Nicholson, Charles: Aegyptiaca (London, 1891)

FOUND AT MEMPHIS.

105

In the line to the left, we are finally told Lhat
amongst the multifarious employments of Mes was
that of—

rut men em ha Ptah.

renovans quae sculpta sunt in donio Ptah.

Entrusted with the repairs of the sacred carvings in the
Temple of Ptah.

Notwithstanding the fragmentary and disjointed
character of the foregoing inscriptions, and their
exhibiting so much of the wearisome and pleonastic
tautology, characteristic of nearly all similar records,
they nevertheless furnish materials for inquiry and
speculation. The name of Mes in an uncompounded
form; the office and functions discharged in suc-
cession by him and his father, together with the
locality in which they resided, are all interesting
points. The affinity, if not absolute identity of the
name Mes, as found in these monumental inscrip-
tions, with the name borne by the Hebrew Moses,
lends to them additional importance. I am under
especial obligation to my friend Mr. C. W. Goodwin,
for his critical views on the etymology, inflections,
and combinations of the word Mes, and I shall, in
the subsequent remarks which I am about to offer,
avail myself largely of the notes with which he has
kindly furnished me.

The word MeS, (f| p, signifies to bring forth, corres-
ponding with the Coptic Uec, natus, nasci, parere.
It is also sometimes, but less frequently, employed
as conveying the idea ' to beget.' We have in the
Coptic the following forms of the root :—-

U<?-c, pullus, infans, gigni.
Uice, natus, generatus.