s ", and accompanied by
wives, and families, and servants, they migrated, it is stated, from
the Sumerian city of Ur northwards to Haran "and dwelt there". After
Terah's death the tribe wandered through Canaan and kept moving
southward, unable, it would seem, to settle permanently in any
particular district. At length "there was a famine in the land"--an
interesting reference to the "Dry Cycle"--and the wanderers found it
necessary to take refuge for a time in Egypt. There they appear to
have prospered. Indeed, so greatly did their flocks and herds increase
that when they returned to Canaan they found that "the land was not
able to bear them", although the conditions had improved somewhat
during the interval. "There was", as a result, "strife between the
herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle."

It is evident that the area which these pastoral flocks were allowed
to occupy must have been strictly circumscribed, for more than once it
is stated significantly that "the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled
in the land". The two kinsmen found it necessary, therefore, to part
company. Lot elected to go towards Sodom in the plain of Jordan, and
Abraham then moved towards the plain of Mamre, the Amorite, in the
Hebron district.[272] With Mamre, and his brothers, Eshcol and Aner,
the Hebrew patriarch formed a confederacy for mutual protection.[273]

Other tribes which were in Palestine at this period included the
Horites, the Rephaims, the Zuzims, the Zamzummims, and the Emims.
These were probably representatives of the older stocks. Like the
Amorites, the Hittites or "children of Heth" were evidently "late
comers", and conquerors. When Abraham purchased the burial cave at
Hebron, the landowner with whom he had to deal was one Ephron, son of
Zohar, the Hittite.[274] This illuminating statement agrees with what
we know regarding Hittite expansion about 2000 B.C. The "Hatti" or
"Khatti" had constituted military aristocracies throughout Syria and
extended their influence by forming alliances. Many of their settlers
were owners of estates, and traders who intermarried with the
indigenous peoples and the Arabian invaders. As has been indicated
(Chapter I), the large-nosed Armenoid section of the Hittite
confederacy appear to have contributed to the racial blend known
vaguely as the Semitic. Probably the particular group of Amorites with
whom Abraham became associated had those pronounced Armenoid traits
which can