LNG befre peple knew hw t write， there lived a carpenter named Cadmus.ne day he was at wrkn a huse when he wanted a tl that he had left at hme. Picking up a chipf wd， he wrte smethingn it and， handing it t his slave， tld him t g t his hme and give the chip t his wife， saying that it wuld tell her what he wanted. The slave， wndering， did as he was tld. Cadmus"s wife lked at the chip， and withut a wrd handed the tl t the amazed slave， wh thught the chip in sme mysterius way had spken the message. When he returned t Cadmus with the tl， he begged fr the remarkable chip， and when it was given him， hung it arund his neck fr a charm.
This is the stry the Greeks tldf the man they say invented the alphabet. We believe， hwever， that Cadmus was a mythical persn， fr the Greeks liked t make up such stries， and we think nne persn made the alphabet. But Cadmus was a Phenician and we d knw that the Phenician peple invented the alphabetn whichurs is based. Yu prbably call it yur A B C"s， but the Greeks had much harder names fr the letters. They called A alpha， B beta， and sn. S the Greek by spkef learning his alpha beta， and that is why we call it the alphabet.
Yu may never have heardf Pheniciar the Phenician peple. Yet， if there had been n such cuntry as Phenicia， yu might nw be learning atschl t read and write in hierglyphicsr in cuneifrm.
Up t this time， yu knw， peple had very clumsy waysf writing. The Egyptians had t draw pictures， and the Babylnians made writing like chicken tracks. The alphabet that the Phenicians invented had twenty-tw letters， and frm it we get the alphabet we use tday.
f curse， we d nt use just the same alphabet nw that the Phenicians did， but smef the letters are almst， if nt quite， like thseCadmus"s slave and the chip（卡德摩斯的奴隶和那块木片）we nw have after three thusand years. Fr instance，the Phenician A was writtenn its side-E was written backward-Z was written just the same-z was written just the same-The Phenicians lived next dr t the Jews； like the Jews， they were Semites. Their cuntry was just nrthf the kingdmf the Jews； that is， abve itn the map and lying alng the shref the Mediterranean Sea.
The Phenicians had a great king named Hiram wh lived at the same time as Slmn. In fact， Hiram was a friendf Slmn and sent him smef his best wrkmen t help build a temple at Jerusalem. Yet Hiram himself and the Phenicians did nt believe in the Jewish Gd.
The Phenicians wrshiped idls named Baal and Mlch， which they called gdsf the sun. They als believed in a gddessf the mn named Astarte and made sacrificesf live children t her idl， Fe-Fi-F-Fum； this is a real stry and nt a fairy tale. Just suppse yu had been a child then！
The Phenicians were great business peple. They made many things t sell， such asbjects carved frm ivry， engraved gld and silver items， and beautiful glassware. They knew hw t weave wlen and linen clth， and were well knwn fr the dyed clth and rbes that they manufactured.
They knew the secretf making a wnderful purple dye frm the bdyf a little shell-fish that lived in the water near the cityf Tyre. This dye was knwn as Tyrian purple frm the namef that city， and it was s beautiful that kings" rbes were clred with it.
Tyre and Sidn were the tw chief citiesf Phenicia， andnce upn a time they were twf the busiest cities in the wrld.
Inrder t find peple t sell t， the Phenicians traveled in bats allver the Mediterranean Sea and even wentutside this sea int the Greatcean. Thispening is nw called the Straitf Gibraltar， but was then knwn as the Pillarsf Hercules. They went as far as the British Isles and alng the castf Africa. Manyther peple in thse days had nt dared t g s far in bats； they thught they wuld cme t the edgef thecean and tumbleff. But the Phenicians had n such fear， and s they were the greatest sailrs as well as the greatest tradersf their times. Their ships were built frm the cedar trees that grewn the slpesf their hills. The trees were called the cedarsf Lebann.
Inne way， the Phenicians were very shrt-sighted. They cut dwn all their wnderful cedar trees until almst nne were left. Then n mre ships-r anything else-culd be made with the strng wd. D yu think we wuld ever d anything as flish as that？
70 美国学生世界历史 · A Child"s Histryf the wrldWhen the Phenicians fund gd harbrs fr their bats， theyften started little twns where they traded with the lcal peple.ften they drve a hard bargain， trading purple clth wrth very little fr gldr silverrther things wrth a great deal.n the castf nrth Africa，nef these twns they started was called Carthage. Carthage later grew t be very strng and wealthy-but yu will have t wait a while until I cme t that stry.
【中文阅读】
人类在知道如何写字之前很久很久，有个名叫卡德摩斯的木匠。一天，他正在 造房子，忽然想起有件工具忘在家里了。他捡起一块木片，在上面写了几笔，然后 把木片递给他的奴隶，要他回去交给女主人，说木片会告诉她自己要的是什么。奴 隶感到纳闷，照他的话去做了。卡德摩斯的妻子看了看木片，什么也没说就把工具 递给了十分惊异的奴隶。奴隶认为这块木片一定是以一种神秘的方式传递了主人的 信息。当他拿着工具回去交给卡德摩斯的时候，乞求主人把这块神奇的木片赐给他。 得到允许之后，他就把它挂在脖子上当做护身符。
这是希腊人所说的发明了字母的人的故事。不过，我们相信卡德摩斯只是个虚 构的人物，因为希腊人喜欢编撰这类故事。我们认为字母不是由"一个人"发明的。 不过，卡德摩斯是腓尼基人，而我们确信腓尼基人发明了早期的字母表，为我们今 天使用的字母表打下了基础。我们读字母表发音很简单，就是 A、B、C……但是希 腊人的字母读法就难得多。他们把 A 读作"阿尔法"（alpha），B 读作"贝它"(beta)， 等等。所以，希腊的孩子学习是从"阿尔法"和"贝它"开始的，这也是为什么我 们把"字母表"叫做 alphabet 的原因。
你可能从未听说过腓尼基或腓尼基人，但是如果历史上没有腓尼基这个国家， 你现在可能正在学校学习用象形文字或楔形文字来读和写。
读到这里你知道了，人们有过很笨拙的书写方式。埃及人写字就得画画，巴比 伦人写的字像鸡爪印。腓尼基人发明的字母表有 22 个字母，由此演变成了我们今天 使用的字母表。
当然，我们使用的字母和腓尼基人的并不一样，但是，他们的一些字母和三千 年后的我们使用的字母样子差不多少。例如：
腓尼基人的字母 A 是侧着写--
E 是反着写--
Z 和我们的一样--Z 和我们的一样--
腓尼基人和犹太人相邻，他们和犹太人一样，也是闪米特人。他们的国家刚好位于犹太王国的北边；也就是说，在地图上，它在犹太王国的上面，位于地中海 沿岸。
腓尼基人有一位伟大的国王叫海勒姆，和所罗门生活在同一个时代。实际上， 海勒姆还是所罗门的朋友，曾经派出一些最好的工匠帮助所罗门建造耶路撒冷的圣 殿。不过海勒姆本人和腓尼基人并不信仰犹太人的上帝。
他们崇拜的神有巴尔神和摩洛神，他们称这两个神为太阳神。他们还信仰名叫 阿施塔特的月亮女神，并杀死儿童向她的神像献祭，阿弥陀佛，这可是真人真事， 不是神话故事。假如你是生活在那个时代的孩子，该是多么令人恐怖啊！
腓尼基人是非常了不起的商人，他们制作了各种各样的东西来卖，比如象牙雕 刻品、精雕细刻的金银饰品、晶莹剔透的玻璃制品等等。他们还会织毛纺布和亚麻 布，他们制作的染色布料和染色长袍也极负盛名。
他们知道制作一种鲜亮的紫色染料的秘诀，它是从一种小牡蛎身体里提取的， 这种小牡蛎就生活在提尔城附近的海域里。所以，这种紫色染料以提尔城的名字而 取名为提尔紫，提尔紫非常鲜亮，因此国王们的长袍都染成提尔紫。
提尔和西顿是腓尼基的两座主要城市，也曾经是世界上最繁忙的两座城市。 为了打开销路，腓尼基人驾船走遍了地中海，甚至出地中海进入大西洋。这个出海口现在叫直布罗陀海峡，但是那时叫"赫拉克勒斯之柱"。他们的足迹远至大不列 颠群岛和非洲海岸，而当时的很多人可不敢驾船航行那么远，因为他们认为走到海洋 的边缘就会摔下去。可是，腓尼基人却没有这样的担心，所以他们是那个时代最伟大 的航海家和商人。他们的船是用长在山坡上的雪松建造的，这种树叫黎巴嫩雪松。
在某一点上，腓尼基人目光又很短浅。他们砍倒所有挺拔的雪松树，直到一棵 也不剩，结果再也没有这种坚实的木头去造船或其他什么东西了。 你觉得我们也会 做类似这样的蠢事吗？
腓尼基人一找到适合停泊的港口，就开始在那里建一个镇子，和当地人做生意。 他们总是很善于讨价还价，用成本很低的紫色布匹换来真金、白银或其他贵重物品。 在北非沿岸，他们也兴建了一些城市，其中有一个叫迦太基。迦太基后来发展得非 常强大富有--但是你得等一会儿，我再讲它的故事。
公元前 1000 年
