[Illustration: Spines] [Illustration: Cover] HISTORY OF EGYPT CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA By G. MASPERO, Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws, and Fellow of Queen'sCollege, Oxford; Member of the Institute and Professor at the College ofFrance Edited by A. H. SAYCE, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford Translated by M. L. McCLURE, Member of the Committee of the EgyptExploration Fund CONTAINING OVER TWELVE HUNDRED COLORED PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS Volume VI. LONDON THE GROLIER SOCIETY PUBLISHERS [Illustration: Frontispiece] [Illustration: Titlepage] [Illustration: 001. Jpg Page Image] _THE CLOSE OF THE THEBAN EMPIRE--(continued)_ _RAMSES III. : MANNERS AND CUSTOMS--POPULATION--THE PREDOMINANCE OF AMONAND HIS HIGH PRIESTS. _ _The Theban necropolis: mummies--The funeral of a rich Theban: theprocession of the offerings and the funerary furniture, the crossingof the Nile, the tomb, the farewell to the dead, the sacrifice, thecoffins, the repast of the dead, the song of the Harper--The commonditch--The living inhabitants of the necropolis: draughtsmen, sculptors, painters--The bas-reliefs of the temples and the tombs, woodenstatuettes, the smelting of metals, bronze--The religions of thenecropolis: the immorality and want of discipline among the people:workmen s strikes. _ _Amon and the beliefs concerning him: his kingdom over the living andthe dead, the soul's destiny according to the teaching of Amon--Khonsûand his temple; the temple of Amon at Karnak, its revenue, itspriesthood--The growing influence of the high priests of Amon underthe sons of Ramses III. : Hamsesnaklûti, Amenôthes; the violation of theroyal burying-places--Hrihor and the last of the Ramses, Smendês and theaccession to power of the XXIst dynasty: the division of Egypt into twoStates--The priest-kings of Amon masters of Thebes under the suzeraintyof the Tanite Pharaohs--The close of the Theban empire. _ [Illustration: 003. Jpg Page Image] CHAPTER I--THE CLOSE OF THE THEBAN EMPIRE--(continued) _Ramses III. : Manners and Customs--Population--The predominance of Amonand his high priests. _ Opposite the Thebes of the living, Khafîtnîbûs, the Thebes of the dead, had gone on increasing in a remarkably rapid manner. It continued toextend in the south-western direction from the heroic period ofthe XVIIIth dynasty onwards, and all the eminence and valleys weregradually appropriated one after the other for burying-places. At thetime of which I am speaking, this region formed an actual town, orrather a chain of villages, each of which was grouped round somebuilding constructed by one or other of the Pharaohs as a funerarychapel. Towards the north, opposite Karnak, they clustered atDrah-abu'l-Neggah around pyramids of the first Theban monarchs, atQurneh around the mausolæ of Ramses I. And Seti I. , and at SheikhAbd el-Qurneh they lay near the Amenopheum and the Pamonkaniqîmît, or Ramesseum built by Ramses II. Towards the south they diminishedin number, tombs and monuments becoming fewer and appearing at widerintervals; the Migdol of Ramses III. Formed an isolated suburb, that ofAzamît, at Medinet-Habu; the chapel of Isis, constructed by Amenôthes, son of Hapû, formed a rallying-point for the huts of the hamlet ofKarka;* and in the far distance, in a wild gorge at the extreme limitof human habitations, the queens of the Ramesside line slept their lastsleep. * The village of Karka or Kaka was identified by Brugsch with the hamlet of Deîr el-Medineh: the founder of the temple was none other than Amenôthes, who was minister under Amenôthes III. [Illustration: 004. Jpg THE THEBAN CEMETERIES] Each of these temples had around it its enclosing wall of dried brick, and the collection of buildings within this boundary formed the Khîrû, or retreat of some one of the Theban Pharaohs, which, in the officiallanguage of the time, was designated the "august Khîrû of millions ofyears. " [Illustration: 005. Jpg THE NECROPOLIS OF SHEÎKH AND EL-QURNEH] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato. A sort of fortified structure, which was built into one of the corners, served as a place of deposit for the treasure and archives, and could beused as a prison if occasion required. * * This was the hliatmû, the dungeon, frequently mentioned in the documents bearing upon the necropolis. The remaining buildings consisted of storehouses, stables, and housesfor the priests and other officials. In some cases the storehouses wereconstructed on a regular plan which the architect had fitted in withthat of the temple. Their ruins at the back and sides of the Ramesseumform a double row of vaults, extending from the foot of the hills tothe border of the cultivated lands. Stone recesses on the roof furnishedshelter for the watchmen. * The outermost of the village huts stood amongthe nearest tombs. The population which had been gathered together therewas of a peculiar character, and we can gather but a feeble idea of itsnature from the surroundings of the cemeteries in our own great cities. Death required, in fact, far more attendants among the ancient Egyptiansthan with us. The first service was that of mummification, whichnecessitated numbers of workers for its accomplishment. Some of theworkshops of the embalmers have been discovered from time to time atSheikh Abd el-Qurneh and Deîr el-Baharî, but we are still in ignoranceas to their arrangements, and as to the exact nature of the materialswhich they employed. A considerable superficial space was required, forthe manipulations of the embalmers occupied usually from sixty to eightydays, and if we suppose that the average deaths at Thebes amounted tofifteen or twenty in the twenty-four hours, they would have to provideat the same time for the various degrees of saturation of some twelve tofifteen hundred bodies at the least. ** * The discovery of quantities of ostraca in the ruins of these chambers shows that they served partly for cellars. ** I have formed my estimate of fifteen to twenty deaths per day from the mortality of Cairo during the French occupation. This is given by R. Desgenettes, in the _Description de l'Egypte_, but only approximately, as many deaths, especially of females, must have been concealed from the authorities; I have, however, made an average from the totals, and applied the rate of mortality thus obtained to ancient Thebes. The same result follows from calculations based on more recent figures, obtained before the great hygienic changes introduced into Cairo by Ismail Pacha, i. E. From August 1, 1858, to July 31, 1859, and from May 24, 1865, to May 16, 1866, and for the two years from April 2, 1869, to March 21, 1870, and from April 2, 1870, to March 21, 1871. Each of the corpses, moreover, necessitated the employment of at leasthalf a dozen workmen to wash it, cut it open, soak it, dry it, andapply the usual bandages before placing the amulets upon the canonicallyprescribed places, and using the conventional prayers. [Illustration: 007. Jpg HEAD OF A THEBAN MUMMY] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. There was fastened to the breast, immediately below the neck, a stoneor green porcelain scarab, containing an inscription which was to beefficacious in preventing the heart, "his heart which came to him fromhis mother, his heart from the time he was upon the earth, " from risingup and witnessing against the dead man before the tribunal of Osiris. *There were placed on his fingers gold or enamelled rings, as talismansto secure for him the true voice. ** * The manipulations and prayers were prescribed in the "Book of Embalming. " ** The prescribed gold ring was often replaced by one of blue or green enamel. The body becomes at last little more than a skeleton, with a covering ofyellow skin which accentuates the anatomical, details, but the head, onthe other hand, still preserves, where the operations have been properlyconducted, its natural form. The cheeks have fallen in slightly, thelips and the fleshy parts of the nose have become thinner and moredrawn than during life, but the general expression of the face remainsunaltered. [Illustration: 008. Jpg THE MANUFACTURE AND PAINTING OF THE CARTONNAGE] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after Rosellini. A mask of pitch was placed over the visage to preserve it, abovewhich was adjusted first a piece of linen and then a series of bandsimpregnated with resin, which increased the size of the head to twofoldits ordinary bulk. The trunk and limbs were bound round with a firstcovering of some pliable soft stuff, warm to the touch. Coarselypowdered natron was scattered here and there over the body as anadditional preservative. Packets placed between the legs, the arms andthe hips, and in the eviscerated abdomen, contained the heart, spleen, the dried brain, the hair, and the cuttings of the beard and nails. Inthose days the hair had a special magical virtue: by burning it whileuttering certain incantations, one might acquire an almost limitlesspower over the person to whom it had belonged. The ernbalmers, therefore, took care to place with the mummy such portions of the hairas they had been obliged to cut off, so as to remove them out of the wayof the perverse ingenuity of the sorcerers. [Illustration: 009. Jpg WRAPPING OF THE MUMMY, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE"MAN OF THE ROLL"] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Rosellini. Over the first covering of the mummy already alluded to, there wassometimes placed a strip of papyrus or a long piece of linen, upon whichthe scribe had transcribed selections--both text and pictures--from "TheBook of the going forth by Day:" in such cases the roll containing thewhole work was placed between the legs. The body was further wrapped inseveral bandages, then in a second piece of stuff, then in more bands, the whole being finally covered with a shroud of coarse canvas and ared linen winding-sheet, sewn together at the back, and kept in place bytransverse bands disposed at intervals from head to foot. The son of thedeceased and a "man of the roll" were present at this lugubrious toilet, and recited at the application of each piece a prayer, in which itsobject was defined and its duration secured. Every Egyptian was supposedto be acquainted with the formulas, from having learned them during hislifetime, by which he was to have restored to him the use of his limbs, and be protected from the dangers of the world beyond. These wererepeated to the dead person, however, for greater security, during theprocess of embalming, and the son of the deceased, or the master of theceremonies, took care to whisper to the mummy the most mysterious parts, which no living ear might hear with impunity. The wrappings havingbeen completed, the deceased person became aware of his equipment, andenjoyed all the privileges of the "instructed and fortified Manes. " Hefelt himself, both mummy and double, now ready for the tomb. Egyptian funerals were not like those to which we are accustomed--muteceremonies, in which sorrow is barely expressed by a furtive tear:noise, sobbings, and wild gestures were their necessary concomitants. Not only was it customary to hire weeping women, who tore their hair, filled the air with their lamentations, and simulated by skilful actionsthe depths of despair, but the relatives and friends themselves did notshrink from making an outward show of their grief, nor from disturbingthe equanimity of the passers-by by the immoderate expressions of theirsorrow. One after another they raised their voices, and uttered someexpression appropriate to the occasion: "To the West, the dwelling ofOsiris, to the West, thou who wast the best of men, and who always hatedguile. " And the hired weepers answered in chorus: "O chief, * as thougoest to the West, the gods themselves lament. " The funeral _cortege_started in the morning from the house of mourning, and proceeded at aslow pace to the Nile, amid the clamours of the mourners. * The "chief" is one of the names of Osiris, and is applied naturally to the dead person, who has become an Osiris by virtue of the embalming. The route was cleared by a number of slaves and retainers. First camethose who carried cakes and flowers in their hands, followed by othersbearing jars full of water, bottles of liqueurs, and phials of perfumes;then came those who carried painted boxes intended for the provisionsof the dead man, and for containing the Ushabtiu, or "Respondents. " Thesucceeding group bore the usual furniture required by the deceasedto set up house again, coffers for linen, folding and arm chairs, state-beds, and sometimes even a caparisoned chariot with its quivers. Then came a groom conducting two of his late master's favourite horses, who, having accompanied the funeral to the tomb, were brought backto their stable. Another detachment, more numerous than the otherscombined, now filed past, bearing the effects of the mummy; first thevessels for the libations, then the cases for the Canopic jars, then theCanopic jars themselves, the mask of the deceased, coloured half in goldand half in blue, arms, sceptres, military batons, necklaces, scarabs, vultures with encircling wings worn on the breast at festival-times, chains, "Respondents, " and the human-headed sparrow-hawk, the emblem ofthe soul. Many of these objects were of wood plated with gold, othersof the same material simply gilt, and others of solid gold, and thuscalculated to excite the cupidity of the crowd. Offerings came next, then a noisy company of female weepers; then a slave, who sprinkled atevery instant some milk upon the ground as if to lay the dust; thena master of the ceremonies, who, the panther skin upon his shoulder, asperged the crowd with perfumed water; and behind him comes the hearse. [Illustration: 012. Jpg THE FUNERAL OF HARMHABI] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after a coloured print in Wilkinson. The cut on the following page joins this on the right. The latter, according to custom, was made in the form of aboat--representing the bark of Osiris, with his ark, and two guardians, Isis and Nephthys--and was placed upon a sledge, which was drawn by ateam of oxen and a relay of fellahîn. The sides of the ark were, asa rule, formed of movable wooden panels, decorated with pictures andinscriptions; sometimes, however, but more rarely, the panels werereplaced by a covering of embroidered stuff or of soft leather. Inthe latter case the decoration was singularly rich, the figures andhieroglyphs being cut out with a knife, and the spaces thus left filledin with pieces of coloured leather, which gave the whole an appearanceof brilliant mosaic-work. * * One of these coverings was found in the hiding-place at Deîr el-Baharî; it had belonged to the Princess Isîmkhobiû, whose mummy is now at Gîzeh. [Illustration: 013. Jpg THE FUNERAL OF HABMHABÎ] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the coloured print in Wilkinson. The left side of this design fits on to the right of the preceding cut. In place of a boat, a shrine of painted wood, also mounted upon asledge, was frequently used. When the ceremony was over, this was left, together with the coffin, in the tomb. * * I found in the tomb of Sonnozmû two of these sledges with the superstructure in the form of a temple. They are now in the Gîzeh Museum. The wife and children walked as close to the bier as possible, andwere followed by the friends of the deceased, dressed in long linengarments, * each of them bearing a wand. The ox-driver, while goading hisbeasts, cried out to them: "To the West, ye oxen who draw the hearse, to the West! Your master comes behind you!" "To the West, " the friendsrepeated; "the excellent man lives no longer who loved truth so dearlyand hated lying!"** ** The whole of this description is taken from the pictures representing the interment of a certain Harmhabî, who died at Thebes in the time of Thfitmosis IV. * These expressions are taken from the inscriptions on the tomb of Rai [Illustration: 014. Jpg THE BOAT CARRYING THE MUMMY] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from pictures in the tomb of Nofirhotpû at Thebes. This lamentation is neither remarkable for its originality nor for itsdepth of feeling. Sorrow was expressed on such occasions in prescribedformulas of always the same import, custom soon enabling each individualto compose for himself a repertory of monotonous exclamations ofcondolence, of which the prayer, "To the West!" formed the basis, relieved at intervals by some fresh epithet. The nearest relativesof the deceased, however, would find some more sincere expressions ofgrief, and some more touching appeals with which to break in upon thecommonplaces of the conventional theme. On reaching the bank of the Nilethe funeral cortege proceeded to embark. * * The description of this second part of the funeral arrangements is taken from the tomb of Harmhabî, and especially from that of Nofirhotpû. [Illustration: 015. Jpg THE BOATS CONTAINING THE FEMALE WEEPERS AND THEPEOPLE OF THE HOUSEHOLD] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from paintings on the tomb of Nofirhotpû at Thebes. They blended with their inarticulate cries, and the usual protestationsand formulas, an eulogy upon the deceased and his virtues, allusionsto his disposition and deeds, mention of the offices and honours he hadobtained, and reflections on the uncertainty of human life--the wholeforming the melancholy dirge which each generation intoned over itspredecessor, while waiting itself for the same office to be said over itin its turn. The bearers of offerings, friends, and slaves passed over on hiredbarges, whose cabins, covered externally with embroidered stuffs ofseveral colours, or with _applique_ leather, looked like the pedestalsof a monument: crammed together on the boats, they stood upright withtheir faces turned towards the funeral bark. The latter was supposed torepresent the Noshemît, the mysterious skiff of Abydos, which had beenused in the obsequies of Osiris of yore. [Illustration: 016. Jpg THE BOATS CONTAINING THE FRIENDS AND THE FUNERARYFURNITURE] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from paintings on the tomb of Nofirhotpû at Thebes. It was elegant, light, and slender in shape, and ornamented at bow andstern with a lotus-flower of metal, which bent back its head gracefully, as if bowed down by its own weight. A temple-shaped shrine stood inthe middle of the boat, adorned with bouquets of flowers and withgreen palm-branches. The female members of the family of the deceased, crouched beside the shrine, poured forth lamentations, while twopriestesses, representing respectively Isis and Nephthys, took uppositions behind to protect the body. The boat containing the femalemourners having taken the funeral barge in tow, the entire flotillapushed out into the stream. This was the solemn moment of theceremony--the moment in which the deceased, torn away from his earthlycity, was about to set out upon that voyage from which there is noreturn. The crowds assembled on the banks of the river hailed the deadwith their parting prayers: "Mayest thou reach in peace the West fromThebes! In peace, in peace towards Abydos, mayest thou descend in peacetowards Abydos, towards the sea of the West!" [Illustration: 017. Jpg A CORNER OF THE THEBAN NECROPOLIS] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a stele in the Gîzeh Museum. This crossing of the Nile was of special significance in regard tothe future of the soul of the deceased: it represented his pilgrimagetowards Abydos, to the "Mouth of the Cleft" which gave him access tothe other world, and it was for this reason that the name of Abydos isassociated with that of Thebes in the exclamations of the crowd. Thevoices of the friends replied frequently and mournfully: "To the West, to the West, the land of the justified! The place which thou lovedstweeps and is desolate!" Then the female mourners took up the refrain, saying: "In peace, in peace, to the West! O honourable one, go in peace!If it please God, when the day of Eternity shall shine, we shall seethee, for behold thou goest to the land which mingles all men together!"The widow then adds her note to the concert of lamentations: "O mybrother, O my husband, O my beloved, rest, remain in thy place, do notdepart from the terrestrial spot where thou art! Alas, thou goest awayto the ferry-boat in order to cross the stream! O sailors, do not hurry, leave him; you, you will return to your homes, but he, he is going awayto the land of Eternity! O Osirian bark, why hast thou come to take awayfrom me him who has left me!" The sailors were, of course, deaf to herappeals, and the mummy pursued its undisturbed course towards the laststage of its mysterious voyage. The majority of the tombs--those which were distributed over the plainor on the nearest spurs of the hill--were constructed on the lines ofthose brick-built pyramids erected on mastabas which were very commonduring the early Theban dynasties. The relative proportions of the partsalone were modified: the mastaba, which had gradually been reduced toan insignificant base, had now recovered its original height, while thepyramid had correspondingly decreased, and was much reduced in size. Thechapel was constructed within the building, and the mummy-pit was sunkto a varying depth below. The tombs ranged along the mountain-side were, on the other hand, rock-cut, and similar to those at el-Bersheh andBeni-Hasan. [Illustration: 018. Jpg PAINTING IN THE FIFTH TOMB OF THE KINGS TO THERIGHT] The heads of wealthy families or the nobility naturally did not leave tothe last moment the construction of a sepulchre worthy of their rank andfortune. They prided themselves on having "finished their house which isin the funeral valley when the morning for the hiding away of their bodyshould come. " Access to these tombs was by too steep and difficult apath to allow of oxen being employed for the transport of the mummy: thefriends or slaves of the deceased were, therefore, obliged to raise thesarcophagus on their shoulders and bear it as best they could to thedoor of the tomb. [Illustration: 019. Jpg THE FAREWELL TO THE MUMMY, AND THE DOUBLERECEIVED BY THE GODDESS] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the paintings in the Theban tombs. The mummy was then placed in an upright position on a heap of sand, withits back to the wall and facing the assistants, like the master of somenew villa who, having been accompanied by his friends to see him takepossession, turns for a moment on the threshold to take leave ofthem before entering. A sacrifice, an offering, a prayer, and a freshoutburst of grief ensued; the mourners redoubled their cries and threwthemselves upon the ground, the relatives decked the mummy with flowersand pressed it to their bared bosoms, kissing it upon the breast andknees. "I am thy sister, O great one! forsake me not! Is it indeed thywill that I should leave thee? If I go away, thou shalt be here alone, and is there any one who will be with thee to follow thee? O thouwho lovedst to jest with me, thou art now silent, thou speakestnot!" Whereupon the mourners again broke out in chorus: "Lamentation, lamentation! Make, make, make, make lamentation without ceasing as loudas can be made. O good traveller, who takest thy way towards the land ofEternity, thou hast been torn from us! O thou who hadst so many aroundthee, thou art now in the land which bringest isolation! Thou wholovedst to stretch thy limbs in walking, art now fettered, bound, swathed! Thou who hadst fine stuffs in abundance, art laid in the linenof yesterday!" Calm in the midst of the tumult, the priest stood andoffered the incense and libation with the accustomed words: "To thydouble, Osiris Nofirhotpû, whose voice before the great god is true!"This was the signal of departure, and the mummy, carried by two men, disappeared within the tomb: the darkness of the other world had laidhold of it, never to let it go again. The chapel was usually divided into two chambers: one, which was ofgreater width than length, ran parallel to the façade; the other, whichwas longer than it was wide, stood at right angles with the former, exactly opposite to the entrance. The decoration of these chamberstook its inspiration from the scheme which prevailed in the time of theMemphite dynasties, but besides the usual scenes of agricultural labour, hunting, and sacrifice, there were introduced episodes from the publiclife of the deceased, and particularly the minute portrayal of theceremonies connected with his burial. [Illustration: 021. Jpg NICHE IN THE TOMB OF MENNA] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger. These pictorial biographies are always accompanied by detailedexplanatory inscriptions; every individual endeavoured thus to showto the Osirian judges the rank he had enjoyed here upon earth, and toobtain in the fields of lalû the place which he claimed to be his due. The stele was to be found at the far end of the second chamber; it wasoften let in to a niche in the form of a round-headed doorway, or elseit was replaced by a group of statues, either detached or sculptured inthe rock itself, representing the occupant, his wives and children, whotook the place of the supporters of the double, formerly always hiddenwithin the serdab. The ceremony of the "Opening of the Mouth" tookplace in front of the niche on the day of burial, at the moment when thedeceased, having completed his terrestrial course, entered his new homeand took possession of it for all eternity. The object of this ceremonywas, as we know, to counteract the effects of the embalming, and torestore activity to the organs of the body whose functions had beensuspended by death. The "man of the roll" and his assistants, aided bythe priests, who represented the "children of Horus, " once more raisedthe mummy into an upright position upon a heap of sand in the middle ofthe chapel, and celebrated in his behalf the divine mystery institutedby Horus for Osiris. They purified it both by ordinary and by red water, by the incense of the south and by the alum of the north, in the samemanner as that in which the statues of the gods were purified at thebeginning of the temple sacrifices; they then set to work to awake thedeceased from his sleep: they loosened his shroud and called back thedouble who had escaped from the body at the moment of the death-agony, and restored to him the use of his arms and legs. As soon as thesacrificial slaughterers had despatched the bull of the south, and cutit in pieces, the priest seized the bleeding haunch, and raised itto the lips of the mask as if to invite it to eat; but the lips stillremained closed, and refused to perform their office. The priest thentouched them with several iron instruments hafted on wooden handles, which were supposed to possess the power of unsealing them. [Illustration: 023a. Jpg COFFIN-LID] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by M. De Mertens. [Illustration: 023b. Jpg COFFIN-LID] The "opening" once effected, the double became free, and thetomb-paintings from thenceforward ceasing to depict the mummy, represented the double only. They portrayed it "under the form which hehad on this earth, " wearing the civil garb, and fulfilling his ordinaryfunctions. The corpse was regarded as merely the larva, to be maintainedin its integrity in order to ensure survival; but it could be relegatedwithout fear to the depths of the bare and naked tomb, there to remainuntil the end of time, if it pleased the gods to preserve it fromrobbers or archaeologists. At the period of the first Theban empirethe coffins were rectangular wooden chests, made on the models of thelimestone and granite sarcophagi, and covered with prayers taken fromthe various sacred writings, especially from the "Book of the Dead";during the second Theban empire, they were modified into an actualsheath for the body, following more or less the contour of the humanfigure. This external model of the deceased covered his remains, andhis figure in relief served as a lid to the coffin. The head was coveredwith the full-dress wig, a tippet of white cambrio half veiled thebosom, the petticoat fell in folds about the limbs, the feet were shodwith sandals, the arms were outstretched or were folded over the breast, and the hands clasped various objects--either the _crux ansata_, thebuckle of the belt, the _tat_, or a garland of flowers. Sometimes, onthe contrary, the coffin was merely a conventional reproduction ofthe human form. The two feet and legs were joined together, and themodelling of the knee, calf, thigh, and stomach was only slightlyindicated in the wood. Towards the close of the XVIIIth dynasty it wasthe fashion for wealthy persons to have two coffins, one fitting insidethe other, painted black or white. From the XXth dynasty onwards theywere coated with a yellowish varnish, and so covered with inscriptionsand mystic signs that each coffin was a tomb in miniature, and couldwell have done duty as such, and thus meet all the needs of the soul. * * The first to summarise the characteristics of the coffins and sarcophagi of the second Theban period was Mariette, but he places the use of the yellow-varnished coffins too late, viz. During the XXIInd dynasty. Examples of them have since been found which incontestably belong to the XXth. [Illustration: 024. Jpg THE MUMMY FACTORY] Later still, during the XXIst and XXIInd dynasties, these two, or eventhree coffins, were enclosed in a rectangular sarcophagus of thick wood, which, surmounted by a semicircular lid, was decorated with pictures andhallowed by prayers: four sparrow-hawks, perched on the uprights at thecorners, watched at the four cardinal points, and protected the body, enabling the soul at the same time to move freely within the four housesof which the world was composed. [Illustration: 025. Jpg THE PARAPHERNALIA OF A MUMMY OF THE XXth TO THEXXIInd DYNASTIES] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Mariette. The workmen, after having deposited the mummy in its resting-place, piled upon the floor of the tomb the canopio jars, the caskets, theprovisions, the furniture, the bed, and the stools and chairs; theUsha-btiu occupied compartments in their allotted boxes, and sometimesthere would be laid beside them the mummy of a favourite animal--amonkey, a dog of some rare breed, or a pet gazelle, whose coffins wereshaped to their respective outlines, the better to place before thedeceased the presentment of the living animal. [Illustration: 026. Jpg THE FUNERAL REPAST--MUSIC AND DANCING] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a fragment in the British Museum. The scene representing the funeral repast and its accompanying dances occurs frequently in the Theban tombs. A few of the principal objects were broken or damaged, in the beliefthat, by thus destroying them, their doubles would go forth andaccompany the human double, and render him their accustomed servicesduring the whole of his posthumous existence; a charm pronounced overthem bound them indissolubly to his person, and constrained them to obeyhis will. This done, the priest muttered a final prayer, and the masonswalled up the doorway. [Illustration: 027. Jpg THE COFFIN OF THE FAVOURITE GAZELLE OFISÎMKHOBIU] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch- Bey. The funeral feast now took place with its customary songs and dances. The _almehs_ addressed the guests and exhorted them to make good use ofthe passing hour: "Be happy for one day! for when you enter your tombsyou will rest there eternally throughout the length of every day!" Immediately after the repast the friends departed from the tomb, and thelast link which connected the dead with our world was then broken. Thesacred harper was called upon to raise the farewell hymn:* * The harper is often represented performing this last office. In the tomb of Nofirhotpû, and in many others, the daughters or the relatives of the deceased accompany or even replace the harper; in this case they belonged to a priestly family, and fulfilled the duties of the "Female Singers" of Amon or some other god. "O instructed mummies, ennead of the gods of the coffin, who listen tothe praises of this dead man, and who daily extol the virtues of thisinstructed mummy, who is living eternally like a god, ruling in Amentît, ye also who shall live in the memory of posterity, all ye who shallcome and read these hymns inscribed, according to the rites, withinthe tombs, repeat: 'The greatness of the under-world, what is it? Theannihilation of the tomb, why is it?' It is to conform to the imageof the land of Eternity, the true country where there is no strife andwhere violence is held in abhorrence, where none attacks his neighbour, and where none among our generations who rest within it is rebellious, from the time when your race first existed, to the moment when it shallbecome a multitude of multitudes, all going the same way; for insteadof remaining in this land of Egypt, there is not one but shall leave it, and there is said to all who are here below, from the moment of theirwaking to life: 'Go, prosper safe and sound, to reach the tomb atlength, a chief among the blessed, and ever mindful in thy heart of theday when thou must lie down on the funeral bed!'" The ancient songof Antûf, modified in the course of centuries, was still that whichexpressed most forcibly the melancholy thought paramount in the minds ofthe friends assembled to perform the last rites. "The impassibility ofthe chief* is, in truth, the best of fates!" * Osiris is here designated by the word "chief, " as I have already pointed out. [Illustration: 029. Jpg ONE OF THE HARPERS OF THE TOMB OF RAMSES III. ] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken Byjnsinger in 1881. "Since the times of the god bodies are created merely to pass away, andyoung generations take their place: Râ rises in the morning, Tûmû liesdown to rest in the land of the evening, all males generate, the femalesconceive, every nose inhales the air from the morning of their birthto the day when they go to their place! Be happy then for one day, Oman!--May there ever be perfumes and scents for thy nostrils, garlandsand lotus-flowers for thy shoulders and for the neck of thy belovedsister* who sits beside thee! Let there be singing and music beforethee, and, forgetting all thy sorrows, think only of pleasure until theday when thou must enter the country of Marîtsakro, the silent goddess, though all the same the heart of the son who loves thee will not ceaseto beat! Be happy for one day, O man!--I have heard related what befellour ancestors; their walls are destroyed, their place is no more, theyare as those who have ceased to live from the time of the god! The wallsof thy tomb are strong, thou hast planted trees at the edge of thy pond, thy soul reposes beneath them and drinks the water; follow that whichseemeth good to thee as long as thou art on earth, and give bread to himwho is without land, that thou mayest be well spoken of for evermore. Think upon the gods who have lived long ago: their meat offeringsfall in pieces as if they had been torn by a panther, their loaves aredefiled with dust, their statues no longer stand upright within thetemple of Râ, their followers beg for alms! Be happy for one day!" * Marriages between brothers and sisters in Egypt rendered this word "sister" the most natural appellation. Those gone before thee "have had their hour of joy, " and they have putoff sadness "which shortens the moments until the day when hearts aredestroyed!--Be mindful, therefore, of the day when thou shalt be takento the country where all men are mingled: none has ever taken thitherhis goods with him, and no one can ever return from it!" The grave didnot, however, mingle all men as impartially as the poet would have usbelieve. The poor and insignificant had merely a place in the commonpit, which was situated in the centre of the Assassîf, * one of therichest funerary quarters of Thebes. * There is really only one complete description of a cemetery of the poor, namely, that given by A. Rhind. Mariette caused extensive excavations to be made by Gabet and Vassalli, 1859-1862, in the Assassif, near the spot worked by Rhind, and the objects found are now in the Gîzeh Museum, but the accounts of the work are among his unpublished papers, vassalli assures me that he sometimes found the mummies piled one on another to the depth of sixty bodies, and even then he did not reach the lowest of the pile. The hurried excavations which I made in 1882 and 1884, appeared to confirm these statements of Rhind and Vassalli. Yawning trenches stood ever open there, ready to receive their prey;the rites were hurriedly performed, and the grave-diggers covered themummies of the day's burial with a little sand, out of which we receivethem intact, sometimes isolated, sometimes in groups of twos or threes, showing that they had not even been placed in regular layers. Someare wrapped only in bandages of coarse linen, and have been consignedwithout further covering to the soil, while others have been bound roundwith palm-leaves laid side by side, so as to form a sort of primitivebasket. The class above the poorest people were buried in rough-hewnwooden boxes, smaller at the feet than towards the head, and devoid ofany inscription or painting. Many have been placed in any coffin thatcame to hand, with a total indifference as to suitability of size;others lie in a badly made bier, made up of the fragments of one or moreolder biers. None of them possessed any funerary furniture, except thetools of his trade, a thin pair of leather shoes, sandals of cardboardor plaited reeds, rings of terra-cotta or bronze, bracelets or neckletsof a single row of blue beads, statuettes of divinities, mystic eyes, scarabs, and, above all, cords tied round the neck, arms, limbs, orwaist, to keep off, by their mystic knots, all malign influences. The whole population of the necropolis made their living out of thedead. This was true of all ranks of society, headed by the sacerdotalcolleges of the royal chapels, * and followed by the priestly bodies, towhom was entrusted the care of the tombs in the various sections, but the most influential of whom confined their attentions to the oldburying-ground, "Isît-mâît, " the True Place. ** * We find on several monuments the names of persons belonging to these sacerdotal bodies, priests of Ahmosis I. , priests of Thûtmosis I. , of Thût-mosis II. , of Amenôthes II. , and of Seti I. ** The persons connected with the "True Place" were for a long time considered as magistrates, and the "True Place" as a tribunal. It was their duty to keep up the monuments of the kings, and also ofprivate individuals, to clean the tombs, to visit the funerary chambers, to note the condition of their occupants, and, if necessary, repairthe damage done by time, and to provide on certain days the offeringsprescribed by custom, or by clauses in the contract drawn up betweenthe family of the deceased and the religious authorities. The titles ofthese officials indicated how humble was their position in relation tothe deified ancestors in whose service they were employed; they calledthemselves the "Servants of the True Place, " and their chiefs the"Superiors of the Servants, " but all the while they were people ofconsiderable importance, being rich, well educated, and respected intheir own quarter of the town. [Illustration: 032. Jpg PAINTINGS AT THE END OF THE HALL OF THE FIFTHTHE TOMB] They professed to have a special devotion for Amenôthes I. And hismother, Nofrîtari, who, after five or six centuries of continuoushomage, had come to be considered as the patrons of Khafîtnîbûs, butthis devotion was not to the depreciation of other sovereigns. It istrue that the officials were not always clear as to the identity of theroyal remains of which they had the care, and they were known to havechanged one of their queens or princesses into a king or some royalprince. * * Thus Queen Ahhotpû I. , whom the "servant" Anhûrkhâû knew to be a woman, is transformed into a King Ahhotpû in the tomb of Khâbokhnît. [Illustration: AMENOTHES III. AT LUXOR] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Gayet. They were surrounded by a whole host of lesserfunctionaries--bricklayers, masons, labourers, exorcists, scribes (whowrote out pious formulae for poor people, or copied the "Books of thegoing forth by day" for the mummies), weavers, cabinet-makers, andgoldsmiths. The sculptors and the painters were grouped into guilds;*many of them spent their days in the tombs they were decorating, whileothers had their workshops above-ground, probably very like those of ourmodern monumental masons. * We gather this from the inscriptions which give us the various titles of the sculptors, draughtsmen, or workmen, but I have been unable to make out the respective positions held by these different persons. They kept at the disposal of their needy customers an assortment ofready-made statues and stelæ, votive tablets to Osiris, Anubis, andother Theban gods and goddesses, singly or combined. The name of thedeceased and the enumeration of the members of his family were leftblank, and were inserted after purchase in the spaces reserved for thepurpose. * * I succeeded in collecting at the Boulak Museum a considerable number of these unfinished statues and stelæ, coming from the workshops of the necropolis. These artisans made the greater part of their livelihood by means ofthese epitaphs, and the majority thought only of selling as many of themas they could; some few, however, devoted themselves to work of a higherkind. Sculpture had reached a high degree of development under theThûtmoses and the Ramses, and the art of depicting scenes in bas-reliefhad been brought to a perfection hitherto unknown. This will be easilyseen by comparing the pictures in the old mastabas, such as those of Tior Phtahhotpû, with the finest parts of the temples of Qurneh, Abydos, Karnak, Deîr el-Baharî, or with the scenes in the tombs of Seti I. AndRamses II. , or those of private individuals such as Hûi. The modellingis firm and refined, showing a skill in the use of the chisel and anelegance of outline which have never been surpassed: the Amenôthes III. Of Luxor and the Khâmhâît of Sheikh Abd el-Qurneh might serve for modelsin our own schools of the highest types which Egyptian art could produceat its best in this particular branch. The drawing is freer than inearlier examples, the action is more natural, the composition morestudied, and the perspective less wild. We feel that the artist handledhis subject _con amore_. He spared no trouble in sketching outhis designs and in making studies from nature, and, as papyrus wasexpensive, he drew rough drafts, or made notes of his impressions on theflat chips of limestone with which the workshops were strewn. [Illustration: 035. Jpg KHÂMHAÎT] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. De Mertens. Nothing at that date could rival these sketches for boldness ofconception and freedom in execution, whether it were in the portrayal ofthe majestic gait of a king or the agility of an acrobat. Of the latterwe have an example in the Turin Museum. The girl is nude, with theexception of a tightly fitting belt about her hips, and she is throwingherself backwards with so natural a motion, that we are almost temptedto expect her to turn a somersault and fall once more into position withher heels together. [Illustration: 026. Jpg SKETCH OF A FEMALE ACROBAT] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Petrie. The unfinished figures on the tomb of Seti I. Shows with what a steadyhand the clever draughtsman could sketch out his subjects. The head fromthe nape of the neck round to the throat is described by a single line, and the contour of the shoulders is marked by another. The form of thebody is traced by two undulating lines, while the arms and legs arerespectively outlined by two others. The articles of apparel andornaments, sketched rapidly at first, had to be gone over again by thesculptor, who worked out the smallest details. One might almost countthe tresses of the hair, while the folds of the dress and the enamels ofthe girdle and bracelets are minutely chiselled. [Illustration: BAS-RELIEF OF SETI I. , SHOWING CORRECTIONS MADE BY THESCULPTOR] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from photographs by Insinger and Daniel Héron. When the draughtsman had finished his picture from the sketch which hehad made, or when he had enlarged it from a smaller drawing, the masterof the studio would go over it again, marking here and there in red thedefective points, to which the sculptor gave his attention when workingthe subject out on the wall. If he happened to make a mistake inexecuting it, he corrected it as well as he was able by filling up withstucco or hard cement the portions to be remodelled, and by starting towork again upon the fresh surface. This cement has fallen out in somecases, and reveals to our eyes to-day the marks of the underlyingchiselling. There are, for example, two profiles of Seti I. On one ofthe bas-reliefs of the hypostyle hall at Karnak, one faintly outlined, and the other standing fully out from the surface of the stone. Thesense of the picturesque was making itself felt, and artists wereno longer to be excused for neglecting architectural details, theconfiguration of the country, the drawing of rare plants, and, in fact, all those accessories which had been previously omitted altogether ormerely indicated. The necessity of covering such vast surfaces as thepylons offered had accustomed them to arrange the various scenes of oneand the same action in a more natural and intimate connexion than theirpredecessors could possibly have done. In these scenes the Pharaohnaturally played the chief part, but in place of choosing for treatmentmerely one or other important action of the monarch calculatedto exhibit his courage, the artist endeavoured to portray all thesuccessive incidents in his campaigns, in the same manner as the earlyItalian painters were accustomed to depict, one after the other, and onthe same canvas, all the events of the same legend. The details of thesegigantic compositions may sometimes appear childish to us, and we mayfrequently be at a loss in determining the relations of the parts, yetthe whole is full of movement, and, although mutilated, gives us evenyet the impression which would have been made upon us by the turmoil ofa battle in those distant days. The sculptor of statues for a long time past was not a whit less skilfulthan the artist who executed bas-reliefs. The sculptor was doubtlessoften obliged to give enormous proportions to the figure of the king, toprevent his being overshadowed by the mass of buildings among which thestatue was to appear; but this necessity of exaggerating the human formdid not destroy in the artist that sense of proportion and that skilfulhandling of the chisel which are so strikingly displayed in the sittingscribe or in the princess at Meîdûm; it merely trained him to mark outdeftly the principal lines, and to calculate the volume and dimensionsof these gigantic granite figures of some fifty to sixty-five feet high, with as great confidence and skill as he would have employed upon anystatue of ordinary dimensions which might be entrusted to him. The colossal statues at Abu-Simbel and Thebes still witness to theincomparable skill of the Theban sculptors in the difficult art ofimagining and executing superhuman types. The decadence of Egyptian artdid not begin until the time of Ramses III. , but its downward progresswas rapid, and the statues of the Ramesside period are of little or noartistic value. The form of these figures is poor, the technique crude, and the expression of the faces mean and commonplace. They betray thehand of a mechanical workman who, while still in the possession of theinstruments of his trade, can infuse no new life into the traditions ofthe schools, nor break away from them altogether. [Illustration: 040. Jpg THE KNEELING SCRIBE AT TURIN] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Petrie; the scribe bears upon his right shoulder, perhaps tattooed, the human image of the god Amon-Râ, whose animal emblem he embraces. We must look, not to the royal studios, but to the workshops connectedwith the necropolis, if we want to find statues of half life-sizedisplaying intelligent workmanship, all of which we might be tempted torefer to the XVIIIth dynasty if the inscriptions upon them did not fixtheir date some two or three centuries later. An example of them may beseen at Turin in the kneeling scribe embracing a ram-headed altar:the face is youthful, and has an expression at once so gentle andintelligent that we are constrained to overlook the imperfections in thebust and legs of the figure. Specimens of this kind are not numerous, and their rarity is easily accounted for. The multitude of priests, soldiers, workmen, and small middle-class people who made up the bulk ofthe Theban population had aspirations for a luxury little commensuratewith their means, and the tombs of such people are, therefore, fullof objects which simulate a character they do not possess, and aredeceptive to the eye: such were the statuettes made of wood, substitutedfrom economical motives instead of the limestone or sandstone statuesusually provided as supporters for the "double. " [Illustration: 041a. Jpg YOUNG GIRL IN THE TURING MUSEUM] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Petrie. [Illustration: 041b. Jpg THE LADY NEHAI] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. De Mertens. Enamelled eyes, according to a common custom, were inserted in the sockets, but have disappeared. The funerary sculptors had acquired a perfect mastery of the kind ofart needed for people of small means, and we find among the medley ofcommonplace objects which encumber the tomb they decorated, examples ofartistic works of undoubted excellence, such as the ladies Naî and Tûînow in the Louvre, the lady Nehaî now at Berlin, and the naked child atTurin. The lady Tûî in her lifetime had been one of the singing-women ofAmon. She is clad in a tight-fitting robe, which accentuates thecontour of the breasts and hips without coarseness: her right arm fallsgracefully alongside her body, while her left, bent across her chest, thrusts into her bosom a kind of magic whip, which was the sign of herprofession. The artist was not able to avoid a certain heaviness in thetreatment of her hair, and the careful execution of the whole work wasnot without a degree of harshness, but by dint of scraping and polishingthe wood he succeeded in softening the outline, and removing from thefigure every sharp point. The lady Nehaî is smarter and more graceful, in her close-fitting garment and her mantle thrown over the left elbow;and the artist has given her a more alert pose and resolute air than wefind in the stiff carriage of her contemporary Tûî. The little girl inthe Turin Museum is a looser work, but where could one find a betterexample of the lithe delicacy of the young Egyptian maiden of eight orten years old? We may see her counterpart to-day among the young Nubiangirls of the cataract, before they are obliged to wear clothes; there isthe same thin chest, the same undeveloped hips, the same meagre thighs, and the same demeanour, at once innocent and audacious. Other statuettesrepresent matrons, some in tight garments, and with their hair closelyconfined, others without any garment whatever. [Illustration: 043a. Jpg a soldier] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. De Mertens. [Illustration: 043b. Jpg STATUE IN THE TURIN MUSEUM] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Petrie. The Turin example is that of a lady who seems proud of her largeear-rings, and brings one of them into prominence, either to show itoff or to satisfy herself that the jewel becomes her: her head issquare-shaped, the shoulders narrow, the chest puny, the pose of thearm stiff and awkward, but the eyes have such a joyful openness, and hersmile such a self-satisfied expression, that one readily over looks theother defects of the statue. In this collection of miniature figuresexamples of men are not wanting, and there are instances of oldsoldiers, officials, guardians of temples, and priests proudly executingtheir office in their distinctive panther skins. Three individuals inthe Gîzeh were contemporaries, or almost so, of the young girl of theTurin Museum. They are dressed in rich costumes, to which they have, doubtless, a just claim; for one of them, Hori, surnamed Râ, rejoiced inthe favour of the Pharaoh, and must therefore have exercised somecourt function. They seem to step forth with a measured pace and firmdemeanour, the body well thrown back and the head erect, theirfaces displaying something of cruelty and cunning. An officer, whoseretirement from service is now spent in the Louvre, is dressed in asemi-civil costume, with a light wig, a closely fitting smock-frockwith shirt-sleeves, and a loin-cloth tied tightly round the hips anddescending halfway down the thigh, to which is applied a piece of stuffkilted lengthwise, projecting in front. A colleague of his, now in theBerlin Museum, still maintains possession of his official baton, and isarrayed in his striped petticoat, his bracelets and gorget of gold. A priest in the Louvre holds before him, grasped by both hands, theinsignia of Amon-Ra--a ram's head, surmounted by the solar disk, andinserted on the top of a thick handle; another, who has been relegatedto Turin, appears to be placed between two long staves, each surmountedby an idol, and, to judge from his attitude, seems to have no small ideaof his own beauty and importance. The Egyptians were an observantpeople and inclined to satire, and I have a shrewd suspicion that thesculptors, in giving to such statuettes this character of childlikevanity, yielded to the temptation to be merry at the expense of theirmodel. The smelters and engravers in metal occupied in relation to thesculptors a somewhat exalted position. Bronze had for a long time beenemployed in funerary furniture, and _ushabtiu_ (respondents), * amulets, and images of the gods, as well as of mortals, were cast in this metal. Many of these tiny figures form charming examples of enamel-work, andare distinguished not only by the gracefulness of the, modelling, butalso by the brilliance of the superimposed glaze; but the majority ofthem were purely commercial articles, manufactured by the hundred fromthe same models, and possibly cast, for centuries, from the same mouldsfor the edification of the devout and of pilgrims. * Bronze _respondents_ are somewhat rare, and most of those which are to be found among the dealers are counterfeit. The Gîzeh Museum possesses two examples at least of indisputable authenticity; both of these belong to the XXth dynasty. [Illustration: 045. Jpg FUNERARY CASKET IN THE TURING MUSEUM] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph. [Illustration: 046. Jpg SHRINE IN THE TURIN MUSEUM] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Lanzone. We ought not, therefore, to be surprised if they are lacking inoriginality; they are no more to be distinguished from each other thanthe hundreds of coloured statuettes which one may find on the stalls ofmodern dealers in religious statuary. [Illustration: 046b. Jpg The Lady Taksûhît] From a bronze in the Museum at Athens [Illustration: 046b. Jpg-text] Here and there among the multitude we may light upon examples showinga marked individuality: the statuette of the lady Takûshit, which nowforms one of the ornaments of the museum at Athens, is an instance. Shestands erect, one foot in advance, her right arm hanging at her side, her left pressed against her bosom; she is arrayed in a short dressembroidered over with religious scenes, and wears upon her anklesand wrists rings of value. A wig with stiff-looking locks, regularlyarranged in rows, covers her head. The details of the drapery and theornaments are incised on the surface of the bronze, and heightenedwith a thread of silver. The face is evidently a portrait, and is thatapparently of a woman of mature age, but the body, according to thetradition of the Egyptian schools of art, is that of a young girl, lithe, firm, and elastic. The alloy contains gold, and the warm andsoftened lights reflected from it blend most happily and harmoniouslywith the white lines of the designs. The joiners occupied, after theworkers in bronze, an important position in relation to the necropolis, and the greater part of the furniture which they executed for themummies of persons of high rank was remarkable for its painting andcarpentry-work. Some articles of their manufacture were intended forreligious use--such as those shrines, mounted upon sledges, on which theimage of the god was placed, to whom prayers were made for the deceased;others served for the household needs of the mummy, and, to distinguishthese, there are to be seen upon their sides religious and funerealpictures, offerings to the two deceased parents, sacrifices to a god orgoddess, and incidents in the Osirian life. The funerary beds consisted, like those intended for the living, of a rectangular framework, placedupon four feet of equal height, although there are rare examples inwhich the supports are so arranged as to give a gentle slope to thestructure. The fancy which actuated the joiner in making such bedssupposed that two benevolent lions had, of their own free will, stretched out their bodies to form the two sides of the couch, themuzzles constituting the pillow, while the tails were curled up underthe feet of the sleeper. Many of the heads given to the lions are sonoble and expressive, that they will well bear comparison with thegranite statues of these animals which Amenôthes III. Dedicated in histemple at Soleb. The other trades depended upon the proportion of theirmembers to the rest of the community for the estimation in which theywere held. The masons, stone-cutters, and common labourers furnishedthe most important contingent; among these ought also to be reckonedthe royal servants--of whose functions we should have been at a lossto guess the importance, if contemporary documents had not made itclear--fishermen, hunters, laundresses, wood-cutters, gardeners, andwater-carriers. * * The Cailliaud ostracon, which contains a receipt given to some fishermen, was found near Sheikh Abd el-Qurneh, and consequently belonged to the fishermen of the necropolis. There is a question as to the water-carriers of the Khirû in the hieratic registers of Turin, also as to the washers of clothes, wood-cutters, gardeners and workers in the vineyard. [Illustration: 048. Jpg THE SWALLOW-GODDESS FROM THE THEBAN NECROPOLIS] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Lanzone. Without reckoning the constant libations needed for the gods and thedeceased, the workshops required a large quantity of drinking water forthe men engaged in them. In every gang of workmen, even in the presentday, two or three men are set apart to provide drinking-water for therest; in some arid places, indeed, at a distance from the river, suchas the Valley of the Kings, as many water-carriers are required as thereare workmen. To the trades just mentioned must be added the low-castecrowd depending oh the burials of the rich, the acrobats, femalemourners, dancers and musicians. The majority of the female corporationswere distinguished by the infamous character of their manners, andprostitution among them had come to be associated with the service ofthe god. * * The heroine of the erotic papyrus of Turin bears the title of "Singing-woman of Amon, " and the illustrations indicate her profession so clearly and so expressively, that no details of her sayings and doings are wanting. [Illustration: 049. Jpg THE GODDESS MABÎTSAKBO] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Lanzone. There was no education for all this mass of people, and their religionwas of a meagre character. They worshipped the official deities, Amon, Mût, Isis, and Hâthor, and such deceased Pharaohs as Amenôthes I. And Nofrîtari, but they had also their own Pantheon, in which animalspredominated--such as the goose of Amon, and his ram Pa-rahaninofir, the good player on the horn, the hippopotamus, the cat, the chicken, the swallow, and especially reptiles. Death was personified by a greatviper, the queen of the West, known by the name Marîtsakro, the friendof silence. Three heads, or the single head of a woman, attached to theone body, were assigned to it. It was supposed to dwell in the mountainopposite Karnak, which fact gave to it, as well as to the necropolisitself, the two epithets of Khafîtnîbûs and Ta-tahnît, that is, TheSummit. * * The abundance of the monuments of Marîtsakro found at Sheikh Abd el-Gurneh, inclines me to believe that her sanctuary was situated in the neighbourhood of the temple of Uazmosû, but there was also on the top of the hill another sanctuary which would equally satisfy the name Ta-tahnît. Its chapel was situated at the foot of the hill of Sheikh Abd el-Qurneh, but its sacred serpents crawled and wriggled through the necropolis, working miracles and effecting the cure of the most dangerous maladies. The faithful were accustomed to dedicate to them, in payment of theirvows, stelas, or slabs of roughly hewn stone, with inscriptionswhich witnessed to a deep gratitude. "Hearken! I, from the time of myappearance on earth, I was a 'Servant of the True Place, ' Nofirâbû, astupid ignorant person, who knew not good from evil, and I committedsin against The Summit. She punished me, and I was in her hand day andnight. I lay groaning on my couch like a woman in childbed, and I madesupplication to the air, but it did not come to me, for I was hunteddown by The Summit of the West, the brave one among all the gods and allthe goddesses of the city; so I would say to all the miserable sinnersamong the people of the necropolis: 'Give heed to The Summit, for thereis a lion in The Summit, and she strikes as strikes a spell-castingLion, and she pursues him who sins against her! 'I invoked then mymistress, and I felt that she flew to me like a pleasant breeze;she placed herself upon me, and this made me recognise her hand, andappeased she returned to me, and she delivered me from suffering, forshe is my life, The Summit of the West, when she is appeased, and sheought to be invoked!'" There were many sinners, we may believe, amongthat ignorant and superstitious population, but the governors of Thebesdid not put their confidence in the local deities alone to keep themwithin bounds, and to prevent their evil deeds; commissioners, with thehelp of a detachment of Mazaîû, were an additional means of conductingthem into the right way. They had, in this respect, a hard work toaccomplish, for every day brought with it its contingent of crimes, which they had to follow up, and secure the punishment of the authors. Nsisûamon came to inform them that the workman Nakhtummaût and hiscompanions had stolen into his house, and robbed him of three largeloaves, eight cakes, and some pastry; they had also drunk a jar of beer, and poured out from pure malice the oil which they could not carryaway with them. Panîbi had met the wife of a comrade alone near anout-of-the-way tomb, and had taken advantage of her notwithstanding hercries; this, moreover, was not the first offence of the culprit, forseveral young girls had previously been victims of his brutality, andhad not ventured up to this time to complain of him on account of theterror with which he inspired the neighbourhood. Crimes against the deadwere always common; every penniless fellow knew what quantities of goldand jewels had been entombed with the departed, and these treasures, scattered around them at only a few feet from the surface of the ground, presented to them a constant temptation to which they often succumbed. Some were not disposed to have accomplices, while others associatedtogether, and, having purchased at a serious cost the connivance of thecustodians, set boldly to work on tombs both recent and ancient. Notcontent with stealing the funerary furniture, which they disposed of tothe undertakers, they stripped the mummies also, and smashed thebodies in their efforts to secure the jewels; then, putting the remainstogether again, they rearranged the mummies afresh so cleverly thatthey can no longer be distinguished by their outward appearance from theoriginals, and the first wrappings must be removed before the fraud canbe discovered. From time to time one of these rogues would allow himselfto be taken for the purpose of denouncing his comrades, and avenginghimself for the injustice of which he was the victim in the divisionof the spoil; he was laid hold of by the Mazaîû, and brought before thetribunal of justice. The lands situated on the left bank of theNile belonged partly to the king and partly to the god Amon, and anyinfraction of the law in regard to the necropolis was almost certainto come within the jurisdiction of one or other of them. The commissionappointed, therefore, to determine the damage done in any case, includedin many instances the high priest or his delegates, as well as theofficers of the Pharaoh. The office of this commission was to examineinto the state of the tombs, to interrogate the witnesses and theaccused, applying the torture if necessary: when they had got at thefacts, the tribunal of the notables condemned to impalement some halfa dozen of the poor wretches, and caused some score of others to bewhipped. * But, when two or three months had elapsed, the remembrance ofthe punishment began to die away, and the depredations began afresh. Thelow rate of wages occasioned, at fixed periods, outbursts of discontentand trouble which ended in actual disturbances. The rations allowed toeach workman, and given to him at the beginning of each month, wouldpossibly have been sufficient for himself and his family, but, owing tothe usual lack of foresight in the Egyptian, they were often consumedlong before the time fixed, and the pinch soon began to be felt. Theworkmen, demoralised by their involuntary abstinence, were not slow toturn to the overseer; "We are perishing of hunger, and there are stilleighteen days before the next month. " The latter was prodigal of fairspeeches, but as his words were rarely accompanied by deeds, theworkmen would not listen to him; they stopped work, left the workshop inturbulent crowds, ran with noisy demonstrations to some public place tohold a meeting--perhaps the nearest monument, at the gate of the templeof Thûtmosis III. , ** behind the chapel of Mînephtah, *** or in the courtof that of Seti I. * This is how I translate a fairly common expression, which means literally, "to be put on the wood. " Spiegelberg sees in this only a method of administering torture. ** Perhaps the chapel of Uazmôsû, or possibly the free space before the temple of Deîr el-Baharî. *** The site of this chapel was discovered by Prof. Petrie in the spring of 1896. It had previously been supposed to be a temple of Amenôthes III. Their overseers followed them; the police commissioners of the locality, the Mazaîû, and the scribes mingled with them and addressed themselvesto some of the leaders with whom they might be acquainted. But thesewould not at first give them a hearing. "We will not return, " they wouldsay to the peacemakers; "make it clear to your superiors down belowthere. " It must have been manifest that from their point of view theircomplaints were well founded, and the official, who afterwards gave anaccount of the affair to the authorities, was persuaded of this. "Wewent to hear them, and they spoke true words to us. " For the most partthese strikes had no other consequence than a prolonged stoppage ofwork, until the distribution of rations at the beginning of the nextmonth gave the malcontents courage to return to their tasks. Attemptswere made to prevent the recurrence of these troubles by changingthe method and time of payments. These were reduced to an interval offifteen days, and at length, indeed, to one of eight. The result wasvery much the same as before: the workman, paid more frequently, did noton that account become more prudent, and the hours of labour lost didnot decrease. The individual man, if he had had nobody to consider buthimself, might have put up with the hardships of his situation, butthere were almost always wife and children or sisters concerned, whoclamoured for bread in their hunger, and all the while the storehousesof the temples or those of the state close by were filled to overflowingwith durrah, barley, and wheat. * * Khonsu, for example, excites his comrades to pillage the storehouses of the gate. The temptation to break open the doors and to help themselves in thepresent necessity must have been keenly felt. Some bold spirits amongthe strikers, having set out together, scaled the two or three boundarywalls by which the granaries were protected, but having reached thisposition their hearts, failed them, and they contented themselves withsending to the chief custodian an eloquent pleader, to lay before himtheir very humble request: "We are come, urged by famine, urged bythirst, having no more linen, no more oil, no more fish, no morevegetables. Send to Pharaoh, our master, send to the king, our lord, that he may provide us with the necessaries of life. " If one of them, with less self-restraint, was so carried away as to let drop an oath, which was a capital offence, saying, "By Amon! by the sovereign, whoseanger is death!" if he asked to be taken before a magistrate in orderthat he might reiterate there his complaint, the others interceded forhim, and begged that he might escape the punishment fixed by the lawfor blasphemy; the scribe, good fellow as he was, closed his ears to theoath, and, if it were in his power, made a beginning of satisfying theirdemands by drawing upon the excess of past months to such an extent aswould pacify them for some days, and by paying them a supplemental wagein the name of the Pharaoh. They cried out loudly: "Shall there not beserved out to us corn in excess of that which has been distributed tous; if not we will not stir from this spot?" At length the end of the month arrived, and they all appeared togetherbefore the magistrates, when they said: "Let the scribe, Khâmoîsît, who is accountable, be sent for!" He was thereupon brought before thenotables of the town, and they said to him: "See to the corn which thouhast received, and give some of it to the people of the necropolis. "Pmontunîboîsît was then sent for, and "rations of wheat were given tous daily. " Famine was not caused only by the thriftlessness of themultitude: administrators of all ranks did not hesitate to appropriate, each one according to his position, a portion of the means entrustedto them for the maintenance of their subordinates, and the latter oftenreceived only instalments of what was due to them. The culprits oftenescaped from their difficulties by either laying hold of half a dozenof their brawling victims, or by yielding to them a proportion oftheir ill-gotten gains, before a rumour of the outbreak could reachhead-quarters. It happened from time to time, however, when thecomplaints against them were either too serious or too frequent, thatthey were deprived of their functions, cited before the tribunals, andcondemned. What took place at Thebes was repeated with some variationsin each of the other large cities. Corruption, theft, and extortion hadprevailed among the officials from time immemorial, and the most activekings alone were able to repress these abuses, or confine them withinnarrow limits; as soon as discipline became relaxed, however, they beganto appear again, and we have no more convincing proof of the state ofdecadence into which Thebes had fallen towards the middle of the XXthdynasty, than the audacity of the crimes committed in the necropolisduring the reigns of the successors of Ramses III. The priesthood of Amon alone displayed any vigour and enjoyed anyprosperity in the general decline. After the victory of the god over theheretic kings no one dared to dispute his supremacy, and the Ramessidesdisplayed a devout humility before him and his ministers. Henceforwardhe became united to Râ in a definite manner, and his authority not onlyextended over the whole of the land of Egypt, but over all the countriesalso which were brought within her influence; so that while Pharaohcontinued to be the greatest of kings, Pharaoh's god held a positionof undivided supremacy among the deities. He was the chief of the twoBnneads, the Heliopolitan and the Hermopolitan, and displayed forthe latter a special affection; for the vague character of its eightsecondary deities only served to accentuate the position of the ninthand principal divinity with whose primacy that of Amon was identified. It was more easy to attribute to Amon the entire work of creation whenShû, Sibû, Osiris, and Sit had been excluded--the deities whom thetheologians of Heliopolis had been accustomed to associate with thedemiurge; and in the hymns which they sang at his solemn festivals theydid not hesitate to ascribe to him all the acts which the priests offormer times had assigned to the Ennead collectively. "He made earth, silver, gold, --the true lapis at his good pleasure. --He brought forththe herbs for the cattle, the plants upon which men live. --He made tolive the fish of the river, --the birds which hover in the air, --givingair to those which are in the egg. --He animates the insects, --he makesto live the small birds, the reptiles, and the gnats as well. --Heprovides food for the rat in his hole, --supports the bird upon thebranch. --May he be blessed for all this, he who is alone, but with manyhands. " "Men spring from his two eyes, " and quickly do they losetheir breath while acclaiming him--Egyptians and Libyans, Negroes andAsiatics: "Hail to thee!" they all say; "praise to thee because thoudwellest amongst us!--Obeisances before thee because thou createstus!"--"Thou art blessed by every living thing, --thou hast worshippers inevery place, --in the highest of the heavens, in all the breadth ofthe earth, --in the depths of the seas. --The gods bow before thyMajesty, --magnifying the souls which form them, --rejoicing at meetingthose who have begotten them, --they say to thee: 'Go in peace, --fatherof the fathers of all the gods, --who suspended the heaven, levelled theearth;--creator of beings, maker of things, --sovereign king, chief ofthe gods, --we adore thy souls, because thou hast made us, --we lavishofferings upon thee, because thou hast given us birth, --we showerbenedictions upon thee, because thou dwellest among us. '" We have herethe same ideas as those which predominate in the hymns addressed toAtonû, * and in the prayers directed to Phtah, the Nile, Shû, and theSun-god of Heliopolis at the same period. * Breasted points out the decisive influence exercised by the solar hymns of Amenôthes IV. On the development of the solar ideas contained in the hymns to Amon put forth or re- edited in the XXIIIrd dynasty. The idea of a single god, lord and maker of all things, continued toprevail more and more throughout Egypt--not, indeed, among the lowerclasses who persisted in the worship of their genii and their animals, but among the royal family, the priests, the nobles, and people ofculture. The latter believed that the Sun-god had at length absorbedall the various beings who had been manifested in the feudal divinities:these, in fact, had surrendered their original characteristics in orderto become forms of the Sun, Amon as well as the others--and the newbelief displayed itself in magnifying the solar deity, but the solardeity united with the Theban Amon, that is, Amon-Râ. The omnipotence ofthis one god did not, however, exclude a belief in the existence of hiscompeers; the theologians thought all the while that the beings to whomancient generations had accorded a complete independence in respect oftheir rivals were nothing more than emanations from one supreme being. If local pride forced them to apply to this single deity the designationcustomarily used in their city--Phtah at Memphis, Anhûri-Shû at Thinis, Khnûmû in the neighbourhood of the first cataract--they were quitewilling to allow, at the same time, that these appellations were butvarious masks for one face. Phtah, Hâpi, Khnûmû, Râ, --all the gods, infact, --were blended with each other, and formed but one deity--a uniqueexistence, multiple in his names, and mighty according to the importanceof the city in which he was worshipped. Hence Amon, lord of the capitaland patron of the dynasty, having more partisans, enjoyed more respect, and, in a word, felt himself possessed of more claims to be the sole godof Egypt than his brethren, who could not claim so many worshippers. Hedid not at the outset arrogate to himself the same empire over the deadas he exercised over the living; he had delegated his functions in thisrespect to a goddess, Marîtsakro, for whom the poorer inhabitants of theleft bank entertained a persistent devotion. She was a kind of Isis orhospitable Hathor, whose subjects in the other world adapted themselvesto the nebulous and dreary existence provided for their disembodied"doubles. " The Osirian and solar doctrines were afterwards blendedtogether in this local mythology, and from the XIth dynasty onwards theTheban nobility had adopted, along with the ceremonies in use in theMemphite period, the Heliopolitan beliefs concerning the wanderingsof the soul in the west, its embarkation on the solar ship, and itsresting-places in the fields of Ialû. The rock-tombs of the XVIIIthdynasty demonstrate that the Thebans had then no different concept oftheir life beyond the world from that entertained by the inhabitantsof the most ancient cities: they ascribed to that existence the sameinconsistent medley of contradictory ideas, from which each one mightselect what pleased him best--either repose in a well-provisioned tomb, or a dwelling close to Osiris in the middle of a calm and agreeableparadise, or voyages with Râ around the world. * * The Pyramid texts are found for the most part in the tombs of Nofirû and Harhôtpû; the texts of the Book of the Dead are met with on the Theban coffins of the same period. [Illustration: 060. Jpg DECORATED WRAPPINGS OF A MUMMY] The fusion of Râ and Amon, and the predominance of the solar idea whicharose from it, forced the theologians to examine more closely theseinconsistent notions, and to eliminate from them anything which might beout of harmony with the new views. The devout servant of Amon, desirousof keeping in constant touch with his god both here and in the otherwould, could not imagine a happier future for his soul than in its goingforth in the fulness of light by day, and taking refuge by night onthe very bark which carried the object of his worship through the thickdarkness of, Hades. To this end he endeavoured to collect the formulaewhich would enable him to attain to this supreme happiness, and alsoinform him concerning the hidden mysteries of that obscure half of theworld in which the sun dwelt between daylight and daylight, teaching himalso how to make friends and supporters of the benevolent genii, and howto avoid or defeat the monsters whom he would encounter. The bestknown of the books relating to these mysteries contained a geographicaldescription of the future world as it was described by the Thebanpriests towards the end of the Ramesside period; it was, in fact, anitinerary in which was depicted each separate region of the underworld, with its gates, buildings, and inhabitants. * * The monumental text of this book is found sculptured on a certain number of the tombs of the Theban kings. It was first translated into English by Birch, then into French by Dévéria, and by Maspero. The account of it given by the Egyptian theologians did not exhibit muchinventive genius. They had started with the theory that the sun, aftersetting exactly west of Thebes, rose again due east of the city, andthey therefore placed in the dark hemisphere all the regions of theuniverse which lay to the north of those two points of the compass. Thefirst stage of the sun's journey, after disappearing below the horizon, coincided with the period of twilight; the orb travelled along the opensky, diminishing the brightness of his fires as he climbed northward, and did not actually enter the underworld till he reached Abydos, close to the spot where, at the "Mouth of the Cleft, " the souls of thefaithful awaited him. As soon as he had received them into his boat, he plunged into the tunnel which there pierces the mountains, and thecities through which he first passed between Abydos and the Fayûm wereknown as the Osirian fiefs. He continued his journey through them forthe space of two hours, receiving the homage of the inhabitants, andputting such of the shades on shore as were predestined by their specialdevotion for the Osiris of Abydos and his associates, Horus and Anubis, to establish themselves in this territory. Beyond Heracleopolis, heentered the domains of the Memphite gods, the "land of Sokaris, " andthis probably was the most perilous moment of his journey. [Illustration: 062. Jpg ONE OF THE MYSTERIOUS BOOKS OF AMON] The feudatories of Phtah were gathered together in grottoes, connectedby a labyrinth of narrow passages through which even the most fullyinitiated were scarcely able to find their way; the luminous boat, instead of venturing within these catacombs, passed above them bymysterious tracks. The crew were unable to catch a glimpse of thesovereign through whose realm they journeyed, and they in like mannerwere invisible to him; he could only hear the voices of the divinesailors, and he answered them from the depth of the darkness. Two hourswere spent in this obscure passage, after which navigation became easieras the vessel entered the nomes subject to the Osirises of the Delta:four consecutive hours of sailing brought the bark from the province inwhich the four principal bodies of the god slept to that in whichhis four souls kept watch, and, as it passed, it illuminated the eightcircles reserved for men and kings who worshipped the god of Mendes. From the tenth hour onwards it directed its course due south, and passedthrough the Aûgàrît, the place of fire and abysmal waters to which theHeliopolitans consigned the souls of the impious; then finally quittingthe tunnel, it soared up in the east with the first blush of dawn. Eachof the ordinary dead was landed at that particular hour of the twelve, which belonged to the god of his choice or of his native town. Left todwell there they suffered no absolute torment, but languished in thedarkness in a kind of painful torpor, from which condition the approachof the bark alone was able to rouse them. They hailed its daily comingwith acclamations, and felt new life during the hour in which its raysfell on them, breaking out into lamentations as the bark passed away andthe light disappeared with it. The souls who were devotees of the sunescaped this melancholy existence; they escorted the god, reduced thoughhe was to a mummied corpse, on his nightly cruise, and were piloted byhim safe and sound to meet the first streaks of the new day. As theboat issued from the mountain in the morning between the two trees whichflanked the gate of the east, these souls had their choice of severalways of spending the day on which they were about to enter. They mightjoin their risen god in his course through the hours of light, andassist him in combating Apophis and his accomplices, plunging again atnight into Hades without having even for a moment quitted his side. [Illustration: 066. Jpg THE ENTRANCE TO A ROYAL TOMB] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph, by Beato, of the tomb of Ramses IV. [Illustration: 066b. Jpg ONE OF THE HOURS OF THE NIGHT] They might, on the other hand, leave him and once more enter the worldof the living, settling themselves where they would, but always bypreference in the tombs where their bodies awaited them, and where theycould enjoy the wealth which had been accumulated there: they might walkwithin their garden, and sit beneath the trees they had planted; theycould enjoy the open air beside the pond they had dug, and breathe thegentle north breeze on its banks after the midday heat, until the timewhen the returning evening obliged them to repair once more to Abydos, and re-embark with the god in order to pass the anxious vigils of thenight under his protection. Thus from the earliest period of Egyptianhistory the life beyond the tomb was an eclectic one, made up of aseries of earthly enjoyments combined together. The Pharaohs had enrolled themselves instinctively among the most ardentvotaries of this complex doctrine. Their relationship to the sun madeits adoption a duty, and its profession was originally, perhaps, one ofthe privileges of their position. Râ invited them on board because theywere his children, subsequently extending this favour to those whomthey should deem worthy to be associated with them, and thus becomecompanions of the ancient deceased kings of Upper and Lower Egypt. * * This is apparently what we gather from the picture inserted in chapter xvii. Of the "Book of the Dead, " where we see the kings of Upper and Lower Egypt guiding the divine bark and the deceased with them. The idea which the Egyptians thus formed of the other world, and of thelife of the initiated within it, reacted gradually on their concept ofthe tomb and of its befitting decoration. They began to consider theentrances to the pyramid, and its internal passages and chambers, as aconventional representation of the gates, passages, and halls of Hadesitself; when the pyramid passed out of fashion, and they had replacedit by a tomb cut in the rock in one or other of the branches of the Babel-Moluk valley, the plan of construction which they chose was an exactcopy of that employed by the Memphites and earlier Thebans, and theyhollowed out for themselves in the mountain-side a burying-place on thesame lines as those formerly employed within the pyramidal structure. The relative positions of the tunnelled tombs along the valley were notdetermined by any order of rank or of succession to the throne; eachPharaoh after Ramses I. Set to work on that part of the rock where thecharacter of the stone favoured his purpose, and displayed so littlerespect for his predecessors, that the workmen, after having tunnelleda gallery, were often obliged to abandon it altogether, or to change thedirection of their excavations so as to avoid piercing a neighbouringtomb. The architect's design was usually a mere project which could bemodified at will, and, which he did not feel bound to carry out withfidelity; the actual measurements of the tomb of Ramses IV. Are almosteverywhere at variance with the numbers and arrangement of the workingdrawing of it which has been preserved to us in a papyrus. The generaldisposition of the royal tombs, however, is far from being complicated;we have at the entrance the rectangular door, usually surmounted by thesun, represented by a yellow disk, before which the sovereign kneelswith his hands raised in the posture of adoration; this gave access toa passage sloping gently downwards, and broken here and there by a levellanding and steps, leading to a first chamber of varying amplitude, atthe further end of which a second passage opened which descended to oneor more apartments, the last of which, contained the coffin. The oldestrock-tombs present some noteworthy exceptions to this plan, particularlythose of Seti I. And Ramses III. ; but from the time of Ramses IV. , thereis no difference to be remarked in them except in the degree of finishof the wall-paintings or in the length of the passages. The shortest ofthe latter extends some fifty-two feet into the rock, while the longestnever exceeds three hundred and ninety feet. The same artificeswhich had been used by the pyramid-builders to defeat the designs ofrobbers--false mummy-pits, painted and sculptured walls built acrosspassages, stairs concealed under a movable stone in the corner of achamber--were also employed by the Theban engineers. The decoration ofthe walls was suggested, as in earlier times, by the needs of the royalsoul, with this difference--that the Thebans set themselves to rendervisible to his eyes by paintings that which the Memphites had beencontent to present to his intelligence in writing, so that the Pharaohcould now see what his ancestors had been able merely to read on thewalls of their tombs. Where the inscribed texts in the burial-chamberof Unas state that Unas, incarnate in the Sun, and thus representingOsiris, sails over the waters on high or glides into the Elysian fields, the sculptured or painted scenes in the interior of the Theban catacombsdisplay to the eye Ramses occupying the place of the god in the solarbark and in the fields of laid. Where the walls of Unas bear only theprayers recited over the mummy for the opening of his mouth, for therestoration of the use of his limbs, for his clothing, perfuming, andnourishment, we see depicted on those of Seti I. Or Ramses IV. Themummies of these kings and the statues of their doubles in the handsof the priests, who are portrayed in the performance of these variousoffices. The starry ceilings of the pyramids reproduce the aspect of thesky, but without giving the names of the stars: on the ceilings of someof the Ramesside rock-tombs, on the other hand, the constellations arerepresented, each with its proper figure, while astronomical tables givethe position of the heavenly bodies at intervals of fifteen days, sothat the soul could tell at a glance into what region of the firmamentthe course of the bark would bring him each night. In the earlierRamesside tombs, under Seti I. And Ramses II. , the execution of thesesubjects shows evidence of a care and skill which are quite marvellous, and both figures and hieroglyphics betray the hand of accomplishedartists. But in the tomb of Ramses III. The work has already begun toshow signs of inferiority, and the majority of the scenes are colouredin a very summary fashion; a raw yellow predominates, and the tones ofthe reds and blues remind us of a child's first efforts at painting. This decline is even more marked under the succeeding Ramessides; thedrawing has deteriorated, the tints have become more and more crude, and the latest paintings seem but a lamentable caricature of the earlierones. The courtiers and all those connected with the worship ofAmon-Râ--priests, prophets, singers, and functionaries connected withthe necropolis--shared the same belief with regard to the future worldas their sovereign, and they carried their faith in the sun's powerto the point of identifying themselves with him after death, and ofsubstituting the name of Râ for that of Osiris; they either did notventure, however, to go further than this, or were unable to introduceinto their tombs all that we find in the Bab el-Moluk. They confinedthemselves to writing briefly on their own coffins, or confiding tothe mummies of their fellow-believers, in addition to the "Book of theDead, " a copy of the "Book of knowing what there is in Hades, " or ofsome other mystic writing which was in harmony with their creed. Hastilyprepared copies of these were sold by unscrupulous scribes, often badlywritten and almost always incomplete, in which were hurriedly setdown haphazard the episodes of the course of the sun with explanatoryillustrations. The representations of the gods in them are but littlebetter than caricatures, the text is full of faults and scarcelydecipherable, and it is at times difficult to recognize thecorrespondence of the scenes and prayers with those in the royal tombs. Although Amon had become the supreme god, at least for this class ofthe initiated, he was by no means the sole deity worshipped by theEgyptians: the other divinities previously associated with him stillheld their own beside him, or were further defined and invested witha more decided personality. The goddess regarded as his partner was atfirst represented as childless, in spite of the name of Maût or Mût--themother--by which she was invoked, and Amon was supposed to have adoptedMontû, the god of Hermonthis, in order to complete his triad. Montû, however, formerly the sovereign of the Theban plain, and lord over Amonhimself, was of too exalted a rank to play the inferior part of a divineson. [Illustration: 074. Jpg KHONSÛ* AND TEMPLE OF KHONSÛ**. ] * Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze statuette in the Gizeh Museum. ** Drawn by Thuillier: A is the pylon, B the court, C the hypostyle hall, E the passage isolating the sanctuary, D the sanctuary, F the opisthodomos with its usual chambers. The priests were, therefore, obliged to fall back upon a personageof lesser importance, named Khonsû, who up to that period had beenrelegated to an obscure position in the celestial hierarchy. How theycame to identify him with the moon, and subsequently with Osiris andThot, is as yet unexplained, * but the assimilation had taken placebefore the XIXth dynasty drew to its close. Khonsû, thus honoured, soonbecame a favourite deity with both the people and the upper classes, at first merely supplementing Montû, but finally supplanting him in thethird place of the Triad. From the time of Sesostris onwards, Thebandogma acknowledged him alone side by side with Amon-Râ and Mût thedivine mother. * It is possible that this assimilation originated in the fact that Khonsû is derived from the verb "khonsû, " to navigate: Khonsû would thus have been he who crossed the heavens in his bark--that is, the moon-god. [Illustration: 075. Jpg THE TEMPLE OF KHONSÛ AT KARNAK] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato. It was now incumbent on the Pharaoh to erect to this newly madefavourite a temple whose size and magnificence should be worthy of therank to which his votaries had exalted him. To this end, Ramses III. Chose a suitable site to the south of the hypostyle hall of Karnak, close to a corner of the enclosing wall, and there laid the foundationsof a temple which his successors took nearly a century to finish. * * The proof that the temple was founded by Ramses III. Is furnished by the inscriptions of the sanctuary and the surrounding chambers. Its proportions are by no means perfect, the sculpture is wanting inrefinement, the painting is coarse, and the masonry was so faulty, thatit was found necessary in several places to cover it with a coat ofstucco before the bas-reliefs could be carved on the walls; yet, inspite of all this, its general arrangement is so fine, that it maywell be regarded, in preference to other more graceful or magnificentbuildings, as the typical temple of the Theban period. It is dividedinto two parts, separated from each other by a solid wall. In the centreof the smaller of these is placed the Holy of Holies, which opensat both ends into a passage ten feet in width, isolating it from thesurrounding buildings. To the right and left of the sanctuary are darkchambers, and behind it is a hall supported by four columns, into whichopen seven small apartments. This formed the dwelling-place of the godand his compeers. The sanctuary communicates, by means of two doorsplaced in the southern wall, with a hypostyle hall of greater widththan depth, divided by its pillars into a nave and two aisles. Thefour columns of the nave are twenty-three feet in height, and havebell-shaped capitals, while those of the aisles, two on either side, areeighteen feet high, and are crowned with lotiform capitals. [Illustration: 077. Jpg THE COURT OF THE TEMPLE OF KHONSÛ] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato. The roof of the nave was thus five feet higher than those of the aisles, and in the clear storey thus formed, stone gratings, similar to thosein the temple of Amon, admitted light to the building. The courtyard, surrounded by a fine colonnade of two rows of columns, was square, andwas entered by four side posterns in addition to the open gateway at theend placed between two quadrangular towers. [Illustration: 078. Jpg THE COLONNADE BUILT BY THÛTMOSIS III] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger and Daniel Héron. This pylon measures 104 feet in length, and is 32 feet 6 inches wide, by 58 feet high. It contains no internal chambers, but merely a narrowstaircase which leads to the top of the doorway, and thence to thesummit of the towers. Four long angular grooves run up the façade of thetowers to a height of about twenty feet from the ground, and are inthe same line with a similar number of square holes which pierce thethickness of the building higher up. In these grooves were placedVenetian masts, made of poles spliced together and held in their placeby means of hooks and wooden stays which projected from the four holes;these masts were to carry at their tops pennons of various colours. Such was the temple of Khonsû, and the majority of the great Thebanbuildings--at Luxor, Qurneh, and Bamesseum, or Medinet-Uabu--wereconstructed on similar lines. Even in their half-ruined condition thereis something oppressive and uncanny in their appearance. The godsloved to shroud themselves in mystery, and, therefore, the plan ofthe building was so arranged as to render the transition almostimperceptible from the blinding sunlight outside to the darkness oftheir retreat within. In the courtyard, we are still surrounded by vastspaces to which air and light have free access. The hypostyle hall, however, is pervaded by an appropriate twilight, the sanctuary is veiledin still deeper darkness, while in the chambers beyond reigns an almostperpetual night. The effect produced by this gradation of obscuritywas intensified by constructional artifices. The different parts of thebuilding are not all on the same ground-level, the pavement rising asthe sanctuary is approached, and the rise is concealed by a few stepsplaced at intervals. The difference of level in the temple of Khonsû isnot more than five feet three inches, but it is combined with a stillmore considerable lowering of the height of the roof. From the pylonto the wall at the further end the height decreases as we go on; theperistyle is more lofty than the hypostyle hall, this again is higherthan the sanctuary and the hall of columns, and the chamber beyond itdrops still further in altitude. * * This is "the law of progressive diminution of heights" of Perrot-Chipiez. Karnak is an exception to this rule; this temple had in the course ofcenturies undergone so many restorations and additions, that it formed acollection of buildings rather than a single edifice. It might havebeen regarded, as early as the close of the Theban empire, as a kind ofmuseum, in which every century and every period of art, from the XIIthdynasty downwards, had left its distinctive mark. * * A on the plan denotes the XIIth dynasty temple; B is the great hypostyle hall of Seti I. And Ramses II. ; C the temple of Ramses III. [Illustration: 081. Jpg THE TEMPLE OF AMON AT KARNAK] All the resources of architecture had been brought into requisitionduring this period to vary, at the will of each sovereign, thearrangement and the general effect of the component parts. Columns withsixteen sides stand in the vicinity of square pillars, and lotiformcapitals alternate with those of the bell-shape; attempts were even madeto introduce new types altogether. The architect who built at the backof the sanctuary what is now known as the colonnade of ThûtmosisIII. , attempted to invert the bell-shaped capital; the bell was turneddownwards, and the neck attached to the plinth, while the mouth restedon the top of the shaft. This awkward arrangement did not meet withfavour, for we find it nowhere repeated; other artists, however, withbetter taste, sought at this time to apply the flowers symbolical ofUpper and Lower Egypt to the decorations of the shafts. In front of thesanctuary of Karnak two pillars are still standing which have on themin relief representations respectively of the fullblown lotus and thepapyrus. A building composed of so many incongruous elements requiredfrequent restoration--a wall which had been undermined by water neededstrengthening, a pylon displaying cracks claimed attention, someunsafe colonnade, or a colossus which had been injured by the fall ofa cornice, required shoring up--so that no sooner had the corvée forrepairs completed their work in one part, than they had to begin againelsewhere. [Illustration: 082. Jpg THE TWO STELE-PILLARS AT KARNAK] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato. The revenues of Amon must, indeed, have been enormous to have borne thecontinual drain occasioned by restoration, and the resources of the godwould soon have been exhausted had not foreign wars continued to furnishhim during several centuries with all or more than he needed. The gods had suffered severely in the troublous times which had followedthe reign of Seti II. , and it required all the generosity of Ramses III. To compensate them for the losses they had sustained during the anarchyunder Arisû. The spoil taken from the Libyans, from the Peoples of theSea, and from the Hittites had flowed into the sacred treasuries, whilethe able administration of the sovereign had done the rest, so that onthe accession of Ramses IV. The temples were in a more prosperous statethan ever. * They held as their own property 169 towns, nine of whichwere in Syria and Ethiopia; they possessed 113, 433 slaves of both sexes, 493, 386 head of cattle, 1, 071, 780 arurse of land, 514 vineyards andorchards, 88 barks and sea-going vessels, 336 kilograms of gold both iningots and wrought, 2, 993, 964 grammes of silver, besides quantities ofcopper and precious stones, and hundreds of storehouses in which theykept corn, oil, wine, honey, and preserved meats--the produce of theirdomains. Two examples will suffice to show the extent of this latteritem: the live geese reached the number of 680, 714, and the salt orsmoked fish that of 494, 800. ** Amon claimed the giant share of thisenormous total, and three-fourths of it or more were reserved for hisuse, namely---86, 486 slaves, 421, 362 head of cattle, 898, 168 _arurse_of cornland, 433 vineyards and orchards, and 56 Egyptian towns. The nineforeign towns all belonged to him, and one of them contained the templein which he was worshipped by the Syrians whenever they came to paytheir tribute to the king's representatives: it was but just that hispatrimony should surpass that of his compeers, since the conqueringPharaohs owed their success to him, who, without the co-operation of theother feudal deities, had lavished victories upon them. * The donations of Ramses III. , or rather the total of the donations made to the gods by the predecessors of that Pharaoh, and confirmed and augmented by him, are enumerated at length in the _Great Harris Papyrus_. ** An abridgement of these donations occupies seven large plates in the _Great Harris Papyrus_. His domain was at least five times more considerable than that of Râ ofHeliopolis, and ten times greater than that of the Memphite Phtah, andyet of old, in the earlier times of history, Râ and Phtah were reckonedthe wealthiest of the Egyptian gods. It is easy to understand theinfluence which a god thus endowed with the goods of this worldexercised over men in an age when the national wars had the sameconsequences for the immortals as for their worshippers, and when thedefeat of a people was regarded as a proof of the inferiority ofits patron gods. The most victorious divinity became necessarily thewealthiest, before whom all other deities bowed, and whom they, as wellas their subjects, were obliged to serve. So powerful a god as Amon had but few obstacles to surmount beforebecoming the national deity; indeed, he was practically the foremost ofthe gods during the Ramesside period, and was generally acknowledgedas Egypt's representative by all foreign nations. * His priests shared inthe prestige he enjoyed, and their influence in state affairs increasedproportionately with his power. * From the XVIIIth dynasty, at least, the first prophet of Amon had taken the precedence of the high priests of Heliopolis and Memphis, as is proved by the position he occupies in the Egyptian hierarchy in the _Hood Papyrus_. The chief of their hierarchy, however, did not bear the high titleswhich in ancient times distinguished those of Memphis and Heliopolis; hewas content with the humble appellation of first prophet of Amon. Hehad for several generations been nominated by the sovereign, but he wasgenerally chosen from the families attached hereditarily or otherwiseto the temple of Karnak, and must previously have passed through everygrade of the priestly hierarchy. Those who aspired to this honour had tograduate as "divine fathers;" this was the first step in the initiation, and one at which many were content to remain, but the more ambitious orfavoured advanced by successive stages to the dignity of third, and thenof second, prophet before attaining to the highest rank. * * What we know on this subject has been brought to light mainly by the inscriptions on the statue of Baûkûni-Khonsû at Munich, published and commented on by Dévéria, and by Lauth. The cursus honorum of Ramâ shows us that he was first third, then second prophet of Amon, before being raised to the pontificate in the reign of Mînephtah. The Pharaohs of the XIXth dynasty jealously supervised the promotionsmade in the Theban temples, and saw that none was elected except him whowas devoted to their interests--such as, for example, Baûkûni-khonsûand Unnofri under Ramses II. Baûkûni-khonsû distinguished himself by hisadministrative qualities; if he did not actually make the plans for thehypostyle hall at Karnak, he appears at least to have superintendedits execution and decoration. He finished the great pylon, erected theobelisks and gateways, built the _bari_ or vessel of the god, and founda further field for his activity on the opposite bank of the Nile, wherehe helped to complete both the chapel at Qurneh and also the Ramesseum. Ramses II. Had always been able to make his authority felt by the highpriests who succeeded Baûkûni-khonsû, but the Pharaohs who followed himdid not hold the reins with such a strong hand. As early as the reignsof Mînephtah and Seti II. The first prophets, Raî and Ramâ, claimed theright of building at Karnak for their own purposes, and inscribed on thewalls long inscriptions in which their own panegyrics took precedenceof that of the sovereign; they even aspired to a religious hegemony, anddeclared themselves to be the "chief of all the prophets of the godsof the South and North. " We do not know what became of them during theusurpation of Arisû, but Nakhtû-ramses, son of Miribastît, who filledthe office during the reign of Ramses III. , revived these ambitiousprojects as soon as the state of Egypt appeared to favour them. Theking, however pious he might be, was not inclined to yield up any of hisauthority, even though it were to the earthly delegate of the divinitywhom he reverenced before all others; the sons of the Pharaoh were, however, more accommodating, and Nakhtû-ramses played his part so wellthat he succeeded in obtaining from them the reversion of the highpriesthood for his son Amenôthes. The priestly office, from having beenelective, was by this stroke suddenly made hereditary in the family. The kings preserved, it is true, the privilege of confirming the newappointment, and the nominee was not considered properly qualified untilhe had received his investiture from the sovereign. * * This is proved by the Maunier stele, now in the Louvre; it is there related how the high priest Manakh-pirrî received his investiture from the Tanite king. Practically the Pharaohs lost the power of choosing one among the sonsof the deceased pontiff; they were forced to enthrone the eldest of hissurvivors, and legalise his accession by their approbation, even whenthey would have preferred another. It was thus that a dynasty of vassalHigh Priests came to be established at Thebes side by side with theroyal dynasty of the Pharaohs. The new priestly dynasty was not long in making its power felt inThebes. Nakhtû-ramses and Amenôthes lived to a great age--from the reignof Ramses III. To that of Ramses X. , at the least; they witnessed theaccession of nine successive Pharaohs, and the unusual length of theirpontificates no doubt increased the already extraordinary prestige whichthey enjoyed throughout the length and breadth of Egypt. It seemed as ifthe god delighted to prolong the lives of his representatives beyond theordinary limits, while shortening those of the temporal sovereigns. Whenthe reigns of the Pharaohs began once more to reach their normal length, the authority of Amenôthes had become so firmly established that nohuman power could withstand it, and the later Ramessides were merely aset of puppet kings who were ruled by him and his successors. Not onlywas there a cessation of foreign expeditions, but the Delta, Memphis, and Ethiopia were alike neglected, and the only activity displayedby these Pharaohs, as far as we can gather from their monuments, wasconfined to the service of Amon and Khonsû at Thebes. The lack of energyand independence in these sovereigns may not, however, be altogetherattributable to their feebleness of character; it is possible that theywould gladly have entered on a career of conquest had they possessedthe means. It is always a perilous matter to allow the resources ofa country to fall into the hands of a priesthood, and to place itsmilitary forces at the same time in the hands of the chief religiousauthority. The warrior Pharaohs had always had at their disposal thespoils obtained from foreign nations to make up the deficit which theirconstant gifts to the temples were making in the treasury. The sonsof Ramses III. , on the other hand, had suspended all military efforts, without, however, lessening their lavish gifts to the gods, and theymust, in the absence of the spoils of war, have drawn to a considerableextent upon the ordinary resources of the country; their successorstherefore found the treasury impoverished, and they would have beenentirely at a loss for money had they attempted to renew the campaignsor continue the architectural work of their forefathers. The priests ofAmon had not as yet suffered materially from this diminution of revenue, for they possessed property throughout the length and breadth of Egypt, but they were obliged to restrict their expenditure, and employ the sumsformerly used for the enlarging of the temples on the maintenanceof their own body. Meanwhile public works had been almost everywheresuspended; administrative discipline became relaxed, and disturbances, with which the police were unable to cope, were increasing in all theimportant towns. Nothing is more indicative of the state to which Egyptwas reduced, under the combined influence of the priesthood and theRamessides, than the thefts and pillaging of which the Theban necropoliswas then the daily scene. The robbers no longer confined themselvesto plundering the tombs of private persons; they attacked the royalburying-places, and their depredations were carried on for years beforethey were discovered. In the reign of Ramses IX. , an inquiry, set onfoot by Amenôthes, revealed the fact that the tomb of Sovkûmsaûf I. Andhis wife, Queen Nûbk-hâs, had been rifled, that those of Amenôthes I. And of Antuf IV. Had been entered by tunnelling, and that some dozenother royal tombs in the cemetery of Drah abu'l Neggah were threatened. * * The principal part of this inquiry constitutes the _Abbott Papyrus_, acquired and published by the British Museum, first examined and made the subject of study by Birch, translated simultaneously into French by Maspero and by Chabas, into German by Lauth and by Erman. Other papyri relate to the same or similar occurrences, such as the Salt and Amherst Papyri published by Chabas, and also the Liverpool Papyri, of which we possess merely scattered notices in the writings of Goodwin, and particularly in those of Spiegelberg. The severe means taken to suppress the evil were not, however, successful; the pillagings soon began afresh, and the reigns of the lastthree Ramessides between the robbers and the authorities, were marked bya struggle in which the latter did not always come off triumphant. [Illustration: 089. Jpg RAMSES IX. ] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius. A system of repeated inspections secured the valley of Biban el-Molukfrom marauders, * but elsewhere the measures of defence employed wereunavailing, and the necropolis was given over to pillage, although bothAmenôthes and Hrihor had used every effort to protect it. * Graffiti which are evidences of these inspections have been drawn on the walls of several royal tombs by the inspectors. Others have been found on several of the coffins discovered at Deîr el-Baharî, e. G. On those of Seti I. And Ramses II. ; the most ancient belong to the pontificate of Hrihor, others belong to the XXIst dynasty. Hrihor appears to have succeeded immediately after Amenôthes, andhis accession to the pontificate gave his family a still more exaltedposition in the country. As his wife Nozmit was of royal blood, heassumed titles and functions to which his father and grandfatherhad made no claim. He became the "Royal Son" of Ethiopia andcommander-in-chief of the national and foreign troops; he engraved hisname upon the monuments he decorated, side by side with that of RamsesXII. ; in short, he possessed all the characteristics of a Pharaoh exceptthe crown and the royal protocol. A century scarcely had elapsed sincethe abdication of Ramses III. , and now Thebes and the whole of Egyptowned two masters: one the embodiment of the ancient line, but a merenominal king; the other the representative of Amon, and the actual rulerof the country. What then happened when the last Ramses who bore the kingly title wasgathered to his fathers? The royal lists record the accession after hisdeath of a new dynasty of Tanitic origin, whose founder was Nsbindidior Smendes; but, on the other hand, we gather from the Theban monumentsthat the crown was seized by Hrihor, who reigned over the southernprovinces contemporaneously with Smendes. Hrihor boldly assumed asprenomen his title of "First Prophet of Amon, " and his authority wasacknowledged by Ethiopia, over which he was viceroy, as well as by thenomes forming the temporal domain of the high priests. The latter hadacquired gradually, either by marriage or inheritance, fresh territoryfor the god, in the lands of the princes of Nekhabît, Kop-tos, Akhmîm, and Abydos, besides the domains of some half-dozen feudal houseswho, from force of circumstances, had become sacerdotal families; theextinction of the direct line of Ramessides now secured the HighPriests the possession of Thebes itself, and of all the lands within thesouthern provinces which were the appanage of the crown. [Illustration: 091. Jpg HRIHOR] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Champollion. They thus, in one way or another, became the exclusive masters of thesouthern half of the Nile valley, from Elephantine to Siut; beyond Siutalso they had managed to acquire suzerainty over the town of Khobît, andthe territory belonging to it formed an isolated border province in themidst of the independent baronies. * * The extent of the principality of Thebes under the high priests has been determined by means of the sacerdotal titles of the Theban princesses. The representative of the dynasty reigning at Tanis held the remainderof Egypt from Shit to the Mediterranean--the half belonging to theMemphite Phtah and the Helio-politan Râ, as opposed to that assigned toAnion. The origin of this Tanite sovereign is uncertain, but it wouldappear that he was of more exalted rank than his rival in the south. Theofficial chronicling of events was marked by the years of his reign, andthe chief acts of the government were carried out in his name even inthe Thebaid. * Repeated inundations had caused the ruin of part of thetemple of Karnak, and it was by the order and under the auspices of thisprince that all the resources of the country were employed to accomplishthe much-needed restoration. ** * I have pointed out that the years of the reign mentioned in the inscriptions of the high priests and the kings of the sacerdotal line must be attributed to their suzerains, the kings of Tanis. Hrihor alone seems to have been an exception, since to him are attributed the dates inscribed in the name of the King Siamon: M. Daressy, however, will not admit this, and asserts that this Siamon was a Tanite sovereign who must not be identified with Hrihor, and must be placed at least two or three generations later than the last of the Ramessides. * The real name Nsbindidi and the first monument of the Manethonian Smendes were discovered in the quarries of Dababîeh, opposite Gebelên. It would have been impossible for him to have exercised any authorityover so rich and powerful a personage as Hrihor had he not possessedrights to the crown, before which even the high priests of Amon wereobliged to bow, and hence it has been supposed that he was a descendantof Ramses II. The descendants of this sovereign were doubtless dividedinto at least two branches, one of which had just become extinct, leaving no nearer heir than Hrihor, while another, of which there weremany ramifications, had settled in the Delta. The majority of thesedescendants had become mingled with the general population, and had sunkto the condition of private individuals; they had, however, carefullypreserved the tradition of their origin, and added proudly to their namethe qualification of royal son of Ramses. They were degenerate scionsof the Ramessides, and had neither the features nor the energy of theirancestor. One of them, Zodphta-haûfônkhi, whose mummy was found at Deîrel-Baharî, appears to have been tall and vigorous, but the head lacksthe haughty refinement which characterizes those of Seti I. And RamsesII. , and the features are heavy and coarse, having a vulgar, commonplaceexpression. [Illustration: 093. Jpg ZODPHTAHAUFONKHI, ROYAL SON OF RAMSES] Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph by Insinger. It seems probable that one branch of the family, endowed with greatercapability than the rest, was settled at Tanis, where Sesostris had, as we have seen, resided for many years; Smendes was the first of thisbranch to ascend the throne. The remembrance of his remote ancestor, Ramses IL, which was still treasured up in the city he had completelyrebuilt, as well as in the Delta into which he had infused new life, wasdoubtless of no small service in securing the crown for his descendant, when, the line of the Theban kings having come to an end, the Tanitesput in their claim to the succession. We are unable to discover ifwar broke out between the two competitors, or if they arrived at anagreement without a struggle; but, at all events, we may assume that, having divided Egypt between them, neither of them felt himself strongenough to overcome his rival, and contented himself with the possessionof half the empire, since he could not possess it in its entirety. Wemay fairly believe that Smendes had the greater right to the throne, and, above all, the more efficient army of the two, since, had it beenotherwise, Hrihor would never have consented to yield him the priority. The unity of Egypt was, to outward appearances, preserved, through thenominal possession by Smendes of the suzerainty; but, as a matter offact, it had ceased to exist, and the fiction of the two kingdomshad become a reality for the first time within the range of history. Henceforward there were two Egypts, governed by different constitutionsand from widely remote centres. Theban Egypt was, before all things, a community recognizing a theocratic government, in which the kinglyoffice was merged in that of the high priest. Separated from Asia by thelength of the Delta, it turned its attention, like the Pharaohs of theVIth and XIIth dynasties, to Ethiopia, and owing to its distance fromthe Mediterranean, and from the new civilization developed on itsshores, it became more and more isolated, till at length it was reducedto a purely African state. Northern Egypt, on the contrary, maintainedcontact with European and Asiatic nations; it took an interest in theirfuture, it borrowed from them to a certain extent whatever struck it asbeing useful or beautiful, and when the occasion presented itself, itacted in concert with Mediterranean powers. There was an almost constantstruggle between these two divisions of the empire, at timesbreaking out into an open rupture, to end as often in a temporaryre-establishment of unity. At one time Ethiopia would succeed inannexing Egypt, and again Egypt would seize some part of Ethiopia; butthe settlement of affairs was never final, and the conflicting elements, brought with difficulty into harmony, relapsed into their usualcondition at the end of a few years. A kingdom thus divided againstitself could never succeed in maintaining its authority over thoseprovinces which, even in the heyday of its power, had proved impatientof its yoke. Asia was associated henceforward in the minds of the Egyptians withpainful memories of thwarted ambitions, rather than as offering a fieldfor present conquest. They were pursued by the memories of their formertriumphs, and the very monuments of their cities recalled what theywere anxious to forget. Wherever they looked within their towns theyencountered the representation of some Asiatic scene; they read thenames of the cities of Syria on the walls of their temples; they sawdepicted on them its princes and its armies, whose defeat was recordedby the inscriptions as well as the tribute which they had been forcedto pay. The sense of their own weakness prevented the Egyptians frompassing from useless regrets to action; when, however, one or other ofthe Pharaohs felt sufficiently secure on the throne to carry his troopsfar afield, he was always attracted to Syria, and crossed her frontiers, often, alas! merely to encounter defeat. [Illustration: 095. Jpg Tailpiece] CHAPTER II--THE RISE OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE _PHOENICIA AND THE NORTHERN NATIONS AFTER THE DEATH OP RAMSES III. --THEFIRST ASSYRIAN EMPIRE: TIGLATH-PILESUR I. --THE ARAMÆANS AND THE KHÂTI. _ _The continuance of Egyptian influence over Syrian civilization afterthe death of Ramses III. --Egyptian myths in Phoenicia: Osiris and Isisat Byblos--Horus, Thot, and the origin of the Egyptian alphabet--Thetombs at Arvad and the Kabr-Hiram; Egyptian designs in Phoenician glassand goldsmiths'work--Commerce with Egypt, the withdrawal of Phoeniciancolonies in the Ægean Sea and the Achæans in Cyprus; maritimeexpeditions in the Western Mediterranean. _ _Northern Syria: the decadence of the Hittites and the steady growthof the Aramæan tribes--The decline of the Babylonian empire under theCossæan kings, and its relations with Egypt: Assuruballit, Bammdn-nirdriI. And the first Assyrian conquests--Assyria, its climate, provinces, and cities: the god Assur and his Ishtar--The wars againstChaldæa: Shalmaneser I. , Tulculi-ninip I. , and the taking ofBabylon--Belchadrezzar and the last of the Cosssæans. _ _The dynasty of Pashê: Nebuchadrezzar I. , his disputes with Elam, hisdefeat by Assurrîshishî--The legend of the first Assyrian empire, Ninosand Semiramis--The Assyrians and their political constitution: thelimmu, the king and his divine character, his hunting and his wars--TheAssyrian army: the infantry and chariotry, the crossing of rivers, modeof marching in the plains and in the mountain districts--Camps, battles, sieges; cruelty shown to the vanquished, the destruction of towns andthe removal of the inhabitants, the ephemeral character of the Assyrianconquests. _ _Tiglath pileser I. : Ms campaign against the Mushhu, his conquest ofKurhhi and of the regions of the Zab--The petty Asiatic kingdomsand their civilization: art and writing in the old Hittitestates--Tiglath-pileser I. In Nairi and in Syria: his triumphal steleat Sebbeneh-Su--His buildings, his hunts, his conquest ofBabylon--Merodach-nadin-akhi and the close of the Pashêdynasty--Assur-belkala and Samsi-rammân III. : the decline ofAssyria--Syria without a foreign rider: the incapacity of the Khdti togive unity to the country. _ [Illustration: 099. Jpg Page Image] CHAPTER II--THE RISE OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE _Phoenicia and the northern nations after the death of Ramses III. --Thefirst Assyrian empire: Tiglath-pileser I. --The Aramoans and the Khâti. _ The cessation of Egyptian authority over countries in which it had solong prevailed did not at once do away with the deep impression whichit had made upon their constitution and customs. While the noblesand citizens of Thebes were adopting the imported worship of Baal andAstartê, and were introducing into the spoken and written language wordsborrowed from Semitic speech, the Syrians, on the other hand, werenot unreceptive of the influence of their conquerors. They had appliedthemselves zealously to the study of Egyptian arts, industry andreligion, and had borrowed from these as much, at least, as they hadlent to the dwellers on the Nile. The ancient Babylonian foundationof their civilization was not, indeed, seriously modified, but it wascovered over, so to speak, with an African veneer which varied in depthaccording to the locality. * * Most of the views put forth in this part of the chapter are based on posterior and not contemporary data. The most ancient monuments which give evidence of it show it in such a complete state that we may fairly ascribe it to some centuries earlier; that is, to the time when Egypt still ruled in Syria, the period of the XIXth and even the XVIIIth dynasty. Phoenicia especially assumed and retained this foreign exterior. Itsmerchants, accustomed to establish themselves for lengthened periods inthe principal trade-centres on the Nile, had become imbued thereinwith something of the religious ideas and customs of the land, andon returning to their own country had imported these with them andpropagated them in their neighbourhood. They were not content with otherhousehold utensils, furniture, and jewellery than those to which theyhad been accustomed on the Nile, and even the Phonician gods seemed tobe subject to this appropriating mania, for they came to be recognisedin the indigenous deities of the Said and the Delta. There was, atthe outset, no trait in the character of Baalat by which she could beassimilated to Isis or Hathor: she was fierce, warlike, and licentious, and wept for her lover, while the Egyptian goddesses were accustomedto shed tears for their husbands only. It was this element of a commongrief, however, which served to associate the Phonician and Egyptiangoddesses, and to produce at length a strange blending of their personsand the legends concerning them; the lady of Byblos ended in becoming anIsis or a Hathor, * and in playing the part assigned to the latter in theOsirian drama. * The assimilation must have been ancient, since the Egyptians of theTheban dynasties already accepted Baalat as the Hathor of Byblos. [Illustration: 101. Jpg THE TREE GROWING ON THE TOMB OF OSIRIS] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Prisse d'Avennes This may have been occasioned by her city having maintained closerrelationships than the southern towns with Bûto and Mendes, or by herpriests having come to recognise a fundamental agreement between theirtheology and that of Egypt. In any case, it was at Byblos that the mostmarked and numerous, as well as the most ancient, examples of borrowingfrom the religions of the Nile were to be found. The theologians ofByblos imagined that the coffin of Osiris, after it had been thrown intothe sea by Typhon, had been thrown up on the land somewhere near theircity at the foot of a tamarisk, and that this tree, in its rapid growth, had gradually enfolded within its trunk the body and its case. KingMalkander cut it down in order to use it as a support for the roof ofhis palace: a marvellous perfume rising from it filled the apartments, and it was not long before the prodigy was bruited abroad. Isis, who wastravelling through the world in quest of her husband, heard of it, andat once realised its meaning: clad in rags and weeping, she sat downby the well whither the women of Byblos were accustomed to come everymorning and evening to draw water, and, being interrogated by them, refused to reply; but when the maids of Queen Astartê* approachedin their turn, they were received by the goddess in the most amiablemanner--Isis deigning even to plait their hair, and to communicate tothem the odour of myrrh with which she herself was impregnated. * Astartê is the name taken by the queen in the Phoenician version: the Egyptian counterpart of the same narrative substituted for it Nemanous or Saôsis; that is to say, the two principal forms of Hathor--the Hermopolitan Nahmâûît and the Heliopolitan lûsasît. It would appear from the presence of these names that there must have been in Egypt two versions at least of the Phoenician adventures of Isis--the one of Hermopolitan and the other of Heliopolitan origin. Their mistress came to see the stranger who had thus treated herservants, took her into her service, and confided to her the care of herlately born son. Isis became attached to the child, adopted it for herown, after the Egyptian manner, by inserting her finger in its mouth;and having passed it through the fire during the night in order toconsume away slowly anything of a perishable nature in its body, metamorphosed herself into a swallow, and flew around the miraculouspillar uttering plaintive cries. Astartê came upon her once while shewas bathing the child in the flame, and broke by her shrieks offright the charm of immortality. Isis was only able to reassure her byrevealing her name and the object of her presence there. She opened themysterious tree-trunk, anointed it with essences, and wrapping it inprecious cloths, transmitted it to the priests of Byblos, who depositedit respectfully in their temple: she put the coffin which it containedon board ship, and brought it, after many adventures, into Egypt. Another tradition asserts, however, that Osiris never found his way backto his country: he was buried at Byblos, this tradition maintained, andit was in his honour that the festivals attributed by the vulgar to theyoung Adonis were really celebrated. A marvellous fact seemed to supportthis view. Every year a head of papyrus, thrown into the sea at someunknown point of the Delta, was carried for six days along the Syriancoast, buffeted by wind and waves, and on the seventh was thrown up atByblos, where the priests received it and exhibited it solemnly to thepeople. * The details of these different stories are not in every casevery ancient, but the first fact in them carries us back to the timewhen Byblos had accepted the sovereignty of the Theban dynasties, and was maintaining daily commercial and political relations with theinhabitants of the Nile valley. ** * In the later Roman period it was letters announcing the resurrection of Adonis-Osiris that the Alexandrian women cast into the sea, and these were carried by the current as far as Byblos. See on this subject the commentaries of Cyril of Alexandra and Procopius of Gaza on chap, xviii. Of Isaiah. ** It is worthy of note that Philo gives to the divinity with the Egyptian name Taautos the part in the ancient history of Phoenicia of having edited the mystic writings put in order by Sanchoniathon at a very early epoch. The city proclaimed Horus to be a great god. * El-Kronos allied himselfwith Osiris as well as with Adonis; Isis and Baalat became blendedtogether at their first encounter, and the respective peoples madean exchange of their deities with the same light-heartedness as theydisplayed in trafficking with the products of their soil or theirindustry. * This is confirmed by one of the names inscribed on the Tel el-Amarna tablets as being that of a governor of Byblos under Amenôthes IV. This name was read Rabimur, Anrabimur, or Ilrabimur, and finally Ilurabihur: the meaning of it is, "Muru is the great god, " or "Horus is the great god. " Muru is the name which we find in an appellation of a Hittite king, Maurusaru, "Mauru is king. " On an Aramoan cylinder in the British Museum, representing a god in Assyrian dress fighting with two griffins, there is the inscription "Horkhu, " Harmakhis. [Illustration: 104. Jpg THE PHOENICIAN HORUS] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an intaglio engraved in Cesnola. The Phoenician figures of Horus and Thot which I have reproduced were pointed out to me by my friend Clermont-Ganneau. After Osiris, the Ibis Thot was the most important among the deitieswho had emigrated to Asia. He was too closely connected with the Osiriancycle to be forgotten by the Phoenicians after they had adopted hiscompanions. We are ignorant of the particular divinity with whom he wasidentified, or would be the more readily associated from some similarityin the pronunciation of his name: we know only that he still preservedin his new country all the power of his voice and all the subtilty ofhis mind. He occupied there also the position of scribe and enchanter, as he had done at Thebes, Memphis, Thinis, and before the chief of eachHeliopolitan Ennead. He became the usual adviser of El-Kronos at Byblos, as he had been of Osiris and Horus; he composed charms for him, and formulae which increased the warlike zeal of his partisans; heprescribed the form and insignia of the god and of his attendantdeities, and came finally to be considered as the inventor of letters. * * The part of counsellor which Thot played in connexion with the god of Byblos was described at some length in the writings attributed to Sankhoniathon. [Illustration: 105. Jpg THE PHOENICIAN THOT] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after an intaglio engraved in M. De Vogué. The epoch, indeed, in which he became a naturalised Phoenician coincidesapproximately with a fundamental revolution in the art of writing--thatin which a simple and rapid stenography was substituted for thecomplicated and tedious systems with which the empires of the ancientworld had been content from their origin. Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, Arvad, had employed up to this period the most intricate of these systems. Likemost of the civilized nations of Western Asia, they had conducted theirdiplomatic and commercial correspondence in the cuneiform characterimpressed upon clay tablets. Their kings had had recourse to aBabylonian model for communicating to the Amenôthes Pharaohs theexpression of their wishes or their loyalty; we now behold them, afteran interval of four hundred years and more*--during which we have noexamples of their monuments--possessed of a short and commodious script, without the encumbrance of ideograms, determinatives, polyphony andsyllabic sounds, such as had fettered the Egyptian and Chaldæanscribes, in spite of their cleverness in dealing with them. Phoneticarticulations were ultimately resolved into twenty-two sounds, to eachof which a special sign was attached, which collectively took the placeof the hundreds or thousands of signs formerly required. * The inscription on the bronze cup dedicated to the Baal of the Lebanon, goes back probably to the time of Hiram I. , say the Xth century before our era; the reasons advanced by Winckler for dating it in the time of Hiram II. Have not been fully accepted up to the present. By placing the introduction of the alphabet somewhere between Amenôthes IV. In the XVth and Hiram I. In the Xth century before our era, and by taking the middle date between them, say the accession of the XXIs'dynasty towards the year 1100 B. C. For its invention or adoption, we cannot go far wrong one way or the other. [Illustration: 106. Jpg ONE OF THE MOST ANCIENT PHOENICIAN INSCRIPTIONS] Drawn by Paucher-Gudin, from a heliogravure. This is the cup of the Baal of the Lebanon. This was an alphabet, the first in point of time, but so ingenious andso pliable that the majority of ancient and modern nations have foundit able to supply all their needs--Greeks and Europeans of the westernMediterranean on the one hand, and Semites of all kinds, Persians andHindus on the other. [Illustration: 107. Jpg Table of Alphabets] It must have originated between the end of the XVIIIth and the beginningof the XXIst dynasties, and the existence of Pharaonic rule in Phoeniciaduring this period has led more than one modern scholar to assume thatit developed under Egyptian influence. * * The hypothesis of an Egyptian origin, suggested casually by Champollion, has been ably dealt with by E. De Rougé. E. De Rougé derives the alphabet from the Hieratic, and his identifications have been accepted by Lauth, by Brugsch, by P. Lenormant, and by Isaac Taylor. Halévy would take it from the Egyptian hieroglyphics directly without the intervention of the Hieratic. The Egyptian origin, strongly contested of late, has been accepted by the majority of scholars. Some affirm that it is traceable directly to the hieroglyphs, whileothers seek for some intermediary in the shape of a cursive script, and find this in the Hieratic writing, which contains, they maintain, prototypes of all the Phoenician letters. Tables have been drawn up, showing at a glance the resemblances and differences which appearrespectively to justify or condemn their hypothesis. Perhaps theanalogies would be more evident and more numerous if we were inpossession of inscriptions going back nearer to the date of origin. Asit is, the divergencies are sufficiently striking to lead some scholarsto seek the prototype of the alphabet elsewhere--either in Babylon, inAsia Minor, or even in Crete, among those barbarous hieroglyphs whichare attributed to the primitive inhabitants of the island. It is no easymatter to get at the truth amid these conflicting theories. Two pointsonly are indisputable; first, the almost unanimous agreement amongwriters of classical times in ascribing the first alphabet to thePhoenicians; and second, the Phonician origin of the Greek, andafterwards of the Latin alphabet which we employ to-day. To return to the religion of the Phoenicians: the foreign deities werenot content with obtaining a high place in the estimation of priestsand people; they acquired such authority over the native gods thatthey persuaded them to metamorphose themselves almost completely intoEgyptian divinities. [Illustration: 109. Jpg RASHUF ON HIS LION] Drawn by Paucher-Gudin, from a photograph reproduced in Clermont-Ganneau. One finds among the majority of them the emblems commonly used in thePharaonic temples, sceptres with heads of animals, head-dress like thePschent, the _crux ansata_, the solar disk, and the winged scarab. Thelady of Byblos placed the cow's horns upon her head from the momentshe became identified with Hathor. * The Baal of the neighbouringArvad--probably a form of Bashuf--was still represented as standingupright on his lion in order to traverse the high places: but while, inthe monument which has preserved the figure of the god, both lion andmountain are given according to Chaldæan tradition, he himself, as theillustration shows, is dressed after the manner of Egypt, in the stripedand plaited loin-cloth, wears a large necklace on his neck and braceletson his arms, and bears upon his head the white mitre with its doubleplume and the Egyptian uraaus. ** * She is represented as Hathor on the stele of Iéhav-melek, King of Byblos, during the Persian period. ** This monument, which belonged to the Péretié collection, was found near Amrîth, at the place called Nahr-Abrek. The dress and bearing are so like those of the Rashuf represented on Egyptian monuments, that I have no hesitation in regarding this as a representation of that god. He brandishes in one hand the weapon of the victor, and is on the pointof despatching with it a lion, which he has seized by the tail withthe other, after the model of the Pharaonic hunters, Amenôthes I. AndThûtmosis III. The lunar disk floating above his head lends to him, it is true, a Phonician character, but the winged sun of Heliopolishovering above the disk leaves no doubt as to his Egyptian antecedents. * * The Phonician symbol represents the crescent moon holding the darkened portion in its arms, like the symbol reserved in Egypt for the lunar gods. [Illustration: 110. Jpg A PHOENICIAN GOD IN HIS EGYPTIAN SHRINE] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Renan. The worship, too, offered to these metamorphosed gods was as muchchanged as the deities themselves; the altars assumed something of theEgyptian form, and the tabernacles were turned into shrines, which weredecorated at the top with a concave groove, or with a frieze made up ofrepetitions of the uraeus. Egyptian fashions had influenced the betterclasses so far as to change even their mode of dealing with the dead, ofwhich we find in not a few places clear evidence. Travellers arriving inEgypt at that period must have been as much astonished as the tourist ofto-day by the monuments which the Egyptians erected for their dead. [Illustration: 111. Jpg AMENÔTHES I. SEIZING A LION] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin. This monument was in the Louvre Museum. Analogous figures of gods or kings holding a lion by the tail are found on various monuments of the Theban dynasties. The pyramids which met their gaze, as soon as they had reached the apexof the Delta, must have far surpassed their ideas of them, no matter howfrequently they may have been told about them, and they must have beenat a loss to know why such a number of stones should have been broughttogether to cover a single corpse. At the foot of these colossalmonuments, lying like a pack of hounds asleep around their master, themastabas of the early dynasties were ranged, half buried under the sand, but still visible, and still visited on certain days by the descendantsof their inhabitants, or by priests charged with the duty of keepingthem up. Chapels of more recent generations extended as a sort of screenbefore the ancient tombs, affording examples of the two archaic typescombined--the mastaba more or less curtailed in its proportions, and thepyramid with a more or less acute point. The majority of these monumentsare no longer in existence, and only one of them has come down to usintact--that which Amenôthes III. Erected in the Serapeum at Memphis inhonour of an Apis which had died in his reign. [Illustration: 112. Jpg A PHOENICIAN MASTABA AT ARVAD] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the restoration by Thobois, as given in Renan. The cuttings made in the lower stonework appear to be traces of unfinished steps. The pyramid at the top is no longer in existence, but its remains are scattered about the foot of the monument, and furnished M. Thobois with the means of reconstructing with exactness the original form. Phoenicians visiting the Nile valley must have carried back with themto their native country a remembrance of this kind of burying-place, andhave suggested it to their architects as a model. One of the cemeteriesat Arvad contains a splendid specimen of this imported design. * * Pietschmann thinks that the monument is not older than the Greek epoch, and it must be admitted that the cornice is not such as we usually meet with in Egypt in Theban times; nevertheless, the very marked resemblance to the Theban mastaba shows that it must have been directly connected with the Egyptian type which prevailed from the XVIIIth to the XXth dynasties. [Illustration: 113. Jpg TWO OF THE TOMBS AT ARVAD] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a water-colour by Thobois, reproduced in Renan. It is a square tower some thirty-six feet high; the six lower coursesconsist of blocks, each some sixteen and a half feet long, joined to eachother without mortar. The two lowest courses project so as to form akind of pedestal for the building. The cornice at the top consists ofa deep moulding, surmounted by a broad flat band, above which rises thepyramid, which attains a height of nearly thirty feet. It is impossibleto deny that it is constructed on a foreign model; it is not a slavishimitation, however, but rather an adaptation upon a rational plan tothe conditions of its new home. Its foundations rest on nothing but amixture of soil and sand impregnated with water, and if vaults had beenconstructed beneath this, as in Egypt, the body placed there would soonhave corrupted away, owing to the infiltration of moisture. The deadbodies were, therefore, placed within the structure above ground, inchambers corresponding to the Egyptian chapel, which were superimposedthe one upon the other. The first storey would furnish space for threebodies, and the second would contain twelve, for which as many nicheswere provided. In the same cemetery we find examples of tombs which thearchitect has constructed, not after an Egyptian, but a Chaldæan model. A round tower is here substituted for the square structure and acupola for the pyramid, while the cornice is represented by crenellatedmarkings. The only Egyptian feature about it is the four lions, whichseem to support the whole edifice upon their backs. * * The fellahîn in the neighbourhood call these two monuments the Meghazîl or "distaffs. " Arvad was, among Phoenician cities, the nearest neighbour to thekingdoms on the Euphrates, and was thus the first to experience eitherthe brunt of an attack or the propagation of fashions and ideas fromthese countries. In the more southerly region, in the country aboutTyre, there are fewer indications of Babylonian influence, and suchexamples of burying-places for the ruling classes as the Kabr-Hiramand other similar tombs correspond with the mixed mastaba of the Thebanperiod. We have the same rectangular base, but the chapel and itscrowning pyramid are represented by the sarcophagus itself with itsrigid cover. The work is of an unfinished character, and carelesslywrought, but there is a charming simplicity about its lines and aharmony in its proportions which betray an Egyptian influence. [Illustration: 115. Jpg THE KABR-HIRAM NEAR TYRE] Drawn by Boudier, from a sketch by Thobois, reproduced by Renan. The spirit of imitation which we find in the religion and architectureof Phoenicia is no less displayed in the minor arts, such asgoldsmiths'work, sculpture in ivory, engraving on gems, andglass-making. The forms, designs, and colours are all rather those ofEgypt than of Chaldæa. The many-hued glass objects, turned out by themanufacturers of the Said in millions, furnished at one time valuablecargoes for the Phoenicians; they learned at length to cast andcolour copies of these at home, and imitated their Egyptian models sosuccessfully that classical antiquity was often deceived by them. * * Glass manufacture was carried to such a degree of perfection among the Phoenicians, that many ancient authors attributed to them the invention of glass. Their engravers, while still continuing to employ cones and cylindersof Babylonian form, borrowed the scarab type also, and made use of iton the bezils of rings, the pendants of necklaces, and on a kind ofbracelet used partly for ornament and partly as a protective amulet. The influence of the Egyptian model did not extend, however, amongst themasses, and we find, therefore, no evidence of it in the case of commonobjects, such as those of coarse sand or glazed earthenware. Egyptianscarab forms were thus confined to the rich, and the material upon whichthey are found is generally some costly gem, such as cut and polishedagate, onyx, haematite, and lapis-lazuli. The goldsmiths did notslavishly copy the golden and silver bowls which were imported from theDelta; they took their inspiration from the principles displayed inthe ornamentation of these objects, but they treated the subjectsafter their own manner, grouping them afresh and blending them withnew designs. The intrinsic value of the metal upon which these artisticconceptions had been impressed led to their destruction, and among theexamples which have come down to us I know of no object which can betraced to the period of the Egyptian conquest. It was Theban art forthe most part which furnished the Phoenicians with their designs. Theseincluded the lotus, the papyrus, the cow standing in a thicket andsuckling her calf, the sacred bark, and the king threatening with hisuplifted arm the crowd of conquered foes who lie prostrate before him. [Illustration: 117. Jpg EGYPTIAN TREATMENT OF THE COW ON A PHOENICIANBOWL] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after Grifi. The king's double often accompanied him on some of the original objects, impassive and armed with the banner bearing the name of Horus. ThePhoenician artist modified this figure, which in its original formdid not satisfy his ideas of human nature, by transforming it intoa protective genius, who looks with approval on the exploits of his_protégé_, and gathers together the corpses of those he has slain. Oncethese designs had become current among the goldsmiths, they continued tobe supplied for a long period, without much modification, to the marketsof the Eastern and Western worlds. Indeed, it was natural that theyshould have taken a stereotyped form, when we consider that thePhoenicians who employed them held continuous commercial relationswith the country whence they had come--a country of which, too, theyrecognised the supremacy. Egypt in the Ramesside period was, as wehave seen, distinguished for the highest development of every branch ofindustry; it had also a population which imported and exported more rawmaterial and more manufactured products than any other. [Illustration: 118. Jpg THE KING AND HIS DOUBLE ON A PHOENICIAN BOWL] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Longpérier. The small nation which acted as a commercial intermediary between Egyptand the rest of the world had in this traffic a steady source of profit, and even in providing Egypt with a single article--for example, bronze, or the tin necessary for its preparation--could realise enormousprofits. The people of Tyre and Sidon had been very careful not toalienate the good will of such rich customers, and as long as therepresentatives of the Pharaoh held sway in Syria, they had shownthemselves, if not thoroughly trustworthy vassals, at least lessturbulent than their neighbours of Arvad and Qodshû. Even when thefeebleness and impotence of the successors of Ramses III. Relieved themfrom the obligation of further tribute, they displayed towards their oldmasters such deference that they obtained as great freedom of trade withthe ports of the Delta as they had enjoyed in the past. They maintainedwith these ports the same relations as in the days of their dependence, and their ships sailed up the river as far as Memphis, and even higher, while the Egyptian galleys continued to coast the littoral of Syria. An official report addressed to Hrihor by one of the ministers of theTheban Amon, indicates at one and the same time the manner in whichthese voyages were accomplished, and the dangers to which their crewswere exposed. Hrihor, who was still high priest, was in need of foreigntimber to complete some work he had in hand, probably the repair of thesacred barks, and commanded the official above mentioned to proceedby sea to Byblos, to King Zikarbâl, * in order to purchase cedars ofLebanon. * This is the name which classical tradition ascribed to the first husband of Dido, the founder of Carthage--Sicharbas, Sichaeus, Acerbas. The messenger started from Tanis, coasted along Kharu, and put intothe harbour of Dor, which then belonged to the Zakkala: while he wasrevictualling his ship, one of the sailors ran away with the cash-box. The local ruler, Badilu, expressed at first his sympathy at thismisfortune, and gave his help to capture the robber; then unaccountablychanging his mind he threw the messenger into prison, who hadaccordingly to send to Egypt to procure fresh funds for his liberationand the accomplishment of his mission. Having arrived at Byblos, nothingoccurred there worthy of record. The wood having at length been cut andput on board, the ship set sail homewards. Driven by contrary winds, the vessel was thrown upon the coast of Alasia, where the crew weregraciously received by the Queen Khatiba. We have evidence everywhere, it may be stated, as to the friendly disposition displayed, either withor without the promptings of interest, towards the representative of theTheban pontiff. Had he been ill-used, the Phoenicians living on Egyptianterritory would have been made to suffer for it. Navigators had to take additional precautions, owing to the presenceof Ægean or Asiatic pirates on the routes followed by the mercantilemarine, which rendered their voyages dangerous and sometimes interruptedthem altogether. The Syrian coast-line was exposed to these maraudersquite as much as the African had been during the sixty or eighty yearswhich followed the death of Ramses II. ; the seamen of the north--Achæansand Tyrseni, Lycians and Shardanians--had pillaged it on many occasions, and in the invasion which followed these attacks it experienced aslittle mercy as Naharaim, the Khâti, and the region of the Amorites. Thefleets which carried the Philistines, the Zakkala, and their allies haddevastated the whole coast before they encountered the Egyptian ships ofRamses III. Near Magadîl, to the south of Carmel. Arvad as well as Zahihad succumbed to the violence of their attack, and if the cities ofByblos, Berytus, Sidon, and Tyre had escaped, their suburbs had beensubjected to the ravages of the foe. * * See, for this invasion, vol. V. Pp. 305-311, of the present work. Peace followed the double victory of the Egyptians, and commerce onthe Mediterranean resumed once more its wonted ways, but only in thoseregions where the authority of the Pharaoh and the fear of his vengeancewere effective influences. Beyond this sphere there were continualwarfare, piracy, migrations of barbaric hordes, and disturbances of allkinds, among which, if a stranger ventured, it was at the almost certainrisk of losing his life or liberty. The area of undisturbed seas becamemore and more contracted in proportion as the memory of past defeatsfaded away. Cyprus was not comprised within it, and the Ægeans, who wererestrained by the fear of Egypt from venturing into any region underher survey, perpetually flocked thither in numerous bodies. The Achæans, too, took up their abode on this island at an early date--about the timewhen some of their bands were infesting Libya, and offering their helpto the enemies of the Pharaoh. They began their encroachments on thenorthern side of the island--the least rich, it is true, but the nearestto Cilicia, and the easiest to hold against the attacks of their rivals. The disaster of Piriu had no doubt dashed their hopes of finding asettlement in Egypt: they never returned thither any more, and thecurrent of emigration which had momentarily inclined towards the south, now set steadily towards the east, where the large island of Cyprusoffered an unprotected and more profitable field of adventure. We knownot how far they penetrated into its forests and its interior. Thenatives began, at length, under their influence, to despise the customsand mode of existence with which they had been previously contented:they acquired a taste for pottery rudely decorated after the Myceneanmanner, for jewellery, and for the bronze swords which they had seen inthe hands of the invaders. The Phoenicians, in order to maintain theirground against the intruders, had to strengthen their ancient postsor found others--such as Carpasia, Gerynia, and Lapathos on theAchæan coast itself, Tamassos near the copper-mines, and a new town, Qart-hadashât, which is perhaps only the ancient Citium under a newname. * They thus added to their earlier possessions on the islandregions on its northern side, while the rest either fell gradually intothe hands of Hellenic adventurers, or continued in the possession ofthe native populations. Cyprus served henceforward as an advance-postagainst the attacks of Western nations, and the Phoenicians must havebeen thankful for the good fortune which had made them see the wisdomof fortifying it. But what became of their possessions lying outsideCyprus? They retained several of them on the southern coasts of AsiaMinor, and Rhodes remained faithful to them, as well as Thasos, enablingthem to overlook the two extremities of the Archipelago;** but, owing tothe movements of the People of the Sea and the political development ofthe Mycenean states, they had to give up the stations and harbours ofrefuge which they held in the other islands or on the continent. * It is mentioned in the inscription of Baal of Lebanon, and in the Assyrian inscriptions of the VII"'century B. C. * This would appear to be the case, as far as Rhodes is concerned, from the traditions which ascribed the final expulsion of the Phoenicians to a Doric invasion from Argos. The somewhat legendary accounts of the state of affairs after the Hellenic conquest are in the fragments of Ergias and Polyzelos. They still continued, however, to pay visits to theselocalities--sometimes in the guise of merchants and at others asraiders, according to their ancient custom. They went from port to portas of old, exposing their wares in the market-places, pillaging thefarms and villages, carrying into captivity the women and children whomthey could entice on board, or whom they might find defenceless on thestrand; but they attempted all this with more risk than formerly, andwith less success. The inhabitants of the coast were possessed offully manned ships, similar in form to those of the Philistines orthe Zakkala, which, at the first sight of the Phoenicians, set out inpursuit of them, or, following the example set by their foe, lay inwait for them behind some headland, and retaliated upon them for theircruelty. Piracy in the Archipelago was practised as a matter of course, and there was no islander who did not give himself up to it whenthe opportunity offered, to return to his honest occupations after asuccessful venture. Some kings seem to have risen up here and there whofound this state of affairs intolerable, and endeavoured to remedy itby every means within their power: they followed on the heels of thecorsairs and adventurers, whatever might be their country; they followedthem up to their harbours of refuge, and became an effective policeforce in all parts of the sea where they were able to carry their flag. The memory of such exploits was preserved in the tradition of the Cretanempire which Minos had constituted, and which extended its protectionover a portion of continental Greece. If the Phoenicians had had to deal only with the piratical expeditionsof the peoples of the coast or with the jealous watchfulness of therulers of the sea, they might have endured the evil, but they had nowto put up, in addition, with rivalry in the artistic and industrialproducts of which they had long had the monopoly. The spread of arthad at length led to the establishment of local centres of productioneverywhere, which bade fair to vie with those of Phoenicia. On thecontinent and in the Cyclades there were produced statuettes, intaglios, jewels, vases, weapons, and textile fabrics which rivalled those of theEast, and were probably much cheaper. The merchants of Tyre and Sidoncould still find a market, however, for manufactures requiring greattechnical skill or displaying superior taste--such as gold or silverbowls, engraved or decorated with figures in outline--but they had toface a serious falling off in their sales of ordinary goods. To extendtheir commerce they had to seek new and less critical markets, where thebales of their wares, of which the Ægean population was becoming weary, would lose none of their attractions. We do not know at what date theyventured to sail into the mysterious region of the Hesperides, nor bywhat route they first reached it. It is possible that they passed fromCrete to Cythera, and from this to the Ionian Islands and to the pointof Calabria, on the other side of the straits of Otranto, whence theywere able to make their way gradually to Sicily. * * Ed. Meyer thinks that the extension of Phoenician commerce to the Western Mediterranean goes back to the XVIIIth dynasty, or, at the latest, the XVth century before our era. Without laying undue stress on this view, I am inclined to ascribe with him, until we get further knowledge, the colonisation of the West to the period immediately following the movements of the People of the Sea and the diminution of Phoenician trade in the Grecian Archipelago. Exploring voyages had been made before this, but the founding of colonies was not earlier than this epoch. Did the fame of their discovery, we may ask, spread so rapidly in theEast as to excite there the cupidity and envy of their rivals? Howeverthis may have been, the People of the Sea, after repeated checksin Africa and Syria, and feeling more than ever the pressure of thenorthern tribes encroaching on them, set out towards the west, followingthe route pursued by the Phoenicians. The traditions current amongthem and collected afterwards by the Greek historians give an account, mingled with many fabulous details, of the causes which led to theirmigrations and of the vicissitudes which they experienced in the courseof them. Daedalus having taken flight from Crete to Sicily, Minos, whohad followed in his steps, took possession of the greater part of theisland with his Eteocretes. Iolaos was the leader of Pelasgic bands, whom he conducted first into Libya and finally to Sardinia. It came alsoto pass that in the days of Atys, son of Manes, a famine broke out andraged throughout Lydia: the king, unable to provide food for his people, had them numbered, and decided by lot which of the two halves of thepopulation should expatriate themselves under the leadership of his sonTyrsenos. Those-who were thus fated to leave their country assembled atSmyrna, constructed ships there, and having embarked on board of themwhat was necessary, set sail in quest of a new home. After a longand devious voyage, they at length disembarked in the country of theUmbrians, where they built cities, and became a prosperous people underthe name of Tyrseni, being thus called after their leader Tyrsenos. * * Herodotus, whence all the information of other classical writers is directly or indirectly taken. Most modern historians reject this tradition. I see no reason for my own part why they should do so, at least in the present state of our knowledge. The Etrurians of the historical period were the result of a fusion of several different elements, and there is nothing against the view that the Tursha--one of these elements--should have come from Asia Minor, as Herodotus says. Properly understood, the tradition seems well founded, and the details may have been added afterwards, either by the Lydians themselves, or by the Greek historians who collected the Lydian traditions. The remaining portions of the nations who had taken part in the attackon Egypt--of which several tribes had been planted by Ramses III. Inthe Shephelah, from Gaza to Carmel--proceeded in a series of successivedetachments from Asia Minor and the Ægean Sea to the coasts of Italyand of the large islands; the Tursha into that region which was knownafterwards as Etruria, the Shardana into Sardinia, the Zakkala intoSicily, and along with the latter some Pulasati, whose memory is stillpreserved on the northern slope of Etna. Fate thus brought the Phonicianemigrants once more into close contact with their traditional enemies, and the hostility which they experienced in their new settlements fromthe latter was among the influences which determined their furthermigration from Italy proper, and from the region occupied by theLigurians between the Arno and the Ebro. They had already probablyreached Sardinia and Corsica, but the majority of their ships had sailedto the southward, and having touched at Malta, Gozo, and the smallislands between Sicily and the Syrtes, had followed the coast-line ofAfrica, until at length they reached the straits of Gribraltar and thesouthern shores of Spain. No traces remain of their explorations, or oftheir early establishments in the western Mediterranean, as the townswhich they are thought--with good reason in most instances--to havefounded there belong to a much later date. Every permanent settlement, however, is preceded by a period of exploration and research, which maylast for only a few years or be prolonged to as many centuries. I amwithin the mark, I think, in assuming that Phonician adventurers, or possibly even the regular trading ships of Tyre and Sidon, hadestablished relations with the semi-barbarous chiefs of Botica as earlyas the XIIth century before our era, that is, at the time when the powerof Thebes was fading away under the weak rule of the pontiffs of Amonand the Tanite Pharaohs. The Phoenicians were too much absorbed in their commercial pursuitsto aspire to the inheritance which Egypt was letting slip through herfingers. Their numbers were not more than sufficient to supply menfor their ships, and they were often obliged to have recourse to theirallies or to mercenary tribes--the Leleges or Carians--in order toprovide crews for their vessels or garrisons for their trading posts;it was impossible, therefore, for them to think of raising armies fit toconquer or keep in check the rulers on the Orontes or in Naharaim. Theyleft this to the races of the interior--the Amorites and Hittites--andto their restless ambition. The Hittite power, however, had neverrecovered from the terrible blow inflicted on it at the time of theAsianic invasion. [Illustration: 128. Jpg AZÂZ--ONE OF THIS TUMULI ON THE ANCIENT HITTITEPLAIN] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Barthélémy. The confederacy of feudal chiefs, which had been brought momentarilytogether by Sapalulu and his successors, was shattered by the violenceof the shock, and the elements of which it was composed were engagedhenceforward in struggles with each other. At this time the entire plainbetween the Amanus and the Euphrates was covered with rich cities, ofwhich the sites are represented to-day by only a few wretched villagesor by heaps of ruins. Arabian and Byzantine remains sometimes crown thesummit of the latter, but as soon as we reach the lower strata we findin more or less abundance the ruins of buildings of the Greek or Persianperiod, and beneath these those belonging to a still earlier time. Thehistory of Syria lies buried in such sites, and is waiting only for apatient and wealthy explorer to bring it to light. * The Khâti properwere settled to the south of the Taurus in the basin of the Sajur, but they were divided into several petty states, of which that whichpossessed Carchemish was the most important, and exercised a practicalhegemony over the others. Its chiefs alone had the right to callthemselves kings of the Khâti. The Patinu, who were their immediateneighbours on the west, stretched right up to the Mediterranean abovethe plains of Naharairn and beyond the Orontes; they had absorbed, itwould seem, the provinces of the ancient Alasia. Aramaeans occupiedthe region to the south of the Patinu between the two Lebanon ranges, embracing the districts of Hamath and Qobah. ** * The results of the excavations at Zinjirli are evidence of what historical material we may hope to find in these tumuli. See the account of the earlier results in P. Von Luschan, _Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli_, 1893. ** The Aramaeans are mentioned by Tiglath-pileser I. As situated between the Balikh, the Euphrates, and the Sajur. The valleys of the Amanus and the southern slopes of the Taurus includedwithin them some half-dozen badly defined principalities--Samalla on theKara-Su, * Gurgum** around Marqasi, the Qui*** and Khilakku**** inthe classical Cilicia, and the Kasku^ and Kummukh^^ in a bend of theEuphrates to the north and north-east of the Khâti. * The country of Samalla, in Egyptian Samalûa, extended around the Tell of Zinjirli, at the foot of the Amanus, in the valley of Marash of the Arab historians. ** The name has been read Gamgumu, Gaugum, and connected by Tom-kins with the Egyptian Augama, which he reads Gagama, in the lists of Thûtmosis III. The Aramaean inscription on the statue of King Panammu shows that it must be read Gurgumu, and Sachau has identified this new name with that of Jurjum, which was the name by which the province of the Amanus, lying between Baias and the lake of Antioch, was known in the Byzantine period; the ancient Gurgum stretches further towards the north, around the town of Marqasi, which Tomkins and Sachau have identified with Marash. *** The site of the country of Qui was determined by Schrader; it was that part of the Cilician plain which stretches from the Amanus to the mountains of the Kêtis, and takes in the great town of Tarsus. F. Lenor-mant has pointed out that this country is mentioned twice in the Scriptures (1 _Kings_ x, 28 and 2 _Chron_. I. 16), in the time of Solomon. The designation of the country, transformed into the appellation of an eponymous god, is found in the name Qauîsaru, "Qauî is king. " **** Khilakku, the name of which is possibly the same as the Egyptian Khalakka, is the Cilicia Trachsea of classical geographers. ^ The country of Kashku, which has been connected with Kashkisha, which takes the place of Karkisha in an Egyptian text, was still a dependency of the Hittites in the time of Tiglath-pileser. It was in the neighbourhood of the Urumu, whose capital seems to have been Urum, the Ourima of Ptolemy, near the bend of the Euphrates between Sumeîsat and Birejik; it extended into the Commagene of classical times, on the borders of Melitene and the Tubal. ^^ Kummukh lay on both sides of the Euphrates and of the Upper Tigris; it became gradually restricted, until at length it was conterminous with the Commagene of classical geographers. The ancient Mitanni to the east of Carchemish, which was so active inthe time of the later Amenôthes, had now ceased to exist, and therewas but a vague remembrance of its farmer prowess. It had founderedprobably in the great cataclysm which engulfed the Hittite empire, although its name appears inscribed once more among those of the vassalsof Egypt on the triumphal lists of Ramses III. Its chief tribes hadprobably migrated towards the regions which were afterwards described bythe Greek geographers as the home of the Matieni on the Halys and in theneighbourhood of Lake Urmiah. Aramaean kingdoms, of which the greatestwas that of Bit-Adîni, * had succeeded them, and bordered the Euphrateson each side as far as the Chalus and Balikh respectively; the ancientHarran belonged also to them, and their frontier stretched as far asHamath, and to that of the Patinu on the Orontes. * The province of Bît-Adîni was specially that part of the country which lay between the Euphrates and the Balikh, but it extended also to other Syrian provinces between the Euphrates and the Aprie. It was, as we have seen, a complete breaking up of the oldnationalities, and we have evidence also of a similar disintegration inthe countries to the north of the Taurus, in the direction of the BlackSea. Of the mighty Khâti with whom Thûtmosis III. Had come into contact, there was no apparent trace: either the tribes of which they werecomposed had migrated towards the south, or those who had never lefttheir native mountains had entered into new combinations and lost eventhe remembrance of their name. The Milidu, Tabal (Tubal), and Mushku(Meshech) stretched behind each other from east to west on the confinesof the Tokhma-Su, and still further away other cities of less importancecontended for the possession of the Upper Saros and the middle region ofthe Halys. These peoples, at once poor and warlike, had been attracted, like the Hittites of some centuries previous, by the riches accumulatedin the strongholds of Syria. Eevolutions must have been frequent inthese regions, but our knowledge of them is more a matter of conjecturethan of actual evidence. Towards the year 1170 B. C. The Mushku swoopeddown on Kummukh, and made themselves its masters; then pursuing theirgood fortune, they took from the Assyrians the two provinces, Alzi andPurukuzzi, which lay not far from the sources of the Tigris and theBalikh. * * The _Annals of Tiglath-pileser I_. Place their invasion fifty years before the beginning of his reign. Ed. Meyer saw a connexion between this and the invasion of the People of the Sea, which took place under Ramses III. I think that the invasion of the Mushku was a purely local affair, and had nothing in common with the general catastrophe occasioned by the movement of the Asiatic armies. A little later the Kashku, together with some Aramaeans, broke intoShubarti, then subject to Assyria, and took possession of a part of it. The majority of these invasions had, however, no permanent result: theynever issued in the establishment of an empire like that of the Khâti, capable by its homogeneity of offering a serious resistance to the marchof a conqueror from the south. To sum up the condition of affairs: ifa redistribution of races had brought about a change in Northern Syria, their want of cohesion was no less marked than in the time of theEgyptian wars; the first enemy to make an attack upon the frontier ofone or other of these tribes was sure of victory, and, if he perseveredin his efforts, could make himself master of as much territory as hemight choose. The Pharaohs had succeeded in welding together theirAfrican possessions, and their part in the drama of conquest hadbeen played long ago; but the cities of the Tigris and the LowerEuphrates--Nineveh and Babylon-were ready to enter the lists as soon asthey felt themselves strong enough to revive their ancient traditions offoreign conquest. The successors of Agumkakrimê were not more fortunate than he had beenin attempting to raise Babylon once more to the foremost rank; theirwant of power, their discord, the insubordination and sedition thatexisted among their Cossæan troops, and the almost periodic returns ofthe Theban generals to the banks of the Euphrates, sometimes even tothose of the Balikh and the Khabur, all seemed to conspire to aggravatethe helpless state into which Babylon had sunk since the close of thedynasty of Uruazagga. Elam was pressing upon her eastern, and Assyriaon her northern frontier, and their kings not only harassed her withpersistent malignity, but, by virtue of their alliances by marriage withher sovereigns, took advantage of every occasion to interfere bothin domestic and state affairs; they would espouse the cause of somepretender during a revolt, they would assume the guardianship of suchof their relatives as were left widows or minors, and, when the occasionpresented itself, they took possession of the throne of Bel, or bestowedit on one of their creatures. Assyria particularly seemed to regardBabylon with a deadly hatred. The capitals of the two countries were notmore than some one hundred and eighty-five miles apart, the interveningdistrict being a flat and monotonous alluvial plain, unbroken by anyfeature which could serve as a natural frontier. The line of demarcationusually followed one of the many canals in the narrow strip of landbetween the Euphrates and the Tigris; it then crossed the latter, andwas formed by one of the rivers draining the Iranian table-land, --eitherthe Upper Zab, the Radanu, the Turnat, or some of their ramifications inthe spurs of the mountain ranges. Each of the two states strove by everymeans in its power to stretch its boundary to the farthest limits, and to keep it there at all hazards. This narrow area was the scene ofcontinual war, either between the armies of the two states or those ofpartisans, suspended from time to time by an elaborate treaty which wassupposed to settle all difficulties, but, as a matter of fact, satisfiedno one, and left both parties discontented with their lot and jealous ofeach other. The concessions made were never of sufficient importanceto enable the conqueror to crush his rival and regain for himself theancient domain of Khammurabi; his losses, on the other hand, wereoften considerable enough to paralyse his forces, and prevent him fromextending his border in any other direction. When the Egyptians seizedon Naharaim, Assyria and Babylon each adopted at the outset a differentattitude towards the conquerors. Assyria, which never laid any permanentclaims to the seaboard provinces of the Mediterranean, was not disposedto resent their occupation by Egypt, and desired only to make sure oftheir support or their neutrality. The sovereign then ruling Assyria, but of whose name we have no record, hastened to congratulate ThûtmosisIII. On his victory at Megiddo, and sent him presents of precious vases, slaves, lapis-lazuli, chariots and horses, all of which the Egyptianconqueror regarded as so much tribute. Babylon, on the other hand, didnot take action so promptly as Assyria; it was only towards the latteryears of Thûtmosis that its king, Karaîndash, being hard pressed by theAssyrian Assurbelnishishu, at length decided to make a treaty with theintruder. * * We have no direct testimony in support of this hypothesis, but several important considerations give it probability. As no tribute from Babylon is mentioned in the _Annals of Thûtmosis III_. , we must place the beginning of the relations between Egypt and Chaldæa at a later date. On the other hand, Burnaburiash II. , in a letter written to Amenôthes III. , cites Karaîndash as the first of _his fathers, _ who had established friendly relations with _the fathers_ of the Pharaoh, a fact which obliges us to place the interchange of presents before the time of Amenôthes III. : as the reigns of Amenôthes II. And of Thûtmosis IV. Were both short, it is probable that these relations began in the latter years of Thûtmosis III. The remoteness of Egypt from the Babylonian frontier no doubt relievedKaraîndash from any apprehension of an actual invasion by the Pharaohs;but there was the possibility of their subsidising some nearer enemy, and also of forbidding Babylonish caravans to enter Egyptian provinces, and thus crippling Chaldæan commerce. Friendly relations, when onceestablished, soon necessitated a constant interchange of embassies andletters between the Nile and the Euphrates. As a matter of fact, theBabylonian king could never reconcile himself to the idea that Syria hadpassed out of his hands. While pretending to warn the Pharaoh of Syrianplots against him, * the Babylonians were employing at the same timesecret agents, to go from city to city and stir up discontent atEgyptian rule, praising the while the great Cosssean king and hisarmies, and inciting to revolt by promises of help never meant to befulfilled. Assyria, whose very existence would have been endangered bythe re-establishment of a Babylonian empire, never missed an opportunityof denouncing these intrigues at head-quarters: they warned the royalmessengers and governors of them, and were constantly contrasting thefrankness and honesty of their own dealings with the duplicity of theirrival. * This was done by Kurigalzu I. , according to a letter addressed by his son Burnaburiash to Amenôthes IV. This state of affairs lasted for more than half a century, during whichtime both courts strove to ingratiate themselves in the favour of thePharaoh, each intriguing for the exclusion of the other, by exchangingpresents with him, by congratulations on his accession, by imploringgifts of wrought or unwrought gold, and by offering him the mostbeautiful women of their family for his harem. The son of Karaîndash, whose name still remains to be discovered, bestowed one of his daughterson the young Amenôthes III. : Kallimasin, the sovereign who succeededhim, also sent successively two princesses to the same Pharaoh. Butthe underlying bitterness and hatred would break through the veneer ofpolite formula and protestations when the petitioner received, as theresult of his advances, objects of inconsiderable value such as a lordmight distribute to his vassals, 'or when he was refused a princess ofsolar blood, or even an Egyptian bride of some feudal house; at suchtimes, however, an ironical or haughty epistle from Thebes would recallhim to a sense of his own inferiority. As a fact, the lot of the Cossæan sovereigns does not appear to havebeen a happy one, in spite of the variety and pomposity of the titleswhich they continued to assume. They enjoyed but short lives, and weknow that at least three or four of them--Kallimasin, Burnaburiash I. , and Kurigalzu I. Ascended the throne in succession during the fortyyears that Amenôthes III. Ruled over Egypt and Syria. * * The copy we possess of the Royal Canon of Babylon is mutilated at this point, and the original documents are not sufficiently complete to fill the gap. About two or three names are missing after that of Agumkakrimê, and the reigns must have been very short, if indeed, as I think, Agumka- krimî and Karaîndash were both contemporaries of the earlier Pharaohs bearing the name of Thûtmosis. The order of the names which have come down to us is not indisputably established. The following order appears to me to be the most probable at present:-- Karaîndash. Kallimasin. Burnaburiash I. Kurigalzu I. Burnaburiash II. Karakhardash. Kadashmankiiarbê I. Nazibugas II.. Kurigalzu II. Nazimaruttasii. Kadashmanturgu. This is, with a slight exception, the classification adopted by Winckler, and that of Hilprecht differs from it only in the intercalation of Kudurturgu and Shagaraktiburiash between Burnaburiash II. And Karakhardash. Perhaps the rapidity of this succession may have arisen from someinternal revolution or from family disturbances. The Chaldæans of theold stock reluctantly rendered obedience to these Cosssean kings, and, if we may judge from the name, one at least of these ephemeralsovereigns, Kallimasin, appears to have been a Semite, who owed hisposition among the Cossoan princes to some fortunate chance. A fewrare inscriptions stamped on bricks, one or two letters or documents ofprivate interest, and some minor objects from widely distant spots, haveenabled us to ascertain the sites upon which these sovereigns erectedbuildings; Karaîndash restored the temple of Nana at Uruk, Burnaburiashand Kurigalzu added to that of Shamash at Larsam, and Kurigalzu took inhand that of Sin at Uru. We also possess a record of some of their actsin the fragments of a document, which a Mnevite scribe of the time ofAssurbanipal had compiled, or rather jumbled together, * from certainBabylonian chronicles dealing with the wars against Assyria and Elam, with public treaties, marriages, and family quarrels. We learn fromthis, for example, that Burnaburiash I. Renewed with Buzurassur theconventions drawn up between Karaîndash and Assurbelnishishu. Thesefriendly relations were maintained, apparently, under Kurigalzu I. And Assur-nadin-akhi, the son of Buzurassur;** if Kurigalzu built orrestored the fortress, long called after him Dur-Kurigalzu, *** at oneof the fords of the Narmalka, it was probably as a precautionary measurerather than because of any immediate danger. The relations betweenthe two powers became somewhat strained when Burnaburiash II. And Assuruballît had respectively succeeded to Kurigalzu andAssur-nadin-akhi; **** this did not, however, lead to hostilities, andthe subsequent betrothal of Karakhardash, son of Burnaburiash II. , toMubauîtatseruâ, daughter of Assuruballît, tended to restore matters totheir former condition. * This is what is generally called the "Synchronous History, " the principal remains of which were discovered and published by H. Rawlinson. It is a very unskilful complication, in which Winckler has discovered several blunders. ** Assur-nadin-akhi I. Is mentioned in a Tel el-Amarna tablet as being the father of Assuruballît. *** This is the present Akerkuf, as is proved by the discovery of bricks bearing the name of Kurigalzu; but perhaps what I have attributed to Kurigalzu I. Must be referred to the second king of that name. **** We infer this from the way in which Burnaburiash speaks of the Assyrians in the correspondence with Amenôthes IV. The good will between the two countries became still more pronouncedwhen Kadashmankharbê succeeded his father Karakhardash. The Cossæansoldiery had taken umbrage at his successor and had revolted, assassinated Kadashmankharbê, and proclaimed king in his stead a manof obscure origin named Nazibùgash. Assuruballît, without a moment'shesitation, took the side of his new relatives; he crossed the frontier, killed Nazibugash, and restored the throne to his sister's child, Kurigalzu II. , the younger. The young king, who was still a minor athis accession, appears to have met with no serious difficulties; at anyrate, none were raised by his Assyrian cousins, Belnirârî I. And hissuccessor Budîlu. * * The _Synchronous History_ erroneously places the events of the reign of Rammân-nirâri in that of Belnirârî. The order of succession of Buzurassur, Assuruballît, Belnirârî, and Budîlu, has been established by the bricks of Kalah-Shergât. Towards the close of his reign, however, revolts broke out, and it wasonly by sustained efforts that he was able to restore order in Babylon, Sippara, and the Country of the Sea. While the king was in the midst ofthese difficulties, the Elamites took advantage of his troubles tosteal from him a portion of his territory, and their king, Khurbatila, challenged him to meet his army near Dur-Dungi. Kurigalzu accepted thechallenge, gained a decisive victory, took his adversary prisoner, andreleased him only on receiving as ransom a province beyond the Tigris;he even entered Susa, and, from among other trophies of past wars, resumed possession of an agate tablet belonging to Dungi, which theveteran Kudurnakhunta had stolen from the temple of Nipur nearlya thousand years previously. This victory was followed by thecongratulations of most of his neighbours, with the exception ofBammân-nirâri II. , who had succeeded Budîlu in Assyria, and probablyfelt some jealousy or uneasiness at the news. He attacked the Cossæans, and overthrew them at Sugagi, on the banks of the Salsallât; theirlosses were considerable, and Kurigalzu could only obtain peace by thecession to Assyria of a strip of territory the entire length of thenorth-west frontier, from the confines of the Shubari country, nearthe sources of the Khabur, to the suburbs of Babylon itself. Nearly thewhole of Mesopotamia thus changed hands at one stroke, but Babylon hadstill more serious losses to suffer. Nazimaruttash, who attempted towipe out the disaster sustained by his father Kurigalzu, experienced twocrushing defeats, one at Kar-Ishtar and the other near Akarsallu, andthe treaty which he subsequently signed was even more humiliating forhis country than the preceding one. All that part of the Babyloniandomain which lay nearest to Nineveh was ceded to the Assyrians, fromPilaski on the right bank of the Tigris to the province of Lulumê inthe Zagros mountains. It would appear that the Cossæan tribes who hadremained in their native country, took advantage of these troubloustimes to sever all connection with their fellow-countrymen establishedin the cities of the plain; for we find them henceforward carrying on apetty warfare for their own profit, and leading an entirely independentlife. The descendants of Gandish, deprived of territories in the north, repulsed in the east, and threatened in the south by the nations ofthe Persian Gulf, never recovered their former ascendency, and theirauthority slowly declined during the century which followed theseevents. Their downfall brought about the decadence of the cities overwhich they had held sway; and the supremacy which Babylon had exercisedfor a thousand years over the countries of the Euphrates passed into thehands of the Assyrian kings. Assyria itself was but a poor and insignificant country when comparedwith her rival. It occupied, on each side of the middle course of theTigris, the territory lying between the 35th and 37th parallels oflatitude. * * These are approximately the limits of the first Assyrian empire, as given by the monuments; from the Persian epoch onwards, the name was applied to the whole course of the Tigris as far as the mountain district. The ancient orthography of the name is Aushâr. It was bounded on the east by the hills and mountain ranges runningparallel to the Zagros Chain--Gebel Guar, Gebel Gara, Zerguizavân-dagh, and Baravân-dagh, with their rounded monotonous limestone ridges, scoredby watercourses and destitute of any kind of trees. On the north itwas hemmed in by the spurs of the Masios, and bounded on the east by anundefined line running from Mount Masios to the slopes of Singar, and from these again to the Chaldæan plain; to the south the frontierfollowed the configuration of the table-land and the curve of the lowcliffs, which in prehistoric times had marked the limits of the PersianGulf; from here the boundary was formed on the left side of the Tigrisby one of its tributaries, either the Lower Zab or the Badanu. Theterritory thus enclosed formed a compact and healthy district: it wasfree from extremes of temperature arising from height or latitude, andthe relative character and fertility of its soil depended on the absenceor presence of rivers. The eastern part of Assyria was well watered bythe streams and torrents which drained the Iranian plateau and the lowermountain chains which ran parallel to it. The beds of these rivers arechannelled so deeply in the alluvial soil, that it is necessary to standon the very edge of their banks to catch a sight of their silent andrapid waters; and it is only in the spring or early summer, when theyare swollen by the rains and melting snow, that they spread over theadjacent country. As soon as the inundation is over, a vegetation of theintensest green springs up, and in a few days the fields and meadows arecovered with a luxuriant and fragrant carpet of verdure. This brilliantgrowth is, however, short-lived, for the heat of the sun dries it up asquickly as it appears, and even the corn itself is in danger of beingburnt up before reaching maturity. To obviate such a disaster, theAssyrians had constructed a network of canals and ditches, traces ofwhich are in many places still visible, while a host of _shadufs_placed along their banks facilitated irrigation in the dry seasons. Theprovinces supplied with water in this manner enjoyed a fertility whichpassed into a proverb, and was well known among the ancients; theyyielded crops of cereals which rivalled those of Babylonia, and includedamong their produce wheat, barley, millet, and sesame. But few olivetrees were cultivated, and the dates were of inferior quality; indeed, in the Greek period, these fruits were only used for fattening pigs anddomestic animals. The orchards contained the pistachio, the apple, thepomegranate, the apricot, the vine, the almond, and the fig, and, inaddition to the essences common to both Syria and Egypt, the countryproduced cédrats of a delicious scent which were supposed to be anantidote to all kinds of poisons. Assyria was not well wooded, except inthe higher valleys, where willows and poplars bordered the rivers, andsycamores, beeches, limes, and plane trees abounded, besides severalvarieties of pines and oaks, including a dwarf species of the latter, from whose branches manna was obtained. [Illustration: 143. Jpg THE 1ST ASSYRIAN EMPIRE--MAP] This is a saccharine substance, which is deposited in small lumps, andis found in greater abundance during wet years and especially on foggydays. When fresh, it has an agreeable taste and is pleasant to eat;but as it will not keep in its natural state, the women prepare it forexportation by dissolving it in boiling water, and evaporating it to asweetish paste, which has more or less purgative, qualities. The aspectof the country changes after crossing the Tigris westward. The slopes ofMount Masios are everywhere furrowed with streams, which feed the Khaburand its principal affluent, the Kharmis;* woods become more frequent, and the valleys green and shady. * The Kharmis is the Mygdonios of Greek geographers, the Hirmâs of the Arabs; the latter name may be derived from Kharmis, or it may be that it merely presents a fortuitous resemblance to it. The plains extending southwards, however, contain, like those of theEuphrates, beds of gypsum in the sub-soil, which render the waterrunning through them brackish, and prevent the growth of vegetation. The effects of volcanic action are evident on the surface of thesegreat steppes; blocks of basalt pierce through the soil, and near theembouchure of the Kharmis, a cone, composed of a mass of lava, cinders, and scorial, known as the Tell-Kôkab, rises abruptly to a height of325 feet. The mountain chain of Singar, which here reaches its westerntermination, is composed of a long ridge of soft white limestone, andseems to have been suddenly thrown up in one of the last geologicalupheavals which affected this part of the country: in some places itresembles a perpendicular wall, while in others it recedes in naturalterraces which present the appearance of a gigantic flight of steps. Thesummit is often wooded, and the spurs covered with vineyards and fields, which flourish vigorously in the vicinity of streams; when these fail, however, the table-land resumes its desolate aspect, and stretchesin bare and sandy undulations to the horizon, broken only where itis crossed by the Thartar, the sole river in this region which is notliable to be dried up, and whose banks may be traced by the scanty lineof vegetation which it nourishes. [Illustration: 145. Jpg THE VOLCANIC CONE OF KÔKAB] Drawn by Boudier, from the cut in Layard. In a country thus unequally favoured by nature, the towns arenecessarily distributed in a seemingly arbitrary fashion. Most of themare situated on the left bank of the Tigris, where the fertile natureof the soil enables it to support a dense population. They were allflourishing centres of population, and were in close proximity to eachother, at all events during the centuries of Assyrian hegemony. * * We find, for example, in the inscription of Bavian, a long enumeration of towns and villages situated almost within the suburbs of Nineveh, on the banks of the Khôser. Three of them soon eclipsed their rivals in political and religiousimportance; these were Kalakh and Nina on the Tigris, and Arbaîlu, lying beyond the Upper Zab, in the broken plain which is a continuationeastwards of the first spurs of the Zagros. * On the right bank, however, we find merely some dozen cities and towns, scattered about in placeswhere there was a supply of water sufficient to enable the inhabitantsto cultivate the soil; as, for example, Assur on the banks of the Tigrisitself, Singara near the sources of the Thartar, and Nazibina near thoseof the Kharmis, at the foot of the Masios. These cities were not allunder the rule of one sovereign when Thûtmosis III. Appeared in Syria, for the Egyptian monuments mention, besides the kingdom of Assyria, thatof Singara** and Araphka in the upper basin of the Zab. *** * The name of Arbeles is written in a form which appears to signify "the town of the four gods. " ** This kingdom of Singara is mentioned in the Egyptian lists of Thûtmosis III. Schrader was doubtful as to its existence, but one of its kings is mentioned in a letter from the King of Alasia to Amenôthes IV. ; according to Niebuhr, the state of which Singara was the capital must have been identical, at all events at one period, with the Mitanni of the Egyptian texts. *** The Arapakha of the Egyptian monuments has been identified with the Arrapakhitis of the Greeks. Assyria, however, had already asserted her supremacy over this corner ofAsia, and the remaining princes, even if they were not mere vicegerentsdepending on her king, were not strong enough in wealth and extentof territory to hold their own against her, since she was undisputedmistress of Assur, Arbeles, Kalakh, and Nineveh, the most importantcities of the plain. Assur covered a considerable area, and therectangular outline formed by the remains of its walls is stilldiscernible on the surface of the soil. Within the circuit of thecity rose a mound, which the ancient builders had transformed, bythe addition of masses of brickwork, into a nearly square platform, surmounted by the usual palace, temple, and ziggurat; it was enclosedwithin a wall of squared stone, the battlements of which remain to thepresent day. * The whole pile was known as the "Ekharsagkurkurra, " or the"House of the terrestrial mountain, " the sanctuary in whose decorationall the ancient sovereigns had vied with one another, includingSamsirammân I. And Irishum, who were merely vicegerents dependent uponBabylon. It was dedicated to Anshar, that duplicate of Anu who hadled the armies of heaven in the struggle with Tiâmat; the name Anshar, softened into Aushar, and subsequently into Ashshur, was first appliedto the town and then to the whole country. ** * Ainsworth states the circumference of the principal mound of Kalah-Shergât to be 4685 yards, which would make it one of the most extensive ruins in the whole country. ** Another name of the town in later times was Palbêki, "the town of the old empire, " "the ancient capital, " or Shauru. Many Assyriologists believe that the name Ashur, anciently written Aushâr, signified "the plain at the edge of the water"; and that it must have been applied to the town before being applied to the country and the god. Others, on the contrary, think, with more reason, that it was the god who gave his name to the town and the country; they make a point of the very ancient play of words, which in Assyria itself attributed the meaning "good god" to the word Ashur. Jensen was the first to state that Ashur was the god Anshâr of the account of the creation. The god himself was a deity of light, usually represented under the formof an armed man, wearing the tiara and having the lower half of his bodyconcealed by a feathered disk. He was supposed to hover continuallyover the world, hurling fiery darts at the enemies of his people, andprotecting his kingly worshippers under the shadow of his wings. Theirwars were his wars, and he was with them in the thick of the attack, placing himself in the front rank with the soldiery, * so that when hegained the victory, the bulk of the spoil--precious metals, gleaningsof the battle-field, slaves and productive lands--fell to his share. Thegods of the vanquished enemy, moreover, were, like their princes, forcedto render him homage. In the person of the king he took their statuesprisoners, and shut them up in his sanctuary; sometimes he would engravehis name upon their figures and send them back to their respectivetemples, where the sight of them would remind their worshippers of hisown omnipotence. ** The goddess associated with him as his wife had givenher name, Nina, to Nineveh, *** and was, as the companion of the ChaldæanBel, styled the divine lady Belit; she was, in fact, a chaste andwarlike Ishtar, who led the armies into battle with a boldnesscharacteristic of her father. **** * In one of the pictures, for instance, representing the assault of a town, we see a small figure of the god, hurling darts against the enemy. The inscriptions also state that the peoples "are alarmed and quit their cities _before the arms of Assur, the powerful one_. " ** As, for instance, the statues of the gods taken from the Arabs in the time of Esarhaddon. Tiglath-pileser I. Had carried away twenty-five statues of gods taken from the peoples of Kurkhi and Kummukh, and had placed them in the temples of Beltis, Ishtar, Anu, and Rammân; he mentions other foreign divinities who had been similarly treated. *** The ideogram of the name of the goddess Nina serves to write the name of the town Nineveh. The name itself has been interpreted by Schrader as "station, habitation, " in the Semitic languages, and by Fr. Delitzsch "repose of the god, " an interpretation which Delitzsch himself repudiated later on. It is probable that the town, which, like Assur, was a Chaldæan colony, derived its name from the goddess to whom it was dedicated, and whose temple existed there as early as the time of the vicegerent Samsirammân. **** Belit is called by Tiglath-pileser I. "the great spouse beloved of Assur, " but Belit, "the lady, " is here merely an epithet used for Ishtar: the Assyrian Ishtar, Ishtar of Assur, Ishtar of Nineveh, or rather--especially from the time of the Sargonids--Ishtar of Arbeles, is almost always a fierce and warlike Ishtar, the "lady of combat, who directs battles, " "whose heart incites her to the combat and the struggle. " Sayce thinks that the union of Ishtar and Assur is of a more recent date. [Illustration: 149. Jpg ISHTAR AS A WARRIOR BRINGING PRISONERS TO ACONQUERING KING] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from squeezes brought back by M. Do Morgan. These two divinities formed an abstract and solitary pair, around whomneither story nor myth appears to have gathered, and who never becamethe centre of any complex belief. Assur seems to have had no parentageassigned to him, no statue erected to him, and he was not associatedwith the crowd of other divinities; on the contrary, he was called theirlord, their "peerless king, " and, as a proof of his supreme sovereigntyover them, his name was inscribed at the head of their lists, beforethose of the triads constituted by the Chaldæan priests--even beforethose of Anu, Bel, and Ba. The city of Assur, which had been the firstto tender him allegiance for many years, took precedence of all therest, in spite of the drawbacks with which it had to contend. Placed atthe very edge of the Mesopotamian desert, it was exposed to the dry andburning winds which swept over the plains, so that by the end of thespring the heat rendered it almost intolerable as a residence. TheTigris, moreover, ran behind it, thus leaving it exposed to the attacksof the Babylonian armies, unprotected as it was by any natural fosseor rampart. The nature of the frontier was such as to afford it nosafeguard; indeed, it had, on the contrary, to protect its frontier. Nineveh, on the other hand, was entrenched behind the Tigris and theZab, and was thus secure from any sudden attack. Northerly and easterlywinds prevailed during the summer, and the coolness of the nightrendered the heat during the day more bearable. It became the custom forthe kings and vicegerents to pass the most trying months of the year atNineveh, taking up their abode close to the temple of Nina, the AssyrianIshtar, but they did not venture to make it their habitual residence, and consequently Assur remained the official capital and chief sanctuaryof the empire. Here its rulers concentrated their treasures, theirarchives, their administrative offices, and the chief staff of the army;from this town they set out on their expeditions against the Cossæans ofBabylon or the mountaineers of the districts beyond the Tigris, and itwas in this temple that they dedicated to the god the tenth of the spoilon their return from a successful campaign. * * The majority of scholars now admit that the town of Nina, mentioned byGudea and the vicegerents of Telloh, was a quarter of, or neighbouringborough of, Lagash, and had nothing in common with Nineveh, in spite ofHommel's assumption to the contrary. The struggle with Chaldæa, indeed, occupied the greater part of theirenergies, though it did not absorb all their resources, and often leftthem times of respite, of which they availed themselves to extend theirdomain to the north and east. We cannot yet tell which of the Assyriansovereigns added the nearest provinces of the Upper Tigris to hisrealm; but when the names of these districts appear-in history, theyare already in a state of submission and vassalage, and their principaltowns are governed by Assyrian officers in the same manner as those ofSingara and Nisibe. Assuruballît, the conqueror of the Cossæans, hadsucceeded in establishing his authority over the turbulent hordes ofShubari which occupied the neighbourhood of the Masios, between theKhabur and the Balîkh, and extended perhaps as far as the Euphrates; atany rate, he was considered by posterity as the actual founder of theAssyrian empire in these districts. * Belnirâri had directed his effortsin another direction, and had conquered the petty kingdoms establishedon the slopes of the Iranian table-land, around the sources of the twoZabs, and those of the Badanu and the Turnât. ** * It is called, in an inscription of his great-grandson, Rammân-nirâri L, the powerful king "who reduced to servitude the forces of the vast country of Shubari, and who enlarged the territory and limits "of Assur. ** The inscription of Rammân-nirâri I. Styles him the prince "who crushes the army of the Cossæans, he whose hand unnerves the enemy, and who enlarges the territory and its limits. " The Cossæans mentioned in this passage are usually taken to be the Cossæan kings of Babylon, and not the mountain tribes. Like Susiana, this part of the country was divided up into parallelvalleys, separated from each other by broken ridges of limestone, andwatered by the tributaries of the Tigris or their affluents. [Illustration: 152. Jpg A VILLAGE IN THE MOUNTAIN DISTRICTS OF THE OLDASSÆAN KINGDOM] Drawn by Boudier, from a drawing by Père Durand. It was thickly strewn with walled towns and villages; the latter, perched upon the precipitous mountain summits, and surrounded by deepravines, owed their security solely to their position, and, indeed, needed no fortification. The country abounded in woods and pastures, interspersed with cornlands; access to it was gained by one or twopasses on the eastern side, which thus permitted caravans or armies toreach the districts lying between the Erythræan and Caspian Seas. The tribes who inhabited it had been brought early under Chaldæancivilization, and had adopted the cuneiform script; such of theirmonuments as are still extant resemble the bas-reliefs and inscriptionsof Assyria. * It is not always easy to determine the precise localityoccupied by these various peoples; the Guti were situated near the uppercourses of the Turnât and the Badanu, in the vicinity of the Kashshu;**the Lulumê had settled in the neighbourhood of the Batîr, to the northof the defiles of Zohab;*** the Namar separated the Lulumê from Elam, and were situated half in the plain and half in the mountain, while theArapkha occupied, both banks of the Great Zab. * Pinches has published an inscription of a king of Khani, named Tukultimir, son of Ilushaba, written in Chaldeo-Assyrian, and found in the temple of Shamash at Sippara, where the personage himself had dedicated it. Winckler gives another inscription of a king of the Guti, which is also in Semitic and in cuneiform character. ** The name is written sometimes Quti, at others Guti, which induced Pognon to believe that they were two different peoples: the territory occupied by this nation must have been originally to the east of the Lesser Zab, in the upper basins of the Adhem and the Diyaleh. Oppert proposes to recognise in these Guti "the ancestors of the Goths, who, fifteen hundred years ago, pushed forward to the Russia of the present day: we find, " (he adds), "in this passage and in others, some of which go back to the third millennium before the Christian era, the earliest mention of the Germanic races. " *** The people of Lulumô-Lullubi have been pointed out as living to the east of the Lesser Zab by Schrader; their exact position, together with that of Mount Padîr-Batîr in whose neighbourhood they were, has been determined by Père Scheil. Budîlu carried his arms against these tribes, and obtained successesover the Turuki and the Nigimkhi, the princes of the Guti and the Shuti, as well as over the Akhlamî and the Iauri. * * The Shutu or Shuti, who are always found in connection with the Guti, appear to have been the inhabitants of the lower mountain slopes which separate the basin of the Tigris with the regions of Elam, to the south of Turnât. The Akhlamê were neighbours of the Shuti and the Guti; they were settled partly in the Mesopotamian plain and partly in the neighbourhood of Turnât. The territory of the Iauri is not known; the Turuki and the Nigimkhi were probably situated somewhere to the east of the Great Zab: in the same way that Oppert connects the Goths with the Guti, so Hommel sees in the Turuki the Turks of a very early date. The chiefs of the Lulumê had long resisted the attacks of theirneighbours, and one of them, Anu-banini, had engraved on the rocksoverhanging the road not far from the village of Seripul, a bas-reliefcelebrating his own victories. He figures on it in full armour, wearinga turban on his head, and treading underfoot a fallen foe, while Ishtarof Arbeles leads towards him a long file of naked captives, boundready for sacrifice. The resistance of the Lulumê was, however, finallyovercome by Rammân-nirâri, the son of Budilû; he strengthened thesuzerainty gained by his predecessor over the Guti, the Cossæans, andthe Shubarti, and he employed the spoil taken from them in beautifyingthe temple of Assur. He had occasion to spend some time in the regionsof the Upper Tigris, warring against the Shubari, and a fine bronzesabre belonging to him has been found near Diarbekîr, among the ruins ofthe ancient Amidi, where, no doubt, he had left it as an offering in oneof the temples. He was succeeded by Shalmânuâsharîd, * better known tous as Shalmaneser I. , one of the most powerful sovereigns of this heroicage of Assyrian history. [Illustration: 155. Jpg THE SABRE OF RAMMAN-NIRARI] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the sketch published in the _Transactions_ of the Bibl. Arch. Soc. His reign seems to have been one continuous war against the variousraces then in a state of ferment on the frontiers of his kingdom. Heappears in the main to have met with success, and in a few years haddoubled the extent of his dominions. * His most formidable attacks weredirected against the Aramaeans** of Mount Masios, whose numerous tribeshad advanced on one side till they had crossed the Tigris, while on theother they had pushed beyond the river Balîkh, and had probably reachedthe Euphrates. *** * Shalmânu-âsharîd, or Shulmânu-âsharîd, signifies "the god Shulmânu (Shalmânu) is prince, " as Pinches was the first to point out. ** Some of the details of these campaigns have been preserved on the much-mutilated obelisk of Assur-nazir-pal. This was a compilation taken from the Annals of Assyria to celebrate the important acts of the king's ancestors. The events recorded in the third column were at first attributed to the reign of Tiglath-pileser I. ; Fr. Delitzsch was the first to recognise that they could be referred to the reign of this Shalmaneser, and his opinion is now admitted by most of the Assyriologists who have studied the question. *** The identity of the Arami (written also Armaya, Arumi, Arimi) with the Aramoans, admitted by the earlier Kammin- nikâbi Assyriologists. He captured their towns one after another, razed their fortresses, smotethe agricultural districts with fire and sword, and then turned upon thevarious peoples who had espoused their cause--the Kirkhu, the Euri, theKharrîn, * and the Muzri, who inhabited the territory between the basinsof the two great rivers;** once, indeed, he even crossed the Euphratesand ventured within the country of Khanigalbat, a feat which hisancestors had never even attempted. *** * The people of the country of Kilkhi, or Kirkhi, the Kurkhi, occupied the region between the Tigris at Diarbekîr and the mountains overlooking the lake of Urumiah. The position of the Ruri is not known, but it is certain that on one side they joined the Aramaeans, and that they were in the neighbourhood of Tushkhân. Kharrân is the Harrân of the Balikh, mentioned in vol. Iv. Pp. 37, 38 of the present work. ** The name of Muzri frequently occurs, and in various positions, among the countries mentioned by the Assyrian conquerors; the frequency of its occurrence is easily explained if we are to regard it as a purely Assyrian term used to designate the military confines or marches of the kingdom at different epochs of its history. The Muzri here in question is the borderland situated in the vicinity of Cilicia, probably the Sophene and the Gumathene of classical geographers. Winckler appears to me to exaggerate their importance when he says they were spread over the whole of Northern Syria as early as the time of Shalmaneser I. *** Khanigalbat is the name of the province in which Milid was placed. He was recalled by a revolt which had broken out in the scattered citiesof the district of Dur-Kurigalzu; he crushed the rising in spite of thehelp which Kadash-manburiash, King of Babylon, had given to the rebels, and was soon successful in subduing the princes of Lulumê. These werenot the raids of a day's duration, undertaken, without any regard to thefuture, merely from love of rapine or adventure. Shalmaneser desired tobring the regions which he annexed permanently under the authority ofAssyria, and to this end he established military colonies in suitableplaces, most of which were kept up long after his death. * * More than five centuries after the time of Shalmaneser I. , Assurnazir-pal makes mention, in his _Annals_, of one of these colonies, established in the country of Diarbekîr at Khabzilukha (or Khabzidipkha), near to the town of Damdamua. He seems to have directed the internal affairs of his kingdom with thesame firmness and energy which he displayed in his military expeditions. It was no light matter for the sovereign to decide on a change inthe seat of government; he ran the risk of offending, not merely hissubjects, but the god who presided over the destinies of the State, andneither his throne nor his life would have been safe had he failed inhis attempt. Shalmaneser, however, did not hesitate to make the change, once he was fully convinced of the drawbacks presented by Assur asa capital. True, he beautified the city, restored its temples, andpermitted it to retain all its privileges and titles; but havingdone so, he migrated with his court to the town of Kalakh, wherehis descendants continued to reside for several centuries. His sonTukulti-ninip made himself master of Babylon, and was the first of hisrace who was able to claim the title of King of Sumir and Akkad. The Cossæans were still suffering from their defeat at the hands ofBammân-nirâri. Four of their princes had followed Nazimaruttash on thethrone in rapid succession--Kadashmanturgu, Kadashmanburiash, whowas attacked by Shalmaneser, a certain Isammeti whose name has beenmutilated, and lastly, Shagaraktiburiash: Bibeiasdu, son of this latter, was in power at the moment when Tukulti-ninip ascended the throne. Warbroke out between the two monarchs, but dragged on without any markedadvantage on one side or the other, till at length the conflict wastemporarily suspended by a treaty similar to others which had beensigned in the course of the previous two or three centuries. * * The passage from the _Synchronous History_, republished by Winckler, contains the termination of the mutilated name of a Babylonian king... _ashu_, which, originally left undecided by Winckler, has been restored "Bibeiashu" by Hilprecht, in the light of monuments discovered at Nipur, an emendation which has since then been accepted by Winckler. Winckler, on his part, has restored the passage on the assumption that the name of the King of Assyria engaged against Bibeiashu was Tukulti-ninip; then, combining this fragment with that in the _Pinches Chronicle_, which deals with the taking of Babylon, he argues that Bibeiashu was the king dethroned by Tukulti-ninip. An examination of the dates, in so far as they are at present known to us from the various documents, seems to me to render this arrangement inadmissible. The _Pinches Chronicle_ practically tells us that Tukulti-ninip reigned over Babylon for _seven years_, when the Chaldæans revolted, and named Rammânshumusur king. Now, the Babylonian Canon gives us the following reigns for this epoch: Bibeiashu _8 years_, Belnadînshumu _1 year 6 months_, Kadashmankharbe _1 year 6 months_, Rammânnadînshumu _6 years_, Rammânshumusur _30 years, _ or _9 years_ between the end of the reign of Bibeiashu and the beginning of that of Rammânshumusur, instead of the _7 years_ given us by the _Pinches Chronicle_ for the length of the reign of Tukulti- ninip at Babylon. If we reckon, as the only documents known require us to do, seven years from the beginning of the reign of Rammânshumusur to the date of the taking of Babylon, we are forced to admit that this took place in the reign of Kadashmankharbe IL, and, consequently, that the passage in the _Synchronous History_, in which mention is made of Bibeiashu, must be interpreted as I have done in the text, by the hypothesis of a war prior to that in which Babylon fell, which was followed by a treaty between this prince and the King of Assyria. The peace thus concluded might have lasted longer but for an unforeseencatastrophe which placed Babylon almost at the mercy of her rival. TheBlamites had never abandoned their efforts to press in every conceivableway their claim to the Sebbeneh-su, the supremacy, which, prior toKbammurabi, had been exercised by their ancestors over the whole ofMesopotamia; they swooped down on Karduniash with an impetuosity likethat of the Assyrians, and probably with the same alternations ofsuccess and defeat. Their king, Kidinkhutrutash, unexpectedly attackedBelnadînshumu, son of Bibeiashu, appeared suddenly under the wallsof Nipur and forced the defences of Durîlu and Étimgarka-lamma:Belnadînshumu disappeared in the struggle after a reign of eighteenmonths. Tukulti-ninip left Belna-dînshumu's successor, KadashmankharbeII. , no time to recover from this disaster; he attacked him in turn, carried Babylon by main force, and put a number of the inhabitants tothe sword. He looted the palace and the temples, dragged the statue ofMerodach from its sanctuary and carried it off into Assyria, togetherwith the badges of supreme power; then, after appointing governors ofhis own in the various towns, he returned to Kalakh, laden with booty;he led captive with him several members of the royal family--amongothers, Bammânshumusur, the lawful successor of Bibeiashu. This first conquest of Chaldæa did not, however, produce any lastingresults. The fall of Babylon did not necessarily involve the subjectionof the whole country, and the cities of the south showed a bold front tothe foreign intruder, and remained faithful to Kadashmankharbe; on thedeath of the latter, some months after his defeat, they hailed as king acertain Bammânshumnadîn, who by some means or other had made his escapefrom captivity. Bammânshumnadîn proved himself a better man than hispredecessors; when Kidinkhutrutash, never dreaming, apparently, that hewould meet with any serious resistance, came to claim his share ofthe spoil, he defeated him near Ishin, drove him out of the districtsrecently occupied by the Elamites, and so effectually retrieved hisfortunes in this direction, that he was able to concentrate his wholeattention on what was going on in the north. The effects of his victorysoon became apparent: the nobles of Akkad and Karduniash declined to payhomage to their Assyrian governors, and, ousting them from the officesto which they had been appointed, restored Babylon to the independencewhich it had lost seven years previously. Tukulti-ninip paid dearlyfor his incapacity to retain his conquests: his son Assurnazirpal I. Conspired with the principal officers, deposed him from the throne, andconfined him in the fortified palace of Kar-Tukulti-ninip, which hehad built not far from Kalakh, where he soon after contrived hisassassination. About this time Rammânshumnadîn disappears, and we canonly suppose that the disasters of these last years had practicallyannihilated the Cossæan dynasty, for Rammânshu-musur, who was a prisonerin Assyria, was chosen as his successor. The monuments tell us nothingdefinite of the troubles which next befell the two kingdoms: we seem togather, however, that Assyria became the scene of civil wars, andthat the sons of Tukulti-ninip fought for the crown among themselves. Tukultiassurbel, who gained the upper hand at the end of six years, setRaminân-shumusur at liberty, probably with the view of purchasingthe support of the Chaldæans, but he did not succeed in restoring hiscountry to the position it had held under Shalmaneser and Tukulti-ninipI. The history of Assyria presents a greater number of violent contrastsand extreme vicissitudes than that of any other Eastern people in theearliest times. No sooner had the Assyrians arrived, thanks to theceaseless efforts of five or six generations, at the very summit oftheir ambition, than some incompetent, or perhaps merely unfortunate, king appeared on the scene, and lost in a few years all the groundwhich had been gained at the cost of such tremendous exertions: thenthe subject races would rebel, the neighbouring peoples would pluck upcourage and reconquer the provinces which they had surrendered, till thedismembered empire gradually shrank back to its original dimensions. Asthe fortunes of Babylon rose, those of Nineveh suffered a correspondingdepression: Babylon soon became so powerful that Eammânshumusur was ableto adopt a patronising tone in his relations with Assur-nirâri I. AndNabodaînâni, the descendants of Tukultiassurbel, who at one time sharedthe throne together. * * All that we know of these two kings is contained in the copy, executed in the time of Assurbanipal, of a letter addressed to them by Eammânshumusur. They have been placed, at one time or another, either at the beginning of Assyrian history before Assurbelnishishu, or after Tigiath-pileser I. , about the XIth or Xth, or even the VIIIth century before our era. It has since been discovered that the Rammânshumusur who wrote this letter was the successor of Tukulti-ninip I. In Chaldæa. This period of subjection and humiliation did not last long. Belkudurusur, who appears on the throne not long after Assurnirâriand his partner, resumed military operations against the Cossæans, butcautiously at first; and though he fell in the decisive engagement, yet Bammân-shumusur perished with him, and the two states were thussimultaneously left rulerless. Milishikhu succeeded Bammânshumusur, and Ninipahalesharra filled the place of Belkudurusur; the disastrousinvasion of Assyria by the Chaldæans, and their subsequent retreat, atlength led to an armistice, which, while it afforded evidence of theindisputable superiority of Milishikhu, proved no less plainly theindependence of his rival. Mero-dachabaliddina I. Replaced Milishikhu, Zamâniashu-middin followed Merodachabaliddina: Assurdân I. , son ofNinipahalesharra, broke the treaty, captured the towns of Zabân, Irrîa, and Akarsallu, and succeeded in retaining them. The advantage thusgained was but a slight one, for these provinces lying between the twoZabs had long been subject to Assyria, and had been wrested from hersince the days of Tukulti-ninip: however, it broke the run of ill luckwhich seemed to have pursued her so relentlessly, and opened the way formore important victories. This was the last Cossæan war; at any rate, the last of which we find any mention in history: Bel-nadînshumu II. Reigned three years after Zamâmashu-middin, but when he died there wasno man of his family whom the priests could invite to lay hold of thehand of Merodach, and his dynasty ended with him. It included thirty-sixkings, and had lasted five hundred and seventy-six years and sixmonths. * * The following is a list of some of the kings of this dynasty accordingto the canon discovered by Pinches. [Illustration: 163. Jpg TABLE] It had enjoyed its moments of triumph, and at one time had almost seemeddestined to conquer the whole of Asia; but it appears to have invariablyfailed just as it was on the point of reaching the goal, and it becamecompletely exhausted by its victories at the end of every two orthree generations. It had triumphed over Elam, and yet Elam remained aconstant peril on its right. It had triumphed over Assyria, yet Assyria, after driving it back to the regions of the Upper Tigris, threatened tobar the road to the Mediterranean by means of its Masian colonies: werethey once to succeed in this attempt, what hope would there be left tothose who ruled in Babylon of ever after re-establishing the traditionalempire of the ancient Sargon and Khammurabi? The new dynasty sprang froma town in Pashê, the geographical position of which is not known. It wasof Babylonian origin, and its members placed, at the be ginning of theirprotocols, formula which were intended to indicate, in the clearestpossible manner, the source from which they sprang: they declaredthemselves to be scions of Babylon, its vicegerents, and suprememasters. The names of the first two we do not know: the third, Nebuchadrezzar, shows himself to have been one of the most remarkablemen of all those who flourished during this troubled era. At no time, perhaps, had Chaldæa been in a more abject state, or assailed by moreactive foes. The Elamite had just succeeded in wresting from her Namar, the region from whence the bulk of her chariot-horses were obtained, andthis success had laid the provinces on the left bank of the Tigris opento their attacks. They had even crossed the river, pillaged Babylon, and carried away the statue of Bel and that of a goddess named Eria, thepatroness of Khussi: "Merodach, sore angered, held himself aloof fromthe country of Akkad;" the kings could no longer "take his hands" ontheir coming to the throne, and were obliged to reign without properinvestiture in consequence of their failure to fulfil the rite requiredby religious laws. * * The _Donation to Shamud and Shamaî_ informs us that Nebuchadrezzar "took the hands of Bel" as soon as he regained possession of the statue. The copy we possess of the Royal Canon. Nebuchadrezzar I. 's place in the series has, therefore, been the subject of much controversy. Several Assyriologists were from the first inclined to place him in the first or second rank, some being in favour of the first, others preferring the second; Dolitzsch put him into the fifth place, and Winckler, without pronouncing definitely on the position to be assigned him, thought he must come in about half-way down the dynasty. Hilprecht, on taking up the questions, adduced reasons for supposing him to have been the founder of the dynasty, and his conclusions have been adopted by Oppert; they have been disputed by Tiele, who wishes to put the king back to fourth or fifth in order, and by Winckler, who places him fourth or fifth. It is difficult, however, to accept Hilprecht's hypothesis, plausible though it is, so long as Assyriologists who have seen the original tablet agree in declaring that the name of the first king began with the sign of _Merodach_ and not with that of _Nebo_, as it ought to do, were this prince really our Nebuchadrezzar. Nebuchadrezzar arose "in Babylon, --roaring like a lion, even as Bammânroareth, --and his chosen nobles, roared like lions with him. --ToMerodach, lord of Babylon, rose his prayer:--'How long, for me, shallthere be sighing and groaning?--How long, for my land, weeping andmourning?--How long, for my countries, cries of grief and tears? Tillwhat time, O lord of Babylon, wilt thou remain in hostile regions?--Letthy heart be softened, and make Babylon joyful, --and let thy face beturned toward Eshaggil which thou lovest!'" Merodach gave ear to theplaint of his servant: he answered him graciously and promised hisaid. Namar, united as it had been with Chaldæa for centuries, did notreadily become accustomed to its new masters. The greater part of theland belonged to a Semitic and Cossæan feudality, the heads of which, while admitting their suzerain's right to exact military service fromthem, refused to acknowledge any further duty towards him. The kings ofSusa declined to recognise their privileges: they subjected them to apoll-tax, levied the usual imposts on their estates, and forced themto maintain at their own expense the troops quartered on them for thepurpose of guaranteeing their obedience. * * Shamuà and Shamaî "fled in like manner towards Karduniash, before the King of Elam;" it would seem that Rittimerodach had entered into secret negotiations with Nebuchadrezzar, though this is nowhere explicitly stated in the text. Several of the nobles abandoned everything rather than submit to suchtyranny, and took refuge with Nebuchadrezzar: others entered into secretnegotiations with him, and promised to support him if he came to theirhelp with an armed force. He took them at their word, and invaded Namarwithout warning in the month of Tamuz, while the summer was at itsheight, at a season in which the Elamites never even dreamt he wouldtake the field. The heat was intense, water was not to be got, and thearmy suffered terribly from thirst during its forced march of overa hundred miles across a parched-up country. One of the malcontents, Eittimerodach, lord of Bitkarziabku, joined Nebuchadrezzar with all themen he could assemble, and together they penetrated as far as Ulaî. The King of Elam, taken by surprise, made no attempt to check theirprogress, but collected his vassals and awaited their attack on thebanks of the river in front of Susa. Once "the fire of the combat hadbeen lighted between the opposing forces, the face of the sun grew dark, the tempest broke forth, the whirlwind raged, and in this whirlwind ofthe struggle none of the characters could distinguish the face of hisneighbour. " Nebuchadrezzar, cut off from his own men, was about tosurrender or be killed, when Eittimerodach flew to his rescue andbrought him off safely. In the end the Chaldæans gained the upper hand. * * _Donation to Rittimerodach, _ col. I. 11. 12-43. The description of the battle as given in this document is generally taken to be merely symbolical, and I have followed the current usage. But if we bear in mind that the text lays emphasis on the drought and severity of the season, we are tempted to agree with Pinches and Budge that its statements should be taken literally. The affair may have been begun in a cloud of dust, and have ended in a downpour of rain so heavy as to partly blind the combatants. The king was probably drawn away from his men in the confusion; it was probably then that he was in danger of being made prisoner, and that Rittimerodach, suddenly coming up, delivered him from the foes who surrounded him. The Elamites renounced their claims to the possession of Namar, andrestored the statues of the gods: Nebuchadrezzar "at once laid hold ofthe hands of Bel, " and thus legalised his accession to the throne. Otherexpeditions against the peoples of Lulurne and against the Cossæansrestored his supremacy in the regions of the north-east, and a campaignalong the banks of the Euphrates opened out the road to Syria. Herewarded generously those who had accompanied him on his raid againstElam. After issuing regulations intended to maintain the purity of thebreed of horses for which Namar was celebrated, he reinstated in theirpossessions Shamuâ and his son Shamaî, the descendants of one of thepriestly families of the province, granting them in addition certaindomains near Upi, at the mouth of the Turnât. He confirmed Rittimerodachin possession of all his property, and reinvested him with all theprivileges of which the King of Elam had deprived him. From that timeforward the domain of Bitkarziabku was free of the tithe on corn, oxen, and sheep; it was no longer liable to provide horses and mares for theexchequer, or to afford free passage to troops in time of peace; theroyal jurisdiction ceased on the boundary of the fief, the seignorialjurisdiction alone extended over the inhabitants and their property. Chaldæan prefects ruled in Namar, at Khalman, and at the foot of theZagros, and Nebuchadrezzar no longer found any to oppose him save theKing of Assyria. The long reign of Assurdân in Assyria does not seem to have beendistinguished by any event of importance either good or bad: it is truehe won several towns on the south-east from the Babylonians, but thenhe lost several others on the north-west to the Mushku, * and the loss onthe one side fully balanced the advantage gained on the other. * Hommel has proved, by a very simple calculation, that Assurdân must have been the king in whose reign the Mushku made the inroad into the basin of the Upper Tigris and of the Balikh, which is mentioned in the _Annals of Tiglath- pileser I. _ These _Annals_ are our authority for stating that Assurdân was on the throne for a long period, though the exact length of his reign is not known. His son Mutakkilnusku lived in Assur at peace, * but his grandson, Assurîshishî, was a mighty king, conqueror of a score of countries, andthe terror of all rebels: he scattered the hordes of the Akhlamê andbroke up their forces; then Ninip, the champion of the gods, permittedhim to crush the Lulumê and the G-uti in their valleys and on theirmountains covered with forests. He made his way up to the frontiers ofElam, ** and his encroachments on territories claimed by Babylon stirredup the anger of the Chaldæans against him; Nebuchadrezzar made ready todispute their ownership with him. * _Annals of Tiglath-pileser I_. Mutakkilnusku himself has only left us one inscription, in which he declares that he had built a palace in the city of Assyria. ** Smith discovered certain fragments of Annals, which he attributed to Assurîshishî. The longest of these tell of a campaign against Elam. Lotz attributed them to Tiglath- pileser I. , and is supported in this by most Assyriologists of the day. The earlier engagements went against the Assyrians; they were drivenback in disorder, but the victor lost time before one of theirstrongholds, and, winter coming on before he could take it, he burnt hisengines of war, set fire to his camp, and returned home. Next year, a rapid march carried him right under the walls of Assur; thenAssurîshishî came to the rescue, totally routed his opponent, capturedforty of his chariots, and drove him flying across the frontier. The wardied out of itself, its end being marked by no treaty: each side keptits traditional position and supremacy over the tribes inhabiting thebasins of the Turnât and Eadanu. The same names reappear in line afterline of these mutilated Annals, and the same definite enumerations ofrebellious tribes who have been humbled or punished. These kings ofthe plain, both Ninevite and Babylonian, were continually raiding thecountry up and down for centuries without ever arriving at any decisiveresult, and a detailed account of their various campaigns would be astedious reading as that of the ceaseless struggle between the Latins andSabines which fills the opening pages of Roman history. Posterity soongrew weary of them, and, misled by the splendid position which Assyriaattained when at the zenith of its glory, set itself to fabricatesplendid antecedents for the majestic empire established by the latterdynasties. The legend ran that, at the dawn of time, a chief namedNinos had reduced to subjection one after the other--Babylonia, Media, Armenia, and all the provinces between the Indies and the Mediterranean. He built a capital for himself on the banks of the Tigris, in the formof a parallelogram, measuring a hundred and fifty stadia in length, ninety stadia in width; altogether, the walls were four hundred andeighty stadia in circumference. In addition to the Assyrians who formedthe bulk of the population, he attracted many foreigners to Nineveh, so that in a few years it became the most flourishing town in the wholeworld. An inroad of the tribes of the Oxus interrupted his labours;Ninos repulsed the invasion, and, driving the barbarians back intoBactria, laid siege to it; here, in the tent of one of his captains, hecame upon Semiramis, a woman whose past was shrouded in mystery. Shewas said to be the daughter of an ordinary mortal by a goddess, theAscalonian Derketô. Exposed immediately after her birth, she was foundand adopted by a shepherd named Simas, and later on her beauty arousedthe passion of Oannes, governor of Syria. Ninos, amazed at the couragedisplayed by her on more than one occasion, carried her off, made herhis favourite wife, and finally met his death at her hands. No soonerdid she become queen, than she founded Babylon on a far more extensivescale than that of Nineveh. Its walls were three hundred and sixtystadia in length, with two hundred and fifty lofty towers, placed hereand there on its circuit, the roadway round the top of the rampartsbeing wide enough for six chariots to drive abreast. She made a kind ofharbour in the Euphrates, threw a bridge across it, and built quays onehundred and sixty stadia in length along its course; in the midst of thetown she raised a temple to Bel. This great work was scarcely finishedwhen disturbances broke out in Media; these she promptly repressed, andset out on a tour of inspection through the whole of her provinces, with a view to preventing the recurrence of similar outbreaks by herpresence. Wherever she went she left records of her passage behind her, cutting her way through mountains, quarrying a pathway through the solidrock, making broad highways for herself, bringing rebellious tribesbeneath her yoke, and raising tumuli to mark the tombs of such of hersatraps as fell beneath the blows of the enemy. She built Ecbatana inMedia, Semiramocarta on Lake Van in Armenia, and Tarsus in Cilicia;then, having reached the confines of Syria, she crossed the isthmus, andconquered Egypt and Ethiopia. The far-famed wealth of India recalled herfrom the banks of the Nile to those of the Euphrates, _en route_ forthe remote east, but at this point her good fortune forsook her: she wasdefeated by King Stratobates, and returned to her own dominions, neveragain to leave them. She had set up triumphal stelae on the boundariesof the habitable globe, in the very midst of Scythia, not far from theIaxartes, where, centuries afterwards, Alexander of Macedon readthe panegyric of herself which she had caused to be engraved there. "Nature, " she writes, "gave me the body of a woman, but my deeds haveput me on a level with the greatest of men. I ruled over the dominion ofNinos, which extends eastwards to the river Hinaman, southwards to thecountries of Incense and Myrrh, and northwards as far as the Sacaa andSogdiani. Before my time no Assyrian had ever set eyes on the sea: Ihave seen four oceans to which no mariner has ever sailed, so far remoteare they. I have made rivers to flow where I would have them, in theplaces where they were needed; thus did I render fertile the barren soilby watering it with my rivers. I raised up impregnable fortresses, andcut roadways through the solid rock with the pick. I opened a way forthe wheels of my chariots in places to which even the feet of wildbeasts had never penetrated. And, amidst all these labours, I yet foundtime for my pleasures and for the society of my friends. " On discoveringthat her son Ninyas was plotting her assassination, she at onceabdicated in his favour, in order to save him from committing a crime, and then transformed herself into a dove; this last incident betrays thegoddess to us. Ninos and Semiramis are purely mythical, and their mightydeeds, like those ascribed to Ishtar and Gilgames, must be placed in thesame category as those other fables with which the Babylonian legendsstrive to fill up the blank of the prehistoric period. * * The legend of Ninos and Semiramis is taken from Diodorus Siculus, who reproduces, often word for word, the version of Ctesias. [Illustration: 172. Jpg the dove-goddess] Drawn by Boudier, from the sketch published in Longpérier. The real facts were, as we know, far less brilliant and less extravagantthan those supplied by popular imagination. It would be a mistake, however, to neglect or despise them on account of their tedious monotonyand the insignificance of the characters who appear on the stage. Itwas by dint of fighting her neighbours again and again, without a singleday's respite, that Rome succeeded in forging the weapons with whichshe was to conquer the world; and any one who, repelled by their tedioussameness, neglected to follow the history of her early struggles, wouldfind great difficulty in understanding how it came about that a citywhich had taken centuries to subjugate her immediate neighbours shouldafterwards overcome all the states on the Mediterranean seaboard withsuch magnificent ease. In much the same way the ceaseless struggles ofAssyria with the Chaldaeans, and with the mountain tribes of theZagros Chain, were unconsciously preparing her for those lightning-likecampaigns in which she afterwards overthrew all the civilized nationsof the Bast one after another. It was only at the cost of unparalleledexertions that she succeeded in solidly welding together the variousprovinces within her borders, and in kneading (so to speak) the manyand diverse elements of her vast population into one compact mass, containing in itself all that was needful for its support, and able tobear the strain of war for several years at time without giving way, andrich enough in men and horses to provide the material for an effectivearmy without excessive impoverishment of her trade or agriculture. [Illustration: 173. Jpg AN ASSYRIAN] Drawn by Boudier, from a painted bas-relief given in Layard. The race came of an old Semitic strain, somewhat crude as yet, andalmost entirely free from that repeated admixture of foreign elementswhich had marred the purity of the Babylonian stock. The monuments showus a type similar in many respects to that which we find to-day on theslopes of Singar, or in the valleys to the east of Mossul. The figures on the monuments are tall and straight, broad-shouldered andwide in the hips, the arms well developed, the legs robust, with goodsubstantial feet. The swell of the muscles on the naked limbs is perhapsexaggerated, but this very exaggeration of the modelling suggeststhe vigour of the model; it is a heavier, more rustic type than theEgyptian, promising greater strength and power of resistance, and in sofar an indisputable superiority in the great game of war. The head issomewhat small, the forehead low and flat, the eyebrows heavy, the eyeof a bold almond shape, with heavy lids, the nose aquiline, and full atthe tip, with wide nostrils terminating in a hard, well-defined curve;the lips are thick and full, the chin bony, while the face is framed bythe coarse dark wavy hair and beard, which fell in curly masses over thenape of the neck and the breast. The expression of the face is rarelyof an amiable and smiling type, such as we find in the statues of theTheban period or in those of the Memphite empire, nor, as a matter offact, did the Assyrian pride himself on the gentleness of his manners:he did not overflow with love for his fellow-man, as the Egyptian madea pretence of doing; on the contrary, he was stiff-necked and proud, without pity for others or for himself, hot-tempered and quarrelsomelike his cousins of Chaldæa, but less turbulent and more capable ofstrict discipline. It mattered not whether he had come into the world inone of the wretched cabins of a fellah village, or in the palace ofone of the great nobles; he was a born soldier, and his whole educationtended to develop in him the first qualities of the soldier--temperance, patience, energy, and unquestioning obedience: he was enrolled in anarmy which was always on a war footing, commanded by the god Assur, andunder Assur, by the king, the vicegerent and representative of the god. His life was shut in by the same network of legal restrictions whichconfined that of the Babylonians, and all its more important eventshad to be recorded on tablets of clay; the wording of contracts, theformalities of marriage or adoption, the status of bond and free, therites of the dead and funeral ceremonies, had either remained identicalwith those in use during the earliest years of the cities of the LowerEuphrates, or differed from them only in their less important details. The royal and municipal governments levied the same taxes, used thesame procedure, employed the same magistrates, and the grades of theirhierarchy were the same, with one exception. After the king, the highestoffice was filled by a soldier, the _tartan_ who saw to the recruitingof the troops, and led them in time of war, or took command of thestaff-corps whenever the sovereign himself deigned to appear on thescene of action. * * We can determine the rank occupied, by the _tartanu_ at court by the positions they occupy in the lists of eponymous _limmu_: they invariably come next after the king--a fact which was noticed many years ago. The more influential of these functionaries bore, in addition to theirother titles, one of a special nature, which, for the space of one year, made its holder the most conspicuous man in the country; they became_limmu_, and throughout their term of office their names appeared onall official documents. The Chaldæans distinguished the various years ofeach reign by a reference to some event which had taken place ineach; the Assyrians named them after the _limmu_. * The king was the_ex-officio limmu_ for the year following that of his accession, thenafter him the _tartan_, then the ministers and governors of provincesand cities in an order which varied little from reign to reign. Thenames of the _limmu_, entered in registers and tabulated--just as, later on, were those of the Greek archons and Roman consuls--furnishedthe annalists with a rigid chronological system, under which the factsof history might be arranged with certainty. ** * According to Delitzsch, the term _limu, _ or _limmu_, meant at first any given period, then later more especially the year during which a magistrate filled his office; in the opinion of most other Assyriologists it referred to the magistrate himself as eponymous archon. ** The first list of _limmu_ was discovered by H. Rawlinson. The portions which have been preserved extend from the year 893 to the year 666 B. C. Without a break. In the periods previous and subsequent to this we have only names scattered here and there which it has not been possible to classify: the earliest _limmu_ known at present flourished under Rammân-nirâri I. , and was named Mukhurilâni. Three different versions of the canon have como down to us. In the most important one the names of the eponymous officials are written one after another without titles or any mention of important events; in the other two, the titles of each personage, and any important occurrences which took place during his year of office, are entered after the name. The king still retained the sacerdotal attributes with which Cossæanmonarchs had been invested from the earliest times, but contact with theEgyptians had modified the popular conception of his personality. Hissubjects were no longer satisfied to regard him merely as a man superiorto his fellow-men; they had come to discover something of the divinenature in him, and sometimes identified him--not with Assur, the masterof all things, who occupied a position too high above the pale ofordinary humanity--but with one of the demi-gods of the second rank, Shamash, the Sun, the deity whom the Pharaohs pretended to represent inflesh and blood here below. His courtiers, therefore, went as far as tocall him "Sun" when they addressed him, and he himself adopted this titlein his inscriptions. * * Nebuchadrezzar I. Of Babylon assumes the title of _Shamash mati-shu_, the "Sun of his country, " and Hilprecht rightly sees in this expression a trace of Egyptian influences; later on, Assurnazirpal, King of Assyria similarly describes himself as _Shamshu kishshat nishi_, the "Sun of all mankind. " Tiele is of opinion that these expressions do not necessarily point to any theory of the actual incarnation of the god, as was the case in Egypt, but that they may be mere rhetorical figures. Formerly he had only attained this apotheosis after death, later on hewas permitted to aspire to it during his lifetime. The Chaldæans adoptedthe same attitude, and in both countries the royal authority shone withthe borrowed lustre of divine omnipotence. With these exceptions lifeat court remained very much the same as it had been; at Nineveh, as atBabylon, we find harems filled with foreign princesses, who had eitherbeen carried off as hostages from the country of a defeated enemy, oramicably obtained from their parents. In time of war, the command of thetroops and the dangers of the battle-field; in time of peace, a hostof religious ceremonies and judicial or administrative duties, left butlittle leisure to the sovereign who desired to perform conscientiouslyall that was required of him. His chief amusement lay in the hunting ofwild beasts: the majority of the princes who reigned over Assyria had abetter right than even Amenôthes III. Himself to boast of the hundredsof lions which they had slain. They set out on these hunting expeditionswith quite a small army of charioteers and infantry, and were often awayseveral days at a time, provided urgent business did not require theirpresence in the palace. They started their quarry with the help of largedogs, and followed it over hill and dale till they got within bowshot:if it was but slightly wounded and turned on them, they gave it thefinishing stroke with their lances without dismounting. [Illustration: 178. Jpg A LION-HUNT] Drawn by Boudier, from a bas-relief in the British Museum. Occasionally, however, they were obliged to follow their prey intoplaces where horses could not easily penetrate; then a hand-to-handconflict was inevitable. The lion would rise on its hind quarters andendeavour to lay its pursuer low with a stroke of its mighty paw, butonly to fall pierced to the heart by his lance or sword. [Illustration: 179. Jpg LION TRANSFIXED BY AN ARROW] Drawn by Boudier, from a bas-relief in the British Museum. This kind of encounter demanded great presence of mind and steadiness ofhand; the Assyrians were, therefore, trained to it from their youthup, and no hunter was permitted to engage in these terrible encounterswithout long preliminary practice. Seeing the lion as they did sofrequently, and at such close quarters, they came to know it quite aswell as the Egyptians, and their sculptors reproduce it with a realismand technical skill which have been rarely equalled in modern times. But while the Theban artist generally represents it in an attitude ofrepose, the Assyrians prefer to show it in violent action in all thevarious attitudes which it assumes during a struggle, either crouchingas it prepares to spring, or fully extended in the act of leaping;sometimes it rears into an upright position, with arched back, gapingjaws, and claws protruded, ready to bite or strike its foe; at othersit writhes under a spear-thrust, or rolls over and over in its dyingagonies. In one instance, an arrow has pierced the skull of a male lion, crashing through the frontal bone a little above the left eyebrow, andprotrudes obliquely to the right between his teeth: under the shock ofthe blow he has risen on his hind legs, with contorted spine, and beatsthe air with his fore paws, his head thrown back as though to freehimself of the fatal shaft. Not far from him the lioness lies stretchedout upon its back in the rigidity of death. [Illustration: 180. Jpg PAINTINGS OF CHAIRS] The "rimu, " or urus, was, perhaps, even a more formidable animal toencounter than any of the _felido_, owing to the irresistible fury ofhis attack. No one would dare, except in a case of dire necessity, tomeet him on foot. The loose flowing robes which the king and the noblesnever put aside--not even in such perilous pastimes as these--were illfitted for the quick movements required to avoid the attack of such ananimal, and those who were unlucky enough to quit their chariot ran aterrible risk of being gored or trodden underfoot in the encounter. Itwas the custom, therefore, to attack the beast by arrows, and to keep itat a distance. If the animal were able to come up with its pursuer, thelatter endeavoured to seize it by the horn at the moment when it loweredits head, and to drive his dagger into its neck. If the blow wereadroitly given it severed the spinal cord, and the beast fell in a heapas if struck by lightning. A victory over such animals was an occasionfor rejoicing, and solemn thanks were offered to Assur and Ishtar, thepatrons of the chase, at the usual evening sacrifice. [Illustration: 181. Jpg A UBUS HUNT] Drawn by Boudier, from a bas-relief in the British Museum. The slain beasts, whether lion or urus, were arranged in a rowbefore the altar, while the king, accompanied by his flabella, andumbrella-bearers, stood alongside them, holding his bow in his lefthand. While the singers intoned the hymn of thanksgiving to theaccompaniment of the harp, the monarch took the bowl of sacred wine, touched his lips with it, and then poured a portion of the contents onthe heads of the victims. A detailed account of each hunting exploit waspreserved for posterity either in inscriptions or on bas-reliefs. * * In the _Annals of Tiglath-pileser I. _ the king counts the number of his victims: 4 urus, 10 male elephants, 120 lions slain in single combat on foot, 800 lions killed by arrows let fly from his chariot. In the _Annals of Assurnazirpal, _ the king boasts of having slain 30 elephants, 250 urus, and 370 lions. The chase was in those days of great service to the rural population;the kings also considered it to be one of the duties attached to theiroffice, and on a level with their obligation to make war on neighbouringnations devoted by the will of Assur to defeat and destruction. [Illustration: 182. Jpg LIBATION POURED OVER THE LIONS ON THE RETURN FROMTHE CHASE] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Hommel. The army charged to carry out the will of the god had not yet acquiredthe homogeneity and efficiency which it afterwards attained, yet it hadbeen for some time one of the most formidable in the world, and eventhe Egyptians themselves, in spite of their long experience in militarymatters, could not put into the field such a proud array of effectivetroops. We do not know how this army was recruited, but the bulk of itwas made up of native levies, to which foreign auxiliaries were addedin numbers varying with the times. * A permanent nucleus of troops wasalways in garrison in the capital under the "tartan, " or placed in theprincipal towns at the disposal of the governors. ** * We have no bas-relief representing the armies of Tiglath- pileser I. Everything in the description which follows is taken from the monuments of Assurnazirpal and Shalmaneser II. , revised as far as possible by the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser; the armament of both infantry and chariotry must have been practically the same in the two periods. ** This is based on the account given in the Obelisk of Shalmaneser, where the king, for example, after having gathered his soldiers together at Kalakh [Calah], put at their head Dainassur the artan, "the master of his innumerable troops. " [Illustration: 183. Jpg TWO ASSYRIAN ARCHERS] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin. The contingents which came to be enrolled at these centres on the firstrumour of war may have been taken from among the feudal militia, as wasthe custom in the Nile valley, or the whole population may have had torender personal military service, each receiving while with the coloursa certain daily pay. The nobles and feudal lords were accustomed to calltheir own people together, and either placed themselves at their head orcommissioned an officer to act in their behalf. * * The assembling of foot-soldiers and chariots is often described at the beginning of each campaign; the _Donation of Bittimerodach_ brings before us a great feudal lord, who leads his contingent to the King of Chaldæa, and anything which took place among the Babylonians had its counterpart among the Assyrians. Sometimes the king had need of all the contingents, and then it was said he "assembled the country. " Auxiliaries are mentioned, for example, in the _Annals of Assurnazirpal_, col. Iii. 11. 58-77, where the king, in his passage, rallies one after the other the troops of Bît-Bakhiâni, of Azalli, of Bît-Adini, of Garganish, and of the Patinu. [Illustration: 184. Jpg AN ASSYRIAN WAR-CHARIOT CHARGING THE FOE] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Mansell. These recruits were subjected to the training necessary for theircalling by exercises similar to those of the Egyptians, but of a roughersort and better adapted to the cumbrous character of their equipment. The blacksmith's art had made such progress among the Assyrians sincethe times of Thûtmosis III. And Ramses IL, that both the character andthe materials of the armour were entirely changed. [Illustration: 185a. Jpg HARNESS OF THE HORSES] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from G. Rawlinson. [Illustration: 185b. Jpg PIKEMAN] While the Egyptian of old entered into the contest almost naked, andwithout other defence than a padded cap, a light shield, and a leatherapron, the Assyrian of the new age set out for war almost cased inmetal. The pikemen and archers of whom the infantry of the line wascomposed wore a copper or iron helmet, conical in form, and havingcheek-pieces covering the ears; they were clad in a sort of leathernshirt covered with plates or imbricated scales of metal, which protectedthe body and the upper part of the arm; a quilted and padded loin-clothcame over the haunches, while close-fitting trousers, and buskins lacedup in the front, completed their attire. The pikemen were armed with alance six feet long, a cutlass or short sword passed through the girdle, and an enormous shield, sometimes round and convex, sometimes arched atthe top and square at the bottom. The bowmen did not encumber themselveswith a buckler, but carried, in addition to the bow and quiver, a poignard or mace. The light infantry consisted of pikemen andarchers--each of whom wore a crested helmet and a round shield ofwicker-work--of slingers and club-bearers, as well as of men armed withthe two-bladed battle-axe. The chariots were heavier and larger thanthose of the Egyptians. They had high, strongly made wheels with eightspokes, and the body of the vehicle rested directly on the axle; thepanels were of solid wood, sometimes covered with embossed or carvedmetal, but frequently painted; they were further decorated sometimeswith gold, silver, or ivory mountings, and with precious stones. Thepole, which was long and heavy, ended in a boss of carved wood orincised metal, representing a flower, a rosette, the muzzle of a lion, or a horse's head. It was attached to the axle under the floor of thevehicle, and as it had to bear a great strain, it was not only fixed tothis point by leather thongs such as were employed in Egypt, but alsobound to the front of the chariot by a crossbar shaped like a spindle, and covered with embroidered stuff--an arrangement which prevented itsbecoming detached when driving at full speed. A pair of horses wereharnessed to it, and a third was attached to them on the right sidefor the use of a supplementary warrior, who could take the place of hiscomrade in case of accident, or if he were wounded. The trappings werevery simple; but sometimes there was added to these a thickly paddedcaparison, of which the various parts were fitted to the horse by tagsso as to cover the upper part of his head, his neck, back, and breast. The usual complement of charioteers was two to each vehicle, as inEgypt, but sometimes, as among the Khâti, there were three--one on theleft to direct the horses, a warrior, and an attendant who protected theother two with his shield; on some occasions a fourth was added as anextra assistant. The equipment of the charioteers was like that of theinfantry, and consisted of a jacket with imbricated scales of metal, bow and arrows, and a lance or javelin. A standard which served as arallying-point for the chariots in the battle was set up on the frontpart of each vehicle, between the driver and the warrior; it bore atthe top a disk supported on the heads of two bulls, or by two completerepresentations of these animals, and a standing figure of Assur lettingfly his arrows. The chariotry formed, as in most countries of that time, the picked troops of the service, in which the princes and great lordswere proud to be enrolled. Upon it depended for the most part the issueof the conflict, and the position assigned to it was in the van, the king or commander-in-chief reserving to himself the privilege ofconducting the charge in person. It was already, however, in a stateof decadence, both as regards the number of units composing it and itsmethods of manoeuvring; the infantry, on the other hand, had increasedin numbers, and under the guidance of abler generals tended to becomethe most trustworthy force in Assyrian campaigns. * * Tiglath-pileser is seen, for instance, setting out on a campaign in a mountainous country with only thirty chariots. Notwithstanding the weight of his equipment, the Assyrian foot-soldierwas as agile as the Egyptian, but he had to fight usually in a much moredifficult region than that in which the Pharaoh's troops were accustomedto manouvre. [Illustration: 188. Jpg CROSSING A RIVER IN BOATS AND ON INFLATED SKINS] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard. The theatre of war was not like Syria, with its fertile and almostunbroken plains furrowed by streams which offered little obstructionto troops throughout the year, but a land of marshes, arid and rockydeserts, mighty rivers, capable, in one of their sudden floods, ofarresting progress for days, and of jeopardising the success of acampaign;* violent and ice-cold torrents, rugged mountains whose summitsrose into "points like daggers, " and whose passes could be held againsta host of invaders by a handful of resolute men. ** * Sennacherib was obliged to arrest his march against Elam, owing to his inability to cross the torrents swollen by the rain; a similar contretemps must have met Assurbanipal on the banks of the Ididi. ** The Assyrian monarchs dwell with pleasure on the difficulties of the country which they have to overcome. Bands of daring skirmishers, consisting of archers, slingers, andpikemen, cleared the way for the mass of infantry marching in columns, and for the chariots, in the midst of which the king and his householdtook up their station; the baggage followed, together with the prisonersand their escorts. * * Assurbanipal relates, for instance, that he put under his escort a tribe which had surrendered themselves as prisoners. If they came to a river where there was neither ford nor bridge, theywere not long in effecting a passage. [Illustration: 189. Jpg MAKING A BRIDGE FOR THE PASSAGE OF THE CHARIOTS] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief on the bronze gates of Balawât. Each soldier was provided with a skin, which, having inflated it by thestrength of his lungs and closed the aperture, he embraced in his armsand cast himself into the stream. Partly by floating and partly byswimming, a whole regiment could soon reach the other side. The chariotscould not be carried over so easily. [Illustration: 190. Jpg THE KING'S CHARIOT CROSSING A BRIDGE] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the bronze gates of Balawât. If the bed of the river was not very wide, and the current not tooviolent, a narrow bridge was constructed, or rather an improvised dykeof large stones and rude gabions filled with clay, over which was spreada layer of branches and earth, supplying a sufficiently broad passagefor a single chariot, of which the horses were led across at walkingpace. * * Flying bridges, _tîturâti_, were mentioned as far back as the time of Tiglath-pileser I. But when the distance between the banks was too great, and the streamtoo violent to allow of this mode of procedure, boats were requisitionedfrom the neighbourhood, on which men and chariots were embarked, whilethe horses, attended by grooms, or attached by their bridles to theflotilla, swam across the river. * If the troops had to pass through amountainous district intersected by ravines and covered by forests, andthus impracticable on ordinary occasions for a large body of men, theadvance-guard were employed in cutting a passage through the treeswith the axe, and, if necessary, in making with the pick pathwaysor rough-hewn steps similar to those met with in the Lebanon on thePhoenician coast. ** * It was in this manner that Tiglath-pileser I. Crossed the Euphrates on his way to the attack of Carchemish. ** Tiglath-pileser I. Speaks on several occasions, and not without pride, of the roads that he had made for himself with bronze hatchets through the forests and over the mountains. [Illustration: 191. Jpg THE ASSYRIAN INFANTRY CROSSING THE MOUNTAINS] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief on the bronze gates ofBalawât. The troops advanced in narrow columns, sometimes even in single file, along these improvised roads, always on the alert lest they should betaken at a disadvantage by an enemy concealed in the thickets. In caseof attack, the foot-soldiers had each to think of himself, and endeavourto give as many blows as he received; but the charioteers, encumberedby their vehicles and the horses, found it no easy matter to extricatethemselves from the danger. Once the chariots had entered into theforest region, the driver descended from his vehicle, and led the horsesby the head, while the warrior and his assistant were not slow to followhis example, in order to give some relief to the animals by tugging atthe wheels. The king alone did not dismount, more out of respect for hisdignity than from indifference to the strain upon the animals; for, inspite of careful leading, he had to submit to a rough shaking from theinequalities of this rugged soil; sometimes he had too much of this, andit is related of him in his annals that he had crossed the mountains onfoot like an ordinary mortal. * * The same fact is found in the accounts of every expedition, but more importance is attached to it as we approach the end of the Ninevite empire, when the kings were not so well able to endure hardship. Sennacherib mentions it on several occasions, with a certain amount of self-pity for the fatigue he had undergone, but with a real pride in his own endurance. A halt was made every evening, either at some village, whose inhabitantswere obliged to provide food and lodging, or, in default of this, onsome site which they could fortify by a hastily thrown up rampart ofearth. If they were obliged to remain in any place for a length of time, a regular encircling wall was constructed, not square or rectangularlike those of the Egyptians, but round or oval. * * The oval inclines towards a square form, with rounded corners, on the bas-reliefs of the bronze gates of Shalmaneser II. At Balawât. [Illustration: 193. Jpg THE KING CROSSING A MOUNTAIN IN HIS CHARIOT] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Mansell, taken in the British Museum. It was made of dried brick, and provided with towers like an ancientcity; indeed, many of these entrenched camps survived the occasion oftheir formation, and became small fortified towns or castles, whence apermanent garrison could command the neighbouring country. The interiorwas divided into four equal parts by two roads, intersecting each otherat right angles. The royal tents, with their walls of felt or brownlinen, resembled an actual palace, which could be moved from place toplace; they were surrounded with less pretentious buildings reserved forthe king's household, and the stables. [Illustration: 194. Jpg AN ASSYRIAN CAMP] Drawn by Boudier, from Layard. The tent-poles at the angles of these habitations were plated withmetal, and terminated at their upper extremities in figures of goats andother animals made of the same material. The tents of the soldiers, wereconical in form, and each was maintained in its position by a forkedpole placed inside. They contained the ordinary requirements of thepeasant---bed and head-rest, table with legs like those of a gazelle, stools and folding-chairs; the household utensils and the provisionshung from the forks of the support. The monuments, which usuallygive few details of humble life, are remarkable for their completereproductions of the daily scenes in the camp. We see on them, thesoldier making his bed, grinding corn, dressing the carcase of a sheep, which he had just killed, or pouring out wine; the pot boiling on thefire is watched by the vigilant eye of a trooper or of a woman, whilethose not actively employed are grouped together in twos and threes, eating, drinking, and chatting. A certain number of priests andsoothsayers accompanied the army, but they did not bring the statues oftheir gods with them, the only emblems of the divinities seen in battlebeing the two royal ensigns, one representing Assur as lord of theterritory, borne on a single bull and bending his bow, while the otherdepicted him standing on two bulls as King of Assyria. * An altar smokedbefore the chariot on which these two standards were planted, and everynight and morning the prince and his nobles laid offerings upon it, andrecited prayers before it for the well-being of the army. Military tactics had not made much progress since the time of the greatEgyptian invasions. The Assyrian generals set out in haste from Ninevehor Assur in the hope of surprising their enemy, and they often succeededin penetrating into the very heart of his country before he had timeto mobilise or concentrate his forces. The work of subduing him wasperformed piecemeal; they devastated his fields, robbed his orchards, and, marching all through the night, ** they would arrive with suchsuddenness before one or other of his towns, that he would have no timeto organise a defence. Most of their campaigns were mere forced marchesacross plains and mountains, without regular sieges or pitched battles. * It is possible that each of these standards corresponded to some dignity of the sovereign; the first belonged to him, inasmuch as he was _shar kishshati, _ "king of the regions, " and the other, by virtue of his office, of _shar Ashshur_, "King of Assyria. " ** Assurnazirpal mentions several night marches, which enabled him to reach the heart of the enemy's country. [Illustration: 196. Jpg A FORTIFIED TOWN] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Mansell. The inhabitants of the town who have been taken prisoners, are leaving it with their cattle under the conduct of Assyrian soldiers. Should the enemy, however, seek an engagement, and the men be drawn upin line to meet him, the action would be opened by archers and lighttroops armed with slings, who would be followed by the chariotry andheavy infantry for close attack; a reserve of veterans would awaitaround the commanding-general the crucial moment of the engagement, whenthey would charge in a body among the combatants, and decide the victoryby sheer strength of arm. * * Tiglath-pileser I. Mentions a pitched battle against the Muskhu, who numbered 20, 000 men; and another against Kiliteshub, King of Kummukh, in his first campaign. In one of the following campaigns he overcame the people of Saraush and those of Maruttash, and also 6000 Sugi; later on he defeated 23 allied kings of Naîri, and took from them 120 chariots and 20, 000 people of Kumanu. The other wars are little more than raids, during which he encountered merely those who were incapable of offering him any resistance. The pursuit of the enemy was never carried to any considerable distance, for the men were needed to collect the spoil, despatch the wounded, andcarry off the trophies of war. Such of the prisoners as it was deemeduseful or politic to spare were stationed in a safe place under a guardof sentries. The remainder were condemned to death as they were broughtin, and their execution took place without delay; they were made tokneel down, with their backs to the soldiery, their heads bowed, andtheir hands resting on a flat stone or a billet of wood, in whichposition they were despatched with clubs. The scribes, standing beforetheir tent doors, registered the number of heads cut off; each soldier, bringing his quota and throwing it upon the heap, gave in his name andthe number of his company, and then withdrew in the hope of receiving areward proportionate to the number of his victims. * * The details of this bringing of heads are known to us by representations of a later period. The allusions contained in the _Annals of Tiglath-pileser I_. Show that the custom was in full force under the early Assyrian conquerors. When the king happened to accompany the army, he always presided at thisscene, and distributed largesse to those who had shown most bravery; inhis absence he required that the heads of the enemy's chiefs should besent to him, in order that they might be exposed to his subjects on thegates of his capital. Sieges were lengthy and arduous undertakings. Inthe case of towns situated on the plain, the site was usually chosenso as to be protected by canals, or an arm of a river on two or threesides, thus leaving one side only without a natural defence, which theinhabitants endeavoured to make up for by means of double or trebleramparts. * * The town of Tela had three containing walls, that of Shingisha had four, and that of Pitura two. [Illustration: 198. Jpg THE BRINGING OF HEADS AFTER A BATTLE] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard. These fortifications must have resembled those of the Syrian towns; thewalls were broad at the base, and, to prevent scaling, rose to a heightof some thirty or forty feet: there were towers at intervals of abowshot, from which the archers could seriously disconcert partiesmaking attacks against any intervening points in the curtain wall; themassive gates were covered with raw hides, or were plated with metalto resist assaults by fire and axe, while, as soon as hostilitiescommenced, the defence was further completed by wooden scaffolding. Places thus fortified, however, at times fell almost without an attemptat resistance; the inhabitants, having descended into the lowlands torescue their crops from the Assyrians, would be disbanded, and, whileendeavouring to take refuge within their ramparts, would be pursued bythe enemy, who would gain admittance with them in the general disorder. If the town did not fall into their hands by some stroke of goodfortune, they would at once attempt, by an immediate assault, to terrifythe garrison into laying down their arms. * * Assurnazirpal, in this fashion, took the town of Pitura in two days, in spite of its strong double ramparts. The archers and slingers led the attack by advancing in couples tillthey were within the prescribed distance from the walls, one of the twotaking careful aim, while the other sheltered his comrade behind hisround-topped shield. The king himself would sometimes alight from hischariot and let fly his arrows in the front rank of the archers, whilea handful of resolute men would rush against the gates of the townand attempt either to break them down or set them alight with torches. Another party, armed with stout helmets and quilted jerkins, whichrendered them almost invulnerable to the shower of arrows or stonespoured on them by the besieged, would attempt to undermine the walls bymeans of levers and pick-axes, and while thus engaged would be protectedby mantelets fixed to the face of the walls, resembling in shape theshields of the archers. Often bodies of men would approach the suburbsof the city and endeavour to obtain access to the ramparts from theroofs of the houses in close proximity to the walls. If, however, they could gain admittance by none of these means, and time was of noconsideration, they would resign themselves to a lengthy siege, and theblockade would commence by a systematic desolation of the surroundingcountry, in which the villages scattered over the plain would be burnt, the vines torn up, and all trees cut down. [Illustration: 200. Jpg THE KING LETS FLY ARROWS AT A BESIEGED TOWN] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard. The Assyrians waged war with a brutality which the Egyptians would neverhave tolerated. Unlike the Pharaohs, their kings were not content toimprison or put to death the principal instigators of a revolt, buttheir wrath would fall upon the entire population. As long as a townresisted the efforts of their besieging force, all its inhabitantsbearing arms who fell into their hands were subjected to the most crueltortures; they were cut to pieces or impaled alive on stakes, which wereplanted in the ground just in front of the lines, so that the besiegedshould enjoy a full view of the sufferings of their comrades. [Illustration: 201. Jpg ASSYRIAN SAPPERS] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard. Even during the course of a short siege this line of stakes wouldbe prolonged till it formed a bloody pale between the two contendingarmies. This horrible spectacle had at least the effect of shaking thecourage of the besieged, and of hastening the end of hostilities. Whenat length the town yielded to the enemy, it was often razed to theground, and salt was strewn upon its ruins, while the unfortunateinhabitants were either massacred or transplanted _en masse_ elsewhere. If the bulk of the population were spared and condemned to exile, thewealthy and noble were shown no clemency; they were thrown from, the topof the city towers, their ears and noses were cut off, their hands andfeet were amputated, or they and their children were roasted over a slowfire, or flayed alive, or decapitated, and their heads piled up in aheap. [Illustration: 202. Jpg A TOWN TAKEN BY SCALING] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs of the bronze gate at Balawât. The two soldiers who represent the Assyrian army carry their shields before them; flames appear above the ramparts, showing that the conquerors have burnt the town. The victorious sovereigns appear to have taken a pride in theingenuity with which they varied these means of torture, and dwell withcomplacency on the recital of their cruelties. "I constructed a pillarat the gate of the city, " is the boast of one of them; "I then flayedthe chief men, and covered the post with their skins; I suspended theirdead bodies from this same pillar, I impaled others on the summit of thepillar, and I ranged others on stakes around the pillar. " Two or three executions of this kind usually sufficed to demoralise theenemy. The remaining inhabitants assembled: terrified by the majesty ofAssur, and as it were blinded by the brightness of his countenance, theysunk down at the knees of the victor and embraced his feet. * * These are the very expressions used in the Assyrian texts: "The terror of my strength overthrew them, they feared the combat, and they embraced my feet;" and again: "The brightness of Assur, my lord, overturned them. " This latter image is explained by the presence over the king of the winged figure of Assur directing the battle. [Illustration: 203. Jpg TORTURES INFLICTED ON PRISONERS] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs of the bronze gates of Balawât; on the right the town is seen in flames, and on the walls on either side hangs a row of heads, one above another. The peace secured at the price of their freedom left them merely withtheir lives and such of their goods as could not be removed from thesoil. The scribes thereupon surrounded the spoil seized by the soldieryand drew up a detailed inventory of the prisoners and their property:everything worth carrying away to Assyria was promptly registered, anddespatched to the capital. [Illustration: 204. Jpg A CONVOY OF PRISONERS AND CAPTIVES AFTER THETAKING OF A TOWN] Drawn by Faucher Gudin, from Layard. The contents of the royal palace led the way; it comprised the silver, gold, and copper of the vanquished prince, his caldrons, dishes andcups of brass, the women of his harem, the maidens of his household, his furniture and stuffs, horses and chariots, together with his menand women servants. The enemy's gods, like his kings, were despoiledof their possessions, and poor and rich suffered alike. The choicest oftheir troops were incorporated into the Assyrian regiments, and helpedto fill the gaps which war had made in the ranks;* the peasantry andtownsfolk were sold as slaves, or were despatched with their families totill the domains of the king in some Assyrian village. * Tiglath-pileserI. In this manner incorporated 120 chariots of the Kashki and the Urumiinto the Assyrian chariotry. [Illustration: 205. Jpg CONVOY OF PRISONERS BOUND IN VARIOUS WAYS] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief of one of the gates of Balawât. The monuments often depict the exodus of these unfortunate wretches. They were represented as proceeding on their way in the charge of a fewfoot-soldiers--each of the men carrying, without any sign of labour, abag of provisions, while the women bear their young children on theirshoulders or in their arms: herds of cows and flocks of goats and sheepfollow, chariots drawn by mules bringing up the rear with the baggage. While the crowd of non-combatants were conducted in irregular columnswithout manacles or chains, the veteran troops and the young men capableof bearing arms were usually bound together, and sometimes were furthersecured by a wooden collar placed on their necks. Many perished on theway from want or fatigue, but such as were fortunate enough to reachthe end of the journey were rewarded with a small portion of land anda dwelling, becoming henceforward identified with the indigenousinhabitants of the country. Assyrians were planted as colonists in thesubjugated towns, and served to maintain there the authority of theconqueror. The condition of the latter resembled to a great extent thatof the old Egyptian vassals in Phoenicia or Southern Syria. They wereallowed to retain their national constitution, rites, and even theirsovereigns; when, for instance, after some rebellion, one of theseprinces had been impaled or decapitated, his successor was always chosenfrom among the members of his own family, usually one of his sons, whowas enthroned almost before his father had ceased to breathe. He wasobliged to humiliate his own gods before Assur, to pay a yearly tribute, to render succour in case of necessity to the commanders of neighbouringgarrisons, to send his troops when required to swell the royal army, togive his sons or brothers as hostages, and to deliver up his own sistersand daughters, or those of his nobles, for the harem or the domesticservice of the conqueror. The unfortunate prince soon resigned himselfto this state of servitude; he would collect around him and reorganisehis scattered subjects, restore them to their cities, rebuild theirwalls, replant the wasted orchards, and sow the devastated fields. A fewyears of relative peace and tranquillity, during which he strove tobe forgotten by his conqueror, restored prosperity to his country; thepopulation increased with extraordinary rapidity, and new generationsarose who, unconscious of the disasters suffered by their predecessors, had, but one aim, that of recovering their independence. We must, however, beware of thinking that the defeat of these tribes was ascrushing or their desolation as terrible as the testimony of theinscriptions would lead us to suppose. The rulers of Nineveh were buttoo apt to relate that this or that country had been conquered and itspeople destroyed, when the Assyrian army had remained merely a week ora fortnight within its territory, had burnt some half-dozen fortifiedtowns, and taken two or three thousand prisoners. * * For example, Tiglath-pileser I. Conquers the Kummukli in the first year of his reign, burning, destroying, and depopulating the towns, and massacring "the remainder of the Kummukh" who had taken refuge in the mountains, after which, in his second campaign, he again pillages, burns, destroys, and depopulates the towns, and again massacres the remainder of the inhabitants hiding in the mountains. He makes the same statements with regard to most of the other countries and peoples conquered by him, but we find them reappearing with renewed vigour on the scene, soon after their supposed destruction. If we were to accept implicitly all that is recorded of the Assyrianexploits in Naîri or the Taurus, we should be led to believe that forat least half a century the valleys of the Upper Tigris and MiddleEuphrates were transformed into a desert; each time, however, that theyare subsequently mentioned on the occasion of some fresh expedition, they appear once more covered with thriving cities and a vigorouspopulation, whose generals offer an obstinate resistance to theinvaders. We are, therefore, forced to admit that the majority of theseexpeditions must be regarded as mere raids. The population, disconcertedby a sudden attack, would take refuge in the woods or on the mountains, carrying with them their gods, whom they thus preserved from captivity, together with a portion of their treasures and cattle; but no sooner hadthe invader retired, than they descended once more into the plain andreturned to their usual occupations. The Assyrian victories thus rarelyproduced the decisive results which are claimed for them; they almostalways left the conquered people with sufficient energy and resourcesto enable them to resume the conflict after a brief interval, and thesupremacy which the suzerain claimed as a result of his conquests was ofthe most ephemeral nature. A revolt would suffice to shake it, while avictory would be almost certain to destroy it, and once more reduce theempire to the limits of Assyria proper. Tukultiabalesharra, familiar to us under the name of Tiglath-pileser, *is the first of the great warrior-kings of Assyria to stand out beforeus with any definite individuality. * Tiglath-pileser is one of the transcriptions given in the LXX. For the Hebrew version of the name: it signifies, "The child of Esharra is my strength. " By "the child of Esharra" the Assyrians, like the Chaldæans, understood the child of Ninib. We find him, in the interval between two skirmishes, engaged in huntinglions or in the pursuit of other wild beasts, and we see him lavishingofferings on the gods and enriching their temples with the spoils ofhis victories; these, however, were not the normal occupations of thissovereign, for peace with him was merely an interlude in a reign ofconflict. He led all his expeditions in person, undeterred by anyconsideration of fatigue or danger, and scarcely had he returned fromone arduous campaign, than he proceeded to sketch the plan of that forthe following year; in short, he reigned only to wage war. His father, Assurîshishi, had bequeathed him not only a prosperous kingdom, but awell-organised army, which he placed in the field without delay. Duringthe fifty years since the Mushku, descending through the gorges of theTaurus, had invaded the Alzi and the Puru-kuzzi, Assyria had not onlylost possession of all the countries bordering the left bank of theEuphrates, but the whole of Kummukh had withdrawn its allegiance fromher, and had ceased to pay tribute. Tiglath-pileser had ascended thethrone only a few weeks ere he quitted Assur, marched rapidly acrossEastern Mesopotamia by the usual route, through Singar and Nisib, andclimbing the chain of the Kashiara, near Mardîn, bore down into the veryheart of Kummukh, where twenty thousand Mushku, under the command offive kings, resolutely awaited him. He repulsed them in the very firstengagement, and pursued them hotly over hill and vale, pillaging thefields, and encircling the towns with trophies of human heads takenfrom the prisoners who had fallen into his hands; the survivors, to thenumber of six thousand, laid down their arms, and were despatched toAssyria. * * The king, starting from Assur, must have followed the route through Sindjar, Nisib, Mardîn, and Diarbekîr--a road used later by the Romans, and still in existence at the present day. As he did not penetrate that year as far as the provinces of Alzi and Purukuzzi, he must have halted at the commencement of the mountain district, and have beaten the allies in the plain of Kuru-tchaî, before Diarbekîr, in the neighbourhood of the Tigris. The Kummukh contingents, however, had been separated in the rout fromthe Mushku, and had taken refuge beyond the Euphrates, near to thefortress of Shirisha, where they imagined themselves in safety behind arampart of mountains and forests. Tiglath-pileser managed, by cuttinga road for his foot-soldiers and chariots, to reach their retreat: hestormed the place without apparent difficulty, massacred the defenders, and then turning upon the inhabitants of Kurkhi, * who were on their wayto reinforce the besieged, drove their soldiers into the Nâmi, whosewaters carried the corpses down to the Tigris. One of their princes, Kilite-shub, son of Kaliteshub-Sarupi, had been made prisoner duringthe action. Tiglath-pileser sent him, together with his wives, children, treasures, and gods, ** to share the captivity of the Mushku; thenretracing his steps, he crossed over to the right bank of the Tigris, and attacked the stronghold of Urrakhinas which crowned the summit ofPanâri. * The country of the Kurkhi appears to have included at this period the provinces lying between the Sebbeneh-Su and the mountains of Djudî, probably a portion of the Sophene, the Anzanone and the Gordyenc of classical authors. ** The vanquished must have crossed the Tigris below Diarbekîr and have taken refuge beyond Mayafarrikîn, so that Shirisha must be sought for between the Silvan-dagh and the Ak-dagh, in the basin of the Batman-tchai, the present Nâmi. The people, terror-stricken by the fate of their neighbours, seizedtheir idols and hid themselves within the thickets like a flock ofbirds. Their chief, Shaditeshub, son of Khâtusaru, * ventured from out ofhis hiding-place to meet the Assyrian conqueror, and prostrated himselfat his feet. He delivered over his sons and the males of his familyas hostages, and yielded up all his possessions in gold and copper, together with a hundred and twenty slaves and cattle of all kinds;Tiglath-pileser thereupon permitted him to keep his principality underthe suzerainty of Assyria, and such of his allies as followed hisexample obtained a similar concession. The king consecrated the tenthof the spoil thus received to the use of his god Assur and also toRammân;** but before returning to his capital, he suddenly resolved tomake an expedition into the almost impenetrable regions which separatedhim from Lake Van. * The name of this chief's father has always been read Khâtukhi: it is a form of the name Khâtusaru borne by the Hittite king in the time of Ramses II. ** The site of Urrakhinas--read by Winckler Urartinas--is very uncertain: the town was situated in a territory which could belong equally well to the Kummukh or to the Kurkhi, and the mention of the crossing of the Tigris seems to indicate that it was on the right bank of the river, probably in the mountain group of Tur-Abdîn. This district was, even more than at the present day, a confusedlabyrinth of wooded mountain ranges, through which the Eastern Tigrisand its affluents poured their rapid waters in tortuous curves. Ashitherto no army had succeeded in making its way through this territorywith sufficient speed to surprise the fortified villages and scatteredclans inhabiting the valleys and mountain slopes, Tiglath-pileserselected from his force a small troop of light infantry and thirtychariots, with which he struck into the forests; but, on reaching theAruma, he was forced to abandon his chariotry and proceed with thefoot-soldiers only. The Mildîsh, terrified by his sudden appearance, fell an easy prey to the invader; the king scattered the troops hastilycollected to oppose him, set fire to a few fortresses, seized thepeasantry and their flocks, and demanded hostages and the usual tributeas a condition of peace. * * The Mildîsh of our inscription is to be identified with the country of Mount Umildîsh, mentioned by Sargon of Assyria. In his first campaign he thus reduced the upper and eastern half ofKummukh, namely, the part extending to the north of the Tigris, while inthe following campaign he turned his attention to the regions bounded bythe Euphrates and by the western spurs of the Kashiari. The Alzi and thePurukuzzi had been disconcerted by his victories, and had yielded himtheir allegiance almost without a struggle. To the southward, the Kashkuand the Urumi, who had, to the number of four thousand, migrated fromamong the Khâti and compelled the towns of the Shubarti to break theiralliance with the Ninevite kings, now made no attempt at resistance;they laid down their arms and yielded at discretion, giving uptheir goods and their hundred and twenty war-chariots, and resigningthemselves to the task of colonising a distant corner of Assyria. Otherprovinces, however, were not so easily dealt with; the inhabitantsentrenched themselves within their wild valleys, from whence they hadto be ousted by sheer force; in the end they always had to yield, and toundertake to pay an annual tribute. The Assyrian empire thus regainedon this side the countries which Shalmaneser I. Had lost, owing to theabsorption of his energies and interests in the events which were takingplace in Chaldæa. In his third campaign Tiglath-pileser succeeded in bringing about thepacification of the border provinces which shut in the basin of theTigris to the north and east. The Kurkhi did not consider themselvesconquered by the check they had received at the Nâmi; several of theirtribes were stirring in Kharia, on the highlands above the Arzania, andtheir restlessness threatened to infect such of their neighbours ashad already submitted themselves to the Assyrian yoke. "My master Assurcommanded me to attack their proud summits, which no king has evervisited. I assembled my chariots and my foot-soldiers, and Ipassed between the Idni and the Ala, by a difficult country, acrosscloud-capped mountains whose peaks were as the point of a dagger, and unfavourable to the progress of my chariots; I therefore left mychariots in reserve, and I climbed these steep mountains. The communityof the Kurkhi assembled its numerous troops, and in order to give mebattle they entrenched themselves upon the Azubtagish; on the slopes ofthe mountain, an incommodious position, I came into conflict withthem, and I vanquished them. " This lesson cost them twenty-five towns, situated at the feet of the Aîa, the Shuîra, the Idni, the Shizu, theSilgu, and the Arzanabiu*--all twenty-five being burnt to the ground. * The site of Kharia must be sought for probably between the sources of the Tigris and the Batman-tchaî. The dread of a similar fate impelled the neighbouring inhabitants ofAdaush to beg for a truce, which was granted to them;* but the people ofSaraush and of Ammaush, who "from all time had never known what it wasto obey, " were cut to pieces, and their survivors incorporated into theempire--a like fate overtaking the Isua and the Daria, who inhabitedKhoatras. ** * According to the context, the Adaush ought to be between the Kharia and the Saraush; possibly between the Batman- tchaî and the Bohtân-tchaî, in the neighbourhood of Mildîsh. ** As Tiglath-pileser was forced to cross Mount Aruma in order to reach the Ammaush and the Saraush, these two countries, together with Isua and Daria, cannot be far from Mildîsh; Isua is, indeed, mentioned as near to Anzitene in an inscription of Shalmaneser II. , which obliges us to place it somewhere near the sources of the Batman-tchaî. The position of Muraddash and Saradaush is indirectly pointed out by the mention of the Lower Zab and the Lulumê; the name of Saradaush is perhaps preserved in that of Surtash, borne by the valley through which runs one of the tributaries of the Lower Zab. Beyond this, again, on the banks of the Lesser Zab and the confines ofLulumô, the principalities of Muraddash and of Saradaush refused to cometo terms. Tiglath-pileser broke their lines within sight of Muraddash, and entered the town with the fugitives in the confusion which ensued;this took place about the fourth hour of the day. The success was soprompt and complete, that the king was inclined to attribute it to thehelp of Rammân, and he made an offering to the temple of this god atAssur of all the copper, whether wrought or in ore, which was foundamong the spoil of the vanquished. He was recalled almost immediatelyafter this victory by a sedition among the Kurkhi near the sources ofthe Tigris. One of their tribes, known as the Sugi, who had not asyet suffered from the invaders, had concentrated round their standardscontingents from some half-dozen cities, and the united force was, tothe number of six thousand, drawn up on Mount Khirikhâ. Tiglath-pileserwas again victorious, and took from them twenty-five statues of theirgods, which he despatched to Assyria to be distributed among thesanctuaries of Belît at Assur, of Anu, Bammân, and of Ishtar. Winterobliged him to suspend operations. When he again resumed them at thebeginning of his third year, both the Kummukh and the Kurkhi were sopeaceably settled that he was able to carry his expeditions without fearof danger further north, into the regions of the Upper Euphrates betweenthe Halys and Lake Van, a district then known as Naîri. He marcheddiagonally across the plain of Diarbekîr, penetrated through denseforests, climbed sixteen mountain ridges one after the other by pathshitherto considered impracticable, and finally crossed the Euphrates byimprovised bridges, this being, as far as we know, the first time thatan Assyrian monarch had ventured into the very heart of those countrieswhich had formerly constituted the Hittite empire. He found them occupied by rude and warlike tribes, who derivedconsiderable wealth from working the mines, and possessed each theirown special sanctuary, the ruins of which still appear above ground, and invite the attention of the explorer. Their fortresses must have allmore or less resembled that city of the Pterians which flourished for somany ages just at the bend of the Halys;* its site is still marked bya mound rising to some thirty feet above the plain, resembling theplatforms on which the Chaldæan temples were always built--a few wallsof burnt brick, and within an enclosure, among the débris of rudelybuilt houses, the ruins of some temples and palaces consisting of largeirregular blocks of stone. * The remains of the palace of the city of the Pterians, the present Euyuk, are probably later than the reign of Tiglath- pileser, and may be attributed to the Xth or IXth century before our era; they, however, probably give a very fair idea of what the towns of the Cappadocian region were like at the time of the first Assyrian invasions. [Illustration: 216. Jpg GENERAL VIEW OF THE RUINS OF EUYUK] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph. [Illustration: 217. Jpg THE SPHINX ON THE RIGHT OF EUYUK] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph. Two colossal sphinxes guard the gateway of the principal edifice, and their presence proves with certainty how predominant was Egyptianinfluence even at this considerable distance from the banks of the Nile. They are not the ordinary sphinxes, with a human head surmounting thebody of a lion couchant on its stone pedestal; but, like the Assyrianbulls, they are standing, and, to judge from the Hathorian locks whichfall on each side of their countenances, they must have been intendedto represent a protecting goddess rather than a male deity. A remarkableemblem is carved on the side of the upright to which their bodies areattached; it is none other than the double-headed eagle, the prototypeof which is not infrequently found at Telloh in Lower Chaldæa, amongremains dating from the time of the kings and vicegerents of Lagash. [Illustration: 218. Jpg TWO BLOCKS COVERED WITH BAS-RELIEFS IN THE EUYUKPALACE] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph. The court or hall to which this gate gave access was decorated withbas-reliefs, which exhibit a glaring imitation of Babylonian art; we canstill see on these the king, vested in his long flowing robes, prayingbefore an altar, while further on is a procession of dignitariesfollowing a troop of rams led by a priest to be sacrificed; anotherscene represents two individuals in the attitude of worship, wearingshort loin-cloths, and climbing a ladder whose upper end has anuncertain termination, while a third person applies his hands to hismouth in the performance of some mysterious ceremony; beyond these arepriests and priestesses moving in solemn file as if in the measuredtread of some sacred dance, while in one corner we find the figure of awoman, probably a goddess, seated, holding in one hand a flower, perhapsthe full-blown lotus, and in the other a cup from which she is about todrink. The costume of all these figures is that which Chaldæan fashionhad imposed upon the whole of Western Asia, and consisted of the longheavy robe, falling from the shoulders to the feet, drawn in at thewaist by a girdle; but it is to be noted that both sexes are shod withthe turned-up shoes of the Hittites, and that the women wear high peakedcaps. [Illustration: 219. Jpg MYSTIC SCENE AT EUYUK] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph. The composition of the scenes is rude, the drawing incorrect, and thegeneral technique reminds us rather of the low reliefs of the Memphiteor Theban sculptors than of the high projection characteristic of theartists of the Lower Euphrates. These slabs of sculptured stone formeda facing at the base of the now crumbling brick walls, the uppersurface of which was covered with rough plastering. Here and there afew inscriptions reveal the name, titles, and parentage of some oncecelebrated personage, and mention the god in whose honour he hadachieved the work. [Illustration: 220. Jpg AN ASIATIC GODDESS] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph. The characters in which these inscriptions are written are not, as arule, incised in the stone, but are cut in relief upon its surface, and if some few of them may remind us of the Egyptian hieroglyphs, themajority are totally unlike them, both in form and execution. A carefulexamination of them reveals a medley of human and animal outlines, geometrical figures, and objects of daily use, which all doubtlesscorresponded to some letter or syllable, but to which we have as yetno trustworthy key. This system of writing is one of a whole group ofAsiatic scripts, specimens of which are common in this part of the worldfrom Crete to the banks of the Euphrates and Orontes. It is thought thatthe Khâti must have already adopted it before their advent to power, andthat it was they who propagated it in Northern Syria. It did not takethe place of the cuneiform syllabary for ordinary purposes of daily lifeowing to its clumsiness and complex character, but its use was reservedfor monumental inscriptions of a royal or religious kind, where it couldbe suitably employed as a framework to scenes or single figures. [Illustration: 221. Jpg THE ASIATIC INSCRIPTION OF KOLITOLU-YAÎLA] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Hogarth. It, however, never presented the same graceful appearance andarrangement as was exhibited in the Egyptian hieroglyphs, the signsplaced side by side being out of proportion with each other so as todestroy the general harmony of the lines, and it must be regarded as ascript still in process of formation and not yet emerged from infancy. Every square yard of soil turned up among the ruins of the houses ofEuyuk yields vestiges of tools, coarse pottery, terra-cotta and bronzestatuettes of men and animals, and other objects of a not very highcivilization. The few articles of luxury discovered, whether infurniture or utensils, were not indigenous products, but were importedfor the most part from Chaldæa, Syria, Phoenicia, and perhaps fromEgypt; some objects, indeed, came from the coast-towns of the Ægean, thus showing that Western influence was already in contact with thetraditions of the East. [Illustration: 222. Jpg DOUBLE SCEND OF OFFERINGS] Drawn by Paucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Hogarth. It will be remarked that both altars are in the form of a female without a head, but draped in the Assyrian robe. All the various races settled between the Halys and the Orontes weremore or less imbued with this foreign civilization, and their monuments, though not nearly so numerous as those of the Pharaohs and Ninevitekings, bear, nevertheless, an equally striking evidence of its power. Examples of it have been pointed out in a score of different places inthe valleys of the Taurus and on the plains of Cappadocia, inbas-reliefs, steke, seals, and intaglios, several of which must benearly contemporaneous with the first Assyrian conquest. [Illustration: 223. Jpg THE BAS-RELIEF OF IBRIZ] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Hogarth. One instance of it appears on the rocks at Ibriz, where a king stands ina devout attitude before a jovial giant whose hands are full of grapesand wheat-ears, while in another bas-relief near Frakhtîn we have adouble scene of sacrifice. The rock-carving at Ibriz is, perhaps, of allthe relics of a forgotten world, that which impresses the spectator mostfavourably. The concept of the scene is peculiarly naïve; indeed, thetwo figures are clumsily brought together, though each of them, whenexamined separately, is remarkable for its style and execution. The kinghas a dignified bearing in spite of his large head, round eyes, and theunskilful way in which his arms are set on his body. The figure of thegod is not standing firmly on both feet, but the sculptor has managedto invest him with an air of grandeur and an expression of vigour and_bonhomie, _ which reminds us of certain types of the Greek Hercules. Tiglath-pileser was probably attracted to Asia Minor as much byconsiderations of mercantile interest as by the love of conquest ordesire for spoil. It would, indeed, have been an incomparable gain forhim had he been able, if not to seize the mines themselves, at leastto come into such close proximity to them that he would be able tomonopolise their entire output, and at the same time to lay hands on thegreat commercial highway to the trade centres of the west. The easternterminus of this route lay already within his domains, namely, thatwhich led to Assur by way of Amid, Nisibe, Singar, and the valley of theUpper Tigris; he was now desirous of acquiring that portion of itwhich wound its way from the fords of the Euphrates at Malatîyeh to thecrossing of the Halys. The changes which had just taken place inKummukh and Nairi had fully aroused the numerous petty sovereigns ofthe neighbourhood. The bonds which kept them together had not beencompletely severed at the downfall of the Hittite empire, and a certainsense of unity still lingered among them in spite of their continualfeuds; they constituted, in fact, a sort of loose confederation, whosemembers never failed to help one another when they were threatened by acommon enemy. As soon as the news of an Assyrian invasion reached them, they at once put aside their-mutual quarrels and combined to opposethe invader with their united forces. Tiglath-pileser had, therefore, scarcely crossed the Euphrates before he was attacked on his right flankby twenty-three petty kings of Naîri, * while sixty other chiefs from thesame neighbourhood bore down upon him in front. He overcame the firstdetachment of the confederates, though not without a sharp struggle; hecarried carnage into their ranks, "as it were the whirlwind of Eammân, "and seized a hundred and twenty of the enemy's chariots. The sixtychiefs, whose domains extended as far as the "Upper Sea, "** weredisconcerted by the news of the disaster, and of their own accord laiddown their arms, or offered but a feeble resistance. * The text of the Annals of the Xth year give thirty instead of twenty-three; in the course of five or six years the numbers have already become exaggerated. ** The site of the "Upper Sea" has furnished material for much discussion. Some believe it to be the Caspian Sea or the Black Sea, others take it to be Lake Van, while some think it to be the Mediterranean, and more particularly the Gulf of Issus between Syria and Cilicia. At the present day several scholars have returned to the theory which makes it the Black Sea. Tiglath-pileser presented some of them in chains to the god Shamash; heextorted an oath of vassalage from them, forced them to give up theirchildren as hostages, and laid a tax upon them _en masse_ of 1200stallions and 2000 bulls, after which he permitted them to return totheir respective towns. He had, however, singled out from among them tograce his own triumph, Sini of Dayana, the only chief among them who hadoffered him an obstinate resistance; but even he was granted his libertyafter he had been carried captive to Assur, and made to kneel before thegods of Assyria. * * Dayani, which is mentioned in the Annals of Shalmaneser II. , has been placed on the banks of the Murad-su by Schrader, and more particularly in the neighbourhood of Melasgerd by Sayce; Delattre has shown that it was the last and most westerly of twenty-three kingdoms conquered by Tiglath-pileser I. , and that it was consequently enclosed between the Murad-su and the Euphrates proper. Before returning to the capital, Tiglath-pileser attacked Khanigalbat, and appeared before Milidia: as the town attempted no defence, he sparedit, and contented himself with levying a small contribution uponits inhabitants. This expedition was rather of the nature of areconnaissance than a conquest, but it helped to convince the kingof the difficulty of establishing any permanent suzerainty over thecountry. The Asiatic peoples were quick to bow before a sudden attack;but no sooner had the conqueror departed, than those who had sworn himeternal fealty sought only how best to break their oaths. The tribes inimmediate proximity to those provinces which had been long subject tothe Assyrian rule, were intimidated into showing some respect for apower which existed so close to their own borders. But those furtherremoved from the seat of government felt a certain security intheir distance from it, and were tempted to revert to the state ofindependence they had enjoyed before the conquest; so that unless thesovereign, by a fresh campaign, promptly made them realise that theirdisaffection would not remain unpunished, they soon forgot theirfeudatory condition and the duties which it entailed. Three years of merciless conflict with obstinate and warlike mountaintribes had severely tried the Assyrian army, if it had not worn outthe sovereign; the survivors of so many battles were in sore need of awell-merited repose, the gaps left by death had to be filled, and bothinfantry and chariotry needed the re-modelling of their corps. Thefourth year of the king's reign, therefore, was employed almost entirelyin this work of reorganisation; we find only the record of a raid ofa few weeks against the Akhlamî and other nomadic Aramæans situatedbeyond the Mesopotamian steppes. The Assyrians spread over the districtbetween the frontiers of Sukhi and the fords of Carchemish for a wholeday, killing all who resisted, sacking the villages and laying handson slaves and cattle. The fugitives escaped over the Euphrates, vainlyhoping that they would be secure in the very heart of the Khâti. Tiglath-pileser, however, crossed the river on rafts supported on skins, and gave the provinces of Mount Bishri over to fire and sword:* sixwalled towns opened their gates to him without having ventured to strikea blow, and he quitted the country laden with spoil before the kings ofthe surrounding cities had had time to recover from their alarm. * The country of Bishri was situated, as the _Annals_ point out, in the immediate neighbourhood of Carchemish. The name is preserved in that of Tell Basher still borne by the ruins, and a modern village on the banks of the Sajur. The Gebel Bishri to which Hommel alludes is too far to the south to correspond to the description given in the inscription of Tiglath-pileser. This expedition was for Tiglath-pileser merely an interlude betweentwo more serious campaigns; and with the beginning of his fifth yearhe reappeared in the provinces of the Upper Euphrates to complete hisconquest of them. He began by attacking and devastating Musri, which layclose to the territory of Milid. While thus occupied he was harassed bybands of Kumani; he turned upon them, overcame them, and imprisoned theremainder of them in the fortress of Arini, at the foot of Mount Aisa, where he forced them to kiss his feet. His victory over them, however, did not disconcert their neighbours. The bulk of the Kumani, whosetroops had scarcely suffered in the engagement, fortified themselveson Mount Tala, to the number of twenty thousand; the king carried theheights by assault, and hotly pursued the fugitives as far as the rangeof Kharusa before Musri, where the fortress of Khunusa afforded thema retreat behind its triple walls of brick. The king, nothing daunted, broke his way through them one after another, demolished the ramparts, razed the houses, and strewed the ruins with salt; he then constructeda chapel of brick as a sort of trophy, and dedicated within it whatwas known as a copper thunderbolt, being an image of the missile whichEammân, the god of thunder, brandished in the face of his enemies. Aninscription engraved on the object recorded the destruction of Khunusa, and threatened with every divine malediction the individual, whetheran Assyrian or a stranger, who should dare to rebuild the city. Thisvictory terrified the Kumani, and their capital, Kibshuna, openedits gates to the royal troops at the first summons. Tiglath-pilesercompletely destroyed the town, but granted the inhabitants their liveson condition of their paying tribute; he chose from among them, however, three hundred families who had shown him the most inveterate hostility, and sent them as exiles into Assyria. * * The country of the Kumani or Kammanu is really the district of Comana in Cataonia, and not the Comana Pontica or the Khammanene on the banks of the Halys. Delattre thinks that Tiglath-pileser penetrated into this region by the Jihun, and consequently seeks to identify the names of towns and mountains, e. G. Mount Ilamuni with Jaur-dagh, the Kharusa with Shorsh-dagh, and the Tala with the Kermes-dagh; but it is difficult to believe that, if the king took this route, he would not mention the town of Marqasi-Marash, which lay at the very foot of the Jaur-dagh, and would have stopped his passage. It is more probable that the Assyrians, starting from Melitene, which they had just subdued, would have followed the route which skirts the northern slope of the Taurus by Albistan; the scene of the conflict in this case would probably have been the mountainous district of Zeitûn. With this victory the first half of his reign drew to its close; in fiveyears Tiglath-pileser had subjugated forty-two peoples and their princeswithin an area extending from the banks of the Lower Zab to the plainsof the Khâti, and as far as the shores of the Western Seas. He revisitedmore than once these western and northern regions in which he hadgained his early triumphs. The reconnaissance which he had madearound Carchemish had revealed to him the great wealth of the Syriantable-land, and that a second raid in that direction could be made moreprofitable than ten successful campaigns in Naîri or upon the banksof the Zab. He therefore marched his battalions thither, this timeto remain for more than a few days. He made his way through the wholebreadth of the country, pushed forward up the valley of the Orontes, crossed the Lebanon, and emerged above the coast of the Mediterranean inthe vicinity of Arvad. [Illustration: 230. Jpg SACRIFICE OFFERED BEFORE THE ROYAL STELE] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the bronze gates of Balawât. This is the first time for many centuries that an Oriental sovereign hadpenetrated so far west; and his contemporaries must have been obligedto look back to the almost fabulous ages of Sargon of Agadê or ofKhammurabi, to find in the long lists of the dynasties of the Euphratesany record of a sovereign who had planted his standards on the shores ofthe Sea of the Setting Sun. * *This is the name given by the Assyrians to the Mediterranean. Tiglath-pileser embarked on its waters, made a cruise into the open, andkilled a porpoise, but we have no record of any battles fought, nor dowe know how he was received by the Phoenician towns. He pushed on, it isthought, as far as the Nahr el-Kelb, and the sight of the hieroglyphicinscriptions which Ramses had caused to be cut there three centuriespreviously aroused his emulation. Assyrian conquerors rarely quittedthe scene of their exploits without leaving behind them some permanentmemorial of their presence. A sculptor having hastily smoothed thesurface of a rock, cut out on it a figure of the king, to which wasusually added a commemorative inscription. In front of this stele waserected an altar, upon which sacrifices were made, and if the monumentwas placed near a stream or the seashore, the soldiers were accustomedto cast portions of the victims into the water in order to propitiatethe river-deities. [Illustration: 231. Jpg PORTIONS OF THE SACRIFICIAL VICTIMS THROWN INTOTHE WATER] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the bronze gates of Balawât. One of the half-effaced Assyrian stelæ adjoining those of the Egyptianconqueror is attributed to Tiglath-pileser. * *Boscawen thinks that we may attribute to Tiglath-pileser I. The oldest of the Assyrian stelæ at Nahr el-Kelb; no positive information has as yet confirmed this hypothesis, which is in other respects very probable. It was on his return, perhaps, from this campaign that he plantedcolonies at Pitru on the right, and at Mutkînu on the left bank of theEuphrates, in order to maintain a watch over Carchemish, and the moreimportant fords connecting Mesopotamia with the plains of the Apriê andthe Orontes. * * The existence of these colonies is known only from an inscription of Shalmaneser II. The news of Tiglath-pileser's expedition was not long in reaching theDelta, and the Egyptian monarch then reigning at Tanis was thus madeacquainted with the fact that there had arisen in Syria a new powerbefore which his own was not unlikely to give way. In former times suchnews would have led to a war between the two states, but the timehad gone by when Egypt was prompt to take up arms at the slightestencroachment on her Asiatic provinces. Her influence at this time wasowing merely to her former renown, and her authority beyond the isthmuswas purely traditional. The Tanite Pharaoh had come to accept withresignation the change in the fortunes of Egypt, and he thereforecontented himself with forwarding to the Assyrian conqueror, by one ofthe Syrian coasting vessels, a present of some rare wild beasts anda few crocodiles. In olden times Assyria had welcomed the arrival ofThûtmosis III. On the Euphrates by making him presents, which the Thebanmonarch regarded in the light of tribute: the case was now reversed, theEgyptian Pharaoh taking the position formerly occupied by the Assyrianmonarch. Tiglath-pileser graciously accepted this unexpected homage, butthe turbulent condition of the northern tribes prevented his improvingthe occasion by an advance into Phoenicia and the land of Canaan. Naîrioccupied his attention on two separate occasions at least; on the secondof these he encamped in the neighbourhood of the source of the riverSubnat. This stream, had for a long period issued from a deep grotto, where in ancient times a god was supposed to dwell. The conquerorwas lavish in religious offerings here, and caused a bas-relief to beengraved on the entrance in remembrance of his victories. [Illustration 233. Jpg THE STELE AT SEBENNEH-SU] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by P. Taylor, in G. Rawlinson. He is here represented as standing upright, the tiara on his brow, andhis right arm extended as if in the act of worship, while his left, theelbow brought up to his side, holds a club. The inscription appendedto the figure tells, with an eloquence all the more effective from itsbrevity, how, "with the aid of Assur, Shamash, and Eammân, thegreat gods, my lords, I, Tiglath-pileser, King of Assyria, son ofAssurîshishî, King of Assyria, son of Mutakkilnusku, King of Assyria, conqueror from the great sea, the Mediterranean, to the great sea ofNaîri, I went for the third time to Naîri. " The gods who had so signally favoured the monarch received the greaterpart of the spoils which he had secured in his campaigns. The majorityof the temples of Assyria, which were founded at a time when its citywas nothing more than a provincial capital owing allegiance to Babylon, were either, it would appear, falling to ruins from age, or presented asorry exterior, utterly out of keeping with the magnitude of its recentwealth. The king set to work to enlarge or restore the temples ofIshtar, Martu, and the ancient Bel;* he then proceeded to rebuild, from the foundations to the summit, that of Anu and Bammân, which thevicegerent Samsirammân, son of Ismidagan, had constructed seven hundredand one years previously. This temple was the principal sanctuary ofthe city, because it was the residence of the chief of the gods, Assur, under his appellation of Anu. ** * "Bel the ancient, " or possibly "the ancient master, " appears to have been one of the names of Anu, who is naturally in this connexion the same as Assur. ** This was the great temple of which the ruins still exist. The soil was cleared away down to the bed-rock, upon which an enormoussubstructure, consisting of fifty courses of bricks, was laid, and abovethis were erected two lofty ziggurâts, whose tile-covered surfaces shonelike the rising sun in their brightness; the completion of the whole wascommemorated by a magnificent festival. The special chapel of Bammânand his treasury, dating from the time of the same Samsirammân who hadraised the temple of Anu, were also rebuilt on a more important scale. * * The British Museum possesses bricks bearing the name of Tiglath-pileser I. , brought from this temple, as is shown by the inscription on their sides. These works were actively carried on notwithstanding the fact that warwas raging on the frontier; however preoccupied he might be with warlikeprojects, Tiglath-pileser never neglected the temples, and set to workto collect from every side materials for their completion and adornment. [Illustration: 235. Jpg TRANSPORT OF BUILDING MATERIALS BY WATER] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief on the bronze doors at Balawât. He brought, for example, from Naîri such marble and hard stone as mightbe needed for sculptural purposes, together with the beams of cedar andcypress required by his carpenters. The mountains of Singar and of theZab furnished the royal architects with building stone for ordinaryuses, and for those facing slabs of bluish gypsum on which thebas-reliefs of the king's exploits were carved; the blocks ready squaredwere brought down the affluents of the Tigris on rafts or in boats, andthus arrived at their destination without land transport. [Illustration: 236. Jpg RARE ANIMALS BROUGHT BACK AS TROPHIES BY THEKING] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the cast in the Louvre. The original is in the British Museum. The kings of Assyria, like the Pharaohs, had always had a passion forrare trees and strange animals; as soon as they entered a country, theyinquired what natural curiosities it contained, and they would send backto their own land whatever specimens of them could be procured. [Illustration: 237. Jpg MONKEY BROUGHT BACK AS TRIBUTE] Drawn by Boudier, from the bas-relief in Layard. The triumphal _cortege_ which accompanied the monarch on his returnafter each campaign comprised not only prisoners and spoil of auseful sort, but curiosities from all the conquered districts, as, for instance, animals of unusual form or habits, rhinoceroses andcrocodiles, * and if some monkey of a rare species had been taken in thesack of a town, it also would find a place in the procession, eitherheld in a leash or perched on the shoulders of its keeper. * A crocodile sent as a present by the King of Egypt is mentioned in the _Inscription of the Broken Obelisk_. The animal is called _namsukha_, which is the Egyptian _msuhu_ with the plural article _na. _ The campaigns of the monarch were thus almost always of a double nature, comprising not merely a conflict with men, but a continual pursuit ofwild beasts. Tiglath-pileser, "in the service of Ninib, had killed fourgreat specimens of the male urus in the desert of Mitanni, near to thetown of Arazîki, opposite to the countries of the Khâti;* he killed themwith his powerful bow, his dagger of iron, his pointed lance, and hebrought back their skins and horns to his city of Assur. He secured tenstrong male elephants, in the territory of Harrân and upon the banks ofthe Khabur, and he took four of them alive: he brought back their skinsand their tusks, together with the living elephants, to his city ofAssur. " He killed moreover, doubtless also in the service of Ninib, ahundred and twenty lions, which he attacked on foot, despatching eighthundred more with arrows from his chariot, ** all within the short spaceof five years, and we may well ask what must have been the sum total, if the complete record for his whole reign were extant. We possess, unfortunately, no annals of the later years of this monarch; we havereason to believe that he undertook several fresh expeditions intoNairi, *** and a mutilated tablet records some details of troubles withElam in the Xth year of his reign. * The town of Arazîki has been identified with the Eragiza (Eraziga) of Ptolemy; the Eraziga of Ptolemy was on the right bank of the Euphrates, while the text of Tiglath- pileser appears to place Arazîki on the left bank. ** The account of the hunts in the _Annals_ is supplemented by the information furnished in the first column of the "Broken Obelisk. " The monument is of the time of Assur-nazir- pal, but the first column contains an abstract from an account of an anonymous hunt, which a comparison of numbers and names leads us to attribute to Tiglath-pileser I. ; some Assyri-ologists, however, attribute it to Assur-nazir-pal. * The inscription of Sebbeneh-Su was erected at the time of the third expedition into Naîri, and the _Annals_ give only one; the other two expeditions must, therefore, be subsequent to the Vth year of his reign. We gather that he attacked a whole series of strongholds, some ofwhose names have a Cossæan ring about them, such as Madkiu, Sudrun, Ubrukhundu, Sakama, Shuria, Khirishtu, and Andaria. His advance in thisdirection must have considerably provoked the Chaldæans, and, indeed, it was not long before actual hostilities broke out between the twonations. The first engagement took place in the valley of the Lower Zab, in the province of Arzukhina, without any decisive result, but in thefollowing year fortune favoured the Assyrians, for Dur-kurigalzu, bothSipparas, Babylon, and Upi opened their gates to them, while Akar-sallu, the Akhlamê, and the whole of Sukhi as far as Eapîki tendered theirsubmission to Tiglath-achuch-sawh-akhl-pileser. [Illustration: 239. Jpg MERODACH-NADIN-AKHI] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the heliogravure in Pr. Lenormant. The original is in the British Museum. It is one of the boundary stones which were set up in a corner of a field to mark its legal limit. Merodach-nadin-akhi, who was at this time reigning in Chaldæa, waslike his ancestor Nebuchadrezzar I. , a brave and warlike sovereign: heappears at first to have given way under the blow thus dealt him, and tohave acknowledged the suzerainty of his rival, who thereupon assumed thetitle of Lord of the four Houses of the World, and united under a singleempire the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates. But this state of thingslasted for a few years only; Merodach-nadin-akhi once more took courage, and, supported by the Chaldæan nobility, succeeded in expelling theintruders from Sumir and Akkad. The Assyrians, however, did not allowthemselves to be driven out without a struggle, but fortune turnedagainst them; they were beaten, and the conqueror inflicted on theAssyrian gods the humiliation to which they had so often subjected thoseof other nations. He took the statues of Eammân and Shala from Ekallati, carried them to Babylon, and triumphantly set them up within the templeof Bel. There they remained in captivity for 418 years. * Tiglath-pileserdid not long survive this disaster, for he died about the year 1100B. C. , ** and two of his sons succeeded him on the throne. The elder, Assur-belkala, *** had neither sufficient energy nor resources to resumethe offensive, and remained a passive spectator of the revolutions whichdistracted Babylon. * We know this fact from the inscription of Bavian, in which Sennacherib boasts of having brought back these statues to Assyria after they had been 418 years in the possession of the enemy. I have followed the commonly received opinion, which places the defeat of Tiglath-pileser after the taking of Babylon; others think that it preceded the decisive victory of the Assyrians. It is improbable that, if the loss of the statues preceded the decisive victory, the Assyrian conquerors should have left their gods prisoners in a Babylonian temple, and should not have brought them back immediately to Ekallati. ** The death of Tiglath-pileser must have followed quickly on the victory of Babylon; the contents of the inscription of Bavian permit us to fix the taking of Ekallati by the Chaldæans about the year 1108-1106 B. C. We shall not be far wrong in supposing Tiglath-pileser to have reigned six or eight years after his defeat. *** I followed the usually received classification. It is, however, possible that we must reverse the order of the sovereigns. Merodach-nadin-akhi had been followed by his son Merodach-shapîk-zîrîm, *but this prince was soon dethroned by the people, and Bammân-abaliddîn, a man of base extraction, seized the crown. * The name of the Babylonian king has been variously read Merodach-shapîk-zirat, Merodach-shapîk-kullat, Merodach- shapîk-zirmâti and Merodach-shapîk-zîrîm. Assur-belkala not only extended to this usurper the friendly relationshe had kept up with the legitimate sovereign, but he asked for the handof his daughter in marriage, and the rich dowry which she brought herhusband no doubt contributed to the continuation of his pacific policy. He appears also to have kept possession of all the parts of Mesopotamiaand Kammukh conquered by his father, and it is possible that he may havepenetrated beyond the Euphrates. His brother, Samsi-rammân III. , does not appear to have left any more definite mark upon history thanAssur-belkala; he decorated the temples built by his predecessors, but beyond this we have no certain record of his achievements. We knownothing of the kings who followed him, their names even having beenlost, but about a century and a half after Tiglath-pileser, a certainAssurirba seems to have crossed Northern Syria, and following in thefootsteps of his great ancestor, to have penetrated as far as theMediterranean: on the rocks of Mount Amanus, facing the sea, he lefta triumphal inscription in which he set forth the mighty deeds hehad accomplished. This is merely a gleam out of the murky night whichenvelops his history, and the testimony of one of his descendantsinforms us that his good fortune soon forsook him: the Aramaeans wrestedfrom him the fortresses of Pitru and Mutkînu, which commanded both banksof the Euphrates near Carchemish. Nor did the retrograde movement slakenafter his time: Assyria slowly wasted away down to the end of the Xthcentury, and but for the simultaneous decadence of the Chaldaeans, itsdownfall would have been complete. But neither Rammân-abaliddîn nor hissuccessor was able to take advantage of its weakness; discord andwant of energy soon brought about their own ruin. The dynasty ofPashê disappeared towards the middle of the Xth century, and a familybelonging to the "Countries of the Sea" took its place: it had continuedfor about one hundred and thirty-two years, and had produced elevenkings. * * It is no easy matter to draw up an exact list of this dynasty, and Hilprecht's attempt to do so contains more than one doubtful name. The following list is very imperfect and doubtful, but the best that our present knowledge enables us to put forward. [Illustration: 242. Jpg TABLE OF KINGS] What were the causes of this depression, from which Babylon suffered atalmost regular intervals, as though stricken with some periodic malady?The main reason soon becomes apparent if we consider the nature ofthe country and the material conditions of its existence. Chaldæa wasneither extensive enough nor sufficiently populous to afford a solidbasis for the ambition of her princes. Since nearly every man capableof bearing arms was enrolled in the army, the Chaktean kings had nodifficulty in raising, at a moment's notice, a force which could beemployed to repel an invasion, or make a sudden attack on some distantterritory; it was in schemes which required prolonged and sustainedeffort that they felt the drawbacks of their position. In that age ofhand-to-hand combats, the mortality in battle was very high, forcedmarches through forests and across mountains entailed a heavy loss ofmen, and three or four consecutive campaigns against a stubborn foe soonreduced an army to a condition of dangerous weakness. Recruits might beobtained to fill the earlier vacancies in the ranks, but they soon grewfewer and fewer if time was not given for recovery after the openingvictories in the struggle, and the supply eventually ceased ifoperations were carried on beyond a certain period. The total duration of the dynasty was, according to the Royal Canon, 72years 6 months. Peiser has shown that this is a mistake, and he proposesto correct it to 132 years 6 months, and this is accepted by mostAssyri-ologists. A reign which began brilliantly often came to an impotent conclusion, owing to the king having failed to economise his reserves; and thegenerations which followed, compelled to adopt a strictly defensiveattitude, vegetated in a sort of anaemic condition, until the birth-ratehad brought the proportion of males up to a figure sufficiently high toprovide the material for a fresh army. When Nebuchadrezzar made war uponAssurîshishî, he was still weak from the losses he had incurred duringthe campaign against Elam, and could not conduct his attack with thesame vigour as had gained him victory on the banks of the Ulaî; inthe first year he only secured a few indecisive advantages, and in thesecond he succumbed. Merodach-nadin-akhi was suffering from the reversessustained by his predecessors when Tiglath-pileser provoked him to war, and though he succeeded in giving a good account of an adversary who washimself exhausted by dearly bought successes, he left to his descendantsa kingdom which had been drained of its last drop of blood. The samereason which explains the decadence of Babylon shows us the cause ofthe periodic eclipses undergone by Assyria after each outburst of herwarlike spirit. She, too, had to pay the penalty of an ambitionwhich was out of all proportion to her resources. The mighty deeds ofShalmaneser and Tukulti-ninip were, as a natural consequence, followed by a state of complete prostration under Tukultiassurbeland Assurnîrarî: the country was now forced to pay for the glories ofAssurîshishî and of Tiglath-pileser by falling into an inglorious stateof languor and depression. Its kings, conscious that their rule must benecessarily precarious as long as they did not possess a larger stock ofrecruits to fall back on, set their wits to work to provide by variousmethods a more adequate reserve. While on one hand they installed nativeAssyrians in the more suitable towns of conquered countries, on theother they imported whole hordes of alien prisoners chosen for theirstrength and courage, and settled them down in districts by the banks ofthe Tigris and the Zab. We do not know what Eammânirâni and Shalmanesermay have done in this way, but Tiglath-pileser undoubtedly introducedthousands of the Mushku, the Urumseans, the people of Kummukh andNaîri, and his example was followed by all those of his successorswhose history has come down to us. One might have expected that such aninvasion of foreigners, still smarting under the sense of defeat, mighthave brought with it an element of discontent or rebellion; far fromit, they accepted their exile as a judgment of the gods, which thegods alone had a right to reverse, and did their best to mitigate thehardness of their lot by rendering unhesitating obedience to theirmasters. Their grandchildren, born in the midst of Assyrians, becameAssyrians themselves, and if they did not entirely divest themselves ofevery trace of their origin, at any rate became so closely identifiedwith the country of their adoption, that it was difficult to distinguishthem from the native race. The Assyrians who were sent out to coloniserecently acquired provinces were at times exposed to serious risks. Nowand then, instead of absorbing the natives among whom they lived, theywere absorbed by them, which meant a loss of so much fighting strengthto the mother country; even under the most favourable conditionsa considerable time must have passed before they could succeed inassimilating to themselves the races amongst whom they lived. Atlast, however, a day would dawn when the process of incorporation wasaccomplished, and Assyria, having increased her area and resourcestwofold, found herself ready to endure to the end the strain ofconquest. In the interval, she suffered from a scarcity of fighting men, due to the losses incurred in her victories, and must have congratulatedherself that her traditional foe was not in a position to take advantageof this fact. The first wave of the Assyrian invasion had barely touched Syria; ithad swept hurriedly over the regions in the north, and then flowedsouthwards to return no more, so that the northern races were able toresume the wonted tenor of their lives. For centuries after thistheir condition underwent no change; there was the same repetition ofdissension and intrigue, the same endless succession of alliances andbattles without any signal advantage on either side. The Hittites stillheld Northern Syria: Carchemish was their capital, and more than onetown in its vicinity preserved the tradition of their dress, theirlanguage, their arts, and their culture in full vigour. The Greeklegends tell us vaguely of some sort of Cilician empire which is saidto have brought the eastern and central provinces of Asia Minor intosubjection about ten centuries before our era. * * Solinus, relying on the indirect evidence of Hecatseus of Miletus, tells us that Cilicia extended not only to the countries afterwards known as Cataonia, Commagene, and Syria, but also included Lydia, Media, Armenia, Pamphylia, and Cappadocia; the conquests of the Assyrian kings must have greatly reduced its area. I am of opinion that the tradition preserved by Hecatous referred both to the kingdom of Sapalulu and to that of the monarchs of this second epoch. Is there any serious foundation for such a belief, and must we assumethat there existed at this time and in this part of the world a kingdomsimilar to that of Sapalulu? Assyria was recruiting its forces, Chaldæawas kept inactive by its helplessness, Egypt slumbered by the banks ofits river, there was no actor of the first rank to fill the stage; nowwas the opportunity for a second-rate performer to come on the scene andplay such a part as his abilities permitted. The Cilician conquest, ifthis be indeed the date at which it took place, had the boards to itselffor a hundred years after the defeat of Assurirba. The time was tooshort to admit of its striking deep root in the country. Its leaders andmen were, moreover, closely related to the Syrian Hittites; the languagethey spoke was, if not precisely the Hittite, at any rate a dialect ofit; their customs were similar, if, perhaps, somewhat less refined, asis often the case with mountain races, when compared with the peoples ofthe plain. We are tempted to conclude that some of the monuments foundsouth of the Taurus were their handiwork, or, at any rate, date fromtheir time. For instance, the ruined palace at Sinjirli, the lowerportions of which are ornamented with pictures similar to thoseat Pteria, representing processions of animals, some real, othersfantastic, men armed with lances or bending the bow, and processionsof priests or officials. Then there is the great lion at Marash, whichstands erect, with menacing head, its snarling lips exposing the teeth;its body is seamed with the long lines of an inscription in the Asiaticcharacter, in imitation of those with which the bulls in the Assyrianpalaces are covered. These Cilicians gave an impulse to the civilizationof the Khâti which they sorely needed, for the Semitic races, whom theyhad kept in subjection for centuries, now pressed them hard on all theterritory over which they had formerly reigned, and were striving todrive them back into the hills. [Illustration: 248. Jpg LION AT MAKASH] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph of the cast shown at the Paris Exhibition of 1889. The Aramæans in particular gave them a great deal of trouble. The stateson the banks of the Euphrates had found them awkward neighbours; wasthis the moment chosen by the Pukudu, the Eutu, the Gambulu, and a dozenother Aramaean tribes, for a stealthy march across the frontier of Elam, between Durilu and the coast? The tribes from which, soon after, theKaldi nation was formed, were marauding round Eridu, Uru, and Larsa, andmay have already begun to lay the foundations of their supremacy overBabylon: it is, indeed, an open question whether those princes of theCountries of the Sea who succeeded the Pashê dynasty did not come fromthe stock of the Kaldi Aramaeans. While they were thus consolidating onthe south-east, the bulk of the nation continued to ascend northwards, and rejoined its outposts in the central region of the Euphrates, whichextends from the Tigris to the Khabur, from the Khabur to the Balîkh andthe Apriê. They had already come into frequent conflict with most of thevictorious Assyrian kings, from Eammânirâri down to Tiglath-pileser; theweakness of Assyria and Chaldæa gave them their opportunity, and theytook full advantage of it. They soon became masters of the whole ofMesopotamia; a part of the table-land extending from Carchemish to MountAmanus fell into their hands, their activity was still greater in thebasin of the Orontes, and their advanced guard, coming into collisionwith the Amorites near the sources of the Litany, began gradually todrive farther and farther southwards all that remained of the raceswhich had shown so bold a front to the Egyptian troops. Here was analmost entirely new element, gradually eliminating from the scene of thestruggle other elements which had grown old through centuries of war, and while this transformation was taking place in Northern and Central, a similar revolution was effecting a no less surprising metamorphosis inSouthern Syria. There, too, newer races had gradually come to displacethe nations over which the dynasties of Thûtmosis and Ramses had onceheld sway. The Hebrews on the east, the Philistines and their allies onthe south-west, were about to undertake the conquest of the Kharu andits cities. As yet their strength was inadequate, their temperamentundecided, their system of government imperfect; but they brought withthem the quality of youth, and energies which, rightly guided, wouldassure the nation which first found out how to take advantage ofthem, supremacy over all its rivals, and the strength necessary forconsolidating the whole country into a single kingdom. [Illustration: 250. Jpg TAILPIECE] CHAPTER III--THE HEBREWS AND THE PHILISTINES--DAMASCUS _THE ISRAELITES IN THE LAND OF CANAAN: THE JUDGES--THE PHILISTINES ANDTHE HEBREW KINGDOM--SAUL, DAVID, SOLOMON, THE DEFECTION OF THE TENTRIBES--THE XXIst EGYPTIAN DYNASTY--SHESHONQ OR SHISHAK DAMASCUS. _ _The Hebrews in the desert: their families, clans, and tribes--TheAmorites and the Hebrews on the left bank of the Jordan--The conquestof Canaan and the native reaction against the Hebrews--The judges, Ehud, Deborah, Jerubbaal or Gideon and the Manassite supremacy; Abimelech, Jephihdh. _ _The Philistines, their political organisation, their army andfleet--Judah, Dan, and the story of Samson--Benjamin on the Philistinefrontier--Eli and the ark of the covenant--The Philistine dominion overIsrael; Samuel, Saul, the Benjamite monarchy--David, his retreat to thedesert of Judah and his sojourn at Zilclag--The battle of Gilboa and thedeath of Saul--The struggle between Ish-bosheth and David--David soleking, and the final defeat of the Philistines--Jerusalem becomesthe capital; the removal of the ark--Wars with the peoples of theEast--Absalom's rebellion; the coronation of Solomon. _ _Solomon's government and his buildings--Phoenician colonisation inSpain: Hiram I. And the enlargement of Tyre--The voyages to Ophir andTarshish--The palace at Jerusalem, the temple and its dedication: thepriesthood and prophets--The death of Solomon; the schism of the tentribes and the division of the Hebrew kingdom. _ _The XXIst Egyptian dynasty: the Theban high priests and the TanitePharaohs--The Libyan mercenaries and their predominance in the state:the origin of the XXIInd (Bubastite) dynasty--Sheshonq I. As kingand his son Aûpûti as high priest of Amon; the hiding-place at Deîrel-Baharî--Sheshonq's expedition against Jerusalem. _ _The two Hebrew "kingdoms"; the fidelity of Judah to the descendantsof Solomon, and the repeated changes of dynasty in Israel--Asa andBaasha--The kingdom of Damascus and its origin--Bezon, Tabrimmon, Benhadad I. --Omri and the foundation of Samaria: Ahab and the Tyrianalliance--The successors of Hiram I. At Tyre: Ithobaal I. --The prophets, their struggle against Phonician idolatry, the story of Elijah--The warsbetween Israel and Damascus up to the time of the Assyrian invasion. _ [Illustration: 253. Jpg PAGE IMAGE] CHAPTER III--THE HEBREWS AND THE PHILISTINES--DAMASCUS _The Israelites in the land of Canaan: the judges--The Philistinesand the Hebrew kingdom--Saul, David, Solomon, the defection of the tentribes--the XXIst Egyptian dynasty--Sheshonq--Damascus. _ After reaching Kadesh-barnea, the Israelites in their wanderings hadcome into contact with various Bedawin tribes--Kenites, Jerahmelites, Edomites, and Midianites, with whom they had in turn fought or alliedthemselves, according to the exigencies of their pastoral life. Continual skirmishes had taught them the art of war, their numbers hadrapidly increased, and with this increase came a consciousness of theirown strength, so that, after a lapse of two or three generations, theymay be said to have constituted a considerable nation. Its componentelements were not, however, firmly welded together; they consisted ofan indefinite number of clans, which were again subdivided into severalfamilies. Each of these families had its chief or "ruler, " to whom itrendered absolute obedience, while the united chiefs formed an assemblyof elders who administered justice when required, and settled anydifferences which arose among their respective followers. The clans intheir turn were grouped into tribes, * according to certain affinitieswhich they mutually recognised, or which may have been fostered by dailyintercourse on a common soil, but the ties which bound them together atthis period were of the most slender character. It needed some specialevent, such as a projected migration in search of fresh pasturage, oran expedition against a turbulent neighbour, or a threatened invasionby some stranger, to rouse the whole tribe to corporate action; atsuch times they would elect a "nasi, " or ruler, the duration of whosefunctions ceased with the emergency which had called him into office. ** * The tribe was designated by two words signifying "staff" or "branch. " ** The word _nasi, _ first applied to the chiefs of the tribes (_Exod. _ xxxiv. 31; _Lev_. Iv. 22; _Numb_. Ii. 3), became, after the captivity, the title of the chiefs of Israel, who could not be called _kings_ owing to the foreign suzerainty (_Esdras_ i. 8). Both clans and tribes were designated by the name of some ancestor fromwhom they claimed to be descended, and who appears in some cases tohave been a god for whom they had a special devotion; some writers havebelieved that this was also the origin of the names given to several ofthe tribes, such as Gad, "Good Fortune, " or of the totems of the hyenaand the dog, in Arabic and Hebrew, "Simeon" and "Caleb. "* Gad, Simeon, and Caleb were severally the ancestors of the families who rangedthemselves under their respective names, and the eponymous heroes ofall the tribes were held to have been brethren, sons of one father, andunder the protection of one God. He was known as the Jahveh with whomAbraham of old had made a solemn covenant; His dwelling-place was MountSinai or Mount Seîr, and He revealed Himself in the storm;** His voicewas as the thunder "which shaketh the wilderness, " His breath was as "aconsuming fire, " and He was decked with light "as with a garment. " WhenHis anger was aroused, He withheld the dew and rain from watering theearth; but when His wrath was appeased, the heavens again poured theirfruitful showers upon the fields. *** * Simeon is derived by some from a word which at times denotes a hyena, at others a cross between a dog and a hyena, according to Arab lexicography. With regard to Caleb, Renan prefers a different interpretation; it is supposed to be a shortened form of Kalbel, and "Dog of El" is a strong expression to denote the devotion of a tribe to its patron god. ** Cf. The graphic description of the signs which accompanied the manifestations of Jahveh in the _Song of Deborah (Judges_ v. 4, 5), and also in 1 _Kings_ xix. 11-13. *** See 1 _Kings_ xvii. , xviii. , where the conflict between Elijah and the prophets of Baal for the obtaining of rain is described. He is described as being a "jealous God, " brooking no rival, and"visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the thirdand fourth generation. " We hear of His having been adored under thefigure of a "calf, "* and of His Spirit inspiring His prophets, as wellas of the anointed stones which were dedicated in His honour. The commonancestor of the nation was acknowledged to have been Jacob, who, by hiswrestling with God, had obtained the name of Israel; the people weredivided theoretically into as many tribes as he had sons, but the numbertwelve to which they were limited does not entirely correspond with allthat we know up to the present time of these "children of Israel. " Someof the tribes appear never to have had any political existence, as forexample that of Levi, ** or they were merged at an early date into somefellow-tribe, as in the case of Reuben with Gad;*** others, such asEphraim, Manasseh, Benjamin, and Judah, apparently did not attain theirnormal development until a much later date. * The most common of these animal forms was that of a calf or bull (Exod. Xxxii. ; Deut. Ix. 21; and in the kingly period, 1 Kings xii. 28-30; 2 Kings x. 29); we are not told the form of the image of Micah the Ephraimite (Judges xviii. 14, 17, 18, 20, 30, 31). ** Levi appears to have suffered dispersion after the events of which there are two separate accounts combined in Gen. Xxxiv. In conjunction with Simeon, he appears to have revenged the violation of his sister Dinah by a massacre of the Shechemites, and the dispersion alluded to in Jacob's blessing (Gen. Xlix. 5-7) is mentioned as consequent on this act of barbarism. *** In the IXth century Mesha of Moab does not mention the Reubenites, and speaks of the Gadites only as inhabiting the territory formerly occupied by them. Tradition attributed the misfortunes of the tribe to the crime of its chief in his seduction of Bilhah, his father's concubine (Gen. Xlix. 3, 4; cf. Xxxv. 22) The Jewish chroniclers attempted by various combinations to prove thatthe sacred number of tribes was the correct one. At times they includedLevi in the list, in which case Joseph was reckoned as one;* while onother occasions Levi or Simeon was omitted, when for Joseph would besubstituted his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh. ** In addition to this, the tribes were very unequal in size: Ephraim, Gad, and Manassehcomprised many powerful and wealthy families; Dan, on the contrary, contained so few, that it was sometimes reckoned as a mere clan. * As, for instance, in Jacob's blessing (Gen. Xlix. 5-7) and in the enumeration of the patriarch's sons at the time of his journey to Egypt (Gen. Xlvi. 9-26). ** Numb. I. 20, et seq. , where the descendants of Levi are not included among the twelve, and Deut. Xxxiii. 6-25, where Simeon is omitted from among the tribes blessed by Moses before his death. The tribal organisation had not reached its full development at thetime of the sojourn in the desert. The tribes of Joseph and Judah, whosubsequently played such important parts, were at that period not heldin any particular estimation; Reuben, on the other hand, exercised asort of right of priority over the rest. * * This conclusion is drawn from the position of eldest son given to him in all the genealogies enumerating the children of Jacob. Stade, on the contrary, is inclined to believe that this place of honour was granted to him on account of the smallness of his family, to prevent any jealousy arising between the more powerful tribes, such as Ephraim and Judah (_Ges. Des Vollces Isr. _, vol. I. Pp. 151, 152). The territory which they occupied soon became insufficient to supporttheir numbers, and they sought to exchange it for a wider area, such aswas offered by the neighbouring provinces of Southern Syria. Pharaohat this time exercised no authority over this region, and they were, therefore, no longer in fear of opposition from his troops; the latterhad been recalled to Egypt, and it is doubtful even whether he retainedpossession of the Shephelah by means of his Zakkala and Philistinecolonies; the Hebrews, at any rate, had nothing to fear from him so longas they respected Gaza and Ascalon. They began by attempting to possessthemselves of the provinces around Hebron, in the direction of the DeadSea, and we read that, before entering them, they sent out spies toreconnoitre and report on the country. * Its population had undergoneconsiderable modifications since the Israelites had quitted Goshen. The Amorites, who had seriously suffered from the incursions of Asiatichordes, and had been constantly harassed by the attacks of the Aramæans, had abandoned the positions they had formerly occupied on the banksof the Orontes and the Litany, and had moved southwards, driving theCanaanites before them; their advance was accelerated as the resistanceopposed to their hordes became lessened under the successors of RamsesIII. , until at length all opposition was withdrawn. They had possessedthemselves of the regions about the Lake of Genesareth, the mountaindistrict to the south of Tabor, the middle valley of the Jordan, and, pressing towards the territory east of that river, had attacked thecities scattered over the undulating table-land. This district hadnot been often subjected to incursions of Egyptian troops, and yet itsinhabitants had been more impressed by Egyptian influence than manyothers. [Illustration: 259. Jpg THE AMORITE ASTARTE] Drawn by Paucher-Gudin, from the squeezes and sketches published in the _Zeitschrift ties Palcistina-Vereins_. Whereas, in the north and west, cuneiform writing was almost entirelyused, attempts had been made here to adapt the hieroglyphs to the nativelanguage. The only one of their monuments which has been preserved is a rudelycarved bas-relief in black basalt, representing a two-horned Astarte, before whom stands a king in adoration; the sovereign is Ramses II. , andthe inscriptions accompanying the figures contain a religious formulatogether with a name borrowed from one of the local dialects. * *This is the "Stone of Job" discovered by Strahmacher. The inscription appears to give the name of a goddess, Agana- Zaphon, the second part of which recalls the name of Baal- Zephon. The Amorites were everywhere victorious, but our information is confinedto this bare fact; soon after their victory, however, we find theterritory they had invaded divided into two kingdoms: in the north thatof Bashan, which comprised, besides the Haurân, the plain watered by theYarrnuk; and to the south that of Heshbon, containing the district lyingaround the Arnon, and the Jabbok to the east of the Dead Sea. * They seemto have made the same rapid progress in the country between the Jordanand the Mediterranean as elsewhere. They had subdued some of the smallCanaanite states, entered into friendly relation with others, andpenetrated gradually as far south as the borders of Sinai, while we findthem establishing petty kings among the hill-country of Shechem aroundHebron, on the confines of the Negeb, and the Shephelah. ** When theHebrew tribes ventured to push forward in a direct line northwards, theycame into collision with the advance posts of the Amorite population, and suffered a severe defeat under the walls of Hormah. *** The checkthus received, however, did not discourage them. As a direct coursewas closed to them, they turned to the right, and followed, first thesouthern and then the eastern shores of the Red Sea, till they reachedthe frontier of Gilead. **** * The extension of the Amorite power in this direction is proved by the facts relating to the kingdoms of Sihon and Og Gent. I. 4, ii. 24-37, iii. 1-1. 7. ** For the Amorite occupation of the Negeb and the hill- country of Judah, cf. Numb. Xiii. 29; Bent. I. 7, 19-46; Josh. X. 5, 6, 12, xi. 3; for their presence in the Shephelah, cf. Judges i. 34-36. *** See the long account in Numb, xiii. , xiv. , which terminates with the mention of the defeat of the Israelites at Hormah; and cf. Bent. I. 19-46. **** The itinerary given in Numb. Xx. 22-29, xxxi. , xxxiii. 37-49, and repeated in Bent, ii. , brings the Israelites as far as Ezion-geber, in such a manner as to avoid the Midianites and the Moabites. The friendly welcome accorded to them in the regions situated to the east of the Dead Sea, has been accounted for either by an alliance made with Moab and Ammon against their common enemy, the Amorites, or by the fact that Ammon and Moab did not as yet occupy those regions; the inhabitants in that case would have been Edomites and Midianites, who were in continual warfare with each other. There again they were confronted by the Amorites, but in lessernumbers, and not so securely entrenched within their fortresses as theirfellow-countrymen in the Negeb, so that the Israelites were able tooverthrow the kingdoms of Heshbon and Bashan. * * War against Sihon, King of Heshbon (Numb. Xxi. 21-31; Beut. Ii. 26-37), and against Og, King of Bashan (Numb. Xxi. 32-35; Beut. Iii. 1-13). [Illustration: 261. Jpg THE VALLEY OF THE JABBOK, NEAR TO ITS CONFLUENCEWITH THE JORDAN] Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 336 of the _Palestine Exploration Fund. _ Gad received as its inheritance nearly the whole of the territory lyingbetween the Jabbok and the Yarmuk, in the neighbourhood of the ancientnative sanctuaries of Penuel, Mahanaim, and Succoth, associated withthe memory of Jacob. * Reuben settled in the vicinity, and both tribesremained there isolated from the rest. From this time forward they tookbut a slight interest in the affairs of their brethren: when the latterdemanded their succour, "Gilead abode beyond Jordan, " and "by thewatercourses of Reuben there were great resolves at heart, " but withoutany consequent action. ** It was not merely due to indifference on theirpart; their resources were fully taxed in defending themselves againstthe Aramæans and Bedawins, and from the attacks of Moab and Ammon. Gad, continually threatened, struggled for centuries without beingdiscouraged, but Reuben lost heart, *** and soon declined in power, tillat length he became merely a name in the memory of his brethren. * Gad did not possess the districts between the Jabbok and the Arnon till the time of the early kings, and retained them only till about the reign of Jehu, as we gather from the inscription of Mesa. ** These are the very expressions used by the author of the _Song of Deborah_ in Judges v. 16, 17. *** The recollection of these raids by Reuben against the Beduin of the Syrian desert is traceable in 1 Citron, v. 10, 18-22. Two tribes having been thus provided for, the bulk of the Israelitessought to cross the Jordan without further delay, and establishthemselves as best they might in the very heart of the Canaanites. Thesacred writings speak of their taking possession of the country bya methodic campaign, undertaken by command of and under the visibleprotection of Jahveh* Moses had led them from Egypt to Kadesh, and fromKadesh to the land of Gilead; he had seen the promised land from thesummit of Mount Nebo, but he had not entered it, and after his death, Joshua, son of Nun, became their leader, brought them across Jordandryshod, not far from its mouth, and laid siege to Jericho. * The history of the conquest is to be found in the _Book of Joshua. _ The walls of the city fell of themselves at the blowing of the brazentrumpets, * and its capture entailed that of three neighbouring towns, Aï, Bethel, and Shechem. Shechem served as a rallying-place for theconquerors; Joshua took up his residence there, and built on the summitof Mount Ebal an altar of stone, on which he engraved the principaltenets of the divine Law. ** * Josh, i. -vi. ** Josh, vii. , viii. Mount Ebal is the present Gebel Sulemiyeh. [Illustration: 263. Jpg ONE OF THE MOUNDS OF ÂÎN ES-SULTÂN, THE ANCIENTJERICHO] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph brought back by Lortet. The sudden intrusion of a new element naturally alarmed the worshippersof the surrounding local deities; they at once put a truce to theirpetty discords, and united in arms against the strangers. At theinstigation of Adoni-zedeck, King of Jerusalem, the Canaanites collectedtheir forces in the south; but they were routed not far from Gibeon, andtheir chiefs killed or mutilated. * The Amorites in the north, who hadassembled round Jabin, King of Hazor, met with no better success; theywere defeated at the waters of Merom, Hazor was burnt, and Galileedelivered to fire and sword. ** * Josh. X. The same war is given rather differently in Judges i. 1-9, where the king is called Adoni-bezek. ** Josh. Xi. As another Jabin appears in the history of Deborah, it has [Illustration: 264. Jpg THE JORDAN IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF JERICHO] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph in Lortet. The country having been thus to a certain extent cleared, Joshua setabout dividing the spoil, and assigned to each tribe his allottedportion of territory. * Such, in its main outlines, is the account givenby the Hebrew chroniclers; but, if closely examined, it would appearthat the Israelites did not act throughout with that unity of purposeand energy which they [the Hebrew chroniclers] were pleased to imagine. They did not gain possession of the land all at once, but establishedthemselves in it gradually by detachments, some settling at the fordsof Jericho, ** others more to the north, and in the central valley of theJordan as far up as She-chem. *** * The lot given to each tribe is described in Josh, xiii. - xxi. It has been maintained by some critics that there is a double rôle assigned to one and the same person, only that some maintain that the Jabin of Josh. Xi. Has been transferred to the time of the Judges, while others make out that the Jabin of Deborah was carried back to the time of the conquest. ** Renan thinks that the principal crossing must have taken place opposite Jericho, as is apparent from the account in Josh, ii. , iii. *** Carl Niebuhr believes that he has discovered the exact spot at the ford of Admah, near Succoth. [Illustration: 265. Jpg ONE OF THE WELLS OF BEERSHEBA] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph in Lortet. The latter at once came into contact with a population having ahigher civilization than themselves, and well equipped for a vigorousresistance; the walled towns which had defied the veterans of thePharaohs had not much to fear from the bands of undisciplined Israeliteswandering in their neighbourhood. Properly speaking, there were nopitched battles between them, but rather a succession of raids orskirmishes, in which several citadels would successively fall into thehands of the invaders. Many of these strongholds, harassed by repeatedattacks, would prefer to come to terms with the enemy, and would cede orsell them some portion of their territory; others would open their gatesfreely to the strangers, and their inhabitants would ally themselves byintermarriage with the Hebrews. Judah and the remaining descendants ofSimeon and Levi established themselves in the south; Levi comprised buta small number of families, and made no important settlements; whereasJudah took possession of nearly the whole of the mountain districtseparating the Shephelah from the western shores of the Dead Sea, whileSimeon made its abode close by on the borders of the desert around thewells of Beersheba. * * Wellhausen has remarked that the lot of Levi must not be separated from that of Simeon, and, as the remnant of Simeon allied themselves with Judah, that of Levi also must have shared the patrimony of Judah. The descendants of Rachel and her handmaid received as their inheritancethe regions situated more to the centre of the country, the house ofJoseph taking the best domains for its branches of Ephraim and Manasseh. Ephraim received some of the old Canaanite sanctuaries, such as Ramah, Bethel, and Shiloh, and it was at the latter spot that they depositedthe ark of the covenant. Manasseh settled to the north of Ephraim, inthe hills and valleys of the Carmel group, and to Benjamin were assignedthe heights which overlook the plain of Jericho. Four of the lessimportant tribes, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Zebulon, venturedas far north as the borders of Tyre and Sidon, behind the Phoenicianlittoral, but were prevented by the Canaanites and Amorites fromspreading over the plain, and had to confine themselves to themountains. All the fortresses commanding the passes of Tabor andCarmel, Megiddo, Taanach, Ibleam, Jezreel, Endor, and Bethshan remainedinviolate, and formed as it were an impassable barrier-line between theHebrews of Galilee and their brethren of Ephraim. The Danites were longbefore they found a resting-place; they attempted to insert themselvesto the north of Judah, between Ajalon and Joppa, but were so harassedby the Amorites, that they had to content themselves with the precarioustenure of a few towns such as Zora, Shaalbîn, and Eshdol. The foreignpeoples of the Shephelah and the Canaanite cities almost all preservedtheir autonomy; the Israelites had no chance against them wherever theyhad sufficient space to put into the field large bodies of infantry orto use their iron-bound chariots. Finding it therefore impossible toovercome them, the tribes were forced to remain cut off from each otherin three isolated groups of unequal extent which they were powerlessto connect: in the centre were Joseph, Benjamin, and Dan; in the south, Judah, Levi, and Simeon; while Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Zebulonlay to the north. The period following the occupation of Canaan constituted the heroic ageof the Hebrews. The sacred writings agree in showing that the ties whichbound the twelve tribes together were speedily dissolved, while theirfidelity and obedience to God were relaxed with the growth of the younggenerations to whom Moses or Joshua were merely names. The conquerors"dwelt among the Canaanites: the Hittite, and the Amorite, and thePerizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite: and they took theirdaughters to be their wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods. And the children of Israel did that which wasevil in the sight of the Lord their God, and served the Baalim and theAsheroth. "* [Illustration: 268. Jpg MAP OF PALESTINE IN TIME OF THE JUDGES] When they had once abandoned their ancient faith, political unity wasnot long preserved. War broke out between one tribe and another; thestronger allowed the weaker to be oppressed by the heathen, and werethemselves often powerless to retain their independence. In spite of thethousands of men among them, all able to bear arms, they fell an easyprey to the first comer; the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, andthe Philistines, all oppressed them in turn, and repaid with usury theills which Joshua had inflicted on the Canaanites. "Whithersoever theywent out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lordhad spoken, and as the Lord had sworn unto them: and they were soredistressed. And the Lord raised up judges, which saved them out of thehand of those that spoiled them. And yet they hearkened not unto theirjudges, for they went a-whoring after other gods, and bowed themselvesdown unto them: they turned aside quickly out of the way wherein theirfathers walked obeying the commandments of the Lord; but they did notso. And when the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was with thejudge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days ofthe judge: for it repented the Lord because of their groaning by reasonof them that oppressed them and vexed them. But it came to pass, whenthe judge was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly thantheir fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow downunto them; they ceased not from their doings, nor from their stubbornway. "* The history of this period lacks the unity and precision withwhich we are at first tempted to credit it. * Judges ii. 15-19. The Israelites, when transplanted into the promised land, did notimmediately lose the nomadic habits they had acquired in the desert. They retained the customs and prejudices they had inherited from theirfathers, and for many years treated the peasantry, whose fields theyhad devastated, with the same disdain that the Bedawin of our own day, living in the saddle, lance in hand, shows towards the fellahîn who tillthe soil and bend patiently over the plough. The clans, as of old, were impatient of all regular authority; each tribe tended towards anisolated autonomy, a state of affairs which merited reprisals from thenatives and encouraged hatred of the intruders, and it was only whenthe Canaanite oppression became unendurable that those who suffered mostfrom it united themselves to make a common effort, and rallied fora moment round the chief who was ready to lead them. Many of theseliberators must have acquired an ephemeral popularity, and then havesunk into oblivion together with the two or three generations who hadknown them; those whose memory remained green among their kinsmen wereknown by posterity as the judges of Israel. * * The word "judges, " which has been adopted to designate these rulers, is somewhat misleading, as it suggests the idea of an organized civil magistracy. The word "shophet, " the same that we meet with in classical times under the form _suffetes_, had indeed that sense, but its primary meaning denotes a man invested with an absolute authority, regular or otherwise; it would be better translated _chief, prince, captain_. These judges were not magistrates invested with official powers andapproved by the whole nation, or rulers of a highly organised republic, chosen directly by God or by those inspired by Him. They were merelylocal chiefs, heroes to their own immediate tribe, well known in theirparticular surroundings, but often despised by those only at a shortdistance from them. Some of them have left only a name behind them, suchas Shamgar, Ibzan, Tola, Elon, and Abdon; indeed, some scholars havethrown doubts on the personality of a few of them, as, for instance, Jair, whom they affirm to have personified a Gileadite clan, andOthnîel, who is said to represent one of the Kenite families associatedwith the children of Israel. * Others, again, have come down to usthrough an atmosphere of popular tradition, the elements of which moderncriticism has tried in vain to analyse. Of such unsettled and turbulenttimes we cannot expect an uninterrupted history:** some salient episodesalone remain, spread over a period of nearly two centuries, and fromthese we can gather some idea of the progress made by the Israelites, and observe their stages of transition from a cluster of semi-barbaroushordes to a settled nation ripe for monarchy. * The name Tola occurs as that of one of the clans of Issachar (Gen. Xlvi. 13; Numb. Xxvi. 23); Elon was one of the clans of Zebulon (Gen. Xlvi. 14; Numb. Xxvi. 26) ** Renan, however, believes that the judges "formed an almost continuous line, and that there merely lacks a descent from father to son to make of them an actual dynasty. " The chronology of the _Book of Judges_ appears to cover more than four centuries, from Othnîel to Samson, but this computation cannot be relied on, as "forty years" represents an indefinite space of time. We must probably limit this early period of Hebrew history to about a century and a half, from cir. 1200 to 1050 B. C. The first of these episodes deals merely with a part, and that the leastimportant, of the tribes settled in Central Canaan. * The destruction ofthe Amorite kingdoms of Heshbon and Bashan had been as profitable tothe kinsmen of the Israelites, Ammon and Moab, as it had been to theIsraelites themselves. * The episode of Othnîel and Cushan-rishathaim, placed at the beginning of the history of this period (Judges iii. 8- 11), is, by general consent, regarded as resting on a worthless tradition. The Moabites had followed in the wake of the Hebrews through all thesurrounding regions of the Dead Sea; they had pushed on from the banksof the Arnon to those of the Jabbok, and at the time of the Judges wereno longer content with harassing merely Reuben and Gad. [Illustration: 272. Jpg MOABITE WARRIOR] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the original in the Louvre. They were a fine race of warlike, well-armed Beda-wins. Jericho hadfallen into their hands, and their King Eglon had successfully scouredthe entire hill-country of Ephraim, * so that those who wished to escapebeing pillaged had to safeguard themselves by the payment of an annualtribute. * The text seems to infer (Judges iii. 13-15) that, after having taken the Oily of Palm Trees, i. E. Jericho (Deut. Xxxiv. 3; 2 Ghron. Xxviii. 15), Eglon had made it his residence, which makes the story incomprehensible from a geographical point of view. But all difficulties would disappear if we agreed to admit that in ver. 15 the name of the capital of Eglon has dropped out. Ehud the Left-handed concealed under his garments a keen dagger, andjoined himself to the Benjamite deputies who were to carry their dues tothe Moabite sovereign. The money having been paid, the deputies turnedhomewards, but when they reached the cromlech of Gilgal, * and were safebeyond the reach of the enemy, Ehud retraced his steps, and presentinghimself before the palace of Eglon in the attitude of a prophet, announced that he had a secret errand to the king, who thereuponcommanded silence, and ordered his servants to leave him with the divinemessenger in his summer parlour. * The cromlech at Gilgal was composed of twelve stones, which, we are told, were erected by Joshua as a remembrance of the crossing of the Jordan (Josh. Iv. 19-24). "And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto thee. And he arose out ofhis seat. And Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the sword from hisright thigh, and thrust it into his belly: and the haft also went inafter the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, for he drew not thesword out of his belly; and it came out behind. " Then Ehud locked thedoors and escaped. "Now when he was gone out, his servants came; andthey saw, and, behold, the doors of the parlour were locked; and theysaid, Surely he covereth his feet in his summer chamber. " But by thetime they had forced an entrance, Ehud had reached Gilgal and was insafety. He at once assembled the clans of Benjamin, occupied the fordsof the Jordan, massacred the bands of Moabites scattered over the plainof Jericho, and blocked the routes by which the invaders attempted toreach the hill-country of Ephraim. Almost at the same time the tribesin Galilee had a narrow escape from a still more formidable enemy. * Theyhad for some time been under the Amorite yoke, and the sacred writingsrepresent them at this juncture as oppressed either by Sisera ofHarosheth-ha-Goyîm or by a second Jabin, who was able to bring ninehundred chariots of iron into the field. ** At length the prophetessDeborah of Issachar sent to Barak of Kadesh a command to assemble hispeople, together with those of Zebulon, in the name of the Lord;*** sheherself led the contingents of Issachar, Ephraim, and Machir to meet himat the foot of Tabor, where the united host is stated to have comprisedforty thousand men. Sisera, **** who commanded the Canaanite force, attacked the Israelite army between Taanach and Megiddo in that plainof Kishon which had often served as a battle-field during the Egyptiancampaigns. * The text tells us that, after the time of Ehud, the land had rest eighty years (Judges iii. 30). This, again, is one of those numbers which represent an indefinite space of time. ** It has been maintained that two versions are here blended together in the text, one in which the principal part is played by Sisera, the other in which it is attributed to Jabin. The episode of Deborah and Barak (Judges iv. , v. ) comprises a narrative in prose (chap, iv. ), and the song (chap, v. ) attributed to Deborah. The prose account probably is derived from the song. The differences in the two accounts may be explained as having arisen partly from an imperfect understanding of the poetic text, and partly from one having come down from some other source. *** Some critics suppose that the prose narrative (Judges iv. 5) has confounded the prophetess Deborah, wife of Lapidoth, with Deborah, nurse of Rachel, who was buried near Bethel, under the "Oak of Weeping" (Gen. Xxxv. 8), and consequently place it between Rama and Bethel, in the hill- country of Ephraim. **** In the prose narrative (Judges iv. 2-7) Sisera is stated to have been the general of Jabin: there is nothing incompatible in this statement with the royal dignity elsewhere attributed to Sisera. Harosheth-ha-Goyîm has been identified with the present village of El-Haretîyeh, on the right bank of the Kishon. It would appear that heavy rains had swelled the streams, and thusprevented the chariots from rendering their expected service in theengagement; at all events, the Amorites were routed, and Sisera escapedwith the survivors towards Hazor. [Illustration: 275. Jpg TELL] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph in Lortet. The people of Meroz facilitated his retreat, but a Kenite named Jael, the wife of Heber, traitorously killed him with a blow from a hammerwhile he was in the act of drinking. * * Meroz is the present Marus, between the Lake of Huleh and Safed. I have followed the account given in the song (Judges v. 24-27). According to the prose version (iv. 17-22), Jael slew Sisera while he was asleep with a tent-pin, which she drove into his temple. [The text of Judges v. 24-27 does not seem to warrant the view that he was slain "in the act of drinking, " nor does it seem to conflict with Judges iv. 11. - -Tr. ] This exploit was commemorated in a song, the composition of which isattributed to Deborah and Barak: "For that the leaders took the lead inIsrael, for that the people offered themselves willingly, bless ye theLord. Hear, O ye kings, give ear, O ye princes; I, even I, will singunto the Lord; I will sing praise to the Lord, the God of Israel. "* Thepoet then dwells on the sufferings of the people, but tells how Deborahand Barak were raised up, and enumerates the tribes who took part inthe conflict as well as those who turned a deaf ear to the appeal. "Thencame down a remnant of the nobles and the people.... Out of Ephraimcame down they whose root is in Amalek:--out of Machir came downgovernors, --and out of Zebulon they that handle the marshal'sstaff. --And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah--as was Issacharso was Barak, --into the valley they rushed forth at his feet. **--By thewatercourses of Reuben--there were great resolves of heart. --Why satestthou among the sheepfolds, --to hear the pipings for the flocks?--Atthe watercourses of Reuben--there were great searchings of heart--Gileadabode beyond Jordan:--and Dan, why did he remain in ships?--Asher satstill at the haven of the sea--and abode by his creeks. --Zebulon was apeople that jeoparded their lives unto the death, --and Naphtali upon thehigh places of the field. --The kings came and fought;--then fought thekings of Canaan. --In Taanach by the waters of Megiddo:--they took nogain of money. --They fought from heaven, --the stars in their coursesfought against Sisera. --The river of Kishon swept them away, --thatancient river, the river Kishon. --O my soul, march on withstrength. --Then did the horsehoofs stamp--by reason of the pransings, the pransings of their strong ones. " * Judges v. 2, 3 (R. V. ). ** The text of the song (Judges v. 14) contains an allusion to Benjamin, which is considered by many critics to be an interpolation. It gives a mistaken reading, "_Issachar_ with Barak;" Issachar having been already mentioned with Deborah, probably Zébulon should be inserted in the text. Sisera flies, and the poet follows him in fancy, as if he feared to seehim escape from vengeance. He curses the people of Meroz in passing, "because they came not to the help of the Lord. " He addresses Jael andblesses her, describing the manner in which the chief fell at her feet, and then proceeds to show how, at the very time of Sisera's death, hispeople were awaiting the messenger who should bring the news of hisvictory; "through the window she looked forth and cried--the motherof Sisera cried through the lattice--'Why is his chariot so long incoming?--Why tarry the wheels of his chariot?'--Her wise ladies answeredher, --yea, she returned answer to herself, --'Have they not found, havethey not divided the spoil?--A damsel, two damsels to every man;--toSisera a spoil of divers colours, --a spoil of divers colours ofembroidery on both sides, on the necks of the spoil?--So let all Thineenemies perish, O Lord:--but let them that love Him be as the sun whenhe goeth forth in his might. '" It was the first time, as far as we know, that several of the Israelitetribes combined together for common action after their sojourn in thedesert of Kadesh-barnea, and the success which followed from theirunited efforts ought, one would think, to have encouraged them tomaintain such a union, but it fell out otherwise; the desire for freedomof action and independence was too strong among them to permit of thecontinuance of the coalition. [Illustration: 278. Jpg MOUNT TABOR] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by M. C. Alluaud of Limoges. Manasseh, restricted in its development by the neighbouring Canaanitetribes, was forced to seek a more congenial neighbourhood to the east ofthe Jordan--not close to Gad, in the land of Gilead, but to the northof the Yarmuk and its northern affluents in the vast region extendingto the mountains of the Haurân. The families of Machir and Jair migratedone after the other to the east of the Lake of Gennesaret, while thatof Nobah proceeded as far as the brook of Kanah, and thus formed in thisdirection the extreme outpost of the children of Israel: these familiesdid not form themselves into new tribes, for they were mindful oftheir affiliation to Manasseh, and continued beyond the river toregard themselves still as his children. * The prosperity of Ephraim andManasseh, and the daring nature of their exploits, could not failto draw upon them the antagonism and jealousy of the people on theirborders. The Midianites were accustomed almost every year to passthrough the region beyond the Jordan which the house of Joseph hadrecently colonised. Assembling in the springtime at the junction of theYarmuk with the Jordan, they crossed the latter river, and, spreadingover the plains of Mount Tabor, destroyed the growing crops, raided thevillages, and pushed, sometimes, their skirmishing parties over hill anddale as far as Gaza. ** * Manasseh was said to have been established beyond the Jordan at the time that Gad and Reuben were in possession of the land of Gilead (Numb, xxxii. 33, 39-42, xxxiv. 14, 15; Dent. Iii. 13-15; Josh. Xiii. 8, 29-32, xxii. ). Earlier traditions placed this event in the period which followed the conquest of Canaan by Joshua. It is not certain that all the families which constituted the half-tribe of Manasseh took their origin from Manasseh: one of them, for example, that of Jair, was regarded as having originated partly from Judah (1 Chron. Ii. 21-24). ** Judges vi. 2-6. The inference that they dare not beat wheat in the open follows from ver. 11, where it is said that "Gideon was beating out wheat in his winepress to hide it from the Midianites. " A perpetual terror reigned wherever they were accustomed to pass*: noone dared beat out wheat or barley in the open air, or lead his herds topasture far from his home, except under dire necessity; and even on suchoccasions the inhabitants would, on the slightest alarm, abandon theirpossessions to take refuge in caves or in strongholds on the mountains. 1During one of these incursions two of their sheikhs encountered somemen of noble mien in the vicinity of Tabor, and massacred them withoutcompunction. ** The latter were people of Ophrah, *** brethren of acertain Jerubbaal (Gideon) who was head of the powerful family ofAbiezer. **** * The history of the Midianite oppression (Judges vi. -viii. ) seems to be from two different sources; the second (Judges viii. 4-21), which is also the shortest, is considered by some to represent the more ancient tradition. The double name of the hero, Gideon-Jerubbaal, has led some to assign its elements respectively to Gideon, judge of the western portion of Manasseh, and Jerubbaal, judge of the eastern Manasseh, and to the consequent fusion of the two men in one. ** This is an assumption which follows reasonably from Judges viii. 18, 19. *** The site of the Ophrah of Abiezer is not known for certain, but it would seem from the narrative that it was in the neighbourhood of Shechem. **** The position of Gideon-Jerubbaal as head of the house of Abiezer follows clearly from the narrative; if he is represented in the first part of the account as a man of humble origin (Judges vi. 15, 16), it was to exalt the power of Jahveh, who was accustomed to choose His instruments from amongst the lowly. The name Jerubbaal (1 Sam. Xii. 11:2 Sam. Xi. 21, where the name is transformed into Jerubbesheth, as Ishbaal and Meribbaal are into Ishbosheth and Mephibosheth respectively), in which "Baal" seems to some not to represent the Canaanite God, but the title Lord as applied to Jahveh, was supposed to mean "Baal fights against him, " and was, therefore, offensive to the orthodox. Kuenen thought it meant "Lord, fight for him!" Renan read it Yarebaal, from the Vulgate form Jerobaal, and translated "He who fears Baal. " Gideon signifies "He who overthrows" in the battle. Assembling all his people at the call of the trumpet, Jerubbaal chosefrom among them three hundred of the strongest, with whom he camedown unexpectedly upon the raiders, put them to flight in the plain ofJezreel, and followed them beyond the Jordan. Having crossed the river, "faint and yet pursuing, " he approached the men of Succoth, and askedthem for bread for himself and his three hundred followers. Their fearof the marauders, however, was so great that the people refused to givehim any help, and he had no better success with the people of Penuelwhom he encountered a little further on. He did not stop to compel themto accede to his wishes, but swore to inflict an exemplary punishmentupon them on his return. The Midianites continued their retreat, in themean time, "by the way of them that dwelt in tents on the east ofNobah and Jogbehah, " but Jerubbaal came up with them near Karkâr, anddiscomfited the host. He took vengeance upon the two peoples who hadrefused to give him bread, and having thus fulfilled his vow, he beganto question his prisoners, the two chiefs: "What manner of men were theywhom ye slew at Tabor?" "As thou art, so were they; each one resembledthe children of a king. " "And he said, They were my brethren, the sonsof my mother: as the Lord liveth, if ye had saved them alive, I wouldnot slay you. And he said unto Jether his firstborn, Up, and slay them. But the youth drew not his sword: for he feared, because he was yet ayouth. " True Bedawins as they were, the chiefs' pride revolted at theidea of their being handed over for execution to a child, and they criedto Jerubbaal: "Rise thou, and fall upon us: for as the man is, so ishis strength. " From this victory rose the first monarchy among theIsraelites. The Midianites, owing to their marauding habits and theamount of tribute which they were accustomed to secure for escortingcaravans, were possessed of a considerable quantity of gold, which theylavished on the decoration of their persons: their chiefs were clad inpurple mantles, their warriors were loaded with necklaces, bracelets, rings, and ear-rings, and their camels also were not behind theirmasters in the brilliance of their caparison. The booty which Gideonsecured was, therefore, considerable, and, as we learn from thenarrative, excited the envy of the Ephraimites, who said: "Why hast thouserved us thus, that thou calledst us not, when thou wentest to fightwith Midian?"* * Judges viii. 1-3. The spoil from the golden ear-rings alone amounted to one thousand sevenhundred shekels, as we learn from the narrative, and this treasure inthe hands of Jerubbaal was not left unemployed, but was made, doubtless, to contribute something to the prestige he had already acquired: themen of Israel, whom he had just saved from their foes, expressed theirgratitude by offering the crown to him and his successors. The mode oflife of the Hebrews had been much changed after they had taken up theirabode in the mountains of Canaan. The tent had given place to the house, and, like their Canaanite neighbours, they had given themselves upto agricultural pursuits. This change of habits, in bringing abouta greater abundance of the necessaries of life than they had beenaccustomed to, had begotten aspirations which threw into relief theinadequacy of the social organisation, and of the form of governmentwith which they had previously been content. In the case of a hordeof nomads, defeat or exile would be of little moment. Should they beobliged by a turn in their affairs to leave their usual haunts, a fewdays or often a few hours would suffice to enable them to collecttheir effects together, and set out without trouble, and almostwithout regret, in search of a new and more favoured home. But witha cultivator of the ground the case would be different: the farm, clearings, and homestead upon which he had spent such arduous andcontinued labour; the olive trees and vines which had supplied himwith oil and wine--everything, in fact, upon which he depended for alivelihood, or which was dependent upon him, would bind him to the soil, and expose his property to disasters likely to be as keenly felt aswounds inflicted on his person. He would feel the need, therefore, of laws to secure to him in time of peace the quiet possession of hiswealth, of an army to protect it in time of war, and of a ruler tocause, on the one hand, the laws to be respected, and to become theleader, on the other, of the military forces. Jerubbaal is said to have, in the first instance, refused the crown, but everything goes to provethat he afterwards virtually accepted it. He became, it is true, onlya petty king, whose sovereignty was limited to Manasseh, a part ofEphraim, and a few towns, such as Succoth and Penuel, beyond the Jordan. The Canaanite city of Shechem also paid him homage. Like all greatchiefs, he had also numerous wives, and he recognised as the nationalDeity the God to whom he owed his victories. Out of the spoil taken from the Midianites he formed and set up atOphrah an ephod, which became, as we learn, "a snare unto him and untohis house, " but he had also erected under a terebinth tree a stone altarto Jahveh-Shalom ("Jehovah is peace"). * This sanctuary, with its altarand ephod, soon acquired great celebrity, and centuries after itsfoundation it was the object of many pilgrimages from a distance. Jerubbaal was the father by his Israelite wives of seventy children, and, by a Canaanite woman whom he had taken as a concubine at Shechem, of one son, called Abimelech. ** * The _Book of Judges_ separates the altar from the ephod, placing the erection of the former at the time of the vocation of Gideon (vi. 11-31) and that of the ephod after the victory (viii. 24-27). The sanctuary of Ophrah was possibly in existence before the time of Jerubbaal, and the sanctity of the place may have determined his selection of the spot for placing the altar and ephod there. ** Judges viii. 30, 31. The succession to the throne would naturally have fallen to one of theseventy, but before this could be arranged, Abimelech "went to Shechemunto his mother's brethren, and spake with them, and with all the familyof the house of his mother's father, saying, Speak, I pray you, in theears of all the men of Shechem, Whether is better for you, that all thesons of Jerubbaal, which are threescore and ten persons, rule over you, or that one rule over you? remember also that I am your bone and yourflesh. " This advice was well received; it flattered the vanity of thepeople to think that the new king was to be one of themselves; "theirhearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said, He is our brother. And they gave him threescore and ten pieces of silver out of the houseof Baal-berith (the Lord of the Covenant), wherewith Abimelech hiredvain and light fellows, which followed him.... He slew his brethren thesons of Jerubbaal, being threescore and ten persons, upon one stone. "The massacre having been effected, "all the men of Shechem assembledthemselves together, and all the house of Millo, * and made Abimelechking, by the oak of the pillar which was in Shechem. "** He dwelt atOphrah, in the residence, and near the sanctuary, of his father, andfrom thence governed the territories constituting the little kingdomof Manasseh, levying tribute upon the vassal villages, and exactingprobably tolls from caravans passing through his domain. * The word "Millo" is a generic term, meaning citadel or stronghold of the city: there was a Millo in every important town, Jerusalem included. ** The "oak of the pillar" was a sacred tree overshadowing probably a _cippus_: it may have been the tree mentioned in Gen. Xxxv. 4, under which Jacob buried the strange gods; or that referred to in Josh. Xxiv. 26, under which Joshua set up a stone commemorative of the establishment of the law. Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon, escaped the massacre. As soon as he heard of the election of Abimelech, he ascended Mount Gerizim, and gave out from there the fable of the trees, applying it to the circumstances of the time, and then fled. Some critics think that this fable--which is confessedly old--was inserted in the text at a time when prophetical ideas prevailed and monarchy was not yet accepted. This condition of things lasted for three years, and then theShechemites, who had shown themselves so pleased at the idea of having"one of their brethren" as sovereign, found it irksome to pay the taxeslevied upon them by him, as if they were in no way related to him. Thepresence among them of a certain Zebul, the officer and representativeof Abimelech, restrained them at first from breaking out into rebellion, but they returned soon to their ancient predatory ways, and demandedransom for the travellers they might capture even when the latter werein possession of the king's safe conduct. This was not only an insult totheir lord, but a serious blow to his treasury: the merchants who foundthemselves no longer protected by his guarantee employed elsewhere thesums which would have come into his hands. The king concealed his anger, however; he was not inclined to adopt premature measures, for the placewas a strong one, and defeat would seriously weaken his prestige. Thepeople of Shechem, on their part, did not risk an open rupture for fearof the consequences. Gaal, son of Ebed, * a soldier of fortune and ofIsraelitish blood, arrived upon the scene, attended by his followers: hemanaged to gain the confidence of the people of Shechem, who celebratedunder his protection the feast of the Vintage. * The name Ebed ("slave, " "servant") is assumed to have been substituted in the Massorotic text for the original name Jobaal, because of the element Baal in the latter word, which was regarded as that of the strange god, and would thus have the sacrilegious meaning "Jahveh is Baal. " The term of contempt, Ebed, was, according to this view, thus used to replace it. On this occasion their merrymaking was disturbed by the presence amongthem of the officer charged with collecting the tithes, and Gaal did notlose the opportunity of stimulating their ire by his ironical speeches:"Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? isnot he the son of Jerubbaal? and Zebul his officer? serve ye the men ofHamor the father of Shechem: but why should we serve him? And would toGod this people were under my hand! then would I remove Abimelech. Andhe said to Abimelech, Increase thine army, and come out. " Zebul promptlygave information of this to his master, and invited him to come by nightand lie in ambush in the vicinity of the town, "that in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, thou shalt rise early, and set upon the city:and, behold, when he and the people that is with him come out againstthee, thou mayest do to them as thou shalt find occasion. " It turned outas he foresaw; the inhabitants of Shechem went out in order to take partin the gathering in of the vintage, while Gaal posted his men at theentering in of the gate of the city. As he looked towards the hills hethought he saw an unusual movement among the trees, and, turning round, said to Zebul, who was close by, "Behold, there come people down fromthe tops of the mountains. And Zebul said unto him, Thou seest theshadow of the mountains as if they were men. " A moment after he lookedin another direction, "and spake again and said, See, there come peopledown by the middle of the land, and one company cometh by the way ofthe terebinth of the augurs. " Zebul, seeing the affair turn out so well, threw off the mask, and replied railingly, "Where is now thy mouth, wherewith thou saidst, Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? isnot this the people that thou hast despised? go out, I pray, now, andfight with him. " The King of Manasseh had no difficulty in defeatinghis adversary, but arresting the pursuit at the gates of the city, hewithdrew to the neighbouring village of Arumah. * * This is now el-Ormeh, i. E. Kharbet el-Eurmah, to the south- west of Nablus. He trusted that the inhabitants, who had taken no part in the affair, would believe that his wrath had been appeased by the defeat of Gaal;and so, in fact, it turned out: they dismissed their unfortunatechampion, and on the morrow returned to their labours as if nothing hadoccurred. [Illustration: 288. Jpg MOUNT GERIZIM, WITH A VIEW OF NABLUS] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph reproduced by the Duc de Luynes. Abimelech had arranged his Abiezerites in three divisions: one ofwhich made for the gates, while the other two fell upon the scatteredlabourers in the vineyards. Abimelech then fought against the city andtook it, but the chief citizens had taken refuge in "the hold of thehouse of El-berith. " "Abimelech gat him up to Mount Zalmon, he and allthe people that were with him; and Abimelech took an axe in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it up, and laid it on hisshoulder: and he said unto the people that were with him, What yehave seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done. And all the peoplelikewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and putthem to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them; so that all themen of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women. " [Illustration: 289. Jpg THE TOWN OF ASCALON] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief in the Ramesseum. This is a portion of the picture representing the capture of Ascalon by Ramses II. This summary vengeance did not, however, prevent other rebellions. Thebez imitated Shechem, and came nigh suffering the same penalty. * Theking besieged the city and took it, and was about to burn with fire thetower in which all the people of the city had taken refuge, when a womanthrew a millstone down upon his head "and brake his skull. " * Thebez, now Tubas, the north-east of Nablus. The narrative tells us that, feeling himself mortally wounded, he calledhis armour-bearer to him, and said, "Draw thy sword, and kill me, thatmen say not of me, A woman slew him. " His monarchy ceased with him, andthe ancient chronicler recognises in the catastrophe a just punishmentfor the atrocious crime he had committed in slaying his half-brothers, the seventy children of Jerubbaal. * His fall may be regarded also asthe natural issue of his peculiar position: the resources upon which herelied were inadequate to secure to him a supremacy in Israel. Manasseh, now deprived of a chief, and given up to internal dissensions, becamestill further enfeebled, and an easy prey to its rivals. The divinewritings record in several places the success attained by the centraltribes in their conflict with their enemies. They describe how a certainJephthah distinguished himself in freeing Gilead from the Ammonites. ** * Judges ix. 23, 24. "And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech: that the violence done to the threescore and ten sons of Jerubbaal might come, and that their blood might be laid upon Abimelech their brother, which slew them, and upon the men of Shechem, which strengthened his hands to slay his brethren. " ** The story of Jephthah is contained in chaps, xi. , xii. 1- 7, of the _Book of Judges_. The passage (xi. 12-29) is regarded by some, owing to its faint echo of certain portions of Numb, xx. , xxi. , to be an interpolation. Jephthah is said to have had Gilead for his father and a harlot for his mother. Various views have been put forward as to the account of his victories over the Midianites, some seeing in it, as well as in the origin of the four days'feast in honour of Jephthah's daughter, insertions of a later date. But his triumph led to the loss of his daughter, whom he sacrificed inorder to fulfil a vow he had made to Jahveh before the battle. * Thesewere, however, comparatively unimportant episodes in the general historyof the Hebrew race. Bedawins from the East, sheikhs of the Midianites, Moabites, and Ammonites--all these marauding peoples of the frontierwhose incursions are put on record--gave them continual trouble, andrendered their existence so miserable that they were unable to developtheir institutions and attain the permanent freedom after which theyaimed. But their real dangers--the risk of perishing altogether, or offalling back into a condition of servitude--did not arise from any ofthese quarters, but from the Philistines. * There are two views as to the nature of the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter. Some think she was vowed to perpetual virginity, while others consider that she was actually sacrificed. By a decree of Pharaoh, a new country had been assigned to the remnantsof each of the maritime peoples: the towns nearest to Egypt, lyingbetween Raphia and Joppa, were given over to the Philistines, and theforest region and the coast to the north of the Philistines, as far asthe Phoenician stations of Dor and Carmel, * were appropriated to theZakkala. The latter was a military colony, and was chiefly distributedamong the five fortresses which commanded the Shephelah. * We are indebted to the _Papyrus Golenischeff_ for the mention of the position of the Zakkala at the beginning of the XXIst dynasty. [Illustration: 292. Jpg A ZAKKALA] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a "squeeze. " Gaza and Ashdod were separated from the Mediterranean by a line ofsand-dunes, and had nothing in the nature of a sheltered port--nothing, in fact, but a "maiuma, " or open roadstead, with a few dwellings andstorehouses arranged along the beach on which their boats were drawnup. Ascalon was built on the sea, and its harbour, although well enoughsuited for the small craft of the ancients, could not have been enteredby the most insignificant of our modern ships. The Philistines had heretheir naval arsenal, where their fleets were fitted out for scouringthe Egyptian waters as a marine police, or for piratical expeditionson their own account, when the occasion served, along the coasts ofPhoenicia. Ekron and Gath kept watch over the eastern side of the plainat the points where it was most exposed to the attacks of the peopleof the hills--the Canaanites in the first instance, and afterwardsthe Hebrews. These foreign warriors soon changed their mode of life incontact with the indigenous inhabitants; daily intercourse, followed upby marriages with the daughters of the land, led to the substitution ofthe language, manners, and religion of the environing race for those oftheir mother country. The Zakkala, who were not numerous, it is true, lost everything, even to their name, and it was all that the Philistinescould do to preserve their own. At the end of one or two generations, the "colts" of Palestine could only speak the Canaanite tongue, in whicha few words of the old Hellenic _patois_ still continued to survive. Their gods were henceforward those of the towns in which they resided, such as Marna and Dagon and Gaza, * Dagon at Ashdod, ** Baalzebub atEkron, *** and Derketô in Ascalon;**** and their mode of worship, withits mingled bloody and obscene rites, followed that of the country. * Marna, "our lord, " is mentioned alongside Baalzephon in a list of strange gods worshipped at Memphis in the XIXth dynasty. The worship of Dagon at Gaza is mentioned in the story of Samson (Judges xvi. 21-30). ** The temple and statue of Dagon are mentioned in the account of the events following the taking of the ark in 1 Sam. V. 1-7. It is, perhaps, to him that 1 Chron. X. 10 refers, in relating how the Philistines hung up Saul's arms in the house of their gods, although 1 Sam. Xxxi. 10 calls the place the "house of the Ashtoreth. " *** Baalzebub was the god of Ekron (2 Kings i. 2-6), and his name was doubtfully translated "Lord of Flies. " The discovery of the name of the town Zebub on the Tell el- Amarna tablets shows that it means the "Baal of Zebub. " Zebub was situated in the Philistine plains, not far from Ekron. Halévy thinks it may have been a suburb of that town. **** The worship of Derketô or Atergatis at Ascalon is witnessed to by the classical writers. [Illustration: 294. Jpg A PROCESSION OF PHILISTINE CAPTIVES ATMEDINET-HABU] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger. Two things belonging to their past history they still retained--a clearremembrance of their far-off origin, and that warlike temperament whichhad enabled them to fight their way through many obstacles from theshores of the Ægean to the frontiers of Egypt. They could recalltheir island of Caphtor, * and their neighbours in their new home wereaccustomed to bestow upon them the designation of Cretans, of which theythemselves were not a little proud. ** * Jer. Xlvii. 4 calls them "the remnant of the isle of Caphtor;" Amos (ix. 7) knew that the Lord had brought "the Philistines from Caphtor;" and in Dent. Ii. 23 it is related how "the Caphtorim which came forth out of Caphtor destroyed the Avvim, which dwelt in villages as far as Gaza, and dwelt in their stead. " Classical tradition falls in with the sacred record, and ascribes a Cretan origin to the Philistines; it is suggested, therefore, that in Gen. X. 14 the names Casluhim and Caphtorim should be transposed, to bring the verse into harmony with history and other parts of Scripture. ** In an episode in the life of David (1 Sam. Xxx. 14), there is mention of the "south of the Cherethites, " which some have made to mean Cretans--that is to say, the region to the south of the Philistines, alongside the territory of Judah, and to the "south of Caleb. " Ezelc. Xx. 16 also mentions in juxtaposition with the Philistines the Cherethites, and "the remnant of the sea-coast, " as objects of God's vengeance for the many evils they had inflicted on Israel. By the Cherethims here, and the Cherethites in Zoph. Ii. 5, the Cretans are by some thought to be meant, which would account for their association with the Philistines. Gaza enjoyed among them a kind of hegemony, alike on account of itsstrategic position and its favourable situation for commerce, but thissupremacy was of very precarious character, and brought with it noright whatever to meddle in the internal affairs of other members of theconfederacy. Each of the latter had a chief of its own, a Seren, * andthe office of this chief was hereditary in one case at least--Gath, forinstance, where there existed a larger Canaanite element than elsewhere, and was there identified with that of "melek, "** or king. * The _sarnê plishtîm_ figure in the narrative of the last Philistine campaign against Saul (1 Sam. Xxix. 2-4, 7, 9). Their number, five, is expressly mentioned in 1 Sam. Vi. 4, 16-18, as well as the names of the towns over which they ruled. ** Achish was King of Gath (1 Sam. Xxi. 10, 12, xxvii. 2), and probably Maoch before him. The five Sarnîm assembled in council to deliberate upon commoninterests, and to offer sacrifices in the name of the Pentapolis. Thesechiefs were respectively free to make alliances, or to take the fieldon their own account, but in matters of common importance they actedtogether, and took their places each at the head of his own contingent. *Their armies were made up of regiments of skilled archers and ofpikemen, to whom were added a body of charioteers made up of the princesand the nobles of the nation. The armour for all alike was the coatof scale mail and the helmet of brass; their weapons consisted of thetwo-edged battle-axe, the bow, the lance, and a large and heavy sword ofbronze or iron. ** * Achish, for example, King of Gath, makes war alone against the pillaging tribes, owing to the intervention of David and his men, without being called to account by the other princes (1 Sam. Xxvii. 2-12, xxviii. 1, 2), but as soon as an affair of moment is in contemplation--such as the war against Saul--they demand the dismissal of David, and Achish is obliged to submit to his colleagues acting together (1 Sam. Xxix. ). ** Philistine archers are mentioned in the battle of Gilboa (1 Sam. Xxxi. 3) as well as chariots (2 Sam. I. 6). The horsemen mentioned in the same connexion are regarded by some critics as an interpolation, because they cannot bring themselves to think that the Philistines had cavalry corps in the Xth century B. C. The Philistine arms are described at length in the duel between David and Goliath (1 Sam. Xvii. 5 -7, 38, 39). They are in some respects like those of the Homeric heroes. Their war tactics were probably similar to those of the Egyptians, whowere unrivalled in military operations at this period throughout thewhole East. Under able leadership, and in positions favourable for theoperations of their chariots, the Philistines had nothing to fear fromthe forces which any of their foes could bring up against them. As totheir maritime history, it is certain that in the earliest period, at least, of their sojourn in Syria, as well as in that before theircapture by Ramses III. , they were successful in sea-fights, but thememory of only one of their expeditions has come down to us: a squadronof theirs having sailed forth from Ascalon somewhere towards the endof the XIIth dynasty, * succeeded in destroying the Sidonian fleet, andpillaging Sidon itself. * _Justinus_, xviii. 3, § 5. The memory of this has been preserved, owing to the disputes about precedence which raged in the Greek period between the Phoenician towns. The destruction of Sidon must have allowed Tyre to develop and take the first place. [Illustration: 297. Jpg A PHILISTINE SHIP OF WAR] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato. But however vigorously they may have plied the occupation of Corsairs atthe outset of their career, there was, it would appear, a rapid fallingoff in their maritime prowess; it was on land, and as soldiers, thatthey displayed their bravery and gained their fame. Their geographicalposition, indeed, on the direct and almost only route for caravanspassing between Asia and Africa, must have contributed to their success. The number of such caravans was considerable, for although Egypt hadceased to be a conquering nation on account of her feebleness at home, she was still one of the great centres of production, and the mostimportant market of the East. A very great part of her trade withforeign countries was carried on through the mouths of the Nile, and ofthis commerce the Phoenicians had made themselves masters; the remainderfollowed the land-routes, and passed continually through the territoryof the Philistines. These people were in possession of the tract of landwhich lay between the Mediterranean and the beginning of the southerndesert, forming as it were a narrow passage, into which all the roadsleading from the Nile to the Euphrates necessarily converged. The chiefof these routes was that which crossed Mount Carmel, near Megiddo, andpassed up the valleys of the Litâny and the Orontes. This was metat intervals by other secondary roads, such as that which came fromDamascus by way of Tabor and the plain of Jezreel, or those which, starting out from the highland of Gilead, led through the fords of theLower Jordan to Ekron and Gath respectively. The Philistines chargedthemselves, after the example and at the instigation of the Egyptians, with the maintenance of the great trunk road which was in their hands, and also with securing safe transit along it, as far as they couldpost their troops, for those who confided themselves to their care. Inexchange for these good offices they exacted the same tolls which hadbeen levied by the Canaanites before them. In their efforts to put down brigandage, they had been brought intocontact with some of the Hebrew clans after the latter had takenpossession of Canaan. Judah, in its home among the mountains of theDead Sea, had become acquainted with the diverse races which were foundthere, and consequently there had been frequent intermarriages betweenthe Hebrews and these peoples. Some critics have argued from this thatthe chronicler had this fact in his mind when he assigned a Canaanitewife, Shuah, to the father of the tribe himself. He relates how Judah, having separated from his brethren, "turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hiram, " and that here he became acquainted with Shuah, by whom he had three sons. With Tamar, the widow of the eldest of thelatter, he had accidental intercourse, and two children, Perez andZerah, the ancestors of numerous families, were born of that union. * * Gen. Xxxviii. , where there is a detailed account of Judah's unions. Edomites, Arabs, and Midianites were associated with this semi-Canaanitestock--for example, Kain, Caleb, Othniel, Kenaz, Shobal, Ephah, andJerahmeel, but the Kenites took the first place among them, and playedan important part in the history of the conquest of Canaan. It isrelated how one of their subdivisions, of which Caleb was the eponymoushero, had driven from Hebron the three sons of Anak--Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai--and had then promised his daughter Achsah in marriage tohim who should capture Debir; this turned out to be his youngest brotherOthniel, who captured the city, and at the same time obtained awife. Hobab, another Kenite, who is represented to have been thebrother-in-law of Moses, occupied a position to the south of Arad, inIdumsean territory. * These heterogeneous elements existed alongside eachother for a long time without intermingling; they combined, however, nowand again to act against a common foe, for we know that the peopleof Judah aided the tribe of Simeon in the reduction of the city ofZephath;** but they followed an independent course for the most part, and their isolation prevented their obtaining, for a lengthened period, any extension of territory. * The father-in-law of Moses is called Jethro in Exod. Iii. 1, iv. 19, but Raguel in Exod. Ii. 18-22. Hobab is the son of Raguel, Numb. X. 29. ** Judges i. 17, where Zephath is the better reading, and not Arad, as has been suggested. They failed, as at first, in their attempts to subjugate the province ofArad, and in their efforts to capture the fortresses which guardedthe caravan routes between Ashdod and the mouth of the Jordan. Itis related, however, that they overthrew Adoni-bezek, King of theJebusites, and that they had dealt with him as he was accustomed to dealwith his prisoners. "And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meatunder my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me. " AlthoughAdoni-bezek had been overthrown, Jerusalem still remained independent, as did also Gibeon. Beeroth, Kirjath-Jearim, Ajalon, Gezer, andthe cities of the plain, for the Israelites could not drive out theinhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron, with whichthe Hebrew foot-soldiers found it difficult to deal. * This independentand isolated group was not at first, however, a subject of anxietyto the masters of the coast, and there is but a bare reference tothe exploits of a certain Shamgar, son of Anath, who "smote of thePhilistines six hundred men with an ox-goad. "** * See Josh. Ix. 3-27 for an explanation of how these people were allowed afterwards to remain in a subordinate capacity among the children of Israel. ** Judges iii. 31; cf. Also Judges v. 6, in which Shamgar is mentioned in the song of Deborah. [Illustration: 301. Jpg TELL ES-SAFIEH, THE GATH OF THE PHILISTINES] Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 265 of the _Palestine Exploration Fund. _ These cities had also to reckon with Ephraim, and the tribes which hadthrown in their lot with her. Dan had cast his eyes upon the northerndistricts of the Shephelah--which were dependent upon Ekron or Gath--andalso upon the semi-Phoenician port of Joppa; but these tribes did notsucceed in taking possession of those districts, although they hadharassed them from time to time by raids in which the children of Israeldid not always come off victorious. One of their chiefs--Samson--had agreat reputation among them for his bravery and bodily strength. But thedetails of his real prowess had been forgotten at an early period. The episodes which have been preserved deal with some of his exploitsagainst the Philistines, and there is a certain humour in thechronicler's account of the weapons which he employed: "with the jawboneof an ass have I smitten a thousand men;" he burned up their harvestalso by letting go three hundred foxes, with torches attached to theirtails, among the standing corn of the Philistines. Various events in hiscareer are subsequently narrated; such as his adventure in the houseof the harlot at Gaza, when he carried off the gate of the city andthe gate-posts "to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron. " ByDelilah's treachery he was finally delivered over to his enemies, who, having put out his eyes, condemned him to grind in the prison-house. Onthe occasion of a great festival in honour of Dagon, he was brought intothe temple to amuse his captors, but while they were making merry at hisexpense, he took hold of the two pillars against which he was resting, and bowing "himself with all his might, " overturned them, "and the housefell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. "* * Some learned critics considered Samson to have been a sort of solar deity. The tribe of Dan at length became weary of these unprofitablestruggles, and determined to seek out another and more easily defensiblesettlement. They sent out five emissaries, therefore, to look out fora new home. While these were passing through the mountains they calledupon a certain Michah in the hill-country of Ephraim and lodged there. Here they took counsel of a Levite whom Michah had made his priest, and, in answer to the question whether their journey would be prosperous, hetold them to "Go in peace: before the Lord is the way wherein ye go. "Their search turned out successful, for they discovered near the sourcesof the Jordan the town of Laish, whose people, like the Zidonians, dweltin security, fearing no trouble. On the report of the emissaries, Dandecided to emigrate: the warriors set out to the number of six hundred, carried off by the way the ephod of Micah and the Levite who servedbefore it, and succeeded in capturing Laish, to which they gave thename of their tribe. "They there set up for themselves the ephod: andJonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons werepriests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity ofthe land. "* The tribe of Dan displayed in this advanced post of perilthe bravery it had shown on the frontiers of the Shephelah, and showeditself the most bellicose of the tribes of Israel. * The history of this migration, which is given summarily in Josh. Xix. 47, is, as it now stands, a blending of two accounts. The presence of a descendant of Moses as a priest in this local sanctuary probably offended the religious scruples of a copyist, who substituted Manasseh for Moses (Judges xviii. 30), but the correction was not generally accepted. [The R. V. Reads "Moses" where the authorised text has "Manasseh. "--Tr. ] It bore out well its character--"Dan is a lion's whelp that leapethforth from Bashan" on the Hermon;* "a serpent in the way, an adderin the path, that biteth the horse's heels, so that his rider fallethbackward. "** The new position they had taken up enabled them to protectGalilee for centuries against the incursions of the Aramaeans. * See the Blessing of Moses (Dent, xxxiii. 22). ** These are the words used in the Blessing of Jacob (Gen. Xlix. 17). [Illustration: 304. Jpg THE HILL OF SHILOH, SEEN FROM THE NORTH-EAST] Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 100 of the _Palestine Exploration Fund. _ Their departure, however, left the descendants of Joseph unprotected, with Benjamin as their only bulwark. Benjamin, like Dan, was one ofthe tribes which contained scarcely more than two or three clans, butcompensated for the smallness of their numbers by their energy andtenacity of character: lying to the south of Ephraim, they had developedinto a breed of hardy adventurers, skilled in handling the bow andsling, accustomed from childhood to use both hands indifferently, and always ready to set out on any expedition, not only against theCanaanites, but, if need be, against their own kinsfolk. * They hadconsequently aroused the hatred of both friend and foe, and we read thatthe remaining tribes at length decreed their destruction; a massacreensued, from which six hundred Benjamites only escaped to continue therace. ** Their territory adjoined on the south that of Jerusalem, thefortress of the Jebusites, and on the west the powerful confederation ofwhich Gibeon was the head. It comprised some half-dozen towns--Ramah, Anathoth, Michmash, and Nob, and thus commanded both sides of the passesleading from the Shephelah into the valley of the Jordan. The Benjamiteswere in the habit of descending suddenly upon merchants who were makingtheir way to or returning from Gilead, and of robbing them of theirwares; sometimes they would make a raid upon the environs of Ekron andGath, "like a wolf that ravineth:" realising the prediction of Jacob, "in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at even he shall dividethe spoil. "*** * Benjamin signifies, properly speaking, "the Southern. " ** Story of the Lévite of Ephraim (Judges xix. -xxi. ). The groundwork of it contains only one historical element. The story of the Lévite is considered by some critics to be of a later date than the rest of the text. *** He is thus characterised in the Blessing of Jacob (Gen. Xlix. 27). VOL. VI. X The Philistines never failed to make reprisals after each raid, and theBenjamites were no match for their heavily armed battalions; but thelabyrinth of ravines and narrow gorges into which the Philistines hadto penetrate to meet their enemy was a favourable region for guerillawarfare, in which they were no match for their opponents. Peace wasnever of long duration on this ill-defined borderland, and neitherintercourse between one village and another, alliances, norintermarriage between the two peoples had the effect of interruptinghostilities; even when a truce was made at one locality, the feud wouldbe kept up at other points of contact. All details of this conflict havebeen lost, and we merely know that it terminated in the defeat of thehouse of Joseph, a number of whom were enslaved. The ancient sanctuaryof Shiloh still continued to be the sacred town of the Hebrews, as ithad been under the Canaanites, and the people of Ephraim kept there theark of Jahveh-Sabaoth, "the Lord of Hosts. "* It was a chest of wood, similar in shape to the shrine which surmounted the sacred barks of theEgyptian divinities, but instead of a prophesying statue, it containedtwo stones on which, according to the belief of a later age, the law hadbeen engraved. ** Yearly festivals were celebrated before it, and it wasconsulted as an oracle by all the Israelites. Eli, the priest to whosecare it was at this time consigned, had earned universal respect bythe austerity of his life and by his skill in interpreting the divineoracles. *** * At the very opening of the _First Book of Samuel_ (i. 3), Shiloh is mentioned as being the sanctuary of _Jahveh- Sabaoth_, Jahveh the Lord of hosts. The tradition preserved in Josh, xviii. 1, removes the date of its establishment as far back as the earliest times of the Israelite conquest. ** The idea that the Tables of the Law were enclosed in the Ark is frequently expressed in Exodus and in subsequent books of the Hexateuch. *** The history of Eli extends over chaps, i. -iv. Of the _First Book of Samuel_; it is incorporated with that of Samuel, and treats only of the events which accompanied the destruction of the sanctuary of Shiloh by the Philistines. His two sons, on the contrary, took advantage of his extreme age toannoy those who came up to worship, and they were even accused ofimproper behaviour towards the women who "served at the door of" thetabernacle. They appropriated to themselves a larger portion of thevictims than they were entitled to, extracting from the caldron themeat offerings of the faithful after the sacrifice was over by means offlesh-hooks. Their misdeeds were such, that "men abhorred the offeringof the Lord, " and yet the reverence for the ark was so great in theminds of the people, that they continued to have recourse to it on everyoccasion of national danger. * The people of Ephraim and Benjamin havingbeen defeated once between Eben-ezer and Aphek, bore the ark in state tothe battle-field, that its presence might inspire them with confidence. The Philistines were alarmed at its advent, and exclaimed, "God is comeinto the camp. Woe unto us! Who shall deliver us out of the hand ofthese mighty gods?... Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O yePhilistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have beento you. "** In response to this appeal, their troops fought so boldlythat they once more gained a victory. "And there ran a man of Benjaminout of the army, and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head. And when he came, lo, Eli sat upon hisseat by the wayside watching: for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city, and told it, all the city criedout. And when Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, What meaneththe noise of this tumult? And the man hasted, and came and told Eli. NowEli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were set, that he couldnot see. And the man said unto Eli, I am he that came out of the army, and I fled to-day out of the army. And he said, How went the matter, myson? And he that brought the tidings answered and said, Israel is fledbefore the Philistines, and there hath been also a great slaughter amongthe people, and thy two sons also, Hophni and Phineas, are dead, and theark of God is taken. And it came to pass, when he made mention of theark of God, that he fell from off his seat backward by the side ofthe gate, and his neck brake, and he died: for he was an old man, andheavy. "*** * Sam. Iv. 12-18. ** This is not mentioned in the sacred books; but certain reasons for believing this destruction to have taken place are given by Stade. *** The Philistine garrison at Geba (Gibeah) is mentioned in 1 Sam. Xiii. 3, i. The defeat of Eben-ezer completed, at least for a time, the overthrow ofthe tribes of Central Canaan. The Philistines destroyed the sanctuaryof Shiloh, and placed a garrison at Gibeah to keep the Benjamites insubjection, and to command the route of the Jordan;* it would evenappear that they pushed their advance-posts beyond Carmel in order tokeep in touch with the independent Canaanite cities such as Megiddo, Taanach, and Bethshan, and to ensure a free use of the various routesleading in the direction of Damascus, Tyre, and Coele-Syria. ** * After the victory at Gilboa, the Philistines exposed the dead bodies of Saul and his sons upon the walls of Bethshan (1 Sam. Xxxi. 10, 12), which they would not have been able to do had the inhabitants not been allies or vassals. Friendly relations with Bethshan entailed almost as a matter of course some similar understanding with the cities of the plain of Jezreel. ** 1 Sam. Vii. 16, 17. These verses represent, as a matter of fact, all that we know of Samuel anterior to his relations with Saul. This account seems to represent him as exercising merely a restricted influence over the territory of Benjamin and the south of Ephraim. It was not until the prophetic period that, together with Eli, he was made to figure as Judge of all Israel. The Philistine power continued dominant for at least half a century. TheHebrew chroniclers, scandalised at the prosperity of the heathen, did their best to abridge the time of the Philistine dominion, andinterspersed it with Israelitish victories. Just at this time, however, there lived a man who was able to inspire them with fresh hope. He wasa priest of Bamah, Samuel, the son of Elkanah, who had acquired thereputation of being a just and wise judge in the towns of Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah; "and he judged Israel in all those places, and hisreturn was to Bamah, for there was his house... And he built there analtar unto the Lord. " To this man the whole Israelite nation attributedwith pride the deliverance of their race. The sacred writings relate howhis mother, the pious Hannah, had obtained his birth from Jahveh afteryears of childlessness, and had forthwith devoted him to the service ofGod. She had sent him to Shiloh at the age of three years, and there, clothed in a linen tunic and in a little robe which his mother made forhim herself, he ministered before God in the presence of Eli. One nightit happened, when the latter was asleep in his place, "and the lampof God was not yet gone out, and Samuel was laid down to sleep in thetemple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, that the Lord calledSamuel: and he said, Here am I. And he ran unto Eli, and said, Heream I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I called thee not; lie downagain. " Twice again the voice was heard, and at length Eli perceivedthat it was God who had called the child, and he bade him reply: "Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth. " From thenceforward Jahveh was "with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel fromDan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophetof the Lord. " Twenty years after the sad death of his master, Samuelfelt that the moment had come to throw off the Philistine yoke; heexhorted the people to put away their false gods, and he assembled themat Mizpah to absolve them from their sins. The Philistines, suspiciousof this concourse, which boded ill for the maintenance of theirauthority, arose against him. "And when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. And Samuel took a sucking lamb, andoffered it for a whole burnt offering unto the Lord: and Samuel criedunto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him. " The Philistines, demoralised by the thunderstorm which ensued, were overcome on the veryspot where they had triumphed over the sons of Eli, and fled in disorderto their own country. "Then Samuel took a stone, and set it betweenMizpah and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer (the Stone ofHelp), saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. " He next attacked theTyrians and the Amorites, and won back from them all the territory theyhad conquered. * One passage, in which Samuel is not mentioned, tellsus how heavily the Philistine yoke had weighed upon the people, andexplains their long patience by the fact that their enemies had takenaway all their weapons. "Now there was no smith found throughout allthe land of Israel: for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make themswords or spears;" and whoever needed to buy or repair the most ordinaryagricultural implements was forced to address himself to the Philistineblacksmiths. ** The very extremity of the evil worked its own cure. Thefear of the Midian-ites had already been the occasion of the ephemeralrule of Jerubbaal and Abimelech; the Philistine tyranny forced first thetribes of Central and then those of Southern Canaan to unite under theleadership of one man. In face of so redoubtable an enemy and so grave aperil a greater effort was required, and the result was proportionate totheir increased activity. * This manner of retaliating against the Philistines for the disaster they had formerly inflicted on Israel, is supposed by some critics to be an addition of a later date, either belonging to the time of the prophets, or to the period when the Jews, without any king or settled government, rallied at Mizpah. According to these scholars, 1 Sam. Vii. 2-14 forms part of a biography, written at a time when the foundation of the Benjamite monarchy had not as yet been attributed to Saul. ** 1 Sam. Xiii. 20, 21. The Manassite rule extended at most over two or three clans, but thatof Saul and David embraced the Israelite nation. * Benjamin at thattime reckoned among its most powerful chiefs a man of ancient andnoble family--Saul, the son of Kish--who possessed extensive flocks andconsiderable property, and was noted for his personal beauty, for "therewas not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: fromhis shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people. "** He hadalready reached mature manhood, and had several children, the eldestof whom, Jonathan, was well known as a skilful and brave soldier, whileSaul's reputation was such that his kinsmen beyond Jordan had recourseto his aid as to a hero whose presence would secure victory. TheAmmonites had laid siege to Jabesh-Gilead, and the town was on the pointof surrendering; Saul came to their help, forced the enemy to raise thesiege, and inflicted such a severe lesson upon them, that during thewhole of his lifetime they did not again attempt hostilities. He wassoon after proclaimed king by the Benjamites, as Jerubbaal had beenraised to authority by the Manassites on the morrow of his victory. *** * The beginning of Saul's reign, up to his meeting with David, will be found in 1 Sam. Viii. -xv. We can distinguish the remains of at least two ancient narratives, which the writer of the Book of Samuel has put together in order to form a complete and continuous account. As elsewhere in this work, I have confined myself to accepting the results at which criticism has arrived, without entering into detailed discussions which do not come within the domain of history. ** 1 Sam. Ix. 2. In one account he is represented as quite a young man, whose father is still in the prime of life (1 Sam. Ix. ), but this cannot refer to the time of the Philistine war, where we find him accompanied, at the very outset of his reign, by his son, who is already skilled in the use of weapons. *** 1 Sam. Xi. According to the text of the Septuagint, the war against the Ammonites broke out a month after Saul had been secretly anointed by Samuel; his popular proclamation did not take place till after the return from the campaign. We learn from the sacred writings that Samuel's influence had helped tobring about these events. It had been shown him by the divine voice thatSaul was to be the chosen ruler, and he had anointed him and set himbefore the people as their appointed lord; the scene of this must havebeen either Mizpah or Gilgal. * * One narrative appears to represent him as being only the priest or local prophet of Hamah, and depicts him as favourable to the establishment of the monarchy (1 Sam. Ix. 1-27, x. 1-16); the other, however, admits that he was "judge" of all Israel, and implies that he was hostile to the choice of a king (1 Sam. Viii. 1-22, x. 17, 27, xii. 1-25) The accession of a sovereign who possessed the allegiance of all Israelcould not fail to arouse the vigilance of their Philistine oppressors;Jonathan, however, anticipated their attack and captured Gibeah. Thefive kings at once despatched an army to revenge this loss; the mainbody occupied Michmash, almost opposite to the stronghold taken fromthem, while three bands of soldiers were dispersed over the country, ravaging as they went, with orders to attack Saul in the rear. Thelatter had only six hundred men, with whom he scarcely dared to faceso large a force; besides which, he was separated from the enemy by theWady Suweinît, here narrowed almost into a gorge between two precipitousrocks, and through which no body of troops could penetrate withoutrunning the risk of exposing themselves in single file to the enemy. Jonathan, however, resolved to attempt a surprise in broad daylight, accompanied only by his armour-bearer. "There was a rocky crag on theone side, and a rooky crag on the other side: and the name of the onewas Bozez (the Shining), and the name of the other Seneh (the Acacia). The one crag rose up on the north in front of Michmash, and the other onthe south in front of Geba (Gribeah). " The two descended the side of thegorge, on the top of which they were encamped, and prepared openly toclimb the opposite side. The Philistine sentries imagined they weredeserters, and said as they approached: "Behold, the Hebrews come forthout of the holes where they had hid themselves. And the men of thegarrison answered Jonathan and his armour-bearer, and said, Come upto us, and we will show you a thing. And Jonathan said unto hisarmour-bearer, Come up after me: for the Lord hath delivered them intothe hand of Israel. And Jonathan climbed up upon his hands and upon hisfeet, and his armour-bearer after him: and they fell before Jonathan;and his armour-bearer slew them after him. And that first slaughter thatJonathan and his armour-bearer made, was about twenty men, within asit were half a furrow's length in an acre of land. " From Gribeah, whereSaul's troops were in ignorance of what was passing, the Benjamitesentinels could distinguish a tumult. Saul guessed that a surprise hadtaken place, and marched upon the enemy. [Illustration: 314. Jpg THE WADY SUWEINIT] Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 402 of the _Palestine Exploration Fund_. The Philistines were ousted from their position, and pursued hotlybeyond Bethel as far as Ajalon. * This constituted the actual birthday ofthe Israelite monarchy. * The account of these events, separated by the parts relating to the biography of Samuel (1 Sam. Xiii. 76-15a, thought by some to be of a later date), and of the breaking by Jonathan of the fast enjoined by Saul (1 Sam. Xiv. 23- 45), covers 1 Sam. Xiii. 3-7a, 156-23, xiv. 1-22, 46. The details appear to be strictly historical; the number of the Philistines, however, seems to be exaggerated; "30, 000 chariots, and 6000 horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea-shore in multitude "(1 Sam. Xiii. 5). Gilead, the whole house of Joseph--Ephraim and Manasseh--and Benjaminformed its nucleus, and were Saul's strongest supporters. We do not knowhow far his influence extended northwards; it probably stopped short atthe neighbourhood of Mount Tabor, and the Galileans either refused tosubmit to his authority, or acknowledged it merely in theory. In thesouth the clans of Judah and Simeon were not long in rallying roundhim, and their neighbours the Kenites, with Caleb and Jerahmeel, soonfollowed their example. These southerners, however, appear to have beensomewhat half-hearted in their allegiance to the Benjamite king: it wasnot enough to have gained their adhesion--a stronger tie was needed toattach them to the rest of the nation. Saul endeavoured to get rid ofthe line of Canaanite cities which isolated them from Ephraim, buthe failed in the effort, we know not from what cause, and his attemptproduced no other result than to arouse against him the hatred of theGibeonite inhabitants. * He did his best to watch over the security ofhis new subjects, and protected them against the Amalekites, who wereconstantly harassing them. * The fact is made known to us by an accidental mention of it in 2 Sam. Xxi. 1-11. The motive which induced Saul to take arms against the Gibeonites is immediately apparent when we realise the position occupied by Gideon between Judah and the tribes of Central Canaan. Their king, Agag, happening to fall into his hands, he killed him, anddestroyed several of their nomad bands, thus inspiring the remainderwith a salutary terror. * Subsequent tradition credited him withvictories gained over all the enemies of Israel--over Moab, Edom, andeven the Aramaeans of Zobah--it endowed him even with the projectsand conquests of David. At any rate, the constant incursions of thePhilistines could not have left him much time for fighting in thenorth and east of his domains. Their defeat at Gibeah was by no meansa decisive one, and they quickly recovered from the blow; the conflictwith them lasted to the end of Saul's lifetime, and during the whole ofthis period he never lost an opportunity of increasing his army. ** The monarchy was as yet in a very rudimentary state, without eitherthe pomp or accessories usually associated with royalty in the ancientkingdoms of the East. Saul, as King of Israel, led much the same sort oflife as when he was merely a Benjamite chief. He preferred to reside atGibeah, in the house of his forefathers, with no further resources thanthose yielded by the domain inherited from his ancestors, together withthe spoil taken in battle. *** * The part taken by Samuel in the narrative of Saul's war against the Amalekites (1 Sam. Xv. ) is thought by some critics to have been introduced with a view of exalting the prophet's office at the expense of the king and the monarchy. They regard 1 Sam. Xiv. 48 as being the sole historic ground of the narrative. ** 1 Sam. Xiv. 47. We may admit his successful skirmishes with Moab, but some writers maintain that the defeat of the Edomites and Aramaeans is a mere anticipation, and consider that the passage is only a reflection of 2 Sam. Viii. 8, and reproduces the list of the wars of David, with the exception of the expedition against Damascus. *** Gibeah is nowhere expressly mentioned as being the capital of Saul, but the name Gibeah of Saul which it bore shows that it must have been the royal residence; the names of the towns mentioned in the account of Saul's pursuit of David--Naioth, Eamah, and Nob--are all near to Gibeah. It was also at Gibeah that the Gibeonites slew seven of the sons and grandsons of Saul (2 Sam. Xxi. 6-9), no doubt to bring ignominy on the family of the first king in the very place in which they had governed. All that he had, in addition to his former surroundings, were apriesthood attached to the court, and a small army entirely at his owndisposal. Ahijah, a descendant of Eli, sacrificed for the king when thelatter did not himself officiate; he fulfilled the office of chaplainto him in time of war, and was the mouthpiece of the divine oracleswhen these were consulted as to the propitious moment for attacking theenemy. [Illustration: 319. Jpg A PHOENICIAN SOLDIER] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the bronze original in the Louvre. The army consisted of a nucleus of Benjamites, recruited from theking's clan, with the addition of any adventurers, whether Israelites orstrangers, who were attracted to enlist under a popular military chief. *It comprised archers, slingers, and bands of heavily armed infantry, after the fashion of the Phoenician, bearing pikes. We can gam someidea of their appearance and equipment from the bronze statuettes of analmost contemporary period, which show us the Phoenician foot-soldiersor the barbarian mercenaries in the pay of the Phoenician cities: theywear the horizontally striped loin-cloth of the Syrians, leaving thearms and legs entirely bare, and the head is protected by a pointed orconical helmet. * Ahijah (1 Sam. Xiv. 3), son of Ahitub, great-grandson of Eli, appears to be the same as Ahimelech, son of Ahitub, who subsequently helped David (1 Sam. Xxi. 1-10), and was massacred by order of Saul (1 Sam. Xxii. 9-19). The scribe must have been shocked by the name Melech--that of the god Milik [Moloch]--and must have substituted Jah or Jahveh. Saul possessed none of the iron-bound chariots which always accompaniedthe Qanaanite infantry; these heavy vehicles would have been entirelyout of place in the mountain districts, which were the usual field ofoperations for the Israelite force. * We are unable to ascertain whetherthe king's soldiers received any regular pay, but we know that the spoilwas divided between the prince and his men, each according to hisrank and in proportion to the valour he had displayed. ** In cases ofnecessity, the whole of the tribes were assembled, and a selection wasmade of all those capable of bearing arms. This militia, composed mainlyof a pastoral peasantry in the prime of life, capable of heroic efforts, was nevertheless ill-disciplined, liable to sudden panics, and prone tobecome disbanded on the slightest reverse. *** * With regard to the use of the bow among Saul's soldiers, cf. 1 Sam. Xx. 18-42, where we find the curious scene of the meeting of David and Jonathan, when the latter came out of Gibeah on the pretext of practising with bow and arrows. The accoutrement of the Hebrews is given in the passage where Saul lends his armour to David before meeting with Goliath (1 Sam. Xvii. 38, 39). ** Cf. The quarrel which took place between the soldiers of David about the spoil taken from the Amalekites, and the manner in which the strife was decided by David (1 Sam. Xxx. 21-25) *** Saul, for instance, assembles the people and makes a selection to attack the Philistines (1 Sam. Xiii. 2, 4, 7) against the Ammonites (1 Sam. Xi. 7, 8) and against the Amalekites (1 Sam. Xv. 4). Saul had the supreme command of the whole; the members of his own familyserved as lieutenants under him, including his son Jonathan, to whomhe owed some of his most brilliant victories, together with his cousinAbner, the _sar-zaba_, who led the royal guard. * Among the men ofdistinguished valour who had taken service under Saul, he soon singledout David, son of Jesse, a native of Bethlehem of Judah. ** David wasthe first Judæan hero, the typical king who served as a model to allsubsequent monarchs. His elevation, like that of Saul, is traced toSamuel. The old prophet had repaired to Bethlehem ostensibly to offer asacrifice, and after examining all the children of Jesse, he chose theyoungest, and "anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the spiritof the Lord came mightily upon David. "*** * 1 Sam. Xiv. 50, 51. There is no record of the part played by Abner during Saul's lifetime: he begins to figure in the narrative after the battle at Gilboa under the double reign of Ish-bosheth and David. ** The name of David is a shortened form of Davdo, Dodo, "the favourite of Him, " i. E. God. *** The intervention of the prophet occupies 1 Sam. Xvi. 1- 13. Some critics have imagined that this passage was interpolated at a later date, and reflects the events which are narrated in chap. X. They say it was to show that Saul was not alone in enjoying consecration by the prophet, and hence all doubt would be set at rest as to whether David was actually that "neighbour of thine, that is better than thou, " mentioned in 1 Sam. Xv. 28. His introduction at the court of Saul is variously accounted for. According to one narrative, Saul, being possessed by an evil spirit, fell at times into a profound melancholy, from which he could be arousedonly by the playing of a harp. On learning that David was skilled inthis instrument, he begged Jesse to send him his son, and the lad soonwon the king's affection. As often as the illness came upon him, Davidtook his harp, and "Saul was refreshed, and the evil spirit departedfrom him. "* Another account relates that he entered on his soldierlycareer by killing with his sling Goliath of Gath, ** who had challengedthe bravest Israelites to combat; though elsewhere the death of Goliathis attributed to Elhanan of Bethlehem, *** one of the "mighty men ofvalour, " who specially distinguished himself in the wars against thePhilistines. David had, however, no need to take to himself the bravedeeds of others; at Ephes-dammîm, in company with Eleazar, the son ofDodai, and Shammah, the son of Agu, he had posted himself in a fieldof lentils, and the three warriors had kept the Philistines at bay tilltheir discomfited Israelite comrades had had time to rally. **** * 1 Sam. Xvi. 14-23. This narrative is directly connected with 1 Sam. Xiv. 52, where we are told that when "Saul saw any strong man, or any valiant man, he took him unto him. " ** 1 Sam. Xvii. , xviii. 1-5. According to some writers, this second version, the best known of the two, is a development at a later period of the tradition preserved in 2 Sam. Xxi. 19, where the victory of Elhanan over Goliath is recorded. *** 2 Sam. Xxi. 19, where the duel of Goliath and Elhanan is placed in the reign of David, during the combat at Gob. Some critics think that the writer of Chronicles, recognising the difficulty presented by this passage, changed the epithet Bethlehemite, which qualified the name of Elhanan, into Lahmi, the name of Goliath's brother (1 Citron, xx. 5). Say ce thought to get over the difficulty by supposing that Elhanan was David's first name; but Elhanan is the son of Jair, and not the son of Jesse. **** The combat of Paz-Dammîm or Ephes-Dammîm is mentioned in 1 Sam. Xvii. 1; the exploit of David and his two comrades, 2 Sam: xxiii. 9-12 (cf. 1 Chron. Xi, 12-14, which slightly varies from 2 Sam. Xxiii. 9-12). Saul entrusted him with several difficult undertakings, in all of whichhe acquitted himself with honour. On his return from one of them, thewomen of the villages came out to meet him, singing and dancing to thesound of timbrels, the refrain of their song being: "Saul hath slain histhousands, and David his ten thousands. " The king concealed the jealousywhich this simple expression of joy excited within him, but it foundvent at the next outbreak of his illness, and he attempted to kill Davidwith a spear, though soon after he endeavoured to make amends for hisaction by giving him his second daughter Michal in marriage. * This didnot prevent the king from again attempting David's life, either ina real or simulated fit of madness; but not being successful, hedespatched a body of men to waylay him. According to one account it wasMichal who helped her husband to escape, ** while another attributes thesaving of his life to Jonathan. This prince had already brought aboutone reconciliation between his father and David, and had spared no painsto reinstall him in the royal favour, but his efforts merely arousedthe king's suspicion against himself. Saul imagined that a conspiracyexisted for the purpose of dethroning him, and of replacing him by hisson; Jonathan, knowing that his life also was threatened, at lengthrenounced the attempt, and David and his followers withdrew from court. * The account of the first disagreement between Saul and David, and with regard to the marriage of David with Michal, is given in 1 Sam. Xviii. 6-16, 20-29, and presents every appearance of authenticity. Verses 17-19, mentioning a project of union between David and Saul's eldest daughter, Merab, has at some time been interpolated; it is not given in the LXX. , either because it was not in the Hebrew version they had before them, or because they suppressed it owing to the motive appearing to them insufficient. ** 1 Sam. Xix. 11-17. Many critics regard this passage as an interpolation. [Illustration: 324. Jpg AÎD-EL-RA, THE SITE OF THE ANCIENT ADULLAM] Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 430 of the _Palestine Exploration Fund. _ He was hospitably received by a descendant of Eli, * Ahimelech thepriest, at Nob, and wandered about in the neighbourhood of Adullam, hiding himself in the wooded valleys of Khereth, in the heart of Judah. He retained the sympathies of many of the Benjamites, more than oneof whom doubted whether it would not be to their advantage to transfertheir allegiance from their aged king to this more youthful hero. * 1 Sam. Xxi. 8, 9 adds that he took as a weapon the sword of Goliath which was laid up in the sanctuary at Nob. Saul got news of their defection, and one day when he was sitting, spearin hand, under the tamarisk at Gibeah, he indignantly upbraided hisservants, and pointed out to them the folly of their plans. "Hear, now, ye Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields andvineyards? will he make you all captains of thousands and captains ofhundreds?" Ahimelech was selected as the victim of the king's anger:denounced by Doeg, Saul's steward, he was put to death, and all hisfamily, with the exception of Abiathar, one of his sons, perished withhim. * As soon as it became known that David held the hill-country, a crowd of adventurous spirits flocked to place themselves under hisleadership, anticipating, no doubt, that spoil would not be lacking withso brave a chief, and he soon found himself at the head of a smallarmy, with Abiathar as priest, and the ephod, rescued from Nob, in hispossession. ** * 1 Sam. Xix. -xxii. , where, according to some critics, two contradictory versions have been blended together at a late period. The most probable version is given in 1 Sam, xix. 8- 10 [11-18a], xxi. 1-7 [8-10], xxii. , and is that which I have followed by preference; the other version, according to these writers, attributes too important a rôle to Jonathan, and relates at length the efforts he made to reconcile his father and his friend (1 Sam. Xviii. 30, xix. 1-7, xx. ). It is thought, from the confusion apparent in this part of the narrative, that a record of the real motives which provoked a rupture between the king and his son-in-law has not been preserved. ** 1 Sam. Xxii. 20-23, xxiii. 6. For the use of the ephod by Abiathar for oracular purposes, cf. 1 Sam. Xxiii. 9-12, xxx. 7, 8; the inquiry in 1 Sam. Xxiii. 2-4 probably belongs to the same series, although neither Abiathar nor the ephod is mentioned. The country was favourable for their operations; it was a perfectlabyrinth of deep ravines, communicating with each other by narrowpasses or by paths winding along the edges of precipices. Isolatedrocks, accessible only by rugged ascents, defied assault, whileextensive caves offered a safe hiding-place to those who were familiarwith their windings. One day the little band descended to the rescue ofKeilah, which they succeeded in wresting from the Philistines, but nosooner did they learn that Saul was on his way to meet them than theytook refuge in the south of Judah, in the neighbourhood of Ziph andMaôn, between the mountains and the Dead Sea. * * 1 Sam. Xxiii. 1-13; an episode acknowledged to be historical by nearly-all modern critics. [Illustration: 326. Jpg THE DESERT OF JUDAH] Drawn by Boudior, from photograph No. 197 of the _Palestine Exploration Fund. _ The heights visible in the distance are the mountains of Moab, beyond the Dead Sea. Saul already irritated by his rival's successes, was still more galledby being always on the point of capturing him, and yet always seeing himslip from his grasp. On one afternoon, when the king had retired into acave for his siesta, he found himself at the mercy of his adversary; thelatter, however, respected the sleep of his royal master, and contentedhimself with cutting a piece off his mantle. * On another occasion David, in company with Abishai and Ahimelech the Hittite, took a lance anda pitcher of water from the king's bedside. ** The inhabitants of thecountry were not all equally loyal to David's cause; those of Ziph, whose meagre resources were taxed to support his followers, plotted todeliver him up to the king, *** while Nabal of Maôn roughly refusedhim food. Abigail atoned for her husband's churlishness by a speedysubmission; she collected a supply of provisions, and brought it herselfto the wanderers. David was as much disarmed by her tact as by herbeauty, and when she was left a widow he married her. This union insuredthe support of the Calebite clan, the most powerful in that part ofthe country, and policy as well as gratitude no doubt suggested thealliance. * 1 Sam, xxiv. Thought by some writers to be of much later date. ** 1 Sam. Xxvi. 4-25. Skirmishes were not as frequent between the king's troops and theoutlaws as we might at first be inclined to believe, but if at timesthere was a truce to hostilities, they never actually ceased, andthe position became intolerable. Encamped between his kinsman and thePhilistines, David found himself unable to resist either party except bymaking friends with the other. An incursion of the Philistines near Maônsaved David from the king, but when Saul had repulsed it, David had nochoice but to throw himself into the arms of Achish, King of Gath, of whom he craved permission to settle as his vassal at Ziklag, oncondition of David's defending the frontier against the Bedawin. * * 1 Sam. Xxvii. The earlier part of this chapter (vers. 1-6) is strictlyhistorical. Some critics take vers. 8-12 to be of later date, andpretend that they were inserted to show the cleverness of David, and toderide the credulity of the King of Gath. Saul did not deem it advisable to try and dislodge him from thisretreat. Peace having been re-established in Judah, the king turnednorthward and occupied the heights which bound the plain of Jezreel tothe east; it is possible that he contemplated pushing further afield, and rallying round him those northern tribes who had hitherto neveracknowledged his authority. He may, on the other hand, have desiredmerely to lay hands on the Syrian highways, and divert to his ownprofit the resources brought by the caravans which plied along them. The Philistines, who had been nearly ruined by the loss of the right todemand toll of these merchants, assembled the contingents of their fiveprincipalities, among them being the Hebrews of David, who formedthe personal guard of Achish. The four other princes objected to thepresence of these strangers in their midst, and forced Achish to dismissthem. David returned to Ziklag, to find ruin and desolation everywhere. The Amalekites had taken advantage of the departure of the Hebrews torevenge themselves once for all for David's former raids on them, andthey had burnt the town, carrying off the women and flocks. David atonce set out on their track, overtook them just beyond the torrent ofBesor, and rescued from them, not only his own belongings, but all thebooty they had collected by the way in the southern provinces of Caleb, in Judah, and in the Cherethite plain. He distributed part of this spoil among those cities of Judah whichhad shown hospitality to himself and his men, for instance, to Jattir, Aroer, Eshtemoa, Hormah, and Hebron. * While he thus kept up friendlyrelations with those who might otherwise have been tempted to forgethim, Saul was making his last supreme effort against the Philistines, but only ito meet with failure. He had been successful in repulsing themas long as he kept to the mountain districts, where the courage of histroops made up for their lack of numbers and the inferiority of theirarms; but he was imprudent enough to take up a position on the hillsidesof Gilboa, whose gentle slopes offered no hindrances to the operationsof the heavy Philistine battalions. They attacked the Israelites fromthe Shunem side, and swept all before them. Jonathan perished in theconflict, together with his two brothers, Malchi-shua and Abinadab;Saul, who was wounded by an arrow, begged his armour-bearer to take hislife, but, on his persistently refusing, the king killed himself withhis own sword. The victorious Philistines cut off his head and those ofhis sons, and placed their armour in the temple of Ashtoreth, **while their bodies, thus despoiled, were hung up outside the walls ofBethshan, whose Canaanite inhabitants had made common cause with thePhilistines against Israel. * 1 Sam. Xxviii. 1, 2, xxix. , xxx. The torrent of Besor is the present Wady Esh-Sheriah, which runs to the south of Gaza. ** The text of 1 Sam. Xxxi. 10 says, in a vague manner, "in the house of the Ashtaroth" (in the plural), which is corrected, somewhat arbitrarily, in 1 Chron. X. 10 iato "in the house of Dagon" (B. V. ); it is possible that it was the temple at Gaza, Gaza being the chief of the Philistine towns. The people of Jabesh-Gilead, who had never forgotten how Saul had savedthem from the Ammonites, hearing the news, marched all night, rescuedthe mutilated remains, and brought them back to their own town, wherethey burned them, and buried the charred bones under a tamarisk, fastingmeanwhile seven days as a sign of mourning. * * 1 Sam. Xxxi. It would seem that there were two narratives describing this war: in one, the Philistines encamped at Shunem, and Saul occupied Mount Gilboa (1 Sam. Xxviii. 4); in the other, the Philistines encamped at Aphek, and the Israelites "by the fountain which is in Jezreel" (1 Sam. Xxix. 1). The first of these accounts is connected with the episode of the witch of Endor, the second with the sending away of David by Achish. The final catastrophe is in both narratives placed on Mount Gilboa and Stade has endeavoured to reconcile the two accounts by admitting that the battle was fought between Aphek and "the fountain, " but that the final scene took place on the slopes of Gilboa. There are even two versions of the battle, one in 1 Sam. Xxxi. And the other in 2 Sam. I. 6-10, where Saul does not kill himself, but begs an Amalekite to slay him; many critics reject the second version. [Illustration: 330. Jpg THE HILL OF BETHSHAN, SEEN FROM THE EAST] Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 79 of the _Palestine Exploration Fund. _ David afterwards disinterred these relics, and laid them in theburying-place of the family of Kish at Zela, in Benjamin. The tragic endof their king made a profound impression on the people. We read that, before entering on his last battle, Saul was given over to gloomyforebodings: he had sought counsel of Jahveh, but God "answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets. " The aged Samuel hadpassed away at Ramah, and had apparently never seen the king afterthe flight of David;* Saul now bethought himself of the prophet in hisdespair, and sought to recall him from the tomb to obtain his counsel. * 1 Sam. Xxv. 1, repeated 1 Sam. Xxviii. 3, with a mention of the measures taken by Saul against the wizards and fortune-tellers. The king had banished from the land all wizards and fortune-tellers, buthis servants brought him word that at Endor there still remained a womanwho could call up the dead. Saul disguised himself, and, accompanied bytwo of his retainers, went to find her; he succeeded in overcoming herfear of punishment, and persuaded her to make the evocation. "Whomshall I bring up unto thee?"--"Bring up Samuel. "--And when the woman sawSamuel, she cried with a loud voice, saying, "Why hast thou deceived me, for thou art Saul?" And the king said unto her, "Be not afraid, for whatsawest thou?"--"I saw gods ascending out of the earth. "--"What form ishe of?"--"An old man cometh up, and he is covered with a mantle. " Saulimmediately recognised Samuel, and prostrated himself with his face tothe ground before him. The prophet, as inflexible after death as inhis lifetime, had no words of comfort for the God-forsaken man who hadtroubled his repose. "The Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David, because thou obeyedst notthe voice of the Lord, ... And tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be withme. The Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hands of thePhilistines. "* * 1 Sam. Xxviii. 5-25. There is no reason why this scene should not be historical; it was natural that Saul, like many an ancient general in similar circumstances, should seek to know the future by means of the occult sciences then in vogue. Some critics think that certain details of the evocation--as, for instance, the words attributed to Samuel --are of a later date. We learn, also, how David, at Ziklag, on hearing the news of thedisaster, had broken into weeping, and had composed a lament, fullof beauty, known as the "Song of the Bow, " which the people of Judahcommitted to memory in their childhood. "Thy glory, O Israel, is slainupon thy high places! How are the mighty fallen! Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon; lest the daughters of thePhilistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph!Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew nor rain upon you, neitherfields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty was vilely castaway, the shield of Saul, not anointed with oil! From the blood of theslain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, the sword of Saul returned not empty. Saul and Jonathan were lovely andpleasant in their lives, and in death they were not divided. "* * 2 Sam. I. 17-27 (R. V. ). This elegy is described as a quotation from Jasher, the "Book of the Upright. " Many modern writers attribute its authorship to David himself; others reject this view; all agree in regarding it as extremely ancient. The title, "Song of the Bow, " is based on the possibly corrupt text of ver. 18. The Philistines occupied in force the plain of Jezreel and the passwhich leads from it into the lowlands of Bethshan: the Israelitesabandoned the villages which they had occupied in these districts, andthe gap between the Hebrews of the north and those of the centre grewwider. The remnants of Saul's army sought shelter on the eastern bankof the Jordan, but found no leader to reorganise them. The reversesustained by the Israelitish champion seemed, moreover, to prove thefutility of trying to make a stand against the invader, and even theuseless-ness of the monarchy itself: why, they might have asked, burthenourselves with a master, and patiently bear with his exactions, if, whenput to the test, he fails to discharge the duties for the performanceof which he was chosen? And yet the advantages of a stable form ofgovernment had been so manifest during the reign of Saul, that it neverfor a moment occurred to his former subjects to revert to patriarchalinstitutions: the question which troubled them was not whether they wereto have a king, but rather who was to fill the post. Saul had left aconsiderable number of descendants behind him. * From these, Abner, theablest of his captains, chose Ishbaal, and set him on the throne toreign under his guidance. ** * We know that he had three sons by his wife Ahinoam-- Jonathan, Ishbaal, and Malchi-shua; and two daughters, Merab and Michal (1 Sam. Xiv. 49, 50, where "Ishvi" should be read "Ishbaal"). Jonathan left at least one son, Meribbaal (1 Chron. Viii. 34, ix. 40, called Mephibosheth in 2 Sam. Xxi. 7), and Merab had five sons by Adriel (2 Sam. Xxi. 8). One of Saul's concubines, Rizpah, daughter of Aiah, had borne him two sons, Armoni and Meribbaal (2 Sam. Xxi. 8, where the name Meribbaal is changed into Mephibosheth); Abinadab, who fell with him in the fight at Mount Gilboa (1 Sam. Xxxi. 2), whose mother's name is not mentioned, was another son. ** Ishbaal was still a child when his father died: had he been old enough to bear arms, he would have taken a part in the battle of Gilboa with his brothers.. The expressions used in the account of his elevation to the throne prove that he was a minor (2 Sam. Ii. 8, 9); the statement that he was forty years old when he began to reign would seem, therefore, to be an error (ii. 10). Gibeah was too close to the frontier to be a safe residence for asovereign whose position was still insecure; Abner therefore installedIshbaal at Mahanaim, in the heart of the country of Gilead. The houseof Jacob, including the tribe of Benjamin, acknowledged him as king, butJudah held aloof. It had adopted the same policy at the beginning ofthe previous reign, yet its earlier isolation had not prevented it fromafterwards throwing in its lot with the rest of the nation. But at thattime no leader had come forward from its own ranks who was worthy to bereckoned among the mighty men of Israel; now, on the contrary, it had onits frontier a bold and resolute leader of its own race. David lost notime in stepping into the place of those whose loss he had bewailed. Their sudden removal, while it left him without a peer among his ownpeople, exposed him to the suspicion and underground machinations of hisforeign protectors; he therefore quitted them and withdrew to Hebron, where his fellow-countrymen hastened to proclaim him king. * From thattime onwards the tendency of the Hebrew race was to drift apart into twodistinct bodies; one of them, the house of Joseph, which called itselfby the name of Israel, took up its position in the north, on the banksof the Jordan; the other, which is described as the house of Judah, inthe south, between the Dead Sea and the Shephelah. Abner endeavoured tosuppress the rival kingdom in its infancy: he brought Ishbaal to Gibeahand proposed to Joab, who was in command of David's army, that theconflict should be decided by the somewhat novel expedient of pittingtwelve of the house of Judah against an equal number of the house ofBenjamin. The champions of Judah are said to have won the day, but theopposing forces did not abide by the result, and the struggle stillcontinued. ** * 2 Sam. Ii. 1--11. Very probably Abner recognised the Philistine suzerainty as David had done, for the sake of peace; at any rate, we find no mention in Holy Writ of a war between Ishbaal and the Philistines. ** 2 Sam. Ii. 12-32, iii. 1. An intrigue in the harem furnished a solution of the difficulty. Saulhad raised one of his wives of the second rank, named Eizpah, to thepost of favourite. Abner became enamoured of her and took her. This wasan insult to the royal house, and amounted to an act of open usurpation:the wives of a sovereign could not legally belong to any but hissuccessor, and for any one to treat them as Abner had treated Rizpah, was equivalent to his declaring himself the equal, and in a sense therival, of his master. Ishbaal keenly resented his minister's conduct, and openly insulted him. Abner made terms with David, won the northerntribes, including that of Benjamin, over to his side, and when whatseemed a propitious moment had arrived, made his way to Hebron withan escort of twenty men. He was favourably received, and all kinds ofpromises were made him; but when he was about to depart again inorder to complete the negotiations with the disaffected elders, Joab, returning from an expedition, led him aside into a gateway and slew him. David gave him solemn burial, and composed a lament on the occasion, ofwhich four verses have come down to us: having thus paid tribute tothe virtues of the deceased general, he lost no time in taking furtherprecautions to secure his power. The unfortunate king Ishbaal, desertedby every one, was assassinated by two of his officers as he slept in theheat of the day, and his head was carried to Hebron: David again pouredforth lamentations, and ordered the traitors to be killed. There was nowno obstacle between him and the throne: the elders of the people met himat Hebron, poured oil upon his head, and anointed him king over allthe provinces which had obeyed the rule of Saul in Gilead--Ephraim andBenjamin as well as Judah. * * 2 Sam. V. 1-3; in 1 Ghron. Xi. 1-3, xii. 23-40, we find further details beyond those given in the Book of Samuel; it seems probable, however, that the northern tribes may not have recognised David's sovereignty at this time. As long as Ishbaal lived, and his dissensions with Judah assured theirsupremacy, the Philistines were content to suspend hostilities: the newsof his death, and of the union effected between Israel and Judah, soonroused them from this state of quiescence. As prince of the house ofCaleb and vassal of the lord of Grath, David had not been an object ofany serious apprehension to them; but in his new character, as masterof the dominions of Saul, David became at once a dangerous rival, whomthey must overthrow without delay, unless they were willing to riskbeing ere long overthrown by him. They therefore made an attack onBethlehem with the choicest of their forces, and entrenched themselvesthere, with the Canaanite city of Jebus as their base, so as to separateJudah entirely from Benjamin, and cut off the little army quarteredround Hebron from the reinforcements which the central tribes wouldotherwise have sent to its aid. * This move was carried out so quicklythat David found himself practically isolated from the rest of hiskingdom, and had no course left open but to shut himself up in Adullam, with his ordinary guard and the Judsean levies. ** * The history of this war is given in 2 Sam. V. 17-25, where the text shows signs of having been much condensed. It is preceded by the account of the capture of Jerusalem, which some critics would like to transfer to chap, vi. , following ver. 1 which leads up to it. The events which followed are self-explanatory, if we assume, as I have done in the text, that the Philistines wished to detach Judah from Israel: at first (2 Sam. V. 17-21) David endeavours to release himself and effect a juncture with Israel, as is proved by the relative positions assigned to the two opposing armies, the Philistines at Bethlehem, David in the cave of Adullam; afterwards (2 Sam. V. 22-25) David has shaken himself free, has rejoined Israel, and is carrying on the struggle between Gibeah and Gezer. The incidents recounted in 2 Sam. Xxi. 15- 22, xxiii. 13-19, seem to refer almost exclusively to the earlier part of the war, at the time when the Hebrews were hemmed in in the neighbourhood of Adullam. ** The passage in 2 Sam. V. 17 simply states that David "went down to the hold, " and gives no further details. This expression, following as it does the account of the taking of Jerusalem, would seem to refer to this town itself, and Renan has thus interpreted it. It really refers to Adullam, as is shown by the passage in 2 Sam. Xxiii. 13-17. 1 2 Sam. Xxi. 15-17. The whole district round about is intersected by a network of windingstreams, and abounds in rocky gorges, where a few determined men couldsuccessfully hold their ground against the onset of a much more numerousbody of troops. The caves afford, as we know, almost impregnablerefuges: David had often hidden himself in them in the days when he fledbefore Saul, and now his soldiers profited by the knowledge he possessedof them to elude the attacks of the Philistines. He began a sort ofguerilla warfare, in the conduct of which he seems to have been withouta rival, and harassed in endless skirmishes his more heavily equippedadversaries. He did not spare himself, and freely risked his own life;but he was of small stature and not very powerful, so that his spiritoften outran his strength. On one occasion, when he had advanced too farinto the fray and was weary with striking, he ran great peril of beingkilled by a gigantic Philistine: with difficulty Abishai succeeded inrescuing him unharmed from the dangerous position into which he hadventured, and for the future he was not allowed to run such risks on thefield of battle. On another occasion, when lying in the cave of Adullam, he began to feel a longing for the cool waters of Bethlehem, and askedwho would go down and fetch him a draught from the well by the gatesof the town. Three of his mighty men, Joshebbasshebeth, Eleazar, andShammah, broke through the host of the Philistines and succeeded inbringing it; but he refused to drink the few drops they had brought, and poured them out as a libation to Jehovah, saying, "Shall I drink theblood of men that went in jeopardy of their lives?"* Duels betweenthe bravest and stoutest champions of the two hosts were of frequentoccurrence. It was in an encounter of this kind that Elhanan theBethlehemite [or David] slew the giant Goliath at Gob. At length Davidsucceeded in breaking his way through the enemies' lines in the valley ofKephaîm, thus forcing open the road to the north. Here he probably fellin with the Israelitish contingent, and, thus reinforced, was at lastin a position to give battle in the open: he was again successful, and, routing his foes, pursued them from Gibeon to Gezer. ** None of hisvictories, however, was of a sufficiently decisive character to bringthe struggle to an end: it dragged on year after year, and when at lastit did terminate, there was no question on either side of submission orof tribute:*** the Hebrews completely regained their independence, butthe Philistines do not seem to have lost any portion of their domain, and apparently retained possession of all that they had previously held. * 2 Sam. Xxiii. 13-17; cf. 1 Ghron. Xi. 15-19. Popular tradition furnishes many incidents of a similar type; cf. Alexander in the desert of Gedrosia, Godfrey de Bouillon in Asia Minor, etc. ** The Hebrew text gives "from Geba [or Gibeah] to Gezer" (2 Sam. V. 25); the Septuagint, "from Gibeon to Gezer. " This latter reading [which is that of 1 Chron. Xiv. 16. --Tr. ] is more in accordance with the geographical facts, and I have therefore adopted it. Jahveh had shown by a continual rustling in the leaves of the mulberry trees that He was on David's side. *** In 2 Sam. Viii. 1 we are told that David humiliated the Philistines, and took "the bridle of the mother city" out of their hands, or, in other words, destroyed the supremacy which they had exercised over Israel; he probably did no more than this, and failed to secure any part of their territory. The passage in 1 Chron. Xviii. 1, which attributes to him the conquest of Gath and its dependencies, is probably an amplification of the somewhat obscure wording employed in 2 Sam. Viii. 1. But though they suffered no loss of territory, their position was inreality much inferior to what it was before. Their control of the plainof Jezreel was lost to them for ever, and with it the revenue which theyhad levied from passing caravans: the Hebrews transferred to themselvesthis right of their former masters, and were so much the richer at theirexpense. To the five cities this was a more damaging blow than twentyreverses would have been to Benjamin or Judah. The military spirit hadnot died out among the Philistines, and they were still capable of anyaction which did not require sustained effort; but lack of resourcesprevented them from entering on a campaign of any length, and any chancethey may at one time have had of exercising a dominant influence in theaffairs of Southern Syria had passed away. Under the restraining handof Egypt they returned to the rank of a second-rate power, just strongenough to inspire its neighbours with respect, but too weak to extendits territory by annexing that of others. Though they might still, attimes, give David trouble by contesting at intervals the possession ofsome outlying citadel, or by making an occasional raid on one ofthe districts which lay close to the frontier, they were no longer apermanent menace to the continued existence of his kingdom. But was Judah strong enough to take their place, and set up in SouthernSyria a sovereign state, around which the whole fighting material of thecountry might range itself with confidence? The incidents of the lastwar had clearly shown the disadvantages of its isolated position inregard to the bulk of the nation. The gap between Ekron and the Jordan, which separated it from Ephraim and Manasseh, had, at all costs, to befilled up, if a repetition of the manouvre which so nearly cost Davidhis throne at Adullam were to be avoided. It is true that the Gibeonitesand their allies acknowledged the sovereignty of Ephraim, and formeda sort of connecting link between the tribes, but it was impossible torely on their fidelity so long as they were exposed to the attacks ofthe Jebusites in their rear: as soon therefore as David found he hadnothing more to fear from the Philistines, he turned his attentionto Jerusalem. * This city stood on a dry and sterile limestone spur, separated on three sides from the surrounding hills by two valleys ofunequal length. That of the Kedron, on the east, begins as a simpledepression, but gradually becomes deeper and narrower as it extendstowards the south. About a mile and a half from its commencement it isnothing more than a deep gorge, shut in by precipitous rocks, which forsome days after the winter rains is turned into the bed of a torrent. ** * The name Jerusalem occurs under the form Ursalîmmu, or Urusalîm, in the Tel el-Amarna tablets. Sion was the name of the citadel preserved by the Israelites after the capture of the place, and applied by them to the part of the city which contained the royal palace, and subsequently to the town itself. ** The Kedron is called a nalial (2 Sam. Xv. 23; 1 Kings ii. 37; Jer. Xxxi. 40), i. E. A torrent which runs dry during the summer; in winter it was termed a brook. Excavations show that the fall diminishes at the foot of the ancient walls, and that the bottom of the valley has risen nearly twelve yards. During the remainder of the year a number of springs, which well up atthe bottom of the valley, furnish an unfailing supply of water to theinhabitants of Gibon, * Siloam, ** and Eôgel. *** The valley widens outagain near En-Kôgel, and affords a channel to the Wady of the Childrenof Hinnôm, which bounds the plateau on the west. The intermediate spacehas for a long time been nothing more than an undulating plain, atpresent covered by the houses of modern Jerusalem. In ancient times itwas traversed by a depression in the ground, since filled up, whichran almost parallel with the Kedron, and joined it near the Pool ofSiloam. **** The ancient city of the Jebusites stood on the summit of theheadland which rises between these two valleys, the town of Jebus itselfbeing at the extremity, while the Millo lay farther to the north on thehill of Sion, behind a ravine which ran down at right angles into thevalley of the Hedron. * Now, possibly, the "Fountain of the Virgin, " but its identity is not certain. ** These are the springs which feed the group of reservoirs now known as the Pool of Siloam. The name "Siloam" occurs only in Neh. Iii. 15, but is undoubtedly more ancient. *** En-Rôgel, the "Traveller's Well, " is now called the "Well of Job. " **** This valley, which is not mentioned by name in the Old Testament, was called, in the time of Josephus, the Tyropoon, or Cheesemakers'Quarter. Its true position, which had been only suspected up to the middle of the present century, was determined with certainty by means of the excavations carried out by the English and Germans. The bottom of the valley was found at a depth of from forty to sixty feet below the present surface. An unfortified suburb had gradually grown up on the lower ground to thewest, and was connected by a stairway cut in the rock* with the uppercity. This latter was surrounded by ramparts with turrets, like thoseof the Canaanitish citadels which we constantly find depicted on theEgyptian monuments. Its natural advantages and efficient garrison had sofar enabled it to repel all the attacks of its enemies. * This is the Ophel of the Hebrew text. When David appeared with his troops, the inhabitants ridiculed hispresumption, and were good enough to warn him of the hopelessness of hisenterprise: a garrison composed of the halt and the blind, without anable-bodied man amongst them, would, they declared, be able successfullyto resist him. The king, stung by their mockery, made a promise to his"mighty men" that the first of them to scale the walls should be madechief and captain of his host. We often find that impregnable citiesowe their downfall to negligence on the part of their defenders: theseconcentrate their whole attention on the few vulnerable points, and givebut scanty care to those which are regarded as inaccessible. * Jerusalemproved to be no exception to this rule; Joab carried it by a suddenassault, and received as his reward the best part of the territory whichhe had won by his valour. ** * Cf. The capture of Sardis by Cyrus (Herodotus) and by Antiochus III. (Polybius), as also the taking of the Capitol by the Gauls. ** The account of the capture of Jerusalem is given in 2 Sam. V. 6-9, where the text is possibly corrupt, with interpolated glosses, especially in ver. 8; David's reply to the mockery of the Jebusites is difficult to understand. 1 Citron, xi. 4-8 gives a more correct text, but one less complete in so far as the portions parallel with 2 Sam. V. 6-9 are concerned; the details in regard to Joab are undoubtedly historical, but we do not find them in the Book of Samuel. In attacking Jerusalem, David's first idea was probably to rid himselfof one of the more troublesome obstacles which served to separateone-half of his people from the other; but once he had set foot in theplace, he was not slow to perceive its advantages, and determined tomake it his residence. Hebron had sufficed so long as his power extendedover Caleb and Judah only. Situated as it was in the heart of themountains, and in the wealthiest part of the province in which it stood, it seemed the natural centre to which the Kenites and men of Judah mustgravitate, and the point at which they might most readily be mouldedinto a nation; it was, however, too far to the south to offer aconvenient rallying-point for a ruler who wished to bring the Hebrewcommunities scattered about on both banks of the Jordan under the swayof a common sceptre. Jerusalem, on the other hand, was close to thecrossing point of the roads which lead from the Sinaitic desert intoSyria, and from the Shephelah to the land of Gilead; it commandednearly the whole domain of Israel and the ring of hostile races by whichit was encircled. From this lofty eyrie, David, with Judah behind him, could either swoop down upon Moab, whose mountains shut him out from aview of the Dead Sea, or make a sudden descent on the seaboard, by wayof Bethhoron, at the least sign of disturbance among the Philistines, or could push straight on across Mount Ephraim into Galilee. Issachar, Naphtali, Asher, Dan, and Zebulun were, perhaps, a little too far fromthe seat of government; but they were secondary tribes, incapable ofany independent action, who obeyed without repugnance, but also withoutenthusiasm, the soldier-king able to protect them from external foes. The future master of Israel would be he who maintained his hold on theposterity of Judah and of Joseph, and David could not hope to find amore suitable place than Jerusalem from which to watch over the tworuling houses at one and the same time. The lower part of the town he gave up to the original inhabitants, * theupper he filled with Benjamites and men of Judah;** he built or restoreda royal palace on Mount Sion, in which he lived surrounded by hiswarriors and his family. *** One thing only was lacking--a temple for hisGod. Jerubbaal had had a sanctuary at Ophrah, and Saul had secured theservices of Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh: David was no longer satisfiedwith the ephod which had been the channel of many wise counsels duringhis years of adversity and his struggles against the Philistines. Helonged for some still more sacred object with which to identify thefortunes of his people, and by which he might raise the newly gainedprestige of his capital. It so happened that the ark of the Lord, the ancient safeguard of Ephraim, had been lying since the battleof Eben-ezer not far away, without a fixed abode or regularworshippers. **** * Judges i. 21; cf. Zech. Xi. 7, where Ekron in its decadence is likened to the Jebusite vassal of Judah. ** Jerusalem is sometimes assigned to Benjamin (Judges i. 21), sometimes to Judah (Josh. Xv. 63). Judah alone is right. *** 2 Sam. V. 9, and the parallel passage in 1 Chron. Xi. 7, 8. **** The account of the events which followed the battle of Eben-ezer up to its arrival in the house of Abinadab, is taken from the history of the ark, referred to on pp. 306, 307, supra. It is given in 1 Sam. V. , vi. , vii. 1, where it forms an exceedingly characteristic whole, composed, it may be, of two separate versions thrown into one; the passage in 1 Sam. Vi. 15, where the Lévites receive the ark, is supposed by some to be interpolated. The reason why it had not brought victory on that occasion, was thatGod's anger had been stirred at the misdeeds committed in His name bythe sons of Eli, and desired to punish His people; true, it had beenpreserved from profanation, and the miracles which took place in itsneighbourhood proved that it was still the seat of a supernatural power. [Illustration: 340. Jpg MOUSE OF METAL] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch published by Schick and Oldfield Thomas. At first the Philistines had, according to their custom, shut it up inthe temple of Dagon at Ashdod. On the morrow when the priests enteredthe sanctuary, they found the statue of their god prostrate in front ofit, his fish-like body overthrown, and his head and hands scattered onthe floor;* at the same time a plague of malignant tumours broke outamong the people, and thousands of mice overran their houses. Theinhabitants of Ashdod made haste to transfer it on to Ekron: it thuswent the round of the five cities, its arrival being in each caseaccompanied by the same disasters. The soothsayers, being consultedat the end of seven months, ordered that solemn sacrifices shouldbe offered up, and the ark restored to its rightful worshippers, accompanied by expiatory offerings of five golden mice and five goldentumours, one for each of the five repentant cities. ** * The statue here referred to is evidently similar to those of the Chaldæan gods and genii, in which Dagon is represented as a man with his back and head enveloped in a fish as in a cloak. ** In the Oustinoff collection at Jaffa, there is a roughly shaped image of a mouse, cut out of a piece of white metal, and perhaps obtained from the ruins of Gaza; it would seem to be an ex-voto of the same kind as that referred to in the Hebrew text, but it is of doubtful authenticity. The ark was placed on a new cart, and two milch cows with their calvesdrew it, lowing all the way, without guidance from any man, to the fieldof a certain Joshua at Bethshemesh. The inhabitants welcomed it withgreat joy, but their curiosity overcame their reverence, and they lookedwithin the shrine. Jehovah, being angered thereat, smote seventy men ofthem, and the warriors made haste to bring the ark to Kirjath-jearim, where it remained for a long time, in the house of Abinadab on thehill, under charge of his son Eleazar. * Kirjath-jearim is only about twoleagues from Jerusalem. David himself went thither, and setting "the arkof God upon a new cart, " brought it away. * Two attendants, called Uzzahand Ahio, drove the new cart, "and David and all Israel played beforeGod with all their might: even with songs, and with harps, and withpsalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets. "An accident leading to serious consequences brought the procession toa standstill; the oxen stumbled, and their sacred burden threatened tofall: Uzzah, putting forth his hand to hold the ark, was smitten by theLord, "and there he died before the Lord. " David was disturbed at this, feeling some insecurity in dealing with a Deity who had thus seemed topunish one of His worshippers for a well-meant and respectful act. ** * The text of 1 Sam. Vi. 21, vii. 1, gives the reading Kirjath-jearim, whereas the text of 2 Sam. Vi. 2 has Baale- Judah, which should be corrected to Baal-Judah. Baal-Judah, or, in its abbreviated form, Baala, is another name for Kirjath-jearim (Josh. Xv. 9-11; cf. 1 Ghron. Xiii. 6). Similarly, we find the name Kirjath-Baal (Josh. Xv. 60). Kirjath-jearim is now Kharbet-el-Enab. ** The transport of the ark from Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem is related in 2 Sam. Vi. And in 1 Ghron. Xiii. , xv. , xvi. He "was afraid of the Lord that day, " and "would not remove the ark" toJerusalem, but left it for three months in the house of a Philistine, Obed-Edom of Gath; but finding that its host, instead of experiencingany evil, was blessed by the Lord, he carried out his originalintention, and brought the ark to Jerusalem. "David, girded with a linenephod, danced with all his might before the Lord, " and "all the house ofIsrael brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the soundof the trumpet. " When the ark had been placed in the tent that David hadprepared for it, he offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, andat the end of the festival there were dealt out to the people gifts ofbread, cakes, and wine (or flesh). There is inserted in the narrative*an account of the conduct of Michal his wife, who looking out of thewindow and seeing the king dancing and playing, despised him inher heart, and when David returned to his house, congratulated himironically--"How glorious was the King of Israel to-day, who uncoveredhimself in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants!" * Renan would consider this to have been inserted in the time of Hezekiah. It appeared to him to answer "to the antipathy of Hamutal and the ladies of the court to the worship of Jahveh, and to that form of human respect which restrained the people of the world from giving themselves up to it. " David said in reply that he would rather be held in honour by thehandmaids of whom she had spoken than avoid the acts which covered himwith ridicule in her eyes; and the chronicler adds that "Michal thedaughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death. "* * [David's reply shows (2 Sam. Vi. 21, 22) that it was in gratitude to Jehovah who had exalted him that he thus humbled himself. --Tr. ] The tent and the ark were assigned at this time to the care of twopriests--Zadok, son of Ahitub, and Abiathar, son of Ahimelech, who wasa descendant of Eli, and had never quitted David throughout hisadventurous career. * It is probable, too, that the ephod had notdisappeared, and that it had its place in the sanctuary; but it may havegradually fallen into neglect, and may have ceased to be the vehicleof oracular responses as in earlier years. The king was accustomed onimportant occasions to take part in the sacred ceremonies, after theexample of contemporary monarchs, and he had beside him at this time apriest of standing to guide him in the religious rites, and to fulfilfor him duties similar to those which the chief reader rendered toPharaoh. The only one of these priests of David whose name has come downto us was Ira the Jethrite, who accompanied his master in hiscampaigns, and would seem to have been a soldier also, and one of "thethirty. " These priestly officials seem, however, to have played but asubordinate part, as history is almost silent about their acts. ** WhileDavid owed everything to the sword and trusted in it, he recognised atthe same time that he had obtained his crown from Jahveh; just as thesovereigns of Thebes and Nineveh saw in Amon and Assur the source oftheir own royal authority. * 2 Sam. Viii. 17, xx. 25; cf. 1 Sam. Xxi. 1, xxii. 20; 1 Chron. Xv. 11. ** 2 Sam. Xx. 26, where he is called the Jairite, and not the Ithrite, owing to an easily understood confusion of the Hebrew letters. He figures in the list of the _Gibborim_, "mighty men, " 2 Sam. Xxiii. 38. He consulted the Lord directly when he wished for counsel, and acceptedthe issue as a test whether his interpretation of the Divine will wascorrect or erroneous. When once he had realised, at the time of thecapture of Jerusalem, that God had chosen him to be the champion ofIsrael, he spared no labour to accomplish the task which the Divinefavour had assigned to him. He attacked one after the other the peopleswho had encroached upon his domain, Moab being the first to feel theforce of his arm. He extended his possessions at the expense of Gilead, and the fertile provinces opposite Jericho fell to his sword. Theseterritories were in dangerous proximity to Jerusalem, and Daviddoubtless realised the peril of their independence. The struggle fortheir possession must have continued for some time, but the details arenot given, and we have only the record of a few incidental exploits: weknow, for instance, that the captain of David's guard, Benaiah, slew twoMoabite notables in a battle. * Moabite captives were treated with allthe severity sanctioned by the laws of war. They were laid on the groundin a line, and two-thirds of the length of the row being measured off, all within it were pitilessly massacred, the rest having their livesspared. Moab acknowledged its defeat, and agreed to pay tribute: it hadsuffered so much that it required several generations to recover. ** * 2 Sam. Xxiii. 20-23: cf. 1 Chron. Xi. 22-25. "Ariel, " who is made the father of the two slain by Benaiah, may possibly be the term in 11. 12, 17, 18 of the Inscription of Mesha (Moabite Stone); but its meaning is obscure, and has hitherto baffled all attempts to explain it. ** 2 Sam. Viii. 2. Gilead had become detached from David's domain on the south, whilethe Ammonites were pressing it on the east, and the Ararnæans makingencroachments upon its pasture-lands on the north. Nahash, King of theAmmonites, being dead, David, who had received help from him in hisstruggle with Saul, sent messengers to offer congratulations to his sonHanun on his accession. Hanun, supposing the messengers to be spiessent to examine the defences of the city, "shaved off one-half oftheir beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even totheir buttocks, and sent them away. " This was the signal for war. TheAmmonites, foreseeing that David would endeavour to take a terriblevengeance for this insult to his people, came to an understanding withtheir neighbours. The overthrow of the Amorite chiefs had favoured theexpansion of the Aramæans towards the south. They had invaded all thatregion hitherto unconquered by Israel in the valley of the Litany tothe east of Jordan, and some half-dozen of their petty states hadappropriated among them the greater part of the territories which weredescribed in the sacred record as having belonged previously to Jabinof Hazor and the kings of Bashan. The strongest of theseprincipalities--that which occupied the position of Qodshû in theBekâa, and had Zoba as its capital--was at this time under the rule ofHadadezer, son of Behob. This warrior had conquered Damascus, Maacah, and Geshur, was threatening the Canaanite town of Hamath, and waspreparing to set out to the Euphrates when the Ammonites sought his helpand protection. He came immediately to their succour. Joab, who was incommand of David's army, left a portion of his troops at Babbath underhis brother Abishaî, and with the rest set out against the Syrians. He overthrew them, and returned immediately afterwards. The Ammonites, hearing of his victory, disbanded their army; but Joab had suffered suchserious losses, that he judged it wise to defer his attack upon themuntil Zoba should be captured. David then took the field himself, crossed the Jordan with all his reserves, attacked the Syrians atHelam, put them to flight, killing Shobach, their general, and capturedDamascus. Hadadezer [Hadarezer] "made peace with Israel, " and Tou orToi, the King of Hamath, whom this victory had delivered, sent presentsto David. This was the work of a single campaign. The next year Joabinvested Kabbath, and when it was about to surrender he called the kingto his camp, and conceded to him the honour of receiving the submissionof the city in person. The Ammonites were treated with as much severityas their kinsmen of Moab. David "put them under saws and harrowsof iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through thebrick-kiln. "* * The war with the Aramaeans, described in 2 Sam. Viii. 3- 12, is similar to the account of the conflict with the Ammonites in 2 Sam. X. -xii. , but with more details. Both documents are reproduced in 1 Chron. Xviii. 3-11, and xix. , xx. 1-3. [Illustration: 353. Jpg THE HEBREW KINGDOM] This success brought others in its train. The Idumæans had takenadvantage of the employment of the Israelite army against the Aramæansto make raids into Judah. Joab and Abishaî, despatched in haste to checkthem, met them in the Valley of Salt to the south of the Dead Sea, andgave them battle: their king perished in the fight, and his son Hadadwith some of his followers took flight into Egypt. Joab put to the swordall the able-bodied combatants, and established garrisons at Petra, Elath, and Eziongeber* on the Red Sea. David dedicated the spoils to theLord, "who gave victory to David wherever he went. " Neither Elath nor Eziongeber are here mentioned, but 1 Kings ix. 25-28 and 2 Chron. Viii. 17, 18 prove that these places had been occupied by David. For all that concerns Hadad, see 1 Kings xi. 15-20. Southern Syria had found its master: were the Hebrews going to pursuetheir success, and undertake in the central and northern regions awork of conquest which had baffled the efforts of all theirpredecessors--Canaanites, Amorites, and Hittites? The Assyrians, thrownback on the Tigris, were at this time leading a sort of vegetativeexistence in obscurity; and, as for Egypt, it would seem to haveforgotten that it ever had possessions in Asia. There was, therefore, nothing to be feared from foreign intervention should the Hebrew beinclined to weld into a single state the nations lying between theEuphrates and the Red Sea. [Illustration: 354. Jpg THE SITE OF RABBATH-AMON, SEEN FROM THE WEST] Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 377 of the _Palestine Exploration Fund. _ Unfortunately, the Israelites had not the necessary characteristics ofa conquering people. Their history from the time of their entry intoCanaan showed, it is true, that they were by no means incapable ofenthusiasm and solidarity: a leader with the needful energy and goodfortune to inspire them with confidence could rouse them from theirself-satisfied indolence, and band them together for a great effort. But such concentration of purpose was ephemeral in its nature, anddisappeared with the chief who had brought it about. In his absence, or when the danger he had pointed out was no longer imminent, they fellback instinctively into their usual state of apathy and disorganisation. Their nomadic temperament, which two centuries of a sedentary existencehad not seriously modified, disposed them to give way to tribalquarrels, to keep up hereditary vendettas, to break out into suddentumults, or to make pillaging expeditions into their neighbours'territories. Long wars, requiring the maintenance of a permanent army, the continual levying of troops and taxes, and a prolonged effort tokeep what they had acquired, were repugnant to them. The kingdomwhich David had founded owed its permanence to the strong will of itsoriginator, and its increase or even its maintenance depended upon theabsence of any internal disturbance or court intrigue, to counteractwhich might make too serious a drain upon his energy. David had survivedhis last victory sufficiently long to witness around him the evolutionof plots, and the multiplication of the usual miseries which sadden, inthe East, the last years of a long reign. It was a matter of custom aswell as policy that an exaltation in the position of a ruler should beaccompanied by a proportional increase in the number of his retinueand his wives. David was no exception to this custom: to the two wives, Abigail and Ahinoam, which he had while he was in exile at Ziklag, henow added Maacah the Aramaean, daughter of the King of Geshur, Haggith, Abital, Bglah, and several others. * During the siege of Babbath-Ammon healso committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and, placing her husband in the forefront of the battle, brought abouthis death. Rebuked by the prophet Nathan for this crime, he expressedhis penitence, but he continued at the same time to keep Bathsheba, bywhom he had several children. ** There was considerable rivalry amongthe progeny of these different unions, as the right of succession wouldappear not to have been definitely settled. Of the family of Saul, moreover, there were still several members in existence--the son whichhe had by Eizpah, the children of his daughter Merab, Merib-baal, thelame offspring of Jonathan, *** and Shimei****--all of whom had partisansamong the tribes, and whose pretensions might be pressed unexpectedly ata critical moment. * Ahinoam is mentioned in the following passages: 1 Sam. Xxv. 43, xxvii. 3, xxx. 5; 2 Sam. Ii. 2, iii. 2; cf. Also 1 Chron. Iii. 1; Maacah in 2 Sam. Iii. 3; 1 Chron. Iii. 2; Haggith in 2 Sam. Iii. 4; 1 Kings i. 5, 11, ii. 13; 1 Chron. Iii. 2; Abital in 2 Sam. Iii. 4; 1 Chron. Iii. 3; Eglah in 2 Sam. Iii. 5; 1 Chron. Iii. 3. For the concubines, see 2 Sam. V. 13, xv. 15, xvi. 21, 22; 1 Chron. Iii. 9, xiv. 3. ** 2 Sam. Xi. , xii. 7-25. *** 2 Sam. Ix. , xvi. 1-4, xix. 25-30, where the name is changed into Mephibosheth; the original name is given in 1 Chron. Viii. 34. **** Sam. Xvi. 5-14, xix. 16-23; 1 Kings ii. 8, 9, 36-46. The eldest son of Ahinoam, Amnon, whose priority in age seemed likelyto secure for him the crown, had fallen in love with one of hishalf-sisters named Tamar, the daughter of Maacah, and, instead ofdemanding her in marriage, procured her attendance on him by a feignedillness, and forced her to accede to his desires. His love was thereuponconverted immediately into hate, and, instead of marrying her, he hadher expelled from his house by his servants. With rent garments andashes on her head, she fled to her full-brother Absalom. David wasvery wroth, but he loved his firstborn, and could not permit himself topunish him. Absalom kept his anger to himself, but when two years hadelapsed he invited Amnon to a banquet, killed him, and fled to hisgrandfather Talmai, King of Geshur. * * It is to be noted that Tamar asked Amnon to marry her, and that the sole reproach directed against the king's eldest son was that, after forcing her, he was unwilling to make her his wife. Unions of brother and sister were probably as legitimate among the Hebrews at this time as among the Egyptians. His anger was now turned against the king for not having taken up thecause of his sister, and he began to meditate his dethronement. Havingbeen recalled to Jerusalem at the instigation of Joab, "Absalomprepared him chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him, "thus affecting the outward forms of royalty. Judah, dissatisfied atthe favour shown by David to the other tribes, soon came to recogniseAbsalom as their chief, and some of the most intimate counsellors of theaged king began secretly to take his part. When Absalom deemed thingssafe for action, he betook himself to Hebron, under the pretence of avow which he had made daring his sojourn at Geshur. All Judah ralliedaround him, and the excitement at Jerusalem was so great that Davidjudged it prudent to retire, with his Philistine and Cherethite guards, to the other side of the Jordan. Absalom, in the mean while, took up hisabode in Jerusalem, where, having received the tacit adherence of thefamily of Saul and of a number of the notables, he made himself king. Toshow that the rupture between him and David was complete, he had tentserected on the top of the house, and there, in view of the people, tookpossession of his father's harem. Success would have been assured tohim if he had promptly sent troops after the fugitives, but while he wasspending his time in inactivity and feasting, David collected togetherthose who were faithful to him, and put them under the command ofJoab and Abishai. The king's veterans were more than a match forthe undisciplined rabble which opposed them, and in the action whichfollowed at Mahanaim Absalom was defeated: in his flight throughthe forest of Ephraim he was caught in a tree, and before he coulddisentangle himself was pierced through the heart by Joab. David, we read, wished his people to have mercy on his son, and he weptbitterly. He spared on this occasion the family of Saul, pardoned thetribe of Judah, and went back triumphantly into Jerusalem, which a fewdays before had taken part in his humiliation. The tribes of the houseof Joseph had taken no side in the quarrel. They were ignorant alike ofthe motives which set the tribe of Judah against their own hero, and oftheir reasons for the zeal with which they again established him on thethrone. They sent delegates to inquire about this, who reproached Judahfor acting without their cognisance: "We have ten parts in the king, andwe have also more right in David than ye: why then did ye despise us, that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our king?"Judah answered with yet fiercer words; then Sheba, a chief of theBenjamites, losing patience, blew a trumpet, and went off crying: "Wehave no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son ofJesse: every man to his tents, O Israel. " If these words had producedan echo among the central and northern tribes, a schism would have beeninevitable: some approved of them, while others took no action, andsince Judah showed no disposition to put its military forces intomovement, the king had once again to trust to Joab and the Philistineguards to repress the sedition. Their appearance on the scenedisconcerted the rebels, and Sheba retreated to the northern frontierwithout offering battle. Perhaps he reckoned on the support of theAramæans. He took shelter in the small stronghold of Abel of Bethmaacah, where he defended himself for some time; but just when the place was onthe point of yielding, the inhabitants cut off Sheba's head, and threwit to Joab from the wall. His death brought the crisis to an end, and peace reigned in Israel. Intrigues, however, began again morepersistently than ever over the inheritance which the two slain princeshad failed to obtain. The eldest son of the king was now Adonijah, sonof Haggith, but Bathsheba exercised an undisputed sway over her husband, and had prepared him to recognise in Solomon her son the heir to thethrone. She had secured, too, as his adherents several persons ofinfluence, including Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and Benaiah, the captainof the foreign guard. Adonijah had on his side Abiathar the priest, Joab, and the people ofJerusalem, who had been captivated by his beauty and his regal display. In the midst of these rivalries the king was daily becoming weaker: hewas now very old, and although he was covered with wrappings he couldnot maintain his animal heat. A young girl was sought out for him togive him the needful warmth. Abishag, a Shunammite, was secured for thepurpose, but her beauty inspired Adonijah with such a violent passionthat he decided to bring matters to a crisis. He invited his brethren, with the exception of Solomon, to a banquet in the gardens whichbelonged to him in the south of Jerusalem, near the well of Eôgel. Allhis partisans were present, and, inspired by the good cheer, began tocry, "God save King Adonijah!" When Nathan informed Bathsheba of whatwas going on, she went in unto the king, who was being attended on byAbishag, complained to him of the weakness he was showing in regard tohis eldest son, and besought him to designate his heir officially. Hecollected together the soldiers, and charged them to take the youngman Solomon with royal pomp from the hill of Sion to the source of theGibôn: Nathan anointed his forehead with the sacred oil, and in thesight of all the people brought him to the palace, mounted on hisfather's mule. The blare of the coronation trumpets resounded in theears of the conspirators, quickly followed by the tidings that Solomonhad been hailed king over the whole of Israel: they fled on all sides, Adonijah taking refuge at the horns of the altar. David did not longsurvive this event: shortly before his death he advised Solomon torid himself of all those who had opposed his accession to the throne. Solomon did not hesitate to follow this counsel, and the beginning ofhis reign was marked by a series of bloodthirsty executions. Adonijahwas the first to suffer. He had been unwise enough to ask the hand ofAbishag in marriage: this request was regarded as indicative of a hiddenintention to rebel, and furnished an excuse for his assassination. Abiathar, at whose instigation Adonijah had acted, owed his escapefrom a similar fate to his priestly character and past services: he wasbanished to his estate at Anathoth, and Zadok became high priest in hisstead. Joab, on learning the fate of his accomplice, felt that he wasa lost man, and vainly sought sanctuary near the ark of the Lord; butBenaiah slew him there, and soon after, Shimei, the last survivor of therace of Saul, was put to death on some transparent pretext. This was thelast act of the tragedy: henceforward Solomon, freed from all those whobore him malice, was able to devote his whole attention to the cares ofgovernment. * * 1 Kings i. , ii. This is the close of the history of David, and follows on from 2 Sam. Xxiv. It would seem that Adonijah was heir-apparent (1 Kings i. 5, 6), and that Solomon's accession was brought about by an intrigue, which owed its success to the old king's weakness (1 Kings i. 12, 13, 17, 18, 30, 31). The change of rulers had led, as usual, to insurrections among thetributary races: Damascus had revolted before the death of David, andhad not been recovered. Hadad returned from Egypt, and having gainedadherents in certain parts of Edom, resisted all attempts made todislodge him. * * It seems clear from the context that the revolt of Damascus took place during David's lifetime. It cannot, in any case, have occurred at a later date than the beginning of the reign of Solomon, for we are told that Rezôn, after capturing the town, "was an adversary of Israel all the days of Solomon" (1 Kings xi. 23-25). Hadad returned from Egypt when "he had heard that David slept with his fathers, and that Joab the captain of the host was dead" (1 Kings xi. 21, 22, 25). As a soldier, Solomon was neither skilful nor fortunate: he even failedto retain what his father had won for him. Though he continued toincrease his army, it was more with a view to consolidating his powerover the Bnê-Israel than for any aggressive action outside his borders. On the other hand, he showed himself an excellent administrator, anddid his best, by various measures of general utility, to draw closer theties which bound the tribes to him and to each other. He repaired thecitadels with such means as he had at his disposal. He rebuilt thefortifications of Megiddo, thus securing the control of the network ofroads which traversed Southern Syria. He remodelled the fortificationsof Tamar, the two Bethhorons, Baâlath, Hazor, and of many othertowns which defended his frontiers. Some of them he garrisoned withfoot-soldiers, others with horsemen and chariots. By thus distributinghis military forces over the whole country, he achieved a twofoldobject;* he provided, on the one hand, additional security from foreigninvasion, and on the other diminished the risk of internal revolt. * 1 Kings ix. 15, 17-19; cf. 2 Chron. Viii. 4-6. The parallel passage in 2 Chron. Viii. 4, and the marginal variant in the _Book of Kings_, give the reading Tadmor Palmyra for Tamar, thus giving rise to the legends which state that Solomon's frontier extended to the Euphrates. The Tamar here referred to is that mentioned in Ezeh. Xlvii. 19, xlviii. 28, as the southern boundary of Judah; it is perhaps identical with the modern Kharbêt-Kurnub. The remnants of the old aboriginal clans, which had hitherto managed topreserve their independence, mainly owing to the dissensions among theIsraelites, were at last absorbed into the tribes in whose territorythey had settled. A few still held out, and only gave way after longand stubborn resistance: before he could triumph over Gezer, Solomon wasforced to humble himself before the Egyptian Pharaoh. He paid homage tohim, asked the hand of his daughter in marriage, and having obtained it, persuaded him to come to his assistance: the Egyptian engineers placedtheir skill at the service of the besiegers and soon brought therecalcitrant city to reason, handing it over to Solomon in payment forhis submission. * The Canaanites were obliged to submit to the poll-taxand the _corvée_: the men of the league of Gibeon were made hewersof wood and drawers of water for the house of the Lord. ** The Hebrewsthemselves bore their share in the expenses of the State, and thoughless heavily taxed than the Canaanites, were, nevertheless, compelled tocontribute considerable sums; Judah alone was exempt, probably because, being the private domain of the sovereign, its revenues were alreadyincluded in the royal exchequer. *** * 1 Kings ix. 16. The Pharaoh in question was probably one of the Psiûkhânnît, the Psûsennos II. Of Manetho. ** 1 Kings ix. 20, 21. The annexation of the Gibeonites and their allies is placed at the time of the conquest in Josh. Ix. 3-27; it should be rather fixed at the date of the loss of independence of the league, probably in the time of Solomon. *** Stade thinks that Judah was not exempt, and that the original document must have given thirteen districts. In order to facilitate the collection of the taxes, Solomon divided thekingdom into twelve districts, each of which was placed in charge ofa collector; these regions did not coincide with the existing tribalboundaries, but the extent of each was determined by the wealth of thelands contained within it. While one district included the whole ofMount Ephraim, another was limited to the stronghold of Mahanaim and itssuburbs. Mahanaim was at one time the capital of Israel, and had playedan important part in the life of David: it held the key to the regionsbeyond Jordan, and its ruler was a person of such influence that it wasnot considered prudent to leave him too well provided with funds. Bythus obliterating the old tribal boundaries, Solomon doubtless hopedto destroy, or at any rate greatly weaken, that clannish spirit whichshowed itself with such alarming violence at the time of the revolt ofSheba, and to weld into a single homogeneous mass the various Hebrew andCanaanitish elements of which the people of Israel were composed. * * 1 Kings iv. 7-19, where a list of the districts is given; the fact that two of Solomon's sons-in-law appear in it, show that the document from which it is taken gave the staff of collectors in office at the close of his reign. Each of these provinces was obliged, during one month in each year, to provide for the wants of "the king and his household, " or, in otherwords, the requirements of the central government. A large part of thesecontributions went to supply the king's table; the daily consumption atthe court was--thirty measures of fine flour, sixty measures of meal, ten fat oxen, twenty oxen out of the pastures, a hundred sheep, besidesall kinds of game and fatted fowl: nor need we be surprised at thesefigures, for in a country where, and at a time when money was unknown, the king was obliged to supply food to all his dependents, the greaterpart of their emoluments consisting of these payments in kind. Thetax-collectors had also to provide fodder for the horses reservedfor military purposes: there were forty thousand of these, and twelvethousand charioteers, and barley and straw had to be forthcoming eitherin Jerusalem itself or in one or other of the garrison towns amongstwhich they were distributed. * The levying of tolls on caravans passingthrough the country completed the king's fiscal operations which werebased on the systems prevailing in neighbouring States, especially thatof Egypt. ** * 1 Kings iv. 26-28; the complementary passages in 1 Kings x. 26 and 2 Chron. I. 14 give the number of chariots as 1400 and of charioteers at 12, 000. The numbers do not seem excessive for a kingdom which embraced the whole south of Palestine, when we reflect that, at the battle of Qodshû, Northern Syria was able to put between 2500 and 3000 chariots into the field against Ramses II. The Hebrew chariots probably carried at least three men, like those of the Hittites and Assyrians. ** 1 Kings x. 15, where mention is made of the amount which the chapmen brought, and the traffic of the merchants contains an allusion to these tolls. Solomon, like other Oriental sovereigns, reserved to himself themonopoly of certain imported articles, such as yarn, chariots, andhorses. Egyptian yarn, perhaps the finest produced in ancient times, wasin great request among the dyers and embroiderers of Asia. Chariots, at once strong and light, were important articles of commerce at a timewhen their use in warfare was universal. As for horses, the cities ofthe Delta and Middle Egypt possessed a celebrated strain of stallions, from which the Syrian princes were accustomed to obtain theirwar-steeds. * Solomon decreed that for the future he was to be the soleintermediary between the Asiatics and the foreign countries supplyingtheir requirements. His agents went down at regular intervals to thebanks of the Nile to lay in stock; the horses and chariots, by thetime they reached Jerusalem, cost him at the rate of six hundred silvershekels for each chariot, and one hundred and fifty shekels for eachhorse, but he sold them again at a profit to the Aramæan and Hittiteprinces. In return he purchased from them Cilician stallions, probablyto sell again to the Egyptians, whose relaxing climate necessitated afrequent introduction of new blood into their stables. ** By these andother methods of which we know nothing the yearly revenue of the kingdomwas largely increased: and though it only reached a total which may seeminsignificant in comparison with the enormous quantities of the preciousmetals which passed through the hands of the Pharaohs of that time, yetit must have seemed boundless wealth in the eyes of the shepherds andhusbandmen who formed the bulk of the Hebrew nation. * The terms in which the text, 1 Kings x. 27-29 (cf. 2 Citron, i. 16, 17), speaks of the trade in horses, show that the traffic was already in existence when Solomon decided to embark in it. ** 1 Kings x. 27-29; 2 Chron. I. 16, 17. Kuê, the name of Lower Cilicia, was discovered in the Hebrew text by Pr. Lenormant. Winckler, with mistaken reliance on the authority of Erman, has denied that Egypt produced stud-horses at this time, and wishes to identify the Mizraim of the Hebrew text with Musri, a place near Mount Taurus, mentioned in the Assyrian texts. In thus developing his resources and turning them to good account, Solomon derived great assistance from the Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon, a race whose services were always at the disposal of the masters ofSouthern Syria. The continued success of the Hellenic colonists on theeastern shores of the Mediterranean had compelled the Phoenicians toseek with redoubled boldness and activity in the Western Mediterraneansome sort of compensation for the injury which their trade had thussuffered. They increased and consolidated their dealings with Sicily, Africa, and Spain, and established themselves throughout the whole ofthat misty region which extended beyond the straits of Gibraltar on theEuropean side, from the mouth of the Guadalete to that of the Guadiana. This was the famous Tarshish--the Oriental El Dorado. Here they hadfounded a number of new towns, the most flourishing of which, Gadîr, *rose not far from the mouths of the Betis, on a small islet separatedfrom the mainland by a narrow arm of the sea. In this city theyconstructed a temple to Melkarth, arsenals, warehouses, and shipbuildingyards: it was the Tyre of the west, and its merchant-vessels sailed tothe south and to the north to trade with the savage races of the Africanand European seaboard. On the coast of Morocco they built Lixos, a townalmost as large as Gadîr, and beyond Lixos, thirty days' sail southwards, a whole host of depots, reckoned later on at three hundred. * I do not propose to discuss here the question of the identity of the country of Tartessos with the Tarshish or Tarsis mentioned in the Bible (1 Kings x. 22). By exploiting the materials to be obtained from these lands, such asgold, silver, tin, lead, and copper, Tyre and Sidon were soon able tomake good the losses they had suffered from Greek privateersmen andmarauding Philistines. Towards the close of the reign of Saul overIsrael, a certain king Abîbaal had arisen in Tyre, and was succeeded byhis son Hiram, at the very moment when David was engaged in bringingthe whole of Israel into subjection. Hiram, guided by instinct or bytradition, at once adopted a policy towards the rising dynasty which hisancestors had always found successful in similar cases. He made friendlyovertures to the Hebrews, and constituted himself their broker andgeneral provider: when David was in want of wood for the house he wasbuilding at Jerusalem, Hiram let him have the necessary quantity, andhired out to him workmen and artists at a reasonable wage, to help himin turning his materials to good account. * * 2 Sam. V. 11; cf. The reference to the same incident in 1 Kings v 1-3. The accession of Solomon was a piece of good luck for him. The new king, born in the purple, did not share the simple and somewhat rustic tastesof his father. He wanted palaces and gardens and a temple, which mightrival, even if only in a small way, the palaces and temples of Egypt andChaldæa, of which he had heard such glowing accounts: Hiram undertookto procure these things for him at a moderate cost, and it was doubtlesshis influence which led to those voyages to the countries which producedprecious metals, perfumes, rare animals, costly woods, and all thoseforeign knicknacks with which Eastern monarchs of all ages loved tosurround themselves. The Phoenician sailors were well acquainted withthe bearings of Puanît, most of them having heard of this country whenin Egypt, a few perhaps having gone thither under the direction and bythe orders of Pharaoh: and Hiram took advantage of the access which theHebrews had gained to the shores of the Red Sea by the annexation ofEdom, to establish relations with these outlying districts withouthaving to pass the Egyptian customs. He lent to Solomon shipwrights andsailors, who helped him to fit out a fleet at Eziôn-geber, and undertooka voyage of discovery in company with a number of Hebrews, who were nodoubt despatched in the same capacity as the royal messengers sentwith the galleys of Hâtshopsîtû. It was a venture similar to those sofrequently undertaken by the Egyptian admirals in the palmy days of theTheban navy, and of which we find so many curious pictures among thebas-reliefs at Deîr el-Baharî. On their return, after a three years'absence, they reported that they had sailed to a country named Ophir, and produced in support of their statement a freight well calculated toconvince the most sceptical, consisting as it did of four hundred andtwenty talents of gold. The success of this first venture encouragedSolomon to persevere in such expeditions: he sent his fleet on severalvoyages to Ophir, and procured from thence a rich harvest of gold andsilver, wood and ivory, apes and peacocks. * * 1 Kings ix. 26-28, x. 11, 12; cf. 2 Citron, viii. 17, 18, ix. 10, 11, 21. A whole library might be stocked with the various treatises whichhave appeared on the situation of the country of Ophir: Arabia, Persia, India, Java, and America have all been suggested. The mention of almugwood and of peacocks, which may be of Indian origin, for a long timeinclined the scale in favour of India, but the discoveries of Mauch andBent on the Zimbabaye have drawn attention to the basin of the Zambesiand the ruins found there. Dr. Peters, one of the best-known Germanexplorers, is inclined to agree with Mauch and Bent, in their theoryas to the position of the Ophir of the Bible. I am rather inclined toidentify it with the Egyptian Pûanît, on the Somali or Yemen seaboard. Was the profit from these distant cruises so very considerable afterall? After they had ceased, memory may have thrown a fanciful glamourover them, and magnified the treasures they had yielded to fabulousproportions: we are told that Solomon would have no drinking vessels orother utensils save those of pure gold, and that in his days "silver wasas stone, " so common had it become. * * 1 Kings x. 21, 27. In Chronicles the statement in the _Book of Kings_ is repeated in a still more emphatic manner, since it is there stated that gold itself was "in Jerusalem as stones" (2 Chron. I. 15). [Illustration: 370. Jpg MAP OF TYRE SUBSEQUENT TO HIRAM] Doubtless Hiram took good care to obtain his fall share of the gains. The Phoenician king began to find Tyre too restricted for him, thevarious islets over which it was scattered affording too small a spaceto support the multitudes which flocked thither. He therefore filled upthe channels which separated them; by means of embankments and fortifiedquays he managed to reclaim from the sea a certain amount of land on thesouth; after which he constructed two harbours--one on the north, calledthe Sidonian; the other on the south, named the Egyptian. He was perhapsalso the originator of the long causeway, the lower courses of whichstill serve as a breakwater, by which he transformed the projectingheadland between the island and the mainland into a well-shelteredharbour. Finally, he set to work on a task like that which he hadalready helped Solomon to accomplish: he built for himself a palaceof cedar-wood, and restored and beautified the temples of the gods, including the ancient sanctuary of Melkarth, and that of Astarté. In hisreign the greatness of Phoenicia reached its zenith, just as that of theHebrews culminated under David. [Illustration: 371. Jpg THE BREAKWATER OF THE EGYPTIAN HARBOUR AT TYRE] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph published by the Duc de Luynes. The most celebrated of Solomon's works were to be seen at Jerusalem. AsDavid left it, the city was somewhat insignificant. The water from itsfountains had been amply sufficient for the wants of the littleJebusite town; it was wholly inadequate to meet the requirements ofthe growing-population of the capital of Judah. Solomon made betterprovision for its distribution than there had been in the past, and thentapped a new source of supply some distance away, in the direction ofBethlehem; it is even said that he made the reservoirs for its storagewhich still bear his name. * * A somewhat ancient tradition attributes these works to Solomon; no single fact confirms it, but the balance of probability seems to indicate that he must have taken steps to provide a water-supply for the new city. The channels and reservoirs, of which traces are found at the present day, probably occupy the same positions as those which preceded them. [Illustration: 372. Jpg one of Solomon's reservoirs near Jerusalem] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. C. Alluaud of Limoges. Meanwhile, Hiram had drawn up for him plans for a fortified residence, on a scale commensurate with the thriving fortunes of his dynasty. Themain body was constructed of stone from the Judæan quarries, cut bymasons from Byblos, but it was inlaid with cedar to such an extent thatone wing was called "the house of the forest-of-Lebanon. " It containedeverything that was required for the comfort of an Eastern potentate--aharem, with separate apartments for the favourites (one of which wasprobably decorated in the Egyptian manner for the benefit of Pharaoh'sdaughter);* then there were reception-halls, to which the great menof the kingdom were admitted; storehouses, and an arsenal. The king'sbodyguard possessed five hundred shields "of beaten gold, " which werehanded over by each detachment, when the guard was relieved, to theone which took its place. But this gorgeous edifice would not have beencomplete if the temple of Jahveh had not arisen side by side with theabode of the temporal ruler of the nation. No monarch in those dayscould regard his position as unassailable until he had a sanctuary and apriesthood attached to his religion, either in his own palace or not faraway from it. David had scarcely entered Jerusalem before he fixed uponthe threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite as a site for the temple, and built an altar there to the Lord during a plague which threatened todecimate his people; but as he did not carry the project any farther, **Solomon set himself to complete the task which his father had merelysketched out. * 1 Kings vii. 8, ix. 24; 2 Ghron. Viii. 11. ** 2 Sam xxiv. 18-25, The threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite is mentioned elsewhere as the site on which Solomon built his temple (2 Ghron. Iii. 1). The site was irregular in shape, and the surface did notnaturally lend itself to the purpose for which it was destined. Hisengineers, however, put this right by constructing enormous piers forthe foundations, which they built up from the slopes of the mountainor from the bottom of the valley as circumstances required: the spacebetween this artificial casing and the solid rock was filled up, andthe whole mass formed a nearly square platform, from which the templebuildings were to rise. Hiram undertook to supply materials for thework. Solomon had written to him that he should command "that theyhew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thyservants; and I will give thee hire for thy servants according to allthat thou shalt say: for thou knowest that there is not among usany that can skill to hew timber like unto the Zidonians. " Hiram wasdelighted to carry out the wishes of his royal friend with regard to thecedar and cypress woods. [Illustration: 374. Jpg SOME OF THE STONE COURSE OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE ATJERUSALEM] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph. "My servants, " he answered, "shall bring them down from Lebanon unto thesea: and I will make them into rafts to go by sea unto the place thatthou shalt appoint me, and will cause them to be broken up there, andthou shalt receive them; and thou shalt accomplish my desire, in givingfood for my household. " The payment agreed on, which was in kind, consisted of twenty thousand _kôr_ of wheat, and twenty _kôr_ of pureoil per annum, for which Hiram was to send to Jerusalem not only thetimber, but architects, masons, and Gebalite carpenters (i. E. FromByblos), smelters, sculptors, and overseers. * Solomon undertook tosupply the necessary labour, and for this purpose made a levy of menfrom all the tribes. The number of these labourers was reckoned atthirty thousand, and they were relieved regularly every three months;seventy thousand were occupied in the transport of the materials, whileeighty thousand cut the stones from the quarry. ** * 1 Kings v. 7--11 * cf. 2 Chron. Ii. 3--16, where the writer adds 20, 000 _kôr_ of barley, 20, 000 "baths" of wine, and the same quantity of oil. ** 1 Kings v. 13-18; of. 2 Chron. Ii. 1, 2, 17, 18. It is possible that the numbers may have been somewhat exaggerated inpopular estimation, since the greatest Egyptian monuments never requiredsuch formidable levies of workmen for their construction; we mustremember, however, that such an undertaking demanded a considerableeffort, as the Hebrews were quite unaccustomed to that kind of labour. The front of the temple faced eastward; it was twenty cubits wide, sixtylong, and thirty high. The walls were of enormous squared stones, andthe ceilings and frames of the doors of carved cedar, plated with gold;it was entered by a porch, between two columns of wrought bronze, whichwere called Jachin and Boaz. * * 1 Kings vii. 15-22; cf. 2 Chron. Iv. 11-13. The names were probablyengraved each upon its respective column, and taken together formed aninscription which could be interpreted in various ways. The most simpleinterpretation is to recognise in them a kind of talismanic formula toensure the strength of the building, affirming "that it exists by thestrength" of God. The interior contained only two chambers; the _hekal, _ or holy place, where were kept the altar of incense, the seven-branched candlestick, and the table of shewbread; and the Holy of Holies--_debîr_--where theark of God rested beneath the wings of two cherubim of gilded wood. Against the outer wall of the temple, and rising to half its height, were rows of small apartments, three stories high, in which were keptthe treasures and vessels of the sanctuary. While the high priest wasallowed to enter the Holy of Holies only once a year, the holy place wasaccessible at all times to the priests engaged in the services, and itwas there that the daily ceremonies of the temple-worship took place;there stood also the altar of incense and the table of shewbread. Thealtar of sacrifice stood on the platform in front of the entrance; itwas a cube of masonry with a parapet, and was approached by stone steps;it resembled, probably, in general outline the monumental altars whichstood in the forecourts of the Egyptian temples and palaces. There stoodby it, as was also customary in Chaldæa, a "molten sea, " and some tensmaller lavers, in which the Lévites washed the portions of the victimsto be offered, together with the basins, knives, flesh-hooks, spoons, shovels, and other utensils required for the bloody sacrifice. A lowwall surmounted by a balustrade of cedar-wood separated this sacredenclosure from a court to which the people were permitted to havefree access. Both palace and temple were probably designed in thatpseudo-Egyptian style which the Phoenicians were known to affect. Thefew Hebrew edifices of which remains have come down to us, reveala method of construction and decoration common in Egypt; we have anexample of this in the uprights of the doors at Lachish, which terminatein an Egyptian gorge like that employed in the naos of the Phoniciantemples. [Illustration: 377. Jpg AN UPRIGHT OF A DOOR AT LACHISH] Drawn by Paucher-Gudin, from the drawing by Petrie. The completion of the whole plan occupied thirteen years; at length bothpalace and temple were finished in the XVIIth year of the king'sreign. Solomon, however, did not wait for the completion of the workto dedicate the sanctuary to God. As soon as the inner court was ready, which was in his XIth year, he proceeded to transfer the ark to its newresting-place; it was raised upon a cubical base, and the long staves bywhich it had been carried were left in their rings, as was usual in thecase of the sacred barks of the Egyptian deities. * The God of Israelthus took up His abode in the place in which He was henceforth tobe honoured. The sacrifices on the occasion of the dedication wereinnumerable, and continued for fourteen days, in the presence of therepresentatives of all Israel. The ornate ceremonial and worship whichhad long been lavished on the deities of rival nations were now, forthe first time, offered to the God of Israel. The devout Hebrews whohad come together from far and near returned to their respective tribesfilled with admiration, ** and their limited knowledge of art doubtlessled them to consider their temple as unique in the world; in fact, itpresented nothing remarkable either in proportion, arrangement, or inthe variety and richness of its ornamentation and furniture. Comparedwith the magnificent monuments of Egypt and Chaldæa, the work of Solomonwas what the Hebrew kingdom appears to us among the empires of theancient world--a little temple suited to a little people. * 1 Kings viii. 6-8, and 2 Ghron. V. 7-9. ** 1 Kings vi. 37, 38 states that the foundations were laid in the IVth year of Solomon's reign, in the month of Ziv, and that the temple was completed in the month of Bui in the XIth year; the work occupied seven years. 1 Kings vii. 1 adds that the construction of the palace lasted thirteen years; it went on for six years after the completion of the temple. The account of the dedication (1 Kings viii. ) contains a long prayer by Solomon, part of which (vers. 14- 66) is thought by certain critics to be of later date. They contend that the original words of Solomon are confined to vers. 12 and 13. The priests to whose care it was entrusted did not differ much fromthose whom David had gathered about him at the outset of the monarchy. They in no way formed an hereditary caste confined to the limits ofa rigid hierarchy; they admitted into their number--at least up to acertain point--men of varied extraction, who were either drawn by theirown inclinations to the service of the altar, or had been dedicated toit by their parents from childhood. He indeed was truly a priest "whosaid of his father and mother, 'I have not seen him;' neither did heacknowledge his brethren, nor knew he his own children. " He was content, after renouncing these, to observe the law of God and keep His covenant, and to teach Jacob His judgments and Israel His law; he put incensebefore the Lord, and whole burnt offerings upon His altar. * * Those are the expressions used in the Blessing of Moses (Deut. Xxxiii. 8-12); though this text is by some writers placed as late as the VIIIth century B. C. , yet the state of things there represented would apply also to an earlier date. The Hebrew priest, in short, had the same duties as a large proportion of the priesthood in Chaldæ and Egypt. As in Egypt, the correct offering of the Jewish sacrifices was besetwith considerable difficulties, and the risk of marring their efficacyby the slightest inadvertence necessitated the employment of men whowere thoroughly instructed in the divinely appointed practices andformulæ. The victims had to be certified as perfect, while the offerersthemselves had to be ceremonially pure; and, indeed, those only who hadbeen specially trained were able to master the difficulties connectedwith the minutiae of legal purity. The means by which the future wasmade known necessitated the intervention of skilful interpreters of theDivine will. We know that in Egypt the statues of the gods were supposedto answer the questions put to them by movements of the head or arms, sometimes even by the living voice; but the Hebrews do not appear tohave been influenced by any such recollections in the use of theirsacred oracles. We are ignorant, however, of the manner in which theephod was consulted, and we know merely that the art of interrogatingthe Divine will by it demanded a long noviciate. * The benefits derivedby those initiated into these mysteries were such as to cause them todesire the privileges to be perpetuated to their children. Gatheredround the ancient sanctuaries were certain families who, from fatherto son, were devoted to the performance of the sacred rites, as, forinstance, that of Eli at Shiloh, and that of Jonathan-ben-Gershom atDan, near the sources of the Jordan; but in addition to these, the textmentions functionaries analogous to those found among the Canaanites, diviners, seers--_roê_--who had means of discovering that which washidden from the vulgar, even to the finding of lost objects, butwhose powers sometimes rose to a higher level when they were suddenlypossessed by the prophetic spirit and enabled to reveal coming events. Besides these, again, were the prophets--_nabî_**--who lived eitheralone or in communities, and attained, by means of a strict training, toa vision of the future. * An example of the consulting of the ephod will be found in 1 Sam. Xxx. 7, 8, where David desires to know if he shall pursue the Amalekites. ** 1 Sam. Ix. 9 is a gloss which identifies the _seer_ of former times with the prophet of the times of the monarchy. Their prophetic utterances were accompanied by music and singing, andthe exaltation of spirit which followed their exercises would attimes spread to the bystanders, --as is the case in the "zikr" of theMahomedans of to-day. * * 1 Sam. X. 5-13, where we see Saul seized with the prophetic spirit on meeting with a band of prophets descending from the high place; cf. 2 Sam. Vi. 13-16, 20-23, for David dancing before the ark. The early kings, Saul and David, used to have recourse to individualsbelonging to all these three classes, but the prophets, owing to theintermittent character of their inspiration and their ministry, couldnot fill a regular office attached to the court. One of this class wasraised up by God from time to time to warn or guide His servants, andthen sank again into obscurity; the priests, on the contrary, werealways at hand, and their duties brought them into contact with thesovereign all the year round. The god who was worshipped in the capitalof the country and his priesthood promptly acquired a predominantposition in all Oriental monarchies, and most of the other temples, together with the sacerdotal bodies attached to them, usually fell intodisrepute, leaving them supreme. If Amon of Thebes became almost thesole god, and his priests the possessors of all Egypt, it was becausethe accession of the XVIIIth dynasty had made his pontiffs the almonersof the Pharaoh. Something of the same sort took place in Israel; thepriesthood at Jerusalem attached to the temple built by the sovereign, being constantly about his person, soon surpassed their brethren inother parts of the country both in influence and possessions. UnderDavid's reign their head had been Abiathar, son of Ahimelech, adescendant of Eli, but on Solomon's accession the primacy had beentransferred to the line of Zadok. In this alliance of the throne andthe altar, it was natural at first that the throne should reap theadvantage. The king appears to have continued to be a sort of highpriest, and to have officiated at certain times and occasions. * Thepriests kept the temple in order, and watched over the cleanliness ofits chambers and its vessels; they interrogated the Divine will for theking according to the prescribed ceremonies, and offered sacrifices onbehalf of the monarch and his subjects; in short, they were at firstlittle more than chaplains to the king and his family. * Solomon officiated and preached at the consecration of the temple (1 Kings viii. ). The actual words appear to be of a later date; but even if that be the case, it proves that, at the time they were written, the king still possessed his full sacerdotal powers. Solomon's allegiance to the God of Israel did not lead him to proscribethe worship of other gods; he allowed his foreign wives the exercise oftheir various religions, and he raised an altar to Chemosh on the Mountof Olives for one of them who was a Moabite. The political supremacy andmaterial advantages which all these establishments acquired for Judahcould not fail to rouse the jealousy of the other tribes. Ephraimparticularly looked on with ill-concealed anger at the prospect of thehegemony becoming established in the hands of a tribe which could bebarely said to have existed before the time of David, and was to aconsiderable extent of barbarous origin. Taxes, homage, the keeping upand recruiting of garrisons, were all equally odious to this, as wellas to the other clans descended from Joseph; meanwhile their burdens didnot decrease. A new fortress had to be built at Jerusalem by order ofthe aged king. One of the overseers appointed for this work--Jeroboam, the son of Nebat--appears to have stirred up the popular discontent, and to have hatched a revolutionary plot. Solomon, hearing of theconspiracy, attempted to suppress it; Jeroboam was forewarned, and fledto Egypt, where Pharaoh Sheshonq received him with honour, and gave himhis wife's sister in marriage. * The peace of the nation had not beenostensibly troubled, but the very fact that a pretender should haverisen up in opposition to the legitimate king augured ill for the futureof the dynasty. In reality, the edifice which David had raised withsuch difficulty tottered on its foundations before the death of hissuccessor; the foreign vassals were either in a restless state or readyto throw off their allegiance; money was scarce, and twenty Galilæantowns had been perforce ceded to Hiram to pay the debts due to him forthe building of the temple;** murmurings were heard among the people, who desired an easier life. * 1 Kings xi. 23-40, where the LXX. Is fuller than the A. V. ** 1 Kings ix. 10-13; cf. 2 Cliron. Viii. 1, 2, where the fact seems to have been reversed, and Hiram is made the donor of the twenty towns. In a future age, when priestly and prophetic influences had gained theascendant, amid the perils which assailed Jerusalem, and the miseries ofthe exile, the Israelites, contrasting their humiliation with the gloryof the past, forgot the reproaches which their forefathers had addressedto the house of David, and surrounded its memory with a halo of romance. David again became the hero, and Solomon the saint and sage of his race;the latter "spake three thousand proverbs; and his songs were a thousandand five. And he spake of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon evenunto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. " We are told thatGod favoured him with a special predilection, and appeared to him onthree separate occasions: once immediately after the death of David, to encourage him by the promise of a prosperous reign, and the giftof wisdom in governing; again after the dedication of the temple, toconfirm him in his pious intentions; and lastly to upbraid him for hisidolatry, and to predict the downfall of his house. Solomon is supposedto have had continuous dealings with all the sovereigns of the Orientalworld, * and a Queen of Sheba is recorded as having come to bring himgifts from the furthest corner of Arabia. * 1 Kings iv. 34; on this passage are founded all the legends dealing with the contests of wit and wisdom in which Solomon was supposed to have entered with the kings of neighbouring countries; traces of these are found in Dius, in Menander, and in Eupolemus. His contemporaries, however, seem to have regarded him as a tyrant whooppressed them with taxes, and whose death was unregretted. * * I am inclined to place the date of Solomon's death between 935 and 930 B. C. [Illustration: 384. Jpg King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba] His son Rehoboam experienced no opposition in Jerusalem and Judah onsucceeding to the throne of his father; when, however, he repaired toShechem to receive the oath of allegiance from the northern and centraltribes, he found them unwilling to tender it except under certainconditions; they would consent to obey him only on the promise of hisdelivering them from the forced labour which had been imposed upon themby his predecessors. Jeroboam, who had returned from his Egyptian exileon the news of Solomon's death, undertook to represent their grievancesto the new king. "Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore makethou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he putupon us, lighter, and we will serve thee. " Rehoboam demanded threedays for the consideration of his reply; he took counsel with the oldadvisers of the late king, who exhorted him to comply with the petition, but the young men who were his habitual companions urged him, on thecontrary, to meet the remonstrances of his subjects with threats ofstill harsher exactions. Their advice was taken, and when Jeroboam againpresented himself, Rehoboam greeted him with raillery and threats. "Mylittle finger is thicker than my father's loins. And now whereas myfather did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke:my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you withscorpions. " This unwise answer did not produce the intimidating effectwhich was desired; the cry of revolt, which had already been raised inthe earlier days of the monarchy, was once more heard. "What portionhave we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse:to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David. " Rehoboamattempted to carry his threats into execution, and sent the collectorsof taxes among the rebels to enforce payment; but one of them was stonedalmost before his eyes, and the king himself had barely time to regainhis chariot and flee to Jerusalem to escape an outburst of popularfury. The northern and central tribes immediately offered the crown toJeroboam, and the partisans of the son of Solomon were reduced to thoseof his own tribe; Judah, Caleb, the few remaining Simeonites, and someof the towns of Dan and Benjamin, which were too near to Jerusalem toescape the influence of a great city, were all who threw in their lotwith him. * * 1 Kings xii. 1--24; cf. 2 Chron. X. , xi. 1-4. The text of 1 Kings xii. 20 expressly says, "there was none that followed the house of David but the tribe of Judah only;" whereas the following verse, which some think to have been added by another hand, adds that Rehoboam assembled 180, 000 men "which were warriors" from "the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin. " Thus was accomplished the downfall of the House of David, and with itthe Hebrew kingdom which it had been at such pains to build up. When weconsider the character of the two kings who formed its sole dynasty, wecannot refrain from thinking that it deserved a better fate. Davidand Solomon exhibited that curious mixture of virtues and vices whichdistinguished most of the great Semite princes. The former, a soldierof fortune and an adventurous hero, represents the regular type of thefounder of a dynasty; crafty, cruel, ungrateful, and dissolute, butat the same time brave, prudent, cautious, generous, and capable ofenthusiasm, clemency, and repentance; at once so lovable and so gentlethat he was able to inspire those about him with the firmest friendshipand the most absolute devotion. The latter was a religious thoughsensual monarch, fond of display--the type of sovereign who usuallysucceeds to the head of the family and enjoys the wealth which hispredecessor had acquired, displaying before all men the results of anaccomplished work, and often thereby endangering its stability. The realreason of their failure to establish a durable monarchy was the factthat neither of them understood the temperament of the people they werecalled upon to govern. The few representations we possess of the Hebrewsof this period depict them as closely resembling the nations whichinhabited Southern Syria at the time of the Egyptian occupation. Theybelong to the type with which the monuments have made us familiar; theyare distinguished by an aquiline nose, projecting cheek-bones, and curlyhair and beard. They were vigorous, hardy, and inured to fatigue, butthough they lacked those qualities of discipline and obedience which arethe characteristics of true warrior races, David had not hesitated toemploy them in war; they were neither sailors, builders, nor given tocommerce and industries, and yet Solomon built fleets, raised palacesand a temple, and undertook maritime expeditions, and financialcircumstances seemed for the moment to be favourable. [Illustration: 387. Jpg A JEWISH CAPTIVE] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Petrie. The onward progress of Assyria towards the Mediterranean had beenarrested by the Hittites, Egypt was in a condition of lethargy, theAramæan populations were fretting away their energies in internaldissensions; David, having encountered no serious opposition after hisvictory over the Philistines, had extended his conquests and increasedthe area of his kingdom, and the interested assistance which Tyreafterwards gave to Solomon enabled the latter to realise his dreams ofluxury and royal magnificence. But the kingdom which had been createdby David and Solomom rested solely on their individual efforts, and itscontinuance could be ensured only by bequeathing it to descendants whohad sufficient energy and prudence to consolidate its weaker elements, and build up the tottering materials which were constantly threateningto fall asunder. As soon as the government had passed into the handsof the weakling Rehoboam, who had at the outset departed from hispredecessors' policy, the component parts of the kingdom, which hadfor a few years been, held together, now became disintegrated withouta shock, and as if by mutual consent. The old order of things whichexisted in the time of the Judges had passed away with the death ofSaul. The advantages which ensued from a monarchical regime were tooapparent to permit of its being set aside, and the tribes who had beenbound together by nearly half a century of obedience to a common masternow resolved themselves, according to their geographical positions, intotwo masses of unequal numbers and extent--Judah in the south, togetherwith the few clans who remained loyal to the kingly house, and Israel inthe north and the regions beyond Jordan, occupying three-fourths of theterritory which had belonged to David and Solomon. Israel, in spite of its extent and population, did not enjoy thepredominant position which we might have expected at the beginning ofits independent existence. It had no political unity, no capitalin which to concentrate its resources, no temple, and no army; itrepresented the material out of which a state could be formed ratherthan one already constituted. It was subdivided into three groups, formerly independent of, and almost strangers to each other, and betweenwhom neither David nor Solomon had been able to establish any bond whichwould enable them to forget their former isolation. The centre group wascomposed of the House of Joseph--Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh--andcomprised the old fortresses of Perea, Mahanaim, Penuel, Succoth, and Eamoth, ranged in a line running parallel with the Jordan. In theeastern group were the semi-nomad tribes of Reuben and Gad, who stillpersisted in the pastoral habits of their ancestors, and remainedindifferent to the various revolutions which had agitated their racefor several generations. Finally, in the northern group lay the smallertribes of Asher, Naphtali, Issachar, Zebulon, and Dan, hemmed in betweenthe Phoenicians and the Aramaeans of Zoba and Damascus. Each group hadits own traditions, its own interests often opposed to those of itsneighbours, and its own peculiar mode of life, which it had no intentionof renouncing for any one else's benefit. The difficulty of keepingthese groups together became at once apparent. Shechem had been thefirst to revolt against Rehoboam; it was a large and populous town, situated almost in the centre of the newly formed state, and the seat ofan ancient oracle, both of which advantages seemed to single it out asthe future capital. But its very importance, and the memories of itsformer greatness under Jeruhhaal and Abimelech, were against it. Builtin the western territory belonging to Manasseh, the eastern and northernclans would at once object to its being chosen, on the ground that itwould humiliate them before the House of Joseph, in the same manner asthe selection of Jerusalem had tended to make them subservient to Judah. Jeroboam would have endangered his cause by fixing on it as his capital, and he therefore soon quitted it to establish himself at Tirzah. It istrue that the latter town was also situated in the mountains of Ephraim, but it was so obscure and insignificant a place that it disarmed alljealousy; the new king therefore took up his residence in it, since hewas forced to fix on some royal abode, but it never became for him whatJerusalem was to his rival, a capital at once religious and military. Hehad his own sanctuary and priests at Tirzah, as was but natural, buthad he attempted to found a temple which would have attracted the wholepopulation to a common worship, he would have excited jealousies whichwould have been fatal to his authority. On the other hand, Solomon'stemple had in its short period of existence not yet acquired such aprestige as to prevent Jeroboam's drawing his people away from it:which he determined to do from a fear that contact with Jerusalem wouldendanger the allegiance of his subjects to his person and family. Suchconcourses of worshippers, assembling at periodic intervals from allparts of the country, soon degenerated into a kind of fair, in whichcommercial as well as religious motives had their part. [Illustration: 391. Jpg THE MOUND AND PLAIN OF BETHEL. ] Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph published by the Duc de Luynes. These gatherings formed a source of revenue to the prince inwhose capital they were held, and financial as well as politicalconsiderations required that periodical assemblies should be establishedin Israel similar to those which attracted Judah to Jerusalem. Jeroboamadopted a plan which while safeguarding the interests of his treasury, prevented his becoming unpopular with his own subjects; as he wasunable to have a temple for himself alone, he chose two out of the mostvenerated ancient sanctuaries, that of Dan for the northern tribes, andthat of Bethel, on the Judæan frontier, for the tribes of the east andcentre. He made two calves of gold, one for each place, and said to thepeople, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. " He grantedthe sanctuaries certain appanages, and established a priesthoodanswering to that which officiated in the rival kingdom: "whosoeverwould he consecrated him, that there might be priests of the highplaces. "* While Jeroboam thus endeavoured to strengthen himself on thethrone by adapting the monarchy to the temperament of the tribes overwhich he ruled, Rehoboam took measures to regain his lost ground andrestore the unity which he himself had destroyed. He recruited the armywhich had been somewhat neglected in the latter years of his father, restored the walls of the cities which had remained faithful to him, andfortified the places which constituted his frontier defences against theIsraelites. ** His ambition was not as foolish as we might be tempted toimagine. He had soldiers, charioteers, generals, skilled in the art ofwar, well-filled storehouses, the remnant of the wealth of Solomon, and, as a last resource, the gold of the temple at Jerusalem. He ruled overthe same extent of territory as that possessed by David after the deathof Saul, but the means at his disposal were incontestably greater thanthose of his grandfather, and it is possible that he might in theend have overcome Jeroboam, as David overcame Ishbosheth, had not theintervention of Egypt disconcerted his plans, and, by exhausting hismaterial forces, struck a death-blow to all his hopes. * 1 Kings xii. 25-32; chaps, xii. 33, xiii. , xiv. 1-18 contain, side by side with the narrative of facts, such as the death of Jeroboam's son, comments on the religious conduct of the sovereign, which some regard as being of later date. ** 1 Kings xii. 21-24; cf. 2 Ghron. Xi. 1-17, where the list of strongholds, wanting in the Boole of Kings, is given from an ancient source. The writer affirms, in harmony with the ideas of his time, "that the Lévites left their suburbs and their possession, and came to Judah and Jerusalem; for Jeroboam and his sons cast them off, that they should not execute the Priest's office unto the Lord. " The century and a half which had elapsed since the death of the last ofthe Ramessides had, as far as we can ascertain, been troubled by civilwars and revolutions. * * I have mentioned above the uncertainty which still shrouds the XXthdynasty. The following is the order in which I propose that its kingsshould be placed:-- [Illustration: 393. Jpg TABLE OF KINGS] The imperious Egypt of the Theban dynasties had passed away, but a newEgypt had arisen, not without storm and struggle, in its place. As longas the campaigns of the Pharaohs had been confined to the Nile valleyand the Oases, Thebes had been the natural centre of the kingdom; placedalmost exactly between the Mediterranean and the southern frontier, ithad been both the national arsenal and the treasure-house to which allforeign wealth had found its way from the Persian Gulf to the Sahara, and from the coasts of Asia Minor to the equatorial swamps. The citiesof the Delta, lying on the frontier of those peoples with whom Egyptnow held but little intercourse, possessed neither the authority nor theresources of Thebes; even Memphis, to which the prestige of her ancientdynasties still clung, occupied but a secondary place beside her rival. The invasion of the shepherds, by making the Thebaid the refuge andlast bulwark of the Egyptian nation, increased its importance: in thecritical times of the struggle, Thebes was not merely the foremost cityin the country, it represented the country itself, and the heart ofEgypt may be said to have throbbed within its walls. The victories ofAhmosis, the expeditions of Thûtmosis I. And Thûtmosis III. , enlargedher horizon; her Pharaohs crossed the isthmus of Suez, they conqueredSyria, subdued the valleys of the Euphrates and the Balîkh, and by sodoing increased her wealth and her splendour. Her streets witnessedduring two centuries processions of barbarian prisoners laden with thespoils of conquest. But with the advent of the XIXth and XXth dynastiescame anxious times; the peoples of Syria and Libya, long kept inservitude, at length rebelled, and the long distance between Karnak andGaza soon began to be irksome to princes who had to be constantly onthe alert on the Canaanite frontier, and who found it impossible to havetheir head-quarters six hundred miles from the scene of hostilities. Hence it came about that Ramses II. , Mînephtah, and Ramses III. Alltook up their abode in the Delta during the greater part of their activelife; they restored its ancient towns and founded new ones, whichsoon acquired considerable wealth by foreign commerce. The centreof government of the empire, which, after the dissolution of the oldMemphite state, had been removed southwards to Thebes on account of theconquest of Ethiopia and the encroachment of Theban civilization uponNubia and the Sudan, now gradually returned northwards, and passing overHeracleo-polis, which had exercised a transitory supremacy, at lengthestablished itself in the Delta. Tanis, Bubastis, Sais, Mondes, andSebennytos all disputed the honour of forming the royal residence, andall in turn during the course of ages enjoyed the privilege without everrising to the rank of Thebes, or producing any sovereigns to be comparedwith those of her triumphant dynasties. Tanis was, as we have seen, thefirst of these to rule the whole of the Nile valley. Its prosperity hadcontinued to increase from the time that Ramses II. Began to rebuild it;the remaining inhabitants of Avaris, mingled with the natives of purerace and the prisoners of war settled there, had furnished it with anactive and industrious population, which had considerably increasedduring the peaceful reigns of the XXth dynasty. The surrounding country, drained and cultivated by unremitting efforts, became one of the mostfruitful parts of the Delta; there was a large exportation of fishand corn, to which were soon added the various products of itsmanufactories, such as linen and woollen stuffs, ornaments, and objectsin glass and in precious metals. * * The immense number of designs taken from aquatic plants, as, for instance, the papyrus and the lotus, single or in groups, as well as from fish and aquatic birds, which we observe on objects of Phoenician goldsmiths' work, leads me to believe that the Tyrian and Sidonian artists borrowed most of their models from the Delta, and doubtless from Tanis, the most flourishing town of the Delta during the centuries following the downfall of Thebes. These were embarked on Egyptian or Phoenician galleys, and wereexchanged in the ports of the Mediterranean for Syrian, Asiatic, orÆgean commodities, which were then transmitted by the Egyptian merchantsto the countries of the East and to Northern Africa. * The port of Taniswas one of the most secure and convenient which existed at that period. It was at sufficient distance from the coast to be safe from the suddenattacks of pirates, ** and yet near enough to permit of its being reachedfrom the open by merchantmen in a few hours of easy navigation; the armsof the Nile, and the canals which here flowed into the sea, were broadand deep, and, so long as they were kept well dredged, would allow theheaviest-laden vessel of large draught to make its way up them withease. * It was from Tanis that the Egyptian vessel set out carrying the messengers of Hrihor to Byblos. ** We may judge of the security afforded by such a position by the account in Homer which Ulysses gives to Eumaios of his pretended voyage to Egypt; the Greeks having disembarked, and being scattered over the country, were attacked by the Egyptians before they could capture a town or carry their booty to the ships. The site of the town was not less advantageous for overland traffic. Tanis was the first important station encountered by caravans aftercrossing the frontier at Zalû, and it offered them a safe and convenientemporium for the disposal of their goods in exchange for the riches ofEgypt and the Delta. The combination of so many advantageous featureson one site tended to the rapid development of both civic and individualwealth; in less than three centuries after its rebuilding by Ramses II. , Tanis had risen to a position which enabled its sovereigns to claim eventhe obedience of Thebes itself. We know very little of the history of this Tanite dynasty; the monumentshave not revealed the names of all its kings, and much difficulty isexperienced in establishing the sequence of those already brought tolight. * * The classification of the Tanite line has been complicated in theminds of most Egyptologists by the tendency to ignore the existenceof the sacerdotal dynasty of high priests, to confuse with the TanitePharaohs those of the high priests who bore the crown, and to identifyin the lists of Manetho (more or less corrected) the names they arein search of. A fresh examination of the subject has led me to adoptprovisionally the following order for the series of Tanite kings:-- [Illustration: 397. Jpg TABLE OF KINGS] Their actual domain barely extended as far as Siut, but their suzeraintywas acknowledged by the Said as well as by all or part of Ethiopia, andthe Tanite Pharaohs maintained their authority with such vigour, thatthey had it in their power on several occasions to expel the highpriests of Amon, and to restore, at least for a time, the unity of theempire. To accomplish this, it would have been sufficient for them tohave assumed the priestly dignity at Thebes, and this was what no doubttook place at times when a vacancy in the high priesthood occurred;but it was merely in an interim, and the Tanite sovereigns alwaysrelinquished the office, after a brief lapse of time, in favour of somemember of the family of Hrihor whose right of primogeniture entitled himto succeed to it. * It indeed seemed as if custom and religious etiquettehad made the two offices of the pontificate and the royal dignityincompatible for one individual to hold simultaneously. The priestlyduties had become marvellously complicated during the Theban hegemony, and the minute observances which they entailed absorbed the whole lifeof those who dedicated themselves to their performance. ** * This is only true if the personage who entitles himself once within a cartouche, "the Master of the two lands, First Prophet of Amon, Psiûkhân-nît, " is really the Tanite king, and not the high priest Psiûkhânnît. ** The first book of Diodorus contains a picture of the life of the kings of Egypt, which, in common with much information contained in the work, is taken from a lost book of Hecataeus. The historical romance written by the latter appears to have been composed from information taken from Theban sources. The comparison of it with the inscribed monuments and the ritual of the cultus of Amon proves that the ideal description given in this work of the life of the kings, merely reproduces the chief characteristics of the lives of the Theban and Ethiopian high priests; hence the greater part of the minute observances which we remark therein apply to the latter only, and not to the Pharaohs properly so called. They had daily to fulfil a multitude of rites, distributed over thevarious hours in such a manner that it seemed impossible to find leisurefor any fresh occupation without encroaching on the time allotted toabsolute bodily needs. The high priest rose each morning at an appointedhour; he had certain times for taking food, for recreation, for givingaudience, for dispensing justice, for attending to worldly affairs, andfor relaxation with his wives and children; at night he kept watch, orrose at intervals to prepare for the various ceremonies which could onlybe celebrated at sunrise. He was responsible for the superintendence ofthe priests of Amon in the numberless festivals held in honour of thegods, from which he could not absent himself except for some legitimatereason. From all this it will be seen how impossible it was for a layking, like the sovereign ruling at Tanis, to submit to such restraintsbeyond a certain point; his patience would soon have become exhausted, want of practice would have led him to make slips or omissions, rendering the rites null and void; and the temporal affairs of hiskingdom--internal administration, justice, finance, commerce, andwar--made such demands upon his time, that he was obliged as soon aspossible to find a substitute to fulfil his religious duties. The forceof circumstances therefore maintained the line of Theban high priestsside by side with their sovereigns, the Tanite kings. They were, it istrue, dangerous rivals, both on account of the wealth of their fief andof the immense prestige which they enjoyed in Egypt, Ethiopia, and inall the nomes devoted to the worship of Amon. They were allied to theelder branch of the ramessides, and had thus inherited such near rightsto the crown that Smendes had not hesitated to concede to Hrihor thecartouches, the preamble, and insignia of the Pharaoh, including thepschent and the iron helmet inlaid with gold. This concession, however, had been made as a personal favour, and extended only to the lifetime ofHrihor, without holding good, as a matter of course, for his successors;his son Piônkhi had to confine himself to the priestly titles, * and hisgrandson Paînotmû enjoyed the kingly privileges only during part of hislife, doubtless in consequence of his marriage with a certain Mâkerî, probably daughter of Psiûkhânnît L, the Tanite king. Mâkerî apparentlydied soon after, and the discovery of her coffin in the hiding-place atDeîr el-Baharî reveals the fact of her death in giving birth to a littledaughter who did not survive her, and who rests in the samecoffin beside the mummy of her mother. None of the successorsof Paînotmû--Masahirti, Manakhpirrî, Paînotmû II. , Psiûkhânnît, Nsbindîdi--enjoyed a similar distinction, and if one of them happened tosurround his name with a cartouche, it was done surreptitiously, withoutthe authority of the sovereign. ** * The only monument of this prince as yet known gives him merely the usual titles of the high priest, and the inscriptions of his son Paînotmû I. Style him "First Prophet of Amon. " His name should probably be read Paîônûkhi or Piônûkhi, rather than Pionkhi or Piânkhi. It is not unlikely that some of the papyri published by Spiegelberg date from his pontificate. ** Manakhpirrî often places his name in a square cartouche which tends at times to become an oval, but this is the case only on some pieces of stuff rolled round a mummy and on some bricks concealed in the walls of el-Hibeh, Thebes, and Gebeleîn. If the "Psiûkhânnît, High Priest of Amon, " who once (to our knowledge) enclosed his name in a cartouche, is really a high priest, and not a king, his case would be analogous to that of Manakhpirrî. Paînotmû II. Contented himself with drawing attention to hisconnection with the reigning house, and styled himself "Royal Son ofPsiûkhânnît-Mîamon, " on account of his ancestress Mâkerî having been thedaughter of the Pharaoh Psiûkhânnît. * * The example of the "royal sons of Ramses" explains the variant which makes "Paînotmû, son of Manakhpirrî, " into "Paînotmû, royal son of Psiûkhânnît-Mîamon. " The relationship of which he boasted was a distant one, but many of hiscontemporaries who claimed to be of the line of Sesostris, and calledthemselves "royal sons of Ramses, " traced their descent from a far moreremote ancestor. [Illustration: 401. Jpg THE MUMMIES OF QUEEN MÂKERÎ AND HER CHILD] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch- Bey. The death of one high priest, or the appointment of his successor, wasoften the occasion of disturbances; the jealousies between his childrenby the same or by different wives were as bitter as those which existedin the palace of the Pharaohs, and the suzerain himself was obligedat times to interfere in order to restore peace. It was owing to anintervention of this kind that Manakhpirrî was called on to replace hisbrother Masahirti. A section of the Theban population had revolted, but the rising had been put down by the Tanite Siamon, and its leadersbanished to the Oasis; Manakhpirrî had thereupon been summoned to courtand officially invested with the pontificate in the XXVth year of theking's reign. But on his return to Karnak, the new high priest desiredto heal old feuds, and at once recalled the exiles. * Troubles anddisorders appeared to beset the Thebans, and, like the last of theRamessides, they were engaged in a perpetual struggle against robbers. ** * This appears in the _Maunier Stele_ preserved for some time in the "Maison Française" at Luxor, and now removed to the Louvre. ** The series of high priests side by side with the sovereigns of the XXIst dynasty may be provisionally arranged as follows:-- [Illustration: 402. Jpg TABLE] The town, deprived of its former influx of foreign spoil, became moreand more impoverished, and its population gradually dwindled. Thenecropolis suffered increasingly from pillagers, and the burying-placesof the kings were felt to be in such danger, that the authorities, despairing of being able to protect them, withdrew the mummies fromtheir resting-places. The bodies of Seti I. , Ramses II. , and Ramses III. Were once more carried down the valley, and, after various removals, were at length huddled together for safety in the tomb of Amenôthes I. At Drah-abu'l-Neggah. The Tanite Pharaohs seemed to have lacked neither courage nor good will. The few monuments which they have left show that to some extent theycarried on the works begun by their predecessors. An unusually highinundation had injured the temple at Karnak, the foundations had beendenuded by the water, and serious damage would have been done, had notthe work of reparation been immediately undertaken. Nsbindîdi reopenedthe sandstone quarries between Erment and Grebeleîn, from which Seti I. Had obtained the building materials for the temple, and drew from thencewhat was required for the repair of the edifice. Two of the descendantsof Nsbindîdi, Psiûkhânnît I. And Amenemôpît, remodelled the littletemple built by Kheops in honour of his daughter Honît-sonû, at thesouth-east angle of his pyramid. Both Siamonmîamon and Psiûkhânnît I. Have left traces of their work at Memphis, and the latter inserted hiscartouches on two of the obelisks raised by Ramses at Heliopolis. Butthese were only minor undertakings, and it is at Tanis that we must seekthe most characteristic examples of their activity. Here it was thatPsiûkhânnît rebuilt the brick ramparts which defended the city, anddecorated several of the halls of the great temple. The pylons of thissanctuary had been merely begun by Sesostris: Siamon completed them, and added the sphinxes; and the metal plaques and small objects which heconcealed under the base of one of the latter have been brought to lightin the course of excavations. The appropriation of the monuments ofother kings, which we have remarked under former dynasties, was alsopractised by the Tanites. Siamon placed his inscriptions over those ofthe Kamessides, and Psiûkhânnît engraved his name on the sphinxes andstatues of Ame-nemhâît III. As unscrupulously as Apôphis and the Hyksôshad done before him. The Tanite sovereigns, however, were not at a lossfor artists, and they had revived, after the lapse of centuries, thetraditions of the local school which had flourished during the XIIthdynasty. [Illustration: 404. Jpg THE TWO NILES OF TANIS] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch- Bey. One of the groups, executed by order of Psiûkhânnît, has escapeddestruction, and is now in the Gîzeh Museum. It represents two figuresof the Nile, marching gravely shoulder to shoulder, and carrying infront of them tables of offerings, ornamented with fish andgarnished with flowers. The stone in which they are executed is of anextraordinary hardness, but the sculptor has, notwithstanding, succeededin carving and polishing it with a skill which does credit to hisproficiency in his craft. The general effect of the figures is alittle heavy, but the detail is excellent, and the correctness of pose, precision in modelling, and harmony of proportion are beyond criticism. The heads present a certain element of strangeness. The artist evidentlytook as his model, as far as type and style of head-dress are concerned, the monuments of Amenemhâît III. Which he saw around him; indeed, heprobably copied one of them feature for feature. He has reproduced theseverity of expression, the firm mouth, the projecting cheek-bones, thelong hair and fan-shaped beard of his model, but he has not been ableto imitate the broad and powerful treatment of the older artists; hismethod of execution has a certain hardness and conventionality which wenever see to the same extent in the statues of the XIIth dynasty. Thework is, however, an extremely interesting one, and we are tempted towish that many more such monuments had been saved from the ruins of thecity. * * Mariette attributes this group to the Hyksôs; I have already expressed the opinion that it dates from the XXIst dynasty. The Pharaoh who dedicated it was a great builder, and, like most ofhis predecessors with similar tastes, somewhat of a conqueror. Thesovereigns of the XXIst dynasty, though they never undertook any distantcampaigns, did not neglect to keep up a kind of suzerainty over thePhilistine Shephelah to which they still laid claim. The expeditionwhich one of them, probably Psiûkhânnît II. , led against Gezer, thealliance with the Hebrews and the marriage of a royal princess withSolomon, must all have been regarded at the court of Tanis as a partialrevival of the former Egyptian rule in Syria. The kings were, however, obliged to rest content with small results, for though their battalionswere sufficiently numerous and well disciplined to overcome theCanaanite chiefs, or even the Israelite kingdom, it is to be doubtedwhether they were strong enough to attack the troops of the Aramæan orHittite princes, who had a highly organised military system, modelledon that of Assyria. Egyptian arms and tactics had not made much progresssince the great campaigns of the Theban conquerors; the militaryauthorities still complacently trusted to their chariots and their lighttroops of archers at a period when the whole success of a campaign wasdecided by heavily armed infantry, and when cavalry had already begunto change the issue of battles. The decadence of the military spiritin Egypt had been particularly marked in all classes under the laterRamessides, and the native militia, without exception, was reduced to amere rabble--courageous, it is true, and able to sell their lives dearlywhen occasion demanded, rather than give way before the enemy, butentirely lacking that enthusiasm and resolution which sweep allobstacles before them. The chariotry had not degenerated in the sameway, thanks to the care with which the Pharaoh and his vassals kept upthe breeding of suitable horses in the training stables of the principaltowns. Egypt provided Solomon with draught-horses, and with strong yetlight chariots, which he sold with advantage to the sovereigns of theOrontes and the Euphrates. But it was the mercenaries who constitutedthe most active and effective section of the Pharaonic armies. Thesetroops formed the backbone on which all the other elements--chariots, spearmen, and native archers--were dependent. Their spirited attackcarried the other troops with them, and by a tremendous onslaught on theenemy at a decisive moment gave the commanding general some chance ofsuccess against the better-equipped and better-organised battalions thathe would be sure to meet with on the plains of Asia. The Tanite kingsenrolled these mercenaries in large numbers: they entrusted them withthe garrisoning of the principal towns, and confirmed the privilegeswhich their chiefs had received from the Ramessides, but the results ofsuch a policy were not long in manifesting themselves, and this stateof affairs had been barely a century in existence before Egypt became aprey to the barbarians. It would perhaps be more correct to say that it had fallen a prey to theLibyans only. The Asiatics and Europeans whom the Theban Pharaohs hadcalled in to fight for them had become merged in the bulk of the nation, or had died out for lack of renewal. Semites abounded, it is true, inthe eastern nomes of the Delta, but their presence had no effect onthe military strength of the country. Some had settled in the townsand villages, and were engaged in commerce or industry; these includedPhoenician, Canaanite, Edomite, and even Hebrew merchants and artisans, who had been forced to flee from their own countries owing to politicaldisturbances. * * Jeroboam (1 Kings xi. 40, xii. 2, 3) and Hadad (1 Kings xi. 17-22) took refuge in this way at the court of Pharaoh. A certain proportion were descendants of the Hidjsôs, who had beenreinforced from time to time by settlements of prisoners captured inbattle; they had taken refuge in the marshes as in the times of Abmosis, and there lived in a kind of semi-civilized independence, refusing topay taxes, boasting of having kept themselves from any alliances withthe inhabitants of the Nile valley, while their kinsmen of the olderstock betrayed the knowledge of their origin by such disparagingnicknames as Pa-shmûrî, "the stranger, " or Pi-âtnû, "the Asiatic. " TheShardana, who had constituted the body-guard of Ramses II. , and whosecommanders had, under Ramses III. , ranked with the great officers of thecrown, had all but disappeared. It had been found difficult to recruitthem since the dislodgment of the People of the Sea from the Delta andthe Syrian littoral, and their settlement in Italy and the fabulousislands of the Mediterranean; the adventurers from Crete and the Ægeancoasts now preferred to serve under the Philistines, where they foundthose who were akin to their own race, and from thence they passed on tothe Hebrews, where, under David and Solomon, they were gladly hired asmercenaries. * * Carians or Cretans (Chercthites) formed part of David's body-guard (2 Sam viii. 18, xv. 18, xx. 23); one again meets with these Carian or Cretan troops in Judah in the reign of Athaliah (2 Kings xi. 4, 19). The Libyans had replaced the Shardana in all the offices they had filledand in all the garrison towns they had occupied. The kingdom of Mâraîûand Kapur had not survived the defeats which it had suffered fromMînephtah and Ramses III. , but the Mashaûasha who had founded it stillkept an active hegemony over their former subjects; hence it was thatthe Egyptians became accustomed to look on all the Libyan tribes asbranches of the dominant race, and confounded all the immigrants fromLibya under the common name of Mashaûasha. * Egypt was thus slowlyflooded by Libyans; it was a gradual invasion, which succeeded bypacific means where brute force had failed. A Berber populationgradually took possession of the country, occupying the easternprovinces of the Delta, filling its towns--Sais, Damanhur, andMarea--making its way into the Fayum, the suburbs of Heracleopolis, andpenetrating as far south as Abydos; at the latter place they were notfound in such great numbers, but still considerable enough to leavedistinct traces. ** The high priests of Amon seem to have been theonly personages who neglected to employ this ubiquitous race; but theypreferred to use the Nubian tribe of the Mâzaîû, *** who probably fromthe XIIth dynasty onwards had constituted the police force of Thebes. * Ramses III. Still distinguished between the Qahaka, the Tihonû, and the Mashaûasha; the monuments of the XXIInd dynasty only recognise the Mashaiiasha, whose name they curtail to Ma. ** The presence in those regions of persons bearing Asiatic names has been remarked, without drawing thence any proof for the existence of Asiatic colonies in those regions. The presence of Libyans at Abydos seems to be proved by the discovery in that town of the little monument reproduced on the next page, and of many objects in the same style, many of which are in the Louvre or the British Museum. *** I have not discovered among the personal attendants of the descendants of Hrihor any functionary bearing the title of _Chief of the Mashaiuasha _; even those who bore it later on, under the XXIInd dynasty, were always officers from the north of Egypt. It seems almost certain that Thebes always avoided having Libyan troops, and never received a Mashaûasha settlement. These Libyan immigrants had adopted the arts of Egypt and the externalsof her civilization; they sculptured rude figures on the rocks andengraved scenes on their stone vessels, in which they are representedfully armed, * and taking part in some skirmish or attack, or even achase in the desert. The hunters are divided into two groups, each ofwhich is preceded by a different ensign--that of the West for the rightwing of the troop, and that of the East for the left wing. They carrythe spear the boomerang, the club, the double-curved bow, and thedart; a fox's skin depends from their belts over their thighs, and anostrich's feather waves above their curly hair. * I attribute to the Libyans, whether mercenaries or tribes hovering on the Egyptian frontier, the figures cut everywhere on the rocks, which no one up till now has reproduced or studied. To them I attribute also the tombs which Mr. Petrie has so successfully explored, and in which he finds the remains of a New Race which seems to have conquered Egypt after the VIth dynasty: they appear to be of different periods, but all belong to the Berber horsemen of the desert and the outskirts of the Nile valley. [Illustration: 410. Jpg A TROOP OF LIBYANS HUNTING] Drawn by Boudier, from the original in the Louvre. They never abandoned this special head-dress and manner of armingthemselves, and they can always be recognised on the monuments by theplumes surmounting their forehead. * * This design is generally thought to represent a piece of cloth folded in two, and laid flat on the head; examination of the monuments proves that it is the ostrich plume fixed at the back of the head, and laid flat on the hair or wig. Their settlement on the banks of the Nile and intermarriage with theEgyptians had no deteriorating effect on them, as had been the casewith the Shardana, and they preserved nearly all their nationalcharacteristics. If here and there some of them became assimilated withthe natives, there was always a constant influx of new comers, fullof energy and vigour, who kept the race from becoming enfeebled. Theattractions of high pay and the prospect of a free-and-easy life drewthem to the service of the feudal lords. The Pharaoh entrusted theirchiefs with confidential offices about his person, and placed theroyal princes at their head. The position at length attained by theseMashaûasha was analogous to that of the Oossasans at Babylon, and, indeed, was merely the usual sequel of permitting a foreign militiato surround an Oriental monarch; they became the masters of theirsovereigns. Some of their generals went so far as to attempt to use thesoldiery to overturn the native dynasty, and place themselves upon thethrone; others sought to make and unmake kings to suit their own taste. The earlier Tanite sovereigns had hoped to strengthen their authorityby trusting entirely to the fidelity and gratitude of their guard; thelater kings became mere puppets in the hands of mercenaries. At lengtha Libyan family arose who, while leaving the externals of power inthe hands of the native sovereigns, reserved to themselves the actualadministration, and reduced the kings to the condition of luxuriousdependence enjoyed by the elder branch of the Ramessides under the ruleof the high priests of Amon. There was at Bubastis, towards the middle or end of the XXth dynasty, a Tihonû named Buîuwa-buîuwa. He was undoubtedly a soldier of fortune, without either office or rank, but his descendants prospered and rose toimportant positions among the Mashadasha chiefs: the fourth among these, Sheshonq by name, married Mîhtinuôskhît, a princess of the royal line. His son, Namarôti, managed to combine with his function of chief ofthe Mashauasha several religious offices, and his grandson, also calledSheshonq, had a still more brilliant career. We learn from the monumentsof the latter that, even before he had ascended the throne, he wasrecognised as king and prince of princes, and had conferred on him thecommand of all the Libyan troops. Officially he was the chief person inthe state after the sovereign, and had the privilege of holding personalintercourse with the gods, Amonrâ included--a right which belongedexclusively to the Pharaoh and the Theban high priest. The honours whichhe bestowed upon his dead ancestors were of a remarkable character, andincluded the institution of a liturgical office in connection with hisfather Namarôti, a work which resembles in its sentiments the devotionsof Bamses II. To the memory of Seti. He succeeded in arranging amarriage between his son Osorkon and a princess of the royal line, thedaughter of Psiûkhânnît II. , by which alliance he secured the Tanitesuccession; he obtained as a wife for his second son Aûpûti, thepriestess of Amon, and thus obtained an indirect influence over the Saidand Nubia. * * The date of the death of Paînotmû II. Is fixed at the XVIth year of his reign, according to the inscriptions in the pit at Deîr el-Baharî. This would be the date of the accession of Aûpûti', if Aûpûti succeeded him directly, as I am inclined to believe; but if Psiûkhânnît was his immediate successor, and if Nsbindîdî succeeded Manakhpirri, we must place the accession of Aûpûti some years later. [Illustration: 413. Jpg NSITANIBASHIRU] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by E. Brugsch-Bey. This priestess was probably a daughter or niece of Paînotmû II. , butwe are unacquainted with her name. The princesses continued to play apreponderating part in the transmission of power, and we may assumethat the lady in question was one of those whose names have come down tous--Nsikhonsû, Nsitanî-bashîrû, or Isimkhobîû II. , who brought with heras a dowry the Bubastite fief. We are at a loss whether to place Aûpûtiimmediately after Paînotmû, or between the ephemeral pontificates ofa certain Psiûkhannît and a certain Nsbindîdi. His succession imposeda very onerous duty upon him. Thebes was going through the agonies offamine and misery, and no police supervision in the world could securethe treasures stored up in the tombs of a more prosperous age from theattacks of a famished people. Arrests, trials, and punishments wereineffectual against the violation of the sepulchres, and even theroyal mummies--including those placed in the chapel of Amenôthes I. Byprevious high priests--were not exempt from outrage. The remains of themost glorious of the Pharaohs were reclining in this chapel, forming asort of solemn parliament: here was Saqnunrî Tiuâqni, the last memberof the XVIIth dynasty; here also were the first of the XVIIIth--Ahmosis, Amenôthes I. , and the three of the name Thûtmosis, together with thefavourites of their respective harems--Nofritari, Ahhotpû II. , Anhâpû, Honittimihû, and Sitkamosis; and, in addition, Ramses I. , Seti I. , Ramses II. Of the XIXth dynasty, Ramses III. And Ramses X. Of the XXthdynasty. The "Servants of the True Place" were accustomed to celebrateat the appointed periods the necessary rites established in theirhonour. Inspectors, appointed for the purpose by the government, determined from time to time the identity of the royal mummies, andexamined into the condition of their wrappings and coffins: after eachinspection a report, giving the date and the name of the functionaryresponsible for the examination, was inscribed on the linen or the lidcovering the bodies. The most of the mummies had suffered considerablybefore they reached the refuge in which they were found. The bodies ofSitamon and of the Princess Honittimihû had been completely destroyed, and bundles of rags had been substituted for them, so arranged withpieces of wood as to resemble human figures. Ramses I. , Ramses II. , andThûtmosis had been deprived of their original shells, and were found inextemporised cases. Hrihor's successors, who regarded these sovereignsas their legitimate ancestors, had guarded them with watchful care, butAûpûti, who did not feel himself so closely related to these old-worldPharaohs, considered, doubtless, this vigilance irksome, and determinedto locate the mummies in a spot where they would henceforward be securefrom all attack. A princess of the family of Manakhpirrî--Isimkhobiû, itwould appear--had prepared a tomb for herself in the rocky cliff whichbounds the amphitheatre of Deîr el-Baharî on the south. The positionlent itself readily to concealment. It consisted of a well some 130 feetdeep, with a passage running out of it at right angles for a distance ofsome 200 feet and ending in a low, oblong, roughly cut chamber, lackingboth ornament and paintings. Paînotmû II. Had been placed within thischamber in the XVIth year of the reign of Psiûkhannît II. , and severalmembers of his family had been placed beside him not long afterwards. Aûpûti soon transferred thither the batch of mummies which, in thechapel of Amenôthes I. , had been awaiting a more definite sepulture; thecoffins, with what remained of their funerary furniture, were huddledtogether in disorder. The chamber having been filled up to the roof, theremaining materials, consisting of coffers, boxes of _Ushabti, _ Canopicjars, garlands, together with the belongings of priestly mummies, werearranged along the passage; when the place was full, the entrance waswalled up, the well filled, and its opening so dexterously covered thatit remained concealed until-our own time. The accidental "sounding" ofsome pillaging Arabs revealed the place as far back as 1872, but it wasnot until ten years later (1881) that the Pharaohs once more saw thelight. They are now enthroned--who can say for how many years longer?--in the chambers of the Gîzeh Museum. Egypt is truly a land of marvels!It has not only, like Assyria and Chaldæa, Greece and Italy, preservedfor us monuments by which its historic past may be reconstructed, but ithas handed on to us the men themselves who set up the monuments and madethe history. Her great monarchs are not any longer mere names deprivedof appropriate forms, and floating colourless and shapeless in theimagination of posterity: they may be weighed, touched, and measured;the capacity of their brains may be gauged; the curve of their noses andthe cut of their mouths may be determined; we know if they were bald, orif they suffered from some secret infirmity; and, as we are able to doin the case of our contemporaries, we may publish their portraits takenfirst hand in the photographic camera. Sheshonq, by assuming the controlof the Theban priesthood, did not on this account extend his sovereigntyover Egypt beyond its southern portion, and that part of Nubiawhich still depended on it. Ethiopia remained probably outside hisjurisdiction, and constituted from this time forward an independentkingdom, under the rule of dynasties which were, or claimed to be, descendants of Hrihor. The oasis, on the other hand, and the Libyanprovinces in the neighbourhood of the Delta and the sea, renderedobedience to his officers, and furnished him with troops which wererecognised as among his best. Sheshonq found himself at the death ofPsiûkhânnît II. , which took place about 940 B. C. , sole master of Egypt, with an effective army and well-replenished treasury at his disposal. What better use could he make of his resources than devote them toreasserting the traditional authority of his country over Syria? Theintestine quarrels of the only state of any importance in that regionfurnished him with an opportunity of which he found it easy to takeadvantage. Solomon in his eyes was merely a crowned vassal of Egypt, andhis appeal for aid to subdue Gezer, his marriage with a daughter ofthe Egyptian royal house, the position he had assigned her over all hisother wives, and all that we know of the relations between Jerusalemand Tanis at the time, seem to indicate that the Hebrews themselvesacknowledged some sort of dependency upon Egypt. They were not, however, on this account free from suspicion in their suzerain's eyes, who seizedupon every pretext that offered itself to cause them embarrassment. Hadad, and Jeroboam afterwards, had been well received at the court ofthe Pharaoh, and it was with Egyptian subsidies that these two rebelsreturned to their country, the former in the lifetime of Solomon, andthe latter after his death. When Jeroboam saw that he was threatened byRehoboam, he naturally turned to his old protectors. Sheshonq had twoproblems before him. Should he confirm by his intervention the divisionof the kingdom, which had flourished in Kharû for now half a century, into two rival states, or should he himself give way to the vulgarappetite for booty, and step in for his own exclusive interest? Heinvaded Judæa four years after the schism, and Jerusalem offered noresistance to him; Rehoboam ransomed his capital by emptying the royaltreasuries and temple, rendering up even the golden shields whichSolomon was accustomed to assign to his guards when on duty about hisperson. * * 1 Kings xiv. 25-28; cf. 2 Chron. Xii. 1-10, where an episode, not in the _Book of Kings_, is introduced. The prophet Shemaiah played an important part in the transaction. This expedition of the Pharaoh was neither dangerous nor protracted, butit was more than two hundred years since so much riches from countriesbeyond the isthmus had been brought into Egypt, and the king wasconsequently regarded by the whole people of the Nile valley as a greathero. Aûpûti took upon himself the task of recording the exploit on thesouth wall of the temple of Amon at Karnak, not far from the spot whereRamses II. Had had engraved the incidents of his Syrian campaigns. Hisarchitect was sent to Silsilis to procure the necessary sandstone torepair the monument. He depicted upon it his father receiving at thehands of Amon processions of Jewish prisoners, each one representing acaptured city. The list makes a brave show, and is remarkable for thenumber of the names composing it: in comparison with those of ThûtmosisIII. , it is disappointing, and one sees at a glance how inferior, evenin its triumph, the Egypt of the XXIInd dynasty was to that of theXVIIIth. [Illustration: 419. Jpg AMON PRESENTING TO SHESHONQ THE LIST OF THECITIES CAPTURED IN ISRAEL AND JUDAH] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato. It is no longer a question of Carchemish, or Qodshû, or Mitanni, or Naharaim: Megiddo is the most northern point mentioned, and thelocalities enumerated bring us more and more to the south--Eabbat, Taânach, Hapharaîm, Mahanaîm, * Gibeon, Beth-horon, Ajalon, Jud-hammelek, Migdol, Jerza, Shoko, and the villages of the Negeb. Each locality, in consequence of the cataloguing of obscure towns, furnished enoughmaterial to cover two, or even three of the crenellated cartouches inwhich the names of the conquered peoples are enclosed, and Sheshonqhad thus the puerile satisfaction of parading before the eyes ofhis subjects a longer _cortege_ of defeated chiefs than that of hispredecessor. His victorious career did not last long: he died shortlyafter, and his son Osorkon was content to assume at a distance authorityover the Kharu. ** * The existence of the names of certain Israelite towns on the list of. Sheshonq has somewhat astonished the majority of the historians of Israel. Renan declared that the list must "put aside the conjecture that Jeroboam had been the instigator of the expedition, which would certainly have been readily admissible, especially if any force were attached to the Greek text of 1 Kings xii. 24, which makes Jeroboam to have been a son-in-law of the King of Egypt;" the same view had been already expressed by Stade; others have thought that Sheshonq had conquered the country for his ally Jeroboam. Sheshonq, in fact, was following the Egyptian custom by which all countries and towns which paid tribute to the Pharaoh, or who recognised his suzerainty, were made to, or might, figure on his triumphal lists whether they had been conquered or not: the presence of Megiddo or Mahanaim on the lists does not prove that they were _conquered_ by Sheshonq, but that the prince to whom they owed allegiance was a tributary to the King of Egypt. The name of Jud-ham- melek, which occupies the twenty-ninth place on the list, was for a long time translated as king or kingdom of Judah, and passed for being a portrait of Rehoboam, which is impossible. The Hebrew name was read by W. Max Millier Jad- ham-meleh, the hand, the fort of the king. It appears to me to be more easy to see in it Jud-liam-meleh and to associate it with Jehudah, a town of the tribe of Dan, as Brugsch did long ago. ** Champollion identified Osorkon I. With the Zerah, who, according to 2 Chron. Xiv. 9-15, xvi. 8, invaded Judah and was defeated by Asa, but this has no historic value, for it is clear that Osorkon never crossed the isthmus. It does not appear, however, that either the Philistines, or Judah, or Israel, or any of the petty tribes which had momentarily gravitatedaround David and Solomon, were disposed to dispute Osorkon's claim, theoretic rather than real as it was. The sword of the stranger hadfinished the work which the intestine quarrel of the tribes hadbegun. If Rehoboam had ever formed the project of welding together thedisintegrated elements of Israel, the taking of Jerusalem must have beena death-blow to his hopes. His arsenals were empty, his treasury at lowebb, and the prestige purchased by David's victories was effaced bythe humiliation of his own defeat. The ease with which the edifice solaboriously constructed by the heroes of Benjamin and Judah had beenoverturned at the first shock, was a proof that the new possessors ofCanaan were as little capable of barring the way to Egypt in her oldage, as their predecessors had been when she was in her youth andvigour. The Philistines had had their day; it seemed by no meansimprobable at one time that they were about to sweep everything beforethem, from the Negeb to the Orontes, but their peculiar position in thefurthest angle of the country, and their numerical weakness, preventedthem from continuing their efforts for a prolonged period, and they wereat length obliged to renounce in favour of the Hebrews their ambitiouspretensions. The latter, who had been making steady progress for somehalf a century, had been successful where the Philistines had signallyfailed, and Southern Syria recognised their supremacy for the space oftwo generations. We can only conjecture what they might have done if asecond David had led them into the valleys of the Orontes and Euphrates. They were stronger in numbers than their possible opponents, and theirtroops, strengthened by mercenary guards, would have perhaps triumphedover the more skilled but fewer warriors which the Amorite and Aramaeancities could throw into the field against them. The pacific reignof Solomon, the schism among the tribes, and the Egyptian invasionfurnished evidence enough that they also were not destined to realisethat solidarity which alone could secure them against the great Orientalempires when the day of attack came. The two kingdoms were then enjoying an independent existence. Judah, inspite of its smaller numbers and its recent disaster, was not farbehind the more extensive Israel in its resources. David, and afterwardsSolomon, had so kneaded together the various elements of which it wascomposed--Caleb, Cain, Jerahmeel and the Judsean clans--that they hadbecome a homogeneous mass, grouped around the capital and its splendidsanctuary, and actuated with feelings of profound admiration and strongfidelity for the family which had made them what they were. Misfortunehad not chilled their zeal: they rallied round Rehoboam and his racewith such a persistency that they were enabled to maintain their groundwhen their richer rivals had squandered their energies and fallenaway before their eyes. Jeroboam, indeed, and his successors had neverobtained from their people more than a precarious support and a lukewarmdevotion: their authority was continually coming into conflict witha tendency to disintegration among the tribes, and they could onlymaintain their rule by the constant employment of force. Jeroboam hadcollected together from the garrisons scattered throughout the countrythe nucleus of an army, and had stationed the strongest of thesetroops in his residence at Tirzah when he did not require them for someexpedition against Judah or the Philistines. His successors followedhis example in this respect, but this military resource was only anineffectual protection against the dangers which beset them. The kingswere literally at the mercy of their guard, and their reign was entirelydependent on its loyalty or caprice: any unscrupulous upstart mightsucceed in suborning his comrades, and the stroke of a dagger mightat any moment send the sovereign to join his ancestors, while thesuccessful rebel reigned in his stead. * The Egyptian troops had nosooner set out on their homeward march, than the two kingdoms began todisplay their respective characteristics. An implacable and trucelesswar broke out between them. The frontier garrisons of the two nationsfought with each other from one year's end to another--carrying off eachother's cattle, massacring one another, burning each other's villagesand leading their inhabitants into slavery. ** * Among nineteen kings of Israel, eight were assassinated and were replaced by the captains of their guards--Nadab, Elah, Zimri, Joram, Zachariah, Shallum, Pekahiah, and Pekah. ** This is what is meant by the Hebrew historians when they say "there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life" (1 Kings xv. 6; cf. 2 Ohron. Xii. 15), and "between Abijam and Jeroboam" (1 Kings xv. 7; 2 Ohron. Xiii. 2), and "between Asa and Baasha" (1 Kings xv. 16, 32) "all their days. " From time to time, when the situation became intolerable, one of thekings took the field in person, and began operations by attacking suchof his enemy's strongholds as gave him the most trouble at the time. Ramah acquired an unenviable reputation in the course of these earlyconflicts: its position gave it command of the roads terminating inJerusalem, and when it fell into the hands of Israel, the Judæan capitalwas blockaded on this side. The strife for its possession was alwaysof a terrible character, and the party which succeeded in establishingitself firmly within it was deemed to have obtained a great success. * * The campaign of Abijah at Mount Zemaraim (2 Chron. Xiii. 3-19), in which the foundation of the narrative and the geographical details seem fully historical. See also the campaign of Baasha against Ramah (1 Kings xv. 17-22; cf. 2 Chron. Xvi. 1-6). The encounter of the armies did not, however, seem to produce much moreserious results than those which followed the continual guerilla warfarealong the frontier: the conqueror had no sooner defeated his enemythan he set to work to pillage the country in the vicinity, and, havingaccomplished this, returned promptly to his headquarters with the booty. Rehoboam, who had seen something of the magnificence of Solomon, triedto perpetuate the tradition of it in his court, as far as his slenderrevenues would permit him. He had eighteen women in his harem, amongwhom figured some of his aunts and cousins. The titular queen wasMaacah, who was represented as a daughter of Absalom. She was devoted tothe _asheras_, and the king was not behind his father in his toleranceof strange gods; the high places continued to be tolerated by him assites of worship, and even Jerusalem was not free from manifestationsof such idolatry as was associated with the old Canaanite religion. Hereigned seventeen years, and was interred in the city of David;* Abijam, the eldest son of Maacah, succeeded him, and followed in his evil ways. Three years later Asa came to the throne, ** no opposition being raisedto his accession. In Israel matters did not go so smoothly. WhenJeroboam, after a reign of twenty-two years, was succeeded by his sonNadab, about the year 905 B. C. , it was soon evident that the instinctof loyalty to a particular dynasty had not yet laid any firm hold on theten tribes. The peace between the Philistines and Israel was quite asunstable as that between Israel and Judah: an endless guerilla warfarewas waged on the frontier, Gibbethon being made to play much the samepart in this region as Ramah had done in regard to Jerusalem. For themoment it was in the hands of the Philistines, and in the second yearof his reign Nadab had gone to lay siege to it in force, when he wasassassinated in his tent by one of his captains, a certain Baasha, son of Ahijah, of the tribe of Issachar: the soldiers proclaimed theassassin king, and the people found themselves powerless to reject thenominee of the army. *** * 1 Kings xiv. 22-24; cf. 2 Chron. Xi. 18-23, where the details given in addition to those in the Booh of Kings seem to be of undoubted authenticity. ** 1 Kings xv. 1-8; cf. 2 Chron. Xiii. The Booh of Kings describes his mother as Maacah, the daughter of Absalom (xv. 10), which would seem to indicate that he was the brother and not the son of Abijam. The uncertainty on this point is of long standing, for the author of Chronicles makes Abijam's mother out in one place to be Micaiah, daughter of Uriel of Gibcah (xiii. 2), and in another (xi. 20) Maacah, daughter of Absalom. *** 1 Kings xv. 27-34. Baasha pressed forward resolutely his campaign against Judah. He seizedEamah and fortified it;* and Asa, feeling his incapacity to dislodge himunaided, sought to secure an ally. Egypt was too much occupied with itsown internal dissensions to be able to render any effectual help, but anew power, which would profit quite as much as Judah by the overthrowof Israel, was beginning to assert itself in the north. Damascus had, so far, led an obscure and peaceful existence; it had given way beforeEgypt and Chaldæa whenever the Egyptians or Chaldseans had appearedwithin striking distance, but had refrained from taking any part in thedisturbances by which Syria was torn asunder. Having been occupiedby the Amorites, it threw its lot in with theirs, keeping, however, sedulously in the background: while the princes of Qodshû waged waragainst the Pharaohs, undismayed by frequent reverses, Damascus didnot scruple to pay tribute to Thûtmosis III. And his descendants, or toenter into friendly relations with them. Meanwhile the Amorites hadbeen overthrown, and Qodshû, ruined by the Asiatic invasion, soonbecame little more than an obscure third-rate town;** the Aramaeans madethemselves masters of Damascus about the XIIth century, and in theirhands it continued to be, just as in the preceding epochs, a townwithout ambitions and of no great renown. * 1 Kings xv. 17; cf. 2 Ghron. Xvi. 1. ** Qodshû is only once mentioned in the Bible (2 Sam. Xxiv. 6), in which passage its name, misunderstood by the Massoretic scribe, has been restored from the Septuagint text. We have seen how the Aramæans, alarmed at the sudden rise of the Hebrewdynasty, entered into a coalition against David with the Ammoniteleaders: Zoba aspired to the chief place among the nations of CentralSyria, but met with reverses, and its defeat delivered over to theIsraelites its revolted dependencies in the Haurân and its vicinity, such as Maacah, Geshur, and even Damascus itself. * The supremacy was, however, shortlived; immediately after the death of David, a chief namedRezôn undertook to free them from the yoke of the stranger. He hadbegun his military career under Hada-dezer, King of Zoba: when disasterovertook this leader and released him from his allegiance, he collectedan armed force and fought for his own hand. A lucky stroke made himmaster of Damascus: he proclaimed himself king there, harassed theIsraelites with impunity during the reign of Solomon, and took over thepossessions of the kings of Zoba in the valleys of the Litany and theOrontes. ** The rupture between the houses of Israel and Judah removedthe only dangerous rival from his path, and Damascus became theparamount power in Southern and Central Palestine. While Judah andIsrael wasted their strength in fratricidal struggles, Tabrimmon, and after him Benhadad I. , gradually extended their territory inCoele-Syria;*** they conquered Hamath, and the desert valleys whichextend north-eastward in the direction of the Euphrates, and forced anumber of the Hittite kings to render them homage. * Cf. What is said in regard to these events on pp. 351, 352, supra. ** 1 Kings xi. 23-25. The reading "Esron" in the Septuagint (1 Kings xi. 23) indicates a form "Khezrôn, " by which it was sought to replace the traditional reading "Rezôn. " *** Hezion, whom the Jewish writer intercalates before Tabrimmon (1 Kings xv. 18), is probably a corruption of Rezôn; Winckler, relying on the Septuagint variants Azin or Azael (1 Kings xv. 18), proposes to alter Hezion into Hazael, and inserts a certain Hazael I. In this place. Tabrimmon is only mentioned in 1 Kings xv. 18, where he is said to have been the father of Benhadad. They had concluded an alliance with Jeroboam as soon as he establishedhis separate kingdom, and maintained the treaty with his successors, Nadab and Baasha. Asa collected all the gold and silver which wasleft in the temple of Jerusalem and in his own palace, and sent it toBenhadad, saying, "There is a league between me and thee, between thyfather and my father: behold, I have sent unto thee a present of silverand gold; go, break thy league with Baasha, King of Israel, that he maydepart from me. " It would seem that Baasha, in his eagerness to completethe fortifications of Ramah, had left his northern frontier undefended. Benhadad accepted the proposal and presents of the King of Judah, invaded Galilee, seized the cities of Ijôn, Dan, and Abel-beth-Maacah, which defended the upper reaches of the Jordan and the Litany, thelowlands of Genesareth, and all the land of Naphtali. Baasha hastilywithdrew from Judah, made terms with Benhadad, and settled down inTirzah for the remainder of his reign;* Asa demolished Eamah, and builtthe strongholds of Gebah and Mizpah from its ruins. ** Benhadad retainedthe territory he had acquired, and exercised a nominal sovereigntyover the two Hebrew kingdoms. Baasha, like Jeroboam, failed to founda lasting dynasty; his son Blah met with the same fate at the handsof Zimri which he himself had meted out to Nadab. As on the formeroccasion, the army was encamped before Gibbethon, in the country of thePhilistines, when the tragedy took place. * 1 Kings xv. 21, xvi. 6. ** 1 Kings xv. 18-22; of. 2 Ghron. Xvi. 2-6. Elah was at Tirzah, "drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, whichwas over the household;" Zimri, who was "captain of half his chariots, "left his post at the front, and assassinated him as he lay intoxicated. The whole family of Baasha perished in the subsequent confusion, butthe assassin only survived by seven days the date of his crime. When thetroops which he had left behind him in camp heard of what had occurred, they refused to accept him as king, and, choosing Omri in his place, marched against Tirzah. Zimri, finding it was impossible either towin them over to his side or defeat them, set fire to the palace, andperished in the flames. His death did not, however, restore peace toIsrael; while one-half of the tribes approved the choice of the army, the other flocked to the standard of Tibni, son of Ginath. War ragedbetween the two factions for four years, and was only ended by thedeath--whether natural or violent we do not know--of Tibni and hisbrother Joram. * * 1 Kings xvi. 8-22; Joram is not mentioned in the Massoretic text, but his name appears in the Septuagint. Two dynasties had thus arisen in Israel, and had been swept away byrevolutionary outbursts, while at Jerusalem the descendants of Davidfollowed one another in unbroken succession. Asa outlived Nadab byeleven years, and we hear nothing of his relations with the neighbouringstates during the latter part of his reign. We are merely told that hiszeal in the service of the Lord was greater than had been shown by anyof his predecessors. He threw down the idols, expelled their priests, and persecuted all those who practised the ancient religions. Hisgrandmother Maacah "had made an abominable image for an asherah;" he cutit down, and burnt it in the valley of the Kedron, and deposed herfrom the supremacy in the royal household which she had held forthree generations. He is, therefore, the first of the kings to receivefavourable mention from the orthodox chroniclers of later times, and itis stated that he "did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, asdid David his father. "* Omri proved a warlike monarch, and his reign, though not a long one, was signalised by a decisive crisis in thefortunes of Israel. ** The northern tribes had, so far, possessed nosettled capital, Shechem, Penuel, and Tirzah having served in turn asresidences for the successors of Jeroboam and Baasha. Latterly Tirzahhad been accorded a preference over its rivals; but Zimri had burnt thecastle there, and the ease with which it had been taken and retaken wasnot calculated to reassure the head of the new dynasty. Omri turnedhis attention to a site lying a little to the north-west of Shechem andMount Ebal, and at that time partly covered by the hamlet of Shomerôn orShimrôn--our modern Samaria. *** * 1 Kings xv. 11; cf. 2 Ohron. Xiv. 2. It is admitted, however, though without any blame being attached to him, that "the high places were not taken away" (1 Kings xv. 14; cf. 2 Chron. Xv. 17). ** The Hebrew writer gives the length of his reign as twelve years (1 Kings xvi. 23). Several historians consider this period too brief, and wish to extend it to twenty-four years; I cannot, however, see that there is, so far, any good reason for doubting the approximate accuracy of the Bible figures. *** According to the tradition preserved in 1 Kings xvi. 24, the name of the city comes from Shomer, the man from whom Ahab bought the site. His choice was a wise and judicious one, as the rapid development of thecity soon proved. It lay on the brow of a rounded hill, which rose inthe centre of a wide and deep depression, and was connected by a narrowridge with the surrounding mountains. The valley round it is fertileand well watered, and the mountains are cultivated up to their summits;throughout the whole of Ephraim it would have been difficult to finda site which could compare with it in strength or attractiveness. Omrisurrounded his city with substantial ramparts; he built a palace forhimself, and a temple in which was enthroned a golden calf similar tothose at Dan and Bethel. * A population drawn from other nations besidesthe Israelites flocked into this well-defended stronghold, and Samariasoon came to be for Israel what Jerusalem already was for Judah, analmost impregnable fortress, in which the sovereign entrenchedhimself, and round which the nation could rally in times of danger. His contemporaries fully realised the importance of this move on Omri'spart; his name became inseparably connected in their minds with that ofIsrael. Samaria and the house of Joseph were for them, henceforth, thehouse of Omri, Bît-Omri, and the name still clung to them long afterOmri had died and his family had become extinct. ** * Amos viii. 14, where the sin of Samaria, coupled as it is with the life of the god of Dan and the way of Beersheba, can, as Wellhausen points out, only refer to the image of the calf worshipped at Samaria. ** Shalmaneser II. Even goes so far as to describe Jehu, who exterminated the family of Omri, as _Jaua ahal Khumri_, "Jehu, son of Omri. " He gained the supremacy over Judah, and forced several of thesouth-western provinces, which had been in a state of independence sincethe days of Solomon, to acknowledge his rule; he conquered the countryof Medeba, vanquished Kamoshgad, King of Moab, and imposed on him aheavy tribute in sheep and wool. * Against Benhadad in the north-westhe was less fortunate. He was forced to surrender to him several of thecities of Gilead--among others Bamoth-gilead, which commanded the fordsover the Jabbok and Jordan. ** * Inscription of Meslia, 11. 5-7; cf. 2 Kings iii. 4. ** 1 Kings xx. 34. No names are given in the text, but external evidence proves that they were cities of Persea, and that Ramoth-gilead was one of them. [Illustration: 432. Jpg THE HILL OF SAMARIA] Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 2G of the _Palestine Exploration Fund. _ He even set apart a special quarter in Samaria for the natives ofDamascus, where they could ply their trades and worship their godswithout interference. It was a kind of semi-vassalage, from which he waspowerless to free himself unaided: he realised this, and looked for helpfrom without; he asked and obtained the hand of Jezebel, daughter ofBthbaal, King of the Sidonians, for Ahab, his heir. Hiram I. , the friendof David, had carried the greatness of Tyre to its highest point; afterhis death, the same spirit of discord which divided the Hebrews made itsappearance in Phoenicia. The royal power was not easily maintained overthis race of artisans and sailors: Baalbazer, son of Hiram, reigned forsix years, and his successor, Abdastart, was killed in a riot after astill briefer enjoyment of power. We know how strong was the influenceexercised by foster-mothers in the great families of the Bast; the foursons of Abda-start's nurse assassinated their foster-brother, and theeldest of them usurped his crown. Supported by the motley crowd ofslaves and adventurers which filled the harbours of Phoenicia, theymanaged to cling to power for twelve years. Their stupid and brutalmethods of government produced most disastrous results. A section of thearistocracy emigrated to the colonies across the sea and incited themto rebellion; had this state of things lasted for any time, the Tyrianempire would have been doomed. A revolution led to the removal of theusurper and the restoration of the former dynasty, but did not bringback to the unfortunate city the tranquillity which it sorely needed. The three surviving sons of Baalbezer, Methuastarfc, Astarym, andPhelles followed one another on the throne in rapid succession, thelast-named perishing by the hand of his cousin Ethbaal, after a reign ofeight months. So far, the Israelites had not attempted to take advantageof these dissensions, but there was always the danger lest one of theirkings, less absorbed than his predecessors in the struggle with Judah, might be tempted by the wealth of Phoenicia to lay hands on it. Ethbaal, therefore, eagerly accepted the means of averting this danger by analliance with the new dynasty offered to him by Omri. * * 1 Kings xvi. 31, where the historian has Hebraicised the Phonician name Ittobaal into "Ethbaal, " "Baal is with him. " Izebel or Jezebel seems to be an abbreviated form of some name like Baalezbel. The presence of a Phonician princess at Samaria seems to have hada favourable effect on the city and its inhabitants. The tribes ofNorthern and Central Palestine had, so far, resisted the march ofmaterial civilization which, since the days of Solomon, had carriedJudah along with it; they adhered, as a matter of principle, to the rudeand simple customs of their ancestors. Jezebel, who from her cradle hadbeen accustomed to all the luxuries and refinements of the Phoeniciancourt, was by no means prepared to dispense with them in her adoptedcountry. By their contact with her, the Israelites--at any rate, theupper and middle classes of them--acquired a certain degree of polish;the royal office assumed a more dignified exterior, and approached morenearly the splendours of the other Syrian monarchies, such as those ofDamascus, Hamath, Sidon, Tyre, and even Judah. Unfortunately, the effect of this material progress was marred by areligious difficulty. Jezebel had been brought up by her father, thehigh priest of the Sidonian Astarte, as a rigid believer in his faith, and she begged Ahab to permit her to celebrate openly the worship of hernational deities. Ere long the Tyrian Baal was installed at Samaria withhis asherah, and his votaries had their temples and sacred groves toworship in: their priests and prophets sat at the king's table. Ahab didnot reject the God of his ancestors in order to embrace the religion ofhis wife--a reproach which was afterwards laid to his door; he remainedfaithful to Him, and gave the children whom he had by Jezebel namescompounded with that of Jahveh, such as Ahaziah, Joram, and Athaliah. * * 1 Kings xvi. 31-33. Ahaziah and Joram mean respectively "whom Jahveh sustaineth, " and "Jahveh is exalted. " Athaliah may possibly be derived from a Phoenician form, _Ailialith or Athlifh, _ into which the name of Jahveh does not enter. This was not the first instance of such tolerance in the history of theIsraelites: Solomon had granted a similar liberty of conscience to allhis foreign wives, and neither Rehoboam nor Abijam had opposed Maacah inher devotion to the Canaanitish idols. But the times were changing, andthe altar of Baal could no longer be placed side by side with that ofJahveh without arousing fierce anger and inexorable hatred. Scarce ahundred years had elapsed since the rupture between the tribes, andalready one-half of the people were unable to understand how place couldbe found in the breast of a true Israelite for any other god but Jahveh:Jahveh alone was Lord, for none of the deities worshipped by foreignraces under human or animal shapes could compare with Him in might andholiness. From this to the repudiation of all those practices associatedwith exotic deities, such as the use of idols of wood or metal, theanointing of isolated boulders or circles of rocks, the offering up ofprisoners or of the firstborn, was but a step: Asa had already furnishedan example of rigid devotion in Judah, and there were many in Israel whoshared his views and desired to imitate him. The opposition to whatwas regarded as apostasy on the part of the king did not come from theofficial priesthood; the sanctuaries at Dan, at Bethel, at Shiloh, andat Gilgal were prosperous in spite of Jezebel, and this was enough forthem. But the influence of the prophets had increased marvellously sincethe rupture between the kingdoms, and at the very beginning of his reignAhab was unwise enough to outrage their sense of justice by one of hisviolent acts: in a transport of rage he had slain a certain Naboth, whohad refused to let him have his vineyard in order that he might enlargethe grounds of the palace he was building for himself at Jezreel. * Theprophets, as in former times, were divided into schools, the head ofeach being called its father, the members bearing the title of "the sonsof the prophets;" they dwelt in a sort of monastery, each having his owncell, where they ate together, performed their devotional exercises orassembled to listen to the exhortations of their chief prophets:** nordid their sacred office prevent them from marrying. *** * 1 Kings xxi. , where the later tradition throws nearly all the blame on Jezebel; whereas in the shorter account, in 2 Kings ix. 25, 26, it is laid entirely on Ahab. ** In 1 Sam. Xix. 20, a passage which seems to some to be a later interpolation, mentions a "company of the prophets, prophesying, and Samuel standing as head over them. " Cf. 2 Kings vi. 1-7, where the narrative introduces a congregation of prophets grouped round Elisha. *** 2 Kings iv. 1-7, where an account is given of the miracle worked by Elisha on behalf of "a woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets. " As a rule, they settled near one of the temples, and lived there onexcellent terms with the members of the regular priesthood. Accompaniedby musical instruments, they chanted the songs in which the poets ofother days extolled the mighty deeds of Jahveh, and obtained from thissource the incidents of the semi-religious accounts which they narratedconcerning the early history of the people; or, when the spirit movedthem, they went about through the land prophesying, either singly, oraccompanied by a disciple, or in bands. * The people thronged round themto listen to their hymns or their stories of the heroic age: the greatones of the land, even kings themselves, received visits from them, andendured their reproaches or exhortations with mingled feelings of aweand terror. A few of the prophets took the part of Ahab and Jezebel, **but the majority declared against them, and of these, the mostconspicuous, by his forcibleness of speech and action, was Elijah. Wedo not know of what race or family he came, nor even what he was:*** theincidents of his life which have come down to us seem to be wrapped in avague legendary grandeur. He appears before Ahab, and tells him thatfor years to come no rain or dew shall fall on the earth save by hiscommand, and then takes flight into the desert in order to escape theking's anger. * 1 Sam. X. 5, where a band of prophets is mentioned "coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and a timbrel, and a pipe, and a harp, before them, prophesying;" cf. Ver. 10. In 2 Kings ii. 3-5, bands of the "children of the prophets" come out from Bethel and Jericho to ask Elisha if he knows the fate which awaits Elijah on that very day. ** Cf. The anonymous prophet who encourages Ahab, in the name of Jahveh, to surprise the camp of Benhadad before Samaria (1 Kings xx. 13-15, 22-25, 28); and the prophet Zedekiah, who gives advice contrary to that of his fellow- prophet Micaiah in the council of war held by Ahab with Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, before the attack on Ramobh- gilead (1 Kings xxii. 11, 12, 24). *** The ethnical inscription, "Tishbite, " which we find after his name (1 Kings xvii. 1, xxi. 17), is due to an error on the part of the copyist. He is there ministered unto by ravens, which bring him bread and meatevery night and morning. When the spring from which he drinks dries up, he goes to the house of a widow at Zarephath in the country of Sidon, and there he lives with his hostess for twelve months on a barrel ofmeal and a cruse of oil which never fail. The widow's son dies suddenly:he prays to Jahveh and restores him to life; then, still guided by aninspiration from above, he again presents himself before the king. Ahabreceives him without resentment, assembles the prophets of Baal, bringsthem face to face with Elijah on the top of Mount Carmel, and ordersthem to put an end to the drought by which his kingdom is wasted. ThePhoenicians erect an altar and call upon their Baâlîm with loud cries, and gash their arms and bodies with knives, yet cannot bring aboutthe miracle expected of them. Elijah, after mocking at their cries andcontortions, at last addresses a prayer to Jahveh, and fire comesdown from heaven and consumes the sacrifice in a moment; the people, convinced by the miracle, fall upon the idolaters and massacre them, andthe rain shortly afterwards falls in torrents. After this triumph he issaid to have fled once more for safety to the desert, and there on Horebto have had a divine vision. "And, behold, the Lord passed by, and agreat and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocksbefore the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the windan earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after theearthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after thefire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that Hewrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the enteringin of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, 'What doest thou here, Elijah?'" God then commanded him to anoint Hazaelas King of Syria, and Jehu, son of Nimshi, as King over Israel, andElisha, son of Shaphat, as prophet in his stead, "and him that escapethfrom the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from thesword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. " The sacred writings go on to tell usthat the prophet who had held such close converse with the Deity wasexempt from the ordinary laws of humanity, and was carried to heavenin a chariot of fire. The account that has come down to us shows theimpression of awe left by Elijah on the spirit of his age. * Ahab was one of the most warlike among the warrior-kings of Israel. Heruled Moab with a strong hand, ** kept Judah in subjection, *** and in hisconflict with Damascus experienced alternately victory and honourabledefeat. Hadadidri [Hadadezer], of whom the Hebrew historians make asecond Benhadad, **** had succeeded the conqueror of Baasha.^ * The story of Elijah is found in 1 Kings xvii. -xix. , xxi. 17-29, and 2 Kings i. , ii. 1-14. ** Inscription of Mesha, 11. 7, 8. *** The subordination of Judah is nowhere explicitly mentioned: it is inferred from the attitude adopted by Jehoshaphat in presence of Ahab (1 Kings xxii. 1, et seq. ). **** The Assyrian texts call this Dadidri, Adadidri, which exactly corresponds to the Plebrew form Hadadezer. ^ The information in the Booh of Kings does not tell us at what time during the reign of Ahab his first wars with Hadadezer (Benhadad II. ) and the siege of Samaria occurred. The rapid success of Shalmaneser's campaigns against Damascus, between 854 and 839 B. C. , does not allow us to place these events after the invasion of Assyria. Ahab appears, in 854, at the battle of Karkar, as the ally of Benhadad, as I shall show later. The account of his campaigns in the Hebrew records has only reached usin a seemingly condensed and distorted condition. Israel, strengthenedby the exploits of Omri, must have offered him a strenuous resistance, but we know nothing of the causes, nor of the opening scenes of thedrama. When the curtain is lifted, the preliminary conflict is over, andthe Israelites, closely besieged in Samaria, have no alternative beforethem but unconditional surrender. This was the first serious attackthe city had sustained, and its resistance spoke well for the militaryforesight of its founder. In Benhadad's train were thirty-two kings, andhorses and chariots innumerable, while his adversary could onlyoppose to them seven thousand men. Ahab was willing to treat, butthe conditions proposed were so outrageous that he broke off thenegotiations. We do not know how long the blockade had lasted, whenone day the garrison made a sortie in full daylight, and fell upon theSyrian camp; the enemy were panic-stricken, and Benhadad with difficultyescaped on horseback with a handful of men. He resumed hostilitiesin the following year, but instead of engaging the enemy in thehill-country of Ephraim, where his superior numbers brought him noadvantage, he deployed his lines on the plain of Jezreel, near the townof Aphek. His servants had counselled him to change his tactics: "TheGod of the Hebrews is a God of the hills, therefore they were strongerthan we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely weshall be stronger than they. " The advice, however, proved futile, for hesustained on the open plain a still more severe defeat than he had metwith in the mountains, and the Hebrew historians affirm that he wastaken prisoner during the pursuit. The power of Damascus was stillformidable, and the captivity of its king had done little to bringthe war to an end; Ahab, therefore, did not press his advantage, butreceived the Syrian monarch "as a brother, " and set him at liberty afterconcluding with him an offensive and defensive alliance. Israel at thistime recovered possession of some of the cities which had been lostunder Baasha and Omri, and the Israelites once more enjoyed the rightto occupy a particular quarter of Damascus. According to the Hebrewaccount, this was the retaliation they took for their previoushumiliations. It is further stated, in relation to this event, that acertain man of the sons of the prophets, speaking by the word of theLord, bade one of his companions smite him. Having received a wound, hedisguised himself with a bandage over his eyes, and placed himself inthe king's path, "and as the king passed by, he cried unto the king: andhe said, Thy servant went out into the midst of the battle; and, behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, and said, Keep this man:if by any means he be missing, then shall thy life be for his life, orelse thou shalt pay a talent of silver. And as thy servant was busy hereand there, he was gone. And the King of Israel said unto him, So shallthy judgment be; thyself has decided it. Then he hasted, and took theheadband away from his eyes, and the King of Israel discerned him thathe was one of the prophets. And he said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Because thou hast let go out of thy hand the man whom I had devoted todestruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy peoplefor his people. And the King of Israel went to his house heavy anddispleased, and came to Samaria. " This story was in accordance with thepopular feeling, and Ahab certainly ought not to have paused till he hadexterminated his enemy, could he have done so; but was this actually inhis power? We have no reason to contest the leading facts in this account, or todoubt that Benhadad suffered some reverses before Samaria; but we mayperhaps ask whether the check was as serious as we are led to believe, and whether imagination and national vanity did not exaggerate itsextent and results. The fortresses of Persea which, according to thetreaty, ought to have been restored to Israel, remained in the hands ofthe people of Damascus, and the loss of Ramoth-gilead continued to be asource of vexation to such of the tribes of Gad and Reuben as followedthe fortunes of the house of Omri:* yet these places formed the mostimportant part of Benhadad's ransom. * "And the King of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth-gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the King of Syria?" The sole effect of Ahab's success was to procure for him more lenienttreatment; he lost no territory, and perhaps gained a few towns, but hehad to sign conditions of peace which made him an acknowledged vassal tothe King of Syria. * * No document as yet proves directly that Ahab was vassal to Benhadad II. The fact seems to follow clearly enough from the account of the battle of Karkar against Shalmaneser II. , where the contingent of Ahab of Israel figures among those of the kings who fought for Benhadad II. Against the Assyrians. Damascus still remained the foremost state of Syria, and, if we rightlyinterpret the scanty information we possess, seemed in a fair way tobring about that unification of the country which neither Hittites, Philistines, nor Hebrews had been able to effect. Situated nearlyequidistant from Raphia and Carchemish, on the outskirts of thecultivated region, the city was protected in the rear by the desert, which secured it from invasion on the east and north-east; the dustyplains of the Haurân protected it on the south, and the wooded cliffs ofAnti-Lebanon on the west and north-west. It was entrenched within thesenatural barriers as in a fortress, whence the garrison was able tosally forth at will to attack in force one or other of the surroundingnations: if the city were victorious, its central position made it easyfor its rulers to keep watch over and preserve what they had won; if itsuffered defeat, the surrounding mountains and deserts formed naturallines of fortification easy to defend against the pursuing foe, butvery difficult for the latter to force, and the delay presented by thisobstacle gave the inhabitants time to organise their reserves and bringfresh troops into the field. The kings of Damascus at the outset broughtunder their suzerainty the Aramaean principalities--Argob, Maacah, andGeshur, by which they controlled the Haurân, and Zobah, which securedto them Coele-Syria from Lake Huleh to the Bahr el-Kades. They had takenUpper Galilee from the Hebrews, and subsequently Perasa, as far as theJabbok, and held in check Israel and the smaller states, Amnion andMoab, which followed in its wake. They exacted tribute from Hamath, thePhoenician Arvad, the lower valley of the Orontes, and from a portionof the Hittites, and demanded contingents from their princes in timeof war. Their power was still in its infancy, and its elements were notfirmly welded together, but the surrounding peoples were in such astate of weakness and disunion that they might be left out of account asformidable enemies. The only danger that menaced the rising kingdom wasthe possibility that the two ancient warlike nations, Egypt and Assyria, might shake off their torpor, and reappearing on the scene of theirformer prowess might attack her before she had consolidated her power bythe annexation of Naharaim. END OF VOL. VI.