DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6359#0059
HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING
51
of all, the method of writing called the epistolographic;
secondly, the hieratic, which the sacred scribes employ ; and
last of all the hieroglyphic. The epistolographic, according
to the judgment of the learned, is the same that is sometimes
called the enchorial, and sometimes, as by Herodotus and Dio-
dorus, the demotic. It is necessary to speak of these sepa- :
lately.
I.-HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING.
This was the original mode of Egyptian writing. It has
^en conjectured by some who have speculated on the origin
of the art of writing, (and with how near an approximation
t0 truth the reader can judge for himself,) that the earliest
attempt at conveying ideas to the mind, by marks addressed
to the eye, is to be found in what is usually termed " picture
writing." That such a mode has been resorted to by savage
nations, as well as by those more or less advanced in civiliza-
tion, is undoubtedly true. We know, for instance, that among
the Indians, as they are termed in our own country, their rude
^Presentations of men, and brutes, and other physical objects,
delineated on bark or skins, have been used, and are still, to
convey information that is intelligible to their own people.
So> too, in Mexico, intelligence of the landing of Cortez was
communicated to the capital, by this mode of writing. In-
deed, among the Mexicans, it had been carried to an extent
much greater than is usually supposed, and is worthy of a
ro-ore attentive study than it has yet received. It may not be
^interesting to present the reader with a specimen. It is the
record of a marriage.
51
of all, the method of writing called the epistolographic;
secondly, the hieratic, which the sacred scribes employ ; and
last of all the hieroglyphic. The epistolographic, according
to the judgment of the learned, is the same that is sometimes
called the enchorial, and sometimes, as by Herodotus and Dio-
dorus, the demotic. It is necessary to speak of these sepa- :
lately.
I.-HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING.
This was the original mode of Egyptian writing. It has
^en conjectured by some who have speculated on the origin
of the art of writing, (and with how near an approximation
t0 truth the reader can judge for himself,) that the earliest
attempt at conveying ideas to the mind, by marks addressed
to the eye, is to be found in what is usually termed " picture
writing." That such a mode has been resorted to by savage
nations, as well as by those more or less advanced in civiliza-
tion, is undoubtedly true. We know, for instance, that among
the Indians, as they are termed in our own country, their rude
^Presentations of men, and brutes, and other physical objects,
delineated on bark or skins, have been used, and are still, to
convey information that is intelligible to their own people.
So> too, in Mexico, intelligence of the landing of Cortez was
communicated to the capital, by this mode of writing. In-
deed, among the Mexicans, it had been carried to an extent
much greater than is usually supposed, and is worthy of a
ro-ore attentive study than it has yet received. It may not be
^interesting to present the reader with a specimen. It is the
record of a marriage.