Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/165

 THE IDEAS OF THE PHOENICIANS AS TO A FUTURE LIFE. 145 In later years, too, seekers for treasure came to disturb the cemeteries in every direction. A virgin tomb is very rarely encountered on the Syrian coast. On the few occasions vhen such a burial-place has come under the eye of the explorer it has as a rule contained nothing but objects of the Grseco- Roman period ; it may have been originally made much earlier, but in the course of centuries its occupant had been changed. Under such conditions can we be surprised that the tomb preserved no traces of a rite which carries us back, by the beliefs it implies, to the very childhood of humanity ? There are, however, some indications which lead us to believe that Syria practised that worship of the dead which is based entirely upon the notion that in their subterranean homes the latter live a real life, a life sustained by the meat and drink furnished in perpetuity by pious survivors. Consult Deuteronomy, that collection of religious prescriptions which seems to have been .published at Jerusalem under the last kings of Judah, when those monotheistic tendencies of the Jews which finally triumphed in the days of exile and captivity first began to show their strength. 1 In those days prophets and priests were struggling passionately against the gods who had disputed the hearts of the people with Jehovah for so many centuries. They were proscribing the Syrian worship and doing their best to bring its rites into disrepute, and nothing found less favour in their sight than this worship of the dead. Of this we have an indirect but certain proof in the form of confession imposed upon the worshipper of Jehovah when he brought his gifts to the altar. " I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead." 2 The practice of giving food to the dead certainly implies a belief that the latter can make use of it, and that they are capable of rendering services to all who gain their favour. Among the Jews and among those peoples from whom they only separated 1 According to M. E. REUSS, Deuteronomy is the code promulgated under Josiah in 623 (La Bible, V Histoire Sainte et la Loi, vol i., Introduction, p. 160). 2 Deuteronomy xxvi. 14. M. HALEVY calls attention to this text in a remarkable study entitled De I'Ame chez les Peuple semitiques, in the Rente Archeologique (1882, vol. xliv. p. 44). In the sequel we shall have frequent occasion to borrow from M. Hale'vy's paper, making use sometimes of his own words, but more otten abridging them so as to keep within the space at our command. VOL. I. U