s so
singular a charm for many, and had dwelt for we know not how many years
in different parts of Palestine, the chief of a tribe rich in flocks and
herds, moving with them from place to place as the fancy took him. It
was assuredly with much reluctance that he quitted the open downs and
fresh breezes and oak groves of Canaan the land promised to him and to
his seed after him, and took his way through the "desert of the south"
to the great kingdom with which he and his race could never hope to be
on terms of solid friendship. But the necessity which constrained him
was imperative. When, from the want of the ordinary spring rains,
drought and famine set in on the Palestinian uplands, there was in
ancient times but one resource. Egypt was known as a land of plenty.
Whether it were Hebrew nomads, or Hittite warriors, or Phoenician traders
that suffered, Egypt was the sole refuge, the sole hope. There the river
gave the plenteous sustenance which would be elsewhere sought in vain.
There were granaries and storehouses, and an old established system
whereby corn was laid up as a reserve in case of need, both by private
individuals of the wealthier classes and by the kings. There among the
highest officers of state was the "steward of the public granary." whose
business it was, when famine pressed, to provide, so far as was
possible, both for natives and foreigners, alleviating the distress of
all, while safeguarding, of course, the king's interests (Gen. xlvii.
13-26).

Abraham, therefore, when he found that "the famine was grievous in the
land" of Canaan, did the only thing that it was possible for him to
do--left Palestine, and wended his way through the desert to the
Egyptian frontier. What company he took with him is uncertain. A few
years later we find him at the head of a body of three hundred and
eighteen men capable of bearing arms--"trained servants born in his
house"--which implies the headship over a tribe of at least twelve
hundred persons. He can scarcely have entered Egypt with a much smaller
number. It was before his separation from his nephew, Lot, whose
followers were not much fewer than his own. And to leave any of his
dependents behind would have been to leave them to starvation. We must
suppose a numerous caravan organized, with asses and camels to carry
provisions and household stuff, and with the women and the little ones
conveyed as we see them in the sculpture representing the arrival of
Abusha from