[145] Joshua, xix. 27. 1 Mac. x. 83.
[146] Ezra, vi. 1.
[147] Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 147.
[149] This is evident from Lucian’s “De Deâ Syrâ,” c. 4.; and see Gesenius’s “Thesaurus” in voce “Ashtoreth.” (1 Kings, xi. 5. 33. 2 Kings, xxiii. 13.) Quære, whether the bull’s horns placed on the head of this divinity, were not originally the horns of the moon’s crescent?
[150] This city, one apparently of considerable size and importance, must have stood somewhere near Antioch, or between Antioch and Aleppo. The Sharutinians may probably be identified with the Shairetana of the Egyptian monuments, at one time the allies, and at another the enemies, of Egypt. Few travellers are aware that, above the city of Antioch, carved in the rock, are colossal figures of an Egyptian sphinx and two priests. I have been informed that there are other similar monuments in the neighbouring mountains.
[151] This barbarous practice, frequently represented in the bas-reliefs, seems, therefore, to have prevailed from the earliest times in the East. Darius impaled 3000 Babylonians when he took their city. (Herod. iii. 159.) The last instance with which I am acquainted of this punishment having been inflicted in Turkey, was at Baghdad, where, about ten years ago, Nejib Pasha impaled four rebel Arab Sheikhs, one at each corner of the bridge. They survived for many hours. It is said that, unless they drink water, when they instantly die, persons so treated will live even for two or three days.
[152] Might this word, translated conjecturally pearls, mean the shell fish from which the Tyrian dye was extracted?
[153] The whole of the last passage is very obscure; the translation is partly conjectural.
[154] Isaiah, xv. 6. Translation by the Rev. John Jones.