260 



KNOX^^LEDG 



[Skpt. i: 



■when it wants a supply of frt>sh air. A careful exauiina- 

 tioii of this creature ena)>les the wings and other parts of 

 the future gnat to l>e seen inside it, folded up neatly and 

 '•onipactly. The compound insect eye is also well seen l>y 

 throwing light upon it The student keeping a supply of 

 these objects and watching thoni from time to time, is sure 

 to be rewarded l-y seeing the little nionster split open, and 

 allow the gnat to crawl forth and unfold its moist and 

 glittering win^s. If caught and mounted as a slideoliject, 

 the fresh plumes with which wings and body are decorated 

 make a beautiful display. 



WAS RAMESES 11. THE PHARAOH 



OF THE OPPRESSION? 



By Miss Amelia B. Edwards. 



IX.- THE LAND OF GOSHEN. 



' pHE territon." so familiar to us under its Biblical name, 

 I •' the Land of Goshen," was anciently an Egyptian 

 Aume, or province, called " Kosem." The ancient geo- 

 graphical lists sculptured on the walls of the temples of 

 Abydos, EdftX), Phihe, A-c, enumerate forty-four of these 

 nomes, twenty of which were in the Delta, Kosem \va.s the 

 twentieth mune of the Lower Country. Its capital — or, 

 as we should now say, its county-town — was named " Kos," 

 or"Pa-Kos"; in Hebrew, " 6'fti«en " ; in our Biljlc-trans- 

 lation, "Goslien." Under tlie Greek rule, Pa-Kos became 

 " Ffaacusa ; " but as " A'og " it survived in the Coptic 

 tongue, as long as the Coptic tongue* remained a living 

 .kiigtiage. As "Fa-Koos" it survives to this day in 

 •i.<; Arabic name of a miserable mud village, close to 

 lie Al)oo-Kebeer station on the line between Zagazig 

 .md Salaheeyeh. Tliis village nestles at the foot o£ 

 some ancient rubbish-mounds, beyond which lie undu- 

 lating hillocks, covered Ln spring with waving corn-crojis. 

 These mounds and hillocks mark the site of that city of 

 Goshen to wliich Joseph (being in attendance upon the 

 Pharaoh at Zoan) hastened in his chariot "to meet Israel 

 his father " ; so showing, by the way, that Jacob and his 

 house entere<l Egvjit from some point south-east of 'J'anis. 



The topographical limits of the land of Goslien (other- 

 vise the nome Kosem) are not known ; but the chief town, 

 ' ^ishen, probably occupied a tolerably central position in 

 li'- province. Jt lay, at all events, to the east of the Nile, 

 '« the south-east of Tanis, and to the west of Lakes Halah 

 md Timsah. Southward.s, it is believed to have terminated 

 M the valley calle<l the Wady Tooniilat, or Tiimilat, now 

 •1 .•••r-'-d by the line of railway which connects Zagazig 

 I iiiailiah.t A great wedge-shaped tract of desert 

 lrf?tween Fa-Koos and Wady Tiimilat; but recent 

 • ' I'ions connected with the motlem Fri'shwater Canal 

 md the new line of railway have shown that this is, at 

 ill events in j>art, a 8ub8«quent encroachment At tlic 

 I line of the Ilebrew sojourn, the whole of this wedge- 

 hnpwl district was probalily rich with pasture. It also 

 x'l-eived a share of the annual inundation ; extensive beds 

 if Nile clay having l>een found near Tel-cl-Maskhiita* in 

 1H61, by the engineers of the Freshwafajr Canal Company. 



• TIk- f''i|.-i. ( nrmr a dead IsnffDnero, and nfio'lonly ill the ) 



rrh) wna a lato form of Kgyptian, ju«t ii« Italian 

 :. itin. 

 I* I pointed out in lout wcoIc'r number, in tho 



i 'I'Lii ij.ijuj.il, it will be fptnpmbcriyl, in vnrionRly written .Maik- 

 faot*, Miuruota, MmIidU, and Maliuto. 



These clay-beds— which, if Telel-Mivskhuta be really the 

 " Hiuimses " of the Bible, furnished tho Israelites with 

 material for tho bricks with which they built tho treasure- 

 city of Pharaoh— were largely used in building tho new 

 town of Ismailiah. 



Part of the old Land of Goshen is, however, still flooded 

 yearly by the Nile, is still carpeted with llowers in 

 spring, and, where aided by artificial irrigation, still 

 bears its double and trijilo crop per annum. Upon tho 

 cahn surface of its backwaters and canals, the lotus still 

 spreads its broad leaves and opens its cup-like blossoms to 

 the sun ; and the groves of acacia, sycamore-lig, pome- 

 granate, orange, banana, and palm, which surround its 

 scattered villages, are still each 



" A populous Paradise of bees ami l)irds." 

 By these yet fertile tracts — the mere fringes of the old 

 province — we judge how tho land of Goshen may once 

 have been in truth "tho best of tho land." 



Except in the geographical li.sts before-named, I am not 

 aware that any mention of Goshen tho province, or Goshen 

 the city, has yet been found upon tho momiment.s. Tho 

 latter can never have Ix^en a place of jiolitical importance. 

 It was a market-town ; a county town ; a local centre 

 where justice was administered — such a place, in short, as 

 the modern towns of Minieli, or Girgeh, or Keneh — not a 

 place likely to be mentioned in religious or historical 

 documents. As a territorial distinction, the name of 

 " Kosem " would seem to have become obsolete under the 

 XlXth Dynasty; surviving only as a legal archaism in tho 

 lists. We have, at all events, the evidence of the Book of 

 Exodus, and the testimony of several Egyptian documents, 

 to show that, from the time of Rameses Ji., when the now 

 " treasure-city " was built and Goshen city ceased to be 

 the chief town of the province, the old name of the Nome 

 fell into either partial or complete disuse, and the " land," 

 or county, of Goshen came to bo called after its new 

 capital, "the land of Rameses." 



That Wady Tiimilat formed a part of the land of Goshen 

 is a fact wliich has not been questioned even by those who 

 di.spute the identification of Tel-el-Maskhuta with tho 

 treasure-city of Pharaoh. It is a valley running almost 

 due east and west between Zagazig and Ismailiah; 

 the distance from Zagazig to Ismailiah being 47^ miles, 

 and the length of the valley about 28 or .30. "" Every 

 traveller who journeyed by railway from the one 

 terminus to tho other before this war began, caught 

 pleasant glimpses of that green and winrling track, and of 

 the heron-haunted canal, fringed with reeds and water- 

 plants, which runs through it like a .silver thread in the 

 middle of a broad green ribbon. To tho north of tho 

 railway line, all is grey d(^sert. To the south, beyond the 

 canal and the Wady, all is desert again. Here and 

 there, (unseen from tho railway-carriage windows) the 

 scenery of the Wady is varied by scattered ruins and 

 mounds of ancient towns — Tcl*-Al)Oo-Sooleyman, Tel- 

 el-Kebeer,t Tel-Retabah, and Tel-el-Maskhuta. The two 

 former have by different authorities been suggested as the 

 site of Pitliom ; while in 184.^), when Lepsius visited the 

 Ea.st of the Delta, tho modern village situate at the foot of 

 the mounds of Tel-el-Maskhuta was still called by the name 

 of " Ramses." There is a station at this point, where, but 

 the other day, the trains used to stop, while the Arab guard 

 shouted " Ramsis I ' Ramsis ! " Now, at the moment when 

 I am writing these words, Rameses is the site of tho 



• "Tel"or"Kom" (Arabic) HignifiPH u inounil. " Tel " is chiefly 

 1 OHO in I.<)wer and Middle E(<ypt j " Kom" in Upper Egypt. 

 + Spolt " Kctjir " by the iicwHpapcr corroHpoiidents at tho Boat 



