232 THE HOUSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



feeding of flocks was the hereditary calling of our remotest 

 ancestors, and they lived a nomadic life, and again they were 

 not unreasonably styled captives by the Egyptians, since our 

 forefather Joseph told the king of the Egyptians that he himself 

 was a captive, and later on sent for his brethren to come into 

 Egypt on the permission of the king." 



Manetho's statement is a plain, straightforward narrative, 

 containing nothing marvellous or incredible. Manetho himself 

 seems to have given but a single explanation of the name 

 Hyksos, for the alternative derivation of the name preferred by 

 Josephus seems simply based on Manetho's statement elsewhere 

 in his writings that in the hieroglyphics the Hyksos were repre- 

 sented by a pictographic determinant showing a man bound as 

 a captive, a fact which does not necessarily mean that the name 

 of the people so represented meant ' captive/ but that they had 

 been conquered by the Egyptians. Manetho's account of the 

 Hyksos resembles in so many details the story of the Hebrews 

 and their connection with Egypt as given in the book of 

 Genesis, that even if we do not at once identify the exodus 

 with the expulsion of the Hyksos, it is at least highly probable 

 that the Hyksos, whom Manetho says were regarded as Arabs, 

 were of the same race as the Hebrews, who were simply an 

 Arab tribe. That the Semites have for long ages been con- 

 stantly pressing into Palestine and Egypt and the whole of 

 North Africa is a matter of familiar history, and there seems to 

 be no reasonable doubt that the Semitic element was a most 

 important ingredient in that strange blend known to us as the 

 ancient Egyptians. According to Manetho the Hyksos were in 

 Egypt from first to last five hundred and eleven years, although 

 their own dynasty, which only arose at a date considerably 

 later than their first arrival and ended a considerable time 

 before their final expulsion, only lasted two hundred and sixty 

 years. As it is currently held 1 that they were expelled by 

 Aahmes I, probably about 1580 B.C. or later, their first appear- 

 ance in Egypt may be set at the earliest about 2100, but quite 

 possibly considerably later. 



1 Flinders Petrie, History of Egypt, Vol. i. p. 233. 



