Note (return) — Chapter II
Reading edition
Like the Amorites and the Amorite tribe of Jebusites at Jerusalem, the Hittites were mountaineers.2 The hot river-valleys and the sea-coast were inhabited by Canaanites. Canaan is supposed to mean "the lowlands" of the Mediterranean shore; here the Canaanites had built their cities, and ventured in trading ships on the sea. But they had also settled in the inland plains, and more especially in the valley of the Jordan. The plain of Jezreel formed, as it were, the centre of the Canaanitish kingdoms.