again after their expulsion, by their conquerors. They refer to the two obelisks called Cleopatra's Needles, which are now at Alexandria, but are found from their inscription to have been originally erected in some other city, in proof of the existence of such a practice. This, however, really proves nothing. Had the obelisk at Heliopolis been thrown down, and afterwards re-erected by any successor of Osortasen, whether Pharaoh or Ptolemy, he would certainly either have recorded the deed in an inscription upon the obelisk, or he would have erased the name of Osortasen, and substituted his own in its place. All the monuments of Egypt bear testimony to the universality of this practice of adding or substituting the name of the restorer for that of the founder; and the practice continued as long as hieroglyphics remained in use. So that the absence of all hieroglyphic records of their removal from the obelisks of Alexandria plainly limits the time of it to a very late period, when Heliopolis had been long deserted.* This consideration suggests the probability that the obelisk at Heliopolis is now standing in the place in which it had been at first erected, contributing some degree of support, at any rate, to the plain tenor of the inspired account of the sojourn of Joseph in Egypt. The Pharaoh then reigning was a shepherd king, but he had adopted the manners and customs of Egypt; and instead of the savage devastator and oppressor described by the Egyptian priests, he was the benefactor of the country over which he ruled.

*Probably at the end of the third century of the Christian era: about that time an obelisk was brought from Egypt by Constantius, and erected at Rome.-Ammian. Marcell. Hist.

A further testimony to the truth of the Scripture account of these shepherds is afforded by the existence at Memphis of the majority of the remaining monuments of their predecessors. Had they been thus bent upon destruction, it is not to be supposed that a single tablet would have escaped them during the 260 years in which they reigned there.

The certainty from Scripture that the shepherd kings had adopted the manners and customs of Egypt has been already pointed out. There is the name of a king on a tablet evidently of great antiquity though of coarse execution, which is in

the British Museum. The same name

has also been

copied from a rock which had been cut through in ancient times to form the road to Cosseir by the Red Sea. It reads, and is not improbably the hieroglyphic name of the king under whom Joseph flourished, and which the priests converted, by a pun, into Aphophis, the destroyer, apoy.

These indications, though slight, are nevertheless all in one direction: they point plainly to the state of things described in the Bible, which differs so materially from the account of the Egyptian priests.

The native Egyptians in considerable numbers followed their king, who fled into Upper Egypt from this invasion of the shepherds. Here they penetrated, according to Manetho, beyond the bounds of Egypt Proper, southward into Nubia, and eastward to the shores of the Red Sea; founding another empire, which was governed by the dynasty of kings called in the lists the 17th. In these events, the future greatness

of Thebes originated, and they will account for the peculiarity of two capitals in Egypt. The native sovereigns being expelled from Memphis, Thebes became the metropolis of Egypt.

The monuments give but very scanty materials whence to form a history of the first five monarchs of this dynasty. The whole of them were named either Amenumis or Osortasen, agreeably to a custom very prevalent in ancient Egypt, of giving the grandfather's name to the grandson. They still continued to make war upon the Nubians or Ethiopians, and extended in that direction the conquests of the head of their family, Osortasen 1. The name of the third of them is inscribed in the sanctuary of the temple of Semné, in Nubia. It was probably in these wars that they acquired the military skill and experience of which their late reverses had so fatally taught them the necessity, and which enabled them shortly afterwards to recover possession of Memphis, and expel the invaders.

A collection of superb tablets, executed during the reigns of five of the monarchs of this epoch, is now in the British Museum. They were found at Abydos, a city of the northern part of Upper Egypt. No fewer than eight of these tablets are inscribed with dates computed from the commencement of the king's reign during which they were executed. Osortasen I., whose hieroglyphic name has been already given, reigned, according to one of them,* thirtynine years. A tablet quoted by Rosellini is dated the fortythird of his reign.

His third successor, Amenumis II., reigned at least nine

Anastasy No. 9 of the Museum.

teen years, on the unanswerable authority of one of these tablets, (Anastasy 57.) The succeeding monarch, Osortasen III., whose name is the first of the middle row to the right in the genealogy of Abydos, (see p. 179,) reigned not less than six years.*

The fifth monarch of this line reigned seven years, or more. His name follows that of his predecessor, in the middle row of the genealogy of Abydos. He is also named Osortasen, IV. (Anastasy 18.)

The name of the sixth of these Pharaohs was Amenumis III. His title, or prenomen, is the third to the right of the middle row of the tablet of Abydos: he reigned twentyfive years, at least, according to one of these tablets.

Copies of some of the more remarkable of them are here subjoined.

The top of this most beautiful tablet, (see engraving on p. 198,) bears the winged globe, the symbol of Har-hat, the celestial sun. The principal inscription, the two horizontal lines immediately below it, read thus:-" In the 19th year of his majesty the king, (sun of golden offerings) Amenumis II.,† (the third successor of Osortasen I.,) loving Osiris, the lord of Abydos, the giver of life and stability, like the sun for ever." The third line reads both to the right and left, divides in the middle. The part to the right means a "house of blessing, that is, the sepulchre; wine, milk, incense, oxen and geese have been offered by the constable of the palace, Sevek Re, the justified." This part refers to the group of six figures on the right side of the upper part of the tablet,

* Anastasy No. 7.

The first legible ring to the right in the middle row of the tablet of Abydos, above, p. 179, is the title of the successor of Amenumis II., who was called O sortasen.