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attached, which gives the direction for the ceremonial as 

 celebrated in the temple. The statue of Tammuz was placed 

 on a bier and followed by bands of mourners weeping, and 

 crying, and singing a funeral dirge. This dirge is used by 

 Jeremiah in bitter sarcasm against Jehoiakim, whose wicked 

 reign had filled Jerusalem with blood (2 Kings xxiv. 2). 

 " They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah ! me, my 

 brother ; ah ! me, my sister ; ah ! me, Adonis (Adonai) ; 

 ah ! me, his lady.''^ The same festival seems to be referred 

 to by the prophet Amos in the words, "I will make it 

 as the mourning for the only sou^^; Tammuz being called 

 the only son (Amos viii. 10). The festivals of Tammuz and 

 Istar, his sister and wife, extended over all the first half 

 of the month, the day of lamentation being the second, 

 and the sixth the procession. On the 15th day was cele- 

 brated the great marriage feast of Istar and her hnsband 

 Tammuz, and it was a wild orgy, such as only the lascivious 

 East would produce. It is here marked as the day of an 

 '•'eclipse of the moon ^^ ; but, as I have shown {Atkenceuvi, 

 July 9, 1881), this is a metaphoric expression for the meeting 

 of the Sun-god and his bride. It was this festival that 

 Belshazzar was celebrating on the night when Babylon was 

 taken, and it was, perhaps, the only great festival in which 

 " the king, his wives and concubines," would be present. 



The description of this festival, given by the writer of the 

 book of Daniel, is quite in agreement with our knowledge of 

 Babylonian life ; and, indeed, there may have been an addi- 

 tional air of desperation imparted to the ceremony by the fact 

 that the prince must have known how, by the flight of his 

 father and the overthrow of the army, all was lost ; and this 

 was his last feast. The bringing forth of the gold and silver 

 vessels, — the treasure of the sacred temple of the Jews, — was 

 an act such as became the doomed king. These vessels would 

 be stored in the Temple of Bet Saggal, the Temple of Bel 

 Merodach, and must have been brought thence to the 

 royal palace to gratify the impious whim of the last of 

 Nimrod's line, whose thoughts have found such poetic ex- 

 pression at the hand of Mr. Edwin Arnold ('' Belshazzar's 

 Feast"):— 



" Crown me a cup, and fill the bowls we brought 

 From Judah's temple when the fight was fought ; 

 Drink, till the merry madness fills the soul, 

 To Salem's conqueror, in Salem's bowl. 

 Each from the goblet of a god shall sip. 

 And Judah's gold tread heavy on the lip." 



