The Project Gutenberg EBook of Moon of Israel, by H. Rider Haggard

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Title: Moon of Israel

Author: H. Rider Haggard

Release Date: April 3, 2006 [EBook #2856]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOON OF ISRAEL ***

Produced by John Bickers; Dagny; Emma Dudding

MOON OF ISRAEL

A TALE OF THE EXODUS

by H. Rider Haggard

AUTHOR'S NOTE

This book suggests that the real Pharaoh of the Exodus was not Meneptah
or Merenptah, son of Rameses the Great, but the mysterious usurper,
Amenmeses, who for a year or two occupied the throne between the
death of Meneptah and the accession of his son the heir-apparent, the
gentle-natured Seti II.

Of the fate of Amenmeses history says nothing; he may well have perished
in the Red Sea or rather the Sea of Reeds, for, unlike those of Meneptah
and the second Seti, his body has not been found.

Students of Egyptology will be familiar with the writings of the scribe
and novelist Anana, or Ana as he is here called.

It was the Author's hope to dedicate this story to Sir Gaston Maspero,
K.C.M.G., Director of the Cairo Museum, with whom on several occasions
he discussed its plot some years ago. Unhappily, however, weighed down
by one of the bereavements of the war, this great Egyptologist died in
the interval between its writing and its publication. Still, since Lady
Maspero informs him that such is the wish of his family, he adds the
dedication which he had proposed to offer to that eminent writer and
student of the past.

Dear Sir Gaston Maspero,

When you assured me as to a romance of mine concerning ancient Egypt,
that it was so full of the "inner spirit of the old Egyptians" that,
after kindred efforts of your own and a lifetime of study, you could not
conceive how it had been possible for it to spring from the brain of a
modern man, I thought your verdict, coming from such a judge, one of the
greatest compliments that ever I received. It is this opinion of yours
indeed which induces me to offer you another tale of a like complexion.
Especially am I encouraged thereto by a certain conversation between
us in Cairo, while we gazed at the