healing,[1562] on the twelfth day of Iyyar, the second month. The
festival is described ideographically as Si-gar,[1563] but from the fact
that the same ideographs are used elsewhere to describe a day sacred to
Sin and Shamash,[1564] it would appear that Si-gar is not a specific
appellation, but a general name again for festival. This month Iyyar and
this particular day, as a "favorable one," is chosen by Ashurbanabal for
his installation as king of Assyria. The same month is selected for a
formal pilgrimage to Babylonia for the purpose of restoring to E-Sagila
a statue of Marduk that a previous Assyrian king had taken from its
place,[1565] and Lehmann is probably correct in concluding[1566] that
this month of Iyyar was a particularly sacred one in Assyria, emphasized
with intent perhaps by the kings, as an offset against the sacredness of
Nisan in Babylonia.

Festivals in honor of Ninib were celebrated in Calah in the months of
Elul--the sixth month--and Shabat--the eleventh month.[1567] The sixth
month, it will be recalled, is sacred to Ishtar.[1568] Ninib being a
solar deity, his festival in Elul was evidently of a solar character.
From Ashurbanabal,[1569] again, we learn that the 25th day of Siwan--the
third month--was sacred to Belit of Babylon, and on that day a
procession took place in her honor. The Belit meant is Sarpanitum in her
original and independent role as a goddess of fertility. The statue of
the goddess, carried about, presumably in her ship, formed the chief
feature of the procession. Ashurbanabal chooses this "favorable" day as
the one on which to break up camp in the course of one of his military
expeditions. We would naturally expect to find a festival month devoted
to the god Ashur in Assyria. This month was Elul--the sixth month.[1570]
The choice of this month lends weight to the supposition that Ashur was
originally a solar deity.[1571] The honors once paid to Ninib in Calah
in this month could thus easily be transferred to the head of the
Assyrian pantheon. Although in the calendar the sixth month is sacred to
Ishtar, her festival was celebrated in the fifth month, known as
Ab.[1572] This lack of correspondence between the calendar and the
festivals is an indication of the greater antiquity of the latter.

In the great temple to Shamash at Sippar, there appear to have been
several days that were marked by religious observances.
Nabubaliddin[1573] (ninth century) emphasizes that he presented ri