entreat for mercy; but he endeavoured to gain his object by an artifice. So he said, 'Shed no blood; cast him into this pit which is in the desert, but lay no hand upon him.' Thus he hoped to save Joseph's life, and then to bring him back to his father. The brothers approved of Reuben's proposal, and seizing Joseph as soon as he approached, they stripped him of his long and costly robe, of the robe which had been the first cause of their envy, and cast him into an empty pit. As if glorying over this deed, they prepared a meal and sat down to eat. Reuben alone does not seem to have been present at the feast; he had withdrawn to some distance, probably watching for an opportunity when he might carry out his intention.

Whilst still at their repast, the brothers suddenly beheld winding along the narrow mountain pass a caravan of Ishmaelites, who were journeying into Egypt. Their camels were laden with the spices for which Arabia is famous, and which were prized as luxuries by the Egyptians. Not only were these spices eaten as delicacies, and used as exquisite scents by the nobles, but they were also in great request for embalming the dead, as the fragrant mummies were often kept for generations in the houses of the relatives and arranged along the walls, before they were finally entombed. The quantity of condiments required by the Egyptians was therefore immense, and numerous were the caravans which from very early times carried them southward from Gilead. The Ishmaelites who passed Jacob's sons, imported three sorts of spicestragacanth, balsam, and ladanum. The first can only be conjectured to mean the gummi tragacanthæ, which is found in Arabia, Gilead, and Palestine; balsam and ladanum are well-known productions, common to Arabia, Palestine, and Spain.

As soon as Judah saw the traders approaching, an ex

pedient for saving Joseph struck him, and he said to his brothers, 'What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother, our flesh.' His brothers listened to him, and consented. So Joseph was drawn out of the pit and taken to the Ishmaelites, who offered twenty shekels of silver for the comely youth. Starvation and death had been before him, and now his lot was slavery, banishment into an idolatrous country, and perpetual separation from the father who idolised him. Yet he had not dreamt in vain. Surely the remembrance of his dreams must have comforted him in that dark hour. The Ishmaelites departed with the young Hebrew. In the meantime Reuben, when he supposed that his brothers had left the neighbourhood, returned to the pit to deliver Joseph. But he did not find him, and in an agony of despair he rent his garments, and hastened back to his brothers. The child is not there,' he cried, and I, whither shall I go!' Then the wicked and deceitful brothers killed a kid, and dipped Joseph's robe into the blood. With a malice which appears too fearful to dwell upon, they brought the robe to their aged father, and said: "This have we found, recognise now, whether it be thy son's robe or not.' Jacob did recognise it, and exclaimed in despair, 'It is my son's robe, an evil beast has devoured him: surely Joseph is torn in pieces.' He mourned long and in bitter grief and anguish, with sackcloth upon his loins, and his clothes rent. In vain did his sons and daughters try to console him; he refused to be comforted, and said, 'Indeed I shall go down into the grave to my son mourning.'

Meanwhile the camels of the Ishmaelites were pursuing their way onward from Dothan to Shechem, and then southward to Jerusalem. Joseph passed as a slave through the land which was hereafter to be the glory of his

descendants. Over the bleak mountains of Judea the caravan swept, in a south-westerly direction to Gaza, and thence to the rich and fertile valley of the Nile. Then it proceeded through the narrow pass of Dshebel-elTih, until at last it arrived at the great Egyptian town On, or Heliopolis, the city of light,' which was consecrated to the Sun, and was at that time probably the residence of the Egyptian kings or Pharaohs, that is the children of the Sun.' The Egyptians, as they were one of the most learned, so they were also among the most idolatrous and superstitious nations of the ancient world. Not only did they consider the sun as the symbol of the deity or as the deity itself, but in the very centre of the sacred temple at Memphis, shrouded from all eyes save those of the priests, reposed on its scarlet bed the sacred bullock Mnevis, the rival of Apis; perched in its golden cage, sat the sacred hawk, the living representation of the deity; and twice a day incense was offered before the beasts, and once a month a solemn sacrifice.

But besides being the seat of Egyptian idolatry, On was also the home of Egyptian scholarship; there were gathered the astronomers and astrologers, the great mathematicians, the men of science, far-famed in the ancient world. Joseph was to be surrounded by men whose descendants were the teachers of Pythagoras and Thales, of Solon and Plato. The erudition of the Egyptians was to improve the pure but uncultivated mind of the young stranger, whilst their superstition and luxury should be to him a perpetual warning. Joseph must have felt awestruck and dazzled when the magnificent and colossal temple of On, with its immense obelisks and majestic sphinxes, rose suddenly before him. The shepherd boy who had breathed all his life the fresh air of Shechem and Hebron, was taken from his simple tent and his flocks, to be transplanted into the very centre of wealth and civili

sation. He was sold by the Ishmaelites to Potiphar (meaning servant of the Sun '), who was the chief officer of Pharaoh's guard: thus he was at once brought into contact with the highest Egyptian rank and splendour. But even among all these wise and learned men, Joseph was considered eminently gifted; the Lord was with him, and caused him to be loved and respected by his master. Everything that he undertook succeeded, and he brought prosperity and happiness to Potiphar, who soon made him overseer of his entire household. He was, moreover, 'beautiful of form and beautiful of appearance.' Now Potiphar's wife, a wicked woman, grew enamoured of the comely young Hebrew, and Joseph, indignant at her conduct, escaped at last from the house of his master and benefactor, in his hasty flight leaving his cloak behind him. Potiphar, returning to his house, was met by his infuriated wife, who, holding the garment in her hand, greeted him with a tale of calumny against his favourite Joseph. Potiphar believed the words of his worthless wife, and Joseph was cast into a prison attached to the house. In this place were confined persons who had committed some treasonable offence against the king or against any of the great officers of his household. The governor of the prison was a good and benevolent man, and he soon perceived Joseph's rare virtues, his honesty and zeal, his truthfulness and industry, his ability and intelligence. It was as if the Divine light shone through his countenance, and as if the voice of God spoke from his lips. Thus in the dreary dungeon, parted from all those of his own tribe and his own faith, he was not only cheered by the consciousness of his innocence, but upheld by the esteem and confidence of the governor, 'who committed to his hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he did it: the keeper of the prison did not look to anything that

was under his hand; because the Lord was with him, and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper.'

Among the prisoners were two of the officers of the king's household, his chief butler and his chief baker. They were guarded and served by Joseph during all the time that they remained in custody. One night both of them dreamt dreams which seemed to them full of significance. Their minds, brooding over their misfortunes, saw in the dreams nothing but mysterious forebodings of evil; and when Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw their sadness. He at once asked them the cause of it; and when they replied, 'We have dreamt a dream, and there is no one to interpret it ;' Joseph exclaimed, 'Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams, I pray you.' And the chief butler, trusting in Joseph's wisdom and uprightness, complied with the request, and said: In my dreams, behold a vine was before me; and on the vine were three branches, and it was as if it budded, and its blossoms shot forth, and its clusters matured ripe grapes. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.' Joseph at once gave the interpretation as follows: The three branches are three days; within three days more Pharaoh will lift up thy head and restore thee to thy place, and thou wilt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hands in the former manner when thou wast his butler.' And naturally watching every opportunity for his own rescue from the sad captivity, he added: 'Only remember me when it will be well with thee, and do kindness, I pray thee, to me, and make mention of me to Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house: for indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews; and here again have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.' The chief baker, encouraged by the favourable interpretation Joseph had given to his col