xperience
of Egypt to receive emigrants from the north-east, from Syria or
Northern Arabia, at a little later period, when the nomads in those
regions looked over to the south and, by contrast with their
over-peopled country, thought they saw a sort of "fairy-land of wealth,
culture, and wisdom," which they hoped to enjoy by force: and they were
not the last to seek asylum there. We shall soon have to remark on the
familiar case of the immigration of the sons of Jacob with their
households. In process of time the Semitic wanderers increased so
materially that the population in the eastern half of the Delta became
half Asiatic, prepared to submit readily to Asiatic rule and to worship
Semitic deities; they had already imposed a number of their words upon
the language of Egypt.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] Adapted from Kinglake's "Eothen," p. 201.

[14] See "Speaker's Commentary," vol. i. p. 447, col. i.

VIII.

THE GREAT INVASION--THE HYKSOS OR SHEPHERD KINGS--JOSEPH AND APEPI.

The prowess of the Egyptians had not yet been put to any severe proof.
They had themselves shown little of an aggressive spirit. Attracted by
the mineral wealth of the Sinaitic peninsula, they had indeed made
settlements in that region, which had involved them in occasional wars
with the natives, whom they spoke of as "Mena" or "Menti"; and they had
had a contest of more importance with the tribes of the south, negro and
Ethiopic, in which they had shown a decided superiority over those rude
barbarians; but, as yet, they had attempted no important conquest, and
had been subjected to no serious attack. The countries upon their
borders were but sparsely peopled, and from neither the Berber tribes of
the northern African coast, nor from the Sinaitic nomads, nor even from
the negroes of the south, with their allies--the "miserable
Cushites"--was any dangerous invasion to be apprehended. Egypt had been
able to devote herself almost wholly to the cultivation of the arts of
peace, and had not been subjected to the severe ordeal, which most
nations pass through in their infancy, of a struggle for existence with
warlike and powerful enemies.

The time was now come for a great change. Movements had begun among the
populations of Asia which threatened a general disturbance of the peace
of the world. Asshur had had to "go forth" out of the land of Shinar,
and to make himself a habitation further to the northward, which must
have pressed painful