to plunge himself into it. In this painful situation they
confined him for a considerable time. When he had endured sufficient
penance to humble him, he was questioned relative to the success of
the war. The information sought was delivered, as the people thought,
through the appearance of the scum on the water. By turning a red-hot
pot upside down, attended with magical incantations, they imagined the
courage of their soldiers exposed to its heat could be raised.

Canaanites, Syrians, and Arabians were all superstitious, and given to
idolatry. These people had various idols, regarding which there are
strange fables. An idol worshipped by the Philistines and Syrians,
called Derceto, has an interesting history. Near Askelon there was a
deep lake, abounding with fish. Not far from the lake stood the temple
of this famous goddess, the mother of Semiramis, who had the face of a
woman, and the rest of her body resembling part of a fish, for which
the Syrians assigned the following reason:--Venus having conceived a
hatred against Derceto, caused her to fall in love with a young
Syrian, whom she subsequently murdered, and then threw herself into
the lake, where she was transformed into the shape of a fish with a
woman's face; for which reason the Syrians did not eat any fish, but
worshipped them as gods. There is a legend of Abraham, before he left
Ur of the Chaldeans, which exhibits the contempt he had of idols. It
is said he took an opportunity of breaking in pieces all the idols he
could reach, except Baal, and that he suspended about the neck of this
idol the axe with which he had performed the destruction. The people
coming to see what had been done, supposed that Baal was the author of
the mischief. Some say that Abraham accomplished the exploit in his
father's shop during his absence, and that Terah, returning home,
inquired how the work of destruction had taken place. Abraham told him
that the idols had quarrelled about an offering of flour that an old
woman had brought them, and that Baal had proved the strongest, and
broke all the rest to pieces.

The Arabians, Ishmael's offspring, were equally guilty of idolatry. So
far did they carry this sin, that they actually worshipped idols under
the shape of Egyptian thorns. In early times the thorns were adored in
the open fields, but subsequently altars and temples were erected for
their worship. The Arabians worshipped Assaf under the shape of a
calf; and they had a godd