The besieged, for a wonder in Egyptian painting, offer a vigorous resistance. Some use the bow and arrow, others receive the scalers with the point of the spear, and many cast down huge stones on the heads of the assailants. It was thus that Abimelech, the son of Gideon, received his death blow when besieging Thebez.

"But there was a strong tower within the city, and thither fled all the men and women, and all they of the city, and shut it to them and gat them up to the top of the tower. And Abimelech came unto the tower, and fought against it, and went hard unto the door of the tower to burn it with fire. And a certain woman cast a piece of a mill-stone upon Abimelech's head, and all to brake his skull." Judg. ix. 51—53.

The opulence of Tyre is strikingly marked in a picture representing Sethos receiving an embassy from a fortified city near the sea-shore. The chiefs, richly dressed, prostrate themselves before him, and present to him many vessels of gold of elaborate workmanship, and bags of precious stones, to propitiate his favour. The name on the fortress has been erased, but a hieroglyphic inscription records, that "He grants the petitions of the chiefs of Tyre (SHR or TSR)."

In the tomb of Rameses Meiamoun, two Tyrians are painted in a dress whieh strikingly illustrates the Scripture account of the sumptuousness of this city, whose "merchants were princes." The colours of this painting possess extraordinary freshness and beauty. The hair, (see engraving, p. 49,) which seems to have been worn thick behind, is enclosed in a cap of white linen, studded with blue spots; the crown is encircled by a fillet of scarlet cloth or lea

ther, which ties in a bow behind, the ends depending. A broad cape, fitted to the shoulders, reaches down to the waist; it is apparently of woollen cloth, surrounded by an edging of yellow, perhaps gold-lace, The colours of this, as of the other garments, are most gorgeous, the right half being of a rich purple or blue, the left of a glowing scarlet with large round spots of purple. Beneath this is a coat fitting somewhat tightly to the body, opening down the front, but so as to wrap over considerably, with the corners rounded off; it reaches to the knees. Like the cape, it is half of purple and half of scarlet, the latter, however, without spots; an edging of golden hue borders it, and a golden girdle encircles the waist. An inner garment of linen, dyed bright yellow, reaches almost to the ankles, and completes this sumptuous raiment of "purple and fine linen." The complexion is florid without any olive tinge, the beard is copious, and, with the eyebrows, of a flaxen colour, and the eyes are blue.

The tribute brought by the Arvadites to Thothmes III., in many particulars confirms the identity of this people. That they were a commercial nation is shewn by the productions of very various regions being in their hands. They present a profusion of gold and silver vases, rings of the same metals, elegant vases of porcelain, jars filled with choice resins and fragrant gums for making incense, many jars of wine ("the wine of Lebanon," Hos. xiv. 7,) bundles of writing-reeds, bows and quivers of elegant workmanship, logs of rare woods resembling mahogany, chariots, horses of great beauty, a single tusk of ivory,

a bear, and an elephant. The richness, beauty, and abundance of the manufactured articles manifest that these people were a polished race; their long, close dresses, furnished with whole sleeves, and their gloves, which, made of white leather, and fingered, are as long as the whole arm, shew that they were accustomed to either a northern or a mountain climate; and the bear at once points out the identical region. Its yellowishwhite colour, its peculiar shape, its elevated ears, its mane and its tail, identify it beyond the shadow of a doubt with the Bear of Lebanon (Ursus Syriacus), an animal remarkably restricted in its locality, being unknown except as a native of the Syrian mountains. The elephant might seem to present some difficulty to the conclusion that these are a Syrian people; but perhaps this difficulty may be removed. The size of the ears shews that the elephant is of the Indian, not the African species; the yellow bear and the elephant are not natives of the same, nor even of contiguous regions, but as one people present these creatures at the same time, it is certain that one of the animals must have been presented as a curiosity to themselves as well as to the Egyptians. Now it is obvious that any people would be far more likely to consider worth presenting as a curiosity, the production of a country much more distant than their own, than the production of a country much nearer; therefore that the Tyrians would more probably send to Egypt an Indian animal, than Indians would offer one indigenous to Syria, to say nothing of an elephant being in itself more an object of curiosity than a bear. And when we consider that the ramifications of Phoenician

commerce had doubtless extended far over the continent of Asia; there is no difficulty in finding in their possession one of the domesticated animals of India.

On reviewing then the memorials which Egyptian art has preserved to us of these nearly related nations, the Sidonians, the Tyrians, and the Arvadites, we are struck with the numerous particulars in which they confirm the notices of the same tribes in the sacred scriptures. Especially we may recount their antiquity, their greatness, their renown, their opulence, their sumptuousness, their situation, in the neighbourhood of mountain forests, their maritime skill, and their wide-spread commerce.

The Philistines appear, from the genealogical table in Gen. x., to have been an offshoot from the Egyptian family of Mizraim. The contour of the features of this people, пT&, Palishta, as represented in the monumental sculptures and paintings, possesses a strong resemblance to that of the native Egyptians, though their complexion is a little lighter. The

It is not improbable that the temptation which these inexhaustible forests presented to a nation so ingenious and so industrious, but so utterly deficient of timber, as the Egyptians, may have been one strong motive for the repeated and long continued struggles of the Pharaohs for the dominion of Syria and Palestine. The immediate use which Sethos makes of his conquest of the Arvadites and Hermonites, shews how important he deemed the timber of their mountains. And through all the succeeding dynasties which have governed Egypt, even to this day, its supplies of timber have been still drawn from this source. From 50,000 to 80,000 trees are annually shipped from Syria for Egypt, at present.