416 THE COPTIC ELEMENT IN 



My last example exhibits unmistakeably tlie presence of the 

 Coptic article in the transmission of the root through different 

 languages. The book of Exodus makes us acquainted with a town 

 in Lower Egypt called Pithom, which the captive Israelites helped 

 to build for their oppressors.®'' This town appears to have been 

 situated upon the eastern bank^of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, 

 to be the Patumos of Herodotus and the Thum of the Itinerarium 

 Antonini. There is not the least doubt that the initial Pi or Pa 

 is the Coptic article. Sir J. C Wilkinson connects Thum with the 

 Egyptian Thmei, the Hebrew THTJMMIM, the Greek Themis, 

 and, in a secondary degree, is correct in his etymology.^ In the 

 book of Numbers, however, we are informed that the whole of the 

 desert region near which this town lay, extending from it to the Red 

 Sea, was called ETHAM, a name applied also to an extensive tract on 

 the opposite shore of Arabia Petrsea.®' Many writers agree that 

 ETHAM and Pithom or Patumos are variations of the same root, 

 the latter, denoting a town, being a definite form of the former. 

 The word, ETHAM, however, at once associates itself in the mind 

 of the student of Egyptian history with the name of the solar god 

 Atum or Atmou, " who is called Athom, and gives his name to the 

 city of Thoum."™ The figure of a plough, which forms part of this 

 god's name spelt hieroglyphically, sends us to the old Coptic and 

 Hebrew root, eth, a ploughshare," while many circumstances prove 

 that m is no part of the root."* Thus, Jacob Bryant says, " It is 

 said that the Israelites came into the region of ETHAM, which is 

 still called Etti, the inhabitants of which were the Autaei of Pliny."^^ 

 Another writer, although guilty of the error of confounding Gatam 



6' Exodus i. 11. 



68 Eawlinson's Herodotus Book ii. 158.; note 5. 



A popular account of tlie Ancient Egyptians, ii. 250, &c. 



69 Exodus xiii., 20. Numbers xxxiii , 6 8. Tlie Septuagint form of this name is Othom. 

 Jablonsky views it as the Coptic Axiom, tha boundary of the sea. 



1° The History of Egypt, from the earliest times till the conquest by the Arabs, by Samue 

 Sharpe. London, 1870. Vol. i., 113. 



'1 Osbum, Monumental History of Egypt, Vol. i., MO. 



71* Theophilus calls the Egyptian city Peitho. " 'Oi [lEV 'EjSpatot Kar 'eKStvb) Kaigov 

 Tra2oiKricravTeg kv rr) ALtvirT((i, Kai KaraSov\(o9svTeg, virb jSacnXkwg, u)q Trgosi^rjTai, 

 T!e9iiwffic, ijjKoSoiJirjaai' avroi TroXeig 6xv20Lg, rijv re nli0w Kai Pafiecrij- — A 

 Autolycum iii.. 20. 



'2 Observations upon the plagues inflicted upon the Egyptians, &c., by Jacob Bryant. Lon- 

 don, 1794, (e libris Benj. Workman, Esq., M.D.) p. 404. 



