essor Jastrow's handbook, chapter II, are precisely what would
naturally develop from the formation and adoption of three distinct cults
and their ultimate separate establishment in as many centres of
government. The following data will suffice to reveal some of the curious
results obtained by the logical working out of certain associations of
ideas and these results are the more interesting and intelligible because
they are analogous to those I have traced elsewhere.

One point deserves special note: directly opposite views, not only as to
the relative supremacy of the Middle, Above and Below, but also as to the
relation of the sexes to the upper and lower worlds, seem to have been
held at different times and in different places; and this particular
division of opinion appears to have given rise to endless dissension,
strife and warfare, to the separation of sectarians from the main state
and the foundation of numberless minor centres of government on the old
plan, but with fresh forms of cult embodying a new artificial combination
of ideas.

The shifting of supremacy from one "god" to another explains moreover the
transference of the title "Bel"=Lord, or Chief of Gods, from the
personification of one region to another. "In remotest antiquity we find
En-lil designated as the 'lord of the lower world' and bearing the title
Bel. En-lil represents the unification of the various forces whose seat or
sphere of action is among the inhabited parts of the globe, both on the
surface and beneath, for the term 'lower world' is here used in contrast
to the upper or heavenly world.... As 'lord of the lower world,' En-lil is
contrasted to a god, Anu, who presides over heavenly bodies. The age of
Sargon (3800 B.C.), in whose inscriptions En-lil already occurs, is one of
considerable culture and there can, therefore, be no objection against the
assumption that at this early period a theological system should have been
evolved which gave rise to beliefs in great powers whose dominion embraces
the 'upper' and 'lower' worlds" (Jastrow, _op. cit._ pp. 52-55).

A consort, Nin-lil, a "mistress of the lower world," was assigned to
En-lil and was known also as Belit, the feminine form of Bel, _i. e._ the
lady _par excellence_. She too had her temple at Nippur, the age of which
goes back, at least, to the first dynasty of Ur. She was also known as
Nin-khar-sag, the "lady of the high or great mountain," as the "mother of
the gods." The assignm