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The
Sumerian name of the lion is ur-malch "the great dog." The best
description
of the first-mentioned species is still that of Olivier, who
saw
in the house o£ the Pasha of Bagdad five of them in captivity;
cf.
Layard,
Nineveh and Babylon, p. 487. Father Scheil tells me the lions
have
disappeared completely since the last twenty years.
[Illustration:
034.jpg THE URUS IN ACT OF CHARGING]
Drawn
by Faucher-Gudin, from an Assyrian bas-relief from
Nimrûd
(Layard, Monuments of Nineveh, 1st series, pi. 11).
[Illustration:
035.jpg a herd of onagers pursued by dogs and wounded by
arrows.]
Drawn
by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief in the British
Museum.
The
elephant seems to have roamed for some time over the steppes of
the
middle Euphrates;* there is no indication of its presence after
the
XIIIth
century before our era, and from that time forward it was merely
an
object of curiosity brought at great expense from distant
countries.
This
is not the only instance of animals which have disappeared in
the
course of centuries; the rulers of Nineveh were so addicted to
the
pursuit
of the urus that they ended by exterminating it. Several sorts
of
panthers and smaller felidæ had their lairs in the thickets of
Mesopotamia.
The wild ass and onager roamed in small herds between the
Balikh
and the Tigris. Attempts were made, it would seem, at a very
early
period to tame them and make use of them to draw chariots; but
this
attempt either did not succeed at all, or issued in such
uncertain
results,
that it was given up as soon as other less refractory animals
were
made the subjects of successful experiment.
*
The existence of the elephant in Mesopotamia and Northern
Syria
is well established by the Egyptian inscription of
Amenemhabi
in the XVth century before our era.
[Illustration:
036.jpg THE CHIEF DOMESTIC ANIMALS OP THE REGIONS OF THE
EUPHRATES.]
Drawn
by Faucher-Gudin, from an Assyrian bas-relief from
Kouyunjik.
The
wild boar, and his relative, the domestic hog, inhabited the
morasses.
Assyrian sculptors amused themselves sometimes by representing
long
gaunt sows making their way through the cane-brakes, followed by
their
interminable offspring. The hog remained here, as in Egypt, in
a
semi-tamed condition, and the people were possessed of only a
small
number
of domesticated animals besides the dog--namely, the ass, ox,
goat,
and sheep; the horse and camel were at first unknown, and were
introduced
at a later period.*
[Illustration:
037.jpg THE SOW AND HER LITTER MAKING THEIR WAY THROUGH A
BED
OF REEDS.]
Drawn
by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief from Kouyunjik.
*
The horse is denoted in the Assyrian texts by a group of
signs
which mean "the ass of the East," and the camel by
other
signs in which the character for "ass" also appears.
The
methods of rendering these two names show that the
subjects
of them were unknown in the earliest times; the
epoch
of their introduction is uncertain. A chariot drawn by
horses
appears on the "Stele of the Vultures." Camels are
mentioned
among the booty obtained from the Bedouin of the
desert.
We
know nothing of the efforts which the first
inhabitants--Sumerians
and
Semites--had to make in order to control the waters and to bring
the
land
under culture: the most ancient monuments exhibit them as already
possessors
of the soil, and in a forward state of civilization.* Their
chief
cities were divided into two groups: one in the south, in the
neighbourhood
of the sea; the other in a northern direction, in the
region
where the Euphrates and Tigris are separated from each other by
merely
a narrow strip of land. The southern group consisted of seven, of
which
Eridu lay nearest to the coast. This town stood on the left bank
of
the Euphrates, at a point which is now called Abu-Shahrein. A
little
to
the west, on the opposite bank, but at some distance from the
stream,
the
mound of Mugheîr marks the site of Uru, the most important, if
not
the
oldest, of the southern cities. Lagash occupied the site of the
modern
Telloh to the north of Eridu, not far from the Shatt-el-Haî;
Nisin
and Mar, Larsam and Uruk, occupied positions at short distances
from
each other on the marshy ground which extends between the
Euphrates
and
the Shatt-en-Nîl. The inscriptions mention here and there other
less
important places, of which the ruins have not yet been
discovered--Zirlab
and Shurippak, places of embarkation at the mouth
of
the Euphrates for the passage of the Persian Gulf; and the island
of
Dilmun,
situated some forty leagues to the south in the centre of the
Salt
Sea,--"Nar-Marratum." The northern group comprised Nipur, the
"incomparable;"
Barsip, on the branch which flows parallel to the
Euphrates
and falls into the Bahr-î-Nedjîf; Babylon, the "gate of the
god,"
the "residence of life," the only metropolis of the Euphrates
region
of which posterity never lost a reminiscence; Kishu, Kuta,
Agade;**
and lastly the two Sipparas, that of Shamash and that of
Anunit.
The earliest Chaldæan civilization was confined almost entirely
to
the two banks of the Lower Euphrates: except at its northern
boundary,
it did not reach the Tigris, and did not cross this river.
Separated
from the rest of the world--on the east by the marshes which
border
the river in its lower course, on the north by the badly watered
and
sparsely inhabited table-land of Mesopotamia, on the west by the
Arabian
desert--it was able to develop its civilization, as Egypt had
done,
in an isolated area, and to follow out its destiny in peace. The
only
point from which it might anticipate serious danger was on the
east,
whence the Kashshi and the Elamites, organized into military
states,
incessantly harassed it year after year by their attacks. The
Kashshi
were scarcely better than half-civilized mountain hordes, but
the
Elamites were advanced in civilization, and their capital, Susa,
vied
with the richest cities of the Euphrates, Uru and Babylon, in
antiquity
and magnificence.
*
For an ideal picture of what may have been the beginnings
of
that civilization, see Delitzsch, Die Entstehung des
àltesten
Schriflssystems, p. 214, et seq. I will not enter
into
the question as to whether it did or did not come by
sea
to the mouths of the Euphrates and Tigris. The legend of
the
fish-god Oannes (Berossus, frag. 1), which seems to
conceal
some indication on the subject, is merely a
mythological
tradition, from which it would be wrong to
deduce
historical conclusions.
**
Agade, or Agane, has been identified with one of the two
towns
of which Sippara is made up, more especially with that
which
was called Anunit Sippara; the reading Agadi, Agacle,
was
especially assumed to lead to its identification with
the
Accad of _Genesis x. 10_, and with the Akkad of native
tradition.
This opinion has been generally abandoned by
Assyriologists,
and Agane has not yet found a site. Was it
only
a name for Babylon?
[Illustration:
040.jpg MAP OF CHALDÆA]
There
was nothing serious to fear from the Guti, on the branch of the
Tigris
to the north-east, or from the Shuti to the north of these; they
were
merely marauding tribes, and, however troublesome they might be
to
their neighbours in their devastating incursions, they could not
compromise
the existence of the country, or bring it into subjection.
It
would appear that the Chaldseans had already begun to encroach
upon
these
tribes and to establish colonies among them--El-Ashshur on the
banks
of the Tigris, Harran on the furthest point of the Mesopotamian
plain,
towards the sources of the Balikh. Beyond these were vague and
unknown
regions--Tidanum, Martu, the sea of the setting sun, the vast
territories
of Milukhkha and Mâgan.* Egypt, from the time they were
acquainted
with its existence, was a semi-fabulous country at the ends
of
the earth.
*
The question concerning Milukhkha and Mâgan has exercised
Assyriologists
for twenty years. The prevailing opinion
appears
to be that which identifies Mâgan with the Sinaitic
Peninsula,
and Milukhkha with the country to the north of
Mâgan
as far as the Wady Arish and the Mediterranean; others
maintain,
not the theory of Delitzsch, according to whom
Mâgan
and Milukhkha are synonyms for Shumir and Akkad, and
consequently
two of the great divisions of Babylonia, but an
analogous
hypothesis, in which they are regarded as
districts
to the west of the Euphrates, either in Chaldæan
regions
or on the margin of the desert, or even in the
desert
itself towards the Sinaitic Peninsula. What we know
of
the texts induces me, in common with H. Rawlinson, to
place
these countries on the shores of the Persian Gulf,
between
the mouth of the Euphrates and the Bahrein islands;
possibly
the Makse and the Melangitso of classical
historians
and geographers were the descendants of the
people
of Mâgan (Mâkan) and Milukhkha (Melugga), who had
been
driven towards the entrance to the Persian Gulf by some
such
event as the increase in these regions of the Kashdi
(Chaldæans).
The names, emigrated to the western parts of
Arabia
and to the Sinaitic Peninsula in after-times, as the
name
of India passed to America in the XVIth century of our
era.
How
long did it take to bring this people out of savagery, and to
build
up so many flourishing cities? The learned did not readily resign
themselves
to a confession of ignorance on the subject. As they
had
depicted the primordial chaos, the birth of the gods, and their
struggles
over the creation, so they related unhesitatingly everything
which
had happened since the creation of mankind, and they laid claim
to
being
able to calculate the number of centuries which lay between their
own
day and the origin of things. The tradition to which most
credence
was
attached in the Greek period at Babylon, that which has been
preserved
for us in the histories of Berossue, asserts that there was
a
somewhat long interval between the manifestation of Oannes and
the
foundation of a dynasty. The first king was Alôros of Babylon, a
Chaldæan
of whom nothing is related except that he was chosen by the
divinity
himself to be a shepherd of the people. He reigned for ten
sari,
amounting in all to 36,000 years; for the saros is 3600 years,
the
ner
600 years, and the soss 60 years.
[Illustration:
041.jpg TWO FISH-LIKE DEITIES OF THE CHALDÆANS.]
Drawn
by Faucher-Gudin, from an intaglio in the British Museum.
After
the death of Alôros, his son Alaparos ruled for three sari, after
which
Amillaros, of the city of Pantibibla, reigned thirteen sari. It
was
under him that there issued from the Bed Sea a second Annedôtos,
resembling
Oannes in his semi-divine shape, half man and half fish.
After
him Ammenon, also from Pantibibla, a Chaldaean, ruled for a term
of
twelve sari; under him, they say, the mysterious Oannes appeared.
Afterwards
Amelagaros of Pantibibla governed for eighteen sari; then
Davos,
the shepherd from Pantibibla, reigned ten sari: under him there
issued
from the Red Sea a fourth Annedôtos, who had a form similar to
the
others, being made up of man and fish. After him Bvedoranchos of
Pantibibla
reigned for eighteen sari; in his time there issued yet
another
monster, named Anôdaphos, from the sea. These various monsters
developed
carefully and in detail that which Oannes had set forth in a
brief
way. Then Amempsinos of Larancha, a Chalæan, reigned ten sari;
and
Obartes,
also a Chaldæan, of Larancha, eight sari. Finally, on the death
of
Obartes, his son Xisuthros held the sceptre for eighteen sari. It
was
under him that the great deluge took place. Thus ten kings are to
be
reckoned in all, and the duration of their combined reigns
amounts
to
one hundred and twenty sari. From the beginning of the world to
the
Deluge
they reckoned 691,200 years, of which 259,200 had passed
before
the coming of Alôros, and the remaining 432,000 were generously
distributed
between this prince and his immediate successors: the Greek
and
Latin writers had certainly a fine occasion for amusement over
these
fabulous
numbers of years which the Chaldæans assigned to the lives and
reigns
of their first kings.
Men
in the mean time became wicked; they lost the habit of offering
sacrifices
to the gods, and the gods, justly indignant at this
negligence,
resolved to be avenged.* Now, Shamashnapishtim I was
reigning
at this time in Shurippak, the "town of the ship:" he and
all
his family were saved, and he related afterwards to one of his
descendants
how Ea had snatched him from the disaster which fell upon
his
people.** "Shurippak, the city which thou thyself knowest, is
situated
on the bank of the Euphrates; it was already an ancient town
when
the hearts of the gods who resided in it impelled them to bring
the
deluge
upon it--the great gods as many as they are; their father Anu,
their
counsellor Bel the warrior, their throne-bearer Ninib, their
prince
Innugi. The master of wisdom, Ea, took his seat with them,***
and,
moved with pity, was anxious to warn Shamashnapishtim, his
servant,
of
the peril which threatened him;" but it was a very serious affair
to
betray
to a mortal a secret of heaven, and as he did not venture to do
so
in a direct manner, his inventive mind suggested to him an
artifice.
*
The account of Bcrossus implies this as a cause of the
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