THE SHEPHERD KlXGS OF EGYPT. 181 



"relationsLips in the two i^ecords. I propose to exhibit a comparison 

 far greater, extending to many records, not of a few but of a perfect- 

 network of names historical and geographical, vouched for not by- 

 mere doubtful documents but, along with such, by the trutliful 

 statements of the Bible, and by the evidence of existing monunienta 

 in Egypt and neighbouring lands. Much has already been achieved 

 by pai'tial historical induction from names within limited areas, but 

 false notions in ethnology and philology have hindered that fuller 

 induction to which I have devoted my leisure, and the result of 

 which must be the correction of these cherished opinions, based as 

 they are on hasty generalization and traditional prejudice. I have 

 not rested in mere similarity or identity of nomenclature, but have 

 used these as a necessary introduction to wider and moi-e satisfactory 

 harmonies, which together bring the foundations of a cosmos into the 

 chaos of the past. My method is that of science, and the result at 

 whicli I aim, simple historical truth, not tlie establishment of any 

 system whatsoever. Hence I seek -the fullest investigation into the 

 problems which have sought their solution at my hands, and will 

 gladly welcome the correction of errors of judgment or any new light 

 which may be shed upon the facts or other materials with which I 

 deal. But I dare not allow any unsettled philology, which takes no 

 account of the Semitic languages on the one hand or the Indo- 

 European on the other, to dictate in regard to connections that lie 

 beyond its sphere, an allegorizing system of mythology to bar the 

 way to truth which it rejects, or a false chronology to check the 

 progress of a work tlmt will yet establish the true. In setting forth 

 the story of the Ashchurites I propose, first of all, to show that it 

 is connected with that of Egypt, afterwards to collect from the 

 legends of other peoples all that may shed light upon their national 

 and individual history, and, finally, returning to the record which 

 ■supplies us with a reliable account of their families, to recover from 

 it theii' true position among the races of antiquity. 



II. THE SHEPHERD KINGS IN EGYPT, 

 In my former paper on the Horites I endeavoured to show that 

 these original dwellers in the land which afterwards fell to Esau and 

 Ms descendants were the Auritae and the ^gypti of the Old Chronicle. 

 The JEgypti I identified in part with the Caphtorim, which Mr. Poole 

 had done long before. Between these two dynasties, if we may so call 

 them, the Old Chronicle mentions the Mestraei. These are no Bible 



