114 MR. BOSCAWEN ON THE HISTORICAL 



theogony of Clialdea is very clearly set fortli in tiie creation 

 tablet. 



The Illuminator he made to shine, to Wtinder through the night. 

 He appointed it to fix the night, until the coming forth of day. 

 Every month without fail by its disk he established 

 In the beginning of the month at the appearance of evening 

 Horns shine forth to enlighten the night. 



On the seventh day to a circle it approaches 



They open then the darkness. 



This prominence given to tlie Moon over the Sun iu the 

 Babylonian Pantheon was a remnant of the old nomadic life 

 which the ancestors of both Akkadians and Semites had led in 

 the early days of their national life. It is this love of the 

 night sky, the moon, and the stars that caused the Chaldeans 

 to be so great astronomers ; and in the ancient hymns we 

 find night taking precedence of day, as in the well-known 

 phrase in the first chapter of Genesis, " And there was 

 evening, and there was morning'^ (R.V.). It is this ancient 

 Sabeanism or astro-theology that led to the identification of 

 the gods as stars ; and so we find >->f- the ordinary sign for 

 god explained by ^^X^^ '^*~ Kah-ha-hu, *^star;" and the 

 names given to stars show how closely life was associated 

 with them, as, for example, in a list of stars, from Babylon, 

 we find " the star of the crossers of the sea,^^ possibly the 

 pole-star, while Mercury is called " the bringer of change to 

 men,'' Yenus as evening star, '^ the proclaimer of the stars." 

 So also the morning star was " the light of day.'' Other 

 stars were called " the star of life," " the star of the winds, 

 the star that causes winds." All these names show a close 

 observation of the heavens, which found its outlet in the 

 Sabeanism of the pre-Islamic Arabs. How similar this trait 

 in the ancient Babylonian character was to that of the Arabs 

 is at once shown by the following passages descriptive of the 

 love these wanderers have for the stars. One writer thus 

 describes the relation of the Arabs to the night and the stars : 

 — '•' With the refreshing dew of evening, not Venus only or 

 the Moon, but the whole glory of the starry heavens met the 

 eye and touched the spirit of the Arabs. High above the 

 tents and the resting-places of the flocks, above the nocturnal 

 raid and waiting ambuscade, and all the doings of men, the 

 stars passed along on their glittering courses. The stars 

 guided the Arabs on their way through the desert ; certain 

 constellations announced the wished-for rain ; others the wild 

 storms, the changes of the seasons, the times for breeding in 

 the flocks and herds." Hence, to the tribes of the desert 

 especially brilliant stars appeared as living spirits, as rulers 



