THE BOOK OF KINGS.
The Book of Kings. By E. A. Wallis Budge, Litt.D. 2 vols. (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co. 6s. net per vol.)—These two volumes, the first containing the Egyptian Dynasties L-XIX., the second XX.-XXX., are the twenty-third and twenty-fourth in the series of "Books on Egypt and Chaldaea." There are two intro- ductory chapters, dealing respectively with "Egyptian Royal Names" and "Egyptian Chronology." A King—and the state- ment is true of the Ptolemies and the Roman Emperors—had commonly five names, the first and third being connected with Horns, the second with Nekliebit, goddess of the South, the fourth solar and territorial, about equivalent to "King of the North and the South," the fifth the private name. This is a rough statement which the reader will find, with certain quillifica- Cons, to be generally trite. The facts of the chronology cannot be so easily stated. There are three systems, which may be dis- tinguished by giving the date of Manes, the first King, with the name of the leading scholar who has drawn up or championed it. These three are 3315 (Meyer), 4400 (Brugsch), and 5867 (Cham- pollion-Figeac). Dr. Budge thinks that the middle of these, the 4400 years period of Brugsch, agrees more closely with "the general facts of Egyptian chronology and history" than do the other two. When we reach nemeses LIL we are on firm ground. The Book of Kings itself gives the various names of each Monarch ranged under the dynasty to which he belonged, with representa- tions of the several cartouches and the several authorities.
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