


Produced by David Widger







A ROMANCE OF ANCIENT EGYPT

FROM THE HISTORICAL ROMANCES OF GEORG EBERS


By Georg Ebers


Translated from the German by Clara Bell




                       DEDICATION.

        Thou knowest well from what this book arose.
        When suffering seized and held me in its clasp
        Thy fostering hand released me from its grasp,
        And from amid the thorns there bloomed a rose.
        Air, dew, and sunshine were bestowed by Thee,
        And Thine it is; without these lines from me.




PREFACE.

In the winter of 1873 I spent some weeks in one of the tombs of the
Necropolis of Thebes in order to study the monuments of that solemn city
of the dead; and during my long rides in the silent desert the germ was
developed whence this book has since grown. The leisure of mind and body
required to write it was given me through a long but not disabling illness.

In the first instance I intended to elucidate this story--like my
"Egyptian Princess"--with numerous and extensive notes placed at the
end; but I was led to give up this plan from finding that it would lead
me to the repetition of much that I had written in the notes to that
earlier work.

The numerous notes to the former novel had a threefold purpose. In the
first place they served to explain the text; in the second they were
a guarantee of the care with which I had striven to depict the
archaeological details in all their individuality from the records of
the monuments and of Classic Authors; and thirdly I hoped to supply the
reader who desired further knowledge of the period with some guide to
his studies.

In the present work I