But she often comes before us as a warlike Amazon, brandishing a club, lance, or shield, mounted on horseback like a soldier, and wandering through the desert in quest of her prey.* This dual temperament rendered her a goddess of uncertain attributes and of violent contrasts; at times reserved and chaste, at other times shameless and dissolute, but always cruel, always barren, for the countless multitude of her excesses for ever shut her out from motherhood: she conceives without ceasing, but never brings forth children.** The Baalim and Astartes frequented by choice the tops of mountains, such as Lebanon, Carmel, Hermon, or Kasios:*** they dwelt near springs, or hid themselves in the depths of forests.**** They revealed themselves to mortals through the heavenly bodies, and in all the phenomena of nature: the sun was a Baal, the moon was Astarte, and the whole host of heaven was composed of more or less powerful genii, as we find in Chaldaea. * A fragment of a popular tale preserved in the British Museum, and mentioned by Birch, seems to show us Astarte in her character of war-goddess, and the sword of Astarte is mentioned by Chabas. A bas-relief at Edfu represents her standing upright in her chariot, drawn by horses, and trampling her enemies underfoot: she is there identified with Sokhit the warlike, destroyer of men. ** This conception of the Syrian goddesses had already become firmly established at the period with which we are dealing, for an Egyptian magical formula defines Aniti and Astarte as "the great goddesses who conceiving do not bring forth young, for the Horuses have sealed them and Sit hath established them." *** The Baal of Lebanon is mentioned in an archaic Phoenician inscription, and the name "Holy Cape" (_Rosh- Qodshu_), borne in the time of Thutmosis III. either by Haifa or by a neighbouring town, proves that Carmel was held sacred as far back as the Egyptian epoch. Baal-Hermon has already been mentioned. **** The source of the Jordan, near Banias, was the seat of a Baal whom the Greeks identified with Pan. This was probably the Baal-Gad who often lent his name to the neighbouring town of Baal-Hermon: many of the rivers of Phoenicia were called after the divinities worshipped in the nearest city, e.g. the Adonis, the Belos, the Asclepios, the Damuras.