en among the most picturesque spots of Europe, a
landscape in which wildness and beauty are more happily combined, or
where the mildness of the air and sparkling coolness of the streams
offer a more perfect setting for the ceremonies attending the worship of
Astarte.*

* The temple had been rebuilt during the Roman period, as
were nearly all the temples of this region, upon the site of
a more ancient structure; this was probably the edifice
which the author of _De Dea Syra_ considered to be the
temple of Venus, built by Kinyras within a day's journey of
Byblos in the Lebanon.

In the basin of the river and of the torrents by which it is fed, there
appears a succession of charming and romantic scenes--gaping chasms
with precipitous ochre-coloured walls; narrow fields laid out in
terraces on the slopes, or stretching in emerald strips along the
ruddy river-banks; orchards thick with almond and walnut trees; sacred
grottoes, into which the priestesses, seated at the corner of the roads,
endeavour to draw the pilgrims as they proceed on their way to make
their prayers to the goddess;* sanctuaries and mausolea of Adonis at
Yanukh, on the table-land of Mashnaka, and on the heights of Ghineh.
According to the common belief, the actual tomb of Adonis was to be
found at Byblos itself,** where the people were accustomed to assemble
twice a year to keep his festivals, which lasted for several days
together.

* Renan points out at Byblos the existence of one of these
caverns which gave shelter to the _kedeshoth_. Many of the
caves met with in the valley of the Nahr-Ibrahim have
doubtless served for the same purpose, although their walls
contain no marks of the cult.

** Melito placed it, however, near Aphaka, and, indeed,
there must have been as many different traditions on the
subject as there were celebrated sanctuaries.

At the summer solstice, the season when the wild boar had ripped open
the divine hunter, and the summer had already done damage to the spring,
the priests were accustomed to prepare a painted wooden image of a
corpse made ready for burial, which they hid in what were called the
gardens of Adonis--terra-cotta pots filled with earth in which wheat and
barley, lettuce and fennel, were sown. These were set out at the door of
each house, or in the courts of the temple, where the sprouting plants
had to endure the scorching effect of the sun,