RELIGION. 79 two columns, the one of gold, the other of emerald, or perhaps of green glass, in which we must recognize betylae of an especially sumptuous kind. These columns are figured on the two Maltese pedestals consecrated to Melkart towards the beginning of the second century B.C., by Abdosir and Osirsamar (Fig. 28).' Even in the temple of Tanit at Carthage, whose august character is FIG. 27. Child god. From a Cypriot terra-cotta in the Louvre. Actual size. attested by the thousands of votive steles set up in its precincts yve doubt whether there was any statue of the goddess ; and our doubts are confirmed when we remember how rudely she is figured on most of the steles set up in her honour. These figures are nothing more than naive renderings of a conical stone, sometimes 1 Corpus Inscriplionum Setniti(&rum,^a.rl i. No. 122 and 122 fas.
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