* If we may credit Tertullian, the custom of offering up
     children as sacrifices lasted down to the proconsulate of
     Tiberius.

** Cf., for the Hebraic epoch, the scene where the priests of Baal, in a trial of power with Elijah before Ahab, offered up sacrifices on the highest point of Carmel, and finding that their offerings did not meet with the usual success, “cut themselves... with knives and lancets till the blood gushed out upon them.”

The Astartes of all degrees and kinds were hardly less cruel; they imposed frequent flagellations, self-mutilation, and sometimes even emasculation, on their devotees.  Around the majority of these goddesses was gathered an infamous troop of profligates (kedeshim), “dogs of love” (kelabim), and courtesans (kedeshot).  The temples bore little resemblance to those of the regions of the Lower Euphrates:  nowhere do we find traces of those ziggurat which serve to produce the peculiar jagged outline characteristic of Chaldaean cities.  The Syrian edifices were stone buildings, which included, in addition to the halls and courts reserved for religious rites, dwelling-rooms for the priesthood, and storehouses for provisions:  though not to be compared in size with the sanctuaries of Thebes, they yet answered the purpose of strongholds in time of need, and were capable of resisting the attacks of a victorious foe.* A numerous staff, consisting of priests, male and female singers, porters, butchers, slaves, and artisans, was assigned to each of these temples:  here the god was accustomed to give forth his oracles, either by the voice of his prophets, or by the movement of his statues.** The greater number of the festivals celebrated in them were closely connected with the pastoral and agricultural life of the country; they inaugurated, or brought to a close, the principal operations of the year—­the sowing of seed, the harvest, the vintage, the shearing of the sheep.  At Shechem, when the grapes were ripe, the people flocked out of the town into the vineyards, returning to the temple for religious observances and sacred banquets when the fruit had been trodden in the winepress.***

     * The story of Abimelech gives us some idea of what the
     Canaanite temple of Baal-Berith at Shechem was like.

     ** As to the regular organisation of Baal-worship, we
     possess only documents of a comparatively late period.

*** It is probable that the vintage festival, celebrated at Shiloh in the time of the Judges, dated back to a period of Canaanite history prior to the Hebrew invasion, i.e. to the time of the Egyptian supremacy.

In times of extraordinary distress, such as a prolonged drought or a famine, the priests were wont to ascend in solemn procession to the high places in order to implore the pity of their divine masters, from whom they strove to extort help, or to obtain the wished-for rain, by their dances, their lamentations, and the shedding of their blood.*