The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-06-11
EgYptinn HierogIHphiOs.

IbFOHTAhT Discoveries PX LBPbiUb'
The London A0,eneum publishes the follow
ing extract from letter written by NJ. Lepsius,
under date of 2lst Arril, 1866, giving an account
OF the discoveries he has recently made In
Egypt:-
ION leaving Port Said one OF the engineers Of
the Isthmus told me he had seen short
time before q Greek inscription in San, which
very soon found out. 1t was the corner only of
an inscription, the body of which was still
covered with masses of old rubbish. A part of
this, as we'll as the rubbish, had by accident
fallen down twelve or fourteen days before we
arrived there, and lad revealed the corner of
the inscription. 1 employed some boys to clear
the rest OF the stone from the rubbish which lay
above, and had the good fortune to discover II
to be great bilingual inscription, in q perfect
state of preservation The hieroglvphical
inscription has thirty-seven, the Greek no less
than seventy-six lines of considerable length,
in small letters, containing much more text
than the inscription OF Rosetta.
ut is also found that the demotic inscription
on this monument was ordered to be added by
the priests, 'on a stone or brass stele, in the
sacred writing OF the Egyptians and in Greek
characters This is unfortunately wanting; bat
il is evident how precious the other two texts,
every word Of which is perfectly legible from
the beginning to the end, must be for hierogly-
phical studies The contents oil the inscription
are not less interesting. II is dated the 9th year
the 7th ApellRus-l7 Iib, of the reign of Euer-
gates l. The priests of Egypt came together in
] on the 5th Dios, and his assumption of the
royal power on the 25ih of the same month,
when they passed the decree here published
They enunerate all the good deeds of the king
amongst them the merit of having recovered
in a military expedition the sacred images car
lied of in former times by the Persians, and
order great honors TO be paid in reward TOR his
services.
Zone of these rewards is a feast to be cele.
brated in honor OF the king and queen on the
day of the rising (or coming forth peT) OF the
shdd (or croWns) of Isis, which the priests call
the first day of the year; and another honor is a
s econd feast of the same gods, introduced every
fourth year between the Epigomena and the
first Thoth, in order, as it is clearly stated, to
avoid henceiorth the inconvenience that some
o { the great teasts relating to the summer we've,
by the wandering of the civil year, celebrated
in the winter, and others in the summer which
belonged originally to the winter.
'Thus we have the whole theory of the two
years-one in use amongst the people, the other
known by the priests as / had stated in my
Chronology aud against which a new theory
had been started by NJ. Brugsch in his never
theless interesting 'Materiaux,' As the stone
was not excavated by NJ. Mariette, whose kind
reception and whose full permission TO study
and to work in the Museum at Bulaq ! have to
acknowledge. | am sure that 1t is entirely with
his consent that shall publish this important
inscription as soon as possible after my return
to Berlin.
cat the Isthmus found a series of Persian
monuments of the time of Darius to comm emo
rate his work of the canal between the Red Sea
and the Nile; two of them were hitherto called
Scraps and Cambyses, the third was only lately
removed by the engineer of the Isthmus 1t is
remarkable that on one of the blocks near
Shatut, made known by M. de Rozere, of the
French expedition, the name of Darius is written
in cuneliorm characters, but in a cartouche ol
entirely Egyptian form. M. Mariette, at whose
order, on the request of NJ. de Lesseps, the
blocks were laid open, will publish these trag
ments in the July number of the Revue Archeo
! logique
"Eastly, have to tell you that believe we
! found the runs OF Hauaris (Avars) on the spo
where we pitched our tents for night in the
neighborhood of Pelusium, and where it haC
been always expected to be tound."