The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria

[1245] See p. 186.

[1246] See p. 183.

[1247] See pp. 417, 598.

[1248] Jensen's Kosmologie, pp. 483, 484. In the new fragment of the Deluge story discovered by Scheil (referred to above, p. 507, and now published in the Recueil de Travaux, xix. no. 3) the word di-ib-ba-ra occurs, and the context shows that it means 'destruction.' In view of this, the question is again opened as to the reading of the name of the god of war and pestilence. The identification of this god with Girra (pp. 528, 588) may belong to a late period.

[1249] See p. 529.

[1250] See pp. 111, 171, 190.

[1251] See chapter v.

[1252] So at Zurghul (or Zerghul) and el-Hibba. See Koldewey in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, ii. 403-430.

[1253] See the valuable chapter in Peters' work on Nippur, ii. 214-234.

[1254]Proceedings of the American Oriental Society, 1896, p. 166. The dead are often conveyed hundreds of miles to be interred in Nejef and Kerbela.

[1255] Peters' Nippur, ii. 325, 326.

[1256] See below, p. 597.

[1257] Koldewey, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, ii. 406 seq.

[1258]Ib.

[1259]Travels and Researches in Chaldaea and Susiana, chapter xviii.

[1260] Peters' Nippur, ii. 234. Other mounds examined by Peters between Warka and Nippur bear out the conclusion.

[1261] De Sarzec, Découvertes en Chaldée, pl. 3.

[1262] On the stele of vultures, the dead are naked.

[1263] Book I, § 195.

[1264] See p. 512.

[1265] Such sacrifices are pictured on the stele of vultures.

[1266] IIIR. 43, col. iv. l. 20; Belser, Beiträge zur Assyriologie, ll. 175, 18; Pinches, Babylonian Texts, p. 18.

[1267] For this custom see Trumbull, The Threshold Covenant, p. 25; Peters' Nippur, ii. 202, 203.

[1268] Recently, Scheil has discovered some private dwellings at Abu-Habba, which will be described in his forthcoming volume on his explorations at that place. See also Peters' Nippur, ii. 200, 201.

[1269] Peters' Nippur, ii. 220.

[1270] See p. 597. The date of the monument is prior to Sargon; i.e., earlier than 3800 B.C.

[1271] VR. 61, col. vi. ll. 54, 55.

[1272] Rassam Cylinder, col. iii. l. 40.

[1273] Rassam Cylinder, col. iv. ll. 74-76.

[1274]Ib. col. vi. ll. 70-76.

[1275] Rassam Cylinder, col. iii. l. 64. The favorite mutilation was the cutting off of the head. On one of the sculptured slabs from the palace of Ashurbanabal, a pyramid of heads is portrayed. The cutting off of the hands, the lips, the nose, and the male organ, as well as the flaying of the skin, were also practised. (See Sennacherib's account IR. 42, col. vi. ll. 1-6; Rassam Cylinder (Ashurbanabal), ii. 4 and iv. 136.)

[1276] Rassam Cylinder, col. vii. ll. 46-48.

[1277]ekimmu. See p. 580.

[1278] See p. 578.

[1279] Heuzey offers another explanation of the scene which is less plausible. (See De Sarzec, Découvertes en Chaldée, p. 98.)

[1280] Hebrew word Sak. The other rite of mourning among the Hebrews, the putting of earth on the head (e.g., I Sam. iv. 12; II Sam. i. 2 and xv. 32; Neh. ix. 1), is a survival of the method of burial as portrayed in the 'stele of vultures.' The earth was originally placed in a basket on the head and used to cover the dead body.

[1281] The mourning garb mentioned in the Adapa legend (p. 546) is probably a 'torn' garment.

[1282] Hagen, Cyrus-Texte (Beiträge zur Assyriologie, ii. 219, 223).

[1283] Inscription B, col. v. ll. 3-5.

[1284] Lane, Modern Egyptians, ll. 286.