We may suspect, if we like, that the
family had noble--shall we say royal?--blood in its veins, and could
trace its descent to dynasties which had ruled at Nineveh or Babylon.
The connexion is possible, though scarcely probable, since no _eclat_
attended the first arrival of the Shishak family In Egypt, and the
family names, though Semitic, are decidedly neither Babylonian nor
Assyrian. It is tempting to adopt the sensational views of writers,
who, out of half a dozen names, manufacture an Assyrian conquest of
Egypt, and the establishment on the throne of the Pharaohs of a branch
derived from one or other of the royal Mesopotamian houses; but "facts
are stubborn things," and the imagination is scarcely entitled to mould
them at its will. It is necessary to face the two certain facts--(1)
that no one of the dynastic names is the natural representative of any
name known to have been borne by any Assyrian or Babylonian; and (2)
that neither Assyria nor Babylonia was at the time in such a position as
to effect, or even to contemplate, distant enterprizes. Babylonia did
not attain such a position till the time of Nabopolassar; Assyria had
enjoyed it about B.C. 1150-1100, but had lost it, and did not recover it
till B.C. 890. Moreover, Solomon's empire blocked the way to Egypt
against both countries, and required to be shattered in pieces before
either of the great Mesopotamian powers could have sent a _corps
d'armee_ into the land of the Pharaohs.

Sober students of history will therefore regard Shishak (Sheshonk)
simply as a member of a family which, though of foreign extraction, had
been long settled in Egypt, and had worked its way into a high position
under the priest-kings of Herhor's line, retaining a special connection
with Bubastis, the place which it had from the first made its home.
Sheshonk's grandfather, who bore the same name; had had the honour of
intermarrying into the royal house, having taken to wife Meht-en-hont, a
princess of the blood whose exact parentage is unknown to us. His
father Namrut, had held a high military office, being commander of the
Libyan mercenaries, who at this time formed the most important part of
the standing army. Sheshonk himself, thus descended, was naturally in
the front rank of Egyptian court-officials. When we first hear of him he
is called "His Highness," and given the title of "Prince of the
princes," which is thought to imply that he enjoyed the first rank among
all the chie