OF ACCOMPANYING ANIMALS AND PLANTS. I I I 



expulsion of the Hyksos from the Egyptian frontier. In the absence of monumental evidence that 

 the kings of the Seventeenth dynasty carried war beyond the Northeastern frontier, the Hyksos are 

 regarded by Lepsius as probably the obstacle in that direction. Confirmation is found in Manetho's 

 detailed account in Jos. c. A. i. 14 and 15. 



Compelled to quit the Egyptian frontier (Manetho in Jos. c. A.), the Hyksos carried along all 

 their possessions, and the whole community numbering not less than two hundred and forty thousand, 

 proceeded across the Desert towards Syria : but fearing the Assyrians, who now ruled Asia, they 

 turned aside, and for their own protection built a city and called it Jgrosoluma. (That Jerusalem 

 was built before the Exodus of the Jews, appears from Josh. x. 1, xviii. 28, and Judg. xix. 10). 



The hieroglyphic character of the onager V ft " iant(56u " and " Siantoou '' means "mountain 

 ass," also "hill country," and therefore Pales ^\\ tine; the animal in its wild state wandering 

 no farther West. The character occurs in / tJ an inscription having reference to the Hyksos 

 king " Apepi" or Apophis (Leps. k. pi. 15), but composed perhaps subsequently ; — and with its modi- 

 fications, continues in use until the reign of Ramessu VIII. of the Twentieth dynasty (Leps. d. iii. 

 pi. 238, and k. pi. 30 to 40). 



In a painting of about this date (now in the museum at London), I remarked the onager, Equus 

 hemionus, domesticated and caparisoned. — The "white asses" of the Song of Deborah (Judg. v. 

 10) may therefore be compared. 



Ambiguous figures at Benihassan on examination proving varieties of the dog, the above paint- 

 ing contains the earliest figure I have met with of the cat (copied in Wilkinson pi ), from the 



surroundings possibly in its wild state as Felis maniculata of the Upper Nile : — under the Twenty- 

 second dynasty (Leps. k. pi. 46) the cat makes its appearance as a hieroglyphic character, and was 

 doubtless at this time domesticated in Egypt ; though unnoticed in the Hebrew Scriptures, Hesiod, 

 Homer, and the Batrachomyomachia, until mentioned by Herodotus as a familiar domestic animal 

 in both Egypt and Greece. Eastward, I looked in vain for figures in the cave-temples of Hindustan ; 

 but according to Deslongchr.mps transl., the cat is mentioned in the Institutes of Manu. By Euro- 

 pean colonists, the cat was carried to America and the islands of the Pacific ; was met with by our 

 Expedition on Taheiti and Tongatabu, relapsed into secondary wildness on the Hawaiian Group, and 

 (according to Rich) on the Samoan. 



" 1562 B. C. = 1st year of Tchoung-ting, of the Chang " or Fourth dynasty (Chinese chron. table). 



1561 B. C. = " 1st of Mechir in the 15th year of Amun-u-hnumut," commencement in the quarry 

 of work on the two Great obelisks — (Birch). 



1560 B. C. = "last day of Mesore in the 16th year of Amun-u-hnumut," and after an interval of 

 " seven months," the two Great obelisks finished — (Birch) : they continue in place in the temple at 

 Karnak. The " 16th year" is the latest in the reign of Amun-u-hnumut. found on the monuments 

 (Leps. k. tab. p. 17). 



" 1557 B. C. = 6th year of Tchoung-ting" (Chinese chron. table), beginning of the Nineteenth 

 cycle. 



The same year (= 1527 -|- 30 years of Euseb. i. and ii., and Syncell.), accession of Mamythus 

 as Assyrian emperor. 



1554 B. C. (= 1532 y. 6 mo. -\- "21 y. 9 mo.'' of Manetho in Jos. c. A., the Afr.- 

 Maneth. table giving 1417 -f " 37 + 31 + 9 + 26 + 13 + 22 years " = 1555), acces- 

 sion of Am£ssis, called "AmSnsis" in the Afr.-Maneth. table. On the monuments, 

 Tutmas III. head of the Eighteenth dynasty is next in order : — he immediately follows 

 _ Tutmas II. in the series of kings at Abydos, and Gurna. 



Nelumbiiim speciostun of Subtropical and Tropical Eastern Asia. The flower of the great 

 water-lily has not been found on the Egyptian monuments, but certain representations, including 

 the emblem designating Asiatic captives, appeared to me intended for the fruit ; the plant is besides 

 known to have furnished one form of capital of the Egyptian columns— (Athen. v. 9) : a kind of 

 " ldtos " lily growing in the Nile is described by Herodotus ii. 92 as having fruit like a wasp's nest, 

 containing se°eds as large as olive-stones ; the " kuamos aiguptios " is mentioned also by Hippocrates, 

 Theophrastus iv. 3 to 10, Diodorus, Strabo, and Dioscorides ; the flower and fruit of N. speciosum 

 occur on a medal of Vespasian, and a bust of Antinous (Del.), but the plant has since disappeared 

 from Egypt. Eastward, continues in the Caspian as far as the mouths of the Volga (Ledeb., and 

 A. Dec/), though perhaps not indigenous there : is figured in the cave-temples of Hindustan, both 

 Budhist and Braminical, as ascertained by myself ; was observed by Rheede xi. pi. 30 in Malabar ; 

 by Graham " in tanks throughout the Concan " (planted) ; and is called " nelumbo " on Ceylon (Lam.). 

 Farther East, was observed by Mason indigenous in Burmah and called "pa-dung-ma ; " by Loureiro 

 p. 416 in Cochinchina; is called in China " lien-hoa," is mentioned in the Eulh-ya dictionary, and its 

 spongy fruit by Li-chi-tchi as medicinal, was observed by Cibot mem. chin. iii. 437 multiplied by seeds 

 and roots and requiring no further care in cultivation, its seeds eaten like filberts ; by Kaempfer, and 

 Thunberg, around temples in Japan and regarded as sacred, but its stems eaten. 



