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arch who reigns over them abandon them, and exterminate 

 the person of that king or that man who shall either open 

 this sepulchral bed, or remove this sarcophagus, as well as 

 the posterity of that royal person, or of that man, whomso- 

 ever he may be. May they neither put forth roots down- 

 wards, nor bring forth fruits upwards, and may they be 

 accursed by those living under the sun, because I am worthy 

 of pity. Snatched from the light prematurely and gliding 

 away like the streams, I have caused my funeral home to 

 be built. For it is I, Esmunazar, king of the Sidonians, 

 son of Tabnith, king of the Sidonians, grandson of king Es- 

 munazar, king of the Sidonians, and my mother, Immiasto- 

 reth, priestess of Astarte, our sovereign the queen, daughter 

 of king Esmunazar, king of the Sidonians, who have built 

 the temple of the gods [a fracture of several letters] at 

 Sidon, maritime country, and the puissant heavens have 

 rendered Astarte favorable to us. It is we who have built 

 a temple in honor of Esmun, as well as the sanctuary of Ene 

 Dalil in the mountain ; and the mighty heavens have estab- 

 lished me upon the throne. It is in short we who have 

 erected temples to the gods of. the Sidonians, at Sidon, 

 maritime country, one temple to the honor of Baal-Sidon, 

 and another in honor of Astarte, pride of Baal, and the 

 Lords of Kings have also delivered up to us the towns of 

 Dor and Japhia, vast wheat-growing territories, extending 

 the realm which I have founded ; and they have added 

 these new possessions to the frontiers of our country, secur- 

 ing them forever to the Sidonians. I therefore forbid any 

 royal person, and any man, to open my tomb, and to expose 

 it, to transport me elsewhere with this sepulchral bed, or to 

 carry away the sarcophagus which serves for my sepul- 

 chral bed, lest the holy gods abandon them, and extermin- 

 ate that royal person, that man whoever he may be, and his 

 posterity forever. 



After a lapse of twenty-two centuries, the very outrage 

 which the Sidonian king sought to provide against by these 



