them, Mr. Davis says: "The name of one deity is invariably found on all, and that is Baal-Hammon; while that of the protecting deity of the devotee, as well as his own name, generally comes after. The names of the gods thus placed in secondary position, and, in all probability, as a kind of intercessors, are Melcareth, Ashtaroth, Ashmon, etc. There are instances where tablets are dedicated to Baal-Hammon exclusively, without mention being made of any other deity; while out of upward of a hundred inscriptions that I have dug up, there is not one so dedicated to the other divinities." One is thus rendered:

TO THE GODDESS TO TANATH THE COUNTENANCE OF BAAL [FEM.]; TO THE LORD TO BAAL-HAMMON, A MAN VOWED,

EVEN ARSHAMBAN, A VOTARY OF ASTARTE AND A FILIAL DEVOTEE OF ASHMON: AS THOU HEAREST THE SUPPLICATION, DO THOU BLESS!

Baal-Hammon was the sun-god, to whom, says Sanchoniatho, men "stretched forth their hands; for him they thought the only god and lord of heaven." In him is comprised Jupiter, Saturn, Apollo, (Sol,) and Mars, and he is the cruel Molech of Scripture. His worship extended from Babylon to Britain; and even at the present day, in Ireland and Wales, Bel-tein is observed by running through fires made upon the hill tops. The Israelites were forbidden to serve him, but "they built the high places of Baal, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech." Jer. xxxii, 35. Mr. Davis has found the site of his temple at Carthage. Deeper digging than other explorers had thought necessary uncovered remains of a temple of circular construction, proved by itself to have belonged to Saturn. In the center is a circle twenty-nine feet in diameter. Around this, in the order mentioned, are twelve "pilasters," standing four and a half feet apart, and each ten feet thick; a gallery sixteen feet wide; another circle of twelve pilasters standing further apart, each four feet thick; a gallery of eighteen feet; twelve pilasters six feet thick; a gallery of twenty feet; and, surrounding this, another series of pilasters twelve feet in thickness, (not now so complete as the others,) making the building two hundred feet in diameter from outside to outside. The four series may represent the four weeks in the month; the twelve pilasters the

twelve months in the year; the circle the period of the earth's annual revolution. The ground-plan of the building strongly resembles the sun in the center of our system, and his broadly diverging rays. These Roman ruins are supposed to be on the site of the original temple, traces of which are discovered in the existing masonry. The only relic recovered here was a piece of mosaic in the first gallery. But in the center, fifteen feet deeper than previous excavations had been made, was found "a thick layer of burnt earth mixed with bones." Beneath this was the natural rock. Here, doubtless, stood the brazen image of the terrible Baal, and these are the remains of his human victims. This temple was held in special reverence, and was the depository of the most important and valuable documents; but it is especially memorable for its human sacrifices. No efforts of friends or foes could stop the practice, even after the rebuilding of the city, and as late as the time of Tertullian. A Punic inscription, found in the vicinity of the temple-"the gem of Punic epigraphy hitherto discovered," and known, by the formation of the characters, to belong to free Carthage-shows it to have been an injunction of their religion. A portion of it reads thus: "The immolation of man is ordered by precepts, and there exists likewise a rule respecting annual victims. To the priest is to be presented the man to be immolated to God, completely fortified, and in an opportune time."

Tanath is identified with Aphrodite Tanaïs of Babylon, and with Diana-not the huntress, but the oriental Artemis, Diana of the Ephesians. Her worship appears to have been introduced into Africa by the Persians who followed Hercules hither, and to have become so fully established that the first Phoenician settlers found her name given to one of the towns upon the coast. It was easy to adore the old divinity under the new name, and when they had become masters of the country, to give her proper place to Astarte without abolishing the worship of Tanath.

Astarte, daughter of the gods and queen of heaven, is the Ashtaroth of Scripture, whose corrupt worship was so frequently joined with that of Baal, and identical with Venus, Juno, and Ceres. It will be remembered that the first discoveries were in the district of Astarte, in a chapel of minor deities.

No remains of the chief temple are found except votive tablets; but it is easy to believe Virgil's gorgeous description of the temple in a grove in the midst of the city, donis opulentum et numine Diva. The excavations brought nothing to light showing that the impure rites practiced in her honor in the East were known at Carthage, but we cannot conclude with Mr. Davis that the religion of Syria was so transformed in its emigration to Africa as to approach to even a tolerable purity. A chamber within the Astarte district, when cleared of its rubbish, disclosed a beautiful Roman mosaic in the Punic style, exhibiting a hunting scene. The costume of the huntsmen, the trappings of the horses, the animals of the country, and the apparatus of the chase, furnish a picture answering to Virgil's description of the hunt given in honor of the Trojan guests. May this have been a chapel of Diana? In this district, a little south of Moalkah, are the prostrate ruins of the amphitheater, which as late as the twelfth century retained marked evidences of its former splendor. A little further south are traces of the circus, about ten thousand feet in length, nearly as large as the Roman circus Maximus, which accommodated two hundred and fifty thousand persons.

Evidence of distinct epochs of Carthage is found in the sepulchers of the dead. Burial is more ancient than burning, and burial at the house of the departed of an earlier date than in localities specially devoted to the purpose. One Roman tomb, resembling a white marble sarcophagus, was opened, where the two practices were combined-the body being first deposited within it and then burned. It contained charred wood and human bones. At another place Roman graves were found, and, ten feet below them, tombs attached to private houses, to which must be assigned a date prior to any collision with Rome, and also to the time of Darius Hystaspes, who bound the Carthaginians by treaty "to burn the bodies of the dead rather than bury them in the earth." This illustrates the fact, that Asdrubal, when accused of treason in the second Punic war, having learned that his destruction was inevitable, took poison, and "retired into the sepulcher of his father," whence he was dragged and slain.

Investigations upon Jebel Khawi, "the empty mountain," proved it to be the place of the catacombs, embracing a cir

cumference of about four miles. Here was the public burialplace of Punic Carthage. Here are the round holes in the rock, to collect water for the refreshment of the soul hovering over the sepultured body. The entrance is through a narrow hall into a chamber, in whose walls are niches about two feet square and six feet deep. A low and narrow passage leads into another chamber, and thence into another, and so on through a labyrinth of rooms varying only in size and number of niches. If ever occupied, they are now empty. Has man or the hyena been the despoiler? At length a chamber is entered apparently destitute of niches; but upon examination their proper place is found, and the print of the hand that closed them distinctly A coffee-colored skeleton lies within, ready to crumble to dust at a touch. The important facts developed are the existence and extent of the catacombs, their Punic origin, and their subsequent use by Christians.

seen.

We cannot follow Mr. Davis in his journeys and investigations in the surrounding country, further than for a moment to inquire with him for the landing-place of Virgil's hero. Full of the conviction that the poet undertook to describe scenery actually existing in the vicinity of Carthage, rather than some foreign or imaginary localities, he sets out upon his search. With all respect for the opinions of Shaw and Sir Grenville Temple, and all confidence in Trojan muscle, he cannot, nevertheless, believe in the power of even the swift Achates to travel on foot the sixty miles between Cape Bon and Carthage thrice in a single day. It is easier for him to suppose that the pious Eneas entered the little bay west of Cape Camart, where it is literally true that

Hinc atque hinc vastæ rupes, geminique minantur
In cœlum scopuli; quorum sub vertice latè
Equora tuta silent.

ÆN. I, 162.

Only a few hundred yards distant is "a cave with pendant cliffs; sweet waters within and seats of living rock." Cape Camart affords a point where the hero surveying saw "no ship in sight." Even now "groves black with frowning shade" are around, and may then have furnished the venison with which "they banished hunger by feasting." The first indistinct view of the city is from Jebel Khawi, the hill of the catacombs.

The goddess-mother directs him on his way, "and now they ascend the hill which most overhangs the city, and from above looks toward the opposite towers." Sidy Bosaid, this overhanging hill, the highest point upon the peninsula, and three hundred and ninety-three feet above the sea, was only half a mile from the city wall, and twice that distance from the Byrsa; and from its summit could be seen the stately towers, the gates, the theater's deep foundations, and the eager Tyrians.

ART. VI.-RECENT CONFIRMATIONS OF THE
SCRIPTURE RECORD.

Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon; being the Result of a Second Expedition undertaken for the Trustees of the British Museum. By AUSTEN H. LAYARD, M. P. New York: Harper & Brothers.

The Monuments of Egypt; or, Egypt a Witness for the Bible. By FRANCIS L. HAWKES, LL.D. New York: Geo. P. Putnam. The Historical Evidences of the Truth of the Scripture Record; stated anew, with special reference to the Doubts and Discoveries of Modern Times. By GEORGE RAWLINSON, M. A. Boston: Gould & Lincoln.

Le Bible et Moderne Science. MARCEL D. SERRES in Bibliotheque Universelle de Genève, No. 106.

EGYPT, Nineveh, Babylon-these names have been for years most significantly suggestive of death-of death in its widest grasp and completest triumph. Yet these nations are not dead. Never did they live to so grand a purpose as now. The mys terious figures and angles of their exhumed slabs are worth more than the finest chiseling of the features of any god. They help to authenticate God's revelation. They reaffirm God's authority. They remove the shrouding vail of antiquity.

Antiquity greatly affects credibility. Credibility decreases by geometrical ratio as antiquity increases by arithmetical. A thousand corroborative incidents have passed into oblivion. A multitude of side lights have gone out. And the intensity of the central light itself is inversely as the square of the distance.