ascus that they requested
that a special bazaar might be allotted to them, similar to that
occupied by the merchants of Damascus in Samaria from time immemorial.**

* The accurate ideas on the subject of Egypt possessed by
the earliest compilers of the traditions contained in
Genesis and Exodus, prove that Hebrew merchants must have
been in constant communication with that country about the
time with which we are now concerned.

** 1 Kings xx. 34; cf. what has been said on this point in
vol. vi. pp. 432, 441.

[Illustration: 188.jpg SPECIMENS OF HEBREW POTTERY]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from sketches by Warren.

The Hebrew monarchs had done their best to encourage this growing desire
for trade. It was only the complicated state of Syrian politics that
prevented them from following the example of Solomon, and opening
communications by sea with the far-famed countries of Ophir, either in
competition with the Phoenicians or under their guidance. Indeed, as
we have seen, Jehoshaphat, encouraged by his alliance with the house of
Omri, tried to establish a seagoing fleet, but found that peasants could
not be turned into sailors at a day's notice, and the vessel built by
him at Eziongeber was wrecked before it left the harbour.

[Illustration: 189.jpg ISRAELITES OF THE HIGHER CLASS IN THE TIME OF
SHALMANESER III]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs of the
Black Obelisk.

In appearance, the Hebrew towns closely resembled the ancient Canaanite
cities. Egyptian influences still predominated in their architecture,
as may be seen from what is still left of the walls of Lachish, and they
were fortified in such a way as to be able to defy the military engines
of besiegers. This applies not only to capitals, like Jerusalem, Tirzah,
and Samaria, but even to those towns which commanded a road or mountain
pass, the ford of a river, or the entrance to some fertile plain; there
were scores of these on the frontiers of the two kingdoms, and in
those portions of their territory which lay exposed to the attacks
of Damascus, Moab, Edom, or the Philistines.* The daily life of the
inhabitants was; to all intents, the same as at Arpad, Sidon, or Gaza;
and the dress, dwellings, and customs of the upper and middle
classes cannot have differed in any marked degree from those of the
corresponding grades of society in Syria.

* 2 Chron. xi. 6-10, where we find a list of