EGYPTIAN BEAN, a name sometimes given to the bean-like fruits of the Nelumbium speciosum, the sacred loftus, found in Asia and Africa.

EGYPTIAN BLUE, a brilliant pigment consisting of the hydrated protoxide of copper mixed with a minute quantity of iron.

EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE AND WRITING. To formulate an opinion in regard to the group to which the ancient language of Egypt belonged, it is best to follow step by step the gradual process of interpretation and secondly the translation of the numerous texts existing in inscriptions and papyri. By so doing one is led to the conclusion that the language of old Egypt belonged to the Semitic family, an opinion objected to until quite recently. The first modern studies tending to elucidate the mysterious tongue locked up in the Egyptian hieroglyphics were those of the learned Jesuit Athanasius Kircher (1601-80), but they, like those of other savants of the 17th and 18th centuries, were without result until the discovery of a tablet inscribed in three languages furnished the key to the history of an ancient civilization, whose annals extended over 40 centuries. A French military officer, Captain M. Boussard, found in 1798 or 1799 in the fort of Saint Julien de Rosetta an inscription drawn up by the priests of Egypt gathered at Memphis, in honor of Ptolemy Epiphanes (196 B.C.). The first inscription was carved in hieroglyphics, the second in demotic characters and the third in Greek. The inscriptions were copied and copies sent to several academies. The Rosetta tablet came into the hands of the British in 1801 and now rests in the British Museum. The first Greek translation was that of Du Theil and Weston in 1801-02, and about the same time Akerblad, a Swedish Orientalist connected with the embassy at Paris, deciphered several demotic phrases, identifying the equivalents of the names of Alexander, Alexandria, Ptolemy and others, being guided principally by the position they occupied in the Greek text. Subsequently Thomas Young published in 1819 the result of his labors in this field, formulating some rudiments of an Egyptian vocabulary from the Rosetta Stone and from other monuments. Warburton, Barthelemy, Zoga and others indicated the possibility of the existence of a hieroglyphic alphabet. Finally Champollion the Younger, prepared by his studies of history and philology, brought an almost complete light to bear on the subject, revealing the contents of hieroglyphic writing on many inscriptions. His 'Précis du système hieroglyphique' was followed, after his death in 1832, by the publication of a grammar and dictionary of the Egyptian tongue. Lepsius, Birch, Rouge, Chabas and others continued the work but without success in establishing the grammatical structure of the works on a solid basis. Gaston Maspero and Revillout added considerably to the collection of translation, but the admirable scientific precision of the modern translations was first reached in 1880 when Louis Stern published his Coptic grammar, and when Erman published his in 1902. This last-named work is based on wide study of the linguistic variations during the time that the ancient Egyptian tongue was a living idiom. It shows the changes of different periods and permits that those who study

this old tongue may now do so with as great security as those who undertake the study of Latin or of Greek. The investigations of the German school, which counts illustrious members in England, Denmark, the United States, Italy and France, are published in the annals of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. From the most recent studies it appears that the ancient Egyptian belonged to the Semitic branch. Until recently and because of the biliteral roots of the Coptic, it was supposed that the Egyptian language should be classified with the three sub-families of the Hamite group previous to the formation of the Semitic, of which the triliteral root is characteristic. But it was shown that the biliteral roots of the Coptic had originated from triliteral roots of the early Egyptian and other similarities were shown which prove conclusively that ancient Egyptian belonged to the Semitic branch. The ancient language had four periods: (1) that of the Ancient Empire, employed until some centuries previous to our era; (2) colloquial Egyptian, employed by merchants and in social intercourse, and which existed from the 6th to the 17th or 18th dynasty; (3) the popular tongue from the 18th dynasty to the end of the period of Roman domination, and (4) the language of the country from the propagation of Christianity until it ceased to be spoken three centuries ago, except in the liturgy of the Coptic Christians.

Ancient Egyptian writing had three forms: (1) the Hieroglyphic, the most ancient, employed on inscriptions on temples, tombs, pillars and statues; (2) the Hieratic, the abbreviated form of the former. It was employed by the priests from the 4th to the 16th dynasty; (3) the Demotic or popular form, which began about the end of the 22d dynasty and consisted of conventional signs. The hieroglyphic writing was employed with small variation from the 4th dynasty until the 3d century of our era. The signs were employed in three ways 1st, representing in themselves an object, idea, a word or root; 2d, representing a syllable or part of a word; 3d, limiting the sense of a word already expressed by one or more signs. Phonograms were few, about 100 in all, of which 70 or 80 were in current use. The most important signs are those representing a single letter; in the Old Empire there were 24 of these. Signs representing two letters were about 50, and those which represented three letters were formed by combinations of this and the first group. Ideographic signs were represented by hieroglyphs symbolizing an idea, viz.: V a sceptre signified prince or ruler;

the moon; O the sun; an inclined wall represented the action of falling, etc., etc. Hieroglyphs were written horizontally or perpendicularly, reading in the direction in which the signs figuring birds were faced, which was generally from right to left of the reader, except in cases where the horizontal direction was changed to conform with the sides of a door, pylon, etc. To preserve a symmetrical appearance the scribes were accustomed to group the signs in squared areas and by adopting syllabic notation when the signs hindered such symmetrical disposition. Only the consonants were represented, thus adding materially to the difficulty of interpretation, which

is also complicated by the fantastic_writing of various scribes and their errors. See HIEROGLYPHICS; EGYPTIAN LITERATURE,

EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. The advance that has been made in recent years in the decipherment of the ancient writings of the world enables us to deal in a very matter-of-fact way with the Egyptian inscriptions. Their chief mysteries are solved, their philosophy is almost fathomed, their general nature is understood. The story they have to tell is seldom startling to the modern mind. The world was younger when they were written. The heart of man was given to devious ways then, as now and in the days of Solomon,- that we can affirm full well; but his mind was simpler; apart from knowledge of men and the conduct of affairs, the educated Egyptian had no more subtlety than a modern boy of 15, or an intelligent English rustic of a century ago.

To the Egyptologist by profession the inscriptions have a wonderful charm. The writing itself in its leading form is the most attractive that has ever been seen. Long rows of clever little pictures of things in heaven and earth compose the sentences; every sign is a plaything, every group a pretty puzzle, and at present, almost every phase well understood brings a tiny addition to the sum of the world's knowledge. But these inscriptions, so rich in facts that concern the history of mankind and the progress of civilization, seldom possess any literary charm. If pretentious, as many of them are, they combine bald exaggeration with worn-out simile, in which ideas that may be poetical are heaped together in defiance of art. Such are the priestly laudations of the kings by whose favor the temples prospered. Take, for instance, the dating of a stela erected under Rameses II on the route to the Nubian gold mines. It runs :

On the fourth day of the first month of the season of winter, in the third year of the Majesty of Horus, the Strong Bull, beloved of the Goddess of Truth, lord of the vulture and of the uræus diadems, protecting Egypt and restraining the barbarians, the Golden Horus, rich in years, great in victories, King of Upper Egypt and King of Lower Egypt, Mighty in Truth of Ra, Chosen of Ra, the son of Ra, Rameses Beloved of Amen, granting life for ever and ever, beloved of Amen Ra lord of the "Throne of the Two Lands" in Apt Esut, appearing glorious on the throne of Horus among the living from day to day even as his father Ra; the good god, lord of the South Land, Him of Edfu Horus bright of plumage, the beauteous sparrow-hawk of electrum that hath protected Egypt with his wing, making a shade for men, fortress of strength and of victory; he who came forth terrible from the womb to take to himself his strength, to extend his borders, to whose body color was given of the strength of Mentu; the god Horus and the god Set. There was exultation in heaven on the day of his birth; the gods said, "We have begotten him"; the goddesses said, He came forth from us to rule the kingdom of Ra"; Amen spake, "I am he who have made him, whereby I have set Truth in her place; the earth is established, heaven is well pleased, the gods are satisfied by reason of him.' The Strong Bull against the vile Ethiopians, which uttereth his roaring against the land of the negroes while his hoofs trample the Troglodytes, his horn thrusteth at them; his spirit is mighty in Nubia and the terror of him reacheth to the land of the Kary; his name circulateth in all lands because of the victory which his arms have won; at his name gold cometh forth from the mountain as at the name of his father, the god Horus of the land of Baka; beloved is he in the Lands of the South even as Horus at Meama, the god of the Land of Buhen, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Mighty in Truth of Ra, son of Ra, of his body, Lord of Diadems, Rameses Beloved of Amen, giving life for ever and ever like his father Ra, day by day. [Revised from the German translation of Professor Erman.]

As Professor Erman has pointed out, the courtly scribe was most successful when tak

ing his similes straight from nature, as in the following description, also of Rameses II:—

A victorious lion putting forth its claws while roaring loudly and uttering its voice in the Valley of the Gazelles. A jackal swift of foot seeking what it may find, going round the circuit of the land in one instant, his mighty will seizeth on his enemies like a flame catching the ki-ki plant with the storm behind it, like the strong flame which hath tasted the fire, destroying, until everything that is in it becometh ashes; a storm howling terribly on the sea, its waves like mountains, none can enter it, every one that is in it is engulphed in Duat.

Here and there among the hieroglyphic inscriptions are found memorials of the dead, in which the praises of the deceased are neatly strung together and balanced like beads in a necklace, and passages occur of picturesque narrative worthy to rank as literature of the olden time. We may quote in this connection from the biographical epitaph of Ameny, who was governor of a province in middle Egypt for 25 years during the long reign of Usertesen I (about 2716 B.C.). This inscription not only recounts the achievements of Âmeny and the royal favor which was shown him, but also tells us in detail of the capacity, goodness, charm, discretion and insight by which he attached to himself the love and respect of the whole court, and of the people over whom he ruled and for whose well-being he cared. Ameny says:

I was a professor of favor, abounding in love, a ruler who loved his city. Moreover I passed years as ruler in the Oryx nome. All the works of the house of the King came into my hand. Behold, the superintendent of the gangs of the domains of the herdsmen of the Oryx nome gave me 3,000 bulls of their draught stock. I was praised for it in the house of the King each year of stock-taking. I rendered all their works to the King's house: there were no arrears to me in any of his offices.

The entire Oryx nome served me in numerous attendances. There was not the daughter of a poor man that I wronged, nor a widow that I oppressed. There was not a farmer that I chastised, not a herdsman whom I drove away, not a foreman of five whose men I took away for the works. There was not a pauper around me, there was not a hungry man of my time. When there came years of famine, I arose and ploughed all the fields of the Oryx nome to its boundary south and north, giving life to its inhabitants, making its provisions. There was not a hungry man in it. I gave to the widow as to her that possessed a husband, and I favored not the elder above the younger in all that I Thereafter great rises of the Nile took place, producing wheat and barley, and producing all things abundantly, but I did not exact the arrears of farming.

gave.

Elsewhere in his tomb there are long lists of the virtues of Amenemhat, and from these the following may be selected both on account of picturesqueness of expression and the appreciation of fine character which they display:

Superintendent of all things which heaven gives and earth produces, overseer of horns, hoofs, feathers, and shells. Master of the art of causing writing to speak. Caressing of heart to all people, making to prosper the timid man, hospitable to all, escorting [travelers] up and down the river. Knowing how to aid, arriving at time of need; free of planning evil, without greediness in his body, speaking words of truth. Unique as a mighty hunter, the abode of the heart of the King. Speaking the right when he judges between suitors, clear of speaking fraud, knowing how to proceed in the council of the elders, finding the knot in the skein. Great of favors in the house of the King, contenting the heart on the day of making division, careful of his goings to his equals, gaining reverence on the day of weighing words, beloved of the officials of the palace.

The cursive forms of writing - hieratic from the earliest times, demotic in the latestwere those in which records were committed to papyrus. This material has preserved to us documents of every kind, from letters and ledgers to works of religion and philosophy. To these, again, "literature" is a term rarely

to be applied; yet the tales and poetry occasionally met with on papyri are perhaps the most pleasing of all the productions of the Egyptian scribe.

It must be confessed that the knowledge of writing in Egypt led to a kind of primitive pedantry, and a taste for unnatural and to us childish formality; the free play and naïvete of the story-teller is too often choked, and the art of literary finish was little understood. Simplicity and truth to nature alone gave lasting charm, for though adornment was often attempted, their rude arts of literary embellishment were seldom otherwise than clumsily employed.

A word should be said about the strange condition in which most of the literary texts have come down to us. It is rarely that monumental inscriptions contain serious blunders of orthography; the peculiarities of late archaistic inscriptions which sometimes produce a kind of "dog Egyptian" can hardly be considered as blunders, for the scribe knew what meaning he intended to convey. But it is otherwise with copies of literary works on papyrus. Sometimes these were the productions of schoolboys copying from dictation as an exercise in the writing school, and the blank edges of these papyri are often decorated with essays at executing the more difficult signs. The master of the school would seem not to have cared what nonsense was produced by the misunderstanding of his dictation, so long as the signs were well formed. The composition of new works on the model of the old, and the accurate understanding of the ancient works, were taught in a very different school, and few indeed attained to skill in them. The boys turned out of the writing school would read and write a little; the clever ones would keep accounts, write letters, make out reports as clerks in the government service, and might ultimately acquire considerable proficiency in this kind of work. Apparently men of the official class sometimes amused themselves with puzzling over an ill written copy of some ancient_tale, and with trying to copy portions of it. The work, however, was beyond them; they were attracted by it, they revered the compilations of an elder age and those which were "written by the finger of Thoth himself"; but the science of language was unborn, and there was little or no systematic instruction given in the principles of the ancient grammar and vocabulary. Those who desired to attain eminence in scholarship after they had passed through the writing school had to go to Heliopolis, Hermopolis or wherever the principal university of the time might be, and there sit at the feet of priestly professors; who we fancy were reverenced as demigods, and who in mysterious fashion and with niggardly hand imparted scraps of knowledge to their eager pupils. Those endowed with special talents might after almost lifelong study become proficient in the ancient language. Would that we might one day discover the hoard of rolls of such a copyist and writer!

There must have been a large class of hackcopyists practised in forming characters both uncial and cursive. Sometimes their copies of religious works are models of deft writing, the embellishments of artist and colorist being added to those of the calligrapher; the magnifi

VOL. 10-2

cent rolls of the 'Book of the Dead' in the British Museum and elsewhere are the admiration of all beholders. Such manuscripts satisfy the eye, and apparently neither the multitude in Egypt nor even the priestly royal undertakers questioned their efficacy in the tomb. Yet are they very apples of Sodom to the hieroglyphic scholar, fair without but ashes within. On comparing different copies of the same text, he sees in almost every line omissions, perversions, corruptions, until he turns away baffled and disgusted. Only here and there is the text practically certain, and even then there are probably grammatical blunders in every copy. Nor is it only in the later papyri that these blunders are met with. The hieroglyphic system of writing, especially in its cursive forms, lends itself very readily to perversion by ignorant and inattentive copyists; and even monumental inscriptions, so long as they are mere copies, are usually corrupted. The most ridiculous perversions of all date from the Rameses epoch when the dim past had lost its charm, for the glories of the 18th dynasty were still fresh, while new impulses and foreign influence had broken down adherence to tradition and isolation.

In the 8th century B.C. the new and the old were definitely parted, to the advantage of each. On the one hand the transactions of ordinary life were more easily registered in the cursive demotic script, while on the other the sacred writings were more thoroughly investigated and brought into order by the priests. Hence, in spite of absurdities that had irremediably crept in, the archaistic texts copied in the 26th dynasty are more intelligible than the same class of work on the 19th and 20th dynasties.

In reading translations from Egyptian, it must be remembered that uncertainty still remains 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 guesswork 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. The Egyptologist is now to a great extent himself aware 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 I would have curtailed the area for selection to a few of the simplest stories and historical inscriptions; 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 well rendered.

We may now sketch briefly the history of Egyptian literature, dealing with the subject in periods:

1. The Ancient Kingdom, About 4400 B.C.3000 B.C. 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.) profess 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 B.C.). From the 4th dynasty to the end of the 6th (3100 B.C.) the number of the inscriptions increases; tablets set up to the kings of the 4th dynasty 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 almost complete rituals for the deceased kings. 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 façade of the tomb of Hehrhuf, at Aswan, and recounts the expeditions into Ethiopia and the southern oasis which this resourceful man carried through successfully. In Hehrhuf'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 exceptional skill; 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 uncommon. The funerary inscriptions descriptive 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 containing 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 Shipwrecked Sailor. The productions of this period 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 profession 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 B.C., we have the Maxims of Any,' spoken to his son Khonsu Hetep, numerous 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 inscription 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 B.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 philosophical dialogue between a cat and a jackal and others.

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 different world from the ancient Egyptian. With the adaptation of the Greek alphabet to the spelling of the native dialects, Egyptian came again to the front in Coptic, the language of Christian Egypt. Coptic literature, if such it may be called, was almost entirely produced in Egyptian monasteries and intended for edification 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 except 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 Translations.The bulk of the Egyptian literature has been preserved in papyri, nearly all of which are scattered 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 incantations intended 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 Ägypter, Berlin 1842) and by E. de Rouge (Rituel funéraire 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 Todtenbuch 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 'Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology.' Rituals proper, that is collections of the ceremonies of prayers performed in the temples and tombs are very numerous; such are the ritual for the cult of the Theban Amon. The Opening 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 Theban cemeteries. The texts in the pyramids have been collected and translated by Maspero and those of the Theban hypogees by Schiaparelli (Il libro dei Funerali degli Antichi Egiziani,?.

Rome 1880-90). Books of magic abound, though they are not as numerous as the ritualistic or religious works. Most of them are unpublished as yet, but the translation of Chabas ('Le papyrus magique Harris, Chalons-surSaone 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 III. 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 médical de Berlin'). Ebers studied and published comments 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 written 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 Egyptiennes, Vol. 1) and the poem on the battle of Kadesh, in which Rameses II is made to describe how he fought against the Hittites, is widely known. There was a whole literature of stories akin to the 'Arabian Nights.' De Rougé 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 Égypte (2d ed., Paris 1890). Even fables were current in Egypt which the Greeks attributed to Esop; the fable of "The Lion and the Mouse' (Lauth, Their nabel in Ägypten, 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 descriptions and poetical epistles, official reports on administrative subjects, as models of elegant 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 subject of continuous research and there are many excellent grammars but lexicography is not so well advanced. For the constant progress in

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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 Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology and Memoirs of the Egyptian Exploration Fund' in England; the "Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft' and the 'Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Alterthumskunde,' in Germany; and the Journal Asiatique, Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, the Revue Egyptologique, in France; (Prince) Ibrahim-Hilmy, "The Literature of Egypt and The Soudan' (2 vols., London 1886-88). See HIEROGLYPHICS.

SAMUEL AUGUSTUS BINION,

Author of 'Ancient Egypt or Mizraim.' EGYPTIAN MUSIC. Our knowledge of the music of ancient Egypt is very meagre. We have short accounts of it in Greek authors and we find specimens of their musical instruments and there have survived numerous illustrations of others, together with scenes representing the singing of odes to the gods, or their heroes, funeral dirges, and we know that musicians and dancers formed a part of all entertainments. In general their instruments are of the same character as those of the Hebrews and Assyrians, from which we infer that their music was of the same general type as that of these neighboring civilized peoples. Their first music was merely an accompaniment to the dance, as we find representations of singers clapping their hands in rhythm to the motions of the dance. Vocal music was made up of solos and choruses. Women often sang without musical accompaniment, but it appears that men rarely did so. Many songs have been preserved, one of the oldest being that of the oxen threshing out the corn. The Egyptians had no clear or fixed ideas of harmony and possessed no system of notation although they had many treatises on music. The harp, lyre, flute, trumpet, drum, cymbals and tambourine were their principal instruments. We find notices of the harp prior to 3000 B.C. At first it had but 7 strings increasing gradually to 22. strings were of catgut. It had no pedals and could be played in but one key. The lyre was also a popular instrument of from 6 to 20 strings. Flutes were in use at an early period. About 500 B.C. the te-bouni, a kind of banjo, came into use. It generally had but one string, although some specimens have two or three. A shoulder harp was also in vogue about this time; it was played when resting on the shoulder. It was a medium between the harp and guitar. All these instruments underwent considerable development in the course of time and there were also a number of derived instruments. Both women and men played on these, although certain instruments appear to have been peculiar to each sex. Consult Engel, 'Music of the Ancients' (London 1864); Mathews, 'Popular History of Music' (Chicago 1894); Smith, 'World's Earliest Music' (London 1904).

The

EGYPTIAN RELIGION AND SOCIOLOGY. Religion.- No satisfactory treatment of ancient Egyptian religion has appeared, though the subject was one of the first to awaken interest in modern times. The names