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G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, NEW YORK AND LONDON

GNE
SHAMASH THE SUN-GOD.
(From the Sun Temple at Sippar.)
The ations
Story Storg
of the Nati
THE
STORY OF CHALDEA
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE RISE
OF ASSYRIA
(TREATED AS A GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF
ANCIENT HISTORY)
BY
ZÉNAÏDE A. RAGOZIN
MEMBER OF THE "SOCIÉTÉ ETHNOLOGIQUE OF PARIS; of the AMERICAN
ORIENTAL SOCIETY ; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE “ATHÉNÉE
ORIENTAL OF PARIS
SECOND EDITION, REVISED
66
He (Carlyle) says it is part of his creed that history is poetry, could we
tell it right."-EMERSON.
"Da mihi, Domine, scire quod sciendum est."—"IMITATION Of Christ,”
("Grant that the knowledge I get may be the knowledge worth having."-
Matthew Arnold's translation.)
NEW YORK
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN
1890
DS
71
R12
COPYRIGHT
By G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
1886
Press of
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONE
New York
TO THE MEMBERS OF
THE CLASS,
IN LOVING REMEMBRANCE OF MANY HAPPY HOURS, THIS
VOLUME AND THE FOLLOWING ONES ARE AFFEC-
TIONATELY INSCRIBED BY THEIR FRIEND,
IDLEWILD PLANTATION,
SAN ANTONIO, December, 1885.
THE AUTHOR.
3
3

CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
MESOPOTAMIA.—THE
SEARCHERS
I.
MOUNDS. THE FIRST
PAGE
1-18
§ 1. Complete destruction of Nineveh.-§§ 2-4. Xenophon
and the "Retreat of the Ten Thousand." The Greeks pass
the ruins of Calah and Nineveh, and know them not.—
$ 5. Alexander's passage through Mesopotamia.-§ 6. The
Arab invasion and rule.-§ 7. Turkish rule and mismanage-
ment.-§ S. Peculiar natural conditions of Mesopotamia.-
§ 9. Actual desolate state of the country.-§ 10. The plains
studded with Mounds. Their curious aspect.-§ 11. Frag-
ments of works of art amidst the rubbish.-§ 12. Indiffer-
ence and superstition of the Turks and Arabs.-§ 13. Exclu-
sive absorption of European scholars in Classical Antiquity.
-S 14. Forbidding aspect of the Mounds, compared with
other ruins.- 15. Rich, the first explorer.-§ 16. Botta's
work and want of success.-§ 17. Botta's great discovery.
-§ 18. Great sensation created by it.-§ 19. Layard's first
expedition.
II.
LAYARD AND HIS WORK
19-35
§ 1. Layard's arrival at Nimrud. His excitement and
dreams. § 2. Beginning of difficulties. The Ogre-like
Pasha of Mossul.-§ 3. Opposition from the Pasha. His
malice and cunning.-$ 4. Discovery of the gigantic head.
V
vi
CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.
Fright of the Arabs, who declare it to be Nimrod.-§ 5.
Strange ideas of the Arabs about the sculptures.-§ 6. Lay-
ard's life in the desert.-§ 7. Terrible heat of summer.-§ 8.
Sand-storms and hot hurricanes.-§ 9. Layard's wretched
dwelling. § 10. Unsuccessful attempts at improvement.-
§ II. In what the task of the explorer consists.-§ 12. Dif-
ferent modes of carrying on the work of excavation.
III.
PAGE
THE RUINS
36-90
§1. Every country's culture and art determined by its geo-
graphical conditions -§ 2. Chaldea's absolute deficiency in
wood and stone.-§ 3. Great abundance of mud fit for the
fabrication of bricks; hence the peculiar architecture of
Mesopotamia. Ancient ruins still used as quarries of bricks
for building. Trade of ancient bricks at Hillah.-§ 4. Vari-
ous cements used.-§ 5. Construction of artificial platforms.
-§ 6. Ruins of Ziggurats: peculiar shape and uses of this
sort of buildings.-$7. Figures showing the immense amount
of labor used on these constructions.-§ 8. Chaldean archi-
tecture adopted unchanged by the Assyrians.-§ 9. Stone
used for ornament and casing of walls. Water transport in
old and modern times.-§ 10. Imposing aspect of the palaces.
-§ II. Restoration of Sennacherib's palace by Fergusson.
-§ 12. Pavements of palace halls.-§ 13. Gateways and
sculptured slabs along the walls. Friezes in painted tiles.
-S 14. Proportions of palace halls and roofing.-§ 15.
Lighting of halls. § 16. Causes of the kings' passion for
building.-§ 17. Drainage of palaces and platforms.—§ 18.
Modes of destruction.-§ 19. The Mounds a protection to
the ruins they contain. Refilling the excavations.-§ 20.
Absence of ancient tombs in Assyria.-§ 21. Abundance and
vastness of cemeteries in Chaldea.-§ 22. Warka (Erech)
the great Necropolis. Loftus' description.-§ 23. "Jar-cof-
fins."-§ 24. "Dish-cover" coffins.-§ 25. Sepulchral vaults.
-§ 26. "Slipper-shaped" coffins.-§ 27. Drainage of sepul-
chral mounds.-§ 28. Decoration of walls in painted clay
cones. § 29. De Sarzec's discoveries at Tell-Loh.
CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.
vii
IV.
THE BOOK OF THE PAST. THE LIBRARY OF
NINEVEH
•
PAGE
92-115
§ 1. Object of making books.-§ 2. Books not always of
paper.—§ 3. Universal craving for an immortal name.—§ 4.
Insufficiency of records on various writing materials. Uni-
versal longing for knowledge of the remotest past.—§ 5.
Monumental records.-§ 6. Ruins of palaces and temples,
tombs and caves-the Book of the Past.-§§ 7-8. Discov-
ery by Layard of the Roya! Library at Nineveh.—§ 9. George
Smith's work at the British Museum.-§ 10. His expeditions
to Nineveh, his success and death.-§ 11. Value of the Li-
brary.-§§ 12-13. Contents of the Library.-§ 14. The
Tablets.- 15 The cylinders and foundation-tablets-
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
I.
NOMADS AND SETTLERS.-THE FOUR STAGES OF
CULTURE
116-126
§ 1. Nomads.-§ 2. First migrations.-§ 3. Pastoral life-
the second stage.-§ 4. Agricultural life; beginnings of the
State.-5. City-building; royalty.-§ 6. Successive migra-
tions and their causes.—§ 7. Formation of nations.
II.
THE GREAT RACES.-CHAPTER X. OF GENESIS
127-142
§ 1. Shinar.-§ 2. Berosus.-S 3. Who were the settlers in
Shinar? 4. The Flood probably not universal.-§§ 5-6.
The blessed race and the accursed, according to Genesis.-
$7. Genealogical form of Chap. X. of Genesis.-§ 8. Epo-
nyms.-§ 9. Omission of some white races from Chap. X.
-S10. Omission of the Black Race.-§ II. Omission of
the Yellow Race. Characteristics of the Turanians.-§ 12.
viii
CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.
PAGE
The Chinese.-§ 13. Who were the Turanians? What be-
came of the Cainites?—§ 14. Possible identity of both.-
$ 15. The settlers in Shinar-Turanians.
III.
TURANIAN CHALDEA.-SHUMIR AND ACCAD.—
THE BEGINNINGS OF RELIGION
146-181
§1. Shumir and Accad.-§ 2. Language and name.-§ 3.
Turanian migrations and traditions.-§ 4. Collection of
sacred texts.-§ 5. “Religiosity”—a distinctively human
characteristic. Its first promptings and manifestations.--
$6. The Magic Collection and the work of Fr. Lenormant.
-$7. The Shumiro-Accads' theory of the world, and their
elementary spirits.-§ 8. The incantation of the Seven Mas-
kim.-§ 9. The evil spirits.-§ 10. The Arali.-§ 11. The
sorcerers.—§ 12. Conjuring and conjurers.—§ 13. The benef-
icent Spirits. Êa.—§ 14. Meridug.-§ 15. A charm against
an evil spell.-§ 16. Diseases considered as evil demons.—
§ 17. Talismans. The Kerubim.-§ 18. More talismans.-
$ 19. The demon of the South-West Wind.-§ 20. The first
gods.-§ 21. Ud, the Sun.--§ 22. Nin dar, the nightly Sun.
-S 23. Gibil, Fire.-§ 24. Dawn of moral consciousness.—
-$23.
$ 25. Man's Conscience divinized.-§§ 26-28. Penitential
Psalms.- 29. General character of Turanian religions.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III.
181-183
Professor L. Dyer's poetical version of the Incantation
against the Seven Maskim.
IV.
CUSHITES AND
SEMITES.-EARLY
CHALDEAN
HISTORY
184-228
§ 1. Oannes.-§ 2. Were the second settlers Cushites or
Semites?-§ 3. Cushite hypothesis. Earliest migrations.-
§ 4. The Ethiopians and the Egyptians.-§ 5. The Canaan-
ites. § 6. Possible Cushite station on the islets of the Per-
sian Gulf. § 7. Colonization of Chaldea possibly by Cush-
ites.-§ 8. Vagueness of very ancient chronology.-§ 9. Early
dates. § 10. Exorbitant figures of Berosus. § 11. Early
CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.
ix
Chaldea―a a nursery of nations.-§ 12. Nomadic Semitic
tribes.-§ 13. The tribe of Arphaxad.-§ 14. Ur of the Chal-
dees.-§ 15. Scholars divided between the Cushite and Se-
mitic theories.-§ 16. History commences with Semitic cul-
ture. § 17. Priestly rule. The patesis.—§§ 18-19. Sharrukin
I. (Sargon I.) of Agadê.—§§ 20-21. The second Sargon's
literary labors.-§§ 22-23. Chaldean folk-lore, maxims and
songs.-§ 24. Discovery of the elder Sargon's date-3800
B.C.-§ 25. Gudêa of Sirgulla and Ur-êa of Ur.-§ 26. Pre-
dominance of Shumir. Ur-êa and his son Dungi first kings of
"Shumir and Accad."-§ 27. Their inscriptions and build-
ings. The Elamite invasion.-§ 28. Elam.-§§ 29–31. Khu-
dur-Lagamar and Abraham.-§ 32. Hardness of the Elamite
rule. § 33. Rise of Babylon.-§ 34. Hammurabi.—§ 35.
Invasion of the Kasshi.
V.
PAGE
BABYLONIAN Religion
229-257
§ 1. Babylonian calendar.-§ 2. Astronomy conducive to re-
ligious feeling.-§ 3. Sabeism.-§ 4. Priestcraft and astrol-
ogy. § 5. Transformation of the old religion.-§ 6. Vague
dawning of the monotheistic idea. Divine emanations.—§ 7.
The Supreme Triad.-§ 8. The Second Triad.-§ 9. The
five Planetary deities.-§§ 10-11. Duality of nature. Mascu-
line and feminine principles. The goddesses.-§ 12. The
twelve Great Gods and their Temples -§ 13. The temple of
Shamash at Sippar and Mr. Rassam's discovery.-$ 14. Sur-
vival of the old Turanian superstitions.-§ 15. Divination, a
branch of Chaldean "Science."-§§ 16-17. Collection of one
hundred tablets on divination. Specimens.-§ 18. The three
classes of "wise men. Chaldeans," in later times, a by-
word for "magician," and "astrologer."-§ 19. Our inherit-
ance from the Chaldeans: the sun-dial, the week, the calen-
dar, the Sabbath.
CC
VI.
LEGENDS AND STORIES
258-293
§ 1. The Cosmogonies of different nations.-§ 2. The antiq-
uity of the Sacred Books of Babylonia.-§ 3. The legend of
Oannes, told by Berosus. Discovery, by Geo. Smith, of the
X
CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.
Creation Tablets and the Deluge Tablet.-§§ 4-5. Chaldean
account of the Creation.-§ 6. The Cylinder with the human
couple, tree and serpent.-§ 7. Berosus' account of the crea-
tion.-§ 8. The Sacred Tree. Sacredness of the Symbol.—
§ 9. Signification of the Tree-Symbol. The Cosmic Tree.—
§ 10. Connection of the Tree-Symbol and of Ziggurats with
the legend of Paradise.-§ II. The Ziggurat of Borsippa.-
§ 12.-It is identified with the Tower of Babel.-§§ 13-14.
Peculiar Orientation of the Ziggurats.-§ 15. Traces of le-
gends about a sacred grove or garden.—§ 16. Mummu-Tia-
mat, the enemy of the gods. Battle of Bel and Tiamat.—
§ 17. The Rebellion of the seven evil spirits, originally mes-
sengers of the gods.-§ 18. The great Tower and the Con-
fusion of Tongues.
PAGE
VII.
MYTHS.-HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS . 294-330
§ 1. Definition of the word Myth.-§ 2. The Heroes.-§ 3.
The Heroic Ages and Heroic Myths. The National Epos.
-§ 4. The oldest known Epic.-§ 5. Berosus' account of
the Flood.—§ 6. Geo. Smith's discovery of the original Chal-
dean narrative.-§ 7. The Epic divided into books or Tab-
lets. § 8. Izdubar the Hero of the Epic.--§ 9. Erech's hu-
miliation under the Elamite Conquest. Izdubar's dream.—
§ 10. Êabâni the Seer. Izdubar's invitation and promises to
him. § 11. Message sent to Êabâni by Ishtar's handmaid-
ens. His arrival at Erech.-§ 12. Izdubar and Êabâni's
victory over the tyrant Khumbaba.-§ 13. Ishtar's love mes-
sage. Her rejection and wrath. The two friends' victory
over the Bull sent by her.-§ 14. Ishtar's vengeance. Izdu-
bar's journey to the Mouth of the Rivers.-§ 15. Izdubar
sails the Waters of Death and is healed by his immortal an-
cestor Hâsisadra.-§ 16 Izdubar's return to Erech and la-
ment over Êabâni. The seer is translated among the gods.
-S 17. The Deluge narrative in the Eleventh Tablet of the
Izdubar Epic.-§§ 18-21. Mythic and solar character of the
Epic analyzed.-§ 22. Sun-Myth of the Beautiful Youth, his
early death and resurrection.-§§ 23-24. Dumuzi-Tammuz,
the husband of Ishtar. The festival of Dumuzi in June.—§ 25.
CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.
xi
Ishtar's Descent to the Land of the Dead.-§ 26. Universal-
ity of the Solar and Chthonic Myths.
PAGE
VIII.
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.-IDOLATRY AND AN-
THE CHALDEAN LE-
THROPOMORPHISM.
GENDS
AND THE
BOOK OF GENESIS.-
331-336
RETROSPECT
§ 1. Definition of Mythology and Religion, as distinct from
each other.—§§ 2-3. Instances of pure religious feeling in the
poetry of Shumir and Accad.-§ 4. Religion often stifled by
Mythology. §§ 5-6. The conception of the immortality of
the soul suggested by the sun's career.-§ 7. This expressed
in the Solar and Chthonic Myths.-§ 8. Idolatry.—§ 9. The
Hebrews, originally polytheists and idolators, reclaimed by
their leaders to Monotheism.-§ 10. Their intercourse with
the tribes of Canaan conducive to relapses.-§ II. Intermar-
riage severely forbidden for this reason. Striking similarity
between the Book of Genesis and the ancient Chaldean le-
gends.- 13. Parallel between the two accounts of the crea-
tion. § 14. Anthropomorphism, different from polytheism
and idolatry, but conducive to both.-§§ 15-17. Parallel con-
tinued.-§§ 18-19. Retrospect.


PRINCIPAL WORKS READ OR CONSULT-
ED IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS
VOLUME.
BAER, Wilhelm. DER VORGESCHICHTLICHE MENSCH.
I vol., Leipzig: 1874.
BAUDISSIN, W. von. STUDIEN ZUR SEMITISCHEN
GESCHICHTE. 2 vols.
RELIGIONS-
("By-
BUDGE, E. A. WALLIS. BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
paths of Bible Knowledge" Series, V.) 1884. London: The
Religious Tract Society. I vol.
HISTORY OF ESARHADDON.
I vol.
BUNSEN, Chr. Carl Jos. Gort in der GeschICHTE, oder Der Fort-
schritt des Glaubens an eine sittliche Weltordnung 3 vols.
Leipzig: 1857.
CASTREN, ALEXANDER.
1862. I vol.
KLEINERE SCHRIFTEN. St. Petersburg:
CORY. ANCIENT FRAGMENTS. London: 1876. I vol.
Delitzsch, DR. FRIEDRICH. WO LAG DAS PARADIES? eine Bib-
lisch-Assyriologische Studie. Leipzig: 1881. I vol.
DIE SPRACHE DER KossÄer. Leipzig: 1885 (or 1884?).
I vol.
DUNCKER, MAX. GESCHICHTE DES ALTERTHUMS. Leipzig: 1878.
Vol. Ist.
FERGUSSON, James. PALACES OF NINEVEH AND PERSEPOLIS RE-
STORED. I vol.
HAPPEL, Julius. DIE ALTCHINESISCHE REICHSRELIGION, vom
Standpunkte der Vergleichenden Religionsgeschichte. 46 pages,
Leipzig: 1882.
HAUPT, Paul. DER KEILINSCHRIFTLICHE SINTFLUTBERICHT, eine
Episode des Babylonischen Nimrodepos. 36 pages. Göt-
tingen: 1881
xiii
xiv
PRINCIPAL WORKS CONSULTED.
HOMMEL, DR. FRITZ. GESCHICHTE BABYLONIENS UND ASSYRIENS
(first instalment, 160 pp., 1885; and second instalment, 160 pp.,
1886). (Allgemeine Geschichte in einzelnen Darstellungen, Ab-
theilung 95 und 117.)
DIE VORSEMITISCHEN KULTUREN IN EGYPTEN UND BABY-
LONIEN. Leipzig: 1882 and 1883.
LAYARD, AUSTEN H. DISCOVERIES AMONG the ruins of NINEVEH
AND BABYLON. (American Edition.) New York: 1853. 1 vol.
NINEVEH AND ITS REMAINS. London: 1849. 2 vols.
LENORMANT, FRANÇOIS. LES PREMIÈRES CIVILISATIONS. Êtudes
d'Histoire et d'Archéologie. 1874. Paris: Maisonneuve et Cie.
2 vols.
Les Origines de L'HISTOIRE, d'après la Bible et les Tradi-
tions des Peuples Orientaux. Paris: Maisonneuve et Cie.
3 vol.
Ier vol. 1880; 2e vol. 1882; 3e vol. 1884.
LA GENÈSE. Traduction d'après l'Hébreu.
I vol.
Paris: 1883.
DIE MAGIE UND WAHRSAGEKUNST DER CHALDÄER. Jena,
1878.
I vol.
IL MITO DI ADONE-TAMMUZ nei Documenti cuneiformi.
32 pages. Firenze: 1879.
SUR LE NOM DE TAMMOUZ. (Extrait des Mémoires du Con-
grès international des Orientalistės.) 17 pages. Paris: 1873.
A MANUAL OF THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST. Trans-
lated by E. Chevallier. American Edition. Philadelphia:
1871. 2 vols.
LOFTUS.
CHALDEA AND SUSIANA.
I vol.
London: 1857.
Lotz, GUILELMUS. QUÆSTIONES DE HISTORIA SABBATI. Lipsiae:
1883.
MAURY, ALFRED L. F. LA MAGIE ET L'ASTROLOGIE dans l'anti-
quité et en Moyen Age. Paris: 1877. I vol. Quatrième édi-
tion.
MASPERO, G. HISTOIRE ANCIENNE DES PEUPLES DE L'ORIENT.
3e édition, 1878. Paris: Hachette & Cie. I vol.
MÉNANT, Joachim. LA BIBLIOTHÈQUE DU PALAIS DE NINIVE.
I vol. (Bibliothèque Orientale Elzévirienne.) Paris: 1880.
MEYER, EDUARD. GESCHICHTE DES ALTERTHUMS.
1884. Vol. Ist.
Stuttgart:
MÜLLER, Max. LECTURES on the ScienCE OF LANGUAGE.
American edition. New York: 1875.
2 vols.
PRINCIPAL WORKS CONSULTED.
XV
MÜRDTER, F. KURZGEFASSTE GESCHICHTE BABYLONIENS UND
ASSYRIENS, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Alten Testa-
ments. Mit Vorwort und Beigaben von Friedrich Delitzsch.
Stuttgart: 1882. I vol.
OPPERT, Jules. L'IMMORTALITÉ DE L'AME CHEZ LES CHaldéens.
28 pages. (Extrait des Annales de Philosophie Chrétienne,
1874.) Perrot et Chipiez.
QUATREFAGES, A. de. L'ESPÈCE HUMAINE. Sixième edition.
I vol. Paris 1880.
RAWLINSON, George. THE FIVE GREAT MONARCHIES OF THE
ANCIENT EASTERN WORLD. London: 1865. 1st and 2d vols.
RECORDS OF THE PAST. Published under the sanction of the
Society of Biblical Archæology. Volumes I. III. V. VII. IX.
XI.
SAYCE. A. H.
("By-
FRESH LIGHT FROM ANCIENT MONUMENTS.
Paths of Bible Knowledge" Series, II.) 3d edition, 1885. Lon-
don: I vol.
THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. I vol. London, 1884.
BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. I vol. London, 1884.
SCHRADER, Eberhard. KEILINSCHRIFTEN und Geschichtsforsch-
ung. Giessen 1878. I vol.
DIE KEILINSCHRIFTEN und das Alte Testament. Giessen :
1883. I vol.
ISTAR'S HÖLLENFAHRT.
I vol.
Giessen: 1874.
ZUR FRAGE NACH DEM URSPRUNG DER ALTBABYLONISCHEN
KULTUR. Berlin 1884.
SMITH, George. ASSYRIA from the Earliest Times to the Fall of
Nineveh. ("Ancient History from the Monuments" Series.)
London: I vol.
TYLOR, Edward B.
PRIMITIVE CULTURE.
tion. 2 vols.
New York: 1877.
ZIMMERN, Heinrich.
Second American Edi-
BABYLONISCHE BUSSPSALMEN, umschrieben,
übersetzt und erklärt. 17 pages, 4to. Leipzig: 1885.
Numerous Essays by Sir Henry Rawlinson, Friedr. Delitzsch,
E. Schrader and others, in Mr. Geo. Rawlinson's translation of He-
rodotus, in the Calwer Bibellexikon, and in various periodicals, such
as "Proceedings" and "Transactions" of the "Society of Biblical
Archæology," "Jahrbücher für Protestantische Theologie," Zeit-
schrift für Keilschriftforschung,” “Gazette Archéologique,” and
others.
}
..

61.6.7. 18.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
SHAMASH THE SUN-GOD.
From a tablet in the British Museum. Frontispiece.
I. CUNEIFORM CHARACTERS.
Menant.
•
2. TEMPLE OF LA AT ERIDHU . Hommel.
3. VIEW OF EUPHRATES NEAR
BABYLON
•
4. MOUND OF BABIL
5. BRONZE DISH
•
6. BRONZE DISH (RUG PAT-
TERN)
ΙΟ
23
Babelon.
Oppert.
31
33
Perrot and Chipiez.
35
Perrot and Chipies.
37
7. SECTION OF BRONZE DISH
8. VIEW OF NEBBI-YUNUS
Perrot and Chipies.
39
Babelon.
4I
•
9. BUILDING IN BAKED BRICK. Perrot and Chipies.
IO. MOUND OF NINEVEH
II. MOUND OF MUGHEIR (AN-
43
45
Hommel.
CIENT UR)
•
Taylor.
47
12. TERRACE WALL AT KHORSA-
BAD
Perrot and Chipiez.
49
13. RAFT BUOYED BY INFLATED
SKINS (ANCIENT) . . . Kaulen.
14. RAFT BUOYED BY INFLATED
•
SKINS (MODERN) .. Kaulen.
15. EXCAVATIONS AT MUGHEIR
51
51
(UR)
Hommel.
53
xvii
xviii
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
į
PAGE
16. WARRIORS SWIMMING ON IN-
FLATED SKINS
17. VIEW OF KOYUNJIK
18. STONE LION AT ENTRANCE
OF A TEMPLE
19. COURT OF HAREM AT KHOR-
SABAD. RESTORED
•
Babelon.
Hommel.
Perrot and Chipiez.
55
57
59
20. CIRCULAR PILLAR BASE
Perrot and Chipiez.
Perrot and Chipies.
61
63
21. INTERIOR VIEW OF HAREM
CHAMBER.
Perrot and Chipies.
65
22, 23. COLORED FRIEZE
IN
ENAMELLED TILES.
24. PAVEMENT SLAB
Perrot and Chipiez.
Perrot and Chipies.
67
69
HEAD
•
25. SECTION OF ORNAMENTAL
DOORWAY, KHORSABAD. Perrot and Chipiez.
26. WINGED LION WITH HUMAN
27. WINGED BULL
71
Perrot and Chipies.
73
Perrot and Chipies.
75
28. MAN-LION
Perrot and Chipiez.
77
29. FRAGMENT OF ENAMELLED
BRICK.
Perrot and Chipies.
79
30. RAM'S HEAD IN ALABASTER, British Museum.
81
31. EBONY COMB.
Perrot and Chipies.
81
32. BRONZE FORK AND SPOON
Perrot and Chipiez.
81
33. ARMENIAN LOUVRE
34, 35. VAULTED DRAINS.
36. CHALDEAN JAR-COFFIN
Botta.
83
•
Perrot and Chipiez.
84
Taylor.
85
66
وو
37.
DISH
་
COVER
TOMB AT
MUGHEIR.
Taylor.
87
38.
DISH-COVER
TOMB
Taylor.
87
MUGHEIR .
39. SEPULCHRAL
40. STONE JARS FROM GRAVES
VAULT AT
. Taylor.
89
Hommel.
89
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
xix
PAGE
41. DRAIN IN MOUND
Perrot and Chipiez.
90
42. WALL WITH DESIGNS IN
TERRA-COTTA
43. TERRA-COTTA CONE
Loftus.
Loftus.
90
90
44. HEAD OF ANCIENT
CHAL-
•
Perrot and Chipies. 101
ΙΟΙ
Perrot and Chipies. 101
Perrot and Chipiez. 107
109
III
DEAN
45. SAME, PROFILE VIEW
46. CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTION
47. INSCRIBED CLAY TABLET
48. CLAY TABLET IN ITS CASE
49. ANTIQUE BRONZE SETTING
OF CYLINDER
•
50. CHALDEAN CYLINDER
IMPRESSION
•
51. ASSYRIAN CYLINDER
•
52. PRISM OF SENNACHERIB
53. INSCRIBED CYLINDER FROM
BORSIP
•
54. DEMON'S FIGHTING
55. DEMON OF THE SOUTH-WEST
WIND
56. HEAD OF DEMON
57. OANNES
•
Smith's Chald. Gen.
Hommel.
Perrot and Chipies. 112
AND
Perrot and Chipiez. 113
113
British Museum.
115
Ménant.
117
British Museum.
165
Perrot and Chipies. 169
British Museum.
170
Smith's Chald. Gen.
187
Hommel.
207
Hommel.
217
British Museum.
243
Smith's Chald. Gen. 262
Smith's Chald. Gen. `266
•
British Museum,
269
•
58. CYLINDER OF SARGON FROM
AGADÊ
59. STATUE OF GUDÊA
60. BUST INSCRIBED WITH NAME
OF NEBO
•
61. BACK OF TABLET WITH AC-
COUNT OF FLOOD
62. BABYLONIAN CYLINDER
63. FEMALE WINGED FIGURES
AND SACRED TREES
XX
THE STORY OF CILIALDEA.
PAGE
64. WINGED SPIRITS BEFORE SA-
CRED TREE
65. SARGON OF ASSYRIA BEFORE
SACRED TREE
66. EAGLE-HEADED FIGURE BE-
FORE SACRED TREE
67. FOUR-WINGED HUMAN FIG-
URE BEFORE SACRED
TREE
•
68. TEMPLE AND HANGING GAR-
DENS AT KOYUNJIK
69. PLAN OF A ZIGGURAT
70.
(6 ZIGGURAT" RESTORED
71. BIRS-NIMRUD
72, 73. BEL FIGHTS DRAGON
74. BATTLE BETWEEN BEL AND
DRAGON
75. IZDUBAR AND LION
76. IZDUBAR AND LION
77. IZDUBAR AND ÊABÂNI
78. IZDUBAR AND LION
79. SCORPION-MAN
•
Smith's Chald. Gen.
Gen. 270
Perrot and Chipies. 271
Perrot and Chipies. 273
Perrot and Chipies. 275
British Museum.
277
Perrot and Chipies. 278
Perrot and Chipies. 279
Perrot and Chipies. 281
. Perrot and Chipies. 289
•
80. STONE OBJECT FOUND AT
ABU-HABBA
Smith's Chald. Gen.
291
Smith's Chald. Gen.
306
British Museum.
307
Smith's Chald. Gen.
309
Perrot and Chipiez.
310
Smith's Chald. Gen.
311
312


50
40
40
50
60
70
80
90
BLACK SEA
مدالان
ASIA MINOR
TAURUS MTS.
MEDITERRANEAN
SEA
30
S
CANAAN.
ARAM
Syria
MIZRAIM
Egyp
RED
Nile
SEA
CUSH
Ethiopia
20
50
J
C
Y
T
H
A
ASPIAN
SEA
地政​處​場
​ZAGROS
MEDIA
ASSYRIA
MTS
Euphrates
Tally
BABYLONO
THE
100
COUNTRIES ALTAT MTS
ABOUT
CHALDEA
HINDU
CHALDEA
4
AR
ELAM
PERSIA
PERSIAN GULF
ABIA
70
ARABIAN
SEA
80
60
HIGH
TABLE LAND
OF CENTRAL ASIA
KUSH
HIMALAYA
INDIA
90
40
130

INTRODUCTION.
I.
MESOPOTAMIA. THE MOUNDS.—THE FIRST
SEARCHERS.
I. IN or about the year before Christ 606, Nine-
veh, the great city, was destroyed. For many hun-
dred years had she stood in arrogant splendor, her
palaces towering above the Tigris and mirrored in its
swift waters; army after army had gone forth from
her gates and returned laden with the spoils of con-
quered countries; her monarchs had ridden to the
high place of sacrifice in chariots drawn by captive
kings. But her time came at last. The nations
assembled and encompassed her around. Popular
tradition tells how over two years lasted the siege;
how the very river rose and battered her walls; till
one day a vast flame rose up to heaven; how the
last of a mighty line of kings, too proud to surren-
der, thus saved himself, his treasures and his cap-
ital from the shame of bondage. Never was city
to rise again where Nineveh had been.
2. Two hundred years went by.
I
Great changes
2
INTRODUCTION.
had passed over the land. The Persian kings now
held the rule of Asia. But their greatness also was
leaning towards its decline and family discords
undermined their power. A young prince had re-
belled against his elder brother and resolved to tear
the crown from him by main force. To accomplish
this, he had raised an army and called in the help
of Grecian hirelings. They came, 13,000 in number,
led by brave and renowned generals, and did their
duty by him; but their valor could not save him
from defeat and death. Their own leader fell into
an ambush, and they commenced their retreat un-
der the most disastrous circumstances and with lit-
tle hope of escape.
3. Yet they accomplished it. Surrounded by open
enemies and false friends, tracked and pursued,
through sandy wastes and pathless mountains, now
parched with heat, now numbed with cold, they at
last reached the sunny and friendly Hellespont. It
was a long and weary march from Babylon on the
Euphrates, near which city the great battle had
been fought. They might not have succeeded had
they not chosen a great and brave commander,
Xenophon, a noble Athenian, whose fame as
scholar and writer equals his renown as soldier and
general. Few books are more interesting than the
lively relation he has left of his and his companions'
toils and sufferings in this expedition, known in
history as "The Retreat of the Ten Thousand"-
for to that number had the original 13,000 been
reduced by battles, privations and disease. So cul-
tivated a man could not fail, even in the midst of
MESOPOTAMIA.
3
danger and weighed down by care, to observe what-
ever was noteworthy in the strange lands which he
traversed. So he tells us how one day his little
army, after a forced march in the early morning
hours and an engagement with some light troops of
pursuers, having repelled the attack and thereby
secured a short interval of safety, travelled on till
they came to the banks of the Tigris. On that
spot, he goes on, there was a vast desert city. Its
wall was twenty-five feet wide, one hundred feet
high and nearly seven miles in circuit. It was built
of brick with a basement, twenty feet high, of stone.
Close by the city there stood a stone pyramid, one
hundred feet in width, and two hundred in height.
Xenophon adds that this city's name was Larissa
and that it had anciently been inhabited by Medes;
that the king of Persia, when he took the sover
eignty away from the Medes, besieged it, but could
not in any way get possession of it, until, a cloud
having obscured the sun, the inhabitants forsook
the city and thus it was taken.
4. Some eighteen miles further on (a day's march)
the Greeks came to another great deserted city,
which Xenophon calls Mespila. It had a similar
but still higher wall. This city, he tells us, had also
been inhabited by Medes, and taken by the king of
Persia. Now these curious ruins were all that was
left of Kalah and Nineveh, the two Assyrian capitals.
In the short space of two hundred years, men had
surely not yet lost the memory of Nineveh's exist-
ence and rule, yet they trod the very site where it
had stood and knew it not, and called its ruins by a
INTRODUCTION.
4
meaningless Greek name, handing down concerning
it a tradition absurdly made up of true and ficti-
tious details, jumbled into inextricable confusion.
For Nineveh had been the capital of the Assyrian
Empire, while the Medes were one of the nations
who attacked and destroyed it. And though an
eclipse of the sun-(the obscuring cloud could mean
nothing else)-did occur, created great confusion
and produced important results, it was at a later
period and on an entirely different occasion. As
to "the king of Persia," no such personage had any-
thing whatever to do with the catastrophe of Nine-
veh, since the Persians had not yet been heard of
at that time as a powerful people, and their coun-
try was only a small and insignificant principality,
tributary to Media. So effectually had the haughty
city been swept from the face of the earth!
5. Another hundred years brought on other and
even greater changes. The Persian monarchy had
followed in the wake of the empires that had gone
before it and fallen before Alexander, the youthful
hero of Macedon. As the conqueror's fleet of light-
built Grecian ships descended the Euphrates tow-
ards Babylon, they were often hindered in their
progress by huge dams of stone built across the
river. The Greeks, with great labor, removed sev-
cral, to make navigation more easy. They did
the same on several other rivers,—nor knew that
they were destroying the last remaining vestige of
a great people's civilization,-for these dams had
been used to save the water and distribute it into .
the numerous canals, which covered the arid coun-
MESOPOTAMIA.
5
try with their fertilizing network. They may have
been told what travellers are told in our own days
by the Arabs-that these dams had been con-
structed once upon a time by Nimrod, the Hunter-
King. For some of them remain even still, show-
ing their huge, square stones, strongly united by
iron cramps, above the water before the river is
swollen with the winter rains.
6. More than one-and-twenty centuries have rolled
since then over the immense valley so well named
Mesopotamia-"the Land between the Rivers,"-
and each brought to it more changes, more wars,
more disasters, with rare intervals of rest and pros-
perity. Its position between the East and the
West, on the very high-road of marching armies
and wandering tribes, has always made it one of the
great battle grounds of the world. About one thou-
sand years after Alexander's rapid invasion and
short-lived conquest, the Arabs overran the coun-
try, and settled there, bringing with them a new
civilization and the new religion given them by
their prophet Mohammed, which they thought it
their mission to carry, by force of word or sword,
to the bounds of the earth. They even founded
there one of the principal seats of their sovereignty,
and Baghdad yielded not greatly in magnificence
and power to Babylon of old.
7. Order, laws, and learning now flourished for a
few hundred years, when new hordes of barbarous
people came pouring in from the East, and one of
them, the Turks, at last established itself in the land
and stayed. They rule there now. The valley of
6
INTRODUCTION.
the Tigris and Euphrates is a province of the Otto-
man or Turkish Empire, which has its capital in
Constantinople; it is governed by pashas, officials
sent by the Turkish government, or the "Sublime
Porte," as it is usually called, and the ignorant, op-
pressive, grinding treatment to which it has now
been subjected for several hundred years has re-
duced it to the lowest depth of desolation. Its
wealth is exhausted, its industry destroyed, its pros-
perous cities have disappeared or dwindled into in-
significance. Even Mossul, built by the Arabs on
the right bank of the Tigris, opposite the spot where
Nineveh once stood, one of their finest cities, fa-
mous for the manufacturing of the delicate cotton
tissue to which it gave its name--(muslin, mousse-
line)—would have lost all importance, had it not the
honor to be the chief town of a Turkish district and
to harbor a pasha. And Baghdad, although still the
capital of the whole province, is scarcely more than
the shadow of her former glorious self; and her
looms no longer supply the markets of the world
with wonderful shawls and carpets, and gold and sil-
ver tissues of marvellous designs.
8. Mesopotamia is a region which must suffer
under neglect and misgovernment even more than
others; for, though richly endowed by nature, it is
of a peculiar formation, requiring constant care and
intelligent management to yield all the return of
which it is capable. That care must chiefly consist
in distributing the waters of the two great rivers and
their affluents over all the land by means of an intri-
cate system of canals, regulated by a complete and
1
MESOPOTAMIA.
7
well-kept set of dams and sluices, with other simpler
arrangements for the remoter and smaller branches.
The yearly inundations caused by the Tigris and
Euphrates, which overflow their banks in spring,
are not sufficient; only a narrow strip of land on
each side is benefited by them. In the lowlands
towards the Persian Gulf there is another inconven-
ience: the country there being perfectly flat, the
waters accumulate and stagnate, forming vast pesti-
lential swamps where rich pastures and wheat-fields
should be and have been in ancient times. In
short, if left to itself, Upper Mesopotamia, (ancient
Assyria), is unproductive from the barrenness of its.
soil, and Lower Mesopotamia, (ancient Chaldea and
Babylonia), runs to waste, notwithstanding its ex-
traordinary fertility, from want of drainage.
9. Such is actually the condition of the once pop-
ulous and flourishing valley, owing to the principles
on which the Turkish rulers carry on their govern-
ment. They look on their remoter provinces as
mere sources of revenue for the state and its officials.
But even admitting this as their avowed and chief
object, they pursue it in an altogether wrong-headed
and short-sighted way. The people are simply and
openly plundered, and no portion of what is taken
from them is applied to any uses of local public util-
ity, as roads, irrigation, encouragement of commerce
and industry and the like; what is not sent home to
the Sultan goes into the private pouches of the
pasha and his many subaltern officials. This is like
taking the milk and omitting to feed the cow. The
consequence is, the people lose their interest in
8
INTRODUCTION.
1
work of any kind, leave off striving for an increase
of property which they will not be permitted to en-
joy, and resign themselves to utter destitution with
a stolid apathy most painful to witness. The land
has been brought to such a degree of impoverish-
ment that it is actually no longer capable of produc-
ing crops sufficient for a settled population. It is
cultivated only in patches along the rivers, where
the soil is rendered so fertile by the yearly inunda-
tions as to yield moderate returns almost unasked,
and that mostly by wandering tribes of Arabs or of
Kurds from the mountains to the north, who raise
their tents and leave the spot the moment they have
gathered in their little harvest—if it has not been
appropriated first by some of the pasha's tax-collect-
ors or by roving parties of Bedouins-robber-tribes
from the adjoining Syrian and Arabian deserts, who,
mounted on their own matchless horses, are carried
across the open border with as much facility as the
drifts of desert sand so much dreaded by travellers.
The rest of the country is left to nature's own de-
vices and, wherever it is not cut up by mountains or
rocky ranges, offers the well-known twofold charac-
ter of steppe-land: luxuriant grassy vegetation dur-
ing one-third of the year and a parched, arid waste
the rest of the time, except during the winter rains
and spring floods.
Imposing too in
suited to a land
10. A wild and desolate scene!
its sorrowful grandeur, and well
which may be called a graveyard of empires and na-
tions. The monotony of the landscape would be
unbroken, but for certain elevations and hillocks of
MESOPOTAMIA.
9
strange and varied shapes, which spring up, as it were,
from the plain in every direction; some are high and
conical or pyramidal in form, others are quite exten-
sive and rather flat on the summit, others again
long and low, and all curiously unconnected with
each other or any ridge of hills or mountains. This
is doubly striking in Lower Mesopotamia or Baby-
lonia, proverbial for its excessive flatness. The few
permanent villages, composed of mud-huts or plaited
reed-cabins, are generally built on these eminences,
others are used as burying-grounds, and a mosque,
the Mohammedan house of prayer, sometimes rises
on one or the other. They are pleasing objects in
the beautiful spring season, when corn-fields wave
on their summits, and their slopes, as well as all the
surrounding plains, are clothed with the densest and
greenest of herbage, enlivened with countless flow-
ers of every hue, till the surface of the earth looks,
from a distance or from a height, as gorgeous as the
richest Persian carpet. But, on approaching nearer
to these hillocks or mounds, an unprepared traveller
would be struck by some peculiar features. Their
substance being rather soft and yielding, and the
winter rains pouring down with exceeding violence,
their sides are furrowed in many places with ravines,
dug by the rushing streams of rain-water. These
streams of course wash down much of the substance
itself and carry it far into the plain, where it lies
scattered on the surface quite distinct from the soil.
These washings are found to consist not of earth or
sand, but of rubbish, something like that which lies.
in heaps wherever a house is being built or demol-
1Ο
INTRODUCTION.
ished, and to contain innumerable fragments of
bricks, pottery, stone evidently worked by the hand
and chisel; many of these fragments moreover bear
ing inscriptions in complicated characters composed
of one curious figure shaped like the head of an ar-
row, and used in every possible position and combi-
nation,—like this:
A
三
​1.-CUNEIFORM CHARACTERS.
II. In the crevices or ravines themselves, the
waters having cleared away masses of this loose rub-
bish, have laid bare whole sides of walls of solid
brick-work, sometimes even a piece of a human head
or limb, or a corner of sculptured stone-slab, always
of colossal size and bold, striking execution. All
this tells its own tale and the conclusion is self-ap-
parent that these elevations are not natural hil-
locks or knolls, but artificial mounds, heaps of earth.
and building materials which have been at some
time placed there by men, then, collapsing and
crumbling to rubbish from neglect, have concealed
within their ample sides all that remains of those
ancient structures and works of art, clothed them-
selves in verdure, and deceitfully assumed all the
outward signs of natural hills.
12. The Arabs never thought of exploring these
curious heaps. Mohammedan nations, as a rule,
take little interest in relics of antiquity; moreover
they are very superstitious, and, as their religious
law strictly forbids them to represent the human
:
MESOPOTAMIA.
I l
form either in painting or sculpture lest such repro
duction might lead ignorant and misguided people
back to the abominations of idolatry, so they look
on relics of ancient statuary with suspicion amount-
ing to fear and connect them with magic and witch-
craft. It is, therefore, with awe not devoid of horror
that they tell travellers that the mounds contain un-
derground passages which are haunted not only by
wild beasts, but by evil spirits-for have not some.
times strange figures carved in stone been dimly
perceived in the crevices? Better instructed for-
eigners have long ago assumed that within these.
mounds must be entombed whatever ruins may be
preserved of the great cities of yore. Their number
formed no objection, for it was well known how pop
ulous the valley had been in the days of its splendor,
and that, besides several famous cities, it could boast
no end of smaller ones, often separated from each
other by a distance of only a few miles. The long
low mounds were rightly supposed to represent
the ancient walls, and the higher and vaster ones
to have been the site of the palaces and temples.
The Arabs, though utterly ignorant of history of any
kind, have preserved in their religion some traditions
from the Bible, and so it happens that out of these
wrecks of ages some biblical names still survive.
Almost everything of which they do not know the
origin, they ascribe to Nimrod; and the smaller of
the two mounds opposite Mosul, which mark the
spot where Nineveh itself once stood, they call "Jo-
nah's Mound," and stoutly believe the mosque
which crowns it, surrounded by a comparatively
12
INTRODUCTION.
prosperous village, to contain the tomb of Jonah
himself, the prophet who was sent to rebuke and
warn the wicked city. As the Mohammedans
honor the Hebrew prophets, the whole mound is.
sacred in their eyes in consequence.
13. If travellers had for some time been aware of
these general facts concerning the Mounds, it was
many years before their curiosity and interest were
so far aroused as to make them go to the trouble
and expense of digging into them, in order to find
out what they really contained. Until within the
last hundred years or so, not only the general pub-
lic, but even highly cultivated men and distin-
guished scholars, under the words "study of an-
tiquity," understood no more than the study of so-
called "Classical Antiquity," i.e., of the language,
history and literature of the Greeks and Romans,
together with the ruins, works of art, and remains
of all sorts left by these two nations. Their knowl
edge of other empires and people they took from
the Greek and Roman historians and writers, with-
out doubting or questioning their statements, or—as
we say now—without subjecting their statements to
any criticism.
Moreover, European students in
their absorption in and devotion to classical studies,
were too apt to follow the example of their favorite
authors and to class the entire rest of the world, as
far as it was known in ancient times, under the
sweeping and somewhat contemptuous by-name of
"Barbarians," thus allowing them but a secondary
importance and an inferior claim to attention.
14. Things began greatly to change towards the
MESOPOTAMIA.
13
end of the last century. Yet the mounds of Assyria
and Babylonia were still suffered to keep their secret
unrevealed. This want of interest may be in part
explained by their peculiar nature. They are so dif
ferent from other ruins. A row of massive pillars
or of stately columns cut out on the clear blue sky,
with the desert around or the sea at their feet,—a
broken arch or battered tombstone clothed with
ivy and hanging creepers, with the blue and purple
mountains for a background, are striking objects.
which first take the eye by their beauty, then invite
inspection by the easy approach they offer. But
these huge, shapeless heaps! What labor to re-
move even a small portion of them! And when
that is done, who knows whether their contents will
at all repay the effort and expense?
15. The first European whose love of learning
was strong enough to make him disregard all such
doubts and difficulties, was Mr. Rich, an English-
man. He was not particularly successful, nor were
his researches very extensive, being carried on
entirely with his private means; yet his name will
always be honorably remembered, for he was the
first who went to work with pickaxe and shovel,
who hired men to dig, who measured and described
some of the principal mounds on the Euphrates,
thus laying down the groundwork of all later and
more fruitful explorations in that region. It was in
1820 and Mr. Rich was then political resident or
representative of the East India Company at Bagh-
dad. He also tried the larger of the two mounds
opposite Mosul, encouraged by the report that, a
14
INTRODUCTION.
short time before he arrived there, a sculpture rep-
resenting men and animals had been disclosed to
view. Unfortunately he could not procure even a
fragment of this treasure, for the people of Mosul,
influenced by their ulema--(doctor of the law)—who
had declared these sculptures to be "idols of the
infidels," had walked across the river from the city
in a body and piously shattered them to atoms.
Mr. Rich had not the good luck to come across any
such find himself, and after some further efforts,
left the place rather disheartened. He carried
home to England the few relics he had been able to
obtain. In the absence of more important ones,.
they were very interesting, consisting in fragments
of inscriptions, of pottery, in engraved stone, bricks
and pieces of bricks. After his death all these arti-
cles were placed in the British Museum, where they
formed the foundation of the present noble Chal-
dea-Assyrian collection of that great institution.
Nothing more was undertaken for years, so that it
could be said with literal truth that, up to 1842, “a
case three feet square inclosed all that remained,
not only of the great city Nineveh, but of Babylon
itself!"*
16. The next in the field was Mr. Botta, appointed
French Consul at Mosul in 1842. He began to dig
at the end of the same year, and naturally attached
himself specially to the larger of the two mounds
opposite Mosul, named KOYUNJIK, after a small
village at its base. This mound is the Mespila of
* Layard's "Discoveries at Nineveh," Introduction.
MESOPOTAMIA.
15
Xenophon. He began enthusiastically, and worked
on for over three months, but repeated disappoint-
ments were beginning to produce discouragement,
when one day a peasant from a distant village hap-
pened to be looking on at the small party of work-
men. He was much amused on observing that
every-to him utterly worthless-fragment of alabas-
ter, brick or pottery, was carefully picked out of the
rubbish, most tenderly handled and laid aside, and
laughingly remarked that they might be better re-
paid for their trouble, if they would try the mound
on which his village was built, for that lots of such
rubbish had kept continually turning up, when they
were digging the foundations of their houses.
17. Mr. Botta had by this time fallen into a rather
hopeless mood; yet he did not dare to neglect the
hint, and sent a few men to the mound which had
been pointed out to him, and which, as well as the
village on the top of it, bore the name of KHORSA-
BAD. His agent began operations from the top. A
well was sunk into the mound, and very soon
brought the workmen to the top of a wall, which, on
further digging, was found to be lined along its base
with sculptured slabs of some soft substance much
like gypsum or limestone. This discovery quickly
brought Mr. Botta to the spot, in a fever of excite-
ment. He now took the direction of the works
himself, had a trench dug from the outside straight
into the mound, wide and deep, towards the place
already laid open from above. What was his aston-
ishment on finding that he had entered a hall
entirely lined all round, except where interruptions
❤
16
INTRODUCTION.
indicated the place of doorways leading into other
rooms, with sculptured slabs similar to the one first-
discovered, and representing scenes of battles, sieges
and the like. He walked as in a dream. It was a
new and wonderful world suddenly opened. For
these sculptures evidently recorded the deeds of the
builder, some powerful conqueror and king. And
those long and close lines engraved in the stone, all
along the slabs, in the same peculiar character as the
short inscriptions on the bricks that lay scattered
on the plain-they must surely contain the text to
these sculptured illustrations. But who is to read
them? They are not like any known writing in the
world and may remain a sealed book forever.
Who, then, was the builder? To what age belong
these structures? Which of the wars we read about
are here portrayed? None of these questions,
which must have strangely agitated him, could Mr.
Botta have answered at the time. But not the less
to him remains the glory of having, first of living
men, entered the palace of an Assyrian king.
18. Mr. Botta henceforth devoted himself exclu-
sively to the mound of Khorsabad. His discovery
created an immense sensation in Europe. Scholarly
indifference was not proof against so unlooked-for
a shock; the revulsion was complete and the spirit
of research and enterprise was effectually aroused,
not to slumber again. The French consul was sup-
plied by his government with ample means to carry
on excavations on a large scale. If the first success
nay be considered as merely a great piece of good
fortune, the following ones were certainly due to
MESOPOTAMIA.
17
intelligent, untiring labor and ingenuous scholarship.
We see the results in Botta's voluminous work
"Monuments de Ninive and in the fine Assyr-
ian collection of the Louvre, in the first room of
which is placed, as is but just, the portrait of the
man to whose efforts and devotion it is due.
19. The great English investigator Layard, then
a young and enthusiastic scholar on his Eastern trav-
els, passing through Mosul in 1842, found Mr. Botta
engaged on his first and unpromising attempts at
Koyunjik, and subsequently wrote to him from
Constantinople exhorting him to persist and not
give up his hopes of success. He was one of the
first to hear of the astounding news from Khorsa-
bad, and immediately determined to carry out a
long-cherished project of his own, that of exploring
a large mound known among the Arabs under the
name of NIMRUD, and situated somewhat lower on
the Tigris, near that river's junction with one of its
chief tributaries, the Zab. The difficulty lay in
procuring the necessary funds. Neither the trus-
tees of the British Museum nor the English Govern-
ment were at first willing to incur such considerable
expense on what was still looked upon as very un-
certain chances. It was a private gentleman, Sir
Stratford Canning, then English minister at Con-
stantinople, who generously came forward, and
announced himself willing to meet the outlay with-
in certain limits, while authorities at home were to
* In five huge folio volumes, one of text, two of inscriptions, and
two of illustrations. The title shows that Botta erroneously imag-
ined the ruins he had discovered to be those of Nineveh itself.
18
INTRODUCTION.
be solicited and worked upon. So Mr. Layard was
enabled to begin operations on the mound which
he had specially selected for himself in the autumn
of 1845, the year after that in which the building of
Khorsabad was finally laid open by Botta. The
results of his expedition were so startlingly vast and
important, and the particulars of his work on the
Assyrian plains are so interesting and picturesque,
that they will furnish ample materials for a separate
chapter.


211110
II.
LAYARD AND HIS WORK.
I. IN the first part of November, 1845, we find the
enthusiastic and enterprising young scholar on the
scene of his future exertions and triumphs. His
first night in the wilderness, in a ruinous Arab vil-
lage amidst the smaller mounds of Nimrud, is
vividly described by him :-"I slept little during
the night. The hovel in which we had taken shel-
ter, and its inmates, did not invite slumber; but
such scenes and companions were not new to me;
they could have been forgotten, had my brain been
less excited. Hopes, long-cherished, were now to
be realized, or were to end in disappointment.
Visions of palaces underground, of gigantic mon-
sters, of sculptured figures, and endless inscriptions.
floated before me. After forming plan after plan
for removing the earth, and extricating these treas-
ures, I fancied myself wandering in a maze of
chambers from which I could find no outlet. Then
again, all was reburied, and I was standing on the
grass-covered mound."
2. Although not doomed to disappointment in
the end, these hopes were yet to be thwarted in
many ways before the visions of that night became
19
20
INTRODUCTION.
reality. For many and various were the difficulties
which Layard had to contend with during the fol-
lowing months as well as during his second expedi-
tion in 1848. The material hardships of perpetual
camping out in an uncongenial climate, without any
of the simplest conveniences of life, and the fevers
and sickness repeatedly brought on by exposure to
winter rains and summer heat, should perhaps be
counted among the least of them, for they had their
compensations. Not so the ignorant and ill-natured
opposition, open or covert, of the Turkish authori-
ties. That was an evil to which no amount of phi-
losophy could ever fully reconcile him. His expe-
riences in that line form an amusing collection.
Luckily, the first was also the worst.
The pasha
whom he found installed at Mosul was, in appear-
ance and temper, more like an ogre than a man.
He was the terror of the country. His cruelty and
rapacity knew no bounds. When he sent his tax-
collectors on their dreaded round, he used to dis-
miss them with this short and pithy instruction:
"Go, destroy, eat!" (i.e. "plunder "), and for his
own profit had revived several kinds of contribu-
tions which had been suffered to fall into disuse, es-
pecially one called "tooth-money," "a compensa-
tion in money, levied upon all villages in which a
man of such rank is entertained, for the wear and
tear of his teeth in masticating the food he conde-
scends to receive from the inhabitants."
3. The letters with which Layard was provided
secured him a gracious reception from this amiable
personage, who allowed him to begin operations
LAYARD AND HIS WORK.
21
-an
on the great mound of Nimrud with the party
of Arab workmen whom he had hired for the
purpose. Some time after, it came to the Pasha's
knowledge that a few fragments of gold leaf had
been found in the rubbish and he even procured
a small particle as sample. He immediately con-
cluded, as the Arab chief had done, that the Eng-
lish traveller was digging for hidden treasure
object far more intelligible to them than that of
disinterring and carrying home a quantity of old
broken stones. This incident, by arousing the great
man's rapacity, might have caused him to put a
stop to all further search, had not Layard, who
well knew that treasure of this kind was not likely
to be plentiful in the ruins, immediately proposed
that his Excellency should keep an agent at the
mound, to take charge of all the precious metals
which might be discovered there in the course of
the excavations. The Pasha raised no objections
at the moment, but a few days later announced to
Layard that, to his great regret, he felt it his duty
to forbid the continuation of the work, since he had
just learned that the diggers were disturbing a
Mussulman burying-ground. As the tombs of true
believers are held very sacred and inviolable by
Mohammedans, this would have been a fatal obsta-
cle, had not one of the Pasha's own officers confi-
dentially disclosed to Layard that the tombs were
sham ones, that he and his men had been secretly
employed to fabricate them, and for two nights had
been bringing stones for the purpose from the
surrounding villages. "We have destroyed more
22
INTRODUCTION.
tombs of true believers," said the Aga,—(officer)-—
"in making sham ones, than ever you could have
defiled. We have killed our horses and ourselves
in carrying those accursed stones." Fortunately
the Pasha, whose misdeeds could not be tolerated
even by a Turkish government, was recalled about
Christmas, and succeeded by an official of an en-
tirely different stamp, a man whose reputation for
justice and mildness had preceded him, and whose
arrival was accordingly greeted with public rejoic-
ings. Operations at the mound now proceeded for
some time rapidly and successfully. But this very
success at one time raised new difficulties for our
explorers.
4. One day, as Layard was returning to the
mound from an excursion, he was met on the way
by two Arabs who had ridden out to meet him at
full speed, and from a distance shouted to him in
the wildest excitement: "Hasten, O Bey! hasten
to the diggers! for they have found Nimrod him-
self. It is wonderful, but it is true! we have seen
him with our eyes. There is no God but God!
Greatly puzzled, he hurried on and, descending into
the trench, found that the workmen had uncovered
a gigantic head, the body to which was still im-
bedded in earth and rubbish. This head, beauti-
fully sculptured in the alabaster furnished by the
neighboring hills, surpassed in height the tallest
*man present. The great shapely features, in their
majestic repose; seemed to guard some mighty
secret and to defy the bustling curiosity of those
who gazed on them in wonder and fear, "One of
LAYARD AND HIS WORK.
23
the workmen, on catching the first glimpse of the
monster, had thrown down his basket and run off
toward Mossul as fast as his legs could carry him."
5. The Arabs came in crowds from the sur-

飛
​LADAS
区
​2.—TEMPLE OF ÊA AT ERIDHU (ABU-SHAHREIN). BACK-STAIRS.
(Hommel.)
rounding encampments; they could scarcely be
persuaded that the image was of stone, and con-
tended that it was not the work of men's hands,
but of infidel giants of olden times. The com-
motion soon spread to Mosul, where the terrified
workman, "entering breathless into the bazars,
24
INTRODUCTION.
announced to every one he met that Nimrod
had appeared." The authorities of the town were
alarmed, put their heads together and decided that
such idolatrous proceedings were an outrage to re-
ligion. The consequence was that Layard was re-
quested by his friend Ismail-Pasha to suspend
operations for awhile, until the excitement should
have subsided, a request with which he thought it
wisest to comply without remonstrance, lest the
people of Mosul might come out in force and deal
with his precious find as they had done with the
sculptured figure at Koyunjik in Rich's time. The
alarm, however, did not last long. Both Arabs and
Turks soon became familiar with the strange crea-
tions which kept emerging out of the earth, and
learned to discuss them with great calm and grav-
ity. The colossal bulls and lions with wings and
human heads, of which several pairs were discov-
ered, some of them in a state of perfect preserva-
tion, were especially the objects of wonder and con-
jectures, which generally ended in a curse “on all
infidels and their works," the conclusion arrived at
being that "the idols" were to be sent to England, to
form gateways to the palace of the Queen. And
when some of these giants, now in the British Mu-
seum, were actually removed, with infinite pains
and labor, to be dragged down to the Tigris, and
floated down the river on rafts, there was no end to
the astonishment of Layard's simple friends. On
one such occasion an Arab Sheikh, or chieftain,
whose tribe had engaged to assist in moving one of
the winged bulls, opened his heart to him. "In the
LAYARD AND HIS WORK.
25
name of the Most High," said he, "tell me, O Bey,
what you are going to do with these stones. So
many thousands of purses spent on such things!
Can it be, as you say, that your people learn wisdom
from them? or is it as his reverence the Cadi de-
clares, that they are to go to the palace of your
Queen, who, with the rest of the unbelievers, wor-
ships these idols? As for wisdom, these figures
will not teach you to make any better knives, or scis-
sors, or chintzes and it is in the making of these
things that the English show their wisdom."
6. Such was the view very generally taken of
Layard's work by both Turks and Arabs, from the
Pasha down to the humblest digger in his band of
laborers, and he seldom felt called upon to play
the missionary of science, knowing as he did that all
such efforts would be but wasted breath. This want
of intellectual sympathy did not prevent the best
understanding from existing between himself and
these rangers of the desert. The primitive life
which he led amongst them for so many months,
the kindly hospitality which he invariably experi-
enced at their hands during the excursions made
and the visits he paid to different Bedouin tribes in
the intervals of recreation which he was compelled to
allow himself from time to time-these are among
the most pleasurable memories of those wonderful,
dreamlike years. He lingers on them lovingly and
retraces them through many a page of both his
books *-pages which, for their picturesque vivid.
* "Nineveh and its Remains," and "Discoveries in Nineveh and
Babylon."
26
INTRODUCTION.
•
ness, must be perused with delight even by such as
are but slightly interested in the discovery of buried
palaces and winged bulis. One longs to have
been with him through some of those peerless
evenings when, after a long day's work, he sat
before his cabin in the cool starlight, watching
the dances with which those indefatigable Arabs,
men and women, solaced themselves deep into the
night, while the encampment was lively with the
hum of voices, and the fires lit to prepare the simple
meal. One longs to have shared in some of those
brisk rides across plains so thickly enamelled with
flowers, that it seemed a patchwork of many col-
ors, and the dogs, as they returned from hunt-
ing, issued from the long grass dyed red, yellow, or
blue, according to the flowers through which they
had last forced their way,"-the joy of the Arab's
soul, which made the chief, Layard's friend, contin-
ually exclaim, "rioting in the luxuriant herbage.
and scented air, as his mare waded through the
flowers -- What delight has God given us equal to
this? It is the only thing worth living for. What
do the dwellers in cities know of true happiness?
They never have seen grass or flowers! May God
have pity on them!"" How glorious to watch the
face of the desert changing its colors almost from
day to day, white succeeding to pale straw color,
red to white, blue to red, lilac to blue, and bright
gold to that, according to the flowers with which it.
decked itself! Out of sight stretches the gorgeous.
carpet, dotted with the black camel's-hair tents of
the Arabs, enlivened with flocks of sheep and camels,
LAYARD AND HIS WORK.
27
and whole studs of horses of noble breed which are
brought out from Mosul and left to graze at liberty,
in the days of healthy breezes and fragrant pastures.
7. So much for spring. A beautiful, a perfect sea-
son, but unfortunately as brief as it is lovely, and
too soon succeeded by the terrible heat and long
drought of summer, which sometimes set in so sud-
denly as hardly to give the few villagers time to
gather in their crops. Chaldea or Lower Mesopo-
tamia is in this respect even worse off than the
higher plains of Assyria. A temperature of 120°
in the shade is no unusual occurrence in Baghdad;
true, it can be reduced to 100° in the cellars of
the houses by carefully excluding the faintest ray
of light, and it is there that the inhabitants mostly
spend their days in summer. The oppression is
such that Europeans are entirely unmanned and
unfitted for any kind of activity. "Camels sicken,
and birds are so distressed by the high temperature,
that they sit in the date-trees about Baghdad, with
their mouths open, panting for fresh air."*
8. But the most frightful feature of a Mesopota-
mian summer is the frequent and violent sand-
storms, during which travellers, in addition to all the
dangers offered by snow-storms-being buried alive.
and losing their way-are exposed to that of suffo-
cation not only from the furnace-like heat of the
desert-wind, but from the impalpable sand, which is
whirled and driven before it, and fills the eyes, mouth
* Rawlinson's "Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient World,"
Vol. I., Chap. II.
28
INTRODUCTION.
and nostrils of horse and rider. The three miles' ride
from Layard's encampment to the mound of Nim-
rud must have been something more than pleasant
morning exercise in such a season, and though the
deep trenches and wells afforded a comparatively
cool and delightful retreat, he soon found that fever
was the price to be paid for the indulgence, and was
repeatedly laid up with it. "The verdure of the
plain," he says in one place, "had perished almost
in a day. Hot winds, coming from the desert, had
burnt up and carried away the shrubs; flights of
locusts, darkening the air, had destroyed the few
patches of cultivation, and had completed the havoc
commenced by the heat of the sun. . . . Violent
whirlwinds occasionally swept over the face of the
country. They could be seen as they advanced
from the desert, carrying along with them clouds of
dust and sand. Almost utter darkness prevailed
during their passage, which lasted generally about
an hour, and nothing could resist their fury. On
returning home one afternoon after a tempest of
the kind, I found no traces of my dwellings; they
had been completely carried away. Ponderous
wooden frame-works had been borne over the bank
and hurled some hundred yards distant; the tents
had disappeared, and my furniture was scattered
over the plain."
9. Fortunately it would not require much labor
to restore the wooden frames to their proper place
and reconstruct the reed-plaited, mud-plastered walls
as well as the roof composed of reeds and boughs—
such being the sumptuous residences of which Lay-
LAYARD AND HIS WORK.
29
IO.
ard shared the largest with various domestic animals,
from whose immediate companionship he was saved
by a thin partition, the other hovels being devoted
to the wives, children and poultry of his host, to his
But the
own servants and different household uses.
time came when not even this accommodation, poor
as it was, could be enjoyed with any degree of com-
fort. When the summer heat set in in earnest, the
huts became uninhabitable from their closeness and
the vermin with which they swarmed, while a can-
vas tent, though far preferable in the way of airi-
ness and cleanliness, did not afford sufficient shelter.
10. "In this dilemma," says Layard, "I ordered a
recess to be cut into the bank of the river where
it rose perpendicularly from the water's edge. By
screening the front with reeds and boughs of trees,
and covering the whole with similar materials, a small
room was formed. I was much troubled, however,
with scorpions and other reptiles, which issued from
the earth forming the walls of my apartment; and
later in the summer by the gnats and sandflies
which hovered on a calm night over the river." It
is difficult to decide between the respective merits
of this novel summer retreat and of the winter
dwelling, ambitiously constructed of mud bricks
dried in the sun, and roofed with solid wooden
beams. This imposing residence, in which Layard
spent the last months of his first winter in Assyria,
would have been sufficient protection against wind
and weather, after it had been duly coated with
mud. Unfortunately a heavy shower fell before it
was quite completed, and so saturated the bricks.
30
INTRODUCTION.
that they did not dry again before the following
spring. "The consequence was," he pleasantly re-
marks, "that the only verdure on which my eyes
were permitted to feast before my return to Europe,
was furnished by my own property-the walls in the
interior of the rooms being continually clothed with
a crop of grass.
II. These few indications are sufficient to give a
tolerably clear idea of what might be called "Pleas-
ures and hardships of an explorer's life in the desert.”
As for the work itself, it is simple enough in the
telling, although it must have been extremely weari
some and laborious in the performance. The sim-
plest way to get at the contents of a mound, would
be to remove all the earth and rubbish by carting
it away, a piece of work which our searchers might
no doubt have accomplished with great facility, had
they had at their disposal a few scores of thousands
of slaves and captives, as had the ancient kings who
built the huge constructions the ruins of which had
now to be disinterred. With a hundred or two of
hired workmen and very limited funds, the case was
slightly different. The task really amounted to this:
to achieve the greatest possible results at the least
possible expense of labor and time, and this is how
such excavations are carried out on a plan uni-
formly followed everywhere as the most practical
and direct:
12. Trenches, more or less wide, are conducted.
from different sides towards the centre of the mound.
This is obviously the surest and shortest way to
arrive at whatever remains of walls may be im-

BIRS WEMROD
COLLINE D'AMRANÁLI
·ÁRBBED´ALI ET KASP.
LEUPHRATE v DU HAUT EV MUDJELLIBÉ
FX TH 'sma17sa
3.
-VIEW OF EUPHRATES NEAR THE RUINS OF BABYLON,
(Babelon.)
32
INTRODUCTION.
cernment.
bedded in it. But even this preliminary operation
has to be carried out with some judgment and dis-
It is known that the Chaldeans and
Assyrians constructed their palaces and temples not
upon the level, natural soil, but upon an artificial
platform of brick and earth, at least thirty feet high.
This platform was faced on all sides with a strong
wall of solid burned brick, often moreover cased
with stone. A trench dug straight from the plain
into the lower part of the mound would conse-
quently be wasted labor, since it could never bring
to anything but that same blind wall, behind which
there is only the solid mass of the platform. Dig-
ging therefore begins in the slope of the mound, at
a height corresponding to the supposed height of
the platform, and is carried on straight across its
surface until a wall is reached,-a wall belonging to
one of the palaces or temples. This wall has then
to be followed, till a break in it is found, indicating
an entrance or doorway.* The burrowing process.
becomes more and more complicated, and some-
times dangerous. Shafts have to be sunk from
above at frequent intervals to introduce air and light
into the long and narrow corridor; the sides and
vault have to be propped by beams to prevent the
soft earthy mass from falling in and crushing the
diggers. Every shovelful of earth cleared away is
removed in baskets which are passed from hand to
hand till they are emptied outside the trench, or else
lowered empty and sent up full, through the shafts
by means of ropes and pulleys, to be emptied on the
top. When a doorway is reached, it is cleared all
* See Figure 15, on p. 53.

1
4.-MOUND OF BABIL. (RUINS
(RUINS OF BABYLON.)
(Oppert.)
34
INTRODUCTION.
through the thickness of the wall, which is very
great; then a similar tunnel is conducted all along
the inside of the wall, the greatest care being needed
not to damage the sculptures which generally line it,
and which, as it is, are more or less injured and
cracked, their upper parts sometimes entirely de-
stroyed by the action of fire. When the tunnel has.
been carried along the four sides, every doorway or
portal carefully noted and cleared, it is seen from the
measurements, especially the width—whether the
space explored be an inner court, a hall or a cham-
ber. If the latter, it is sometimes entirely cleared
from above, when the rubbish frequently yields
valuable finds in the shape of various small articles.
One such chamber, uncovered by Layard, at Koy-
unjik, proved a perfect mine of treasures. The
most curious relics were brought to light in it:
quantities of studs and small rosettes in mother-
of-pearl, ivory and metal, (such as were used to
ornament the harness of the war-horses), bowls,
cups and dishes of bronze,* besides caldrons, shields
and other items of armor, even glass bowls, lastly
fragments of a royal throne-possibly the very
throne on which King Sennacherib sat to give
audience or pronounce judgments, for the palace
at Koyunjik where these objects were found was
built by that monarch so long familiar to us only
from the Bible, and the sculptures and inscriptions
which cover its walls are the annals of his conquests.
abroad and his rule at home.
A description of the removal of the colossal bulls
and lions which were shipped to England and now.
* See Figures 5, 6, and 7.
i
LA YARD AND HIS WORK.
35
are safely housed in the British Museum, ought by
rights to form the close of a chapter devoted to
'Layard and his work." But the reference must
16

5.-BRONZE DISH.
suffice; the vivid and entertaining narrative should
be read in the original, as the passages are too long
for transcription, and would be marred by quoting.

III.
THE RUINS.
"And they said to one another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn
them throughly. And they had brick for stone and slime for mor
tar.”—Gen. xi. 3.
Men
I. IT is a principle, long ago laid down and univer-
sally recognized, that every country makes its own
people. That is, the mode of life and the intellect-
ual culture of a people are shaped by the character-
istic features of the land in which it dwells; or, in
other words, men can live only in a manner suited
to the peculiarities of their native country.
settled along the sea-shore will lead a different life,
will develop different qualities of mind and body
from the owners of vast inland pasture-grounds or
the holders of rugged mountain fastnesses. They
will all dress differently, eat different food, follow
different pursuits. Their very dwellings and public
buildings will present an entirely different aspect,
according to the material which they will have at
hand in the greatest abundance, be it stone, wood
or any other substance suitable for the purpose.
Thus every country will create its own peculiar
style of art, determined chiefly by its own natural
productions. On these, architecture, the art of the
36
THE RUINS.
37
builder, will be even more dependent than any
other.
2. It would seem as though Chaldea or Lower
Mesopotamia, regarded from this point of view, could

6.—BRONZE DISH (RUG-PATTERN).
never have originated any architecture at all, for it
is, at first sight, absolutely deficient in building
materials of any sort. The whole land is alluvial,
that is, formed, gradually, through thousands of
38
INTRODUCTION.
years, of the rich mud deposited by the two rivers,
as they spread into vast marshy flats towards the
end of their course. Such soil, when hardened into
sufficient consistency, is the finest of all for cultiva-
tion, and a greater source of wealth than mines of
the most precious ore; but it bears no trees and
contains no stone. The people who were first
tempted to settle in the lowlands towards the Per-
sian Gulf by the extraordinary fertility of that re-
gion, found nothing at all available to construct
their simple dwellings—nothing but reeds of enor-
mous size, which grew there, as they do now, in
the greatest profusion. These reeds "cover the
marshes in the summer-time, rising often to the
height of fourteen or fifteen feet. The Arabs of
the marsh region form their houses of this material,
binding the stems together and bending them into
arches, to make the skeletons of their buildings;
while, to form the walls, they stretch across from
arch to arch mats made of the leaves."*
3. There can be no doubt that of such habitations
consisted the villages and towns of those first set-
tlers. They gave quite sufficient shelter in the very
mild winters of that region, and, when coated with a
layer of mud which soon dried and hardened in the
sun, could exclude even the violent rains of that sea-
son. But they were in no way fitted for more am-
bitious and dignified purposes. Neither the palaces
of the kings nor the temples of the gods could be
constructed out of bent reeds. Something more
* Rawlinson's "Five Monarchies," Vol. I., p. 46.
THE RUINS.
39
durable must be found, some material that would.
lend itself to constructions of any size or shape.
The mud coating of the cabins naturally suggested
such a material. Could not this same mud or clay,
of which an inexhaustible supply was always on
hand, be moulded into cakes of even size, and after
being left to dry in the sun, be piled into walls of

7.-SECTION OF BRONze dish.
the required height and thickness? And so men
began to make bricks. It was found that the clay
gained much in consistency when mixed with finely
chopped straw-another article of which the coun-
try, abounding in wheat and other grains, yielded
unlimited quantities. But even with this improve-
ment the sun-dried bricks could not withstand the
40
INTRODUCTION.
continued action of many rainy seasons, or many
torrid summers, but had a tendency to crumble.
away when parched too dry, or to soak and dissolve
back into mud, when too long exposed to rain.
All these defects were removed by the simple ex-
pedient of baking the bricks in kilns or ovens, a
process which gives them the hardness and solidity
of stone. But as the cost of kiln-dried bricks is
naturally very much greater than that of the orig-
inal crude article, so the latter continued to be used
in far greater quantities; the walls were made en-
tirely of them and only protected by an outward
casing of the hard baked bricks. These being so
much more expensive. and calculated to last forever,
great care was bestowed on their preparation; the
best clay was selected and they were stamped with
the names and titles of the king by whose order the
palace or temple was built, for which they were to
be used. This has been of great service in identi-
fying the various ruins and assigning them dates, at
least approximately. As is to be expected, there is
a notable difference in the specimens of different
periods. While on some bricks bearing the name
of a king who lived about 3000 B.C. the inscription
is uncouth and scarcely legible, and even their
shape is rude and the material very inferior, those
of the later Babylonian period (600 B.C.) are hand-
some and neatly made. As to the quality, all
explorers agree in saying it is fully equal to that
of the best modern English bricks. The excellence.
of these bricks for building purposes is a fact so
well known that for now two thousand years—ever

FERNIOW
S.-VIEW OF NEBBI YUNUS.
42
INTRODUCTION.
since the destruction of Babylon-its walls, temples
and palaces have been used as quarries for the con-
struction of cities and villages. The little town of
HILLAH, situated nearest to the site of the ancient
capital, is built almost entirely with bricks from one
single mound, that of KASR-once the gorgeous
and far-famed palace of Nebuchadnezzar, whose
name and titles thus grace the walls of the most
lowly Arab and Turkish dwellings. All the other
mounds are similarly used, and so far is the valuable.
mine from being exhausted, that it furnishes forth,
to this day, a brisk and flourishing trade. While
a party of workmen is continually employed in dig
ging for the available bricks, another is busy con-
veying them to Hillah; there they are shipped on
the Euphrates and carried to any place where build-
ing materials are in demand, often even loaded on.
donkeys at this or that landing-place and sent miles
away inland; some are taken as far as Baghdad,
where they have been used for ages. The same
thing is done wherever there are mounds and ruins.
Both Layard and his successors had to allow their
Arab workmen to build their own temporary houses.
out of ancient bricks, only watching them, narrowly,
lest they should break some valuable relic in the
process or use some of the handsomest and best-
preserved specimens.
"
4. No construction of bricks, either crude or kiln-
dried, could have sufficient solidity without the p
of some kind of cement, to make them adhere
firmly together. This also the lowlands of Chaldea
and Babylonia yield in sufficient quantity and of

11
DIRE WAUTHBAN
M.
།
9.-BUILDING IN BAKED BRICK (MODERN).
(Perrot and Chippiez.)
..་་་་་
44
INTRODUCTION.
various qualities. While in the early structures a
kind of sticky red clay or loam is used, mixed with
chopped straw, bitumen or pitch is substituted at a
later period, which substance, being applied hot,
adheres so firmly to the bricks, that pieces of these
are broken off when an attempt is made to procure
a fragment of the cement. This valuable article
was brought down by water from Is on the Euphra-
tes (now called HIT), where abundant springs
of bitumen are to this day in activity. Calcareous
earth-i.e., earth strongly mixed with lime-being
very plentiful to the west of the lower Euphrates,
towards the Arabian frontier, the Babylonians of
the latest times learned to make of it a white mor-
tar which, for lightness and strength, has never been
surpassed.
5. All the essential materials for plain but dur-
able constructions being thus procurable on the
spot or in the immediate neighborhood, the next
important point was the selection of proper sites for
raising these constructions, which were to serve
purposes of defence as well as of worship and royal
majesty. A rocky eminence, inaccessible on one or
several sides, or at least a hill, a knoll somewhat ele-
vated above the surrounding plain, have usually
been chosen wherever such existed. But this was
not the case in Chaldea. There, as far as eye can
see, not the slightest undulation breaks the dead
flatness of the land. Yet there, more than any-
where else, an elevated position was desirable, if
only as a protection from the unhealthy exhalations
of a vast tract of swamps, and from the intolerable

IO.-MOUND OF NIMRUD.
(Hommel.)
46
INTRODUCTION.
nuisance of swarms of aggressive and venomous
insects, which infest the entire river region during
the long summer season. Safety from the attacks
of the numerous roaming tribes which ranged the
country in every direction before it was definitely
settled and organized, was also not among the last
considerations. So, what nature had refused, the
cunning and labor of man had to supply. Artificial
hills or platforms were constructed, of enormous
size and great height-from thirty to fifty, even
sixty feet, and on their flat summits the buildings.
were raised. These platforms sometimes supported
only one palace, sometimes, as in the case of the
immense mounds of Koyunjik and Nimrud in As-
syria, their surface had room for several, built by
successive kings. Of course such huge piles could
not be entirely executed in solid masonry, even of
crude bricks. These were generally mixed with
earth and rubbish of all kinds, in more or less regu-
lar, alternate layers, the bricks being laid in clay.
But the outward facing was in all cases of baked
brick. The platform of the principal mound which
marks the place of ancient UR, (now called MUG-
HEIR), is faced with a wall ten feet thick, of red
kiln-dried bricks, cemented with bitumen. In As-
syria, where stone was not scarce, the sides of the
platform were even more frequently "protected
by massive stone-masonry, carried perpendicularly
from the natural ground to a height somewhat
exceeding that of the platform, and either made
* Ur of the Chaldees, from which Abraham went forth.
THE RUINS.
47
plain at the top, or else crowned into stone battle-
ments cut into gradines." *
6. Some mounds are considerably higher than the
others and of a peculiar shape, almost like a pyra-
mid, that is, ending in a point from which it slopes

II. MOUND OF MUGHEIR (ANCIENT UR).
down rapidly on all sides. Such is the pyramidal
mound of Nimrud, which Layard describes as being
so striking and picturesque an object as you ap
proach the ruins from any point of the plain. Such
also is the still more picturesque mound of BOR-
SIP (now BIRS NIMRUD) near Babylon, the larg-
Five Monarchies," Vol. I., p. 349.
* Rawlinson's
+ Figure 10.
48
INTRODUCTION.
est of this kind.*
peculiar constructions, called ZIGGURATS, composed
of several platforms piled one on the other, each
square in shape and somewhat smaller than the
preceding one; the topmost platform supported
a temple or sanctuary, which by these means was
raised far above the dwellings of men, a constant
reminder not less eloquent than the exhortation in
some of our religious services: "Lift up your
hearts!" Of these heavenward pointing towers,
which were also used as observatories by the Chal-
deans, great lovers of the starry heavens, that of
Borsip, once composed of seven stages, is the
loftiest; it measures over 150 feet in perpendicular
height.
These mounds are the remains of
7. It is evident that these artificial hills could.
have been erected only at an incredible cost of labor.
The careful measurements which have been taken
of several of the principal mounds have enabled
explorers to make an accurate calculation of the
exact amount of 'labor employed on each. The
result is startling, even though one is prepared for
something enormous. The great mound of Koyun-
jik-which represents the palaces of Nineveh itself—
covers an area of one hundred acres, and reaches
an elevation of 95 feet at its highest point. To
heap up such a pile of brick and earth "would re-
quire the united exertions of 10,000 men for twelve
years, or of 20,000 men for six years." Then only
could the construction of the palaces begin. The
* Figure 71, p. 281.
+ Rawlinson's Five Monarchies," Vol. I., pp. 317 and 318.
THE RUINS.
49
mound of Nebbi-Yunus, which has not yet been
excavated, covers an area of forty acres and is loft-
ier and steeper than its neighbor: "its erection
would have given full employment to 10,000 men
for the space of five years and a half." Clearly,
none but conquering monarchs, who yearly took
thousands of prisoners in battles and drove home.
into captivity a part of the population of every

པ[1
ilir.
小
​I
İlim
12.-TERRACE WALL AT KHORSABAD.
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
country they subdued, could have employed such
hosts of workmen on their buildings-not once, but
continually, for it seems to have been a point of
honor with the Assyrian kings that each should
build a new palace for himself.
8. When one considers the character of the land.
along the upper course of the Tigris, where the As-
syrians dwelt, one cannot help wondering why they
went on building mounds and using nothing but
50
INTRODUCTION.
bricks in their constructions. There is no reason
for it in the nature of the country. The cities of
Assyria-NINEVEH (Koyunjik), KALAH (Nimrud),
Arbela, DUR-SHARRUKIN (Khorsabad) were built
in the midst of a hilly region abounding in many
varieties of stone, from soft limestone to hard ba-
salt; some of them actually stood on rocky ground,
their moats being in part cut through the rock.
Had they wanted stone of better quality, they had
only to get it from the Zagros range of mountains,
which skirts all Assyria to the East, separating it
from Media. Yet they never availed themselves
of these resources, which must have led to great
improvements in their architecture, and almost en-
tirely reserved the use of stone for ornamental pur-
poses. This would tend to show, at all events, that
the Assyrians were not distinguished for inventive
genius. They had wandered northward from the
lowlands, where they had dwelt for centuries as a
portion of the Chaldean nation. When they sepa-
rated from it and went off to found cities for them-
selves, they took with them certain arts and tricks
of handicraft learned in the old home, and never
thought of making any change in them. It does
not even seem to have occurred to them that by
selecting a natural rocky elevation for their build-
ings they would avoid the necessity of an artificial
platform and save vast amount of labor and time.
9. That they did put stone to one practical use-
the outward casing of their walls and platforms—we
have already seen. The blocks must have been cut
in the Zagros mountains and brought by water-

13.—RAFT BUOYED BY INFLATED SKINS. (ANCIENT.)
(Kaulen.)

14.—RAFT BUOYED BY INFLATED SKINS. (MODERN.)
(Kaulen.)
52
INTRODUCTION.
rafted down the Zab, or some other of the rivers
which, springing from those mountains, flow into
the Tigris. The process is represented with perfect.
clearness on some of the sculptures. That repro-
duced in Fig. 13 is of great interest, as showing a
peculiar mode of transport,-rafts floated on in-
flated skins-which is at the present moment in as
general and constant use as it appears to have been
in the same parts three thousand years ago and
probably more. When Layard wished to send off
the bulls and lions which he had moved from Nim-
rud and Koyunjik down the Tigris to Baghdad and
Busrah, (or Bassorah), there to be embarked for
Europe, he had recourse to this conveyance, as no
other is known for similar purposes. This is how
he describes the primitive, but ingenious contriv-
ance : "The skins of full-grown sheep and goats,
taken off with as few incisions as possible, are dried
and prepared, one aperture being left, through
which the air is forced by the lungs. A framework
of poplar beams, branches of trees, and reeds, hav-
ing been constructed of the size of the intended
raft, the inflated skins are tied to it by osier twigs.
The raft is then complete and is moved to the water
and launched. Care is taken to place the skins with
their mouths upward, that, in case any should burst
or require refilling, they can be easily reached.
Upon the framework are piled bales of goods, and
property belonging to merchants and travellers.
. The raftmen impel these rude vessels by long
poles, to the ends of which are fastened a few pieces
of split cane. (See Fig. 14.) . . . During the floods in
THE RUINS.
53
spring, or after heavy rains, small rafts may float
from Mosul to Baghdad in about eighty-four hours;
but the larger are generally six or seven days in
performing the voyage. In summer, and when the

15. —EXCAVATIONS AT MUGHEir (ur).
river is low, they are frequently nearly a month in
reaching their destination. When they have been
unloaded, they are broken up, and the beams, wood
and twigs sold at considerable profit. The skins
are washed and afterward rubbed with a preparation,
54
INTRODUCTION.
to keep them from cracking and rotting. They are
then brought back, either on the shoulders of the
raftmen or upon donkeys, to Mossul and Tekrit,
where the men engaged in the navigation of
the Tigris usually reside.' Numerous sculptures
show us that similar skins were also used by swim-
mers, who rode upon them in the water, probably
when they intended to swim a greater distance than
they could have accomplished by their unassisted
efforts. (See Figure 16.)
10. Our imagination longs to reconstruct those
gigantic piles as they must have struck the beholder
in their towering hugeness, approached from the
plain probably by several stairways and by at least
one ascent of a slope gentle enough to offer a con-
venient access to horses and chariots. What an im-
posing object must have been, for instance, the
palace of Sennacherib, on the edge of its battle-
mented platform (mound of Koyunjik), rising
directly above the waters of the Tigris,-named in
the ancient language “the Arrow" from the swift-
ness of its current—into the golden and crimson glory
of an Eastern sunset! Although the sameness and
unwieldy nature of the material used must have put
architectural beauty of outline out of the question,
the general effect must have been one of massive
grandeur and majesty, aided as it was by the elabo-
rate ornamentation lavished on every portion of the
building. Unfortunately the work of reconstruc-
tion is left almost entirely to imagination, which
derives but little help from the shapeless heaps into

16.—WARRIORS SWIMMING ON INFLATED SKINS.
(Babelon.)
56
INTRODUCTION.
which time has converted those ancient, mighty
halls.
II. Fergusson, an English explorer and scholar
whose works on subjects connected with art and
especially architecture hold a high place, has at-
tempted to restore the palace of Sennacherib such.
as he imagines it to have been, from the hints fur-
nished by the excavations. He has produced a strik-
ing and most effective picture, of which, however,
an entire half is simply guesswork. The whole
nether part—the stone-cased, battlemented platform
wall, the broad stairs, the esplanade handsomely
paved with patterned slabs, and the lower part of
the palace with its casing of sculptured slabs and
portals guarded by winged bulls-is strictly accord-
ing to the positive facts supplied by the excavations.
For the rest, there is no authority whatever. We do
not even positively know whether there was any sec-
ond story to Assyrian palaces at all. At all events,
no traces of inside staircases have been found, and
the upper part of the walls of even the ground-floor
has regularly been either demolished or destroyed
by fire. As to columns, it is impossible to ascertain
how far they may have been used and in what way.
Such as were used could have been, as a rule, only
of wood-trunks of great trees hewn and smoothed
—and consequently every vestige of them has dis-
appeared, though some round column bases in
stone have been found.* The same remarks apply
* See Fig. 20, p. 63, There is but one exception, in the case of a
recent exploration, during which one solitary broken column-shaft
was discovered.
THE RUINS.
57
to the restoration of an Assyrian palace court, also
after Fergusson, while that of a palace hall, after
Layard, is not open to the same reproach and gives
simply the result of actual discoveries. Without,
therefore, stopping long to consider conjectures

17.-VIEW OF KOYUNJIK.
(Hommel.)
more or less unsupported, let us rather try to repro-
duce in our minds a clear perception of what the
audience hall of an Assyrian king looked like from
what we may term positive knowledge. We shall
find that our materials will go far towards creating
for us a vivid and authentic picture.
58
INTRODUCTION.
12. On entering such a hall the first thing to
strike us would probably be the pavement, either of
large alabaster slabs delicately carved in graceful pat-
terns, as also the arched doorways leading into the
adjacent rooms (see Figs. 24 and 25, pp. 69 and 71),
or else covered with rows of inscriptions, the charac-
ters being deeply engraven and afterwards filled with
a molten metallic substance, like brass or bronze,
which would give the entire floor the appearance of
being covered with inscriptions in gilt characters, the
strange forms of cuneiform writing making the whole
look like an intricate and fanciful design.
13. Our gaze would next be fascinated by the
colossal human-headed winged bulls and lions keep-
ing their silent watch in pairs at each of the por-
tals, and we should notice with astonishment that
the artists had allowed them each an extra leg,
making the entire number five instead of four.
This was not done at random, but with a very well-
calculated artistic object-that of giving the mon-
ster the right number of legs, whether the spectator
beheld it in front or in profile, as in both cases one
of the three front legs is concealed by the others.
The front view shows the animal standing, while it
appears to be striding when viewed from the side.
(See Figures 18 and 27, pp. 59 and 75.) The walls were
worthy of these majestic door-keepers. The crude
brick masonry disappeared up to a height of twelve
to fifteen feet from the ground under the sculptured
slabs of soft grayish alabaster which were solidly
applied to the wall, and held together by strong
iron cramps. Sometimes one subject or one gigan-

:
YE
IS.-
.-STONE LION AT THE ENTRANCE OF A TEMPLE. NIMRUD.
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
60
INTRODUCTION.
tic figure of king or deity was represented on one
slab; often the same subject occupied several slabs,
and not unfrequently was carried on along an en-
tire wall. In this case the lines begun on one slab
were continued on the next with such perfect
smoothness, so absolutely without a break, as to
warrant the conclusion that the slabs were sculpt-
ured after they had been put in their places, not
before. Traces of paint show that color was to a
certain extent employed to enliven these represen-
tations, probably not over plentifully and with some
discrimination. Thus color is found in many places
on the eyes, brows, hair, sandals, the draperies, the
mitre or high head-dress of the kings, on the har-
ness of horses and portions of the chariots, on the
flowers carried by attendants, and sometimes on
trees. Where a siege is portrayed, the flames which
issue out of windows and roofs seem always to
have been painted red. There is reason to believe,
however, that color was but sparingly bestowed on
the sculptures, and therefore they must have pre-
sented a pleasing contrast with the richness of the
ornamentation which ran along the walls immedi-
ately above, and which consisted of hard baked
bricks of large size, painted and glazed in the fire,
forming a continuous frieze from three to five feet
wide. Sometimes the painting represented human
figures and various scenes, sometimes also winged.
figures of deities or fantastic animals,-in which case
it was usually confined above and below by a simple
but graceful running pattern; or it would consist
wholly of a more or less elaborate continuous pat-

MESQUIERDASS
D00000
19.—COURT OF HAREM AT KHORSABAD. (RESTORED.)
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
62
INTRODUCTION.
tern like Fig. 22, 23, or 25, these last symbolical
compositions with a religious signification. (See
also Fig. 21, "Interior view," etc.) Curiously
enough the remains-mostly very trifling frag-
ments-which have been discovered in various ruins,
show that these handsomely finished glazed tiles ex-
hibited the very same colors which are nowadays
in such high favor with ourselves for all sorts of
decorative purposes: those used most frequently
were a dark and a pale yellow, white and cream.
color, a delicate pale green, occasionally orange and
a pale lilac, very little blue and red; olive-green and
brown are favorite colors for grounds. "Now and
then an intense blue and a bright red occur, gener-
ally together; but these positive hues are rare, and
the taste of the Assyrians seems to have led them
to prefer, for their patterned walls, pale and dull
hues. . . . The general tone of their coloring is
quiet, not to say sombre. There is no striving after
brilliant effects. The Assyrian artist seeks to
please by the elegance of his forms and the har-
mony of his hues, not to startle by a display of
bright and strongly contrasted colors.*"
14. It has been asked: how were those halls
roofed and how were they lighted? questions which
have given rise to much discussion and which can
scarcely ever be answered in a positive way, since in
no single instance has the upper part of the walls or
any part whatever of the roofing been preserved.
Still, the peculiar shape and dimensions of the princi-
* G. Rawlinson's "Five Monarchies," Vol. I., pp. 467, 468.
THE RUINS.
63
pal palace halls goes far towards establishing a sort
of circumstantial evidence in the case. They are
invariably long and narrow, the proportions in some
being so striking as to have made them more like
corridors than apartments-a feature, by the by,
which must have greatly impaired their architectural
beauty: they were three or four times as long as
they were wide, and even more.
The great hall of

20.-CIRCULAR PILLAR-BASE.
the palace of Asshur-nazir-pal on the platform of
the Nimrud mound (excavated by Layard, who calls.
it, from its position, "the North-West palace") is
160 feet long by not quite 40 wide. Of the five
halls in the Khorsabad palace the largest measures
116 ft. by 33, the smallest 87 by 25, while the most
imposing in size of all yet laid open, the great hall
of Sennacherib at Koyunjik, shows a length of fully
180 ft. with a width of 40. It is scarcely probable.
64
INTRODUCTION.
that the old builders, who in other points have
shown so much artistic taste, should have selected
this uniform and unsatisfactory shape for their state
apartments, unless they were forcibly held to it by
some insuperable imperfection in the means at their
disposal. That they knew how to use proportions
more pleasing in their general effect, we see from
the inner open courts, of which there were several
in every palace, and which, in shape and dimensions
are very much like those in our own castles and pal-
aces,-nearly square, (about 180 ft. or 120 ft. each
way) or slightly oblong: 93 ft. by 84, 124 ft. by 90,
150 ft. by 125. Only two courts have been found
to lean towards the long-and-narrow shape, one be-
ing 250 ft. by 150, and the other 220 by 100. But
even this is very different from those passage-
like galleries. The only thing which entirely ex-
plains this awkward feature of all the royal halls,
is the difficulty of providing them with a roof. It
is impossible to make a flat roof of nothing but
bricks, and although the Assyrians knew how to
construct arches, they used them only for very
narrow vaults or over gate-ways and doors, and
could not have carried out the principle on any
very extensive scale. The only obvious expedi-
ent consisted in simply spanning the width of
the hall with wooden beams or rafters. Now no
tree, not even the lofty cedar of Lebanon or the tall
cypress of the East, will give a rafter, of equal
thickness from end to end, more than 40 ft. in
length, few even that. There was no getting over
or around this necessity, and so the matter was set-

「
魂​】
5樓
​點
​換
​豬排
​意
​數​數
​::
眼
​美
​SOFTHE
E
乐​高​∙
玉
​21.-INTERIOR VIEW OF ONE OF THE CHAMBERS OF THE HAREM AT
KHORSABAD. (RESTORED.)
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
>
:
66
INTRODUCTION.
tled for the artists quite aside from their own
wishes. This also explains the great value which
was attached by all the Assyrian conquerors to fine
timber. It was often demanded as tribute, nothing
could be more acceptable as a gift, and expeditions
were frequently undertaken into the distant moun-
tainous regions of the Lebanon on purpose to cut
some. The difficulty about roofing would naturally
fall away in the smaller rooms, used probably as
sleeping and dwelling apartments, and accordingly
they vary freely from oblong to square; the latter
being generally about 25 ft. each way, sometimes
less, but never more. There were a great many
such chambers in a palace; as many as sixty-eight
have been discovered in Sennacherib's palace at
Koyunjik, and a large portion of the building, be it
remembered, is not yet fully explored. Some were
as highly decorated as the great halls, some faced
with plain slabs or plastered, and some had no or-
naments at all and showed the crude brick. These
differences probably indicate the difference of rank
in the royal household of the persons to whom the
apartments were assigned.
15. The question of light has been discussed by
eminent explorers-Layard, Botta, Fergusson—at
even greater length and with a greater display of in-
genuity than that of roofing. The results of the
learned discussion may be shortly summed up as fol-
lows: We may take it for granted that the halls
were sufficiently lighted, for the builders would not
have bestowed on them such lavish artistic labor had
they not meant their work to be seen in all its details

O
23.-COLORED FRIEZE IN ENAMELLED TILES.
Ο
22.-COLORED FRIEZE IN ENAMELLED TILES.
LY
געלעעעעע

68
INTRODUCTION.
and to the best advantage. This could be effected.
only in one of three ways, or in two combined:
either by means of numerous small windows pierced.
at regular intervals above the frieze of enamelled
bricks, between that and the roof,-or by means of
one large opening in the roof of woodwork, as pro-
posed by Layard in his own restoration, or by smaller
openings placed at more frequent intervals. This
latter contrivance is in general use now in Armenian
houses, and Botta, who calls it a louvre, gives a
drawing of it.* It is very ingenious, and would have
the advantage of not admitting too great a mass of
sunlight and heat, and of being easily covered with
carpets or thick felt rugs to exclude the rain. The
second method, though much the grandest in point
of effect, would present none of these advantages
and would be objectionable chiefly on account of
the rain, which, pouring down in torrents-as it
does, for weeks at a time, in those countries-must
very soon damage the flooring where it is of brick,
and eventually convert it into mud, not to speak of
the inconvenience of making the state apartments
unfit for use for an indefinite period. The small side.
windows just below the roof would scarcely give suf-
ficent light by themselves. Who knows but they may
have been combined with the louvre system, and
thus something very satisfactory finally obtained.
16. The kings of Chaldea, Babylonia and Assyria
seem to have been absolutely possessed with a ma-
nia for building. Scarcely one of them but left in-
scriptions telling how he raised this or that palace,
* See Fig. 33, p. 83.
THE RUINS.
69
this or that temple in one or other city, often in
many cities. Few contented themselves with re-
pairing the buildings left by their predecessors.
This is easy to be ascertained, for they always men-
tion all they did in that line. Vanity, which seems

O
DA
24. PAVEMENT SLAB.
to have been, together with the love of booty, almost
their ruling passion, of course accounts for this in a
great measure. But there are also other causes, of
which the principal one was the very perishable na-
ture of the constructions, all their heavy massive-
ness notwithstanding. Being made of compara-
70
INTRODUCTION.
tively soft and yielding material, their very weight
would cause the mounds to settle and bulge out at
the sides in some places, producing crevices in
others, and of course disturbing the balance of the
thick but loose masonry of the walls constructed on
top of them. These accidents could not be guarded.
against by the outer casing of stone or burnt brick,
or even by the strong buttresses which were used
from a very early period to prop up the unwieldy
piles: the pressure from within was too great to be
resisted.
17. An outer agent, too, was at work, surely and
steadily destructive: the long, heavy winter rains.
Crude brick, when exposed to moisture, easily dis-
solves into its original element-mud; even burned
brick is not proof against very long exposure to
violent wettings; and we know that the mounds
were half composed of loose rubbish. Once
thoroughly permeated with moisture, nothing could
keep these huge masses from dissolution. The
builders were well aware of the danger and strug-
gled against it to the best of their ability by a
very artfully contrived and admirably executed sys-
tem of drainage, carried through the mounds in all
directions and pouring the accumulated waters into
the plain out of mouths beautifully constructed in
the shape of arched vaults.* Under the flooring of
most of the halls have been found drains, running
along the centre, then bending off towards a conduit
in one of the corners, which carried the contents
down into one of the principal channels.
*
Figures 34 and 35, p. 84.
THE RUINS.
71
18. But all these precautions were, in the long run,
of little avail, so that it was frequently a simpler and
less expensive proceeding for a king to build a new
palace, than to keep repairing and propping up an
old one which crumbled to pieces, so to speak, under

眼​眼
​0.50
380
I
+
25.—SECTION OF ORNAMENTAL DOORWAY (ENAMELLED BRICK OR
TILES). KHOrsabad.
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
the workmen's hands. It is not astonishing that
sometimes, when they had to give up an old man-
sion as hopeless, they proceeded to demolish it, in
order to carry away the stone and use it in struct-
ures of their own, probably not so much as a matter
72
INTRODUCTION.
of thrift, as with a view to quickening the work,
stone-cutting in the quarries and transport down the
river always being a lengthy operation. This ex-
plains why, in some later palaces, slabs were found
with their sculptured face turned to the crude brick
wall, and the other smoothed and prepared for the
artist, or with the sculptures half erased, or piled
up against the wall, ready to be put in place. The
nature of the injuries which caused the ancient.
buildings to decay and lose all shape, is very faith-
fully described in an inscription of the Babylonian
king Nebuchadnezzar, in which he relates how he
constructed the Ziggurat of Borsip on the site of
an ancient construction, which he repaired, as far as
it went. This is what he says: "The temple of the
Seven Spheres, the Tower of Borsip which a for-
mer king had built . . . . but had not finished its
upper part, from remote days had fallen into decay.
The channels for drawing off the water had not been
properly provided; rain and tempest had washed
away its bricks; the bricks of the roof were cracked;
the bricks of the building were washed away into
heaps of rubbish." All this sufficiently accounts
for the peculiar aspect offered by the Mesopotamian
ruins. Whatever process of destruction the build-
ings underwent, whether natural or violent, by con-
querors' hands, whether through exposure to fire or
to stress of weather, the upper part would be the
first to suffer, but it would not disappear, from the
nature of the material, which is not combustible.
The crude bricks all through the enormous thickness
of the walls, once thoroughly loosened, dislodged,

11M
་ ་་་་་
མདང༌t།i༧
сомучта
26.-WINGED LION WITH HUMAN HEAD.
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
74
INTRODUCTION.
dried up or soaked through, would lose their
consistency and tumble down into the courts and
halls, choking them up with the soft rubbish into
which they crumbled, the surplus rolling down the
sides and forming those even slopes which, from a
distance, so deceivingly imitate natural hills. Time,
accumulating the drift-sand from the desert and
particles of fertile earth, does the rest, and clothes.
the mounds with the verdant and flowery garment
which is the delight of the Arab's eyes.
19. It is to this mode of destruction the Assyrian
kings allude in their annals by the continually recur-
ring phrase: "I destroyed their cities, I overwhelmed
them, I burned them in the fire, I made heaps of
them." However difficult it is to get at the treasures.
imbedded in these "heaps," we ought not to repine.
at the labor, since they owe their preservation en-
tirely to the soft masses of earth, sand and loose rub-
bish which have protected them on all sides from the
contact with air, rain and ignorant plunderers, keep-
ing them as safely—if not as transparently--housed
as a walnut in its lump of candied sugar. The explor-
ers know this so well, that when they leave the ruins,
after completing their work for the time, they make
it a point to fill all the excavated spaces with the
very
rubbish that has been taken out of them at the
cost of so much labor and time. There is some-
thing impressive and reverent in thus re-burying
the relics of those dead ages and nations, whom the
mysterious gloom of their self-erected tombs be-
comes better than the glare of the broad, curious
daylight. When Layard, before his departure, after
THE RUINS.
75
once more wandering with some friends through all
the trenches, tunnels and passages of the Nimrud.
mound, to gaze for the last time on the wonders on
which no man had looked before him, found himself

27.-WINGED BULL.
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
once more on the naked platform and ordered the
workmen to cover them up again, he was strongly
moved by the contrast: "We look around in vain,'
says he, "for any traces of the wonderful remains
we have just seen, and are half inclined to believe
that we have dreamed a dream, or have been listen-
76
INTRODUCTION.
ing to some tale of Eastern romance.
Some, who
may hereafter tread on the spot when the grass
again grows over the Assyrian palaces, may indeed
suspect that I have been relating a vision.”
20. It is a curious fact that in Assyria the ruins.
speak to us only of the living, and that of the dead
there are no traces whatever. One might think peo-
ple never died there at all. Yet it is well known
that all nations have bestowed as much care on the
interment of their dead and the adornment of their
last resting-place as on the construction of their
dwellings-nay, some even more, for instance, the
Egyptians. To this loving veneration for the dead
history owes half its discoveries; indeed we should
have almost no reliable information at all on the
very oldest races, who lived before the invention of
writing, were it not for their tombs and the things
we find in them. It is very strange, therefore, that
nothing of the kind should be found in Assyria, a
country which stood so high in culture. For the
sepulchres which are found in such numbers in some
mounds down to a certain depth, belong, as is
shown by their very position, to later races, mostly
even to the modern Turks and Arabs. This pecu-
liarity is so puzzling that scholars almost incline to
suppose that the Assyrians either made away with
their dead in some manner unknown to us, or else
took them somewhere to bury. The latter conjec-
ture, though not entirely devoid of foundation, as
we shall see, is unsupported by any positive facts,
and therefore was never seriously discussed.
The

SJELME CAVtion
28.-MAN-LION.
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
78
INTRODUCTION.
question is simply left open, until something hap
pens to shed light on it.
21. It is just the contrary in Babylonia. It can
boast few handsome ruins or sculptures. The plat-
forms and main walls of many palaces and tem-
ples have been known from the names stamped on
the bricks and the cylinders found in the founda-
tions, but they present only shapeless masses, from
which all traces of artistic work have disappeared.
In compensation, there is no country in the world
where so many and such vast cemeteries have been
discovered. It appears that the land of Chaldea,
-perhaps because it was the cradle of nations which
afterwards grew to greatness, as the Assyrians and
the Hebrews-was regarded as a place of peculiar
holiness by its own inhabitants, and probably also
by neighboring countries, which would explain the
mania that seems to have prevailed through so
many ages, for burying the dead there in unheard.
of numbers. Strangely enough, some portions of it
even now are held sacred in the same sense. There
are shrines in Kerbela and Nedjif (somewhat to the
west of Babylon) where every caravan of pilgrims
brings from Persia hundreds of dead bodies in their
felt-covered coffins, for burial. They are brought
on camels and horses. On each side of the animal
swings a coffin, unceremoniously thumped by the
rider's bare heels. These coffins are, like merchan-
dise, unladen for the night-and sometimes for days
too-in the khans or caravanseries (the enclosed
halting-places), where men and beasts take their
rest together. Under that tropical clime, it is easy
THE RUINS.
79
to imagine the results. It is in part to this disgust-
ing custom that the great mortality in the caravans
is to be attributed, one fifth of which leave their
bones in the desert in healthy seasons. However
that may be, the gigantic proportions of the
Chaldean burying-grounds struck even the ancient

29. FRAGMENT OF ENAMELLED BRICK.
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
Greek travellers with astonishment, and some of
them positively asserted that the Assyrian kings
used to be buried in Chaldea. If the kings, why
not the nobler and wealthier of their subjects? The
transport down the rivers presented no difficulties.
Still, as already remarked, all this is mere conjec-
ture.
22. Among the Chaldeans cities ERECH (now
80
INTRODUCTION.
WARKA) was considered from very old times one of
the holiest. It had many extremely ancient temples
and a college of learned priests, and around it grad-
ually formed an immense "city of the dead" or Ne-
cropolis. The English explorer, Loftus, in 1854-5,
specially turned his attention to it and his account
is astounding. First of all, he was struck by the ma-
jestic desolation of the place. Warka and a few other
mounds are raised on a slightly elevated tract of the
desert, above the level of the yearly inundations, and
accessible only from November to March, as all the
rest of the time the surrounding plain is either a
lake or a swamp.
"The desolation and solitude of
Warka," says Loftus, “are even more striking than
the scene which is presented at Babylon itself.
There is no life for miles around. No river glides
in grandeur at the base of its mounds; no green
date groves flourish near its ruins. The jackal and
the hyæna appear to shun the dull aspect of its
tombs. The king of birds never hovers over the
deserted waste. A blade of grass or an insect finds
no existence there. The shrivelled lichen alone,
clinging to the weathered surface of the broken
brick, seems to glory in its universal dominion over
those barren walls. Of all the desolate pictures I
have ever seen that of Warka incomparably sur-
passes all." Surely in this case it cannot be said
that appearances are deceitful; for all that space,
and much more, is a cemetery, and what a cemetery!
"It is difficult," again says Loftus, "to convey any-
thing like a correct idea of the piles upon piles of
human remains which there utterly astound the

30.-RAM'S HEAD IN ALABASTER.
31.-EBONY COMB.
(British Museum)
32.-BRONZE FORK AND SPOON.
(Perrot and Chipiez.)


82
INTRODUCTION.
beholder. Excepting only the triangular space be-
tween the three principal ruins, the whole remain-
der of the platform, the whole space between the
walls and an unknown extent of desert beyond
them, are everywhere filled with the bones and
sepulchres of the dead. There is probably no other
site in the world which can compare with Warka in
this respect." It must be added that the coffins do
not simply lie one next to the other, but in layers,
down to a depth of 30-60 feet. Different epochs
show different modes of burial, among which the
following four are the most remarkable.
23. Perhaps the queerest coffin shape of all is that
composed of two earthen jars (a and b), which accu-
rately fit together, or one slightly fits into the other,
the juncture being made air-tight by a coating of
bitumen (d, d). The body can be placed in such a
coffin only with slightly bent knees. At one end (c)
there is an air-hole, left for the escape of the gases
which form during the decomposition of the body
and which might otherwise burst the jars—a precau-
tion probably suggested by experience (fig. 36).
Sometimes there is only one jar of much larger size,
but of the same shape, with a similar cover, also
made fast with bitumen, or else the mouth is closed
with bricks. This is an essentially national mode of
burial, perhaps the most ancient of all, yet it re-
mained in use to a very late period. It is to be
noted that this is the exact shape of the water jars
now carried about the streets of Baghdad and fa-
miliar to every traveller.
24. Not much less original is the so-called "dish-
1
!
THE RUINS.
83
:
cover coffin," also very ancient and national. The
illustrations sufficiently show its shape and arrange-
ment.*
In these coffins two skeletons are sometimes
found, showing that when a widow or widower died,
it was opened, to lay the newly dead by the side of
the one who had gone before. The cover is all of

33.-ARMENIAN LOUVRE
(Botta.)
one piece a very respectable achievement of the
potter's art. In Mugheir (ancient Ur), a mound
was found, entirely filled with this kind of coffins.
25. Much more elaborate, and consequently prob-
ably reserved for the noble and wealthy, is the sepul-
chral vault in brick, of nearly a man's height.† In
these sepulchres, as in the preceding ones, the skele-
Fig. 39, p. 89.
*Figs. 37 and 38, p. 87.

7
a
AM‛,*
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(KHORSABAD.)
34.-VAULTED DRAINS.
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
A
エン
​35.-VAULTED DRAIN.
(KHORSABAD.)
(Perrot and Chipiez.)

THE RUINS.
85
ton is always found lying in the same position, evi-
dently dictated by some religious ideas. The head
is pillowed on a large brick, commonly covered with
a piece of stuff or a rug. In the tattered rags which
sometimes still exist, costly embroideries and fringed
golden tissue have more than once been recognized,
while some female skeletons still showed handsome
heads of hair gathered into fine nets. The body
lies on a reed mat, on its left side, the right hand
stretched out so as to reach with the tips of the fin-
gers a bowl, generally of copper or bronze, and some-
times of fine workmanship, usually placed on the
d

a
b
36.-CHALDEAN JAR-COFFIN.
(Taylor.)
palm of the left hand. Around are placed various
articles-dishes, in some of which remnants of food
are found, such as date stones,-jars for water,
lamps, etc. Some skeletons wear gold and silver
bangles on their wrists and ankles. These vaults
were evidently family sepulchres, for several skele-
tɔns are generally found in them; in one there were
no less than eleven. (Fig. 39, p. 89.)
26. All these modes of burial are very old and pe-
culiarly Chaldean. But there is still another, which
belongs to more recent times, even as late as the
first centuries after Christ, and was used by a differ
86
INTRODUCTION.
ent and foreign race, the Parthians, one of those
who came in turns and conquered the country,
stayed there awhile, then disappeared. These cof-
fins are, from their curious form, known under the
name of "slipper-shaped." They are glazed, green
on the outside and blue on the inside, but of very
inferior make: poor clay, mixed with straw, and
only half baked, therefore very brittle. It is
thought that they were put in their place empty,
then the body was laid in, the lid put down, and
the care of covering them with sand left to the
winds. The lid is fastened with the same mortar
which is used in the brick masonry surrounding the
coffin, where such a receptacle has been made for it;
but they more usually lie pell-mell, separated only
by thin layers of loose sand. There are mounds
which are, as one may say, larded with them: wher
ever you begin to dig a trench, the narrow ends.
stick out from both sides. In these coffins also
various articles were buried with the dead, some-
times valuable ones. The Arabs know this; they
dig in the sand with their hands, break the coffins
open with their spears, and grope in them for booty.
The consequence is that it is extremely difficult to
procure an entire coffin. Loftus succeeded, how-
ever, in sending some to the British Museum, having
first pasted around them several layers of thick
paper, without which precaution they could not
have borne the transport.
27. On the whole, the ancient Chaldean sepul-
chres of the three first kinds are distinguished by
greater care and tidiness. They are not only sepa

STANF
37.—“ DISH-COVER
TOMB AT MUGHEIR
(Taylor.)

38.—“ DISH-COVER "
(Taylor.)
f
TOMB.
88
INTRODUCTION.
rated by brick partitions on the sides, and also above
and below by a thin layer of brick masonry, but the
greatest care was taken to protect them against
dampness. The sepulchral mounds are pierced
through and through, from top to bottom, by drain-
age pipes or shafts, consisting of a series of rings,
solidly joined together with bitumen, about one
foot in diameter. These rings are made of baked
clay. The top one is shaped somewhat like a fun-
nel, of which the end is inserted in perforated
bricks, and which is provided with small holes, to
receive any infiltration of moisture. Besides all this
the shafts, which are sunk in pairs, are surrounded
with broken pottery. How ingenious and practical
this system was, we see from the fact that both the
coffins and their contents are found in a state of
perfect dryness and preservation. (Fig. 41, p. 90.)
28. In fact the Chaldeans, if they could not reach
such perfection as the Assyrians in slab-sculpture,
on account of not having stone either at home or
within easy reach, seem to have derived a greater
variety of architectural ornaments from that inex-
haustible material of theirs-baked clay or terra-
cotta. We see an instance of it in remnants-un-
fortunately very small ones, of some walls belong-
ing to that same city of Erech. On one of the
mounds Loftus was puzzled by the large quantity
of small terra-cotta cones, whole and in fragments,
lying about on the ground. The thick flat end of
them was painted red, black or white. What was
his amazement when he stumbled on a piece of wall
(some seven feet in height and not more than thirty

mu
39.—SEPULCHRAL VAULT AT MUGHEIR.
(Taylor.)

-1220
40-STONE JARS FROM GRAVES.
(Hommel.)
(LARSAM.)
90
INTRODUCTION.
in length), which showed him what their use had
been. They were grouped into a variety of pat-
terns to decorate the entire wall, being stuck with
their thin end into a layer of soft clay with which it.
was coated for the purpose. Still more original and
even rather incomprehensible is a wall decoration
consisting of several bands, composed each of three
rows of small pots or cups-about four inches in
diameter-stuck into the soft clay coating in the
same manner, with the mouth turned outward of

"
41.-DRAIN IN MOUND.
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
course! Loftus found such a wall, but unfortunately
has given no design of it. (Figures 43 and 44.)
29. As to the ancient Babylonian, or rather Chal-
dean, art in sculpture, the last word has by no
means been said on that subject. Discoveries crowd
in every year, constantly leading to the most unex-
pected conclusions. Thus, it was long an accepted
fact that Assyria had very few statues and Baby-
lonia none at all, when a few years ago (1881),


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42.-WALL WITH
DE-
SIGNS IN TERRA-COT-
TA CONES, AT WARKA
(ERECH).
(Loftus.)
43.—TERRA-COTTA CONE,
NATURAL SIZE.
(Loftus.)
92
INTRODUCTION.
what should a French explorer, Mr. E. De Sarzec,
French consul in Basra, bring home but nine mag-
nificent statues made of a dark, nearly black stone
as hard as granite, called diorite. Unfortunately
they are all headless; but, as though to make up
for this mutilation, one head was found separate,-
a shaved and turbaned head beautifully preserved
and of remarkable workmanship, the very pattern
of the turban being plain enough to be reproduced
by any modern loom.† These large prizes were ac-
companied by a quantity of small works of art rep-
resenting both men and animals, of a highly artistic
design and some of them of exquisite finish of
execution. This astounding find, the result of sev-
eral years' indefatigable work, now gracing the As-
syrian rooms of the Louvre in Paris, comes from one
of the Babylonian mounds which had not been
opened before, the ruins of a mighty temple at a
place now called TELL-LOH, and supposed to be the
site of SIR-BURLA, or SIRGULLA, one of the most an-
cient cities of Chaldea. This "Sarzec-collection," as
it has come to be generally called, not only entirely
upsets the ideas which had been formed on Old-
Chaldean art, but is of immense historical import-
ance from the inscriptions which cover the back of
every statue, (not to speak of the cylinders and
other small objects,) and which, in connection with
the monuments of other ruins, enable scholars to
fix, at least approximately, the date at which flour-
ished the city and rulers who have left such extra-
ordinary memorials of their artistic gifts. Some
place them at about 4500 B.C., others about 4000.
† See Figs. 44 and 45, p. 101.
* See Fig. 59, p. 217.
THE RUINS.
93
However overwhelming such a valuation may be at
first sight, it is not an unsupported fancy, but proofs
concur from many sides to show that the builders
and sculptors of Sirgulla could in no case have lived
and worked much later than 4000 B.C. It is impos-
sible to indicate in a few lines all the points, the
conjectures, the vexed questions, on which this
discovery sheds light more or less directly, more or
less decisively; they come up continually as the
study of those remote ages proceeds, and it will be.
years before the materials supplied by the Sarzec-
Collection are exhausted in all their bearings


IV.
THE BOOK OF THE PAST.-THE LIBRARY OF
NINEVEH.
1. WHEN we wish to learn the great deeds of past
ages, and of mighty men long dead, we open a book
and read. When we wish to leave to the genera-
tions who will come long after us a record of the
things that were done by ourselves or in our own
times, we take pen, ink and paper, and write a book.
What we have written is then printed, published in
several hundreds or thousands-of copies, as the
case may be, and quickly finds its way to all the
countries of the world inhabited by people who are
trained from childhood to thought and study. So
that we have the satisfaction of knowing that the in-
formation which we have labored to preserve will be
obtainable any number of years or centuries after
we shall have ceased to exist, at no greater trouble
than procuring the book from the shelves of a book-
store, a public or a private library. It is all very
simple. And there is not a small child who does
not perfectly know a book by its looks, and even
has not a pretty correct idea of how a book is made
and what it is good for.
94
THE BOOK OF THE PAST.
95
2. But books are not always of the shape and ma-
terial so familiar to us. Metal, stone, brick, walls.
and pillars, nay, the very rocks of nature's own mak
ing, can be books, conveying information as plainly
as our volumes of paper sheets covered with written
or printed lines. It only needs to know how to read
them, and the necessary knowledge and skill may
be acquired by processes as simple as the art of or-
dinary reading and writing, though at the cost of a
somewhat greater amount of time and pains.
3. There are two natural cravings, which assert
themselves strongly in every mind not entirely ab-
sorbed by the daily work for bread and by the anx
ious care how to procure that work: these are the
wish, on the one hand, to learn how the people who
came before us lived and what they did, on the
other—to transmit our own names and the memory
of our deeds to those who will come after us. We
are not content with our present life; we want to
stretch it both backward and forward-to live both
in the past and the future, as it were. This curios-
ity and this ambition are but parts of the longing
for immortality which was never absent from any
human soul. In our own age they are satisfied
mainly by books; indeed they were originally the
principal causes why books began to be made at all.
And how easy to satisfy these cravings in our time,
when writing materials have become as common as
food and far cheaper, and reading may be had for
nothing or next to nothing! For, a very few dol-
lars will supply a writer with as much paper as he
can possibly use up in a year, while the public libra-
96
INTRODUCTION.
ries, the circulating and college libraries and the
reading-rooms make study a matter more of love
and perseverance than of money.
4. Yet if the papermill and the printing press
were the only material aid to our researches into the
past, these researches would stop short very soon,
seeing that printing was invented in Europe scarce
four hundred years ago, and paper has not been
manufactured for more than six hundred years at the
outside. True, other materials have been used to
write on before paper: bark of trees, skins of ani-
mals (parchment)-cunningly worked fibres of
plants (papyrus, byblos)-even wooden tablets
covered with a thin layer of wax, on which charac-
ters were engraved with a pointed instrument or
"style," and these contrivances have preserved for
us records which reach back many hundreds of years
beyond the introduction of paper. But our curiosity,
when once aroused, is insatiable, and an area of
some twenty, or thirty, or forty centuries seems to
it but a narrow field. Looking back as far as that—
and no kind of manuscript information takes us much
further-we behold the world wondrously like what
it is now. With some differences in garb, in man-
ners, and a much greater one in the range of knowl-
edge, we find men living very nearly as we do and
enacting very nearly the same scenes: nations live
in families clustered within cities, are governed by
laws, or ruled by monarchs, carry on commerce and
wars, extend their limits by conquest, excel in all
sorts of useful and ornamental arts. Only we notice.
that larger regions are unknown, vaster portions of
THE BOOK OF THE PAST.
97
the earth, with their populations, are unexplored,
than in our days. The conclusion is clearly forced
on us, that so complicated and perfect an organiza-
tion of public and private life, a condition of society
implying so many discoveries and so long a practice
in thought and handicraft, could not have been an
early stage of existence. Long vistas are dimly
visible into a past far vaster than the span as yet
laid open to our view, and we long to pierce the
tantalizing gloom. There, in that gloom, lurk the
beginnings of the races whose high achievements.
we admire, emulate, and in many ways surpass;
there, if we could but send a ray of light into the
darkness of ages, we must find the solution of num-
berless questions which suggest themselves as we
go: Whence come those races? What was the
earlier history of other races with which we find
them contending, treating, trading? When did
they learn their arts, their songs, their forms of wor-
ship? But here our faithful guide, manuscript lit-
erature, forsakes us; we enter on a period when
none of the ancient substitutes for paper were yet
invented. But then, there were the stones. They
did not need to be invented-only hewn and
smoothed for the chisel.
5. Fortunately for us, men, twenty-five, and forty,
and fifty centuries ago, were actuated by the same
feelings, the same aspirations as they are now, and
of these aspirations, the passionate wish of perpetu-
ating their names and the memory of their deeds.
has always been one of the most powerful. This
wish they connected with and made subservient to
98
INTRODUCTION.
the two things which were great and holy in their
eyes: their religion and the power of their kings.
So they built, in brick and stone, at an almost incal-
culable expense of time, human labor and human
life, palaces and temples. On these huge piles they
lavished treasures untold, as also all the resources
of their invention and their skill in art and orna-
ment; they looked on them with exulting pride,
not only because they thought them, by their vast-
ness and gorgeousness, fit places for public worship
and dwellings worthy of their kings, but because
these constructions, in their towering grandeur,
their massive solidity, bid fair to defy time and out-
last the nations which raised them, and which thus
felt assured of leaving behind them traces of their
existence, memorials of their greatness. That a
few defaced, dismantled, moss-grown or sand-
choked fragments of these mighty buildings would
one day be the only trace, the sole memorial of a
rule and of nations that would then have past away
forever, even into nothingness and oblivion, scarcely
was anticipated by the haughty conquerors who
filled those halls with their despotic presence, and
entered those consecrated gates in the pomp of tri-
umph to render thanks for bloody victories and
warlike exploits which elated their souls in pride
Nothing
till they felt themselves half divine.
·
doubting but that those walls, those pillars, those
gateways would stand down to the latest ages, they
confided to them that which was most precious to
their ambition, the record of their deeds, the praises
of their names, thus using those stony surfaces as
THE BOOK OF THE PAST.
99
so many blank pages, which they covered with row
after row of wondrous characters, carefully engraved
or chiselled, and even with painted or sculptured
representations of their own persons and of the
scenes, in war or peace, in which they had been
leaders and actors.
6. Thus it is that on all the points of the globe
where sometime great and flourishing nations have
held their place, then yielded to other nations or
to absolute devastation—in Egypt, in India, in Per-
sia, in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, in
the sandy, now desert plains of Syria, in the once
more populous haunts of ancient Rome and Greece
-the traveller meets clusters of great ruins, lofty
still in their utter abandonment, with a strange,
stern beauty hovering around their weather-beaten,
gigantic shafts and cornices, wrapt in the pathetic
silence of desolation, and yet not dumb-for their
pictured faces eloquently proclaim the tale of buoy-
ant life and action entrusted to them many thou-
sands of years ago. Sometimes, it is a natural rock,
cut and smoothed down at a height sufficient to
protect it from the wantonly destructive-hand of
scoffing invaders, on which a king of a deeper turn
of thought, more mindful than others of the law
which dooms all the works of men to decay, has
caused a relation of the principal events of his reign
to be engraved in those curious characters which
have for centuries been a puzzle and an enigma.
Many tombs also, besides the remains of the re-
nowned or wealthy dead, for whom they have been
erected at a cost as extravagant and with art as
UorM
100
INTRODUCTION.
elaborate as the abodes of the living, contain the
full description of their inmate's lineage, his life, his
habits and pursuits, with prayers and invocations
to the divinities of his race and descriptions or por-
trayed representations of religious ceremonies. Or,
the walls of caves, either natural, or cut in the rock.
for purposes of shelter or concealment, yield to the
explorer some more chapters out of the old, old
story, in which our interest never slackens. This
story man has himself been writing, patiently, labo-
riously, on every surface on which he could trace.
words and lines, ever since he has been familiar
with the art of expressing his thoughts in visible
signs, and so each such surviving memorial may
truly be called a stray leaf, half miraculously pre
served to us, out of the great Book of the Past,
which it has been the task of scholars through ages,
and especially during the last eighty years, to deci-
pher and teach others how to read.
7. Of this venerable book the walls of the Assyr-
ian palaces, with their endless rows of inscriptions,
telling year for year through centuries the history of
the kings who built them, are so many invaluable
pages, while the sculptures which accompany these
annals are the illustrations, lending life and reality
to what would otherwise be a string of dry and
unattractive records. But a greater wonder has
been brought to light from amidst the rubbish and
dust of twenty-five centuries: a collection of lit-
erary and scientific works, of religious treatises, of
private and public documents, deposited in rooms
constructed on purpose to contain them, arranged
no
FROM TELL-LOH (SIRGULLA)
44. -HEAD OF ANCIENT CHALDEAN.
SARZEC COLLECTION.
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
価
​图
​W
CO
45. SAME, PROFILE VIEW.
¿
1


102
INTRODUCTION.
in admirable order, in short-a LIBRARY. Truly
and literally a library, in the sense in which we use
the word. Not the only one either, nor the first by
many hundred years, although the volumes are of
singular make and little like those we are used to.
8. When Layard was at work for the second time
amidst the ruins along the Tigris, he devoted much
of his labor to the great mound of Koyunjik, in
which the remains of two sumptuous palaces were
distinctly discerned, one of them the royal residence
of Sennacherib, the other that of his grandson
Asshurbanipal, who lived some 650 years before
Christ--two of the mightiest conquerors and most
magnificent sovereigns of the Eastern world. In
the latter palace he came upon two comparatively
small chambers, the floor of which was entirely lit-
tered with fragments-some of considerable size,
some very small-of bricks, or rather baked-clay
tablets, covered on both sides with cuneiform writ-
ing. It was a layer more than a foot in height
which must have been formed by the falling in of
the upper part of the edifice. The tablets, piled in
good order along the walls, perhaps in an upper
story—if, as many think, there was one-must have
been precipitated promiscuously into the apartment
and shattered by the fall. Yet, incredible as it may
appear, several were found entire. Layard filled
many cases with the fragments and sent them off
to the British Museum, fully aware of their prob-
able historical value.
9. There they lay for years, heaped up at random,
a mine of treasures which made the mouths of schol-
THE BOOK OF THE PAST.
103
ars water, but appalled them by the amount of
labor, nay, actual drudgery, needful only to sift and
sort them, even before any study of their contents
could be begun. At length a young and ambitious
archæologist, attached to the British Museum,
George Smith, undertook the long and wearisome
task. He was not originally a scholar, but an en-
graver, and was employed to engrave on wood
cuneiform texts for the magnificent atlas edited
by the British Museum under the title of “Cunei-
form Inscriptions of Western Asia." Being en-
dowed with a quick and enquiring mind, Smith
did not content himself, like most of his colleagues,
with a conscientious and artistic, but merely tech-
nical reproduction; he wished to know what he was
doing and he learned the language of the inscrip-
tions. When he took on himself the sorting of the
fragments, it was in the hope of distinguishing him-
self in this new field, and of rendering a substantial
service to the science which had fascinated him.
Nor was he deceived in this hope. He succeeded
in finding and uniting a large quantity of fragments
belonging together, and thus restoring pages of
writing, with here and there a damaged line, a word
effaced, a broken corner, often a larger portion
missing, but still enough left to form continuous
and readable texts. In some cases it was found
that there was more than one copy of this or that
work or document, and then sometimes the parts
which were hopelessly injured in one copy, would
be found whole or nearly so in another.
10. The results accomplished by this patient me-
104
INTRODUCTION.
chanical process were something astonishing. And
when he at length restored in this manner a series of
twelve tablets containing an entire poem of the
greatest antiquity and highest interest, the occasion.
seemed important enough to warrant the enterpris-
ing owners of the London Daily Telegraph in send-
ing the young student to resume excavations and
try to complete some missing links. For of some of
the tablets restored by him only portions could be
found among the fragments of the British Museum.
Of course he made his way straight to the Archive
Chambers at Koyunjik, had them opened again
and cleared them of another large instalment of
their valuable contents, among which he had the
inconceivable good fortune to find some of the very
pieces which were missing in his collection. Joy-
fully he returned to England twice with his treas-
ures, and hopefully set out on a third expedition of
the same kind. He had reason to feel buoyant; he
had already made his name famous by several works
which greatly enriched the science he loved, and
had he not half a life-time before him to continue
the work which few could do as well? Alas, he lit-
tle knew that his career was to be cut short sud-
denly by a loathsome and brutal foe: he died of
the plague in Syria, in 1876—just thirty-six years
old. He was faithful to the end. His diary, in
which he made some entries even within a very
few days before his death, shows that at the last,
when he knew his danger and was fast losing hope,
his mind was equally divided between thoughts of
his family and of his work. The following lines,
THE BOOK OF THE PAST.
105
almost the last intelligible ones he wrote, are deeply
touching in their simple, single-minded earnestness:
-"Not so well. If Doctor present, I should re-
cover, but he has not come, very doubtful case; if
fatal farewell to. . . . My work has been entirely for
the science I study. . . . There is a large field of
study in my collection. I intended to work it out,
but desire now that my antiquities and notes may
be thrown open to all students. I have done my
duty thoroughly. I do not fear the change but
desire to live for my family. Perhaps all may be
well yet."-George Smith's death was a great loss,
which his brother-scholars of all countries have not
ceased to deplore. But the work now proceeds.
vigorously and skilfully. The precious texts are
sorted, pieced, and classified, and a collection of
them, carefully selected, is reproduced by the aid
of the photographer and the engraver, so that,
should the originals ever be lost or destroyed, (not
a very probable event), the Museum indeed would
lose one of its most precious rarities, but science
would lose nothing.
II. An eminent French scholar and assyriologist,
Joachim Ménant, has the following picturesque lines.
in his charming little book "La Bibliothèque du
Palais de Ninive": "When we reflect that these
records have been traced on a substance which
neither fire nor water could destroy, we can easily
comprehend how those who wrote them thus thirty
or forty centuries ago, believed the monuments of
their history to be safe for all future times,-much
safer than the frail sheets which printing scatters
106
INTRODUCTION.
with such prodigious fertility. . . . Of all the na-
tions who have bequeathed to us written records of
their past life, we may assert that none has left
monuments more imperishable than Assyria and
Chaldea. Their number is already considerable;
it is daily increased by new discoveries. It is not
possible to forsee what the future has in store for
us in this respect; but we can even now make a
valuation of the entire material which we possess.
The number of the tablets from the Nineveh
Library alone passes ten thousand. . . . If we com-
pare these texts with those left us by other nations,
we can easily become convinced that the history of
the Assyro-Chaldean civilization will soon be one of
the best known of antiquity. It has a powerful
attraction for us, for we know that the life of the
Jewish people is mixed up with the history of Nin-
eveh and Babylon. . . ."
"}
12. It will be seen from this that throughout the
following pages we shall continually have to refer
to the contents of Asshurbanipal's royal library.
We must therefore dispense in this place with any
details concerning the books, more than a general
survey of the subjects they treated. Of these, reli-
gion and science were the chief. -Under “science
we must understand principally mathematics and
astronomy, two branches in which the old Chaldeans
reached great perfection and left us many of our
own most fundamental notions and practices, as we
shall see later on. Among the scientific works must
also be counted those on astrology, i.e., on the influ-
ence which the heavenly bodies were supposed to

46.-CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTION.
(ARCHAIC CHARACTERS.)
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
108
INTRODUCTION.
exert on the fate of men, according to their positions.
and combinations, for astrology was considered a
real science, not only by the Chaldeans, but by
much later nations too; also hand-books of geogra-
phy, really only lists of the seas, mountains and
rivers, nations and cities then known, lastly lists of
plants and animals with a very rude and defective
attempt at some sort of classification. History is
but scantily represented; it appears to have been
mostly confined to the great wall inscriptions and
some other objects, of which more hereafter. But
--what we should least expect-grammars, diction-
aries, school reading-books, occupy a prominent.
place. The reason is that, when this library was
founded, the language in which the venerable books
of ancient sages were written not only was not
spoken any longer, but had for centuries been for-
gotten by all but the priests and those who made
scholarship their chief pursuit, so that it had to be
taught in the same way that the so-called “dead
languages," Latin and Greek, are taught at our
colleges. This was the more necessary as the
prayers had to be recited in the old language called,
the Accadian, that being considered more holy—just,
as, in Catholic countries, the common people are
even now made to learn and say their prayers in
Latin, though they understand not a word of the
language. The ancient Accadian texts were mostly
copied with a modern Assyrian translation, either
interlinear or facing it, which has been of immense
service to those who now decipher the tablets.
13. So much for what may be called the classical
THE BOOK OF THE PAST.
109
and reference department of the library. Important
as it is, it is scarcely more so than the documentary
department or Archive proper, where documents
and deeds of all kinds, both public and private, were
deposited for safe keeping. Here by the side of
treatises, royal decrees and despatches, lists of trib-
ute, reports from generals and governors, also those
daily sent in by the superintendents of the royal
observatories, we find innumerable private docu-
ments: deeds of sale duly signed, witnessed and
sealed, for land, houses, slaves-any kind of prop-
erty, of money lent, of mortgages, with the rate.
of interest, contracts of

==
47.-INSCRIBED CLAY TABLET.
(Smith's “Assyria.”)
all sorts. The most re-
markable of private doc-
uments is one which has
been called the "will of
King Sennacherib," by
which he entrusts some valuable personal prop-
erty to the priests of the temple of Nebo, to be
kept for his favorite son,-whether to be delivered.
after his (the king's) death or at another time is
not stated.
14. It requires some effort to bear in mind the na-
ture and looks of the things which we must-represent
to ourselves when we talk of Assyrian “books." The
above (Fig. 47) is the portrait of a "volume" in per-
fect condition. But it is seldom indeed that one such
is found. Layard, in his first description of his start-
ling "find," says: "They (the tablets) were of differ-
ent sizes; the largest were flat, and measured niñe
inches by six and a half; the smaller were slightly
I IO
INTRODUCTION.
convex, and some were not more than an inch long,
with but one or two lines of writing. The cunei-
form characters on most of them were singularly
sharp and well-defined, but so minute in some in-
stances as to be illegible without a magnifying
glass." Most curiously, glass lenses have been
found among the ruins, which may have been used
for the purpose. Specimens have also been found
of the very instruments which were employed to
trace the cuneiform characters, and their form suffi-
ciently accounts for the peculiar shape of these
characters which was imitated by the engravers on
stone. It is a little iron rod-(or style, as the an-
cients used to call such implements)-not sharp, but
triangular at the end: . By slightly pressing this
end on the cake of soft moist clay held in the left
hand no other shape of sign could be obtained than
a wedge,▼, the direction being determined by a
turn of the wrist, presenting the instrument in dif-
ferent positions. When one side of the tablet was
full, the other was to be filled. If it was small, it
was sufficient to turn it over, continuing to hold the
edges between the thumb and third finger of the left
hand. But if the tablet was large and had to be laid
on a table to be written on, the face that was finished
would be pressed to the hard surface, and the clay
being soft, the writing would be effaced. This was
guarded against by a contrivance as ingenious as it
was simple. Empty places were left here and there
in the lines, in which were stuck small pegs, like
matches. On these the tablet was supported when
turned over, and also while baking in the oven.
·
THE BOOK OF THE PAST.
III
On many of the tablets that have been preserved
are to be seen little holes or dints, where the pegs
have been stuck. Still, it should be mentioned that

48.-CLAY TABLET IN ITS CASE.
(Hommel.)
these hoies are not confined to the large tablets and
not found on all large tablets. When the tablet.
was full, it was allowed to dry, then generally, but
I 12
INTRODUCTION.
not always, baked. Within the last few years sev-
eral thousands unbaked tablets have been found in
Babylonia; they crumbled into dust under the find-
ers' fingers. It was then proposed to bake such of
them as could at all bear handling.
The exper-
iment was successful, and numbers of valuable
documents were thus preserved and transported to
the great repository of the British Museum. The
tablets are covered with writing on both sides and
most accurately classed and numbered, when they
form part of a series, in which case they are all of
49.-ANTIQUE BRONZE SET-
TING OF CYLINDER.
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
the same shape and size.
The poem discovered by
George Smith is written
out on twelve tablets,
each of which is a sepa-
rate book or chapter of
the whole. There is an
astronomical work in over
seventy tablets. The first
of them begins with the words: "When the gods
Anu and...." These words are taken as the title
of the entire series. Each tablet bears the notice:
First, second, third tablet of "When the gods Anu
and...." To guard against all chance of confusion,
the last line of one tablet is repeated as the first line
of the following one-a fashion which we still see
in old books, where the last word or two at the bot-
tom of a page is repeated at the top of the next.
15. The clay tablets of the ancient Chaldeans are
distinguished from the Assyrian ones by a curious.
peculiarity: they are sometimes enclosed in a case

THE BOOK OF THE PAST.
113
of the same material, with exactly the same inscrip-
tion and seals as on the inner tablet, even more
carefully executed.* It is evidently a sort of dupli-
cate document, made in the prevision that the outer


50.-CHALDEAN CYLINDER AND IMPRESSION.
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
VALE

51.-ASSYRIAN CYLINDER.
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
one might be injured, when the inner record would
remain. Rows of figures across the tablet are im-
pressed on it with seals called from their shape cylin-
ders, which were rolled over the soft moist clay.
These cylinders were generally of some valuable,
*See Fig. 48, p. 111.
114
INTRODUCTION.
hard stone-jasper, amethyst, cornelian, onyx, agate,
etc.,—and were used as signet rings were later and
are still. They are found in great numbers, being
from their hardness well-nigh indestructible. They
were generally bored through, and through the hole
was passed either a string to wear them on, or a
metal axis, to roll them more easily.* There is a
large and most valuable collection of seal cylinders
at the British Museum. Their size ranges from a
quarter of an inch to two inches or a little more.
But cylinders were also made of baked clay and
larger size, and then served a different purpose, that
of historical documents. These are found in the
foundations of palaces and temples, mostly in the
four corners, in small niches or chambers, generally
produced by leaving out one or more bricks. These
tiny monuments range from a couple of inches to
half a foot in height, seldom more; they are some-
times shaped like a prism with several faces (mostly
six), sometimes like a barrel, and covered with that
compact and minute writing which it often requires.
a magnifying glass to make out. Owing to their
sheltered position, these singular records are gener-
ally very well preserved. Although their original
destination is only to tell by whom and for what pur-
pose the building has been erected, they frequently
proceed to give a full though condensed account of
the respective kings' reigns, so that, should the up-
per structure with its engraved annals be destroyed
by the vicissitudes of war or in the course of natural
decay, some memorial of their deeds should still be
preserved--a prevision which, in several cases, has
* See above, Figs. 49 and 50.

52.-PRISM OF SENNACHERIB. ALSO CALLED "TAYLOR CYLINDER."
116
INTRODUCTION.
been literally fulfilled. Sometimes the manner and
material of these records were still more fanciful.
At Khorsabad, at the very interior part of the con-
struction, was found a large stone chest, which en-
closed several inscribed plates in various materials.
.. In this only extant specimen of an Assyrian
foundation stone were found one little golden tab.
let, one of silver, others of copper, lead and tin; a
sixth text was engraved on alabaster, and the sev
enth document was written on the chest itself." *
Unfortunately the heavier portion of this remarka-
ble find was sent with a collection which foundered·
on the Tigris and was lost. Only the small plates,
-gold, silver, copper and tin (antimonium scholars
now think it to be)-survived, and the inscriptions
on them have been read and translated. They all
commemorate, in very nearly the same terms, the
foundation and erection of a new city and palace.
by a very famous king and conqueror, generally
(though not correctly) called Sargon, and three of
them end with a request to the kings his successors
to keep the building in good repair, with a prayer
for their welfare if they do and a heavy curse if they
fail in this duty: "Whoever alters the works of my
hand, destroys my constructions, pulls down the
walls which I have raised,—may Asshur, Ninêb, Ra-
mân and the great gods who dwell there, pluck his
name and seed from the land and let him sit bound
at the feet of his foe." Most inscriptions end with
invocations of the same kind, for, in the words of
* Dr. Julius Oppert, “ Records of the Past,” Vol. XI., p. 31.
THE BOOK OF THE PAST.
117
Ménant: "it was not mere whim which impelled
the kings of Assyria to build so assiduously. Pal-
aces had in those times a destination which they
have no longer in ours. Not only was the palace
indeed the dwelling of royalty, as the inscriptions
have it, it was also the BOOK, which each sovereign

53-INSCRIBED CYLINDER FROM BORSIP.
began at his accession to the throne and in which
he was to record the history of his reign."*
And each such book of brick and stone we can
with perfect truth call a chapter-or a volume-of
the great Book of the Past whose leaves are scat-
tered over the face of the earth.
* "Les Écritures Cunéiformes," of Joachim Ménant: page 198
(2d edition, 1864).

1

THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
I.
NOMADS AND SETTLERS.-THE FOUR STAGES OF
CULTURE.
1. MEN, whatever their pursuit or business, can
live only in one of two ways: they can stay where
they are, or they can go from one place to another.
In the present state of the world, we generally do a
little of both. There is some place-city, village,
or farm-where we have our home and our work.
But from time to time we go to other places, on
visits or on business, or travel for a certain length
of time to great distances and many places, for in-
struction and pleasure. Still, there is usually some
place which we think of as home and to which we
return. Wandering or roving is not our natural or
permanent condition. But there are races for whom
it is. The Bedouin Arabs are the principal and best
known of such races. Who has not read with de-
light accounts of their wild life in the deserts of
Arabia and Northern Africa, so full of adventure
and romance,—of their wonderful, priceless horses
118
DUR SHARRUKIN
Mossul
Khorsabad
NINEVEH
Koyunjih
and
Zab
Nebbi Yunus ARBILU
ひ ​KALAH
Nimrud
S
ASSHUR
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Kilep Sherghat
ABELA
Lower or Lesser
U
R
Teknit
Hit
CHALDEA
AND NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES
、、",
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is
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R
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BAGISTANA
Bagistun
illlllli
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Hamadar
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hra
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7
paghdad
ACADE ACCAD
OSEPHARVAIM
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IKUTHA
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Tell-Ibrahim
Babylon
BABILUS BABEL
KAR
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BORSIPPA
Birs-Nimru2
DUNIASH
Hillan
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B I
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Niffer
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10 5 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 130 HIÚ 120 130 140 150
THREAN
SEA
PERSIAN
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NOMADS AND SETTLERS.
119
who are to them as their own children,—of their
noble qualities, bravery, hospitality, generosity, so
strangely blended with love of booty and a passion
for robbing expeditions? They are indeed a noble
race, and it is not their choice, but their country
which has made them robbers and rovers--Nomads,
as such wandering races are called in history and
geography. They cannot build cities on the sand
of the desert, and the small patches of pasture and
palm groves, kept fresh and green by solitary
springs and called "oases,
oases," are too far apart, too
distant from permanently peopled regions to admit
of comfortable settlement. In the south of Arabia
and along the sea-shore, where the land is fertile
and inviting, they live much as other nations do,
and when, a thousand years ago, Arabs conquered
vast and wealthy countries both in Europe and Asia,
and in Africa too, they not only became model
husbandmen, but built some of the finest cities
in the world, had wise and strictly enforced laws
and took the lead in literature and science. Very
different are the scattered nomadic tribes which
still roam the steppes of Eastern Russia, of Siberia
and Central Asia. They are not as gifted by far as
the Arabs, yet would probably quickly settle down
to farming, were it not that their wealth consists in
flocks of sheep and studs of horses, which require
the pasture yielded so abundantly by the grassy
steppes, and with which they have to move from
one place, when it is browsed bare, to another,
and still another, carrying their felt-tents and sim-
ple utensils with them, living on the milk of their
120
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
mares and the meat of their sheep. The Red In-
dian tribes of the far West present still another as
pect of nomadic life--that of the hunter, fierce and
entirely untamed, the simplest and wildest of all.
2. On the whole, however, nomadic life is at the
present day the exception. Most of the nations
that are not savages live in houses, not in portable
tents, in cities, not encampments, and form com-
pact, solidly bound communities, not loose sets of
tribes, now friendly, now hostile to one another.
But it has not always been so. There have been
times when settled life was the exception and no-
madic life the rule. And the older the times, the
fewer were the permanent communities, the more
numerous the roving tribes. For wandering in
search of better places must have been among the
first impulses of intelligent humanity. Even when
men had no shelter but caves, no pursuit but hunt-
ing the animals, whose flesh was their food and in
whose skins they clothed themselves, they must fre-
quently have gone forth, in families or detachments,
either to escape from a neighborhood too much in-
fested with the gigantic wild beasts which at one
time peopled the earth more thickly than men, or
simply because the numbers of the original cave-
dwellers had become too great for the cave to hold
them. The latter must have been a very usual oc-
currence families stayed together until they had
no longer room enough, or quarrelled, when they
separated. Those who went never saw again the
place and kindred they left, although they carried
with them memories of both, the few simple arts
:
NOMADS AND SETTLERS.
121
they had learned there and the customs in which
they had been trained. They would stop at some
congenial halting-place, when, after a time, the
same process would be repeated—and so again and
again.
3. How was the first horse conquered, the first
wild-dog tamed and conciliated? How were cattle
first enticed to give man their milk, to depend on
his care and follow his movements? Who shall tell?
However that may have happened, it is certain that
the transition from a hunter's wild, irregular and
almost necessarily lawless existence to the gentler
pursuits of pastoral life must have been attended by
a great change in manners and character. The feel-
ing of ownership too, one of the principal promo-
ters of a well-regulated state of society, must have.
quickly developed with the possession of rapidly in-
creasing wealth in sheep and horses,—the principal
property of nomadic races. But it was not a kind
of property which encouraged to settling, or uniting
in close communities; quite the contrary. Large
flocks need vast pasture-grounds. Besides, it is de-
sirable to keep them apart in order to avoid confu-
sion and disputes about wells and springs, those
rare treasures of the steppes, which are liable to ex-
haustion or drying up, and which, therefore, one
flock-owner is not likely to share with another,
though that other were of his own race and kin.
The Book of Genesis, which gives us so faithful and
lively a picture of this nomadic pastoral life of an-
cient nations, in the account of the wanderings of
Abraham and the other Hebrew patriarchs, has pre-
122
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
served such an incident in the quarrel between
the herdsmen of Abraham and his nephew Lot,
which led to their separation. This is what Abra-
ham said to Lot: "Is not the whole land before
thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if
thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the
right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I
will go to the left."* So also it is said of Esau that
he "went into the country from the face of his
brother Jacob: for their riches were more than
they might dwell together, and the land wherein
they were strangers could not bear them be-
cause of their cattle." This was a facility of-
Sered by those immense plains, unclaimed as yet by
any one people in particular, and which must oft-
times have averted strife and bloodshed, but which
ceased from the moment that some one tribe, tired
of wandering or tempted by some more than
usually engaging spot, settled down on it, mark-
ing that and the country around it, as far as its
power reached, for its own. There is even now in
the East something very similar to this mode of
occupation. In the Turkish Empire, which is, in
many places, thinly peopled, there are large tracts
of waste land, sometimes very fertile, accounted as
nobody's property, and acknowledged to belong,
legally and forever, to the first man who takes pos-
session of them, provided he cultivates them. The
government asks no purchase price for the land, but
* Genesís, xiii. 7-11.
↑ Genesis, xxxvi. 6–7.
NOMADS AND SETTLERS.
123
demands taxes from it as soon as it has found an
owner and begins to yield crops.
4. The pastoral nomad's life is, like the hunter's,
a singularly free one,-free both from restraint, and,
comparatively, from toil. For watching and tend-
ing flocks is not a laborious occupation, and no au-
thority can always reach or weigh very heavily on
people who are here to-day and elsewhere to-mor-
row. Therefore, it is only with the third stage of
human existence, the agricultural one, that civiliza
tion, which cannot subsist without permanent homes
and authority, really commences. The farmer's
homestead is the beginning of the State, as the
hearth or fireplace was the beginning of the family.
The different labors of the fields, the house, and the
dairy require a great number of hands and a well-
regulated distribution of the work, and so keep sev-
eral generations of the settler's family together, on
the same farm. Life in common makes it absolutely
necessary to have a set of simple rules for home
government, to prevent disputes, keep up order
and harmony, and settle questions of mutual rights.
and duties. Who should set down and enforce
these rules but the head of the family, the founder
of the race-the patriarch? And when the family
has become too numerous for the original homestead
to hold it, and part of it has to leave it, to found a
new home for itself, it does not, as in the primitive.
nomadic times, wander off at random and break all
ties, but settles close by on a portion of the family
land, or takes possession of a new piece of ground
somewhat further off, but still within easy reach. In
124
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
the first case the land which had been common prop-
erty gets broken up into lots, which, though belong-
ing more particularly to the members who separate
from the old stock, are not for that withdrawn from
the authority of the patriarch. There are several
homesteads now, which form a village, and, later on,
several villages; but the bond of kindred, of tradi-
tion and custom is religiously preserved, as well as
subordination to the common head of the race,
whose power keeps increasing as the community
grows in numbers and extent of land, as the greater
complications of relationships, property, inherit-
ance, demand more laws and a stricter rule,—until
he becomes not so much Father as King. Then
naturally come collisions with neighboring similar
settlements, friendly or hostile, which result in alli-
ances or quarrels, trade or war, and herewith we
have the State complete, with inner organization
and foreign policy.
5. This stage of culture, in its higher develop-
ment, combines with the fourth and last--city-build-
ing, and city-life, when men of the same race, and
conscious of a common origin, but practically stran-
gers to each other, form settlements on a large scale,
which, being enclosed in walls, become places of
refuge and defence, centres of commerce, industry
and government. For, when a community has
become very numerous, with wants multiplied by
continual improvements and increasing culture, each
family can no longer make all the things it needs,
and a portion of the population devotes itself to
manufacture and arts, occupations best pursued in
NOMADS AND SETTLERS.
125
cities, while the other goes on cultivating the land.
and raising cattle, the two sets of produces—those
of nature and those of the cunning hand and brain
-being bartered one for the other, or, when coin is
invented, exchanged through that more convenient
medium. In the same manner, the task of govern-
ment having become too manifold and complicated
for one man, the former Patriarch, now King, is
obliged to surround himself with assistants-either
the elders of the race, or persons of his own choice,
—and send others to different places, to rule in his
name and under his authority. The city in which
the King and his immediate ministers and officers
reside, naturally becomes the most important one-
the Capital of the State.
6. It does not follow by any means that a people,
once settled, never stirred from its adopted country.
The migratory or wandering instinct never quite
died out our own love of travelling sufficiently
proves that—and it was no unfrequent occurrence
in very ancient times for large tribes, even portions.
of nations, to start off again in search of new homes.
and to found new cities, compelled thereto either
by the gradual overcrowding of the old country, or
by intestine discords, or by the invasion of new
nomadic tribes of a different race who drove the old
settlers before them to take possession of their settle-
ments, massacred them if they resisted and reduced
those who remained to an irksome subjection.
Such invasions, of course, might also be perpetrated
with the same results by regular armies, led by kings
and generals from some other settled and organized
126
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
country. The alternative between bondage and
emigration must have been frequently offered, and
the choice in favor of the latter was helped not a
little by the spirit of adventure inborn in man,
tempted by so many unexplored regions as there
were in those remote ages.
7. Such have been the beginnings of all nations.
There can be no other. And there is one more
observation which will scarcely ever prove wrong.
It is that, however far we may go back into the past,
the people whom we find inhabiting any country at
the very dawn of tradition, can always be shown to
have come from somewhere else, and not to have
been the first either. Every swarm of nomads or
adventurers who either pass through a country or
stop and settle there, always find it occupied al-
ready. Now the older population was hardly ever
entirely destroyed or dislodged by the new-comers.
A portion at least remained, as an inferior or sub-
ject race, but in time came to mix with them,
mostly in the way of intermarriage. Then again, if
the new-comers were peaceable and there was room
enough which there generally was in very early
times they would frequently be suffered to form
separate settlements, and dwell in the land; when
they would either remain in a subordinate condi-
tion, or, if they were the finer and better gifted
race, they would quickly take the upper hand, teach
the old settlers their own arts and ideas, their man-
ners and their laws. If the new settlement was
effected by conquest, the arrangement was short and
simple: the conquerors, though less numerous, at
NOMADS AND SETTLERS.
127
once established themselves as masters and formed
a ruling nobility, an aristocracy, while the old own-
ers of the land, those at least that did not choose to
emigrate, became what may be called "the com-
mon people," bound to do service and pay tribute
or taxes to their self-instituted masters. Every
country has generally experienced, at various times,
all these modes of invasion, so that each nation may
be said to have been formed gradually, in successive
layers, as it were, and often of very different ele-
ments, which either finally amalgamated or kept
apart, according to circumstances.
The early history of Chaldea is a particularly good.
illustration of all that has just been said.


II.
THE GREAT RACES.-CHAPTER X. OF GENESIS.
"And it came
1. THE Bible says (Genesis xi. 2):
to pass, as they journeyed in the east, that they
found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt
there."
Shinar or, more correctly, Shineâr-is what may
be called Babylonia proper, that part of Mesopota-
mia where Babylon was, and south of it, almost to
the Gulf. "They" are descendants of Noah, long
after the Flood. They found the plain and dwelt
there, but they did not find the whole land desert;
it had been occupied long before them. How long?
For such remote ages an exact valuation of time in
years is not to be thought of.
2. What people were those whom the descendants
of Noah found in the land to which they came from
the East? It seems a simple question, yet no an-
swer could have been given to it even as lately as
fifteen or sixteen years ago, and when the answer
was first suggested by unexpected discoveries made.
in the Royal Library at Nineveh, it startled the dis-
coverers extremely. The only indication on the
subject then known was this, from a Chaldean
writer of a late period: "There was originally at
128
THE GREAT RACES.
129
Babylon" (i.e., in the land of Babylon, not the city
alone) "a multitude of men of foreign race who had
settled in Chaldea." This is told by Berosus, a
learned priest of Babylon, who lived immediately
after Alexander the Great had conquered the coun-
try, and when the Greeks ruled it (somewhat after
300 B.C.). He wrote a history of it from the most
ancient times, in which he gave an account of the
oldest traditions concerning its beginnings. As he
wrote his book in Greek, it is probable that his ob-
ject was to acquaint the new masters with the his-
tory and religion of the land and people whom they
Lad come to rule. Unfortunately the work was
lost-as so many valuable works have been, as long
as there was no printing, and books existed only in
a few manuscript copies-and we know of it only
some short fragments, quoted by later writers, in
whose time Berosus' history was still accessible.
The above lines are contained in one such fragment,
and naturally led to the question: who were these
men of foreign race who came from somewhere else
and settled in Chaldea in immemorial times?
3. One thing appears clear: they belonged to
none of the races classed in the Bible as descended
from Noah, but probably to one far older, which
had not been included in the Flood.
4. For it begins to be pretty generally under-
stood nowadays that the Flood may not have been
absolutely universal, but have extended over the
countries which the Hebrews knew, which made their
world, and that not literally all living beings except
those who are reported to have been in the Ark may
130
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
have perished in it. From a negligent habit of
reading Chap. VI.-IX. of Genesis without reference
to the texts of other chapters of the same Book, it
has become a general habit to understand it in this
literal manner. Yet the evidence is by no means so
positive. The question was considered an open one.
by profounder students even in antiquity, and freely
discussed both among the Jews themselves and the
Fathers of the early Christian Church. The follow-
ing are the statements given in the Book of Genesis;
we have only to take them out of their several places
and connect them.
5. When Cain had killed his brother Abel, God.
banished him from the earth which had received his
brother's blood and laid a curse on him: " a fugi-
tive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth
using another word than the first time, one which
means earth in general (éréç), in opposition to the
earth (adâmáh), or fruitful land to the east of Eden,
in which Adam and Eve dwelt after their expulsion.
Then Cain went forth, still further East, and dwelt
in a land which was called "the land of Nod," i.e., "of
wandering" or "exile." He had a son, Enoch, after
whom he named the city which he built, the first
city, and descendants. Of these the fifth, Lamech,
a fierce and lawless man, had three sons, two of
whom, Jabal and Jubal, led a pastoral and nomadic
life; but the third, Tubalcain, invented the use of
metals: he was "the forger of every cutting instru-
ment of brass and iron." This is what the Chap.
IV. of Genesis tells of Cain, his crime, his exile and
immediate posterity. After that they are heard of
THE GREAT RACES.
131
no more. Adam, meanwhile, has a third son, born
after he had lost the first two and whom he calls
Seth (more correctly Sheth). The descendants of
this son are enumerated in Chap. V.; the list ends.
with Noah. These are the parallel races: the ac-
cursed and the blest, the proscribed of God and the
loved of God, the one that "goes out of the pres-
ence of the Lord" and the one that "calls on the
name of the Lord," and "walks with God." Of the
latter race the last-named, Noah, is “a just man,
perfect in his generation," and "finds grace in the
eyes of the Lord."
6. Then comes the narrative of the Flood (Chap.
VI.-VIII.), the covenant of God with Noah and
re-peopling of the earth by his posterity (Chap.
IX.). Lastly Chap. X. gives us the list of the gen-
erations of Noah's three sons, Shem, Ham and
Japheth;" of these were the nations divided in
the earth after the flood."
7. Now this tenth chapter of Genesis is the
oldest and most important document in existence.
concerning the origins of races and nations, and
comprises all those with whom the Jews, in the
course of their early history, have had any dealings,
at least all those who belonged to the great white di-
vision of mankind. But in order properly to under-
stand it and appreciate its value and bearing, it
must not be forgotten that EACH NAME IN THE LIST
IS THAT OF A RACE, A PEOPLE OR A TRIBE, NOT
THAT OF A MAN. It was a common fashion among
the Orientals—a fashion adopted also by ancient
European nations to express in this manner the
132
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
kindred connections of nations among themselves
and their differences. Both for brevity and clear-
ness, such historical genealogies are very convenient.
They must have been suggested by a proceeding
most natural in ages of ignorance, and which con-
sists in a tribe's explaining its own name by taking
it for granted that it was that of its founder. Thus
the name of the Assyrians is really Asshur. Why?
Clearly, they would answer, if asked the question,
because their kingdom was founded by one whose
name was Asshur. Another famous nation, the
Aramæans, are supposed to be so called because
the name of their founder was Aram; the Hebrews
name themselves from a similarly supposed ancestor,
Heber. These three nations,-and several more,
the Arabs among others-spoke languages so much
alike that they could easily understand each other,
and had generally many common features in looks
and character. How account for that? By making
their founders, Asshur, and Aram, and Heber, etc.,
sons or descendants of one great head or progenitor,
Shem, a son of Noah. It is a kind of parable which
is extremely clear once one has the key to it, when
nothing is easier than to translate it into our own
sober, positive forms of speech. The above bit of
genealogy would read thus: A large portion of hu-
manity is distinguished by certain features more or
less peculiar to itself; it is one of several great races,
and has been called for more than a hundred years
the Semitic, (better Shemitic) race, the race of
Shem. This race is composed of many different
tribes and nations, who have gone each its own way,
THE GREAT RACES.
133
have each its own name and history, speak dialects
of the same original language, and have preserved
many common ideas, customs and traits of character,
--which all shows that the race was once united and
dwelt together, then, as it increased in numbers,
broke up into fractions, of which some rose to be
great and famous nations and some remained com-
paratively insignificant tribes. The same applies to
the subdivisions of the great white race (the whitest
of all) to which nearly all the European nations be-
long, and which is personified in the Bible under
the name of Japhet, third son of Noah,-and to
those of a third great race, also originally white,
which is broken up into very many fractions, both
great nations and scattered tribes, all exhibiting a
decided likeness to each other. The Bible gives
the names of all these most carefully, and sums up
the whole of them under the name of the second
son of Noah, Ham, whom it calls their common pro-
genitor.
8. That the genealogies of Chap. X. of Genesis
should be understood in this sense, has long been
admitted by scientists and churchmen. St. Augus-
tine, one of the greatest among the Fathers of the
early church, pointedly says that the names in it
represent “nations, not men."* On the other hand
there is also literal truth in them, in this way, that,
if all mankind is descended from one human couple,
every fraction of it must necessarily have had some
one particular father or ancestor, only in so remote a
*“Gentes non homines.” (De Civitate Dei, XVII., 3.)
134
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
past that his individuality or actual name cannot
possibly have been remembered, when every people,
as has been remarked above, naturally gave him its
own name. Of these names many show by their
very nature that they could not have belonged to
individuals. Some are plural, like MIZRAIM, “the
Egyptians;" some have the article: "the AMORITE,
the HIVITE; one even is the name of a city : SIDON
is called "the first-born of Canaan;" now Sidon
was long the greatest maritime city of the Canaan-
ites, who held an undisputed supremacy over the
rest, and therefore "the first-born." The name
means "fisheries "—an appropriate one for a city on
the sea, which must of course have been at first a
settlement of fishermen. "CANAAN" really is the
name of a vast region, inhabited by a great many
nations and tribes, all differing from each other in
many ways, yet manifestly of one race, wherefore
they are called "the sons of Canaan," Canaan being
personified in a common ancestor, given as one of
the four sons of Ham. Modern science has, for
convenience' sake, adopted a special word for such
imaginary personages, invented to account for a
nation's, tribe's, or city's name, while summing up,
so to speak, its individuality: they are called EPO-
NYMS. The word is Greek, and means one from
whom or for whom somebody or something is
named," a namesake." It is not too much to say
that, while popular tradition always claims that the
eponymous ancestor or city-founder gave his name
to his family, race, or city, the contrary is in reality
invariably the case, the name of the race or city
""
THE GREAT RACES.
135
being transferred to him. Or, in other words, the
eponym is really only that name, transformed into a
traditional person by a bold and vivid poetical fig-
ure of speech, which, if taken for what it is, makes
the beginnings of political history wonderfully plain
and easy to grasp and classify.
9. Yet, complete and correct as is the list
of Chap. X., within the limits which the writer
has set to himself, it by no means exhausts the
nations of the earth. The reason of the omissions,
however, is easily seen. Among the posterity of
Japhet the Greeks indeed are mentioned, (under the
name of JAVAN, which should be pronounced Yawan,
and some of his sons), but not a single one of the
other ancient peoples of Europe,—Germans, Italians,
Celts, etc., who also belonged to that race, as we,
their descendants, do. But then, at the time Chap.
X. was written, these countries, from their remote-
ness, were outside of the world in which the Hebrews
moved, beyond their horizon, so to speak. They
either did not know them at all, or, having nothing
to do with them, did not take them into considera-
tion. In neither case would they have been given
a place in the great list. The same may be said of
another large portion of the same race, which dwelt
to the far East and South of the Hebrews-the
Hindoos, (the white conquerors of India), and the
Persians. There came a time indeed, when the
latter not only came into contact with the Jews,
but were their masters; but either that was after
Chap. X. was written or the Persians were identified
by the writers with a kindred nation, the Per-
136
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
sians' near neighbor, who had flourished much
earlier and reacted in many ways on the countries
westward of it; this nation was the MEDES, who,
under the name of MADAI, are mentioned as one of
the sons of Japhet, with Javan the Greek.
10. More noticeable and more significant than
these partial omissions is the determination with
which the authors of Chap. X. consistently ignore all
those divisions of mankind which do not belong to
one of the three great white races. Neither the
Black nor the Yellow races are mentioned at all;
they are left without the pale of the Hebrew brother-
hood of nations. Yet the Jews, who staid three or
four hundred years in Egypt, surely learned there
to know the real negro, for the Egyptians were con-
tinually fighting with pure-blood black tribes in the
south and south-west, and bringing in thousands of
black captives, who were made to work at their great
buildings and in their stone-quarries. But these
people were too utterly barbarous and devoid of all
culture or political importance to be taken into ac-
count. Besides, the Jews could not be aware of the
vast extent of the earth occupied by the black race,
since the greater part of Africa was then unknown
to the world, and so were the islands to the south
of India, also Australia and its islands-all seats of
different sections of that race.
II. The same could not be said of the Yellow
Race. True, its principal representatives, the na-
tions of the far East of Asia-the Chinese, the Mon-
gols and the Mandchous,-could not be known to
the Hebrews at any time of antiquity, but there
THE GREAT RACES.
137
were more than enough representatives of it who
could not be unknown to them.* For it was both a
very old and extremely numerous race, which early
spread over the greater part of the earth and at one
time probably equalled in numbers the rest of man-
kind. It seems always to have been broken up into
a great many tribes and peoples, whom it has been
found convenient to gather under the general desig-
nation of TURANIANS, from a very ancient name,-
TUR or TURA-which was given them by the white
population of Persia and Central Asia, and which is
still preserved in that of one of their principal sur-
viving branches, the TURKS. All the different.
members of this great family have had very striking
features in common,-the most extraordinary being
an incapability of reaching the highest culture, of
progressing indefinitely, improving continually. A
strange law of their being seems to have condemned
them to stop short, when they had attained a cer-
tain, not very advanced, stage. Thus their speech
has remained extremely imperfect. They spoke,
and such Turanian nations as now exist still speak,
languages, which, however they may differ, all have
this peculiarity, that they are composed either
entirely of monosyllables, (the most rudimentary
form of speech), or of monosyllables pieced into
words in the stiffest, most unwieldy manner, stuck
* If, as has been suggested, the "land of Sinim" in Isaiah xlix.,
12, is meant for China, such a solitary, incidental and unspecified
mention of a country the name of which may have been vaguely used
to express the remotest East, cannot invalidate the scheme so evi-
dently and persistently pursued in the composition of Chap. X.
138
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
together, as it were, with nothing to join them,
wherefore this kind of language has been called
agglutinative. Chinese belongs to the former class.
of languages, the "monosyllabic," Turkish to the
latter, the "agglutinative." Further, the Turani-
ans were probably the first to invent writing, but
never went in that art beyond having one particu-
lar sign for every single word—(such is Chinese writ-
ing with its forty thousand signs or thereabouts, as
many as words in the language)—or at most a
sign for every syllable. They had beautiful be-
ginnings of poetry, but in that also never went
beyond beginnings. They were also probably the
first who built cities, but were wanting in the qual-
ities necessary to organize a society, establish a
At one
state on solid and lasting foundations.
time they covered the whole of Western Asia, dwelt
there for ages before any other race occupied it,-
fifteen hundred years, according to a very trust-
worthy tradition, and were called by the ancients
"the oldest of men; but they vanish and are not
heard of any more the moment that white invaders
come into the land; these drive the Turanians be-
fore them, or bring them into complete subjection,
or mix with them, but, by force of their own
superiorly gifted nature, retain the dominant posi-
tion, so that the others lose all separate existence.
Thus it was everywhere. For wherever tribes of
the three Biblical races came, they mostly found
Turanian populations who had preceded them.
There are now a great number of Turanian tribes,
more or less numerous-Kirghizes, Bashkirs, Os-
THE GREAT RACES.
139
tiaks, Tunguzes, etc., etc.-scattered over the vast
expanse of Siberia and Eastern Russia, where they
roam at will with their flocks and herds of horses,
occasionally settling down,-fragmentary remnants
of a race which, to this latest time, has preserved
its original peculiarities and imperfections, whose
day is done, which has long ceased to improve, un-
less it assimilates with the higher white race and
adopts their culture, when all that it lacked is sup-
plied by the nobler element which mixes with it, as
in the case of the Hungarians, one of the most high-
spirited and talented nations of Europe, originally
of Turanian stock. The same may be said, in a
lesser degree, of the Finns-the native inhabitants
of the Russian principality of Finland.
12. All this by no means goes to show that the
Yellow Race has ever been devoid of fine faculties
and original genius. Quite the contrary; for, if
white races everywhere stepped in, took the work
of civilization out of their hands and carried it on
to a perfection of which they were incapable, still
they, the Turanians, had everywhere begun that
work, it was their inventions which the others took
up and improved: and we must remember that it
is very much easier to improve than to invent.
Only there is that strange limitation to their power
of progress and that want of natural refinement,
which are as a wall that encloses them around.
Even the Chinese, who, at first sight, are a brilliant
exception, are not so on a closer inspection. True,
they have founded and organized a great empire
which still endures; they have a vast literature,
140
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
they have made most important inventions-print-
ing, manufacturing paper out of rags, the use of
the compass, gunpowder-centuries before Euro-
pean nations made them in their turn. Yet the
latter do all those things far better; they have im
proved these, to them, new inventions more in a
couple of hundred years than the Chinese in a
thousand. In fact it is a good many centuries since
the Chinese have ceased to improve anything at all.
Their language and writing are childishly imperfect,
though the oldest in existence. In government,
in the forms of social life, in their ideas generally,
they follow rules laid down for them three thou-
sand years ago or more and from which to swerve
a hair's breadth were blasphemy. As they have
always stubbornly resisted foreign influences, and
gone the length of trying actually to erect material
walls between themselves and the rest of the world,
their empire is a perfectly fair specimen of what
the Yellow Race can do, if left entirely to itself,
and quite as much of what it cannot do, and now
they have for centuries presented that unique phe-
nomenon —a great nation at a standstill.
13. All this obviously leads us to a very interest-
ing and suggestive question: what is this great race
which we find everywhere at the very roots of his-
tory, so that not only ancient tradition calls them
"the oldest of men," but modern science more and
more inclines to the same opinion? Whence came
it? How is it not included in the great family of
nations, of which Chap. X. of Genesis gives so clear
and comprehensive a scheme? Parallel to this
THE GREAT RACES.
141
question arises another: what became of Cain's
posterity? What, above all, of the descendants of
those three sons of Lamech, whom the writer of
Genesis clearly places before us as heads of nations
and thinks of sufficient importance to specify what
their occupations were? (See Genesis iv. 19–22.)
Why do we never hear any more of this entire half
of humanity, severed in the very beginning from
the other half-the lineage of the accursed son
from that of the blest and favored son? And may
not the answer to this series of questions be the
answer to the first series also?
14. With regard to the second series this answer
is plain and decisive. The descendants of Cain were
necessarily out of the pale of the Hebrew world.
The curse of God, in consequence of which their
forefather is said to have gone "out of the presence
of the Lord,” at once and forever separated them
from the posterity of the pious son, from those who
"walked with God." The writer of Genesis tells
us that they lived in the "Land of Exile" and
multiplied, then dismisses them. For what could
the elect, the people of God, or even those other
nations who went astray, who were repeatedly
chastised, but whose family bond with the righteous
race was never entirely severed-what could they
have in common with the banished, the castaway,
the irretrievably accursed? These did not count,
they were not of humanity. What more probable,
therefore, than that, being excluded from all the
other narratives, they should not be included in
that of the Flood? And in that case, who should
142
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
they be but that most ancient race, set apart by its
color and several striking peculiarities, which every-
where preceded their white brethren, but were
invariably supplanted by them and not destined to
supremacy on the earth? This supposition has
been hazarded by men of great genius, and if bold,
still has much to support it; if confirmed it would
solve many puzzles, throw strong and unexpected
light on many obscure points. The very antiq-
uity of the Yellow Race tallies admirably with the
Biblical narrative, for of the two Biblical brothers
Cain was the eldest. And the doom laid on the
race, "a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be on
the earth," has not been revoked through all ages.
Wherever pure Turanians are they are nomads.
And when, fifteen hundred years ago and later,
countless swarms of barbarous people flooded
Europe, coming from the east, and swept all before
them, the Turanian hordes could be known chiefly.
by this, that they destroyed, burned, laid waste-
and passed, vanished: whereas the others, after
treating a country quite as savagely, usually settled
in it and founded states, most of which exist even
now-for, French, German, English, Russian, we
are all descended from some of those barbarous
invaders. And this also would fully explain how
it came to pass that, although the Hebrews and
their forefathers-let us say the Semites generally
-everywhere found Turanians on their way, nay,
dwelt in the same lands with them, the sacred his-
torian ignores them completely, as in Gen. xi. 2.
THE GREAT RACES.
143
15. For they were Turanians, arrived at a, for
them, really high state of culture, who peopled the
land of Shinar, when "they"-descendants of Noah,
—journeying in the East, found that plain where
they dwelt for many years.


W
3
III.
TURANIAN CHALDEA.-SHUMIR AND ACCAD.—THE
BEGINNINGS OF RELIGION.
I. IT is not Berosus alone who speaks of the
multitudes of men of foreign race" who colonized
Chaldea "in the beginning." It was a universally
admitted fact throughout antiquity that the popula-
tion of the country had always been a mixed one, but
a fact known vaguely, without particulars. On this
subject, as on so many others, the discoveries made
in the royal library of Nineveh shed an unexpected
and most welcome light. The very first, so to speak
preliminary, study of the tablets showed that there
were amongst them documents in two entirely dif-
ferent languages, of which one evidently was that
of an older population of Chaldea. The other and
later language, usually called Assyrian, because it
was spoken also by the Assyrians, being very like
Hebrew, an understanding of it was arrived at with
comparative ease. As to the older language there
was absolutely no clue. The only conjecture which
could be made with any certainty was, that it must
have been spoken by a double people, called the
people of Shumir and Accad, because later kings of
TURANIAN CHALDEA.
145
Babylon, in their inscriptions, always gave them-
selves the title of "Kings of Shumir and Accad,” a
title which the Assyrian sovereigns, who at times
conquered Chaldea, did not fail to take also. But
who and what were these people might never have.
been cleared up, but for the most fortunate discov-
ery of dictionaries and grammars, which, the texts
being supplied with Assyrian translations, served
our modern scholars, just as they did Assyrian stu-
dents 3000 years ago, to decipher and learn to
understand the oldest language of Chaldea. Of
course, it was a colossal piece of work, beset with
difficulties which it required an almost fierce deter-
mination and superhuman patience to master. But
every step made was so amply repaid by the results
obtained, that the zeal of the laborers was never
suffered to flag, and the effected reconstruction,
though far from complete even now, already enables
us to conjure a very suggestive and life-like picture
of those first settlers of the Mesopotamian Low-
lands, their character, religion and pursuits.
2. The language thus strangely brought to light
was very soon perceived to be distinctly of that
peculiar and primitive type-partly monosyllables,
partly words rudely pieced together, which has
been described in a preceding chapter as character-
istic of the Turanian race, and which is known in sci-
ence by the general name of agglutinative, i.e.,
"glued or stuck together," without change in the
words, either by declension or conjugation. The
people of Shumir and Accad, therefore, were one and
the same Turanian nation, the difference in the name
146
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
being merely a geographical one. SHUMIR is South-
ern or Lower Chaldea, the country towards and
around the Persian Gulf,—that very land of Shinar
which is mentioned in Genesis xi. 2. Indeed "Shi-
nar" is only the way in which the Hebrews pro-
nounced and spelt the ancient name of Lower Chal-
dea. ACCAD is Northern or Upper Chaldea. The
most correct way, and the safest from all misunder-
standing, is to name the people the Shumiro-Accads
and their language, the Shumiro-Accadian; but
for brevity's sake, the first name is frequently
dropped, and many say simply "the Accads" and
"the Accadian language." It is clear, however,
that the royal title must needs unite both names,
which together represented the entire country of
Chaldea. Of late it has been discovered that the
Shumiro-Accads spoke two slightly differing dia-
lects of the same language, that of Shumir being
most probably the older of the two, as culture
and conquest seem to have been carried steadily
northward from the Gulf.
3. That the Accads themselves came from some-
where else, is plain from several circumstances,
although there is not the faintest symptom or trace
of any people whom they may have found in the
country. They brought into it the very first and
most essential rudiments of civilization, the art of
writing, and that of working metals; it was prob-
ably also they who began to dig those canals with-
out which the land, notwithstanding its fabulous
fertility, must always be a marshy waste, and who
began to make bricks and construct buildings out of
TURANIAN CHALDEA.
147
(6
them. There is ground to conclude that they came
down from mountains in the fact that the name
"Accad" means
Mountains" or
or "Highlands," a
name which they could not possibly have taken in
the dead flats of Lower Chaldea, but must have
retained as a relic of an older home. It is quite
possible that this home may have been in the
neighboring wild and mountainous land of SHUSHAN
(Susiana on the maps), whose first known popu-
lation was also Turanian. These guesses take us
into a past, where not a speck of positive fact can
be discerned. Yet even that must have been only
a station in this race's migration from a far more
northern centre. Their written language, even
after they had lived for centuries in an almost.
tropical country, where palms grew in vast groves,
almost forests, and lions were common game, as
plentiful as tigers in the jungles of Bengal, con-
tained no sign to designate either the one or the
other, while it was well stocked with the signs of
metals,—of which there is no vestige, of course,
in Chaldea, and all that belongs to the work-
ing thereof. As the ALTAI range, the great Sibe-
rian chain, has always been famous for its rich.
mines of every possible metal ore, and as the val-
leys of the Altaï are known to be the nests from
which innumerable Turanian tribes scattered to the
north and south, and in which many dwell to this
day after their own nomadic fashion, there is no ex-
travagance in supposing that there may have been
our Accads' original point of departure. Indeed the
Altaï is so indissolubly connected with the origin of
A
148
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
The
most Turanian nations, that many scientists prefer
to call the entire Yellow Race, with all its gradations
of color, "the Altaïc." Their own traditions point
the same way.
Several of them have a pretty
legend of a sort of paradise, a secluded valley some-
where in the Altaï, pleasant and watered by many
streams, where their forefathers either dwelt in the
first place or whither they were providentially con-
ducted to be saved from a general massacre.
valley was entirely enclosed with high rocks, steep
and pathless, so that when, after several hundred
years, it could no longer hold the number of its in-
habitants, these began to search for an issue and
found none. Then one among them, who was a
smith, discovered that the rocks were almost en-
tirely of iron. By his advice, a huge fire was made.
and a great many mighty bellows were brought into
play, by which means a path was melted through
the rocks. A tradition, by the by, which, while
confirming the remark that the invention of metal-
lurgy belongs originally to the Yellow Race in its
earliest stages of development, is strangely in ac-
cordance with the name of the Biblical Tubalcain,
"the forger of every cutting instrument of brass
and iron." That the Accads were possessed of this
distinctive accomplishment of their race is moreover
made very probable by the various articles and or
naments in gold, brass and iron which are continu-
ally found in the very oldest tombs.
4. But infinitely the most precious acquisition se-
cured to us by the unexpected revelation of this
stage of remotest antiquity is a wonderfully exten-
TURANIAN CHALDEA.
149
sive collection of prayers, invocations and other
sacred texts, from which we can reconstruct, with
much probability, the most primitive religion in the
world for such undoubtedly was that of the
Accads. As a clear and authentic insight into the
first manifestation of the religious instinct in man.
was just what was wanting until now, in order to
enable us to follow its development from the first,
crudest attempts at expression to the highest aspi-
rations and noblest forms of worship, the value of
this discovery can never be overrated. It intro-
duces us moreover into so strange and fantastical a
world as not the most imaginative of fictions can
surpass.
5. The instinct of religion—“ religiosity," as it has
been called-is inborn to man; like the faculty of
speech, it belongs to man, and to man only, of all
living beings. So much so, that modern science is
coming to acknowledge these two faculties as the
distinctive characteristics which mark man as a
being apart from and above the rest of creation.
Whereas the division of all that exists upon the
earth has of old been into three great classes or
realms-the "mineral realm," the "vegetable
realm" and the "animal realm," in which latter
man was included-it is now proposed to erect the
human race with all its varieties into a separate
"realm,” for this very reason: that man has all that
animals have, and two things more which they have
not-speech and religiosity, which assume a faculty
of abstract thinking, observing and drawing general
conclusions, solely and distinctively human. Now
150
THE STORY OF CIALDEA.
the very first observations of man in the most prim-
itive stage of his existence must necessarily have
awakened in him a twofold consciousness-that of
power and that of helplessness. He could do many
things. Small in size, weak in strength, destitute
of natural clothing and weapons, acutely sensitive
to pain and atmospheric changes as all higher
natures are, he could kill and tame the huge and
powerful animals which had the advantage of him.
in all these things, whose numbers and fierceness.
threatened him at every turn with destruction, from
which his only escape would seem to have been con-
stant cowering and hiding. He could compel the
earth to bear for him choicer food than for the
other beings who lived on her gifts. He could com-
mand the service of fire, the dread visitor from
heaven. Stepping victoriously from one achieve-
ment to another, ever widening his sphere of
action, of invention, man could not but be filled
with legitimate pride. But on the other hand,
he saw himself surrounded with things which he
could neither account for nor subdue, which had
the greatest influence on his well-being, either favor-
able or hostile, but which were utterly beyond his
comprehension or control. The same sun which
ripened his crop sometimes scorched it; the rain
which cooled and fertilized his field, sometimes.
swamped it; the hot winds parched him and his cat-
tle; in the marshes lurked disease and death.
these and many, many more, were evidently Pow-
ERS, and could do him great good or work him
great harm, while he was unable to do either to
All
TURANIAN CHALDEA.
151
them. These things existed, he felt their action
every day of his life, consequently they were to him
living Beings, alive in the same way that he was,
possessed of will, for good or for evil. In short, to
primitive man everything in nature was alive with
an individual life, as it is to the very young child,
who would not beat the chair against which he has
knocked himself, and then kiss it to make friends,
did he not think that it is a living and feeling being
like himself. The feeling of dependence and abso-
lute helplessness thus created must have more than
balanced that of pride and self-reliance. Man felt
himself placed in a world where he was suffered to
live and have his share of what good things he could
get, but which was not ruled by him,-in a spirit-
world. Spirits around him, above him, below him,
-what could he do but humble himself, confess his
dependence, and pray to be spared? For surely,
if those spirits existed and took enough interest in
him to do him good or evil, they could hear him
and might be moved by supplication. To establish
a distinction between such spirits which did only
harm, were evil in themselves, and those whose
action was generally beneficial and only on rare
occasions destructive, was the next natural step,
which led as naturally to a perception of divine dis-
pleasure as the cause of such terrible manifestations.
and a seeking of means to avert or propitiate it.
While fear and loathing were the portion of the
former spirits, the essentially evil ones, love and
gratitude, were the predominant feelings inspired by
the latter,—feelings which, together with the ever
152
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
present consciousness of dependence, are the very
essence of religion, just as praise and worship are
the attempts to express them in a tangible form.
6. It is this most primitive, material and unques-
tioning stage in the growth of religious feeling,
which a large portion of the Shumiro-Accadian doc-
uments from the Royal Library at Nineveh brings
before us with a force and completeness which,
however much room there may still be for uncer-
tainty in details, on the whole really amounts to
more than conjecture. Much will, doubtless, be dis-
covered yet, much will be done, but it will only serve
to fill in a sketch, of which the outlines are already
now tolerably fixed and authentic. The materials for
this most important reconstruction are almost en-
tirely contained in a vast collection of two hundred
tablets, forming one consecutive work in three
books, over fifty of which have been sifted out of
the heap of rubbish at the British Museum and first.
deciphered by Sir Henry Rawlinson, one of the
greatest, as he was the first discoverer in this field,
and George Smith, whose achievements and too
early death have been mentioned in a former chap-
ter. Of the three books into which the collection
is divided, one treats "of evil spirits," another of
diseases, and the third contains hymns and prayers.
-the latter collection showing signs of a later and
higher development. Out of these materials the
lately deceased French scholar, Mr. François Le-
normant, whose name has for the last fifteen years or
so of his life stood in the very front of this branch
of Oriental research, has been the first to reconstruct
TURANIAN CHALDEA.
153
an entire picture in a book not very voluminous in-
deed, but which must always remain a corner-stone
in the history of human culture. This book shall
be our guide in the strange world we now enter.*
7. To the people of Shumir and Accad, then, the
universe was peopled with Spirits, whom they dis-
tributed according to its different spheres and re-
gions. For they had formed a very elaborate and
clever, if peculiar idea of what they supposed the
world to be like. According to the ingenious ex-
pression of a Greek writer of the 1st century A.D.
they imagined it to have the shape of an inverted.
round boat or bowl, the thickness of which would
represent the mixture of land and water (ki-a)
which we call the crust of the earth, while the hol-
low beneath this inhabitable crust was fancied as a
bottomless pit or abyss (ge), in which dwelt many
powers. Above the convex surface of the earth
(kî-a) spread the sky (ana), itself divided into two
regions—the highest heaven or firmament, which,
with the fixed stars immovably attached to it, re-
volved, as round an axis or pivot, around an im-
mensely high mountain, which joined it to the
earth as a pillar, and was situated somewhere in the
far North-East-some say North-and the lower
heaven, where the planets—a sort of resplendent
animals, seven in number, of beneficent nature-
wandered forever on their appointed path. To
these were opposed seven evil demons, sometimes.
* "La Magie et la Divination chez les Chaldéens," 1874-5. Ger-
man translation of it, 1878.
154
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
called "the Seven Fiery Phantoms." But above
all these, higher in rank and greater in power, is
the Spirit (Zi) of heaven (ana), ZI-ANA, or, as
often, simply ANA—“ Heaven." Between the lower
heaven and the surface of the earth is the atmos-
pheric region, the realm of IM or MERMER, the
Wind, where he drives the clouds, rouses the storms,
and whence he pours down the rain, which is stored
in the great reservoir of Ana, in the heavenly
Ocean. As to the earthly Ocean, it is fancied as a
broad river, or watery rim, flowing all round the
edge of the imaginary inverted bowl; in its waters
dwells ÊA (whose name means "the House of Wa-
ters"), the great Spirit of the Earth and Waters (Zi-
ki-a), either in the form of a fish, whence he is fre-
quently called "Êa the fish," or "the Exalted Fish,"
or on a magnificent ship, with which he travels round
the earth, guarding and protecting it. The minor
spirits of earth (Anunna-ki) are not much spoken.
of except in a body, as a sort of host or legion. All
the more terrible are the seven spirits of the abyss,
the MASKIM, of whom it is said that, although their
seat is in the depths of the earth, yet their voice
resounds on the heights also: they reside at will in
the immensity of space, "not enjoying a good name
either in heaven or on earth." Their greatest de-
light is to subvert the orderly course of nature, to
cause earthquakes, inundations, ravaging tempests.
Although the Abyss is their birth-place and proper
sphere, they are not submissive to its lord and ruler
MUL-GE ("Lord of the Abyss"). In that they are
like their brethren of the lower heaven who do not
TURANIAN CHALDEA.
155
acknowledge Ana's supremacy, in fact are called
"spirits of rebellion," because, being originally
Ana's messengers, they once "secretly plotted a
wicked deed," rose against the heavenly powers,
obscured the Moon, and all but hurled him from his
seat. But the Maskim are ever more feared and
hated, as appears from the following description,
which has become celebrated for its real poetical
force:
8. "They are seven! they are seven!-Seven
they are in the depths of Ocean,-seven they are,
disturbers of the face of Heaven.-They arise from
the depths of Ocean, from hidden lurking-places.—
They spread like snares.-Male they are not, female
they are not.-Wives they have not, children are
not born to them.--Order they know not, nor benefi-
cence; prayers and supplication they hear not.—
Vermin grown in the bowels of the mountains--
foes of Êa-they are the throne-bearers of the gods
-they sit in the roads and make them unsafe.-
The fiends! the fiends! They are seven, they are
seven, seven they are!
"Spirit of Heaven (Zi-ana, Ana), be they conjured!
"Spirit of Earth (Zi-ki-a, Ea), be they conjured!
9. Besides these regular sets of evil spirits in
sevens-seven being a mysterious and consecrated
number-there are the hosts untold of demons which
assail man in every possible form, which are always.
on the watch to do him harm, not only bodily, but
moral in the way of civil broils and family dissen-
sions; confusion is their work; it is they who
"steal the child from the father's knee," who "drive
156
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
the son from his father's house," who withhold from
the wife the blessing of children; they have stolen
days from heaven, which they have made evil days,
that bring nothing but ill-luck and misfortune,
and nothing can keep them out: "They fall as rain
from the sky, they spring from the earth,—they
steal from house to house,--doors do not stop them,
-bolts do not shut them out,-they creep in at the
doors like serpents,-they blow in at the roof like
winds." Various are their haunts:
are their haunts: the tops of
mountains, the pestilential marshes by the sea, but
especially the desert. Diseases are among the most
dreaded of this terrible band, and first among these.
NAMTAR or DIBBARA, the demon of Pestilence,
IDPA (Fever), and a certain mysterious disease of
the head, which must be insanity, of which it is said
that it oppresses the head and holds it tight like a
tiara (a heavy headdress) or "like a dark prison,"
and makes it confused, that "it is like a violent
tempest; no one knows whence it comes, nor what
is its object."
10. All these evil beings are very properly classed
together under the general name of "creations of
the Abyss," births of the nether world, the world of
the dead. For the unseen world below the hab-
itable earth was naturally conceived as the dwelling
place of the departed spirits after death.
It is very
remarkable as characteristic of the low standard
of moral conception which the Shumiro-Accads.
had attained at this stage of their development,
that, although they never admitted that those
who died ceased to exist altogether, there is very
TURANIAN CHALDEA.
157
little to show that they imagined any happy state
for them after death, not even as a reward for a
righteous life, nor, on the other hand, looked to
a future state for punishment of wrongs committed.
in this world, but promiscuously consigned their
dead to the ARALI, a most dismal region which is
called the "support of chaos," or, in phrase no less
vague and full of mysterious awe, "the Great
Land” (Kî-gal), "the Great City" (Uru-gal), “the
spacious dwelling," "where they wander in the
dark," a region ruled by a female divinity called
by different names, but most frequently "Lady of
the Great Land" (Nin-ki-gal), or "Lady of the
Abyss" (Nin-ge), who may the rather be under-
stood as Death personified, that Namtar (Pestilence)
is her chief minister. The Shumiro-Accads seem
to have dimly fancied that association with so many
evil beings whose proper home the Arali was, must
convert even the human spirits into beings almost
as noxious, for one or two passages appear to imply
that they were afraid of ghosts, at least on one
occasion it is threatened to send the dead back into
the upper world, as the direst calamity that can be
inflicted.
II. As if all these terrors were not sufficient to
make life a burden, the Shumiro-Accads believed in
sorcerers, wicked men who knew how to compel the
powers of evil to do their bidding and thus could
inflict death, sickness or disasters at their pleasure.
This could be done in many ways-by a look, by
uttering certain words, by drinks made of herbs
prepared under certain conditions and ceremonies.
158
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
Nay, the power of doing harm sometimes fatally
belonged even to innocent persons, who inflicted it
unintentionally by their look-for the effect of
"the evil eye" did not always depend on a person's
own will.
12. Existence under such conditions must have
been as unendurable as that of poor children who
have been terrified by silly nurses into a belief in
ogres and a fear of dark rooms, had there not existed
real or imaginary defences against this array of hor-
rible beings always ready to fall on unfortunate hu-
manity in all sorts of inexplicable ways and for no
other reason but their own detestable delight in do-
ing evil. These defences could not consist in rational
measures dictated by a knowledge of the laws of
physical nature, since they had no notion of such
laws; nor in prayers and propitiatory offerings,
since one of the demons' most execrable qualities.
was, as we have seen, that they "knew not benefi-
cence" and "heard not prayer and supplication.”
Then, if they cannot be coaxed, they must be com-
pelled. This seems a very presumptuous assump-
tion, but it is strictly in accordance with human in-
stinct. It has been very truly said that “man was
so conscious of being called to exercise empire over
the powers of nature, that, the moment he entered
into any relations with them, it was to try and sub-
ject them to his will. Only instead of studying the
phenomena, in order to grasp their laws and apply
*
* Alfred Maury, "La Magie et l'Astrologie dans l'Antiquité et au
Moyen-âge." Introduction, p. 1.
TURANIAN CHALDEA.
159
•
them to his needs, he fancied he could, by means
of peculiar practices and consecrated forms, compel
the physical agents of nature to serve his wishes.
and purposes. .. This pretension had its root in
the notion which antiquity had formed of the nat-
ural phenomena. It did not see in them the conse-
quence of unchangeable and necessary laws, always
active and always to be calculated upon, but fancied
them to depend on the arbitrary and varying will .
of the spirits and deities it had put in the place of
physical agents." It follows that in a religion
which peoples the universe with spirits of which the
greater part are evil, magic-i.e., conjuring with
words and rites, incantations, spells-must take the
place of worship, and the ministers of such a relig-
ion are not priests, but conjurers and enchanters.
This is exactly the state of things revealed by the
great collection of texts discovered by Sir H. Raw-
linson and G. Smith. They contain forms for con-
juring all the different kinds of demons, even to evil
dreams and nightmares, the object of most such
invocations being to drive them away from the
habitations of men and back to where they properly
belong the depth of the desert, the inaccessible
mountain tops, and all remote, waste and uninhab-
ited places generally, where they can range at will,
and find nobody to harm.
13. Yet there are also prayers for protection and
help addressed to beings conceived as essentially
good and beneficent—a step marking a great ad-
vance in the moral feeling and religious conscious-
ness of the people. Such beings-gods, in fact-
160
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
were, above all, Ana and Êa, whom we saw invoked
in the incantation of the Seven Maskim as “Spirit
of Heaven," and "Spirit of Earth."
Spirit of Earth." The latter
especially is appealed to as an unfailing refuge to
ill-used and terrified mortals. He is imagined as
possessed of all knowledge and wisdom, which he
uses only to befriend and protect. His usual
residence is the deep,-(hence his name, E-a, "the
House of Waters ")-but he sometimes travels.
round the earth in a magnificent ship. His very
name is a terror to the evil ones. He knows the
words, the spells that will break their power and
compel their obedience. To him, therefore, the
people looked in their need with infinite trust.
Unable to cope with the mysterious dangers and
snares which, as they fancied, beset them on all
sides, ignorant of the means of defeating the wicked
beings who, they thought, pursued them with
abominable malice and gratuitous hatred, they
turned to Êa. He would know. He must be asked,
and he would tell.
14. But, as though bethinking themselves that Êa
was a being too mighty and exalted to be lightly
addressed and often disturbed, the Shumiro-Accads.
imagined a beneficent spirit, MERI-DUG (more cor-
rectly MIRRI-DUGGA), called son of Êa and DAM-
KINA, (a name of Earth). Meridug's only office
is to act as mediator between his father and
suffering mankind. It is he who bears to Êa the
suppliant's request, exposes his need sometimes
in very moving words, and requests to know the
remedy—if illness be the trouble-or the counter-
TURANIAN CHALDEA.
161
spell, if the victim be held in the toils of witchcraft.
Éa tells his son, who is then supposed to reveal
the secret to the chosen instrument of assistance-
of course the conjuring priest, or better, soothsayer.
As most incantations are conceived on this prin-
ciple, they are very monotonous in form, though
frequently enlivened by the supposed dialogue
between the father and son. Here is one of the
more entertaining specimens. It occupies an entire
tablet, but unfortunately many lines have been
hopelessly injured, and have to be omitted. The
text begins:
"The Disease of the Head has issued from the Abyss, from the
dwelling of the Lord of the Abyss."
Then follow the symptoms and the description
of the sufferer's inability to help himself. Then
"Meridug has looked on his misery. He has
entered the dwelling of his father Êa, and has
spoken unto him:
My father, the Disease of the Head has issued from the Abyss.'
“A second time he has spoken unto him:
"What he must do against it the man knows not.
find healing?'
(C
<< <
Êa has replied to his son Meridug:
How shall he
My son, how dost thou not know? What should I teach thee?
What I know, thou also knowest. But come hither, my son Meri-
dug. Take a bucket, fill it with water from the mouth of the rivers;
impart to this water thy exalted magic power, sprinkle with it the
man, son of his god,
and on the
wrap up his head,
highway pour it out. May insanity be dispelled! that the disease of
his head vanish like a phantom of the night. May Êa's word drive
it out! May Damkina heal him.'"
•
•
162
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
15. Another dialogue of the same sort, in which
Êa is consulted as to the means of breaking the
power of the Maskim, ends by his revealing that
"The white cedar is the tree which breaks the Maskim's noxious
might."
In fact the white cedar was considered an infal-
lible defence against all spells and evil powers.
Any action or ceremony described in the conjura-
tion must of course be performed even as the words
are spoken. Then there is a long one, perhaps
the best preserved of all, to be recited by the suf-
ferer, who is supposed to be under the effects of
an evil spell, and from which it is evident that the
words are to accompany actions performed by the
conjurer. It is divided into parallel verses, of which
the first runs thus :
•
“As this onion is being peeled of its skins, thus shall it be of the
spell. The burning fire shall consume it; it shall no more be
planted in a row,
the ground shall not receive its root, its head
shall contain no seed and the sun shall not take care of it ;-it shall not
be offered at the feast of a god or a king.—The man who has cast
the evil spell, his eldest son, his wife, the spell, the lamentations,
the transgressions, the written spells, the blasphemies, the sins,—the
evil which is in my body, in my flesh, in my sores,—may they all be
destroyed as this onion, and may the burning fire consume them this
day! May the evil spell go far away, and may I see the light again!"
Then the destruction of a date is similarly de-
scribed:
"It shall not return to the bough from which it has been plucked.”
The untying of a knot:
"Its threads shall not return to the stem which has produced them."
The tearing up of some wool :
TURANIAN CHALDEA.
163
"It shall not return to the back of its sheep."
The tearing of some stuff, and after each act the
second verse:
"The man who has cast the spell," etc.
is repeated.
16. It is devoutly to be hoped, for the patients'
sake, that treatments like these took effect on the
disease, for they got no other. Diseases being con-
ceived as personal demons who entered a man's
body of their own accord or under compulsion from
powerful sorcerers, and illness being consequently
considered as a kind of possession, clearly the only
thing to do was to drive out the demon or break
the spell with the aid of the beneficent Êa and his
son. If this intervention was of no avail, nothing
remained for the patient but to get well as he
could, or to die. This is why there never was a
science of medicine in the proper sense in Chaldea,
even as late as three or four hundred years B.C.,
and the Greek travellers who then visited Babylon
must have been not a little shocked at the custom
they found there of bringing desperately sick per-
sons out of the houses with their beds and expos-
ing them in the streets, when any passer-by could
approach them, inquire into the disease and suggest
some remedy-which was sure to be tried as a last
chance. This extraordinary experiment was of
course not resorted to until all known forms of
conjuration had been gone through and had proved
inefficient.
17. The belief that certain words and impreca-
164
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
As houses
tions could break the power of demons or sorcerers
must have naturally led to the notion that to wear
such imprecations, written on some substance or ar-
ticle, always about one's person must be a continual
defence against them; while on the other hand,
words of invocation to the beneficent spirits and
images representing them, worn in the same way,
must draw down on the wearer those spirits' pro-
tection and blessing. Hence the passion for talis-
mans. They were of various kinds strips of stuff,
with the magic words written on them, to be fast-
ened to the body, or the clothes, or articles of
household furniture, were much used; but small
articles of clay or hard stone were
in greater
favor on account of their durability.
could be possessed by evil spirits just as well as
individuals, talismans were placed in different parts
of them for protection, and this belief was SO
enduring that small clay figures of gods were found
in Assyrian palaces under thresholds-as in the
palace of Khorsabad, by Botta-placed there "to
keep from it fiends and enemies." It has been
discovered in this manner that many of the sculp-
tures which adorned the Assyrian palaces and
temples were of talismanic nature. Thus the
winged bulls placed at the gateways were nothing
but representations of an Accadian class of guardian
spirits, the Kirabu, Hebrew Kerubim, of which we
have made Cherub, Cherubim-who were supposed
to keep watch at entrances, even at that of the
Arali, while some sculptures on which demons, in
the shape of hideous monsters, are seen fighting

BANCK
Gegeg
54. DEMONS FIGHTING.
(From the British Museum.)
166
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
each other, are, so to speak, imprecations in stone,
which, if translated into words, would mean: "May
the evil demons stay outside, may they assail and
fight each other,"-as, in that case, they would
clearly have no leisure to assail the inhabitants of
the dwelling. That these sculptures really were re-
garded as talismans and expected to guard the
inmates from harm, is abundantly shown by the
manner in which they are mentioned in several
inscriptions, down to a very late date. Thus Esar-
haddon, one of the last kings of Assyria (about
700 B.C.), says, after describing a very sumptuous.
palace which he had built :-" I placed in its gates
bulls and colossi, who, according to their fixed
command, against the wicked turn themselves;
they protect the footsteps, making peace to be
upon the path of the king their creator."
18. The cylinder seals with their inscriptions and
engraved figures were mostly also talismans of like
nature; which must be the reason why so many are
found in graves, tied to the dead person's wrist by a
string-evidently as a protection against the fiends
which the departed spirit was expected to meet.
The magic power was of course conferred on all
talismans by the words which the conjurer spoke
over them with the necessary ceremonies. One
such long incantation is preserved entire. It is
designed to impart to the talisman the power of
keeping the demons from all parts of the dwelling,
which are singly enumerated, with the conse-
quences to the demons who would dare to trespass:
those who steal into gutters, remove bolts or
TURANIAN CHALDEA.
167
hinges, shall be broken like an earthen jug, crushed
like clay; those who overstep the wooden frame of
the house shall be clipped of their wings; those
who stretch their neck in at the window, the win-
dow shall descend and cut their throat. The most
original in this class of superstitions was that
which, according to Lenormant, consisted in the
notion that all these demons were of so unutterably
ugly a form and countenance, that they must fly
away terrified if they only beheld their own like-
ness. As an illustration of this principle he gives
an incantation against "the wicked Namtar. It
begins with a highly graphic description of the
terrible demon, who is said to "take man captive
ike an enemy," to "burn him like a flame," to
"double him up like a bundle," to "assail man,
although having neither hand nor foot, like a
noose." Then follows the usual dialogue between
Êa and Meridug, (in the identical words given
above), and Êa at length reveals the prescription :
"Come hither, my son Meridug. Take mud of the
Ocean and knead out of it a likeness of him, (the
Namtar.) Lay down the man, after thou hast
purified him; lay the image on his bare abdomen,
impart to it my magic power and turn its face west-
ward, that the wicked Namtar, who dwells in his
body, may take up some other abode. Amen."
The idea is that the Namtar, on beholding his own
likeness, will flee from it in dismay !
19. To this same class belongs a small bronze
statuette, which is to be seen in the Louvre. Mr.
Lenormant thus describes it: "It is the image of a
168
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
horrible demon, standing, with the body of a dog,
the talons of an eagle, arms ending in a lion's paws,
the tail of a scorpion, the head of a skeleton, but
with eyes, and a goat's horns, and with four large
wings at the back, unfolded. A ring placed at the
back of the head served to hang the figure up.
Along the back is an inscription in the Accadian
language, informing us that this pretty creature is
the Demon of the South-west Wind, and is to be
placed at the door or window. For in Chaldea the
South-west Wind comes from the deserts of Arabia,
its burning breath consumes everything and pro-
duces the same ravages as the Simoon in Africa.
Therefore this particular talisman is most frequently
met with. Our museums contain many other fig-
ures of demons, used as talismans to frighten away
the evil spirits they were supposed to represent.
One has the head of a goat on a disproportionately
long neck; another shows a hyena's head, with huge
open mouth, on a bear's body with lion's paws."
On the principle that possession is best guarded
against by the presence of beneficent spirits, the
exorcisms-i.e., forms of conjuring designed to
drive the evil demons out of a man or dwelling—
are usually accompanied with a request to good
spirits to enter the one or the other, instead of the
wicked ones who have been ejected. The supreme
power which breaks that of all incantations, talis-
mans, conjuring rites whatever, is, it would appear,
supposed to reside in a great, divine name,-pos-
sibly a name of Êa himself. At all events, it is
Êa's own secret. For even in his dialogues with

ལ
་་ LAVINILO
STELKE GALER
55.-DEMON OF THE SOUTH-WEST WIND.
(Perrot and Chipiez.)

170
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
Meridug, when entreated for this supreme aid in
desperate cases, he is only supposed to impart it to
his son to use against the obdurate demons and
thereby crush their power, but it is not given, so
that the demons are only threatened with it, but
it is not actually uttered in the course of the incan-
tations.
20.
Not entirely unassisted did Êa pursue his
Such
gigantic task of protection and
healing. Along with him invo-
cations are often addressed to
several other spirits conceived
as essentially good divine be-
ings, whose beneficent influence
is felt in many ways.
was Im, the Storm-Wind, with
its accompanying vivifying
showers; such are the purify-
ing and wholesome Waters, the
Rivers and Springs which feed
the earth; above all, such were
the Sun and Fire, also the
56.-HEAD OF DEMON. Moon, objects of double rever-
ence and gratitude because they dispel the darkness
of night, which the Shumiro-Accads loathed and
feared excessively, as the time when the wicked
demons are strongest and the power of bad men for
weaving deadly spells is greatest. The third Book
of the Collection of Magic Texts is composed al-
most entirely of hymns to these deities-as well as
to Êa and Meridug-which betray a somewhat later
stage in the nation's religious development, by the
TURANIAN CHALDEA.
171
poetical beauty of some of the fragments, and es-
pecially by a purer feeling of adoration and a higher
perception of moral goodness, which are absent
from the oldest incantations.
21. At noon, when the sun has reached the high-
est point in its heavenly course, the earth lies before
it without a shadow; all things, good or bad, are
manifest; its beams, after dispelling the unfriendly
gloom, pierce into every nook and cranny, bringing
into light all ugly things that hide and lurk; the
evil-doer cowers and shuns its all-revealing splendor,
and, to perform his accursed deeds, waits the return
of his dark accomplice, night. What wonder then.
that to the Shumiro-Accads UD, the Sun in all its
midday glory, was a very hero of protection, the
source of truth and justice, the "supreme judge in
Heaven and on earth," who "knows lie from truth,"
who knows the truth that is in the soul of man.
The hymns to Ud that have been deciphered are.
full of beautiful images. Take for instance the fol-
lowing:-
'O Sun,* I have called unto thee in the bright heavens. In the
shadow of the cedar art thou;" (i.e., it is thou who makest the cedar
to cast its shadow, holy and auspicious as the tree itself.) "Thy
feet are on the summits. . . . The countries have wished for thee,
they have longed for thy coming, O Lord! Thy radiant light
illumines all countries. . . . Thou makest lies to vanish, thou
destroyest the noxious influence of portents, omens, spells, dreams
and evil apparitions; thou turnest wicked plots to a happy
issue. . . .
* "UD" not being a proper name, but the name of the sun in the
language of Shumir and Accad, it can be rendered in translation by
Sun," with a capital.
172
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
This is both true and finely expressed. For what
most inveterate believer in ghosts and apparitions
ever feared them by daylight? and the last touch
shows much moral sense and observation of the
mysterious workings of a beneficent power which
often not merely defeats evil but even turns it into
good. There is splendid poetry in the following
fragment describing the glory of sunrise:-
"O Sun! thou hast stepped forth from the background of heaven,
thou hast pushed back the bolts of the brilliant heaven,—yea, the
gate of heaven. O Sun! above the land thou hast raised thy head!
O Sun! thou hast covered the immeasurable space of heaven and
countries!"
Another hymn describes how, at the Sun's ap-
pearance in the brilliant portals of the heavens,
and during his progress to their highest point,
all the great gods turn to his light, all the good
spirits of heaven and earth gaze up to his face,
surround him joyfully and reverently, and escort
him in solemn procession. It needs only to put
all these fragments into fine verse to make out of
them a poem which will be held beautiful even in
our day, when from our very childhood we learn
to know the difference between good and poor poe-
try, growing up, as we do, on the best of all ages
and all countries.
22. When the sun disappeared in the West, sink-
ing rapidly, and diving, as it were, into the very
midst of darkness, the Shumiro-Accads did not
fancy him as either asleep or inactive, but on the
contrary as still engaged in his everlasting work.
Under the name of NIN-DAR, he travels through
TURANIAN CHALDEA.
173
the dreary regions ruled by Mulge and, his essence
being light, he combats the powers of darkness in
their own home, till He comes out of it, a trium-
phant hero, in the morning. Nin-dar is also the
keeper of the hidden treasures of the earth-its
metals and precious stones, because, according to
Mr. Lenormant's ingenious remark, "they only
wait, like him, the moment of emerging out of the
earth, to emit a bright radiancy." This radiancy of
precious stones, which is like a concentration of
light in its purest form, was probably the reason
why they were in such general use as talismans,
quite as much as their hardness and durability.
23. But while the Sun accomplishes his nightly
underground journey, men would be left a prey to
mortal terrors in the upper world, deprived of light,
their chief defence against the evil brood of dark-
ness, were it not for his substitute, Fire, who is by
nature also a being of light, and, as such, the friend
of men, from whose paths and dwellings he scares.
not only wild beasts and foes armed with open vio-
lence, but the far more dangerous hosts of unseen.
enemies, both demons and spells cast by wicked
sorcerers. It is in this capacity of protector that
the god GIBIL (Fire) is chiefly invoked.
very complete hymn he is addressed thus:-
In one
"Thou who drivest away the evil Maskim, who furtherest the
well-being of life, who strikest the breast of the wicked with terror,—
Fire, the destroyer of foes, dread weapon which drivest away Pesti-
lence."
This last attribute would show that the Shumiro-
Accads had noticed the hygienic properties of fire,
174
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
which does indeed help to dispel miasmas on ac-
count of the strong ventilation which a great blaze
sets going. Thus at a comparatively late epoch,
some 400 years B.C., a terrible plague broke out at
Athens, the Greek city, and Hippocrates, a physi-
cian of great genius and renown, who has been
called "the Father of Medicine," tried to diminish
the contagion by keeping huge fires continually
blazing at different points of the city. It is the
same very correct idea which made men invoke Gi-
bil as he who purifies the works of man. He is
also frequently called "the protector of the dwell-
ing, of the family," and praised for "creating light
in the house of darkness," and for bringing peace to
all creation. Over and above these claims to grati-
tude, Gibil had a special importance in the life of a
people given to the works of metallurgy, of which
fire is the chief agent: "It is thou," says one
hymn, "who mixest tin and copper, it is thou who
purifiest silver and gold." Now the mixture of tin
and copper produces bronze, the first metal which
has been used to make weapons and tools of, in
most cases long before iron, which is much more dif-
ficult to work, and as the quality of the metal de-
pends on the proper mixture of the two ingredients,
it is but natural that the aid of the god Fire should
have been specially invoked for the operation. But
Fire is not only a great power on earth, it is also, in
the shape of Lightning, one of the dreadest and
most mysterious powers of the skies, and as such
sometimes called son of Ana (Heaven), or, in a more
roundabout way, "the Hero, son of the Ocean "
TURANIAN CHALDEA.
175
meaning the celestial Ocean, the great reservoir of
rains, from which the lightning seems to spring, as
it flashes through the heavy showers of a Southern
thunder storm. In whatever shape he appear, and
whatever his functions, Gibil is hailed as an invaria-
bly beneficent and friendly being.
24. When the feeling of helplessness forced on
man by his position in the midst of nature takes the
form of a reverence for and dependence on beings
whom he conceives of as essentially good, a far
nobler religion and far higher moral tone are the
immediate consequence. This conception of abso-
lute goodness sprang from the observation that
certain beings or spirits-like the Sun, Fire, the
Thunderstorm-though possessing the power of do-
ing both good and harm, used it almost exclusively
for the benefit of men. This position once firmly
established, the conclusion naturally followed, that
if these good beings once in awhile sent down a
catastrophe or calamity,—if the Sun scorched the
fields or the Thunderstorm swamped them, if the
wholesome North Wind swept away the huts and
broke down the trees-it must be in anger, as a
mark of displeasure-in punishment. By what
could man provoke the displeasure of kind and ben-
eficent beings? Clearly by not being like them,
by doing not good, but evil. And what is evil?
That which is contrary to the nature of the good
spirits: doing wrong and harm to men; committing
sins and wicked actions. To avoid, therefore, pro-
voking the anger of those good but powerful
spirits, so terrible in its manifestations, it is neces-
176
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
sary to try to please them, and that can be done only
by being like them,-good, or at least striving to
be so, and, when temptation, ignorance, passion or
weakness of will have betrayed man into a trans-
gression, to confess it, express regret for the offence
and an intention not to offend again, in order to
obtain forgiveness and be spared. A righteous life,
then, prayer and repentance are the proper means
of securing divine favor or mercy. It is evident
that a religion from which such lessons naturally
spring is a great improvement on a belief in beings
who do good or evil indiscriminately, indeed prefer
doing evil, a belief which cannot teach a distinction
between moral right and wrong, or a rational distri-
bution of rewards or punishment, nor consequently
inculcate the feeling of duty and responsibility,
without which goodness as a matter of principle is
impossible and a reliable state of society unattain-
able.
25. This higher and therefore later stage of
moral and religious development is very perceptible
in the third book of the Magic Collection. With
the appreciation of absolute goodness, conscience
has awakened, and speaks with such insistence and
authority that the Shumiro-Accad, in the simplic-
ity of his mind, has earnestly imagined it to be the
voice of a personal and separate deity, a guardian
spirit belonging to each man, dwelling within him
and living his life. It is a god-sometimes even a
divine couple, both "god and goddess, pure spirits.
—who protects him from his birth, yet is not proof
against the spells of sorcerers and the attacks of the
TURANIAN CHALDEA.
177
demons, and even can be compelled to work evil in
the person committed to its care, and frequently
called therefore "the son of his god," as we saw
above, in the incantation against the Disease of the
Head. The conjuration or exorcism which drives
out the demon, of course restores the guardian
spirit to its own beneficent nature, and the patient
not only to bodily well-being, but also to peace of
mind. That is what is desired, when a prayer for
the cure of a sick or possessed person ends with the
words: "May he be placed again in the gracious.
hands of his god!" When therefore a man is rep-
resented as speaking to "his god" and confessing
to him his sin and distress, it is only a way of ex-
pressing that silent self-communing of the soul, in
which it reviews its own deficiencies, forms good.
resolutions and prays to be released from the intol
erable burden of sin. There are some most beauti-
ful prayers of this sort in the collection. They
have been called "the Penitential Psalms," from
their striking likeness to some of those psalms in
which King David confesses his iniquities and
humbles himself before the Lord. The likeness
extends to both spirit and form, almost to words.
If the older poet, in his spiritual groping, ad-
dresses "his god and goddess," the higher, better
self which he feels within him and feels to be divine
-his Conscience, instead of the One God and Lord,
his feeling is not less earnest, his appeal not less
pure and confiding. He confesses his transgres-
sion, but pleads ignorance and sues for mercy.
Here are some of the principal verses, of which
178
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
my
each is repeated twice, once addressed to
god," and the second time to "my goddess." The
title of the Psalm is: "The complaints of the re-
pentant heart. Sixty-five verses in all.”
•
•
•
26. “My Lord, may the anger of his heart be allayed! May the
fool attain understanding! The god who knows the unknown, may
he be conciliated! The goddess who knows the unknown, may she
be conciliated!-I eat the food of wrath and drink the waters of
anguish. . . . O my god, my transgressions are very great, very great
my sins.
I transgress, and know it not. I sin, and know it not.
I feed on transgressions, and know it not.
I wander on wrong
paths, and know it not.-The Lord, in the wrath of his heart, has
overwhelmed me with confusion. . . I lie on the ground, and none
reaches a hand to me. I am silent and in tears, and none takes me
by the hand. I cry out, and there is none that hears me.
I am
exhausted, oppressed, and none releases me. . . . My god, who
knowest the unknown, be merciful! . My goddess, who know-
est the unknown, be merciful! ... How long, O my god?
How long, O my goddess? . . . . . Lord, thou wilt not repulse thy
servant. In the midst of the stormy waters, come to my assistance,
take me by the hand! I commit sins-turn them into blessedness!
I commit transgressions-let the wind sweep them away! My blas-
phemies are very many-rend them like a garment!
God who
knowest the unknown,* my sins are seven times seven,--forgive my
sins! . . . ."
•
•
•
•
•
27. The religious feeling once roused to this ex-
tent, it is not to be wondered at that in some invoca-
tions the distress or disease which had formerly
been taken as a gratuitous visitation, begins to be
considered in the light of a divine punishment, even
though the afflicted person be the king himself.
This is very evident from the concluding passage of
*Another and more recent translator renders this line: "God
who knowest I knew not." Whichever rendering is right, the
thought is beautiful and profound.
TURANIAN CHALDEA.
179
a hymn to the Sun, in which it is the conjurer who
speaks on behalf of the patient, while presenting an
offering:-
"O Sun, leave not my uplifted hands unregarded!-Eat his food,
refuse not his sacrifice, bring back his god to him, to be a support
unto his hand!-May his sin, at thy behest, be forgiven him, his mis-
deed be forgotten!-May his trouble leave him! May he recover
from his illness !-Give to the king new vital strength. . . . Escort
the king, who lies at thy feet!—Also me, the conjurer, thy respect-
ful servant!"
28. There is another hymn of the same kind, not
less remarkable for its artistic and regular construc-
tion than for its beauty of feeling and diction. The
penitent speaks five double lines, and the priest
adds two more, as though endorsing the prayer and
supporting it 'with the weight of his own sacred
character. This gives very regular strophes, of
which, unfortunately, only two have been well pre-
served:
Whoever
Penitent.-" I, thy servant, full of sighs, I call to thee.
is beset with sin, his ardent supplication thou acceptest. If thou
lookest on a man with pity, that man liveth. Ruler of all, mistress
of mankind! Merciful one, to whom it is good to turn, who dost
receive sighs!" Priest.- "While his god and his goddess are
wroth with him he calls on thee. Thy countenance turn on him,
take hold of his hand."
Penitent.—" Besides thee there is no deity to lead in righteousness.
Kindly look on me, accept my sighs. Speak: how long? and let
thine heart be appeased. When, O Lady, will thy countenance turn
on me? Even like doves I moan, I feed on sighs." Priest.-" His
heart is full of woe and trouble, and full of sighs. Tears he sheds
and breaks out into lamentation." *
* This hymn is given by H. Zimmern, as the text to a dissertation
on the language and grammar.
180
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
29. Such is a not incomplete outline of this
strange and primitive religion, the religion of a peo-
ple whose existence was not suspected twenty-five
years ago, yet which claims, with the Egyptians and
the Chinese, the distinction of being one of the old-
est on earth, and in all probability was older than
both. This discovery is one of the most important
conquests of modern science, not only from its being
highly interesting in itself, but from the light it
throws on innumerable hitherto obscure points in
the history of the ancient world, nay, on many cu-
rious facts which reach down to our own time.
Thus, the numerous Turanian tribes which exist in
a wholly or half nomadic condition in the immense.
plains of Eastern and South-eastern Russia, in the
forests and wastes of Siberia, on the steppes and
highlands of Central Asia, have no other religion
now than this of the old Shumiro-Accads, in its
earliest and most material shape. Everything to
them is a spirit or has a spirit of its own; they have
no worship, no moral teaching, but only conjuring,
sorcerers, not priests. These men are called Sha-
mans and have great influence among the tribes.
The more advanced and cultivated Turanians, like
the Mongols and Mandchous, accord to one great
Spirit the supremacy over all others and call that
Spirit which they conceive as absolutely good, mer-
ciful and just, "Heaven," just as the Shumiro-Ac-
cads invoked “Ana.” This has been and still is
the oldest national religion of the Chinese. They
"Heaven" wherever we would say "God," and
say
TURANIAN CHALDEA.
181
with the same idea of loving adoration and reverent
dread, which does not prevent them from invoking
the spirit of every hill, river, wind or forest, and
numbering among this host also the souls of the
deceased. This clearly corresponds to the second
and higher stage of the Accadian religion, and marks
the utmost limit which the Yellow Race have been
able to attain in spiritual life. True, the greater
part of the Chinese now have another religion;
they are Buddhists; while the Turks and the great
majority of the Tatars, Mongols and Mandchous,
not to speak of other less important divisions, are
Mussulmans. But both Buddhism and Mahome-
tanism are foreign religions, which they have bor-
rowed, adopted, not worked out for themselves.
Here then we are also met by that fatal law of limi-
tation, which through all ages seems to have said
to the men of yellow skin and high cheek-bones,
"Thus far shalt thou go, and no further." Thus it
was in Chaldea. The work of civilization and spirit-
ual development begun by the people of Shumir and
Accad was soon taken out of their hands and carried
on by newcomers from the east, those descendants
of Noah, who "found a plain in the land of Shinar
and dwelt there."
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III.
Professor Louis Dyer, of Harvard University, has
attempted a rendering into English verse of the
famous incantation of the Seven Maskim. The
result of the experiment is a translation most faith-
182
THE STORY OF CHALDEÀ.
ful in the spirit and main features, if not always
literal; and which, by his kind permission, we here
offer to our readers.
A CHARM.
I.
Seven are they, they are seven;
In the caverns of ocean they dwell,
They are clothed in the lightnings of heaven,
Of their growth the deep waters can tell;
Seven are they, they are seven.
II.
Broad is their way and their course is wide,
Where the seeds of destruction they sow,
O'er the tops of the hills where they stride,
To lay waste the smooth highways below,—
Broad is their way and their course is wide.
III.
Man they are not, nor womankind,
For in fury they sweep from the main,
And have wedded no wife but the wind,
And no child have begotten but pain,—
Man they are not, nor womankind.
IV.
Fear is not in them, not awe;
Supplication they heed not, nor prayer,
For they know no compassion nor law,
And are deaf to the cries of despair,―
Fear is not in them, not awe.
V.
Cursed they are, they are curséd,
They are foes to wise Êa's great name;
By the whirlwind are all things disperséd
On the paths of the flash of their flame,-
Curséd they are, they are curséd.
TURANIAN CHALDEA.
183
VI.
Spirit of Heaven, oh, help! Help, oh, Spirit of Earth!
They are seven, thrice said they are seven;
For the gods they are Bearers of Thrones,
But for men they are Breeders of Dearth
And the authors of sorrows and moans.
They are seven, thrice said they are seven.
Spirit of Heaven, oh, help! Help, oh, Spirit of Earth !


WIC
IV.
CUSHITES AND SEMITES. EARLY CHALDEAN HIS-
TORY.
1. WE have just seen that the hymns and prayers
which compose the third part of the great Magic
Collection really mark a later and higher stage in
the religious conceptions of the Turanian settlers of
Chaldea, the people of Shumir and Accad. This
improvement was not entirely due to a process of
natural development, but in a great measure to the
influence of that other and nobler race, who came
from the East. When the priestly historian of
Babylon, Berosus, calls the older population "men
of foreign race," it is because he belonged himself
to that second race, who remained in the land, intro-
duced their own superior culture, and asserted their
supremacy to the end of Babylon. The national
legends have preserved the memory of this import-
ant event, which they represent as a direct divine
revelation. Êa, the all-wise himself, it was believed,
had appeared to men and taught them things hu-
man and divine. Berosus faithfully reports the
legend, but seems to have given the God's name
"Êa-Han" (" Êa the Fish") under the corrupted
184
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
185
Greek form of OANNES. This is the narrative, of
which we already know the first line:
"There was originally at Babylon a multitude of
men of foreign race who had colonized Chaldea, and
they lived without order, like animals. But in the
first year" (meaning the first year of the new order
of things, the new dispensation) "there appeared,
from out of the Erythrean Sea (the ancient Greek
name for the Persian Gulf) where it borders upon
Babylonia, an animal endowed with reason, who was
called OANNES. The whole body of the animal was
that of a fish, but under the fish's head he had
another head, and also feet below, growing out of
his fish's tail, similar to those of a man; also human
speech, and his image is preserved to this day.
This being used to spend the whole day amidst
men, without taking any food, and he gave them
an insight into letters, and sciences, and every kind
of art; he taught them how to found cities, to con-
struct temples, to introduce laws and to measure
land; he showed them how to sow seeds and gather
in crops; in short, he instructed them in everything
that softens manners and makes up civilization, so
that from that time no one has invented anything
new. Then, when the sun went down, this mon-
strous Oannes used to plunge back into the sea and
spend the night in the midst of the boundless waves,
for he was amphibious."
2. The question, Who were the bringers of this
advanced civilization? has caused much division.
among the most eminent scholars. Two solutions.
are offered. Both being based on many and serious.
186
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
grounds and supported by illustrious names, and
the point being far from settled yet, it is but fair to
state them both. The two greatest of German
assyriologists, Professors Eberhard Schrader and
Friedrich Delitzsch, and the German school which
acknowledges them as leaders, hold that the bring-
ers of the new and more perfect civilization were
Semites-descendants of Shem, i.e., people of the
same race as the Hebrews-while the late François
Lenormant and his followers contend that they
were Cushites in the first instance,---i.e., belonged
to that important family of nations which we find
grouped, in Chapter X. of Genesis, under the name
of Cush, himself a son of Ham-and that the Sem-
itic immigration came second. As the latter hypoth-
esis puts forward, among other arguments, the
authority of the Biblical historians, and moreover
involves the destinies of a very numerous and vast-
ly important branch of ancient humanity, we will
yield to it the right of precedence.
((
3. The name "HAM" signifies "brown, dark" (not
"black"). Therefore, to speak of certain nations as
sons of Ham," is to say that they belonged to
"the Dark Race." Yet, originally, this great sec-
tion of Noah's posterity was as white of color as the
other two. It seems to have first existed as a sepa-
rate race in a region not very distant from the high
table-land of Central Asia, the probable first cradle
of mankind. That division of this great section
which again separated and became the race of Cush,
appears to have been drawn southwards by reasons
which it is, of course, impossible to ascertain. It

57-OANNES.
(Smith's "Chaldean Genesis.")
188
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
is easier to guess at the route they must have taken
along the HINDU CUSH,* a range of mountains
which must have been to it a barrier in the west,
and which joins the western end of the Himalaya,
the mightiest mountain-chain in the world. The
break between the Hindu-Cush and the Himalaya
forms a mountain pass, just at the spot where the
river INDUS (most probably the PISCHON of Gen.,
Ch. II.) turns abruptly to the south, to water the
rich plains of India. Through this pass, and follow-
ing the course of the river, further Cushite detach-
ments must have penetrated into that vast and
attractive peninsula, even to the south of it, where
they found a population mostly belonging to the
Black branch of humanity, so persistently ignored
by the writer of Chap. X. Hundreds of years spent
under a tropical clime and intermarriage with the
Negro natives altered not only the color of their
skin, but also the shape of their features. So that
when Cushite tribes, with the restless migratory
spirit so characteristic of all early ages, began to
work their way back again to the north, then to the
west, along the shores of the Indian Ocean and the
Persian Gulf, they were both dark-skinned and thick-
lipped, with a decided tendency towards the Negro
type, lesser or greater according to the degree of
mixture with the inferior race. That this type was
foreign to them is proved by the facility with which
their features resumed the nobler cast of the white
races wherever they stayed long enough among
these, as was the case in Chaldea, in Arabia, in the
* Names are often deceptive. That of the Hindu-Cush is now
thought to mean "Killers of Hindus," probably in allusion to robber
tribes of the mountains, and to have nothing to do with the Cushite race.
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
189
countries of Canaan, whither many of these tribes
wandered at various times.
4. Some Cushite detachments, who reached the
straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, crossed over into Africa,
and settling there amidst the barbarous native negro
tribes, formed a nation which became known to
its northern neighbors, the Egyptians, to the
Hebrews, and throughout the ancient East under
its own proper name of CUSH, and whose out-
ward characteristics came, in the course of time,
so near to the pure Negro type as to be scarcely
recognizable from it. This is the same nation
which, to us
under
moderns, is better known
the name of ETHIOPIANS, given to it by the Greeks,
as well as to the eastern division of the same race.
The Egyptians themselves were another branch of
the same great section of humanity, represented in
the genealogy of Chap. X. by the name of MIZRAIM,
second son of Ham. These must have come from
the east along the Persian Gulf, then across North-
ern Arabia and the Isthmus of Suez. In the color
and features of the Egyptians the mixture with
black races is also noticeable, but not enough to
destroy the beauty and expressiveness of the orig-
inal type, at all events far less than in their south-
ern neighbors, the Ethiopians, with whom, more-
over, they were throughout on the worst of terms,
whom they loathed and invariably designated under
the name of "vile.Cush.”
5. A third and very important branch of the Ha-
mite family, the CANAANITES, after reaching the
Persian Gulf, and probably sojourning there some
190
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
time, spread, not to the south, but to the west,
across the plains of Syria, across the mountain
chain of LEBANON and to the very edge of the
Mediterranean Sea, occupying all the land which
later became Palestine, also to the north-west, as
far as the mountain chain of TAURUS. This
This group
was very numerous, and broken up into a great
many peoples, as we can judge from the list of na-
tions given in Chap. X. (v. 15-18) as "sons of Ca-
naan.” In its migrations over this comparatively
northern region, Canaan found and displaced not
black natives, but Turanian nomadic tribes, who
roamed at large over grassy wildernesses and sandy
wastes and are possibly to be accounted as the rep-
resentatives of that portion of the race which the
biblical historian embodies in the pastoral names of
Jabal and Jubal—(Gen. iv., 20-22)—“ The father of
such as dwell in tents and have cattle," and "the
father of all such as handle the harp and pipe." In
which case the Turanian settlers and builders of cit-
ies would answer to Tubalcain, the smith and arti-
ficer. The Canaanites, therefore, are those among
the Hamites who, in point of color and features,
have least differed from their kindred white races,
though still sufficiently bronzed to be entitled to
the name of "sons of Ham," i.e., "belonging to the
dark-skinned race."
6. Migrating races do not traverse continents with
the same rapidity as marching armies. The prog-
ress is slow, the stations are many. Every station
becomes a settlement, sometimes the beginning of
a new nation-so many landmarks along the way.
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
191
And the distance between the starting-point and
the furthest point reached by the race is measured
not only by thousands of miles, but also by hun-
dreds and hundreds of years; only the space can be
actually measured, while the time can be computed
merely by conjecture. The route from the south of
India, along the shore of Malabar, the Persian Gulf,
across the Arabian deserts, then down along the
Red Sea and across the straits into Africa, is of such
tremendous length that the settlements which the
Cushite race left scattered along it must have been
more than usually numerous. According to the
upholders of a Cushite colonization of Chaldea, one
important detachment appears to have taken pos-
session of the small islands along the eastern shore of
the Persian Gulf and to have stayed there for several
centuries, probably choosing these island homes on
account of their seclusion and safety from invasion.
There, unmolested and undisturbed, they could
develop a certain spirit of abstract speculation to
which their natural bent inclined them. They were
great star-gazers and calculators-two tastes which
go well together, for Astronomy cannot exist with-
out Mathematics. But star-gazing is also favorable.
to dreaming, and the Cushite islanders had time for
dreams. Thoughts of heavenly things occupied
them much; they worked out a religion beautiful
in many ways and full of deep sense; their priests
dwelt in communities or colleges, probably one on
every island, and spent their time not only in scien-
tific study and religious contemplation, but also in
the more practical art of government, for there do
192
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
not appear as yet to have been any kings among
them.
7. But there came a time when the small is-
lands were overcrowded with the increased popu-
lation, and detachments began to cross the water
and land at the furthest point of the Gulf, in the
land of the great rivers. Here they found a people
not unpractised in several primitive arts, and pos-
sessed of some important fundamental inventions-
writing, irrigation by means of canals-but deplora-
bly deficient in spiritual development, and positively
barbarous in the presence of an altogether higher
culture. The Cushites rapidly spread through the
land of Shumir and Accad, and taught the people.
with whom they afterwards, as usual, intermarried,
until both formed but one nation-with this differ-
ence, that towards the north of Chaldea the Cushite
element became predominant, while in the south
numbers remained on the side of the Turanians.
Whether this result was attained altogether peace-
fully or was preceded by a period of resistance and
fighting, we have no means of ascertaining. If
there was such a period, it cannot have lasted long,
for intellect was on the side of the newcomers, and
that is a power which soon wins the day. At all
events the final fusion must have been complete
and friendly, since the old national legend reported
by Berosus cleverly combines the two elements, by
attributing the part of teacher and revealer to the
Shumiro-Accad's own favorite divine being Êa,
while it is not impossible that it alludes to the com-
ing of the Cushites in making the amphibious
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
193
Oannes rise out of the Persian Gulf, "where it bor-
ders on Chaldea." The legend goes on to say that
Oannes set down his revelations in books which he
consigned into the keeping of men, and that several
more divine animals of the same kind continued to
appear at long intervals. Who knows but the latter
strange detail may have been meant to allude fan-
tastically to the arrival of successive Cushite colo-
nies? In the long run of time, of course all such
meaning would be forgotten and the legend remain
as a miraculous and inexplicable incident.
8. It would be vain to attempt to fix any dates
for events which took place in such remote antiquity,
in the absence of any evidence or document that
might be grasped. Yet, by close study of facts, by
laborious and ingenious comparing of later texts, of
every scrap of evidence furnished by monuments, of
information contained in the fragments of Berosus.
and of other writers, mostly Greek, it has been pos-
sible, with due caution, to arrive at some approxi-
mative dates, which, after all, are all that is needed
to classify things in an order intelligible and correct
in the main. Even should further discoveries and
researches arrive at more exact results, the gain will
be comparatively small. At such a distance, differ-
ences of a couple of centuries do not matter much.
When we look down a long line of houses or trees,
the more distant ones appear to run together, and
we do not always see where it ends-yet we can
perfectly well pursue its direction. The same with
the so-called double stars in astronomy: they are
stars which, though really separated by thousands
194
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
of miles, appear as one on account of the immense
distance between them and our eye, and only the
strongest telescope lenses show them to be separate
bodies, though still close together. Yet this is suffi-
cient to assign them their place so correctly on the
map of the heavens, that they do not disturb the
calculations in which they are included. The same
kind of perspective applies to the history of remote
antiquity. As the gloom which has covered it so
long slowly rolls back before the light of scientific
research, we begin to discern outlines and landmarks,
at first so dim and wavering as rather to mislead
than to instruct; but soon the searcher's eye, sharp-
ened by practice, fixes them sufficiently to bring
them into connection with the later and more fully
illumined portions of the eternally unrolling pict-
ure. Chance, to which all discoverers are so much
indebted, frequently supplies such a landmark, and
now and then one so firm and distinct as to become
a trustworthy centre for a whole group.
9. The annals of the Assyrian king Asshurbani-
pal (the founder of the great Library at Nineveh)
have established beyond a doubt the first positive
date that has been secured for the History of Chal-
dea. That king was for a long time at war with the
neighboring kingdom of ELAM, and ended by con-
quering and destroying its capital, SHUSHAN (Susa),
after carrying away all the riches from the royal
palace and all the statues from the great temple.
This happened in the year 645 B.C. In the in-
scriptions in which he records this event, the king
informs us that in that temple he found a statue of
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
195
the Chaldean goddess NANA, which had been car-
ried away from her own temple in the city of UR-
UKH (Erech, now Warka) by a king of Elam of the
name of KHUDUR-NANKHUNDI, who invaded the
land of Accad 1635 years before, and that he, As-
shurbanipal, by the goddess's own express com-
mand, took her from where she had dwelt in Elam,
"a place not appointed her," and reinstated her in
her own sanctuary "which she had delighted in."
1635 added to 645 make 2280, a date not to be dis-
puted. Now if a successful Elamite invasion in
2280 found in Chaldea famous sanctuaries to dese-
crate, the religion to which these sanctuaries be-
longed, that of the Cushite, or Semitic colonists,
must have been established in the country already
for several, if not many, centuries. Indeed, quite
recent discoveries show that it had been so consid-
erably over a thousand years, so that we cannot
possibly accept a date later than 4000 B.C. for the
foreign immigration. The Shumiro-Accadian cul-
ture was too firmly rooted then and too completely
worked out as far as it went to allow less than
about 1000 years for its establishment. This takes
us as far back as 5000 B.C.-a pretty respectable fig-
ure, especially when we think of the vista of time
which opens behind it, and for which calculation
fairly fails us. For if the Turanian settlers brought
the rudiments of that culture from the highlands of
Elam, how long had they sojourned there before
they descended into the plains? And how long had
it taken them to reach that station on their way
196
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
from the race's mountain home in the far North-
east, in the Altai valleys?
10. However that may be, 5000 B.C. is a moderate
and probable date. But ancient nations were not
content with such, when they tried to locate and
classify their own beginnings. These being neces-
sarily obscure and only vaguely shadowed out in
traditions which gained in fancifulness and lost in
probability with every succeeding generation that
received them and handed them down to the next,
they loved to magnify them by enshrouding them
in the mystery of innumerable ages. The more ap-
palling the figures, the greater the glory. Thus we
gather from some fragments of Berosus that, ac-
cording to the national Chaldean tradition, there
was an interval of over 259,000 years between the
first appearance of Oannes and the first king. Then
come ten successive kings, each of whom reigns a
no less extravagant number of years (one 36,000,
another 43,000, even 64,000; 10,800 being the most
modest figure), till the aggregate of all these differ-
ent periods makes up the pretty sum total of 691,-
200 years, supposed to have elapsed from the first
appearance of Oannes to the Deluge. It is so im-
possible to imagine so prodigious a number of years
or couple with it anything at all real, that we might
just as well substitute for such a figure the simpler
very, very long ago," or still better, the approved
fairy tale beginning, "There was once upon
time... It conveys quite as definite a notion,
and would, in such a case, be the more appropriate,
(C
a
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
197
that all a nation's most marvellous traditions, most.
fabulous legends, are naturally placed in those stu-
pendously remote ages which no record could reach,
no experience control. Although these traditions
and legends generally had a certain body of actual
truth and dimly remembered fact in them, which
might still be apparent to the learned and the cul-
tivated few, the ignorant masses of the people swal-
lowed the thing whole, as real history, and found
things acknowledged as impossible easy to believe,
for the simple reason that "it was so very long
ago!" A Chaldean of Alexander's time certainly
did not expect to meet a divine Man-Fish in his
walks along the sea-shore, but-there was no know-
ing what might or might not have happened seven
hundred thousand years ago! In the legend of the
six successive apparitions under the first ten long-
lived kings, he would not have descried the simple.
sense so lucidly set forth by Mr. Maspero, one of
the most distinguished of French Orientalists :—
"The times preceding the Deluge represented an
experimental period, during which mankind, being
as yet barbarous, had need of divine assistance to
overcome the difficulties with which it was sur-
rounded. Those times were filled up with six man-
ifestations of the deity, doubtless answering to the
number of sacred books in which the priests saw
the most complete expression of revealed law."*
This presents another and more probable explana-
tion of the legend than the one suggested above,
*“Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient,” 1878, p. 160.
198
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
(end of 7); but there is no more actual proof of
the one than of the other being the correct one.
II. If Chaldea was in after times a battle-ground
of nations, it was in the beginning a very nursery
and hive of peoples. The various races in their
migrations must necessarily have been attracted
and arrested by the exceeding fertility of its soil,
which it is said, in the times of its highest pros-
perity and under proper conditions of irrigation,
yielded two hundredfold return for the grain it re-
ceived. Settlement must have followed settlement
in rapid succession. But the nomadic element was
for a long time still very prevalent, and side by side.
with the builders of cities and tillers of fields, shep-
herd tribes roamed peacefully over the face of the
land, tolerated and unmolested by the permanent
population, with which they mixed but warily,
occasionally settling down temporarily, and shifting
their settlements as safety or advantage required it,
-or wandering off altogether from that common
halting-place, to the north, and west, and south-
west. This makes it very plain why Chaldea is
given as the land where the tongues became con-
fused and the second separation of races took
place.
12. Of those principally nomadic tribes the great-
est part did not belong, like the Cushites or Canaan-
ites, to the descendants of Ham, "the Dark," but to
those of SHEM, whose name, signifying "Glory, Re-
nown," stamps him as the eponymous ancestor of
that race which has always firmly believed itself to
be the chosen one of God. They were Semites.
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
199
When they arrived on the plains of Chaldea, they
were inferior in civilization to the people among
whom they came to dwell. They knew nothing of
city arts and had all to learn. They did learn, for
superior culture always asserts its power,-even to
the language of the Cushite settlers, which the
latter were rapidly substituting for the rude and
poor Turanian idiom of Shumir and Accad. This
language, or rather various dialects of it, were com-
mon to most Hamitic and Semitic tribes, among
whom that from which the Hebrews sprang brought
it to its greatest perfection. The others worked it
into different kindred dialects-the Assyrian, the
Aramaic or Syrian, the Arabic-according to their
several peculiarities. The Phoenicians of the sea-
shore, and all the Canaanite nations, also spoke
languages belonging to the same family, and there-
fore classed among the so-called Semitic tongues.
Thus it has come to pass that philology,—or the
Science of Languages,-adopted a wrong name for
that entire group, calling the languages belonging
to it, "Semitic," while, in reality, they are originally
Hamitic." The reason is that the Hamitic ori-
gin of those important languages which have been
called Semitic these hundred years had not been
discovered until very lately, and to change the name
now would produce considerable confusion.
CC
13. Most of the Semitic tribes who dwelt in
Chaldea adopted not only the Cushite language,
but the Cushite culture and religion. Asshur
carried all three northward, where the Assyrian
kingdom arose out of a few Babylonian colonies,
200
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
and Aram westward to the land which was after-
wards called Southern Syria, and where the great
city of Damascus long flourished and still exists.
But there was one tribe of higher spiritual gifts
than the others. It was not numerous, for through
many generations it consisted of only one great
family governed by its own eldest chief or patri-
arch. It is true that such a family, with the patri-
arch's own children and children's children, its
wealth of horses, camels, flocks of sheep, its host of
servants and slaves, male and female, represented.
quite a respectable force; Abraham could muster
three hundred eighteen armed and trained servants.
who had been born in his own household. This
particular tribe seems to have wandered for some
time on the outskirts of Chaldea and in the land
itself, as indicated by the name given to its ep-
onym in Chap. X.: ARPHAXAD (more correctly
ARPHAKSHAD), corrupted from AREPH-KASDÎM,
which means, "bordering on the Chaldeans," or per-
haps "boundaries"—in the sense of "land"—of the
Chaldeans. Generation after generation pushed fur-
ther westward, traversed the land of Shinar, crossed
the Euphrates and reached the city of Ur, in or near
which the tribe dwelt many years.
14. Ur was then the greatest city of Southern
Chaldea. The earliest known kings of Shumir re-
sided in it, and besides that, it was the principal
commercial mart of the country. For, strange as it
may appear when we look on a modern map, Ur,
the ruins of which are now 150 miles from the sea,
was then a maritime city, with harbor and ship
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
201
docks. The waters of the Gulf reached much fur-
ther inland than they do now. There was then a
distance of many miles between the mouths of the
Tigris and Euphrates, and Ur lay very near the
mouth of the latter river. Like all commercial and
maritime cities, it was the resort not only of all the
different races which dwelt in the land itself, but
also of foreign traders. The active intellectual life
of a capital, too, which was at the same time a
great religious centre and the seat of a powerful
priesthood, must of necessity have favored inter-
change of ideas, and have exerted an influence on
that Semitic tribe of whom the Bible tells us that
it "went forth from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into
the land of Canaan," led by the patriarch Terah and
his son Abraham (Genesis xi. 31). The historian of
Genesis here, as throughout the narrative, does not
mention any date whatever for the event he relates;
nor does he hint at the cause of this removal. On
the first of these points the study of Chaldean cune-
iform monuments throws considerable light, while
the latter does not admit of more than guesses—
of which something hereafter.
15. Such is a broad and cursory outline of the
theory according to which Cushite immigrations
preceded the arrival of the Semites in the land of
Shumir and Accad. Those who uphold it give
several reasons for their opinion, such as that the
Bible several times mentions a Cush located in the
East and evidently different from the Cush which
has been identified as Ethiopia; that, in Chap. X.
of Genesis (8-12), Nimrod, the legendary hero,
202
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
whose empire at first was in "the land of Shinar,"
and who is said to have "gone forth out of that
land into Assyria," is called a son of Cush; that
the most ancient Greek poets knew of "Ethio-
pians" in the far East as opposed to those of the
South-and several more. Those scholars who
oppose this theory dismiss it wholesale. They will
not admit the existence of a Cushite element or
migration in the East at all, and put down the
expressions in the Bible as simple mistakes, either
of the writers or copyists. According to them,
there was only one immigration in the land of
Shumir and Accad, that of the Semites, achieved.
through many ages and in numerous instalments.
The language which superseded the ancient Shu-
miro-Accadian idiom is to them a Semitic one in
the directest and most exclusive sense; the culture
grafted on that of the earlier population is by them
called purely "Semitic;" while their opponents fre-
quently use the compound designation of "Cushito-
Semitic," to indicate the two distinct elements of
which, to them, it appears composed. It must be
owned that the anti-Cushite opinion is gaining
ground. Yet the Cushite theory cannot be con-
sidered as disposed of, only "not proven," or not
sufficiently so, and therefore in abeyance and fallen
into some disfavor. With this proviso we shall
adopt the word "Semitic," as the simpler and more
generally used.
16. It is only with the rise of Semitic culture
in Southern Mesopotamia that we enter on a
period which, however remote, misty, and full of
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
203
blanks, may still be called, in a measure, "histor-
ical," because there is a certain number of facts,
of which contemporary monuments give positive
evidence. True, the connection between those
facts is often not apparent; their causes and effects
are frequently not to be made out save by more
or less daring conjectures; still there are numerous
landmarks of proven fact, and with these real his-
tory begins. No matter if broad gaps have to
be left open or temporarily filled with guesses.
New discoveries are almost daily turning up, in-
scriptions, texts, which unexpectedly here supply
a missing link, there confirm or demolish a con-
jecture, establish or correct dates which had long
been puzzles or suggested on insufficient founda-
tions. In short, details may be supplied as yet
brokenly and sparingly, but the general outline
of the condition of Chaldea may be made out as
far back as forty centuries before Christ.
17. Of one thing there can be no doubt: that
our earliest glimpse of the political condition of
Chaldea shows us the country divided into nu-
merous small states, each headed by a great city,
made famous and powerful by the sanctuary or
temple of some particular deity, and ruled by a
patesi, a title which is now thought to mean priest-
king, i.e., priest and king in one. There can be
little doubt that the beginning of the city was
everywhere the temple, with its college of minister-
ing priests, and that the surrounding settlement.
was gradually formed by pilgrims and worshippers.
That royalty developed out of the priesthood is
204
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
also more than probable, and consequently must
have been, in its first stage, a form of priestly rule,
and, in a great measure, subordinate to priestly
influence. There comes a time when for the title
of patesi is substituted that of "king" simply—a
change which very possibly indicates the assump-
tion by the kings of a more independent attitude.
towards the class from which their power originally
sprang. It is noticeable that the distinction be-
tween the Semitic newcomers and the indigenous
Shumiro-Accadians continues long to be traceable
in the names of the royal temple-builders, even
after the new Semitic idiom, which we call the
Assyrian, had entirely ousted the old language-a
process which must have taken considerable time,
for it appears, and indeed stands to reason, that the
newcomers, in order to secure the wished for in-
fluence and propagate their own culture, at first not
only learned to understand but actually used them-
selves the language of the people among whom
they came, at least in their public documents.
This it is that explains the fact that so many in-
scriptions and tablets, while written in the dialect
of Shumir or Accad, are Semitic in spirit and in
the grade of culture they betray. Furthermore,
even superficial observation shows that the old.
language and the old names survive longest in
Shumir, the South. From this fact it is to be
inferred with little chance of mistake that the
North, the land of Accad,-was earlier Semitized,
that the Semitic immigrants established their first
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
205
headquarters in that part of the country, that their
power and influence thence spread to the South.
18. Fully in accordance with these indications,
the first grand historical figure that meets us at the
threshold of Chaldean history, dim with the mists
of ages and fabulous traditions, yet unmistakably
real, is that of the Semite SHARRUKIN, king of Ac-
cad-or AGADÊ, as the great Northern city came to
be called-more generally known in history under
the corrupt modern reading of SARGON, and called
Sargon I., "the First," to distinguish him from
another monarch of the same name who was found
to have reigned many centuries later. As to the
city of Agadê, it is no other than the city of Accad
mentioned in Genesis x., IO. It was situated close to
the Euphrates on a wide canal just opposite Sip-
par, so that in time the two cities came to be con-
sidered as one double city, and the Hebrews always
called it "the two Sippars"-SEPHARVAIM, which
is often spoken of in the Bible. It was there that
Sharrukin established his rule, and a statue was
afterwards raised to him there, the inscription on
which, making him speak, as usual, in the first per-
son, begins with the proud declaration : "Sharrukin,
the mighty king, the king of Agadê, am I." Yet,
although his reforms and conquests were of lasting
importance, and himself remained one of the favorite
heroes of Chaldean tradition, he appears to have been
an adventurer and usurper. Perhaps he was, for this.
very reason, all the dearer to the popular fancy,
which, in the absence of positive facts concerning
his birth and origin, wove around them a halo of
206
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
romance, and told of him a story which must be
nearly as old as mankind, for it has been told over
and over again, in different countries and ages, of
a great many famous kings and heroes. This of
Sharrukin is the oldest known version of it, and the
inscription on his statue puts it into the king's own
mouth. It makes him say that he knew not his
father, and that his mother, à princess, gave him
birth in a hiding-place, (or “an inaccessible place "),
near the Euphrates, but that his family were the
rulers of the land. "She placed me in a basket of
rushes," the king is further made to say; “with
bitumen the door of my ark she closed. She
launched me on the river, which drowned me not.
The river bore me along; to Akki, the water-carrier,
it brought me. Akki, the water-carrier, in the ten-
derness of his heart lifted me up. Akki, the water-
carrier, as his own child brought me up. Akki, the
water-carrier, made me his gardener.
And in my
gardenership the goddess Ishtar loved me.
•
19. Whatever his origin and however he came
by the royal power, Sargon was a great monarch.
It is said that he undertook successful expeditions
into Syria, and a campaign into Elam; that with
captives of the conquered races he partly peopled
his new capital, Agadê, where he built a palace and
a magnificent temple; that on one occasion he was.
absent three years, during which time he advanced.
to the very shores of the Mediterranean, which he
calls "the sea of the setting sun," and where he left
memorial records of his deeds, and returned home
in triumph, bringing with him immense spoils. The
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
207
inscription contains only the following very moder-
ate mention of his military career: "For forty-five
years the kingdom I have ruled. And the black-
head race (Accadian) I have governed. In multi-

58.-CYLINDER OF SARGON, FROM AGADÊ.
"Gesch. Babyloniens
(Hommel,
u.
Assyriens.")
tudes of bronze chariots I rode over rugged lands.
I governed the upper countries. Three times to
the coast of the (Persian) sea I advanced. . . .'
20. This Sharrukin must not be confounded with
* Translation of Professor A. H. Sayce.
208
THE STORY OF CHALDEA,
another king of the same name, who reigned also.
in Agadê, some 1800 years later (about 2000 B.C.),
and in whose time was completed and brought
into definite shape a vast religious reform which
had been slowly working itself out ever since
the Semitic and Accadian elements began to
mix in matters of spiritual speculation and wor
ship. What was the result of the amalgamation
will form the subject of the next chapter. Suffice
it here to say that the religion of Chaldea in
the form which it assumed under the second
Sharrukin remained fixed forever, and when Baby-
lonian religion is spoken of, it is that which is
understood by that name. The great theological
work demanded a literary undertaking no less
great. The incantations and magic forms of the
first, purely Turanian, period had to be col-
lected and put in order, as well as the hymns.
and prayers of the second period, composed under
the influence of a higher and more spiritual re-
ligious feeling. But all this literature was in the
language of the older population, while the ruling
class the royal houses and the priesthood—were
becoming almost exclusively Semitic. It was nec-
essary, therefore, that they should study the old
language and learn it so thoroughly as not only
to understand and read it, but to be able to use it,
in speaking and writing. For that purpose Sargon
not only ordered the ancient texts, when collected.
and sorted, to be copied on clay tablets with the
translation—either between the lines, or on opposite
columns-into the now generally used modern Sem-
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
209
itic language, which we may as well begin to call by
its usual name, Assyrian, but gave directions for
the compilation of grammars and vocabularies,-the
very works which have enabled the scholars of the
present day to arrive at the understanding of that
prodigiously ancient tongue which, without such
assistance, must have remained a sealed book for
ever.
21. Such is the origin of the great collection in
three books and two hundred tablets, the contents
of which made the subject of the preceding chapter.
To this must be added another great work, in sev
enty tablets, in Assyrian, on astrology, i.e., the sup-
posed influence of the heavenly bodies, according
to their positions and conjunctions, on the fate of
nations and individuals and on the course of things
on earth generally-an influence which was firmly
believed in; and probably yet a third work, on
omens, prodigies and divination. To carry out these
extensive literary labors, to treasure the results
worthily and safely, Sargon II. either founded or
greatly enlarged the library of the priestly college
at Urukh (Erech), so that this city came to be
called "the City of Books." This repository be-
came the most important one in all Chaldea, and
when, fourteen centuries later, the Assyrian Asshur-
banipal sent his scribes all over the country, to col-
lect copies of the ancient, sacred and scientific texts
for his own royal library at Nineveh, it was at Erech.
that they gathered their most abundant harvest,
being specially favored there by the priests, who
were on excellent terms with the king after he had
210
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
brought back from Shushan and restored to them
the statue of their goddess Nana. Agadê thus
became the headquarters, as it were, of the Se-
mitic influence and reform, which spread thence
towards the South, forming a countercurrent to
the culture of Shumir, which had steadily pro-
gressed from the Gulf northward.
22. It is just possible that Sargon's collection
may have also comprised literature of a lighter
nature than those ponderous works on magic
and astrology. At least, a work on agriculture
has been found, which is thought to have been
compiled for the same king's library,* and which
contains bits of popular poetry (maxims, riddles,
short peasant songs) of the kind that is now
called "folk-lore." Of the correctness of the sup-
position there is, as yet, no absolute proof, but
as some of these fragments, of which unfortunately
but few could be recovered, are very interesting.
and pretty in their way, this is perhaps the best
place to insert them. The following four may be
called "Maxims," and the first is singularly pithy
and powerfully expressed.
A
I. Like an oven that is old
Against thy foes be hard and strong.
2. May he suffer vengeance,
May it be returned to him,
Who gives the provocation.
3. If evil thou doest,
To the everlasting sea
Thou shalt surely go.
* A. H. Sayce.
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
2II
4. Thou wentest, thou spoiledst
The land of the foe,
For the foe came and spoiled
Thy land, even thine.
23. It will be noticed that No. 3 alone expresses
moral feeling of a high standard, and is distinctively
Semitic in spirit, the same spirit which is expressed
in a loftier and purely religious vein, and a more po-
etical form in one of the "Penitential Psalms,"
where it says:
Whoso fears not his god-will be cut off even like a reed.
Whoso honors not the goddess-his bodily strength shall waste away;
Like a star of heaven, his light shall wane; like waters of the night
he shall disappear.
Some fragments can be well imagined as being
sung by the peasant at work to his ploughing team,
in whose person he sometimes speaks:
5. A heifer am I,-to the cow I am yoked;
The plough handle is strong-lift it up! lift it up!
6. My knees are marching-my feet are not resting;
With no wealth of thy own-grain thou makest for me.*
24. A great deal of additional interest in the
elder Sargon of Agadê has lately been excited by an
extraordinary discovery connected with him, which
produced a startling revolution in the hitherto
accepted Chaldean chronology. This question of
dates is always a most intricate and puzzling one in
dealing with ancient Oriental nations, because they
did not date their years from some particular event,
*Translated by A. H. Sayce, in his paper Babylonian Folk-
lore" in the "Folk-lore Journal," Vol. I., Jan., 1883.
212
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
as we do, and as did the Mohammedans, the Greeks
and the Romans. In the inscriptions things are said
to have happened in the year so-and-so of such a
king's reign. Where to place that king is the next
question-unanswerable, unless, as fortunately is
mostly the case, some clue is supplied, to borrow
a legal term, by circumstantial evidence. Thus, if
an eclipse is mentioned, the time can easily be de-
termined by the help of astronomy, which can cal-
culate backward as well as forward. Or else, an
event or a person belonging to another country is
alluded to, and if they are known to us from other
sources, that is a great help. Such a coincidence
(which is called a SYNCHRONISM) is most valuable,
and dates established by synchronisms are generally
reliable. Then, luckily for us, Assyrian and Baby-
lonian kings of a late period, whose dates are fixed
and proved beyond a doubt, were much in the habit,
in their historical inscriptions, of mentioning events
that had taken place before their time and specify-
ing the number of years elapsed, often also the king
under whose reign the event, whatever it was, had
taken place. This is the most precious clue of all,
as it is infallible, and besides ascertaining one
point, gives a firm foothold, whereby to arrive at
many others. The famous memorandum of As-
shurbanipal, already so often referred to, about the
carrying away of the goddess Nana, (i.e., her statue)
from her temple at Erech is evidence of this kind.
Any dates suggested without any of these clues as
basis are of necessity untrustworthy, and no true.
scholar dreams of offering any such date, except as a
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
213
Great
temporary suggestion, awaiting confirmation or abo-
lition from subsequent researches. So it was with
Sargon I. of Agadê. There was no positive indica-
tion of the time at which he lived, except that he
could not possibly have lived later than 2000 B.C.
Scholars therefore agreed to assign that date to him,
approximatively a little more or less-thinking
they could not go very far wrong in so doing.
therefore was the commotion produced by the dis-
covery of a cylinder of Nabonidus, the last king of
Babylon (whose date is 550 B.C.), wherein he speaks
of repairs he made in the great Sun-temple at Sip-
par, and declares having dug deep in its foundations
for the cylinders of the founder, thus describing his
success: “Shamash (the Sun-god), the great lord
suffered me to behold the foundation-cylin-
der of NARAM-SIN, the son of Sharrukin, which for
thrice thousand and twice hundred years none of
the kings that lived before me had seen." The
simple addition 3200 + 550 gives 3750 B.C. as the
date of Naram-Sin, and 3800 as that of his father
Sargon, allowing for the latter's long reign! A
scene-shifting of 1800 years at one slide seemed
something so startling that there was much hesita-
tion in accepting the evidence, unanswerable as it
seemed, and the possibility of an error of the en-
graver was seriously considered. Some other docu-
ments, however, were found independently of each
other and in different places, corroborating the
statement on Nabonidus' cylinder, and the tremen-
dously ancient date of 3800 B.C. is now generally ac-
214
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
cepted the elder Sargon of Agadê-perhaps the re-
motest authentic date yet arrived at in history.
25. When we survey and attempt to grasp and
classify the materials we have for an early "His-
tory of Chaldea," it appears almost presumptuous
to grace so necessarily lame an attempt with so
ambitious a name.
The landmarks are so few and
far between, so unconnected as yet, and there is so
much uncertainty about them, especially about plac-
ing them. The experience with Sargon of Agadê
has not been encouraging to conjectural chronol-
ogy; yet with such we must in many cases be
content until more lucky finds turn up to set us
right. What, for instance, is the proper place of
GUDÊA, the patesi of SIRBURLA (also read SIRGULLA
or SIRTILLA, and, lately, ZIRLABA), whose magnif-
icent statues Mr. de Sarzec found in the principal
hall of the temple of which the bricks bear his
stamp? (See p. 217.) The title of patesi, (not
'king"), points to great antiquity, and he is pretty
generally understood to have lived somewhere be-
tween 4000 and 3000 B.C. That he was not a Se-
mite, but an Accadian prince, is to be concluded
not only from the language of his inscriptions and
the writing, which is of the most archaic—i.e., an-
cient and old-fashioned-character, but from the
fact that the head, which was found with the stat-
ues, is strikingly Turanian in form and features,
shaved, too, and turbaned after a fashion still used
in Central Asia. Altogether it might easily be
taken for that of a modern Mongolian or Tatar.*
The discovery of this builder and patron of art has
66
* See Figs. 44 and 45, p. 101.
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
215
greatly eclipsed the glory of a somewhat later ruler,
UR-ÊA, King of Ur,* who had long enjoyed the
reputation of being the earliest known temple-
builder. He remains at all events the first powerful
monarch we read of in Southern Chaldea, of which
Ur appears to have been in some measure the cap-
ital, at least in so far as to have a certain suprem-
acy over the other great cities of Shumir.
·
26. Of these Shumir had many, even more ven-
erable for their age and holiness than those of
Accad. For the South was the home of the old
race and most ancient culture, and thence both had
advanced northward. Hence it was that the old
stock was hardier there and endured longer in its
language, religion and nationality, and was slower
in yielding to the Semitic counter-current of race
and culture, which, as a natural conséquence, ob-
tained an earlier and stronger hold in the North,
and from there radiated over the whole of Mesopo-
tamia. There was ERIDHU, by the sea ' at the
mouth of the Rivers," the immemorial sanctuary of
Êa; there was SIRGULLA, so lately unknown, now
the most promising mine for research; there was
LARSAM, famous with the glories of its "House of
the Sun" (Ê-Babbara in the old language), the rival
of Ur, the city of the Moon-god, whose kings UR-ÊA
and his son DUNGI were, it appears, the first to take
*This name was at first read Urukh, then Likbabi, then Likba-
gash, then Urbagash, then Urba'u, and now Professor Friedr. De-
litzsch announces that the final and correct reading is in all proba-
bility either Ur-ea or Arad-ea.
216
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
the ambitious title of "Kings of Shumir and Accad"
and "Kings of the Four Regions." As for Babylon,
proud Babylon, which we have so long been accus-
tomed to think of as the very beginning of state life
and political rule in Chaldea, it was perhaps not yet
built at all, or only modestly beginning its existence.
under its Accadian name of TIN-TIR-KI (“the Place
of Life"), or, somewhat later, KA-DIMIRRA (“Gate
of God"), when already the above named cities,
and several more, had each its famous temple with
ministering college of priests, and, probably, library,
and each its king. But political power was for a
long time centred at Ur. The first kings of Ur
authentically known to us are Ur-êa and his son
Dungi, who have left abundant traces of their ex-
istence in the numerous temples they built, not in
Ur alone, but in most other cities too. Their bricks
have been identified at Larsam (Senkereh), and, it
appears, at Sirburla (Tel-Loh), at Nipur (Niffer)
and at Urukh (Erech, Warka), and as the two lat-
ter cities belonged to Accad, they seem to have.
ruled at least part of that country and thus to
have been justified in assuming their high-sound-
ing title.
27. It has been noticed that the bricks bearing
the name of Ur-êa are found in a lower position
than any others, at the very foundation of build-
ings;" that "they are of a rude and coarse make,
of many sizes and ill-fitted together;" that baked
bricks are rare among them; that they are held
together by the oldest substitutes for mortar-mud
and bitumen-and that the writing upon them is

CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
217
curiously rude and imperfect.* But whatever King
Ur-êa's architectural efforts may lack in perfection,
they certainly make up in size and number. Those
ALEBO
59.-STATUE OF GUDEA, WITH INSCRIPTION; FROM TELL-LOH,
(SIRBURLA OR SIRGULLA). SARZEC COLLECTION.
(Hommel).
that he did not complete, his son Dungi continued
after him. It is remarkable that these great build-
*Geo. Rawlinson, "Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient East-
ern World" (1862), Vol. I., pp. 198 and ff.
218
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
ers seem to have dovoted their energies exclusively
to religious purposes; also that, while their names
are Shumiro-Accadian, and their inscriptions are.
often in that language, the temples they con-
structed were dedicated to various deities of the
new, or rather reformed religion. When we see
the princes of the South, according to an ingen-
ious remark of Mr. Lenormant, thus begin a sort of
practical preaching of the Semitized religion, we
may take it as a sign of the times, as an unmistaka-
ble proof of the influence of the North, political as
well as religious. A very curious relic of King
Ur-êa was found-his own signet cylinder—which
was lost by an accident, then turned up again
and is now in the British Museum.
It repre-
sents the Moon-god seated on a throne, as is but
meet for the king of the Moon-god's special city-
with priests presenting worshippers. No definite
date is of course assignable to Ur-êa and the impor-
tant epoch of Chaldean history which he represents.
But a very probable approximative one can be ar-
rived at, thanks to a clue supplied by the same
Nabonidus, last King of Babylon, who settled the
Sargon question for us so unexpectedly. That
monarch was as zealous a repairer of temples as his
predecessors had been zealous builders. He had
reasons of his own to court popularity, and could
think of nothing better than to restore the time-
honored sanctuaries of the land. Among others he
repaired the Sun-temple (E-Babbara) at Larsam,
whereof we are duly informed by a special cylinder.
In it he tells posterity that he found a cylinder of
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
219
King Hammurabi intact in its chamber under the
corner-stone, which cylinder states that the temple
was founded 700 years before Hammurabi's time;
as Ur-êa was the founder, it only remains to deter-
mine the latter king's date in order to know that
of the earlier one.* Here unfortunately scholars
differ, not having as yet any decisive authority to
build upon. Some place Hammurabi before 2000
B.C., others a little later. It is perhaps safest, there-
fore, to assume that Ur-êa can scarcely have lived
much earlier than 2800 or much later than 2500
B.C. At all events, he must necessarily have lived
somewhat before 2300 B.C., for about this latter
year took place the Elamite invasion recorded by
Asshurbanipal, an invasion which, as this King ex-
pressly mentions, laid waste the land of Accad and
desecrated its temples-evidently the same ones
which Ur-êa and Dungi so piously constructed.
Nor was this a passing inroad or raid of booty-seek-
ing mountaineers. It was a real conquest. Khu
dur-Nankhundi and his successors remained in
Southern Chaldea, called themselves kings of the
country, and reigned, several of them in succession,
so that this series of foreign rulers has become known
in history as "the Elamite dynasty.' There was
no room then for a powerful and temple-building
national dynasty like that of the kings of Ur.
28. This is the first time we meet authentic mon-
umental records of a country which was destined
* Geo. Smith, in "Records of the Past," Vol. V., p. 75. Fritz
Hommel, Die Semiten," p. 210 and note 101.
CC
220
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
through the next sixteen centuries to be in contin-
ual contact, mostly hostile, with both Babylonia
and her northern rival Assyria, until its final anni-
hilation by the latter. Its capital was SHUSHAN,
(afterwards pronounced by foreigners "Susa "), and
its own original name SHUSHINAK. Its people
were of Turanian stock, its language was nearly
akin to that of Shumir and Accad. But at
some time or other Semites came and settled in
Shushinak. Though too few in number to change
the country's language or customs, the superiority
of their race asserted itself. They became the no-
bility of the land, the ruling aristocracy from which
the kings were taken, the generals and the high
functionaries. That the Turanian mass of the popula-
tion was kept in subjection and looked down upon,
and that the Semitic nobility avoided intermarry-
ing with them is highly probable; and it would
be difficult otherwise to explain the difference of
type between the two classes, as shown in the rep-
resentations of captives and warriors belonging to
both on the Assyrian sculptures. The common herd
of prisoners employed on public labor and driven
by overseers brandishing sticks have an unmistakably
Turanian type of features-high cheek-bones, broad,
flattened face, etc., while the generals, ministers and
nobles have all the dignity and beauty of the hand-
somest Jewish type. "Elam," the name under which
the country is best known both from the Bible
and later monuments, is a Turanian word, which
means, like “ Accad," "Highlands." It is the only
name under which the historian of Chap. X. of
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
221
Genesis admits it into his list of nations, and, con-
sistently following out his system of ignoring all
members of the great yellow race, he takes into con-
sideration only the Semitic aristocracy, and makes
of Elam a son of Shem, a brother of Asshur and
Arphakhshad. (Gen. x. 22.)
29. One of Khudur-Nankhundi's next successors,
KHUDUR-LAGAMAR, was not content with the addi-
tion of Chaldea to his kingdom of Elam. He had
the ambition of a born conqueror and the general-
ship of one. The Chap. XIV. of Genesis—which
calls him Chedorlaomer is the only document we
have descriptive of this king's warlike career, and a
very striking picture it gives of it, sufficient to show
us that we have to do with a very remarkable char-
acter. Supported by three allied and probably
tributary kings, that of Shumir (Shinear), of Larsam,
(Ellassar) and of the GOÏM, (in the unrevised trans-
lation of the Bible "king of nations") i.e., the no-
madic tribes which roamed on the outskirts and in
the yet unsettled, more distant portions of Chaldea,
Khudur-Lagamar marched an army 1200 miles
across the desert into the fertile, wealthy and pop-
ulous valleys of the Jordan and the lake or sea of
Siddim, afterwards called the Dead Sea, where five
great cities-Sodom, Gomorrah, and three others-
were governed by as many kings. Not only did he
subdue these kings and impose his rule on them,
but contrived, even after he returned to the Persian
Gulf, to keep on them so firm a hand, that for
twelve years they "served" him, i.e., paid him trib-
ute regularly, and only in the thirteenth year, en-
222
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
couraged by his prolonged absence, ventured to
rebel. But they had underrated Khudur-Lagamar's
vigilance and activity. The very next year he was
among them again, together with his three faithful
allies, encountered them in the vale of Siddim
and beat them, so that they all fled.
This was
the battle of the "four kings with five." As to
the treatment to which the victor subjected the
conquered country it is very briefly but clearly de-
scribed: "And they took all the goods of Sodom
and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their
way."
30. Now there dwelt in Sodom a man of foreign
race and great wealth, Lot, the nephew of Abra-
ham. For Abraham and his tribe no longer lived
at Chaldean Ur. The change of masters, and very
probably the harsher rule, if not positive oppres-
sion, consequent on the Elamite conquest, had
driven them thence. It was then they went forth
into the land of Canaan, led by Terah and his son
Abraham, and when Terah died, Abraham became.
the patriarch and chief of the tribe, which from this
time begins to be called in the Bible "Hebrews,"
from an eponymous ancestor, Heber or Eber, whose
name alludes to the passing of the Euphrates, or,
perhaps, in a wider sense, to the passage of the
tribe through the land of Chaldea.* For years the
tribe travelled without dividing, from pasture to
* It should be mentioned, however, that scholars have of late been
inclined to see in this name an allusion to the passage of the Jordan
at the time of the conquest of Canaan by Israel, after the Egyptian
bondage.
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
223
pasture, over the vast land where dwelt the Canaan-
ites, well seen and even favored of them, into Egypt
and out of it again, until the quarrel occurred be-
tween Abraham's herdsmen and Lot's, (see Genesis,
Chap. XIII.), and the separation, when Lot chose.
the plain of the Jordan and pitched his tent toward
Sodom, while Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan
as heretofore, with his family, servants and cattle, in
the plain of Mamre. It was while dwelling there, in
friendship and close alliance with the princes of the
land, that one who had escaped from the battle in
the vale of Siddim, came to Abraham and told him
how that among the captives whom Khudur-Laga-
mar had taken from Sodom, was Lot, his brother's
son, with all his goods. Then Abraham armed his
trained servants, born in his own household, three
hundred and eighteen, took with him his friends,
Mamre and his brothers, with their young men, and
starting in hot pursuit of the victorious army, which
was now carelessly marching home towards the des-
ert with its long train of captives and booty, over-
took it near Damascus in the night, when his own
small numbers could not be detected, and produced
such a panic by a sudden and vigorous onslaught
that he put it to flight, and not only rescued his
nephew Lot with his goods and women, but brought
back all the captured goods and the people too.
And the King of Sodom came out to meet him on
his return, and thanked him, and wanted him to
keep all the goods for himself, only restoring the
persons. Abraham consented that a proper share
of the rescued goods should be given to his friends.
224
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
and their young men, but refused all presents of
fered to himself, with the haughty words: "I have
lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high
God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will
not take a thread, even to a shoe-latchet, and that
I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou
shouldest say, I have made Abraham rich."
31. Khudur-Lagamar, of whom the spirited Bibli-
cal narrative gives us so life-like a sketch, lived, ac-
cording to the most probable calculations, about
2200 B.C. Among the few vague forms whose.
blurred outlines loom out of the twilight of those
dim and doubtful ages, he is the second with any flesh-
and-blood reality about him, probably the first con-
queror of whom the world has any authentic record.
For Egypt, the only country which rivals in anti-
quity the primitive states of Mesopotamia, although
it had at this time already reached the height of its
culture and prosperity, was as yet confined by its
rulers strictly to the valley of the Nile, and had not
entered on that career of foreign wars and conquests
which, some thousand years later, made it a terror
from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf.
32. The Elamitic invasion was not a passing raid.
It was a real conquest, and established a heavy for-
eign rule in a highly prosperous and flourishing
land—a rule which endured, it would appear, about
three hundred years. That the people chafed un-
der it, and were either gloomily despondent or
angrily rebellious as long as it lasted, there is plenty
of evidence in their later literature. It is even
thought, and with great moral probability, that the
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
225
special branch of religious poetry which has been
called "Penitential Psalms" has arisen out of the
sufferings of this long period of national bondage
and humiliation, and if, as seems to be proved by
some lately discovered interesting fragments of
texts, these psalms were sung centuries later in
Assyrian temples on mournful or very solemn pub-
lic occasions, they must have perpetuated the mem-
ory of the great national calamity that fell on the
mother-country as indelibly as the Hebrew psalms,
of which they were the models, have perpetuated
that of King David's wanderings and Israel's tribu-
lations.
33. But there seems to have been one Semitic
royal house which preserved a certain indepen-
dence and quietly gathered power against better
days. To do this they must have dissembled and
done as much homage to the victorious barbarians
as would ensure their safety and serve as a blind
while they strengthened their home rule. This
dynasty, destined to the glorious task of restoring
the country's independence and founding a new na-
tional monarchy, was that of Tin-tir-ki, or Kadi-
mirra—a name now already translated into the Se-
mitic BAB-ILU, (“the Gate of God"); they reigned
over the large and important district of KARDUNY-
ASH, important from its central position, and from
the fact that it seems to have belonged neither to
Accad, nor to Shumir, but to have been politically
independent, since it is always mentioned by itself.
Still, to the Hebrews, Babylon lay in the land of
Shinar, and it is strongly supposed that the "Am-
.
226
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
raphel king of Shinar" who marched with Khudur-
Lagamar, as his ally, against the five kings of the
Jordan and the Dead Sea, was no other than a king
of Babylon, one of whose names has been read
AMARPAL, while "Ariokh of Ellassar" was an Ela-
mite, ERI-AKU, brother or cousin of Khudur-Laga-
mar, and King of Larsam, where the conquerors had
established a powerful dynasty, closely allied by
blood to the principal one, which had made the ven-
erable Ur its headquarters. This Amarpal, more.
frequently mentioned under his other name of SIN-
MUBALLIT, is thought to have been the father of
HAMMURABI, the deliverer of Chaldea and the
founder of the new empire.
34. The inscriptions which Hammurabi left are
numerous, and afford us ample means of judging
of his greatness as warrior, statesman and admin-
istrator. In his long reign of fifty-five years he
had, indeed, time to achieve much, but what he did.
achieve was much even for so long a reign. In
what manner he drove out the foreigners we are not
told, but so much is clear that the decisive victory
was that which he gained over the Elamite king
of Larsam. It was probably by expelling the hated
race by turns from every district they occupied,
that Hammurabi gathered the entire land into his
own hands and was enabled to keep it together and
weld it into one united empire, including both Ac-
cad and Shumir, with all their time-honored cities
and sanctuaries, making his own ancestral city,
Babylon, the head and capital of them all. This
king was in every respect a great and wise ruler,
CUSHITES AND SEMITES.
227
for, after freeing and uniting the country, he was
very careful of its good and watchful of its agricult-
ural interests. Like all the other kings, he restored.
But he
many temples and built several new ones.
also devoted much energy to public works of a
more generally useful kind. During the first part
of his reign inundations seem to have been frequent
and disastrous, possibly in consequence of the ca-
nals and waterworks having been neglected under
the oppressive foreign rule. The inscriptions speak
of a city having been destroyed “by a great flood,"
and mention "a great wall along the Tigris"-prob-
ably an embankment, as having been built by Ham.
murabi for protection against the river. But prob-
ably finding the remedy inadequate, he undertook
and completed one of the greatest public works
that have ever been carried out in any country: the
excavation of a gigantic canal, which he called by
his own name, but which was afterwards famous un-
der that of "Royal Canal of Babylon." From this.
canal innumerable branches carried the fertilizing
waters through the country. It was and remained
the greatest work of the kind, and was, fifteen cent-
uries later, the wonder of the foreigners who visited
Babylon. Its constructor did not overrate the ben-
efit he had conferred when he wrote in an inscrip-
tion which can scarcely be called boastful: "I have
caused to be dug the Nahr-Hammurabi, a benedic-
tion for the people of Shumir and Accad. I have
directed the waters of its branches over the desert
plains; I have caused them to run in the dry chan-
nels and thus given unfailing waters to the peo-
228
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
ple.... I have changed desert plains into well.
watered lands. I have given them fertility and
plenty, and made them the abode of happiness.”
35. There are inscriptions of Hammurabi's son.
But after him a new catastrophe seems to have over-
taken Chaldea. He is succeeded by a line of for
eign kings, who must have obtained possession of
the country by conquest. They were princes of a
fierce and warlike mountain race, the KASSHI, who
lived in the highlands that occupy the whole north-
western portion of Elam, where they probably be-
gan to feel cramped for room. This same people
has been called by the later Greek geographers
ÇOSSAEANS or CISSIANS, and is better known under
either of these names. Their language, of which
very few specimens have survived, is not yet under-
stood; but so much is plain, that it is very different
both from the Semitic language of Babylon and that
of Shumir and Accad, so that the names of the Kas-
shi princes are easily distinguishable from all others.
No dismemberment of the empire followed this
conquest, however, if conquest there was. The
kings of the new dynasty seem to have succeeded
each other peacefully enough in Babylon. But the
conquering days of Chaldea were over. We read
no more of expeditions into the plains of Syria and
to the "Sea of the Setting Sun." For a power was
rising in the North-West, which quickly grew into
a formidable rival: through many centuries As-
syria kept the rulers of the Southern kingdom too
busy guarding their frontiers and repelling inroads
to allow them to think of foreign conquests.

V.
BABYLONIAN RELIGION.
"
I. IN relating the legend of the Divine Man-Fish,
who came out of the Gulf, and was followed, at
intervals, by several more similar beings, Berosus
assures us, that he taught the people all the
things that make up civilization," so that "noth-
ing new was invented after that any more.” But
if, as is suggested, "this monstrous Oannes” is
really a personification of the strangers who came
into the land, and, being possessed of a higher cul-
ture, began to teach the Turanian population, the
first part of this statement is as manifestly an exag-
geration as the second. A people who had in-
vented writing, who knew how to build, to make
canals, to work metals, and who had passed out of
the first and grossest stage of religious conceptions,
might have much to learn, but certainly not every-
thing. What the newcomers-whether Cushites or
Semites did teach them, was a more orderly way
of organizing society and ruling it by means of
laws and an established government, and, above all,
astronomy and mathematics-sciences in which the
Shumiro-Accads were little proficient, while the
later and mixed nation, the Chaldeans, attained in
Y
229
230
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
them a very high perfection, so that many of their
discoveries and the first principles laid down by
them have come down to us as finally adopted
facts, confirmed by later science. Thus, the divis-
ion of the year into twelve months corresponding to
as many constellations, known as "the twelve signs.
of the Zodiac," was familiar to them. They had
also found out the division of the year into twelve
months, only all their months had thirty days. So
they were obliged to add an extra month—an inter-
calary month, as the scientific term is-every six
years, to start even with the sun again, for they
knew where the error in their reckoning lay. These
things the strangers probably taught the Shumiro-
Accads, but at the same time borrowed from them
their way of counting. The Turanian races to this
day have this peculiarity, that they do not care for
the decimal system in arithmetic, but count by
dozens and sixties, preferring numbers that can be
divided by twelve and sixty. The Chinese even
now do not measure time by centuries or periods of
a hundred years, but by a cycle or period of sixty
years. This was probably the origin of the divis-
ion, adopted in Babylonia, of the sun's course into
360 equal parts or degrees, and of the day into
twelve "kasbus" or double hours, since the kasbu.
answered to two of our hours, and was divided into
sixty parts, which we might thus call "double min-
utes," while these again were composed of sixty
"double seconds." The natural division of the
year into twelve months made this so-called
"docenal" and "sexagesimal" system of calculation
BABYLONIAN RELIGION.
231
particularly convenient, and it was applied to every-
thing-measures of weight, distance, capacity and
size as well as time.
2. Astronomy is a strangely fascinating science,
with two widely different and seemingly contra-
dictory aspects, equally apt to develop habits of
hard thinking and of dreamy speculation. For, if
on one hand the study of mathematics, without
which astronomy cannot subsist, disciplines the
mind and trains it to exact and complicated opera-
tions, on the other hand, star-gazing, in the solitude.
and silence of a southern night, irresistibly draws
it into a higher world, where poetical aspirations,
guesses and dreams take the place of figures with
their demonstrations and proofs. It is probably to
these habitual contemplations that the later Chal-
deans owed the higher tone of religious thought
which distinguished them from their Turanian pred-
ecessors. They looked for the deity in heaven, not
on earth. They did not cower and tremble before
a host of wicked goblins, the creation of a terrified
fancy. The spirits whom they worshipped inhab-
ited and ruled those beautiful bright worlds, whose
harmonious, concerted movements they watched
admiringly, reverently, and could calculate cor-
rectly, but without understanding them. The stars
generally became to them the visible manifestations.
and agents of divine power, especially the seven
most conspicuous heavenly bodies: the Moon,
whom they particularly honored, as the ruler of
night and the measurer of time, the Sun and the
five planets then known, those which we call Saturn,
232
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury. It is but just
to the Shumiro-Accads to say that the perception
of the divine in the beauty of the stars was not for-
eign to them. This is amply proved by the fact
that in their oldest writing the sign of a star is used
to express the idea not of any particular god or
goddess, but of the divine principle, the deity gen-
erally. The name of every divinity is preceded by
the star, meaning "the god so-and-so." When used
in this manner, the sign was read in the old lan-
guage “Dingir "—" god, deity." The Semitic lan-
guage of Babylonia which we call " Assyrian," while
adapting the ancient writing to its own needs,
retained this use of the sign "star," and read it îlu,
"god." This word-ILU or EL-we find in all Sem-
itic languages, either ancient or modern, in the
names they give to God, in the Arabic ALLAH as
well as in the Hebrew ELOHIM.
3. This religion, based and centred on the wor
ship of the heavenly bodies, has been called Sabeism,
and was common to most Semitic races, whose
primitive nomadic life in the desert and wide, flat
pasture-tracts, with the nightly watches required by
the tending of vast flocks, inclined them to contem-
plation and star-gazing. It is to be noticed that
the Semites gave the first place to the Sun, and not,
like the Shumiro-Accads, to the Moon, possibly
from a feeling akin to terror, experiencing as they
did his destructive power, in the frequent droughts
and consuming heat of the desert.*
* See A. H. Sayce, "The Ancient Empires of the East" (1883),
p. 389.
BABYLONIAN RELIGION.
233
4. A very prominent feature of the new order of
things was the great power and importance of the
priesthood. A successful pursuit of science re-
quires two things: intellectual superiority and
leisure to study, i.e., freedom from the daily care
how to procure the necessaries of life. In very an-
cient times people in general were quite willing to
acknowledge the superiority of those men who knew
more than they did, who could teach them and
help them with wise advice; they were willing also
to support such men by voluntary contributions,
in order to give them the necessary leisure. That
a race with whom science and religion were one
should honor the men thus set apart and learned
in heavenly things and allow them great influence
in private and public affairs, believing them, as they
did, to stand in direct communion with the divine.
powers, was but natural; and from this to letting
them take to themselves the entire government of
the country as the established rulers thereof, was
but one step. There was another circumstance
which helped to bring about this result. The
Chaldeans were devout believers in astrology, a
form of superstition into which an astronomical.
religion like Sabeism is very apt to degenerate.
For once it is taken for granted that the stars are
divine beings, possessed of intelligence, and will,
and power, what more natural than to imagine that
they can rule and shape the destinies of men by a
mysterious influence? This influence was supposed
to depend on their movements, their position in
the sky, their ever changing combinations and rela-
234
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
tions to each other; under this supposition every
movement of a star-its rising, its setting, or cross-
ing the path of another-every slightest change in
the aspect of the heavens, every unusual phenom-
enon-an eclipse, for instance--must be possessed
of some weighty sense, boding good or evil to men,
whose destiny must constantly be as clearly written
in the blue sky as in a book. If only one could
learn the language, read the characters! Such
knowledge was thought to be within the reach of
men, but only to be acquired by the exceptionally
gifted and learned few, and those whom they might
think worthy of having it imparted to them. That
these few must be priests was self-evident. They
were themselves fervent believers in astrology,
which they considered quite as much a real science.
as astronomy, and to which they devoted themselves
as assiduously. They thus became the acknowl-
edged interpreters of the divine will, partakers, so
to speak, of the secret councils of heaven. Of
course such a position added greatly to their power,
and that they should never abuse it to strengthen
their hold on the public mind and to favor their
own ambitious views, was not in human nature.
Moreover, being the clever and learned ones of the
nation, they really were at the time the fittest to
rule it and rule it they did. When the Semitic.
culture spread over Shumir, whither it gradually ex-
tended from the North., i.e., the land of Accad,
there arose in each great city-Ur, Eridhu, Larsam,
Erech, a mighty temple, with its priests, its library,
its Ziggurat or observatory. The cities and the
BABYLONIAN RELIGION.
235
tracts of country belonging to them were governed
by their respective colleges. And when in progress
of time, the power became centred in the hands of
single men, they still were priest-kings, patesis,
whose royalty must have been greatly hampered
and limited by the authority of their priestly col-
leagues. Such a form of government is known un-
der the name of theocracy, composed of two Greek
words and meaning "divine government."
5. This religious reform represents a complete
though probably peaceable revolution in the condi-
tion of the "Land between the Rivers." The new
and higher culture had thoroughly asserted itself as
predominant in both its great provinces, and in
nothing as much as in the national religion, which,
coming in contact with the conceptions of the Sem-
ites, was affected by a certain nobler spiritual
strain, a purer moral feeling, which seems to have
been more peculiarly Semitic, though destined to
be carried to its highest perfection only in the
Hebrew branch of the race. Moral tone is a subtle
influence, and will work its way into men's hearts.
and thoughts far more surely and irresistibly than
any amount of preaching and commanding, for men.
are naturally drawn to what is good and beautiful
when it is placed before them. Thus the old set-
tlers of the land, the Shumiro-Accads, to whom their
gross and dismal goblin creed could not be of much
comfort, were not slow in feeling this ennobling
and beneficent influence, and it is assuredly to that
we owe the beautiful prayers and hymns which
mark the higher stage of their religion. The con-
236
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
sciousness of sin, the feeling of contrition, of de-
pendence on an offended yet merciful divine power,
so strikingly conspicuous in the so-called "Peniten-
tial Psalms" (see p. 178), the fine poetry in some.
of the later hymns, for instance those to the Sun.
(see p. 171), are features so distinctively Semitic,
that they startle us by their resemblance to certain
portions of the Bible. On the other hand, a nation
never forgets or quite gives up its own native creed
and religious practices. The wise priestly rulers of
Shumir and Accad did not attempt to compel the
people to do so, but even while introducing and
propagating the new religion, suffered them to go on
believing in their hosts of evil spirits and their few
beneficent ones, in their conjuring, soothsaying, cast-
ing and breaking of spells and charms. Nay, more.
As time went on and the learned priests studied more
closely the older creed and ideas, they were struck
with the beauty of some few of their conceptions--
especially that of the ever benevolent, ever watch-
ful Spirit of Earth, Êa, and his son Meridug, the
mediator, the friend of men. These conceptions,
these and some other favorite national divinities,
they thought worthy of being adopted by them
and worked into their own religious system, which
was growing more complicated, more elaborate
every day, while the large bulk of spirits and de-
mons they also allowed a place in it, in the rank of
inferior "Spirits of heaven" and "Spirits of earth,
which were lightly classed together and counted by
hundreds. By the time a thousand years had
passed, the fusion had become so complete that
BABYLONIAN RELIGION.
237
there really was both a new religion and a new na-
tion, the result of a long work of amalgamation.
The Shumiro-Accads of pure yet low race were no
longer, nor did the Semites preserve a separate ex-
istence; they had become merged into one nation
of mixed races, which at a later period became
known under the general name of Chaldeans, whose
religion, regarded with awe for its prodigious an-
tiquity, yet was comparatively recent, being the
outcome of the combination of two infinitely older
creeds, as we have just seen. When Hammurabi
established his residence at Babel, a city which had
but lately risen to importance, he made it the cap-
ital of the empire first completely united under his
rule (see p. 226), hence the name of Babylonia is
given by ancient writers to the old land of Shumir
and Accad, even more frequently than that of Chal-
dea, and the state religion is called indifferently
the Babylonian or Chaldean, and not unfrequently
Chaldeo-Babylonian.
·
6. This religion, as it was definitely established
and handed down unchanged through a succession
of twenty centuries and more, had a twofold char-
acter, which must be well grasped in order to under-
stand its general drift and sense. On the one hand,
as it admitted the existence of many divine powers,
who shared between them the government of the
world, it was decidedly POLYTHEISTIC—“ a religion
of many gods." On the other hand, a dim percep-
tion had already been arrived at, perhaps through
observation of the strictly regulated movements of
the stars, of the presence of One supreme ruling
238
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
and directing Power. For a class of men given to
the study of astronomy could not but perceive that
all those bright Beings which they thought so
divine and powerful, were not absolutely inde-
pendent; that their movements and combinations
were too regular, too strictly timed, too identical in
their ever recurring repetition, to be entirely volun-
tary; that, consequently, they obeyed-obeyed a
Law, a Power above and beyond them, beyond
heaven itself, invisible, unfathomable, unattainable.
by human thought or eyes. Such a perception
was, of course, a step in the right direction, towards
MONOTHEISM, i.e., the belief in only one God. But
the perception was too vague and remote to be fully
realized and consistently carried out.
The priests
who, from long training in abstract thought and
contemplation, probably could look deeper and
come nearer the truth than other people, strove to
express their meaning in language and images
which, in the end, obscured the original idea and
almost hid it out of sight, instead of making it
clearer. Besides, they did not imagine the world
as created by God, made by an act of his will, but
as being a form of him, a manifestation, part of
himself, of his own substance. Therefore, in the
great all of the universe, and in each of its portions,
in the mysterious forces at work in it-light and
heat and life and growth-they admired and adored
not the power of God, but his very presence; one
of the innumerable and infinitely varied forms in
which he makes himself known and visible to men,
manifests himself to them-in short, an emanation
BABYLONIAN RELIGION.
239
of God. The word "emanation" has been adopted
as the only one which to a certain extent conveys
this very subtle and complicated idea. An emana-
tion is not quite a thing itself, but it is a portion of
it, which comes out of it and separates itself from
it, yet cannot exist without it. So the fragrance
of a flower is not the flower, nor is it a growth or
development of it, yet the flower gives it forth and
it cannot exist by itself without the flower—it is an
emanation of the flower. The same can be said of
the mist which visibly rises from the warm earth in
low and moist places on a summer evening—it is an
emanation of the earth.
66
7. The Chaldeo-Babylonian priests knew of many
such divine emanations, which, by giving them.
names and attributing to them definite functions,
they made into so many separate divine persons.
Of these some ranked higher and some lower, a
relation which was sometimes expressed by the
human one of "father and son." They were or-
dered in groups, very scientifically arranged. Above
the rest were placed two TRIADS or
groups of
three." The first triad comprised ANU, ÊA and
BEL, the supreme gods of all-all three retained
from the old Shumiro-Accadian list of divinities.
ANU is ANA, Heaven," and the surnames
epithets which are given him in different texts,
sufficiently show what conception had been formed.
of him: he is called "the Lord of the starry
heavens," "the Lord of Darkness," "the first-born,
the oldest, the Father of the Gods." EA, retaining
his ancient attributions as "Lord of the Deep,” the
(6
or
240
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
pre-eminently wise and beneficent spirit, represents
the Divine Intelligence, the founder and maintainer
of order and harmony, while the actual task of sep-
arating the elements of chaos and shaping them
into the forms which make up the world as we
know it, as well as that of ordering the heavenly
bodies, appointing them their path and directing
them thereon, was devolved on the third person
of the triad, BEL, the son of ÊA. Bel is a Semitic
name, which means simply "the lord."
8. From its nature and attributions, it is clear
that to this triad must have attached a certain
vagueness and remoteness. Not so the second
triad, in which the Deity manifested itself as stand-
ing in the nearest and most direct relation to man
as most immediately influencing him in his daily
life. The persons of this triad were the Moon, the
Sun, and the Power of the Atmosphere,-SIN,
SHAMASH, and RAMAN, the Semitic names for the
Shumiro-Accadian URU-KI or NANNAR, UD or
BABBAR, and IM or MERMER. Very characteristic-
ally, Sin is frequently called "the god Thirty," in
allusion to his functions as the measurer of time pre-
siding over the month. Of the feelings with which.
the Sun was regarded and the beneficent and splen-
did qualities attributed to him, we know enough from
the beautiful hymns quoted in Chap. III. (see p.
172). As to the god RAMÂN, frequently represented
on tablets and cylinders by his characteristic sign,
the double or triple-forked lightning-bolt-his im-
portance as the dispenser of rain, the lord of the
whirlwind and tempest, made him very popular, an
BABYLONIAN RELIGION.
241
object as much of dread as of gratitude; and as the
crops depended on the supply of water from the
canals, and these again could not be full without
abundant rains, it is not astonishing that he should
have been particularly entitled "protector or lord
of canals," giver of abundance and "lord of fruit-
fulness." In his more terrible capacity, he is thus
described: "His standard titles are the minister of
heaven and earth," "the lord of the air, "he who
makes the tempest to rage." He is regarded as the
destroyer of crops, the rooter-up of trees, the scat-
terer of the harvest. Famine, scarcity, and even
their consequence, pestilence, are assigned to him.
He is said to have in his hand a "flaming sword"
with which he effects his works of destruction, and
this "flaming sword, which probably represents
lightning, becomes his emblem upon the tablets and
cylinders." *
9. The astronomical tendencies of the new relig-
ion fully assert themselves in the third group of
divinities. They are simply the five planets then
known and identified with various deities of the old
creed, to whom they are, so to speak, assigned as
their own particular provinces. Thus NINDAR (also
called NINIP or NINÊB), originally another name
or form of the Sun (see p. 172), becomes the ruler
of the most distant planet, the one we now call Sat-
urn; the old favorite, Meridug, under the Semitized
name of MARDUK, rules the planet Jupiter. It is he
whom later Hebrew writers have called MERODACH,
* Rawlinson's "Five Monarchies," Vol. I., p. 164.
242
TEE STORY OF CHALDEA.
the name we find in the Bible. The planet Mars
belongs to NERGAL, the warrior-god, and Mercury
to NEBO, more properly NABU, the "messenger of
the gods" and the special patron of astronomy,
while the planet Venus is under the sway of a fem-
inine deity, the goddess ISHTAR, one of the most
important and popular on the list. But of her more
anon. She leads us to the consideration of a very
essential and characteristic feature of the Chaldeo-
Babylonian religion, common, moreover, to all Ori-
ental heathen religions, especially the Semitic ones.
IO. There is a distinction-the distinction of sex
-which runs through the whole of animated nature,
dividing all things that have life into two separate
halves-male and female-halves most different in
their qualities, often opposite, almost hostile, yet
eternally dependent on each other, neither being com-
plete or perfect, or indeed able to exist without the
other. Separated by contrast, yet drawn together
by an irresistible sympathy which results in the clos-
est union, that of love and affection, the two sexes
still go through life together, together do the work
of the world. What the one has not or has in an in-
sufficient degree it finds in its counterpart, and it is
only their union which makes of the world a whole
thing, full, rounded, harmonious. The masculine na-
ture, active, strong, and somewhat stern, even when
merciful and bounteous, inclined to boisterousness.
and violence and often to cruelty, is well set off, or
rather completed and moderated, by the feminine
nature, not less active, but more quietly so, dispens-

BABYLONIAN RELIGION.
243
ing gentle influences, open to milder moods, more
uniformly soft in feeling and manner.
II. In no relation of life is the difference, yet
harmony, of masculine and feminine action so plain
as in that between husband and wife, father and
UPPER PART OF ALABASTER FIGURE
INSCRIBED with the NAME of NEBO.
60.-A BUST INSCRIBED WITH THE NAME OF NEBO.
(British Museum.)
mother. It requires no very great effort of imag-
ination to carry the distinction beyond the bounds
of animated nature, into the world at large. To
men for whom every portion or force of the universe
was endowed with a particle of the divine nature
244
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
and power, many were the things which seemed to
be paired in a contrasting, yet joint action similar
to that of the sexes. If the great and distant
Heaven appeared to them as the universal ruler and
lord, the source of all things-the Father of the
Gods, as they put it-surely the beautiful Earth,
kind nurse, nourisher and preserver of all things that
have life, could be called the universal Mother. If
the fierce summer and noonday sun could be looked
on as the resistless conqueror, the dread King of
the world, holding death and disease in his hand,
was not the quiet, lovely moon, of mild and sooth-
ing light, bringing the rest of coolness and healing
dews, its gentle Queen? In short, there is not a
power or a phenomenon of nature which does not
present to a poetical imagination a twofold aspect,
answering to the standard masculine and feminine
qualities and peculiarities. The ancient thinkers--
priests who framed the vague guesses of the grop-
ing, dreaming mind into schemes and systems of
profound meaning, expressed this sense of the two-
fold nature of things by worshipping a double di-
vine being or principle, masculine and feminine.
Thus every god was supplied with a wife, through
the entire series of divine emanations and manifes-
tations. And as all the gods were in reality only
different names and forms of the Supreme and Un-
fathomable ONE, so all the goddesses represent
only BELIT, the great feminine principle of nature
-productiveness, maternity, tenderness—also con-
tained, like everything else, in that ONE, and ema-
nating from it in endless succession. Hence it
BABYLONIAN RELIGION.
245
Of
comes that the goddesses of the Chaldeo-Babylo-
nian religion, though different in name and appar-
ently in attributions, become wonderfully alike
when looked at closer. They are all more or less
repetitions of BELIT, the wife of BEL. Her name.
-which is only the feminine form of the god's,
meaning "the Lady," as Bel means "the Lord,"-
sufficiently shows that the two are really one.
the other goddesses the most conspicuous are ANAT
or NANA (Earth), the wife of Anu (Heaven), AN-
UNIT (the Moon), wife of Shamash (the Sun), and
lastly ISHTAR, the ruler of the planet Venus in her
own right, and by far the most attractive and in-
teresting of the list. She was a great favorite, wor-
shipped as the Queen of Love and Beauty, and also
as the Warrior-Queen, who rouses men to deeds of
bravery, inspirits and protects them in battle-per-
haps because men have often fought and made war
for the love of women, and also probably because.
the planet Venus, her own star, appears not only
in the evening, close after sunset, but also immedi-
ately before daybreak, and so seems to summon the
human race to renewed efforts and activity. Ishtar
could not be an exception to the general principle
and remain unmated. But her husband, DUMUZ (a
name for the Sun), stands to her in an entirely
subordinate position, and, indeed, would be but lit-
tle known were it not for a beautiful story that was
told of them in a very old poem, and which will find its
place among many more in one of the next chapters.
12. It would be tedious and unnecessary to recite
here more names of gods and goddesses, though
246
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
there are quite a number, and more come to light
all the time as new tablets are discovered and read.
Most of them are in reality only different names for
the same conceptions, and the Chaldeo-Babylonian
pantheon or assembly of divine persons-is very
sufficiently represented by the so-called "twelve
great gods," who were universally acknowledged to
be at its head, and of whom we will here repeat the
names: ANU, ÊA and BEL, SIN, SHAMASH and RA-
MÂN, NINDAR, MARUDUK, NERGAL, NEBO, BELIT
and ISHTAR. Each had numerous temples all over
the country.
But every great city had its favor-
ite whose temple was the oldest, largest and most
sumptuous, to whose worship it was especially de-
voted from immemorial times. Êa, the most be-
loved god of old Shumir, had his chief sanctuary,
which he shared with his son Meridug, at ERIDHU
(now Abu-Shahrein), the most southern and almost
the most ancient city of Shumir, situated near the
mouth of the Euphrates, since the Persian Gulf
reached quite as far inland in the year 4000 B.C.,
and this was assuredly an appropriate station for
the great "lord of the deep," the Fish-god Oannes,
who emerged from the waters to instruct man-
kind. UR, as we have seen, was the time-hon-
ored seat of the Moon-god. At ERECH Anu and
Anat or Nana-Heaven and Earth-were specially
honored from the remotest antiquity, being jointly
worshipped in the temple called "the House of
Heaven." This may have been the reason of the
particular sacredness attributed to the ground all
around Erech, as witnessed by the exceeding per-
BABYLONIAN RELIGION.
247
sistency with which people strove for ages to bury
their dead in it, as though under the immediate pro-
tection of the goddess of Earth* (see Ch. III. of In-
troduction). Larsam paid especial homage to Sha-
mash and was famous for its very ancient "House
of the Sun." The Sun and Moon-Shamash and
Anunit-had their rival sanctuaries at SIPPAR on
the "Royal Canal,” which ran nearly parallel to the
Euphrates, and AGADÊ, the city of Sargon, situated
just opposite on the other bank of the canal. The
name of Agadê was lost in the lapse of time, and
both cities became one, the two portions being dis-
tinguished only by the addition "Sippar of the
Sun" and Sippar of Anunit.” The Hebrews
called the united city "The two Sippars"-SEPH-
ARVAIM, the name we find in the Bible.
13. The site of this important city was long
doubtful; but in 1881 one of the most skilful and
indefatigable searchers, Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, a
gentleman who began his career as assistant to Lay-
ard, made a discovery which set the question at
rest. He was digging in a mound known to the
Arabs by the name of Abu-Habba, and had made
his way into the apartments of a vast structure
which he knew to be a temple. From room to
room he passed until he came to a smaller cham-
ber, paved with asphalt, which he at once surmised
to be the archive-room of the temple. "Hereto-
fore," says Mr. Rassam in his report, "all Assy-
* It was the statue of this very goddess Nana which was carried
away by the Elamite conqueror, Khudur-Nankhundi in 2280 B.C. and
restored to its place by Assurbanipal in 645 B.C.
248
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
rian and Babylonian structures were found to be
paved generally either with stone or brick, con-
sequently this novel discovery led me to have the
asphalt broken into and examined. On doing so
we found, buried in a corner of the chamber, about
three feet below the surface, an inscribed earthen-
ware coffer, inside which was deposited a stone.
tablet. .." Rassam had indeed stumbled on the
archive of the famous Sun-temple, as was proved
not only by the tablet, but by the numerous docu-
ments which accompanied it, and which gave the
names of the builders and restorers of the temple.
As to the tablet, it is the finest and best preserved
work of art of the kind which has yet been found.
It was deposited about the year 880 B.C. on occasion
of a restoration, and represents the god himself,
seated on a throne, receiving the homage of wor-
shippers, while above him the sun-disc is held sus-
pended from heaven on two strong cords, like a gi-
gantic lamp, by two ministering beings, who may
very probably belong to the host of Igigi or spirits
of heaven. The inscription, in beautifully clear and
perfectly preserved characters, informs us that this
is "The image of Shamash, the great lord, who
dwells in the House of the Sun,' (Ê-Babbara\
which is within the city of Sippar."*
"(See Front-
ispiece.) This was a truly magnificent find, and
who knows but something as unexpected and as
conclusive may turn up to fix for us the exact
* The three circles above the god represent the Moon-god, the Sun-
god, and Ishtar. So we are informed by the two lines of writing
which run above the roof.
BABYLONIAN RELIGION.
249
.
place of the temple of Anunit, and consequently
of the venerable city of Agadê. As to BABY-
LON, it was originally placed under divine pro-
tection generally, as shown by its proper Semitic
name, BABILU, which means, as we have already
seen, "the Gate of God," and exactly answers to the
Shumiro-Accadian name of the city (KA-DINGIRRA,
or KA-DIMIRRA); but later on it elected a special
protector in the person of MARUDUK, the old favor-
ite, Meridug. When Babylon became the capital
of the united monarchy of Shumir and Accad, its
patron divinity, under the name of BEL-MARUDUK,
("the Lord Maruduk ") rose to a higher rank than
he had before occupied; his temple outshone all
others and became a wonder of the world for its
wealth and splendor. He had another, scarcely less.
splendid, and founded by Hammurabi himself in
Borsip. In this way religion was closely allied to
politics. For in the days before the reunion of the
great cities under the rule of Hammurabi, whichever
of them was the most powerful at the time, its
priests naturally claimed the pre-eminence for their
local deity even beyond their own boundaries. So.
that the fact of the old Kings of Ur, Ur-êa and
his descendants, not limiting themselves to the
worship of their national Moon-god, but building
temples in many places and to many gods, was per-
haps a sign of a conciliating general policy as much.
as of liberal religious feeling.
14. One would think that so very perfect a system
of religion, based too on so high and noble an order
of ideas, should have entirely superseded the coarse
250
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
materialism and conjuring practices of the goblin-
creed of the primitive Turanian settlers. Such,
however, was far from being the case. We saw that
the new religion made room, somewhat contempt-
uously perhaps, for the spirits of the old creed,
carelessly massing them wholesale into a sort of
regiment, composed of the three hundred IGIGI, or
spirits of heaven, and the six hundred ANUNNAKI,
or spirits of earth. The conjurers and sorcerers
of old were even admitted into the priesthood in an
inferior capacity, as a sort of lower order, probably
more tolerated than encouraged-tolerated from
necessity, because the people clung to their an-
cient beliefs and practices. But if their official po-
sition as a priestly class were subordinate, their real
power was not the less great, for the public favor
and credulity were on their side, and they were.
assuredly more generally popular than the learned
and solemn priests, the counsellors and almost the
equals of the kings, whose thoughts dwelt among
the stars, who reverently searched the heavens for
revelations of the divine will and wisdom, and who,
by pursuing accurate observation and mathematical
calculation together with the wildest dreams, made
astronomy and astrology the inextricable tangle of
scientific truth and fantastic speculation that we
see it in the great work (in seventy tablets) pre-
pared for the library of Sargon II. at Agadê. That
the ancient system of conjuring and incantations re-
mained in full force and general use, is sufficiently
proved by the contents of the first two parts of the
great collection in two hundred tablets compiled in
|
BABYLONIAN RELIGION.
251
the reign of the same king, and from the care with
which the work was copied and recopied, com-
mented on and translated in later ages, as we see
from the copy made for the Royal Library at Nin-
eveh, the one which has reached us.
15. There was still a third branch of so-called
"science," which greatly occupied the minds of the
Chaldeo-Babylonians from their earliest times down
to the latest days of their existence: it was the art
of Divination, i.e., of divining and foretelling future
events from signs and omens, a superstition born of
the old belief in every object of inanimate nature
being possessed or inhabited by a spirit, and the
later belief in a higher power ruling the world
and human affairs to the smallest detail, and con-
stantly manifesting itself through all things in na-
ture as through secondary agents, so that nothing
whatever could occur without some deeper signifi-
cance, which might be discovered and expounded by
specially trained and favored individuals. In the
case of atmospheric prophecies concerning weather
and crops, as connected with the appearance of
clouds, sky and moon, the force and direction of
winds, etc., there may have been some real observa-
tion to found them on. But it is very clear that
such a conception, if carried out consistently to ex-
treme lengths and applied indiscriminately to every-
thing, must result in arrant folly. Such was as-
suredly the case with the Chaldeo-Babylonians, who
not only carefully noted and explained dreams,
drew lots in doubtful cases by means of inscribed
arrows, interpreted the rustle of trees, the plashing
252
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
of fountains and murmur of streams, the direction
and form of lightnings, not only fancied that they
could see things in bowls of water and in the shift-
ing forms assumed by the flame which consumed
sacrifices, and the smoke which rose therefrom, and.
that they could raise and question the spirits of the
dead, but drew presages and omens, for good or
evil, from the flight of birds, the appearance of the
liver, lungs, heart and bowels of the animals offered
in sacrifice and opened for inspection, from the
natural defects or monstrosities of babies or the
young of animals—in short, from any and every-
thing that they could possibly subject to observa-
tion.
16. This idlest of all kinds of speculation was re-
duced to a most minute and apparently scientific
system quite as early as astrology and incantation,
and forms the subject of a third collection, in about
one hundred tablets, and probably compiled by
those same indefatigable priests of Agadê for Sar-
gon, who was evidently of a most methodical turn
of mind, and determined to have all the traditions
and the results of centuries of observation and
practical experiences connected with any branch of
religious science fixed forever in the shape of thor-
oughly classified rules, for the guidance of priests
for all coming ages. This collection has come to
us in an even more incomplete and mutilated con-
dition than the others; but enough has been pre-
served to show us that a right-thinking and relig-
iously-given Chaldeo-Babylonian must have spent.
his life taking notes of the absurdest trifles, and
BABYLONIAN RELIGION.
253
questioning the diviners and priests about them, in
order not to get into scrapes by misinterpreting the
signs and taking that to be a favorable omen which
boded dire calamity-or the other way, and thus
doing things or leaving them undone at the wrong
moment and in the wrong way. What excites,
perhaps, even greater wonder, is the utter absurdity
of some of the incidents gravely set down as affect-
ing the welfare, not only of individuals, but of the
whole country. What shall we say, for instance,
of the importance attached to the proceedings of
stray dogs? Here are some of the items as given
by Mr. Fr. Lenormant in his most valuable and
entertaining book on Chaldean Divination:
"If a gray dog enter the palace, the latter will be
consumed by flames.-If a yellow dog enter the pal-
ace, the latter will perish in a violent catastrophe.—
If a tawny dog enter the palace, peace will be con-
cluded with the enemies. If a dog enter the palace.
and be not killed, the peace of the palace will be
disturbed. If a dog enter the temple, the gods will
have no mercy on the land.—If a white dog enter
the temple, its foundations will subsist.—If a black
dog enter the temple, its foundations will be
shaken.—If a gray dog enter the temple, the latter
will lose its possessions. . . . If dogs assemble in
troops and enter the temple, no one will remain in
authority. . . . If a dog vomits in a house, the
master of that house will die."
17. The chapter on monstrous births is extensive.
Not only is every possible anomaly registered, from
an extra finger or toe to an ear smaller than the
254
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
If a queen give birth to
other, with its corresponding presage of good or
evil to the country, the king, the army, but the most.
impossible monstrosities are seriously enumerated,
with the political conditions of which they are sup-
posed to be the signs. For instance :-If a woman
give birth to a child with lion's ears, a mighty king
will rule the land . . . with a bird's beak, there will
be peace in the land.
a child with a lion's face, the king will have no
rival . . . if to a snake, the king will be mighty. . . .
If a mare give birth to a foal with a lion's mane,
the lord of the land will annihilate his enemies
with a dog's paws, the land will be diminished .
with a lion's paws, the land will be increased. . . . If
a sheep give birth to a lion, there will be war, the
king will have no rival. . . . If a mare give birth to
a dog, there will be disaster and famine.”
18. The three great branches of religious science.
-astrology, incantation and divination were rep-
resented by three corresponding classes of "wise
men," all belonging, in different degrees, to the
priesthood: the star-gazers or astrologers, the magi-
cians or sorcerers, and the soothsayers or fortune-
tellers. The latter, again, were divided into many
smaller classes according to the particular kind of
divination which they practised. Some specially
devoted themselves to the interpretation of dreams,
others to that of the flight of birds, or of the signs
of the atmosphere, or of casual signs and omens
generally. All were in continual demand, consulted
alike by kings and private persons, and all proceeded
in strict accordance with the rules and principles
i
BABYLONIAN RELIGION.
255
laid down in the three great works of King Sargon's
time. When the Babylonian empire ceased to exist
and the Chaldeans were no longer a nation, these
secret arts continued to be practised by them, and
the name Chaldean " became a by-word, a syno-
nym for "a wise man of the East," astrologer,
magician or soothsayer. They dispersed all over
the world, carrying their delusive science with them,
practising and teaching it, welcomed everywhere by
the credulous and superstitious, often highly hon-
ored and always richly paid. Thus it is from the
Chaldeans and their predecessors the Shumiro-
Accads that the belief in astrology, witchcraft and
every kind of fortune-telling has been handed down.
to the nations of Europe, together with the prac-
tices belonging thereto, many of which we find lin-
gering even to our day among the less educated
classes. The very words "magic" and "magician
are probably an inheritance of that remotest of
antiquities. One of the words for "priest" in the
old Turanian tongue of Shumir was imga, which, in
the later Semitic language, became mag. The Rab-
mag-"great priest," or perhaps "chief conjurer,"
was a high functionary at the court of the Assyrian
kings. Hence "magus," "magic," "magician," in
all the European languages, from Latin downward.
"
19. There can be no doubt that we have little rea-
son to be grateful for such an heirloom as this mass
of superstitions, which have produced so much evil
in the world and still occasionally do mischief
enough. But we must not forget to set off against
it the many excellent things, most important dis-
256
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
coveries in the province of astronomy and mathe-
matics which have come to us from the same dis-
tant source. To the ancient Chaldeo-Babylonians.
we owe not only our division of time, but the inven-
tion of the sun-dial, and the week of seven days,
dedicated in succession to the Sun, the Moon, and
the five planets—an arrangement which is still
maintained, the names of our days being merely
translations of the Chaldean ones. And more than
that; there were days set apart and kept holy, as
days of rest, as far back as the time of Sargon of
Agadê; it was from the Semites of Babylonia-per-
haps the Chaldeans of Ur--that both the name and
the observance passed to the Hebrew branch of the
race, the tribe of Abraham. George Smith found
an Assyrian calendar where the day called Sabattu
or Sabattuv is explained to mean "completion of
work, a day of rest for the soul." On this day, it
appears it was not lawful to cook food, to change
one's dress, to offer a sacrifice; the king was for-
bidden to speak in public, to ride in a chariot, to
perform any kind of military or civil duty, even to
take medicine.* This, surely, is a keeping of the
Sabbath as strict as the most orthodox Jew could
well desire. There are, however, essential differences
between the two. In the first place, the Babyloni-
ans kept five Sabbath days every month, which
made more than one a week; in the second place,
Friedrich Delitzsch,
'Beigaben to the German translat. of
Smith's Chaldean Genesis" (1876), p. 300. A. H. Sayce, "The
Ancient Empires of the East" (1883), p. 402.
tiones de Historia Sabbati."
W. Lotz, "Quæs-
BABYLONIAN RELIGION.
257
they came round on certain dates of each month,
independently of the day of the week: on the 7th,
14th, 19th, 21st and 28th. The custom appears to
have passed to the Assyrians, and there are indica-
tions which encourage the supposition that it was
shared by other nations connected with the Jews,
the Babylonians and Assyrians, for instance, by the
Phoenicians.


VI.
LEGENDS AND STORIES.
I. IN every child's life there comes a moment
when it ceases to take the world and all it holds as
a matter of course, when it begins to wonder and to
question. The first, the great question naturally
is—“ Who made it all? The sun, the stars, the sea,
the rivers, the flowers, and the trees-whence come
they? who made them?" And to this question we
are very ready with our answer: "God made it
all. The One, the Almighty God created the
world, and all that is in it, by His own sovereign.
will." When the child further asks: "How did He
do it?" we read to it the story of the Creation
which is the beginning of the Bible, our Sacred
Book, either without any remarks upon it, or with
the warning, that, for a full and proper understand-
ing of it, years are needed and knowledge of many
kinds. Now, these same questions have been
asked, by children and men, in all ages. Ever since
man has existed upon the earth, ever since he be-
gan, in the intervals of rest, in the hard labor and
struggle for life and limb, for food and warmth, to
raise his head and look abroad, and take in the
wonders that surrounded him, he has thus pondered
258
LEGENDS AND STORIES.
259
and questioned. And to this questioning, each
nation, after its own lights, has framed very much
the same answer; the same in substance and spirit
(because the only possible one), acknowledging the
agency of a Divine Power, in filling the world with.
life, and ordaining the laws of nature, but often
very different in form, since, almost every creed
having stopped short of the higher religious con-
ception, that of One Deity, indivisible and all-power-
ful, the great act was attributed to many gods—
"the gods," not to God. This of course opened
the way to innumerable, more or less ingenious,
fancies and vagaries as to the part played in it by
this or that particular divinity. Thus all races,
nations, even tribes have worked out for themselves
their own COSMOGONY, i.e., their own ideas on the
Origin of the World. The greatest number, not
having reached a very high stage of culture or
attained literary skill, preserved the teachings of
their priests in their memory, and transmitted them
orally from father to son; such is the case even
now with many more peoples than we think of—
with all the native tribes of Africa, the islanders of
Australia and the Pacific, and several others. But
the nations who advanced intellectually to the front
of mankind and influenced the long series of coming
races by their thoughts and teachings, recorded in
books the conclusions they had arrived at on the
great questions which have always stirred the
heart and mind of man; these were carefully pre-
served and recopied from time to time, for the in-
struction of each rising generation. Thus many
260
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
great nations of olden times have possessed Sacred
Books, which, having been written in remote an-
tiquity by their best and wisest men, were rev-
erenced as something not only holy, but beyond
the unassisted powers of the human intellect, some-
thing imparted, revealed directly by the deity itself,
and therefore to be accepted, undisputed, as abso-
lute truth. It is clear that it was in the interest of
the priests, the keepers and teachers of all religious
knowledge, to encourage and maintain in the peo-
ple at large this unquestioning belief.
2. Of all such books that have become known to
us, there are none of greater interest and import-
ance than the sacred books of Ancient Babylonia.
Not merely because they are the oldest known,
having been treasured in the priestly libraries of
Agadê, Sippar, Cutha, etc., at an incredibly early
date, but principally because the ancestors of the
Hebrews, during their long station in the land of
Shinar, learned the legends and stories they con-
tained, and working them over after their own.
superior religious lights, remodelled them into the
narrative which was written down many centuries
later as part of the Book of Genesis.
3. The original sacred books were attributed to
the god Êa himself, the impersonation of the Di-
vine Intelligence, and the teacher of mankind in the
shape of the first Man-Fish, Oannes-(the name
being only a Greek corruption of the Accadian EA-
HAN, Êa the Fish").* So Berosus informs us.
66
* See Fr. Lenormant, "Die Magie und Wahrsagekunst der Chal-
däer," p. 377.
LEGENDS AND STORIES.
261
After describing Oannes and his proceedings (see
p. 185), he adds that “he wrote a Book on the Origin
of things and the beginnings of civilization, and gave
it to men." The "origin of things" is the history
of the Creation of the world, Cosmogony. Accord
ingly, this is what Berosus proceeds to expound,
quoting directly from the Book, for he begins:
There was a time, says he, (meaning Oannes) when
all was darkness and water.” Then follows a very
valuable fragment, but unfortunately only a frag-
ment, one of the few preserved by later Greek writers
who quoted the old priest of Babylon for their own
purposes, while the work itself was, in some way,
destroyed and lost. True, these fragments contain
short sketches of several of the most important.
legends; still, precious as they are, they convey
only second-hand information, compiled, indeed,
from original sources by a learned and conscien-
tious writer, but for the use of a foreign race, ex-
tremely compressed, and, besides, with the names
all altered to suit that race's language. So long as
the "original sources" were missing, there was a
gap in the study both of the Bible and the religion
of Babylon, which no ingenuity could fill. Great,
therefore, were the delight and excitement, both
of Assyriologists and Bible scholars, when George
Smith, while sorting the thousands of tablet-frag-
ments which for years had littered the floor of
certain remote chambers of the British Museum,
accidentally stumbled on some which were evidently.
portions of the original sacred legends partly ren-
dered by Berosus. To search for all available frag-
262
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
ments of the precious documents and piece them
together became the task of Smith's life. And as
nearly all that he found belonged to copies from.
the Royal Library at Nineveh, it was chiefly in

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61.—BACK OF TABLET WITH ACCOUNT OF FLOOD.
(Smith's "Chaldean Genesis.")
order to enlarge the collection that he undertook
his first expedition to the Assyrian mounds, from
which he had the good fortune to bring back many
missing fragments, belonging also to different
copies, so that one frequently completes the other.
:
LEGENDS AND STORIES.
263
Thus the oldest Chaldean legends were in a great
measure restored to us, though unfortunately very
few tablets are in a sufficiently well preserved con-
dition to allow of making out an entirely intelligible
and uninterrupted narrative. Not only are many
parts still missing altogether, but of those which
have been found, pieced and collected, there is not
one of which one or more columns have not been
injured in such a way that either the beginning or
the end of all the lines are gone, or whole lines
broken out or erased, with only a few words left
here and there. How hopeless the task must some-
times have seemed to the patient workers may
be judged from the foregoing specimen pieced to-
gether of sixteen bits, which Geo. Smith gives in
his book. This is one of the so-called "Deluge-tab-
lets," i.e., of those which contain the Chaldean ver-
sion of the story of the Deluge. Luckily more.
copies have been found of this story than of any of
the others, or we should have had to be content
still with the short sketch of it given by Berosus.
4. If, therefore, the ancient Babylonian legends
of the beginnings of the world will be given here in
a connected form, for the sake of convenience and
plainness, it must be clearly understood that they
were not preserved for us in such a form, but are
the result of a long and patient work of research
and restoration, a work which still continues; and
every year, almost every month, brings to light
some new materials, some addition, some correction
to the old ones. Yet even as the work now stands,
it justifies us in asserting that our knowledge of this
264
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
marvellous antiquity is fuller and more authentic
than that we have of many a period and people not
half so remote from us in point of place and dis-
tance.
5. The cosmogonic narrative which forms the
first part of what Geo. Smith has very aptly called
"the Chaldean Genesis" is contained in a number
of tablets. As it begins by the words "When
above," they are all numbered as No. 1, or 3, or 5
"of the series WHEN ABOVE. The property of As-
shurbanipal, king of nations, king of Assyria." The
first lines are intact:-" When the heaven above
and the earth below were as yet unnamed,”—(i.e.,
according to Semitic ideas, did not exist)-APSU
(the "Abyss") and MUMMU-TIAMAT (the "billowy
Sea") were the beginning of all things; their wa
ters mingled and flowed together; that was the
Primeval Chaos; it contained the germs of life but
"the darkness was not lifted" from the waters, and
therefore nothing sprouted or grew-(for no growth
or life is possible without light). The gods also
were not; "they were as yet unnamed and did not
rule the destinies." Then the great gods came
into being, and the divine hosts of heaven and
earth (the Spirits of Heaven and Earth). "And the
days stretched themselves out, and the god Anu
(Heaven.)
Here the text breaks off
abruptly; it is probable, however, that it told how,
after a long lapse of time, the gods Anu, Êa and
Bel, the first and supreme triad, came into being.
The next fragment, which is sufficiently well pre-
served to allow of a connected translation, tells of the
LEGENDS AND STORIES.
265
establishment of the heavenly bodies: "He" (Anu,
whose particular dominion the highest heavens were,
hence frequently called "the heaven of Anu ") "he
appointed the mansions of the great gods" (signs
of the Zodiac), established the stars, ordered the
months and the year, and limited the beginning and
end thereof; established the planets, so that none
should swerve from its allotted track; "he ap-
pointed the mansions of Bel and Êa with his own;
he also opened the great gates of heaven, fastening
their bolts firmly to the right and to the left" (east
and west); he made Nannar (the Moon) to shine
and allotted the night to him, determining the time.
of his quarters which measure the days, and saying
to him "rise and set, and be subject to this law."
Another tablet, of which only the beginning is in-
telligible, tells how the gods (in the plural this
time) created the living beings which people the
earth, the cattle of the field and the city, and the
wild beasts of the field, and the things that creep in
the field and in the city, in short all the living crea-
tures.
6. There are some tablets which have been sup-
posed to treat of the creation of man and perhaps to
give a story of his disobedience and fall, answer-
ing to that in Genesis; but unfortunately they are
in too mutilated a condition to admit of certainty,
and no other copies have as yet come to light.
However, the probability that such was really the
case is very great, and is much enhanced by a cylin-
der of very ancient Babylonian workmanship, now
in the British Museum, and too important not to
266
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
be reproduced here. The tree in the middle, the
human couple stretching out their hands for the
fruit, the serpent standing behind the woman in-
one might almost say-a whispering attitude, all
this tells its own tale. And the authority of this
artistic presentation, which so strangely fits in to
fill the blank in the written narrative, is doubled by
the fact that the engravings on the cylinders are in-
variably taken from subjects connected with relig

62.—BABYLONIAN CYLINDER, SUPPOSED TO REPRESENT THE
TEMPTATION AND FALL.
ion, or at least religious beliefs and traditions. Ast
to the creation of man, we may partly eke out the
missing details from the fragment of Berosus al-
ready quoted. He there tells us-and so well-in-
formed a writer must have spoken on good author-
ity--that Bel gave his own blood to be kneaded
with the clay out of which men were formed, and
that is why they are endowed with reason and have.
a share of the divine nature in them-certainly a
most ingenious way of expressing the blending of
the earthly and the divine elements which has
LEGENDS AND STORIES.
267
made human nature so deep and puzzling a prob-
lem to the profounder thinkers of all ages.
7. For the rest of the creation, Berosus' account
(quoted from the book said to have been given men
by the fabulous Oannes), agrees with what we find
in the original texts, even imperfect as we have
them. He says that in the midst of Chaos-at the
time when all was darkness and water-the prin-
ciple of life which it contained, restlessly working,
but without order, took shape in numberless mon-
strous formations: there were beings like men,
some winged, with two heads, some with the legs
and horns of goats, others with the hind part of
horses; also bulls with human heads, dogs with
four bodies and a fish's tail, horses with the heads
of dogs, in short, every hideous and fantastical
combination of animal forms, before the Divine
Will had separated them, and sorted them into
harmony and order. All these monstrous beings
perished the moment Bel separated the heavens
from the earth creating light, for they were births.
of darkness and lawlessness and could not stand the
new reign of light and law and divine reason. In
memory of this destruction of the old chaotic world
and production of the new, harmonious and beau-
tiful one, the walls of the famous temple of Bel-
Mardouk at Babylon were covered with paintings
representing the infinite variety of monstrous and
mixed shapes with which an exuberant fancy had.
peopled the primeval chaos; Berosus was a priest
of this temple and he speaks of those paintings as
still existing. Though nothing has remained of
268
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
them in the ruins of the temple, we have represen-
tations of the same kind on many of the cylinders
which, used as seals, did duty both as personal.
badges (one is almost tempted to say "coats of
arms")—and as talismans, as proved by the fact of
such cylinders being so frequently found on the
wrists of the dead in the sepulchres.
S. The remarkable cylinder with the human cou-
ple and the serpent leads us to the consideration
of a most important object in the ancient Babylo-
nian or Chaldean religion—the Sacred Tree, the
Tree of Life. That it was a very holy symbol is
clear from its being so continually reproduced on
cylinders and on sculptures. In this particular
cylinder, rude as the design is, it bears an un-
mistakable likeness to a real tree-of some conifer-
ous species, cypress or fir. But art soon took hold
of it and began to load it with symmetrical embel-
lishments, until it produced a tree of entirely conven-
tional design, as shown by the following specimens,
of which the first leans more to the palm, while the
second seems rather of the coniferous type. (Figs.
No. 63 and 65.) It is probable that such artificial
trees, made up of boughs-perhaps of the palm and
cypress--tied together and intertwined with rib-
bons (something like our Maypoles of old), were set
up in the temples as reminders of the sacred sym-
bol, and thus gave rise to the fixed type which re-
mains invariable both in such Babylonian works of
art as we possess and on the Assyrian sculptures,
where the tree, or a portion of it, appears not only
in the running ornaments on the walls but on seal

63.-FEMALE WINGED FIGURES BEFORE THE SACRED TREE.
(From a photograph in the British Museum.)
270
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
cylinders and even in the embroidery on the robes.
of kings. In the latter case indeed, it is almost
certain, from the belief in talismans which the
Assyrians had inherited, along with the whole of
their religion from the Chaldean mother country,
that this ornament was selected not only as ap-
propriate to the sacredness of the royal person, but
as a consecration and protection. The holiness of
the symbol is further evidenced by the kneeling
posture of the animals which sometimes accompany
it (see Fig. 22, page 67), and the attitude of adora-
tion of the human fig-
ures, or winged spirits.
attending it, by the
prevalence of the sa-
cred number seven in its
component parts, and
by the fact that it is re-
a great
many of those glazed
earthenware coffins

64.—WINGED SPIRITS BEFORE THE produced
SACRED TREE.
(Smith's “ Chaldea.”)
on.
which are so plentiful at Warka (ancient Erech).
This latter fact clearly shows that the tree-symbol
not only meant life in general, life on earth, but
a hope of life eternal, beyond the grave, or why
should it have been given to the dead? These
coffins at Warka belong, it is true, to a late pe-
riod, some as late as a couple of hundred years
after Christ, but the ancient traditions and their
meaning had, beyond a doubt, been preserved.
Another significant detail is that the cone is fre-
quently seen in the hands of men or spirits, and al-
.

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65.-SARGON OF ASSYRIA BEFORE THE SACRED TREE.
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
272
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
ways in a way connected with worship or auspicious
protection; sometimes it is held to the king's nos-
trils by his attendant protecting spirits, (known by
their wings); a gesture of unmistakable significancy,
since in ancient languages "the breath of the nos-
trils" is synonymous with "the breath of life.”
9. There can be no association of ideas more
natural than that of vegetation, as represented by a
tree, with life. By its perpetual growth and devel-
opment, its wealth of branches and foliage, its blos-
soming and fruit-bearing, it is a noble and striking
illustration of the world in the widest sense-the
Universe, the Cosmos, while the sap which courses.
equally through the trunk and through the veins of
the smallest leaflet, drawn by an incomprehensible
process through invisible roots from the nourishing
earth, still more forcibly suggests that mysterious
principle, Life, which we think we understand be-
cause we see its effects and feel it in ourselves,
but the sources of which will never be reached,
as the problem of it will never be solved, either
by the prying of experimental science or the
musings of contemplative speculation; life eter-
nal, also, for the workings of nature arc eternal,
-and the tree that is black and lifeless to-day,
we know from long experience is not dead, but
will revive in the fulness of time, and bud, and
grow and bear again. All these things we know
are the effects of laws; but the ancients attributed
them to living Powers,-the CHTHONIC POWERS.
(from the Greek word CHTHON, "earth, soil"),
which have by some later and dreamy thinkers been

Sess
Good
265
66.—EAGLE-HEADED FIGURE BEFORE THE SACRED TREE.
(Smith's "Chaldea.")
274
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
called weirdly but not unaptly, "the Mothers,'
mysteriously at work in the depths of silence and
darkness, unseen, unreachable, and inexhaustibly
productive. Of these powers again, what more per-
fect symbol or representative than the Tree, as
standing for vegetation, one for all, the part for the
whole? It lies so near that, in later times, it was
enlarged, so as to embrace the whole universe, in
the majestic conception of the Cosmic Tree which
has its roots on earth and heaven for its crown,
while its fruit are the golden apples-the stars, and
Fire, the red lightning.
10. All these suggestive and poetical fancies would
in themselves suffice to make the tree-symbol a
favorite one among so thoughtful and profound a
people as the old Chaldeans. But there is some-
thing more. It is intimately connected with an-
other tradition, common, in some form or other, to
all nations who have attained a sufficiently high
grade of culture to make their mark in the world
that of an original ancestral abode, beautiful,
happy, and remote, a Paradise. It is usually imag-
ined as a great mountain, watered by springs which
become great rivers, bearing one or more trees of
wonderful properties and sacred character, and is
considered as the principal residence of the gods.
Each nation locates it according to its own knowl-
edge of geography and vague, half-obliterated mem-
ories. Many texts, both in the old Accadian and
the Assyrian languages, abundantly prove that the
Chaldean religion preserved a distinct and rever-
ent conception of such a mountain, and placed it

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67.-FOUR-WINGED HUMAN FIGURE BEFORE THE SACRED TREE.
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
276
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
in the far north or north-east, calling it the "Father
of Countries," plainly an allusion to the original
abode of man-the "Mountain of Countries," (i.e.,
"Chief Mountain of the World") and also ARALLU,
because there, where the gods dwelt, they also im-
agined the entrance to the Arali to be the Land of
the Dead. There, too, the heroes and great men
were to dwell forever after their death. There is
the land with a sky of silver, a soil which pro-
duces crops without being cultivated, where bless-
ings are for food and rejoicing, which it is hoped.
the king will obtain as a reward for his piety af
ter having enjoyed all earthly goods during his
life.* In an old Accadian hymn, the sacred mount,
which is identical with that imagined as the pillar
joining heaven and earth, the pillar around which
the heavenly spheres revolve, (see page 153)-is
called "the mountain of Bel, in the east, whose
double head reaches unto the skies; which is like
to a mighty buffalo at rest, whose double horn
sparkles as a sunbeam, as a star." So vivid was the
conception in the popular mind, and so great the
reverence entertained for it, that it was attempted
to reproduce the type of the holy mountain in the
palaces of their kings and the temples of their gods.
That is one of the reasons why they built both on
artificial hills. There is in the British Museum a
sculpture from Koyunjik, representing such a tem-
ple, or perhaps palace, on the summit of a mound,
converted into a garden and watered by a stream
* François Lenormant, "Origines de l'Histoire," Vol. II., p. 130.
LEGENDS AND STORIES.
277
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“Paradise,” as these artificial parks were called by
the Greeks, who took the word (meaning “park
or "garden ") from the Persians, who, in their turn,
had borrowed the thing from the Assyrians and
Babylonians, when they conquered the latter's em-
which issues from the "hanging garden.
hanging garden" on the
right, the latter being laid out on a platform of
masonry raised on arches; the water was brought
up by machinery. It is a perfect specimen of a

68.-TEMPLE AND HANGING GARDENS AT KOYUNJIK.
(British Museum.)
278
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
pire. The Ziggurat, or pyramidal construction in
stages, with the temple or shrine on the top, also
owed its peculiar shape to the same original concep-
tion as the gods dwelt on the summit of the
Mountain of the World, so their shrines should

69.-PLAN OF A Ziggurat.
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
occupy a position as much like their residence as
the feeble means of man would permit. That this
is no idle fancy is proved by the very name of “Zig-
gurat," which means "mountain peak," and also by
the names of some of these temples: one of the old-

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70.-" ZIGGURAT" RESTORED, ACCORDING TO PROBABILITIES.
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
280
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
est and most famous indeed, in the city of Asshur,
was named "the House of the Mountain of Coun-
tries." An excellent representation of a Ziggurat,
as it must have looked with its surrounding palm
grove by a river, is given us on a sculptured slab,
also from Koyunjik. The original is evidently a
small one, of probably five stages besides the
platform on which it is built, with its two sym-
metrical paths up the ascent. Some, like the great
temple at Ur, had only three stages, others again
seven-always one of the three sacred numbers:
three, corresponding to the divine Triad; five, to the
five planets; seven, to the planets, sun and moon.
The famous Temple of the Seven Spheres at Borsip
(the Birs-Nimrud), often mentioned already, and
rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar about 600 B.C. from a far
older structure, as he explains in his inscription (see
p. 72), was probably the most gorgeous, as it was the
largest; besides, it is the only one of which we have
detailed and reliable descriptions and measurements,
which may best be given in this place, almost en-
tirely in the words of George Rawlinson: *
II. The temple is raised on a platform exception-
ally low-only a few feet above the level of the
plain; the entire height, including the platform, was
156 feet in a perpendicular line. The stages-of
which the four upper were lower than the first three
-receded equally on three sides, but doubly as much
on the fourth, probably in order to present a more
imposing front from the plain, and an easier ascent.
* “Five Monarchies,” Vol. III., pp. 380–387.

71.—BIRS-NIMRUD.
(ANCIENT BORSIP.)
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
282
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
The ornamentation of the edifice was chiefly by
means of color. The seven Stages represented the
Seven Spheres, in which moved, according to an-
cient Chaldean astronomy, the seven planets. To
each planet fancy, partly grounding itself upon fact,
had from of old assigned a peculiar tint or hue.
The Sun (Shamash) was golden; the Moon (Sin or
Nannar), silver; the distant Saturn (Adar), almost
beyond the region of light, was black; Jupiter
(Marduk) was orange; the fiery Mars (Nergal) was
red; Venus (Ishtar) was a pale yellow; Mercury
(Nebo or Nabu, whose shrine stood on the top
stage), a deep blue. The seven stages of the tower
gave a visible embodiment to these fancies. The
basement stage, assigned to Saturn, was blackened
by means of a coating of bitumen spread over the
face of the masonry; the second stage, assigned to
Jupiter, obtained the appropriate orange color by
means of a facing of burnt bricks of that hue; the
third stage, that of Mars, was made blood-red by
the use of half-burnt bricks formed of a bright-red
clay; the fourth stage, assigned to the Sun, appears
to have been actually covered with thin plates of
gold; the, fifth, the stage of Venus, received a pale
yellow tint from the employment of bricks of that
hue; the sixth, the sphere of Mercury, was given an
azure tint by vitrifaction, the whole stage having
been subjected to an intense heat after it was
erected, whereby the bricks composing it were con-
verted into a mass of blue slag; the seventh stage,
that of the moon, was probably, like the fourth,
coated with actual plates of metal. Thus the build-
LEGENDS AND STORIES.
283
ing rose up in stripes of varied color, arranged al-
most as nature's cunning hand arranges hues in the
rainbow, tones of red coming first, succeeded by a
broad stripe of yellow, the yellow being followed
by blue. Above this the glowing silvery summit
melted into the bright sheen of the sky. . . . The
Tower is to be regarded as fronting the north-east,
the coolest side, and that least exposed to the sun's
rays from the time that they become oppressive in
Babylonia. On this side was the ascent, which con-
sisted probably of a broad staircase extending along
the whole front of the building. The side platforms,
at any rate of the first and second stages, probably
of all, were occupied by a series of chambers.
In these were doubtless lodged the priests and other
attendants upon the temple service. . . .
12. The interest attaching to this temple, won-
derful as it is in itself, is greatly enhanced by the
circumstance that its ruins have through many cent-
uries been considered as those of the identical
Tower of Babel of the Bible. Jewish literary men
who travelled over the country in the Middle Ages
started this idea, which quickly spread to the West.
It is conjectured that it was suggested by the vitri-
fied fragments of the outer coating of the sixth, blue,
stage, (that of Mercury or Nebo), the condition of
which was attributed to lightning having struck the
building.
13. That the Ziggurats of Chaldea should have
been used not only as pedestals to uphold shrines,
but as observatories by the priestly astronomers
284
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
and astrologers, was quite in accordance with the
strong mixture of star-worship grafted on the older
religion, and with the power ascribed to the
heavenly bodies over the acts and destinies of men.
These constructions, therefore, were fitted for astro-
nomical uses by being very carefully placed with.
their corners pointing exactly to the four cardinal
points North, South, East and West. Only two
exceptions have been found to this rule, one in
Babylon, and the Assyrian Ziggurat at Kalah,
(Nimrud) explored by Layard, of which the sides,
not the corners, face the cardinal points. For the
Assyrians, who carried their entire culture and re-
ligion northward from their ancient home, also
retained this consecrated form of architecture, with
the difference that with them the Ziggurats were
not temple and observatory in one, but only obser-
vatories attached to the temples, which were built
on more independent principles and a larger scale,
often covering as much ground as a palace.
14. The singular orientation of the Chaldean Zig-
gurats (subsequently retained by the Assyrians),-
i.e., the manner in which they are placed, turned to
the cardinal points with their angles, and not with
their faces, as are the Egyptian pyramids, with
only one exception,—has long been a puzzle which
no astronomical considerations were sufficient to
solve. But quite lately, in 1883, Mr. Pinches, Geo.
Smith's successor in the British Museum, found
a small tablet, giving lists of signs, eclipses, etc.,
affecting the various countries, and containing
LEGENDS AND STORIES.
285
the following short geographical notice, in illus-
tration of the position assigned to the cardinal
points: The South is Elam, the North is Ac-
cad, the East is Suedin and Gutium, the West is
Phoenicia. On the right is Accad, on the left is
Elam, in front is Phoenicia, behind are Suedin and
Gutium." In order to appreciate the bearing of
this bit of topography on the question in hand, we
must examine an ancient map, when we shall at once
perceive that the direction given by the tablet to
the South (Elam) answers to our South-East; that
given to the North (Accad) answers to our North-
West; while West (Phoenicia, i.e., the coast-land of
the Mediterranean, down almost to Egypt) stands
for our South-West, and East (Gutium, the high-
lands where the Armenian mountains join the Za-
gros, now Kurdish Mountains,) for our North-East.
If we turn the map so that the Persian Gulf shall
come in a perpendicular line under Babylon, we
shall produce the desired effect, and then it will
strike us that the Ziggurats did face the cardinal
points, according to Chaldean geography, with their
sides, and that the discovery of the small tablet, as
was remarked on the production of it, "settles the
difficult question of the difference in orientation be-
tween the Assyrian and Egyptian monuments." It
was further suggested that " the two systems of car-
dinal points originated no doubt from two differ-
ent races, and their determination was due probably
to the geographical position of the primitive home of
each race." Now the South-West is called "the
front," "and the migrations of the people therefore
286
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
must have been from North-East to South-West."*
This beautifully tallies with the hypothesis, or con-
jecture, concerning the direction from which the
Shumiro-Accads descended into the lowlands by
the Gulf (see pp. 146–8), and, moreover, leads us to
the question whether the fact of the great Ziggurat
of the Seven Spheres at Borsip facing the North-
East with its front may not have some connection
with the holiness ascribed to that region as the orig-
inal home of the race and the seat of that sacred
mountain so often mentioned as "the Great Moun-
tain of Countries" (see p. 280), doubly sacred, as the
meeting-place of the gods and the place of entrance
to the "Arallu" or Lower World.†
15. It is to be noted that the conception of the
divine grove or garden with its sacred tree of life
was sometimes separated from that of the holy
primeval mountain and transferred by tradition to
a more immediate and accessible neighborhood.
That the city and district of Babylon may have been
the centre of such a tradition is possibly shown
by the most ancient Accadian name of the former
-TIN-TIR-KI meaning "the Place of Life," while
the latter was called GAN-DUNYASH or KAR-
DUNYASH" the garden of the god Dunyash,
* See "Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology," Feb.,
1SS3, PP. 74–76, and “Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society," Vol.
XVI., 1884, p. 302.
The one exception to the above rule of orientation among the
Ziggurats of Chaldea is that of the temple of Bel, in Babylon,
(E-SAGGILA in the old language,) which is oriented in the usual way
—its sides facing the real North, South, East and West.
LEGENDS AND STORIES.
287
(probably one of the names of the god Êa)—an ap-
pellation which this district, although situated in
the land of Accad or Upper Chaldea, preserved to
the latest times as distinctively its own. Another
sacred grove is spoken of as situated in Eridhu.
This city, altogether the most ancient we have any
mention of, was situated at the then mouth of the
Euphrates, in the deepest and flattest of lowlands,
a sort of borderland between earth and sea, and
therefore very appropriately consecrated to the
great spirit of both, the god Êa, the amphibious
Oannes. It was so much identified with him, that
in the Shumirian hymns and conjurings his son
Meridug is often simply invoked as "Son of
Eridhu." It must have been the oldest seat of
that spirit-worship and sorcerer-priesthood which
we find crystallized in the earliest Shumiro-Accadian
sacred books. This prodigious antiquity carries us
to something like 5000 years B.C., which explains
the fact that the ruins of the place, near the modern
Arab village of Abu-Shahrein, are now so far re-
moved from the sea, being a considerable distance.
even from the junction of the two rivers where
they form the Shat-el-arab. The sacred grove of
Eridhu is frequently referred to, and that it was
connected with the tradition of the tree of life we
see from a fragment of a most ancient hymn, which
tells of "a black pine, growing at Eridhu, sprung
up in a pure place, with roots of lustrous crystal ex-
tending downwards, even into the deep, marking
the centre of the earth, in the dark forest into the
heart whereof man hath not penetrated." Might
288
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
not this be the reason why the wood of the pine
was so much used in charms and conjuring, as the
surest safeguard against evil influences, and its very
shadow was held wholesome and sacred? But we
return to the legends of the Creation and primeval
world.
16. Mummu-Tiamat, the impersonation of chaos,
the power of darkness and lawlessness, does not
vanish from the scene when Bel puts an end to
her reign, destroys, by the sheer force of light
and order, her hideous progeny of monsters and
frees from her confusion the germs and rudimen-
tal forms of life, which, under the new and di-
vine dispensation, are to expand and combine into
the beautifully varied, yet harmonious world we
live in. Tiamat becomes the sworn enemy of the
gods and their creation, the great principle of op-
position and destruction. When the missing texts
come to light,-if ever they do-it will probably be
found that the serpent who tempts the woman in
the famous cylinder, is none other than a form of
the rebellious and vindictive Tiamat, who is called
now a "Dragon," now "the Great Serpent." At
last the hostility cannot be ignored, and things come.
to a deadly issue. It is determined in the council.
of the gods that one of them must fight the wicked
dragon; a complete suit of armor is made and ex-
hibited by Anu himself, of which the sickle-shaped
sword and the beautifully bent bow are the princi-
pal features. It is Bel who dares the venture and
goes forth on a matchless war chariot, armed with
the sword, and the bow, and his great weapon, the
LEGENDS AND STORIES.
289
thunderbolt, sending the lightning before him and
scattering arrows around. Tiamat, the Dragon of
the Sea, came out to meet him, stretching her im-
mense body along, bearing death and destruction,
and attended by her followers. The god rushed on

M
72.—BEL FIGHTS THE DRAGON—TIAMAT (ASSYRIAN CYLINDER)
(Perrot and Chipiez.)

73.—BEL FIGHTS THE DRAGON-TIAMAT (BABYLONIAN CYLINDER).
the monster with such violence that he threw her
down and was already fastening fetters on her
limbs, when she uttered a great shout and started
up and attacked the righteous leader of the gods,
while banners were raised on both sides as at a
pitched battle. Meridug drew his sword and
290
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
wounded her; at the same time a violent wind
struck against her face. She opened her jaws to
swallow up Meridug, but before she could close
them he bade the wind to enter into her body. It
entered and filled her with its violence, shook her
heart and tore her entrails and subdued her cour-
age. Then the god bound her, and put an end
to her works, while her followers stood amazed,
then broke their lines and fled, full of fear, seeing
that Tiamat, their leader, was conquered. There
she lay, her weapons broken, herself like a sword
thrown down on the ground, in the dark and bound,
conscious of her bondage and in great grief, her
might suddenly broken by fear.
17. The battle of Bel-Marduk and the Dragon
was a favorite incident in the cycle of Chaldean tra-
dition, if we judge from the number of representa-
tions we have of it on Babylonian cylinders, and
even on Assyrian wall-sculptures. The texts which
relate to it are, however, in a frightful state of mu-
tilation, and only the last fragment, describing the
final combat, can be read and translated with any
thing like completeness. With it ends the series.
treating of the Cosmogony or Beginnings of the
World. But it may be completed by a few more le-
gends of the same primitive character and preserved
on detached tablets, in double text, as usual-Acca-
dian and Assyrian. To these belongs a poem nar-
rating the rebellion, already alluded to, (see p. 182,)
of the seven evil spirits, originally the messengers
and throne-bearers of the gods, and their war against
the moon, the whole being evidently a fanciful ren-

O
74.-
-BATTLE BETWEEN BEL AND THE DRAGON (TIAMAT).
(Smith's “Chaldea.’}
292
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
dering of an eclipse. "Those wicked gods, the
rebel spirits," of whom one is likened to a leopard,
and one to a serpent, and the rest to other animals
-suggesting the fanciful shapes of storm-clouds-
while one is said to be the raging south wind, began
the attack “with evil tempest, baleful wind," and
"from the foundations of the heavens like the light-
ning they darted." The lower region of the sky
was reduced to its primeval chaos, and the gods sat
in anxious council. The moon-god (Sin), the sun-
god (Shamash), and the goddess Ishtar had been
appointed to sway in close harmony the lower sky
and to command the hosts of heaven; but when the
moon-god was attacked by the seven spirits of evil,
his companions basely forsook him, the sun-god re-
treating to his place and Ishtar taking refuge in the
highest heaven (the heaven of Anu). Nebo is de-
spatched to Êa, who sends his son Meridug with this
instruction" Go, my son Meridug! The light of
the sky, my son, even the moon-god, is grievously
darkened in heaven, and in eclipse from heaven is
vanishing. Those seven wicked gods, the serpents.
of death who fear not, are waging unequal war with
the laboring moon." Meridug obeys his father's
bidding, and overthrows the seven powers of dark-
ness.*
18. There is one more detached legend known
from the surviving fragments of Berosus, also sup-
posed to be derived from ancient Accadian texts:
it is that of the great tower and the confusion of
* See A. H. Sayce, "Babylonian Literature," p. 35.
LEGENDS AND STORIES.
293
tongues. One such text has indeed been found by
the indefatigable George Smith, but there is just.
enough left of it to be very tantalizing and very un-
satisfactory. The narrative in Berosus amounts to
this: that men having grown beyond measure proud
and arrogant, so as to deem themselves superior
even to the gods, undertook to build an immense
tower, to scale the sky; that the gods, offended
with this presumption, sent violent winds to over-
throw the construction when it had already reached
a great height, and at the same time caused men to
speak different languages,-probably to sow dissen-
sion among them, and prevent their ever again unit-
ing in a common enterprise so daring and impious.
The site was identified with that of Babylon itself,
and so strong was the belief attaching to the legend
that the Jews later on adopted it unchanged, and
centuries afterwards, as we saw above, fixed on the
ruins of the hugest of all Ziggurats, that of Borsip,
as those of the great Tower of the Confusion of
Tongues. Certain it is, that the tradition, under all
its fanciful apparel, contains a very evident vein of
historical fact, since it was indeed from the plains of
Chaldea that many of the principal nations of the
ancient East, various in race and speech, dispersed
to the north, the west, and the south, after having
dwelt there for centuries as in a common cradle,
side by side, and indeed to a great extent as one
people.

VII.
MYTHS.-HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS.
I. THE stories by which a nation attempts to ac-
count for the mysteries of creation, to explain the
Origin of the World, are called, in scientific lan-
guage, COSMOGONIC MYTHS. The word Myth is
constantly used in conversation, but so loosely and
incorrectly, that it is most important once for all to
define its proper meaning. It means simply a phe-
nomenon of nature presented not as the result of a law
but as the act of divine or at least superhuman persons,
good or evil powers-(for instance, the eclipse of the
Moon described as the war against the gods of the
seven rebellious spirits). Further reading and prac-
tice will show that there are many kinds of myths,
of various origins; but there is none, which, if prop-
erly taken to pieces, thoroughly traced and cornered,
will not be covered by this definition. A Myth
has also been defined as a legend connected more.
or less closely with some religious belief, and, in its
main outlines, handed down from prehistoric times.
There are only two things which can prevent the
contemplation of nature and speculation on its mys-
teries from running into mythology: a knowledge
294
HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS.
295
of the physical laws of nature, as supplied by mod-
ern experimental science, and a strict, unswerving
belief in the unity of God, absolute and undivided,
as affirmed and defined by the Hebrews in so many
places of their sacred books: "The Lord he is God,
"The Lord he is
there is none else beside him."
God, in Heaven above and upon the earth beneath
there is none else." “I am the Lord, and there is
"I am God
none else, there is no God beside me.”
and there is none else." But experimental science
is a very modern thing indeed, scarcely a few hun-
dred years old, and Monotheism, until the propaga-
tion of Christianity, was professed by only one small
nation, the Jews, though the chosen thinkers of other
nations have risen to the same conception in many
lands and many ages. The great mass of mankind
has always believed in the personal individuality of
all the forces of nature, i.e., in many gods; every-
thing that went on in the world was to them the
manifestation of the feelings, the will, the acts of
these gods-hence the myths. The earlier the
times, the more unquestioning the belief and, as a
necessary consequence, the more exuberant the
creation of myths.
2. But gods and spirits are not the only actors in
myths. Side by side with its sacred traditions on
the Origin of things, every nation treasures fond
but vague memories of its own beginnings--vague,
both from their remoteness and from their not be-
ing fixed in writing, and being therefore liable to
the alterations and enlargements which a story in-
variably undergoes when told many times to and
296
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
by different people, i.e., when it is transmitted from
generation to generation by oral tradition. These
memories generally centre around a few great
names, the names of the oldest national heroes, of
the first rulers, lawgivers and conquerors of the na-
tion, the men who by their genius made it a nation
out of a loose collection of tribes or large families,
who gave it social order and useful arts, and safety
from its neighbors, or, perhaps, freed it from foreign
oppressors. In their grateful admiration for these
heroes, whose doings naturally became more and
more marvellous with each generation that told of
them, men could not believe that they should have
been mere imperfect mortals like themselves, but
insisted on considering them as directly inspired by
the deity in some one of the thousand shapes they
invested it with, or as half-divine of their own na-
ture. The consciousness of the imperfection inher-
ent to ordinary humanity, and the limited powers
awarded to it, has always prompted this explana-
tion of the achievements of extraordinarily gifted
individuals, in whatever line of action their excep
tional gifts displayed themselves. Besides, if there
is something repugnant to human vanity in having
to submit to the dictates of superior reason and the
rule of superior power as embodied in mere men of
flesh and blood, there is on the contrary something
very flattering and soothing to that same vanity in
the idea of having been specially singled out as the
object of the protection and solicitude of the divine
powers; this idea at all events takes the galling
sting from the constraint of obedience.
Hence
HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS.
297
every nation has very jealously insisted on and de-
voutly believed in the divine origin of its rulers
and the divine institution of its laws and customs.
Once it was implicitly admitted that the world
teemed with spirits and gods, who, not content with
attending to their particular spheres and depart-
ments, came and went at their pleasure, had walked
the earth and directly interfered with human affairs,
there was no reason to disbelieve any occurrence,
however marvellous-provided it had
had happened
very, very long ago. (See p. 197.)
3. Thus, in the traditions of every ancient nation,
there is a vast and misty tract of time, expressed,
if at all, in figures of appalling magnitude—hun-
dreds of thousands, nay, millions of years-between
the unpierceable gloom of an eternal past and
the broad daylight of remembered, recorded his-
tory. There, all is shadowy, gigantic, superhuman.
There, gods move, dim yet visible, shrouded in
a golden cloud of mystery and awe; there, by
their side, loom other shapes, as dim but more
familiar, human yet more than human-the Heroes,
Fathers of races, founders of nations, the com-
panions, the beloved of gods and goddesses, nay,
their own children, mortal themselves, yet doing
deeds of daring and might such as only the im-
mortals could inspire and favor, the connecting
link between these and ordinary humanity—as
that gloaming, uncertain, shifting, but not alto-
gether unreal streak of time is the border-land
between Heaven and Earth, the very hot-bed of
myth, fiction and romance. For of their favorite
298
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
heroes, people began to tell the same stories as
of their gods, in modified forms, transferred to
their own surroundings and familiar scenes. To
take one of the most common
common transformations:
if the Sun-god waged war against the demons of
darkness and destroyed them in heaven (see p. 171),
the hero hunted wild beasts and monsters on
earth, of course always victoriously. This one
theme could be varied by the national poets in
a thousand ways and woven into a thousand differ-
ent stories, which come with full right under
the head of "myths." Thus arose a number of
so-called HEROIC MYTHS, which, by dint of being
repeated, settled into a certain defined tradi-
tional shape, like the well-known fairy-tales of
our nurseries, which are the same everywhere.
and told in every country with scarcely any
changes. As soon as the art of writing came.
into general use, these favorite and time-honored
stories, which the mass of the people probably
still received as literal truth, were taken down,
and, as the work naturally devolved on priests and
clerks, i.e., men of education and more or less
literary skill, often themselves poets, they were
worked over in the process, connected, and re-
modelled into a continuous whole. The separate
myths, or adventures of one or more particular
heroes, formerly recited severally, somewhat after
the manner of the old songs and ballads, frequently
became so many chapters or books in a long, well-
ordered poem, in which they were introduced and
distributed, often with consummate art, and told
L
1
HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS.
299
with great poetical beauty. Such poems, of which
several have come down to us, are called EPIC
POEMS, or simply EPICS. The entire mass of
fragmentary materials out of which they are com-
posed in the course of time, blending almost in-
extricably historical reality with mythical fiction,
is the NATIONAL EPOS of a race, its greatest
intellectual treasure, from which all its late poetry
and much of its political and religious feeling
draws its food ever after. A race that has no
national epos is one devoid of great memories,
incapable of high culture and political develop-
ment, and no such has taken a place among the
leading races of the world. All those that have
occupied such a place at any period of the world's
history, have had their Mythic and Heroic Ages,
brimful of wonders and fanciful creations.
4. From these remarks it will be clear that the
preceding two or three chapters have been treating
of what may properly be called the Religious and
Cosmogonic Myths of the Shumiro-Accads and the
Babylonians. The present chapter will be devoted
to their Heroic Myths or Mythic Epos, as em-
bodied in an Epic which has been in great part
preserved, and which is the oldest known in the
world, dating certainly from 2000 years B.C., and
probably more.
5. Of this poem the few fragments we have of
Berosus contain no indication. They only tell of
a great deluge which took place under the last of
that fabulous line of ten kings which is said to have
begun 259,000 years after the apparition of the
300
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
divine Man-Fish, Oannes, and to have reigned
in the aggregate a period of 432,000 years. The
description has always excited great interest from
its extraordinary resemblance to that given by the
Bible. Berosus tells how XISUTHROS, the last of
the ten fabulous kings, had a dream in which the
deity announced to him that on a certain day all
men should perish in a deluge of waters, and
ordered him to take all the sacred writings and
bury them at Sippar, the City of the Sun, then
to build a ship, provide it with ample stores of
food and drink and enter it with his family and
his dearest friends, also animals, both birds and
quadrupeds of every kind. Xisuthros did as he
had been bidden. When the flood began to abate,
on the third day after the rain had ceased to fall,
he sent out some birds, to see whether they would
find any land, but the birds, having found neither.
food nor place to rest upon, returned to the ship.
A few days later, Xisuthros once more sent the
birds out; but they again came back to him, this
time with muddy feet. On being sent out a third
time, they did not return at all. Xisuthros then
knew that the land was uncovered; made an open-
ing in the roof of the ship and saw that it was
stranded on the top of a mountain. He came out
of the ship with his wife, daughter and pilot, built
an altar and sacrificed to the gods, after which he
disappeared together with these. When his com-
panions came out to seek him they did not see
him, but a voice from heaven informed them that
he had been translated among the gods to live
HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS.
301
forever, as a reward for his piety and righteousness.
The voice went on to command the survivors to
return to Babylonia, unearth the sacred writings
and make them known to men. They obeyed and,
moreover, built many cities and restored Babylon.
X
6. However interesting this account, it was re-
ceived at second-hand and therefore felt to need con-
firmation and ampler development. Besides which,
as it stood, it lacked all indication that could throw
light on the important question which of the two
traditions that reproduced by Berosus or the Bib-
lical one-was to be considered as the oldest. Here
again it was George Smith who had the good.
fortune to discover the original narrative (in 1872),
while engaged in sifting and sorting the tablet-
fragments at the British Museum. This is how it
happened: "Smith found one-half of a whitish-
yellow clay tablet, which, to all appearance, had
been divided on each face into three columns. In
the third column of the obverse or front side he
read the words: 'On the mount Nizir the ship
stood still. Then I took a dove and let her fly.
The dove flew hither and thither, but finding no
resting-place, returned to the ship.' Smith at once
knew that he had discovered a fragment of the
cuneiform narrative of the Deluge. With inde-
fatigable perseverance he set to work to search the
thousands of Assyrian tablet-fragments heaped up
in the British Museum, for more pieces. His
efforts were crowned with success. He did not
* Paul Haupt, “ Der Keilinschriftliche Sündflutbericht,” 1881.
302
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
·
indeed find a piece completing the half of the
tablet first discovered, but he found instead frag-
ments of two more copies of the narrative, which
completed the text in the most felicitous manner
and supplied several very important variations of it.
One of these duplicates, which has been pieced out
of sixteen little bits (see illustration on p. 262), bore
the usual inscription at the bottom: The prop-
erty of Asshurbanipal, King of hosts, King of
the land of Asshur,' and contained the information.
that the Deluge-narrative was the eleventh tablet
of a series, several fragments of which, Smith had
already come across. With infinite pains he put
all these fragments together and found that the
story of the Deluge was only an incident in a
great Heroic Epic, a poem written in twelve
books, making in all about three thousand lines,
which celebrated the deeds of an ancient king of
Erech.
7. Each book or chapter naturally occupied a
separate tablet. All are by no means equally well
preserved. Some parts, indeed, are missing, while
several are so mutilated as to cause serious gaps
and breaks in the narrative, and the first tablet has
not yet been found at all. Yet, with all these
drawbacks it is quite possible to build up a very
intelligible outline of the whole story, while the
eleventh tablet, owing to various fortunate addi-
tions that came to light from time to time, has.
been restored almost completely.
8. The epic carries us back to the time when
Erech was the capital of Shumir, and when the
HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS.
303
land was under the dominion of the Elamite con-
querors, not passive or content, but striving man-
fully for deliverance. We may imagine the struggle
to have been shared and headed by the native
kings, whose memory would be gratefully treasured
by later generations, and whose exploits would
naturally become the theme of household tradition
and poets' recitations. So much for the bare his-
torical groundwork of the poem. It is easily to
be distinguished from the rich by-play of fiction
and wonderful adventure gradually woven into it
from the ample fund of national myths and legends,
which have gathered around the name of one hero-
king, GISDHUBAR or IZDUBAR,* said to be a native
of the ancient city of MARAD and a direct descend-
ant of the last antediluvian king HÂSISADRA, the
same whom Berosus calls Xisuthros.
9. It is unfortunate that the first tablet and the
top part of the second are missing, for thus we
lose the opening of the poem, which would prob-
ably give us valuable historical indications. What
there is of the second tablet shows the city of
Erech groaning under the tyranny of the Elamite
conquerors. Erech had been governed by the
divine Dumuzi, the husband of the goddess Ishtar.
He had met an untimely and tragic death, and
been succeeded by Ishtar, who had not been able,
however, to make a stand against the foreign in-
vaders, or, as the text picturesquely expresses it,
*There are difficulties in the way of reading this name, and
scholars are not sure that this is the right pronunciation of it; but
they retain it, until some new discovery helps to settle the question.
304
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
"to hold up her head against the foe." Izdubar,
as yet known to fame only as a powerful and in-
defatigable huntsman, then dwelt at Erech, where
he had a singular dream. It seemed to him that
the stars of heaven fell down and struck him on
the back in their fall, while over him stood a
terrible being, with fierce, threatening countenance
and claws like a lion's, the sight of whom paralyzed
him with fear.
10. Deeply impressed with this dream, which ap-
peared to him to portend strange things, Izdubar
sent forth to all the most famous seers and wise
men, promising the most princely rewards to who-
ever would interpret it for him: he should be en-
nobled with his family; he should take the high
seat of honor at the royal feasts; he should be
clothed in jewels and gold; he should have seven
beautiful wives and enjoy every kind of distinction.
But there was none found of wisdom equal to the
task of reading the vision. At length he heard
of a wonderful sage, named ÊABANI, far-famed for
"his wisdom in all things and his knowledge of
all that is either visible or concealed," but who
dwelt apart from mankind, in a distant wilderness,
in a cave, amidst the beasts of the forest.
"With the gazelles he ate his food at night, with the beasts of the
field he associated in the daytime, with the living things of the waters
his heart rejoiced."
This strange being is always represented on the
Babylonian cylinders as a Man-Bull, with horns on
his head and a bull's feet and tail. He was not
HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS.
305
easily accessible, nor to be persuaded to come to
Erech, even though the Sun-god, Shamash, him-
self "opened his lips and spoke to him from heaven,"
making great promises on Izdubar's behalf :-
They shall clothe thee in royal robes, they shall make thee great;
and Izdubar shall become thy friend, and he shall place thee in a
luxurious seat at his left hand; the kings of the earth shall kiss thy
feet; he shall enrich thee and make the men of Erech keep silence
before thee."
The hermit was proof against ambition and re-
fused to leave his wilderness. Then a follower of
Izdubar, ZAIDU, the huntsman, was sent to bring
him; but he returned alone and reported that,
when he had approached the seer's cave, he had
been seized with fear and had not entered it, but
had crawled back, climbing the steep bank on his
hands and feet.
II. At last Izdubar bethought him to send out
Ishtar's handmaidens, SHAMHATU ("Grace") and
HARIMTU (“Persuasion "), and they started for
the wilderness under the escort of Zaidu. Sham-
hatu was the first to approach the hermit, but
he heeded her little; he turned to her companion,
and sat down at her feet; and when Harimtu
(“Persuasion ") spoke, bending her face towards
him, he listened and was attentive. And she said
to him:
"Famous art thou, Êabâni, even like a god; why then associate
with the wild things of the desert? Thy place is in the midst of
Erech, the great city, in the temple, the seat of Anu and Ishtar, in
the palace of Izdubar, the man of might, who towers amidst the lead-
ers as a bull.”
"She spoke to him, and before her words the wis-
dom of his heart fled and vanished."
DorM

回回
​TWE
IZDUBAR AND THE LION (BAS-RELIEF FROM KHORSABAD).
(Smith's "Chaldea.")
HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS.
307
He answered:
"I will go to Erech, to the temple, the seat of Anu and Ishtar, to
the palace of Izdubar, the man of might, who towers amidst the
leaders as a bull. I will meet him and see his might. But I shall
He is
bring to Erech a lion-let Izdubar destroy him if he can.
bred in the wilderness and of great strength."

M
76.—IZDUBAR AND THE lion.
(British Museum.)
So Zaidu and the two women went back to
Erech, and Êabâni went with them, leading his
lion. The chiefs of the city received him with
great honors and gave a splendid entertainment in
sign of rejoicing.
12. It is evidently on this occasion that Izdu-
bar conquers the seer's esteem by fighting and kill-
308
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
ing the lion, after which the hero and the sage en-
ter into a solemn covenant of friendship. But the
third tablet, which contains this part of the story,
is so much mutilated as to leave much of the sub-
stance to conjecture, while all the details, and the
interpretation of the dream which is probably
given, are lost. The same is unfortunately the
case with the fourth and fifth tablets, from which
we can only gather that Izdubar and Êabâni, who
have become inseparable, start on an expedition
against the Elamite tyrant, KHUMBABA, who holds
his court in a gloomy forest of cedars and cypresses,
enter his palace, fall upon him unawares and kill
him, leaving his body to be torn and devoured by
the birds of prey, after which exploit Izdubar, as
his friend had predicted to him, is proclaimed king
in Erech. The sixth tablet is far better preserved,
and gives us one of the most interesting incidents
almost complete.
13. After Izdubar's victory, his glory and power
were great, and the goddess Ishtar looked on him
with favor and wished for his love.
be
Izdubar," she said, my husband and I will be thy wife:
pledge thy troth to me. Thou shalt drive a chariot of gold and
precious stones, thy days shall be marked with conquests; kings,
princes and lords shall be subject to thee and kiss thy feet; they
shall bring thee tribute from mountain and valley, thy herds and
flocks shall multiply doubly, thy mules shall be fleet, and thy oxen
strong under the yoke. Thou shalt have no rival."
But Izdubar, in his pride, rejected the love of the
goddess; he insulted her and taunted her with hav-
ing loved Dumuzi and others before him. Great
HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS.
309
was the wrath of Ishtar; she ascended to heaven
and stood before her father Anu:
My father, Izdubar has insulted me. Izdubar scorns my beauty
and spurns my love."
She demanded satisfaction, and Anu, at her re-
quest, created a monstrous bull, which he sent
against the city of Erech. But Izdubar and his
friend went out to fight the bull, and killed him.

ÊABÂNI
—IZDUBAR AND LABANI FIGHT THE BULL OF ISHTAR.—IZDUBAR
FIGHTS EABANI'S LION (BABYLONIAN CYLINDER).
(Smith's "Chaldea. ")
Êabâni took hold of his tail and horns, and Izdu-
bar gave him his deathblow. They drew the heart
out of his body and offered it to Shamash. Then
Ishtar ascended the wall of the city, and standing
there cursed Izdubar. She gathered her handmaid-
ens around her and they raised loud lamentations.
over the death of the divine bull. But Izdubar
called together his people and bade them lift up
the body and carry it to the altar of Shamash and
lay it before the god. Then they washed their
hands in the Euphrates and returned to the city,
310
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
where they made a feast of rejoicing and revelled
deep into the night, while in the streets a procla-
mation to the people of Erech was called out, which
began with the triumphant words:
"Who is skilled among leaders? Who is great among men? Iz-
dubar is skilled among leaders; Izdubar is great among men.”
14. But the vengeance of the offended goddess.
was not to be so easily defeated. It now fell on the
hero in a more direct and personal way. Ishtar's

YY
ANDECI
78.—IZDUBAR AND BABÂNI (BABYLONIAN CYLINDER).
(Perrot and Chipiez.)
mother, the goddess Anatu, smote Êabâni with
sudden death and Izdubar with a dire disease, a
sort of leprosy, it would appear. Mourning for his
friend, deprived of strength and tortured with in-
tolerable pains, he saw visions and dreams which
oppressed and terrified him, and there was now no
wise, familiar voice to soothe and counsel him.
length he decided to consult his ancestor, Hâsisa-
dra, who dwelt far away, "at the mouth of the
rivers," and was immortal, and to ask of him how
he might find healing and strength. He started on
At
HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS.
311
!
his way alone and came to a strange country, where
he met gigantic, monstrous beings, half men, half
scorpions: their feet were below the earth, while
their heads touched the gates of heaven; they were
the warders of the sun and kept their watch over
its rising and setting. They said one to another:
Who is this that comes to us with the mark of the
divine wrath on his body?" Izdubar made his per-
son and errand known to them; then they gave
him directions how to reach the land of the blessed
at the mouth of the rivers,
but warned him that the way
was long and full of hard-
ships. He set out again
and crossed a vast tract of
country, where there was
nothing but sand, not one
cultivated field; and he
walked on and on, never
looking behind him, until he came to a beautiful
grove by the seaside, where the trees bore fruits
of emerald and other precious stones; this grove
was guarded by two beautiful maidens, SIDURI
and SABITU, but they looked with mistrust on the
stranger with the mark of the gods on his body,
and closed their dwelling against him.

79.-SCORPION-MEN.
(Smith's Chaldea.")
15. And now Izdubar stood by the shore of the
Waters of Death, which are wide and deep, and
separate the land of the living from that of the
blessed and immortal dead. Here he encountered
the ferryman URUBÊL; to him he opened his heart
and spoke of the friend whom he had loved and

80.-STONE OBJECT FOUND AT ABU-HABBA (SIPPAR) BY MR. H. RASSAM, SHOWING, AMONG OTHER MYTHICAL DESIGNS,
SHAMASH AND HIS WARDER, THE SCORPION-MAN.
HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS.
313
lost, and Urubêl took him into his ship. For one
month and fifteen days they sailed on the Waters
of Death, until they reached that distant land by
the mouth of the rivers, where Izdubar at length
met his renowned ancestor face to face, and, even
while he prayed for his advice and assistance, a
very natural feeling of curiosity prompted him to
ask how he came to be translated alive into the
assembly of the gods." Hâsisadra, with great com-
plaisance, answered his descendant's question and
gave him a full account of the Deluge and his own
share in that event, after which he informed him in
what way he could be freed from the curse laid on
him by the gods. Then turning to the ferryman :
"
"Urubêl, the man whom thou hast brought hither, behold, disease
has covered his body, sickness has destroyed the strength of his
limbs. Take him with thee, Urubêl, and purify him in the waters,
that his disease may be changed into beauty, that he may throw off
his sickness and the waters carry it away, that health may cover his
skin, and the hair of his head be restored and descend in flowing
locks down to his garment, that he may go his way and return to his
own country."
16. When all had been done according to Hâsis-
adra's instruction, Izdubar, restored to health and
vigor, took leave of his ancestor, and entering the
ship once more was carried back to the shore of the
living by the friendly Urubêl, who accompanied him
all the way to Erech. But as they approached the
city tears flowed down the hero's face and his heart
was heavy within him for his lost friend, and he
once more raised his voice in lamentation for him :
"Thou takest no part in the noble feast; to the assembly they call
thee not; thou liftest not the bow from the ground; what is hit by
314
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
the bow is not for thee; thy hand grasps not the club and strikes not
the prey, nor stretches thy foeman dead on the earth. The wife thou
lovest thou kissest not; the wife thou hatest thou strikest not. The
child thou lovest thou kissest not; the child thou hatest thou strik-
est not. The might of the earth has swallowed thee. O Darkness,
Darkness, Mother Darkness! thou enfoldest him like a mantle; like
a deep well thou enclosest him!"
Thus Izdubar mourned for his friend, and went in-
to the temple of Bel, and ceased not from lamenting
and crying to the gods, till Ea mercifully inclined
to his prayer and sent his son Meridug to bring
Êabâni's spirit out of the dark world of shades into
the land of the blessed, there to live forever among
the heroes of old, reclining on luxurious couches.
and drinking the pure water of eternal springs.
The poem ends with a vivid description of a war-
rior's funeral:
I see him who has been slain in battle. His father and mother
hold his head; his wife weeps over him; his friends stand around;
his prey lies on the ground uncovered and unheeded. The van-
quished captives follow; the food provided in the tents is con-
sumed."
17. The incident of the Deluge, which has been
merely mentioned above, not to interrupt the nar-
rative by its disproportionate length, (the eleventh
tablet being the best preserved of all), is too impor-
tant not to be given in full.*
"I will tell thee, Izdubar, how I was saved from the flood," begins
Hâsisadra, in answer to his descendant's question, "also will I im-
part to thee the decree of the great gods. Thou knowest Surippak,
the city that is by the Euphrates. This city was already very ancient
when the gods were moved in their hearts to ordain a great deluge,
* Translated from the German version of Paul Haupt, "Der Keil
Inschriftliche Sündfluthbericht."
HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS.
315
•
•
all of them, their father Anu, their councillor the warlike Bel, their
throne-bearer Ninîb, their leader Ennugi. The lord of inscrutable
wisdom, the god Êa, was with them and imparted to me their decision.
'Listen,' he said, 'and attend! Man of Surippak, son of Ubaratutu,*
go out of thy house and build thee a ship. They are willed to destroy
the seed of life; but thou preserve it and bring into the ship seed of
every kind of life. The ship which thou shalt build let it be . . . .
in length, and in width and height,† and cover it also with a
deck.' When I heard this I spoke to Êa, my lord: 'If I construct
the ship as thou biddest me, O lord, the people and their elders will
laugh at me.' But Êa opened his lips once more and spoke to me
his servant: 'Men have rebelled against me, and I will do judgment
on them, high and low. But do thou close the door of the ship when
the time comes and I tell thee of it. Then enter the ship and bring
into it thy store of grain, all thy property, thy family, thy men-ser-
vants and thy women-servants, and also thy next of kin. The cattle
of the fields, the wild beasts of the fields, I shall send to thee myself,
that they may be safe behind thy door.'-Then I built the ship and
provided it with stores of food and drink; I divided the interior into
I saw to the chinks and filled them; I
poured bitumen over its outer side and over its inner side. All that
I possessed I brought together and stowed it in the ship; all that
I had of gold, of silver, of the seed of life of every kind; all my men-
servants and my women-servants, the cattle of the field, the wild
beasts of the field, and also my nearest friends. Then, when Sha-
mash brought round the appointed time, a voice spoke to me:-
This evening the heavens will rain destruction, wherefore go thou
into the ship and close thy door. The appointed time has come,'
spoke the voice, 'this evening the heavens will rain destruction."
And greatly I feared the sunset of that day, the day on which I was
to begin my voyage. I was sore afraid. Yet I entered into the ship
and closed the door behind me, to shut off the ship. And I confided
the great ship to the pilot, with all its freight.—Then a great black
cloud rises from the depths of the heavens, and Ramân thunders
in the midst of it, while Nebo and Nergal encounter each other, and
the Throne-bearers walk over mountains and vales. The mighty god
of Pestilence lets loose the whirlwinds; Ninîb unceasingly makes the
•
compartments.†
* The ninth king in the fabulous list of ten.
† The figures unfortunately obliterated.
316
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
,
canals to overflow; the Anunnaki bring up floods from the depths
of the earth, which quakes at their violence. Ramân's mass of wa-
ters rises even to heaven; light is changed into darkness. Confu
sion and devastation fills the earth. Brother looks not after brother,
men have no thought for one another. In the heavens the very gods
are afraid; they seek a refuge in the highest heaven of Anu; as a
dog in its lair, the gods crouch by the railing of heaven. Ishtar
cries aloud with sorrow: 'Behold, all is turned into mud, as I fore-
told to the gods! I prophesied this disaster and the extermination
of my creatures-men. But I do not give them birth that they may
fill the sea like the brood of fishes.' Then the gods wept with her
and sat lamenting on one spot. For six days and seven nights wind,
flood and storm reigned supreme; but at dawn of the seventh day
the tempest decreased, the waters, which had battled like a mighty
host, abated their violence; the sea retired, and storm and flood
both ceased. I steered about the sea, lamenting that the homesteads
of men were changed into mud. The corpses drifted about like
logs. I opened a port-hole, and when the light of day fell on my
face I shivered and sat down and wept. I steered over the countries
which now were a terrible sea. Then a piece of land rose out of the
waters. The ship steered towards the land Nizir. The mountain
of the land Nizir held fast the ship and did not let it go. Thus it
was on the first and on the second day, on the third and the fourth,
also on the fifth and sixth days. At dawn of the seventh day I took
out a dove and sent it forth. The dove went forth to and fro, but
found no resting-place and returned. Then I took out a swallow
and sent it forth. The swallow went forth, to and fro, but found no
resting-place and returned. Then I took out a raven and sent it
forth. The raven went forth, and when it saw that the waters had
abated, it came near again, cautiously wading through the water, but
did not return. Then I let out all the animals, to the four winds of
heaven, and offered a sacrifice. I raised an altar on the highest
summit of the mountain, placed the sacred vessels on it seven by
seven, and spread reeds, cedar-wood and sweet herbs under them.
The gods smelled a savor; the gods smelled a sweet savor; like flies
they swarmed around the sacrifice. And when the goddess Ishtar
came, she spread out on high the great bows of her father Anu:-' By
the necklace of my neck,' she said, 'I shall be mindful of these days,
never shall I lose the memory of them! May all the gods come to
the altar; Bel alone shall not come, for that he controlled not his
wrath, and brought on the deluge, and gave up my men to destruc-
HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS.
317
tion.' When after that Bel came nigh and saw the ship, he was per-
plexed, and his heart was filled with anger against the gods and
against the spirits of Heaven :-'Not a soul shall escape,' he cried;
'not one man shall come alive out of destruction !' Then the god
Ninîb opened his lips and spoke, addressing the warlike Bel:-
'Who but Êa can have done this? Êa knew, and informed him of
everything.' Then Êa opened his lips and spoke, addressing the
warlike Bel-Thou art the mighty leader of the gods: but why
hast thou acted thus recklessly and brought on this deluge? Let the
sinner suffer for his sin and the evil-doer for his misdeeds; but to
this man be gracious that he may not be destroyed, and incline tow-
ards him favorably, that he may be preserved. And instead of
bringing on another deluge, let lions and hyenas come and take from
the number of men; send a famine to unpeople the earth; let the
god of Pestilence lay men low. I have not imparted to Hâsisadra
the decision of the great gods: I only sent him a dream, and he un-
derstood the warning.'-Then Bel came to his senses. He entered
the ship, took hold of my hand and lifted me up; he also lifted up
my wife and laid her hand in mine. Then he turned towards us,
stood between us and spoke this blessing on us :-'Until now Hâsis-
adra was only human: but now he shall be raised to be equal with
the gods, together with his wife. He shall dwell in the distant land,
by the mouth of the rivers.' Then they took me and translated me
to the distant land by the mouth of the rivers."
18. Such is the great Chaldean Epic, the discovery
of which produced so profound a sensation, not to
say excitement, not only among special scholars,
but in the reading world generally, while the full
importance of it in the history of human culture.
cannot yet be realized at this early stage of our his-
torical studies, but will appear more and more
clearly as their course takes us to later nations and
other lands. We will here linger over the poem
only long enough to justify and explain the name.
given to it in the title of this chapter, of "Mythi-
cal Epos."
318
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
19. Were the hero Izdubar a purely human per-
son, it would be a matter of much wonder how the
small nucleus of historical fact which the story of
his adventures contains should have become en-
twined and overgrown with such a disproportionate.
quantity of the most extravagant fiction, oftentimes
downright monstrous in its fancifulness. But the
story is one far older than that of any mere human
hero and relates to one far mightier: it is the story
of the Sun in his progress through the year, retrac-
ing his career of increasing splendor as the spring
advances to midsummer, the height of his power
when he reaches the month represented in the Zo-
diac by the sign of the Lion, then the decay of his
strength as he pales and sickens in the autumn, and
at last his restoration to youth and vigor after he
has passed the Waters of Death-Winter, the death
of the year, the season of nature's deathlike torpor,
out of which the sun has not strength sufficient to
rouse her, until spring comes back and the circle
begins again. An examination of the Accadian cal-
endar, adopted by the more scientifically inclined
Semites, shows that the names of most of the
months and the signs by which they were repre-
sented on the maps of the corresponding constella-
tions of the Zodiac, directly answer to various inci-
dents of the poem, following, too, in the same or-
der, which is that of the respective seasons of the
year, which, be it noted, began with the spring, in
the middle of our month of March. If we compare
the calendar months with the tablets of the poem
we will find that they, in almost every case, corre-
HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS.
319
spond. As the first tablet is unfortunately still miss-
ing, we cannot judge how far it may have answered
to the name of the first month-" the Altar of Bel."
But the second month, called that of "the Propi-
tious Bull," or the "Friendly Bull," very well corre-
sponds to the second tablet which ends with Izdu-
bar's sending for the seer Êabâni, half bull half man,
while the name and sign of the third, "the Twins,
clearly alludes to the bond of friendship concluded
between the two heroes, who became inseparable.
Their victory over the tyrant Khumbaba in the
fifth tablet is symbolized by the sign representing
the victory of the Lion over the Bull, often abbre-
viated into that of the Lion alone, a sign plainly
enough interpreted by the name "Month of Fire,"
so appropriate to the hottest and driest of seasons
even in moderate climes--July-August. What
makes this interpretation absolutely conclusive is
the fact that in the symbolical imagery of all the
poetry of the East, the Lion represents the princi-
ple of heat, of fire. The seventh tablet, containing
the wooing of the hero by the goddess Ishtar, is too
plainly reproduced in the name of the correspond-
ing month, "the Month of the Message of Ishtar,"
to need explanation. The sign, too, is that of a
woman with a bow, the usual mode of representing
the goddess. The sign of the eighth month, "the
Scorpion," commemorates the gigantic Warders of
the Sun, half men half scorpions, whom Izdubar
encounters when he starts on his journey to the
land of the dead. The ninth month is called "the
Cloudy," surely a meet name for November-De-
320
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
cember, and in no way inconsistent with the con-
tents of the ninth tablet, which shows Izdubar nav-
igating the "Waters of Death.” In the tenth
month (December-January), the sun reaches his
very lowest point, that of the winter solstice with.
its shortest days, whence the name "Month of the
Cavern of the Setting Sun," and the tenth tablet
tells how Izdubar reached the goal of his journey,
the land of the illustrious dead, to which his great
ancestor has been translated. To the eleventh
month, "the Month of the Curse of Rain," with the
sign of the Waterman,-(January-February being
in the low lands of the two rivers the time of the
most violent and continuous rains)—answers the
eleventh tablet with the account of the Deluge.
The "Fishes of Êa" accompany the sun in the
twelfth month, the last of the dark season, as he
emerges, purified and invigorated, to resume his
triumphant career with the beginning of the new
year. From the context and sequence of the myth,
it would appear that the name of the first month,
"the Altar of Bel," must have had something to do
with the reconciliation of the god after the Deluge,
from which humanity may be said to take a new
beginning, which would make the name a most au-
spicious one for the new year, while the sign-a Ram
-might allude to the animal sacrificed on the altar.
Each month being placed under the protection of
some particular deity it is worthy of notice that
Anu and Bel are the patrons of the first month, Êa
of the second, (in connection with the wisdom of
Êabâni, who is called "the creature of Êa,") while
HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS.
321
Ishtar presides over the sixth, ("Message of Ish-
tar,") and Ramân, the god of the atmosphere, of
rain and storm and thunder, over the eleventh, ("the
Curse of Rain ").
20. The solar nature of the adventurous career
attributed to the favorite national hero of Chaldea,
now universally admitted, was first pointed out by
Sir Henry Rawlinson: but it was François Lenor-
mant who followed it out and established it in its
details. His conclusions on the subject are given
in such clear and forcible language, that it is a
pleasure to reproduce them: *" Ist. The Chal-
deans and Babylonians had, concerning the twelve
months of the year, myths for the most part belong-
ing to the series of traditions anterior to the separa-
tion of the great races of mankind which descended
from the highlands of Pamir, since we find analo-
gous myths among the pure Semites and other na
tions. As early as the time when they dwelt on the
plains of the Tigris and Euphrates, they connected
these myths with the different epochs of the year,
not with a view to agricultural occupations, but in
connection with the great periodical phenomena of
the atmosphere and the different stations in the
sun's yearly course, as they occurred in that par-
ticular region; hence the signs characterizing the
twelve solar mansions in the Zodiac and the sym-
bolical names given to the months by the Accads.
-2d. It was those myths, strung together in their
successive order, which served as foundation to the
*“Les Premières Civilisations," Vol. II., pp. 78 £f.
322
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
epic story of Izdubar, the fiery and solar hero, and
in the poem which was copied at Erech by Asshur-
banipal's order each of them formed the subject of
one of the twelve tablets, making up the number of
twelve separate books or chapters answering the
twelve months of the year."-Even though the evi-
dence is apparently so complete as not to need fur-
ther confirmation, it is curious to note that the signs
which compose the name of Izdubar convey the
meaning "mass of fire," while Hâsisadra's Accadian
name means “ the sun of life," the morning sun,'
and his father's name, Ubaratutu, is translated "the
glow of sunset.'
21. George Smith indignantly repudiated this
mythic interpretation of the hero's exploits, and
claimed for them a strictly historical character.
But we have seen that the two are by no means
incompatible, since history, when handed down
through centuries by mere oral tradition, is liable to
many vicissitudes in the telling and retelling, and
people are sure to arrange their favorite and most
familiar stories, the mythical signification of which
has long been forgotten, around the central figure
of the heroes they love best, around the most im-
portant but vaguely recollected events in their na-
tional life. Hence it came to pass that identically
the same stories, with but slight local variations,
were told of heroes in different nations and coun-
tries; for the stock of original, or, as one may say,
primary myths is comparatively small and the same
for all, dating back to a time when mankind was
not yet divided. In the course of ages and mi-
HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS. 323
grations it has been altered, like a rich hereditary
robe, to fit and adorn many and very different per-
sons.
22. One of the prettiest, oldest, and most univer-
sally favorite solar myths is the one which represents
the Sun as a divine being, youthful and of surpass-
ing beauty, beloved by or wedded to an equally
powerful goddess, but meeting a premature death
by accident and descending into the dark land
of shades, from which, however, after a time he
returns as glorious and beautiful as before. In
this poetical fancy, the land of shades symbolizes
the numb and lifeless period of winter as aptly as
the Waters of Death in the Izdubar Epic, while the
seeming death of the young god answers to the
sickening of the hero at that declining season of the
year when the sun's rays lose their vigor and are
overcome by the powers of darkness and cold. The
goddess who loves the fair young god, and mourns.
him with passionate grief, until her wailings and
prayers recall him from his death-like trance, is Na-
ture herself, loving, bountiful, ever productive, but
pale, and bare, and powerless in her widowhood,
while the sun-god, the spring of life whence she
draws her very being, lies captive in the bonds of
their common foe, grim Winter, which is but a form
of Death itself. Their reunion at the god's resur-
rection in spring is the great wedding-feast, the
revel and holiday-time of the world.
23. This simple and perfectly transparent myth
has been worked out more or less elaborately in all
the countries of the East, and has found its way in
324
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
some form or other into all the nations of the three
great white races of Japhet, Shem, and Ham-yet
here again the precedence in point of time seems
due to the older and more primitive-the Yellow or
Turanian race; for the most ancient, and probably
original form of it is the one which was inherited by
the Semitic settlers of Chaldea from their Shumiro-
Accadian predecessors, as shown by the Accadian
name of the young solar god, DUMUZI, "the un-
fortunate husband of the goddess Ishtar," as he is
called in the sixth tablet of the Izdubar epic. The
name has been translated" Divine Offspring," but
in later times lost all signification, being corrupted
into TAMMUZ. In some Accadian hymns he is in-
voked as "the Shepherd, the lord Dumuzi, the
lover of Ishtar." Well could a nomadic and pas-
toral people poetically liken the sun to a shepherd,
whose flocks were the fleecy clouds as they speed
across the vast plains of heaven or the bright, innu-
merable stars. This comparison, as pretty as it is
natural, kept its hold in all ages and nations on the
popular fancy, which played on it an infinite variety
of ingenious changes, but it is only cuneiform sci-
ence which has proved that it could be traced back
to the very earliest race whose culture has left its
mark on the world.
24. Of Dumuzi's tragic death no text deciphered
until now unfortunately gives the details. Only
the remarkable fragment about the black pine of
Eridhu, "marking the centre of the earth, in the
dark forest, into the heart whereof man hath not
penetrated," (see p. 287) tantalizingly ends with
HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS.
325
these suggestive words: "Within it Dumuzi . . ."
Scholars have found reason for conjecturing that
this fragment was the beginning of a mythical nar-
rative recounting Dumuzi's death, which must have
been represented as taking place in that dark and
sacred forest of Eridhu,-probably through the
agency of a wild beast sent against him by a jealous
and hostile power, just as the bull created by Anu
was sent against Izdubar.* One thing, however, is
sure, that both in the earlier (Turanian) and in the
later (Semitic) calendary of Chaldea, there was a
month set apart in honor and for the festival of
Dumuzi. It was the month of June-July, begin-
ning at the summer solstice, when the days begin to
shorten, and the sun to decline towards its lower
winter point-a retrograde movement, ingeniously
indicated by the Zodiacal sign of that month, the
Cancer or Crab. The festival of Dumuzi lasted
during the six first days of the month, with proces-
sions and ceremonies bearing two distinct charac-
ters. The worshippers at first assembled in the
guise of mourners, with lamentations and loud wail-
ings, tearing of clothes and of hair, as though cele-
brating the young god's funeral, while on the sixth
day his resurrection and reunion to Ishtar was com-
memorated with the noisiest, most extravagant de-
monstrations of rejoicing. This custom is alluded
to in Izdubar's scornful answer to Ishtar's love-
message, when he says to her: "Thou lovedst Du-
*A. H. Sayce, "Babylonian Literature," p. 39; Fr. Lenormant,
"Il Mito di Adone-Tammuz," pp. 12-13.
326
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
muzi, for whom they mourn year after year," and was
witnessed by the Jews when they were carried pris-
oners to Babylon as late as 600 B.C., as expressly
mentioned by Ezekiel, the prophet of the Captiv-
ity" Then he brought me to the door of the
Lord's house which was towards the north; and be-
hold, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz.”
(Ezekiel, iii. 14.)
25. A favorite version of Dumuzi's resurrection.
was that which told how Ishtar herself followed
him into the Lower World, to claim him from their
common foe, and thus yielded herself for a time
into the power of her rival, the dread Queen of the
Dead, who held her captive, and would not have re-
leased her but for the direct interference of the
great gods. This was a rich mine of epic material,
from which songs and stories must have flowed
plentifully. We are lucky enough to possess a
short epic on the subject, in one tablet, one of the
chief gems of the indefatigable George Smith's
discoveries, a poem of great literary beauty, and
nearly complete to within a few lines of the end,
which are badly injured and scarcely legible. It is
known under the name of “THE DESCENT OF ISH-
TAR," as it relates only this one incident of the
myth. The opening lines are unsurpassed for
splendid poetry and sombre grandeur in any, even
the most advanced literature.
26. "Towards the land whence there is no return, towards the
house of corruption, Ishtar, the daughter of Sin, has turned her
mind. . . . towards the dwelling that has an entrance but no
exit, towards the road that may be travelled but not retraced, tow-
HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS.
327
ards the hall from which the light of day is shut out, where hunger
feeds on dust and mud, where light is never seen, where the shades
of the dead dwell in the dark, clothed with wings like birds.
On
the lintel of the gate and in the lock dust lies accumulated.—Ishtar,
when she reached the land whence there is no return, to the keeper
of the gate signified her command: 'Keeper, open thy gate that I
may pass. If thou openest not and I may not enter, I will smite the
gate, and break the lock, I will demolish the threshold and enter by
force; then will I let loose the dead to return to the earth, that they
may live and eat again; I will make the risen dead more numerous
:-' Be
than the living.' The gate-keeper opened his lips and spoke :—“
appeased, O Lady, and let me go and report thy name to Allat the
Queen.'
Here follow a few much injured lines, the sense
of which could not be restored in its entirety. The
substance is that the gate-keeper announces to
Allat that her sister Ishtar has come for the Water
of Life, which is kept concealed in a distant nook.
of her dominions, and Allat is greatly disturbed at
the news. But Ishtar announces that she comes in
sorrow, not enmity :—
"I wish to weep over the heroes who have left their wives. I wish
to weep over the wives who have been taken from their husbands'
arms. I wish to weep over the Only Son-(a name of Dumuzi)—
who has been taken away before his time."
Then Allat commands the keeper to open the
gates and take Ishtar through the sevenfold en-
closure, dealing by her as by all who come to those
gates, that is, stripping her of her garments ac-
cording to ancient custom.
"The keeper went and opened the gate: 'Enter, O Lady, and may
the halls of the Land whence there is no return be gladdened by thy
presence.' At the first gate he bade her enter and laid his hand on
her; he took the high headdress from her head: 'Why, O keeper,
takest thou the high headdress from my head?'-' Enter, O Lady;
such is Allat's command.'"
328
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
The same scene is repeated at each of the seven
gates; the keeper at each strips Ishtar of some.
article of her attire-her earrings, her necklace,
her jewelled girdle, the bracelets on her arms and
the bangles at her ankles, and lastly her long flow-
ing garment. On each occasion the same words.
are repeated by both. When Ishtar entered the
presence of Allat, the queen looked at her and
taunted her to her face: then Ishtar could not con-
trol her anger and cursed her. Allat turned to her
chief minister Namtar, the god of Pestilence—meet
servant of the queen of the dead!-who is also the
god of Fate, and ordered him to lead Ishtar away
and afflict her with sixty dire diseases,-to strike
her head and her heart, and her eyes, her hands
and her feet, and all her limbs. So the goddess
was led away and kept in durance and in misery.
Meanwhile her absence was attended with most
disastrous consequences to the upper world. With
her, life and love had gone out of it; there were no
marriages any more, no births, either among men or
animals; nature was at a standstill. Great was the
commotion among the gods. They sent a messen-
ger to Êa to expose the state of affairs to him, and,
as usual, to invoke his advice and assistance. Êa,
in his fathomless wisdom, revolved a scheme. He
created a phantom, Uddusunamir.
'Go,' he said to him; 'towards the Land whence there is no re
turn direct thy face; the seven gates of the Arallu will open before
thee. Allat shall see thee and rejoice at thy coming, her heart shall
grow calm and her wrath shall vanish. Conjure her with the name
of the great gods, stiffen thy neck and keep thy mind on the Spring
HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS.
329
heard these things, beat her
Consenting, sore against her
May the great jailer place
of Life. Let the Lady (Ishtar) gain access to the Spring of Life and
drink of its waters.'-Allat, when she
breast and bit her fingers with rage.
will, she spoke :-' Go, Uddusunamir!
thee in durance! May the foulness of the city ditches be thy food,
the waters of the city sewers thy drink! A dark dungeon be thy
dwelling, a sharp pole thy seat!'"'
Then she ordered Namtar to let Ishtar drink of
the Spring of Life and to bear her from her sight.
Namtar fulfilled her command and took the goddess
through the seven enclosures, at each gate restoring
to her the article of her attire that had been taken at
her entrance. At the last gate he said to her:
"Thou hast paid no ransom to Allat for thy deliverance; so now
return to Dumuzi, the lover of thy youth; sprinkle over him the
sacred waters, clothe him in splendid garments, adorn him with
gems."
26. The last lines are so badly mutilated that no
efforts have as yet availed to make their sense any-
thing but obscure, and so it must remain, unless
new copies come to light. Yet so much is, at all
events, evident, that they bore on the reunion of
Ishtar and her young lover. The poem is thus com-
plete in itself; but some think that it was introduced
into the Izdubar epic as an independent episode,
after the fashion of the Deluge narrative, and, if so,
it is supposed to have been part of the seventh tab-
let. Whether such were really the case or no, mat-
ters little in comparison with the great importance
these two poems possess as being the most ancient
presentations, in a finished literary form, of the two
most significant and universal nature-myths-the
330
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
Solar and the Chthonic (see p. 272), the poetical
fancies in which primitive mankind clothed the won-
ders of the heavens and the mystery of the earth, be-
ing content to admire and imagine where it could
not comprehend and explain. We shall be led back
continually to these, in very truth, primary myths,
for they not only served as groundwork to much of
the most beautiful poetry of the world but sug-
gested some of its loftiest and most cherished relig-
ious conceptions.
*For a metrical version by Prof. Dyer of the story of "Ishtar's
Descent," see Appendix, p. 367.


VIII.
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.-IDOLATRY AND AN-
THROPOMORPHISM.-THE CHALDEAN LEGENDS
AND THE BOOK OF GENESIS.-RETROSPECT.
I. IN speaking of ancient nations, the words "Re-
ligion" and " Mythology" are generally used indis-
criminately and convertibly. Yet the conceptions.
they express are essentially and radically different.
The broadest difference, and the one from which all
others flow, is that the one-Religion—is a thing of
the feelings, while the other-Mythology—is a thing
of the imagination. In other words, Religion comes
from WITHIN-from that consciousness of limited
power, that inborn need of superior help and guid-
ance, forbearance and forgiveness, from that long-
ing for absolute goodness and perfection, which
make up the distinctively human attribute of "re-
ligiosity," that attribute which, together with the
faculty of articulate speech, sets Man apart from
and above all the rest of animated creation. (See p.
149.) Mythology, on the other hand, comes wholly
from WITHOUT. It embodies impressions received
by the senses from the outer world and transformed
by the poetical faculty into images and stories.
331
332
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
(See definition of "Myth" on p. 294.) Professor
Max Müller of Oxford has been the first, in his
standard work "The Science of Language," clearly
to define this radical difference between the two
conceptions, which he has never since ceased to
sound as a keynote through the long series of his
works devoted to the study of the religions and
mythologies of various nations. A few illustrations.
from the one nation with which we have as yet be-
come familiar will help once for all to establish a
thorough understanding on this point, most essen-
tial as it is to the comprehension of the workings of
the human mind and soul throughout the long roll
of struggles, errors and triumphs, achievements and
failures which we call the history of mankind.
2. There is no need to repeat here instances of
the Shumiro-Accadian and Chaldean myths; the
last three or four chapters have been filled with them.
But the instances of religious feeling, though scat-
tered in the same field, have to be carefully gleaned.
out and exhibited, for they belong to that undercur-
rent of the soul which pursues its way unobtrusively
and is often apparently lost beneath the brilliant play
of poetical fancies. But it is there nevertheless, and
every now and then forces its way to the surface
shining forth with a startling purity and beauty.
When the Accadian poet invokes the Lord "who
knows lie from truth," "who knows the truth that
is in the soul of man," who "maketh lies to vanish,"
who "turneth wicked plots to a happy issue"
this is religion, not mythology, for this is not a story,
it is the expression of a feeling. That "the Lord"
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.
333
whose divine omniscience and goodness is thus glo-
rified is really the Sun, makes no difference; that is
an error of judgment, a want of knowledge, but the
religious feeling is splendidly manifest in the invo-
cation. But when, in the same hymn, the Sun is
described as "stepping forth from the background
of the skies, pushing back the bolts and opening the
gate of the brilliant heaven, and raising his head
above the land," etc., (see p. 172) that is only a very
beautiful, imaginative description of a glorious nat-
ural phenomenon-sunrise; it is magnificent poetry,
religious in so far as the sun is considered as a Be-
ing, a Divine Person, the object of an intensely de-
vout and grateful feeling; still this is not religion, it
is mythology, for it presents a material image to the
mind, and one that can be easily turned into nar-
rative, into a story,—which, in fact, suggests a hero,
a king, and a story. Take, again, the so-called
Penitential Psalms." To the specimen given on
p. 178, let us add, for greater completeness, the fol-
lowing three remarkable fragments:
I. "God, my creator, take hold of my arms! Direct the breath of
my mouth, my hands direct, O lord of light."
II. "Lord, let not thy servant sink! Amidst the tumultuous waters
take hold of his hand!"
III. "He who fears not his God, will be cut off even like a reed.
He who honors not his goddess, his bodily strength will waste away;
like to a star of heaven, his splendor will pale; he will vanish like to
the waters of the night."
3. All this is religion, of the purest, loftiest
kind; fruitful, too, of good, the only real test of
true religion. The deep humility, the trustful ap
334
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
peal, the feeling of dependence, the consciousness
of weakness, of sin, and the longing for deliverance
from them--these are all very different from the
pompous phrases of empty praise and sterile admi-
ration; they are things which flow from the heart,
not the fancy, which lighten its weight of sorrow
and self-reproach, brighten it with hope and good
resolutions, in short, make it happier and better-
what no mere imaginative poetry, however fine, can
do.
4. The radical distinction, then, between religious.
feeling and the poetical faculty of mythical crea-
tion, is easy to establish and follow out. On the
other hand, the two are so constantly blended, so
almost inextricably interwoven in the sacred poe-
try of the ancients, in their views of life and the
world, and in their worship, that it is no wonder
they should be so generally confused. The most cor-
rect way of putting the case would be, perhaps, to
say that the ancient Religions—meaning by the word
the whole body of sacred poetry and legends as well
as the national forms of worship-were made up
originally in about equal parts of religious feeling
and of mythology. In many cases the exuberance of
the imagination gained the upper hand, and there
was such a riotous growth of mythical imagery and
stories that the religious feeling was almost stifled
under them. In others, again, the myths them-
selves suggested religious ideas of the deepest im-
port and loftiest sublimity. Such was particularly
the case with the solar and Chthonic Myths-the
poetical presentation of the career of the Sun and
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.
335
the Earth-as connected with the doctrine of the
soul's immortality.
5. A curious and significant observation has been
made in excavating the most ancient graves in the
world, those of the so-called Mound-builders. This
name is not that of any particular race or nation, but
is given indiscriminately to all those peoples who
lived, on any part of the globe, long before the earli-
est beginnings of even the remotest times which have
been made historical by preserved monuments or
inscriptions of any kind. All we know of those
peoples is that they used to bury their dead-at
least those of special renown or high rank-in deep
and spacious stone-lined chambers dug in the ground,
with a similar gallery leading to them, and covered
by a mound of earth, sometimes of gigantic dimen-
sions—a very hill. Hence the name. Of their
life, their degree of civilization, what they thought
and believed, we have no idea except in so far as
the contents of the graves give us some indications.
For, like the later, historical races, of which we find
the graves in Chaldea and every other country of
the ancient world, they used to bury along with the
dead a multitude of things: vessels, containing food
and drink; weapons, ornaments, household imple-
ments. The greater the power or renown of the
dead man, the fuller and more luxurious his funeral
outfit. It is indeed by no means rare to find the
skeleton of a great chief surrounded by those of sev-
eral women, and, at a respectful distance, more
skeletons-evidently those of slaves-whose frac-
tured skulls more than suggest the ghastly custom
=
336
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
of killing wives and servants to do honor to an illus-
trious dead and to keep him company in his narrow
underground mansion. Nothing but a belief in the
continuation of existence after death could have
prompted these practices. For what was the sense
of giving him wives and slaves, and domestic arti-
cles of all kinds, food and weapons, unless it were.
for his service and use on his journey to the un-
known land where he was to enter on a new stage
of existence, which the survivors could not but
imagine to be a reproduction, in its simple condi-
tions and needs, of the one he was leaving? There
is no race of men, however primitive, however un-
tutored, in which this belief in immortality is not
found deeply rooted, positive, unquestioning. The
belief is implanted in man by the wish; it answers
one of the most imperative, unsilenceable longings
of human nature. For, in proportion as life is
pleasant and precious, death is hideous and repel-
lent. The idea of utter destruction, of ceasing to
be, is intolerable to the mind; indeed, the senses re-
volt against it, the mind refuses to grasp and ad-
mit it. Yet death is very real, and it is inevitable;
and all human beings that come into the world.
have to learn to face the thought of it, and the re-
ality too, in others, before they lie down and accept
it for themselves. But what if death be not de-
struction? If it be but a passage from this into an-
other world, distant, unknown and perforce mys-
terious, but certain nevertheless, a world on the
threshold of which the earthly body is dropped as
an unnecessary garment? Then were death shorn
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.
337
of half its terrors. Indeed, the only unpleasantness
about it would be, for him who goes, the momentary
pang and the uncertainty as to what he is going to;
and, for those who remain, the separation and the
loathsome details-the disfigurement, the corrup-
tion. But these are soon gotten over, while the
separation is only for a time; for all must go the
same way, and the late-comers will find, will join
their lost ones gone before. Surely it must be so!
It were too horrible if it were not; it must be—it is!
The process of feeling which arrived at this conclu-
sion and hardened it into absolute faith, is very
plain, and we can easily, each of us, reproduce it in
our own souls, independently of the teachings we
receive from childhood. But the mind is naturally
inquiring, and involuntarily the question presents
itself this solution, so beautiful, so acceptable, so
universal, but so abstract-what suggested it?
What analogy first led up to it from the material
world of the senses? To this question we find no
reply in so many words, for it is one of those that
go to the very roots of our being, and such gener-
ally remain unanswered. But the graves dug by
those old Mound-Builders present a singular feature,
which almost seems to point to the answer. The
tenant of the funereal chamber is most frequently
found deposited in a crouching attitude, his back.
leaning against the stone-lined wall, and with his
face turned towards the West, in the direction of the
setting sun. 1. Here, then, is the suggestion, the
analogy! The career of the sun is very like that of
His rising in the east is like the birth of man.
man.
338
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
During the hours of his power, which we call the
Day, he does his allotted work, of giving light and
warmth to the world, now riding radiant and trium-
phant across an azure sky, now obscured by clouds,
struggling through mists, or overwhelmed by tem-
pests. How like the vicissitudes that checker the
somewhat greater number of hours or days—of
which the sum makes up a human life! Then
when his appointed time expires, he sinks down,-
lower, lower-and disappears into darkness,—dies.
So does man. What is this night, death? Is it de-
struction, or only a rest, or an absence? It is at all
events not destruction. For as surely as we see the
sun vanish in the west this evening, feeble and
beamless, so surely shall we behold him to-morrow
morning rise again in the east, glorious, vigorous
and young. What happens to him in the interval?
Who knows? Perhaps he sleeps, perhaps he trav-
els through countries we know not of and does.
other work there; but one thing is sure: that he is
not dead, for he will be up again to-morrow. Why
should not man, whose career so much resembles
the sun's in other respects, resemble him in this?
Let the dead, then, be placed with their faces to
the west, in token that theirs is but a setting like
the sun's, to be followed by another rising, a re-
newed existence, though in another and unknown
world.
6. All this is sheer poetry and mythology. But
how great its beauty, how obvious its hopeful sug-
gestiveness, if it could appeal to the groping minds
of those primitive men, the old Mound-Builders,
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.
339
and there lay the seed of a faith which has been
more and more clung to, as mankind progressed in
spiritual culture! For all the noblest races have.
cherished and worked out the myth of the setting
sun in the most manifold ways, as the symbol of
the soul's immortality. The poets of ancient India,
some three thousand years ago, made the Sun the
leader and king of the dead, who, as they said,
followed where he had gone first, "showing the
way to many." The Egyptians, perhaps the wisest
and most spiritual of all ancient nations, came to
make this myth the keystone of their entire relig
ion, and placed all their burying-places in the west,
amidst or beyond the Libyan ridge of hills behind
which the sun vanished from the eyes of those who
dwelt in the valley of the Nile. The Greeks im-
agined a happy residence for their bravest and
wisest, which they called the Islands of the Blest,
and placed in the furthest West, amidst the waters.
of the ocean into which the sun descends for his
nightly rest.
7. But the sun's course is twofold. If it is com-
plete-beginning and ending-within the given
number of hours which makes the day, it is re-
peated on a larger scale through the cycle of
months which makes the year. The alternations of
youth and age, triumph and decline, power and
feebleness, are there represented and are regularly
brought around by the different seasons. But the
moral, the symbol, is still the same as regards final
immortality. For if summer answers to the heyday
of noon, autumn to the milder glow and the extinc-
340
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
tion of evening, and winter to the joyless dreariness
of night, spring, like the morning, ever brings back
the god, the hero, in the perfect splendor of a
glorious resurrection. It was the solar-year myth
with its magnificent accompaniment of astronomi-
cal pageantry, which took the greater hold on the
fancy of the scientifically inclined Chaldeans, and
which we find embodied with such admirable com-
pleteness in their great epic. We shall see, later
on, more exclusively imaginative and poetical races
showing a marked preference for the career of the
sun as the hero of a day, and making the several
incidents of the solar-day myth the subject of an
infinite variety of stories, brilliant or pathetic,
tender or heroic. But there is in nature another
order of phenomena, intimately connected with and
dependent on the phases of the sun, that is, the
seasons, yet very different in their individual char-
acter, though pointing the same way as regards
the suggestion of resurrection and immortality-
the phenomena of the Earth and the Seed. These
may in a more general way be described as Nature's
productive power paralyzed during the numbed
trance of winter, which is as the sleep of death,
when the seed lies in the ground hid from sight.
and cold, even as a dead thing, but awaking to new
life in the good time of spring, when the seed, in
which life was never extinct but only dormant,
bursts its bonds and breaks into verdant loveliness
and bountiful crops. This is the essence and mean-
ing of the Chthonic or Earth-myth, as universal as
the Sun-myth, but of which different features have
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.
341
also been unequally developed by different races.
according to their individual tendencies. In the
Chaldean version, the "Descent of Ishtar," the par-
ticular incident of the seed is quite wanting, unless
The Boon of the
the name of Dumuzi's month,
Seed" ("Le Bienfait de la Semence." Lenormant),
It is her fair
may be considered as alluding to it.
young bridegroom, the beautiful Sun-god, whom the
widowed goddess of Nature mourns and descends
to seek among the dead. This aspect of the myth
is almost exclusively developed in the religions of
most Canaanitic and Semitic nations of the East,
where we shall meet with it often and often. And
here it may be remarked, without digressing or
anticipating too far, that throughout the ancient
world, the Solar and Chthonic cycles of myths have.
been the most universal and important, the very
centre and groundwork of many of the ancient
mythic religions, and used as vehicles for more or
less sublime religious conceptions, according to the
higher or lower spiritual level of the worshipping
nations.
8. It must be confessed that, amidst the nations
of Western Asia, this level was, on the whole, not a
very lofty one. Both the Hamitic and Semitic
races were, as a rule, of a naturally sensuous disposi-
tion; the former being, moreover, distinguished by
a very decidedly material turn of mind. The Kush-
ites, of whom a branch perhaps formed an import-
ant portion of the mixed population of Lower
Mesopotamia, and especially the Canaanites, who
spread themselves over all the country between the
342
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
great rivers and the Western Sea-the Mediter-
ranean—were no exception to this rule. If their
priests their professed thinkers, the men trained
through generations for intellectual pursuits-—had
groped their way to the perception of One Divine
Power ruling the world, they kept it to themselves,
or, at least, out of sight, behind a complicated array
of cosmogonic myths, nature-myths, symbols and
parables, resulting in Chaldea in the highly artifi-
cial system which has been sketched above—(see
Chapters V. and VI.)-a system singularly beauti-
ful and deeply significant, but of which the mass of
the people did not care to unravel the subtle intri-
cacies, being quite content to accept it entire, in
the most literal spirit, elementary nature-gods, astro-
nomical abstractions, cosmogonical fables and all-
questioning nothing, at peace in their mind and
righteously self-conscious if they sacrificed at the
various time-honored local shrines, and conformed
to the prescribed forms and ceremonies. To these
they privately added those innumerable practices.
of conjuring and rites of witchcraft, the heirloom of
the older lords of the soil, which we saw the col- .
leges of learned priests compelled, as strangers and
comparative newcomers, to tolerate and even sanc-
tion by giving them a place, though an inferior
one, in their own nobler system (see p. 250). Thus
it was that, if a glimmer of Truth did feebly illu-
mine the sanctuary and its immediate ministers, the
people at large dwelt in the outer darkness of hope-
less polytheism and, worse still, of idolatry. For,
in bowing before the altars of their temples and the
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.
343
images in wood, stone or metal in which art strove
to express what the sacred writings taught, the un-
learned worshippers did not stop to consider that
these were but pieces of human workmanship, deriv-
ing their sacredness solely from the subjects they
treated and the place they adorned, nor did they
strive to keep their thoughts intent on the invisible
Beings represented by the images. It was so much
simpler, easier and more comfortable to address
their adoration to what was visible and near, to the
shapes that were so closely within reach of their
senses, that seemed so directly to receive their offer-
ings and prayers, that became so dearly familiar
from long associations. The bulk of the Chaldean
nation for a long time remained Turanian, and the
materialistic grossness of the original Shumiro-Acca-
dian religion greatly fostered its idolatrous tenden-
cies. The old belief in the talismanic virtues of all
images (see p. 162) continued to assert itself, and
was easily transferred to those representing the di-
vinities of the later and more elaborate worship.
Some portion of the divine substance or spirit was
supposed somehow to pass into the material repre-
sentation and reside therein. This is very clear
from the way in which the inscriptions speak of the
statues of gods, as though they were persons. Thus
the famous cylinder of the Assyrian conqueror As-
· shurbanipal tells how he brought back "the god-
dess Nana," (i.e., her statue) who at the time of the
great Elamite invasion, "had gone and dwelt in
Elam, a place not appointed for her," and now
spoke to him the king, saying: "From the midst
344
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
of Elam bring me out and cause me to enter into
Bitanna"-her own old sanctuary at Erech, "which
she had delighted in." Then again the Assyrian
conquerors take especial pride in carrying off with
them the statues of the gods of the nations they
subdue, and never fail to record the fact in these
words: "I carried away their gods," beyond a doubt.
with the idea that, in so doing, they put it out of
their enemies' power to procure the assistance of
their divine protectors.
9. In the population of Chaldea the Semitic ele-
ment was strongly represented. It is probable that
tribes of Semites came into the country at intervals,
in successive bands, and for a long time wandered
unhindered with their flocks, then gradually amalga-
mated with the settlers they found in possession,
and whose culture they adopted, or else formed
separate settlements of their own, not even then,
however, quite losing their pastoral habits. Thus
the Hebrew tribe, when it left Ur under Terah and
Abraham (see page 121), seems to have resumed its
nomadic life with the greatest willingness and ease,
after dwelling a long time in or near that popular
city, the principal capital of Shumir, the then domi-
nant South. Whether this tribe were driven out
of Ur, as some will have it,* or left of their own
accord, it is perhaps not too bold to conjecture that
the causes of their departure were partly connected
with religious motives. For, alone among the Chal-
deans and all the surrounding nations, this handful
* Maspero, "Histoire Ancienne,” p. 173.
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.
345
RY
of Semites had disentangled the conception of mono-
theism from the obscuring wealth of Chaldean my.
thology, and had grasped it firmly. At least their
leaders and elders, the patriarchs, had arrived at the
conviction that the One living God was He whom.
they called "the Lord," and they strove to inspire
their people with the same faith, and to detach them
from the mythical beliefs, the idolatrous practices
which they had adopted from those among whom
they lived, and to which they clung with the tenac-
ity of spiritual blindness and long habit. The later
Hebrews themselves kept a clear remembrance of
their ancestors having been heathen polytheists,
and their own historians, writing more than a thou-
sand years after Abraham's times, distinctly state
the fact. In a long exhortation to the assembled.
tribes of Israel, which they put in the mouth of
Joshua, the successor of Moses, they make him say:
66
"Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood
(i.e., the Euphrates, or perhaps the Jordan) "in old
time, even Terah, the father of Abraham and the
father of Nachor, and they served other gods." And
further on : .. Put away the gods which your
fathers served on the other side of the flood and in
Egypt, and serve ye the Lord. . .
Choose you
this day whom you will serve, whether the gods.
which your fathers served that were on the other
side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in
whose land ye dwell; as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord." (Joshua, xxiv. 2, 14, 15.)
What more probable than that the patriarchs, Terah
and Abraham, should have led their people out of
346
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
the midst of the Chaldeans, away from their great
capital Ur, which held some of the oldest and most
renowned Chaldean sanctuaries, and forth into the
wilderness, partly with the object of removing them
from corrupting associations. At all events that
branch of the Hebrew tribe which remained in
Mesopotamia with Nahor, Abraham's brother (see
Gen. xxiv. xxix. and ff.), continued heathen and
idolatrous, as we see from the detailed narrative
in Genesis xxxi., of how Rachel "had stolen the
images that were her father's" (xxxi. 19), when
Jacob fled from Laban's house with his family, his
cattle and all his goods. No doubt as to the value
and meaning attached to these "images" is left
when we see Laban, after having overtaken the
fugitives, reprove Jacob in these words :—“ And
now, though thou wouldst needs be gone, because
thou sore longedst for thy father's house, yet where-
fore hast thou stolen my gods?" (xxxi. 30), to which
Jacob, who knows nothing of Rachel's theft, replies:
-“With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him
not live" (xxxi. 32). But "Rachel had taken the
images and put them in the camel's furniture, and
sat upon them. And Laban searched all the tent,
but found them not" (xxxi. 34). Now what could
have induced Rachel to commit so dishonorable and,
moreover, dangerous an action, but the idea that,
in carrying away these images, her family's house-
hold "gods," she would insure a blessing and pros-
perity to herself and her house? That by so doing,
she would, according to the heathens' notion, rob
her father and old home of what she wished to se-
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.
347
cure herself (see page 344), does not seem to have
disturbed her. It is clear from this that, even after
she was wedded to Jacob the monotheist, she re-
mained a heathen and idolater, though she concealed.
the fact from him.
IO. On the other hand, wholesale emigration was
not sufficient to remove the evil. Had it indeed
been a wilderness, unsettled in all its extent, into
which the patriarchs led forth their people, they
might have succeeded in weaning them completely
from the old influences. But, scattered over it and
already in possession, were numerous
numerous Canaanite
tribes, wealthy and powerful under their chiefs-
Amorites, and Hivites, and Hittites, and many
more. In the pithy and picturesque Biblical lan-
guage, "the Canaanite was in the land" (Genesis,
xii. 6), and the Hebrews constantly came into con-
tact with them, indeed were dependent on their
tolerance and large hospitality for the freedom with
which they were suffered to enjoy the pastures of
"the land wherein they were strangers," as the vast
region over which they ranged is frequently and
pointedly called. Being but a handful of men, they
had to be cautious in their dealings and to keep on
good terms with the people among whom they were
brought. "I am a stranger and a sojourner with
you," admits Abraham, "bowing himself down be-
fore the people of the land," (a tribe of Hittites
near Hebron, west of the Dead Sea), when he offers
to buy of them a field, there to institute a family
burying-place for himself and his race; for he had
no legal right to any of the land, not so much as
348
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
would yield a sepulchre to his dead, even though
the "children of Heth" treat him with high honor,
and, in speaking to him, say, "My lord," and "thou
art a mighty prince among us" (Genesis, xxiii.).
This transaction, conducted on both sides in a spirit
of great courtesy and liberality, is not the only in-
stance of the friendliness with which the Canaanite
owners of the soil regarded the strangers, both in
Abraham's lifetime and long after his death. His
grandson, the patriarch Jacob, and his sons find the
same tolerance among the Hivites of Shalem, who
thus commune among themselves concerning them :
—“These men are peaceable with us; therefore let
them dwell in the land and trade therein; for the
land, behold it is large enough for them; let us take
their daughters for wives, and let us give them our
daughters." And the Hivite prince speaks in this
sense to the Hebrew chief :-" The soul of my son
longeth for your daughter: I pray you, give her him.
to wife. And make ye marriages with us, and give
your daughters unto us and take our daughters
unto you.
And ye shall dwell with us, and the
land shall be before you; dwell and trade ye therein,
and get you possessions therein.”
II. But this question of intermarriage was always.
a most grievous one; the question of all others at
which the Hebrew leaders strictly drew the line of
intercourse and good-fellowship; the more stub-
bornly that their people were naturally much in-
clined to such unions, since they came and went
freely among their hosts, and their daughters went
out, unhindered, “to see the daughters of the land."
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.
349
Now all the race of Canaan followed religions very
similar to that of Chaldea, only grosser still in their
details and forms of worship. Therefore, that the
old idolatrous habits might not return strongly upon
them under the influence of a heathen household,
the patriarchs forbade marriage with the women of
the countries through which they passed and re-
passed with their tents and flocks, and themselves
abstained from it. Thus we see Abraham sending
his steward all the way back to Mesopotamia to
seek a wife for his son Isaac from among his own
kinsfolk who had stayed there with his brother
Nahor, and makes the old servant solemnly swear
"by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of
earth":"Thou shalt not take a wife unto my son
of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom
I dwell." And when Esau, Isaac's son, took two
wives from among the Hittite women, it is expressly
said that they were a grief of mind unto Isaac and
Rebekah;" and Isaac's most solemn charge to his
other son, Jacob, as he sends him from him with
his blessing, is: "Thou shalt not take a wife of the
daughters of Canaan." Whithersoever the Hebrews
came in the course of their long wanderings, which
lasted many centuries, the same twofold prohibi-
tion was laid on them: of marrying with native
women-" for surely," they are told, "they will
turn away your heart after their gods," and of fol
lowing idolatrous religions, a prohibition enforced
by the severest penalties, even to that of death.
But nothing could keep them long from breaking
the law in both respects. The very frequency and
66
350
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
emphasis with which the command is repeated, the
violence of the denunciations against offenders, the
terrible punishments threatened and often actually
inflicted, sufficiently show how imperfectly and
unwillingly it was obeyed. Indeed the entire Old
Testament is one continuous illustration of the
unslackening zeal with which the wise and enlight-
ened men of Israel-its lawgivers, leaders, priests.
and prophets-pursued their arduous and often
almost hopeless task, of keeping their people pure
from worships and practices which to them, who
had realized the fallacy of a belief in many gods,
were the most pernicious abominations. In this
spirit and to this end they preached, they fought,
they promised, threatened, punished, and in this
spirit, in later ages, they wrote.
12. It is not until a nation is well established and
enjoys a certain measure of prosperity, security and
the leisure which accompanies them, that it begins
to collect its own traditions and memories and set
them down in order, into a continuous narrative.
So it was with the Hebrews. The small tribe
became a nation, which ceased from its wanderings
and conquered for itself a permanent place on the
face of the earth. But to do this took many hun-
dred years, years of memorable adventures and
vicissitudes, so that the materials which accumu-
lated for the future historians, in stories, traditions,
songs, were ample and varied. Much, too, must
have been written down at a comparatively early
period. How early must remain uncertain, since
there is unfortunately nothing to show at what
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.
351
time the Hebrews learned the art of writing and
their characters thought, like other alphabets, to be
borrowed from those of the Phoenicians. However
that may be, one thing is sure: that the different
books which compose the body of the Hebrew
Sacred Scriptures, which we call "the Old Testa-
ment," were collected from several and different
sources, and put into the shape in which they have
descended to us at a very late period, some almost
as late as the birth of Christ. The first book of all,
that of Genesis, describing the beginnings of the
Jewish people,-(" Genesis" is a Greek word, which
means “Origin")-belongs at all events to a some-
what earlier date. It is put together mainly of two
narratives, distinct and often different in point of
spirit and even fact. The later compiler who had
both sources before him to work into a final form,
looked on both with too much respect to alter
either, and generally contented himself with giving
them side by side, (as in the story of Hagar, which is
told twice and differently, in Chap. XVI. and Chap.
XXI.), or intermixing them throughout, so that it
takes much attention and pains to separate them,
(as in the story of the Flood, Chap. VI.-VIII.). This
latter story is almost identical with the Chaldean
Deluge-legend included in the great Izdubar epic, of
which it forms the eleventh tablet. (See Chap. VII.)
Indeed, every child can see, by comparing the Chal-
dean cosmogonic and mythical legends with the
first chapters of the Book of Genesis, those which
relate to the beginnings not so much of the Hebrew
people as of the human race and the world in gen-
352
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
eral, that both must originally have flowed from
one and the same spring of tradition and priestly
lore. The resemblances are too staring, close, con-
tinuous, not to exclude all rational surmises as to
casual coincidences. The differences are such as
most strikingly illustrate the transformation which
the same material can undergo when treated by two.
races of different moral standards and spiritual ten-
dencies. Let us briefly examine both, side by side.
13. To begin with the Creation. The description
of the primeval chaos--a waste of waters, from
which"the darkness was not lifted," (see p. 261)-
answers very well to that in Genesis, i. 2: "And the
earth was without form and void; and darkness was
upon the face of the deep." The establishment of
the heavenly bodies and the creation of the animals
also correspond remarkably in both accounts, and
even come in the same order (see p. 264, and Gene-
sis, i. 14–22). The famous cylinder of the British
Museum (see No. 62, p. 266) is strong presumption in
favor of the identity of the Chaldean version of the
first couple's disobedience with the Biblical one. We
have seen the important position occupied in the
Chaldean religion by the symbol of the Sacred Tree,
which surely corresponds to the Tree of Life in
Eden (see p. 268), and probably also to that of
Knowledge, and the different passages and names
ingeniously collected and confronted by scholars
leave no doubt as to the Chaldeans having had the
legend of an Eden, a garden of God (see p. 274). A
better preserved copy of the Creation tablets with
the now missing passages may be recovered any
RELIGIÓN AND MYTHOLOGY.
353
But
day, and there is no reason to doubt that they will
be found as closely parallel to the Biblical narrative.
as those that have been recovered until now.
even as we have them at present it is very evident
that the groundwork, the material, is the same in
both. It is the manner, the spirit, which differs.
In the Chaldean account, polytheism runs riot.
Every element, every power of nature-Heaven,
Earth, the Abyss, Atmosphere, etc.-has been per-
sonified into an individual divine being actively and
⚫ severely engaged in the great work. The Hebrew
narrative is severely monotheistic. In it GOD does.
all that "the gods" between them do in the other.
Every poetical or allegorical turn of phrase is care-
fully avoided, lest it lead into the evil errors of the
sister-nation. The symbolical myths-such as that
of Bel's mixing his own blood with the clay out of
which he fashions man, (see p. 266)—are sternly dis-
carded, for the same reason. One only is retained:
the temptation by the Serpent. But the Serpent
being manifestly the personification of the Evil
Principle which is forever busy in the soul of man,
there was no danger of its being deified and wor-
shipped; and as, moreover, the tale told in this
manner very picturesquely and strikingly points a
great moral lesson, the Oriental love of parable and
allegory could in this instance be allowed free scope.
Besides, the Hebrew writers of the sacred books
were not beyond or above the superstitions of their
country and age; indeed they retained all of these
that did not appear to them incompatible with
monotheism. Thus throughout the Books of the
354
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
Old Testament the Chaldean belief in witchcraft,
divination from dreams and other signs is retained
and openly professed, and astrology itself is not
condemned, since among the destinations of the
stars is mentioned that of serving to men
"for
signs": "And God said, let there be lights in the
firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the
night; and let them be for signs and for seasons,
and for days and years" (Genesis, i. 14). Even
more explicit is the passage in the triumphal song
of Deborah the prophetess, where celebrating the
victory of Israel over Sisera, she says: "They
fought from heaven: the stars in their courses
fought against Sisera" (Judges, v. 20). But a be-
lief in astrology by no means implies the admission
of several gods. In one or two passages, indeed,
we do find an expression which seems to have
slipped in unawares, as an involuntary reminis
cence of an original polytheism; it is where God,
communing with himself on Adam's trespass, says:
"Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know
good and evil" (Gen. iii. 22). An even clearer
trace confronts us in one of the two names that are
given to God. These names are Jehovah," (more
correctly "Yahveh") and "Elohim." Now the
latter name is the plural of El, "god," and so really
means "the gods." If the sacred writers retained it,
it was certainly not from carelessness or inadver-
tence. As they use it, it becomes in itself almost a
profession of faith. It seems to proclaim the God
of their religion as "the One God who is all the
(6
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.
355
gods," in whom all the forces of the universe are
contained and merged.
14. There is one feature in the Biblical narrative,
which, at first sight, wears the appearance of myth-
ical treatment: it is the familiar way in which God
is represented as coming and going, speaking and
acting, after the manner of men, especially in such
passages as these: "And they heard the voice of
the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of
the day" (Gen. iii. 8); or, "Unto Adam also and
to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and
he clothed them” (Gen. iii. 21). But such a judg-
ment would be a serious error. There is nothing
mythical in this; only the tendency, common to all
mankind, of endowing the Deity with human attri-
butes of form, speech and action, whenever the at-
tempt was made to bring it very closely within the
reach of their imagination. This tendency is so
universal, that it has been classed, under a special
name, among the distinctive features of the human
mind. It has been called ANTHROPOMORPHISM,
(from two Greek words Anthropos, "man," and mor-
phê, “form,") and can never be got rid of, because
it is part and parcel of our very nature. Man's
spiritual longings are infinite, his perceptive fac-
ulties are limited. His spirit has wings of flame.
that would lift him up and bear him even beyond
the endlessness of space into pure abstraction; his
senses have soles of lead that ever weigh him down,
back to the earth, of which he is and to which he
must needs cling, to exist at all. He can conceive,
by a great effort, an abstract idea, eluding the grasp
356
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
of senses, unclothed in matter; but he can realise,
imagine, only by using such appliances as the senses
supply him with. Therefore, the more fervently he
grasps an idea, the more closely he assimilates it,
the more it becomes materialized in his grasp, and
when he attempts to reproduce it out of himself-
behold! it has assumed the likeness of himself or
something he has seen, heard, touched--the spirit-
uality of it has become weighted with flesh, even
as it is in himself. It is as it were a reproduction,
in the intellectual world, of the eternal strife, in
physical nature, between the two opposed forces of
attraction and repulsion, the centrifugal and cen-
tripetal, of which the final result is to keep each
body in its place, with a well-defined and limited
range of motion allotted to it. Thus, however
pure and spiritual the conception of the Deity
may be, man, in making it real to himself, in bring-
ing it down within his reach and ken, within the
shrine of his heart, will and must perforce make
of it a Being, human not only in shape, but also in
thought and feeling. How otherwise could he grasp
it at all? And the accessories with which he will
surround it will necessarily be suggested by his own
experience, copied from those among which he
moves habitually himself. "Walking in the garden.
in the cool of the day" is an essentially Oriental
and Southern recreation, and came quite naturally
to the mind of a writer living in a land steeped in
sunshine and sultriness. Had the writer been a
Northerner, a denizen of snow-clad plains and ice-
bound rivers, the Lord might probably have been
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.
357
represented as coming in a swift, fur-lined sleigh.
Anthropomorphism, then, is in itself neither my-
thology nor idolatry; but it is very clear that it
can with the utmost ease glide into either or both,
with just a little help from poetry and, especially,
from art, in its innocent endeavor to fix in tangible
form the vague imaginings and gropings, of which
words often are but a fleeting and feeble rendering.
Hence the banishment of all material symbols, the
absolute prohibition of any images whatever as an
accessory of religious worship, which, next to the
recognition of One only God, is the keystone of the
Hebrew law:-"Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any
graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in
heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or
that is in the water under the earth.--Thou shalt
not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them"
(Exodus, xx. 3-5).
But, to continue our parallel.
15. The ten antediluvian kings of Berosus, who
succeed the apparition of the divine Man-Fish, Êa-
Oannes (see p. 196), have their exact counterpart in
the ten antediluvian patriarchs of Genesis, v. Like
the Chaldean kings, the patriarchs live an unnat-
ural number of years. Only the extravagant fig-
ures of the Chaldean tradition are considerably re-
duced in the Hebrew version. While the former
allots to its kings reigns of tens of thousands of
years (see p. 196), the latter cuts them down to hun-
dreds, and the utmost that it allows to any of its
358
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
patriarchs is nine hundred and sixty-nine years of life
(Methuselah).
out.
16. The resemblances between the two Deluge
narratives are so obvious and continuous, that it is
not these, but the differences that need pointing
Here again the sober, severely monotheistic
character of the Hebrew narrative contrasts most
strikingly with the exuberant polytheism of the
Chaldean one, in which Heaven, Sun, Storm, Sea,
even Rain are personified, deified, and consistently
act their several appropriate and most dramatic
parts in the great cataclysm, while Nature herself,
as the Great Mother of beings and fosterer of life, is
represented, in the person of Ishtar, lamenting the
slaughter of men (see p. 327). Apart from this
fundamental difference in spirit, the identity in all
the essential points of fact is amazing, and varia.
tions occur only in lesser details. The most charac-
teristic one is that, while the Chaldean version de-
scribes the building and furnishing of a ship, with
all the accuracy of much seafaring knowledge, and
does not forget even to name the pilot, the Hebrew
writer, with the clumsiness and ignorance of nauti-
cal matters natural to an inland people unfamiliar
with the sea or the appearance of ships, speaks only
of an ark or chest. The greatest discrepancy is in
the duration of the flood, which is much shorter in
the Chaldean text than in the Hebrew. On the sev-
enth day already, Hâsisadra sends out the dove (see
p. 316). But then in the Biblical narrative itself,
made up, as was remarked above, of two parallel.
texts joined together, this same point is given dif
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.
359
ferently in different places. According to Genesis,
vii. 12, “the rain was upon the earth forty days and
forty nights," while verse 24 of the same chapter
tells us that "the waters prevailed upon the earth
an hundred and fifty days.' Again, the number of
the saved is far larger in the Chaldean account: Hâ-
sisadra takes with him into the ship all his men-ser-
vants, his women-servants, and even his “nearest
friends," while Noah is allowed to save only his own
immediate family, "his sons, and his wife, and his
sons' wives" (Genesis, vi. 18). Then, the incident
of the birds is differently told: Hâsisadra sends
out three birds, the dove, the swallow, and the ra-
ven; Noah only two-first the raven, then three
times in succession the dove. But it is startling to
find both narratives more than once using the same
words. Thus the Hebrew writer tells how Noah
"sent forth a raven, which went to and fro," and
how "the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot
and returned." Hâsisadra relates: "I took out a
dove and sent it forth. The dove went forth, to and
fro, but found no resting-place and returned." And
further, when Hâsisadra describes the sacrifice he
offered on the top of Mount Nizir, after he came
forth from the ship, he says: "The gods smelled a
savor; the gods smelled a sweet savor." "And the
Lord smelled a sweet savor," says Genesis,—viii.
21-of Noah's burnt-offering. These few hints
must suffice to show how instructive and enter-
taining is a parallel study of the two narratives;
it can be best done by attentively reading both al-
360
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
ternately, and comparing them together, paragraph
by paragraph.
17. The legend of the Tower of Languages (see
above, p. 293, and Genesis, xi. 3-9), is the last in
the series of parallel Chaldean and Hebrew tradi-
tions. In the Bible it is immediately followed by
the detailed genealogy of the Hebrews from Shem
to Abraham. Therewith evidently ends the con-
nection between the two people, who are severed
for all time from the moment that Abraham goes
forth with his tribe from Ur of the Chaldees,
probably in the reign of Amarpal (father of Ham-
murabi), whom the Bible calls Amraphel, king of
Shinear. The reign of Hammurabi was, as we
have already seen (see p. 219), a prosperous and
brilliant one. He was originally king of Tintir
(the oldest name of Babylon), and when he united
all the cities and local rulers of Chaldea under his
supremacy, he asserted the pre-eminence among
them for his own city, which he began to call by
its new name, KA-DIMIRRA (Accadian for "Gate
of God," which was translated into the Semitic
BAB-IL). This king in every respect opens a new
chapter in the history of Chaldea. Moreover, a
great movement was taking place in all the region
between the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf ;
nations were forming and growing, and Chaldea's
most formidable rival and future conqueror, As-
syria, was gradually gathering strength in the
north, a fierce young lion-cub. By this newcomer
among nations our attention will henceforth mainly
be claimed. Let us, therefore, pause on the high
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.
361
place to which we have now arrived, and, casting
a glance backward, take a rapid survey of the
ground we have covered.
18. Looking with strained eyes into a past dim
and gray with the scarce-lifting mists of unnum-
bered ages, we behold our starting-point, the low
land by the Gulf, Shumir, taking shape and color
under the rule of Turanian settlers, the oldest
known nation in the world. They drain and till
the land, they make bricks and build cities, and
prosper materially. But the spirit in them is dark
and lives in cowering terror of self-created demons
and evil things, which they yet believe they can
control and compel. So their religion is one, not
of worship and thanksgiving, but of dire conjur-
ing and incantation, inconceivable superstition and
witchcraft, an unutterable dreariness hardly light-
ened by the glimmering of a nobler faith, in the con-
ception of the wise and beneficent Êa and his ever
benevolently busy son, Meridug. But gradually
there comes a change. Shumir lifts its gaze up-
ward, and as it takes in more the beauty and the
goodness of the world-in Sun and Moon and
Stars, in the wholesome Waters and the purifying
serviceable Fire, the good and divine Powers-the
Gods multiply and the host of elementary spirits,
mostly evil, becomes secondary. This change is
greatly helped by the arrival of the meditative,
star-gazing strangers, who take hold of the nature-
worship and the nature-myths they find among
the people to which they have come—a higher and
more advanced race-and weave these, with their
362
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
own star-worship and astrological lore, into a new
faith, a religious system most ingeniously com-
bined, elaborately harmonized, and full of pro-
foundest meaning. The new religion is preached
not only in words, but in brick and stone: temples
arise all over the land, erected by the patesis—the
priest-kings of the different cities-and libraries
in which the priestly colleges reverently treasure
both their own works and the older religious lore.
of the country. The ancient Turanian names of
the gods are gradually translated into the new
Cushito-Semitic language; yet the prayers and
hymns, as well as the incantations, are still pre-
served in the original tongue, for the people of
Turanian Shumir are the more numerous, and must
be ruled and conciliated, not alienated. The more
northern region, Accad, is, indeed, more thinly
peopled; there the tribes of Semites, who now
arrive in frequent instalments, spread rapidly and
unhindered. The cities of Accad with their temples.
soon rival those of Shumir and strive to eclipse
them, and their patesis labor to predominate politi-
cally over those of the South. And it is with the
North that the victory at first remains; its pre-em-
inence is asserted in the time of Sharrukin of Agadê,
about 3800 B.C., but is resumed by the South some
thousand years later, when a powerful dynasty (that
to which belong Ur-êa and his son Dungi) establishes
itself in Ur, while Tintir, the future head and cen-
tre of the united land of Chaldea, the great Baby-
lon, if existing at all, is not yet heard of. It is
these kings of Ur who first take the significant
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.
363
title "kings of Shumir and Accad." Meanwhile
new and higher moral influences have been at
work; the Semitic immigration has quickened the
half mythical, half astronomical religion with a
more spiritual element-of fervent adoration, of
prayerful trust, of passionate contrition and self-
humiliation in the bitter consciousness of sin,
hitherto foreign to it, and has produced a new and
beautiful religious literature, which marks its third
and last stage. To this stage belong the often
mentioned "Penitential Psalms," Semitic, nay,
rather Hebrew in spirit, although still written in
the old Turanian language (but in the northern
dialect of Accad, a fact that in itself bears witness.
to their comparative lateness and the locality in
which they sprang up), and too strikingly identical
with similar songs of the golden age of Hebrew
poetry in substance and form, not to have been
the models from which the latter, by a sort of
unconscious heredity, drew its inspirations. Then
comes the great Elamitic invasion, with its plunder-
ing of cities, desecration of temples and sanctua
ries, followed probably by several more through
a period of at least three hundred years. The last,
that of Khudur Lagamar, since it brings prom-
inently forward the founder of the Hebrew nation,
deserves to be particularly mentioned by that
nation's historians, and, inasmuch as it coincides
with the reign of Amarpal, king of Tintir and father
of Hammurabi, serves to establish an important
landmark in the history both of the Jews and of
Chaldea. When we reach this comparatively re-
364
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
cent date the mists have in great part rolled aside,
and as we turn from the ages we have just sur-
veyed to those that still lie before us, history
guides us with a bolder step and shows us the land-
scape in a twilight which, though still dim and
sometimes misleading, is yet that of breaking day,
not of descending night.
19. When we attempt to realize the prodigious
vastness and remoteness of the horizon thus opened
before us, a feeling akin to awe overcomes us. Un-
til within a very few years, Egypt gloried in the
undisputed boast of being the oldest country in the
world, i.e., of reaching back, by its annals and mon-
uments, to an earlier date than any other. But the
discoveries that are continually being made in the
valley of the two great rivers have forever silenced
that boast. Chaldea points to a monumentally re-
corded date nearly 4000 B.C. This is more than
Egypt can do. Her oldest authentic monuments,
-her great Pyramids, are considerably later. Mr.
F. Hommel, one of the leaders of Assyriology, forci-
bly expresses this feeling of wonder in a recent pub-
lication If," he says, "the Semites were already
settled in Northern Babylonia (Accad) in the be-
ginning of the fourth thousand B.C., in possession
of the fully developed Shumiro-Accadian culture
adopted by them,-a culture, moreover, which ap-
pears to have sprouted in Accad as a cutting from
Shumir-then the latter must naturally be far, far
((
* Ztschr. für Keilschriftforschung, “Zur altbabylonischen Chrono-
logie," Heft I.
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.
365
older still, and have existed in its completed form
IN THE FIFTH THOUSAND B.C.—an age to which I
now unhesitatingly ascribe the South-Babylonian
incantations." This would give our mental vision
a sweep of full six thousand years, a pretty re
spectable figure! But when we remember that
these first known settlers of Shumir came from
somewhere else, and that they brought with them
more than the rudiments of civilization, we are at
once thrown back at least a couple of thousands of
For it must have taken all of that and
years more.
more for men to pass from a life spent in caves and
hunting the wild beasts to a stage of culture com-
prising the invention of a complete system of writ-
ing, the knowledge and working of metals, even to
the mixing of copper and tin into bronze, and an
expertness in agriculture equal not only to tilling,
but to draining land. If we further pursue human-
ity-losing at last all count of time in years or even
centuries—back to its original separation, to its first
appearance on the earth,-if we go further still and
try to think of the ages upon ages during which
man existed not at all, yet the earth did, and was
beautiful to look upon-(had there been any to look
on it), and good for the creatures who had it all to
themselves—a dizziness comes over our senses, be-
fore the infinity of time, and we draw back, faint
and awed, as we do when astronomy launches us,
on a slender thread of figures, into the infinity of
space. The six ages of a thousand years each which
are all that our mind can firmly grasp then come to
seem to us a very poor and puny fraction of eter-
366
THE STORY OF CHALDEA.
nity, to which we are tempted to apply almost
scornfully the words spoken by the poet of as many
years: "Six ages! six little ages! six drops of
time!"*
* Matthew Arnold, in "Mycerinus ":
"Six years! six little years! six drops of time !"

K

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VII.
PROFESSOR LOUIS DYER has devoted some time to preparing a
free metrical translation of "Ishtar's Descent." Unfortunately,
owing to his many occupations, only the first part of the poem is as
yet finished. This he most kindly has placed at our disposal, author-
izing us to present it to our readers.
ISHTAR IN URUGAL.
ALONG the gloomy avenue of death
To seek the dread abysm of Urugal,
In everlasting Dark whence none returns,
Ishtar, the Moon-god's daughter, made resolve,
And that way, sick with sorrow, turned her face.
A road leads downward, but no road leads back
From Darkness' realm. There is Irkalla queen,
Named also Ninkigal, mother of pains.
Her portals close forever on her guests
And exit there is none, but all who enter,
To daylight strangers, and of joy unknown,
Within her sunless gates restrained must stay.
And there the only food vouchsafed is dust,
For slime they live on, who on earth have died.
Day's golden beam greets none and darkness reigns
Where hurtling bat-like forms of feathered men
Or human-fashioned birds imprisoned flit.
Close and with dust o'erstrewn, the dungeon doors
Are held by bolts with gathering mould o'ersealed.
By love distracted, though the queen of love,
Pale Ishtar downward flashed toward death's domain,
And swift approached these gates of Urugal,
Then paused impatient at its portals grim;
367
368
APPENDIX.
For love, whose strength no earthly bars restrain,
Gives not the key to open Darkness' Doors.
By service from all living men made proud,
Ishtar brooked not resistance from the dead.
She called the jailer, then to anger changed
The love that sped her on her breathless way,
And from her parted lips incontinent
CC
Swept speech that made the unyielding warder quail.
Quick, turnkey of the pit! swing wide these doors,
And fling them swiftly open. Tarry not!
For I will pass, even I will enter in.
Dare no denial, thou, bar not my way,
Else will I burst thy bolts and rend thy gates,
This lintel shatter else and wreck these doors.
The pent-up dead I else will loose, and lead
Back the departed to the lands they left,
Else bid the famished dwellers in the pit
Rise up to live and eat their fill once more.
Dead myriads then shall burden groaning earth,
Sore tasked without them by her living throngs."
Love's mistress, mastered by strong hate,
The warder heard, and wondered first, then feared
The angered goddess Ishtar what she spake,
Then answering said to Ishtar's wrathful might:
"O princess, stay thy hand; rend not the door,
But tarry here, while unto Ninkigal
I go, and tell thy glorious name to her."
ISHTAR'S LAMENT.
"ALL love from earthly life with me departed,
With me to tarry in the gates of death;
In heaven's sun no warmth is longer hearted,
E
And chilled shall cheerless men now draw slow breath.
I left in sadness life which I had given,
I turned from gladness and I walked with woe,
Toward living death by grief untimely driven,
I search for Thammuz whom harsh fate laid low.
APPENDIX.
369
"The darkling pathway o'er the restless waters
Of seven seas that circle Death's domain
I trod, and followed after earth's sad daughters
Torn from their loved ones and ne'er seen again.
"Here must I enter in, here make my dwelling
With Thammuz in the mansion of the dead,
Driven to Famine's house by love compelling
And hunger for the sight of that dear head.
"O'er husbands will I weep, whom death has taken,
Whom fate in manhood's strength from life has swept,
Leaving on earth their living wives forsaken,——
O'er them with groans shall bitter tears be wept.
"And I will weep o'er wives, whose short day ended
Ere in glad offspring joyed their husbands' eyes;
Snatched from loved arms they left their lords untended,―
O'er them shall tearful lamentations rise.
"And I will weep o'er babes who left no brothers,
Young lives to the ills of age by hope opposed,
The sons of saddened sires and tearful mothers,
One moment's life by death eternal closed."
NINKIGAL'S COMMAND TO THE WARDER.
“LEAVE thou this presence, slave, open the gate;
Since power is hers to force an entrance here,
Let her come in as come from life the dead,
Submissive to the laws of Death's domain.
Do unto her what unto all thou doest."
Want of space bids us limit ourselves to these few fragments-
surely sufficient to make our readers wish that Professor Dyer might
spare some time to the completion of his task.

INDEX.
A.
Abel, killed by Cain, 129.
Abraham, wealthy and powerful
chief, 200; goes forth from Ur,
201; his victory over Khudur-
Lagamar, 222–224.
Abu-Habba, see Sippar.
Abu-Shahrein, see Eridhu.
Accad, Northern or Upper Chal-
dea, 145; meaning of the word,
ib.; headquarters of Semitism,
204-205.
Accads, see Shumiro-Accads.
Accadian language, see Shumiro-
Accadian.
Agadê, capital of Accad, 205.
Agglutinative languages, mean-
ing of the word, 136-137; char-
acteristic of Turanian nations,
ib.; spoken by the people of
Shumir and Accad, 144.
Agricultural life, third stage of
culture, first beginning of real
civilization, 122.
Akki, the water-carrier,
see
Sharrukin of Agadê.
Alexander of Macedon conquers
Babylon, 4; his soldiers destroy
the dams of the Euphrates, 5.
Allah, Arabic for "God," see Ilu.
Allat, queen of the Dead, 327–329.
Altaï, the great Siberian moun-
tain chain, 146; probable cra-
dle of the Turanian race, 147.
Altaïc, another name for the
Turanian or Yellow Race, 147.
Amarpal, also Sin-Muhallit, king
of Babylon, perhaps Amraphel,
King of Shinar, 226.
Amorite, the, a tribe of Canaan,
133.
Amraphel, see Amarpal.
Ana, or Zi-ana-" Heaven,"
"L
or
Spirit of Heaven," p. 154.
Anatu, goddess, mother of Ish-
tar, smites Êabâni with death
and Izdubar with leprosy, 310.
Anthropomorphism, meaning of
the word, 355; definition and
causes of, 355-357-
Anu, first god of the first Baby-
lonian Triad, same as Ana,
240; one of the "twelve great
gods," 246.
Anunnaki, minor spirits of earth,
154, 250.
Anunit (the Moon), wife of Sha-
mash, 245.
Apsu (the Abyss), 264.
Arali, or Arallu, the Land of the
Dead, 157; its connection with
the Sacred Mountain, 276.
Arallu, see Arali.
Aram, a son of Shem, epony-
mous ancestor of the Arama-
ans in Gen. X., 131.
Arabs, their conquest and pros-
perous rule in Mesopotamia, 5;
Baghdad, their capital, 5; no-
mads in Mesopotamia, 8; their
superstitious horror of the ruins
and sculptures, II; they take
the gigantic head for Nimrod,
22-24; their strange ideas
about the colossal winged bulls
371
372
INDEX.
and lions and their destination,
24-25; their habit of plunder-
ing ancient tombs at Warka,
86; their conquests and high
culture in Asia and Africa, 118.
Arbela, city of Assyria, built in
hilly region, 50.
Architecture, Chaldean, created
by local conditions, 37-39; As-
syrian, borrowed from Chaldea,
50.
Areph-Kasdim, see Arphaxad,
meaning of the word, 200.
Arphaxad, eldest son of Shem,
200.
con-
Arphakshad, see Arphaxad.
Asshur, a son of Shem, epony-
mous ancestor of the Assyrians
in Genesis X., 131.
Asshurbanipal, King of Assyria,
his Library, 100-112;
quers Elam, destroys Shushan,
and restores the statue of the
goddess Nana to Erech, 194-
195.
Asshurnazirpal, King of
As-
syria, size of hall in his palace
at Calah (Nimrud), 63.
Assyria, the same as Upper Mes-
opotamia, 7; rise of, 228.
Astrology, meaning of the word,
106; a corruption of astronomy,
234; the special study of priests,
ib.
Astronomy, the ancient Chal-
deans' proficiency in, 230; fas-
cination of, 231; conducive to
religious speculation, 232; de-
generates into astrology, 234;
the god Nebo, the patron of,
242.
Babbar, see Ud.
B.
Babel, same as Babylon, 237.
Bab-el-Mander, Straits of, 189.
Bab-ilu, Semitic name of Baby-
lon; meaning of the name,
225, 249.
Babylonia, a part of Lower Mes-
opotamia, 7; excessive flat-
ness of, 9; later name for
"Shumir and Accad" and for
“ Chaldea,” 237.
Baghdad, capital of the Arabs'
empire in Mesopotamia, 5; its
decay, 6;
Bassorah, see Busrah.
Bedouins, robber tribes of, 8;
distinctively a nomadic people,
116-118.
Bel, third god of the first Baby-
lonian Triad, 239; meaning of
the name, 240; one of the
twelve great gods," 246; his
battle with Tiamat, 288-290.
Belit, the wife of Bel, the femi-
nine principle of nature, 244-
245; one of the "twelve great
gods," 246.
Bel-Maruduk, see Marduk.
Berosus, Babylonian priest; his
History of Chaldea, 128; his
version of the legend of Oannes,
184-185; his account of the
Chaldean Cosmogony, 260-261,
267; his account of the great
tower and the confusion of
tongues, 292-293; his account
of the Deluge, 299-301.
Birs-Nimrud or Birs-i-Nimrud,
see Borsippa.
Books, not always of paper, 93;
stones and bricks used as books,
97; walls and rocks, ib., 97-99.
Borsippa (Mound of Birs-Nim-
rud), its peculiar shape, 47;
Nebuchadnezzar's inscription
found at, 72; identified with
the Tower of Babel, 293.
Botta begins excavations
Koyunjik, 14; his disappoint-
ment, 15; his great discovery
at Khorsabad, 15-16.
Bricks, how men came to make,
39; sun-dried or raw, and kiln-
dried or baked, 40; ancient
bricks from the ruins used for
modern constructions; trade
with ancient bricks at Hillah,
42.
at
INDEX.
373
British Museum, Rich's collec- | Chthonic Myths, see Myths.
tion presented to, 14.
Busrah, or Bassorah, bulls and
lions shipped to, down the
Tigris, 52.
Byblos, ancient writing material,
94.
C.
Ca-Dimirra (or Ka-Dimirra), sec-
ond name of Babylon, mean-
ing of the name, 216, 249
Cain, his crime, banishment, and
posterity, 129.
Calah, or Kalah, one of the As-
syrian capitals, the Larissa of
Xenophon, 3.
Calendar, Chaldean, 230, 318-321,
325.
Canaan, son of Ham, eponymous
ancestor of many nations, 134.
Canaanites, migrations of, 190.
Cement, various qualities of, 44.
Chaldea, the
same as Lower
Mesopotamia, 7; alluvial for-
mation of, 37-38; its extraordi-
nary abundance in cemeteries,
78; a nursery of nations, 198;
more often called by the an-
cients Babylonia," 237.
Chaldeans, in the sense
of
"wise men of the East," astrol-
oger, magician, soothsayer, a
separate class of the priesthood,
254-255.
Charm against evil spells, 162.
Cherub, Cherubim, see Kirûbu.
China, possibly mentioned in
Isaiah, 136, note.
Chinese speak a monosyllabic lan-
guage, 137; their genius and its
limitations, 138, 139; oldest na-
tional religion of, ISO, 181; their
docenal" and "sexagesimal"
system of counting, 230-231.
Chronology, vagueness of an-
cient, 193-194; extravagant
figures of, 196-197; difficulty
of establishing, 211–212.
Chthon, meaning of the word, 272.
Chthonic Powers, 272, 273.
Cissians, see Kasshi.
Cities, building of, fourth stage
of culture, 123, 124.
Classical Antiquity, meaning of
the term; too exclusive study
of, 12.
""
Coffins, ancient Chaldean, found
at Warka : jar-coffins," 82;
"dish-cover" coffins, 84; "slip-
per-shaped coffin (compara-
tively modern), 84-86.
Conjuring, against demons and
sorcerers, 158-159; admitted
into the later reformed religion,
236.
Conjurors, admitted into
the
the
Babylonian priesthood, 250.
Cossæans, see Kasshi.
Cosmogonic Myths, see Myths.
of
Cosmogony, meaning
word, 259; Chaldean, imparted
by Berosus, 260-261; original
tablets discovered
discovered by Geo.
Smith, 261-263; their contents,
264 and ff.; Berosus again, 267.
•
Cosmos, meaning of the word,
272.
Cuneiform writing, shape and
specimen of, 10; introduced
into Chaldea by the Shumiro-
Accads, 145.
Cush, or Kush, eldest son
of
Ham, 186; probable early mi-
grations of, 188; ancient name
of Ethiopia, 189.
Cushites, colonization of Tura-
nian Chaldea by, 192.
Cylinders:
seal cylinders in
hard stones, 113-114; founda-
tion-cylinders, 114; seal-cylin-
ders worn as talismans, 166;
Babylonian cylinder, supposed
to represent the Temptation
and Fall, 266.
D.
Damkina, goddess, wife of Êa,
mother of Meridug, 160.
Decoration of palaces, 58-62;
of walls at Warka, 87–88.
374
INDEX.
Delitzsch, Friedrich, eminent As-
syriologist, favors the Semitic
theory, 186.
Deluge, Berosus' account of, 299
-301; cuneiform account, in
the 11th tablet of the Izdubar
Epic, 314-317.
Demon of the South-West Wind,
168.
Diseases conceived as demons,
163.
Divination, a branch of Chal-
dean "science," in what it con-
sists, 251-252; collection of
texts on, in one hundred tablets,
252-253; specimens of, 253-
254.
Draining of palace mounds, 70;
of sepulchral mounds at Warka,
86-87.
Dumuzi, the husband of the god-
dess Ishtar, 303; the hero of a
solar Myth, 323–326.
Dur-Sharrukin, (see Khorsabad),
built in hilly region, 50.
E.
Êa, sometimes Zi-ki-a, the Spirit
of the Earth and Waters,
154; protector against evil spir-
its and men, 160; his chief
sanctuary at Eridhu, 215; sec-
ond god of the first Babylonian
Triad, 239; his attributions,
240; one of the "twelve great
gods," 246.
Êabâni, the seer, 304; invited by
van-
Elamite conquest of Chaldea,
219-221, 224–225.
Elohim, one of the Hebrew
names for God, a plural of El,
354. See Ilu.
Emanations, theory of divine,
238-239; meaning of the word,
239.
Enoch, son of Cain, 129.
Enoch, the first city, built by
Cain, 129.
Epic Poems, or Epics, 298-299.
Epic-Chaldæan, oldest known in
the world, 299; its division into.
tablets, 302.
Eponym, meaning of the word,
133.
Eponymous genealogies in Gene-
sis X., 132-134.
Epos, national, meaning of the
word, 299.
Erech (now Mound of Warka),
oldest name Urukh, immense
burying-grounds around, 80-82;
plundered by Khudur-Nankhun-
di, king of Elam, 195; library
of, 209.
Eri-Aku (Arioch of Ellassar),
Elamite king of Larsam, 226.
Eridhu (modern Abu-Shahreiin),
the most ancient city of Shumir,
215; specially sacred to Êa,
215, 246, 287.
Ethiopians, see Cush.
Excavations, how
30-34.
138.
F.
carried on,
Izdubar, 304-305; becomes Fergusson, Jas., English explorer
Izdubar's friend, 307;
and writer on art subjects, 56.
quishes with him the Elamite ty- Finns, a nation of Turanian stock,
rant Khumbaba, 308; smitten
by Ishtar and Anatu, 310;
restored to life by the gods, 314.
Ê-Babbara, "House of the Sun,"
215, 248.
Eber, see Heber.
El, see Ilu.
Elam, kingdom of, conquered
by Asshurbanipal, 194; mean-
ing of the name, 220.
Flood, or Deluge, possibly not
universal, 128-129.
G.
Gan-Dunyash, or Kar-Dunyash,
most ancient name of Baby-
lonia proper, 225, 286.
Genesis, first book of the Penta-
teuch, 127-129; Chapter X. of,
INDEX.
375
130-142; meaning of the word,
353.
Gibil, Fire, 173; hymn to, 16;
his friendliness, 174; invoked
to prosper the fabrication of
bronze, 16.
Gisdhubar, see Izdubar.
Gudêa, patesi of Sirburla, 214.
H.
Ham, second son of Noah, 130;
meaning of the name, 186.
Hammurabi, king of Babylon and
all Chaldea, 226; his long and
glorious reign, ib.; his public
works and the " Royal Canal,"
227.
Harimtu ("Persuasion "), one of
the handmaidens of Ishtar,
305.
Hasisadra, same
as Xisuthros,
303; gives Izdubar an account
of the great Flood, 314-317.
Heber, a descendant of Shem,
eponymous ancestor of the He-
brews in Genesis X., 131, 222.
Heroes, 296–298.
Heroic Ages, 299.
Heroic Myths, see Myths.
Hillah, built of bricks from the
palace of Nebuchadnezzar, cai-
ries on trade with ancient bricks,
42.
Himalaya Mountains, 188.
Hindu-Cush (or Kush) Moun-
tains, 188.
Hit, ancient Is, on the Euphrates,
springs of bitumen at, 44.
Hivite, the, a tribe of Canaan,
133.
Hungarians, a nation of Turanian
stock, 138.
I.
Idpa, the Demon of Fever, 156.
Igigi, three hundred, spirits of
heaven, 250.
Ilu, or El, Semitic name for
god," 232.
Im, or Mermer, "Wind," 154.
India, 188.
Indus, the great river of India,
188.
Intercalary months, introduced
by the Chaldeans to correct the
reckoning of their year, 230.
Is, see Hit.
Ishtar, the goddess of the plan-
et Venus, 242; the Warrior-
Queen and Queen of Love, 245;
one of the "twelve great gods,'
246; offers her love to Izdubar,
308; is rejected and sends a
monstrous bull against him,
309; causes Êabâni's death and
Izdubar's illness, 310; descent
of, into the land of shades, 326–
330.
Izdubar, the hero of the great
Chaldean Epic, 303; his dream
at Erech, 304; invites Eabâni,
304-305; vanquishes with his
help Khumbaba, the Elamite
tyrant of Erech, 308; offends
Ishtar, 308; vanquishes the
divine Bull, with Êabâni's
help, 309; is smitten with lep-
rosy, 310; travels to "the mouth
of the great rivers to consult
his immortal ancestor Hâsisa-
dra, 310-313; is purified and
healed, 313; returns to Erech;
his lament over Êabâni's death,
313-314; solar character of the
Epic, 318-322.
J.
Jabal and Jubal, sons of Lamech,
descendants of Cain, 129.
Japheth, third son of Noah, 130.
Javan, a son of Japhet, epony
<<
mous ancestor of the Ionian
Greeks, 134.
Jonah's Mound," see Nebbi-
Yunus.
Jubal, see Jabal and Jubal.
K.
Ka-Dingirra, see Ca- Dimirra.
Kar-Dunyash, see Gan-Dunyash.
376
INDEX.
Kasbu, the Chaldean double | Lebanon Mountains, 190.
hour, 230.
Kasr, Mound of, ruins of the pal-
ace of Nebuchadnezzar.
Kasshi (Cossæans or Cissians),
conquer Chaldea, 228.
Kerbela and Nedjif, goal of
pilgrim-caravans from Persia,
78.
Kerubim, see Kirûbu.
Khorsabad, Mound of, Botta's
excavations and brilliant dis-
covery at, 15-16.
Khudur-Lagamar
(Chedorlao-
mer), king of Elam and Chal-
dea, his conquests, 221; plun-
ders Sodom and Gomorrah
with his allies, 222; is overtaken
by Abraham and routed, 223;
his probable date, 224.
Khudur-Nankhundi, king
of
Elam, invades Chaldea and
carries the statue of the god-
dess Nana away from Erech,
195.
Khumbaba, the Elamite tyrant of
Erech vanquished by Izdubar
and Êabâni, 308.
Kirûbu, name of the Winged
Bulls, 164.
Koyunjik, Mound of Xenophon's
Mespila, 14; Botta's unsuccess-
ful exploration of, 15; valuable
find of small articles in a cham-
ber at, in the palace of Sen-
nacherib, 34.
Kurds, nomadic tribes of, 8.
L.
Lamech, fifth descendant of Cain,
129.
Larissa, ruins of ancient Calah,
seen by Xenophon, 3.
Larsam (now Senkereh), city of
Shumir, 215.
Layard meets Botta at Mossul in
1842, 17; undertakes the explo-
ration of Nimrud, 17-18; his
work and life in the East, 19-
32; discovers the Royal Library
at Nineveh (Koyunjik), 100.
|
Lenormant, François, eminent
French Orientalist; his work
on the religion of the Shumiro-
Accads, 152-3; favors the Cush-
ite theory, 186.
Library of Asshurbanipal in
his palace at Nineveh (Koyun-
jik); discovered by Layard, 100;
re-opened by George Smith,
103; contents and importance
of, for modern scholarship, 106-
109; of Erech, 209.
Loftus, English explorer; his
visit to Warka in 1854-5, So-S2;
procures slipper-shaped coffins
for the British Museum, 36.
Louvre, Assyrian Collection at
the, 17;
"Sarzec collection"
added, 89.
Louvre, Armenian contrivance
for lighting houses, 68.
M.
Madai, a son of Japhet, epony-
mous ancestor of the Medes,
135.
Magician, derivation of the
word, 255:
Marad, ancient city of Chaldea,
303.
Marduk, or Maruduk (Hebrew
Merodach), god of the planet
Jupiter, 241; one of the "twelve
great gods," 246; special patron
of Babylon, 249.
Maskim, the seven, evil spirits,
154; incantation against the,
155; the same, poetical version,
182.
Maspero, G., eminent French Ori-
entalist, 197.
Medes, Xenophon's erroneous
account of, 3-4; mentioned un-
der the name of Madai in Gene-
sis X., 135.
Media, divided from Assyria by
the Zagros chain, 50.
Ménant, Joachim, French As-
syriologist; his little book on
INDEX.
377
.
the Royal Library at Nineveh,
105.
Meridug, son of Êa, the Media-
tor, 160; his dialogues with Êa,
161-162.
Mermer, see Im.
Merodach, see Marduk.
Mesopotamia, meaning of the
name, 5; peculiar formation of,
6; division of, into Upper and
Lower, 7.
Mespila, ruins of Nineveh seen
by Xenophon, 3; now Mound
of Koyunjik, 14.
Migrations of tribes, nations,
races; probable first causes of
prehistoric migrations, 119;
caused by invasions and con-
quests, 125; of the Turanian
races, 146-147; of the Cushites,
188; of the Canaanites, 199.
Mizraim ("the Egyptians "), a
son of Ham, eponymous ances-
tor of the Egyptians, 133; op-
posed to Cush, 189.
Monosyllabic languages-Chi-
nese, 136–137.
Monotheism, meaning of the
word, 238; as conceived by
the Hebrews, 344-345-
Mosul, the residence of a Turk-
ish Pasha; origin of the name,
6; the wicked Pasha of, 20-22.
Mound-Builders, their tombs,
335-338.
Mounds, their appearance, 9-
Io; their contents, II; forma-
tion of, 72; their usefulness in
protecting the ruins and works
of art, 74; sepulchral mounds
at Warka, 79--87.
Mugheir, see Ur.
Mul-ge, "Lord of the Abyss," 154.
Muminu-Tiamat (the Billowy
Sea"), 264; her hostility to the
gods, 288; her fight with Bel,
288-290.
Mythology, definition of, 331;
distinction from Religion, 331-
334.
Myths, meaning of the word,
294; Cosmogonic, 294; Heroic,
297-298; Solar, 322, 339–340 ;
Chthonic, 330, 340–341.
N.
Nabonidus, last king of Babylon,
discovers Naram-sin's cylinder,
213; discovers Hammurabi's
cylinder at Larsam, 218-219.
Namtar, the Demon of Pesti-
lence, 156, I 57;
incantation
against, 167; Minister of Allat,
Queen of the Dead, 328, 329.
Nana, Chaldean goddess, her
statue restored by Asshurbani-
pal, 195, 343-344; wife of Anu,
245.
Nannar, see Uru-Ki.
Naram-Sin, son of Sargon I.
of Agadê; his cylinder dis-
covered by Nabonidus, 213.
Nations, gradual formation of,
125-126.
Nebbi-Yunus, Mound of, its
>>
sacredness, II; its size, 49.
Nebo, or Nabu, the god of
the planet Mercury, 242; one
of the "twelve great gods,'
246.
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Baby-
lon; his palace, now Mound of
Kasr, 42; his inscription of
Borsippa, 72.
Nedjif, see Kerbela.
Nergal, the god of the planet
Mars, and of War, 242; one of
the "twelve great gods," 246.
Niffer, see Nippur.
Nimrod, dams on the Euphrates
attributed to, by the Arabs, 5;
his name preserved, and many
ruins called by it, 11; gigantic
head declared by the Arabs to
be the head of, 22-24.
Nimrud, Mound of, Layard un-
dertakes the exploration of, 17.
Nin-dar, the nightly sun, 175.
Nineveh, greatness and utter de-
struction of, I; ruins of, seen
by Xenophon, called by him
378
INDEX.
Mespila, 3; site of, opposite
Mossul, II.
Nin-ge, see Nin-kî-gal.
Ninîb, or Ninêb, the god of the
planet Saturn, 241; one of the
twelve great gods," 246.
Nin-ki-gal, or Nin-ge, "the Lady
of the Abyss," 157.
Nippur (now Niffer), city of
Accad, 216.
Nizir, Mount, the mountain on
which Hâsisadra's ship stood
still, 301; land and Mount, 316.
Noah and his three sons, 130.
Nod, land of ("Land of Exile,"
or "of Wanderings "), 129.
Nomads, meaning of the word,
and causes of nomadic life in
modern times, 118.
O.
Oannes, legend of, told by Be-
rosus, 185.
Oasis, meaning of the word, 118.
P.
Palaces, their imposing aspect,
54; palace of Sennacherib re-
stored by Fergusson, 56; orna-
mentation of palaces, 58;
winged Bulls and Lions at gate-
ways of, 58; sculptured slabs
along the walls of, 58-60;
painted tiles used for the friezes
of, 60-62; proportions of halls,
63; roofing of, 62-66; lighting
of, 66–68.
Papyrus, ancient writing mate-
rial, 94.
Paradise, Chaldean legend of,
see Sacred Tree and Ziggurat.
Meaning of the word, 277.
Parallel between the Book of
Genesis and the Chaldean le-
gends, 350-360.
Pastoral life, second stage of
culture, 120; necessarily no-
madic, 121.
Patesis, meaning of the word,
203; first form of royalty in
Chaldean cities, ib., 235.
Patriarchal authority, first form
of government, 123; the tribe,
or enlarged family, first form
of the State, 123.
Penitential Psalms, Chaldean,
177-179.
Persian Gulf, flatness and marshi-
ness of the region around, 7;
reached further inland than
now, 201.
Persians, rule in Asia, 2; the
war between two royal brothers,
2; Persian monarchy con-
quered by Alexander, 4; not
named in Genesis X., 134.
Platforms, artificial, 46–49.
Polytheism, meaning of the word,
237; tendency to, of the He-
brews, combated by their lead-
ers, 345-350.
Priesthood, Chaldean, causes of
its power and influence, 233-
234.
R.
Races, Nations, and Tribes rep-
resented in antiquity under
the name of a man, an ancestor,
130-134; black race and yel-
low race omitted from the list
in Genesis X., 134-142; prob-
able reasons for the omission,
135, 140.
Ramân, third god of the second
Babylonian Triad, his attribu-
tions, 240-241; one of the
"twelve great gods," 246.
Rassam, Hormuzd, explorer, 247,
248.
Rawlinson, Sir Henry, his work
at the British Museum, 152.
Religion of the Shumiro-Accads
the most primitive in the world,
148; characteristics of Tura-
nian religions, 180, 181; defini-
tion of, as distinguished from
Mythology, 331-334.
Religiosity, distinctively human
1
INDEX.
379
characteristic, 148; its awaken-
ing and development, 149-152.
Rich, the first explorer, 13; his
disappointment at Mossul, 14.
S.
the
Sabattuv, the Babylonian and
Assyrian Sabbath," 256.
Sabeism, the worship of
heavenly bodies, a Semitic form
of religion, 232; fostered by a
pastoral and nomadic life, ib.
Sabitu, one of the maidens in the
magic grove, 311.
Sacred Tree, sacredness of the
Symbol, 268; its conventional
appearance on sculptures and
cylinders, 268-270; its signifi-
cation, 272-274; its connection
with the legend of Paradise,
274-276.
Sargon of Agadê, see Sharrukin.
Sarzec, E. de, French explorer;
his great find at Tell-Loh, 88-
90: statues found by him, 214.
Scorpion-men, the Warders
the Sun, 31I.
of
Schrader, Eberhard, eminent As-
syriologist, favors the Semitic
theory, 186.
Semites (more correctly Shemites),
one of the three great races given
in Genesis X.; named from its
eponymous ancestor, Shem, 131.
Semitic language, 199; culture,
the beginning of historical times.
in Chaldea, 202, 203.
Sennacherib, king of Assyria,
his palace at Koyunjik, 34;
Fergusson's restoration of his
palace, 56; his "Will" in the
library of Nineveh, 109.
Senkereh, see Larsam.
Sepharvaim, see Sippar.
Seth (more correctly Sheth), third
son of Adam.
Shamash, the Sun-god, second
god of the Second Babylonian
Triad, 240; one of the "twelve |
great gods," 246; his temple
at Sippar discovered by H.
Rassam, 247, 248.
Shamhatu ("Grace"), one of the
handmaidens of Ishtar, 305.
Sharrukin I. of Agadê (Sargon I.),
205; legend about his birth,
206; his glorious reign, 206;
Sharrukin II. of Agadê (Sargon
II.), 205; his religious reform
and literary labors, 207, 208;
probable founder of the library
at Erech, 209; date of, lately
discovered, 213.
Shem, eldest son of Noah, 130;
meaning of the name, 198.
Shinar, or Shinear, geographical
position of, 127.
Shumir, Southern or Lower Chal-
dea, 145.
Shumir and Accad, oldest name
for Chaldea, 143, 144.
Shumiro-Accadian, oldest lan-
guage of Chaldea, 108; Agglu-
tinative, 145.
Shumiro-Accads, oldest popula-
tion of Chaldea, of Turanian
race, 144; their language agglu-
tinative, 145; introduce into
Chaldea cuneiform writing,
metallurgy and irrigation, ib.;
their probable migration, 146;
their theory of the world, 153.
Shushan (Susa), capital of Elam, de-
stroyed by Asshurbanipal, 194.
Siddim, battle in the veil of, 221,
222.
Sidon, a Phoenician city, meaning
of the name, 133; the "first-
born" son of Canaan, epony-
mous ancestor of the city in
Genesis X., ib.
Siduri, one of the maidens in the
magic grove, 311.
Sin, the Moon-god, first god of
the Second Babylonian Triad,
240; one of the "twelve great
gods," 246; attacked by the
seven rebellious spirits, 291.
Sin-Muballit, see Amarpal.
380
INDEX.
Sippar, sister city of Agadê, 205; |
Temple of Shamash at, exca-
vated by H. Rassam, 247, 248.
Sir-burla (also Sir-gulla, or Sir-
tella, or Zirbab), ancient city
of Chaldea, now Mound of
Tell-Loh; discoveries at, by
Sarzec, 88-90.
Sir-gulla, see Sir-burla.
Smith, George, English ex-
plorer; his work at the British
Museum, 102; his expeditions
to Nineveh, 103; his success,
and his death, 104; his discov-
ery of the Deluge Tablets, 301.
Sorcerers believed in, 157.
Spirits, belief in good and evil,
the first beginning of religion,
150; elementary, in the primi-
tive Shumiro-Accadian religion,
153-155; evil, 155-157; allowed
an inferior place in the later re-
formed religion, 236, 250; re-
bellion of the seven evil, their
attack against the Moon-god,
290, 291.
Statues found at Tell-Loh, 88,
214.
Style, ancient writing instrument,
94, 109.
Synchronism, meaning of the
word, 212.
T.
Tablets, in baked or unbaked
clay, used as books, 109; their
shapes and sizes, 109; mode
of writing on, 109-110; bak-
ing of, 110; great numbers of,
deposited in the British Mu-
seum, 110-112; Chaldean tab-
lets in clay cases, 112; tablets
found under the foundation
stone at Khorsabad, 113, 114;
"Shamash tablet," 248.
Talismans, worn on the person
or placed in buildings, 164.
Tammuz, see Dumuzi.
Taurus Mountains, 190.
Tell-Loh (also Tello), see Sir-
burla.
Temples of Ea and Meridug at
Eridhu, 246; of the Moon-god
at Ur, ib.; of Anu and Nana
at Erech, ib.; of Shamash and
Anunit at Sippar and Agadê,
247; of Bel Maruduk at Baby-
lon and Borsippa, 249.
Theocracy, meaning of the word,
235.
Tiamat, see Mummu-Tiamat.
Tin-tir-ki, oldest name of Baby-
lon, meaning of the name, 216.
Triads in Babylonian religion,
and meaning of the word, 239-
240.
Tubalcain, son
son of Lamech, de-
scendant of Cain, the inventor
of metallurgy, 129.
Turanians, collective name for
the whole Yellow Race, 136;
origin of the name, ib.; the lim-
itations of their genius, 136–
139; their imperfect forms of
speech, monosyllabic and agglu-
tinative, 136, 137; "the oldest
of men," 137; everywhere pre-
cede the white races, 138;
omitted in Genesis X., 135,
139; possibly represent the
discarded Cainites or posterity
of Cain, 140-142; their tradi-
tion of a Paradise in the Altaï,
147; characteristics of Tura-
nian religions, 180-181.
Turks, their misrule in Mesopo-
tamia, 5-6; greed and oppres-
siveness of their officials, 7-8;
one of the principal modern
representatives of the Turanian
race, 136.
U.
Ubaratutu,father of Hâsisadra,322
Ud, or Babbar, the midday Sun,
171; hymns to, 171, 172; tem-
ple of, at Sippar, 247-248.
Uddusunamir, phantom created
by Êa, and sent to Allat, to
rescue Ishtar, 328, 329.
Ur (Mound of Mugheir), con-
struction of its platform, 46;
earliest known capital of Shu-
INDEX.
381
mir, maritime and commercial,!
200; Terah and Abraham go
forth from, 201.
Ur-êa, king of Ur, 215; his build-
ings, 216-218; his signet cylin-
der, 218.
Urubêl, the ferryman On the
Waters of Death, 311; purifies
Izdubar and returns with him
to Erech, 313.
Urukh, see Erech.
Uru-ki, or Nannar, the Shumiro-
Accadian Moon-god, 240.
V.
Y.
Yahveh, the
correct form of
"Jehovah,' one of the He-
brew names for God, 354.
Z.
Zab, river, tributary of the Tigris,
17.
Zagros, mountain range of, di-
vides Assyria from Media, 50;
stone quarried in, and trans-
ported down the Zab, 50, 51.
Zaidu, the huntsman, sent
Êabâni, 305.
Zi-ana, see Ana.
to
Vaults, of drains, 70; sepulchral, Ziggurats, their peculiar shape
at Warka, 83, 85.
W.
Warka, see Erech
X.
Xenophon leads the Retreat of
the Ten Thousand, 2; passes by
the ruins of Calah and Nineveh,
which he calls Larissa and
Mespila, 3.
Xisuthros, the king of, Berosus'
Deluge-narrative, 300.
See
Hâsisadra.
and uses, 48; used as observa-
tories attached to temples, 234;
meaning of the word, 278; their
connection with the legend of
Paradise, 278-280; their singu-
lar orientation and its causes,
284-286; Ziggurat of Birs-Nim-
rud (Borsippa), 280-283; iden-
tified with the Tower of Babel,
293.
Zi-ki-a, see Êa.
Zirlab, see Sir-burla.
Zodiac, twelve signs of, familiar
to the Chaldeans, 230; signs of,
established by Anu, 265; rep-
resented in the twelve books
of the Izdubar Epic, 318-321.

A

The Story of the Mations.
MESSRS. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS take pleasure in
announcing that they have in course of publication, in
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The following volumes are now ready (April, 1890):
THE STORY OF GREECE. Prof. Jas. A. HARRISON.
C
เ
<<
"
"6
CC
" (
ROME. ARTHUR GILMAN.
THE JEWS. Prof. JAMES K. HOSMER.
CHALDEA. Z. A. RAGOZIN.
GERMANY. S. BARINg-Gould.
NORWAY. HJALMAR H. BOYESEN.
SPAIN. Rev. E. E. and SUSAN HALE,
HUNGARY. Prof. A. VÁMBÉRY.
CARTHAGE. Prof. ALFRED J. CHURCH.
THE SARACENS. ARTHUR GILMAN.
THE MOORS IN SPAIN. STANLEY LANE-POOLE.
THE NORMANS. SARAH ORNE JEWETT.
PERSIA. S. G. W. BENJAMIN.
ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. GEO. RAWLINSON.
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ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE.
ASSYRIA. Z. A. RAGOZIN.
Prof. J. P. MAHAFFY.
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THE GOTHS. HENRY BRADLEY.
IRELAND. Hon. EMILY LAWLESS.
TURKEY. STANLEY LANE-POOLE.
MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. Z. A. RAGOZIN.
MEDIÆVAL FRAŃCE. Prof. GUSTAV MASSON.
HOLLAND. Prof. J. THOROLD ROGERS.
MEXICO. SUSAN HALE.
PHOENICIA. Prof. GEO. RAWLINSON.
THE HANSA TOWNS. HELEN ZIMMERN.
EARLY BRITAIN. Prof. ALFRED J. CHURCH.
THE BARBARY CORSAIRS. STANLEY LANE-POOLE,
RUSSIA. W. R. MORFILL.
THE JEWS UNDER ROME. W. D. MORRISON.
SCOTLAND. JAMES MACKINTOSH.
Now in Press for immediate issue:
THE STORY OF SWITZERLAND. R. STEAD and Mrs. ARNOLD HUG.
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VEDIC INDIA. Z. A. RAGOZIN.
THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. HELEN A. SMITH.
MODERN FRANCE. EMILY CRAWFORD.
CANADA, A. R. MACFARLANE.
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK
T. FISHER UNWIN
LONDON
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