connected the south of Palestine with the Delta. It led past Beer-sheba
and El-Arîsh to the Shur, or line of fortifications which protected the
eastern frontier of Egypt. The modern caravan road follows its course
most of the way. It was thus distinct from "the way of the Philistines,"
which led along the coast of the Mediterranean, on the northern edge of
the Sirbonian Lake. In Egypt the Israelitish emigrants settled not far
from the Hyksos capital in the land of Goshen, which the excavations of
Dr. Naville have shown to be the Wâdi Tumilât of to-day. Here they
multiplied and grew wealthy, until the evil days came when the Egyptians
rose up against Semitic influence and control, and Ramses II.
transformed the free-born Beduin into public serfs.

But the age of Ramses II. was still far distant when Jacob died full of
years, and his mummy was carried to the burial-place of his fathers "in
the land of Canaan." Local tradition connected the name of Abel-mizraim,
"the meadow of Egypt," on the eastern side of the Jordan, with the long
funeral procession which wended its way from Zoan to Hebron. We cannot
believe, however, that the mourners would have so far gone out of their
road, even if the etymology assigned by tradition to the name could be
supported. The tradition bears witness to the fact of the procession,
but to nothing more.

With the funeral of Jacob a veil falls upon the Biblical history of
Canaan, until the days when the spies were sent out to search the land.
Joseph was buried in Egypt, not at Hebron, though he had made the
Israelites swear before his death that his mummy should be eventually
taken to Palestine. The road to Hebron, it is clear, was no longer open,
and the power of the Hyksos princes must have been fast waning. The war
of independence had broken out, and the native kings of Upper Egypt were
driving the foreigner back into Asia. The rulers of Zoan had no longer