serving the name of the grandfather in his grandchildren.

The remaining part of this curious and interesting legend, I shall explain in a future Lecture, as, some of the characters being symbolical, and others grammatical, they require that I should illustrate my subject with new reflections. For the present it will be sufficient for you to know that both these Pharaohs, Sesonchis and Osorgon, lived nearly one thousand years before Christ, according to the Hebrew reckoning, at which time it is beyond dispute that the Egyptians were in the habit of using phonetic hieroglyphics, and employing them as letters.

Of the same sort are some inscriptions discovered by Mr. Salt, one of which was found at Medinet Haboo, and exhibits the name of Tiraka, [Tab. 3. fig. 15.], in which I beg to observe a very curious variation, and that is, the horizontal line employed for a T, and becoming one of the synonyms for that letter, which is generally expressed by the figure of the hand. His name, in fact, so figured, was also found in Ethiopia, by Mr. Linant, a gentleman employed by Mr. Bankes to travel in that country, to discover, if possible, the site and extension, as well as the ruins of Meroe. In this inscription the horizontal line is a T, the geometrical figure an I or E, the lion an R, the triangle a K. This is the same Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, mentioned in the Bible, " who came out to wage war against Sennacherib, king of Assyria," of whom some learned men, of high literary reputation, had been pleased to doubt the existence. He was a contemporary with the prophet Isaiah, and lived full 700 years B. C.

In these other legends, I offer to your consideration the name of two more royal personages of much older date. They are the Pharaoh Ammonmai, [fig. 4.] the fourth king of the eighteenth dynasty, and his sister, Amousé, [fig. 3.] who succeeded him in the throne of Egypt. The emblem superadded to the ring containing her name, besides the goose, has the addition of the semi-circle, which is always the mark of females; and the respective names, both of her and her brother, begin with three hieroglyphics, which stand for the same letters: the feather for A; the parallelogram for M ; the undulating line for N. But in the ring of her brother [fig. 4.] we have the plough and the two feathers, which spell Mai, or Mei. In her ring we have the cinopælex and the half circle; the first standing phonetically for the initial of the syllable se, or, symbolically, for the very word se, or she, but always exhibiting the same sound; and the half circle, as I have mentioned in a former Lecture, is the mark of the feminine gender, and shews that the name contained within the ring, is the name of a queen.

One of the names that occurs most frequently, although with a little variation, on almost all the monuments and buildings of high antiquity, is the name of Ramesses, or Ramses; a name which

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seems to have been borne by not less than five different Pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty, two of whom had been great conquerors, and their memory was highly respected. Whether in more ancient times there had been any other Pharaoh of the same name, I shall not venture to decide, since the monuments which have hitherto been discovered do not mount much higher. But as we find in the book of Exodus, that one of the towns in Lower Egypt, built by the Jews during their captivity, was called Raamses, it is not improbable to suppose, that the appellation given to this town was in commemoration and honour of a prince of that name. It may also, perhaps, be worth noting, that the name of the town of Ramses, which the Jews built, is spelt in the original text by five letters only; a resh, or r, an ain, or a, a mem, or m, and two samechs, that is, two s's, making in the whole Ramss, which is precisely the way the name of Pharaoh is spelt in hieroglyphics. [Table 3. fig. 5 and 6.

In both figures the name of Ramesses is expressed by a circle, which is a symbolical hieroglyphic, of which I shall have to speak hereafter, and stands for the letter R. In fig. 6, we have a perpendicular line, which is an A, and left out in fig. 5. Then follows a kind of three-tasselled knot, which is an M, and the four broken lines, each two of which are an S.

To the first of these two great Pharaohs I have just mentioned, Manetho gives the surname of Mei Amon. This surname, in fig. 6, is made out by the feather, which is an A, by the dented parallelogram, which is an M, and by the undulating line, which is an N, spelling the name of Amon; and the fourth character, a sort of a pedestal, is an M, and stands for the abbreviation of the word or syllable Mai, the whole making the surname of Maiamon.

This Pharaoh was the grandfather of Ramesses Sethos, or Sesostris of the Greeks; according to Manetho, his reign lasted for more than 60 years; and from the inscriptions engraved on his palace at Medinet Habout, we learn that he was a warrior and a conqueror.

The tomb of this prince, which is the fifth towards the east, is still to be seen in the valley of Bilban-el-Molouk, on the west of Thebes. It is a magnificent excavation, consisting of various chambers. In the middle of one of them there was a sarcophagus of red granite, the cover of which is six feet long, and now lies in the vestibule of the Fitzwilliam Museum, of the university of Cambridge. At the top there is, in alto relievo, sculptured the image of this prince; and round that part of the edge which is whole, there is the inscription marked in Table 2. fig. 7. The name is phonetic, although one of the characters be considered as symbolical, or rather figurative. For, in the second oval of the inscription, marked a, the first sign represents the figure of the god Re, or Ra, and, therefore, must be taken as an equivalent for that syllable, or at least for the letter R, simply; then the knot, as in fig. 5 and 6, is an M; the crooked line is an S, and the next character is equally an S, spelling altogether Ramss, and by supplying the intermediate vowels, Ramesses.

The other part of the inscription must form the subject of a future Lecture.

To the second Pharaoh I have mentioned, bearing the name of Rameses, Manetho gives also the name of Sethos, or Sethosis, and Herodotus that of Sesostris. He was a warrior and a conqueror, since his image is invariably found in basso relievos, representing battles, sieges, marches, and encampments. He carried his arms to distant countries, as in some monuments he appears surrounded by captives, whose dresses and manners are quite different from those used by the Egyptians. He conquered a great part of Africa, as in other monuments he is exhibited as receiving contributions, or presents of wild animals peculiar to that country, such as cameleopards, ostriches, monkeys, and the like; and the great number of splendid public buildings which he caused to be raised, evidently shew that he must have amassed great wealth, and increased the revenues of the state, at the expense of foreign nations. For the legend of this prince is found sculptured, painted, or engraved in the dedication, and on almost all the parts of the great edifices of Issamboul, Calabsché, Derry, Chirché, and Ovady-Esséboua, in Nubia; on several places in the palace of Karnac, at Thebes; on the