349 
painting, which this savant believes anterior to this Illrd 
Dynasty, represent persons whose names are purely Egyptian, 
but of which the type is completely Semitic.* It would 
seem as though the period of life had become shortened, 
as “ the perfect age of 110” was considered as the term of a 
happy old age, and we can scarcely suppose this to have been 
attained in the later periods of history. In this point of view 
Pharaoh’s first question to Jacob, “ Plow old art thou ? ” appears 
very natural and characteristic, even as his whole mode of recep- 
tion seems just such as might have been expected from a Pharaoh 
of the Shepherd dynasty. 
In the Bibliotheque Roy ale of Paris is preserved a MS. called 
the Papyrus Prisse, from the name of the person who acquired 
it at Thebes, and presented it to this library. It is perhaps the 
most ancient MS. in the world, and is said to be a treatise com- 
posed by the Prince Ptah-hotep, son of Assa Tat Ka-ra, of the 
Vth Dynasty, who reigned, according to Brugsch, between 
3,300 and 3,400 B.C. ! or in the time of Adam, according to 
the received chronology. It treats of the virtues which are 
necessary to man, and the best means of getting on in the 
world, and contains some excellent precepts of morality : such as 
the following : — 
“ If thou hast become great, after having been small, and 
gathered riches after misery, so as to become the first in thy 
city, — if thou art known for thy wealth, and hast become a great 
lord, let not thy heart become proud by reason of thy riches, 
for it is God who has given them unto thee. Do not despise 
another who is what thou wast ; be toward him as towards 
thine equal.” 
This writer laments, in pathetic and touching terms, the 
effects of extreme old age which he was experiencing in his 
person whilst he wrote, at the age of 110 ! 
According to Herodotus, the founder of the 1st Dynasty 
reigned sixty-two years, and then perished, not of old age, but 
made an end of (fia-n-payeig) by a hippopotamus. His son 
reigned 57 years. 
Afterwards the great pyramid-builders reigned respectively, — 
Souphis, 60 years; Mencheres, 63 years; and, later still, 
Apappus f (of the YIth Dynasty) is said to have reigned, or 
rather lived and reigned, 100 years, with the exception of 
one hour ! 
* Pierret, Did., sub voce Physiognomie. 
t Eratosthenes, p. 8 ; Coryag. ; see also Pepi-Merira in Lenormant’s 
Antiquitis Egypt., p. 194. 
