o4. REV. J. LESLIE PORTER, D.D. 
betic characters, which they were among the first to use, were 
speedily disseminated over Hurope and Northern Africa, and 
revolutionised all literature. Phoenician inscriptions, as a rule, 
throw light upon the customs and religion of those who wrote 
them. An inscription discovered in Malta tells us of the 
erection of three or four sanctuaries in the little island of 
Gozo—one to Sadam-Baal and another to Astarte, Phoenician 
deities ; and the ruins of temples, perhaps those referred to, 
have been found in the island. The huge stones, some being 
twenty feet long, and the style in which they are dressed, 
remind one of the colossal substructions of the walls of Arvad, 
Gebal, Sidon, and the Temple of Jerusalem. Ruins of a 
similar kind, with huge monolithic jambs and lintels, exist in 
Malta, and among them have been found rude altars, images, 
ornaments, and especially the mystic cone, such as is met with 
so frequently in the ancient sanctuaries of Phoenicia (Perrot 
and Chipiez, Art in Phoenicia and Cyprus, 1. 302, seq.). In 
Sicily, also, are some most interesting relics of Phoenician art 
and worship. At Marsala stood a temple of Ammon, and on 
its site there was recently discovered a tablet, having on its 
upper part the figure apparently of a priest in a flowing 
Oriental robe and pointed cap, worshipping the emblems of 
Phoenician idolatry—the candlestick, or incense-altar, and the 
sacred cone ; while overhead is a triple pyramid surmounted 
by the crescent and star. Beneath is a Pheenician in- 
scription recording the dedication of the tablet by a certain 
Hanno, son of Adon-Baal, that is, ‘‘ Lord Baal.’? Other 
votive tablets have also been found, bearing the names of 
Baal-Shamayim, ‘ Baal of the Heavens”; Baal-Ammon, and 
Astarte-Erek-Hayim, “ Astarte the Giver of Long Life” 
(Id. 1. 319). 
In every place where the Phoenicians settled they left 
behind them the marked characteristics of their art, their 
architecture, and of the symbols of their worship. While 
their temples are essentially Oriental in plan and style, they 
yet, as it seems to me, embody the germs of those more mag- 
nificent and elaborate structures subsequently reared up by 
the genius of the Greeks. The main feature of the temple 
was, as I have already said, its spacious open court, in the 
midst of which stood the comparatively small shrine. The 
image of the deity was usually insignificant in size and 
rude in form. It was such as could be easily made, and as 
easily moved from place to place in the track of commerce. 
The main object of the Phoenicians was to promote the 
material prosperity of their nation. They were artisans, 
handicraftsmen, rather than artists. They excelled in all 
