tering southward for several
centuries, with the tall, fair-haired, and grey-eyed "Keltoi"
(Celts),[413] who, Dr. Haddon believes, were representatives of "the
mixed peoples of northern and Alpine descent".[414] Mr. Hawes,
following Professor Sergi, holds, on the other hand, that the Achaeans
were "fair in comparison with the native (Pelasgian-Mediterranean)
stock, but not necessarily blonde".[415] The earliest Achaeans were
rude, uncultured barbarians, but the last wave came from some unknown
centre of civilization, and probably used iron as well as bronze
weapons.

The old Cretans were known to the Egyptians as the "Keftiu", and
traded on the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It is significant to
find, however, that no mention is made of them in the inscriptions of
the Pharaohs after the reign of Amenhotep III. In their place appear
the Shardana, the Mykenaean people who gave their name to Sardinia,
the Danauna, believed to be identical with the Danaoi of Homer, the
Akhaivasha, perhaps the Achaeans, and the Tursha and Shakalsha, who
may have been of the same stock as the piratical Lycians.

When Rameses II fought his famous battle at Kadesh the Hittite king
included among his allies the Aramaeans from Arabia, and other
mercenaries like the Dardanui and Masa, who represented the
Thraco-Phrygian peoples who had overrun the Balkans, occupied Thrace
and Macedonia, and crossed into Asia Minor. In time the Hittite
confederacy was broken up by the migrating Europeans, and their
dominant tribe, the Muski[416]--the Moschoi of the Greeks and the
Meshech of the Old Testament--came into conflict with the Assyrians.
The Muski were forerunners of the Phrygians, and were probably of
allied stock.

Pharaoh Meneptah, the son of Rameses II, did not benefit much by the
alliance with the Hittites, to whom he had to send a supply of grain
during a time of famine. He found it necessary, indeed, to invade
Syria, where their influence had declined, and had to beat back from
the Delta region the piratical invaders of the same tribes as were
securing a footing in Asia Minor. In Syria, Meneptah fought with the
Israelites, who apparently had begun their conquest of Canaan during
his reign.

Before the Kassite Dynasty had come to an end, Rameses III of Egypt
(1198-1167 B.C.) freed his country from the perils of a great invasion
of Europeans by land and sea. He scattered a fleet on the Delta coast,
and then arrested the progress of a strong f