their migratory state,
before they settled on the coast of Palestine.

[Illustration: 301.jpg PULASATI]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato.

Crete was at this time the seat of a maritime empire, whose chiefs were
perpetually cruising the seas and harassing the civilized states of
the Eastern Mediterranean. These sea-rovers had grown wealthy through
piracy, and contact with the merchants of Syria and Egypt had awakened
in them a taste for a certain luxury and refinement, of which we find
no traces in the remains of their civilization anterior to this period.
Some of the symbols in the inscriptions found on their monuments recall
certain of the Egyptian characters, while others present an original
aspect and seem to be of AEgean origin. We find in them, arranged in
juxtaposition, signs representing flowers, birds, fish, quadrupeds
of various kinds, members of the human body, and boats and household
implements. From the little which is known of this script we are
inclined to derive it from a similar source to that which has furnished
those we meet with in several parts of Asia Minor and Northern Syria.
It would appear that in ancient times, somewhere in the centre of the
Peninsula--but under what influence or during what period we know not--a
syllabary was developed, of which varieties were handed on from tribe
to tribe, spreading on the one side to the Hittites, Cilicians, and
the peoples on the borders of Syria and Egypt, and on the other to the
Trojans, to the people of the Cyclades, and into Crete and Greece. It
is easy to distinguish the Pulasati by the felt helmet which they wore
fastened under the chin by two straps and surmounted by a crest of
feathers. The upper part of their bodies was covered by bands of leather
or some thick material, below which hung a simple loin-cloth, while
their feet were bare or shod with short sandals. They carried each a
round buckler with two handles, and the stout bronze sword common to
the northern races, suspended by a cross belt passing over the left
shoulder, and were further armed with two daggers and two javelins.
They hurled the latter from a short distance while attacking, and then
drawing their sword or daggers, fell upon the enemy; we find among them
a few chariots of the Hittite type, each manned by a driver and two
fighting men. The Tyrseni appear to have been the most numerous after
the Pulasati, next to whom came the Zakkala. The latter are t