cient land the
world was formerly dependent on the scanty notices of Greek and Latin
writers, but within the last half-century astonishing new sources of
information have been opened up. Explorations carried on by scholars
of many lands have made us acquainted with Babylonian and Assyrian
temples and palaces, and with many a great royal inscription. Great
libraries, made of brick tablets, have been discovered buried under
the ruins of the cities, and the gradual decipherment and arrangement
of this old literature is proceeding as fast as able and devoted
workers can overtake it. Those who know the subject best declare that
no complete history of Babylonian religion can yet be written. The
texts now in our possession embody many documents of much more remote
age, yet the information is as yet too fragmentary and often of too
doubtful interpretation, while the proportion it bears to the whole
of Babylonian life is too little known to supply a solid foundation
for history. With this caution we proceed to state the results which
are considered likely to prove well founded. As we saw, several
features remain in the religion in later times which appear to throw
light back upon its early condition, and it may be best to begin with
these before describing the noble structure presented on the whole by
this religion.

1. Worship of Spirits.--The Babylonians, like the Chinese, believed
the world to be thickly peopled with spirits of all kinds; and saw in
each movement in nature the action of a "zi" or spirit. These spirits
could be to some extent controlled; though their character was not
known, yet certain charms and incantations were believed to have
power over them, and communication with the unseen world took,
therefore, the form of magic. The earliest portions of the sacred
literature consist of spells or charms believed to possess this
virtue, and these were never displaced from the collection; on the
contrary, new spells were written even after higher spiritual beings
were known and more ethical forms of addressing them had been
devised. Especially were all pains and diseases ascribed to the
agency of spirits or of sorcerers and witches, their human allies,
and the sick person naturally sent for an exorcist to expel the
spirit which was tormenting him. Some spirits were more powerful than
others, and the stronger spirit was invoked to rebuke and drive out
the weaker. The spirit of heaven and the spirit of earth were adjure