by Sir Francis Grenfell, and now that the further contemplated precautions have been taken the Museum is as safe from fire as any building, half French, half Oriental, can be in the East. The specially arranged fire-proof building which is being constructed in Cairo will more effectually protect the priceless relics of a great early civilization. Here the antiquities will be better arranged and better guarded in every way, and it is probable that the income which will be derived from the increased number of visits made by tourists, will in a short time form an important contribution towards the original outlay.

The decision to remove the antiquities from Bûlâk to Gizeh was carried out in 1889 in the most praiseworthy manner. Gangs of men toiled from morning till night, and behind the trucks or carts containing the most precious objects M. Grébaut, the director of the Museum, and Brugsch Bey might be seen directing the workmen. During the hottest months of the summer and during the hottest hours of the day, under an exposure to the sun such as the ancient Coptic monks considered to be an adequate preparation for the lake of fire in Gehenna, the work went on; nothing of value was injured or broken, and the authorities declare that no object was lost. When the antiquities had been moved from Bûlâk, every lover of Egyptian art hoped that the statues, etc., which had been acquired during the last seven or eight years would be incorporated with those with which he was familiar, that each object would be numbered, that brief labels would be added, and that a chronological arrangement would be attempted. Owing to ill-health, however, M. Grébaut failed to continue the good work which he had begun, and for a long period but little new was done. Early in the year 1892 it was reported that M. Grébaut was about to resign, and for once rumour was correct. M. Grébaut was succeeded by M. Jacques de Morgan, who at once began the task of re-arranging the

collection and of examining the contents of the "magazine" with the view of increasing the number of exhibited objects. During the past years the work has been pushed on with great energy, and we believe that the visitors to the Gîzeh Museum will greatly appreciate what the staff has done. It will be remembered that of the rooms in the palace, only some thirty-eight contained antiquities in 1895; now, however, about eighty-seven are used for exhibition purposes, and, for the first time, it is possible to see of what the Egyptian collection really consists. On the ground floor the positions of several of the large monuments have been changed, and the chronological arrangement is more accurate than before. In one large handsome room are exhibited for the first time several fine mașțăba stele, which were brought from Sakkârah by M. J. de Morgan. The brightness of the colours, the vigour of the figures, and the beauty of the hieroglyphics upon these fine monuments of the early dynasties, will, we believe, make them objects of general interest and attraction. On the same floor the visitor will also examine with wonder two splendid colossal statues of the god Ptaḥ, which were excavated by M. de Morgan at Memphis in 1892. In a series of rooms are arranged the coffins and mummies of the priests of Amen which M. Grébaut brought down from Thebes in the winter of 1890-91. The coffins are of great interest, for they are ornamented with mythological scenes and figures of the gods which seem to be peculiar to the period immediately following the rule of the priest-kings of Thebes, i.e., from about B.C. 1000-800.

A new and important feature in the arrangement of the rooms on the upper floor is the section devoted to the exhibition of papyri. Here in flat glazed cases are shown at full length fine copies of the Book of the Dead, hieratic texts, including the unique copy of the "Maxims of Ani," and many other papyri which have been hitherto inacces

sible to the ordinary visitor. Now that these precious works cannot be reached by damp, their exhibition in a prominent place is a wise act on the part of the direction of the Museum. To certain classes of objects, such as scarabs, blue glazed faïence, linen sheets, mummy bandages and clothing, terra-cotta vases and vessels, alabaster jars, etc., special rooms are devoted, and the visitor or student can see at a glance which are the most important specimens of each class. The antiquities which, although found in Egypt, are certainly not of Egyptian manufacture, e.g., Greek and Phoenician glass, Greek statues, tablets inscribed in cuneiform, found at Tell el-Amarna, are arranged in groups in rooms set apart for them; and the monuments of the Egyptian Christians or Copts are also classified and arranged in a separate room. The antiquities have now been arranged and numbered on an intelligent system by the exertion of MM. de Morgan and Brugsch, and the excellent work which has been done during the past years is, we hope and believe, an earnest of what will be done in the immediate future. The growing prosperity of Egypt is an accomplished fact,* and it seems that the Museum of * The following table shows the revenue from 1887–1897 :

Egyptian Antiquities should participate in this prosperity and receive a larger grant of money, both for making purchases and excavations, for the attraction of the antiquities of the country is a very real and genuine matter, and induces travellers to visit it again and again. When the antiquities have been removed to the new museum at Cairo, we may be certain that the English advisers of the Khedive will never allow the progress of an institution which draws much money into the country, and which is now doing splendid work, to be hampered for the sake of a few thousand pounds a year.

The founding of the Bûlâk Museum was due to the marvellous energy and perseverance of F. Auguste Ferdinand Mariette. This distinguished Frenchman was born at Boulogne-sur-Mer on February 11th, 1821.* His grandfather was the author of several poetical works, short plays, etc., but his father was only an employé in the Registrar's Office of his native town. He was educated at Boulogne, and was made professor there when he was twenty years of age; here too he lived until 1848. Side by side with the duties of his professorship he devoted himself in turn to journalism, painting, novel-writing, etc., and in addition to these matters he found time to study archæology. Some of his early studies were devoted to classical archæology, and here, according to M. Maspero, he exhibited "power of discussion, clearness and vigour of style, and keen penetration," qualities for which in after-life he was famous. His attention was first drawn to the study of Egyptian

* For full accounts of the life of Mariette, see Inauguration du Monument élevé à Boulogne-sur-Mer en l'honneur de l'Egyptologue Auguste Mariette, le 16 Juillet, 1882, par Aug. Huguet, Mayor of Boulogne, Boulogne, 1882; and Wallon, Notice sur la vie et les travaux de F. A. F. Mariette Pasha, Paris, 1883, 4to., with portrait of Mariette as frontispiece; and Maspero, Guide au Musée de Boulaq, Cairo, 1884, pp. 12-23.

archæology by the examination of a collection of Egyptian antiquities which had been made by Vivant Denon, one of the artists attached to the French Expedition in Egypt, and his first work on Egyptian archæology seems to have been a notice of a coffin in this collection, which he drew up for the instruction of those who came to inspect it in the municipal buildings where it was exhibited. Soon after this he wrote a paper on the classification of the cartouches inscribed upon the Tablet of Karnak,* a most valuable monument which was discovered at Karnak by Burton, and taken by Prisse d'Avennes to Paris, where it is now preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale. This work was addressed to Charles Lenormant, a pupil of the famous Champollion, and this gentleman, together with Maury, de Saulcy and Longpérier, advised him to come to Paris, where by the kind intercession of Janron, he obtained an appointment on the staff of the Louvre in 1848. As the salary paid to the young man was not sufficient to keep him, he resolved to ask the French Government to provide him with the necessary funds to go to Egypt, where he wished to try his fortune. In his application to the Government he stated that the object of his proposed mission was to study the Coptic and Syriac manuscripts† which still remained in the monasteries of the Nitrian desert, and if possible to acquire them for the nation, and with his application he sent in an essay on Coptic bibliography. The petition was favourably received, and he set out for Egypt in the summer of 1850. Having arrived in Egypt, he found that it was not easy to obtain access to the libraries of the monasteries, for the Patriarch had insisted that they should

* See page 3.

+ The reader interested in the history of Dr. Tattam's acquisition of MSS. from the Monastery of St. Mary Deipara, in the Natron Valley, should read the article in the Quarterly Review for December, 1845, and the preface to Cureton, Festal Letters of Athanasius, London, 1848.