PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 15 



words and deeds, and when he was full forty years old it came into 

 his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel " (Acts vii., 

 22, 23). He must have accompanied Shimon to the court of his 

 wife, the Elephantine Queen, Taia, and followed him to many fields 

 of conquest. Previous to Shimon's death Moses must have 

 refused to be called any longer the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and 

 passing from the safety of Upper Egypt to the Memphis region, 

 over which at that time Rameses II. reigned, he visited his 

 enslaved brethren. It might have been his intention to lead them 

 forth from slavery, but their objection to his interference showed to 

 him the fruitlessness of his object. Passing then over to Arabia 

 Petrsea, where Shimon's subjects dwelt, he was safe from the 

 pursuit of Pharaoh, and at freedom from the irksomeness of Court 

 life at Thebes. At Tel-el-mankula, near Tel-el-keber, the scene 

 of the late Egyptian war, are some mounds with inscriptions on 

 them, which show they not only represent an ancient city, whose 

 religious name was Pithom, and its civil name Succoth, but that also 

 the founder of the city was Rameses II. In Greek times the city 

 was called Hieropolis, or Ero. from the Egyptian word ara, a stone- 

 house, thus reminding us that Pithom. and Rameses, which the 

 Israelites built for the Pharoahs, were " treasure-cities " (Exod. i., 

 14). Their treasure chambers have been discovered, and show how 

 very strongly they were constructed, divided by brick partitions 

 from eight to ten feet thick, the bricks sun-baked, some made with, 

 and some without, straw. " I will not give you straw " was 

 Pharaoh's message to the Children of Israel. 



The most interesting record which has come down to us 

 is an incident in the reign of Rameses II. ; it gives the 

 account of the travels of a Mohar, or military officer, of 

 his travels through Palestine, written by himself at a time 

 when the country was nominally tributary to Egypt. The 

 Mohar made his tour during the latter part of the reign of 

 Rameses II., so that the account he has given of Canaan shows what 

 it was like before the conquest by Joshua. He journied as far as 

 Aleppo in a chariot, which is more than a traveller in Palestine 



