9aan^ iPtii^x ^icaxJ,
 
 J^ CO]MF»^RISON 
 
 OF 
 
 EGYPTIAISr SYMBOLS 
 
 WITH THOSE OF THE HEBREWS. 
 
 By FREDERIC PORTAL. 
 
 SHi^mmm^ 
 
 'The eymbola of the Egyptians are like unto those of the Hebrews." 
 
 (Clement of Alexandria, Stromales, V.) 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH, 
 
 By JOHN W. SIMONS, 
 
 tADT OBAND MASTEB OT MABON8, GRAND TREASPBEB OF THE OBAND LODGE OF NEW TOBX, 
 SaAND TBEABUBEB OF THE GBAND ENCAMPMENT OF THE UNITED 8TATKH, ETC. 
 
 NKW YORK : 
 
 MACOY PUBLISHING AM) MASONIC SUPPLY COMPANY. 
 
 1904.
 
 ^T/T 
 
 ^■?^^
 
 m 
 
 EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS 
 
 COMPARED TO THOSE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PRINCIPLE OF SYMBOLOGY. 
 
 The origin of the science of symbols is lost in the 
 distance of time, and seems to be connected with the 
 cradle of humanity — the oldest religion-s were governed 
 by it; the arts of design, architecture, statuary, and 
 painting were born under its influence, and primitive 
 writing was one of its applications. 
 
 Did symbols exist in spoken, before being translated 
 into written, language? Were primitive words the 
 source of symbols? are the questions on which these 
 researches are based. 
 
 The first men, in order to express abstract ideas, bor- 
 rowed images from surrounding nature; by a surprising 
 intuition, they attached to each race and species of 
 animals, to phmts, and the elements, ideas of beauty or 
 ligliness, of good or evil, of affection or hatred, of purity 
 or uncleanness, of truth or error. 
 
 Those fathers of the human race did not compare, but 
 they named their ideas from cDrrcsixmdnifr ohjccts in the 
 material world; thus, if tliey wished to say, the king 
 of an obedient people, they did not compare hin) to a 
 hix governing a submissive hive, but they called him bee; 
 if tht-y desired to say filial piety, they did not (;om]>are 
 it to the slork feeding its family, but they called it sturk ; 
 to expresH jxjwer, they called it bull,- the power of man, 
 the arm; strength of soul, l/07i ; the soul (ispiring U> 
 imirai, th<; hawk that sails in the clouds and looks stead- 
 lastly at the sun. 
 
 Primitive writing, the image of primitive speech, was
 
 PRINCIPLE OF 
 
 entirely composed of symbolic characters, as demon- 
 strated by the examples of China and Mexico, and the 
 symbols we have just cited in Egyptian writing.^ 
 
 If the principle, we have thus assumed, is true, the 
 speech of the first people must have left profound traces 
 of its ambiguities in the most ancient known lan- 
 guages; doubtless, in the lapse of time, figurative ex- 
 pressions passed from tropes to abstractions. The 
 descendants of the patriarchs, in pronouncing the word 
 bee, and attaching the idea of a king to it, no longer 
 thought of the insect living in a monarchical state, 
 hence arose a change in pronunciation, at first scarcely 
 perceptible, but which, degenerating from tongue to 
 tongue, finally destroyed every trace of symbolism; a 
 dead poetry disinherited the living poetry of preceding 
 ages ; comparisons were instituted, and rhetoric took 
 the place of symbols. 
 
 This theory results from the following facts : Hora- 
 poUo teaches the principle of Egyptian symbology when 
 he says that the hawk is the symbol of the soul ; for in 
 the Egyptian tongue, the name of the Hawk is Baieth, 
 signifying soul and heart — Bai, soul, and eth, heart. 
 (Horap. I. 7.) 
 
 Thus, in Egypt, symbology rested on the fact that 
 the name of a symbol contained the idea or ideas sym- 
 bolized, since the Hawk borrowed its significance from 
 the two roots of its name. To us, the testimony of 
 Horapollo appears positive ; is it indisputable ? 
 
 The knowledge of symbols employed by Champollion, 
 and by the learned of the present day, to decipher 
 Egyptian writings, depends almost entirely on Hora- 
 pollo; the Rosetta-stone showed the use of those char- 
 acters mingled with alphabetic writing, by partly con- 
 firming the text of the Egyptian hterogrammat. 
 
 "Hitherto," says Champollion, "I have recognized in 
 the hieroglyphic texts, but thirty of the seventy physical 
 objectfs indicated by Horapollo in his first book, as sym- 
 bolic signs of certain ideas; and of these thirty, there 
 
 ' According to Champollion, the Egyptians apparently first used 
 figurative and symbolic characters. {Precis. 358.) M. Lepsius also 
 thinks that Egyptian writing was, at first, entirely figurative {An- 
 nales de VInditut de correspondance urckeologique, torn. IX., p. 24 
 1837.)
 
 SYMBOLOGY. O 
 
 are but thirteen — to wit, the reversed crescent, the heetlc, 
 the vulture, the hinder parts of the lion, the three vases, the 
 hare, the Ibis, the inkstand, the ?"ee(/, tlie bull, the Egijp^ 
 tiaji goose, the Aeac^ o/' ^Ae Hoopoe, and tlie 6ee, which, 
 in reality, appear to have the meaning he attributes to 
 them. But the greater part of the symbolic images, 
 indicated by him throughout his first book, and that 
 part of the second which seems the most authentic, 
 may be found in sculptured or painted pictures, eitlier 
 on the walls of the Temples, Palaces, and tombs, or in 
 manuscripts, on the winding-sheets and coffins of mum- 
 mies, on amulets, etc." {Precis. 348.) 
 
 ]\[. Champollion, whether reading manuscripts or in 
 examining other remains, has no hesitation in giving to 
 symbolic forms the signification ascribed to them by 
 Horapollo. The descriptive notice of Egyptian monu- 
 ments, in the Paris museum, displays tlie faith of the 
 learned Frenchman in the Egyptian writer. Horapollo 
 could not, then, have been mistaken in announcing as a 
 fact known in his day, that certain signs had certain 
 significations, because the name contained the signifi- 
 cation. A meaning may be invented for a symbol, 
 or it may be distorted from that it really possesses; 
 but that an Egyptiiui writer sliould suppose so ex- 
 traordinary a princi[)le as that of hoinonomy, and that 
 that principle should be false, is more than we can 
 admit. This reasoning has appeared conclusive to sever.il 
 learned men who have studied P^gyptian writing ; among 
 the first of whom, Zoega, author of a celebrated Treatise 
 on Obelisks, rccogni/jMl it in principle. 
 
 "The nomenchiture exliil)ite(i by Zoega, in his Treat- 
 ise on Obelisks," says Doctor Dujardin, "a(hniMf(l a 
 phonetic employment of the hierogly[>hic signs, in wliicli 
 the characters of the sa(;red writings performed a [tiirl, 
 analogcjiis to the figures compfjsing a icbus. iiorapollo, 
 on whose authority Zoega admitted this fifth mode of 
 ex[)ression, gives us otdy a single example; he shows us 
 the Hawk (ini[)loyed, wot figurativchj, to represent the 
 bird of that name;, not as a troix; to express the idea of 
 elevation, not iniginalicatlij to recall the idea of the god 
 Horus, but phoHeiicalhj to designate the Soul. The two 
 names of Hawk and Soul, sounding the same to the car, 
 tliese two things, though widely ditrereiit, being homo-
 
 6 PRINCIPLE OF 
 
 nynis, as soon as the figure of the hawk was used to 
 designate the name only of that bird, it will be admitted 
 that from that use might result the expression of the 
 idea soul." 
 
 "This last mode of expression has been pointed out 
 by Origny, in his Researches on Ancient Egypt, and by 
 Zoega, in his Treatise on Obelisks, as likely to present, 
 if actually made use of, an almost insurmountable ob- 
 stacle to the interpretation of a great number of hiero- 
 glyphic pictures. Every tongue becoming altered by 
 the lapse of ages, it is presumable that the Egyptian 
 could not pass through thousands of years without some 
 changes, without, perhaps, considerable modification ; 
 now, in such a labor, the primitive ambiguities are 
 eflfaced and disappear, while new ones appear in their 
 places. The form and natural qualities of objects do not 
 change; thus modes of expression, founded on that foi'm 
 and those qualities, may be expected to present the same 
 results at different and extremely distant periods of time ; 
 but 7iames change with time, so that a given figure, 
 which, on account of its name, might symbolize a certain 
 idea at a certain time, might at a future period, by the 
 changes it had undergone, express a very different idea 
 from that intended by the writer."^ 
 
 We admit both the principle and the result deduced 
 from it by Mr. Dujardin, adding, that symbology origi- 
 nated in homonymies, but that the science once estab- 
 lished, tongues might alter, without affecting the prim- 
 itive signification of the symbols. The study of the 
 Coptic proves this fact, since the symbolic ambiguities 
 have, in a great measure, disappeared from the spoken lan- 
 guage of Egypt, without affecting the value of the sym- 
 bols ; there have been formed, by chance or otherwise, 
 new homonymies in the Coptic, without giving rise to a 
 new symbology, yet as the principle of the science of sym- 
 bols was present in the minds of the hierogrammats, it 
 has happened in periods of decay, that the sacred scribes 
 played upon words, with a leaning to riddles or puns ; 
 as remarked by Champollion in the inscriptions on the 
 portal of Denderah (Letters from Egypt, page 397) ; 
 and this appears to confirm our hypothesis. 
 
 I B-evue des Deux Mondes, II. part, XXVI., pp. 771, 772,
 
 SYMBOLOGY. 7 
 
 M. Dujardin concludes that the Coptic, not being the 
 primitive Egy[»tian, could not reproduce the symbolic 
 homonymies ; to which conclusion we are also led by 
 the logic and study of the facts. Light is here thrown 
 upon the question by the labors of M. Goulianof, whose 
 system, presented in his Essay on the Hieroglyphics of 
 HorapoUo, was ardently sustained by the learned orient- 
 alist, Klaproth, and attacked by Champollion. This 
 system, partly rests on w^hat tiie Russian Academician 
 C'dWs jiaronomases or play of words ; he found but eighteen 
 in Hurapollo capable of being explained by the Coptic, 
 and several of these were inadmissible. 
 
 This labor has been serviceable to science, in proving 
 that, Egyptian symbology must have originated in the 
 homonymies, since traces of it are still to be found in 
 the Coptic, and, moreover, that it is useless to seek for 
 a complete explanation of Egyptian symbols in that 
 tongue. 
 
 M. Goulianof was himself convinced of this, when he 
 abandoned the j^a/cjiomo.ses, to take up what he called 
 (icrologies, or explanation of symbols, by the simple use 
 of the identity between the first letter of the name of 
 the symbol and that of the idea symbolized. Finally, 
 no longer finding in the Coptic the explanation of sym- 
 bols as given by Ilorapollo, ]\[. Goulinnof, in liis Ardie- 
 o/ogic Egijpticnne, falls into the danger pointed out by 
 Zoega, d'Origny and Dujardin, by undertaking to form, 
 from the Coptic alone, a new symbology in opposition 
 to the testimony of antiquity and the evidence of monu- 
 ments. 
 
 Homonyms exist in all langungt's, but are they sym- 
 bols ? No ; those of the Coptic tongue are, for the 
 most jiart, the result of chance, and a few them of, only, 
 nianifrst th(! influence of svmhology. 
 
 M. Goulian of could easily lind JKjnionynis in the Cop- 
 tic, but this fact, repr«Miuced in nil tongues, is of no 
 value unless it confirms scientific facts now ; a glance at; 
 some of i\I. Goulianofs exidanations will sufllci! to 
 show that his new system is in manifest opposition to 
 the ndations of" antiquity and modern discoveritis. 
 
 Thus, according to Anmiianus Marcellinus and Ilora- 
 pollo, the bee, symbol of a king governing an obedient 
 people, would designate inqiious kings. The white
 
 8 PRINCIPLE OF 
 
 crown, and the red crown, which, according to the 
 Rosetta-stone, and all the learned, are the signs of 
 Upper and Lower Egypt, become the crown of the im- 
 pious Pharaohs, and the crown spotted with blood. 
 The beetle would be the apocalyptic symbol of the 
 grasshoppers coming out of the bottomless pit; finally, 
 not only would the Pharaohs be impious, but tlie gods 
 would transform themselves into devils (Archeologie 
 Egy[)tienne, tom. iii.). 
 
 We think that the bases of Egyptian science are hence- 
 forward too solidly established to be destroyed, and that 
 new discoveries are only to be made, by keeping in the 
 path already marked out. 
 
 Salvolini, in accepting the indisputable facts, and re- 
 cognizing the principle of Egyptian symbology, gave a 
 renewed impulse to the science, and, if he did not attain 
 the end, he, at least, cleared the way; his successive 
 discoveries bring out the truth of tlie principle on which 
 we rest in its full strength. In his work on the "Cam- 
 pagne de Rhamses," he says : " Here is a fact that has 
 not yet been established ; we know that a certain like- 
 ness of an object has been used in the sacred writings, 
 as the trope of a certain idea ; but I am not aware that 
 any one has called attention to the phonetic expression 
 of Vae proper name of that object, as it is used in spoken 
 language, representing sometimes in written language 
 the tiope of the same idea, of which the isolated image 
 of the object was once the symbol. ISuch is the origm, 
 in my mind, of the signification of strength, often given 
 in the texts to the word yWTncy tlugli of an ox ; though 
 led to this conclusion by a multitude of examples, I 
 will only cite one. It is known by Horapollo's text, 
 that, in Egypt, the vulture was the emblem of victory 
 (I. ii), the name of that bird, as found in inscriptions, is 
 always written i^pEOT ; the Coptic ^OVp^. Now, this 
 same name has frequently been employed, either in the 
 funeral Ritual, or other writings, to express the idea, to 
 conquer or victorij, only in the latter case it has a second 
 determinative, the arm holJl/ifr a tomahawk 
 
 " Sucli a fact has nothing extraordinary in its nature ; 
 but we should certainly be surprised upon discovering 
 that, though in the ancient Egyptian texts there exists 
 *i certain number of si/mbolic ivords, such as I have just
 
 SYMBOLOGY. 9 
 
 designated, the Coptic tongue has scarcely a trace of 
 them." (Salvolini, Camimgne de Rhamses, p. 89.) 
 
 Salvolini, in the Analysis of Egyj'tiayi Texts, expresses 
 his ideas in a more complete manner, and acknowldeges 
 for the Coptic tongue a more symbolic character than 
 he at first supposed. He admits in principle, that a word 
 may have for a determinative, a sign, the name of which 
 is the same as the word accompanying it, though it ir 
 no wise represents the same idea ; in translating his 
 thoughts, we add, that symbolic determinatives obtain 
 their value from homonymies. The following passage 
 is too important to be passed in silence : " The admis- 
 sion, on my part, of an opinion, such as that I have just 
 announced relative to the origin of the use of two dif- 
 ferent characters as tropes of the idea race or germ, will 
 not fail to surprise those who know how constantly it 
 has been disavowed by my illustrious master.^ If we 
 may believe the dogmas sought to be established by him 
 in his last work, the signs employed by the Egyptians 
 as tropes, are reduced, as to their origin, to the tour fol- 
 lowing processes, pointed out by Clement Alexandrinus : 
 first, by sijnecdoclie ; second, by met any my ; third, by mct- 
 aphor ; fourth, by enigmas f but I must acknowledge, 
 according to my own experience, that a brief progress 
 in the study of hieroglyphic writing will demonstrate 
 the insufficiency of the four methods above cited for ex- 
 plaining the multitude of symbolic characters unceas- 
 ingly employed by the Egyptians. The learned philol- 
 ogist himself, who, at the time of publishing his Precis, 
 had already acknowledged the four processes announced 
 ill his hieroglyphic grammar for the formation of sym- 
 bolic .signs, admits in the latter part of his woik,^ that 
 there only remai?ied to be fou7id a method for knowing the 
 raliie of siimbolic characters ; and. that, he adds, is tlu: ob- 
 ftacle tchirh seems destined to retard a full and entire knoui- 
 edge of hiffroghjphic texts. I am persuaded that the 
 method, which the late Cliampollion desired to have 
 discovered, of finding the origin of the great number of 
 
 ' 'J'luK paflfiage seenw to ulludc to Goulianofs system, attacked by 
 Chunipiillioii. 
 
 • Villi- Kf(yj)lian (TTammar, p. 2.'{. 
 
 ' Precis (lu Sijsle/nc Hicroglyphique, \). 338, and 4G2- 3. 2d edi- 
 tion. 
 
 1*
 
 10 PRINCIPLE OP 
 
 Egyptian characters employed as tropes, which could 
 not be explained by Clement of Alexandria's process — 
 that this method, I say, is found in the new principle I 
 have just applied to explain the determinative charac- 
 ters of the word Rot g&rm. I here give my formula of 
 the principle : 
 
 "J4s every hieroglyphic image has a corresponding term in 
 spoken lang^uige, a. cerlain. niiiiihcr of them have been taken as 
 signs of the sounds to uliich they answer, aw abstraction fom 
 their inimitive signification. The hieroghjphic characters be- 
 I'lnging to this singnl<tr method of expression, as all other 
 sig7i.s employed in Egi/juian writing as tropes, have been 
 eiiqdoyed either by themselves, or following wordsy Ana- 
 lysis, p. 225. 
 
 As an application of this system, Salvolini shows that 
 the Egyptian word Iri, to do, is usually represented in the 
 text by the isolated image of an eye, because, according 
 to Plutarch and the monuments, the name of the eye is 
 also Iri. In like manner, the calfs snout signifies he who 
 is at or in, because the name of snout or nose, Fnt or 
 Fent, alludes to the word Pente, he who is at or in. 
 The character hatchet signities God, because the word 
 Per designates a hatchet and a God. 
 
 'Ihe idea of a statue was represented by the god Toth, 
 because the name of Toth formed the word statue. (Ro- 
 setta-stone.) 
 
 The god Toth, protector of Hermopolis magna, had fof 
 a title in the inscriptions the sign lord, and the sign of 
 the number eight, because, in Egyptian, the name Her 
 mopolis signifies eight. 
 
 The goddess Neith had tor a symbolic name a kind of 
 weaver's loom, because the same resemblance existed 
 between the name Neith and the loom naX. 
 
 A species of aquatic bird was the sign for the idea of 
 doctor, because on the monuments the name of the biri. 
 is SiNi, and in Coptic the word Seini signifies doctor. 
 
 The fnger represents the number ten thousand, and 
 Teb fi\gnities fi?iger, and Tea ten thousand. 
 
 "I do not know," adds Salvolini, " whether the few 
 examples I have submitted to the reader in proof of the 
 nev^' facts, the existence of which, I believe, I have dis- 
 covered in the system of Egyptian writing, will be suffi- 
 cient to convince him. As to myself, thoroughly con-
 
 SYMBOLOGV. 11 
 
 vinced of the reality of the principle I seek to establish — 
 a conviction founded on results obtained from the appli- 
 cation of this principle to the interpretation of a large 
 number of texts— -I frankly avow that, from the moment 
 I first suspected its existence, the symbolic portion of 
 Egyptian writings — a portion which, it may be said, 
 Champoliion left untouched, and which it is, neverthe- 
 less, necessary to know — appeared to me in its true 
 meaning." (Analysis, p. 233.) 
 
 Following this decisive testimony, we present that of 
 a man whom the learned of Europe justly consider as 
 one of the actual representatives of Egyptian science. 
 
 Mr. Lepsius, in his letter to Rosellini, endeavors to 
 find the means of recognizing the signification of figura- 
 tive signs, and he assigns ten leading principles for 
 attaining that end. The first eight, which we reproduce 
 here as having adopted them in our researches, are : 
 
 1. The actual representation of the object, taken with 
 its proper meaning ; 
 
 2. The images or pictures that the character accom- 
 panies ; 
 
 3. Explanations of Greek or Latin authors ; 
 
 4. Ancient translations ; 
 
 5. The context itself; 
 
 6. The phonetic group accompanying the sign; 
 
 7. The variants in difierent texts; 
 
 8. The figurative signs employed as initials to certain 
 groups, of which the balance is phonetic. 
 
 In developing this last principle, that of initial signs, 
 Mr. Lepsius says : 
 
 " These are signs which were also frequently employ- 
 ed alone, and with a figurative meaning, but which, at 
 the same time, served to represent all words or parts of 
 words containing the same letters, though they often 
 had a very different n)eaning. We have several timeg 
 njct with the same use of purely figurative cliaracters. 
 The basket is pronounced \t6i,and designates as well 
 Lo/-J U^fi , as a// !\i6i."^ 
 
 From tlie.se last passages of Salvolini and Lopsius, it 
 is easy to [terceive that the labors of these learned men 
 
 ' Annalex de VInstitut de correspondance Archeologique ; Rome, 1837, 
 J). 2G and 51, tome ix.
 
 12 PRINCIPLE OF 
 
 depend, in part, at least, on homonymies, and are, con- 
 sequently, in accordance with the theory of the Russian 
 academician ; only M. Goulianof* wants to find the 
 explanation of the symbols in the Coptic alone, while 
 Salvolini and Lepsius looi^ for it also in the hieroglyphic 
 texts. The natural consequence of this last principle 
 was, the division of the Egyptian tongue into two dia- 
 lects, the Egyptian of the monuments and the Coptic^ an- 
 swering to the sacred tongue and the vulgar tongue of 
 Manctho. 
 
 Listen again to Mr, Lepsius: "The Egyptians, he 
 says, had two distinct dialects, to wit : the ancient clas- 
 sic and sacred dialect [leoa ylMoaa,^ leoa 8ic'dEXTos^~\, and the 
 popular dialect [y.owi] Sictley.Tof] ; the sacred writing as 
 well as the yopular hieratic writing always present tlie 
 sacred dialect; diwA the popular epistolographic wntmg as 
 well as C'^ntic literature present the popular dialect.'* 
 
 The facts and reasonings, on which Mr. Lepsius founds 
 his opinion, appear to be firmly established ; this division 
 of the two tongues explains why the Coptic cannot be 
 used to interpret the symbols, while it is partly found in 
 the sacred tongue f yet there is but little difference 
 between these two sacred and profane dialects, and if 
 the first presents a large number of words not found in 
 the second, still the language of the monuments is far 
 from affording a complete explanation of the symbols. 
 
 We have no doubt, however, that new labors, under- 
 taken with a view of discovering symbolic words in hie- 
 roglyphic texts, will lead to important results ; but to 
 accomplish this it will, doubtless, be necessary to consult 
 the origin of Egyptian symbols. 
 
 It is now generally acknowledged that the Egyptian 
 religion and system of writing were borrowed from 
 Ethiopia.^ 
 
 The necessary consequence of this fact, and what pre- 
 
 ' Maneth. ap. Jos. C. Ap. p. 445. 
 
 * Maneth. ap. Syncell. Chron. p. 40. 
 ^ Maneth. ap. Jos. lib. i. 
 
 * Annates de rinstitut decorres. ArcheoL, ix., 18 ; and appendix, p. 67 
 Salvolini, Camp, de Rham., p. 91, and Traduc. de I'Obelisque, p. 10. 
 
 * Of the eight examples of symbolic homonymies cited from Salvolini. 
 four are found in the Coptic ; they are the s'atue, eight, the loom and the 
 anger. 
 
 * Champollion-Figeac, Egypte ancienne, p. 28, 34, 417.
 
 SYMBOLOGY. " 13 
 
 cedes it, is, that the language of Ethiopia contained an 
 explanation of the symbols ; could it, in fact, be admitted 
 that the inventors of a system of writing, based on lan- 
 guage, should have made use of a strange tongue to 
 express their ideas? The Egyptians accepted the Ethi- 
 opian symbols with the signification that had been given 
 them when writing originated. We have already said 
 that symbols depended on language at the period of 
 their formation ; and that the system of symbology hav- 
 ing been established, language might vary or completely 
 change without making the least alteration in the primi- 
 tive meaning of the image. Thus the Egyptians might 
 have adopted the Ethiopian symbology entire, without 
 their language having the least relation to the signifi- 
 cance of the symbols ; still, it is more tlian probable 
 that Egypt received a part of the Ethiopian words on 
 which the symbols were founded, or at least that the 
 written language of the Egyptians acquired a symbolic 
 character foreign to the common tongue. 
 
 No people ever exercised a commanding influence on 
 the civilization of another people without imposing on 
 them a portion of their language ; the Ethiopians must 
 have left profound traces of their religious influence in 
 the sacred tongue of Egypt, while this influence on 
 the vulgar dialect must have been mucii more circum- 
 scribed. 
 
 An apparent confirmation of this opinion is, that the 
 wordso f the sacred tongue, not found in the Coptic, ex- 
 ist in part in the laiiijuafjes comiiii; from the same stock 
 as the Ethiopian, and that the exphmation of Egy[)tian 
 symbols is also found in these tongues. 
 
 Let us here listen to the Egyptian priest, Manetho, 
 explaining the names of pastors or lujksckos : he says that 
 the word ^"AT, King, belongs to the sacred tongue., ''("<»' 
 yliijabat' ; while zi2E, pastor, belongs to the vulgar tongue^ 
 
 xoivijV Sialsy.TOv. 
 
 The word ^a^ is found in the Coptic with the signi- 
 fication given it by the [)riest .Sebennyt, cyuJlC /"isfor ; 
 the word ^■^. king, exists on the motiumcMits of the 
 Pharaohs, and is missing from the Coptic; with Mr. 
 Lepsins, we here find a proof that the Coptic was the 
 common, and the hieroglyphic ins{;ri[)tions the expres- 
 sion of the sacred, languiige.
 
 14 PRINCIPLE OF 
 
 The word yk does not exist in the Ethiopian, but is 
 found again in the Hebrew, a hmguage having the same 
 origin ; the word ^I^, recognized on the obelisk of the 
 Luxor ' by Salvolini, is described by the pedum and 
 angle, which group, transcribed in Hebrew characters 
 according to Champollion's alphabet, gives the word 
 pn a law, a decree, PpTi a legislator, a sovereign, or king 
 moderator, as translated by Salvolini.^ 
 
 This word is at the same time symbolic, that is, 
 founded on homonymy, since it signifies in Hebrew a 
 sceptre and a sovereign, and that the sceptre is the sign of 
 the idea king moderator. The intimate relations existing 
 between the Ethiopian and Hebrew languages cannot 
 be denied. Wansleben has brought together five hun- 
 dred roots that are the same in Ethiopian and Hebrew, 
 independent of other analogous languages ; this work is 
 printed in LudlolPs Ethiopian dictionary (p. 475 et 
 seq.) ; the traveler Bruce, also, noticed this resemblance, 
 (tome ii, p. 267), and the learned Gesenius consecrated 
 it in his lexicon. 
 
 An historical reason may here be found for the facts 
 sought to be established in these researches : The He- 
 brew and the Ethiopian sprung from a common source, 
 as philology proves ; one of these dialects we find pre- 
 served in its purity in the Pentateuch, while the Ethio- 
 pian language has undergone many changes, either by 
 the different migrations of people in Ethiopia, or the 
 lapse of time ; we need not, therefore, be astonished to 
 find explanations in Hebrew not in the Ethiopian. 
 
 A fact already noticed, but not explained, is, that 
 Egyptian words exist, are reproduced in Hebrew, but 
 are not found in Coptic ; Mr. Lepsius uses this observa- 
 tion to explain one of the Egyptian names of the horse, 
 c:d sus (Lepsius, Annales, ix, 56). I find in the same 
 work the word scher^ which does not exist in the Coptic, 
 and which Lepsius translates by reign (Annales, pi. A, 
 col. c) ; the Hebrew explains it, for "i^u scher signifies a 
 prince, a kirig, a governor. 
 
 Laying aside here all relation between the Egyptian 
 
 ' Facade, Champs-Elysees, first inscription under the banner on the 
 eft ; Salvolini, Explanation of the obelisk. 
 * Campagne de Rhamaes, p. 16.
 
 RYMBOLOGY. 15 
 
 and Hebrew languages, we desire to establish that even 
 if it were demonstrated that the complete significatior 
 of the symbols could be found in the Egyptian, and 
 that there was a single word the same in the languages 
 of Moses and the Pharaohs, these two languages, stran- 
 gers to each other, but animated b}'^ the same symbolic 
 genius, would each give to the same physical objects the 
 same moral signification. 
 
 The ditferent authorities cited have sufficiently en- 
 lightened us, I think, as to the principle of Egyptian 
 symbology ; it now becomes necessary to inquire 
 whether this symbolic character belongs to the He- 
 brew. 
 
 Not only all the names of men in Hebrew, but those 
 of quadrupeds, birds, fishes, insects, trees, flowers, and 
 stones are significant. Hebrew scholars require no proof 
 of this ; for tliey are not unacquainted with the learned 
 and voluminous treatise of Bochart on the animals 
 mentioned in the Bible. 
 
 This principle of significant names, recognized and 
 adopted as true by the celebrated Gesenius, and by all 
 lexicographers before him, is not to be denied, but its 
 ai)plication being purely arbitrary, and having been un- 
 dertaken without any definite purpose, lias furnished 
 science with no useful result. 
 
 Bochart, ignoring the principle of symbology, only 
 sought and (bund purely arbitrary significations in the 
 names of animals ; distorting the Hebrew roots accord- 
 ing to his fancy, he repels the moral significance they 
 naturally present, because he does not understand the 
 relation that may exist between an animal and a philo- 
 sophical idea ; when this relation is too evident, he 
 gives it, as it were, in spite of himself; thus he cannot 
 deny that the vulture signifies inerci/, and the mule the 
 world. 
 
 The Hebrew, then, has an evident imprint of symbol- 
 ogy, since it gives moral significance to material objects. 
 Before drawing a conclusion from this remarkable fact, 
 let US resume the foregoing deductions. Egyptian sym- 
 hols, founded on hoMionvniics, together with their reli- 
 gion and system of writitig, were borrowed from Ethiopia. 
 \V.; have just said that tin; Hebrew and Ethiopian were 
 d. lived from a couinioii K(jurce. and we art; led, in con-
 
 IG PRINCIPLE OF 
 
 elusion, to seek whether the Hebrew will afford an ex- 
 planation of Egyptian symbols. 
 
 The question thus presented, can be resolved but in 
 two ways: by the testimony of the writers of antiquity, 
 and by the application of Hebrew to hieroglyphic 
 symbols. 
 
 Clement of Alexandria, the father of modern Egyp- 
 tian science, says, in express terms, that, touchhig myste- 
 rious things, the symbols of the Egyptians are like unto those 
 
 ot the Hebrews. O/noia yow rots ^Efi^aCxoli, y.arn ye ri)v eitix^vxjm, 
 xnl Tcov Aiyvnricov nlviyfiarn} 
 
 The authority of Clemens Alexandrinus cannot be 
 doubted ; for his testimony is the foundation on which 
 Champollion and the Egyptologists erect their systems 
 of interpreting Egyptian writings. Clemens Alexandri- 
 nus, fortified with Bible reading, could not have produced 
 so extraordinary an assimilation for a Christian and Egyp- 
 tian, without being in possession of proofs of the truth 
 of his assertion ; in the Bible and the Hebrew only may 
 we seek for an explanation of Egyptian symbols. 
 
 Whether this interpretation appear true or false, it 
 cannot be affirmed nor denied without proofs; in ques- 
 tions of this nature, the argument is subordinate to the 
 facts, and to facts alone we appeal. 
 
 The first result of this system would be, to give the 
 explanatory method of Egyptian symbols that Champol- 
 lion asked for in his Precis^ Salvolini, in his Analysis 
 of Egyptian texts (p. 225) ; and that Lepsius endea- 
 vored to find in ten different principles. The second 
 would be to consider the Hebrew, if not entirely, at 
 least in a great measure, the expression of primitive 
 symbology. We shall apply this principle to the sym- 
 bolic colors in the third chapter of this essay. Finally, 
 the third and most important result would be, the appli- 
 cation of the principle of symbology to the most sym- 
 bolic of all books, the Bible. 
 
 It appears evident to us, that if the Hebrew explains 
 the symbols of Egypt, and explains those emblems that 
 
 » Stromal, lib. V. p. 566, ed. Sylburg.— In this passage, Clement 
 of Alexandria seems to allude to the double meaning of words, since 
 the dictionaries translate inix^vxpis by cenigmaticus sermo, and aivty/t* 
 by ambages verborum. 
 
 * Precis, p. 338 and 462-3, 2d edition.
 
 SYMBOLOGY. 17 
 
 were the same among all the nations of antiquity, it 
 should also contain the explanation of those bibhcal 
 images that the learned Lowth and all other Hebrew 
 grammarians have failed to interpret. 
 
 In the fourth chapter, we shall give direct proof that 
 the sacred writers used homonymies, and confirm our 
 deductions by the testimony of Hebraists. 
 
 It is necessary to add, in this place, a few remarks on 
 the manner in which we shall proceed in these re- 
 sei'.rclies. 
 
 Egyptian writing neglects the vowels, and is com- 
 pletely identiHed by this fact with Hebrew writing 
 without vowel-points. Such is the first and greatest 
 discovery of Ch^mpollion — a discovery on which all 
 others are based.' In these researches, the points in 
 Hebrew writing ciin, therefore, be of no use, and are 
 consequently omitted, lint it is not alone on account 
 of the identity between Hebrew and Egyptian writ- 
 ing that we recognize tiie necessity of neglecting the 
 vowel-points in homonymies. Hebraists teach us the 
 same method in seeking for roots, since they derive one 
 word from another, presenting tlie same letters, without 
 regard to difterences of pronunciation, marked by vowel- 
 points, which method we shall employ as it is employed 
 on each page of Gesenius' dictionary. 
 
 Thus, the homonymy is to be established on the writ- 
 ten, and not on the pronounced word; for this I shall 
 further appeal to the testimony of the celebrated Hein- 
 sius, who, in interpreting a passage of the Gospel of St. 
 John, says that the sacred writer nlludes to the double 
 meaning of the Syriac word ?-p cabbd and b::p ccbitl, pro- 
 nounced differently, but of which the letters are the 
 same. We shall recur to this passage in the ap[>lications 
 to the Bible (chap. iv). 
 
 As this method of neglecting the points may nppear 
 arbitrary to some readers, it is necessary to explain it. 
 
 At the time when writing was invented, all words 
 written alike had prob.ibly the same pronunciation; at 
 a later period, revolutions occurred in laiigu.igeK, the 
 different .signilications of ii wcjrd were dislinguislied by 
 
 ' Cliaiiip<jHi(iii, Precis du Sijst^we U'ltiO'^lyphique, second editioa 
 p IIJ
 
 18 PRINCIPLE Oif 
 
 different pronunciation on the vowels, and finally, when 
 these changes extended to a majority of words in the 
 Hebrew, there was felt a necessity of recurring to the 
 vovvel-points — an invention going back, at the furthest, to 
 Esvlras. Traces of this revolution in the Hebrew are 
 equally evident in the quiescents, that is, the old vowels, 
 which, though in pronunciation in Moses' day, have 
 liiially been left out of it; as is the result of the con- 
 cordance of several words and proper names to be found 
 in the Bible, on the monuments of Egypt, and in Greek 
 authors. 
 
 Ill the succeeding chapter we shall give an explana- 
 tion of fifty symbolic signs, as they result from the 
 testimony of the Hebrew, Horayollo, and the laouummts ; 
 we might easily have multiplied the number of these 
 examples, but it has seemed to us that for the reader the 
 best demonstration of the truth of this method was to 
 make new discoveries. Thus we have neglected those 
 signs that may be considered figurative; s?noA;e signify- 
 ing fire, the arm designating strength, the ladder, the as- 
 sault, etc. (Horapollo). These significations, which may 
 also be found in the Hebrew,^ are, nevertheless, not a 
 proof of the symbolic character of that language, since 
 these images are the rhetorical tropes of all people. 
 
 There is a large number of Egyptian symbols, the 
 Hebrew name of which I have not been able to find; 
 thus, among animals, the Ibis, the Oryx, the Swan, the 
 Elephant, the Pelican, etc., named by Horapollo, cannot 
 be explained. 
 
 In Horapollo, as in the anaglyphs or symbolic pictures, 
 there exist sacred myths that language fails to give a 
 direct explanation to, as the fable of the ape and its two 
 little ones — one, carried in front, it loves and kills, the 
 other, carried behind, it hates and nourishes. (Hora- 
 pollo II., 66.) 
 
 The cynocephalus ape was in Egypt, as in India, the 
 symbol of regeneration,^ of the passage from the state 
 of an animal to that of man, and from death to eternal 
 
 * silt arm, strength; and abo a ladder, and nbbo, ramparts thrown 
 dp by the besiegers, from the root nbo, to elevate, to set up, as iu Freuch 
 echetl^ and etcalader are formed I'ruiu llie Latin root soda. 
 
 ' Symbolic Colors,]). 199.
 
 SYMBOLOGY. 19 
 
 life ; it is on this account that, when in a sitting posture, 
 it represents the two equinoxes (Horap. I., 16), that is, 
 the state of equilibrium between light and darkness, 
 between good and evil, truth and error, or between brute 
 and man : the funeral ritual represents the ape seated on 
 the scale forjudging souls. 
 
 The ape represented souls traversing the circle of 
 purification before entering the field of truth ; which we 
 also learn from its Hebrew name ?,ip, an Ape, and to form 
 a circle, achieve a revolution. 
 
 The explanation of this myth becomes easy ; the little 
 one that the ape carries on its breast, that it loves and 
 kills, represents those good sentiments, those virtuous 
 actions that we love, that conscience ever presents to 
 our sight, and yet which we kill in our hearts ; the 
 young one that the ape carries on its back, which it 
 hates and nourishes, symbolizes those evil sentiments, 
 those perverse actions, which we should ever repel, 
 which in our consciences we hate, and yet which we 
 cherish, as it were, in spite of ourselves.' These ex- 
 planations, though more or less probable, I shall neglect, 
 as not necessarily connected with these researches. 
 
 In concluding these preliminary observations, I must 
 add, that several attempts to interpret the Egyptian 
 monuments by the Hebrew, have led to no scientific 
 result, because they were, doubtless, founded on two 
 capital errors : first, that the language of Moses was 
 that of the Pharaohs ; and, secondly, that the hierogly- 
 phics formed a series of symbols. 
 
 The principle of Egyptian symbology, laid down by 
 Horapollo and taught by Zoega, is rec(jgnized even by 
 those authors who depend on the Hebrew, as Lacour of 
 Bordeaux and Janelli of Naples; it was desired to 
 make a tri[)le a[)plication of it, to the Hel)rew, to 
 Horapollo and the monuments, but I believe it has 
 never been accomplished. 
 
 Symbology, being the most mysterious, must have 
 been the last part of the Egyptian writings discovered 
 it being necessary to understand thr Egyptian language 
 and system of writing before being able to penetrate 
 
 ' St. Paul says : " For the f^ootl tliat 1 would do, I do uot ; but the 
 evil which I would not. that I do." (Kputtlc to tho Romaics, vii. 19.)
 
 20 PRINCIPLE OF SYMBOLOGY. 
 
 the sanctuary. Science had to follow the route taken 
 by tlie Egyptian initiates. Clemens Alexandrinus says 
 they first learned epistolograpliic writing, then hier- 
 archical, and, finally, the hieroglyphic, containing sym 
 bology. It was in this manner that the labors of 
 Sylvester de Sacy and Akerblad were first directed to 
 epistolograpliic writing ; that, at a latter period, Cham- 
 pollion deciphered the hierarchical and hieroglyphic 
 writings • and that, in our day, we have to find again the 
 elements ol' Egyptian symbology. The principle being 
 already known and acknowledged by science, the en- 
 lightened critic will not, of course, refuse to apply it to 
 hieroglypiiic language, as Salvolini has done, and to 
 the Hebrew, as I propose to do in this essay.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 APPLICATION TO EGYPTIAN SYMBOMI.^ 
 
 BEE. 
 
 The bee was the symbol of" an ohalimt jff^ople, because, 
 says Horapollo, it alone, of all animals, liad a king 
 (Horap. I. 62). 
 
 Champollion gives to the bee the siiinification, Jcing 
 of an obedient jicojdc (Amm. Marcell. XVII. 4). 
 
 ' To facilitate r&searcli, the symbols are arraii<,nMj in alphabetical 
 order. The dictionaries cited are, for the Hebrew, tliose of Gescnius, 
 18.'J3 ; Kosfniiiiillcr, Vocab. appended to Simon's Bible, fLile, 1822 ; 
 Moser, Gniirin, ami the Thesaurus of Robertson ; for the Coptic, Pey- 
 ron'« I>'.\ioon. 
 
 Not<^ — The alphabetical order, it will be understood, applies to the 
 French.
 
 22 APPLICATION TO 
 
 The Abydos tablet shows numerous examples of the 
 use of this sign, and confirms the meaning attributed to it. 
 
 The Hebrew name of the bee is r^-^^:!"! dbure (Gi^- 
 senius), or m^i dbre (Guarin). 
 
 "1-1 DBR signifies to administer, to govern, to 'put in order, 
 to act like a swarm of bees.^ 
 
 The same root ~cr\ dbr has the further meaning of 
 discourse, word, ^6yos, sentence, precept of wisdom; it is also 
 the verb to sjjcak. Finally the name of the bee in the 
 plural feminine ni-ai dbruth, signifies words, pecepts 
 (Gesenius). 
 
 The bee was the symbol of royalty and of sacred in- 
 spiration, honey represented initiation and wise discourses, 
 {Symbolic Colors, p. 83). 
 
 The bee was consecrated to the kings of Egypt, and 
 they were designated by it on the monuments, not only 
 on account of the relation that might exist between tlie 
 government of that people and bees, but, also, because 
 their kings were initiates, and governed by sacred inspira- 
 tion, for they were priests. 
 
 ASS. 
 
 VPSto 
 
 The Egyptians represented the man who had never been 
 out of his country by the onacephalus (head of an ass), (Hora- 
 poUo I. 23). 
 
 The Hebrew language furnishes the explanation of 
 this symbol, since "i-'S oir, the young ass, signifies a city, 
 di place (Gesenius). 
 
 The other name of the ass, ^"rcn hemur, or hemr "t^!i, 
 is formed of the word njsn heme, to surround with a wall 
 and ri^nn heume, the wall surrounding a city. These 
 Hebrew synonyms, reproducing the same homonyms, 
 demonstrate the truth of our theory. 
 
 The ass was consecrated to Typhon, the genius of 
 
 ' This insect, says Moser, was called "iian on account of its admira- 
 ble government ; we are rather of the opinion that the art of governing 
 borrowed its name from the bee, (Bochart, Hieroz. II.. 502.)
 
 EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS. 23 
 
 evil, represeoted by russet color (Symbolic Colors, p. 
 267), and the nimae of the ass "i^i hemr signifies to bluah, 
 to he injiamed / tlie root of this word is on hem (Hani,) 
 an Egyptian proper name according to the Hebrew and 
 the monuments (See article crocudiU). According to Plu- 
 tarch, this name also signified blackness and heat, ^c^T^ heum 
 signifies black (Plutarch De Isid. Gesenius;) it forms the 
 word D^n hems, violence, injury, raj^ine. 
 
 The ass was the symbol of ignorance united to wick- 
 edness or goodness : "icn hemr, the brown ass, represent- 
 ed vicious ignorance ; the white female ass (Jud. v. 10), 
 was the emblem of ignorance united to goodness and 
 candor, nnnK. 
 
 This good or bad ignorance was that of the profane. 
 The ass represented the stupid people of Egypt, en 
 Ham, who, materially, never left the limits of their 
 hordes, and, morally imprisoned in the bonds ol" error 
 and prejudice, never acquired a knowledge of the mys- 
 teries revealed in the initiation. 
 
 The white she-ass represented man, not yet possessed 
 of spiritual knowledge, but capable of acquiring it; the 
 story of Alpul^e develops this myth in a most ingenious 
 manner; man, whose afiections and ideas are strongly 
 bound up in material life, is metamorphosed under the 
 figure of an ass ; he travels for a considerable period, 
 arrnes. in Egvpt, where lie recovers the liunian form by 
 iMitiiition. Tlie ass of Sileniis, that carried the beverage 
 o( eternal youth, changed it for a few moiithfuls of water, 
 (No(^i, Diet, de la Fable), emblematical of the profaiie, 
 prcterring the knowledge of the world to those springs 
 o' living water that never dry up. 
 
 M. Lenormant, in his researches on Ilorapollo, says 
 the t)ook of that hicroicraminat has evident marks of int«r- 
 polation, and that the onacephalus is an iiiveuti"i. of 
 f.>y G'^eek translator Philippe : ji.<, jar us I k/iow says 
 Ijt '/I-' 'tsH^s head has not been found among the hieroglij-phics ; 
 btif. t.. ,'ian travelers! men ridicnled in thai country for 
 ntvcf '' ».y({ quitted it / evidently such ideas are as contrary 
 as jHM,v ..c to the spirit of Ancient Egyjd. (Lenormant, 
 Recherches sur Ilorapollo.) 
 
 ' In like manner ">•'?!. the ass and ct.'^,"8ig:-iSe8, also, to be inflamed, the 
 heal of anger, and au enemy (Gesenius).
 
 24 
 
 APPLICATION TO 
 
 In fact, the Egyptiajis had the greatest horror of stran- 
 gers, afi the hieroglyphics incontestably prove { Vide 
 Salvolini, Camp, de Rnamses, p. 15 ; and Champollion, 
 Egypt. Grammar, p. 138). But Horapollo does not say 
 that the onacephalus was the symbol of a man who had 
 never been out of Egypt, but of one who had never 
 quitted his native country, his city, or his residence : 
 
 ivd'^conov r/js TtaxQiSos ftr/ anodrj/ifiaavra. 
 
 If the ass's head had not yet been recognized among 
 the hieroglyphics, that animal would be found in the 
 Hebrew with the signification assigned to it by H«ra- 
 pollo, and in our system this proof would be a coavinc- 
 ing one ; but the figure of the ass was stamped on the 
 caJk.es offered to Typhon, the genius of evil and darkness : 
 finally, this animal in the hieroglyphics is one of the 
 forms of Seth or Typhon, of which Champollion gives us 
 a drawing at p. 120 of his Grammar. 
 
 Typhon was sometimes represented with an ass's head, 
 as the following vignette, engraved after the manuscript 
 
 of Leyde, published by Leeraans, proves.' This per- 
 sonage, bearing on his breast the name of %cn, aDcl oq 
 the legend that of the ass iCU, appears tt as to be re- 
 lated to the onacephalus of Hora polio 
 
 MOUTB 
 
 II Q ^^ 
 
 In the hieroglyphic texts, the mouth is the determin- 
 
 • Leemans, I^yde's Egyptian Monuments, p. 15 and 16 ; and Letter 
 
 to Salvolini, p. 5.
 
 EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS. 26 
 
 ative and symbol of ^oor (Egyptian Grammar, p. 80 and 
 205); it also designates the idea of part, portion, fraction 
 and that oi chapter (Idem, p. 243). 
 
 The Hebrew word n-: pe signifies mouth, door, a yart, 
 a portion. 
 
 And we find in Coptic, PO mouth, door, chapter, portion , 
 ^^ mouth, door. 
 
 BUNCH OF REEDS. 
 
 l£. 
 
 Champollion says, in his Grammar ([>. 128), that the 
 names of women, excfqd those of Egypt tan ijuiens, are termin- 
 ated or accompanied by a bunch q/' Jlowers. 
 
 The bouquet is formed of the flowers of the papyrus ; 
 n^x ABE, thejHipyrm, tlie rrcd, forms the word n^nx aebe : 
 the woman loved, -~x aeb, love. 
 
 The bunch of papyrus is also the generic determin- 
 ative of all the names of plants, herbs, -dud flowers (Egyp- 
 tian Grammar, p. 88). 
 
 =x ab, green things, grass, is the root of" ~::i< abe, the 
 papyriis. 
 
 GOAT. 
 
 rtT 
 
 The goat was the symbol of sharp hearing (Ilorapol., 
 
 n. 68). 
 
 ir oz, a goat, and "(TX az\, an ear: according to Gese- 
 nius, the U'tters v o, and x a, are oftcin confounded in He- 
 brew ; that C(;lebraled Hebraist [»articnhuly points out 
 the root "(Tr oz\, as necessarily the same as "iTX azn (Lex. 
 p. 752). Consult the article Ear. 
 
 STOIiK. 
 
 The Kiivptians rt'jin-sfiitcd lilial |ii«'tv by a stork; 
 because, says HoiapoMo, alicr luivinL' Imi n led by its
 
 26 APPLICATION To 
 
 parents, it does not leave them, but cares for them to 
 extreme old age (Horap., II. 58). 
 
 JiT^on HESiDE, the stork, thep«ow5, the grateful (Gesenius). 
 
 BRAIDED BASKET. 
 
 According to the Rosetta inscription, the basket ex- 
 pressed symbolically the idea of master or lord. On 
 the painted monuments this basket appears to be woven 
 from various colored reeds (Champ. Gram., p. 26-27). 
 Cliampollion also gives to this sign the signification of 
 the idea all (Gram., p. 279, ct imssim). 
 
 m33 KLUB, a basket icoven from reeds (Gesenius), is irom 
 till' root ^3 KL, all, and Is^a kll, to crown. 
 
 lliis basket is the sacred fan, w^hich was also woven 
 from willow (Rolie, Culte de Bacchus, I. 29). 
 
 mz: KBKE, a fun, forms ii23 kbir, j^owerfd, great ; ns3 
 NPE, ii fa?i, foiins cii^ss ^pil.im, j^owetful men, fieroes, lords, 
 Titans. 
 
 Tims, all the synonyms of the word fan or basket 
 produce the same homonymies. Tlie word nas npe, 
 basket and sieve, is likewise found in the Egyptian ^jg^ 
 basket, which forms ^^g; lord and j^\fix '^'''^• 
 
 Tile fan became the symbol of the idea master or lord, 
 because it was that of the purification of souls. 
 
 " The initiations called Teletes,'' says Mr. Rolle (Ibid, 
 p. 30), " being the commencement of a better life, and to 
 become the perfection of it, could not take place till the 
 soul was purified; the fan had been accepted as the 
 symbol of that purification, because the mysteries purged 
 the soul of sin, as the fan cleanses the grain." 
 
 Thus John the Baptist said of the Messiah that he has 
 the Ian in his hand and will purge his floor. (Luke, 
 iii. 17.) 
 
 ROOK. 
 
 According to Horapollo, covjiigal union was repre- 
 sented by two rooks (Hornp., II. 40), and the word 2-c? 
 ORB, signifies a crow, a look, and to be confugallij united 
 (Gesenius).
 
 EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS. 27 
 
 "^s ORB, is also the name of the setting sun and the 
 shadow of darkness ; in Egyptian cosmogony, night was 
 the mother of the world, on which account marriage was 
 celebrated among the Athenians during the night (Sym- 
 bolic Colors, p. 172). 
 
 A man who had lived to a sufficient age, was repre 
 sented by a dead rook ; this bird, adds Horapollo, lives 
 a hundred years (II. 89). The name of the rook, -is 
 ORB, designates sunset, symbol of the natural end of 
 every period. The dead rook was the sun havino- set. 
 
 HORNS. 
 
 On the monuments, the horns are the sign of the idea, 
 to be radiu7it, refulgent, to shine, because, says Champollion, 
 the Eastern people found a marked analogy between the 
 horns and the rays of the sun (Egypt. Gram., p. 359 and 
 360). In writing those lines he had, doubtless, in mind 
 the significations of the Hebrew word "pp qrn, which 
 signifies a horn, to be radiant, resplendent, to shine; for the 
 Coptic word T^TT , a horn, does not signify to shine, and 
 the word^^'n signifies to hide, to cover, and a horn. 
 
 MANGER. 
 
 R^ 
 
 " The hieroglyphic name of the city of Thebes, has a 
 quarter circle for a determinative symbol, of which the 
 curved part is presented in a contrary direction to the 
 writing. The explanation of this symbol had long been 
 souglit, when at last the flotilla, on board of which was 
 Champollion's scientific exjx'dition, sailing toward Nu- 
 bia, perceived on shore a row of high mangers, formed of 
 twisted straw and river-mud, a side view of which j)re- 
 pented the half" circle of tlu; Tlieban symbol. These 
 mangers were intended for Iarg<! luuds of cattle. It was 
 then recollected, that in fully <i«!veloped texts, there 
 was often seen a bull placed before the symbol of the
 
 28 APPfJ('AT10N TO 
 
 city of Thebes. A manger was henceforth recognized 
 in this symbol, an evidence of the simplicity that had 
 presided at the first graphic combinations of the Egyp- 
 tians." (Lenormant, Researches on Horap., p. 26.) 
 
 Thebes was the city consecrated to Amon, the god of 
 light, the divine word (Symbolic Colors, 70-71); the 
 Hebrew name of Thebes is Amon, "p^x X3 ; the manger 
 was consecrated to Amon-Ra, the god-light, because the 
 name of the manger was at the same time that of light. 
 
 m"nx AURUTH, or miix aruuth, a manger, a stable, is 
 the feminine plural of n-nx, aure, light, "nx, aur, the 
 sun, light, revelation 
 
 CROCODILE. 
 
 Plutarch says that the crocodile was consecrated to 
 Typhon. (Is. and Osir., cap. L.) 
 
 According to Diodorus of Sicily, this animal expressed 
 in the hieroglyphics, all kinds of malice, of wickedness 
 (III. 4, p. 176, Wessel's ed.). 
 
 Horapollo attributes the signification of rapacity, 
 fury, to it (1.67); it also designates the west (I. 69); 
 the crocodile's tail was the symbol of darkness (I. 70) ; 
 its eyes represented the east (I. 68). 
 
 The name of the crocodile appears to me to have been 
 ■jnn, HEMT, a word translated in the Septuagint version 
 by aad^a, and by the lexicographers, lizard; this name 
 designates the entire saurian family, and, especially, the 
 Egyptian crocodile. In Egypt, the same word desig- 
 nated the lizard and crocodile ; for Horapollo says that 
 the crocodile was the symbol of fecundity (I. 69), the 
 idea represented on the monuments by the lizard. 
 (Champ. Gramp., p. 347.) 
 
 The word -J^n hemt, crocodile, or lizard, is formed by 
 the root tan hem, devouring heat, r^■Qr^ heme, incandescence, 
 fury, poison. The words formed by this root give the 
 history of the myth of Typhon, genius of evil, symbol- 
 ized, according to Plutarch, by the crocodile. 
 
 And, at first, we find the name of the ass also conse- 
 crated to Typhon ; m^an hemur, or -inn hemr, the ass.
 
 EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS. 29 
 
 The name of the russet color attributed to Typhon 
 (Symbolic Colors, 257) is cnn heum, black color, burnt 
 color; 'p^ri hemuts, or yrin hemts, the red, the tawny, 
 the oppressor, the violent (see Art. Russet Color). 
 
 The word ci?:!i hms signifies violence, irijury, rapine, and 
 answers to the significations given to the crocodile by 
 Horapollo, and to the Egyptian name of the animal 
 
 ^l 
 
 The meaning here given to it by the Egyptian Hiero- 
 grammat and Hebrew homonymies, is confirmed by tlie 
 monuments. One of the chapters in the Funereal Ritual 
 relates to the combat between the deceased and the 
 crocodile — that is, against his bad passions; he kills it 
 with the Hoopoe headed sceptre, the known emblem 
 of virtuous affections. 
 
 In the Levitical, as in the Egyptian religion, the 
 crocodile, :2T3n hemt, is an unclean animal. 
 
 Hora[)ollo adds that the crocodile was the symbol of 
 fecundity (I. 69), and the word tan hem })resent8 the 
 ideas of relationship, marriage; according to (lesenius, 
 the Greek word yn/nos, marriage, is derived from nn; we 
 have just remarked that, on the monuments, the lizard 
 was the symbol of fecundity. 
 
 According to Clement of Alexandria (Stromat. V. 7), 
 the crocodile represented time ; the Egy[)tian Saturn 
 wore, as a head-piece, a crocodile's head, and the word 
 p^n MEMQ, signifies to make a circle, to turn around; this word 
 relates to the course of the sun, since iron heme signi- 
 fies sun, and in Hebrew, the proper name of time signi- 
 fies to turn, )S5< APN, and forms 'jSix aupjv, a wheel (Gese- 
 nius). 
 
 According to Champollion, the lizard was consecrated 
 to Bouto, divinity of j)ritnal darkness (Notice of the 
 Museum (Jharles X., [». 42); according to Horapollo, 
 the crocodile's tail was the symbol of darkness (I. 70), 
 and the word mn heum signifies the black color, the 
 color of diirkness. 
 
 The name of Egypt, according to i'luLarch (l)e. Is. 
 
 ' In the Coptic we find again Jj CZ-^ cninnlilns, -l^tCTX '"''<•" 
 habere. — Eoypt. Gram., p. 384.
 
 30 APPLICATION TO 
 
 and Osir.), signified blackness and heat; en HEiM,Aea^, and 
 ts".!! HEUM, blackness, are a same root forming the name of 
 the crocodile •^■n'n hemt ; the name of Egypt preserved in 
 the Bible is in fact on hem, and this word is inscribed 
 on the obelisk at Paris by the crocodile's tail and the 
 nycticorax, phonetically forming the word on hem.^ 
 
 The signification of the name of Egypt is also found 
 in the Coptic K^ju,^ black (Champ. Gram., p. 320). 
 
 Why did the Egyptians give their country a repro- 
 bated name, composed of the Crocodile, symbol of dark- 
 ness, and the Nycticorax, symbol of death (Horapol. I., 
 70, 11. , 25). The answer is clear ; Egypt had three 
 names ; one, symbolized by the lily, designated Upper 
 Egypt ; the other, represented by the papyrus, Lower 
 Egypt. These two names answer to the Hebrew words 
 Dnns PTHRUS, Uyfcr Egypt, and m::^ mtsur. Lower 
 Egypt; the first indicated the region of expounders and 
 religion; the second, the land of agriculture and civiliza- 
 tion, as explained under the article lilij (consult the Art. 
 Vulture). 
 
 The third name, on hem, or ham, designated the 
 profane, or dead men crouching in the darkness of 
 ignorance (Vide Art. Ass). 
 
 Horus, the god of light, is sometimes represented 
 under the form of a crocodile, with a hawk's head sur- 
 mounted with horns, and the solar disk (Champ. Gram., 
 p. 120). This confirms the assertion of Horapollo, that 
 the crocodile's eyes represented light, and his tail dark- 
 ness (I. 68, 70). 
 
 The Bible says : The ancient and honorable, he is the 
 head ; and the projjhet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. 
 (Isaiah ix., 15.) 
 
 FINGER. 
 
 " AJinger designates the stomach of man''' (Horap. II. 6). 
 " This," says Lenormant, " is what we find in the Latin 
 
 » Salvolini, Trans, of Obelisk, p. 16 Akerblad, Letter to M. De 
 Sacy, p. 37. Gesenius, verbo nn.
 
 EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS. 81 
 
 and French versions of HorapoUo ; but the Greek author 
 was far from having so burlesque and inexplicable a 
 thought ; he simply made use of a Latin expression, not 
 understood by his translators; oroftaxov, in Philippe's 
 translation, means, as in Latin, anger. The Jinger, says 
 he, indicates the anger of man; it is the Jinger o/' God in 
 the scriptures. I think that the use of this sign is fre- 
 quently found in the liitM"oglyj)liic texts; but I have not 
 sufficient space to elaborate my opinion" (Lenormant, 
 Research on Hor;ip., p. 2-i). 
 
 The Hebrew word "^'.ix atsbo, signifies ^finger, and, 
 metaphorically, power, courage (Guarin, Gesenius) ; X"n 
 C"^n5x rr:ix there is the Jinger of God. 
 
 WATER. 
 
 /V^VVV\ 
 
 AVvAW 
 
 In Egyptian cosmogony, as in the first book of Moses, 
 the world was crented from the body of waters. This 
 doctrine, says Champollion, was professed iu Egypt in 
 the most distant times (Pantheon Egyptien, Cnouphis- 
 Nilus), Water was the mother of the ivorld, the matrix of 
 all created beings, and the word "-r-Q mschbr signifies 
 matrix and waves, ci"im"^. 
 
 Man was considered as an image of the world, the 
 initiate was to be born ag.iin to a new life, and the bap- 
 tism thenceforward syml)oliz<'.d the primeval waiters; it 
 was ou this account that the initiate was called t^^^o 
 M.SCHE, Moses, a word signifying in Egyptian, according 
 to Josephus (Antiq., IL 9, § 6), saved from the water or by 
 th(; water, designated in Hebrew by nnris mschhee, 
 unction and nr-2 mschk, to save. 
 
 In extending tliesc; phih^logical researches, it would be 
 easy to perceive that the word "af^, matrix and wave, is 
 composfid of th;it of the initiate niria and the name even 
 of (;reation i<"r uka, he created, the first word of Gcniesis ; 
 moreover, '2 bu signifies a son, a child, and pi/riti/, bectause 
 the cosn)ogony became the symbol of spiritual birth or 
 regtineryti'on ; according to Horajiolh) (I. 43), water was 
 the symhol of jmritij, and designated the birth of the 
 pure or initiates, as we shall show iu the article Dew.
 
 32 APPLTOA-TION TO 
 
 HAWK. 
 
 p NTS, the hawJc, forms the word nss ntshe, eternity^ 
 splcTidor. According to Horapollo, this bird, on account 
 of its long life, symbolized divinitij as well as the sun, 
 iijion which he steadily gazed (Horap. I. 6). On the 
 monuments the hawk is the sign of the idea God (Champ. 
 Gram. Egypt, p. 118). 
 
 It represented sublimity and humility, adds the Egyptian 
 philologist, because it flies in a straight line, up and 
 down, nsi NTSE, to jiy (Gesenius). 
 
 It was the symbol of blood, because it drank no water, 
 but blood ; of victory, because it overcame all other birds 
 (Horapol. I. 6, 7). fa: ntse, to draw the sword, to de- 
 vastate by war ; ii:i3 ntshe (Chald.), to vanquish. 
 
 Horapollo further says that the hawk, spreading his 
 wings in the air, represented the wind, as though the 
 wind had wings (Horap. II. 15). 
 
 We discover from this passage that the hawk and 
 wing, or the act of flying, were synonyms in the sacred 
 language of Egypt; which we are also given to under- 
 stand by Diodorus of Sicily, when he says that this bird 
 represented everything done with celerity, because he 
 surpassed all others in the rapidity of his flight (Diod. 
 Sicul. III. 4, p. 145, ed. Rhodum). 
 
 yj NTS, the hawk, forms fi:i: ntse, to fly, frj^'i nutse, 
 wing, feather, p3 nuts, to fly, to fly away (Gesenius). (Vide 
 Essay on Hieroglyphics by M. Lacour, p. xxx.) 
 
 FACE. 
 
 M. Lepsius shows, in his letter to Rosellini (Annales, 
 IX. 77 et seq.), that the name of the nose, in the sacred 
 dialect, was Q^K^* a word of which no trace is to be
 
 YPTIAN SYMBOLS. 33 
 
 found in the Coptic j its determinative is the figure of a 
 calf 8 snout. 
 
 The nose and its name are employed in the sacred 
 writings, with the signification of residing in} 
 
 In the sacred tongue, the name of the nose, or, rather, 
 that of the face, as proved by a variant, which we give 
 here, according to the Egyptian grammar (p. 92), must, 
 consequently, express the idea, residing in. 
 
 The Egyptian name C^H^* transcribed in Hebrew 
 characters, gives the word rjs path, or phnth, the root 
 uf which we find again in the Hebrew word 0^33 pnim, 
 signifyingyjfce, countenance, facies, vultus, and at the same 
 time what is interior, within, intus, intro (Rosenmiiller) 
 •"^■^ss the interior, interior (Gesenius). 
 
 The name of the nose in Hebrew Cjx ap, comes, ac- 
 cording to Gesenius, irom J":x anp, the face, to respire by 
 the nose, a root which we likewise find in a'^ss vnim, face 
 countenance. 
 
 The different members of the ox, bull, or calf are used 
 in the Egyptian grammar as determinatives, to denote 
 those members in general ; noticed by ChampoUion in 
 his grammar, and Salvolini, (yanipagne de Rhamses, 90. 
 Is this the reason that the bull was the symbol of power 
 (see Art. Bull), and that, consequently, the ear of that 
 animal denoted strength of hearing, as the nose the power 
 of being within or of residing? 
 
 BEAN. 
 
 Herodotus relates that among the Egyptians the bean 
 was considered an impure vegetable ; the priests could 
 not even bear the sight of it (Huterj). lib. II., cap. 37). 
 The aversion of the Pythagorean disciples for this sym- 
 bol of unclean things is also known. 
 
 The Hebrew <'.\i»laitis this horror of the bean; the 
 name of the vegetable is the same as that of the nomadic 
 p«;ople, who were an abomination in the sight of the 
 Egyptians.^ In Genesis, Joseph says to his brethren : 
 
 ' I/'psius, ATiiiiilcs, IX. 77 ft swj.; Kalvoliiii, Analysis, p. 229. 
 'The only (iilllTciKM; is that bean is in tlic Riainine, and nomadic 
 [looplo in tlu! mascuiino gender. 
 2*
 
 34 APPLICATION TO 
 
 For every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyp- 
 tians (Gen. xlvi. 34). 
 
 fTia «RE, the bean. 
 
 C'^s GRIM, wi'iidering shepherds. 
 
 The name of the bean n"i:i gre signifies lumination, 
 and indicates that the vegetable was used in feeding the 
 tlocks. 
 
 As an expression of contempt, the wandering shep- 
 herds were called bean-eaters, because their existence 
 depended on that of their flocks. 
 
 The bean gave its name to the wandering tribes, re- 
 ceiving from them the signification of impurity and 
 abomination ; which is again proved by the Hebrew, 
 since !ti:i gre, the bean, signifies, also, to become furious, 
 to make war. 
 
 But how could the Hebrews, who were themselves a 
 nomadic people, give a name characteristic of hatred 
 and contempt to the wandering tribes "? The difficulty 
 can only be removed by .-upposing that the Hebrew 
 tongue received its primitive form from a people who 
 were not nomadic. The struggle between civilized peo- 
 ple and the barbarous hordes is more strongly marked 
 in the Irenian traditions than in those of Egypt. 
 
 FIG-TREE. 
 
 Horapollo says that the Egyptians represented a man 
 cured of incontinence by a bull tied to a wild fig-tree, 
 because the lascivious fury of the bull is appeased when 
 be is tied to that tree (II. 77). 
 
 The bull was the symbol of fecundity and virile 
 power, avSQsior (Horap. I. 46). His Hebrew name, "B 
 PR forms the verb ir^s pre, to bej'ruitful (See Art. Bull). 
 
 The name of the Jig-tree nur^ thane, further signifies 
 the conjugal act, coitum. 
 
 The sign of the bull tied to that of the fig-tree repre- 
 sented man cured of incontinence ; because, says Hora- 
 pollo, in another chapter, the bull became continent by 
 the act of incontinence itself; Calidisaimum cnnn rst anhnal 
 .... sed et tcmperans est, popterea, (^uod nvmnuam feminam 
 in^at -post concept uni (I. 40).
 
 EGYPTIAN SYMFOl^J.. 35 
 
 Was it not the intention of the Egyptian priests thus 
 to express that man, symbolized by the bull, only be- 
 came continent when chained by marriage, represented 
 by the fig-tree? 
 
 No Egyptian monument, at least none that I know 
 of, represents a bull tied to a fig-tree. It is probable that 
 this passage of HorapoUo relates tt» a proverb or popu- 
 lar saying borrowed from tiie sacred tongue. 
 
 ANT. 
 
 The Egyptians represented knoivledgc or intelligence^ 
 yvujais, by the ant, because it finds what man hides with 
 care ; another reason, adds Horapollo, was, that, unlike 
 other animals, when gathering provisions for winter, it 
 never mistakes the place, but arrives there without 
 error (Horap. I. 52). 
 
 The ant is here presented as a symbol of initiation, or 
 of an Initiate who has received knowledge, hidden by 
 the priests from the vulgar. 
 
 The name of the ant, i'i^^i nmle, is formed by the 
 verb b-ij nml, signifying to circumcise. 
 
 We learn from Herodotus (II. 36 and 104), Diodorus 
 of Sicily (III. 32 in fine, Wessel, p. 198) and Philon 
 (lib. iieoi tTtnouF,^), that the initiates in the mysteries, 
 who were instructed m tlie secret doctrines of the 
 Egyptian priests, were circumcised ; the cynocephalus, 
 according to IlorapcjUo, represented the priesthood, be- 
 cause it is naturally circumcised (Horap. I. 14. Lee- 
 mans, Ad not. p. 204). 
 
 The Jewish [teople were initiated in the mysteries of 
 true religion, and all Israelites had to be circumcised. 
 
 The fable of the Myrmidons, or ants changed into 
 men, .•signifies that the jtrofane who acquire knowlaJgc 
 ol the mysteries, that tlie circumcised, or untSy become 
 true n)en. 
 
 The particular relation between the ant and circum- 
 cision is, tliat the ant, according to tin* ancicnits, cut Hie 
 top of the ear to gtit the grain (jut ; to use tlie Ii«;breW 
 oxftression, it circumcised it (l)0(;liart, Iliervzo'icon, H 
 p. oS7 et 8e({. ; Job, c. xxiv. v. 21).
 
 36 APPLICATION TO 
 
 The symbolic signification given by Horapollo -to the 
 ant is consecrated by the proverbs of Solomon. There 
 be four tilings which are little uyoii the earth, but they are 
 exceeding wise; the ants are a people not strong, yet they 
 prepare their meat in the summer, etc. (Proverbs xxx. 24.) 
 
 FROG. 
 
 The frog, according to Horapollo (I. 25), represents 
 luiforined man. 
 
 M. ChanipoUion calls the frog the emblem o^ primary 
 mailer, damp and without form ',^ the truth of this in- 
 terpretation is demonstrated by the image of the Demi- 
 urgic Hercules, engraved on the base of a representation 
 of that animal.^ 
 
 This symbol is one of those that serve to identify in 
 the most unequivocal manner Egyptian Cosmogony and 
 Initiation, since, on one hand, on the monuments de- 
 ci[)hered by Champollion, the frog represents chaos, or 
 primal matter, wet and without form, and, on the other, 
 according to Horapollo, the frog is the symbol of un- 
 formed man. 
 
 That the world was born from the midst of the wa- 
 ters is taught by the Egyptiand octrines (see Article 
 Water), as well as the first book of Moses ; thus the pro- 
 fane is compared to primal matter, damp and without 
 form, over which the spirit has not yet moved, and 
 which is born again from the waters of baptism (con- 
 sult Symbolic Colors, p. 169). 
 
 The Hebrew name of the frog, sinsis tsprdo, is com- 
 posed of "ie:2 tspr, to turn, to convert one's self, in a 
 physical as in a moral sense ; this verb is applied to a 
 timid and degraded man, who morally turns and returns 
 on all sides (Gesenius). The second root of the name of 
 the frog is S"! do, which signifies science, knowledge 
 wisdom. 
 
 ^ Champollion, Notice du Musde Charles X., p. 40. 
 * Champ, ibid.
 
 EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS. 37 
 
 Thus the frog represents a man commencing to turn 
 to wisdom ; it symbolizes the neophyte not yet spirit- 
 ually formed, but who is about to be, or may become 
 so. This symbol marks the undecided state of the 
 mystes who may acquire a new life, or be replunged in 
 darkness ; this is the meaning of Horapollo when he 
 says in another chapter (II. 101), that the frog repre- 
 sents an impudent man, with a brazen look ; this animal 
 also represents the profane combating wisdom. We 
 finci this second signification again in the Hebrew word, 
 since "isa tspr also signifies to tear with nails (claws), and 
 5"» DO, wisdom; thus the frog is also the symbol of the 
 shameless profane, who endeavors to destroy wisdom by 
 false reasoning ; in this sense the Apocalypse speaks of 
 three imclean spirits like frogs (xvi. 13), and that in Ex- 
 odus, it is said that Aaron stretched out his hand over 
 the waters of Egypt, and frogs came up and covered 
 the land (Exodus viii., 1 to 10 ; Ps. Ixxviii. 45. ; cv. 30). 
 
 The Egyptian philologist adds further on (II. 102), 
 that man, who had remained a long time without mo- 
 tion, and who was subsequently enabled to move, was 
 symbolized by a frog having its hind legs, because the 
 frog comes into the world without them. 
 
 The motionless man, having acquired the power of 
 motion, is also the regenerated man, for in Hebrew 
 'Tr scHUHE signifies to walk, and to meditute (Rosen 
 niuller), and -sn elk to walk, and to live ; w^-an -jbn Ac who 
 walks ujfrightli/ (Ps. xv. 2). 
 
 AXE. 
 
 This sign, which certainly represents an axe, as ex- 
 plained by Cliariqxjllioii in his Grammar, p. 5 and 110, 
 and, as proved by Wilkinson's description of Egypt, 
 {Manners of the Egyiitians, I. 323), is the sign of the idea 
 God. 
 
 His name in Egyptian is composcid of the axe, the 
 8egm<!nt of a sphere, and tiie mouth ; which gives, in ac-
 
 38 APPLICATION TO 
 
 cordjince with Champollion's alphabet, the word "ns 
 NDR, which signifies iu Hebrew a vow, a thing vowed, 
 consecrated. These diflerent acceptations are applied to 
 the consecrated images of the gods, and to the temples. 
 
 The root of this name of consecration "ns ndr is ma 
 NDE, to separate, because things vowed or consecrated 
 were set apart ; the axe was tiie sign of the idea to sep- 
 arate, and the word ni2 ndhe especially signified to 
 strike with the axe (Deut. xx. 19, Gesenius^). 
 
 Salvolini seeks an explanation of this symbol in the 
 word "^^p (Analysis, p. 230) ; I will only call atten- 
 tion to the fact, that our group, according to Lepsius, 
 forms the word 5:^0TT^p (Annales, ix. 77, 81), which 
 also appears in the Hebrew^ "nj. 
 
 SWALLOW. 
 
 .'^^^ ..^^^^ 
 
 In Egypt, the swallow was the symbol of the entire 
 heritage left to children ; because, says Horapollo, whei 
 about to die, it rolls itself in the mud and forms a nest 
 for its young (Horap. IL, 31). 
 
 The Hebrew name of the swallow is "nni drur ; the 
 root of this word is "n dr or tit dur, words havino; alike 
 the sigmhcation : 
 
 1. Habitation, house, which answers to the word in 
 Hora[>ollo y.Ti]aii', possession, which I translate by in- 
 heritance. 
 
 2. "ni DUR also signifies o, generation, yevea (seventy), 
 and consequently answers to HorapoUo's words y.Tr,aiv 
 yoviy.fjv, generative possession, or paternal inheritance. 
 
 The swallow was the symbol of ancestral inheritance, 
 because it built its nest in the habitation of man ; on 
 which account it was consecrated to the household 
 gods (Noel). 
 
 ' The name of the Xazarites "I'^tS signi&es consecrated and separated 
 "'''3 separavit se, ahstinuit, sc consecravH (Gesenius).
 
 KaYPTIAN SYMBOLS. 39 
 
 EIGHT. 
 
 ^ 
 
 III 
 
 . ©^ 
 
 "The god Thoth," says Salvolini, " was regarded in 
 ancient Egypt as the protector of the city of Hermopolis 
 Magna ; on this account, he everywhere receives in th<! 
 inscriptions the title which is found in the character 
 X^kBl /^'"■'^A followed by the number eight. That the 
 reader may understand the origin of the use of the num- 
 ber eight in the expression of this divine title, it will 
 only be necessary for me to remind him that the Egyp- 
 tian name of Hermopolis reads IlJ.tJi.O'ri'r schmoun, and 
 that in the Coptic as well as in the Egyptian, a word 
 identical with this name tyA^Onri^ indicates the number 
 eight.'' (Analysis, p. 230.) 
 
 In Hebrew, also, the word eight is n:':":: schmne. 
 
 KNOTTED CORDS. 
 
 I 
 
 HorapoUo says in a passage, altered by the copyists, 
 that Jrnotted cords, ^rayk, represented in the hieroglyphics 
 /ore, the chase, death, the air and a son. (Horap., lib. II., 
 :i6. Vide Leemans, Adnot.) I do not attempt to repro- 
 duce the text, I only give the words it contains and 
 vvliich I also find in the significations or the root of the 
 Hebrew name oi knotted cords. 
 
 SIGVIFICATION'S GIVEN SIGXIFICATIONS OF THE NAME 
 
 BV IKJKAl'OLLO. OK KN'OTTE D COIIOS IN HEBREW. 
 
 Knotted cords ^=n herl, knot led cords. 
 
 The chase ^-^ jikhi., knotted cords, nets. 
 
 A son brn hkiu,, childbirtli, a cliihl. 
 
 Death brn hi:i!i- (< "hiild.), to destroy, 
 
 corruption. 
 
 The air ^~r\ kbi., lb'- lirccze. 
 
 Love szn MEBH, to love,
 
 4C APPLICATION TO 
 
 HARE. 
 
 The Egyptians represented the idea of an openi7ig^ 
 avoi^ts, by the hare, because this animal always has its 
 eyes open (Horap. I. 26.) ; the monuments confirm this 
 signification to open or an opening (Leemans, p. 235). 
 
 According to Cliampollion, tlie hare was the symbol 
 of Osiris (Notice Musee Charles X., p. 46) ; that divinity 
 being represented by the eye, and the hare designating 
 oi)c?i eyes. 
 
 The Hebrew gives the reason of this use of the symbol, 
 since n::3~iN arnbth, the hare, is composed of "ix ar, UgJd, 
 and t533 NBT, to contemplate, to have intuition} 
 
 The word nmx arbe, an ojjenivg, an open window, is 
 composed of the same roots as the name of the hare.^ 
 
 According to the Hebrew signification of the name of 
 this animal, it should be in Egypt the symbol of moral 
 light revealed to the neo[)hytes, and contemplation of 
 divinity, which explains why it was the symbol of Osiris. 
 
 LION. 
 
 Horapollo says that the Egyptians represented the 
 soul or incandescence d-vfibs, by the lion (Horap. I. 17). 
 
 The Hebrew name of the lion x-^^b lbia, is formed of 
 the root '^ lb, signifying soul, heart ; nnb lbe, Jlame, 
 heart. 
 
 Horapollo adds, that the lion is remarkable for the size 
 
 * The last letter is here chanjjed from m to a because in Hebrew 
 these two letters are thus often changed ((iesen., p. 383) ; be that as it 
 may, there can be no doubt as to the root, saice it comes from the verb 
 333, to pierce, to open, which forms the words n'2i to prophecy, smd a33 
 to contemplate. 
 
 ^ lit, I'i^fit, and nan or nn33 an opening, a door, of 323 to pierce, 
 to open (Gesenius verbo 323).
 
 EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS. 41 
 
 of his head, his flaming eyes, his face surrounded with a 
 radiating mane like tlie sun, and that it is on this ac- 
 count that lions are placed under the throne of Horus, 
 to show the symbolical relations between this animal 
 and divinity. 
 
 The name of Horus, the god Sun, signifies, likewise, 
 in Hebrew the sun, "iix aur, pronounced hor or ^n, ar, 
 the sun. 
 
 "^"ix ARi is one of the Hebrew names of lio7i and ofjire; 
 the word bx-^-ix arial is interpreted by Imi of God or fire 
 of God and ^xix aral, lion of God, heroes (Gesenius). 
 
 Thus, according to Horapollo, the symbolic relations 
 existing between the god Sun and the lion are clearly 
 manifiested in the Hebrew. 
 
 The hinder parts of the lion, according to the same author, 
 had the signification of strength (Horap. I. 18). The 
 word "ch LiscH designates a lion and strength (Gesenius). 
 
 The head of the lion, says Horapollo, was the symbol 
 of vigilance and care, because that animal closes his eyes 
 when waking and opens them when asleep, which desig- 
 nates vigilance : it was on account of this symbolic 
 quality that lions were placed as guardians at the inclo- 
 sures of the temples (Horap. I. 19). 
 
 The lion's head was particularly chosen to designate 
 care and vigilance, on account of the relations established 
 between the lion and the sun ; the name of Horus or light 
 IX AR forms the verb nxn rae to see, to foresee, to contnn- 
 jdafe; and the name of the lion '^'^x ari forms that of 
 vision ■'X" rai. 
 
 According to Champollio.n, the lion was the emblem of 
 Phtha and of Aroeris (Notice Musee Charles X., p. 4:5). 
 
 In the Coptic we find X.*-0T5 lion, and A>OTt splendor. 
 
 LILY OR LOTUS. 
 
 A/\ . 
 
 A lily-stalk, or a bunch of iIk; siumc j»lant, cxpresHed 
 the idea of the region of Upptir lOgypt; a stalk of the
 
 42 APPLICATION TO 
 
 papyrus with its tuft, or a bouquet of the same phjii! 
 was the symbol of Lower Egypt (Chaiiip. Egypt. Giani., 
 p. 25 ; Rosetta Inscription, line 5). 
 
 The lily or lotus symbolized initiation or the birth of 
 celestial light; on some monuments the god Phre (the 
 sun) is represented as coming forth from the cup of a 
 lotus (Champ. Musee Charles X, p. IS : Jablonski, Horus, 
 p. 212). 
 
 The Hebrew name of Upper Egypt tsi^rs pthrus is 
 Ibrmed from the root "ira pthr, to inferj^ret dreams. 
 
 Upper Egypt was the native country of auguries, the 
 cradle of religion, of initiation, and science, as the lotus 
 was the cradle of Phre, th^e sun. 
 
 The papyrus, tlie sign on the Rosetta-stone of Lower 
 Egypt, indicated, says Horapollo, the Jirst food of man and 
 the earliest origin if tilings (Florap. L 30). 
 
 The Hebrew name of Lower Egypt is '^^to mtsur, 
 formed from the roots na^ mtse, unleave?ied bread, first 
 food of man, ^ and of "ii:i tsur, to gather together, to tie together, 
 "iii: tsrr, a truss ; the ti uss of papyrus was, according 
 to Horapollo, the symbol of the early origin of things. 
 
 Following the Hebrew significations. Lower Egypt 
 was the land of agriculture and the gathering of men in 
 society, which is indicated by its name "1^:1^, Egypt and 
 Si frontier, a citadel, a fortified city, and which is also ex- 
 pressed in the hieroglyphics by bread, ns?3 mtse, root of 
 the name of Lower Egypt (see Art. Sacred Bread). 
 
 Egypt had a third name, explained in the Article 
 Crocodile. 
 
 MOON. 
 
 The Egyptians represented the month by a moon or by 
 ti palm-branch (Horap. L 4). 
 
 In Hebrew tlie name of the month and that of the 
 moon ibrm a single word m^ irhe, moon and month; as 
 in the Coptic 00^., moon and month. 
 
 * The papyrus was the earliest food of the Egyptians (HerodotuA 
 II. 92 J.
 
 EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS. 43 
 
 The palm does not designate a month, but a year, as 
 proved by the nioumnents (Egypt. Gram., p. 97), and 
 as established by Hurapollo himself in another passage 
 (I. 3). 
 
 The Hebrew name of the palm, or palm-branch, is 
 n:o:D snsne, ramus palm(£ ; the root of this word is found 
 again in nair schne, the ijear} 
 
 HAND. 
 
 Horapollo says that the Egyptians represented a man 
 fond of building by a hand, because from the hand pro- 
 ceed all labors (H. 119). 
 
 T' ID, hand, signifies also a monument, and force, iiower. 
 
 vi^or. 
 
 Hands joined were the symbol of concord (Horap. 
 II. 11). 
 
 In Hebrew nb',r schlhe, to give the hand, forms the 
 word mVu schlum, concord (Gesenius). 
 
 SHE-MULE. 
 
 The she-mule, says Horapollo, represents a barren 
 woman (II. 42). 
 
 The word "ns pud, a mule, signifies also to separate, to 
 disjoin, a verb applicable to the separation of the sexes. 
 
 EGYPTIAN GOOSE. 
 
 The Egyptians, sayw Horapollo, represented the idea 
 of son by tlie chenalopex goose. This animal exhibits 
 
 ' Acconliiit,' to (i(w-iiiiis, llie letters o ii"<l ii''»' iiit^rchiui^a'able ia 
 lle])rew. JJu even gives examples 'u\ the rout nsD-
 
 44 APPLICATION TO 
 
 great tenderness for its little ones — the father and 
 mother precipitating themselves, in defense, against tii« 
 hunters who endeavor to take them (Horap. I. 53). 
 
 The Egyptian monuments confirm this interpretation 
 (Cliampoiiion, Precis, p. 119, 218; Leemans on Horap., 
 p. 276). 
 
 The Abydos tablet has ten repetitions of a group com- 
 posed of the goose and solar disk above the royal car- 
 touches;^ ChampoUion translates this group by son of 
 the sun (Precis., p. 218). 
 
 The word son in Hebrew is ^3 br ; this word twice 
 repeated with the plural indication, signifies ^eese, diis-.d 
 brbrijvi (Gesenius). 
 
 EAR. 
 
 4 
 
 According to Horapollo, the ear of a bull represented 
 hear 17^ g (I. 47). 
 
 This sign is the determinative of the verbs to hear, to 
 litten (Champ. Gram., 387, 388). 
 
 The word "i^x azn signifies an ear, to hear, to listen, and 
 also to be sliarp, whence, says Gesenius, comes the name 
 of ear, because among animals that organ is sharp. This 
 remark is the commentary on the passage from Hora 
 polio and the hieroglyphic representing the ear. 
 
 The bull's ear also symbolized a future thing or a 
 future fact (Horap. H. 23), because it was the symbol of 
 hearing, and, in the sacred language, the name hearing 
 signified o. future thing, as appears in the Hebrew, since 
 •j-Q-c scHMo signifies to hear, to listen, to announce, to call 
 nji (Gesenius ; consult Champ, Gram., 387). See Article 
 Goat. 
 
 In a manuscript in the royal library, is a personage 
 having his head sunnounted by two bull's ears, and 
 
 ' Vide Klaproth, Observation on the Monument of Abydos, following 
 an Examin.ati(jn of Champnllion's labors ; Leemans, on Horapollo, pag*.' 
 I'TC ; Sail, Ensay on I'lionetic Hieroglyphics^.
 
 EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS. 45 
 
 reading a book on which is the name of Osiris. (This is 
 the vignette to our fourth chapter.) 
 
 He that hath ears to hear, let him, hear ! V e/,(ov cZra u-aoveiv, 
 axoverco ! (Lukc viii. S). These words of Jesus Christ 
 spoken after a parable, signify that he who hears the 
 recital of similitudes, should endeavor to discover their 
 hidden meaning and be obedient to their teaching, for 
 the Hebrew name of hearing signifies to iinderstand and 
 obey. r5:r sch.mo, audivit, audita, intellexit, intellectus est, 
 obedivit (Gesenius). 
 
 QUAIL BONE. 
 
 A qvail bone, says Horapollo, expresses stability and 
 safety (II. 10). 
 
 The word ^'sv, otsm, signifies at once bojie and solidity, 
 strength. {Os a firmitate et robore dictum, Gesenius.) 
 
 The name of the quail, Vsa, schlu, is the same word as 
 iV:J, schlu, which expresses stability and safety (securus, 
 seairitas. Gesenii Lexicon Manuale. {). 964 et 1007).^ 
 
 This Egyptian symbol is, likewise, a trope of Bible 
 symbology ; when the Psalmist says : There is no se- 
 curity in my bones because (f my sins (Ps. xxxviii. 3). He 
 employs the v^^ord n-bo schlum, of which the root, 'ba, 
 also indicates security 'di)d quail, and the word c:i3?, otsm, 
 which designates a bone -dud firmness, solidity. 
 
 ' I again call the attention of the rouder. who is liut sliglitly ac- 
 quainted with the Jlebrew hui^'-uage, to tlie fact, tliat J entirely neglect 
 the vowel-points. 'I'his principle, whieh 1 iijiply 1o the Hebrew i)ecause 
 there are no vowel-points in Egyptian, is followed by Hebraists in inter- 
 preting significant names ; that of the quail is in point ; it was thus 
 named, say the (Commentators, liecause it lives in security lu the midst 
 of the harviMt (llol)ertson, Tfiesaurus Linf^iicc Saiida). 
 
 In apjiiying this rule, a single letter might prove embarrassing. The 
 letUir m forms two series in the dictionaries, according to tiie place oc- 
 
 cu[)ied by th(^ point, ii5 and U- lliis letter being doiibltxl, it will be 
 umlerstofKl that in the other series the words in which it appears dif- 
 ferently pointf-d cannot be found side; by side ; thus thc^ name of the 
 iptntl i^'iy is found on page 'JG4 of (/ewMiius' Ij(;x.i(;on, and its homnnym 
 
 ^b':i appears on page 1007. In like rnanner the word pTVD'O is n it placed 
 beside ndia. etc., etc.
 
 46 APPLICATION TO 
 
 SHE-BEAR. 
 
 The Egyptians, says Horapollo, wishing to designate 
 a child unshapen at birth, and afterwards formed, paint 
 a bear with young, because she brings forth condensed 
 blood, which she transforms by warming it on her breast, 
 and which slie finishes by licking (Horap. II. 83). 
 
 This symbol would be unintelligible without the ex- 
 planation to be found in Hebrew. 
 
 The name of the constellation, great hear, 1255, osch, 
 forms the obsolete word na::?, osche, which, according 
 to Gesenius, must have signified the hairy, he who is cover- 
 ed with hair like a hear. 
 
 The same word, nirs, osche, signifies to form, to manu- 
 facture, to create, an expression employed in Genesis in 
 speaking of the creation of the world. 
 
 This child, unshapen at its birth, warmed on the 
 maternal breast, and perfected by caresses, is the world, 
 which in chaos was without form, and was finished by 
 the love of God. 
 
 The child unshapen at its birth is likewise an emblem 
 of the soul, which from the state of the profane rises, 
 by regeneration, to a moral and spiritual state. I have 
 often said, and 1 repeat it, the initiation was the type of 
 cosmogony; regeneration, or spiritual creation of man, 
 was presented as an image of the creation of the world 
 (Symbolic Colors, p. 96. See Article Beetle hereafter). 
 
 CONSECRATED BREAD. 
 
 ® 
 
 Many geographical proper names, says Champollion 
 (Egypt. Gram., p. 151), have the consecrated hread for 
 determinatives ; the Egyptians, adds that learned man, 
 desired, apparently, to express, by such a determinative, 
 countries or localities inhabited and organized in regular 
 societies. 
 
 Salvolini, in acknowledging the general signification
 
 EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS. 47 
 
 of this sign, pretends that it only applied to Egypt ; ac- 
 cording to this philologist, no form of bread on the 
 monuments refers to the sign as we explain it ; he has it 
 that it is the figurative sign of the horizon (Transla- 
 tion of the Obelisk, p. 16 and 17). 
 
 Salvolini was in too much haste in denying the fact 
 advanced by his master. Several monuments in the 
 Egyptian Museum at Paris prove that our sign is conse- 
 crated bread ; the chest No. 3293 represents an offering 
 of variously shaped bread: our sign, as we give it, and 
 as it is found in Champollion's Grammar and Salvolini's 
 alphabet, appears there several times. 
 
 Besides, the Hebrew clears up the difficulty, since the 
 word "i==, KKR, signifies bread, a aike, a country, a region. 
 
 Again, nii^, mtse, unleavened bread, forms the word 
 i':£^, MTSUR, which signifies Egyp, and ^.frontier. 
 
 PAPYRUS. 
 
 Horapollo says, that the highest antiquity was repre- 
 sented by discourses (writings?), leaves, or a sealed book 
 (II. 27). 
 
 Now, the word n^", ole, which signifies a leaf, and to 
 inscribe on (ablets, forms nb:?, olm, and nbrr, oulm, the 
 antique origin of thnigs, obscure time, hidden, eternity.^ 
 
 Tfie paj)yrus-leaf, that plant which formed tablets and 
 bo()ks, is the first letter of the name of the only eternal 
 utid all-powerful god of Egypt, Amon, who in the begin- 
 ning of tilings crciited tin; world. The name of the god 
 Amon, according to Manetho cittid by Plutarch, signi- 
 fied occult, or hidden. Tlic first letter of the name of 
 I'^gyptian gods is often symbolic, sin(;e this initial forms, 
 in many eases, the Mj»e(;iai attribute of tin; divinity. 
 
 The fasces and the papyrus-leaf were specially chosen 
 
 ' From whence also the name of nnrslinp;, and the verb to nurse, 
 iiy OUL. Milk 18 a child's first nnnri-liiiicnt, as the papyrus was the 
 
 earliest food of the Egyptians (lk'r(nlutus 11. 02).
 
 48 APPLICATION TO 
 
 to represent obscure and hidden antiquity, and the name 
 of the paj^ijrns, n-x, abe, appears to belong to the same 
 root as x::n, heba, to hide, to hide one's self. 
 
 We may here assign the reason why the bunch of 
 papyrus is the determinative of female names : accord- 
 ing to cosmogony, love was the first origin of things : 
 2nx AEB, love, and nsx abe, the jxiyyrus, evidently belong 
 to the same root.^ Again, fcbr qlm, the antique origin of 
 things, signifies a young man at puberty ; ri:cbj- olme, o. 
 marriageable girl. These words come from tiie root t^^" 
 OLE, a leaf (consult Articles, Bunch of Reed, Lilij, and 
 that on the color Green). 
 
 EYELIDS. 
 
 Champollion supposes the three upper signs to repre- 
 sent diadems (Gram., p. 298, 440) ; but this supposition 
 is not confirmed by any form of diadem. 
 
 Salvolini thinks these signs are crests (Alphabet, 
 No. 194). 
 
 I think I recognize eyelids; in fact, these three signs 
 are covered with a sort of eyelid or brow showing itself 
 above the eyes, the design of which is given by Cham- 
 pollion (Egypt. Gram., consult Nos. 208 and 242, of 
 Alphabet). 
 
 This sign, according to Champollion, marks the idea 
 o^ festival (Gram., p. 174). 
 
 The Hebrew name of eyelid is the same as that of the 
 celebration of di festival. 
 
 m^uj scHMRE, in the feminine plural n-nair schmruth, 
 eyelids ; and in the plural masculine ni"i:2a schmrim, ohser- 
 vatio, celebratio festi (Gesenius). 
 
 ' The common root of these two words is as, father, Creator, will, 
 verdure, grass, a fruit. All these significations were connected together 
 in the cosmogony : the Creator, God, formed the world in his love or 
 his will ; the grass, verdure, the leaves, represented the birth of the 
 world, because nature seems to be born again when the leaves appear
 
 EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS. 49 
 
 The eyelid was the symbol of observation or the cele- 
 bratio;i of a feast, because the name of the eyelid in He- 
 brew signified vigilance and watchfulness, n-n:":: schmre, 
 custodia. In Egypt, the lion's head was the symbol of 
 viscilance; because, says Horapollo, that animal closes 
 his eyes when waking and opens them in sleeping 
 {Vide Art. Liofi). On the monuments, the lion's head 
 has the signification of vigilance. Does not the sign we 
 are considering represent the lion's eyelid, symbol of 
 vigilance, of watchfulness, or of the observation of reli- 
 gious feasts"? 
 
 PEDUM OR DIVINING ROD. 
 
 ? 
 
 '• In each step of the hieroglyphics," says Salvolini, 
 
 ' we meet with the idea of a king, or, to speak 
 
 more correctly, of a moderator, expressed by the TK 
 
 spoken of by Manetho ; it is always written as follows : 
 
 4 
 
 ^ 3\K. 'T''^ image of an individual 
 
 clothed with all the emblems of royalty, the ureus 
 on his forehead, the 'pedum and the whij) between 
 his knees, serving as a determinative. The pedum, sym- 
 bol of moderation, by a process peculiar to Egyp- 
 tian writings, serves also to express the initial of the 
 word ^^^ J moderator'' (Campagne de Rhamscs, p. 16). 
 
 The transcription of the above group gives the He- 
 brew word -n hku, which signili»!S a law, a .statute, a ciu- 
 (om; P7>ri heqq, a legislator, a chi'f, and a sceptre (Gese- 
 nius), or a king moderator and a pedum. 
 3
 
 60 APPLICATION TO 
 
 OSTRICH FEATHER. 
 
 The ostrich feather is a symbol frequently used la 
 hieroglyphic writing and aiiagly[)li8, its signification of 
 justice and truth being well established.^ 
 
 According to Horapollo, " The man rendering justice 
 to all, was represented by the ostrich featlier; because 
 that bird, unlike others, has all its feathers equal" 
 (Horap., II. 118). 
 
 The ostrich feather is the symbol of the goddess of 
 justice and truth, Thme, the Egyptian Themis. 
 
 The Hebrew word '|Si ion, signifies an ostrich and a 
 council, a determination. This word comes, according to 
 Gesenius, from the root f^3" one, to declare a. sentence, and 
 at the same time to testify (Gesenius, p. 780, B). Thus 
 in Hebrew as in Egyptian, the ostrich is the symbol of 
 a sentence of justice, and of a testhnony of truth; let us add 
 that the name of the goddess of justice and truth, Thme, 
 signifies in Hebrew justice and truth, nr\ thm or n^riTHME, 
 i7ttegritas and a^d-eia. 
 
 Poetically, the Hebrew name of the ostrich is fisa^ 
 RNNE ; this word also signifies a song of joy, qfjiraise, and, 
 according to Champollion, happy souls, their heads orna- 
 mented with the ostrich Jeather, and under the inspection 
 of the lord of the heart's joy, gathered fruits from celestial 
 trees (Letters from Egypt, p. 231). 
 
 A painting of the Funeral Ritual represents the judg- 
 ment of a soul ; it advances toward the goddess Thme, 
 who wears an ostrich feather on her head ; beside this 
 divinity of justice and truth, appears the scale in which 
 Anubis and Horus weigh the actions of the deceased — 
 they place in one side the ostrich feather, and in the 
 
 ' There can be no doubt as to the sign representing an ostrich 
 feather, since, in a painting of Thebes, we see two men occupied in pull- 
 ing feathers from an ostrich ( tVilkinson's Manners and Customs of the 
 Ancient Egyptians, II. G).
 
 EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS. 5^ 
 
 other the vase containing the heart ;i if the weight of the 
 heart is greater than that of the ostrich feather, the scale 
 descends, and the soul is received in the celestial courts ; 
 above this scene appear the forty-tvs^o judges of the souls 
 geated, and having the head ornamented with the ostrich 
 feather.^ 
 
 FISH. 
 
 The^sA, according to Horapollo (I. 44), was a symbol 
 of evil omen, designating crime /nvoog. 
 
 In Hebrew, an T>G,Jish, forms the verb f^5^ dge, to cover, 
 to hide, to be in darkness. In Egypt, darkness was the 
 symbol of Typhon, personification of crime, hatred, and 
 every ill. Another name of the fish sxn dag, forms the 
 word nsxT bage, fear, solicitude. 
 
 HOG. 
 
 ~j,^i|l^^^ 
 
 The Egyptians represented an unclean man by a hog 
 (Horap. II. 37). 
 
 The sow was the emblem of Thoueris and other 
 typhonian goddesses (Champ. Notice Musee Charles X., 
 48). 
 
 Like the Egyptians, the Israelites regarded swine as 
 unclean. 
 
 The word nitn hezir, a hog, is formed by the verb 
 "1"'^ ziR, to be disgusted. 
 
 ' Horap., I. 21 : Ijeemans, Adnot. and plate XLY, A. Soc the 
 last vipnette at the end of the volume, copied from the manuscript of 
 Tentamoiin. 
 
 * See Explanation of the principal painted scene of the Egyptian 
 funeral papyrus by Champollion the younger, from the Bulletin uinver- 
 Mil dcs Science.t, hy Fferwssac, Nov., 182.'i. Coasult Notice Muyfee 
 Charles X. ; Description of Egypt, etc.
 
 62 APPLICATION TO 
 
 RAT. 
 
 The rat, according to Horapollo, was the symbol of 
 ilesf ruction (Horap. I. 50). 
 
 The root of the Hebrew word fria pre, a rat (Ge- 
 senius), is "i"is prr, to break, to destroy. 
 
 The word "inr:> okbr is also the name of the rat ; it is 
 composed, according to Gesenius, of hz^ okl, to consume^ 
 and "in br, wheat. Several loaves being placed together, 
 says Horapollo, the rat chooses and eats the best. 
 
 The rat was again, according to the same author, the 
 sign of the idea oi' judgment, because he chose the best 
 part of the bread. The name of the rat, n-is pre, forms 
 the word ns prz, h judge, he who separates, divides (pr. diri- 
 mens, judex, Gesenius). 
 
 . The vignette at the head of this chapter, copied from 
 the Tentamoun manuscript, exhibited in the Royal 
 Library, represents the judgment of the soul ; the defunct, 
 assisted by a personage with a rat's head, presents in his 
 hands the works done and the words spoken during life 
 and according to which he is to be judged.^ 
 
 REED. 
 
 iA 
 
 Tiiis sign represents a reed, or, as Salvolini has it, a 
 graminous plant (Alp., No. 144). 
 
 The words ^oi?er?i and direct have this sign frequent- 
 ly given them as an initial instead of its homophones 
 (Egypt. Gram., 74) ; it likewise forms the first letter of 
 the word king (Ibid. p. 75 ; Abydos Tablet). 
 
 ^ The eye signifies to do, p. 15 ; and the mouth is the symbol of 
 speech. See " Origin of the Eg-yptiaii Language," by Dr. Lowe, p. 21
 
 EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS. 53 
 
 Plutarch, in a passage altered from the treatise on Isis 
 and Osiris (cap. XXXVI), and restored by the commen- 
 tators {vide Leemans, Adnot. ad Horap., p. 292), says 
 that the reed was the symbol oi royalty, of irrigation, and 
 the fecundation of all things- 
 
 The Hebrew word frr:: schde signifies di field, region, 
 possession, royalty, woman; it must also have had, according 
 to Gesenius (p. 983), the signification to sprinkle, and, 
 according to Guarin, that of grass. 
 
 ''~i':i scHDi designates a,Jield and the All-powerful.^ 
 
 The various acceptations of these words come from 
 their root "la schd, signifying a teat, sign of the fecundati un 
 of all things. 
 
 The Egyptian inscriptions confirm this application of 
 the Hebrew. 
 
 On the Abydos tablet, the word 1ci7ig is always written 
 by the reed and the segment of a sphere, which according 
 to Champollion's alphabet gives the word i":: schd, root 
 of the Hebrew words we have just examined. The word 
 king is also often written coupled with the sign of water 
 or the crown (Egypt. Gram., p. 75), which gives the 
 word '|T:3 schdn. 
 
 But Lepsius demonstrates that the final n is only a 
 derivative augmentation not belonging to the primitive 
 word (Annales de I'Institut de correspondance archeolo- 
 gique, tome X, p. 121, 122). This word is not in the 
 Coptic, though Lepsius thinks he discovers a trace of it 
 in the name of the Basilisk CI^, symbol of the Egyptian 
 kings (Ibid. p. 122). 
 
 DEW. 
 
 .fn.fh 
 
 nnt 
 
 The Egyptians represented teaching or instruction, 
 8eia. by the dew falling from heaven (liurap. I. 37). 
 
 ' •^'xa campxjLs, uger ; t-ytu potcnlissimun,oninipotcm. See hliy Rod 
 mia.
 
 54 APPLICATION TO 
 
 In Hebrew fT-i"! ire signifies to throw drops of water, to 
 sprinkle and to teach, to instruct (Gesenius). 
 
 In like manner, n"i''a mure, signifies a doctor, a professor, 
 and the first rain, which, in Palestine, falls from thu 
 middle of October to the middle of December and pif- 
 [)ares the earth to receive the seed (Gesenius, verbo nir). 
 
 The symbolic relation between instruction, which pre- 
 pares man for intellectual life, and the first rain, which 
 prepares the germination of plants, will be understood. 
 
 The word iripba mlqusch designates spring rain, which 
 in Palestine falls before harvest, in the months of March 
 and April ; Job assimilates this rain to speech full of 
 eloquence and good fruits (Job. xxix. 23.) 
 
 The sign we give here, is an abridgment of the scene 
 representing Egyptian baptism, or shedding celestial 
 dew on the head of the neophyte. 
 
 The vignette in the beginning of this work shows the 
 baptism, after a design of the Monuments of Egypt and 
 Nubia by ChampoUion (tome I. pi. XLLL). 
 
 Horus and Thoth-Lunus pour water on the head of 
 the neophyte, which is transformed to divine life (ansated 
 cross) and to purity (Hoopoe headed sceptre'). 
 
 The legend accompanying this scene, and of which 
 all the elements are known, should, I think, be thus 
 translated : Horus, son of Isis, baptizes with water a?id fire 
 (repeat J, Horus baptizes with water and fire {repeat): to be 
 \nonounccd four times. 
 
 The same legend is repeated for Thoth-Lunus, with 
 the change of name only. 
 
 From this monument we learn the words spoken by 
 the priests during the ceremony. He who represented 
 Horus, twice said : Horus, son of Isis, baptizes with 
 water and fire, then twice: Horus baptizes with water 
 and fire ; he repeated these same words four times. 
 
 Thoth-Lunus pronounced the same phrases the same 
 number of times, substituting his titles for those of 
 Horns. 
 
 • The signification of the ansated cross is recognized by all Egypto- 
 logists ; as to that of the Hoopoe Sceptre, Champollion gives it a 
 different meaning from that of Horapollo, that of purity, i'nstead of 
 piety (Egyptian Gram., p. 290, 412, 449, or pure, 90). We have seen 
 that water was the symbol of purity.
 
 EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS. 55 
 
 Thus the words baptism of fire and water were repeated 
 SIXTEEN times by each initiator; altogether thirty-two 
 times. These numbers had a signification which Hora- 
 
 f)ollo has preserved for us: sixteen symbolized pleasure, 
 ove ; and twice sixteen marriage or conjunction, resulting 
 from reciprocal love. It would be difficult not to see 
 that it is a question here of the marriage of the two 
 principles represented by the sun and moon, or Horns 
 and Thoth-Lunus, of which we shall speak in our last 
 article.^ 
 
 The baptism of water and fire, designated in the 
 
 legend by the character jiT* that Leemans has ex- 
 plained in his annotations on Horapollo (p. 261, and 
 plate XLIX), is identical in its exterior form with the 
 baptism of water, the Spirit, and of fire, in the Bible (Luke 
 iii., 16, i?). We likewise find the baptism of fire and 
 Spirit in the sign of the dew, copied in Champollion's 
 alphabet (Egypt. Gram.) and which represents three 
 series of triangles or pyramids, symbols of fire and 
 light.2 
 
 The name received by the baptized or anointed was 
 that given in tlie Bible to the chief of the Hebrews, 
 Moses, n-:j-2 ; this name exists on the Egyptian monu- 
 ments, it is wrirt«Mi by the sign of the dew or baptism, 
 jMiiial to -, and the bent stalk equal to a; the group 
 
 [I jjj in Hebrew -- or ni-o is translated in Champol- 
 lion's Grammar by begotten (p. 133) ; we give it the 
 signification of regenerated or begotten again, with refer- 
 ence to the long series of proper names, among which 
 are the names of the gods followed by this group. 
 Thus Thoutmos, Amenmos, Ilarmos, Phlahmos designated 
 the regenerated by Thoih, Amon, ILmis or Phtah. 
 
 According to the Bible, the name of Moses was Egyp- 
 
 ' Vide Ilorap. I. 33. See, for meaiiiiif,' of lh(! word wo translate by 
 baptize, Kgypt. Gram., p. 376 and 300 ; and for lliat of the grtiiip which 
 we read repeat, .s(,'<; Cliainpollioii, Letters from Kgypt aud Nubio, p. 
 190 und 140, pi. VI. 
 
 » CoriHiilt a monument in Charapollion'.s Egyptian Pantheon (lMat« 
 XV, A], where these trianf,'i&s arc painted red and yellow, colors con- 
 HBcrated to fire and light. Sec, aLso, a note of Leemans on iI(jrapollo, 
 p. 2-48.
 
 56 APPLICATIOiN TO 
 
 tian, and signified saved hi/ water or from the water. 
 
 xnpm 'nn-iaia c-^Tin-iTD 13 -i-CwXm n-a^a i^u5 (Exodus ii., 10). 
 
 In Hebrew Moses, n':j"a msche, signifies saved, and riuj-a 
 MSCHHE is the verb to anoint and consecrate; thus the 
 Egyptian name given to Moses, designates one saved by 
 unction or baptism. He received this baptism in infancy 
 and manhood, since, according to the Acts of the Apos- 
 tles and Philo, he was learned in all the wisdom of the 
 Egyptians.' 
 
 SACK OF WHEAT. 
 
 f f 
 
 This sign represents an empty wheat sack, as proved 
 by a monument engraved in Rosellini's work. Cham- 
 poUion thought it was a kind of purse (Egypt. Gram., 
 p. 5-5). 
 
 The Hebrew word nxinn thbuae, signifies the revenue 
 of the land, the product of the fields, and also the fruit of 
 intelligence (Gesenius). 
 
 The word "psn thbun, belonging to the same root, 
 designates intelligence, prudence. 
 
 A chief, or leading personage in a hierarchy, was 
 represented in Egypt by the figure of a man standing, 
 with a pure sceptre in one hand and the sack of wheat 
 in the other (Champ. Egypt. Gram., p. 55). 
 
 The sceptre was the symbol of power,^ and the sack 
 of wheat the emblem of intelligence, of prudence, and the 
 right of proprietor in lands. 
 
 Mercury, the god of material and intellectual riches, 
 held a purse in his hand like the Egyptian chiefs. 
 
 1 Acts vii. 22. Philon, de vita Mosis, lib. I. p. 606. See Lowe 
 The origin of the Egyj^tiau language, p. 26-27 ; and Lacour's Essay 
 on Hieroglyphics. 
 
 * The fure sceptre, or staff without ornament oniu, represented the 
 instrument with which the guilty were stricken, and the scourge of God. 
 The pure sceptre was, consequently, the sign of the right to punish and 
 of the power of chiefs.
 
 EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS. f>^ 
 
 BEETLE. 
 
 In Egypt, the beetle was the symbol of creation by a 
 single 'power, uovoyeisi. o{ generation, oi paternity, the world 
 and man (Horap. I. 10). 
 
 "The beetle," adds Horapollo, "represented procrea- 
 tion by a single individual, because that insect has no 
 female; when it wishes to procreate it forms a ball, 
 image of the world, of ox dung, which it rolls with its 
 hinder parts from east to west, looking to the east ; it 
 buries this ball in the earth for twenty-eight days, and 
 on the twenty-ninth throws it into the water." 
 
 The Hebrew name of the beetle is b:ib^: tsltsl, which 
 Gesenius translates cricket {hestiola slridens, grillus). 
 
 When this insect wishes to beget, it walks backward 
 towards the region of darkness, the west ; and the He- 
 brew name of the beetle is formed of ^s tsl, shadow, 
 darkness, ^b:i tsll, to obscure, to orershadoir. 
 
 It rolls, the imnge of the worhl, the ball, with its 
 posterior claws, and the same word V^ri tsll signifies to 
 roll underneath (Gesenius). 
 
 It buries this ball in the earth, and afterwards throws 
 it into the water; the same word V's tsll signifies to 
 coieraud to submerge (Ikosenniiiller, Vocnh.), from whence 
 is formed rh^i tsule, tlie depths of the sea (Gesenius). 
 
 This symbol represents the (Inini.i of initiation ; the 
 ball of" excrement from wlicnci' is lo conn' forth the new 
 beetle, is tlie imagt; of our body of corrnption — buried 
 • n the earth it dies iind is horn again lo a new life, being 
 fructified by the baptismal waters. The initiation sym- 
 bolized death and a new birth (Symbolic Colors, p. 16S, 
 et seq.). 
 
 The beetle was the symbol of the world and of wun, 
 because, in the doctrine of the mysteries, mjin was the 
 little world, and the world, the great man (Symb. V\)\., 
 p. 184). In thr l''L'vptiiiii gr;imni;ir the liccth' dcsigiiiitcd 
 the/e/rr.s/?/a/wo/-A/(Clianip. (ir;ini., p. ^577) ; iind (mi mnm 
 my-cases the beetle with spn'a<i wings, rolling the globe, 
 3*
 
 68 APPLICATION TO 
 
 doubtless represented the death and new birth of the 
 celestial neophyte. 
 
 Man is fiovoysrii, that is to say, regenerated by God 
 alone. God, who warms the heart and enlightens the 
 mind, was symbolized by the sun ; and from Clement 
 Alexandrinus (Stromal V.), as well as HorapoUo (I. 10), 
 we learn that the beetle symbolized the sun : tlie god 
 Thra, one of the forms of Fhre (the sun), has a beetle 
 in place of a head. 
 
 The fathers of the church adopted these Egyptian 
 symbols, preserved by the priests, when they named 
 Jesus the fiovoyefh, and the good beetle. St. Ambrosius 
 seems to translate Horapollo when he says : El bonus 
 scarabaus, qui lut am corporis nostri ante informe ac pigrum 
 uirtutiim versabat vestigiis : bonus scarabceus, qui de stercore 
 erigit pauperem (St. Amb. in Luke X., No. il3. See 
 also Leemans, Adnot. ad Horap., p. 162). 
 
 SIGNET. 
 
 The signet is the determinative of the ^«erbs to close, 
 to shut, to seal (Champ. Gram., p. 372). 
 
 In Hebrew =rr; hethm, a signet, a seal ring, and the 
 same word signifies to close, to shut, to seal, and likewise 
 to accomplish, to finish (Gesenius). 
 
 The Egyptian word given by ChampoUion is 
 
 ajTU-, ^"^^^ which is the pronunciation of 
 
 the Hebrew word -r- hethm. 
 
 The Coptic word ^T^Z^-U- certainly signifies to shut, 
 to close, but in no wise designates a signet. The only 
 Coptic name of the signet, given in Peyron's dictionary, 
 belongs to the root of the word Rnger, Tt& ^ which 
 forms the verbs to siarn with a seal, to confirm, and the 
 name of the sig?iet ring, but does not express the ideas 
 to close, to shut.
 
 EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS. 69 
 
 SPHINX. 
 
 The symbolic signification of the sphinx is found in 
 Hebrew : "|S:£ tspn signifies to hide and to watch, and "iiss 
 TSPUN or SPIN, a mystery, an arcana, the north, a place of 
 dari^ness. The sphinxes i)laced at the entrance of the 
 temples guarded the mysteries, by vvarnmg those who 
 penetrated into the sanctuaries, that they should conceal 
 a knowledge of them from the profane. 
 
 The sphinx, according to Champollion, became suc- 
 cessively the particular emblem of each god, and had a 
 special insignia on his forehead (Notice Musee Charles X., 
 p. 114). Did not the priests desire thus to express that 
 all the gods were hidden from the people, and that their 
 knowledge, guarded in the sanctuaries, was revealed to the 
 initiates only V The name of yl/no«, the great divinity 
 of Egypt, from which all others are but emanations, 
 according to Manetho, signified hidden. {Vide Champ. 
 Egypt. Panth.)^ 
 
 The sphinx also possessed the signification of master 
 or lord, principally in the later hieroglyphic texts (Egypt. 
 Gram., p. 27). This signification was given to the 
 sphinx, because in Egypt, as everywhere in the East, the 
 masters and lords of the people, like the gods, were hid- 
 den from their sight. 
 
 The Egyptian people venerated the magisterial priests, 
 because they were permitted to see the king naked? 
 
 Pharaoh delegated his power to .Joseph, and named 
 film interirreter of the sphinx, ^''"t T'.fi, or interpreter (f hid- 
 den things.^ The {)riine minister was the guardiaii and 
 interpreter of the concealed orders of the sovreign, and 
 the secret laws of the empire. 
 
 ' The name of Anion, in Hebrew -jnix, signifies /a?7/i, </w//t; aud 
 CBX or m35 .signifies to hide, tu obscure, to veil (Geseiiiiis) ; tliua the 
 name of Anion indicated truth hidden from tlie people. 
 
 * See (JUiimpoliion-Figeac, Ancient Kgypt, p. 46. 
 
 ^ Revelator occulli. See Targ. Syr. Kimchi (Geaaniufl).
 
 ClO APPLICATION TO 
 
 MOLE. 
 
 The Egyptians, says HorapoUo (II. 63), represent- 
 ed a blind man by a mole, because that animal does not 
 see. 
 
 The blind man, spoken of by Horapollo, is the male- 
 rial and worldly man who does not see heavenly things ; 
 it is the profane who cannot pierce the veil of the mys- 
 teries : such, at least, is the signification given in He- 
 brew to the mole. 
 
 ibn HELD signifies mole, the world, and the duration of 
 life: i^n:a n-^nn lovers of worldly things (Psalm xvii., 14).^ 
 
 When Isaiah says that a man shall cast his idols to the 
 moles and to the bats, he employs a symbol to express 
 that man shall renounce his worldly life, and that wor- 
 ship of terrestrial things represented by the mole (Isaiah 
 ii., 20). 
 
 BULL. 
 
 The bull was, according to Horapollo, the sign of the 
 idea strong, 'powerful, virile (Horap. I., 46). 
 
 On the Egy[»tian monuments, in fact, the bull desig- 
 nates strength and jyower^'^ and ChampoUion admits the 
 signification of husband (Egypt. Gram., p. 282). 
 
 The name of the ox or bull, sq^x or t\^hi< alp or alup 
 is formed from the root ^x al, signifying strong, jwwerjul 
 a hero. It is on this account that the Hebrew name of 
 the bull rii^x, signifies also a chief a 'prince? 
 
 ' There are two homonyms ia this phrase, na signifies man and 
 death ; and "jsn mole and world. 
 
 * Salvolini, Translation of the Obelisk, p. 8. Leemans on Horar 
 polio, p. 263. 
 
 » The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet k has the name of the bull ; 
 
 and according to Gesenius, it was at first an image of the head of that 
 animal.
 
 EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS. 61 
 
 The bull on the obelisk at Paris has the signification 
 given in Hebrew. 
 
 This animal was also the symbol of virility, of the 
 generative power of nature, and as such represented the 
 Nile, the a^ent of Egyptian fructification.^ The bull 
 Onuphis was consecrated to Amon, the generator, and 
 the cow Masre (generatrix of the sun), to the goddess 
 JSeith, mother of the god Phrc (the sun).^ 
 
 In Hebrew the name of the bull "3 pr, feminine "13 
 PRE, is the same word as the verb n-i3, to he fruitful. 
 
 VULTURE. 
 
 HorapoUo (I. 11) says that the vulture was the symbol 
 t>f maternity,^ oi' heaceu, and knoicltdge of the future, oi mer- 
 cy, Minerva, and Juno. 
 
 That author, in commenting on these symbolical at- 
 tributes, adds tliat the vulture designated matcrmd love, 
 becaiise it feeds its young with its own blood ; he says, 
 a little further on, that the heads of the goddesses and 
 Egyptian queens were ornamented with this bird, which 
 is proved in fact by the monuments (Leemans, Adnot., 
 p. 183). 
 
 The vulture represented heaven, because, according to 
 Pliny, no one can reach its nest, built on the highest 
 rocks (Nat. Hist., X. 6; Leemans, 172). Which causes 
 Horapollo to s;iy that this bi,i;d is begotten by the wind. 
 
 It nyxnhoVv/.inlkiKnvlcdgi: of flu: future, because, according 
 to the same author, tlie ancient kings of Egypt sent 
 augurs on the field of battle, and learned who would 
 
 > Jabloiiski, PaiiUi. Apia. — Rolle, Worship of Bacchus, I., 140-145. 
 Horap. II., 43. 
 
 • Chaiiipollioii, Notice du Musee Charles. X.. ]). II. 
 
 * The vulture was .specially con.secrat<<l to Nritli 'riicrmoutiw. the 
 mother ot the gods and worldly beiugs (Cliainp. Notice Mw.sce Charles 
 X., p. 5 aud 41).
 
 62 APPLICi»TION TO EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS. 
 
 be the victor and who the vanquished, by watching the 
 side to which the vulture turned : on the monuments 
 the vulture appears on the head of victorious kings 
 (Leemans, 178 ; Champollion-Figeac, Ancient Egypt, 
 plate xvi.). 
 
 Finally, this bird was attributed to Minerva and to 
 Juno, because, among the Egyptians, Minerva presided 
 in the superior hemisphere and Juno in the inferior 
 hemisphere of the heavens : it would have been absurd, 
 adds Horapollo, to give a masculine representative to 
 the skies which gave birth to the sun, moon, and stars 
 (Horap. I., 11), The Egyptian monuments represent 
 the sky under the figure of a woman bending forward 
 and resting her hands and feet on the earth (Champ. 
 Egypt. Panth,). The monuments also prove that the 
 vulture represented the sky or upper region, the same 
 as upper Egypt (Champ. Egypt. Gram., p. 355 ; Rosetta 
 Inscription, Ime 10). 
 
 The Hebrew confirms the various significations given 
 to the vulture. 
 
 The word cni rhem, the vulture, is thus called says 
 Geseniua, on account of its kindness to its young;* 
 in fact, the same word nm rhem, is the verb to love, 
 having relation particularly to the love of parents for 
 their offspring ; this name also designates maternity and 
 the feminine gender, it signifies the uterus, woman, and 
 young girl. Would it not appear that the Egyptian was 
 commenting on the Hebrew when he says that the vul- 
 ture symbolized materiilty? He adds that this bird rep- 
 resented mercy and heaven ; and all the nobler passions 
 of the soul are represented by the word tin-i rhem, in 
 the plural Qinn-i rhemim ; it signifies the viscera of the 
 heart and breast, and at the same time love, jjiety, mercy, 
 because it is, in fact, on the viscera of the breast that 
 love and piety act (See Gesenius). The heart and breast, 
 seats of the divine afiections, are the two celestial hemi- 
 spheres over which the vulture reigns. 
 
 ' Consult Bochart, Hieroz. lib. XL, Cap. xxv. and xxvi.; and Didymi 
 Taurineiifiis, Litteraturae copticae rudinientum, p. 9-10.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 APPLICATION" TO THE SYMBOLS OF COLOIIS 
 
 In the primitive languages, the names of material ob- 
 jects were used to designate abstract ideas corresponding 
 to them; at a later period, a reaction in languages took 
 [)lace, the names of abstract ideas were given to material 
 oljjects, symbolizing them. 
 
 This action and reaction, manifest among those people 
 who have preserved a knowledge of symbols, was one 
 of the causes of the reniarkable fact, exan)ples of which 
 are furnished by the Hebrew, that synonyms produce 
 the same homonymies, that is to say, that the different 
 denominations of the same physical ol)ject possess the 
 same moral signification ; at one time, tlie abstract idea 
 arising from the symbol, and at another, tiie name of 
 the symbol being derived from one or more abstract 
 expressions. 
 
 It is evident that this fact removes all idea of chance 
 in tfie fbrniation of symbolic significations and all idea 
 of arbitrary interpretation. 
 
 The law which im]>osc(lon the synonyms of a language 
 the same homon} niies, reproduced the same phenomena 
 in languages foreign to each other, and having nothing
 
 64 APPLICATION TO 
 
 common between them but their symbolic origin. It is 
 not surprising tliat we find an explanation of Egyptian 
 symbols in Hebrew, since I have already shown, in the 
 history of symbolic colors, that the name of the color 
 white had the same signification in languages completely 
 foreign to each other. Thus, the Greek word Leukos 
 signifies white, hapjri/, agreetible, gay ; in Latin, Candidus, 
 ivhite, candid, happy ; in the German language we find 
 the words Weiss, white, and Wissen, to know, Ich Weiss, 
 I knoio ; in English White, and Wit, Witty, Wis- 
 dom. 
 
 The languages of Greece and Rome, and those of 
 n.odern people, altered by numerous admixtures and 
 long usage, lost the symbolic character, which we find 
 again in the Hebrew ; the application of this last tongue 
 to Egyptian symbols is a proof of it, confirmed by the 
 names of the colors. 
 
 After the special work published on that subject, it 
 would appear sufficient to establish that the names of 
 the colors reproduce in Hebrew the significations as- 
 signed to them in our former researches ; but it has 
 appeared to us that it might be useful to make a special 
 application of this new means of verification to Egyptian 
 paintings. 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 The significations given in Hebrew to the color white 
 designate purity, catidor, nobility. 
 
 "iin heur, to he white; nimn heurim, the noble, the pure, 
 the white. 
 
 pb LBN, to be white ; to purge one^s self of sm. 
 
 In Egypt the spirits of the dead were clothed in 
 white like the priests ; Phtha, the creator and regenera- 
 tor, is enclosed in a straight white vestment, symbol of 
 the egg from which he was born.^ The egg called to 
 mind the birth of the world and the new birth, or rege- 
 neration of the pwre or the white 
 
 1 Symbolic Colors of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and Modern 
 Times, pp. 50 and 51. 
 
 ' See Paintings of the Funereal Ritual ; and Emeric-David, Vill- 
 ain.
 
 THE SYMBOLS OF COLORS. 65 
 
 RED. 
 
 The names of this color are formed from those of fire, 
 and, in their turn, they form those of love. Thus, "panx 
 ARGUN, j)urj)le, is formed by '^"'^ are, to bum. 
 
 "i^six ARGMN, another name of purple, is also formed 
 of trix ARE, to burn, and of can rgm, which signifies to 
 color, to yaiiit, to conjoin, and i\ friend. 
 
 Red, the most glaring of all colors, was used to de- 
 signate the verbs to color and paint, and, as the image of 
 tire, it designated love, the universal tie of beings. 
 
 The names of man and woman were borrowed from 
 fire and the color red, because the physical, the moral, 
 and religious life of humanity spring from love: i:3"'X 
 AiscH, man, from the root tvx asch, ^rc, n-::x asche, woman 
 andjire. 
 
 ="'x ADM, yuan and the color red. 
 
 On Egyptian monuments all the men have the flesh 
 painted red, and women yellow ; in like manner the 
 gods have the flesh red and g(jddesses yellow ; at 
 least, when these divinities have not a color specially 
 attributed to them. We see, in this fact, a confirmation 
 of the Hebrew signification of man, whose name signifies 
 red; we shall presently show why the feminine gender 
 is designated by yellow. 
 
 YELLOW. 
 
 Among the Egyptians, as among the Hebrews, fire 
 was the symbol of divine life, of human life, and of the 
 life that animates all created beings. 
 
 The inward essence of divinity w.is considered by the 
 Egyptians as male and ft-malc' The hrat ofihejire repre- 
 sented the universal male [)rinciplf. The ligJu ofthcjirc 
 was the female principle. 
 
 Le Pimandre, who, according to Champollion, has 
 preserved to us, at least in part, the doctrines of Egypt,^ 
 reveals this mystery to us. 
 
 * Symbolic Colors, \>. 10"). Consult, Ciiaiii|). K^fypt. I'aiilh., Amon 
 had female Amon. 
 
 « "Tlic hcriiii'lic i)o()k-^. says ('liaiiiiKillioii, iiotwiiliHlandiriLr llio opin- 
 ions hazanli'd hy fcrtain iriodVni critics, contain a mass of jjurcly KKyi>- 
 tian traditions always lonnd to uf^rce witli t!ir niuminiunts." — Egyptian 
 ['anflu'on. Art. 'Ilint/i tnsmC;r/sle.
 
 66 APPLICATION TO 
 
 Thought, says Hermes, is God, male and female ; for 
 it is light and life (Pimandre, cap. I., sec. 9). It is evi- 
 dent that life, in opposition to light, designates the ardor 
 of the fire and the male principle, as light symbolizes the 
 female principle. 
 
 I have elsewhere shown that red was the symbol of 
 the heal of the fire, and yellow, that of light. In like 
 manner, in the Hebrew language, the name of the color 
 red is formed of that of fire, and the name of yellow, or 
 gold color, nn:i tseb, designates an emanation or radia- 
 tion of light, as its proper signification indicates to shine., 
 to be resplendent. 
 
 The necessary consequence of the preceding is, that 
 the male principle, symbolized by ardent fire, must have 
 been represented by red, and the female principle, being 
 identified with the idea of light, must have been painted 
 yellow. Pimandre also explains the singular fact that, 
 on the Egyptian monuments, men have their flesh painted 
 red, and women yellow. 
 
 Champollion-Figeac thinks that difference comes from 
 the women having been of a lighter complexion than the 
 men (Ancient Egypt, p. 29). Under this hypothesis, we 
 should conceive various shades of complexion; but it 
 would be impossible to explain why the men are painted 
 cherry-red, and the women lemon-yellow, as represented by 
 Champollion the younger, in his Egyptian Grammar, p. 
 8, and in his Egyptian Pantheon, and as the monuments 
 lead us to believe. 
 
 The vignette at the head of this chapter represents 
 Athor, the Egyptian Venus, in the solar disc.^ Athor, 
 wife of Phtha, or of fire, is the divinity of beauty and 
 light; her name signifies dwelling of Horus (Plut. De 
 Iside) ; her color is yellow. 
 
 On the Anaglyphs, the solar disc is painted red or 
 yellow, and sometimes red, surrounded by a yellow 
 stripe. On a monument published by Champollion, the 
 rising sun is represented by a yellow disc, and the set- 
 ting sun by a red one, bordered with yellow (Egyptian 
 Pantheon, Re). 
 
 ' Description of Ancient Egypt, vol. lY., plate xxiii., cornice of the 
 freat Temple of Denderali.
 
 THE SYMBOLS OF COLORS. 67 
 
 BLUE. 
 
 The name of this color does not appear to exist in 
 Hebrew, at least, not that I know of ;^ but its significa- 
 tion is preserved to us in that of sapphire. 
 
 The name of sapphire, the same in Hebrew as in 
 French, i'^ed spir or sphir is formed by the root "iso spr 
 or SPHR, signifying to write, to sjjeak, celebrate, priise, a 
 scribe, writing, the book. 
 
 These various significations indicate the Divine voice, 
 the written or spoken word, the wisdom of God, con- 
 tained in the sepher of the Hebrews, or the Bible. 
 
 Sapphire is the color of the Egyptian god, Amou, whose 
 name, preserved in the Bible exactly as in the hiero- 
 glyphic legends, i^^x amun, or T^x amx, signifies, in 
 Hebrew, truth, wisdom, as his color, sapphire, I'so, indi- 
 cates the Divine word, sj)oken or written. 
 
 The chief of the Egyptian Hierogrammats wore on his 
 breast a sapphire, on which was engraved a representa- 
 tion of the goddess of truth and justice, Thme, whose 
 name nn thm, or n-cr. thme, signifies, in Hebrew, jtis- 
 tice and truth (See Art. Ostrich Feather). 
 
 The High Priest of the Hebrews wore on his breast a 
 stone, having the same name ; truth and justice, Qinn 
 
 THMIM. 
 
 HYACINTH. 
 
 The Hebrew name of this color is nbsn thklth,' 
 formed of the root nbon thkle, signifying absolution, jier- 
 fection, hope and constancy, absolutio, perfectio, spes, 
 fiducia (Gesenius) ; r"'b:r thklith, perfection, consumma- 
 tion. 
 
 In the work on symbolic colors, it will be found that 
 the hyacinth was the symbol oi perjection, hope and con- 
 stancij in spiritual combats. 
 
 This color does not upjjcur to have been employed on 
 the Egyptian monuments. 
 
 ' "nttJ Hignirit'S black, and, prubalily, a dark blue. The w-ord nbsn 
 k'signatcH hyacinth, or bluish purple. 
 
 * nbsn liijacinthus (Robertson, The.'^aurus), purpura ccrulca, seri- 
 cutti fiaviuii ((icscnius).
 
 68 APPLICATION TO 
 
 GREEN. 
 
 The Hebrew name of grceii is P'y^ irq, viridis, which 
 also si unities verdure, srreen s^ass. 
 
 This word comes trom the roots in'T' ire, to Jound, to 
 regulate; and of p"i rq, sjmce ; npn rqe, time, expansion of 
 space ; S'^pi i\\Q firmament. 
 
 Thus, the name of green designates the beginning of 
 time, the creation of the world, the birth of everything 
 that exists. This is the meaning given to green in the 
 work on symbolic colors, and which is also constantly 
 given to it on the Egyptian monuments. 
 
 The god Phtha, founder of the world, the creator and 
 upholder, has always green flesh. 
 
 Phtha, says ChampoUion, is the active creativg spirit, 
 the diviiie intelligence, who undertook, in the beginning, the 
 accomplishment of the universe, in all truth, and with supreme 
 art. (Egypt. Panth,, see Jamblich. De Mysteriis, sec. 
 viii., cap. viii.) His flesh, adds the learned Frenchman, 
 is always painted green. 
 
 This divinity holds in his hand a sceptre, surmounted 
 by four cornices, which, in hieroglyphic writing, is the 
 symbol of coordination (Champ. Egypt. Panth.) ; and 
 the root n-ii signifies to institute, instituere, conformare 
 (Gesenius). This sceptre is painted of the four colors 
 attributed to the four elements — the red, denoting fire; 
 blue, air; green, water; and the brown-yellow, or 
 russet, sand or earth. (See Emeric-David, Vulcain, p. 65.) 
 Green was attributed to water, because, in Egyptian 
 cosmogony, water was the primitive agent of creation 
 (Champ. Panth., Cnouphis-NilusJ. The word nii ire, root 
 of the name of green, signifies, to place the foundation, and 
 to sprinkle. 
 
 Phtha is not only the creator of the world, but the 
 regenerator or spiritual creator of man ; under the form 
 of Phtha-Socari, he rules the destinies of souls that 
 abandon earthly bodies, to be distributed in the thirty- 
 two superior regions. His flesh is also green (Champ. 
 Panth., plate xi.). 
 
 The signification of green, arising from its name, and 
 its attribution to the god-creator of the world, it is easy 
 to make its applications to other divinities.
 
 THE SYMBOLS OF COLORS. 69 
 
 The god Tore, or Thru, the world yier sonified, is repre- 
 sented sitting in an ark floating on the greeii waters of 
 cosmogony (Champ. Egypt. Panth.). 
 
 The god Lunvs (the moon), whose flesh is green, is 
 also represented sitting in a bark, or hari., floating in 
 green waters. The god Lunus was, doubtless, a cosmo- 
 graphic divinity, since he appears with the emblems of 
 Phtha, the sceptre of coordination in his hand. Tlie 
 Hebrew name of the moon, tii*^ irhe, is formed of one 
 of the roots of green, irr^ ire, which signifies to found, 
 to regulate, instituere, conformare (Gesenius). 
 
 The same root, n-ii ire, signifies, also, to instruct, and 
 to siirinkie. We have seen, in the article Deic, that this 
 83'^mbol designated the sacred doctrine. Thoth, the god- 
 creator of men, founder of the social state, the god of 
 science, of the sacred doctrine, and the hierogrammals, has 
 his flesh painted green on two monuments copied in 
 Cham[)ollion's Egyptian Pantheon. Thoth pours over 
 the head of the neophyte the waters of purification, 
 symbol of celestial dew. (See the representation of 
 Egyptian baptism, at the commencement of this work.) 
 Nctj)he, mother of the gods, hidij of heaven, as she is 
 called in the legend of that divinity, is often represented 
 in the midst of the tree Persea, pouring the divine 
 beverage over souls; her jlrsh is green. 
 
 Finally, Neith with tlie lion's liead, called Pascht, 
 represents the regenerating principle, under the emblem 
 of vigilance and moral [)ower, the lion; she grasps, with 
 both hands, the great serjtent A})op, enemy of the gods, 
 and symbol of the wicked and imjiioiis. Tiie inscrip- 
 tion accompanying this image oi' the divinity is : Fowrr- 
 ful Pascht, eye of the sun, sovereign ofjiower, directress (fall 
 the gods, chastising the unclean. 
 
 Th«; three diHerent forms under which she is re[)re- 
 sented in (jham[M>llioirs Pantheon, all show her with 
 green jlcsh. 
 
 Pascht, protectress of warriors, represented, according 
 to the French philohjgist, the wisdom thnt gives the 
 victor ij (Pantheon). 
 
 (jreeii was the symbol of victory (Symbolic Colors, p. 
 21'0). In the Funereal Ritual, the serpent pierced by 
 the swords of the gods appears in agree?!, enclosure. 
 Neith is again manifested under the form of the; god
 
 70 APPLICATION TO 
 
 dess Sebcn, tlie Egyptian Lucina, who presided at child- 
 birth ; she is represented, in ChampoUion's Pantheon, 
 under three different forms, and always with green flesh. 
 
 Green symbolized material birth and being spiritually 
 born again. According to a long preserved symbolic 
 tradition, the emerald hastened childbirth (Symbolic Colors, 
 p. 214), and the Egyptian Lucina is of emerald color. 
 
 The symbology of green, of which we have here 
 given but a slight sketch, predominates in the religious 
 monuments of Egypt; the reason is, that it taught the 
 very foundation of the mysteries of initiation ; that is, the 
 birth of the world, and the moral creation of neophytes. 
 
 BROWN-RED, or RUSSET. 
 
 The name of the color russet, yiaii hemuts, signifies 
 the oppressor, the violent, ruber, oppressor, violentus 
 (Rosenmuller, Vocab.). We have seen that the word 
 was formed from nn hem, devouring heat; mn heum, black 
 (see Article Crocodile). Thus this word perfectly corre- 
 sponds to the color red-black, attributed, according to 
 Plutarch and Diodorus, to the spirit of ojyj^ression and vio- 
 lence, to Seth or Typhon (Symbolic Colors, p. 257). The 
 concubine of Typhon, Thoueri, is represented in a paint- 
 ing in ChampoUion's Egyptian Pantheon with her flesh 
 russet-color. 
 
 "I'Tp QDR, brown, russet, pullus subniger, signifies, in 
 addition, filthy, to be in a^iction, and Ishmaelites (Ge- 
 senius). 
 
 BLACK. 
 
 There are two shades of black existing in symbology, 
 one the opposite of red, the other of white (Symbolic 
 Colors, p. 167). 
 
 The first designates ignorance arising from evil and 
 all selfish or hateful passions. The second indicates 
 ignorance of mind, not confirmed by wickedness of heart, 
 and seeking to leave that state of intellectual death. 
 
 Black from red (red-black) is called in Hebrew dti 
 HEUM, as shown in the Article on Rnsset. This njime 
 forms the word n^^n heume, an enclosing wall, because
 
 THE SYMBOLS OF COLORS. 71 
 
 evil and falsity bind man as in a strait place (consult 
 Art. Ass). 
 
 Black from white, in Hebrew nnd schher. black, signi- 
 fies, in addition, the duwn and to seek. This word, the 
 connection of which with the name of white, ^na: tsher, 
 appears evident, designates the expectation of the pro- 
 fane, who seeks and sees shine the first light of dawn. 
 The black Osiris, who appears at the commencement of 
 the Funereal Ritual, represents that state of the soul 
 which, from the midst of darkness surrounding the earth, 
 passes mto the world of light. 
 
 The same indication belongs, in the judgment of the 
 soul, to the two chihlren of Osiris, Anubis and Horus, 
 who weigh the soul in the scales of Amenti. Anubis, 
 the god of the dead and of embalming, is black, and 
 Horus red and yellow (Description of Egypt). 
 
 Thoth Psychopompe, conductor of souls to the pre- 
 sence ot Osiris, has the head of the black Ibis.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ..APPLICATION TO THE STMBOI S OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 The principle of Bible symbols is taught by the words 
 of our Lord to the apostle Simon, who had just acknow- 
 ledged him as the Christ, the Son of the living God : 
 
 Tlwu art Peter, and on this rock will I huild my church 
 (Matthew xvi. 18).i 
 
 Stone is the symbol of faith ; the foundation of tiie 
 Christian faith is the recognition of Jesus as the Christ, 
 the Son of the living God. 
 
 Jesus gave to Simon the surname of Peter (stone) — 
 (Mark iii. 16) — because the divine mission that apostle 
 liad to perform represented, spiritually, what is materially 
 represented by the corner-stone of an edifice. 
 
 It cannot be necessary to say to Christians that the 
 Messiah did not play on the word, but expressed, by a 
 symbol, the functions that Peter would have to represent 
 
 1 The word pierre, in French, signifies both Peter (a proper name) 
 and stone. This latter signification is the one intended to be given by 
 Portal, as will be seen by the context. — Translator.
 
 APPLICATION TO THi: SYMBOLS OF THE BIBLE. 73 
 
 and acconiplish. We must choose between the two 
 interpretations — one trivial and the other sublime ; the 
 first presenting a pun, to speak plainly, the second 
 affording a key to Bible symbols (see the word Stone 
 hereafter). 
 
 The system of homonyms applied to the interpretation 
 of the Bible is not new, though no scholar has made it 
 the object of special study; this principle is so evidently 
 employed by the inspired writers, that Hebraists cannot 
 fail to recognize it in some passages. 
 
 It is more than two hundred years since the celebrated 
 Heinsius, in the extended preface to his Aristarchus sacer, 
 proved that the Gospel of St. John, written in Greek, 
 had been conceived in Syriac, because, in that Gos[)el, 
 the inspired writer alludes to the double meanings of 
 words — double meanings that exist only in Syriac and 
 not in Greek.' The learned commentator makes the 
 same observation, after an examination of the word a^er/;, 
 used by St. Peter in his Second Epistle, chap, i., v. 5.^ 
 
 I take these two citations of Heinsius from Goulianof's 
 work on Egyptian Archaeology (HI., 560). The Russian 
 academician follows them with these reflections: "It 
 was, then, by the discovery of homonymies in the obscure 
 and difficult passages that the celebrated critic became 
 convinced of this important condition of the exegesis, to 
 
 ' Si quisex me quaerat, quanam lingua scripserit evangelista noster ; 
 hellenistica scripsisse dicarn. 8i ()uis, qua conceperit qui scripsit ; sy- 
 riacam f'uisse dicam. Ad earn autem quod est heilenistis proprium, ot 
 voces et sermonein defiexissc grjEcum : quare ad allusiones, nou quie 
 extant, sed quas animo conceperat, cundem esse ; niiiil eniin tLHpu' atqiie 
 ha-i amal Oriens : Statim initio, y.rtl ro fc5e ii' rrj ay.oriq (faivei, aai 
 Tl ay.ozia airo ov xaTt/.a/3ev, dicilur. (^iiod si chaldaifc aiit syriacc 
 etfi-ra.s, suavLssimam allusiouein, quam nee graica, nee hellenistica adniittit 
 lingua, protinus agnosces. Nam ro hzp cahhel est xaraXaajSaitw, hzp 
 celjiU anlein r/ axoria, bap enini Tliarguniistis ubscuian. C^uanloiJere 
 uutem hos amaverit evangelista, passim jam ostendimus. 
 (Consult (joulianof, Archeologic (■gyjjtirnnc. flF.. j). TjOO.) 
 " Igitur, ut jam diccbam, alia lingua prinio coiici]iit (piie scribit. alia, 
 quie jam conc-ej)it, lielliMiista exjirimit. I'rimo enim ad originem ipsius 
 liii'/uu; respicit, (|Ua sua exprimit, ant ejus sequilur intcrpreles. I'A 
 quia qure diversis concipi ac scribi solent, non conveniunt ubifpie (nam 
 ul littera; ac Hvllaba;, sic et allusifmes ac paronomasiie. (|uie singulis sunt 
 propri'jc, translundi commode vix possunlj, de liis ipsis ex interprete 
 earum lingua ferri senUmtia ac judicari potest. Utrum, ncmpe, hebraeu 
 aliquid conci'ptum fiierit an syra ; nam in co rpiod eadein scriptum ac 
 conceptum, nulla dillicultas. iUnd.jast bejma.) 
 4
 
 74 APPLICATION TO 
 
 wit: that the autliors of the New Testauieut oi'len em- 
 ployed, not the proper word expressing their idea, but 
 the equivalent of the ShemUic word, of which the honomijm 
 contained that idea, either in Syriac, Chaldaic, or Hebrew 
 Solomon Glassius, in his Philologia Sacra, in the chaptej 
 on Paronomases, cites many examples of homonyms in 
 snpport of the distingnished commentator's discovery, 
 iind says: Quandoque vocurn Aaotj^riois ct allusio in alia 
 lingua quam ea, qva scripsit auctor sa?ictus qu(£renda est^ 
 (Philologia Sacra. Lipsiae, 1713, p. 1996.) 
 
 "And finally," suys Goulianof, " we will cite the in- 
 teresting prefatory dissertation of the learned comment- 
 ator, Michaelis, devoted exclusively to the examination 
 o\' sacred paronomases, in the Old as well as in the New 
 Testament. After having indicated the expressions 
 brought together, or employed in the same phrase on 
 account of their consonance, the author takes up the fact 
 of tacit homonyms, to the examination of which he devotes 
 several paragraphs ; and the reflections with which he 
 accompanies each article, either of these last, or explicit 
 paronomases, sufficiently prove that the learned author 
 far from seeing a play on words in them, on the con- 
 trary, considered them as a class of expressions inti- 
 mately connected with the usages of sacred writing. 
 Such is also tlie opinion of the celebrated Glassius, 
 whom we have just cited ; an opinion in which the 
 commentators will, doubtless, concur, when they become 
 certain that silent homonyms furnish a key to the 
 enigma, and act as spiritual legends to all allegories, all 
 'parables, and all symbolic language; that in the homonyms 
 alone is to be sought an explanation of the mysteries 
 of the Scriptures, whenever the letter presents a diffi- 
 culty in the exegesis ; that, in a word, the tacit homo- 
 nyms constitute the spirit of the Scriptures, and serve as 
 types to the mystic language of the letter, the condi- 
 tional value of which disappears in proportion as their 
 corresponding terms are appreciated." (Goulianof, Arche- 
 ologie egyptienne, tom. III., p. 563.) 
 
 I adopt the principle of the learned Academician of 
 Petersburgh, but am astonished at the deduction he 
 draws, when he says that we should look in vain for 
 these homonyms in the Shemitic dialects (III., p. 569), 
 and pretends to t'X[ilain the figures of the Bible by the
 
 THE SYMBOLS OP THE BIBLE. 75 
 
 Coptic language, which he confounds with the sacred 
 language of Egypt. " It remains for us," says he, " to 
 notice a superficial objection, which would, however, be 
 favorable to the present question. Among the hagio- 
 graphs of the Old Testament, nearly all the prophets 
 had never been in Egypt, and could not have been ac- 
 quainted with the sacred language of that country ; this 
 objection becomes still more positive with regard to the 
 evangelists and apostles. How, then, it will be said, 
 should we conceive the possibility of explaining, by 
 means of the sacred language of Egypt, the words of the 
 prophets, and those of the evangelists and apostles, who 
 had no knowledge of tliat language '? Now, if the use 
 of that language will lead us to an understanding of the 
 spiritual meaning of the Scriptures, this fact will become 
 a demonstration in a measure material to the revelation 
 of the mysteries of the new covenant, and of the inspira- 
 tion of the hagiographs." (Ibid., p. 557.) 
 
 In order to consider the Coptic as containing the 
 spiritual meaning of the Bible, it would, in the first 
 place, be necessary that that language should explain 
 the symbols of Egypt, which we deny in presence of 
 the facts known to science ; it would further be neces- 
 sary, by a comparison of all the passages in the Bible, 
 containing the same word, to show that this word has, 
 in reality, the double meaning assigned to it: now, with 
 Mr. Goulianof's method, this appears impossible to us. 
 
 It is evident to us that, if the prophets concealed 
 their mysteries in the double meaning of words, those 
 words were taken from the language understood by them. 
 It is also clear, that if, without the knowledge even of 
 the prophets themselves. Divine inspiration concealed 
 tiie spiritual meaning under the double meaning of a 
 letter, then, in the Hebrew letter must we find the 
 secret thought of Biblical figures, and not in the Coptic, 
 or vulgar Egyptian, scarcely capable of explaining the 
 symbols of its own country. 
 
 Jjesides, the passage from Clemens Alexandrinus fully 
 proves that the symbols of the Egyptians were like 
 those of the Hebrews. Mr. Goulianof pretends, on the 
 contrary, that the H<;br(;w symbols vv^^n; sitiiilar to those 
 of the Egyj)tiaris ; lie coiistujuently finds himself in 
 0[>po.sition to modern science, and the only passage
 
 76 APPLICATION TO 
 
 from an ancient author competent to explain the ques- 
 tion. 
 
 We in nowise pretend that all the exegetical diffi- 
 culries of the Bible may be removed by the means we 
 offer ; we are not, above all, foolish enough to think 
 that, by this means, we may open the book of life, and 
 break ils seals ; but we simply think that healthy criti- 
 cism, before depriving itself of this method of investiga- 
 tion, should conscientiously study it, and only admit or 
 reject it after submitting it to the proofs of which it is 
 susceptible. 
 
 I will not seek to explain, in this place, how the 
 spiritual meaning may be hidden under the double 
 meaning of a letter; I study and only desire to estab- 
 lish the fact itself 
 
 The symbolic meaning is not always clearly mani- 
 fested in the sacred text. Wherefore, to arrive at the 
 signification of a symbol, it is not sufficient to interpret it 
 as we meet it in a passage from the Bible, but we must 
 reconstruct its signification by considering all its names. 
 Tiie proof of the truth of this rule appears from the fact 
 that the New Testament is partly written in a symbolic 
 manner, as proved by Revelations, the twenty-fourth 
 chapter of Matthew, etc., etc.; and that the Greek is 
 not a symbolic language; the symbols of the Bible 
 must, then, allude to all the Hebrew synonyms answering 
 to the Greek word to be interpreted ; since the Greek is 
 to be translated into Hebrew, there is no greater reason 
 for choosing an expression than its synonym. 
 
 The inspired writer in the Old Testament seems, 
 designedly, to veil his thoughts under words that evi- 
 dently have not the double meaning he attributes to 
 them. If the Psalmist says that tlte righteous man shall 
 Jiourish like the yaJm-tree, fTiS"' I'sna p"'i^, he does not 
 en)ploy the expression en thm, the just man, to compare 
 him to the palm-tree, "i^n thmr, but he expresses this 
 idea by a synonym that does not produce the same 
 homonymy, p^nii tsdiq, the just man. 
 
 It will be understood that, if, in the Bible, a symbol 
 had always been placed in relation with its homonym, 
 the mystery surrounding the sacred text would have 
 been divulged. Like Fabre d'Olivet we need not, 
 therefore, endeavor to explain a Bible phrase by itselt.
 
 THE SYMBOLS OF THE BIBLE. 77 
 
 by scrutinizing the moral sense of each word or its 
 roots, for, by this method, we should arrive at no useful 
 or scientific result. 
 
 The method I recommend for interpreting the Bible, 
 is that I have just applied to Eijyptian symbols; to re- 
 construct, in the first place, the meaning of each symbol 
 by the moral significations of its difl^erent names, and, by 
 its application to various passages of the Bible, ascer- 
 tain that the symbol really possesses such signification. 
 This method, adopted for interpreting the monuments 
 of Egypt, ought to produce the same results in the exf 
 gesis of the sacred book. 
 
 A few words may here be addressed to those Chris- 
 tians who mifi^ht be fearful lest our faith should be in- 
 jured by companionship with Egypt. Science can 
 never injure the Christian religion, they both descend 
 from the source of all truth ; if the system now pre- 
 sented is true, it will furnish new proof of the divine 
 inspiration of the Bible, if false, religion has nothing to 
 fear from it. 
 
 Already, among Protestants, the Rev. Mr. Coquerel 
 ad shown the importance Egyptian studies might have 
 on the exegesis of the Bible: " Of all people," said 
 he, " the Egyptians had the most intercours<i with the 
 Hebrews, from the journey of Abraham (Gen., xii. 10) 
 to the carrying away of Jeremiah, (Jer,, xliii. (».) that 
 is, from the first Patriarch to the fall of Jerusalem. 
 The name of Egypt is the foreign one most fre(pj(nitly 
 met with in the Scriptures ; the distinctive sign of the 
 elect was, perhaps, worn by the Egyptian priesthood ;' 
 Moses was learned in all their wisdom (Acts, vii. 22) ; 
 Solomon marri(!d a daughter of their kings (I. Kings, iii. 
 1); and what adds to the interest of this question is, 
 that Israel was forbidden to hold communication with 
 the neighboring nations ; one people only being except- 
 va] from this interdiction, and that people was the Egyj)- 
 tians (Deut., xxiii. 7). All this leads us to presunu; 
 that the best commentary on .J<!vvish Anticpiities was 
 sculptured on the Pharaonic tem[>les, palaces and obe- 
 lisks ; but those terrible hieroglypliics seemed forever 
 to separate the Jordan and tin; Nile."^ 
 
 ' Vitle Art. Aiit, p. .;.">, circiiiiici^iuii uf tlic IOt(y[)tiiin priosts. 
 
 ' Letter ou Gliiiinpuliioii's lii<.'i'<);^lyplrM: syslciii, considered in its rela
 
 78 APrLICATION TO 
 
 The labor of the Protestant minister was not lost to 
 science. The Abbe Greppo, Vicar-General of Belley, 
 understood its applications, and, seeing the truth, with- 
 out fear openly published it. Collecting the numerous 
 Bible phrases that seemed to have been copied from the 
 monuments of Egypt, he says : " The great number of 
 dates which have been read up to this time in the hiero- 
 glyphic, hieratic or demotic inscriptions of the papy- 
 rus, etc., are always written after the same formula, and 
 in nowise differ from the style in which they are usually 
 expressed in the sacred books : In the fifth year, the fifth 
 day of the month . . . ., by command of the king of the 
 obedient people (the titles, given and surnames of the 
 Prince). Is not this similarity of expression striking? 
 
 " There exist, perhaps, more prominent ones in the 
 titles of honor given to the princes and gods, and col- 
 lected by ChampoUion in his Tableau general. Several 
 of these formulas of public acts detail religious ideas 
 which we should in vain seek for on the monuments of 
 antiquity, whether Greek or Roman, but which pred(? 
 minate in the simple and noble style of the Scriptures 
 Such are those of cherished^ of Amman (Jupiter), entire, 
 similar to dllectus a Domino suo Samuel (Eccle., xlvi. 13), 
 approved of Phtah (Vulcan), tried of Re (the sun), analo- 
 gous expressions to acceptus Deo, probatus Deo, oftep 
 met with in the Scriptures. The lords gods, identical 
 with the exception of being in the plural, with Dominus 
 Deo in the Bible ; great and grand, quality ascribed to 
 Thoth, the Egyptian Mercury, and which reminds us of 
 the saiictus, sanctus, sanctus, which, in our sublime pro- 
 phets, the heavenly choirs are ever singing at the foot 
 of the throne of the Eternal."^ 
 
 I shall not follow Mr. Greppo in other similar resem- 
 blances, these will suffice to show that the Bible and 
 
 tions to the Holy Scriptures, by Coquerel ; Amsterdam. 1825, p. 
 6-7. 
 
 ' It has often been remarked that the pagan antiquities seldom 
 speak of the love due to the Deity. Among the Egyptians, the expres- 
 sions cherished of the gods, loving the gods, are frequently repeated, and 
 seem to indicate more correct ideas of Divinity and the duties imposed 
 by it on man (Note of the Abbe Greppo). 
 
 ^ Essay on the hieroglyphic system of ChampoUion the younger, and 
 its advantages to Scripture criticism, by Greppo Paris, Dondey-Duprf, 
 1829.
 
 THE SYMBOLS OF THE BIBLE. 79 
 
 the Egyptian monuments mutually aid in their interpre- 
 tation, and that the enlightened critic of our day can- 
 not put aside the advantages arising from an attentive 
 examination and comparison of the hieroglyphic monu- 
 ments, and the book and language of the Hebrew pro- 
 phet, of Moses, learned in the wisdom of the Egyptians 
 (Acts, vii. 22). 
 
 I shall not here depend on the resemblance existing 
 between the Hebrew and the Coptic, as shown by Dr. 
 Lowe,^ nor on the more decisive relations which unite 
 the sacred language of the Jews with the sacred lan- 
 guage of the Egyptians ; I will content myself with 
 presenting some examples of the application of our 
 theory to the symbols of the Bible; the greater part 
 of those of the Egyptians, examined in Chapter II., 
 have manifested their application to the Bible, and I 
 only purpose in this place to furnish a new aid to the 
 exegesis and not a treatise on the subject. 
 
 STONE. 
 
 Stone and rock, on account of their hardness and use, 
 became the symbol of a firm and stable foundation. 
 
 In Hebrew the generic name of stones and rocks is px 
 ABX, a word which, according to Gesenius, signifies also, 
 la construct, to build, and which he also identifies with the 
 root t:k amx, an architect, truth, a,nd faith ; thence, ns^sx 
 AMXE, a column, and truth. 
 
 Fortified by the interpretation of one of the most 
 celebrated Hebraists of Germany, we may consider the 
 stone as the symbol o{ faith and truth. 
 
 Christ said to Simon, who iiad just acknowledged him 
 as the Son of the living God : Thou art Peter, and on 
 this rock will I build my church^ (Matthew, xvi. 18). 
 
 Christ teaches the very principle of symbology when 
 naming letter he who representedyaiVA, or the foundation 
 of the Church. 
 
 ' The ori;fin of the E^'-yptiuii hirij^nn^-e proved by the iiiiiilysis of 
 that and the llehrew, by Dr. I.owe ; London, J8.'{7. Consult Didymi 
 riiurinensiH, Litteratiirie coptiea; rudiinentuin ; Tarma;, 1783. 
 
 ' C]3 ruck, KE^a (Jhald., wlience the (Jreek name of I'eter, Ki/fSs, 
 Cephas ; the word ^p rock, also si-jniGes t/ie -sole of the feel, basis of 
 mull
 
 80 APPLICATION TO 
 
 In the Bible, precious stones have particularly the 
 signification of truth; the Revelations of St. John fur- 
 nish numerous examples. 
 
 On Egyptian monuments, precious stones are called 
 hard sto?ies of truth } y^^ «na»-o- (Champ. Egypt. 
 Gram., p. 100). _^ ^^ ^ ^ 
 
 In opposition to tiiis signilicatiuu of truth and faith, 
 there is given to stone, in the Bible and in Egypt, the 
 signification of error and impietij, and among these two 
 peoples it was attributed to the infernal genius, the 
 I'oundation of all falsity.^ 
 
 The name of Seth or Typhon, the principle of evil and 
 error in Egyptian Theogony, is always accompanied by 
 a symbolic sign ; this sign, according to Champollion's 
 Grammar (p. 100), is the stone. Seth ^ H (Champ. 
 Gram., p. 114). x^m \ 
 
 The name of the Egyptian divinity is also set down 
 in the Bible, since the hieroglyphic group gives in He- 
 brew characters the word 'o'jscht, sin, which forms the 
 name of Satan, piiJ schtn. This name Satan signifies in 
 Hebrew tlie adversary, the enermj ; now, one of the Hebrew 
 names of stone has the additional signification of the ad- 
 versary, the enemy, "i^i tsr, lapis, adversarius, hostis (Ge- 
 senius). 
 
 The stone specially consecrated to Seth or Typhon 
 was the hewn stone, and it had, in the language of the 
 monuments, the name of Seth, to the exclusion of all 
 others which are called anr (Champ. Gram., p. 100) 
 Truth was symbolized by the hard stone, and error by 
 the soft one, that may be hewn. 
 
 The particular determinative of the stone Seth was the 
 
 knife placed above the sign representing the stone, 
 
 The Hebrew again explains this group, inexplicable by 
 the Coptic ; the word "is tsr, signifies a stone, an enemy, 
 
 ' For rule of oppositions, see work ou Symbolic Colors, p. 32. 
 
 ' ChampolHon translates this group by calcareous slone ; the word 
 Selh is not in the Coptic ; we must depend on the group itself, which 
 signifies cut, hewn stone, the knife being in the Egyptian grammar the 
 determinative of the ideas of division and separation (Champ. Egypt 
 Gram., p. 384).
 
 THE SYMBOLS OF THE BIBLE. 81 
 
 and a Icivfe^ and forms the word ti:i tsur, to cut^ to hew, 
 and a stone. 
 
 Jehovah says in Exodus: If thou wilt muke me an altar, 
 vhou shall not hiild it of hewn stone ; if thou lift the hiije (or 
 chisel) upon it, thou hast yolhted it (Exod. xx. v. 22 in the 
 Hebrew, 2q in the translations). 
 
 Joshua built an altar of stones, which the chisel had not 
 touched (Joshua, viii. 30, 31). 
 
 The Temple of Jerusalem was built of whole stones, and the 
 sound of axe, hammer, nor anxj tool of iron was not heard 
 during the building (1 Kings, vi. 7, which is the III. of 
 the Vulgate). 
 
 POTTER. 
 
 Isaiah says: O, I^ord, thou art our Father; we are the 
 cldij, and thou our potter ; and we all are the work of 
 thy hand (Is. Ixiv. 8). 
 
 There being no difficulty in understanding this pas- 
 sage, it will be easy to see in it the application of the 
 principle we have cstublished. 
 
 The word employed by Isaiah is i^"' itsr, which sig- 
 nifies a potter, and the creator of the world. 
 
 Job (xvii. 7) calls the members of the human body ■'^:i'^, 
 properly jiotter^s mouldings. 
 
 And the name of man c-ix adm, Adam, is formed of 
 that of clay or red earth n.:-s< adme. 
 
 Thus, the Hebrew language gives, in a positive man- 
 ner, the signification of a symbol or image, about which 
 there can be no misiipprchension. 
 
 pjfrypt here ccjiifirms our systt^m : On fhr bas-rcVufs at 
 l^hddi, says Salvolirii, we see the god Chnouphis, the 
 former, making human limbs in a jiollrr''s null, charged, with 
 cldij (Aiiiilysis of Egyptian texts, p. 24, No. 7G). 
 
 Cham|><)lli()fi gives in his (Jriimm;ir the imiig(! of Knrph 
 Pottir (p. i;^3 and 3|s). We reproduce one of the va- 
 riants t)t that syiiibol. 
 4*
 
 82 APPLICATION TO 
 
 PALM-TREE. 
 
 The palm-tree was the symbol o{ truth, justice, and in- 
 tegrify, since its name i-n thmr, the palm-tree, the falm, 
 is formed of that of on thm, integrity, justice, and truth, 
 
 The Psalmist says : The righteous shall jiourish like the 
 palm-tree. (Ps. xcii. 12, trans, from the Vulgate xci. 
 13). 
 
 In the Apocalypse, the righteous carry palms in their 
 hands (vii. 9). 
 
 When Jesus came to Jerusalem to attend the feast, 
 the Jews took palm-branches and went before him, cry- 
 ing : Blessed be he who comes in the Name of the Lord 
 (John xii. 13). 
 
 HORSE. 
 
 The horse is the symbol of intelligence ; man should 
 govern his mind as the rider guides his horse. 
 
 This results from the Hebrew, since the name of the 
 saddle-horse, ttis prsch, further signifies to explain, to 
 define, to give intelligence (Gesenius, Rosenmiiller). 
 
 The same result is obtained from the Bible, which 
 translates rider by wisdom and horse by understanding, in 
 a passage where, speaking of the Ostrich, it says : God 
 hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her 
 understanding ; what time she lifteth up herself on high, she 
 scorneth the horse and his rider (Job xxxix. 17, 18). 
 
 Ye shall he filled at my table with horses and chariots, says 
 Ezekiel (xxxix. 20). 
 
 Come and gather yourselves together U7ito the supper of the 
 great God, that ye may eat the jicsh of horses and them that 
 sit on them, says the Apocalypse (xix. 17, 18). 
 
 Who does not see here that there can be no question 
 of eating horses, chariots, and riders, but to become filled 
 with a knowledge of divine truth ? the rider represents 
 wisdom which guides the understanding, the chariot 
 indicates religious doctrine. 
 
 The understanding of man, not kept within bounds 
 by wisdom, is designated in the following passages: 
 
 The Lord delighteth not in the strength of the horse (Ps 
 cxlvii. 10).
 
 THE SYMBOLS OF THE BIBLE. 83 
 
 An horse is a ixiin thing for safety (Ps. xxxiii. 17). 
 
 The Lord will make Judah as his goodly horse in the 
 ■ attle ; and the riders on horses shall be confounded (Zach. x. 
 3 to 5.) 
 
 Thus the horse represents the understanding of man 
 which is elevated toward God, or is abased in descending 
 toward matter ; this state it is which is specially desig- 
 nated in this passage : 3e ye not as the horse or as the mule, 
 which have no understanding (Ps. xxxii. 9). 
 
 The race-horse, the vigorous courser is called tbn rksch, 
 a word which also signifies to acquire, to approjn-iate, be- 
 cause the mind of man, traversing the field of intelligence, 
 acquires fresh knowledge. 
 
 LAMB. 
 
 In the first chapter of the Gospel of St. John we are 
 taught that the Messiah was the Word, or the word of 
 God; the forerunner seeing Jesus coming towards him, 
 cried out : Behold the Lamb of Qod, which taketh away the 
 sins of the world (John i. 29). 
 
 The name of the lamb i^x amr, (Chald.) is in Hebrew 
 that of the Word or second person of the Trinity. 
 
 The Word was made flesh among us, to take away the 
 sins of the world and to overcome the kingdom of e\^l, 
 and the word tzz kbsch, signifies a lamb, to beget, and to 
 put underfoot (Gesenius). 
 
 SUN AND MOON. 
 
 The sun warming and lighting the body of man was 
 the symbol of Divinity, which inflames the heart and 
 reveals itself to the understanding ; such is the teacliing 
 of the Hebrew language, and the Bible uses it in tliis 
 sense. 
 
 The name of the sun and of light "iii< aur, signifies reve- 
 lation and doctrine (Gesenius). 
 
 The moon, which, according to the Egyptian priests, 
 is lighted by the sun and receives from it her vital ]>owcr,^ be- 
 cauje the symbol of faith which reflects revealed truths; 
 
 ' Plii.sdhf, F'r.Tpar. evangel, lib. Ill.cap.xii. Consult. Champ. PantlieoD 
 egyplien, Art. Pook.
 
 84 APPLICATION TO 
 
 it was on this account that the name of the moon fii"' 
 IRHE, formed the verb sri"' ire, to learn, to teach. 
 
 In Egypt, teaching the truths of the faith, was repre- 
 sented By the dew or rain (Horap, I. 37) ; and the same 
 word nil yb.^ signifies to sprinMc, to throw drops of water. 
 In the representations of Egyptian baptism, the two 
 personages who pour the waters of divine life and puri- 
 ty on tiie head of the neophyte, symbolize the sun and 
 moon, or Horus with the hav^^k's head, and Thoth-Lunus 
 with the head of an Ibis.^ 
 
 And finally, as faith is the foundation of the church, 
 the same verb n-ii signifies to found, to Lay the angular cor- 
 ner-stone (Gesenius). 
 
 We deduce from these observations that the sun is 
 the revelation of the wisdom and love of God, and that 
 the moon is the symbol of faith. Let us apply these 
 significations to a few obscure passages in the Bible. 
 
 At the command of Joshua, the sun stands still on 
 Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon (Joshua, 
 X. 12). I am not about to discuss the question of the 
 miracle, I seek only the hidden meaning of this passage : 
 the sun stopping signifies the presence of divine love, 
 which inflames tlie hearts of men ; the moon stopping 
 designates the presence of faith, that enlightens and for- 
 tifies the mind. Is not this exclamation, taken by Joshua 
 from the book of Jaschar (Jos. x. 13), an invocation to 
 the Divine love to animate the hearts of the combat- 
 ants, and to faith to give strength to his arms? 
 
 A passage from Isaiah proves the truth of this inter- 
 pretation : 
 
 Thy sun shall no more go down, says the prophet, neither 
 shall thy moon witltdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine 
 everlasting light, and the days cf tliy mourning shall he ended. 
 (Isaiah, Ix, 20). 
 
 The sun stopping manifests the presence of God ; in 
 opposition, the sun going down designates the absence 
 of the Deity, as shown by the following passages : And 
 it shall come to 'pass in that day, suith the Lord God, that I 
 will cause the sun to go down at noon (Amos, viii. 9). 
 
 Jeremiah says : She that hath borne seven children, shall 
 give up the ghost, her sun shall go down while it is yet day 
 (Jer. XV. 9). 
 
 ' See Art. Dew.
 
 THE SYMBOLS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 S6 
 
 In the Bible, the sun has sometimes a signification of 
 evil omen, of devourmg heat, Jury, sel/is/mess, which is 
 explained by the word ri^^ heme, the sun, heat of the su?i, 
 ano-er (Gesenius) ; a meaning also found in the name of 
 the crocodile, formed from the root on hem (see Art. 
 Crocodile). 
 
 Job commends himself for not having worshiped 
 the sun and moon (xxxi. 26), that is, for not having be.Mi 
 perverse and selfish, and for not having had faith in li's 
 own wisdom; there is no question of Sabianism in th:g 
 passage, but of the two fundamental principles of mar •? 
 spiritual life, love and intelligence.
 
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