drawn up in Babylonia in the time of Abraham; we also find it as the
name of an Egyptian king in the period when Egypt was ruled by Asiatic
conquerors. The latter fact is curious, taken in connection with the
further fact, that the son of the Biblical Jacob--the progenitor of the
Israelites--was the viceroy of an Egyptian Pharaoh, and that his father
died in the Egyptian land of Goshen. Goshen was the district which
extends from Tel el-Maskhuta or Pithom near Ismailîya to Belbeis and
Zagazig, and includes the modern Wadi Tumilât; the traveller on the
railway passes through it on his way from Ismailîya to Cairo. It lay
outside the Delta proper, and, as the Egyptian inscriptions tell us, had
from early times been handed over to the nomad Bedâwin and their flocks.
Here they lived, separate from the native agriculturists, herding their
flocks and cattle, and in touch with their kinsmen of the desert. Here,
too, the children of Israel were established, and here they multiplied
and became a people.

The growth of a family into a tribe or people is in accordance with Arab
rule. There are numerous historical instances of a single individual
becoming the forefather of a tribe or a collection of tribes which under
favourable conditions may develop into a nation. The tribe or people is
known as the "sons" of their ancestor; his name is handed down from
generation to generation, and the names of his leading descendants, the
representatives of the tribe, are handed down at the same time. Where we
speak of the population of a country, the Arab speaks of the "children"
of a certain man. Such a mode of expression is in harmony with Semitic
habits of thought. The genealogical method prevails alike in history and
geography; a colony is the "daughter" or "son" of its mother-city, and
the town of Sidon is the "first-born" of Canaan.

Jacob had twelve sons, and his descendants were accordingly divided into