Here we might end. Greek authors in Egypt were many; some were native, some of foreign birth or extraction, but they all belong to a dif ferent world from the ancient Egyptian. With the adaptation of the Greek algypabet to the spelling of the native dialects, tian carne again to the front in Coptic, the language of Christian t. Coptic literature, if such it may be caltgewas almost entirely produced in Egyptian monasteries and intended for edifica tion Let us hope that it served its end in its day. To us the dull, extravagant and fantastic (Acts of the Saints,' of which its original works chiefly consist, are tedious and ridiculous ex cept for the linguist or the Church historian. They certainly display the adjustment of the ancient Egyptian mind to new conditions of life and belief.
Some Modern Texts and Tramdations.— The bulk of the Egyptian literature has been preserved in papyri, nearly all of which are scat tered in the various museums of Europe. Nine papyri out of 10 contain the religious books and rituals which were placed with the mummies in the coffins or in the sepulchral •chambers. The most famous of them is the (Book of the Dead,' a compilation of prayers and magical in cantations mtended to ensure the security of the soul in the other world, and to serve it as a sort of password in the travels it was compelled to undertake before reaching the Hall of Judgment and the Elysium Fields. Several copies of this book have been reproduced in facsimile by Lepsius ((Das Todtenbuch der alten Agypter,> Berlin 1842) and by E. de Rouge ((Rituel funeraire des Anciens Egyptiens,) Paris 1861-64) but the standard edition is that projected by the International Congress of Orientalists in London (1874) and executed in part by Naville in (Das thebanische Todten buch der XVIII bis XX Dynastie' (Berlin 1886). It gives, however, only those chapters which are to be found in the manuscripts of the Theban period. Translations of the whole book exist in English, prepared by Birch (in Bunsen's (Egypt's Place in Universal History,' Vol. V, 1866) and by Le Page-Renouf in (Pro ceedings of the Society of Biblical Archmology.) Rituals proper, that is collections of the cere monies of prayers performed in the temples.and tombs — are very numerous; such are the ritual for the cult of the Theban Amon. The Open ing of the Mouth and the other rites performed on the day of burial have been preserved to .us in the pyramids of the 5th and 6th dynasties and in the private and royal vaults of the The ban cemeteries. The texts in the pyramids have been collected and translated by Maspero and those of the Theban hypogees by Schiaparelh 011 libro dei Funerali degli Antichi Egiziani,' Rome 188(l-90). Books of magic abound, though they are not as numerous as the ritual istic or religious works. Most of them are un published as yet, but the translation of Chabas ('Le papyrus magique Harris,' Chalons-sur Saone 1861) ; Pleyte ((Etude sur un rouleau magique, etc.') and Lefebrure ('Un chapitre de la chronique solaire>) give a sufficient idea of the ways in which Pharaoh's magicians were wont to conjure the demons. That they were sometimes prosecuted as adepts in the black art is proved by the proceedings of a trial for high treason at Thebes during the reign of Rameses HI. Magicians often acted as physicians or surgeons, and no remedy could be properly applied without their help. About 20 treatises
on medicine are known to exist, of which a few have been published (Papyrus medical de Berlin)). Ebers studied and published com ments upon portions of his papyrus which relate to the diseases of the eye. No papyrus treating of astronomy has yet been discovered, but the calendars, zodiacs, astronomical and astrological tables which abound on the walls of temples and tombs at Ombos, Esneh, Edfu, Denderah the Ramesseum, the Memnonium of Abydos and others, furnish a large quantity of material. Three mathematical papyri have been found, one of Roman times and one from the 12th dynasty and one at Thebes. There are several works on philosophy, which was limited to a rendition of moral precepts and aphorisms on the conduct of life. Some are very ancient— the 'Papyrus Prisse> seems to have been writ ten in the 12th dynasty and has been called °the oldest book in the world." Poems and songs are by no means rare in the manuscripts. The remains of two collections of love-songs have been studied by Maspero ( 'Etudes Egyp tiennes,> Vol. 1) and the poem on the battle of Kadesh, in which Rameses II is made to de scribe how he fought against the Hittites, is widely known. There was a whole literature of stories akin to the 'Arabian Nights.' De Rouge discovered the first of them in 1852 and entitled it 'A Tale of Two Brothers' and since then about 20 have been published; the most curious among them are the 'Tale of the Wicked Mariner' (Golenischeff, 'Sur an ancien conte egyptien,) (Leipzig 1881) and the 'Tale of Khonfoui and the Magicians> (Erman, (Der Papyrus Westcor,> Berlin 1891). They have been collected by Maspero in his (Contes populaires de l'ancienne Egypte) (2d ed., Paris 1890). Even fables were current in Egypt which the Greeks attributed to sop; the fable of 'The Lion and the Mouse> (Lauth, 'Their nabel in Agypten,> Munich 1868) and 'Dispute of the Members and the Stomach' (Maspero, op. cit., Vol. 1). Private letters have come down, many of them sealed and unopened, others preserved in anthologies, where teachers of the 19th and 20th dynasties had inserted specimens of de scriptions and poetical epistles, official reports on administrative subjects, as models of ele gant style for the young scribes, their pupils. Several of these have been published by the trustees of the British Museum in the first volume of the 'Select Papyri' (London 1841-44). The Old Egyptian language has been the sub ject of continuous research and there are many excellent grammars but lexicography is not so well advanced. For the constant progress in this field of uncovering the ancient literature of Egypt consult the notes, pamphlets, papers, etc., inserted in the various journals of Europe and America. Consult also 'Transactions and Pro ceedings' of the Society of Biblical Archaeology and 'Memoirs of the Egyptian Exploration Fund' in England; the (Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft) and the 'Zeitschrift fiir Agyptische Sprache and Alterthumskunde,) in Germany; and the Jour nal Asiotique, Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, the Revue Egyptologigue, in France; (Prince) Ibrahim-Hilmy, 'The Literature of Egypt and The Soudan) (2 vols., London 1886-88). See HIEROGLYPHICS.