EGYPT (LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE) 469 to the rank of colonel, and civil grades to that of rutbeh-i-sanieh only. Finally, he is bound to remit every year, in full and without delay, to the Turkish treasury 150,000 purses of trib- ute. The following is a list of some of the most important works on ancient and mod- ern Egypt: Denon, Voyage dans la basse et la haute figypte (Paris, 1802); Champollion (the younger), L Egypte sous les Pharaons (Paris, 1814), and Monuments de VEgypte et de la Nubie (1843) ; Description de V Egypte (26 vols. 8vo, and 12 vols. fol. of plates, new ed., 1820-'30); Lane, "Manners and Cus- toms of the Modern Egyptians " (2 vols., Lon- don, 1836); Russegger, Eeisen (7 vols., Stutt- gart, 1841-'50); Bunsen, Aegyptens Stelle in der Weltgeschichte (5 vols. 8vo, Hamburg and Gotha, 1845-'57), and more especially the sec- ond edition of the English translation, with additions by Samuel Birch (5 vols., London, 1867); Samuel Sharpe, "History pf Egypt from the earliest Times to the Conquest of the Arabs " (London, 1846 ; new ed., 1870) ; Wil- kinson, " Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians" (3d ed., 5 vols., London, 1847), "Handbook for Travellers in Egypt" (1847), " A popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians " (2 vols., 1854), and notes and appendices to Rawlinson's " Herodotus " (1858-'9) ; Lepsius, DenJcmdler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien (Leip- sic, 1849 et seq.}, Chronologie derAegypter (Ber- lin, 1849), and Briefe aus Aegypten und Aethi- opien (Berlin, 1852; English translation, Lon- don, 1855); Kenrick, "Ancient Egypt under the Pharaohs " (2 vols., London, 1850) ; Brugsch, Reiseberichte aus Aegypten (Leipsic, 1855), His- toire d? Egypte des premiers temps jusqu'd nos jours (3 vols., 1859 etseq. ; abridged by Mariette for the use of the colleges of Egypt as Aper- fu de Phistoire d*Egypte, Alexandria, 1864), and Geographische Inschriften Altagyptischer DenTcmaler (Leipsic, 1857-'60) ; Uhlemann, Handbuch der gesammten Aegyptischen Alter- thumslcunde (4 vols., Leipsic, 1857-'8) ; Alfred von Kremer, Aegypten, Fonchungen iiber Land und Voile (2 vols., Leipsic, 1863); Chabas, Voyage d>un Egyptien en Syrie, Phenwie et Palestine (Chalons, 1866) ; Dtimichen, Histo- rische Inschriften (Leipsic, 1867-'9); Ebers, Aegypten und die Bucher Moseys (2 vols., Leip- sic, 1871-'4); and Stephan, Das heutige Aegyp- ten (Leipsic, 1872). See also the travels of Savary, Sonnini, Belzoni, St. John, Harriet Martineau, J. L. Stephens, Dr. Robinson, Bay- ard Taylor, G. W. Curtis, W. C. Prime, &c. EGYPT, Language and Literature of. Nothing is positively known of the origin and chronol- ogy of the old Egyptian language. Though very distinct, it indicates some affinity to the Semitic languages, but not as great a relation- ship as exists between Hebrew, Aramaic, Ara- bic, and Assyrian. Besides the analogy in the mode of writing, which omits many vowels and gives the words only in skeleton, there are numerous coincidences in the vocabulary. The Berber, Saho, and Galla languages, which are considered one in origin with Semitic tongues, have also an unmistakable affinity with Egyptian. The Semitic character of the language is specially maintained by Benfey, Ernst Meir, Karl Lottner, F. Muller, De Rouge, Ebers, Brugsch, and Lepsius. Some words, however, are Indo-European, and Pott, Ewald, and Renan have placed Egyptian in that fam- ily of languages. Ewald and Renan are of late less positive, and the internal evidence seems sufficient to establish some relationship between Semitic and Egyptian. The history of the development and decay of the language has not yet been traced ; only the four distinct graphic systems, hieroglyphic, hieratic, demo- tic, and Coptic, can safely be confined within chronological limits. The time of the devel- opment of the old and full hieroglyphic wri- ting is unknown. It was perfectly understood and freely used in the time of the 3d and 4th dynasties, winch renders it probable that the date of its discovery must be placed much earlier than 3000 B. 0. The use of this writing was not confined to the sacerdotal classes, as was formerly believed on the authority of the Greeks, but it was employed by all, and for all purposes. Though shorter methods of writing were afterward devised, the hiero- glyphic or pictorial representation of the lan- guage continued in use for important state documents, inscriptions, and religious com- positions, and is found, accompanied by tran- scriptions in demotic and in Greek, down to the Roman emperor Decius, and, if Lenor- mant's reading is correct, as late as the usurpa- tion of the government of Egypt by Achilles, who was put to death by Diocletian, A. D. 296. The spread of Christianity in Egypt caused a proscription of the hieroglyphics, because they are full of mythological allusions and sensual figures. The wants of a reading and writing nation led at an early period to the use of linear hieroglyphics in long docu- ments, which subsequently developed into a cursive hand, called the hieratic. The great body of Egyptian literature has reached us through this character, the reading of which can only be determined by resolving it first into its prototype hieroglyphics. It is not possible to fix the time of the first use of hie- ratic writing ; but from the actual preservation of several hieratic papyri of the llth dynasty, presenting it as a perfectly distinct and well developed mode of writing, it is safe to con- clude that it must have come into use long before 2000 B. C. The demotic indicates a rise of the vulgar tongue into literary use, which took place about the beginning of the 7th century B. C., when it was brought into fashion by the great social revolution in the reign of Psammetik (Psammetichus). The oldest demotic papyrus found, now in the Turin mu- seum, dates from the 45th year of his reign, or 620 B. C. The demotic was used to transcribe hieroglyphic and hieratic papyri and inscrip- tions into the vulgar idiom till the 2d century
