s himself in an unknown district,
such is death." Another papyrus, presented by Prisse d'Avennes to the
_Bibliotheque Nationale_, Paris, contains the only complete work of
their primitive wisdom which has come down to us. It was certainly
transcribed before the XVIIIth dynasty, and contains the works of two
classic writers, one of whom is assumed to have lived under the
IIIrd and the other under the Vth dynasty; it is not without reason,
therefore, that it has been called "the oldest book in the world." The
first leaves are wanting, and the portion preserved has, towards
its end, the beginning of a moral treatise attributed to Qaqimni, a
contemporary of Huni. Then followed a work now lost: one of the
ancient possessors of the papyrus having effaced it with the view of
substituting for it another piece, which was never transcribed.

The last fifteen pages are occupied by a kind of pamphlet, which has
had a considerable reputation, under the name of the "Proverbs of
Phtahhotpu."

This Phtahhotpu, a king's son, flourished under Menkauhoru and Assi: his
tomb is still to be seen in the necropolis of Saqqara. He had sufficient
reputation to permit the ascription to him, without violence to
probability, of the editing of a collection of political and moral
maxims which indicate a profound knowledge of the court and of men
generally. It is supposed that he presented himself, in his declining
years, before the Pharaoh Assi, exhibited to him the piteous state to
which old age had reduced him, and asked authority to hand down for the
benefit of posterity the treasures of wisdom which he had stored up in
his long career. The nomarch Phtahhotpu says: "'Sire, my lord, when
age is at that point, and decrepitude has arrived, debility comes and
a second infancy, upon which misery falls heavily every day: the eyes
become smaller, the ears narrower, strength is worn out while the heart
continues to beat; the mouth is silent and speaks no more; the heart
becomes darkened and no longer remembers yesterday; the bones become
painful, everything which was good becomes bad, taste vanishes entirely;
old age renders a man miserable in every respect, for his nostrils close
up, and he breathes no longer, whether he rises up or sits down. If the
humble servant who is in thy presence receives an order to enter on a
discourse befitting an old man, then I will tell to thee the language
of those who know the history of the past, of those who have heard