Page:The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, Volume 02.djvu/31

 THE EARLIEST EGYPTIAN REMAINS

(INTRODUCTION)

IF we sweep aside the dust of the many accumulated ages, the earliest Egyptian writings that have come down to us are the bare names of kings carved on ancient tombs. Later on, we find these names inscribed on other monuments and accompanied by lists of kingly titles. Thus, for example, in the ancient copper mines of Sinai, the desert land wherein Moses and his followers in later ages wandered for forty years, a land outside of Egypt altogether, there is an inscrip- tion carved on the rock, apparently as a record of empire, by King Snefru, the ruler who preceded Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid (3000 B.C.). This carving, like earlier similar ones on the rocky wall, shows an Egyptian Pharaoh with upraised war-club about to slay a crouching Arab of the desert. That is, Egypt holds warlike mastery over Sinai. King Snefru's picture, however, is the first to have a long added inscription. It reads:

"King of Upper and Lower Egypt; Favorite of the Two Goddesses; Lord of Truth; Golden Sun-god, Snefru.

"Snefru, great god, who is given power, stability, life, health, joy of heart, forever.

"Subduer of the Barbarians."

If such an inscription is too elementary to be called litera- ture, we find a distinctly literary form soon afterward in the tomb biographies. High officials of the kingdom followed the lead of their rulers by building splendid tombs; and they painted on the inner chambers of these some record of the owner's proud career. The earliest such boastful biography yet discovered is that of Methen, the "Master of the Hunt" under King Snefru. Methen does not seem to have been a specially important man. He was methodical, busy,