Lit. : « his khopesh

2. The so-called Maddi of the Horsiatef inscription. [Cf. p. 236, note 2, du présent volume].

Thotmes III and Ramses II, the pure Egyptian fîrst spoken by the settlers had been sadly corrupted, both by a slow but steady infiltration of alien words and by the natural work of years. So lang as Ethiopia was a part of Egypt, or remained in direct relations with it, the priesthood of Napata kept intact the formulas of classical Theban language : Tahraqa's or Piànkhi's deeds are told in the same phrases and with nearly the same words as Thotmes's or Seti's conquests. But immediately after Nuat-Miamoun'sretreat, when communications between the lands to the north and the lands to the south of the first cataract becanie scarce and difficult enough, to change the province of To-Qens and vice-royalty of Koush into the distant and almost fabulous kingdom of Napata, the literary and grammatical traditions were soon put aside, and ended in being utterly forgotten : new words drawn from the popular stock of words filled up the place of the old unintelligible vocables, new idioms superseded the turns and shades of expressions in which the scribes beaux-esprits of Thebes had delighted, hundreds of years before.

The Demotic inscriptions of Candace are mute till now : Nastosenen's and Horsiatef's records are the only monuments of the vernacular Ethiopian known to me. It would be difficult to gather, from two texts only. the éléments for a grammatical oulline of that dialect. I must be content with explaining as well as possible some of the new forms I bave been able to find in the stèle of Nastosenen, leaving to others the care of correcting and completing my work.