an act, and in order to conciliate them, Ashurbanabal, who
pursues a mild policy towards the south, orders the statue to be
restored at the time that he appoints his brother Shamash-shumukin as
governor of the southern provinces.

[1566] _Ib._ p. 53, note.

[1567] Ashurnasirbal's Inscription, IR. 23, col. ii. l. 134.

[1568] See above, p. 462.

[1569] Rassam Cylinder, col. viii. ll. 96-100.

[1570] George Smith, _The History of Ashurbanipal_, p. 126 (Cylinder B,
col. v. l. 77). See also Rassam Cylinder, col. iii. l. 32.

[1571] See above, pp. 195, 196.

[1572] See Ashurbanabal Cylinder B, col. v. l. 16 (_Keils Bibl._ ii.
248; also Meissner, _Beitraege zum Altbabylonischen Privatrecht_, no. 14,
p. 23).

[1573] VR. 61. col. v. l. 51-vi. l. 8.

[1574] See above, pp. 74 and 176.

[1575] Winckler, _Zeits. f. Assyr._ ii. 155 (col. ii. l. 41).

[1576] One is reminded of the sanctity attaching in the Jewish ritual to
the "counting" of the seven weeks intervening between Passover (the old
Nisan festival) and Pentecost (an old summer festival). See Deut. xvi.
9. The 33d day of this period has a special significance in the Jewish
Church.

[1577] The non-Jewish origin of the Purim festival is generally accepted
by critical scholars. Lagarde (_Purim--Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der
Religions_) endeavors to trace it back to a Persian fire festival;
Zimmern (_Zeits. f. Alt. Wiss._, 1891, pp. 160 _seq._) connects it with
the Babylonian Zagmuku. Sayce's supposition (_Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch._
xix. 280, 281) is not to be taken seriously. The origin of the Jewish
feast and fast of Purim is still obscure. The fact that there is both a
fast (14th Adar) and a festival (15th Adar) is a safe indication of
antiquity. Zimmern's view of a possible relationship between Purim and
Zagmuku is untenable, but that there is a connection between Purim and
_some_ Babylonian festival follows from the fact that the two chief
personages in the Book of Esther--namely, Mordecai and Esther--bear
names identical with the two Babylonian deities, Marduk and Ishtar. This
cannot be an accident. On the other hand, Haman and Vashti, according to
Jensen (_Wiener Zeits. f.d. Kunde des Morgenlandes_, vi. 70), are
Elamitic names of deities corresponding to the Babylonian Marduk and
Ishtar. The case for Vashti is not clearly made out by Jensen, but, for
all that, it is certain that the Babylonian elements in the institution
have been combined with some bits of