ion of
the priests.[1127] The Old Testament supplies us with an admirable
illustration of the method of obtaining oracles through the dead. Saul,
when he desires to know what the outcome of a battle is to be, seeks out
a sorceress, and through her calls up the dead Samuel[1128] and puts the
question to him. Similarly, in the Gilgamesh epic, the hero, with the
aid of Nergal, obtains a sight of Eabani[1129] and plies him with
questions. The belief, therefore, in this power of the dead was common
to Babylonians and Hebrews, and, no doubt, was shared by other branches
of the Semites. It is natural, therefore, to find the Babylonian term
Shualu paralleled by the Hebrew Sheol, which is the common designation
in the Old Testament for the dwelling-place of the dead.[1130] How
widespread the custom was among Babylonians of inquiring 'through the
living of the dead'[1131] it is difficult, in default of satisfactory
evidence, to say. The growing power of the priests as mediators between
men and gods must have acted as a check to such practices. The priests,
as the inquirers,[1132] naturally proceeded direct to the particular god
whose representative they claimed to be, and the development of an
elaborate ceremonial in the temples in connection with the oracles[1133]
was a further factor that must have influenced the gradual abandonment
of the custom, at least as an element of the _official_ cult. Moreover,
the belief itself belongs in the domain of ancestor worship, and in
historical times we find but little trace of such worship among the
Babylonians. We may, therefore, associate the custom with the earliest
period of the Babylonian religion. This view carries with it the
antiquity of the term Shualu. Like Aralu and the designation Ekur, it
embodies the close association of the dead with the gods. The dead not
only dwell near the gods, but, like the gods, they can direct the
affairs of mankind. Their answers to questions put to them have divine
justification. From this view of the dead to the deification of the
latter is but a short step. It does not, of course, follow, from the
fact that Shualu or Sheol is the place of 'oracles,' that all the dead
have the power to furnish oracles or can be invoked for this purpose.
Correspondingly, if we find that the Babylonians did deify their dead,
it does not mean that at one time all the dead were regarded as gods.
Popular legends are concerned only with the heroes, with the popular
favorit