Liturgies, etc., which they translated from Greek soon after their conversion to Christianity, are said to be written in “Coptic.” The knowledge of Coptic has never been lost, and a comparatively large sacred literature has always been available for study by scholars. Champollion, quite early in the nineteenth century, realized the great importance of Coptic for the purpose of Egyptian decipherment, and he made himself the greatest Coptic scholar of his time. His knowledge of Coptic was deep and wide, and to this important qualification much of his success is due. Having once obtained a correct value of many alphabetic and syllabic characters, his knowledge of Coptic helped him to deduce the values of others, and to assign meanings to Egyptian words with marvellous accuracy. The method by which the greater part of the Egyptian alphabet was recovered is this: It was assumed correctly that the _cartouche_ always contained a royal name. The only _cartouche_ on the Rosetta Stone was assumed to contain the name Ptolemy. An obelisk brought from Philae about that time contained a hieroglyphic inscription, and a translation of it in Greek, which mentioned two names, Ptolemy and Cleopatra, and one of the _cartouches_ was filled with hieroglyphic characters which were identical with those in the cartouche on the Rosetta Stone. Thus there was good reason to believe that the _cartouche_ on the Rosetta Stone contained the name of Ptolemy written in hieroglyphic characters. Here is the _cartouche_ which was assumed to represent the name =Ptolemaios=, or =Ptolemy=, the hieroglyphics being numbered (A)— =A= 𓍹𓐼𓊪𓐰𓏏𓍯𓃭𓐰𓐝𓇌𓋴𓐽𓍺 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 and here is the _cartouche_ which was assumed to represent the name =Cleopatra= (B)— =B= 𓍹𓐼𓈎𓐰𓃭𓇋𓍯𓊪𓄿𓂧𓐰𓂋𓄿𓏏𓐰𓆇𓐽𓍺 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Now in B, the first sign, 𓈎, must represent =K=; it is not found in A. No. 2 sign, 𓃭, is identical with No. 4 sign in A. This was assumed to be =L=. No. 3 sign, 𓇋, represents a vowel, and doubled, 𓇌, is found in A, No. 6. No. 4 sign, 𓍯, is identical with No. 3 in A, and it must have the value of =O= in both A and B. No. 5 sign, 𓊪, is identical with No. 1 in A, and as A contains the name Ptolemy, the first sign, 𓊪, must be =P=. No. 6 sign, 𓄿, is wanting in A, but its value must be =A=, because it is the same sign as No. 9, which ends the name Kleopatra. No. 7, 𓂧, does not occur in A, but we see it in other _cartouches_ taking the place of 𓏏 the second letter in the name of Ptolemaios, and it must therefore be some kind of =T=. No. 8, 𓂋, we assume is =R=, because it is the last letter but one in the name of Kleopatra. Nos. 10 and 11 signs, 𓏏𓐰𓆇, we find after the names of goddesses; the first of them is =T=; and the second is a “determinative.” We now insert the alphabetic values in the two _cartouches_ and obtain the following results: =A= 𓍹𓐼P𓐰TOL𓐰𓐝𓇌𓋴𓐽𓍺 =B= 𓍹𓐼K𓐰L(?) OPATR(?)A𓏏𓐰𓆇𓐽𓍺