If there are but few letters from the father, there is a sufficient number, and of considerable extent, from the son. He, too, is the faithful servant of the Pharaoh, and he writes also to Dûdu (a form of the name David) and Ḫâi, telling of the difficulties which he had with regard to the king of the Hittites. It is apparently this prince to whom the Pharaoh writes in the letter translated on pp. 300-302, a circumstance which leads to the belief that the complaints of Rib-Addi with regard to Abdi-Aširti and his son Aziru were well-founded. That the king of Egypt asks therein for the delivery to him of certain persons whom he names, implies that he had trustworthy information as to who the intriguers were, and though apparently willing to give Aziru the benefit of the doubt, he certainly did not hold him blameless. It will probably be long ere the true order of these letters is known, and until this be found, much of the history of the period to which they refer must necessarily remain uncertain. Hittites. Another nationality which took a predominant part in the politics of ancient Palestine is the Hittites. To all appearance they were a later power than the Amorites, as their name does not occur in the inscriptions of Babylonia and Assyria until a comparatively late date, whilst the Amorites are mentioned 2200 years before Christ, and their name had become the common Assyro-Babylonian expression for “the west.” That the Hittites were nevertheless of considerable antiquity, however, is implied by the presence of the sons of Heth at Mamre in the time of Abraham, who purchased from Ephron the Hittite the cave of Machpelah in that place. It is difficult to assign to these people any definite limits, especially in early times, but it seems certain that they began to act far in the north, and gradually extended their power southwards. In the times of Joshua, the tract between the Lebanon and Euphrates is described as theirs, and their domain was, in fact, the country to the north of Palestine. It was no doubt due to their predominating power that the Assyrians of later days called the whole of Palestine “the land of Ḫatti,” a designation not altogether correct, but sufficient for their purpose, namely, that of indicating the position of the nationalities enumerated. Nevertheless, it had some justification, several colonies of these people inhabiting that district, as is indicated by Gen. xxiii. 3, xxv. 10; Numbers xiii. 29, etc. The statement in Ezekiel xvi. 3, that the father of Jerusalem was an Amorite and its mother a Hittite, shows what was the opinion of the more learned Jews of the time in the matter.