The Treasury of Ancient Egypt / Miscellaneous Chapters on Ancient Egyptian History and Archaeology

INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF UPPER EGYPT, DEPARTMENT OF ANTIQUITIES
AUTHOR OF 'TRAVELS IN THE UPPER EGYPTIAN DESERTS,' 'THE LIFE AND TIMES OF AKHNATON, PHARAOH OF EGYPT,' 'A GUIDE TO THE ANTIQUITIES OF UPPER EGYPT,' ETC., ETC.
RAND McNALLY & COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1912
TO
M.A., D.LITT.
LAYCOCK STUDENT OF EGYPTOLOGY AT WORCESTER COLLEGE, OXFORD,
THIS BOOK,
WHICH WILL RECALL SOME SUMMER NIGHTS UPON THE THEBAN HILLS,
IS DEDICATED.
No person who has travelled in Egypt will require to be told that it is a country in which a considerable amount of waiting and waste of time has to be endured. One makes an excursion by train to see some ruins, and, upon returning to the station, the train is found to be late, and an hour or more has to be dawdled away. Crossing the Nile in a rowing-boat the sailors contrive in one way or another to prolong the journey to a length of half an hour or more. The excursion steamer will run upon a sandbank, and will there remain fast for a part of the day.
The resident official, travelling from place to place, spends a great deal of time seated in railway stations or on the banks of the Nile, waiting for his train or his boat to arrive; and he has, therefore, a great deal of time for thinking. I often try to fill in these dreary periods by jotting down a few notes on some matter which has recently been discussed, or registering and elaborating arguments which have chanced lately to come into the thoughts. These notes are shaped and written up when next there is a spare hour, and a few books to refer to; and ultimately they take the form of articles or papers, some of which find their way into print.