372 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Bull-god, Apis, in excellent preservation, not a single specimen of 

 which is to be found in any European collection ; papyri, in better 

 preservation than any in Europe ; human mummies ; rings, neck- 

 laces, &c. ; and writing tablets of the Greek or Ptolemaic period. 



" The principal papyri are, — 1. A Funeral Papyrus, or Book of the 

 Dead, twenty-two feet long, written in hieroglyphic characters, and per- 

 fect from end to end, not a single character injured or effaced in its en- 

 tire length. 2. A more magnificent papyrus, thirty-six feet in length, 

 written in the hieratic character, and so perfectly preserved, that it 

 has been simply unrolled, without stretching it on paper or cloth. It 

 would be veiy desirable that these splendid documents should be pub- 

 lished, and thus submitted to the examination of the learned world. 

 Lepsius, the great Egyptologist of Berlin, it is well known, published 

 the Turin Papyrus of the Book of the Dead. This was the first 

 Egyptian book ever printed with movable types, and its appearance 

 formed an era in Egyptian studies. It would be honorable to th- 

 scholarship of our country if these papyri — in better preservatir a 

 than that at Turin or any others now known in Europe — could be 

 printed in a similar style here, and so made accessible, like the 

 Lepsian Book of the Dead. 



" Among the rings is the signet ring belonging to Suphis or Cheops, 

 whose name and attributes are beautifully cut in hieroglyphics upon 

 its surface. It is of solid gold, and is stated to weigh about three 

 sovereigns. This is quite unique. Nothing of the kind in the Eu- 

 ropean galleries equals it in rarity and value. Of the minor curiosities 

 of the Museum, one of the most interesting is a rude but spirited 

 drawing, representing a fox presenting to the lion, as king of the 

 beasts, a plucked goose. It is a singular indication of the satirical 

 turn of the old Egyptians, and shows that the story of Reynard's 

 tricks is not wholly a modern invention. 



" But what attracted my chief attention, in the second visit I paid to 

 the Museum, was the tablets. Of these there were five or six, in 

 various degrees of preservation. The keeper of the collection cour- 

 teously allowed me to take them from the glass case, and examine 

 them at my leisure. Most of them are of a small size, oblong in 

 shape, about six inches in length and four in width. They are made 

 of wood, hollowed on one side about a quarter of an inch in depth, 

 leaving a border all round of half an inch in width, like the frame of 

 a small slate. They are inlaid with a thin coating of wax, or some 



