oins, the _alu_ the breast. But these
distinctions count for little in the texts. _Utukku_ becomes a general
name for demon, and _gallu_, _alu_, and _shedu_ are either used
synonymously with _utukku_ or thrown together with the latter in a
manner that clearly shows the general identity of the conceptions
ultimately connected with them. The same is the case with the _rabisu_
and _gallu_, with the _labartu_, _akhkhazu_, and _ekimmu_.

The demons were always given some shape, animal or human, for it was a
necessary corollary of the stage of religious thought to which the
belief in demons belongs, that the demon must not only be somewhere,
though invisible to mankind, but also _in_ something that manifests
life. Among animals, those calculated to inspire terror by their
mysterious movements were chosen, as serpents appearing and disappearing
with startling suddenness, or ugly scorpions, against whom it was
difficult to protect oneself, or the fabulous monsters with which graves
and pestiferous spots were peopled. Regions difficult of access--the
desert, the deep waters, the high mountains--were the favorite haunts of
the demons. Some of these demons were frequently pictured in the
boundary stones between fields, in order to emphasize the curses hurled
upon the head of him who should trespass on the lawful rights of the
owner of the land.[348] It is to such demons embodied in living form
that epithets such as the 'seizer,' the 'one that lurks,' and the like
apply with peculiar aptness. In a tablet belonging to a long series of
incantations,[349] we find references to various animals--the serpent,
the scorpion, monsters--that are regarded as the embodiment of demons.

In the distinctively religious art, the evil spirits are often pictured
as ugly monsters that were to inspire terror by their very aspect.
Depicted on the monuments, singly or in groups,[350] the shape of wild
animals was given to the head, while the remainder of the body was
suggestive of a human form. With gaping mouths and armed with some
weapon, they stand ready to make an attack. The Assyrian kings, up to
the latest period, acknowledged the power of the demons by making huge
representations of them, which they placed at the approaches, entrances,
and divisions of their temples and palaces, in the hope of thus securing
their protection. The great bulls and lions with human heads--so
familiar to every one--are but another form of the same idea. These
colossa