losses and private calamities to his dearest friends, conspired day by day to darken the sunset of the good Gino's life. That his sadness was deepened by his half-avowed disenchantment about the turn the politics of his newly emancipated country were taking, especially in matters relating to the quarrel between Church and State, it is but natural to believe. He had said of D'Azeglio that he did not know how to welcome old age with a good grace.'* But he was himself a pessimist, inclined to look with misgiving on human affairs; and even while he was still in the vigour of his manhood he was, he said, pointed out as a preacher of despair, or, at least, of passive inert resigna'tion.' †

At the bottom of all his gloom there was probably not a little of that morbid, melancholy, half-misanthropic tendency characteristic of the bilious Southern temperament common among his countrymen, and which the advance of years is seldom apt to improve.

ART. V.-Syrian Stone-Lore; or, the Monumental History of Palestine. By CLAUDE REIGNIER CONDER, R.E. Published for the Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. London: 1886.

U

NDER the title of Syrian Stone-Lore,' which, however, gives but an inadequate idea of the varied contents of his work, Captain C. R. Conder gives us the results of twenty years' exploration in Palestine, a country with which, perhaps, he has a more intimate acquaintance than any other traveller. The work before us is stated in the preface to be a treatise on the ancient condition of Palestine from the earliest recorded times, through the period of the Hebrew and Persian Monarchies, the Greek and Roman ages, the Byzantine and early Arab centuries, down to the close of the Frank dominion.' The social condition of the inhabitants of the country in each period, their race'origins, languages, religions, social customs, government, art, literature, and trade,' are all brought under notice.

* 'L'Azeglio è uomo che invecchia di mal umore.'-Lett. 784, Sept. 28, 1865, vol. iv. p. 79.

Io m' udiva chiamare Predicatore della Disperazione o almeno di troppo inerte Rassegnazione.'-Lett. 317, to Cesare Balbo, Sept. 5, 1844, vol. ii. p. 171.

The programme is a very extensive one, and anything like a complete investigation of such a subject would require many volumes, and not merely a popular handbook such as the one before us. Syria itself forms the main subject, and not merely the incidental parallel for consideration,' and the subject is concerned not so much with history or literature as with archæology and social conditions-with 'monuments and customs rather than with annals and 'books.' The author founds his review of the results of exploration and research not on the Biblical narratives, but simply on monumental records. He endeavours in the early chapters to show what could be known of Syria and of its inhabitants, Hebrews, Hittites, Phoenicians, &c., were there nothing left to us of Hebrew literature.' The ten chapters which the book contains treat of the Canaanites, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Jews and Samaritans, the Greek age, the Herodian age, the Roman age, the Byzantine age, the Arab conquest, and the Crusaders respectively.

6

To the Egyptians the country now called Syria was known under the name of Ruten, Upper and Lower, the former probably embracing the Lebanon and part of Asia Minor, the latter applying to the country which we call Palestine, extending eastwards to the Euphrates. The term Khar or Khal, frequent in Egyptian texts as the name both of a people and the country in which they dwelt, seems without doubt to denote Phoenicia and the Phoenicians, or those parts of Western Asia situated on the Syrian coast. The word Khar occurs also in the Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions, and, as Captain Conder says, most probably is connected with the Semitic root akher, the hinder side,' and hence 'the western quarter,' and has as its equivalent in the Accadian, Martu-i.e. house of the setting sun,' or the west. The term Canaan, which means 'lowlands,' refers to all the lowlands of Syria, and probably includes the Jordan valley; it occurs on the Phoenician coins of Laodicea (or Ramitha), a city which on coins of Seleucus is called 'mother of the Canaan.' The Egyptian records frequently mention the name of Shasu as tribes of the sons of the desert, in whom, as Brugsch says, science has already long since, and with perfect certainty, recognised the Bedouins of the earliest times.' Although the name of Shasu does not occur in the Hebrew Bible, the name may be clearly recognised in the word Hyksos-i.e. Hik-Shashu,' shepherd kings,' or 'kings of the wandering people,' which, according to history, at one period overflowed the Delta, and led

to the establishment of the Semitic Hyksos kings at Zoan. The well-known character of the modern Bedouin and his propensity to pillage and theft is reflected in the Egyptian Shashu, who were considered to be notorious thieves; indeed the term was sometimes used to express 'robbers.' In an interesting account of a journey of a Mohar in the reign of Rameses II., we get a glimpse of the condition of Syria in the fourteenth century B.C. The Mohar apparently is crossing the Carmel watershed to the Sharon plain; the pass is rocky, and infested by Shasu thieves.

'Although the name of Egyptian was regarded with terror even in the vicinity of Megiddo, and secured obedience near Tyre and Joppa, still the country was throughout infested by Shasu, who took opportunities of stealing all they could from the Mohar, and his journey is mentioned as the feat of a bold explorer in wild lands. The condition of Palestine reminds us, in fact, of that which is mentioned in the Book of Judges, when every man did that which was right in his own eyes.'

Modern travellers who have journeyed through the infertile hill country between Jerusalem and Jericho, and have surveyed the barren and desolate scene presented by the view of the country on the plains of the Jordan, with the mountain ranges of Moab and Jericho, have sometimes wondered what attractions the promised land held out to the invading hosts of the Israelites; what there was, in fact, which was worth so much fighting and peril. There can be no doubt that the present aspect of the country differs from that presented in early times, and that Palestine was a land of greater fertility than it is now. At any rate we know from Egyptian records, especially from the lists of the spoils taken by Thothmes III. during his campaign against Kadesh and Megiddo, that Syria was rich in corn, wine, oil, in gold and silver, works of art, arms and armour, &c. Making all allowance for natural exaggeration in the account of the scribe of Thothmes III., we still obtain an

astonishing idea of the civilisation of the Syrians before its conquest by Joshua. At Megiddo, where the assembled Phoenicians, Hittites, and other peoples encountered the Egyptian invaders, the spoil was enormous; horses, foals, bulls, and cows, buffaloes (wild oxen), and goats are enumerated, with 280,200 bushels of corn from the plains of Megiddo, and mulberries, figs, and vines, incense in amphora, honey, logs of sycamore for burning. Silver statues are noticed, and an ark of gold; statues of the chief of Megiddo, of ebony inlaid with gold, the head being of gold, and seven poles of the pavilion (perhaps temple pillars) plated with silver. The chariots taken were plated with gold. Two hundred suits of armour of brass or bronze, bows

and swords are enumerated, with precious stones, gold in rings and silver in rings, shekels or weights of gold, lapis lazuli, the ornaments of a chief's daughter, gold dishes and vases, a cup (the work of the Kharu or Phoenicians), bronze vessels and stone vases from Assyria, a sceptre of gold inlaid with jewels, and tables studded with gems. Of other furniture mention is made, including chairs of gold, ivory, ebony, and cedar inlaid with gold, together with the footstools of these chairs and thrones; large tables of ivory and cedar, decorated with gems and gold, are also enumerated, and boxes or coffers of gold.'

Of the megalithic stone monuments of Syria Captain Conder gives an interesting account. These rude stone structures, of which of late years many examples have been described, are clearly attributable to the early inhabitants of the land; in some cases to early Aryan tribes, in others apparently to Semitic people. Such rude monuments have been found distributed over many parts of Europe and Western Asia, and are known by the names of menhirs, or 'standing stones erected as memorials, and worshipped as deities, with libations of blood, milk, honey or water 'poured upon the stones;' dolmens, stone tables,' from daul, a table,' and maen, 'a, stone,' which seem to have been used as altars on which victims, often human, were offered; cairns, memorials sometimes surrounding menhirs, made by the contributions of numerous visitors or pilgrims each adding a stone as witness of his presence; and, finally, cromlechs, or stone-circles, used as sacred enclosures or early hypæethral temples, often with a central menhir or 'dolmen as statue or altar.' We are told that examples of these rude stone monuments exist in great numbers in all parts of the country east of Jordan; but with the exception of a few examples in Galilee no such structures, after a thorough examination of Palestine proper, have been found west of the Jordan, their non-appearance there receiving a probable explanation from their destruction by Hezekiah and Josiah in accordance with the instructions in Deuteronomy to demolish the religious emblems of the Canaanites. Similar monuments, the work of early Hebrews, are referred to in the Bible; the stone of Bethel was a menhir, the cairn of Mizpeh a memorial heap. Human sacrifice in order to appease the wrath of the offended deity or deities was practised by the Accadians and other early Asiatic tribes, and this cruel custom survived to a very late date among the Phoenicians. The licentious worship of Istar seems to reveal itself in the Hebrew name of Succoth Benoth (booths of

'the daughters'), whose worship the Babylonish settlers in Samaria set up (2 Kings xvii. 2); the term Succoth Benoth being the Hebrew name of the Assyrian goddess. The celebration of these memorial orgies, an important feature of all early Asiatic religions, was common in Syria in the fifth century A.D.; and Captain Conder says it is tolerably certain that they survive among the mountaineers of Lebanon to the present day; while another authority, Dr. Chaplin, asserts that the lingam worship of India still exists in Palestine near the Sea of Galilee. As another example of the persistency of old customs may be mentioned the use of caves as dwelling places. The early Accadians dwelt occasionally in caves, as may be concluded from the fact that the old pictorial or hieroglyphic form of the cuneiform character denoting a house is a rude picture of a cave or hole in the ground. The Hebrews in the time of Saul and David had not entirely ceased to dwell in caves, and doubtless Beth Horon, house of the cavern,' and the Horites, or men of the hole,' are thus explained, and the Syrian peasantry are even now to some extent troglodytic.

6

For the study of Phoenician antiquities in connexion with the Old Testament from the time of Solomon downwards, we have materials in the statues, buildings, metal work, and gems and coins of Phoenicia serving to illustrate the contemporary civilisation of the Hebrew people. One of the primitive emblems used by the Phoenicians is the hand,' and appears to explain the Hebrew name Yad, i.e. hand,' in the memorial raised by Absalom, and in that erected by Saul at Carmel. Saul came to Carmel; and, behold, he 'set him up a place' (1 Sam. xv. 12). The Hebrew word here translated place is yad (7), a hand.' The pillar which Absalom raised to keep his name in remembrance, as he had no son, was known in aftertimes as Absalom's 'place' (hand) (2 Sam. xviii. 18). Some monument is doubtless intended; and as the hand occurs on votive steles, and is still a charm in Syria under the name of Kef Miriam, the Virgin Mary's hand,' and a charm against the Evil Eye, it is probable that Absalom's monument was similar to one of these Phoenician steles. The red hand, we are told, is painted on walls, and occurs in the Hagia Sophia at Constantinople and elsewhere. It is common also in Ireland and in India (Siva's hand), and on early sceptres, always as an emblem of good luck. Ashtoreth, under all her names, was the great goddess of the Phoenicians. Her head-dress, around tire like the moon'-of

VOL. CLXV. NO. CCCXXXVIII.

EE