"This little book is intended to form an easy introduction to the study of the Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions... It contains a short account of the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics, and a sketch of the hieroglyphic system of writing and of the general principles which underlie the use of picture signs to express thought. The main facts of Egyptian grammar are given in a series of short chapters, and these are illustrated by numerous brief extracts from hieroglyphic texts; each extract is printed in hieroglyphic type and is accompanied by a transliteration and translation... The chief object has been to make the beginner familiar with the most common signs and words, so that he may, whilst puzzling out the extracts from texts quoted in illustration of grammatical facts, be able to attack the longer connected texts given in my First Steps in Egyptian and in my Egyptian Reading Book.

"Included in this book is a lengthy list of hieroglyphic characters with their values both as phonetics and ideograms." [Budge, from the Preface]

"这本小书的目的是为研究埃及象形文字铭文提供一个简单的介绍...。它包含了对埃及象形文字破译的简短说明，以及对象形文字系统和使用图片符号表达思想的一般原则的概述。在一系列简短的章节中给出了埃及语法的主要事实，并通过大量简短的象形文字摘录来说明这些事实；每个摘录都是用象形文字印刷的，并附有音译和翻译...... 主要目的是让初学者熟悉最常见的符号和单词，这样他就可以在解读为说明语法事实而引用的文本摘录时，能够攻克我的《埃及语第一步》和《埃及语阅读书》中提供的较长的连接文本。

"本书中包含了一份冗长的象形文字清单，其中包括其作为语音和表意文字的价值。[巴德格，来自序言]