hinted, was a mixture of the Egyptian and Phœnician with the Gomerian, began to be reduced to grammatical rules, as it improved.

We now return to the ever famous Niul, whofe fortune and tranfactions were chequered with variety of incidents, and whofe fame for learning and arts was equal to his father's. He remained many years in Shinar, prefiding over thefe fchools, and ingroffed fo much of the esteem of the people, that he grew very powerful, and was looked upon as a law-giver, and commander of their wills. He could have improved this to his own advantage, if he pleased; but he chofe to return to Scythia, where he ftayed at the court of his brother, Nenual, and there made it his fole business, according to the bent of his own taste, to inspect and improve the schools which his father had established. Some years paffed in this manner, when having a mind to vifit his schools in Shinar again, he departed from Scythia, and never more returned; and was no fooner arrived, than there were great rejoicings made, and the report spread every where, even to the court of Pharaoh.

THIS monarch invited Niul to come into Egypt, being defirous a prince of his character fhould refide in his kingdom, for the benefit and improvement of his people; and being, in some time, highly pleased with his conduct and great knowledge, and alfo knowing him to be a descendant from a royal line of ancestors, he gave him his daughter, Scota, in marriage, and fettled him in a territory along the coaft of the Red Sea, called Capacirunt, where he flourished, and promoted learning through all his dominion. Scota bore him a fon, whom his father, Niul, called

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called Gaodhal, or Gadelas; which brings it to a certainty, that this prince was an Egyptian born, whatever fome authors have faid to the contrary, though he was defcended from the Scythian race of kings; his father being the fifth from Japhet, in that line, as it appears from the genealogical table in a future chapter.

It was at this very time, that the great event of the Exodus of the children of Ifrael happened; and accordingly, the filids and poets all agree, that when Mofes had made his encampment near the Red Sea, Niul was alarmed at the approach of fo great a body of people, and took proper measures to inform himself of their affairs. They also say, that he had an interview with Aaron, who informed him, that these were the people whom his fatherin-law, Pharaoh Cingeris, had in bondage for so long a time; and that now the GOD, whom they worshipped, was miraculoufly working their deliverance. Niul was affected at what he had heard, and favoured their escape as much as he could, offering them every accommodation in his power; which is, in fome measure, a proof that Niul was no favourer of idolatry, but was a worshipper of the TRUE GOD.

THEY also say, that Niul, not knowing what was to happen to the host of Pharaoh, was under fome apprehenfions of refentment from him, for having favoured this people, whom Pharaoh accounted no better than flaves, and now in an act of rebellion in their flight, and accordingly communicated his fears to Mofes; that Mofes offered him and his people a fettlement in the land to which he was leading his followers, if he was in any fear;

but, fay they, he did not comply with this, chufing rather to be fecured fome other way; and that therefore Mofes advised him to seize upon some Egyptian ships that were upon his coafts, and go on board, with the principal perfons of his family, and stand out to fea, till it should be known what was to be the fate of the Egyptians; which he accordingly did, on the day before they were overwhelmed in the fea.

WHEN Niul was informed of the deftruction of the Egyptians, he landed and returned home; and had feveral children, who grew to manhood before he died, and left behind him, all over the neighbouring countries, the character of one of the most valliant, most learned and wife of princes; when his eldest fon, Gadelas, with his mother, Scota, affumed the government of their territory, with great harmony and unanimity.

Gadelas had a fon, who reigned after him, called Eafru; and he was succeeded by his fon, whom he named Sru; and this was the prince who was driven out of Egypt, which several authors teftify: for when, by the wisdom of his grandfather, Gadelas, and of Eafru, his father, the nation grew great and much increased, as well as renowned for learning, one of the fucceffors of Pharaoh Cingeris, it is uncertain which of them, meditated a quarrel with Sru, under pretence of revenging the favour that Niul had formerly fhewed the Ifraelites, in their proach to the Red Sea: and accordingly, he raised a powerful army, and entered his country with all the terrors of war, and forced Sru, with his whole family, and a great many followers, to fly.

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Walfingham,

Walfingham, I am informed, in his Hypodigma, afferts, that "when the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea, "those that remained drove out a Scythian prince, who "refided among them, least he should take an advantage, "and attempt to feize the government; and when he was "expelled the country, with his followers, he came to "Spain, where he and his people lived many years, and "became too numerous, and from thence they came into "Ireland." The words of Walfingham are faid to be these, and are indeed very remarkable: "Egyptiis in “Mari Rubro fubmerfis, illi qui fuperfuerunt expulerunt "a fe quendam nobilem Scythicum qui degebat apud eos, ne dominium fupereos invaderet; expulfus ille cum fa"milia, pervenit ad Hifpaniam, ubi et habitavit annis "multis, et progenies ipfius familiæ multæ multiplicata "eft nimis; et inde venerunt in Hiberniam." Now from this opinion, and that of one or two of the Irish ancient poets, it would feem that the next fucceffor to Pharaoh Cenchres, was he who meditated this revenge upon the Scythian prince; although the greatest number of the filids are of the other opinion, as before obferved. However, I am much inclined to think it more natural, that the fucceeding Pharaoh, who is, by the bishop of Clogher, page 286, of his Chronology of the Hebrew Bible, called Aucherres, and by the filids, Pharaoh au Tuir, fhould attack that prince, than that a war should be raised against his grandson, on account of the favour done the Ifraelites fo long a time before.

THERE is fomething very remarkable in the account given by Manetho, an Egyptian prieft, of the purfuit of

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the Ifraelites. He calls them a leprous people, and says: they were those whom king Amenophis was defired to expel out of Egypt: and that they had appointed themfelves a ruler, one Ofarfiph, a priest of Heliopolis, to whom they fwore obedience in all things; and he enjoined them not to worship the gods of the Egyptians, nor abstain from any of their facred animals, but kill and destroy them all and that they should not join with any but fuch as were of this confederacy: that when this priest was received by the people, his name was changed to Mofes and that Amenophis, the then king of Egypt, pursued them with a great army, and flew many of them, as far as the borders of Syria. What a confirmation is here of the fact of the Exodus of the Ifraelites; but told by a heathen priest, who would conceal the true and miraculous part of that most signal history, the destruction of Cenchres and his hoft, as Sanchoniatho does that of the deluge; because both these events were a disgrace to the heathen race of Ham, who, from the beginning, were idolators; and, to the religion they then profeffed, being both defcendants of that race, and efpousers of the actions and fentiments of their ancient kings and other ancestors, and efpecially of those they deified.

Berofus too, in the fame obfcure manner, tells us that in the reign of Pharach Acherres, the fucceffor of Cenchres, who was drowned in the Red Sea by the magic of the Hebrews, there were alfo two other kings in Egypt; Armæus, known by the name of Danaus, and Ramefes, known by the name of Egyptus; and Manetho fays, they were brothers: now Herodotus, in his fecond book, fays that Da

naus