* Under the Egyptian supremacy, the local princes did not assume the royal title in the despatches which they addressed to the kings of Egypt, but styled themselves governors of their cities.

The industries pursued in Phoenicia were somewhat similar to those of other parts of Syria; the stuffs, vases, and ornaments made at Tyre and Sidon could not be distinguished from those of Hamath or of Carchemish.

[Illustration 282.jpg ONE OF THE KAFITI FROM THE TOMB OF RAKHMIRI]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the coloured sketches by Prisse
     d’Avennes in the Natural Hist.  Museum.

All manufactures bore the impress of Babylonian influence, and their implements, weights, measures, and system of exchange were the same as those in use among the Chaldaeans.  The products of the country were, however, not sufficient to freight the fleets which sailed from Phoenicia every year bound for all parts of the known world, and additional supplies had to be regularly obtained from neighbouring peoples, who thus became used to pour into Tyre and Sidon the surplus of their manufactures, or of the natural wealth of their country.  The Phoenicians were also accustomed to send caravans into regions which they could not reach in their caracks, and to establish trading stations at the fords of rivers, or in the passes over mountain ranges.  We know of the existence of such emporia at Laish near the sources of the Jordan, at Thapsacus, and at Nisibis, and they must have served the purpose of a series of posts on the great highways of the world.  The settlements of the Phoenicians always assumed the character of colonies, and however remote they might be from their fatherland, the colonists never lost the manners and customs of their native country.  They collected together into their okels or storehouses such wares and commodities as they could purchase in their new localities, and, transmitting them periodically to the coast, shipped them thence to all parts of the world.

Not only were they acquainted with every part of the Mediterranean, but they had even made voyages beyond its limits.  In the absence, however, of any specific records of their naval enterprise, the routes they followed must be a subject of conjecture.  They were accustomed to relate that the gods, after having instructed them in the art of navigation, had shown them the way to the setting sun, and had led them by their example to make voyages even beyond the mouths of the ocean.  El of Byblos was the first to leave Syria; he conquered Greece and Egypt, Sicily and Libya, civilizing their inhabitants, and laying the foundation of cities everywhere.  The Sidonian Astarte, with her head surmounted by the horns of an ox, was the next to begin her wanderings over the inhabited earth.  Melkarth completed the task of the gods by discovering and subjugating those countries which had escaped the notice of his predecessors.  Hundreds of local