The religion of the Carthaginians was characterized by cruelty and lust. The state religion, the established church, as it were, was based on the worship of the deity called Eschmoun, identified by the Romans with their god of healing, Æsculapius, whose chief sanctuary was within a vast inclosure, half-temple and half-fortress, on the brow of the Byrsa Hill, from which an imposing flight of marble steps led down into the city. But there were other gods as well, the most venerated being Hammon and Tanith. That fear of their anger and faith in their power—they could hardly have inspired affection—was deeply implanted in the hearts of the common people is indicated by the fact that, whereas the worship of Eschmoun virtually ended with Punic Carthage, the other two not only survived the destruction of the city by the Romans, but, under the names of Saturn and Ceres, their cult was adopted, developed, and disseminated by the conquerors. They were always dark and terrible, these gods of Carthage, worshiped with bestial and bloody rites which had their beginnings in the very dawn of time. Of his priests Hammon demanded the sacrifice of their manhood; of her priestesses Tanith required the sacrifice of their chastity. Though there can be little doubt that both had temples within the confines of the city itself, the principal sanctuary of Hammon was set in the saddle formed by the twin peaks of Bou-Kornein, which are clearly visible some miles to the southward, beyond the lagoon of El Bahira. It was in this macabre setting, consisting in all probability of little more than a sacred grove within an inclosure, that there took place the awfulest rites of all, the human sacrifices. Here the victims of Baal, who comprised not only slaves and prisoners of war but children of the most aristocratic families in Carthage—usually girls of marriageable age—were laid naked upon the brazen arms of the god to be roasted alive, their bodies dropping thence into a fiery furnace. Though we know that the worship of Hammon and Tanith was characterized by rituals so hideous and obscene as to stagger the imagination, their details—and it is well that it is so—can only be conjectured. Small wonder that the superstitious Arabs shun the slopes of Bou-Kornein after nightfall, asserting that the lonely spot is cursed with the evil deeds which were performed there, and that with the coming of darkness can be heard the shrieks of tortured men and maidens, can be seen the dull glow of the fires on the altar of the unclean god. * * * * *