the Exodus, 25 kings had reigned; which is a full confirmation that the tablet of Abydos contained almost a complete catalogue of kings who reigned from the commencement of the kingdom; and that this Koncharis was the Pharaoh who was lost in the Red Sea,

Chencheres, or Bocchoris, was succeeded by Ramesses I., the founder of another line. His reign was but one year; and was followed by that of Armais, whose tomb was discovered by Belzoni, under the directions of Mr. Salt. Armais reigned 5 years according to the literary fragments; but, according to the monuments, 8 or 10 might be allowed him. He was succeeded by Ramesses II., or the Great, the mighty conqueror, the Sesostris of the Greeks. This is the king, who, according to Manetho, left the kingdom in the early part of his reign, and pursued a career of foreign conquest, and appointed as viceroy

during his absence, his brother Armais, who bore the same name with his father. Armais usurped the throne, but was driven out by the return of his brother, when the king is said to have taken the name of Egyptus, and his brother that of Danaus. And the same

story is related of Sesostris by Herodotus. The monuments agree with the history in proving, that this monarch over-ran a considerable tract of country with a large and victorious army, and his name ap=pears upon the tablet on the Nahar el Kelb, in Syria ;* and, according to Herodotus, was in his time upon a similar tablet near Ephesus. His reign was very long and prosperous. He was a great patron of the arts, and covered both Upper and Lower Egypt with the most magnificent buildings. Objections might perhaps be taken to the position here assigned to Ramesses II. within 20

*For this I am indebted to Mr. Bonomi, who has taken a cast of the tablet.

g

years after the catastrophe of the Exodus, on account of his power and prosperity, and from no notice having been taken in the Bible of his conquests. The last objection is obviated by the recollection that his conquests, or rather, we should say, his expedition, for it was nothing more, took place whilst Israel was in Horeb; and from many passages in Scripture it is evident that the calamities of the Exodus were confined more especially to Lower Egypt, or rather to the Delta. Thus, in the 89th Psalm, it is expressed, "Thou hast subdued (not Egypt but) Rahab, (that is, the Delta,) and destroyed it." And in Isaiah, "Oh arm of the Lord, art thou not it, that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep? that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?"* The strength of Upper

*Ch. li. 9. See Bocchart, that Rahab particularly signifies the Delta, the Rib of the present day.

Egypt was consequently unimpaired, and perhaps increased by the extinction of the troubles, which had so long afflicted Lower Egypt. And indeed, the sceptre seems to have passed to a line of kings who were not hostile to the Israelites : for in their names and signets they seem to have adopted hieroglyphics, which had been especially borne by Joseph, as the square-eared symbol by Armais, and the symbol of Justice by Ramesses. Nor did hostility to the Egyptians exist in Israel after the Exodus, for Moses, in his law for the naturalization of proselytes, gives an express privilege to the Egyptians.

There has been considerable difficulty to ascertain whether the names and signets upon the monuments of Ramesses the Great really belong to one or two kings. Mr. Wilkinson* states that he is still of opinion that they belong to one only. Nor is it altogether clear whether

* Thebes.

Ramesses I. or Ramesses II. was that king, who was called Ægyptus. In the list of Theophilus, both Ramesses I. and II. bear the name of Sethos. In Eratosthenes we have Saophis, and Sensaophis or Saophis II. in the corresponding places, who, in the Memphite dynasty, appear as Suphis and Suphis, and are said to be the builders of the pyramids, attributed to Cheops and Chephren by Herodotus.* Both Eratosthenes and the Memphite list omit Armais, the intermediate king, but the monuments decidedly prove that this Armais was the son of Ramesses I., and the father of Ramesses II. There is a manuscript fragment of Africanus in ex

*

Both Herodotus and Diodorus have evidently misplaced the founders of the pyramids Cheops, Chephren, and Mycerinus. It is possible that Ramesses the Great might have repaired and cased the pyramids. There are no inscriptions on or in them now. But Abd-e-Lateeph relates, that before the casing was stripped to build the walls of Cairo, he saw them himself covered with hieroglyphics.