oper place. The main outlines of the picture are
drawn with sufficient exactitude to require no readjustment, the groups
are for the most part in their fitting positions, the blank spaces or
positions not properly occupied are gradually restricted, and filled in
from day to day; the expected moment is in sight when, the arrangement
of the whole being accomplished, it will be necessary only to fill in
the details. In the case of Chaldaea the framework itself is wanting,
and expedients must be resorted to in order to classify the elements
entering into its composition. Naramsin is in his proper place, or
nearly so; but as for Gudea, what interval separates him from Naramsin,
and at what distance from Gudea are we to place the kings of Uru? The
beginnings of Chaldaea have merely a provisional history: the facts in
it are certain, but the connection of the facts with one another is too
often a matter of speculation. The arrangement which is put forward at
present can be regarded only as probable, but it would be difficult
to propose a better until the excavations have furnished us with fresh
material; it must be accepted merely as an attempt, without pledging to
it our confidence on the one hand, or regarding it with scepticism on
the other.

CHAPTER II--THE TEMPLES AND THE GODS OF CHALDAEA

_THE CONSTRUCTION AND REVENUES OF THE TEMPLES--THE POPULAR GODS AND THE
THEOLOGICAL TRIADS----THE DEAD AND HADES_.

_Chaldaean cities: the resemblance of their ruins to natural mounds
caused by their exclusive use of brick as a building material--Their
city walls: the temples and local gods; reconstruction of their history
by means of the stamped bricks of which they were built--The two types
of ziggurat: the arrangement of the temple of Nannar at Uru.

The tribes of the Chaldaean gods--Genii hostile to men, their monstrous
shapes; the south-west wind; friendly genii--The Seven, and their
attacks on the moon-god; Gibil, the fire-god, overcomes them and their
snares--The Sumerian gods; Ningirsu: the difficulty of defining them and
of understanding the nature of them; they become merged in the Semitic
deities.

Characteristics and dispositions of the Chaldaean gods--the goddesses,
like women of the harem, are practically nonentities; Mylitta and
her meretricious rites--The divine aristocracy and its principal
representatives: their relations to the earth, oracles, speaking
statues, household gods--The gods of each city do not e