KESULTS OP EXCAVATIONS AT BUBASTJS. 21 



often put outside the entrance on each side of the road. 

 Generally speaking, it is near the entrances that the statues 

 were more abundant. A great many disappeared already in old 

 times, or were broken in the destruction of the temple, which 

 must have taken place between the Eamessides and the 

 Bubastites ; a large number of them were employed by Osor- 

 kon I. and Osorkon II. as building material when they repaired 

 the temple. 



The more we study the remains of Bubastis, the more we 

 are convinced that the place must have been one of the 

 favourite resorts of Rameses II., where he stayed repeatedly. 

 Bubastis and Tanis were the two great cities of the 

 Delta, and no doubt the court came frequently to both. 

 Rameses was accompanied by his sons ; one of them, Khae- 

 muas, who had a high rank in the priesthood, and who was 

 inspector of the temples, has recorded his visit to Bubastis on 

 a statue of his father. We found also mention of two 

 others who had military commands. One, whose statue is in 

 Boston, was "first cavalry officer of his father, the chief of 

 the horse of his majesty, Menthuhershopshef ; " the other, 

 Menephtah, who became the king of the Exodus, was at that 

 time a general of infantry, and he appears several times on 

 sculptures making offerings to the god Amon. 



Not far from Bubastis was a foreign nation, which from a 

 small tribe had grown to be a large multitude, and which had 

 never amalgamated with the Egyptians. I have already alluded 

 before to the vicinity of the land of Goshen, only a few miles 

 distant ; but the restricted limits of the original land had been 

 broken through, and the Israelites must have spread in the south 

 towards Heliopolis, and in the East in the Wadi Tumilat, the 

 road through which foreign invaders would enter Egypt. One 

 may well conceive that Rameses who, in spite of his outward 

 show, must have felt how much his kingdom was weakened, 

 grew rather anxious at the presence of a great number of 

 strangers occupying the very gate of Egypt, and that he 

 desired to turn their presence to a benefit for Egypt. There- 

 fore he employed them to build fortresses destined to protect 

 the land against invaders. The Exodus describes in the fol- 

 lowing way the fear which took hold of the king : " And he 

 said unto his people : Behold, the people of Israel are more 

 and mightier than we : come let us deal wisely with them ; 

 lest they multiply, and it come to pass that, when there 

 falleth out any war, they also join themselves unto our 

 enemies, and fight against us, and get them up out of the land. 

 Therefore, they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them 

 with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh store cities, 



