In reading translations from Egyptian, it must be remembered that uncertainty still re mains concerning the meanings of multitudes of words and phrases. Every year witnesses a great advance in accuracy of rendering; but the translation even of an easy text still requires here and there some close and careful guess work to supply the connecting links of passages or words that are thoroughly understood, or the resort to some conventional rendering that has become current for certain ill understood but frequently recurring phrases. Theolo gist is now to a great extent whether the ground on which he is treading is firm or treacherous, and it seems desirable to make a rule of either giving the public only' what can be warranted as sound translation, or else of warning them where accuracy is doubtful. A few years ago such a course would have curtailed the area for selection to a few of the simplest stories and historical in scriptions; but now we can range over almost the whole field of Egyptian writing, and gather from any part of it warranted samples to set before the reading public. The labor, however, involved in producing satisfactory translations for publication, not mere hasty readings which may give something of the sense, is very great; and at present few .texts have been *ell, tend dered.
We may now sketch briefly the hisidiyt. of Egyptian literature, dealing with the subject in periods : 1. The Ancient Kingdom, About 4400 B.C. 3000 The earlier historic period — from the 1st dynasty to the 3d, about 3766 B.C.
—has left no inscriptions to any extent. Some portions of the 'Book of the Dead' (q.v.) pro fess to date from these or earlier times, and probably much of the religious literature is of extremely ancient origin. The first book of (Proverbs' in the Prisse Papyrus is attributed by its writer to the end of the 3d dynasty (about 3766 a.c.). From the 4th dynasty to the end of the 6th (3100 a.c.) the number of t,he inscriptions increases; tablets set up to the kings of the 4th dynasof in memory of warlike raids are found in the peninsula of Sinai, and funerary inscriptions abound. The pyramids raised at the end of the 5th and during the 6th dynasties are found to contain interminable religious inscriptions, forming al most complete rituals for the deceased lungs. Professor Maspero, who has published these texts, states that they ((contain much verbiage, many pious platitudes, many obscure allusions to the affairs of the other world, and among all this rubbish some passages full of movement and wild energy, in which poetical inspiration and religious emotion are still discernible through the veil of mythological expressions.'"
Of the funerary and biographical inscriptions the most remarkable is that of Una, an official of King Mer-en-ra (6th dynasty).
Another, later but hardly less important, is on the facade of the tomb of Hehrhuf, at As wan, and recounts the expeditions into Ethiopia and the southern oasis which this resourceful man carried through successfully. In Hehr huf's later life he delighted a boy king of Egypt by bringing back for him from one of his raids a grotesque dwarf dancer of excep tional slcill; the young Pharaoh sent him a long letter on the subject, which was copied in full on the tomb as an addition to the other records there. It is to the 5th dynasty also that the second collection of 'Proverbs' in the Prisse Papyrus is dated. The 7th and 8th dynasties have left us practically no records of any kind.
2. The Middle Kingdom, 3000-1600 B.C.— The Middle Kingdom from the 9th to the 17th dynasty shows a great literary development. Historical records of some length are not un common. The funerary inscriptions descrip tive of character and achievement are often remarkable.
Many papyri of this period have survived: the Prisse Papyrus of 'Proverbs,' a papyrus discovered by Mr. Flinders Petrie with the (Hymn to Usertesen III,' papyri at Berlin con taining a dialogue between a man and his soul, the (Story of Sanehat> the 'Story of the Sekhti,> and a very remarkable fragment of another story; besides the (Westcar Papyrus of Tales' and at Saint Petersburg the 'Ship wrecked Sailor.) The productions of this pe riod were copied in later times; the royal (Teaching of Amenemhat) and the worldly (Teaching of Dauf) as to the desirability of a scribe's career above any other trade or pro fession exist only in late copies. Portions of the 'Book of the Dead' are found inscribed on tombs and sarcophagi.
3. The New Kingdom, etc, From the New Kingdom, 1600-700 ii.c., we have the (Maxims of Any,' spoken to his son Khonsu Hetep, nu merous hymns to the gods, including that of King Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) to the disc of the sun, and hymns to Amen Ra. Inscrip tions of every kind, historical, mythological and funereal, abound. The historical inscrip tion of Piankhi is of very late date. On papyri are the stories of (The Two Brothers,' of 'The Taking of Joppa,' of the 'Doomed Prince.' From the Saite period (26th dynasty, 160 a.c.) and later, there is little worthy of record in hieroglyphics; the inscriptions follow ancient models. In demotic we have the 'Story of Setna,' a papyrus of moralities, a chronicle somewhat falsified, a harper's song, a philosoph ical dialogue between a cat and a jacical and others.