The Egyptian Book of the dead by P. Le Page Renouf and Edouard Naville

_still less is it a verb_. It is a demonstrative particle, like the Latin _en_, _ecce_, or the Hebrew הֵו. Nothing is more common than this particle followed only by a proper name, _e.g._, on the funereal figures. There is not the slightest reason for supposing that there is an ellipse of the verb ‘saith.’ The particle is used like the corresponding Latin one under the Scottish picture of Edward I— ‘En rex Edwardus debacchans ut leopardus.’ When I translate ⁂⁂⁂ ⁂⁂⁂, “It is Thoth—who is here,” I do not wish to imply that ⁂⁂ is the verb _to be_, any more than I should in the frequent expression ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ “It is his son who revives his name.” ⁂ is a demonstrative particle and nothing else. Instead of looking out for moods and tenses and paradigms, Egyptologists ought to wake to the consciousness that the Egyptians never rose to the conception of what we mean by a _verb_.