But many of their departmental deities were either identical with or strongly resembled the gods of the Babylonians. Ashtart was of course Ishtar. In the mounds of Palestine large numbers of terra-cotta plaques bearing her effigy are found. She is often depicted on these with a tall head-dress, necklace, anklets, and girdle quite in the Babylonian style. But other representations of her reveal Egyptian, Cypriote, and Hittite influences, and this goes to show that in all probability the great mother-goddess of Babylon and Asia Minor was compounded of various early types fused into one. To confine ourselves to those deities who are more closely connected with the Babylonian religion, we find the name of Ninib translated by the Canaanites as En-Mashti, and it has been thought that Ninib was a god of the West who had migrated to Babylonia. The name of Nebo, the Babylonian patron of Borsippa, who also acted as scribe to the gods, appears in that of the town of Nebo in Moab in Judea, and that Canaanites were conversant with the name of Nergal, the war-god, is proved by a sealed cylinder of Canaanitish workmanship which bears the inscription, "Atanaheli, son of Habsi servant of Nergal." Resheph also appears to have been known to the Canaanites. [Illustration: Elijah prevailing over the Priests of Baal.--Evelyn Paul.] The Gods of the Phœnicians The Phœnicians who were the lineal descendants of the Canaanites adopted many of the deities of Babylonia. Like the early deities of that great empire, the Phœnician gods were associated either with the earth, the waters, or the air. Some of these in later times held sway over more than one element. Thus the god Melkarth of Tyre had both a celestial and a marine aspect, and Baal and Ashtart assumed celestial attributes in addition to their earthly one. The Phœnicians described their gods in general as _alônim_, much as the Israelites in early times must have described theirs, for we find in the first chapters of Genesis the word _elohim_ employed. Both then went back to the singular form _el_, the common Semitic name for 'god,' adding to it the Semitic plural ending _im_. The god of a locality or shrine was known as its '_ba'al_,' and, as in early times, this did not apply to any particular deity. Although their gods all had names, yet still they were merely the _ba-alim_ of Tyre, the chief of whom was Melkarth, whose name signifies merely 'king' or patron of the city. Perhaps one of their most venerated gods was Ba'al-Hamman, who was also worshipped in Carthage, a Phœnician colony. One of the most strongly marked characteristics of the Phœnician religion was the unvarying addition of a female to every male god. Ashtart or Ishtar was quite as popular in modern Phœnicia as she has been in ancient Canaan. It must be borne in mind that Tyre and Sidon were closely in touch with Assyria, and that their ships probably carried Assyrian commerce far and wide