Page:Ancient Egypt Her Testimony to the Truth.pdf/46

Rh lot of Mizraim, the third son; while the descendants of Phut, the youngest, were driven forth to seek a comfortless home amid the trackless wastes of the Sahara. These names are all found on the monuments of Egypt (for as we shall see hereafter the hieroglyphic name of Canaan is still extant) with the exception of the name of Mizraim, which may however possibly be detected in that of the well known demigod and hero of the Egyptian mythology, Osiris, whose hieroglyphic name is thus written. The first character is a throne, the Egyptian word for which is or ; the second, the eye, denotes the verb, to do; together  that is, Osiris. This syllabic mode of writing names, is very uncommon in hieroglyphics; and never used, but when the name is a word foreign to the Egyptian language. The first and last characters of the word Mizraim are serviles, and may therefore be omitted, or changed, without altering the radical signification, so that there is nothing improbable in the supposition that the Mizraim  of the Shemites may have been pronounced, or  (either of which would reproduce exactly the elements of the Egyptian word, ) by the descendants of Ham.

The countries to the north east of Egypt were—, the land of the shepherds or Canaanites;, the land of the , the identification of which will require our attention hereafter; and ,. in which we perceive at once the elements of the Hebrew word, i.e. Mesopotamia, the well-known native country of Abraham.