1893.] Legends of the Sumiro-Accadians of Chaldea. 111 
the zodiac, the measurement of the year, the early legends of 
Genesis, the keeping sacred of the seventh day, the belief in 
magic and witchcraft, and the medieval devil. An Assyrian 
calendar mentions a day called Sabattu, “a day for completion 
of work, of rest for the soul.” On that day it was not lawful 
to cook food, to change one’s dress, to offer a sacrifice; the 
king was forbidden to speak in public, to ride in a chariot, 
or perform any civil or military duty”; a strictness equal to 
the Sabbatarianism of the most orthodox Jew. 
On their way to a pure monotheism, the early Jews seem to 
have combined in their “ Elohim,” and their “ Yahveh,” the 
characteristics of the principal gods of the Sumiro-Accadians. 
We recognize the features, sometimes of the calm and benefi- 
` cent Ea, and of his son Meridug, Intercessor for men; some- 
times of the hasty, vindictive Sun-god, Bel, who “ consumes in 
a moment” the victims of his anger, till the features of all 
these Nature gods fade away in the moral effulgence of the 
sublime God of Isaiah. | 
No object is commoner in Chaldean and Assyrian pictorial 
representations than the Sacred Tree, the Tree of Life, with 
and without the serpent. To the old Chaldeans the Sacred 
Tree was intimately connected with an original ancestral 
abode, an earthly Paradise, watered by springs which became 
great-rivers. 
The “ serpent of Gatien we roçognize as Mummu-Tiamat,” 
the “ Dragon,” the “ Great Serpent,” who was the sworn enemy 
of the gods and their creation ; the principle of opposition and 
destruction. The gods determine to fight the great Serpent ; 
Anu, the heaven God, prepares the sickle-shaped sword, and 
the beautifully bent bow, whilst Bel goes forth in his match- 
less war-chariot, sending the lightning before him, and scatter- 
ing his arrows around. Tiamat comes forth to meet him, 
attended by evil demons, and bearing death and destruction 
in her train. But it is Meridug, the intercessor for mankind, 
who “ bruises the serpent’s head” ; who binds her and puts an 
end to her works, while her followers fly terror-stricken. 
I have not space to give a tithe of the profoundly interesting 
and suggestive facts revealed by the deciphering of the cune- 
