to think that it was not unknown to their ancestors in the latter part of the Neolithic Period, and that it is coeval with the indigenous African belief in the immortality of the soul, and in a life beyond the grave.
The life of the Liturgy of Funerary Offerings was long. It is found in a more or less complete form in many maṣṭaba tombs of the Ancient Empire, in a very complete form in the pyramids of Unȧs and Pepi II., in incomplete forms on sarcophagi and in tombs of the XIIth Dynasty, and in the tomb of Seti I. of the XIXth Dynasty, and in complete forms in the tomb of Peṭa-Ȧmen-ȧp of the XXVIth Dynasty and in papyri written in the first or second century of the Christian Era. The changes textually in the complete copies of the different periods are very few, and we may say that this work was used by generation after generation, in a practically unaltered form, for about four thousand years.
A description of the labours of my predecessors on this important text will be found in the introductory matter to the present volume.
British Museum,
August 5th, 1909.
