, considerable depression of the sea is caused by
long-continued north winds; and Alexander, taking advantage of such a
moment, may have dashed on without impediment;' and we accept the
explanation as a matter of course. But the waters of the Red Sea are
said to have miraculously opened a passage for the children of Israel;
and we insist on the literal truth of _this_ story, and reject natural
explanations as monstrous." (Matthew Arnold.)

[56:1] See Prichard's Egyptian Mytho. p. 60.

[56:2] See ch. xviii.

[56:3] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 312.

[56:4] Analysis Relig. Belief, p. 552.

[56:5] See Hardy: Buddhist Legends, p. 140.

[56:6] In a cave discovered at Deir-el-Bahari (Aug., 1881), near Thebes,
in Egypt, was found _thirty-nine_ mummies of royal and priestly
personages. Among these was King Ramses II., the third king of the
Nineteenth Dynasty, and the veritable Pharaoh of the Jewish captivity.
It is very strange that he should be _here_, among a number of other
kings, if he had been lost in the Red Sea. The mummy is wrapped in
rose-colored and yellow linen of a texture finer than the finest Indian
muslin, upon which lotus flowers are strewn. It is in a perfect state of
preservation. (See a Cairo [Aug. 8th] letter to the _London Times_.)

[57:1] Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 58.

[57:2] The Religion of Israel, p. 41.

CHAPTER VII.

RECEIVING THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

The receiving of the _Ten Commandments_ by Moses, from the Lord, is
recorded in the following manner:

"In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone
forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into
the wilderness of Sinai, . . . and there Israel camped before
the Mount. . . .

"And it came to pass on the third day that there were thunders
and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the Mount, and the
voice of the tempest exceedingly loud, so that all the people
that was in the camp trembled. . . .

"And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord
descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as
the smoke of a furnace, and the whole Mount quaked greatly.
And when the voice of the tempest sounded long, and waxed
louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a
voice.

"_And the Lord came down upon the Mount_, and called Moses up
to the top of the Mount, and Moses went up."[58:1]

The Lord there com