But what was the character of this writing that it should be so difficult to interpret? The writing was a picture-writing, with characters or syllables added, more puzzling than the most puzzling rebus that ever appeared. The Greeks, who often visited Egypt, gave the name _Hieroglyphics_ to this Egyptian writing. The word means in the Greek language “sacred sculpture.” Neither the Greeks nor the Romans, even while they ruled Egypt, ever undertook to learn to read this writing. It seemed to them an unknowable secret. Thus gradually the ancient Egyptian language perished. So the knowledge of the reading of the hieroglyphics passed away entirely. For many centuries every attempt to read it failed, and it remained a hopeless mystery. Finally, about fifty years ago, a Frenchman succeeded in lifting the veil. Jean François Champollion (born 1790, died 1832), made this discovery, one of the greatest of the nineteenth century. He showed how the writing was to be read. Now the whole can be read perhaps almost as easily as Greek or Latin, or the Chinese or Burmese languages. Thus was the hidden history brought to light. [Illustration: SONG OF THE THRESHERS.] As specimens of the hieroglyphics, Wilkinson gives the opposite Song of the Threshers to the Oxen. His translation of the lines respectively is as follows: 1. “Thresh for yourselves” (twice repeated). 2. “O oxen.” 3. “Thresh for yourselves” (twice). 4. “Measures for yourselves.” 5. “Measures for your masters.” Another specimen of hieroglyphics is added below. [Illustration: HIEROGLYPHICS.] SOME EGYPTIAN GODS. The Egyptian gods are numbered by the hundreds. It is possible for us to refer to but a few here. The ideas of the gods which prevailed here were grafted on the simple nature-worship which the people brought to Egypt from their earlier home. [Illustration: PASHT, THE CAT-HEADED GOD.] In every part of Egypt two great gods, Isis and Osiris, were worshiped. Isis is the wife of Osiris. Ra the sun-god was the greatest of the gods, he was supposed to be the representative of the Supreme Being. And yet Osiris was the most popular god. Ra was generally represented as a hawk-headed man, and usually with a solar disk upon his head. Ra was generally worshiped in association with some other god, as Amen-Ra, Num-Ra, etc. In many sculptures he is represented as carrying on a constant conflict with the evil. Evil is represented in these conflicts as the great serpent Apap. At Heliopolis were kept two animals sacred to Ra, the black bull and the phœnix. The phœnix was a bird which the Egyptians regarded as the emblem of immortality; a bird which never died, but when it was burned, sprang up again, full-grown, from its ashes, ready to renew its activities. [Illustration: ONE OF THE FORMS OF ISIS.]