Legal Documents 253
Historical Romances 254
Mathematical Papyri 254

EDITIONS OF EGYPTIAN TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, &c. 256

INDEX 259

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
THE ELYSIAN FIELDS OF THE EGYPTIANS _Frontispiece_

THOTH, THE SCRIBE OF THE GODS 3

THOTH AND AMEN-RA SUCCOURING ISIS 5

EGYPTIAN WRITING PALETTES _To face_ 6

VIGNETTE FROM THE BOOK OF THE DEAD (Chapter XCII) _To face_ 42

HER-HERU AND QUEEN NETCHEMET RECITING A HYMN _To face_ 44

HER-HERU AND QUEEN NETCHEMET STANDING IN THE
HALL OF OSIRIS _To face_ 52

STELE RELATING THE STORY OF THE HEALING OF BENTRESHT 94

STELE ON WHICH IS CUT THE SPEECH OF AMEN-RA 107

A PAGE FROM THE GREAT HARRIS PAPYRUS _To face_ 110

STELE ON WHICH IS CUT THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THAIEMHETEP 150

A PAGE OF THE TALE OF THE TWO BROTHERS _To face_ 196

THE LITERATURE OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS

CHAPTER I

THOTH, THE AUTHOR OF EGYPTIAN LITERATURE.
WRITING MATERIALS, ETC.

The Literature of ancient Egypt is the product of a period of about four
thousand years, and it was written in three kinds of writing, which are
called hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic. In the first of these the
characters were pictures of objects, in the second the forms of the
characters were made as simple as possible so that they might be written
quickly, and in the third many of them lost their picture form
altogether and became mere symbols. Egyptian writing was believed to
have been invented by the god Tehuti, or Thoth, and as this god was
thought to be a form of the mind and intellect and wisdom of the God who
created the heavens and the earth, the picture characters, or
hieroglyphs as they are called, were held to be holy, or divine, or
sacred. Certain religious texts were thoug