, would thenceforth speak when interrogated according to
the formularies. Cf. what is said of the divine or royal
statues dedicated in the temples of Egypt, vol. i. pp. 169,
170. A number of oracles regularly obtained in the time of
Asarhaddon and Assurbanabal have been published by Knudtzon.

[Illustration: 152.jpg THE ADORATION OF THE MACE AND THE WHIP.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the Chaldaean intaglio
reproduced in Heuzey-Sarzec, _Decouvertes en Chaldee_, pl.
30bis, No. 13b.

More frequently a priest, accustomed from childhood to the office,
possessed the privilege of asking the desired questions and of
interpreting to the faithful the various signs by means of which the
divine will was made known. The spirit of the god inspired, moreover,
whatever seemed good to him, and frequently entered into objects
where we should least have expected to find it. It animated stones,
particularly such as fell from heaven; also trees, as, for example, the
tree of Eridu which pronounced oracles; and, besides the battle-mace,
with a granite head fixed on a wooden handle, the axe of Ramman, lances
made on the model of Gilgames' fairy javelin, which came and went at its
master's orders, without needing to be touched. Such objects, when it
was once ascertained that they were imbued with the divine spirit, were
placed upon the altar and worshipped with as much veneration as were the
statues themselves.

[Illustration: 153.jpg A protecting amulet.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the terra-cotta figurine of
Assyrian date now in the Louvre.

Animals never became objects of habitual worship as in Egypt: some of
them, however, such as the bull and lion, were closely allied to the
gods, and birds unconsciously betrayed by their flight or cries the
secrets of futurity.* In addition to all these, each family possessed
its household gods, to whom its members recited prayers and poured
libations night and morning, and whose statues set up over the domestic
hearth defended it from the snares of the evil ones.** The State
religion, which all the inhabitants of the same city, from the king down
to the lowest slave, were solemnly bound to observe, really represented
to the Chaldaeans but a tithe of their religious life: it included some
dozen gods, no doubt the most important, but it more or less left out of
account all the others, whose anger, if aroused by neglect, might become
dangerous. The pr