eturning to clay, was the common one. This view helps us to
understand how the words for grave came to be used as synonyms for the
nether world. The dead being placed below the earth, they were actually
conveyed within the realm of which Aralu was a part, and since it became
customary for the Babylonians to bury their dead together, the cities of
the dead that thus arose could easily be imagined to constitute the
kingdom presided over by Allatu and Nergal. At this point, however, the
speculations of the schools begin to diverge from the popular notions.
We may well question whether the Babylonian populace ever attempted to
make clear to itself in what form the dead continued their existence. It
may be that the argument from dreams, as the basis for the primitive
belief in the continuation of life, in some form, after death has been
too hard pressed,[1161] but certainly the appearance of the dead in the
dreams of the living must have produced a profound impression, and since
the dead appeared in the same form that they had while alive, the
conclusion was natural that, even though the body decayed, a vague
outline remained that bore the same relation to the _corpus_ as the
shadow to the figure casting it. Two remarkable chapters in the Old
Testament[1162] illustrate this popular view prevailing in Babylonia, as
to the condition of the dead in the nether world. The prophets Isaiah
and Ezekiel both portray the dead as having the same form that they
possessed while alive. The kings have their crowns on their heads; the
warriors lie with their swords girded about them. The dead Eabani, it
will be recalled, appears to Gilgamesh and is at once recognized by the
latter. What distinguishes the dead from the living is their inactivity.
They lie in Aralu without doing anything. Everything there is in a state
of neglect and decay. The dead can speak, but the Babylonians probably
believed, like the Hebrews, that the dead talk in whispers, or chirp
like birds.[1163] The dead are weak,[1164] and, therefore, unless others
attend to their needs, they suffer pangs of hunger, or must content
themselves with 'dust and clay' as their food. Tender care during the
last moments of life was essential to comparative well-being in
Aralu.[1165] The person who goes to Aralu in sorrow and neglect will
continue sorrowful and neglected.

The theologians, while accepting these views in general, passed beyond
them in an important particular. They could no