January 7, 1897| 
NATURE 219 
transliterations and without notes or explanations, they 
at least supplied the beginner with a good collection of 
material to work on, though he was still not in a position 
to walk alone. At the instance of several friends who 
made use of the book, Dr. Budge has now republished 
these compositions, breaking the lines up into words, and 
adding a transliteration at the foot of the page; he has 
also compiled a complete vocabulary to the texts, giving 
a number of references to each word, so that it is possible 
to compare their use in several passages. The student 
is thus enabled to acquire, without additional help, a 
knowledge of the language and of the principal literary 
compositions of ancient Egypt. 
The twenty complete texts, which the volume contains, 
extend over a period from about B.C. 3500 to B.C. 250, 
and are good specimens of the various forms of com- 
position which occur in Egyptian literature. They com- 
prise fine examples of the biographical texts of the sixth 
and twelfth dynasties, of the historical inscriptions of the 
eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, and of the compo- 
sitions of the twenty-fourth dynasty, and of the Ptolemaic 
period, besides: religious, moral and funereal texts of 
various dates. Perhaps the most attractive to the student 
of folk-lore, however, would be the two pieces with which 
the book begins—“ The tale of the two brothers” and 
“The possessed Princess of Bekhten.” Of these, the 
former is well known from its striking resemblance in 
many particulars to the tale of Joseph in Hebrew 
literature. The latter, however, is not so, well known, 
and may be briefly summarised, as it throws an interest- 
ing light on the exceedingly anthropomorphic conception 
which the ancient Egyptian formed of his gods. 
The story runs that the King of Egypt, while receiving 
homage in Mesopotamia from the neighbouring countries, 
had seen a beautiful girl, the daughter of the Prince of 
Bekhten, whom he married and took back with him to 
Egypt, giving her the title Ra-neferu. Shortly afterwards 
a messenger came from Bekhten with the news that 
Ra-neferu’s younger sister was sick, and praying that a 
physician might come and see her. A physician was 
sent, but he could do no good, as he found the lady was 
possessed by a devil; so the Prince of Bekhten asked 
the king to send him a god to cure his daughter. The 
god Khonsu was accordingly brought with much pomp 
from Thebes, and arrived at Bekhten after travelling one 
year and five months. The demon, on beholding Khonsu, 
at once stated his readiness to go, but asked the god’s 
permission that a feast should first be held to celebrate 
his departure. The story continues with the following 
quaint description of the feast of the god and the 
demon :— 
“And the god Khonsu graciously granted this request, 
and spake to his priest, saying, ‘Let the Prince of 
Bekhten make a great festival in honour of the demon.’ 
Now, while the god Khonsu, who performeth mighty 
things and wonderful in Thebes, was arranging these 
things with the demon, the Prince of Bekhten and his 
army stood by in exceedingly great fear. And the Prince 
of Bekhten made a great festival in honour of Khonsu, 
who performeth mighty things and wonderful in Thebes, 
and they passed a happy day together ; and by the com- 
mand of Khonsu, who performeth mighty things and 
wonderful in Thebes, that demon departed in peace unto 
the place which he loved.” 
NO. 1419, VOL. 55 | 
The Prince of Bekhten was so delighted that he 
determined to keep Khonsu in his own country, and he 
did so for three years, and was only induced to take him 
back when the god proved to him that his- power had 
departed by appearing to him in a dream as a golden 
hawk, which came forth from his shrine and flew back to 
Egypt. This story is a good specimen of Egyptian 
folk-lore, and illustrates the fact that whatever abstract 
conceptions of a central and supreme divinity the 
Egyptian may have entertained, his local gods were 
extremely human, and endowed with very limited powers. 
But if Egyptologists have not been idle in their 
endeavours to forward the study of the language and 
literature of the country, private individuals have no less 
been doing their share by rendering their collections of 
Egyptian antiquities available for students. In the years 
1882 and 1885-6, Lady Meux formed a fine collection of 
Egyptian antiquities, containing a number of very im- 
portant objects, which is perhaps, among private collec- 
tions, second only to that in the possession of the Duke of 
Northumberland. What the late Dr. Birch did sixteen 
years ago for the latter collection in his “ Catalogue of 
the Egyptian Antiquities at Alnwick Castle,” Dr. Budge 
has now performed for Lady Meux’s collection, in the 
work the title of which is quoted at the beginning of this 
review. This catalogue is privately printed, but we 
understand it has been distributed among scholars and 
the principal libraries in England and on the continent, 
so that the contents of the collection are now available 
for general study. Dr. Budge has made his catalogue 
as full as possible, translating and giving in full the texts 
| : 5 : : : 
which are painted or inscribed on the more important 
coffins, stele and figures in the collection; while the 
numerous photographic plates throughout the volume 
give an excellent idea of the general appearance of the 
larger objects. The book itself is sumptuously printed 
and bound, and, dealing as it does with so important a 
collection, will prove of the greatest value not only to 
the collector and the antiquary, but to all those who are 
interested in ethnographical studies, and who concern 
themselves with the history and remains of ancient 
religion and ritual. 
THE HISTORY OF ELEMENTARY 
MATHEMATICS. 
A History of Elementary Mathematics; with Hints on 
Methods of Teaching. By Florian Cajori, Ph.D. 
Pp. viii + 304. (New York : The Macmillan Company, 
London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1896.) 
( unpretentious but trustworthy book deserves a 
cordial welcome, and is likely to serve a very 
useful purpose. There is sound sense in the author’s 
conviction that teachers of elementary mathematics may 
profit greatly by a knowledge of the history of the 
subject. They are able to arouse the interest of their 
pupils, in a way which would otherwise be impossible, by 
telling them something of the course of mathematical 
discovery, and of the lives of those who have made the 
science what it is to-day. Even a schoolboy ought to 
know that Euclid is the name of a man.and not that of a 
book; and an English lad ought surely to associate 
Newton with something'more than the binomial theorem. 
