lla lay on the banks of the Saluara, and
in the forests of the Amanos to the south of Gurgum. Kui maintained its
uneventful existence amid the pastures of Cilicia, near the marshes at
the mouth of the Pyramos. To the south of the Sajur, Bit-Agusi** barred
the way to the Orontes; and from their lofty fastness of Arpad, its
chiefs kept watch over the caravan road, and closed or opened it at
their will.

* Mikhri or Ismikhri, i.e. "the country of larches," was the
name of a part of the Amanos, possibly near the Pyramos.

** The real name of the country was Iakhanu, but it was
called Bit-Gusi or Bit-Agusi, like Bit-Adini, Bit-Bakhiani,
Bit-Omri, after the founder of the reigning dynasty. We must
place Iakhanu to the south of Azaz, in the neighbourhood of
Arpad, with this town as its capital.

They held the key of Syria, and though their territory was small in
extent, their position was so strong that for more than a century and
a half the majority of the Assyrian generals preferred to avoid this
stronghold by making a detour to the west, rather than pass beneath its
walls. Scattered over the plateau on the borders of Agusi, or hidden in
the valleys of Amanos, were several less important principalities, most
of them owing allegiance to Lubarna, at that time king of the Patina and
the most powerful sovereign of the district. The Patina had apparently
replaced the Alasia of Egyptian times, as Bit-Adini had superseded
Mitani; the fertile meadow-lands to the south of Samalla on the Afrin
and the Lower Orontes, together with the mountainous district between
the Orontes and the sea as far as the neighbourhood of Eleutheros, also
belonged to the Patina.

[Illustration: 052.jpg BAS-RELIEF FROM A BUILDING AT SINJIRLI]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Perrot and Chipiez.

On the southern frontier of the Patina lay the important Phoenician
cities, Arvad, Arka, and Sina; and on the south-east, the fortresses
belonging to Hamath and Damascus. The characteristics of the country
remained unchanged. Fortified towns abounded on all sides, as well as
large walled villages of conical huts, like those whose strange outlines
on the horizon are familiar to the traveller at the present-day. The
manners and civilisation of Chaldaea pervaded even more than formerly the
petty courts, but the artists clung persistently to Asianic tradition,
and the bas-reliefs which adorned the palaces and temples