had formed an idea of Chaos which
differed widely from that of most of the inland races, to whom it
presented itself as something silent and motionless: they imagined it
as swept by a mighty wind, which, gradually increasing to a roaring
tempest, at length succeeded in stirring the chaos to its very depths,
and in fertilizing its elements amidst the fury of the storm. No sooner
had the earth been thus brought roughly into shape, than the whole
family of the north winds swooped down upon it, and reduced it to
civilized order. It was but natural that the traditions of a seafaring
race should trace its descent from the winds.

In Phoenicia the sea is everything: of land there is but just enough
to furnish a site for a score of towns, with their surrounding belt
of gardens. Mount Lebanon, with its impenetrable forests, isolated it
almost entirely from Coele-Syria, and acted as the eastward boundary of
the long narrow quadrangle hemmed in between the mountains and the rocky
shore of the sea. At frequent intervals, spurs run out at right angles
from the principal chain, forming steep headlands on the sea-front:
these cut up the country, small to begin with, into five or six still
smaller provinces, each one of which possessed from time immemorial its
own independent cities, its own religion, and its own national history.
To the north were the Zahi, a race half sailors, half husbandmen, rich,
brave, and turbulent, ever ready to give battle to their neighbours,
or rebel against an alien master, be he who he might. Arvad,* which was
used by them as a sort of stronghold or sanctuary, was huddled together
on an island some two miles from the coast: it was only about a thousand
yards in circumference, and the houses, as though to make up for the
limited space available for their foundations, rose to a height of five
stories. An Astarte reigned there, as also a sea-Baal, half man, half
fish, but not a trace of a temple or royal palace is now to be found.**

* The name Arvad was identified in the Egyptian inscriptions
by Birch, who, with Hincks, at first saw in the name a
reference to the peoples of Ararat; Birch's identification,
is now accepted by all Egyptologists. The name is written
Aruada or Arada in the Tel el-Amarna tablets.

** The Arvad Astarte had been identified by the Egyptians
with their goddess Bastit. The sea-Baal, who has been
connected by some with Dagon of Askalon, is repre