*Among the Hebrews his name was Maweth, who feeds the departed like sheep, and himself feeds on them in hell. Some writers have sought to identify this or some analogous god with the lion represented on a stele of Piraeus which threatens to devour the body of a dead man. [Illustration: 240.jpg A CORNER OF THE PHOENICIAN NECKROPOLIS AT ADLUN] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph in Lortet. The corpse, after it had been anointed with perfumes and enveloped in linen, and impregnated with substances which retarded its decomposition, was placed in some natural grotto or in a cave hollowed out of the solid rock: sometimes it was simply laid on the bare earth, sometimes in a sarcophagus or coffin, and on it, or around it, were piled amulets, jewels, objects of daily use, vessels filled with perfume, or household utensils, together with meat and drink. The entrance was then closed, and on the spot a cippus was erected--in popular estimation sometimes held to represent the soul--or a monument was set up on a scale proportionate to the importance of the family to which the dead man had belonged.* On certain days beasts ceremonially pure were sacrificed at the tomb, and libations poured out, which, carried into the next world by virtue of the prayers of those who offered them, and by the aid of the gods to whom the prayers were addressed, assuaged the hunger and thirst of the dead man.** The chapels and stellae which marked the exterior of these "eternal"*** houses have disappeared in the course of the various wars by which Syria suffered so heavily: in almost all cases, therefore, we are ignorant as to the sites of the various cities of the dead in which the nobles and common people of the Canaanite and Amorite towns were laid to rest.**** * The pillar or stele was used among both Hebrews and Phoenicians to mark the graves of distinguished persons. Among the Semites speaking Aramaic it was called _nephesh_, especially when it took the form of a pyramid; the word means "breath," "soul," and clearly shows the ideas associated with the object. ** An altar was sometimes placed in front of the sarcophagus to receive these offerings. *** This expression, which is identical with that used by the Egyptians of the same period, is found in one of the Phoenician inscriptions at Malta. **** The excavations carried out by M. Gautier in 1893-94, on the little island of Bahr-el-Kadis, at one time believed to have been the site of the town of Qodshu, have revealed the existence of a number of tombs in the enclosure which forms the central part of the tumulus: some of these may possibly date from the Amorite epoch, but they are very poor in remains, and contain no object which permits us to fix the date with accuracy.