88 



which must have given him the rank and title of an Egyptian priest. 

 Besides, in the myth of Osiris the child is always called Horns. I was very 

 much interested in the name of Iskhut, taken from Esarhaddon's campaign, 

 which seems to correspond very well with Succoth. Tell el Masxut is not 

 an old name. It means the tell of the statue, and the name is derived from 

 the granite monolith which has been known for many years. 



The CriAiRJiAN (J. A. Fraser, M.D., Inspector- General of Hospitals). 

 — The very pleasant duty now devolves upon me of asking you to 

 accord a vote of thanks to the author for his paper, as to the great merits 

 and the interesting nature of which I am sure there will not be a dis- 

 sentient voice. I am particularly interested in Egyptology ; but, at the 

 same time, can scarcely claim a special knowledge of the subject, being- 

 only one of those whom Professor Huxley has described as " Lookers-on 

 at science and literature." Therefore I shall be glad if those present who 

 possess that special knowledge will favour us with such remarks as may 

 add to the information already laid before us. There is one thing I may 

 add, that there are numerous and vast discoveries yet to be made in the 

 interesting land of Egypt, of which at the present moment it may be said 

 that the surfivce has merely been scratched. 



Mr. W. St. Chad Boscawen.— Upon a paper so full of sound and valuable 

 research as that just read by Mr. Tomkins I can have but little to say. I 

 think the Victoria Institute is to be congratulated on having so able and 

 learned an Egyptologist as Mr. Tomkins as one of its members. Having 

 read two or three papers written by him, I may venture the remark, 

 that if everybody who undertakes to read an essay, before this or 

 any other institute, would take as much trouble in the way of research 

 as he has done, the proceedings of our learned societies would be worth 

 twice or three times what they are at present. The researches now going on 

 in the valley of the Nile are of the greatest possible interest, and those who 

 have visited that portion of the globe may sometimes forget, as they pass by 

 temple after temple, that when they have got beyond Cairo they are leaving 

 behind them things of fiir greater interest to us Western people than the 

 grander ruins of Thebes — of greater interest as connected with our own social 

 life at the present day. We take up a newspaper or a letter from a friend, 

 and we little think that the characters in which ib is written or printed are 

 now considered to have been first invented by the dwellers in the land of 

 Goshen. Passing briefly to some of the points touched upon by Mr. TomkinSj 

 I come to one which is brought forward in connexion with future explora- 

 tions — namely, the gateway by which nomad people were brought into contact 

 with the Egyptians— the outer eastern gate by which they found their way 

 into Egypt. When they had thus found their way there, they had great in- 

 fluence on the civilisation of that country, and we cannot doubt the contact 

 with Egyptian civilisation was a matter of great importance to the Semitic 

 people. As to the influence of the Semitic people in Egypt, we have the best 

 and most undoubted evidence. About the period of the eighteenth or nine- 



