My prolonged study of the ancient Mexican picture-writings having given me
the habit of regarding each primitive symbol as a possible rebus led me to
look up the phonetic values of the symbols combined with the Ra sign and
to note that some of them were actually mentioned in connection with
Amen-Ra in the texts cited above, namely: the face, the eye, the egg, the
uræus, the disk, the “serpent Mehen.” It was a surprise to find, on simply
referring to the glossaries, that the name for uræus=ara and that eye=ari;
an egg=ar (also sa, se, and suht); face=hra; each word thus containing the
name Ra=god, in simple or inverted form (see fig. 63, 1-4). The natural
inference was that I had obtained an insight into the method devised by
the ingenious Egyptian priesthood, to express, in cryptic form, the name
of the “hidden god.”
[Illustration.]
Figure 63.
Further glimpses of light seemed obtained when I found that, as written by
German Egyptologists, the determinative for divinity, the banner=nutar,
notar, netar, or neter, not only expressed the same sound as the word nut,
but also contained the letters “r” and “a” (5). The disk=atun, aton or
aten might also be regarded as an anagram, being the inverted form of
nutar, minus the last letter (6). The names for wing (7) being tun, ton or
ten, the wing attached to the disk constituted a complementary sign,
duplicating the final syllable. At the same time, as a second name for
wing was meh, or mah (_cf._ mat and its synonym su=feather), there seemed
to be an explanation of the “serpent mehen” applied to Amen-Ra and the
possibility that it signified the “winged serpent,” such as is frequently
depicted in texts published by Brugsch (8). It was obvious that the
uræus=ara and the wing meh, would form an ingenious anagram expressing, by
means of the signs, a-meh-ra, the name Amen-Ra.
The constantly recurring form of the Ra sign, in which the serpent is
represented as gliding around the circle, enclosing the central point of
fixity, naturally suggests the inference that this variant must have been
adopted at a time when the constellation Draco, the “Old serpent,” or
“Nakkasch qodmun,” was circumpolar and was equally familiar, under this
name, to the Egyptian and Euphratean astronomers. This inference seems to
be confirmed by the fact that, in the hymn to Amen-Ra, cited above, the
name Nak is given to “the serpent with knives stuck in his back,” who,
according to the myth, was the demon of night and the enemy of the
sun-god, the ruler of day. The fact that, in the temple of Amen-Ra at
Thebes, a service was recited daily for the destruction of the serpent Nak
by Horus, appears to indicate the growth of the idea of a combat between
light and darkness and the dual forces of nature, which would naturally
tend to create the thought of an antagonism existing not only between the
sexes, but also between the two divisions of Egypt and the separate cults
of the nocturnal heaven (Polaris and the moon) and the diurnal heaven (the
sun).
In the list of festivals, dating from the Ptolemaic period and inscribed
in the temple at Edfu, there are mentioned: “the festival of the end or
point of the triangle,” simultaneous with that of “the serpent Nai or Na,”
immediately followed by “the festivals of the ‘tena’=[aten?], and of the
great serpent Na,” and “of the Ken=the festival of darkness, and of the
red serpent Na” (Brugsch _op. cit._ I, p. 51). Commenting upon the above
names I draw attention to the curious fact that in the above word ken, we
seem to have the inversion of nak, the name of the “night-serpent” and
that na is actually the inversion of the word an, which signifies “he who
turns or winds himself around.” I shall show further on, in astronomical
texts, that this name is actually identified with the pole.
When these facts are borne in mind the full import of the familiar
Egyptian symbol for eternity=tet, becomes clear. It consists of the image
of a mummy, symbolizing fixity, around which a great serpent is winding
itself, conveying the idea of circling motion (fig. 63, 9 and 10). It is
well known that this group symbolized eternity=tet and the sign is always
interpreted as expressing the sound tet. If analyzed more closely,
however, and interpreted as a rebus, it appears to yield a fund of deeper
meaning.
The serpent Na furnishes the word An=the winder or he who moves around.
Linked to one of the names for mummy=sah, the group might be read as
An-sah, a name which invites comparison with Anshar, the Assyrian
pole-star god who was said to shoot arrows in all directions, _i. e._ to
turn around, and the Akkadian title for Ursa Major, Akanna=the Lord of
Heaven. The second name for mummy, given in Mr. Wallis Budge’s Nile, is
tut, the exact word which signifies “to engender,” which explains why
images of the creator should have been made in mummy form. The word tut
directs attention to the name of the god Tehuti=Thoth, “the Measurer,” a
name to be weighed in connection with the fact that time was measured by
the circumpolar constellations. It does not appear impossible that the
word khat=corpse may also have been brought into use in the rebus and
furnished an anagram or allusion to the ak or centre.
The other well-known symbol for eternity, _i. e._ stability, is the column
tet, representing a pillar usually consisting of four or five parts (fig.
63, 11). It appears hitherto to have escaped attention that the Egyptian
for hand being tet, the hand, employed as a rebus, would actually express
the name for eternity and may well have been employed as a secret sign for
the divine centre, eternal stability and the sacred number five,
consisting of the Middle and the Four Quarters, symbolized by the fingers
and thumb (fig. 63, 12). To this must be added the interesting fact that,
in hieratic script, the hand expressed the sound “a” which means “power”
while aa=great, aat=great and mighty, aa=mighty one. To those initiated in
the mysteries of hieroglyphic writing the hand thus clearly constituted a
rebus, expressing the eternal, permanent, stable, great, mighty power, one
yet double and fourfold, the sacred five in one, the Middle and Four
Quarters.(112)
The following is a group of animal and other figures, which are repeated,
with variations of form, combination and position, in the different
zodiacs.
[Illustration.]
Figure 64.
The principal and the phonetic values of their names are figured as
follows: the thigh=uart, khepes or maskhet; the bull, ox or cow=ka, ah,
aua; the hawk=bak, designated as an, kher or heu=Horus; the cynocephalus
ape and phallus=aaani and ka; the lion=mahes; the jackal (anubis) uher or
sabi; the scorpion=tart or serkhet; the crocodile=sebek, also amsuk or
emsuh, and seta; the vase or jar=nu (_cf._ nut); the female
hippopotamus=tebt, shown by Dr. Gensler to have been associated with the
name menat=nurse, she who nurses (see Brugsch I, p. 130).
[Illustration.]
Plate V.
In the Edfu zodiac, the latter, whose name furnishes an anagram of
amen=hidden, is represented with the Ra sign on her head and holds a cord
to which the constellation of Ursa Major is attached. This is figured,
with its seven stars, as the thigh (pl. V, 2), with the head of a bull,
elements which furnish the phonetic values of uart, khepes or maskhet and
aua, ka or ah, to which should be added that the Egyptian mode of saying
“a bull”=ua en ka, literally “one of bull,” the female form being “uat en
ka” (see Wallis Budge, First steps in Egyptian).
After having studied the hymns and invocations to Amen-Ra we are aware,
not only that the “hidden god” is named “the bull,” but that great stress
is laid upon his being “One”=ua, yet double=ka. It therefore appears very
significant to find these words incorporated in the name for Ursa
Major=thigh, uart, and this combined with bull=ua or ka which furnishes
the anagram ak=middle. What is more, the second name for thigh being
khepes, this might form a rebus for the common name for (1) luminary or
star in general=khebs or khabs, literally, lights, lamps, flames, _cf._
seb=star; (2) kheper=life, existence, to come into existence, _cf._
khepdes=uterus, kher khepd=the navel, khepesh=power.
The fact that one title of Amen-Ra was Khepera=the creator, lends
additional interest to the association of his secret sign, the
hippopotamus, with the constellation Ursa Major, which he apparently holds
and guides and which emblematizes life, _i. e._ motion—The thigh=khepes,
scarab=kheper, fish, khepanen, crocodile=seta or sebek, which, inverted,
yields the word khebes=star, and royal sickle=khepes, thus appear to have
been but different modes of expressing the same meaning and the title of
Khepera (fig. 63, 13-16). It can be readily understood why the scarab
beetle, which encloses its egg in a ball of mud and rolls this to a safe
hatching place, became the favorite secret sign for the “hidden god,”
since none but the initiated would see in the beetle, holding the ball of
earth enclosing its egg, the actual rebus of Khepera, the creator,
expressed by the kheper; and the circle or disk, the sign of Ra,
containing the germ of life.
Returning to an examination of the signs for Ursa Major employed by the
Egyptian astronomer scribes, we find, beside the more elaborate form given
by Mr. Wallis Budge (pl. V, 3), the variants (4 and 5) which constantly
recur in the texts published by Brugsch, and which reveal that the thigh,
accompanied by a single star, constituted the essential elements of the
sign. It is one of the curiosities of Egyptian hieroglyphics that the
image of a star may express either seb=star, or the numeral five=tuau.
This being the case, and the word for thigh being either khepes or uart,
it is obvious that the thigh and star yield more than one interpretation
from the rebus point of view, and may either be read as seb khepdes,
seb-uart or tuau-uart—in one case containing the divine title “creator”
and in the second a play upon the name ua=One, the favorite appellation
given to Amen-Ra.
The following star names contained in the Brugsch texts, and which have
avowedly not been satisfactorily identified, up to the present, will speak
for themselves and will be found to be comprehensible and appropriate only
when identified with Polaris: Seb-uati=the lone, single, only, or sole
star (_cf._ title “One” given to Amen-Ra); Seb-seta=the hidden star, in
Greek texts, sebkhes, sebkhe, the sebses, anagrams of khebs, or khepdes
(_cf._ “hidden” god). This star is found pictured in the astronomical
texts by a turtle, the name for which is seta, sita, sit or set; in Greek
texts cit.
To me it seems clear that the turtle constituted a rebus sign for the
“hidden star” and concealed god, and I find that another Egyptian word
could have served equally well for the same purpose, viz., seta=the
vulture. What is more, the following names, mentioned in the astronomical
texts, yield the sound of the first vowel of the words seb=star and
seta=hidden, and attention is drawn to the fact that, as the goose and
egg, for instance, were known under several names, the secrecy of the true
meaning of these sacred symbols was insured: goose=se, ser, sar, seb,
smen, apt, aq; egg=se, sa, ser, sar, ar, suht; nest=ses; pool of water=se;
heron=sent.
A curious double similarity of sound exists between the name for turtle
and one of the names for goose, inasmuch as the turtle=seta is also called
aps, and the goose=se is named apt (fig. 63, 17-18). Another name for
goose being aq or ak, we find that its value as a rebus must have been
supreme, since it so perfectly expressed the word ak=middle. A proof that
its merits were duly appreciated by the ancient scribes, is its constant
and widespread employment in decorative art as a so-called “solar symbol,”
in association with the circle or disk and the swastika. Through its name
se, the goose-symbol likewise expressed the same meaning as the egg and
the first syllable of seta=hidden; perhaps also ne-se-r=flame, the synonym
of khebs=luminary or star (Brugsch). Through its name ak, the goose symbol
became the synonym of all ak or ka words. Finally, through its name apt,
it became related to the whole series of anagrams of ptah and the synonym
of the pair of horns which express ap in hieratic script.
The association of the syllable ap with the bull=uau and ka, is proven by
the name Apis given to the living, sacred bull, under which form the
supreme divinity was worshipped from earliest times, at or before the
building of the pyramids at Memphis. The explanation that, just as sacred
bull was merely a living rebus expressing by the sound of its names, the
words “the one, the double, the middle of the central two-fold one,” or
“divine twain,” fully explains why, in time, the bull itself came to be
chosen, revered and worshipped as the living image of the “hidden god.”
The marks of the sacred calf Apis, described by Herodotus, appear to
become intelligible, when translated as follows and then analyzed: “It is
black (khem or kam) and has a square (ptah) spot of white (hetet) on the
forehead (tehen). On the back (of the head) (makha or at) the figure of an
eagle=vulture (seta). In the tail (peh?) double (ka) hairs (anem). On the
tongue (nes) a beetle (kheper).”
Feeling convinced that Egyptologists could find further phonetic elements
and hidden meaning in the above material, it is with diffidence that I
point out some of the meaning I am able to discern with the simple aid of
“First steps in Egyptian.” Besides being the image of Amen-Ra Polaris, the
one and divine twain, the black (khem) skin (annu) of the sacred bull
appears to contain an allusion to Egypt, known as “khem” and its central
capital Annu, besides that to the nocturnal heaven and its shining city.
The square ptah of white=hetet (_cf._ hetet, and chut=light) appears to
symbolize the quadriform plan of the celestial and terrestrial kingdom and
its position on the head (tep) between the two horns (ap) gains in
significance when it is realized that, in astronomical texts, the square
(designated above as hetet=white) is as frequently pictured between a pair
of horns as the pillar=tet, that both square and pillar appear thus to
have expressed the same sound=tet, which signifies eternity. The bird of
prey=seta on the bull’s back (makha) evidently signified the hidden=seta,
centre, m-akh-a, further significance being lent to the syllable akh by
the fact that it also means “to support,” and that “the support of heaven”
was a divine title contained in the hieratic texts. The double hair=anem,
ka, appears as another mode of expressing the “hidden” ka=double or
ak=centre. The word for tongue (nes) being the reversal of sen=two, the
kheper=life, on the tongue, appears as an allusion to dual principles or
powers of nature. The giving forth and drawing in of breath by the living
Apis bull must doubtlessly have seemed, to the Egyptian priesthood,
emblematical of the giving and taking away of breath of life, by the
creator, Khepera, over whose emblem, on the tongue of the animal, each
breath necessarily passed.
An insight may thus be gained of the method by means of which primitive,
naïve picture-writing could have become more ingenious and intricate
until, as actually stated in the hymns, the name of the supreme divinity
became “hidden from his children in the name Amen” [literally=hidden], and
a “myriad of names, how many are they is not known” had been invented by
the scribes, to designate the King (Hak), “one among gods, in form one,
the lord of eternity, stability and law.”
Before making a cursory examination of the following lists of homonyms of
the names for bull=ah, uau and ka, I must revert to astronomical pictures
and signs and make some statements concerning the hawk-headed human form
found represented in the zodiacs in close association with the image of
Ursa Major, the bull; (see pl. V, 1, from Denderah). The presence of the
hawk=bak in the centre of the polar region, with the bull ka, assumes
significance in connection with the word ak=middle and the name for “the
middle of the heavens,” cited by Sir Norman Lockyer; _i. e._, kabal sami,
and all of these words are particularly interesting when it is remembered
that the Babylonian name for north was akkad, the Akkadian title for Ursa
Major was Akanna, while Ursa Minor was named Kakkabu in Babylonia and
Assyria. The Arabian kaaba is recalled here.
The inscriptions accompanying the zodiacs published by Brugsch (_op. cit._
I, p. 127) designate this hawk-headed personage, who, in each case, holds
either a spear or a plain staff, by the following names, of which I give
Brugsch’s translation, followed by my own commentary. An=he who turns or
winds himself around. In this connection I point out that the name Na,
given to the serpent, is the inversion of an. Kher-an=he who fights and
turns or winds himself around. As kher is likewise the word for ring or
circle (_cf._ Greek kirkos, Latin circus or circulus, Scand. kring), it is
evident that the name Kher-an admits of being interpreted as “he who winds
or turns around in a ring or circle,” kher=the fighter or combatant. At
the same time, the word kher likewise signifies ring or circle; moreover
ker=night and rek=time. Therefore the name Neb-kher, cited by Brugsch
(_op. cit._ I, 176), as one of those given to the god of the city of
At-Nebes, besides signifying, as he says, the “lord of strife or
fighting,” clearly means “the lord of the circle or ring.” This is
undoubtedly one of the most appropriate of names for the god of the pole
star and Ursa Major and is, besides, the Egyptian equivalent for the Hindu
“lord of the wheel,” the Persian “god of the ring,” and the Mexican “lord
of the circle and of the night”=Yaual or Yohual-tecuhtli. The other titles
of the same god recorded by Brugsch are “the flame or light”=Neser, and
“the lord of life”=Neb-ankh.
I merely point out here what I shall discuss more fully later on, that, in
the Egyptian An, “he who turns himself around,” we have the counterpart,
not only of the Assyrian An-shar (fig. 65, 5) who shoots his darts in all
directions, but also of the “North god” of the ancient Mexicans, who,
fully armed is held by one foot, by the sign of the North, to the centre
of the cross, the symbol of the Four Quarters, and like the Akkadian “lord
of heaven,” Akanna, is identified with Ursa Major.
I note, moreover, that, whereas the common name for hawk is bak, that
employed by Brugsch is hru (_cf._ inversion ur=the Egyptian name for cross
symbol) which is sometimes transcribed as hur, her or heru, hor or har=and
translated as Horus or Ra Harmachis. An interesting image of the hawk god
is found in another inscription in the temple of Denderah containing the
group (pl. V, 6) consisting of a single star, the bull and hawk,
transcribed by Brugsch as “Hru-Ka” and translated as “the bull (of) Horus”
(_op. cit._ I, p. 7). Another interesting case of the combination of the
bull and hawk is the hawk with a bull’s head also figured by Brugsch, and
which is obviously a variant of “hru-ka.” A curious instance which seems
to contain a reversal of these syllables is the bull, repeated in inverted
positions, with the cross-sign=ur, a group which might well have been
employed as a rebus expressing the sound ur-ak-ka, a combination which I
shall discuss further on.
The identity of Horus as a form of Polaris is hinted at in the following
inscription in the temple at Denderah (pl. V, 10) which Brugsch
translates: “Ra Horchuti (=hur-chuti) the shining Horus, the ray of light
in the night” ... (_op. cit._ I, p. 16). The “god” is figured in mummy
form, holding the sceptre tam (_cf._ mat=justice, truth) and the sign ankh
(life), with the head of a hawk=bak or hru (_cf._ ur=four, and head=tep or
tepet, also name for “chief”), the head conveying idea of four-fold
chieftainship, surmounted by the horns=ap and circle or disk=ra.
[Illustration.]
Figure 65.
An extremely suggestive astronomical picture (pl. V, 13) contains the
combination of Horus, the An, in the form of the human-headed hawk, with a
serpent Na, the boat (uaa, am or makhen) and the circle enclosing a single
star, duat (_cf._ ua=one). The complete group thus conveys a wealth of
hidden meaning which is perfectly intelligible when interpreted as
pole-star symbolism.
The reader is now invited to take a preliminary look at the columns of
signs included in figs. 66, 67, 68, some of which will be recognized as
primitive pole-star symbols already discussed, and which will respectively
be found to contain homonyms of ua=One and uahi=permanent; ak and
kabal=centre, ka=double, an=he who turns and ankh=life, etc. Special
attention is also drawn to the modes of expressing the syllable am by the
homonyms boy or child, boat and tree (fig. 63, 20-22).
Different combinations of identical phonetic elements are found in the
following groups which prove to be but different ingenious figures
expressing the same sounds, with more or less the same meanings: pl. V,
15, represents the boat, whose phonetic values are given above, with a
flower=ankh, the homonym of life, containing the names an and na, from
which the uræus=ara, is rising. Later on the deeper symbolism of this and
fig. 12, pl. V, will be further discussed. In the latter, instead of the
flower the boat contains the ara and a boy=ah or aah, whose name is the
homonym for great, mighty, powerful, etc. Assuming that the boat expressed
its particular name uaa=ua=one, we thus have a rendering of the
appellation so constantly given to Amen-Ra in the hymns and invocations:
“One, great, powerful, mighty god,” accompanied by a whole series of
secondary meaning and symbolism. In pl. V, 9, the boat containing the bull
or cow, is accompanied by stars which reproduce Ursa Major exactly, minus
one star, the head of the animal occupying the centre of the four stars
forming the inverted square of “the dipper.” In this case the boat seems
to express its name makhen, incorporating ak, the name for the sacred
centre of the sky, which is repeated in the name ka=bull, whose image,
like that of the boat, conveys the allusion to ua=one, by their respective
double names, aua and uaa.
What appears to me to contain the most convincing proof of the identity of
Amen-Ra with Polaris is 11, pl. V, which shows us a boat in which lies a
mummy, above which is a row of seven stars under an oval, containing two
eyes. The oval ring is evidently the image of Amen-Ra, who united in his
person the dual principles of nature symbolized by sun and moon=his “two
eyes.” The symbolism of the boat and mummy has already been sufficiently
discussed to enable the reader to discern its association with the idea of
oneness, of stability and centrality. Further light is thrown upon the
connection of the two eyes with the sacred centre by pl. V, 14, from the
Book of the Dead, where the chosen place of sepulchre for the dead person,
mentioned in the text, is the temple pyramid, the apex of which is
rendered prominent by being painted black and suggestively occupies a
central position between two eyes. After the periods of Greek rule in
Egypt, the point of the pyramid must have been associated with the Greek
words, akra=hill-top and aku=point, which recurs in the Latin name acacia,
by which the thorny tree, originally found in Egypt, is still known. It
can readily be seen how this tree would have been chosen as a symbol of
the ak=middle and it is possible that its name may originally have been
that also given to the olive tree=bak. The inscription on the famous
obelisks erected by queen Hat-shepsut contains a special mention of the
point of the obelisk, as being made of precious material: “two great
obelisks of hard granite of the south, the point of each is of electrum,
the tribute of the best quality of all countries” (Flinders Petrie,
History of Egypt, Vol. II, p. 86).
The many variants of the constellation or star termed “the divine
triangle” or “the triangle of the god” next claim attention. An extremely
interesting variant of this constellation represents a hawk-headed sphinx,
next to the triangle (pl. VI, 1); 2-4 represent the common form expressing
the name Sopedet. As Brugsch informs us, the above name was changed at a
more recent period into Satit (6-8), which he translates as “she who
shoots, the archeress” or “she who causes the Nile to rise.” In these
cases the written name either contains an arrow (6), the pyramid symbol
for earth (7), or a seated figure above whose head is a single star (8). A
rarer form of representing the same constellation is 9 and 10, the group
being transcribed by “Satit Hont Khabsu” which Brugsch translates as
“Sothis, the Queen of the ... stars.” From the feminine terminations
employed in the text it is clear that it is a cow which figures here in
the boat, with a single star between its horns and it appears to me to be
obvious that we have to deal here with the feminine form of Polaris, with
Auset=Isis, closely related to the Assyrian “goddess of battle,” Ishtar,
the female counterpart of Ausar=Osiris, the Assyrian Anshar, or Ashur, the
“god of battle.”
[Illustration.]
Plate VI.
This view is confirmed by further astronomical pictures published by
Brugsch, which appear to me not merely to signify the constellations Orion
and Sirius as Brugsch infers, but to be hieroglyphs intended to be
understood by the initiated only, representing two or more of the forms
under which Amen-Ra was figured. At Edfu (pl. VI, 11) the boat=au, uaa,
and the mummy=sah form a fair rebus for Ausar=Osiris, while the boat
alongside of it contains the cow, a form under which Isis=Hathor was
worshipped in Egypt during centuries. At Denderah (12) there is a cow in
one boat=Isis; and a man in another who holds the sceptre tam, emblematic
of power, and turns his head around, an evident allusion to the action
an=he who turns himself around, or to sah=one who turns away. Between both
is the hawk=bak or Hur-chuti=Horus, standing on the sceptre named aut,
composed of the lotus flower=ankh. A variant of the same group (13) also
symbolizing the “Above, Below and Middle,” and from Denderah, represents
Isis only in the celestial boat and Osiris standing (on earth) holding,
beside the tam, the whip=nekhe khu, emblematic of rule. In 14, a female
figure stands in the boat under the written name Auset=Isis and bears in
her hand the ankh sign and the lotus flower=ankh sceptre. In the second
boat the figure of a boy (ahi) turning (an or sah) his head, holds up the
ankh. In 15, we seem to have an evidence of the ascendancy of Isis
worship, for the boat contains not only the cow, under the name satit=she
who shoots, or the archeress, but also the standing figure of the goddess,
crowned by the disk or circle between two horns.
A striking proof that the knowledge of the true, hidden meaning of the
signs just discussed was regarded by those who possessed it as an evidence
of an advanced stage of initiation in the mysteries of the priesthood, is
furnished by the following text, which accompanies pl. VI, 16:
In the Book of the Dead (Leyden, Papyrus, p. 16), in a chapter entitled:
“Chapter of the knowledge of the eastern spirits, ro en rex biu abti,” the
dead person utters the following words: “I know that eastern mountainous
region of the heaven whose south is at the sea Kharo and the north at the
river of Ro, at the place where the day-god Ra drives around amidst
storm-winds. I am a welcome comrade in the boat and I row without tiring
in the bark of Ra. I know that tree of emerald green brandies amongst
which Ra shows himself when he goes over the layer of clouds of the god
Su. I know that gate out of which Ra issues. I know the meadow of alo,
whose wall is of iron.... _I know the eastern spirits, namely the god
Hur-Chuti, the calf next to this god and the god of the morning_,” the
original text of the latter sentence being: “au-a-rekh-ku-a biu abti
Hur-chuti pu behsu kher nutar pen nutar duaut pu” (Brugsch, _op. cit._, I,
p. 72).
The evasion and caution with which the speaker alludes to his knowledge of
the meaning of the signs, without betraying the latter, sufficiently
indicate the obligation of absolute secrecy which bound him, and it may be
inferred that several of the words he employed were intended to be
misleading to an outsider just as the astronomical pictures, exposed to
public view, were purposely made to seem to relate to the more familiar
sun, moon and constellations, the mind being thus led away from the hidden
but true star-god=Polaris. The circumstance that, on the body of the young
bull in the boat, there are seven dots and above it a single star and that
the hawk-headed seated deity behind it is crowned by the serpent circle or
disk of Amen-Ra, sufficiently enlightens us as to the true, veiled
significance which represents different forms of the “hidden god,” of the
group. A careful analysis of this and of the astronomical images suffices,
however, to disclose the limited scope of the meaning of such groups, each
one being but a different rebus containing the same phonetic elements. Let
us now briefly indicate what appear to have been the essential components
which all images contain and a few of the myriad of ways by which they
were expressed.
_Uahi=permanent, and Ua=One. Represented by_
Fig. 66. 1. An arrow=au (_cf._ abau=to fight), an arm=a, and the numerical
one=ua.
2. The cow=ah, aua, the latter name incorporating the adjective a=mighty,
powerful, etc.