TitEl SHEPHERD KINGS OF EGTrPT. 199 



Orders of tiie Arabian desert, wLicli mai-ks the ancient Phagriopolis 

 and the Phagroriopolite nome- The fish Phagres, (the eel), which 

 \vas worshipped as Phagriopolis, was fabled to have devoured the 

 member of Osiris which was missing when Isis Avent in search of his 

 discerjjed body, in honour of which that phallus worship arose which 

 is always associated with the idolatry of Baal Peor. Sheth certainly 

 dwelt in the Rabbahs of Amnion and in Ar-Moab, so that the 

 connection ig far from being an improbable one. The Phre, who is 

 a god of the Shethites with Ashtar and Amun, cannot be a form of 

 the Horite Pa, and is, I am inclined to think, this Beor. He will 

 also be the Pheron, whom Herodotus makes tJie son of Sesostria, in 

 connection with whom it is well to observe that the same author 

 attributes to him the erection of phallic pillars. I reserve what I 

 have to say concerning the Shethites or descendants of Achashtari 

 for the Palestinian connections of the Egyptian Ashchurites. 



We now turn to the family of Helah, of whose name I have 

 discovered as yet no trace. The first of her sons, and probably the 

 contemporary of Achuzam, was Zsreth. The first letter of his name 

 is one of the most uncertain in the Hebrew alphabet in regard to 

 the forms which it may assume. S, K or Ch, T or Ts, are the 

 equivalents which we may expect to meet with. Among the Shepherds 

 of Syncellus, Cei'tos following Sethos must be this Zereth ; and the 

 Tricus of Bar Hebreeus coming after Susunus, whom I have taken 

 from his position to be Achuzam, is probably the same. Evidence, 

 which I think puts this out of doubt, is furnished by the lists of 

 Tipper and Lower Egyptian kings which Syncellus has preserved, 

 The successor of Menes in the one list he makes Athothes, w^ho is 

 Achuzam, and in the other Curudes, who is Zereth. He is also, 1 

 have little doubt, the Tosorthrus or Sesorthus of Manetho's third 

 dynasty, whose name may be repeated thei'e as the Tosertaris who 

 immediately precedes Aches. A name similar to either of them has 

 been found at Memphis with that of Aches.^* As Helah is first 

 mentioned in. the Hebrew text of Chronicles, Zereth may possibly 

 have been the eldest son of Ashchur. The name of this monarch is 

 only known to me subsequently in that of his descendants, the 

 Shairetaan, who are plainly the people of Zarthan and similarly 

 named places in Palestine. They are, as I have already indicated, 

 the Cherethites or Cretans, an identification for which I have the high 



'* Kenrick, ii. 109. 



