140 GOLD GORGETS OR LUNETTES. 



metal, of glass, of precious gems, of exquisite clyes, and of j)rincely 

 and consular robes, were familiar to them ; and their productions 

 were eagerly sought after by kindred, as well as by distant, nations. 

 The proofs of this are too well known to need reference. Those 

 who require authorities will find them in Kenrick's Phoenicia, 

 chapters VI — VIII, where they will find reference to the magni- 

 ficent language of prophetic lamentation addressed to Tyre (Ezekiel, 

 ch. 27), which that author has rightly deemed to be " the most 

 "valuable document for its commercial history that has come 

 " down to us." — " Directly, or indirectly, its commerce in the 6th 

 " century before Christ embraced the whole world." 



Nor has the instructive incident related in the Odysseia escaped 

 his observation. Mythology itself may teach us history ; and we 

 may fairly accept Homer's account of the commercial dealings of 

 the Phoenician navigators and merchants, even though interwoven 

 in the texture of the fictitious wanderings of Ulj'sses. He tells 

 how Phoenician sailors brought a cargo of innumerable trinkets to 

 the Island home of Eumseus's i-oyal father, and succeeded, through 

 the treachery of a Sidonian female servant, in kidnapping young 

 Eumgeus, while the ladies of the household were engaged in ad- 

 miring the beautiful and tempting necklace of gold and amber * 

 which the crafty trader was displaying to their view. 



Shall we not be justified in surmising that Sidonian or Tyrian 

 artificers were the real authors of the "round tiaras like the 

 moon," " the neckchains and bracelets," " the crescents and pen- 

 dents," which the daughters of Zion are denounced for wearing,t 

 as they certainly were of the gorgeous decorations of the Temple 

 of Solomon ■? 



Perhaps the above sketch of Phoenician arts and commerce 

 would sufiice to indicate the quarter which might possibly have 

 supplied such precious relics of ancient art as are now before us. 

 I well know the favour which this tradition of Phoenician inter- 

 course finds in the Cornubian mind. It is treated as a sort of 

 Palladium or idol, any attempt to displace which by sceptical 



* "Xpuasov o^ixov £%wv, (Xira, "^^ hhrnr^OKTiv ££fTO. ' 



Odyss., Lib. 0, v. 459. 



•f- Isaiah, ch. iii, v. 18 to 23 ; Ezekiel. ch. xvi ; with the corrections con- 

 tained in the Annotated Paragraph Bible, Ed. 1857 ; and in Kenrick's 

 Phozn. p. 254. 



