A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIKNCK. 



■ • To the solid ground 

 Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for ayr." — WORDSWORI II. 



THURSDAY. MAY :;. 1895. 



THE BOOK OF THE DEAD. 



'/Vic Papyrus of Ani in the British Mitseuni. The 

 Egyptian text with interlinear transliteration and trans- 

 lation, a running translation, introduction, &c. By 

 E. A. Wallis Budge, Litt. D., Keeper of Egj'ptian and 

 .Assyrian .Antiquities. Printed by order of the Trustee.s, 

 1895. (London : Longmans, Kegan Paul, &c.) 

 T~)ERH.\P.S one of the most attractive and popular 

 ^ departments of science is that which treats of the 

 early customs and beliefs of primitive man. Within 

 recent years considerable attention has been directed to 

 this subject. Not only have speciahsts, such as Mann- 

 liardt, Waitz, Bastian, and Tylor, to mention a few pro- 

 minent names, devoted themselves to the collection and 

 classification of material, but a great body of the reading 

 public have followed their labours with intense interest, 

 .md have embarked on a course of original inquiry on 

 their own account. The chief reason for this widespread 

 >tudy of comparative religion is to be sought in the fact 

 I hat no demands are made on the student for any special 

 M.iining in order that he inay appreciate its methods and 

 I rsults. Let him but have the passion of the collector 

 .iiid a love for his subject, and he is fully equipped for his 

 work ; all he requires beside are books that will yield 

 reliable information concerning the folk-lore or super- 

 stition of any early or primitive race. Readers of N.ATURIi, 

 therefore, will be interested in hearing some account of 

 I n markable work, recently published by the Trustees 

 il the British Museum, which deals with the religion of 

 the oldest nation in the world whose records have 

 survived to the present day. 



The nation to which we refer, it is needless to say, are 

 the Egyptians, whose civilisation on the banks of the 

 Nile stretches back into a remote antiquity. Both the 

 Ax\ and literature of this people were in the main the 

 product of their religious belief in a future existence : 

 \i luit we possess of the former we owe to its preservation 

 m the tomb, while a great part of the latter has come 

 ilown to us in a body of religious compositions to which 

 NO. M ^ I , \<)I.. S2 1 



Egyptologists have given the comprehensive title of "The* 

 Book of the Dead." It is with " The Book of the Dead " 

 that the work in question deals. In the year 1888 the 

 Trustees of the British Museum acquired the largest and 

 most perfect specimen of this composition as preserved 

 b\- that class of papyri which date from the second half 

 of the eighteenth dynasty (about B.C. 1 500-1400). About 

 four months age the Trustees published a second edition^ 

 of the facsimile of the papyrus, and now Dr. Wallis 

 Budge, the Keeper of Eg) ptian and Assyrian Antiquities, 

 has produced a volume dealing exhaustively with the 

 contents of this unique document. 



It would be impossible to treat at any length in a short 

 re\iew the many problems discussed in the work before 

 us. We can, however, briefly indicate its general scope 

 and contents. Dr. Budge has given a transliteration 

 and literal translation of the hieroglyphic text, arranged 

 interlinearly, which will be of great value to the student. 

 This is followed by a running translation, together with 

 a description and explanation of the various vignettes 

 with which the papyrus is profusely illustrated — a por- 

 tion of the work which will be welcomed by the general 

 reader. Perhaps of even greater importance, however, 

 is the Introduction. Here the author has traced in 

 detail the history and growth of " The Book of the Dead," 

 from its first appearance on the Pyramids of the fifth 

 dynasty to its latest hieratic recension in the early 

 centuries of the Christian era. From the hands of the 

 priests of Hicrapolis we follow the work to Thebes, where 

 we first find it di\ ided into definite sections or chapters, 

 each with its distinctive title. Thence, through the 

 closely allied version of the twentieth dynasty to SaYs, 

 where each chapter received its definite place in the 

 series, and the order there introduced continued in use 

 down to the Greek occupation of the countr)-. Having 

 laid before the reader a critical digest of the external 

 history of the work. Dr. Budge then turns to internal 

 questions, and proceeds to summarise the chief aspects 

 of Eg)-ptian belief, sui)porting each of his theses with 

 citations from the native liter.ature. He treats at length 

 of the legend of Osiris, so closely connected with the 

 doctrine of eternal life, and thence passes to the Egyptian 

 idea of God. This section is followed, by a detailed 



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