The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-10-10
Written Remains of the Egyptians,

Most of the written remains of ancient
Egypt are religious. Many consist of
hymns to the gods, and have pathos
of their own. Others are lists of obla-
tons or spoils taken in war. These
have no more literary pretentions than
an auctioneer's catalogue or an inven-
tory of furniture They give us, how
ever, vivid idea of Egyptian belong
ings. The manifold productions and
riches of ancient Egypt are nowhere set
forth in more detail than in what is
known as the Great Harris Papyrus,"
which contains divers of these summa-
ries. 1t was found in a tomb, and mea-
sures 1873 feet long by l6} inches broad.
Here we read OF the barge of cedar with
rivets of gold-patcd brass and cabins
adorned with precious stones; of houses
with doors and lintels of gold, surround
ed by gardens planted with all kinds of
fruit, and tanks for waterfowl and fish.
Besides these are granaries of corn and
treasures filled, or temples presented,
with surprising amount of miscella-
neous property, paint, spirits of wine,
honey, oil, linen overcoats, embroidered
caps, incense, silver dishes and ladies,
rings, onions, cedar harps, bundles of
writing-reeds, wax, leather sandals,
turquoises, perfumes, images, necklaces,
wine, colored bed-clothes, etc. The
most careful inventory was made of the
several items, and in every case the eX-
act amount Of the articles in store seems
10, Ia,
place we find record of S25,Si0 crys-
tai beads; in another of 23,00S pots OF
frankincense, while one cedar rule
figures by itself. Besides these dead or
dry goods we have astonishing lists Of
cattle and birds, especially pigeons,
ducks and geese. Here we are struck
by evidence Of much that was evidently
business-like and prosaic among the old
Egyptians. 1t is true that their religion
especially, at least so faras the offerings
made by the King represented the gem
crosby of the people, was marked by
marvellous and abundant devotion; the
adornments of the temples not being
brought to focus in some inner shrine,
but shown in the Gaping Of sacred ODE
lisks with solid gold, and the covering
of huge holy walls inside and out with
costly sculpture, But though this in
dicates certain profuseness Of expendi-
ture, nothing is more striking than the
minute economy and attention to de-
tails exhibited in what may be called
the sacred rent rolls, summaries of OBJ
lations and the like. The chronicler
carefully distinguished between tho
ducks and the "ducklings" offered to
Ra, the sliced, sailed and prepared fish,
the crowns, nosegays, chains and hand
fuls of flowers, and the exact amounts
of these several items are set down. In
the Great Harris Papyrus," now in
the British Museum, and translated in
the Records of the Past there are
many Of these entries, and in every case
the totals of the goods in question are
| precisely recorded. There are, @. g.,
1875, 800 nosegays of vegetables it
does not say what proportion Of these
were onions-as against 1000 nosegays
OF corn, and 3,4l0 of lotus. Thus, in
these chronicles we have evidence OF
both extreme profusion and precs,
economy, of the incest reckoning and
the most liberal abundance - Coco
Words.