hieroglyphic character, the old picture writing which was used in state and ceremonial

documents and inscriptions; the second is in the abbreviated and modified form that was

in use in the time of the Ptolemies. The inscription is therefore threefold so far as its

characters are concerned. The Greek was translated soon after gratitude of some priests

of Alexandria, or the neighbourhood, towards Ptolemy Ephiphanes.  While it was

comparatively easy to translate the Greek inscription, the Egyptian remained a mystery

for some years. We cannot attempt to give a history of the labours that resulted in a

decipherment of the Egyptian, but will content ourselves with summarizing.

In the illustration given on page 72 it will be seen that a series of characters are

enclosed within a long oval form called a cartouche, it was suspected that the signs thus

enclosed were the Royal names. The Royal name in the Greek inscription of the Rosetta

Stone is Ptolemaios. Another monument had been discovered at Philoe which was written

in Egyptian and Greek; in this, two Royal names occur, Ptolemy and Kleopatra. This

gave an opportunity of testing the question of the cartouche, and it was found that the

characters were almost identical in both Stones. The next step was to compare the

cartouches of both names, testing for similar characters.

In the above illustration the reader can follow every letter in the Egyptian by the aid of

the figures; thus in Kleopatra, K is a right-angle triangle, figured No. 1 in each case,

L is represented by a lion, figured No. 2, and so on.

Let us now compare the two. In both cartouches there appears a square, No. 5 in

Kleopatra and No. 1 in Ptolemy, in both Greek names this is the letter P, so one sign

in Egyptian has now been verified; No. 2 in Kleopatra should therefore stand for 50:

what is the sign for L in Ptolemy? No. 4 is its position, and again, the sign is