the flocks of sheep, and that they have brought with them their beasts, and all that ever they had.  When he shall call you and ask you of what occupation ye be, ye shall say:  We be shepherds, thy servants, from our childhood unto now, and our fathers also.  This shall ye say that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen, for the Egyptians have spite unto herdmen of sheep.  Then Joseph entered tofore Pharaoh and said to him:  My father, my brethren, their sheep and beasts be come from the land of Canaan, and be in the land of Goshen.  And he brought five of his brethren tofore the king, whom he demanded of what occupation they were of.  They answered:  We be keepers of sheep, thy servants, we and our fathers, we be come to dwell in thy land, for there is no grass for the flocks of sheep of us thy servants, the famine is so great in the land of Canaan.  We beseech thee that thou command us thy servants to dwell in the land of Goshen.  Then said the king to Joseph:  Thy father and thy brethren be come to thee, the land of Egypt is at thy commandment, make thou them to dwell in the best place, and deliver to them the land of Goshen.  And if thou know them for conning, ordain they to be masters of my beasts.  After this Joseph brought his father in, and made him stand tofore the king which blessed him, and was demanded of the king how old he was.  He answered:  The days of the pilgrimage of my life be an hundred and thirty years, small and evil, and yet I am not come unto the days of my fathers that they have lived.  And he blessed the king and went out.  Then Joseph gave to his father and brethren possession in Egypt in the best soil of Rameses like as Pharaoh had commanded, and there fed them, giving to each of them victual.

In all the world was scarcity of bread, and hunger and famine oppressed specially and most, the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan.  Of which lands Joseph gat all the money for selling of wheat, and brought it into the king’s treasury.  When all people lacked money, all Egypt came to Joseph saying:  Give us bread, why die we to the lacking money.  To whom he answered:  Bring to me your beasts and I shall give you for them victuals, if ye have no money:  which when they brought, he gave to them victuals and food for horses, sheep, oxen and asses, and sustained them one year for changing of their beasts.  Then came they again the second year and said:  We hide not from thee our lord that our money is failed and also our beasts be gone, and there is nothing left but our bodies and our land.  Why then shall we die in thy sight?  And we ourselves and also our land shall be thine, buy us into bondship and servitude of the king, and give us seed to sow lest the earth turn into wilderness.  Then Joseph bought all the land of Egypt, every man selling his possessions for the vehement hunger that they had.  He subdued all unto Pharaoh, and all his people from the last terms of Egypt unto the utterest ends of the same, except the land longing to the priests, which