aters."**

* _Exod._ ii.-xiii. I have limited myself here to a summary
of the Biblical narrative, without entering into a criticism
of the text, which I leave to others.

** _Exod._ xv. 1-10 (R.V.)

From this narrative we see that the Hebrews, or at least those of them
who dwelt in the Delta, made their escape from their oppressors, and
took refuge in the solitudes of Arabia. According to the opinion of
accredited historians, this Exodus took place in the reign of Minephtah,
and the evidence of the triumphal inscription, lately discovered by
Prof. Petrie, seems to confirm this view, in relating that the people of
Israilu were destroyed, and had no longer a seed. The context indicates
pretty clearly that these ill-treated Israilu were then somewhere south
of Syria, possibly in the neighbourhood of Ascalon and Glezer. If it is
the Biblical Israelites who are here mentioned for the first time on an
Egyptian monument, one might suppose that they had just quitted the land
of slavery to begin their wanderings through the desert. Although the
peoples of the sea and the Libyans did not succeed in reaching their
settlements in the land of Goshen, the Israelites must have profited
both by the disorder into which the Egyptians were thrown by the
invaders, and by the consequent withdrawal to Memphis of the troops
previously stationed on the east of the Delta, to break away from their
servitude and cross the frontier. If, on the other hand, the Israilu of
Minephtah are regarded as a tribe still dwelling among the mountains of
Canaan, while the greater part of the race had emigrated to the banks
of the Nile, there is no need to seek long after Minephtah for a date
suiting the circumstances of the Exodus. The years following the reign
of Seti II. offer favourable conditions for such a dangerous enterprise:
the break-up of the monarchy, the discords of the barons, the revolts
among the captives, and the supremacy of a Semite over the other chiefs,
must have minimised the risk. We can readily understand how, in the
midst of national disorders, a tribe of foreigners weary of its lot
might escape from its settlements and betake itself towards Asia without
meeting with strenous opposition from the Pharaoh, who would naturally
be too much preoccupied with his own pressing necessities to trouble
himself much over the escape of a band of serfs.

Having crossed the Red Sea, the Israelites pursued their course to
the nor