Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/55

 Western Asia Foot; turned around in 2 Donkey Bird; turned over with feet to the right we say a score, fourscore, fivescore. From this unit of sixty has descended our division of the circle (six sixties), and of the hour and minute. 121 36. The Semites. The great desert of Arabia extends northward as far as a crescent-shaped fertile belt stretching from Babylonia clear around to the Mediter- ranean coast. (This is called the " Fertile Cres- cent" on the map, p. 24, and colored green.) The desert had a sparse pop- ulation of nomads (which means wandering shep- herds and herdsmen) who wandered about and pitched their tents wherever they could find water and grass at cer- tain seasons to feed their flocks. These no- Ox; turned over in 2 Sun or Day Grain ; top of stalk turned over V it EARLY BABYLONIAN SIGNS AND THE ORIGINAL PICTURES FROM WHICH THEY DEVELOPED This list of eight signs shows clearly the pic- tures from which the signs came. The oldest form is in column i ; column 2 shows the departure from the picture and the appear- ance of the signs as the lines began to become wedges. In column j are the later forms, consisting only of wedges and showing no resemblance to the original picture mads belonged to the Semitic race, of which the Arabs and the Hebrews are the best- known members. When towns grew up here and there in the Fertile Crescent they were often attacked by the desert wanderers, who would now and then adopt town life themselves. 37. The Semites on the West End of the Fertile Crescent. As early as 3000 B.C. these nomads were drifting in from the desert and settling in Palestine, on the western end of the Fertile Cres- cent, where we find them in possession of walled towns five