rrible
punishment to the dead,[1276] and we are told that the person who
disturbed a grave is not to be permitted to enter the temple. The
desecration of the grave affected not only the individual whose rest was
thus disturbed, and who, in consequence, suffered pangs of hunger and
other miseries, but reached the survivors as well. The unburied or
disentombed shade assumed the form of a demon,[1277] and afflicted the
living.

Of the ceremonies incidental to burial, the bronze tablet above
described affords us at least a glimpse. The dead were placed on a bier
and wrapped in some kind of a cover. Priests were called in to perform
rites of purification. One of the priests, it will be recalled,[1278] is
clad in a fish costume. The fish is the symbol of Ea, the god of the
deep, who becomes the chief deity appealed to in incantations involving
the use of water. The priest assumes the role of Ea, as it were, by the
symbolical dress that he puts on. The rites appear to consist of the
burning of incense and the sprinkling of water. It does not of course
follow that everywhere the same custom was observed, but we may at least
be certain that the priest played an important part in the last honors
paid to the dead. The purification was intended to protect the dead from
the evil spirits that infest the grave. The demons of disease, it is
true, could no longer trouble him. They had done their work as
messengers of Allatu. But there were other demons who were greedy for
the blood and flesh of the dead. Though the dead had passed out of the
control of the gods, the latter had at least the power to restrain the
demons from disturbing the peace of the grave.

In the earlier days, when the bodies were placed on the ground or only a
short distance below it, the building of the grave-mound was a ceremony
to which importance was attached. In the stele of vultures, attendants
are portrayed--perhaps priests--with baskets on their heads, containing
the earth to be placed over the fallen soldiers.[1279] These attendants
are bare to the waist. The removal of the garments is probably a sign of
mourning, just as among the Hebrews and other Semites it was customary
to put on the primitive loin-cloth[1280] as a sign of grief. In somewhat
later times, we find sorrowing relatives tearing their clothing[1281]--
originally tearing off their clothing--and cutting their hair as signs
of mourning.

The formal lament for the dead was another ceremony upon