termine their meaning. For example, nem means 'to sleep,' 'to walk,' 'to go back,' 'to become infirm,' 'tongue,' and again'; without a determinative the meaning of this word in a sentence would be easily mistaken. DETERMINATIVES are of two kinds: I, ideographic, and II, màu, ‘cat,’a cat,

generic. Thus after 40

written; this is an ideographic determinative. After

A

was

&

was

kerḥ, 'darkness,' the night sky with a star in it, I written; this is a generic determinative. A word has frequently more than one determinative; for example, in the word

baḥ, to overflow,'

is

www.is a determinative of

water, of a lake or collection of water, and of ground. The list of hieroglyphic signs with their phonetic values given on pp. 221-227, will be of use in reading kings' names, etc.; for convenience, however, the hieroglyphic alphabet is added here. The system of transliteration of Egyptian characters used in this book is that most generally adopted.

The names of the numbers 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 are not known exactly.

Hieroglyphic inscriptions are usually to be read in the opposite direction to which the characters face; there is however no hard and fast rule in this matter. On the papyri they are read in various directions, and there are instances in which the ancient copyist mistook the end of a

chapter for its beginning, and copied the whole of it in the reverse order. Some inscriptions are to be read in perpen dicular lines.

The following transliterated and translated extract from the first page of the "Tale of the Two Brothers," and the text on pp. 249-262, will explain the foregoing state

There were once on a time brothers two [the children]