The religion of the Syrians was subject to the same influences as their customs; we are, as yet, far from being able to draw a complete picture of their theology, but such knowledge as we do possess recalls the same names and the same elements as are found in the religious systems of Chaldaea. The myths, it is true, are still vague and misty, at least to our modern ideas: the general characteristics of the principal divinities alone stand out, and seem fairly well defined. As with the other Semitic races, the deity in a general sense, the primordial type of the godhead, was called _El_ or _Ilu_, and his feminine counterpart _Ilat_, but we find comparatively few cities in which these nearly abstract beings enjoyed the veneration of the faithful.* The gods of Syria, like those of Egypt and of the countries watered by the Euphrates, were feudal princes distributed over the surface of the earth, their number corresponding with that of the independent states. Each nation, each tribe, each city, worshipped its own lord--_Adoni_** --or its master--_Baal_*** --and each of these was designated by a special title to distinguish him from neighbouring _Baalim_, or masters. * The frequent occurrence of the term _Ilu_ or _El_ in names of towns in Southern Syria seems to indicate pretty conclusively that the inhabitants of these countries used this term by preference to designate their supreme god. Similarly we meet with it in Aramaic names, and later on among the Nabathseans; it predominates at Byblos and Berytus in Phoenicia and among the Aramaic peoples of North Syria; in the Samalla country, for instance, during the VIIIth century B.C. ** The extension of this term to Syrian countries is proved in the Israelitish epoch by Canaanitish names, such as Adonizedek and Adonibezek, or Jewish names such as Adonijah, Adonikam, Adoniram-Adoram. *** Movers tried to prove that there was one particular god named Baal, and his ideas, popularised in Prance by M. de Vogiie, prevailed for some time: since then scholars have gone back to the view of Muenter and of the writers at the beginning of this century, who regarded the term Baal as a common epithet applicable to all gods. The Baal who ruled at Zebub was styled "Master of Zebub," or Baal-Zebub;* and the Baal of Hermon, who was an ally of Gad, goddess of fortune, was sometimes called Baal-Hermon, or "Master of Hermon," sometimes Baal-G-ad, or "Master of Gad;"** the Baal of Shechem, at the time of the Israelite invasion, was "Master of the Covenant"--Baal-Berith--doubtless in memory of some agreement which he had concluded with his worshippers in regard to the conditions of their allegiance.*** * Baal-Zebub was worshipped at Ekxon during the Philistine supremacy.