FURTHER VIEW OF THE TEMPLE OF URU]

In Its Present State, According To Loftus. Drawn by
Bouchier, from Loftus.

Here stood the statue of Nannar, one of those stiff and conventionalized
figures in the traditional pose handed down from generation to
generation, and which lingered even in the Chaldaean statues of Greek
times. The spirit of the god dwelt within it in the same way as the
double resided in the Egyptian idols, and from thence he watched over
the restless movements of the people below, the noise of whose turmoil
scarcely reached him at that elevation. The gods of the Euphrates, like
those of the Nile, constituted a countless multitude of visible and
invisible beings, distributed into tribes and empires throughout all the
regions of the universe. A particular function or occupation formed,
so to speak, the principality of each one, in which he worked with an
indefatigable zeal, under the orders of his respective prince or king;
but, whereas in Egypt they were on the whole friendly to man, or at the
best indifferent in regard to him, in Chaldaea they for the most part
pursued him with an implacable hatred, and only seemed to exist in order
to destroy him. These monsters of alarming aspect, armed with knives and
lances, whom the theologians of Heliopolis and Thebes confined within
the caverns of Hades in the depths of eternal darkness, were believed
by the Chaldaeans to be let loose in broad daylight over the earth,--such
were the "gallu" and the "mas-kim," the "alu" and the "utukku," besides
a score of other demoniacal tribes bearing curious and mysterious names.

[Illustration: 137.jpg Lion-headed genius.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a small terra-cotta figure of
the Assyrian period, and now in the Louvre. It was one of
the figures buried under the threshold of one of the gates
of the town at Khorsabad, to keep off baleful influences.

Some floated in the air and presided over the unhealthy winds. The
South-West Wind, the most cruel of them all, stalked over the solitudes
of Arabia, whence he suddenly issued during the most oppressive months
of the year: he collected round him as he passed the malarial vapours
given off by the marshes under the heat of the sun, and he spread them
over the country, striking down in his violence not only man and beast,
but destroying harvests, pasturage, and even trees.

[Illustration: 138.jpg THE SOUTH-WEST WIND]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin