kingdom about three hundred years before. Their capital was Memphis,
near the pyramids, which had been erected several centuries earlier by
the older and native dynasties. Rawlinson supposes that Tanis on the
delta was the seat of their court. Conquered by the Hyksos, the old
kings retreated to their other capital, Thebes, and were probably made
tributary to the conquerors. It was by the earlier and later dynasties
that the magnificent temples and palaces were built, whose ruins have so
long been the wonder of travellers. The Shepherd Kings were warlike, and
led their armies from Scythia,--that land of roving and emigrant
warriors,--or, as Ewald thinks, from the land of Canaan: Aramaean
chieftains, who sought the spoil of the richest monarchy in the world.
Hence there was more affinity between these people and the Hebrews than
between them and the ancient Egyptians, who were the descendants of Ham.
Abraham, when he visited Egypt, found it ruled by these Scythian or
Aramaean warriors, which accounts for the kind and generous treatment he
received. It is not probable that a monarch of the ancient dynasties
would have been so courteous to Abraham, or would have elevated Joseph
to such an exalted rank, for they were jealous of strangers, and hated a
pastoral people. It was only under the rule of the Hyksos that the
Hebrews could have been tolerated and encouraged; for as soon as the
Shepherd Kings were expelled by the Pharaohs who reigned at Thebes, as
the Moors were expelled from Spain by the old Castilian princes, it
fared ill with the descendants of Jacob, and they were bitterly and
cruelly oppressed until the exodus under Moses. Prosperity probably led
the Hyksos conquerors to that fatal degeneracy which is unfavorable to
war, while adversity strengthened the souls of the descendants of the
ancient kings, and enabled them to subdue and drive away their invaders
and conquerors. And yet the Hyksos could not have ruled Egypt had they
not adapted themselves to the habits, religion, and prejudices of the
people they subdued. The Pharaoh who reigned at the time of Joseph