Demotic

IMG:file64.png: The name given to a cursive modification of the hieratic (q.v.) used for the vulgar dialect; it is not found until the XXVth Dynasty. It was introduced about B.C. 900 and was in use until the fourth century A.D. Composed of the same mixture of signs as the hieratic, it is extremely difficult to decipher, owing partly to the similarity of signs which have separate hieratic equivalents, and partly to the fact that the writing is thick and carele . Like its parent the hieratic it reads from right to left. Profe or H. Brugsch has published a demotic grammar, but very little advancement is made in the study of the characters, all the work in it being done by a few men. Nor are the subjects of demotic documents as a rule very interesting, since they consist chiefly of contracts of sale and legal matters; some magical texts and a curious tale being the chief exceptions. (Papyrus of Setna in the Cairo Museum. See trans. by Brugsch, *Rev. Arch.*, Sept., 1867, and by E. H. Griffith.)