Mariette, Auguste; Dickerman, Lysander [Editor]: The monuments of Upper Egypt (Boston, 1890)

54 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPER EGYPT.

V.-LANGUAGE AND WRITING.

The Egyptian language is neither Semitic nor
Indo-European. It is one of the principal types
of that group of languages which may be called
Chamitic. The Coptic language is this same
Egyptian language as it was spoken in the sec-
ond or third century of our era, when it was used
to express Christian ideas. *

There are still many persons who firmly be-
lieve that hieroglyphs are nothing but a series of
riddles which, when taken collectively, form a
sort of enigma to be guessed at, and it must be
confessed that this error is encouraged by the
most serious classical writers : " The right hand
open, with extended fingers," says Diodorus
Siculus, ''represents the desire of acquisition;
the left hand closed, the grasping and keeping
of property."

"To express hatred," says Plutarch, "they
depict a fish. At Sa'is, in the vestibule of the
temple of Minerva, there were engraved a child,
an old man, a hawk, a fish, and a hippopota-

* One should bear in mind that when the Egyptian
language became merged into Coptic it had already
greatly degenerated, so that the Coptic language repre-
sents the language of the demotic character rather than
that of the hieroglyphs.