Between the end of the XXIInd and the beginning of the XXVIth dynasty the scribes, wishing to simplify hieratic still further, constructed from it a purely conventional system of signs from which most of the prominent characteristics of the hieroglyphic, or pictures, that had been preserved in the hieratic characters, disappeared. This new form of writing was called =demotic= (_i.e._, the people’s writing), but it was known among some of the early Egyptologists as =enchorial= (_i.e._, native writing, or writing of the country). On the Rosetta Stone (Egyptian Gallery, No. 960) the visitor will see an example of the =hieroglyphic and demotic= forms of writing placed one above the other, and in the text we find that the hieroglyphic portion is called “the writing of the divine words,” or letters, 𓏟𓈖𓊹𓌃𓏪, and the demotic “the writing of books,” _i.e._, rolls of papyrus, 𓏟𓋔𓈚𓐰𓂝𓇌𓍽. The invention of the art of writing was assigned to the god Thoth, who was the great scribe of the gods, and who is frequently represented holding a writing palette and a reed pen, and the hieroglyphics, or picture signs, were, therefore, called “divine, sacred, or holy.” Hieroglyphics were used for monumental purposes until about the end of the third century A.D., but it is tolerably certain that very few people could read them or understand them. [Illustration: Demotic Writing.] During the Ptolemaïc Period, though =Greek= was the language of the kings and the upper classes of the country, the temples were covered with inscriptions in hieroglyphics, and the Ptolemies and the Romans adopted old Egyptian titles, and had their names transcribed into hieroglyphics and cut in cartouches like the Pharaohs. In the reigns of Euergetes I (B.C. 267 to 222) and Epiphanes (B.C. 205 to 181) the priests promulgated decrees in honour of their kings which were cut on slabs of basalt in the hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek characters, but on the sepulchral tablets of the period the inscriptions are usually in hieroglyphics alone, because the natives throughout the country clung to these characters, which had, from time immemorial, been associated with their religious beliefs and ceremonies. In the Southern Egyptian Gallery, however, are exhibited several tablets which are inscribed in demotic as well as in hieroglyphics, and of these may be noted the tablet of Tut-i-em-ḥetep (No. 1028, Bay 25), who died B.C. 118; the tablet of Khā-em-ḥrȧ (No. 997, Bay 25); and the tablet of Peṭā Bast (No. 1030, Bay 27). In the Roman Period we find that the use of demotic sometimes superseded that of hieroglyphics in public documents, and as an example of this may be mentioned the fine sandstone tablet inscribed, wholly in demotic, with a decree recording the dedication of certain properties to the gods who were worshipped at Karnak (Thebes) in the first century of our era (No. 993, Bay 27). This tablet was found at Karnak, in the