Nov.7] SOCIETY OK BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY. f»93-
THE MOERIS PAPYRI.By Cope Whitehouse.In 1870 MarietteBeypublishedin fac-simile, underthe auspices
of His Highness Ismail Pasha, nine papyri in the Museum of
Boulaq. It commenced withtwo fragments knownas " the Moeris
papyrus." In 1872 M. Maspero published a translation of these
papyri in the Revue critiquecThistoireet de Litterature (No.12, 23
Mars). He styled them: " Les fragments d'untraitéde geographie
religieuseremplide notions curieusessur l'unedes provinces les
moinsconnuesde l'Egypte, le Fayum." Thesepapyriare in hiero
glyphics,carefullydrawn. A singular factis the numbering of the
varioussubdivisions in very small demoticfigures. Somehieratic
charactersoutside the text are of the type of the Roman epoch.
ThereforeM. Maspero wasled to think that the date of this copy
couldnot be earlier thanthe first centuryb.C. ; and inclinedto the
opinionthatit might evenbe of the first centurya.d.
WhenDr. Brugsch waspreparinghis geographical dictionary,he
embodiedin it texts froma papyrus whichhe termed the Labyrinth
Papyrus. He had accessto a tracing belonging to Dr. Eisenlohr
copiedfromthe original in Alexandria, but it did not purport to be
a fac-simile. Thepapyrushad been acquiredin 1859 by Mr. Hood.
In 1884 Dr. Eisenlohr wroteto Dr. Pleijte : "Je l'ai copie d'apres
la copie que Mr. A. C. Harris en a fait dans ses livres de notice, que
sa fille avait mis dans mesmains. Le papyrus se trouvait en posses
siond'unAnglais,nommé Hood. Je me suis address^ a sa Veuve
pour l'original, maiselle ne l'avait plus ou ne le trouvait pas."
(Pleijte,p. 2).
In 1884, Dr. Pleijtepublished his treatise: OverdrieHand-
schriftenop Papyrus bekendonder de titels vanPapyrusdu Lac
Moeris, du Fayoum, et du Labyrinth. TheDirectorof the Royal
Museumof Antiquities in Leyden republished the Boulaq edition,
but in black andwhite,and a fac-simile of Dr. Eisenlohr's tracing.
In 1885 I visited Mrs. Hood, at Lincoln. She informedme
thata copy of a papyrus purchased by Mr. Hood,at Thebes, in