"Therefore did they (ie., the Egyptians) set over then taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses . . . And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour." The name of the Egyptian town excavated by Professor Naville was Pa-Temu

whence

is derived the Hebrew form Pithom with which all are familiar. In the course of the excavations a large number of chambers were found, the walls of which were built of crude bricks, and were from six to nine feet thick, the chambers were rectangular in shape, and were not connected by doors or any other opening. There is little doubt that these chambers were the store-places for grain, which was shot into them through holes in the roofs, and it is evident that a very large reserve of grain could be kept in them. The object of such "treasure cities," or rather store cities, was to supply the troops that were stationed on the frontier to "ward the marches" between Egypt and Syria. The town of Raamses was not far from Pithom, and there is every reason to assume that it was in the construction of the crude brick buildings which belonged to them that the Israelites worked. In respect of the bricks of Pithom, Mr. Villiers Stuart remarked (Egypt after the War, p. 81), "I carefully examined the chamber walls, and I noticed that some of the corners of the brickwork throughout were built of bricks without straw. I do not remember to have met anywhere in Egypt bricks so made. In a dry climate. like Egypt it is not necessary to burn the bricks; they are made of Nile mud, and dried in the sun. Straw is mixed with them to give them coherence." This evidence is not so conclusive as it seems, for often straw (i.e., teben) is only

used in mud bricks when it can be spared for this purpose, and everywhere in Egypt, especially in poor districts where all the straw is required for food for the cattle, mud bricks in which there is no straw "binding" will be found.

At Al-Kaṣṣâşin, twenty-four miles from Ismailiya the British defeated Arabi Pâshâ's troops on August 28th, 1882. Here was made the famous charge of the Household Cavalry, which is commonly known as the 'Moonlight Charge.'

At-Tell al-Kabir, or At-Tall al-Kabir, i.e., the 'Great Hill,' thirty-four miles from Isma'îlîya, is the chief strategic point of defence in the Eastern Delta. Here the British defeated Arabi Pâshâ's force on September 13th, 1882. The British cemetery is to the south of the railway line and a little distance from the station.

, ابو حماد,The next two stations are Abû Hammad

where the Arabian desert begins, and Abû al-Akhḍar, , and about forty-eight miles from Ismailiya, Zakázik or Az-Zakázik,, is reached. Zakâzik, the capital of the Sherkîyah province, is a town of about 40,000 inhabitants; the population in 1897 was 35,715 inhabitants. The railway station stands about one mile from the mounds which mark the site of the famous old city of Bubastis,* or Tell Basta. The chief article of commerce here is cotton. Not far from Zakâzîk flows the Fresh-water Canal from Cairo to Suez, which in many places exactly follows the route of the old canal which was dug during the XIXth dynasty.

Bubastis, Bubastus, or Tell Basta (the Pibeseth='House of Bast' of Ezekiel xxx. 17), was the capital of the Bubastites • From the hieroglyphic

Per-Bast, CopticПoact;

it was the metropolis of the 18th nome of Lower Egypt, "where the soul of Isis lived in [the form of] Bast,"

nome in the Delta, and was situated on the eastern side of the Pelusiac arm of the Nile. The city was dedicated to the goddess Bast, the animal sacred to whom was the cat, and was famous for having given a dynasty of kings (the XXIInd) to Egypt. To the south of the city were the lands which Psammetichus I. gave to his Ionian and Carian mercenaries, and on the north side was the canal which Nekau (Necho) dug between the Nile and the Red Sea. The city was captured by the Persians B.C. 352, and the walls, the entire circuit of which was three miles, were dismantled. Recent excavations, by M. Naville, have shown beyond doubt that the place was inhabited during the earliest dynasties, and that many great kings of Egypt delighted to build temples there. The following description by Herodotus of the town and the festival celebrated there will be found of interest :

"Although other cities in Egypt were carried to a great height, in my opinion, the greatest mounds were thrown up about the city of Bubastis, in which is a temple of Bubastis well worthy of mention for though other temples may be larger and more costly, yet none is more pleasing to look at than this. Bubastis, in the Grecian language, answers to Diana. Her sacred precinct is thus situated: all except the entrance is an island; for two canals from the Nile extend to it, not mingling with each other, but each reaches as far as the entrance of the precinct, one flowing round it on one side, the other on the other. Each is a hundred feet broad, and shaded with trees. The portico is sixty feet in height, and is adorned with figures six cubits high, that are deserving of notice. This precinct, being in the middle of the city, is visible on every side to a person going round it: for as the city has been mounded up to a considerable height, but the temple has not been moved, it is conspicuous as it was originally built. A wall sculptured with figures runs round it; and within is a grove of lofty

trees, planted round a large temple in which the image is placed. The width and length of the precinct is each way a stade [600 feet]. Along the entrance is a road paved with stone, about three stades in length [1800 feet], leading through the square eastward; and in width it is about four plethra [400 feet]: on each side of the road grow trees of enormous height: it leads to the temple of Mercury."*

The goddess Bast who was worshipped there is represented as having the head of a cat. She wore a disk, with an or . She was, at times, identified with Sekhet, female counterpart of Ptaḥ, a member of the triad of Memphis.

uræus, and carried the sceptre or f.

Д

Sekhet YON

is called 'Lady of Heaven,' and 'The great lady, beloved of Ptaḥ.' The nature of the ceremony on the way to Bubastis, says Herodotus, is this:-

"Now, when they are being conveyed to the city Bubastis, they act as follows: for men and women embark together, and great numbers of both sexes in every barge: some of the women have castanets on which they play, and the men play on the flute during the whole voyage; the rest of the women and men sing and clap their hands together at the same time. When in the course of their passage they come to any town, they lay their barge near to land, and do as follows: some of the women do as I have described; others shout and scoff at the women of the place; some dance, and others stand up and behave in an unseemly manner; this they do at every town by the river-side. When they

* Herodotus, ii. 137, 138 (Cary's translation).

She was a form of Hathor, and as wife of Ptah was the mother of Nefer-Atmu and I-em-hetep. She was the personification of the power of light and of the burning heat of the sun; it was her duty to destroy the demons of night, mist and cloud, who fought against the Book II. 60,

sun.

arrive at Bubastis, they celebrate the feast, offering up great sacrifices; and more wine is consumed at this festival than in all the rest of the year. What with men and women, besides children, they congregate, as the inhabitants say, to the number of seven hundred thousand."

The fertile country round about Zaķâzîk is probably a part of the Goshen of the Bible.

To the north of the line between Zaķâzîk and Isma‘îliya, and at no great distance from the sea, are numbers of mounds and ruins, which mark the sites of ancient Egyptian cities. Among these may be mentioned those of Khata'ana, which prove that a flourishing city existed there in the XIIIth dynasty. About thirty miles north of Tell Fakus

صان الحجر are the ruins called San al-Hagar . الحجر,al-Hagar

the famous city of Tanis. The town which the Greeks called Tanis, and the Copts т&NEWC or X&Nн, was named by the ancient Egyptians

Sekhet

accurately translated Field of Zoan,, in

Psalm lxxviii. 12, 43) and

Tchart; it was the

capital of the fourteenth nome of Lower Egypt,

Khent-åbt. The two determinatives

indicate that

the place was situated in a swampy district, and that foreigners dwelt there. The Arabs have adopted the shorter name of the town, and call it Ṣân. Dr. H. Brugsch endeavoured to show that Tanis represented the

* Zoan must have been considered a place of great importance by the Hebrews, for they date the founding of Hebron by it (Numbers, xiii. 22), and Isaiah, describing the future calamities of Egypt. says, "Surely the princes of Zoan are fools." (Isaiah xix. 11.)