all spirits, both good and bad. They could by choice ally themselves with divine or demoniacal powers. Hence sorceries and witchcraft were most important in their religious rites. Hea and the sun were the chief protectors against the influence of sorceries. Through fear of their influence the practices of sorcerers were described in mysterious language only to be understood by the initiated, though the Assyrian translations of Accadian originals were more explicit. The sorcerer could bring all sorts of evil upon a man, and by magic spells could even destroy his life.

The malicious imprecation acts on man like a wicked demon,
The voice which curses has power over him;

The voice which curses has power over him;

The malicious imprecation is the spell (which produces) the disease of the head.

The malicious imprecation slaughters this man like a lamb;
His God oppresses him in his body;

His goddess creates anguish in him by a reciprocal influence,
The voice which curses covers him and loads him like a veil.*

Similar magic spells are familiar in all lands

We cannot here enter fully upon the discussion of the philosophy of magic. It is a most interesting subject. Magic probably arose from an interpretation of the power of nature as the power of individual personal spirits, which could work for man, weal or woe. The sorcerer was the man who lived nearest nature's heart, and could control these spirits. Hence he became a priest. A great majority of the people had not this familiar access to nature, and could not control the spirits. They must resort to the sorcerers, whose services were imperatively necessary. When the good and evil spirits were formed into hierarchies, there might result a theurgy, as Neo-Platonism. Sorcerers were looked upon as almost superior beings. Their actions and mutterings were mysterious and full of awful meaning. They were feared, and their power dreaded. They could control the people and make them slaves. Sometimes they were openly and professedly in league with the devil, willingly taking service with evil spirits, and depending on their protection. The priesthood became an all-powerful tyranny.

It will be seen that if the Accads might be said to worship * "Chaldean Magic," pp. 64, 65.

at all, it was the worship of elementary spirits, which seemed frequently to have blended with material objects. These spirits were innumerable, and filled the universe. They were definite and distinct personalities, and were connected with every object. Of all the operations of nature they were the active cause. There was no recognition of one supreme God, but the unseen was recognized every-where. The people scarcely loved the beneficent spirits; they were in great terror of the malevolent. A great and deadly warfare was constantly waged between these two classes. The benefits which bless and the plagues that afflict humanity were their victories and defeats. They did not dwell separately, but a bad and a good spirit was connected with every element, every object, and struggled for its mastery. War was a necessity, peace impossible. Physical discords were battles. Sin, with the Accads, was neglect of religious rites or communion with malevolent spirits. This vast dualistic spiritualism, the very basis of the Chaldean magic, tyrannized mightily over men. All good and evil were connected with good and evil spirits. Every motion of moving cloud, waving grass, falling leaf, driving storm, every sound, the murmur of brook, the roar of ocean, the whisper of breeze, the voice of thunder, was caused by a spirit. It was impossible to do otherwise than to communicate with spirits. Evil spirits must be driven away. Good spirits must be gained and strengthened against the evil. This could be accomplished by employing mysterious rites, charms, and talismans. Powerful secrets were mighty weapons in this warfare. The magician must be sought to protect man, to prevent direst calamities, and to control the forces of the unseen world. This was the only way of happiness and peace.

God and evil spirits were classified,† and at the summit of the hierarchy certain gods were placed; and yet they were no gods, but only possessed a higher range of the same power as the inferior orders of spirits. Ana was the spirit of the heav ens; he was also the material heavens. Hea was the soul of the inhabited earth; he was also the dwelling of all animated beings. Hea was the god of science, the foe of evil spirits, the

*The Jews believed that angels could fall in love with beautiful women. Tobit vi, 14; Augustine, "De civ. Dei," c. 23.

+ Cf. Book of Enoch lxviii, lxxvii.

They were

Mulge was

protector of men, and the guardian of the world. His spouse, Davkina, was the personification of the surface of the earth. Their union produced the waters of the earth. translated bodily into the later Assyrian religion. the god of the solid earth, and especially of the lower world, "the temple of the dead." In that gloomy realm there was no marked distinction of rewards and punishments, yet some were permitted to drink of the spring of water of life, when they could again visit the earth. Namtar, the god of plague, and Nandara, the god of war, were sons of Mulge. Nandara was also the god of mineral treasures, and possessed many precious gems which were the repositories of great magic power. The belief in spirits which preside over minerals is characteristic of Turanian, and is common also among many other, peoples. The demons of the under-world loved darkness. They came forth in the night seasons to torment men and do them mischief. Because of this the early Accads dreaded the night and darkness. The sun was their protecting god against black spirits, and was victorious over them every morning. While the Accads dreaded the night, the Chaldeans loved to behold the glories of the starry sky.

Diseases were considered punishments for sin. The good demons would withdraw their influence from the man who did evil, and leave him for a time to the power of the demons of disease. The sun was the principal god invoked for deliverance. By his superior power he could overcome and drive away the demons of disease. In an incantation against "the disease of the head" the prayer is offered that the diseases may fly away "like doves to their dovecotes, like grasshoppers into the sky, like birds into space," and be dissipated "like a nocturnal dew," or "be carried away into the heavens like a violent wind," and swallowed up in the earth "like passing waters." Fire, as a material god, was thought to be even superior to the sun. We quote a hymn to the god Fire:

Fire, supreme chief, rising high in the country!
Hero, son of the ocean, rising high in the country!

Fire, with thy pure and brilliant flame, thou bringest light into the dwellings of darkness, thou decidest the fate of every thing which has a name;

Thou mixest copper and tin, thou purifiest gold and silver.
May the works of man, son of his god, shine with purity!

May he be high as heaven!

May he be holy and pure as the earth!
May he shine as the midst of heaven!*

Fire was called "warrior, hero, illuminator of darkness." As the god of the hearth he was called "god of the house, protector of the house, protector of the family." When sacrifice was offered he was god of the flame. He was the god of the cosmic fire which is distributed throughout nature. He it was who shone in the stars, and he who was worshiped as the son of Ana. It was important in magic rites to hold most intimate communication with so powerful a god. The Accads used the "fire-stick" in kindling fires for their temple worship. The elements of this fire-stick are shown in the old hieroglyphics. Fire was believed to be self-producing, as shown by the word for the fifth month of the calendar, Nenegar, "Fire fire make"-a month under the patronage of a deity named "Lord of the wood of life." Heavenly fire was discovered by "the great heavenly fire-stick," the lightning, whose Accadian name was "the piercer of heaven." +

Silik-mulu-khi, a mediator between Hea and man, was frequently addressed in the incantations. § We give a hymn : Who can escape thy hail?

Thy will is the sublime cimeter with which thou rulest heaven

and earth.

I commanded the sea, and the sea became calm;

I commanded the flower, and the flower ripened into grain; I commanded the girdle of the river of Sippara, and, by the will of Silik-mulu-khi, I overturned its course.

Lord, thou art sublime, what transitory being is equal to thee? Silik-mulu-khi, among all the gods who are named, thou art the remunerator. ||

We may compare this god with the Assyrian Merodach and the Zoroastrian Sraosha. We add one of the benignant spells: The noble cupbearer of Hea, the scribe of Merodach (am) I, Like fire have I blazed, (and) I rejoice; (Like) fire have I burned, (and) I grow;

*"Chaldean Magic," p. 185.

Ibid., pp. 184-189.

Houghton and Boscawan in "Transactions Society Biblical Archæology,” vol. vi, pp. 280, 281, 467.

§ Comp. "Book of Enoch," ix, 3; xl, 6; "Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs,” iii and v.

"Chaldean Magic,” p. 192.

The corn I purify and make heavy.

Like fire have I blazed, (and) will rejoice;
(Like) fire have I burned, (and) will grow;
The corn will I purify and make heavy.

O nadir (and) zenith, the light of god and man,
May the store he collected, be delivered.

May the store of (his) heart, whosoever he be, ye his god
And his goddess, be delivered.

May his gate be kept fast on that day,

May they enrich him, may they deliver him.*

No one can fail to observe, even in an English translation, the peculiar characteristics of Hebrew poetry. The rhyme of sense is strongly marked. The Hebrews must have borrowed their rules for poetic composition primitively from the Accads.

The Accads probably believed in the primal innocency of the human race; at least sin was introduced in the world by the successful temptation of the dragon Tihamat. They believed in vicarious punishment, in Silik-mulu-khi as mediator and redeemer, and that the dearest object should be given for the sin of the soul. Human sacrifices, even sacrifices of the first-born, were offered by fire. The bloody sacrifices offered to Moloch were an inheritance from the Accads. The Accadian hymns formed a collection which has been compared with the Rig- Veda, and which "became the authorized prayer-book of the Accadian Church," and "the authoritative text-book of the priesthood." "Its sacred scriptures" afterward became "the venerable ritual of both Babylonia and Assyria." "A superstitious reverence seems to have been attached to the mere letter and pronunciation of the sacred text," so that the language became sacred, like the Sanskrit to the Hindus, and the Latin to the Roman Catholic Church. †

The Accads had made considerable progress in science and law. The great astronomical work of the library of Aganè shows considerable knowledge of astronomy. Therein are discussed eclipses, conjunctions of the sun and moon, spots on the sun, Venus, the Pole Star, comets; there were also predictions of the weather as determined by changes of the moon. It was supposed that the same weather was repeated after cycles of twelve years, and that the eclipses of the moon were repeated after two hundred and twenty lunations. The * Sayce on "Times of Abraham," p. 40. "Babylonian Literature," pp. 46, 47.