The Louisiana cotton-boll. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], Attakapas, La.) 1872-1883, 1874-09-16
THE EXODUS.
An Interesting Discovery Ia Biblical
HistOry4E --

An Interesting Discovery in Biblical
History s.-
Biblical students will be interestedto
learn the striking results of investiga-
| tions made by Henry Brugsch-Bey on
the subject Of the Exodus. This gen
| tlemen is vice-president of the free
| school at Cairo, and is one of the most
learned and careful Psychologists. He
| has spent a long time in studying an
| cient records and in examining the
country, in order TO test the bible ac-
count. According to the record given
by Moses, the leader, having obtained
permission from the Pharoah to take
the children of Israel into the desert TO
offer sacrifice to the Almighty, con-
Quoted them out of Raamses, and thence
by several short journeys to the sea.
The effort of Brugsch-B ey has been to
find the city of Raamses, to trace the
Journey and to discover a point where
the passage could have been made with
out sUpposing an absolute miracle.
In the museum of Liege q letter was
found in which the writer reports that
he has obeyed an order to distribute
grain to the Hebrews employed upon
the stone for the great fortress of the
city of Raamses." Other documents
show that the city was built by Ram
SEES II. A poet has written an enthusi-
astic eulogy upon the city, and on the
reverse of this writing is an account rem
dered by the masons appointed to see
that the Eprious (Hebrew8) make every
day, under the supervision of brutal
soldiery, the number of bricks required
of them. Raamses is now certainly re
coQuized in the gigantic ruins of the an
cient Tanis, called Ian by the Egyp-
tians, and ZOan by the Hebrews. This
explains, by the way, two verses in the
18Th Psalm
"Marvelous things did he in the sight
of their fathers, in the land of Egypt,
III The field of Zoan.
He divided the sea, and caused them
to pass through; and he made the
waters stand as an heap"
The city of RaamSes, then, was sit
uated upon the Tanitic branch Of the
Nile, then a very large stream, and was
the key to the passage between Egypt
and Asia. 1t was near the fortress of
UigdoI, where the Israelites made a
halt, and not far from another district,
OF which the capital, Pithone, was one
of the ''treasure cities, " built by the
Hebrews, according to the book of Elk
Odus. These several districts, as also
Goshen, which the Pbaroah of the time
gave to Jacob, were inhabited, not by
The Egyptians, but by the Khalons, a
mixed race, which ruled over the Phe-
nicians and the BedOuins of Arabia, and
which eve DOW occupies the borders OF
Lake Menzaleh. The journey of the
Hebrews from Raamses to MigdoI is
exactly that followed, according to a
papyrus in the British museum, by q
man charged with the duty of pursuing
and recovering two slaves who had es-
capped from the service of o great lord
Of Egyptians.
These slaves also tried to reach the
desert, fleeing from Raamses to Sue
Goth, thence to Khatom (the Ethan of
the Scriptures), and to Migdol. If
Moses took this route and did enter at
once into the land of the Philistines, it
was because Raamses II. had with that
people a treaty, the text Of which, en-
craven upon monument, vet exists at
Ihebes. By this treaty, Raamses and
the Prince of the Khetiens, the most
powerful of the rulers in the land of
Canaan, mutually bound themselves to
return all persons escaping from the
service Of the other into their own ter
ritory. In consequence of his know
ledge of this treaty, Moses led the peo-
pie Of Israel more to the north, and
crossed not the Red sea, but, at the
lower coasts of the Mediterranean, the
lake ancientlv called SirbOnis.
The high tide which overlook the
troops of Pharaoh Meneptab, son of
Pharoah, Raamses IL, in whose reign
the exodus took place, is o common oc-
m1rrence- in these parts. Both StrabO
and Dl0doFus SlcuIus cite facts wLioh
go to show that in the regions called
4" the gulfs," sudden sweIIings of the
water are observed, and at such a time
King Artaxerxes, who was leading an
expedition against Egypt, lost his
whole army by drowning. The ac-
count of the journey of the Hebrews
under Moses, is entirely consistent
with these facts and this theory. They
followed the wilderness of Shuy, which
is situated between the Mediterranean
and the Gulf of Suez. The bitter
waters of Marah are the brackish wa
OF the Suez lakes. Elm, where
they made q halt, is to-day called Elm
Musa.
And it was only after. they had crossed
isthmus that they turned and came
to the wilderness of Sinai. By a com
of the Bible with ancient docu-
ments and geographical facts, Brugsch-
Bey has been enabled to offer a reason
able, simple and positive explanation of
event which Biblical commentators
oaYe for more than eighteen centu-
'ies badly comprehended and wrongly
Interpreted. Hedoes not reject the the
of Divine intervention for the re-
ief of the children of Israel, but he
Ices show where and how a certain ma
,ural phenomenon might have come to
heir relief, especially if Moses had
lappeLed to know the curious freak of {
nature at the point where he crossed. !