tween Cairo and the Red Sea. Horses are indeed often taken across at the present day; but then a supply of water must be provided for them; usually about two water-skins for each horse. Six of these water-skins are a load for a camel; so that for every three horses, there must be a camelload of water. Still they not unfrequently die; and we saw the carcasses of several which had perished during the recent passage of the Haj. Flocks of sheep and goats might pass across; but for neat cattle this would be impossible, without a like supply of water.

LAND OF GOSHEN.

The preceding considerations go far to support the usual view of scholars at the present day, that the Land of Goshen lay along the Pelusiac arm of the Nile, on the east of the Delta, and was the part of Egypt nearest Palestine.* This tract is now comprehended in the modern province eshShrukîyeh, which extends from the neighborhood of Abu Za'bel to the sea, and from the desert to the former Tanaitic branch of the Nile; thus including also the valley of the ancient canal. If the Pelusiae arm, as is commonly assumed, were navigable for fleets in ancient times, the Israelites were probably confined to its eastern bank; but if we are at liberty to suppose that this stream was never much larger than at present, then they may have spread themselves out upon Delta beyond it, until restrained by larger branches of the Nile. That the Land of Goshen lay upon the waters of the Nile, is apparent from the circumstance, that the Israelites practised irrigation; that it was a land of seed, figs, vines, and pomegranates; that the people ate of fish freely; while the enumeration of the articles for which they longed in the desert, corresponds remarkably with the list given by Mr. Lane as the food of the modern Fellahs.† All this goes to

the

*The usual arguments from Scripture and the early writers, on which this opinion rests, may be found in Rosenmueller's Bibl. Geogr. III. p. 246, sq. Gesenius' Thesaur. Ling. Heb. p. 307. Bibl. Repos. Oct. 1832, p. 744. A view of the various earlier theories respecting the position of Goshen is given in Bellermann's Handb. der Bibl. Literatur IV. p. 191. Gesenius

1. c.

+ Deut. xi. 10, Num. xx. 5, Num. xi. 5, "We remember the

show, that the Israelites, when in Egypt, lived much as the Egyptians do now; and that Goshen probably extended further west and more into the Delta than has usually been supposed. They would seem to have lived interspersed among the Egyptians of that district, perhaps in separate villages, much as the Copts of the present day are mingled with the Mohammedans. This appears from the circumstance of their borrowing "jewels of gold and silver" from their Egyptian neighbors; and also from the fact, that their houses were to be marked with blood in order that they might be spared in the last dread plague of the Egyptians.*

The immediate descendants of Jacob were doubtless nomadic shepherds like their forefathers, dwelling in tents; and probably drove their flocks for pasture far up in the Wadys of the desert, like the present inhabitants of the same region. But in process of time they became also tillers of the soil, and exchanged their tents for more fixed habitations. Even now there is a colony of the Tamarah Arabs, about fifty families, living near Abu Za'bel, who cultivate the soil and yet dwell in tents. They came thither from Mt. Sinai about four years before the French invasion. This drove them back for a time to the mountains of the Terâbîn E. of Suez; but they had acquired such a taste for the good things of Egypt, that like the Israelites they could not live in the desert, and soon returned after the French were gone. Now, said our Arabs, though we acknowledge them as cousins, they have no right to dwell among us: nor could they live in our barren mountains after enjoying so long the luxuries of Egypt.

The Land of Goshen was "the best of the land;"† and such too the province of the Shurkîyeh has ever been, down to the present time. In the remarkable Arabic document

ons,

fish we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers and the meland the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic." Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, I. p. 242. "Their food consists of bread made of millet or of maize, milk, new cheese, eggs, small salted fish, cucumbers and melons, gourds of a great variety of kinds, onions and leeks, beans, chickpeas, lupins," etc. etc.

* Ex. xi. 2, xii. 12, 13, 22, 23, etc. + Gen. xlvii. 6.

translated by De Sacy,* containing a valuation of all the provinces and villages of Egypt in the year 1376, the province of the Shurkiyeh comprises 383 towns and villages, and is estimated at 1,411,875 dinars-a larger sum than is put upon any other province, with one exception. During my stay in Cairo, I made many inquiries respecting this district; to which the uniform reply was, that it was considered as the best province in Egypt. Wishing to obtain more definite information, I ventured to request of Lord Prudhoe, with whom the Pasha was understood to be on a very friendly footing, to obtain for me, if possible, a statement of the valuation of the provinces of Egypt. This, as he afterwards informed me, could not well be done; but he had ascertained that the province of the Shurkiyeh bears the highest valuation and yields the largest revenue. He had himself just returned from an excursion to the lower parts of this province, and confirmed from his own observation the reports of its fertility. This arises from the fact that it is intersected by canals; while the surface of the land is less elevated above the level of the Nile, than in other parts of Egypt; so that it is more easily irrigated. There are here more flocks and herds than any where else in Egypt; and also more fishermen. The population is half migratory, composed partly of Fellahs and partly of Arabs from the adjacent deserts and even from Syria; who retain in part their nomadic habits, and frequently remove from one village to another. Yet there are very many villages wholly deserted, where some fifty thousand people might at once find a habitation. Even now another million at least might be sustained in the district; and the soil is capable of higher tillage to an indefinite extent. So too the adjacent desert, so far as water could be applied for irrigation, might be rendered fertile; for wherever water is, there is fertility.

ROUTE OF THE ISRAELITES TO THE RED SEA.

From the land of Goshen, as thus defined, to the Red Sea, the direct and only route was along the valley of the ancient canal. The Israelites broke up from their rendezvous at Rameses" on the fifteenth day of the first month, on the mor

* Abdallatif's Relation de l'Egypte, par De Sacy, p. 583, sq.

row after the passover; and proceeded by Succoth and Etham to the sea. Without stopping to inquire as to the identity of Rameses with Heröopolis, or the position of the latter place, it is enough for our purpose, that the former town (as is generally admitted) lay probably on the valley of the canal in the middle part, not far from the western extremity of the basin of the Bitter Lakes. Nor is it necessary to discuss the point, whether this basin anciently formed a prolongation of this arm of the Red Sea, as is supposed by some; or, as is more probable, was covered with brackish water, separated from the Red Sea, as now, by a tract of higher ground. Nothing more is needed for our present purpose, even admitting that a communication existed from this basin to the sea, than to suppose that the inlet, if any, was already so small, as to present no important obstacle to the advance of the Israelites.

From Rameses to the head of the Gulf, according to the preceding data, would be a distance of some thirty or thirtyfive miles, which might easily have been passed over by the Israelites in three days. A large portion of the people were apparently already collected at Rameses, waiting for permission to depart, when the last great plague took place. From the time when Pharaoh dismissed Moses and Aaron in the night of the fourteenth day of the month (according to the Jewish reckoning) until the morning of the fifteenth day, when the people set off, there was an interval of some thirty hours, during which these leaders could easily reach Rameses from the court of Pharaoh, whether this were at Memphis, or as is more probable, at Zoan or Tanis.t

The first day's march brought them to Succoth, a name signifying "booths," which might be applied to any temporary station or encampment. Whether there was water here is not mentioned; and the position of the place cannot be determined. On the second day they reached Etham, "in the edge of the wilderness." What wilderness? The Israelites after passing the Red Sea are said in Exodus to have gone three days' march into the desert of Shur; but in Numbers

* Ex. xii. 37; Num. xxxiii. 3.

The Psalmist places the scene of the miracles of Moses in the region of Zoan; Ps. lxxviii. 12, 43.

Ex. xiii. 20; Num. xxxiii. 6.

the same tract is called the desert of Etham.* It hence follows, that Etham probably lay on the edge of this eastern desert, perhaps not far from the present head of the Gulf, and on the eastern side of the line of the Gulf or canal. May it not have stood upon or near the strip of land between the Gulf and the basin of the bitter Lakes ? At any rate, it would seem to have been the point from which the direct course of the Israelites to Sinai would have led them around the present head of the Gulf and along its eastern side. From Etham they "turned" more to the right; and instead of passing along the eastern side, they marched down the western side of the arm of the Gulf, to the vicinity of Suez. This movement, apparently so directly out of their course, might well give Pharaoh occasion to say, "they are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in ;" and lead him to pursue them with his horsemen and chariots, in the hope of speedily overtaking and forcing them to return.

The position of Migdol, Pi-haheroth, and Baal-Zephon, cannot of course be determined, except that they probably were on or near the great plain back of Suez. If the wells of 'Ajrûd and Bîr Suez were then in existence, they would naturally mark the sites of towns; but there is no direct evidence either for or against such an hypothesis. That this point, so important for the navigation of the Red Sea, was already occupied by a town, perhaps Baal-Zephon, is not improbable. A few centuries later several cities lay in the vicinity; and these must have had wells, or there were more fountains than at present. In the plain, the Israelites would have abundant space for their encampment.

PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA.

The question here has respect to the part of the sea where the passage took place, which many writers and travellers have assumed to be the point at the mouth of Wady Tawârik, south of Râs 'Atâkah, principally perhaps because it was

* Ex. xv. 22; Num. xxxiii. 8.

This view would be supported by the Egyptian etymology which Jablonski assigns to the name Etam, viz. ATIOM, border of the sea.

Ex. xiv. 2, 3, sq.