272 THE SHEPHERD KINGS OF EGYPT. 



Onnos or his son, and became tlie chief ruler in Egypt as Sesostris'. 

 With him Achthoes or Jachath, the son of Reaiah and nephew of 

 Manahath and Onnos, was for a time confederate, and his son 

 Achumai, or Karnes, sat during the eai-ly years of his life upon the 

 throne of Memphis. Another son of Ashchiir, Hepher, was on 

 friendly terms with Onam, mamed his daughter Taia, and lived 

 apparently at the court of his father-in-law. His son Kenaz took 

 the Horite ra into his name, and his descendants, fleeing to the south 

 when the Horite line was expelled, became the Stranger kings, or 

 Disc-worshipping dynasty. Zereth ruled somewhere in Lower Egypt, 

 probably not far from Pelusium, as Curudes ; while Zohar seems to 

 have remained in Palestine, probably in possession of the ancestral 

 seat near which his son Ephron exercised princely power. It was in 

 the time of this Ephron that Abraham dwelt in Southern Palestine. 

 In the extreme south, at Gerar, he found a Philistine kingdom under 

 Abimelech, whom we have already identified with Jehaleleel, the son 

 of Achuzam. It is not improbable that Achashtari had assigned this 

 fertile and once beautiful region, which gave name to the heavens of 

 many peoples, as Ahalu, Avilion, Valhalla, Klailasa, Elysium, Coelum, 

 &c., to the son of his elder brother and husband of his own daughter. 

 It is not impossible, however, that Jehalaleel was driven from Egypt 

 by the same uncle, and that the fact was commemorated in an ancient 

 song, part of which was, " How art thou fallen, Helel, son of Shachar 

 or Ashchur!" At any rate he made up his mind to be the conqueror 

 of Egypt. For this purpose he raised a considerable ai'my, the 

 general of which bore the Egyptian title Phichol, and made treaties 

 of peace with surrounding peoples, including Abraham, one of the 

 most important nomad chiefs of Southern Palestine. Leaving a suc- 

 cessor, perhaps one of his sons, ^^ on the paternal throne,, and thus , 

 securing a retreat in case of failure, he advanced upon Egypt, driving 

 the Horites into the south, and Beor, the son of his uncle Achashtari, 

 into the eastern desert, whence his son Bela, passing into the region 

 which afterwards fell to Edom, became its first king and the head qf 

 the Shethites, who united with the childi'en of Moab on the eastern' 



30 That this successor belonged to the family of Achuzam is, I think, plain, from the fact 

 that his friend was Achuzzath, bearing a name almost identical with that of the son of A§hcliur. 

 Tet he must have been two generations later at least. This Achuzzath may have been, in some- 

 way, a grandson of Achuzam. His name is peculiar in form, and can hardly belong to any 

 other family. As no doubt a Hittite, it is interesting to findElon and Beeri in all probability 

 contemporary with him. Elon was very probably a grandson of Temenl 



