who ascended the throne at the moment of their accession.  From that time to the hour of their death, and beyond it, all that they possessed of ordinary humanity was completely effaced; they were from henceforth only “the sons of Ra,” the Horus, dwelling upon earth, who, during his sojourn here below, renews the blessings of Horus, son of Isis.  Their complex nature was revealed at the outset in the form and arrangement of their names.  Among the Egyptians the choice of a name was not a matter of indifference; not only did men and beasts, but even inanimate objects, require one or more names, and it may be said that no person or thing in the world could attain to complete existence until the name had been conferred.  The most ancient names were often only a short word, which denoted some moral or physical quality, as Titi the Runner, Mini the Lasting, Qonqeni the Crusher, Sondi the Formidable, Uznasit the Flowery-tongued.  They consisted also of short sentences, by which the royal child confessed his faith in the power of the gods, and his participation in the acts of the Sun’s life—­“Khafri,” his rising is Ra; “Men-kauhoru,” the doubles of Horus last for ever; “Usirkeri,” the double of Ra is omnipotent.  Sometimes the sentence is shortened, and the name of the god is understood:  as for instance, “Usirkaf,” his double is omnipotent; “Snofmi,” he has made me good; “Khufiii,” he has protected me, are put for the names “Usirkeri,” “Ptahsnofrui,” “Khnumkhufui,” with the suppression of Ra, Phtah, and Khnurnu.

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The name having once, as it were, taken possession of a man on his entrance into life, never leaves him either in this world or the next; the prince who had been called Unas or Assi at the moment of his birth, retained this name even after death, so long as his mummy existed, and his double was not annihilated.

     {Hieroglyphics indicated by [—­], see the page images in
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When the Egyptians wished to denote that a person or thing was in a certain place, they inserted their names within the picture of the place in question.  Thus the name of Teti is written inside a picture of Teti’s castle, the result being the compound hieroglyph [—­] Again, when the son of a king became king in his turn, they enclose his ordinary name in the long flat-bottomed frame [—­] which we call a cartouche; the elliptical part [—­] of which is a kind of plan of the world, a representation of those regions passed over by Ra in his journey, and over which Pharaoh, because he is a son of Ra, exercises his rule.  When the names of Teti or Snofrui, following the group [——­] which respectively express sovereignty over the two halves of Egypt, the South and the North, the whole expression describing exactly the visible person of Pharaoh during his abode among mortals.  But this first name chosen for the child did not include the whole man; it left without appropriate designation