Nile seems to
be as recent as the Arab conquest. But though it was not used by the
Egyptians, it had been a beast of burden among the Semites of Arabia
from an early period. In the primitive Sumerian language of Chaldaea it
was called "the animal from the Persian Gulf," and its Semitic name,
from which our own word _camel_ is derived, goes back to the very
beginnings of Semitic history. We cannot, therefore, imagine a Semitic
nomad arriving in Egypt without the camel; travellers, indeed, from the
cities of Canaan might do so, but not those who led a purely nomadic
life. And, in fact, though we look in vain for a picture of the camel
among the sculptures and paintings of Egypt, the bones of the animal
have been discovered deep in the alluvial soil of the valley of the
Nile.

Abraham had to quit Egypt, and once more he traversed the desert of the
"South" and pitched his tent near Beth-el. Here his nephew Lot left him,
and, dissatisfied with the life of a wandering Bedawi, took up his abode
in the city of Sodom at the northern end of the Dead Sea. While Abraham
kept himself separate from the natives of Canaan, Lot thus became one of
them, and narrowly escaped the doom which afterwards fell upon the
cities of the plain. In forsaking the tent, he forsook not only the free
life of the immigrant from Chaldaea, but the God of Abraham as well. The
inhabitant of a Canaanitish city passed under the influence of its faith
and worship, its morals and manners, as well as its laws and government.
He ceased to be an alien and stranger, of a different race and
fatherland, and with a religion and customs of his own. He could
intermarry with the natives of his adopted country and participate in
their sacred rites. Little by little his family became merged in the
population that surrounded him; its gods became their gods, its
morality--or, it may be, its immorality--became theirs also. Lot,
indeed, had eventually to fly from Sodom, leaving behind him all his
wealth; but the mischief had already been done, and his children had
become Canaanites in thought and deed. The nations which sprang from
him, though separate in race from the older people of Canaan, were yet
like them in other respects. They formed no "peculiar people," to whom
the Lord might reveal Himself through the law and the prophets.

It was not until Lot had separated himself from Abraham that the land of
Canaan was promised to the descendants of the patriarch. "Lift up now