Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/240

200 out with some care. The author on his way passed "Hamah," or Hamath, and the following is from his description of that place:—

"Before the Door of a Masjed or Mosk, which stands opposite to the Castle, there is erected a very beautiful Marble Pillar, with the Figures of Men, Birds, and other Animals, cut in demi Relievo. There is a very pleasant garden by the River Side belonging to this Mosk, full of Orange Trees. Hamah is governed by a Basha" (p. 31).

The italics and capitals are given as in the original. Short as the description is, it leaves small room to doubt but the "Pillar" had on it a Hittite inscription; and if it should chance that it has not been burned down to make lime, it may still be found by some explorer. Even the mention of it is in itself good evidence, helping to confirm the hopes of those that believe we have only to dig in that quarter and an ample crop of Hittite monuments will be the reward of such operations.

Some time ago I sent the quotation in to Dr. Wright, to see if he had any knowledge of it, or of the "Marble Pillar." He wrote back recommending that the quotation should be given in the Quarterly Statement, and inclosed the following letter to be published along with it:—

"Your find tends to confirm what I am constantly urging, that a rich harvest awaits the explorer in Hittiteland. All the inscriptions that I copied at Hamah were on basalt—"ill-cooked" basalt, as the natives called it. I saw nothing of the kind on any marble. "Figures of men, birds, and other animals, cut in demi Relievo," point unmistakably to a Hittite inscription, though I should have feared that "a very beautiful Marble Pillar" indicated a later origin than the rude inscriptions on porous basalt. . . . . ..

"All the same you have made a real discovery, and some person should re-discover your column. 'A late Hittite inscription, on a beautiful marble column,' might contain a key that would save much violent lock-picking."



marble fragment from Jebail, of which Mr. F. J. Bliss sends a photograph to the April number of the Quarterly Statement, bears a striking likeness to the image of the Ephesian Diana, of which there is an antique statue in the Naples Museum, engraved in Falkener's "Ephesus," Fairbairn's "Bible Dictionary," &c. This image has the form of an Asiatic idol rather than of a Greek statue. It has many beasts (quam Græci vocant. Jerome), to signify the All-Mother, Nature; and below is shaped like a mummy. The bands and panels, the few inches of drapery, and the protruding toes are found in the statue