THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS. 19 



"with what we see not only in Egypt, but in all countries 

 where two languages are spoken. In passing from one 

 language to another, a proper name is generally not trans- 

 lated, it is only altered sufficiently to have a sense familiar 

 to the people who have to use it. This new sense may be 

 totally different from the original one. Examples of this 

 fact are numerous in Egypt; it occurs also frequently in 

 England where Norman words pronounced by Saxons took a 

 sense absolutely different from their original meaning;* and 

 in my own country, in the cantons where German and French 

 are spoken together. The Semitic form of Thuket was 

 Succoth, a word familiar to the Hebrews, as it means tents. 



Thuket, Succoth, was a district before being a city; its 

 name is often mentioned in papyri of the XlXth dynasty. 

 Its governor was an adm, evidently the same word as the 

 Hebrew adon. There is a statue of one of those officials in 

 the British Museum which was found at Pithom. From the 

 papyri we get very important information concerning the 

 district of Succoth. Its name is generally written with the de- 

 terminative of foreign lands, although it was part of Egypt, 

 thus showing that it was a border land. It contained what is 



called in Egyptian IS^, <o] : sega'ir, the same word 



as in Hebrew, "V)D . It means a wall or an enclosure of some 



- T 



kind, which was either a means of defence, a wall destined 

 to prevent passing from the desert towards Egypt, or, 

 perhaps, an enclosure for the cattle of the king, which were 

 grazing in the neighbourhood. 



Further information is given by a passage which I must 

 quote in full, f following Brugsch's translation. It is a 

 letter written by an official : " We have allowed the tribes 

 of the Shasu, of the land of Atuma, to pass the stronghold 

 of king Menephthah of the laud of Succoth, towards the 

 lakes of Pithom of king Menephthah of the land of Succoth, 

 in order to feed themselves, and to feed their cattle in the 



great estate of Pharaoh " We learn from this passage 



that in the district of Succoth there were lakes or ponds 

 of fresh water, near which there was good pasture land; 

 and also a farm or estate belonging to the kiug, where the 

 Bedouins of the desert asked to be allowed to feed their cattle. 



* I shall quote only one instance, the French buffetier became in 

 English Beefeater. 



t "The Store City of Pithom," p. 28. 



c 2 



