The Treasury of Ancient Egypt (Illustrated‪)‬

No person who has travelled in Egypt will require to be told that it is
a country in which a considerable amount of waiting and waste of
time has to be endured. One makes an excursion by train to see some
ruins, and, upon returning to the station, the train is found to be late,
and an hour or more has to be dawdled away. Crossing the Nile in a
rowing-boat the sailors contrive in one way or another to prolong the
journey to a length of half an hour or more. The excursion steamer
will run upon a sandbank, and will there remain fast for a part of the
day.
The resident official, travelling from place to place, spends a great
deal of time seated in railway stations or on the banks of the Nile,
waiting for his train or his boat to arrive; and he has, therefore, a
great deal of time for thinking. I often try to fill in these dreary
periods by jotting down a few notes on some matter which has
recently been discussed, or registering and elaborating arguments
which have chanced lately to come into the thoughts. These notes are
shaped and “written up” when next there is a spare hour, and a few
books to refer to; and ultimately they take the form of articles or
papers, some of which find their way into print.
This volume contains twelve chapters, written at various times and
in various places, each dealing with some subject drawn from the
great treasury of Ancient Egypt. Some of the chapters have appeared
as articles in magazines. Chapters iv., v., and viii. were published in
‘Blackwood’s Magazine’; chapter vii. in ‘Putnam’s Magazine’ and the
‘Pall Mall Magazine’; and chapter ix. in the ‘Century Magazine.’ I
have to thank the editors for allowing me to reprint them here. The
remaining seven chapters have been written specially for this
volume.

LUXOR, UPPER EGYPT, November 1910.