Oct, 13, 1882.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



325 



Now the important points to be noted in this little poem 

 are : — • 



1. That if Pa-Rameses was supplied with rare fish from 

 the Euphrates, it must have been in some kind of com- 

 munication with the Red Sea. 



2. That it was in the neighbourhood of a piece of water 

 called Shet-IIor, or the Pool of Horus. 



3. That it was also near one of the bitter lakes, the 

 water of which is impregnated with nitre (Xatron). 



■t. That it was a place accessible to shipping. 

 5. That the local deity of the town was Rameses II. 

 This last point — and it is a strong one — coincides with 

 all the former evidence. There were temples in Pa- 

 Rameses to other gods ; but the supreme deity of the 

 place was its royal founder. 



The mention of Shet-IIor is also very important, when 

 taken in connection with another mention of this piece of 

 water which occurs in a celebrated stone-cut inscription on 

 the walls of a small court on the south side of the Great 

 Temple at Karnak. This inscription (which I shall have 

 occasion to examine more particularly byand-by) records 

 how a great invasion of the ilediterranean races took place 

 soon after the accession of Menephthali, and how the king 

 fortified Heliopolis and Memphis, and " established out- 

 posts before Pa-Baris (Bubastis), in the vicinity of the 

 canal Sliakana, to the north of Shetllor."* 



I may here observe in passing that I have not quoted 

 all the instances in which Pa-Rameses is mentioned in the 

 papyri of this period ; but I have quoted all that are note- 

 worthy. The remainder are mere incidental allusions, 

 invocations to the gods of the place, addresses upon letters, 

 and the like. 



Of Pa-Tum,orPa-Toom — which was, both strategically and 

 historically, a much less important place than Pa-Rameses — 

 we find but one unmistakable mention in the papyri of the 

 period. The document in which this mention occurs also 

 forms part of the Anastasi collection (No. VI.). It dates 

 from the Vlllth year of Menephthah, and purports to be 

 a report written by some captain of the frontier guard, 

 relating how certain Shasu (Bedaween) had sought and 

 received permission to graze their herds in the well-watered 

 pastures about PaTum. 



" We have done all that was needful in suffering the Shasu 

 tribes of Adumah (Edom) to pass the fortress of Meneph- 

 thah Hotepherma (to whom be life, health, and strength !) on 

 their way to the Pools of Pa-Tum of Takou, that they may 

 feed their cattle in the great pasture-lands belonging to the 

 king (to whom be life, health, and strength !), the Sun of 

 all Countries, in the year VIII. . . . their names have 

 been entered on the list. . . " itc, kc. 



To this I may add (not liaving Mariette's " Denderah " 

 at hand, and relying on the authority of !M. I'Abbe 

 Vigouriux), that the name of Pa-Tilm, designated as a 

 town on the Eastern frontier, appears in the great geo- 

 graphical li-sts of the Temple of Denderah. 



Lastly, Jlerodotus — who is always to be relied upon 

 when speaking from personal observation, and not repeat- 

 ing tales told to him by chrrows and priests — not only 

 names the town of Pa-Tum, Ijut with great precision 

 describes its position in relation to the city of Bubastis 

 and the canal mentioned in connection with Bubastis 

 in the great lapidary inscription at Karnak before 

 referred to. He is writing about the canal, which he 

 mistakenly attributes to Nekau, the son of Psammetichus, 

 whereas it was actually begun and carried to a considerable 



• For tmnslationa of this inscription, see " The Invasion of 

 Egypt by tho Greeks," by Ur. Birch, " Records of tho I'ust," vol. 

 iv., and Chabas's " Antiquitc Historiqno." Paris. 1873. I 



distance by Seti I. " This prince (Nekau)," he says, " was 

 the first to attempt the construction of the canal to the 

 Red Sea — a work completed afterwards by Darius the 

 Persian — the length of which is four days' journeys, and 

 the width such as to admit of two triremes being rowed 

 along it abreast. The water is derived from the Nile, 

 which the canal leaves a little above the city of Bubastis, 

 near Patiimus, the Arabian town, being continued thence 

 until it joins the Red Sea." (See Rawlinson's " Hero- 

 dotus," book ii., chap. 1-58.) 



That the Paturaus of Herodotus was the Egyptian 

 Pa-Tum, and that the canal here described is the canal of 

 the Karnak inscription, are facts which admit of no 

 shadow of doubt ; and that Pa-Tum and Patunius are the 

 Pithom of the Bible is, I think, equally certain. Sir 

 Gardner Wilkinson, in his foot-note to Rawlinson's 

 translation of this passage, remarks : — " Herodotus calls 

 Patiimus an Arabian town, as lying on the East side of 

 the Nile " (vol. ii. p. 206) ; and, in point of fact, every 

 Nile tourist to this day follows the example of Herodotus 

 in thus loosely describing sites to the east of the river. 

 The desert on the right bank is always the Arabian desert, 

 and the desert on the left bank is always the Libyan 

 desert Also, this part of the frontier-land, including the 

 old Nome of Kosem, or land of Goshen, was called in the 

 time of Herodotus by the more modern name of the 

 Arabian Nome — meaning the Nome farthest east, in the 

 direction of Arabia. Neither Patiimus, nor Bubastis, nor 

 the canal was Arabian in any other sense. 



Mr. Stephen S. Haight says that last year he saw a 

 house struck by lightning, and the eave plates completely 

 destroyed. No other damage was done, and, beyond a 

 slight shock, the family sustained no harm. At both ends, 

 of the house there was a lightning conductor, but neither 

 of them bore any mark of the discharge. In front of the 

 house was the pole of a telegraph line, stayed by a wire to 

 the gate-])Ost. The stay wire was melted, and the gate and 

 gate-post damaged. A deep furrow also ran from the gate 

 to the brick sidewalks, where it terminated in a hole. A 

 tree in the course of the furrow was killed. He (the 

 speaker) had no doubt that the damage was due to the 

 stay wire, and, moreover, that the attractive power of the 

 hemlock tree is greater than that of the deciduous trees. 



Camels live from forty to fifty years : horses average 

 from twenty-five to thirty; oxen, about twenty; sheep. 

 eight or nine ; and dogs, twelve to fourteen. Concerning 

 the ages attained by non-domesticated animals, only a few 

 isolated facts are known. The East Indians b.-lieve that 

 the life period of the elephant is about 3CiO years, instances 

 being recorded of these animals having lived 1.30 years in 

 confinement after capture at an unknown age. Whales are 

 estimated to reach tho age of 400 years. Some reptiles 

 arc very long-lived, an instance being furnished by a 

 tortoise which was confined in 1633 and existed until Xl'Vi, 

 when he perished by accident Birds sometimes reach a 

 great age, the eagle and the swan having been known to 

 live one hundred years. The longevity of fishes is often 

 remarkable. The carp has been known to live 200 years ; 

 common river trout, fifty years ; and the pike, ninety 

 years, wliile Gesner — a Swiss naturalist — relates that n 

 pike caught in 1497 bore a ring recording the capture of 

 the same fisli 267 years before. Insects are very short- 

 lived, usually completing tlie term of their existence in a 

 few weeks or months. Some even die vipon the very 

 day of entering on their new life. As a general rule 

 not to be applied too closely, larger tjpes of animals live 

 longer than smaller. 



