de plain saturated with the ill-regulated surplus
water of the inundation. The land of Goshen was bounded by the cities of
Heliopolis on the south, Bubastis on the west, and Tanis and Mendes on
the north: the garrison at Avaris could easily keep watch over it and
maintain order within it, while they could at the same time defend it
from the incursions of the Monatiu and the Hiru-Shaitu.*

* Goshen comprised the provinces situated on the borders of
the cultivable cornland, and watered by the infiltration of
the Nile, which caused the growth of a vegetation sufficient
to support the flocks during a few weeks; and it may also
have included the imperfectly irrigated provinces which were
covered with pools and reedy swamps after each inundation.

The Beni-Israel throve in these surroundings so well adapted to their
traditional tastes. Even if their subsequent importance as a nation
has been over-estimated, they did not at least share the fate of many
foreign tribes, who, when transplanted into Egypt, waned and died out,
or, at the end of two or three generations, became merged in the native
population.* In pursuing their calling as shepherds, almost within sight
of the rich cities of the Nile valley, they never forsook the God of
their fathers to bow down before the Enneads or Triads of Egypt; whether
He was already known to them as Jahveh, or was worshipped under the
collective name of Elohim, they served Him with almost unbroken fidelity
even in the presence of Ra and Osiris, of Phtah and Sutkhu.

* We are told that when the Hebrews left Ramses, they were
"about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside
children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and
flocks and herds, even very much cattle" (_Exod._ xii. 37,
38).

The Hyksos conquest had not in any way modified the feudal system of the
country. The Shepherd-kings must have inherited the royal domain just as
they found it at the close of the XIVth dynasty, but doubtless the whole
Delta, from Avaris to Sais, and from Memphis to Buto, was their personal
appanage. Their direct authority probably extended no further south than
the pyramids, and their supremacy over the fiefs of the Said was at best
precarious. The turbulent lords who shared among them the possession of
the valley had never lost their proud or rebellious spirit, and under
the foreign as under the native Pharaohs regulated their obedie