important and interesting as those we have already considered. The entire process from the slaughtering and flaying of the oxen, the capture and plucking of the birds, and the netting of the fish, up to the serving of the bakemeats upon the guest-tables, are all minutely and elaborately commemorated in these wondrous records of times and customs that have so long past away. The most trifling particular in the passage finds its illustration there.

When the sons and daughters of the princes of Egypt 'served their parents at table, they carried upon their heads three baskets, one piled upon the other, and in the uppermost are the bakemeats.

That in crossing the hypethral courts of the palaces of Egypt, the viands would be exposed to the birds, is a trait of every-day life in hot countries, receiving such familiar illustration in our own possessions in India, that we only notice it for the purpose of reminding the reader, that in ancient Egypt the vulture, the eagle, the ibis, and other carnivorous birds were held sacred, and to destroy one of them was to incur the penalty of murder. Flights of these voracious creatures haunted the cities of Egypt, and occasioned no little inconvenience to the inhabitants.

"And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation thereof. The three baskets are three days. Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head

from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee. And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a banquet for all his court: and he hanged the high steward, as Joseph had interpreted." Gen. xl. 18, 19, 20, 22.

The birthday of the reigning king of Egypt was a high festival at all periods of its history. One of the objects of the Rosetta inscription is, to decree the observances to take place on the birthday of Ptolemy Epiphanes.* Many similar decrees of earlier periods are also extant. That it would also be a day for the exercise of justice in a jail delivery, is highly probable, and in accordance with ancient custom :-though here again our text illustrates ancient Egypt, instead of receiving illustration from it.

The tombs of Egypt contain no records of crimes. It is to the text therefore that we are once more indebted. Capital punishment was by decapitation in ancient as in modern Egypt at this day. After the execution, the bodies of the criminals of Egypt were hung on trees, to be devoured by the gods of Egypt. Our text alone affords us this information likewise.

"And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed a dream, and behold he stood

* Hieroglyphics, line 10. Greek line 46.

At Medinat Abou, Luxor, &c.

by the river. And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well-favoured kine and fat-fleshed; and they fed in a meadow. And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill-favoured, and lean-fleshed, and stood by the other kine upon the brink of the river. And the ill-favoured and lean-fleshed kine did eat up the seven well-favoured and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke.

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And he slept and dreamed the second time and, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good. And, behold, seven thin ears and blasted with the east wind sprung up after them. And the seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream." Gen. xli. 1—7.

We have already explained, that the Pharaoh of whom this history is related, was the shepherd king Aphophis. This Greek transcription of his name is an opprobrious epithet, as is also the case with all the other names of the shepherd-kings in the Greek lists. His real name was Phiops, or Apappus. He was, as we have seen, a native Pharaoh. His monuments are all found at El Birsheh, Souade, and other localities in the south of Middle Egypt, on the eastern bank of the Nile. His capital, as we have already stated, was Heliopolis. Notwithstanding the ill odour in which all the shepherds stood in the fables of the Egyptian priesthood, Aphophis is

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admitted by them to have been a great benefactor to Egypt.

How completely the dreams of Pharaoh are Egyptian, how every peculiarity connected with the productiveness of Egypt is introduced in them, how the river and its overflow are clearly pointed out as the only causes both of the plenty and the famine, are points with which all readers of the Bible have long been familiar. Again, the point is susceptible of ample and most satisfactory illustration, from the tombs of princes cotemporary with the epoch. The great cattle of Egypt and their diseases are frequent subjects of the reliefs that cover their walls. From them we learn how large a part of the wealth of the princes of Egypt consisted, in these remote times, of their herds.

"And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled; and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all the wise men thereof; and Pharaoh told them his dream, but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh." Gen. xli. 8.

Not much is known as yet of the etymology of the words translated "magicians" and "wise men." We can however explain generally that wisdom in ancient times was connected with the ideas of secrecy and of hidden things. The "magicians" were literally "the whisperers," and "the wise men," "they who hide."

The Egyptian priesthood was noted at all epochs for its pretensions to oneirocriticism. Papyri of the Greek and Roman periods, containing the dreams of the professional dreamers of the Serapeum at Memphis and of other temples, are not uncommon in the collections of Europe.

The divine agency was directly interposed in the present instance, or the oracles of Egypt would not have been dumb on such an occasion.

"Then spake the overseer of the vineyards unto Pharaoh, saying, I do remember my faults this day: Pharaoh was wroth with his servants, and put me in ward, even me and the overseer of the cooks. And we dreamed a dream in one night,-I and he; we dreamed each man according to the interpretation of his dream. And there was with us a youth, a Hebrew, slave to the overseer of the plantations, and he interpreted to us our dreams. . . . . And it came to pass, as he interpreted, so it was; me he restored unto mine office, and him he hanged." Gen. xli. 9-13.

This passage is quite conclusive as to the high rank of the overseer of the vineyards. No mere menial would in this manner have been admitted into the councils of Pharaoh and allowed to advise upon the emergency. This is a point of much importance to the full intelligence of the entire narrative.