the hieroglyphics, as Champollion and Salvolini. Still the difficulty remains, a difficulty which, it is to be hoped, will now be partially overcome by the publication of Dr. Leemans. Educated, as he has been orally by M. Salvolini, and receiving at an early period the Egyptian discovery, then imperfectly known in Europe the protegé of the accurate and industrious Reuvens, with no restriction upon his time, a lithographic and printing press at his command, and every facility for pursuing the study, a taste for the same manifested in his edition of Horapollo, in his account of the royal names in the British and Leyden Museums-the world has a right to expect at his hands that the study will be not merely illustrated but advanced. The only copy hitherto seen is in Dutch, but in the prospectus there was a promise given that it should appear in French. We utter our protest against any scientific works on subjects the fair property of the European literary world appearing in such a form, especially on a study limited to few, and requiring too much research to embarrass valuable time with the jargon of the Netherlands. Private feelings ought to give way to public utility. There is even Latin, if the Gallophobia is still strong in Holland; and one distinguished attaché to Holland, M. Siebold, has already found it necessary to have recourse to a politer tongue. But enough of this: a hint may prove sufficient. As far as the plates themselves are concerned, their accuracy may be relied on. The papyri have been copied by the simplest and most correct process: a transfer tracing lithographic paper has been laid over them, and the texts traced with lithographic ink through them. Those tracings have been transferred to the stone itself, and then retouched. From such impressions the plates are taken they are eighteen in number, and fourteen are occupied with fac-similes, the other four with tabular views of the bilingual groups and the alphabet. Among the bieratico-demotic are two portions of Greek, one apparently an invocation to Osiris, commencing επικαλούμαι σε τον εν κενέω πνευματι δεινον αόρατον παντο κρατορα Θεον θεων φθοροποιον και ερημοποιόν, &c. — I call upon thee by name, thou in the empty air, the dread, the invisible, the Lord of all, the God of gods, the destroyer, the desolator," &c.; for another ritual of the same kind, on the eve of publication, mentions this god as he who makes mankind to love and hate one another, who sows, who blights, &c. The other Greek fragment is an invocation to Typhon or Seth; Typhon being the Greek name of this deity, to which form Seth is the true Egyptian appellation; and Typhon the type to which he was paralleled by the Greeks. In this part are several mystical names, some possibly borrowed from the vernacular or hieroglyphical titles of the deities; others, as nτa, Tuρipan, Greek; a limited number, like law, σabaw, Hebrew; and some, as bouli Tat ordoμ plax, apparently Copt. In another part is one of those extraordinary invented alphabets, similar to such as appear in Von Hammer's translation from the Arabic with the key. Two common figures are drawn in the text, the beetle and eye, with their names, βαχυχ and σιχυχ, whose meaning, if any, is at present unknown. In the duodecimo part will be found some observations exceedingly useful, by Dr. Leemans, and its consultation may be recommended. It will, indeed, go far to assist in a knowledge of the demotic, and supply the want of the grammar of the demotic, which Salvolini intended to have published as an Appendix to the Hieroglyphical and Hieratical Grammar of Champollion, which, it is to be hoped, will appear in its completed form this spring. In connection with this subject, a publication which has recently issued from the manuscript department of the British Museum may be mentioned. It is a transcription of the Greek Papyri of the institution, without any text or comment, except such as is required to illustrate the apparent readings. This naturally forms a pendant to the labours of M. Peyron at Turin, published in the Academy of Sciences there. No doubt can be entertained that they will be amply illustrated here or upon the continent, and it is to be hoped for the national credit that the subject will not be stran gled in its very birth. There is now no impediment with regard to the decyphering of these documents; and though they may not be written in Greek so pure or language so refined as the authors of antiquity, whose works have been studied and commented upon till they are threadbare, the critic who passes over these documents without interest knows little of the intellectual curiosity or knowledge which characterizes his brethren of France and Germany. As they touch upon the same subjects as the demotic, they are most highly important for examination; and it is to be hoped that some one will come forward to translate and analyze them. The only regret that can be expressed is, that the same accuracy which has been expended in transcribing them could not find leisure from official duties to render them more generally useful by translation and exposition. But to the Rev. I. Forshall, the present secretary and former keeper of the MSS., whose zeal and whose research are only equalled by his penetration, the best thanks of the future inquirer must be gratefully offered for the documents thus placed at his disposal; and it is to be earnestly desired that the Museum will not limit its Egyptian publications to the Greek documents only. 1 ART. II.-1. Svenska Folk-Visor från Forntiden, Samlade och utgifne af ER. GUST. GEIJER och ARV. AUG. AFZELIUS. Stockholm, 1 Del. 1814. 2 Del. 1816. 3 Del. 1816. 4 Del. (Musik), 1816. 2. Svenska Fornsånger, en Samling af Kampavisor, Folk-Visor, Lekar, och Dansar, samt Barn- och Vall-Sunger. Utgifne af ADOLF IWAR ARWIDSSON. Stockholm, 1 Del. 1834. 2 Del. 1837. Båda med Musik-bilagor.* It is always with extreme satisfaction that we investigate the contents of volumes like the present. They throw us back at once into a national era, a condition of the popular ranks and a tone of feeling which will never return to us in European life. How fresh, how invigorating are our sensations in mingling once more with the simple habits of the past! The foray, the huntingparty, the pirate expedition, and the battle-field, are continually crossing and intermingling with the peasant's cottage, the flock of the shepherd, and the maiden's amour in the stilly wood. We become familiar with every class, we recognize every type. The chieftain, fierce and gloomy-the young knight," out on adventures"-the eager lover, Burning like a furnace" and the artless village girl, or the proudly beautiful but simply affectionate high-born ladye, become, as it were, of the same household with ourselves. But the effect produced by ballad literature is also of a deeply: moral character. We become penetrated with the simple virtues of a period when they were characteristic of the population; we learn to sympathize with man and woman, because we see them nearer, and more unadorned and undisguised, than ever we did before; and we acknowledge and feel as men deep interest in all modifications of our common nature. When thus transported into the past age of simple manners and still more simple pas sions, the contrast between our own world and that of the minstrel-poet becomes so complete, that we are compelled to admit more or less of its spirit. Stock-jobbing and steam-engines, cant and centralization, railways and radicals, cease, for a time at least, to haunt our imagination, while we affectionately linger over * The old Ballads of Sweden, collected and published by ER. GUST. GEIJER and ARV. AUG. AFZELIUS. The fourth volume consists of old Swedish Melodies. Ancient Swedish Ballads, a Collection of Champion Ballads, Popular Songs, Sport and Dance Rhymes, Shepherd and Nursery Songs, &c. 2 vols. 8vo. Both tomes contain an Appendix of old Melodies. 1 scenes and lands where the one was unknown and the other would have been a crime! Nor is this all. Ballad literature has yet another value: it hands down to us features of bygone centuries and practical illustrations of bygone systems, such as we can find in no other quarter. Like the old Bayeux tapestry, with its bizarre Viking ships, and mailed warriors, and quaint accoutrements, aud particoloured sails, and perpetually changing figures, through which we become in the simplest manner acquainted with the habits and dress, and armour and navigation of the Gallo-Scandinavian adventurers, who, 800 years ago, made conquest of our island, Thus does the popular song reveal facts and feelings, customs and costumes, which are in the highest degree important and interesting:"The king is sitting by his broad board, and is served by knights and swains, who bear round wine and mead. Instead of chairs we find benches covered with cushions, or, as they are called in the ballads, mattresses (bolstrar,* bolsters, long pillows); whence comes the expression sitta på bolstrarna blå,' on the blue cushions seated. Princesses and noble virgins bear crowns of gold and silver; gold rings, precious belts, and gold or silverclasped shoes, are also named as their ornaments. They dwell in the highest rooms, separate from the men, and their maidens share their chambers and their bed. From the high bower-stair see they the coming of the stranger-knight, and how he in the castle-yard taketh upon him his fine cloak, may be of precious skins-or discover out at sea the approaching vessel, and recognize by the flags which their own hands have broidered that a lover draweth nigh. The dress of the higher class is adorned with furs of the sable and the martin, and they are distinguished by wearing scarlet, a general name for any finer or more precious cloth (for the ballads call it sometimes red and sometimes green or blue), as opposed to "valmar" (serge, coarse woollens), the clothing of the poorer sort. Both men and women play upon the harp, and affect dice and tables; song and adventure are a pastime loved by all in common, and occasionally the men amuse themselves at their leisure with knightly exercises in the castleyard. Betrothals are first decided between the families, if everything follows its usual course; but love often destroys this order, * Bolsters. A. S. bolster, bolstre; D. bolster, E. bolster, from boll, E. bol (anything round or circular, from bollen. Hinc ball and bowl. To boll, also, is to round by circumvolution) and ster or stre, straw. Thus Chaucer, Knight's tale, Tyrwhitt, 1. 2920 "Of stre first there was laid many a load." A ball or roll of straw. The bower-stair," Hög Lofts bro," was outside the building. and the knight takes his beloved upon his saddle-bow, and gallops off with her to his bridal home. Cars are spoken of as the vehicle of ladies, and from an old Danish ballad,* in which a Danish princess who has arrived in Sweden laments that she must pursue her journey on horseback,† we see that their use did not reach Sweden so early. Violent courtships, club law, and the revenge of blood, &c., which, however, could often be atoned by fines to the avenger, are common." "We cannot help remarking, also, that the popular ballads almost constantly relate to high and noble persons. If kings and knights are not always mentioned, still we perpetually hear of sirs, ladies, and fair damsels titles which, according to old usage, could only be properly employed of the gentry. We will not, it is true, assert that the old songs have preserved any distinction of rank; but in the mean time this will prove that their subjects are taken from the higher and more illustrious classes. Their manners are those chiefly represented, and the liveliness of the colouring necessarily excites the supposition that they spring from thence. On the other side, again, they have been and remain as native among the common people as if they had been born among them. All this leads us back to times when as yet the classes of society had not assumed any mutually inimical contrast to each other, when nobility was as yet the living lustre from bright deeds rather than from remote ancestry, and when, therefore, it as yet belonged to the people, and was regarded as the national flower and glory. Such a time we have had; and he only cannot discover it who begins by transplanting into history all the aristocratical and democratical partyideas of a later time.' "Further, we find in the old ballads that there is not only no hate of class, but also no national hate, among the northern peoples. This explains how it is that they are so much in common to the whole north, and this community of sentiment extends itself even to the ancient historical songs."S The old ballad literature also gains materially by nothing in it being forced. Composed in times when there was neither press nor criticism, affectation nor effect-seeking, premature feeling nor * The Danish princess, who was to be the spouse of a Swedish king, says, "Vor jeg i min faders land, Da fink jeg karm och köresvänd; "Were I in my father's land, A car I'd have, and driver grand ; No doubt a not very agreeable way of travelling far, especially in a period when all, both male and female, rode astride! Geijer's Swedish Ballads, vol. i. p. 39. § Ibid. pp. 41, 42. |