le to assume that visits were paid to the graves. The
mourning was followed by a festival of rejoicing, symbolizing the return
of the solar-god. The Tammuz festival appears to have had a strong hold
upon the masses, by reason of the popularity of the Tammuz myth; nor was
it limited to the Babylonians. Among the Phoenicians the cult of Tammuz,
known by his title Adon (whence Adonis), was maintained to a late
period, and the Hebrews, likewise, as late as the days of Ezekiel,[1557]
commemorated with rites of mourning the lost Tammuz. The calendar of the
Jewish Church still marks the 17th day of Tammuz as a fast, and Houtsma
has shown[1558] that the association of the day with the capture of
Jerusalem by the Romans represents merely the attempt to give an ancient
festival a worthier interpretation. The day was originally connected
with the Tammuz cult. Eerdmans[1559] has recently endeavored to show
that the festival of Hosein, celebrated by the Shiitic sect of
Mohammedanism in memory of the tragic death of the son of Ali, is in
reality a survival of the Babylonian-Phoenician Tammuz festival. The
spread of the Tammuz-Adonis myth and cult to the Greeks[1560] is but
another indication of the popularity of this ancient Semitic festival.

The old Zagmuku festival in honor of Bau and the Tammuz festival,
celebrated in spring and summer, respectively, are also closely
associated with agricultural life. The spring as the seedtime is, as we
have seen, a natural period for beginning the calculation of the New
Year, while a first harvest of the wheat and barley is reaped in
Babylonia at the time of the summer solstice. We should expect,
therefore, to find a third festival in the fall, at the close of the
harvest and just before the winter rains set in. The seventh
month--Tishri--was a sacred month among the ancient Hebrews as well as
among the Babylonians, but up to the present no distinct traces of a
festival period in Tishri have been found in Babylonian texts. We must
content ourselves, therefore, with the conjecture, above thrown out,
that an Akitu was originally celebrated in this month at some ancient
religious center of the Euphrates Valley. Further publications of
cuneiform texts may throw light upon this point. The unpublished
material in European and American museums harbors many surprises.

In Ashurbanabal's annals[1561] there is an interesting reference to a
festival celebrated in honor of the goddess Gula, the goddess of