uld shine to the western end of them on the day of
the spring equinox when the inundation of the rivers began on which
the prosperity of the country so much depended. The temple was thus
an astronomical instrument of a high degree of accuracy, and the
priests who directed its building and served in it when built were
men of science and learning. A religion which is connected with the
heavenly bodies, though it does not fully supply the needs of the
lower orders and has too little energy to cope with superstition,
tends to produce a priesthood who form centres of enlightenment and
civilisation throughout the country. This was in the highest degree
the case in Babylonia. To these old astronomers the world owes the
signs of the zodiac, which were fixed not later than in the fifth
millennium B.C., and in which we see how early man beheld in the
nightly heavens the creatures which on earth he regarded as divine,
so that he worshipped them in both regions. The institution of the
Sabbath is also Babylonian; whether it was connected with the changes
of the moon, or with a week of days named after the seven planets, is
not certain. Seven is a sacred number in Babylonia, as we find in
many a connection.

Mythology.--We come lastly, in our attempt to enumerate those parts
of Babylonian religion which have entered deeply into human thought,
to the myths. The heroic legends and romances are the most
interesting and the best-known portions of the newly-recovered
literature. We have already noticed some fragments of mythology, such
as the story of the fish-god who comes up daily from the sea, the
moon being the father of the sun, and the family history of Ea and
Davkina, with the sun their child. The two latter are evidently
inconsistent with each other. But the story about the son of Ea and
Davkina has an important further development. His name is Duzu or
Dumuzu, and he is the Tammuz of whom we hear in the Bible (Ezekiel
viii. 14), who is adored by women raising lamentations for him. He is
said to be the sun-god of spring, to whom the heat of summer is
fatal, and who dies in June. It is when moisture is failing from the
ground that he is bemoaned. His home is in Eden, for Eden belongs to
Babylonian legend, which places it near Eridu. There grows the great
world-tree which the gods love; it rises from the centre of the
world, and is nourished from springs which Ea himself replenishes. It
is a cedar (Yggdrasil, the ash-tree, we shall