PHARAOH'S DREAM.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8031, 8 June 1904, Page 2

PHARAOH'S DREAM.

NEW THEORY OF A BIBLE STORY. JOSEPH'S PREDICTION. As Joseph interpreted the dreams of •Pharaoh, so to-day, nearly foxu* thousand years after,. does tihe practical wiisdom cf Joseph stand revealed in a new light. " We- are lifted oufc of a world of wonders into one of possible realities," writes Sir William Woodcocks, and '' the ihisfcory of Joseph's famine becomes quite intelligible. " t Sir William WUlcooks is the greatest living expert on. the subject of irrigation. He ia.the late director--general of tiie reservoirs in Egy.pt. In a lecture delivered at Cairo recently on the subject- of the Assu&h 'Dam he hqs lifted the- veil of history, Biblical and otherwise^ and commented' with the weight and authority of a vast ■experience on the topic of irrigation as it manifests itself to-day and as it moulded 1 the fate of Egypt in the remote, dim past. Like the Nile in flood — its themes—the lecture teems with valuable material, but the attention of the curious will be riveted by the new reading it "supplies of Joseph's forecast of the faimuie in iigypt and of how as a wise, God-fearing man he is conjectured to have anticipated the seven years of death that overtook the land. FAT AND LEAN KINE. In ancient days there was a ihuge lake in Egypt — Lake Moeris, whose waters, held in thrall by a great dyke, were allowed to flood Upper and Lower Egypt in doie season and impregnate tKe eaxbh with richness and plenty. At the head" of this- dyke, -Sir William Wiilcocks writes, was Ha-Uax, a fortified island, and Ha-Ua^ was thus the true key of Lower Egypt, for it could command th« floods that were as liquid gold 1 to the land. "History tells us" says Sir William, "that Joseph arrived in Egypt late in the time of the Hyksos, who ruled. Lower Egypt, while Theban dynasties ruled Upper Egyjpt. Between the/ two crowns there was an unending war. As year-s rolled on the fortune of- war went gradually 'against Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt kings wcu their way down the Nile valley, and about tie time that Joseph arrived they might have been nearing Ha-Uar, the regulator of Lake Mceris, and tie true southern frontier of Lower Egypt. The very natural anxiety about the loss of the stronghold and the dire conse-quences-which would ensue must have made Pharaoh dream repeatedly of fat and lean kine, of full ears and ears blasted with tihe east wind. LEARNT FROM CAPTIVES. "Joseph, a thoroughly capable and shrewd man, as well aa a (Jod-fearing one, while lying in prison for many years, would have learnt from his fellow-prisoners, many of them captives from Upper Egypt, that the aim of the Thefoan kings was the construction of a fleet and the capture of Ha-Uai. He took in the situation, and when he stood before, Pharaoh boldly told the king to pub away his flattering advisers anyl to realise the fact that Upper 'Egypt xras preparing a strong fleet, and that when it was ready Ha-Uar might fall. " Tihe collection of corn was set on foot on a gigantic scale. Ha-Uar fell into the hands of the Theban kings ; the Nile failed to overflow its banks in Lower Egypt. The predicted famine came. '• Making a final effort, the Hyksos king re-took Ha-Uar, and closed tbe dyke. The Nik flood rose to its ordinary level, and the land Vhich had long lain fallow brought forth by handfuls. "To my mind," Sir William adds, "there is no doubt that Ha-Uar is Hawara, and Pa-Zetku is the lake on which Hawara stood, the ancient Lake Moeris. The name Moeris was -given to the lake by the Greeks a thousand years afterwards."