The Aramaeans in particular gave them a great deal of trouble.  The states on the banks of the Euphrates had found them awkward neighbours; was this the moment chosen by the Pukudu, the Eutu, the Gambulu, and a dozen other Aramaean tribes, for a stealthy march across the frontier of Elam, between Durilu and the coast?  The tribes from which, soon after, the Kaldi nation was formed, were marauding round Eridu, Uru, and Larsa, and may have already begun to lay the foundations of their supremacy over Babylon:  it is, indeed, an open question whether those princes of the Countries of the Sea who succeeded the Pashe dynasty did not come from the stock of the Kaldi Aramaeans.  While they were thus consolidating on the south-east, the bulk of the nation continued to ascend northwards, and rejoined its outposts in the central region of the Euphrates, which extends from the Tigris to the Khabur, from the Khabur to the Balikh and the Aprie.  They had already come into frequent conflict with most of the victorious Assyrian kings, from Eammanirari down to Tiglath-pileser; the weakness of Assyria and Chaldaea gave them their opportunity, and they took full advantage of it.  They soon became masters of the whole of Mesopotamia; a part of the table-land extending from Carchemish to Mount Amanus fell into their hands, their activity was still greater in the basin of the Orontes, and their advanced guard, coming into collision with the Amorites near the sources of the Litany, began gradually to drive farther and farther southwards all that remained of the races which had shown so bold a front to the Egyptian troops.  Here was an almost entirely new element, gradually eliminating from the scene of the struggle 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 in Southern Syria.  There, too, newer races had gradually come to displace the nations over which the dynasties of Thutmosis and Ramses had once held sway.  The Hebrews on the east, the Philistines and their allies on the south-west, were about to undertake the conquest of the Kharu and its cities.  As yet their strength was inadequate, their temperament undecided, their system of government imperfect; but they brought with them the quality of youth, and energies which, rightly guided, would assure the nation which first found out how to take advantage of them, supremacy over all its rivals, and the strength necessary for consolidating 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 AND THE HEBREW KINGDOM—­SAUL, DAVID, SOLOMON, THE DEFECTION OF THE TEN TRIBES—­THE XXIst EGYPTIAN DYNASTY—­SHESHONQ OR SHISHAK DAMASCUS.