*  Isai.  ii.  20.  These  remarks  have  been
suggested  by  a  recent  discovery  of  much  inter-
est at  Tarsus.  In  a  mound  which  had  formerly
rested  against  a  portion  of  the  city  wall,  since
removed,  was  discovered  a  large  collection  of
terra-cotta  figures  and  lamps.  At  first  these  were
thought  to  be  a  sherd-wreck,  or  the  refuse  of
some  Ceramicus  or  pottery-work.  But,  on  ob-
sen'ing  that  the  lamps  had  been  used,  and  that
the  earthenware  gods  (Dijictiles)  bore  no  trace
ot  having  been  rejected  because  of  defective
workmanship,  but,  on  the  contrary,  had  evi-
dently been  used,  it  has  been  imagined  that
these  terra-cottas  must  have  been  thrown  away,
as  connected  with  idolatry,  on  the  occasion  of
some  conversion  to  Christianity.  The  figures
are  such  as  these,  —  a  head  of  Pan,  still  show-
ing the  mortar  by  which  it  was  set  up  in  some
garden  or  vineyard ;  the  boy  Mercury ;  Cybe-
le,  Jupiter,  Ceres  crowned  with  com,  Apollo
with  rays,  a  lion  devouring  a  bull  (precisely
similar  to  that  engraved,  p.  28),  with  other


symbols  of  general  or  local  mythology.  There
are,  moreover,  some  ears,  legs,  &c.,  which
seem  to  have  been  votive  offerings,  and  which,
therefore,  it  would  have  been  sacrilege  to
remove ;  and  a  great  number  of  lamps  or
incense-burners,  with  a  carbonaceous  stain  on
them.
The  date  when  these  things  were  thrown
"  to  the  moles  and  bats "  seems  to  be  ascer-
tained by  the  dressing  of  the  hair  in  one  of
the  female  figures,  which  is  that  of  the  period
of  the  early  emperors,  as  shown  in  busts  of
Domitia,  or  Julia,  the  wife  of  Titus,  the  same
that  is  censured  by  the  Koman  satirist  and  by
the  Christian  Apostle.  Some  of  them  are
undoubtedly  of  an  earlier  period.
