negroes, whose appearance, says M. Champollion, can never be mistaken, for they appear in the same costume, in which the negroes are invariably painted on the royal monuments of Thebes, discovered by Belzoni. Joined to these, there is another set of people, invariably represented with red hair, and blue eyes, wearing round their bodies oxhides, still rough and untanned, while their arms and legs are tatooed. These barbarians, M. Champollion very properly remarks, are the celebrated Shepherds, the Hyk-shos, who, issuing from Asia, conquered and ruined Egypt, till the Pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty put an end to their depredations.

Besides these two nations, a third set of people is to be met with, on almost all the Egyptian monuments, represented with long and thick beards, sometimes having their heads uncovered, at other times wearing a species of bonnet, very large towards the neck, but fastened at the top by a circle, or diadem. They have also a sort of tippet, which descends to their elbows, and covers the whole bust. These, like the two nations above mentioned, are very often to be met with on the Egyptian monuments raised to the memory of the Pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty, and this circumstance alone justifies the supposition, which their dress and manner must certainly suggest, of their being the Israelites, the people who, next to the Shepherds, brought desolation and ruin over Egypt, and whose images, like those of the Hykshos and the negroes, are never represented but

in a state of dejection, bondage, or captivity. In the beautiful collection of prints published by the "Commission d'Egypt," and even in those attached to the travels of Caillaud, there are many, exhibiting them all prostrated and in chains, on the footstools of the throne of the Pharaohs; some of them are to be seen amongst the ruins at Sourien-Taoua, in Nubia, a monument which bears a great deal of similarity to the Memnonium; and the figures are engraved round the lower part of the columns which supported and adorned the temple, just as Champollion mentions, in his first letter to the Duke de Blacas, that he had observed round the monument of the Pharaoh Horus, in the Museum of Turin. Indeed, we have seen, in a former Lecture, that such was the detestation which the whole nation felt towards these individuals, that amongst the several collections of Egyptian relics, very often we meet with shoes, painted underneath with the figures of prisoners belonging to each of the three above-mentioned people. Of these specimens there are several in the different cabinets of the learned; and M. Caillaud, from all accounts, possesses, perhaps, the most curious.

It might be said, that if the Shepherds, and not the Egyptians, were the oppressors of the Israelites, and if, according to the opinion of Mr. Faber, the army of the former, and not of the latter, perished in the Red Sea; in short, if the Egyptians were as cruelly treated by the Shepherds as the Israelites, why should the Egyptians

shew so much detestation for the Israelites, who, after all, were the descendants and relations of Joseph, of that very man who had conferred so much benefit on their land, and whose memory could never be forgotten? To this objection it may be answered that, according to the relation of Manetho, the Israelites had called to their aid the Hyk-shos, and the hardships which the Egyptians underwent, during the time of their dwelling in their land, were a strong and a sufficient reason to make them share in the hatred which the Egyptians felt for these destroyers of their country, even if there had been no previous cause for detesting them, which is not the case. For, in this respect, the same story is told both by the Holy Bible and Manetho. According to this historian, you remember, I hope, that the Shepherds held the throne of Memphis, and for some time at least rendered tributaries even the Pharaohs, who reigned at Thebes, from the death of Timaus to their leaving the country, by the victories of Thumosis, that is, for the space of 260 years. During this time the Shepherds practised every species of cruelty and abomination throughout the land, and their behaviour certainly must have inspired the natives with sentiments and feelings of horror and detestation towards these barbarians. Now the same fact is recorded by our sacred Scripture. At the time of the descent of Israel into Egypt, we are informed in the book of Genesis, that Joseph instructed his brethren how they should answer Pharaoh. "And

it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, what is your occupation? that you shall say, thy servants' trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we and also our fathers that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.”

If then the Egyptians felt such a dislike to the very trade of a shepherd, as to require some management on the part of Joseph, notwithstanding his great power at the court of Pharaoh, to obtain for his father and brothers the land of Goshen, it is clear that this feeling must have had an origin and a cause; and Manetho tells us, that this cause was the tyrannical treatment which the Egyptians had received at the hands of the Shepherds.

I see, therefore, according to the relation of Manetho, not the slightest reason why the Israelites, who had called the Shepherds to their aid, should not be equally detested as their allies; for these allies were the sworn enemies of the Egyptians, the mockers of their religion, and the destroyers of their land.

But again, it may be insisted upon, that the figures of the people whom we take to be the Israelites, may, after all, represent the Assyrians, the Persians, or any other warlike nation who had attacked Egypt, for the costume of these prisoners, as far as we know, may belong to any one of these nations, whose mode of worship was as different

as that of the Israelites from the religion of the Egyptians. Their representing the Israelites, therefore, is but a supposition; for, amongst the several inscriptions found on the different temples throughout Egypt, there is no monument which records their departure, or even their dwelling in the land.

To this objection it may be answered, that although we have no monument or inscription which records the sojourning and departure of the Israelites from Egypt, these facts are mentioned with a great deal of precision and minuteness by Manetho, whose account explains many passages of the Bible, of which no one can otherwise see the reason; and that historian, by fixing the date of the first and second irruption of the Shepherds, when they came to the assistance of the Israelites does in fact empower us to suppose that the images of the prisoners whom we take to be the descendants of Jacob, were in fact the representations of these people; because the monuments on which they appear are unquestionably the production of times much posterior to the first years of the descent of Israel.

To this powerful reason it may be added, that the monuments which we have as yet derived from Egypt are, comparatively speaking, so few, as to prevent us from asserting with certainty that there are not others from which the information required may be obtained. The difficulties which European travellers have encountered in their attempts to col