from the East, sheikhs of the Midianites,
Moabites, and Ammonites--all these marauding peoples of the frontier
whose incursions are put on record--gave them continual trouble, and
rendered their existence so miserable that they were unable to develop
their institutions and attain the permanent freedom after which they
aimed. But their real dangers--the risk of perishing altogether, or of
falling back into a condition of servitude--did not arise from any of
these quarters, but from the Philistines.

* There are two views as to the nature of the sacrifice of
Jephthah's daughter. Some think she was vowed to perpetual
virginity, while others consider that she was actually
sacrificed.

By a decree of Pharaoh, a new country had been assigned to the remnants
of each of the maritime peoples: the towns nearest to Egypt, lying
between Raphia and Joppa, were given over to the Philistines, and the
forest region and the coast to the north of the Philistines, as far as
the Phoenician stations of Dor and Carmel,* were appropriated to the
Zakkala. The latter was a military colony, and was chiefly distributed
among the five fortresses which commanded the Shephelah.

* We are indebted to the _Papyrus Golenischeff_ for the
mention of the position of the Zakkala at the beginning of
the XXIst dynasty.

[Illustration: 292.jpg A ZAKKALA]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a "squeeze."

Gaza and Ashdod were separated from the Mediterranean by a line of
sand-dunes, and had nothing in the nature of a sheltered port--nothing,
in fact, but a "maiuma," or open roadstead, with a few dwellings and
storehouses arranged along the beach on which their boats were drawn
up. Ascalon was built on the sea, and its harbour, although well enough
suited for the small craft of the ancients, could not have been entered
by the most insignificant of our modern ships. The Philistines had here
their naval arsenal, where their fleets were fitted out for scouring
the Egyptian waters as a marine police, or for piratical expeditions
on their own account, when the occasion served, along the coasts of
Phoenicia. Ekron and Gath kept watch over the eastern side of the plain
at the points where it was most exposed to the attacks of the people
of the hills--the Canaanites in the first instance, and afterwards
the Hebrews. These foreign warriors soon changed their mode of life in
contact with the indigenous inhabitants; daily intercours