DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5538#0271
HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 251
be said to begin. Apart, however, from archaisms and cor-
ruptions, there is, as it seems to me, another and a very real
difficulty which we moderns have to encounter when we be-
gin to study the language and writing of the ancient Egyp-
tians. It is not that the grammar is abstruse; on the con-
trary, the grammar is singularly elementary. It is not that
the hieroglyphs are puzzling, or hard to remember. Being
pictorial, they tell their own story, and are as easy to remem-
ber as the objects the3r represent. It is not even the alarm-
ing fact that there are 3000 of them; for of those 3000,
only a limited number were in common use. It is for none
of these reasons. Our real stumbling-block is the amazing
and utterly childlike simplicity of the whole thing. It is a
simplicity which belongs to the time " when all the world
was young;" and now that all the world is old, we do not
know what to make of it. We are born with nineteenth
century brains; and we cannot put our brains back, as if they
were the hands of a clock. Yet it is only by putting our
brains back that we can possibly contrive to get behind the
simplicity of ancient Egyptian thought. That simplicity of
thought, joined to admirable powers of observation, a specu-
lative turn of mind, and a curiously literal method of reason-
ing, led this singular people to construct a theory of the uni-
verse and an elaborate system of religion which so strongly
affected their arts, their literature, and even their hiero-
glyphs, that unless one knows what they thought and be-
lieved on a great many subjects, it is impossible to grasp
the meaning of many an ordinary looking character.
Here, for instance, is the ideograph ___ for pet, the
"sky." It represents a ceiling, or, rather, a cross-
beam supporting a ceiling. This looks like a metaphor; but
it is nothing of the kind. The Egyptians conceived the sky
to be a ceiling, or overhead platform of iron, along which
flowed the waters of the heavenly ocean. Daily, from east
to west, this heavenly ocean was traversed by Ra, the sun-
god, in his golden bark. But at night the iron ceiling was
lighted by lamps, each star in the firmament being a lamp
be said to begin. Apart, however, from archaisms and cor-
ruptions, there is, as it seems to me, another and a very real
difficulty which we moderns have to encounter when we be-
gin to study the language and writing of the ancient Egyp-
tians. It is not that the grammar is abstruse; on the con-
trary, the grammar is singularly elementary. It is not that
the hieroglyphs are puzzling, or hard to remember. Being
pictorial, they tell their own story, and are as easy to remem-
ber as the objects the3r represent. It is not even the alarm-
ing fact that there are 3000 of them; for of those 3000,
only a limited number were in common use. It is for none
of these reasons. Our real stumbling-block is the amazing
and utterly childlike simplicity of the whole thing. It is a
simplicity which belongs to the time " when all the world
was young;" and now that all the world is old, we do not
know what to make of it. We are born with nineteenth
century brains; and we cannot put our brains back, as if they
were the hands of a clock. Yet it is only by putting our
brains back that we can possibly contrive to get behind the
simplicity of ancient Egyptian thought. That simplicity of
thought, joined to admirable powers of observation, a specu-
lative turn of mind, and a curiously literal method of reason-
ing, led this singular people to construct a theory of the uni-
verse and an elaborate system of religion which so strongly
affected their arts, their literature, and even their hiero-
glyphs, that unless one knows what they thought and be-
lieved on a great many subjects, it is impossible to grasp
the meaning of many an ordinary looking character.
Here, for instance, is the ideograph ___ for pet, the
"sky." It represents a ceiling, or, rather, a cross-
beam supporting a ceiling. This looks like a metaphor; but
it is nothing of the kind. The Egyptians conceived the sky
to be a ceiling, or overhead platform of iron, along which
flowed the waters of the heavenly ocean. Daily, from east
to west, this heavenly ocean was traversed by Ra, the sun-
god, in his golden bark. But at night the iron ceiling was
lighted by lamps, each star in the firmament being a lamp