THE LIST or SHESHONQ AT KAENAK. I3l 



Bible students owe to Professor Maspero for his labours. His 

 especial endeavonr in this paper has been, to "rigorously transcribe " 

 the Egyptian letters into their Hebrew equivalents, and thus avoid, 

 as far as possible, all errors and chance of hasty assumptions, so 

 as to obtain the exact names of the places to be identified. The 

 success attending his efforts is acknowledged, and one instance of 

 their value was recently pointed out by that well-known member of 

 this Institute, the late Canon Liddon, who considered that M. Mas- 

 pero's investigations as regards the list of Thothmes III (see 

 Transactions, vols, xx and xxii) afforded not only " indirect con- 

 firmations of the truth of the Bible narrative," but were " an 

 important contribution to the great fabric of Ancient Egyptian 

 history, to which we may look with increasing confidence for the 

 means of showing how mistaken are certain theories which, jor 

 purely or mainly subjective reasons, would place the dates of the 

 earliest books of Holy Scripture so late as to be inconsistent with 

 belief in their general trustworthiness, to say nothing of their 

 higher claims." 



The Chaikman. — We have a visitor here this evening, Mr. 

 Frederick Blis.s, who, in connection with Professor Fiindei-s 

 Petrie, lias been carrying on the explorations at Tell-el-Hesy, on 

 the borders of Philistia. 



Mr. F. J. Bliss, M.A. — I cannot help noticing the omission of 

 Lachish. from the list given by M. Maspero. It would have been 

 satisfactory if something final and definite (I mean after the work 

 at Tell-el-Hesy) had been added with regard to identification ; of 

 course unless you find an absolute inscription on a building, that 

 is known to be of ancient date, and which can clearly give the 

 name of the place, you have not arrived at a perfect and complete 

 identification. Major Conder suggests that Tell-el-Hesy is 

 probably Lachish, and Dr. Petrie, by his work, has made it seem 

 more sure, and my discovery of the tablet at Tell-el-Hesy has been 

 thought to help it on rather more still — though I am not quite 

 sure, the only mention on the tablet being of Lachish (which 

 has been connected with Tell-el-Hesy) ; and of course the 

 finding of an inscription a thousand years hence in some town 

 mentioning the Lord Mayor of London, would not prove that 

 place to be London. Yet I feel pretty sure that Tell-el-Hesy 

 is Lachish ; but between the highest probability and certainty 

 there is always a loop-hole. 



