1-APVKUS. 



PAPY 



i UM of thi plant WM for the manufacture of pi*r, 

 Uk appears in UM hand* of ecribes on the earuest monumcnU 

 (UpMtM, Denkm.. ii 6. 9. 11.) in square abeeU or king nrolU, uakt. 

 The |oea of manufacture, aa described by Pliny, waa to cut off 

 both oda of Ihe plant, UM portion wed waa neither the outer Inrk nor 

 UM UUMT piUi. bat aaoM twenty layer* or pellicles under the rind 

 triangular .talk, those neareat the centre bring the 

 re separated by needV. Theae were laid aide by 

 a board, and other layer*, philync, were placed at right 

 aacws on them, ao aa to corer them, and the whole cemented with 

 Nue water, or more probably a fine glue. By continuing this process, 

 it waa possiUe to make the piece of any length and breadth requir.-! : 

 and the whole waa pressed, beaten with a hammer, and rubbed with 

 tooth or ahell, it was then pared, smoothed, laid in the sun, bound 

 together and rolled out. The size and quality of this paper differs 

 eonaiderably, the greatest breadth being 1 foot 6 inches, or the leaser 

 cubit ; but aome are not more than 4 inches, while the quality varies 

 from a coarae and stringy to a silky material remarkably fine nud 

 *pMA The length WON, of course, quite arbitrary, the longest 

 pieces, inch aa the hieroglyphics! ritual at Leyden, measuring 60 feet, 

 while other portiooa do not exceed a few inches. The papyrus of the 

 18th dynaety is generally about 13 inches wide, and of a pale brownish- 

 white colour; that of the 19th dynasty measures 9 and 11 inches, 

 and is of a dark colour, those of the 20th are 14;, 11, 8, and 5 

 inches, and are of whiter colour and stouter texture ; in the 21st, 

 the papyrus is S& and 5 inches wide, and of dark colour. Some of the 

 papyri of the subsequent dynasties are 1 foot 6 inches, or 1 foot, or 

 94 inches wide, of whiter colour but coarser texture, and at the time 

 of the 26th dynasty, the material is remarkably fine and white, but 

 nocaainnilljr aa narrow as 6 inches. The demotic contracts under the 

 Ptolemies are written on a yellowish-brown papyrus of the average 

 width of 11 inches, and about 20 long, while the Greek papyri, unde 

 the Ptolemies and Itomans, measure about 124 1 4 inches wide ; the 

 rituals,! foot, 10 inches, 1*4 inche*, and the.e, as well as the Itouiou 

 rituals, from 1 foot to 94 or 4 inches, are of a stout and whiter 

 material, not, however, so fine as those of the 26th dynasty. 



The darknrss of colour is probably owing to the greater age, those of 

 the oldest period being generally the darkest and almost of a sienna 

 colour, the material having carbonised with age, while the later are 

 generally, but not always, white ; but there can be no doubt that the i 

 contact of the rituals with the hot bitumen of the mummies has in 

 many instances rendered the colour darker, the hieratic historical 

 papyri, said to have been found in vases are, however, extremely dark. 

 Papyri are found under various circumstances, but principally in con- 

 nection with the mummies, as in their hands, under their arms, between 

 their legs, or under the bandages stretched all over them like a shroud. 

 They are generally, however, of a cylindrical form rolled upon them- 

 sdTes, the first page, of course, being outwards, and those of letters are 

 sealed with a clay seal. The rituals are often placed in wooden cases, 

 made ill shape of Osiris, or Ptah Socharis Osiris, hidden in niches 

 made for that purpose, or in the hollowed body of the deity, or else in 

 a niche in the pedestal, ao skilfully covered, joined, and painted as to 

 elude detection by the eye. The historical and documentary papyri 

 are said to be found in vases, boxes, and coffins. 



The ink with which the Egyptians wrote on this material was an 

 animal carbon, apparently mixed with oil ; they used for the purpose a 

 long rectangular palette or canon, from 1 ft. 8 to 9 inches long, and 

 from 2 to H feet in width, having two small cells or hollows which 

 held a small Quantity of red and black ink, the pens used were a thin, 

 cylindrical awl fibrous reed, called hul,, the ends of which when split 

 form a kind of natural brush. The writing is according to the nature 

 *> document, the liicroglypliical in vertical lines of thin linear 

 "''o&lypn*. "> hieratic and demotic in broader and thicker cha- 

 racter*, generally about 10 lines to a page of 9 or 11 inches long, and 

 in black and red characters. Compositions of the nature of books, are 

 written with great care and regularity, official documents less so, and 

 nth characters of larger dimensions at the commencement. The 

 ugiotu compositions are ornamented with pictures or vignettes, 

 traced with great delicacy, and sometimes brilliantly coloured with 

 simple colours, and eren gilded. 



Considered as the books and documcnU of ancient Kgypt, the mi.vri 



f> ** importance to the knowledge of the history and 



Thry consist of Hermetic writings, religious and moral 



*s, aril documents, and literary compositions in three kinds of 

 w " Ua &, t * >at * manuscripts in Greek of the highest literary iinport- 

 !J**; .IT T* o(t ""I*"** 1 > extensively found, is the so-called 

 Ml, a copy or abridgment of which in one of the three 

 writings was deposited with every mummy of consequence from the 

 18th dynasty to the Roman epoch. 



Thia Book of Departure from the Day, and entrance into the 

 :- a composition which con be traced as early as the 

 4th dynasty, or the pyramid builders, copies of which, more or less 

 ! IP ^L J * i "" mu " ellrail of Europe, there being probably 



" > >n Europe. One of the copies at 1,1-ydun 

 80 feet, another in the Brituth Museum still more ; but the 

 most complete example is the so-called ritual of Turin, written about the 

 tin* of the Ptolemies, and published by Lepsius in the Todtcnbuch.' 

 -t example .in of the ago of the 16th dynast v, or nbout 



B.C. 1500, with large cursive hieroglyphs written in retrograde lines ; 

 there are several of the age of the 19th dynasty, or about B.C. 1000, and 

 one in the British Museum was made for an officer of the court of Seti I. 

 In the subsequent dynasties the rituals are often abridged, a few of the 

 priiirip.il chanters, chiefly those relating to the heart being given, and 

 generally in the hieratic hand-writing which prevailed in the 26th, or 

 Suite dynasty, which closed B.C. 525, when the hieroglyphs, if used, are 

 smaller, but still neatly written, and the papyrus remarkably white 

 and fine. Under the Ptolemies and Itomans, mere extracts or short 

 papyri containing excerpts of these sacred books were given ; and 

 under the Roman empire, the mummies had the allowance reduced to 

 a single chapter. The rituals are divided into books, tliaa, which are 

 again subdivided into chapters, ;n, and the whole comprised in volumes, 

 yama. The sheets are called tttltt, perhaps the Human sckeda, the 

 pages tali, the pictures, tkher. These vignettes, one of which accom- 

 panies each chapter, are placed above the text, and represent the 

 principal action of the chapter, the subject of which and tl,. 

 mencement, as well as the directions anil especial words in the text are 

 written in red ink, and are called tlchrr tedir, or " rubric." The ritual 

 was an inspired book, and was supposed to have been dictated and 

 written by the god Thoth himself, and the collection of which it was 

 composed assured to the soul a transit through the purgatory and 

 other regions of the dead, the immortality of the future life, and its 

 union with the body, the passage to the future judgment and acquittal, 

 protection against decay and consequent transmigration, and directions 

 for a variety of spells of a magical nature, especially for the preservation 

 of the heart : the most remarkable part of the doctrine is the distinct 

 enunciation of the immortality of the soul at the remote period of 

 B.C. 2000, everywhere spoken of as the acknowledged dogma of Egyp- 

 tian theosophy. 



The first sixteen chapters commence with the invocation of Thoth to 

 Osiris, and contain various prayers, and a formula for the preparation 

 of the sepulchral work or little figures so often found in tin- tomb. 

 The 17th chapter is an esoteric interpretation of the faith the 18th to 

 the 21st is the Crown of Justification, in which Thoth justifies the ( i.-ii i^ 

 before or against different deities, in certain mystical regions. From the 

 22nd to the 26th are the different spells and incantations for the pre- 

 servation of the heart, tongue, and other ports of the body. The 27th 

 to the 42nd are destined to repel the various Typhonion animals that 

 seek to destroy the body. The 43rd to the 63rd refer to the means 

 for escaping decapitation in Hades, corruption and pollution, an<Hlie 

 passage in the makJien or mystical boat over the river of Hades. 

 Subsequent chapters refer to the exit of the soul from earth, its 

 expedition into Elysium and passage of the Gates of the Sun. The 

 most remarkable of these was found in the days of king Mencheres by 

 the prince Hartetaf, on a brick under the statue of the god Thoth in 

 Hermopolis. The 77th to the 87th contain the transmigrations or 

 genesis of the soul under various types in the future state. The 89th, 

 the union of the soul and body. Subsequent chapters refer to similar 

 ideas. From 98 to 102 is a group referring to the mystical boat, a 

 kind of Argo, the parts of which address the deceased, and require him 

 to tell their names before it will move. The 110th is the Egyptian 

 Aahlu or Elysium, where the deceased sows, irrigates, reaps, and eats of 

 the divine corn of the Heavenly Egypt. The 125th contains the 

 " great judgment," the appearance of the deceased before Osiris and 

 the 42 demons, the negative confession of the sins he has not com- 

 mitted, the justification by Thoth, the weighing of his heart in the 

 balance against the feather of Truth, the devourer of the wicked, the 

 new birth, and metempsychosis. Each part of the Hall calls out to 

 him to tell its name before it will allow him to proceed, and the 

 deceased then escapes the pool of fire or Phlegethon,the subject of the 

 126th chapter. The subsequent chapters refer to the passage of the 

 Empyreal gateway, and the admission into the boat of the sun in which 

 that luminary circulated through the liquid ether or Celestial Nile. 

 Other chapters contain miscellaneous information ; 137 is to restore the 

 vital warmth ; 141, 142, the knowledge of the names of the gods ; 145, 

 146, the passage through the mystical doorways of Osiris guarded by 

 demons, whose names the deceased has to declare. In the 152nd, the 

 deceased enters his new mansion and drinks the waters of Nu, or life ; 

 the 154th is to preserve the soul from transmigration. Seven others 

 give instructions for the amulets placed on the throat of the 

 mummies ; and the last, 162, for the placing of the cnfl'm of the dead 

 so as to bo blown upon by the four winds. The ritual closes here, 

 but at the time of the Turin ritual three supplementary chapters, 163- 

 165, were introduced, of mythical import, referring to the worship of 

 Amen Ka. 



Besides the ritual other religious papyri arc known, one the book 

 of the Lamentations of Isis over her brother Osiris, the other the 

 passage of the sun through the eleventh hour of the night, chiefly 

 found with the mummies of the priestesses of Amen Ka in the 

 age of the XX and subsequent dynasties at Thebes, and a hymn to 

 the Nile. 



The hieratic civil and literary papyri are equally interesting and 

 important for the knowledge of the chronology and history of tho 

 country. These papyri are known under the names of their pos- 

 sessors, as the Prixfc, Sallier, Anastaai, IJ'Orbiney, nud Abot Papyri, 

 Of those as yet published, the most remarkable are the Hieratic canon 

 of the kings at Turin, unfortunately much mutilated, which origin illy 



