The scantiness of political information and the distinctive arrangement of material preclude the attempt to trace the relative position of the two rivals.
The scantiness of historical tradition makes a final solution impossible, but the study of these years has an important bearing on the history of the later Judaean state, which has been characteristically treated from the standpoint of exiles who returned from Babylonia and regard them selves as the kernel of " Israel."
However, both the recovery of the compilers' aims and attempted reconstructions are precluded from finality by the scantiness of independent historical evidence.
But the former is tainted by venality, which, aggravated by the scantiness of judicial salaries or in some cases by the judge having no salary at all, is almost universal among the administrators of justice.
In some places the oblique Mongolian eye is noticed, and (together with certain Indo-Chinese customs) there is often a scantiness of beard and general "Malay" look, which increases westwards, and seems to imply relations with the archipelago subsequent to the departure thence of the pure Polynesians.