184 THE SHEPHERD KII^'GS OP EGYPT. 



we have found liim in mythical story connecte i with Manahath, that 

 he was worshipped together with Oiiam or Onnos, the Horite, like 

 Manahath, a son of Shobal. The Busirite nome lay immediately to 

 the west of the Mendesian, so that geography aids tradition in 

 uniting the father of Tekoa with the son of Shobal. ^^ There were 

 several cities of the name of Busiris in Egypt, and in regard to all 

 of them it must be observed that they were sepulchral towns. It is 

 quite unnecessary to derive Busiris from Taphosiris, inasmuch as the 

 person whom the name represents with the simple prefix of the 

 masculine article is also called Ptah Soccari, and appropriately 

 connects with Sakkarah.^'^ I do not think that he is Osii-is, who I 

 would be inclined to believe is the eldest son of Atmoo or Etam, 

 although the family of Ashchur has relations with that in which 

 Jezreel occurs. '^^ The whole fanereal system of the Egyptians con- 

 nects with Ashchur and his line. I am not sure that Ptah gives us 

 a form of Tekoa with the Coptic article, although the Phoenician 

 Pataikoi, who are identical with the Cabiri, are of that god, and the 

 Greek thehe, the sepulchre, is not without Coptic relations.'* The 

 Pataikoi likewise are the pygmies who were on the side of Antseus 

 and Busiris. I do not doubt, however, that the hall of the Taser,^* 

 whither the dead wend their way, is the happy abode of tlie Scan- 

 dinavian Aesir, or the restiug-place of the Ashchurites. This will 

 appear more clearly in the sequel. 



Ashchur, who gave the name Mysara to all Egypt, also for a time 

 left the Nile as his memorial, till his grandson Jehaleleel superseded 

 him. That river was anciently called Siris, and this word is the same 

 as the Bible Shichor (Jeremiah ii. 18, &c.), in which it is impossible 

 not to recognize the name of Ashchur.''^'' Besides the places called 

 Busiris, Sakkarah and Dashour, the Beni Asser of D'Anville may be 



21 Osburn, i., 400. 



22 Typhon and Ptah Soccari are the same. Keiirick's Ancient Egypt under the Pharaohs, 

 New York, 1852, i. 14. 



23 Jezreel, the sown of God, whose name was afterwards given to an important tract in 

 Palestine, and who is mentioned in 1 Cliron. iv. 3 as a son of Etam, is tlie god of seed among 

 .tlie ancients, the Osiris of Egypt, his name being the explanation of the Greeli legend of the 

 Bpartoi and others of like character. 



2* The very Hebrew expression "Father of Tekoa" (A.bi Tekoa) may be tlie original of the 

 ■word Pataikoi, which is intimately related to Soccaii and wliicli reappears in the Indian 

 Apitalva. 



26 Dr. Birch on a remarkable inscription of the twelfth dynasty. Transactions of tho Royal 

 Society of Literature, Vol. v., New Series. 



26 Sehol. ApoUon. Rhod. iv. 391. : 



