DEAD, BOOK OF THE. The name given by Lepsins, and since generally applied, to the col lection of magical and religious texts which, according to ancient Egyptian belief, formed a sort of guide and protection for the dead in their wanderings through the Lower World. It was placed in or near the coffin or in the armpits of the mummy. Hundreds of collies exist, some containing only a few chapters. while other rolls are over a hundred feet iu length. Nome of these copies are very elaborately written, and (espe cially in later times) are ornamented with col ored pictures. The Egyptians themselves called the collection the book of 'coming forth in the day-time' (picot cur h (Owl), from the opening words of the first chapter, which promise the soul of the deceased the power of visiting the Upper World. This title does as little justice to the varied contents of the collection as that erroneously proposed by De Rougi• fune rary ritual'). This strange collection is not to be regarded as a handbook of Egyptian theology; its character is chiefly magical, although sonic hymns to the gods are incorporated in it. The individual chapters date from various periods, although most of them seem to have come down from the time of the pyramids; some, perhaps, even from the prehistoric age. A few formed part of the earliest collection of magical fune rary texts inscribed ou the walls inside the royal pyramids of the Sixth Dynasty; but the majority belong to a different eo•pus. \Odell can be seen in process of gradual formation under the Twelfth Dynasty. At that time these texts
were written on the sarcophagi; under the Eigh teenth Dynasty they were written in papyri, although the selection and order of the chapters fluctuated. A fixed canonical form. limited to about. I05 chapters, was established in the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. though nothing is known in regard to the origin or the formation of the canon. Papyri of this late date were the first published. (Consult Lepsius. Das Toy/lei/birch der .tegypter. Leipzig. 1819. republished by Davis. 1894; De Rong6, fn»t'•airc des an• el CM'? Eyyptiens, Paris, 1861-711.) Eventually it beeame evident that all late :\ISS. were very cor rupt, and in 1870 E. Navin- was appointed by the Congress of Orientalists to prepare a critical edition of the text in use from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Dynasty. The Prussian Gov ernment, with characteristic liberality, lent its support to the work. The results of Naville's labor, which appeared in ISS(1, under the title, Das awyptische Todtenhaeh tier 18ten his 20t•n Dynastic, show that even at the period covered In- the learned editor's investigations, the texts were hopelessly corrupt and can only be under stood by tracing them further hack. Many fac similes of MSS.. with pictures have been pub lisped, chiefly by Budge (Papyrus of .1ni, etc.). The hest translation is that of Lepage Renouf (London, 1890) : those of Birch (London, 1867), Pierret (Paris, 1882), and Budge (London, 1898, cheaper edition 1901) are not critical.