were similar
in character to those we find scattered throughout Asia Minor; there
is the same inaccurate drawing, the same rough execution, the same
tentative and awkward composition.

[Illustration: 053.jpg JIBRIN, A VILLAGE OF CONICAL HUTS, ON THE PLATEAU
OF ALEPPO]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph reproduced in Peters.

The scribes from force of custom still employed the cuneiform syllabary
in certain official religious or royal inscriptions, but, as it was
difficult to manipulate and limited in application, the speech of the
Aramaean immigrants and the Phoenician alphabet gradually superseded the
ancient language and mode of writing.*

* There is no monument bearing an inscription in this
alphabet which can be referred with any certainty to the
time of Assur-nazir-pal, but the inscriptions of the kings
of Samalla date back to a period not more than a century and
a half later than his reign; we may therefore consider the
Aramaean alphabet as being in current use in Northern Syria
at the beginning of the ninth century, some forty years
before the date of Mesha's inscription (i.e. the Moabite
stone).

Thus these Northern Syrians became by degrees assimilated to the people
of Babylon and Nineveh, much as the inhabitants of a remote province
nowadays adapt their dress, their architecture, their implements of
husbandry and handicraft, their military equipment and organisation, to
the fashions of the capital.*

* One can judge of their social condition from the
enumeration of the objects which formed their tribute, or
the spoil which the Assyrian kings carried off from their
country.

[Illustration: 054.jpg THE WAR-CHARIOT OF THE KHATI OP THE NINTH
CENTURY]

Drawn by Boudier, from a bas-relief.

Their armies were modelled on similar lines, and consisted of archers,
plkemen, slingers, and those troops of horsemen which accompanied the
chariotry on flying raids; the chariots, moreover, closely followed the
Assyrian type, even down to the padded bar with embroidered hangings
which connected the body of the chariot with the end of the pole.

[Illustration: 055.jpg THE ASSYRIAN WAR-CHARIOT OF THE NINTH CENTURY
B.C.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze bas-relief on the
gates of Balawat.

The Syrian princes did not adopt the tiara, but they wore the long
fringed robe, confined by a girdle at the waist, and their mode of