from whom the plan was borrowed had no capacity, and at the same time preserved the arrangements of their model so faithfully that we can readily realise what it must have been.  Transport this migdol of Ramses III. into Asia, plant it upon one of those hills which the Canaanites were accustomed to select as a site for their fortifications, spread out at its base some score of low and miserable hovels, and we have before us an improvised pattern of a village which recalls in a striking manner Zerin or Beitin, or any other small modern town which gathers the dwellings of its fellahin round some central stone building—­whether it be a hostelry for benighted travellers, or an ancient castle of the Crusading age.

[Illustration:  189.jpg THE MODERN VILLAGE OF BEITIN (ANCIENT BETHEL), SEEN FROM THE SOUTH-WEST.]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.

There were on the littoral, to the north of Gaza, two large walled towns, Ascalon and Joppa, in whose roadsteads merchant vessels were accustomed to take hasty refuge in tempestuous weather.* There were to be found on the plains also, and on the lower slopes of the mountains, a number of similar fortresses and villages, such as Iurza, Migdol, Lachish, Ajalon, Shocho, Adora, Aphukin, Keilah, Gezer, and Ono; and, in the neighbourhood of the roads which led to the fords of the Jordan, Gibeah, Beth-Anoth, and finally Urusalim, our Jerusalem.** A tolerably dense population of active and industrious husbandmen maintained themselves upon the soil.

* Ascalon was not actually on the sea.  Its port, “Maiumas Ascalonis,” was probably merely a narrow bay or creek, now, for a long period, filled up by the sand.  Neither the site nor the remains of the port have been discovered.  The name of the town is always spelled in Egyptian with an “s “—­ Askaluna, which gives us the pronunciation of the time.  The name of Joppa is written Yapu, Yaphu, and the gardens which then surrounded the town are mentioned in the Anastasi Papyrus I.

** Urusalim is mentioned only in the Tel el-Amarna tablets, alongside of Kilti or Keilah, Ajalon, and Lachish.  The remaining towns are noticed in the great lists of Thutmosis III.

[Illustration:  191.jpg Page image]

The plough which they employed was like that used by the Egyptians and Babylonians, being nothing but a large hoe to which a couple of oxen were harnessed.* The scarcity of rain, except in certain seasons, and the tendency of the rivers to run low, contributed to make the cultivators of the soil experts in irrigation and agriculture.  Almost the only remains of these people which have come down ti us consist of indestructible wells and cisterns, or wine and oil presses hollowed out of the rock.**

     * This is the form of plough still employed by the Syrians
     in some places.

     ** Monuments of this kind are encountered at every step in
     Judaea, but it is very difficult to date them.  The aqueduct
     of Siloam, which goes back perhaps to the time of Hezekiah.