oil like a
pot."

In this neighborhood there are numerous prehistoric rock-hewn tombs, cut
by ingenious and skilled hands with effective tools. That these are
Phoenician remains, there seems to be little if any doubt. Those
aboriginal colonists were the commercial people of their time, who
settled much earlier at Rhodes, and other islands of the Levant, than
they did at Malta. They planted colonies in Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain.
Carthage was founded by them. Malta afforded a convenient stopping-place
between Carthage and the mother country, and was naturally prized on
that account, having such ample harbors of refuge, and it doubtless
afforded the means of repairing any damages which resulted from storms
at sea.

Out of the rock-hewn tombs, of which we were speaking, interesting
relics bearing Phoenician characters have been taken from time to
time, such as vases and mural urns, together with articles of domestic
use made from burnt clay, some of which are preserved in the Museum at
Valletta. Other curiosities from the same source are to be seen in the
private collections of English officials, and of wealthy Maltese. Years
of research would not exhaust the interest which the student of the past
must feel in these antiquities. We know of no more fruitful theme or
more promising field, for the historian and the archaeologist, than is
here presented. It is not an untried one, but it is very nearly
inexhaustible, in pursuing which little expense and no hardship is
necessarily encountered. Every facility is freely accorded, both by the
resident population and by the government.

Some of the best examples of Phoenician inscriptions now to be seen in
the British Museum were brought to light at Bighi, in these islands,
where this ancient people worshiped Juno in a stately temple which stood
on the spot now occupied by the moat of Fort St. Angelo. There are few
parts of the world so varied in antiquarian interests as the islands of
this group. Professor Sayce, the eminent Orientalist of Oxford, England,
tells us that Malta contains Phoenician antiquities of a kind found
nowhere else, and he pronounces the sanctuaries of the Giant's Tower, in
Gozo, together with its companion ruin in the larger island, absolutely
unique. These islands undoubtedly occupied an important position in the
history of those remote days. The few Maltese who have written about
this period dwell with great emphasis upon the glory of Malta while
under