e sun). So, too, the
word "moon," Aah, was followed by the crescent. In these cases the
sign so following the phonetic word has been called a _terminative_,
from its serving to determine the meaning of what preceded it. We give
here a few words translated:

[Illustration]

"In your transformation as golden sperbe you have accomplished it."

2. In the same manner, the _tropical_ hieroglyphics might be alone or
in company with the word written phonetically; and the expression "to
write," _skhai_, might be followed or not by its tropical
hieroglyphic, the "pen and inkstand," as its determinative sign. 3.
The emblematic figure, a _hawk-headed_ god, bearing the disk,
signifying the "sun," might also be alone, or after the name "Ra"
written phonetically, as a determinative sign; and as a general rule
the determinative followed, instead of preceding the names.
Determinatives are of two kinds--ideograms, and generic
determinatives: the first were the pictures of the object spoken of;
the second, conventional symbols of the class of notions expressed by
the word.

[Illustration]

4. Phonetic. Phonetic characters or signs were those expressive of
sounds. They are either purely _alphabetic_ or _syllabic_. All the
other Egyptian phonetic signs have _syllabic_ values, which are
resolvable into combinations of the letters of the alphabet. This
phonetic principle being admitted, the numbers of figures used to
represent a sound might have been increased almost without limit, and
any hieroglyphic might stand for the first letter of its name. So
copious an alphabet would have been a continual source of error. The
characters, therefore, thus applied, were soon fixed, and the
Egyptians practically confined themselves to particular hieroglyphics
in writing certain words.

[Illustration]

"Out of bad comes good."

Hieroglyphic writing was employed on monuments of all kinds, on
temples as well as on the smallest figures, and on bricks used for
building purposes. On the most ancient monuments this writing is
absolutely the same as on the most recent Egyptian work. Out of Egypt
there is scarcely a single example of a graphic system identically the
same during a period of over two thousand years. The hieroglyphic
characters were either engraved in relief, or sunk below the surface
on the public monuments, and objects of hard materials suited for the
glyptic art. The hieroglyphics on the monuments are either sculptured
an