populations the most important--at all events in the later Old Testament
age--were the inhabitants of a country called Biainas, but to which its
neighbours gave the name of Ararat. Ararat corresponded to southern
Armenia, Biainas being the modern Van, and the Mount Ararat of modern
geography lying considerably to the north of it. In the ninth century
before our era a powerful dynasty arose at Van, which extended its
conquests far and wide, and at one time threatened to destroy even the
Assyrian empire. It signalised its accession to power by borrowing the
cuneiform writing of Nineveh, and numerous inscriptions exist recording
the names and victories of its sovereigns, the buildings they erected,
and the gods they served. The language of the inscriptions is strange
and peculiar; it seems to be distantly related to modern Georgian, and
may be akin to the dialects of the Hittites or of Mitanni.

If we may trust the representations of the Assyrian artists, the people
of Ararat did not all belong to the same race. Two ethnic types have
been handed down to us--one with beardless faces, resembling that of the
Hittites, the other of a people with high fore-heads, curved and pointed
noses, thin lips, and well-formed chin. Both, however, wear the same
dress. On the head is a crested helmet like that of the Greeks, on the
feet the Hittite boot with upturned end; the body is clad in a tunic
which reaches to the knee, and a small round target is used in battle.

For many centuries the Semites and the people of the north contended for
the possession of the Syrian plains. Horde after horde descended from
the northern mountains, capturing the Aramæan cities and setting up
kingdoms in their midst. At one time it seemed as if the Semites of the
east and west were to be permanently sundered from one another. The
decay of Babylonia and Egypt enabled the Mitannians and Hittites to
establish themselves in Mesopotamia and Syria, and to gain possession of