first of a spongy plain, saturated with water, with scattered artificial mounds on which stood the clustered huts of the villages; between this plain and the shore stretched a labyrinth of fens and peat-bogs, irregularly divided by canals and channels freshly formed each year in flood-time, meres strewn with floating islets, immense reed-beds where the neighbouring peasants took refuge from attack, and into which no one would venture to penetrate without hiring some friendly native as a guide.  In this fenland dwelt the Kalda in their low, small conical huts of reeds, somewhat resembling giant beehives, and in all respects similar to those which the Bedawin of Irak inhabit at the present day.

[Illustration:  343.jpg ASSYRIAN SOLDIERS PURSUING KALDA REFUGEES IN A BED OF REEDS]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief reproduced in
     Layard.

Dur-Yakin, their capital, was probably situated on the borders of the gulf, near the Euphrates, in such a position as to command the mouths of the river.  Merodach-baladan, who was King of Bit-Yakin at the time of Sargon’s accession, had become subject to Assyria in 729 B.C., and had paid tribute to Tiglath-pileser, but he was nevertheless the most powerful chieftain who had borne rule over the Chaldaeans since the death of Ukinzir.*

* Dur-Yakin was situated on the shores of the Persian gulf, as is proved by a passage in the Bull Inscription, where it is stated that Sargon threw into the sea the corpses of the soldiers killed during the siege; the neighbourhood of the Euphrates is implied in the text of the Inscription des Fastes, and the Annals, where the measures taken by Merodach-baladan to defend his capital are described.  The name of Bit-Yakin, and probably also that of Dur-Yakin, have been preserved to us in the name of Aginis or Aginne, the name of a city mentioned by Strabo, and by the historians of Alexander.  Its site is uncertain, but can be located near the present town of Kornah.

It was this prince whom the Babylonians chose to succeed Shalmaneser V. He presented himself before the city, was received with acclamation, and prepared without delay to repulse any hostilities on the part of the Assyrians.

[Illustration:  344.jpg A REED-HUT OF THE BEDAWIN OF IRAK]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph in Peters.

He found a well-disposed ally in Elani.  From very ancient times the masters of Susa had aspired to the possession of Mesopotamia or the suzerainty over it, and fortune had several times favoured their ambitious designs.  On one occasion they had pressed forward their victorious arms as far as the Mediterranean, and from that time forward, though the theatre of their operations was more restricted, they had never renounced the right to interfere in Babylonian affairs, and indeed, not long previously, one of them had reigned for a period of seven years in Babylon in the interval