street has a minaret terminating it or rising at one side, and upon the summit surface of every minaret is a bulky nest, the home of the solemn storks. I sat on the hotel roof one night and watched a stork outlined against the amber sky, and the moon came out and lit up the narrow streets through which noiselessly walked hooded and sheeted Arabs, like a crowd of ghosts. It was my last picture of Tlemcen.

THE HITTITES.

BY THE

REV. LYSANDER DICKERMAN.

Attention is called to the story of a nation, every one of whose monuments, till recently, was buried and forgotten, or else regarded as unworthy of notice. During the last few years, time worn and weather-beaten statues, reliefs and sculptures have borne unexpected testimony to an originality in architecture and art; while the records of contemporaneous nations have told us of successes in warfare, of familiarity with diplomacy and science, which prove the existence of an ancient factor in promoting civilization not hitherto recognized. We have just begun to trace the footsteps of a people, confined within no narrow bounds, whose numerous allies, whose acknowledged valor, and whose acquaintance with the arts of peace compel us to class them among the most powerful nations of antiquity. It is the scattered fragments of this people's history which we are to garner, as best we may.

It is well known that in the time of Abraham there was in Asia a movement of the people pushing southward. It is not surprising that some of those wanderers, in pursuit of better pasturage for their flocks, should encamp along the eastern border of the Delta and look over with longing eyes on green fields along the banks of the river of Egypt. In a tomb of Beni Has

san, built for Prince Knum Hotep, who lived under the XIIth dynasty, it is recorded that the immigration of Semitic tribes in his day was not unknown. A party of 37 immigrants from Absha, with their beasts of burden, babies and baggage, came begging permission to settle on the banks of the Nile. These may have been the forerunners of hordes that poured into Lower Egypt, awaiting the time when civil dissensions and the consequent weakness of the Egyptian government would enable them to seize crowns and sceptres, without the shedding of blood.

The Egyptian monuments call these foreigners: Mertiou," meaning “to feed," or "feeders; "Sati," meaning "Asiatic shepherds," and "Aat-tu," "a flail, scourge or pest." The Greeks called them Hyksos. What they called themselves we do not know, or how much Scythian element entered into their blood. The monuments they left in Egypt have recently become objects of great archæological interest.

In the Boulaq Museum is a bust, in grey granite, of an apparently kingly personage. It was found at Mit Fares, the ancient Crocodilopolis of the Fayoum. The features attract attention by their quiet dignity. The face, set in a frame, so to speak, of artificial hair, parted in the middle, is full and angular; the cheek bones are high, the eyes small and covered with thick eye-lashes, the nose flat, the mouth full of scorn, and the limbs plump and hard. The mutilated condition of the monument does not permit us to say what the hands once held, whether sceptre or rod, weapons or other imple

ments.

Not less remarkable is another bust, which probably

came from Tanis, and is now in the Villa Ludovisi at Rome. It is executed in the same coarse style as the other, has the same prominent jaw bones, protruding lips, and curly beard, only the manner of wearing the hair is different. It falls over the shoulders in four thick locks, while on the back of the head is a tightly twisted pigtail of four thinner locks. This monument bears no name, and in the absence of the urœus, or asp, over the forehead, there is no proof that it was intended to perpetuate the memory of a king.

In the Museum of Boulaq is a colossal sphinx, in black syenite granite. It was found at Tanis with three other sphinxes of similar style and workmanship.

The expression," as Mariette said, "is full of majesty." A thick mane, like that of a lion, covers the head. This statue is doubtless the work of some skilled artist, and is the portrait of some kingly personage-some have thought that of Joseph, others that of Joseph's Pharaoh, made by order and direction of Joseph. This sphinx never received the customary cartouche of the king whose likeness it bears, but, by usurpation, three later sovereigns inscribed on it their titles: Apepi, the first king of the XVIth dynasty; Merenptah, son and successor of Ramses II. and Psousennes of the XXIst dynasty.

At Tanis have also been discovered the statues of two persons, standing on a common pedestal. They have the same general features which characterize the sphinx. It is generally supposed they were contemporaneous kings, perhaps father and son. Their hands seem to arranged offering of

be occupied with an ingeniously

aquatic birds, fishes and flowers. Nothing can be more

apparent than the total dissimilarity between all these statues, and those that are purely Egyptian; especially is this true with respect to the treatment of the hair. This statue is also at Boulaq. Who were these foreign scions of royalty? To what homogeneous or heterogeneous tribes did they belong?

Following the thread of Egyptian history from the first dynasties down to the XIth, XIIth and XIIIth to the Antefs and Mentuhoteps, the Amen-emhats and Usertesesens, the Sebak-hoteps and Nefer-hoteps, the golden age of Theban power, art and civilization, suddenly there breaks upon us a dark age. Between the fourth king of the XIIIth dynasty and the last king of the XVIIth dynasty, there was a period of confusion. The cause was a foreign invasion. In the language of the politicians of California: "Hordes of Mongolian barbarians overran the sacred soil." Lepsius thought they came from Arabia, and were possibly the biblical Hittites. Julius Africanus, who edited and condensed the history of Manetho, said they came from Syria, and were allied to the Phoenicians. Mariette-Bey was cer tain that their last dynasty was of Hittite nationality. Chabas thought they were mixed, predatory, wandering tribes, with no affiliation at first, but growing into a compact nation after they settled in Egypt. De Rougé maintained that they were of Canaanite origin. Eisenlohr has discovered that mathematics and astronomy were studied at the court of their princes. Syncellus says that one of their kings, Nubti by name, first added to the year five intercalary days, making three hundred and sixty-five.

These Hyksos reigned in the Delta, with their capital