THE LATEST DISCOVERIES IN BABYLONIA. 



183 



That the vocahzation of the word for " twin " may be either 

 tiCamu or tci umw probably presents no difficulty to this inter- 

 pretation. Nevertheless, I think well to place the other 

 possibility on record, as well as a third alternative, namely, that 

 the final um may be the case-ending of the nominative with the 

 mimmation. In this case w^e should obtain the form tidiC", 

 the first element of tolin ice holm, "formless and void" in 

 Genesis i, 2. 



It is to be noted, also, that tuhim occurs without any prefix 

 whatever, either of god, or of temple, increasing the probability 

 that it was a " laver or sea " — preferably, perhaps, the latter, 

 and symbolical of the brood of Tiawath whom, with her, 

 Merodach caught with his net and his snare. 



No image of the primaeval Dragon symbolizing Chaos is 

 mentioned here, otherwise the Dragon whose image Daniel so 

 mysteriously destroyed (see the apocryphal book of Bel and tlie 

 Dragon) might be compared. Perhaps her image was in the 

 Temple of the Net which entrapped her, for it is not by any 

 means unlikely that " Bel and the Dragon " may be founded on 

 fact, and that the priests of Bel practised the deceit attributed 

 to them. There is no evidence, on the other hand, that the 

 Babylonians worshipped the Dragon of Chaos, though the 

 ancestors of the Yezidis or " Devil worshippers " may have done 

 so. It is, moreover, exceedingly unlikely that King Cyrus 

 believed either in the Babylonian Bel, or in the mythological 

 monster whom the god slew. That the scene of Daniel's trap 

 to catch the three score and ten priests of Bel, and to 

 destroy the Dragon with seethed balls of pitch, fat, and hair, 

 causing the Dragon to " burst in sunder," may have been 

 laid here, is exceedingly probable. 



In front of the Temple of tlie Couch was the Temple of the 

 utensils of the shrines, corresponding with it in length and 

 breadth. Here, also, was a covered court shut in. The couch 

 is described as being 9 cubits long and 4 cubits wide. There 

 was a throne set by it, which, however, was separate from it — 

 or, as the tablet says, the couch and the throne were two. 



At this point the writer turns to the Tower itself — 



The court containing the Gate of the Sun-rising (the eastern 

 gate), the Gate of the South, the Gate of the Sun-setting (the 

 western gate), and the Gate of the North, is a third — length, 

 width, and height — of the base (?) of the Tower of Babylon. 

 This is its (the Tower's) description : — ■ 



150 feet square, 55 feet high, of worked brick, was the 

 lowest stage. 



