Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/138

 I02 Outlines of European History heroic leader Moses, who led them to Palestine. Here they found flourishing towns of the Canaanites (p. 59), who had long been settled in Palestine. The Canaanites also had once come from the desert ; they spoke a language hardly differing from Hebrew. But they had so long led a settled life that their towns were protected by massive walls (Figs. 55, 56). The camel cara- vans which entered their gates brought in merchandise both from the Nile and the Euphrates. There was here, therefore, a Fig. 54. The Central Ridge of Palestine seen from the Plain of Jericho Palestine is much cut up by such bare and sterile ridges of limestone, which produce nothing. Locate on map, p. 102 ; see Fig. 55 jumble of civilization from both these rivers. The Canaanites had learned from Egypt the manufacture of many valuable arti- cles of commerce ; from Babylonia the caravans had brought in bills and lists on clay tablets, and the Canaanites had thus learned to use Babylonian cuneiform writing (p. 62). The Hebrews were unable to destroy the Canaanites and their walled towns. They settled on the land around such towns and slowly mingled with the Canaanites until the two peoples, Hebrew and Canaanite, had become one. This process was of great advantage to the Hebrews, who thus gained the civilization of the Canaanites.