seek the prototype of the alphabet elsewhere—­either in Babylon, in Asia Minor, or even in Crete, among those barbarous hieroglyphs which are attributed to the primitive inhabitants of the island.  It is no easy matter to get at the truth amid these conflicting theories.  Two points only are indisputable; first, the almost unanimous agreement among writers of classical times in ascribing the first alphabet to the Phoenicians; and second, the Phonician origin of the Greek, and afterwards of the Latin alphabet which we employ to-day.

To return to the religion of the Phoenicians:  the foreign deities were not content with obtaining a high place in the estimation of priests and people; they acquired such authority over the native gods that they persuaded them to metamorphose themselves almost completely into Egyptian divinities.

[Illustration:  109.jpg RASHUF ON HIS LION]

     Drawn by Paucher-Gudin, from a photograph reproduced in
     Clermont-Ganneau.

One finds among the majority of them the emblems commonly used in the Pharaonic temples, sceptres with heads of animals, head-dress like the Pschent, the crux ansata, the solar disk, and the winged scarab.  The lady of Byblos placed the cow’s horns upon her head from the moment she became identified with Hathor.* The Baal of the neighbouring Arvad—­probably a form of Bashuf—­was still represented as standing upright on his lion in order to traverse the high places:  but while, in the monument which has preserved the figure of the god, both lion and mountain are given according to Chaldaean tradition, he himself, as the illustration shows, is dressed after the manner of Egypt, in the striped and plaited loin-cloth, wears a large necklace on his neck and bracelets on his arms, and bears upon his head the white mitre with its double plume and the Egyptian uraaus.**

     * She is represented as Hathor on the stele of Iehav-melek,
     King of Byblos, during the Persian period.

** This monument, which belonged to the Peretie collection, was found near Amrith, at the place called Nahr-Abrek.  The dress and bearing are so like those of the Rashuf represented on Egyptian monuments, that I have no hesitation in regarding this as a representation of that god.

He brandishes in one hand the weapon of the victor, and is on the point of despatching with it a lion, which he has seized by the tail with the other, after the model of the Pharaonic hunters, Amenothes I. and Thutmosis III.  The lunar disk floating above his head lends to him, it is true, a Phonician character, but the winged sun of Heliopolis hovering above the disk leaves no doubt as to his Egyptian antecedents.*

     * The Phonician symbol represents the crescent moon holding
     the darkened portion in its arms, like the symbol reserved
     in Egypt for the lunar gods.

[Illustration:  110.jpg A PHOENICIAN GOD IN HIS EGYPTIAN SHRINE]