Ammianshi himself reigned over the province of Kadimâ, a word which in
Semitic denotes the East. Finally, the only one of their gods known to
us, Hadad, was a Semite deity, who presided over the atmosphere, and
whom we find later on ruling over the destinies of Damascus. Peoples
of Semitic speech and religion must, indeed, have already occupied the
greater part of that region on the shores of the Mediterranean which we
find still in their possession many centuries later, at the time of the
Egyptian conquest.

[Illustration: 028.jpg ASIATIC WOMEN FROM THE TOMB OF KHNÛMHOTPÛ]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger.


For a time Egypt preferred not to meddle in their affairs. When,
however, the "lords of the sands" grew too insolent, the Pharaoh sent a
column of light troops against them, and inflicted on them such a severe
punishment, that the remembrance of it kept them within bounds for
years. Offenders banished from Egypt sought refuge with the turbulent
kinglets, who were in a perpetual state of unrest between Sinai and
the Dead Sea. Egyptian sailors used to set out to traffic along the
seaboard, taking to piracy when hard pressed; Egyptian merchants were
accustomed to penetrate by easy stages into the interior. The accounts
they gave of their journeys were not reassuring. The traveller had first
to face the solitudes which confronted him before reaching the Isthmus,
and then to avoid as best he might the attacks of the pillaging tribes
who inhabited it.

[Illustration: 024.jpg TWO ASIATICS FKOM THE TOMB OF KHNÛMHOPTÛ.]