the compiler of the lists drew his materials from different sources. It
is further clear that the memoranda had been noted down in the cuneiform
characters of Babylonia and not in the hieroglyphs of Egypt. Thus, as we
have seen, the name of Beth-el is transcribed from its Babylonian form
of Bit-sa-ili, the Assyrian equivalent of the Hebrew Beth-el.

The names have been copied from the memoranda of the scribes in the
order in which they occurred, and without any regard to their relative
importance. While, therefore, insignificant villages are often noted,
the names of important cities are sometimes passed over. Descriptive
epithets, moreover, like _abel_ "meadow," _arets_ "land," _har_
"mountains," _'emeq_ "valley," _'ên_ "spring," are frequently treated as
if they were local names, and occupy separate cartouches. We must not,
consequently, expect to find in the lists any exhaustive catalogue of
Palestinian towns or even of the leading cities. They mark only the
lines of march taken by the army of Thothmes or by his scouts and
messengers.

Besides the Canaanitish lists there are also long lists of localities
conquered by the Pharaoh in Northern Syria. With these, however, we have
nothing to do. It is to the places in Canaan that our attention must at
present be confined. They are said to be situated in the country of the
Upper Lotan, or, as another list gives it, in the country of the Fenkhu.
In the time of Thothmes III. accordingly the land of the Upper Lotan and
the land of the Fenkhu were synonymous terms, and alike denoted what we
now call Palestine. In the word Fenkhu it is difficult not to see the
origin of the Greek Phoenix or "Phoenician."

The lists begin with Kadesh on the Orontes, the head of the confederacy,
the defeat of which laid Canaan at the feet of the Pharaoh. Then comes