{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_17323/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_17323","id":"gutenberg_17323","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17323","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Ancient","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Civilization, Ancient","Egypt","Egypt -- History -- To 640 A.D.","History, Ancient","Middle East -- History"],"text":"Produced by David Widger\n\n\n\n\n\nHISTORY OF EGYPT CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA\n\n\nBy G. MASPERO,\nHonorable Doctor of Civil Laws, and Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford;\nMember of the Institute and Professor at the College of France.\n\nEdited by A. H. SAYCE,\nProfessor of Assyriology, Oxford.\n\nTranslated by M. L. McCLURE,\nMember of the Committee of the Egypt Exploration Fund\n\n\nCONTAINING OVER TWELVE HUNDRED COLORED PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\nVolume III.\n\n\nLONDON\n\nTHE GROLIER SOCIETY\n\nPUBLISHERS\n\n\n[Illustration: 001.jpg El Hammam (The Bath)]\n\n\n[Illustration: 002.jpg THE BANKS OF THE EUPHRATES AT IIILLAH]\n\n     Drawn by Boudier, after J. Dieulafoy. The vignette, which is\n     by Faucher-Gudin, is reproduced from an intaglio in the\n     Cabinet des M\u00e9dailles.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I--ANCIENT CHALD\u00c6A\n\n\nThe Creation, the Deluge, the history of the gods--The country, its\ncities its inhabitants, its early dynasties.\n\n[Illustration: 002a.jpg]\n\n\"In the time when nothing which was called heaven existed above, and when\nnothing below had as yet received the name of earth,* Apsu, the Ocean,\nwho first was their father, and Chaos-Ti\u00e2mat, who gave birth to them\nall, mingled their waters in one, reeds which were not united, rushes\nwhich bore no fruit.\"** Life germinated slowly in this inert mass, in\nwhich the elements of our world lay still in confusion: when at length\nit did spring up, it was but feebly, and at rare intervals, through\nthe hatching of divine couples devoid of personality and almost without\nform. \"In the time when the gods were not created, not one as yet, when\nthey had neither been called by their names, nor had their destinies\nbeen assigned to them by fate, gods manifested themselves. Lakhmu and\nLakhamu were the first to appear, and waxed great for ages; then Anshar\nand Kishar were produced after them. Days were added to days, and years\nwere heaped upon years: Anu, Inlil, and Ea were born in their turn, for\nAnshar and Kishar had given them birth.\" As the generations emanated one\nfrom the other, their vitality increased, and the personality of each\nbecame more clearly defined; the last generation included none but\nbeings of an original character and clearly marked individuality. Anu,\nthe sunlit sky by day, the starlit firmament by night; Inlil-Bel,\nthe king of the earth; Ea, the sovereign of the waters and the\npersonification of wisdom.*** Each of them duplicated himself, Anu into\nAnat, Bel into Belit, Ea into Damkina, and united himself to the spouse\nwhom he had deduced from himself. Other divinities sprang from these\nfruitful pairs, and the impulse once given, the world was rapidly\npeopled by their descendants. Sin, Shamash, and Kamman, who presided\nrespectively over the moon, the sun, and the air, were all three of\nequal rank; next came the lords of the planets, Ninib, Merodach, Nergal,\nthe warrior-goddess Ishtar, and Nebo; then a whole army of lesser\ndeities, who ranged themselves around Anu as round a supreme master.\nTi\u00e2mat, finding her domain becoming more and more restricted owing\nto the activity of the others, desired to raise battalion against\nbattalion, and set herself to create unceasingly; but her offspring,\nmade in her own image, appeared like those incongruous phantoms which\nmen see in dreams, and which are made up of members borrowed from a\nscore of different animals. They appeared in the form of bulls with\nhuman heads, of horses with the snouts of dogs, of dogs with quadruple\nbodies springing from a single fish-like tail. Some of them had the beak\nof an eagle or a hawk; others, four wings and two faces; others, the\nlegs and horns of a goat; others, again, the hind quarters of a horse\nand the whole body of a man. Ti\u00e2mat furnished them with terrible\nweapons, placed them under the command of her husband Kingu, and set out\nto war against the gods.\n\n     * In Chald\u00e6a, as in Egypt, nothing was supposed to have a\n     real existence until it had received its name: the sentence\n     quoted in the text means practically, that at that time\n     there was neither heaven nor earth.\n\n     ** Apsu has been transliterated kiracruv [in Greek], by the\n     author an extract from whose works has been preserved by\n     Damascius. He gives a different version of the tradition,\n     according to which the amorphous goddess Mummu-Ti\u00e2mat\n     consisted of two persons. The first, Tauth\u00e9, was the wife of\n     Apas\u00f4n; the second, Moymis, was the son of Apas\u00f4n and of\n     Tauth\u00e9. The last part of the sentence is very obscure in the\n     Assyrian text, and has been translated in a variety of\n     different ways. It seems to contain a comparison between\n     Aps\u00fb and Mummu-Ti\u00e2mat on the one hand, and the reeds and\n     clumps of rushes so common in Chald\u00e6a on the other; the two\n     divinities remain inert and unfruitful, like water-plants\n     which have not yet manifested their exuberant growth.\n\n     *** The first fragments of the Chald\u00e6an account of the\n     Creation were discovered by G. Smith, who described them in\n     the _Daily Telegraph_ (of March 4, 1875), and published them\n     in the _Transactions of the Society of Biblical Arch\u00e6ology_,\n     and translated in his Chald\u00e6an account of Genesis all the\n     fragments with which he was acquainted; other fragments have\n     since been collected, but unfortunately not enough to enable\n     us to entirely reconstitute the legend. It covered at least\n     six tablets, possibly more. Portions of it have been\n     translated after Smith, by Talbot, by Oppert, by Lenormant,\n     by Schrader, by Sayce, by Jensen, by Winckler, by Zimmern,\n     and lastly by Del\u00eetzsch. Since G. Smith wrote _The Chald\u00e6an\n     Account_, a fragment of a different version has been\n     considered to be a part of the dogma of the Creation, as it\n     was put forth at Kutha.\n\n[Illustration: 006.jpg ONE OF THE EAGLE-HEADED GENII.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from an Assyrian bas-relief from\n     Khorsabad\n\nAt first they knew not whom to send against her. Anshar despatched his\nson Anu; but Anu was afraid, and made no attempt to oppose her. He sent\nEa; but Ea, like Anu, grew pale with fear, and did not venture to attack\nher. Merodach, the son of Ea, was the only one who believed himself\nstrong enough to conquer her. The gods, summoned to a solemn banquet in\nthe palace of Anshar, unanimously chose him to be their champion, and\nproclaimed him king. \"Thou, thou art glorious among the great gods, thy\nwill is second to none, thy bidding is Anu; Marduk (Merodach), thou art\nglorious among the great gods, thy will is second to none,* thy bidding\nis Anu.** From this day, that which thou orderest may not be changed,\nthe power to raise or to abase shall be in thy hand, the word of thy\nmouth shall endure, and thy commandment shall not meet with opposition.\nNone of the gods shall transgress thy law; but wheresoever a sanctuary\nof the gods is decorated, the place where they shall give their oracles\nshall be thy place.*** Marduk, it is thou who art our avenger! We bestow\non thee the attributes of a king; the whole of all that exists, thou\nhast it, and everywhere thy word shall be exalted. Thy weapons shall not\nbe turned aside, they shall strike thy enemy. O master, who trusts in\nthee, spare thou, his life; but the god who hath done evil, put out\nhis life like water. They clad their champion in a garment, and thus\naddressed him: 'Thy will, master, shall be that of the gods. Speak the\nword, 'Let it be so,' it shall be so. Thus open thy mouth, this garment\nshall disappear; say unto it, 'Return,' and the garment shall be there.\"\nHe spoke with his lips, the garment disappeared; he said unto it,\n\"Return,\" and the garment was restored.\n\n     * The Assyrian runs, \"thy destiny is second to none.\" This\n     refers not to the _destiny_ of the god himself, but to the\n     fate which he allots to others. I have substituted, here and\n     elsewhere, for the word \"destiny,\" the special meaning of\n     which would not have been understood, the word \"will,\"\n     which, though it does not exactly reproduce the Assyrian\n     expression, avoids the necessity for paraphrases or formulas\n     calculated to puzzle the modern reader.\n\n     ** Or, to put it less concisely, \"When thou commandest, it\n     is Anu himself who commands,\" and the same blind obedience\n     must be paid to thee as to Anu.\n\n     *** The meaning is uncertain. The sentence seems to convey\n     that henceforth Merodach would be at home in all temples\n     that were constructed in honour of the other gods.\n\nMerodach having been once convinced by this evidence that he had the\npower of doing everything and of undoing everything at his pleasure, the\ngods handed to him the sceptre, the throne, the crown, the insignia of\nsupreme rule, and greeted him with their acclamations: \"Be King!--Go!\nCut short the life of Ti\u00e2mat, and let the wind carry her blood to the\nhidden extremities of the universe.\"* He equipped himself carefully for\nthe struggle. \"He made a bow and placed his mark upon it;\"** he had a\nspear brought to him and fitted a point to it; the god lifted the lance,\nbrandished it in his right hand, then hung the bow and quiver at\nhis side. He placed a thunderbolt before him, filled his body with a\ndevouring flame, then made a net in which to catch the anarchic Ti\u00e2mat;\nhe placed the four winds in such a way that she could not escape, south\nand north, east and west, and with his own hand he brought them the net,\nthe gift of his father Anu. \"He created the hurricane, the evil wind, the\nstorm, the tempest, the four winds, the seven winds, the waterspout, the\nwind that is second to none; then he let loose the winds he had created,\nall seven of them, in order to bewilder the anarchic Ti\u00e2mat by charging\nbehind her. And the master of the waterspout raised his mighty weapon,\nhe mounted his chariot, a work without its equal, formidable; he\ninstalled himself therein, tied the four reins to the side, and darted\nforth, pitiless, torrent-like, swift.\"\n\n     * Sayce was the first, I believe, to cite, in connection\n     with this mysterious order, the passage in which Berossus\n     tells how the gods created men from a little clay, moistened\n     with the blood of the god B\u00ealos. Here there seems to be a\n     fear lest the blood of Ti\u00e2mat, mingling with the mud, should\n     produce a crop of monsters similar to those which the\n     goddess had already created; the blood, if carried to the\n     north, into the domain of the night, would there lose its\n     creative power, or the monsters who might spring from it\n     would at any rate remain strangers to the world of gods and\n     men.\n\n     ** \"Literally, he made his weapon known; \"perhaps it would\n     be better to interpret it, \"and he made it known that the\n     bow would henceforth be his distinctive weapon.\"\n\n[Illustration: 008.jpg BEL-MERODACH, ARMED WITH THE THUNDERBOLT, DOES\nBATTLE WITH THE TUMULTUOUS TIAMAT.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from the bas-relief from Nimr\u00fbd\n     preserved in the British Museum.\n\nHe passed through the serried ranks of the monsters and penetrated as\nfar as Ti\u00e2mat, and provoked her with his cries. \"'Thou hast rebelled\nagainst the sovereignty of the gods, thou hast plotted evil against\nthem, and hast desired that my fathers should taste of thy malevolence;\ntherefore thy host shall be reduced to slavery, thy weapons shall be\ntorn from thee. Come, then, thou and I must give battle to one another!'\nTi\u00e2mat, when she heard him, flew into a fury, she became mad with rage;\nthen Ti\u00e2mat howled, she raised herself savagely to her full height, and\nplanted her feet firmly on the earth. She pronounced an incantation,\nrecited her formula, and called to her aid the gods of the combat,\nboth them and their weapons. They drew near one to another, Ti\u00e2mat and\nMarduk, wisest of the gods: They flung themselves into the combat, they\nmet one another in the struggle. Then the master unfolded his net and\nseized her; he caused the hurricane which waited behind him to pass\nin front of him, and, when Ti\u00e2mat opened her mouth to swallow him, he\nthrust the hurricane into it so that the monster could not close her\njaws again. The mighty wind filled her paunch, her breast swelled, her\nmaw was split. Marduk gave a straight thrust with his lance, burst\nopen the paunch, pierced the interior, tore the breast, then bound the\nmonster and deprived her of life. When he had vanquished Ti\u00e2mat, who had\nbeen their leader, her army was disbanded, her host was scattered, and\nthe gods, her allies, who had marched beside her, trembled, were scared,\nand fled.\" He seized hold of them, and of Kingu their chief, and brought\nthem bound in chains before the throne of his father.\n\nHe had saved the gods from ruin, but this was the least part of\nhis task; he had still to sweep out of space the huge carcase which\nencumbered it, and to separate its ill-assorted elements, and arrange\nthem afresh for the benefit of the conquerors. He returned to Ti\u00e2mat\nwhom he had bound in chains. He placed his foot upon her, with his\nunerring knife he cut into the upper part of her; then he cut the\nblood-vessels, and caused the blood to be carried by the north wind to\nthe hidden places. And the gods saw his face, they rejoiced, they gave\nthemselves up to gladness, and sent him a present, a tribute of peace;\nthen he recovered his calm, he contemplated the corpse, raised it and\nwrought marvels.\n\n[Illustration: 010.jpg A KUFA LADEN WITH STONES, AND MANNED BY A CREW OF\nFOUR MEN.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief at Koyunjik.\n     Behind the _kufa_ may be seen a fisherman seated astride on\n     an inflated skin with his fish-basket attached to his neck.\n\nHe split it in two as one does a fish for drying; then he hung up one of\nthe halves on high, which became the heavens; the other half he spread\nout under his feet to form the earth, and made the universe such as\nmen have since known it. As in Egypt, the world was a kind of enclosed\nchamber balanced on the bosom of the eternal waters.* The earth, which\nforms the lower part of it, or floor, is something like an overturned\nboat in appearance, and hollow underneath, not like one of the narrow\nskiffs in use among other races, but a kufa, or kind of semicircular\nboat such as the tribes of the Lower Euphrates have made use of from\nearliest antiquity down to our own times.\n\n     * The description of the Egyptian world will be found in\n     vol. i. p. 21 of the present work. So far the only\n     systematic attempt to reconstruct the Chald\u00e6an world, since\n     Lenormant, has been made by Jensen, who, after examining all\n     the elements which went to compose it, one after another,\n     sums up in a few pages, and reproduces in a plate, the\n     principal results of his inquiry. It will be seen at a\n     glance how much I have taken from his work, and in what\n     respects the drawing here reproduced differs from his.\n\n[Illustration: 012.jpg THE WORLD AS CONCEIVED BY THE CHALD\u00c6ANS]\n\nThe earth rises gradually from the extremities to the centre, like a\ngreat mountain, of which the snow-region, where the Euphrates finds its\nsource, approximately marks the summit. It was at first supposed to be\ndivided into seven zones, placed one on the top of the other along its\nsides, like the stories of a temple; later on it was divided into four\n\"houses,\" each of which, like the \"houses\" of Egypt, corresponded with\none of the four cardinal points, and was under the rule of particular\ngods. Near the foot of the mountain, the edges of the so-called boat\ncurve abruptly outwards, and surround the earth with a continuous wall\nof uniform height having no opening. The waters accumulated in the\nhollow thus formed, as in a ditch; it was a narrow and mysterious sea,\nan ocean stream, which no living man might cross save with permission\nfrom on high, and whose waves rigorously separated the domain of men\nfrom the regions reserved to the gods. The heavens rose above the\n\"mountain of the world\" like a boldly formed dome, the circumference\nof which rested on the top of the wall in the same way as the upper\nstructures of a house rest on its foundations. Merodach wrought it out\nof a hard resisting metal which shone brilliantly during the day in\nthe rays of the sun, and at night appeared only as a dark blue surface,\nstrewn irregularly with luminous stars. He left it quite solid in the\nsouthern regions, but tunnelled it in the north, by contriving within\nit a huge cavern which communicated with external space by means of two\ndoors placed at the east and the west.* The sun came forth each morning\nby the first of these doors; he mounted to the zenith, following the\ninternal base of the cupola from east to south; then he slowly descended\nagain to the western door, and re-entered the tunnel in the firmament,\nwhere he spent the night,** Merodach regulated the course of the whole\nuniverse on the movements of the sun. He instituted the year and divided\nit into twelve months. To each month he assigned three decans, each of\nwhom exercised his influence successively for a period of ten days; he\nthen placed the procession of the days under the authority of Nibiru,\nin order that none of them should wander from his track and be lost. \"He\nlighted the moon that she might rule the night, and made her a star of\nnight that she might indicate the days:*** 'From month to month, without\nceasing, shape thy disk,**** and at the beginning of the month kindle\nthyself in the evening, lighting up thy horns so as to make the heavens\ndistinguishable; on the seventh day, show to me thy disk; and on the\nfifteenth, let thy two halves be full from month to month.'\" He cleared\na path for the planets, and four of them he entrusted to four gods; the\nfifth, our Jupiter, he reserved for himself, and appointed him to be\nshepherd of this celestial flock; in order that all the gods might have\ntheir image visible in the sky, he mapped out on the vault of heaven\ngroups of stars which he allotted to them, and which seemed to men like\nrepresentations of real or fabulous beings, fishes with the heads of\nrams, lions, bulls, goats and scorpions.\n\n     * Jensen has made a collection of the texts which speak of\n     the interior of the heavens (Kirib shami) and of their\n     aspect. The expressions which have induced many\n     Assyriologists to conclude that the heavens were divided\n     into different parts subject to different gods may be\n     explained without necessarily having recourse to this\n     hypothesis; the \"heaven of Ami,\" for instance, is an\n     expression which merely affirms Anu's sovereignty in the\n     heavens, and is only a more elegant way of designating the\n     heavens by the name of the god who rules them. The gates of\n     heaven are mentioned in the account of the Creation.\n\n     ** It is generally admitted that the Chald\u00e6ans believed that\n     the sun passed over the world in the daytime, and underneath\n     it during the night. The general resemblance of their theory\n     of the universe to the Egyptian theory leads me to believe\n     that they, no less than the Egyptians (cf. vol. i. pp. 24,\n     25, of the present work), for along time believed that the\n     sun and moon revolved round the earth in a horizontal plane.\n\n     *** This obscure phrase seems to be explained, if we\n     remember that the Chald\u00e6an, like the Egyptian day, dated\n     from the rising of one moon to the rising of the following\n     moon; for instance, from six o'clock one evening to about\n     six o'clock the next evening. The moon, the star of night,\n     thus marks the appearance of each day and \"indicates the\n     days.\"\n\n     **** The word here translated by \"disk\" is literally the\n     royal cap, decorated with horns, \"Agu,\" which Sin, the moon-\n     god, wears on his head.\n\nThe heavens having been put in order,* he set about peopling the earth,\nand the gods, who had so far passively and perhaps powerlessly watched\nhim at his work, at length made up their minds to assist him. They\ncovered the soil with verdure, and all collectively \"made living beings\nof many kinds. The cattle of the fields, the wild beasts of the fields,\nthe reptiles of the fields, they fashioned them and made of them\ncreatures of life.\"** According to one legend, these first animals\nhad hardly left the hands of their creators, when, not being able to\nwithstand the glare of the light, they fell dead one after the other.\nThen Merodach, seeing that the earth was again becoming desolate, and\nthat its fertility was of no use to any one, begged his father Ea to cut\noff his head and mix clay with the blood which welled from the trunk,\nthen from this clay to fashion new beasts and men, to whom the virtues\nof this divine blood would give the necessary strength to enable them\nto resist the air and light. At first they led a somewhat wretched\nexistence, and \"lived without rule after the manner of beasts. But,\nin the first year, appeared a monster endowed with human reason named\nOannes, who rose from out of the Erythraean sea, at the point where it\nborders Babylonia. He had the whole body of a fish, but above his fish's\nhead he had another head which was that of a man, and human feet emerged\nfrom beneath his fish's tail; he had a human voice, and his image is\npreserved to this day. He passed the day in the midst of men without\ntaking any food; he taught them the use of letters, sciences and arts of\nall kinds, the rules for the founding of cities, and the construction of\ntemples, the principles of law and of surveying; he showed them how to\nsow and reap; he gave them all that contributes to the comforts of life.\nSince that time nothing excellent has been invented. At sunset this\nmonster Oannes plunged back into the sea, and remained all night beneath\nthe waves, for he was amphibious. He wrote a book on the origin of\nthings and of civilization, which he gave to men.\" These are a few of\nthe fables which were current among the races of the Lower Euphrates\nwith regard to the first beginnings of the universe. That they possessed\nmany other legends of which we now know nothing is certain, but either\nthey have perished for ever, or the works in which they were recorded\nstill await discovery, it may be under the ruins of a palace or in the\ncupboards of some museum.\n\n* The arrangement of the heavens by Merodach is described at the end\nof the fourth and beginning of the fifth tablets. The text, originally\nsomewhat obscure, is so mutilated in places that it is not always\npossible to make out the sense with certainty.\n\n** The creation of the animals and then of man is related on the seventh\ntablet, and on a tablet the place of which, in the series, is still\nundetermined. I have been obliged to translate the text rather freely,\nso as to make the meaning clear to the modern reader.\n\n[Illustration: 017.jpg A GOD-FISH]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an Assyrian bas-relief from\n     Nimr\u00fbd.\n\nThey do not seem to have conceived the possibility of an absolute\ncreation, by means of which the gods, or one of them, should have\nevolved out of nothing all that exists: the creation was for them merely\nthe setting in motion of pre-existing elements, and the creator only an\norganizer of the various materials floating in chaos. Popular fancy\nin different towns varied the names of the creators and the methods\nemployed by them; as centuries passed on, a pile of vague, confused, and\ncontradictory traditions were amassed, no one of which was held to be\nquite satisfactory, though all found partisans to support them. Just as\nin Egypt, the theologians of local priesthoods endeavoured to classify\nthem and bring them into a kind of harmony: many they rejected and\nothers they recast in order to better reconcile their statements: they\narranged them in systems, from which they undertook to unravel, under\ninspiration from on high, the true history of the universe. That which I\nhave tried to set forth above is very ancient, if, as is said to be the\ncase, it was in existence two or even three thousand years before our\nera; but the versions of it which we possess were drawn up much later,\nperhaps not till about the VIIth century B.C.* It had been accepted by\nthe inhabitants of Babylon because it flattered their religious vanity\nby attributing the credit of having evolved order out of chaos to\nMerodach, the protector of their city.** He it was whom the Assyrian\nscribes had raised to a position of honour at the court of the last\nkings of Nineveh:*** it was Merodach's name which Berossus inscribed at\nthe beginning of his book, when he set about relating to the Greeks\nthe origin of the world according to the Chaldeans, and the dawn of\nBabylonian civilization.\n\n     * The question as to whether the text was originally written\n     in Sumerian or in the Semitic tongue has frequently been\n     discussed; the form in which we have it at present is not\n     very old, and does not date much further back than the reign\n     of Assurbanipal, if it is not even contemporary with that\n     monarch. According to Sayce, the first version would date\n     back beyond the XXth century, to the reign of Khammurabi;\n     according to Jensen, beyond the XXXth century before our\n     era.\n\n     ** Sayce thinks that the myth originated at Eridu, on the\n     shores of the Persian Gulf, and afterwards received its\n     present form at Babylon, where the local schools of theology\n     adapted it to the god Merodach.\n\n     *** The tablets in which it is preserved for us come partly\n     from the library of Assurbanipal at Nineveh, partly from\n     that of the temple of Nebo at Borsippa; these latter are\n     more recent than the others, and seem to have been written\n     during the period of the Persian supremacy.\n\nLike the Egyptian civilization, it had had its birth between the sea and\nthe dry land on a low, marshy, alluvial soil, flooded annually by the\nrivers which traverse it, devastated at long intervals by tidal waves of\nextraordinary violence. The Euphrates and the Tigris cannot be regarded\nas mysterious streams like the Nile, whose source so long defied\nexploration that people were tempted to place it beyond the regions\ninhabited by man. The former rise in Armenia, on the slopes of the\nNiphates, one of the chains of mountains which lie between the Black Sea\nand Mesopotamia, and the only range which at certain points reaches the\nline of eternal snow. At first they flow parallel to one another, the\nEuphrates from east to west as far as Malatiyeh, the Tigris from the\nwest towards the east in the direction of Assyria. Beyond Malatiyeh, the\nEuphrates bends abruptly to the south-west, and makes its way across the\nTaurus as though desirous of reaching the Mediterranean by the shortest\nroute, but it soon alters its intention, and makes for the south-east\nin search of the Persian Gulf. The Tigris runs in an oblique direction\ntowards the south from the point where the mountains open out, and\ngradually approaches the Euphrates. Near Bagdad the two rivers are only\na few leagues apart. However, they do not yet blend their waters; after\nproceeding side by side for some twenty or thirty miles, they again\nseparate and only finally; unite at a point some eighty leagues lower\ndown. At the beginning of our geological period their course was not\nsuch a long one. The sea then penetrated as far as lat. 33\u00b0, and was\nonly arrested by the last undulations of the great plateau of secondary\nformation, which descend from the mountain group of Armenia: the two\nrivers entered the sea at a distance of about twenty leagues apart,\nfalling into a gulf bounded on the east by the last spurs of the\nmountains of Iran, on the west by the sandy heights which border the\nmargin of the Arabian Desert.* They filled up this gulf with their\nalluvial deposit, aided by the Adhem, the Diy\u00e2leh, the Kerkha, the\nKarun, and other rivers, which at the end of long independent courses\nbecame tributaries of the Tigris. The present beds of the two rivers,\nconnected by numerous canals, at length meet near the village of Kornah\nand form one single river, the Shatt-el-Arab, which carries their waters\nto the sea. The mud with which they are charged is deposited when it\nreaches their mouth, and accumulates rapidly; it is said that the coast\nadvances about a mile every seventy years.** In its upper reaches the\nEuphrates collects a number of small affluents, the most important of\nwhich, the Kara-Su, has often been confounded with it. Near the middle\nof its course, the Sadjur on the right bank carries into it the waters\nof the Taurus and the Amanus, on the left bank the Balikh and the Khabur\ncontribute those of the Karadja-Dagh; from the mouth of the Khabur to\nthe sea the Euphrates receives no further affluent. The Tigris is fed on\nthe left by the Bitlis-Khai, the two Zabs, the Adhem, and the Diy\u00e2leh.\nThe Euphrates is navigable from Sumeisat, the Tigris from Mossul, both\nof them almost as soon as they leave the mountains. They are subject\nto annual floods, which occur when the winter snow melts on the higher\nranges of Armenia. The Tigris, which rises from the southern slope of\nthe Niphates and has the more direct course, is the first to overflow\nits banks, which it does at the beginning of March, and reaches its\ngreatest height about the 10th or 12th of May. The Euphrates rises in\nthe middle of March, and does not attain its highest level till the\nclose of May. From June onwards it falls with increasing rapidity; by\nSeptember all the water which has not been absorbed by the soil has\nreturned to the river-bed. The inundation does not possess the same\nimportance for the regions covered by it, that the rise of the Nile\ndoes for Egypt. In fact, it does more harm than good, and the river-side\npopulation have always worked hard to protect themselves from it and to\nkeep it away from their lands rather than facilitate its access to\nthem; they regard it as a sort of necessary evil to which they resign\nthemselves, while trying to minimize its effects.***\n\n     * This fact has been established by Ross and Lynch in two\n     articles in the _Journal of the Royal Geographical Society_,\n     vol. ix. pp. 446, 472. The Chald\u00e6ans and Assyrians called\n     the gulf into which the two rivers debouched, N\u00e2r Marr\u00e2tum,\n     or \"salt river,\" a name which they extended to the Chald\u00e6an\n     Sea, i.e. to the whole Persian Gulf.\n\n     ** Loftus estimated, about the middle of the last century,\n     the progress of alluvial deposit at about one English mile\n     in every seventy years; H. Rawlinson considers that the\n     progress must have been more considerable in ancient times,\n     and estimates it at an English mile in thirty years. Kiepert\n     thinks, taking the above estimate as a basis, that in the\n     sixth century before our era the fore-shore came from about\n     ten to twelve German miles (47 to 56 English) higher up than\n     the present fore-shore. G. Rawlinson estimates on his part\n     that between the thirtieth and twentieth centuries B.C., a\n     period in which he places the establishment of the first\n     Chald\u00e6an Empire, the fore-shore was more than 120 miles\n     above the mouth of Shatt-el-Arab, to the north of the\n     present village of Kornah.\n\n     *** Fr. Lenormant has energetically defended this hypothesis\n     in the majority of his works: it is set forth at some length\n     in his work on _La Langue primitive de la Chald\u00e9e_. Hommel,\n     on the other hand, maintains and strives to demonstrate\n     scientifically the relationship of the non-Semitic tongue\n     with Turkish.\n\nThe traveller Olivier noticed this, and writes as follows: \"The land\nthere is rather less fertile [than in Egypt], because it does not\nreceive the alluvial deposits of the rivers with the same regularity as\nthat of the Delta. It is necessary to irrigate it in order to render it\nproductive, and to protect it sedulously from the inundations which are\ntoo destructive in their action and too irregular.\"\n\nThe first races to colonize this country of rivers, or at any rate\nthe first of which we can find traces, seem to have belonged to three\ndifferent types. The most important were the Semites, who spoke a\ndialect akin to Aramaic, Hebrew, and Phoenician. It was for a long\ntime supposed that they came down from the north, and traces of their\noccupation have been pointed out in Armenia in the vicinity of Ararat,\nor halfway down the course of the Tigris, at the foot of the Gordysean\nmountains. It has recently been suggested that we ought rather to seek\nfor their place of origin in Southern Arabia, and this view is gaining\nground among the learned. Side by side with these Semites, the monuments\ngive evidence of a race of ill-defined character, which some have\nsought, without much success, to connect with the tribes of the Urall or\nAlta\u00ef; these people are for the present provisionally called Sumerians.*\nThey came, it would appear, from some northern country; they brought\nwith them from their original home a curious system of writing, which,\nmodified, transformed, and adopted by ten different nations, has\npreserved for us all that we know in regard to the majority of the\nempires which rose and fell in Western Asia before the Persian conquest.\nSemite or Sumerian, it is still doubtful which preceded the other at the\nmouths of the Euphrates. The Sumerians, who were for a time all-powerful\nin the centuries before the dawn of history, had already mingled closely\nwith the Semites when we first hear of them. Their language gave way to\nthe Semitic, and tended gradually to become a language of ceremony and\nritual, which was at last learnt less for everyday use, than for the\ndrawing up of certain royal inscriptions, or for the interpretation of\nvery ancient texts of a legal or sacred character. Their religion became\nassimilated to the religion, and their gods identified with the gods, of\nthe Semites. The process of fusion commenced at such an early date, that\nnothing has really come down to us from the time when the two races were\nstrangers to each other. We are, therefore, unable to say with certainty\nhow much each borrowed from the other, what each gave, or relinquished\nof its individual instincts and customs. We must take and judge them as\nthey come before us, as forming one single nation, imbued with the\nsame ideas, influenced in all their acts by the same civilization, and\npossessed of such strongly marked characteristics that only in the last\ndays of their existence do we find any appreciable change. In the course\nof the ages they had to submit to the invasions and domination of some\ndozen different races, of whom some--Assyrians and Chald\u00e6ans--were\ndescended from a Semitic stock, while the others--Elamites, Cossaaans,\nPersians, Macedonians, and Parthians--either were not connected with\nthem by any tie of blood, or traced their origin in some distant manner\nto the Sumerian branch. They got quickly rid of a portion of these\nsuperfluous elements, and absorbed or assimilated the rest; like\nthe Egyptians, they seem to have been one of those races which, once\nestablished, were incapable of ever undergoing modification, and\nremained unchanged from one end of their existence to the other.\n\n* The name _Accadian_ proposed by H. Rawlinson and by Hincks, and\nadopted by Sayce, seems to have given way to _Sumerian_, the title put\nforward by Oppert. The existence of the Sumerian or Sumero-Accadian\nhas been contested by Hal\u00e9vy in a number of noteworthy works. M. Hal\u00e9vy\nwishes to recognize in the so-called Sumerian documents the Semitic\ntongue of the ordinary inscriptions, but written in a priestly syllabic\ncharacter subject to certain rules; this would be practically a\n_cryptogram_, or rather an _allogram_. M. Hal\u00e9vy won over Messrs. Guyard\nand Pognon in France, Delitzsch and a part of the Delitzsch school\nin Germany, to his view of the facts. The controversy, which has been\ncarried on on both sides with a somewhat unnecessary vehemence, still\nrages; it has been simplified quite recently by Delitzcsh's return to\nthe Sumerian theory. Without reviewing the arguments in detail, and\nwhile doing full justice to the profound learning displayed by M.\nHal\u00e9vy, I feel forced to declare with Tiele that his criticisms \"oblige\nscholars to carefully reconsider all that has been taken as proved in\nthese matters, but that they do not warrant us in rejecting as untenable\nthe hypothesis, still a very probable one, according to which the\ndifference in the graphic systems corresponds to a real difference in.\nidiom.\"\n\nTheir country must have presented at the beginning very much the same\naspect of disorder and neglect which it offers to modern eyes. It was\na flat interminable moorland stretching away to the horizon, there to\nbegin again seemingly more limitless than ever, with, no rise or fall in\nthe ground to break the dull monotony; clumps of palm trees and slender\nmimosas, intersected by lines of water gleaming in the distance, then\nlong patches of wormwood and mallow, endless vistas of burnt-up plain,\nmore palms and more mimosas, make up the picture of the land, whose\nuniform soil consists of rich, stiff, heavy clay, split up by the heat\nof the sun into a network of deep narrow fissures, from which the\nshrubs and wild herbs shoot forth each year in spring-time. By an almost\nimperceptible slope it falls gently away from north to south towards\nthe Persian Gulf, from east to west towards the Arabian plateau. The\nEuphrates flows through it with unstable and changing course, between\nshifting banks which it shapes and re-shapes from season to season.\n\n[Illustration: 025.jpg GIGANTIC CHALD\u00c6AN REEDS]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an Assyrian bas-relief of the\n     palace of Nimr\u00fbd.\n\nThe slightest impulse of its current encroaches on them, breaks through\nthem, and makes openings for streamlets, the majority of which are\nclogged up and obliterated by the washing away of their margins, almost\nas rapidly as they are formed. Others grow wider and longer, and,\nsending out branches, are transformed into permanent canals or regular\nrivers, navigable at certain seasons. They meet on the left bank\ndetached offshoots of the Tigris, and after wandering capriciously in\nthe space between the two rivers, at last rejoin their parent stream:\nsuch are the Shatt-el-Ha\u00ee and the Shatt-en-Nil. The overflowing waters\non the right bank, owing to the fall of the land, run towards the\nlow limestone hills which shut in the basin of the Euphrates in the\ndirection of the desert; they are arrested at the foot of these hills,\nand are diverted on to the low-lying ground, where they lose themselves\nin the morasses, or hollow out a series of lakes along its borders,\nthe largest of which, Bahr-\u00ee-Nedj\u00eef, is shut in on three sides by steep\ncliffs, and rises or falls periodically with the floods. A broad canal,\nwhich takes its origin in the direction of Hit at the beginning of the\nalluvial plain, bears with it the overflow, and, skirting the lowest\nterraces of the Arabian chain, runs almost parallel to the Euphrates. In\nproportion as the canal proceeds southward the ground sinks still lower,\nand becomes saturated with the overflowing waters, until, the banks\ngradually disappearing, the whole neighbourhood is converted into a\nmorass. The Euphrates and its branches do not at all times succeed in\nreaching the sea: they are lost for the most part in vast lagoons to\nwhich the tide comes up, and in its ebb bears their waters away with\nit. Reeds grow there luxuriantly in enormous beds, and reach sometimes\na height of from thirteen to sixteen feet; banks of black and putrid mud\nemerge amidst the green growth, and give off deadly emanations. Winter\nis scarcely felt here: snow is unknown, hoar-frost is rarely seen,\nbut sometimes in the morning a thin film of ice covers the marshes, to\ndisappear under the first rays of the sun.*\n\n     * Loftus attributes the lowering of the temperature during\n     the winter to the wind blowing over a soil impregnated with\n     saltpetre. \"We were,\" he says, \"in a kind of immense\n     freezing chamber.\"\n\n[Illustration: 027.jpg THE MARSHES ABOUT THE CONFLUENCE OF THE KERKHA\nAND TIGRIS.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by J. Dieulafoy.\nFor six weeks in November and December there is much rain: after this\nperiod there are only occasional showers, occurring at longer and longer\nintervals until May, when they entirely cease, and the summer sets in,\nto last until the following November. There are almost six continuous\nmonths of depressing and moist heat, which overcomes both men and\nanimals and makes them incapable of any constant effort.* Sometimes\na south or east wind suddenly arises, and bearing with it across the\nfields and canals whirlwinds of sand, burns up in its passage the little\nverdure which the sun had spared. Swarms of locusts follow in its train,\nand complete the work of devastation. A sound as of distant rain is at\nfirst heard, increasing in intensity as the creatures approach. Soon\ntheir thickly concentrated battalions fill the heavens on all sides,\nflying with slow and uniform motion at a great height. They at length\nalight, cover everything, devour everything, and, propagating their\nspecies, die within a few days: nothing, not a blade of vegetation,\nremains on the region where they alighted.\n\n     * Loftus says that he himself had witnessed in the\n     neighbourhood of Bagdad during the daytime birds perched on\n     the palm trees in an exhausted condition, and panting with\n     open beaks. The inhabitants of Bagdad during the summer pass\n     their nights on the housetops, and the hours of day in\n     passages within, expressly constructed to protect them from\n     the heat.\n\nNotwithstanding these drawbacks, the country was not lacking in\nresources. The soil was almost as fertile as the loam of Egypt, and,\nlike the latter, rewarded a hundredfold the labour of the inhabitants.*\nAmong the wild herbage which spreads over the country in the spring,\nand clothes it for a brief season with flowers, it was found that some\nplants, with a little culture, could be rendered useful to men and\nbeasts. There were ten or twelve different species of pulse to choose\nfrom--beans, 'lentils, chick-peas, vetches, kidney beans, onions,\ncucumbers, egg-plants, \"gombo,\" and pumpkins. From the seed of the\nsesame an oil was expressed which served for food, while the castor-oil\nplant furnished that required for lighting. The safflower and henna\nsupplied the women with dyes for the stuffs which they manufactured from\nhemp and flax. Aquatic plants were more numerous than on the banks\nof the Nile, but they did not occupy such an important place among\nfood-stuffs. The \"lily bread\" of the Pharaohs would have seemed meagre\nfare to people accustomed from early times to wheaten bread. Wheat and\nbarley are considered to be indigenous on the plains of the Euphrates;\nit was supposed to be here that they were first cultivated in Western\nAsia, and that they spread from hence to Syria, Egypt, and the whole\nof Europe.** \"The soil there is so favourable to the growth of cereals,\nthat it yields usually two hundredfold, and in places of exceptional\nfertility three hundredfold. The leaves of the wheat and barley have a\nwidth of four digits. As for the millet and sesame, which in altitude\nare as great as trees, I will not state their height, although I know\nit from experience, being convinced that those who have not lived in\nBabylonia would regard my statement with incredulity.\" Herodotus in his\nenthusiasm exaggerated the matter, or perhaps, as a general rule, he\nselected as examples the exceptional instances which had been mentioned\nto him: at present wheat and barley give a yield to the husbandman of\nsome thirty or forty fold.\n\n     * Olivier, who was a physician and naturalist, and had\n     visited Egypt as well as Mesopotamia, thought that Babylonia\n     was somewhat less fertile than Egypt. Loftus, who was\n     neither, and had not visited Egypt, declares, on the\n     contrary, that the banks of the Euphrates are no less\n     productive than those of the Nile.\n\n     ** Native traditions collected by Berossus confirm this, and\n     the testimony of Olivier is usually cited as falling in with\n     that of the Chald\u00e6an writer. Olivier is considered, indeed,\n     to have discovered wild cereals in Mesopotamia. Pie only\n     says, however, that on the banks of the Euphrates above Anah\n     he had met with \"wheat, barley, and spelt in a kind of\n     ravine;\" from the context it clearly follows that these were\n     plants which had reverted to a wild state--instances of\n     which have been observed several times in Mesopotamia. A. de\n     Oandolle admitted the Mesopotamian origin of the various\n     species of wheat and barley.\n\n[Illustration: 030.jpg THE GATHERING OF THE SPATHES OF THE MALE PALM\nTREE]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a cylinder in the Museum at the\n     Hague. The original measures almost an inch in height.\n\n\"The date palm meets all the other needs of the population; they make\nfrom it a kind of bread, wine, vinegar, honey, cakes, and numerous kinds\nof stuffs; the smiths use the stones of its fruit for charcoal; these\nsame stones, broken and macerated, are given as a fattening food to\ncattle and sheep.\" Such a useful tree was tended with a loving care,\nthe vicissitudes in its growth were observed, and its reproduction was\nfacilitated by the process of shaking the flowers of the male palm over\nthose of the female: the gods themselves had taught this artifice to\nmen, and they were frequently represented with a bunch of flowers in\ntheir right hand, in the attitude assumed by a peasant in fertilizing\na palm tree. Fruit trees were everywhere mingled with ornamental\ntrees--the fig, apple, almond, walnut, apricot, pistachio, vine, with\nthe plane tree, cypress, tamarisk, and acacia; in the prosperous period\nof the country the plain of the Euphrates was a great orchard which\nextended uninterruptedly from the plateau of Mesopotamia to the shores\nof the Persian Gulf.\n\nThe flora would not have been so abundant if the fauna had been\nsufficient for the supply of a large population. A considerable\nproportion of the tribes on the Lower Euphrates lived for a long time\non fish only. They consumed them either fresh, salted, or smoked: they\ndried them in the sun, crushed them in a mortar, strained the pulp\nthrough linen, and worked it up into a kind of bread or into cakes. The\nbarbel and carp attained a great size in these sluggish waters, and if\nthe Chal\u00e6ans, like the Arabs who have succeeded them in these regions,\nclearly preferred these fish above others, they did not despise at the\nsame time such less delicate species as the eel, murena, silurus, and\neven that singular gurnard whose habits are an object of wonder to our\nnaturalists. This fish spends its existence usually in the water, but\na life in the open air has no terrors for it: it leaps out on the bank,\nclimbs trees without much difficulty, finds a congenial habitat on the\nbanks of mud exposed by the falling tide, and basks there in the sun,\nprepared to vanish in the ooze in the twinkling of an eye if some\napproaching bird should catch sight of it. Pelicans, herons, cranes,\nstorks, cormorants, hundreds of varieties of seagulls, ducks, swans,\nwild geese, secure in the possession of an inexhaustible supply of food,\nsport and prosper among the reeds. The ostrich, greater bustard, the\ncommon and red-legged partridge and quail, find their habitat on the\nborders of the desert; while the thrush, blackbird, ortolan, pigeon,\nand turtle-dove abound on every side, in spite of daily onslaughts from\neagles, hawks, and other birds of prey.\n\n[Illustration: 032.jpg A WINGED GENIUS HOLDING IN HIS HAND THE SPATHE OF\nTHE MALE DATE-PALM.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief from Nimr\u00fbd, in\n     the British Museum.\n\n[Illustration: 033.jpg THE HEAVILY MANED LION WOUNDED BY AN ARROW AND\nVOMITING BLOOD.]\n\nSnakes are found here and there, but they are for the most part of\ninnocuous species: three poisonous varieties only are known, and their\nbite does not produce such terrible consequences as that of the horned\nviper or Egyptian uraeus. There are two kinds of lion--one without mane,\nand the other hooded, with a heavy mass of black and tangled hair: the\nproper signification of the old Chald\u00e6an name was \"the great 'dog,\" and\nthey have, indeed, a greater resemblance to large dogs than to the\nred lions of Africa.* They fly at the approach of man; they betake\nthemselves in the daytime to retreats among the marshes or in the\nthickets which border the rivers, sallying forth at night, like\nthe jackal, to scour the country. Driven to bay, they turn upon the\nassailant and fight desperately. The Chald\u00e6an kings, like the Pharaohs,\ndid not shrink from entering into a close conflict with them,\nand boasted of having rendered a service to their subjects by the\ndestruction of many of these beasts.\n\n* The Sumerian name of the lion is ur-malch \"the great dog.\" The best\ndescription of the first-mentioned species is still that of Olivier, who\nsaw in the house o\u00a3 the Pasha of Bagdad five of them in captivity; cf.\nLayard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 487. Father Scheil tells me the lions\nhave disappeared completely since the last twenty years.\n\n[Illustration: 034.jpg THE URUS IN ACT OF CHARGING]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an Assyrian bas-relief from\n     Nimr\u00fbd (Layard, Monuments of Nineveh, 1st series, pi. 11).\n\n[Illustration: 035.jpg a herd of onagers pursued by dogs and wounded by\narrows.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief in the British\n     Museum.\n\nThe elephant seems to have roamed for some time over the steppes of\nthe middle Euphrates;* there is no indication of its presence after the\nXIIIth century before our era, and from that time forward it was merely\nan object of curiosity brought at great expense from distant countries.\nThis is not the only instance of animals which have disappeared in\nthe course of centuries; the rulers of Nineveh were so addicted to the\npursuit of the urus that they ended by exterminating it. Several sorts\nof panthers and smaller felid\u00e6 had their lairs in the thickets of\nMesopotamia. The wild ass and onager roamed in small herds between the\nBalikh and the Tigris. Attempts were made, it would seem, at a very\nearly period to tame them and make use of them to draw chariots; but\nthis attempt either did not succeed at all, or issued in such uncertain\nresults, that it was given up as soon as other less refractory animals\nwere made the subjects of successful experiment.\n\n     * The existence of the elephant in Mesopotamia and Northern\n     Syria is well established by the Egyptian inscription of\n     Amenemhabi in the XVth century before our era.\n\n[Illustration: 036.jpg THE CHIEF DOMESTIC ANIMALS OP THE REGIONS OF THE\nEUPHRATES.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an Assyrian bas-relief from\n     Kouyunjik.\n\nThe wild boar, and his relative, the domestic hog, inhabited the\nmorasses. Assyrian sculptors amused themselves sometimes by representing\nlong gaunt sows making their way through the cane-brakes, followed by\ntheir interminable offspring. The hog remained here, as in Egypt, in\na semi-tamed condition, and the people were possessed of only a small\nnumber of domesticated animals besides the dog--namely, the ass, ox,\ngoat, and sheep; the horse and camel were at first unknown, and were\nintroduced at a later period.*\n\n[Illustration: 037.jpg THE SOW AND HER LITTER MAKING THEIR WAY THROUGH A\nBED OF REEDS.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief from Kouyunjik.\n\n     * The horse is denoted in the Assyrian texts by a group of\n     signs which mean \"the ass of the East,\" and the camel by\n     other signs in which the character for \"ass\" also appears.\n     The methods of rendering these two names show that the\n     subjects of them were unknown in the earliest times; the\n     epoch of their introduction is uncertain. A chariot drawn by\n     horses appears on the \"Stele of the Vultures.\" Camels are\n     mentioned among the booty obtained from the Bedouin of the\n     desert.\n\nWe know nothing of the efforts which the first inhabitants--Sumerians\nand Semites--had to make in order to control the waters and to bring the\nland under culture: the most ancient monuments exhibit them as already\npossessors of the soil, and in a forward state of civilization.* Their\nchief cities were divided into two groups: one in the south, in the\nneighbourhood of the sea; the other in a northern direction, in the\nregion where the Euphrates and Tigris are separated from each other by\nmerely a narrow strip of land. The southern group consisted of seven, of\nwhich Eridu lay nearest to the coast. This town stood on the left bank\nof the Euphrates, at a point which is now called Abu-Shahrein. A little\nto the west, on the opposite bank, but at some distance from the stream,\nthe mound of Mughe\u00eer marks the site of Uru, the most important, if not\nthe oldest, of the southern cities. Lagash occupied the site of the\nmodern Telloh to the north of Eridu, not far from the Shatt-el-Ha\u00ee;\nNisin and Mar, Larsam and Uruk, occupied positions at short distances\nfrom each other on the marshy ground which extends between the Euphrates\nand the Shatt-en-N\u00eel. The inscriptions mention here and there other\nless important places, of which the ruins have not yet been\ndiscovered--Zirlab and Shurippak, places of embarkation at the mouth\nof the Euphrates for the passage of the Persian Gulf; and the island of\nDilmun, situated some forty leagues to the south in the centre of the\nSalt Sea,--\"Nar-Marratum.\" The northern group comprised Nipur, the\n\"incomparable;\" Barsip, on the branch which flows parallel to the\nEuphrates and falls into the Bahr-\u00ee-Nedj\u00eef; Babylon, the \"gate of the\ngod,\" the \"residence of life,\" the only metropolis of the Euphrates\nregion of which posterity never lost a reminiscence; Kishu, Kuta,\nAgade;** and lastly the two Sipparas, that of Shamash and that of\nAnunit. The earliest Chald\u00e6an civilization was confined almost entirely\nto the two banks of the Lower Euphrates: except at its northern\nboundary, it did not reach the Tigris, and did not cross this river.\nSeparated from the rest of the world--on the east by the marshes which\nborder the river in its lower course, on the north by the badly watered\nand sparsely inhabited table-land of Mesopotamia, on the west by the\nArabian desert--it was able to develop its civilization, as Egypt had\ndone, in an isolated area, and to follow out its destiny in peace. The\nonly point from which it might anticipate serious danger was on the\neast, whence the Kashshi and the Elamites, organized into military\nstates, incessantly harassed it year after year by their attacks. The\nKashshi were scarcely better than half-civilized mountain hordes, but\nthe Elamites were advanced in civilization, and their capital, Susa,\nvied with the richest cities of the Euphrates, Uru and Babylon, in\nantiquity and magnificence.\n\n     * For an ideal picture of what may have been the beginnings\n     of that civilization, see Delitzsch, Die Entstehung des\n     \u00e0ltesten Schriflssystems, p. 214, et seq. I will not enter\n     into the question as to whether it did or did not come by\n     sea to the mouths of the Euphrates and Tigris. The legend of\n     the fish-god Oannes (Berossus, frag. 1), which seems to\n     conceal some indication on the subject, is merely a\n     mythological tradition, from which it would be wrong to\n     deduce historical conclusions.\n\n     ** Agade, or Agane, has been identified with one of the two\n     towns of which Sippara is made up, more especially with that\n     which was called Anunit Sippara; the reading Agadi, Agacle,\n     was especially assumed to lead to its identification with\n     the Accad of _Genesis x. 10_, and with the Akkad of native\n     tradition. This opinion has been generally abandoned by\n     Assyriologists, and Agane has not yet found a site. Was it\n     only a name for Babylon?\n\n[Illustration: 040.jpg MAP OF CHALD\u00c6A]\n\nThere was nothing serious to fear from the Guti, on the branch of the\nTigris to the north-east, or from the Shuti to the north of these; they\nwere merely marauding tribes, and, however troublesome they might be\nto their neighbours in their devastating incursions, they could not\ncompromise the existence of the country, or bring it into subjection.\nIt would appear that the Chaldseans had already begun to encroach upon\nthese tribes and to establish colonies among them--El-Ashshur on the\nbanks of the Tigris, Harran on the furthest point of the Mesopotamian\nplain, towards the sources of the Balikh. Beyond these were vague and\nunknown regions--Tidanum, Martu, the sea of the setting sun, the vast\nterritories of Milukhkha and M\u00e2gan.* Egypt, from the time they were\nacquainted with its existence, was a semi-fabulous country at the ends\nof the earth.\n\n     * The question concerning Milukhkha and M\u00e2gan has exercised\n     Assyriologists for twenty years. The prevailing opinion\n     appears to be that which identifies M\u00e2gan with the Sinaitic\n     Peninsula, and Milukhkha with the country to the north of\n     M\u00e2gan as far as the Wady Arish and the Mediterranean; others\n     maintain, not the theory of Delitzsch, according to whom\n     M\u00e2gan and Milukhkha are synonyms for Shumir and Akkad, and\n     consequently two of the great divisions of Babylonia, but an\n     analogous hypothesis, in which they are regarded as\n     districts to the west of the Euphrates, either in Chald\u00e6an\n     regions or on the margin of the desert, or even in the\n     desert itself towards the Sinaitic Peninsula. What we know\n     of the texts induces me, in common with H. Rawlinson, to\n     place these countries on the shores of the Persian Gulf,\n     between the mouth of the Euphrates and the Bahrein islands;\n     possibly the Makse and the Melangitso of classical\n     historians and geographers were the descendants of the\n     people of M\u00e2gan (M\u00e2kan) and Milukhkha (Melugga), who had\n     been driven towards the entrance to the Persian Gulf by some\n     such event as the increase in these regions of the Kashdi\n     (Chald\u00e6ans). The names, emigrated to the western parts of\n     Arabia and to the Sinaitic Peninsula in after-times, as the\n     name of India passed to America in the XVIth century of our\n     era.\n\nHow long did it take to bring this people out of savagery, and to\nbuild up so many flourishing cities? The learned did not readily resign\nthemselves to a confession of ignorance on the subject. As they\nhad depicted the primordial chaos, the birth of the gods, and their\nstruggles over the creation, so they related unhesitatingly everything\nwhich had happened since the creation of mankind, and they laid claim to\nbeing able to calculate the number of centuries which lay between their\nown day and the origin of things. The tradition to which most credence\nwas attached in the Greek period at Babylon, that which has been\npreserved for us in the histories of Berossue, asserts that there was\na somewhat long interval between the manifestation of Oannes and\nthe foundation of a dynasty. The first king was Al\u00f4ros of Babylon, a\nChald\u00e6an of whom nothing is related except that he was chosen by the\ndivinity himself to be a shepherd of the people. He reigned for ten\nsari, amounting in all to 36,000 years; for the saros is 3600 years, the\nner 600 years, and the soss 60 years.\n\n[Illustration: 041.jpg TWO FISH-LIKE DEITIES OF THE CHALD\u00c6ANS.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an intaglio in the British Museum.\n\nAfter the death of Al\u00f4ros, his son Alaparos ruled for three sari, after\nwhich Amillaros, of the city of Pantibibla, reigned thirteen sari. It\nwas under him that there issued from the Bed Sea a second Anned\u00f4tos,\nresembling Oannes in his semi-divine shape, half man and half fish.\nAfter him Ammenon, also from Pantibibla, a Chaldaean, ruled for a term\nof twelve sari; under him, they say, the mysterious Oannes appeared.\nAfterwards Amelagaros of Pantibibla governed for eighteen sari; then\nDavos, the shepherd from Pantibibla, reigned ten sari: under him there\nissued from the Red Sea a fourth Anned\u00f4tos, who had a form similar to\nthe others, being made up of man and fish. After him Bvedoranchos of\nPantibibla reigned for eighteen sari; in his time there issued yet\nanother monster, named An\u00f4daphos, from the sea. These various monsters\ndeveloped carefully and in detail that which Oannes had set forth in a\nbrief way. Then Amempsinos of Larancha, a Chal\u00e6an, reigned ten sari; and\nObartes, also a Chald\u00e6an, of Larancha, eight sari. Finally, on the death\nof Obartes, his son Xisuthros held the sceptre for eighteen sari. It\nwas under him that the great deluge took place. Thus ten kings are to\nbe reckoned in all, and the duration of their combined reigns amounts\nto one hundred and twenty sari. From the beginning of the world to the\nDeluge they reckoned 691,200 years, of which 259,200 had passed\nbefore the coming of Al\u00f4ros, and the remaining 432,000 were generously\ndistributed between this prince and his immediate successors: the Greek\nand Latin writers had certainly a fine occasion for amusement over these\nfabulous numbers of years which the Chald\u00e6ans assigned to the lives and\nreigns of their first kings.\n\nMen in the mean time became wicked; they lost the habit of offering\nsacrifices to the gods, and the gods, justly indignant at this\nnegligence, resolved to be avenged.* Now, Shamashnapishtim I was\nreigning at this time in Shurippak, the \"town of the ship:\" he and\nall his family were saved, and he related afterwards to one of his\ndescendants how Ea had snatched him from the disaster which fell upon\nhis people.** \"Shurippak, the city which thou thyself knowest, is\nsituated on the bank of the Euphrates; it was already an ancient town\nwhen the hearts of the gods who resided in it impelled them to bring the\ndeluge upon it--the great gods as many as they are; their father Anu,\ntheir counsellor Bel the warrior, their throne-bearer Ninib, their\nprince Innugi. The master of wisdom, Ea, took his seat with them,***\nand, moved with pity, was anxious to warn Shamashnapishtim, his servant,\nof the peril which threatened him;\" but it was a very serious affair to\nbetray to a mortal a secret of heaven, and as he did not venture to do\nso in a direct manner, his inventive mind suggested to him an artifice.\n\n     * The account of Bcrossus implies this as a cause of the\n     Deluge, since he mentions the injunction imposed upon the\n     survivors by a mysterious voice to be henceforward\n     respectful towards the gods, [Greek word]. The Chal\u00e6an\n     account considers the Deluge to have been sent as a\n     punishment upon men for their sins against the gods, since\n     it represents towards the end (cf. p. 52 of this History) Ea\n     as reproaching Bel for having confounded the innocent and\n     the guilty in one punishment.\n\n     ** The name of this individual has been read in various\n     ways: Shamashnapishtim, \"sun of life,\" Sitnapishtim, \"the\n     saved,\" and Pirnapishtim. In one passage at least we find,\n     in place of Shamashnapishtim, the name or epithet of\n     Aclrakhasis, or by inversion Khasisadra, which appears to\n     signify \"the very shrewd,\" and is explained by the skill\n     with which he interpreted the oracle of Ea. Khasisadra is\n     most probably the form which the Greeks have transcribed by\n     Xisuthros, Sisuthros, Sisithes.\n\n     *** The account of the Deluge covers the eleventh tablet of\n     the poem of Gilgames. The hero, threatened with death,\n     proceeds to rejoin his ancestor Shamashnapishtim to demand\n     from him the secret of immortality, and the latter tells him\n     the manner in which he escaped from the waters: he had saved\n     his life only at the expense of the destruction of men. The\n     text of it was published by Smith and by Haupt, fragment by\n     fragment, and then restored consecutively. The studies of\n     which it is the object would make a complete library. The\n     principal translations are those of Smith, of Oppert, of\n     Lenor-mant, of Haupt, of Jensen, of A. Jeremias, of\n     Sauveplane, and of Zimmern.\n\n[Illustration: 045.jpg Page with ONE OF THE TABLETS OF THE DELUGE\nSERIES.]\n\n     Facsimile by Faucher-Gudin, from the photograph published by\n     G. Smith, Chald\u00e6an Account of the Deluge from terra-cotta\n     tablets found at Nineveh.\n\nHe confided to a hedge of reeds the resolution that had been adopted:*\n\"Hedge, hedge, wall, wall! Hearken, hedge, and understand well, wall!\nMan of Shurippak, son of Ubaratutu, construct a wooden house, build a\nship, abandon thy goods, seek life; throw away thy possessions, save thy\nlife, and place in the vessel all the seed of life. The ship which thou\nshalt build, let its proportions be exactly measured, let its dimensions\nand shape be well arranged, then launch it in the sea.\" Shamashnapishtim\nheard the address to the field of reeds, or perhaps the reeds repeated\nit to him. \"I understood it, and I said to my master Ea 'The command,\nO my master, which thou hast thus enunciated, I myself will respect it,\nand I will execute it: but what shall I say to the town, the people and\nthe elders?'\" Ea opened his mouth and spake; he said to his servant:\n\"Answer thus and say to them: 'Because Bel hates me, I will no longer\ndwell in your town, and upon the land of Bel I will no longer lay my\nhead, but I will go upon the sea, and will dwell with Ea my master. Now\nBel will make rain to fall upon you, upon the swarm of birds and the\nmultitude of fishes, upon all the animals of the field, and upon all\nthe crops; but Ea will give you a sign: the god who rules the rain will\ncause to fall upon you, on a certain evening, an abundant rain. When the\ndawn of the next day appears, the deluge will begin, which will cover\nthe earth and drown all living things.'\" Shamashnapishtim repeated the\nwarning to the people, but the people refused to believe it, and turned\nhim into ridicule. The work went rapidly forward: the hull was a hundred\nand forty cubits long, the deck one hundred and forty broad; all the\njoints were caulked with pitch and bitumen. A solemn festival was\nobserved at its completion, and the embarkation began.** \"All that I\npossessed I filled the ship with it all that I had of silver, I filled\nit with it; all that I had of gold I filled it with it, all that I had\nof the seed of life of every kind I filled it with it; I caused all\nmy family and my servants to go up into it; beasts of the field, wild\nbeasts of the field, I caused them to go up all together. Shamash had\ngiven me a sign: 'When the god who rules the rain, in the evening shall\ncause an abundant rain to fall, enter into the ship and close thy door.'\nThe sign was revealed: the god who rules the rain caused to fall one\nnight an abundant rain. The day, I feared its dawning; I feared to see\nthe daylight; I entered into the ship and I shut the door; that the ship\nmight be guided, I handed over to Buzur-Bel, the pilot, the great ark\nand its fortunes.\"\n\n     * The sense of this passage is far from being certain; I\n     have followed the interpretation proposed, with some\n     variations, by Pinches, by Haupt, and by Jensen. The\n     stratagem at once recalls the history of King Midas, and the\n     talking reeds which knew the secret of his ass's ears. In\n     the version of Berossus, it is Kronos who plays the part\n     here assigned to Ea in regard to Xisuthros.\n\n     ** The text is mutilated, and does not furnish enough\n     information to follow in every detail the building of the\n     ark. From what we can understand, the vessel of\n     Shamashnapishtim was a kind of immense kelek, decked, but\n     without masts or rigging of any sort. The text identifies\n     the festival celebrated by the hero before the embarkation\n     with the festival Akitu of Merodach, at Babylon, during\n     which \"Nebo, the powerful son, sailed from Borsippa to\n     Babylon in the bark of the river Asmu, of beauty.\" The\n     embarkation of Nebo and his voyage on the stream had\n     probably inspired the information according to which the\n     embarkation of Shamashnapishtim was made the occasion of a\n     festival Akitu, celebrated at Shurippak; the time of the\n     Babylonian festival was probably thought to coincide with\n     the anniversary of the Deluge.\n\n\"As soon as the morning became clear, a black cloud arose from the\nfoundations of heaven. Bamman growled in its bosom; Nebo and Marduk\nran before it--ran like two throne-bearers over hill and dale. Nera\nthe Great tore up the stake to which the ark was moored. Ninib came up\nquickly; he began the attack; the Anunnaki raised their torches and made\nthe earth to tremble at their brilliancy; the tempest of Ramman scaled\nthe heaven, changed all the light to darkness, flooded the earth like a\nlake.* For a whole day the hurricane raged, and blew violently over the\nmountains and over the country; the tempest rushed upon men like the\nshock of an army, brother no longer beheld brother, men recognized each\nother no more.\n\n     * The progress of the tempest is described as the attack of\n     the gods, who had resolved on the destruction of men. Ramman\n     is the thunder which growls in the cloud; Nebo, Merodach,\n     Nera the Great (Nergal), and Ninib, denote the different\n     phases of the hurricane from the moment when the wind gets\n     up until it is at its height; the Anunnaki represent the\n     lightning which flashes carelessly across the heaven.\n\n[Illustration: 048.jpg SHAMASHNAPISHTIM SHUT INTO THE ARK.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chal\u00e6an intaglio.\n\nIn heaven, the gods were afraid of the deluge;* they betook themselves\nto flight, they clambered to the firmament of Anu; the gods, howling\nlike dogs, cowered upon the parapet.** Ishtar wailed like a woman\nin travail; she cried out, \"the lady of life, the goddess with the\nbeautiful voice: 'The past returns to clay, because I have prophesied\nevil before the gods! Prophesying evil before the gods, I have\ncounselled the attack to bring my men to nothing; and these to whom I\nmyself have given birth, where are they? Like the spawn of fish they\nencumber the sea! 'The gods wept with her over the affair of the\nAnunnaki;' the gods, in the place where they sat weeping, their lips\nwere closed.\" It was not pity only which made their tears to flow:\nthere were mixed up with it feelings of regret and fears for the future.\nMankind once destroyed, who would then make the accustomed offerings?\nThe inconsiderate anger of Bel, while punishing the impiety of their\ncreatures, had inflicted injury upon themselves. \"Six days and nights\nthe wind continued, the deluge and the tempest raged. The seventh day at\ndaybreak the storm abated; the deluge, which had carried on warfare like\nan army, ceased, the sea became calm and the hurricane disappeared, the\ndeluge ceased. I surveyed the sea with my eyes, raising my voice; but\nall mankind had returned to clay, neither fields nor woods could be\ndistinguished.*** I opened the hatchway and the light fell upon my face;\nI sank down, I cowered, I wept, and my tears ran down my cheeks when I\nbeheld the world all terror and all sea. At the end of twelve days, a\npoint of land stood up from the waters, the ship touched the land of\nNisir:**** the mountain of Nisir stopped the ship and permitted it to\nfloat no longer. One day, two days, the mountain of Nisir stopped the\nship and permitted it to float no longer.\n\n     * The gods enumerated above alone took part in the drama of\n     the Deluge: they were the confederates and emissaries of\n     Bel. The others were present as spectators of the disaster,\n     and were terrified.\n\n     ** The upper part of the mountain wall is here referred to,\n     upon which the heaven is supported. There was a narrow space\n     between the escarpment and the place upon which the vault of\n     the firmament rested: the Babylonian poet represented the\n     gods as crowded like a pack of hounds upon this parapet, and\n     beholding from it the outburst of the tempest and the\n     waters.\n\n     ***The translation is uncertain: the text refers to a legend\n     which has not come down to us, in which Ishtar is related to\n     have counselled the destruction of men.\n\n     **** The Anunnaki represent here the evil genii whom the\n     gods that produced the deluge had let loose, and whom\n     Ramman, Nebo, Merodach, Nergal, and Ninib, all the followers\n     of Bel, had led to the attack upon men: the other deities\n     shared the fears and grief of Ishtar in regard to the\n     ravages which these Anunnaki had brought about (cf. below,\n     pp. 141-143 of this History).\n\n\n\nThree days, four days, the mountain of Nisir* stopped the ship and\npermitted it to float no longer. Five days, six days, the mountain of\nNisir stopped the ship and permitted it to float no longer. The seventh\nday, at dawn, I took out a dove and let it go: the dove went, turned\nabout, and as there was no place to alight upon, came back. I took out a\nswallow and let it go: the swallow went, turned about, and as there was\nno place to alight upon, came back. I took out a raven and let it go:\nthe raven went, and saw that the water had abated, and came near the\nship flapping its wings, croaking, and returned no more.\"\nShamashnapishtim escaped from the deluge, but he did not know whether\nthe divine wrath was appeased, or what would be done with him when it\nbecame known that he still lived.** He resolved to conciliate the\ngods by expiatory ceremonies. \"I sent forth the inhabitants of the ark\ntowards the four winds, I made an offering, I poured out a propitiatory\nlibation on the summit of the mountain. I set up seven and seven\nvessels, and I placed there some sweet-smelling rushes, some cedar-wood,\nand storax.\" He thereupon re-entered the ship to await there the effect\nof his sacrifice.\n\n     * I have adopted, in the translation of this difficult\n     passage, the meaning suggested by Haupt, according to which\n     it ought to be translated, \"The field makes nothing more\n     than one with the mountain;\" that is to say, \"mountains and\n     fields are no longer distinguishable one from another.\" I\n     have merely substituted for mountain the version wood, piece\n     of land covered with trees, which Jensen has suggested.\n\n     ** The mountain of Nisir is replaced in the version of\n     Berossus by the Gordy\u00e6an mountains of classical geography; a\n     passage of Assur-nazir-pal informs us that it was situated\n     between the Tigris and the Great Zab, according to Delitzsch\n     between 35\u00b0 and 36\u00b0 N. latitude. The Assyrian-speaking\n     people interpreted the name as _Salvation_, and a play upon\n     words probably decided the placing upon its slopes the\n     locality where those _saved_ from the deluge landed on the\n     abating of the waters. Fr. Lenormant proposes to identify it\n     with the peak Rowand\u00eez.\n\nThe gods, who no longer hoped for such a wind-fall, accepted the\nsacrifice with a wondering joy. \"The gods sniffed up the odour, the gods\nsniffed up the excellent odour, the gods gathered like flies above the\noffering. \"When Ishtar, the mistress of life, came in her turn, she held\nup the great amulet which Anu had made for her.\"* She was still furious\nagainst those who had determined upon the destruction of mankind,\nespecially against Bel: \"These gods, I swear it on the necklace of my\nneck! I will not forget them; these days I will remember, and will not\nforget them for ever. Let the other gods come quickly to take part in\nthe offering. Bel shall have no part in the offering, for he was not\nwise: but he has caused the deluge, and he has devoted my people to\ndestruction.\" Bel himself had not recovered his temper: \"When he arrived\nin his turn and saw the ship, he remained immovable before it, and his\nheart was filled with rage against the gods of heaven. 'Who is he who\nhas come out of it living? No man must survive the destruction!'\" The\ngods had everything to fear from his anger: Ninib was eager to exculpate\nhimself, and to put the blame upon the right person. Ea did not disavow\nhis acts: \"he opened his mouth and spake; he said to Bel the warrior:\n'Thou, the wisest among the gods, O warrior, why wert thou not wise, and\ndidst cause the deluge? The sinner, make him responsible for his sin;\nthe criminal, make him responsible for his crime: but be calm, and do\nnot cut off all; be patient, and do not drown all. What was the good of\ncausing the deluge? A lion had only to come to decimate the people.\nWhat was the good of causing the deluge? A leopard had only to come to\ndecimate the people. What was the good of causing the deluge? Famine\nhad only to present itself to desolate the country. What was the good\nof causing the deluge? Nera the Plague had only to come to destroy the\npeople. As for me, I did, not reveal the judgment of the gods: I caused\nKhasisadra to dream a dream, and he became aware of the judgment of the\ngods, and then he made his resolve.'\" Bel was pacified at the words of\nEa: \"he went up into the interior of the ship; he took hold of my hand\nand made me go up, even me; he made my wife go up, and he pushed her to\nmy side; he turned our faces towards him, he placed himself between\nus, and blessed us: 'Up to this time Shamashnapishtim was a man:\nhenceforward let Shamashnapishtim and his wife be reverenced like us,\nthe gods, and let Shamashnapishtim dwell afar off, at the mouth of the\nseas, and he carried us away and placed us afar off, at the mouth of the\nseas.'\" Another form of the legend relates that by an order of the god,\nXisuthros, before embarking, had buried in the town of Sippara all the\nbooks in which his ancestors had set forth the sacred sciences--books\nof oracles and omens, \"in which were recorded the beginning, the middle,\nand the end. When he had disappeared, those of his companions who\nremained on board, seeing that he did not return, went out and set off\nin search of him, calling him by name. He did not show himself to them,\nbut a voice from heaven enjoined upon them to be devout towards the\ngods, to return to Babylon and dig up the books in order that they might\nbe handed down to future generations; the voice also informed them that\nthe country in which they were was Armenia. They offered sacrifice in\nturn, they regained their country on foot, they dug up the books of\nSippara and wrote many more; afterwards they refounded Babylon.\" It was\neven maintained in the time of the Seleucido, that a portion of the ark\nexisted on one of the summits of the Gordy\u00e6an mountains.** Pilgrimages\nwere made to it, and the faithful scraped off the bitumen which covered\nit, to make out of it amulets of sovereign virtue against evil spells.\n\n[Illustration: 051.jpg THE JUD\u00ce MOUNTAINS SOMETIMES IDENTIFIED WITH TUB\nNTSIB MOUNTAINS.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by G. Smith, _Assyrian\n     Discoveries_, p. 108.\n\n     * We are ignorant of the object which the goddess lifted up:\n     it may have been the sceptre surmounted by a radiating star,\n     such as we see on certain cylinders. Several Assyriologists\n     translate it arrows or lightning. Ishtar is, in fact, an\n     armed goddess who throws the arrow or lightning made by her\n     father Anu, the heaven.\n\n     ** Bekossus, fragm. xv. The legend about the remains of the\n     ark has passed into Jewish tradition concerning the Deluge.\n     Nicholas of Damascus relates, like Berossus, that they were\n     still to be seen on the top of Mount Baris. From that time\n     they have been continuously seen, sometimes on one peak and\n     sometimes on another. In the last century they were pointed\n     out to Chardin, and the memory of them has not died out in\n     our own century. Discoveries of charcoal and bitumen, such\n     as those made at Gebel Jud\u00ee, upon one of the mountains\n     identified with Nisir, probably explain many of these local\n     traditions.\n\nThe chronicle of these fabulous times placed, soon after the abating of\nthe waters, the foundation of a new dynasty, as extraordinary or almost\nas extraordinary in character as that before the flood. According to\nBerossus it was of Chald\u00e6an origin, and comprised eighty-six kings, who\nbore rule during 34,080 years; the first two, Evechous and Khomasbelos,\nreigned 2400 and 2700 years, while the later reigns did not exceed\nthe ordinary limits of human life. An attempt was afterwards made to\nharmonize them with probability: the number of kings was reduced to\nsix, and their combined reigns to 225 years. This attempt arose from\na misapprehension of their true character; names and deeds, everything\nconnected with them belongs to myth and fiction only, and is irreducible\nto history proper. They supplied to priests and poets material for\nscores of different stories, of which several have come down to us in\nfragments. Some are short, and serve as preambles to prayers or magical\nformulas; others are of some length, and may pass for real epics. The\ngods intervene in them, and along with kings play an important part. It\nis Nera, for instance, the lord of the plague, who declares war against\nmankind in order to punish them for having despised the authority of\nAnu. He makes Babylon to feel his wrath first: \"The children of Babel,\nthey were as birds, and the bird-catcher, thou wert he! thou takest them\nin the net, thou enclosest them, thou decimatest them--hero Nera!\"\nOne after the other he attacks the mother cities of the Euphrates and\nobliges them to render homage to him--even Uruk, \"the dwelling of Anu\nand Ishtar--the town of the priestesses, of the _almehs_, and the sacred\ncourtesans; \"then he turns upon the foreign nations and carries his\nravages as far as Phoenicia. In other fragments, the hero Etana makes an\nattempt to raise himself to heaven, and the eagle, his companion, flies\naway with him, without, however, being able to bring the enterprise to\na successful issue. Nimrod and his exploits are known to us from the\nBible.* \"He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said,\nEven as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of\nhis kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of\nShinar.\" Almost all the characteristics which are attributed by Hebrew\ntradition to Nimrod we find in G-ilgames, King of Uruk and descendant of\nthe Shamashnapishtim who had witnessed the deluge.**\n\n     * Genesis x. 9, 10. Among the Jews and Mussulmans a complete\n     cycle of legends have developed around Nimrod. He built the\n     Tower of Babel; he threw Abraham into a fiery furnace, and\n     he tried to mount to heaven on the back of an eagle. Sayce\n     and Grivel saw in Nimrod an heroic form of Merodach, the god\n     of Babylonia: the majority of living Assyriologists prefer\n     to follow Smith's example, and identify him with the hero\n     Gilgames.\n\n     ** The name of this hero is composed of three signs, which\n     Smith provisionally rendered Isdubar--a reading which,\n     modified into Gishdhubar, Gistubar, is still retained by\n     many Assyriologists. There have been proposed one after\n     another the renderings Dhubar, Namr\u00fbdu, Anamarutu, Numarad,\n     Namrasit, all of which exhibit in the name of the hero that\n     of Nimrod. Pinches discovered, in 1890, what appears to be\n     the true signification of the three signs,Gilgamesh,\n     Gilgames; Sayce and Oppert have compared this name with that\n     of Gilgamos, a Babylonian hero, of whom. \u00c6lian has preserved\n     the memory. A. Jeremias continued to reject both the reading\n     and the identification.\n\nSeveral copies of a poem, in which an unknown scribe had celebrated his\nexploits, existed about the middle of the VIIth century before our era\nin the Royal Library at Nineveh; they had been transcribed by order of\nAssur-banipal from a more ancient copy, and the fragments of them which\nhave come down to us, in spite of their lacunae, enable us to restore\nthe original text, if not in its entirety, at least in regard to\nthe succession of events. They were divided into twelve episodes\ncorresponding with the twelve divisions of the year, and the ancient\nBabylonian author was guided in his choice of these divisions by\nsomething more than mere chance. Gilgames, at first an ordinary mortal\nunder the patronage of the gods, had himself become a god and son of the\ngoddess Aruru: \"he had seen the abyss, he had learned everything that\nis kept secret and hidden, he had even made known to men what had taken\nplace before the deluge.\" The sun, who had protected him in his human\ncondition, had placed him beside himself on the judgment-seat, and\ndelegated to him authority to pronounce decisions from which there was\nno appeal: he was, as it were, a sun on a small scale, before whom the\nkings, princes, and great ones of the earth humbly bowed their heads.*\nThe scribes had, therefore, some authority for treating the events of\nhis life after the model of the year, and for expressing them in twelve\nchants, which answered to the annual course of the sun through the\ntwelve months.\n\n     * The identity of Gilgames with the Accadian fire-god, or\n     rather with the sun, was recognized from the first by H.\n     Rawlinson, and has been accepted since by almost all\n     Assyriologists. A tablet brought back by G. Smith, called\n     attention to by Fr. Delitzsch, and published by Haupt,\n     contains the remains of a hymn addressed to Gilgames, \"the\n     powerful king, the king of the Spirits of the Earth.\"\n\n[Illustration: 057.jpg GILGAMES STRANGLES A LION.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an Assyrian bas-relief from\n     Khorsabad, in the Museum of the Louvre\n\nThe whole story is essentially an account of his struggles with Ishtar,\nand the first pages reveal him as already at issue with the goddess. His\nportrait, such as the monuments have preserved it for us, is singularly\nunlike the ordinary type: one would be inclined to regard it as\nrepresenting an individual of a different race, a survival of some very\nancient nation which had held rule on the plains of the Euphrates before\nthe arrival of the Sumerian or Semitic* tribes.\n\n     * Smith (The Chald\u00e6an Account of Genesis, p. 194) remarked\n     the difference between the representations of Gilgames and\n     the typical Babylonian: he concluded from this that the hero\n     was of Ethiopian origin. Hommel declares that his features\n     have neither a Sumerian nor Semitic aspect, and that they\n     raise an insoluble question in ethnology.\n\nHis figure is tall, broad, muscular to an astonishing degree, and\nexpresses at once vigour and activity; his head is massive, bony, almost\nsquare, with a somewhat flattened face, a large nose, and prominent\ncheek-bones, the whole framed by an abundance of hair, and a thick beard\nsymmetrically curled. All the young men of Uruk, the well-protected,\nwere captivated by the prodigious strength and beauty of the hero; the\nelders of the city betook themselves to Ishtar to complain of the state\nof neglect to which the young generation had relegated them. \"He has no\nlonger a rival in their hearts, but thy subjects are led to battle, and\nGilgames does not send one child back to his father. Night and day they\ncry after him: 'It is he the shepherd of Uruk, the well-protected, he\nis its shepherd and master, he the powerful, the perfect and the wise.'\"\nEven the women did not escape the general enthusiasm: \"he leaves not a\nsingle virgin to her mother, a single daughter to a warrior, a single\nwife to her master. Ishtar heard their complaint, the gods heard it, and\ncried with a loud voice to Aruru: 'It is thou, Aruru, who hast given him\nbirth; create for him now his fellow, that he may be able to meet him on\na day when it pleaseth him, in order that they may fight with each other\nand Uruk may be delivered.'When Aruru heard them, she created in her\nheart a man of Anu. Aruru washed her hands, took a bit of clay, cast it\nupon the earth, kneaded it and created Babani, the warrior, the exalted\nscion, the man of Ninib, whose whole body is covered with hair, whose\ntresses are as long as those of a woman; the locks of his hair bristle\non his head like those on the corn-god; he is clad in a vestment\nlike that of the god of the fields; he browses with the gazelles, he\nquenches his thirst with the beasts of the field, he sports with the\nbeasts of the waters.\" Frequent representations of Eabani are found upon\nthe monuments; he has the horns of a goat, the legs and tail of a bull.*\nHe possessed not only the strength of a brute, but his intelligence also\nembraced all things, the past and the future: he would probably have\ntriumphed over Gilgames if Shamash had not succeeded in attaching them\nto one another by an indissoluble tie of friendship. The difficulty was\nto draw these two future friends together, and to bring them face to\nface without their coming to blows; the god sent his courier Sa\u00eedu,\nthe hunter, to study the habits of the monster, and to find out the\nnecessary means to persuade him to come down peaceably to Uruk.\n\"Sa\u00eedu, the hunter, proceeded to meet Eabani near the entrance of the\nwatering-place. One day, two days, three days, Eabani met him at the\nentrance of the watering-place. He perceived Sa\u00eedu, and his countenance\ndarkened: he entered the enclosure, he became sad, he groaned, he cried\nwith a loud voice, his heart was heavy, his features were distorted,\nsobs burst from his breast. The hunter saw from a distance that his face\nwas inflamed with anger,\" and judging it more prudent not to persevere\nfarther in his enterprise, returned to impart to the god what he had\nobserved.\n\n     * Smith was the first, I believe, to compare his form to\n     that of a satyr or faun; this comparison is rendered more\n     probable by the fact that the modern inhabitants of Chald\u00e6a\n     believe in the existence of similar monsters. A. Jeremias\n     places Eabani alongside Priapus, who is generally a god of\n     the fields, and a clever soothsayer. Following out these\n     ideas, we might compare our Eabani with the Graico-Roman\n     Proteus, who pastures the flocks of the sea, and whom it was\n     necessary to pursue and seize by force or cunning words to\n     compel him to give oracular predictions.\n\n[Illustration: 060.jpg GILGAMES FIGHTS, ON THE LEFT WITH A BULL, ON THE\nRIGHT WITH EABANI.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chald\u00e6an intaglio in the\n     Museum at the Hague. The original measures about 1 7/10 inch\n     in height.\n\n\"I was afraid,\" said he, in finishing his narrative,* \"and I did not\napproach him. He had filled up the pit which I had dug to trap him, he\nbroke the nets which I had spread, he delivered from my hands the cattle\nand the beasts of the field, he did not allow me to search the country\nthrough.\" Shamash thought that where the strongest man might fail by the\nemployment of force, a woman might possibly succeed by the attractions\nof pleasure; he commanded Sa\u00eedu to go quickly to Uruk and there to\nchoose from among the priestesses of Ishtar one of the most beautiful.**\nThe hunter presented himself before Grilgames, recounted to him his\nadventures, and sought his permission to take away with him one of the\nsacred courtesans. \"'Go, my hunter, take the priestess; when the beasts\ncome to the watering-place, let her display her beauty; he will see\nher, he will approach her, and his beasts that troop around him will be\nscattered.'\"*** The hunter went, he took with him the priestess, he took\nthe straight road; the third day they arrived at the fatal plain. The\nhunter and the priestess sat down to rest; one day, two days, they sat\nat the entrance of the watering-place from whose waters Eabani drank\nalong with the animals, where he sported with the beasts of the water.\n\n     * Haupt, Das Babylonische Nimrodepos, p. 9, 11. 42-50. The\n     beginning of each line is destroyed, and the translation of\n     the whole is only approximate.\n\n     ** The priestesses of Ishtar were young and beautiful women,\n     devoted to the service of the goddess and her worshippers.\n     Besides the title _qadishtu,_ priestess, they bore various\n     names, _kizireti, ukhati, kharim\u00e2ti_; the priestess who\n     accompanied Sa\u00eedu was an _ukhat_.\n\n     *** As far as can be guessed from the narrative, interrupted\n     as it is by so many lacun\u00e6, the power of Eabani over the\n     beasts of the field seems to have depended on his\n     continence. From the moment in which he yields to his\n     passions the beasts fly from him as they would do from an\n     ordinary mortal; there is then no other resource for him but\n     to leave the solitudes to live among men in towns. This\n     explains the means devised by Shamash against him: cf. in\n     the _Arabian Nights_ the story of Shehabeddin.\n\n\"When Eabani arrived, he who dwells in the mountains, and who browses\nupon the grass like the gazelles, who drinks with the animals, who\nsports with the beasts of the water, the priestess saw the satyr.\" She\nwas afraid and blushed, but the hunter recalled her to her duty. \"It is\nhe, priestess. Undo thy garment, show him thy form, that he may be\ntaken with thy beauty; be not ashamed, but deprive him of his soul. He\nperceives thee, he is rushing towards thee, arrange thy garment; he is\ncoming upon thee, receive him with every art of woman; his beasts\nwhich troop around him will be scattered, and he will press thee to his\nbreast.\" The priestess did as she was commanded; she received him with\nevery art of woman, and he pressed her to his breast. Six days and seven\nnights, Eabani remained near the priestess, his well-beloved. When he\ngot tired of pleasure he turned his face towards his cattle, and he saw\nthat the gazelles had turned aside and that the beasts of the field had\nfled far from him. Eabani was alarmed, he fell into a swoon, his knees\nbecame stiff because his cattle had fled from him. While he lay as if\ndead, he heard the voice of the priestess: he recovered his senses,\nhe came to himself full of love; he seated himself at the feet of the\npriestess, he looked into her face, and while the priestess spoke his\nears listened. For it was to him the priestess spoke--to him, Eabani.\n\"Thou who art superb, Eabani, as a god, why dost thou live among\nthe beasts of the field? Come, I will conduct thee to Uruk the\nwell-protected, to the glorious house, the dwelling of Anu and\nIshtar--to the place where is Gilgames, whose strength is supreme, and\nwho, like a Urus, excels the heroes in strength.\" While she thus spoke\nto him, he hung upon her words, he the wise of heart, he realized\nby anticipation a friend. Eabani said to the priestess: \"Let us go,\npriestess; lead me to the glorious and holy abode of Anu and Ishtar--to\nthe place where is Gilgames, whose strength is supreme, and who, like\na Urus, prevails over the heroes by his strength. I will fight with him\nand manifest to him my power; I will send forth a panther against Uruk,\nand he must struggle with it.\"* The priestess conducted her prisoner\nto Uruk, but the city at that moment was celebrating the festival of\nTammuz, and Gilgames did not care to interrupt the solemnities in order\nto face the tasks to which Eabani had invited him: what was the use of\nsuch trials since the gods themselves had deigned to point out to him in\na dream the line of conduct he was to pursue, and had taken up the\ncause of their children. Shamash, in fact, began the instruction of the\nmonster, and sketched an alluring picture of the life which awaited him\nif he would agree not to return to his mountain home. Not only would\nthe priestess belong to him for ever, having none other than him for\nhusband, but Gilgames would shower upon him riches and honours. \"He will\ngive thee wherein to sleep a great bed cunningly wrought; he will seat\nthee on his divan, he will give thee a place on his left hand, and\nthe princes of the earth shall kiss thy feet, the people of Uruk\nshall grovel on the ground before thee.\" It was by such flatteries\nand promises for the future that Gilgames gained the affection of his\nservant Eabani, whom he loved for ever.\n\n     * I have softened down a good deal the account of the\n     seduction, which is described with a sincerity and precision\n     truly primitive.\n\nShamash had reasons for being urgent. Khumbaba, King of Elam, had\ninvaded the country of the Euphrates, destroyed the temples, and\nsubstituted for the national worship the cult of foreign deities;* the\ntwo heroes in concert could alone check his advance, and kill him. They\ncollected their troops, set out on the march, having learned from a\nfemale magician that the enemy had concealed himself in a sacred grove.\nThey entered it in disguise, \"and stopped in rapture for a moment before\nthe cedar trees; they contemplated the height of them, they contemplated\nthe thickness of them; the place where Khumbaba was accustomed to walk\nup and down with rapid strides, alleys were made in it, paths kept up\nwith great care. They saw at length the hill of cedars, the abode of the\ngods, the sanctuary of Irnini, and before the hill, a magnificent cedar,\nand pleasant grateful shade.\" They surprised Khumbaba at the moment when\nhe was about to take his outdoor exercise, cut off his head, and came\nback in triumph to Uruk.** \"Gilgames brightened his weapons, he polished\nhis weapons. He put aside his war-harness, he put on his white garments,\nhe adorned himself with the royal insignia, and bound on the diadem:\nGilgames put his tiara on his head, and bound on his diadem.\"\n\n     * Khumbaba contains the name of the Elamite god, Khumba,\n     whichenters into the composition of names of towns, like Ti-\n     Khumbi; or into those of princes, as Khumbanigash,\n     Khumbasundasa, Khumbasidh. The comparison between Khumbaba\n     and Combabos, the hero of a singular legend, current in the\n     second century of our era, does not seem to be admissible,\n     at least for the present. The names agree well in sound,\n     but, as Oppert has rightly said, no event in the history of\n     Combabos finds a counterpart in anything we know of that of\n     Khumbaba up to the present.\n\n     ** G. Smith places at this juncture Gilgames's accession to\n     the throne; this is not confirmed by the fragments of the\n     text known up to the present, and it is not even certain\n     that the poem relates anywhere the exaltation and coronation\n     of the hero. It would appear even that Gilgames is\n     recognized from the beginning as King of Uruk, the well-\n     protected.\n\nIshtar saw him thus adorned, and the same passion consumed her which\ninflames mortals.* \"To the love of Gilgames she raised her eyes, the\nmighty Ishtar, and she said, 'Come, Gilgames, be my husband, thou! Thy\nlove, give it to me, as a gift to me, and thou shalt be my spouse, and\nI shall be thy wife. I will place thee in a chariot of lapis and gold,\nwith golden wheels and mountings of onyx: thou shalt be drawn in it by\ngreat lions, and thou shalt enter our house with the odorous incense of\ncedar-wood. When thou shalt have entered our house, all the country by\nthe sea shall embrace thy feet, kings shall bow down before thee, the\nnobles and the great ones, the gifts of the mountains and of the plain\nthey will bring to thee as tribute. Thy oxen shall prosper, thy sheep\nshall be doubly fruitful, thy mules shall spontaneously come under the\nyoke, thy chariot-horse shall be strong and shall galop, thy bull\nunder the yoke shall have no rival.'\" Gilgames repels this unexpected\ndeclaration with a mixed feeling of contempt and apprehension: he abuses\nthe goddess, and insolently questions her as to what has become of her\nmortal husbands during her long divine life. \"Tammuz, the spouse of thy\nyouth, thou hast condemned him to weep from year to year.** Nilala, the\nspotted sparrow-hawk, thou lovedst him, afterward thou didst strike\nhim and break his wing: he continues in the wood and cries: 'O, my\nwings!'*** Thou didst afterwards love a lion of mature strength, and\nthen didst cause him to be rent by blows, seven at a time.**** Thou\nlovedst also a stallion magnificent in the battle; thou didst devote him\nto death by the goad and whip: thou didst compel him to galop for ten\nleagues, thou didst devote him to exhaustion and thirst, thou didst\ndevote to tears his mother Silili.\n\n     * Ishtar's declaration to Gilgames and the hero's reply have\n     been frequently translated and summarized since the\n     discovery of the poem. Smith thought to connect this episode\n     with the \"Descent of Ishtar to Hades,\" which we shall meet\n     with further on in this History, but his opinion is no\n     longer accepted. The \"Descent of Ishtar\" in its present\n     condition is the beginning of a magical formula: it has\n     nothing to do with the acts of Gilgames.\n\n     ** Tammuz-Adonis is the only one known to us among this long\n     list of the lovers of the goddess. The others must have been\n     fairly celebrated among the Chald\u00e6ans, since the few words\n     devoted to each is sufficient to recall them to the memory\n     of the reader, but we have not as yet found anything\n     bearing upon their adventures in the table of the ancient\n     Chald\u00e6o-Assyrian classics, which had been copied out by a\n     Ninevite scribe for the use of Assur-bani-pal, the title of\n     the poems is wanting.\n\n     *** The text gives _kapp\u00ee_, and the legend evidently refers\n     to a bird whose cry resembles the word meaning \"my\n     wings.\" The spotted sparrow-hawk utters a cry which may be\n     strictly understood and interpreted in this way.\n\n     **** This is evidently the origin of our fable of the\n     \"Amorous Lion.\"\n\nThou didst also love the shepherd Tabulu, who lavished incessantly upon\nthee the smoke of sacrifices, and daily slaughtered goats to thee; thou\ndidst strike him and turn him into a leopard; his own servants went in\npursuit of him, and his dogs followed his trail.* Thou didst love\nIshullanu, thy father's gardener, who ceaselessly brought thee presents\nof fruit, and decorated every day thy table. Thou raisedst thine eyes to\nhim, thou seizedst him: 'My Ishullanu, we shall eat melons, then shalt\nthou stretch forth thy hand and remove that which separates us.'\nIshullanu said to thee: 'I, what dost thou require from me? O my mother,\nprepare no food for me, I myself will not eat: anything I should eat\nwould be for me a misfortune and a curse, and my body would be stricken\nby a mortal coldness.' Then thou didst hear him and didst become angry,\nthou didst strike him, thou didst transform him into a dwarf, thou didst\nset him up on the middle of a couch; he could not rise up, he could not\nget down from where he was. Thou lovest me now, afterwards thou wilt\nstrike me as thou didst these.\"**\n\n     * The changing of a lover, by the goddess or sorceress\n     who loves him, into a beast, occurs pretty frequently in\n     Oriental tales; as to the man changed by Ishtar into a\n     brute, which she caused to be torn by his own hounds, we may\n     compare the classic story of Artemis surprised at her bath\n     by Actseon.\n\n     ** As to the misfortune of Ishullanu, we may compare the\n     story in the _Abrabian Nights_ of the Fisherman and the\n     Genie shut up in the leaden bottle. The king of the Black\n     Islands was transformed into a statue from the waist to the\n     feet by the sorceress, whom he had married and afterwards\n     offended; he remained lying on a bed, from which he could\n     not get down, and the unfaithful one came daily to whip him.\n\n\"When Ishtar heard him, she fell into a fury, she ascended to heaven.\nThe mighty Ishtar presented herself before her father Anu, before her\nmother Anatu she presented herself, and said: 'My father, Grilgames\nhas despised me. Grilgames has enumerated my unfaithfulnesses, my\nunfaithfulnesses and my ignominies.' Anu opened his mouth and spake to\nthe mighty Ishtar: 'Canst thou not remain quiet now that Gilgames\nhas enumerated to thee thy unfaithfulnesses, thy unfaithfulnesses and\nignominies?'\" But she refused to allow the outrage to go unpunished.\nShe desired her father to make a celestial urus who would execute her\nvengeance on the hero; and, as he hesitated, she threatened to destroy\nevery living thing in the entire universe by suspending the impulses of\ndesire, and the effect of love. Anu finally gives way to her rage: he\ncreates a frightful urus, whose ravages soon rendered uninhabitable the\nneighbourhood of Uruk the well-protected. The two heroes, Gilgames and\nEabani, touched by the miseries and terror of the people, set out on the\nchase, and hastened to rouse the beast from its lair on the banks of\nthe Euphrates in the marshes, to which it resorted after each murderous\nonslaught.\n\n[Illustration: 068.jpg GILGAMES AND EABANI FIGHTING WITH MONSTERS.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chald\u00e6an intaglio in the New\n     York Museum. The original is about an inch and a half in\n     height.\n\nA troop of three hundred valiant warriors penetrated into the thickets\nin three lines to drive the animal towards the heroes. The beast with\nhead lowered charged them; but Eabani seized it with one hand by the\nright horn, and with the other by the tail, and forced it to rear.\nGilgames at the same instant, seizing it by the leg, plunged his dagger\ninto its heart. The beast being despatched, they celebrated their\nvictory by a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and poured out a libation to\nSharnash, whose protection had not failed them in this last danger.\nIshtar, her projects of vengeance having been defeated, \"ascended the\nramparts of Uruk the well-protected. She sent forth a loud cry, she\nhurled forth a malediction: 'Cursed be Gilgames, who has insulted me,\nand who has killed the celestial urus.' Eabani heard these words of\nIshtar, he tore a limb from the celestial urus and threw it in the face\nof the goddess: 'Thou also I will conquer, and I will treat thee like\nhim: I will fasten the curse upon thy sides.' Ishtar assembled her\npriestesses, her female votaries, her frenzied women, and together they\nintoned a dirge over the limb of the celestial urus. Gilgames assembled\nall the turners in ivory, and the workmen were astonished at the\nenormous size of the horns; they were worth thirty _mim\u00e6_ of lapis,\ntheir diameter was a half-cubit, and both of them could contain six\nmeasures of oil.\" He dedicated them to Shamash, and suspended them on\nthe corners of the altar; then he washed his hands in the Euphrates,\nre-entered Uruk, and passed through the streets in triumph. A riotous\nbanquet ended the day, but on that very night Eabani felt himself\nhaunted by an inexplicable and baleful dream, and fortune abandoned the\ntwo heroes. Gilgames had cried in the intoxication of success to the\nwomen of Uruk: \"Who shines forth among the valiant? Who is glorious\nabove all men? Gilgames shines forth among the valiant, Gilgames is\nglorious above all men.\" Ishtar made him feel her vengeance in the\ndestruction of that beauty of which he was so proud; she covered him\nwith leprosy from head to foot, and made him an object of horror to his\nfriends of the previous day. A life of pain and a frightful death--he\nalone could escape them who dared to go to the confines of the world in\nquest of the Fountain of Youth and the Tree of Life which were said to\nbe there hidden; but the road was rough, unknown, beset by dangers, and\nno one of those who had ventured upon it had ever returned. Gilgames\nresolved to brave every peril rather than submit to his fate, and\nproposed this fresh adventure to his friend Eabani, who, notwithstanding\nhis sad forebodings, consented to accompany him. They killed a tiger\non the way, but Eabani was mortally wounded in a struggle in which they\nengaged in the neighbourhood of Nipur, and breathed his last after an\nagony of twelve days' duration.\n\n\"Gilgames wept bitterly over his friend Eabani, grovelling on the bare\nearth.\" The selfish fear of death struggled in his spirit with regret at\nhaving lost so dear a companion, a tried friend in so many encounters.\n\"I do not wish to die like Eabani: sorrow has entered my heart, the fear\nof death has taken possession of me, and I am overcome. But I will go\nwith rapid steps to the strong Shamashnapishtim, son of Ubaratutu,\nto learn from him how to become immortal.\" He leaves the plain of the\nEuphrates, he plunges boldly into the desert, he loses himself for a\nwhole day amid frightful solitudes. \"I reached at nightfall a ravine in\nthe mountain, I beheld lions and trembled, but I raised my face towards\nthe moon-god, and I prayed: my supplication ascended even to the father\nof the gods, and he extended over me his protection.\" A vision from on\nhigh revealed to him the road he was to take. With axe and dagger\nin hand, he reached the entrance of a dark passage leading into the\nmountain of M\u00e2shu,* \"whose gate is guarded day and night by supernatural\nbeings.\"\n\n     * The land of M\u00e2shu is the land to the west of the\n     Euphrates, coterminous on one part with the northern regions\n     of the Red Sea, on the other with the Persian Gulf; the name\n     appears to be preserved in that of the classic Mesene, and\n     possibly in the land of Massa of the Hebrews.\n\n[Illustration: 071.jpg THE SCORPION-MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS OF M\u00c2SHU.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an Assyrian intaglio.\n\n\"The scorpion-men, of whom the stature extends upwards as far as the\nsupports of heaven, and of whom the breasts descend as low as Hades,\nguard the door. The terror which they inspire strikes down like a\nthunderbolt; their look kills, their splendour confounds and overturns\nthe mountains; they watch over the sun at his rising and setting.\nGrilgames perceived them, and his features were distorted with fear and\nhorror; their savage appearance disturbed his mind. The scorpion-man\nsaid to his wife: 'He who comes towards us, his body is marked by the\ngods.'* The scorpion-woman replied to him: 'In his mind he is a god, in\nhis mortal covering he is a man.' The scorpion-man spoke and said:\n'It is as the father of the gods, has commanded, he has travelled over\ndistant regions before joining us, thee and me.'\" Gilgames learns\nthat the guardians are not evilly disposed towards him, and becomes\nreassured, tell them his misfortunes and implores permission to pass\nbeyond them so as to reach \"Sha-mashnapishtim, his father, who was\ntranslated to the gods, and who has at his disposal both life and\ndeath.\" The scorpion-man in vain shows to him the perils before him, of\nwhich the horrible darkness enveloping the M\u00e2shu mountains is not the\nleast: Gilgames proceeds through the depths of the darkness for long\nhours, and afterwards comes out in the neighbourhood of a marvellous\nforest upon the shore of the ocean which encircles the world. One tree\nespecially excites his wonder: \"As soon as he sees it he runs towards\nit. Its fruits are so many precious stones, its boughs are splendid\nto look upon, for the branches are weighed down with lapis, and their\nfruits are superb.\" When his astonishment had calmed down, Gilgames\nbegins to grieve, and to curse the ocean which stays his steps. \"Sabitu,\nthe virgin who is seated on the throne of the seas,\" perceiving him\nfrom a distance, retires at first to her castle, and barricades herself\nwithin it. He calls out to her from the strand, implores and threatens\nher in turn, adjures her to help him in his voyage. \"If it can be done,\nI will cross the sea; if it cannot be done, I will lay me down on the\nland to die.\" The goddess is at length touched by his tears. \"Gilgames,\nthere has never been a passage hither, and no one from time immemorial\nhas been able to cross the sea. Shamash the valiant crossed the sea;\nafter Shamash, who can cross it? The crossing is troublesome, the way\ndifficult, perilous the Water of Death, which, like a bolt, is drawn\nbetween thee and thy aim. Even if, Gilgames, thou didst cross the\nsea, what wouldest thou do on arriving at the Water of Death?\" Arad-Ea,\nShamashnapishtim's mariner, can alone bring the enterprise to a happy\nending: \"if it is possible, thou shalt cross the sea with him; if it is\nnot possible, thou shalt retrace thy steps.\"\n\n* We must not forget that Gilgames is covered with leprosy; this is the\ndisease with which the Chald\u00e6an gods mark their enemies when they wish\nto punish them in a severe fashion.\n\n[Illustration: 073.jpg GILGAMES AND ARAD-EA NAVIGATING THEIR VESSEL.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chald\u00e6an intaglio in the\n     British Museum. The original measures a little over an inch.\n\nArad-Ea and the hero took ship: forty days' tempestuous cruising brought\nthem to the Waters of Death, which with a supreme effort they passed.\nBeyond these they rested on their oars and loosed their girdles: the\nhappy island rose up before them, and Shamashnapishtim stood upon the\nshore, ready to answer the questions of his grandson.\n\nNone but a god dare enter his mysterious paradise: the bark bearing\nan ordinary mortal must stop at some distance from the shore, and the\nconversation is carried on from on board. Gilgames narrated once\nmore the story of his life, and makes known the object of his visit;\nShamashnapishtim answers him stoically that death follows from an\ninexorable law, to which it is better to submit with a good grace.\n\"However long the time we shall build houses, however long the time we\nshall put our seal to contracts, however long the time brothers shall\nquarrel with each other, however long the time there shall be hostility\nbetween kings, however long the time rivers shall overflow their banks,\nwe shall not be able to portray any image of death. When the spirits\nsalute a man at his birth, then the genii of the earth, the great gods,\nMamitu the moulder of destinies, all of them together assign a fate to\nhim, they determine for him his life and death; but the day of his death\nremains unknown to him.\" Gilgames thinks, doubtless, that his forefather\nis amusing himself at his expense in preaching resignation, seeing that\nhe himself had been able to escape this destiny. \"I look upon thee,\nShamashnapishtim, and thy appearance has not changed: thou art like me\nand not different, thou art like me and I am like thee. Thou wouldest\nbe strong enough of heart to enter upon a combat, to judge by thy\nappearance; tell me, then, how thou hast obtained this existence among\nthe gods to which thou hast aspired?\" Shamashnapishtim yields to his\nwish, if only to show him how abnormal his own case was, and indicate\nthe merits which had marked him out for a destiny superior to that of\nthe common herd of humanity. He describes the deluge to him, and relates\nhow he was able to escape from it by the favour of Ea, and how by that\nof Bel he was made while living a member of the army of the gods. \"'And\nnow,' he adds, 'as far as thou art concerned, which one of the Gods will\nbestow upon thee the strength to obtain the life which thou seekest?\nCome, go to sleep!' Six days and seven nights he is as a man whose\nstrength appears suspended, for sleep has fallen upon him like a blast\nof wind. Shamashnapishtim spoke to his wife: 'Behold this man who asks\nfor life, and upon whom sleep has fallen like a blast of wind.' The wife\nanswers Shamashnapishtim, the man of distant lands: 'Cast a spell upon\nhim, this man, and he will eat of the magic broth; and the road by which\nhe has come, he will retrace it in health of body; and the great gate\nthrough which he has come forth, he will return by it to his country.'\nShamashnapishtim spoke to his wife: 'The misfortunes of this man\ndistress thee: very well, cook the broth, and place it by his head.'\nAnd while Gilgames still slept on board his vessel, the material for the\nbroth was gathered; on the second day it was picked, on the third it was\nsteeped, on the fourth Shamashnapishtim prepared his pot, on the fifth\nhe put into it 'Senility,' on the sixth the broth was cooked, on the\nseventh he cast his spell suddenly on his man, and the latter consumed\nthe broth. Then Gilgames spoke to Shamashnapishtim, the inhabitant of\ndistant lands: 'I hesitated, slumber laid hold of me; thou hast cast a\nspell upon me, thou hast given me the broth.'\" The effect would not have\nbeen lasting, if other ceremonies had not followed in addition to this\nspell from the sorcerer's kitchen: Gilgames after this preparation could\nnow land upon the shore of the happy island and purify himself there.\nShamashnapishtim confided this business to his mariner Arad-Ea: \"'The\nman whom thou hast brought, his body is covered with ulcers, the leprous\nscabs have spoiled the beauty of his body. Take him, Arad-Ea, lead him\nto the place of purification, let him wash his ulcers white as snow in\nthe water, let him get rid of his scabs, and let the sea bear them away\nso that at length his body may appear healthy. He will then change\nthe fillet which binds his brows, and the loin-cloth which hides his\nnakedness: until he returns to his country, until he reaches the end of\nhis journey, let him by no means put off the loin-cloth, however ragged;\nthen only shall he have always a clean one.' Then Arad-Ea took him and\nconducted him to the place of purification: he washed his ulcers white\nas snow in the water, he got rid of his scabs, and the sea carried them\naway, so that at length his body appeared healthy. He changed the fillet\nwhich bound his brows, the loincloth which hid his nakedness: until\nhe should reach the end of his journey, he was not to put off the\nloin-cloth, however ragged; then alone was he to have a clean one.\" The\ncure effected, Gilgames goes again on board his bark, and returns to the\nplace where Shamashnapishtim was awaiting him.\n\nShamashnapishtim would not send his descendant back to the land of the\nliving without making him a princely present. \"His wife spoke to him,\nto him Shamashnapishtim, the inhabitant of distant lands: 'Gilgames has\ncome, he is comforted, he is cured; what wilt thou give to him, now that\nhe is about to return to his country?' He took the oars, Gilgames, he\nbrought the bark near the shore, and Shamashnapishtim spoke to him, to\nGilgames: 'Gilgames, thou art going from here comforted; what shall I\ngive thee, now that thou art about to return to thy country? I am about\nto reveal to thee, Gilgames, a secret, and the judgment of the gods I am\nabout to tell it thee. There is a plant similar to the hawthorn in its\nflower, and whose thorns prick like the viper. If thy hand can lay hold\nof that plant without being torn, break from it a branch, and bear it\nwith thee; it will secure for thee an eternal youth.'Gilgames gathers\nthe branch, and in his joy plans with Arad-Ea future enterprises:\n'Arad-Ea, this plant is the plant of renovation, by which a man\nobtains life; I will bear it with me to Uruk the well-protected, I will\ncultivate a bush from it, I will cut some of it, and its name shall\nbe, \"the old man becomes young by it;\" I will eat of it, and I shall\nrepossess the vigour of my youth.'\" He reckoned without the gods, whose\njealous minds will not allow men to participate in their privileges.\nThe first place on which they set foot on shore, \"he perceived a well of\nfresh water, went down to it, and whilst he was drawing water, a serpent\ncame out of it, and snatched from him the plant, yea--the serpent rushed\nout and bore away the plant, and while escaping uttered a malediction.\nThat day Gilgames sat down, he wept, and his tears streamed down his\ncheeks he said to the mariner Arad-Ba: 'What is the use, Arad-Ea, of my\nrenewed strength; what is the use of my heart's rejoicing in my return\nto life? It is not myself I have served; it is this earthly lion I have\nserved. Hardly twenty leagues on the road, and he for himself alone has\nalready taken possession of the plant. As I opened the well, the plant\nwas lost to me, and the genius of the fountain took possession of it:\nwho am I that I should tear it from him?'\" He re-embarks in sadness,\nhe re-enters Uruk the well-protected, and at length begins to think of\ncelebrating the funeral solemnities of Eabani, to whom he was not able\nto show respect at the time of his death. He supervises them, fulfils\nthe rites, intones the final chant: \"The temples, thou shalt enter them\nno more; the white vestments, thou shalt no longer put them on; the\nsweet-smelling ointments, thou shalt no longer anoint thyself with them\nto envelop thee with their perfume. Thou shalt no longer press thy\nbow to the ground to bend it, but those that the bow has wounded shall\nsurround thee; thou no longer holdest thy sceptre in thy hand, but\nspectres fascinate thee; thou no longer adornest thy feet with wings,\nthou no longer givest forth a sound upon the earth. Thy wife whom thou\nlovedst thou embracest her no more; thy wife whom thou hatedst thou\nbeatest her no more. Thy daughter whom thou lovedst thou embracest her\nno more; thy daughter whom thou hatedst, thou beatest her no more. The\nresounding earth lies heavy upon thee, she who is dark, she who is\ndark, Tjinazu the mother, she who is dark, whose side is-not veiled with\nsplendid vestments, whose bosom, like a new-born animal, is not covered.\nEabani has descended from the earth to Hades; it is not the messenger\nof Nergal the implacable who has snatched him away, it is not the plague\nwhich has carried him off, it is not consumption that has carried him\noff, it is the earth which has carried him off; it is not the field of\nbattle which has carried him off, it is the earth which has carried him\noff!\" Gilgames dragged himself along from temple to temple, repeating\nhis complaint before Bel and before Sin, and at length threw himself\nat the feet of the god of the Dead, Nergal: \"'Burst open the sepulchral\ncavern, open the ground, that the spirit of Eabani may issue from the\nsoil like a blast of wind.' As soon as Nergal the valiant heard him,\nhe burst open the sepulchral vault, he opened the earth, he caused the\nspirit of Eabani to issue from the earth like a blast of wind.\" Gilgames\ninterrogates him, and asks him with anxiety what the state of the dead\nmay be: \"'Tell, my friend, tell, my friend, open the earth and what thou\nseest tell it.'--'I cannot tell it thee, my friend, I cannot tell it\nthee; if I should open the earth before thee, if I were to tell to thee\nthat which I have seen, terror would overthrow thee, thou wouldest faint\naway, thou wouldest weep.'--'Terror will overthrow me, I shall faint\naway, I shall weep, but tell it to me.'\" And the ghost depicts for him\nthe sorrows of the abode and the miseries of the shades. Those only\nenjoy some happiness who have fallen with arms in their hands, and who\nhave been solemnly buried after the fight; the manes neglected by their\nrelatives succumb to hunger and thirst.* \"On a sleeping couch he lies,\ndrinking pure water, he who has been killed in battle. 'Thou hast seen\nhim?'--'I have seen him; his father and his mother support his head, and\nhis wife bends over him wailing.' 'But he whose body remains forgotten\nin the fields,--thou hast seen him?'--'I have seen him; his soul has no\nrest at all in the earth.' 'He whose soul no one cares for,--thou hast\nseen him?'--'I have seen him; the dregs of the cup, the remains of a\nrepast, that which is thrown among the refuse of the street, that is\nwhat he has to nourish him.'\" This poem did not proceed in its entirety,\nor at one time, from the imagination of a single individual. Each\nepisode of it answers to some separate legend concerning Gilgames, or\nthe origin of Uruk the well-protected: the greater part preserves under\na later form an air of extreme antiquity, and, if the events dealt with\nhave not a precise bearing on the life of a king, they paint in a lively\nway the vicissitudes of the life of the people.** These lions, leopards,\nor gigantic uruses with which Grilgames and his faithful Eabani carry\non so fierce a warfare, are not, as is sometimes said, mythological\nanimals.\n\n     * Cf. vol. i. pp. 160, 161 of this History for analogous\n     ideas among the Egyptians as to the condition of the dead\n     who were neglected by their relatives: the Egyptian double\n     had to live on the same refuse as the Chald\u00e6an soul.\n\n     ** G. Smith, identifying Gilgames with Nimrod, believes, on\n     the other hand, that Nimrod was a real king, who reigned in\n     Mesopotamia about 2250 B.C.; the poem contains, according to\n     him, episodes, more or less embellished, in the life of the\n     sovereign.\n\nSimilar monsters, it was believed, appeared from time to time in the\nmarshes of Chald\u00e6a, and gave proof of their existence to the inhabitants\nof neighbouring villages by such ravages as real lions and tigers commit\nin India or the Sahara. It was the duty of chiefs on the border lands of\nthe Euphrates, as on the banks of the Nile, as among all peoples still\nsunk in semi-barbarism, to go forth to the attack of these beasts\nsingle-handed, and to sacrifice themselves one after the other, until\none of them more fortunate or stronger than the rest should triumph\nover these mischievous brutes. The kings of Babylon and Nineveh in later\ntimes converted into a pleasure that which had been an official duty of\ntheir early predecessors: Gilgames had not yet arrived at that stage,\nand the seriousness, not to speak of the fear, with which he entered\non the fight with such beasts, is an evidence of the early date of the\nportions of his history which are concerned with his hunting exploits.\nThe scenes are represented on the seals of princes who reigned prior to\nthe year 3000 B.C., and the work of the ancient engraver harmonizes so\nperfectly with the description of the comparatively modern scribe that\nit seems like an anticipated illustration of the latter; the engravings\nrepresent so persistently and with so little variation the images of\nthe monsters, and those of Gilgames and his faithful Eabani, that the\ncorresponding episodes in the poem must have already existed as we know\nthem, if not in form, at least in their main drift. Other portions of\nthe poem are more recent, and it would seem that the expedition against\nKhumbaba contains allusions to the Elamite* invasions from which Chald\u00e6a\nhad suffered so much towards the XXth century before our era. The\ntraditions which we possess of the times following the Deluge, embody,\nlike the adventures of Gilganes, very ancient elements, which the\nscribes or narrators wove together in a more or less skilful manner\naround the name of some king or divinity.\n\n     * Smith thought he could restore from the poem a part of\n     Chald\u00e6an history: he supposed Izdubar-Nimrod to have been,\n     about 2250, the liberator of Babylon, oppressed by Elam, and\n     the date of the foundation of a great Babylonian empire to\n     have coincided with his victory over the Elamites. The\n     annals of Assurbanipal show us, in fact, that an Elamite\n     king, Kudurnankhundi, had pillaged Uruk about 2280 B.C., and\n     had transported to Susa a statue of the goddess Ishtar.\n\n[Illustration: 082.jpg GILGAMES STRUGGLES WITH A LION]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chald\u00e6an intaglio in the\n     British Museum. The original measures about 1 2/5 inch in\n     height.\n\nThe fabulous chronicle of the cities of the Euphrates existed,\ntherefore, in a piecemeal condition--in the memory of the people or in\nthe books of the priests--before even their primitive history began;\nthe learned who collected it later on had only to select some of the\nmaterials with which it furnished them, in order to form out of them a\nconnected narrative, in which the earliest ages were distinguished from\nthe most recent only in the assumption of more frequent and more direct\ninterpositions of the powers of heaven in the affairs of men. Every city\nhad naturally its own version, in which its own protecting deities, its\nheroes and princes, played the most important parts. That of Babylon\nthrew all the rest into the shade; not that it was superior to them,\nbut because this city had speedily become strong enough to assert its\npolitical supremacy over the whole region of the Euphrates. Its scribes\nwere accustomed to see their master treat the lords of other towns as\nsubjects or vassals. They fancied that this must have always been\nthe case, and that from its origin Babylon had been recognized as the\nqueen-city to which its contemporaries rendered homage. They made its\nindividual annals the framework for the history of the entire country,\nand from the succession of its princely families on the throne, diverse\nas they were in origin, they constructed a complete canon of the kings\nof Chald\u00e6a.\n\nBut the manner of grouping the names and of dividing the dynasties\nvaried according to the period in which the lists were drawn up, and at\nthe present time we are in possession of at least two systems which the\nBabylonian historians attempted to construct. Berossus, who communicated\none of them to the Greeks about the beginning of the IInd century B.C.,\nwould not admit more than eight dynasties in the period of thirty-six\nthousand years between the Deluge and the Persian invasion. The lists,\nwhich he had copied from originals in the cuneiform character, have\nsuffered severely at the hands of his abbreviators, who omitted the\nmajority of the names which seemed to them very barbarous in form, while\nthose who copied these abbreviated lists have made such further havoc\nwith them that they are now for the most part unintelligible. Modern\ncriticism has frequently attempted to restore them, with varying\nresults; the reconstruction here given, which passes for the most\nprobable, is not equally certain in all its parts:--*\n\n[Illustration: 084.jpg CHRONOLOGIC TABLE]\n\nIt was not without reason that Berossus and his authorities had put the\nsum total of reigns at thirty-six thousand years; this number falls in\nwith a certain astrological period, during which the gods had granted to\nthe Chald\u00e6ans glory, prosperity, and independence, and whose termination\ncoincided with the capture of Babylon by Cyrus.** Others before them had\nemployed the same artifice, but they reckoned ten dynasties in the place\nof the eight accepted by Berossus:--\n\n     * After the example of G. B. Niebuhr, Gutschmid admitted\n     here, as Oppert did, 45 Assyrians; he based his view on\n     Herodotus, in which it is said that the Assyrians held sway\n     in Asia for 520 years, until its conquest by the Medes. Upon\n     the improbability of this opinion, see Schrader's\n     demonstration.\n\n     ** The existence of this astronomical or astrological scheme\n     on which Berossus founded his chronology, was pointed out by\n     Brandis, afterwards by Gutschmid; it is now generally\n     accepted.\n\n[Illustration: 085.jpg TABLE]\n\nAttempts have been made to bring the two lists* into harmony, with\nvarying results; in my opinion, a waste of time and labour. For even\ncomparatively recent periods of their history, the Chald\u00e6ans, like\nthe Egyptians, had to depend upon a collection of certain abbreviated,\nincoherent, and often contradictory documents, from which they found it\ndifficult to make a choice: they could not, therefore, always come to an\nagreement when they wished to determine how many dynasties had succeeded\neach other during these doubtful epochs, how many kings were included in\neach dynasty, and what length of reign was to be assigned to each king.\nWe do not know the motives which influenced Berossus in his preference\nof one tradition over others; perhaps he had no choice in the matter,\nand that of which he constituted himself the interpr\u00e9ter was the only\none which was then known. In any case, the tradition he followed forms a\nsystem which we cannot, modify without misinterpreting the intention of\nthose who drew it up or who have handed it down to us. We must accept\nor reject it just as it is, in its entirety and without alteration:\nto attempt to adapt it to the testimony of the monuments would be\nequivalent to the creation of a new system, and not to the correction\nsimply of the old one. The right course is to put it aside for the\nmoment, and confine ourselves to the original lists whose fragments have\ncome down to us: they do not furnish us, it is true, with a history of\nChald\u00e6a such as it unfolded itself from age to age, but they teach us\nwhat the later Chald\u00e6ans knew, or thought they knew, of that history.\nStill it is wise to treat them with some reserve, and not to forget that\nif they agree with each other in the main, they differ frequently in\ndetails. Thus the small dynasties, which are called the VIth and VIIth,\ninclude the same number of kings on both the tablets which establish\ntheir existence, but the number of years assigned to the names of\nthe kings and the total years of each dynasty vary a little from one\nanother:--\n\n     * The first document having claim to the title of Royal\n     Canon was found among the tablets of the British Museum, and\n     was published by G. Smith. The others were successively\n     discovered by Pinches; some erroneous readings in them have\n     been corrected by Fr. Delitzsch, and an exact edition has\n     been published by Knudtzon. Smith's list is the fragment of\n     a chronicle in which the VIth, VIIth, and VIIIth dynasties\n     only are almost complete. One of Pinches's lists consists\n     merely of a number of royal names not arranged in any\n     consistent order, and containing their non-Semitic as well\n     as their Semitic forms. The other two lists are actual\n     canons, giving the names of the kings and the years of their\n     reigns; unfortunately they are much mutilated, and the\n     lacun\u00e6 in them cannot yet be filled up. All of them have\n     been translated by Sayce.\n\n[Illustration: 080.jpg TABLE]\n\n[Illustration: 081.jpg TABLE]\n\nIs the difference in the calculations the fault of the scribes, who,\nin mechanically copying and recopying, ended by fatally altering the\nfigures? Or is it to be explained by some circumstance of which we are\nignorant--an association on the throne, of which the duration is at one\ntime neglected with regard to one of the co-regents, and at another time\nwith regard to the other; or was it owing to a question of legitimacy,\nby which, according to the decision arrived at, a reign was prolonged or\nabbreviated? Cotemporaneous monuments will some day, perhaps, enable\nus to solve the problem which the later Chald\u00e6ans did not succeed in\nclearing up. While awaiting the means to restore a rigorously exact\nchronology, we must be content with the approximate information\nfurnished by the tablets as to the succession of the Babylonian kings.\n\nActual history occupied but a small space in the lists--barely twenty\ncenturies out of a whole of three hundred and sixty: beyond the historic\nperiod the imagination was given a free rein, and the few facts which\nwere known disappeared almost completely under the accumulation of\nmythical narratives and popular stories. It was not that the documents\nwere entirely wanting, for the Chald\u00e6ans took a great interest in their\npast history, and made a diligent search for any memorials of it. Each\ntime they succeeded in disinterring an inscription from the ruins of a\ntown, they were accustomed to make-several copies of it, and to deposit\nthem among the archives, where they would be open to the examination\nof their archaeologists.* When a prince undertook the rebuilding of\na temple, he always made excavations under the first courses of the\nancient structure in order to recover the documents which preserved the\nmemory of its foundation: if he discovered them, he recorded on the new\ncylinders, in which he boasted of his own work, the name of the first\nbuilder, and sometimes the number of years which had elapsed since its\nerection.**\n\n     * We have a considerable number of examples of copies of\n     ancient texts made in this manner. For instance, the\n     dedication of a temple at Uruk by King Singashid, copied by\n     the scribe Nabubalatsuikbi, son of Mizira\u00ee (\"the Egyptian\n     \"), for the temple of Ezida; the legendary history of King\n     Sargon of Agad\u00ea, copied from the inscription on the base of\n     his statue, of which there will be further mention (pp. 91-\n     93 of this History); a dedication of the King Khammurabi;\n     the inscription of Agumkakrimi, which came from the library\n     of Assurbanipal.\n\n     ** Nabonidos, for instance, the last king of Babylon before\n     the Persian conquest, has left us a memorial of his\n     excavations. He found in this manner the cylinders of\n     Shagashaltiburiash at Sippara, those of Khammurabi, and\n     those of Naramsin.\n\nWe act in a similar way to-day, and our excavations, like those of the\nChaldaeans, end in singularly disconnected results: the materials which\nthe earth yields for the reconstruction of the first centuries consist\nalmost entirely of mutilated records of local dynasties, isolated\nnames of sovereigns, dedications of temples to gods, on sites no longer\nidentifiable, of whose nature we know nothing, and too brief allusions\nto conquests or victories over vaguely designated nations.* The\npopulation was dense and life active in the plains of the Lower\nEuphrates. The cities in this region formed at their origin so many\nindividual and, for the most part, petty states, whose kings and patron\ngods claimed to be independent of all the neighbouring kings and gods:\none city, one god, one lord--this was the rule here as in the ancient\nfeudal districts from which the nomes of Egypt arose. The strongest\nof these principalities imposed its laws upon the weakest: formed into\nunions of two or three under a single ruler, they came to constitute a\ndozen kingdoms of almost equal strength on the banks of the Euphrates.\nOn the north we are acquainted with those of Agad\u00ea, Babylon, Kuta,\nKharsag-Kalama, and that of Kishu, which comprised a part of Mesopotamia\nand possibly the distant fortress of Harran: petty as these States were,\ntheir rulers attempted to conceal their weakness by assuming such titles\nas \"Kings of the Four Houses of the World,\" \"Kings of the Universe,\"\n\"Kings of Shumir and Akkad.\" Northern Babylonia seems to have possessed\na supremacy amongst them. We are probably wise in not giving too much\ncredit to the fragmentary tablet which assigns to it a dynasty of\nkings, of which we have no confirmatory information from other\nsources--Amilgula, Shamashnazir, Amilsin, and several others: this list,\nhowever, places among these phantom rulers one individual at least,\nShargina-Sharrukin, who has left us material evidences of his existence.\nThis Sargon the Elder, whose complete name is Shargani-shar-ali, was\nthe son of a certain Ittibel, who does not appear to have been king.\nAt first his possessions were confined to the city of Agad\u00ea and some\nundetermined portions of the environs of Babylon, but he soon succeeded\nin annexing Babylon itself, Sippara, K\u00eeshu, Uruk, Kuta, and Nipur: the\ncontemporary records attest his conquest of Elam, Guti, and even of the\nfar-off land of Syria, which was already known to him under the name of\nAmuru. His activity as a builder was in no way behind his warlike zeal.\nHe built Ekur, the sanctuary of Bel in Nipur, and the great temple\nEulbar in Agad\u00ea, in honour of Anunit, the goddess presiding over the\nmorning star. He erected in Babylon a palace which afterwards became a\nroyal burying-place. He founded a new capital, a city which he peopled\nwith families brought from Kishu and Babylon: for a long time after his\nday it bore the name which he bestowed upon it, Dur-Sharruk\u00een. This\nsums up all the positive knowledge we have about him, and the later\nChaldseans seem not to have been much better informed than ourselves.\n\n     * The earliest Assyriologists, H. Rawlinson, Oppert,\n     considered the local kings as having been, for the most\n     part, kings of all Chald\u00e6a, and placed them in succession\n     one after the other in the framework of the most ancient\n     dynasties of Berossus. The merit of having established the\n     existence of series of local dynasties, and of having given\n     to Chald\u00e6an history its modern form, belongs to G. Smith.\n     Smith's idea was adopted by Menant, by Delitzsch-Murdter, by\n     Tiele, by Winckler, and by all Assyriologists, with\n     modifications suggested by the progress of decipherment.\n\nThey filled up the lacunae of his history with legends. As he seemed\nto them to have appeared suddenly on the scene, without any apparent\nconnection with the king who preceded him, they assumed that he was a\nusurper of unknown origin, irregularly introduced by the favour of the\ngods into the lawful series of kings. An inscription engraved, it was\nsaid, on one of his statues, and afterwards, about the VIIth century\nB.C., copied and deposited in the library of Nineveh, related at length\nthe circumstances of his mysterious birth. \"Sharruk\u00een, the mighty king,\nthe king of Agad\u00ea, am I. My mother was a princess; my father, I did not\nknow him; the brother of my father lived in the mountains. My town was\nAzupir\u00e2ni, which is situated on the bank of the Euphrates. My mother,\nthe princess, conceived me, and secretly gave birth to me: she placed\nme in a basket of reeds, she shut up the mouth of it with bitumen, she\nabandoned me to the river, which did not overwhelm me. The river bore\nme; it brought me to Akki, the drawer of water. Akki, the drawer of\nwater, received me in the goodness of his heart; Akki, the drawer of\nwater, made me a gardener. As gardener, the goddess Ishtar loved me, and\nduring forty-four years I held royal sway; I commanded the Black Heads,*\nand ruled them.\" This is no unusual origin for the founders of empires\nand dynasties; witness the cases of Cyrus and Bomulus.* Sargon, like\nMoses, and many other heroes of history or fable, is exposed to the\nwaters: he owes his safety to a poor fellah who works his shadouf on the\nbanks of the Euphrates to water the fields, and he passes his infancy in\nobscurity, if not in misery. Having reached the age of manhood, Ishtar\nfalls in love with him as she did with his fellow-craftsman, the\ngardener Ishullanu, and he becomes king, we know not by what means.\n\n     * The phrase \"Black Heads,\" _nishi salmat hahhadi_, has been\n     taken in an ethnological sense as designating one of the\n     races of Chald\u00e6a, the Semitic; other Assyriologists consider\n     it as denoting mankind in general. The latter meaning seems\n     the more probable.\n\n     ** Smith had already compared the infancy of Sargon with\n     that of Moses; the comparison with Cyrus, Bacchus, and\n     Romulus was made by Talbot. Traditions of the same kind are\n     frequent in history or folk-tales.\n\nThe same inscription which reveals the romance of his youth, recounts\nthe successes of his manhood, and boasts of the uniformly victorious\nissue of his warlike exploits. Owing to lacunae, the end of the account\nis in the main wanting, and we are thus prevented from following the\ndevelopment of his career, but other documents come to the rescue and\nclaim to furnish its most important vicissitudes. He had reduced the\ncities of the Lower Euphrates, the island of Dilmun, Dur\u00eelu, Elam, the\ncountry of Kazalla: he had invaded Syria, conquered Phoenicia, crossed\nthe arm of the sea which separates Cyprus from the coast, and only\nreturned to his palace after an absence of three years, and after having\nerected his statues on the Syrian coast. He had hardly settled down to\nrest when a rebellion broke out suddenly; the chiefs of Chald\u00e6a formed\na league against him, and blockaded him in Agad\u00ea: Ishtar, exceptionally\nfaithful to the end, obtains for him the victory, and he comes out of a\ncrisis, in which he might have been utterly ruined, with a more secure\nposition than ever. All these events are regarded as having occurred\nsometime about 3800 B.C., at a period when the VIth dynasty was\nflourishing in Egypt. Some of them have been proved to be true by recent\ndiscoveries, and the rest are not at all improbable in themselves,\nthough the work in which they are recorded is a later astrological\ntreatise. The writer was anxious to prove, by examples drawn from the\nchronicles, the use of portents of victory or defeat, of civic peace\nor rebellion--portents which he deduced from the configuration of the\nheavens on the various days of the month: by going back as far as Sargon\nof Agad\u00ea for his instances, he must have at once increased the respect\nfor himself on account of his knowledge of antiquity, and the difficulty\nwhich the common herd must have felt in verifying his assertions. His\nzeal in collecting examples was probably stimulated by the fact that\nsome of the exploits which he attributes to the ancient Sargon had been\nrecently accomplished by a king of the same name: the brilliant career\nof Sargon of Agad\u00ea would seem to have been in his estimation something\nlike an anticipation of the still more glorious life of the Sargon of\nNineveh.* What better proof of the high veneration in which the learned\nmen of Assyria held the memory of the ancient Chald\u00e6an conqueror?\nNaramsin, who succeeded Sargon about 3750 B.C.** inherited his\nauthority, and to some extent his renown.\n\n     * Hommel (Gescamede, p. 307) believes that the life of our\n     Sargon was modelled, not on the Assyrian Sargon, but on a\n     second Sargon, whom he places about 2000 B.C. Tiele refuses\n     to accept the hypothesis, but his objections are not\n     weighty, in my opinion; Hilprecht and Sayce accepted the\n     authenticity of the facts in their details, and the recent\n     discoveries have shown that they were right in so doing.\n     There is a distant resemblance between the life of the\n     legendary Sargon and the account of the victories of Ramses\n     II. ending in a conspiracy on his return.\n\n\n     ** The date of Naramsin is given us by the cylinder of\n     Nabonidos, who is cited lower down. It was discovered by\n     Pinches. Its authenticity is maintained by Oppert, by\n     Latrille, by Tiele, by Hommel, who felt at first some\n     hesitation, by Delitzsch-Murdter; it has been called in\n     question, with hesitation, by Ed. Meyer, and more boldly by\n     Winckler. There is at present no serious reason to question\n     its accuracy, at least relatively, except the instinctive\n     repugnance of modern critics to consider as legitimate,\n     dates which carry them back further into the past than they\n     are accustomed to go.\n\nThe astrological tablets assert that he attacked the city of Apirak, on\nthe borders of Elam, killed the Sing, Rish-ramman, and led the people\naway into slavery. He conquered at least part, if not the whole of Elam,\nand one of the few monuments which have come down to us was raised at\nSippara in commemoration of his prowess against the mountaineers of the\nZagros. He is represented on it overpowering their chief: his warriors\nfollow after him and charge up the hill, carrying everything before\ntheir steady onslaught. Another of his warlike expeditions is said to\nhave had as its field of operations a district of M\u00e2gan, which, in the\nview of the writer, undoubtedly represented the Sinaitic Peninsula and\nperhaps Egypt. This expedition against M\u00e2gan no doubt took place, and\none of the few monuments of Naramsin which have reached us refers to it.\nOther inscriptions tell us incidentally that Naramsin reigned over the\n\"four Houses of the world,\" Babylon, Sippara, Nipur, and Lagash. Like\nhis father, he had worked at the building of the Ekur of Nipur and the\nBulbar of Agad\u00ea; he erected, moreover, at his own cost, the temple\nof the Sun at Sippara.* The latter passed through many and varied\nvicissitudes. Restored, enlarged, ruined on several occasions, the date\nof its construction and the name of its founder were lost in the course\nof ages.\n\n     * The text giving us this information is that in which\n     Nabonidos affirms that Naramsin, son of Sargon of Agad\u00f4, had\n     founded the temple of the Sun at Sippara, 3200 years before\n     himself, which would give us 3750 B.C. for the reign of\n     Naramsin.\n\nThe last independent King of Babylon, Nabona\u00eed [Nabonidos], at length\ndiscovered the cylinders in which Naramsin, son of Sargon, had signified\nto posterity all that he had done towards the erection of a temple\nworthy of the deity to the god of Sippara: \"for three thousand two\nhundred years not one of the kings had been able to find them.\" We\nhave no means of judging what these edifices were like for which\nthe Chald\u00e6ans themselves showed such veneration; they have entirely\ndisappeared, or, if anything remains of them, the excavations hitherto\ncarried out have not revealed it. Many small objects, however, which\nhave accidentally escaped destruction give us a fair idea of the artists\nwho lived in Babylon at this time, and of their skill in handling the\ngraving-tool and chisel. An alabaster vase with the name of\nNaramsin, and a mace-head of exquisitely veined marble, dedicated by\nShargani-shar-ali to the sun-god of Sippara, are valued only on account\nof the beauty of the material and the rarity of the inscription; but a\nporphyry cylinder, which belonged to Ibnishar, scribe of the above-named\nShargani, must be ranked among the masterpieces of Oriental engraving.\nIt represents the hero Gilgames, kneeling and holding with both hands\na spherically shaped vase, from which flow two copious jets forming a\nstream running through the country; an ox, armed with a pair of gigantic\ncrescent-shaped horns, throws back its head to catch one of the jets\nas it falls. Everything in this little specimen is equally worthy of\nadmiration--the purity of outline, the skilful and delicate cutting of\nthe intaglio, the fidelity of the action, and the accuracy of form.\nA fragment of a bas-relief of the reign of Naramsin shows that the\nsculptors were not a bit behind the engravers of gems. This consists now\nonly of a single figure, a god, who is standing on the right, wearing a\nconical head-dress and clothed in a hairy garment which leaves his right\narm free. The legs are wanting, the left arm and the hair are for\nthe most part broken away, while the features have also suffered; its\ndistinguishing characteristic is a sublety of workmanship which is\nlacking in the artistic products of a later age. The outline stands out\nfrom the background with a rare delicacy, the details of the muscles\nbeing in no sense exaggerated: were it not for the costume and pointed\nbeard, one would fancy it a specimen of Egyptian work of the best\nMemphite period.\n\n[Illustration 096.jpg THE SEAL OF SHARGANI-SHAR-ALI: GILGAMES WATERS THE\nCELESTIAL OX.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Menant.\n\nOne is almost tempted to believe in the truth of the tradition which\nascribes to Naramsin the conquest of Egypt, or of the neighbouring\ncountries.\n\n[Illustration: 096a.jpg Painting in Color of Charioteer]\n\n     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph published by Father\n     Schiel.\n\n[Illustration: 097.jpg Page image]\n\nDid Sargon and Naramsin live at so early a date as that assigned to\nthem by Nabonidos? The scribes who assisted the kings of the second\nBabylonian empire in their archaeological researches had perhaps\ninsufficient reasons for placing the date of these kings so far back in\nthe misty past: should evidence of a serious character A constrain us to\nattribute to them a later origin, we ought not to be surprised. In the\nmean time our best course is to accept the opinion of the Chald\u00e6ans,\nand to leave Sargon and Naramsin in the century assigned to them by\nNabonidos, although from this point they look down as from a high\neminence upon all the rest of Chald\u00e6an antiquity. Excavations have\nbrought to light several personages of a similar date, whether a\nlittle earlier, or a little later: Bingani-sharali, Man-ish-turba,\nand especially Alusharshid, who lived at Kishu and Nipur, and gained\nvictories over Elam.\n\n[Illustration: 098.jpg Page image: the arms op the city and kings of\nLagash]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief from Lagash, now\n     in the Louvre\n\nAfter this glimpse of light on these shadowy kings darkness once more\ncloses in upon us, and conceals from us the majority of the sovereigns\nwho ruled afterwards in Babylon. The facts and names which can be\nreferred with certainty to the following centuries belong not to\nBabylon, but to the southern States, Lagash, Uruk, Uru, Nishin, and\nLarsam. The national writers had neglected these principalities;\nwe possess neither a resume of their chronicles nor a list of their\ndynasties, and the inscriptions which speak of their the arms of the\ncity gods and princes are still very rare and kings of Lagash. Lagash,\nas far as our evidence goes, was, perhaps, the most illustrious of\nall these cities.* It occupied the heart of the country, and its site\ncovered both sides of the Shatt-el-Ha\u00ee; the Tigris separated it on the\neast from Anshan, the westernmost of the Elamite districts, with which\nit carried on a perpetual frontier war.\n\n     * We are indebted almost exclusively to the researches of M.\n     de Sarzec, and his discoveries at Telloh, for what we know\n     of it. The results of his excavations, acquired by the\n     French government, are now in the Louvre. The description of\n     the ruins, the text of the inscriptions, and an account of\n     the statues and other objects found in the course of the\n     work, have been published by Heuzey-Sakzec, _D\u00e9couvertes en\n     Chald\u00e9e_. The name of the ancient town has been read\n     Sirpurla, Zirgulla, etc.\n\nAll parts of the country were not equally fertile: the fruitful and\nwell-cultivated district in the neighbourhood of the Shatt-el-Ha\u00ee gave\nplace to impoverished lands ending to the eastward, finally in swampy\nmarshes, which with great difficulty furnished means of sustenance to a\npoor and thinly scattered population of fisher-folk.\n\n[Illustration: 099.jpg FRAGMENT OF BAS-RELIEF BY URNIN\u00c2, KING OF\nLAGASH.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a stone in the Louvre.\n\nThe capital, built on the left bank of the river, stretched out to the\nnorth-east and south-west a distance of some five miles. It was not so\nmuch a city as an agglomeration of large villages, each grouped around a\ntemple or palace--Uruazagga, Gishgalla, G-irsu, Nina, and Lagash,\nwhich latter imposed its name upon the whole. A branch of the river\nShatt-el-Ha\u00ee protected it on the south, and supplied the village of\nNin\u00e2 with water; no trace of an inclosing wall has been found, and the\ntemples and palaces seem to have served as refuges in case of attack.\nIt had as its arms, or totem, a double-headed eagle standing on a lion\npassant, or on two demi-lions placed back to back. Its chief god was\ncalled Ningirsu, that is, the lord of Girsu, where his temple stood: his\ncompanion Bau, and his associates Ninagal, Innanna and Ninsia, were\nthe deities of the other divisions of the city. The princes were first\ncalled kings, but afterwards vicegerents--_patesi_--when they came under\nthe suzerainty of a more powerful king, the King of Uruk or of Babylon.\n\nThe earlier history of this remarkable town is made up of the\nscanty memoirs of its rulers, together with those of the princes of\nGishban--\"the land of the Bow,\" of which Ishin seems to have been the\nprincipal town. A very ancient document states, that, at the instigation\nof Inlil, the god of Nipur, the local deities, Ningirsu and Kirsig, set\nup a boundary between the two cities. In the course of time, Meshilim,\na king of Kishu, which, before the rise of Agad\u00ea, was the chief town in\nthose parts, extended his dominion over Lagash and erected his stele at\nits border; Ush, vicegerent of Gishban, however, removed it, and had to\nsuffer defeat before he would recognize the new order of things. After\nthe lapse of some years, of which we possess no records, we find the\nmention of a certain Urukagina, who assumes the title of king: he\nrestored or enlarged several temples, and dug the canal which supplied\nthe town of Nina with water. A few generations later we find the ruling\nauthority in the hands of a certain Urnin\u00e2, whose father Ninigaldun and\ngrandfather Gurshar received no titles--a fact which proves that they\ncould not have been reigning sovereigns. Urnin\u00e2 appears to have been of\na peaceful and devout disposition, as the inscriptions contain frequent\nreferences to the edifices he had erected in honour of the gods, the\nsacred objects he had dedicated to them, and the timber for building\npurposes which he had brought from M\u00e2gan, but there is no mention in\nthem of any war. His son Akurgal was also a builder of temples, but\nhis grandson Idingiranagin, who succeeded Akurgal, was a warlike and\ncombative prince.\n\n[Illustration: 101.jpg IDINGIRANAGIN HOLDING THE TOTEM OF LAGASH.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the bas-relief F2 in the\n     Louvre.\n\nIt seems probable that, about that time, the kingdom of Gishban had\nbecome a really powerful state. It had triumphed not only over\nBabylonia proper, but over Kish, Uru, Uruk, and Larsam, while one of its\nsovereigns had actually established his rule in some parts of Northern\nSyria. Idingiranagin vanquished the troops of Gishban, and there is now\nin the Louvre a trophy which he dedicated in the temple of Ninglrsu on\nhis return from the campaign.\n\n     * Hilpeecht, Bab. Expcd. of the Univ. of Pennsylvania, vol.\n     i., 2nd part, p. 47 sqq.\n\n[Illustration: 102.jpg IDINGIRANAGIN IN HIS CHARIOT LEADING HIS TROOPS.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief in the Louvre. The\n     attendant standing behind the king has been obliterated, but\n     we see clearly the contour of his shoulder, and his hands\n     holding the reins. It is a large stele of close-grained\n     white limestone, rounded at the top, and covered with scenes\n     and inscriptions on both its faces. One of these faces\n     treats only of religious subjects. Two warlike goddesses,\n     crowned with plumed head-dresses and crescent-shaped horns,\n     are placed before a heap of weapons and various other\n     objects, which probably represent some of the booty\n     collected in the campaign. It would appear that they\n     accompany a tall figure of a god or king, possibly that of\n     the deity Ningirsu, patron of Lagash and its kings. Ningirsu\n     raises in one hand an ensign, of which the staff bears at\n     the top the royal totem, the eagle with outspread wings\n     laying hold by his talons of two half-lions back to back;\n     with the other hand he brings a, club down heavily upon a\n     group of prisoners, who struggle at his feet in the meshes\n     of a large net.\n\n\n[Illustration: 103.jpg Page image. VULTURES FEEDING UPON THE DEAD.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the fragment of a bas-relief in\n     the Louvre. This is the human sacrifice after the victory,\n     such as we find it in Egypt--the offering to the national\n     god of a tenth of the captives, who struggle in vain to\n     escape from fate. On the other stele the battle is at its\n     height. Idingiranagin, standing upright in his chariot,\n     which is guided by an attendant, charges the enemy at the\n     head of his troops, and the plain is covered with corpses\n     cut down by his fierce blows: a flock of vultures accompany\n     him, and peck at each other in their struggles over the\n     arms, legs, and decapitated heads of the vanquished. Victory\n     once secured, he retraces his steps to bestow funeral\n     honours upon the dead.\n\n\n[Illustration: 104.jpg PILING UP THE MOUND OF THE DEAD AFTER THE\nBATTLE.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the fragment of a bas-relief in\n     the Louvre. The bodies raised regularly in layers form an\n     enormous heap: priests or soldiers wearing loin-cloths mount\n     to its top, where they pile the offerings and the earth\n     which are to form the funerary mound. The sovereign,\n     moreover, has, in honour of the dead, consigned to execution\n     some of the prisoners, and deigns to kill with his own hand\n     one of the principal chiefs of the enemy.\n\nThe design and execution of these scenes are singularly rude; men and\nbeasts--indeed, all the figures--have exaggerated proportions, uncouth\nforms, awkward positions, and an uncertain and heavy gait. The war ended\nin a treaty concluded with Enakalli, vicegerent of Grishban, by which\nLagash obtained considerable advantages. Idingiranagin replaced the\nstele of Meshilim, overthrown by one of Enakalli's predecessors, and\ndug a ditch from the Euphrates to the provinces of Guedln to serve\nhenceforth as a boundary. He further levied a tribute of corn for the\nbenefit of the goddess Nina and her consort Ningirsu, and applied\nthe spoils of the campaign to the building of new sanctuaries for the\npatron-gods of his city.\n\n[Illustration: 105.jpg KING URNINA AND HIS FAMILY.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief in the Louvre. Cf.\n     another bas-relief of the same king, p. 244; and for the\n     probable explanation of these pierced plaques, see p. 258 of\n     the present work.\n\nHis reign was, on the whole, a glorious and successful one. He conquered\nthe mountain district of Elam, rescued Uruk and Uru, which had both\nfallen into the hands of the people of Gishban, organized an expedition\nagainst the town of Az and killed its vicegerent, in addition to which\nhe burnt Arsua, and devastated the district of Mishime. He next directed\nan attack against Zuran, king of Udban, and, by vanquishing this Prince\non the field of battle, he extended his dominion over nearly the whole\nof Babylonia.\n\nThe prosperity of his dynasty was subjected to numerous and strange\nvicissitudes. Whether it was that its resources were too feeble to\nstand the exigencies and strain of war for any length of time, or that\nintestine strife had been the chief cause of its decline, we cannot\nsay. Its kings married many wives and became surrounded with a numerous\nprogeny: Urnin\u00e2 had at least four sons. They often entrusted to their\nchildren or their sons-in-law the government of the small towns which\ntogether made up the city: these represented so many temporary fiefs, of\nwhich the holders were distinguished by the title of \"vicegerents.\" This\ndismemberment of the supreme authority in the interest of princes, who\nbelieved for the most part that they had stronger claims to the throne\nthan its occupant, was attended with dangers to peace and to the\npermanence of the dynasty. The texts furnish us with evidence of the\nexistence of at least half a dozen descendants of Akurgal--Inannatuma\nI., Intemena, his grandson Inannatuma II, all of whom seem to have been\nvigorous rulers who energetically maintained the supremacy of their city\nover the neighbouring estates. Inannatuma I., however, proved no match\nin the end against Urlamma, the vicegerent of Gishban, and lost part, at\nleast, of the territory acquired by Idingiranagin, but his son Intemena\ndefeated Urlamma on the banks of the Lumasirta Canal, and, having killed\nor deposed him, gave the vicegerency of Gishban to a certain Hi, priest\nof Ninab, who remained his loyal vassal to the end of his days. With\nhis aid Intemena restored the stelae and walls which had been destroyed\nduring the war; he also cleared out the old canals and dug new ones, the\nmost important of which was apparently an arm of the Shatt-el-Hai, and\nran from the Euphrates to the Tigris, through the very centre of the\ndomains of Ghirsu.\n\nOther kings and vicegerents of doubtful sequence were followed lastly by\nUrbau and his son Gudea. These were all piously devoted to Ningirsu in\ngeneral, and in particular to the patron of their choice from among\nthe divinities of the country--Papsukal, Dunziranna, and Nin\u00e2gal. They\nrestored and enriched the temples of these gods: they dedicated to\nthem statues or oblation vases for the welfare of themselves and their\nfamilies. It would seem, if we are to trust the accounts which they give\nof themselves, that their lives were passed in profound peace, without\nother care than that of fulfilling their duties to heaven and its\nministers. Their actual condition, if we could examine it, would\ndoubtless appear less agreeable and especially less equable; revolutions\nin the palace would not be wanting, nor struggles with the other peoples\nof Chald\u00e6a, with Susiana and even more distant nations. When Agad\u00ea rose\ninto power in Northern Babylonia, they fell under its rule, and one of\nthem, Lugal-ushum-gal, acknowledged himself a dependant of Sargon. On\nthe decline of Agade, and when that city was superseded by Uru in the\nhegemony of Babylonia proper, the vicegerents of Lagash were transferred\nwith the other great towns to the jurisdiction of Uru, and flourished\nunder the supremacy of the new dynasty.\n\nGrudea, son of Urbau, who, if not the most powerful of its princes,\nis at least the sovereign of whom we possess the greatest number of\nmonuments, captured the town of Anshan in Elam, and this is probably not\nthe only campaign in which he took part, for he speaks of his success\nin an incidental manner, and as if he were in a hurry to pass to more\ninteresting subjects.\n\n[Illustration: 108.jpg THE SACRIFICE]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a stone in the Louvre.\n\nThat which seemed to him important in his reign, and which especially\ncalled forth the recognition of posterity, was the number of his pious\nfoundations, distinguished as they were by beauty and magnificence. The\ngods themselves had inspired him in his devout undertakings, and had\neven revealed to him the plans which he was to carry out. An old man of\nvenerable aspect appeared to him in a vision, and commanded him to build\na temple: as he did not know with whom he had to do, Nina his mother\ninformed him that it was his brother, the god Ningirsu. This having been\nmade clear, a young woman furnished with style and writing tablet was\npresented to him--Nisaba, the sister of Nina; she made a drawing in his\npresence, and put before him the complete model of a building. He set\nto work on it _con amore_, and sent for materials to the most distant\ncountries--to M\u00e2gan, Amanus, the Lebanon, and into the mountains which\nseparate the valley of the Upper Tigris from that of the Euphrates.\n\n[Illustration: 109.jpg SITTING STATUE OF GUDEA]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin\n\nThe sanctuaries which he decorated, and of which he felt so proud, are\nto-day mere heaps of bricks, now returned to their original clay; but\nmany of the objects which he placed in them, and especially the statues,\nhave traversed the centuries without serious damage before finding a\nresting-place in the Louvre. The sculptors of Lagash, after the time of\nIdingi-ranagin, had been instructed in a good school, and had learned\ntheir business. Their bas-reliefs are not so good as those of Naramsin;\nthe execution of them is not so refined, the drawing less delicate, and\nthe modelling of the parts not so well thought out. A good illustration\nof their work is the fragment of a square stele which represents a scene\nof offering or sacrifice. We see in the lower part of the picture a\nfemale singer, who is accompanied by a musician, playing on a lyre\nornamented with the head of an ox, and a bull in the act of walking.\nIn the upper part an individual advances, clad in a fringed mantle, and\nbearing in his right hand a kind of round paten, and in his left a short\nstaff. An acolyte follows him, his arms brought up to his breast, while\nanother individual marks, by clapping his hands, the rhythm of the ode\nwhich a singer like the one below is reciting. The fragment is much\nabraded, and its details, not being clearly exhibited, have rather to\nbe guessed at; but the defaced aspect which time has produced is of some\nservice to it, since it conceals in some respect the rudeness of\nits workmanship. The statues, on the other hand, bear evidence of a\nprecision of chiselling and a skill beyond question. Not that there are\nno faults to be found in the work. They are squat, thick, and heavy\nin form, and seem oppressed by the weight of the woollen covering with\nwhich the Chaldeans enveloped themselves; when viewed closely, they\nexcite at once the wonder and repulsion of an eye accustomed to the\ndelicate grace, and at times somewhat slender form, which usually\ncharacterized the good statues of the ancient and middle empire of\nEgypt. But when we have got over the effect of first impressions, we can\nbut admire the audacity with which the artists attacked their material.\nThis is of hard dolerite, offering great resistance to the tool--harder,\nperhaps, than the diorite out of which the Memphite sculptor had to\ncut his Khephren: they succeeded in mastering it, and in handling it as\nfreely as if it were a block of limestone or marble.\n\n[Illustration: 111.jpg Plan of the Ruins of Mugh\u00eeer]\n\nThe surface of the breast and back, the muscular development of the\nshoulders and arms, the details of the hands and feet, all the nude\nportions, are treated at once with a boldness and attention to minutiae\nrarely met with in similar works. The pose is lacking in variety; the\nindividual, whether male or female, is sometimes represented standing\nand sometimes sitting on a low seat, the legs brought together, the bust\nrising squarely from the hips, the hands crossed upon the breast, in a\nposture of submission or respectful adoration. The mantle passes over\nthe left shoulder, leaving the right free, and is fastened on the right\nbreast, the drapery displaying awkward and inartistic folds: the latter\nwidens in the form of a funnel from top to bottom, being bell-shaped\naround the lower part of the body, and barely leaves the ankles exposed.\n\n[Illustration: 112.jpg STATUES FROM TELLOH. and HEAD OF ONE OF THE\nSTATUE OF GUDEA.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Heuzey-Sarzec.\n\nAll the large statues to be seen at the Louvre have lost their heads;\nfortunately we possess a few separate heads. Some are completely shaven,\nothers wear a kind of turban affording shade to the forehead and eyes;\namong them all we see the same qualities and defects which we find in\nthe bodies: a hardness of expression, heaviness, absence of vivacity,\nand yet withal a vigour of reproduction and an accurate knowledge of\nhuman anatomy. These are instances of what could be accomplished in a\ncity of secondary rank; better things were doubtless produced in the\ngreat cities, such as Uru and Babylon. Chald\u00e6an art, as we are able\nto catch a glimpse of it in the monuments of Lagash, had neither the\nlitheness, nor animation, nor elegance of the Egyptian, but it was\nnevertheless not lacking in force, breadth, and originality. Urningirsu\nsucceeded his father Gudea, to be followed rapidly by several successive\nvicegerents, ending, it would appear, in Gala-lama. Their inscriptions\nare short and insignificant, and show that they did not enjoy the same\nresources or the same favour which enabled Gudea to reign gloriously.\nThe prosperity of Lagash decreased steadily under their administration,\nand they were all the humble vassals of the King of Uru, Dungi, son of\nUrbau; a fact which tends to make us regard Urbau as having been the\nsuzerain upon whom Gudea himself was dependent. Uru, the only city among\nthose of Lower Chald\u00e6a which stands on the right bank of the Euphrates,\nwas a small but strong place, and favourably situated for becoming one\nof the commercial and industrial centres in these distant ages. The\nWady Eummein, not far distant, brought to it the riches of Central and\nSouthern Arabia, gold, precious stones, gums, and odoriferous resins for\nthe exigencies of worship. Another route, marked out by wells, traversed\nthe desert to the land of the semi-fabulous M\u00e2shu, and from thence\nperhaps penetrated as far as Southern Syria and the Sinaitic\nPeninsula--M\u00e2gan and Milukhkha on the shores of the Red Sea: this was\nnot the easiest but it was the most direct route for those bound for\nAfrica, and products of Egypt were no doubt carried along it in order\nto reach in the shortest time the markets of Uru. The Euphrates now\nruns nearly five miles to the north of the town, but from the regions\nbordering the Black Sea.\n\n[Illustration: 114.jpg Plan of the Ruins of Abu-Shahreyn]\n\nIn ancient times it was not so distant, but passed almost by its\ngates. The cedars, cypresses, and pines of Amamis and the Lebanon,the\nlimestones, marbles, and hard stones of Upper Syria, were brought down\nto it by boat; and probably also metals\u0097iron, copper and lead.\n\nThe Shatt-el-Ha\u00ee, moreover, poured its waters into the Euphrates almost\nopposite the city, and opened up to it commercial relations with the\nUpper and Middle Tigris. And this was not all; whilst some of its\nboatmen used its canals and rivers as highways, another section made\ntheir way to the waters of the Persian Gulf and traded with the ports on\nits coast. Eridu, the only city which could have barred their access\nto the sea, was a town given up to religion, and existed only for its\ntemples and its gods. It was not long before it fell under the influence\nof its powerful neighbour, becoming the first port of call for vessels\nproceeding up the Euphrates.\n\n[Illustration: 115.jpg AN ARAB CROSSING THE TIGRIS IN A \"KUFA.\"]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Chesney.\n\nIn the time of the Greeks and Romans the Chaldaeans were accustomed\nto navigate the Tigris either in round flat-bottomed boats, of little\ndraught--\"kufas,\" in fact--or on rafts placed upon inflated skins,\nexactly similar in appearance and construction to the \"keleks\" of our\nown day. These keleks were as much at home on the sea as upon the river,\nand they may still be found in the Persian Gulf engaged in the coasting\ntrade. Doubtless many of these were included among the vessels of Uru\nmentioned in the texts, but there were also among the latter those\nlong large rowing-boats with curved stem and stern, Egyptian in their\nappearance, which are to be found roughly incised on some ancient\ncylinders. These primitive fleets were not disposed to risk the\nnavigation of the open sea. They preferred to proceed slowly along the\nshore, hugging it in all cases, except when it was necessary to reach\nsome group of neighbouring islands; many days of navigation were thus\nrequired to make a passage which one of our smallest sail-boats would\neffect in a few hours, and at the end of their longest voyages they\nwere not very distant from their point of departure. It would be a great\nmistake to suppose them capable of sailing round Arabia and of fetching\nblocks of stone by sea from the Sinaitic Peninsula; such an expedition,\nwhich would have been dangerous even for Greek or Roman Galleys, would\nhave been simply impossible for them. If they ever crossed the Strait\nof Ormuzd, it was an exceptional thing, their ordinary voyages being\nconfined within the limits of the gulf. The merchants of Uru were\naccustomed to visit regularly the island of Dilmun, the land of M\u00e2gan,\nthe countries of Milukhkha and Gub\u00een; from these places they brought\ncargoes of diorite for their sculptors, building-timber for their\narchitects, perfumes and metals transported from Yemen by land, and\npossibly pearls from the Bahrein Islands. They encountered serious\nrivalry from the sailors of Dilmun and M\u00e2gan, whose maritime tribes were\nthen as now accustomed to scour the seas. The risk was great for those\nwho set out on such expeditions, perhaps never to return, but the profit\nwas considerable.\n\n[Illustration: 117.jpg AN ASSYRIAN KELEK LADEN WITH BUILDING-STONE.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief from \"Kouyunjik\"\n     (Layard, _The Monuments of Nineveh_, 2nd series, pi. 13; cf.\n     Place, _Ninive et l'Assyrie_, pl. 43, No. 1.)\n\nUru, enriched by its commerce, was soon in a position to subjugate\nthe petty neighbouring states--Uruk, Larsam, Lagash, and Nipur. Its\nterritory formed a fairly extended sovereignty, whose lords entitled\nthemselves kings of Shumir and Akkad, and ruled over all Southern\nChald\u00e6a for many centuries.\n\nSeveral of these kings, the Lugalkigubnidudu and the Lugalkisalsi, of\nwhom some monuments have been preserved to us, seem to have extended\ntheir influence beyond these limits prior to the time of Sargon the\nElder; and we can date the earliest of them with tolerable probability.\nUrbau reigned some time about 2900 B.C. He was an energetic builder, and\nmaterial traces of his activity are to be found everywhere throughout\nthe country. The temple of the Sun at Larsam, the temple of Nina in\nUruk, and the temples of Inlilla and Ninlilla in Nipur were indebted\nto him for their origin or restoration: he decorated or repaired\nall structures which were not of his own erection: in Uru itself\nthe sanctuary of the moon-god owes its foundation to him, and the\nfortifications of the city were his work. Dungi, his son, was an\nindefatigable bricklayer, like his father: he completed the sanctuary\nof the moon-god, and constructed buildings in Uruk, Lagash, and Kutha.\nThere is no indication in the inscriptions of his having been engaged\nin any civil struggle or in war with a foreign nation; we should make a\nserious mistake, however, if we concluded from this silence that peace\nwas not disturbed in his time. The tie which bound together the petty\nstates of which Uru was composed was of the slightest. The sovereign\ncould barely claim as his own more than the capital and the district\nsurrounding it; the other cities recognized his authority, paid him\ntribute, did homage to him in religious matters, and doubtless rendered\nhim military service also, but each one of them nevertheless maintained\nits particular constitution and obeyed its hereditary lords. These\nlords, it is true, lost their title of king, which now belonged\nexclusively to their suzerain, and each one had to be content in his\ndistrict with the simple designation of \"vicegerent;\" but having once\nfulfilled their feudal obligations, they had absolute power over\ntheir ancient domains, and were able to transmit to their progeny the\ninheritance they had received from their fathers. Gudea probably, and\nmost certainly his successors, ruled in this way over Lagash, as a fief\ndepending on the crown of Uru. After the manner of the Egyptian barons,\nthe vassals of the kings of Chaldaea submitted to the control of their\nsuzerain without resenting his authority as long as they felt the\ncurbing influence of a strong hand: but on the least sign of feebleness\nin their master they reasserted themselves, and endeavoured to recover\ntheir independence. A reign of any length was sure to be disturbed by\nrebellions sometimes difficult to repress: if we are ignorant of any\nsuch, it is owing to the fact that inscriptions hitherto discovered are\nfound upon objects upon which an account of a battle would hardly find\na fitting place, such as bricks from a temple, votive cones or cylinders\nof terra-cotta, amulets or private seals. We are still in ignorance as\nto Dungi's successors, and the number of years during which this first\ndynasty was able to prolong its existence. We can but guess that its\nempire broke up by disintegration after a period of no long duration.\nIts cities for the most part became emancipated, and their rulers\nproclaimed themselves kings once more. We see that the kingdom of\nAmnanu, for instance, was established on the left bank of the Euphrates,\nwith Uruk as its capital, and that three successive sovereigns at\nleast--of whom Singashid seems to have been the most active--were able\nto hold their own there. Uru had still, however, sufficient prestige and\nwealth to make it the actual metropolis of the entire country. No one\ncould become the legitimate lord of Shumir and Accad before he had\nbeen solemnly enthroned in the temple at Uru. For many centuries every\nambitious kinglet in turn contended for its possession and made it\nhis residence. The first of these, about 2500 B.C., were the lords\nof Nishin, Libitanunit, Gamiladar, Ined\u00een, Burs\u00een I., and Ismid\u00e2gan:\nafterwards, about 2400 B.C., Gungunum of Nipur made himself master of\nit. The descendants of Gungunum, amongst others Burs\u00een II., Gimils\u00een,\nIn\u00easin, reigned gloriously for a few years. Their records show that\nthey conquered not only a part of Elam, but part of Syria. They were\ndispossessed in their turn by a family belonging to L\u00e2rsam, whose two\nchief representatives, as far as we know, were Nurramman and his son\nSinidinnam (about 2300 B.C.). Naturally enough, Sinidinnam was a builder\nor repairer of temples, but he added to such work the clearing of the\nShatt-el-Ha\u00ee and the excavation of a new canal giving a more direct\ncommunication between the Shatt and the Tigris, and in thus controlling\nthe water-system of the country became worthy of being considered one of\nthe benefactors of Chald\u00e6a.\n\nWe have here the mere dust of history, rather than history itself: here\nan isolated individual makes his appearance in the record of his name,\nto vanish when we attempt to lay hold of him; there, the stem of a\ndynasty which breaks abruptly off, pompous preambles, devout formulas,\ndedications of objects or buildings, here and there the account of some\nbattle, or the indication of some foreign country with which relations\nof friendship or commerce were maintained--these are the scanty\nmaterials out of which to construct a connected narrative. Egypt has not\nmuch more to offer us in regard to many of her Pharaohs, but we have in\nher case at least the ascertained framework of her dynasties, in\nwhich each fact and each new name falls eventually, and after some\nuncertainty, into its proper place. The main outlines of the picture are\ndrawn with sufficient exactitude to require no readjustment, the groups\nare for the most part in their fitting positions, the blank spaces or\npositions not properly occupied are gradually restricted, and filled in\nfrom day to day; the expected moment is in sight when, the arrangement\nof the whole being accomplished, it will be necessary only to fill in\nthe details. In the case of Chald\u00e6a the framework itself is wanting,\nand expedients must be resorted to in order to classify the elements\nentering into its composition. Narams\u00een is in his proper place, or\nnearly so; but as for Gudea, what interval separates him from Narams\u00een,\nand at what distance from Gudea are we to place the kings of Uru? The\nbeginnings of Chald\u00e6a have merely a provisional history: the facts in\nit are certain, but the connection of the facts with one another is too\noften a matter of speculation. The arrangement which is put forward at\npresent can be regarded only as probable, but it would be difficult\nto propose a better until the excavations have furnished us with fresh\nmaterial; it must be accepted merely as an attempt, without pledging to\nit our confidence on the one hand, or regarding it with scepticism on\nthe other.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II--THE TEMPLES AND THE GODS OF CHALD\u00c6A\n\n_THE CONSTRUCTION AND REVENUES OF THE TEMPLES--THE POPULAR GODS AND THE\nTHEOLOGICAL TRIADS----THE DEAD AND HADES_.\n\n_Chald\u00e6an cities: the resemblance of their ruins to natural mounds\ncaused by their exclusive use of brick as a building material--Their\ncity walls: the temples and local gods; reconstruction of their history\nby means of the stamped bricks of which they were built--The two types\nof ziggur\u00e2t: the arrangement of the temple of Nannar at Uru.\n\nThe tribes of the Chald\u00e6an gods--Genii hostile to men, their monstrous\nshapes; the south-west wind; friendly genii--The Seven, and their\nattacks on the moon-god; Gibil, the fire-god, overcomes them and their\nsnares--The Sumerian gods; Ningirsu: the difficulty of defining them and\nof understanding the nature of them; they become merged in the Semitic\ndeities.\n\nCharacteristics and dispositions of the Chald\u00e6an gods--the goddesses,\nlike women of the harem, are practically nonentities; Mylitta and\nher meretricious rites--The divine aristocracy and its principal\nrepresentatives: their relations to the earth, oracles, speaking\nstatues, household gods--The gods of each city do not exclude those\nof neighbouring cities: their alliances and their borrowings from one\nanother--The sky-gods and the earth-gods, the sidereal gods: the moon\nand the sun.\n\nThe feudal gods: several among them unite to govern the world; the two\ntriads of Eridu--The supreme triad: Anu the heaven; Bel the earth and\nhis fusion with the Babylonian Merodach; Ea, the god of the waters--The\nsecond triad: Sin the moon and Shamash the sun; substitution of Bamman\nfor Ishtar in this triad; the winds and the legend of Adapa, the\nattributes of Ramman--The addition of goddesses to these two triads;\nthe insignificant position which they occupy.\n\nThe assembly of the gods governs the world: the bird Zu steals the\ntablets of destiny--Destinies are written in the heavens and determined\nby the movements of the stars; comets and their presiding deities, Nebo\nand Ishtai--The numerical value of the gods--The arrangement of the\ntemples, the local priesthood, festivals, revenues of the gods and gifts\nmade to them--Sacrifices, the expiation of crimes--Death and the future\nof the soul--Tombs and the cremation of the dead; the royal sepulchres\nand funerary rites--Hades and its sovereigns: Nergal, All\u00e2t, the\ndescent of Ishtar into the infernal regions, and the possibility of a\nresurrection The invocation of the dead--The ascension of Etana._\n\n\n[Illustration: 124.jpg Chapter II]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II--THE TEMPLES AND THE GODS OF CHALD\u00c6A\n\n_The construction and revenues of the temples--Popular gods and\ntheological triads--The dead and Hades_.\n\n\nThe cities of the Euphrates attract no attention, like those of the\nNile, by the magnificence of their ruins, which are witnesses,\neven after centuries of neglect, to the activity of a powerful and\nindustrious people: on the contrary, they are merely heaps of rubbish in\nwhich no architectural outline can be distinguished--mounds of stiff\nand greyish clay, cracked by the sun, washed into deep crevasses by the\nrain, and bearing no apparent traces of the handiwork of man.\n\n[Illustration: 126.jpg PLAN OF THE RUINS OF WAKKA]\n\nIn the estimation of the Chald\u00e6an architects, stone was a material of\nsecondary consideration: as it was necessary to bring it from a great\ndistance and at considerable expense, they used it very sparingly, and\nthen merely for lintels, uprights, thresholds, for hinges on which to\nhang their doors, for dressings in some of their state apartments, in\ncornices or sculptured friezes on the external walls of their buildings;\nand even then its employment suggested rather that of a band of\nembroidery carefully disposed on some garment to relieve the plainness\nof the material. Crude brick, burnt brick, enamelled brick, but always\nand everywhere brick was the principal element in their construction.\nThe soil of the marshes or of the plains, separated from the pebbles\nand foreign substances which it contained, mixed with grass or chopped\nstraw, moistened with water, and assiduously trodden underfoot,\nfurnished the ancient builders with materials of incredible tenacity.\nThis was moulded into thin square bricks, eight inches to a foot across,\nand three to four inches thick, but rarely larger: they were stamped on\nthe flat side, by means of an incised wooden block, with the name of\nthe reigning sovereign, and were then dried in the sun.* A layer of\nfine mortar or of bitumen was sometimes spread between the courses, or\nhandfuls of reeds would be strewn at intervals between the brickwork to\nincrease the cohesion: more frequently the crude bricks were piled one\nupon another, and their natural softness and moisture brought about\ntheir rapid agglutination.** As the building proceeded, the weight\nof the courses served to increase still further the adherence of the\nlayers: the walls soon became consolidated into a compact mass, in which\nthe horizontal strata were distinguishable only by the varied tints of\nthe clay used to make the different relays of bricks.\n\n     * The making of bricks for the Assyrian monuments of the\n     time of the Sargonids has been minutely described by Place,\n     _Ninive et l'Assyrie_, vol. i. pp. 211-214. The methods of\n     procedure were exactly the same as those used under the\n     earliest king known, as has been proved by the examination\n     of the bricks taken from the monuments of Uru and Lagash.\n\n     ** This method of building was noticed by classical writers.\n     The word \"Bowarieh,\" borne by several ancient mounds in\n     Chaldoa, signifies, properly speaking, a mat of reeds; it is\n     applied only to such buildings as are apparently constructed\n     with alternate layers of brick and dried reeds. The\n     proportion of these layers differs in certain localities: in\n     the ruins of the ancient temple of Belos at Babylon, now\n     called the \"Mujelibeh,\" the lines of straw and reeds run\n     uninterruptedly between each course of bricks; in the ruins\n     of Akkerkuf, they only occur at wider intervals--according\n     to Niebuhr and Ives, every seventh or eighth course;\n     according to Raymond, every seventh course, or sometimes\n     every fifth or sixth course, but in these cases the layer of\n     reeds becomes 3 1/2 to 3 3/4 inches wide. H. Rawlin-son\n     thinks, on the other hand, that all the monuments in which\n     we find layers of straw and reeds between the brick courses\n     belong to the Parthian period.\n\n[Illustration: 128.jpg A CHALD\u00c6AN STAMPED BRICK.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a brick preserved in the\n     Louvre. The bricks bearing historical inscriptions, which\n     are sometimes met with, appear to have been mostly ex-voto\n     offerings placed somewhere prominently, and not building\n     materials hidden in the masonry.\n\n\nMonuments constructed of such a plastic material required constant\nattention and frequent repairs, to keep them in good condition: after a\nfew years of neglect they became quite disfigured, the houses suffered\na partial dissolution in every storm, the streets were covered with\na coating of fine mud, and the general outline of the buildings and\nhabitations grew blurred and defaced. Whilst in Egypt the main features\nof the towns are still traceable above ground, and are so well preserved\nin places that, while excavating them, we are carried away from\nthe present into the world of the past, the Chald\u00e6an cities, on the\ncontrary, are so overthrown and seem to have returned so thoroughly to\nthe dust from which their founders raised them, that the most patient\nresearch and the most enlightened imagination can only imperfectly\nreconstitute their arrangement.\n\nThe towns were not enclosed within those square or rectangular\nenclosures with which the engineers of the Pharaohs fortified their\nstrongholds. The ground-plan of Uru was an oval, that of Larsam formed\nalmost a circle upon the soil, while Uruk and Eridu resembled in shape\na sort of irregular trapezium. The curtain of the citadel looked down on\nthe plain from a great height, so that the defenders were almost out\nof reach of the arrows or slings of the besiegers: the remains of the\nramparts at Uruk at the present day are still forty to fifty feet\nhigh, and twenty or more feet in thickness at the top. Narrow turrets\nprojected at intervals of every fifty feet along the face of the wall:\nthe excavations have not been sufficiently pursued to permit of our\nseeing what system of defence was applied to the entrances. The area\ndescribed by these cities was often very large, but the population\nin them was distributed very unequally; the temples in the different\nquarters formed centres around which were clustered the dwellings of the\ninhabitants, sometimes densely packed, and elsewhere thinly scattered.\nThe largest and richest of these temples was usually reserved for the\nprincipal deity, whose edifices were being continually decorated by\nthe ruling princes, and the extent of whose ruins still attracts the\ntraveller. The walls, constructed and repaired with bricks stamped\nwith the names of lords of the locality, contain in themselves alone an\nalmost complete history. Did Urbau, we may ask, found the ziggurat of\nNannar in Uru? We meet with his bricks at the base of the most ancient\nportions of the building, and we moreover learn, from cylinders\nunearthed not far from it, that \"for Nannar, the powerful bull of Anu,\nthe son of Bel, his King, Urbau, the brave hero, King of Uru, had built\nE-Timila, his favourite temple.\" The bricks of his son Dungi are found\nmixed with his own, while here and there other bricks belonging to\nsubsequent kings, with cylinders, cones, and minor objects, strewn\nbetween the courses, mark restorations at various later periods. What\nis true of one Chald\u00e6an city is equally true of all of them, and the\ndynasties of Uruk and of Lagash, like those of Uru, can be reconstructed\nfrom the revelations of their brickwork. The lords of heaven promised\nto the lords of the earth, as a reward of their piety, both glory and\nwealth in this life, and an eternal fame after death: they have, indeed,\nkept their word. The majority of the earliest Chald\u00e6an heroes would be\nunknown to us, were it not for the witness of the ruined sanctuaries\nwhich they built, and that which they did in the service of their\nheavenly patrons has alone preserved their names from oblivion. Their\nmost extravagant devotion, however, cost them less money and effort than\nthat of the Pharaohs their contemporaries. While the latter had to\nbring from a distance, even from the remotest parts of the desert, the\ndifferent kinds of stone which they considered worthy to form part of\nthe decoration of the houses of their gods, the Chald\u00e6an kings gathered\nup outside their very doors the principal material for their buildings:\nshould they require any other accessories, they could obtain, at\nthe worst, hard stone for their statues and thresholds in M\u00e2gan and\nMilukhkha, and beams of cedar and cypress in the forests of the Amanus\nand the Upper Tigris. Under these conditions a temple was soon erected,\nand its construction did not demand centuries of continuous labour, like\nthe great limestone and granite sanctuaries of Egypt: the same ruler who\nlaid the first brick, almost always placed the final one, and succeeding\ngenerations had only to keep the building in ordinary repair, without\naltering its original plan. The work of construction was in almost\nevery case carried out all at one time, designed and finished from\nthe drawings of one architect, and bears traces but rarely of those\ndeviations from the earlier plans which sometimes make the comprehension\nof the Theban temples so difficult a matter: if the state of decay of\ncertain parts, or more often inadequate excavation, frequently prevent\nus from appreciating their details, we can at least reinstate their\ngeneral outline with tolerable accuracy.\n\nWhile the Egyptian temple was spread superficially over a large area,\nthe Chal\u00e6an temple strove to attain as high an elevation as possible.\nThe \"ziggurats,\" whose angular profile is a special characteristic of\nthe landscapes of the Euphrates, were composed of several immense cubes,\npiled up on one another, and diminishing in size up to the small shrine\nby which they were crowned and wherein the god himself was supposed to\ndwell. There are two principal types of these ziggurats. In the first,\nfor which the builders of Lower Chald\u00e6a showed a marked preference,\nthe vertical axis, common to all the superimposed stories, did not pass\nthrough the centre of the rectangle which served as the base of the\nwhole building; it was carried back and placed near to one of the narrow\nends of the base, so that the back elevation of the temple rose abruptly\nin steep narrow ledges above the plain, while the terraces of the front\nbroadened out into wide platforms. The stories are composed of solid\nblocks of crude brick; up to the present, at least, no traces of\ninternal chambers have been found.* The chapel on the summit could not\ncontain more than one apartment: an altar stood before the door, and\naccess to it was obtained by a straight external staircase, interrupted\nat each terrace by a more or less spacious landing.** The second type\nof temple frequently found in Northern Chald\u00e6a was represented by a\nbuilding on a square base with seven stories, all of equal height,\nconnected by one or two lateral staircases, having on the summit, the\npavilion of the god; this is the \"terraced tower\" which excited the\nadmiration of the Greeks at Babylon, and of which the temple of Bel was\nthe most remarkable example. The ruins of it still exist, but it has\nbeen so frequently and so completely restored in the course of ages,\nthat it is impossible to say how much now remains of the original\nconstruction. We know of several examples, however, of the other type\nof ziggurat--one at Uru, another at Bridu, a third at Uruk, without\nmentioning those which have not as yet been methodically explored. None\nof them rises directly from the surface of the ground, but they are all\nbuilt on a raised platform, which consequently places the foundations of\nthe temple nearly on a level with the roofs of the surrounding houses.\nThe raised platform of the temple of Nannar at Uru still measures 20\nfeet in height, and its four angles are orientated exactly to the four\ncardinal points. Its fa\u00e7ade was approached by an inclined plane, or by\na flight of low steps, and the summit, which was surrounded by a low\nbalustrade, was paved with enormous burnt bricks. On this terrace,\nprocessions at solemn festivals would have ample space to perform their\nevolutions. The lower story of the temple occupies a parallelogram of\n198 feet in length by 173 feet in width, and rises about 27 feet in\nheight.\n\n     * Perrot-Ohipiez admit that between the first and second\n     story there was a sort of plinth seven feet in height which\n     corresponded to the foundation platform below the first\n     story. It appears to me, as it did to Loftus, that the slope\n     which now separates the two vertical masses of brickwork \"is\n     accidental, and owes its existence to the destruction of the\n     upper portion of the second story.\" Taylor mentions only two\n     stories, and evidently considers the slope in question to be\n     a bank of rubbish.\n\n     ** Perrot-Chipiez place the staircase leading from the\n     ground-level to the terrace inside the building--\"an\n     arrangement which would have the advantage of not\n     interfering with the outline of this immense platform, and\n     would not detract from the strength and solidity of its\n     appearance;\" Reber proposes a different combination. At Uru,\n     the whole staircase projects in front of the platform and\n     \"loads up to the edge of the basement of the second story,\"\n     then continues as an inclined plane from the edge of the\n     first story to the terrace of the second, forming one single\n     staircase, perhaps of the same width as this second story,\n     leading from the base to the summit of the building.\n\n[Illustration: 134.jpg THE TEMPLE OF NANNAR AT URU, APPROXIMATELY\nRESTORED.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin. The restoration differs from that\n     proposed by Perrot-Chipiez. I have made it by working out\n     the description taken down on the spot by Taylor.\n\nThe central mass of crude brick has preserved its casing of red tiles,\ncemented with bitumen, almost intact up to the top; it is\nstrengthened by buttresses--nine on the longer and six on the shorter\nsides--projecting about a foot, which relieve its rather bare surface.\nThe second story rises to the height of only 20 feet above, the first,\nand when intact could not have been more than 26 to 30 feet high.* Many\nbricks bearing the stamp of Dungi are found among the materials used in\nthe latest restoration, which took place about the VIth century before\nour era; they have a smooth surface, are broken here and there by\nair-holes, and their very simplicity seems to bear witness to the fact\nthat Nabonidos confined himself to the task of merely restoring things\nto the state in which the earlier kings of Uru had left them.**\n\n[Illustration: 135.jpg THE TEMPLE OF URU IN ITS PRESENT STATE, ACCORDING\nTO TAYLOR]\n\n     Facsimile, by Faucher-Gudin, of the drawing published by\n     Taylor.\n\n\n     * At the present time 14 feet high, plus 5 feet of rubbish,\n     119 feet long, 75 feet wide (Loftus, _Travels and Researches\n     in Olialdsea and Susiana_, p. 129).\n\n     ** The cylinders of Nabonidos describing the restoration of\n     the temple were found at the four angles of the second story\n     by Taylor.\n\nTill within the last century, traces of a third story to this temple\nmight have been distinguished; unlike the lower ones, it was not of\nsolid brickwork, but contained at least one chamber: this was the Holy\nof Holies, the sanctuary of Nannar. The external walls were covered with\npale blue enamelled tiles, having a polished surface. The interior\nwas panelled with cedar or cypress--rare woods procured as articles\nof commerce from the peoples of the North and West; this woodwork was\ninlaid in parts with thin leaves of gold, alternating with panels of\nmosaics composed of small pieces of white marble, alabaster, onyx, and\nagate, cut and polished.\n\n[Illustration: 136.jpg FURTHER VIEW OF THE TEMPLE OF URU]\n\n     In Its Present State, According To Loftus. Drawn by\n     Bouchier, from Loftus.\n\nHere stood the statue of Nannar, one of those stiff and conventionalized\nfigures in the traditional pose handed down from generation to\ngeneration, and which lingered even in the Chald\u00e6an statues of Greek\ntimes. The spirit of the god dwelt within it in the same way as the\ndouble resided in the Egyptian idols, and from thence he watched over\nthe restless movements of the people below, the noise of whose turmoil\nscarcely reached him at that elevation. The gods of the Euphrates, like\nthose of the Nile, constituted a countless multitude of visible and\ninvisible beings, distributed into tribes and empires throughout all the\nregions of the universe. A particular function or occupation formed,\nso to speak, the principality of each one, in which he worked with an\nindefatigable zeal, under the orders of his respective prince or king;\nbut, whereas in Egypt they were on the whole friendly to man, or at the\nbest indifferent in regard to him, in Chald\u00e6a they for the most part\npursued him with an implacable hatred, and only seemed to exist in order\nto destroy him. These monsters of alarming aspect, armed with knives and\nlances, whom the theologians of Heliopolis and Thebes confined within\nthe caverns of Hades in the depths of eternal darkness, were believed\nby the Chald\u00e6ans to be let loose in broad daylight over the earth,--such\nwere the \"gallu\" and the \"mas-kim,\" the \"\u00e2lu\" and the \"utukku,\" besides\na score of other demoniacal tribes bearing curious and mysterious names.\n\n[Illustration: 137.jpg Lion-headed genius.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a small terra-cotta figure of\n     the Assyrian period, and now in the Louvre. It was one of\n     the figures buried under the threshold of one of the gates\n     of the town at Khorsabad, to keep off baleful influences.\n\nSome floated in the air and presided over the unhealthy winds. The\nSouth-West Wind, the most cruel of them all, stalked over the solitudes\nof Arabia, whence he suddenly issued during the most oppressive months\nof the year: he collected round him as he passed the malarial vapours\ngiven off by the marshes under the heat of the sun, and he spread them\nover the country, striking down in his violence not only man and beast,\nbut destroying harvests, pasturage, and even trees.\n\n[Illustration: 138.jpg THE SOUTH-WEST WIND]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the bronze original now in the\n     Louvre. The latter museum and the British Museum possess\n     several other figures of the same demon.\n\nThe genii of fevers and madness crept in silently everywhere, insidious\nand traitorous as they were. The plague alternately slumbered or made\nfurious onslaughts among crowded populations. Imps haunted the houses,\ngoblins wandered about the water's edge, ghouls lay in wait for\ntravellers in unfrequented places, and the dead quitting their tombs in\nthe night stole stealthily among the living to satiate themselves with\ntheir blood. The material shapes attributed to these murderous beings\nwere supposed to convey to the eye their perverse and ferocious\ncharacters. They were represented as composite creatures in whom the\nbody of a man would be joined grotesquely to the limbs of animals in the\nmost unexpected combinations. They worked in as best they could, birds'\nclaws, fishes' scales, a bull's tail, several pairs of wings, the head\nof a lion, vulture, hyaena, or wolf; when they left the creature a human\nhead, they made it as hideous and distorted as possible. The South-West\nWind was distinguished from all the rest by the multiplicity of the\nincongruous elements of which his person was composed. His dog-like body\nwas supported upon two legs terminating in eagle's claws; in addition to\nhis arms, which were furnished with sharp talons, he had four outspread\nwings, two of which fell behind him, while the other two rose up and\nsurrounded his head; he had a scorpion's tail, a human face with large\ngoggle-eyes, bushy eyebrows, fleshless cheeks, and retreating lips,\nshowing a formidable row of threatening teeth, while from his flattened\nskull protruded the horns of a goat: the entire combination was so\nhideous, that it even alarmed the god and put him to flight, when he was\nunexpectedly confronted with his own portrait. There was no lack of\ngood genii to combat this deformed and vicious band. They too\nwere represented as monsters, but monsters of a fine and noble\nbearing,--griffins, winged lions, lion-headed men, and more especially\nthose splendid human-headed bulls, those \"lamassi\" crowned with mitres,\nwhose gigantic statues kept watch before the palace and temple gates.\nBetween these two races hostility was constantly displayed: restrained\nat one point, it broke out afresh at another, and the evil genii,\ninvariably beaten, as invariably refused to accept their defeat. Man,\nless securely armed against them than were the gods, was ever meeting\nwith them. \"Up there, they are howling, here they lie in wait,--they are\ngreat worms let loose by heaven--powerful ones whose clamour rises above\nthe city--who pour water in torrents from heaven, sons who have come\nout of the bosom of the earth.--They twine around the high rafters,\nthe great rafters, like a crown;--they take their way from house to\nhouse,--for the door cannot stop them, nor bar the way, nor repulse\nthem,--for they creep like a serpent under the door--they insinuate\nthemselves like the air between the folding doors,--they separate the\nbride from the embraces of the bridegroom,--they snatch the child from\nbetween the knees of the man,--they entice the unwary from out of his\nfruitful house,--they are the threatening voice which pursues him from\nbehind.\" Their malice extended even to animals: \"They force the raven\nto fly away on the wing,--and they make the swallow to escape from its\nnest;--they cause the bull to flee, they cause the lamb to flee--they,\nthe bad demons who lay snares.\"\n\nThe most audacious among them did not fear at times to attack the gods\nof light; on one occasion, in the infancy of the world, they had sought\nto dispossess them and reign in their stead. Without any warning they\nhad climbed the heavens, and fallen upon Sin, the moon-god; they had\nrepulsed Shamash, the Sun, and Eamman, both of whom had come to the\nrescue; they had driven Ishtar and Anu from their thrones: the whole\nfirmament would have become a prey to them, had not Bel and Nusku, Ea\nand Merodach, intervened at the eleventh hour, and succeeded in hurling\nthem down to the earth, after a terrible battle. They never completely\nrecovered from this reverse, and the gods raised up as rivals to them a\nclass of friendly genii--the \"Igigi,\" who were governed by five heavenly\nAnunnas.\n\n[Illustration: 141.jpg SIN DELIVERED BY MERODACH FROM THE ASSAULT OF THE\nSEVEN EVIL SPIRITS.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an Assyrian intaglio published\n     by Layard.\n\nThe earthly Anunnas, the Anunnaki, had as their chiefs seven sons\nof Bel, with bodies of lions, tigers, and serpents: \"the sixth was a\ntempestuous wind which obeyed neither god nor king,--the seventh, a\nwhirlwind, a desolating storm which destroys everything,\"--\"Seven,\nseven,--in the depth of the abyss of waters they are seven,--and\ndestroyers of heaven they are seven.--They have grown up in the depths\nof the abyss, in the palace;--males they are not, females they are\nnot,--they are storms which pass quickly.--They take no wife, they give\nbirth to no child,--they know neither compassion nor kindness,--they\nlisten to no prayer nor supplication.--As wild horses they are born in\nthe mountains,--they are the enemies of Ba,--they are the agents of the\ngods;--they are evil, they are evil--and they are seven, they are seven,\nthey are twice seven.\" Man, if reduced to his own resources, could have\nno chance of success in struggling against beings who had almost reduced\nthe gods to submission. He invoked in his defence the help of the whole\nuniverse, the spirits of heaven and earth, the spirit of Bel and of\nBelit, that of Ninib and of Nebo, those of Sin, of Ishtar, and of\nBamman; but Gibir or Gibil, the Lord of Fire, was the most powerful\nauxiliary in this incessant warfare. The offspring of night and of dark\nwaters, the Anunnaki had no greater enemy than fire; whether kindled\non the household hearth or upon the altars, its appearance put them to\nflight and dispelled their power.\n\n[Illustration: 142.jpg STRUGGLE BETWEEN A GOOD AND AN EVIL GENIUS.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard.\n\n\"Gibil, renowned hero in the land,--valiant, son of the Abyss, exalted\nin the land,--Gibil, thy clear flame, breaking forth,--when it lightens\nup the darkness,--assigns to all that bears a name its own destiny.\n--The copper and tin, it is thou who dost mix them,--gold and silver,\nit is thou who meltest them,--thou art the companion of the goddess\nNinkasi--thou art he who exposes his breast to the nightly enemy!--Cause\nthen the limbs of man, son of his god, to shine,--make him to be bright\nlike the sky,--may he shine like the earth,--may he be bright like the\ninterior of the heavens,--may the evil word be kept far from him,\" and\nwith it the malignant spirits. The very insistence with which help is\nclaimed against the Anunnaki shows how much their power was dreaded.\nThe Chaldean felt them everywhere about him, and could not move without\nincurring the danger of coming into contact with them. He did not fear\nthem so much during the day, as the presence of the luminary deities in\nthe heavens reassured him; but the night belonged to them, and he was\nopen to their attacks. If he lingered in the country at dusk, they were\nthere, under the hedges, behind walls and trunks of trees, ready to\nrush out upon him at every turn. If he ventured after sundown into the\nstreets of his village or town, he again met with them quarrelling with\ndogs over the offal on a rubbish heap, crouched in the shelter of a\ndoorway, lying hidden in corners where the shadows were darkest. Even\nwhen barricaded within his house, under the immediate protection of\nhis domestic idols, these genii still threatened him and left him not a\nmoment's repose.* The number of them was so great that he was unable to\nprotect himself adequately from all of them: when he had disarmed the\ngreater portion of them, there were always several remaining against\nwhom he had forgotten to take necessary precautions. What must have\nbeen the total of the subordinate genii, when, towards the IXth century\nbefore our era, the official census of the invisible beings stated\nthe number of the great gods in heaven and earth to be sixty-five\nthousand!**\n\n     * The presence of the evil spirits everywhere is shown,\n     among other magical formulas, by the incantation in\n     Rawlinson, _Cun, Ins. W. As._, vol. ii. pi. 18, where we\n     find enumerated at length the places from which they are to\n     be kept out. The magician closes the house to them, the\n     hedge which surrounds the house, the yoke laid upon the\n     oxen, the tomb, the prison, the well, the furnace, the\n     shade, the vase for libation, the ravines, the valleys, the\n     mountains, the door.\n\n     ** Assurnazirpal, King of Assyria, speaks in one of his\n     inscriptions of these sixty-five thousand great gods of\n     heaven and earth.\n\nWe are often much puzzled to say what these various divinities, whose\nnames we decipher on the monuments, could possibly have represented. The\nsovereigns of Lagash addressed their prayers to Ningirsu, the valiant\nchampion of Inlil; to Ninursag, the lady of the terrestrial mountain:\nto Ninsia, the lord of fate; to the King Ninagal; to Inzu, of whose real\nname no one has an idea; to Inanna, the queen of battles; to Pasag, to\nGalalim, to Dunshagana, to Ninmar, to Ningishzida. Gudea raised temples\nto them in all the cities over which his authority extended, and he\ndevoted to these pious foundations a yearly income out of his domain\nland or from the spoils of his wars. \"Gudea, the 'vicegerent' of\nLagash, after having built the temple Ininnu for Ningirsu, constructed a\ntreasury; a house decorated with sculptures, such as no 'vicegerent'\nhad ever before constructed for Ningirsu; he constructed it for him,\nhe wrote his name in it, he made in it all that was needful, and he\nexecuted faithfully all the words from the mouth of Ningirsu.\" The\ndedication of these edifices was accompanied with solemn festivals, in\nwhich the whole population took an active part. \"During seven years no\ngrain was ground, and the maidservant was the equal of her mistress, the\nslave walked beside his master, and in my town the weak rested by\nthe side of the strong.\" Henceforward Gudea watched scrupulously lest\nanything impure should enter and mar the sanctity of the place.\n\n[Illustration: 145.jpg THE GOD NINGIBSU, PATRON OF LAGASH.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Heuzey-Sarzec. The attribution\n     of this figure to Ningirsu is very probable, but not wholly\n     certain.\n\nThose we have enumerated were the ancient Sumerian divinities, but the\ncharacteristics of most of them would have been lost to us, had we\nnot learned, by means of other documents, to what gods the Semites\nassimilated them, gods who are better known and who are represented\nunder a less barbarous aspect. Ningirsu, the lord of the division of\nLagash which was called Girsu, was identified with Ninib; Inlil is Bel,\nNinursag is Beltis, Inzu is Sin, Inanna is Ishtar, and so on with the\nrest. The cultus of each, too, was not a local cultus, confined to some\nobscure corner of the country; they all were rulers over the whole of\nChald\u00e6a, in the north as in the south, at Uruk, at Urn, at Larsam, at\nNipur, even in Babylon itself. Inlil was the ruler of the earth and of\nHades, Babbar was the sun, Inzu the moon, Inanna-Antmit the morning and\nevening star and the goddess or love, at a time when two distinct\nreligious and two rival groups of gods existed side by side on the banks\nof the Euphrates. The Sumerian language is for us, at the present day,\nbut a collection of strange names, of whose meaning and pronunciation we\nare often ignorant. We may well ask what beings and beliefs were\noriginally hidden under these barbaric combinations of syllables which\nare constantly recurring in the inscriptions of the oldest dynasties,\nsuch as Pasag, Dunshagana, Dumuzi-. Zuaba, and a score of others. The\npriests of subsequent times claimed to define exactly the attributes of\neach of them, and probably their statements are, in the main, correct.\nBut it is impossible for us to gauge the motives which determined the\nassimilation of some of these divinities, the fashion in which it was\ncarried out, the mutual concessions which Semite and Sumerian must have\nmade before they could arrive at an understanding, and before the\nprimitive characteristics of each deity were softened down or entirely\neffaced in the process. Many of these divine personages, such as Ea,\nMerodach, Ishtar, are so completely transformed, that we may well ask to\nwhich of the two peoples they owed their origin. The Semites finally\ngained the ascendency over their rivals, and the Sumerian gods from\nthenceforward preserved an independent existence only in connection with\nmagic, divination, and the science of foretelling events, and also in\nthe formulas of exorcists and physicians, to which the harshness of\ntheir names lent a greater weight. Elsewhere it was Bel and Sin, Shamash\nand Eamman, who were universally worshipped, but a Bel, a Sin, a\nShamash, who still betrayed traces of their former connection with the\nSumerian Inlil and Inzu, with Babbar and Mermer. In whatever language,\nhowever, they were addressed, by whatever name they were called upon,\nthey did not fail to hear and grant a favourable reply to the appeals of\nthe faithful.\n\nWhether Sumerian or Semitic, the gods, like those of Egypt, were not\nabstract personages, guiding in a metaphysical fashion the forces of\nnature. Each of them contained in himself one of the principal elements\nof which our universe is composed,--earth, water, sky, sun, moon, and\nthe stars which moved around the terrestrial mountain. The succession of\nnatural phenomena with them was not the result of unalterable laws; it\nwas due entirely to a series of voluntary acts, accomplished by beings\nof different grades of intelligence and power. Every part of the great\nwhole is represented by a god, a god who is a man, a Chald\u00e6an, who,\nalthough of a finer and more lasting nature than other Chald\u00e6ans,\npossesses nevertheless the same instincts and is swayed by the same\npassions. He is, as a rule, wanting in that somewhat lithe grace of\nform, and in that rather easy-going good-nature, which were the primary\ncharacteristics of the Egyptian gods: the Chald\u00e6an divinity has the\nbroad shoulders, the thick-set figure and projecting muscles of the\npeople over whom he rules; he has their hasty and violent temperament,\ntheir coarse sensuality, their cruel and warlike propensities, their\nboldness in conceiving undertakings, and their obstinate tenacity in\ncarrying them out. Their goddesses are modelled on the tyra of the\nChald\u00e6n women, or, more properly speaking, on that of their queens. The\nmajority of them do not quit the harem, and have no other ambition than\nto become speedily the mother of a numerous offspring. Those who openly\nreject the rigid constraints of such a life, and who seek to share the\nrank of the gods, seem to lose all self-restraint when they put off\nthe veil: like Ishtar, they exchange a life of severe chastity for\nthe lowest debauchery, and they subject their followers to the same\nirregular life which they themselves have led. \"Every woman born in the\ncountry must enter once during her lifetime the enclosure of the temple\nof Aphrodite, must there sit down and unite herself to a stranger. Many\nwho are wealthy are too proud to mix with the rest, and repair thither\nin closed chariots, followed by a considerable train of slaves. The\ngreater number seat themselves on the sacred pavement, with a cord\ntwisted about their heads,--and there is always a great crowd there,\ncoming and going; the women being divided by ropes into long lanes, down\nwhich strangers pass to make their choice. A woman who has once taken\nher place here cannot return home until a stranger has thrown into her\nlap a silver coin, and has led her away with him beyond the limits of\nthe sacred enclosure. As he throws the money he pronounces these words:\n'May the goddess Mylitta make thee happy! '--Now, among the Assyrians,\nAphrodite is called Mylitta. The silver coin may be of any value, but\nnone may refuse it, that is forbidden by the law, for, once thrown, it\nis sacred. The woman follows the first man who throws her the money, and\nrepels no one. When once she has accompanied him, and has thus satisfied\nthe goddess, she returns to her home, and from thenceforth, however\nlarge the sum offered to her, she will yield to no one. The women who\nare tall or beautiful soon return to their homes, but those who are ugly\nremain a long time before they are able to comply with the law; some\nof them are obliged to wait three or four years within the enclosure.\"*\nThis custom still existed in the Vth century before our era, and the\nGreeks who visited Babylon about that time found it still in full force.\n\n     * Herodotus, i. 199: of. Stabo, xvi. p. 1058, who probably\n     has merely quoted this passage from Herodotus, or some\n     writer who copied from Herodotus. We meet with a direct\n     allusion to this same custom in the Bible, in the _Book of\n     Barueh_; \"The women also, with cords about them, sitting in\n     the ways, burn bran for perfume; but if any of them, drawn\n     by some that passeth by, lie with him, she reproacheth her\n     fellow, that she was not thought as worthy as herself, nor\n     her cord broken.\"\n\nThe gods, who had begun by being the actual material of the element\nwhich was their attribute, became successively the spirit of it, then\nits ruler.* They continued at first to reside in it, but in the course\nof time they were separated from it, and each was allowed to enter the\ndomain of another, dwell in it, and even command it, as they could\nhave done in their own, till finally the greater number of them were\nidentified with the firmament.\n\n     * Pk. Lbnoemant, _La Magie chez les Chald\u00e9ens_, p. 144, et\n     seq., where the author shows how Anu, after having at\n     first been the Heaven itself, the starry vault stretched\n     above the earth, became successively the Spirit of Heaven\n     (_Zi-ana_), and finally the supreme ruler of the world:\n     according to Lenormant, it was the Semites in particular who\n     transformed the primitive spirit into an actual god-king.\n\nBel, the lord of the earth, and Ea, the ruler of the waters, passed info\nthe heavens, which did not belong to them, and took their places beside\nAmi: the pathways were pointed out which they had made for themselves\nacross the celestial vault, in order to inspect their kingdoms from the\nexalted heights to which they had been raised; that of Bel was in the\nTropic of Cancer, that of Ea in the Tropic of Capricorn. They gathered\naround them all the divinities who could easily be abstracted from the\nfunction or object to which they were united, and they thus constituted\na kind of divine aristocracy, comprising all the most powerful\nbeings who guided the fortunes of the world. The number of them was\nconsiderable, for they reckoned seven supreme and magnificent gods,\nfifty great gods of heaven and earth, three hundred celestial\nspirits, and six hundred terrestrial spirits. Each of them deputed\nrepresentatives here below, who received the homage of mankind for him,\nand signified to them his will. The god revealed himself in dreams to\nhis seers and imparted to them the course of coming events,* or, in\nsome cases, inspired them suddenly and spoke by their mouth: their\nutterances, taken down and commented on by their assistants, were\nregarded as infallible oracles. But the number of mortal men possessing\nadequate powers, and gifted with sufficiently acute senses to bear\nwithout danger the near presence of a god, was necessarily limited;\ncommunications were, therefore, more often established by means of\nvarious objects, whose grosser substance lessened for human intelligence\nand flesh and blood the dangers of direct contact with an immortal. The\nstatues hidden in the recesses of the temples or erected on the summits\nof the \"ziggurats\" became imbued, by virtue of their consecration, with\nthe actual body of the god whom they represented, and whose name was\nwritten either on the base or garment of the statue.** The sovereign\nwho dedicated them, summoned them to speak in the days to come, and from\nthenceforth they spoke: when they were interrogated according to the\nrite instituted specially for each one, that part of the celestial soul,\nwhich by means of the prayers had been attracted to and held captive\nby the statue, could not refuse to reply.** Were there for this purpose\nspecial images, as in Egypt, which were cleverly contrived so as to\nemit sounds by the pulling of a string by the hidden prophet? Voices\nresounded at night in the darkness of the sanctuaries, and particularly\nwhen a king came there to prostrate himself for the purpose of learning\nthe future: his rank alone, which raised him halfway to heaven, prepared\nhim to receive the word from on high by the mouth of the image.\n\n     * A prophetic dream is mentioned upon, one of the statues of\n     Telloh. In the records of Assurbanipal we find mention of\n     several \"seers\"--_shabru_--one of whom predicts the\n     general triumph of the king over his enemies, and of whom\n     another announces in the name of Ishtar the victory over the\n     Elamites and encourages the Assyrian army to cross a torrent\n     swollen by rains, while a third sees in a dream the defeat\n     and death of the King of Elam. These \"seers\" are mentioned in\n     the texts of Gudea with the prophetesses \"who tell the\n     message\" of the gods.\n\n     ** In a formula drawn up against evil spirits, for the\n     purpose of making talismanic figures for the protection of\n     houses, it is said of Merodach that he \"inhabits the image\"\n     --_ashibu salam_--which has been made of him by the magician.\n\n     ** This is what Gudea says, when, describing his own statue\n     which he had placed in the temple of Telloh, he adds that\n     \"he gave the order to the statue: 'To the statue of my king,\n     speak!'\" The statue of the king, inspired by that of the\n     god, would thenceforth speak when interrogated according to\n     the formularies. Cf. what is said of the divine or royal\n     statues dedicated in the temples of Egypt, vol. i. pp. 169,\n     170. A number of oracles regularly obtained in the time of\n     Asarhaddon and Assurbanabal have been published by Knudtzon.\n\n[Illustration: 152.jpg THE ADORATION OF THE MACE AND THE WHIP.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the Chald\u00e6an intaglio\n     reproduced in Heuzey-Sarzec, _D\u00e9couvertes en Chald\u00e9e_, pl.\n     30bis, No. 13b.\n\nMore frequently a priest, accustomed from childhood to the office,\npossessed the privilege of asking the desired questions and of\ninterpreting to the faithful the various signs by means of which the\ndivine will was made known. The spirit of the god inspired, moreover,\nwhatever seemed good to him, and frequently entered into objects\nwhere we should least have expected to find it. It animated stones,\nparticularly such as fell from heaven; also trees, as, for example, the\ntree of Eridu which pronounced oracles; and, besides the battle-mace,\nwith a granite head fixed on a wooden handle, the axe of Ramman, lances\nmade on the model of Gilgames' fairy javelin, which came and went at its\nmaster's orders, without needing to be touched. Such objects, when it\nwas once ascertained that they were imbued with the divine spirit, were\nplaced upon the altar and worshipped with as much veneration as were the\nstatues themselves.\n\n[Illustration: 153.jpg A protecting amulet.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the terra-cotta figurine of\n     Assyrian date now in the Louvre.\n\nAnimals never became objects of habitual worship as in Egypt: some of\nthem, however, such as the bull and lion, were closely allied to the\ngods, and birds unconsciously betrayed by their flight or cries the\nsecrets of futurity.* In addition to all these, each family possessed\nits household gods, to whom its members recited prayers and poured\nlibations night and morning, and whose statues set up over the domestic\nhearth defended it from the snares of the evil ones.** The State\nreligion, which all the inhabitants of the same city, from the king down\nto the lowest slave, were solemnly bound to observe, really represented\nto the Chald\u00e6ans but a tithe of their religious life: it included some\ndozen gods, no doubt the most important, but it more or less left out of\naccount all the others, whose anger, if aroused by neglect, might become\ndangerous. The private devotion of individuals supplemented the State\nreligion by furnishing worshippers for most of the neglected divinities,\nand thus compensated for what was lacking in the official public worship\nof the community.\n\n     * Animal forms are almost always restricted either to the\n     genii, the constellations, or the secondary forms of the\n     greater divinities: Ea, however, is represented by a man\n     with a fish's tail, or as a man clothed with a fish-skin,\n     which would appear to indicate that at the outset he was\n     considered to be an actual fish.\n\n     ** The images of these gods acted as amulets, and the fact\n     of their presence alone repelled the evil spirits. At\n     Khorsabad they were found buried under the threshold of the\n     city gates. A bilingual tablet in the British Museum has\n     preserved for us the formula of consecration which was\n     supposed to invest these protecting statuettes with divine\n     powers.\n\nIf the idea of uniting all these divine beings into a single supreme\none, who would combine within himself all their elements and the whole\nof their powers, ever for a moment crossed the mind of some Chald\u00e6an\ntheologian, it never spread to the people as a whole. Among all the\nthousands of tablets or inscribed stones on which we find recorded\nprayers and magical formulas, we have as yet discovered no document\ntreating of the existence of a supreme god, or even containing the\nfaintest allusion to a divine unity. We meet indeed with many passages\nin which this or that divinity boasts of his power, eloquently\ndepreciating that of his rivals, and ending his discourse with the\ninjunction to worship him alone: \"Man who shall come after, trust\nin Nebo, trust in no other god!\" The very expressions which are used,\ncommanding future races to abandon the rest of the immortals in\nfavour of Nebo, prove that even those who prided themselves on being\nworshippers of one god realized how far they were from believing in the\nunity of God. They strenuously asserted that the idol of their choice\nwas far superior to many others, but it never occurred to them to\nproclaim that he had absorbed them all into himself, and that he\nremained alone in his glory, contemplating the world, his creature. Side\nby side with those who expressed this belief in Nebo, an inhabitant\nof Babylon would say as much and more of Merodach, the patron of\nhis birthplace, without, however, ceasing to believe in the actual\nindependence and royalty of Nebo. \"When thy power manifests itself, who\ncan withdraw himself from it?--Thy word is a powerful net which thou\nspreadest in heaven and over the earth:--it falls upon the sea, and\nthe sea retires,--it falls upon the plain, and the fields make great\nmourning,--it falls upon the upper waters of the Euphrates, and the word\nof Merodach stirs up the flood in them.--O Lord, thou art sovereign,\nwho can resist thee?--Merodach, among the gods who bear a name, thou art\nsovereign.\" Merodach is for his worshippers the king of the gods, he is\nnot the sole god. Each of the chief divinities received in a similar\nmanner the assurance of his omnipotence, but, for all that, his most\nzealous followers never regarded them as the only God, beside whom there\nwas none other, and whose existence and rule precluded those of any\nother. The simultaneous elevation of certain divinities to the supreme\nrank had a reactionary influence on the ideas held with regard to the\nnature of each. Anu, Bel, and Ea, not to mention others, had enjoyed\nat the outset but a limited and incomplete personality, confined to a\nsingle concept, and were regarded as possessing only such attributes as\nwere indispensable to the exercise of their power within a prescribed\nsphere, whether in heaven, or on the earth, or in the waters; as each in\nhis turn gained the ascendency over his rivals, he became invested with\nthe qualities which were exercised by the others in their own domain.\nHis personality became enlarged, and instead of remaining merely a\ngod of heaven or earth or of the waters, he became god of all three\nsimultaneously. Anu reigned in the province of Bel or of Ea as he ruled\nin his own; Bel joined to his own authority that of Anu and Ea; Ea\ntreated Anu and Bel with the same absence of ceremony which they had\nshown to him, and added their supremacy to his own. The personality\nof each god was thenceforward composed of many divers elements: each\npreserved a nucleus of his original being, but superadded to this were\nthe peculiar characteristics of all the gods above whom he had been\nsuccessively raised. Anu took to himself somewhat of the temperaments\nof Bel and of Ea, and the latter in exchange borrowed from him\nmany personal traits. The same work of levelling which altered the\ncharacteristics of the Egyptian divinities, and transformed them\nlittle by little into local variants of Osiris and the Sun, went on as\nvigorously among the Chald\u00e6an gods: those who were incarnations of\nthe earth, the waters, the stars, or the heavens, became thenceforth\nso nearly allied to each other that we are tempted to consider them\nas being doubles of a single god, worshipped under different names\nin different localities. Their primitive forms can only be clearly\ndistinguished when they are stripped of the uniform in which they are\nall clothed.\n\nThe sky-gods and the earth-gods had been more numerous at the outset\nthan they were subsequently. We recognize as such Anu, the immovable\nfirmament, and the ancient Bel, the lord of men and of the soil on which\nthey live, and into whose bosom they return after, death; but there\nwere others, who in historic times had partially or entirely lost their\nprimitive character,--such as Nergal, Ninib, Dumuzi; or, among the\ngoddesses, Damkina, Esharra, and even Ishtar herself, who, at the\nbeginning of their existence, had represented only the earth, or one\nof its most striking aspects. For instance, Nergal and Ninib were the\npatrons of agriculture and protectors of the soil, Dumuzi was the\nground in spring whose garment withered at the first approach of summer,\nDamkina was the leafy mould in union with fertilizing moisture, Esharra\nwas the field whence sprang the crops, Ishtar was the clod which again\ngrew green after the heat of the dog days and the winter frosts. All\nthese beings had been forced to submit in a greater or less degree to\nthe fate which among most primitive races awaits those older earth-gods,\nwhose manifestations are usually too vague and shadowy to admit of their\nbeing grasped or represented by any precise imagery without limiting and\ncurtailing their spheres. New deities had arisen of a more definite and\ntangible kind, and hence more easily understood, and having a real or\nsupposed province which could be more easily realized, such as the sun,\nthe moon, and the fixed or wandering stars. The moon is the measure of\ntime; it determines the months, leads the course of the years, and the\nentire life of mankind and of great cities depends upon the regularity\nof its movements: the Chald\u00e6ans, therefore, made it, or rather the\nspirit which animated it, the father and king of the gods; but\nits suzerainty was everywhere a conventional rather than an actual\nsuperiority, and the sun, which in theory was its vassal, attracted more\nworshippers than the pale and frigid luminary. Some adored the sun under\nits ordinary title of Shamash, corresponding to the Egyptian R\u00e2; others\ndesignated it as Merodach, Ninib, Nergal, Dumuzi, not to mention other\nless usual appellations. Nergal in the beginning had nothing in common\nwith Ninib, and Merodach differed alike from Shamash, Ninib, Nergal,\nand Dumuzi; but the same movement which instigated the fusion of so many\nEgyptian divinities of diverse nature, led the gods of the Chald\u00e6ans to\ndivest themselves little by little of their individuality and to lose\nthemselves in the sun. Each one at first became a complete sun, and\nunited in himself all the innate virtues of the sun--its brilliancy\nand its dominion over the world, its gentle and beneficent heat, its\nfertilizing warmth, its goodness and justice, its emblematic character\nof truth and peace; besides the incontestable vices which darken certain\nphases of its being--the fierceness of its rays at midday and in summer,\nthe inexorable strength of its will, its combative temperament, its\nirresistible harshness and cruelty. By degrees they lost this uniform\ncharacter, and distributed the various attributes among themselves. If\nShamash continued to be the sun in general, Ninib restricted himself,\nafter the example of the Egyptian Harmakhis, to being merely the rising\nand setting sun, the sun on the two horizons. Nergal became the feverish\nand destructive summer sun.* Merodach was transformed into the youthful\nsun of spring and early morning;** Dumuzi, like Merodach, became the sun\nbefore the summer. Their moral qualities naturally were affected by the\nprocess of restriction which had been applied to their physical being,\nand the external aspect now assigned to each in accordance with their\nseveral functions differed considerably from that formerly attributed\nto the unique type from which they had sprung. Ninib was represented as\nvaliant, bold, and combative; he was a soldier who dreamed but of\nbattle and great feats of arms. Nergal united a crafty fierceness to\nhis bravery: not content with being lord of battles, he became the\npestilence which breaks out unexpectedly in a country, the death which\ncomes like a thief, and carries off his prey before there is time\nto take up arms against him. Merodach united wisdom with courage and\nstrength: he attacked the wicked, protected the good, and used his power\nin the cause of order and justice. A very ancient legend, which was\nsubsequently fully developed among the Canaanites, related the story of\nthe unhappy passion of Ishtar for Dumuzi. The goddess broke out yearly\ninto a fresh frenzy, but the tragic death of the hero finally moderated\nthe ardour of her devotion. She wept distractedly for him, went to beg\nthe lords of the infernal regions for his return, and brought him back\ntriumphantly to the earth: every year there was a repetition of the same\npassionate infatuation, suddenly interrupted by the same mourning. The\nearth was united to the young sun with every recurring spring, and under\nthe influence of his caresses became covered with verdure; then followed\nautumn and winter, and the sun, grown old, sank into the tomb, from\nwhence his mistress had to call him up, in order to plunge afresh with\nhim by a common impulse into the joys and sorrows of another year.\n\n     * The solar character of Nergal, at least in later times, is\n     admitted, but with restrictions, by all Assyriologists. The\n     evident connection between him and Ninib, of which we have\n     proofs, was the ground of Delitzsch's theory that he was\n     likewise the burning and destructive sun, and also of\n     Jensen's analogous concept of a midday and summer sun.\n\n     ** Pr. Lenormant seems to have been the first to distinguish\n     in Merodach, besides the god of the planet Jupiter, a solar\n     personage. This notion, which has been generally admitted by\n     most Assyriologists, has been defined with greater\n     exactitude by Jensen, who is inclined to see in Merodach\n     both the morning sun and the spring sun; and this is the\n     opinion held at present.\n\nThe differences between the gods were all the more accentuated, for the\nreason that many who had a common origin were often separated from one\nanother by, relatively speaking, considerable distances. Having divided\nthe earth's surface between them, they formed, as in Egypt, a complete\nfeudal system, whose chiefs severally took up their residence in a\nparticular city. Anu was worshipped in Uruk, Enlil-Bel reigned in Nipur,\nEridu belonged to Ea, the lord of the waters. The moon-god, Sin, alone\ngoverned two large fiefs, Uru in the extreme south, and Harran towards\nthe extreme north-west; Shamash had Larsam and one of the Sipparas for\nhis dominion, and the other sun-gods were not less well provided for,\nNergal possessing Kutha, Zamama having Kish, Ninib side by side with Bel\nreigning in Nipur, while Merodach ruled at Babylon. Each was absolute\nmaster in his own territory, and it is quite exceptional to find two of\nthem co-regnant in one locality, as were Ninib and Bel at Nipur, or Ea\nand Ishtar in Uruk; not that they raised any opposition on principle\nto the presence of a stranger divinity in their dominions, but they\nwelcomed them only under the titles of allies or subjects. Each,\nmoreover, had fair play, and Nebo or Shamash, after having filled\nthe _r\u00f4le_ of sovereign at Borsippa or at Larsam, did not consider it\nderogatory to his dignity to accept a lower rank in Babylon or at Uru.\nHence all the feudal gods played a double part, and had, as it were,\na double civil portion--that of suzerain in one or two localities, and\nthat of vassals everywhere else--and this dual condition was the surest\nguarantee not only of their prosperity, but of their existence. Sin\nwould have run great risk of sinking into oblivion if his resources had\nbeen confined to the subventions from his domain temples of Harran and\nUru. Their impoverishment would in such case have brought about his\ncomplete failure: after having enjoyed an existence amid riches and\nsplendour in the beginning of history, he would have ended his life in a\ncondition of misery and obscurity. But the sanctuaries erected to him in\nthe majority of the other cities, the honours which these bestowed upon\nhim, and the offerings which they made to him, compensated him for the\npoverty and neglect which he experienced in his own domains; and he was\nthus able to maintain his divine dignity on a suitable footing. All\nthe gods were, therefore, worshipped by the Chaldeans, and the only\ndifference among them in this respect arose from the fact that some\nexalted one special deity above the others. The gods of the richest and\nmost ancient principalities naturally enjoyed the greatest popularity.\nThe greatness of Uru had been the source of Sin's prestige, and Merodach\nowed his prosperity to the supremacy which Babylon had acquired over the\ndistricts of the north. Merodach was regarded as the son of Ba, as the\nstar which had risen from the abyss to illuminate the world, and to\nconfer upon mankind the decrees of eternal wisdom. He was proclaimed as\nlord--\"b\u00eelu\"--_par excellence_, in comparison with whom all other lords\nsank into insignificance, and this title soon procured for him a second,\nwhich was no less widely recognized than the first: he was spoken of\neverywhere as the Bel of Babylon, Bel-Merodach--before whom Bel of Nipur\nwas gradually thrown into the shade. The relations between these feudal\ndeities were not always pacific: jealousies arose among them like those\nwhich disturbed the cities over which they ruled; they conspired against\neach other, and on occasions broke out into open warfare. Instead of\nforming a coalition against the evil genii who threatened their rule,\nand as a consequence tended to bring everything into jeopardy, they\nsometimes made alliances with these malign powers and mutually betrayed\neach other. Their history, if we could recover it in its entirety, would\nbe marked by as violent deeds as those which distinguished the princes\nand kings who worshipped them. Attempts were made, however, and that too\nfrom an early date, to establish among them a hierarchy like that which\nexisted among the great ones of the earth. The faithful, who, instead of\npraying to each one separately, preferred to address them all, invoked\nthem always in the same order: they began with Anu, the heaven, and\nfollowed with Bel, Ea, Sin, Shamash, and Bamman. They divided these six\ninto two groups of three, one trio consisting of Anu, Bel, and Ea, the\nother of Sin, Shamash, and Bamman. All these deities were associated\nwith Southern Chaldoa, and the system which grouped them must have taken\nits rise in this region, probably at Uruk, whose patron Anu V occupied\nthe first rank among them. The theologians who classified them in this\nmanner seem never to have dreamt of explaining, like the authors of\nthe Heliopolitan Ennead, the successive steps in their creation: these\ntriads were not, moreover, copies of the human family, consisting of\na father and mother whose marriage brings into the world a new being.\nOthers had already given an account of the origin of things, and of\nMerodach's struggles with chaos; these theologians accepted the universe\nas it was, already made, and contented themselves with summing up its\nelements by enumerating the gods which actuated them.* They assigned the\nfirst place to those elements which make the most forcible impression\nupon man--beginning with Anu, for the heaven was the god of their city;\nfollowing with Bel of Nipur, the earth which from all antiquity has\nbeen associated with the heaven; and concluding with Ea of Eridu, the\nterrestrial waters and primordial Ocean whence Anu and Bel, together\nwith all living creatures, had sprung--Ea being a god whom, had they\nnot been guided by local vanity, they would have made sovereign lord\nof all. Anu owed his supremacy to an historical accident rather than a\nreligious conception: he held his high position, not by his own merits,\nbut because the prevailing theology of an early period had been the work\nof his priesthood.\n\n     * I know of Sayce only who has endeavoured to explain the\n     historical formation of the triads. They are considered by\n     him as of Accadian origin, and probably began in an\n     astronomical triad, composed of the moon-god, the sun-god,\n     and the evening star, Sin, Shamash, and Ishtar; alongside\n     this elementary trinity, \"the only authentic one to be found\n     in the religious faith of primitive Chald\u00e6a,\" the Semites\n     may have placed the cosmogonical trinity of Anu, Bel, and\n     Ea, formed by the reunion of the gods of Uruk, Nipur, and\n     Eridu.\n\nThe characters of the three personages who formed the supreme triad can\nbe readily deduced from the nature of the elements which they represent.\nAnu is the heaven itself--\"ana\"--the immense vault which spreads itself\nabove our heads, clear during the day when glorified by the sun, obscure\nand strewn with innumerable star clusters during the night. Afterwards\nit becomes the spirit which animates the firmament, or the god which\nrules it: he resides in the north towards the pole, and the ordinary\nroute chosen by him when inspecting his domain is that marked out by our\necliptic. He occupies the high regions of the universe, sheltered from\nwinds and tempests, in an atmosphere always serene, and a light always\nbrilliant. The terrestrial gods and those of middle-space take refuge in\nthis \"heaven of Anu,\" when they are threatened by any great danger, but\nthey dare not penetrate its depths, and stop, shortly after passing its\nboundary, on the ledge which supports the vault, where they loll and\nhowl like dogs. It is but rarely that it may be entered, and then\nonly by the highly privileged--kings whose destiny marked them out for\nadmittance, and heroes who have fallen valiantly on the field of\nbattle. In his remote position on unapproachable summits Anu seems to\nparticipate in the calm and immobility of his dwelling. If he is quick\nin forming an opinion and coming to a conclusion, he himself never puts\ninto execution the plans which he has matured or the judgments which\nhe has pronounced: he relieves himself of the trouble of acting, by\nassigning the duty to Bel-Merodach, Ea, or Eamman, and he often employs\ninferior genii to execute his will. \"They are seven, the messengers of\nAnu their king; it is they who from town to town raise the stormy wind;\nthey are the south wind which drives mightily in the heavens; they are\nthe destroying clouds which overturn the heavens; they are the rapid\ntempests which bring darkness in the midst of clear day, they roam here\nand there with the wicked wind and the ill-omened hurricane.\" Anu sends\nforth all the gods as he pleases, recalls them again, and then, to make\nthem his pliant instruments, enfeebles their personality, reducing it to\nnothing by absorbing it into his own. He blends himself with them, and\ntheir designations seem to be nothing more than doublets of his own: he\nis Anu the Lakhmu who appeared on the first days of creation; Ahu Ur\u00e2sh\nor Ninib is the sun-warrior of Nipur; and Anu is also the eagle Alala\nwhom Ishtar enfeebled by her caresses. Anu regarded in this light ceases\nto be the god _par excellence_: he becomes the only chief god, and the\nidea of authority is so closely attached to his name that the latter\nalone is sufficient in common speech to render the idea of God. Bel\nwould have been entirely thrown into the shade by him, as the earth-gods\ngenerally are by the sky-gods, if it had not been that he was confounded\nwith his namesake Bel-Merodach of Babylon: to this alliance he owed\nto the end the safety of his life, in presence of Anu. Ea was the\nmost active and energetic member of the triad.* As he represented the\nbottomless abyss, the dark waters which had filled the universe until\nthe day of the creation, there had been attributed to him a complete\nknowledge of the past, present, and future, whose germs had lain within\nhim, as in a womb. The attribute of supreme wisdom was revered in Ea,\nthe lord of spells and charms, to which gods and men were alike subject:\nno strength could prevail against his strength, no voice against his\nvoice: when once he opened his mouth to give a decision, his will became\nlaw, and no one might gainsay it. If a peril should arise against\nwhich the other gods found themselves impotent, they resorted to\nhim immediately for help, which was never refused. He had saved\nShamashnapishtirn from the Deluge; every day he freed his votaries from\nsickness and the thousand demons which were the causes of it. He was\na potter, and had modelled men out of the clay of the plains. From him\nsmiths and workers in gold obtained the art of rendering malleable\nand of fashioning the metals. Weavers and stone-cutters, gardeners,\nhusbandmen, and sailors hailed him as their teacher and patron. From his\nincomparable knowledge the scribes derived theirs, and physicians and\nwizards invoked spirits in his name alone by the virtue of prayers which\nhe had condescended to teach them.\n\n     * The name of this god was read \"Nisrok\" by Oppert,\n     \"Nouah\" by Hincks and Lenormant. The true reading is Ia, Ea,\n     usually translated \"house,\" \"water-house\"; this is a popular\n     interpretation which appears to have occurred to the\n     Chald\u00e6ans from the values of the signs entering into the\n     name of the god. From the outset H. Rawlinson recognized in\n     Ea, which he read Hea, Hoa, the divinity presiding over the\n     abyss of waters; he compared him with the serpent of Holy\n     Scripture, in its relation to the Tree of Knowledge and the\n     Tree of Life, and deduced therefrom his character of lord of\n     wisdom. His position as lord of the primordial waters, from\n     which all things proceeded, clearly denned by Lenormant, is\n     now fully recognized. His name was transcribed A\u00f4s by\n     Damascius, a form which is not easily explained; the most\n     probable hypothesis is that of Hommel who considers Aos as a\n     shortened form of Ia\u00f4s = Ia, Ea.\n\nSubordinate to these limitless and vague beings, the theologians placed\ntheir second triad, made up of gods of restricted power and invariable\nform. They recognized in the unswerving regularity with which the moon\nwaxed and waned, or with which the sun rose and set every day, a\nproof of their subjection to the control of a superior will, and they\nsignalized this dependence by making them sons of one or other of the\nthree great gods. Sin was the offspring of Bel, Shamash of Sin,\nKamman of Anu. Sin was indebted for this primacy among the subordinate\ndivinities to the preponderating influence which Uru exercised over\nSouthern Chald\u00e6a. Mar, where Ramman was the chief deity, never emerged\nfrom its obscurity, and Larsam acquired supremacy only many centuries\nafter its neighbour, and did not succeed in maintaining it for any\nlength of time. The god of the suzerain city necessarily took precedence\nof those of the vassal towns, and when once his superiority was admitted\nby the people, he was able to maintain his place in spite of all\npolitical revolutions. Sin was called in Uru, \"Uruki,\" or \"Nannar the\nglorious,\" and his priests sometimes succeeded in identifying him\nwith Anu. \"Lord, prince of the gods, who alone in heaven and earth is\nexalted,--father Nannar, lord of the hosts of heaven, prince of the\ngods,--father Nannar, lord, great Anu, prince of the gods,--father\nNannar, lord, moon-god, prince of the gods,--father Nannar, lord of Uni,\nprince of the gods....--Lord, thy deity fills the far-off heavens,\nlike the vast sea, with reverential fear! Master of the earth, thou who\nfixest there the boundaries [of the towns] and assignest to them their\nnames,--father, begetter of gods and men, who establishest for them\ndwellings and institutest for them that which is good, who proclaimest\nroyalty and bestowest the exalted sceptre on those whose destiny was\ndetermined from distant times,--chief, mighty, whose heart is great, god\nwhom no one can name, whose limbs are steadfast, whose knees never bend,\nwho preparest the paths of thy brothers the gods....--In heaven, who is\nsupreme? As for thee, it is thou alone who art supreme! As for thee, thy\ndecree is made known in heaven, and the Igigi bow their faces!--As for\nthee, thy decree is made known upon earth, and the spirits of the abyss\nkiss the dust!--As for thee, thy decree blows above like the wind,\nand stall and pasture become fertile!--As for thee, thy decree is\naccomplished upon earth below, and the grass and green things grow!--As\nfor thee, thy degree is seen in the cattle-folds and in the lairs of the\nwild beasts, and it multiplies living things!--As for thee, thy\ndecree has called into being equity and justice, and the peoples have\npromulgated thy law!--As for thee, thy decree, neither in the far-off\nheaven, nor in the hidden depths of the earth, can any one recognize\nit!--As for thee, thy decree, who can learn it, who can try conclusions\nwith it?--O Lord, mighty in heaven, sovereign upon earth, among the gods\nthy brothers, thou hast no rival.\" Outside Uru and Harran, Sin did not\nobtain this rank of creator and ruler of things; he was simply the\nmoon-god, and was represented in human form, usually accompanied by a\nthin crescent, upon which he sometimes stands upright, sometimes appears\nwith the bust only rising out of it, in royal costume and pose.\n\n[Illustration: 169.jpg THE GOD SUN RECEIVES THE HOMAGE OF TWO\nWORSHIPPERS.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a heliogravure by Menant.\n\nHis mitre is so closely associated with him that it takes his place on\nthe astrological tablets; the name he bears--\"agu\"--often indicates\nthe moon regarded simply as a celestial body and without connotation\nof deity. Babbar-Shamash, \"the light of the gods, his fathers,\" \"the\nillustrious scion of Sin,\" passed the night in the depths of the north,\nbehind the polished metal walls which shut in the part of the firmament\nvisible to human eyes.\n\n[Illustration: 170.jpg SHAMASH SETS OUT, IN THE MORNING, FROM THE\nINTERIOR OF THE HEAVEN BY THE EASTERN GATE.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chald\u00e6an intaglio of green\n     jasper in the Louvre. The original measures about 1 3/10\n     inch in height.\n\nAs soon as the dawn had opened the gates for him, he rose in the east\nall aflame, his club in his hand, and he set forth on his headlong\ncourse over the chain of mountains which surrounds the world;* six hours\nlater he had attained the limit of his journey towards the south, he\nthen continued his journey to the west, gradually lessening his heat,\nand at length re-entered his accustomed resting-place by the western\ngate, there to remain until the succeeding morning. He accomplished his\njourney round the earth in a chariot conducted by two charioteers,\nand drawn by two vigorous onagers, \"whose legs never grew weary;\" the\nflaming disk which was seen from earth was one of the wheels of his\nchariot.**\n\n     * His course along the embankment which runs round the\n     celestial vault was the origin of the title, _Line of Union\n     between Heaven and Earth_; he moved, in fact, where the\n     heavens and the earth come into contact, and appeared to\n     weld them into one by the circle of fire which he described.\n     Another expression of this idea occurs in the preamble of\n     Nergal and Ninib, who were called \"the separators\"; the\n     course of the sun might, in fact, be regarded as separating,\n     as well as uniting, the two parts of the universe.\n\n     ** The disk has sometimes four, sometimes eight rays\n     inscribed on it, indicating wheels with four or eight spokes\n     respectively. Rawlinson supposed \"that these two figures\n     indicate a distinction between the male and female power of\n     the deity, the disk with four rays symbolizing Shamash, the\n     orb with eight rays being the emblem of Ai, Gula, or\n     Anunit.\"\n\n[Illustration: 171.jpg SHAMASH IN HIS SHRINE, HIS EMBLEM BEFORE HIM ON\nTHE ALTAR.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Rassam. The\n     busts of the two deities on the front of the roof of the\n     shrine are the two charioteers of the sun; they uphold and\n     guide the rayed disk upon the altar. Cf. in the Assyrian\n     period the winged disk led with cords by two genii.\n\nAs soon as he appeared he was hailed with the chanting of hymns: \"O Sun,\nthou appearest on the foundation of the heavens,--thou drawest back the\nbolts which bar the scintillating heavens, thou openest the gate of\nthe heavens! O Sun, thou raisest thy head above the earth,--Sun, thou\nextendest over the earth the brilliant vaults of the heavens.\"\nThe powers of darkness fly at his approach or take refuge in their\nmysterious caverns, for \"he destroys the wicked, he scatters them, the\nomens and gloomy portents, dreams, and wicked ghouls--he converts evil\nto good, and he drives to their destruction the countries and men--who\ndevote themselves to black magic.\" In addition to natural light, he sheds\nupon the earth truth and justice abundantly; he is the \"high judge\"\nbefore whom everything makes obeisance, his laws never waver, his\ndecrees are never set at naught. \"O Sun, when thou goest to rest in the\nmiddle of the heavens--may the bars of the bright heaven salute thee\nin peace, and may the gate of heaven bless thee!--May Misharu, thy\nwell-beloved servant, guide aright thy progress, so that on Rbarra,\nthe seat of thy rule, thy greatness may rise, and that A, thy cherished\nspouse, may receive thee joyfully! May thy glad heart find in her thy\nrest!--May the food of thy divinity be brought to thee by her,--warrior,\nhero, sun, and may she increase thy vigour;--lord of Ebarra, when\nthou ap-proachest, mayest thou direct thy course aright!---0 Sun, urge\nrightly thy way along the fixed road determined for thee,--O Sun, thou\nwho art the judge of the land, and the arbiter of its laws!\"\n\nIt would appear that the triad had begun by having in the third place a\ngoddess, Ishtar of Dilbat. Ishtar is the evening star which precedes the\nappearance of the moon, and the morning star which heralds the approach\nof the sun: the brilliance of its light justifies the choice which\nmade it an associate of the greater heavenly bodies. \"In the days of\nthe past.... Ea charged Sin, Shamash, and Ishtar with the ruling of the\nfirmament of heaven; he distributed among them, with Anu, the command\nof the army of heaven, and among these three gods, his children,\nhe apportioned the day and the night, and compelled them to work\nceaselessly.\"\n\n[Illustration: 173.jpg ISHTAR HOLDING HER STAR BEFORE SIN.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an intaglio at Rome.\n\nIshtar was separated from her two companions, when the group of the\nplanets was definitely organized and claimed the adoration of the\ndevout; the theologians then put in her place an individual of a less\noriginal aspect, Ramman. Ramman embraced within him the elements of many\nvery ancient genii, all of whom had been set over the atmosphere, and\nthe phenomena which are daily displayed in it--wind, rain, and thunder.\nThese genii occupied an important place in the popular religion which\nhad been cleverly formulated by the theologians of Uruk, and there have\ncome down to us many legends in which their incarnations play a part.\nThey are usually represented as enormous birds flocking on their swift\nwings from below the horizon, and breathing flame or torrents of water\nupon the countries over which they hovered. The most terrible of them\nwas Zu, who presided over tempests: he gathered the clouds together,\ncausing them to burst in torrents of rain or hail; he let loose the\nwinds and lightnings, and nothing remained standing where he had passed.\nHe had a numerous family: among them cross-breeds of extraordinary\nspecies which would puzzle a modern naturalist, but were matters of\ncourse to the ancient priests. His mother Siris, lady of the rain and\nclouds, was a bird like himself; but Zu had as son a vigorous bull,\nwhich, pasturing in the meadows, scattered abundance and fertility\naround him. The caprices of these strange beings, their malice, and\ntheir crafty attacks, often brought upon them vexatious misfortunes.\nShutu, the south wind, one day beheld Adapa, one of the numerous\noffspring of Ea, fishing in order to provide food for his family. In\nspite of his exalted origin, Adapa was no god; he did not possess the\ngift of immortality, and he was not at liberty to appear in the presence\nof Anu in heaven. He enjoyed, nevertheless, certain privileges, thanks\nto his familiar intercourse with his father Ea, and owing to his birth\nhe was strong enough to repel the assaults of more than one deity. When,\ntherefore, Shutu, falling upon him unexpectedly, had overthrown him, his\nanger knew no bounds: \"'Shutu, thou hast overwhelmed me with thy hatred,\ngreat as it is,--I will break thy wings! 'Having thus spoken with his\nmouth unto Shutu, Adapa broke his wings. For seven days,--Shutu breathed\nno longer upon the earth.\" Anu, being disturbed at this quiet, which\nseemed to him not very consonant with the meddling temperament of the\nwind, made inquiries as to its cause through his messenger Ilabr\u00e2t. \"His\nmessenger Ilabr\u00e2t answered him: 'My master,--Adapa, the son of Ea,\nhas broken Shutu's wings.'--Anu, when he heard these words, cried out:\n'Help!'\" and he sent to Ea Barku, the genius of the lightning, with an\norder to bring the guilty one before him. Adapa was not quite at his\nease, although he had right on his side; but Ea, the cleverest of the\nimmortals, prescribed a line of conduct for him. He was to put on at\nonce a garment of mourning, and to show himself along with the messenger\nat the gates of heaven. Having arrived there, he would not fail to meet\nthe two divinities who guarded them,--Dumuzi and Gishzida: \"'In whose\nhonour this garb, in whose honour, Adapa, this garment of mourning?'\n'On our earth two gods have disappeared--it is on this account I am as\nI am.' Dumuzi and Gishzida will look at each other,* they will begin\nto lament, they will say a friendly word--to the god Anu for thee, they\nwill render clear the countenance of Anu,--in thy favour. When thou\nshalt appear before the face of Anu, the food of death, it shall be\noffered to thee, do not eat it. The drink of death, it shall be offered\nto thee, drink it not. A garment, it shall be offered to the, put it on.\nOil, it shall be offered to thee, anoint thyself with it. The command I\nhave given thee observe it well.'\"\n\n     * Dumuzi and Gishzida are the two gods whom Adapa indicates\n     without naming them; insinuating that he has put on mourning\n     on their account, Adapa is secure of gaining their sympathy,\n     and of obtaining their intervention with the god Anu in his\n     favour. As to Dumuzi, see pp. 158, 159 of the present work;\n     the part played by Gishzida, as well as the event noted in\n     the text regarding him, is unknown.\n\nEverything takes place as Ea had foreseen. Dumuzi and Gishzida\nwelcome the poor wretch, speak in his favour, and present him: \"as he\napproached, Anu perceived him, and said to him: 'Come, Adapa, why didst\nthou break the wings of Shutu?' Adapa answered Anu: 'My lord,--for the\nhousehold of my lord Ea, in the middle of the sea,---I was fishing,\nand the sea was all smooth.--Shutu breathed, he, he overthrew me, and\nI plunged into the abode of fish. Hence the anger of my heart,--that he\nmight not begin again his acts of ill will,--I broke his wings.'\" Whilst\nhe pleaded his cause the furious heart of Anu became calm. The presence\nof a mortal in the halls of heaven was a kind of sacrilege, to be\nseverely punished unless the god should determine its expiation by\ngiving the philtre of immortality to the intruder. Anu decided on the\nlatter course, and addressed Adapa: \"'Why, then, did Ea allow an unclean\nmortal to see--the interior of heaven and earth?' He handed him a cup,\nhe himself reassured him.--'We, what shall we give him? The food of\nlife--take some to him that he may eat.' The food of life, some was\ntaken to him, but he did not eat of it. The water of life, some was\ntaken to him, but he drank not of it. A garment, it was taken to him,\nand he put it on. Oil, some was taken to him, and he anointed himself\nwith it.\" Anu looked upon him; he lamented over him: \"'Well, Adapa, why\nhast thou not eaten--why hast thou not drunk? Thou shalt not now have\neternal life.' Ea, my lord, has commanded me: thou shalt not eat, thou\nshalt not drink.\" Adapa thus lost, by remembering too well the commands\nof his father, the opportunity which was offered to him of rising to\nthe rank of the immortals; Anu sent him back to his home just as he had\ncome, and Shutu had to put up with his broken wings.\n\nBamman absorbed one after the other all these genii of tempest and\ncontention, and out of their combined characters his own personality of\na hundred diverse aspects was built up.\n\n[Illustration: 177.jpg THE BIRDS OF THE TEMPEST]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chald\u00e6an cylinder in the\n     Museum of New York. Lenormant, in a long article, which he\n     published under the pseudonym of Mansell, fancied he\n     recognized here the encounter between Sabitum and Gilgames\n     on the shores of the Ocean.\n\nHe was endowed with the capricious and changing disposition of the\nelement incarnate in him, and passed from tears to laughter, from anger\nto calm, with a promptitude which made him one of the most disconcerting\ndeities. The tempest was his favourite r\u00f4le. Sometimes he would burst\nsuddenly on the heavens at the head of a troop of savage subordinates,\nwhose chiefs were known as Matu, the squall, and Barku, the lightning;\nsometimes these were only the various manifestations of his own nature,\nand it was he himself who was called Matu and Barku. He collected the\nclouds, sent forth the thunder-bolt, shook the mountains, and \"before\nhis rage and violence, his bellowings, his thunder, the gods of heaven\narose to the firmament--the gods of the earth sank into the earth\" in\ntheir terror. The monuments represent him as armed for battle with\nclub, axe, or the two-bladed flaming sword which was usually employed to\nsignify the thunderbolt. As he destroyed everything in his blind\nrage, the kings of Chald\u00e6a were accustomed to invoke him against their\nenemies, and to implore him to \"hurl the hurricane upon the rebel\npeoples and the insubordinate nations.\" When his wrath was appeased, and\nhe had returned to more gentle ways, his kindness knew no limits. From\nhaving been the waterspout which overthrew the forests, he became the\ngentle breeze which caresses and refreshes them: with his warm showers\nhe fertilizes the fields: he lightens the air and tempers the summer\nheat.\n\n[Illustration: 178.jpg RAMMAN ARMED WITH AN AXE.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Loftus. The\n     original, a small stele of terra-cotta, is in the British\n     Museum. The date of this representation is uncertain. Ramman\n     stands upon the mountain which supports the heaven.\n\nHe causes the rivers to swell and overflow their banks; he pours out the\nwaters over the fields, he makes channels for them, he directs them to\nevery place where the need of water is felt.\n\nBut his fiery temperament is stirred up by the slightest provocation,\nand then \"his flaming sword scatters pestilence over the land: he\ndestroys the harvest, brings the ingathering to nothing, tears up trees,\nand beats down and roots up the corn.\"\n\n[Illustration: 179.jpg RAMMAN, THE GOD OF TEMPESTS AND THUNDER.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard. Properly speaking, this\n     is a Susian deity brought by the soldiers of Assurbanipal\n     into Assyria, but it carries the usual insignia of Ramman.\n\nIn a word, the second triad formed a more homogeneous whole when Ishtar\nstill belonged to it, and it is entirely owing to the presence of this\ngoddess in it that we are able to understand its plan and purpose; it\nwas essentially astrological, and it was intended that none should be\nenrolled in it but the manifest leaders of the constellations. Ramman,\non the contrary, had nothing to commend him for a position alongside the\nmoon and sun; he was not a celestial body, he had no definitely shaped\nform, but resembled an aggregation of gods rather than a single deity.\nBy the addition of Ramman to the triad, the void occasioned by the\nremoval of Ishtar was filled up in a blundering way. We must, however,\nadmit that the theologians must have found it difficult to find any one\nbetter fitted for the purpose: when Venus was once set along with the\nrest of the planets, there was nothing left in the heavens which\nwas sufficiently brilliant to replace her worthily. The priests were\ncompelled to take the most powerful deity they knew after the other\nfive--the lord of the atmosphere and the thunder.*\n\n     * Their embarrassment is shown in the way in which they have\n     classed this god. In the original triad, Ishtar, being the\n     smallest of the three heavenly bodies, naturally took the\n     third place. Ramman, on the contrary, had natural affinities\n     with the elemental group, and belonged to Anu, Bel, Ea,\n     rather than to Sin and Shamash. So we find him sometimes in\n     the third place, sometimes in the first of the second triad,\n     and this post of eminence is so natural to him, that\n     Assyriologists have preserved it from the beginning, and\n     describe the triad as composed, not of Sin, Shamash, and\n     Ramman, but of Ramman, Sin, and Shamash, or even of Sin,\n     Ramman, and Shamash.\n\nThe gods of the triads were married, but their goddesses for the most\npart had neither the liberty nor the important functions of the Egyptian\ngoddesses.* They were content, in their modesty, to be eclipsed behind\nthe personages of their husbands, and to spend their lives in the shade,\nas the women of Asiatic countries still do. It would appear, moreover,\nthat there was no trouble taken about them until it was too late--when\nit was desired, for instance, to explain the affiliation of the\nimmortals. Anu and Bel were bachelors to start with. When it was\ndetermined to assign to them female companions, recourse was had to the\nprocedure adopted by the Egyptians in a similar case: there was added to\ntheir names the distinctive suffix of the feminine gender, and in this\nmanner two grammatical goddesses were formed, Anat and Belit, whose\ndispositions give some indications of this accidental birth. There was\nalways a vague uncertainty about the parts they had to play, and their\nexistence itself was hardly more than a seeming one. Anat sometimes\nrepresented a feminine heaven, and differed from Anu only in her sex.\nAt times she was regarded as the antithesis of Anu, i.e. as the earth in\ncontradistinction to the heaven. Belit, as far as we can distinguish her\nfrom other persons to whom the title \"lady\" was attributed, shared with\nBel the rule over the earth and the regions of darkness where the dead\nwere confined. The wife of Ea was distinguished by a name which was not\nderived from that of her husband, but she was not animated by a more\nintense vitality than Anat or Belit: she was called Damkina, the lady\nof the soil, and she personified in an almost passive manner the earth\nunited to the water which fertilized it. The goddesses of the second\ntriad were perhaps rather less artificial in their functions. Ningal,\ndoubtless, who ruled along with Sin at Uru, was little more than an\nincarnate epithet. Her name means \"the great lady,\" \"the queen,\" and her\nperson is the double of that of her husband; as he is the man-moon, she\nis the woman-moon, his beloved, and the mother of his children Shamash\nand Ishtar. But A or Sirrida enjoyed an indisputable authority alongside\nShamash: she never lost sight of the fact that she had been a sun like\nShamash, a disk-god before she was transformed into a goddess. Shamash,\nmoreover, was surrounded by an actual harem, of which Sirrid\u00e0 was the\nacknowledged queen, as he himself was its king, and among its members\nGula, the great, and Anunit, the daughter of Sin, the morning star,\nfound a place. Shala, the compassionate, was also included among them;\nshe was subsequently bestowed upon Ramman. They were all goddesses of\nancient lineage, and each had been previously worshipped on her own\naccount when the Sumerian people held sway in Chald\u00e6a: as soon as the\nSemites gained the upper hand, the powers of these female deities became\nenfeebled, and they were distributed among the gods. There was but one\nof them, Nana, the doublet of Ishtar, who had succeeded in preserving\nher liberty: when her companions had been reduced to comparative\ninsignificance, she was still acknowledged as queen and mistress in her\ncity of Eridu. The others, notwithstanding the enervating influence\nto which they were usually subject in the harem, experienced at times\ninclinations to break into rebellion, and more than one of them, shaking\noff the yoke of her lord, had proclaimed her independence: Anunit, for\ninstance, tearing herself away from the arms of Shamash, had vindicated,\nas his sister and his equal, her claim to the half of his dominion.\nSippara was a double city, or rather there were two neighbouring\nSippar\u00e0s, one distinguished as the city of the Sun, \"Sippara sha\nShamash,\" while the other gave lustre to Anunit in assuming the\ndesignation of \"Sippara sha Anunitum.\" Rightly interpreted, these family\narrangements of the gods had but one reason for their existence--the\nnecessity of explaining without coarseness those parental connections\nwhich the theological classification found it needful to establish\nbetween the deities constituting the two triads. In Chald\u00e6a as in Egypt\nthere was no inclination to represent the divine families as propagating\ntheir species otherwise than by the procedure observed in human\nfamilies: the union of the goddesses with the gods thus legitimated\ntheir offspring.\n\n     * The passive and almost impersonal character of the\n     majority of the Babylonian and Assyrian goddesses is well\n     known. The majority must have been independent at the\n     outset, in the Sumerian period, and were married later on,\n     under the influence of Semitic ideas.\n\nThe triads were, therefore, nothing more than theological fictions. Each\nof them was really composed of six members, and it was thus really a\ncouncil of twelve divinities which the priests of Uruk had instituted to\nattend to the affairs of the universe; with this qualification, that the\nfeminine half of the assembly rarely asserted itself, and contributed\nbut an insignificant part to the common work. When once the great\ndivisions had been arranged, and the principal functionaries designated,\nit was still necessary to work out the details, and to select v agents\nto preserve an order among them. Nothing happens by chance in this\nworld, and the most insignificant events are determined by previsional\narrangements, and decisions arrived at a long time previously. The gods\nassembled every morning in a hall, situated near the gates of the sun in\nthe east, and there deliberated on the events of the day. The sagacious\nEa submitted to them the fates which are about to be fulfilled, and\ncaused a record of them to be made in the chamber of destiny on tablets\nwhich Shamash or Merodach carried with them to scatter everywhere on his\nway; but he who should be lucky enough to snatch these tablets from him\nwould make himself master of the world for that day. This misfortune had\narisen only once, at the beginning of the ages. Zu, the storm-bird, who\nlives with his wife and children on Mount Sabu under the protection of\nBel, and who from this elevation pounces down upon the country to ravage\nit, once took it into his head to make himself equal to the supreme\ngods. He forced his way at an early hour into the chamber of destiny\nbefore the sun had risen: he perceived within it the royal insignia of\nBel, \"the mitre of his power, the garment of his divinity,--the fatal\ntablets of his divinity, Zu perceived them. He perceived the father\nof the gods, the god who is the tie between heaven and earth,--and the\ndesire of ruling took possession of his heart;--yea, Zu perceived\nthe father of the gods, the god who is the tie between heaven and\nearth,--and the desire of ruling took possession of his heart,--'I will\ntake the fatal tablets of the gods, I myself,--and the oracles of all\nthe gods, it is I who will give them forth;--I will install myself on\nthe throne, I will send forth decrees,--I will manage the whole of the\nIgigi.'--And his heart plotted warfare;--lying in wait on the threshold\nof the hall, he watched for the dawn.--When Bel had poured out the\nshining waters,--had installed himself on the throne, and donned the\ncrown, Zu took away the fatal tablets from his hand,--he seized power,\nand the authority to give forth decrees,--the god Zu, he flew away and\nconcealed himself in the mountains.\" Bel immediately cried out, he was\ninflamed with anger, and ravaged the world with the fire of his\nwrath. \"Anu opened his mouth, he spake,--he said to the gods his\noffspring:--'Who will conquer the god Zu?--He will make his name great\nin every land.'--Bamman, the supreme, the son of Anu, was called, and\nAnu himself gave to him his orders;--yea, Bamman, the supreme, the son\nof Anu, was called, and Anu himself gave to him his orders.--'Go, my son\nKamman, the valiant, since nothing resists thy attack;--conquer Zu by\nthine arm, and thy name shall be great among the great gods,--among the\ngods, thy brothers, thou shalt have no equal: sanctuaries shall be built\nto thee, and if thou buildest for thyself thy cities in the \"four houses\nof the world,\"* --thy cities shall extend over all the terrestrial\nmountain! 'Be valiant, then, in the sight of the gods, and may thy\nname be strong.' Bamman answers, he addresses this bpeech to Anu his\nfather:--'Father, who will go to the inaccessible mountains? Who is the\nequal of Zu among the gods, thy offspring? He has carried off in his\nhand the fatal tablets,--he has seized power and authority to give forth\ndecrees,--Zu thereupon flew away and hid himself in his mountain.--Now,\nthe word of his mouth is like that of the god who unites heaven and\nearth;---my power is no more than clay,--and all the gods must bow\nbefore him.'\" Anu sent for the god Bara, the son of Ishtar, to help him,\nand exhorted him in the same language he had addressed to Ramman: Bara\nrefused to attempt the enterprise. Shamash, called in his turn, at\nlength consented to set out for Mount Sabu: he triumphed over the\nstorm-bird, tore the fatal tablets from him, and brought him before Ea\nas a prisoner.\n\n     * Literally, \"Construct thy cities in the four regions of\n     the world (cf. pp. 12, 13 of the present work), and thy\n     cities will extend to the mountain of the earth.\" Anu would\n     appear to have promised to Ramman a monopoly; if he wished\n     to build cities which would recognize him as their patron,\n     these cities will cover the entire earth.\n\n[Illustration: 186.jpg SHAMASH FIGHTS WITH ZU AND THE STORM BIRDS.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard.\n\n[Illustration: 186a.jpg The Plenisphere taken from the Temple of\nTentyra]\n\n[Illustration: 186b.jpg Text of The Plenisphere]\n\nThe sun of the complete day, the sun in the full possession of his\nstrength, could alone win back the attributes of power which the morning\nsun had allowed himself to be despoiled of. From that time forth the\nprivilege of delivering immortal decrees to mortals was never taken out\nof the hands of the gods of light.\n\nDestinies once fixed on the earth became a law--\"mamit\"--a good or bad\nfate, from which no one could escape, but of which any one might learn\nthe disposition beforehand if he were capable of interpreting the\nformulas of it inscribed on the book of the sky. The stars, even those\nwhich were most distant from the earth, were not unconcerned in the\nevents which took place upon it. They were so many living beings endowed\nwith various characteristics, and their rays as they passed across the\ncelestial spaces exercised from above an active control on everything\nthey touched. Their influences became modified, increased or weakened\naccording to the intensity with which they shed them, according to the\nrespective places they occupied in the firmament, and according to the\nhour of the night and the month of the year in which they rose or\nset. Each division of time, each portion of space, each category of\nexistences--and in each category each individual--was placed under their\nrule and was subject to their implacable tyranny. The infant was born\ntheir slave, and continued in this condition of slavery until his life's\nend: the star which was in the ascendent at the instant of his birth\nbecame his star, and ruled his destiny. The Chald\u00e6ans, like the\nEgyptians, fancied they discerned in the points of light which\nilluminate the nightly sky, the outline of a great number of various\nfigures--men, animals, monsters, real and imaginary objects, a lance, a\nbow, a fish, a scorpion, ears of wheat, a bull, and a lion. The majority\nof these were spread out above their heads on the surface of the\ncelestial vault; but twelve of these figures, distinguishable by their\nbrilliancy, were arranged along the celestial horizon in the pathway of\nthe sun, and watched over his daily course along the walls of the world.\nThese divided this part of the sky into as many domains or \"houses,\" in\nwhich they exercised absolute authority, and across which the god could\nnot go without having previously obtained their consent, or having\nbrought them into subjection beforehand. This arrangement is a\nreminiscence of the wars by which Bel-Merodach, the divine bull, the\ngod of Babylon, had succeeded in bringing order out of chaos: he had not\nonly killed Ti\u00e2mat, but he had overthrown and subjugated the monsters\nwhich led the armies of darkness. He meets afresh, every year and every\nday, on the confines of heaven and earth, the scorpion-men of his ancient\nenemy, the fish with heads of men or goats, and many more. The twelve\nconstellations were combined into a zodiac, whose twelve signs,\ntransmitted to the Greeks and modified by them, may still be read on\nour astronomical charts. The constellations, immovable, or actuated by a\nslow motion, in longitude only, contain the problems of the future,\nbut they are not sufficient of themselves alone to furnish man with the\nsolution of these problems. The heavenly bodies capable of explaining\nthem, the real interpreters of destiny, were at first the two divinities\nwho rule the empires of night and day--the moon and the sun; afterwards\nthere took part in this work of explanation the five planets which we\ncall Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mars, and Mercury, or rather the five gods\nwho actuate them, and who have controlled their course from the moment\nof creation--Merodach, Ishtar, Ninib, Nergal, and Nebo. The planets\nseemed to traverse the heavens in every direction, to cross their own\nand each other's paths, and to approach the fixed stars or recede from\nthem; and the species of rhythmical dance in which they are carried\nunceasingly across the celestial spaces revealed to men, if they\nexamined it attentively, the irresistible march of their own destinies,\nas surely as if they had made themselves master of the fatal tablets of\nShamash, and could spell them out line by line.\n\nThe Chald\u00e6ns were disposed to regard the planets as perverse sheep who\nhad escaped from the fold of the stars to wander wilfully in search of\npasture.* At first they were considered to be so many sovereign deities,\nwithout other function than that of running through the heavens and\nfurnishing there predictions of the future; afterwards two of them\ndescended to the earth, and received upon it the homage of men* --Ishtar\nfrom the inhabitants of the city of Dilbat, and Nebo* from those of\nBorsippa. Nebo assumed the _r\u00f4le_ of a soothsayer and a prophet. He\nknew and foresaw everything, and was ready to give his advice upon any\nsubject: he was the inventor of the method of making clay tablets,\nand of writing upon them. Ishtar was a combination of contradictory\ncharacteristics.****\n\n     * Their generic name, read as \"lubat,\" in Sumero-Accadian,\n     \"bibbu\" in Semitic speech (Fr. Lenormant, _Essai de\n     Commentaire de B\u00e9rose_, pp. 370, 371), denoted a quadruped,\n     the species of which Lenormant was not able to define;\n     Jensen (_Die Kosmologie_, pp. 95-99) identified it with the\n     sheep and the ram. At the end of the account of the\n     creation, Merodach-Jupiter is compared with a shepherd who\n     feeds the flock of the gods on the pastures of heaven (cf.\n     p. 15 of the present work).\n\n     ** The site of Dilbat is unknown: it has been sought in the\n     neighbourhood of Kishu and Babylon (Delitzsch, _Wo lag das\n     Paradies?_ p. 219); it is probable that it was in the\n     suburbs of Sippara. The name given to the goddess was\n     transcribed AeXckit (Hesychius, _sub voce_), and signifies\n     the herald, the messenger of the day.\n\n     *** The r\u00f4le of Nebo was determined by the early\n     Assyriologists (Rawlin-son, _On the Religion of the\n     Babylonians and Assyrians_, pp. 523-52G; Oppeet, _Exp\u00e9dition\n     en M\u00e9sopotamie_, vol. ii. p. 257; Lenormant, _Essai de\n     Commentaire de B\u00e9rose_, pp. 114-116). He owed his functions\n     partly to his alliance with other gods (Sayce, _Religion of\n     the Ancient Babylonians_, pp. 118, 119).\n\n     **** See the chapter devoted by Sayce to the consideration\n     of Ishtar in his Religion of the Ancient Babylonians (IV.\n     Tammuz and Ishtar, p. 221, et seq.), and the observations\n     made by Jeremias on the subject in the sequel of his\n     Izdubar-Nimrod (Ishtar-Astarte im Izdubar-Epos), pp. 56-66.\n\n[Illustration: 190.jpg ISHTAR AS A WARRIOR-GODDESS]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a heliogravure in M\u00e9nant's\n     _Recherches sur la Glyptique orientale_.\n\nIn Southern Chald\u00e6a she was worshipped under the name of Nan\u00e2,\nthe supreme mistress.* The identity of this lady of the gods,\n\"B\u00ealit-il\u00e2nit,\" the Evening Star, with Anunit, the Morning Star, was\nat first ignored, and hence two distinct goddesses were formed from the\ntwofold manifestation of a single deity: having at length discovered\ntheir error, the Chald\u00e6ans merged these two beings in one, and their\nnames became merely two different designations for the same star under a\ntwofold aspect. The double character, however, which had been attributed\nto them continued to be attached to the single personality.\n\n     * With regard to Nana, consult, with reserve, Fk. Lenormant,\n     Essai de Commentaire de B\u00e9rose, pp. 100-103, 378, 379, where\n     the identity of Ishtar and Nana is still unrecognized.\n\n[Illustration: 191.jpg NEBO]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an Assyrian statue in alabaster\n     in the British Museum.\n\nThe Evening Star had symbolized the goddess of love, who attracted\nthe sexes towards one another, and bound them together by the chain\nof desire; the Morning Star, on the other hand, was regarded as the\ncold-blooded and cruel warrior who despised the pleasures of love and\nrejoiced in warfare: Ishtar thus combined in her person chastity and\nlasciviousness, kindness and ferocity, and a peaceful and warlike\ndisposition, but this incongruity in her characteristics did not seem\nto disconcert the devotion of her worshippers. The three other planets\nwould have had a wretched part to play in comparison with Nebo and\nIshtar, if they had not been placed under new patronage. The secondary\nsolar gods, Merodach, Ninib, and Nergal, led, if we examine their r\u00f4le\ncarefully, but an incomplete existence: they were merely portions of the\nsun, while Shamash represented the entire orb. What became of them apart\nfrom the moment in the day and year in which they were actively engaged\nin their career? Where did they spend their nights, the hours during\nwhich Shamash had retired into the firmament, and lay hidden behind the\nmountains of the north? As in Egypt the Horuses identified at first with\nthe sun became at length the rulers of the planets, so in Chald\u00e6a\nthe three suns of Ninib, Merodach, and Nergal became respectively\nassimilated to Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars;* and this identification was\nall the more easy in the case of Saturn, as he had been considered from\nthe beginning as a bull belonging to Shamash. Henceforward, therefore,\nthere was a group of five powerful gods--distributed among the stars\nof heaven, and having abodes also in the cities of the earth--whose\nfunction it was to announce the destinies of the universe. Some,\ndeceived by the size and brilliancy of Jupiter, gave the chief command\nto Merodach, and this opinion naturally found a welcome reception at\nBabylon, of which he was the feudal deity. Others, taking into account\nonly the preponderating influence exercised by the planets over the\nfortunes of men, accorded the primacy to Ninib, placing Merodach next,\nfollowed respectively by Ishtar, Nergal, and Nebo. The five planets,\nlike the six triads, were not long before they took to themselves\nconsorts, if indeed they had not already been married before they were\nbrought together in a collective whole. Ninib chose for wife, in the\nfirst place, Bau, the daughter of Anu, the mistress of Uru, highly\nvenerated from the most remote times; afterwards Gula, the queen of\nphysicians, whose wisdom alleviated the ills of humanity, and who was\none of the goddesses sometimes placed in the harem of Shamash himself.\nMerodach associated with him Zirbanit, the fruitful, who secures from\ngeneration to generation the permanence and increase of living beings.\nNergal distributed his favours sometimes to Laz, and sometimes to\nEsharra, who was, like himself, warlike and always victorious in battle.\nNebo provided himself with a mate in Tashmit, the great bride, or\neven in Ishtar herself. But Ishtar could not be content with a single\nhusband: after she had lost Dumuzi-Tammuz, the spouse of her youth, she\ngave herself freely to the impulses of her passions, distributing her\nfavours to men as well as gods, and was sometimes subject to be repelled\nwith contempt by the heroes upon whom she was inclined to bestow her\nlove. The five planets came thus to be actually ten, and advantage was\ntaken of these alliances to weave fresh schemes of affiliation: Nebo was\nproclaimed to be the son of Merodach and Zirbanit, Merodach the son of\nBa, and Ninib the offspring of Bel and Esharra.\n\n     * Ishtar, Nebo, Sin, and Shamash being heavenly bodies, to\n     begin with, and the other great gods, Anu, Bel, Ea, and\n     Ramman having their stars in the heavens, the Chald\u00e6ans\n     were led by analogy to ascribe to the gods which represented\n     the phases of the sun, Merodach, Ninib, and Nergal, three\n     stars befitting their importance, i.e. three planets.\n\nThere were two councils, one consisting of twelve members, the other\nof ten; the former was composed of the most popular gods of Southern\nChald\u00e6a, representing the essential elements of the world, while\nthe latter consisted of the great deities of Northern Chald\u00e6a, whose\nfunction it was to regulate or make known the destinies of men. The\nauthors of this system, who belonged to Southern Chald\u00e6a, naturally\ngave the position to their patron gods, and placed the twelve above\nthe ten. It is well known that Orientals display a great respect for\nnumbers, and attribute to them an almost irresistible power; we can\nthus understand how it was that the Chald\u00e6ans applied them to designate\ntheir divine masters, and we may calculate from these numbers the\nestimation in which each of these masters was held. The goddesses had\nno value assigned to them in this celestial arithmetic, Ishtar excepted,\nwho was not a mere duplication, more or less ingenious, of a previously\nexisting deity, but possessed from the beginning an independent life,\nand could thus claim to be called goddess in her own right. The members\nof the two triads were arranged on a descending scale, Anu taking the\nhighest place: the scale was considered to consist of a soss of sixty\nunits in length, and each of the deities who followed Anu was placed ten\nof these units below his predecessor, Bel at 50 units, Ea at 40, Sin at\n30, Shamash at 20, Ramman at 10 or 6. The gods of the planets were not\narranged in a regular series like those of the triads, but the numbers\nattached to them expressed their proportionate influence on terrestrial\naffairs: to Ninib was assigned the same number as had been given to Bel,\n50, to Merodach perhaps 25, to Ishtar 15, to Nergal 12, and to Nebo\n10. The various spirits were also fractionally estimated, but this as a\nclass, and not as individuals: the priests would not have known how to\nhave solved the problem if they had been obliged to ascribe values\nto the infinity of existences.* As the Heliopolitans were obliged to\neliminate from the Ennead many feudal divinities, so the Chald\u00e6ans\nhad left out of account many of their sovereign deities, especially\ngoddesses, Bau of Uru, Nana of Uruk, and All\u00e2t; or if they did introduce\nthem into their calculations, it was by a subterfuge, by identifying\nthem with other goddesses, to whom places had been already assigned;\nBau being thus coupled with Ohila, Nana with Ishtar, and All\u00e2t with\nNinhl-Beltis. If figures had been assigned to the latter proportionate\nto the importance of the parts they played, and the number of their\nvotaries, how comes it that they were excluded from the cycle of the\ngreat gods? They were actually placed alongside rather than below the\ntwo councils, and without insistence upon the rank which they enjoyed\nin the hierarchy. But the confusion which soon arose among divinities\nof identical or analogous nature opened the way for inserting all the\nneglected personalities in the framework already prepared for them. A\nsky-god, like Dagan, would mingle naturally with Anu, and enjoy like\nhonours with him. The gods of all ranks associated with the sun or fire,\nNusku, Gibil, and Dumuzi, who had not been at first received among the\nprivileged group, obtained a place there by virtue of their assimilation\nto Shamash, and his secondary forms, Bel-Merodach, Ninib, and Nergal.\nIshtar absorbed all her companions, and her name put in the plural,\nIshtarati, \"the Ishtars,\" embraced all goddesses in general, just as the\nname Hani took in all the gods. Thanks to this compromise, the system\nflourished, and was widely accepted: local vanity was always able to\nfind a means for placing in a prominent place within it the feudal\ndeity, and for reconciling his pretensions to the highest rank with the\norder of precedence laid down by the theologians of Uruk. The local\ngod was always the king of the gods, the father of the gods, he who\nwas worshipped above the others in everyday life, and whose public cult\nconstituted the religion of the State or city.\n\n     * As far as we can at present determine, the most ancient\n     series established was that of the planetary gods, whose\n     values, following each other irregularly, are not calculated\n     on a scheme of mathematical progression, but according to\n     the empirical importance, which a study of predictions had\n     ascribed to each planet. The regular series, that of the\n     great gods, bears in its regularity the stamp of its later\n     introduction: it was instituted after the example of the\n     former, but with corrections of what seemed capricious, and\n     fixing the interval between the gods always at the same\n     figure.\n\nThe temples were miniature reproductions of the arrangement of the\nuniverse. The \"ziggurat\" represented in its form the mountain of the\nworld, and the halls ranged at its feet resembled approximately\nthe accessory parts of the world: the temple of Merodach at Babylon\ncomprised them all up to the chambers of fate, where the sun received\nevery morning the tablets of destiny. The name often indicated the\nnature of the patron deity or one of his attributes: the temple of\nShamash at Larsam, for instance was called E-Babbara, \"the house of\nthe sun,\" and that of Nebo at Borsippa, E-Zida, \"the eternal house.\" No\nmatter where the sanctuary of a specific god might be placed, it always\nbore the same name; Shamash, for example, dwelt at Sippara as at Larsam\nin an E-Babbara. In Chald\u00e6a, as in Egypt, the king or chief of the\nState was the priest _par excellence_, and the title of \"vicegerent,\"\nso frequent in the early period, shows that the chief was regarded as\nrepresenting the divinity among his own people; but a priestly body,\npartly hereditary, partly selected, fulfilled for him his daily\nsacerdotal functions, and secured the regularity of the services. A\nchief priest--\"ishshakku\"--was at their head, and his principal duty was\nthe pouring out of the libation. Each temple had its \"ishshakku,\" but he\nwho presided over the worship of the feudal deity took precedence of\nall the others in the city, as in the case of the chief priests of\nBel-Merodach at Babylon, of Sin at Uru, and of Shamash at Larsam or\nSippara. He presided over various categories of priests and priestesses\nwhose titles and positions in the hierarchy are not well known. The\n\"sangutu\" appear to have occupied after him the most important place, as\nchamberlains attached to the house of the god, and as his liegemen.\nTo some of these was entrusted the management of the harem of the god,\nwhile others were overseers of the remaining departments of his\npalace. The \"k\u00eepu\" and the \"shatammu\" were especially charged with the\nmanagement of his financial interests, while the \"pashishu\" anointed\nwith holy and perfumed oil his statues of stone, metal, or wood, the\nvotive stel\u00e6 set up in the chapels, and the objects used in worship\nand sacrifice, such as the great basins, the \"seas\" of copper which\ncontained the water employed in the ritual ablutions, and the victims\nled to the altar. After these came a host of officials, butchers and\ntheir assistants, soothsayers, augurs, prophets,--in fact, all the\nattendants that the complicated rites, as numerous in Chald\u00e6a as in\nEgypt, required, not to speak of the bands of women and men who honoured\nthe god in meretricious rites. Occupation for this motley crowd was\nnever lacking. Every day and almost every hour a fresh ceremony required\nthe services of one or other member of the staff, from the monarch\nhimself, or his deputy in the temple, down to the lowest sacristan. The\n12th of the month Blul was set apart at Babylon for the worship of Bel\nand Beltis: the sovereign made a donation to them according as he was\ndisposed, and then celebrated before them the customary sacrifices, and\nif he raised his hand to plead for any favour, he obtained it without\nfail. The 13th was dedicated to the moon, the supreme god; the 14th to\nBeltis and Nergal; the 15th to Shamash; the 16th was a fast in honour\nof Merodach and Zirbanit; the 17th was the annual festival of Nebo and\nTashmit; the 18th was devoted to the laudation of Sin and Shamash; while\nthe 19th was a \"white day\" for the great goddess Gula. The whole year\nwas taken up in a way similar to this casual specimen from the calendar.\nThe kings, in founding a temple, not only bestowed upon it the objects\nand furniture required for present exigencies, such as lambs and oxen,\nbirds, fish, bread, liquors, incense, and odoriferous essences;\nthey assigned to it an annual income from the treasury, slaves, and\ncultivated lands; and their royal successors were accustomed to renew\nthese gifts or increase them on every opportunity. Every victorious\ncampaign brought him his share in the spoils and captives; every\nfortunate or unfortunate event which occurred in connection with the\nState or royal family meant an increase in the gifts to the god, as\nan act of thanksgiving on the one hand for the divine favour, or as an\noffering on the other to appease the wrath of the god. Gold, silver,\ncopper, lapis-lazuli, gems and precious woods, accumulated in the sacred\ntreasury; fields were added to fields, flocks to flocks, slaves to\nslaves; and the result of such increase would in a few generations\nhave made the possessions of the god equal to those of the reigning\nsovereign, if the attacks of neighbouring peoples had not from time to\ntime issued in the loss of a part of it, or if the king himself had not,\nunder financial pressure, replenished his treasury at the expense of the\npriests. To prevent such usurpations as far as possible, maledictions\nwere hurled at every one who should dare to lay a sacrilegious hand on\nthe least object belonging to the divine domain; it was predicted of\nsuch \"that he would be killed like an ox in the midst of his prosperity,\nand slaughtered like a wild urus in the fulness of his strength!... May\nhis name be effaced from his stel\u00e6 in the temple of his god! May his\ngod see pitilessly the disaster of his country, may the god ravage his\nland with the waters of heaven, ravage it with the waters of the\nearth. May he be pursued as a nameless wretch, and his seed fall under\nservitude! May this man, like every one who acts adversely to his\nmaster, find nowhere a refuge, afar off, under the vault of the skies or\nin any abode of man whatsoever.\" These threats, terrible as they were,\ndid not succeed in deterring the daring, and the mighty men of the\ntime were willing to brave them, when their interests promoted them.\nGulkishar, Lord of the \"land of the sea,\" had vowed a wheat-field to\nNina, his lady, near the town of Deri, on the Tigris. Seven hundred\nyears later, in the reign of Belnadinabal, Ekarraka\u00ees, governor of\nB\u00eetsinmagir, took possession of it, and added it to the provincial\npossessions, contrary to all equity. The priest of the goddess appealed\nto the king, and prostrating himself before the throne with many prayers\nand mystic formulas, begged for the restitution of the alienated land.\nBelnadinabal acceded to the request, and renewed the imprecations which\nhad been inserted on the original deed of gift: \"If ever, in the\ncourse of days, the man of law, or the governor of a suzerain who will\nsuperintend the town of B\u00eetsinmagir, fears the vengeance of the god\nZikum or the goddess Nina, may then Zikum and Nina, the mistress of the\ngoddesses, come to him with the benediction of the prince of the gods;\nmay they grant to him the destiny of a happy life, and may they accord\nto him days of old age, and years of uprightness! But as for thee, who\nhast a mind to change this, step not across its limits, do not covet\nthe land: hate evil and love justice.\" If all sovereigns were not so\naccommodating in their benevolence as Belnadinabal, the piety of private\nindividuals, stimulated by fear, would be enough to repair the loss,\nand frequent legacies would soon make up for the detriment caused to\nthe temple possessions by the enemy's sword or the rapacity of an\nunscrupulous lord. The residue, after the vicissitudes of revolutions,\nwas increased and diminished from time to time, to form at length in the\ncity an indestructible fief whose administration was a function of the\nchief priest for life, and whose revenue furnished means in abundance\nfor the personal exigencies of the gods as well as the support of his\nministers.\n\nThis was nothing more than justice would prescribe. A loyal and\nuniversal faith would not only acknowledge the whole world to be the\ncreation of the gods, but also their inalienable domain. It belonged to\nthem at the beginning; every one in the State of which the god was\nthe sovereign lord, all those, whether nobles or serfs, vicegerents\nor kings, who claimed to have any possession in it, were but ephemeral\nlease-holders of portions of which they fancied themselves the owners.\nDonations to the temples were, therefore, nothing more than voluntary\nrestitutions, which the gods consented to accept graciously, deigning\nto be well pleased with the givers, when, after all-, they might have\nconsidered the gifts as merely displays of strict honesty, which merited\nneither recognition nor thanks. They allowed, however, the best part of\ntheir patrimony to remain in the hands of strangers, and they contented\nthemselves with what the pretended generosity of the faithful might see\nfit to assign to them. Of their lands, some were directly cultivated by\nthe priests themselves; others were leased to lay people of every rank,\nwho took off the shoulders of the priesthood all the burden of managing\nthem, while rendering at the same time the profit that accrued from\nthem; others were let at a fixed rent according to contract. The\ntribute of dates, corn, and fruit, which was rendered to the temples to\ncelebrate certain commemorative ceremonies in the honour of this or that\ndeity, were fixed charges upon certain lands, which at length usually\nfell entirely into the hands of the priesthood as mortmain possessions.\nThese were the sources of the fixed revenues of the gods, by means of\nwhich they and their people were able to live, if not luxuriously, at\nleast in a manner befitting their dignity. The offerings and sacrifices\nwere a kind of windfall, of which the quantity varied strangely with the\nseasons; at certain times few were received, while at other times there\nwas a superabundance. The greatest portion of them was consumed on\nthe spot by the officials of the sanctuary; the part which could be\npreserved without injury was added to the produce of the domain, and\nconstituted a kind of reserve for a rainy day, or was used to produce\nmore of its kind. The priests made great profit out of corn and metals,\nand the skill with which they conducted commercial operations in silver\nwas so notorious that no private person hesitated to entrust them with\nthe management of his capital: they were the intermediaries between\nlenders and borrowers, and the commissions which they obtained in these\ntransactions was not the smallest or the least certain of their profits.\nThey maintained troops of slaves, labourers, gardeners, workmen, and\neven women-singers and sacred courtesans of which mention has been made\nabove, all of whom either worked directly for them in their several\ntrades, or were let out to those who needed their services. The god was\nnot only the greatest cultivator in the State after the king, sometimes\neven excelling him in this respect, but he was also the most active\nmanufacturer, and many of the utensils in daily use, as well as articles\nof luxury, proceeded from his workshops. His possessions secured for him\na paramount authority in the city, and also an influence in the councils\nof the king: the priests who represented him on earth thus became mixed\nup in State affairs, and exercised authority on his behalf in the same\nmeasure as the officers of the crown.\n\n[Illustration: 203.jpg A VOTARY LED TO THE GOD TO RECEIVE THE REWARD OF\nTHE SACRIFICE]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chald\u00e6an intaglio in the\n     Berlin Museum.\n\nHe, had, indeed, as much need of riches and renown as the least of his\nclients. As he was subject to all human failings, and experienced all\nthe appetites of mankind, he had to be nourished, clothed, and amused,\nand this could be done only at great expense. The stone or wooden\nstatues erected to him in the sanctuaries furnished him with bodies,\nwhich he animated with his breath, and accredited to his clients as the\nreceivers of all things needful to him in his mysterious kingdom. The\nimages of the gods were clothed in vestments, they were anointed with\nodoriferous oils, covered with jewels, served with food and drink; and\nduring these operations the divinities themselves, above in the heaven,\nor down in the abyss, or in the bosom of the earth, were arrayed in\ngarments, their bodies were perfumed with unguents, and their appetites\nfully satisfied: all that was further required for this purpose was the\noffering of sacrifices together with prayers and prescribed rites. The\npriest began by solemnly inviting the gods to the feast: as soon as they\nsniffed from afar the smell of the good cheer that awaited them, they\nran \"like a swarm of flies\" and prepared themselves to partake of it.\n\n[Illustration: 204.jpg THE SACRIFICE: A GOAT PRESENTED TO ISHTAR.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an Assyrian intaglio\n     illustrated in A. Rich, _Narrative of a Journey to the Site\n     of Babylon in 1811_. The sacrifice of the goat, or rather\n     its presentation to the god, is not infrequently represented\n     on the Assyrian bas-reliefs.\n\nThe supplications having been heard, water was brought to the gods for\nthe necessary ablutions before a repast. \"Wash thy hands, cleanse thy\nhands,--may the gods thy brothers wash their hands!--From a clean dish\neat a pure repast,--from a clean cup drink pure water.\" The statue, from\nthe rigidity of the material out of which it was carved, was at a loss\nhow to profit by the exquisite things which had been lavished upon it:\nthe difficulty was removed by the opening of its mouth at the moment\nof consecration, thus enabling it to partake of the good fare to its\nsatisfaction.* The banquet lasted a long time, and consisted of every\ndelicacy which the culinary skill of the time could prepare: the courses\nconsisted of dates, wheaten flour, honey, butter, various kinds of\nwines, and fruits, together with roast and boiled meats.\n\n     * This operation, which was also resorted to in Egypt in the\n     case of the statues of the gods and deceased persons, is\n     clearly indicated in a text of the second Chald\u00e6an empire\n     published in _W. A. Insc_, vol. iv. pi. 25. The priest who\n     consecrates an image makes clear in the first place that\n     \"its mouth not being open it can partake of no refreshment:\n     it neither eats food nor drinks water.\" Thereupon he performs\n     certain rites, which he declares were celebrated, if not at\n     that moment, at least for the first time by Ea himself: \"Ea\n     has brought thee to thy glorious place,--to thy glorious\n     place he has brought thee,--brought thee with his splendid\n     hand,--brought also butter and honey;--_he has poured\n     consecrated water into thy mouth--and by magic has opened\n     thy mouth._\" Henceforward the statue can eat and drink like\n     an ordinary living being the meat and beverages offered to\n     it during the sacrifice.\n\n[Illustration: 205.jpg THE GOD SHAMASH SEIZES WITH HIS LEFT HAND THE\nSMOKE OF THE SACRIFICE.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chald\u00e6an intaglio pointed out\n     by Heuzey-Sarzcc; the original is in the Louvre. The scene\n     depicted behind Shamash deals with a legend still unknown. A\n     goddess, pursued by a genius with a double face, has taken\n     refuge under a tree, which bows down to protect her; while\n     the monster endeavours to break down the obstacle branch by\n     branch, a god rises from the stem and hands to the goddess a\n     stone-headed mace to protect her against her enemy.\n\nIn the most ancient times it would appear that even human sacrifices\nwere offered, but this custom was obsolete except on rare occasions, and\nlambs, oxen, sometimes swine's flesh, formed the usual elements of\nthe sacrifice. The gods seized as it arose from the altar the unctuous\nsmoke, and fed on it with delight. When they had finished their repast,\nthe supplication of a favour was adroitly added, to which they gave a\nfavourable hearing. Services were frequent in the temples: there was one\nin the morning and another in the evening on ordinary days, in addition\nto those which private individuals might require at any hour of the day.\nThe festivals assigned to the local god and his colleagues, together\nwith the acts of praise in which the whole nation joined, such as that\nof the New Year, required an abundance of extravagant sacrifices, in\nwhich the blood of the victims flowed like water. Days of sorrow and\nmourning alternated with these days of joy, during which the people and\nthe magnates gave themselves up to severe fasting and acts of penitence.\nThe Chaldeans had a lively sense of human frailty, and of the risks\nentailed upon the sinner by disobedience to the gods. The dread of\nsinning haunted them during their whole life; they continually\nsubjected the motives of their actions to a strict scrutiny, and once\nself-examination had revealed to them the shadow of an evil intent, they\nwere accustomed to implore pardon for it in a humble manner. \"Lord, my\nsins are many, great are my misdeeds!--O my god, my sins are many, great\nmy misdeeds!--O my goddess, my sins are many, great my misdeeds!--I have\ncommitted faults and I knew them not; I have committed sin and I knew\nit not; I have fed upon misdeeds and I knew them not; I have walked in\nomissions and I knew them not.--The lord, in the anger of his heart,\nhe has stricken me,--the god, in the wrath of his heart, has abandoned\nme,--Ishtar is enraged against me, and has treated me harshly!--I make\nan effort, and no one offers me a hand,--I weep, and no one comes to\nme,--I cry aloud, and no one hears me:--I sink under affliction, I am\noverwhelmed, I can no longer raise up my head,--I turn to my merciful\ngod to call upon him, and I groan!... Lord reject not thy servant,--and\nif he is hurled into the roaring waters, stretch to him thy hand;--the\nsins I have committed, have mercy upon them,--the misdeeds I have\ncommitted, scatter them to the winds--and my numerous faults, tear them\nto pieces like a garment.\" Sin in the eyes of the Chald\u00e6an was not, as\nwith us, an infirmity of the soul; it assaulted the body like an actual\nvirus, and the fear of physical suffering or death engendered by it,\ninspired these complaints with a note of sincerity which cannot be\nmistaken.\n\nEvery individual is placed, from the moment of his birth, under the\nprotection of a god and goddess, of whom he is the servant, or rather\nthe son, and whom he never addresses otherwise than as his god and\nhis goddess. These deities accompany him night and day, not so much to\nprotect him from visible dangers, as to guard him from the invisible\nbeings which ceaselessly hover round him, and attack him on every side.\nIf he is devout, piously disposed towards his divine patrons and the\ndeities of his country, if he observes the prescribed rites, recites the\nprayers, performs the sacrifices--in a word, if he acts rightly--their\naid is never lacking; they bestow upon him a numerous posterity, a\nhappy old age, prolonged to the term fixed by fate, when he must resign\nhimself to close his eyes for ever to the light of day. If, on the\ncontrary, he is wicked, violent, one whose word cannot be trusted, \"his\ngod cuts him down like a reed,\" extirpates his race, shortens his days,\ndelivers him over to demons who possess themselves of his body and\nafflict it with sicknesses before finally despatching him. Penitence\nis of avail against the evil of sin, and serves to re-establish a right\ncourse of life, but its efficacy is not permanent, and the moment at\nlast arrives in which death, getting the upper hand, carries its victim\naway. The Chald\u00e6ans had not such clear ideas as to what awaited them in\nthe other world as the Egyptians possessed: whilst the tomb, the mummy,\nthe perpetuity of the funeral revenues, and the safety of the double,\nwere the engrossing subjects in Egypt, the Chald\u00e6an texts are almost\nentirely silent as to the condition of the soul, and the living seem to\nhave had no further concern about the dead than to get rid of them\nas quickly and as completely as possible. They did not believe that\neverything was over at the last breath, but they did not on that account\nthink that the fate of that which survived was indissolubly associated\nwith the perishable part, and that the disembodied soul was either\nannihilated or survived, according as the flesh in which it was\nsustained was annihilated or survived in the tomb. The soul was\ndoubtless not utterly unconcerned about the fate of the _larva_ it had\nquitted: its pains were intensified on being despoiled of its earthly\ncase if the latter were mutilated, or left without sepulture, a prey\nto the fowls, of the air. This feeling, however, was not sufficiently\ndeveloped to create a desire for escape from corruption entirely, and to\ncause a resort to the mummifying process of the Egyptians.\n\n[Illustration: 208.jpg DECORATED WRAPPINGS FROM A MUMMY (Color)]\n\nThe Chald\u00e6ans did not subject the body, therefore, to those injections,\nto those prolonged baths in preserving fluids, to that laborious\nswaddling which rendered it indestructible; whilst the family wept and\nlamented, old women who exercised the sad function of mourners washed\nthe dead body, perfumed it, clad it in its best apparel, painted its\ncheeks, blackened its eyelids, placed a collar on its neck, rings on its\nfingers, arranged its arms upon its breast, and stretched it on a bed,\nsetting up at its head a little altar for the customary offerings of\nwater, incense, and cakes.\n\n[Illustration: 209.jpg Chald\u00e6an coffin in the form of a jar]\n\n[Illustration: 209a.jpg A VAULTED TOMB IN URU]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Taylor.\n\n[Illustration: 210.jpg CHALD\u00c6AN TOMB WITH DOMED ROOF.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Taylor.\n\nEvil spirits, prowled incessantly around the dead bodies of the\nChald\u00e6ans, either to feed upon them, or to use them in their sorcery:\nshould they succeed in slipping into a corpse, from that moment it could\nbe metamorphosed into a vampire, and return to the world to suck the\nblood of the living. The Chald\u00e6ans were, therefore, accustomed to invite\nby prayers beneficent genii and gods to watch over the dead. Two of\nthese would take their invisible places at the head and foot of the bed,\nand wave their hands in the act of blessing: these were the vassals\nof Ea, and, like their master, were usually clad in fish-skins. Others\nplaced themselves in the sepulchral chamber, and stood ready to strike\nany one who dared to enter: these had human figures, or lions' heads\njoined to the bodies of men. Others, moreover, hovered over the house in\norder to drive off the spectres who might endeavour to enter through the\nroof. During the last hours in which the dead body remained among its\nkindred, it reposed under the protection of a legion of gods.\n\nWe must not expect to find on the plains of the Euphrates the rock-cut\ntombs, the mastabas or pyramids, of Egypt. No mountain chain ran on\neither side of the river, formed of rock soft enough to be cut and\nhollowed easily into chambers or sepulchral halls, and at the same time\nsufficiently hard to prevent the tunnels once cut from falling in.\n\n[Illustration: 111.jpg CHALDEAN TOMB WITH FLAT ROOF.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Taylor.\n\nThe alluvial soil upon which the Chald\u00e6an cities were built, far from,\npreserving the dead body, rapidly decomposed it under the influence of\nheat and moisture: vaults constructed in it would soon be invaded by\nwater in spite of masonry; paintings and sculpture would soon be\neaten away by nitre, and the funereal furniture and the coffin quickly\ndestroyed. The dwelling-house of the Chald\u00e6an dead could not, therefore,\nproperly be called, as those of Egypt, an \"eternal house.\" It was\nconstructed of dried or burnt brick, and its form varied much from\nthe most ancient times. Sometimes it was a great vaulted chamber, the\ncourses forming the roof being arranged corbel-wise, and contained the\nremains of one or two bodies walled up within it.* At other times\nit consisted merely of an earthen jar, in which the corpse had\nbeen inserted in a bent-up posture, or was composed of two enormous\ncylindrical jars, which, when united and cemented with bitumen, formed a\nkind of barrel around the body. Other tombs are represented by wretched\nstructures, sometimes oval and sometimes round in shape, placed upon a\nbrick base and covered by a flat or domed roof. The interior was not of\nlarge dimensions, and to enter it was necessary to stoop to a creeping\nposture. The occupant of the smallest chambers was content to have with\nhim his linen, his ornaments, some bronze arrowheads, and metal or clay\nvessels. Others contained furniture which, though not as complete as\nthat found in Egyptian sepulchres, must have ministered to all the\nneeds of the spirit. The body was stretched, fully clothed, upon a\nmat impregnated with bitumen, the head supported by a cushion or flat\nbrick,** the arms laid across the breast, and the shroud adjusted by\nbands to the loins and legs. Sometimes the corpse was placed on its left\nside, with the legs slightly bent, and the right hand, extending\nover the left shoulder, was inserted into a vase, as if to convey the\ncontents to the mouth.\n\n     * Vaulted chambers are confined chiefly to the ancient\n     cemeteries of Uru at Mugheir; they are rather over six to\n     seven feet long, with a breadth of five and a half feet. The\n     walls are not quite perpendicular, but are somewhat splayed\n     up to two-thirds of their height, where they begin to narrow\n     into the vaulted roof.\n\n     ** The object placed under the head of the skeleton is the\n     dried brick mentioned in the text; the vessel to which the\n     hand is stretched out was of copper; the other vessels were\n     of earthenware, and contained water, or dates, of which the\n     stones were found. The small cylinders on the side were of\n     stone; the two large cylinders, between the copper vessel\n     and those of earthenware, were pieces of bamboo, of whose\n     use we are ignorant.\n\n[Illustration: 213.jpg THE INTERIOR OF THE TOMB]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Taylor\n\nClay jars and dishes, arranged around the body, contained the food and\ndrink required for the dead man's daily fare--his favourite wine,\ndates, fish, fowl, game, occasionally also a boar's head--and even stone\nrepresentations of provisions, which, like those of Egypt, were lasting\nsubstitutes for the reality. The dead man required weapons also to\nenable him to protect his food-store, and his lance, javelins and baton\nof office were placed alongside him, together with a cylinder bearing\nhis name, which he had employed as his seal in his lifetime. Beside\nthe body of a woman or young girl was arranged an abundance of spare\nornaments, flowers, scent-bottles, combs, cosmetic pencils, and cakes\nof the black paste with which they were accustomed to paint the eyebrows\nand the edges of the eyelids.\n\nCremation seems in many cases to have been preferred to burial in a\ntomb. The funeral pile was constructed at some distance from the town,\non a specially reserved area in the middle of the marshes. The body,\nwrapped up in coarse matting, was placed upon a heap of reeds and rushes\nsaturated with bitumen: a brick wall, coated with moist clay, was built\naround this to circumscribe the action of the flames, and, the customary\nprayers having been recited, the pile was set on fire, masses of fresh\nmaterial, together with the funerary furniture and usual viaticum,\nbeing added to the pyre. When the work of cremation was considered to\nbe complete, the fire was extinguished, and an examination made of the\nresidue. It frequently happened that only the most accessible and most\neasily destroyed parts of the body had been attacked by the flames, and\nthat there remained a black and disfigured mass which the fire had\nnot consumed. The previously prepared coating of mud was then made to\nfurnish a clay covering for the body, so as to conceal the sickening\nspectacle from the view of the relatives and spectators. Sometimes,\nhowever, the furnace accomplished its work satisfactorily, and there was\nnothing to be seen at the end but greasy ashes and scraps of calcined\nbones. The remains were frequently left where they were, and the funeral\npile became their tomb. They were, however, often collected and disposed\nof in a manner which varied with their more or less complete combustion.\nBodies insufficiently burnt were interred in graves, or in public\nchapels; while the ashes of those fully cremated, together with the\nscraps of bones and the _d\u00e9bris_ of the offerings, were placed in long\nurns. The heat had contorted the weapons and half melted the vessels\nof copper; and the deceased was thus obliged to be content with the\nfragments only of the things provided for him. These were, however,\nsufficient for the purpose, and his possessions, once put to the test\nof the flames, now accompanied him whither he went: water alone was\nlacking, but provision was made for this by the construction on the\nspot of cisterns to collect it. For this purpose several cylinders of\npottery, some twenty inches broad, were inserted in the ground one\nabove the other from a depth of from ten to twelve feet, and the last\ncylinder, reaching the level of the ground, was provided with a narrow\nneck, through which the rainwater or infiltrations from the river flowed\ninto this novel cistern. Many examples of these are found in one and the\nsame chamber,* thus giving the soul an opportunity of finding water in\none or other of them. The tombs at Uruk, arranged closely together\nwith coterminous walls, and gradually covered by the sand or by the\naccumulation and _d\u00e9bris_ of new tombs, came at length to form an actual\nmound. In cities where space was less valuable, and where they were free\nto extend, the tombs quickly disappeared without leaving any vestiges\nabove the surface, and it would now be necessary to turn up a great\ndeal of rubbish before discovering their remains. The Chald\u00e6a of to-day\npresents the singular aspect of a country almost without cemeteries, and\none would be inclined to think that its ancient inhabitants had taken\npains to hide them.** The sepulture of royal personages alone furnishes\nus with monuments of which we can determine the site. At Babylon these\nwere found in the ancient palaces in which the living were no longer\ninclined to dwell: that of Shargina, for instance, furnished a\nburying-place for kings more than two thousand years after the death\nof its founder. The chronicles devoutly indicate the spot where each\nmonarch, when his earthly reign was over, found a last resting-place;\nand where, as the subject of a ceremonial worship similar to that of\nEgypt, his memory was preserved from the oblivion which had overtaken\nmost of his illustrious subjects.\n\n     * The German expedition of 1886-87 found four of these\n     reservoirs in a single chamber, and nine distributed in the\n     chambers of a house entirely devoted to the burial of the\n     dead.\n\n     ** Various explanations have been offered to account for\n     this absence of tombs, Without mentioning the desperate\n     attempt to get rid of the difficulty by the assumption that\n     the dead bodies were cast into the river, Loftus thinks that\n     the Chald\u00e6ans and Assyrians were accustomed to send them to\n     some sanctuary in Southern Chald\u00e6a, especially to Uru and\n     Uruk, whose vast cemeteries, he contends, would have\n     absorbed during the centuries the greater part of the\n     Euphratean population; his opinion has been adopted by some\n     historians, and, as far only as the later period is\n     concerned, by Hommel.\n\nThe dead man, or rather that part of him which survived--his\n\"ekimmu\"--dwelt in the tomb, and it was for his comfort that there were\nprovided, at the time of sepulture or cremation, the provisions and\nclothing, the ornaments and weapons, of which he was considered to stand\nin need. Furnished with these necessities by his children and heirs, he\npreserved for the donors the same affection which he had felt for them\nin his lifetime, and gave evidence of it in every way he could, watching\nover their welfare, and protecting them from malign influences. If\nthey abandoned or forgot him, he avenged himself for their neglect by\nreturning to torment them in their homes, by letting sickness attack\nthem, and by ruining them with his imprecations: he became thus no\nless hurtful than the \"luminous ghost\" of the Egyptians, and if he were\naccidentally deprived of sepulture, he would not be merely a plague\nto his relations, but a danger to the entire city. The dead, who were\nunable to earn an honest living, showed little pity to those who were\nin the same position as themselves: when a new-comer arrived among them\nwithout prayers, libations, or offerings, they declined to receive him,\nand would not give him so much as a piece of bread out of their meagre\nstore. The spirit of the unburied dead man, having neither place of\nrepose nor means of subsistence, wandered through the town and country,\noccupied with no other thought than that of attacking and robbing the\nliving. He it was who, gliding into the house during the night, revealed\nhimself to its inhabitants with such a frightful visage as to drive them\ndistracted with terror. Always on the watch, no sooner does he surprise\none of his victims than he falls upon him, \"his head against his\nvictim's head, his hand against his hand, his foot against his foot.\"\nHe who has been thus attacked, whether man or beast, would undoubtedly\nperish if magic were not able to furnish its all-powerful defence\nagainst this deadly embrace.* This human survival, who is so forcibly\nrepresented both in his good and evil aspects, was nevertheless nothing\nmore than a sort of vague and fluid existence--a double, in fact,\nanalogous in appearance to that of the Egyptians.\n\n     * The majority of the spells employed against sickness\n     contain references to the spirits against which they\n     contend--\"the wicked ekimmu who oppresses men during the\n     night,\" or simply \"the wicked ekimmu,\" the ghost.\n\nWith the faculty of roaming at will through space, and of going forth\nfrom and returning to his abode, it was impossible to regard him as\ncondemned always to dwell in the case of terra-cotta in which his body\nlay mouldering: he was transferred, therefore, or rather he\ntransferred himself, into the dark land--the Aralu--situated very far\naway--according to some, beneath the surface of the earth; according to\nothers, in the eastern or northern extremities of the universe. A river\nwhich opens into this region and separates it from the sunlit earth,\nfinds its source in the primordial waters into whose bosom this world\nof ours is plunged. This dark country is surrounded by seven high walls,\nand is approached through seven gates, each of which is guarded by a\npitiless warder. Two deities rule within it--Nergal, \"the lord of the\ngreat city,\" and Beltis-Allat, \"the lady of the great land,\" whither\neverything which has breathed in this world descends after death. A\nlegend relates that All\u00e2t, called in Sumerian Erishkigal, reigned alone\nin Hades, and was invited by the gods to a feast which they had prepared\nin heaven. Owing to her hatred of the light, she sent a refusal by her\nmessenger Narntar, who acquitted himself on this mission with such a\nbad grace, that Ann and Ea were incensed against his mistress, and\ncommissioned Nergal to descend and chastise her; he went, and finding\nthe gates of hell open, dragged the queen by her hair from the throne,\nand was about to decapitate her, but she mollified him by her prayers,\nand saved her life by becoming his wife. The nature of Nergal fitted\nhim well to play the part of a prince of the departed: for he was the\ndestroying sun of summer, and the genius of pestilence and battle. His\nfunctions, however, in heaven and earth took up so much of his time\nthat he had little leisure to visit his nether kingdom, and he was\nconsequently obliged to content himself with the _r\u00f4le_ of providing\nsubjects for it by despatching thither the thousands of recruits which\nhe gathered daily from the abodes of men or from the field of battle.\nAll\u00e2t was the actual sovereign of the country. She was represented with\nthe body of a woman, ill-formed and shaggy, the grinning muzzle of a\nlion, and the claws of a bird of prey. She brandished in each hand a\nlarge serpent--a real animated javelin, whose poisonous bite inflicted\na fatal wound upon the enemy. Her children were two lions, which she is\nrepresented as suckling, and she passed through her empire, not seated\nin the saddle, but standing upright or kneeling on the back of a\nhorse, which seems oppressed by her weight. Sometimes she set out on\nan expedition upon the river which communicates with the countries\nof light, in order to meet the procession of newly arrived souls\nceaselessly despatched to her: she embarked in this case upon an\nenchanted vessel, which made its way without sail or oars, its prow\nprojecting like the beak of a bird, and its stern terminating in the\nhead of an ox. She overcomes all resistance, and nothing can escape from\nher: the gods themselves can pass into her empire only on the condition\nof submitting to death like mortals, and of humbly avowing themselves\nher slaves.\n\n[Illustration: 220.jpg THE GODDESS ALLAT PASSES THROUGH THE NETHER\nREGIONS IN HER BARK.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze plaque of which an\n     engraving was published by Clermont-Ganneau. The original,\n     which belonged to M. P\u00e9reti\u00e9, is now in the collection of M.\n     de Clercq\n\n[Illustration: 221.jpg NERGAL, THE GOD OF HADES; BACK VIEW.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin. This is the back of the bronze plate\n     represented on the preceding page; the animal-head of the\n     god appears in relief at the top of the illustration.\n\nThe warders at the gates despoiled the new-comers of everything which\nthey had brought with them, and conducted them in a naked condition\nbefore All\u00e2t, who pronounced sentence upon them, and assigned to each\nhis place in the nether world. The good or evil committed on earth by\nsuch souls was of little moment in determining the sentence: to secure\nthe favour of the judge, it was of far greater importance to have\nexhibited devotion to the gods and to All\u00e2t herself, to have lavished\nsacrifices and offerings upon them and to have enriched their temples.\nThe souls which could not justify themselves were subjected to horrible\npunishment: leprosy consumed them to the end of time, and the most\npainful maladies attacked them, to torture them ceaselessly without any\nhope of release. Those who were fortunate enough to be spared from\nher rage, dragged out a miserable and joyless existence. They were\ncontinually suffering from the pangs of thirst and hunger, and found\nnothing to satisfy their appetites but clay and dust. They shivered with\ncold, and they obtained no other garment to protect them than mantles of\nfeathers--the great silent wings of the night-birds, invested with which\nthey fluttered about and filled the air with their screams. This gloomy\nand cruel conception of ordinary life in this strange kingdom was still\nworse than the idea formed of the existence in the tomb to which it\nsucceeded. In the cemetery the soul was, at least, alone with the dead\nbody; in the house of All\u00e2t, on the contrary, it was lost as it were\namong spirits as much afflicted as itself, and among the genii born of\ndarkness. None of these genii had a simple form, or approached the\nhuman figure in shape; each individual was a hideous medley of human\nand animal parts, in which the most repellent features were artistically\ncombined. Lions' heads stood out from the bodies of scorpion-tailed\njackals, whose feet were armed with eagles' claws: and among such\nmonsters the genii of pestilence, fever, and the south-west wind took\nthe chief place. When once the dead had become naturalized among this\nterrible population, they could not escape from their condition,\nunless by the exceptional mandate of the gods above. They possessed\nno recollection of what they had done upon earth. Domestic affection,\nfriendships, and the memory of good offices rendered to one\nanother,--all were effaced from their minds: nothing remained there but\nan inexpressible regret at having been exiled from the world of light,\nand an excruciating desire to reach it once more. The threshold of\nAllat's palace stood upon a spring which had the property of restoring\nto life all who bathed in it or drank of its waters: they gushed forth\nas soon as the stone was raised, but the earth-spirits guarded it with a\njealous care, and kept at a distance all who attempted to appropriate a\ndrop of it. They permitted access to it only by order of Ea himself, or\none of the supreme gods, and even then with a rebellious heart at seeing\ntheir prey escape them. Ancient legends related how the shepherd Dumuzi,\nson of Ea and Damkina, having excited the love of Ishtar while he was\npasturing his flocks under the mysterious tree of Eridu, which covers\nthe earth with its shade, was chosen by the goddess from among all\nothers to be the spouse of her youth, and how, being mortally wounded by\na wild boar, he was cast into the kingdom of Allat. One means remained\nby which he might be restored to the light of day: his wounds must be\nwashed in the waters of the wonderful spring, and Ishtar resolved to\ngo in quest of this marvellous liquid. The undertaking was fraught with\ndanger, for no one might travel to the infernal regions without having\npreviously gone through the extreme terrors of death, and even the gods\nthemselves could not transgress this fatal law. \"To the land without\nreturn, to the land which thou knowest--Ishtar, the daughter of Sin,\nturned her thoughts: she, the daughter of Sin, turned her thoughts--to\nthe house of darkness, the abode of Irkalla--to the house from which he\nwho enters can never emerge--to the path upon which he who goes shall\nnever come back--to the house into which he who enters bids farewell\nto the light--the place where dust is nourishment and clay is food; the\nlight is not seen, darkness is the dwelling, where the garments are the\nwings of birds--where dust accumulates on door and bolt.\" Ishtar\narrives at the porch, she knocks at it, she addresses the guardian in an\nimperious voice: \"'Guardian of the waters, open thy gate--open thy\ngate that I may enter, even I.--If thou openest not the door that I may\nenter, even I,--I will burst open the door, I will break the bars, I\nwill break the threshold, I will burst in the panels, I will excite the\ndead that they may eat the living,--and the dead shall be more numerous\nthan the living.'--The guardian opened his mouth and spake, he announced\nto the mighty Ishtar: 'Stop, O lady, and do not overturn the door until\nI go and apprise the Queen All\u00e2t of thy name.' Allat hesitates, and then\ngives him permission to receive the goddess: 'Go, guardian, open the\ngate to her--but treat her according to the ancient laws. Mortals\nenter naked into the world, and naked must they leave it: and since\nIshtar has decided to accept their lot, she too must be prepared to\ndivest herself of her garments.'\" The guardian went, he opened his mouth:\n'Enter, my lady, and may Kutha rejoice--may the palace and the land\nwithout return exult in thy presence! 'He causes her to pass through the\nfirst gate, divests her, removes the great crown from her head:--'Why,\nguardian, dost thou remove the great crown from my head?'--'Enter, my\nlady, such is the law of All\u00e2t.' The second gate, he causes her to pass\nthrough it, he divests her--removes the rings from her ears:--'Why,\nguardian, dost thou remove the rings from my ears?'--'Enter, my lady,\nsuch is the law of All\u00e2t.'\" And from gate to gate he removes some\nornament from the distressed lady--now her necklace with its attached\namulets, now the tunic which covers her bosom, now her enamelled girdle,\nher bracelets, and the rings on her ankles: and at length, at the\nseventh gate, takes from her her last covering. When she at length\narrives in the presence of Allat, she throws herself upon her in order\nto wrest from her in a terrible struggle the life of Dumuzi; but Allat\nsends for Namtar, her messenger of misfortune, to punish, the rebellious\nIshtar. \"Strike her eyes with the affliction of the eyes--strike\nher loins with the affliction of the loins--strike her feet with the\naffliction of the feet--strike her heart with the affliction of the\nheart--strike her head with the affliction of the head--strike violently\nat her, at her whole body!\" While Ishtar was suffering the torments of\nthe infernal regions, the world of the living was wearing mourning on\naccount of her death. In the absence of the goddess of love, the rites\nof love could no longer be performed. The passions of animals and men\nwere suspended. If she did not return quickly to the daylight, the\nraces of men and animals would become extinct, the earth would become a\ndesert, and the gods would have neither votaries nor offerings.\n\n[Illustration: 226.jpg ISHTAR DESPOILED OF HER GARMENTS IN HADES]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chald\u00e6an intaglio in the\n     Hague Museum. Salomon Reinach has demonstrated that the\n     naked figure is not the goddess herself, but a statue of the\n     goddess which was adored in one of the temples.\n\n\"Papsukal, the servant of the great gods, tore his face before\nShamash--clothed in mourning, filled with sorrow. Shamash went--he\nwept in the presence of Sin, his father,--and his tears flowed in the\npresence of Ea, the king:--'Ishtar has gone down into the earth, and\nshe has not come up again!--And ever since Ishtar has descended into\nthe land without return... [the passions of men and beasts have been\nsuspended]... the master goes to sleep while giving his command, the\nservant goes to sleep on his duty.'\" The resurrection of the goddess\nis the only remedy for such ills, but this is dependent upon the\nresurrection of Damuzi: Ishtar will never consent to reappear in the\nworld, if she cannot bring back her husband with her. Ea, the supreme\ngod, the infallible executor of the divine will--he who alone can modify\nthe laws imposed upon creation--at length decides to accord to her\nwhat she desires. \"Ea, in the wisdom of his heart, formed a male\nbeing,--formed Uddushun\u00e2mir, the servant of the gods:--'Go then,\nUddushun\u00e2mir, turn thy face towards the gate of the land without return;\n--the seven gates of the land without return--may they become open at\nthy presence--may All\u00e2t behold thee, and rejoice in thy presence! When\nher heart shall be calm, and her wrath appeased, charm her in the name\nof the great gods--turn thy thoughts to the spring'--'May the spring, my\nlady, give me of its waters that I may drink of them.'\" All\u00e2t broke\nout into a terrible rage, when she saw herself obliged to yield to her\nrival; \"she beat her sides, she gnawed her fingers,\" she broke out into\ncurses against the messenger of misfortune. \"'Thou hast expressed to me\na wish which should not be made!--Fly, Uddushun\u00e2mir, or I will shut thee\nup in the great prison--the mud of the drains of the city shall be thy\nfood--the gutters of the town shall be thy drink--the shadow of\nthe walls shall be thy abode--the thresholds shall be thy\nhabitation--confinement and isolation shall weaken thy strength.'\"* She\nis obliged to obey, notwithstanding; she calls her messenger Namtar and\ncommands him to make all the preparations for resuscitating the goddess.\nIt was necessary to break the threshold of the palace in order to get at\nthe spring, and its waters would have their full effect only in presence\nof the Anunnas. \"Namtar went, he rent open the eternal palace,--he\ntwisted the uprights so that the stones of the threshold trembled;--he\nmade the Anunnaki come forth, and seated them on thrones of gold,--he\npoured upon Ishtar the waters of life, and brought her away.\" She\nreceived again at each gate the articles of apparel she had abandoned\nin her passage across the seven circles of hell: as soon as she saw the\ndaylight once more, it was revealed to her that the fate of her husband\nwas henceforward in her own hands. Every year she must bathe him in pure\nwater, and anoint him with the most precious perfumes, clothe him in a\nrobe of mourning, and play to him sad airs upon a crystal flute, whilst\nher priestesses intoned their doleful chants, and tore their breasts\nin sorrow: his heart would then take fresh life, and his youth flourish\nonce more, from springtime to springtime, as long as she should\ncelebrate on his behalf the ceremonies already prescribed by the deities\nof the infernal world.\n\n     * It follows from this passage that Ishtar could be\n     delivered only at the cost of another life: it was for this\n     reason, doubtless, that Ea, instead of sending the ordinary\n     messenger of the gods, created a special messenger. All\u00e2t,\n     furious at the insignificance of the victim sent to her,\n     contents herself with threatening Uddushan\u00e2mir with an\n     ignominious treatment if he does not escape as quickly as\n     possible.\n\nDumuzi was a god, the lover, moreover, of a goddess, and the deity\nsucceeded where mortals failed.* Ea, Nebo, Gula, Ishtar, and their\nfellows possessed, no doubt, the faculty of recalling the dead to life,\nbut they rarely made use of it on behalf of their creatures, and their\nmost pious votaries pleaded in vain from temple to temple for the\nresurrection of their dead friends; they could never obtain the favour\nwhich had been granted by All\u00e2t to Dumuzi.\n\n     * Merodach is called \"the merciful one who takes pleasure in\n     raising the dead to life,\" and \"the lord of the pure\n     libation,\" the \"merciful one who has power to give life.\" In\n     Jeremias may be found the list of the gods who up to the\n     present are known to have had the power to resuscitate the\n     dead; it is probable that this power belonged to all the\n     gods and goddesses of the first rank.\n\n[Illustration: 229.jpg DUMUZI REJUVENATED ON THE KNEES OF ISHTAR.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chald\u00e6an intaglio.\n\nWhen the dead body was once placed in the tomb, it rose up no more, it\ncould no more be reinstated in the place in the household it had\nlost, it never could begin once more a new earthly existence. The\nnecromancers, indeed, might snatch away death's prey for a few moments.\nThe earth gaped at the words of their invocations, the soul burst forth\nlike a puff of wind and answered gloomily the questions proposed to it;\nbut when the charm was once broken, it had to retrace its steps to\nthe country without return, to be plunged once more in darkness. This\nprospect of a dreary and joyless eternity was not so terrifying to the\nChald\u00e6ans as it was to the Egyptians. The few years of their earthly\nexistence were of far more concern to them than the endless ages which\nwere to begin their monotonous course on the morrow of their funeral.\nThe sum of good and evil fortune assigned to them by destiny they\npreferred to spend continuously in the light of day on the fair plains\nof the Euphrates and Tigris: if they were to economize during this\nperiod with the view of laying up a posthumous treasure of felicity,\ntheir store would have no current value beyond the tomb, and would thus\nbecome so much waste. The gods, therefore, whom they served faithfully\nwould recoup them, here in their native city, with present prosperity,\nwith health, riches, power, glory, and a numerous offspring, for the\nofferings of their devotion; while, if they irritated the deities\nby their shortcomings, they had nothing to expect but overwhelming\ncalamities and sufferings. The gods would \"cut them down like a reed,\"\nand their \"names would be annihilated, their seed destroyed;--they would\nend their days in affliction and hunger,--their dead bodies would be at\nthe mercy of chance, and would receive no sepulture.\" They were content\nto resign themselves, therefore, to the dreary lot of eternal misery\nwhich awaited them after death, provided they enjoyed in this world a\nlong and prosperous existence. Some of them felt and rebelled against\nthe injustice of the idea, which assigned one and the same fate, without\ndiscrimination, to the coward and the hero killed on the battle-field,\nto the tyrant and the mild ruler of his people, to the wicked and\nthe righteous. These therefore supposed that the gods would make\ndistinctions, that they would separate such heroes from the common herd,\nwelcome them in a fertile, sunlit island, separated from the abode of\nmen by the waters of death--the impassable river which leads to the\nhouse of All\u00e2t. The tree of life flourished there, the spring of life\npoured forth there its revivifying waters; thither Ea transferred\nXisuthros after the Deluge; Gilgames saw the shores of this island and\nreturned from it, strong and healthy as in the days of his youth. The\nsite of this region of delights was at first placed in the centre of\nthe marshes of the Euphrates, where this river flows into the sea;\nafterwards when the country became better known, it was transferred\nbeyond the ocean. In proportion as the limits of the Chald\u00e6an\nhorizon were thrust further and further away by mercantile or warlike\nexpeditions, this mysterious island was placed more and more to the\neast, afterwards to the north, and at length at a distance so great that\nit tended to vanish altogether. As a final resource, the gods of heaven\nthemselves became the hosts, and welcomed into their own kingdom the\npurified souls of the heroes.\n\nThese souls were not so securely isolated from humanity that the\ninhabitants of the world were not at times tempted to rejoin them before\ntheir last hour had come. Just as Gilgames had dared of old the\ndangers of the desert and the ocean in order to discover the island of\nKhasisadra, so Etana darted through the air in order to ascend to the\nsky of Anu, to become incorporated while still living in the choir of\nthe blessed. The legend gives an account of his friendship with the\neagle of Shamash, and of the many favours he had obtained from and\nrendered to the bird. It happened at last, that his wife could not bring\nforth the son which lay in her womb; the hero, addressing himself to\nthe eagle, asked from her the plant which alleviates the birth-pangs\nof women and facilitates their delivery. This was only to be found,\nhowever, in the heaven of Anu, and how could any one run the risk of\nmounting so high, without being destroyed on the way by the anger of the\ngods? The eagle takes pity upon the sorrow of his comrade, and resolves\nto attempt the enterprise with him. \"'Friend,' she says, 'banish the\ncloud from thy face! Come, and I will carry thee to the heaven of the\ngod Anu. Place thy breast against my breast--place thy two hands upon\nthe pinions of my wings--place thy side against my side.' He places his\nbreast against the breast of the eagle, he places his two hands upon the\npinions of the wings, he places his side against her side;--he adjusts\nhimself firmly, and his weight was great.\" The Chald\u00e6an artists have\nmore than once represented the departure of the hero. They exhibit him\nclosely attached to the body of his ally, and holding her in a strong\nembrace. A first flight has already lifted them above the earth, and the\nshepherds scattered over the country are stupefied at the unaccustomed\nsight: one announces the prodigy to another, while their dogs seated at\ntheir feet extend their muzzles as if in the act of howling with terror.\n\"For the space of a double hour the eagle bore him--then the eagle spake\nto him, to him Etana: 'Behold, my friend, the earth what it is; regard\nthe sea which the ocean contains! See, the earth is no more than a\nmountain, and the sea is no more than a lake.' The space of a second\ndouble hour she bore him, then the eagle spake to him, to him Etana:\n'Behold, my friend, the earth what it is; the sea appears as the girdle\nof the earth! 'The space of a third double hour she bore him, then the\neagle spake to him, to him Etana: 'See, my friend, the earth, what it\nis:--the sea is no more than the rivulet made by a gardener.'\"\n\n[Illustration: 233.jpg ETANA CARRIED TO HEAVEN BY AN EAGLE.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chald\u00e6an intaglio.\n\n\"They at length arrive at the heaven of Anu, and rest there for a\nmoment. Etana sees around him nothing but empty space--no living thing\nwithin it--not even a bird: he is struck with terror, but the eagle\nreassures him, and tells him to proceed on his way to the heaven of\nIshtar. \"'Come, my friend, let me bear thee to Ishtar,--and I will place\nthee near Ishtar, the lady,--and at the feet of Ishtar, the lady, thou\nshalt throw thyself.--Place thy side against my side, place thy hands\non the pinions of my wings.' The space of a double hour she bore him:\n'Friend, behold the earth what it is.--The face of the earth stretches\nout quite flat--and the sea is no greater than a mere.' The space of\na second double hour she bore him: 'Friend, behold the earth what it\nis,--the earth is no more than a square plot in a garden, and the great\nsea is not greater than a puddle of water.'\" At the third hour Etana\nlost courage, and cried, \"Stop!\" and the eagle immediately descended\nagain; but, Etana's strength being exhausted, he let go his hold, and\nwas dashed to pieces on the ground.\n\nThe eagle escaped unhurt this time, but she soon suffered a more painful\ndeath than that of Etana. She was at war with the serpent, though the\nrecords which we as yet possess do not vouchsafe the reason, when she\ndiscovered in the roots of a tree the nest in which her enemy concealed\nits brood. She immediately proposed to her young ones to pounce down\nupon the growing snakes; one of her eaglets, wiser than the rest,\nreminded her that they were under the protection of Shamash, the great\nrighter of wrongs, and cautioned her against any transgression of the\ndivine laws. The old eagle felt herself wiser than her son, and rebuked\nhim after the manner of wise mothers: she carried away the serpent's\nyoung, and gave them as food to her own brood. The hissing serpent\ncrawled as far as Shamash, crying for vengeance: \"The evil she has done\nme, Shamash--behold it! Come to my help, Shamash! thy net is as wide as\nthe earth--thy snares reach to the distant mountain--who can escape\nthy net?--The criminal Zu, Zu who was the first to act wickedly, did he\nescape it?\" Shamash refused to interfere personally, but he pointed out\nto the serpent an artifice by which he might satisfy his vengeance as\nsecurely as if Shamash himself had accomplished it. \"Set out upon the\nway, ascend the mountain,--and conceal thyself in a dead bull;--make\nan incision in his inside--tear open his belly,--take up thy\nabode--establish thyself in his belly. All the birds of the air will\npounce upon it....--and the eagle herself will come with them, ignorant\nthat thou art within it;--she will wish to possess herself of the\nflesh, she will come swiftly--she will think of nothing but the entrails\nwithin. As soon as she begins to attack the inside, seize her by her\nwings, beat down her wings, the pinions of her wings and her claws, tear\nher and throw her into a ravine of the mountain, that she may die there\na death of hunger and thirst.\"\n\nThe serpent did as Shamash advised, and the birds of the air began to\nflock round the carcase in which she was hidden. The eagle came with the\nrest, and at first kept aloof, looking for what should happen. When she\nsaw that the birds flew away unharmed all fear left her. In vain did the\nwise eaglet warn her of the danger that was lurking within the prey; she\nmocked at him and his predictions, dug her beak into the carrion, and\nthe serpent leaping out seized her by the wing. Then \"the eagle her\nmouth opened, and spake unto the snake, 'Have mercy upon me, and\naccording to thy pleasure a gift I will lavish upon thee!' The snake\nopened her mouth and spake unto the eagle, 'Did I release thee, Shamash\nwould take part against me; and the doom would fall upon me, which now\nI fulfil upon thee.' She tore out her wings, her feathers, her pinions;\nshe tore her to pieces, she threw her into a cleft, and there she died a\ndeath of hunger and of thirst.\"\n\nThe gods allowed no living being to penetrate with impunity into their\nempire: he who was desirous of ascending thither, however brave he might\nbe, could do so only by death. The mass of humanity had no pretensions\nto mount so high. Their religion gave them the choice between a\nperpetual abode in the tomb, or confinement in the prison of All\u00e2t; if\nat times they strove to escape from these alternatives, and to picture\notherwise their condition in the world beyond, their ideas as to the\nother life continued to remain vague, and never approached the minute\nprecision of the Egyptian conception. The cares of the present life were\ntoo absorbing to allow them leisure to speculate upon the conditions of\na future existence.\n\n[Illustration: 230.jpg Endplate]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III--CHALD\u00c6AN CIVILIZATION\n\n\n_CHALD\u00c6AN CIVILIZATION--ROYALTY--THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FAMILY AND ITS\nPROPERTY--CHALMAN COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY._\n\n_The kings not gods, but the vicegerents of the gods: their sacerdotal\ncharacter--The queens and the women of the royal family: the sons and\nthe order of succession to the throne--The royal palaces: description\nof the palace of Gudea at Lagash, the fa\u00e7ades, the zigur\u00e2t, the private\napartments, the furniture, the external decoration--Costume of the\nmen and women: the employees of the palace and the method of royal\nadministration; the military and the great lords._\n\n_The scribe and the clay books.--Cuneiform writing: its hieroglyphic\norigin; the Protean character of the sounds which may be assigned to the\nideograms, grammatical tablets, and dictionaries--Their contracts, and\ntheir numerous copies of them: the finger-nail mark, the seal._\n\n_The constitution of the family: the position held by the\nwife--Marriage, the contract, the religious ceremonies--Divorce:\nthe rights of wealthy women; woman and marriage among the lower\nclasses--Adopted children, their position in the family; ordinary\nmotives for adoption--Slaves, their condition, their enfranchisement._\n\n_The Chald\u00e6an towns: the aspect and distribution of the houses, domestic\nlife--The family patrimony: division of the inheritance--Lending\non usury, the rate of interest, commercial intercourse by land and\nsea--Trade corporations: brick-making, industrial implements in stone\nand metal, goldsmiths, engravers of cylinders, weavers; the state of the\nworking classes._\n\n_Farming and cultivation of the ground: landmarks, slaves,\nand agricultural labourers--Scenes of pastoral life: fishing,\nhunting--Archaic literature; positive sciences: arithmetic and geometry,\nastronomy and astrology, the science of foretelling the future--The\nphysician; magic and its influence on neighbouring countries._\n\n[Illustration: 239.jpg CHAPTER III.]\n\n     Drawn by Boudier, from the sketch by Loftus. The initial\n     vignette, which is by Faucher-Gudin, represents a royal\n     figure kneeling and holding a large nail in both hands. The\n     nail serves to keep the figure fixed firmly in the earth. It\n     is a reproduction of the bronze figurine in the Louvre,\n     already published by Heuzey-Sakzeo, _D\u00e9couvertes en\n     Chald\u00e9e_, pl. 28, No. 4.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III--CHALD\u00c6AN CIVILIZATION\n\n\n_Royalty--The constitution of the family and its property--Chald\u00e6an\ncommerce and industry_.\n\n\nThe Chald\u00e6an kings, unlike their contemporaries the Pharaohs, rarely\nput forward any pretensions to divinity. They contented themselves with\noccupying an intermediate position between their subjects and the gods,\nand for the purpose of mediation they believed themselves to be endowed\nwith powers not possessed by ordinary mortals. They sometimes designated\nthemselves the sons of Ea, or of N\u00eensun, or some other deity, but\nthis involved no belief in a divine parentage, and was merely pious\nhyperbole: they entertained no illusions with regard to any descent from\na god or even from one of his doubles, but they desired to be recognized\nas his vicegerents here below, as his prophets, his well-beloved,\nhis pastors, elected by him to rule his human flocks, or as priests\ndevotedly attached to his service. While, however, the ordinary priest\nchose for himself a single master to whom he devoted himself, the\npriest-king exercised universal sacerdotal functions and claimed to be\npontiff of all the national religions. His choice naturally was directed\nby preference to the patrons of his city, those who had raised his\nancestors from the dust, and had exalted him to the supreme rank, but\nthere were other divinities who claimed their share of his homage\nand expected of him a devotion suited to their importance. If he had\nattempted to carry out these duties personally in detail, he would have\nhad to spend his whole life at the foot of the altar; even when he had\ndelegated as many of them as he could to the regular clergy, there still\nremained sufficient to occupy a large part of his time. Every month,\nevery day, brought its inevitable round of sacrifices, prayers, and\nprocessions. On the 1st of the second Elul, the King of Babylon had to\npresent a gazelle without blemish to Sin; he then made an offering of\nhis own choosing to Shamash, and cut the throats of his victims\nbefore the god. These ceremonies were repeated on the 2nd without any\nalteration, but from the 3rd to the 12th they took place during the\nnight, before the statues of Merodach and Ishtar, in turn with those\nof Nebo and Tashmit, of Mullil and Ninlil, of Eamman and of Zirbanit;\nsometimes at the rising of a particular constellation--as, for instance,\nthat of the Great Bear, or that of the sons of Ishtar; sometimes at the\nmoment when the moon \"raised above the earth her luminous crown.\" On such\na date a penitential psalm or a litany was to be recited; at another\ntime it was forbidden to eat of meat either cooked or smoked, to change\nthe body-linen, to wear white garments, to drink medicine, to sacrifice,\nto put forth an edict, or to drive out in a chariot. Not only at\nBabylon, but everywhere else, obedience to the religious rites weighed\nheavily on the local princes; at Uru, at Lagash, at Nipur, and in\nthe ruling cities of Upper and Lower Chald\u00e6a. The king, as soon as he\nsucceeded to the throne, repaired to the temple to receive his solemn\ninvestiture, which differed in form according to the gods he worshipped:\nat Babylon, he addressed himself to the statue of Bel-Merodach in the\nfirst days of the month Nisan which followed his accession, and he \"took\nhim by the hands\" to do homage to him. From thenceforth, he officiated\nfor Merodach here below, and the scrupulously minute devotions, which\ndaily occupied hours of his time, were so many acts of allegiance which\nhis fealty as a vassal constrained him to perform to his suzerain. They\nwere, in fact, analogous to the daily audiences demanded of a great\nlord by his steward, for the purpose of rendering his accounts and of\ninforming him of current business: any interruption not justified by a\nmatter of supreme importance would be liable to be interpreted as a want\nof respect or as revealing an inclination to rebel. By neglecting the\nslightest ceremonial detail the king would arouse the suspicions of\nthe gods, and excite their anger against himself and his subjects: the\npeople had, therefore, a direct interest in his careful fulfilment of\nthe priestly functions, and his piety was not the least of his virtues\nin their eyes. All other virtues--bravery, equity, justice--depended on\nit, and were only valuable from the divine aid which piety obtained for\nthem. The gods and heroes of the earliest ages had taken upon themselves\nthe task of protecting the faithful from all their enemies, whether men\nor beasts. If a lion decimated their flocks, or a urus of gigantic size\ndevastated their crops, it was the king's duty to follow the example\nof his fabulous predecessors and to set out and overcome them. The\nenterprise demanded all the more courage and supernatural help, since\nthese beasts were believed to be no mere ordinary animals, but were\nlooked on as instruments of divine wrath the cause of which was often\nunknown, and whoever assailed these monsters, provoked not only them but\nthe god who instigated them. Piety and confidence in the patron of the\ncity alone sustained the king when he set forth to drive the animal back\nto its lair; he engaged in close combat with it, and no sooner had he\npierced it with his arrows or his lance, or felled it with axe and\ndagger, than he hastened to pour a libation upon it, and to dedicate it\nas a trophy in one of the temples. His exalted position entailed on him\nno less perils in time of war: if he did not personally direct the first\nattacking column, he placed himself at the head of the band composed of\nthe flower of the army, whose charge at an opportune moment was wont to\nsecure the victory.\n\nWhat would have been the use of his valour, if the dread of the gods had\nnot preceded his march, and if the light of their countenances had not\nstruck terror into the ranks of the enemy? As soon as he had triumphed\nby their command, he sought before all else to reward them amply for the\nassistance they had given him. He poured a tithe of the spoil into the\ncoffers of their treasury, he made over a part of the conquered country\nto their domain, he granted them a tale of the prisoners to cultivate\ntheir lands or to work at their buildings. Even the idols of the\nvanquished shared the fate of their people: the king tore them from\nthe sanctuaries which had hitherto sheltered them, and took them as\nprisoners in his train to form a court of captive gods about his patron\ndivinity. Shamash, the great judge of heaven, inspired him with justice,\nand the prosperity which his good administration obtained for the people\nwas less the work of the sovereign than that of the immortals.\n\nWe know too little of the inner family life of the kings, to attempt\nto say how they were able to combine the strict sacerdotal obligations\nincumbent on them with the routine of daily life. We merely observe that\non great days of festival or sacrifice, when they themselves officiated,\nthey laid aside all the insignia of royalty during the ceremony and were\nclad as ordinary priests. We see them on such occasions represented\nwith short-cut hair and naked breast, the loin-cloth about their waist,\nadvancing foremost in the rank, carrying the heavily laden \"kufa,\" or\nreed basket, as if they were ordinary slaves; and, as a fact, they\nhad for the moment put aside their sovereignty and were merely temple\nservants, or slaves appearing before their divine master to do his\nbidding, and disguising themselves for the nonce in the garb of\nservitors. The wives of the sovereign do not seem to have been invested\nwith that semi-sacred character which led the Egyptian women to be\nassociated with the devotions of the man, and made them indispensable\nauxiliaries in all religious ceremonies; they did not, moreover, occupy\nthat important position side by side with the man which the Egyptian\nlaw assigned to the queens of the Pharaohs. Whereas the monuments on the\nbanks of the Nile reveal to us princesses sharing the throne of their\nhusbands whom they embrace with a gesture of frank affection, in Chald\u00e6a\nthe wives of the prince, his mother, sisters, daughters, and even his\nslaves, remain invisible to posterity.\n\n[Illustration: 244.jpg THE KING URNINA BEARING THE \"KUFA.\"]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Heuzey Sarzec.\n\nThe harem in which they were shut up by custom, rarely opened its doors:\nthe people seldom caught sight of them, their relatives spoke of them\nas little as possible, those in power avoided associating them in any\npublic acts of worship or government, and we could count on our fingers\nthe number of those whom the inscriptions mention by name. Some of them\nwere drawn from the noble families of the capital, others came from the\nkingdoms of Chald\u00e6a or from foreign courts; a certain number never rose\nabove the condition of mere concubines, many assumed the title of queen,\nwhile almost all served as living pledges of alliances made with rival\nstates, or had been given as hostages at the concluding of a peace on\nthe termination of a war.* As the kings, who put forward no pretensions\nto a divine origin, were not constrained, after the fashion of the\nPharaohs, to marry their sisters in order to keep up the purity of their\nrace, it was rare to find one among their wives who possessed an equal\nright to the crown with themselves: such a case could be found only in\ntroublous times, when an aspirant to the throne, of base extraction,\nlegitimated his usurpation by marrying a sister or daughter of his\npredecessor.\n\n     * Political marriage-alliances between Egypt and Chald\u00e6a\n     were of frequent occurrence, according to the Tel el-Amarna\n     tablets, and at a later period between Chald\u00e6a and Assyria;\n     among the few queens of the very earliest times, the wife of\n     Nammaghani is the daughter of Urbau, vicegerent of Lagash,\n     and consequently the cousin or niece of her husband, while\n     the wife of Rimsin appears to be the daughter of a nobleman\n     of the name of Rimnannar.\n\nThe original status of the mother almost always determined that of her\nchildren, and the sons of a princess were born princes, even if their\nfather were of obscure or unknown origin.* These princes exercised\nimportant functions at court, or they received possessions which\nthey administered under the suzerainty of the head of the family;\nthe daughters were given to foreign kings, or to scions of the most\ndistinguished families. The sovereign was under no obligation to hand\ndown his crown to any particular member of his family; the eldest son\nusually succeeded him, but the king could, if he preferred, select his\nfavourite child as his successor even if he happened to be the youngest,\nor the only one born of a slave. As soon as the sovereign had made known\nhis will, the custom of primogeniture was set aside, and his word became\nlaw. We can well imagine the secret intrigues formed both by mothers and\nsons to curry favour with the father and bias his choice; we can picture\nthe jealousy with which they mutually watched each other, and the bitter\nhatred which any preference shown to one would arouse in the breasts\nof all the others. Often brothers who had been disappointed in their\nexpectations would combine secretly against the chosen or supposed heir;\na conspiracy would break out, and the people suddenly learn that their\nruler of yesterday had died by the hand of an assassin and that a new\none filled his place.\n\n     * This fact is apparent from the introduction to the\n     inscription in which Sargon I. is supposed to give an\n     account of his life: \"My father was unknown, my mother was a\n     princess;\" and it was, indeed, from his mother that he\n     inherited his rights to the crown of Agade.\n\nSometimes discontent spread beyond the confines of the palace, the army\nbecame divided into two hostile camps, the citizens took the side of one\nor other of the aspirants, and civil war raged for several years till\nsome decisive action brought it to a close. Meantime tributary vassals\ntook advantage of the consequent disorder to shake off the yoke, the\nBlamites and various neighbouring cities joined in the dispute and\nranged themselves on the side of the party from which there was most\nto be gained: the victorious faction always had to pay dearly for this\nsomewhat dubious help, and came out impoverished from the struggle. Such\nan internecine war often caused the downfall of a dynasty--at times,\nindeed, that of the entire state.*\n\n     * The above is perfectly true of the later Assyrian and\n     Chal\u00e6an periods: it is scarcely needful to recall to the\n     reader the murders of Sargon II. and Sennacherib, or the\n     revolt of Assurda\u00eenpal against his father Shalmaneser III.\n     With regard to the earliest period we have merely\n     indications of what took place; the succession of King\n     Urnina of Lagash appears to have been accompanied by\n     troubles of this kind, and it is certain that his successor\n     Akurgal was not the eldest of his sons, but we do not at\n     present know to what events Akurgal owed his elevation.\n\nThe palaces of the Chald\u00e6an kings, like those of the Egyptians,\npresented the appearance of an actual citadel: the walls had to be\nsufficiently thick to withstand an army for an indefinite period, and\nto protect the garrison from every emergency, except that of treason or\nfamine. One of the statues found at Telloh holds in its lap the plan\nof one of these residences: the external outline alone is given, but by\nmeans of it we can easily picture to ourselves a fortified place, with\nits towers, its forts, and its gateways placed between two bastions.\nIt represents the ancient palace of Lagash, subsequently enlarged and\naltered by Oudea or one of the vicegerents who succeeded him, in which\nmany a great lord of the place must have resided down to the time of the\nChristian era. The site on which it was built in the Girsu quarter of.\nthe city was not entirely unoccupied at the time of its foundation.\nUrbau had raised a ziggurat on that very spot some centuries previously,\nand the walls which he had constructed were falling into ruin.\n\n[Illustration: 248.jpg THE PLAN OF A PALACE BUILT BY GUDEA.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Heuzey-Sarzec. The plan is\n     traced upon the tablet held in the lap of Statue E in the\n     Louvre. Below the plan can be seen the ruler marked with the\n     divisions used by the architect for drawing his designs to\n     the desired scale; the scribe's stylus is represented lying\n     on the left of the plan. [Prof. P\u00e9trie has shown that the\n     unit of measurement represented on this ruler is the cubit\n     of the Pyramid-builders of Egypt.--Te.]\n\nGudea did not destroy the work of his remote predecessor, he merely\nincorporated it into the substructures of the new building, thus\nshowing an indifference similar to that evinced by the Pharaohs for the\nmonuments of a former dynasty. The palaces, like the temples, never\nrose directly from the soil, but were invariably built on the top of an\nartificial mound of crude brick. At Lagash, this solid platform rises to\nthe height of 40 feet above the plain, and the only means of access\nto the top is by a single narrow steep staircase, easily cut off or\ndefended.\n\n[Illustration: 249.jpg TERRA-COTTA BARREL-right]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the facsimile by Place.\n\nThe palace which surmounts this artificial eminence describes a sort of\nirregular rectangle, 174 feet long by 69 feet wide, and had, contrary\nto the custom in Egypt, the four angles orientated to the four cardinal\npoints. The two principal sides are not parallel, but swell out slightly\ntowards the middle, and the flexion of the lines almost follows the\ncontour of one of those little clay cones upon which the kings were wont\nto inscribe their annals or dedications. This flexure was probably\nnot intentional on the part of the architect, but was owing to the\ndifficulty of keeping a wall of such considerable extent in a straight\nline from one end to another; and all Eastern nations, whether Chald\u00e6ans\nor Egyptians, troubled themselves but little about correctness of\nalignment, since defects of this kind were scarcely ever perceptible in\nthe actual edifice, and are only clearly revealed in the plan drawn out\nto scale with modern precision.*\n\n     * Mons. Heuzey thinks that the outward deflection of the\n     lines is owing \"merely to a primitive method of obtaining\n     greater solidity of construction, and of giving a better\n     foundation to these long fa\u00e7ades, which are placed upon\n     artificial terraces of crude brick always subject to cracks\n     and settlements.\" I think that the explanation of the facts\n     which I have given in the text is simpler than that\n     ingeniously proposed by Mons. Heuzey: the masons, having\n     begun to build the wall at one end, were unable to carry it\n     on in a straight line until it reached the spot denoted on\n     the architect's plan, and therefore altered the direction of\n     the wall when they detected their error; or, having begun to\n     build the wall from both ends simultaneously, were not\n     successful in making the two lines meet correctly, and they\n     have frankly patched up the junction by a mass of projecting\n     brickwork which conceals their unskilfulness.\n\n[Illustration: 250.jpg PLAN OF THE EXISTING BUILDINGS OF TELLOH.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Heuzey-Sarzec.\n\nThe fa\u00e7ade of the building faces south-east, and is divided into three\nblocks of unequal size. The centre of the middle block for a length\nof 18 feet projects some 3 feet from the main front, and, by directly\nfacing the spectator, ingeniously masks the obtuse angle formed by the\nmeeting of the two walls. This projection is flanked right and left by\nrectangular grooves, similar to those which ornament the fa\u00e7ades of the\nfortresses and brick houses of the Ancient Empire in Egypt: the regular\nalternation of projections and hollows breaks the monotony of the facing\nby the play of light and shade. Beyond these, again, the wall surface\nis broken by semicircular pilasters some 17 inches in diameter, without\nbases, capitals, or even a moulding, but placed side by side like so\nmany tree-trunks or posts forming a palisade.\n\n[Illustration: 251.jpg DECORATION OF COLOURED CONES ON THE FA\u00c7ADE AT URUK]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the sketch by Loftus.\n\nVarious schemes of decoration succeed each other in progressive\nsequence, less ornate and at greater distances apart, the further\nthey recede from the central block and the nearer they approach to the\nextremities of the fa\u00e7ade. They stop short at the southern angle, and\nthe two sides of the edifice running from south to west, and again from\nwest to north, are flat, bare surfaces, unbroken by projection or groove\nto relieve the poverty and monotony of their appearance. The decoration\nreappears on the north-east front, where the arrangement of the\nprincipal fa\u00e7ade is partly reproduced. The grooved divisions here start\nfrom the angles, and the engaged columns are wanting, or rather they\nare transferred to the central projection, and from a distance have the\neffect of a row of gigantic organ-pipes. We may well ask if this squat\nand heavy mass of building, which must have attracted the eye from all\nparts of the town, had nothing to relieve the dull and dismal colour of\nits component bricks.\n\n[Illustration: 252.jpg PILASTERS OF THE FACADE OF GUDEA'S PALACE]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Heuzey-Sarzec\n\nThe idea might not have occurred to us had we not found elsewhere an\nattempt to lessen the gloomy appearance of the architecture by coloured\nplastering. At Uruk, the walls of the palace are decorated by means of\nterra-cotta cones, fixed deep into the solid plaster and painted red,\nblack, or yellow, forming interlaced or diaper patterns of chevrons,\nspirals, lozenges, and triangles, with a very fair result: this mosaic\nof coloured plaster covered all the surfaces, both flat and curved,\ngiving to the building a cheerful aspect entirely wanting in that of\nLagash.\n\nA long narrow trough of yellowish limestone stood in front of the\npalace, and was raised on two steps: it was carved in relief on the\noutside with figures of women standing with outstretched hands, passing\nto each other vases from which gushed forth two streams of water. This\ntrough formed a reservoir, which was filled every morning for the use of\nthe men and beasts, and those whom some business or a command brought to\nthe palace could refresh themselves there while waiting to be received\nby the master. The gates which gave access to the interior were placed\nat somewhat irregular intervals: two opened from the principal fa\u00e7ade,\nbut on each of the other sides there was only one entrance. They were\narched and so low that admittance was not easily gained; they were\nclosed with two-leaved doors of cedar or cypress, provided with bronze\nhinges, which turned upon two blackish stones firmly set in the masonry\non either side, and usually inscribed with the name of the founder or\nthat of the reigning sovereign. Two of the entrances possessed a sort\nof covered way, in which the soldiers of the external watch could take\nshelter from the heat of the sun by day, from the cold at night, and\nfrom the dews at dawn. On crossing the threshold, a corridor, flanked\nwith two small rooms for porters or warders, led into a courtyard\nsurrounded with buildings of sufficient depth to take up nearly half\nof the area enclosed within the walls. This court was moreover a\nsemi-public place, to which tradesmen, merchants, suppliants, and\nfunctionaries of all ranks had easy access. A suite of three rooms shut\noff in the north-east angle did duty for a magazine or arsenal. The\nsouthern portion of the building was occupied by the State apartments,\nthe largest of which measures only 40 feet in length. In these rooms\nGudea and his successors gave audience to their nobles and administered\njustice. The administrative officers and the staff who had charge of\nthem were probably located in the remaining part of the building. The\nroof was flat, and ran all round the enclosing wall, forming a terrace,\naccess to it being gained by a staircase built between the principal\nentrance and the arsenal. At the northern angle rose a ziggurat. Custom\ndemanded that the sovereign should possess a temple within his dwelling,\nwhere he could fulfil his religious duties without going into the town\nand mixing with the crowd. At Lagash the sacred tower was of older date\nthan the palace, and possibly formed part of the ancient building of\nUrbau. It was originally composed of three stories, but the lower one\nwas altered by Gudea, and disappeared entirely in the thickness of the\nbasal platform. The second story thus became the bottom one; it was\nenlarged, slightly raised above the neighbouring roofs, and was probably\ncrowned by a sanctuary dedicated to Ningirsu. It was, indeed, a monument\nof modest proportions, and most of the public temples soared far above\nit; but, small as it was, the whole town might be seen from the summit,\nwith its separate quarters and its belt of gardens; and beyond, the\nopen country intersected with streams, studded with isolated villages,\npatches of wood, pools and weedy marshes left by the retiring\ninundation, and in the far distance the lines of trees and bushes which\nbordered the banks of the Euphrates and its confluents. Should a troop\nof enemies venture within the range of sight, or should a suspicious\ntumult arise within the city, the watchers posted on the highest terrace\nwould immediately give the alarm, and 'through their warning the king\nwould have time to close his gates, and take measures to resist the\ninvading enemy or crush the revolt of his subjects.\n\n[Illustration: 255.jpg STONE SOCKET OF ONE OF THE DOORS IN THE PALACE OF\nGUDEA.( right)]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Heuzey-Sarzec.\n\nThe northern apartments of the palace were appropriated to Gudea and his\nfamily. They were placed with their back to the entrance court, and\nwere divided into two groups; the sovereign, his male children and their\nattendants, inhabited the western one, while the women and their slaves\nwere cloistered, so to speak, in the northern set. The royal dwelling\nhad an external exit by means of a passage issuing on the north-west of\nthe enclosure, and it also communicated with the great courtyard by a\nvaulted corridor which ran along one side of the base of the ziggurat:\nthe doors which, closed these two entrances opened wide enough to admit\nonly one person at a time, and to the right and left were recesses in\nthe wall which enabled the guards to examine all comers unobserved, and\nstab them promptly if there were anything suspicious in their behaviour.\nEight chambers were lighted from the courtyard. In one of them were kept\nall the provisions for the day, while another served as a kitchen:\nthe head, cook carried on his work at a sort of rectangular dresser of\nmoderate size, on which several fireplaces were marked out by little\ndividing walls of burnt bricks, to accommodate as many pots or pans\nof various sizes. A well sunk in the corner right down below the\nsubstructure provided the water needed for culinary purposes. The king\nand his belongings accommodated themselves in the remaining five or six\nrooms as best they could. A corridor, guarded as carefully as the one\npreviously described, led to his private apartments and to those of his\nwives: these comprised a yard, some half-dozen cells varying in size,\na kitchen, a well, and a door through which the servants could come and\ngo, without passing through the men's quarters. The whole description in\nno way corresponds with the marvellous ideal of an Oriental palace which\nwe form for ourselves: the apartments are mean and dismal, imperfectly\nlighted by the door or by some small aperture timidly cut in the\nceiling, arranged so as to protect the inmates from the heat and\ndust, but without a thought given to luxury or display. The walls were\nentirely void of any cedar woodwork inlaid with gold, or panels of\nmosaic such as we find in the temples, nor were they hung with dyed or\nembroidered draperies such as we moderns love to imagine, and which we\nspread about in profusion, when we attempt to reproduce the interior of\nan ancient house or palace.*\n\n     * Mons. de Sarzec expressly states that he was unable to\n     find anywhere in the palace of Gudea \"the slightest trace of\n     any coating on the walls, either of colour or glazed brick.\n     The walls appear to have been left bare, without any\n     decoration except the regular joining of the courses of\n     brickwork.\" The wood panelling was usually reserved for the\n     temples or sacred edifices: Mons. de Sarzec found the\n     remains of carbonized cedar panels in the ruins of a\n     sanctuary dedicated to Ningirsu. According to Mons. Heuzey,\n     the wall-hangings were probably covered with geometrical\n     designs, similar to tho\u00abe formed by the terra-cotta cones on\n     the walls of the palace at Uruk; the inscriptions, however,\n     which are full of minute details with regard to the\n     construction and ornamentation of the temples and palaces,\n     have hitherto contained nothing which would lead us to infer\n     that hangings were used for mural decoration in Chaldoa or\n     Assyria.\n\nThe walls had to remain bare for the sake of coolness: at the most they\nwere only covered with a coat of white plaster, on which were painted,\nin one or two colours, some scene of civil or religious life, or troops\nof fantastic monsters struggling with one another, or men each with a\nbird seated on his Wrist. The furniture was not less scanty than the\ndecoration; there were mats on the ground, coffers in which were kept\nthe linen and wearing apparel, low beds inlaid with ivory and metal and\nprovided with coverings and a thin mattress, copper or wooden stands to\nsupport lamps or vases, square stools on four legs united by crossbars,\narmchairs with lions' claw feet, resembling the Egyptian armchairs\nin outline, and making us ask if they were brought into Chaldaea by\ncaravans, or made from models which had come from some other country.\nA few rare objects of artistic character might be found, which bore\nwitness to a certain taste for elegance and refinement; as, for\ninstance, a kind of circular trough of black stone, probably used to\nsupport a vase. Three rows of imbricated scales surrounded the base of\nthis, while seven small sitting figures lean back against the upper\npart with an air of satisfaction which is most cleverly rendered.\nThe decoration of the larger chambers used for public receptions and\nofficial ceremonies, while never assuming the monumental character which\nwe observe in contemporary Egyptian buildings, afforded more scope for\nrichness and variety than was offered by the living-rooms.\n\n[Illustration: 258.jpg STAND OF BLACK STONE FROM THE PALACE OF TELLOH.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Heuzey-Sarzec.\n\nSmall tablets of brownish limestone, let into the wall or affixed to\nits surface by terra-cotta pegs, and decorated with inscriptions,\nrepresented in a more or less artless fashion the figure of the\nsovereign officiating before some divinity, while his children and\nservants took part in the ceremony by their chanting. Inscribed\nbricks celebrating the king's exploits were placed here and there in\nconspicuous places. These were not embedded like the others in two\nlayers of bitumen or lime, but were placed in full view upon bronze\nstatues of divinities or priests, fixed into the ground or into some\npart of the masonry as magical nails destined to preserve the bricks\nfrom destruction, and consequently to keep the memory of the dedicator\ncontinually before posterity. Stelaa engraved on both sides recalled the\nwars of past times, the battle-field, the scenes of horror which took\nplace there, and the return of the victor and his triumph. Sitting\nor standing figures of diorite, silicious sandstone or hard limestone,\nbearing inscriptions on their robes or shoulders, perpetuated the\nfeatures of the founder or of members of his family, and commemorated\nthe pious donations which had obtained for him the favour of the gods:\nthe palace of Lagash contained dozens of such statues, several of which\nhave come down to us almost intact--one of the ancient Urbau, and nine\nof Gudea.\n\nTo judge by the space covered and the arrangement of the rooms, the\nvicegerents of Lagash and the chiefs of towns of minor importance\nmust, as a rule, have been content with a comparatively small number of\nservants; their court probably resembled that of the Egyptian barons who\nlived much about the same period, such as Khn\u00fbmhotp\u00fb of the nome of the\nGazelle, or Thothotp\u00fb of Hermopolis. In great cities such as Babylon\nthe palace occupied a much larger area, and the crowd of courtiers was\ndoubtless as great as that which thronged about the Pharaohs. No exact\nenumeration of them has come down to us, but the titles which we come\nacross show with what minuteness they defined the offices about the\nperson of the sovereign. His costume alone required almost as many\npersons as there were garments. The men wore the light loin-cloth or\nshort-sleeved tunic which scarcely covered the knees; after the fashion\nof the Egyptians, they threw over the loin-cloth and the tunic a large\n\"abayah,\" whose shape and material varied with the caprice of fashion.\nThey often chose for this purpose a sort of shawl of a plain material,\nfringed or ornamented with a flat stripe round the edge; often they seem\nto have preferred it ribbed, or artificially kilted from top to bottom.*\n\n     * The relatively modern costume was described by Herodotus,\n     i. 114; it was almost identical with the ancient one, as\n     proved by the representations on the cylinders and monuments\n     of Telloh. The short-sleeved tunic is more rarely\n     represented, and the loin-cloth is usually hidden under the\n     abayah in the case of nobles and kings. We see the princes\n     of Lagash wearing the simple loin-cloth, on the monuments of\n     Urnin\u00e2, for example. For the Egyptian abayah, and the manner\n     of representing it, cf. vol. i. pp. 69, 71.\n\nThe favourite material in ancient times, however, seems to have been\na hairy, shaggy cloth or woollen stuff, whose close fleecy thread hung\nsometimes straight, sometimes crimped or waved, in regular rows like\nflounces one above another. This could be arranged squarely around the\nneck, like a mantel, but was more often draped crosswise over the left\nshoulder and brought under the right arm-pit, so as to leave the upper\npart of the breast and the arm bare on that side. It made a convenient\nand useful garment--an excellent protection in summer from the sun, and\nfrom the icy north wind in the winter. The feet were shod with sandals,\na tight-fitting cap covered the head, and round it was rolled a thick\nstrip of linen, forming a sort of rudimentary turban, which completed\nthe costume.*\n\n     *Cf. the head belonging to one of the statues of Telloh,\n     which is reproduced on p. 112 of this volume. We notice the\n     same head-dress on several intaglios and monuments, and also\n     on the terra-cotta plaque which will be found on p. 330 of\n     this volume, and which represents a herdsman wrestling with\n     a lion. Until we have further evidence, we cannot state, as\n     G. Raw-linson did, that this strip forming a turban was of\n     camel's hair; the date of the introduction of the camel into\n     Chaldoa still remains uncertain.\n\nIt is questionable whether, as in Egypt, wigs and false beards formed\npart of the toilette. On some monuments we notice smooth faces and\nclose-cropped heads; on others the men appear with long hair, either\nfalling loose or twisted into a knot on the back of the neck.* While\nthe Egyptians delighted in garments of thin white linen, but slightly\nplaited or crimped, the dwellers on the banks of the Euphrates preferred\nthick and heavy stuffs patterned and striped with many colours. The\nkings wore the same costume as their subjects, but composed of richer\nand finer materials, dyed red or blue, decorated with floral, animal,\nor geometrical designs;** a high tower-shaped tiara covered the\nforehead,*** unless replaced by a diadem of Sin or some of the other\ngods, which was a conical mitre supporting a double pair of horns, and\nsometimes surmounted by a sort of diadem of feathers and mysterious\nfigures, embroidered or painted on the cap. Their arms were loaded with\nmassive bracelets and their fingers with rings; they wore necklaces and\nearrings, and carried each a dagger in the belt.\n\n     * Dignitaries went bareheaded and shaved the chin; see, for\n     example, the two bas-reliefs given on pp. 105 and 244 of\n     this volume; cf. the heads reproduced as tailpieces on pp.\n     2, 124. The knot of hair behind on the central figure is\n     easily distinguished in the vignette on p. 266 of this\n     volume.\n\n     ** The details of colour and ornamentation, not furnished by\n     the Chald\u00e6an monuments, are given in the wall-painting at\n     Beni-Nasan representing the arrival of Asiatics in Egypt,\n     which belongs to a period contemporary with or slightly\n     anterior to the reign of Gudea. The resemblance of the\n     stuffs in which they are clothed to those of the Chald\u00e6an\n     garments, and the identity of the patterns on them with the\n     geometrical decoration of painted cones on the palace at\n     Uruk, have been pointed out with justice by H. G. Tomkins\n\n     *** The high tiara is represented among others on the head\n     of Mardukna-dinakhe, King of Babylon: cf. what is said of\n     the conical mitre, the headdress of Sin, on pp. 14, 169 of\n     this volume.\n\n[Illustration: 262.jpg FEMALE SERVANT BARE TO THE WAIST.(left)]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the bronze figure in the\n     Louvre, published by Heuzey-Sarzec, _D\u00e9couvertes en\n     Chald\u00e9e_, pl. 14.\n\nThe royal wardrobe, jewels, arms, and insignia formed so many distinct\ndepartments, and each was further divided into minor sections for\nbody-linen, washing, or for this or that kind of headdress or sceptre.\nThe dress of the women, which was singularly like that of the men,\nrequired no less a staff of attendants. The female servants, as well\nas the male, went about bare to the waist, at all events while working\nindoors. When they went out, they wore the same sort of tunic or\nloin-cloth, but longer and more resembling a petticoat; they had the\nsame \"abayah\" drawn round the shoulders or rolled about the body like\na cloak, but with the women it nearly touched the ground; sometimes an\nactual dress seems to have been substituted for the \"abayah,\" drawn in\nto the figure by a belt and cut out of the same hairy material as that\nof which the mantles were made. The boots were of soft leather, laced,\nand without heels; the women's ornaments were more numerous than those\nof the men, and comprised necklaces, bracelets, ankle, finger, and ear\nrings; their hair was separated into bands and kept in place on the\nforehead by a fillet, falling in thick plaits or twisted into a coil on\nthe nape of the neck.\n\n[Illustration: 262.jpg COSTUME OF A CHALD\u00c6N LADY (right)]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the alabaster statuette in the\n     Louvre, published in Heuzey. She holds in her hand the jar\n     full of water, analogous to the streaming vase mentioned\n     above.\n\nA great deal of the work was performed by foreign or native slaves,\ngenerally under the command of eunuchs, to whom the king and royal\nprinces entrusted most of the superintendence of their domestic\narrangements; they guarded and looked after the sleeping apartments,\nthey fanned and kept the flies from their master, and handed him his\nfood and drink. Eunuchs in Egypt were either unknown or but little\nesteemed: they never seem to have been used, even in times when\nrelations with Asia were of daily occurrence, and when they might have\nbeen supplied from the Babylonian slave-markets.\n\nAll these various officials closely attached to the person of the\nsovereign--heads of the wardrobe, chamberlains, cupbearers, bearers of\nthe royal sword or of the flabella, commanders of the eunuchs or of\nthe guards--had, by the nature of their duties, daily opportunities of\ngaining a direct influence over their master and his government,\nand from among them he often chose the generals of his army or the\nadministrators of his domains. Here, again, as far as the few\nmonuments and the obscurity of the texts permit of our judging, we find\nindications of a civil and military organization analogous to that\nof Egypt: the divergencies which contemporaries may have been able to\ndetect in the two national systems are effaced by the distance of\ntime, and we are struck merely by the resemblances. As all business\ntransactions were carried on by barter or by the exchange of merchandise\nfor weighed quantities of the precious metals, the taxes were\nconsequently paid in kind: the principal media being corn and other\ncereals, dates, fruits, stuffs, live animals and slaves, as well as\ngold, silver, lead, and copper, either in its native state or melted\ninto bars fashioned into implements or ornamented vases. Hence we\ncontinually come across fiscal storehouses, both in town and country,\nwhich demanded the services of a whole troop of functionaries and\nworkmen: administrators of corn, cattle, precious metals, wine and oil;\nin fine, as many administrators as there were cultures or industries in\nthe country presided over the gathering of the products into the\ncentral depots and regulated their redistribution. A certain portion\nwas reserved for the salaries of the employ\u00e9s and the pay of the workmen\nengaged in executing public works: the surplus accumulated in the\ntreasury and formed a reserve, which was not drawn upon except in cases\nof extreme necessity. Every palace, in addition to its living-rooms,\ncontained within its walls large store-chambers filled with provisions\nand weapons, which made it more or less a fortress, furnished with\nindispensable requisites for sustaining a prolonged siege either against\nan enemy's troops or the king's own subjects in revolt. The king always\nkept about him bodies of soldiers who perhaps were foreign mercenaries,\nlike the Mazai\u00fb of the armies of the Pharaohs, and who formed his\npermanent body-guard in times of peace. When a war was imminent, a\nmilitary levy was made upon his domains, but we are unable to find out\nwhether the recruits thus raised were drawn indiscriminately from the\npopulation in general, or merely from a special class, analogous to that\nof the warriors which we find in Egypt, who were paid in the same way by\ngrants of land. The equipment of these soldiers was of the rudest kind:\nthey had no cuirass, but carried a rectangular shield, and, in the case\nof those of higher rank at all events, a conical metal helmet, probably\nof beaten copper, provided with a piece to protect the back of the neck;\nthe heavy infantry were armed with a pike tipped with bronze ox-copper,\nan axe or sharp adze, a stone-headed mace, and a dagger; the light\ntroops were provided only with the bow and sling. As early as the third\nmillennium b.c., the king went to battle in a chariot drawn by onagers,\nor perhaps horses; he had his own peculiar weapon, which was a curved\nb\u00e2ton probably terminating in a metal point, and resembling the sceptre\nof the Pharaohs. Considerable quantities of all these arms were stored\nin the arsenals, which contained depots for bows, maces, and pikes, and\neven the stones needed for the slings had their special department for\nstorage. At the beginning of each campaign, a distribution of weapons\nto the newly levied troops took place; but as soon as the war was at an\nend, the men brought back their accoutrements, which were stored till\nthey were again required. The valour of the soldiers and their chiefs\nwas then rewarded; the share of the spoil for some consisted of cattle,\ngold, corn, a female slave, and vessels of value; for others, lands or\ntowns in the conquered country, regulated by the rank of the recipients\nor the extent of the services they had rendered.\n\n[Illustration: 266.jpg A SOLDIER BRINGING PRISONERS AND SPOIL.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the Chald\u00e6an intaglio in the\n     British. Museum.\n\nProperty thus given was hereditary, and privileges were often added to\nit which raised the holder to the rank of a petty prince: for instance,\nno royal official was permitted to impose a tax upon such lands, or take\nthe cattle off them, or levy provisions upon them; no troop of soldiers\nmight enter them, not even for the purpose of arresting a fugitive. Most\nof the noble families possessed domains of this kind, and constituted in\neach kingdom a powerful and wealthy feudal aristocracy, whose relations\nto their sovereign were probably much the same as those which bound\nthe nomarchs to the Pharaoh. The position of these nobles was not more\nstable than that of the dynasties under which they lived: while some\namong them gained power by marriages or by continued acquisitions of\nland, others fell into disgrace and were ruined. As the soil belonged to\nthe gods, it is possible that these nobles were supposed, in theory, 'to\ndepend upon the gods; but as the kings were the vicegerents of the gods\nupon earth, it was to the king, as a matter of fact, that they owed\ntheir elevation. Every state, therefore, comprised two parts, each\nsubject to a distinct r\u00e9gime: one being the personal domain of the\nsuzerain, which he managed himself, and from which he drew the revenues;\nthe other was composed of fiefs, whose lords paid tribute and owed\ncertain obligations to the king, the nature of which we are as yet\nunable to define.\n\nThe Chald\u00e6an, like the Egyptian scribe, was the pivot on which the\nmachinery of this double royal and seignorial administration turned.\nHe does not appear to have enjoyed as much consideration as his\nfellow-official in the Nile Valley: the Chald\u00e6an princes, nobles,\npriests, soldiers, and temple or royal officials, did not covet the\ntitle of scribe, or pride themselves upon holding that office side\nby side with their other dignities, as we see was the case with their\nEgyptian contemporaries. The position of a scribe, nevertheless, was an\nimportant one. We continually meet with it in all grades of society--in\nthe palace, in the temples, in the storehouses, in private dwellings; in\nfine, the scribe was ubiquitous, at court, in the town, in the country,\nin the army, managing affairs both small and great, and seeing that they\nwere carried on regularly. His education differed but little from that\ngiven to the Egyptian scribe; he learned the routine of administrative\nor judicial affairs, the formularies for correspondence either with\nnobles or with ordinary people, the art of writing, of calculating\nquickly, and of making out bills correctly. We may well ask whether he\never employed papyrus or prepared skins for these purposes. It would,\nindeed, seem strange that, after centuries of intercourse, no caravan\nshould have brought into Chald\u00e6an any of those materials which were in\nsuch constant use for literary purposes in Africa;* yet the same clay\nwhich furnished the architect with such an abundant building material\nappears to have been the only medium for transmitting the language which\nthe scribes possessed. They were always provided with slabs of a fine\nplastic clay, carefully mixed and kept sufficiently moist to take easily\nthe impression of an object, but at the same time sufficiently firm to\nprevent the marks once made from becoming either blurred or effaced.\nWhen a scribe had a text to copy or a document to draw up, he chose out\none of his slabs, which he placed flat upon his left palm, and taking in\nthe right hand a triangular stylus of flint, copper, bronze, or bone,**\nhe at once set to work. The instrument, in early times, terminated in a\nfine point, and the marks made by it when it was gently pressed upon\nthe clay were slender and of uniform thickness; in later times, the\nextremity of the stylus was cut with a bevel, and the impression then\ntook the shape of a metal nail or a wedge.\n\n     * On the Assyrian monuments we frequently see scribes taking\n     a list of the spoil, or writing letters on tablets and some\n     other soft material, either papyrus or prepared skin. Sayce\n     has given good reasons for believing that the Chald\u00e6anns of\n     the early dynasties knew of the papyrus, and either made it\n     themselves, or had it brought from Egypt.\n\n     ** See the triangular stylus of copper or bronze reproduced\n     by the side of the measuring-rule, and the plan on the\n     tablet of Gudea, p. 248 of this volume. The Assyrian Museum\n     in the Louvre possesses several large, flat styli of bone,\n     cut to a point at one end, which appear to have belonged to\n     the Assyrian scribes. Taylor discovered in a tomb at Eridu a\n     flint tool, which may have served for the same purpose as\n     the metal or bone styli.\n\n[Illustration: 268.jpg MANUSCRIPT ON PAPYRUS IN HEIROGLYPHICS]\n\nThey wrote from left to right along the upper part of the tablet, and\ncovered both sides of it with closely written lines, which sometimes ran\nover on to the edges. When the writing was finished, the scribe sent his\nwork to the potter, who put it in the kiln and baked it, or the writer\nmay have had a small oven at his own disposition, as a clerk with us\nwould have his table or desk. The shape of these documents varied, and\nsometimes strikes us as being peculiar: besides the tablets and the\nbricks, we find small solid cones, or hollow cylinders of considerable\nsize, on which the kings related their exploits or recorded the history\nof their wars or the dedication of their buildings. This method had a\nfew inconveniences, but many advantages. These clay books were heavy to\nhold and clumsy to handle, while the characters did not stand out well\nfrom the brown, yellow, and whitish background of the material; but, on\nthe other hand, a poem, baked and incorporated into the page itself,\nran less danger of destruction than if scribbled in ink on sheets of\npapyrus. Fire could make no impression on it; it could withstand water\nfor a considerable length of time; even if broken, the pieces were still\nof use: as long as it was not pulverized, the entire document could be\nrestored, with the exception, perhaps, of a few signs, or 'some\nscraps of a sentence. The inscriptions which have been saved from the\nfoundations of the most ancient temples, several of which date back\nforty or fifty centuries, are for the most part as clear and legible\nas when they left the hands of the writer who engraved them or of the\nworkmen who baked them. It is owing to the material to which they were\ncommitted that we possess the principal works of Chald\u00e6an literature\nwhich have come down to us--poems, annals, hymns, magical incantations;\nhow few fragments of these would ever have reached us had their authors\nconfided them to parchment or paper, after the manner of the Egyptian\nscribes! The greatest danger that they ran was that of being left\nforgotten in the corner of the chamber in which they had been kept,\nor buried under the rubbish of a building after a fire or some violent\ncatastrophe; even then the _d\u00e9bris_ were the means of preserving them,\nby falling over them and covering them up. Protected under the ruins,\nthey would lie there for centuries, till the fortunate explorer should\nbring them to light and deliver them over to the patient study of the\nlearned.\n\nThe cuneiform character in itself is neither picturesque nor decorative.\nIt does not offer that delightful assemblage of birds and snakes, of men\nand quadrupeds, of heads and limbs, of tools, weapons, stars, trees,\nand boats, which succeed each other in perplexing order on the Egyptian\nmonuments, to give permanence to the glory of Pharaoh and the greatness\nof his gods. Cuneiform writing is essentially composed of thin short\nlines, placed in juxtaposition or crossing each other in a somewhat\nclumsy fashion; it has the appearance of numbers of nails scattered\nabout at haphazard, and its angular configuration, and its stiff and\nspiny appearance, gives the inscriptions a dull and forbidding aspect\nwhich no artifice of the engraver can overcome.\n\n[Illustration: 271.jpg Page image]\n\n[Illustration: 272.jpg Page Image]\n\nYet, in spite of their seemingly arbitrary character, this mass of\nstrokes had its source in actual hieroglyphs. As in the origin of the\nEgyptian script the earliest writers had begun by drawing on stone or\nclay the outline of the object of which they desired to convey the idea.\nBut, whereas in Egypt the artistic temperament of the race, and the\nincreasing skill of their sculptors, had by degrees brought the drawing\nof each sign to such perfection that it became a miniature portrait of\nthe being or object to be reproduced, in Chald\u00e6a, on the contrary,\nthe signs became degraded from their original forms on account of the\ndifficulty experienced in copying them with the stylus on the clay\ntablets: they lost their original vertical position, and were placed\nhorizontally, retaining finally but the very faintest resemblance to the\noriginal model. For instance, the Chaldaean conception of the sky was\nthat of a vault divided into eight segments by diameters running from\nthe four cardinal points and from their principal subdivisions [symbol]\nthe external circle was soon omitted, the transverse lines alone\nremaining [symbol], which again was simplified into a kind of irregular\ncross [symbol]. The figure of a man standing, indicated by the lines\nresembling his contour, was placed on its side [symbol] and reduced\nlittle by little till it came to be merely a series of ill-balanced\nlines [symbol] [symbol]. We may still recognize in [symbol] the five\nfingers and palm of a human hand [symbol]; but who would guess at the\nfirst glance that [symbol] stands for the foot which the scribes strove\nto place beside each character the special hieroglyph from which it had\nbeen derived. Several fragments of these still exist, a study of which\nseems to show that the Assyrian scribes of a more recent period were at\ntimes as much puzzled as we are ourselves when they strove to get at the\nprinciples of their own script: they had come to look on it as nothing\nmore than a system of arbitrary combinations, whose original form had\npassed all the more readily into oblivion, because it had been borrowed\nfrom a foreign race, who, as far as they were concerned, had ceased to\nhave a separate existence. The script had been invented by the Sumerians\nin the very earliest times, and even they may have brought it in an\nelemental condition from their distant fatherland. The first articulate\nsounds which, being attached to the hieroglyphs, gave to each\nan unalterable pronunciation, were words in the Sumerian tongue;\nsubsequently, when the natural progress of human thought led\nthi Chald\u00e6ans to replace, as in Egypt, the majority of the signs\nrepresenting ideas by those representing sounds, the syllabic values\nwhich were developed side by side with the ideographic values were\npurely Sumerian. The group [symbol] throughout all its forms,\ndesignates in the first place the sky, then the god of the sky, and\nfinally the concept of divinity in general. In its first two senses it\nis read ana, but in the last it becomes dingir, dimir; and though it\nnever lost its double force, it was soon separated from the ideas which\nit evoked, to be used merely to denote the syllable an wherever it\noccurred, even in cases where it had no connection with the sky or\nheavenly things. The same process was applied to other signs with\nsimilar results: after having merely denoted ideas, they came to stand\nfor the sounds corresponding to them, and then passed on to be mere\nsyllables--complex syllables in which several consonants may be\ndistinguished, or simple syllables composed of only one consonant and\none vowel, or vice versa. The Egyptians had carried this system still\nfurther, and in many cases had kept only one part of the syllable,\nnamely, a mute consonant: they detached, for example, the final u from\npu and bu, and gave only the values b and p to the human leg J and the\nmat Q. The peoples of the Euphrates stopped halfway, and admitted actual\nletters for the vowel sounds a, i, and u only. Their system remained a\nsyllabary interspersed with ideograms, but excluded an alphabet.\n\n[Illustration: 274.jpg Page image]\n\nIt was eminently wanting in simplicity, but, taken as a whole, it would\nnot have presented as many difficulties as the script of the Egyptians,\nhad it not been forced, at a very early period, to adapt itself to the\nexigencies of a language for which it had not been made. When it came to\nbe appropriated by the Semites, the ideographs, which up till then had\nbeen read in Sumerian, did not lose the sounds which they possessed in\nthat tongue, but borrowed others from the new language. For example,\n\"god\" was called ilu, and \"heaven\" called shami: [symbol], when\nencountered in inscriptions by the Semites, were read [symbol] when\nthe context showed the sense to be \"god,\" and shami when the character\nevidently meant \"heaven.\" They added these two vocables to the preceding\nana, an, dingir, dimir; but they did not stop there: they confounded\nthe picture of the star [symbol] with that of the sky, and sometimes\nattributed to [symbol], the pronunciation kakkabu, and the meaning of\nstar. The same process was applied to all the groups, and the Semitic\nvalues being added to the Sumerian, the scribes soon found themselves in\npossession of a double set of syllables both simple and compound. This\nmultiplicity of sounds, this polyphonous character attached to their\nsigns, became a cause of embarrassment even to them. For instance,\n[symbol] when found in the body of a word, stood for the syllables hi\nor hat, mid, mit, til, ziz; as an ideogram it was used for a score of\ndifferent concepts: that of lord or master, inu, bilu; that of blood,\ndam\u00fb; for a corpse, pagru, shalamtu; for the feeble or oppressed, kahtu,\nnagpu; as the hollow and the spring, nakbu; for the state of old age,\nlabaru; of dying, m\u00e2tu; of killing, m\u00eetu; of opening, p\u00eetu; besides\nother meanings. Several phonetic complements were added to it; it was\npreceded by ideograms which determined the sense in which it was to be\nread, but which, like the Egyptian determinatives, were not pronounced,\nand in this manner they succeeded in limiting the number of mistakes\nwhich it was possible to make. With a final [symbol] it would always\nmean [symbol] bilu, the master, but with an initial [symbol] (thus\n[symbol]) it denoted the gods Bel or Ea; with [symbol]. which indicates\na man [symbol], it would be the corpse, pagru and shalamtu; with\n[symbol] prefixed, it meant [symbol]--mutanu, the plague or death and\nso on. In spite of these restrictions and explanations, the obscurity of\nthe meaning was so great, that in many cases the scribes ran the risk of\nbeing unable to make out certain words and understand certain passages;\nmany of the values occurred but rarely, and remained unknown to those\nwho did not take the trouble to make a careful study of the syllabary\nand its history. It became necessary to draw up tables for their use,\nin which all the signs were classified and arranged, with their meanings\nand phonetic transcriptions. These signs occupied one column, and in\nthree or four corresponding columns would be found, first, the name\nassigned to it; secondly, the spelling, in syllables, of the phonetic\nvalues which the signs expressed, thirdly, the Sumerian and Assyrian\nwords which they served to render, and sometimes glosses which completed\nthe explanation.\n\n[Illustration: 276.jpg Tables]\n\nEven this is far from exhausting the matter. Several of these\ndictionaries went back to a very early date, and tradition ascribes to\nSargon of Agade the merit of having them drawn up or of having collected\nthem in his palace. The number of them naturally increased in the course\nof centuries; in the later times of the Assyrian empire they were so\nnumerous as to form nearly one-fourth of the works in the library at\nNineveh under Assurbanipal. Other tablets contained dictionaries of\narchaic or obsolete terms, grammatical paradigms, extracts from laws\nor ancient hymns analyzed sentence by sentence and often word by word,\ninterlinear glosses, collections of Sumerian formulas translated into\nSemitic speech--a child's guide, in fact, which the savants of those\ntimes consulted with as much advantage as those of our own day have\ndone, and which must have saved them from many a blunder.\n\nWhen once accustomed to the difficulties and intricacies of their\ncalling, the scribes were never at a standstill. The stylus was plied\nin Chald\u00e6a no less assiduously than was the calamus in Egypt, and the\nindestructible clay, which the Chald\u00e6ans were as a rule content to use,\nproved a better medium in the long run than the more refined material\nemployed by their rivals: the baked or merely dried clay tablets have\nwithstood the assaults of time in surprising quantities, while the\nmajority of papyri have disappeared without leaving a trace behind.\nIf at Babylon we rarely meet with those representations, which we find\neverywhere in the tombs of Saqqara or G\u00eezeh, of the people themselves\nand their families, their occupations, amusements, and daily\nintercourse, we possess, on the other hand, that of which the ruins of\nMemphis have furnished us but scanty instances up to the present time,\nnamely, judicial documents, regulating the mutual relations of the\npeople and conferring a legal sanction on the various events of their\nlife. Whether it were a question of buying lands or contracting a\nmarriage, of a loan on interest, or the sale of slaves, the scribe was\ncalled in with his soft tablets to engross the necessary agreement. In\nthis he would insert as many details as possible--the day of the month,\nthe year of the reigning sovereign, and at times, to be still more\nprecise, an allusion to some important event which had just taken place,\nand a memorial of which was inserted in official annals, such as the\ntaking of a town, the defeat of a neighbouring king, the dedication of\na temple, the building of a wall or fortress, the opening of a canal, or\nthe ravages of an inundation: the names of the witnesses and magistrates\nbefore whom the act was confirmed were also added to those of the\ncontracting parties. The method of sanctioning it was curious. An\nindentation was made with the finger-nail on one of the sides of the\ntablet, and this mark, followed or preceded by the mention of a name,\n\"Nail of Zabudamik,\" \"Nail of Abzii,\" took the place of our more or less\ncomplicated sign-manuals. In later times, only the buyer and witnesses\napproved by a nail-mark, while the seller appended his seal; an\ninscription incised above the impress indicating the position of the\nsignatory. Every one of any importance possessed a seal, which he wore\nattached to his wrist or hung round his neck by a cord; he scarcely\never allowed it to be separated from his person during his lifetime, and\nafter death it was placed with him in the tomb in order to prevent any\nimproper use being made of it. It was usually a cylinder, sometimes\na truncated cone with a convex base, either of marble, red or green\njasper, agate, cornelian, onyx or rock crystal, but rarely of metal.\nEngraved upon it in intaglio was an emblem or subject chosen by\nthe owner, such as the single figure of a god or goddess, an act of\nadoration, a sacrifice, or an episode in the story of Gilgames, followed\nsometimes by the inscription of a name and title. The cylinder was\nrolled, or, in the case of the cone, merely pressed on the clay, in the\nspace reserved for it. In several localities the contracting parties had\nrecourse to a very ingenious procedure to prevent the agreements being\naltered or added to by unscrupulous persons. When the document had been\nimpressed on the tablet, it was enveloped in a second coating of clay,\nupon which an exact copy of the original was made, the latter thus\nbecoming inaccessible to forgers: if by chance, in course of time, any\ndisagreement should take place, and an alteration of the visible text\nshould be suspected, the outer envelope was broken in the presence of\nwitnesses, and a comparison was made to see if the exterior corresponded\nexactly with the interior version. Families thus had their private\narchives, to which additions were rapidly made by every generation;\nevery household thus accumulated not only the evidences of its own\nhistory, but to some extent that of other families with whom they had\nformed alliances, or had business or friendly relations.*\n\n     * The tablets of Tell-Sifr come from one of these family\n     collections. They all, in number about one hundred, rested\n     on three enormous bricks, and they had been covered with a\n     mat of which the half-decayed remains were still visible:\n     three other crude bricks covered the heap. The documents\n     contained in them relate for the most part to the families\n     of Sininana and Amilil\u00e2ni, and form part of their archives.\n\n[Illustration: 279.jpg THE TABLET OF TELL-SIFR, BROKEN TO SHOW THE TWO\nTEXTS.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Loftus.\n\n\n[Illustration: 280.jpg TABLET BEARING THE IMPRESS OF A SEAL]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Layard.\n\nThe constitution of the family was of a complex character. It would\nappear that the people of each city were divided into clans, all of\nwhose members claimed to be descended from a common ancestor, who had\nflourished at a more or less remote period. The members of each clan\nwere by no means all in the same social position, some having gone down\nin the world, others having raised themselves; and amongst them we find\nmany different callings--from agricultural labourers to scribes, and\nfrom merchants to artisans. No mutual tie existed among the majority\nof these members except the remembrance of their common origin, perhaps\nalso a common religion, and eventual rights of succession or claims upon\nwhat belonged to each one individually. The branches which had become\ngradually separated from the parent stock, and which, taken all\ntogether, formed the clan, possessed each, on the contrary, a very\nstrict organization. It is possible that, at the outset, the woman\noccupied the more important position, but at an early date the man\nbecame the head of the family,* and around him were ranged the wives,\nchildren, servants, and slaves, all of whom had their various duties and\nprivileges.\n\n     * The change in the condition of women would be due to the\n     influence of Semitic ideas and customs in Chald\u00e6a.\n\nHe offered the household worship to the gods of his race, in accordance\nwith special rites which had come down to him from his father; he made\nat the tombs of his ancestors, at such times as were customary, the\nofferings and prayers which assured their repose in the other world, and\nhis powers were as extensive in civil as in religious matters. He had\nabsolute authority over all the members of his household, and anything\nundertaken by them without his consent was held invalid in the eyes of\nthe law; his sons could not marry unless he had duly authorized them\nto do so. For this purpose he appeared before the magistrate with the\nfuture couple, and the projected union could not be held as an actual\nmarriage, until he had affixed his seal or made his nail-mark on the\ncontract tablet. It amounted, in fact, to a formal deed of sale, and the\nparents of the girl parted with her only in exchange for a proportionate\ngift from the bridegroom. One girl would be valued at a silver shekel by\nweight, while another was worth a mina, another much less;* the handing\nover of the price was accompanied with a certain solemnity. When the\nyoung man possessed no property as yet of his own, his family advanced\nhim the sum needed for the purchase. On her side, the maiden did not\nenter upon her new life empty handed; her father, or, in the case of\nhis death, the head of the family at the time being, provided her with\na dowry suited to her social position, which was often augmented by\nconsiderable presents from her grandmother, aunts, and cousins.**\n\n     * Shamashnazir receives, as the price of his daughter, ten\n     shekels of silver, which appears to have been an average\n     price in the class of life to which he belonged.\n\n     ** The nature of the dowry in ancient times is clear from\n     the Sumero-Assyrian tablets in which the old legal texts are\n     explained, and again from the contents of the contracts of\n     Tell-Sifr, and the documents on stone, such as the Micliaux\n     stone, in which we see women bringing their possessions into\n     the community by marriage, and yet retaining the entire\n     disposition of them.\n\nThe dowry would consist of a carefully marked out field of corn, a grove\nof date-palms, a house in the town, a trousseau, furniture, slaves, or\nready money; the whole would be committed to clay, of which there\nwould be three copies at least, two being given by the scribe to the\ncontracting parties, while the third would be deposited in the hands of\nthe magistrate. When the bride and bridegroom both belonged to the same\nclass, or were possessed of equal fortunes, the relatives of the woman\ncould exact an oath from the man that he would abstain from taking\na second wife during her lifetime; a special article of the marriage\nagreement permitted the woman to go free should the husband break his\nfaith, and bound him to pay an indemnity as a compensation for the\ninsult he had offered her. This engagement on the part of the man,\nhowever, did not affect his relations with his female servants. In\nChald\u00e6a, as in Egypt, and indeed in the whole of the ancient world,\nthey were always completely at the mercy of their purchaser, and the\npermission to treat them as he would had become so much of a custom\nthat the begetting of children by their master was desired rather than\notherwise: the complaints of the despised slave, who had not been taken\ninto her master's favour, formed one of the themes of popular poetry at\na very early period. When the contract tablet was finally sealed, one\nof the witnesses, who was required to be a free man, joined the hands\nof the young couple; nothing then remained to be done but to invite the\nblessing of the gods, and to end the day by a feast, which would unite\nboth families and their guests. The evil spirits, however, always in\nquest of an easy prey, were liable to find their way into the nuptial\nchamber, favoured by the confusion inseparable from all household\nrejoicing: prudence demanded that their attempts should be frustrated,\nand that the newly married couple should be protected from their\nattacks. The companions of the bridegroom took possession of him, and,\nhand to hand and foot to foot, formed as it were a rampart round him\nwith their bodies, and carried him off solemnly to his expectant bride.\nHe then again repeated the words which he had said in the morning: \"I\nam the son of a prince, gold and silver shall fill thy bosom; thou, even\nthou, shalt be my wife, I myself will be thy husband;\" and he continued:\n\"As the fruits borne by an orchard, so great shall be the abundance\nwhich I shall pour out upon this woman.\"* The priest then called down\nupon him benedictions from on high: \"Therefore, O ye (gods), all that is\nbad and that is not good in this man, drive it far from him and give him\nstrength. As for thee, O man, exhibit thy manhood, that this woman may\nbe thy wife; thou, O woman, give that which makes thy womanhood, that\nthis man may be thy husband.\" On the following morning, a thanksgiving\nsacrifice celebrated the completion of the marriage, and by purifying\nthe new household drove from it the host of evil spirits.**\n\n     * This part of the ceremony is described on a Sumero-\n     Assyrian tablet, of which two copies exist, discovered and\n     translated by Pinches. The interpretation appears to me to\n     result from the fact that mention is made, at the\n     commencement of the column, of impious beings without gods,\n     who might approach the man; in other places magical\n     exorcisms indicate how much those spirits were dreaded \"who\n     deprived the bride of the embraces of the man.\" As Pinches\n     remarks, the formula is also found in the part of the poem\n     of Gilgames, where Ishtar wishes to marry the hero, which\n     shows that the rite and its accompanying words belong to a\n     remote past.\n\n     ** The text that describes these ceremonies was discovered\n     and published by Pinches. As far as I can judge, it\n     contained an exorcism against the \"knotting of the tag,\" and\n     the mention of this subject called up that of the marriage\n     rites. The ceremony commanded on the day following the\n     marriage was probably a purification: as late as the time of\n     Herodotus, the union of man and woman rendered both impure,\n     and they had to perform an ablution before recommencing\n     their occupations.\n\nThe woman, once bound, could only escape from the sovereign power of her\nhusband by death or divorce; but divorce for her was rather a trial to\nwhich she submitted than a right of which she could freely make use. Her\nhusband could repudiate her at will without any complicated ceremonies.\nIt was enough for him to say: \"Thou art not my wife!\" and to restore\nto her a sum of money equalling in value the dowry he had received with\nher;* he then sent her back to her father, with a letter informing\nhim of the dissolution of the conjugal tie.** But if in a moment of\nweariness or anger she hurled the fatal formula at him: \"Thou are not\nmy husband!\" her fate was sealed: she was thrown into the river and\ndrowned.***\n\n     * The sum is fixed at half a mina by the text of the\n     Sumerian laws; but it was sometimes less, e.g. ten shekels,\n     and sometimes more, e.g. a whole mina.\n\n     ** Repudiation of a wife, and the ceremonial connected with\n     it, are summarized, as far as ancient times are concerned,\n     by a passage in the Sumero-Assyrian tablet, published by\n     Rawlinson, and translated by Oppert-Menant. Bertin, on the\n     contrary, takes the same text to be a description of the\n     principal marriage-rites, and from it he draws the\n     conclusion that the possibility of divorce was not admitted\n     in Chald\u00e6a between persons of noble family. Meissner very\n     rightly returns to Oppert's interpretation, a few details in\n     which he corrects.\n\n     *** This fact was evident from the text of the so-called\n     _Sumerian Laws concerning the Organization of the Family_,\n     according to the generally received interpretation:\n     according to that proposed by Oppert-Menant, it was the\n     woman who had the right of causing the husband who had\n     wronged her to be thrown into the river. The publication of\n     the contracts of Iltani and of Bashtum appear to have shown\n     conclusively the correctness of the ordinary translation:\n     uncertainty with regard to one word prevents us from knowing\n     whether the guilty wife were strangled before being thrown\n     into the water, or if she were committed to the river alive.\n\nThe adulteress was also punished with death, but with death by the\nsword: and when the use of iron became widespread, the blade was to be\nof that metal. Another ancient custom only spared the criminal to devote\nher to a life of infamy: the outraged husband stripped her of her fleecy\ngarments, giving her merely the loin-cloth in its place, which left her\nhalf naked, and then turned-her out of the house into the street, where\nshe was at the mercy of the first passer-by. Women of noble or wealthy\nfamilies found in their fortune a certain protection from the abuse of\nmarital authority. The property which they brought with them by their\nmarriage contract, remained at their own disposal.* They had the entire\nmanagement of it, they farmed it out, they sold it, they spent the\nincome from it as they liked, without interference from any one: the man\nenjoyed the comforts which it procured, but he could not touch it, and\nhis hold upon it was so slight that his creditors could not lay their\nhands on it.\n\n     * In the documents of the New Chald\u00e6an Empire we find\n     instances of married women selling their property\n     themselves, and even of their being present, seated, at the\n     conclusion of the sale, or of their ceding to a married\n     daughter some property in their own possession, thus\n     renouncing the power of disposing of it, and keeping merely\n     the income from it; we have also instances of women\n     reclaiming valuables of gold which their husbands had given\n     away without their authorisation, and also obtaining an\n     indemnity for the wrong they had suffered; also of their\n     lending money to the mother-in-law of their brother; in\n     fine, empowered to deal with their own property in every\n     respect like an ordinary proprietor.\n\nIf by his own act he divorced his wife, he not only lost all benefit\nfrom her property, but he was obliged to make her an allowance or to pay\nher an indemnity;* at his death, the widow succeeded to these, without\nprejudice to what she was entitled to by her marriage contract or the\nwill of the deceased. The woman with a dowry, therefore, became more or\nless emancipated by virtue of her money. As her departure deprived the\nhousehold of as much as, and sometimes more than, she had brought into\nit, every care was taken that she should have no cause to retire from\nit, and that no pretext should be given to her parents for her recall\nto her old home; her wealth thus obtained for her the consideration and\nfair treatment which the law had, at the outset, denied to her.\n\n     * The restitution of the dowry after divorce is ascertained,\n     as far as later times are concerned, from documents similar\n     to that published by Kohler-Peiser, in which we see the\n     second husband of a divorced wife claiming the dowry from\n     the first husband. The indemnity was fixed beforehand at six\n     silver min\u00e6, in the marriage contract published by Oppert.\n\nWhen, however, the wife was poor, she had to bear without complaint the\nwhole burden of her inferior position. Her parents had no other resource\nthan to ask the highest possible price for her, according to the rank\nin which they lived, or in virtue of the personal qualities she was\nsupposed to possess, and this amount, paid into their hands when they\ndelivered her over to the husband, formed, if not an actual dowry for\nher, at least a provision for her in case of repudiation or widowhood:\nshe was not, however, any less the slave of her husband--a privileged\nslave, it is true, and one whom he could not sell like his other\nslaves,* but of whom he could easily rid himself when her first youth\nwas passed, or when she ceased to please him.**\n\n     * It appears, however, in certain cases not clearly\n     specified, that the husband could sell his wife, if she were\n     a shrew, as a slave.\n\n     ** This form of marriage, which was of frequent occurrence\n     in ancient times, fell into disuse among the upper classes,\n     at least of Babylonian society. A few examples, however, are\n     found in late times. It continued in use among the lower\n     classes, and Herodotus affirms that in his time marriage\n     markets were held regularly, as in our own time fairs are\n     held for hiring male and female servants.\n\nIn many cases the fiction of purchase was set aside, and mutual consent\ntook the place of all other formalities, marriage then becoming merely\ncohabitation, terminating at will. The consent of the father was not\nrequired for this irregular union, and many a son contracted a marriage\nafter this fashion, unknown to his relatives, with some young girl\neither in his own or in an inferior station: but the law refused to\nallow her any title except that of concubine, and forced her to wear a\ndistinctive mark, perhaps that of servitude, namely, the representation\nof an olive in some valuable stone or in terra-cotta, bearing her own\nand her husband's name, with the date of their union, which she kept\nhung round her neck by a cord. Whether they were legitimate wives\nor not, the women of the lower and middle classes enjoyed as much\nindependence as did the Egyptian women of a similar rank. As all the\nhousehold cares fell to their share, it was necessary that they should\nbe free to go about at all hours of the day: and they could be seen\nin the streets and the markets, with bare feet, their head and face\nuncovered, wearing their linen loin-cloth or their long draped garments\nof hairy texture.* Their whole life was expended in a ceaseless toil for\ntheir husbands and children: night and morning they went to fetch water\nfrom the public well or the river, they bruised the corn, made the\nbread, spun, wove, and clothed the entire household in spite of the\nfrequent demands of maternity.** The Chald\u00e6an women of wealth or noble\nbirth, whose civil status gave them a higher position, did not enjoy so\nmuch freedom. They were scarcely affected by the cares of daily life,\nand if they did any work within their houses, it was more from a natural\ninstinct, a sense of duty, or to relieve the tedium of their existence,\nthan from constraint or necessity; but the exigencies of their rank\nreduced them to the state of prisoners. All the luxuries and comforts\nwhich money could procure were lavished on them, or they obtained them\nfor themselves, but all the while they were obliged to remain shut in\nthe harem within their own houses; when they went out, it was only to\nvisit their female friends or their relatives, to go to some temple\nor festival, and on such occasions they were surrounded with servants,\neunuchs, and pages, whose serried ranks shut out the external world.\n\n     * For the long garment of the women, see the statue\n     represented on p. 263 of the present work; for the loin-\n     cloth, which left the shoulders and bust exposed, see the\n     bronze figure on p. 262. The latter was no doubt the garment\n     worn at home by respectable women; we see by the punishment\n     inflicted on adulteresses that it was an outdoor garment for\n     courtesans, and also, doubtless, for slaves and women of the\n     lower classes.\n\n     ** Women's occupations are mentioned in several texts and on\n     several ancient monuments. On the seal, an impress of which\n     is given on p. 233 of this volume, we see above, on the\n     left, a woman kneeling and crushing the corn, and before her\n     a row of little disks, representing, no doubt, the loaves\n     prepared for baking. The length of time for suckling a child\n     is fixed at three years by the Sumero-Assyrian tablet\n     relating the history of the foundling; protracted suckling\n     was customary also in Egypt.\n\nThere was no lack of children in these houses when the man had several\nmistresses, either simultaneously or successively. Maternity was before\nall things a woman's first duty: should she delay in bearing children,\nor should anything happen to them, she was considered as accursed or\npossessed, and she was banished from the family lest her presence should\nbe a source of danger to it.* In spite of this many households remained\nchildless, either because a clause inserted in the contract prevented\nthe dismissal of the wife if barren, or because the children had died\nwhen the father was stricken in years, and there was little hope of\nfurther offspring. In such places adoption filled the gaps left by\nnature, and furnished the family with desired heirs. For this purpose\nsome chance orphan might be brought into the household--one of those\npoor little creatures consigned by their mothers to the river, as in\nthe case of Shargani, according to the ancient legend; or who had been\nexposed at the cross-roads to excite the pity of passers-by,** like the\nfoundling whose story is given us in an old ballad. \"He who had neither\nfather nor mother,--he who knew not his father or mother, but whose\nearliest memory is of a well--whose entry into the world was in the\nstreet,\" his benefactor \"snatched him from the jaws of dogs--and took\nhim from the beaks of ravens.--He seized the seal before witnesses--and\nhe marked him on the sole of the foot with the seal of the\nwitness,--then he entrusted him to a nurse,--and for three years he\nprovided the nurse with flour, oil, and clothing.\" When the weaning was\naccomplished, \"he appointed him to be his child,--he brought him up\nto be his child,--he inscribed him as his child,--and he gave him the\neducation of a scribe.\" The rites of adoption in these cases did not\ndiffer from those attendant upon birth. On both occasions the newly born\ninfant was shown to witnesses, and it was marked on the soles of its\nfeet to establish its identity; its registration in the family archives\ndid not take place until these precautions had been observed, and\nchildren adopted in this manner were regarded thenceforward in the eyes\nof the world as the legitimate heirs of the family.\n\n     * Divorce for sterility was customary in very early times.\n     Complete sterility or miscarriage was thought to be\n     occasioned by evil spirits; a woman thus possessed with a\n     devil came to be looked on as a dangerous being whom it was\n     necessary to exorcise.\n\n\n     ** Many of these children were those of courtesans or women\n     who had been repudiated, as we learn from the Sumero-\n     Assyrian tablet of Rawlinson: \"She will expose her child\n     alone in the street, where the serpents in the road may bite\n     it, and its father and mother will know it no more.\"\n\nPeople desiring to adopt a child usually made inquiries among their\nacquaintances, or poor friends, or cousins who might consent to give up\none of their sons, in the hope of securing a better future for him. When\nhe happened to be a minor, the real father and mother, or, in the case\nof the death of one, the surviving parent, appeared before the scribe,\nand relinquished all their rights in favour of the adopting parents; the\nlatter, in accepting this act of renunciation, promised henceforth to\ntreat the child as if he were of their own flesh and blood, and often\nsettled upon him, at the same time, a certain sum chargeable on their\nown patrimony. When the adopted son was of age, his consent to the\nagreement was required, in addition to that of his parents. The adoption\nwas sometimes prompted by an interested motive, and not merely by the\ndesire for posterity or its semblance. Labour was expensive, slaves were\nscarce, and children, by working for their father, took the place of\nhired servants, and were content, like them, with food and clothing. The\nadoption of adults was, therefore, most frequent in ancient times. The\nintroduction of a person into a fresh household severed the ties which\nbound him to the old one; he became a stranger to those who had borne\nhim; he had no filial obligations to discharge to them, nor had he\nany right to whatever property they might possess, unless, indeed, any\nunforeseen circumstance prevented the carrying out of the agreement, and\nlegally obliged him to return to the status of his birth. In return, he\nundertook all the duties and enjoyed the privileges of his new position;\nhe owed to his adopted parents the same amount of work, obedience, and\nrespect that he would have given to his natural parents; he shared\nin their condition, whether for good or ill, and he inherited their\npossessions. Provision was made for him in case of his repudiation by\nthose who had adopted him, and they had to make him compensation: he\nreceived the portion which would have accrued to him after their death,\nand he then left them. Families appear to have been fairly united, in\nspite of the elasticity of the laws which governed them, and of the\ndivers elements of which they were sometimes composed. No doubt polygamy\nand frequently divorce exercised here as elsewhere a deleterious\ninfluence; the harems of Babylon were constantly the scenes of endless\nintrigues and quarrels among the women and children of varied condition\nand different parentage who filled them. Among the people of the middle\nclasses, where restricted means necessarily prevented a man having\nmany wives, the course of family life appears to have been as calm\nand affectionate as in Egypt, under the unquestioned supremacy of the\nfather: and in the event of his early death, the widow, and later the\nson or son-in-law, took the direction of affairs. Should quarrels arise\nand reach the point of bringing about a complete rupture between parents\nand children, the law intervened, not to reconcile them, but to repress\nany violence of which either side might be guilty towards the other.\nIt was reckoned as a misdemeanour for any father or mother to disown a\nchild, and they were punished by being kept shut up in their own house,\nas long, doubtless, as they persisted in disowning it; but it was a\ncrime in a son, even if he were an adopted son, to renounce his parents,\nand he was punished severely. If he had said to his father, \"Thou art\nnot my father!\" the latter marked him with a conspicuous sign and sold\nhim in the market. If he had said to his mother, \"As for thee, thou art\nnot my mother!\" he was similarly branded, and led through the streets or\nalong the roads, where with hue and cry he was driven from the town and\nprovince.*\n\n     * I have adopted the generally received meaning of this\n     document as a whole, but I am obliged to state that Oppert-\n     Menant admit quite a different interpretation. According to\n     them, it would appear to be a sweeping renunciation of\n     children by parents, and of parents by children, at the\n     close of a judicial condemnation. Oppert has upheld this\n     interpretation against Haupt, and still keeps to his\n     opinion. The documents published by Meissner show that the\n     text of the ancient Sumerian laws applied equally to adopted\n     children, but made no distinction between the insult offered\n     to the father and that offered to the mother: the same\n     penalty was applicable in both cases.\n\nThe slaves were numerous, but distributed in unequal proportion among\nthe various classes of the population: whilst in the palace they might\nbe found literally in crowds, it was rare among the middle classes to\nmeet with any family possessing more than two or three at a time. They\nwere drawn partly from foreign races; prisoners who had been wounded and\ncarried from the field of battle, or fugitives who had fallen into the\nhands of the victors after a defeat, or Elamites or Gutis who had been\nsurprised in their own villages during some expedition; not to mention\npeople of every category carried off by the Bedouin during their raids\nin distant parts, such as Syria or Egypt, whom they were continually\nbringing for sale to Babylon and Uru, and, indeed, to all those cities\nto which they had easy access. The kings, the vicegerents, the temple\nadministration, and the feudal lords, provided employment for vast\nnumbers in the construction of their buildings or in the cultivation of\ntheir domains; the work was hard and the mortality great, but gaps were\nsoon filled up by the influx of fresh gangs. The survivors intermarried,\nand their children, brought up to speak the Chald\u00e6an tongue and\nconforming to the customs of the country, became assimilated to the\nruling race; they formed, beneath the superior native Semite and\nSumerian population,an inferior servile class, spread alike throughout\nthe towns and country, who were continually reinforced by individuals of\nthe native race, such as foundlings, women and children sold by husband\nor father, debtors deprived by creditors of their liberty, and criminals\njudicially condemned. The law took no individual account of them,\nbut counted them by heads, as so many cattle: they belonged to their\nrespective masters in the same fashion as did the beasts of his flock or\nthe trees of his garden, and their life or death was dependent upon\nhis will, though the exercise of his rights was naturally restrained\nby interest and custom. He could use them as pledges or for payment of\ndebt, could exchange them or sell them in the market. The price of a\nslave never rose very high: a woman might be bought for four and a half\nshekels of silver by weight, and the value of a male adult fluctuated\nbetween ten shekels and the third of a mina. The bill of sale was\ninscribed on clay, and given to the purchaser at the time of payment:\nthe tablets which were the vouchers of the rights of the former\nproprietor were then broken, and the transfer was completed. The\nmaster seldom ill-treated his slaves, except in cases of reiterated\ndisobedience, rebellion, or flight; he could arrest his runaway slaves\nwherever he could lay his hands on them; he could shackle their ankles,\nfetter their wrists, and whip them mercilessly. As a rule, he permitted\nthem to marry and bring up a family; he apprenticed their children,\nand as soon as they knew a trade, he set them up in business in his own\nname, allowing them a share in the profits. The more intelligent among\nthem were trained to be clerks or stewards; they were taught to read,\nwrite, and calculate, the essential accomplishments of a skilful scribe;\nthey were appointed as superintendents over their former comrades, or\noverseers of the administration of property, and they ended by becoming\nconfidential servants in the household. The savings which they had\naccumulated in their earlier years furnished them with the means of\nprocuring some few consolations: they could hire themselves out for\nwages, and could even acquire slaves who would go out to work for them,\nin the same way as they themselves had been a source of income to their\nproprietors. If they followed a lucrative profession and were successful\nin it, their savings sometimes permitted them to buy their own freedom,\nand, if they were married, to pay the ransom of their wife and children.\nAt times, their master, desirous of rewarding long and faithful service,\nliberated them of his own accord, without waiting till they had saved\nup the necessary money or goods for their enfranchisement: in such cases\nthey remained his dependants, and continued in his service as freemen\nto perform the services they had formerly rendered as slaves. They then\nenjoyed the same rights and advantages as the old native race; they\ncould leave legacies, inherit property, claim legal rights, and acquire\nand possess houses and lands. Their sons could make good matches among\nthe daughters of the middle classes, according to their education and\nfortune; when they were intelligent, active, and industrious, there was\nnothing to prevent them from rising to the highest offices about the\nperson of the sovereign.\n\n[Illustration: 294.jpg AN EGYPTIAN SLAVE MERCHANT]\n\n[Illustration: 294-text.jpg]\n\nIf we knew more of the internal history of the great Chald\u00e6an cities, we\nshould no doubt come to see what an important part the servile element\nplayed in them; and could we trace it back for a few generations, we\nshould probably discover that there were few great families who did\nnot reckon a slave or a freedman among their ancestors. It would be\ninteresting to follow this people, made up of such complex elements, in\nall their daily work and recreation, as we are able to do in the case\nof contemporary Egyptians; but the monuments which might furnish us with\nthe necessary materials are scarce, and the positive information to be\ngleaned from them amounts to but little. We are tolerably safe, however,\nin supposing the more wealthy cities to have been, as a whole, very\nsimilar in appearance to those existing at the present day in the\nregions which as yet have been scarcely touched by the advent of\nEuropean civilization. Sinuous, narrow, muddy streets, littered with\ndomestic refuse and organic detritus, in which flocks of ravens and\nwandering packs of dogs perform with more or less efficiency the duties\nof sanitary officers; whole quarters of the town composed of huts made\nof reeds and puddled clay, low houses of crude brick, surmounted perhaps\neven in those times with the conical domes we find later on the Assyrian\nbas-reliefs; crowded and noisy bazaars, where each trade is located in\nits special lanes and blind alleys; silent and desolate spaces occupied\nby palaces and gardens, in which the private life of the wealthy\nwas concealed from public gaze; and looking down upon this medley of\nindividual dwellings, the palaces and temples with their ziggurats\ncrowned with gilded and painted sanctuaries. In the ruins of Uru,\nEridu, and Uruk, the remains of houses belonging doubtless to well-to-do\nfamilies have been brought to light. They are built of fine bricks,\nwhose courses are cemented together with a thin layer of bitumen, but\nthey they are only lighted internally by small appertures pierced at\nirregular distances in the upper part of the walls: the low arched\ndoorway, closed by a heavy two-leaved door, leads into a blind passage,\nwhich opens as a rule on the courtyard in the centre of the building.\n\n\n[Illustration: 208a.jpg Chaldean houses at Uru.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the sketch by Taylor.\n\n[Illustration: 208b plans of houses excavated at Eridu and Ubu.]\n\n     These plans were drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from sketches by\n     Taylor. The houses reproduced to the left of the plan were\n     those uncovered in the ruins of Uru; those on the right\n     belong to the ruins of Eridu. On the latter, the niches\n     mentioned in the text will be found indicated.\n\nIn the interior may still be distinguished the small oblong rooms,\nsometimes vaulted, sometimes roofed with a flat, ceiling supported by\ntrunks of palm trees;* the walls are often of a considerable thickness,\nin which are found narrow niches here and there. The majority of the\nrooms were merely store-chambers, and contained the family provisions\nand treasures; others served as living-rooms, and were provided with\nfurniture. The latter, in the houses of the richer citizens no less\nthan in those of the people, was of a very simple kind, and was mostly\ncomposed of chairs and stools, similar to those in the royal palaces;\nthe bedrooms contained the linen chests and the beds with their thin\nmattresses, coverings, and cushions, and perhaps wooden head-rests,\nresembling those found in Africa,** but the Chald\u00e6ans slept mostly on\nmats spread on the ground.\n\n     * Taylor, _Notes on the Ruins of Mugeyer_, in the _Journ. of\n     the Royal As. Soc_, vol. xv. p. 266, found the remains of\n     the palm-tree beams which formed the terrace still existing.\n     He thinks (_Notes on Tel-el-Lahm_, etc., in the _Journ, of\n     the Royal As. Soc._, vol. xv. p. 411) with Loftus that some\n     of the chambers were vaulted. Cf. upon the custom of\n     vaulting in Chald\u00e6an houses, Piereot-Cupiez, _Histoire de\n     l'Art_, vol. ii. p. 163, et seq.\n\n     ** The dressing of the hair in coils and elaborate\n     erections, as seen in the various figures engraved upon\n     Chald\u00e6an intaglios (cf. what is said of the different ways\n     of arranging the hair on p. 262 of this volume), appears to\n     have necessitated the use of these articles of furniture;\n     such complicated erections of hair must have lasted several\n     days at least, and would not have kept in condition so long\n     except for the use of the head-rest.\n\nAn oven for baking occupied a corner of the courtyard, side by side with\nthe stones for grinding the corn; the ashes on the hearth were always\naglow, and if by chance the fire went out, the fire-stick was always\nat hand to relight it, as in Egypt. The kitchen utensils and household\npottery comprised a few large copper pans and earthenware pots rounded\nat the base, dishes, water and wine jars, and heavy plates of coarse\nware; metal had not as yet superseded stone, and in the same house we\nmeet with bronze axes and hammers side by side with the same implements\nin cut flint, besides knives, scrapers, and mace-heads.*\n\n     * Implements in flint and other kinds of stone have been\n     discovered by Taylor, and are now in the British Museum. The\n     bronze implements come partly from the tombs of Mughe\u00eer, and\n     partly from the ruins explored by Loftus at Tell-Sifr--that\n     is to say, the ancient cities of Uru and Larsam: the name of\n     Tell-Sifr, the \"mound of copper,\" comes from the quantity of\n     objects in copper which have been discovered there.\n\n[Illustration: 300.jpg CHALD\u00c6AN HOUSEHOLD UTENSILS IN TERRA-COTTA]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the sketch by G. Rawlinson, and\n     the heliogravure in Heuzey-Sarzec.\n\n\nAt the present day the women of the country of the Euphrates spend a\ngreat part of their time on the roofs of their dwellings.* They install\nthemselves there in the morning, till they are driven away by the heat;\nas soon as the sun gets low in the heavens, they return to their post,\nand either pass the day on neighbouring roofs whilst they bake, cook,\nwash and dry the linen; or, if they have slaves to attend to such menial\noccupations, they sew and embroider in the open air.\n\n     * Olivier, _Voyage dans l'Empire Othoman,_ vol. ii. pp. 356,\n     357, 381, 382, 392, 393.\n\nThey come down into the interior of the house during the hottest hours\nof the day. In most of the wealthy houses, the coolest room is one below\nthe level of the courtyard, into which but little light can penetrate.\nIt is paved with plaques of polished gypsum, which resembles our finest\ngrey-and-white marble, and the walls are covered with a coat of delicate\nplastering, smooth to the touch and agreeable to the eye. This is\nwatered several times during the day in hot weather, and the evaporation\nfrom it cools the air. The few ruined habitations which have as yet been\nexplored seem to bear witness to a considerable similarity between the\nrequirements and customs of ancient times and those of to-day. Like the\nmodern women of Bagdad and Mosul, the Chald\u00e6an women of old preferred\nan existence in the open air, in spite of its publicity, to a seclusion\nwithin stuffy rooms or narrow courts. The heat of the sun, cold, rain,\nand illness obliged them at times to seek a refuge within four walls,\nbut as soon as they could conveniently escape from them, they climbed up\non to their roof to pass the greater part of their time there.\n\nMany families of the lower and middle classes owned the houses which\nthey occupied. They constituted a patrimony which the owners made every\neffort to preserve intact through all reverses of fortune.* The head\nof the family bequeathed it to his widow or his eldest son, or left it\nundivided to his heirs, in the assurance, no doubt, that one of them\nwould buy up the rights of the others.\n\n     * A house could be let for various lengths of time--for\n     three months, for a year, for five years, for an indefinite\n     term, but with a minimum of six months, since the rent is\n     payable at the beginning and in the middle of each year.\n\nThe remainder of his goods, farms, gardens, corn-lands, slaves,\nfurniture, and jewels, were divided among the brothers or natural\ndescendants, \"from the mouth to the gold;\" that is to say, from the\nmoment of announcing the beginning of the business, to that when\neach one received his share. In order to invest this act with greater\nsolemnity, it took place usually in the presence of a priest. Those\ninterested repaired to the temple, \"to the gate of the god;\" they placed\nthe whole of the inheritance in the hands of the chosen arbitrator,\nand demanded of him to divide it justly; or the eldest brother perhaps\nanticipated the apportionment, and the priest had merely to sanction\nthe result, or settle the differences which might arise among the lawful\nrecipients in the course of the operation. When this was accomplished,\nthe legatees had to declare themselves satisfied; and when no further\nclaims arose, they had to sign an engagement before the priestly\narbitrator that they would henceforth refrain from all quarrelling on\nthe subject, and that they would never make a complaint one against the\nother. By dint of these continual redistributions from one generation\nto another, the largest fortunes soon became dispersed: the individual\nshares became smaller and smaller, and scarcely sufficed to keep a\nfamily, so that the slightest reverse obliged the possessor to\nhave recourse to usurers. The Chald\u00e6ans, like the Egyptians, were\nunacquainted with the use of money, but from the earliest times the\nemployment of precious metals for purposes of exchange was practised\namong them to an enormous extent. Though copper and gold were both used,\nsilver was the principal medium in these transactions, and formed the\nstandard value of all purchaseable objects. It was never cut into flat\nrings or twists of wire, as was the case with the Egyptian \"tabnu;\" it\nwas melted into small unstamped ingots, which were passed from hand\nto hand by weight, being tested in the scales at each transaction.\n\"To weigh\" was in the ordinary language the equivalent for \"payment in\nmetal,\" whereas \"to measure\" denoted that the payment was in grain.\nThe ingots for exchange were, therefore, designated by the name of\nthe weights to which they corresponded. The lowest unit was a shekel,\nweighing on an average nearly half an ounce, sixty shekels making a\nmina, and sixty minas a talent. It is a question whether the Chald\u00e6anns\npossessed in early times, as did the Assyrians of a later period, two\nkinds of shekels and minas, one heavy and the other light. Whether the\nloan were in metal, grain, or any other substance, the interest was very\nhigh.* A very ancient law fixed it in certain cases at twelve drachmas\nper mina, per annum--that is to say, at twenty per cent.--and more\nrecent texts show us that, when raised to twenty-five per cent., it did\nnot appear to them abnormal.\n\n     * We find several different examples, during the Second\n     Chald\u00e6ann Empire, of an exchange of corn for provisions and\n     liquids, or of beams for dates. As a fact, exchange has\n     never completely died out in these regions, and at the\n     present day, in Chald\u00e6a, as in Egypt, corn is used in many\n     cases either to pay Government taxes or to discharge\n     commercial debts.\n\nThe commerce of the chief cities was almost entirely concentrated in the\ntemples. The large quantities of metals and cereals constantly brought\nto the god, either as part of the fixed temple revenue, or as daily\nofferings, accumulated so rapidly, that they would have overflowed the\nstorehouses, had not a means been devised of utilizing them quickly: the\npriests treated them as articles of commerce and made a profit out of\nthem.* Every bargain necessitated the calling in of a public scribe. The\nbill, drawn up before witnesses on a clay tablet, enumerated the sums\npaid out, the names of the parties, the rate per cent., the date\nof repayment, and sometimes a penal clause in the event of fraud or\ninsolvency; the tablet remained in the possession of the creditor until\nthe debt had been completely discharged. The borrower often gave as a\npledge either slaves, a field, or a house, or certain of his friends\nwould pledge on his behalf their own personal fortune; at times he would\npay by the labour of his own hands the interest which he would otherwise\nhave been unable to meet, and the stipulation was previously made in the\ncontract of the number of days of corv\u00e9e which he should periodically\nfulfil for his creditor. If, in spite of all this, the debtor was unable\nto procure the necessary funds to meet his engagements, the principal\nbecame augmented by a fixed sum--for instance, one-third--and continued\nto increase at this rate until the total value of the amount reached\nthat of the security:** the slave, the field, or the house then ceased\nto belong to their former, master, subject to a right of redemption, of\nwhich he was rarely able to avail himself for lack of means.***\n\n     * It was to the god himself--Shamash, for example--that the\n     loan was supposed to be made, and it is to him that the\n     contracts stipulate that the capital and interest shall be\n     paid. It is curious to lind among the most successful money-\n     lenders several princesses consecrated to the sun-god.\n\n     ** It is easy to foresee, from the contracts of the New\n     Assyrian or Babylonian Empire, how in this manner the\n     original sum lent became doubled and trebled; generally the\n     interest accumulated till it was quadrupled, after which, no\n     doubt, the security was taken by the creditor. They probably\n     calculated that the capital and compound interest was by\n     then equal in value to the person or object given as a\n     security.\n\n     *** The creditors protected themselves against this right of\n     redemption by a maledictory formula inserted at the end of\n     the contracts against those who should avail themselves of\n     it; it is generally inscribed on the boundary stones of the\n     First Chald\u00e6an Empire.\n\nThe small tradesman or free workman, who by some accident had become\ninvolved in debt, seldom escaped this progressive impoverishment except\nby strenuous efforts and incessant labour. Foreign commerce, it is true,\nentailed considerable risk, but the chances of acquiring wealth were so\ngreat that many individuals launched upon it in preference to more\nsure but less lucrative undertakings. They would set off alone or in\ncompanies for Elam or the northern regions, for Syria, or even for so\ndistant a country as Egypt, and they would bring back in their caravans\nall that was accounted precious in those lands. Overland routes were not\nfree from dangers; not only were nomad tribes and professional bandits\nconstantly hovering round the traveller, and obliging him to exercise\nceaseless vigilance, but the inhabitants of the villages through which\nhe passed, the local lords and the kings of the countries which he\ntraversed, had no scruple in levying blackmail upon him in obliging him\nto pay dearly for right of way through their marches or territory.**\nThere were less risks in choosing a sea route: the Euphrates on one\nside, the Tigris, the Ula\u00ee, and the Uknu on the other, ran through a\ncountry peopled with a rich industrial population, among whom Chald\u00e6an\nmerchandise was easily and profitably sold or exchanged for commodities\nwhich would command a good price at the end of the voyage. The vessels\ngenerally were keleks or \"kufas,\" but the latter were of immense size.\n\n     * We have no information from Babylonian sources relating to\n     the state of the roads, and the dangers which merchants\n     encountered in foreign lands; the Egyptian documents partly\n     supply what is here lacking. The \"instructions\" contained in\n     the _Sallier Papyrus,_ No. ii., show what were the miseries\n     of the traveller, and the _Adventures of Sinuh\u00eet_ allude to\n     the insecurity of the roads in Syria, by the very care with\n     which the hero relates all the precautions which he took for\n     his protection. These two documents are of the XIIth or\n     XIIIth dynasty--that is to say, contemporaneous with the\n     kings, of Uru and with Gudea.\n\nSeveral individuals, as a rule, would club together to hire one of these\nboats and freight it with a suitable cargo.* The body of the boat\nwas very light, being made of osier or willow covered with skins sewn\ntogether; a layer of straw was spread on the bottom, on which were piled\nthe bales or chests, which were again protected by a rough thatch of\nstraw. The crew was composed of two oarsmen at least, and sometimes a\nfew donkeys: the merchants then pursued their way up stream till they\nhad disposed of their cargo, and taken in a sufficient freight for their\nreturn voyage. The dangers, though apparently not so great as those by\nthe land route, were not the less real. The boat was liable to sink\nor run aground near the bank, the dwellers in the neighbourhood of the\nriver might intercept it and pillage its contents, a war might break out\nbetween two contiguous kingdoms and suspend all commerce: the merchants'\ncareer continually vacillated between servitude, death, and fortune.\n\n     * The payment demanded was something considerable: the only\n     contract which I know of existing for such a transaction is\n     of the time of Darius I., and exacts a silver shekel per day\n     for the hire of boat and crew.\n\nBusiness carried on at home in the towns was seldom the means of\nenriching a man, and sometimes scarcely afforded him a means of\nlivelihood. Rent was high for those who had not a house of their own;\nthe least they could expect to pay was half a silver shekel per annum,\nbut the average price was a whole shekel. On taking possession they paid\na deposit which sometimes amounted to one-third of the whole sum, the\nremainder being due at the end of the year. The leases lasted, as a\nrule, merely a twelvemonth, though sometimes they were extended for\nterms of greater length, such as two, three, or even eight years. The\ncost of repairs and of keeping the house in good condition fell usually\nupon the lessee, who was also allowed to build upon the land he had\nleased, in which case it was declared free of all charges for a period\nof about ten years, but the house, and, as a rule, all he had built,\nthen reverted to the landlord. Most possessors of shops made their own\ngoods for sale, assisted by slaves or free apprentices. Every workman\ntaught his own trade to his children, and these in their turn would\ninstruct theirs; families which had an hereditary profession, or from\ngeneration to generation had gathered bands of workmen about them,\nformed themselves into various guilds, or, to use the customary term,\ninto tribes, governed by chiefs and following specified customs. A\nworkman belonged to the tribe of the weavers, or of the blacksmiths, or\nof the corn-merchants, and the description of an individual would not\nhave been considered as sufficiently exact, if the designation of his\ntribe were not inserted after his name in addition to his paternal\naffiliation. The organization was like that of Egypt, but more fully\ndeveloped. The various trades, moreover, were almost the same among the\ntwo peoples, the exceptions being such as are readily accounted for by\nthe differences in the nature of the soil and physical constitution of\nthe respective countries. We do not meet on the banks of the Euphrates\nwith those corporations of stone-cutters and marble workers which were\nso numerous in the valley of the Nile. The vast Chald\u00e6an plain, in the\nabsence of mountains or accessible quarries, would have furnished no\noccupation for them: the Chald\u00e6ans had to go a long way in quest of\nthe small quantities of limestone, alabaster, or diorite which they\nrequired, and which they reserved only for details of architectural\ndecoration for which a small number of artisans and sculptors were amply\nsufficient. The manufacture of bricks, on the other hand, made great\nprogress; the crude bricks were larger than those of Egypt, and they\nwere more enduring, composed of finer clay and better executed; the\nmanufacture of burnt brick too was carried to a degree of perfection to\nwhich Memphis or Thebes never attained. An ancient legend ascribes\nthe invention of the bricks, and consequently the construction of the\nearliest cities, jointly to Sin, the eldest son of Bel, and Ninib his\nbrother: this event was said to have taken place in May-June, and from\nthat time forward the third month of the year, over which the twins\npresided, was called, Murga in Sumerian, Simanu in the Semitic speech,\nthe month of brick. This was the season which was especially devoted to\nthe processes of their manufacture: the flood in the rivers, which was\nvery great in the preceding months, then began to subside, and the clay\nwhich was deposited by the waters during the weeks of overflow, washed\nand refined as it was, lent itself readily to the operation. The sun,\nmoreover, gave forth sufficient heat to dry the clay blocks in a uniform\nand gradual manner: later, in July and August, they would crack under\nthe ardour of his rays, and become converted externally into a friable\nmass, while their interior would remain too moist to allow them to be\nprudently used in carefully built structures. The work of brick-making\nwas inaugurated with festivals and sacrifices to Sin, Merodach, Nebo,\nand all the deities who were concerned in the art of building: further\nreligious ceremonies were observed at intervals during the month to\nsanctify the progress of the work. The manufacture did not cease on the\nlast day of the month, but was continued with more or less activity,\naccording to the heat of the sun, and the importance of the orders\nreceived, until the return of the inundation: but the bricks intended\nfor public buildings, temples, or palaces, could not be made outside a\nprescribed limit of time. The shades of colour produced naturally in the\nprocess of burning--red or yellow, grey or brown--were not pleasant to\nthe eye, and they were accustomed, therefore, to coat the bricks with an\nattractive enamel which preserved them from the disintegrating effects\nof sun and rain. The paste was laid on the edges or sides while\nthe brick was in a crude state, and was incorporated with it by\nvitrification in the heat of the kiln. The process was known from an\nearly date in Egypt, but was rarely employed there in the decoration\nof buildings, while in Chald\u00e6a the use of such enamelled plaques was\ncommon. The substructures of palaces and the exterior walls of temples\nwere left unadorned, but the shrines which crowned the \"ziggurat,\"\nthe reception-halls, and the headings of doors were covered with these\nmany-coloured tiles. Fragments of them are found to-day in the ruins of\nthe cities, and the analysis of these pieces shows the marvellous skill\nof the ancient workers in enamel; the shades of colour are pure and\npleasant to the eye, while the material is so evenly put on and so\nsolid, that neither centuries of burial in a sodden soil, nor the wear\nand tear of transport, nor the exposure to the damp of our museums, have\nsucceeded in diminishing their brilliance and freshness.\n\nTo get a clear idea of the industrial operations of the country, it\nwould be necessary to see the various corporations at their work, as we\nare able to do, in the case of Egypt in the scenes of the mastabas of\nSaqq\u00e2ra, or of the rock-chambers of Beni-Hasan. The manufacture of stone\nimplements gave considerable employment, and the equipment of the dead\nin the tombs of Uru would have been a matter of small moment, if we were\nto exclude its flint implements, its knives, cleavers, scrapers, adzes,\naxes, and hammers. The cutting of these objects is bold, and the final\ntouches show skill, but we rarely meet with that purity of contour and\nintensity of polish which distinguish similar objects among Western\npeoples. A few examples, it is true, are of fairly artistic shape, and\nbear engraved inscriptions: one of these, a flint hammer of beautiful\nform, belonged to a god, probably Eamman, and seems to have come from a\ntemple in which one of its owners had deposited it.\n\n[Illustration: 311a.jpg CHALD\u00c6AN STONE IMPLEMENTS.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the sketches published by\n     Taylor and by 'G. Rawlinson. On the left a scraper and two\n     knives one above the other, an axe in the middle, on the\n     right an axe and a hammer. All these objects were found in\n     Taylor's excavations, and are now in the British Museum.\n\nIt is an exception, and a remarkable exception. Stone was the material\nof the implements of the poor--implements which were coarse in shape,\nand cost little: if much care were given to their execution, they would\ncome to be so costly that no one would buy them, or, if sold for a\nmoderate sum, the seller would obtain no profit from the transaction.\nBeyond a certain price, it was more advantageous to purchase metal\nimplements, of copper in the early ages, afterwards of bronze, and\nlastly of iron. Among the metal-founders and smiths all kinds of\nexamples of these were to be found--axes of an elegant and graceful\ndesign, hammers and knives, as well as culinary and domestic utensils,\ncups, cauldrons, dishes, mountings of doors and coffers, statuettes of\nmen, bulls, monsters, and gods--which could be turned to weapons of\nall descriptions--arrow and lance heads, swords, daggers, and rounded\nhelmets with neck-piece or visor.\n\n[Illustration: 311b.jpg CHALD\u00c6AN STONE HAMMER BEARING AN INSCRIPTION.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the illustration published by\n     Fr. Lenormant.\n\n[Illustration: CHALD\u00c6N IMPLEMENTS OF BRONZE]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Rawlinson's _Five Great\n     Monarchies_. On the right two axes, in the middle a hammer,\n     on the left a knife, and below the head of a lance.\n\nSome of the metal objects manufactured by the Chaldaeans attained large\ndimensions; for instance, the \"brazen seas\" which were set up before\neach sanctuary, either for the purpose of receiving the libations, or\nfor the prescribed rites of purification. As is often the case among\nhalf-civilized peoples, the goldsmiths worked in the precious metals\nwith much facility and skill. We have not, succeeded up to the present\nin finding any of those golden images which the kings were accustomed\nto dedicate in the temples out of their own possessions, or the spoil\nobtained from the enemy; but a silver vase dedicated to Ningirsu by\nEntena, vicegerent of Lagash, gives us some idea of this department\nof the temple furniture. It stands upright on a small square bronze\npedestal with four feet. A piously expressed inscription runs round\nthe neck, and the bowl of the vase is divided horizontally into two\ndivisions, framed above and below by twisted cord-work. Four two-headed\neagles, with outspread wings and tail, occupy the lower division; they\nare in the act of seizing with their claws two animals, placed back\nto back, represented in the act of walking: the intervals between the\neagles are filled up alternatively by two lions, two wild goats, and\ntwo stags. Above, and close to the rise of the neck, are disposed seven\nheifers lying down and all looking in the same direction: they are all\nengraved upon the flat metal, and are without relief or incrustation.\nThe whole composition is harmoniously put together, the posture of the\nanimals and their general form are well conceived and boldly rendered,\nbut the details of the mane of the lions and the feathers of the eagles\nare reproduced with a realism and attention to minutio which belong to\nthe infancy of art. This single example of ancient goldsmiths'work would\nbe sufficient to prove that the early Chald\u00e6ns were not a whit behind\nthe Egyptians in this handicraft, even if we had not the golden\nornaments, the bracelets, ear and finger rings to judge from, with which\nthe tombs have furnished us in considerable numbers.\n\n[Illustration: VASE OF SILVER. AND BULL OF COPPER.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Heuzey-Sarzec\n\nAlongside the goldsmiths there must have been a whole army of lapidaries\nand gem-cutters occupied in the engraving of cylinders. Numerous and\ndelicate operations were required to metamorphose a scrap of crude\nrock, marble, granite, agate, onyx, green and red jasper, crystal or\nlapis-lazuli, into one of those marvellous seals which are now found by\nthe hundred scattered throughout the museums of Europe. They had to be\nrounded, reduced to the proper proportions, and polished, before the\nsubject or legend could be engraved upon them with the burin. To drill a\nhole through them required great dexterity, and some of the lapidaries,\nfrom a dread of breaking the cylinder, either did not pierce it at all,\nor merely bored a shallow hole into each extremity to allow it to\nroll freely in its metallic mounting. The tools used in engraving were\nsimilar to those employed at the present day, but of a rougher kind. The\nburin, which was often nothing more than a flint point, marked out the\narea of the design, and sketched out the figures; the saw was largely\nemployed to cut away the depressions when these required no detailed\nhandling; and lastly, the drill, either worked with the hand or in\na kind of lathe, was made to indicate the joints and muscles of the\nindividual by a series of round holes. The object thus summarily dealt\nwith might be regarded as sufficiently worked for ordinary clients; but\nthose who were willing to pay for them could obtain cylinders from which\nevery mark of the tool had been adroitly removed, and where the beauty\nof the workmanship vied with the costliness of the material.\n\n[Illustration: 315.jpg CHALD\u00c6AN CYLINDER EXHIBITING TRACES OF THE\nDIFFERENT TOOLS USED BY THE ENGRAVER]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a heliogravure in M\u00e9nant's\n     _Catalogue de la collection de M. de Clercq_\n\n\nThe seal of Shargani, King of Agad\u00ea, that of Bingani-shar-ali, and many\nothers which have been picked up by chance in the excavations, are\ntrue bas-reliefs, reduced and condensed, so to speak, to the space of\nsomething like a square inch of surface, but conceived with an artistic\ningenuity and executed with a boldness which modern engravers have\nrarely equalled and never surpassed. There are traces on them, it is\ntrue, of some of the defects which disfigured the latter work of the\nAssyrians--heaviness of form, exaggerated prominence of muscles\nand hardness of outline--but there are also all the qualities which\ndistinguish an original and forcible art.\n\nThe countries of the Euphrates were renowned in classic times for the\nbeauty of the embroidered and painted stuffs which they manufactured.*\nNothing has come down to us of these Babylonian tissues of which the\nGreek and Latin writers extolled the magnificence, but we may form some\nidea, from the statues and the figures engraved on cylinders, of what\nthe weavers and embroiderers of this ancient time were capable. The loom\nwhich they made use of differed but slightly from the horizontal loom\ncommonly employed in the Nile Valley, and everything tends to show that\ntheir plain linen cloths were of the kind represented in the swathings\nand fragments of clothing still to be found in the sepulchral chambers\nof Memphis and Thebes. The manufacture of fleecy woollen garments so\nmuch affected by men and women alike indicates a great dexterity. When\nonce the threads of the woof had been stretched, those of the warp\nwere attached to them by knots in as many parallel lines--at regular\nintervals--as there were rows of fringe to be displayed on the surface\nof the cloth, the loops thus formed being allowed to hang down in their\nrespective places: sometimes these loops were retained just as they\nstood, sometimes they were cut and the ends frayed out so as to give the\nappearance of a shaggy texture.\n\n     * Most modern writers understand by tapestry what the\n     ancients were accustomed to call needle embroidery or\n     painting on stuffs: I can find no indication on the most\n     ancient monuments of Chald\u00e6an or Egypt of the manufacturing\n     of real tapestry.\n\n[Illustration: 316.jpg Egyptian Manuscript]\n\n     Part of an Egyptian Manuscript found in the Swathing of a\n     Mummy\n\n[Illustration: 316-text.jpg Egyptian Manuscript]\n\n\nMost of these stuffs preserved their original white or creamy\ncolour--especially those woven at home by the women for the requirements\nof their own toilet, and for the ordinary uses of the household. The\nChald\u00e6ans, however, like many other Asiatic peoples, had a strong\npreference for lively colours, and the outdoor garments and gala attire\nof the rich were distinguished by a profusion of blue patterns on a red\nground, or red upon blue, arranged in stripes, zigzags, checks, and\ndots or circles. There must, therefore, have been as much occupation\nfor dyers as there was for weavers; and it is possible that the two\noperations were carried out by the same hands. We know nothing of the\nbakers, butchers, carriers, masons, and other artisans who supplied the\nnecessities of the cities: they were doubtless able to make two ends\nmeet and nothing more, and if we should succeed some day in obtaining\ninformation about them, we shall probably find that their condition was\nas miserable as that of their Egyptian contemporaries. The course\nof their lives was monotonous enough, except when it was broken at\nprescribed intervals by the ordinary festivals in honour of the gods\nof the city, or by the casual suspensions of work occasioned by the\ntriumphant return of the king from some warlike expedition, or by his\ninauguration of a new temple.\n\nThe gaiety of the people on such occasions was the more exuberant in\nproportion to the undisturbed monotony or misery of the days which\npreceded them. As soon, for instance, as Gudea had brought to completion\nIninnu, the house of his patron Ningirsu, \"he felt relieved from the\nstrain and washed his hands. For seven days, no grain was bruised in the\nquern, the maid was the equal of her mistress, the servant walked in the\nsame rank as his master, the strong and the weak rested side by side in\nthe city.\" The world seemed topsy-turvy as during the Roman Saturnalia;\nthe classes mingled together, and the inferiors were probably accustomed\nto abuse the unusual licence which they momentarily enjoyed: when the\nfestival was over, social distinctions reasserted themselves, and each\none fell back into his accustomed position. Life was not so pleasant\nin Chald\u00e6a as in Egypt. The innumerable promissory notes, the receipted\naccounts, the contracts of sale and purchase--these cunningly drawn up\ndeeds which have been deciphered by the hundred--reveal to us a people\ngreedy of gain, exacting, litigious, of artisans in Egypt. This is taken\nfrom a source belonging to the XIIth or possibly the XIIIth dynasty. We\nmay assume, from the fact that the two civilizations were about on\nthe same level, that the information supplied in this respect by the\nEgyptian monuments is generally applicable to the condition of Chald\u00e6an\nworkmen of the same period.\n\n(Unreadable) and almost exclusively absorbed by material concerns.\nThe climate, too, variable and oppressive in summer and winter alike,\nimposed upon the Chald\u00e6an painful exactions, and obliged him to work\nwith an energy of which the majority of Egyptians would not have felt\nthemselves capable. The Chald\u00e6an, suffering greater and more prolonged\nhardships, earned more doubtless, but was not on this account the\nhappier. However lucrative his calling might be, it was not sufficiently\nso to supply him always with domestic necessities, and both tradespeople\nand operatives were obliged to run into debt to supplement their\nstraitened means. When they had once fallen into the hands of the\nusurer, the exorbitant interest which they had to pay kept them a long\ntime in his power. If when the bill fell due there was nothing to meet\nit, it had to be renewed under still more disastrous conditions; as the\npledge given was usually the homestead, or the slave who assisted in the\ntrade, or the garden which supplied food for the family, the mortgagor\nwas reduced to the extreme of misery if he could not satisfy his\ncreditors, This plague of usury was not, moreover, confined to the\ntowns; it raged with equal violence in the country, and the farmers also\nbecame its victims.\n\nIf, theoretically, the earth belonged to the gods, and under them to\nthe kings, the latter had made, and continued daily to make, such large\nconcessions of it to their vassals, that the greater part of their\ndomains were always in the hands of the nobles or private individuals.\nThese could dispose of their landed property at pleasure, farm it out,\nsell it or distribute it among their heirs and friends.\n\nThey paid on account of it a tax which varied at different epochs, but\nwhich was always burthensome; but when they had once satisfied this\nexaction, and paid the dues which the temples might claim on behalf\nof the gods, neither the State nor any individual had the right to\ninterfere in their administration of it, or put any restrictions upon\nthem. Some proprietors cultivated their lands themselves--the poor by\ntheir own labour, the rich by the aid of some trustworthy slave whom\nthey interested in the success of his farming by assigning him a certain\npercentage on the net return. Sometimes the lands were leased out in\nwhole or in part to free peasants who relieved the proprietors of all\nthe worry and risks of managing it themselves. A survey of the area of\neach state had been made at an early age, and the lots into which it had\nbeen divided were registered on clay tablets containing the name of\nthe proprietor as well as those of his neighbours, together with such\nindications of the features of the land, dykes, canals, rivers,\nand buildings as would serve to define its boundaries: rough plans\naccompanied the description, and in the most complicated instances\ninterpreted it to the eye. This survey was frequently repeated, and\nenabled the sovereign to arrange his scheme of taxation on a solid\nbasis, and to calculate the product of it without material error.\nGardens and groves of date-palms, together with large regions devoted\nto rough attempts at vegetable culture, were often to be met with,\nespecially in the neighbourhood of towns; these paid their contributions\nto the State, as well as the owners'rent, in kind--in fruit, vegetables,\nand fresh or dried dates. The best soil was reserved, for the growth of\nwheat and other cereals, and its extent was measured in terms of corn;\ncorn was also the standard in which the revenue was reckoned both in\npublic and private contracts. Such and such a field required about fifty\nlitres of seed to the arura. Another needed sixty-two or seventy-five\naccording to the fertility of the land and its locality. Landed property\nwas placed under the guardianship of the gods, and its transfer or\ncession was accompanied by formalities of a half-religious, half-magical\ncharacter: the party giving delivery of it called down upon the head\nof any one who would dare in the future to dispute the validity of the\ndeed, imprecations of which the text was inserted on a portion of the\nsurface of an egg-shaped nodule of flint, basalt, or other hard stone.\nThese little monuments display on their cone-shaped end a series\nof figures, sometimes arranged in two parallel divisions, sometimes\nscattered over the surface, which represent the deities invoked to watch\nover the sanctity of the contract. It was a kind of representation in\nminiature of the aspect which the heavens presented to the Chald\u00e6ans.\nThe disks of the sun and moon, together with Venus-Ashtar, are the\nprominent elements in the scene: the zodiacal figures, or the symbols\nemployed to represent them, are arranged in an apparent orbit around\nthese--such as the Scorpion, the Bird, the Dog, the Thunderbolt of\nRamman, the mace, the horned monsters, half hidden by the temples they\nguard, and the enormous Dragon who embraces in his folds half the entire\nfirmament. \"If ever, in the course of days, any one of the brothers,\nchildren, family, men or women, slaves or servants of the house, or any\ngovernor or functionary whatsoever, arises and intends to steal this\nfield, and remove this landmark, either to make a gift of it to a god,\nor to assign it to a competitor, or to appropriate it to himself; if he\nmodifies the area of it, the limits and the landmark; if he divides it\ninto portions, and if he says: 'The field has no owner, since there has\nbeen no donation of it; '--if, from dread of the terrible imprecations\nwhich protect this stele and this field, he sends a fool, a deaf or\nblind person, a wicked wretch, an idiot, a stranger, or an ignorant one,\nand should cause this stele to be taken away,* and should throw it\ninto the water, cover it with dust, mutilate it by scratching it with a\nstone, burn it in the fire and destroy it, or write anything else upon\nit, or carry,it away to a place where it will be no longer seen,--this\nman, may Anu, Bel, Ea, the exalted lady, the great gods, cast upon him\nlooks of wrath, may they destroy his strength, may they exterminate his\nrace.\" All the immortals are associated in this excommunication, and\neach one promises in his turn the aid of his power.\n\n     * All the people enumerated in this passage might, in\n     ignorance of what they were doing, be induced to tear up the\n     stone, and unconsciously commit a sacrilege from which every\n     Chald\u00e6an in his senses would have shrunk back. The formula\n     provides for such cases, and it secures that the curse shall\n     fall not only on the irresponsible instruments, but reach\n     the instigator of the crime, even when he had taken no\n     actual part in the deed.\n\n[Illustration: 322.jpg THE MICHAUX STONE (left)]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin. The original is in the medal cabinet\n     of the Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale.\n\n[Illustration: 323.jpg THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MICHAUX STONE (right)]\n\nMerodach, by whose spells the sick are re stored, will inflict upon the\nguilty one a dropsy which no incantation can cure. Shamas, the supreme\njudge, will send forth against him one of his inexorable judgments. Sin,\nthe inhabitant of the brilliant heavens, will cover him with leprosy as\nwith a garment. Adar, the warrior, will break his weapons; and Zamama,\nthe king of strifes, will not stand by him on the field of battle.\nEamman will let loose his tempest upon his fields, and will overwhelm\nthem. The whole band of the invisibles hold themselves ready to defend\nthe rights of the proprietor against all attacks. In no part of the\nancient world was the sacred character of property so forcibly laid\ndown, or the possession of the soil more firmly secured by religion.\n\nIn instruments of agriculture and modes of cultivation Chald\u00e6a was no\nbetter off than Egypt. The rapidity with which the river rose in the\nspring, and its variable subsidence from year to year, furnished little\ninducement to the Chald\u00e6ans to entrust to it the work of watering their\nlands; on the contrary, they were compelled to protect themselves from\nit, and to keep at a distance the volume of waters it brought down.\nEach property, whether of square, triangular, or any other shape, was\nsurrounded with a continuous earth-built barrier which bounded it\non every side, and served at the same time as a rampart against the\ninundation.\n\n[Illustration: 324.jpg TWO ROWS OF SHADUFS ON THE BANK OF A RIVER.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an Assyrian bas-relief from\n     Koyunjik.\n\nRows of shadufs installed along the banks of the canals or streams\nprovided for the irrigation of the lands.* The fields were laid out like\na chess-board, and the squares, separated from each other by earthen\nridges, formed as it were so many basins: when the elevation of the\nground arrested the flow of the waters, these were collected into\nreservoirs, whence by the use of other shadufs they were raised to a\nhigher level.\n\n     * In Mesopotamia and Chald\u00e6a there may still be seen\n     \"everywhere ruins of ancient canals; and there are also to\n     be met with, in many places, ridges of earth, which stretch\n     for considerable distances in a straight line, and surround\n     lands perfectly level.\" (Olivier).\n\nThe plough was nothing more than an obliquely placed mattock, whose\nhandle was lengthened in order to harness oxen to it. Whilst the\nploughman pressed heavily on the handle, two attendants kept incessantly\ngoading the beasts, or urging them forward with voice and whip, and\na third scattered the seed in the furrow. A considerable capital was\nneeded to ensure success in agricultural undertakings: contracts were\nmade for three years, and stipulated that payments should be made partly\nin metal and partly in the products of the soil.\n\n[Illustration: 325.jpg CHALD\u00c6AN FARMING OPERATIONS.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chald\u00e6an intaglio reproduced\n     in Layard. The original is in the cabinet of medals in the\n     Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale.\n\nThe farmer paid a small sum when entering into possession, and the\nremainder of the debt was gradually liquidated at the end of each\ntwelve months, the payment being in silver one year, and in corn the two\nfollowing. The rent varied according to the quality of the soil and the\nfacilities which it afforded for cultivation: a field, for instance, of\nthree bushels was made to pay nine hundred measures, while another of\nten bushels had only eighteen hundred to pay. In many instances the\npeasant preferred to take the proprietor into partnership, the latter\nin such case providing all the expenses of cultivation, on the\nunderstanding that he should receive two-thirds of the gross product.\nThe tenant was obliged to administer the estate as a careful householder\nduring the term of his lease: he was to maintain the buildings and\nimplements in good repair, to see that the hedges were kept up, to keep\nthe shadufs in working order, and to secure the good condition of the\nwatercourses. He had rarely enough slaves to manage the business with\nprofit: those he had purchased were sufficient, with the aid of his\nwives and children, to carry on ordinary operations, but when any\npressure arose, especially at harvest-time, he had to seek elsewhere the\nadditional labourers he required. The temples were the chief sources for\nthe supply of these. The majority of the supplementary labourers were\nfree men, who were hired out by their family, or engaged themselves for\na fixed term, during which they were subject to a sort of slavery, the\nconditions of which were determined by law. The workman renounced his\nliberty for fifteen days, or a month, or for a whole year; he disposed,\nso to speak, of a portion of his life to the provisional master of his\nchoice, and if he did not enter upon his work at the day agreed upon,\nor if he showed himself inactive in the duties assigned to him, he was\nliable to severe punishment. He received in exchange for his labour\nhis food, lodging, and clothing; and if an accident should occur to\nhim during the term of his service, the law granted him an indemnity in\nproportion to the injury he had sustained.\n\n[Illustration: 327.jpg THE FARM OXEN]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a green marble cylinder in the\n     Louvre.\n\nHis average wage was from four to six shekels of silver per annum. He\nwas also entitled by custom to another shekel in the form of a retaining\nfee, and he could claim his pay, which was given to him mostly in corn,\nin monthly instalments, if his agreement were for a considerable time,\nand daily if it were for a short period.\n\nThe mercenary never fell into the condition of the ordinary serf: he\nretained his rights as a man, and possessed in the person of the patron\nfor whom he laboured, or whom he himself had selected, a defender of his\ninterests. When he came to the end of his engagement, he returned to\nhis family, and resumed his ordinary occupation until the next occasion.\nMany of the farmers in a small way earned thus, in a few weeks,\nsufficient means to supplement their own modest personal income. Others\nsought out more permanent occupations, and hired themselves out as\nregular farm-servants.\n\nThe lands which neither the rise of the river nor the irrigation system\ncould reach so as to render fit for agriculture, were reserved for the\npasture of the flocks in the springtime, when they were covered with\nrich grass. The presence of lions in the neighbourhood, however, obliged\nthe husbandmen to take precautions for the safety of their flocks. They\nconstructed provisional enclosures into which the animals were driven\nevery evening, when the pastures were too far off to allow of the flocks\nbeing brought back to the sheepfold. The chase was a favourite pastime\namong them, and few days passed without the hunter's bringing back with\nhim a young gazelle caught in a trap, or a hare killed by an arrow.\nThese formed substantial additions to the larder, for the Chald\u00e6ans\ndo not seem to have kept about them, as the Egyptians did, such tamed\nanimals as cranes or herons, gazelles or deer: they contented themselves\nwith the useful species, oxen, asses, sheep, and goats. Some of the\nancient monuments, cylinders, and clay tablets reproduce in a rough\nmanner scenes from pastoral life. The door of the fold opens, and we see\na flock of goats sallying forth to the cracking of the herdsman's whip:\nwhen they reach the pasture they scatter over the meadows, and while the\nshepherd keeps his eye upon them, he plays upon his reed to the delight\nof his dog. In the mean time the farm-people are engaged in the careful\npreparation of the evening meal: two individuals on opposite sides of\nthe hearth watch the pot boiling between them, while a baker makes his\ndough into round cakes.\n\n[Illustration: 329a.jpg COOKING: A QUARREL.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the terra-cotta plaques\n     discovered by Loftus.\n\nSometimes a quarrel breaks out among the comrades, and leads to a\nstand-up fight with the fists; or a lion, perhaps, in quest of a meal,\nsurprises and kills one of the bulls: the shepherd runs up, his axe in\nhis hand, to contend bravely with the marauder for the possession of his\nbeast. The shepherd was accustomed to provide himself with assistance\nin the shape of enormous dogs, who had no more hesitation in attacking\nbeasts of prey than they had in pursuing game. In these combats the\nnatural courage of the shepherd was stimulated by interest: for he was\npersonally responsible for the safety of his flock, and if a lion should\nfind an entrance into one of the enclosures.\n\n[Illustration: 329b.jpg SCENES OF PASTORAL LIFE IN CHALD\u00c6A.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chald\u00e6an intaglio from\n     Layard. Another cylinder of the same kind is reproduced at\n     p. 233 of the present work; it represents Etana arising to\n     heaven by the aid of his friend the eagle, while the\n     pastoral scene below resembles in nearly all particulars\n     that given above.\n\n[Illustration: 330.jpg FIGHT WITH A LION]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the terra-cotta tablets\n     discovered by Loftus.\n\nFishing was not so much a pastime as a source of livelihood; for fish\noccupied a high place in the bill of fare of the common folk. Caught by\nthe line, net, or trap, it was dried,in the sun, smoked, or salted. The\nchase was essentially the pastime of the great noble--the pursuit of\nthe lion and the bear in the wooded covers or the marshy thickets of the\nriver-bank; the pursuit of the gazelle, the ostrich, and bustard on\nthe elevated plains or rocky tablelands of the desert. The onager of\nMesopotamia is a very beautiful animal, with its grey glossy coat, and\nits lively and rapid action.\n\n[Illustration: 331.jpg THE DOG IN TUB LEASH]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a terra-cotta tablet discovered\n     by Sir H. Rawlinson in the ruins of Babylon, and now in the\n     British Museum\n\nIf it is disturbed, it gives forth a cry, kicks up its heels, and dashes\noff: when at a safe distance, it stops, turns round, and faces its\npursuer: as soon as he approaches, it starts off again, stops, and takes\nto its heels again, continuing this procedure as long as it is followed.\nThe Chald\u00e6ans found it difficult to catch by the aid of dogs, but they\ncould bring it down by arrows, or perhaps catch it alive by stratagem.\nA running noose was thrown round its neck, and two men held the ends of\nthe ropes. The animal struggled, made a rush, and attempted to bite, but\nits efforts tended only to tighten the noose still more firmly, and\nit at length gave in, half strangled; after alternating struggles and\nsuffocating paroxysms, it became somewhat calmer, and allowed itself to\nbe led. It was finally tamed, if not to the extent of becoming useful\nin agriculture, at least for the purposes of war: before the horse was\nknown in Chald\u00e6a, it was used to draw the chariot. The original habitat\nof the horse was the great table-lands of Central Asia: it is doubtful\nwhether it was brought suddenly into the region of the Tigrus and\nEuphrates by some barbaric invasion, or whether it was passed on from\ntribe to tribe, and thus gradually reached that country. It soon became\nacclimatized, and its cross-breeding with the ass led for centuries to\nthe production of magnificent mules. The horse was known to the kings\nof Lagash, who used it in harness. The sovereigns of neighbouring cities\nwere also acquainted with it, but it seems to have been employed solely\nby the upper classes of society, and never to have been generally used\nin the war-chariot or as a charger in cavalry operations.\n\n[Illustration: 332.jpg CHALD\u00c6AN CARRYING A FISH. (left)]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the terra-cotta tablets\n     discovered by Loftus.\n\nThe Chald\u00e6ans carried agriculture to a high degree of perfection, and\nsucceeded in obtaining from the soil everything it could be made to\nyield.\n\n[Illustration: 333.jpg THE ONAGER TAKEN WITH THE LASSO.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the Assyrian bas-relief of\n     Nimrud. See p. 35 of the present work for an illustration of\n     onagers pierced by arrows in the chase.\n\nTheir methods, transmitted in the first place to the Greeks, and\nafterwards to the Arabs, were perpetuated long after their civilization\nhad disappeared, and were even practised by the people of Iraq under the\nAbbasside Caliphs. Agricultural treatises on clay, which contained an\naccount of these matters, were deposited in one or other of the sacred\nlibraries in which the priests of each city were long accustomed to\ncollect together documents from every source on which they could lay\ntheir hands. There were to be found in each of these collections a\ncertain number of works which were unique, either because the authors\nwere natives of the city, or because all copies of them had been\ndestroyed in the course of centuries--the Epic of Grilgames, for\ninstance, at Uruk; a history of the Creation, and of the battles of\nthe gods with the monsters at Kutha: all of them had their special\ncollections of hymns or psalms, religious and magical formulas, their\nlists of words and grammatical phraseology, their glossaries and\nsyllabaries, which enabled them to understand and translate texts drawn\nup in Sumerian, or to decipher those whose writing presented more than\nordinary difficulty. In these libraries there was, we find, as in\nthe inscriptions of Egypt, a complete literature, of which only some\nshattered fragments have come down to us. The little we are able to\nexamine has produced upon our modern investigators a complex impression,\nin which astonishment rather than admiration contends with a sense\nof tedious-ness. There may be recognized here and there, among the\nwearisome successions of phrases, with their rugged proper names,\nepisodes which seem something like a Chaldaean \"Genesis\" or \"Veda;\" now\nand then a bold flight of fancy, a sudden exaltation of thought, or a\nfelicitous expression, arrests the attention and holds it captive for\na time. In the narrative of the adventures of Grilgames, for instance,\nthere is a certain nobility of character, and the sequence of events, in\ntheir natural and marvellous development, are handled with gravity and\nfreedom: if we sometimes encounter episodes which provoke a smile or\nexcite our repugnance, we must take into account the rudeness of the age\nwith which they deal, and remember that the men and gods of the later\nHomeric epic are not a whit behind the heroes of Babylonian story in\ncoarseness. The recognition of divine omnipotence, and the keenly felt\nafflictions of the soul, awakened in the Chald\u00e6an psalmist feelings of\nadoration and penitence which still find, in spite of the differences of\nreligion, an echo in our own hearts; and the unknown scribe, who related\nthe story of the descent of Ishtar to the infernal regions, was able to\nexpress with a certain gloomy energy the miseries of the \"Land without\nreturn. \"These instances are to be regarded, however, as exceptional:\nthe bulk of Chald\u00e6an literature seems nothing more than a heap of\npretentious trash, in which even the best-equipped reader can see no\nmeaning, or, if he can, it is of such a character as to seem unworthy\nof record. His judgment is natural in the circumstances, for the ancient\nEast is not, like Greece and Italy, the dead of yesterday whose soul\nstill hovers around us, and whose legacies constitute more than the half\nof our patrimony: on the contrary, it was buried soul and body, gods\nand cities, men and circumstances, ages ago, and even its heirs, in the\nlapse of years, have become extinct. In proportion as we are able to\nbring its civilization to light, we become more and more conscious that\nwe have little or nothing in common with it. Its laws and customs, its\nmethods of action and its modes of thought, are so far apart from those\nof the present day, that they seem to us to belong to a humanity utterly\ndifferent from our own. The names of its deities do not appeal to our\nimagination like those of the Olympian cycle, and no traditional respect\nserves to do away with the sense of uncouthness which we experience\nfrom the jingle of syllables which enter into them. Its artists did not\nregard the world from the same point of view as we do, and its writers,\ndrawing their inspiration from an entirely different source, made use of\nobsolete methods to express their feelings and co-ordinate their ideas.\nIt thus happens that while we understand to a shade the classical\nlanguage of the Greeks and Romans, and can read their works almost\nwithout effort, the great primitive literatures of the world, the\nEgyptian and Chald\u00e6an, have nothing to offer us for the most part but a\nsequence of problems to solve or of enigmas to unriddle with patience.\nHow many phrases, how many words at which we stumble, require a\npainstaking analysis before we can make ourselves master of their\nmeaning! And even when we have determined to our satisfaction their\nliteral signification, what a number of excursions we must make in the\ndomain of religious, ethical, and political history before we can compel\nthem to render up to us their full import, or make them as intelligible\nto others as they are to ourselves! When so many commentaries are\nrequired to interpret the thought of an individual or a people, some\ndifficulty must be experienced in estimating the value of the expression\nwhich they have given to it. Elements of beauty were certainly, and\nperhaps are still, within it; but in proportion as we clear away\nthe rubbish which encumbers it, the mass of glossaries necessary to\ninterpret it fall in and bury it so as to stifle it afresh.\n\nWhile the obstacles to our appreciation of Chald\u00e6ann literature are of\nsuch a serious character, we are much more at home in our efforts to\nestimate the extent and depth of their scientific knowledge. They\nwere as well versed as the Egyptians, but not more, in arithmetic\nand geometry in as far as these had an application to the affairs of\neveryday life: the difference between the two peoples consisted chiefly\nin their respective numerical systems--the Egyptians employing almost\nexclusively the decimal system of notation, while the Chald\u00e6ans combined\nits use with the duodecimal.\n\n[Illustration: 337.jpg Page image]\n\nTo express the units, they made use of so many vertical \"nails\"\nplaced one after, or above, each other, thus [symbols] etc.; tens were\nrepresented by bent brackets [symbols], up to 60; beyond this figure\nthey had the choice of two methods of notation: they could express the\nfurther tens by the continuous additions of brackets thus, [symbols]\nor they could represent 50 by a vertical \"nail,\" and add for every\nadditional ten a bracket to the right of it, thus: [symbols]. The\nnotation of a hundred was represented by the vertical \"nail\" with\na horizontal stroke to the right thus [symbols], and the number of\nhundreds by the symbols placed before this sign, thus [symbols], etc.:\na thousand was written [symbols] i.e. ten times one hundred, and the\nseries of thousands by the combination of different notations which\nserved to express units, tens, and hundreds. They subdivided the unit,\nmoreover, into sixty equal parts, and each of these parts into sixty\nfurther equal subdivisions, and this system of fractions was used in all\nkinds of quantitive measurements. The fathom, the foot and its square,\ntalents and bushels, the complete system of Chald\u00e6an weights and\nmeasures, were based on the intimate alliance and parallel use of\nthe decimal and duodecimal systems of notation. The sixtieth was more\nfrequently employed than the hundredth when large quantities were in\nquestion: it was called a \"soss,\" and ten sosses were equal to a \"ner,\"\nwhile sixty ners were equivalent to a \"sar;\" the series, sosses,\nners, and sars, being employed in all estimations of values. Years and\nmeasures of length were reckoned in sosses, while talents and bushels\nwere measured in sosses and sars. The fact that these subdivisions were\nall divisible by 10 or 12, rendered calculations by means of them easy\nto the merchant and workmen as well as to the mathematical expert. The\nglimpses that we have been able to obtain up to the present of Chaldaean\nscientific methods indicate that they were on a low level, but they\nwere sufficiently advanced to furnish practical rules for application in\neveryday affairs: helps to memory of different kinds, lists of figures\nwith their names phonetically rendered in Sumerian and Semitic speech,\ntables of squares and cubes, and rudimentary formulas and figures for\nland-surveying, furnished sufficient instructions to enable any one\nto make complicated calculations in a ready manner, and to work out in\nfigures, with tolerable accuracy, the superficial area of irregularly\nshaped plots of land. The Chaldaeans could draw out, with a fair amount\nof exactness, plans of properties or of towns, and their ambition\nimpelled them even to attempt to make maps of the world. The latter\nwere, it is true, but rough sketches, in which mythological beliefs\nvitiated the information which merchants and soldiers had collected in\ntheir journeys. The earth was represented as a disk surrounded by the\nocean stream: Chald\u00e6a took up the greater part of it, and foreign\ncountries did not appear in it at all, or held a position out in the\ncold at its extremities. Actual knowledge was woven in an extraordinary\nmanner with mystic considerations, in which the virtues of numbers,\ntheir connections with the gods, and the application of geometrical\ndiagrams to the prediction of the future, played an important part.\nWe know what a brilliant fortune these speculations attained in\nafter-years, and the firm hold they obtained for centuries over Western\nnations, as formerly over the Bast. It was not in arithmetic and\ngeometry alone, moreover, that the Chaldaeans were led away by such\ndeceits: each branch of science in its turn was vitiated by them,\nand, indeed, it could hardly be otherwise when we come to consider the\nChald\u00e6an outlook upon the universe. Its operations, in their eyes, were\nnot carried on under impersonal and unswerving laws, but by voluntary\nand rational agents, swayed by an inexorable fate against which they\ndared not rebel, but still free enough and powerful enough to avert by\nmagic the decrees of destiny, or at least to retard their execution.\nFrom this conception of things each subordinate science was obliged to\nmake its investigations in two perfectly distinct regions: it had at\nfirst to determine the material facts within its competence--such as the\nposition of the stars, for instance, or the symptoms of a malady; it\nhad then to discover the beings which revealed themselves through these\nmaterial manifestations, their names and their characteristics. When\nonce it had obtained this information, and could lay its hands upon\nthem, it could compel them to work on its behalf: science was thus\nnothing else than the application of magic to a particular class of\nphenomena.\n\nThe number of astronomical facts with which the Chald\u00e6ans had made\nthemselves acquainted was considerable.\n\n[Illustration: 340.jpg CHALD\u00c6AN MAP OF THE WORLD.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Peiser.\n\nIt was a question in ancient times whether they or the Egyptians had\nbeen the first to carry their investigations into the infinite depths\nof celestial space: when it came to be a question as to which of the two\npeoples had made the greater progress in this branch of knowledge, all\nhesitation vanished, and the pre-eminence was accorded by the ancients\nto the priests of Babylon rather than to those of Heliopolis and\nMemphis.*\n\n* Clement of Alexandria, Lucien, Diogenes Laertius, Macrobius, attribute\nthe origin of astronomy to the Egyptians, and Diodorus Sioulus asserts\nthat they were the teachers of the Babylonians; Josephus maintains, on\nthe contrary, that the Egyptians were the pupils of the Chald\u00e6ans.\n\n[Illustration: 340.jpg ASTRONOMICAL TABLE]\n\nThe Chaldaeans had conducted astronomical observations from remote\nantiquity.* Callisthenes collected and sent to his uncle Aristotle a\nnumber of these observations, of which the oldest had been made nineteen\nhundred and three years before his time--that is, about the middle of\nthe twenty-third century before our era: he could have transcribed\nmany of a still earlier date if the archives of Babylon had been fully\naccessible to him.\n\n     * Epigenes asserts that their observations extended back to\n     720,000 years before the time of Alexander, while Berossus\n     and Critodemus limit their antiquity to 490,000 years, which\n     was further reduced to 473,000 years by Diodorus, to 470,000\n     by Cicero, and to 270,000 by Hipparchus.\n\nThe Chald\u00e6an priests had been accustomed from an early date to record on\ntheir clay tablets the aspect of the heavens and the changes which took\nplace in them night after night, the appearance of the constellations,\ntheir comparative brilliancy, the precise moments of their rising and\nsetting and culmination, together with the more or less rapid movements\nof the planets, and their motions towards or from one another. To their\nunaided eyes, sharpened by practice and favoured by the transparency\nof the air, many stars were visible, as to the Egyptians, which we can\nperceive only by the aid of the telescope. These thousands of brilliant\nbodies, scattered apparently at random over the face of the sky, moved,\nhowever, with perfect regularity, and the period between their departure\nfrom and their return to the same point in the heavens was determined\nat an early date: their position could be predicted at any hour, their\ncourse in the firmament being traced so accurately that its various\nstages were marked out and indicated beforehand. The moon, they\ndiscovered, had to complete two hundred and twenty-three revolutions of\ntwenty-nine days and a half each, before it returned to the point from\nwhich it had set out. This period of its career being accomplished, it\nbegan a second of equal length, then a third, and so on, in an infinite\nseries, during which it traversed the same celestial houses and repeated\nin them the same acts of its life: all the eclipses which it had\nundergone in one period would again afflict it in another, and would\nbe manifest in the same places of the earth in the same order of time.*\nWhether they ascribed these eclipses to some mechanical cause, or\nregarded them as so many unfortunate attacks made upon Sin by the seven,\nthey recognized their periodical character, and they were acquainted\nwith the system of the two hundred and twenty-three lunations by which\ntheir occurrence and duration could be predicted. Further observations\nencouraged the astronomers to endeavour to do for the sun what they had\nso successfully accomplished in regard to the moon.\n\n     * This period of two hundred and twenty-three lunations is\n     that described by Ptolemy in the fourth book of his\n     \"Astronomy,\" in which he deals with the average motion of\n     the moon. The Chald\u00e6ans seem not to have been able to make a\n     skilful use of it, for their books indicate the occurrence\n     of lunar eclipses outside the predicted periods.\n\nNo long experience was needed to discover the fact that the majority of\nsolar eclipses were followed some fourteen days and a half after by an\neclipse of the moon; but they were unable to take sufficient advantage\nof this experience to predict with certainty the instant of a future\neclipse of the sun, although they had been so struck with the connection\nof the two phenomena as to believe that they were in a position to\nannounce it approximately.* They were frequently deceived in their\npredictions, and more than one eclipse which they had promised did not\ntake place at the time expected:** but their successful prognostications\nwere sufficiently frequent to console them for their failures, and to\nmaintain the respect of the people and the rulers for their knowledge.\nTheir years were vague years of three hundred and sixty days. The twelve\nequal months of which they were composed bore names which were borrowed,\non the one hand, from events in civil life, such as \"Simanu,\" from the\nmaking of brick, and \"Addaru,\" from the sowing of seed, and, on the\nother, from mythological occurrences whose origin is still obscure, such\nas \"Nisanu,\" from the altar of Ea, and \"Elul,\" from a message of Ishtar.\nThe adjustment of this year to astronomical demands was roughly carried\nout by the addition of a month every six years, which was called a\nsecond Adar, Blul, or Nisan, according to the place in which it was\nintercalated.\n\n     * Tannery is of opinion that the Chald\u00e6ans must have\n     predicted eclipses of the sun by means of the period of two\n     hundred and twenty-three lunations, and shows by what a\n     simple means they could have arrived at it.\n\n     ** An astronomer mentions, in the time of Assurbanipal, that\n     on the 28th, 29th, and 30th of the month he prepared for the\n     observation of an eclipse; but the sun continued brilliant,\n     and the eclipse did not take place.\n\nThe neglect of the hours and minutes in their calculation of the length\nof the year became with them, as with the Egyptians, a source of serious\nembarrassment, and we are still ignorant as to the means employed\nto meet the difficulty. The months had relations to the signs of the\nzodiac, and the days composing them were made up of twelve double hours\neach. The Chald\u00e6ns had invented two instruments, both of them of a\nsimple character, to measure time--the clepsydra and the solar clock,\nthe latter of which in later times became the source of the Greek\n\"polos.\" The sun-dial served to determine a number of simple facts\nwhich were indispensable in astronomical calculations, such as the\nfour cardinal points, the meridian of the place, the solstitial and\nequinoctial epochs, and the elevation of the pole at the position of\nobservation. The construction of the sundial and clepsydra, if not of\nthe polos also, is doubtless to be referred back to a very ancient date,\nbut none of the texts already brought to light makes mention of the\nemployment of these instruments.*\n\n     * Herodotus (ii. 109) formally attributes the invention of\n     the sun-dial and polos to the Babylonians. The \"polos\" was a\n     solar clock. It consisted of a concave hemisphere with a\n     style rising from its centre: the shadow of the style\n     described every day an arc of a circle parallel to the\n     equator, and the daily parallels were divided into twelve or\n     twenty-four equal parts. Smith discovered, in the palace of\n     Sennacherib at Koyunjik, a portion of an astrolabe, which is\n     now in the British Museum.\n\nAll these discoveries, which constitute in our eyes the scientific\npatrimony of the Chald\u00e6ans, were regarded by themselves as the least\nimportant results of their investigations. Did they not know, thanks to\nthese investigations, that the stars shone for other purposes than to\nlighten up the nights--to rule, in fact, the destinies of men and kings,\nand, in ruling that of kings, to determine the fortune of empires? Their\nearliest astronomers, by their assiduous contemplation of the nightly\nheavens, had come to the conclusion that the vicissitudes of the\nheavenly bodies were in fixed relations with mundane phenomena and\nevents. If Mercury, for instance, displayed an unusual brilliancy at\nhis rising, and his disk appeared as a two-edged sword, riches and\nabundance, due to the position of the luminous halo which surrounded\nhim, would be scattered over Chald\u00e6a, while discords would cease\ntherein, and justice would triumph over iniquity. The first observer who\nwas struck by this coincidence noted it down; his successors confirmed\nhis observations, and at length deduced, in the process of the years,\nfrom their accumulated knowledge, a general law. Henceforward, each time\nthat Mercury assumed the same aspect it was of favourable augury, and\nkings and their subjects became the recipients of his bounty. As long as\nhe maintained this appearance no foreign ruler could install himself in\nChald\u00e6a, tyranny would be divided against itself, equity would prevail,\nand a strong monarch bear sway; while the landholders and the king\nwould be confirmed in their privileges, and obedience, together with\ntranquillity, would rule everywhere in the land. The number of these\nobservations increased to such a degree that it was found necessary to\nclassify them methodically to avoid confusion. Tables of them were drawn\nup, in which the reader could see at one and the same moment the aspect\nof the heavens on such and such a night and hour, and the corresponding\nevents either then happening, or about to happen, in Chald\u00e6an, Syria,\nor some foreign land. If, for instance, the moon displayed the same\nappearance on the 1st and 27th of the month, Elam was threatened; but\n\"if the sun, at his setting, appears double his usual size, with\nthree groups of bluish rays, the King of Chald\u00e6a is ruined.\" To the\nindications of the heavenly bodies, the Chald\u00e6ans added the portents\nwhich could be deduced from atmospheric phenomena: if it thundered on\nthe 27th of Tammuz, the wheat-harvest would be excellent and the produce\nof the ears magnificent; but if this, should occur six days later, that\nis, on the 2nd of Abu, floods and rains were to be apprehended in a\nshort time, together with the death of the king and the division of\nhis empire. It was not for nothing that the sun and moon surrounded\nthemselves in the evening with blood-red vapours or veiled themselves\nin dark clouds; that they grew suddenly pale or red after having been\nintensely bright; that unexpected fires blazed out on the confines of\nthe air, and that on certain nights the stars seemed to have become\ndetached from the firmament and to be falling upon the earth. These\nprodigies were so many warnings granted by the gods to the people\nand their kings before great crises in human affairs: the astronomer\ninvestigated and interpreted them, and his predictions had a greater\ninfluence than we are prepared to believe upon the fortunes of\nindividuals and even of states. The rulers consulted and imposed upon\nthe astronomers the duty of selecting the most favourable moment for\nthe execution of the projects they had in view. From an early date each\ntemple contained a library of astrological writings, where the people\nmight find, drawn up as in a. code, the signs which bore upon their\ndestinies. One of these libraries, consisting of not less than seventy\nclay tablets, is considered to have been first drawn up in the reign\nof Sargon of Agad\u00ea, but to have been so modified and enriched with new\nexamples from time to time that the original is well-nigh lost. This was\nthe classical work on the subject in the VIIth century before our era,\nand the astronomers-royal, to whom applications were accustomed to be\nmade to explain a natural phenomenon or a prodigy, drew their answers\nready-made from it. Astronomy, as thus understood, was not merely the\nqueen of sciences, it was the mistress of the world: taught secretly\nin the temples, its adepts--at least, those who had passed through the\nregular curriculum of study which it required--became almost a\ndistinct class in society. The occupation was a lucrative one, and\nits accomplished professors had numerous rivals whose educational\nantecedents were unknown, but who excited the envy of the experts in\ntheir trading upon the credulity of the people. These quacks went about\nthe country drawing up horoscopes, and arranging schemes of birthday\nprognostications, of which the majority were without any authentic\nwarranty. The law sometimes took note of the fact that they were\ncompeting with the official experts, and interfered with their business:\nbut if they happened to be exiled from one city, they found some\nneighbouring one ready to receive them.\n\nChald\u00e6a abounded with soothsayers and necromancers no less than with\nastrologers; she possessed no real school of medicine, such as we find\nin Egypt, in which were taught rational methods of diagnosing maladies\nand of curing them by the use of simples. The Chaldaeans were content\nto confide the care of their bodies to sorcerers and exorcists, who were\nexperts in the art of casting out demons and spirits, whose presence in\na living being brought about those disorders to which humanity is prone.\nThe facial expression of the patient during the crisis, the words which\nescaped from him in delirium, were, for these clever individuals, so\nmany signs revealing the nature and sometimes the name of the enemy\nto be combated--the Fever-god, the Plague-god, the Headache-god.\nConsultations and medical treatment were, therefore, religious offices,\nin which were involved purifications, offerings, and a whole ritual of\nmysterious words and gestures. The magician lighted a fire of herbs\nand sweet-smelling plants in front of his patient, and the clear flame\narising from this put the spectres to flight and dispelled the malign\ninfluences, a prayer describing the enchantments and their effects being\nafterwards recited. \"The baleful imprecation like a demon has fallen\nupon a man;--wail and pain have fallen upon him,--direful wail has\nfallen upon him,--the baleful imprecation, the spell, the pains in\nthe head!--This man, the baleful imprecation slaughters him like a\nsheep,--for his god has quitted his body--his goddess has withdrawn\nherself in displeasure from him,--a wail of pain has spread itself as a\ngarment upon him and has overtaken him!\" The harm done by the magician,\nthough terrible, could be repaired by the gods, and Merodach was moved\nto compassion betimes. Merodach cast his eyes on the patient, Merodach\nentered into the house of his father Ea, saying: \"My father, the baleful\ncurse has fallen like a demon upon the man!\" Twice he thus speaks,\nand then adds: \"What this man ought to do, I know not; how shall he be\nhealed?\" Ea replies to his son Merodach: \"My son, what is there that I\ncould add to thy knowledge?--Merodach, what is there that I could add\nto thy knowledge?--That which I know, thou knowest it:--go then, my son,\nMerodach,--lead him to the house of purification of the god who prepares\nremedies,--and break the spell that is upon him, draw away the charm\nwhich is upon him,--the ill which afflicts his body,--which he suffers\nby reason of the curse of his father,--or the curse of his mother,--or\nthe curse of his eldest brother,--or by the curse of a murderess who is\nunknown to the man.--The curse, may it be taken from him by the charm\nof Ea,--like a clove of garlic which is stripped skin by skin,--like a\ncluster of dates may it be cut off,--like a bunch of flowers may it be\nuprooted! The spell, may heaven avert it,--may the earth avert it!\" The\ngod himself deigned to point out the remedy: the sick man was to take\na clove of garlic, some dates, and a stalk bearing flowers, and was to\nthrow them into the fire, bit by bit, repeating appropriate prayers at\neach stage of the operation. \"In like manner as this garlic is peeled\nand thrown into the fire,--and the burning flame consumes it,--as\nit will never be planted in the vegetable garden, it will never draw\nmoisture from the pond or from the ditch,--its root will never again\nspread in the earth,--its stalk will not pierce the ground and behold\nthe sun,--it will not serve as food for the gods or the king,--so may it\nremove the baleful curse, so may it loose the bond--of sickness, of sin,\nof shortcomings, of perversity, of crime!--The sickness which is in my\nbody, in my flesh, in my muscles,--like this garlic may it be stripped\noff,--and may the burning flame consume it in this day;--may the spell\nof the sorcerer be cast out, that I may behold the light!\" The ceremony\ncould be prolonged at will: the sick person pulled to pieces the cluster\nof dates, the bunch of flowers, a fleece of wool, some goats' hair, a\nskein of dyed thread, and a bean, which were all in turn consumed in\nthe fire. At each stage of the operation he repeated the formula,\nintroducing into it one or two expressions characterizing the nature of\nthe particular offering; as, for instance, \"the dates will no more hang\nfrom their stalks, the leaves of the branch will never again be united\nto the tree, the wool and the hair will never again lie on the back\nof the animal on which they grew, and will never be used for weaving\ngarments.\" The use of magical words was often accompanied by remedies,\nwhich were for the most part both grotesque and disgusting in their\ncomposition: they comprised bitter or stinking wood-shavings, raw meat,\nsnake's flesh, wine and oil, the whole reduced to a pulp, or made into\na sort of pill and swallowed on the chance of its bringing relief. The\nEgyptian physicians employed similar compounds, to which they\nattributed wonderful effects, but they made use of them in exceptional\ncircumstances only. The medical authorities in Chald\u00e6a recommended them\nbefore all others, and their very strangeness reassured the patient as\nto their efficacy: they filled the possessing spirits with disgust, and\nbecame a means of relief owing to the invincible horror with which\nthey inspired the persecuting demons. The Chald\u00e6ans were not, however,\nignorant of the natural virtues of herbs, and at times made use of them;\nbut they were not held in very high esteem, and the physicians preferred\nthe prescriptions which pandered to the popular craving for the\nsupernatural. Amulets further confirmed the effect produced by the\nrecipes, and prevented the enemy, once cast out, from re-entering the\nbody; these amulets were made of knots of cord, pierced shells, bronze\nor terra-cotta statuettes, and plaques fastened to the arms or worn\nround the neck. On each of the latter kind were roughly drawn the most\nterrible images that they could conceive, a shortened incantation\nwas scrawled on its surface, or it was covered with extraordinary\ncharacters, which when the spirits perceived they at once took flight,\nand the possessor of the talisman escaped the threatened illness.\n\nHowever laughable, and at the same time deplorable, this hopeless medley\nof exact knowledge and gross superstition may appear to us at the\npresent day, it was the means of bringing a prosperity to the cities of\nChald\u00e6a which no amount of actual science would ever have produced. The\nneighbouring barbaric peoples were imbued with the same ideas as the\nChald\u00e6ns regarding the constitution of the world and the nature of the\nlaws which governed it. They lived likewise in perpetual fear of those\ninvisible beings whose changeable and arbitrary will actuated all\nvisible phenomena; they attributed all the reverses and misfortunes\nwhich overtook them to the direct action of these malevolent beings;\nthey believed firmly in the influence of stars on the course of events;\nthey were constantly on the look out for prodigies, and were greatly\nalarmed by them, since they had no certain knowledge of the number and\nnature of their enemies, and the means they had invented for protecting\nthemselves from them or of overcoming them too often proved inefficient.\nIn the eyes of these barbarians, the Chaldeans seemed to be possessed of\nthe very powers which they themselves lacked. The magicians of Chald\u00e6a\nhad forced the demons to obey them and to unmask themselves before them;\nthey read with ease in the heavens the present and future of men and\nnations; they interpreted the will of the immortals in its smallest\nmanifestations, and with them this faculty was not a limited and\nephemeral power, quickly exhausted by use: the rites and formulas known\nto them enabled them to exercise it freely at all times, in all places,\nalike upon the most exalted of the gods and the most dreaded of mortals,\nwithout its ever becoming weakened.\n\n[Illustration:352.jpg A CHALD\u00c6AN AMULET.]\n\n     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Loftus. The\n     original is in the British Museum.\n\nA race so endowed with wisdom was, indeed, destined to triumph over\nits neighbours, and the latter would have no chance of resisting such\na nation unless they borrowed from it its manners, customs, industry,\nwriting, and all the arts and sciences which had brought about their\nsuperiority. Chald\u00e6ann civilization spread into Elam and took possession\nof the inhabitants of the shores of the Persian Gulf, and then, since\nits course was impeded on the south by the sea, on the west by the\ndesert, and on the east by the mountains, it turned in the direction of\nthe great northern plains and proceeded up the two rivers, beside whose\nlower waters it had been cradled. It was at this very time that the\nPharaohs of the XIIIth dynasty had just completed the conquest of\nNubia. Greater Egypt, made what she was by the efforts of twenty\ngenerations, had become an African power. The sea formed her northern\nboundary, the desert and the mountains enclosed her on all sides, and\nthe Nile appeared the only natural outlet into a new world: she followed\nit indefatigably from one cataract to another, colonizing as she passed\nall the lands fertilized by its waters. Every step which she made in\nthis direction increased the distance between her capitals and the\nMediterranean, and brought her armies further south. Asia would have\npractically ceased to exist, as far as Egypt was concerned, had not the\nrepeated incursions of the Bedouin obliged her to make advances from\ntime to time in that direction; still she crossed the frontier as seldom\nas possible, and recalled her troops as soon as they had reduced the\nmarauders to order: Ethiopia alone attracted her, and it was there that\nshe firmly established her empire. The two great civilized peoples of\nthe ancient world, therefore, had each their field of action clearly\nmarked out, and neither of them had ever ventured into that of the\nother. There had been no lack of intercourse between them, and the\nencounter of their armies, if it ever really had taken place, had been\naccidental, had merely produced passing results, and up till then had\nterminated without bringing to either side a decisive advantage.\n\n[Illustration: 354.jpg MAGIC NAIL OF TERRA COTTA]\n\n[Illustration: 355.jpg EGYPTIAN CORNICE BEARING THE CARTOUCHES OF RAMSES\nI.]\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX--THE PHARAOHS OF THE ANCIENT AND MIDDLE EMPIRES\n\n(Dynasties I.-XIV.)\n\n\nThe lists of the Pharaohs of the Memphite period appear to have been\ndrawn up in much the same order as we now possess them, as early as\nthe XIIth dynasty: it is certain that the sequence was definitely fixed\nabout the time of the XXth dynasty, since it was under this that the\nCanon of Turin was copied. The lists which have come down to us appear\nto follow two traditions, which differ completely in certain cases:\none has been preserved for us by the abbreviators of Manetho, while\nthe other was the authority followed by the compilers of the tables of\nAbydos and Saqq\u00e2ra, as well as by the author of the Turin Papyrus.\n\nThere appear to have been in the first five dynasties a certain number\nof kings whose exact order and filiation were supposed to be well known\nto the compilers; but, at the same time, there were others whose names\nwere found on the monuments, but whose position with regard to their\npredecessors was indicated neither by historical documents nor by\npopular romance. We find, therefore, in these two traditional lists\na series of sovereigns always occupying the same position, and others\nhovering around them, who have no decided place. The hieroglyphic lists\nand the Royal Canon appear to have been chiefly concerned with the\nformer; but the authorities followed by Manetho have studiously\ncollected the names of the latter, and have intercalated them in\ndifferent places, sometimes in the middle, but mostly at the end of the\ndynasty, where they form a kind of _caput mortuum_. The most striking\nexample of this arrangement is afforded us in the IVth dynasty. The\ncontemporary monuments show that its kings formed a compact group, to\nwhich are appended the first three sovereigns of the Vth dynasty,\nalways in the same order: Menka\u00fbr\u00ee succeeded Kh\u00e2fr\u00ee, Shopsiskaf followed\nMenka\u00fbr\u00ee, Usirkaf followed Shopsiskaf, and so on to the end. The lists\nof Manetho suppress Shopsiskaf, and substitute four other individuals\nin his place, namely, Kat\u00f4ises, Bikheris, Seberkheres, Thamphthis, whose\nreigns must have occupied more than half a century; these four were\ndoubtless aspirants to the throne, or local kings belonging to the time\nbetween the IVth and Vth dynasties, whom Manetho's authorities inserted\nbetween the compact groups made up of Kheops and his sons on the one\nhand, and of Usirkaf and his two real of supposed brothers on the other,\nomitting Shopsiskaf, and having no idea that Usirkaf was his immediate\nsuccessor, with or without rivals to the throne.\n\nIn a course of lectures given at the _Coll\u00e8ge de France_ (1893-95), I\nhave examined at length the questions raised by a study of the various\nlists, and I may be able, perhaps, some day to publish the result of\nmy researches: for the present I must confine myself merely to what\nis necessary to the elucidation of the present work, namely, the\nManethonian tradition on the one hand, and the tradition of the\nmonumental tables on the other. The text which I propose to follow for\nthe latter, during the first five dynasties, is that of the second table\nof Abydos; the names placed between brackets [ ] are taken either from\nthe table of Saqq\u00e2ra or from the Royal Canon of Turin. The numbers of\nthe years, months, and days are those furnished by the last-mentioned\ndocument.\n\n[Illustration: 357.jpg LISTS OF THE PHARAOHS OF THE ANCIENT EMPIRE]\n\n[Illustration: 358.jpg LISTS ON THE MONUMENTS]\n\nFrom the VIth to the XIIth dynasty, the lists of Manetho are at fault:\nthey give the origin and duration of the dynasties, without furnishing\nus with the names of the kings.\n\n[Illustration: 359.jpg LISTS ON THE MONUMENTS]\n\nThis blank is partially filled by the table of Abydos, by the fragments\nof the Turin Papyrus, and by information supplied by the monuments. No\nsuch definitely established sequence appears to have existed for this\nperiod, as for the preceding ones. The Heracleopolitan dynasties\nfigure, perhaps, in the Canon of Turin only; as for the later Memphite\ndynasties, the table of Abydos gives one series of Pharaohs, while the\nCanon adopts a different one. After the close of the VIth dynasty, and\nbefore the accession of the IXth, there was, doubtless, a period when\nseveral branches of the royal family claimed the supremacy and ruled in\ndifferent parts of Egypt: this is what we know to have taken place later\nbetween the XXIInd and the XXIVth dynasties. The tradition of Abydos\nhad, perhaps, adopted one of these contemporaneous dynasties, while\nthe Turin Papyrus had chosen another: Manetho, on the other hand,\nhad selected from among them, as representatives of the legitimate\nsuccession, the line reigning at Memphis which immediately followed\nthe sovereigns of the VIth dynasty. The following table gives both the\nseries known, as far as it is possible for the present to re-establish\nthe order:--\n\n[Illustration: 360.jpg LISTS ON THE MONUMENTS]\n\nThe XIth (Theban) dynasty contains but a small number of kings according\nto the official lists. The tables on the monuments recognize only two,\nNibkhr\u00f4ur\u00ee and S\u00f4nkhkar\u00ee, but the Turin Canon admits at least half a\ndozen. These differences probably arose from the fact that, the second\nHeracleopolitan dynasty having reigned at the same time as the earlier\nTheban princes, the tables on the monuments, while rejecting the\nHeracleopolitans, recognized as legitimate Pharaohs only those of the\nTheban kings who had ruled over the whole of Egypt, namely, the first\nand last of the series; the Canon, on the contrary, replaced the later\nHeracleopolitans by those among the contemporary Thebans who had\nassumed the royal titles. Whatever may have been the cause of these\ncombinations, we find the lists again harmonizing with the accession of\nthe XIIth (Theban) dynasty.\n\nFor the succeeding dynasties we possess merely the names enumerated on\nthe fragments of the Turin Papyrus, several of which, however, are\nalso found either in the royal chamber at Karnak, or on contemporary\nmonuments. The order of the names is not always certain: it is, perhaps,\nbest to transcribe the sequence as we are able to gather it from the\nfragments of the Royal Papyrus, without attempting to distinguish\nbetween those which belong to the XIIIth and those which must be.\nrelegated to the following dynasties.\n\n[Illustration: 361.jpg LISTS ON THE MONUMENTS]\n\nAbout fifty names still remain, but so mutilated and scattered over\nsuch small fragments of papyrus, that their order is most uncertain. We\npossess monuments of about one-fifth of these kings, and the lengths of\ntheir reigns, as far as we know them, all appear to have been short:\nwe have no reason to doubt that they did really govern, and we can only\nhope that in time the progress of excavation will yield us records of\nthem one after another. They bring us down to the period of the invasion\nof the Shepherds, and it is possible that some among them may be found\nto be contemporaries of the XVth and XVIth dynasties.\n\n[Illustration: 362.jpg Tailpiece]","title":"History of Egypt, Chald\u00e6a, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 3 (of 12)","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":92850}