Princess Among Pyramids

EGYPTIAN DAY--Princess Marthe Bibesco--Harcourt, Brace ($2.50).

Princess Marthe Bibesco is a civilized European. But Princess Bibesco thinks Egypt mysterious. That land of monuments and tombs makes her feel a little uncomfortable. Says she: "We are not very civilized, people of little value, of few possibilities, content to put handles of silver on the coffins of our great men and then believe we have made fools of ourselves over them." Egyptian Day is a notebook: that is to say, there is little padding in it.

A sense of Egypt's mystery pervades the book. Like many thoughtful travelers through dead and still incompletely under stood civilizations, Princess Bibesco feels that Egypt's statues know more than they will tell." Egypt is not of interest except to a few devoted amateurs. Her thoughts have remained inaccessible, incommunicable to the herd (as are our own). . . . He who has never pursued the key to the secret of life, be it only in dreams, will never draw near the real Egypt." In one of her last entries, Traveler Bibesco's European wit reasserts itself: "Since I have left Egypt, I keep rubbing my eyes and wonder why I see badly, or if I am going blind. It is her light that I miss. I must have a first cataract operation."

Authoress Marthe Bibesco, not to be confused with her cousin. Princess Antoine Bibesco (nee Elizabeth, daughter of Margot Asquith), was born in Rumania, daughter of Jean Lahovary, onetime Rumanian Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, was educated in France. At 16 she married Prince Bibesco, head of the Bibesco family, accompanied him to Persia on a diplomatic mission. Like others of the Rumanian nobility, most notably Queen Marie, the Bibescoes will turn an adulant dollar out of democratic pockets. Princess Bibesco's first book, the Eight Paradises, written when she was 18, was crowned by the French Academy. Other books : Alexander Asiatique, Isvor, Catherine-Paris, The Green Parrot.

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