Brugsch, Heinrich: Egypt under the pharaohs: a history derived entirely from the monuments (London, 1891)

«h. v. ZOAN OR TAXIS 95

witnesses to the glory and riches which permitted men to devote
themselves at their leisure to these peaceful labours.—French
Edition.

Before reviewing the time of this foreign dominion
—during which the old native kino-s sank into the
position of simple governors of nomes—it is necessary
to examine carefully the countries which were to be the
scenes of future events, and to direct particular atten-
tion to the tribes by which those regions were peopled.
In the lowlands the inhabitants between the branches
of the Nile were, for the most part, of pure Egyptian
race. Those of the western or Libyan adjacent lands
belonged to the light-coloured Tehen, and further
Westward to the races of the Libu and Tamahu. The
wanderings of these restless migratory groups of tribes
extended northwards as far as Lake Tritonis, at the
bottom of the lesser Syrtis, and eastwards to the Canopic
branch of the Nile, called in the cuneiform inscriptions
Karbanit. In this direction, near a branch of the Nile
which bore its name, lay T'a-an (Zoan), called also Zar,
and in the plural Zaru (city of Zars or forts). The name
Tanis, which was given to it by the Greeks, is to be
referred back to the Egyptian word T'a-an. It is every-
where designated in the inscriptions as an essentially
foreign town, the inhabitants of which are mentioned
' as the peoples in the eastern border-land.'

This eastern border-land is frequently spoken of as Ta-
Mazor, that is, ' the fortified land,' in which may easily
be recognised the original form of the Hebrew name for
Egypt, Mazor or Mizraim.

On the granite memorial stone of Eamses II., dis-
covered in Tanis, there appears a ' commandant of the
fortress Zar,' who, besides this office, held also the
dignity of ' commander of the foreign peoples,' a refer-
ence doubtless to the inhabitants of foreign origin in
that part of the Egyptian Delta.