378 On the Catalogue of Egyptian Kings. 



the termination of the preceding one by an interval of twenty- 

 six years. Jackson, in his Chronological Antiquities, is positive that 

 this prince is called the Second by a mistake, and adds the years 

 that are wanting to the reign of his predecessor, as G-oar had 

 previously done. In the first part of this view all authors, with- 

 out 'exception, are agreed, though they do not explain how a 

 mistake, so very odd, could have originated ; but the learned 

 Marsham who, having adopted the short chronology of the 

 Hebrew Bible, is so hard pressed to find room for the Egyptian 

 dynasties that he is obliged to begin the reign of Menes the 

 very year after the Deluge is glad to omit the twenty-six 

 years altogether, thus reducing the sum of all the reigns to 

 1050 years, contrary to what is expressly stated by Syncellus. 

 The natural inference from the state of the MSS. is, however, 

 simply this : that the thirty-second king was Stamenemes I., 

 that he reigned twenty-six years, and was succeeded by Stame- 

 nemes II. We may easily conceive that the eye of the tran- 

 scriber, deceived by the identity of names, passed over the first, 

 and rested on the second, thus occasioning the error. Indeed 

 there can now be no doubt that this was the fact ; because, in 

 the MS. marked (B) by Dindorf, the next king is numbered as 

 the thirty-fourth, the next but one as the thirty-fifth, and so on; 

 which shows that a name had dropped out, and this name could 

 be no other than that of Stamenemes I., who must have filled 

 the vacant interval, and must consequently have reigned the 

 number of years that has been assigned to him. 



As neither G-oar nor any other writer perceived this omission, 

 the successor of Stamenemes II. has always been reckoned as 

 the thirty-third in the list, and the next following as the thirty- 

 fourth, &c. But as one error begets another, the omission was 

 compensated by the insertion of an anonymous king, who is 

 placed thirty-sixth in the list, with a reign of fourteen years ; 

 the insertion being necessary to complete the number (thirty- 

 eight) which the Catalogue ought to contain. And, by a fur- 

 ther error, these fourteen years are taken out of the reign of the 



