* Such was the necropolis at Adlun, the last rearrangement of which took place during the Graeco-Roman period, but which externally bears so strong a resemblance to an Egyptian necropolis of the XVIIIth or XIXth dynasty, that we may, without violating the probabilities, trace its origin back to the time of the Pharaonic conquest.

In this case the doors were placed in rows on a sort of facade similar to that of the Egyptian rock-tomb, generally without any attempt at external ornament.  The vaults were on the ground-level, but were not used as chapels for the celebration of festivals in honour of the dead:  they were walled up after every funeral, and all access to them forbidden, until such time as they were again required for the purposes of burial.  Except on these occasions of sad necessity, those whom “the mouth of the pit had devoured” dreaded the visits of the living, and resorted to every means afforded by their religion to protect themselves from them.  Their inscriptions declare repeatedly that neither gold nor silver, nor any object which could excite the greed of robbers, was to be found within their graves; they threaten any one who should dare to deprive them of such articles of little value as belonged to them, or to turn them out of their chambers in order to make room for others, with all sorts of vengeance, divine and human.  These imprecations have not, however, availed to save them from the desecration the danger of which they foresaw, and there are few of their tombs which were not occupied by a succession of tenants between the date of their first making and the close of the Roman supremacy.  When the modern explorer chances to discover a vault which has escaped the spade of the treasure-seeker, it is hardly ever the case that the bodies whose remains are unearthed prove to be those of the original proprietors.

[Illustration:  242.jpg VALLEY OF THE TOMB OF THE KINGS]

[Illustration:  242-text.jpg]

The gods and legends of Chaldaea had penetrated to the countries of Amauru and Canaan, together with the language of the conquerors and their system of writing:  the stories of Adapa’s struggles against the south-west wind, or of the incidents which forced Irishkigal, queen of the dead, to wed Nergal, were accustomed to be read at the courts of Syrian princes.  Chaldaean theology, therefore, must have exercised influence on individual Syrians and on their belief; but although we are forced to allow the existence of such influence, we cannot define precisely the effects produced by it.  Only on the coast and in the Phoenician cities do the local religions seem to have become formulated at a fairly early date, and crystallised under pressure of this influence into cosmogonie theories.  The Baalim and Astartes reigned there as on the banks of the Jordan or Orontes, and in each town Baal was “the most high,” master of heaven and eternity, creator of everything which exists, though the character of his creating