oss, that holy man said to it: "Listen to the Bard who has
come to you from afar with wagon and chariot. Sink down, become
fordable, and reach not up to our chariot axles." The river answers: "I
will bow down to thee like a woman with full breast (suckling her
child), as a maid to a man, will I throw myself open to thee."

This is accordingly done, and the sage passes through.

We have also an Indian legend which relates that a courtesan named
Bindumati, _turned back the streams of the river Ganges_.[56:5]

We see then, that the idea of seas and rivers being divided for the
purpose of letting some chosen one of God pass through is an old one
peculiar to other peoples beside the Hebrews, and the probability is
that many nations had legends of this kind.

That Pharaoh and his host should have been drowned in the Red Sea, and
the fact not mentioned by any historian, is simply impossible,
especially when they have, as we have seen, noticed the fact of the
Israelites being driven out of Egypt.[56:6] Dr. Inman, speaking of this,
says:

"We seek in vain amongst the Egyptian hieroglyphs for scenes
which recall such cruelties as those we read of in the Hebrew
records; and in the writings which have hitherto been
translated, we find nothing resembling the wholesale
destructions described and applauded by the Jewish historians,
as perpetrated by their own people."[57:1]

That Pharaoh should have pursued a tribe of diseased slaves, _whom he
had driven out of his country_, is altogether improbable. In the words
of Dr. Knappert, we may conclude, by saying that:

"_This story, which was not written until more than five
hundred years after the exodus itself, can lay no claim to be
considered historical_."[57:2]

FOOTNOTES:

[48:1] Exodus i. 14.

[48:2] Exodus ii. 24, 25.

[48:3] See chapter x.

[48:4] Exodus ii. 12.

[48:5] The Egyptian name for God was "_Nuk-Pa-Nuk_," or "I AM THAT I
AM." (Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 395.) This name was found on a temple
in Egypt. (Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 17.) "'I AM' was a Divine
name understood by all the initiated among the Egyptians." "The 'I AM'
of the Hebrews, and the 'I AM' of the Egyptians are identical." (Bunsen:
Keys of St. Peter, p. 38.) The name "_Jehovah_," which was adopted by
the Hebrews, was a name esteemed sacred among the Egyptians. They called
it Y-HA-HO, or Y-AH-WEH. (See the Religion of Israel, pp. 42, 43;