Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 235 



under a compact with the Egyptian king, and in each case 

 making their way across the desert into Syria and there settling, 

 should during the same period, and that too a period extending 

 over several hundred years, have played an important part in 

 the history of Egypt. We certainly do not hear of any Hebrew 

 kings, but it must be remembered that the Hyksos dynasty, 

 according to Manetho, had only six monarchs. But if there is 

 no mention of Hebrew kings in Egypt, the story of Joseph indi- 

 cates that at least one Hebrew became the Grand Vizier or 

 mayor of the palace, and that in him was centred the whole 

 power and administration of the kingdom, a story which curiously 

 illustrates the statement of Manetho that the Hyksos after their 

 coming got the rulers of the land into their hands. 



It is now clear that the Hyksos were at least a Semitic 

 pastoral tribe, even if they were not actually identical with the 

 Hebrews. But if they were Semites, it is most improbable that 

 they possessed horses when they invaded Egypt, for, as I have 

 shown already, the book of Genesis renders it certain that the 

 Semites of Mesopotamia had no horses in the time of Abraham; 

 the Babylonian monuments make it probable that the horse 

 only became known in that region shortly before B.C. 1500 ; it 

 has been demonstrated that the Arabs of the Peninsula did not 

 possess horses before the Christian era, whilst the story of 

 Abraham implies that the king of Egypt who gave him hospi- 

 tality did not possess any horses any more than did the Hittites 

 of Canaan from whom the patriarch purchased the Cave of 

 Machpelah. On the other hand, so far as the evidence of 

 Genesis goes, it would appear that by the time of Jacob 

 (B.C. 1800 1700) a native Egyptian king possessed horses 

 and chariots. It would thus seem that some time in the 

 eighteenth century B.C. the native Egyptian kings (such as 

 those of the Thebaid) and others mentioned by Manetho (supra 

 p. 231) had already become possessed of horses and chariots. 

 But as neither Arabia, nor Babylonia, nor the Semitic tribes of 

 Palestine possessed the horse, the Egyptians could not have 

 obtained that animal from any of those regions, and must have 

 procured it from their neighbours in Africa. But, as the horse 

 was not bred by the peoples east of the Nile, even at the time of 



