VIII.

CHAP. his proposals were rejected. In consequence of his disappointment, he bought some poison and destroyed himself. The Turkish police instantly arrested the father of the young woman, as the cause, by implication, of the man's death: under the fifth species of homicide, he became therefore amenable for this act of suicide. When the cause came before the Magistrate, it was urged literally by the accusers, that "If he, the accused, had not had a daughter, the deceased would not have fallen in love; consequently, he would not have been disappointed; consequently, he would not have swallowed poison; consequently, he would not have died—but he, the accused, had a daughter; and the deceased had fallen in love; and had been disappointed; and had swallowed poison; and had died.” Upon all these counts, he was called upon to pay the price of the young man's life; and this, being fixed at the sum of eighty piastres, was accordingly exacted.

Popula

tion, Com

Produce of

Cos.

The population of Cos had much diminished merce, and of late years. There were formerly 20,000 inhabitants; and of this number only eight or ten thousand now remained. Three thousand had been carried off by a severe plague the year before; and great numbers had been draughted, to serve as soldiers in the war.

The island contains five villages: it produces corn and cattle. Its fine rich grapes were now selling for less than a halfpenny the pound: pomegranates and melons were in great abundance, and of delicious flavour. Its trade consists in the manufacture of barrels, and in the sale of wine, brandy, raisins, lemon-juice, preserved fruit, &c. Corn sold for four piastres and a half the quilot': the average price was reckoned at seventy or eighty parás.

CHAP.

VIII.

(1) The quilot, according to Tournefort, is a measure of three panaches; each panache is eight oques; and each oque is twenty-five pounds. See Tournef. Voy, du Lev. tom. II. p. 109. Lyon, 1717.

APPENDIX.

No. I.

ON THE

DISCOVERY, BY COLONEL CAPPER,

OF THE EXISTENCE OF

ANTIENT PAGAN SUPERSTITIONS IN MOUNT LIBANUS,

PARTICULARLY THOSE WHICH RELATE TO THE worship of venus.

THE superstition discovered by Colonel CAPPER can be considered as nothing less than the expiring embers of those holocausts which once blazed in honour of Sidonian Astarté1. The Venus of Libanus was called Asthoreth, from the

(1) Astarté, Astaroth, Ashtaroth, Asthoreth, ASTARA, (See the Inscriptions communicated to Part 1. of these Travels, by Charles KELSALL, Esq. from the Cimmerian Bosporus, p. 402. Second Edition.) AESTAR, (whence our word AESTER: See chap. X. p. 317. Note 2, of the former Volume: also GALE's Court of the Gentiles, B. ii. c. 2.) Nothing tends more to elucidate and simplify Heathen mythology, than the constantly bearing in recollection the identity of all those Pagan idols which were distinguished by these several names; (to which may be added the other less similar appellations of the same Phoenician Goddess;) viz. Alergatis, Juno, Isis, Hecate, Proserpine, Ceres, Diana, Europa, (Cicer. de Natur. Deor. lib. iii.) Venus, Urania, Dercetis, (Ovid. Metam. lib. iv.) and Luna. and still preserve their Aliluia. Militta.

The Arabians called her Alilat, Among the Chaldeans she was called

number of sacrifices offered to her. Eusebius mentions this situation of her temple: it was built in the most secluded solitude of that mountain'. Constantine overthrew the temple, and, according to Augustine', abolished its detestable rites; but these, however, have in some measure survived, and remain at the present day among those wretched superstitions which degrade a multitude of human beings, to whom the Holy Scriptures have been hitherto denied. However impious and abominable these superstitions at last became, they were, in their origin, of a purer nature; having resulted solely from the veneration paid by a grateful people to those luminaries of heaven, whence they supposed all their blessing to be derived. Before the coming of the Jews into the Promised Land, it is evident, from Scripture, that the worship of the Moon' was cultivated by the original inhabitants

(1) Eusebius de Laudib. Constant. Orat. et de Præp. lib. iv. cap. 7. (2) Augustin. de Civitate Dei. lib. iv. cap. 10.

(3) It was from the Phanicians and Canaanites that the Israelites learned this worship. "The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the Queen of Heaven.” (Jerem. vii. 8.) The Canaanites and Phanicians called the moon Ashteroth, Astarté, Baallis. Lucian expressly says, that Astarté, that is to say, the Venus of Libanus, or Queen of Heaven, was the moon; and Herodotus (lib. 5.) calls Astarté, 'Aorçságxn; as it is said by Herodian that the Carthaginians did, who affirmed her

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