16 EDOUAED NAVILLE. 



Rameses II. when lie worked at Bubastis, finding that the two 

 statues made a good effect, and that it was unnecessary to 

 have new ones of such a large size, erased the name of the 

 Hyksos king, and put his own instead. A long time after- 

 wards, Osorkon I], treated Rameses II. in the same way as 

 he had done his predecessor; he erased Rameses II., but not 

 so completely that we may not discover a few signs, and he 

 put his own on the base. What has completely disappeared 

 is the name of the Hyksos king, which would be most interest- 

 ing to us. Fortunately, in another part of the temple I 

 discovered on a door-post a very large cartouche containing 

 the name of Apepi, the same who had been found by Mariette 

 at Tanis, with a fragment of inscription saying, that "he 

 raised pillars in great number and bronze doors to this god," 

 we do not know which. Quite recently, in the first hall not 

 very far from the great statues, I discovered the first part of 

 his name, what is called his standard. As Apepi was a power- 

 ful king, though he was one of the last Hyksos, and as we 

 know from the inscription that he raised important buildings 

 at Bubastis, it is probable that it was he who erected the great 

 statues, and that the fine head which is now at the British 

 Museum is the portrait of Apepi. This interests us particu- 

 larly, because the Byzantine chronographer, Syncellus, relates 

 that Apepi was the king in whose reign Joseph rose to the 

 high position described in Genesis. According to the Christian 

 tradition, Apepi was the Pharaoh of Joseph. 



But we were not at the end of our surprises. Close 

 to the block bearing the name of Apepi, there appeared one 

 day the corner of a black granite stone, which, after being 

 cleared, turned out to be the base of a sitting statue of natural 

 size, but broken at the waist. The cartouches were intact ; the 

 coronation name reads Userenra, which is not unknown, but 

 the second Raian, or lan-Ra, was absolutely new. The style 

 of the statue pointed to the Thirteenth or Fourteenth dynasty. 

 When I afterwards showed the cartouche to a learned 

 Mohammedan, Ahmed Effendi Kemal, the only Egyptian who 

 can read hieroglyphics, he exclaimed at once : " You have 

 found the king of Joseph " ; and when I answered that in my 

 opinion it was Apepi, he explained to me, what I totally 

 ignored, that, according to Arab books, the king of Joseph 

 was an Amalekite, called Raian Ibn el Walid. I must say that 

 I have no great faith in Arab traditions, and although at 

 the time of the discovery my eminent countryman, Dr. Rieu, 

 of the British Museum, wrote a letter in the Times, saying 

 that he believed that there was some historical fact at the 

 bottom of the Arab tradition, I am not quite convinced ; 



