of the third ford, was about equally distant from Thapsacus and Samosata, and lay in a rich and fertile province, which was so well watered that a drought or a famine would not be likely to enter into the expectations of its inhabitants.  Hither pilgrims, merchants, soldiers, and all the wandering denizens of the world were accustomed to direct their steps, and the habit once established was perpetuated for centuries.  On the left bank of the river, and almost opposite Carchemish, lay the region of Mitanni,* which was already occupied by a people of a different race, who used a language cognate, it would seem, with the imperfectly classified dialects spoken by the tribes of the Upper Tigris and Upper Euphrates.** Harran bordered on Mitanni, and beyond Harran one may recognise, in the vaguely defined Singar, Assur, Arrapkha, and Babel, states that arose out of the dismemberment of the ancient Chaldaean Empire.***

* Mitanni is mentioned on several Egyptian monuments; but its importance was not recognised until after the discovery of the Tel el-Amarna tablets and of its situation.  The fact that a letter from the Prince of Mitanni is stated in a Hieratic docket to have come from Naharaim has been used as a proof that the countries were identical; I have shown that the docket proves only that Mitanni formed a part of Naharaim.  It extended over the province of Edessa and Harran, stretching out towards the sources of the Tigris.  Niebuhr places it on the southern slope of the Masios, in Mygdonia; Th.  Reinach connects it with the Mationi, and asks whether this was not the region occupied by this people before their emigration towards the Caspian.

     ** Several of the Tel el-Amarna tablets are couched in this
     language.

     *** These names were recognised from the first in the
     inscriptions of Thutmosis III. and in those of other
     Pharaohs of the XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties.

The Carchemish route was, of course, well known to caravans, but armed bodies had rarely occasion to make use of it.  It was a far cry from Memphis to Carchemish, and for the Egyptians this town continued to be a limit which they never passed, except incidentally, when they had to chastise some turbulent tribe, or to give some ill-guarded town to the flames.*

* A certain number of towns mentioned in the lists of Thutmosis III. were situated beyond the Euphrates, and they belonged some to Mitanni and some to the regions further away.

[Illustration:  215.jpg THE HEADS OF THREE AMORITE CAPTIVES]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.