and Caesars, which are not found in the early monuments;
some, again, of the older times, fell into disuse.

Hieratic is an abbreviated form of the hieroglyphic; thus each
hieroglyphic sign--ikonographic, symbolic, or phonetic--has its
abridged hieratic form, and this abridged form has the same import as
the sign itself of which it is a reduced copy. It was written from
right to left, and was the character used by the priests and sacred
scribes, whence its name. It was invented at least as early as the
ninth dynasty (4,240 years ago), and fell into disuse when the demotic
had been introduced. The hieratic writing was generally used for
manuscripts, and is also found on the cases of mummies, and on
isolated stones and tablets. Long inscriptions have been written on
them with a brush. Inscriptions of this kind are also found on
buildings, written or engraved by ancient travelers. But its most
important use was in the historical papyri, and the registers of the
temples. Most valuable information respecting the chronology and
numeric systems of the Egyptians has been derived from them.

Demotic, or enchorial, is composed of signs derived from the hieratic,
and is a simplified form of it, but from which figurative or
ikonographic signs are generally excluded, and but few symbolical
signs, relative to religion alone, are retained; signs nearly
approaching the alphabetic are chiefly met with in this third kind of
writing. It was invariably written, like the hieratic, from right to
left. It is thus evident that the Egyptians, strictly speaking, had
but one system of writing, composed of three kinds of signs, the
second and third being regularly deduced from the first, and all three
governed by the same fundamental principles. The demotic was reserved
for general use among the Egyptians: decrees and other public acts,
contracts, some funeral stelae, and private transactions, were written
in demotic. The intermediate text of the Rosetta inscription is of
this kind. It is not quite certain when the demotic first came into
use, but it was at least as early as the reign of Psammetichus II., of
the twenty-sixth dynasty (B.C. 604); and it had therefore long been
employed when Herodotus visited Egypt. Soon after its invention it was
adopted for all ordinary purposes.

The chief objects of interest in the study of an Egyptian inscription
are its historical indications. These are found in the names of Kings
or of chief officers, and