creators. They were followed by other generations of gods, whom they sought to destroy.

This resulted in the fight of Marduk with the primeval goddess Tiamat. He slays her and splits her in halves like a fish, half of which he uses to make a firmament to keep back the celestial waters, and the other half the earth to hold back the subterranean waters.

Another very important poem is that which recounts the deeds and adventures of Gilgamesh, an early ruler of Erech, about whose name these myths are associated. It was written upon twelve large tablets and found also in the library of Ashurbanipal. This version was copied from older originals, of which a large but fragmentary tablet is preserved in the Yale Babylonian collection; and there is also a fragment in the Berlin Museum.

A BABYLONIAN "PARADISE LOST"

Other important mythological poems are the flight of Etana on the back of an eagle to heaven and his fall to earth; the myth of Adapa, in which he failed to obtain immortality by refusing to accept food at the advice of the god Ea; Ishtar's descent into hades, etc.

A large number of hymns and liturgies have been found at various sites. At Tello, a few belonging to the early Sumerian period were discovered. At Nippur, Sippar, Erech, and Larsa many were found, chiefly belonging to the early period, about 2000 B.

C.; at Erech and Babylon also some of a later period. By the help of these the history of Babylonian worship will be written.

At present the earliest known liturgies are written in Sumerian, but after about 2000 B. C. it generally became the custom of supplying the Sumerian text with interliner's versions in the Semitic vernacular. Whether the excavations at some of the earlier Semitic centers in the northern cities will yield earlier original Semitic liturgies, and show that the Sumerians were indebted to these, remains to be seen.

Moreover, it is known that the psalmist among the Semitic Babylonians used the Sumerian liturgies in their service and continued to use them till the closing days of Babylonian history. In other words, Sumerian was the liturgical language.

A CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN

A consciousness of sin pervades the liturgies of Babylonia. By the use of them the sinner desired to pacify the gods, who manifested their anger by bringing woes upon mankind. Through lamentations and sighings the penitent sought relief. It must be conceded that the Babylonian prayers were such that must have stirred the soul to its depths. The fundamental element of religions is therefore inherent in these liturgies.

It has been pointed out that the Babylonian penitential psalms are similar in form to the Biblical. The contents and character, however, are quite dis

tinct. We have in the Babylonian crude polytheism and practices of a natural religion, which, of course, is responsible for a different conception of the atonement sought for. Another large body of temple rituals was the incantations or magic rituals by which the priests exorcised the evil spirits. The rituals were quite extensive in variety. There were, for example, the "burning" series, in connection with which, with charms, magical figures were consumed by fire representing the fever, the headache, the evil demon, the Labartu, or female demon.

READING THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES IN STARS AND LIVERS

These texts seem to emanate from the later periods, which would mean a degeneration of the higher forms of worship, exactly the reverse of what is found among other peoples. But whether other libraries, when excavated, will show that these crass religious expressions of man are older than the religious literature of a higher order remains to be seen.

A large number of texts have been found in the various libraries dealing with hepatoscopy and astrology, the two chief systems used by the Babylonian priests or "inspector" (baru)—that is, they divided the future by the inspection of the liver of the sacrificial animal and by the observation of the starry heavens.

The Babylonians, as also many other ancient and in fact even modern nations, believed that the liver represents the seat of the soul; and since, according

to their notions, the soul included the mind as well as the heart, the inspection of the liver in the case of an animal that had become sacred by being offered to a deity furnished a means of ascertaining what the deity himself had in mind to do.

The observation of the heavens and the interpretation of unusual astronomical and meteorological phenomena also enabled them to determine the will of the deity. This method of divining seems to have been introduced into Babylonia later than liver divination.

One of the important results of cuneiform research is the new historical geography which has been reconstructed with its thousands of data. Hundreds of important cities have been identified among the partially inhabited or wholly deserted ruin-hills of western Asia. An inscribed brick or a dated tablet, or perchance an inscribed cylinder found at a particular place, may have given the clue to the identification of the ancient city.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR DELVES INTO THE PAST

For example, on a cylinder found at Wana-Sedoum, now in the Yale collection, which is one of several of its kind made by the royal scribe of Nebuchadnezzar (605-561 B. C.), the king recounts his restorations of various temples. In the closing lines he refers to his restoration of the temple of Lugal-Marada at Marad, a city which has not been hitherto identified, as follows: "From distant days its old foundation stone

no previous king had seen. Its old foundation stone I sought for, I beheld, and upon the foundation stone of king Naram-Sin, my ancient ancestor (who lived about 3750 B. C.), I laid its foundation. An inscription with my name I made and placed in the midst of it."

Recently there was also added to the Yale collection an inscribed stone, written in the ancient script, which came from the same site as the Nebuchadnezzar cylinder, namely, Wana-Sedoum. It proves to be one of the stones of Naram-Sin which Nebuchadnezzar saw. It refers to the building of the temple of LugalMarada at Marad by a hitherto unknown son of Naram-Sin, namely, Libet-ili, who was then patesi of Marad. It reads: "Naram-Sin, the mighty king of the four quarters, the subduer of nine armies in one year, when those armies he overcame, and their kings he bound and brought before Enlil, in that day Libet-ili, his son, patesi of Marad, built the temple of Lugal-Marada in Marad. Whoever alters this inscribed stone may the gods Shamash and LugalMarada tear out his estate and extermine his seed forever."

A THOUSAND SITES UNOPENED

Future maps of Babylonia will include the site of Wana-Sedoum, with its ancient name, Marad. The city is almost due west of Nippur, on the Euphrates, and a little south of west of Daghara. While many of the ancient sites of Babylonia have been identified, as Sippar, Babylon, Nippur, Erech, Larsa, Ur, Lagash,