[1885. and Mit-Fares in the Fayoum" (ibid.). If therefore "the arrival of Joseph in Egypt has [rightly] been placed by some [including Josephus] in the reign of Apepi II [and the Hyk-Sos kings]," then "the 430 years of the bondage of Israel corresponds with the monumental date of 400 years from the Shepherd [Lords of CET] Rulers of Set or Saites [in the Sethroïte Nome] to Rameses II” (ibid., p. 79). The enterprising engineers, "men of ignoble birth out of eastern parts, who had boldness enough to make an expedition into our [Manetho's] country and with ease subdued it, yet without a battle" (Jos. Contra Apion, I, 14), apparently took possession of a natural lake and marsh which enabled them to divide by canals the feudal lords of the Delta, and rule them from Tanis, Zoan, Memphis. They were Arabs to the indigenous inhabitants. Their province with its labyrinth or "temple to Sutech for ever," always retained its foreign characteristics (Murtadi), and long after it ceased to be "Typhonian" (§ 26), it was a supplemental Nome 'AN, Aean (Pliny), and the Heroonpolis of other geographers. A single glance at a correct map of Egypt, showing the Reian Basin and the depth below the Mediterranean of that dry valley and the cultivable land of the Fayoum (See Proceedings, Soc. Bib. Arch., Map and Sections, June, 1882), gives striking force to the words, "the king conducts to thee the Nile (H'APU, H'AP) of Lower Egypt, from the site of the Heliopolite Nome, leaving, as its point of departure, the town of U'AR [Howara]. It is thus that the town called * U-'AR has a very marked geographical application to the Nile before the formation [redemption] of the Delta." (Br. D. G. p. 143.) * Compare in both respects a similar work in Arabia :—-“ Abd-Shems, surnamed Saba, having built the city, from him called Saba and afterwards Mareb, made a vast mound or dam, to serve as a basin or reservoir to receive the water which came down from the mountains, not only for the use of the inhabitants, and watering their lands, but also to keep the country in greater awe by being masters of the water. This structure stood like a mountain above their city, and was by them esteemed so strong that they were in no apprehension of its ever failing. The water rose to the height of almost twenty fathoms, and was kept in on every side by a work so solid that many of the inhabitants had their houses built upon it." It was however destroyed by a flood "which happened soon after the time of Alexander the Great, and is famous in Arabian history."-Geogr. Nub., p. 52; Sale's Koran, p. 8. The following description appeared in the Graphic, 10th January, 1885, p. 43. Dr. Birch has kindly sent me a note on the inscription. W. H. R. The subjoined inscription, on the face of a red granite rock, on the left bank of the Nile, at the top of the Cataract of Tangur, sixty feet above the water, was copied on November 3 by Mr. Charles Williams, of the Central News. Mr. Williams thus describes it in a letter to the Daily Chronicle:-" At the top of this cataract (Tangur), on a brown granite rock above the highest Nile, its face showing south, about fifteen degrees west, is a hieroglyphic inscription, which is, I believe, as yet unrecorded. It is in an out-of-the-way place, little likely to be visited by Europeans, and it is so small that it would hardly attract the attention of natives. Every effort to devise a means of reproducing this in ordinary typography having failed, I have handed the sketch to that veteran campaigner, Mr. Frederick Villiers, the special artist of the Graphic, who sends it home by this mail in the hope that it will be published and deciphered." The copy of the inscription from the Cataract of Tangur is so difficult to read that only the merest conjecture can be made of its import. It appears to be dated in the second year of Thothmes I. This seems probable from the beetle in the name of the king, and then as the two first lines may be f ΔΡ. In the subsequent lines appear to be— which seems to refer to the return of the king and the convoy of some kind led by Aahmes, scribe of the troops, the amount of which is illegible. The following Communication has been received from Mr. E. A. Wallis Budge: DEAR MR. RYLANDS, February 4th, 1885. While staying at Oxford last year, Prof. Sayce showed me some stela which form part of the Egyptian collection preserved in the library of Queen's College. Among them is a grey stone tablet, rounded at the top and containing 19 lines of inscription; it measures 18 by 11 inches. On the left hand side towards the top is a figure of a man, upright and wearing a head-dress; his right arm is raised, and from his waist to his feet he is draped in a garment which terminates in a point in front of him near the feet. Dr. Birch thinks that the stele belongs to the period of the XIIth Dynasty. It was inscribed for a person called xenti-xati-em-hat.* The hieroglyphics are roughly (sometimes even imperfectly) made, and here and there characters have been omitted from the words. Through the kindness of the Provost and Fellows of Queen's College a squeeze was taken, and from this, together with Mr. Le Page Renouf's assistance, I have been enabled to send you the following copy of the text, a transliteration of it, and translation. Transliteration. 1. tūau Åsår 2. T'et åri at en āt māt xenti 3. xati-em-hat maxeru t'eṭ-f ånet' hra-k Åsår 8. nutȧru rexit mitu ti ba-f em Taṭṭu śefit 9. em Suten-senen ți ās'em-f em Annu xent 10. aa xeperu em Taṭṭu neb senț em țu ãã neru em II. Ru-stau neb aã ur em Tanent āā merut her-ta Amenta 12. neb sexa nefer em ḥā aā āā xāu em Abṭu ți-nef māxeru 13. embaḥ Seb paut nutȧru āāt temț qema nef sat em 14. usext a'mt Ḥer-ur nereru-nef sexemu āāu āḥā-nef *This name is also found on the Florence stele No. 2564. See Lieblein, Dict, des noms Hiér., p. 62, No. 199. 15. uru her temau-sen ța en Śhu sent-f qema en 16. Tefnut śefit-f i-nef At'erti resu meḥt em Resu en ur Translation. Adoration to Osiris. Says xenti-xati-em-hat, triumphant, the keeper of the house, of the house of gifts, "Hail Osiris xent Åmenta, lord of horns, lofty diademed, lord of terror, great of power, on this beautiful day which rises without lamentation in it, the crown has been given to him at the head of Suten-senen. Rā has given his terror and Tmu has produced his fear in the heart of men, gods, the living and the dead (damned): giving his power (soul) in Tattu, his might in Suten-senen, and his form in Heliopolis. The great of becomings in Tattu, the lord of terror on the two hills, the mightily feared in Rustau, the mighty great god in Tanent, the much-beloved upon earth, the lord of good thought in the great palace and the mightily diademed in Abydos. Triumph is given to him in the presence of Seb and the cycle of the great gods: he has made slaughterings in the great hall which is in Her-ur,† the great powers fear him, and the mighty ones stand up to him upon their pedestals. Shu provides his terror and Tefnut his (her) powers; and the two At'erti, the northern and southern, come in homage to the great one of his terror, and the mighty one of his courage, viz., Osiris, the heir of Seb, the sovereign of the gods, the first one of heaven, the ruler of the living, and the king of the two earths, (whom) the constellations glorify in xer-aba, and (whom) the unborn generations adore in Heliopolis. I am informed that there are other Egyptian inscribed stones in both Hieratic and Hieroglyphic among the treasures preserved in the library of this College; it is much to be wished that someone on the spot would interest themselves to obtain copies, as they would form a suitable continuation to the above remarks by Mr. Budge.-W.H.R. See Mr. Renouf's Paper on the Silurus Fish in this month's Proceedings. The following communication has been received from Mr. Theo. G. Pinches : THE NAME OF THE CITY AND COUNTRY OVER WHICH It will be remembered that the now well-known boss of Tarkûtimme bears an inscription in Hittite and Assyrian or Babylonian which may prove, ultimately, of great value in enabling scholars to find out how to translate the strange hieroglyphs from Aleppo and Jerabis. Now as the name of the city or country over which Tarku-timme reigned is the most doubtful part of the inscription, some scholars reading the name mât Ermê, "land of Ermê,” others mât Zumê, "land of Zumê," a few remarks upon this subject may not be quite useless. As I purpose speaking only of the wedge-inscription on this boss, I reproduce it here: Prof. Sayce is of opinion that these forms must be referred to the time of Sargon of Assyria, and this is not by any means unlikely, for they bear a close likeness to the half archaic, half Babylonian style adopted during his reign,* though it must be confessed that the forms are not quite archaic enough. Transcribed into pure late Assyrian, the inscription would be as follows: It seems best, therefore, to regard these forms as pure Babylonian, possibly slightly modified by Assyrian influence. If the inscription be regarded as being connected with the Babylonian wedge-writing, the number of characters correctly given is seven, the incorrect ones being the second (Tar), the third (ku), the fifth (tim, which might equally well bemu), and the eleventh (e).† Compare Lyon's "Keilschrifttexte Sargon's," pp. 20-26. + It must also be noted that the forms are equally incorrect from an Assyrian point of view. |