first commonly used in the time of the kings. But if the horse was not yet used by the Israelites, at the time of Joshua and the Judges, much less was it surely in the age of the Pentateuch, when the main object, which the keeping of horses subserved in Egypt, did not exist.* If now this is the reason why the horse does not appear in the enumeration of the presents, it is entirely in favor of the true historical character and Mosaic origin of the narration. If it owed its origin to the poetic tradition of the time of the kings, horses would certainly have been mentioned, since we cannot suppose that the time of the introduction of them was accurately known, and still less that the fiction was so carefully managed for the sake of maintaining historical consistency. But we need not stop with merely the present passage. The Pentateuch in other places continually implies that in the ancient times with which it is concerned, there were no horses among the patriarchs and their descendants. Moses," says Michaelis, "repeatedly describes to us the riches of the Patriarchs, as consisting of their herds, among which, while oxen, sheep, goats, camels and asses are enumerated, we never once find horses mentioned." The tabernacle was drawn by oxen in the desert. Num. 7: 3. That a great number of horses could not be conveniently kept in Egypt, is implied in Deut. 17: 16. These facts, according to modern views respecting the Pentateuch, are entirely inexplicable. They compel us at least to the assumption, that the composition of the narration precedes the time of the commencement of the kingdom, while at the same time the attempts to refer the substance of the history in the books * Taylor's Illust. of the Bible from the monuments of Egypt. London, 1838. p. 5. "From the monuments we learn that horses were used exclusively [more accurately, preeminently] in war, especially for drawing chariots, in which the most distinguished Egyptian warriors rode to battle." + Mich. Mos. Laws. Eng. Trans. Vol. II. p. 436. Compare Gen. 20: 14. 24: 35. 26: 14. 30: 41. 32: 6, 8, 15, 16. of Joshua and Judges to later times, have also a formidable obstacle in the apparently trivial circumstance, that in them the horse is not represented as in use. Let it be borne in mind here, that we find nowhere a historical notice of the time of the introduction of horses, that they were in all probability introduced gradually, and that the Israelites did not probably know that which a scholar of the last century, by a laborious comparison of many scattered passages, has made entirely certain. It has occurred to no one before v. Bohlen to deny, that there were asses in Egypt. All of the authors who speak of the hatred of the Egyptians to this animal, imply that it existed there.* How, also, could they otherwise have been sacrificed to Typhon. Swine too were considered unclean in Egypt, yet they were kept. He and she-asses appear in great numbers on the monuments. The former were commonly used for riding-we find them represented with rich trappings, the latter as beasts of burden.‡ A single individual is represented on the monuments, as having 760 of them, which makes it evident that they were very nu merous. The assertion that sheep were not found in Egypt, every modern manual of Geography confutes. Ukert says, "Sheep are found in great numbers in Egypt. Their wool is an important article of trade, and their flesh is the most common which comes upon the table." Ancient authors often mention the sheep of Egypt. According to Herodotus, rams were considered sacred by the Thebans, and * ** Compare the passage in Schmidt, de sacerd. et sacrif. Aeg. p. 283. + Herod. 2. 47, 48. Schmidt, p. 269. Taylor, pp. 6, 7. § Wilkinson, Vol. III. p. 34. Nordhälfte von Afrika, S. 169. ¶ Compare, on rearing sheep in Egypt, Girard in the Description, t. 17. p. 129 seq. ** 2. 41 and 2. 42. sheep were sacrificed by the inhabitants of the Mendesian nome in the Delta. Plutarch says, the Lycopolites ate the flesh of sheep, and according to Diodorus, the sheep produced their young twice in a year and were twice shorn. Sheep appear on the monuments often and in great numbers. Large herds of them were kept especially in the neighborhood of Memphis. Sometimes the flocks consisted of more than two thousand.t That the camel existed in ancient Egypt is indeed probable from the analogy of the present time. It is acknowledged that they have not yet been found delineated on the monuments, except those scattered traces which Minutoi thinks that he discovered on the obelisks of Luxor. But this circumstance, at most, only proves that camels were not very abundant in Egypt, and even that not with entire certainty. The Pentateuch itself also intimates the same thing, since in the passage under consideration, camels are mentioned last, and in chap. 45: 23, not at all. A multitude of objects which can be demonstrated to have existed among * 1. 36 and 87. + See Wilk. Vol. II. p. 368. Champollion, Briefe, S. 51, according to whom the treading down of the ground by rams is represented in the grottoes of Beni Hassan, 53. Ukert, S. 169. Girard in the Description, t. 17. p. 128, says: "The camels which are used in Saïd for the transportation of all kinds of freight, unless it is sent by water upon the Nile or upon the canals, are inferior in size and strength to those in Lower Egypt. The raising of these animals is one of the chief employments of the Arabs who dwell upon the borders of the valley of Egypt. They furnish the markets of different provinces with them. The camels which are used for the transportation of the harvest do not always belong to the husbandman. He hires them as he needs them. During the remainder of the year, he makes use of the ass. land-owner who does not possess several asses," etc. There is no According to t. 15, p. 215 of the Descr. the camels of the Delta are less valued than those of the provinces which border upon the desert. § Wilk. I. p. 351. || Reise, S. 293. the ancient Egyptians are wanting in their paintings. In the numerous hunting scenes, for example, the wild boar is not seen, although it is a native of Egypt. The wild ass, which is common in the deserts of Thebaid, is also not met with.* Even fowls and pigeons, which Egypt had in so great abundance, do not appear, while "geese are repeatedly introduced."+ Of other objects which, although they certainly existed, are not found upon the monuments, the same author speaks on page 254, Vol. III, with which compare too what is said on page 344 of the same Vol. concerning the great deficiency of the monuments. Use of Animal Food in Egypt. "The author," says v. Bohlen, "represents Joseph, Gen. 43: 16, in most manifest opposition to the sacredness of beasts to prepare flesh for food." In his commentary|| it is said: "The Egyptians partake, at most, of consecrated fleshofferings, and the higher castes, especially the priests with whom Joseph was connected by marriage, abstain entirely from animal food." Further: "The hatred of this people to foreign shepherds is founded on the inviolableness of animals, especially of neat cattle, goats and sheep (the author forgets he has denied the existence of these animals in Egypt), which were killed by the shepherds, but accounted sacred by the Egyptians." Our astonishment at the condition of our great critic's knowledge of Egypt is here again not a little' increased, and the credulity, with which so many use such an author's work on India as good authority, becomes, after the successive developments of his ignorance, unaccountable to us. No one before v. Bohlen has ever thought of asserting that the Egyptians abstain from all animal food. The contrary is * Wilk. III. p. 21. + S. LV. || S. 399. ↑ Wilk. p. 35. § S. 397, upon Gen. 43: 16. found in all works of acknowledged authority. Heeren,* for example, says: "Oxen are commonly used for food and offerings." And Beck:t "The Egyptians abstain from the flesh of several animals, some of them sacred, as the cow, and some of them otherwise, as from swine's flesh." How also can any one doubt that the Egyptians ate flesh, when Herodotus alone furnishes abundant proof of the fact? According to 2. 18, cows only, not oxen, were sacred among the Egyptians; in 2. 168, the quantity of the flesh of oxen received daily, by each Egyptian warrior, is mentioned. According to 2. 69, even crocodile's flesh was eaten by the inhabitants of Elephantine; but the most important passage is 2. 37, where it is said that the Egyptian priests receive each day a large portion of flesh. Even Porphyry§ himself merely says, that at certain times the Egyptian priests abstain from animal food. In this state of things we scarcely need to take the trouble to mention, that upon the monuments, in kitchen scenes and the delineation of feasts, animal food appears in abundance.|| The Winds of Egypt. "mis "The author," we read further in v. Bohlen,¶ takes so materially with regard to the natural phenomena of the country, that he transfers there the scorching east wind of Palestine," Gen. 41: 6, and represents the ebb in the Red Sea as produced by this same wind. In his commentary** on the passage above referred to, it is said, When there is a cool and refreshing east wind along the Arabian * In den Ideen, Aegypten, S. 170. In der Weltgeschichte, 1, 1. S. 763. † Καὶ κρεῶν βοέων καὶ χηνέων πλῆθός τι ἑκάστῳ γίνεται πολλὸν ἡμέρες ἑκάστης. § In Schmidt, p. 62. ↑ S. LVI. Wilk. Vol. II. p. 368. ** S. 381. |