'Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up?"1 Such was "sheol," wrongly translated "hell" in English Bibles, and for hundreds of years the Israelites had no other belief than this vague one in a life after death. Their lawgivers and prophets, Moses, David, Isaiah, and others, made no appeal to men's fears or hopes by the doctrine of a heaven or a hell; the only reward for which the Israelite cared was to live long in the land which Jehovah had given him; to die young, "cut off from his people," was his direst dread; he whitewashed his tombs, and shrank from touching a corpse; in his legends of a happy past the patriarchs are represented as living hundreds of years on the earth,2 as in the prophet's vision of a brighter future “the child shall die an hundred years old."8

1 1 Sam. xxviii. 15.

2 Gen. v.

3 Isa. lxv. 20.

III.

The Conquest of Canaan.

WHEN the tribes struck their tents in Sinai, they turned northwards, and after some years of wandering and warring, had so far gained the mastery over other desert nomads as to secure a firm footing on the rich uplands east of the river Jordan. From these they could see Canaan, a land of hills and dales, of tilled plains, fertile valleys, walled cities, and other signs of settled life. The goodly sight raised their greed, and, made hardy by their bracing wilderness life, the bravest of them resolved to invade the land and win for themselves a settled home among vineyards which they had not dressed, and trees which they had not planted. But the task proved neither short nor easy; for the Canaanites, who were also of Semitic race, were well armed, inured to war by many struggles, and moreover defending their homes. Their weakness lay in the hilly nature of the country, which divided

them into thirty or forty petty "kingdoms," and for long years was a barrier to the union of the Israelites.

Canaan, or the "lowlands," since known by other names, as the Land of Israel, Palestine, Holy Land, is a narrow strip of country, hemmed in between the Mediterranean Sea and the river Jordan. From the mountains of Lebanon, which form its northern boundary, a range of lofty limestone hills, pierced with caverns and broken by many valleys, runs the whole length of the land as far as the desert of Sinai. On their western side these hills incline gently to fertile plains and a sandy coast, and on their eastern side descend more sharply to the deep and winding valley of the Jordan. The country is dotted in some places with the sites of old volcanoes, and in other parts is strewn with loose rocks, witnessing to the play of forces of terrible might, which ages back cracked and crumpled the crust, heaved the mountains and rent open the crooked valley, one of the most wonderful

clefts in the world, down which dashes the Jordan, called from its rapid fall, the "descender."

In the north the hills and dales are verdant and fruitful, and the landscape richly varied, but the bold outlines slope into barren ridges and stony valleys as the south is approached, until in the wilderness country around the Dead Sea the scenery is dreary and the region bare of any green thing. This very remarkable lake, into which the Jordan tamely creeps to its grave, "tarrying," as an old writer says,1 "as if loth to approach the hateful sea that swallows it up and spoils its precious waters by union with its own reeking waves," fills a wide part of the valley some 1300 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, and is walled-in on both sides by stern mountains; pillar-shaped masses of salt being scattered about its shores. Its clear but bitter waters, in which only very low forms of life are found, contain one-fourth solid matter, whereas common sea-water contains but one-twentyfifth ; and as they have no outlet, are drawn off by the

1 Pliny, Nat. Hist. vi. 5, 2.

sun's rays only, causing a dim mist to hang over the lake and adding to its weird appearance.

A great deal of nonsense has been written about this Dead Sea, or Sea of Lot, as the Arabs call it. It was said that dark clouds always floated over it, that no winds ever ruffled it, that no birds flew across it, that no creature could live in it, and that the whole land around bore witness to the curse of God. Such foolish

talk arose from the belief in an old legend that certain "cities of the plain,"1 Sodom, Gomorrah, and other places, had been destroyed by fire from heaven, and that the Dead Sea covered their site. One of the salt columns, which was shaped somewhat like a woman, was said to have been Lot's wife, who was thus punished for casting a longing look upon Sodom as she was escaping from it! Myths of this class are found the world over; in Africa and India certain queershaped standing stones are said to have been giants; the long rows of stones at Karnak to be petrified soldiers; one of the stone-circles in

1 Gen. xix. 24-29.