EESULTS OP EXCAVATIONS AT BUBASTIS. 17 



there are some details of the legend which shake one's con- 

 fidence ; for instance, this fact, which is mentioned by one of 

 the Arab authors, that Joseph converted the king to the 

 faith of the Mohammedans. However, it is certainly a curious 

 coincidence to have found at the same spot the two" kings who 

 are considered as the protectors of Joseph, one by the 

 Christians and the other by the Mohammedans. This valuable 

 base, which is all that remains of Raian, is now in the Boulak 

 Museum. 



Between the two traditions I incline to adopt that of 

 the Christians, as reported by Synceilus, who adds that on 

 this point the historians are unanimous. I know we have no 

 Egyptian monumental evidence that it was so, but until the 

 contrary is proved, I see no reason to question the statement 

 of Synceilus. Apepi was the Pharaoh in whose reign 

 Joseph became the powerful minister described by Scripture. 

 I need not dwell at great length on this subject, which was laid 

 before this society a few years ago in a learned paper by the 

 Rev. H. G-. Tomkins. Let me only mention that Joseph was a 

 purely civil officer, entrusted with the control and collection 

 of revenue and of rents chiefly paid in kind. Such officers 

 frequently occur in Egyptian inscriptions, or even in pictures, 

 and they bear this telling title : " The Eyes and the Ears of 

 the King." 



We saw that the Hyksos raised at Bubastis great con- 

 structions, probably larger than at Tanis, the city which had 

 been called their capital because of the monuments discovered 

 there by Mariette. Bubastis was an important Hyksos 

 settlement, and we have every reason to believe that the kings 

 often stayed there ; that it was one of the places of resort of 

 Apepi and the other kings. They were thus very near the 

 land of Groshen. I think I have proved through the exca- 

 vations which I made at a short distance from Zagazig, in 

 1885, that the original land of Goshen was the region 

 situate between the present city of Belbeis and Tel el 

 Kebir, and that at the time when the Hebrews settled 

 there it was not part of one of the provinces of Egypt. 

 It was an uncultivated district, not divided among Egyp- 

 tian inhabitants regularly settled and governed, a kind of 

 waste land sufficiently watered to produce good pasturage, 

 and which might be assigned to foreigners without despoiling 

 the native inhabitants. This agrees with the information 

 given by the two most ancient Arab translators of the Bible, 

 Saadiah and Aboo Said. I believe even that there is an allu- 

 sion to it in an Egyptian inscription of the time of Menephtah, 

 the king of the Exodus, in which it is said that <e the country 

 c 



