Page:Origin of metallic currency and weight standards.djvu/129

 the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom." But although, from the necessity of finding sufficient pasturage for their flocks and herds, they had parted from one another, they remained within touch. For we find that no sooner had Lot and his possessions been carried away by Chedorlaomer and his confederates, after the overthrow of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, than Abraham at once hears of his mishap and hastens to his rescue (xiv. 13 sqq.).

The picture here given may be taken as holding good for a large part of Asia and Europe. There is a great intermingling of various races and untrammeled intercourse between the various communities. Thus we find that Abraham was able to journey from Haran into Egypt with his flocks and herds and suffered harm or hindrance of no man. Nay, a still stronger proof of the safety and freedom of intercourse is that when Abraham entered Egypt, although afraid that if it were known that Sarah was his wife the Egyptians might murder him, yet he had no fear that they would take her away by force if she was supposed to be his sister. Thus, when his princes told Pharaoh that the Hebrew woman was fair to look on, though the king commanded her to be taken into his house, he did not act with high-handed violence against the stranger, but "he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels." And when Pharaoh discovered that she was really Abraham's wife, although on account of Abraham's mendacity the Lord had "plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Abraham's wife," he did not, as he might very justly have done, take a summary vengeance upon him, "he commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had." (Gen. xii. 12-20.)

Such then being the general distribution of cattle and sheep, and such again the distribution of gold, we can have