Produced by John B. Hare and Carrie R. Lorenz
The Egyptian Texts, edited with Translations
by E. A. Wallis Budge
London, 1912
[Editorial note: Throughout the text "####" represents images which cannot be transcribed.]
The welcome which has been accorded to the volumes of this Series, andthe fact that some of them have passed into second and third editions,suggest that these little books have been found useful by beginners inEgyptology and others. Hitherto the object of them has been to supplyinformation about the Religion, Magic, Language, and History of theancient Egyptians, and to provide editions of the original texts fromwhich such information was derived. There are, however, many branchesof Egyptology which need treatment in a similar manner in this Series,and it has been suggested in many quarters that the time has nowarrived when the publication of a series of groups of textsillustrating Egyptian Literature in general might well be begun.Seeing that nothing is known about the authors of Egyptian works, noteven their names, it is impossible to write a History of EgyptianLiterature in the ordinary sense of the word. The only thing to bedone is to print the actual works in the best and most complete formpossible, with translations, and then to put them in the hands of thereader and leave them to his judgment.
With this object in view, it has been decided to publish in the Seriesseveral volumes which shall be devoted to the reproduction inhieroglyphic type of the best and most typical examples of the variouskinds of Egyptian Literature, with English translations, on a muchlarger scale than was possible in my "First Steps in Egyptian" or in my"Egyptian Reading Book." These volumes are intended to serve a doublepurpose, i.e., to supply the beginner in Egyptian with new material anda series of reading books, and to provide the general reader withtranslations of Egyptian works in a handy form.
The Egyptian texts, whether the originals be written in hieroglyphic orhieratic characters, are here printed in hieroglyphic type, and arearranged with English translations, page for page. They are printed asthey are written in the original documents, i.e., the words are notdivided. The beginner will find the practice of dividing the words forhimself most useful in acquiring facility of reading and understandingthe language. The translations are as literal as can reasonably beexpected, and, as a whole, I believe that they mean what the originalwriters intended to say. In the case of passages where the text iscorrupt, and readings are mixed, or where very rare words occur, orwhere words are omitted, the renderings given claim to be nothing morethan suggestions as to their meanings. It must be remembered that theexact meanings of many Egyptian words have still to be ascertained, andthat the ancient Egyptian scribes were as much puzzled as we are bysome of the texts which they copied, and that owing to carelessness,ignorance, or weariness, or all three, they made blunders which themodern student is unable to correct. In the Introduction will be foundbrief descriptions of the contents of the Egyptian texts, in whichtheir general bearing and importance are indicated, and referencesgiven to authoritative editions of texts and translations.
BRITISH MUSEUM,
November 17,1911.