Poole, Reginald S.: The cities of Egypt (London, 1882)

PITHOM.

In these fragmentary notices the Hebrews are not
mentioned by name. M. Chabas indeed thought that
he had discovered them in a foreign serf population, the
Aperiu, whose name is not very different from that of
the Hebrews in their own language, with the important
exception that the change from b to / is most unlikely.
The identification was hailed with delight, but by degrees
difficulties presented themselves. First of all it was
found that there were still Aperiu in Egypt more than
half a century after the Exodus : these might perhaps be
a fragment of the people who stayed behind. Next it
was discovered that some were horsemen, which the
Hebrews never were; and last of all, that they were
employed in public works before the Israelites came into
Egypt. Yet the name is so often used for foreign bonds-
men engaged in the very work of the Hebrews, and
especially during the Oppression, that it is hard not to
believe it to be a general term in which they are included
though it does not actually describe them.

The most precious pictorial illustration of the Oppres-
sion is a wall-painting in a tomb at Thebes, showing
prisoners taken in war by Thothmes III. engaged in
building some parts of the great temple of Amen. The