186S.J C_io [Lesley. 



NOTES ON SOME OF THE HISTORICAL AND 3IYTH0L0GICAL 

 FEATURES OF THE D'ORBINEY PAPYRUS. 



By J. r. liESLEY. 



Read before the American PJiilosophical Society Nov. 20lJi, 1868. 



This curious relic of the literature of the reign of Ramses II. was 

 purchased by Mrs. D'OrbiuoN' in Italy and submitted to the 

 TicompteDe Rouge in Paris for inspection, w.ho at once recognized 

 its romantic character, and jjuldished an abstract of its contents in 

 the Revue Archixologique. This gave it a high money value, and 

 l)la?ed it be\-ond the convenience of the Museum of the Louvre 

 to secure it. It was bought by the direction of the British Museum, 

 and published in fac simile by that institution. Parts of it only 

 were translated into English ; but many passages were found too 

 obscure for satisfactory translation at that time. Dr. Brugsch 

 essayed a complete translation of it into German in 1864, arid 

 published it in his charming little sketch of travels on the Nile, 

 entitled '^Au^ dein Orient.^'' but without making known his opin- 

 ion of its value as bearing upon tlie complicated mythological 

 s^'stems of Egypt, and also necessaril}^ Avithout noticing the 

 relation of its principal character to one of the royal cartouches 

 on the second tablet of Ab3'dos, still more recently discovered 

 b}'^ M. Diimichen, after the corridors of the palace of Seti I. were 

 exposed to view by the excavations of Mariette Bey. 



Before undertaking to show the connection which this papy- 

 rus seems to establish between an apparently historical king of 

 the Ild d3'nasty and the hero of a romance of the XlXth 

 (an interval of two or three thousand years), I will give an 

 English version of Dr. Brugschjs German translation, condensing 

 somewhat its more pleonastic passages, but preserving its gen- 

 uine Egyptian features. 



The language and style of all the literature of the XVIIIth 

 and XlXth dynasties, thus far discovered, is known to be simple 

 and artless, like that of the early Hebrew Scriptures; even more 

 childlike and primitive than that of the Homeric poems, which 

 they antedate by six or seven centuries. The story before us is 

 as full of feeling as it is fanciful, or, to speak more after occi- 

 dental notions, fantastic. It may be called with almost equal 

 propriety a fairy tale or a nursery tale. Its resemblance to 

 VOL. X. — 3v 



