ABSTRACT
Every hieroglyphic character is a picture of some object in nature, animate or inanimate, and in texts many of them are used in more than one way. The simplest use of hieroglyphics is, of course, as pictures, which we may see from the following:— https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203071267/4d7ee8b4-537c-42b7-a989-085b32266749/content/fig3-1_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> a hare; https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203071267/4d7ee8b4-537c-42b7-a989-085b32266749/content/fig3-2_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> an eagle; https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203071267/4d7ee8b4-537c-42b7-a989-085b32266749/content/fig3-3_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> a duck; https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203071267/4d7ee8b4-537c-42b7-a989-085b32266749/content/fig3-4_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> a beetle; https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203071267/4d7ee8b4-537c-42b7-a989-085b32266749/content/fig3-5_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> a field with plants growing in it; https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203071267/4d7ee8b4-537c-42b7-a989-085b32266749/content/fig3-6_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> a star; https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203071267/4d7ee8b4-537c-42b7-a989-085b32266749/content/fig3-7_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> a twisted rope; https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203071267/4d7ee8b4-537c-42b7-a989-085b32266749/content/fig3-8_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> a comb; https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203071267/4d7ee8b4-537c-42b7-a989-085b32266749/content/fig3-9_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> a pyramid, and so on. But hieroglyphics may also represent ideas, e. g., https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203071267/4d7ee8b4-537c-42b7-a989-085b32266749/content/fig3-10_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> a wall falling down sideways represents the idea of “falling” https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203071267/4d7ee8b4-537c-42b7-a989-085b32266749/content/fig3-11_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> a hall in which deliberations by wise men were made represents the idea of “counsel” https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203071267/4d7ee8b4-537c-42b7-a989-085b32266749/content/fig3-12_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> an axe represents the idea of a divine person or a god; https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203071267/4d7ee8b4-537c-42b7-a989-085b32266749/content/fig3-13_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> a musical instrument represents the idea of pleasure, happiness, joy, goodness, and the like. Such are called ideographs. Now every picture of every object must have had a name, or we may say that each picture was a word-sign; a list of all these arranged in proper order would have made a dictionary in the earliest times. But let us suppose that at the period when these pictures were used as pictures only in Egypt, or wherever they first appeared, the king wished to put on record that an embassy from some such and such a neighbouring potentate had visited him with such and such an object, and that the chief of the embassy, who was called by such and such a name, had brought him rich presents from his master. Now the scribes of the period could, no doubt, have reduced to writing an account of the visit, without any very great difficulty, but when they came to recording the name of the distinguished visitor, or that of his master, they would not find this to be an easy matter. To have written down the name they would be obliged to make use of a number of hieroglyphics or picture characters which represented most closely the sound of the name of the envoy, with-out the least regard to their meaning as pictures, and, for the moment, the picture characters would have represented sounds only. The scribes must have done the same had they been ordered to make a list of the presents which the envoy had brought for their royal master. Passing over the evident anachronism let us call the envoy “Ptolemy”, which name we may write, as in the preceding chapter, with the signs:— https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203071267/4d7ee8b4-537c-42b7-a989-085b32266749/content/fig3-14_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
