INDEX 259

Illustrations

Page
the Elysian fields of the Egyptians Frontispiece

THOTH, THE SCRIBE OF THE GODS 3

THOTH AND AMEN-RA SUCCOURING ISIS 5

Egyptian writing PALETTES To face 6

Vignette from the book of the dead (Chapter xcii) To face 42

Her-heru and queen Netchemet reciting A hymn To face 44

Her-heru and queen Netchemet standing in the
     hall of Osiris To face 52

STELE RELATING THE STORY OF THE HEALING OF BENTRESHT 94

STELE ON WHICH IS CUT THE SPEECH OF AMEN-RA 107

A page from the great Harris papyrus To face 110

STELE ON WHICH IS CUT THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THAIEMHETEP 150

A page of the tale of the two brothers To face 196

THE LITERATURE OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS

CHAPTER I

THOTH, THE AUTHOR OF EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. 
WRITING MATERIALS, ETC.

The Literature of ancient Egypt is the product of a period of about four thousand years, and it was written in three kinds of writing, which are called hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic.  In the first of these the characters were pictures of objects, in the second the forms of the characters were made as simple as possible so that they might be written quickly, and in the third many of them lost their picture form altogether and became mere symbols.  Egyptian writing was believed to have been invented by the god Tehuti, or Thoth, and as this god was thought to be a form of the mind and intellect and wisdom of the God who created the heavens and the earth, the picture characters, or hieroglyphs as they are called, were held to be holy, or divine, or sacred.  Certain religious texts were thought to possess special virtue when written in hieroglyphs, and the chapters and sections of books that were considered to have been composed by Thoth himself were believed to possess very great power, and to be of the utmost benefit to the dead when they were written out for them in hieroglyphs,