95 
that “ the goat " was worshipped at Heliopolis, as early as 
the time of the second dynasty, i.e. two centuries before 
Abram's arrival in Egypt, or that Herodotus, Diodorus, and 
Plutarch severally mention the existence of sheep in that 
country, it will be sufficient to point to an inscription on a 
tomb, discovered by Sir Gardner Wilkinson, bearing the 
name of Pharaoh Ghu-fu of the Great Pyramid, according to 
the custom of the Egyptians, and therefore proving it to be 
prior to the time of Abraham, in which the head shepherd of 
Prince Chephren , the nobleman buried there, is represented as 
giving an account of the flocks committed to his charge, which 
are seen following him. First come the oxen, over which is 
inscribed the number 835 ; cows, 220 ; goats, 2,235; asses , 
760; and sheep, 974. 
7. Notwithstanding such a rebuff. Yon Bohlen did not 
hesitate to declare in his comment upon Genesis xliii. 16, that 
“The author of that book represents Joseph commanding 
his servants to prepare flesh for food in most manifest opposition 
to the sacredness of beasts among the Egyptians ; their 
hatred to foreign shepherds being founded on the inviolable- 
ness of animals, especially of sheep, which were killed by the 
shepherds, but accounted sacred by the Egyptians," forgetting 
that he had just before asserted there were no sheep at all in 
that country ! Such is the inconsistency of those who are 
opposed to the veracity of Scripture in this age of criticism 
and progress. 
8. In a somewhat similar strain Professor Huxley, in his 
address to a body of the clergy at Sion College in 1867, en- 
deavoured to prove, if I understand him aright, that “ a great 
interval must have elapsed," much longer than the Bible allows, 
between the times of Abraham and Joseph, because the latter 
is represented as riding in a chariot, which implies “horses," 
whereas in the time of the former, he says, “ there existed a 
people highly civilized, but with whom are no traces of chariots 
or domestic horses." I do not quite see the force of this argu- 
ment, nor why we are to suppose “ a great interval " between 
the two periods on that account ; but I think we may learn 
something from the monuments on this very subject, which 
certainly tends to confirm the historic truth of the Bible more 
than the contrary. We gather from the tomb inscriptions 
already mentioned, as well as from the list of the gifts bestowed 
upon Abraham by Pharaoh, that at the time of his sojourn in 
Egypt horses were evidently unknown to the Egyptians, or 
they would doubtless have been enumerated with the other 
animals comprising the stock of Prince Chepliren, the owner of 
the tomb, as well as in the presents bestowed upon the Patri- 
