their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away all these things are against me. And Reuben spake unto his father, saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again. And he said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone if mischief befal him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. : "And the famine was sore in the land. And it came to pass, when they had eaten up the corn which they had brought up out of Egypt, their father said unto them, Go again, buy us a little food. And Judah spake unto him, saying, The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you. If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food but if thou wilt not send him, we will not go down for the man said unto us, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you. And Israel said, Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me, as to tell the man whether ye had yet a brother? And they said, the man asked us straitly of our state, and of our kindred, saying, Is your father yet alive? have ye another brother? and we told him according to the tenor of these words: could : we certainly know that he would say, Bring your brother down? And Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go; that we may live and not die, both we, and thou, and also our little ones. I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever. For except we had lingered, surely now we had returned this second time. And their father Israel said unto them, If it must be so now, do this; take of the best fruits of the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds: and take double money in your hand; and the money that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again your hand : peradventure it was an oversight take also your brother, and arise, go again unto the man: and God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved." Gen. xlii. 25, to Gen. xliii. 14. The inspired narrative now leaves the land of Egypt, we only quote it here for the sake of continuity. The workings of an evil conscience in the brethren of Joseph, found kindred feelings in the advanced age and infirmities of their father. They were all afraid when they saw the linked rings of silver which they had taken down to Egypt to buy corn, returned at the mouth of their sacks. These chains of silver (Heb. "chains," "that which binds,") are frequently depicted in the tombs, and have even been found there. The custom of carrying the precious metals for the purposes of traffic in linked rings or chains was universal in ancient Egypt, where coined money was unknown until the days of the Ptolemies; and remained in occasional use throughout the world, until far into the middle ages. The present prepared by Jacob and his sons for the ruler of Egypt, admits of so remarkable an illustration from the existing monuments of the latter kingdom, that it is not possible to pass them by on this occasion, even though they should lead us a little further into verbal criticism than comports exactly with our present design. We will take the several articles enumerated in the order of their occurrence. 1. Balm. The resin or gum that exudes from the wounded bark of a tree: whence its Hebrew name, which means a wound or the issue (ichor) from a wound. Gums of many kinds, principally fragrant ones, are often found in the tombs of Egypt, both deposited in jars, and used in the embalming of mummies. 2. Honey. (debash) It is well known that this word signified the thickened juice of grapes and dates, as well as the honey of bees. In the hieroglyphic account of the so-called expulsion of the shepherds from Egypt, a group appears in the catalogues of the spoils taken after each victory, which is evidently the same word. 8 tabkh* or bkh. In the latter form it is still read in the Coptic texts BUKKI "ripe dates." Many thousands of jars of this substance are enumerated among the spoils taken, or the tribute exacted from the Canaanites. We could not have a clearer proof that it was imported from Canaan into Egypt, where it was in great request. 3. Spices. N. This is a Hebrew word, signifying, "that which is pounded small." The Egyptians were very particular in this branch of the apothecary's art. It was performed generally by female slaves, by grinding the substance to be triturated between two hard stones. So accurately was the process performed, that in the vast quantity of spices found in a mummy of a high class which was opened at Leeds twenty years ago, not a particle could be discovered larger than the rest, though diligent search was made for it. The substance here specified was prepared in Canaan. 4. Myrrh wrongly translated. It should have *There was no d in the Egyptian language. been rendered Ladanum, the λadavoy of the Greeks. It is the gum that exudes from the Cistus Ladanifera, a tree found in Canaan at this day. This perfume was in high esteem in ancient Egypt. There is now no occasion to appeal to learned authorities in proof of its frequent use there. It has frequently been found in the tombs, and its well-known odour was powerfully predominant in the mixture of spices with which the Leeds mummy was embalmed. Its appellative in hieroglyphics completes the proof. This will, we believe, be found in a group which is well ascertained to mean "perfume" of some sort, but to its assumed phonetic value, no equivalent has been hitherto found, either in Coptic or any other language. It is written : It or, Intl, or Int. The initial character of this group resembles greatly one of the homophons of the letter 8. ; so much so, that Champollion confounded the two, both in his copies and his readings;-nevertheless the comparison of many repetitions of this common group on the monuments themselves has convinced me, that it represents an object altogether different from that depicted by the character with which it has been supposed to be identical. I believe that its power was l, and that it was interpreted by the mouth at the end of the group. It was not possible to write them thus , because then the mouth would be read as a mere grammatical G |