PREIST OF ANCIENT EGYPT

In looking through the old chronicles, in deciphering at random

the stelae and the religious monuments, in rereading the

tales of Greek and Latin voyagers who, twenty centuries before

us, were also tourists in Egypt, we will attempt to slip alongside

these priests, still mysterious to us.

1. Stela: a pillar bearing an inscription, usually religious references.

10BOOK IN EGYPT

The inscriptions on his tomb impart a series of texts of philosophical and religious inspiration astonishingly close - as much in the ideas they express as in the terms they employ - to the Proverbs of the Bible, and to the Psalms. Somewhat in the manner of the ancient books of Egyptian wisdom

We cannot do better than to cite together these four essential inscriptions as

they have been grouped by the scholar who found this tomb

and authoritatively published the texts, M. G. Lefebre:He who walks in thy path, he will not falter: since I have been

on earth and until this day, when I have come to the perfect

regions, there has been found no fault in me. . . .

Oh you living. . . if you listen to my words, if you heed them,

you will find their worth. It is good, the path of the one who is

faithful to the Lord; he is blessed whose heart turns toward this

path. I will tell you what befell me, I will teach you the will of

the Lord, I will make you enter into the knowledge of his spirit.

Tomb of Petosiris

12