d in vain from temple to temple for the
resurrection of their dead friends; they could never obtain the favour
which had been granted by Allat to Dumuzi.

* Merodach is called "the merciful one who takes pleasure in
raising the dead to life," and "the lord of the pure
libation," the "merciful one who has power to give life." In
Jeremias may be found the list of the gods who up to the
present are known to have had the power to resuscitate the
dead; it is probable that this power belonged to all the
gods and goddesses of the first rank.

[Illustration: 229.jpg DUMUZI REJUVENATED ON THE KNEES OF ISHTAR.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chaldaean intaglio.

When the dead body was once placed in the tomb, it rose up no more, it
could no more be reinstated in the place in the household it had
lost, it never could begin once more a new earthly existence. The
necromancers, indeed, might snatch away death's prey for a few moments.
The earth gaped at the words of their invocations, the soul burst forth
like a puff of wind and answered gloomily the questions proposed to it;
but when the charm was once broken, it had to retrace its steps to
the country without return, to be plunged once more in darkness. This
prospect of a dreary and joyless eternity was not so terrifying to the
Chaldaeans as it was to the Egyptians. The few years of their earthly
existence were of far more concern to them than the endless ages which
were to begin their monotonous course on the morrow of their funeral.
The sum of good and evil fortune assigned to them by destiny they
preferred to spend continuously in the light of day on the fair plains
of the Euphrates and Tigris: if they were to economize during this
period with the view of laying up a posthumous treasure of felicity,
their store would have no current value beyond the tomb, and would thus
become so much waste. The gods, therefore, whom they served faithfully
would recoup them, here in their native city, with present prosperity,
with health, riches, power, glory, and a numerous offspring, for the
offerings of their devotion; while, if they irritated the deities
by their shortcomings, they had nothing to expect but overwhelming
calamities and sufferings. The gods would "cut them down like a reed,"
and their "names would be annihilated, their seed destroyed;--they would
end their days in affliction and hunger,--their dead bodies would be at
the mercy of ch