Page:Letters from New Zealand (Harper).djvu/344

312 speech of the country. This, of course, produced a written language which looks like Greek, but is not so. In the church I saw the Bible and Liturgy; on one side of the open pages it was in Arabic, which all use to-day; on the other side the old language of Egypt in Greek letters, now never used. Looking like Greek, it is mere nonsense, just as an ordinary English book in Greek letters would be. Till within a few years ago this old Coptic writing was regarded, even by experts, as rubbish. Not only was it found in the books used originally in churches, but in numerous manuscripts found in monasteries. Gradually it was discovered that it was the key by which the ancient hieroglyphic script on temple walls and monuments might be read. Here is an instance: In the hieroglyphs Egyptian deities are always represented as holding in the right hand the symbol ☥ which Egyptologists took to mean "Eternal Life." When it was noticed that in all passages of the Bible the word which corresponds to Eternal Life is written in the Greek letters "A n k h," the conclusion was clear that "Ankh" was the sound as spoken of the symbol ☥ Then followed the discovery of many other sounds in the hieroglyphic writing, and the formation of an alphabet, so that now these old inscriptions, which literally cover the temple walls and sides of obelisks, are easily read, and historical records which go back further than any other known history have been brought to light. Egyptian history, according to the best authorities, goes back as far as 5,000 B.C.

Asking the priest in what way the Coptic Church regarded the Pope, the reply was: "As a great Bishop, a Patriarch, but not as the Supreme Head of the Church." I got an excellent photograph of Abu El