De Buck Egyptian Reading Book Vol I Leiden 1948

EGYPTIAN READINGBOOK VOLUME I

EXERCISES AND MIDDLE EGYPTIAN TEXTS SELECTED AND EDITED BY

Dr A. DE BUCK PROFESSOR OF EGYPTOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LEYDEN

LEYDEN

NEDERLANDSCH ARCHAEOLOGISCH.PHILOLOGISCH INSTITUUT VOOR HET NABIJE OOSTEN 1948

Scanné par Alain Zimmerlin www.thotweb.com 2008

PREFACE This volume intends to provide students who wish to familiarize themselves with the hieroglyphs, the grammar, and the literature of Middle Egyptian with suitable exercises and texts. According to my experience the lack of the former is a serious difficulty for beginners. As a rule grammars do not quote more than a few examples and short sentences to illustrate the facts and rules which they record, the number of these quotations being altogether insufficient to inculcate the more vital rules of grammar. Gardiner's Egyptian Grammar with its wealth of examples and exercises is of course a conspicuous exception,. his book, however, is too exhaustive and too ponderous a volume for most beginners. We hope that the abundance of illustrative examples corresponding to the various subjects of grammar, which are offered in the first part of this book will smooth the student's path and prove a useful supplement of the current Egyptian grammars and that the book will make the study of these grammars more attractive. The numbers of §§ mentioned in the headings of the sections refer to the §§ of my short elementary Egyptische Grammatica (in Dutch) of which a French translation is ready since long and will be published as soon as circumstances allow it.' A transcription of pp. 7-37 has been added in order to help the beginning student in his rather tedious search for signs in the sign-list and to give him the means of controlling his finds. Afterwards he is supposed to be familiar with most signs and to be able to find his way in the sign-list with some ease. The references of the type (A 1) refer to section and number of Gardiner's Sign-list or other lists which follow his system. As to the second part of the book we hope that this selection of Middle Egyptian pieces may also fill up a void. At present Erman's delightful little Aegyptische Chrestomathie of 1904 is a rare and nearly forgotten book and as Sethe's Aegyptische Lesestiicke is also out of print and difficult to be found, no handy reading-book for students seems to exist for the time being. The present chrestomathy contains, as we hope, a fairly representative selection of historical, literary, and religious texts composed in the classical Middle Egyptian language. As to this collection little need be said. Although presumably others will have other predilections, an attempt has been made to offer texts of varying contents so that everybody may find something to his taste. We also intended to give both easier and more difficult pieces. We may remark here that the stOry of Sinuhe has been excluded intentionally from the literary texts, as this text is accessible to all students in Blackman's edition in the Bibliotheca Aegyptiaca. A second volume will provide the rest of the notes on purely textual matters of which a few pages have already been included in this book. That second volume will also contain a vocabulary and a series of philological explanations, rather detailed and complete in the initial pieces, more succinct and rare in the latter parts of the book.

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PREFAC.E . . . . . TABLE OF CONTENTS

V

VI

EXERCISES Words in purely alphabetic spelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Words written with two alphabetic signs followed by one or more determinati yes Words \vritten with three or more alphabetic sign~ followed by one or more determinatives Words written with alphabetic and biliteral signs followed by one or more determinatives The commonest ideograms Purely ideographic writings Abbreviations . Transpositions . Mixed Spellings Group-writing . Substantives (gender, number). Genitive (direct, indirect). Apposition. Adjectives; used as epithets or substantives; qualified by a substantive; degrees of comparison. . . . The suffix-pronouns. The demonstratives. The independent pronouns. Syntax of non-verbal sentences with substantival predicate The dependent pronouns. Syntax of non-verbal sentences with adjectival predicate The dependent pronouns. Syntax of non-verbal sentences with adverbial predicate. Syntax of non-verbal sentences with substantival predicate . . . . . . .... The participles; used as epithets or substantives. Expression of object and subject. Negation of the participles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The active participles as predicate in non-verbal sentences . . Complex constructions with the passive participle. The relative forms The srim·tj:fi form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The sgm:f forms. Syntax of the verbal sentence . The sgm.1lj; sgm'zn:f, sgm·k3:f, sgm·!Jr:f forms. . The passive sgm·w:f and passives created by means, of ·tw . Compound verb-forms introduced by zw, c!:t c; the auxiliary p3w; the verbs i(n), k3, lp' contained in the forms sgm.z1l:f, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The infinitive; its forms and syntax; negation of the infinitive . . . . . . . . . . The old perfecti ve (pseudo-participle); its forms and syntax; use as a clause of circumstance

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3 6 8 8 8 8 8 10

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12 12

14 14 14 16

18 20 20

24 24 28

32 34 36 39

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The infinitive (after f:zr) and the old perfective in the pseudo-verbal construction The imperative; its negation; its reinforcement by adjuncts. The complementary infinitive; the ldm·tf form . . . . . . . . . .

HISTORICAL TEXTS

4I 44 45

..

"'\ Canal inscription of Tuthmosis III (K. SETHE, Urkunden der z8. Dynastt'e (= Urk. IV), 814 Coronation decree of Tuthmosis I (Urk. IV, 80). . . . . . . . )( Inscription of Tuthmosis 11, recording a rebellion in N ubia (Urk. IV, 137) )tThe Punt expedition of Queen Hatshepsut (Urk. IV, 341) . . . )( Departure of the Punt expedition (Urk. IV, 322). . )(Arrival of the expedition in Punt (Urk. IV, 323). . . . )(The Puntites receive the expedition (Urk. IV, 324) . . ~Pitching a camp for the expedition (Urk. IV, 325). . . XReception of the tribute of the Puntites (Urk. IV, 326). The products of Punt (Urk. IV, 328). . . . . . . . . XThe return voyage of the expedition (Urk. IV. 329) . . XThe 'poetical' stela of Tuthmosis III (P. LACAU, Steles du Nouvd Empire, nr 34010) XThe Gebel Barkal Stela of Tuthmosis III (G. A. REISNER and M. B. REISNER, Zeitschrift fur iigyptische Spraclte, etc. Bd 69 (1933), pp. 24-29. Tf. Ill-V. . . . XThe Armant Stela of Tuthmosis III (Sir ROBERT MOND, and O. H. MYERS, Temples of Armant, pI. ell I, LXXXVIII, p. (82) . ~Scarab of Amenophis III recording 'a wild cattle hunt (Annates du Service, etc. XLIV (1945), p. 34, supplemented and corrected from other sources). . . . . . . carab of Amenophis III recording his success in 10 years' lion-hunting (G. STEINDORFF, Die Blutezeit des P/za1'aonenreiches, p. 44, fig. 39, supplemented and corrected from other sources). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ Scarab of Amenophis III recording his marriage with Tiy and the boundaries of his empire (G. STEINDORFF and K. C. SEELE, When Egypt ruled the East, p. 75, fig. (7) >\Scarab of Amenophis III recording the arrival of the princess Gilukhipa (Recueil de Travaux, etc. 15 (1893), p. 200, supplemented and corrected from other sources) . ~carab of Amenophis III recording the construction of a pleasure-lake (Annales du Service, etc. XLIV (1945) p. 37, supplemented and corrected from other sourcesj . )!The biography of Khnumhotpe, prince of Beni Hasan (P. E. NEWBERRY, Beni Hasan, Part I, pI: XXV, XXVI, the last lines corrected by P. MONTET, Kemi III (1930-35) pp. 1 12 sqq., PI.' XI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . )(The laudatory autobiography of Kay (Hatnub, Gr. 24, R. ANTHES, Die ,Felsen· inschriften von Hatnub, 1928, Tf. 24). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . )OExpedition to Hammamat; the official record (1. COUYAT et P. MONTET, Les inscriptions hieroglyphiques et hieratlques du Ouadi HammamCtt, 1912, pI. XXXVII, nr 192) The same expedition; the commander's record (Op. cit., pI. XXIX, nr 113). . . . . A wonder, which occurred during this expedition (Op. cit., pI. XXIX, nr (10) . . . The second wonder which happened during this expedition (Op. cit., pI. XXXVI, n~. 19 1) Semneh Stela marking the southern boundary of the realm of Sesostris III (Agyptlsche Insclwiften aus den Koniglichen Museen zu Berlin, Bd I, p. 255, nr 14753) . ~

66

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74 75 76

r

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LITERARY TEXTS

IX Page

X Story of the miracles which happened in the reign of Cheops (A. ERMAN, Die Miirchen des Papyrus Westcar = Mitteilungen aus den orientalisclzen Sammlungen, Heft V,

~Th~fS~~;~fI:~~Elo~u'en'tPe~s~nt·(F.VO'G~L~A~G'u~d'A~A'N H"G~~D;N~R:Die Kia;en' X

des 13auern = Hieratische Papyrus aus den Koniglichen Muuen zu Berlin, Bd IV) . The Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor [Wo GoutNISCHEFF], Les papyrus h£eratiques No. I I 15, 11 [6A et I I 16B de I'Ermitage imperial Cl St.-Phersbourg, 1913, PI. 1- VIII) A story designed to make propaganda for the cult of Khonsu (The Bentresh-stela, Louvre C 284, E. DE ROUGE, Journal Asiatique, cinquieme serie, t. VIII, (1856), plate between pp. 200 and 201 = P. TRESSON, Re'vue biblique 4 2 (1933), pp. 57-78, pI. I). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

79 88 100

106

RELIGIOUS TEXTS XHymn to Osiris (Louvre C 286, A. MORET, Bulletin de I'Institut franrais d'archeologie orientale du Caire, t. XXX (1930) pp. 725-750, pI. I-Ill) . . . . . . . . . . . Hymn to the Sun-god (B.M. 826, S. BIRCH, Transactions of the Society of bibl£cal arclzeeology, voI. 8 (1883), pp. 143-163 = British Museum, A guide to the Egyptian galleries (Sculpture), pI. XX = 1. E. S. EDWARDS, British Muuum, Hieroglyph£c Texts from Egyptian Stelae, etc. Part VIII (1939) pp. 22-25, pI. XXI) . . . . . ~Magical spell for the protection of a baby (Hieratische Papyrus aus den Koniglichen Museen zu Berlt'n, Bd. Ill, Zauberspruche fur Mutter und Kind, p. XVII, P. 3027, I 9-11 3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . /