724 



HITCHCOCK 



HITTITES 



Hitchcock, EDWARD, geologist, born at Deer- 

 field, Massachusetts, May 24, 1793, was succes- 

 sively Congregational pastor in Conway, Massa- 

 chusetts (1821-25), professor of Chemistry and 

 Natural History (1825-45) and of Natural Theo- 

 logy and Geology (1845-64) in Amherst College, 

 of which he was also president from 1845 to 1854. 

 He died on 27th February 1864. He was state 

 geologist of Massachusetts in 1830-44, and of Ver- 

 mont in 1857-61, and published very full reports, 

 as well as a volume (and supplement) on the 

 Ichnology of New England (1858-65). In 1850 he 

 was commissioned by the state to visit and examine 

 the chief agricultural schools of Europe (Report, 

 1851). But he chiefly distinguished himself in the 

 geological department of natural theology, writing 

 The Religion of Geology and its connected Sciences 

 ( 1851 ), which had a very wide circulation on both 

 sides of the Atlantic. His Elementary Geology 

 (1840) was also popular both in America and in 

 England. Hitchcock took an active part in found- 

 ing the American Association of Geologists and 

 Naturalists, and was its first president in 1840. 

 He was also one of the foundation members of the 

 National Academy of Sciences ( 1863). 



II ilrhin. a thriving market-town of Hertford- 

 shire, on the Hiz, through the Ivel a feeder of the 

 Ouse, 32 miles NNW. of London. An important 

 railway junction, it has a fine old parish church, a 

 modern town-hall, a free school (1622), a Friends' 

 school, &c. The principal trade is in corn, malt, 

 and flour ; there are several large breweries ; and 

 many females are employed in straw -plaiting. 

 Lavender has been grown here since 1568, and com- 

 mercially, for lavender-water, since 1823. Hitchin 

 was a place of some consequence in the days of 

 King Alfred. It was the original seat of Girton 

 College ( q. v. ). Pop. ( 1851 ) 5258 ; ( 1891 ) 8860. 



Hitppadc'sa ( lit. ' salutary counsel ' ), a famous 

 collection of fables and stories in Sanskrit litera- 

 ture, usually ascribed to the compilation of the 

 Brahman Vishnusarman. It is a popular summary 

 in four books of the larger work, the famous Pan- 

 chatantra, which directly and indirectly has been 

 the source whence a rich stream of folk-tales has 

 flowed westwards over Europe. An edition of the 

 text, with an English translation, was published 

 by F. Johnson in 1864 ; a French translation by 

 E. Lancereau in 1882. 



II i 1 1 rr'ii. an island off the west coast of Nor- 

 way ; area, 203 sq. m. Pop. 2700. 



Hit tiles, the English name of a people who 

 waged war with Egypt and Assyria for a thousand 

 years, and who moved on parallel lines with the 

 people of Israel from the call of Abraham to the 

 Captivity. The Hittites have scarcely any record 

 in classical history, but in late years we have much 

 information respecting them from various sources. 



First in order and importance are the narratives 

 of the Old Testament. When the Semitic tribe 

 with Abraham at their head moved from Haran to 

 Canaan the Hittites inhabited the land (Gen. xv. 

 20), and fifty years later Abraham, a wandering 

 sheikh, purchased a grave for his wife from the 

 Hittites, who were then in possession and power at 

 Hebron (Gen. xxiii. 4). The patriarch's family 

 continued to live side by side with the Hittites ; 

 and Esau, the bedawi, the grandson of Abraham, 

 married two Hittite wives, who ' were a grief of 

 mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah ' ( Gen. xxvi. 

 35). During the sojourn in Egypt the Israelites 

 had the promise or occupying the land of the 

 Hittites oft repeated, and from the bush on 

 Horeb the promise was again renewed to bring 

 them ' into the place of the Canaanites, and the 

 Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, 

 and the Hivites, and the Jebusites' (Exod. iii. 8). 



We now see that these peoples are mentioned 

 in their topographical order as viewed from the 

 Egyptian standpoint. The traveller northward 

 from Egypt first came to Canaan, then he reached 

 the Hittite colony in the neighbourhood of Hebron, 

 and finally arrived at the Jebusites, who then in- 

 habited Jebus, afterwards known as Jerusalem. 

 After the exodus the spies found ' the Hittites, 

 and the Jebusites, and the Amorites' dwelling in 

 the mountains whither they had been driven by 

 successive Egyptian invasions. The Hittites were 

 conspicuous among those who opposed Joshua's 

 entrance into the promised land, and the serried 

 lines of Hittite chariots were scattered in con- 

 fusion by Joshua's army in the decisive battle by 

 Lake Merom. Hittite captains marshalled and 

 led the hosts of David and Solomon, and Hittite 

 ladies were conspicuous in the harems of the 

 same renowned monarchs ( 1 Kings, xi. 1 ). King 

 David pushed his conquests and extended his 

 border in 'the land of the Hittites' (the correct 

 reading in 2 Sam. xxiv. 6 being not Tahtim-hodshi 

 but ' Kedesh of the Hittites') ; and, in the time of 

 Jehoram, Benhadad of Damascus fled headlong 

 from Samaria with his Syrian horde when an alarm 

 was raised that the Hittites were coming ( 2 Kings, 

 vii.). The geographical position generally of the 

 Hittites in the time of Joshua was ' from the 

 wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great 

 river, the river Euphrates . . . and unto the going 

 down of the sun' (Josh. i. 1-4). This summary of 

 the most important references to the Hittites in 

 the Old Testament covers a period of a thousand 

 years. 



Next in importance is the testimony of the 

 Egyptian and Assyrian inscriptions. In the Egyp- 

 tian inscriptions the Hittites stand out as rivals of 

 the Pharaohs in peace and war from the 12th to the 

 20th dynasty. As soon as the key was found to the 

 long silent records of Egypt and Assyria the veil 

 began to lift off dark continents of history, and 

 the forgotten but mighty Hittite people began to 

 emerge ; and now in the increasing light from Egypt 

 and Assyria they stand before us in broad outline 

 and in incidental detail. The two capitals of the 

 Hittites were Kadesh on the Orontes and Car- 

 chemish on the Euphrates. The centre of their 

 empire was in the north, but as an enterprising 

 people they pushed a wedge-like colony down 

 through Syria as far as Hebron and Egypt. 

 According to Brugsch, the Hittites appeared on 

 the Egyptian border as early as the 12th dynasty. 

 The capital of the Hyksos dynasty was Zoan or 

 Tanais, and Mariette declares that one of the Hyk- 

 sos dynasties was Hittite. In the Old Testament 

 there is a curious statement that ' Hebron was built 

 seven years before Zoan.' This casual statement 

 now seems to indicate the order in which the 

 Hittites consolidated their advance southward. 

 The wave of invasion reached Hebron and made a 

 lodgment there nine years before it swept over the 

 border and made a lodgment in the land of Goshen. 

 The discoveries at Tel-el- Amarna in 1887 throw 

 additional light on the Hittites in Syria and Pales- 

 tine, and a despatch written on a clay tablet, now 

 at Berlin, contains an urgent request from Egyp- 

 tian officers in Palestine for Egyptian assistance 

 against the Hittites, then marching southwards. 



Thothmes III. came to the throne about 1600 B.C. 

 The monuments of his reign, one of which stands 

 on the banks of the Thames, are very numerous. 

 In the hieroglyphics of Karnak there is a detailed 

 account of thirteen campaigns waged by this 

 Pharaoh against the Hittites. Great battles were 

 fought at Megiddo, at Carchemish, at Kadesh, and 

 elsewhere, and the Egyptian records boast of 

 victories over the Hittites ; but the Hittite resist- 

 ance was not broken, and succeeding years saw 



