in fact, six or seven parallel ranges, resembling natural ramparts piled up between the country of the Tigris and the table-land of Iran.  The intervening valleys were formerly lakes, having had for the most part no communication with each other and no outlet into the sea.  In the course of centuries they had dried up, leaving a thick deposit of mud in the hollows of their ancient beds, from which sprang luxurious and abundant harvests.  The rivers—­the Uknu,* the Ididi,** and the Ulai***—­which water this region are, on reaching more level ground, connected by canals, and are constantly shifting their beds in the light soil of the Susian plain:  they soon attain a width equal to that of the Euphrates, but after a short time lose half their volume in swamps, and empty themselves at the present day into the Shatt-el-Arab.  They flowed formerly into that part of the Persian Gulf which extended as far as Kornah, and the sea thus formed the southern frontier of the kingdom.

     * The Uknu is the Kerkhah of the present day, the Choaspes
     of the Greeks.

** The Ididi was at first identified with the ancient Pasitigris, which scholars then desired to distinguish from the Eulseos:  it is now known to be the arm of the Karun which runs to Dizful, the Koprates of classical times, which has sometimes been confounded with the Eulaws.

*** The Ulai, mentioned in the Hebrew texts (Ban. viii. 2, 16), the Euloos of classical writers, also called Pasitigris.  It is the Karun of the present day, until its confluence with the Shaur, and subsequently the Shaur itself, which waters the foot of the Susian hills.

From earliest times this country was inhabited by three distinct peoples, whose descendants may still be distinguished at the present day, and although they have dwindled in numbers and become mixed with elements of more recent origin, the resemblance to their forefathers is still very remarkable.  There were, in the first place, the short and robust people of well-knit figure, with brown skins, black hair and eyes, who belonged to that negritic race which inhabited a considerable part of Asia in prehistoric times.*

* The connection of the negroid type of Susians with the negritic races of India and Oceania, has been proved, in the course of M. Dieulafoy’s expedition to the Susian plains and the ancient provinces of Elam.

[Illustration:  045.jpg MAP OF CHALDAEA AND ELAM.]

[Illustration:  046.jpg AN ANCIENT SUSIAN OF NEGRETIC RACE]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief of Sargon II. in
     the Louvre.

These prevailed in the lowlands and the valleys, where the warm, damp climate favoured their development; but they also spread into the mountain region, and had pushed their outposts as far as the first slopes of the Iranian table-land.  They there contact with white-skinned of medium height, who were probably allied to the nations of Northern and Central Asia—­to the Scythians,* for instance, if it is permissible to use a vague term employed by the Ancients.