cultivated fields, its
cemeteries, its villas, and its fortifications. Here the inhabitants of
the island were accustomed to bury their dead, and hither they repaired
for refreshment during the heat of the summer. To the north the little
town of Mahalliba, on the southern bank of the Litany, and almost hidden
from view by a turn in the hills, commanded the approaches to the Bekaa,
and the high-road to Coele-Syria.* To the south, at Ras el-Ain, Old Tyre
(Palastyrus) looked down upon the route leading into Galilee by way of
the mountains.**

* Mahalliba is the present Khurbet-Mahallib.

** Palrotyrus has often been considered as a Tyre on the
mainland of greater antiquity than the town of the same name
on the island; it is now generally admitted that it was
merely an outpost, which is conjecturally placed by most
scholars in the neighbourhood of Ras el-Ain.

Eastwards Autu commanded the landing-places on the shore, and served to
protect the reservoirs; it lay under the shadow of a rock, on which was
built, facing the insular temple of Melkarth, protector of mariners,
a sanctuary of almost equal antiquity dedicated to his namesake of the
mainland.* The latter divinity was probably the representative of the
legendary Samemrum, who had built his village on the coast, while Usoos
had founded his on the ocean. He was the Baalsamim of starry tunic, lord
of heaven and king of the sun.

* If the name has been preserved, as I believe it to be, in
that of El-Awwatin, the town must be that whose ruins we
find at the foot of Tell-Mashuk, and which are often
mistaken for those of Palastyrus. The temple on the summit
of the Tell was probably that of Heracles Astrochiton
mentioned by Nonnus.

As was customary, a popular Astarte was associated with these deities of
high degree, and tradition asserted that Melkarth purchased her favour
by the gift of the first robe of Tyrian purple which was ever dyed.
Priestesses of the goddess had dwellings in all parts of the plain, and
in several places the caves are still pointed out where they entertained
the devotees of the goddess. Behind Autu the ground rises abruptly, and
along the face of the escarpment, half hidden by trees and brushwood,
are the remains of the most important of the Tyrian burying-places,
consisting of half-filled-up pits, isolated caves, and dark galleries,
where whole families lie together in their last sleep.