ference in exact
adjustment being due, perhaps, to Sumerian political conditions.

Ea, as we have seen, symbolized the beneficence of the waters; their
destructive force was represented by Tiamat or Tiawath, the dragon,
and Apsu, her husband, the arch-enemy of the gods. We shall find these
elder demons figuring in the Babylonian Creation myth, which receives
treatment in a later chapter.

The ancient Sumerian city of Eridu, which means "on the seashore", was
invested with great sanctity from the earliest times, and Ea, the
"great magician of the gods", was invoked by workers of spells, the
priestly magicians of historic Babylonia. Excavations have shown that
Eridu was protected by a retaining wall of sandstone, of which
material many of its houses were made. In its temple tower, built of
brick, was a marble stairway, and evidences have been forthcoming that
in the later Sumerian period the structure was lavishly adorned. It is
referred to in the fragments of early literature which have survived
as "the splendid house, shady as the forest", that "none may enter".
The mythological spell exercised by Eridu in later times suggests that
the civilization of Sumeria owed much to the worshippers of Ea. At the
sacred city the first man was created: there the souls of the dead
passed towards the great Deep. Its proximity to the sea--Ea was
Nin-bubu, "god of the sailor"--may have brought it into contact with
other peoples and other early civilizations. Like the early Egyptians,
the early Sumerians may have been in touch with Punt (Somaliland),
which some regard as the cradle of the Mediterranean race. The
Egyptians obtained from that sacred land incense-bearing trees which
had magical potency. In a fragmentary Babylonian charm there is a
reference to a sacred tree or bush at Eridu. Professor Sayce has
suggested that it is the Biblical "Tree of Life" in the Garden of
Eden. His translations of certain vital words, however, is sharply
questioned by Mr. R. Campbell Thompson of the British Museum, who does
not accept the theory.[49] It may be that Ea's sacred bush or tree is
a survival of tree and water worship.

If Eridu was not the "cradle" of the Sumerian race, it was possibly
the cradle of Sumerian civilization. Here, amidst the shifting rivers
in early times, the agriculturists may have learned to control and
distribute the water supply by utilizing dried-up beds of streams to
irrigate the land. Whatever successes they achieved