re
other details in the third and fourth sections that still escape us. For
our purposes, it is sufficient to note: (_a_) that the sections
represent in a general way the divisions of the universe, the heavens,
the atmosphere, the earth, the nether world, and the deep;[1206] (_b_)
that the nether world is in the interior of the earth, reaching down to
Apsu; and (_c_) that this interior is pictured as a place full of
horrors, and is presided over by gods and demons of great strength and
fierceness.

Such being the view of the nether world, it is natural that the living
should regard with dread, not only the place but also its inhabitants.
The gloom that surrounded the latter reacted on their disposition. In
general, the dead were not favorably disposed towards the living, and
they were inclined to use what power they had to work evil rather than
for good. In this respect they resembled the demons, and it is
noticeable that an important class of demons was known by the name
_ekimmu_, which is one of the common terms for the shades of the dead.
This fear of the dead, which is the natural corollary to the reverence
felt for them, enters as an important factor in the honors paid by the
living to the memory of the deceased. To provide the dead with food and
drink, to recall their virtues in dirges, to bring sacrifices in their
honor,--such rites were practised, as much from a desire to secure the
favor of the dead and to ward off their evil designs as from motives of
piety, which, of course, were not absent. The dead who was not properly
cared for by his surviving relatives would take his revenge upon the
living by plaguing them as only a demon could. The demons that infested
graveyards were in some way identified with the 'spirits,' or perhaps
messengers, of the dead, who, in their anger towards the living, lay in
wait for an attack upon those against whom they had a grudge.

The Pantheon of Aralu.

We have seen how the mystery coupled with death led to the view which
brought the dead into more direct relationship with the gods. Closely
allied with this view is the power ascribed to the dead to work evil or
good and, like the gods, to furnish oracles. This power once
acknowledged, it was but a short step to the deification of the dead,
or, rather, of such personalities who in life exercised authority, by
virtue of their position or innate qualities. On the other hand, the
gloominess of the nether world, the sad conditio