in 1865 caused the project to fall through. Mr. Rhind's collection passed into the hands of Mr. David Bremner, and the papyrus, together with many other antiquities, was purchased by the Trustees of the British Museum. In 1880 Dr. Birch suggested the publication of the papyrus to Dr. Pleyte, the Director of the Egyptian museum at Leyden. This savant transcribed and translated some passages from the Festival Songs of Isis and Nephthys, which is the first text in it, and these he published in Recueil de Travaux, Paris, tom. iii., pp. 57-64. In 1886 by Dr. Birch's kindness I was allowed to work at the papyrus, and I published transcripts of some important passages and the account of the Creation in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, 1886-7, pp. 11-26. The Legend of the Creation was considered by Dr. H. Brugsch to be of considerable value for the study of the Egyptian Religion, and encouraged by him[1] I made a full transcript of the papyrus, which was published in Archaeologia (vol. lii., London, 1891), with translitera-
- ↑ Ein in möglichst wortgetreuer Uebersetzung vorglegter Papyrus-text soll den Schlussstein meines Werkes bilden. Er wird den Beweis für die Richtigkeit meiner eigenen Untersuchungen vollenden, indem er das wichtigste Zeugniss altägyptischen Ursprungs den zahlreichen, von mir angezogenen Stellen aus den Inschriften hinzufügt. Trotz mancher Schwierigkeit im Einzelnen ist der Gesammtinhalt des Textes, den zuerst ein englischer Gelehrter der Wissenschaft zugänglich gemacht hat, auch nict im geringsten misszuverstehen (Brugsch, Religion, p. 740). He gives a German translation of the Creation Legend on pp. 740, 741, and a transliteration on p. 756.
