Midianitish hands out of Palestine into Egypt, there to become the
representative of the Pharaoh, and son-in-law of the high-priest of
Heliopolis; for Moses, the adopted grandson of the Pharaoh, "learned in
all the wisdom of the Egyptians," it was reserved, after years of trial
and preparation in Midian, to bring the descendants of Jacob out of
their Egyptian prison-house to the borders of the Promised Land.




CHAPTER V

EGYPTIAN TRAVELLERS IN CANAAN


Palestine has been a land of pilgrims and tourists from the very
beginning of its history. It was the goal of the migration of Abraham
and his family, and it was equally the object of the oldest book of
travels with which we are acquainted. Allusion has already been made
more than once to the Egyptian papyrus, usually known as _The Travels of
a Mohar_, and in which a satirical account is given of a tour in
Palestine and Syria. The writer was a professor, apparently of
literature, in the court of Ramses II., and he published a series of
letters to his friend, Nekht-sotep, which were long admired as models of
style. Nekht-sotep was one of the secretaries attached to the military
staff, and among the letters is a sort of parody of an account given by
Nekht-sotep of his adventures in Canaan, which was intended partly to
show how an account of the kind ought to have been written by an
accomplished penman, partly to prove the superiority of the scribe's
life to that of the soldier, partly also, it may be, for the sake of