recollection of the triple division of the human race, and the name of Shem, seems to have been the extent of their knowledge of it.
Another trace of the primitive dispersion of mankind from Shinar, is discoverable in the lists of conquered nations, which not unfrequently occur on the walls of the temples and palaces of Ancient Egypt. They generally commence with a series of names of districts, lying to the four quarters of heaven, over which the arms of Egypt had achieved conquests. The nations to the north[1]
are
which reads—יָוָּן[2] Javan or Ion, the name of the fourth son of Japhet, from whom the Greeks were descended (Gen.x.2, 4); and
which reads—לוּד, and is the name of the fourth son of Shem (Gen.v. 22), whose descendants peopled Asia Minor and the countries adjacent. These two names, therefore, would exactly include the districts to the north of Egypt, whose inhabitants were known by the general appellation of Hamathites.
The nations westward of Egypt are indicated by a group which is ordinarily written
. The first character is a bow, which in Egyptian was called ⲫⲓϯ or ⲡⲏⲧⲉ. It therefore seems to denote the name of Phut פוּט, the fourth son of Ham (Gen.x.6), whose descendants have long been ascertained[3] to have settled
↑In Coptic letters ⲧⲉⲙϩⲏ: the word signifying north in the Coptic texts is ⲡⲉⲙϩⲓⲧ or ⲧⲉⲙϩⲓⲧ.
↑Rosellini, “Monumenti Istorichi,” vol. iii. part 1. This reading is doubtful. Mr. Birch, with much probability, supposes it to be a pleonasm, and to read—“all the lands of the north,” repeating the indication of the preceding ring.—Gallery of Antiquities, Part ii.
