wooden construction
of the form of one of the canopies in U[J, open
in front and at the sides, as an airy but effective
shelter from the sun. Under this a grandee
could sit in the open air when presiding at an
inspection (El B., i., PI xix ), or, with his wife
at his side, enjoy the busy scenes of outdoor life
(Paheri, PI. iv.). In Ptahhetep, PI. xxxix.,
there is a shelter of this kind over a portable
chair: this testifies to its extreme lightness.
Used also with phon. trans, as sh.
Word-sign also for I J hb, "festival." Used
in this value too with phon. trans., but after
O.K. invariably accompanied by, and generally
compounded with, the det. ^£7 (see the next
sign). This use indicates that the shelter, like
our tents, might be of large size to hold a
considerable number of people. Cf., perhaps,
the " feast of tabernacles," Lev. xxiii.
In late times it is confused with a rather
c
rq (arq).
similar sign reading -n
Figs. 9, 1 7 8 . Graphic compound of
the seh, (T\9 with id. of a festival, ^27 (q.v.).
This compound is usual in N.K. as word-sign
for I J hb, "festival." Used with phon. trans.
UJJ Fig. 8, On a raised platform, coloured
green (earth?, cf. fig. 15, &c), two portable (?)
thrones, r—*} (cf. fig. 65), are placed back to
back under a double canopy with curved roof.
The reading of the sign is I C = S ] sd, or rather
perhaps 1 j - f e a hb sd, usually written
or U O m , but also U|J alone.

Word-sign for

(ds-neter), " divine chamber," or 1 ?(jT| sh ntr, the jubilee festival of the king, held properly at
the end of thirty years—a month of years—
" divine hall," as the reading of

PAETS OF

apparently reckoned from his proclamation as
crown prince or king (SETHE, A. Z., 1898, 64).
At the celebration of the jubilee the king
sat first as King of Upper Egypt on one
of the thrones, and then as King of Lower
Egypt on the other ; see the figures in L., D.,
i i , 115a; L., D., iii., 74<i ; NAVILLE, Bvbastis,
p. 3 et seqq.

37

BUILDINGS.

as in O.K., was now no longer appropriate.
The

first

change was to ^ ^ f j ) ,

an

d

then

-4" lbs, Qh began to be written in hieratic,
and easily became 41- t \
into hieroglyphs.

The

gj\ in transcribing
group

-Yh t \

thus

became the word-group for all the derivatives
of 4L t \

0\,

\ ^ wm (urn), viz. •" the eating

ulcer," " the devouring flame," &c. (v. Addenda).
Fig. 191. Perhaps a squared block of
I t is remarkable that in N.K. A nA, originally
A
building stone. (The exact provenance of this
only another spelling of wnm (see above), is
sign is uncertain, and it is difficult to identify.)
retained in religious inscriptions by the side of
Word-sign for Q ^ ^ > ynr (dncr), u stone," and
=
4h t \ $), as if a different word (Paheri,
det. of names, &c , of stone.
Pis. iii., iv., cornice line); probably it is to be
pronounced wnm, while the more popular word
^ p Figs. 7 8 , 1 6 9 . Two pieces of wood
is wm.
crossed at right angles and joined. In the O.K.
In very late texts, in the group HK $ ^ « » $.
with equal arms, = » (Mefhen, Ptahhetep).
£
Word-sign for the adj. -J(- t \ \ \ , ( ^ \ \ ymi
)
u
(ami), fern. ynvt, plu. ym'w, that which is in,"
derived from the preposition ^ m, " in." The
meaning suggests that the sign represents a
piece of joiner's work, the two bars being carefully fitted together with a rebate, so being
" that which is fitted or fixed in."
B u t as was pointed out by EIIMAN (A. Z.,
1893, p. 127, cf. 1894, p. 67), by a curious
accident it was applied also to quite a different
root, as follows :—
In M.K. the verb wnm, " e a t " (see jj), appears
in two fixed spellings,
^7\ and H K ^ ) . ^ n
cursive writing *$» is identical with 41-, and in
==
and after the Hyksos, period (Math. Pap.,
PL xxiii., but not Bui. Pap., ii., 45, of the
X H I t h Dyn.) an | \ is regularly added to the
second group in hieratic; thenceforward in the
N.K. the word " e a t " appears in hieroglyphics
as 4U t \ gA. The corresponding Coptic word
is o r t o u (worn), and it seems altogether that
the n of wnm, u eat," was lost early, so that
the word became wm. iust as m 2M,'which isI ^ k k # ^ hnmm't in Pyr., became ra ^ k ' *
hmm't in N.K. To spell the word Hr &,

wndw (undu), "cattle," &c, -\U replaces <§%
==
owing to its form in cursive writing.
The original value, (| $^\\ ymi (ami), is often
distinguished by prefixed M, thus : N h t \ .
U Figs. 8 8 1 0 5 ; J3.ff.,iii.,fig. 41. Wooden
clamp. In O.K. it is a straight piece of wood.
The uses of the I are difficult to define. For
the early period we may perhaps give the
following statement of its uses :—
(1) As a numeral = ^ — wc («a), " o n e " ;
*
often written ^ ^ I.
(2) As det. of unity. From this it has the
folioAving derived uses :
a. In Pyr., to indicate a concrete meaning,
it is placed after the whole word, generally
after a word-sign or det., e.g. ® ^ hft (khtft),
« enemy " ; "^~ " ^ J st, " duck " ; ^ ^ I rig,
" b u l l " (both last, Pyr. P., 1. 441. o is sometimes substituted for I in Pyr.) And in like
manner, i is often placed after a single sign
when it expresses the whole of a name, either
with or without the fern, ending.
b. When a sign is used as transferred wordsign with the full phonetic value of the name,

38

DISCUSSION" OF THE SIGNS.

the I is often transferred with it, e.g.

"^,

^ " ^ , ^^J, ^ ° \ are all found for z't, "body,"
CQI or [Q] I for p \ sJ (sa) for " back," and n or q 1
'y (a) for " 0 !" After O.K. the use of I in such
cases becomes the rule ( E R M . , Gram., § 51).
I n M. and N.K., in such cases as . ". , ^ \
f (ta), "land," and j v& s, "person," the det. is
added after I, for the sake of distinction, as c=^=>
and —— are in hieratic scarcely distinguish*
able.
The geographical det. V (in M.K. often n ,
from the hieratic ?) is usually accompanied in M.
and N".K. by the I which belongs to it when used
as a word-sign.
After O.K. the suffix of 1st pers. sing, is
often replaced by I.

The numerals up to 9 are expressed by i
repeated; each of them has its own name
(ERMAN, Gram., § 141).
The following are
interesting:—
A AAAAAA

II represents the numeral 2, named I
sn, and is from the earliest times defc. of duality,
especially marking the dual of the masc. nouns
ending in ^ \\ wi.
In this case it is often
written in Pyr. w, e.g.

=

xx

_y>QQ "w^

(dwi), " t w o hands." I t is probable too that n
can be found with the dual of fern, words
ending in "^ ^ w wti (uti), which, however, in
ancient times were generally written *\\ ^ .
Gradually 1 became employed for the adjec1
tival and other forms of roots in which the
termination was the same as that of the dual,
wi, wti; such were now written ^ \ 11, "\\ ^ ;
and then for any terminal i, this being the distinctive sound common to the two duals, masc.
and fern.
III represents the numeral 3,
hmt (Ichemt), with phon. transf. Also det. of
plural, and later of collectives.
! ( | , Coptic t o r (tho); the ancient name not
quite certain. See i<, and <=sa.

<>=> Fig. 116. Wooden column lying on the
ground for use as the central pole of a |fTj; see
PETRIE, Medum, PL x. and p. 3 0 ; Dee. Art,
p. 76 ; also BORCHARDT, Pflanzensaule, p . 56
(who seems to have overlooked the very early
example at Medum). It is seldom placed upright in good texts, though this is allowed even
in O.K. (Ptahhetep, xxxviii., left).
"Word-sign and phon. for — ^ c J (da), mean*
ing "lid," "great," "continue in a certain state."
It is not clear that it is a name of a column,
though there are signs of this (Kah. Pap., xiii., 2,
and in late texts). c\ "great," may be simply
an epithet of the roof-support.
— - Fig. 1 3 9 ; B. H., iii., fig. 49. Door-bolt:
well known from the pictures, and from a wooden
shrine in the Cairo Museum, to have been used
for fastening folding doors on the outside. On
each leaf two bronze rings held a —— (one bolt
*
being considerably above the other), which was
shot into a third ring attached to the other leaf
of the door. In the Medum sculptures, " the
form of the door-bolt s is remarkably contracted
in the middle, and has a double line along the
neck (Medum, PI. xiii.). Such lines usually
show string, as on the tied up necks of bags
(Pis. xiii., xv.), and here it seems likely that
the middle of the bolt had a string round it
which could be sealed on to the door to prevent
it being moved " (PETRIE, Medum, p. 31). The
breaking of the seal of a shrine entailed a
special ceremony (Ab.9 i., p. 57). BORCHARDT,
A. Z., 1897, p . 105, explains the string as for
drawing a bolt from the outside when the door
was fastened on the inside (v. - £ - ) .
The name of the bolt was J " the passer "
'
(Pyr. N., 1. 688 ; cf. Ab., i., pp. 56, 58). This is
presumably to be< read s, though in Pyr. it
varies with . (I 7 ., 1. 162), which is probably
a religious symbol derived from the bolt. The
name jj ^-^? cf. |", s s ^ ss{?) (Ab., i., p. 58),
is perhaps a kind of dual, on account of the
bolts being two in number; but either name

YASES.

may be the origin of the alphabetic value s
of —— (v. Addenda).
*

J,

Word-sign for A J J qbh', " cold w a t e r " ; used
also as det. of A J and [*A J , " b e cool," " m a k e
cool," but not in Byr., where A (a tree) takes
its place in this capacity.

VASES AND POTTERY: F I R E .

Q [B. -ST., iii., fig. 35a.] Stone jug with long
handle from rim to body, and small loop handle
opposite to it, upon the body. I n the present
instance the jug is of alabaster.
General word-sign for •- ^ ^ hum (chnem);
this may be connected with the word hnm't,
"well," which might be used as a term for a
large jar. B u t one of the seven sacred oils,
named ™ • «- ™ ^ n'hnm, "of (the god?) Chnem,"
is usually figured as contained in a jar of this
shape. «£k B. if., iii., fig. 100, represents a jar
of this unguent.
v Fig. 1 0 1 . Slender water-bottle, often represented with a stopper. I n O.K. the upper
part is black instead of blue, a circumstance
which Dr. Walker has suggested is to be explained by the black tops of much of the
" prehistoric" pottery (see PETRIE, Naqada,
p. 3 7 ) ; red with black or blue rim may therefore be regarded as colouring distinctive of
vessels of pottery,
Name,
^ , f — . - f e s % " t h e chilly" (?),
especially on O.K. coffins (Miss. Fr., i., 200-1,
and PI. i i . ) ; later, cf. B R . , Wtb. MASPERO,
Horhotep (Miss. Fr., i., p. 136), restores y ^
in the label applying to two spouted vases,
y (shown I.e., PI. xii.). This is confirmed by
the fact that in inferior writing the hieroglyph
occasionally has the spout. These Ties vessels,
much used in ceremonial libations, were frequently made in bronze and precious metals,
though the picture indicates a pottery original.
Word-sign for
fes in all its meanings.
fj F i g . 1 2 7 ; B. K, iii., fig. 48. Spouted
fees-vase, with water pouring from it, and with
or without a stand, nj.

Fig. 6 . Group of stoppered fees-vases,
three or four in number, the ends of a cloth
hanging over the shoulders. The number three
is the general indication of plurality in this
sign, b u t the definite number of four, (mm, is
common from the earliest times, e.g. four occur
in Medum, PI. ix. (Rahotep), three in Pis. xviii.,
xxiii. (Nefermaat).
In L., D., iii., 23, S, by
exception the four vessels are without the
cloth.
The sign is the ordinary word-symbol for
© r^ ^ hnt (Ichent), especially with the meanings
" front," "foremost," "forward."
The first
operation in the ceremonial feasts of the " table
of offerings," and probably in all such religious
ceremonies, was the washing of the table with
the four fees-vases of water (see e.g. MASPERO,
Table d'Offrcmdes, p. 5). I n the K\K. this
operation, usually called
/ ^ 8 st (set, with

T

/-\

AAAAAA
AAAAAA

• ~

W

- .

9

,
AAAAAA

I

d "s.'
AAAAAA

Will

st hr hnti (set her Ichenti), "pouring in (or
with?) Jchenti" (see SCHIAP., L. dei F., PI. xiii.,
1. 24, Text, ii., p. 171; with variants, Z.c, p . 314,
and MAR., Ab., i., PL xxxixa.), where
AAAAAA S?

<=* W l I I?

var. rSjjh, &c, is evidently the name of the rite
performed with these four vessels, and must
mean literally " the first or opening ceremony."
Hence the value of the sign.
O Fig. 1 4 1 . Globular water-pot; in the
present instance coloured blue. I n O.K. it is
coloured red, with the upper part black (cf. 0).
I t appears in A, and probably also in Ufa. I n
the offering of water and wine to the gods it
was used in pairs, O O.
The sign indicates the contents of the vessel
rather than the vessel itself. Thus o o ooo
o

40

DISCUSSION

OF THE

&c, indicate the cosmic waters, i.e. the god
Nw (Nu). Perhaps it is from this word that
the single 0 has its common phonetic value
^ \ mo (nu), for which 0 0 0 is preferred or
often used in certain words, mniv, " monument,"
Thnw, " Libyan/' while there are indications in
j \ (q.v.), and elsewhere, of the value n alone for 0.
In the name of the goddess D , ° ^, _ ^ (all in

SIGNS.

iocb. In Pyr. the spelling of these two words
is variable, and sometimes there seems to be
confusion between them. ^ \ is there used as
syl. for cb in either group. But after O.K.
X*^ stands for the word c6 only, and / J is
w b, " p u r e , " "priest," with little variation.

y Figs. 4 0 , 1 3 3 . Globular vase-shaped
Pyr.), usually called Nut, the value of 0 is not object suspended from a loop. The vase is
well defined, and may be nn% as the name of surrounded at its widest part by a broad band
the goddess of the upper sky seems hardly dis- of net-work (erased? in fig. 133). The band of
tinguishable, except by tricks of writing, from net-work is one of the things which distinguish
that of the goddess of the sky in the lower the vase determinative and symbolical of milk.
hemisphere (v. ©). Maspero holds that the In O.K. forms the vase is less globular, 2, more
variant ^J5 \F=R, common in Pyr., indicates like the milk vases offered in the temple-scenes,
Nwit, by a pseudo-dual. In M.K., $££, and e.g. L., B., iii., 20c. The teat or feeder (?) of
the milk vase ^ , is, however, always absent
perhaps u AAAAAA ? stand for |^ »- /^ m hn (m ehen),
from the sign U. In Paheri, PL iv., we see U
" i n s i d e " (B. PL., i., Pis. xxv., xxvi., 11. 193, 204, suspended round the neck of the infant prince
215), and for ymi hn (I.e., 1. 209). In N.K., Uazmes, who sits on the knees of his " n u r s e "
after the X V I I I t h Dyn., $^ is usually written and tutor, the nobleman Paheri.
before this group, and in late documents we
The value of Q is ^ <=> mr, changing so early
AAAAAA
| o | AAAAAA
often have
for m hn to &J my (ma), and J^ m, on account of its
AAAAAA AAAAAA
( P I E H L , A. Z., 1887, 32,
&c). Thus it is proweak terminal r, that its normal value may be
VT

AAAAAA

AAAAAA

AAAAAA

AAAAAA

bable that in 3BJ 0 , Pyr * * - « = > hn, O is really
_

#

/vvvvv\

v_y

i

a word-sign.
Probably O also represents a cooking-pot,
"*! 1 ^ &• $ z*z*'to (zaza'u), whence it commonly
occurs even in O.K. in the group | | ° , with
various meanings. In ^ o "grind," it seems
to indicate a connexion with cookery.
In
4 - 0 J perhaps it indicates the adaptation of
rush baskets and mats to kitchen purposes
(v. \).
It is a peculiarity of the sign 0 that
it is used superfluously, in transference from
any of the above groups where it would be a
false det., and in the group T ^ 0 riiv, where
it only repeats the ^—,.

said to be |^J my (md);

the r in fact is quite

lost after the O.K., even when y occurs as the
initial phon. of a word.
constantly written ^ \
and £ in

^

y <c=> mr, but later it is

1E L

| (J my (md).
2

In Pyr., U, " l i k e , " is

f , %> [<=>] m[r], varies with J ^

E

f

^

n,

IkC^*] l^-»* * m[r]hc't

(me\r\hd't),
" tomb," and in
|^[<=>] -*- <*, m[r~\s't, " liver."
The milk vase, used as det. of the name of
milk, depicted in the milk-offerings in the
temples, and borne as his symbol on the head
of a god tending the baby queen at Deir el
Bahri (T). el B., ii., PI. liii.), was named
Q
mr, as may be seen from (1 s==*

Fig. 1 3 2 . A vase (here of the form
nems) with water pouring from it.
This signifies both the action of purifying,
-* J cb, and the thing that is purified, $ ^ J

(drthet
milk."
in Pyr.
is used

Q yrfrt mr

mer) (Pyr. N., 1. 258), " a mr vessel of
I t may also be seen from the fact that
the milk vessel ^ , with variant forms,
as phon. in writing the word mr, "love,"

VASES.

thus: ^ 0 , ^ J , ^ { , S* 5 5 3 ^,

&C

'

The appendage at the mouth of the vessel is
apparently a flexible teat or feeder for artificially suckled infants and animals. Possibly,
for superstitious reasons, fresh milk was by
preference drawn through such a " t e a t . " The
projections at the side of the teat which we see
in some instances, were probably intended for
the child to hold, and the network band-—as on
—also was intended in all probability to
prevent its slipping from the grasp; this may,
however, turn out to be the fastening of the
teat to the vessel.
Whether the y was an amulet or plaything of
leather or other soft material, or actually a
feeding-bottle to hang round the neck, certainly
to some extent it represents a milk vase, and
its name is identical with that of the milk vase.
As a nursery word it would be likely to lose the
final r earlier than the same word used for the
ordinary milk vessel.

41

used for oxen. But it may be that the word
ydr, as used in connexion with animals, has no
pictorial relation to the hieroglyph; cf. ydrt,
Pyr. JV., 1. 772, the peculiar det. of which may
be the ancient form of this sign.

Z5 Fig. 1 5 4 . Ring-stand for a jar, coloured
red or white (L., D., ii., 20), and flat or curved
below. In the tomb of Tehutihetep, ffl ns't,
" seat," is distinguished from & g, which has a
flat base (M B., i., PI. xxxi.).
In N.K. the
signs for g and ns't and dsrt (see below) all
have the rounded base, and appear to be inI distinguishable (for the first two see L., D., iii.,
59, a). In the early period likewise they are
indistinguishable, and all flat below. Always
they have a rim at the top, often also a rim
below; sometimes the triangular opening seems
to be absent. In Medum, PL xiii., below the
table of offerings, the hole is at the top in </.
(For gy see Ptahhetep, xli. ; Methen, L., D.,
ii., 5 ; for ns't, Ptahhetep, xxxii.) Very rarely
S37 Fig. 181. A bowl of red pottery (?), there seems to be (by confusion with /J\?) a
raised edge all round (see L., J)., ii., 80, d, for
tied over and sealed at the top.
S must be a
Word-sign for \ « <> ydr (ddr), a word applied g, and L., D., ii., 64, a for ns't).
=
In the sculptures and paintings,
to cattle and birds of all domestic sorts ; see ring-stand.
examples, LORET, Bee. de Trav., xviii., p. 205 tall bases of tables, and stands for jars (like za
et seqq. I t is opposed to <=^ <q>\, D D ^ §d elongated), generally have the triangular hole,
(shed), " fatted up," in the case of birds (L., 1)., but this is very seldom seen in the shorter
iii., 30 h, 1. 32). In Eah. Pap., PI. xvi., 11. 13, forms; examples may be found in L., D., ii.,
14, ydr includes 8 ^ ^ ^ " draught oxen," as 68, 1016, 104c. In L., D., ii., 36, these stands
well as food-stock. Ydr therefore seems to be are pierced both at top and at bottom.
the ordinary stock or herds of cattle, geese, &c,
Word-sign for:
that have not been specially fatted; it may thus
1, r ^ p . a ns't. This apparently is not known
be an expression for "domesticated" cattle and as the name of a jar-stand, but is used
birds in general, as opposed to the wild cattle, in the figurative sense of " seat," " throne,"
antelopes, and birds. One writer considers that "position" of a person, as transferable to
the select breeding stock is specially denoted by his son.
the word, but the passages quoted in his paper
2. s m o . n dsrt (deshert).
It is strange
do not well bear this out, nor does the name that the name of the dsrt vase, which is shaped
ydr seem to point to it.
j more or less as Q , is determined by S ; that
Possibly the sign may be connected with the • 55, 5 5 ^ is often the spelling of the name; and
preservation of meat in jars, certainly a practice j that S represents the vase itself in tables of
in Ancient E g y p t ; or possibly with the food offerings and in scenes of offering; e.g., L., D.,

42

DISCUSSION OF THE SIGNS.

iii., 19&. We can, however, find a partial
explanation in the fact that the two vases often
used together, ^ J^-*- • ^ nms't and « m <=>. *
>
7
dsvt, have each the same form (LEPS., A. I ., 43)
in the lists, and also where the vase is represented actually in use, being emptied over
statue or person (Ros., M. del G.y l x . ; cf.
D. el J9., i., PI. xi., in which the vase is unfortunately destroyed).
In order to mark a
distinction between these two important kinds
of ceremonial vases, the Egyptians represented
the nms't vase by a picture of itself, and the
dsvt vase by ffl. Probably such a stand was
practically always of pottery, and thus implied
red pottery, which was presumably the distinguishing characteristic of dsrt, " t h e r e d " vase,
in its ancient form. But in Leyd. Mon., iii.,
24, the S is actually of silver, and bronze is
generally represented by red colour.
3. Alph. for g9 and phon. for g* (go). The
origin of this value is to be found, on the
analogy of dsr% in the name S ^ ^ ^ (Pyr. P.,
1. 707), a vessel the shape of which is presumably
shown by the det. The word is frequently found
later for a cup or bowl on which fruits were
placed, and as denoting a drinking-bowl it is
the origin of the Coptic xco, xoi, a " drinkingb o w l " or " c u p . " See'also A.
To sum u p : ffi the ring-stand (1) was probably named ns% " stand," which word is often
found in the meaning of "throne," " seat." I t
was essentially a pottery form, and though
occasionally made in more valuable material,
it was generally of red or other coarse pottery,
being pretty well hidden from view by the
vessel standing upon it. In this way (2) it
symbolized the red pottery (?) dsrt vase,
<= >
^
ffi,
in order to distinguish it from
the nms't vase, which was of the same form,
but presumably of different material; and (3) it
symbolized the pottery (?) g* vase, s ' v \ Y7,
shaped Y7, in order to distinguish it from other
"
, &c, made probably
sorts, such as $

last use it obtains the alphabetic value g, as
well as its biliteral value gJ (go).
' I n Ptahhetep, PL xxxvi. 3, * L ^ ^ \ & there
seems to be an instance of ZS used as det. of
*~-\ f° (/#), " carry," " support," usually

xi [J5. B"., iii., fig. 34, cf. fig. 62.] Cup, of
wood (?).
Name, I ™ • * hn't.
Word-sign for I ^ • ^
hn't (1) as the name of this cup, used for liquids
in offerings (B. H., iii., p. 15), and (2) as word
for " mistress," probably having the same radical
meaning (cf. ^ 3 ^ , p. 47). A similar vessel is
named ~Tn " handful," hence in the base period
the alph. value -/» of \7.
Word-sign for \ p © wsh (uselch), " width,"
probably by reference to the " diameter" of the
circular vessel seen in elevation; with rad. ext.
Word-sign in N.K. for -* J cb (ab\ perhaps
through the word -a ^ J , later ^ j , " a n
offering," offerings being commonly represented
in vessels XJ.
£}' Fig. 1 4 5 . Potter's kiln; for scenes in
which the kiln is depicted see M B., i.,
PL xxvii. 2, and p. 3 4 ; B. H., i., PL xi., &c.
Word-sign for ~ f j , ~ \ t' (ta), "fervent
heat," whence it is phon. for t\ usually written
This group must not be confounded
with
[B. JT., iii., fig. 85.] Flame from a brazier,
with falling smoke and soot(?), often of the
form Q. Both forms of the vessel containing
the fire are found amongst the dets. of the word
-.® ch (alch), "brazier," in Pyr. (M., 1. 2 3 9 ;

N., L 616, &c).
Word-sign—rarely used by itself—for P -*- w
psf or pfs, " cook " ; p <=> w srf, " h e a t " v. ft\ ;
more often for P V ~ "brazier," "censer,"
"flame," Mentuhotep, p. 24.
. \ /wwv\ XJ
I \_7
Det, of heat, fire, &c.
of basket-work, wood, metal, &c, , From this

43

FIRE-FIBRES.

^ Fig. 7 0 . Censer with a flame, or small
cloud of smoke rising from it. The flame is
usually represented with a pointed tip.
It
occurs often as ^ , with two balls of incense.
Perhaps the sign is not found at all before the
N.K. It is, however, figured in Mentvhotep,
PI. iv., with the name , p ^ • ~ Sz% " censer."
In N.K. the figure occurs, often with a taller
flame, as id. or symbol, probably for the expression "11 ^ ^ (1 " incense upon a burning
censer" (e.g. Paheri, Pi. v., right edge, 2nd row).
Det. of s'ntr, "incense" (Methen, L., D., ii., 3).
In the earliest inscriptions the word for incense
is usually spelt T (1 s = * 9 as if p » - ^ => <> st ntr
=
(seth neter), " divine perfume," but subsequent
variants of O.K. and later, show that this is
really a peculiar writing of the causative
p. ^ ss> < » s'ntr, lit. " making " or " made
=
divine."
In good writing ^ occurs otherwise only in
the groups j J ^ > #3i5?> J}^> e a c ^ °^ w ^ c ^ means "soul," and is to be read J \ b* (ba).
In Pyr. the name of the "soul," usually written
fe^, is sometimes written ^ b ^ ^ 7 , O ^ S ^ (f° r
variant forms see P . , 11. 270, 416). In these
groups O evidently corresponds to ^ , and
so is probably a censer or brazier; it also
occurs in bJ*t, P . , 1. 615. (Note that in Pyr.
there is frequently found a verb 'fc^ b%
meaning " t o possess soul-power," " t o be as
a soul.")
In the usual groups for b\ " soul," viz. "fe^
0 . and M.K., ^ ^ N.K. (early), $5i5? a n d
ask ( X l X t h Dynasty, &c), it is clear that fe^ ,
lit. " digger," is only used for the soul by phon.
trans., and that ^ was added as a determinative
or a distinctive word-sign ideographic of the
soul (as the power of flame); a still clearer
definition was obtained by substituting for
'fe^£ the picture-form of a human soul as a
human-headed hawk, Tk ; or 3^R\, "the embodiment of the " soul of Osiris" in the ram of
Mendes.

K.

FIBRES, T E X T I L E S ;

BASKET-, MAT-, AND

LEATHER-WOBK.

Fig, 1 2 4 . Hank of fibres (of flax?) in
the form of a loop thrice twisted, and with the
ends loose. In the fine sculpture of Usertesen I.
(Koptos, PL ix.), on the original, this sign is
clearly represented as composed of a number of
parallel stems or fibres. The hank is twisted as
if being wrung to dry it, doubtless after the
work of beating and cleansing in water was
completed. In fig. 124 it is coloured green, as
being of vegetable material; in Medum it is
yellow. Parallel changes of colour are found
throughout the rope and rush series of hieroglyphs.
The form of the sign, and the existence of a
verb § , I h9 " beat," suggests that 8 represents
flax fibres " b e a t e n " out, a process which is
probably shown in B. iT., i., PI. xi., 5th r o w ;
B. H„ ii., PI. iv., 2nd r o w ; PI. xiii., 2nd TOAV,
the last representation being the best (the
inscription reads qnqn nwt, u beating threads,
or fibres"). I t may perhaps be questioned
whether the name of
flax,
» \ ^ , S*J mh,
uAei (with -—o, det. of the cubit which has the
same sound) is not a derivative from h, " strike."
v. also c ^ .
From the above word-sign value is derived its
alphabetic value I, h.
(g. Cf. Fig. 8 6 . Coil of rope.
(1) Symbol for the numeral 100. The general
/WW\A ^ \

Q

name for rope is
v^ft (3 , ^ ^ I nwh^ applied
often to rope used in field measurement (BON.,
Save, PL vi.). The standard in linear field
measurement was a rope of 100 cubits, and
evidently this was the standard length in rope
manufacture. This length was called ^ * | , o * ht
(Ichet), "stick," or more fully,

^^

7 ^ Q y> §

lit n nwh, " a stick of rope." The arum, 100
cubits square, is named I _~ t
" a stretch
(of the rope)"—a depth of 100 cubits from the
frontage being always assumed (cf. P. 8. B. A.y

DISCUSSION

u

OF THE

SIGNS.

xiv., 417 et seqq.). Hence, on account of its
standard length, (3, a rope, is the sign for 100,
which in Egyptian is named ^ . ^ §'t (she't)
(SETHE, A. Z., 1893, 112), and hence the value
s (sh) for <§_, which Piehl has identified in
Ptolemaic texts (Ades VIII. Congr. Stockholm,

phonetic value of —H— supplying the s in st°
and Js (v. Addenda).
Word-sign for p » st, later $<*\ stf, "haul,"
with phon. trans.
Det. of % -p- Js (as), " hasten," often transitive
as if " to p u l l " or " drag on." This word does
10
not occur in O.K., unless it be in the form of
p- )a
(2) Word-sign for ^ n . Q sn't (shewt),
v.^L. the intransitive verb -fr, var. —*—, " pass on."
(3) The value \ w (u) for which this sign
^ \ Figs. 4 1 , 4 3 . Rope arranged in a loop ;
stands in K K . as a substitute for \ , is difficult
to account for. By some it is supposed to be at one end a noose, the other end is turned
derived from a hieratic form of \ somewhat down at a sharp angle, the tip pointed and in it
resembling that for < ; it may be partly due (fig. 41) a narrow slit or noose in the substance
©
to words like f ) ^ f ) ^ < £ , $ & $ & w V of the rope. On M.K. coffins this object is
figured with, or near to, weapons (MentuJwtep,
(nana), and £) ® , W<=> w*r (uar), "cord." Pis. iii., v., and p. 18 ; A. T., 38, &c.); the
At that time the advantage of possessing alter- form varies: sometimes there is a noose at one
native letters for forming hieroglyphic groups or other end only (fig. 4 3 ) ; sometimes we have
was strongly felt, though most of the new values J5, with a clear loop at each end (Mentuhotep,
did not enter into hieratic writing until a very PI. iii.), but this is not a hieroglyph.
late period. In this way the horizontal /
On the coffins the name is <> ^ rz; <> \ ^
=
=
(properly, f\ ^ ym (dm)) was used for ^.,
rwz (ruz). This name is met with in Pyr. JV".,
and | were equated with ^, >/ with ^ , and < 1. 975, apparently denoting the loops or knots
a
with $ .
(^ for w seems even to occur in used in the construction of a ladder. In Eah.
Pyr. W., 1. 215, j £ ^ <§. <=> for ywr (dur).
Pap., i., 1. 5, it seems to stand for a bow-string,
Det. of names of rope and of words indicating or better, a lasso ; in BON., Bare, PI. iv. D., 1. 2 1 ,
its use.
the word in the plural signifies the " b o n d s " of
captives by which their arms were tied behind
< Fig. 180; B.H., iii., fig. 51, Cord wound their backs, jft. Clearly the proper sense of
[
on stick.
A fine example is in Ptahhetep, the sign is a noosed or knotted rope. I t has
PL xxxiii., top, 3rd col. from left; see also been supposed to represent a sling, but of this
L., D.9 ii., 97&.
there is no clear evidence; sometimes it may
Word-sign for ^ ^ wz (uz), " stick or hank represent a halter. (Slingers are mentioned in
of cord" ; see B. H., iii., p. 19. .
Pianlchy, 1. 32, and in B. H., ii., PI. xv., one
Phon. for $ ^ .
slinger seems to be figured ; but they are rarely
found on Egyptian monuments.)
Hence phon. for <> ^ ^ .
=
F'g- 8 6 . Coil of rope across a stick.
"Word - sign for ^ \ <==> ^ \ V (ar), and
BORCHAKDT (A. Z., 1897, p. 105) considers that
Other
this sign represents a bolt, -*—, with the cord l s \ ft <=> ^ \ *yr (adr), " oppress."
=
for drawing it from the outside when it was words of this form spelt with *$\, e.g. ^ ^ <>
;
fixed inside. An example copied by Miss Paget mV (mar), poor," " f e e b l e " ; p V 6' r (sar),
in the tomb of Rekhmara shows the —— clearly,
«
poor " ; e » ^ \ <=> d^yr, dy*r, " restrain," gene=
but this form is perhaps not ancient, and may 1 rally have the notion of constraint in one
be only a N.K. invention connected with the form or other ? and are probably all derivatives
-Qr

COEDS—THREAD.
of y'r, V - I n Siut, Tomb L, 1. 350, &c, ft\
stands for « ^ \ <=> \ -*-<=> *— cVyr srf (dadr
"restrain hot temper" ; cf. SH., Eg. Ins , i., 83,
1. 11.
^ j Fig, 128,
A cord, coloured green (so
also L., D., ii., 90), arranged at one end in two
loops, apparently for a slip-knot of a special
kind (with a bow at the side), of which the
detail is never fully shown. In the present
example there is also a slight projection at the
other end of the cord, no doubt to mark the
fraying.
Phon. for $ ^ iv" (ua).
There are two
words that may be connected with it, viz.

see pp. 4, 5. The corresponding verb
serf),
is regularly written ^JT5, cf. J\.

th

Fig. 111. Rope-knot with four loops
at each side and one at each end.
W o r d - s i g n for -*- ^ s" (so), " guard,"
"protect," convertible with ¥ in the sense of
" a m u l e t " ; in Pyr. a common word-sign for
the verb " t o protect," &c, but in later times
confined to the substantival sense "amulet,"
"protection." I t is probably a magic knot,
but may represent a particularly secure way of
tying up a packet with a number of crossstrings.

[1 Fig. 1 3 0 . Thread-line, curved down to
show its flexibility. In Medum, passim, and
B. PL., iii., fig. 25, (1 is coloured red, and once
in Medum (PL xi.) yellow. The picture of the
object is seen in l| ', id. of cloth and det. of
words of similar meaning. Cf. also ft. I n
Horhotep (Miss. Arch., i., PL xiii.), balls of
yarn or bundles of cloth are tied with I.
Cords hanging over stretched lines are repre9 [B. K, iii., fig. 78.] Loop of cord. J is a sented as I.
Alph. for s = Heb. to. The distinction bedebased form, derived from the M.K. cursive
hieratic form for ^ used in late 1ST.K. hieratic tween p and -*- was not observed in writing
after O.K. It seems likely that (1 obtained its
for 9.
Word-sign for °° ^ sn (shen), " surround," value s from the suffixes of the fern, pronoun
"encircle," so perhaps a "loop." After O.K. s, si, owing to thread and cloth working of
all kinds being a woman's occupation.
In
sn't is usually written
" s p o r t i v e " hieroglyphs
j | takes the place
Phon. for sn.
of (1.
Fig. 1 3 4 ; B. K, iii., fig. 22. Short
*gfc Fig. 5 3 .
Apparently a number of
cord ending in small loops, apparently a handle
for drawing or dragging. The sign is often threads, regularly spaced, each looped at one
represented as a twisted cord; here it is green, end, and at the other attached to a horizontal
bar of wood ; a thrfead passes through the loops
but in Medum (Pis. xi., xii.) yellow.
, In Pyr. T., 1. 308, is a word ^
^ tt't parallel to the bar, and from near one end of the
(thetfvt), for a binding or catching cord, there latter there projects a short curved handle (?).
used as a weapon against a serpent, but perhaps The number of threads varies from four to five;
also the name of the cord in the sign 2=5, the they are perhaps never at right angles to the
phonetic value of which would be reduced from bar, which seems as if it might be either drawn
it to t (th) by the usual simplifying process, along, or pushed back by the handle. The O.K.
^) f l \ f l ^ k
^
^ L 178,' Ac.),
$ & $ & w V (uaua), meaning perhaps " cord
of foundation," and " t o bind together."
( 2 ) ^ ] < ^ > ? ^ ^ k ^ wV (uar), "measuring
cord," "cord." The latter might conceivably
be the origin of the phon. value through loss
of the final r, but more probably w* is here the
simplified form of w*w* (cf. pp. 4, 5).

^

AAAAAA

46

DISCUSSION (OF THE SIG-NS.

form appears to have been different, but there
is no trustworthy example to quote. The sign
suggests a connexion with weaving, especially
with the weaver's " h e a l d " (for drawing down
or lifting a certain number of the warp threads
in the loom, and thus affording passage for the
shuttle); but the "heald" would show a separate
thread through each loop, the threads would be
vertical and the handle different. It seems as
though there were some connexion between the
number of threads and the number of fingers
—4, or of fingers and thumb—5.
In the
numerous examples of the X V I I I t h Dyn. the
most usual number seems 4, though 5 is not
uncommon. In L., D., ii., 123/, there is an
abnormal form composed of the four fingers,
) , crossed by the arm,
a, and evidently
indicating the four digits of the palm-measure,
ssp.
Word-sign for " palm " of the hand, 2 E • <^^,
° ° - ^ D §sp (shesep), or °au sfi (shep), lit. " t h e
receiver," " h o l d e r " ; also for the verb L-^-J ffifc •
ssp, " r e c e i v e / ' "hold." After O.K. the sign
was transferred to words originally spelt p °° n
ssp (seshep).
^ Figs. 2 6 , 114. A roll of yellow cloth
(for bandaging?), the lower part bound or laced
over, the upper end appearing as a flap at the
top, probably for unwinding. Cf. B. H., iii.,
p. 25. On M.K. coffins (e.g. Menhihotep) this
symbol figures among the supplies; in some
such cases (e.g. Sebekaa) the upright part
appears to be arranged lengthwise in a hank,
not rolled. In N.K. hatchets were made which
in outline resemble this figure, perhaps intentionally. It is possible, indeed, that the present
object represents a fetish, e.g. a bone carefully
wound round with cloth, and not the cloth
alone ; but this idea is not as yet supported by
any ascertained facts.
On the coffins the name is |, j k , /~A£§D<=> ntr
(nether), meaning probably " d i v i n e " cloth;
the same name occurs commonly in the earliest

tables of offerings (Medum, xiii., xvi., x x . ) .
By rad. ext. it expresses ntr, " g o d , " " d i v i n e , "
in which sense it is exceedingly common from
the earliest times; gradually it became det. of
divine names and id. of divinity, but was very
rarely so used in O.K. It should be noted that
in O.K. the proper id. of u g o d , " the word-sign
for ntr9 the det. of divinity and of the names of
individual gods, was J k , the sacred hawk on its
perch, ^-^p (q.v.), and thus distinguished from
its wild congeners.
(f%\ Figs. 6 1 , 1 6 0 , Perhaps a pleated cloth
or article of dress running on a tape or string,
the two looped (?) ends of which are spread out.*
The pleats shown vary in number ; cf. Methen,
L., J9., ii., lb, for a good outline showing nine
pleats. M^, 1 $ ^ ® y^h (dmalch), is essentially
the same object as that represented by ^ \ , but
it has only one looped (?) end. The meaning of
ymDh is retirement in old age with honourable
ease after a life of faithful service. This seems
to be symbolized in a remarkable manner by
the pleated cloth f%\, drawn together and
folded ^\ to be put away. Perhaps this cloth,
or article of apparel, was ceremonial, and after
use was folded over, and so kept in "easy
and honourable retirement" in perpetuity. In
Medurn, PL xiii., ^\ has as many as ten
pleats, indicating that in all they were very
numerous.
The usual meaning of $®\, % ^ *w (an), as
a word-sign is "stretch out," " o p e n out,"
"length," apparently as opposed to ^\, the
pleats also indicating that it was capable of
great extension.
Phon. for *w (au). The controversy as to
the phonetic value of this sign has been summed
up by W. MAX MULLER, P.S.B.A.,
xviii., 187
et seqq. The supposed value *— \ fw (fu) does
not seem to have existed in early times.
® [B. H., i., PI. xxvii.] Ball of rush-work(?).
In O.K. yellow, with horizontal reeding (Medim,

BASKET-" ORK, 4c.

47

passim, &c.); later green, and generally with " base," on which a thing may stand—an article
of temple furniture—whether of wood or stone,
oblique reeding (El B., i., passim, &c).
Alph. for h (Jch). ^ L being phon. for ©^ according to the det. Perhaps the word meant
hw (Jehu) in O.K. (cf. SETHE, A. Z., 1897, 6), originally a mat or stand of basket-work, and
this points to h (Mb) being the name or proper was the name of the object D, but it is now only
value of ®. It may be connected with © \\ © \\ known from late texts. The ancient city D © P ,
hihi (Ichihhi), "toss up," or with © M or h*h lay in the marshes of the Delta, where mat©
working may have been much practised.
(Jchalch), " r u n swiftly."
^37 Cf. Fig. 2 2 , Bowl or basket of rushwork, without handle ; in early examples yellow,
indicating the dry rushes of which it was composed, and generally showing the horizontal
reeding (L., P . , ii., 2 0 ) ; later green.
Name,
J ^=7, ^ J • < rib% " holder,"
=
>
preserved only in one passage of Pyr. M.,
1. 238 = N., 1. 616, already referred to s.v. 1
(q.v.); with rad. ext. and phon. trans, as in
nb, " m a s t e r , " "holder," "possessor," and nb,
" swim."

r-fl-. Fig. 9 4 . A reed mat, on which is
placed a loaf of bread as an offering. The
colour of the mat (in contrast to that of , ^ 7 , &c.)
is green or blue-green from the earliest times,
presumably because it was made of freshlygathered stems (Medum, PI. xiii.; L., P . , ii.,
19).
The name of an offering is I ^ D Mp (hetep),
lit. "propitiation," " p e a c e " ; and this sign is
the word-symbol for Mp in all its meanings.

^z^> Fig. 9 2 . JVe&-basket (q.v.), with loop
handle outside, below the rim. The distinctive
loop is often omitted in Pyr., probably by
inadvertence. Colouring, &c, as ^ 3 7 , Medum,
Pis. xviii., xxiv.
Alph. for l\ In a very late text there is a
plant-name ^~^ v X Mc (leek), believed by LORET
E
(Bee. de Trav., v., 87) to mean a "rush," which
thus might be connected with the value k of the
basket ^=^s. More probably this k is from a
root ^ ^ k% " w o r k " (v. U ) . In O.K. k' is
commonly written ^=^ ; a basket is necessary
to every workman's outfit, and in Egypt would
be especially appropriate as a symbol of labour.

Q. Cf. Fig. 1 3 . Loop formed of a band of
springy reeds (?), bent round, and the ends
lashed together in such a way as to make
a straight base. Colouring as in <=£=,, L., P . ,
ii., 20.
Word-sign for ° a « « ^ snnw, smv (shennu,
shenu), "circle," " r i n g , " also a " g r e a t multitude." The "cartouche," y , named also mnw
(SCHAFER, A. Z., 1896, 167), is of precisely the
same construction as Q, but elongated for the
reception of the signs composing the king's
name (cf. SETHE, A. Z., 1897, p. 4). In this it
may indicate a protective ring keeping off the
profane; cf. its use in N.K. as det. of ° p « ^ >
snc (shena), " h i n d e r , " "obstruct."

D Fig. 9 5 , This picture evidently represents mat-work made of reeds tied together.
I t may, however, not be a simple mat, which
was usually represented oblong, as in r ^ ; in
Medum,, Professor Petrie calls it a bundle (?).
Colouring as in ^ ^ .
Alph. for p. There is a rare word,
,
p (SCHAFER, A. Z., 1897, 98), meaning a " stand,"

A Fig. 2 3 .
Two bundles of reeds or
rushes (?) tied together at the top and spreading out downwards; near the lower ends they
are loosely connected by a cord. In the early
period (in Pyr.) this sign seems to be very
variable. It may possibly represent a straw
cap used in stoppering and sealing wine-jars.
Word-sign for ^ J ^ zV (zeba), which has

DISCUSSION

various meanings, " block
" exchange," &c.

up,"

covering,

OF THE

SIGNS.

Medum, PI. xvii., lower right, it occurs in a
proper name.

J Fig. 2 7 . Roll of sacred linen, with bag
t Fig. 8 2 ; B.H.,iii., fig. 27. Bag or pouch
(of leather ?) tied and sealed; used for precious id. of toilet powders.
Graphic compound ; the name of a sacred
metals, powders for the toilet, &c. It occurs in
composition as id. or det. of toilet powders. cleansing powder or earth. Early variants of
The present example is of the regular form in the sign (cf. e.g.,Pyr. M., 1. 28, with parallel
O.K. (e.g. Medum, PI. xiii., lower left) and in passages) give | ntr, alone, which is therefore
N.K. In M.K. it is often g , perhaps the same the name of the substance contained in the bag.
thing opened, showing strap and loop for fasten- This was probably natron, or perhaps nitre.
ing.
Prof. Maspero mentions having found The Greek name virpov is derived from the
leathern bags like tobacco pouches, fastened with Ancient Egyptian. In many forms of ntr the
a lace, containing eye-paint; these were from final r was lost, but apparently it was retained
(prehistoric?) tombs at Gebelen. The scribe- in this word.
artists always distinguish it from the loop of
rope, $ ss (shes), though that occasionally has
L.
IMPLEMENTS, TOOLS.
a looped end, ft (Medum, PI. xiii., lower
right).
Figs. 3 3 , 113. Sickle set with flints,
The name of the bag or pouch is -* <=> * crf
—
the wood coloured green. Cf. Kalian, ix.. 22 1
(arf), of which word this sign is .det., with rad.
Illqhun, vii., 27. For the unexplained green
ext.; but in a number of place-names it has the
colour, which is constant in all representations,
value g, viz. ^5 J ^ \ Gbtiw (Gebtiu), Coptos see SPURRELL in T. el A., pp. 37, 3 8 ; cf. also
(Koptos, PI. vi. et seqq.); *^~n ~° (Paheri, PI. viii., Medum, frontispiece; B. H., i., PL xxvii.
cornice line, from which the present example is
c

taken), variant *^~ ^ F g (Fag), Eileithyiapolis;
© Gsm, Goshen.

Some of these names

are probably not pure Egyptian, but suggestive
of foreign origin, and the value of ^5 is often
rather A q than n g. One may perhaps connect
this value with the idea of tight packing,
compression, %\ g* (go)*

Det. of ^ ~ ^ ~ J ^ ' 4 (aselch), "reap."
name of the sickle is

possibly ^ J J K
curved."

or

-&J

b

h* (<*"&), "t h e

Word-sign and phon. for ^ ^

(ma)—varying

to ^ ^

The

\n

(am),

mJ

Jp ? =

k ^ - I " 1 ! m°-hz (rnahez), " t h e white ma (?),"
is the oryx, possibly in reference to its curved
horns (?). y
"lion," and ^ J>, P k ^ i"i'
(sma), "slaughter"—perhaps the causative of a
% *b, the same sign doubled, may represent
J
the two bags of the two kinds of eye-paint, word m —may point to the origin: but this is
mesdem and uaz, or may be simply intensive of mere_ conjecture. Can it be connected with
t^ " g r a s p " ?
the idea of compression. It occurs in the placename
£ (BR., D. G., 864), where perhaps it
K
^^x. Fig. 117. Wooden hand-hoe, made of
represents the above g, but is doubled to distinguish it from the group Q ss (originally ss, a long bent blade held in place by a cord
attached to the handle.
ss't), "alabaster."
J
The hoe was called I ^ r^ hnn (Pyr. M., 1. 696,
Word-sign for s ^ or $ a & iog (uga), "helplessness/' "weakness" (P.S.B.A., xiii., 74). . In &c), especially in its simplest form, made with

49

IMPLEMENTS.

being constructed by binding the tool may
a forked branch, ^
(Medum, PI. xv.),
hence have received its name ; cf. *^3L.
apparently owed its common word-sign value
Word-sign for ^ <=> mr, used also in the
mr to being made of two pieces " b o u n d "
together, from
r „ , ^ <=> mr, " b i n d . "pseudo-causative I T sm/r, " royal friend." The
Rarely used as phon.
" sportive " hieroglyph pM of B. PL., iii., fig. 80,
Det. of hoeing, hacking, &c.
P*^
standing for
r w i mr sm'wt (mer sem'ut).
| Fig. 1 8 6 . Piece of grained wood with a
loop or handle on one side in the middle of its
length. In Methen (L., D., ii., 76) the loop is
below the middle.
I t may very well represent a plasterer's "float" or smoothing
board. The type u commonly used in print
for qd is quite wrong, though in very late texts
the sign | is conventionalized to nearly this
form.
Word-sign for A ^ qd (qtd), "build," "shape,"
&c.; with phon. trans.
y Fig. 8 0 . Chisel, consisting of a tongueshaped metal blade set in a stout wooden
handle. This is a chisel to be driven by a
mallet. In Medum, frontispiece, fig. 17, and
PI. xi., the handle is cylindrical (with strengthening bands). It appears to be distinct from the
awl worked by the bow-drill, the handle of the
awl being more slender.
The name of the object is
mnh
V
(menhh) (Leyd. Mons., iii., 2 4 ; Tomb. Sety I.,
Part iii., PI. xiii.), and the sign is used as general
word-symbol for mnh.
• i I I 111 H I

Fig. 1 0 7 .
Pointed instrument with
wooden handle of peculiar shape showing that
it is to be worked by hand; cf. Medum,
Pis. xviii., xxiv., and p. 32. On a V l t h Dynasty
O.K. stela in the old Bulak Museum the sign
has the chisel end in a handle of rushes (?)
bound together. The form $ also seems fairly
well authenticated (L., D., ii., 121). Apparently
it is a chisel or borer to be worked by hand, not
struck with the hammer. For such use the
handle might well be of softer material, and

" governor of the desert," shows that mr is a
word connected with drilling or piercing, but
the present sign can hardly be a tool for
working with a bow-drill.

o Figs. 2 0 , 9 6 ; B. B., iii., fig. 89. Drillcap (?), coloured greenish blue (in B. H., iii.,
fig. 89, too green). In Medum it is black. In
Mentahotep, PL iv. ("fuss-seite"),
and p. 28
= A. T., PI. 29, where the outlines of the group
of tools are clearer, the object ^ is figured
along with tools—bow-drill, chisel, &c.—and
coloured blue-green. Petrie's identification of
the object as a black stone drill-cap seems more
likely to prove correct than that of SteindorfF
as a polisher. The caps found with small
drills are usually made of the hard dark domnut, and are much more conical than ^ , as
indeed they are represented in scenes of carpentering, cf. B. H., iii., fig. 80. But at Kahun,
Petrie found black stone pivots or drill-caps,
shaped roughly ^ . In the scenes the polishingstones are generally represented as white, and
oblong or oval.
Whatever may be the object represented by
this sign, its name seems to have been Q o yt
(at), with fugitive (|, rather than t alone.
Compare its homophony as a word-sign with
Q, 4 - yt (at), " l o a f " ; with (] ^ , \ - yt (at),
"father," &c. Probably * "drill-cap," ~Q,
\QI
"loaf," or cake of potter's clay on the
wheel (Pyr. P., 424 = iV., 1211), all bear the
same name \^, owing to their more or less
domed form.
As phon., ^ loses the presumptive initial \,
and becomes alph. for t.
E

50

DISCUSSION

OF THE

SIGNS.

[Cf. B. LP., iii., fig. 73.] Adze with metal also for ^ k * ~ " t h e sharp thing," "sword,"
blade bound to wooden handle.
" b l a d e " — e . g . of an adze (Leyd. Mons., iii.,
As an ordinary tool it is called -*n/**•*> n't 24), in Pyr. P., 1. 81, &c, « k V ~
dmH;
(an't), lit. " c l a w " {Tomb. Sety L., Part iii.,
cf. Mettemich Stela, 1. 82, where J ^ ^
^
PI. xiii., 2, right edge; and Leyd. Mons., iii.,
(i.e. hri dm't) = ^ \\ " ^ in Pap. Eb.: with
PI. xxiv., in lists of tools); hence, sometimes in
^
Pyr. word-sign for this term in the sense of rad. ext. In Pap. Eb., &c, there is a verb
"claw." The sacred adzes used in the ceremony " cut away," "remove," which may be p \ \ sw*
of "opening the m o u t h " are called ^—„ simply
(Leyd. Mons., I.e.), or more particularly i^~^

xci., 15, occurs a word R ^ ~ £4 " t o lance(?),"

(var. ^ G ^ ^ ) (
J

which may be connected with

D

" t h e nw (nu) of

xxvi. i\ SCHIAP., L. d. P.,
i., pp. 104, 105). Hence phon. for * \ nw (nu),
usually written ^__^ v \ . In Pyr. sometimes det.
of /-A ^ <> nzr, " cut with an adze."
=

(sua), " c u t away," " c u t down."

In Pap. Eb.,
1*^_^K° sfw*,

" k n i v e s " (B. LL., iii., p. 3 4 ) ; but the usual
form, like that of the verb " t o slaughter ".oxen,
is sft, with radical t (v. Addenda).
Det. of cutting, and cutting instruments.

s>—v [B. H., iii., fig. 73.] Adze and piece of I [B. H., iii., figs. 63, 65.] Knife or chopper
wood (grooved).
in conical handle. In O.K. a straight-backed
Word-sign for p m D stp (reason unknown), blade alone.
and often for irv~^ nw. In the geographical
Word-sign for ^ ^ nm. Nm't is the name
name — ^ D • ** cnp't (Anp't), i.e. Mendes, whichof the executioner's block in Hades at which
«
is spelt with the adze, it is uncertain whether heads and limbs were lopped off; perhaps the
^—* or &—, is the more correct as word-sign. same word, but written by a peculiar and
Cf. Medum, PI. xxi., where the sign is perhaps variable id., is used for the butcher's block in
injured, but seems to represent the handle only Pyr., where there is also a word w* 1 1 \ nm
of the adze. The origin 9f this value is perhaps found in connexion with the execution of the
to be sought in local mythology.
enemy of Osiris, P., 11. 598, 600.
Phon. for nm.
^
[B. K, iii., fig. 70.]
Knife, coloured
black. For this particular form cf. B. LL., iii.,
p. 38, PI. ix., fig. 4, PI. x., fig. 2. The example
figured is taken from B. H., i., PI. xviii., where
it is the name of a locality sacred to the goddess
Pakhet, namely the ravine of Speos Artemidos,
called ^ j in the N.K. inscriptions of that
temple. In B. PL., i., PI. xxiv., there is a
variant —— ^ j ^ ^ , written with a peculiar
*
animal. The reading is by no means certain.
The knife is word-sign for ^ p ds, " a knife,"
" blade," " sharp p o i n t " ; with some rad. ext.
(in Pap.Eb.).
Cf. Pyr. M., 1. 352 ; in Methen
(L., P., ii., 13), the sign for ^s is 1 apparently
a harpoon-head with single barb. Word-sign

|
Figs. 4 2 , 1 2 9 ; B. PL., iii,, figs. 64, 68.
Fire-stick apparatus, in fig. 42 consisting of
drill with two ridges—to prevent bow-string
from slipping—standing on the matrix.
In
B. PL., iii., fig. 68, the drill is faceted, and there
is also a groove for the bow-string to work in,
when that was used. B. LL., iii., fig. 64, shows
how the sticks were used and re-used as matrices.
In Medum, PI. xxviii., 1, the top of the drill has
been charred by previous use of that end, and a
drill-hole has also been burnt in it. The drills
from Kahun (Kahun, p. 29, Lllahun, p. 11 ;
cf. Ten Years' Diggings, fig. 91) are composite,
having separate stock, faceted like B. LL., iii.,

WEAPONS, H

fig., 68, and capped with another piece of wood.
In the hieroglyph J, the drill is generally
simple, but in fig. 129 it has more the appearance of the drill-head from a composite
drill.
The value of | is ^ ^ z* (za). The blackened
drill-holes seem unmistakable evidence as to the
origin of this sign, and BOECHAEDT (A. Z., 1897,
p. 105) accepts the solution. But the Egyptian
name of the fire-drill is as yet unidentified, and
it seems at present impossible to show the
connexion of the value ^ ^ with fire-making.

5L

Word-sign for p ^ ^ iwn (sun), "physician,"
p ^ /~x. ^ " price," &c. The name swn, for an
arrow, is only found in very late mythological
texts, and its authenticity as the origin of the
value swn may be doubted.
cjL Fig. 8 5 . Mace, with nearly globular,
or ovate white head, the handle crossed by a
loop of cloth or cord. Compare Me'dwm, p. 31,
and B. H., i., PI. xxvii.
The mace with head of this form was called
l^\ hz (hez), " t h e white," or fern. ? ^ , f ^ . n
hz't (Mentuhot&p, p. 18, no. 8).
Word-sign for I ^ hz; with phon. trans.
The loop across it probably marks and defines
the meaning " white," linen and clothing being
usually of that colour; it may be added to
distinguish ? from j "green," and 0 "string."
The addition of the loop is found occasionally
from the earliest times.

Fig, 1 7 4 . The support of a balance,
of a post, from the upper part of
which projects a curved p e g ; the lower end of
the post is fixed in a firm base.
This object is named "\\
^ wts (uthes),
"support," the word also meaning to " weigh"
(in a balance). After O.K. it has two other
values, (1)
" j ts (ihes), "raise"
T
(in O.K.
The mace is written with the phonetic comwith a different det.), transferred also to other plement thus, J^*!? *nh? to distinguish it from
meanings ; and (2) <=> 1 ^ J ® - rs, " wake up," 0 c-^a ^K wd " string," and "OL hsf.
9
" be wakeful," probably from connexion of ideas
with "rising," ".being raised," and confusion
I \B. H., iii., fig. 77.~\ Curved or angulated
with X
club or throw-stick ; its forms include the fowler's
throw-stick (e.g. L., D., ii., 130 = B. if., i.,
PI. xxxii., where the hieroglyph j immediately
W A R , HUNTING, &C.
M.
above the hand holding the stick reads qm*).
The throwing club was the weapon of the
Fig. 1 9 0 . Conventionalized bow, or
yoke for carrying. In the " prehistoric " sculp- desert tribes east and west of Egypt (cf. B. H.,
ture ( D E MORGAN, Becherches, ii., p. 265, better i., Pis. xvi., bottom right, xxxi., xlv.), but not of
in Bev-i Arch., 1890, PI. iv.) the bows are nearly the negroes, to judge by its use in O.K. writing.
With the complement t \ , thus, ) f\ , it indiof this type ; later they are very different.
Word-sign for a ^ . ^ pz't, " b o w , " lit. " t h e cates the — ^ ^ ^ - ^ ^m'w (Aamu), or eastern
stretched," "stretcher," which might very well Bedawtn, &c; while with 0 nwy j Q, it denotes
be also the name of the yoke. Used with phon. the Libyans on the west, the s ) { ^ . ^ thn'w
(Tehewu); and in Tina, 1. 16, =?s=» s = ) I N r^^-n
transf.
stands for o ^ | s > ^ I. ^ t" tmh'w (Ta Themh'u),
=
i.e. Libya. In the M.K. even the name of the
, [B. H., iii., fig. 32.] Arrow.
Name, c3op<=> sir (sheser), " a r r o w " ; with negroes was written ] [• v&, for ^ i p ^ nhsi
phon. trans. Used also, even in O.K., for p ^ <> (Nehesi), though earlier the ] was not attached
=
ssr (sesher), p»-<=> shr (secher), " t o milk," &c. to this name in any form. Grouped Vrwi^

i
consisting

E

2

DISCUSSION

52

) 2£m, gradually it became det. for all names
of foreign countries, cities, and tribes, and was
used even for the frontier city of ^ ^ _^& ^
T*rw, " Z a r u " ; in O.K. its use as det. was very
limited.
The variants of the group | 8, in the lists of
offerings, are confused, but early texts (e.g.
Ptahhetep, PI. xli.) point to 1 being in this
case = n J? qm* (qema), a very common value
of j . I n late times it was used as word-sign
and phon. for A $^ in many words = ^ ^ ^jl ,
which is properly Q | ^ gm. As word-sign also
it has the value s/~^ tn (then). As word-sign
for qm\ it may express creating in hinds,
in relation to races of men, since | takes a
leading place in the spelling of their names.
As tn it may similarly convey the idea
of distinction into hinds. Also » ^ \- Tenu
was the name of an important tribe on the
N.E. of Egypt, in Palestine; ^ . s r ~ A Mdh.cn
is perhaps an interpreter (?) or foreign resident (?), an emigrant or immigrant.
After
O.K., in both the values qmJ and tn, | is in
hieratic generally accompanied by a bird,
] ^ * ? to show that it is the throw-stick and
not the finger, | ; and after the X l X t h Dynasty
this bird appears regularly in the hieroglyphs
in the attitude of one struck by the throwstick, J l j ^ , &c, as shown in the fowling scenes.
is a barbarous form.
^ ^ [B. H., iii., fig. 23.] Fisherman's boat
containing a net, or a fish (Siut, Tomb i.,
1. 248).
' ,
Word-sign for ^ I - J wh? (aha), " c a t c h fish
and birds," " fisherman" ; the word is often
spelt phonetically in 0 . and M.K. (Pyr.;
Siut,
I.e.; El B.7 ii., PI. xvi.). Phon. trans, to many
other words.

J [B. H.7 iii., fig. 47.]

Paddle.

Name, {••<=> hp't; with rad. ext. as det.
Word sign for hrw (hherii), " v o i c e " (occasionally also hry, " enemy "), possibly in reference to

OF THE

SIGNS.

the cry or song with which time was marked in
paddling.
^A~ Fig. 112.
A harpoon, the head (of
bronze (?), coloured green, perhaps originally
grey) is barbed and fitted by a tang into the
wooden shaft; a loop of cord is tightly lashed
on or near the head, for the fixing of the line ;
in O.K. the barb is always single.
Word-sign
for^\4^-,
wc (ud), " o n e , "
perhaps in reference to its being single-headed,
as opposed to the bident of fishing scenes
(L., D., ii., 130—Xllth Dyn.), or because of
the single barb, v. 11. But war-darts are perhaps called « ^ ^ - ^ ivc (ud), DUM., H. /., i.,
PL x x . ; the first sign, however, is imperfect.
The usual name of a harpoon, bident or other, is
[J*-*. (Pyr. P., 1. 424), k - J ^
m b (// aba), which is the name also of the
numeral 30, and so is accompanied by n. The
etymology of the name is unknown.
c J

1 Fig. 5 6 ; B. H., iii., fig. 71. Harpoonhead of white bone or ivory; cf. the " prehistoric" harpoon-heads of bone in PETRIE,
Naqada, PI. lxi. In M.K. it is sometimes joined
with (9, the string which bound it to the shaft
(L., D., ii., 121). In N.K. its origin seems to
have been forgotten, and an impossible form
is substituted (fig. 56 or 3) preserving a
reminiscence of this string.
In Pyr. P., 1. 425, the two points of a bident
weapon are called A [1J J qs'wi (qes'ui), " t h e two
bones." Thus, as was conjectured in B. H.^ iii.,
p. 24, the name of the harpoon-head is qs, " the
bone." But the sign ] is not only used as the
word-symbol for " bone," and as phon. for J p
qs ; by a most exceptional procedure this picture
of a manufactured article of bone is id. of
(A) many kinds of bone-like materials and
objects, and (B) apparently of matters connected
with the disposal of the bones of the skeleton in
the grave.

FISHING

AND

FOWLING.

53

"b (ab); it may have given its name to a more developed
of the names of all reeds —no doubt on account technique. Or again, the sacred stone-mason
of their polished surface; of J - a 1 bc (ba), was^ called ^L n£ " necropolis-man," and in the
same way the sculptor of &a-statues, ushabtis,
" rib of the palm-leaf/' " palm-stick " ; and of
and other burial equipment may have been
J ^ l ^ ^ ^ H '
k & * - - , mV*
(mawt), called "skeleton-" or "bone man," or "burial" stalk of corn/' " shaft of spear," &c.
maij," since his work was chiefly for the tomb.
Note that Heb. r\2\) Mneh (which appears in
From very late variants quoted in the dicN.K. Egyptian as A ^ ^ qnn, Lat. carina), means tionaries, it would seem that this ancient word
"reed," "hollow corn-stalk," "spear-shaft," and ( ] ], Ptahhetep, PI. xxxii.) ni" st be read
" humerus bone," thus almost covering the ^ -p- ^ . ^ w msn'ti, not gn'ti, which would
above significations of J.
otherwise appear a probable reading as de^ ^ 1 ^ 5 ^\^<=> twr (tur), " t h e clean," as noting " preserver of the gn% i.e. the memory
the name of a reed (?), is perhaps the origin of of the dead."
a
£^
q /WWW,
3 occurs in the compound signs (1) 1JL? ~"~ I
the det. \ in <~^_^ <=> J AA A twr, " purify." sh, " t o e " (LANGE, A. Z., 1896, p. 77), in which
AM
But see the compound 3, below, no. 2.
J, the bone, is sometimes in very early cases
(B) J is, from earliest times, det. of the word replaced by | , the finger; but the origin of the
M 1 H ^ qrs9 "funerary equipment," "coffin," sign 1 1 is not yet perfectly clear. (2) 1, J ^
probably because of the connexion both in sound bd, "natron," in which the species of 15 in13
and idea with n (V "bone." Erman [Gram.) dicating toilet powders seems to be defined as
and Max M tiller (Orient alistische Litter at ur- that used for funerary purposes,
[I ] , or in
zeitung, 1898, 17) both consider the two words particular, perhaps for the washing of the
to be radically connected. Also, from Pyr. bones, J . It can hardly be doubted that the
onwards, det. of Q ^ . ^ gn% " posthumous fame," bone-sign 1 acquired a det. meaning in con" memory of the dead."
nexion with funeral rites; / J d 3 3 ^=^ " thy
J J is the sculptor of statues with mallet and bones are purified" is a common expression in
chisel, who also finishes them with paint-pot the funeral ritual, and mummification was not
and brush ; see B. H., ii., PI. iv., right, and a very early invention in Egypt, being little
PI. xiii., left; in the similar scene, Ros., M. (7., practised even at the end of the O.K. (On this
xlvi., 9, which is probably copied from the tomb subject see PETRIE, Deshasheh, p. 15 et seqq.).
of Aba, XXVIth Dyn., the word is written u .
In Ros., ill". (7., xlv., 5 (also Aba), the J1 makes
$— \B. H., iii., fig. 42, wrongly | in the
tishabtis; in CH., M.9 clxxx. = Ros., M. G.9 plate.] Straight bar ending in a double hook :
xlvii., 1 (Aba), he sculptures a lion. In the possibly a fish-hook of bronze, coloured red.
tomb of Min, temp. Thothmes III. (Miss., v.,
Word-sign for <=><=>I rth, " b i n d , " " t a m e , "
366), the J s—a is working on a sacred boat and ©/~A<=> hn[r] (lchen[ef\)j "prison," &c, with
with mallet and chisel.
phon. trans, in each value. £) Tint and ^r>
It is difficult to decide how 1 J came to have appear to be confused with it in the second
the meaning of " sculptor." The carving of value hn, hnr, owing to their identical forms in
bone and ivory into harpoon heads, pins and hieratic (see Kah. Pap., i., 1. 8).
ornaments, was evidently an important art in
prehistoric and early Egypt, and though this
^ _ Fig. 5 2 . Bird -trap consisting of two
work would seldom require mallet and chisel, curved frames (the nets filling these frames are
(A) ] is det. of "ivory," *j* J | , 1 J

54

DISCUSSION

OF THE

sometimes also shown). For the hieroglyph,
cf. Mednm, x., xviii.; and B. H., ii., Pis. vi.,
xiv., for various forms of bird-traps.
The name of the net-trap is \ J r s ybt (dbt).
The sign is also word-symbol for I _ d sht
(sekhet), " catch with a net or trap," also
"weave," "plait," "construct of reeds," &c.

N.

FURNITURE, FOOD, PERSONAL ACCOUTRE-

SIGNS.

ordinarily the value of p s alone. But Ys'yr
rather than S'yr would be the closer rendering
of Ws'yr. As the group had the appearance of
meaning " throne of the E y e , " j p»^l (| <=>•** ys't
yrt (ds't art), the throne was generally placed
below the eye.
Word-sign for f^^ htm, meaning "destroy,"
" complete," &c. The origin of this value is
unknown.

( = 1 Fig. 1 3 6 ; B. H., iii., fig. 66. Box or
casket of variable form, with or without feet
—*p Fig. 6 5 . Portable chair, somewhat as and arched cover; fcfzd especially representing
(
figured in Medum, PI. x x i . ; El B., i., PI. xiii., a coffin.
Named TO r™\ hn. Det. of its own name, which
&c.
This sign is found among dets. of r ^ (y)s't is applied to boxes of any shape or size, casket
(art), "throne," in Pyr.; J ^ , W., 11. 391, or coffin. In the form t z d , det. of coffins and
393. I t is also det. of other words of similar burial.
meaning, e.g. ^ £=>-*- wts (uthes), © « ^ hud
Fig. 1 2 6 ; B. H., iii., fig. 21. Stand
(Ichend), t=>\r^*^ tJn't (than't).
for food and drink: naturally very variable.
In N.K. the name of Osiris, usually A
(1) In fig. 126 it has the form of a rack for
ys-yr (ds-dr), was regularly written ( ^p, the
j being replaced by *=4, probably because of jars of liquid—water, beer, or wine—containing
the more ceremonial significance of the latter two water coolers (hes't), and one short covered
vessel (nems't) ; in the lower part of the rack
sign.
is a shelf upon which the bases of the two tall
r [B. H., iii., fig. 86.]
Conventionalized vessels rest. See MASPERO, Trois annees, PI. ii.,
throne. The form is very unpractical for a for a similar stand with names to the vases.
seat, but perhaps it is intended for the throne
(2) Another form is [ = § 5 for combined food
of a statue. The colour varies: in L., P., ii.? 21, and drink.
it is yellow, for wood; in Mednm, PI. xiii., it
(3) Or again, it may be I B , the bread-stand,
is white, for limestone; here we have blue, for so constantly figured in the scene of the " table
dark stone.
of offerings." This represents a table covered,
The reading of the name r| as p •<* s't alone not with a garnishing of leaves, as has been
is probably wrong. It should in all likelihood suggested (A. Z., 1893, p. 1) and agreed;to by
be i|p-<=> ys't (ds't), with weak initial I (omitted many, but with halves, quarters, or at any rate
)
in writing). As phon., jj seems normally to slices of tall pointed loaves of bread, laid
represent y , and after O.K. \f9 but the (\—• parallel; see Medum, PI. xiii., where both in
soon reduced to ^ — w a s sometimes neglected form and colour the slices are precisely halves
in early writing. In Pyr. [ I is a variant for of the {^ in the accompanying inscription; so
jn, and the latter is sometimes alph. for s.
also on the panels of Hesy. Later figures are
As to the group r| for the name of Osiris, less definite, and in the M.K. the slices are often
Erman (Gram.) is inclined to render the name represented so conventionally as to have become
.-^ p. j«= Ws'yr (Us'dr), and he gives to r almost meaningless to the eye.
)s >
MENTS, WRITING, MUSIC, GAMES.

FOOD—WRITING.

(1) is word-sign for ^ c » j ivdh (udh), "drink=
stand."
(3) is word-sign for © ^ ^ • ^ h*to't
(khawt), "food-stand." (2) will serve as wordsign for either; in B. PL., i., PI. xvii., it is
picture det. of ivdh, of h*wt, and of < £ > f j j
==
ht/p wsh't, "offering in the court."

be the usual value, ft a, Hi %> " s c r i b e / ' is
probably to be read ssw (seshu).
(2) s=5 f\

I ai

panel," " sculptured

tms

(thems) = " wooden

or painted (?) designs."

Used also by phon. trans.
(3) ^

0 , G- C f - F ' g - 9 4 5 B- H-> iii., fig- 21. Cake
of bread, the lower part represented as shaped
or marked by the vessel in which it was baked
or moulded. In O.K. generally coloured black
(Medum, in offerings), perhaps because of the
crust being b u r n t ; later, often yellow.

55

^

p j ^ (Pyr.) trwt (therwt), " ink";

wtrw
later, ^ < = i > ^ | ° | , ^ ^ < ^ ^ , u trwi
>
"colours for writing and painting." In this
word the sign is more det. than word-sign.

(4) —flfti ncc (ndd), " t o be polished"—of

stone or wood—"to be smooth," perhaps as a
surface for painting; or, more likely, " to be
Name, - t, cf. ~ j fl =
J p, Pyr. W., 161, ground fine" like a pigment for writing-ink,
N.9 426, &c, commonly in or for painting. In medical papyri we have
so also t (^
tables of offerings; or perhaps 4 ^ yt (at) ;
standing also for the causative s'ncc (s'ndd),
grind fine" (Kah. Pap., p. 8).
compare its homophony with jj ^
in / \ 1
The supposed value ~ * ^ cn (an) is entirely
(N.K.) and v. ^ . The group
foy,
yfoi?
wrong; it is due to a misreading of the title
(<5w, ctfw) must not be confounded in value with shv(?)c n Stn, " scribe of the account (
w ) of
the king."
AAAAAA

s~s AAAAAA

Figs. 4 4 , 1 5 3 ; B. H., i n . fig. 61.
Papyrus rolled up, tied and sealed; by exception there is no seal in fig. 44.
(1) The group ^ " ^ (L., D., iii., 148a, &c.)
appears to be identical with the word written
in Pyr.,
^ and
^ ^ sc't (shd't), with
various other forms of det. indicating a bundle
of papyri. It means a book or writing of any
sort, and probably refers to the slicing, s c , of the
papyrus-pith; cf. § .
(2) r-^f- is also in O.K. to be read -* c (a),
| ^ Fig. i71 ; B. PL., iii., fig. 18. Scribe's as the name of a papyrus or writing, especially
(Methen,
outfit, consisting of palette, pen or pen-case, of an account or register; cf. _
and water-pot (see B. LL., iii., p. 12). According L., P., ii.? 3, top), and the ancient title ^_^^
(Methen, L., D.,
to BORCHARDT the sculpture on the panels of (MAR., Mast, 406) = ^=> ^
<===>
Hesy (MAR., Alb., PI., xii.) rather indicates a ii., lb) =
(panel of Hesy, MAR., Alb,,
leather pouch containing dry colour in place of PI. xii.). Except in titles this word does not
the water-pot; but this is not clear.
seem to occur after O.K. I n Pyr., e.g. T.,
Word-sign for the following:
" h a n d " is actually written
1. 242, ~
ss (sesh), " write," believed to by an extraordinary transference.
(1)
>i
E
Figs. 17, 6 2 , 1 7 9 .
Short stick with
knob at the end, having the appearance of a
club, but perhaps only an abbreviated form of
the walking-stick, the top of which is formed
like the lower end of | in its typical form. In
the tomb of Tehutihetep (fig. 179) the sign i^
less symmetrical than usual.
Word-sign for f\ c±=^> | md, " walking-stick,"
" stick," " wand " ( M A X MULLER, Bee. de Trav.,
ix., 2 1 ; A. Z., 1893, 126). Used with phon.
trans.

DISCUSSION

56

OF THE

SIGNS.

O.
INSIGNIA, SCEPTKES, SYMBOLS,
t=n \B. #"., iii., fig. 37.] Flute (?).
At
STANDARDS.
Medum, and in other very early instances,
generally represented as a narrow rectangle;
Fig. 2 2 .
The crowns of Upper and
but in Plahhetep, PI. xxxiii., it tapers from Lower Egypt placed side by side, or one within
end to end; later, it has straight sides with a the other, in a neb-basket, ^=^. Royal emblems
sharp bevel at one end, as in the example were perhaps carried in such baskets to prevent
figured.
their contact with profane things.
Word-sign for ^%—o m"50 (mad), "straight,"
Word- sign for , § \\, -— © k* ~NN shm'ti
"just," " true " ; an idea that may be connected (sekhem'ti), the name of the double crown,
either with the cubit rod or with the flute. lit. " t h e two powerful (things)."
Maspero, Loret, Erman (Gram,) all agree that
Det. of 1 ^ ^ •<** w*z'ti (uaz'ti), " t h e two
it represents a flute. Loret discussed the flourishing (things)," and of ^ ^
^ , \ <=><=>• ^
question in his Flutes Egyptiennes
Antiques, wrvt (urert), also names for the double crown.
pp. 11-13 (Journal Asiatique, 1890). £ = D , I , Wrr't is perhaps a form of wrt, " the great,"
or its variants, seems to be det. of a word strengthened by reduplication of the final radical.
$^«^m#£, $ ^ & / ~ m*'t (ma't), "oblique flute,"
and of -*- j sb, a " flute," or " to play the flute."
Cf. Fig. 2 2 .
White crown of Upper
Borchardt believes that in early times «—-, was
Egypt, consisting of a tall cap, perhaps made of
a double flute, quoting in confirmation of his
silver (or of white cloth).
+
r
theory a scene in the Cairo Museum, and that
r\ —*
—
N a m e , y Tk ^ L
mys'wt (mds'id) ; also
later perhaps it was a single one. In several
O.K. sculptures the flute, held obliquely, is \ ^ • c hz% " the white."

named ~p a , ^ ^ - ^ m^t (ma't), a " s t i c k , "
"cane," and = . , the straight flute, is 1 \
(L., D., i i , 52), which may possibly be read
m^'t (maat), though L., 7)., ii., 74c, indicates
mmt as the reading.
r " ^ Fig, 1 4 4 .
Draught-board, set with
men. The board in plan, divided into three
rows of ten squares each; the draughtsmen
appearing on the edge, in elevation, are of
two sorts; their number varies in different
examples.
The draught-board is called
„„_ sn't, the
°

AAAAAA

I

I

game { J -* hbc (heba), but the value of this
very common phon. is $^ ^ mn. The root mn
means especially "firm," " established," and
perhaps for this reason the sign is found above
false doors in tombs. The draught-board " set"
with men and firmly placed seems thus to have
symbolized the idea of firmness, and probably
was described as ^^
^ ^ mn " s e t . "

W Cf. Fig. 2 2 . Red crown of Lower Egypt,
consisting of a cap or circlet, perhaps always
open at the top, as when the upper crown is
fitted into it. At the middle of the back rises
a bar sloping slightly backwards, and from the
inside a coil (§. projects upwards and forwards.
Perhaps the red crown was made of copper.
AAAAAA

?/

Name,
j¥
N't, also c^oo<=>.^ dsr't
(deshert), " t h e red." The former name gave
rise to the alph. value n, traceable in M.K.
and common in N.K. Often also the sign is
equivalent to WZ ^ , as word-symbol for by'ti,
" k i n g of Lower Egypt," for which value see
SETHE, A. Z.,

1890,

p. 125 ; 1892,

p

113.

^
[B. H., iii., fig. 52.] Coil; the form is
that of the coil in ^/, and the colouring—•
black — is that often used in representing
symbols (cf. y, •¥•).
Word-sign for °° ™ • ^ sn't (shen't) (B. H.9 L,
PL xxx., corresponding to the true rope (g. in

57

INSIGNIA.

Tehutihetep, El B., i., PI. xxvii., 1.11), occurring
in a title, for which see Kali. Pap., p. 2 6 ;
MORET, Bee. de Tr., xvii., 44, and which may
possibly refer to examination by torture, or to
binding. The coil on the crown is named
»-\ J h*b (ehab), " coil."
Its use in this
title indicates that on the royal crown it symbolizes authority to bind, &c. In this connexion
we may also note the symbolism of the rope in
the word fl $^-^ yJ't (da't), "official r a n k " (from
kingly to that of lowest officer), of which it is
det. in Medum, PI. xx. (Ijk @ initial f\ being
>
omitted). Compare the word-sign T , for yH9
with variant forms, e.g. L., D., ii., 97b.
j Fig. 3 9 . Crook sceptre, coloured yellow(?),
and in all detailed pictures with joints like a
cane, but probably of wood with metal plating.
In the early examples (Medum, Pis. x., xxviii., 6;
and Methen), the curve is slight, not turning
downwards, ?. Cf. the remarkable banded
sceptre, very slightly curved, in the hand of
the Aam Sheikh, B. H., i., PI. xxviii. Later it
assumed the form of our present example (cf.
B. PL., i., PI. xxviii.), probably from confusion
with the true shepherd's crook, f (Methen,
L., D., ii., 5, right side), from which it is
derived.
The sceptre ?, like the shepherd's crook, was
named ~* \ • ^ civt (awt) (Pyr. and M.K. coffins,
&c). This is also the name for flocks and herds,
especially of goats, for which the crook and its
variant forms are word-sign. The sceptre T
is word-sign for | A , I A hq, l * \ hq* (heqa),
"king," " r u l e r , " with rad. ext. Once (A. T.,
37) this name seems to be applied to the sceptre
itself. The reading of | A is shown approximately by its use for ^ " ^ r j f n i n the late
text, Piankhy, 1. 9, &c. There seems also to be
a rare value (\\A y\ (yaq), Pyr. W., 11. 211,
283, &c.

fly-flap, jewelled. Held by king, by Osiris as
king, and by the god Min.
Name, ^ © © nhh (nelchphh), with variants
(Mentuhotep, p. 19, no. 19).
Symbolic of
driving away evil; cf. its use in A n, ® ^ hw
(Ichu), " protect."
J Fig. 1 0 4 , cf. Fig. 1 6 5 ; B. H., iii., fig. 44,
cf. fig. 43. Mallet-symbol, coloured black; later,
blue. In fig. 165, however, it seems to be of
fine grained wood. The form is nearly that of
the light mallets of red wood used by sculptors
and flax beaters, and by boat-makers (see Ros.,
M. C,passim).
But more especially —as pointed
out by Piehl—is it the form of the mallet
M t \ II v, used by kings and deities for driving
in pegs at the foundation of a temple, e.g. Ab.9
i.? 1., col. 13. I t is not found as an actual
sceptre.
Word-sign for { ^ hn, " s e r v a n t " (fern. hn%
" m a i d - s e r v a n t " ) ; connected with the root hn,
" command." It is used, however, in a special
and opposite sense, 0
hn'f, meaning " h i s
majesty," and fart's, " h e r majesty" (obelisk of
Queen Hatshepsut, &c), in reference to king,
queen, god, and goddess.
(Cf. \7 ^ hn't,
"mistress.")
y
( N ] is " d u r i n g the
<

^—^> A /WWV\ V

§ Figs. 8 4 , 110. SeJchem sceptre (banded
with green and white). I n tomb sculptures
this sceptre is constantly seen in the hands of
nobles when out of doors but not occupied.
Original examples in bronze and wood have
the broad end of flattened oval section.
The sceptre J , P ® | ^ } (-£ T., PI. 38) is
frequently mentioned.

Cf. Fig, 1 4 8 .

Emblematic scourge, or

J\

reign of ......." Such ceremonial expressions
may not be very intelligibly constructed;
possibly y is in these cases really the sceptre of
" authority."
The reading of the word-sign as \ ^ hn seems
best shown by B y w* hn in L.? P., ii., 8.

I t is word-sign for p©^

shm (selchem), "powerful," often written 6

DISCUSSION OF THE SIGNS.

58

cylinders for seals in the earliest times is now
|l
shm't. In Mentuhotep, PI. iii., we have a well ascertained (see D E MORGAN, Becherches, ii.,
sceptre of the sekhem form called —a j ^ c6,> 235, &c).
Word-sign for a title, "chancellor" or " h i g h
(a&a), which is also word-sign for cb\
This
treasurer," and for a word meaning "treasures,"
probably means " adornment," see MAX MULLER,
&c. The reading is still uncertain, see CRUM,
Bee. de 3V., ix. 169. The word © <=» u hrp
A. Z., 1894, p. 65-66.
(Icherp), " t o be commander of," " d i r e c t / ' is
It would be of great importance to ascertain
usually written
® A —det., arm holding from facsimiles the precise relation of this Q =
the sekhem. But in titles of functionaries 6 ^X) t ° the Q htm (fchetem) or "seal," and to the
seems generally to be read &rj?, from the g which was hung round the neck of the goat
c
earliest times. (Cf. } § ) = < ^ > a } " § ) ^ y in >Cyt, -*--^I s h (sah). It is probable that
the first and last are necklaces denoting rank,
hH (fcherp to), "director of works").
and imitating the true seal htm. In L., _D., ii.,
On the analogy of the last, the type of this
96, g , in the group ^ 2 t ^ " S G a l " (Halbsceptre may be developed from a large heavypfeiler J?.), differs in shape and colouring from
headed mallet by flattening the head for
Q = g§ (both in Ostseite).
lightness.
®
hrp in Todt., cap. 99, is
N.K.

(| r. - ;

the fern,

is usually

written

the name of the heavy mallet which drives
T
Cf. Figs. 1 6 8 , 1 7 5 ; B. H., iii., frontisthe mooring-post, and this mallet is of the same
H a w k - p e r c h , with two ornamental
form as that used by quarrymen, &c. I t would piece.
at least be quite appropriate as an emblem of straight plumes at the back; at the end of the
"power o v e r " a thing ( p ® ^ shm). In Pyr. horizontal bar a peg passed through it, holding
P., 1. 409, &c, there is another instrument the food trough. A perch is far more approP:°S)*o which m a y b e the origin of the sceptre. priate to a hawk than to most of the sacred
Both sekhem and aba sceptres are named in birds, as e.g. ibis, goose, &c, and A is a
Pyr., but apparently there is no mention of a common det. of divinity (v. v\^ and J). The
sceptre named kherp.
perch would be distinctive of the sacred hawks
kept in the temple as opposed to wild hawks;
^ ) Fig. 1 3 8 ; B. H., iii., fig. 36. Cylinder hence it was used by transference at a very
seal (?), with string for suspension ; or badge of early period as the distinctive support of sacred
office in imitation of a cylinder seal, Q. Besides emblems, whether animate (birds, quadrupeds,
^\) we have Q, and a form between these two, parts of animals—e.g. J J - ) , or inanimate. I t
all three forms being found in El B., i., PL xx. is perhaps most commonly seen with the symbols
The string is usually of beads, perhaps invariably of the nomes.
Its name as "perch of the g o d s " is fl^-^
so in O.K. detailed hieroglyphs (Medum, front.,
fig. 12). BORCHAKDT, A. Z., 1897, p. 106, pub- y^'t (da't).
lishes a fine example of the Q form from a Yth
Dyn. false door from Saqqareh, and shows the
j Fig. 187.
Symbolic staff with canine
possibility of the projection at the lower end head ; coloured blue, probably for earlier black.
being a handle to a metal (?) frame in which a I t is remarkable that | does not appear among
cylinder seal revolves. Professor Petrie had | the numerous symbolic staves figured in M.K.
already conjectured that the sign represented a coffins.
cylinder seal [Medum^ipp. 32-83). The use of
Word-sign for \ p <> • ^ wsr't (user't) in Pyr. ;
=

SYMBOLS.

with rad. ext. The nature of the quality
denoted by this word may be learnt from the
fact that it is distinct from 8 " authority,"
" power/' as exercised upon a person or thing ;
it seems rather to denote canine powers of free,
swift movement, intelligence. Note also the
common formula ^fe,

D <=>

59

the name of one of the offerings, probably with
the same meaning, and is sometimes placed on
the ^-y- like the symbol of the Theban nomes.
The only important variant for this is (1 < ^ ^ A \
yH nr (or m't), " vulture's perch (?)," Pyr. T.,
1. 76 (cf. the worship of Mut at Thebes); but
this is probably not the reading of the sign.

^r
Fig. 1 3 .
Scorpion, much conven" dlch in heaven before Ra, user on earth before tionalized, holding in each of its pincers a
Geb, maa-lcheru (triumphantly appealing for small abbreviated Y* "life," and joined by a
blessedness) in the underworld before Osiris." band to the ring, Q, " million," q.v. (From
Thus the caniiie^s<3r seems to represent earthly D. el B., i., PL x i . ; cf. also I.e., ii., Pis. xxxiii.,
resource, power and wealth, just as the winged xlv.).
The scorpion, $ J — • <=> whc't, here no doubt reo
dlch stands for heavenly power.
presents the goddess p <> A • *> Srq't, or p <> A • ~-f ^
=
=
=
[In Sign Pap., p. xviii., 1. 3, | is explained
Srq't ht9 " the piercer," or " the piercer of the
by the word ] II
M wsrt,
confirming throat"—i.e. to admit air. This goddess is in
Lauth's conjecture that wsr must be the Coptic fact sometimes represented by ^ * in late texts
She was
one
BA«yO>p (fern.), which according to the evidence (cf. BIRCH, A. Z., 1870, p. 19).
of Hesychius ap. Peyron was a Libyan name for of the vivifying and protecting goddesses, and
the present composite symbol—-which is placed
the fox.]
amongst others denoting divine blessings near
j [Cf. B. H., iii., fig. 67.] A kind of sceptre the figure of the king in certain religious scenes
—may indicate renewing the power of respiration
with canine head, the ears long and laid back.
The name of this sceptre is $ ^ p w*s (uas), for millions of times.
The sign is not used in ordinary inscriptions.
or fern. wJs't; with phon. trans. A similar
sceptre with twisted handle is named ^ — J^
a
c
Fig. 1 4 . A dW-pillar, u, with uplifted
z m (zam).
Such sceptres are commonly seen
in the hands of the gods. The name of the human arms supporting <^) (q.v., p. 32). This
Oxyrhynchite nome, 1 J u v ^jr = 1 Jj "^Y" {Pyr. symbol is used in the same connexion as the
last (cf. D. el B., ii., PL xxxiii.).
variants of M., 1. 182), seems to be WJbm%
The u was emblematic of stability. The arms
may represent the (_J ha, and are often added
another value, wJb, for j , probably due to local to emblems. The <^3> also seems to mean
mythology.
"firm."
The symbol therefore apparently signifies
T [B. H., iii., fig. 67.] The wzs-sceptre with "firm," "stable."
feather. The forms in Pyr. are very curious,
showing an ostrich feather on a staff, which is
u Cf. Fig. 14, Symbolic pillar, properly
apparently twisted with a very strong spiral with tenon at top (Medum, PL xiii.). In Todt.,
twist, and forked below.
cap. 155, it is symbolical of the backbone of
As a name of Thebes, 7 ^ , this is supposed Osiris. PETKIE, Medum, p. 31, has suggested
to read \ \$. ^ W's't (Uas't).
I t appears in that it represents a row of four pillars, the

60

DISCUSSION

OF THE

capitals appearing as though one above, i.e.
beyond, another. More probably the symbol
is conventionalized from a sacred tree with
branches lopped and forming the pillar of a
house; cf. the story in PLUTARCH, Be Is.,
cap. 15.
Name, ^ ^ zd, " t h e firm," with rad. ext.
Amulet for stability.
jj§| Fig. 2 4 .
An object not unlike four
bowls of different colours, nested together and
having a small rounded projection at the top.
The colours are probably conventional.
It
closely resembles the top of the u.
Word-sign for <=*=> _* sc (sha), " cut,"
phon. trans., perhaps referring to the lopping
of the branches for the u. Later the word
became ^ ^ e a scd (shad) (cf. mcr = mcrd, s.v.
y), and this is found in a late text as the name
of the upper part of the u (BR., Wtb., 1346).
But perhaps owing to its connexion with the
ded representing the backbone of Osiris, § is
connected also with the vertebrae or joints,
called £=<« of the backbone, and so may be det.
of " back." We may therefore prefer to associate its value with the division—as it were the
"slicing" of the backbone into vertebrae—and
to consider it as representing four articulated
vertebrae.

SIGNS.

The sign has the value — ™ © cvh (anlch), with
n
many meanings, chief of which is "life," of
which •¥- is the well-known symbol.
T [B. E., iii, fig. 39.] Ceremonial forked
object, used in the ritual of the dead.
Its name has two forms, < * * • p — Jcf pss
= —
(kef pesesh) and pss hf, which may mean respectively " divider of the united," and " uniter
of the d i v i d e d " ; but cf. MASPERO, Table
d'Offrandes, p. 1 2 ; P I E H L , Sphinx, ii., p. 34.
Borchardt would derive the symbol from a
well-known form of ornament, cf. Mentuhotep,
PI. iv., and p. 24 (no. 5 7 ) ; but the reference to
with Wtb., p. 1269, seems to afford no support
BR.,
for this theory, as it gives only part of the usual
list of offerings. It may possibly be connected
with ] , the bicornate uterus of animals, which
perhaps is symbolized in the two feathers jji
of the nome of Eileithyia, and is associated with
ram's horns in the head dresses of gods of
generation. Cf. also Ab., i., p. 78, for Osiris
Anzti wearing T instead of )Yy, if this is not a
mistake of the sculptor.
^ [B. H.9 iii., fig. 25.] Standard of the West.
Ostrich feather on an object resembling the
hieroglyph ^ , through which is a string or
thread, I.

In O.K. the type is with the hawk

•y Fig. 1 3 5 . In the earliest examples the added, ^ . As Maspero has pointed out, the
symbol of life is coloured black (Medum, PI. xiv. earliest form of the symbol of the West is seen
and p. 33), often with arms and upright drawn in a schist plaque in the Louvre (Rev. Arch.,
as though each were divided longitudinally. 1890, PI. iv.), where a man carries a staff surProfessors Sayce and Petrie saw in it the fisher- mounted by a hawk and ostrich feather, arranged
man's girdle (Medum, I.e.). In any case the much as in #*, and with two straight plumes
sign probably represented a knot or tie of some hanging obliquely behind, somewhat like those
kind, perhaps amuletic. On M.K. coffins the •£ attached to the ^-^p in B. H., iii., frontispiece.
is painted blue or green (STEINDORFF, MentuWord-sign for 4 J ^ ^ • * Ymn't (Ament), " t h e
hotep, p. 20, PI. iv.), and is placed at the West," with rad. ext. to other forms of the
foot-end with the sandals; this again suggests root, e.g. (1
ymn, u right-hand ? ' = p"» ymn,
that it is a girdle. It may be that it was "right-hand." This value changed very early
attached as symbolical of life to a victim or *° Hh/] wnm
(wnem) for " right-hand," which
reprieved prisoner.
word was probably only a form of the last
j\

,1111111111,

I

'vA/WNA

SYMBOLS—UNCLASSIFIED

produced by metathesis; it even varies with
ymn

in Fyr.

(ef. ERMAN, A. Z., 1893,

82).

For

SIGNS.

61

PI. ii., fig. 4, &c). In the "sportive" hieroglyphs
of B. E.y ii., PI. xiv. (left) = L., D., ii., 143, a,
the standard of the East would soem to be a
spear § without the crossbar or pellets.

" W e s t " the original value was retained, and
after O.K. wnm was generally written \ 1 ^ . ^ ^ ^ •
It may here be remarked that in the sign
#* the & is perhaps phonetic, indicating the
fern, ending of the name " West." The idea of
P.
UNCLASSIFIED.
" the West" is symbolized by the ostrich feather,
ostriches being then abundant throughout the
T * Fig. 1 5 8 . A sign apparently representLibyan desert. The symbolism of the hawk is
ing a slender wooden upright, bearing a crossnot very clear, but the cord 0, sometimes
piece ; perhaps occurring only here (El J5., i.,
appearing like a piece of cloth, may be conPI. xv., lower left).
nected with the^arts of spinning and weaving, cf.
The group ts=f^ ^ probably stands for ¥ ,
1, l| ', which were held in high estimation by
S S k * ^ hm'wt (hem'ut), "craftsmen." T ^ is?
the Libyans.
in fact, very nearly identical with the hieratic
character for ¥, ^ J \ wb\ " t o bore," and
*| \B. ff., iii., fig. 26.] Standard of the East.
hm% "artificer," and may be taken from it.
The form at Beni Hasan, /.
with two
But it may be actually the picture of some kind
plumes between two pellets, is confirmed by
of boring instrument, with cross-bar instead
El B., i., PI. xv., bottom row, to right. The
: of a weighted handle as in ¥ . For ¥ , see
usual form is ft; in the archaic schist plaque of
\ BORCHARDT, A. Z., 1897, p. 107 ; MAX MULLER,
the Louvre the pole ends in a tongue-like object
I Bee. de Trav., ix., 161-2.
between two small Y (?); the cross-bar below is
7
broad and rounded, and the two straight plumes
T Fig. 6 7 . A bar of wood crossed above
hang at the back ; but the work is too rough to
! the middle by a shorter b a r ; a cord binding, or
fix the details.
Word-sign for (\ \ J • <=> y'b't (dab't), "!t wound round, the junction. In the early painthe
: ings (cf. Medum, Pis. xi., xxvii.), the object is
East," f\\J
"left-hand," &c.; with phon.
coloured red throughout, and there is no bindtransf.
The two balls may be explained as of incense ing. The present form is perhaps a corruption
K
from the South-East, Punt, &c. (on the schist of the earlier ^. T h e sign may represent a
plaque replaced by censers). The feathers may winder for thread (?). Unfortunately Professor
be due to a misunderstanding; the earlier and Petrie has not offered any explanation of it in
more typical object like a spear-head may be a his most suggestive chapter on the hieroglyphs
flame, or more probably a blade-shaped ingot of of Medum.
Common word^sign with the value ^ ^» vz.
bronze, such as might have been imported from
1
the North-East. Such a sign A, indicates the In the word ( l ^ ^ , P - ^ sm, "fear," ^
useful metals in O.K., see L., D.y ii., 49& may be phon., but more probably the word is a
(melting metal), and Medum, PI. xiii., left top, pseudo-causative form of *T (cf. p. 6).
where ingots coloured blue and pink show the
material of the objects beneath. In Medum,
Fig. 8 1 . Two-barbed spear-head(?), coloured
PI. xv., an -a© of hsmn corresponds to an red (in XVIIIth Dyn.), and therefore presumably
— © of blue A in PI. xiii., and hsmn is coloured of wood or bronze. In O.K. it has the same
a
blue in the later paintings (cf. LEP., Die Metalle, form (Methen, &c, &c). The ordinary printed

s

62

DISCUSSION OF THE SIGNS.

form, i , is barbarous; like certain other types
used in printing, it belongs to a base period,
and has nothing to do with the real nature of
the object represented.
Word-sign for p /-* sn, the root sn meaning
the quality of things that go in pairs, that are
equal: " t w o , " "duplicate," " p a i r , " "brother,"
"sister," &c.; and also "breathe," "smell."
1 sn is the name of the posts or flag-staffs set
1
up before temples, &c.; perhaps in early times
they had the form Jl, with wedge-like base.
When one considers that the Arab sheikh sticks
a spear upright in the ground before his tent
door, it suggests that the it is a blunt wooden
spear or spear-head for ceremonial purposes.

it is found written
(shes).

Det. of the

^ * 1 ^

rwi [in, as if spelt ss
I, Pyr.,

N l1213

-> '

M., 1 6 0 8 ;
P,

hand " as
1. 425, " h e who watches the tiand" as a
retriever, probably the tame cat that accompanied its master on marsh expeditions, to retrieve birds for him (cf. NAV., Todt., ch. xxxix.,
1. 5). n is often figured in the sacred barks of
the sun and of Sokaris, no doubt representing
their attendants.
Presumably the sign pictures the apparatus
carried by an attendant for his master, and
thus becomes a symbol and id. of attendance.

n A/vwv\

It is probable, too, that —— 1
* 1
sn't (B. H.,
T Fig. 51. A staff, angulated near the top
i., PL xxxiv., better in L., D., ii., 130) is con- and tied round at the angle, resembling the
nected with a spear or spear-head. The value article of dress called D ^ - ^ | ^ pd c/&c (ped
sn may be due to the " two " barbs, as opposed aha), which is always represented in pairs, but
to the harpoon iv% which in O.K. is always the use of which is undetermined (cf. Mentuhotep,
represented with " one " barb only.
PI. iii.).
In M. and N.K. word-sign for <=ft> T ^s>-i <=> P
1 Fig. 115. Piece of wood, rounded below, rs, " to be awake," " to have the mind alert,"
=
tapering to a point at the top where it is the substantive <> p • ^ ^ rs'wt meaning a
" dream." The object reminds one of the staff
curved over.
Value, ±*H ty (td). In N.K. the sign was and loop held by the figure of the watchman,
adopted as homophone of < > where a tall sign guard, herdsman ^or, which is very variable in
=,
was required in grouping hieroglyphs, §=> being form. In Pyr., the word rs is written with
used as the corresponding long sign.
The ], ] (W., 1. 186), the groups being sometimes
meaning and name of the sign are alike <c=^> |, J I, |n|. Probably in these cases |, a
doubtful.
sign of many values, represents a watchman's
staff, and is sometimes used in pairs because
Fig. 1 0 2 . A curious sign consisting of a there would often be two watchmen seated
white package attached to a curved stick, & red opposite one another at the entrance to a
object projecting above and below the package building.
•—perhaps the ends of a tie, but the upper one
Confused with 1, q.v.
is pointed like a knife.
Word-sign for ^ |^ p sms (shems); cf. n f\ M
° ^
Fig,
77.
BORCHARDT, A. Z.,
1897,
PIERRET, A. Z., 1879, 136 ; BRMAN, A. Z.,
1891, 106, figures this hieroglyph as it appears on the
3 8 ; Ab., ii., 43 = ROUGE, Inscr. hierogl., 2 beautiful wooden tablets of Hesy ( I l l r d Dyn.)
(Vlth Dyn.), and a o | ^ [ ] ^ , LEVI, VOC. (photographed, MAR., Alb. de Boul., PI. xii.).
(from Bui. stel, 29247); meaning " servant," As he points out, it is nearly identical with the
" a t t e n d a n t " "follower." More often, however, formidable whip of twisted thongs in O.K.

UNCLASSIFIED.

63

scenes of driving rams over the ground to sides of the triangle are truncated and support
break it up, " plough it," as it is said in the a red bowl-shaped object which rests on a red
inscription. Compare the whips, L., D., ii., cylinder. (In our reproductions, figs. 140 and
1066, with the examples of *~=^ in Ptahhetep, 123, the greenish-blue base is unfortunately
PI. xxxi. The forms of the sign are curious in rendered green in one case and blue in the
their varieties, and it requires further in- other.) In Medum, PI. xiii., the sides and base
are white. In the N.K. form (see /J\ in fig. 60)
vestigation.
Word-sign for J^J mh, "fill," " n o r t h , " &c. it appears to be a stand containing a broad tube,
I t may be derived from J h, "strike," with which is contracted in the middle and opens
prefixed m, or from mh, " flax," or mh't, out above and below. The sign often resembles,
at least in outline, the lower part of A ) , repre" diadem."
sented as in B. H., iii., fig. 48, D. el B., ii.,
Phon. for mh.
PI. xxviii.; in this the vase is placed in a
Q3 Fig. 5 5 . A packet (?), gland (?). Its wooden stand, a small support sometimes rising
occasional variation with 15 rather indicates in the middle of the stand for the base of the
vase to rest on. A similar object, combined
that it is a packet.
This sign is very common in the medical with a knife, is seen in the id. of the butcher's
^(1)',
-P., L 87,
papyri, in the first place as the word-sign for block (?), Pyr. J., 1. 622, ^
^ ^ wt (ut), in the verbal sense of " p o u l t i c e " &c, &c, which is perhaps to be read / ^ ^ « ^
Miss Paget's copy of this sign, as it
(elsewhere " embalm " ) , and secondly as det. of nm't.
fat, soft secretions, pustules, &c. It may also occurs in the Pyramid of Pepy, shows it to be
stand alone as ab. for ^ ^ ^hx Q *d* (zeda), identical in form with the present example of
the sign | | | . The bowl looks as if it might be
"fatted," of animals and birds, for % ® °
intended to receive refuse or liquid, which
whd'w (uhhedu), "pustules," and for 8 jl Q hs, would be carried down the central support or
" d u n g , " and perhaps for some other words; drain-pipe (?).
also as det. of strong odour. Anciently the
word l p j hsb" account," " count," was written
8 I J x, the det. x indicating "separate classification," "enumeration in separate categories";
after O.K. it is regularly written Q , 8 0 jl ^ ,
and by phon. trans. Q becomes the word-sign
of several words hsb. Possibly this may be
accounted for by the above value l p hs leading
to the substitution of O for x as det. of hsb,
and on this followed quickly its use as the
word-sign for hsb.

Word-sign for © <> hr (Jcher); with rad. ext.
=
Its meaning is " l o w e r " as opposed to I <> hr,
=
" u p p e r , " a sense which might be symbolized
by the lower part of a vessel in its stand, as
also by a " sink " (?).
/J\ seems to occur once as phon. in ^ r _ n ,
Pyr. P., 1. 339 = J ^ ^ f l , M., 1. 641 P & t this
may be a mistake.

Fig. 6 0 . Graphic compound, consisting
of ffl and |, in the present instance connected
with z1, a desert slope, as a kind of det. The A
is often omitted, and in O.K. j k replaces the
ZJ\ Fig. 1 4 0 , cf. Fig. 6 0 . An open stand(?),
] invariably.
possibly a kind of funnel, drain or sink. SomeWord-sign for ©<=>.^-/^rs><=> hr't ntr (Icher't
what variable. The colouring and form of base nether)^ " t h a t which belongs to a god," i.e. the
and sides are in the present instance identical necropolis, place of the dead—cf. the German
with those of ^ in fig. 123, except that the " Gottesacker." The sandy slope (cf. A , the

64

DISCUSSION

OF THE

SIGNS.

Q Fig. 3 6 . The sign rather suggests a
fertile slope) refers to the situation of ancient
burial-places above the reach of the inundation race-course (Roman circus), the green band
on the sandy edges of the Nile valley or on the representing the course itself, the position of
sandy gezvrehs of the Delta. The name seems the spectators in the middle (spina) and the
to be fein. © <> • ^ not ® <=>, its derivative beingouter horse-shoe stand being coloured blue.
=
^L^Vw hr'ti ntr. " m a n of the necropolis," But we have no proof that anything of that
kind ever existed in Egypt.
meaning especially " a mason.' 5
Thrice repeated, the sign is placed behind
the figure of the king when he is running
Figs. 1 8 , 1 2 3 ; B. fl"., iii., fig. 104. Hollow
towards a god (or dancing ?) with offerings;
triangular figure, with small point arising from
usually he is offering the A , and the rudder, or
the centre of the base. In fig. 18 it is coloured
two vases of water to Min or Amen (Koptoz,
green throughout.
In the tomb of Merab
PI. i x . ; D. el I?., i., Pis. xix., xxii, ; L., D.,iii.,
(L., D., ii., 19)~the sign is altogether black; in
33#, h, 119<?, 143d). In L., D., iii., 167, the
B. H., iii., fig. 104, the base is blue and the
group is omitted; in Ros., M. C , 1., 2, a bark
rest black ; here, in fig. 123, the base is greenish
is substituted for the rudder as a gift to
blue, the point green, and the sides black. At
Nekhebt. In L., D., iii., 576, it occurs where
Beni Hasan grey-blue is a frequent colour for
the king is running to Hathor with a crested
representing ground, and black for showing
ibis and symbolical staves. At Abydos the
^uilding in brick. In early times black is also
scene does not appear to exist. The sign, still
the colour for ground ; in the X V I I I t h Dynasty,
in a group of three, occurs also in the title
green. Hence the colours of our figure may
indicate a triangular erection on the ground ;
(B. K, i., PI. xxxv.),
D
but this does not give us the explanation of the
sign, which is not without many points of S<fi flTl r~i C^'> **•> ^ 3 , !• *0> which possibly
similarity to
i, fig. 140. ^ _ J Q •give, is denotes the " erpa who attends to the (Q
probably only a graphic compound of word- ceremonials in the courtyard."
sign and det. 5 and throws no light on the
The reading is unknown.
nature of A .
The reading of A is not quite clear. From
^27 Cf. Figs, 9, 1 7 8 . In some scenes this
earliest times A = A—a, ^ d, or « l) dy {da) figure suggests a " r o c k e r " (for a rocking-chair,
(Pyr. if., 1. 516 = P., 1. 235), and we often find &c), Ros., M. $., xl.; MAR., Ab. i., xxii., xxiii.,
9
<=> A = A D, with the meaning "give," " p u t . " xxxi.fr. At Deir el Bahri, in the foundation
STEINDOKFF (A. Z.J 1891, 60) argues that A a deposits of the temple, a number of small
= c») 9 though there is much evidence for wooden frames were found, perhaps models of
reading it as « » alone. I t seems as if rd, dy, rockers, each consisting of two curved boards,
=
dd(?), were all forms of one word, " t o give," ^37, joined together by cross-bars (one, preand that (<=>)«(()), with fugitive initial r, and cisely similar, is figured in Ros., M. C, lxvi.,
a weak final y, was the root. The question, 11). They may be connected with the festivals
however, is a delicate one.
and with the sign ^X?.

A

The variant <=>[^\<—

(Pyr., N., 1. 33),

Det. of names of festivals. After O.K. used
" humour," " emanation," for
^K <— (Pyr. as word-sign for I J hb, " festival."
M., 1. 195), is apparently a rare case of transference of this word-sign.
Fig, 6 3 . Perhaps a case, with open top,

65

UNCLASSIFIED.

and cord to sling it. Cf. also the panel being nfr't is known. The markings are certainly
painted in B. H., ii., PI. xiii.; but the re- like those on the O. They may represent the
semblance is slight. In Ab., i., PI. xl.c, a W is structure of the heart seen in section, and have
presented to the goddess Sekhemt by the king been transferred to the belly of the lute in the
in the form of a sphinx. rP may be the case sign T, where they are constant. Lutes of
for containing the tools of trade, utensils, &c, similar form, but without the markings (?) are
and intended to be hung over the shoulder. figured in the houses of Tell el Amarna
Cf. the rectangular case often seen by the side (e.g. L., D., iii., 106a).
This sign has the phonetic value ^ * <> nfr,
— =
or on the back of scribes and attendants in 0 .
and generally means " good," " beautiful."
and N.K. (L., £>., ii., 23, &c).
BR., Wtb., 758, presupposes a name for a lute,
Word-sign for § tfc ft, J ~ hn Hen ; verv
A A/VNAAA U
"nfr"
= bl2 {yaxika, nablium), and ERMAN
rare in O.K.
(Z.D.M. Q., xlvi., 112) accepts his theory as
I n the present instance from Paheri (iii. left),
probable; but this name has not yet been
ft
seems to mean " tasks," or " occupafound in Egyptian, nfr might mean "adjusted,"
tions." Moreover, 8 ^ 1 0 % . ? . , S ^ ^ hnw, " tuned," in reference to the lute, since J ^ ^ ^ ,
A AAAAM
-21
111
constantly has a general meaning of " utensils,"
" goods."
I Figs. 4 9 , 1 6 4 . An object resembling a
lute with one peg, or—as in Medum and
generally in late times—with two pegs. The
stem seems graduated for the fingers, and the
markings on the belly possibly show the form
of the openings in skin stretched over half a
gourd. I n Medum, PI. xxviii., the colouring of
T is as in our examples, but in Pis. xxiv.,
xxvii., the whole object seems to have been
coloured red. Mr. Spurrell and Prof. Petrie
(Medum, p. 30), noting the resemblance of the
belly of the instrument with its markings to the
heart, suggest that T may represent the heart
and tracheae. But no anatomical term nfr or

N~* nfrt,

the " tiller" or " tiller-rope,"

is probably so called as the " adjuster of the
rudder, and so of the ship.
The absurd inventions which go under the
name of the Hieroglyphics of Horapollo, seem
to contain a reminiscence of the sign T. II. 4
runs thus : ^AvOpamov Kophta (frdpvyyos r/pTrjjjLevr},
ayaOov avQpoynov crro/xa cr^/xatret, " a man's
heart hung from the windpipe means the mouth
of a good man." I t seems that Horapollo's
symbolism treated virtuous speech as. a result
of direct connexion between the heart and the
organs of speech; and it may be that the
Egyptians imagined that the windpipe was
connected with the heart, and that on this connexion, as figured in T, depended the goodness,
or the health and happiness, of the person.

F

67

ADDENDA.
Page ix. (Abbreviations).
The opinions
cited in this volume under the names of
BORCHARDT, LORET, MASPERO, and PIEHL, without specific reference, are those expressed in
their respective reviews of Beni Hasan, iii.,
mentioned in the Preface.
Appended are a few necessary corrections.
Some of these have been suggested by a study
of the valuable squeezes of the tomb of Ptahhetep, lent to the Survey by the authorities of
the Berlin Museum, others by the admirable
plates of Mr. Newberiy's forthcoming edition of
the tomb of Rekhmara, proof copies of several
having been placed at the disposal of the
author.
P. 4, col. 2. An interesting example of the
abandonment of flexional consonants is furnished
by the word f\ ® 1 KSL. m'hsf, u spindle,"
1
Todt., cap. cliii. (N.K.), giving to "t the word-sign

stones; see a figure in HASTINGS, Diet, of Bible,
i., 50. hw sp*t occurs also at Zawyet el Maiyitln
(L., P., i i , 107, top), j ^ j j j .
P. 37, col. 2. =||=. The spelling of the verb
" to eat" in linear hieroglyphs on the coffins of
Mentuhotep at Berlin is simply -y-1 or « $ • i
==
(the two signs being indistinguishable); A. T.,
PI. viii, U. 67, 71, 73. On the coffin of
Sebekaa •£• is distinct from -=|=", a n ( i the verb
is written 4 * *fe. ^- T-> P L x l i i ' ' l m '•>
A/vwv\ c~~u

A n

n

4- 1L, U., 1. 65; 4- V'lft' lc-> PL xli ->
AAAAAA - i - T ^

A/WW\ _ £ r \ J &

C-JS

11. 39-40. The latter coffin, therefore, preserves
fully the ancient value, while the former agrees
with the usual M.K. spelling -=|~ m.
It is doubtful whether the word for "ulcer"(?)
is connected with that for "eating," and the
word for " flame " reads ymyt, not wmyt. The
value ymi was thus evidently transferred to
value © -+-*— hsf (Tchesef).
other roots than that from which it originated.
P. 16, col. 1. -0—o. The verb m often occurs
It is therefore very remarkable that <{» is never
==
}
in O.K., in scenes in which a person shows or
used for the simply prepositional or adverbial
offers an object to another to accept. "Whether
j\ t \ , and in forms of this root is confined to
the sign originally signified the offering or the
the adjectival ymi and its derivatives ymitwni,
acceptance (the implied command to accept), it
" between two," &c,
is difficult to decide. The instance in Paheri
P. 39, col. 1. —H—. Some may prefer to
needs confirmation from earlier sources.
connect the name of this with the root s%
P. 19, col. 1. c*=^. In Rekhmara, PL ii., 1. 1,
" guard," rather than with " pass."
occurs apparently with the meaning
P. 44, col. 2. - e - . In El B., ii., PI. v., the
" a hide," and this probably gives the origin of
plough is drawn by oxen having —— across
«
the value of this sign.
their horns as a yoke. Thus - § - is the, harness
P. 20, col. 2. ^ * . The Berlin squeezes of
| for ox-draught, a bar ( » in Rekhmara) with
——
Ptahhetep satisfactorily show that the det. of
cord to fix to pole.
mnwt in Ptahhetep, PI. xli., is not ^te>, but is
P. 50, col. 2. ^ .
The reading of the
more like the pigeons in I.e., PI. xxxi., &c,
mythological place-name ^ ^ ^ ^ \\, PETRIE,
with long bill and tail not forked. We must
Six Temples, i., 4, is probably mr dswi. The
not therefore connect ^ ^ with a pigeon.
sign stands as ab. for wgs, " split," in connexion
P. 27, col. 2. © . In Syria the threshing- with fish, &c. (add. note to Kah. Pap., xxxix.,
floors are circular, and edged by large rough 1.36).
IT 2

68

EEEATA
(To HIEROGLYPHS

AND BENI HASAN, III.).

HIEROGLYPHS.

PI. viii., figs. 123, 140 ; the bases should be
each of the same colour—greenish blue.
BENI HASAN, III.

PI. iv., fig. 42. T should be placed horizontally, — £ .
PL vi., fig. 89. ci should be bluish green.
P . 4. Maspero refers to ROUGE, Rev. Arch.,
1872, tome xxiii., pp. 70-71, for a reading of
the Oryx nome-sign as rnh't. Loret considers
the animal to be the Oryx beisa, on account of
its white colour (cf. the name m J /k, " the
white (?) mJ"), leucoryx being fawn and rustcoloured.
P . 5, fig. 1. For " s i x t h column from left"
read " sixth column from right," as Loret
points out.
P . 6, fig. 2, The sign read wb by Max
Miiller is apparently nothing but "fe^. The
rhti birds, "fullers," are in the best example
(L., D., ii., 126 = B. if., I., xxix.) clearly ducks
(or geese ?), birds, presumably of white varieties,

which splash and preen themselves in the water.
But fig. 2 remains a puzzle.
P. 8, fig. 11. A distinguished zoologist has
pointed out that it is inaccurate to speak of
the " c r o p " of a duck, the duck tribe being
characterized by the absence of the crop.
P. 8, fig. 12. This is to be read Mm, not
— ^ ; v. above, p. 22.
P . 10, note. Professor Maspero notes that
M. Joret's paper read before the Academie des
Inscriptions is published in Melanges de Philologie romane dedies a Carl Wahlund, pp. 273-80.
P . 22^ fig. 36. According to Brugsch the
verb ^ \ ) ^ ^ occurs only once, and that in a
very late text. Tt may mean " t o cut," but
not " t o carve," or " t o sculpture."
P . 23, note. The reference to PEISSE, Art
JEgyptien, is ii., PI. 62, according to the
arrangement indicated in the Table of Contents.
P. 29, fig. 90. Borchardt considers SEEE to
be the armlet often figured on M.K. coifins,
with the ties in this case changed to beads.
P. 32, fig. 103. For " t o complete" read
" to be completed."

69

OEDEE OF THE SIGNS.

A,

. ?

\1L ?

£LL \LL ?

Ji

B.

?

?

5

?

HUMANITY.

?

J

, J , PP- H-13.

?

ANTHROPOMORPHIC D E I T I E S ; HUMAN RANKS AND CLASSES.

> J)> XJ> M> PP- 1 3 " 1 4 C.

HUMAN ACTION.

I D i 0 , f> °&, N?, ^ ( W ) , Wl, ^ , A | , pp. 14-16
D.

_£, ^ . , %

MAMMALS AND PARTS OF MAMMALS.

3&>, £ * , ^ ,

> ^ ,

E.

^

<>

, *, " ^

BIRDS AND THEIR PARTS

J H , 5k> ¥*>> j ^ , GkL l k >
?

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REPTILES, FISHES, INSECTS, &C.

*"««, & , PP- 23-26.
G.

TREES, HERBS, GRASSES, &C.

~~, I, i. *. I I . i •, S .
H
H.

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SKY, EARTH, AND W A T E R .

O, a , *, iw), ^ , cz3, ^ , = , n[i\ BEE, — [ S l > nama, cy, o,
I.

BUILDINGS AND THEIR PARTS.

•, o. is (0).ra,o, n, i, a, m. ® , QQ. •=, 1 . 1
pp. 34 39.

70

ORDER OF THE SIGNS.
J.

VASES AND POTTERY, F I R E .

& I t ffl, °, r , l <*, S , *, 8, 4, *r, PP-39-43.
K.

FIBRE, TEXTILE, BASKET-, MAT-, AND LEATHER-WORK.

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IMPLEMENTS AND TOOLS.

- , S , i i 1 pp. 48-51.

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"WAR, HUNTING, & C .

I, ~S I *-, &L, PP. 51-54.

FURNITURE, FOOD, PERSONAL ACCOUTREMENTS, WRITING, MUSIC, GAMES.

, l F=l, M(fSf, V ) . 0(6), I [J], ft =-, <=, =
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pp. 54-56.

INSIGNIA, SCEPTRES, SYMBOLS, STANDARDS.

i ¥, V T A,!, I, ^ -r, 1,1, I ¥, f. S •, f, T. i t,
,
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pp. 56-61.
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UNCLASSIFIED.

T, I I 1T> ~^, C3, m, 1 , A, e , ^ , ft, J, pp. 61.66.

71

INDEX TO FACSIMILES.
(INCLUDING THOSE QUOTED FROM

BENI HASAN, III.,

1
2
3
4
5

eagle
hare
swallow
Egyptian vulture ...
chick
...
.7/
PLATE I I .

Fig.

6 Me^-vases...
7 owl...
8 sed-heb
9 heb with canopy ...
1 0 sun-disk
11 pin-tail duck
12 water-line ...
1 3 scorpion and ring symbol...
14 Ded and men symbol
15 Anubis f acade
16 serpent, z ...
17 knobbed staff
1 8 gift-symbol...
19 human eye...
2 0 drill-cap (?)
2 1 god Heh ...
PLATE III.

Fig. 2 2
23
24
25
26
27.
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36

two crowns in basket
straw jar-cap (?) ...
vertebrae symbol (?)
human face
roll of divine cloth
bag and divine cloth
nestling
pellets or grains ...
double courtyard with palace
star
wheat on threshing-floor ...
sickle
•..
...
•..
man building
cerastes
racecourse symbol (?)

BENI HASAN, I.)

Fig. 37 glory of rising sun

PLATE I.

Fig.

AND

19
16
20, 66 |
19
21

3 8 desert ravine
3 9 crook-sceptre
4 0 milk-vase amulet (?)
PLATE I V .

Fig. 4 1
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50

noose, rud ...
fire-drill
...
noose, rud ...
papyrus roll
millipede ...
heart
glands and duct (?)
new-born animal ...
heart and tracheae (or lute?)
sandy island

39
20
36
... 36, 64
30
22
33
47, 59
32, 59, 5&
PLATE V .
36
24 Fig. 5 1 bent staff with tie ...
5 2 trap
55
5 3 bar and looped threads, shesep
64 !
5 4 papyrus stem crushed down, uden
12
5 5 packet (?), heseb ...
49
...
5 6 bone harpoon-head
13
carob-pod ...
...
...
57
5 8 tank (?), hem
5 9 upper face in profile
...47,56,56,56
6 0 kher, divine cloth, and desert
47
6 1 pleated cloth, " spread" ...
60
11
6 2 knobbed staff
46
6 3 Aew-case
48 ,
6 4 arm and gift, me ...
21
6 5 portable throne
34
PLATE V I .
34
rush (?), nen
...
...
30 Fig. 6 6
6 7 nez-winder (?)
27, 66
6 8 arms and paddle ...
48
6 9 ter-sprout and mouth
14, 84
7 0 censer
... '
...'
24
64
ii alluvial slope

72

INDEX TO FACSIMILES.

Fig. 72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83

bivalve shell
Egyptian vulture ...
crane (?), ha
eagle
weft-bird
tied bunch of fibres (?), meh
upright cross
flamingo
menkh-chisel
barbed spear-head (?), sen
pouch
crocodile scales (?), hem ...
PLATE

Fig. 8 4
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106

25
19
21
19
19
62
... 37, 66
22
49
61
48
23

VII.

seMew-sceptre
ftez-mace ... "^ ...
head-harness for oxen
corn on threshing-floor
wooden clamps (dual)
"palace"
tank, sh
forepart of lion
basket with handle, 1c
forepart of lion
loaf on mat
mat or package
drill-cap (?), *
bird with fish
btdti-Mi
swallow
arm
7^es-vase
baggage (?), " attendant"...
canopy, sell
mallet, hen...
clamp (unity)
reed, flowering

43,
...

...

...

57
51
44, 66
27, 66
37
36
33
16
47
16
47,55
47
49
22
24
20, 66
12
39
62
36
57
37
27

PLATE V I I I .

Fig. 1 0 7
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118

iwerr chisel
garland, mes
plant of south, seten
seMem-sceptre
knot, sa ...
harpoon ...
sickle
roll of divine cloth
wooden object, ta
tent-pole, aa
hoe, mer ...
crested ibis

49
27
29
57
45
52
48
46
62
38
48
21

Fig. 11 9
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151

"palace"...
Egyptian vulture
belly of mammal...
arm with club
gift-symbol
twist of fibres, Ji ...
papyrus sceptre ...
stand for food and drink...
libation-vase, qebeh
noose, ua ...
fire-drill ...
curved thread, s ...
human foot, b
vase pouring, uab
milk-vase amulet (?)
cord with looped ends, ill
girdle, life-symbol
chest
glory of rising sun
seal-badge
bolt, s
drain-stand (?), Icher
water-pot, nu
city-symbol
papyrus-clump ...
draught-board, men
potter's kiln
double courtyard...
deceased (?), seated on chair
king squatting, holding whip
ibis-headed figure squatting
duck's head
cerastes,/
PLATE

Fig. 1 5 2
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
*
167

.

.
.

.

36
19
18
15
64, 68
43
28
54
39
45
50
45
12
40
40
45
60
54
30
58
38, '66
63, 68
39
34
28
56
42
35
13
13, 57
13
23
24

IX.

woman squatting
papyrus roll
ring-stand, g
rib
human feet walking
human mouth
boring-tool (?)
kneeling archer ...
pleated cloth, '' spread " . . .
standing king with staff ...
child
man standing, arms raised
heart and tracheae (or lute ?)
&a-arms and hen-mallei ...
heart
...
...
...
hide and dart

11
55
41
18
16
12
61
14
46
13
11
14
65
14
18
19

INDEX TO FACSIMILES.
PAGE

Fig. 1 6 8 sacred ibis on perclv
169 upright cross
1 7 0 tree trunk trimmed
1 7 1 writing outfit
1 7 2 hand, d ...
1 7 3 serpent, z ...
1 7 4 stand of balance ...
175 hare on perch, nome-sign
176 water-line...
1 7 7 arms with shield and club
1 7 8 heb with canopy ...
1 7 9 knobbed staff
1 8 0 cord-stick, tid

21, 21, 58
.... 37, 66
26
55
12
24
51
17, 33, 58
33
15
... 36, 64
55
44

BENI

HASAN,

PLATE I.

Oryx on perch (nome sign) ...
PLATE

Fig.> 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

38, 58, 68
II.

flying duck...
plover ( ? ) . . .
crane (?), ba
crested ibis...
hawk in enclosure (Hathor)
goose, geb ...
owl...
flying duck
swallow
crane (?), ba
fat duck ...
goose, hetem
Egyptian vulture ...
swallow
chick
PLATE

23, 68
68
21
21
20, 20, 35
22
20
23
20, 66
21
23, 68
22
19
20, 66
21

III.

Fig. 16 papyrus clump
17 nen rushes ...
1 8 writing outfit
19 plant hen ...
2 0 plant of the south, qema ...
2 1 food and drink stand
2 2 cord with looped ends, th
2 3 fishing-boat

Fig. 1 8 1 tied up vase, ader
1 8 2 human face
1 8 3 owl
1 8 4 squatting man
1 8 5 owl
1 8 6 plasterer's float, qed
1 8 7 canine-headed staff, user ...
1 8 8 human eye
1 8 9 chick
1 9 0 yoke or bow
1 9 1 block of stone (?)
1 9 2 joint of meat
1 9 3 plan of chamber or courtyard

28
28
55
26
29
... 54, 5£
45
52

III.

Fig. 24
25
26
27
29
31
32
33
34
35
35a
36

lizard
symbol of the West
symbol of the East
pouches
dressed goose on bowl
new-born animal ...
arrow
bivalve shell
bowl, hent ...
Ghnem ram
Ghnem jug ...
seal badge ...
PLATE

IV.

Fig. 3 7 flute, or cubit rod ...
3 9 forked ceremonial instrument
4 1 wooden clamp (unit)
4 2 double hook
4 3 ha arms and lien mallet ...
4 4 hen mallet ...
4 6 hide wrapped together
4 7 paddle
4 8 Qebeh vase in stand
4 9 bolt, s
5 0 arm and wand, zeser
5 1 cord-stick, ud
5 2 coil of red crown ...
5 3 hand
5 4 arms down holding object

INDEX TO FACSIMILES.

74

PAGE

PAGE

Fig. 5 5
56
57
58
59
60
61

17
35
12
28
12
12
55

foreleg of animal ...
plan of chamber or courtyard
human mouth ,
flower-stem (?) crushed down, uden
arm
mouth in profile ...
papyrus roll

Fig. 7 3 adze chopping
7 4 guard squatting with stick and cord
76 city symbol
7 7 club or throw-stick
7 8 loop, slien ...
79 squatting woman ...
8 0 man drilling mountain with bow-drill
PLATE

PLATE V.

Fig. 6 2 double courtyard with palace
6 3 nem knife ...
6 4 fire-drill
6 5 nem knife ...
6 6 chest
6 7 uas sceptre with feather ...
6 8 fire-drill
6 9 cerastes
7 0 knife
7 1 bone harpoon
7 2 ostrich feather

34,^2 Fig. 8 3
50
85
50
86
50
88
54
89
69, 59 !
90
50
94
24
95
50, 66
102
52
103
23 1 104

BENI

HASAN,

flower, rud...
fire on brazier
throne, ast...
tank (?), hem
drill-cap, t ...
armlet ( ? ) . . .
vase on legs
flat lands ...
fish-skin, Teem
fish-skin, Jcem
gift symbol

..
•
.
..
.
.
.
.
.
.

VI.

...
...
...
...

...

...

...

...

...

fat duck
ball of rush-work .
sickle ...
white-headed mace

23
46
48
51

...
...

...
26
42
...
54
...
33
...
... 49 68
68
...
16
...
32
...
23
...
... 23, 68
64

I.

PAGE

PI. X X V I I .

... SO , 5 0
13
...
34
...
51
...
45
...
11
...
81

PAGE

PI. X X V I I I . flowering reed
pool with lotus flowers
hilly desert ...
crook sceptre ...

27
28
30
57

PLATES.

HIEROGLYPHS.

Sccde—No. Lftill size.
Nos. 2-5, i

XVIIITH

DYNASTY.

DEIR EL BAHRI.

PL.

I.

R.F E.P.

HIEROGLYPHS.

X V I I I T H DYNASTY.

J^

/ / / /

v

12

13

Scale h

DEIR EL BAHRI.

A^

HIEROGLYPHS.

X V I I I T H DYNASTY.

36
Scale i.

D E I R EL B A H R I .

PL. III.

HIEROGLYPHS.

XVIHTH

DYNASTY.

PL. IV.

|

43
41

42

46

47

49

<£
50
Scaie I

DEIR EL BAHRI.

R.F.E.P.

PL.

XVIllTH DYNASTY.

HIEROGLYPHS.

V.

53
52

51

55
54

M.

56
62

63

t I

.

64

58

60

Scale I

E L KAB, TOMB OF PAHERI.

AJ>.

XVIHTH DYNASTY.

HIEROGLYPHS.

67
66

71

72

73

r

76

81

82

80

Scale

E L KAB, T O M S OF PAHERI.

PL. Vtli

X I I T H DYNA8TY.

HIEROGLYPHS.

0
87

f

84

fi»

II

89

88

85

^•^B

a)

90
91

92

^^ff

93

99

•w'--..

f

!
!

97

94

A
95

100

96

*

98

105
101

Scale ?

102

103

E L BERSHEH, TOMB OF TEHUTIHETEP.

104

108

84-89, M.W.B,
90-mt HA

HIEROGLYPHS.

PL.

X I I T H DYNASTY.

VHI.

/iJLa

fl\ '

I

111

V /

113
109

108

110

114

112

115

107

S$

\ m .••
121

116

Jl

"

120

119

118

117

L

/

** —....

j*.1Wll«Fi
122

-—-

W

120
123

H\
n

130

124

127

120

125

128

'

L?\

136
134

135
133

131

138
137

E=31

j-ijjjto^j i
M n i i n i

139

1 •
140

141

142

143

144

I
145

4*
,60

146
.frcZe }

1*7

148
E L BERSHEH, TOMB OF TEHUTIHOTEP.

149

161
H.C.

PL. IX.

X I I T H DYNASTY.

HIEROGLYPHS.

155
153

152

157

A.

A

156

159
158

154

162

161

164

163

165

170

169

\1

/•/ 1

I I 's

176
178

177

<

t

179

180

JBF
185

190

189

E L BERSHEH, T O M B OF TEHUTIHOTEP.

W

K^

J

n
192

mm

mm*
193
B.C.