artificial head of the valley from the accidental fact that Mohammed Ali's reopening of the canal terminated at that point. Fourth, this was the most natural gathering point (Exod. xii. 37, and Num. xxxiii. 3, 5) for the Israelites in commencing their journey to Sinai. Dwelling as the mass of them evidently did westward and northward and southward of the head of the valley, the valley itself was as now the only practicable outlet for them in leaving the country, and the head of the valley at Abbaseh was the natural, the safe and convenient rally point. To have collected farther east (and Josephus intimates that they were gathering some time before their departure) must have awakened the suspicions of the king; but this point was within (west of) Zoan, Pharaoh's capital. (Ps. lxxviii. 12, 43.) To have gathered farther east, also, they must have passed the outlet at Abbaseh; and to have rendezvoused in the Desert would have placed them beyond the reach of the supplies which the market at the head of the valley has ever richly furnished. Fifth, this position and this alone comports with subsequent statements as to the Israelites' journey. Moses's message from God to Pharaoh was that he should allow the people to go "three days' journey into the wilderness" and worship, (Exod. iii. 18, and viii. 27.) In accordance with this we read, that at the end of the second day they reached and encamped in "the edge of the wilderness," (Exod. xiii. 20; Num. xxxiii. 6.) Now along the whole line of the Delta the wilderness comes up quite to the very edge of the cultivatable land, with this single exception. About 25 miles north of On, and near the centre of the eastern border of ancient Goshen, there is a fissure in the limestone cliffs that everywhere skirt the land of Egypt, forming a narrow gorge running eastward to the bed of the Bitter Lakes. In this valley, about 30 or 40 miles long and 11 miles wide, the rains of winter collect, and into it the inundation of the Nile occasionally extends, causing it to be covered with bushes and scanty herbage. At its eastern border the desert waste skirts it, as it does all Egypt. There is no other position for Rameses except Abbaseh on the whole eastern border of Egypt which can be made to accord with Moses's account of the journey from Rameses to Etham.

The position of Succoth has not been fixed, and cannot be on any other supposition than that Rameses was at Abbaseh. The unanimous testimony of the Arabs is that nowhere along the whole border of Egypt is there any green spot east of the Delta, except in the valley of the canal. Near the centre of this is a fine lake of sweet water, surrounded by a cultivated

border called " Wady el-Heesh," the Bushy Vale; and about it the Arabs live in "booths," called éshah or hêshah, (see pp. 158-9.) The Arabs universally say, that the route always followed from the Shurkîyeh district of Egypt to Suez runs just south of this lake. The name of the place also, and its character, correspond well with the "Succoth" (booths) of Moses. The French engineers found a bushy place on the canal, not half a mile south of this lake, called Terebasseh elYehood, (from rebets, both Hebrew and Arabic,) the encamping place of the Jews. The distance to the lake, by the writer's somewhat winding route from Abbaseh, was 10 hours by the camel, or about 23 miles; and the direct measurement by the French engineers was 38,402 pas, or about 18 miles; a natural day's journey for a caravan travelling hastily.

The position of Etham may perhaps now be approximately fixed. The name Etham is generally allowed to be composed of two words, (alike in the Egyptian and Hebrew; see Gesenius's Lexicon,) meaning the border of the sea. The supposition is a natural one that the bed of the Bitter Lakes was called the Sea by the ancient Egyptians and Hebrews, as it was when filled with water by the Greeks and Romans, and as it is, though now dry, by the Arabs. Moses also twice mentions that their encampment at Etham was on "the edge of the wilderness." There is no position which can answer these two conditions except the eastern extremity of the valley of the canal. In rendering Exod. xiii. 20, the Greek translators transfer the word Etham, “¿v 'Odwu rapà env ënμov"; but in Numb. xxxiii. 6 and 7 they write, "sis Bovdav, ő kori μépos ti rηs prov"; and again, "ix Bovsar." It would hence appear that in the times of the Ptolemies, a town had grown up (or a province been formed) in the region of the Bitter Lakes called Bouthan. Though no particular site may be fixed on perhaps for Bouthan, yet the encampment of the Jews is thus limited to the end of the valley, about which all the ruins in that region are found. To the eminence called Sheikh Henady, a little north of where the ancient canal entered the bed of the Bitter Lakes, and the extreme eastern point of the valley, the distance from Terebasseh el-Yehood was by the French measurements 16,808 pas and 16,280 metres, (about 18 miles ;) a natural day's journey. The only objection to supposing an encampment here is that there is now no fountain of water in the vicinity, without which the flocks and herds could hardly pass a night. But as before suggested the eastern extremity of this valley must from the earliest times have been a natural position for one or more

fortresses, Pithom probably being somewhere in the region; and as the Egyptians seem not to have engaged in hostilities against the Israelites until they afterwards lay encamped by the sea, from such an Egyptian fortress needed water might be procured.

The position of Pi-Hahiroth and Migdol and Baal-Zephon, between which the Israelites next encamped by the sea, is a yet more interesting question. A view of the nature of the country before them may aid, however, in arriving at a probable conclusion. The natural and nearest route from the eastern end of the valley, where the Israelites pitched their second camp, to Mount Sinai, is to cross the bed of the Bitter Lakes in a direction a little south of east, and then proceed over the plain along the foot of Mount Mukhshabe. An easy day's journey would have brought the Israelites, following their direct route, to the foot of this range of mountains, which extends south to er-Rahah, and so on east of the Red Sea; and the third night they might have encamped by any one of the many fountains along the foot of those rocky heights, (see p. 163.) Information gathered on the spot and afterwards from Sheikh Tûaileb by the writer confirms this view. At their second encampment, however, the direction came from God to Moses, "Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pi-Hahiroth," &c., (Exodus xiv. 2.) The common opinion, that the Israelites in this turn came down through Wady Agrood to the sea, never for a moment could be entertained by any one favored to view the ground. The western point of Gebel Gennafe (or Hamed Tâher as the French found it called, and as Tuaileb says it is yet also called) runs so far westward that two or three days would be required, without any object gained too, to make the circuit; and even from Abbasch, as the Arabs declare, it would be a circuitous route to cross the Desert to the Belbeis road through Wady Agrood. The universal business route from the Shŭrkîyeh district to Suez runs along the western edge of the bed of the Bitter Lakes, and between this bed and the eastern point of Gebel Gennāfe, (see p. 165.) The flocks and herds of the Israelites must have perished for want of water in making the circuit supposed; and it is worthy of note that the trial of their faith proposed is not a long roundabout journey through the Desert, but an encampment between three Egyptian fortresses. The approach then to the sea was evidently by the present Suez route.

Where now "by the sea" are the three Egyptian for

ἐπι το στομα

tresses, "Pi-Hahiroth, Baal-Zephon, and Migdol"? At no point can they be looked for, except at the head of the gulf. At this point there must in the earliest ages have been a call for them. The warlike hordes of Arabia, ever the dreaded scourge of Egypt, turning the head of the gulf, could penetrate to the rich Delta between Mount Gennafe and the Bitter Lakes, to the neighborhood of Memphis through Wady Agrood, or to the neighborhood of Thebes between Mount Atakah and the sea. The Tell at Shaloofah Trōbah marks a fortress at the first point, Kulat Agrood at the second, and Tell Kolzum at the third. May not the former be the site of Pi-Hahiroth? If the etymology of the name be Hebrew, it means the mouth of the caverns, or of the country of the Horites; and this derivation of the word the Greek translators seem to favor in Numbers xxxiii. 7, by rendering "before Pi-Hahiroth," by "ini To oroμa Eipws." If the etymology of the word is Egyptian, (which supposition Gesenius favors,) it is "a place where grass or sedge grows ;" and this second characteristic of the position the same Greck translators give in rendering "before Pi-Hahiroth," in Exodus xiv. 2 and 9, by “ ἀπέναντι τῆς ἐπαύλεως,” “ before the stable or sleeping-place of flocks and herds." The narrow pass between the mountain and the bed of the Bitter Lakes at Shaloofah Trobah is pre-eminently the mouth or entrance to the country of the Horites or Desert Arabs. The place is a general camp-ground; the camel-drivers who carry produce to Suez leaving the city on their return in the afternoon, so as to reach at night this point. For, the moisture and winter rains draining from the point of the mountain, have furnished here a slight soil which gives growth to a coarse shrubbery, and makes the place a favorite resort for Arab shepherds and camel-drivers. It is the natural position in every respect for the encampment of the Israelites; for pasturage was plenty, and water could have been obtained from the neighboring fortress Pi-Hahiroth before the Egyptian king's approach in pursuit. The dis tance from their last encampment would have been perhaps thirty miles or a little more,-a long journey indeed, but not an impossible one; for the camel-drivers now call it but two days' journey from Ras el-Wady to Suez.

66

The position of Migdol has by others been supposed to be at or near Kulat Agrood; and Baal-Zephon has also been referred to the site Tell Kolzum. The general argument urged by Dr. Robinson as to the point at which the Israelites must have crossed the sea, has the confirmation of the tradition recorded by the best Arabian authors, such as Abou

el-Feda and Ben-Ayâs. The crowning indication of the locality of that great event, given by Moses, that it was from between the three Egyptian fortresses, is one that can hardly be

mistaken.

EXPLANATIONS OF THE MAP.

The map is in the main that of the French engineers of Napoleon.

The following lists, giving the names in the Hebrew, in the Greek or Roman geographers, and the modern names, may aid the reader. The first list is of those unquestioned.

The second list is of those localities in which one or more of the links of connection must bear a mark of question; having more or less of probability according to the reader's personal convictions.

Two other localities in Egypt are mentioned in the Old Testament, the positions

of which are unquestioned :

Hebrew.

No, AMON, and AMON-No.
SYENE.

Greek Trans.
Thebes.
Syene.

Arabic.

Karnac, Luxor, and Koorneh.
Assouan.

As an illustration of the "five cities" mentioned by Isaiah, xix. 18, (though the number five may not be limited,) it may be mentioned that these five modern sites bear the general name "Tell el-Yehood;" Tell el-Yehood, Tell el-Gerad, Belbeis, Tell el-Habeeb, and Tell Basta. The name el-Gerád signifies the Locust, or De struction; the Arabic being the same in form as the Hebrew.

The following Greek and Roman sites may be considered more or less fixed: