BABYLON IN THE DAYS OF NEBUCHADREZZAR. 181 



was the favourite, and also the beloved of Nebo, and who con- 

 stantly sought the path of their divinity.* From the time when 

 Merodach had fashioned him in the womb of his mother, 

 Nebuchadrezzar claims to have constantly sought the places 

 of his god, and followed his path. As he magnified in the highest 

 the cunning works of Merodach, so, also, did he constantly 

 praise the supreme way of Nebo, the beloved of his realm, the 

 son of Merodach. And, indeed, notwithstanding that Merodach 

 was the great god of Babylon, it was apparently Nebo, the teacher, 

 and, as such, the god of wisdom, whom most of the people 

 venerated, as is shown by the large number of the names com- 

 pounded with that of the patron-god of Borsippa.f 



These details occur in the great India House inscription, 

 wherein also Nebuchadrezzar recounts what Merodach had done 

 for him. Among the god's favours was the help which he had 

 given him in his expeditions. He had traversed, by his supreme 

 aid, distant lands, remote mountains, from the upper sea to the 

 lower sea (the Persian Gulf), difficult paths, blocked ways, 

 places where the tracks were interrupted, and the feet enter 

 not, the fatiguing road, and the journey of difficulty. And he 

 had done all this in order to slay the disobedient and fetter 

 those who hated him. He likewise claims to have set the 

 (conquered) land in order, and made the people thrive, separating 

 the bad and the good among them. He then brought " to his 

 city Babylon ' silver, gold, the brilliance of precious stones, 

 bronze, palm wood, cedar, whatever could be called precious, 

 in bountiful plenty — the produce of the mountains, the luxuriance 

 of the seas — a rich gift, a splendid present, to the presence of 

 the god in his temple E-sagila, where he placed them as his 

 endowment. There he made the shrine of Merodach, E-kua, 

 to shine " like suns." Details of the decorations of this chamber 

 follow. 



And at this point we have a description of the work done 

 on the " Chamber of Fate " — a passage which shows how the 

 Babylonians (at least the Babylonian priesthood) liked to 

 use mystic words borrowed from old Sumerian. But it is needless 

 to say that our hero, the great Nebuchadrezzar, was as much 

 attracted by these strange, foreign, sonorous phrases as any of 



* Compare also Nebuchadrezzar's statement concerning Merodach 

 and Borsippa on pp. 183 and 184, below. 



t See the Journal of this Institute, 1894-5, pp. 7 and 13. 



