Canaanites, to "upset" their altars, and to destroy their images. These commands Josiah, the zealous king of Judah, is recorded to have carried into practice.
Who built these structures? They are very likely the surviving work of Canaanite tribes. Herr Schumacher assigns those of the Hauran to the same period as the subterranean cities.
There is a curious archæological note in Deuteronomy, which speaks of the bedstead of Og, the king of Bashan, a bedstead 9 cubits long by 4 cubits wide. The passage had very much exercised the ingenuity of commentators, and some of them supposed it to refer to a sarcophagus of basalt. The Bible indeed speaks of a bedstead of iron; but basalt is a material which resembles iron in appearance, and which is actually known by the name of iron among the Arabs, while a stone coffin might allowably be spoken of as a bed or bedstead. But Conder says there is no basalt at Rabbath, and thinks it doubtful if Og was likely to be buried in a sarcophagus at all. He is disposed to render the words as Og's strong throne, instead of "iron bedstead." A memory of Irish dolmens suggested to him a possible connection between Og's throne and some rude stone monument which tradition might have indicated as a giant's seat, just as in Ireland dolmens are the "beds of Grain and Diarmed," and connected with legends of giants. It was, therefore, very striking to find a single enormous dolmen standing alone in a conspicuous position near Rabbath Ammon, and yet more striking that the top stone measured 13 feet (or very nearly 9 cubits of 16 inches) by 11 feet in extreme breadth.
If we look for a coffin or a bedstead rather than a dolmen, it is very striking to find that parallels exist both for bedsteads and coffins of the same gigantic dimensions. Dr Erasmus Wilson, describing the coffins and mummies found at Deir-el-Bahari, says that, "the coffin of Queen Nefertari
