above, but its interior was nearly solid, and admitted therefore of any angle that might appear most beautiful. The Madracen looks even lower, but no correct section of it has been published. The Kubber Roumeia has now been ascertained to have been the tomb of the Mauritanian kings down to the time of Juba II., or about the Christian era.[1] Judging from its style, the Madracen may be a century earlier. Be this as it may, it hardly seems to me doubtful but that these tombs are late Roman translations of a type to which the Maltese examples belonged; but the intermediate links in the long chain which connects them have yet to be recovered.
Internally, these Maltese monuments are rude, and exhibit very little attempt at decoration. The inner apartments, being dark, are quite plain, but the outer, admitting a certain quantity of light by the door, have a proportionate amount of ornament. At Gozo, in the outer apartment, there are, as mentioned above, scrolls and spirals of a style very much more refined than is found in Ireland or in rude monuments generally, but more resembling that of those found at Mycenæ and other parts of Greece. At Hagiar Khem and Mnaidra the favourite ornament are pit markings. Whether
- ↑ Berbrugger, 'Tombeau de la Chrétienne—Mausolée des derniers Rois de Mauritanie;' Alger, 1867.
