d in some natural grotto or in a cave hollowed out of the solid
rock: sometimes it was simply laid on the bare earth, sometimes in a
sarcophagus or coffin, and on it, or around it, were piled amulets,
jewels, objects of daily use, vessels filled with perfume, or household
utensils, together with meat and drink. The entrance was then closed,
and on the spot a cippus was erected--in popular estimation sometimes
held to represent the soul--or a monument was set up on a scale
proportionate to the importance of the family to which the dead man had
belonged.* On certain days beasts ceremonially pure were sacrificed at
the tomb, and libations poured out, which, carried into the next world
by virtue of the prayers of those who offered them, and by the aid of
the gods to whom the prayers were addressed, assuaged the hunger
and thirst of the dead man.** The chapels and stellae which marked the
exterior of these "eternal"*** houses have disappeared in the course
of the various wars by which Syria suffered so heavily: in almost all
cases, therefore, we are ignorant as to the sites of the various cities
of the dead in which the nobles and common people of the Canaanite and
Amorite towns were laid to rest.****

* The pillar or stele was used among both Hebrews and
Phoenicians to mark the graves of distinguished persons.
Among the Semites speaking Aramaic it was called _nephesh_,
especially when it took the form of a pyramid; the word
means "breath," "soul," and clearly shows the ideas
associated with the object.

** An altar was sometimes placed in front of the sarcophagus
to receive these offerings.

*** This expression, which is identical with that used by
the Egyptians of the same period, is found in one of the
Phoenician inscriptions at Malta.

**** The excavations carried out by M. Gautier in 1893-94,
on the little island of Bahr-el-Kadis, at one time believed
to have been the site of the town of Qodshu, have revealed
the existence of a number of tombs in the enclosure which
forms the central part of the tumulus: some of these may
possibly date from the Amorite epoch, but they are very poor
in remains, and contain no object which permits us to fix
the date with accuracy.

In Phoenicia alone do we meet with burial-places which, after the
vicissitudes and upheavals of thirty centuries, still retain something
of their original arra