elitzsch, as he believed it
to be an indigenous term which at first indicated the
district round Babylon, and afterwards the whole of
Babylonia. From one frequent spelling of the name, the
meaning appears to have been _Fortress of Duniash_; to this
Delitzsch preferred the translation _Garden of Duniash_,
from an erroneous different reading--Ganduniash: Duniash, at
first derived from a Chaldaean God _Dun_, whose name may
exist in _Dunghi_, is a Cossaean name, which the Assyrians
translated, as they did Buriash, _Belmatati_, lord of the
country. Winckler rejects the ancient etymology, and
proposes to divide the word as Kardu-niash and to see in it
a Cossaean translation of the expression _mat-kaldi_, country
of the Caldaeans: Hommel on his side, as well as Delitzsch,
had thought of seeking in the Chaldaeans proper--_Kaldi_ for
_Kashdi_, or _Kash-da_, "domain of the Cossaeans "--the
descendants of the Cossaeans of Karduniash, at least as far
as race is concerned. In the cuneiform texts the name is
written Kara--D. P. Duniyas, "the Wall of the god
Duniyas" (cf. the Median Wall or Wall of Semiramis which
defended Babylonia on the north).

The people of Sumir and Akkad, already a composite of many different
races, absorbed thus another foreign element, which, while modifying
its homogeneity, did not destroy its natural character. Those Cossaean
tribes who had not quitted their own country retained their original
barbarism, but the hope of plunder constantly drew them from their
haunts, and they attacked and devastated the cities of the plain
unhindered by the thought that they were now inhabited by their
fellow-countrymen. The raid once over, many of them did not return home,
but took service under some distant foreign ruler--the Syrian princes
attracting many, who subsequently became the backbone of their armies,*
while others remained at Babylon and enrolled themselves in the
body-guard of the kings.

* Halevy has at least proved that the Khabiri mentioned in.
the Tel el-Amarna tablets were Cossaeans, contrary to the
opinion of Sayce, who makes them tribes grouped round
Hebron, which W. Max Mueller seems to accept; Winckler,
returning to an old opinion, believes them to have been
Hebrews.

To the last they were an undisciplined militia, dangerous, and difficult
to please: one day they would