truments of destruction are lightning, hunger, and death. Reference
has several times been made to the manner in which Tiglathpileser honors
Ramman by making him a partner of Anu in the great temple of the latter
at Ashur. But the successors of Tiglathpileser are no less zealous in
their reverence for Ramman. It is to Ramman that the kings offer
sacrifices during the campaign, and when they wish to depict in the
strongest terms the destruction that follows in the wake of an onslaught
of the Assyrian troops, they declare that they swept over everything
like Ramman. It is natural, in view of this, that Ramman should have
been to the Assyrians also the 'mightiest of the gods.'[268] Through the
Assyrian inscriptions we learn something of the consort of Ramman.

Shala.

Sennacherib tells us that in the course of his campaign against
Babylonia he removes out of the city of Babylon, and replaces in
Ekallate[269] the statues of Ramman and Shala. This, he says, he did 418
years after the time that they had been carried captive from Ekallate to
Babylon by Marduknadinakhi.[270] We know nothing more of this Ekallate
except that it lay in Assyria,--probably in the southern half,--and that
Ramman and Shala are called the gods of the city. The name 'Shala'
appears to signify 'woman.' It reminds us, therefore, of 'lady' (Ninni,
Nana, etc.), which we have found to be the designation for several
distinct goddesses. It is possible that Shala, likewise, being a name of
so indefinite a character, was applied to other goddesses. A 'Shala of
the mountains,' who is stated to be the wife of Marduk, is mentioned in
a list of gods.[271] The wife of Bel, too, is once called Shala, though
in this case the confusion between Marduk and Bel may have led to
transferring the name from the consort of one to the consort of the
other. Too much importance must not be attached to the data furnished by
these lists of gods. They represent in many cases purely arbitrary
attempts to systematize the Babylonian and Assyrian pantheon, and in
other cases are valuable only as reflecting the views of the
theologians, or rather of certain schools of theological thought, in
Babylonia. In the religious hymns, too, the consort of Ramman finds
mention, and by a play upon her name is described as the 'merciful one.'
The attribute given to her there is the 'lady of the field,' which puts
her in contrast to Ramman, rather than in partnership with him. Since we
hear little