A few years ago the subject-matter of the present volume might have been condensed into a few pages. Beyond what we would gather from the Old Testa ment, we knew but little about the history and geo graphy of Canaan before the age of its conquest by the Israelites. Thanks, however, to the discovery and decipherment of the ancient monuments of Babylonia and Assyria, of Egypt and of Palestine, all this is now changed. A ?ood of light has been poured upon the earlier history of the country and its inhabitants, and though we are still only at the beginning of our discoveries we can already sketch the outlines of Canaanitish history, and even fill them in here and there.