74 MINUTES. [May 5, 



long, 1 foot 1^ inches broad, and 5 inches thick. At the top is a >j<, 

 which I take to be intended to represent the sun : on each of the corners 

 of the sloping and straight sides two small concentric circles 0» 'which 

 I take as intended to represent planets (Mars and Jupiter?) : and on the 

 upper part of the slab the figure of Astarte with its crescent, holding a 

 pomegranate in the right hand, from which a beast is feasting, and in the 

 'left a bunch of dates plucked at by a bird. Under this figure of Astarte, 

 thus emblematic of the love-passion as alike furnishing fertility and pros- 

 perity to all living beings, is the entablature of a temple or house with 

 rude Corinthian columns, and an eagle, while beneath is the figure of a 

 man calmly standing, wrapped in a robe. Herodianus (circa 150 A.D.) 

 tells us of the custom prevailing at the beatification of an emperor among 

 the Romans. An eagle was bound on the funeral pyre so that when it 

 was lighted and the bonds burned the living bird soared aloft bearing 

 the soul of tlie deceased to the empyrean, and tlie Imperator became 

 Divus. May not this well explain this figure standing in the porch of 

 the house or temple ready to pass through the region presided over by 

 Love into the vast beyond where Light and Order still prevail '? and 

 how far would such a faith differ from that held by the most of us 

 to-day ? 



This stone, I believe, formed the doorway of a vault or sarcophagus 

 such as may be not infrequently found on or near the shores of the 

 Mediterranean, and may well aid us in our inquiries into the real beliefs 

 of those who passed so long ago into the Great Beyond. 



On each side of the head of the man's figure is a small hole such as 

 would receive a tenon on a bronze plaque, which may have covered this 

 figure, as we see brasses on the graves of Crusaders in old cathedrals. 

 If this were so, this monument, had it contained the man's name, would 

 have, like Horace's, proved "Acre perennius." 



The Society was adjourned by the presiding offioer. 



Stated Meetinrj, May 5, 1899. 



Yice-President Sellers in the Chair. 



Present, 21 members. 



Gen. Isaac J. Wistar read an obituary notice of the late 

 Kichard A. Tilghman. 



Tlie Secretaries announced the death at Philadelphia, on 

 May 2, of Alexander Biddle, aged 80 years. 



The following papers were read : 



By Mr. E. H. Mathews, of Parramatta, New South Wales, 

 *' On Divisions of North Australian Tribes." 



