In the realm of religious writing, the Book of the Dead was most important. Its negative confession to be made before the judges of the dead would imply a high degree of morality, but the truth was that it came into being in an early stage when words were thought identical with the thing itself. We find all peoples passing through a period when great importance was given the spoken word. "I have not been idle; I have not been intoxicated; I have not told secrets; I have not told falsehoods; I have not defrauded; I have not slandered; I have not caused tears; I have given food to the hungry; drink to the thirsty, and clothes to the naked." That confession was probably formulated in this early period when such stress was given to the spoken word. Later, when people understood the difference between the name and the thing itself the confession remained the same, because all things pertaining to religion are last to change. The _Precepts of Ptah-hotep_, prince of the Fifth dynasty, is one of the oldest known books in the world. It is now in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris and is made up of what would be equivalent to twenty printed pages of precepts written to admonish the young. The following indicate their nature: "Be not arrogant because of that which thou knowest, no artist being in possession of the perfection to which he should aspire." "If thou hast become great after having been little, harden not thy heart; thou art only the steward of the good things of God." "Let thy face be cheerful as long as thou livest; hast any one come out of the coffin after having once entered it?" Before leaving this brief consideration of Egyptian writing, we should understand what supplied the writing material of Egypt. The papyrus reeds have frequently been mentioned with no explanation of their use. From this word papyrus has been derived our word _paper_. The reeds grew thick along the sides of streams. Their stems were three cornered and about three inches wide at the base. By peeling off the outer tough green covering, a white pith was obtained. Splitting it and laying strips together, the edges lapping, and upon a surface so formed placing a second layer running the other way, sprinkling the whole with the muddy Nile water, and putting it all under a press made up the process of manufacturing a composition which could be cut into thin sheets. These afforded all the writing material known until the seventh century after Christ, when prepared skins, or parchment, were sometimes substituted. [Illustration: EGYPTIAN SCRIBES] FOOTNOTES: [1] From inscription on a tomb; trans. in "Dwellers on the Nile." [2] Maspero: Ancient Egypt, 9. [3] Popular Literature of Ancient Egypt. Wiedermann. CHAPTER XIII. RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT.