182 THE SHEIK ABRAHAM. 



belief, having mingled with foreign elements, became 

 a national religion ; and how from that religion sprang 

 two other religions, which overspread the world. 



Long after the building of the Pyramids, but before 

 the dawn of Greek and Roman life, a Bedouin sheik, 

 named Abraham, accompanied by his nephew Lot, 

 migrated from the plains which lie between the Tigris 

 and Euphrates, crossed over the Syro-Arabian desert, 

 and entered Canaan, a country about the size of Wales, 

 lying below Phoenicia, between the desert and the 

 Mediterranean Sea. They found it inhabited by a 

 people of farmers and vine-dressers, living in walled 

 cities, and subsisting on the produce of the soil. But 

 only a portion of the country was under cultivation : 

 they discovered wide pastoral regions unoccupied by 

 men, and wandered at their pleasure from pasture to 

 pasture, and from plain to plain. Their flocks and 

 herds were nourished to the full, and multiplied so 

 fast, that the Malthusian Law came into force : the 

 herdsmen of Abraham and Lot began to struggle for 

 existence ; the land could no longer bear them both ; 

 it was therefore agreed that each should select a region 

 for himself. A similar arrangement was repeated more 

 than once in the lifetime of the patriarch. When his 

 illegitimate sons grew up to man's estate, he gave 

 them cattle, and sent them off in the direction of the 

 East. 



At certain seasons of the year he encamped beneath 

 the walls of cities, and exchanged the wool of his flocks 

 for flour, oil, and wine. He established friendships 

 with the native kings, and joined them in their wars. 

 He was honoured by them as a prince, for he could 

 bring three hundred armed slaves into the field, and 

 his circle of tents might fairly be regarded as a town. 



