as rain, wind, and storms, with their
accompaniment of thunder and lightning, as against the countless sprites
believed to be lurking everywhere. The latter, however, would not for
this reason be ignored altogether. Since everything was endowed with
life, there was not only a spirit of the tree which produced the fruit,
but there were spirits in every field. To them the ground belonged, and
upon their mercy depended the success or failure of the produce. To
secure the favor of the rain and the sun was not sufficient to the
agriculturist; he was obliged to obtain the protection of the guardian
spirits of the soil, in order to be sure of reaping the fruit of his
labors. Again, when through association, the group of arable plots grew
into a hamlet, and then through continued growth into a town, the
latter, regarded as a unit by virtue of its political organization under
a chief ruler, would necessarily be supposed to have some special power
presiding over its destinies, protecting it from danger, and ready to
defend the rights and privileges of those who stood immediately under
its jurisdiction. Each Babylonian city, large or small, would in this
way obtain a deity devoted to its welfare, and as the city grew in
extent, absorbing perhaps others lying about, and advancing in this way
to the dignity of a district, the city's god would correspondingly
increase his jurisdiction. As it encroached upon the domain of other
local deities, it would by conquest annihilate the latter, or reduce
them to a subservient position. The new regime would be expressed by
making the conquered deity, the servant of the victorious, or the two
might be viewed in the relation of father to son; and again, in the
event of a peaceful amalgamation of two cities or districts, the
protecting deities might join hands in a compact, mirroring the
partnership represented by the conjugal tie. In this way, there arose in
Babylon a selection, as it were, out of an infinite variety of
personified forces, manifest or concealed, that at one time may have
been objects of worship. The uniformity of the spirit world, which is
the characteristic trait of primitive Animism, gave way to a
differentiation regulated by the political development and the social
growth of Babylonia. The more important natural forces became gods, and
the inferior ones were, as a general thing, relegated to the secondary
position of mere sprites, like the _jinns_, in Arabic beliefs. Only in
th