52 BY THE RIVERS OF BABYLON 



seem to have been ruled by priests. The remains 

 show that they were fully entitled to be called 

 "civilized," as we use the word. They had political 

 organization of the royal type, large settled cities, 

 fine pottery, an advanced agriculture (with irrigation 

 and draining of the marshes), and a written language. 

 Their "cuneiform" (wedge-shaped) writing is now 

 well known, and its peculiarity is understood. At 

 first, like the Egyptians and Chinese, they simply 

 drew pictures of the objects or actions they wished to 

 express. Indian picture-writing in North America 

 shows us how mere drawings of this kind can be 

 made to communicate quite elaborate messages. These 

 early picture-signs survive in the Egyptian hiero- 

 glyphics (though there each has become a syllable, 

 a conventional sign for a sound), and are easily traced 

 in the oldest Chinese characters. As the Sumerians 

 took to writing on clay tablets (which were then 

 baked), the picture of the object became a few jabs 

 with the slender, four-sided piece of wood which they 

 used as a "pencil," and the sign became a syllable 

 for making longer words. 



Other early remains show that five thousand years 

 ago the Sumerians were keeping pace with the Cretans 

 and Egyptians. There is a marble statue of a King 

 Daudu (David) of considerable merit; and in the 

 same ruin were found traces of drains which suggest 

 sanitary engineering, if not baths, such as must have 

 preceded the elaborate baths and drains of the Cretan 

 palace. There is a sculptured votive tablet repre- 

 senting the victories of one of the priest-kings of 

 Lagash. Another priest-ruler of the same city, 

 Gudea, had nine statues of himself carved in dioritej 

 a stone that must have been brought from a great 



