ptians confounded them
all under one name, Kefatiu, whether they were Cypriotes, Asiatics, or
Europeans, or belonged to the true Tyrian and Sidonian race. The
costume of the Kafiti was similar to that worn by the people of the
interior--the loin-cloth, with or without a long upper garment: while in
tiring the hair they adopted certain refinements, specially a series
of curls which the men arranged in the form of an aigrette above
their foreheads. This motley collection of races was ruled over by an
oligarchy of merchants and shipowners, whose functions were hereditary,
and who usually paid homage to a single king, the representative of the
tutelary god, and absolute master of the city.*

* Under the Egyptian supremacy, the local princes did not
assume the royal title in the despatches which they
addressed to the kings of Egypt, but styled themselves
governors of their cities.

The industries pursued in Phoenicia were somewhat similar to those of
other parts of Syria; the stuffs, vases, and ornaments made at Tyre and
Sidon could not be distinguished from those of Hamath or of Carchemish.

[Illustration 282.jpg ONE OF THE KAFITI FROM THE TOMB OF RAKHMIRI]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the coloured sketches by Prisse
d'Avennes in the Natural Hist. Museum.

All manufactures bore the impress of Babylonian influence, and their
implements, weights, measures, and system of exchange were the same
as those in use among the Chaldaeans. The products of the country
were, however, not sufficient to freight the fleets which sailed
from Phoenicia every year bound for all parts of the known world, and
additional supplies had to be regularly obtained from neighbouring
peoples, who thus became used to pour into Tyre and Sidon the surplus
of their manufactures, or of the natural wealth of their country. The
Phoenicians were also accustomed to send caravans into regions which
they could not reach in their caracks, and to establish trading stations
at the fords of rivers, or in the passes over mountain ranges. We
know of the existence of such emporia at Laish near the sources of the
Jordan, at Thapsacus, and at Nisibis, and they must have served the
purpose of a series of posts on the great highways of the world. The
settlements of the Phoenicians always assumed the character of colonies,
and however remote they might be from their fatherland, the colonists
never lost the manners and customs of their native