irst, in relation to the other symbols to
which great religious importance was attached. The significance of the
zikkurat, or seven-staged tower, has already been discussed. Another
feature was "the great basin known as 'Apsu,' the name, it will be
recalled, for 'the deep' [_i. e._ the lower firmament]. The name indicates
that it was a symbolical representation of the domain of Ea. The zikkurat
itself being an attempt to reproduce the shape of the earth, the
representation of the 'apsu' would suggest itself as a natural accessory
to the temple. The zikkurat and the basin together would thus become the
living symbols of the current cosmological conceptions. The comparison
with the great 'sea' that stood in the court of Solomon's temple,
naturally suggests itself, and there can be little doubt that the latter
is an imitation of a Babylonian model" (Jastrow, _op. cit._ 653). It is
evident from the above that the adoption of the sacred basin as the symbol
of Ea would naturally be simultaneous with that of miniature "basins" and
water bowls and jars, employed for holding the sacred water used in the
cult of the Below. Reflection shows that, in the zikkurat, the seat of
Bel=the image of the earth, and in the "Apsu" the watery deep and lower
firmament of Ea, we have the sacred emblems of two deities of the
Babylonian triad only. The emblem of Anu, the Heaven or upper firmament,
is missing and it is naturally in the cult of Anshar=Ashur that it must be
sought for. The following data will sufficiently show that it was the tree
or pole and, in all probability, the fire-stick that were connected with
the cult of An-shar="all that is above," or "on high." The resemblance of
the name Ashur to the word for tree or pole, the "Ashera" of the
Phoenicians and Hebrews, suggests, moreover, the probability of their
common origin.

An interesting question on which I have not, as yet, been able to obtain
information, relates to the mode of producing fire, resorted to by the
Babylonian-Assyrians. The element was, of course, associated with heaven,
and the fire-god under the name of Gibil or Nusku was termed the "son of
Anu." Shamash himself also figures as a personification of fire and it
seems probable that, in the Babylonian temples in the centre of the square
altar, a fire was originally kept perpetually burning as an image of
Polaris. As great stress is laid upon the purifying effect of fire as on
that of water in Babylonian literature, it