In presenting a new volume of the Records of the Past to the public, I feel it my duty to remind the reader of certain words which I wrote in the Preface to the first volume. I there said that “the writer who wishes to make use of a translation from an Egyptian or Assyrian text for historical or controversial purposes ought to know where it is certain, and where it is only possible, or at most probable.” I therefore promised that “in the present series of volumes doubtful words and expressions should be followed by a note of interrogation, the preceding word being put into italics where necessary”; that is to say, that the reader should be forewarned whenever the translator was himself in doubt as to the correctness of his rendering.