THREE BIRDS, _three spirits_. These birds represent the bennu, or sacred bird of Heliopolis, supposed to be an incarnation of a solar god. Three are depicted to represent respectively the three solar deities, Horus, Ra, Tum. PYLON (=An=) _Heliopolis_. VASE (=n=) complement to (_An_). CIRCLE with CROSS (=nu=) determinative of city An. [Illustration: "With a sound life, hundreds of thousands of festivals of thirty years, very many."] OWL (=em=) _with_. CROSS (=ankh=) _life_. This hieroglyph is the usual symbol of life. It is therefore known as the key of life, and from its shape is called _crux ansata_, "handled cross." It ought to be distinguished from the musical instrument called sistrum, which it somewhat resembles. SCEPTRE (=uas=) _sound_. The sceptre usually stands for power, but power in life is soundness of health. LITTLE MAN (=hefen=) _hundreds of thousands_. This little figure with hands upraised is the usual symbol for an indefinite number, and may be rendered millions, or as above. PALACE (=heb=) _festivals_. _See_ face one. SWALLOW (=ur=) _very_. This symbol generally means great. Here it is an intensive, very. LIZARD (=ast=) _many_. [Illustration: "Making offerings to their Majesties at two seasons of the year, that he might repose by means of them."] OFFERING (=hotep=) _offering_. The three vertical lines indicating plurality may refer both to offering and succeeding hieroglyph. CONE (=hen=) _majesty_. We have called this cone, from its likeness to a fir-cone. TWO CIRCLES (=aten=) _two seasons_. Each is a solar disk, the ordinary symbol of Ra, but here means season, because seasons depend on the sun. SHOOT (=renpa=) _year_. This is a shoot of a palm tree; with one notch it equals year. The following hieroglyphs are obscure, but the highest authorities say that they probably mean, "that he might repose by means of them;" that is, that Thothmes hoped that repose might be brought to his mind from the fact that he made due offerings to his gods at the two appointed seasons. [Illustration] CHAPTER XII. RAMESES II. The lateral columns of hieroglyphics on the London Obelisk are the work of Rameses II., who lived about two centuries after Thothmes III., and ascended the throne about 1300 B.C. Rameses II. was the third king of the XIXth dynasty; and for personal exploits, the magnificence of his works, and the length of his reign, he was not surpassed by any of the kings of ancient Egypt, except by Thothmes III.