November 14, 1895] 



NATURE 



27 



tian science, history, and literature. But many people 

 are not content to get their information.entirely at second- 

 hand. A winter spent in Cairo, or even a visit to a local 

 museum, has perhaps tempted them to try to find out 

 for themselves how the Egyptians recorded the legends 

 and history of which they had read, or wrote down the 

 prayers and ritual of which they had seen translations. 

 Few, however, have found it easy hitherto to satisfy their 

 curiosity, for the standard grammars and dictionaries of 

 the language, with which the trained Egyptologist works, 

 are either too costly or too stiff for the beginner, while 

 editions of texts generally presuppose a knowledge of the 

 language, and in many cases must be unearthed from the 

 journals of learned societies. It is not surprising, there- 

 fore, to find that many a beginner has been discouraged 

 by the great outlay, both of time and money, that must 

 precede the commencement of his studies. 



To any one who has had this experience, we would 

 recommend Dr. Wallis Budge's "First Steps in jjpgyptian." 

 Here the beginner who is anxious to tackle for himself 

 the mterpretation of Egyptian hieroglyphics, and to 

 control the statements of scientific or popular writers, has 

 the means placed at his disposal between the covers of 

 a single book ; and, should he subsequently wish to 

 continue his studies, he will find himself enabled by 

 its help to use ' with advantage the more advanced 

 grammars he may come across in English, French, or 

 German. A brief description of its contents will serve 

 to indicate its general scope and character. 



The book consists of two parts — the first containing 

 an introduction, the second the texts. In the former, 

 Dr. Budge begins by dismissing in a few paragraphs 

 the external aspect of the subject, briefly referring to 

 the history of Egyptian decipherment, and describing 

 the manner in which inscriptions are written ; he then 

 passes to a detailed explanation of the twofold functions 

 performed by the hieroglyphic signs, as ideographs and 

 phonetics, and appends a list of the common signs with 

 their phonetic values ; the function of determinatives is 

 next explained, and their use illustrated by a number of 

 examples. The reader is then in a position to appreciate 

 an analysis of an extract from a text, and an explanation 

 of the methods by which its meaning may be ascertained. 

 The rest of the introduction deals successively with 

 j)ronouns, nouns, the article, adjectives, numbers, 

 measures, divisions of time, the year, the verb, the 

 adverb, prepositions and conjunctions, and particles, in 

 each section of which any rule or statement is illustrated 

 by a number of examples, and concludes with a list of 

 common words and a list of the names of Egyptian gods 

 and goddesses. Part ii. contains a series of some thirty 

 texts and extracts, ranging from the Third Dynasty to 

 the reign of Ptolemy V., and these are followed by a few 

 untransliterated and untranslated texts, which the reader 

 is intended to work out with the help of a short glossary 

 at the end of the book. 



In his selection of texts we think the author has been 

 wise to look out for passages interesting in themselves, 

 for by this means the reader's attention is secured. The 

 translations of some of the shorter extracts are well 

 worthy of quotation, some of the " Maxims oi Ani" for 

 instance, inculcating a lofty morality, while others show 

 a shrewd knowledge of the world. "Take to thyself a 

 NO. 1359, VOL. 53] 



wife while she is young, and she will make for thee thy- 

 son." "The time [once] past, one seeketh to grasp- 

 others [in vain]." " Enter thou not among the many, . 

 that thy name may not stink." " Answer thou not an 

 angry master ; speak that which is soft while he is utter- 

 ing that which is of wrath." " Festal cries are abhorred 

 by the sanctuary of God. Make thou supplication with 

 a loving heart, its petitions being all in secret, and He 

 will perform thy affairs. He will hear that which thou 

 sayest. He will receive thy offerings." " Do not put 

 thyself into the house of drinking beer. An evil thing 

 are the words reported second-hand coming forth from 

 thy mouth, thou not knowing they have been said by 

 thee. Having fallen, thy members are broken, another 

 giveth not the hand to thee. Thy companions [in] drink 

 stand up, saying ' away with this drunkard.' " " Death 

 cometh ; it seizeth the babe which is on the breast of his - 

 mother as well as him that hath become an old man." 

 "[When] thy messenger [of death] cometh to thee to- 

 carry thee off, be thou found by him ready." We have 

 not space to do justice to the varied selection of historical 

 and religious texts here collected, but may refer the 

 reader especially to the quaint legend of " The Destruction 

 of Mankind," and to Tuauu-f-se- KharthaVs humorous 

 praise of the literary life and its rewards, in which he 

 contrasts it with the unattractive trades of the black- 

 smith, "who stinketh more than the eggs offish"; of the 

 barber, "who worketh violently by his two arms to fill his 

 belly"; of the weaver, "who is more wretched than a 

 woman, whose legs are under him at the door of his 

 heart, who breatheth not the air"; of the dyer, "whose 

 fingers stink [with] the smell of the keeper of dead 

 bodies"; and of the shoemaker, " who is the most unfor- 

 tunate of all, for he chattereth everlastingly . , . [and] 

 feedeth upon leather." We will conclude with a few lines . 

 from one of the untranslated texts, the touching address 

 to the deceased lady Ta-kh eri-p-uru-abtu, which may be : 

 summarised as follows : — 



"O thou triumphant one! thy soul liveth in heaven; 

 with the god Ra. Thy double has had offerings made toi' 

 it among the gods. Thy beatified form is glorious among 

 the shining ones. Thy house is filled with children and 

 a husband, who as they follow thee weep. Thy children 

 are rewarded by meeting thee for all they have done to 

 thy double. Thou hast been buried rightly and gloriously, 

 and they have placed thy double at the west of Thebes, 

 opposite thy fellow-citizens. Thy tomb shall never be : 

 ravished, thy bandages shall never be stripped off, and 

 thy body shall never suffer harm. Thy soul flieth towards 

 heaven to meet the soul of the gods. . . . Thy life shall 

 endure for ever, thy majesty shall be eternal, and thou 

 shalt enjoy an endless number of festival-cycles, each of 

 which shall endure for 120 years ! " 



It must not be supposed from what we have said that 

 the book opens up a royal road to knowledge. No new 

 language can be acquired without continuous work and 

 perseverance, and Egyptian is far from being an excep- 

 tion to the rule. Hitherto, however, in addition to en- 

 countering the actual difficulties of the language, the 

 beginner has been handicapped by a long and often 

 unsuccessful search for his materials ; his first steps, in 

 fact, were unnecessarily arduous, and in making these 

 more easy Dr. Budge will have deservedly earned his- 

 gratitude. 



