INTRODUCTION., xv 



passed their days in worshipping and praying ; 

 while, on the showing of their artists, they were a 

 cruel, blood-thirsty people, and their rulers tyrants, 

 perhaps many degrees worse than we ourselves 

 would have been, and having a civilization like 

 that of the people of Central Asia, before its 

 domination by the Russians, 



We see them warrinof, enslavingf, burnincr, 

 plundering, and slaughtering other people, and 

 devastating their country ; we see them cutting 

 off the heads of their prisoners, and keeping 

 accounts of how many they cut off; dragging 

 others hooked by their lips, flaying others alive, 

 impaling others, and so forth. Their ferocity has 

 been sufficiently shown in the works of their artists. 



We may be too apt to overlook the utilitarian 

 side of those people's thoughts, and to look upon 

 them as an unselfish, and holy, God-loving race ; if 

 anything, with fewer sins and biases than we have. 



The imaginative genius of their poets, for its 

 time, was truly remarkable, and will account for 

 much of their astonishing mythology. This should 

 not be forgotten in investigating the thoughts of 

 those people. 



Here is a bit of inimitable poetry, taken from 

 Prof. Sayce's ' Hibbert Lectures,' p. 102 : — 



"In the struggle between Merodach and the 

 monster Tiamat, the latter opened its mouth to 

 swallow the god. The god, however, was equal 



