t least the patron of
the Chaldaean alphabet. Another is the serpent which occupies so
conspicuous a place among the symbols of the gods on the black stones
recording benefactions, and which sometimes appears upon the cylinders.
[PLATE XIX., Fig. 3.] This symbol, here as elsewhere, is emblematic of
superhuman knowledge--a record of the primeval belief that the serpent
was more subtle than any beast of the field. The stellar name of Hoa was
Kimmut; and it is suspected that in this aspect he was identified with
the constellation Draco, which is perhaps the Kimah of Scripture.
Besides his chief character of "god of knowledge," Hoa is also "god of
life," a capacity in which the serpent would again fitly symbolize him.
He was likewise "god of glory," and "god of giving," being, as Berosus
said, the great giver of good gifts to man.

The monuments do not contain much evidence of the early worship of Hoa.
His name appears on a very ancient stone tablet brought from Mugheir
(Ur); but otherwise his claim to be accounted one of the primeval gods
must rest on the testimony of Berosus and Helladius, who represent him as
known to the first settlers. He seems to have been the tutelary god
of Is or Hit, which Isidore of Charax calls Aeipolis, or "Hea's city;"
but there is no evidence that this was a very ancient place. The
Assyrian kings built him temples at Asshur and Calah.

Hoa had a wife Dav-Kina, of whom a few words will be said presently.
Their most celebrated son was Merodach or Bel-Merodach, the Belus of
Babylonian times. As Kimmut, Hoa was also the father of Nebo, whose
functions bear a general resemblance to his own.

DAV-KINA.

Dav-Kina, the wife of Hoa, is clearly the Dauke or Davke of Damascius who
was the wife of Ails and mother of Belus (Bel-Merodach). Her name is
thought to signify "the chief lady." She has no distinctive titles or
important position in the Pantheon, but, like Anata, takes her husband's
epithets with a mere distinction of gender.

SIN, or HURKI.

The first god of the second Triad is Sin, or Hurki, the moon-deity. It
is in condescension to Greek notions that Berosus inverts the true
Chaldaean order, and places the sun before the moon in his enumeration of
the heavenly bodies. Chaldaean mythology gives a very decided preference
to the lesser luminary, perhaps because the nights are more pleasant than
the days in hot countries. With respect to the names of the god, we may
observe tha