hostile host and slain its people, so
that Marduk, the god of Babylon, curses him. And in like manner he has
raged against Erech, and is cursed by its goddess Ishtar. He is charged
with confounding the righteous and unrighteous in indiscriminate
destruction. But Dibbarra determines to advance against the dwelling of
the king of the gods, and Babylonia is to be further desolated by civil
war. It is a poetical account of devastating wars as the production of a
hostile diety. It is obvious that these legends have many features in
common with those of other lands, myths of conflict between wind and
sun, and the ambition of heroes to scale the heights of heaven. How far
these similarities are the independent products of similar situations,
and how far the results of loans, cannot at present be determined.

The moral-religious literature of the Babylonians is not inferior in
interest to the stories just mentioned. The hymns to the gods are
characterized by a sublimity and depth of feeling which remind us of the
odes of the Hebrew Psalter. The penitential hymns appear to contain
expressions of sorrow for sin, which would indicate a high development
of the religious consciousness. These hymns, apparently a part of the
temple ritual, probably belong to a relatively late stage of history;
but they are none the less proof that devotional feeling in ancient
times was not limited to any one country.

Other productions, such as the hymn to the seven evil spirits
(celebrating their mysterious power), indicate a lower stage of
religious feeling; this is specially visible in the magic formulas,
which portray a very early stratum of religious history. They recall the
Shamanism of Central Asia and the rites of savage tribes; but there is
no reason to doubt that the Semitic religion in its early stages
contained this magic element, which is found all the world over.

Riddles and Proverbs are found among the Babylonians, as among all
peoples. Comparatively few have been discovered, and these present
nothing of peculiar interest. The following may serve as
specimens:--"What is that which becomes pregnant without conceiving, fat
without eating?" The answer seems to be "A cloud." "My coal-brazier
clothes me with a divine garment, my rock is founded in the sea" (a
volcano). "I dwell in a house of pitch and brick, but over me glide the
boats" (a canal). "He that says, 'Oh, that I might exceedingly avenge
myself!' draws from a waterless well, a