Chapter 2 MOSES-THE RECORDER.

The narrative in connection with the Storehouses of the King would be incomplete without a brief survey of the life of the inspired writer who recorded all the particulars regarding them; and as almost every existing religion is derived from his writings, it will not be deemed superfluous. Moses was born in 1571 B.C. At this time a proclamation was issued throughout the land of Egypt, dooming every male born to the Hebrews to immediate destruction.

The elders and wise men advised the King to do this, because they feared that a war might come upon them, and they feared that the Israelites might so increase and spread in the land that they might drive them away from their own country. At first they gave the Israelites hard work to reduce their numbers, but, as that was unavailing, they advised the King, who did not know Joseph, nor remember all the good that he had done for the Egyptians, to adopt this barbarous method of reducing the numbers of the Israelitish inhabitants of Goshen.

It was foretold to Amram, a descendant of Levi, the son of Jacob, that the child, out of dread of whose nativity the Egyptians had doomed the Israelite children to destruction, should be his, and be concealed from those who watched to destroy him; and having been brought up in a surprising way, he should deliver the Hebrew nation from the distress they were under from the Egyptians. His memory should be famous while the world lasts; and this not only among the Hebrews, but foreigners also; and that this child should also have such a brother that he would himself obtain God's Priesthood, and his posterity should have it after him to the end of the world. Amram and his wife Jochebed were in great perplexity, and fear increased upon them on account of this prediction. And when the child was born they nourished him at home privately for three months. But after that time Amram-fearing he would be discovered, and, by falling under the King's displeasure, both he and his child would perish, and so he should make the promise of God of none effect-determined rather to entrust the safety and care of the child to God, than to depend on his own concealment of him, which he looked upon as a thing uncertain, and whereby both the child, so privately to be nourished, and himself should be in imminent danger; but he believed that God would in some way procure the safety of the child, in order to realise the truth of his own predictions. When they had thus determined, they made an ark of bulrushes, after the manner of a cradle, and of a size sufficiently large for an infant to be laid in without being too straitened. They then daubed it over with slime, which would naturally keep the water from entering between the bulrushes, and put the infant into it, and setting it afloat upon the river, they left its preservation to God; so the river received the child, and carried him along. Now Thermuthis, the daughter of Pharaoh, was diverting herself by the banks of the river; and seeing a cradle borne along by the current, she sent some that could swim, and bade them bring the cradle to her. When those that were sent on this errand came to her with the cradle, and she saw the little child, she was greatly in love with it, on account of its largeness and beauty. Thermuthis bade them bring her a woman that might afford her breast to the child. Now Miriam, the sister of Moses, was standing near when this happened, and, when she had this order given her, she went and brought the mother, and the child gladly took her breast, and seemed to stick close to it; and so it was that, at the Queen's desire, the nursing of the child was entirely entrusted to its mother.

The following names were given to Moses by the different persons interested in him:-

Moses, "I have drawn him from out the water," by Thermuthis, Pharaoh's daughter.

Heber, "Because he was reunited to his family," by his father Amram.

Yekuthiel, "I hoped in God," by his mother Jochebed.

Yarah, "I went down to the river to watch him," by his sister Miriam.

Abigedore, "For God had repaired the breach in the house of Jacob, and the Egyptians ceased from that time to cast the infants into the water," by his brother Aaron.

Abi Socho, "For three months he was hidden," by his grandfather Caath.

Shermaiah Ben Nethaniel, "Because in his day God heard their groaning and delivered them from their oppressors," by the children of Israel.

Moses became as a son to Thermuthis, the daughter of Pharaoh, as a child belonging rightly to the palace of the King.

The first exploit of Moses was as a general of the Egyptian army, which he led into Ethiopia; he marched by land, and on the way gave a wonderful demonstration of his sagacity. The ground was difficult to be passed over, because of the multitude of serpents; these it produces in vast numbers, and, indeed, is singular in some of those species, which other countries do not breed, and yet such as are worse than others in power and mischief, possessing unusual keenness of sight. Some of these serpents ascend from the ground unseen, and also fly in the air, and so come upon men unawares, and do them mischief. Moses invented a wonderful stratagem to preserve the army safe and without hurt; for he made baskets, like unto arks, of sedge, and filled them with ibises, Egyptian birds, and carried them along with them. These birds are the greatest enemies to serpents imaginable, for they fly from them when they come near them, and as they fly they are caught and devoured by them. As soon, therefore, as Moses came to the land which bred these serpents, he let loose the ibises, and by their means repelled the serpentine kind; using them as his assistants before the army came upon that ground. When, therefore, he proceeded thus on his journey he came upon the Ethiopians before they expected him; and, joining battle with them, he beat them and overthrew their cities, and, indeed, made a great slaughter of the Ethiopians. Moses laid siege to Saba, afterwards called Mero?, the capital of Ethiopia, a strong city encompassed by the Nile and by two other rivers, Astapus and Astaboras, and strongly fortified with great ramparts, insomuch that when the waters come with the greatest violence it can never be overthrown; these ramparts also make it next to impossible for even such as have crossed over the rivers to take the city. However, while Moses was uneasy at the army's lying idle (for the enemies durst not come to battle), this accident or incident occurred: Tharbis, the daughter of the King of Ethiopia, happened to see Moses as he led the army near the walls, and fought with great courage, and admiring the subtlety of his undertakings, and taking him to be the author of the success of the Egyptians, she fell deeply in love with him, and sent to him the most faithful of all her servants to discourse with him about their marriage. He thereupon accepted the offer, on condition that she would procure the delivering up of the city; and gave her the assurance of an oath to make her his wife, and that when he had once taken possession of the city he would not break his oath to her. No sooner was the agreement made than its condition was fulfilled; and when Moses had cut off the Ethiopians he gave thanks to God, and consummated his marriage, and led the Egyptians back to their own land.[2]

Now the Egyptians, after they had been preserved by Moses, entertained a hatred to him, and were very eager in compassing their designs against him, suspecting that he would take occasion, from his great success, to raise a sedition and bring innovations into Egypt; so they told the King he ought to be slain. The King had also some intentions of his own to the same purpose; and, being instigated by the elders and wise men, he was ready to undertake to kill Moses. But when Moses learned this he went away privately and joined the army of Kikanus, the King of Ethiopia, at that time suppressing a rebellion in Assyria, and soon became a great favourite with the King and with all his companions. Then Kikanus became sick and died in Ethiopia, and his soldiers buried him and reared a monument over his remains, inscribing upon it the memorable deeds of his life. After the death of King Kikanus the army appointed Moses to be their King and leader. This took place in the hundred and fifty-seventh year after Israel went down into Egypt. The Ethiopians placed Moses upon their throne and set the crown of state upon his head, and they gave him the widow of Kikanus for a wife; but the widow of Kikanus was a wife to Moses in name only. When Moses was made King of Ethiopia the Assyrians again rebelled as they had done before; but Moses subdued them and placed them under yearly tribute to the Ethiopian dynasty. Moses reigned in Ethiopia in justice and righteousness. But the dowager Queen of Ethiopia, Adonith, who was a wife to Moses in name only, said to the people: "Why should this stranger continue to rule over you? Would it not be more just to place the son of Kikanus upon his father's throne, for he is one of you?" The people, however, would not vex Moses, whom they loved, by such a proposition; but Moses voluntarily resigned the power which they had given him, and departed from their land. And the people of Ethiopia made him many rich presents, and dismissed him with great honours.[3] Moses being still fearful of returning to Egypt, travelled towards Midian, and sat there to rest by a well of water. And the seven daughters of Jethro, the priest of Midian, came there and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock; and Moses helped them, and at the invitation of their father he dwelt with them, and married Zipporah, one of his daughters.

And in process of time the King of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage; and God sent Moses to them to deliver them. After the enthronement of the next King, Moses and his brother Aaron came before Pharaoh and asked permission for the Israelites to leave Goshen on a three days' journey into the wilderness, to hold a religious festival unto the Lord their God. But Pharaoh refused; and thereupon Moses and Aaron showed miraculous signs and deeds. Still the King persisted in his refusal; till at last the anger of the Lord became great towards Pharaoh. God then commanded Moses and Aaron to prepare the Passover sacrifice, saying: "I will pass over the land of Egypt and slay the first-born, both of man and beast." The Israelites did as they were commanded, and at midnight the angel of the Lord passed over the land and smote the first-born of Egypt, both of man and beast. Then there was a great and grievous cry through all the land, for there was not a house without its dead; and Pharaoh and his people rose up in alarm and consuming grief, and called for Moses and Aaron and bade them be gone, supposing that, if once the Hebrews were gone out of the country, Egypt would be freed from its miseries. They also gave the Israelites gifts, some in order to get them to depart quickly, and others on account of their neighbourhood, and the friendship they had with them.[4]

So the Hebrews went out of Egypt, while the Egyptians wept, and repented that they had treated them so hardly. And Moses took the bones of Joseph, the builder of the Storehouses of the King, with him; for Joseph had strictly sworn the children of Israel, saying: "God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you." And they took their journey from Goshen, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness. This was in the eightieth year of the age of Moses, and the eighty-third of his brother Aaron.

But the King soon regretted that he had let the Hebrews depart, so he resolved to go after them to bring them back. Accordingly he pursued after them with six hundred chariots, fifty thousand horsemen, and two hundred thousand footmen, all armed. On coming up to the Hebrews they seized on the passages by which they imagined the Hebrews might fly, shutting them up between precipices and the sea; for there was on each side a ridge of mountains that terminated at the sea, which were impassable by reason of their roughness, and obstructed their flight. Wherefore they were in great distress, as they had no weapons of war for defence, nor was there a way of escape. So there was sorrow and lamentation among the women and children, who had nothing but destruction before their eyes, being encompassed with mountains, the sea, and their enemies, and discerned no way of flying from them.

At this juncture Moses called all the people, and when they were ready he stood on the sea-shore and prayed to God in these words: "Thou art not ignorant, O Lord, that it is beyond human strength and human contrivance to avoid the difficulties which we are now under; but it must be Thy work altogether to procure deliverance to this army, which has left Egypt at Thy appointment. We despair of any other assistance or contrivance, and have recourse only to that hope we have in Thee; and if there be any method that can promise us an escape by Thy providence, we look up to Thee for it. And let it come quickly, and manifest Thy power to us; and do Thou raise up this people to good courage and hope of deliverance, who are deeply sunk into a disconsolate state of mind. We are in a helpless place, but still it is a place that Thou possessest; still the sea is Thine, the mountains also that enclose us are Thine, so that these mountains will open themselves if Thou commandest them; and the sea also, if Thou commandest it, will become dry land. Nay, we might escape by a flight through the air, if thou shouldst determine we should have that way of salvation."[5] When he ended his prayer, Moses lifted up his hand and smote the sea with his rod, which parted asunder at the stroke, and, receding, left the ground dry, as a road and a place of flight for the Hebrews. Seeing the assistance of the Almighty thus vouchsafed in answer to his prayer, he entered in first, and made the Hebrews follow him; they obeyed and went on earnestly, as led by God's presence. The Egyptians supposed at first that they were distracted, and were going rashly upon manifest destruction. But when they saw that they were going a great way without any harm, and that no obstacle or difficulty fell in their journey, they made haste to pursue them, hoping that the sea would be calm for them also. They put their horse foremost, and went down themselves into the sea. By this time the Hebrews had got over to the land on the opposite side without any hurt. Whence the others were encouraged, and more courageously pursued them, as hoping no harm would come to them; but they were mistaken, for as soon as ever the whole Egyptian army was within it, the sea flowed to its own place, and came down with a torrent raised by storms of wind, and encompassed the Egyptians. Showers of rain also came down from the sky, and dreadful thunder and lightning, with flashes of fire. Thunderbolts also were darted upon them; nor was there anything which used to be sent by God upon men as indications of His wrath which did not happen at this time, for a dark and dismal night oppressed them. And thus did the King of Egypt and all his men perish, so that there was not one man left to be a messenger of this calamity to the rest of the Egyptians.[6] On the next day Moses gathered together the weapons of the Egyptians, which were brought on shore by the current of the sea, the force of the winds assisting it; and he armed the Hebrews with them. After returning grateful thanks for this miraculous deliverance, he led the people to Mount Sinai, as he was ordered by God beforehand. Here he instructed them, and prepared them against the time when they should enter the land of Canaan, which country they considered their inheritance, and to which they looked as the destination of their journey. And Moses gave them, among other lessons, the Ten Commandments, which were engraved upon two stone slabs or tables, five on each table, and two and a half upon each side of them. The First Commandment taught that there is but one God, and that they ought to worship Him only; the Second commanded them not to make the image of any living creature, to worship it; the Third, that they must not swear by God in a false matter; the Fourth that they must keep the seventh day, by resting from all sorts of work; the Fifth, that they must honour their parents; the Sixth, that they must abstain from murder; the Seventh, that they must not commit adultery; the Eighth, that they must not be guilty of theft; the Ninth, that they must not bear false witness; the Tenth, that they must not admit the desire of anything that is another's.[7] These two tables were, for security, placed in a box or ark, made of wood that was naturally strong and could not be corrupted. This ark was called, in the Hebrew language, Eron. Its construction was thus: its length was five spans, but its breadth and height were, each of them, three spans. It was covered all over with gold, both within and without, so that the wooden part was not seen. It had also a cover united to it by golden hinges in a wonderful manner; which cover was every way evenly fitted to it, and had no irregularities to hinder its exact conjunction. There were also two golden rings fastened to each of the longer boards, and passing right through the wood; through them gilt bars passed along each board, that it might thereby be moved and carried about as occasion should require; for it was not drawn in a cart by beasts of burden, but borne on the shoulders of the priests. Upon this cover were two images, which the Hebrews call cherubims; they are flying creatures, but their form is not like to that of any of the creatures which men have seen, though Moses said he had seen such beings near the throne of God.[8]

As the people were dwelling in tents, and were marching towards the land of Canaan by easy marches, Moses made a tent called the Tabernacle, in which he placed the ark containing the two tables. This Tabernacle served as a church in the wilderness, and wherever they travelled they carried it about with them. Moses appointed his brother Aaron to be the High Priest; and after the death of Aaron, Eleazar, his son, became his successor, and the garments of his high office were put upon him. The family of the Levites were the priests.

Moses remained with the Hebrews forty years, and laboured to make them a religious and God-fearing people; but they frequently revolted against him, murmuring whenever they were in distress, and tried his patience to the utmost, till he forgot himself, and also complained against God, for which he was forbidden to enter the land of Canaan. Therefore, when he had admonished and repeated to the people all the laws he had given them, he brought them to the border of Canaan, and gave over the charge of the Hebrews to Joshua, his disciple and their commander. Now, as Moses went from them to the place where he wished to vanish out of their sight, they all followed after him weeping; but he beckoned with his hand to those that were remote from him, and bade them stay behind in quiet, while he exhorted those that were near him that they would not mourn so at his departure. Whereupon they thought they ought to grant him that favour, to let him depart according as he himself desired; so they restrained themselves, though weeping still towards one another. All those who accompanied him were the Senate, and Eleazar the High Priest, and Joshua, their commander. Now as soon as they were come to the mountain called Abarim (which is a very high mountain, situate over against Jericho, and one that affords, to such as are upon it, a prospect of the greatest part of the excellent land of Canaan), he dismissed the Senate; and, as he was going to embrace Eleazar and Joshua, and was still discoursing with them, suddenly a cloud stood over him, and he disappeared in a certain valley out of their sight.[9]

Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he left the camp of the Israelites. He spent forty years of his life in teaching the Laws of God to the people in the wilderness. He was one that exceeded all men that ever were in understanding, and made the best use of what that understanding suggested to him. He had a very graceful way of speaking and addressing himself to the multitude; and as to his other qualifications, he had such a full command of his passions, as if he had hardly any such in his soul, and only knew them by their names, as rather perceiving them in other men than in himself. He was also such a general of an army as is seldom seen, as well as a king and a prophet as was never known, and this to such a degree, that whatsoever he pronounced one would think he heard the voice of God Himself. So the people mourned for him thirty days, nor did any grief so deeply affect the Hebrews as did this upon the departure of Moses; nor were those who had witnessed his conduct the only persons who desired him, but those also who perused the laws he left behind him greatly longed for him, and from those laws learned the extraordinary virtue he was master of.[10] At this period of his life his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. "And Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him; and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses. And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and the wonders, which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, and in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel."[11] Although he wrote in the holy books that he died, it was for fear lest they should say that, because of his extraordinary virtue, he went to God.[12]

Moses was as we shall see, a great traveller, and acquainted with the vast wilderness that extends from the centre of Africa to the jungles of Bengal, that consists of rugged mountains and of sandy wastes; it was traversed by three river-basins or valley plains. In its centre was the basin of the Tigris and Euphrates. On its east was the basin of the Indus; on its west was the basin of the Nile. Each of these river systems was enclosed by deserts; the whole region resembling a broad yellow field with three green streaks running north and south. The inhabitants of these regions were not in the habit of travelling beyond the confines of their own valleys. They resembled islanders, and they had no ships. But the intermediate seas were navigated by the wandering tribes, who sometimes pastured their flocks by the waters of the Indus, sometimes by the waters of the Nile. It was by their means that the trade between the river-lands was carried on. They possessed the camels and other beasts of burden requisite for the transport of goods. Their numbers and their warlike habits, their intimate acquaintance with the watering-places and seasons of the desert, enabled them to carry the goods in safety through a dangerous land; while the regular profits they derived from the trade, and the oaths by which they were bound, induced them to act fairly to those by whom they were employed. At this time, 1451 B.C., a mighty tide of the Aryans immigrated to the basin or valley plain of the Indus. They called themselves Arya, or noble, and spoke a language the common source of Sanskrit, Prakrit, Zand, Persian, and Armenian in Asia. They settled down as agriculturists in the districts surrounding the Indus, their wealth consisting of flocks and herds; thence, after a time, they overran by successive irruptions the plains of the Ganges, and spread themselves over the regions called Aryavarta, occupying the whole of Central India. They were the promoters of the moral and intellectual progress and civilization in India; and notwithstanding all the diversities of the Hindoo populations throughout India, their religious faith has been preserved in their one language and one literature, furnishing a good evidence of the original unity of the Indo-Aryans. Their leader and legislator was known by the name of Manu, who was no other than Moses. After leaving the camp of the Israelites he travelled to the Indus; the form of Government he established there was the counterpart or duplicate of the one he established among the Hebrews; the laws and customs were the very same; the most careful comparison will confirm the fact. Moses was afraid that the Hebrews would trace his footsteps, so he sank his identity by assuming a foreign name: thus, for Moses he used Manu; for Abraham, Brahman; for Amram, Ram. All the remarkable Biblical events are familiar to the Brahmans, and the record of the creation as contained in the Bible was given in the Rig-veda of the Hindoos. The narrative of the finding of Moses by the daughter of Pharaoh has a corresponding record, but as he was more than one hundred and twenty years old when he arrived in India, the account is that the Lawgiver was cradled by a large sea-serpent on the bosom of the great waters for ages, whilst he was in a state of somnolence.

The origin of the belief in the Transmigration of the Soul is also taken from an event in the life of Moses, which is recorded in the Hebrew Talmud thus: The Lord said to Moses, "Behold, thy days approach that thou must die." On this Moses thought that he had committed but a slight offence, which would be pardoned; for ten times had Israel tempted God's wrath and been forgiven through his intercession, as it is written: "And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word." But when he became convinced that he would not be pardoned, he made the following supplication: "Sovereign of the universe, my trouble and my exertion for Israel's sake is revealed and known before Thee. How I have laboured to cause thy people to know Thee, and to believe in Thy Holy Name, and practise Thy holy law, has come before Thee. O Lord, as I had shared their trouble and their distress, I hoped to share their happiness. Behold, now, the time has come when their trials will cease, when they will enter into the land of promised bliss, and Thou sayest to me, Thou shalt not pass over this Jordan. O Eternal, great and just, if thou wilt not allow me to enter into this goodly land, permit me at least to live on here in this world."

Then God answered Moses, saying: "If thou wilt not die in this world, how canst thou live in the world to come?" But Moses continued: "If thou wilt not permit me to pass over this Jordan, let me live as the beasts of the field; they eat of the herbs and drink of the waters, and live and see the world; let my life be even as theirs."

And God answered: "Let it suffice thee; do not continue to speak unto me any more on this matter." Yet again Moses prayed: "Let me live even as the fowls; they gather their food in the morning, and in the evening they return unto their nests. Let my life be even as theirs."

And again God said: "Let it suffice thee; do not continue to speak to me any more on this matter." Then Moses proclaimed: "He is the Rock; His work is perfect, and His ways are just; the God of Truth, just and upright is He."[13]

The Persians, known in India as Parsees, are worshippers of the element of fire. This fire-worship originated from an event that took place in Persia when the Hebrews were captives in that country. The King of Persia gave the Hebrews leave to sacrifice to the Lord as Moses had commanded them; and when the prophet Nehemiah had prepared the sacrifice, the priests and the Israelites offered up this prayer: "O Lord, Lord God, Creator of all things, Who art fearful and strong, and righteous and merciful, and the only and gracious King, the only giver of all things, the only just, almighty, and everlasting, Thou that deliverest Israel from all trouble, and didst choose the fathers, and sanctify them: Receive the sacrifice for Thy whole people Israel, and preserve Thine own portion, and sanctify it. Gather those together that are scattered from us, deliver them that serve among the heathen, look upon them that are despised and abhorred, and let the heathen know that Thou art our God. Punish them that oppress us, and with pride do us wrong. Plant Thy people again in Thy holy place, as Moses hath spoken." And the priests sang psalms of thanksgiving.

Now when the sacrifice was consumed, Nehemiah commanded the water that was left to be poured on the great stones. When this was done, there was kindled a flame; but it was consumed by the light that shined from the altar. So when this matter was known, it was told the King of Persia that, in the place where the priests that were led away had hid the fire, there appeared water, and that Nehemiah had purified the sacrifices therewith. Then the King, inclosing the place, made it holy, after he had tried the matter and convinced himself of the fact.[14]

The Mohammedans are the followers of Mohammed, and the Koran that he gave them, he told his followers, "is not a new invented fiction, but a confirmation of those Scriptures which have been revealed to Moses before it, and a distinct explication of everything necessary in respect either to faith or practice, and a direction and mercy unto people who believe."[15]

As for the Israelites, though they are now scattered over the face of the whole earth, yet the Tabernacle, and the Altar of Incense, and the Ark containing the two Stone Tables on which were engraven the Ten Commandments given by God, by the hand of Moses, are still in Mount Abarim, hidden there by Jeremiah the prophet, before the sack and burning of the Temple of Solomon by the Babylonians. They are in a cave, wherein Jeremiah laid them and stopped the door, saying, "As for that place, it shall be unknown until the time that God gather his people again together, and receive them unto mercy. Then shall the Lord show them these things, and the glory of the Lord shall appear, and the cloud also, as it was showed under Moses, and as when Solomon desired that the place might be honourably sanctified."[16]

After the departure of the Israelites from the land of Egypt, that country was reduced to the lowest depth of misery. The King, with all his chariots, horsemen, and footmen were all overwhelmed and destroyed; there was no firstborn of man (or beast) to mourn the loss of their kindred. The land was desolate, and the Storehouses of the King stood out in their grandeur to remind the survivors of their ingratitude to the relatives of the man who built them, to preserve the Egyptians during the seven years of the grievous famine that afflicted the land of Egypt. They must have avoided the sight of these monuments, thereby to forget the misery and desolation they had brought on themselves by their cruel treatment of the Hebrews. The Egyptian priests knew what these buildings were, for they were the historians of their country; but when Herodotus visited Egypt and made minute inquiries regarding the Pyramids, they gave him a confused account, telling him, however, that for one hundred and six years the Egyptians suffered all kinds of calamities, and that for this length of time the temples were closed and never opened. From the hatred they bore them, the Egyptians were not willing to mention the names of their kings, but called the large Pyramids after Philition (Zaphnath-paaneah, Psothom Phanech), a shepherd who at that time kept his cattle in those parts.[17] Philition is a corruption of the other two names given to Joseph by Pharaoh; while the shepherds were the brothers of Joseph, and Goshen-Gizeh of our time-the region where they dwelt, as commanded by the King. The Greeks could make nothing out of the information gathered by Herodotus.

In course of time the first Republic of France sent a traveller into Upper and Lower Egypt, and the inhabitants of the land of Egypt had so far forgotten the events of the past that they showed him an enclosed space as the granaries of Joseph. The traveller says: "You see at ancient Cairo the granaries of Joseph, if the name of granaries can with propriety be given to a vast space of ground surrounded with walls twenty feet in height, and divided into a sort of courts which have no roof, or any other covering whatever, in which are deposited the grains brought out of Upper Egypt for the revenue, where they are the food of a multitude of birds, and the receptacle of their ordure. The walls of this enclosure are of a bad construction; they have nothing in their appearance which announces an ancient building, and the love of the marvellous alone could have attributed its elevation to the patriarch Joseph."[18] The French Government gained nothing, and its attention was diverted from the Storehouses of the King. Since that time many explorers have gone to the Pyramids, and spent princely fortunes in trying to solve the mystery as to what they were and who built them. But the Arabs are too cunning and too indolent to tell the truth; for they know from experience that, if the truth were known, they would be made to assist in repairing the Storehouses of the King, just as many of the people were set to cut the Suez Canal, when the French discovered an old undertaking of the reign of Necho, which had been left unfinished because the oracle declared that the king was making the canal for a barbarian. Wherefore the Arabs reckon that, ignoring all knowledge, they gain a good livelihood as guides, by taking travellers to the Pyramids, which is little trouble to them, but brings them "plenty backsheesh."