THE SHEPHERD KINGS OT EGYPT. 221 



There is little doubt that the tribe of Tasm gives us the descendants 

 of Achuzam and the Azazimeh Arabs of the present day, as far at 

 least as the appellation of the latter is concerned. The Tasm are 

 the Shasu or Amalika of the Egyptian monuments, and in them we 

 find the Hycsos. The names Djasim and Tasm denote the same 

 peojile, and Hejaz, Kasseem, with similar geographical designations, 

 refer to their ancient settlements. Another name for Achuzam, 

 reminding us of the Achuzzath form, is Azd, of whom came the 

 Amalika and Walid, the shepherd conqueror of Egypt. A remnant 

 of this tribe founded the kingdom of Ghassan, in Syria Damascena. 

 Azd is mentioned in the Koran under the name of Yasin, where he 

 is made the father of Ilyas, whom an endeavour to identify traditional 

 with ScrijDture characters has transformed into Elias. Himyar, 

 whose true name was Ghazahadj (Achuzzath), is probably the same 

 individual, as will be seen in the Persian connection. He was the 

 first to wear a crown. Among the deities of Arabia some bore names 

 that, from their connection with certain tribes and localities, indicate 

 the presence of ancestor worship in the line of Ashchur. At 

 Nakhla, a name which recalls Nechaliel and similar forms of Jehale- 

 leel, the acacia was worshipped under the title of Al Uzza. We are 

 compelled to recognize in this the continuance of that acacia adoration 

 which has been already noted in the Palestinian and Egyptian con- 

 nections of the family of Ashchur, which entered into the Eleusinian 

 mysteries, and survives in the ritual of modern Freemasonry. Another 

 deity, called Akh-es-Semain, may be Achuzam in fuller form, and 

 may connect with the Athene Gozmoea of the Nabateans. The 

 Khozaites, who were particularly addicted to idolatry, possibly pre- 

 served the name of the son of Ashchur who was thus deified. Yauk, 

 the horse, a god of the Beni Murad, whose name at once recalls the 

 Indian Maruts and their Asvin relationships, suggests a connection 

 of Achuzam with the Mered, in the line of Ezra, who married a 

 daughter of Pharaoh. The pilgrimages of the ancient Arabians to 

 Mount Casius present us with another mode of paying homage to 

 their great ancestor, who gave his name to this Egyptian mountain. 

 As Azd, Achuzam has intimate relationship with the Amalekites, 

 and this tribe, in Arabian tradition, is represented as containing 

 •withia it the Shepherd kings. We shall also find in the Lacede- 

 monian genealogies links to bind Amalek and Achuzam in one. The 

 first mention of the Amalekites is in Genesis xiv. 7, and the only 



