1st. That Egyptian tongues and writings are older than Hebraical transformations
of the name Niphaiatu.
2d. That the people Niphaiatu existed before Xth Genesis was written.
3d. That the Hebrew chorographer must have been unacquainted with the first elements
of Hamitic tongues ; else he could not have appended his own Semitic plural, IM,
to a foreign name that was already pluralized by its national prefix NI, and suffix U —
a blunder to be paralleled in English by the vulgar CocJcneyism of “ post-’ses ” for posts.
4th. That, as a consequence, the principle laid down at the beginning of this section,
of examining Hamitic, Shemitish, and Indo-Germanic names by their respective languages,
is both rational and useful.
But, the less “ inspiration” that is required for the construction of an ethnic
chart, the more admirable becomes the human skill and knowledge which, its antiquity
considered, compiled such. an excellent synopsis of the nation's existing within
the geographical horizon of its day.
The long-chased families of the NiPAaiaTiU-AA-(ÎM) have been earthed, at last, where
Bochart indicated his “ Naphtuhæi” : viz., around Màreotic provinces on the confines
of the MTsRIM, or Egyptians. They spolæ Berber dialects, like the rest of their
Barbaresque brethren ; and may be safely assumed as ranking among the easternmost
representatives of the great Goetulian race.
Nor are their vestiges wanting either in Arabic or in classical geographies; The
twelfth tribe catalogued by Ebn Khaledoon is that of the NePAUSeH. T and S being
palæographically identical, here is the Arabicized form of the same word, precisely ;
with its plural termination eH, in lieu of IM. The same name reappears in the'sixth
century of our era, and therefore before Arab invasions, in the Nefusa, or Navusi, of the
Latin poet Corippus. And, to back assertions with authority, one of the greatest living
Orientalists of France, Quatremère, while commenting on this passage of Xth Genesis,
records: “ Les Naftouhis répondent, je crois, à une des tribus Berbères, celle des
Nafzah, ou celle des N a fo u sa h 614
31. Q’D'lflÛ — PTiRSIM — ‘ Pathrusim.’
Again stands before us an Hamitic word, and again we apply to it our rules, of dissection
; after lopping. away the excrescent Hebrew IM, and thereby restoring this
name to its native simplicity — PTZRS.
Orthodox lexicography reveals to an inquirer how the P a t h r o s mentioned b y Ezekiel
(xxix. 14; xxx. 14) means a ‘mouthful of dew,’ or ‘ persuasion,’ or ‘ dilatation of
ruin ’ !
The wonted acuteness of Bochart, two centuries ago, perceived that Pathros, a district
in the Thebaid, would answer very well to the exigendajof PTHtS ; and the Coptic
researches of Champollion and Peyron established that the western side of the Nile,
at Thebes, bore the names of Patoures (Phaturites), Tathyrites, Pathurés, and Phgtrous:
probably orthographed better by Parthey in Papilhourès, because the name of Thebes,
“ P-API,” as the “ TAo-ReeS,” south-land, is preserved in it. But with all deference,
and without absolutely denying that the compiler of Xth Genesis may have meant
Pathros in the Thebaid as the site of his PTHtSfcm, we cannot assent to such inference,
for the following reason : —
“ Dato il caso, e non concesso,” that Moses, in the fourteenth century b. c., was
the compiler of this chart — and orthodoxy itself claims no date more ancient — the
MTsRfora in that age, the XlXth dynasty, had been spread over the Nile’s alluvium, for
above 2000 years, “ from Migdol to the Tower of Syene,” and far more âustrally soon
after the Xllth dynasty. Consequently, they had left to any people but themselves
nothing but the deserts on either flank of the alluvials to roam along. Pathros was
merely a suburban district in the “ nome” of Thebes, then at the acme of her glory;
so that to construe the general meaning of Xth Genesis into such a paraphrase as,
“ out of the MTsRèm went forth a colony and founded Pathros, whence about the
seventieth fraction of all humanity known to the Jews was called PTtfRSîw,” would
be like saying (if for Thebes we read London, and French for Hebrew) that “ out of
the Englishmen went forth a colony and built Waterloo bridge, whence arose the grand
nation called '■ Vaterloos? I Besides, Wilkinson has critically noted, that Pathyris, or
Tathyris, was so called after the goddess Athyr; and meant “ the belonging to
ATHYR,” as the protectress of the western side of Thebes.
The obstacles to such interpretation increase just in the ratio that the compilation
of Genesis Xth is brought down to a more historical epoch. It is evident from the
context of the whole paragraph on .the “ affiliations of the MTsRSwi,” no less than
from the ultra-Egyptian areas on which each one of these affiliations is naturally fixed,
that such information as the Hebrew writer possessed on the PTiRSfcm had led him to
understand this tribe as extraneous to Egypt; and he did not locate their habitats
in Egypt itself, because this country was already appropriated by the MTsRlw.
Quatremère, and before him Golius, had perceived the physical impediments to the
location of the PTzRSfcm in upper Egypt : -— “ Les Phatrousis ont été, assez ordinairement,
pris pour les habitants de la Thébaïde ; mais cette conjecture ne me paraît pas
admissible. En effet, Misraïm ayant été le père de l’Egypte inférieure se trouvaient
naturellement rangé parmi ces descendants, sans qu’il,fût necessaire d’indiquer d’une
manière spéciale les habitants de telle ou telle partie de cette contrée. Si je ne me
trompe, l.es Phatrousis du récit de Moïse nous représentent les Pharusiens, qui occupaient
une partie de ce qu’on nomme aujourd’hui l’Empire de Maroc.”
This identification tallies with our views exactly. In 'classical geographies the
Pharusii lie about Mauritania, east of the Autololes ; and these last are identified with
the Berber tribes of the AIT-o-LOT, “ sons of Lud;” whom we have already proved
to have been the genesiacal LUDim. A Persian origin has been ascribed to the Pha-
ruses since the time of Sallust; but probably upon no better authority than accidental
resemblance of the word Phars,. coupled with traditions of Achæmenidan invasions of the
Cyrenaica ; and its claims have be'en well contested by Lacroix. To behold the PTiSRSm
of Xth Genesis in the Pharusians of Barbary is obnoxious to no difficulties, beyond the
inconvenient presence of the letter Ti, “ tav” in the Hebrew transcription of the name ;
and this letter may be the old Hamitic feminine article; which clings to Berber words
as tenaciously as “ àtl” does> to proper names in Mexican languages. However, it
has been shown above that these people must have resided beyond Egyptian territorial
limits ; and as one of many brethren in genesiacal personifications, the major part of
whom are unquestionably Barbaresques, the PTiRSfcm must lie to the west of Egypt
also ; and every reasonable requirement seems fulfilled in the Pharusii.
[Albeit, let me revert to a former etymology in “ Otia Ægyptiaca ;” which, while it
does not conflict with a Pharüsian derivation, exemplifies how a .compound Hamitic
name has become Hebraicized : for, in Berber nomenclature* PhaNKusians, 'Ma-
Rusians, Ma URi, and their endless Gætulian homonymes, all inflexions preceding the
RA, or AUR, are but demonstrative aggregations to that omnific monosyllable ; whose
birthplace, according to D’Avezac, might lie among the “ Divine AURitce,” and whose
tomb is not yet constructed in J/ARocco /
The ^reduction I formerly proposed of PTiRS^wi was this : — Pi is the universal
Hamitic masculine article the; Ti may be TAo or To, Coptic and hieroglyphic for
world; RS, the Coptic RiS and hieroglyphic RiS, meaning the south; which connectedly
read PiTioRiS, ihe-world-south, or “ the southern world.”
This is a designation appropriate enough to austral populations; and if the
PiTfoRIS-fcm of Xth Genesis be lineal “ affiliations of the MTsRàwz,” their name must
be resolvable into Egyptian roots. In any case, the Hebrew writer added his plural
IM to a word already formed in Northern Africa centuries before his day.'—
G. R. G.]