* The text simply states the material facts, the tempest and the fire:  the general movement of the narrative seems to prove that the intervention of these elements is an episode in the quarrel between the two brothers—­that in which Usoos is forced to fly from the region civilized by Samemrum.

Landing on one of the islands, he set up two menhirs, dedicating them to fire and wind that he might thenceforward gain their favour.  He poured out at their base the blood of animals he had slaughtered, and after his death, his companions continued to perform the rites which he had inaugurated.

[Illustration:  268.jpg]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the original in the Cabinet
     des Medailles.

The town which he had begun to build on the sea-girt isle was called Tyre, the “Rock,” and the two rough stones which he had set up remained for a long time as a sort of talisman, bringing good luck to its inhabitants.  It was asserted of old that the island had not always been fixed, but that it rose and fell, with the waves like a raft.  Two peaks looked down upon it—­the “Ambrosian Rocks”—­between which grew the olive tree of Astarte, sheltered by a curtain of flame from external danger.  An eagle perched thereon watched over a viper coiled round the trunk:  the whole island would cease to float as soon as a mortal should succeed in sacrificing the bird in honour of the gods.  Usoos, the Herakles, destroyer of monsters, taught the people of the coast how to build boats, and how to manage them; he then made for the island and disembarked:  the bird offered himself spontaneously to his knife, and as soon as its blood had moistened the earth, Tyre rooted itself fixedly opposite the mainland.  Coins of the Roman period represent the chief elements in this legend; sometimes the eagle and olive tree, sometimes the olive tree and the stelo, and sometimes the two stelae only.  From this time forward the gods never ceased to reside on the holy island; Astarte herself was born there, and one of the temples there showed to the admiration of the faithful a fallen star—­an aerolite which she had brought back from one of her journeys.

[Illustration:  269.jpg TYRE AND ITS SUBURBS ON THE MAINLAND]

Baal was called the Melkarth. king of the city, and the Greeks after” wards identified him with their Herakles.  His worship was of a severe and exacting character:  a fire burned perpetually in his sanctuary; his priests, like those of the Egyptians, had their heads shaved; they wore garments of spotless white linen, held pork in abomination, and refused permission to married women to approach the altars.*