Note 172 — Chapter III · THE EXODUS OUT OF EGYPT

The passage is, unfortunately, mutilated. What remains reads thus: ‘... the tents in front of the city of Pi-Bailos, on the canal of Shakana; ... [the adjoining land] was not cultivated, but had been left as pasture for cattle for the sake of the foreigners. It had been abandoned since the time of (our) ancestors. All the kings of Upper Egypt sat within their entrenchments ... and the kings of Lower Egypt found themselves in the midst of their cities, surrounded with earthworks, cut off from everything by the (hostile) warriors, for they had no mercenaries to oppose to them. Thus had it been [until Meneptah] ascended the throne of Horus. He was crowned to preserve the life of mankind.’ The word translated ‘tents’ is ahilu, the Hebrew ôhêl, which is used by Ramses III. of the ‘tents’ of the Shasu or Edomites of Mount Seir. For translations of the text, see E. de Rougé, Extrait d’un Mémoire sur les Attaques dirigées contre l’Égypte, pp. 6-13 (1867); Chabas, Recherches pour servir à l’histoire de la xixe Dynastie, pp. 84-92 (1873); Brugsch, Egypt under the Pharaohs, Eng. tr. (2nd edit.), ii. pp. 116-123; Maspero, The Struggle of the Nations, pp. 433-436.