ng to
Manethe, amounted to three hundred and ninety-three years, as he says
himself, till the two brothers Sethos and Hermeus; the one of whom,
Sethos, was called by that other name of Egyptus, and the other,
Hermeus, by that of Danaus. He also says that Sethos east the other out
of Egypt, and reigned fifty-nine years, as did his eldest son Rhampses
reign after him sixty-six years. When Manethe therefore had acknowledged
that our forefathers were gone out of Egypt so many years ago, he
introduces his fictitious king Amenophis, and says thus: "This king
was desirous to become a spectator of the gods, as had Orus, one of
his predecessors in that kingdom, desired the same before him; he also
communicated that his desire to his namesake Amenophis, who was the son
of Papis, and one that seemed to partake of a divine nature, both as
to wisdom and the knowledge of futurities." Manethe adds, "how this
namesake of his told him that he might see the gods, if he would clear
the whole country of the lepers and of the other impure people; that the
king was pleased with this injunction, and got together all that had any
defect in their bodies out of Egypt; and that their number was eighty
thousand; whom he sent to those quarries which are on the east side of
the Nile, that they might work in them, and might be separated from the
rest of the Egyptians." He says further, that "there were some of the
learned priests that were polluted with the leprosy; but that still this
Amenophis, the wise man and the prophet, was afraid that the gods would
be angry at him and at the king, if there should appear to have been
violence offered them; who also added this further, [out of his sagacity
about futurities,] that certain people would come to the assistance of
these polluted wretches, and would conquer Egypt, and keep it in their
possession thirteen years; that, however, he durst not tell the king
of these things, but that he left a writing behind him about all those
matters, and then slew himself, which made the king disconsolate." After
which he writes thus verbatim: "After those that were sent to work in
the quarries had continued in that miserable state for a long while, the
king was desired that he would set apart the city Avaris, which was then
left desolate of the shepherds, for their habitation and protection;
which desire he granted them. Now this city, according to the ancient
theology, was Typho's city. But when these men were gotten in