only occurs, so far as we
know at present, in the Hebrew Scriptures, where, by the
way, the first element, Baal, is changed to El, El-Berith.

[Illustration: 226.jpg LOTANU WOMEN AND CHILDREN FROM THE TOMB OF
RAKHMIEI]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from coloured sketches by Prisse
d'Avennes.

The prevalent conception of the essence and attributes of these deities
was not the same in all their sanctuaries, but the more exalted among
them were regarded as personifying the sky in the daytime or at night,
the atmosphere, the light,* or the sun, Shamash, as creator and
prime mover of the universe; and each declared himself to be
king--_melek_--over the other gods.** Bashuf represented the lightning
and the thunderbolt;*** Shalman, Hadad, and his double Bimmon held sway
over the air like the Babylonian.

* This appears under the name _Or_ or _Ur_ in the Samalla
inscriptions of the VIIIth century B.C.; it is, so far, a
unique instance among the Semites.

** We find the term applied in the Bible to the national god
of the Ammonites, under the forms _Moloch, Molech, Mikom,
Milkam_, and especially with the article, _Ham-molek_; the
real name hidden beneath this epithet was probably _Amnon or
Amman_, and, strictly speaking, the God Moloch only exists
in the imagination of scholars. The epithet was used among
the Oanaanites in the name Melchizedek, a similar form to
Adonizedek, Abimelech, Ahimelech; it was in current use
among the Phoenicians, in reference to the god of Tyre,
Melek-Karta or Melkarth, and in many proper names, such as
Melekiathon, Baalmelek, Bodmalek, etc., not to mention the
god Milichus worshipped in Spain, who was really none other
than Melkarth.

*** Resheph has been vocalised _Rashuf_ in deference to the
Egyptian orthography Rashupu. It was a name common to a
whole family of lightning and storm-gods, and M. de Rouge
pointed out long ago the passage in the Great Inscription of
Ramses III. at Medinet-Habu, in which the soldiers who man
the chariots are compared to the Rashupu; the Rabbinic
Hebrew still employs this plural form in the sense of
"demons." The Phoenician inscriptions contain references to
several local Rashufs; the way in which this god is coupled
with the goddess Qodshu on the Egyptian stelae leads me to
think that, at the epoch now under con